#edited for book accuracy sorry bout that!

[willgraham-manwhore-moved]

Thinking of that chapter in Red Dragon where Hannibal writes Will a lil note after Will gets stabbed in the cheek. OOUGGGHH MY BOOKS WILL (I also think about you so much ❤️) aaach my books! What a little freak (lovingly)

[allonsysilvertongue]

Wiping History

“What will happen when we get to your arena?” she demanded. “I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.“ 75 arenas and one colossal task for Effie Trinket. Hayffie. Post-MJ. Previously

9. Perspective

Haymitch was staring at her, grey piercing eyes that were often red from intoxication now sharp, wild and unsettled. Her expression softened, suspecting that some part of him must be shaken by this.

"Haymitch, what do you want me to do with it?"

"Put it on, play it."

His request took her aback. It was not at all what she was expecting, considering what unfolded during that vote.

"You – " she paused haltingly. "Do you really want me to see your - "

"I didn't vote for the Games," he cut her off curtly. "I've already told you that. You gotta see the bigger picture; see it for what it really is. The truth you know ain't the only truth out there."

She pursed her lips but understood his point and she had wanted to hear his side after the talk with Johanna and Annie. Realising that this was an opportunity for them to talk it out, she walked over to where the television was mounted on the wall of his rented apartment and stuck the device in one of its USB port.

Behind her, Haymitch already had a bottle of whiskey in hand. A glass of wine meant for her was already poured out. She didn't even realised he had moved from the sofa to retrieve the drinks. Or that he stocked up on wine since he preferred something stronger himself which clearly implied that he had bought that wine with her in mind. An unexpected fondness for him bloomed in her chest.

"Need a drink for this," he mumbled. "Figured I should get you something too before you have my balls for being a lousy host."

"I had hoped you would have learnt to mind your language by now," Effie clicked her tongue but took a seat next to him.

"Lost cause," he chuckled good-naturedly.

On screen, the grainy scene gave way to a familiar setting. She remembered having led Katniss to this room before taking her leave.

The camera, it would seem, had been mounted somewhere above and behind where Johanna was sitting which meant that Effie could clearly see Haymitch and Katniss. President Coin had smartly positioned herself right outside of the frame. A clear strategic move because should the video ever be released she could have it edited to start from where the Victors were tossing votes, thus removing the part where Coin herself was speaking to them and create a plausible deniability that she was there to begin with.

Alma Coin's voice filled the room, and Effie marveled that for someone who is currently rotting under the dirt, just the sound of her voice could still make something in her stomach curl.

"… in lieu of eliminating the entire Capitol population...."

Effie blanched. Almost immediately, she felt Haymitch's palm just below her shoulder blade, strong and warm, a source of comfort she was grateful for.

"It crossed her mind," Effie whispered.

"Of course, it did," Haymitch said gruffly. "But it won't look good to have genocide on her resume for when she sits in office though, would it?"

That ultimately led to the final, supposedly symbolic Hunger Games that Coin proposed.

"None of us would have that on our hands or our conscience," Haymitch spoke. "It acted as bait so we'd bite when she suggested the Games."

"Just like they did," Effie nodded on screen where Johanna and Enobaria had just voted for the Games.

On screen, a fierce, explosive debate continued to rage on between the fractured victors, punctuated only by Katniss calm voice saying, “I vote yes… for Prim.”

Effie inhaled sharply. To hear it recounted by Peeta and Johanna, and to actually watch and listened as it happened was two vastly different things. Peeta and Johanna could never accurately describe the palpable tension she felt as she watched the voting unfold. They could never relay with accuracy the play of emotions on Katniss’ face or the way Haymitch’s gaze sharply cut to his young charge.

It was at that moment that Effie pause the video. She felt his eyes on her, watching her move warily, waiting for the harsh judgment that she had constantly bestowed on him to pass her lips once more. She ignored all that, looking only at Katniss on screen.

There was something fierce burning in her eyes, something that spoke of revenge. Back then, Effie would not have understood what it meant but now, she was watching this with the background knowledge that Beetee’s and Gale’s trap with the double detonating bomb had been deployed without their knowledge and that Prim had ultimately paid the price for that. Effie was watching this now with the hindsight that had rendered her blind before.

Katniss was after Coin.

She understood that now, and she chided herself for never realizing that Snow would never have detonated a bomb with Capitol children in his mansion when he was clearly using them as shield for his protection, cleverly playing on the Rebel’s humanity to not hurt children no matter if they were from the Capitol.

“Haymitch, it’s up to you,” Coin said the moment Effie resumed the video.

She saw him looking intently at Katniss, never once taking his eyes off her. From where he was sitting, Peeta, red faced and clearly furious by Katniss’ decision, was trying to sway Haymitch’s vote to his side. He reminded Haymitch rather brutally the blood that would be on his hands. Still, Haymitch’s attention was only for Katniss and at that moment, the girl turned towards him, holding his gaze steady.

In that split second, they had managed to communicate something everyone else in the room was oblivious to. They had always had some kind of understanding that Effie could never hope to have. They understood each other without having to be vocal about it. It had started in the arena with the gifts and it had continued on to this penultimate moment.

“I’m with the Mockingjay,” Haymitch finally gave his vote.

Her breath hitched in her throat. If she hadn’t been sitting, she would have collapsed on the chair. Her knees felt weak.

I’m with the Mockingjay.

He wasn’t lying.

He had been telling her truth, always. He had not voted for whatever Coin was suggesting. It was not a yes from him. He was making a statement to Katniss and for Katniss. He was telling the girl he was responsible for that whatever she had planned, he would stand by her.

Peeta could not have told her this not because he was manipulating facts to paint his side in her favour. It was because like her, Peeta could not understand them. It was the same with Johanna. To her, he had voted for the Games.

They were telling her the facts they saw and thought they knew. It wasn’t Haymitch’s fact, and he didn’t need to tell her now. Her entire perspective had shifted. Right now, Effie was in a I + XI = X situation. Which would be incorrect, she thought unless she moved to see if from another angle, just as it was happening to her now.

She understood it perfectly. Haymitch always had his reasons for doing the things he did, even this, and she should have believed in him.

It was never about revenge against the Capitol. It was against Coin, and this was the only way to ensure Coin would not take Katniss as a threat until she could do what needed to be done.

The guilt bubbled in her throat knowing that in some ways, she had wronged him. She had always been in his corner... always, until now. He must have felt equally betrayed by her.

“The last advice I gave her before she went into the arena was to remember who the real enemy is. The girl had never forgotten that advise, not even when we were at the end. I never lost faith in Katniss,” he tossed her a poignant smile.

But she had.

Her heart ached.

Effie tried to say something but her voice cracked with emotion and she swallowed the words.

“Those publishers…. They gonna talk ‘bout who voted what?” Haymitch asked. “Not sure the masses would understand this.”

She heard what he didn’t say. She who had known him for more than fifteen years had not understood it when she first heard it, what more those who didn’t know him at all.

“As far as we know, this should be the only copy,” Effie told him. Her voice was strong and determined when she said, “histories are written by winners, aren’t they? We won. We can choose not to make this a part of the history book.”

“Doesn’t sound right,” he muttered.

She knew his misgivings about partial information but this was necessary if it meant she could protect Katniss and Haymitch, and everyone else. With that, Effie strode to the television, plucked the thumb drive out and tossed it in the fireplace.

The smell of burnt plastic permeated the air.

“It was meant to be confidential. It should remain as such.”

Haymitch nodded his thanks. She waited for the inevitable ‘I told you so’ but it never came. He didn’t even discuss what she just witnessed. He could tell that she finally understood and that was enough.

“I’m sorry,” she said because she had to.

And because she owed it to him.

The morning after, as they rode the elevator up to the meeting room in the Parliament together, she kept waiting on him to broach about what happened the night before but it never happened. Whatever she had wanted to say, she had already said it and whatever he needed her to understood, she should have understood it already.

He waited until she had boarded the hovercraft before he came after her, shooting her a passing look.

“Stop looking at me like that, sweetheart. You’ve seen what you needed to see in that video. There’s nothing else to say, alright? It ain’t on you that you didn’t get it back then,” he offered her a comforting smile. “Let’s just do what we got to do.”

What they had to do was to cross the 45th arena, a frozen tundra, off their list.

Flying overhead, Effie saw white wasteland as big as two footballs stadium spreading across and rough rock terrains made up the surface not covered by thick blanket of snow.

Haymitch stood by the partially open hovercraft door as it slowly made its descent with the collar of his coat turned up to ward off the cold.

"We could just melt it," he glanced behind his shoulder to look at her.

"It's your call. Without his next of kin, you are Chaff's representative."

He held out his hand and she passed him the rolled-up map of the arena. He studied it intently, brows furrowing together.

"This is the generator that keeps up the temperature," he inched closer towards her so she could take a look as well.

Effie had memorised the map but she indulged him, regardless.

"Yes. Beetee designed it for the Capitol at the Head Gamemaker's request."

"Turning it off will just melt all the ice caps and snow," Haymitch talked out loud, mostly to himself. "Arena's still gonna be there."

Effie stood next to him without saying a word, letting him run through the scenario on his own. It was likely that he already knew that melting would not work in destroying the arena completely. It was just a ploy to delay time from having to step into the arena.

"Ready?" Baron asked, knocking on the window of their hovercraft to get their attention. "Everything alright?"

Effie gave one last look at Haymitch before she stepped off the plane and into the cold climate. "Are the charges in place?"

"Yep, waiting on your word. Think they need some time to film this arena." Baron nodded to where Cressida was standing. "Heard it's someone close to Abernathy, yeah?"

"Yes," Effie affirmed without divulging too much. "Chaff."

"Right, yeah, seen them together on television a couple of times."

In the distance, Pollux was filming the Cornucopia when Effie noticed his camera turned towards the direction of the hovercraft where Haymitch had finally stepped off.

He walked forward, steps heavy and purposeful, leaving boot marks in the snow until he came upon the Cornucopia. Effie followed him quietly from behind. She had learnt to let him have his space during these moments, especially when it was an arena of someone he deeply cared about; to be there as a silent companion; to let him know that she was simply there.

It didn't take him long to come across the polar bear, lying lifeless on their feet. It can be brought to life with a simple charge of a battery embedded in its belly but right now, it had been turned off.

If she closed her eyes, she could see clearly the moment when Chaff's hand was bitten off by the mutt during their fight. As a young girl, that particular scene had given her nightmares for days but she could not tell anyone about it. She had been too young and had been forbidden from watching the Games but that had not stopped her from sneaking in to watch, just out of sight of her parents in their sitting room.

Her gaze fell on the long spear, the weapon Chaff had used to impale the polar bear during the final moments before he was crowned victor.

"That ain't real, is it? Tell me they didn't fucking preserved his hand," Haymitch growled.

"It is not," Effie assured him. "The make-up department was tasked to make it look like a real hand."

"I think he'd laugh," Haymitch said out of the blue, a comment that threw Effie off momentarily. "Chaff... if he could see this, he'd laugh and make some shrewd comment 'bout the hand not being accurate or whatever."

"Yes," Effie hummed in agreement. "Likely, so. He could never take things seriously."

"No, not even when he was reaped again."

Haymitch took the flask from deep within the black woolen jacket.

"To Chaff," he muttered, taking a drink. "Thanks, brother."

Brother.

Not 'buddy' like she had often heard them call each other. Brother.

He was Haymitch's family too. He had been his family from the moment Haymitch first saw him when he opened his eyes in the hospital after his own Games.

Effie had somehow expected him to say more but Haymitch had never been a man of many words. Silently, he gave her the flask.

"To Chaff, may there be plenty of ladies and plenty of drinks where he is," she said quietly to which Haymitch chuckled.

She tipped the flask back and grimaced as it burnt her throat.

When Haymitch sought her hand as they made the trek through the snow back to the hovercraft, she let him. She didn't let go of his hand even when the arena was blasted to bits.

Okay, more progressive things happened in this chapter so let me know what's your opinion on Effie's reaction towards the video, her understanding or their visit to Chaff's arena… Speaking of which, now that we've seen Chaff's arena, you know what this means! We're getting closer to the second quarter quell. Are you excited?