AUTHOR'S NOTES: and now we get to the final stretch: Clove's Victory Tour! Obviously it will be very different from Katniss and Peeta's from the books, not just because of the different district order, but also because Clove is a dynamically different person from either of them, and her feelings towards the districts are significantly different. There might be trouble once she reaches districts like 12 or 11
Happy Reading!

CHAPTER 26: The Tour Begins

Eventually the days wore on to the point where the day of Clove's victory tour had finally come. Despite what she had insisted on and asserted earlier in the year, Clove's confidence was not all there. A lingering dread had come upon her thinking about District 6, wondering if it held the answer to the mystery of her parents. Everyone knew of the Morphling endemic that gripped the Transportation District, but Clove's parents were alcoholics rather than drug addicts.

Similarly, she was worried about District 12—not because or Primrose or Peeta—or whatever parents or siblings the two might have had—but because her sister was there, and if they knew Chive Kazera, they would at least recognize her as Chive's sister because of her surname. Chive had never really spoken of her reputation down in '12, and so Clove was not sure what to expect. If she was one of those despised Peacekeepers, Clove feared that her ego might get hurt when she spoke on stage.

It was common knowledge that District 12 was rough around the edges, and that most Peacekeepers there were fairly lax. Those that came in and out of District 2 for their leave time or whatnot, always seemed to talk about the grungy inhabitants, the dangerous children that could very well be threatening tributes if their names were picked, or perhaps the odd sense of closeness the people of that district seemed to share with one another. Even among the districts, after all, there was disparity, and not everyone agreed on this or that. District 12, on the other hand, perhaps because of its size, seemed to have a near unanimous mindset, although no one could really pin what that mindset was apart from a determination to stay alive.

On the other hand, Clove's tour would start in District 1. Clove could never remember if the victory tour had been in reverse order or numerical order, and was pretty sure that it had gone back and forth from one to the other at least a couple times in Hunger Games history. All she needed to worry about was what she was going to say, or how she was going to interact at the feasts that inevitably came after the speeches. These were a fairly recent addition—another move by the Capitol to make the Victory Tours seem more exciting than they actually were. It actually kind of worked, even among the victors, who could sometimes take their mind off of the horror of being reminded of the worst couple weeks of their lives by eating, drinking, and general merriment.

Clove was not only greeted by Athena and her stylists, but also by a surprisingly well-dressed Enobaria, sporting a golden tiara and a shimmering, golden-brown dress of all things.

"Not sure how I'm going to top that," Clove teased, "I thought the victor got to look sportier than the mentor on these tour things. Speaking of which, where's Elroy?"
"He's at his house, enjoying the bet he won," Enobaria shrugged, "I learned a couple days ago that this whole tour preparation thing starts earlier than I'd like—so we bet on who would have to do it."
"Now you're acting like being with little ol' me is a bad thing." Clove raised her eyebrow. While she knew that neither of them were aversive to spending a couple weeks touring Panem with Clove, it did sort of hurt her inner pride to have heard what Enobaria had just said.

"Well, if I have to stab you with another needle…" Enobaria retorted.

"Oh come on, that was one time!" Clove countered.

"Two," Enobaria didn't even skip a beat. "nice seeing a smile on that face, by the way."
"Thanks." Clove actually softened her smile a bit. Odd as it was, the fanged woman in front of her had an uncanny ability to make her smile—as did the messy-haired man that had been with her and Cato during their first trip to the Capitol.

"No problem," the mentor shrugged, "but don't look now—but you're about to get jumped."
No sooner had she said this than Athena had appeared, perhaps out of nowhere, right behind Clove and given the smaller girl an excited and enthusiastic squeeze.

"And here's our District Hero!" she beamed, "let's get you cleaned up. We've got a long day ahead of us, especially for District 1 tomorrow!"

Clove was practically dragged away, miming a 'help me' to Enobaria, who just laughed and watched her disappear down a hall.

While something simpler or more casual might have been passable out of somewhere like District 12 or 11, it was not the case in the Capitol's favorite districts like 1 and 2. Clove emerged from the stylists' clutches dressed in a bronze-colored skirt that shimmered like scale-plate armor, with matching shoes on her feet and a darker-colored blouse to bring out the colors. The skirt was slightly longer in the back than in the front, showing off her knees in front and her ankles in the back. A tiara with small, golden-colored wings was placed on her head, and she suddenly saw the connection—it was a simplified version of her chariot outfit from before the games.

"Give me a sword or something and I could conquer the world in this outfit!" she joked, expressing her approval. "I love it."

With Clove dressed and ready to go, the tour was able to begin as they were escorted to the train station. Maybe it was better for Clove that they were starting with the 'easier' districts and moving on down to the ones that might be trickier. It would be a buildup to the breathtaking finale, or something epic like that. She didn't really know.

As fancy as Clove's outfit was, it was basically just for the camera crews to catch as the team made their way through the district to the train station. Luckily it was also comfortable, and so Clove did not mind biding her time in this getup until tomorrow at least.

District 1 was definitely the easiest stop of them all. Clove paid her proper respects for Glimmer and Marvel, for they had been allies during the games, and Clove had personally been responsible for the death of Rue, the one who had killed them both. Similarly, and perhaps because of the district's wealth, the Victory Feast that came afterwards was nothing short of glorious. A couple of older victors (who introduced themselves as Price Emerson and Miriam Luxio) challenged Enobaria and Clove to a drinking contest. Clove didn't exactly remember what became of it, but Enobaria clarified that Clove had gone down first, followed by Price, and that Miriam had actually won.

"Granted," she added, "Miriam's been a serious alcoholic for the last 34 years, so I guess it's not too surprising when you think about it."

Clove couldn't really argue with that sentiment, and so she worried more about dealing with the hangover that she now had as the tour continued eastwards towards District 3.

The bright colors of District 4, as well as the glitzy, shiny lights found in Districts 3 and 5, distracted Clove during these three stops, as her mind wandered to thoughts of Rue again. Nothing of any particular note happened in any of these stops, apart from Clove being reminded of Finch and Franklin—both of their deaths had been partially because of Rue when Clove thought of it. Finch had drawn attention to Rue in the trees, only for the smaller girl to cut a tracker-jacker nest down early the next morning; and Franklin had been unable to spot Rue in time for her to successfully blow their supplies skyward.

Really, the girl was more clever than Clove felt like she was giving her credit made her wonder what she was going to say in District 11 when the time came. She could let Athena help write her speech for her—a lot of victors did that, and obviously the escorts knew best what the Capitol wanted to hear—but Clove wanted to say it from her heart—mostly because she was too proud to say anyone else's words but her own.

As the train hauled its way out of District 5 after more nights of merriment, Clove couldn't help but think about what lay ahead—District 6. She wondered if there would be answers for her there—answers regarding her parents. Had they fallen victim to the Morphling endemic? Or were they just irresponsible twits now that they had finished their 20-year contract as Peacekeepers? She didn't' even remember who had killed the tributes from here, and so she was not so much worried about her reception as much as she was curious about what was in store for her here.

Clove spent much of that evening gazing out the window at the moonlit wilderness as the train whizzed by. It was a long way from '5 to '6, and so she would have plenty of time for beauty sleep—or in this case, more than enough time to muse about what would be waiting for her upon her arrival…