Author's Note: More behind-the-scenes action from the victors as the arena looms. It's a steady build-up to the Games themselves but there is so much material to cover in the preparation for the Games that I want to cover as much of what the victors are doing as is feasible whilst keeping the story moving.
….
Endless
The list of places to be and people to see was seemingly endless. For Gem, the run-up to the Games was going to be immensely busy. Immediately after the first sponsor meeting, she was due to have lunch with Aria and some of their old contacts from the Capitol's music scene. She would then send Aria back on her way with Augustus to make dealings with the prospective sponsors that were surrounding the Training Centre whilst she met contacts of her own. The day would end with the traditional champagne evening reception where even more prospective sponsors were invited.
Decades in the Capitol had left Gem with a large network of useful contacts and people willing to do her bidding. She had remained in the middle for years, working off both sides, both rebel and otherwise and figuring out everyone's allegiances. But now she had chosen. She had occupied the middle ground for too long and now was the time to do something about it.
She had her list of people who had harmed the interests of District One, who hurt Gloss and Cashmere in a way that went beyond the norm, people who had tried to hurt Maria and her victors and Gem felt a kinship enough with Mags to put a target on those who had wronged her victors too. She was beyond acting ethically, the Capitol never had. There were people who would simply vanish in the chaos of what was about to begin. Gem would make sure of it.
Gem had always come out on top and took whatever action she needed to ensure her position. But now time was running out and her dealings were catching up with her. She had made her choice and would have to live with the consequences. Her family and Aria's survival would be her priority, but that did not mean that Gem would not continue to get her own way before her time ran out.
There would be war. Gem had been helping One's rebels prepare for it. War would close the net in on the Capitol too. Targeted disappearances would be commonplace, the climate of fear would escalate, and Gem's targets would simply disappear in amongst it all for doing wrong against her own.
There were people she needed to get to safety too. There were some involved in One's mining industry who Gem had realised were converts to the cause. She did not want their identities to be exposed. The continuation of One's industries post-war would need people who knew what they were doing to support rebuilding and who were sympathetic to what mining actually meant for One's people.
She would attend meetings under the guise of being on district business. Given she was the sole victor from One's mining class, nobody would question her presence. She maintained the image of a steady, loyal and glamourous District One victor who would simply be trying to assure the Capitol bosses of One's continuing hard work and delivery.
In reality, she would be delivering sets of letters with what appeared to contain mindless gossip and stories of the exploits of her year in One since the previous Games but would really contain the details of a safe house Maria had secured for her. It would be the best Gem could do for those who had helped her efforts over the past few years since she had decided on her true loyalties. She hoped it would be enough to secure some sort of future for her people at home.
….
Cleo left Lyme to deal with the final sponsors at the morning meeting. Their escort had secured a meeting with some of Enobaria's most prominent sponsors from the Sixty-Second Games and so Cleo was going to spend lunch with them, convincing them to do the same again this time around.
She was trying not to show how desperate she was. Trying to make out that this was just a Quarter Quell. A big deal of course, for which she was sure the sponsors would want to play their part, but not the fight for her girl's life which occupied every waking moment.
The truth was that Cleo loved Enobaria. She was her youngest girl, and she had an affection for her that surpassed her feelings for any of Two's other victors. Only her affection for Tiber, who she was having to face this ordeal without, would surpass the depth of Cleo's feelings now. She knew that if he were still alive, he would be here with her. But Tiber's passing had left Enobaria as the greatest thing in Cleo's life and she was going to fight for her girl again, even if it put her at odds with the others and at odds with Brutus and Petran.
Even if it strained her relationship with Lyme. Her first victor, the girl who had made her so proud of what Two could achieve. Lyme had flown and found her place at the helm of the Institute's programmes. Cleo was proud of her legacy in ensuring that Two could continue to make the best of their chances in the Games. But Lyme's place at the Institute was at Brutus' side and now Brutus was going back into the arena, along with Baria. Cleo did not know where Lyme would stand when the time came.
So, Cleo trusted only herself to do the best for Enobaria. She would attend the lunch, follow it up with more meetings, a more casual walk around the Training Centre to catch those who were crying out for the attention of one of the victors and then attend the evening reception, looking her best and doing her best. She was determined to save her girl. She would deal with whatever came afterwards when Enobaria was home.
….
Lyme could feel a distance emerging between herself and her mentor, a distance that was not there before. They had always trusted each other and stood alongside each other, but now they were pulling apart. Lyme supposed it was inevitable as Cleo could not be sure where her first victor stood. Brutus was Lyme's best friend and Baria was Cleo's beloved girl, her mentor's joy as she decided to enter retirement. Her loyalties were ultimately divided.
Lyme knew it was more complicated still. There was a whole other layer to her allegiances that she could not yet share with Cleo. She did not know whether she ever could. But Lyme did as her mentor asked. That was what Two victors did, and Lyme was having to prepare herself to break the natural order. But this time, she stayed at the morning's sponsor meet until she could come up with no more money.
She went on a walk around the Training Centre and into the City Circle to do her best for Two. Whenever she got a pledge for Brutus, she would find someone to match it for Enobaria and vice versa. Both Cleo and Petran would be pleased, and it would help her cover stay in place for just one more day. It may only be a matter of days before all was revealed if the plan came alive. So, she would hold out whilst she could.
Once she had done her bit for the sponsorship efforts, she left the City Circle to venture out to a quieter spot where she would meet her first contact. Someone who, like her, was putting everything at risk in an organisation that was hardly hospitable to the rebels. A senior peacekeeper who had the ear of the Chief Peacekeeper's office, working hard to maintain his cover by offering strategic advice that would work slightly more often than it didn't. There would be increased peacekeeper casualties, and loss of weaponry into rebel hands and his cover would remain intact as there was often someone else to blame.
Lyme confirmed that it was time. That the start of the rebellion would mark the end of the Games and vice versa and she knew that he understood. He had spent enough time in Two to understand Lyme.
Then it was time for her less high-ranking contacts. Minor sporting celebrities who would put in a small sponsor donation to cover their tracks for meeting the victor but would confirm just who in their circle could be relied upon, where the money was falling and who would mean trouble. Lyme offered them the location of a safe house, but they turned it down. They were going to fight alongside the rebels when the time came.
As she made her way back to Two's floor, Lyme found herself accosted by Plutarch Heavensbee himself. He was not somebody the victor was eager to see.
"Very mature Lyme," Heavensbee began.
"Don't know what you're talking about," she snapped back.
"The letters. Very childish. Sending the Head Gamemaker hate mail is awfully common, don't you think? Beneath your capabilities."
"Just like this whole Quell. Surely killing your own is beneath you?" Lyme hissed.
"A necessary sacrifice."
"Mags! After everything she has done! You go and do this to her."
"Mags made her own decision."
"I'm glad that makes you feel better. When the choice was no doubt to sacrifice herself or watch Annie be killed and Finnick destroy himself. What a choice that was."
"The relationships between Four's victors are not my primary concern."
"I'm not asking it to be. You know I don't understand the Fours half the time. But you're ripping their core away, our core away. You destabilise Four and it affects the rest of us. It's the same in Two. Brutus is back in that Training Centre preparing to turn on his own and he doesn't know what it really means for him."
"You could have told him," Plutarch retaliated.
"He wasn't ready. It's too late now."
"Again, not my concern, Lyme. That is for you to manage, and I know you will do just what you need to."
Lyme sighed, "This better work, Heavensbee."
….
At least Aloysius could be trusted. After the first sponsor meet, Maria gave him a list of potential sponsors and contacts and off he went. She knew he would do the job well and get Charo and Adan sponsors. And he wouldn't ask where she was going either.
Maria would do her part too, getting sponsors on the way. She had built up connections through decades of mentoring after all. She would meet those who worked at the top of Panem's agricultural industry, grit her teeth, shake their hands and take their money. Charo and Adan would need whatever she could get, and she would do right by them.
But Maria knew her obligations extended beyond her two beloved victors. She was to take the helm at securing the remaining victors' safe evacuation from the Capitol and to stand any chance, they would need help.
Luckily, she had been making friends with the avoxes and staff across the Training Centre for years. Along with Seeder and many of the other victors who had become fixtures at the Training Centre, they began methods of communicating with the avoxes without being detected, made trips to the kitchens, and spoke to the caretakers and cleaners of the complex and treated them with respect.
Now, this was going to pay dividends. Maria had been making her way around the floors, sneaking around the Centre to meet with the avoxes in their assigned areas to confirm that they were willing to assist in the escape. The kitchen staff were going to allow Maria free reign to take whatever could be used as weapons and provide storage for what the victors were going to steal from the gym and the peacekeepers. There were seemingly endless complexities and things to think about, but Maria needed to be across it all.
She spent the quietest moments running through the days when the Games were in play. Cotton was going to have to be evacuated early, even if Cecelia were alive. But Maria was sure they could create a believable excuse for Cotton's departure, given the woman's mental state. Halley's trip to Three was due to begin before the planned breakout, the approximate timing of which Plutarch had let slip. Haymitch would need to slip away unnoticed at what may well be a crucial point in the Games where a mentor's absence would be difficult to explain. The rebel victors were going to have to leave swiftly and safely as their allegiances were being revealed and those who were not involved might be caught in the crossfire.
It was a responsibility which sat heavily with Maria, but in the absence of Mags and Seeder, leadership in this way would fall to her. She was another unifying figure who commanded respect across the victors, regardless of district and she had a reputation for competence and landing on top. She had managed to defeat Abraham and secure the continued operations of rebel cells in Ten who Abraham had put at risk. She looked after her own and the victors were no different.
….
Poppy wished that Claudia and Levi had made simpler contacts during their more lucid days in the Capitol. After finishing lunch with District Six's former escort, Poppy had to make excuses and pick up the rounds usually done by her morphling addled peers.
She enjoyed the lunches and social occasions and her former escort had become something of a friend. Poppy had been working on her for years, trying to convince her to switch allegiances and she had managed to obtain some tentative sympathies. But the Quell had left the former escort outraged. These were victors, people she had worked alongside for years, and now they were being thrown back into an arena.
Poppy wasn't going to push too hard on her motives and the sudden change to wholehearted support when evidence of Capitol wrongdoing should have been clear to her for years. But morality was strange in the Capitol so she would grasp hold of this change in feeling and use it to her advantage. It seemed as if the former escort was smart enough to have put the pieces together too and figured that many of the victors, Poppy included, were involved in rebel plots. Poppy simply told her that if she wanted to do something about her newfound feelings, she would soon have a chance.
After years of working together amicably and forming somewhat of a friendship, Poppy also felt it right to point out the potential dangers of being a former escort in a Capitol that would likely tear itself apart before falling to pieces entirely. Her message was understood and the former escort informed Poppy that she would look to go underground sooner rather than later, under the cover of the excitement of the Games.
But lunch soon ended, and Poppy had to make her excuses. She was doing most of the time-consuming work beyond the Training Centre and had a series of meetings to make. The first was a brief walk through an art gallery, a favoured spot of Claudia's with one of her art dealer contacts. Poppy could happily abide by this. It was a sensible setting where she was not out of place. She could make a sponsorship deal, pass on the information required and find out what she needed to know.
Then, courtesy of Claudia and Levi's more unconventional contacts, Poppy was treated to a tour of the Capitol's alleyways and side streets for a series of shady exchanges and crumpled notes passing between morphling tainted fingers and her own, sober, steady hands. But she came away unscathed. They were unsavoury characters but posed no danger to her and Poppy was confident she stood a chance at winning in a fight against them should anything have gone awry.
Poppy met up with Max who had been for drinks with an old friend of his and made their way back to the Training Centre having done almost all they could for Claudia and Levi. Their contacts and their resources would soon be exhausted.
….
Blight had decided to ensure his sponsorship deals were carried out in the open. When he should have been at training, he made an appearance in the sponsorship halls and meeting rooms where the more sensitive deals would take place.
Liev would rather have gone about mentoring in his own way. But Blight insisted. His days were numbered, he had people to see, and who was Liev to deny his boy that? Sawyer and Linden decided to join in the fun, sensing an opportunity for networking on Johanna's part.
So, Blight emerged into the waiting crowds and started a frenzy. Whilst his friends picked out the potential sponsors, Blight signed albums and carried out interviews. For just a few moments, they could get people talking about District Seven and Blight and Johanna's chances. They had a brief opportunity to steal the spotlight from Finnick Odair and District Twelve and Blight was going to do what he could for Johanna and to have a laugh on his way out.
He chatted with fans of his band, began impromptu performances of some of his most well-known songs and put up with those who simply wanted to be seen with a victor on the verge of being killed. News travelled fast in the Capitol during the Games, so it was no surprise to see his Capitol bandmates arrive at the Training Centre for what they claimed to be their final live performance.
Liev, Linden and Sawyer were soon surrounded by sponsors, people claiming to be heartbroken about this sudden loss and pledging to do what they could to help District Seven's plight. The victors took every penny they could whilst silently bemoaning the fickle and fake of the Capitol. None of these people cared at all just moments earlier. But now they had the chance to be at the centre of a moment of excitement in the build-up to the Quarter Quell.
As everyone was distracted, Blight took a moment to discuss the upcoming days with Aries, the bandmate who had been his Capitol informant for years.
"It's happening from the arena," he whispered. "I'm done for. But Johanna survives. Do for her what you would do for me."
"Blight, don't," Aries replied.
"There's no don't about it. Johanna gets out of there alive. And these three," he gestured to the three older victors still working the crowds, "get out of here alive too. It's going to be dangerous. Stay close to here when it all kicks off."
"How will we know when?"
"Oh, you'll know," Blight laughed and turned his attention back to the crowds.
