"It is the perfect weapon"- Catching Fire, Chapter 24

MAGS (3)

Mags Flanagan, aged 70. The Capitol

The forest is dark and silent, a terrifying combination, as Finnick runs away from the career camp. Mags doesn't know how much time he'll have until the careers wake up, but that when they do they'll surely start after him. And Finnick can't keep going forever- with every step he takes his face gets paler and paler, and by now he's grimacing with pain. Mags begins to wonder if the mutt's spikes were poisoned.

He's still moving an hour later when the faces of the dead flash across the night sky, and Finnick gazes upwards as they appear. Sagitarria's face flashes on Mag's screen, her bright red hair blazing against the dark background. Her picture is followed by that of Blye, and Seaton fidgets uncomfortably next to Mags when it's shown. The face of Blye is followed by that of the District 5 girl who was killed by insect mutts earlier that day, and then finally the faces fade from the sky.

It's at that moment when a voice suddenly shouts out to him from Finnick's right.

"Stop!"

Mags hadn't noticed the girl up until then, and it's obvious by the way he starts that neither had District 4's second mentor, Seaton. Finnick freezes where he stands on the screen, probably realising he won't be able to outrun another tribute in his state, but hoping that maybe he will be able to intimidate them. Slowly he turns his head to the side and looks for the owner of the voice.

It's a moment before he spots her- she's crouching on the lowest branch of the nearest tree, examining him.

"District Four, I thought it was you," she says, seemingly to herself, which seems to annoy Finnick a little. He squints harder into the darkness.

"Did you know you're leaving a trail of blood?" she continues. "If we're going to be allies, you better not lead the careers to us."

"Allies?" Finnick questions, making sure he heard right.

"Well unless you want to outrun the careers on your own?" She shifts slightly on the branch, and her face enters a beam of moonlight.

It's Rupalia, the District 7 girl that Mags had noticed at the Reaping. Her dark brown hair is coming out of its thick braid, and her equally dark eyes look hard, but kind enough.

For a moment, Finnick seems to weigh up his options: keep running until either the careers catch up or he passes out from the bloody wound on his back, or trust this girl, who seems to think she can help him hide from his pursuers. He makes his decision.

"Alright ally, show me where to hide."

Dawn is breaking by the time the pair reaches the place where Rupalia has made camp. It's high up in the branches of a tree, hidden from the ground by the thick canopy of leaves. Finnick has to admit it's quite clever.

He copies her movements to climb the tree, placing his feet where she puts hers.

"You can take that branch," Rupalia says when they reach the top, pointing to a sturdy looking branch close to the one she has chosen.

The boy looks exhausted as he gratefully takes the branch, getting out his sleeping bag. He barely remembers to tie himself into the tree like Rupalia told him to. Within minutes he's asleep.

Mags first realises there's something wrong when he hasn't woken up by mid-afternoon. Rupalia is leaning over him with worry painted all over her face. She raises her hand to his forehead, and then drops it again cursing.

"He's sick," Seaton is saying. "Can we afford medicine?" He looks very flustered and the purple bags under his eyes give away his tiredness. Mags remembers that this is his first year mentoring. He's obvious not ready to lose another tribute so soon after Blye.

She shows him Finnick's sponsorship fund.

"My god," Seaton whistles. "Someone really wants that boy to win."

Rupalia keeps looking up at the sky as they select the medicine to send. She's obviously hoping for a sponsorship parcel and looks very relieved as she sees the parachute floating down.

Finnick opens his eyes as she applies the cream to the wounds on his back. He hisses in pain, and the District 7 girl shushes him. He mumbles something about a boat with white sails, before passing out again.

The remaining careers are looking for him by now. Something ugly had flashed across the District 2 boy's face when they discovered his District partner's dead body that morning, and Mags can only hope this new ally's hiding place will be good enough. Seaton is suspicious of the girl, wondering why she's helping Finnick but Mags remembers seeing her watching the career pack a couple of days ago. She's obviously got some motive, but at the moment she's the only thing keeping Finnick alive so Mag's doesn't really care what it is.

They send food for both of them so that the girl doesn't have to venture out. They can't risk anything happening to her until Finnick has recovered. The girl, Rupalia, scoffs her food quickly, before she attempts to feed Finnick. Mags wonders when the last time she ate was. Finnick is awake again, still talking feverishly about a boat, and is trying to ask Rupalia something, but she quiets him instead and hands him the cup of warm soup. She helps him drink it slowly, then and urges him to sleep.

On the third day when he wakes his cheeks are no longer so flushed and his gaze looks more focused. When Rupalia notices that he's awake she hands him a water bottle and helps him sit up.

"How are you feeling?" She asks him softly.

"A bit stiff," he replies. "How long was I out?"

Mags sighs with relief. It looks like the boy has pulled through.

"A couple of days. You had a fever," Rupalia replies. "I think it had something to do with the wound on your back, but I've bandaged it up now, and cleaned it."

"Thank you."

"Well we're allies now, right? I couldn't just let you die!" She laughs humorously. She also seems thankful that he's recovered.

"Some people would have," Finnick mutters. Rupalia ignores the comment.

Finnick then asks what they've all been thinking.

"Why did you want to be my ally? You probably could have just killed me when we met. Or left me for the careers to kill."

"Well I..." then she starts to blush.

"What? I promise I won't be offended." Finnick says, slightly amused by her reaction to his question.

"Ok. Fine. Honestly? I had been watching the career camp, and I noticed that you kept getting gifts from sponsors. I thought if I was with you I might be able to share them," she admits.

Haymitch snorts across the room.

"You haven't got anything from sponsors then?" Finnick asks curiously.

"No. I don't think anyone else has. You're not the only ones I've been watching." Rupalia tells him.

"I'm the only one with sponsor gifts?" Finnick asks, disbelieving.

Mags hadn't thought about that until now, but thinking back she doesn't remember anyone else receiving a gift either. She glances around the mentor room, and realises some faces are turned towards her with irritation.

"I think so." Rupalia confirms, adding "They sent you medicine, you know. For your fever. And the bandages for your back." She continues.

Finnick sits back, flabbergasted.

X

They get on well. Rupalia shows him how to climb- which branches are strong and which ones will snap under his weight. In return, he shows her how to make fishhooks, and he sets up some fishing lines for them. They find they have a similar sense of humour, and spend evenings telling jokes and stories from their Districts.

They stay hidden from what remains of the career pack.

There's been trouble there- what remains of Districts 1 and 2 split up on the day Finnick wakes up. They'd been arguing ever since he left, and finally realised they couldn't trust each other anymore. They all go separate ways, and Mags sighs in relief that they're not hunting down her tribute anymore.

Of course it doesn't last.

The acid rain begins to fall five days after Finnick and Rupalia become allies. The droplets are fat and heavy and steam rises when they hit bare skin. If they'd been on the jungle floor or under the cover of the huge leaved trees, like normal, the rain wouldn't have reached them. As it is they are out by the river, checking the fishing lines Finnick set up. They stagger back in the direction of the trees, but at the last minute they see the cave.

"Oh no," Seaton says. Oh no indeed, Mags thinks. It's the cave District 1's Andradite has been living in since the split of the career pack. There's no doubt in Mag's mind that this rain has been designed to draw out a fight.

They don't notice him at first, just happy that they're out of the stinging rain. Finnick is the one who sees him, a movement out of the corner of his eye- and then he's bringing his spear up and screaming at Rupalia to move, to run, to do something. The cave is too small really to wield the spear properly, and so Andradite dodges Finnick's attempt to injure him. He brings his sword down and the wood splinters. Finnick's weapon is gone.

Andradite smiles, a cold sneer.

"Found yourself a girlfriend I see, pretty boy," he says, looking at Rupalia.

And then he thrusts the sword into her stomach.

Finnick doesn't stay to watch her die. The rain has stopped as he runs out of the cave, almost bumping into the cave wall on the way out in his desperation to escape. The District 1 boy follows but Finnick is faster. He disappears into the jungle and eventually the older boy loses him amongst the trees. Mags watches Finnick as he keeps running long after his chaser has given up. He only stops in the end when he trips over a low hanging vine and falls face first onto the ground. The boy lays there dazed for a minute, trying to slow his breathing.

He tries to pull himself back up with the vine he tripped over, but it comes tumbling down from the tree canopy and falls in a coil next to him. Finnick stares at it, unblinking, before he picks it up and winds it around his shoulder. He begins to climb the tree.

Mags isn't really sure what he's doing, but she's glad he's off the jungle floor again. He's lost his weapon and so he can't afford another confrontation right now. It isn't until he's sitting on a branch high in the tree and he begins tying knots into the vine that she understands what is going on.

He's making a net.

X

This is how Finnick gets his trident.

It's Hayden Odair who starts it really. The cameras return to District 4 when they reach the final eight. The Odair family stand outside of their little fisherman's cottage; the older brother who looks so similar to Finnick, the little red headed sister he'd mentioned in his interview, the gruff looking father, and the mother who shared both her sons' colouring.

They talk about how far he's got. Is his District proud of him? Have they already started preparing the celebrations for his homecoming? They talk about his popularity in the Capitol. They talk about his strategy so far.

"It looked like he was making a net the last time we saw him," Caesar is saying. "What do you think he's going to use that for?"

They haven't shown Finnick on screen since he started tying vines together, and Mags in glad of it. He's still sitting in the same tree, tying knots, fingers shaking. Later, Finnick will tell her he finds knots calming. They give him something to focus on to stop his mind racing. Now however it's starting to look a little odd.

"Your boy's losing it," Chaff had said to her.

Mags isn't sure how to get through to him. She needs something. Something to snap him out of it and remind him where he is. It's only so long before the Capitol will begin to wonder where he's gone and if he's still in a tree tying knots when the camera switches back to him they might start to lose sponsors. No one wants a mad Victor after all.

"Maybe he's going spear fishing," Finnick's father says.

"Spear fishing? What's that?" Caesar Flickerman asks from his comfy Capitol studio. Of course, the Hunger Games commentators would never travel to the Districts themselves.

And so Finnick's father ends up explain the process of spear fishing to the Capitol viewers.

"I taught both my boys when they were young. I've just started teaching this one actually," he adds, ruffling the little girl's red hair.

"It's a shame he lost his spear then."

And then Hayden Odair makes a comment, a little throw away remark, but the nation latches onto it.

"Finnick always was better with a trident anyway," he says.

It's trending all over the Capitol within the hour: Finnick Odair needs a trident.

#getFinnickatrident

#Finnickstrident

#Finnicksgoingspearfishing

#Finnicksgoingtridentfishing

It's not really a surprise then when Hortensia Wildrock turns up at the tribute centre and corners Mags.

"I want to send Finnick Odair a trident," she says. Hortensia Wildrock, Mags is sure, is a woman who has never heard the word 'no'. She's a typical Capitol socialite- far too into her own appearance with a rich husband who has too little time for her. Normally Mags would avoid her sort like the plague. But now she's offering her tribute a lifeline.

"Are you sure? It will be ridiculously expensive," Mags warns. The cost of sending sponsor gifts to tributes rises with each day they're in the arena.

"I'll pay whatever it costs. Just make sure he gets it," says the Capitol woman.

So Mags puts through the order.

The boy has almost finished his third net when it lands on the branch next to him. For a moment he just looks at it a little stunned. He picks it up, testing the weight in his hand, trying out the balance. He looks over towards the netting he's made, then back toward his new weapon.

And then he smiles.

Later, this becomes one of the most famous pictures of the 65th Hunger Games.

(Later Finnick tells Mags it was the moment he knew he had a chance of coming home).

X

It doesn't take long after that.

Finnick finds the District 9 boy first. He's not expecting the net, and tries to struggle which only gets him tangled up in the vines. Finnick doesn't look as he throws the trident, but the wet sound as it enters the boy's body is amplified on the screen.

The District 11 girl he finds at the river. She's located his fishing lines and is trying to pull the fish off when he catches her in the net. She's very small, and Mags knows she's been hiding in the trees just like Finnick has. Mags also knows this isn't the first time she's taken fish from Finnick's lines. This time Finnick does watch as he pushes the trident down through her chest. His expression is blank.

On another screen, Bise and Andradite fight. The big brute from 1 is strong, but District 2's Bise is faster. He slits the bigger boy's throat with his knife.

Finnick meets the District 1 girl, Amethyst on the jungle floor. She puts up much more of a fight than the others and her blade slices Finnick's cheek. In the end she trips into the net he has strung up and the trident goes through her stomach. Mags watches as Finnick leaves her lying on the ground to die with her guts spilling out.

Then there were two.

It takes them a few hours to find each other.

Caesar Flickerman and Claudius Templesmith are commenting impatiently whilst the two boys wander in circles trying to seek their opponent out. They're both eager to get it over with. On the screen, Templesmith is weighing up the strengths of the remaining two tributes: Bise is fast and cunning. He killed the brute from District 1. Finnick has his trident, the most expensive sponsor gift ever given in a Game, and he's on a killing streak.

"If Finnick Odair manages to win, he'll be the youngest Victor we've ever had!" Caesar is saying.

The Capitol audience is divided now. Both tributes have proved themselves worthy. Both tributes could make it out of the arena.

But it's Finnick that they really want.

District 4's escort, Geena comes into the mentor room at one point with news that Finnick has even more sponsors. Sending the trident almost emptied the account, even with Hortensia Wildrock's extortionate donation, but when Mags checks now the funds have filled up again. Geena has obviously been out schmoozing with the Capitol elite.

Mags sends the boy Clam Chowder with a salty District 4 seaweed bread roll. It might be his last meal, and Mags wants to remind Finnick of home. Maybe she also hopes it will motivate him to see his District again. He's so close and Mags is too attached to lose the boy at the last minute.

Something changes in Finnick's expression when he opens the parcel. The blank gaze in his eyes seems to wash away. He clutches the salted loaf to his chest with a shaking hand. He eats quickly, and when he stands again he's different. He's refreshed, reminded what he's fighting for. He's ready to win.

The boys meet at the cornucopia. Of course they do. Finnick deliberately doesn't look at the spot where Blye was killed. He deliberately doesn't look at the place he stabbed Sagitarria in the back.

"You and me, eh?" Bise says. They're circling each other. Caesar Flickerman is speculating who will make the first move.

"I honestly didn't think it would be you here at the end, pretty boy. Perhaps I misjudged you."

Finnick doesn't reply. Instead he lunges.

It's not a long fight, and Mags can't tear her eyes away. The District 2 boy is bigger and he tries to overpower Finnick, but he only has a knife. The trident's reach is longer.

The knife clips Finnick's ear as Bise lunges toward him. Finnick darts left, and in the end the trident goes through his opponent's throat.

Finnick watches the life drain from Bise's eyes as around him Claudius Templesmith's voice announces him the winner.

It's five hours after he's pulled from the arena before Mags is finally allowed to see him.

They've hooked him up to a machine; an IV is in his arm, and restraints have strapped him down to the bed. They wake him up to feed him, and then knock him out again.

"We're returning him to Beauty Base Zero," the doctors say. "President Snow's orders."

Mags and Seaton exchange a look. Haymitch's words echo in her head. As if you don't know what'll happen to that little pretty boy if he makes it out of there. He'll be on his back within five minutes. She tries to drown it out by asking the doctors more questions.

On day four they unhook him from the machine. She looks into Finnick Odair's eyes and the blank expression is back in place.

"I want to go home," he says, lip quivering. Mags is reminded again how young he really is.

"Ok," she says.