Welcome to my new AU Hunger Games story. Yes, you read that right. I'm re-writing Mockingjay. The two most major changes made in this chapter will be Johanna and Peeta. There will be more.
This isn't my first Hunger Games story, but hopefully, it won't be the last. It's been so long since I did this. I'm rusty!
I don't own THG. The lovely and torturous Suzanne Collins has that honor. I'm simply creating a new world where things will be very different.
I'm also human, and though I have a beta of sorts, we might have missed something. That's on me.
Read on and enjoy!
Plight
I wake with a start not knowing where I am, but my eyes immediately find the inside of a hovercraft passenger bay. My body senses swift movement and turbulence that feels like the craft is shuddering and struggling to stay aloft. Scanning the space around me, my first familiar sight is Beetee as he lays over the floor of the bay with me. We are both in our arena uniforms, both tattered from the long three days inside it, both alive. He looks to be a little more so than me, shaking and muttering. I remember last seeing him on the jungle floor next to the lightning tree as he attempted to punch a hole in a chink of the arena's force field.
But he is alive. And my very next concern is the only thing I can wrap my mind around. Where's Peeta?
Why are we in a hovercraft to begin with? Have we been captured? Surely we would be in restraints at the least. There would be guards. We would not be left unattended. My memory doesn't have a plausible reason for this situation, but the bandage on my arm and the IV along with it means that someone had been tending to my wounds. Whoever they are, they must know where Peeta is. And I will find them.
Taking out the IV isn't difficult, but it is a little painful. The hovercraft shudders again, and I struggle to get to my feet, then making my way to the door that leads to where I know there are usually guards. The same guards probably attacked Cinna, carried him off to destinations unknown, and he is probably dead now. I notice an open medical kit with bandages, swabs and syringes, slipping my hand inside for one of the larger syringes. If there is anyone behind this door, I at least want to get a good jab at them before they take me down.
Then I hear a familiar voice.
"She's not going to be happy when she finds out what we've done." I know this voice. This voice belongs to the one person who probably knows me better than anyone. But it isn't the voice I want to hear right now. It just makes me angrier.
"She'll still cooperate though," another voice says, overly confident, and while this voice is less familiar, I recognize it still.
"After the way we've deceived her, there's no guarantee."
A third voice rings out, albeit hoarse and desperate. "Just tell her the truth."
The door finally opens in front of me, revealing the three occupants of the control room. My eyes land on Plutarch first, followed by Finnick and finally Haymitch as he grins at me like he's happy to see me. I am not happy to see him.
"Morning, sweetheart," he says nonchalantly.
In two seconds, I know two things. One is that he is working with a Gamemaker against others he once called his friends. Two is that he is looking at me like he knows I'm not happy with him. And he is right.
When I lunge forward and make an attempt to stab at him, he's ready. He grabs me immediately, and in the struggle, he's able to disarm me.
"What are you doing with them?" I shriek, livid, seething, trying to gouge his eyes out because he deserves it.
Instead of answering me, he continues to antagonize me. "So it's you," he says calmly, "and a syringe against the Capitol. See, this is why no one lets you make the plans."
My eyes land on Finnick again as he watches with an expression that is distraught but determined, and I demand the same thing of him.
"What the hell are you doing here?" I shout.
His expression cracks, either by me struggling or something under the surface that I can't see and don't really care about, and he sighs a little too softly. "Stop," he pleads. "Stop. Just listen . . ."
"We couldn't tell you," Haymitch says still restraining me, obviously not trusting me yet. "With Snow watching you, it was too risky. Better for you to know nothing."
Frustrated, angry and fed up with him, I shove him away, looking from him to Finnick and then Plutarch. I don't care about that. I only care about one thing. "Where's Peeta?" I demand.
Finally, Plutarch speaks up, taking control of the room. "Katniss, listen, there are a few things you need to know before that. You have been our mission from the beginning. Our plan was always to get you out. Half the tributes were in on it. They were willing to give their lives for you, because you are the Mockingjay." He pauses, making sure I'm listening and then moving forward slowly, carefully. "I'm sure you remember everything that's happened the last six months. The uprising in the districts, the need for you to appease them. That is because there is a revolution in our country, and we are on the front lines of that revolution. Now this part of our plan was to get you to District 13, but there has been a slight complication."
Nothing he's saying is making sense. A revolution? For what? The last rebellion ended in the creation of the Hunger Games. A second on can only end in our total annihilation. But he is so sincere and looks so serious. I decide he can only be telling me the truth.
After a glance at Finnick and Haymitch, Plutarch continues, albeit not as enthusiastically.
"In the aftermath, while we were searching for those of you in the arena we could save, we were attacked. The hovercraft was damaged. And our flight to 13 has had to be postponed. We're looking for a suitable place to land now, but we're much closer to the Capitol than I would have liked at this point. Right now, they're looking for all of us, as we are now considered fugitives of President Snow."
This time when he pauses, there is enough time for me to ask one last time.
"Where's Peeta?"
Plutarch looks at Haymitch, and they're both silent, forcing me to think the worst. Peeta is gone, and I am alone. Haymitch has broken his word to me, and he deserves to pay for it. He's about to open his mouth when another door slides open and allows in two more occupants.
The first person I see is Johanna, wearing a similar robe as Finnick with a bandage in the same spot on her arm as he has on his, but she's alive and doesn't seem to remember that she attacked me when she looks up at me. She grins, and for a second, I want to attack her, but then she steps aside, revealing the one person, the only person I really care about seeing. And he is dressed the same as they are.
"Peeta."
He looks up, and unlike me, he is relaxed and clean. But he makes his way to me just as I cross the room to him. His arms close around me as I wrap my own around him as securely as I can, and I take in his solidness and warmth slowly, wanting it to permeate my entire body. I can form only one thought in my head.
"It must be midnight," I whisper to him.
He chuckles softly, happily, and I'm so overwhelmed that when he speaks, I feel like I'm going to break down. "Actually, I think it's about six locally. You've been out for a while. It got scary there for a little bit. Imagine my surprise to see Haymitch traipsing through the jungle with a rifle in his hands. Came to get me and Johanna all by himself. Guess it was just luck that Brutus and Enobaria had been separated."
Just listening to him is a soothing balm to my anger and confusion, those things that could have quickly become wounds were I never to see him again. He can talk all he wants as long as I never have to be without him. If that ever happens, I don't think I'll survive it. I know that now.
He leans back to look at me, his eyes trained on me and promising to never leave again. "It's okay, Katniss. We're safe for now. We're together."
When he says "for now," something in me clicks, and I remember that we're standing in the control room of a stolen hovercraft that's been damaged, and I immediately turn to face everyone else.
"Where are we going?" I ask. "Where are we safe?"
Haymitch sighs, limping around to where we are until he is able to pull out chairs for me and Peeta. This limp is much more prominent than it was before, and I want to ask what happened to him, but he shakes his head. Plutarch, Finnick and Johanna all sit down too, and hot food is placed in front of me.
For the last several years, a period of time I have trouble fathoming because the last six months have been unfathomable, Plutarch Heavensbee has been part of an undercover group aiming to overthrow the Capitol. Six months earlier, upon the announcement of the Quell, a plan to break me out of the arena was devised. The victor tributes from 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 11 all had varying degrees of knowledge of the plan and were willing to do anything — even die — to get me out alive. Haymitch also had a part to play in this, as did Finnick and Johanna, especially after I had named Beetee, Wiress and Mags my wanted allies. Blight was supposed to be part of that alliance, but he, Mags and Wiress are all dead. They are dead because of me.
Plutarch had made sure Beetee's wire was among the weapons of the Cornucopia, and he put Beetee in charge of blowing up the arena. They were supposed to have enough time to get the remaining tributes out of the arena, and because we were all supposed to be near the lightning tree, that was supposed to be the easy part. But Brutus and Enobaria had attacked, separating us and leaving Haymitch and Plutarch with a difficult decision. It was Finnick who demanded that Peeta and Johanna be found and taken to the hovercraft. He, Beetee and I were immediately transported up into the passenger bay where Plutarch was waiting to help us with our wounds. Haymitch had braved the top two wedges of the arena to find Peeta and Johanna, suffering damage to his left leg after an encounter with Enobaria that left her unconscious from a direct blow to the head.
"You were unconscious when Johanna and I came on board," Peeta says as he sits beside me, following up Plutarch and Haymitch's explanation with one of his own. "Plutarch wanted to take the southern way to District 13, but we were fired on, and the engines won't last that long. Try flying a damaged hovercraft fast enough to get out of range so a newer model can't shoot you down."
Johanna scoffs from her place next to Finnick. "We were lucky," she says with a smirk. "Can't say the same for the rest of this trip."
It's an awful lot to digest, and even with Peeta helping, I remain stuck on this plan and me being used against my will as a piece in it, no matter how well-intentioned they were. I understand what they meant to do, and I'm grateful that they saved everyone they could despite me being right where I was supposed to be for them to find me. That these people risked their lives for me should be enough for me to accept what's been done without my knowledge. It should be enough for me to agree to whatever they want me to do regardless of how it makes me feel.
And despite the fury rising inside me, I'm still able to focus on what's most important.
"Where are we headed right now?" I ask, surprising them with my resolve.
Plutarch looks at Haymitch, and they come to a silent agreement.
"We're closest to District 5," Plutarch says. "And despite Snow's best efforts, we will actually have help on the ground once we land. It's just a question of getting to the staging area we used while you were on your Victory Tour."
"The important thing right now is to get word to 13 that we're alive," Haymitch says. "We're all risking a lot right now, but they're the ones who've risked the most, and if this trip doesn't pay off, we might as well turn ourselves in and call it a day."
His cynicism aside, Haymitch is right. And I can't believe I just thought that.
"How long?" I ask.
"We have enough fuel to get us just outside the security fence in Five," Plutarch says. "And while I wish I had better news, because this hovercraft is stolen, its supplies are limited. I have rifles and ammunition for three of us. But we were able to save a few weapons from the Cornucopia. With any luck, we'll make it to the staging area, and from there, we'll know more. Probably an hour. So why doesn't Finnick take you back to the infirmary and get you cleaned up while we assess a little more of our defenses?"
Because it's a strange request, I glance at Peeta, silently asking if it's all right with him. He nods, squeezing my hand and then leaning in to kiss me.
"It's all right. Go get cleaned up. I'll see you soon."
With that, I leave the half-finished food on the table and rise with Finnick to leave the main control room.
He leads me to another part of the hovercraft, one that looks a lot like the Remake Center in the Capitol, but most of the cabinets are bare of supplies. The one thing I notice most is the stand-up shower in the corner and a rack of gray clothes next to it.
"It's not much," he says, his voice still hoarse and his demeanor the complete opposite of what I'm used to. "But you'll feel better after. One of the good things about the life support systems is they're hard-wired around everything else. It means they can't be bypassed to feed the defense or propulsion systems. Hot shower is just what you need. I'll get the stuff ready to suture your arm. Go ahead."
Though I'm still wary of him, I trust the tone of his voice and that he'll keep his distance while I make my way to the shower stall and then begin undressing to do just that.
With everything I've been told, I have no choice but to assess the information myself. Haymitch knew this all along and chose not to tell me, making me closer to a pawn than a centerpiece of his plans. Peeta seems to have accepted all of this and moved on, and I know I should too. We're together and we're safe for now, but with our safety, I know something else has been sacrificed. What about my mother and sister? What about Gale and his family? The other members of District 12 that probably had no idea of this plot either.
The water in the shower is very hot and feels ten times better than I expect, especially since I haven't showered in three days despite being surrounded by water in the arena. It doesn't take long for the first sound of satisfaction to leave my lips, and with it, Finnick's presence is brought back to my attention with his soft but strangely amused snicker. Glancing over my shoulder at him and seeing that he's still turned away, my first reaction is to respond accordingly.
"It was the same time between showers for you, I believe, wasn't it?" I retort.
His grin fades a little, and he gives me a quick glance before averting his eyes again. "Sorry. Johanna and I had a bet on whether you would wake up before Beetee since he was the one who was electrocuted. I said she could be his assistant, and I would be yours if she won, and she did. I didn't know if you would agree to let me help you, but I was hoping. We have a lot in common, you know?"
Everything I know about him flashes through my mind, how he won his games at 14 and was so desirable that literally every citizen of the Capitol was clambering to get their hands on him by the time he was sixteen. I remember how Haymitch practically demanded that I be allies with him by giving him the gold bangle token Effie had gifted him with, and I remember how he saved Peeta's life when I couldn't. His cries for Annie in the Jabberjay wedge of the arena and Johanna telling me about Mags volunteering for her. He had truly been a surprise to me, and now he says we have a lot in common.
How?
He's waiting when I finish my shower, holding out a large towel and easily wrapping it around me without the slightest bit of embarrassment. I amaze myself by allowing him to help me, but I see something in his eyes that tells me he's no longer flirting with me. He is not teasing me or playing a game with me. His sea-green eyes tell me his heart belongs to someone else, and that person has such a hold on him that no other girl or woman can take her place, not even in death.
Finnick's hands seem to move on their own, rubbing my arms dry of the water from the shower and then doing the same to my back. While I'm clinging to the towel, he unfolds a grey robe and drapes it over my shoulders and directs me to an elevated bed where he's set out a tray of supplies for my arm.
The gauze wrapped round my arm comes off easily, revealing a messy, ugly incision where my tracker used to be. When Finnick sees it, the grimace on his face mixes with a slight grin.
"Yeah, that's definitely Johanna's handy work," he says through a chuckle. "You should've seen hers. They all had to come out on site, so we pretty much had to cut them with whatever was available to us. I want to hope I was a little cleaner getting Peeta's out."
This is the last thing he says before starting, and we both fall silent.
My eyes, for all their tiredness and weariness, cannot leave his face as he works. Never in the last few weeks, even the last few days, would I have imagined trusting this person, this past victor whom I essentially despised, this young man who could have easily been Gale or Peeta for all his youth and sincerity. Finnick looks nothing like he did the first time I met him, not even the first time I saw him while watching the tapes from past Games and the reapings from the other districts. His face hasn't changed, but he has.
His hands are gentle and quick. I barely feel him suturing my arm, and when he's finished, he wraps a clean bandage around the threads and releases me completely.
"When we get off the hovercraft," Finnick says, "Plutarch will probably split us into two groups to get us to the staging area. You really need to listen to him. He's been doing this for a long time, and until the engines were damaged, he knew what we were going to do. He may be making this up as we go, but us getting to 13 is just as important to him as anyone. He'll do what he needs to get us there. We're all in this together, all right?"
Silently, I nod, and he does too, smiling a little smile and then turning to leave.
By the time I finish dressing in basically nothing worthy of what I'm about to do — a tank top, pants and the same robe as Finnick, Johanna and Peeta — the hovercraft is shuddering much worse than it was when I woke, and getting back to the control room isn't as easy as it should be.
Peeta and Johanna meet me in the corridor, armed and ready to go, and we bypass the control room to the passenger bay where Plutarch, Haymitch and Beetee are all now strapped in and ready for the hovercraft to land.
"Where's Finnick?" I ask.
"Flying," Johanna says very seriously and very annoyingly when we stumble into the seats and move to get strapped in.
Having to grip the sides of my seat in order to bear the shudder of the hovercraft is an interesting feeling, especially knowing that Finnick is apparently flying a machine that I didn't think anyone but someone obviously other than him could. I thought only peacekeepers or people from the Capitol knew how to fly these things.
I can't tell when we're dropping until we literally drop several hundred feet, and my stomach lifts up into my throat, making me feel nauseous even from the minimal food I ate just a little while ago. It takes several moments to level out, and with Peeta next to me, I grab his hand, thinking maybe we'll make it to the ground. Hoping really, but I've learned hope can be a dangerous thing.
Probably fifteen or twenty minutes after strapping in, we finally land with a hard, rough thud to the ground. It seems impossible that our landing will have gone unnoticed, so I'm not surprised at all when Johanna unlatches my belts and pulls me to my feet. We have minutes. This is obvious.
Finnick emerges from within the control room, dressed differently than the rest of us and now wielding his trident.
"External sensors had guards less than three kilometers away," he says hurriedly. He steps up to a panel on the wall, flipping a switch and moving to my and Peeta's side as the bay doors slide open and then a ladder lowers to the ground.
We're all on our feet, ready to go. Plutarch, Haymitch and Beetee all go first, and Peeta follows them with Johanna. Finally, it's just me and Finnick, and he looks at me, nodding, questioning.
In his hands, I realize he is carrying my bow and a quiver of arrows, and without saying anything, I take my weapon and start down the ladder to follow the others, ready for whatever happens next.
Two more things, or three, depending.
Yes, District 12 was still attacked, and yes, we're still going to District 13.
Yes, Annie will be in my story, and we'll explain that slowly as we meet her.
Lastly, I'm also reinventing Katniss and Finnick's friendship - and we'll see how this goes.
Let me know what you think, and I'll see you next week!