Trigger Warning: Mentions of homophobia, including internalised homophobia.
8. The Archer - In Another Time
Régine Maurin, District 3, 2nd Place Tribute of the 75th Hunger Games
It just had to be Fawkes, didn't it?
Régine Maurin just kept ending up in the final two with the worst possible tributes. The first time around, she'd felt this deep painful pit in her stomach the entire games. Deep down, she'd always known that Ramona Hirose, the girl from District 3, who had chocolate-brown eyes and hair that always smelled like mint, would be the death of her. And sure enough, she'd been the one who'd poisoned Régine and then stabbed her to death.
This time was different, though. Régine didn't feel the same kind of suspense with any of her opponents, not even with Ageis. Perhaps this was because she was finally able to admit to herself that she was in love with another girl. If Régine and Ageis were the final two and only one of them could live, Régine knew she'd lay her life down to save Ageis, because she wouldn't be able to go crawling to District 3 with her first girlfriend's blood on her hands. It wasn't that Régine wanted to die - it would obviously be preferable if they could both live - but the certainty was comforting.
If the worst happened, if Ageis died and Régine was in the final two with someone else, Régine wasn't completely sure what she'd do. She'd probably have to kill them, but she wasn't sure she'd feel okay about it afterwards.
And she was sure that Fawkes would make her feel the worst.
In another time, when Régine approached Fawkes for the first time, she would've been doing it to offer to protect him in the arena. But this time it was just so she could ask him what it was like to be out of the closet in District 3. Even if the rebellion succeeded, Régine wanted to live in District 3. She was never going back to One after everything she'd been through.
And maybe, Régine wanted some advice on how to ask Ageis out, and she had nobody else to ask besides Ramona, who Régine knew was absolutely clueless when it came to girls. After all, it had taken her until Régine had straight up confessed it on her deathbed to realise that Régine had a crush on her.
The conversation with Fawkes had gone well. He'd been a little jumpy at first, which made Régine feel terrible. Was she really that scary? If so, she only had herself to blame. But then Fawkes had realised pretty quickly that Régine had just wanted to have a friendly conversation and he'd seemed to calm down. He was polite and understanding. He'd been happy to give Régine advice on how to ask Ageis out. In fact, that conversation was probably the nicest interaction Régine had ever had with a male. It was nice to know that she was a lesbian because she truly didn't feel any attraction to men and not just because every Career man she'd ever met was a total dick.
In another time, they could've been best friends. But this time it wasn't meant to be. Régine had asked Ramona if Fawkes could be recruited to the rebellion so Régine wouldn't have to kill him. Ramona had replied that Fawkes couldn't know about the plan. His parents had been murdered by rebels because he'd killed his district partner three years ago. He was probably on the Capitol's side. It'd be best to keep him alive as long as possible, since he was one of the only two tributes with the technological knowledge to escape the arena, but if Sankie Earthash was still alive and Fawkes became a threat to the rebels' plans, he'd have to die.
In another time, Fawkes and Sankie would've worked together to tie the wire around the lightning tree, while Régine would've been the one to fire the arrow into the force field. But this time, Fawkes would be the only tribute who'd live to see midnight on the third night.
Hearing about the murder of Fawkes' parents was a sobering moment for Régine. She'd killed the boy from District 3 in her games. She'd tortured him to death. She'd wanted to earn District 1's love with all the blood she spilled. She'd wanted them to love her enough to let her have a girlfriend. Not to mention that the boy was Ramona's district partner and torturing him to death would hopefully push Ramona away. Régine had been ninety-nine percent sure that Ramona would never love a monster like her, but even that one percent had been too much.
Now Régine was sure that District 3 would never accept her because of what she'd done. She'd try her best. She'd treat her new opponents with respect, kill quickly and cleanly. She'd fight her hardest to overthrow the system that churned out monsters like her. Ramona, who'd introduced Régine to the rebellion, seemed to think that that was enough for Régine to redeem herself. But she had no idea if it would be enough. Surely what she'd done had been worse than what Fawkes had done. He'd slit his district partner's throat as she slept. It'd been quick and painless.
Régine was scared that she'd never be accepted into her paradise because of all the things she'd done to be accepted in the hell she was born in.
Now Ageis was dead and the rebellion had failed. A cannon had fired the night before. It'd either been Fawkes or the girl from Nine, but the sinking feeling in Régine's stomach had told her exactly who it was. Sure enough, Nine's face appeared in the sky. It was just her and Fawkes.
She'd have to kill him. Fawkes would never die of his own accord. He wouldn't starve because he had an army of loyal sponsors. Most of Régine's old sponsors had deserted her when she stopped acting like a maniac, which honestly felt kinda creepy. Was that all they'd wanted from her? The gamemakers wouldn't target Fawkes because he was the last non-rebel left in the arena. If Régine wanted to win this Quell in Ageis' memory and keep the rebellion alive, she would have to kill Fawkes Chau.
In another time, they could've been best friends. But this time, Régine's only hope was killing Fawkes. Maybe she would have a chance at being accepted in District 3 if she killed the boy who'd betrayed them, prevented Fawkes Chau the district traitor from handing District 10 another victory on a silver platter.
Régine sometimes forgot she was a district traitor herself. Perhaps it was because she'd never felt much loyalty to District 1, or to Dorian. Perhaps it was because he'd already been dying of poison when she'd sliced him to pieces. Perhaps it was because she'd also been dying of poison when she'd sliced him to pieces, and had therefore been in a state of heightened panic. She hoped District 1 didn't hate her the way District 3 hated Fawkes. Régine had decided she'd be fine with her parents dying but she didn't want anything bad happening to her sisters.
It was the early hours of the morning when Régine spotted a flash of blue on the edge of the jungle. Was it Fawkes? She'd been hoping he'd come out of the jungle at some point. Régine didn't want to venture beyond the treeline. Her field of vision would be obstructed by all those trees so it would be easier for Fawkes to ambush her without getting shot.
Régine raised an arrow to her bow and fired it at the blue thing in the jungle. It seemed to drop to the ground suddenly. In the early morning silence, Régine heard a faint cry of pain. She'd hit him!
Régine lowered her bow and ran as fast as she could across the sand. She'd hit Fawkes. She'd hurt him. Now she just needed to run over and finish him off. This could all be over so quickly. So painlessly.
But when Régine reached the place where the object she'd shot was, all she found was a blue tribute jumpsuit on the ground. It was attached to a rope. It dawned on Régine that Fawkes had taken off his jumpsuit to hang it from a tree and use it as a decoy. This was a trap! Perhaps Fawkes remembered Régine's first games, where Ramona had lured her into an ice cave, thrown shards of ice in her face to distract her and stabbed her in the stomach with her own knife. Sure, it made Régine seem like an easy target.
Unless you remembered that she'd been poisoned and beginning to come down with snow-blindness when Ramona had lured her to her death. Her vision had been damaged and her reflexes had been impaired. This time she'd put up much more of a fight.
But then Régine heard the first scream.
Ageis' voice started echoing through Régine's head. At first it didn't make sense. Ageis had died over a day ago. Had the Capitol brought her back again just to torture her?
"Ageis!" Régine cried.
Then she looked up and she saw the birds. Jabberjays.
Without even thinking, Régine had an arrow in her bow. An arrow buried itself in the first jabberjay. Then the second. She couldn't let them do this to her. She couldn't let these mutts desecrate Ageis' memory.
In another time, Régine would've had time to accept Ageis' death, meet another girl and fall in love with her, because she knew that was what Ageis would've wanted. But this time she'd never get the chance.
Suddenly, there was the cold and painful feeling of someone's knife between Régine's ribs. Régine was distracted from the jabberjays. It was Fawkes. It took a moment for her to process his terrified brown eyes, his white-knuckled grip on the knife, and the single jabberjay strapped to his bare chest in a makeshift sling. He seemed frozen with panic. He'd clearly never fought a trained Career before.
In another time, she would've carried an injured Fawkes through the jungle to keep him safe. But this time Régine drew her knife and stabbed it towards Fawkes' throat. He might've extended Régine's stay in the Remake Centre by a few days, but she could easily kill him before that stab wound killed her.
But then the jabberjay on Fawkes' chest broke free of its sling and launched itself straight at Régine's face. Shocked by the sudden movement and the ear-splitting screech directed straight into her face, Regine stumbled backwards and fell. The air was knocked out of her lungs. She stabbed around wildly - one of her stabs connecting with something. Then there was a sudden violent pain in her wrist as Fawkes kicked the knife out of her hand and a knife stabbing into her torso.
Régine braced herself for Fawkes to hurt her again. She reached for her knife but it seemed to be lost in the undergrowth and her wrist was in agony. Her lungs were beginning to slowly fill with fluid.
Régine didn't want to die. She'd only just started to accept herself, to accept that she really did deserve a happy life in District 3. She'd grown as a person so much since her last games. She'd found some sort of closure with Ramona, because now that Ramona was six years older than Régine and she'd already been married once, Régine realised it'd be pretty weird to still want a relationship with her. She'd had her first real girlfriend. She wasn't destroying herself and everyone around her to meet Career standards anymore, she was just trying to be a good person. All that couldn't just end when it had just begun.
But Régine Maurin was coming second yet again.
"You killed Ramona the Third," Fawkes said. He seemed to be calmly sitting beside her as she died. He caught her looking and offered her a small, sad smile that told Régine everything she needed to know. That this wasn't personal. It was just the final two. Régine understood. This wasn't her first rodeo.
Who did I kill? Régine wondered. Then she remembered the jabberjay that Fawkes had been keeping in a sling. Had he been keeping it as a pet? Had Régine stabbed it in the chaos?
"You named your bird Ramona the Third?" Régine asked, breath rattling in her lungs.
"Yeah," Fawkes replied. Of course he'd randomly befriended a mutt put into the arena to psychologically torture tributes. That was such a Fawkes thing to do. He was almost as good at making new friends as he was at psychological torture.
Régine laughed, weakly. I keep getting killed by Ramonas. Her amusement didn't last.
"I promised Ageis I'd win. I held her as she bled out."
Régine's vision was slowly fading, but she could see from the grave look on Fawkes' face that he understood how important that promise was to her. It gave her a last little bit of comfort, knowing that her killer, the boy who'd win the Quell over her dead body, recognised that her love for Ageis was something to be treasured.
"I promised I'd win, too," Fawkes said, softly.
"Who did you promise that to?" Régine asked, with the last of her breath. She'd feel a bit better if she knew that Fawkes had someone who loved him waiting for him to return to them. "Who's waiting for you, Fawkes?"
She didn't hear his reply. Ageis was waiting for her.
In another time, Régine Maurin and Fawkes Chau would've ended the 75th Hunger Games as friends. This time, even though she was the last rebel tribute in the Quell and he was the Capitol's golden boy, they did the same.
When I saw this prompt, I knew it had to be about the relationship between Régine and Fawkes. They are actually best friends in another AU, which makes it all the the more tragic that Fawkes is forced to kill Régine here. They make great foils to each other, since they both tortured people in their first games but Régine decides to play the games differently the second time around whereas Fawkes is just tormenting people with birds. I also realised as I was writing this chapter that they're both district traitors in this AU, and Régine's killing of Dorian was completely driven by emotion while Fawkes' killing of Binah was driven by logic. Also, and this is the most important one… their mentors are both named Ramona.
Our next act will be The Snake Charmer.