Author's Note: A final look at the victors in their homes before it all changes.

A note that next week's chapter might be a little late but I'll still hope to post it during the weekend.

….

Final Night

They were to spend time in each other's company right until the arena. They did not feel the need for a final, awkward dinner in one of their homes. Gem had hosted a quick lunch and they were due to spend the final evening in One with family or friends of their choosing.

Gem went to visit her children. Adopted some forty years earlier following a mining disaster and now with families of their own, they were used to the unconventional nature of their mother's visits. This time she handed over more money to be hidden and the keys to a safe house she had arranged.

She hugged and fussed the grandchildren all whilst speaking in hushed tones about signals and something happening in the Capitol which should prompt them to leave home and hurry to the safe house. Her children were confused but they trusted their mother's judgement.

Satin spent the evening with her siblings and some of her old friends although she saw no need to make an effort. She would be returning home after all, and she was confident that the disruption caused by the rebels would pass.

Topaz and Luxor spent the evening together, as they did most evenings. It would be the last evening for some time where they did not have to discuss the Games although it was the topic which hung over their shoulders. They had previously been strategizing and discussing their approach to mentoring Gloss and Cashmere once more, but in an arena where they would work together. But something about the siblings' attitude had made their mentors think that their hearts were not set on the idea of victory.

Augustus and Aria had dinner with their respective families, both still holding onto close connections to their homes. Gloss and Cashmere had returned home too, this time to say goodbye. They could not hide the news from their parents. They had to be honest about their intentions. This would be their final night in District One.

….

They all had dinner at Cleo's home. On any other night, Enobaria would assist Cleo in preparing their favourites from Tiber's old recipes. But this time, Petran stepped in. Brutus and Enobaria were forbidden to enter the kitchen whilst their mentors prepared a menu from Tiber's collection.

This was the final night that all ten would spend together in Two. Tomorrow they would be separated as half of them were to remain in the district. Two was not being tested like the other career districts. The Capitol knew they would get on with the job. They were loyal and would carry on as usual. It had been decided that Brutus' own victors should stay at home, for risk of them presenting a distraction to his preparations. He needed to be concerned with himself and not the needs of his victors. They were going to have to step up in his absence.

From the next morning, their status quo would be broken. They were never a Village of equals for Cleo remained in charge and Petran was due to take over in her stead. Brutus and Lyme may be the superior mentors but even they listened to and took direction from their mentors, which would be what Brutus and Enobaria would do from the moment they step onto the stage as tributes. They may speak to each other, victor to victor for the final night but when they leave District Two, they become tributes once more.

Cleo and Petran would serve as their mentors, being the only people suited to the task. There was no stopping Lyme from going to the Capitol; nobody had even suggested otherwise. She would support her mentor in taking care of Enobaria's needs but also support Brutus, her closest friend and longstanding mentoring partner. She would be conflicted, but she would act in both of their best interests unless and until that became impossible.

Marcus would be handed temporary control of the Village until they returned, being the most senior victor staying behind. He would ensure that they kept up appearances, and maintained the order, dignity and security of the Village, a tradition and mentality instilled by Vita decades previously.

But the final night in Two was the last time they would spend in each other's company in private, where they would say all they wanted to say. Brutus and Enobaria had quietly spent time with their families and friends, but it had been decided that only the other victors would say goodbye in the Justice Building before they departed. They were who they were closest to and who would have the most valuable parting words before the Quell upset their rhythm.

….

They had each handed over instructions to their associates and Halley had briefed the Mayor. For their final night in Three, they were just four citizens enjoying a quiet dinner, having relinquished (albeit temporarily in Halley's case), their rebel leadership positions.

Pluto had been discretely saying goodbye to his home and people for weeks. It was quietly understood that he was not likely to return. Beetee and Wiress had insisted that it was 'goodbye for now' whilst Halley had reassured everyone that she would be back before they could begin to miss her.

It was the final time the Victors' Village would be occupied by its four longstanding inhabitants and the final night of true peace inside its gates. There would be an uneasy silence once they departed, only disrupted by the invasion of the peacekeepers and the violence and destruction that would follow.

The four would be up and about early in the morning, converting their homes into their arena for the peacekeepers who were sure to arrive sooner rather than later. But for now, they would spend a final quiet evening, the four of them, before the Capitol took that from them.

….

They were a family in District Four, the victors and the close few who remained in their circle. They were who they chose to spend their final night with.

Mags and Shai's grandchildren had all been brought to the Village by their parents to say their goodbyes, for even though Shai was not going to the Capitol, he was going to spend the immediate future in an underground bunker. The victors' children returned in the evening to spend time with them all before everyone's lives changed. Mags' son was going to be leading a central group of fighters whilst her daughters were to man the bunker and take charge of communications both within District Four and beyond. Shai's children were prepared to fight too. They each knew the risks and wanted to say their goodbyes accordingly.

Chloe and Coral understood what going to the Capitol may mean for them. They had already bid farewell to their friends and contacts and handed over control of their various involvements to others they trusted. Their family was each other, and their fellow victors and they would spend the evening focussed on enjoying their company.

Rowan and Song were joined by Song's sister who had long been accepted into the victors' fold since she refused to set aside her close relationship with her sister. Another keen rebel who could stomach the unsavoury nature of some of their activities and could withstand living both in the shadows and alongside the danger of being a favoured relation to a victor.

Noah had spent time with Dora, Four's former escort, privately since he had smuggled her into the district from the Capitol, some months previously. She considered the victors, her victors, each of them regardless of when they won, to be her closest family. They had risked a lot in trusting each other and Dora wanted to spend that final night alongside them. She was acutely aware that she may lose Noah, even as their relationship continued to develop, but she was willing to take a chance on him, as he was with her.

Despite being surrounded by everyone else, Finnick and Annie only had eyes, and time for each other. Annie knew she was about to be separated from her anchor for some time, if not forever and she did not want to waste a minute that they had left. She wanted to spend time with the real Finnick, not the Finnick he would be forced to become once more.

They spent their final night together, eating one final dinner in Mags' home, so long the centre of all activity in Four's Victors' Village, and then retreated outside. They spent most of the night together, taking in District Four and the peace they had in each other's company whilst knowing that everything they had worked for was about to take place. This long, first stage of their plan was ending, and a new beginning beckoned.

….

For his final night in Five, Hal was sober. He could not risk being hungover at the reaping. Besides, he did want to spend time in Luna and Porter's company without angering them. They had tried so hard with him for years after all. For one final evening in Five, he did not want to be their difficult victor.

He prepared their meal with Porter whilst Luna was out making her final visits to family and friends. Neither Hal nor Porter had maintained strong family ties and Hal was realising he ought to have made more of their common ground over the years. But it was too late to dwell on that. He was going to die.

It wasn't as if he had had an awful time living alongside Luna and Porter, and Ellen, for his earliest years as a victor. It was just that he had never envisaged his life being like this and he had struggled to adapt. He got there, made space for himself and now it was all ruined.

….

It was a strange night in Six. There was an awkwardness in the air. It was their last night together at home without the Capitol's influence and only Poppy had a chance of returning. Her fellow inhabitants had no chance of, or desire to survive the end of the month. Facing imminent death was an unusual feeling, even if life had brought more misery than they deserved.

Claudia and Levi's morphling doses were being carefully controlled. They needed to be lucid in the Capitol and Poppy and Max did not want the pair in a trance and falling off the stage at the reaping. Max had also refrained from the growing temptation he felt. He wanted to look as good as he could for the reaping and arrival in the Capitol. He wanted to help Poppy and his fellow victors and looking well would mean people were more responsive to him.

What they were all about to experience was the worst it would get for most victors, even Poppy would suffer before any rewards were reaped. But Max knew that he had to feel. He could have used the remaining morphling to ignore what was happening, but he needed to support Poppy in the Mentors' Centre to support Claudia and Levi in the arena. They were his victors, and he was going to lose them. But he needed to feel that loss, needed to see the arena fall, and know Poppy was making her escape before he could take his route out.

….

The five of them were outside, in the open space behind their homes where they could have their most open and honest conversations. There was no point in spending their final uninterrupted evening where Capitol ears could tune in and listen.

They had taken their most treasured possessions from their homes and buried them in the boxes Logan had crafted years previously under 'their' trees in the woodland next to the Village. Both Logan and Leah's boxes, buried years previously, remained unopened and Seven's five remaining victors had decided that whoever returned out of them would open them all.

They finished their remaining food and the beers they had stashed away in their houses as they reminisced about the good times and berated all the bad that had happened. Blight found the liquor he had hidden for the right moment and figured there was no better time. They'd be hungover at the reaping but none of them could find it in themselves to care.

….

Woof and Cotton were asleep, so Cecelia spent her final evening in Eight with her husband and children. Merino made her dinner, and they watched the television programmes and read the books their children enjoyed the most until it was time for them to sleep.

Then Cecelia went through the plans for the final time with her husband. She had packed each of their bags that morning and taken the money out of its hiding place. They were to go into hiding after she had departed. The younger two children were not to know. Cecelia did not want to cause any more upset than would already happen so they would have a final night in the comfort of their own beds. Her eldest, however, had caught her packing and demanded answers. Cecelia told him what she dared, not too much, not to put him in extra peril, but enough to answer only the direct questions he posed.

Cecelia had been gradually emptying her bank accounts since the announcement. Gifts to contacts who would know where to place the money, money directly to Paylor's resources, some making its way to Poppy in case she had to rescue the children, and the rest to her family. A wad of cash had been wrapped in the clothes in the travel bag she had made up for Cotton so the younger woman would hopefully have what she needed to make it as long as she could.

Cecelia had prepared all she could. It was her final evening with her husband. She was not going to think about the Games any more than she needed to.

….

They had spent the afternoon together, but they would go their separate ways in the evening. Mona's family came to visit, and she spent time surrounded by her children and grandchildren, in her final moments of joy before Loriana woke up the next morning in Mona's place.

Barley remained with his wife, whose patience had been dragging them through these final days before he departed. She was worried for him, worried about who would return and the state they would be in whilst she watched on, unable to help. She had to hope that Barley returned and that she would be able to pull him back out of his depression, but she knew there was further for him to sink.

Barric and Maizey had no time for anyone but each other. It was their final night in Nine, the final time they could be truly together in their newfound relationship before the Capitol changed everything.

….

Charo and Adan's families joined them in the Village, in Maria's home and they spent the entire day together. Maria's home had always been the hub of the Village and soon she would return alone, if she made it home at all.

Charo and Adan had slowly accepted their fates and had done everything they could to support the cause since the Quell's announcement. Maria was deeply upset but knew the time had come for her to fully prioritise the rebel movement over the victors she loved so dearly. She had sworn to do all she could for them, but upon their deaths, Maria knew her attention would have to switch to the other victors in the Mentors' Centre and their planned escape once the arena fell.

But she loved Charo and Adan as if they were her children and she could feel their parents' pain. Maria knew that they had also been drawn to the cause by the pair and she was keen to keep them on side whatever happens in the Capitol. But tonight was not the night. It was time for them to spend together.

….

They tried to behave as if it were a normal night in Eleven. In many respects it was. A meal and wine at Seeder's home and spending time in each other's company. Only this time it was their last night in Eleven and their homes were surrounded by peacekeepers.

Travel bags had been packed, primarily containing Orchard's herbal remedies and other items for his comfort. Chaff and Seeder were not concerned with their possessions. Anything they particularly liked had been handed to Orchid and Lily and then hidden. The two had also been given copies of the victors' house keys. Particularly useful items had been distributed and any food that would not be used was discretely delivered.

They had stepped down from each of their roles, conveyed their plans to their most trusted employees and new directors of their businesses had been appointed.

They were as ready as they could be. There was nothing more they could do than wait for morning to come.

….

The reaping had come around all too quickly. They were training and now the inevitable was only hours away. They spent some time together and then Katniss returned to her mother and sister. She had visited Gale, and Peeta had dropped by the bakery to say goodbye to his family. Haymitch had another drink in private.

There was a sense of déjà vu for them all. Haymitch knew that his name was about to be plucked from the reaping bowl in a second Quarter Quell, only this time he would not enter the arena. But it would be a talking point for the Capitol, and he would have to manage their constant chatter. For Peeta and Katniss, they were about to find themselves in the same place as they were a year ago. Only this time, they thought they knew what to expect, and it would be even worse. They both had more to lose. They didn't know what they stood to gain if all fell their mentor's way.