AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGHAFJAJKFHFAKFHKWJFJSFBSAGJAKJGBJsfaKFNAKLnk. I'm sorry. I FINALLY SAW CATCHING FIRE. (I had to wait..long story.). EEEPPP WASN'T IT PERFECT? I was totally...
Well, we should move on...Sorry about that...
NOTE: While I did quote some here, I omitted some "background" stories that were told. You can find them on page 199-200 and 207-208. Everything else lies at the bottom.
NONONONO I DON'T OWN THE HUNGER GAMES. I DON'T I DON'T I DON'T...
I open my eyes. The sun is shining through the tiny window above my cot. A mockingjay sings in the distance. Now I remember.
Today is the day we crack the Nut.
I sigh and decide to head over to the hovercraft for the war meeting. Sitting up, I notice that my pearl is pressed up against my palm.
Peeta...That's when I realize that the warmth never really left me.
I roll out of the cot and dress myself. I lace up my boots and drop the locket in my pocket. Finally, I take my pearl, caressing it a moment, then slipping it in my pocket. As I walk out, I thank the rebel family that housed me and bid them goodbye. I step outside and begin the walk to the hovercraft. After awhile, I stop under a tree because the weathers nice, and besides, I have a little time before the meeting. I close my eyes and lean against the tree, breathing in the fresh air. Before long, I sense something behind me. My eyes snap open and I turn.
"Hey Gale," I say uncertainly.
"Hey, Catnip." There's an odd espression on his face that I can't place. I don't know what to expect. I'm trying to figure out what it is and what to say, when Gale speaks.
"Kiss me." What? I'm so bewildered and confused by his suddenness that I just stand there, unblinking, while he presses his lips to mine.
My hands fly to my mouth as I jump back, coming to my senses. "What was that for?!" I yell.
"I needed to know something," he says. "What did you feel?" He says the last bit very softly. He looks at me closely, studying my expression.
"I-What does it matter what I feel? You needed to know something? And yet you don't even have the dignity to consider asking me instead?" I'm angry now.
"I-"
"It doesn't matter. But you can't just walk up to someone and kiss them." I stare at him defiantly. He stares back, looking rather shocked at my reaction.
"And to answer your question," I say, softer now, "I don't know. I don't know and I don't really care." I know I might feel bad for treating him like this later, but at the moment I feel like he deserves it.
"Then it's like kissing someone who's drunk," he says.
This surprises me even further. Suddenly, I'm curious. "How do you know? Have you kissed a girl that's drunk?"
"No." He shakes his head. "But it's not hard to imagine."
"So, you never kissed any other girls?" I wouldn't believe that. He probably was kissing all kinds of girls. He certainly had enough takers.
"I didn't say that." Huh. "You know, I did have a life outside of hunting with you. You were only twelve when we met. And a real pain besides," he says.
I roll my eyes, but my curiosity has been aroused. "Who did you kiss? And where?"
"Too many to remember. Behind the school, on the slag heap...you name it," he says.
I roll my eyes again. I try not to sound to exasperated when I say, "When did I become so special? After I was carted off to the Capitol?"
"No. About six months before that, right after Christmas. We were sitting in the Hob, eating some slop of Greasy Sae's, and Darius was teasing you about trading a rabbit for one of his kisses. And I realized...I minded," he says.
A million miles and a billion days ago, this happened. "Darius was just kidding around."
"Probably," Gale says. "Although you'd be the last to figure it out if he wasn't."
That's probably true. "Take Peeta. Take me. Or even Finnick. I was starting to think he had his eye on you, but he seems to be back on track now," He continues.
What? Finnick? "You don't know Finnick if you think he'd love me," I say.
Gale shrugs. "I know he was desperate. That makes people do all kinds of crazy things." As he walks away, his words ring through my head.
I know he was desperate. That makes people do all kinds of crazy things.
I can't help thinking that's directed at me.
I close my eyes and give my head a slight shake, trying to clear it. What should I do? I really don't know.
I sigh.
Once I get to the meeting room in the hovercraft, I see that all the "brains" have assembled to take on the Nut. I'm not really needed in meetings, since I don't fall into the brain category, but I guess that since I'm the Mockingjay, I'm required to be here, unfortunately. Personally, I find meetings horribly boring.
I glance around. Plutarch is at the head of the long table as always. Gale is seated next to him, staring fixedly at a moth buzzing around.
My eyes find Peeta and he smiles, looking a little worn. I walk to one side of the room sit in the lone empty chair.
Which, conveniently, happens to be smack in between Peeta and Gale.
I sit down, my stomach twisting uncomfortably. Peeta's hand finds my own. He gives it a small, reassuring squeeze. I calm down a little, sitting up a little straighter.
"Hello Katniss," says Plutarch.
He nods at Soldier Lyme to begin. Lyme, who is acting as commander for the raid, goes on with a long presentation. It's so unbearably dull that I have to fight to keep my eyes open. Peeta and I try to pass the time by passing notes from time to time.
After Lyme finally finishes, the questions begin. Hours pass, lunch comes and goes. They try to come up with a realistic plan for taking the Nut. But while Beetee thinks he might be able to override certain computer systems, and there's some discussion of putting the handful of spies to use, no one has any innovative thoughts. As the afternoon wears on, talk keeps returning to a strategy that has been tried repeatedly-the storming of the entrances.
I can see Lyme's frustration building because so many variations of this plan have already failed, so many of her soldiers have been lost. Finally, she bursts out,
"The next person to suggest we take the entrances better have a brilliant way to do it, because you are going to be leading that mission!"
Gale, who has been sitting quietly this whole time, seemed to accept Lyme's assertion that the entrances shouldn't be taken early on. But now, he speaks up.
"Is it really necessary that we take the Nut? or would it be enough to disable it?"
"That would be a step in the right direction," muses Beetee. "What do you have in mind?"
"Think of it as a wild dog den," Gale says. "You're not going to fight your way in. So you have two choices. Trap the dogs inside or flush them out."
"We've tried bombing the entrances," says Boggs. "They're set too far inside the stone for any real damage to be done."
"I wasn't thinking of that," says Gale. "I was thinking of using the mountain." At this, I tense. I can only imagine what kind of plan Gale has in mind.
Beetee rises and joins Gale at the window, peering through his ill-fitting glasses.
"See?" Gale says. "Running down the sides."
Peeta joins them and looks at the Nut for a moment. "Avalanche paths," he mutters under his breath.
"It'd be tricky," says Beetee. "We'd have to design the detonation sequence with great care, and once it's in motion, we couldn't hope to control it."
"We don't have to control it if we give up the idea that we have to posses the Nut," Gale says. "Only shut it down."
"So you're suggesting that we start avalanches and block the entrances?" asks Beetee.
"That's it," says Gale. "Trap the enemy inside, cut off from supplies. Make it impossible for them to send out their hovercraft."
Everyone is considering the plan when Peeta bursts out, "But you risk killing everyone inside!"
Gale starts to answer but Boggs cuts in, flipping through a stack of blueprints of the Nut. He frowns. "Peeta is right. Look at the ventilation system, it's rudimentary at best. Nothing like we have in Thirteen. It depends entirely on pumping in air from the mountainsides. Block those vents and you'll suffocate whoever is trapped."
"They could still escape through the train tunnel to the square," says Beetee.
"Not if we blow it up," says Gale brusquely.
His full intent becomes clear. Gale has no interest in preserving the lives of those in the Nut. No interest in caging the prey for later use. This is one of his death traps.
The implications of what Gale is suggesting settle around the room. There's a moment of shock. Then a chorus of murmuring and protests breaks out.
Peeta is speechless. "The majority of the workers are citizens from Two! They should at least have a chance to surrender," he says.
"So what?" Gale shoots back. "That's a luxury we weren't given when they bombed Twelve, but you're all so much cozier with the Capitol here," he says.
Peeta is so angry that he looks as if he might punch him. Gale stares back, silently challenging him.
But Peeta's anger only seems to infuriate him further. "We watched children burn to death and there was nothing we could do!"
I have to close my eyes a moment, as the image rips through me. It has the desired effect. I want everyone in the Nut dead. Am about to say so. But I'm also a girl from District 12. Not President Snow. I can't just condemn someone to the death that he's suggesting.
I walk over and stand between him and Peeta and place one of my hands on Gale's arm. "The Nut's an old mine. It'd be like causing a massive coal mining accident." Surely the words are enough to make anyone from Twelve think twice about the plan.
"But not so quick as the one that killed our fathers," he retorts. "Is that everyone's problem? That our enemies might have a few hours to reflect on that they're dying, instead of just being blown to bits?"
"You don't know how those District Two people ended up in the Nut," Peeta says. "They may have been coerced. They may be held against there will. Some are our own spies! Will you kill them too?"
"I would sacrafice a few, yes, to ake out the rest of them," Gale says. "And if I were a spy, I'd say, 'Bring on the avalanches!' "
I know that he's telling the truth. That Gale would sacrifice himself in a way for this cause. No one doubts it. Perhaps we would all do the same if we were the spies and given the choice. I guess I would. But it's a coldhearted decision to make for other people, and for those who love them.
"You said we had two choices," Beetee tells him. "To trap them or flush them out. I say we try to avalanche the mountain-"
"But leave the train tunnel alone," Peeta cuts in.
Beetee nods. "Yes. They can escape into the square, where we'll be waiting for them."
"Heavily armed," says Boggs. "Because you can bet that they will be. We'll take them prisoner and give them the chance to surrender."
"We should let President Coin weigh in. Bring thirteen in the Loop," Beetee suggests.
"She'll want to block the tunnel," says Gale without hesitation.
"Yes, most likely. But Peeta did have a point in his propos. About the dangers of killing ourselves off. I've been playing with numbers, and factoring in the casualties and the wounded and...I think it's at least worth a convesation."
Everyone agrees, but only a few are invited to that converstation. The rest of us are dispatched for lunch. Over lunch, Peeta and Gale make cool, polite converstaion. I just sit there, picking at my food. Gale goes to join Beetee to help carry out the plan, and the call does happen, a decision is made, and by evening I'm suited up in Cinna's Mockingjay outfit, with my bow slung over my shoulder and an earpiece that connects me to Haymitch in 13, just in case a good opportunity for a propo arises.
We wait on the roof of the Justice Building with a clear view of our target. I grasp Peeta's hand tightly. Our hoverplanes are initially ignored by the commanders in the Nut, because in the past they've been little more trouble then flies buzzing around a honeypot. But after two rounds of bombings in the higher elevation of the mountain, the planes have their attention.
By the time the Capitol's antiaircraft weapons have begun to fire, it's already too late. Gale's plan exeeds anyone's expectations. Beetee was right about being unable to control the avalanches once they'd been set in motion. The mountansides are naturally unstable, but weakened by the explosions, they seem almost fluid. Whole sections of the Nut collapse before our eyes, obliteration any sign that human beings have ever set foot on the place.
We stand speechless, tiny and insignificant, as waves of stone thunder down the mountain. Burying all the entrances in rock. Raising a cloud of damage and panic and dirt into the sky. Turning the Nut into a tomb. I stand in horror, imagining the hell inside the mountain. People screaming, panicking, scrambling to survive. Fires, live wires flung free, rubble falling, falling everywhere.
Haymitch is yelling in my ear, but I can't hear anything. All I can hear is the imagined screams of the people, the innocents.
I can only form one clear thought. What did we just do?
"Katniss! Are you there?!" Haymitch screams in my ear.
"Yes," I say shakily.
"Get inside. Just in case the Capitol tries to retaliate with what's left of it's force."
"Yes," I say again.
Everyone on the roof moves down the stairs to the safety of the building. I lean against a pillar and let my face fall into my hands.
What did we just do?
Boggs comes and sits beside me. "We didn't bomb the train tunnel, you know. Some of them will probably get out."
"Then we'll shoot them when they show their faces," I mutter bitterly.
"Only if we have to."
"We could send in trains. Help evacuate the wounded," I say hopefully.
"No. It was decided to leave the tunnel in their hands. That way they can use all the tracks to bring people out. Besides, it gives us more time to get the rest of the soldiers to the square," says Boggs. He leaves.
A few hours ago, the square was empty. When Coin gave approval for Gale's plan, the rebels launched a vicious attack and drove the Capitol back a few blocks so we could control the Nut when it falls. Well, it's fallen. Any survivors will escape to the square. Stuck in my own thoughts, it startles me when Haymitch speaks into my ear.
"Katniss," he says. "How's Peeta?"
"What do you mean?" I say.
He sighs. "Katniss-I wasn't going to tell you this, but...even though Peeta wasn't changed mentally in any way, the doctors are still doing tests on him. Well, the latest test said that there might actually be some sort of venom in him."
I sink down the side of the pillar, dizzy. "What kind of venom?" I choke out. I hear him take a sharp intake of breath.
"Tracker Jacker venom...or so they think. There may be another. But it can only be unleashed if it's triggered. It could be triggered by anything."
"I thought his body rejected it."
"So did we. But apparently not all of it was 'rejected'. So, how's he doing?"
It's only then that I notice Peeta's not here. Where is he? I start to panic. "He's not here." I scan the area frantically. "He's not here!"
"What do you mean he's not here? Where is he?"
"I don't know!"
Haymitch curses. "He should never have gone. Ok, Katniss, I'm sending out a search team."
But I don't hear him. Suddenly, I'm scared that he's going to die, or get snatched by the Capitol again.
I can't lose you again...
"Peeta!" I call.
I forget that I'm supposed to stay put and start running. I manage break through the doors and am about to run into the square when I'm stopped by some rebel soldiers. I claw at them, fighting to go free.
"Katniss!"
I keep running. I pay no attention to Haymitch. I need to find him...
"Katniss, calm down! The search party will find him." I can tell that he's very annoyed.
"But-"
"We need you to make a speech," says Haymitch in my ear.
I stop struggling and suddenly feel queasy. "A speech?" I ask as Cressida comes up behind the soldiers and fixes a microphone to my costume.
"I'll feed it to you, line by line," he assures me.
"Just repeat what I say. Look, there's no sign of life from that mountain. We've won, but the fighting's continuing. So we thought that if you went out on the steps of the Justice Building and told everybody that the Capitol's presence in District 2 is over, you might be able to get the rest of their forces to surrender."
"But I can't even see their forces."
"That's what the mike's for," Haymitch replies. "Your voice and your image will be broadcast through their emergency audio system."
I sigh, considering it. It would probably be best to do what Haymitch says, but would the people even believe me? I'm not a good actress. Peeta's the one who...
Peeta. "What about Peeta?" I ask.
"I told you, I sent a search party. Don't worry, Sweetheart," Haymitch assures me.
I'm silent. "You could save a lot of lives," Haymitch says.
"Well..." I guess I could try. "I'll do it."
I stand at outside at the top of the stairs. Everything is positioned as if I'm delivering the speech to a crowd, but there's no audience. Like a show for the moon.
"Let's make this quick," says Haymitch. "You're too exposed."
My television crew is ready and I begin as Haymitch feeds me the first line. I try to sound strong as I speak.
"People of District 2, this is Katniss Everdeen, speaking to you from the steps of your Justice Building, where-"
A pair of trains comes screeching to a halt side by side into the train station. As the doors slide open, people tumble out in a cloud of smoke. They must have had an inkling of what was waiting for them, because they've come armed. They act evasively, some flattening to the ground as a spray of bullets takes out the lights. They've come wounded, their moans fill the air, and the stench makes me somewhat dizzy. The people spill out of the trains as they suddenly catch fire. They don't cease waving their guns. I glance upward and see that the rooftops that ring the square have all been fortified with rebel-manned machine guns.
I'm deciding what to do when a young man staggers out from the station, a bloody rag held to his cheek. He trips and falls, and I see the scorch marks on his shirt. Suddenly, he's just another burn victim from a mining accident.
My feet fly down the steps towards him. "Stop!" I yell at the rebels.
"Hold your fire!" I'm reaching down to help him when he trains his gun on my head, his eyes crazed with pain and fear, the ragged hole in his cheek bleeding.
Haymitch tells me to freeze, and I realize that this is what maybe even all of Panem is watching at the moment. The Mockingjay at the mercy of a man with nothing to lose. I can barely comprehend his garbled speech: "Give me one reason why I shouldn't shoot you now."
I should be able to think of thousands, but the only words that make it to my lips is, "I can't."
I close my eyes, waiting for him to pull the trigger. But he doesn't. Instead, he's perplexed, trying to make sense of my words. I experience my own confusion as I realize that my words are true. The noble impulse is replaced by despair.
"I can't." I lower my bow. "That's the problem, isn't it? We blew up your mine. You burned my district to the ground. We have every reason to kill each other. So do it. Make the Capitol happy. I'm done killing off their slaves for them."
"I'm not their slave," the man mutters.
I drop my bow and nudge it towards him. "I am. That's why I killed Cato...and he killed Thresh...and he killed Clove...and she tried to kill me. It's like a cycle, it goes around and around, over and over, but it never stops. No one wins. Not the districts. Only the Capitol. But I'm tired of being a piece in their Games."
Peeta. On the rooftop before our first Games. He understood it all. Even before we set foot in the arena.
"Keep talking," Haymitch says. "Tell them about the mountains going down."
"When I saw that mountain fall, I thought...They've done it again. Got me to kill you-and the people. But why? District 2 and District 12 have no fight except for the one the Capitol gave us." I fall to my knees before the man.
"Why are you fighting with the rebels on the rooftops? With Lyme, who was your Victor? With people who were your neighbors, even your family?"
I hear soft murmurs throughout the crowd. I rise to address the rebels manning the machine guns. "And you? Well, I come from a mining town, and since when do other miners condemn each other to that kind of death? And then stand by to murder whoever manages to crawl from the rubble?"
"Who's the enemy?" whispers Haymitch.
I gesture to the wounded people on the square. "These people are not your enemy!"
I whip back around to the train station. "We are not your enemy! The only enemy we have is the Capitol! This is our chance to overcome them and to gain back our freedom! But we need every one of you to do it!"
I reach out and extend my hands to the man, the wounded, the rebels, and all the people across Panem. "Please! Join us!"
My words hang in the air as I look to the screen, optimistically hoping for some wave of reconciliation going through the crowd.
I hear a click and the world goes black.
I hope that satisfies y'all for now! I did as much as I could with this. I wanted so badly to write more of my own stuff, but I had to do this. I want to have more Finnick, but he's been a little hard to include so far. I promise I will have Finnick soon! And I do have Everlarkness planned!
SHOUT OUTS
WolfPatronusTeamPeeta-and-Dean
Hobbit69
katnisseverdeendistrict12
Cassandraishere
This time of the year really wears me down, so thanks for sticking with me! How was your holidays?
Oh yes...I decided on a re-name! Thanks to all of you who gave suggestions, they helped a lot. The decision was hard, but I decided on Mockingjay: Revisited.
Special thanks to Hobbit69 for the name!
So before the next update the name will be changed. I will be going on a trip for a shortime, so I may not be able to update until next year ;). I'll try my best! Please notify me of spelling errors. Have a happy new year,
And may the odds be EVER in your favor,
PG3