Skye.
What can you say about Skye Martinez. Bright as the sun, the Capitol said, that had crested over her arena. After all, you'd need to be bright to win the Games as she did.
Winning was never something that Skye had envisioned, after all. She'd grown up a poor girl from Vipeche, not pretty enough to work the casinos even before the Ones came in and not well built enough to work in the big plants or manufacturies that handled the various productions of power components Five so desperately she was a relatively low level worker, sorting out material on the factory floors and generally handling all the nitty gritty stuff that was best suited for those otherwise useless girls and boys, the ones who'd never amount to anything.
Then came the Games. And Skye wasn't in her element, hated any moment of it but for the first time here was an audience who wouldn't whine or complain. An audience who wouldn't skip over her in favour of little brother, cuter sister. An audience who wanted only the best for her, at least those that were rooting for her.
So, from the start of her Games, Skye was putting on the show of a lifetime for the cameras. She started from the reaping, being called up. Unlike 18 of the last 30 Five tributes, she didn't start crying. She didn't throw up, or panic, or complain. She didn't even insult the cameras for choosing her, because that kind of slander wouldn't win her favour. Her set jaw was noted, but what was more noteworthy was the fact that she walked up with a tense smile, a polite wave. Announced her name with a proud voice, and the commentary from Lucky Flickerman encouraged people to call Ampere if they wanted to know more about Skye.
A lot of people did, as it turned out, want to know about her. Distinctly a good thing under the circumstances of her being a scrawny girl from an outlying village in Five. There was still some parts, though, she had to go through first. No sense in doing the fun, after all, without the boring. And there was a whole day of boring, riding the rails and hoping they'd reach the Capitol on time.
The train ride was comfortable, above the passenger standard like it had been for the 11th to 14th, but not yet up to scratch for the elite of Panem as it was the next year. Comfortable seating, a good set of entertainment, food. Turner, her District partner, was distinctly out of his element. Eighteen and yet fully resigned to the fact he was fucked, Turner spent his time oscillating between tears, regret and a fair bit of disappointment. In this, their escort was more than sufficient to provide sympathy. Their mentor, when all was said and done, was happy to let Turner fraternize.
Skye, on the other hand, spent most of her time talking with Perry. Learning from his advice, what he'd learnt from four years of watching Five kids choke and die on their own blood, weakness. It was good advice, the kind of advice anybody needed if they wanted a chance to win. The advice that had dragged her through the Games and out the other side.
Turner, once he got into the Training, was a lot better off. He spent most of his time working with a sword, learning how to use it. He wasn't as good as the pretty little thing from One, or the big Two, but he was well enough trained to do some damage. The blonde girl from Seven was all too good with an axe, and made sure everyone knew it when she was caught in the lobby for interviews. The girl from Two had bulging arms, and (as she'd promised) could fire a longbow eighty metres. With precision. So many skilled people, and Skye spent most of her time practicing rock climbing and having fun with a knife. Some water purification, fat lot of good that did. Still, it was enough to earn her a Five, and afterwards their escort had told them a Five for Five had won them a good deal of excitement. Skye really, really didn't get that, but sponsorships helped her through enough she was willing to smile and nod and accept how it had gone even if she didn't get it.
Skye's interview wasn't a dud, but it certainly wasn't a success by any means. She was smiley and nice, and her explanation of how her knives worked was almost textbook if she'd wanted to convince people, but when compared to the One girl's flirting, the smiling excitement of the boy from Four, Seven and her remarkable charisma? It was overshadowed.
At the Arena itself, things were no different. The cornucopia bloodbath was going all too well, as usual, for the Ones, Twos, Fours. It was almost no surprise when Artemis went down with a wail and a spear through her chest, and Lavish grabbed two backpacks and ran towards Skye, Turner, and the Seven girl with a smile and a laugh. One's scream of anger was audible from half a mile away, probably. Both because she'd gotten along well, perhaps too well, with Artemis and because she'd just lost her District Partner, a kill when the Seven girl hadn't charged the cornucopia and a support base in the alliance she was in.
The alliance was relatively well prepared. The Squad, for once, wasn't on the offensive, not when Skye and her lot were wandering around fatter and happier than any outliers had a right to be. Hell, in an age before the preconception of bias led to heavy early growth for some groups, the breakways even got a fair number of sponsor gifts, everything from a can of squirty cream (most of which ended up in Seven's hair) to a brace of knives Skye pocketed with a smile and accepting nods from the group.
The alliance broke early. Skye and Lavish one way, Seven another, Turner a third. The two-way Skye and Lavish grouping lasting another three days before Skye heard the excited yells of One and the Fours, who'd noted tracks in the sand. The sandstorm had disoriented them, kept them on their toes, but by now it was clear things were bound to get messy either way. Skye, arms laced with a thousand slight bloody cuts of sand grains against her skin, was certain she wouldn't be the mess. So she lured Lavish in, convinced him they should eat and prepare to fight off the Squad bearing down upon them.
Then, it was only a matter of driving a gleaming knife into his gut and not reacting in the 'wrong' way when he yelled out in pain, and Skye slips down the sand dunes. She hears the cannon go off ten minutes later, and at least it didn't take too long. The One girl can be heard yelling something about 'that Five bitch', but none of them want to go hunting in the dark. Not after what had happened to the Two boy, sinking into the sand after something had wrapped around his ankle and wrenched him down.
She spent the next days clambering up and sliding down dunes, almost sinking at a couple of points but staying with her head above the sands. Begrudging sponsor gifts floated down, she had abandoned Turner after all, but they were both alive. Not for long.
She sunk her dagger into Turner. They'd met up again, eventually. Skye had promised they could get along, the alliance fracturing was Lavish not her. But, when they'd summited the sand dune, she'd stabbed Turner in the gut and left him to die. After all, only one could remain. And Skye would be damned, now, if it wasn't going to be her.
No more parachutes, slipped from drones, would be landing. The trek to the cornucopia, to the flat rocky expanse sitting dozens of metres above the rest of the arena, was made on less water in four days than Skye had had in one back home, and home was less harsh than this hell.
It was a good thing she played the finale so well, didn't charge in and try to take Four or Seven directly. Her, Seven and the Four boy. The Four boy took down Seven, and gods Skye had never even asked her name, but after he thought he'd kicked her off the edge it was a matter for him of raising his arms and waiting for the hovercraft to arrive.
Her blade slit his throat before he could turn, and it was Skye who waited for the hovercraft to arrive. Laden with medicines, because even if her main issue was dehydration she had cuts and lacerations from three weeks in lone and level sands. Ampere only visited her once, with a glower on his face and outright hate in his eyes because District Partner shouldn't kill District Partner. Not the Five way.
"You're a disappointment. Brought shame to our District. You could have won, but not like that. Not with Turner's blood on your hands." Ampere's angry, he has every right to be, but Skye's in tears and he's the one she'd expected to have her corner. His ignorance was only the start. Lucky never treated any interviewee well, but Skye's was worse than most. Her mentor wasn't even there when the Victors collected her for a celebratory night. It was a good thing all the others were so ready to have fun. Skye spent most of the night being twirled around onto the dance floor, and even Ampere demanding 'what time does this look like?' couldn't dampen her mood.
The next years were as dull as they could be. After the 17th, Five was kept far away from the 'reward' of a Victor, and that trend only continued. Before the 17th, Five would have been a shoo-in for entering the ranks of training children. Perhaps for Peacekeepers as auxiliary to Two, possibly for some other task. Who knew? But instead, Five got passed over in place of Four, and their children kicked to the wayside in favour of shimmering One, mighty Two, underdog Seven.
Skye was similarly passed over. Oh, the Capitolites wanted everything to do with their newest Victor until she wasn't as pretty any more. Until she didn't look like the girl that had knifed three kids so that she could come home. But back home in Five? Forget it. She'd killed her own District partner. His family was Avoxed, tongueless slaves to the Capitol. Even the younger sister. Skye was best known for being a Capitol-sympathizing bitch (never mind she'd tried to find clemency for the family) and for her weekly supply runs to buy enough water for a four-person month every week
Ampere, also, wanted nothing to do with her. A distaste he passed down to Indra, Elise, August. The new Victors were nice enough. Indra always helped with maintaining her house, with moving furniture and painting. Elise always came round for tea and a chat on Saturday, regardless of the (almost always gorgeously sunny) weather when it was less than clement. August always helped her with finding the best alcohol, and although he denied it he did know how to get her home when they'd gone out drinking together. But they were always distant, Indra especially morose around Games season and especially around Skye.
It was the younger Victors, really, who would be the ones Skye got to know best. Without Ampere's influence, Soleil and Skye were as thick as peas in a pod, even if Sol consistently ignored all calls by Skye for her to stop drinking. Not that there was anything wrong with drinking, Sol had been fifteen when she'd sunk the sword she'd picked up into a boy who just wanted to go home. It had been her sixteenth birthday when Sol had watched the Squad kill the only friend she'd had in the arena. Elise was more than happy to let Sol pour alcohol enough to kill a cow down her throat, and Elise would content herself with so much water.
Millie would come around, they'd have a drink. Chat shit about the other victors, gossip like there wasn't an age gap wide as a mountain between them. They got on well, after what Skye'd done for her. Skye, in her opinion, deserved it. She was so tired, now, it was only a matter of time until the end, and of course now was when events started turning. People spoke, people tried to get along. Millie was hanging around the Ones, like they weren't increasingly seeming disillusioned with the Capitol. Indra crept off at night, did his thing. Even Sol was off, up at all hours of the morning, receiving visitors and with increasingly large sums missing from her bank account. Skye heard that much.
That wasn't all, she had a life outside Victors if not outside the Games. Skye took on six children. She wasn't like some, not like the Nines who tried to dissociate from their kids. She genuinely got to know the kids, got to understand them, got on with the kids who she'd lead to their deaths. She didn't take that many, because Ampere said it was a bad idea to trust her, and more of the kids believed him than the District traitor who'd gotten kids avoxed. Still, six listened. Six understood. Six cooperated, got on with Skye even if she wasn't their primary mentor.
Three boys. Hedro, who only wanted to be able to help with the dam like his brothers when he was older. Had a cat called Mr. Pebbles, and Hedro was certain Mr. Pebbles missed him greatly. Hedro's life didn't make it past a sai to the back at the bloodbath. Wyllis, who really thought he could make it home. If she was honest, Skye thought the same, because Wyllis was big. Wyllis lifted massive parts at the factories which produced everything required to keep the windmills operational at the best and worst of times. Wyllis lasted four hours before the Six boy, in a moment of desperation, jumped him with that axe, let Wyllis' brains spill out over the stones. Lattice was the real disappointment. He'd lasted two weeks in that horrible mangrove, until the bitch from Four had charged him. Forced his face underwater, like it was a sick game, as One cooed and had fun with Two, the two girls lying on a dry patch of grass. As One's boy had watched and laughed. As Two's boy had nodded approvingly, providing the occasional pointer on drowning. Like a sick sport.
Three girls. Sirena, pretty and determined and ready. She was a worker at one of the restaurants that catered near exclusively to Capitol tourists, because of course she was. She was a good kid, listening, attentive, genuinely exciting. Skye had got a dozen calls from One's sponsors, none of the massive ones but medium size ones. Maybe that was why the giggly little girl from One, Lapis, had taken such joy in making her kill last. Carynthine, who was expecting a new sibling. Carynthine, who'd only ever known Tesserae boxes (admittedly more full than from, say, Twelve) and was sure she could provide a better life for her family. The massive creature she ran into flattened her when she'd tried to get some food from the bulk of the beast. Millie Stahl, who came home, and only ever had to deal with loss of the Games when a fourteen year old boy was brought down by the Two boy in the 69th.
Five came off relatively unscathed after the battle of the Control Center compared to Four or Two, the flight from the Capitol had treated them kindly enough. Elise fell, with many of the others, to buy time for the younger ones. Soleil and August, of course, in the Quell, Soleil to the wave on her birthday and August on the teeth of Finnick's trident. A distasteful loss, but as it could have been there were far worse options. Millie fell back. Citrine, Sable, the rest fled the Control Center, went to the government and leveraged the fact they seemed loyal enough to convince Snow that their support would benefit him. That he should let them go back to One, and with Eight in open rebellion Poppy went with them.
Indra went underground. Was smuggled out to Five as far as she knew, and from there liased with the blondes of One, waiting underground until the West rose as one against their oppressors. Skye could put guesses as to what he was doing, where he was, but tell the ever so polite white armoured figures who came by every day? Skye was a lot of things. She'd killed kids, schemed and plotted. She'd known too many call boys in the Capitol, because nobody would know. She wasn't a traitor, not to her District and not even to the Victors who'd ignored her.
Skye had stayed home for the Quell, refused to be there. Nobody blamed her, not when others from even One and Two had done the same rather than lose friends to the event they had unanimously decided was farcical. She'd kept the gates locked, only opening them for three reasons. Firstly, because food needed to be delivered, and everyone needed that. Second, to let the staff in because her 'worries' weren't worth them losing their jobs until they got under new management and were better paid for handling the new jobs
Thirdly, to let the suspiciously blonde Peacekeeper detail retrieve Satin from Millie's house. Millie had refused her fiancee the chance to come to the Capitol, but given she was (Skye assumed) playing at loyalism in One, Satin would be moved as a reward for loyalty. Skye helped with packing. After all, you don't want to lose your things. And with Satin evacuated north, it meant the village was empty save for an old woman, an old woman nobody expected to be a problem.
She did have problematic thoughts, though. Thought that the Districts maybe had the right side, though she'd never voice those thoughts to anyone, least of all some Capitol lackey trying to get her to sign off on Propos to support the loyalists in Five. Neutral, she said, and they couldn't well deny that. She knew, not thought, that the Games were wrong. It meant she tried to stay out, tried to keep the Capitol and those that stole to her door in the dead of night out of her life.
It also meant that, with the liberation of Vipeche in the opening hours of the conflict, Skye had the opportunity to sit out the war, without anybody telling her she had to get involved on one side or the other. She was an old woman, seventy-six now and serving the country was the least of her worries.
Should have been the least of her worries. After all, the Peacock of One marched through the streets, banners of half a dozen regiments behind them. Raised for the first time alongside the condor of Five, the woodpecker of Seven, the owl of Three. It was something bigger than Skye. Something that motivated her to stop viewing certain elements as a problem.
Instead, when a column of Ones rumbled through on their way to the front, as much a show of force of their new pretty armoured fighting vehicles as anything? Well, Citrine had disembarked and come to her door, to check Skye was alright and promise she could sit out this war. The blonde was smiling, dressed in a uniform and beret that looked far too professional. Skye had commented on as much, only got a laugh in return. "We're fighting a damned revolution, Skye. The Easterners, they're content to be a disorganized pisstake. We've got organization. One had as much of a fashion industry as the Capitol, plus some defectors. They've gotten us a nice neat camouflage and these very sexy berets. We're churning them out by the thousand, uniforming up the West so we look our best." A laugh, because there's already a battery of medals on her chest.
"Well, very nice of you to pop by, Furrier. How can I help?" "What?" Skye's 76, Citrine explains, no need for her to be taking part. Up to the young 'uns, Citrine, Millie, others to handle the war. But Skye was insistent. So she got to take an advisory role to the front, and she knows it's a way to keep her out of harm's way. It works, until the Capitol decides Five needs to be punished. The District's holding out with the support of One, Seven, Three against Capitol forces, even pushing Peacekeepers back. They have to do something, prove that the Capitol is not to be underestimated and will finish off once and for all the rebellious dogs fighting against their might.
It's the morning after the dam. Sirens wail, and they're all panicking, those of them actually fighting this war. Skye's in the bunker, as an observer. She's not good with this war leading thing, not like Furrier and her forces brawling with the Capitol in northern Five, or like Lyme fighting a guerrilla campaign in central Two. She's here, realistically, because nobody wants her hurt. The red warnings are blaring like a squalling child, and Skye's seen enough of those being ferried to their deaths to be fully operable even in the emergency. Yells echo throughout the fortress, a fortress built to dominate Five within the mountains and now dominating Five's defensive efforts. Losing it would be a disaster.
Words are rolling through, everyone has their own opinions on what to happen. "Someone needs to stay behind! Launch countermeasures to cover Vipeche." "And the bunker?" "Not enough for the bunker, and that's a city. The Capitol built this as a fortress to dominate " The argument goes back and forth, until she has to take charge. Until Skye has to step up, for the first time in her life
"I'll stay behind. Go, go, go!" Skye's voice is urgent if weak, waving her hands. "I'm an old woman, damnit, I'm not making it out of this tomb in time. Leave me." They do, eventually, not without protests. A One technician, some pretty young thing, tries to help Skye out. Even brings up a wheelchair, but Skye slaps her hands away. She wants to record some goodbyes so people know she didn't go out weakly. She'll launch countermeasures when she was told to, because one of the Twos had told her the system was going to warn her when optimum time was. Probably a system prepared to countermeasure an attack from Thirteen, but they'd never bomb their own. Right?
Of course not. One's on the line now, warning them, promising they're moving as fast as possible to land relief efforts. Not that that's necessarily a promise of lots of relief, One's already focused on relieving the siege of Lasve and then moving on Cayones. Skye doesn't expect Vipeche'll need too much relief, if she does her job right. Plus, she still has enough time to stay behind, an hour even, because the Capitol attack is slow.
So she stays behind. Records message after message. To Millie, first, promising they'll get that drink soon. If not, Skye does also leave the location of some money, so Millie can share a drink in spirit. Then to Furrier, suggesting she use this as propaganda. Recording some brief clips, telling people who she is, Skye Martinez of District Five. What she's doing, staying behind to cover Vipeche from attack. Why she's doing it, because the Capitol is striking a city like it's a sandcastle. More messages, to a family she hopes is still out there, to Alma Coin, even a mocking one to Coriolanus Snow. He won't do to her what he did to some. That's a comforting thought.
They're getting closer now. People have been filing through, asking, suggesting, demanding Skye leave. She's just a civilian, they say, even if she is a Victor. She needs to leave. One of them can handle the evacuation.
It tempts her for a moment. She can leave. Someone else can die, someone else can make their last stand in the mountain and save a city. Or at least large tracts of it, because the Capitol will be trying to flatten as much as possible. Skye can go back home, go home and have fun and never think about this because Indra would be there, Millie and Satin as well. Maybe Skye and Indra could do well at the wedding, mother and father of the brides. Grandmother, more like, but it was the thought that counted. One last nice role for her to play.
But she's tired. Tired of always being the one who cheated, the one who killed her District Partner, the one who never really got a Victor of her own when August had Soleil, Ampere had her, Elise and Indra, Elise had Millie, Indra had August. A complicated web. Tired of being just another Victor, for the Capitol to smile at and treat like somebody they could push around. Tired of never being willing to go anywhere without more water than a fish, always feeling the bite of sand, always seeing threats from every corner.
Not that it was any concern now. Echoes from every corner of the fortress, but she can ignore them because they're real. Because they aren't stalking tributes, they're retreating Fives. People she's protecting. Maybe they'll speak kindly of her after all.
Echoes have subsided. Nobody, it seems, has the balls to stay behind. Skye can't blame them. She'd be out in a minute if she could. Instead, the light flashes green, and she hits the button. Reports come in. It's working, it seems. Not for some, though. Not for the ones screaming at the mountain.
The missiles, cresting over the horizon, is on all the screens now, one, two, four of them. Skye makes her peace with the gods as it hits the mountain, sirens wailing as it burrows deeper. Deeper.
Nothing after that. Skye's as bright as the sun for a moment. Then she's nothing.
Author's Note:
Skye features relatively heavily in Lightning in a Bottle, a fic focusing on the 67th Games ^^. I would invite you to check it all out, and as usual thank you to everyone who's taken the time to read, and a greater thank you to my reviewers and those who've favourited this story! You all are who keep me going.