Author's Note: So it's been about an entire summer since I read a friend's copy of Mockingjay, and I wanted to write this story so badly. I think I may have some canon related details incorrect. Please review if the details are bad and if you like it, definitely review. There will be slash and this story may have to be rated M.
Annie Cresta hovered over the slumbering body of her husband. Her dark eyes studied the rise and fall of his bare, sun-kissed chest, which slowed with each passing minute. Finnick Odair was sprawled across the lone cot in their District 13 quarters. An empty drinking mug dangled from his left hand. Finnick's full, alluring lips glistened with the last drops of the wine he had consumed when Annie brought out a bottle from their wedding presents.
'He looks so beautiful and peaceful.' Annie clasped her hands to her mouth and her eyes darted around the room in search of accusatory cameras. 'I can't believe I just plied him with wine. But I can't bear to lose him again, even for a moment.'
She lowered her face to his. The sweet smell of wine and the burning scent of something stronger, more potent, more dangerous, wafted into Annie's nostrils. "And now, I won't have to lose you at all, Finnick. You and I can spend forever together."
Annie walked her long, nimble fingers up his bare, sinewy arm. The stunning blond neither moved nor protested at his redhead wife's touch. "I suppose this is how I look when I take my dreamless drugs. Enjoy your good night's sleep, Finnick."
Annie kissed Finnick's forehead, stood upright, and quickly dressed in her husband's fighting gear.
It was the last days of the Revolution of the Districts. After 75 years of Hunger Games, the people of Panem had found a hero behind whom to rally: Katniss Everdeen, the Girl on Fire, the Mockingjay. She had defied the Capitol's edict that, of 24 children culled from the Twelve Districts of Panem each year, only one would survive. She had refused to conform to the rules within District Twelve or in the long-dreaded Third Quarter Quell.
Katniss had given hope to all of Panem. She had reunited Annie and Finnick.
'Finnick has lost so much because of the Capitol. At least we'll be together now, if I die in battle. That was a lot of dreamless drugs I gave him.' Annie skipped merrily to the Command Center, where she and the rest of the Mockingjay's Capitol invasion team were meeting to be debriefed. Finnick was supposed to be there. Annie had made sure he would not be.
People thought she was crazy. Finnick understood though: No one won the Hunger Games and stayed completely sane. They were all broken little dolls.
Annie reminisced about her own broken doll from her childhood. Her mother had thrown away the expensive plaything. Then the Capitol had thrown her mother away. They said she was being bad.
She missed her mother, and her doll, and Finnick too. He was asleep.
Annie suddenly found herself face-to-face with Katniss and Gale. Behind them, people were filing out the command center. "Annie? Did you hear me Annie?" Katniss asked.
"No," she said honestly, "did I miss something?"
Katniss exchanged a concerned look with Gale. Annie saw a lot of those lately. She liked the brunette huntress they called the Mockingjay because she had a pretty name, but Katniss was unbearably self-absorbed at times. Annie considered telling her so right then. It just seemed inappropriate.
Gale, the tall brunet boy whom Annie knew Katniss ignored, was an insult to her with his presence. Girls in District 13 thought Gale was nearly as or more attractive than Finnick. But Finnick was better-looking and easier to talk to.
At the moment, Finnick was just asleep.
"No, Annie, you were at the meeting," Katniss said slowly in a high-pitched voice.
Annie hated when people talked to her that way. Most people did. Finnick was the only one who didn't. He was the only one who understood. But he was asleep, so Annie had to deal with stupid people. "I'm not addled, and I'm not a child," she warned Katniss.
"No one said you were," Katniss lied blatantly. "I just….thought you remembered the meeting."
"Where's Finnick?" Gale demanded boldly.
"He's sleeping."
Gale stepped closer to her with a quizzical glare in his gray eyes. "He should have been awake for this meeting. I thought he'd want to be on the front lines. Why didn't you wake him up?"
Annie burst into tears. Gale intimidated her. She did not like him or Katniss, only Finnick. "He's asleep, he's asleep, please don't hurt me!" Annie protectively folded her arms around herself until she felt a pair of consoling arms around her and heard Katniss' gentle shushing.
"It's alright, Annie. All is well. Gale didn't mean to yell at you. Did you, Gale?"
"Yeah, sure, I didn't mean to yell at you." Gale's skeptical gaze did not diminish or shift from Annie, but she smiled at his promising words anyway. He was a bit tall and broad-shouldered for her tastes, but Gale didn't seem uncompromising. If Katniss would let him, he could be her champion the same way he was Annie's champion.
"Did I miss a party?" Annie asked with a naïve smile.
"What?" Gale asked.
Katniss was more sympathetic, but not by much. "Do you mean the meeting?" Annie nodded. "That wasn't a party, Annie. That was a briefing."
"Who was briefed?"
Katniss pursed her lips. Annie thought she looked like a beast when she did that, but Annie knew it was still Katniss. So she didn't recoil from the Katniss-beast. Gale placed a hand on her shoulder. Annie didn't recoil from him either. "We're about to storm the Capitol and capture…"
"Kill," Katniss corrected.
"We're about to kill President Snow."
"I would like to be part of that, very much! Can I help kill the President?" Annie said brightly. She had found her Idea and wanted to hold onto it, watch it grow up in her hands. "He was not very nice to Finnick."
"Yes, Annie," Katniss said, less patiently. "You are part of the team. We are departing now." Annie decided she didn't like Katniss very much again, even if they were going to kill President Snow together.
They battled their way through the Capitol. Annie, with her skewed perception of things, understood how systematically the killing snares would be placed. She didn't tell anyone else that the tar awaited them, or that the killing light was there because Annie didn't possess that kind of perception. But Annie understood the crafty mind that developed the layout of the killing traps. It was the mind of someone tortured by the Games.
Of course, the mutations were a surprise even to Annie. But she didn't like tunnels. Annie didn't like the darkness, the dampness, and the cold of the tunnels. They reminded her of the cave, where she had hid and sung the song that boy from District 4 had sung. Annie couldn't remember his name, but she remembered his song. Since she was underneath the earth again, Annie hummed his song.
"Annie, would you please be quiet?" asked one of the equipment-carrying twins. It seemed he had asked that question before.
She continued to hum. Annie couldn't remember his name either.
"Annie, we're kind of on edge right now. I think we'd all appreciate it if you would shut up!" Gale roared.
She flinched but continued to hum. "Gale, don't yell at her. She's just scared," Katniss said somewhere ahead of her.
"Well she's not the only one."
"That's not fair."
"The truth isn't fair, Catnip."
From the sounds Annie could detect in the tunnels, the muttations were approaching stealthily. They were as scary as the Tributes who had stalked outside the cave, after they killed the boy. He had sung the song that Annie hummed. Singing had brought the cleansing flood. Annie lived. The boy had died.
If they were lucky, she could hum another into existence.
The muttations behind them howled. It was too late.
"Run!" screamed one of the twins.
Equipment was left behind. Weapons and skills were forgotten. There was only the heated breath of the muttations, the pounding sound of their feet upon the concrete. One of the twins succumbed almost immediately.
Annie didn't know where they were going. She wanted to be at Finnick's side at that moment, in their bed, because that was safer and quieter than running through the tunnels and being too out of breath to hum. If she had hummed, she would have been safe. Another twin became muttation fodder.
Finnick was safe, waiting for her. Soon she would rest in his arms.
They were climbing the ladder, just the three of them. Annie looked up at Katniss and Gale struggling to climb the ladder. The muttations weren't far behind them, but neither Katniss nor Gale could open the grate. . In the split second that she looked up, Annie finally saw and understood. Katniss had light all around her and everyone gave Katniss the worshipful reverence she deserved.
How had Annie missed it all for so long?
"Pretty mockingjay," Annie said and released the ladder. The waiting muttations carried her to join Finnick in their mighty jaws.
To Be Continued...