Chapter 15: Warrior


The first propo aired about District Three was relatively long. In the allotted time they had on the ground, Cressida's camera crew captured as much as they could of the charred ruins, the hundreds of skeletons nearer the town center, and the somewhat more intact, rotting corpses on the streets further away from the caved-in Justice Building. They filmed the ruins of Three's Victor's Village, and the few factories and labs near the outskirts of the district that had been left mostly untouched, presumably for later use by the Capitol.

The footage even contained a few frames of Helvius, Lee, and Mina, moving carefully through the ash-coated landscape. Cressida also filmed a brief interview with Mina to air another time. During it, the assistant teacher described her experiences fleeing the destruction and surviving in East Park with other refugees until Thirteen's hovercrafts arrived; she suggested interviewing Kiro about it as well, which Cressida agreed was a good idea.

But this first propo was undoubtedly Kori's.

After her initial heartrending cry and a few minutes of panicked, ragged sobs, she went eerily calm and remained that way throughout their grim tour of the district. The only time she faltered was when they came to the edge of Victor's Village. She stopped at the half-collapsed archway and said, distantly, "My parents died there." She refused to elaborate further.

It wasn't until they had reached what was left of the Justice Building, not long before they had to head back to their transport, when Cressida motioned for Castor and Etna to focus their cameras on Kori and said, "Kori, do you want to say anything about what happened here?"

Messalla ushered everyone back so that the cameras had a clear shot of just Kori in front of the looming heap of ashy rubble. The Victor didn't say anything for a moment, standing with her back to the others. Then she turned, face set like stone. "This was my district. And because of what I did in the 100th Games, it's gone. There's nothing left, besides a few buildings and some refugees in District Thirteen. If you want numbers, more than ninety-five percent of my people are dead. All the Capitol wanted to save of Three was the local data they already had transferred from our computers to theirs and a few buildings they might want to use later. They even destroyed our Victor's Village, because my parents were there. It's partly luck that my older brother and best friend escaped. They were supposed to die, too. For a while, I honestly thought they might have."

She paused, took a few breaths. "Snow told me as much, before having me tortured. Even when I was just locked in a cell, I could hear others, other Victors, screaming. Tortured like I was, for information, for being rebels. If Snow could have bombed all their districts, he would have. But I was the one who destroyed the force field, thanks to what Beetee taught me. So my district had to pay. Someone always pays when they don't fall in line."

For a second, her gaze flickered from the cameras to Helvius and Lee, side-by-side behind the crew. "I was told after the Ninety-Fifth Games that I 'pushed buttons.' By being myself. By doing what I thought was right. So I shut my mouth and did what was expected of me." Her level tone shifted into something harsher, darker. "But that didn't make me feel any better. Didn't make the following Games any less horrible. And it didn't save my little brother when Peacekeepers shot him dead in the street after he got caught up in a post-Ninety-Ninth riot."

She took a step closer to the cameras, any trace of sorrow replaced by utter rage. Her voice grew much louder. "If there's one thing I want all Panem to know, it's this: If Snow thinks that he's managed to break me, or Katniss, or Lee Anders, or any of us who want a better future, he's wrong. And if you're watching this, Snow, you and your generals, advisors...If I worried all of you by trying to protect children in my first Arena, by destroying my second...that was nothing. If you think the districts are done slipping away from you, you're wrong. This is only the beginning, and it ends with your city in ruins and your people dead. You should be worried now." She paused. "I'm done."

They had to hurry back to the hovercraft then. Nobody spoke much during the flight back.


According to Celeste, Lee's interview, aired a couple days before the trip to Three, had caused more than a few ripples throughout the districts, just as Kori's interview had.

The reaction to Kori's propo filmed in Three was closer to an explosion.

The many stalemates between Capitol and rebel forces than had begun upon the liberation of Four shattered within days. The last Peacekeepers were forced from Six, then Ten. Kiro Aoki found a way through the broadcasting blocks in One and Two, aiding in the ground rebels began to gain in both districts. With Kori finally giving her support to the idea, Cressida even convinced Twyla to participate in a propo, telling the story of how not one but two tributes escaped the Ninety-Fifth Arena.

"So you and Twyla are on speaking terms now?" Lee asked Kori when he got a chance.

"Still working on it."

After Six was liberated, Lee was flown there to give a speech and see his district. With Helvius at his side and multiple people drafting a rough script for him to follow, he managed to say something almost inspiring and not embarrass himself.

Most of the trip felt unreal. Besides some destroyed apartment complexes and factories, nothing had really changed since he'd left it months before.

Except the people. The energy coming off the crowd Lee spoke to in front of the Justice Building was like nothing he had ever felt in his district.

I think it's hope.

The only thing during that trip to Six that made him feel worse rather than better were the giant portraits of Linus and Axela someone had put up at the edge of the square.

Only because it reminds me how I found Linus dead in his room, how I saw Axela die, over and over again...

Physically, his recovery was going well. His increasingly busy schedule helped clear the mind fog somewhat. But the nightmares and occasional flashbacks got worse.

"It's not your Games, is it?" Helvius said softly as they stood in line for lunch one day. It had been another rough night for both of them. "Not the Eighty-Fourth. You don't have nightmares about that."

"No. It's...some of the last Arena. Axela."

Helvius was behind him, mostly out of sight, but the regret was clear in his voice. "I'm sorry, Lee, I shouldn't…"

"Don't be. It's fine." Lee looked down as they moved forward a couple spots. "It's the Capitol, too. The nightmares." He couldn't get anything out past that, and Helvius didn't ask him to.

A short while later , they sat at a corner table with Katniss, Haymitch, Finnick, Annie, and Orla. "Where's Ava?" Helvius asked. "She's usually around to smile mysteriously at every comment. And make a few cryptic ones of her own."

"She got her lunch shifted later, so she could take some calls with Ten's leaders." Haymitch wrinkled his nose at his plate. "I'm glad Etta got the deer for the stew and all, but these can't be real vegetables… "

Katniss rolled her eyes. "So you become a food critic when you're sober. Got it."

Kori and Twyla joined the table a minute later.

Seeing them together at lunch is a first.

At first, the girl from Eight seeming a bit shy around all the Victors. That didn't last long as Orla began asking her friendly questions and Finnick turned on his characteristic charm.

Everyone was almost finished eating and chatting about anything besides the war when Messalla showed up. "Mind if I borrow Finnick and Helvius? Celeste wants a word."

"Wonder what that's all about?" Orla said as the rest of the table watched the two Victors walked away with the ex-Capitolite.

"Probably a propo idea." Annie wiped her mouth with a napkin. " Last night, Finnick was hinting that Celeste already mentioned something. "

" Why him and Helvius specifically?" Twyla asked. "Sorry, just curious."

Kori gave her a reassuring smile as Katniss said, "Maybe it's because they're the only real Careers out of all of us. Annie didn't...um, win her Games like that, and the rest of us were Reaped tributes."

"Yeah," Orla said, looking somber. "I never really fit in with the Career pack, partly because of that. Though, Helvius didn't at all...Well, he did volunteer."

"By kicking the guy who was supposed to go in the privates, right?" Twyla stifled a giggle. "Sorry, not that funny, but…"

"Oh, it was funny," Haymitch interrupted. "The shit Gloss was saying about him in the Mentor Room leading up to the Bloodbath…"

Impossible to ignore. Even when he was doing something objectively idiotic . That's my Hal.


The next day, in the evenin g, the Victors in Thirteen were all summoned to President Boggs's meeting room. The place was already crowded when they got there, with the president, Colonel Harris, the president's second-in-command Colonel Jackson, Lieutenant Hawthorne, Celeste Snow, Cressida, Kiro, and, oddly, Twyla. "My dad got me an invite," Lee heard her tell Kori. "Not sure what's going on, though."

Everyone sat down when the president asked them to, except for Kiro, who was already seated with a laptop in front of him. It seemed to be taking his full attention.

"Thank you for coming, everybody," Boggs said. "As most of you have likely heard, Mr. Aoki has been hard at work crafting a way to break through the Capitol's broadcasting firewalls. As we have seen with One and Two, our propos do have a chance to help destabilize the loyalist defenses, but we need them playing for more than a few minutes, which is, of course, what happened after the major power outage weeks ago. We're here to hopefully see a longer broadcast. Mr. Aoki?"

"I've launched the...let's just say attack, to keep things simple." The Three's eyes did not move from the computer screen. "We're almost in." The main screen on the wall flickered to life. "Should be able to start the propos any minute now…"

When the first propo did start playing, Kiro confirmed that what they were seeing was also playing the Capitol, and the lingering whispers in the packed room died down, the first person onscreen was Celeste herself, standing in Thirteen's gray studio. "Good day, Panem. My name is Celeste Snow, former Gamemaker, granddaughter of one president, niece of another, and now head of the rebellion's media division. Why, you may ask, has a Snow joined the rebels? There are many reasons, not all of which I want to go into right now. But, for starters, what loyalty should I owe to my grandfather, a man who had my parents and other uncle murdered because they challenged him? What loyalty should I owe Uncle Cornelius, who has done nothing but belittle me since Grandfather died and he knew he could get away with it? What loyalty should I owe a regime that cares about no one but itself, that starves the poor and keeps the rich fed but stupid? Cheering for the death of literal children?

"Besides some of these, everyone has their own reasons to rebel. You will be hearing more now, but not from me."

The camera cut, and it was Helvius standing there. "Hello, Panem. You already know I'm a rebel. Want to know why? Surprise, it's not just because Snow tried to kill the man I love."

He went on to give an account of his life that was familiar only to a very few.

This is the full story only me and maybe Cashmere knows.

He spoke about Miriam, how he never really got to say goodbye to her, how he felt he'd betrayed her in his mission to get revenge on his parents. How he tried to make up for it, by anonymously aiding the tributes who weren't supposed to win.

"I sponsored Darien Lopez. In hindsight, maybe I should have realized what he was up to...not sure if that would have changed my mind. I also sponsored Pitch Turner from Seven; my money paid for that ax he was so talented with. And Danna Harrier, the girl from Ten who broke her leg early on. All her mentor could do was send her medicine for the pain while she waited for the Careers to hunt her down. Buck Shepherd... He got ripped apart by those hellhound mutts. Twyla Bobbins...Turned out I was helping her survive in more ways than I knew. Wren Callahan from Twelve...Interesting, isn't it, that it took two decades for one of Katniss's tributes to make it to the final eight?

"Then there was Avi Ruster from Six. He was fast, and smart. He was one of the tributes Lee could have saved. But there were so many popular Careers that year...Lana Sparks. A twelve-year-old from Five. Just a kid. Shimmer Boleyn cut her to pieces. And so many people cheered...Dyt Gilet was a clever kid; I'm glad his district partner won since he couldn't. Ruta Acres, Eleven...He was so close. Shame Eve Charades had the extra training that gave her an edge...not that a blame her. She was just doing as she was told.

"Sylva Forester...Alder Sawyer's district partner; he had to mercy-kill her because the Gamemakers didn't bother to make an antidote for the venom in the snake that bit her. Cy Smith from Three...He didn't get the merciful death he gave his one kill, now did he? Mika...It's ironic, that I helped save her in one Arena, then watched her die in another. And poor Quin Cornwall from Nine...She was tough. Of all the things to take her out, an allergy...Colin Coalgrove, he lasted far longer than any commentator expected…

"And, of course, there was the very first tribute I helped save, more or less on a whim. Didn't expect to fall in love with him in the end. But I'd say that the food I paid for wouldn't have saved him if he hadn't been strong to begin with. He was stronger than anyone ever expected. He still is."

As the Helvius onscreen rounded off his speech with a few choice words about Snow and his elites, both Capitol and district, Lee whispered, "Hal…"

"I meant every word. Now shush. It's Finnick or Twyla next. Or maybe Kori?"

It was Twyla's interview with Cressida that went next, although it was not very long and everyone in the room had seen it before when it aired a few days previously. Next, a shortened version of Kori's District Three propo played. Then it was Finnick's turn.

It became obvious very quickly that he was talking about the subject that few other Victors had as much experience with as he did.

Compared to him, Hal and I were so lucky…

He didn't blame Finnick and Annie for quietly leaving partway through. He doubted anyone did.

Even during his previous propos, Finnick's voice had never been so cold as it was when he said, "You may be wondering: if not with money or jewels, what did they all pay me with? One word: secrets."

Some of the secrets Finnick told Lee had at least heard whispers of. Others were completely new to him. Some were about people long dead, like Coriolanus Snow. Most were about those still breathing. When combined, many would likely be enough to start riots.

As that propo drew to a close, Lee kept coming back to a single thought.

Few will be sleeping in the Capitol tonight.