#also didn't write the Chess and Shine and Triel scene because it'll be better from Chess's perspective

[concealeddarkness13]

WHG 20 Prompt 6 - Triel

This one is a little out of order, but I wrote this one first, so I’ll post this first. Triel’s scene with Asher makes more sense with this post! Tagging: @ratracechronicler (thanks for Atwater!), @maple-writes (thanks for Asher!), @pen-of-roses (thanks for Din and Silver!), @drabbleitout, @grailfish (thanks for Yuen and Razz!), @forthesanityofsome, and @pied-piper-of-hamlet! 4,800 words.

It was time to really start recruiting. I watched tributes for a while, and Yuen and Razz, District 2, caught my eyes. They seemed to be arguing, so of course, I walked over to listen closer.

They were both over by the knives, and I got to hear a bit first, since they were talking loud enough, lol.

Razz was trying to whisper. “Can you STOP fucking doing that?”

“Doing what?” Yuen looked unimpressed about it.

“You know what you’re doing.”

Yuen’s eyes went back to the dummy. “My aim is too good. I keep hitting the target.” Even though he hadn’t even thrown a knife.

“Well aim somewhere else then, shitwizz!”

I had heard rumors of what Yuen could do, and that Razz could see the timeloops, which fucking sucked for them. I wanted to get them both out and even see if Yuen could help with the plan.

I walked closer so I wouldn’t be talking too loud. “Do you need a chaperone, you two?” I smirked.

Razz stiffened, but Yuen just looked over at me, narrowing his eyes slightly. He snapped his fingers down by his side. Interesting.

“What’s it to you?” Razz snapped. Their eyes kept darting, and they couldn’t seem to stand still.

Yuen just turned back to the dummies and threw his knife way off target, having it clatter uselessly against the wall and down to the floor. “Well, I guess I suck at knives.” He was speaking too loudly. “Time to move on to something else.”

He started to leave, as if I wasn’t worth his time, so I had to let him know I knew more about him than I should. “You’d know all about time, wouldn’t you, Yuen? How many times have you looped just today?”

He tilted his head at me, and there was just a glimmer that he might have been impressed with me. “You have any idea how fucking crazy you sound right now, Triel Reeves?” Annoying, but I could hound him until he admitted it. He shoulder-checked me as he left, but he leaned in close. “Save the chat for later.”

Fine, I’d find him tonight. Razz looked pissed off, but they also left, so I just wandered off to look around again and check out the survival stations.

And just my luck, Din was at the fire-starting station! The Capitol desperately wanted to take her back, so I had to try to recruit her before they could take her back. I sat next to her and started working.

I glanced over at her. “The chariots were fun last night, right?”

“There is definitely an amount of joy to be had at disrupting the Capitol’s plans, yes.” She smiled and straightened, looking over at me.

“It truly is. And I have another way to disrupt their plans even more.” I eyed her, and she looked interested.

“Oh, that sounds exciting. By the looks of the way you’ve approached, you seem to already have an interest in me. I prefer Din to the full name they’re using. But I’m afraid I didn’t catch yours?”

I held out my hand to her. “My name is Triel. It’s nice to meet you, Din. I’ve heard you’ve been defying the Capitol, and I have a special interest in helping people who are running from the Capitol.”

“It’s lovely to meet you as well.” She shook my hand. “And well, my efforts have been less than successful.” She motioned around. “So if you have a better plan, I’m all ears.”

“I have led an escape before, and I feel more confident about my plans this time. I want to get as many out as I can.” I leaned in closer to whisper. “I have a teleportation device to help us get out, after I put on a distraction for the Capitol.”

She raised her eyebrows, staring at me in surprise. She stepped back, looking me over. “That’s a dragon of a claim.” Her eyes flashed gold, and I tilted my head at that. “This isn’t some trick is it?” She crossed her arms, setting her jaw. “I’m not going back to the temple to be their doll, I’ll take them all to the abyss myself first.”

Fuck that temple. “I can show you, if you’d like! I hate the Capitol, and they would want me dead if they knew my secret. I would never bring anyone back to them.”

“Show me then.” She still looked skeptical, but hopefully, this would help.

“Let’s go somewhere a little more private first, if that’s okay with you. I’d rather not show it off where everyone can see.”

“Only makes sense after all, lead the way. If you please.” She smiled and bowed her head slightly.

Wonderful! I led her up to the roof, where there was a nice garden and absolutely no cameras. The best place in the fucking Capitol. I touched my ear, and the teleporter grew into a small computer. Damn, Shine was the best. “Is there any place in particular you’d like to see?”

She stared at me with surprise and took a bit before she responded. “What are the limits on that?”

“This continent. That’s the only limit.”

“A library. A real one with books a records, and not one of the Capitol’s digital equivalents with everything censored to the abyss and back.”

I nodded. District 10. They had an underground library. I typed in the information. “It’s ready. Do you want to take my hand? We have to be touching so I can bring you too.”

She took my hand, and I hit the button, and here we were. Inside the underground library.

The guards stared at me, but they recognized me, so they didn’t say anything.

Din stared, but soon she hurried over to the books and looking through them. I let her look at them, not wanting to interrupt her joy. She eventually looked over at me. “This is incredible. How did you…where did you even get this technology? Why not just get everyone out now if you have that capability? Abyss, there’s so many ways that could be implemented to help the districts if you could make more. If you keep it out of the Capitol’s hands, they wouldn’t even stand a chance.”

Valid points. “I’m working on it. My engineer didn’t even figure out how to make it until this year, and they will be making more. If I let everyone out now, the Capitol would hunt us even worse than they will after the Games, and they would just take more victims into the arena in our places. That’s not any better.”

She sighed, not saying something for a while. “I hadn’t thought of that, but you’re right. Still, this is simply incredible. And this place is practically a scholar’s dream in this time. Most of these were thought to be lost and others they weren’t even records of. Promise me you can bring me back here and I’ll help you however I can.”

Of course. I nodded, saving the library in the teleporter. “I certainly will bring you back.”

Her eyes brightened. “Thank you!”

I nodded again. “And we can stay for a while too. They won’t miss us.”

Din laughed, her eyes wide. “I’d say you were sent by the veyrit if I didn’t know any better! Do you know this place well? Are there any discussions of magic or powerful beings? Oh, I wish I had brought a notebook with me this morning,” she mumbled the last part, searching her pockets.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have paper or pen. I smiled. “No, no gods sent me. There are discussions, but very sporadically, so as not to let the Peacekeepers know.”

“That’s fine, even just a few would be helpful as it is, given how limited the Capitol kept everything.” She kept reading books, and I just relaxed and chatted with the guards as we stayed away from the Capitol. Probably the best time I’d have today.

*

That night, Shine told me that Yuen and Razz left their suite and headed to the training area. The perfect time to talk to them!

I headed down to the training area, and of course they were arguing again. So, I just walked towards them and interrupted. “Is it a good time to talk now?”

Razz’s arms were crossed, looking like they wanted to be anywhere else, but Yuen looked over at me with a small smile. “About time you showed up. So you’re the mastermind, huh? I’ve seen your work, was looking forward to meeting the face behind it.” He was acting a lot different from this morning. “Thought you might have better luck with me there, though.” Razz snorted and rolled their eyes.

I hummed, looking him over. He didn’t look like much, but if the rumors were true… “The offer to escape the arena is for both of you.” I looked over at Razz pointedly. “I want to get as many people out as possible.”

“Yeah, well, I shouldn’t even be here in the place,” Razz snapped. “You can go ahead and let me die in there.”

Yuen shot them a glare and spoke before I could. “I imagine the offer stands for more than just an escape plan.” He kept his voice quiet.

I first responded to Razz, shaking my head. “I won’t give up on you that easily.” Then I turned to Yuen. “I won’t require anything from you. I do have some plans to mess with the Capitol afterwards, if that’s what you’re talking about.”

His smile was too giddy. “It’s the whole reason I’m here. But I’ll do what I can to make sure your plan for the arena goes as smoothly as possible. And that this asshole won’t try to fuck it up.”

“That’s rich coming from you,” Razz said. “King of do-overs.”

“It’s called utilizing your assets.”

“It’s called ruining my fucking life, you shitstain.”

“Some things are more important than one person’s comfort.”

“You think this is about comfort?! You are the entire reason that—”

Ok. This was not going to end any time soon. I stepped between them. “Can you explain what you can do? I’ve only heard rumors.”

They both looked back at me with wide eyes. Razz crossed their arms again and leaned against the wall, blowing hair out of their face.

“I’m a Looper,” Yuen said. “I an create a time loop at will, jumping back to any point in my life, and the rest of the world jumps with me. Can’t prove it to you, cause you’d never know.” He sounded like he had said it many times before. “My family was gifted by Father Time, our deity. My grandmother was a Hopper, and her great uncle before her was another Looper.”

He glanced at Razz, who was rubbing their temples. “Razzle over there is the only one in the world who can remember the time loops for some reason. I think they may come from a family that used to be connected to mine, but they were thought to be lost long ago so the teachings aren’t very clear.” He turned back to me. “Anyway, that’s why they hate me. We hadn’t even met before the reaping.”

But they had known the effects of what Yuen did, when no one else did. I understood their hatred. I nodded. “So you can make sure it goes perfectly?”

“Perfect is hard to come by, but I’ll make sure it’s as good as it can be. This time it’ll be more than five that make it out with you.”

The cocky little bastard. I blinked at that. “Huh. I would like to hope all my plans are better than that.” I sighed. “I will appreciate the help though.”

“You can’t help when the deck is stacked against you.” He looked up at the ceiling. “I can.”

I hummed, watching him carefully. How would he choose what was a mistake to fucking fix? He was strong, but if he just chose on his own, he could fuck up something that I wanted to happen! “You will tell me before you change anything. Just because it doesn’t look good doesn’t mean it’s not part of the plan.”

Yuen looked offended, but he was perfectly fine insulting me. He didn’t fucking look at me though, as if I was not worth his attention. “I don’t reset on a whim.” Razz snorted loudly. “Not when it’s important,” he added. “It’s better for intel to let a shitty situation play out for a little while. Unless my life is in danger. No loops if I’m dead.”

I shook my head. “You need to promise me. I need to be informed of any decision you want to make before you fuck with time.”

He nodded. “I don’t plan to do anything that’ll fuck up your mission. That’s not why I came here.”

“Yeah, you came here to fuck up my life,” Razz muttered.

“They can vouch,” Yuen continued without missing a beat. “Tell her how many times I reset the reaping to be here.”

Razz stayed quiet for a while, thinking. “Thirty-two, at least that I was sober enough to remember.”

What the fuck? And how many times would he loop the Games? But it would be better to have him on my side. I nodded. “Fine. I’ll trust you. Thank you for wanting to help.”

He smiled too giddily again. “Happy to help. Capitol is going to send in scouts in 2 and a half minutes, so better clear out if you don’t want to get questioned.” He headed toward the door, but Razz stayed behind.

They looked over at me. “You should’ve asked instead how many times you’ve had the conversation,” they said quietly. They started to follow Yuen out, but they showed me a three behind their back. Fuck. What had I gotten myself into?

*

The next morning, Chess saw Asher and mentioned that she had challenged him to a fight, and he had said some awful things to her. I had heard that Asher was a good person who tried to help others, and I wanted to recruit him, but Chess was scared of him. So I had to make sure he stayed away from her. But first, recruiting.

I found him at the edge of the training area, and I put on my best friendly smile and walked over to him. “Hello! How has your day been so far?”

He nodded, looking tired. “It’s…Well, it could be better right?” He held out a hand. “My name’s Asher.”

I shook his hand. “I’m Triel. A pleasure. Maybe I can make your day a little bit better.” I paused. He didn’t seem to be as awful as Chess described him, but I wasn’t about to not believe her about that. “There’s a plan to escape the arena without the Capitol’s permission.”

“Oh, really?” His hand fell to his side. “That’s possible?”

I nodded. “I’ve already done it before, and I have even better plans this time.”

“Oh, you’re that Triel.” He nodded. “I think I’ve heard of you. Why did you come back?”

I grinned wider. “To fuck with the Capitol even more by getting even more tributes out alive and to rescue someone I failed. Are you interested?”

He nodded. “If I can, I’d like to.”

Perfect! Now on to what I was here for. “Wonderful!” I clapped my hands. “I just have one requirement.” My smile fell, and I glared at him. “Stay the fuck away from Chess.”

He cowered back, ducking his head. What the fuck? Was I really that threatening? “I will.” He swallowed. “Is she okay?”

I sniffed, crossing my arms. “Why do you care? I heard what you said to her. I know she picked the fight, but you should have never said those things to her.”

He nodded. “I know, and I know nothing I do will take it back.” He swallowed. “I’m sorry.”

Then what had happened? And from what he had said, it sounded like he knew her before, and knowing anything more about her would help, since she didn’t remember. “You need to tell her that. When she’s comfortable being around you.” I sighed. “How did you even know all that about her? Have you met her before?”

“I will, and I’ll let her decide when, or if, she wants to speak to me.” He paused. “I haven’t met her before though, no.”

I frowned at him. How had he known about her insecurities then? But it wasn’t worth it to pursue that line of questioning. “She might punch you before she feels better.”

He nodded. “That’s…fair.” He paused. “I didn’t mean any of it, what I said. It…happens sometimes.” He looked up quickly. “Which doesn’t make it better, of course.”

So it was something that he couldn’t control? I glanced back at him. “Is that going to be a liability in the arena? I need to know so I can make plans against it.”

His shoulders fell. “I…I don’t know. I can’t say it won’t.” He sighed. “It snuck up on me this time, I haven’t been that way in a while but I can’t see the stress of the arena helping at all.”

“Then what can I do to help so it won’t happen? I want everyone possible to escape the arena. I won’t leave you behind, but I need to know how to protect the entire group and keep them together.”

He took a while to respond. “I don’t know if there is anything you can do, and you shouldn’t have to.” He swallowed, looking down. “I wouldn’t want everything to fail because of me. If something happens I won’t fault you for leaving me.”

I shook my head. No fucking way would I do that. “Shit, I just recruited you and you’re already telling me to leave you behind? I’m not doing that.”

He swallowed again, not able to speak right away. “I, I really hope I can keep it together.”

I would figure out how to help him. No matter what. I sighed, relaxing a little. “Let me know if you feel close to it. I’ll do what I can to calm you down. I’m not leaving anyone behind. Not again.”

He nodded. “That I can do. I’m usually better than this, so I hope I can manage.”

“I hope so too. I’ll warn Chess that you’ll be with us so she can avoid you if she wants to.”

“I won’t speak a word to her unless she says otherwise.”

She nodded. “Thank you. I need to go talk to some others, so I’ll see you around. I’ll find you in the arena.”

“Thank you, Triel.” He spoke quietly. “Good luck.”

For a dramatic exit, I smiled. “I don’t like relying on luck.” And I headed off to find my next recruit.

*

After lunch, I found Atwater alone and headed over to him with a smile. He was looking bored, as usual, and it would be a good time to explain the plan. And it was more fun to not really explain. “Hi! I know a good place to talk, if you’d like.”

“Alright. Damn this place here, then.” He followed me, so this was going great already!

I brought him up to the roof and turned to him dramatically with a smile. “Do you have any questions, or should I start explaining the plan?”

“I have many questions.” He smiled. “I don’t think any of them are relevant right now, or at least you don’t know what the weather’s like over the west coast right now, probably, so by all means, proceed.” He clasped his hands behind his back.

Ooh. That comment was perfect. I tilted my head. “Well, this would be a good demonstration for the plan. I have some teleporters, one of which will be with my crew just in case something happens. We’ll be using those to get out. But I can use one trip to check out the weather of the west coast. Would you like to come?” I held out my hand.

His eyebrows rose up, and he stared at me for a bit. “Alright, you’ve talked me into it.” He glanced at my hand. “Do you want me to hold that? You have no idea where mine’s been.”

“We have to be in contact to have you teleported too.” I shrugged. “You can hold my coat instead, if you want to.”

“Better than nothing,” he muttered and poked my shoulder. “Okay, now what?”

I touched my ear to expand the teleporter, and I put in a destination for Calloway Bay. We ended up on a nice beach with the ocean crashing just a few feet away. I gestured dramatically out at the ocean. “Here is the west coast.”

And he stared, blinking and turning in a circle and taking it all in. He actually looked surprised, and I couldn’t help but feel some pride from that. “Holy shit, this—this is Calloway Bay!” he yelled, and then laughed. Genuinely laughed. He stumbled over to the water line, grinning as the water hit his boots. After a while, he turned back to me. Both of our coats were blowing in the wind, and I couldn’t help but appreciate how dramatic it looked. “Remind me why this isn’t the extent of the plan? I mean. We’re miles from civilization. Free. That’s it.” He gestured to everything.

And damn, I would love to get back to the ocean, but this was more important. I stared at the ocean with a sigh. “If all the tributes just left now, there’d be no safe place for us from the Capitol. And they’d just take more innocents to die in the arena. And there are some who can’t leave yet.”

He sighed and hummed in response, nodding after a while. “How come?” I supposed about my last sentence.

“There’s a mentor I have to get out too, and the best time to do that will be after the Games. And some tributes will be safer to pretend that they’re dead so the Capitol won’t go after them as harshly as they normally would.” Like Chess and Ares and Din.

He whistled. “This is amounting to quite the shoplifting list. But faking deaths—that’s an oldie and a goodie.”

I nodded. “I’ve found the best way is cutting out the trackers and hacking or destroying the cameras around us.”

He scratched his beard. “I’m seeing it. Now, dead cameras can hide what you’re doing in a certain area, but then that gives the keyboard jockeys a pretty good hunch you’re in that area, so how will that work?”

“I have a hacker who will mess with the other cameras. Or we could just destroy as many of them as we can. And they’ll be focusing on something else. I have a plan to distract them.”

He crouched down and ran his fingers through the water. “Is there a subscription fee for VIP access to this level of the plan or is it more of an admin-only thing?”

I laughed. “I can tell you. I’ll be using the teleporter to show up in various places in the Capitol, when I should be inside the arena. Distract them from what’s going on in the arena. If you want in on the teleporting with me and causing chaos.” I grinned.

He made a face. “Starting to sound like effort again…” He paused. “Oh, speaking of me helping as little as possible, that tributes with the green hair’s coming with us, by the way.”

Chess. She had talked a little more to me, but she hadn’t agreed to the plan yet. I nodded. “I’d like to, but she doesn’t trust me yet.”

He pulled some seaweed out of the water and examined it. “Oh, my apologies—it wasn’t a suggestion. If it makes you feel any better, I don’t really have much of a choice in the matter either.” He paused. “She’s coming with me.”

That was perfect. I had seen her following Atwater around like a puppy. She seemed to think he was amazing. “I’m glad. She needs protection. I bet she likes you.”

“And hell if I know why. We’ll work on her standards after I finish teaching her to kill a man with her bare hands.” Said in such a pleasant voice. He was amazing.

I nodded and laughed. “That sounds like a good plan.” I knelt down, running my hands through the sand. I missed the beach and the ocean. “Do you want to stay here for a while?”

He looked longingly out at the sea. “If we’re not destroying the timespace continuum by doing so, then I don’t see why not…” I could feel his eyes begging me to stay.

I smiled and nodded. “We aren’t. Let’s stay here for a while.”

He nodded and wandered off to where the sand met the dirt and sat down, just staring out at the ocean, and I sat down too. It was so peaceful here. A nice break from stressing about this escape plan.

*

Shine helped Chess with her prosthetics and magic that night, and she agreed to be a part of the escape, so at least I would be able to make sure that she was safe. Everything was going well, but I knew by now that things never went to plan. I stayed up late, trying to make safeguards and back-up plans until Nesri finally pulled me away to sleep.

The next morning, there were a few more people I could convince. Asher had told Ares and Chess was talking with Steele, so we had a lot of tributes. From what I could tell, Silver still needed someone to talk to them, so I would!

I walked up to them early in the morning and got their attention and waved. They used sign a lot, so I would too. “Hi! How has your day been so far?” I signed.

They looked confused. “Loud. Everyone is too loud, especially the escort.”

Very true. The garden was a lot quieter. “Ah, yes. Do you want to go somewhere quieter?” I gestured for them to follow me and started walking towards the roof.

They followed me, thankfully. I turned back to them and waited until they looked at me after watching the garden with enchantment before I signed. “I also have a proposition for you. I am planning an escape from the arena, if you would be interested.”

They narrowed their eyes. “And the catch?”

“No catch. I just want to help as many tributes escape as possible. For spiting the Capitol.”

The nodded, relaxing slightly. “Do you have a plan for after as well? I-” They faltered. “I have people that I don’t want getting used or hurt because of my defiance.”

“There is a safe place I have that will keep everyone safe, and anyone you want to bring too. Or if that will not work, we can discuss different options.”

They nodded again, biting their lip. “Sorry if it seems I don���t trust you, but I want to know you have thought this through well first. And well, the nature of this place doesn’t lend itself to trust.” They shrugged. “What’s the chance of them finding out about this?”

“Not very high. I have a genius engineer and hacker who will keep them from learning any plans we have. And they will keep them from figuring things out in the arena. And I have a distraction to help too.”

“Have you told many others about this yet?”

I nodded. “Not everyone, but a few others I trust.”

The didn’t sign right away. They gave me a serious look, standing up straighter. “I’d like to help you, however I can then.”

“Recruiting is the most important, and I’ll let you know what else I might need. I have already come up with many plans for this, so hopefully I won’t need help, because that would mean all my plans have failed.”

They blew out a breath. “I don’t know how well I could help with recruiting, to be honest. But I can try. At the very least, I’ll keep people safe until you can get us out.” They smiled and held out their hand.

I smiled back. “I appreciate that. I want us all to get out safely.” I shook their hand once I was done signing.

“That’d be a nice change.”

I nodded. “It would. I have led an escape before, and I will do it again.”

They relaxed more. “That does ease my mind a little more.”

“Glad I can help.” I grinned. “You want to stay up here for a while?”

“Please? It reminds me of-” They faltered, smile slipping. “Something. I think.”

I nodded. “There are no cameras up here. We are safe.”

“Thank you. Really.”

I nodded and spent the time up in the garden with Silver, just trying to think through everything.

Later, no one else was interested in talking as the tension was getting worse the closer it got to the Games, so I didn’t have the chance to talk more. I could only hope that I could convince others in the arena.