The Princess and The Owl // Johanna Mason x OC

Chapter 18 - ...Okay

Athena jolts up, suddenly awake. The cold sole of a boot treads heavily on her hand, immediately leaving a red imprint. Looking upwards, the fake smile of Johanna glimmers faintly in the light of the misty sunrise, "My bad."

She rubs her eyes harshly, sitting up and soothing out the stiffness in her neck, "Johanna, I-"

"That wasn't an invite to start a conversation, Two," she interrupts abruptly, continuing down the steps from her front porch, "I don't care why you're here, or about what you have to say."

She hangs her head, letting her carry on with whatever she was doing. Athena fiddles with the silver and black ring on her finger, "I'm Head Peacekeeper."

Surprisingly, her passive mumble of admittance was heard by the other Victor. Stopping firmly in her tracks, she turns slowly. Her eyes glower in a simmering rage, "...What did you say?"

She looks up with a nod, repeating in a level tone, "I'm Head Peacekeeper."

"You-you..." she starts, her eyes widening in horror. After processing her words for a moment, all emotions she had previously displayed drain into pure loathing, "You're killing them... you're murdering my family."

Athena shoots to her feet, holding out her hands in a desperate attempt to keep Johanna from running from her forever, "No- Princess- it's not like that. Please- believe me- there's nothing I could do-"

"'Princess'! I'm not your Princess, and I never have been!" she spits, stalking two slow steps towards her, "And no, there's everything you could do. Negotiate life in prison, fake their deaths, break them out and get executed yourself for high treason! I don't care if you die doing it; you can save them. Don't bullshit me, Two!"

"And if I get killed, what then?" she throws her hands up, exasperated by her visionless ludicrously, "Another, vastly worse person becomes Head Peacekeeper, and all I've done is postpone their deaths for a week!"

"No, you give them an extra week of living: that's what that achieves!"

"But that means six of us dead, instead of five-"

"Don't you get it?!" she almost yells, letting out a vain, bark-like laugh, "I don't care in the slightest whether you die. To me, it's either five murders tomorrow or five in a week. Maybe longer if I'm lucky. That's never a competition to me."

"...Okay," it broke her heart to hear it, but Athena understood. She swallows, nodding faintly before leaving without another word. She doesn't even glance back, letting her eyes stay firmly down. The dampened crunch of the dew-covered undergrowth beneath her white boots is quiet, allowing the faint twittering and chatter of the early morning birds to still clearly be heard.

~~~~~~

The Head Peacekeeper flicks through the Masons' files. The oldest is a tall, lanky 35 year old man, with the same jet-black, spiked hair as his cousin. The next two were 24 year old identical twins, with slanted eyes and thin smiles. Again, they both have the same, naturally-choppy hair. The next is a 19 year old woman with dark eyes and gaunt cheeks. Despite all having distinct, familial features, they could be passed in the District 7 streets without even a first glance.

As she continues running over the details of the four files once again, a message runner enters her office with a polite smile, "The fifth file, Commander."