Chapter 16: Ashes
"Lee, wake up! You're thrashing around!"
Jolting awake and upright, it took a few seconds for him to remember where he was. Mine worker housing in District One. We got here last night. He turned to Kori, who had been the person waking him. "Where's Hal?"
"Skulking around outside." Twyla poked her head into the room. "Said something about not sleeping much. Hawthorne says we should head out soon."
"Okay." Kori narrowed her eyes at Lee. "You okay?"
Blazing lights. Blood on the Training Center floor. Splintering agony. Axela writhing and bleeding on the ground. Burning. "Yeah. I'll be ready in a few minutes."
Most of One's mines and part-time worker housing was located in the mountainous portion of the district, south of the main factory sector and southwest of the main urban center. The regions' high elevation meant that Lee exited the building in a full military uniform with extra coat on and still shivered at the onslaught of icy, autumn dawn wind. Besides the sound of the breeze, it was quiet. Most of the people staying in this area must still be asleep...
In the rectangle of crumbling pavement surrounded by gray, square buildings just like the one he'd just left, he found Gale Hawthorne, Messalla, Etna, Kori, Twyla, and Helvius waiting, along with a few other soldiers from Thirteen. A pair of rebel Ones, likely guides, stood nearby.
With One and Two the only districts remaining partly under Capitol control, Thirteen's leaders and Celeste had decided on a two-pronged propo campaign to aid the rebel military operations. Katniss, Finnick, Orla, Cressida, and Castor had been part of the team shipped to Two. Ira Millward had been flown in from Nine to join them there. He'd been lucky enough to get out of the 100 th Games more or less uninjured, and had been sent back to his home district from Thirteen almost immediately. Apparently he's been helping to stamp out the few loyalist factions there ever since.
Of course, Helvius had been sent to One to be the focus of propos there, and Lee had been allowed to come along. Kori had wanted to join them, and as had been the case for the past week or so, where she went, Twyla followed.
And I'm almost certain Lieutenant Hawthorne is supervising our team only because he and Katniss are still not on good terms.
Said lieutenant spoke up as soon as Lee arrived. "That's everyone. Let's get moving."
It's going to be a long walk down the mountain. There was still some uncertainty as to whether all antiaircraft defenses in One had been dismantled, so the rebels were being cautious with their hovercrafts in the northern half of One. Most of the main roads outside of the town had also been severely damaged in multiple places. So it's walking for us. Glad I've been feeling much better. Physically.
As they left the housing block, he fell into step beside Helvius, who was dressed like Kori was in a sleek black uniform that Paloma had designed for him. No feathers, but the patterns make it look like armor. "How are you?"
"Tired." As Lee looked up at him, Helvius clearly tried to smile and failed. "I don't know what I'm doing here, Lee."
"It's your district."
"So? The people who are rebels already are mostly the miners, the factory workers...They respect me well enough because they've seen me fighting on their side, and because I call the Games what they are. Everyone else, the reluctant ones, the richer ones…I'm just their worst Victor. And...never mind."
They arrived at a portion of shattered pavement and ruined barricades then, and Lee waited until everyone had navigated it and were heading onward before saying, "You're worried about Cashmere, aren't you ?" Last we heard, she and Gloss were still in the Capitol...
The barrage of propos that Kiro had pushed through the Capitol's airwaves defense several days earlier had, according to various sources and rumors, caused widespread chaos in the city. Information kept trickling in, slowed by the harsh lockdown Snow had imposed to control his people and the resulting restriction of communication channels. Current news of the Beaumont twins had not reached the rebels yet, at least not that Lee knew of.
Helvius took his time answering. "For the first time ever, I actually hope Gloss is alive. To protect her. Snow really does like him. But she's not...She hasn't been in any of the Capitol propos, has never been as loyal…"
"She's smart, though." Up ahead, Lee saw Kori grab a pair of large stones and start lifting them like weights as she strutted down the road, prompting a laugh from Twyla. "She can take care of herself."
"Yeah." He sounded distant.
They didn't speak again, and conversation remained limited among the entire group until they reached the outskirts of the factory sector.
Halted in the middle of the road, Kori tilted her head and said, "Well, that's some interesting art ."
On a high, intact wall of a half-collapsed factory, a large, familiar mockingjay symbol was emblazoned in red. However, in what looked like fresher paint, two other images had been added just below it: an infinity symbol on the left and two crossed arrows on the right.
As the entire propo team paused to observe the wall, Helvius said, still sounding absent , "So the infinity sign is about Kori, right? What's with the crossed arrows?"
It was one of the guides, a thin woman with ashy blonde hair, who replied. "That would be for you, Glitz. You and Everdeen, I suppose. One and Twelve, fighting together."
Helvius went a bit red in the face and mumbled something under his breath as Messalla began talking about starting their "tour of One's war damage" propo in front of the graffitied wall.
They spent the day touring the half-wrecked rows of factories and warehouses, and even went so far as a high point that allowed a distant view of the town. They came across a few groups of citizens and soldiers throughout the day, as well as more painted mockingjays. And painted arrows.
I think some people have slightly more than grudging respect for Hal here.
They returned to the miner housing that night, and the spent the next day filming bits and pieces for propos between helping distribute a shipment of medical and military supplies from Thirteen. The distant sounds of gunfire from the direction of the town could be heard throughout the day, but the Victors had orders to stay out of it for the time being.
Lieutenant Hawthorne did pull Helvius aside to talk late in the afternoon. They didn't reappear as the other members of the propo team ate bowls of thin stew while sitting on the edge of a tall embankment above a rocky mountain stream. Lee started to get worried as he headed back to their assigned room , and the worry increased exponentially when he saw the lieutenant outside of the building, talking to one of One's rebel leaders. Helvius isn't with him.
As it turned out, Helvius was in their room. Lee's initial relief evaporated when he saw how the other man was sitting slumped on the bed, staring at nothing. "Hal? What's going on?"
A few seconds passed. Then Helvius looked up at him. His eyes were red-rimmed. " Cashmere's dead. Gloss, too. Celeste found out from one of her sources earlier today." He shook his head. "They got caught up in the unrest. Guess somebody went after Gloss for whatever reason and Cashmere tried to defend him."
Lee crossed the small room in a stride, sat down and took Helvius's hands in his own. "I'm so sorry."
H elvius drew a shaking breath. "I wanted her make it out of this, I really did…I could've vouched for her after the war , saved her… If she cared for me to do that... "
" I think she would've. Rebel or no, she loved you."
A sob escaped the blond man then. "The people who love me die, Lee...Don't you dare, after everything, I can't lose you, too, I can't…"
"Oh, Hal…" Lee held out his arms, and Helvius leaned into them. How can I reassure him, really? "You basically said it yourself: I'm hard to kill."
Helvius just pressed closer. Lee let him cry himself out without another word.
Neither of them slept much that night.
A couple days later, the outskirts of One's urban center fell to rebel forces. The last antiaircraft defenses were dismantled, and the remaining loyalists holed themselves up in a few defensible neighborhoods and large structures, including the district's grand Justice Building. The remaining Peacekeepers had either died or seemingly been evacuated.
In the interest of preserving as much infrastructure and as many lives as possible, no bombing of the town was allowed.
The propo team entered the city outskirts as soon as it was deemed safe, passing groups of civilian refugees and military prisoners being escorted out of the remaining skirmish zones. Everyone, even Lee with a handgun Twyla had been teaching him to use, kept weapons at the ready despite it being unlikely that they would have to use them.
Around noon, t hey ended up in what was left of one of the wealthiest neighborhoods.
I think Helvius used to live around here.
Other rebels were sweeping through the area, locating and escorting the remaining elites out of the houses that still stood. They look more resigned than anything else, Lee noted as a family was led past them on the other side of the road. If they're actual loyalists, their high status is probably gone forever even if they are allowed to go free.
Messalla and Etna were busy filming the ruins of someone's mansion while the others stood by, when Lee realized Helvius wasn't next to him. He barely had time to wonder where he'd wandered off to when they all heard the scream.
Hawthorne and Lee lead the charge around a nearby street corner. What they saw stopped them in their tracks.
An older man and woman, dirty and disheveled yet dressed in clothing that had clearly once been very fine, were backed against a wall. Helvius had an arrow trained on them.
"Are they armed, Glitz?" Hawthorne asked after a tense moment. "'Cause if they're not, you're not allowed shoot them."
Lee recognized the pair as the lieutenant s poke, and his stomach dropped. Oh, fuck, no.
Of all the civilians in One, they had just run across the only two One's most disappointing Victor might want to kill.
Yet, a second later, Helvius lowered his bow. "They're not worth the arrows ," he said flatly.
He'd returned the arrow to its quiver when the man against the wall seemed to regain some kind of courage. "Is that all you have to say?" Shine Glitz snarled. "After all we gave you?"
Helvius spun around, fortunately not reaching for an arrow again. "All you gave me?" he demanded, tone ragged . "You may have given me life, but I never got anything else from you! The closest thing I ever had to an actual parent was Miriam, and after her the closest thing I had to family was Cashmere...and she's dead, too! She's fucking dead! " His voice cracked.
As his parents shrunk back, Helvius steadied himself and said, "You're not worth my time, because I was never worth yours. We will never speak again." He turned to Hawthorne. "Can someone get them out of here?"
As someone radioed for another unit to pick the Glitz couple up, Lee followed Helvius back to the ruined house. The others kept their distance as the One found a barely-standing portion wall to kick until it began to fall apart.
"Their house is on the next street over," he told Lee once he was finished. "I just wanted to check...they were trying to sneak away...those goddamn cockroaches…"
Lee pulled him into a hug and held on until he felt most of the tension leave Helvius's body. "You'll never have to see them again if you don't want to. It's over, Hal."
"...Why couldn't they have died instead of Cashmere?"
"I don't know." In my experience, we don't get answers to questions like that.
Not long after, Lee found a moment to ask Etna, "Did you film him? When he was yelling at his parents?"
"Yeah, at first...Messalla signaled for me to turn the camera off." Etna shrugged. "We're not going to air any of what we did get. Doesn't feel right."
"Good. Thank you."
Hal doesn't need Panem to see that.
An hour later, Helvius did ask if he could go talk to the loyalists in the Justice Building. "Give me a m egaphone or something so I can talk from a distance and not get shot," he said when that issue was brought up. "That's what you brought me here for, isn't it ? To 'inspire my district' or whatever ? Then let me do it. I just want this over."
They did find a filming location on the opposite side of the town square from the Justice Building that provided good cover from potential snipers. With help from some knowledgeable One rebels, Messalla and Etna managed to appropriate some already installed, abandoned Capitol equipment to set up some kind of loudspeaker system and put a microphone on Helvius. "Everyone for a few blocks should be able to hear you when we start broadcasting," Etna said. "Looks like we should be able to broadcast it at a limited range also."
"Good." Helvius positioned himself in front of the cameras and looked to Messalla for a signal.
You've got this, Hal.
The One got about two sentences into what seemed to be a very decent speech before someone started shouting on the steps of the Justice Building.
It took about five seconds of peering around a corner for Hawthorne to start cursing. "There's a man out front...He's got a damn hostage…"
Radio chatter confirmed the hostage as Fleur Dashing, one of the district's most prominent rebels; she had gone off on a not-unusual solo reconnaissance mission hours earlier and had not been known to be captured until now.
So we're stuck... Behind cover like everyone else, Lee winced as the man on the steps went from announcing his having a prisoner to insulting Helvius and "all his dirty rebel Victor friends" at the top of his lungs.
They're not that great at insults sometimes...That's not the real issue here, though...
Hawthorne crouched down next to Lee and Helvius a minute later. "This guy's supposed to be the leader of the loyalists in the Justice Building...His name's Helios Sterling, and he was…"
"In the Academy," Helvius interrupted, hand clamped over the mic on his collar. "I remember him. He was in my year. Didn't make it into Lee's Games because he was a little too volatile." He paused as the Sterling started bellowing a challenge.
"Why don't you come on out, Glitz? Or are you not so brave when you're not hiding behind a camera? Or Everdeen's skirts?"
Lee understood what the sudden hardening of Helvius's expression meant too late.
"Get back here, Glitz!" Hawthorne shouted as the One went sprinting out into the square.
If Kori hadn't grabbed him from behind just before he broke cover, Lee would have been out after him. "You're not going to do him any good if you get shot, too!" the Three snapped as he struggled.
Any words Lee wanted to say got stuck in his throat.I can't just hide back here and watch him die…
"Well, look who it is!" Sterling laughed, keeping one arm around Dashing and waving a handgun around in the other. "Come out to play?"
Helvius had stopped in the middle of the square, holding an arrow to the bowstring without raising the bow. "No," he said, the mic now picking up his voice and sending it echoing through the nearby streets. "This isn't the Academy, Helios. It's not the Games, either."
What the fuck is he doing?
"You see," Helvius continued, "I'm really damn sick of this district. Where the poor suffer like they do in the outlier districts and the rich pretend to be Capitolites. Like the Capitol would ever consider them as such. Tell me: are there any Peacekeepers left in that building with you?" When Helios didn't answer , Helvius said, "Thought so. They've abandoned you, retreated back to the Capitol to defend the real prize . Snow, his people... They don't care about you, any of you. They barely care about us Victors, to be honest."
Seeming to forget he even had a hostage, Helios roared, "Not an undeserving Victor, that's for sure!"
"Yeah, I'm a shitty Victor. Honestly, not the best rebel soldier, either. But I do have at least one thing in common with Katniss Everdeen. I'm a fucking good archer."
Helios moved to put his gun to Dashing's head too late. Helvius's arrow was faster.
The former Academy graduate fell to the ground with an arrow in his skull, and his prisoner darted away to cover as the doors of the Justice Building exploded.
He shot an explosive arrow at them…
Another hit one of the windows higher up as Helvius dodged to the side, avoiding scattered bullets from the loyalists. Then, ducking in and out of hiding as he worked his way back towards the propo team, he sent arrow after arrow at the building, turning the entire front of the structure into rubble. Rebel gunfire joined his onslaught, and hastily-organized phalanxes of soldiers started moving in.
Lee almost wanted to punch Helvius when he got close enough. He settled for saying, "You do know that the 'don't you dare die' applies to you, too, right?"
"I'm sorry, Lee. I really am." There were tear tracks through the dust on Helvius's face. "I just don't want to be here anymore."
I can't stay angry with him. Not now. "I know."
As it turned out, they did get to leave the next morning.
One's last armed loyalists surrendered less than six hours after, as a pleased Celeste Snow later described it, "Helvius Glitz brought the Justice Building down."
