LOVELY

~ 1.16 ~

┏━━━━━━ ⋆⋅ ➹ ⋅⋆ ━━━━━━┓
'You say you got a real solution.
We'd all love to see the plan.
You ask me for a contribution.
We're doing what we can.'
┗━━━━━━ ⋆⋅ ➹ ⋅⋆ ━━━━━━┛

He heard the cannon go off.

He prayed to whoever would be kind enough to grant him some sort of mercy that the dead tribute came from Twelve. However, when he heard the two pairs of matched footsteps on the other side of the Cornucopia, his heart shattered into numerous tiny pieces. Scrambling up to the top of the Cornucopia, Cato felt a sob bubble in his chest when he was swiftly joined by the 'star-crossed lovers'.

His Indiana was gone.

Below them, the mutts resembled some sort of dog but the freakiest part of it all was that their eyes had previously belonged to Cato's fellow tributes. His lip wobbled upon seeing the bright, blue eyes trained on him – Indiana's eyes.

Eyes that he had looked into and fallen in love, eyes that had stared up at him with a twinkle in them, eyes that had cried and stared into his soul when he held her close.

A yell alerted Cato to the fact that Peeta was sliding down the Cornucopia, the mutts snapping at his legs. Acting instinctively, Cato grabbed his arm and yanked him up. However, when Cato saw the fresh blood coating his hands (and now Cato's) and the lack of weapon that Peeta had, he put two and two together and grabbed Peeta in a chokehold.

"You did it, didn't you? It wasn't a mutt. You did it." Cato seethed, tightening his grip on Peeta's neck and feeling slight satisfaction in the choking noise that the smaller boy made.

"It w-was an a-accident. I sw-swear." Peeta gurgled, fighting against the arm and gulping down air.

Ignoring his response, Cato tightened his hold once more. Loading up her bow, Katniss aimed the arrow in the middle of Cato's forehead. It had no impact on the boy from Two. At that moment in time, he no longer cared about winning.

What was the point in winning when the woman and friends he had grown to care for were dead? What was the point in making it to the bottom two when the woman he could've won with was gone?

"Go on, do it! I'm dead anyway, right? I always was. No point winning with Indie gone. The only way to be together is through death." Cato blubbered, blood pouring out of his mouth and mixing with the tears streaming down his face.

Guilt coursed Peeta but it didn't prevent him from writing an X on Cato's hand using Indiana's blood. Katniss released her arrow straight into the hand holding Peeta, causing the older boy to release Twelve and clutch his hand in pain. Taking a step back, trying to get the arrow out of his hand, Cato went too far and his foot teetered on the edge. Leaning back just the slight bit too much, Cato toppled over the edge of the Cornucopia and straight into the pack of hungry mutts.

"Please!" Cato screeched, begging Katniss to spare him the torment of being devoured by the dog-like mutants.

"Make it count." Peeta encouraged Katniss, making her fire the arrow straight into Cato's skull.

A cannon fired, the mutts disappeared, the sky lightened and the Games were over.

District Twelve had won.

Once the sky had brightened back to day, the announcement that the 74th Hunger Games were officially over was still yet to come.

"What are they waiting for?" Peeta asked when the young couple were back on the ground.

They moved away from Cato's body and tried to ignore the presence of it altogether. Surely it should've been collected by now.

"Greetings to the final contestants of the 74th Annual Hunger Games. The earlier revision has been revoked. Closer examination of the rulebook has disclosed that only one winner may be allowed. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favour." Claudius Templesmith delivered the final verdict.

Without even thinking about it, Peeta handed Katniss a knife that had been left in the Cornucopia, ignoring how his mind drifted to the woman he had killed. "Do it."

"I can't," she whispered back, hand shaking.

"Just do it. I don't want to die like Cato." Peeta confessed. "Or like Indie."

Dropping the knife onto the grassy floor, Katniss refused to do it. "Then you kill me! You try and live with that guilt," she snapped.

After much debating, Katniss discovered a solution to their problem. Pulling out the Nightlock berries, she handed Peeta half and kept the other half for herself. If both of them couldn't win, neither of them would. Kissing the raven-haired girl one last time, Peeta nodded.

"One."

"Two."

"Three," they said simultaneously before placing the berries into their mouths.

Claudius hastily announced that both tributes from Twelve had become the Victors before either of them had the chance to chew the poisonous berries.

━━━━━━ ⋆⋅ ➹ ⋅⋆ ━━━━━━

Sat in the screening room, Cashmere and Gloss and Enobaria and Brutus didn't say a word to each other. Their eyes were fixed on the screen before them, watching as the two new Victors were crowned. The two new Victors who deserved it the least.

Hatred coursed through the brother and sister from One as they stared at Peeta Mellark, smiling and waving to the crowd. Their niece was dead because of him. They'd never see her again because he stabbed her with a spear. Not only had he killed her but also he'd used one of Marvel's weapons to do so and then brought about Cato's demise. The hatred intensified when they saw Katniss Everdeen, all pretty and primped. Cashmere and Gloss had lost the two children they loved and cared for because of District Twelve.

Out of all the districts, the three tributes they had been rooting for had been killed by District Twelve.

Both Brutus and Enobaria were still in shock over the death of Indiana as they had known her since she was a little girl, and they had been excited at seeing her and Cato crowned together.

Unable to handle it for much longer, Cashmere burst into tears and retired to her room. Gloss swiftly following after, eyes dead and jaw clenched.

There had been great losses that year; losses that had affected everyone far more than previous tributes had.
The nation of Panem shared a common though. From District One to Twelve. Past Victors. Future Tributes. Even people in the Capitol.

The Games had to be stopped.

The revolution was here.

┏━━━━━━ ⋆⋅ ➹ ⋅⋆ ━━━━━━┓
'You say you want a revolution.
We all want to change the world.
You tell me that it's evolution.
Well, you know, we all want to change the world.'
┗━━━━━━ ⋆⋅ ➹ ⋅⋆ ━━━━━━┛