Ch. 21- Explain

Heheheh… I bet you're all mad at me for killing Jack. I have one thing to say in my defense: *wait for it, wait for it…* it was reeeaaaallllyyyy fun! And perfect for the story line… *smug* anyways, here goes:

Merida POV

Me, my friends, and the other remaining tributes are being escorted down a passageway by Gobber. We still have no idea whatsoever is going on. Just the thought makes me feel… abnormally angry. And hot. Really hot…

I notice Hiccup keeps murmuring in that 'Dragonese' language. He is sweating a lot.

Rapunzel looks downright exhausted. And… does her hair seem a but longer…? No. My imagination.

Gobber escorts us into a big, machine-filled room. It's filled with people bustling about, except at the center. There, a big man with a large, long white beard and bushy black eyebrows is looking over all of the workers.

Gobber yells. "North! The rescued tributes are here!"

The big man, North, turns to look at us. He looks at us for a second, then bursts into jolly, loud chuckles. It's contagious. Soon the entire room are smiling to themselves.

North strides up. "Velcome to our main, large hovercraft, or as I like to call it, the sleigh!" His voice booms.

Nobody does anything. Hiccup glances around, then steps forward. "Thank you." He swallows. "Now, can we have answers? I'm sorry that this is a bit rude, but we were promised them.

North just smiles. "Of course, of course. I am Nicholas St. North. You may call me North, that is what everyone calls me. So, answers? Answers you shall have! Fire away!"

One tribute, a lithe 18-year-old boy with charcoal skin steps forward. "I have one. Why didn't you save us earlier?"

"I am sorry, Blackjack, that ve could not come in time to rescue Rainbow. But ve only had just found a breach in the shield. This was the first chance ve had."

Blackjack nods. "Good. 'Cause if you just chose not to 'til now, then you'd get a beating." He steps back.

All is silent for a bit, and then a middle aged woman with a long ruff of hair steps forward. "Where are we headed?"

North nods. "I was thinking you vould ask that question, Siberia. Ve are heading towards the center of the forest."

Siberia looks puzzled. "Forest?"

The big man nods again. "Outside of Panem the is giant forest. Ve are heading toward clearing, vhere the Headquarters of Movement: Legend is."

The woman nods, clearly understanding more than I do. With no more questions, everyone filed out of the room. But North stops us. "I heard you vere shot. May I examine you?"

Me and Punzie look to Hiccup, who nods. We follow him.

As North puts us under a series if scanners, he asks us about little things, like what our favorite weapons were, or our favorite colors. We answer truthfully, no harm could come from giving that away. But then he asks us a strange question.

"You vere in District 12, nyet? Do you know if a boy named Jack Overland is still alive, maybe just absent when you vere attacked?"

Just hearing his name makes me feel funny, like my heart's turned to ice and is defrosting slowly and painfully, or it's trying to beat fast and slow at the same time. It was… a sad feeling, actually.

Hiccup looks at me. He knows, I can tell. Punze doesn't look like she knows. I take a deep, slow breath… another… "He's dead. He drowned."

North freezes. Then, as if nothing happened, he continues, but with less vigor than before. "Oh. Oh. Thank you for telling me." His voice is soft and sorrowful.

Suddenly, a loud, echoing beep sounds.

North looks startled, then starts using the screen to take screenshots. I'm on the examining deck first, so I have no idea if its done this before…

"Rimsky Korsokov… " the man mutters. "Get professor Bunnymund in here immediately, Phil!"

Phil grunts something, then hurries off. Bunnymund…!?

Sure enough, Aster hurries in. He looks at the monitor. "Yep. Looks like we found signature, mate. And a bloody strong one, too. You say the other two also got shot? See what effects it had on them. Now." He walked over to me, and started doing doctor-stuff. My temperature: 112 degrees Fahrenheit. I felt normal, though. Reflexes: faster. Eyesight: sharper. Aster took notes on all of this.

The alarm went off again, this time for Hiccup. Nothing was changed about him, though. It just picked up energy signals.

Punzie. More Stamina. That's all we could tell right now without hurting her.

From the bits and pieces I picked up, there was something about the bullets in the gun and smoke and reacting. Oh, and us. Lots about us.

I picked up the words 'regeneration', 'fire', 'sun', 'dragon' and 'flower'. Odd.

Then, Percy and Leo were escorted in, along with Jason and Piper. Double strange.

They got monitored, and all for got reactions. 'Water', 'more fire', 'ocean', 'lighting', 'speak', and little words like that.

Strange.

We're landing in the clearing North was talking about earlier. After walking around a bit, we'd discovered that not only were Gobber and Bunny were working as spies in the Capitol, but Tooth as well! Surprises, surprises.

An old, kindly man with eyes twinkling through his half-moon spectacles was waiting for us. "My name, is Tsar Lunar." He greets us. "And you arewelcomed to the Movement: Legend headquarters by none other than its leader- me!"

Short but important.

G'syr: due to request, I have hot chocolate on a platter for you. *hands out hot chocolate* If you don't like chocolate, then here! This is an Ancient Egyptian drink that I forget the name of, but I know it's described as 'hot vanilla' by the Egyptian sky goddess, Nut. *hands those out*

There. This is a double update. I repeat. This is a double update. No, make that triple. Epilogue is coming out.

This had a sucky ending.

Shoutout to Galatea R.S: *wink wink* you have amazing powers of guessing… *said in mystical voice…*