Cato is too exhausted to defend himself. He had been exhausted since Thresh sliced him in the yellow-sea. No. He has been exhausted since the moment Clove's fingers closed around his before she drew her last breath, taking his away with her. He had died then, he should have died then. The muttations brutally attack Cato, merciless beast, reflection of the souls he had taken in the Arena. Wolves like the four horses of the apocalypse.
You want me to say I'm sorry, that I regret my actions? But I don't. How can I when it's the one decison that finally set me free?*
This is the climax of the Hunger Games, and the audience expects a show. The body armor protecting him from the claws and fangs would give them that. Night falls and the anthem plays and there's no picture of Cato in the sky, only the faint moans coming through the metal. No viewer could turn away from the show now. From the Gamemakers' point of view, this is the final word in entertainment. At last he had achieved what he was born for.
DAY 18
Finally the sun is rising, the stars fading with the paler of dawn. In the dim light, it takes a moment for Katniss to find what's left of Cato. In this agony, it's pity not vengeance that pushes the girl on fire to jump into the mouth of the Cornucopia and find his savagely-bloodied body, barely alive. If only someone had pitied on him when it really mattered.
"Please" with a last whimper and more as an act of mercy, she shoots the arrow through Cato's skull. Killing him instantly.
On the 18th day of the 74th Hunger Games, Cato dies. Because the odds were never in his favour. He is and always was meant to be the spark setting off the girl on fire. The first victim of the Mockingjay soon to set flight and destroy everything he's ever loved. At least he wouldn't know what living without her felt like.
A whisper rises in the sky above his body torn to shreds. Everyone would see an overcraft. But to him, the first light of dawn carries something else. His name.
"Cato...", she whispers. "Thanks for the happiest years of my life."***
Cato is back in that life with Clove in the victor's village of Disctrict Two. The life where he is a Peacekeeper and they have two children: one girl with blond hair and a boy with a dark head. Where he walks into his house to find the smell of meatloaf on the stove and the unconditionnal love of a woman in his kitchen. But this time, Panem doesn't barge through the door to break his dream. This time his dream continues, wrapping him in a bliss he should have known. A love a boy his age should have never torn from so young.
A good man draws a circle around himself and cares for those within – his woman, his children. Other men draw a larger circle and bring within their brothers and sisters. But some men have a great destiny. They must draw around themselves a circle that includes many, many more.** His circle had always been big, like his forebearers shaped it to be. But against all rules and all odds, he only really had drown a circle around Clove. Without her in it, there was no purpose for the circle. Or for him. We only have one fleeting life, his was even briefer and he lived it for others. For the Capitol, instead of living it for himself. At least when you got down to it, he went into the arena for her. He died for her, that's something they couldn't take from him. They could take his life but he was offering his death as he saw fit. So it's not a sad ending, just a unevitable tragedy.
Even in our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until in our own depair and against our will comes widsom by the awful grace of god. ****
THE END.
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* Quote in How To Get Away With Murder
** Quote in 1000 BC
***Quote by Jaymes Young
**** Quote by Aeschylus
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FanfictionCATO'S HUNGER GAMES - FANFICTION The starcrossed lovers who got lost in Katniss and Peeta's shadows. An even more tragic story unravelling on the other side of Panem. Cato is determined to win the Hunger Games, but that was before understanding Clov...
