A/N: Dear readers, do please check out the new, revised, AND expanded Chapter Two. It just includes a couple of scenes that I felt the story needed, and an revision of Katniss Meets Portals. I hope you enjoy them, and then enjoy this new chapter, too!

- Meet the Engineer -

Her feet connected with a wire railing and she sprang forward automatically. When a bright light flashed in her eyes out of nowhere, she barely flinched, turning to one side – only to feel the portal gun wrenched out of her hands, and she was pressed against the wall, arms pinned behind her. The portal through which she had come closed. An instinct told her "Don't fight." So she didn't, going limp as a rag doll.

In the afterglow from the beam of light that had tried to blind her – two beams of light? No, three – a face resolved itself. It was the most famous face in all of Panem.

"Wiress," she said, low and steady, like she was talking to a scared animal, "Do you know who I am?"

"Sure I do," Wiress answered. "You're Haymitch's girl."

"I'm not going to hurt you."

"You want an alliance? I'm game. Ha… Game." She smiled at her own inadvertent joke. "So what are we doing?"

"We need… an engineer." Katniss Everdeen looked a bit discombobulated.

"And you wanted Beetee. Sorry."

"No, we're happy to have you, Wiress, really. Are you any good with electronics?"

And Wiress had heard this girl was smart. "I'm from District Three, silly girl. Of ocourse I am. You're setting the tributes free."

Katniss' jaw fell. "How did you…?"

"You're Haymitch's girl. You look outside of the frame. Hop outside of the box to challenge Gamemakers. You pull me from my own miniature arena… not exactly hard to guess why. Why me, why not Finnick the beautiful or bitter Johanna? Need my skills. I'm not as good as Beetee at anything, clearly you couldn't choose which District Three Victor to free. You're still bound by the rules of the Game, as are we all. Now more specifically, what do you want me for?"

Katniss' jaw was still dropped. Wiress looked up to see that the light (to which she had grown accustomed) came from a while metal sphere with a purple computer screen of sorts built in to it. Noticing her gaze, it said flatly: "Fact: Sherlock Holmes was capable of transforming himself into an otter."

"Are you different?" Wiress asked politely.

The sphere answered, "Dr. Watson, to match, sometimes wore a hedgehog suit. Fact: It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"You know, Katniss," said another human voice from Wiress' level, "I'd say that this one is all there."

Wiress looked at her and oohed appreciatively. "Oh, so Katniss managed to duplicate herself. Most useful, I am sure. Did you duplicate yourself using portals? Could you teach me? And can I have my gun back?"

"She's not my duplicate." Katniss let go of Wiress' arms and then handed her back her portal device. "She's—"

"A survivor, like us." Wiress nodded to the strange woman, who nodded back, in some confusion, and then said, "Chell."

"Wiress. Now, for the last time, O Sharp-Shooting One, what do you need me to do?"

- In A Neglected Elevator Foyer -

When Wiress was set before the elevator control panel, her eyes simply lit up. She sat down before it, pried open the casing, and began to pick at it with deft fingers. Chell (accompanied by Rick) went on an expedition to gather materials. After some time, she returned with pliers, a screwdriver, and tweezers for the engineer.

At first, as Wiress worked, Katniss and Chell were both silent, letting her focus, muttering to herself. But when they noticed that her mutterings had become, "On the other hand, I like black tea, and green tea all of the time just gets boring, not to mention it goes badly with almost all cookies…" They glanced at each other.

Shrug, raised eyebrows?

Shrug, raised eyebrows, downturned mouth.

Katniss ventured, "Wiress, you know Cecelia is dead, right?"

Wiress' hands slowed for only an instant, then, back to work they went. "Yes. Saw the cannon. Heard her face."

"You knew her?"

"Of course. She was kind woman. Too kind for her own good."

"I… we know how she died."

"She died in front of you?"

Katniss hesitated, but Chell answered, "She practically did."

"Not really," Katniss said. "She somehow found us, and once she saw me she called me 'Mockingjay,' and, I think she—"

"Beat a robot to pieces with her portal gun." Chell couldn't keep a note of admiration out of her voice.

"—and died for it," Katniss finished flatly.

"Sounds like a good way to go. 'M sure District Eight very proud."

"Do you know what she meant, calling me 'Mockingjay'?"

Wiress didn't answer for a minute; she whistled softly, studying the wires. Then she stood up. "We have to move the floor."

"What?"

"Floor. Lift it up."

"But Cecelia –"

"I'll work on the floor," Chell told them. She got up and walked to the wall, knocking against one of the metal panes.

"Most people," Wiress said, not looking at Katniss, "Did not want you to know. But in District Three we have a saying: 'Knowledge is power.' If you believe old Nuts when she tells you."

"I will believe – is it about the rebellion? Tell me!"

"Of course. You think a rebellion could last at all without Victors supporting it somehow? Our plan at first…"

"'Our'?"

"Haymitch, Beetee, Finnick, Johanna, Cecelia, Mags – Mags has waited her chance many and many a year – and others…"

"Was Peeta in on it?"

Wiress gave a dry chuckle. "No. He didn't need to be. Nor did you. We planned to break out of the arena with the help of… well, whatever we Victors could scramble up, and District Thirteen."

And Katniss repeated "District Thirteen?" so loudly that there might have been trouble, had not a massive creaking noise sounded from the other side of the wall where Chell stood. It – whatever it was – creaked, whirred, hummed, and buzzed. Chell darted away from the wall, and seized her portal gun. Katniss followed suit. Wiress simply took up a screwdriver and stood at the ready.

The air was so thick with tension, a knife could have cut it. And then the creaking noise ceased, and the theoretical knife arrived in the form of "Hello? Is that you, Ch—somebody chill? Or if you're another test subject, ignore me! Forget I said anything!"

"Wheatley?" Chell asked, lowering her gun. Now a slight gleam could be discerned between the panels, electric-blue.

"I just happened to be passing by – thwarting infernal wiles and all that – and, um, you called?"

It sounded like he was trying to whisper, but the effect was undercut by the fact that his voice just seemed large, filling the chamber, as though an array of desk-sized speakers conferred it, and not the pair of fist-sized speakers that had been on either side of his original body.

"I just wanted to call one of the spheres—where are they?"

"I…" Wheatley sounded sheepish, and the blue light dimmed a little, "I think I might have scared them off. But I know Rich is chasing down a turret, bloody braggart, I knew he'd desert you…"

"But She hasn't found them?"

"Nope! What did you need, anyway?"

"Can you see us in here?"

"No… I'd like to, really, but –" A panel under Chell's hand twitched erratically, fidgeting. "If I use a camera, I've no guarantee that She won't see as well. But I can modify the room – I have the blueprints – aha, right here! Right here on file. If you need me to bring anything, maybe, ooh, I've got a record of this fellow called 'The Prince' here on tape, he sounds like fun."

"If you can modify the room," Chell said, "We need a part of the floor lifted." She turned to Wiress. "Tap on the panel you want to lift."

Wiress did so, beating her foot in a jaunty tattoo.

"Wheatley, just lift that panel, please – gently."

The panel bucked under Wiress' foot, and then, just in time for her to remove it, it was tossed entirely off of its hinges. There was a brief flash of brilliant blue light from below, then it vanished.

"That all?" Wheatley asked.

"Bring the other cores here," Katniss said, as Wiress knelt back onto the floor as if no interruption had taken place.

"No worries, I'll 'round 'em up and then be on my way, lickety-split, won't even ask about that possible third person you may or may not have acquired through mysterious means, women have their ways, am I right? Mum's the word."

"You're stalling." Chell told him flatly.

"Right… sorry… just… getting on it. It was nice to see you – well, in a manner of speaking." The monstrous buzz and creak noise started again, but then ceased. Wheatley added, "And take care, you hear me?"

"Don't worry," Chell said. But her hand remained on the wall panel that he'd twitched, and after the bzzzz, whrrrr, hmmmmm and zot-zot-zot-zubbb that was Wheatley's new footsteps faded, she said, so softly that only Katniss heard, "It was nice to see you, too."

The ceiling opened and a collection of lights peered in. Wiress glanced up at them once, and then again, and then a third time. "Oh! Friends!"

"Lady – Other Lady – " Rick had not yet fully grasped the notion of Katniss and Chell having separate names – "You would not believe the desperate manhunt that yours truly has been entangled in, just now. Inspector Javert, eat your heart out."

"Fact: Rick has not read Les Miserables, and has only seen the musical. At which he wept. Like a little girl."

"Shaddup!"

"Five times."

"They're here when we don't need 'em, and absent when we do," Katniss observed.

"But they're on our side," Chell said softly. "Listen up!" This she addressed to the cores, who fell silent at once, except for one last "I was told there would be space" from Kevin.

"Gang, this is Wiress. You will treat her with the same respect you'd show Katniss or me." Chell did not ask if they got it. The four cores saw in her a willpower very nearly as terrible as Her, and pledged their loyalty accordingly.

As the cores attempted to introduce themselves to Wiress, Katniss knelt beside her. "Did you say District Thirteen?"

"I did."

"I thought you said there are only twelve districts," Chell said.

"In Panem, yes." Wiress tucked a strand of hair out of her eyes. "District Thirteen is sovereign unto itself."

"What does that mean?"

"It means it's not loyal to Panem." Chell answered Katniss. "Is it another country, then?"

Wiress shook her head. "Too small. Was a District, but when it rebelled the Capitol didn't dare fight back. Not properly. Kicking-under-the-table sort of fight ensued. 'Cold war.'"

"Nuclear weapons?" Katniss offered.

A nod. "Stalemate. Was given independence in exchange for complete silence, exile, solitude, no communication, and no birthday presents."

"Then why help us now? After seventy-four years of Games?"

Wires turned and fixed Katniss with black eyes. Her entire and focused attention was unnerving. "You. You, from filthy laughingstock District Twelve, who sacrificed self and remained human, brought music to the arena and love, too, girl on fire who used her own death as a weapon – you are spark meeting dry tinder. Boom."

As she said that, the elevator hissed into place. The door opened – and a needle-thin beacon of red shot into the chamber.

Chell jumped, Katniss ducked for cover and then thought to grab the unmoving Wiress by the collar and try to drag her back.

"A turret in the elevator?" Katniss whispered.

Barely audible, the turret whispered, "I'm different."

"Oh, don't worry!" Wiress shook off Katniss' hand. "It's my friend."

"Friend?" Chell repeated.

"Bullet-free." Wiress walked into the elevator and patted the turret's white shell affectionately. "I figured you would find me."

"I was pursued."

"Aha!" Rick bellowed from a nook in the ceiling. "I knew I'd catch you one day, you varmint!"

"Anyway." Wiress gave Rick a single, calm look – but something in that look made him quail, shrink his optic to a tiny rectangle of green, and decide that the Different Turret and this Third Lady were not to be bothered for the rest of his existence. She went on, "This elevator is now pliant to my wishes. Will one of you friends take the reins?"

"They certainly will," Chell spoke on behalf of the cores. "Craig."

"Present."

"You're taking command."

"Just pop on down here," Wiress said, holding out the control box as if she would catch the core with it. "And I'll connect you."

Craig dithered about complying, offering the fact that he would die instantly via immolation upon being disconnected from his Rail, and while Wiress tried to point out the logical fallacies in his thinking, Katniss approached Chell.

"Chell, we have to save the rest of the tributes now. We absolutely have to. I mean –" she kept her closed fist over her mouth, as if she would keep the words inside her from flying out, "I want to save Peeta, of course I do, but I think that he would want me to save everyone else first. It's that kind of stupid – but really good – way that he thinks. And if the rebellion – if District Thirteen is real –"

"Oh, it's real," Wiress said offhandedly. "Unlike the prospect of spontaneous self-combustion."

"—Then we aren't just tributes of District Twelve any more. Do you understand? No, you don't understand," she answered herself. A glint was in her eye now. "We just need to get started and then the more Victors we can get to our side the stronger our alliance will be—how, I don't know, but we can. And then we need to – Chell, I know you don't want to be seen but we have to show ourselves, then. Before we destroy the generator. All of Panem must see the Victors working together." A fierce light gleamed in her eye. "It's exactly what the Capitol doesn't want – for—"

"Fact! There is an elevator control—"

"Yeeeeeeearrrrrgh headbutt of fury!" Rick hollered from above them, before body-checking (core-checking?) Craig and bumping the latter off of his rail. When the sparks cleared, Rick swiveled triumphantly. "That's jest what I needed. A distraction! Genghis Khan, that bud's for you."

Wiress picked up the purple-eyed sphere, which trembled a little, its shutters almost closed. "Fact… you have no self-control, you testosterone-laden bully – Fact: that was a gross violation of personal space…."

"You were saying?" Chell prompted Katniss.

Katniss yanked her sight from the odd sight of watching a robot have a nervous breakdown, and asked, "Where was I?"

"What the Capitol doesn't want."

"Yes! What the Capitol doesn't want is for us all to be united. This Quell was meant to divide us. Do you see? And look, I – I accept whatever may come from this, but I truly think – I know this is the right thing to do. What about you?" she finished bluntly. She looked directly at Chell, as if expecting a fight.

"You're right."

"… What?"

"We've already taken Wiress from the testing tracks – we've gotten her attention, and may as well be hanged for a –" she paused, "something big as well as for something small."

"We'll just – game change? No argument? You're the…" Katniss stepped back a bit, dropping her voice, "the leader here."

"Maybe, but I'm working with you. A team, right?"

"Yes, yes," Katniss clapped Chell on the shoulder, and then stepped lightly away, almost bouncing on the balls of her feet, eager to be off. "And our team is only going to get better."

"Don't be such a baby," Wiress chided Craig. "Will one of you give me a hand?"

Chell knelt to help Wiress with the more delicate wirings and clasps, while Katniss paced eagerly around the little foyer, counting off the tributes she wanted to recruit one by one. Craig remained sitting on the floor, motionless, while the back of his sphere was opened and its wires all exposed.

With a brief and bright explosion, Wiress connected him to the elevator control panel. She sucked on her burnt fingers, muttering a very pleased litany under her breath.

"Craig," Chell said. "Move the elevator up."

The elevator shuddered, and then the doors closed and it moved easily up and out of sight.

"Bring it back."

The elevator returned, soundlessly, except for the light hiss of the door opening and the turret within going "Wheeeeeeeeee."

"Are we good to go?" Katniss asked.

"I'd say we are. Wiress?"

Wiress nodded. "But where to?"

"F… fact?" Craig said weakly. "There is an elevator control room, adjacent to the camera control center. It is called the Hub."

"Sounds promising," Katniss said.

"Can you take us there?" Chell asked, somewhat more gently this time.

Craig nodded. "But… don't jostle me."

Chell picked him up with her portal gun, and stood up at the same time as Wiress, who held the elevator control box, so that the trail of multicolored wires between them stayed steady.

"Are you ready?" Katniss was already in the elevator, giving the turret within a wide berth. "Come on, we've got some tributes to save!"

As they entered the elevator with their loads, Wiress saw Chell's impassive face, set it against Katniss' eager countenance, and then said, "I've reached a conclusion."

With a raised eyebrow, Chell looked at her.

"You two are not duplicates."

"Oh." Chell found herself glancing at the elevator door as it hissed shut. "Good. I guess?"