And We All Fall Down
"And we stand, on shaken ground.
The earth moves beneath my feet.
And I shout, 'Forgive me.'"
~The Swarm, You Me At Six.
Katniss sends that one arrow with wire flying towards the flaw in the forcefield, and she sees the tree flash with white-hot electricity before everything explodes into bits of earth and plants and fire. She's knocked from her feet, her body lurching backwards and splaying on the dirt.
"Peeta," she croaks, fighting to keep her head up. How will she find him in all of this fire and debris? The wound in her arm keeps stinging and spewing blood, and she sees a metal claw come down and lift her up before catching a glimpse of Plutarch Heavensbee, manning the hovercraft. She struggles and then realizes it's useless. A few moments later, she passes out.
Everything is black until she wakes up in an entirely too bright room, squinting against the clean, sanitary white lights above her head. With a shock, she realizes she's on a padded table, and jerks her head to her right to see Peeta on another table next to her, and Finnick to her left. They've got me, she thinks, panicked. She tries to sit up, her stomach dropping when she realizes she can't. Snow's got me and he's going to torture me and I couldn't save Peeta and-
She screams and slams her head back against the bed, hoping she can knock herself unconscious. She hears someone with heavy feet walk into the room.
"Calm down, sweetheart."
Out of all of the people she'd expect to respond to her screams in the Capitol, Haymitch is not one of them. He walks over and presses a button on the side of the table, pulling her up into a sitting position. The restraints on her are removed, and her head clearing just enough from her self-inflicted hit to ask him what the hell is happening.
"I'm going to tell you a long story, alright? No questions 'til I'm done," Haymitch replies, and launches into a complicated tale of how there has been a plan from the moment the Quell was announced to break out all of the tributes. Many of the victors had varying amounts of knowledge about the plan. The bread that Finnick and Johanna obsessively counted served as clues to the rescue, Plutarch is a part of an undercover rebel group, and this hovercraft belongs to District 13.
"And you didn't tell me," Katniss says foggily, "Or Peeta." She's been just a piece in their plan all along.
"We couldn't risk it," Haymitch replies. "You're the Mockingjay, Katniss."
Katniss doesn't want to hear any more.
"Is he alright?" she asks, getting up shakily and hobbling over to Peeta. His chest is rising and falling steadily.
"We just gave him pain medicine. He got hit pretty bad in the back during the escape. Fixed him up with a minor surgery," Haymitch says.
Katniss sweeps the room with her eyes. Beetee is hooked up to a mob of machines in another part of the room, and there's Peeta in front of her, and Finnick..
"They took someone, didn't they? Who did they take?" she says.
"Johanna and Enobaria. Annie as well," Haymitch says, his eyes straying to Finnick.
Annie. The jabberjays.
"He already knows?"
"We had to sedate him."
Katniss can sense that he's holding something back, but there's still drugs coursing through her veins and she can't pinpoint what exactly it is.
Peeta wakes a few hours later, followed by Finnick, who only gets up to knock himself out again.
"Six hours until District 13," Haymitch says, taking a sip from a bottle in his hand.
Something suddenly occurs to Katniss.
"Are Prim and my mother still in 12?" she asks with a jolt. Blonde hair and blue eyes fill her vision. How could she have forgotten?
"No," Haymitch says casually.
"What do you mean 'no'?" Katniss says, her blood going cold.
Haymitch shifts.
"Katniss," he begins, and she is immediately put off by the way he uses her first name. She backs into her seat, as if to squirm away from the words that are coming her way.
"There is no District 12."
"What do you mean?" Peeta asks from beside her, his voice hard.
"Planes were sent in after the Games," Haymitch replies tersely, looking straight at them.
Katniss imagines firebombs falling down on the Seam and her heart rate spikes.
"Where's Prim?" she asks desperately, deathly afraid of the answer.
"District 13."
"Mother?"
"Same."
"And everyone else?" Peeta presses.
Haymitch's expression hardens. "Those who made it out are in District 13. Your family's part of them," Haymitch says, seeing Peeta open his mouth again. "About ten percent of the population."
"Who evacuated them? District 13? Why didn't they take everyone?" Peeta continues, his voice reflecting the fear that's building up in Katniss's stomach.
Haymitch drops his gaze.
"Gale."
Katniss goes rigid.
"Where is he?" she whispers. Her heart clenches painfully, and she pulls up her knees, putting her hands over her ears too late.
"He's gone. The Capitol took him."
Katniss doesn't acknowledge anyone or anything, only talking to Peeta once or twice the rest of the way to District 13.
She thinks of the jabberjays echoing Gale's screams and pales when she thinks about what the Capitol could be doing to him. The beloved cousin who was whipped for killing a turkey. His back hadn't even fully healed yet. She imagines them scratching open the wounds and curls into herself, staring out a window. Food is forced down her throat but other than that she's left in peace.
She's also acutely aware of the districtful of blood on her hands.
As soon as the hovercraft has landed in District 13, Katniss, Peeta, and a slightly calmer Finnick all wobble unsteadily out of the vehicle and underground, travelling through a dark, metallic staircase lit up with an artificial yellow glow. At the end of the staircase lies District 13, an efficient, maybe even overly so, and organized place, entirely beneath the earth. Katniss hates it already.
She, Peeta, and Finnick are all ushered directly to the hospital for secondary check-ups.
"They'll keep you here overnight," Haymitch says. "It's protocol."
"I want to see Prim," Katniss demands, eyeing the doctors around her. She can't trust them. She can't be expected to, not after coming out of the Arena like this.
When all three of them thrash and scream, resisting the doctors and their blank faces, they're injected with sedatives and are detained for an extra five days (Peeta), a week (Katniss), and three weeks (Finnick).
All of them have bracelets slapped onto their wrists, declaring them mentally unstable.
On her second day in District 13, Katniss realizes that one of the nurses that had been trying to control her was her own mother.
Prim is brought down to the hospital for a visit, and Katniss nearly starts crying at the sight of her little duck, a good three inches taller and her face a little more stern. She hugs her close and mumbles to her, talking nonsense for nearly an hour before Prim has to go back up for lunch.
(Everything here is carefully regulated. Prim explains the schedule on her arm, printed in purple ink, and how everyone has set times for everything, including meals and exercise and bathing.)
Katniss, Peeta, and Finnick are given bowls of clear broth with minute servings of meat, because their weak stomachs still can't hold down food well.
Peeta's whole family comes down to visit after lunch, and they circle his hospital bed, talking and smiling for his sake. But eventually, they leave, too, because someone has kitchen duty and someone else has downtime, and they scatter, leaving the room quiet again for all but a few minutes before Finnick screams in his sleep, prompting the nurses to go over and tend to him.
Katniss is released two days early because of 'signs of rapid recovery', even though she has no idea what she's supposedly recovering from, and doesn't feel any different from before.
The boy with the snares haunts her dreams, bloodstained and screaming, screaming, screaming, and although there's less thrashing now, the nightmares don't go away. She expects they probably never will.
She's moved up to her mother and Prim's compartment (307), and she's now required to have her own purple schedule printed on her arm. So she sticks the underside of her forearm under the little machine every morning, but never so much as glances at the numbers and words, only showing up for meals.
For a while, Peeta hangs around the kitchen, making whatever he can out of the limited rations as a strange sort of therapy, and Katniss can only wander around 13.
She and Peeta are called into the Command Room, where President Alma Coin and her team of advisers meet and discuss issues.
In a nearly emotionless voice, she asks if Peeta and her are recovering well, and drops not-so-subtle hints that she wants them to start working on whatever she has in mind for the rebellion as soon as possible.
Of course.
That is why they saved Katniss, isn't it?
So she can be another piece, another pawn, another face; but this time in an entirely different game.
"Sweetheart!" Haymitch calls when Katniss and Peeta are halfway out the door, shoulders touching.
Katniss turns and looks at him coldly.
He drops a pearl and necklace into her hands, the locket attached to the chain in the shape of a mockingjay.
"They found this on you when you were lifted out of the Arena."
She doesn't look back at him and silently starts walking again with Peeta. After rolling the pearl in between her index and forefinger, she opens the small latch on the locket and three pictures fall out into her hands. Prim, her mother, and Gale.
Her eyes linger on his smiling face.
"How did you get him to do that?" she asks suddenly.
"Do what?" Peeta says, looking into her palm.
"Smile. He's actually smiling."
Peeta shrugs, looking up into her eyes.
"I told him to do for you."
A nearly invisible hovercraft takes them to the ruins of District 12 the next day.
Once they are armed with communication devices and trackers, Katniss and Peeta are let down a ladder and onto the ashen ground of their district, Haymitch watching them from above.
"Fifteen minutes, kids," he says, and their earpieces crackle with the noise.
"Do you want me to come with you?" Peeta asks gently, watching Katniss look towards where the Seam used to be.
She shakes her head no.
They split ways, Katniss making a beeline for her old home and Peeta walking towards the town's remains.
There's nothing much to do but to stare at the rubble and to toe the ash. She walks past gray-colored human skulls as she makes her next stop at Gale's home, and avoids looking anywhere but straight ahead of her.
My fault, she thinks. All these people, because of one arrow and a bit of wire.
She bends down by the stumpy remains of his house, which she only located because the way there is ingrained in her head, not because there's much to visually recognize. She lingers there, staring at the ash, as if Gale will somehow materialize in front of her.
She goes back for Peeta before she enters her home in the Victor's Village, because the way it stands tall and untouched above the rest of the district unnerves her, just like Snow wanted.
They enter the home together, Peeta's loud steps filling the eerily empty space with noise.
Drifting through the house, Katniss picks up little things as she goes along. A ribbon lying on the floor, her hunting bag, a picture of her parents, the plant book.
"Just a minute left, kiddos," Haymitch says, startling them both.
"There's one more thing I need from my room. I'll be back in a second," Katniss says to Peeta. She takes off towards the stairs, running up them and down the hall, turning into her bedroom. She flings open the closet and files through the few clothes hanging in there until she comes across her hunting jacket. She removes it from the hanger and slips it on, the familiar warm leather calming her, but over all these years the jacket has associated itself with her father, the woods, and Gale, and she quickly shrugs off the jacket, closing her eyes against the pictures burning on her eyelids when she hears a soft hiss.
Her senses on edge, she whirls around, coming face-to-face with the world's ugliest cat.
"You worthless thing," she mutters, saying something about Prim that causes Buttercup to falter, and she unceremoniously dumps him into her back, ignoring his protests. "You survived, did't you?"
As she's leaving she picks up the slightest air of rose, and she feels her heart speed up when she spots a snow-white variety of the flower on her dresser, as if it had been tossed there carelessly.
"Come on, sweetheart," Haymitch says in her ear, and Peeta calls her from downstairs.
She turns and runs.
Buttercup leaps out of the game bag as soon as Katniss has stepped inside of her compartment, and thankfully, neither Prim or her mother ask any questions about the trip. They've seen the ashes, haven't they? There's nothing to ask.
Prim and Buttercup share a tearful reunion, the ribbon Katniss retrieved going around the cat's neck. Her mother takes the plant book and picture, hugging them to herself and arranging them carefully on the small dresser in their room.
Katniss takes in a deep breath before forcing her shaking hands to knock on the compartment's door.
"Come in," a distracted reply comes, and Katniss pushes open the door.
Rory's cheeks are flushed, yelling at Posy and Vick who are attacking him with drawers full of gray clothes. Posy squeals while she weakly flings shirts and pants at him, laughing each time he shoots her a death stare, and Vick is full-on assaulting him, packing the clothes tightly and chucking them.
All the activity stops, though, as soon as they catch sight of Katniss. Katniss can't blame them. Even though they'd never, ever blame her for Gale, they're afraid of her, aren't they? After all, she's supposed to be mentally unstable.
Vick plops down on the bed, looking at his toes while Rory suddenly becomes interested in organizing the dresser top. Posy's the only one who runs up to Katniss, hugging her around the knees.
"Did you find Gale yet, Katniss?" she asks sweetly. Katniss takes in a sharp breath.
"Not yet, Posy," Katniss tells the little girl, stooping down to her level. "We're still looking."
Lies.
No one's looking for Gale. Katniss wishes she wishes she wishes she could and she would escape the district and walk all the way to the Capitol if she were able to.
"Okay," Posy says simply, evidently satisfied by the answer. Katniss turns to Hazelle.
"I'm sorry," she whispers, because what else can she say?
Katniss turns to leave but Hazelle gently pulls her into a hug, and for a few moments they cling together.
I should be in his place. I should be there, they should be torturing me.
"What are we going to do?"
They are sitting in a school supply closet, their backs against boxes of notebooks, shoulders touching and hands clasped. Another meeting discussing Katniss and the role she's yet to fill; another reluctant response from her.
Peeta turns to look at her. His blue eyes catch the dim light, making them glow electrically.
"I'll be by you no matter what you do, Katniss. That's what you and I do, right? Watch over each other."
"You're too good for me, Peeta," Katniss says softly, because somehow that's what she needed, the reassurance that someone would be there to support her. She leans in and kisses him on the cheek, leaning her head on his shoulder.
"I guess you've made up your mind, then?" he says quietly.
Katniss pulls back slightly, nodding.
"I'm going to be the Mockingjay."
Katniss is just about to go to 22:00 - Bathing, when Peeta knocks frantically at their compartment's door, his face slightly flushed as if he'd been running.
"What's wrong?" Katniss says.
"You need to come to Command right now," he replies. Katniss stays frozen for a second longer before Peeta reaches out to touch her arm, and she jolts forward, following him through the many halls and staircases that lead to Command.
Peeta opens the door for her and she steps inside to see everyone else - Haymitch, Coin, Plutarch, Coins lackey, Boggs, among others- gathered around a small television. Everyone glances at Katniss and separates slightly, allowing her to make her way to the front.
She gasps sharply when she sees who's on the screen.
Gale.
She rushes forward, gingerly laying a hand on the television and scanning Gale for any obvious signs of torture. She doesn't find any, though, seeing that he's completely healthy, no bruises marring his face and no cuts. She drinks in his appearance, gray eyes and dark hair and olive skin, and only backs away slightly when she hears someone else start talking.
Katniss realizes belatedly that Caesar Flickerman's sitting across from him.
"Hello Gale," Caesar says warmly, showing no signs of discomfort. "Welcome back."
"Thanks," Gale says, composed and serious, no sarcasm lacing his words.
"I must confess, I didn't count on doing another interview with you after the Quarter Quell, when your cousin and Peeta made it to the final eight."
"I didn't count on my district getting bombed, either, Caesar," Gale says coolly, and Caesar shifts in his seat.
"So, about that last day in the Arena, when your cousin-"
"She's not my cousin."
"-blew out the forcefield. Do you know if she was involved in the rebel's plans from early on?"
Gale leans forward.
"You tell me what you think, Caesar," he says.
Caesar fidgets.
"Well, from the footage, I'd say she had a pretty good understanding of what she did."
"I think that Katniss was just trying to save herself and Peeta," Gale says easily. "She loves him. She did whatever it took."
Hs's still trying to cover for me, Katniss thinks. The idiot.
"Yes, but-"
"She was just trying to win your Games."
Katniss takes in a slow breath.
"Are you sure she didn't mention anything about a rebellion to you?"
"I'm pretty sure," Gale says, his words now dripping with sarcasm. Snow probably doesn't appreciate sarcasm, Katniss thinks. "Honestly, do you think she wanted Johanna to nearly kill her? To trigger our district's bombing?" His voice rises until he's yelling. "No! She didn't! You told her to go in and fight to the death, and she was doing that! She was playing your game, and trying to keep Peeta alive while at it!"
"I believe you," Caesar says, sounding slightly frazzled. "Since we're running out of time, I'll leave you with just one last question. Is there anything you'd like to say to Katniss?"
"If- if what they're telling me is true, Catnip," Gale begins, looking directly at the camera, and Katniss feels like she's been punched in the gut upon hearing the nickname. He inhales sharply. "You have to-" he falters, and his next words come out in a rushed jumble,"You have to go ahead with the rebellion. You have to be what they need, Katniss. We-"
The video feed goes out, but there's a slight delay in turning off the audio, and Katniss makes a choked noise when she hears the sound of a fist meeting bone.
You have to be what they need, Katniss.
"I'll be your mockingjay," she announces at the next Command meeting. Peeta is sitting right next to her, and his presence helps her focus.
No one looks too surprised, but they all laugh and slap each other on the back, looking relieved. They knew she'd give in sooner or later.
"Excellent," Coin says, impassive as ever.
"But I have some conditions." Katniss unfolds the small square of papers in her hands, smoothing it out as best as she can. Peeta helped her write the list while sitting in the supply closet and skipping a history course the day before, taking her ideas and rewording and ordering them.
Coin's eyebrow twitches the slighest bit, and she says, "Go on."
"My family will be allowed to keep its cat."
Peeta had brought this point up, saying that pets probably aren't a common concept in 13. Katniss included it for Prim's sake.
This sparks a small debate, with the District 13 advisers stressing the difficulties, and the Capitol rebels scoffing at them, wondering what the big deal is.
Coin looks mildly annoyed when she says with a wave of her hand, "They can keep their cat. You'll be moved to a compartment with a small window, and he will be expected to feed himself. If he causes any problems, he will be shot. Understood?"
Katniss nods.
"I'd like to hunt in the woods. It doesn't have to be often, but fresh air'll help me recover faster. I can't be underground all of the time," Katniss says, using the argument Peeta presented.
Plutarch opens his mouth, saying something about extra risks, but Coins cuts him off.
"That'll be fine, as long as Peeta accompanies you, and you will wear tracking anklets with a two-mile radius. Anything else?"
"I'll need Peeta to do this with me," Katniss says.
"Good, good," Plutarch replies, putting his hands together. "We'll easily work in the lover's act. It gives us an advantage, actually, doesn't it?" There are mumbles of agreement, but Katniss's face burns when he says 'act'. True, Katniss still doesn't know for sure where her feelings for Peeta lie, but 'act' makes it sound like every damn thing was fake.
Katniss opens her mouth, but Peeta lays a hand on her shoulder, and she bites back the objections on her tongue. After a few heartbeats, she announces her next condition, letting her anger propel her into it.
"Gale will be pardoned when the war is over, if we win. And the same goes for Johanna, Annie, and Enobaria."
She is met by dead silence, and Peeta immediately moves closer to her, one of the strange instincts implanted by the Games.
"We had no association with their captures whatsoever," Coin says coolly. "They will be tried as war criminals, and dealt with accordingly."
War criminals.
Katniss's cheeks burn.
"It's not Johanna, Annie, and Enobaria's fault that you let the Capitol take them. You will take full responsibility for their well-being, and you will pledge this publicly," Katniss says in a cold, firm voice.
Coin considers her words for a few moments. "I can do that, Katniss, but I think you know yourself that we couldn't have done anything to help Gale, although I'll be able to issue a pardon for the other three," she says, without a hint of an apology in her voice.
"Then you'll find yourself another Mockingjay!" Katniss says loudly, slamming her hand down on the table in front of her. The sound startles everyone.
"That's her," a woman named Fulvia breathes out, "A bit of smoke in the background and ash on her, can't you see it?" She's quickly shushed by Plutarch.
Coin's eyes narrow. Katniss holds her gaze.
"I'll make the announcement."
"Today."
"During Reflection."
Katniss tries not to show her relief on her face.
"Anything else?" Coin asks. Katniss pauses for a moment.
"I kill Snow."
The president actually smiles at that.
"When the time comes, I'll flip you for it."
Her first little trip as the Mockingjay is following Plutarch and Fulvia through District 13 with Peeta, for a 'surprise'.
They are lead through several different hallways, up a few flights of stairs, until finally they reach an elevator that can only be accessed by the key card around Plutarch's neck.
"Room 3908," he says cheerfully once the door open, looking at the marked compartments on his right. Katniss turns to look at the left.
3898, 3900, 3902, 3904, 3906... 3908.
A guard approaches them, stopping them in their tracks.
"I'm afraid you'll have to leave," he says. "I think you've got the wrong floor, sir."
"Really?" Plutarch asks, glancing around, and then frowning at the paper in his hands. "I've got 3908 right here."
"You can address assignment discrepancies at the Head Office," the guard replies.
Katniss hears a tiny whimper come from behind the door, all too human and familiar.
Before the guard can stop her, she darts to the door and swings it open, hearing Peeta struggling with the guard behind her.
She finds her prep half-naked, bruised, and shackled to the wall.
Bread. They were treated like that over some damned bread.
This must be the right choice if Cinna wanted me to make it, Katniss thinks, fingering the cover of the leather-bound sketch book in front of her. Presented to her by Plutarch few minutes ago, it contains sketches of her Mockingjay costume, careful designing cleverly concealing weapons and swooping curves and little details that can only be his.
She feels tears prick at her eyes when she comes to the last page in the book, and a hand-written note from Cinna is there.
I'm still betting on you.
"We'll be making propos," Plutarch says quietly once Katniss has closed the sketchbook. "Propaganda videos featuring you and Peeta that we'll broadcast all across Panem."
"How?" Peeta asks from beside Katniss. "The Capitol has control of the broadcasts."
Plutarch almost smiles. "Beetee essentially redesigned the underground network about ten years ago. He knows how it works, and he thinks he can get through and air our video. We'll be starting tomorrow."
During the hour usually assigned for training, Katniss and Peeta have their allotted hunting time. Tracking anklets are strapped onto them and someone explains how to use it; Katniss mostly nodding every now and then and Peeta paying rapt attention. Katniss is given a simple bow and arrows set and they're off through the heavily guarded doors.
For the first fifteen minutes, Katniss tries to tolerate Peeta's crashing steps behind her, wincing every time a twig snaps, but keeping her mouth shut. After that, though, she asks him if he would mind just sitting and watching, or going in another direction, and Peeta smiles sheepishly, pointing at a asprawling tree and saying he'll be under there.
Katniss slips back into her hunting stride, moving swiftly in and out of the trees. Something flits in her periphery and she automatically shoots. Walking over, she finds a rabbit with an arrow straight through its eye.
She turns around. "Look what-"
She stops when she realizes there's no one there.
Her steps faltering just a little bit, she continues into the woods until Peeta somehow calls her on the anklet, and they head back inside.
Katniss is all prettied up the next day, and is dressed up in her Mockingjay costume with Peeta dressed in a coordinating uniform. Smoke machines are set up and fake cuts and bruises are plastered over them both.
When the camera starts rolling, perfect-sounding words tumble out of Peeta's mouth, Katniss staying silent by his side.
"Cut!" Plutarch says after a few moments. "Katniss, you need to be the one leading the rebellion, not Peeta." Katniss quickly grasps his message.
I need to do this.
She opens her mouth and says the lines she's given, trying to sound angry and passionate. When she's done, the camera is quickly turned off, and Peeta turns to her, his expression unreadable.
Haymitch laughs uncontrollably, and in between his wheezing and coughing, manages to get out, "And that, my friends, is how a revolution dies."
No one contradicts him.
The next Command meeting, Haymitch had invited Katniss's neighbor back in 12, Leevy, Greasy Sae, along with her prep team and other seemingly random people. Peeta takes a seat next to Katniss at the large table. Coin is at the head of the table, as always, with her lackeys by her side.
"What is one thing that Katniss Everdeen herself has done to make you like her? Not what Peeta did to make her likeable, but what she herself did. At home, in the Arena, anything," Haymitch says to everyone.
It quickly becomes apparent that this meeting is regarding the failing propos.
"She volunteered for Prim at the reaping," Peeta says after a few moments of silence. His statement sets off a flurry of responses.
When she sang to Rue in the first Arena. Trying to help Mags. When she first allied with Rue.
"I cried when she gave Peeta the sleeping syrup to save him," Octavia blurts.
"She drugged the boy to save him. Good, good," Haymitch says, writing something down.
When everything starts to quiet down, Greasy Sae speaks.
"She wasted a year's savings to get the boy some medicine when he sick a year or two back, even though he told 'er not to."
Everyone automatically looks to Peeta, thinking for a moment before realizing she's referring to the cousin. Gale. Katniss feels her heart clench for a split second.
"Now what do all of these things have in common?"
"They were unscripted," Peeta says immediately. "No one told her to do them."
"And that's exactly what we need," Haymitch smiles.
"Katniss."
"Finnick?"
"Yeah, they let me have lunch with everyone else today," he says, smiling slightly. He puts down his tray next to her and settles himself onto the bench. "I wanted to thank you."
"Thank me?"
"For including Annie," he says, and Katniss has to pause for a moment before realizing he's talking about Coin's mockingjay announcement. She watches his eyes cloud up at just saying her name. "You don't know how much it means."
Katniss nods, and they continue eating in silence.
"We'll be going to a District 8 hospital, and Katniss and Peeta will talk to the patients there. We'll just be filming what you say," Plutarch explains.
That's all he gets to tell her before she's whisked off by her prep team to be scrubbed and dressed, and when she's ready, she's directed to Special Weaponry for a 'surprise', as Fulvia tells her.
"Ah, Katniss," Beetee says once she's arrived, "I've been waiting until I could give you this." His eyes alight, Beetee hands her a case in the shape of a bow, and Katniss opens it to find the most beautiful bow she's ever seen laying on crushed red velvet.
"It's amazing," she says, picking up the curved black weapon. It's lightweight but feels steady in her hands, and -when she stays very still- it feels as if the bow is living.
"It recognizes your voice," Beetee says. "They told me what the bow had to look like, which was very plain, I thought, so why not add some extra features?"
He explains how there's different types of arrows in Katniss's quiver, each one distinguishable by a different colored shaft. There's explosive, razor sharp, smoke and others that make the bow a multipurpose weapon. The bow only needs to hear Katniss say "Good night" to deactivate its special properties.
Heavy footsteps come towards Beetee and Katniss.
"We need to go now, Katniss," Peeta says, and Katniss feels tremendously better about herself while holding the bow and getting a small spark of hope from Peeta.
Enveloped in clouds, their hovercraft makes its way towards District 8. Katniss is strapped into a seat next to Peeta, both of them quiet. Plutarch is on Katniss's other side, trying to explain the war's happenings so far.
Every district except for 2, who has always been favored by the Capitol, is at war with the government. After the Dark Days, District 2 was established as the Capitol's new center of defense, and it supplies weapons, training and even Peacekeepers.
"I thought all Peacekeepers were from the Capitol," Peeta says.
"That's what you're supposed to think," Plutarch replies. "But the Capitol could never sustain a force that large. So we'll take over each district, one by one, ending with 2. That'll cut off the Capitol's supply chain and then we'll invade the Capitol itself. But that's for another time."
He then hands them little purple capsules. "If you're ever captured, the rebels can't afford any more hostages. The pills are called nightlock," Plutarch says, "after the berries."
Katniss and Peeta both take a capsule.
"It goes in that little compartment on your shoulder," Peeta says when Katniss hesitates. Katniss looks her right. The compartment is close enough to her mouth that she can bite it free if she needs to, and rips open easily.
"We're landing now," Plutarch says, just as she's fastened the capsule to her suit.
"I can't do this," Katniss says to Cressida, the female director of the propo. "I'll be horrible."
Katniss looks at the old warehouse, a roughly painted 'H' at the top. The inside is filled with bloodied and bruised people, ranging from children to the elderly.
"You'll be fine, Katniss. You're hope to them," Peeta says, touching her shoulder. "Just seeing you will help. I doubt you'll even have to talk that much."
Katniss swallows and nods, just as District 8's commander, Paylor, walks up to their little freak show.
"So you're alive, Mockingjay," she says, her limp brown hair framing her stern face. "We weren't sure, although the Capitol broadcast gave us a pretty good idea."
"I wasn't sure either," Katniss replies.
Plutarch leans in. "She had a bad concussion. Miscarriage." As if on cue, Peeta tightly wraps his fingers with Katniss's, and Katniss looks away. "But she insisted on visiting your wounded."
"Well, come on in," Paylor says, eyeing the camera crew. "Just be careful."
"Do not leave my side," Katniss says under her breath to Peeta, and he squeezes her hand in response. They enter the warehouse and are hit with the stench of rotten flesh and the metallic air of blood.
"Katniss? Is that really you?" A young girl with stained bandages reaches out a hand, and Katniss takes it with her free one.
And so the flurry of reassurances and seeing so, so many injured people, begins.
People reach for her, wanting to make sure she's real, while Katniss says mundane things like how are you and good to meet you. Peeta was right. They don't want her words. The sight of the girl on fire itself is inspiration.
Everyone seems genuinely upset when they learn that Katniss lost the baby, and when an old woman begins to weep and recounts when her own daughter miscarried, Katniss wants to tell her that it was all a hoax, but that wouldn't help anyone, would it? And when she's standing on a table, waving goodbye to everyone, Katniss realizes she actually has some sort of power.
"There's a problem."
"What kind of problem?"
"A bombing. Don't let them see you. Intelligence thinks this raid was already planned."
"So they're not targeting me?" Katniss says into her microphone.
"No, they're not. Stay under cover. We can't land the hovercrafts right now."
"What are they targeting then?"
The answers occurs to Katniss just as the words come out of her mouth.
Katniss mouths to Peeta, cover me, and his eyes widen.
"Katniss-"
"Katniss!" Haymitch yells. "You'd better not-"
She rips the earpiece out, taking her bow off her shoulders and gripping it tightly as she runs towards the hospital, with Peeta right behind. Everyone's yelling after them, with Bogg's voice coming out on top, and she hears heavy footsteps following them.
"The hospital!" she yells at Peeta. "They're targeting the hospital!"
The first wave of bombs begins, and Katniss instinctively dives into an alleyway. Peeta throws himself over her. She shifts and she finds herself looking right into his blue eyes, his lips slightly parted as he tries to catch his breath. His leg. He can't run.
There's machine gun fire coming from an old warehouse across the alley. Without thinking, Katniss reaches up and briefly presses her lips to Peeta, whose arms grip her even tighter.
"Stay here," she says, and jerks out of Peeta's grip, running across the alley. She hears him scramble to his feet and come towards her, and she pushes herself on, climbing a ladder onto the warehouse. Faster, heavier pairs of footsteps run behind her, and someone manages to grip her leg before she kicks them off and flattens herself onto the roof's surface.
Paylor stands there, manning one of the guns.
"Does Boggs know you're here?" she asks, hardly looking towards Katniss.
"He does, alright," Katniss says, trying to be evasive without flat-out lying. Paylor almost smiles.
"Do you know how to use one of these?"
"I have my bow. It's more deadly than it looks."
Paylor nods briefly. "We expect at least three more waves. They have to drop their sight shields before dropping the bombs. That's our chance. Stay low."
Katniss gets down on one knee, notching a fire arrow.
"Strike!" Paylor yells, just as seven small bombers appear two blocks down in a V formation.
Like geese, Katniss thinks.
She shoots her first arrow and misses the planes. Her second and third arrows hit a plane in the middle, when she was aiming for the one before it.
Deciding that the fire arrows are no good, she switches to the explosives. "Positions!" Paylor shouts. The second wave of hoverplanes is already appearing.
I need Gale. They always worked better together.
Katniss leads earlier and hits the point plane directly, causing the whole front of it to blow off. She one arrow after the other, hitting two more planes and causing them swerve and crash. They explode into flames on contact with the ground.
A third V formation sweeps in silently, and Katniss keeps shooting, going back to using fire when her explosive arrows run out.
"Has the hospital been hit?" she shouts, once the last of the planes has collided with an empty warehouse.
"Must have," Paylor replies grimly.
Katniss scrambles down another ladder, coming face-to-face with Cressida and a bodyguard.
"I don't care, Plutarch!" she's yelling. "I need five more minutes!" Katniss takes the opportunity and runs across the street, through another alley before arriving at what used to be the hospital.
"Oh," she whispers. The roof has collapsed in flames, and screams are ricocheting inside the building. One or two people have managed to crawl out and are screaming for their loved ones. It reminds Katniss too much of the mines.
She feels a hand on her shoulder, and comes face to face with a flushed Peeta. "Haymitch said they can send in a hovercraft now."
Katniss feels like she can't move.
"President Snow just aired the bombing live." Cressida is speaking from behind her, the sweaty camera crew holding up their cameras. "Would you like to say something to the rebels?"
Katniss turns. "Yes, I would."
A red light turns on one of the cameras, and everyone draws away from her, including Peeta.
"I am alive. I'm right here, in District 8, where the Capitol has just bombed a hospital full of injured men, women, and children. There will be no survivors."
Fury starts to build up in her. "If you think that the Capitol will treat us fairly for even a second, you're deluding yourself, because you know who they are and what they do. Fire is catching!" Katniss waves around at her surroundings. "And if we burn, you burn with us!"
(A/N) Tell me what you guys think! Just as another little side note, I'm leaving for vacation soon, and I won't have any internet , so the next update will be in about two to two and a half weeks.