Soli Deo gloria
DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Doctor Who or the Hunger Games.
It was very weird, especially when Peeta's eyes became normal, and he shouted in his regular voice, "Katniss! Katniss, get out of here!"
"Why? What's making the noise?" she asked, her bow in position to take him down in case he lunged at her.
"I think it was President Snow's mutts," the Doctor said quietly, though he wasn't quite sure. There was something not quite right around here, and having been to hundreds of thousands of different places, the Doctor was usually quite right when he got a hunch about something.
Peeta pleaded that they leave him there, but they all protested; the Doctor reminded him of their conversation a few hours ago as everyone else divided the weapons. There weren't enough weapons for the Doctor to have one as well, but he couldn't have wanted it any other way.
They headed back into the sewage, which smelled even worse than it did a few hours ago. It was early morning, and everyone was still very tired from their walk. Still, the Doctor kept rather chipper. That only made everyone else annoyed. He became less chipper, though, when they heard several long, angsty screams.
"Avoxes," said Peeta. "That's what Darius sounded like when they tortured him."
"The mutts must have found them," Cressida said.
"So they're not just after Katniss," said Leeg 1.
"They'll probably kill anyone. It's just that they won't stop until they get her," Gale said.
Katniss said quietly, "I should probably go alone, then. Head to the mutts." There were immediate protests, the Doctor saying, "No point, Katniss. You honestly think you can get rid of us that easily?"
Katniss threw him a look and they hurried their way down the sewer. Katniss gagged, but scaled up a ladder to a pastel floor that separated them from the sewage floor above. It was bright, but dark still, for it was below ground.
The Doctor looked around from the ladder. "Oh, this is interesting. We still below ground?"
"Yeah," said Jackson.
"Cool," said the Doctor.
They started to walk carefully through. The Doctor hung in the back to look around. Everything was so weird here, and that was something coming from the Doctor. "The Grinder" he had heard Homes mutter.
The Time Lord just turned to Messalla, saying, "Hey, do the other buildings in the Capitol have this running under them?" when he saw the young man caught in a golden beam of light. He stopped short, and said, "No, no, no, no, no, no, this wasn't supposed to happen!" He ran up to the beam and ducked when Gale shot two arrows at it in attempt to destroy it. The Doctor's wide eyes showed how anxious he was. He didn't realize that there were pods below below the ground! Nobody had bothered to put any in the sewage system on the Holo. That was his first mistake, to assume that just because they were below ground meant that they were safe from the pods.
Finnick called, "Katniss!" She turned just in time to see Messalla's flesh melt off him like a candle.
The Doctor said, "Oh, this wasn't supposed to happen."
"I thought you said you had your sonic whatever to find the pods!" said Jackson angrily; she stood still, afraid to move a single step.
"I didn't know that there were some below the streets! You could have told me there were some, you and your Holo!" the Doctor retorted.
"Look, don't point fingers! We need to get out of here, and soon," said Gale, looking from the Doctor to Jackson. He added, "Look, there's nothing more we can do. We need to move on before we're next."
Nobody moved, for they were all still looking, stunned, at the remains of Messalla. Peeta, however, moved about as quickly as he could, yelling as he pushed each of them, "Can't help him! Can't!"
Floundering to find his feet, the Doctor brought out his sonic screwdriver and scanned ahead as everyone started dashing to the end, looking forward to an end not like Messalla's. The Doctor pressed a button. A green detection light glowed from within his sonic screwdriver, making him look up and say worriedly, "Looks like some undetected alien activity ahead."
Guns were brought out and shots rang out against white figures bounding toward them; they had outstretched claws and a dangerous look in their eyes.
"Wait, don't do that! They're aliens!" the Doctor said quickly, looking anxious as spots of red appeared on the white creatures.
Gale shook his head and said, "Those are mutts, Doctor."
"And they're going to try to kill us!" Jackson said loudly over the gunfire.
The Doctor looked shocked as the white figures came closer. They looked like giant white lizards, with forked tongues and an urge to kill. They were manocs from the planet Exile, one he had visited with Sarah Jane once upon a time ago. They were not at all mutts that were Snow's. The Doctor hadn't seen them in ages, but he could recognize them. He could not stop the gunfire, for they were bounding over with evil spread thick on their faces, to kill them. The Doctor couldn't deny that.
"This way!" Katniss said, and the Doctor turned and yelled quickly, "Pod right there, Katniss!"
Everyone hurried after her. There was a pair of large teeth and Katniss asked loudly Pollux, "Forget the mission. What's the quickest way aboveground?"
They hurried after Pollux to a doorway, which they went through. The Doctor wrinkled his nose and said, "Oh, this is the real sewer!"
"Oh my gosh," said Peeta disgustedly.
"Just keep going!" Gale called.
The Doctor looked around, and turning back to Homes, asked loudly, "Wait, where's Jackson and Leeg 1? Aren't they coming with?"
"They're staying at the Grinder to hold the mutts back," Homes said grimly.
The Doctor gulped quietly but couldn't help but add, "They're not mutts. They're aliens. They must've been imported here or something, with Snow claiming that they were his!" Homes shook his head and they hurried ahead when they saw that the manocs had made their way through and were following them at a fast pace.
"Stand back!" Gale shouted,; the Doctor and Homes raced after Katniss, Finnick, and Peeta. The Doctor looked back and stopped, though, when he saw Gale shooting down the bridge separating them from the manocs. The lizards slid down the bridge into bubbles, slithering and slipping as they tried to hold onto the bridge. Their tails beat against the bridge and they let out roars of annoyance as they started falling. Some managed to get up, though, and were moving faster and faster toward them.
The squad stood up and the Doctor stumbled back as they started shooting at the creatures, who had bits of flesh in their fingertips—the Avoxes' and Jackson's and Leeg 1's flesh. The Doctor suddenly felt not very sympathetic to the creatures, and frowning, said and did nothing as the rest of the squad shot at them, except for Peeta, who hadn't a gun.
"We've got to go!" Homes shouted over the shooting.
"Yeah, that might be a good idea," the Doctor said. He pointed to the ladder behind them and said, "Peeta first, move along."
"Get Katniss up there!" Homes said as Peeta hurried up the ladder. Cressida and Pollux hurried after him, daring not to stay any longer down in there.
"She won't come quietly, but all right," the Doctor said, and he shouted near her ear, "time to go, Katniss. They're fine. Let's go."
She didn't seem to hear him, and only automatically shot at the manocs. The Doctor sighed and said, "Well, if you're going to be like that." He wrapped his arms around her and moved her over to the ladder, saying, "Well, Cinna designed a heavy suit."
He patted her shoulder and nodded for her to go up the ladder before turning and saying, "Oi, who's next? Oh, Finnick, you're next, up you go, lad." Finnick nodded and hurried up the ladder. The Doctor turned next to Gale and said, "Well, come on! No point in staying down here! We can put a lid on the opening, come on!"
Gale nodded and shooting one last arrow, hurriedly turned and made his way up the ladder. The Doctor turned back to face the manocs, which were within ten feet of him. He drew out his sonic screwdriver and sent a surge of energy at them.
"Sorry," he said quietly, pocketing the screwdriver, looking at the mangled bits and blood all about their gorgeous white, sleek, bent bodies. With that, he hurriedly went up the ladder, not stopping once, and grabbed Gale's hand and got pulled out. He exhaled and asked, "Is that everyone, then?"
"I don't know," said Finnick, breathing heavily. He gulped and said, "A few more seconds down there and we'd be gone."
"Yeah," said Gale, breathing heavily.
"Where's Homes and Castor?" asked the Doctor quickly. The three of them looked about, but they didn't spot him. "Where are they?"
"They stayed behind to keep the mutts down," Cressida said quietly.
The Doctor's eyes widened and he said, "I didn't see them. I thought they were already up." He realized that much of that ripped flesh must have been the two squad members.
He looked around, dazed, and he spotted Katniss kissing Peeta. That itself was peculiar, since the two of them had one of the worse relationships that the Doctor had ever seen. Peeta was always out to kill her and now she was kissing him. He couldn't help but watch them for a moment, and so, apparently, did Gale, for he cleared his throat when they were done and turned to Pollux the same time that Katniss did.
The Doctor stood up because Finnick grabbed his wrist and pulled him up to join them. Katniss told them all to follow her, and they all did so as she went up a ladder. They found themselves in a Capitol apartment.
"Oh, this one's even better looking than the others!" the Doctor said excitedly as he moved out-of-the-way for the other lads to come up the ladder. He nodded and added, "And it's only the bathroom! Oh, I wonder what the rest of it looks like!" He made to walk, but he stopped when he saw Katniss shoot. He watched the arrow—it hit a woman looking like she was going to scream. She fell with a thud; the Doctor instantly turned to Katniss and said, "Hey, what was that for!? She didn't do anything!"
"She was going to reveal our position, something we're trying not to do, Doctor," Gale said as they hurried out of the room.
"Yeah, I guess, but you didn't have to kill her!" the Doctor said.
"What were we supposed to do then, Doctor?" asked Finnick, who looked grim.
"I dunno, but just don't go and kill," the Doctor said pleadingly as he followed them into the living room.
"Can't afford that in a war, Doctor," Finnick said.
Katniss looked around and said quietly, "How long do you think we have before they figure out some of us could've survived?"
The Doctor looked around as Gale spoke and looked back as Katniss looked through one of the windows. "Let's check her closets," she said quietly.
"What are we doing?" asked Finnick as they searched the woman's bedroom.
"We're going to disguise as Capitol citizens," Gale said, though Katniss hadn't said anything. The two of them practically knew what the other thought.
"Oh, dress up, then?" the Doctor said. "Anything to wear something other than this District Thirteen thing, no offense."
Cressida didn't seem to take offense as they began to dress up, as the Doctor said. He particularly had a good time, putting on very weird clothes like a ginger wig, which he was very excited about.
"Always wanted to be a ginger," he said as he patted it on. They all touched up on the Capitol's makeup. They all looked to the Doctor as magnificent clowns, like ones he had seen in the Circus on Mussolinin on the planet Jokest. There had been a grand show, then; the Doctor won Rose a lovely prize from one of the game booths.
They stuffed their pockets with supplies; at the front door, Katniss said, "Stay together." Heading out into the snowy day, sirens blared, calling out to the Capitol that there were rogues loose in their fair city.
"Oh, that's a bit of a bother, isn't it?" the Doctor said, turning to Katniss. They had come out into a part of the city that didn't have any pods, for it had too many Capitol citizens living there.
"Cressida?" Katniss said, looking for guidance.
"There's one place. It's not ideal. But we can try it," Cressida said, leading the pack. She took them to an open mall's plaza. There were several stores among the bundled up citizens and Peacekeepers.
"Talk like Capitol citizens," the Doctor said.
"What?" Gale and Peeta said.
"Blend in. Talk like you've lived here your entire lives," the Doctor said cheerfully. He joined Cressida's side and said in a very high pitched voice that had too much delight from the Time Lord, "Oh, I was looking for something for the winter months! Are you sure this has the latest style?"
Katniss looked like she might laugh as she added, "I heard that this place has every single color you could have want!"
"Let's hope so," Peeta said; they followed Cressida, who added comments of her own, to a store that sold several dusty looking pieces of fur clothing. It looked dark and deserted; the Doctor said, "Well, cheerful looking place, huh?"
"It'll work as a hideout," Finnick said. He had his head completely covered, for he had a face that was known everywhere.
The person who greeted them at the door reminded the Doctor a lot of the cat nurses he had met. This person, who was introduced to them by Cressida as Tigris, seemed to be just like a cat, stripes and whiskers and all. When the Doctor greeted her, he swore she could purr. Whatever. The cat nurses could purr.
She led them over to a dark and distrustful looking cellar. The Doctor, though, knew that they had to trust someone in this city, and if she was a rebel, they might as well trust her. Especially to get out of this outfit. The makeup was beginning to inch. Maybe this was why he never changed out of his usual clothes when he went traveling to places where he'd stand out.
They headed down into the cellar; Cressida and Pollux set out to make beds.
"Need any help?" the Doctor asked as Finnick helped Gale wash out his neck wound and Katniss took off Peeta's handcuffs. The Doctor gave Gale's neck a quick over with his sonic. He pocketed it, saying, "He should be all right for the moment."
"I'll bandage the wound, then," Finnick said.
The Doctor nodded and meandered his way over to where the beds were made up.
"I think we're pretty okay here," Cressida said, dumping a pile of furs onto another large pile. She dusted her hands together and nodded to Gale, saying, "Aren't you a doctor?"
"It's more of a name, really," the Doctor said. "A name I chose for myself."
"You don't have another name, then?" asked Cressida.
"I do, I do," the Doctor said quietly.
"What is it?" Cressida asked, making Pollux look up from his job.
The Doctor cleared his throat and said, "Well, I'm going to go see if maybe I can actually help out Finnick. Not much of a real doctor, though."
They all fell asleep without a guard. The Doctor agreed with Katniss, saying that there was no point in having a guard. Didn't matter, really. Who would be looking for the most wanted people in the city in the tiny cellar of a dilapidated fur store?
When the Doctor woke up, he was not surprised at all when Katniss confessed to everyone about having made up the mission of going to kill Snow. It was obvious—to him. Going across the universe all the time, he had learned to pick up certain things about people. Katniss was someone he could read easily, and, well, she wasn't a good liar.
Plans were coming together to do the best they could with what they had, which was not going to go well, since none of them had a good plan. The Doctor, having nothing, watched with a slight bit of amusement as the humans went around in circles.
They ate a small supper and watched the telly report on the small TV on the store level of Tigris's store. They all watched with interest, though they all showed signs of exhaustion. Peeta looked like he was about to fall on the floor; Katniss had dark bags under her eyes.
The Capitol had it narrowed down to the seven of them. They had decided that the rogue figure with the strange device in his hand was the Doctor. Though he didn't admit it, the Doctor had waved at one of the downed cameras. They must have noticed.
"Have the rebels made a statement today?" Katniss asked Tigris when it finished. She shook her head. Katniss sighed and said, "I doubt Coin knows what to do with me now that I'm still alive."
Tigris shook her head with a throaty chuckle. "Nobody knows what to do with you, girlie."
"Yeah, that's true," the Doctor said.
Gale shook his head and said, "Come on. Let's get back to the cellar." He rubbed his injury as they all went down the stairs, Katniss last.
The Doctor waited at the end of the stairs for her. "What's that?" He pointed to her hand.
"Leggings," Katniss muttered, tossing them to her pile of stuff.
"Oh, that's nice of Tigris," the Doctor said.
Katniss sighed and, exhausted, said, "What are we going to do, Doctor?"
"Don't have a clue," the Doctor replied.
"Well, that's, as you'd say, fantastic" Katniss sighed.
"Exactly. I would say that, wouldn't I?" the Doctor said.
Rose woke up, groggy, not knowing exactly where she was. She looked around, her eyes barely open, and realized that she was in her hospital bed. The last thing she remembered as she sat up was confronting Beetee in the cafeteria. That would do it. They probably knocked her out and who knew how long she was out for?
Prim peeked her face in and Rose said huskily, wincing as she straightened into a sitting position, "Come in. Sorry. A bit out of it."
"Sorry about having to do that," Prim said, looking very sorry though nothing that had happened was her fault.
"It's—it's fine," Rose said, waving her hand. She sighed and said, "I wonder what exactly they're doing with those plans, though."
"I'm not sure. Though, I think the end is coming soon," Prim said, sounding excited, but not very happy. She inserted another full bag to the morphling drip and Rose let out a sigh as the drug started to fill her bloodstream. This was probably why she didn't feel anything but groggy.
"How do you know that?" Rose asked.
"I'm being sent out. To the Capitol," Prim said.
Rose instantly looked more awake. "How old are you?"
"I'll be fourteen in May."
"You're going out into the battlefield at the age of thirteen? That's crazy—why would Coin do that?" Rose asked. Just imagine if the Doctor was here. He'd be blowing up.
"They need nurses and doctors out there," Prim said quietly. "Coin asked me herself. I said 'yes'. Mother is all right with it, though I feel a little bad about leaving her. She's been so lonely looking lately."
Rose could only look at her for a moment and remember her own mother, who was loud and butting her head into things that didn't concern herself at all and was perfectly concerned, and suddenly Rose wished she was with her mum, whom she hadn't seen in months.
"I'll be doing good work, though, helping the rebellion," Prim said brightly.
"I'm sure you will, but are you really going out into all that fighting and stuff?" Rose asked, looking concerned.
"I'm not sure," Prim said. She shrugged and said, "I'll be going where there are wounded people. I'll try to help them as much as I can."
"Yeah," Rose said quietly. Thing is, she shouldn't be so surprised. Prim lived in a nation where they didn't care where their children were sent to when it concerned death. Though, she thought that District 13, from what she had seen, valued life.
"I've got to get going now," Prim said. She smiled and said, "I just had to tell someone the news."
"Sure. Bye, Prim," Rose said. Prim bobbed and hurried out of the room, letting Rose, still groggy, lie back over her pillow with new thoughts to think about. After a minute or so, she suddenly sat up and disconnected the morphling from her arm with a determined look on her face.
I cut this chapter into two parts or else it would be almost 10,000 words. :P
Thank you for reading! Merry Christmas!
