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None of them knew what to say.
Melina could see that Natasha was furious. The odds of this happening to a family twice were supposed to be less than the odds of being struck by lightning- one in one point two million, if Melina recalled correctly- and Natasha had already fought and killed once to make sure it would never, ever happen to her sister. They had wealth, they had celebrity, they had a history of greater-than-average compliance with the Panemian government. These things- these reapings, they had been told by many different residents of the district, were probably rigged. There was no reason whatever for them to be rigged against Yelena. Natasha hid it well enough, but Melina could see herself in her child. Holding it in. Waiting for her moment.
Alexei was already destroying the little farewell room in the Justice Building, shouting all their thoughts out loud at the top of his lungs in terrifying, booming Russian (a language Melina had not heard him speak even once in the eight years since they'd been sent here to find out what had happened to America- or in the four since it became clear that they were not going to be extracted).
In her own heart, Melina just felt numb. It was hard to remember, but she thought that she had felt that way when Natasha volunteered.
She couldn't bear, just yet, to look at Yelena. Not her brave girl, not her little one, who had no memory of the Red Room and had only ever known Alexei and Melina's love.
Not Yelena, who did not choose this and never would have in a million years. Yelena wasn't like the rest of them. Yelena was still innocent. Still... good.
Natasha had gone into the arena against twenty-three hungry children with all the training of a Red Room assassin. Melina had worried because she was still young and small and mistakes could happen to anyone, but she had felt no surprise at her daughter's success, only relief. Yelena would be eaten alive.
Melina's eyes burned with tears and it was this that finally surprised a small, pained noise from Yelena. Melina turned and looked into her pale, round face, the green eyes swimming with terror, and held her arms out to her. Yelena stepped in and let her mother hold her close. In less than a minute, Natasha glommed onto Yelena's other side, holding her tightly between the two of them. Melina held onto her, too.
Alexei paused mid furniture-kicking tirade and saw the three of them, then hurried over to hold them, too. "I'm sorry, Lena," he said softly, putting his accent away like a backup weapon, hidden somewhere on his person. "I'm so sorry." He held all three of them so tight that they were all lifted an inch or two off the floor.
"I'm sorry, too," Yelena gasped between repressed sobs. No conscious memory of the Red Room, but she still knew to try to keep tears to herself. It felt like being stabbed in the chest.
"I don't know what to do," Alexei said. "There has to be something we can do." Melina could hear the desperation in his voice. She thought, not for the first time, that Yelena was his favorite child.
He looked over the girls' heads to Melina. "Could we give her my blood?"
For a moment, the thought made her hopeful. It was possible. Natasha and Yelena had been selected as their children for the mission solely on blood type compatibility, in case either Alexei or Melina was injured and needed a transfusion; Natasha shared types with Melina, Yelena with Alexei. The super soldier serum was distilled from blood plasma to begin with. At her size, it couldn't take much. But then reality came crashing back in and Melina was forced to shake her head. "I don't have the equipment, and even if I did, we don't have the time. We can't send her out of here suddenly falling down sick."
Alexei was stubborn. "Without radiation, it takes a day or two to start mutating on its own. She'll be in the Capitol by then, with all kinds of possible things to bother her. They won't know."
Melina gave him a teary-eyed glare. "What if it isn't finished before she goes into the arena?"
His jaw clenched. He had no argument.
"This is stupid," Natasha whispered. "We should have trained her."
Melina's heart pounded a guilty, ashamed tattoo against her ribs. "I know." She swallowed. "I know. It was selfish."
Alexei murmured, a little apologetic and a little protective, half-I'm sorry we didn't, half-don't blame your mother, "It's too late to do anything about it now."
Natasha sniffed. "I could kill us a path out of here."
"Honey," Alexei said, admonishing.
"Why not?" She demanded. "I've done it before, I can do it again."
Alexei reached over to rub her shoulder. "Not here. Not now. We can't."
"Then what?" Natasha all but sobbed. "She's only twelve."
Alexei held her shoulder even tighter. To Melina, it looked like her was using her to hold himself up. He closed his eyes and choked, "So were you."
Yelena had watched all of this with wide, frightened eyes. "What are you all even talking about?"
Melina flinched. She had always known they would have to tell Yelena someday. She just hadn't imagined having to do it here, in the Justice Building, after seeing her second child reaped into the Hunger Games. Her voice was thick with tears as she looked to the others. "How much time do we have?"
Alexei glanced at the nearest clock. "Three minutes."
Melina clasped her hands together over her heart. It actually, physically felt like it was breaking. "When you come home--"
Yelena cringed. They were both aware of how impossible that might be.
Melina tried again. "When you come home, we'll explain the rest. Right now, all I can tell you is that we didn't always live in Panem. We came from somewhere else, where our lives were different."
Even with such a small portion of the truth, Yelena looked shocked and betrayed. "Why would we ever come here on purpose?"
Alexei took his turn to answer. "Because where we used to be was worse."
Melina didn't often feel the same stabs of love and tenderness for him that she did for their children. But she knew how much he had loved being the Red Guardian, and how much saying that must have cost him.
The seconds were ticking down and Melina could see Natasha growing desperate. "Give her the blood," she said. "Please."
Melina held her empty hands out to her in emphasis. "With what?"
"Whatever we have," she said. As if in offer, she pulled a thin, sharp knife from her pocket.
Melina stared. "Nat, the mess--"
Alexei ignored her. "Do it," he said to Natasha.
Natasha accepted this as solemnly as an order from any field commander. "Where?"
Alexei tugged up his pant leg. "Calf," he said. "Easier to hide." He looked to Yelena. "Hers should be there, too."
"Oh God." They were going to do this. More likely, get caught trying.
Melina took off her jacket as fast as she could while Natasha knelt by Alexei's feet. Alexei helpfully tore both sleeves off for her. He handed one to her while Natasha took off her elastic headband and handed that to Melina, too. She knelt and started rolling up Yelena's pant leg.
"What are you doing?" Yelena asked, glancing from Melina to the clock to the door. She didn't blame her.
"I told you I don't have time to explain it all," she said. Behind her, she heard the pained hiss from Alexei that signaled Nat had cut him. She held a hand out blindly and took the knife when it was given to her. "But where we came from, Daddy's kind of like a mutt."
"Thanks, honey," Alexei said through clenched teeth.
Yelena looked, if anything, more confused. "A mutt?"
"Scientists changed his blood to make him strong," Melina said, and was relieved to see that Yelena understood at least that much. But then, she supposed, it wasn't like Alexei had ever really tried that hard to hide it. People had seen him lift grown men up like children after working accidents. She wrapped Natasha's headband around Yelena's thigh until it was tight enough to act as a tourniquet. "We hope that if you have some of his blood, it'll change you to be strong, too." She made a long, thin slice down Yelena's calf. Her daughter winced, but did not flinch, and the wound opened but barely bled. Her tourniquet was holding. Her courage was holding.
Getting blood from one wound to another without tubing or syringes was a nightmare of health and safety protocol violations. Melina wiped it from his leg with her fingers and, cringing, rubbed it into Yelena's wound. She made five or six trips like this between them, trying to get as much of his blood into Yelena as possible. It would be a miracle if even this amount was enough.
She bit her lip. It was enough to transfer hepatitis. They could do nothing but hope it was enough to transfer this.
Melina bandaged Yelena's leg with one of her torn jacket sleeves. Natasha bandaged Alexei's leg with the other. Their pants were bulky enough to hide the bandages, but only just.
Yelena still looked afraid. "There's blood on the carpet," she said. "They'll see it." She looked at all three of them in turn like they were crazy. "They kill you if they catch you cheating, you know."
Wordlessly, Alexei put his fist through the nearest window so that blood began to pour from his hand. He held it over the blood stain in the carpet and squeezed. "They'll never know."
The glass breaking sound was enough to draw Peacekeepers. Melina guessed more than one parent had shouted and kicked furniture and knocked it down before. Two of them took Yelena by her arms. Two more took Alexei by his.
"Time to go," one said, marching Yelena out the door. She shot them all one last frightened look.
"I love you!" she yelled.
"We love you!" Melina shouted back as the doors were closing. She didn't know if Yelena had heard it. She didn't know if Yelena was taking anything from this with her.
Natasha grabbed Melina's hand and held on tight. "She'll make it," she said. "She has to. Right?"
Melina hugged her close. "Yeah." She held on tight to what might very soon be her only child in this bitter, hunger-fueled world that wore the body of what used to be the most powerful country on earth. Her spit turned bitter with hatred and she swallowed it down. "I hope so."