Thank you all for sticking with me. A special thanks to all who reviewed.
Warning: drug use and abuse.
This chapter is also something of an interlude to show Mags as a mother and a more mundane side of District Four (which combined with the warning above will have you believe Mags went crazy. She didn't, I just threw the 24th Hunger Games in this chapter for good measure^^.)
Date: Year 23 September. A late summer day.
They hadn't seen her yet.
Mags sat down on the low stone wall, allowing herself to indulge in the sight of her boisterous boys playing.
Black-haired Sol was zooming around shouting, impersonating a hovercraft with all the conviction and boundless imagination of a four year old.
Mags smiled. She had once been horrified to see children play games so full of make believe violence and death, her mind brought to a world where childish laughter would never resound, but Cereus had been quick to remind her roughhousing with friends –within limits- was part of growing up. Watching Sol zoom between the water bombs, shouting the occasional die rebels, die!, she knew there was no evil in them.
Larimar was one of the throwers, although Mags grinned when she saw him shout at a boy who'd thrown the paper bomb right at his brother's face. Sol didn't even seem to notice.
"Ow!"
Mags started and stood up. A black-haired girl lay sprawled a few away, having tripped over the wall. With a huff the child, who looked between ten and twelve, picked herself up and pealed her trousers off her sore leg.
"Am I so intimidating you forget to look where you walk?" Mags said with a kind smile. Over the years, the victor had become an object of childish curiosity, admiration or fear, and it wasn't rare for the older children to try and approach her, often on a dare.
"You've usually got peacekeeper all 'round you. Surprised me, that's all," the girl mumbled, her cheeks blazing.
She was well-fed and fit, her short hair cut in a way that would make Esperanza squawk, but a pleasant round face that seemed to have a different expression flitting over it every second.
"Let me help," Mags said, not wanting the girl to put more sand into her scrapes. "What's your name?"
"Lorelei," the child swallowed. "Lorelei Nelson."
Mags' eyes shot up as she saw the nice collection of light, and some less light, bruises and scrapes as she gently dabbed at the surface wound. Playground bruises, even Sol didn't manage to beat himself up so much.
"Yeah, that's me, clumsy," Lorelei said, her wide mouth splitting into a huge grin. "Cause, you know, practice makes perfect and you can't get nowhere on the first try." Her eyes sparkled with curiosity when she saw the group of playing children. "Which ones are yours?"
"The tiny roaring hovercraft and the blonde six year old behind Lin," Mags answered. Her lips twitched. "Which ones are yours?"
"None are, I'm ten," the girl exclaimed, pulling a face. "Want me to get them?"
"Oh you're making me feel lazy now," Mags joked.
Lorelei sped off, leaving a chuckling Mags behind.
"So that's when Calder said his father told him that hovercrafts can also shoot from behind but they must recharge," Larimar said seriously, "we think he made it up but Lin believed him and said we had to change the rules, so then Sol –"
Mags smiled, trying to keep up with all the names and her firstborn's sometimes chaotic day-telling.
Her arm shot out to grasp Sol as he unexpectedly attempted a handstand. "Sol!"
The four-year old burst into giggles as his mother lifted him upside down by the ankle before throwing him over her shoulder and deciding he'd been let free to roam long enough.
That boy gave her three heart-attacks a day.
"Lin can walk on her hands, me too," Sol said eagerly.
Me too. His new favorite words and coupled with Sol's fascination with peacekeepers and their delight in dressing the black-haired terror up, she had pictures of her son chewing on Marquise's insignia while wearing an overlarge uniform.
"You were saying, honey?" Mags asked Larimar.
The relief in those green eyes when she turned back to him had Mags plant a kiss on the top of his head. She wondered not for the first time if her nervousness as a first time mother, the fear of seeing her little boy get hurt, had affected the wide-eyed child. He was so hungry for attention, eager to please and careful, and so protective of his brother. Sol, who had almost been neglected in comparison, would be capable of jumping off a cliff just to see if people could fly. Larimar had cried on his first day of school, but Mags knew Sol would probably go there singing and then try to climb over the fence and run home if he ever got bored.
Date: Year 23, October.
Mags frowned. Someone, someone small, was in her garden. The boys were at Esperanza's today, free to destroy the house with their cousins. Who could it be?
Her frown fell when she recognized Lorelei, replaced by an incredulous stare when she saw the state of the girl's hands and clothes. "You climbed the cliff?"
And she'd thought Glynn was bad with the balcony. The girl could have fallen and died!
"Practice makes perfect," Lorelei replied with that huge smile of hers. "It's not that hard."
"There's this force in the universe that makes objects fall," Mags said, sitting down on the grass. Her fortuitous meetings with the girl were more and more common and Mags was beginning to believe they were not fortuitous at all.
"Gravity," the ten-year old replied. "I know."
Mags bit back a laugh when Lorelei scowled at the realization she was making fun of her.
"Why did you grant me the honor of coming to visit me?" Mags said, her smile broadening.
"'Cause it looked exciting from below," Lorelei said, unconcerned about the tears in her trousers and the dirt on her face.
That dear child was a terrible liar. Mags was rather touched Lorelei just wanted to see her.
"Shouldn't you be spending Restday with friends and family?"
Lorelei shook her head in distaste. "That'd be boring. I wanted to come here, because it gives me ideas, for stories. That's what exploring does. They know I'm out, if that's what you're worried about. I know to call for help if I get in trouble, I won't go swimming alone, for one. I'm ten!" She added, looking stung.
Mags wasn't shocked that a ten year old was unsupervised, younger children were free to run about, she was more curious about what odd whim had brought that girl to her garden.
"Well then, tell me one of your stories."
Lorelei beamed, shuffling closer to her. "Really?"
Mags nodded. She'd spent the whole week, and what felt like half her life, running around. Sitting down and listening sounded wonderful.
Date: Year 23, November. A cold night.
Mags never appreciated her home as much as when the rain pounded against the roof and windows. Safe and warm, she could appreciate the beauty of ocean storms. She caressed Larimar's hair, smiling at her eldest's entranced expression as he squashed his nose against the glass, eagerly waiting for lightning bolts.
"Mags, there's someone at the door," Cereus called.
Mags winced. Someone with good news wouldn't have braved the rain and darkness. She hoped they wouldn't wake Sol up.
"What's wrong?" Larimar exclaimed, his eyes widening in panic as he heart the front door open and his father invite people in.
"Nothing, Tesoro," Mags said with a smile as she picked him up. "Let's see who it is."
Mags frowned at the slightly familiar faces. Even after all this time, many of the townspeople's names escaped her.
"Mr. Nelson," the sandy-haired man said. "I was wondering if by any chance Lorelei was here. She talks of you a lot."
Mags shook her head. "I would warn you if I kept the night," she said, worry entering her tone.
A ragged breath escaped the man's lips. "We haven't seen her since yesterday afternoon."
Two days? Mags tightened her hold on Larimar as she looked in horror at the falling rain.
"Have you alerted anyone already?" Cereus said.
"She does tend to vanish, usually she finds her way home, but two days is rare and the weather is terrible." Mr. Nelson said, embarrassment creeping up his cheeks.
Mags stared at him. Surely she had heard wrong. "Is Lorelei your daughter, or your cat?"
"She's fiercely independent," Mrs. Nelson intervened, her tone defensive. "There's no point in changing her. She's happy,"she said forcefully.
Some people do die happy, Mags wanted to shout back. Lorelei was ten, not twenty.
"She'll have gone to the reefs," Mr. Nelson said. "She's been asking people about mermaids all week. But it's night-time and we'd have to wait the morning."
"I'll take care of it," Mags said, breathing in slowly to control her temper. "Go home."
She was disappointed when they didn't insist.
"That was cold," Cereus said, his brow creased in disapproval. "
"She went exploring," Larimar said, a scowl on his face. "You'll find her, right Mama?"
"Of course she will," Cereus replied with a grin, "your mother can do anything."
Mags pinched him. There were promises you shouldn't make no matter how reassuring they were.
"I'll watch the children," Angelites said, "you two go find Marquise and a boat."
"I got lost," Lorelei said sheepishly when they found her soaked and shivering on the reefs, a good two miles away from town. "Sorry."
Refraining the urge to shout at the child, Mags wrapped a blanket around her and carried her to the patrol-boat. "Lorelei, we're going to set some ground rules for exploring," she said, the mother in her feeling faint.
Date: Year 23, November.
Marquise entered the study and dropped down on the chair next to Mags. She smiled when she saw FLASH's trainees repairing nets through the window. "Mags, I have an idea," she said softly.
Mags' eyes dropped to Marquise's clenched hands. She frowned at her friend. "Why so nervous?"
"I spoke to Glynn last time she came. What she said about communication lines made me think."
Mags nodded, waiting for her to continue. Full infiltration of the Capitol was much more complex than simply putting an avox in the right place at the right time to sabotage a machine or assassinate someone who wasn't too well guarded.
"I should go back to One, or go to Two, or anywhere I'd actually be useful, build a network, get things moving," Marquise said in soft tones. "The guard is pure show now, even the new guard don't ever question your orders. Legend will stay until he dies, you can count on him."
Mags had expected anything but this. She would leave? Her face fell. "Marquise, please tell me you don't feel useless here."
"Don't be ridiculous," Marquise said, her blue eyes swirls of warmth and sadness. "I love you and the kids, and little Gloria, and Jasper's cute even if he dribbles all over me and it's creepy Esperanza gave him your dad's name and kids will totally make fun of a black-haired black-eyed kid named Jasper at school." Marquise grinned. "You're lucky your old man wasn't called Sparkle, I knew a poor guy called Sparkle."
Mags chuckled. Her smile died as she realized the woman before her was not to grow old with her after all. "And what can a Sergeant do, for communication lines?" She said in dull tones. "You're not even an officer, Marquise."
"But I have seen what you did with FLASH for over a decade Mags, I will teach." Marquise smiled. "You know, I loved being a peacekeeper so much more than I ever thought possible, and that's thanks to you. Get me a recommendation, get through to Vicuña, and then, then the fun will begin."
It was a great idea, but for one selfish moment, Mags wanted to beg her to stay. Not another friend. She didn't want to lose another friend in the tenuous hope the Capitol would be brought down.
And yet, was this just about the Capitol? "You've given up finding a man to start a family here, haven't you?" Mags said softly.
"How did you see through my plan to seduce seventeen-year-old students, Mags?" Marquise exclaimed in false horror.
Mags punched her lightly. "I didn't mean them, although knowing you, Marquise," she said with a sly smile, "I don't even want to know."
"You make me sound so depraved," the thirty-six year old peacekeeper accused. She then sobered. "I miss my Dad, he's getting old and I've seen him one week a year for fifteen years, Mags. I miss my mum, even if I know we'll start fighting all the time again once I set foot back in that house." Marquise scrunched her nose up, a fond gleam entering her eyes. "That stinky old house."
"I think I can manage a ten-thousand percent bonus for having being part of the guard so long," Mags said, her voice thick.
"Did I mention I loved you?" Marquise said with a grin, her eyes bright. "Mags, you're my life here, and since we're not married, I assure you that saying it feels weird." She sighed. "Better chose now, when it's right, when it will do some good, even if I'll miss you so much, instead of waiting for life to remind us not to push our luck. The new Lieutenant isn't Falx, he might cause trouble, and Creneis is secure now." Marquise smile. "Considering how the new mayor in Lycorias was elected, I daresay the whole of Four is yours, Mags."
Yes, it probably was, but Four didn't make her laugh or play with her children. Four hadn't kept her safe since she had been a teenager.
A tear escaped her eyes, and Mags pulled the peacekeeper into a hug. She had to let Marquise go, and it hurt.
"I'll miss you, too, Marquise."
"Oh stop crying, I won't be leaving until August, are you pregnant again?" the woman joked, yet her voice was breaking.
Mags tightened her hug, making sure it was painful.
Date: Year 23, December.
Mags was still gritting her teeth and muttering to herself in anger when she all but slammed the door open.
"Cereus, Lorelei is one of them."
"One of…" Cereus' face fell. "What? But she's ten! Who gives away a ten year old?"
"This child traffic is getting out of control."
It was the dark side of the family laws. Apparently, one day, a woman who had had a life threatening pregnancy and who couldn't adopt a third child had realized there was a family who'd just given birth to an unwanted fourth child they could not afford, and soon people realized that as long as buying children to meet the quotas didn't cause unrest, peacekeepers would do nothing.
"Seriously, a ten year old?" Cereus repeated, gently grasping his upset's wife shoulder. "How did you find out?"
"Cornered the "parents". Here's the story: a little under two years ago her biological mother married a second time to a man who really wanted a child. They were dirt poor, the Nelsons didn't want to go through the trouble of raising a third baby and are mistrustful of orphans. Lorelei's 'wildness' and obsession with stories drove her mother mad and her step-dad got his wish." Mags shut her eyes briefly. "I must say that woman had very low tolerance," she muttered. "Lorelei is extremely creative, her stories are fun."
"Her mother kicked her child out to make her new man happy?" Cereus said, outraged. "Is the kid alright?"
Mags forced her anger back behind a wall of cynicism. "Lorelei's objectively much better fed now, and considering how quickly that girl goes through clothes…"
"Aside from food and shelter, are the Nelsons parents?"
Mags' lips twisted. "No, they're decent but Lorelei can sense they don't care that much, that's why she latched on to me. The pretty nice lady in her big house who has time for her stories…" Mags sighed, tears misting up her eyes. "Sol loves her and you've seen how Larimar puffs up in pride, an older girl, paying attention to them."
"And he doesn't sulk if she steals your attention away from him, although I hope that's just him growing up," Cereus said wryly.
It wasn't fair, not Lorelei. That precious child deserved so much better.
Date: Year 24, January.
The child took school much too lightly.
"Lorelei, if you bring back good marks for a week, not only you have a better chance at later getting a job, but Marquise will take you out on a boat with Sol and Larimar," Mags decided.
"Work," Larimar immediately ordered, jabbing his finger at the girl.
Mags shared a look with Cereus. She bit back a grin. Why their little boy almost looked scary.
Lorelei laughed. "Sure, I promise."
"Remind me how she ended up having dinner with us?" Angelites said when the girl was gone.
"She walked the boys home from the beach, it was late and cold," Mags said with a small smile.
Her mother nodded knowingly. "Is it me, or she trying to get herself adopted in a quiet sneaky way?"
Date: Year 24, February.
"Dad, is Lorelei my sister?" Sol said before yawning. He pulled the covers up to his nose, his mischievous brown eyes surrendering to sleep
Cereus shared a weighted look with Mags. "She had dinner here twice this week and she spends more time with the boys than with the Nelsons." Her husband walked up to her, placing his hand on her arm. "Haven't you always wanted a girl?"
A small smile graced Mags' lips. "I only ever knew girls," she replied. "I love the boys, as for little girls, Gloria is as girly as you get."
Even Esperanza wondered where her daughter's absolute fascination for shiny things stemmed from, for her Odair cousins were tomboys if anything. Mags suspected Marquise of giving Gloria ideas when no one was watching. How did a three-year-old find out about nail polish otherwise? Mags' heart clenched as she thought of Marquise. That woman was definitely coming for dinner tomorrow, and regulations be damned.
"That's not what I said. I'll accept a no, Mags," Cereus said softly. "Admit it though, you love the kid and I've seen enough of her to know I will to."
Mags looked down. "It's not a no." She was awfully fond of Lorelei, but this was… confusing. "I just… This is big, we should have an honest discussion with everyone involved, especially her." She wasn't looking forward to seeing the Nelsons again.
She then sighed. "If she becomes part of the family, she's never climbing the cliff again," she said, her lips forming a tight smile. "Things will change. I don't have the same expectations when it's my child."
The fact she was even considering it was incredible, but -
'Dad, is Lorelei my sister?'
Mags smiled lovingly at her sleeping baby boy. Maybe Sol, in his childish innocence, had been the first to see the truth.
"Mags, you oversee her homework, make her take care of her clothes and scold her when she swears. Whenever she sleeps over you kiss her goodnight, make her do the bed in the morning and told her off when she dared try to get off without a full breakfast."
Mags winced, her lips twitching. Her husband had a point.
"She comes to you when something's on her mind and the boys go to her when we're not there," Cereus added, his arms wrapping around her waist, "and you don't humor her, you enjoy spending time with her."
A guilty smile broke Mags' lips. "True," she said. She shook her head slightly, marveling at how her life never seemed to truly settle.
Glancing once more at Sol, so deceptively angelic with his eyes closed, her smile bloomed into a full grin. "And, Cereus, our children are finally both asleep," she pointed out, her eyes gleaming as her fingers gently folded over the fabric of his shirt.
Date: Year 24, August, Reaping Day.
Mags gave the scarred eighteen-year-old a confident smile when she walked up on stage.
Four years before.
"Gotcha, you scampering filth, you won't go anywhere now!"
Mags frowned and gestured to Marquise.
A wiry barefoot girl, with worn clothes, a large scarf around her neck and bushy black hair, had been caught by three peacekeepers. Mags' frown deepened. A scarf in a day so warm? Long hair for a girl of the streets?
Mags failed to stifle a gasp when the peacekeeper pulled her hair back. She clutched Cereus' hand in horror.
Small black eyes stared resentfully at the peacekeepers, but right above eyebrow to her chin a horrible scar marred the girl's face, covering almost all the left side of her face.
From the look on the peacekeeper's face, they knew her. "Nori, dealing drugs now, are we? Captain's not going to be so fond of you now."
"What's going on here?" Marquise intervened, her voice cool and commanding.
Yes, Mags thought fondly, authority had replaced her flirtatious insolence as the years had consolidated Marquise's self-esteem. No one questioned her status as Sergeant anymore, even if the blonde would never be a typical peacekeeper.
"Nori's a little rat, killed her brother when she was twelve, her mother didn't like that," the peacekeeper said, "left her a souvenir," he added, yanking Nori's scarf to reveal her neck.
The scar, no scars, continued down her neck and back. Mags insides clenched to stop her meal from coming up. It wasn't the sight that upset her so much, scars were nothing compared to the blood and suffering of the Hunger Games, but a mother doing that to her child…
"Barbed wire, family love," the man continued cynically.
Mags swallowed. That girl had had a childhood to rival the most unlucky of her trainees. Mags had never truly suspected how rotten some people could be before she had opened her academy.
"Why aren't they both in jail then?" Cereus asked, more curious than anything. "Hello, Nori," he said, surprising the teenaged-girl with a smile.
"Kid's the killer. The Ma'am defended her son. Nori's not crippled, so there's no crime," the peacekeeper said mirthlessly. "But Major Craig took pity on the gal."
"Why, rumors abounding about the boy?" Mags was almost disgusted to immediately suspect Nori's brother had deserved it, but she knew Major Craig, and he didn't do random compassion.
Nori cracked a half-smile. It didn't light her face, but for a second, she looked more human, especially with her hair falling back on her face hiding most of the scars. "You catch on quick, Ma'am." Her smile fell. "Now what are you all going to do with me? Never had so much attention from important people before."
The girl's voice sounded impaired, as if she had some kind of lisp, but stronger.
"Oh don't make me blush," Marquise said with a wave of her hand. She then grinned. "You're a drug dealer then, how long in the streets?"
"Two years, Ma'am," Nori said, her brow furrowing as she didn't know what to make of the blonde Sergeant.
Mags tensed slightly when she realized that it wasn't only the scar that had caused her earlier horrified gut-reaction. The left side of Nori's face was barely moving at all, the side of her small mouth curling downwards.
"You use what you sell?" Marquise continued.
Nori bristled, her eyes flaring in suspicion. She then shrugged. "I taste it," she said flatly. "People don't want crap, so I check. I'm no addict."
"I can see that," Marquise said, her assessing blue eyes on the teenager. "Mags, I think this one knows quite a bit about surviving."
Mags froze when the words sunk in. She turned her piercing gaze on Nori, who cringed, hastily covering her exposed neck back up.
"Nori, ever heard of FLASH?" Mags said.
Capitol surgery could heal Nori's ravaged face, but Capitol surgery more expensive than what Mags was given in a year. Syrianus had obtained some treatments for her, to protect Nori's left eye and reduce some of the lingering pain in nearby nerves, but there was no other solution.
And of course, once Nori had been told this, there had been no changing her mind. She was the third trainee in the history of FLASH who seriously asked if she could kill someone before the Hunger Games. Even Tang hadn't dared.
A condemned criminal I mean, not just a random person. And you can sedate him first, I don't want it to hurt, but I have to do it, Mags, right?
Her voice had been trembling so badly, her words almost unintelligible, and yet Mags had seen that iron will shining through.
She nodded at Zale who gave her a smirk that didn't reach his almond eyes.
Zale was a psychopath. The word Mags had learned from Glynn, who had given her a brilliant psychology book five years before. The boy… he was a self-serving, lying and cruel creature incapable of the slightest empathy. And in his case, Mags couldn't even blame the parents or a hard life. Zale wouldn't win, independently of skill, because Gamemakers had learned their lesson. Mags couldn't prove it, but ever since she'd saved Lucius Achlys from Tang's knives, the arenas had been more hostile to Careers, leaving untrained tributes to win two Games in three, and the older victors to pick up the pieces. And from her letters, Mags was pretty confident that Bianca had done a little more than pick up the pieces as far as eighteen –now nineteen- year old Columbus was concerned. She had decided not to judge.
Only Twelve and Eleven remained without a victor and only because Galen of Twelve had suffered a fate similar to Rye's two years before.
"Next year will be my last as an escort."
Mags turned to stare at Lucian, her face falling slightly.
"Aww come on, you're not that old," she said, feeling more put out than she'd have thought.
Why was everyone abandoning her?
"Aww, Mags," Lucian said, parroting her with arched eyebrows, "I didn't know you cared."
Mags tugged lightly on his curly silver beard. The years had hardly improved his manners. "We work well together, that's all."
"When I hear my colleagues gossiping, I'll grant you're more tolerable than most," Lucian allowed. "I assumed you would prefer me to select a replacement with you rather than leave it to chance."
Mags' lips broke into a thin smile. "See, that's why we work well together."
"Who are the nutcases this year?" The escort's lips curled in disgust "And what's with the girl's scars? She looks like a university trend gone wrong."
"A psychopath and a drug dealer," Mags replied with forced cheer. "Nori's a decent girl."
Something changed in Lucian's demeanor. A calculating light entered his mismatched eyes. "A drug dealer… How well does she know her drugs? Did she hone those skills during her training?"
Mags wasn't blind, she knew who Nori hung out with, but considering what Mags was preparing her for, she had figured it would be hypocritical to give Nori more than the occasional warning.
"Somewhat," she replied.
"Our children, teens, and a pathetic amount of adults do drugs," Lucian said. "Tisias Elysium, he was very high up, -"
"I remember, he was quoted often in your newspapers," Mags said. Oddly enough, it was the first article she'd read quoting him, the one about the family policy, that remained most vivid in her mind.
Lucian glared at the interruption. "He died and was found using cocaine. Since the scandal sold a lot, journalists became making inquiries and wonders of wonders," Lucian said, his voice dripping with scorn, "they discovered drugs are frighteningly common and our health system plagued by barely functioning addicts. They had the gall to act surprised."
Mags patiently waited for him to tell her what Nori had to do with all this.
"But many people were genuinely appalled and upset and so the President decided it was an appropriate time to revamp the anti-drug campaigns, which have been rather ineffective. I think the arena will reflect this, after all, what better test subjects than tributes?"
Mags frowned, a slight shiver running up her spine. "Don't the bad effects of drugs take at least months to show?"
Lucian gave her a thin, creepy, smile. "I think some super-powered ones will be synthesized just for the occasion."
The victor swallowed as the two tributes exited the Justice building. She wasn't sure if rejoicing was really appropriate.
Date: Twenty-fourth Hunger Games, arena day 1.
Lucian's words hadn't prepared her for the reality of the arena. She hadn't expected something quite so... elaborate.
It was a cave complex, a cave complex in which the grass was weed and the mushrooms were the non-legal type of mushrooms, where sugar that wasn't sugar coated the walls and the one river, for good measure, was red wine.
"At least it isn't absinth," Mags said, breaking the heavy silence. "They could have done that, to make it look more like water."
"It looks like blood," Comet said, always the cheerful one.
Garnet laughed, a weak, hysterical laugh. "Drugs are banned in the training center. Shame on us, look at them."
The two Careers from One were dancing.
There hadn't been a cornucopia. There had been an underground field of… some plant littered with knives in scabbards. It had started burning the moment the countdown had hit zero. The fire had stopped quickly, before any perished from the flames, but the vapors... Many didn't even realize what was happening, slowing down in a daze and listening to the instrumental music playing in the cavern.
The only sponsor gift they could send for now were rehab pills, an instant purifying of the organism, but it was so violent that giving more than one every other day could kill the tribute.
The some plant name was soon revealed on the broadcasted version, although unfortunately for Mags, she was unfamiliar with Capitol drugs-slang, with an off-voice describing side effects and confirming Lucian's words on accelerated effect.
It was almost amusing, in a terrifying way, to see them all walking around with silly smiles on their faces, until they started to die.
The crystals, meth they called it, turned those who mistook it for sugar to become euphoric, eating more and more of those little white cubes until they were desperately stuffing themselves, their eyes mad with panic, and the infrared cameras dutifully showing how their heartbeat was spiking. A decade of meth, the commentator said in grim tones as the tributes dropped dead, their bodies ravaged in record time, one by one. Another actually drowned in the shallow wine river.
It made Domitia laugh, because the crazed young man from Eleven had come from a family of vintners.
Mags wasn't laughing at all. She wondered how Vicuña and Mordred were faring in their Districts and found that she missed the older Careers.
Nori had partnered up with the boy from Six, a recreational user, who knew exactly what they were facing, and his young district partner, who they made sure stayed clean. Their higher tolerance, the ability to identify which rooms were safe with a sniff and resistance to hunger gave them a huge edge. They stayed in one of the mushroom corridors, waiting for the hungry judgment-impaired tributes to come and eat, for it was the only food available.
Hallucinogens, and not normal ones. Mags' brain told her these were mutt drugs, something outrageous to scare the watchers, but the images still made her stomach heave. She would never watch someone smoke anything in the same way.
After the tributes ate the mushrooms, most without suspecting anything, others out of hunger, it wasn't even a fight. Nori just had to point them to the cage. The cage, at the center of the quarter-mile across underground arena, a bright shining spot with great rousing music, and mutts. Man-eating giant mosquito mutts that injected the tributes with morphling and sucked them dry while they dopily joked with their allies or pointed at whatever their mind showed them.
There were no screams, but unlike Nori and her allies, Mags didn't have the leisure of averting her eyes.
The corpses were left there, to be retrieved only at the end.
"Okay, I swear I'll cut back," Comet muttered, her face white.
"Seriously?" Mags said. She noticed Bianca had replaced her wine for a jug of water and was clutching Columbus' arm with both her hands.
"No," Comet replied after a pause. "But I'm a rational girl from District Three. I can separate the bull from the actual, realistic, dangers of the substances I take. Capitol citizen stand no chance. And see how the official broadcast screen seems to flash?"
The victors all turned towards the main screen. "What about it?" Mattock asked.
"Subliminal messages, too fast for the eye to see. Probably with drugs are uncool printed in big bold letters," Comet answered, taking a large sip from her glass of water. "They're read by your brain even if you don't know it and I heard it may affect your opinion on things."
Mags swallowed. She swore to be wary of flashing screens from now on.
The tributes were puppets reacting to the chemicals, their true personalities barely shining through. Mags had often wanted the Games to end faster, but never had she wanted the tributes, all the tributes to die. Mockeries of people, shadows of themselves, it was obscene.
On the third day, eleven tributes remained and holes in the walls opened, realizing a burst of translucent gas. Holes in the ground opened and foot long spikes shot out of the floor.
A scream on Keith and Rowan's screen revealed that someone hadn't been lucky.
Nori and her ally shared a terrified look. "Don't breathe," the boy ordered his district partner.
The terrified redhead from Six started gasping after less than a minute.
Suddenly, she began to laugh. Full-body outrageous laughter.
"Item seven, gas capsule, sold as 'bottled fun'," the commentator began.
"Must we have the lesson too?" Rowan ground out, breaking into a litany of curses.
He seemed much more spirited now that Keith was there to mentor in Larix's place. Mags was glad for him.
A second burst of gas made Mags start.
The commentator dutifully informed them. "Enriched morphling, to dull the pain."
Mags imagined it was Death in all her black-hooded glory talking behind the screen.
All the tributes who had been in the western part of the caves began to joyfully stomp on the pikes, oblivious to the damage done to their bodies, a huge grin on their faces.
For the first time Mags could remember, victors, Careers and untrained alike, massively fled the room, unable to watch the horrid show. A green-faced Comet slammed the sound button as she rushed out.
"Luck, honest frigging luck, that's how the victor will be chosen," Domitia spat.
Only Rowan, Bianca, Columbus, Domitia and Mattock remained. Columbus had his eyes closed and was only there because Bianca was restraining him.
"So we're the most jaded, huh?" Mags said, rooted on her chair. She doubted she could move even if she tried.
"I think I'm just morbidly curious," Mattock replied hoarsely. "Figured I didn't have enough nightmares already. How are your kids?"
"Great," Mags said, and somehow thinking of Larimar, Sol and Lorelei made breathing easier. "We adopted a girl, Lorelei, she's wonderful, tells the most brilliant stories with heart-warming endings."
"I could use a heart-warming ending," Rowan said, a wan chuckle exiting his lips.
"You've all got kids?" Columbus said, cracking his horrified eyes open.
Poor lad, first year as a mentor and confronted to the worst arena a human mind had ever crafted. Mags grit her teeth. She hoped with all her might that Cereus and her mother had kept a vigilant eye on Lorelei. That girl was well capable of sneaking out just to see.
"I do, a boy and a girl, twins, my wife's a twin," Mattock said, struggling to ignore the madness taking place on the screens, "and a little lad who talks sweet to anything female, even the goats," he said, his face regaining more color.
"Zalij, Gunnar, Vicuña and Garnet also have children. The rest of us are busy taking care of ourselves," Bianca said, flashing her former tribute a sad smile. "Don't worry, you're one of the good ones, you'll manage, Columbus," she said, patting him on the cheek.
"How long can your tribute keep her breath, Mags?" Domitia asked sharply.
Mags' head snapped back to the screen. The boy from Six had joined the group of dim-eyed zombies who were splitting their sides laughing while their bodies died. The last tribute from Two, a huge young man who'd been protected by his sheer bulk, wasn't laughing. He'd had the sense to take the rehab pill before the gas had invaded his brain. Unfortunately, the pill took a minute to cleanse his system and in that one minute, he'd skewered himself in the gut. He was lying on the ground, screaming soundlessly as he realized what was happening to him.
Mags was so glad Comet had turned the sound off.
Nori was running, the eighteen-year-old had been a diver before her older brother had assaulted her, and apprentice diver, but a diver nonetheless and Mags had had her cultivating the skill, in case she changed her mind about volunteering.
"I'm not sure, maybe four," Mags lied, just in case the person who was listening thought to give the information to Gamemakers.
Six minutes. Nori could hold six minutes.
Mags sent her the rehab pill with a small note. Full rehab, one minute to take action. You can do this, don't tie yourself into knots.
She hoped Nori would figure it out: Mags never used that expression.
One by one, various gazes invaded all the rooms as the handful of half-conscious tributes rushed around hoping not to inhale anything lethal, too afraid to even bother with each other. There was nowhere to go.
Nori rushed back to the spike-less mushroom corridor, holding her throat. She slowed as she glimpsed the boy from Three, so uncoordinated he failed to enter the cage.
Her eyes narrowed and she popped the pill into her mouth, gasping for breath. Her mouth broke into a half-smile, luckily she didn't harm herself, her body too busy with re-oxygenating, and when the minute was over, Nori held her breath once more.
Mags figured the eighteen-year-old had less than three minutes left this time. She hoped it would be enough. There were four tributes left, the cage had opened, and the monstrous man-sized mosquitoes began to hunt down the survivors.
"What happens if a mosquito breathes enough of the gas?" Mattock dared to wonder.
"Hopefully, it'll convulse and smash against the walls," Bianca replied, shivering.
Nori had taken her shirt off and Mags grinned when she tied a solid knot around her ankles, trapping her legs, and then threw her knifes away.
Soon Nori was laughing, struggling, and failing to get up and walk towards the music, towards her death. The tribute began munching on mushrooms for good measure, but her disorganized crawling kept her out of danger long enough.
"Smart girl," Mags said, finally allowing herself to relax.
Nori was splitting her sides laughing, crawling in a room full of corpses when they came to retrieve her.
"Just three days and she hasn't directly killed anyone. A dream." Mattock said with forced levity, turning the screens off with a relieved sigh. "It's over guys and girls," he bellowed.
Mags cracked a smile. "At least she won't do drugs even if she has nightmares."
"Hide the booze." Mattock warned, mirroring her tight smile.
Mentoring long enough gave one a nasty sense of humor.
Date: Twenty-fourth Hunger Games, aftermath.
Mags barely recognized the pretty dark-haired girl who came out of the hospital room.
"Nori," she said, suspicion lacing her voice, "did you just heal the scars and nerve damage?"
"I might have improved my face a bit," Nori admitted, her speech impairment almost completely gone, "the surgeon swore he'd never tell."
Her face had split into an awed, symmetrical smile which slowly froze. "Circe, it was crazy," she gasped, her breath growing ragged as she slowly remembered.
"Come here, victor," Mags said, opening her arms with a smile of her own.
Year 24, September.
Nori held her breath whenever she was anxious. Save for that time when she had fainted, Mags wasn't too alarmed.
The young woman was a quiet neighbor but friendly. She was outside as often as possible –Mags had some great anti-claustrophobia pills to share – and after some badgering had accepted to come teach at FLASH.
"Trial period of three years," Mags said. "You stay within a hundred yards of me at all times."
Nori wasn't Tang, but Mags didn't make the same mistake twice.
"Did Tang really die of overdose?" Nori said, obviously sharper than she looked. "Because you make me feel twelve sometimes, Mama Mags."
Mags scowled slightly at the nickname. Vicuña would be laughing if she were here. "Tough, Nori, victors become adult at twenty-one."
"Says who?"
"Me, and the peacekeepers I'll send after you if you don't comply," Mags said. It wasn't negotiable.
Nori huffed.
And so we have a second victor.
Next chapter will be almost all Games and rebellion-focused with multiple time jumps.
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