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
The thing that amazed Clarke most about being an Avenger was how quickly she'd settled into the role.
OK, on some level, she couldn't believe that she'd been out of Mount Weather for less than two days and she was already fighting alongside the new Avengers to try and save the Grounders and her own people from whatever Mount Weather was going to do to them, but the rest of her had just… accepted the impossible situation she was facing as though it went without saying. She still wasn't sure if the impulsive plan to try and 'cure' Lincoln of whatever had turned him into a Reaper would work, but if he could be driven this insane this quickly, since Octavia had confirmed that she had only lost Lincoln about a week ago, she had faith that there had to be some kind of external influence responsible for this.
"And… you're sure your sister can help?" she asked, looking uncertainly at Katniss as they approached the Ark.
"She's still in training, but she's been working with the best that the old Capitol has to offer ever since we killed Snow," Katniss said, nodding reassuringly at her new teammate before she turned to Anya. "If we can provide a cure for the Reapers, do you think your commander would be willing to talk before things escalate?"
"If you can cure him," Anya said, her tone making her doubt clear.
"Hey!" Octavia said, looking indignantly at the Grounder general. "They're the Avengers-!"
"And we tend to beat things up rather than put our foes through detox, and we don't even know for sure that this is going to work; we'll do our best, but you need to accept that this isn't easy," Katniss noted, fixing Octavia with a brief stare before she turned back to Anya. "Just so you're clear, if it comes to a choice between your people or the Ark, I won't expect you to fight for us if you don't want to, but if you fight against us…"
The silence that filled the hovercraft at that statement said more than words ever could.
Clarke hated to think that this new team she had become a part of was so fragile, but at the same time, she appreciated the fact that Katniss was giving Anya a choice about whether or not to fight with them rather than forcing her to do anything she might not want to do.
"Coming up on the Ark again," Finnick called back to the rest of the team from the front. "Get ready to unload the prisoners!"
"Thanks," Katniss nodded at the Mariner before turning to the others. "Anya, Bellamy, give Finn and Murphy a quick tranq and then take them to whatever passes for a prison here; I assume you know the way?"
"They put me there earlier," Bellamy noted grimly, which at least confirmed Clarke's own theory even if it wasn't the most encouraging news she'd ever heard.
"OK," Katniss said, nodding at Bellamy before she continued talking. "Once we've landed, Mariner and Bloodaxe take Lincoln back to the Avengers compound and collect Black Widow and Iron Man before rendezvousing with us at the dropship; Callie can probably give you the approximate landing coordinates-"
"You don't need to ask her," Octavia said, stepping forward with a firm stare. "I'm going with Lincoln."
"What?" Bellamy said, looking at his sister in shock. "He's-"
"I'm not leaving him," Octavia said firmly. "If he's staying on this thing, so am I."
"He's dangerous-"
"And I'll be here to keep an eye on him until we get home, after which Bread-Boy can handle anything," Johanna interjected, stepping forward with her axe clenched in her remaining hand, raising her metal fist to emphasise her next statement. "Believe me, this thing will do more than enough to keep him down if he tries to eat anyone."
"Without killing him," Clarke and Katniss said simultaneously, the two young women exchanging brief stares at their unexpected moment of synchronicity before Clarke turned back to Finnick.
"Actually, Octavia going with you is probably the best way to get you to that dropship in time," she noted, smiling at the former District Four Victor. "She knows the area, so she can help you track the best route, and she's probably the best qualified to keep Lincoln under control if there's anything of him in there."
"Never complained about having a pretty girl along for the ride," Finnick smiled.
"And I don't count?" Johanna asked.
"You're on the team and I've known you too long; I can't see you as hot," Finnick noted with his usual smirk before he turned back to face the front. "Coming into land at the Ark; everyone out who's getting out."
With that said, the rest of the Avengers moved towards the rear door of the ship, Anya and Bellamny soon rejoining the group at the back with their unconscious prisoners over their shoulders. As soon as the largest door opened, the Avengers filed out into the clearing in front of the crashed Ark, Clarke smiling at the awe on the faces on some of their people before the hovercraft took off once again.
"Clarke?" her mother said, looking uncertainly at her as she walked up to the Avengers. "What are you doing here?"
"We need you to take custody of these two," Katniss said, turning back to indicate Bellamy and Anya and their prisoners. "They've… well, things are complicated."
"What are you…?" Abby began, looking uncertainly at the vanishing hovercraft and the assembled team.
"We… have a lot to deal with," Clarke shrugged awkwardly, lost for any better explanation that she could offer right now. "We just came to leave these two somewhere safe-"
"And contained," Anya interjected firmly, indicating Finn from his position over her shoulder. "This one has committed crimes that must be answered for."
"We aren't sure if Murphy did anything one way or the other, so just keep them locked up without… doing anything," Bellamy added, indicating his own 'prisoner'. "We've got other stuff to do-"
"Excuse me?" Abby said, looking at him indignantly at this lack of acknowledgement to her questions. "You have to-"
"We have things to do," Clarke said firmly. "There's a lot going on that you just don't know about right now, and we're trying to work out the finer details ourselves, so we're going to have to deal with them before we can explain things."
"And I'm supposed to just accept this?" Abby asked. "We're dealing with-"
"Right now, you're dealing with nothing but people feeling anxious about what they've heard; as far we know, nobody who's an actual threat knows about you yet, and we're doing what we can to ensure that the situation doesn't get that far," Katniss said resolutely, as Anya followed Bellamy into the Ark, leaving the Avengers' leader with her newest member as they spoke with the Chancellor. "Believe me, I understand how it feels to have everything in upheaval when you thought you knew what to expect, but you have to believe that we're here to help; we just need to do other things to do that right now."
Looking around the camp at the rest of her people, Abby sighed in resignation as she looked back at the young leader of the Avengers.
"How did you get this kind of responsibility?" she asked.
"I refused to kill someone when the old nation wanted me to and everything started to go wrong," Katniss said grimly. "After that, I was chosen to be the leader of the latest Avengers, and… well, it all worked out from there."
"She's spent the last few months helping to keep the peace in a nation that's still recovering from the end of a major war, Mom," Clarke said, looking defensively at her mother. "Callie spent some time with them learning what they've been through before they recruited me, and… well, it would take a while to give you everything, but I trust them."
Abby sighed as she looked at her daughter, smiling in awkward understanding after a few moments.
"OK," she said at last. "If you think you have to do this… I'll trust you."
"We'll be back as soon as we can be," Clarke said, as Anya and Bellamy returned from the main Ark. "Just keep Finn and Murphy contained until we get back."
She didn't know how long it would take to detox Lincoln, but she had to hope that they'd have the time…
The only blessing about the uncertain state of grounder society right now was that they didn't have to worry about running into any Grounder patrols. Regardless of what role she'd play if it came to a fight between the Grounders and the Ark, Anya was willing to help them avoid areas where they might encounter any patrols, the team moving along in silence until they reached the dropship.
Actually, Clarke was almost intimidated at seeing how easily she, Bellamy and Katniss all 'deferred' to Anya's expertise in this area. She and Bellamy knew that Anya had experience in this area, but even if Katniss probably recognised the same thing, Clarke was surprised to see how easily the Avengers' leader followed someone else in a situation like this.
Was it a mark of how much the Mockingjay trusted Anya, or how much she wanted to trust the new 'She-Hulk'?
And why did she keep finding her eyes trailing down to Anya's rear…?
The questions were forgotten as she finally caught sight of the original dropship, with the hovercraft positioned beside it at least assuring Clarke that the other Avengers had arrived, even if that left them facing the question of what they could actually do to 'cure' Lincoln. If it was just drugs, it might be possible to help him through the detox, but if it was some kind of surgery or brainwashing…
Her concerns were forgotten as she found herself leading the way into the dropship and saw Octavia looking anxiously at Lincoln, arms strapped to the ceiling in a manner that reminded her of when they'd first held him prisoner, a small blonde girl in a tight black bodysuit anxiously studying a box containing various syringes while another figure in red-and-gold armour stood off to the side.
"Damn…" Bellamy said, staring at Iron Man with a slight smile before he looked back at Clarke. "You know Raven's going to want to check that out, right?"
"Probably," Clarke said, smiling at her friend before she looked back at Iron Man. "Sorry, Raven's… she was kind of our tech in the dropship before the rest of the Ark came down…"
"No worries," Iron Man replied, lifting his visor to reveal the youthful face of the man who'd saved her and Anya from the Mount Weather patrol. "Trust me, I'm still learning everything about this suit; if anyone has any ideas how I can upgrade it, I'm interested."
"Where are the others?" Anya asked, looking curiously around the dropship before her gaze focused on Iron Man.
"Mariner's in the hovercraft in case we need to get away from here on short notice, and Bloodaxe volunteered to stay behind and hold the fort," Iron Man- Peeta, Clarke suddenly remembered his name was- replied, smiling over at the former Grounder general. "Things might be quiet, but we like to make sure that there's always an Avenger available at the facility unless we have a serious crisis that occupies all our attention."
"I see," Anya nodded in understanding.
"Can we focus on this before we start exchanging our personal details and upgrade ideas?" the girl in black said, looking impatiently at the new arrivals. "We've still got to work out what these people from Mount Weather used to drive this man to… well, to make him this."
"You haven't found anything yet?" Katniss asked, looking urgently at the small blonde Clarke suddenly remembered was her sister.
"I've been checking blood samples, but I'm having trouble working out what I'm looking at," the new Black Widow said apologetically. "All I can be sure of is that there is something in the blood, but there's no way to be sure if it's the cause or a byproduct of what's been done to him…"
Lincoln suddenly twitched in his bonds, a low growl in his throat, but Peeta raised his gauntlets and Lincoln quietened down, glaring at Iron Man as he did so.
"That was… simple," Bellamy noted, looking between the two in surprise.
"I had to hit him a couple of times while we were getting him here," Peeta said, looking like he actually regretted it as he looked at the other Avengers. "I've been using a low-level blast so that I'm not doing too much focused damage, but he's still lashing out more than I would have expected; he might be feral, but he can't be stupid."
"Maybe it's the lack of recognition?" Clarke suggested. "I mean, from what I've heard about these… Reapers, they seem to go for 'fight' rather than 'flight' in danger, so maybe he's just… so scared of you on some level that the only way he can deal with that is trying to attack?"
"It's possible," the youngest girl noted (Clarke couldn't quite believe that she was a field medic for the Avengers, even if she appreciated that they wouldn't let someone like that on without proof that they could handle themselves). "Whatever was done to him, I don't think he's thinking clearly…"
Lincoln interrupted their conversation when he shook his chains again, glaring in rage at the assembled Avengers for a moment before his gaze shifted upwards as he clenched his jaw.
"He's having a seizure!" the little girl yelled, waving urgently at Iron Man before the other Avenger cut the ties holding him up. As Lincoln fell to the ground, the girl in black moved to hold one arm down while Octavia held down the other, the youngest Avenger reaching up to hold her fingers against the man's neck.
"He's going into shock," the girl said, looking grimly up at the rest of the team. "We have to let him ride it out, and then…"
For a moment, the rest of the team simply watched in silence, Octavia looking particularly anxious while Clarke, Bellamy and Anya exchanged uncertain stares, until Lincoln fell still in front of them.
"It's stopped!" the young girl said, looking up at Iron Man. "Peeta; shock him!"
"Got it," Peeta said, walking over to place his hands on either side of Lincoln's chest before a sudden spark burst from the repulsors. Lincoln jerked for a moment before he fell silent, but then Peeta triggered another shock and Lincoln began breathing again, Octavia crouching down to look anxiously at him.
"Oc… Octavia?" Lincoln said, looking blearily at the former Ark resident before turning to take in the rest of the people in the dropship. "Who…?"
"Later," Octavia said, smiling warmly at Lincoln despite the faint tears in her eyes. "You're OK now…"
Glancing over at the other Avengers, Clarke was glad to see Anya looking at Lincoln in obvious surprise at this turn of events; one case might not set a definitive precedent, but if Anya had been honest, this was probably the first time she had ever seen a Reaper actually return to who they had been before.
It was a small step, but it could be useful in helping them open negotiations with the Grounders' Commander now that Anya knew they actually had something to offer beyond the Avengers…