Author's Note: Another district gets its first victor in decades and one of my favourite original characters finally becomes a mentor.

….

The Eighty-Fifth Annual Hunger Games: Orion Faraday, District Three (17)

Orion sat in Halley's kitchen watching the day pass him by. Three's four other victors moved around each other with the ease of decades in each other's presence. He was going to have to figure out how he would fit in. His family had moved in with him too and none of the others had their relatives alongside them. The population of the Victors' Village had more than doubled, and everyone had to figure out how to adapt.

Except Orion did not know how. His parents fussed over him, and his younger brothers were wary of him given he had shouted at them the last time they made him jump and tried to play games around the house. Orion had just survived the worst games a child could play and even hearing the word set his heart beating too fast.

He had been assured it was normal. Although Pluto could not remember his Games and the beginning of his new life in the Village and Halley, his mentor, had returned home taking the fact that she had blown up half the field in her stride. But Beetee had spoken to him about his enduring guilt and Wiress knew that she was the most openly affected of the district's victors. Her physical trauma had endured and taken her confidence with it.

But Orion knew that he was reacting differently to them in other ways. They were all motivated and left their arenas with a drive for something more. Whereas some days he could barely get out of bed, and it was too much of an effort to leave the Village more often than not.

His mother doted on him, and Halley could not hide her concern. She was there when he got out of bed, at his side when he did not and sat over him during meals to ensure he ate something. Her presence was constant, and Orion did not know what to make of it. His mother had told him to leave her be, she had halved her workload and wanted the best for them all as they settled into the Village.

Halley tried to engage him in the projects she was working on for the school children but the thought of going near a school horrified Orion. So, Halley tried to recruit him to help with her regular science experiment demonstrations for Capitol television which continued to be popular, despite Halley's determination to bring as much mess and damage to expensive Capitol homes as she could.

But Orion was not interested. Like Wiress, he was forced to leave school early but unlike the older victor, academic prowess was not something he had entertained. He was not an engineer like Beetee or Wiress and lacked her intuition for good ideas. Nor was he a biologist like Pluto or a chemist like Halley. He had come home through brute force and Orion knew that whilst Pluto had done the same, he genuinely had no idea what he had done in his arena, so he struggled to sympathise.

Yet it was time with Pluto that was the most calming for Orion. He had no expectations and passed no judgement. He was old, quiet and thoughtful and his presence was easy for Orion to be around. He did not push for conversation, instead, he invited Orion outside to his garden and brought him chamomile tea and biscuits, telling him that the fresh air might help.

Orion realised that it was probably helpful as he felt most at ease after his afternoons with Pluto. Sometimes one of the other victors joined them and they were at their slowest in Pluto's presence, anxious not to exhaust him.

Halley often read aloud from one of Pluto's books and it was obvious that Pluto adored her and hung onto her every word, whether it be the fiction from his books or her general conversation about her seemingly endless, busy days. Orion asked Pluto how she found the time and energy for all she did, and the older victor confirmed that he had no idea how she maintained her strength for all her activities. However, he knew that Halley was not short of time as she could barely sleep, haunted by imagined visions of her friends dying in war or an arena once more.

When the three of them were outside one afternoon and Halley was reading, she added another project to her list. She had noticed Orion's quizzical looks at the pages she was reading and had quietly confirmed her suspicions with Pluto who had realised the same. It had been years since Orion had read anything and nothing he could remember spanned beyond basic instructions for factory machinery. His family had been poor, so he had dropped out of school, started work at ten and never needed to read again.

Now he was surrounded by books and four of the most well-educated people he had met. It marked yet another difference between them, but Orion knew it would be a gap he would need to reduce. They had made no secret of how busy they were or that their lives revolved around trying to improve the lives of people in Three and he knew he would be expected to participate too. He could not be the weak link in their group, especially as it was clear that Pluto would not be around for much longer.

"There's no shame, Orion. No judgement on our part. You won't be the first victor and you won't be the last," Pluto said.

"Trust him on that," Halley said. "He's seen it all."

"There was a reason I set up my little book club, beyond the ideas of equality and justice that still evade us. To make a change, to understand what we wanted and how it could be achieved, we had to know what we were doing and to do that, you need to read."

"I've never read anything beyond school stuff."

"Just like most of the others. You'll meet Seeder soon. District Eleven. A dedicated attendee of my book club. She was involved of course, entirely committed, but she wanted to make sure she had the tools she would need for the position she finds herself in now. She taught Chaff too, who in turn made sure Marshall was up to scratch."

"You'll both help me?"

"Of course. If that's what you want."

"It will give me something to do. I can't let myself be one of the only victors who reads like a child."

"We would want to avoid that," Pluto said. "We have an image to uphold."

"I'm going to have to start acting all weird, aren't I?"

"You think we're weird?" Halley laughed.

"Well, I know you aren't like that in person, not all the time. But you act differently in the Capitol. They'll want me to do the same."

"We can find something you're genuinely interested in and go from there. But yes, we play it up in the Capitol and they believe it."

"They're stupid, aren't they?"

"Yes," Pluto sighed. "Talk to Beetee about that one. He wants them to get smarter so he actually has a challenge, but they never will."

"But I'll need to deal with them and look out for myself. They're stupid in some ways but smart in others."

Orion knew that Halley would be alongside him regardless, she had made that abundantly clear from the moment he woke up. But he needed to look out for himself in front of the main players in the Capitol. His peers had made no secret of the fact that they were hardly loyal to the Capitol, and it had not been difficult to work out that everything they did for the good of District Three could be used against their rulers.

They were rebels and they had simply allowed him and his family into their lives. Orion was confused at the immediate level of trust they had afforded him. He could have given them all up by now. But he realised he did not know the identity of the other rebels in the district or who was loyal. Perhaps they had thought there was a limit to the damage he could cause. There probably was too. They could easily play off his lack of academic knowledge against their prowess and claim his allegations were borne from ignorance. But Orion felt instinctively that none of them would do that. He had started to think that they genuinely trusted him, and he could not establish why.

He tried to discuss it with Pluto another afternoon after they had been reading together. Orion had started to make steady progress and whilst Pluto was deteriorating, it provided something for him to occupy himself with during the days.

"Oh, we've known all along, Orion, how we would be with you and yours. When it looked like this could be it, that our Halley would finally get her victor, she asked Wiress to do some digging."

"Digging?"

"We know all about you and your family," Pluto laughed.

"In what way?"

"You come from good stock, Orion. Not a loyalist in sight. Now, your parents have kept their heads down, very wise given there are four children. Your wider family, not so much."

"Nobody's ever said I've come from a good family before."

"Take it from us, you have. We wholeheartedly approve. Beetee thinks he might have worked with an aunt of yours before and Wire is now trying to get an uncle into a better position in his factory. She told me not to tell you, but you needed to know why we trust you."

"I could still report you."

"We know you could. But you haven't and you won't. We know that. You'd have nothing to gain. You're smart enough to figure out they'd kill you too, guilty by association, and then what?"

"Three's fightback dies."

"You have the measure of us, Orion. And I guess that means you wouldn't want that?"

"No. I like you all, besides, you help Three."

"In the ways we can, yes. You must understand that we are not perfect though. People have been hurt for following us."

"I've hurt people too. We've all killed but I don't know how ready I am for people to die on my orders."

"That's a long way off, Orion. Halley will protect you to the ends of Panem. Anything you do will be under her supervision. You know she barely sleeps so don't doubt she'll be all over anything you get up to. If you do want to step up, you'll help us at the start. The final decisions won't be on you."

"I'm going to have to get used to Halley's presence, aren't I?"

"Of course. She only wants the best for you, and she wants to help. I'd let her. She knows what she is doing."

"I can tell, and I like her-"

"She just has a lot of energy," Pluto laughed. "Wants to see and do everything. And she has brought so much life and light to this Village, and to me personally. She's the daughter I never had, and I like to think I'm the father figure she lost."

"I have my family. She doesn't have hers. At least she's never told me about them."

"We're her family. Halley's relatives abandoned her when she came home and it's been the four of us ever since, until you came along."

….

After his afternoons with Pluto, Orion started to look at District Three differently. He saw the victors everywhere and thought more about almost everyone he saw on the rare times he did venture out into the town centre with Halley or Wiress. He wanted to know everyone's opinions on their home, the Capitol and whether they were involved in plotting a revolution or standing by, unable to act.

He tried to talk to his aunts and uncles to establish their involvement but unsurprisingly they did not want to tell him too much. Like his fellow victors, they trusted him with their basic stance but did not divulge the details.

Orion knew he was at the very start of his journey. Both as a rebel and in learning the ways of a victor. But the others did not patronise him. He had been improving his reading with Halley and Pluto and they had deliberately challenged him from the start. They were not going to embarrass him with children's stories and instead chose a mixture of more mature stories and scientific news items aimed at younger adults in the Capitol. They wanted him to find something he was genuinely interested in and could spend his time involved in. It did not have to lead to rebel efforts automatically, that could come later. They both just wanted to help him find his feet and something to occupy his mind.

Months after his return home, he still rarely left the Village, but he was building up an increasing number of activities that helped him get out of bed most mornings. There were still bad days where he could not bring himself to leave his room, but they were getting fewer with the more he found to do.

He was worried about fitting in with the others in the Capitol but luckily Halley knew almost everything there was to know about most of the victors and had told him not to be concerned. Cecelia was bound to push Calista and him into friendship and it would be a natural connection. Ryan from District Nine was the last male victor and was probably looking for some other company beyond the younger men from One and Four.

He did not know what he would speak to them about, but Halley told him it would come naturally. Orion did not know what to say to the Capitols either. He was often lost for words on his Tour and Halley had to do a lot of the talking for him, but she told him she did not mind. Pluto had confirmed that she genuinely was nonplussed. Beetee and Halley spoke up for Wiress a lot, so they did not mind a victor less comfortable in front of the camera. Wiress was one of Three's most useful assets and they were all insistent that he could be too.

When it became too cold to sit and read outside, Halley cajoled him into joining her in the garden of the empty house next door. She told him how Lyme had taught Poppy to use a knife properly after displaying a natural talent in her Games and in turn, Poppy had taught her. Now Halley wanted Orion to show her how to wield the club and mace he used in the arena.

She did not want their relationship to feel one-sided and even though she would not be the best pupil at using brute force, it would be another project for them to work on together to fill Orion's days. Halley also confirmed that once the weather improved, they would be tending to the garden of his new house too. She had cleared it with Orion's mother, told her to plant all the flowers she wanted and to create an area for the family to sit together but to leave space for them to begin growing fruits and vegetables in line with their other gardens.

Gardening was a common hobby for many of the victors and Orion instinctively knew it made sense for him. After years of poverty and an insecure food supply, to have control over something they could eat felt somewhat freeing. Halley confirmed it was a shared feeling across many of the Victors' Villages and after all, what was harvested could be canned or frozen for later use.

There was an excitement in Halley's eyes when she spoke about the potential later uses for all kinds of seemingly mundane activities they did in the Village. Pluto confirmed it would be something Halley would introduce later. As he did with so many other things Halley told him, Orion just decided to go along with it. She was an incredibly capable woman who knew what she was doing, and Orion trusted her. Pluto and Wiress spoke of his mentor as if she had hung the moon and even though Beetee was somewhat more objective in his view of Halley, Orion could tell that she, and everything she did had his firm approval and support.

She was entirely remarkable, each of the other victors in Orion's company was and Orion could tell that he may be somewhat of an outsider in their company. They knew it too and held nothing against him, but he could tell it would take some time before they all knew exactly where he fit in. So far, he kept Pluto company and they had all told him how good his presence was for the older man and how his arrival in the Village had given Pluto some more confidence that they would manage without their efforts being depleted.

Orion spent his time getting up to speed with reading and inadvertently furthering his education, which he supposed was Pluto and Halley's plan all along. He tried to teach Halley how to wield a mace but they both knew she was truly not suited to it and Beetee had suggested that they both learn how to use swords as a middle ground between both of their skill sets. It would be something they could figure out together and after they had both indicated their agreement, Beetee somehow produced swords they could both use, something else Orion supposed he would find out about later.

He was also slowly starting to feel more ready to be seen in public and venture beyond the Village more regularly. He had managed to go for a meal in the nicest part of Three's centre with his family and the other victors and used his money to pay for the entire order. He felt strangely proud, as if it were an achievement and he could tell that Halley was proud of him too. Along with Wiress, he was also going shopping twice a week to ensure he regained regular contact with the real hub of life in District Three. The more he ventured outside, the less he felt that people were staring at him or perturbed by his presence. People seemed to accept him as a passer-by in their lives and the novelty of his new victor status was beginning to wear off.

Orion was thankful for this as he tried to rebuild some normality in his life. Everything had changed and he was a different person to the young man he was before, but he was gradually finding a new routine and way of living. It had taken almost a year, and he knew that his new routine would be upset by the upcoming Games and the time spent in the Capitol. But Halley had assured him that they would come back home and work on whatever had arisen together. He was stuck with her, and she was not going to let him flounder.

As they involved him in more of their projects, Orion knew his life would alter again. He was already living with people who were ten steps ahead of him and Orion wanted to try to bridge that gap. He was making progress but sometimes Orion felt as if so much of what they were doing would escape him, but as with everything so far, it would take time. The others had assured him they had time too, much to their irritation. They were ready for the days they wanted to come but Orion was content to remain in the present for now. There was so much he needed to adapt to that he wanted to build a routine, to find out all he could about the life he had now and begin to live it rather than longing for something else. He would take life at a slower pace now whilst he was afforded the chance and adapt again when the time dictated it.

Coming home had transformed his life and Orion was still processing the previous year and all he had been through. His future was just that and he was not about to rush into preparing for the years that lay ahead of him whilst he still had the present to figure out. He would learn. He had his family and the other victors at his side and Orion knew he would continue with the progress he had made before allowing his life to transform once more.