Chapter Text
Reunion: Voltaea
The noise has died down significantly since they cleared the shipping containers - No echoes, no voices, no screaming - just the ringing. Voltaea squints at the tower, a block and a half away down the cracked, debris-strewn street in front of them. The two of them had debated trying to get a better look from a nearby building before making their approach- but those aren’t in much better shape than the streets are. Half of them look like a strong wind would knock them over. The only thing they had managed to agree on so far without argument was that neither wanted to die being crushed under one if that assessment held true.
Sarah holds up a hand to call for a stop and whispers - “Should we just yell out? If it’s them they must be able to hear us from here.”
Do you want everyone to know where we are? Nerves still blazing from the bloodbath, Voltaea bites back the urge to say that thought aloud and tries to focus back on the plan - “Not yet, I want to get close enough that we can try and get a look at the one on the platform first.” She gestures at the lower part of the structure, the shadow of a small platform with a pacing figure atop it faintly visible against the sky.
With a shrug, Sarah says - “I can’t think of anyone else it would b-”
Voltaea interrupts with a sharp whisper -“I know! I was the one who said it had to be them! That doesn’t mean we should run around yelling so everyone else knows where we are!”
She doesn’t mention that a voice no one else hears reminded her to be cautious after she’d made that assumption- ‘Careful, darling - one wrong move in here and you’re dead. You don’t know if someone was hiding their climbing skills.’ Ugh. You were more helpful earlier, you know. The voice ignores her -‘Remember when I told you to hide your special talents? Not that you listened-’ Can you please stop talking? I need to focus. ‘Fine, fine. I suppose you can handle it yourself for now.’ She hasn’t heard it since. That’s because it isn’t real, and I haven’t thought about it in a while, that’s all.
“Ok, I get it - quiet.” I’ve only had to remind her six fucking times.
Beyond the perimeter of a chain-link fence, the tower stands next to a trailer-style outbuilding - not crumbling to bits, but still surrounded by smashed windows and strewn junk like the rest of the city they’d walked through. It is a city, I think. Just not one that’s been alive in a long time. If ever. Voltaea pulls her ally behind a nearby van in the street - Any closer and they might see us before we get a look at them. She peeks around the edge of the van at the lower platform and the person still pacing atop it. Eyes still failing her in the darkness, all she can make out is that whoever it is isn’t very tall. “Here, you look-” She tugs Sarah by the arm and points at the mystery figure.
“Huh? Oh-” She squints for a moment,- “Yeah, that’s definitely Bashir. It’s the way he’s pacing.”
“You’re sure?”
Sarah nods firmly, “That’s basically all he did this week besides train and eat, I got to know it.”
“Alright. Let’s-” ‘Are you sure you can trust that, darling?’ Oh no, not this again! Voltaea tries to protest the thought, but the seed of doubt is already growing too quick to contain - “You’re really sure?”
“I’m really, really sure. Come on, they’re probably-” BOOM! Sarah falls silent as the first cannon fires - the figure on the tower stops moving - Voltaea slams her eyes shut. Okay, don’t lose focus - count them. Who’s left? That girl… she went first. That cannon is for her. BOOM! - Marcelus? He can’t have survived on the ground like that. BOOM! - Shit. Who else? BOOM! - MAKO! How did I forget him?! He was right in front of me! BOOM! - Wait, how many cannons was that? BOOM! - Six, that’s six. BOOM! - Seven. Was the twin one of those cannons? Her heart thunders against her ribs, a buzz at the base of her neck- Did I actually-
“I think that’s it.” Sarah’s too-loud whisper rips her back to reality - I guess I’ll find out when the anthem plays. A brief silence between them confirms it - “Yeah, that was it. Six doesn’t seem like much for a bloodbath, does it?”
“Seven. And that’s not the lowest total I’ve heard of, but below average, definitely. Hopefully it’s enough to keep the Capitol talking for a few days.” Voltaea steps out from behind the van and starts towards the tower, motioning for Sarah to follow.
“Bashir keeps telling me when people stop dying, that’s when they send the mutts.” The way Sarah says it sounds like she doesn’t quite believe it - Voltaea quickly corrects that.
“He’s not wrong. Other stuff too, but the Gamemakers don’t like it when we’re boring for too long.” Alara doesn’t like it when I’m boring either. ‘Aren’t you a good girl for remembering?’ The flush hits her cheeks before she can stop it - Oh come on! Now is NOT the time to be thinking about- Suddenly, the figure on the platform disappears from view - Voltaea squints, trying to catch sight of it against the dark metal structure.
“I think he’s climbing down!” Sarah whispers excitedly before taking off at a jog.
It’s not until they approach the fence that she sees what her ally was so happy about and half the tension she was carrying melts in seconds. Definitely the right hair, the right height… That’s him! Bashir hops off the bottom ladder and breaks into a run towards them - though she can’t make out his face clearly until it’s pressed right against the fence, and even then it’s half-obscured by a strange-looking pair of goggles. What is he wearing? He can’t wipe the smile off his face- “You both made it!”
“Of course we did! And with most of what we went in for, too. Couldn’t have been smoother.” Sarah holds up the large axe she’d salvaged from the bloodbath. I’m not sure about smooth… but I guess there’s no need to worry them.
The first thing out of Voltaea’s mouth, before anyone else can speak again is - “Where’s Coulomb?” ‘How many times do I have to tell you not to worry about him, darling?’ How many times do I have to tell you to shut up and let me make my own choices?
Bashir whirls around and points up at the top of the tower - “He’s climbing down now - But the ladder up there is so rusted that he had to climb the structure itself for a while and that’s turned out to be slow going. It probably would have been easier if he’d just used the goggles like I said, but he wanted me to keep watch for you two while he made the signal.”
“What are those, anyway?” ‘I am glad to see it’s not just me that you’re constantly needling with questions.’ Shut up.
“Climb over, it’s better if you just see for yourself.” Bashir has barely finished his sentence when Sarah tosses her axe over and starts up the fence. Voltaea tries to do the same with the duffel bag, but the first attempt falls short of the top and nearly lands on her head. ‘That would have been an embarrassing way to go - you really should be more careful darl-’ Shut UP! The second throw clears it, falling with a heavy thud against the dirt.
“Whoa!” Sarah’s voice booms out just as Voltaea reaches the other side of the fence - “Sparky, can you see yet or are you still blind as shit?” Thanks for yelling that for everyone to hear - ‘Again, regarding that girl, I did tell y-’ GODS, WILL YOU STOP?! ‘Oh, alright. I’m sure you’ll want me back soon enough.’
Voltaea drops her voice to a whisper, hoping her ally will take the hint - “Not as well as I’d like to.”
“Here, you’re gonna love this-” Sarah pulls the goggles off her head and thrusts them into Voltaea’s hands.
Before she can figure out how they’re even supposed to go on, Bashir has her crouching so he can fix the straps for her - “It’s easier if someone else does it, the adjuster things are hard to reach once you’re wearing them.”
When she pulls them over her eyes - It’s like waking up from a coma again - The world around her blazes to life. Except that everything looks green? - For the first time since the bloodbath, the too-fast thumping in her chest starts to slow. I can see so clearly! But where did- “Bashir, where did you guys even find these? I thought you were supposed to run-”
“Oh, don’t worry - we got out of there as fast as we could. They were a sponsor gift - just kind of dropped from the sky.” He shrugs nonchalantly, and starts to mention something else they’d gotten but Voltaea has already stopped listening - How much did these cost!? Thinking back to her studies - Even the basics cost more than I make in a year. How many sponsors do we have that they can just drop something that expensive on us?! It hits her that mentors are the ones responsible for distributing sponsor gifts - Why would Alara send these to the boys? Maybe it was Seven who sent them? But we share funding, they’d have to ask her first, wouldn’t they? Her heart sinks, stomach burning - So she’d rather send them things than me?? Is this because I fell down fighting Mako? Does she think I’m going to lose now?
Her racing thoughts are interrupted by someone small throwing their arms around her midsection. She nearly screams before she sees it’s Coulomb’s face looking up at her- “V! You saw my signal! I had to improvise, but I knew you’d get it!”
See, I told you he wasn’t useless! Nothing answers Voltaea’s thoughts this time. I guess you finally shut up, then. Fine. I don’t need you here anyways! Especially if you think I’m going to lose. With a heavy sigh, she turns her attention back to the boy. “Quick thinking with the light. How did you manage to get it blinking that way?”
Coulomb animatedly tells her about his perilous climb up the tower and rewiring of the light at the top once he’d realized there was no switch to be found. “I tried to take off my jacket to cover it, but then I almost fell so that was out-”
Her mind starts to wander, the anxious itch in her spine flaring up once more - What do we actually do now? We didn’t really plan past us all meeting up again. Did any of the stuff we grabbed even have food in it? Or water? ‘You do what you’re best at, my love. Play to your strengths, that’s how you win.’ Oh so now you’re talking again? ‘You seemed lost, darling. I thought I’d provide some direction.’ But what am I best at? That doesn’t tell me anything! ‘Well, why don’t you-’
“Hey! Sparky! Are you listening?” Sarah's voice splits her skull - Not-Alara falls silent again - Well thanks, that was really helpful. Ugh.
Voltaea opts for partial honesty - “I was trying to think of a plan.”
“I mean, yeah, that’s what we’re all doing. You just seemed like you were spacing out.” Sarah shrugs. “Still not sure how you guys want to go about finding water in a place like this, though. I guess we could wait for rain? The air’s damp enough that we might get lucky.”
Something about the way Sarah says the word ‘lucky’ - Like that’s some kind of a valid strategy?! - Sets her teeth on edge. “We’d have to set up rain collectors, and even then there’s no guarantee we'll get any. Or that it’s even drinkable.” Voltaea tries to keep the frustration out of her tone by digging her nails into her palm - Calm. “We need to find a reliable source, whatever that means here.” She waves a hand at the ruins around her - I don’t even know where we’d start. ‘I mean. Come on, darling - you have the perfect vantage point, why not use it?’ Shit, why didn’t I think of that! “I’ll climb up and see if there’s anything around, maybe there’s a river or a lake or something?”
Bashir shakes his head - “All I could see from the platform was buildings for the most part, but I guess if you want to try the top-”
At the mention of the top, Coulomb jumps up and interrupts in excitement - “I can go! I know the safe way to do it now, I think.”
“It’s fine, Coulomb, I’ve done a lot of climbing on badly maintained towers in my life. Besides, you just climbed all the way down-”
Coulomb isn’t having it, he whines in protest -“But I already made a rope harness in my size! And I’m smaller than you are, I don’t know if what’s left of the ladder up there will even hold you, it barely held me!” The tone feels like a knife in her eardrum, the ringing gets louder -
‘Darling, just let the weepy little weakling make the climb. You need the time to focus on what you’re best at.’ I’m good at climbing too… ‘And I would never dispute that, my sweet - but climbing isn’t going to take care of the sixteen other problems running around the arena, now is it?’ With a heavy sigh, Voltaea concedes to the voice of reason - “Okay, but you have to promise me you’ll be careful.” She fumbles with the strap of the goggles, pulling them off and handing them to Coulomb, chest tightening when she opens her eyes to the darkness once more - I feel naked without those… ‘Do you? I do like to see you-” Don’t.
The boy distracts her from the new, unwelcome heat in her gut - “I promise! I can see if there’s any good places to shelter around too, or food, or maybe someone has a fire going, or I could see if I can find any plants, or-”
Sarah claps him on the shoulder playfully, but even in the dark Voltaea can see the furrowed, irritated look on her face - “I think we get the picture, buddy. You just get up there and find whatever you can that’s useful, and we’ll figure out what’s next from there.”
It’s then Voltaea notices how badly the girl is shaking - Huh. Is this about earlier? ‘You know what they say about a weak link, right, my love?’ Yeah, you’ve told me- wait. You didn’t tell me that! That’s something Markus always used to say- She frowns at herself - I’ve barely thought about him since… well, her. He’d made references on more than a few occasions to ‘a chain only being as strong as its weakest link’ - mostly when someone was slacking off. The disappointed look on his face was usually enough to shame them into being a team player. I don’t think that’s going to work if Sarah thinks I’m the one messing things up. ‘There are other ways to take care of a weak link, darling. You’ll want to keep those in mind when the time comes.’ I don’t want to talk about that right now- ‘Just remember - she’s not the sort to hesitate if she sees you as a threat.’ She looks over at Sarah, armed to the teeth and twice as strong, and for the first time feels something like fear about her ally. I’ll just have to be smarter than she is. ‘That’s my girl!’
“What if we stayed here? It's out in the open, but it’s so tall that we’d see anyone coming a mile off -” Bashir’s voice is louder than usual, catching her off-guard, and she realizes the other three have continued the conversation in her absence - Shit! I need to pay more attention, stop distracting me!
“Yeah, I gotta be honest, I don’t love that idea buddy. I roll around a lot when I sleep. I’ll be dead the first time I nap!” Sarah sounds adamant - But Bashir has a good point.
“We have plenty of rope, we can just tie you in when you want to sleep” He has lots of good points, actually. ‘And there’s plenty of opportunity here for you to play to your strengths-’ Gods, I wish you’d stop being so vague! ‘For fucks sake, Voltaea! OPEN THE BAG!’
As Sarah and Bashir bicker about their sleep situation, Voltaea scuttles over to the duffel on the ground and begins to sift through the contents. Plenty of conductive wiring, magnets, tools, OH! Is that a box of razor blades? That could be fun. I’m sure one of these cars must have a battery in it, maybe I could get the others to cover me while I snag one- ‘You’ve figured out what it is you need to be doing, I take it?’ Her eyes light up, a manic-looking grin overtaking her face - “I’m with Bashir. We should stay here.”
“Oh come on, two against one is bullshit!” Sarah throws up her arms in frustration. “You guys really don’t want to try and find a nicer spot to camp in? There’s places with roofs around, you know. And real floors-”
“But there’s none that I’ve seen with an intact fence and a hundred foot tall vantage point.” Voltaea stands firm. Before Sarah can reply, she adds - “If we stay here, I can already see at least ten places to set up traps in. Between that and the state of most of these buildings, I’d bet we’re actually safer staying put.”
Bashir backs her up immediately - “And as far as roofs go, there's enough scrap around here that there must be something we can use to cover that first platform at the very least.”
That’s all the confirmation Voltaea needs to get to work - Sarah will just have to deal with it. ‘Gods, I love it when you take charge.’ - “I’ll start setting up around the outside of the fence - basic trip wires, maybe something with these blades I found… I can get creative with things later.”
Sarah gives her an uneasy look and sighs - “Alright, I guess we’re building traps then. What do you want us to start with?” You mean take charge like that? ‘Mmmhmmm. Just like that.’ I think I can manage that.
“Actually, Sarah, Um…” Bashir shifts nervously - “I think you should start bringing some of our stuff up the ladder and wait for Coulomb. I mean. You’re the strongest, it makes sense.” ‘He seems eager to be rid of her’ Or, you know, he just has some good ideas? Sarah wasn’t exactly the most helpful when we made traps in training. ‘Perhaps. But look at his body language - he's on edge about something.’
Sarah rolls her eyes at the boy, but she can’t hide the smile she gets when he calls her the strongest - See, this is why I want her on my side. She knows she’s strong. ‘Physically, she’s strong, sure. But the girl lacks the mental fortitude to do what needs to be done.’ “Alright, alright. I’ll take the boring job- but only because it’s you asking.”
Voltaea grabs a few supplies from the duffel and hands it off to Sarah. “Okay, I think that’s all we need for now. Just come rattle the fence or something when Coulomb’s back, we won’t go far.” She gives a mock Peacekeeper’s salute before heading for the base of the tower, leaving the other two alone.
Bashir is already halfway up the fence before Voltaea has even found her bearings - He really is sneaky- that was way louder when we climbed it earlier. She follows quickly, chain-link rattling under her grip until she drops to the pavement on the street. “Can you start threading some of these through that wire? Just tie one in every six inches or so, I want to keep some of these for later.” Voltaea hands him the box of blades - “I’m thinking we can use them to make-”
“V, can I ask you something?” Bashir cuts her off in the same nervous tone he’d used with Sarah. ‘I told you he was acting squirrely for a reason.’
“Sure, what?”
“I have to know…” He shuts his eyes, steeling himself, then asks -“Do you know who those cannons were for?” Oh… that.
I lost track of so many of them… “Well there was Mako - the boy from Four. Sarah got him.” Bashir’s eyes widen at the mention of his district partner, but she keeps going - “Then Marcelus - I think one of the Two’s took him out. And then there was… well… I don’t know if the boy from Eight actually died - I did hit him, though. But then…” She clenches her fists, digging her nails into her palm - There’s no use getting mad at her, I need her around, just be calm. “Sarah pulled me off while he was still alive, so who knows.” His face sinks at that - Less surprised, more disappointed? Interesting. “Apart from that, and the girl who blew herself up…” Voltaea suddenly remembers a conversation they’d had a few days ago in the cafeteria - I probably shouldn’t bring it up. ‘Oh, but you have to, it’ll be funny!’ Funny? ‘Don’t hesitate, darling, you know the rules-’ Before she can stop herself, she blurts out - “You were right about who died first, you know.”
“What?” Bashir twitches, drops the blade he’s holding to the concrete with a clink. Yeah, I probably shouldn’t have said that. “What are you talking about?”
It’s too late now - “When we guessed who’d go first, you guessed the girl from Six. You were right.”
“Oh…” Bashir trails off, turning back to the razor wire she’d assigned him to without another word. ‘Well, I thought it was funny.’ Can you please just be quiet again while I get this done? They work in silence for a while - I wish I’d asked Coulomb for his watch - until the boy breaks it with another question - “What do you think is left at the Cornucopia?”
“Well, from what I’ve seen, the strongest alliance almost always ends up taking it over. So whatever anyone didn’t grab would still be there with them.” Voltaea pauses, frowns - “But I have no idea who that could be. Cymbria ran off, and the Two’s killed her partner, so it’s not the Careers. Well, I guess it could just be the Two’s - they were winning the last fight I saw them in. Or maybe the outer districts?”
Bashir nods - “I want to sneak over there and find out.”
That catches her off-guard - But it’s perfect! - “You’ll have to wait for Coulomb to come back with the goggles-
“I’ll have to wait for you to distract Sarah, too. She’s not going to like me sneaking off on my own.” ‘I could tell you I told you so again, but that would be cruel.’
“I can try.” ‘It’s not like it’ll be hard, my love’ “If he finds something up there, that’s the perfect excuse for us to split up for a while. You volunteer to stay back with Coulomb, sneak off once we’ve gone to find water - easy.”
‘And once he’s back, you’ll know exactly where to start hunting for Ismene’s other little brat-’ A red light flashes straight into her eyes - What the- Bashir pulls on her shirt and points up at the light above the tower. Coulomb’s tiny figure shadowed against the sky holds something reflective in his hand, aiming it right at the them. He must see them looking, because he waves an arm excitedly in front of the light - I think that’s a thumbs up? Hard to tell from here.
“Finish tying that last blade and we’ll set up what we have for now. I think he found something…”