Chapter 40

Jude's fate

AN: Thanks for the reviews! I'm sorry I forgot the obituaries in for True and Clyde last chapter. I was just so excited. Spoilers for the sequel are in this chapter, beware, I'm going to knock your socks off.

True: It's sad to see you go. You were the rich girl that I always wanted to be, and you were the favorite, beating Jude by one vote. You were strong, talented, and fun to write. I believe that in any other universe, you would have won the games. I will always miss your snappy attitude. R.I.P

Clyde: You came so close to your goal, and you tried to be honorable and a victor at the same time. Though you failed to be a victor, you were honorable, never killing Jude directly even if you could. Though you didn't win, your escapade will bring out many more individual careers. R.I.P

Jude awoke in a white room, he looked towards the door and read the letters at the top spelling out 'improvements room'. Jude sighed, unable to recall what had exactly happened before he came into the room. He looked into a mirror, he was different, and that was the best way to put it. The hair on his head stood up, unlike his natural locks. His body felt different too, he just couldn't place a finger on how yet. Jude saw a set of clothes on a nearby table, black formal pants, a green shirt and a white jacket. The clothes looked a little big to him, but he shook it off, thinking that since he wore the same pair of clothes for weeks, something different would automatically look strange.

Jude put his hands on his head when he remembered where he was, he swallowed the poison. So why wasn't he dead? Did Clyde bleed out before the poison had a chance to affect him? Jude didn't know. Maybe he was in hell, his punishment for committing suicide. Then he would be seeing Ethan, from district ten, since he had done the same thing. Once all the clothes were on him, Jude made his way towards the door, too tired and distraught to question his motives. He pushed open the door, and tried to race through it, only to find that his head smashed into a wall. He fell to the ground, the space on the wall where his head was had been smashed in a little, the walls weren't hallow.

Strangely enough, Jude felt no pain at all from the hit. That couldn't be right, what had the Capitol done to him? And what was with the wall? Were all Capitol people midgets or something? Or was it in style to have feet come from your knees? Jude just couldn't comprehend what was happening; maybe he was hit by some loopy juice… He ducked his head as he re-tried escaping the escaping through the door. Jude walked around, and subconsciously played with the zipper on his jacket. His head was so close to the ceiling, his hairs were brushing up against it.

He hit another wall as he tried to get into a formal-looking room. Leaving an identical mark to the one in the room he awoke in. He corrected himself and stepped in the room to see a doctor-ish man sipping tea with an old man wearing a suit. The old man ushered him in, and Jude then realized who he was, he stayed back. He hated this man, this man was the
President of Panem, and he represented the (monster) people who killed his best friends. Snow smiled at his caution, and Jude wondered if he'd be harder to strangle than Koal. He almost face-palmed in front of the man, for being exactly what he hated.

"Ah, I see that you've arrived." when the president spoke the doctor moved to sit next to him on the couch. Jude assumed the empty couch was for him and sat down, desperately wanting to know where he was.

"I'm glad to see that the improvement was a success." the president whispered, not bothering to acknowledge Jude's presence. Jude wanted to just shove his tea into the Santa's evil twins face.

"What improvement?" Jude had to ask; maybe it had something to do with his newfound clumsiness. The president chuckled, only happy to break the news to him.

"You still haven't figured it out yet?" The doctor laughed when the president had said this, he too, found this predicament funny.

"Mr. Herra, we've adjusted your height a little. Well not exactly little, before you were 6"6', tall, but not enough for us at the Capitol. So we added length to almost every body part and made you nine feet tall, it was the first time we had changed so much, we ended up killing all physical feeling in your body doing so. Did not notice how everything was smaller?" The doctor spoke to Jude as of he were a small child, but Jude couldn't care at that moment. He was deaf from rage, weren't his mentors supposed to stop this kind of thing? Then again, Jude was sure that they were passed out in front of a couch singing about dustpans and rainbows. The doctor looked at him expectantly, waiting for an answer.

"I just thought all Capitol people were midgets, or that look was in style this year." It was the first thing that came to his mind. Both of them laughed, Jude found it hard to even pretend that he was being funny.

"Silly boy, that was in style ages ago. Right before Finnick had won, that's how I remember." another mention of the hunger games had Jude suffering from a headache. And didn't Finnick win only two years ago? Then again, Capitol people were very funky.

"Good to know your funny bone is working. You're going to need it; after all, your interview is in two hours."

Jude adjusted his tie, not liking the predicament he was in at all. He at least wished that he wouldn't have to lie in his interview. With his stoner mentors, the president had told him exactly what to do during his interview. He didn't like it, in fact, it was a disgrace to her memory, the only reason he did it was so he could just leave this mutant wannabe place. When he walked onto the stage, he had a bright smile, when Caesar stood next to him there was an enormous height difference. The Capitol clapped and whistled loudly because of it, Giant Jude was now a real Giant.

"By golly! I think you've grown a little in the arena!" the audience clapped even louder than they already had, hurting Jude's ears. Why can't I be deaf now? Jude whined bitterly.

"I don't know Caesar; I think that I've shrunk." Jude gritted his teeth when the freak-show zoo started clapping. Caesar motioned for him to sit down, and he did, praying that this would be over without any embarrassing questions.

"On with the interview! Can I just say that love your new hair?" well I don't know, can I just say that I love that new black-eye? Unfortunately, Jude couldn't say that.

"If you say that, I'll say that I love your new perfume." Jude had to mentally stop himself from vomiting there; he just had to make it through.

"Oh dear!" Caesar pointed to himself dramatically, pointing his shocked face at the audience." You're such a charmer; one lucky lady will be very happy one day." Jude gulped; this was his Que. waiting to be used. He decided to look very sad, just like the way he was when Evan died. Changing his posture and stance on his undersized seat on the couch, he hated the Capitol so much right now.

"Well Caesar, I don't know. I lost a pretty good catch in the arena." Jude didn't believe a word he was saying, but the Capitol was buying it. Then again, they would be buying it if he wore a red ball as his nose, and caked himself with make-up.

"And who might that be?" Caesar had caught on to the serious tone and was using it to captivate all of Panem.

"I know her as amazing, perfect and ingenious. But you guys right here in the Capitol know her as local pyromaniac, Evangeline Scores." Though what Jude had said was true, he had no romantic feelings for Evan. She was like a sister, and now the Capitol had to ruin everything.

"I'm terribly sorry for your loss. Too bad there isn't anyone alive to blame for her death." sure, I can't possibly blame the Capitol, president snow, or the hunger games, Jude thought. They all are out of the loop, because they had nothing to do with her death. Not.

"Let's move on, please." Jude had really meant it this time, wishing that he died like was supposed to. The Capitol cooed at his response, he didn't need their pity though. He'd get his revenge soon enough.

"Righty then. Did you know that what you swallowed at the end of the games was a healing pill?" It was?

"Uh, no actually. I just was really done; my sister and the girl I loved were dead. I also really appreciated what Clyde was trying to do, and it would have helped districts like mine a lot in the end. I was willing to sacrifice my life for that, and maybe that's karma right there." He caught himself almost saying 'sisters' but he luckily stopped himself.

"What a surprise! We thought you'd somehow realized that he was lying and took the pill to win!" The Capitol is now engaged in the interview; Jude didn't even think that they were breathing. A sudden image of a bunch of fish people puffing out their cheeks invaded his mind; Jude tried hard to suppress a smirk. "Now Jude, how are you feeling? You tried to kill yourself but ended up getting eternal glory."

"I want to say I'm happy that I'm alive, but that's only somewhat true. I met wonderful people and had a little fun in the arena. But I've come out of it alone; no one (other than a few victors) can really understand what it's like to win. I've got all these riches, but no one to share the experiences with." Jude sighed, adding to his moody appearance. The president also required him to be all moody, so Jude would be able to have a good fan base. He didn't like it, and wanted to wring anyone's neck that joined in on the chorus of "aww".

"Final question. Do you think you can move on from the games?"

"No. I'll never get over how its affected me."

-District six, victor's village. Four days before the announcement of the quarter quell twist.-

Jude Herra D6

It's fun, leading an underground rebellion. I've been to thirteen twice now, looking for a way to extract the victors from twelve into the safety of our hands. The Capitol will be on them soon enough and we need to be there to rescue them. That's the easy part, the hard part is dealing with this man from the Capitol, and I don't know why he's here. He doesn't look like an escort taking a tour of the districts, he looks much more official. That's never good if you're here to start a rebellion, he might have traced the destruction of the peacekeepers building to me. What I don't expect is for him to knock on my door, normally Capitol folks like to burst in, they never really learned their manners.

I don't let the guy in; he's probably a newbie undercover agent trying to get my opinion on the Capitol. To see if I'm on their side of not, they won't get an honest answer from me, I can guarantee that. It turns out the guys a game-maker, I have to let him in now, since we're so close to the announcement of the quells twist. It's Knights first reaping, I can't have him being reaped at age twelve. When the guy sees Knight he's all like 'Whoa dude! I didn't know you had a kid!' pfft. The Capitol would never let me have my own kid, I adopted Knight of the street my first year of victory. He was four at the time, and didn't even know his own name. So I named him and raised him, Knight Pyrus Herra. Yeah, I know the middle name doesn't fit in all to well with the rest, but I had to fit Evan in there somewhere.

The guy tries to get me to come to the Capitol with him, for some Quarter Quell party. Apparently he'll be the Head Game-Maker for the Quell, and he needs all of his previous victors to come with him. I want to say no, but he tells me what the next Quell is, and I've finally found a way to get my revenge. He also pays me to go with something I've wanted for a long time. Turns out the other two victors are also rebels; the Capitol doesn't really have a clue about who's in their "little" rebellion. Or they do know and want all three of us in their next games, since victors make up a good portion of the rebellion. I pack my bags with rebel tech, I contact Haymitch and I'm ready to roll.

I spend most of my nights at the Capitol partying, and low hitting chandeliers. You'd think that the Capitol would be more giant friendly, surely some citizens must have copied my height 'improvement'. I've gotten better, but the beds they have are still too short, and I can't survive walking through the kitchen without a hitting my head more times than I can count. I just don't get why they leave all the pots and pans on hooks from the ceiling, someone could easily knock into it. Even if they are nine feet in the air. But this is my last day, and the day that they announce the Quell. They're in for one hell of a surprise if I make my plan works, if not, the rebels could be doomed.

During a party I slip into the Game room with Johanna. We-ugh, distract the cameras by making out, while Finnick makes the cameras go bananas. Basically, they'll see the same clip of us (me and Johanna) twenty times in a row, instead of seeing what's really happening. We've only got Forty minutes to find the Quarter Quell cards on the Game-Makers computer. I get Beetee, the rebel's official nerd to tell me what to do from an eyepiece disguised as a contact lens. Once in I search for the cards, I find them almost too easily. We erase the word "victors" and brainstorm something else to put in. Finnick suggested presidents but that would be way too obvious, and we're not doing Capitol children. Beetee suggests something that we all agree on; we're snickering like small children.

Once we leave we walk towards the stage where the president is about to announce the newest Quell I feel extremely giddy. I look at the gift that the Game-Maker gave me and I smile, it's the camera, the one from the games. There's only one photo left on it, but it's the best one. It's me, Evan and Zombie, in front of the burned down building. The president picks up the card marked 75 in golden letters after his speech; the guy has this tone of superiority in his voice. He really doesn't see what's coming, does he?

"To prove the Capitol has strong, cunning minds. The tributes will be selected from a pool of previous Game-Makers, who will be mentored by one of the victors their games have produced." The president is shocked, he looks towards me and I can see the prominent "FU" imprinted on his face. His voice was steady though, and that's what the capitol had paid attention too. It's sad actually, how they're cheering, while former Game-Makers are excusing themselves to crap their pants. Capitol citizens really are despicable, they're happy as long as it isn't them.