Chapter Text
and then there were none.
with the benefit of hindsight, julia had to admit that she pitied the capitol somewhat. ok, not really. but maybe there was a teeny-weeny iota of pity for them somewhere deep down inside of her. mostly for the fact that they had no choice but to leave their fate in the hands of jon thorpe, who had clearly been well out of his depth amongst the many merciless, cut-throat killers that made up the rest of the field.
the poor boy was dead, julia knew, but he had tripped over his own feet while trying to stumble away from the grenade thrown his way with deadly accuracy by yuna. it was that bad. for the simple and obvious fact that he was dead, she would hold back on the scathing criticism she could have dished out easily.
it hadn’t seemed obvious at the time, what with the frightening arsenal of weapons at his disposal and the worry-inducing nature of the games, but there was only ever going to be one outcome once the numbers had been whittled down to the three of them.
what had been far from certain, though, was how the two girls would resolve the quandary keeping countless viewers on the edge of their seats. were they really going to head straight to the afterlife hand-in-hand to prove a point to the capitol? was either of them going to pull off the ultimate betrayal, adding even more fuel to the flames already flickering vigorously with drama?
as it turned out, they did neither, at least initially. the happy couple seemed intent on enjoying the peace and quiet of the arena only left with two living souls, stretching lazily on open fields while soaking in the gentle sunlight, absolutely stuffing themselves with buttered croissants, potatoes and whatever else they had managed to scavenge from the fallen tributes.
it was all too domestic, all too ridiculously normal, to the point where julia wondered if she was watching the hunger games or an abomination of a rom-com. of course, the illusion of happiness didn’t last. while the capitol had received the romance narrative favourably enough, they weren’t going to be satisfied with watching two gorgeous girls frolicking around the arena as if it were their own personal playground.
just as expected, the capitol opened up their bag of tricks in an ultimately futile attempt to spice the spectacle up. what they clearly had not and probably could never have anticipated was the extent to which their investment in jon would backfire. armed with flamethrowers, grenades, sickles (all of which were meant to kill them!), ryujin and yuna incinerated armies of tracker jackers, mutilated jabberjays and blew up meticulously designed zones of booby traps entirely. they were making the capitol look silly.
and the capitol cannot bear losing face. two girls with seemingly superhuman staying power and will were wiping the floor with their killer mutts? why not just deprive them of the opportunity to retaliate at all? undoubtedly bending the rules, but hey, they totally could.
unstoppable forces of destruction were unleashed, with a blazing inferno that chased the girls relentlessly at a searing pace the first warning that shit was about to go down. before they could even recover from the fiery assault, still gasping for air, choking on residual smoke and nursing burns of varying severity, what could only be described as a hurricane barraged into their territory. the destructive gales of wind swept them up as if they were weightless petals and hurled them far away to the outskirts of the arena.
even the capitol’s state-of-the-art drone cameras took a considerable while to identify the whereabouts of the two girls, with the arena in a state of complete disarray and devastation after the rampage of the (man-made) natural disasters.
and when they did, julia had practically been able to visualise the bewilderment and panic spreading amongst the gamemakers like wildfire. the camera, as it was programmed to, trained unerringly onto the couple, zooming in to capture a picturesque frame of the two girls holding hands right on the edge of a cliff.
as they gazed into the distance wordlessly, ryujin smiled wistfully, before breaking the silence gently.
“you know, the extent to which i’ve fallen for you is far greater than this fall could possibly be.”
yuna giggled. “yeah, i was surprised, it only hurt a little. must’ve been because we fell together.”
ryujin proceeded to take a small, tentative step towards the gaping abyss. “then if we take the plunge together once more, this fall should be no problem, right?”
“yup, especially since i’ve been completely sucked in by your gravity. the earth’s gravity can do me harm no more!” yuna turned to face ryujin, leaned in for a chaste kiss, before they turned to face the vast horizons, faces set in determination.
“3...2...1!”
julia held her breath.
the television screen turned black just as yuna and ryujin’s knees were bent, ready to take flight.
the capitol had sprung into action far too slowly. as much as they would undoubtedly attempt to cover it up and shove it under the carpet, it was an open secret at best.
and then there were none.
~
that’s what the entirety of panem thought. julia included, of course. everyone had turned against the capitol leadership, even the sheltered people of the capitol. it was rather laughable just how malleable the views, beliefs and morals of those fascinating human beings were. one moment they were salivating hungrily over the prospect of tributes ripping each other’s heads off in a bloody battle for supremacy, the next moment they were protesting vehemently against the capitol’s alleged brutality and inhumane actions that forced their two heroines to take their own lives.
panem was in an utter state of chaos, air bombardments were practically as common as bird droppings at this point, and if not for the fact that the capitol ringleaders never bombed the houses at each district’s victor’s village (presumably to not incite any feeling of resentment among proven capable beings), julia would probably be dead by this point.
as it was, she was one of the fortunate few souls still able to live a life of relative security and comfort, and she was finally able to fully appreciate the cutting-edge capitol technology installed in every single mansion within the village. it was practically criminal how a feast could appear before her at the mere snap of her fingers while the pitiful common folk out in the war zones were feeding on scraps, but that summed up life in a nutshell. to say life was unfair would be an understatement, but julia wasn’t exactly altruistic or self-sacrificial enough to risk her wellbeing for the benefit of others.
she was more than content to live within the little bubble in the confines of her own home, clinging onto the pretence of happiness while shoving the knowledge that the bubble was perpetually precariously close to popping far to the back of her mind.
and so she really didn’t want to pick up the call.
a video call from an unknown number? it could be the capitol unceremoniously ordering her to pack her bags and join the rest of the desolate peasants on the war-torn streets, it could be them attempting to sweet-talk her into aiding them in their dirty work…
it was as if julia were being forced to open a pandora’s box, releasing a million different possibilities with only a singular eventual outcome. her precious bubble bursting.
maybe if i cooperate with them fully they’ll see me as friend instead of foe…(julia had always been good at lying to herself)
too late. the pandora’s box had been opened. julia waited with bated breath as the connection was established, before her jaw literally dropped as an all-too-familiar face materialised on her tablet screen.
julia was gaping dazedly at shin ryujin herself.
~
julia had a lot to take in and internalise. by the time she hung up, she was so overwhelmed with shock, disbelief, amazement and joy that she just slumped onto her bed weakly, her mind still fitting all the pieces of the puzzle together.
she thought long and hard about the butterfly effect. in an alternate reality, the cameras don’t cut, the entirety of panem discovers the two girls are in the midst of an ingenious escape from the jaws of death and they become fugitives for life whom the capitol will stop at nothing to apprehend and kill viciously.
instead, every reckless decision made by the capitol somehow played completely into the girls’ favour. they had intended to head to the edge of the cliff all along, and the capitol’s hurricane only served to aid them in reaching their destination well ahead of schedule. the cameras captured the ‘parting words’ of the perfect couple faced with a necessarily tragic ending, only to crucially be cut off by the flustered capitol before the girls sprang into action.
it allowed for the execution of the perfect crime. no one witnessed the deployment of the striking red parachute which altered the trajectory of their fall from fatal to gentle. no one witnessed their composed landing into the dense, mysterious woods few dared venture into for fear of getting mauled by wild beasts. no one could possibly imagine that they were still alive and kicking.
and not only were they surviving, they were thriving. yuna, being the resourceful prodigy that she was, had managed to work her magic on the various perplexing capitol devices such that they had full access to capitol secrets and communication platforms. they were fully aware of the full-scale uprising against the capitol, and they planned to add huge doses of fuel to the fire already threatening to engulf the capitol.
after all, if the legacy they had left behind was so impactful that they had essentially been immortalised as martyrs of the rebellion, how much more convincing would they be in person, having risen from the grave to act as figureheads championing the cause?
julia didn’t think she was worthy of being the individual the two girls sought out to publicise their inexplicable reappearance, but it wasn’t as if her role even mattered. the knockout blow was imminent, and the capitol wouldn’t even know what hit them.
ladies and gentlemen, presenting to you shin ryujin and shin yuna. even death couldn’t do them part, they are back with a vengeance.
game over.
(in more ways than one).