𝑳𝒂𝒅𝒚 𝑹𝒆𝒅 || 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒖𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝑮𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒔

𝟒𝟓 || 𝑵𝒐𝒕-𝒔𝒐-𝑾𝒂𝒓𝒎-𝑾𝒆𝒍𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆

THAT CERTAINLY WASN'T A WARM WELCOME. Sasha stared at Evelyn as the anger in her expression faded away again. It always seemed to do that. At least, the last time he saw her that was what happened. She'd show a moment of anger, then that anger would fade into nothingness. Evelyn stared at him with a blank expression and didn't move a single facial feature.

"This is going great," Apollo said with a frustrated smile. Evelyn finally blinked a couple of times before looking at the boy with her eyebrow raised. Apollo didn't react, he just continued to talk. "You look great, a lot more muscles. At least they've been feeding you plenty."

Evelyn scrunched her face up like she was trying to figure out what Apollo was saying, and Sasha couldn't blame her for that. He was in a better state of mind than she was and he couldn't even figure out what he was trying to say. "What are you talking about?" She asked, her tone displaying the confusion on her face.

Apollo's cheeks turned red and he rubbed the back of his neck for a moment, "Um, nothing, just trying to start a conversation."

"He's not the smartest when it comes to talking," Sasha cut in, sitting in a chair across from Evelyn's bed. She didn't try to attack him like she did the last time he saw her in 8. But that could mean anything. Maybe she didn't have the energy to fight, or perhaps the Capitol specifically told her not to fight. Maybe she was there for something else. They would've had to tell her she was a victor if they sent her to 13, which meant they were giving away one of their soldiers. As much as Sasha hated to admit it, a soldier was exactly what Evelyn was at the moment.

She stared at him, her eyes scanning him like she could scan whether he was a threat or not. He had no weapons and he wasn't trying to actively kill her, so Sasha couldn't understand why. Well, he could understand why but he still couldn't wrap his head around what had happened.

Then her eyes fell to his arm, which was nearly healed but still had a bandage around it. "I wanted to shoot you in the head."

Before Sasha could reply, Apollo turned to look at him with a surprised expression which quickly faded into a smirk. "I knew it! I knew you were a liar, of course you were lying. No one just trips and shoots themselves in the arm."

"Yeah, yeah," Sasha muttered, dismissing the kid with a wave, "Whatever. What happened in the Capitol? I know they told you some stuff that couldn't be further from the truth, but-"

Apollo put his hand on his shoulder, interrupting him. When Sasha turned to look at him he was looking down at his communicuff. "They're calling an emergency meeting."

"I can't go," Sasha frowned, gesturing with his head toward Evelyn.

Apollo raised an eyebrow, "She isn't going to talk anyway, it'd be a waste of time."

✮

"It's called hijacking," Plutarch explained, "We don't know how long the Capitol's been doing this to Peeta. It's fear conditioning. Enhanced with tracker jacker venom. You were stung in your first Games. Remember? The venom puts the subject in a dissociative state. And they torture him. With shocks and beatings, and stripped down his identity. And then all of that suffering and fear is redirected. Associated with other memories or a person."

"They can change his memories of Katniss?" Prim asked in a concerned tone.

Plutarch nodded his head, "To make her seem life-threatening. They turned him into a weapon, Katniss. To kill you."

Sasha cleared his throat and spoke up, "Is that what they did to Evelyn too?"

Plutarch pursed his lips before slowly shaking his head, "We aren't sure. She's not attacking anyone, but she seems to think she's from the Capitol. Like she grew up there. Her memories are all mixed up."

He turned away from Sasha and started addressing Katniss again, but Sasha saw Apollo's face go pale and he glanced at Xanther, who also had a look of shock and intrigue.

Sasha elbowed the kid in the shoulder, getting his attention. "What do you know?"

"What?" Apollo startled.

"What do you know?" He asked again in a sterner tone.

Apollo stuttered for a couple of seconds before his father joined in. "Apollo was developing some kind of device that could, what did you say it could do, something with memories, I think. It wasn't completely finished, but Nea could've finished it."

"And who is Nea, again?" Sasha asked.

"My wife, his mother," Xanther whispered.

Sasha nodded before glaring at Apollo, "So you developed a what- mind-wiping device for the Capitol?"

Apollo slid down in his seat, his face getting redder by the minute, "It wasn't supposed to be used like that. I didn't know it was going to be used like that. And I didn't know my mom would finish it for me. I didn't even know she knew about it."

"Maybe we could use this to our advantage," Coin said in a loud voice, snapping the three of them out of their conversation. "If Brinley isn't hostile, and if we could make sure she's back on our side, we could send her back to the Capitol as a spy-"

"That's a dumb idea," Sasha cut in, crossing his arms.

The president stared at him before sighing and rubbing her temple, "And why is that, Ward?"

"The Capitol isn't dumb. Evelyn isn't going to break out of 13 and find her way back to the Capitol on foot. They'd know. Plus, it's too risky."

"If it gets us information to end the war quicker-"

"Which it won't," Sasha cut her off again."

"He's right," Apollo said, "They've probably already thought of it. They probably sent her here to spy on us."

Coin went quiet for a second and Boggs spoke up, "Then we need to make sure she doesn't have a chance to gather information."

"And how do we do that?" Plutarch asked, "Lock her in the detention level?"

Boggs shook his head, "No. If we're trying to get her- and any of them- to trust us again, making her feel like a prisoner is even worse. We'll just have people stand guard outside to make sure she doesn't go anywhere. That's the best idea."

The commander looked at Sasha like he was asking for permission to do that, and Sasha nodded his head. It was the best plan. He didn't want to lock her up in a cell again, that would make it even harder to convince her they weren't lying to her and trying to manipulate her. And as long as she was under watch, she wouldn't try to sneak out. Even if she did, she wouldn't be able to. It was the best plan that didn't involve harming her more, and they'd have to go with it until they could make sure she was back on their side.

No matter how long that would take.

✮ 𝒅𝒂𝒔𝒉𝒂'𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒔 ✮

Last chapter of Mockingjay PT1!!! (If we could refrain from mentioning how short and rushed this chapter is, that would be great. I think after I'm done with writing this book I'm going to go back and rewrite/edit/fix somethings)