Disclaimer: Avengers, Hunger Games, and all other elements belong to their relevant owners; I merely borrow them to write this story

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Falling Hope, Rising Threat

In terms of tactical planning, I wasn't sure if I was in a good place or a bad one as our campaign against Mount Weather continued. As things currently stood, our plan to send Bellamy and Lincoln into the mountain had apparently worked out, based on our discreet observation of the Reaper patrol they'd infiltrated entering the mountain, but at this point all we could really do was wait until Bellamy managed to get back in touch from the inside and/or hope that Lincoln got back to us when he was let out with the other Reapers on the next hunt. Prim was preparing for an infiltration mission if it took Bellamy too long to get back to us, but I was privately praying that it wouldn't come to that; as much as I was coming to accept my sister's desire to become part of the team, there was a big difference between accepting that she was growing up and giving her a key role in our most crucial confrontation to date.

Still, even if I couldn't control what was happening inside the mountain, or what Thor and Johanna were doing with Octavia up on Asgard, I was cautiously optimistic about how things were going on Earth. Clarke had taken a brief personal scouting trip to check on the progress of the small group led by ex-Chancellor Jaha, but once he'd reached a certain distance from our current territory she'd flown back, satisfied that he was sticking to his public plan of searching for the 'City of Light' and not interested in following him any further. The whole concept of the City of Light sounded strange to me at best, but I wasn't going to question what anyone chose to believe in after I'd gone from a simple hunter to the leader of the world's mightiest heroes in just over a year.

As far as matters went inside the camp, I was cautiously optimistic that our various groups were continuing to come together fairly nicely. Clarke and Anya had gone out to talk things over with Lexa recently- from what I'd heard Lexa had wanted Anya to come alone, but I considered it a step in the right direction that our new She-Hulk had asked Clarke to come anyway- but their walk had been unexpectedly interrupted by what all descriptions I'd heard could only define as a mutated gorilla (most likely due to radiation rather than a runaway Capitol experiment; the Capitol had always favoured dogs or similar animals for mutts to limit the risk of their mutations' intellects 'evolving' too far by accident). The gorilla had managed to take out a couple of Lexa's private guard, but Anya had triggered her transformation into She-Hulk in time to stop it doing worse to Clarke or Lexa, and had then brought the animal to our compound so that some of our scientists could examine the animal just in case it was anything we should be concerned about on a larger scale. Peeta had actually started talking with Raven about a few modifications to the Iron Man armour, even if some of the technical details they were discussing were completely over my head, and Finnick was giving some of the Ark guards lessons in hand-to-hand combat, proving to be a far more patient teacher than some of the Grounders they'd been working with so far.

We may be down a powerhouse with no fixed idea what we're doing next, but at least our general preparations are going well…

"Excuse me?" a voice said from behind me. Turning around, I noted that Clarke's mother, Abby Griffin, was standing behind me, looking anxiously around herself as though she was expecting to be attacked at any moment despite this part of the forest being fairly quiet.

"Yes?" I answered, looking nonchalantly back at her; I was still uncomfortable about dealing with foreign leaders, but after staring down the Maestro, Abby was fairly easy to work with. "What brings you out here?"

"I just…" Abby shrugged. "Well, I can't exactly call myself a chancellor if I don't get a better feel of what's outside the walls of our camp, can I?"

"And you came here to talk to me?"

"Who better to keep me safe while I'm out here than the leader of the Avengers?"

I thought about questioning her decision to come this far in the first place, but decided against it. From everything Clarke and the rest of the 100 had told us about the citizens of the Ark, Abby coming out this far on her own accord had been a great achievement for her on its own, and this area was safe enough thanks to Lexa's patrols.

"Fair enough," I nodded at her, indicating the fallen tree I was currently sitting on, smiling slightly as the older woman sat down beside me. "So, issues of Mount Weather aside, how are you enjoying Earth?"

"It's… not quite what I expected," Abby said at last, looking at the forest around us with an awkward smile.

"Yeah, Callie told us about that," I noted, smiling back at her, taking care to keep my tone neutral considering what Callie had implied about the Ark's reaction to life on Earth. "What was the bigger shock; that this place was survivable, or that someone was down here already?"

"Definitely the third."

"The third?" I looked at her in surprise.

"We'd already suspected that Earth was survivable, so learning that there was actual life down here wasn't a complete shock, but the idea that… that you were here…" Abby began, awkwardly waving her hand at me.

"You couldn't exactly expect this world to produce Avengers?" I asked with a brief smile, deciding not to be offended at her scepticism.

"…To say the least," Abby acknowledged with an uncomfortable smile of her own. "Actually, that brings up a point I've been meaning to ask you about; if we're talking about addressing people, should I call you 'Mockingjay', or-?"

"Mockingjay's fine," I said, deciding that Abby at least deserved a half-truth answer even if I didn't feel comfortable giving her my true name. "How about you? Do you prefer 'Chancellor' or 'Doctor' Griffin?"

"Just… just call me Abby," Clarke's mother smiled back at me, before her brow furrowed in confusion. "I'm not sure I asked; where did you get that name?"

"It's the name of a type of bird that evolved after the destruction of the old world," I explained, hiding a smile when I realised that this was the first time I'd explained the origin of my name to anyone. "The original Mockingjay came into existence when a species of genetically engineered birds escaped into the wild and bred with mockingbirds; the name was adopted as a symbol of rebellion because the bird only existed because the government that used to rule Panem made a mistake."

"And you took on the name to remind your people that your enemy could make mistakes?"

"That was how it started, anyway," I confirmed. "I became more than that when Captain Rogers gave me his shield; the idea of the original Mockingjay was nothing more than a representation of their mistakes, but he gave me the chance to make that name something more."

"That's… interesting," Abby nodded at me, clearly uncertain how to react to that story. "So you turned a mistake into a symbol of rebellion?"

"Basically," I nodded. "Captain Rogers helped out by repainting the shield and giving me additional training in how to use it, but he made it clear that I had to do this because I believed in it, rather than because I could be another symbol for this mess."

"Another-?"

"Long story that this isn't the time to talk about," I cut her off. "Anyway, like he said back then, fighting for the old world wouldn't accomplish anything, so I had to become a symbol for the new one, which included repainting the shield to reflect that news."

"That's… interesting," Abby smiled uncertainly at me, before her uncertain smile became a more focused question. "So… why are you helping us rather than them?"

"Them? You mean Mount Weather, right?"

"Yeah," Abby nodded. "I mean, they were already here-"

"We didn't know about their existence until now and they've made it clear that they consider themselves superior to anyone already out here," I cut Abby off, refusing to let that misconception stand. "They might have been on Earth before you, but so far our first encounter with them saw them shooting us just when we were trying to talk, and our first encounter with your people saw Callie ask us for help; in the end, we like you better than them."

"That's… blunt," Abby mused, smiling awkwardly at me.

"It's what I do," I smiled, before narrowing my eyes firmly at her. "My point is that, while I'm not denying that there are a few issues to sort out in terms of your long-term relationship with the rest of the people down here, so far you haven't done anything that can't be excused as self-defence or a mistake based on limited data, whereas the mountain has attacked and experimented on innocent people just because they think they have the right."

"…Fair point," Abby nodded in acknowledgement. "I'm… I guess Clarke's report just made it seem rougher down here than it is…"

"Oh, it's rough down here; you just need to be sure you know the rules before you start any fights," I responded, before my expression became grimmer. "Which is why we're doing our best to keep the mountain learning about us until we're ready to mount the final attack; if they decide it's dangerous enough out here to merit letting Blonsky out of his cell…"

"He's that bad?"

"If you have any records of the Hulk up on the Ark, all you need to know is that Blonsky is the only individual entity of the old world who managed to stand up to the Hulk in a straight fight by himself."

"And the reason you don't call more of your people for help is…?"

"Because, as we've told Clarke and others, Panem is in a very delicate place at this point. Our standard army pretty much exhausted its resources fighting among itself before we managed to stop the Maestro, and there are still enough potential rogue pockets of resistance out and about that it would be better to avoid giving them any reason to think they can take action while we're busy somewhere else."

"You think you can protect us-?"

"We can," I said firmly. "There's only so much we can do at a time, but that doesn't mean we can do nothing. Right now, Panem needs to rebuild itself to a society where the Hunger Games aren't the key event of the year, which means that we need to focus on eliminating any potential threats so that nobody's tempted to create new scapegoats and hence new Game contestants. Right now, bringing Mount Weather into the picture…"

"You think they'd start these… Games… again if they captured the Mountain?"

"I'd like to think that we wouldn't, but it was a close enough call getting people to agree not to host a 'final' Games with the children of the Capitol," I explained. "The second-last Hunger Games didn't end as the Capitol would have liked, and their last Games were interrupted before it could reach a definitive conclusion, so add in the fact that our people built an entire culture around the Games for the better part of a century, and Steve's… well, he's worried about them slipping into old habits."

I hated to admit that to anyone, but right now, Abby needed to be clear on just how precarious things were on the ground so that she'd recognise the fragility of her own position. The remnants of the Ark could have a great deal to offer us if we handled them properly, and its people were going to be an interesting addition to the culture we were creating after the fall of the Capitol, but that depended on everyone recognising where they stood, which included the Ark accepting that they weren't in charge of things down here. Abby had accepted my input when we talking with the Ark council so far, but with the trouble I still had with Coin, I couldn't help but wonder how much of that was just because she saw me as more of a security consultant or something like that…

Even later, I couldn't describe exactly what 'tipped me off' to the presence, but as soon as I'd heard the faint sound of a bullet being fired, I had moved the shield into position to take the shot directed at Abby and I before I consciously registered what was happening, my reflexes heightened to a level I never would have believed possible before I trained with Clint. Glancing over the shield to confirm what I had just sensed, I quickly adjusted my hold on the shield and threw it at my target, striking the Mount Weather soldier just as he was readjusting his rifle, knocking the weapon out of his hands.

"What-?!" Abby began as I stood up, turning around in time to realise what I'd just thrown the shield at and duck to the side as the shield returned to my hand. As soon as the shield was in my hand, I reached for my quiver and drew an arrow, launching it at the dazed mountain man. As I'd planned, I'd drawn one of what Beetee had taken to referring to as the 'boxing arrow', in that the tip was comparatively blunter than normal and it struck the target with blunt force rather than a sharp point. I needed to aim it just right to knock the man down rather than just knock him off-balance, but it was still a target I could make on my own even before Clint's training session. Taking a moment to make sure that the man was going to stay down, I hurried over to my would-be assassin, tossing his gun over to Abby as I crouched down to confirm that he was unconscious.

"He's down," I said, glancing back at Abby with a smile. "We're safe."

"Safe?" Abby repeated incredulously. "That's all you can say? How can you be so… calm about this? Someone tried to kill you-!"

"In case you missed the memo, everyone who was loyal to Snow when he was alive has spent a great deal of time trying to kill me since I became Mockingkay," I smiled solemnly at the older woman, moving to pick up my would-be attacker. "If I spent all my time freaking out because people were trying to kill me, I'd probably be dead or booked in for intensive therapy."

"But… all this death…"

"You're worried about what this is all doing to Clarke, right?" I smiled tentatively at the older woman, the smile becoming more confident when she looked at me in surprise. "My sister trained to heal people herself; I understand how it's harder for you to accept that those you love have to kill to survive."

"…Maybe," Abby sighed. "I just… I wanted to protect her…"

"Sometimes all we can do is our best, even as we acknowledge that it won't be enough," I replied, even as I adjusted my grip on my new prisoner. "Just be assured that you raised your daughter right where it matters; I've only known her for a short while, but I'm already sure that I can trust her to make the moral decision."

"The moral decision?"

"Making the right decision is important, but I want Avengers who'll consider the moral decision first," I explained. "After our time in the Hunger Games, people can get used to thinking of the 'right' decision as being the one that lets them get home even if nobody else does; Clarke's focus is always on getting everyone home safe, even if it's a risky plan that may or may not work."

"I see," Abby nodded in tentative understanding, before letting out a brief smile. "She must have got that one from Jake."

"Her father?" I asked, remembering enough of Clarke's stories not to press that issue.

"He always was the moral crusader," Abby said, still smiling at the memory before her expression fell. "As for me… I thought I knew what was right for our people, but…"

"The best leaders have to recognise the balance between what we have to do and what we're willing to do," I said, recalling one of the most important lessons Steve had taught me when I first accepted that my new role as an Avenger meant that I had responsibilities that extended beyond killing the Maestro. "From what Clarke and Callie have told me, your intentions were always good, but if you don't let yourself adapt… well, that's where everything falls apart."

"We move or we break?"

"That's one way of putting it," I nodded at her with a smile, before I bent down to pick up our downed attacker. "Anyway, right now, we should probably get this guy back to your camp; we're in too precarious a position to give up any potential source."

To her credit, even if Abby still seemed shaken at what had just happened, she accepted my recommendation, placing one of our attacker's arms over her shoulders while I took the other arm over mine, even if I had to move my quiver to my front while keeping my bow and shield in my hands; if he woke up before we got to the Ark remnants, or if we had to fight other would-be assassins, I wanted to be ready to make a stand.

As I entered the camp, I wasn't entirely surprised to see Clarke pacing in the main clearing at the centre of the village. I'd speculated that any forces from Mount Weather going after Abby or me would have likely targeted Clarke as well, but I had faith that she could handle anything they might throw at her, even if she was clearly troubled by something right now.

"Is everything OK?" I asked, walking up to my newest teammate.

"You captured someone too, huh?" Clarke asked, indicating the still-unconscious man draped over my shoulders.

"Hit him with the shield; it's a surprisingly effective blunt instrument when you know what you're doing," I explained. "How about you?"

"It was a close one, but he wasn't expecting Anya to transform after a near-shot to the heart," Clarke explained, glancing over at a nearby 'hut' with a faint smile as the aforementioned Avenger walked out of the building. "She's… can anything actually kill her in human form?"

"Steve once told me that he'd heard that Bruce Banner once tried to shoot himself in the head and the Hulk spat the bullet out afterwards; my explosive arrow only took out the Maestro because it did so much damage so quickly that even he couldn't heal from it," I explained. "So how's your guy?"

"Battered, but… he might live," Clarke said, looking uncertainly at the man her mother and I had captured. "But if you've got one…"

"You can't be-!" Abby began.

"We don't have a lot of options right now, Doctor Griffin," I told her, amending her title in my thoughts; I'd wanted to get through to Abby as a person, but right now I had to act as the leader and make the tougher decisions. "Mount Weather won't back down just because we've fought off one assassination attempt; we need to consider what works best for our long-term agenda right now."

"And that includes killing someone when they're down?"

"That includes making sure known enemies aren't going to keep trying to kill us."

"As well as making sure their attention stays focused on us rather than inside," Clarke noted, looking thoughtfully at me. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"We send these guys back to the mountain while telling them we're preparing for a direct attack?" I asked, smiling at the thought. "That could be something worth trying…"