Title: The Wolf and the Mockingjay, Part 1, Chapter 8/8
Title: The Wolf and the Mockingjay, Part 1
Fandoms: Doctor Who/The Hunger Games fusion
Rating: Teen+ for violence
Pairings: Rose-Martha friendship; Jack/everyone
Characters: Rose, Martha, Ninth Doctor, Donna, Reinette (expy), Jack Harkness, Jackie Tyler, Mickey Smith, River Song, loads more; HG characters come in more in Part 2, but Cinna, Caesar Flickerman, Claudius Templesmith, Plutarch Heavensbee, Finnick Odair and President Snow appear in this part; OCs Nokia, Lace, Gem, Sulla and Livia.
Summary: Rose Tyler is chosen for the Hunger Games. Martha Jones volunteers to save her little sister. When they meet in the arena, something happens that will change the world.
Chapter 1: The Reaping
Chapter 2: The Capitol
Chapter 3: The Tributes
Chapter 4: The Arena
Chapter 5: The Ally
Chapter 6: The Team
Chapter 7: The Plan
Morning came after a restless night. Neither of them had gotten much sleep. They ate a good breakfast and filled their canteens at the lake, and then they set out for the factory again.
Before they reached the edge of town, the Gamemakers pulled their last stunt. Martha and Rose could hear it, though not see it. Something was coming, something horrible making clicking sounds, rustling through the underbrush . . .
Martha grabbed Rose’s arm and pointed. An insect, something like a locust, only a foot long with terrible jaws, hopped out into the open.
“Run!” Rose pushed Martha ahead of her, and both girls ran with all their might. The insects followed, gaining, and there was nothing to do but keep running until Rose’s leg ached and her lungs burned, and the things were still at their heels.
Martha wriggled out of her pack and discarded it, and Rose followed suit. The pack got caught on her bow, but Rose couldn’t afford to stop; the bow and quiver went, too. It gave them just enough extra speed that they reached the factory ahead of the hideous insects. Rose caught sight of the Twos bursting out of the forest on the other side, running the way she and Martha were, but there was no time to worry about them.
Rose and Martha turned toward the huge metal tower at the edge of the factory complex, and, within seconds, both were swinging up onto and into it, climbing for their lives. The Careers followed suit, reaching it just ahead of the ground-obscuring wave of locusts.
The good news was, the locusts couldn’t seem to get any purchase on the metal. The bad news was, the Careers could. They climbed, eyes trained on Rose and Martha.
“Stay above them!” Rose barked. Martha, smart Martha, was already there, swarming upward like a squirrel.
Rose followed, keeping an eye on the Careers. Sulla had a sword, but he couldn’t hold it while climbing. Livia had knives, though, and drew one to throw. Rose kept moving, climbing around to the other side of the tower, not offering her any obvious target.
Something was making the metal slippery under her hands. Rose looked, and it was blood. Adrenaline was running so high in her system she didn’t even feel pain as the corroded metal bit into her skin.
“Rose!” Martha shouted, and Rose ducked just in time to keep Livia’s thrown knife from killing her. It slashed across her shoulder, but, even in her super-adrenalized state, Rose could tell it was only a superficial wound.
“Come on, Copper,” Livia taunted. “I thought you wanted to mix it up!”
Rose distractedly realized they didn’t look good. Sulla was pale and had bags under his eyes, and Livia looked downright gaunt. Sulla also had a big bruise on one temple. Apparently, they’d had a rough few days.
And they were in her world now. Here, in this broken-down industrial tower, Rose felt at home in a way she never had in the woods.
She kept climbing. Her fighting instincts were telling her to keep wearing them down, because they’d wear down faster than she and Martha would.
Livia threw another knife. It clattered against the metal struts, not coming anywhere close to Rose.
Martha shrieked, bringing Rose’s attention to her. A corroded strut had broken even under her slight weight, and she barely caught herself before she could fall from the tower, her pistol bow tumbling from her grip. It brought her within reach of Sulla, who grabbed her ankle.
They were right across from Rose. She ducked inside the tower, grabbed a bar overhead -
- swung forward on it, thrusting her feet out -
- and caught Sulla in the chest. Air whooshed out of his lungs. The hand that was holding onto the tower slipped. Martha shook his other hand off her ankle.
He fell.
“Sulla!” screamed Livia. “Sulla, no!”
They were a good eighty feet up. Even without the locusts crowding around the base of the tower, there was no way for Sulla to survive. The cannon sounded.
Livia turned furious eyes on Rose and Martha. “You little bitches are dead!”
She went after Rose, pulling herself upward and inward. Rose ducked out to the exterior. She had no time to worry about what Martha was doing, trusting the younger girl to have her back.
For as worn down as she was, Livia was still strong and fast. She had no more knives, but pulled a bent, broken bar from one of the struts. Rose knew better than to underestimate the damage it could do.
Rose scrambled upward, trying to maintain her advantage. Livia swung the bar, just grazing Rose’s side.
And then Martha was there, kicking at Livia’s head. Livia pulled herself to the tower exterior, trying to go after Rose while keeping her distance from Martha. She swung the bar again, but this time, Rose caught it. There was a brief scuffle for possession which ended when blood-slick hands on both sides slipped off it, and the bar fell away.
Livia made her move. She surged forward, grabbing hold of Rose’s coat, and bashed Rose’s forehead with her own.
White lights flashed in Rose’s vision, but she kept hold of the tower with her right arm. Livia drew back for another blow -
- and screamed as Martha’s axe bit into her other arm, the one holding onto the tower. Rose took advantage of the moment, giving Livia a good left right in the face. She drew back her fist for another -
And Livia, dazed and bloodied, looked right into Rose’s eyes. She still had hold of Rose, fist knotted in her jacket. Her eyes, though, looked like Toby’s had at the Cornucopia, seemingly a lifetime ago.
“Livia,” said Rose, not even knowing why she was saying it.
“I could pull you down with me,” Livia said, her voice rough with exhaustion and pain. “It’s all we’re good for. Death. Killing or dying. Doesn’t matter. Could take you down with me.” She swallowed. “What’s the point?”
Then she let go of Rose’s jacket.
She fell. A cannon sounded.
“Rose,” called Martha’s voice from above.
Rose looked up. There was a platform at the top of the tower, just a few feet above her. Rose forced her weary, battered body upward, and Martha pulled her onto the platform, where they clung to each other.
Martha was in no better shape than Rose. Something had torn through her jacket and left a long, shallow cut in her side, and she had a bloody scrape on her forehead. Her hands looked like raw meat.
They both watched as a hovercraft flew in below their feet to pick up Livia’s corpse. Sometime during the battle, the locusts had retreated, and the arena could now be taken for a pleasant, peaceful valley.
Rose was shaking. So was Martha.
“Why - why don’t they announce the end?” Martha asked. “We won, right?”
“We won,” said Rose, voice dull.
And then the announcement came, but it wasn’t the one they were expecting.
“Congratulations to our final two tributes!” boomed Claudius Templesmith. “Upon an examination of the rules, it has been decided that the previous revision of allowing two allied winners is not legal. Therefore, only one winner may be crowned. May the odds be ever in your favor!”
Of course, thought Rose. Of course they weren’t really going to be so kind. Of course they were taking away the only good thing she’d found in the Games.
“What?” gasped Martha. “They can’t do that! They can’t!”
Rose shook her head. “Of course they can. That’s the whole point of the Games, isn’t it? To show us that they can.”
“Well - well, screw that!” Martha tossed the last few bolts in her quiver and Shella’s knife off the tower. Then she fished her utility knife, her last weapon, out of her belt, and threw it away as well.
Rose laughed, full-throated and full of humor and, perhaps, a little madness. “You’re right. Screw that.” She pulled her own knife out of her belt, and it followed Martha’s.
“Let me see your hands,” said Martha. Rose let her. Martha pulled out her canteen and rinsed them with water, and then she tore strips of cloth from Rose’s jacket and shirt and wrapped them.
When she was done, Rose returned the favor. They both drank a little water as well, and then they sat together, holding hands and looking out over the lake.
“What happens now?” Martha asked.
Rose shrugged. “Dunno. They’ll probably kill us both.” She sighed. Every bit of her hurt, but she felt oddly peaceful all the same. “Tell me another of your stories, Martha. Something about the Wolf and the Mockingjay.”
“In the Time Before Time,” Martha began, “there came to the People word of mechanized, metal soldiers advancing through the wild, killing everything in their path and burning the forest. Though the People were brave and had withstood many troubles, they feared this foe would be beyond them.
“The Wise Woman, therefore, sought the Lady of the Forest. ‘Lady,’ she said, ‘the People are frightened by these metal soldiers. We have never fought so fearsome an army, and we fear that they will destroy us so that the world will forget we ever lived.’
“ ‘The world forgets nothing, Wise Woman,’ said the Lady. ‘But yes, this foe is beyond you. Go back to the People and tell them to be strong, for the Wolf will protect you.’
“So the Wise Woman returned to the People and told them what the Lady had said.
“ ‘Can even the Wolf overcome such a foe?’ asked the War Chief.
“ ‘We must trust the Lady,’ said the Wise Woman. ‘Trust her, and be strong.’
“Meanwhile, the Lady sent for her Mockingjay. When it came to her, she sang to it. She sang the song of the Earth, the Sky, the Trees and the Water. She sang of the People and of the animals of the forest. She sang the power of life itself into the little bird, and she sent it away to find the Wolf.
“When the Mockingjay found the Wolf, it sang the Lady’s song to it until the Wolf’s eyes blazed with golden light. The Wolf, filled with the power of the song, ran to meet the ravening horde.
“ ‘You will come no further,’ it snarled at them.
“ ‘We are eternal,’ said the soldiers. ‘We have no life for you to take. We will exterminate all life from these forests and make the land bow to our will. We will never stop.’
“ ‘Then I will fight you under the Sun and under the Moon,’ said the Wolf. ‘I will rend you to dust, and you will blow away with the wind and be washed away by the rain. And I will not stop until I have defeated every last one of you.’
“So the Wolf fought the mechanical soldiers. It fought them under the Sun and the Moon. With each swipe of its claws and bite of its teeth, the soldiers fell to dust, and the wind carried them away and the rain washed the land clean. Only when the last one had been defeated did the Wolf stop to rest.
“The Mockingjay flew to its friend, for the Wolf was terribly injured and dying. ‘We come to the end, my dearest friend,’ said the Wolf. ‘I am happy to die with you by my side.’
“But the Mockingjay began to sing again the song of the Lady. It sang life and healing into the Wolf. The Wolf’s injuries faded, its wounded body healed, and it leaped to its feet, happy as a cub. The friends disappeared into the forest, and they protected it together.
“This is how the Wolf and the Mockingjay saved the forest and the People from the metal soldiers.”
Rose looked out over the valley one more time, breathing deeply of the clean air. “Never stop telling your stories, Martha.”
Something in her voice tipped the younger girl off. “Rose, what are you thinking of doing?”
“I’m not just going to sit here and wait for the Gamemakers to get bored and zap us,” Rose said. “One of us can still go home.”
“So you’re going to jump?” Martha caught on far too quickly. “No! If one of us is going to, I will. You’re all your mom has, remember?”
Rose shook her head. “My mom wouldn’t want me to survive if it meant just sitting here and watching you die. That’s not worth it, not to her or me.”
“And it is to me?” Martha asked. She held their joined hands, with their blood-soaked bandages, up to Rose’s face. “You and I share blood now. You’re my sister. I can’t let you die, not any more than I could let Tish die. Not while I can help it.”
“Martha, you volunteered for Tish. This is me, volunteering for you.” She held up her other hand to stop Martha’s objection. “I should’ve known from the beginning that they weren’t going to let us both live, but I wanted to believe it. So let me do the right thing. You’ll be their victor.”
“Screw. That.” Martha gripped Rose’s hand so hard it hurt both of them. “If that’s the way they’re going to play, they won’t have a victor. They wouldn’t, anyway; if I let you do this, I’ve lost.” She took a deep breath. “We’ll both jump.”
“Martha, please.”
“We’ll both jump. We’ll both do the right thing.” Martha brought Rose’s hand to her mouth and kissed it. “My sister.”
Rose knew it was useless to try to talk Martha out of it. And, somehow, it would be wrong to. Because Martha was right. There could be no victor this way.
She kissed Martha’s hand. “My sister.”
Martha nodded, lips pressed together. “On three.”
“One.”
“Two.”
“Th-”
“Stop!” shouted Claudius Templesmith’s voice. “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you your victors - Rose Tyler and Martha Jones!”
***
In the District 9 control room, seven people started breathing again. Jabe and her partner Dave had joined the Doctor and Donna, and Reina and her counterpart from Seven, Cathica, were present as well. Ace McShane from Three had also joined them after they’d used Nokia’s bomb.
“Of all the brainless moves,” fumed the Doctor.
“What? I thought they were brilliant!” Donna protested.
The Doctor waved his hand. “Not the girls. The Gamemakers. I don’t know that they could’ve come up with a worse idea than offering to allow two victors, then withdrawing the offer at the end. I predict someone’s head will roll over this. Literally.” He looked at the screen, where Martha and Rose were being plucked off the tower by a hovercraft. “It’s them I’m worried about now.”
“I’m going to go back to the Three control room,” Ace announced suddenly. “I just remembered something I needed to tell Beetee.” As she got up from her chair, her hand folded briefly, flashing three fingers.
It was a signal. Reina looked at Cathica, who gave her a terse nod and followed Ace out of the room.
“Doctor,” said Reina after they were gone, “there are rumblings coming out of Four. Some of the higher-ups are convinced they’re about to rebel. It’s the same with Eight.”
“And we can add Seven and Nine to that number soon enough, I’ll wager,” Jabe said. “Good thing they don’t seem to know about Three.”
“We’ll have Snow’s eyes on us,” Donna pointed out.
“That could be useful,” said the Doctor. “I predict it’ll make things difficult in our districts, but it could be worth it to occupy the Capitol’s attention. What’s most important is that we protect them. The girls. We’ve got the spark we’ve been looking for. We can’t let the Capitol snuff it out.”
Jabe nodded. “Understood. I can get Martha out with very little lead time. We should be able to get her family as well.”
“Good. Be prepared for it, then.” He looked over at Donna. “We can take care of Rose.”
“Hell, yes.” She glanced at the clock. “I just need a word with our flirty friends. And we need champagne.”
She pressed a button on the console, and a port opened in the wall. Inside was a bottle of champagne and five glasses.
By the time the bugs were working again, all anyone watching could see was a happy, united team toasting the Wolf and the Mockingjay.
***
Rose stared into the mirror, unable to get used to her eyes.
When she’d finally emerged from her drug-induced, post-Games slumber, her skin was polished to perfection. All the injuries from the Games and even her old scars were gone. Her fingernails, torn to shreds by the tower, were now perfect half-moons, and all the body hair that had started to grow back was gone.
But it was her eyes that had changed the most. They were no longer brown. Instead, they were amber, like a wolf’s.
Jack had explained it to her. “Basically, your eyes already had that tone in them. All we did was to bring it out by removing or lightening the other colors. The effect isn’t permanent; over the next few years, they’ll slowly revert to brown if you don’t get the color touched up. For now, though, you’re the Wolf.”
It had seemed to her at the time that he wasn’t telling her everything, that there was a deeper reason for the alteration. It was beautiful, no question about that, but it also made her look somehow . . . feral.
Her hair was still short, much to Aurelius’s evident disgust as he flounced off with his rejected cart of hair extensions, though Jack had shaped it to look less ragged.
“I want people to remember how you cut it off in the arena,” Jack said.
The reunion with Martha and the Games recap had been last night. Tonight was the interview with Caesar Flickerman. And it was, according to the Doctor, very important that she play it carefully.
“You and Martha forced their hand,” he’d told her. “You went off script. They’re not happy with you. You must make them believe you never intended to be rebellious.”
“I didn’t, I was just trying to live, or at least save Martha!” Rose protested.
“I know. But some in the districts have been, shall we say, inspired by the idea of the two of you saying ‘Screw that!’ to the Capitol. What you must do now is go out there and make it look like rebellion is the farthest thing from your mind. Play up the sisterhood. Gush about how kind the Capitol and Gamemakers are for giving you your new best friend.” The Doctor held his hand up. “You can vomit later. Just remember: You’re protecting Martha as well as yourself. And those around you back home.”
That brought Rose up short. “They’d - they’d hurt Mom?”
“In a second.” The Doctor looked away, the lines in his face deepening. “We’ll protect you as much as we can, but you have to be careful, Rose. Very careful.”
Now, Rose stood backstage, wearing a steel-colored gown with a silvery wolf-fur ruff around her shoulders. Her face was painted in cool tones and her eyes rimmed with charcoal gray, contrasting sharply with her golden eyes. When she caught her reflection in the mirror, they practically leaped out of it.
“You’re on, Rose,” said Reina.
Rose walked out into bright lights and thundering applause, and Martha joined her from the other side of the stage. She looked beautiful in a black gown whose huge sleeves had patches of white on them, mimicking a mockingjay. They embraced at mid-stage and went to sit opposite Caesar.
He began with innocuous questions about their respective journeys in the arena and how it felt to have someone to team up with. They were both careful with their answers, talking each other up and emphasizing how their strengths complemented each other. Caesar happily played into it, and he replayed some footage alternating between Sulla and Livia eating something that violently disagreed with them and Rose and Martha chowing down on fresh vegetables in the garden. The audience found it hilarious.
Then he came to the dangerous part. “What were you thinking, there at the end, when the allied-winners rule was revoked and you faced one of you having to die?”
Martha, smart girl that she was, burst into tears. Rose hugged her as the audience made sympathetic noises. It made Rose wonder how many of them had cheered on Livia and Sulla as the Careers had mounted the tower and closed in for the kill.
“I think this really says it all,” Rose said, indicating the tearful Martha. “I don’t think anyone who hasn’t been through something like that can understand how close you can get to another person. We were all we had in the arena. We had to rely on each other, trust each other completely. When the announcement came that we could both win, we were so happy, because we already felt like sisters. And when they revoked that rule . . .” Rose shook her head. “You can’t just turn off that feeling. Neither of us could’ve watched the other die. That’s why we decided to jump together.”
Martha sniffled, adding, “She’d have done it, you know. Jumped to save my life. But I could never have gone home, knowing I allowed someone I loved the way I love Rose to kill herself for me.”
Rose remembered the Doctor’s words. “I’m just so glad the Gamemakers decided to spare us. They didn’t have to, but they did, and I’ll always be grateful for their mercy.” Surprisingly, she got the words out without choking on them.
“I think we’re all glad that you’re both here,” said Caesar. The audience applauded, and Rose hoped she’d done the trick. “What are you both looking forward to the most when you get home?”
Martha spoke first. “I just got word today from Cathica that I have a niece!” The audience cheered. “My brother’s fiancée, Laura, gave birth to a girl. Her name’s Martha Rose, and I can’t wait to see her.”
After the cheering died down, Rose spoke. “I’m mostly looking forward to seeing my mom and my friends again. Once everything settles down, though, I’m going to find some sort of work. We have a tradition among winners in District 9 that you don’t just move to Victor’s Village and eat bonbons after the Games; you find something worthwhile to do. You work for a better Panem, and that’s exactly what I want to do.”
The applause was deafening. Rose didn’t think it would be quite so loud if they understood her definition of “a better Panem.”
When President Snow placed the crown on her head and she met his eyes, though, she had the feeling that he did.
***
Her last night in the Capitol, Rose had an unexpected visitor as she was getting ready for bed. There was a knock at the door, which Rose opened to reveal Martha, dressed in yellow pajamas.
“Cathica and Jabe said it’d be okay if I came up here. May I come in?” she asked.
In answer, Rose pulled her into a hug. “Of course.”
They sat on Rose’s bed, and Rose ordered two cups of hot chocolate, which took mere minutes to arrive. For a little while, they sipped in silence.
“I - I had a hard time sleeping last night,” Martha finally said. “I was afraid of the dreams.”
Rose nodded. “Yeah, same with me.”
“It just seems so strange now. Everything that happened.” Martha ran a hand through her hair, which had been ironed stick-straight by her stylist. “So surreal. I almost feel like it happened to someone else. I couldn’t have - couldn’t have really killed Rodrick.”
In fact, Martha’s official kill tally stood at three: Tom, Rodrick and Gem. She’d gotten credit for Tom because she brought him the nightlock berries, and Gem because she delivered the bomb that indirectly killed him. Rose had Toby, Shella and Sulla to her credit. As for Livia, she’d ultimately been declared a suicide. District 2 probably hated that.
But Rose knew what Martha meant. While she’d gotten in fights back home, she’d never gone in with the object of killing anyone. In fact, she’d never picked fights; they’d always come to her. She’d killed in the arena, though; killed with an ease that scared her. No, she hadn’t had a choice, not a real one, but that didn’t make her feel much better.
“What will you do when you get home?” Rose asked.
“I’ll keep learning to be a healer, I guess,” said Martha with a shrug. “I think I’ll miss camp life.”
“I’m pretty sure I won’t miss Factory life,” Rose said, and laughed. “Victor’s Village is up by lake country. It’s as pretty a place as you’ll find in Nine. It’ll be nice not to always be breathing smoke.” She set her empty cup aside and slid between the sheets. “C’mon.”
As she had under the old cabin, Martha readily accepted the invitation. She snuggled down under the covers, humming idly to herself.
The tune was one Rose felt she knew, and, within seconds, she placed it.
“Martha, did you ever sing that song in the arena?” Rose asked.
Martha seemed startled at the question. “Well . . . yes. I was so scared the first night that I hummed it to myself as quietly as I could. It’s an old lullaby my mom used to sing to me. How did you know?”
“A mockingjay. When I was trying to sleep, one of them sang that tune to me. I could tell it was a lullaby, and . . . it was comforting.” She took Martha’s hand. “It’s almost like we were meant to find each other in there.”
Martha smiled. “Of course we were. The Mockingjay found you for me.”
Rose hesitated for a moment before telling Martha about the strange incident with the wolf. Martha was very interested.
“It was a gray wolf? With eyes like yours are now?” Rose nodded. “That’s always been the description of the Wolf in the stories.”
“Do you think it was real?” Rose asked. “I never saw or heard another wolf in the arena.”
“I think it was real. Even if it wasn’t there physically, it was real. Sometimes, hunters or a Wise Woman will report seeing the Wolf and the Mockingjay. It always means something important, really important, is about to happen.”
“Good or bad important?”
Martha shrugged. “Either. Sometimes both. But I think you must be very important, Rose, if they came to you.”
Rose hugged her tight. “Not more important than you.”
Nestled into each other’s warmth, the Wolf and the Mockingjay slept without nightmares.
End of Part 1
A/N: Part 2 is in the works. Once it's done, I'll start posting it. There will be, I emphasize, no Part 3. Not writing a novel here, in spite of all appearances.
Thanks to everyone who enjoyed the fic and commented!
Fandoms: Doctor Who/The Hunger Games fusion
Rating: Teen+ for violence
Pairings: Rose-Martha friendship; Jack/everyone
Characters: Rose, Martha, Ninth Doctor, Donna, Reinette (expy), Jack Harkness, Jackie Tyler, Mickey Smith, River Song, loads more; HG characters come in more in Part 2, but Cinna, Caesar Flickerman, Claudius Templesmith, Plutarch Heavensbee, Finnick Odair and President Snow appear in this part; OCs Nokia, Lace, Gem, Sulla and Livia.
Summary: Rose Tyler is chosen for the Hunger Games. Martha Jones volunteers to save her little sister. When they meet in the arena, something happens that will change the world.
Chapter 1: The Reaping
Chapter 2: The Capitol
Chapter 3: The Tributes
Chapter 4: The Arena
Chapter 5: The Ally
Chapter 6: The Team
Chapter 7: The Plan
Morning came after a restless night. Neither of them had gotten much sleep. They ate a good breakfast and filled their canteens at the lake, and then they set out for the factory again.
Before they reached the edge of town, the Gamemakers pulled their last stunt. Martha and Rose could hear it, though not see it. Something was coming, something horrible making clicking sounds, rustling through the underbrush . . .
Martha grabbed Rose’s arm and pointed. An insect, something like a locust, only a foot long with terrible jaws, hopped out into the open.
“Run!” Rose pushed Martha ahead of her, and both girls ran with all their might. The insects followed, gaining, and there was nothing to do but keep running until Rose’s leg ached and her lungs burned, and the things were still at their heels.
Martha wriggled out of her pack and discarded it, and Rose followed suit. The pack got caught on her bow, but Rose couldn’t afford to stop; the bow and quiver went, too. It gave them just enough extra speed that they reached the factory ahead of the hideous insects. Rose caught sight of the Twos bursting out of the forest on the other side, running the way she and Martha were, but there was no time to worry about them.
Rose and Martha turned toward the huge metal tower at the edge of the factory complex, and, within seconds, both were swinging up onto and into it, climbing for their lives. The Careers followed suit, reaching it just ahead of the ground-obscuring wave of locusts.
The good news was, the locusts couldn’t seem to get any purchase on the metal. The bad news was, the Careers could. They climbed, eyes trained on Rose and Martha.
“Stay above them!” Rose barked. Martha, smart Martha, was already there, swarming upward like a squirrel.
Rose followed, keeping an eye on the Careers. Sulla had a sword, but he couldn’t hold it while climbing. Livia had knives, though, and drew one to throw. Rose kept moving, climbing around to the other side of the tower, not offering her any obvious target.
Something was making the metal slippery under her hands. Rose looked, and it was blood. Adrenaline was running so high in her system she didn’t even feel pain as the corroded metal bit into her skin.
“Rose!” Martha shouted, and Rose ducked just in time to keep Livia’s thrown knife from killing her. It slashed across her shoulder, but, even in her super-adrenalized state, Rose could tell it was only a superficial wound.
“Come on, Copper,” Livia taunted. “I thought you wanted to mix it up!”
Rose distractedly realized they didn’t look good. Sulla was pale and had bags under his eyes, and Livia looked downright gaunt. Sulla also had a big bruise on one temple. Apparently, they’d had a rough few days.
And they were in her world now. Here, in this broken-down industrial tower, Rose felt at home in a way she never had in the woods.
She kept climbing. Her fighting instincts were telling her to keep wearing them down, because they’d wear down faster than she and Martha would.
Livia threw another knife. It clattered against the metal struts, not coming anywhere close to Rose.
Martha shrieked, bringing Rose’s attention to her. A corroded strut had broken even under her slight weight, and she barely caught herself before she could fall from the tower, her pistol bow tumbling from her grip. It brought her within reach of Sulla, who grabbed her ankle.
They were right across from Rose. She ducked inside the tower, grabbed a bar overhead -
- swung forward on it, thrusting her feet out -
- and caught Sulla in the chest. Air whooshed out of his lungs. The hand that was holding onto the tower slipped. Martha shook his other hand off her ankle.
He fell.
“Sulla!” screamed Livia. “Sulla, no!”
They were a good eighty feet up. Even without the locusts crowding around the base of the tower, there was no way for Sulla to survive. The cannon sounded.
Livia turned furious eyes on Rose and Martha. “You little bitches are dead!”
She went after Rose, pulling herself upward and inward. Rose ducked out to the exterior. She had no time to worry about what Martha was doing, trusting the younger girl to have her back.
For as worn down as she was, Livia was still strong and fast. She had no more knives, but pulled a bent, broken bar from one of the struts. Rose knew better than to underestimate the damage it could do.
Rose scrambled upward, trying to maintain her advantage. Livia swung the bar, just grazing Rose’s side.
And then Martha was there, kicking at Livia’s head. Livia pulled herself to the tower exterior, trying to go after Rose while keeping her distance from Martha. She swung the bar again, but this time, Rose caught it. There was a brief scuffle for possession which ended when blood-slick hands on both sides slipped off it, and the bar fell away.
Livia made her move. She surged forward, grabbing hold of Rose’s coat, and bashed Rose’s forehead with her own.
White lights flashed in Rose’s vision, but she kept hold of the tower with her right arm. Livia drew back for another blow -
- and screamed as Martha’s axe bit into her other arm, the one holding onto the tower. Rose took advantage of the moment, giving Livia a good left right in the face. She drew back her fist for another -
And Livia, dazed and bloodied, looked right into Rose’s eyes. She still had hold of Rose, fist knotted in her jacket. Her eyes, though, looked like Toby’s had at the Cornucopia, seemingly a lifetime ago.
“Livia,” said Rose, not even knowing why she was saying it.
“I could pull you down with me,” Livia said, her voice rough with exhaustion and pain. “It’s all we’re good for. Death. Killing or dying. Doesn’t matter. Could take you down with me.” She swallowed. “What’s the point?”
Then she let go of Rose’s jacket.
She fell. A cannon sounded.
“Rose,” called Martha’s voice from above.
Rose looked up. There was a platform at the top of the tower, just a few feet above her. Rose forced her weary, battered body upward, and Martha pulled her onto the platform, where they clung to each other.
Martha was in no better shape than Rose. Something had torn through her jacket and left a long, shallow cut in her side, and she had a bloody scrape on her forehead. Her hands looked like raw meat.
They both watched as a hovercraft flew in below their feet to pick up Livia’s corpse. Sometime during the battle, the locusts had retreated, and the arena could now be taken for a pleasant, peaceful valley.
Rose was shaking. So was Martha.
“Why - why don’t they announce the end?” Martha asked. “We won, right?”
“We won,” said Rose, voice dull.
And then the announcement came, but it wasn’t the one they were expecting.
“Congratulations to our final two tributes!” boomed Claudius Templesmith. “Upon an examination of the rules, it has been decided that the previous revision of allowing two allied winners is not legal. Therefore, only one winner may be crowned. May the odds be ever in your favor!”
Of course, thought Rose. Of course they weren’t really going to be so kind. Of course they were taking away the only good thing she’d found in the Games.
“What?” gasped Martha. “They can’t do that! They can’t!”
Rose shook her head. “Of course they can. That’s the whole point of the Games, isn’t it? To show us that they can.”
“Well - well, screw that!” Martha tossed the last few bolts in her quiver and Shella’s knife off the tower. Then she fished her utility knife, her last weapon, out of her belt, and threw it away as well.
Rose laughed, full-throated and full of humor and, perhaps, a little madness. “You’re right. Screw that.” She pulled her own knife out of her belt, and it followed Martha’s.
“Let me see your hands,” said Martha. Rose let her. Martha pulled out her canteen and rinsed them with water, and then she tore strips of cloth from Rose’s jacket and shirt and wrapped them.
When she was done, Rose returned the favor. They both drank a little water as well, and then they sat together, holding hands and looking out over the lake.
“What happens now?” Martha asked.
Rose shrugged. “Dunno. They’ll probably kill us both.” She sighed. Every bit of her hurt, but she felt oddly peaceful all the same. “Tell me another of your stories, Martha. Something about the Wolf and the Mockingjay.”
“In the Time Before Time,” Martha began, “there came to the People word of mechanized, metal soldiers advancing through the wild, killing everything in their path and burning the forest. Though the People were brave and had withstood many troubles, they feared this foe would be beyond them.
“The Wise Woman, therefore, sought the Lady of the Forest. ‘Lady,’ she said, ‘the People are frightened by these metal soldiers. We have never fought so fearsome an army, and we fear that they will destroy us so that the world will forget we ever lived.’
“ ‘The world forgets nothing, Wise Woman,’ said the Lady. ‘But yes, this foe is beyond you. Go back to the People and tell them to be strong, for the Wolf will protect you.’
“So the Wise Woman returned to the People and told them what the Lady had said.
“ ‘Can even the Wolf overcome such a foe?’ asked the War Chief.
“ ‘We must trust the Lady,’ said the Wise Woman. ‘Trust her, and be strong.’
“Meanwhile, the Lady sent for her Mockingjay. When it came to her, she sang to it. She sang the song of the Earth, the Sky, the Trees and the Water. She sang of the People and of the animals of the forest. She sang the power of life itself into the little bird, and she sent it away to find the Wolf.
“When the Mockingjay found the Wolf, it sang the Lady’s song to it until the Wolf’s eyes blazed with golden light. The Wolf, filled with the power of the song, ran to meet the ravening horde.
“ ‘You will come no further,’ it snarled at them.
“ ‘We are eternal,’ said the soldiers. ‘We have no life for you to take. We will exterminate all life from these forests and make the land bow to our will. We will never stop.’
“ ‘Then I will fight you under the Sun and under the Moon,’ said the Wolf. ‘I will rend you to dust, and you will blow away with the wind and be washed away by the rain. And I will not stop until I have defeated every last one of you.’
“So the Wolf fought the mechanical soldiers. It fought them under the Sun and the Moon. With each swipe of its claws and bite of its teeth, the soldiers fell to dust, and the wind carried them away and the rain washed the land clean. Only when the last one had been defeated did the Wolf stop to rest.
“The Mockingjay flew to its friend, for the Wolf was terribly injured and dying. ‘We come to the end, my dearest friend,’ said the Wolf. ‘I am happy to die with you by my side.’
“But the Mockingjay began to sing again the song of the Lady. It sang life and healing into the Wolf. The Wolf’s injuries faded, its wounded body healed, and it leaped to its feet, happy as a cub. The friends disappeared into the forest, and they protected it together.
“This is how the Wolf and the Mockingjay saved the forest and the People from the metal soldiers.”
Rose looked out over the valley one more time, breathing deeply of the clean air. “Never stop telling your stories, Martha.”
Something in her voice tipped the younger girl off. “Rose, what are you thinking of doing?”
“I’m not just going to sit here and wait for the Gamemakers to get bored and zap us,” Rose said. “One of us can still go home.”
“So you’re going to jump?” Martha caught on far too quickly. “No! If one of us is going to, I will. You’re all your mom has, remember?”
Rose shook her head. “My mom wouldn’t want me to survive if it meant just sitting here and watching you die. That’s not worth it, not to her or me.”
“And it is to me?” Martha asked. She held their joined hands, with their blood-soaked bandages, up to Rose’s face. “You and I share blood now. You’re my sister. I can’t let you die, not any more than I could let Tish die. Not while I can help it.”
“Martha, you volunteered for Tish. This is me, volunteering for you.” She held up her other hand to stop Martha’s objection. “I should’ve known from the beginning that they weren’t going to let us both live, but I wanted to believe it. So let me do the right thing. You’ll be their victor.”
“Screw. That.” Martha gripped Rose’s hand so hard it hurt both of them. “If that’s the way they’re going to play, they won’t have a victor. They wouldn’t, anyway; if I let you do this, I’ve lost.” She took a deep breath. “We’ll both jump.”
“Martha, please.”
“We’ll both jump. We’ll both do the right thing.” Martha brought Rose’s hand to her mouth and kissed it. “My sister.”
Rose knew it was useless to try to talk Martha out of it. And, somehow, it would be wrong to. Because Martha was right. There could be no victor this way.
She kissed Martha’s hand. “My sister.”
Martha nodded, lips pressed together. “On three.”
“One.”
“Two.”
“Th-”
“Stop!” shouted Claudius Templesmith’s voice. “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you your victors - Rose Tyler and Martha Jones!”
***
In the District 9 control room, seven people started breathing again. Jabe and her partner Dave had joined the Doctor and Donna, and Reina and her counterpart from Seven, Cathica, were present as well. Ace McShane from Three had also joined them after they’d used Nokia’s bomb.
“Of all the brainless moves,” fumed the Doctor.
“What? I thought they were brilliant!” Donna protested.
The Doctor waved his hand. “Not the girls. The Gamemakers. I don’t know that they could’ve come up with a worse idea than offering to allow two victors, then withdrawing the offer at the end. I predict someone’s head will roll over this. Literally.” He looked at the screen, where Martha and Rose were being plucked off the tower by a hovercraft. “It’s them I’m worried about now.”
“I’m going to go back to the Three control room,” Ace announced suddenly. “I just remembered something I needed to tell Beetee.” As she got up from her chair, her hand folded briefly, flashing three fingers.
It was a signal. Reina looked at Cathica, who gave her a terse nod and followed Ace out of the room.
“Doctor,” said Reina after they were gone, “there are rumblings coming out of Four. Some of the higher-ups are convinced they’re about to rebel. It’s the same with Eight.”
“And we can add Seven and Nine to that number soon enough, I’ll wager,” Jabe said. “Good thing they don’t seem to know about Three.”
“We’ll have Snow’s eyes on us,” Donna pointed out.
“That could be useful,” said the Doctor. “I predict it’ll make things difficult in our districts, but it could be worth it to occupy the Capitol’s attention. What’s most important is that we protect them. The girls. We’ve got the spark we’ve been looking for. We can’t let the Capitol snuff it out.”
Jabe nodded. “Understood. I can get Martha out with very little lead time. We should be able to get her family as well.”
“Good. Be prepared for it, then.” He looked over at Donna. “We can take care of Rose.”
“Hell, yes.” She glanced at the clock. “I just need a word with our flirty friends. And we need champagne.”
She pressed a button on the console, and a port opened in the wall. Inside was a bottle of champagne and five glasses.
By the time the bugs were working again, all anyone watching could see was a happy, united team toasting the Wolf and the Mockingjay.
***
Rose stared into the mirror, unable to get used to her eyes.
When she’d finally emerged from her drug-induced, post-Games slumber, her skin was polished to perfection. All the injuries from the Games and even her old scars were gone. Her fingernails, torn to shreds by the tower, were now perfect half-moons, and all the body hair that had started to grow back was gone.
But it was her eyes that had changed the most. They were no longer brown. Instead, they were amber, like a wolf’s.
Jack had explained it to her. “Basically, your eyes already had that tone in them. All we did was to bring it out by removing or lightening the other colors. The effect isn’t permanent; over the next few years, they’ll slowly revert to brown if you don’t get the color touched up. For now, though, you’re the Wolf.”
It had seemed to her at the time that he wasn’t telling her everything, that there was a deeper reason for the alteration. It was beautiful, no question about that, but it also made her look somehow . . . feral.
Her hair was still short, much to Aurelius’s evident disgust as he flounced off with his rejected cart of hair extensions, though Jack had shaped it to look less ragged.
“I want people to remember how you cut it off in the arena,” Jack said.
The reunion with Martha and the Games recap had been last night. Tonight was the interview with Caesar Flickerman. And it was, according to the Doctor, very important that she play it carefully.
“You and Martha forced their hand,” he’d told her. “You went off script. They’re not happy with you. You must make them believe you never intended to be rebellious.”
“I didn’t, I was just trying to live, or at least save Martha!” Rose protested.
“I know. But some in the districts have been, shall we say, inspired by the idea of the two of you saying ‘Screw that!’ to the Capitol. What you must do now is go out there and make it look like rebellion is the farthest thing from your mind. Play up the sisterhood. Gush about how kind the Capitol and Gamemakers are for giving you your new best friend.” The Doctor held his hand up. “You can vomit later. Just remember: You’re protecting Martha as well as yourself. And those around you back home.”
That brought Rose up short. “They’d - they’d hurt Mom?”
“In a second.” The Doctor looked away, the lines in his face deepening. “We’ll protect you as much as we can, but you have to be careful, Rose. Very careful.”
Now, Rose stood backstage, wearing a steel-colored gown with a silvery wolf-fur ruff around her shoulders. Her face was painted in cool tones and her eyes rimmed with charcoal gray, contrasting sharply with her golden eyes. When she caught her reflection in the mirror, they practically leaped out of it.
“You’re on, Rose,” said Reina.
Rose walked out into bright lights and thundering applause, and Martha joined her from the other side of the stage. She looked beautiful in a black gown whose huge sleeves had patches of white on them, mimicking a mockingjay. They embraced at mid-stage and went to sit opposite Caesar.
He began with innocuous questions about their respective journeys in the arena and how it felt to have someone to team up with. They were both careful with their answers, talking each other up and emphasizing how their strengths complemented each other. Caesar happily played into it, and he replayed some footage alternating between Sulla and Livia eating something that violently disagreed with them and Rose and Martha chowing down on fresh vegetables in the garden. The audience found it hilarious.
Then he came to the dangerous part. “What were you thinking, there at the end, when the allied-winners rule was revoked and you faced one of you having to die?”
Martha, smart girl that she was, burst into tears. Rose hugged her as the audience made sympathetic noises. It made Rose wonder how many of them had cheered on Livia and Sulla as the Careers had mounted the tower and closed in for the kill.
“I think this really says it all,” Rose said, indicating the tearful Martha. “I don’t think anyone who hasn’t been through something like that can understand how close you can get to another person. We were all we had in the arena. We had to rely on each other, trust each other completely. When the announcement came that we could both win, we were so happy, because we already felt like sisters. And when they revoked that rule . . .” Rose shook her head. “You can’t just turn off that feeling. Neither of us could’ve watched the other die. That’s why we decided to jump together.”
Martha sniffled, adding, “She’d have done it, you know. Jumped to save my life. But I could never have gone home, knowing I allowed someone I loved the way I love Rose to kill herself for me.”
Rose remembered the Doctor’s words. “I’m just so glad the Gamemakers decided to spare us. They didn’t have to, but they did, and I’ll always be grateful for their mercy.” Surprisingly, she got the words out without choking on them.
“I think we’re all glad that you’re both here,” said Caesar. The audience applauded, and Rose hoped she’d done the trick. “What are you both looking forward to the most when you get home?”
Martha spoke first. “I just got word today from Cathica that I have a niece!” The audience cheered. “My brother’s fiancée, Laura, gave birth to a girl. Her name’s Martha Rose, and I can’t wait to see her.”
After the cheering died down, Rose spoke. “I’m mostly looking forward to seeing my mom and my friends again. Once everything settles down, though, I’m going to find some sort of work. We have a tradition among winners in District 9 that you don’t just move to Victor’s Village and eat bonbons after the Games; you find something worthwhile to do. You work for a better Panem, and that’s exactly what I want to do.”
The applause was deafening. Rose didn’t think it would be quite so loud if they understood her definition of “a better Panem.”
When President Snow placed the crown on her head and she met his eyes, though, she had the feeling that he did.
***
Her last night in the Capitol, Rose had an unexpected visitor as she was getting ready for bed. There was a knock at the door, which Rose opened to reveal Martha, dressed in yellow pajamas.
“Cathica and Jabe said it’d be okay if I came up here. May I come in?” she asked.
In answer, Rose pulled her into a hug. “Of course.”
They sat on Rose’s bed, and Rose ordered two cups of hot chocolate, which took mere minutes to arrive. For a little while, they sipped in silence.
“I - I had a hard time sleeping last night,” Martha finally said. “I was afraid of the dreams.”
Rose nodded. “Yeah, same with me.”
“It just seems so strange now. Everything that happened.” Martha ran a hand through her hair, which had been ironed stick-straight by her stylist. “So surreal. I almost feel like it happened to someone else. I couldn’t have - couldn’t have really killed Rodrick.”
In fact, Martha’s official kill tally stood at three: Tom, Rodrick and Gem. She’d gotten credit for Tom because she brought him the nightlock berries, and Gem because she delivered the bomb that indirectly killed him. Rose had Toby, Shella and Sulla to her credit. As for Livia, she’d ultimately been declared a suicide. District 2 probably hated that.
But Rose knew what Martha meant. While she’d gotten in fights back home, she’d never gone in with the object of killing anyone. In fact, she’d never picked fights; they’d always come to her. She’d killed in the arena, though; killed with an ease that scared her. No, she hadn’t had a choice, not a real one, but that didn’t make her feel much better.
“What will you do when you get home?” Rose asked.
“I’ll keep learning to be a healer, I guess,” said Martha with a shrug. “I think I’ll miss camp life.”
“I’m pretty sure I won’t miss Factory life,” Rose said, and laughed. “Victor’s Village is up by lake country. It’s as pretty a place as you’ll find in Nine. It’ll be nice not to always be breathing smoke.” She set her empty cup aside and slid between the sheets. “C’mon.”
As she had under the old cabin, Martha readily accepted the invitation. She snuggled down under the covers, humming idly to herself.
The tune was one Rose felt she knew, and, within seconds, she placed it.
“Martha, did you ever sing that song in the arena?” Rose asked.
Martha seemed startled at the question. “Well . . . yes. I was so scared the first night that I hummed it to myself as quietly as I could. It’s an old lullaby my mom used to sing to me. How did you know?”
“A mockingjay. When I was trying to sleep, one of them sang that tune to me. I could tell it was a lullaby, and . . . it was comforting.” She took Martha’s hand. “It’s almost like we were meant to find each other in there.”
Martha smiled. “Of course we were. The Mockingjay found you for me.”
Rose hesitated for a moment before telling Martha about the strange incident with the wolf. Martha was very interested.
“It was a gray wolf? With eyes like yours are now?” Rose nodded. “That’s always been the description of the Wolf in the stories.”
“Do you think it was real?” Rose asked. “I never saw or heard another wolf in the arena.”
“I think it was real. Even if it wasn’t there physically, it was real. Sometimes, hunters or a Wise Woman will report seeing the Wolf and the Mockingjay. It always means something important, really important, is about to happen.”
“Good or bad important?”
Martha shrugged. “Either. Sometimes both. But I think you must be very important, Rose, if they came to you.”
Rose hugged her tight. “Not more important than you.”
Nestled into each other’s warmth, the Wolf and the Mockingjay slept without nightmares.
End of Part 1
A/N: Part 2 is in the works. Once it's done, I'll start posting it. There will be, I emphasize, no Part 3. Not writing a novel here, in spite of all appearances.
Thanks to everyone who enjoyed the fic and commented!