"Once more into the fray, into the last good fight I'll ever know. Live and die on this day...live and die on this day." -Jon Treloar
A/N: Horrific death in this chapter. If you're grossed out with this, then I'd skim ahead.
In the span of three seconds, James already has his hatchet out and throws it as hard as he can. Pollish tries to step out of the way, but the hatchet still lands in his side, and the boy gasps, falling to his knees, blood pouring out of the wound
James looks over at Declan,with half a spear buried in his gut. The beekeeper from District 10 is shaking, blood pouring out of his wound. Declan has just pushed James out of the way and taken a spear for him, a spear that will most certainly end his life.
Before James can comfort him, though, Lepus steps out of the Cornucopia. Her leg is still wrapped in gauze from when James slashed her. Her eyes wide, she looks at Pollish and Declan, both dying, and then at James with fury in her eyes.
"You," she snarls. "You did this."
"You did this!" James shouts, pointing at Declan.
Lepus, who lost all her knives during the encounter with Violet, holds a sword now; James has his hatchet. Neither of them could risk trying to make a ranged throw. James drops his clunky backpack, letting it fall to the ground.
Four tributes remain, all at the Cornucopia. Two are doomed to die, the other two wounded, but destined to fight to the death. This has been coming. Ever since James embarrassed her in the Training Center. James, the Warrior Boy from District 7, and Lepus, the sly wolf from District 1. James is certain no two tributes have ever hated each other as much.
Lepus killed James' district partner, a little girl. The thought of James holding Violet as she cried causes him to glare at her a little harder.
James killed Tybalt, Lepus' brutish district partner. There was no goodbye for Tybalt; When James was done with him, Tybalt was unrecognizable.
For a moment, the two stand there, staring each other down, their friends groaning, dying on the ground beside them. And then Lepus laughs. A bitter laugh. "Figured that it'd end this way. Knew it right when I stabbed that little girl." She grips the sword a little tighter. "Too bad you won't get to avenge her."
Before either of them can attack, James says, "Newton's third law."
Lepus pauses. "What?"
"Newton's third law," James says. "Have you heard of it?"
Lepus looks confused more than anything. This is not the time for a physics lesson.
"Newton's third law states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction," James grunts. He can feel the tension in the Capitol. "You are my action." He grins a bitter, angry grin. "And I am your reaction."
And then Lepus steps forward and James barrels towards the girl from District 1, the fury and agony and suffering of his life being emitted in a war cry that shakes the trees. Lepus slashes at him with the sword, and he dodges, swinging at her head but only nicking an ear. Lepus slashes at his hand, nearly cutting half of his fingers off, and James leaps backward. Blood drips from Oxford's wound. Lepus charges forward, and James fights her off, barely. Declan and Pollish lay incapacitated, groaning weakly.
"Just...die...already!" Lepus growls, trying to lob off James' head but being blocked and punched in the face.
"Never!" James grunts, grazing her bare bicep. Blood starts to dribble from the wound.
They hear a cannon, and both pause, for a brief moment, to look at the two bodies on the ground. Pollish lays on the grass, his eyes wide open, gazing up at the sky. Declan still groans. They're down to three.
"Beware the Ace of Spades, Career!" James shouts, blocking an attack.
Lepus responds by trying to stab him in the throat. James sidesteps to the left and swings, slashing open her hip. Lepus howls in pain, deflecting a second blow, before looking at James' bandage and grinning.
"Your stomach your Achilles' heel, Warrior Boy?" Lepus asks, and then swings at James' stomach.
The pain in James' gut is excruciating, and James screams out, falling to his knees. The sutures have definitely been ripped open, and blood oozes from the wound. If it doesn't get attended to, his organs might fall out.
Lepus beams, and raises her sword, but James deflects the blow, barely, and on his knees grabs her ankle and throws her to the ground. Lepus manages to cut open part of James' side, but not before she falls back-first onto the ground, her sword clattering next to her. James reaches into his belt, pulls out his blade, and drives it deep into Lepus' leg.
Amelia Schultz.
The girl shrieks out in pain, swinging wildly with the sword, before James takes her sword hand in her hand, and with a hatchet in the other, completely cleaves off Lepus' right hand.
Romeo Witsworth.
When Lepus emits a bloodcurdling scream and tries to punch James with her remaining hand, James crawls on top of her and swings the hatchet into the girl's forearm, leaving it dangling by a thread.
Kristina McEvoy.
The noises, choked and pained, being emitted by Lepus are too painful to hear, and James throws a punch into her face. "Shut up!" he shouts. "Shut up! You deserve it! You deserve all of it! You killed her!" His voice softens. "You killed her."
Declan Page.
James gives up, and reaches for his hatchet. He's never murdered in this capacity before. He looks into Lepus' eyes. She's given up any resemblance on hate, and is now just weeping softly. Her eyes, full of horror and sadness and excruciating pain, look up at James. "Just make it fast," she says, and her voice cracks, and she closes her eyes, crying louder.
Violet Innocens.
James sighs, and brings down the hatchet on her chest. She gasps, and her eyes flutter open before the life leaves them, and the cannon fires. James hates Lepus, hates her for her arrogance and for killing Violet, but he won't redo what he did with Tybalt. He'll make sure her body can identify her.
And then it's just two of them left. James heaves himself off of mangled, dead Lepus, and drags himself towards Declan. Pain, pain that makes him want to scream, aches over his whole body. His stomach bleeds, and at one point during the fight Lepus managed to cut open his leg as well. All he can do is pull Declan into his lap. The boy's shaking quietly now, and tears stain his bloody face.
"James..." Declan croaks.
"Shh..." James says. "Shh shh...you're okay with me...shh shh...you're safe now." Declan's going to die. Even if James killed himself right here so Declan could be winner, he'd be dead before the doctors could save him. He feels tears come, and lets them fall.
And Declan says something that James never would've expected from charming, fearless Declan. He whimpers, "I'm afraid, James. I'm afraid." He's crying harder now. "I don't wanna die, James."
"Shhh," James says quietly, but now he's crying. "Just let it wash over you. Don't fight it, Declan. In just a minute, you're going to be okay." His voice cracks. "No more Hunger Games, Declan. You get to go somewhere nice."
Declan's shaking worse. "It hurts so much."
"Shh...don't fight," James whispers. Declan's dying. He doesn't tell him to stay with him, like he did Violet, because he knows that this time, there's no coming back. "Just...just close your eyes, Declan. Everything's going to be okay."
Declan, trembling and sobbing, nods, and closes his eyes.
"There you go, Dec," James whispers, squeezing his shoulder. "It's all gonna be okay. Think of District 10. Think of the warm sunrise over the district in the morning. Think about Lucy. Think about your bees." Managing to somehow not break down, he says, "Think about Capulet. Think happy thoughts."
"Happy thoughts," Declan echoes, and he's weaker. There's not much time left.
"Yeah, happy thoughts," James weakly repeats. "It's all okay now, Declan. Don't fight. You're done fighting."
Declan, eyes closed, lets out the smallest hint of a smile amid his trembling and sobbing.
And then Declan Page, the male from District 10, goes still. He stops shaking. The cannon goes off, and then it's just James left.
Declan's dead.
As the trumpets blare, and Claudius Templesmith announces that James Henderson has won the 68th Annual Hunger Games, James just presses his forehead against Declan's and starts to cry.