Hey there guys, here is the next update for Hunger Games: Spark of Revolution. I hope you guys like it, we are making some heavy progress in the games, and that chapter will take place over multiple days. I did say some would so here we go.
Anyway, for those interested in a discord server filled with readers and writers of fanfiction, including myself, come check out the discord server hosted by AizenTheGoat a link to which can be found right here → /dV9hH5zd5F
Lets get started.
Chapter Eight
Partners
The pair of outer district boys easily hiked through the arena's landscape. They were some of the most athletic and fit of the tributes that year and so they easily held a conversation as they walked.
They talked about just about everything they could think of to avoid thinking about their situation. Just as he had thought the day before, Naruto couldn't help but feel like Thresh and he might have been friends in a different life. Maybe if the districts weren't so rigidly separated or if they weren't here to kill one another. Sadly, they would never get the opportunity.
That didn't mean they couldn't make the most of their situation.
"So you really don't have all that many forests, huh." Naruto commented.
"Well, at least nothing like what's here in the arena. My Granny used to tell me stories about how it used to be. Before all the fences went up there used to be a lot of woods but most got cut down for more and more fields and orchards." Thresh explained.
"Pretty much all the woods in twelve are off limits but there's a lot of them to look at still. I have to say I'm jealous though." Naruto admitted.
"Jealous? That we cut down all our forests?" Thresh asked.
"No, that you replaced them with fields and orchards. All we have is the mines." Naruto said with a distasteful look on his face.
"Yeah I guess your main thing is coal and stuff." Thresh nodded in realization.
"Yeah." Naruto simply said with a wistful expression on his face.
Thresh glanced over at his ally and felt it was better not to continue down that conversational path. Even the other dirt poor districts like eleven had heard about the rough conditions of twelve.
"Is all that stuff about you and the girl from your district?" Thresh asked.
"You mean about us being star crossed lovers or whatever crap Effie and Caesar were spouting about?" Naruto huffed getting a laugh from the older boy.
"Nah, I know the answer on that part just from your reaction." Thresh said as he continued to chuckle.
Naruto frowned up at the boy causing Thresh to simply crack up into laughter again. The district twelve tribute rolled his eyes as he knew it was pointless to try and argue the point. Everyone seemed so sure he and Katniss were some sort of secret lovers.
"Man, whatever." Naruto groaned.
"No, but really. That stuff about you helping each other when you were starving. That was real or just to get more support?" Thresh asked.
Naruto was quiet for a little bit before slowly nodding. "Yeah, that was true."
Thresh nodded his head and let out a long sigh. He looked far more tired and suddenly Naruto felt very similar to his fellow combatant. The exhaustion and stress were no longer at the forefront of his mind but just under the surface it was still there. All encompassing.
"You mentioned a granny. You got a family back in eleven?" Naruto asked, trying to change the subject to happier memories.
"Yeah I do. What about you?" Thresh asked before he recalled.
"Oh, shit sorry. You said they died." Thresh apologized.
"Yeah, I don't have anyone back home. The closest thing I have to a friend is Katniss and well…she's here." Naruto admitted.
Thresh was silent for a moment frowning as he watched Naruto out of the corner of his eye. He doubted it would be appreciated but he did pity the younger boy. Time for a change of subject matter.
"So since you get so pissy about it when people say you and Katniss are a thing…are you, you know?" Thresh asked.
"You know? What do you mean by that?" Naruto asked.
"Oh, you know." Thresh said with a smirk.
"No, I don't know or I wouldn't ask." Naruto growled.
"You know~" Thresh teased.
"Man, I'm about to say to hell with this alliance crap." Naruto grumbled, getting Thresh to laugh loudly.
"God you really are a loner. I'm trying to ask if you're gay." Thresh said.
"Wha-No! What the hell! Where did you get that idea?" Naruto demanded.
Thresh just cackled louder as he tried to keep talking. Really Naruto's reactions made things a lot more fun. It was a nice break from the reality of their situation.
"Well, you are so against it when people suggest you two be together, I thought maybe there was a different reason." Thresh managed to get out between chuckles.
Naruto grit his teeth and grumbled about hunting some food before stalking off into the trees. Thresh chuckled again at the boy's reaction to being teased.
"I'll build a fire." He called after Naruto as the tribute from district twelve disappeared into the brush.
Katniss gasped as she came around. She took in her surroundings and knew immediately she wasn't where she had passed out at. It took a little bit to really catch her bearings but once she did she realized just how well hidden she was in the small hiding place.
Running through her foggy memory as best as she could, the last moments of her hallucinations came back to her. The way the forest had shook and rumbled around her as she had fled away from the place where she had killed Glimmer.
She remembered that eventually it had become too much and she had to stop running, or attempting to run as she doubted the hobbling motion she had utilized while drugged up on tracker-jacker venom could really be called running. That was when someone had neelarly been killed by her as they ran into the clearing after her.
His face had seemed to emerge from the fog of reality and he had been trying to get her to safety. She remembered that, his worried expression as well but it wasn't enough. She knew she must have passed out.
"He helped me again." She mumbled as she realized he must have hidden her and led off the careers.
Slowly she worked herself free of her hiding place and carefully inspected the clearing. It was empty except for a few small birds and the occasional squirrel. She emerged from the hole and had to stretch her body and try to shake out the sore muscles from the awkward position she had been in.
"Better than being dead." She quietly remarked while kneading the muscles of her thighs as they were especially sore thanks to their position while she was out of it.
Finishing her stretches, Katniss paused at a whistle that didn't quite fit in the usual sounds of the forest. She turned and couldn't help her surprise at seeing the younger girl, far up in the canopy waving back down at her.
"Rue?" She asked as she felt herself naturally begin waving in response.
"You know my name?" The girl asked with some surprise in her voice.
"Yeah, I guess." Katniss replied as she watched the younger tribute from District Eleven descend from her perch in the tree with agility and ease that Katniss herself could only imagine.
"That was impressive." Katniss pointed out.
Rue blinked for a moment before she realized what the older girl meant. She blushed faintly at the praise and smiled up at the girl from twelve.
"Smaller kids like me are usually a big help in the orchards back home. So they teach us to climb pretty young before we get too big to get the smallest limbs near the top." Rue explained.
Katniss nodded, it made sense. At least from a practical standpoint. She supposed she should be happy that they didn't have kids going down in the mines in district twelve to get into the smaller tunnels.
"What are you doing here?" Katniss asked as she settled onto a large rock nearby. Rue sat nearby but on the grass.
"I was waiting for you to wake up. I saw the other district twelve tribute put you in there and then lead the career pack away." Rue explained.
"Did he get away?" Katniss asked with a bit of worry.
"I guess. I lost track of them and came back here to wait for you to wake up. There's only been two cannons. One for that career girl and then the district ten guy." Rue explained.
Katniss sighed in mild relief at that. She knew he would have to die for her to go home, but the idea of him dying to save her was a very displeasing one.
"Why were you waiting for me to wake up anyway? You could have killed me while I was out and taken all my things." Katniss asked.
Rue shuffled about for a minute.
"Its stupid but I really don't want to hurt anyone while in the games." She admitted.
Katniss frowned and her eyes softened considerably as she looked over at the girl.
"I don't think that's stupid Rue. The truth is I don't want to hurt anyone either. We have to do what we have to do to survive though. That's why you waited for me right? So we could make an alliance?" She asked the younger girl. She reminded her a lot of Prim.
"Yeah." Rue nodded.
"That's good. We already make a good team." Katniss said.
"The tracker-jacker nest." Rue said with a melancholy expression.
"Hey, you saved me with that plan you know." Katniss said.
"I just wanted to make them run away so that you could escape. I saw her body…it was so bad." Rue but her lip to keep tears from welling at the memory.
"No tears. You didn't even drop the nest on them, I did. You just pointed it out to me. You need to listen to me though, alright?" Katniss said getting the girl's attention.
The District Eleven girl nodded and paid attention though she was still upset by the situation.
"You cannot get out of here without hurting someone. You have to be ready to hurt others to protect yourself, okay?" Katniss tried.
"It's been done before!" Rue argued.
The girl was right. There had been a small number of victors who had never directly taken a life. The thing was they had replied primarily on luck to survive. Luck wasn't something Katniss had any faith in.
"Rue…that was then. This is now. Different competitors. Different arena. You can't just hope to win, you have to be ready to fight for it." Katniss tried to impress upon the girl.
She could tell Rue was still conflicted at the concept. That was fine. She was a twelve year old child. It wasn't right that she was here facing off against people who were practically adults.
It was probably best to shift gears and take their minds off of the game. They didn't need to be hung up on what they had to do here in the arena to survive. They just needed to survive. From what Katniss understood there would be more than enough time to think about what it's and everything if one of them managed to win and survive in the end.
"You know, I bet you are pretty hungry. Let's see if we can't find a good place to camp and make something to eat." Katniss suggested.
"Alright, I know a place that's hard to get to without using the trees to get there. All the others will have trouble reaching it." Rue said.
"Sounds perfect." Katniss agreed.
The pair headed off, first along the ground then carefully picking their path along the branches of the thick forest.
"This is where I left her." Naruto said as he knelt down in front of the hollow he had hidden Katniss in.
"She must have slept off the stings from those bugs you mentioned and took off into the forest. Unless you are a tracker we aren't about to catch up to her." Thresh said as he scanned the tree line.
"Dammit." Naruto sagged with disappointment.
"It's starting to get dark again too." Thresh helpfully pointed out.
Naruto glanced up to the sky and frowned. The other tribute was right. They had maybe another two hours of sunlight.
"There's no way that we can find her before sunset." Naruto admitted.
"Yeah. Imagine how I feel about Rue. I mean she uses the trees to move around. I atleast know I'm in the right section of the arena, but besides that how the hell am I supposed to find her?" Thresh complained.
Naruto stood up and shrugged. He didn't have any idea how to really help his friend. Katniss was going to be a lot easier to find than Rue would be as far as Naruto could tell. At the moment both were out of reach though so it was best they conserve their energy.
"Let's make camp for the night. We need to eat and rest, we've been on the move for hours." Naruto said.
"Yeah, good point." The older boy nodded. "You make the fire this time, I'll rustle something up to eat."
"Alright, but be quick, we don't want the fire burning for long. Careers will be looking for the signs." Naruto said getting nothing but a nod in response.
It didn't take long before the two had a decent meal. Decent for the arena anyway. They both laid back and stared up at the sky once the fire had been put out and buried. They moved a short distance away from where they had made the fire just to be safe and bedded down for the night. Neither was quite ready to sleep yet even after they had agreed on the night-watch rotation.
"So you seem pretty concerned about Rue." Naruto idly commented as they relaxed.
"Hmm, yeah I guess I am." Thresh replied.
"You know her from before the games?" Naruto asked.
Thresh shook his head. "First time I spoke to her was when we were pulled into the capitol building back home in eleven. She was terrified. Shivering, I mean she's just a kid."
"I think she's about the same age as Katniss' little sister." Naruto said.
"The one she volunteered for?" Thresh asked.
"Yeah." Naruto replied.
"Would have been weird if she didn't. You and me both partnered with little girls for tributes." The older boy pointed out.
"Yeah, Don't envy you man." Naruto said.
"I wouldn't either. Then again, going up against the girl I have the hots for would suck too." Thresh said laughing as Naruto chuckled a rock at him.
"I'm so tired of that nonsense. Not like it matters if I actually like her or not though." He said solemnly.
Thresh didn't say anything both just rested in silence as they thought over the games.
"I'm going to die here." Thresh suddenly said.
Naruto blinked before looking over at him.
"What?" Naruto asked.
"I said, I'm going to die here. I already know I will. I'm gunna make sure that if District Eleven wins this thing, it's Rue that goes home." Thresh explained.
Naruto stared at the other boy for a while before laying back down and trying to get a grasp on his own thoughts.
It wasn't a pleasant thing. Thinking about letting yourself die so another could live. He…cared for Katniss. That much was true but he didn't really think that he loved her. Still if he thought about it, did he have anyone he loved? Katniss did. She had family, family that replied on her to provide for them.
"What about your family?" Naruto asked Thresh.
The boy was silent for a time before shrugging. "I want to think they would understand. They might be upset but we outer districts pretty much expect to go into the games prepared to die anyway."
"I see." Naruto said quietly.
The two fell back into silence again for a time. The somber atmosphere hung over them as both thought of not only their own possible deaths but the deaths of those they had come to know. Even one another.
"Your arm is still bothering you? I noticed you have been grabbing at it a lot." Thresh commented.
"It's not too bad." Naruto shrugged.
"You are surprisingly bad at lying." Thresh chuckled. "Besides, those bandages are filthy. Just gunna make it worse for you in the long run you know."
"I have more supplies at my hideout…" Naruto admitted.
Thresh nodded. "We need to split up tomorrow morning anyway. You should head to your cave and patch yourself back up again before setting out for Katniss."
"Hold up, we just made this alliance and you want to split it up already?" Naruto asked.
"Not the alliance. Just us. We need to find the girls. This way if one of us finds at least one of them we can bring them back with us to a meeting point or something." Thresh explained.
"Huh…okay that's a good idea." Naruto agrees. "So for a meeting point, the hollow tree I hid Katniss in earlier?"
"That works. We'll meet up there in a couple days after splitting up." Thresh said.
"Alright…promise that if we find each other's partner we don't hurt them or harm them in anyway." Naruto said seriously.
"Promise? We could just break that easily." Thresh replied.
"Maybe but I'll believe in you. You saved my life so I'll trust in you for now." He answered back.
Thresh just stared at the other boy for a while before nodding slowly. They shook again, just as they had before.
The Capitol
"That concludes another day of the games, it seemed to be a bit more of a peaceful one this time around." Claudius announced.
"Perhaps, but just because we didn't see any of our tributes pass on today does not mean that nothing happened today." Caesar pointed out.
"Right, you are Caesar." Claudius agreed.
"For instance we had our young District Eleven tribute Rue make a very bold move in approaching Katniss." Caesar stated.
"True, but it paid off." Claudius commented.
"That it did. It seems that both our male and female tributes from district Eleven and Twelve are like minded individuals." Caesar said.
"Speaking of our new blossoming alliance on the field, did you catch the conversation between Naruto and Thresh tonight Caesar?" Claudius asked.
"Oh, I wouldn't miss it for the world, Claudius. Hearing Thresh's vow was moving. No doubt people are loving the heroic duo of Naruto and Thresh." Caesar said.
"These boys are something else." Claudius added.
"The girls from their districts are just as impressive. Really this is the most enthralled in a Hunger Games I have been since I was a boy." Caesar commented.
The pair continued commenting and speaking for a few hours more before they themselves retired for a very short chance to recharge before returning to view the start of the next day.
The next morning, Thresh and Naruto bid their farewells to one another and headed off. Naruto planned on taking the advice that Thresh had given him the night before and headed in the direction of his hideout in the hopes no one had discovered his stash inside.
The older tribute had been right. Naruto's arm was beginning to severely bother him. It was difficult to make a fist or tightly grip anything as it was and he could tell it was swelling noticeably by now. Thresh had also been right about the bandages. They were starting to even smell a bit and he couldn't say he was pleased with the intense itchy feeling emanating from beneath the gauze.
He forced himself not to pick at the bandages yet, fearing he might make things worse before he had access to new wraps. It was surprising how hard it was to stop himself.
To try and keep his mind off of it he did his best to think on anything else. His mind wandered from thought to thought. Eventually he found himself thinking of Katniss again.
Not about her specifically. That train of thought, he ended quickly. It was more about what he and Thresh had discussed the night before.
Was he willing to let himself die to ensure Katniss went home alive? He agaonized about that thought but his mind always came back to one fact.
There was no one waiting for him back in District Twelve.
The sound of a struggle nearby made him realize he was drifting in thought too much. A dangerous thing to do in the arena. He fucked into some thick brush and crept forward to see what exactly was happening.
It wasn't hard to figure out. A male and a female, he couldn't recall their districts honestly, were fighting. It was brutal but neither was very good at it. Naruto could tell both were completely zoned in on one another. Not that it mattered much, the fight would probably take all day at the rate they were going.
He sat and watched them for a time, both struggling to survive. That was when he saw exactly what it was they were fighting over. It seemed like this was the girl's campsite and the pack was surprisingly laden down with supplies.
Neither were concerned with it right now though. They might be fighting over the back pack but both had forgotten it in their attempt to kill one another.
The choice was surprisingly easy at this point. Without alerting them Naruto retrieved the pack and slipped away once again, heading off toward his hideout.
Once he was a ways away he heard the cannon marking one of the two had fallen, not that he had any real way of knowing which had come out on top.
"Katniss…" Rue said, catching the older girl's attention.
"Hmm? What's up?" Katniss asked.
"I've been thinking about what we talked about yesterday." Rue began. Katniss stayed silent to let her get what she had to say off of her chest.
"You were right. I know I can't get home without having to hurt people. I know a way to hurt the careers too, without actually hurting them even." Rue explained.
Katniss was surprised by that but she was all ears for whatever the younger girl had planned. If it harmed the careers it helped them, and if it was something Rue had in mind, Katniss had a feeling it was something that wasn't too directly dangerous to the two of them.
"What did you have in mind?" She asked.
"They have all the supplies from the Cornucopia piled up together in a clearing by the river. The District Three boy has been helping them with something around it too. I don't really know what their doing but it has something to do with the bombs from the starting area." Rue explained.
Katniss knew that Rue was incredibly good at hiding and observing others, but this really took the cake.
"That's great Rue, really. So our plan is to destroy the supplies then, huh." Katniss hummed in thought.
"Level the playing field." Rue said with a small smile.
"Haha, yeah level the playing field." Katniss said as she began strategizing exactly how they were going to manage this.
Eventually the girls settled on a relatively simple, but hopefully effective strategy. They would circle halfway around the career camp and set up a pair of campfires. One on the far side away from Katniss and Rue's own camp, and another halfway between their camp and the first fake. It would not only make the careers leave their camp but force them to split up as well.
"Are you sure you're up for it, Rue?" Katniss asked. She couldn't lie. She was a bit worried. She knew the younger girl was fast and capable of moving through the treetops unlike everyone else, but a whole list of things could go wrong and Rue didn't stand much of a chance against the career pack alone.
"I can do this." She said with a determined expression on her face. Katniss smiled at the girl. She reminded her so much of Prim it made her heart ache.
"Okay, but you have to be careful. We're splitting them up, but that means we'll be split up too." Katniss reminded her.
"I know, you have to be careful too. They might not all take the bait." Rue pointed out.
Katniss nodded. Like she was thinking before. The plan could go bad in any number of ways and they could both wind up dead. It was a good plan though and they were committed to it. It was about time someone leveled the playing field with the career tributes.
"Alright, I'll see you soon." Katniss said as the pair of them split up and went toward their different position for the plan.
It didn't take her long to get into position. She was just beyond the edge of the trees to remain out of sight of the careers, while watching them as they mulled about in the clearing. The camp and supplies were separated by a small stretch of open ground, however Katniss could tell that the area was mined, just like Rue had reported.
The District Three boy, had earned his place among the career pack with that ploy, but he still wasn't treated as an equal. She watched as they mocked and bullied the younger kid relentlessly. Cato didn't join in with Marvel and Clove, but he clearly had no problem pushing the kid around either as he simply manhandled him out of his way rather than speak to him.
Katniss grinned as she saw first one plume of smoke begin to waft above the far treeline, somewhere out in the first. The careers didn't immediately notice it, but as the second joined the first Marvel pointed them out with a shout.
The group hastily divided themselves into three groups. The boy from District three was left behind to monitor the camp while Cato and Clove remained together and headed for the first campfire. Marvel headed for the second alone.
Katniss began to ready herself as she saw her chance but stopped as suddenly the girl she had run into on the first day, Foxface, the tribute from district five, sprinted into the clearing, carefully dodging between the mines that filled the clearing and snatching a bag of food from the pile. As she sprinted away the boy from district three saw her and gave chase to the best of his abilities, but she had an obvious head start and much longer legs.
Seeing her chance, Katniss took aim and plucked an arrow at a bag of apples. The bag tore slightly but not enough, so she loosed a second arrow and once again, it wasn't quite enough. The girl bit her lip but slowly slipped into the clearing and closed the distance to the pile of supplies. She didn't have too many arrows left and she had to make this final shot count.
With a calming breath and a silent prayer she let the third arrow fly, managing to hit her target spot on and causing the apples to bounce down the pile of supplies and into the minefield. There was a brief pause once the apples settled that made Katniss worry that perhaps it wasn't enough, but one rolled directly into the side of the nearest mine causing its detonation.
The explosion was far larger than anticipated. It not only obliterated the supplies as she had hoped, it turned the entire clearing into a crate and flung her bodily back into the forest nearby. A high pitched ringing drowned out all sound and she found that she couldn't keep the little bit of food she'd eaten earlier in the day down.
Pushing her way to her knees, she threw up, as quietly as she could. Or as quietly as she hoped. She could already tell she was deaf in one of her ears and the other was muffled terribly as the ringing sound continued on. Her balance was shot as well and she had to take a moment to carefully regain control of her body and mind to try and stop the world spinning around her.
Slowly, so painfully slowly, she managed to regain her motor functions and crawl to the edge of the tree line to inspect her work. The careers, and their pawn, had all returned following the explosion. They were clearly furious which brought a smile to Katniss's face until she watched Cato turn to the boy beside him. She couldn't clearly make out the older boy's words, but from his body language and movement of his lips it looked like he called the younger boy useless before brutally gripping his head and gruffly snapping it around to an impossible angle.
Katniss took that as her sign to head to the rendezvous. As she moved through the trees headed back to camp she gradually regained complete control of herself. One of her ears was still muffled, but the ringing in her 'good' ear had finally stopped and she was happy to hear the sound of the forest around her.
At first.
When the sound of birds and insects in the trees changed to the panicked screams of Rue as she yelled for help, Katniss panicked. She raced as quickly as she could toward the sound of Rue's voice, a task made all the more difficult with her impaired hearing. Finally though she found her. Caught in a trap, like some kind of animal.
Katniss didn't waste any time in cutting away the ropes and net, only stopping when the girl screamed and pointed behind her.
When Katniss turned she flinched as a spear flew past her. Her eyes took in the boy ahead of her. He wasn't one of the careers, just one of the other contenders. His eyes were wide with fear as he realized he had missed his throw and was now defenseless. It wouldn't have mattered if he still had the spear though.
Katniss drew an arrow and released it in a single motion catching the boy right in the throat, dropping him immediately. She could only blink in shock at what she had just done. It had been entirely by instinct, completely controlled by adrenaline. Still she had just killed someone easily.
Her mind warred between cheers of victory and heartbreaking sobs for taking another person's life. At least until she was pulled back into the moment by the choked cry of her ally. Slowly Katniss turned and immediately paled at the sight of Rue bleeding from the spear that had impaled her in the chest.
"No, no, no." Katniss said as she rushed to the girl's side. It was already too late though. While it might not have been meant for her, the spear throw had been perfectly placed to strike Rue through the heart and lung.
She simply stared up at Katniss with frightened teary eyes before they began to go dark and glassy. Katniss held her there, staring into her eyes for what felt like second but could have as easily been hours. It felt wrong to see that look in the eyes of a girl the same age as Prim. It was wrong.
She wasn't sure when she started crying, but tears were soon running freely down her cheeks and Katniss sobbed. Body shaking, chest aching wails that would have normally had the careers come running if they weren't so busy with their destroyed camp. Katniss didn't care if they had come. She grieved for the girl she barely knew but had come to care for. Maybe it was just because of the similarities to Prim, or the fact she was so young, but the death of Rue broke her heart more than anything else in the games likely would. It wasn't fair.
From their places across the nation, the citizens of Panem watched on as Katniss slowly recollected herself and then tended to Rue's body. She cleaned her as best she could and draped her in flowers and anything else that she could to make her look somewhat at peace.
Already entranced by the rebellious and kind tributes from districts eleven and twelve, the people were heartbroken to see the youngest among them be killed. That heartbreak quickly turned to white hot rage though as the situation proved too much for the people of the districts.
Within hours District Eleven was under lockdown, but fires burned in the street and crowds of rioters fought peacekeepers with everything they had in blood mosh pits in front of the district's capital building itself.
The rioting quickly spread as well. While smaller in scale, District twelve fell to similar actions and before long districts nine and ten joined them. Their tributes were dead and gone already but that only fueled their rage against the Capitol even more.
In the Capitol itself the game makers and other leadership figures tried their best to run damage control but the riots only seemed to grow worse and President Snow's disfavor had begun to mount against Seneca.
The Capitol
In their broadcast center both Claudius and Caesar struggled to keep things focused on the games and not even imply what was going on in the various districts. As it was, the riots were contained, to an extent, and none of the districts knew anything about it except for the very early reports of riots from Eleven. The hope was that by moving along like everything was normal and cutting the rioters off from being heard it would all die away quickly.
"What an exciting day!" Caesar tried to oversell his excitement.
"Right, er…Right you are Caesar!" Claudius joined in.
"I have to say I can't quite recall an explosion of such a scale ever being seen in the games before. It was magnificent. Not to mention the drama…how uh…exciting!" Caesar tried.
"Right you are Caesar!" Cluadius repeated, causing Caesar to very briefly glare at his co-host, before forcing his slightly too wide of a smile back into place.
"We sadly have seen some fan favorites pass on today, and seen a total of four deaths throughout the Arena." Caesar continued recapping. "You know what I'm really interested in seeing Claudius, is the consequences of Rue's death on the District Eleven and Twelve Alliance."
"Uhm, we'll have to see?" Cluadius asked as his attention was still on one of the monitors showing the riots in district eleven.
"Yes, we will. Remember to tune in tomorrow morning, all stations, all day, all for you!" Caesar said before making a knife to the neck motion to the camera crew so that they cut the feed.
"You are to blame for this…disquiet." Snow flatly said. He had no menace in his tone…which only seemed to make it worse for Seneca as he swallowed his saliva.
"I don't know what you want me to do. Tributes die in the games. How am I supposed to run the games to keep people compliant if they are rioting because of the basic premise of the whole thing?" Seneca asked.
"If they were rioting just because of one little girl dying they would have been rioting continuously for the last seventy-four years. You are letting the outer district tributes to turn the games into a show about how much they have personally suffered under the Capitol. You are letting them continue to openly defy the Capitol with their words and deeds. The people will follow by example because of it." Snow tried to explain.
"So, I'll kill them. I'll have the-" Seneca began only to be silenced with a raised hand.
"You will do no such thing. Killing them now would just worsen the situation. If it is obvious your game-makers killed them it looks as though we were afraid of them which in turn makes us look weak." Snow corrected.
"Then what am I supposed to do?" Seneca asked.
"Think outside the box. I put you into your position because of your ability to do that. Stop disappointing me." Snow said as he began to walk away.
"If you do not begin to perform and produce results, you will be pruned from my regime, Crane." He said as he left the room.
Seneca simply stared after him while a thousand panicked ideas and half baked solutions buzzed in his head. None worked out though. He needed to think of something fast.
That is a wrap. I hope you liked it. Yeah, I know that the whole explosion thing and Rue's death are straight from canon, but they are a part of what leads to the riots in the districts and a very important early step for the eventual 2nd rebellion.
Till Next Time