(A/N) : Finally presenting to you the much awaited Finale of the Hunger Games. N'joy! Oh yeah! AND MAY THE ODDS BE EVER IN YOUR FAVOUR!
~Aeigns
Katniss and Peeta finally emerged from the cave 3 weeks after the Feast when their 'magnificient' stag, which they kept saving up with preservatives all this while, finally exhausted. They expected Foxface to be hunted down in the meantime but that apparently wasn't meant to be. She was too good at hiding. They took comfort in the fact that Cato and her, for the least, are weakened a lot all this while. They were now just waiting for the perfect opportunity to hit.
At the moment the couple were hunting for meat and gathering for a few fruits. Peeta had already hunted a rather big bird that looked edible while Katniss was busy gathering some rodents. Finally though Katniss returned, only to see Peeta crouching down and filling up a pouch with his assortment of deadly berries. She was about to ask the reason behind it when one look at Peeta's eyes silenced her. Then he picked up both their gathered games and as Katniss saw, his pouch 'accidentally' slipped off from his bag as he started walking towards her direction. Deciding to talk about it later she followed him silently back to the cave. Not even 10 minutes after they left the place the Canon blasted off startling Katniss.
"Saw Foxface around where we were gathering. For an impressive thief she is, she lacks the basic idea of what not to steal," that was all the explanation Katniss got before the hovercraft arrived and carted off with Foxface's corpse hanging from it. Peeta truly was a vicious killer, strategist and actor – Katniss has to give him that. If it were someone else she wouldn't have trusted him so easily, but Peeta saved her life when none cared even if she died. So trusting him was the least she could do to repay the long list of debts she owed him.
A week more and finally Katniss and Peeta decided it's time to confront Cato. It was truly their luck that Peeta has chosen a place from where the Game-makers couldn't bring them out at any cost and they had all the necessary supplies of food, water, fire and warmth to keep them going for so long. They haven't at all lost weight and was too healthy for a Tribute that was now almost 2 months into the Games – the longest Games ever. A lot of times Katniss wished to go and end it but Peeta said to wait as patience is a great virtue and always bears the sweetest fruit. Of course, between the regular snuggling, cuddling, story-telling and make-out sessions it wasn't that hard to convince Katniss at all. It also gave the Capitol some fluffy entertainment but now Peeta knew that the Capitol is thirsting for blood and action. A heroic show-down is a must or else the trade between him and the Capitol won't be merry.
So this day a week later they got themselves ready for the final showdown. After having a hearty meal in the afternoon they packed all their belongings, got their weapons ready, and with their night-vision glasses on, they started moving through the dense growth of the forest.
Where is he Rye? (Peeta)
Same place where you fed Rue the first time. Apparently for some reason he was thinking that you 2 will camp – DAMN! PEETA LISTEN TO ME CAREFULLY. THE GAME-MAKERS HAVE RELEASED MUTTS WITH GENETIC FEATURES OF THE DECEASED TRIBUTES INTO THE ARENA. ALL TOTAL OF 37 OF THEM ARE OUT THERE AND THEY ARE HEADING- DARN! NO THEY ARE NOW CHASING CATO DOWN. AND THEY ARE HEADING STRAIGHT FOR THE CORNUCOPIA FROM THE EAST. BE VIGILANT BROTHER. (Rye)
Gosh! Alright I'll keep an eye on them Rye. (Peeta)
"Katniss!" Peeta shrieked and startled his partner. Before she could ask he continued in a panicked tone. "Do not under any circumstances, climb down the trees. And head straight for the Cornucopia-clearing, no questions asked."
Nodding frantically after realizing how serious Peeta was they started making their way to where the woods cleared to the opening of the Cornucopia by jumping trees — Katniss with Peeta's help. They had just made it there when to Katniss's shock and dread 37 mutts with the genetical appearance of the deceased Tributes chased Cato to the Cornucopia. The visibly weakened, starved, wounded and freshly bleeding Career had barely managed to make it to the top of the Cornucopia when the mutts surrounded it and growled in annoyance for not being able to reach him.
Not even wasting a moment, Peeta first of all retrieved one of Selena's silver arrow, and dipped it in what Katniss recognized as the Nightlock-secretion that he had prepared that morning. Handing the arrow tenderly to Katniss from its tail he said dead-seriously, "He is wearing armor. Might be what his Feast brought him. Hide in here and let me deal with the mutts. Concentrate solely on Cato and fire it wherever you find flesh visible. You have got this one chance you understand?"
Katniss nodded frantically in understanding. Peeta arranged all the explosive and regular arrows and started getting ready for jumping to a better tree. Before going though Katniss grabbed a hold of him and kissed him roughly but passionately. "We'll make it . Keep yourself safe," she said as the kiss ended.
Nodding in agreement Peeta gave her a quick peck on the lips and then jumped off from one tree to another until he reached a distance from her and also nearer to the Cornucopia. Then Katniss saw, for the first time, Peeta at shooting. And it was like a skilled assassin that was shooting. The first 5 explosives took out about 11 of the mutts and then Peeta jumped to a new location and shot down 5 more mutts at the heads before hiding behind a new cover of leaves and shooting 3 explosives taking out 7 mutts this time. Then began a mad hunt as the mutts started spreading out to make shooting them difficult. Not to be deterred either Peeta started using the element of invisibility to his advantage and started random shooting of explosive and regular arrows at the same time.
When he was down to 15 alive mutts Katniss shifted her concentration to Cato who was now planning for an escape while the mutts were distracted. Using sheer confidence she lodged her poison-arrow on the bow and started making out for any signs of bare flesh on his torso. Unfortunately she found none. Whoever made the armor did a fine job in designing it to cover the entire torso. Aiming the head wasn't a choice either for she didn't want to risk her luck. Finally it hit her. Peeta did say bare flesh but didn't mean the upper-torso necessarily and while where she was aiming would take time to kill the target, she was sure it'll be equally deadly.
So Katniss this time paid heed to one of Peeta's lessons to her. Patience. She sat there with the arrow on, all the while waiting for Cato to give her the perfect aim to shoot at his 'bare flesh.' She didn't have to wait much longer though. Soon Cato was attempting to climb down the Cornucopia as now all the mutts were distracted by their 'invisible attacker(s).' Cato must have thought that she was shooting at the mutts with Peeta because the speed with which Peeta was changing positions was impressive. He had his back turned to her, and that's when, aiming at his right leg's thigh she let her arrow fly.
It hit home. If nothing than Cato's piercing cry that filled the Arena and even paused the mutts for a while as well was proof enough. The injured Career pulled himself back on the Cornucopia but Katniss was no longer worried about him as nightlock secretes the deadliest venom throughout Panem. And Cato has an arrow dipped in the venom sticking out from his thigh at the moment. He'll be a corpse in less than 10 minutes. Even that long because it needed time to reach the heart and spread throughout the body via the Circulatory System.
Basking shortly in her victory, Katniss was contemplating whether to help Peeta out in taking down the remaining of the mutts when a commotion at that general direction drew her attention. The scene that presented itself to her was what made her panic. Peeta was down on the ground with his Electrocutor held firmly in his hand battling all the 9 remaining mutts at the same time. Katniss watched the scene helplessly as she knew she couldn't shoot arrows to help take down few mutts without putting Peeta in danger. Neither could she go down there and help him out as it would only help in distracting him as she was useless in pitch fighting. So the only thing she was able to do now was sit there and pray that the boy she would be eternally be in debt to, the boy whom she had begun to love and the boy who was her dandelion, her hope would make it out of there alive.
Peeta, at this point of time, couldn't be more grateful to Gryff than ever for allowing him to spar with him and train back home. Compared to an adult male grizzly bear, mutts truly look like innocent puppies. Of the 9 remaining mutts 4 of them were brought down quickly with a combination of electrocution, immediately followed by a blade to the head from the blade-jacket that Peeta found in the Cornucopia. He then quickly unsheathed one of his double-sheathed knives as the 5 mutts changed tactic and started surrounding him and getting closer with each rotation. Peeta knew he has to get out of the formation or else he'd be mutt-food in moments. So with his skillful feet he jumped over a startled mutt's head and leapt into the air but not before thrusting his knife between the eyes of the mutt he used for support. He turned just in time to strike his Electrocutor at an offensive mutt and made quick work of splitting apart its throat. The final 3 mutts – impressions of Thresh and the District 4 males formed a triangle before him.
He was thankful that Katniss would know when to take a chance as an arrow through the head brought down another mutt startling the other 2 at the sudden attack from a very different direction. Peeta used that momentary element of surprise to make quick work of thrusting a knife at the heart of another mutt without even electrocuting it. But he might have under-estimated Thresh-mutt as the largest beast of the pack clawed at his left bicep making a deep gash there and also made him loose his Electrocutor in the process. But he too had his secret weapon ready and without even reacting to his wound he stabbed both of his activated saber-claws deep in the mutt's chest and reaped it open. Before it could even attack again, he unsheathed his only sword and beheaded it with a single striking blow.
Katniss was watching in awe all this while as she saw Peeta fight 9 mutts without breaking a beat. Even after this if Gale called him only a 'townie' or a 'pretty face,' as he usually does, she would definitely punch the living daylights out of him. She was about to climb down and congratulate him on a job well done when to her sudden horror, one more mutt – this time of the genetic appearance of Cato came charging at Peeta from behind him. That's when in a moment she let out a scream to aware Peeta and she had it in just the right time for him to dodge the incoming assault of the mutt. In a brief moment she looked at the Cornucopia to realize Cato's body was missing. In all her excitement at watching the battle, neither she nor Peeta heard the canon signifying Cato's death or even the arrival of the hovercraft that carted off Cato's body.
Back to the battle, Katniss found Peeta hands-to-paws with the mutt that was barely smaller than Thresh-mutt. He couldn't reach any of his blades and all his other weapons were out of his reach at the moment. Even his saber-claws were not angled at the right positions and the gash from his bicep was now bleeding profusely. Katniss was in frantic worry for Peeta and was moments away from sending an arrow at the general direction of Cato-mutt when she saw Peeta do a move of wrestling for which he was famous for in their District. She couldn't recall its name now but in description, while still in strong-hold and fighting for domination, Peeta suddenly rolled out from the general direction at which the mutt was applying its weight. This caused the startled mutt to falter in his balance, but it was enough of an opening for Peeta to get a hold of the mutt's head and snap it in instants. The beast was dead before it could even hit the ground.
Shock flushed through her first, which soon turned to confusion, and then to surprise and finally to joy as Katniss finally realized what this means. That the Games are finally over and she would be going home – with Peeta and both of them alive.
She climbed down the tree in record time with only her bow and a single arrow that she had been holding. She made a mad dash to Peeta hugging him in joy at first babbling about how they won, and then finally remembering his wound. With speed she never knew she possessed, she dragged him near the lake that was by the Cornucopia and again in record time, washed his wounds and then retrieving the District 4 boy's medicine, applied it on the gash. Peeta hissed in relief as the balm started taking effect rapidly emanating a pleasurable sense of comfort all the while. Job done Katniss, to Peeta's amusement, was back to hugging and kissing him in joy. They were still at it when Claudius Templesmith's voice rang out in the arena.
"Greetings to the final contestants of the 74th Hunger Games," Claudius Templesmith is saying. "The earlier revision concerning the allowance of 2 Tributes hailing from the same District, to be allowed crowning to be Victors, has been revoked. Closer examination of the rulebook has disclosed that only one Victor can be allowed. Good luck and may the odds be ever in your favor."
~Katniss POV~
It takes a minute for the news to sink in. I stare at Peeta, and suddenly, I realize what this means. I violently stood up from his lap, while Peeta takes his time, getting up lazily. My face contorts into a mask of horror, my hands frozen to the weapons that I can't drop, but certainly won't kill Peeta with.
"If you think about it, it's not that surprising," Peeta says softly. He reaches for the backpack secured under his cape, and putting something in it he throws it to the lake as far as he could. Moments later a small explosion was heard as it disturbed the still water of the lake. He then retrieved his weapon belt and blade jacket – the last of his weapon-carriers, and dropped them at his feet, then turned to face me with his face holding a sad smile. My own hands find the will to drop my weapons.
"No. Don't," Peeta says softly. "It's not worth it," he says sadly, "maybe we truly weren't meant to be together. Not in this life." He scrambles for the bow and the final silver arrow that I salvaged from the tree when I climbed down, and tried to shove them in my hands, but I won't take them. "Do it. It's want I want – for you to walk out of here safe, sound and alive," he says with his smile still on, and hearing those words crushes down all the remaining of my indifferent façade or composure as I break down in tears, sobbing violently.
I fall to the ground, and cry my eyes out hysterically; finally realizing with finality that none of my feelings were forced and he really did bring them out of me. I cry because I know that I truly and unconditionally have fallen in love with him. And I cry because now he's about to be taken from me.
In an instant, he's at my side, comforting me. "Katniss, no, you can't do this. You have to win for us. You have people back at home rooting for you, but Rye can go well without me. I can't go on living without you, so please don't make it any harder for me," he says or rather pleads gently, still trying to convince me to kill him, but finally, I find my voice.
"I can't!" I nearly scream, tears still rolling down my face with no signs of stopping. "I can't let you die. Not after all we've done and been through together. Nothing would be same anymore. Neither will my life hold any meaning again Peeta. I won't have anything to go back to if you die. A part of me will never be able to escape this Arena. You have done the irreparable damage I was trying to avoid forever. And I don't regret getting damaged either. Should I return without you, all I shall ever manage to be would be a shell who can't deal with the loss of her love. Peeta, I love you!" And with my words, I've finally admitted it to him. I've never spoken those words so that anyone else could hear them. But now, the whole world knows that I, Katniss Everdeen, am in love with Peeta Mellark. My boy with the bread captured my heart. Partly however I'm surprised as that's the most vocal I've been with my feelings. Given Peeta's expression before he so skillfully schooled it, he is thinking the same.
"You, love me? Really, as in truly, love me?" he says finally, not daring to believe it. He gives a small, light little laugh. "And you choose here of all places to finally say it?" I laugh a little sadly too, even though there's nothing humorous about the situation.
"I guess I have the worst timing huh?" I respond. Becoming more serious I add, "But I truly, and sincerely love you, and I refuse to live in a world you're not in."
"Katniss," he says, his voice tortured. "I love you too. I can't live without you either. I wouldn't be me. But they need a Victor."
Rushing into his arms where he wraps me immediately, I started crying into his chest. It was only then that I finally came to notice the only bag Peeta left undestroyed. The bag that holds the assortment of deadly berries. That and his last words started spiralling in my mind. It was as if he was hinting me about something. An odd sort of idea suddenly formed in my head as Peeta's words that the Capitol needs a Victor kept spiraling in my mind. I reach for the bag slowly, but Peeta catches on.
"What are you doing?" he asks me which I figured out as him reassuring himself that I truly caught on the hint.
I said, "I can't and I won't live without you. Trust me, I just want to make sure that we are both together eternally at the end of it all, whether we live or not," Peeta gave no reaction, neither did he attempted to stop me — which I deduced was his approval. I retrieved a handful of Nightlock that Peeta always store in a separate pouch. However, before we both possibly die here, I pull him in for one last, long, lingering kiss.
When we finally break apart, Peeta grabs some of the berries from my hand. After some painful effort, we manage to stand back to back, showing the cameras.
"One," I squeeze Peeta's free hand with mine, knowing that's the last thing I want to feel in life. "Two," Maybe death won't be so bad, with him here with me. "Three." The berries have just fallen past our lips when the trumpets begin to blare.
The frantic voice of Claudius Templesmith shouts above them. "Stop! Stop! Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to present the Victors of the Seventy-Fourth Annual Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark! I give you — the Tributes of District Twelve!"
I spew the berries from my mouth, wiping my tongue with the end of my shirt to make sure no juice remains. Peeta however pulled me to the lake where we both flush our mouths with water and then collapsed into each other's arms.
"You didn't swallow any?" I ask him.
He shakes his head. "You?"
"Guess I'd be dead by now if I did," I say. I can see his lips moving in reply, but I can't hear him over the roar of the crowd in the Capitol that they're playing live over the speakers. But it doesn't stop me from taking the initiative to kiss him hungrily in celebration. All spent with both physical and emotional exhaustion, I can only do so much. Not that Peeta minds. The crowd seemed to be enjoying the performance too if the increase in roars was anything to go by.
A hovercraft descends from the sky after awhile. Peeta gets a secure hold around my body and with his free hand, he grabs onto one of the rungs on the ladder that drops down. The current freezes us both in place and carries us up.
Once we are in the hovercraft, the first thing that registers in my mind is how white and clean everything is. After my time in the Arena, it doesn't feel right. The next thing I'm aware is that Peeta is with me still holding me very close to him, so I didn't really complain.
~Katniss POV~
(A/N) : So tell me guys how was the Finale? Hope I was able to satisfy those who wanted bloodlust, Katniss taking lead and more of strategist Peeta all in this chapter. Hope you all like this but let me know your feelings all the very same.
~Aeigns