AUTHOR'S NOTES: Welcome to District 12. Obviously we're going to meet Katniss here a bit, and see how she reacts to Clove as a victor. Otherwise, this is probably the penultimate chapter of the series, and the next one should be able to wrap up the rest of the Capitol stop and then District 2. There might be another 1 or 2 chapters of epilogue, but otherwise, after long months, this story will be finally complete.
Happy Reading!

CHAPTER 29: Together Alone

District 12 would thus be Clove's penultimate speech, and there were only two more stops to make after that—the Capitol for the grandest feast and festivities of them all, and then back to District 2, to pay her respects to Cato Salazar, her closest friend and ally in the games. Sometimes she wondered if they could have been together had it not been for the games. Seneca Crane's last-minute announcement that revoked the two-victor rule had been a reality check for something that had in fact been too good to be true. She sometimes laid awake at nights contemplating this but as the train drew closer to District 12, Clove couldn't help but think of several things. For one, her sister Chive was here, and she hoped the two of them could cross paths at least once. Secondly, Peeta Mellark and Primrose Everdeen had been her enemies, even if Cato had been the one to kill them. She did not think that she would get a worse reaction here than she had in District 11, and she didn't think that Prim would haunt her vision the way Rue had. Still… it was something to think about. She also wondered about that sister of Prim's—the girl had lost her composure and had had to be subdued and restrained by Peacekeepers during the reaping, which meant that there was something fierce in her that Clove wanted to see more of. On the other hand, she half expected that young woman to try and break ranks to attack Clove—not that that worried Clove. She knew that the Peacekeepers would protect her, but there was still a little part of her that kind of wanted to fight this girl.

If nothing else, she would have to at least learn her name.

The Mining District was very similar to the Agriculture District in terms of behavior of the population. Many of them were poor, and a good number of them had dark or olive-colored skin, and so many of them had dour looks on their faces, clearly showing displeasure with their lot in life. It was clear that this was a dangerously rebellious district. Clove could only guess that their small population was what held them back from doing something dastardly—or maybe that was the District 2 girl in her thinking.

Whatever the case, she soon found herself looking out at the close-knit population of District 12, gazing upon the two women that stood in front of Primrose's face, and the stern woman and three other men (one of them appearing older than the others—the father, Clove was fairly certain) in front of Peeta's face. Neither one of them had looked nearly as cool or intimidating as Thresh and Rue had back in District 11, but as she glanced at their serene visages in the holograms, she couldn't help but respect them as well. They were persistent and resilient, and despite everything—despite not being as deep of a thorn in Clove's side as Rue had been, they had put up a marvelous fight.

During the Mayor's speech, however, she noticed that girl on Prim's stage glaring at her. Their eyes met and the eye contact remained from the time Clove stepped up to the podium to give her speech all the way until she had finished. Like in most of the districts before here (apart from perhaps District 1, and maybe some of 11), the applause here felt fairly forced, but was applause nonetheless.

The confrontation that Clove was waiting for happened later that night at the feast. Clove was simply chatting it up with Enobaria over some drinks and a game of Red Maiden, when she saw the girl she had been scanning the place for this entire time.

"I need a moment," she requested. Enobaria shrugged.

"You just want to leave because I'm kicking your ass." She retorted.

"That too," Clove played right along with that, "but this is another issue I've got to resolve."

Clove confronted the girl with the dark braided hair, making direct eye contact with her despite being a few inches shorter than her.

"My friend ended up being a killer," she launched right into her explanation, "and even then, I was the one to end his life as well. What do you want from me, girl?"

She remained silent for a moment, her grey eyes watching Clove's hazel ones with a glaring sense of distrust that had the young victor strengthening her resolve.

"I want my sister back." She replied bluntly. "And we both know how possible that is."
"Did you ever watch the actions of Rue Keniye during the games, umm…" she paused, hoping that the slightly older girl would give her name.
"Katniss—and yes I did. We are forced to watch the games here, unlike where you're from where you probably see it as a privilege."
"If you watched Rue Keniye, you would understand my thought process." Clove explained, "I did what I had to, just as she did. I did it more violently than most others would, but my end goal was the same—I wanted to win. I did not kill your sister, and I'm fairly certain that in any other situation, I wouldn't have killed any of them—not even Rue."
She sighed. "we all suffer losses in one way or another, Katniss. You can hate me for the rest of your life if that's how you cope. I've got coping of my own to do, and so despite my violent nature in the gamed—I'd rather we not start a confrontation here."
she knew from the girl's reaping ceremony that Katniss was fierce, and she didn't want to provoke it—not just because she didn't want to cause a scene, but also because she felt that there could be an interesting friendship or rivalry forming here that could give Clove something to think about.

Katniss did not respond to Clove's remark with much more than a nod. She did not seem happy, but Clove did not expect her to be. She had lost someone that she had clearly loved—and here she was thinking about the same thing. She knew what it was like to be lonely.

While she went back to the festivities for a while, Clove couldn't help but think about Katniss. On one hand, she wanted a rival again, but on the other, Katniss didn't even seem interested in her. Perhaps there would be a time to rectify that sometime.

She tackled that opportunity later in the evening right as Katniss was about to leave. Her words were brief, but she felt that they had a poignant effect.

"We have more in common than you think," her last words had been towards Katniss, "I know what it's like to be alone…"

And with that, the stop in District 12 soon came to an end, with Clove and her team returning to the train to head back up to the Capitol. That would mark her penultimate stop before returning to District 2 to conclude her tour after a speech for Cato. She did feel she owed him that much.

Naturally, the next morning, Athena was thrilled to be on her way back to the Capitol for the grandest feast and celebration of the year.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, just as the Capitol outdid itself on this party every year, Clove's stylists outdid themselves dressing her up. She was clad in a radiant orange ensemble that resembled her outfit from the interviews before the games. It was a fiery color—hot, passionate, and yet held a streak of enigma to it. Oddly enough, as she, Enobaria, and Athena approached Coriolanus Snow's enormous mansion, her thoughts were fairly peculiar.

"Is it odd that right now, all I can think about is how nice it would be to hold some throwing knives?" she turned to her mentor as they entered the grand hall

"I… would have to say it is," Enobaria nodded, "are you planning on assassinating someone?"
"Nah," Clove laughed, shaking her head, "I guess I just kind of miss the feeling. It's a nice sense of release—you know what I mean?"
"I do know that much." Enobaria had to agree with Clove on that one. During the months leading up to the tour, the two women would practice knife-throwing and fighting in their backyards all the time. Clove was so attached to this art that she missed feeling the sleek, sharp blades in her hands, even if it had only been two weeks.

"We'll have to worry about it later though," Enobaria pointed out, for soon they were in the midst of the partygoers proper, which meant only one thing: it was time to party it up.

It seemed late, but the train had not arrived until later either, and similarly, everyone had slept in, which in turn meant that it was going to be a long night. Unlike those nights in the arena, however, Clove was pretty well-assured that this was going to be a long, glorious night, and, given all the wild food, drinks, and substances that were pretty much at her disposal, she was pretty sure that this night was going to go down in the record books for her…