Tributes Assemble - Chapter 1

Everything started with the wasps. Tucked away in the mountains, far away from civilization, scientists trained them up for war. They had been taken, tampered with and changed, injected with new genes and studied under countless microscopes until they evolved into something deadly. Then came the birds, snatched from their nests in the treetops and scrambled until they could parrot back a whole conversation. Sent out into the rebellion like the weapons and spies they had become, the men in long white lab coats watched their creations thrive.

War ended soon after their release into the Districts, the rebels eventually succumbing to the rule of the Captiol once more. Twelve still stood, now defeated, while the thirteenth was obliterated entirely. Then came peace, an uneasy peace that was to be maintained by sacrifice. Punishment was the key to ensuring that history did not repeat itself.

The majority of jabberjays and tracker jackers were cast out into the wilderness, no longer of any real use to the Capitol. But a spark of genius in a desperate time can often manifest, lurking in the shadows even when its necessity diminishes. Interest had been piqued, and everyone wanted to know how far this new form of genetic engineering would stretch.

Of course, it quickly became clear that the penalty the Capitol lay down for the uprising provided a perfect window of opportunity for human experimentation.

Thus it was decreed in the Treaty of the Treason that every year, each of the remaining Districts must provide the scientists with two tributes, one girl and one boy between the ages of twelve and eighteen for what was dubbed as 'The Project'. Some volunteered while others were simply ripped away from their families and friends in a public reaping.

As soon as they had been selected, there was no going back. Carted off on a train to the very edges of what remained of their tattered world, these children were never seen again.

The semi-circle they sat in was supposed to make them feel more at home in the dark, grey cell they were trapped in. It didn't work, though. The walls of the room were covered in a shabby coat of off-white paint, cracked and peeling in places to reveal the murky coloured plaster beneath. Above their heads, the lone light bulb that hung down on a thick plastic wire blinked sporadically. How could he relax here? It was headache inducing, claustrophobic and he felt like he couldn't breathe.

He was far too conscious of the ten pairs of eyes that surrounded him, knowing that each of them could choose focus on him at any given point. Peeta was also hyper-aware of the fact that really, it should have been twenty-four. It was clear that some of the other kids hadn't even made it this far. He hated it.

Glancing around, he noted that the one bit of colour and light in the cell seemed to radiate from the pink-haired woman who sat on the opposite side of the room, dressed up in a range of fluorescents and smiling radiantly as she surveyed them. Accidentally meeting her eyes across the room, he blushed furiously and looked away. She cleared her throat.

"Now," she began primly, breaching the tentative silence for the first time since they had arrived in the room. Even her accent sounded manufactured and false. "As I am sure you are all aware, you have been selected for some very special new… Experiences."

In the semi-circle, several people grimaced at her sugarcoated wording. Katniss, his district partner was one of them. This was not, by any stretch of the imagination, what your average person would refer to as a special experience. They'd been dragged away from everyone and everything they loved and dumped here in this cramped metal cage with a bunch of strangers. Fourteen of them were already dead or worse. Peeta shuddered at the thought.

"Earlier, you were tested for compatibility with the gene-enhancing drugs we use here, and all of you were lucky enough to survive!" She trilled the words happily, as if she were delivering the best news in the world. "Over the course of the next few weeks, we will continue your treatment until you reach evolution. At that point, you will be moved to the training school to study and grow into your new power."

"New power?" The question came from a small girl three seats to the left of Peeta in the semi-circle. She looked confused. "I don't understand. What do you mean, new power?"

"Oh my, has no one explained to you about The Project yet?" She over annunciated all of her words as she spoke, putting emphasis into everything. When they shook their heads back, the older woman clapped two perfectly manicured claws over her mouth, eyes blown comically wide in a caricature of surprise. "Well, no wonder you all look so miserable to be here!"

"We look miserable to be here because we don't want to be here." Katniss interrupted from beside Peeta, raising an eyebrow at her skeptically. This comment apparently went unnoticed, though, as the pink-lipped woman simply continued to enthuse about the wonders that lay in store for them.

"In that case, let me start at the beginning." She beamed at them toothily. "The Project is all about helping the human race to advance and paving the way to a brighter future for the whole of Panem! You are one of the few who are lucky enough to qualify for the privilege of helping the development of the gene-treatment that will speed up evolution, giving us the powers we need to survive in this ever changing world."

Peeta scoffed inwardly. She made them sound like martyrs when really they were just lab-rats in the Capitol's fucked up vision. He felt sick, but he didn't dare to say anything. It wasn't in his nature to voice his thoughts out loud.

"Until we figure out what your power is, you will have daily check-ups with the doctors here. You will also have a group session with me every week. We need to be able to understand the workings in a physical manner, but that doesn't mean we don't care for your mental state!" The woman simpered at this, doing an almost decent job at pretending she actually gave a crap about them. No one fell for it, though. At this stage, they all knew better than that.

A sharp elbow from Katniss suddenly jabbed him hard in the side and he jumped. Biting back a squeal of surprise, he swiveled around to face her. "Isn't this the most bullshit you've ever heard?" She whispered to him lowly, completely ignoring the indignant little frown that the boy was sporting. "Seriously, I'm going to punch her if she doesn't shut up in the next ten seconds. Her voice is hurting my ears!"

Peeta giggled quietly, and then clamped his teeth down on his lower lip frantically, trying to cover it up. He was absolutely horrified with himself. Luckily for him the woman was so caught up in her rant that she didn't notice his outburst, but he felt embarrassed all the same. Across the circle, one of the girls caught his eye smirked at him. He felt his cheeks start to heat. After that, he ignored all of Katniss' whispered comments and attempts at conversation.

At first he tried to concentrate on what the woman was rambling on about, really he did, but he found that he kept spacing out as she carried on (and on, and on) in much the same vein. She babbled so much nonsense that Peeta had to use his frequently implemented technique of zoning out just to keep himself awake. He felt his eyes glaze over as he embarked on different trains of thought that probably led to nowhere. He didn't care. Nowhere was still better than listening to this.

Behind him, he barely heard the door as it slid open. The technology here was so advanced compared to that in any of the Districts that Peeta was amazed. It would've been silent, if it weren't for the muffled grunt of the man who was entering, and the clumsy noise of a hand colliding with the wall. This caused everyone to spin around in unison where they sat, ten pairs of eyes fixing themselves on the now open doorway.

They watched silently as a tall, lean man staggered further into the room, not letting go of the wall as he took clumsy steps towards them, hand sliding across it as he pulled himself along. It looked like he was dependent on it for any sort of stability.

Of course, Peeta recognised him. Haymitch Abernathy.

He looked far older now than he had the day he left District 12, more tired and haggard, skin sunken with age, but his strong features were still very much the same. Back in the Seam, he was something of a public hero, renowned for being the only person to ever volunteer from the district, and somehow the only survivor. The man was known everywhere. He was the face of hope for all of the Tributes selected in the reaping each year. If Haymitch Abernathy can do it, so can you.

At least the Capitol had the courtesy of updating families on who was dead. That was all the information they needed, apparently.

It was almost a routine now, the way that the tributes from District 12 would be announced dead within a couple of days of their departure: the crisp white envelope containing a single picture of their beloved sent to their families with a simple red cross against their face. No cause of death. Not even a hint of what happened or how they coped.

Usually they never even made it through the first few stages of experimentation.

Back home, everyone was still clueless about what the Capitol were doing to their children. Even the most imaginative of people hadn't thought of this. Theories circulated, of course, ranging from execution or torture to cannibalism and sex trafficking, but never experiments inducing super powers. Maybe it was too inane for them to even comprehend the idea of it. Even Peeta was struggling to make sense of it all.

All he knew is that they had been somehow altered in a way that would give them some kind of power. Even though it seemed ridiculous, he knew it had to be true and, in light of this revelation, Peeta wondered what power Haymitch had got.

"Ugh. 'M here to – to take them to their rooms…" The man mumbled groggily from where he stood, still leaning heavily on the solid wall beside him. His eyes scanned the tributes blearily, unfocused until they settled on the tributes from his district at the far end of the circle.

He almost leered at them. "Two from twelve?" He laughed throatily, a low rasping noise that sounded more like a wheeze than anything. "Th-that's..." He frowned, trying to think of the right word. "Unexpected!" he finally settled on triumphantly, flashing the pair an almost predatory grin that reminded Peeta of a shark that he'd seen from District Four.

It was as if he was reveling in a joke that only he knew the punch line to, lips stretched thin across the jagged lines of his teeth. Peeta shuddered when the man's cold grey gaze met his own, quickly averting his eyes away from him and instead focusing on his own feet, feeling a blush work its way up from his neck to his face. He really couldn't handle people. He wasn't even good with his family, still flinching away from physical contact and stammering over his words after all the years of knowing them.

Part of it came from being painfully shy and incredibly unsure of himself, and the rest from his awkwardness in any and every form of social situation. It took him a long time to trust people enough to relax with them, meaning he only had a select few friends. Now he was stuck with all these people he didn't know. People he probably didn't want to know. Even a quick glance around put his nerves so on edge that it was nauseating.

"Yes, unexpected indeed." The woman replied frostily, looking back at the seemingly drunk man with distaste. "You know, Haymitch, it would have been more appropriate for you to at least try and set a good example for our new arrivals." At this, her lips turned downwards at the corners so she was scowling at him, another over-exaggerated expression that looked hideous on her. The man just smirked back and she sighed, shaking her head in exasperation before fixing on her Capitol-approved grin once more.

"Anyway, we're just about done here, I'd say!" She declared, her sunny attitude instantly returning. Peeta couldn't help but find it funny when a deep sigh of relief sounded from a couple of tributes at the other end. At least he hadn't been the only one excruciatingly bored.

"Right, of course. Whatever you say, sweetheart." Haymitch rolled his eyes. He seemed more sober when he was mocking woman from the Capitol, his words no longer slurring together as he spoke. "Look, I'll take the boys and if you could be so kind, oh glorious one, would you grant me the great honour of your assistance by taking the girls?"

Effie scowled at him in confusion, apparently debating whether his compliment was genuine and whether to gratify it with her acknowledgement or not. Watching them interact, it kind of seemed like the two of them were polar opposites, one so pristine and proper while the other appeared to be to so… well. Shabby, carefree and feckless? Peeta found it almost funny that the pair of them had to work together.

Finally she settled on a peaceable smile, but one that still looked cold and manufactured. Capitol-style. "Yes, and thank you, Haymitch! Girls!" She piped in her odd, inflected tones, and gestured for them to stand up and follow her as she tottered her way to the door. The man beside her shot her a not-so-subtle scowl before he did the same.

Peeta managed to catch Katniss' eyes as they both pushed their chairs back and stood up, following suit of the other tributes. As they walked towards the door, she offered him a smile and bumped their arms together in some sort of silent gesture of "good luck". It was like she knew he'd need it. Smiling back at her, he attempted to return the gesture.

Even before they'd been reaped, Katniss was one of the closest things he had to a friend. He had respected her in District Twelve for her hunting, and she liked him because he was quiet. They ate lunch together at school sometimes, and she'd slowly made her way under his skin with her soft eyes and wide smile. She was one of the few people that could always coax a laugh out of him, no matter what.

Actually, thinking about it now, they were pretty close. Closer than he'd thought. Whenever she wasn't hunting with her boyfriend, Gale (who scared Peeta no end, no matter how much Katniss assured him that the boy was harmless), or looking after her little sister, she spent her time in the bakery with Peeta. He felt suddenly glad that she was here with him, even if she scared him a little. It would be nice to have someone he could actually talk to here, he guessed.

As soon as the girl left his sight, he felt far more nervous than before. All of the girls had gone with Effie, leaving only boys in the shabby grey cell. He could feel himself beginning to panic. Boys scared him even more than girls did, and these ones looked particularly nasty.

He actually gulped as he watched the monstrous boy from Two exchange a few words with the boy next to him, throwing his head back and laughing loudly at the retort. Apparently, the two of them had already made friends, and they were both already strutting around like they owned the place. He just hoped he got his own room. He was fairly sure there was no one here he could deal with sharing with.

Surveying the other four boys in his room, he noted that they were all much taller than him and far better built, except for the little curly haired boy from – was it Three? He couldn't remember, but at least the kid looked harmless. In fact, he looked so fragile he looked like he could break at any moment. It was kind of surprising that he managed to survive even the first leg of The Project, considering the fact that he was even smaller and more defenseless than Peeta was. The odds must have been in his favour.

A/N: Hello, hi, hey everyone and a huge thank you to you for reading this. We wanted to try something new with this one, and as always we'd love to know what you think. Please leave a review if you can find the time! Any and all feedback really helps us to improve and motivates us to write more (lots and lots more). Also (just as a warning) this fic is rated M for later chapters, so you might want to watch out for that. PS, For anyone who reads our other Peeta/Cato fic (Know Your Enemy) the next chapter for that should be up some time over the next couple of days. Hopefully we'll see you there!