Author's Note: Here is where we go AU people from this point on its doesn't follow the books to the letter! my apologies!
Thanks go to FH11 (EWD new handle) and randomrambles for the reviews
Chapter 71
Don't Blink (aka The Rebel of Five)
Gale POV
We sit in Ziggy's lab for the whole night and into the morning. I know this will work. Shock value alone will stir enough people into action; the rest will be rallied by what she says.
"We'll get the capital propos crew ready" Ziggy says, "you just have to get Ari to agree to this"
"Don't worry I will" I tell her and head out, I get a quick breakfast get changed and completely ignore my comunicuff telling me to head to command. I don't need Coin
I need my girlfriend.
Makenzie find me coming in, "she's doing better, not sleep wise but she should be out and about later today" she says
"well need her before that" I tell her in passing
Ari is laying in bed her eyes distant as I come in
"Ari?" I say softly and her eyes meet mine, it breaks me, those blue orbs are haunted and sad, "hey...what's wrong?"
"Just thinking of things, mainly Peeta" she rubs her eyes with the arm that isn't in a sling, I understand now, it's not love but he means a lot to her. I sit beside her as she sits up. She rests her head on my shoulder and closes her eyes letting a tear or two fall.
"I wish we could fix him too" I say, "he did give you the idea for the password didn't he?"
She sits straight and looks at me in confusion, then realizing what I meant her eyes grow wide. I would laugh because she honestly doesn't trust anyone with the information…even her boyfriend, I can't blame her. One little slip up and say something in a place that has a Coin friendly ear eavesdropping and it could all end very badly.
"Don't worry we read everything, we won't be telling Coin, but I have a better idea" I tell her most of the plan.
The rest Cressida and Ziggy will have to explain, in all honesty the words 'blue screen' and 'photo manipulation' are lost on me.
Again that guarded gaze she gives when she isn't sure. I take her hands in mine stroking the backs with my thumbs.
"Do you trust me?" I ask
"No" she says but when I look at her she had that playful smirk, "but that won't stop you will it"
I return her smirk with a genuine smile, "come on"
"Hold still Ari" Ziggy huffs again because for the life of us Ariana hates getting a picture taken alone.
I've just about had it when I go up to her and kiss her deeply. She is stunned enough that Ziggy takes the snapshot and uploads it to the program she has running.
"Ok Ariana like we said, calm" Cressida says, "don't race, and if you want to stop we can stop, just take your time this is for you"
"It's for everyone" Ariana corrects quietly
Cressida nods once, "ready?"
Ari nods and starts the speech she and I prepared.
"People of the Capitol keep an eye on this photo" she starts
Ziggy send the program running and lo and behold my Ariana has turned back five or six years...the child that won in the 69th games.
"Look familiar doesn't it" she is now sitting on a split screen that shows her face now aging to 16 years old,
"that's when I supposedly died, for all intent and purpose I was dead to everyone, to my family, (here a shot of Seneca), my friends ( Peeta, Tracker, Tracer and for some reason me) and to those who thought were devoted fans ( here a shot of the Capitol swimming in candle light). Many of you are probably thinking it's a hoax so I will show you this" she holds up a DNA scanner used by the technicians at our reapings, Plutarch had one as a memento. When Beetee had explained the plan he was more than happy to give it over, she cuts her finger and allow the scanner to read...sure enough it shows 'error: Crane, Ariana' in it's display.
"Now that I have everyone's attention including President Snow himself let me take y'all back to why I faked my death. Turns out the Capitol in all its wisdom does not like being challenged, and definitely not on anything they have found use for, the games me and so many other tributes played in to entertain you, physically and mentally tortured us after. My games were so edited so people wouldn't know a little girl was being traumatized. For years after the games and even now I am reminded of friends I have lost and horrors I had seen," a shot of Peeta appears and Ariana turns to the blue screen and on a small screen she sees Peeta looking healthy her face turns sad as it turns to the now troubled friend she has
"President Snow does not like people who push back, he wants compliance, he wants stability, and to do that he will injure to a degree that it will break you, or just kill you" a shot of Seneca is shown, "my brother challenged the rules of the games to save Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, for that he was killed. Hellen Telemark stood up for me when I was fifteen years old and nearly raped on my birthday and was never seen or heard from again. I tell you all this not to upset you, not to make you want to rebel but to inform you of one solid irrefutable truth" she pauses and the shot is just her as tired as she is as worn down to near nothing she looks in the camera with all her heart in her eyes pleading them to understand.
"No one is safe...not even you...you all sit on a bomb that could go off at the flick of a switch, it was the final failsafe, Snow will not tolerate another rebellion, not from out in the districts and definitely not from within." she goes to a map of the Capitol, it flips and glowing dots show up all over the city like deadly Christmas lights, "your whole city is one large arena full of inactivated traps, we would disengage them make it safe, but we do it from where we are we kill hundreds, maybe thousands of innocent people. Much like the games have killed innocent children for fifty unrequired years, too many than needed. Your president warped the true treaty, the original is either destroyed or hid from view, he came in power the year after the first quarter quell, some of you much older citizens will remember there was a banquet and the victor died. He disposed of evidence that day, wiping the slate clean, he rules with fear. And eventually people tire of being afraid and step up." She goes to a flag of her district it's and atom encircled with bolts of lightning, the rebel of five. "Mr President, you have killed enough, fifty years of tributes that were never supposed to go into games, not to mention families of those who opposed you. You have no heart; you have no hope of redemption. Your own family abandoned you. You sicken me, saying your granddaughter's death would be a waste of life. No, it is a waste of life every year that the games go on. You don't know suffering, and you don't care. You deserve to rot. I challenged you, I was fourteen and you took everyone I cared about and hurt them or killed them. Heaven has no mercy for you."
I can see her shaking, I know we should have waited I touch Ziggy's shoulder and she paused the recording to her hard drive, the cameras as still rolling but Cressida keeps her distance unlike Katniss my girl is very camera shy, but as her legs give out I rush to catch her
"You okay?" I ask
"I can't do this anymore Gale" she looks at me exhausted, "I just can't"
"You're doing fine" I say to her as we lower to the ground.
She shakes her head, "they are all too scared, no one will stand up to him. He's just a big bully but no one will put him in his place, him and Coin, I'm so tired" I feel her trembling and I wrap my arms around her. I feel Cressida move in with the camera, she has tears in her eyes. I look into the camera accusingly, because even though I know Ariana wouldn't blame capitol citizens for what happened to her I do, I blame them because of their ignorance, I blame them because they never had to suffer like we did.
I close my eyes after I see the light go off Castor and Pollock's suits, I don't move though, I know Ari well enough to know she needs comfort right now. "It's over now, you want to raid the kitchen?" she shakes her head, being commanders we have some privileges and one was going behind the kitchen to steal an apple or two, "want to sleep?" she shakes her head again, I guess she's slept enough in her mind, "you just want to stay here in my arms don't you" she nods "alright"
I don't know how long I keep hold of her but she has fallen into a deep sleep. I don't bring her to the hospital but to the quarters I share with my family. My mom welcomes me in and let's me use her bed for her.
"She's looking a bit better" she says passing me a glass of water, "how is she doing?"
I shrug, "how can someone so shattered still breath mom, I mean she lost her parents her brother, friends, Peeta is a shadow of his former self, she feels cornered between two bullies, and yet she still had enough heart to warn a city of strangers that their own president would easily kill them if they put a toe out of line, a city that has enjoyed seeing kids kill each other for sport" I sigh, "and all she asked of me was to hold her, nothing else"
My mom sits beside me and as tall and grown up as I am I still feel like the fourteen year old that just lost his dad in a mine. I still feel she protects me despite me doing some risky things.
"Gale some people are just givers" she says, "she is selfless, opposite of our Katniss, Ari wants to help and will do what she has to, and she doesn't ask much probably because she knows everyone is already giving all they can"
"I wish I could do more" I tell her, "I wish she would let me do more"
Mom shushes me, "I am sure she will ask you eventually, go rest Gale I'll stay with Posy in her room" she goes to the adjoining bedroom that houses my little sister and my two younger brothers. I go and lay beside Ariana who has slipped into a nightmare and is holding onto the thin sheet for dear life. I rest one arm over hers and take her clenched hand while the other slinks under her neck to cradle it. I kiss her temple and watch as the simple contact relaxes her.
A\N #2: aaaa! the mary-sue ness! the cutesy corniness of it all! aaaaa! :P