Pleasure to burn - Chapter 22

Author: Howlynn
Realm: The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
Story Title: Pleasure to burn22
Summary: There is a lot of shooting, bluffing and confusion.
Character/Relationships: The war of wills and an early arrival.

I Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

"It was a vast stage, without scenery, inviting him to run across, easily seen in the blazing illumination, easily caught, easily shot down.

The seashell hummed in his ear." Fahrenheit 451, pg. 124

Katniss peeks down toward the stage. Haymitch is yelling in her ear, mostly insults sprinkled with curses, nothing that will help her.

"Everdeen when I count to ten, your loyal seam rat dies," Coin calls out.

Katniss swallows as she reaches deep within to find her calm alter ego. "Don't bother impressing me with your math skills; kill him now if you want. Of course, if you do that I will let Haymitch gas every last person in here. Actually, I personally would prefer the gun. I hear the gas is a nasty way to go. Both options beat Haymitch's wrath. At least that's my experience. He's kinda got a temper. "

"She's bluffing," Coin announces to the room.

"Am I? " Katniss calls back as if amused.

"Abernathy is dead. They all are, we saw them. Don't let this lying child make fools of you. She's desperate."

"Do you really believe that? Think I planned this? Think I out played you?"

Coin looks around; she is so carefully surrounded by her troops, that Katniss can't get a clear shot. Coin thinks for a minute. "You dropped your mask, Madam. You will die too. If he's dead, I am calling your bluff. If he lives, he won't kill you."

"Think about that for a minute. What happens to an apprentice who betrays the master of the chambers? I die either way. This way is actually not so bad. So here is the deal, first you take that gun out of Gale's mouth, then everyone puts down their weapon and you surrender. Surrender or death, it's up to you! " she shouts. Then quietly, "I could use some back up here Haymitch, if it's no trouble."

Coin can be heard making threats to her own people. She makes it clear that anyone who thinks of lowering their weapons will be shot at once. Katniss crawls to her left and spies Dante', crouched behind two low slung wheeled storage crates he's blockaded the stage control booth with. His jaw is set and he is searching for Katniss. When his eyes lock to hers, he winks.

"I am going to kill you, you little fool," Coin screams in fury.

"The beetle was in high thunder." Fahrenheit 451, pg. 127

Katniss rolls her eyes, "Get in line Princess. You're not even my biggest problem right now! Haymitch says hello. I guess you wouldn't be trapped like a bug just now if you had any brains at all. If you really were a leader you would be begging to surrender because if you really understood just how bad I pissed him off, you would know how this is about to end."

"Come out now and I will still offer you safe passage to the Capitol!"

"Do keep up. I want surrender, not a noose. Lay down your weapons and live to see the rebellion. Die fighting for freedom, not for a monster who has hurt us all."

"The one who kills her will never want for anything. My word!" Coin tries bribing her troops into action.

"Give it up Coin. I have already won here. All you have to do is make the choice to survive. Surrender now!" Katniss screams back, her voice strong and much more sure than she feels.

" She will never do it. I would have offered it without your idiotic stunt. Now she just has a hostage." Haymitch says, again focused.

"Yeah, but, the difference is, once she's gone, everybody else will cave in. They will follow me. You know they will," Katniss says into her headset.

"And, if they don't?" Haymitch asks, voice smooth and moderately sarcastic.

"Then, I accept your decision. Finn warned me you would. It's Ok. "

"You're dying for traitors. People who would have left you to die slowly in the dark. People who tortured us? These are the people you hand your life too? I... will... kill you with them, little girl, don't doubt it." Haymitch spits the last part out, barely containing his rage at her betrayal.

"Hay, I'm not dying for traitors, I'm dying for children. Look at them? They may be forced to hold a rifle, but they didn't ask to be here anymore than my sister asked to be reaped. Any more than Peeta asked to be wherever he is now. So, let's do our best, and if it isn't good enough, well, we didn't do too bad for a creepy old drunk and a half-starved outlaw seam girl. Now, how about you yell at me over the speakers, so they know you're alive and please try to make them believe you actually are mean enough to kill me? Gives me more to bargain with here. "

"Kill Hawthorne! She's got nothing. Delta 5, find us a way out of here and CATS, (Coin Army Tactical Snipers)Take out that stupid little bitch at once!" Coin screeches her orders.

Katniss' safe quarters are inundated with a barrage of random cover fire which is alone dangerous due to the volume of possible ricochet imposed. But, this smoke is not the disturbing thing. The true threat is from the snipers with their much more precise aim and the fact the rounds are perfectly capable of puncturing through the machinery she has hidden behind and ending her before she can even begin to make any effort to end this on favorable terms.

Gale picks this moment to awaken, or maybe it's the deafening report from the many firing weapons in this place that jostle his mind into action. He rolls into the arm of the would-be assassin, hyperextending the soldier's elbow with a sickening crunch. He crumples with a howl. The gun fires harmlessly, but Gale has it before it hits the ground and has first killed the owner of the hand-gun, then using the body as a shield, managed to curl up protectively, scoot toward the trunks, drag the still dancing body with him as a fleshy turtle shield, all while squeezing off twelve rounds and dropping eleven of Coin's men. Most spectacular, is the fact that four of them had the high powered long rifles denoted by the tiger symbols stitched into their uniforms.

He reaches his goal, dropping the nearly headless torso, snagging three rifles along the way and ducking behind the storage boxes. He moves them into a three sided arrangement, offering himself both some measure of protection and the perfect bunker from which to continue his assault upon the confused mass of ducking and shooting bodies now caught with only flimsy chairs and each other for protection.

Though his performance is heroically admirable, he does not make it to the safety of the crates without being riddled by several serious and painful holes. Gale spots Katniss above him. She aims several incendiary arrows each time any force appears to attempt to advance upon the stage.

Dante has not been useless or idle either, and in the confusion, he has made a rather significant dent in the organization of the well trained men, leaving them dropped around the room as if he's hunting turkeys among quail.

The loudspeakers suddenly boom in the sarcastic drawl of one very alive Haymitch Abernathy, "Having a good time yet, Alma?"

The shock of hearing that voice silences the automatic weapons. Haymitch clears his throat in a disapproving way then says pleasantly, "You don't seem to be faring well against three of my wayward little nincompoops. Did you really think you could get rid of me with your little stink bombs?"

The look on Coins face made Katniss laugh, though there isn't one damned thing about this that's really funny. Shaking her head in denial, Coin looked suddenly old. "No. It isn't him. It's a fake!" she screams, but her face shows otherwise.

"Oh, Please. Alma. Sweetheart. Is that your plan? Think old girl. Look up. I've set your own perfume bottles on you. "

"I have your precious Mockingjay. Will you boo-hoo and rage at her death like she did for you? I know, Abernathy. She is your whole heart and the only soul you have left. You let us out of here and I will leave her to you. I imagine you will enjoy teaching her not to betray you." Coin says.

"Well, that's just funny. I am more troubled that one of my most trusted has accidentally condemned himself because he was charged with her protection. That too is her fault. I have to say, he's about the only reason you are still sucking air. The girl? Yee God's take her with you. She's stupid enough to believe your troops might like her better. I say just sit there and prove you're as stubborn and imprudent as she has acted just now, and you solve my troubles. Two birds with one stone."

"Oh? And where will your precious rebellion be then?"

"Martyrs make fantastic battle cries. You said that. I should have listened to you on that one. So quit trying to treat me like a damned moron and decide, because my finger is feeling a bit twitchy here and nothing in that room with you is half as important as ending this so we can get back to the real war. Your choice, Mizz Coin. One minute."

"Haymitch you gave me your word."

"I did. 50 seconds. You played both sides and lost the middle."

"Damned you all. Are you incapable of killing one little girl?"

Coin turns and grabs a rifle from one of her CATS and is just swinging it up to the catwalk as an incendiary arrow arcs toward her chest. It blows and the three main chunks of the former president come skidding to a halt at the feet of those who have served her.

Eyes wide, the room is silent.

From the rafters something begins to drip.

"So, anybody want to surrender now?" Katniss says as if she just made tea and thought to offer it to her guests.

There is silence again, then the clatter of metal hitting stone, just one or two, then more. Someone lets out a war whoop cheer and suddenly the civil break in district thirteen is simply over.

Haymitch announces instructions for those intending to surrender. The requests are followed by most and even those who had played bodyguards saw at once that rudderless battle was pointless. Everyone seemed eager to lay down their arms.

Katniss called a couple encouragements, promising they would all find fair treatment now. Someone shouted, "Mockingjay!" Other's picked up the word and it soon became a low murmured chant among the prisoners. Coins rein of fear fell quietly, once the smoking corpse was no longer tugging the strings.

"God in the barn, sweetheart, I think you just aged me thirty years. Good job."

Katniss lets her breath out. She is shaking in pain now and groans, "Haymitch, we need medics. Fast." She lowers herself down to the metal grate and curls into a bit of a ball.

"Katniss, are you hit?" His voice is smooth butter, but she hears the concern.

"No. But my water just broke and I have no idea how to get down."

"Oh," Haymitch says, and his breath sounds like he may have just choked on his own tongue as he begins issuing orders to get the doors open and get his Mockingjay. "Ok. Just don't panic."

"I'm not. I…ok I am, but it's too soon. And it hurts. I don't know what to do…" she hisses.

"You just stay there. Stay alive," he adds and she can't help but smile a little.

By the time the contraction ends, Dante' is at her side, full of gentle strength, encouragement and he helps her down the ladder. She kneels by Gale, who looks like bloody hell, but is still walking wounded. He takes her hand as both of them are plunked down in wheelchairs for their ride to the hospital wing. Katniss, who just bluffed and bushwhacked her way into ending a catastrophe, is now near tears with pure fear.

Her mother and sister await her along with Finnick, who informs everyone who tries to bustle him out of the room, that he's got no intent of leaving her side. Mrs. Everdeen tries to intimidate him, but he turns on the Finnick Odair charm, and she really has no chance against him.

The next to arrive is Haymitch followed shortly by a partially mummified Gale. The attending physician tries to protest Katniss' vast audience. In the middle of a contraction she reaches up to the doctor and draws him close to her face by his physician's vestment, and with the anger and scary eyes of a Capitol politician grunts through gritted teeth, "These are the fathers of this baby. They will stay or you will go. President Coin is dead. I make the rules now."

Haymitch grins, "I would listen if I were you, Docs. Last person who made her mad….well you know how that turned out."

Mrs. Everdeen turns white, and a silent snit is detected by all, thanks to her very precise movement and clipped tone. Prim snickers. Katniss lets go of the Doctor and burst into tears.

Hours later, a tiny snorting noise enters the room. It is more of a grumbled protest than a cry, but it seems to charm three big strong men into a few tears as well. The baby is underweight but healthy. The first smell this tiny new life will know is the gunpowder, sweat and blood scent of its mother fresh out of battle.

One life begins. Katniss looks down at her own nose, her fathers cheekbones and Cinna's eyes and her heart labors to find a rhythm between joy and sorrow.

"Oh, Cinna. We miss you." Katniss whispers. She feels Haymitch kiss her hair softly, and it doesn't help this bitter burning of her sentiment for her child's lost father, but it does make her feel less alone. Sometimes, it's hard to remember Cinna exactly. She just hopes that she doesn't mess up his son's life too badly and that he grows up to be as great of a man as she knew so briefly.

"Have you come up with a name yet?" Prim asks softly fussing with the bundle as she settles him in his oxygen and temperature controlled crib. She turns on a low level of vibration and it sooths baby Everdeen to sleep almost at once. The room is full of smiles as Katniss closes her eyes in exhaustion.

"Yes…" she says. The expectant faces all wait. But Katniss says no more.

"No one in his right mind, the good Lord knows, would have children." - Fahrenheit 451, pg. 96

"She's sleeping." Gale whispers with a smile. His left arm is in a sling, he has stitches from his cheek to his ear and his head is bound up like he's wearing a turban. But Gale is still there, steady and true as always, full of physical holes and wounded heart, he still calmly defies all reason with his patient rational loyalty to his hunting partner.

Finnick hums softly to the small face that watches him carefully. Prim had been gone from the room for exactly four minutes before Finnick had quietly eased the baby out of his little crib and set down in the rocking chair to rock and admire the scrunched fists and wrinkly toes. Finn has a patch over one eye and his burns are still a scabby mess, but there is softness in his eye and a sweet twist to his lips as he freely tosses his soul off a cliff for the child. He's carefully binding his heart to the Mockingjay's wee sparrow of a boy. Funny how much love can grow in just a few hours.

Haymitch Abernathy sits by her bed. His breaths are easy and his head is dropped to his chest as if he's sleeping. He is drifting, ruminating and contemplating, but only a fool would mistake his relaxed posture for sleep. He is rather peaceful at the moment.

Things could have gone so very wrong today. He knew how close he'd come to losing her forever and the thought made him so very aware of his healing bullet wound. The thought of what she had pulled right under his nose, made him ache just to the right of his injury. He could survive so many things for her, and he knew he could survive her death if it came, but he also knew that it would hurt far more than he could have ever imagined, if he were obliged to endure that particular event.

He would have pushed the switch and filled the room with gas, killing her if her half-baked brain-fart of a plan had not worked. He would have never shed a tear for her. He would never have in front of anyone at least. He knew this about himself and he had no shame about the skewed oddity. His love for her existed in destruction as accurately as defense.

It is beyond the kind of love that can be called completely wholesome or completely romantic. His love for her could be deemed a sick form of obsession, for he was without doubt that he could murder her, sleep with her, control her or follow her lead, if the need arose. Yet he would die to protect her and the child without a single regret. These two very divergent truths slithered through his veins, far from harmoniously, yet both were of equal weight when he measured their relationship. He is symbolically her father, lover, mentor, master, friend and enemy , and she deserved each roll. In a small troublesome Seam urchin, Haymitch had found his wits match.

How amazing. In a day, she had made him sick with worry, sick with sorrow and sick with pride, and then she'd out-done it all and brought forth a brilliant new life. Haymitch is a picture of slouched boredom on the outside, but inside, at this moment, his mind blazed like a nuclear reactor. He knew he lived on the edge of melt-down, and he was pretty sure that Katniss had somehow become something of a safety valve. Girl on fire, indeed. They both seemed to burn cold, yet somehow, they would together either torch the world to ashes or yank it from the gates of hell to assure its redemption.

Haymitch slits his eyes open, watching Finn. This picture of peace and joy, is such a rare moment for him, that Haymitch had to suck it in, breathe it and clasp it tight. The BOY. THE BOY. A child of genetic probability to rule one day. Cinna's brilliant heart without the damage done to him mixed with Katniss' practical guiding spirit without the burdens of starvation and oppression. He would chaperon this boy to be the iron will and master hand one day. He would pour every crumb of extraordinary perception he had into this one resolve.

Haymitch pictured who this boy would become. A righteous man, a bright sword forged from ruin, a great life carefully built by the lost and wounded and he might make all the suffering mean something. Someday, this tiny blank presence could fill the world with noble purpose if his mother and her mentor could just hammer a little hope out of the mountainous evil they themselves were born into. He owed it to nobody. He had long ago suffered enough to justify filling himself with apathy and hatred.

He had done those things. But here he sat, finding vast chambers of optimism within. He had so little faith in mankind, yet he had every confidence that this child could stick the world back together again and somehow fix the future. Haymitch breathed easy, but his heart, pounding dismal scalawag it was, grew warmer, and he wondered if he could live up to all the things this entirely perfect boy would require.

Haymitch felt needed. No, that wasn't even it, lots of people needed him, and he didn't like most of them. He felt like for once, he would be necessary. This kid of hers would need him in a way that was good, not as a pet bully or an advisor to damnation, but as a conductor to wisdom. The other part was that he craved to be there and was making a choice to be put upon and not rescuing anyone from the clutches of death out of obligation or guilt.

A lopsided curl snuck up his face as he realized that he had this kid's life planned for the next thirty years at least and in the first place, he technically had no right to make any choices for the little Prince of Panem. Second, he realized, he was making plans before he even knew the poor kids name. Both of those conditions would have to be remedied tomorrow. Yes, he would see to it all, tomorrow.

"That day in the park when we sat together, I knew that someday you might drop by with fire or friendship, it was hard to guess. I've had this little item ready for months. But I almost let you go. I am that afraid." – Fahrenheit 451, pg. 90

I do appreciate your patience. Updates are still slow. My mom is doing a bit better right this minute, but no guarantees how long I will have before I have to return. I will write as much as I can during my break and again, I know, I am the worlds least patient reader, but I can't do fast right now. Thanks a bazillion for all the story alerts. I feel horrible for keeping you waiting, but in my world, it must be done right, or not at all. Please review. It is like voting on the story you want updated the fastest.

p.s. fixed idol - ugh sorry - Lol - see what would I do without you! Thanks.