The Runaway Victor | Book II

Chapter Sixteen | Come and Gone

[AUTHORS NOTE]

Enjoy my rebels! Be sure to drop a comment to tell me what you think!

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Time had come and gone since Katniss Everdeen made such a big impression on Panem. A few days after the girl, Rue, had died— Katniss had found the boy from Twelve. They had found a cave and cooped themselves up inside of it, at first it had been enough. The people loved watching their little love story unfold, the enjoyed it more than they ever enjoyed watching Quinn's anger and frustration get the best of her in her own games. But even now, Snow couldn't help but let himself think that it had been her who had convinced Seneca Crane to allow this Two Victor's from the same District nonsense even come into play. She only wanted to further the rebels agenda, he wasn't oblivious to that. He wasn't oblivious to the fact that she had dragged his own grandson into the mix. He knew that Quinn wanted Katniss to win, if she won— a volunteer from District Twelve, a defiant girl like herself, and one who could connect with the emotions with people from the Capitol all the way to the far corners of Panem— Katniss Everdeen would be an even bigger threat than Quinn ever was.

"President Snow," Snow looked up towards the wall of tall rose bushes towards a Peacekeeper who had been stationed at the mansion. "Quinn Maverick just arrived."

Snow picked up his napkin from next to his lunch and wiped his mouth, "Send her over then," he replied, "Alone."

The peacekeeper gave a curt nod and turned and left once again. Snow let out a long sigh. He had given the girl plenty of chances to fix things, to live the life of comfort in the Capitol that people thought she deserved...she had a chance to be like the other Victors, but time and time again she continued to fight it. She continued to throw it all away— to stomp on it as if it wasn't good enough for her.

"You wanted to speak with me?"

Snow looked up to see Quinn in a simple red dress with her hair braided around her head— a popular look in the Capitol. Snow couldn't deny the fact that she had changed— when he first saw her at her Reaping, she had hesitated; she had been scared. Then during the games, everything that was thrown her way, it made her slip away even more. Then running away, she had left everything she actually was and let the radicals mold her into something that she wasn't— a weapon.

Quinn Maverick wasn't a weapon. She was just a severely damaged orphan who had won the games— a child who was only looking for a place to fit, to find how she could make a puzzle piece fit into things. Whether that had been the ranks of Victors or the radicals. She had been so damaged that she had become too easy to just let the Radicals turn her into a defiant human that even they couldn't figure out. Quinn could barely figure herself out, he could see it in her eyes that she wasn't really there. All that was there was a conflicted glazed over look that told everyone that she had no idea what to do, no idea how to do whatever it was that she had been told to do— a look of complete defeat.

"It's been too long, I figured it would be nice to have a chat." he replied, and motioned to a chair that sat in the shade of a rose bush.

She stared at him for a moment, but then curtly nodded and slowly made her way to the chair that saw across from him. "About what exactly?"