TMNT Hunger Games (Featuring Your OCs)

Chapter 28: I'm Coming Home

Yoshi embraces Destiny tightly, his fur soaked with tears, but she can hardly bring herself to return it. She buries her face in his shoulder, weeping, and he strokes her head gently. His hands are kind, soothing, but nothing can make her feel truly calmed anymore.

The doctors worked swiftly, patching her up and giving her some sort of injection to fix the sudden weakening of her heart. Destiny knows that the serum will only work for a short amount of time, but she chooses to remain silent about that matter.

They make her pretty, primped and prepared for her Victory Interview. She doesn't want to go out on that stage, she doesn't want to try and act happy with Cesar's plucky talk spurring her forwards. If President Oroku wants a happy and victorious Victor, he's going to be sorely disappointed.

Her stylists get her dress ready, the material silky and shining with the colour of Leonardo's eyes, diamonds lacing the top. It's like they decided this ahead of time, like they knew that the colour would make her heart ache even more horribly than it already has been. The wolf-raven swallows the lump growing in her throat, knowing that they'll scold her if she ruins her makeup with crying. Just the idea of going out there is making her feel sick, but she knows that she has to. One interview, one little Crowning Ceremony, and she can go back to District 7, back to home.

Not that it'll ever feel the same, she thinks forlornly.

The interview is a blur, Cesar's smile mocking instead of encouraging. Of course, Cesar himself isn't trying to mock her. Happiness in general seems to mock her now.

"I think we all found these Games to be particularly heart-wrenching, don't you think?" he asks, his midnight blue suit shimmering lightly.

Her emerald green eyes flicker over the audience as she nods curtly, refusing to smile. "Yes, they certainly were."

The man notices her expression, chuckling nervously. "Of course, I would like to congratulate you on your engagement." He smiles, but she only stiffens. "That night in the cave certainly was special."

She hears the audience cry out, and she can see a few of the more visible patrons near the front row dabbing at their eyes with handkerchiefs or sobbing into one another's shoulders. No one is happy, something the wolf-raven finds to be absolutely bittersweet.

"I wish he was here," she whispers, not wanting to say his name. The second she says his name, everything will break down and she'll lose it.

Cesar's hand gently touches hers and she almost flinches. Still, she finds the gesture oddly comforting, and when she looks up at him, his face is sympathetic.

"We all do, Destiny. We all do," he murmurs, looking out at the audience.

A few more cries and sobs of "Why?" can be heard. Destiny's ears flatten as she bites her lip. Her hand brushes her necklace, the smooth material of the ring making her eyes burn.

"Destiny, you know that he promised he'd send you back home," Cesar comments tentatively. "What are your thoughts on the matter now that he followed through on his word?"

She looks up at him, her stare almost making him shy away. "I shouldn't be here, Cesar. Jason deserved this title, not me," she says, her tone clipped and sounding far too cheery for the subject. She flashes a forced smile that makes everyone in the audience shift. "Of course, if I was dead, I'd be with...Leo." Her voice breaks, but she swallows it and digs her claws into her palms, trying to keep herself together. "Other tributes, other people with families...they deserve to be here, not me. I've got a mentor and maybe a friend or two at school who give a crap about me."

"Well, I don't think any of us-" Cesar starts.

"You want to know my thoughts on the matter?" the mutant teenager interrupts, a fake and sugar sweet smile still decorating her marred features. "I wish Leo didn't follow through on his word. I wish that arrow had killed me instead of him. That's it."

Cesar looks out at the audience, finding everyone to be in a complete mess of tears and sniffling and proclamations of "Why why why?" The blue-haired man gets to his feet, lifting Destiny with him.

"Citizens of Panem, I present to you this year's victor of the 57th Hunger Games," he calls, his voice shaking beneath the confident outer layer. "Hamato Destiny."

She spreads her wings, bows, and leaves the stage swiftly. Her team meets her outside, looking completely shocked by her gutsy speech, but she doesn't pay them any attention.

She knows that none of it will matter soon.

She's going home, to whatever home she has left.