Chapter Twenty: Ice Queen

A/N: Wow. So here we are, at the final chapter of the second story of Elethea's trilogy. It's been an amazing journey, and I can't believe it's been about a year and a half since I started this.

The third story in the trilogy will be called 'Secrets In My Skin', and will come out when Mockingjay: Part 1 does - so likely in November.

I really hope you've enjoyed this story, and like this final chapter. Thank you to everyone who's stuck with me so far, and especially to those who review. It means a lot to hear your feedback.

"Some say the world will end in fire

Some say in ice.

From what I've tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire

But if it had to perish twice

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice."

- Robert Frost

Finnick's POV

If someone had told me that I would be here in District 13, watching over Enobaria from District 2 and waiting for her to wake up, I would have laughed and told them that they were crazy. Yet here I am – and I can't keep still. I feel like I should be doing something. I've felt that way ever since I became enclosed the grey walls of District 13. This place is our safe haven, but for me, it is also a prison.

Elethea. They have taken Elethea from me. Although I know she's alive, for now, it seems like being in the Capitol is a worse hell than death. Haymitch told me that Elethea's mother, Rayne, is en route to District 13. What am I meant to tell how? How do I explain that I couldn't keep her daughter safe? Guilt wracks me, pierces me down to the gut, and I feel like I might be sick.

"What are you doing here, Odair?" Enobaria's voice is soft and tinged with sleepiness, but there's no mistaking the sharpness to it. Seeing that she's woken, I stop bouncing the balls of my feet against the ground and focus my attention on her. She tries to sit up, only to scowl when she realises she's hooked up to various machines. "Where the hell are we? What happened to the others?"

"Brutus is dead," I say bluntly, knowing that attempting to spare her from that pain will only be worse in the end. "So is Cashmere. Gloss and Elethea were taken to the Capitol, along with Johanna and Peeta."

"Fuck," Enobaria seethes, and I get the feeling that if she was actually well enough to get out of bed, she would smash something with her bare hands. She grits her teeth, and I see the tell-tale glitter of her golden canines. "So we're what, in District 4?"

"No." I shake my head slowly, trying to figure out how I'm going to explain the craziness of the rebellion to a woman like Enobaria. "We're in District 13."

Enobaria pauses, and looks for a moment like she wants to laugh. Then she sees the serenity written across my face, the solemnness that surely must reflect from my eyes. She sees that I'm not joking. So instead of laughing, something like horror comes over her face. She stares down at the tubes linked up to her.

"I thought there was no such thing as District 13."

"A few months ago, neither did I," I confess, running a hand down the length of my face. The ultimate question is: what now? We managed to get Katniss and that's fantastic, but what about the people who were taken to the Capitol, people like Elethea and Peeta? There's no doubt in my mind they'll be tortured, and after all the suffering she's gone through, that's the last thing that Elethea needs.

"I don't get why you bothered bringing me here," Enobaria says flatly, shaking her dark hair out of her face. "I'm of no use to you. I don't know anything about this District 13, or even what you have planned."

I shift my chair closer to her bed. I want to make more allies, not enemies. In the arena, we could have killed each other. But we aren't in the arena anymore. We're fighting against a far more powerful enemy: the Capitol. So as Enobaria watches me warily, I lean in and offer her the shadow of my most winning smile.

"Then I'll tell you everything."

Elethea's POV

I wake up to the soothing sensation of my hair being stroked back from my face, and for a few moments I lie there with my eyes closed and simply enjoy the sensation. That's before I remember the Peacekeepers sedating me and taking me. Out of the arena, away from Finnick. I jolt awake, eyes snapping open, to see my mum leaning over me. She frowns at my sudden reaction.

"Elethea, what is it, darling?"

"Mum?" I ask incredulously. I'm finding this very difficult to believe, unless I was rescued without my knowledge of it. But she's right here in front of me, so how can I possibly deny it? I sit up slowly, aware that my wrist and nose are no longer broken from Brutus's savage fist. "What happened? Where am I?"

"Safe, my love." She presses a kiss to my forehead and I want to relax, but there's something nagging at the back of my mind. Where is Finnick? Why isn't he here in the room? I know that if he was close by, he wouldn't leave my side until I'd woken up.

"Where is that? Are we back in District 4?"

Before Mum can answer, I see someone else standing in the doorway – and I clutch at the sheets, knowing this can only be a dream. For how else can Leon be right there in front of me, almost within reach, when I know for a fact that he is dead? My breath catches in my throat and I almost choke.

"Now, El." Mum's voice is kind, yet firm. "There's something you need to understand. Your brother Medalleon…"

"Is dead." My voice is flat, and when I meet her eyes, she looks surprised. "He's dead. You can't convince me otherwise."

"Elethea…" Mum tries again, but now I know there's something wrong, and my voice rises in panic until it's a scream.

"NO! He's dead!"

Then the vision of Mum finds and I'm a white room with white walls and white sheets, surrounded by people dressed all in white. I'm overcome by panic and begin writhing, only to find that my wrists are firmly held down in metal clamps. A shrill scream rips its way from my mouth, and the people in white – Capitolian medics, I'm led to believe – turn to look at me, a little startled.

"She needs more," one of them says, and another medic approached me with a syringe full of clear liquid. I don't know what the liquid is, but I know that it can't be anything good. I grit my teeth and struggle all the more ferociously. It's no use. I'm clamped down so firmly that I can barely move at all.

I didn't know where I was to begin with, but I can't see Finnick anywhere. Through the walls, I can hear someone's agonised screams. It sounds like a man. Could it be Finnick? I told him to run, but there's always the chance he could have been caught too. I wonder if I'll ever know.

I didn't know where I was, but the answer is now clear: hell.

Finnick's POV

I dread Rayne arriving in District 13, but I'm there to greet her anyway. She looks a lot older than she did before – older, and tired. I know she's only in her late thirties – she was young when she had Elethea – but she looks very worn. I can't blame her. One of her children is dead, the other is being held in the Capitol and most likely being subject to all kinds of horrific tortures.

"Rayne." I try and muster a smile, but it's quickly wiped from my face when Rayne's palm connects with my cheek. I rock back on my heels, slightly shocked. The woman's eyes fill with tears and her jaw clenches. I try to meet her gaze, but I can't. The guilt is so much that it's almost physical. I swallow the lump in my throat and stare at the ground.

"You were meant to protect her," Rayne says accusingly.

"You can't just blame Finnick," Haymitch replies, and I glance at him, having been unaware that he'd even arrived. "Look, she joined in last-minute, she knew the risks. Finnick did his best, but sometimes, you just can't save everyone."

"She is my daughter!" Rayne screams, and her grief is so obvious that it starts to tear me apart. This woman's raw emotion is painful. She lost her son when he was thirteen – and now her daughter, the only person she has left in her life, has been taken by the Capitol. "She is the only thing I have left!"

"Some of us don't have anything left," Haymitch says bitterly, and I can't help but think about the brother and mother he lost to the Capitol after his own Games. Rayne knows loss certainly, but so do most Victors. We have all lost things, but we can gain them. There's no doubt in my mind that the Capitol might torture Elethea, but they need her alive…for now.

"I'm sorry, you're right," Rayne murmurs, averting her gaze. "I'm being selfish."

"You might want to come and look at this." Enobaria is sitting in front of the television, and a serious look has come over her face. We all crowd around and she points at the screen and explains. "The Capitol just made an announcement. Apparently someone's going to be making a speech about the resistance and the Victors in a moment."

I sit down in front of the television. Well, this is bound to be interesting. President Snow moves forward to take the microphone, and I can see that he is addressing a sea of silent Capitolians below. This is propaganda, there is no question about it. The President wants the districts to see this broadcast, and be intimidated. I clench my hands into fists.

"You may have heard by now what happened in the Quarter Quell." Snow's voice booms out into the quiet. "It was sabotaged by a resistance group, whose leader Katniss Everdeen is known as the Mockingjay. Perhaps you sympathise with these rebels. But the Capitol has its own champion, and she is prepared to speak in our defence no matter the cost."

Snow steps aside from the microphone, and there is applause as a woman approaches the podium. Her skin is white as ivory, her lips blood-red and her eyes rimmed by black. Yet there is something familiar about her, despite the hatred that burns clearly in her eyes. She steps forward, and the crowd falls silent once again.

"You may know me. You may know that I'm not from the Capitol, but from the districts just like you. But I'm not here to condemn the districts. I'm here to condemn the rebellion. This resistance group will fan the flames of war, and I tell you now, this Mockingjay will encourage nothing but destruction."

There are faint cheers among the crowd, and a smile cuts across the woman's face like a knife. It's bitter, just as bitter as the rest of her. She raises her arms and her voice grows louder and more passionate – a woman who truly believes what she's saying.

"But the Capitol will stomp this nonsense out. There is no need for fear. War is only inevitable so long as the Mockingjay encourages it."

She turns to glance over her shoulder at President Snow, who is silent but appears mildly impressed.

"I have already pledged to the President that I will return to my home in District 4 and rally the people there to our cause, as well as Districts 1 and 2."

Her words make my stomach lurch, and I hear Rayne audibly gasp. There is something so familiar about this woman, but I just can't place it. Beneath the layers of make-up and the coldness in her eyes, I can't see who she is – or who she once was. A vicious smile crosses her face as she turns her attention back upon the crowd. She is icy, but determined. The Capitol's little ice queen, rallying the troops.

"This rebellion will not go ahead! We will show the Mockingjay and her people that we as a nation want peace, not war – and we are prepared. No matter the cost, we will ensure that peace is retained. Victory will be ours."

She turns her gaze solely on the camera as the crowd cheers wildly, a chilling look in her eyes as she addresses it.

"This is a message for the Mockingjay: your home in District 12 has been burned to the ground. We do not condone violence and war, but you have given us no choice. If you want to fight, you will lose. Mockingjay…I'm coming for you."

My stomach plummets, because with those icy words, the threat to Katniss…I recognise exactly who she is. I press my face into my hands and I can't bear to look up at the screen. I can't bear to face the nightmare that has become reality.

It's Elethea Ambrose, and she's the Capitol's champion now.