Disclaimer: Avengers, Hunger Games, and all other elements belong to their relevant owners; I merely borrow them to write this story
Feedback: Always a pleasure to receive.
AN: In advance, I warn all fans of 'The 100' that languages are not my strong point, so for this chapter and other chapters in Katniss's POV she will just consider Trigedasleng as 'gibberish' while Anya translates, and I'll provide direct translations of it in the non-Katniss chapters.
Falling Hope, Rising Threat
Once Prim had confirmed that Lincoln was recovering as well as could be expected, it didn't take long for me to allocate our next roles. Prim and Finnick were ordered back to our facility to work on analysing the blood samples Prim had acquired from Lincoln so that we could determine what was actually being used on the Reapers in the first place; even if I wasn't entirely happy about Prim acting as an Avenger, I could still admire how far she'd come in terms of accepting her new responsibilities.
Bellamy was returning to the crashed Ark to let them know what else was going on, but Octavia had insisted that she remain with Lincoln to make sure that there were no side-effects from the Reaper drug, which meant that that I was left with Peeta, Clarke and Anya to deal with our other challenge.
"You wish to speak to the Commander?" Anya said, looking at me in surprise as we stood outside the dropship.
"Yes," I confirmed. "We've already told the Ark that we're here, and Black Widow and the Mariner can update everyone back at our compound, but we need to let your people know what we're up to if we're going to make any progress in dealing with Mount Weather."
"We're all in this together, Anya," Clarke said, stepping forward to look at the Grounder leader with an awkward but reassuring smile. "We get that you started out with your people, and we're not asking you to abandon those loyalties, but you're also an Avenger now."
"And that requires me to lead you all to the Commander?" Anya asked, her expression shifting to a suspicious glare.
"That requires you to trust us just like we're trusting you," I corrected, hoping that I wasn't playing this particular card too quickly. "Anya, in case you hadn't realised it, when you turn into the She-Hulk Peeta's the only person on the team who could realistically hope to do anything to you in a straight fight, and even that's not saying much from what you seem to be capable of."
"So you keep me on your team to tempt me-?"
"We brought you onto the team to help you," I interjected before Anya's temper could rise any further. "You're powerful, but what we're offering you is a chance to use that power to become part of something greater than yourself; you're free to leave and we won't stop you, but you need to understand that if we feel you're abusing that power we will stop you."
"And what would you consider 'abusing' this power?" Anya countered, looking at me with a firm glare. "Assisting your people against mine?"
"Anya!" Clarke interjected, stepping forward before I could respond. "Katniss has already told you that she doesn't consider the Ark residents to be 'her' people; she's only here to try and keep the peace! The Mountain is our enemy, but…"
She paused for a moment, looking at Anya with a tentative expression before she finally nodded resolutely. "I know that our past attempts to talk were a mess, and I'm sorry that my people thought the worst of yours… but doesn't the fact that we're all trusting you with the kind of power that could kill us all earn us anything in return?"
Anya stared at Clarke for a moment before she looked back at me.
"You said that you killed someone with strength similar to myself?" she asked.
"It wasn't easy, but I did it," I nodded.
"And yet you have chosen not to threaten me with that fate," the young woman continued. "Why?"
"Because I never wanted you to join us because we could kill you," I explained. "I want you to join us because you want to help us, not because you're afraid of the consequences."
"I see," she said, looking thoughtfully at me for a moment before she turned to Peeta. "Can he fly without his helmet?"
"Not very quickly," Peeta replied, shrugging apologetically. "It's a matter of friction; I can carry someone safely enough if they're not looking ahead, but I need the helmet to ensure that I can see where I'm going."
"Then you must remove it as promptly as possible so that my people do not mistake you for one of the Mountain Men," Anya said, looking at him firmly before she turned to Clarke and I. "I will travel with Clarke and you can take Mockingjay, but when we land, you must allow me to make the introductions."
"Of course," Clarke nodded.
"Sure thing," I said, Peeta nodding in understanding.
"Good," Anya said, before she walked over to Clarke with a slight smile. "Shall we get going?"
"We'd better," Clarke said, her wings extending from her sides as she allowed Anya to wrap her arms around her neck. As Clarke wrapped her own arms about Anya, she triggered her jets and the new Falcon took off into the air, leaving me to repeat the process with Peeta before we hurtled into the air.
The flight was silent for the next few moments, with the wind hurtling in my ears too loud to allow me to speak to Peeta, but looking ahead, I could see Clarke adjusting her flight, presumably as Anya offered new directions to the camp. Looking down, all I could see were forests and alternating open areas- this part of the country had been allowed to become far more overgrown than anything around Panem- but it wasn't long at our current speeds before Clarke began to descend to the ground once again, Peeta following her example.
As we drew closer to a fair-sized camp in one of the larger clearings, I was surprised at how relatively basic it was; I knew that the Grounders didn't have the resources of Panem, and I expected the Ark to have limited resources, but I was still expecting something larger than this for the Commander.
As my eyes adjusted to the sight before us, Clarke reached the ground in front of a small group of leather-clad warriors, releasing Anya a few metres above the ground before she spun around in an aerial loop that ended as she set herself down beside Anya. By the time Peeta reached the area, most of the grounders immediately around our two new Avengers had already hurried off towards one of the larger tents, leaving the last two to look up in surprise as Peeta landed. I noted the tension in their postures as they looked at Peeta, but it relaxed significantly as soon as he followed Anya's earlier advice and raised his mask. As the two warriors looked curiously between us, Anya uttered a few quick words to them in some unfamiliar language that swiftly calmed them down, looking uncertainly at the three of us even if they were clearly willing to accept Anya's word.
"What did you say?" I asked.
"I explained that you are representatives of the Skaikru and another clan who wish to speak with the Commander," Anya explained. "They will accept that for the moment."
"OK…" I said, nodding in tentative acceptance as I looked around the camp. "This is where your Commander lives?"
"This is a temporary camp," Anya corrected. "The Commander informed me in our last communication that she was preparing to move into position to better assess the potential threat you might pose to the Coalition; this is the most appropriate location for her to establish that position."
"And you knew that already?" Clarke asked curiously. "I mean, you were dealing with me and the rest of the 100 at the dropship before you were captured by the Mountain, and then-"
"The Commander was my second before she was called to her new role," Anya explained. "I know how she thinks and how she will react to situations such as this, including where she will establish her presence."
"Ah," I said, nodding uncertainly before I decided to ask my new question. "So… how did she go from being your second to being the Commander? That seems like a pretty big jump…"
"She was chosen by the spirit of the previous commander as all other Commanders were," Anya explained, her tone so direct that a quick glance was all I needed to confirm that Peeta and Clarke shared my scepticism at that idea and were equally united in my decision not to press the issue. "When the time came for her to answer the call, she responded, and was the first Commander to successfully unite all twelve clans under one authority in the Coalition, rather than the simple tentative alliances that have formed in the past."
"Really?" Peeta said, looking at Anya in surprise. "That's… impressive."
"You must be proud of what she's done, then," I said, trying not to fidget as I noticed some of the surrounding Grounders looking uncertainly at the four of us. Anya might be a familiar face to somebody here, but the fact that she was dressed in distinctly non-Grounder clothing and was accompanied by two people capable of flying and one woman wielding strange weapons was bound to raise questions.
"My training has little to do with what she has accomplished, but I am… proud of how well she has done," Anya said, her voice low as though she was slightly ashamed to admit that.
"It's OK to be proud of people you're close to," I said, smiling over at her in an attempt to bond. "I mean, I'm proud of what my sister's done, and I didn't really have anything to do with her medical training."
I was saved from further attempts at potentially awkward conversation when a man came up to us, his long thick beard giving him a slightly menacing manner as he and Anya exchanged a few brief words. I didn't need to understand the language to realise that he didn't like us being here, but Anya's firm tone seemed to put most of his potential arguments to rest before he could get started, and he finally muttered in frustration before he led us to a particular tent in the centre of this small gathering.
As we were shown inside, I allowed Anya to take the lead as we stood in front of a surprisingly sophisticated wooden throne for a society on the Grounders' level, with two guards standing on either side of it. However, the most surprising thing about this discovery was the woman sitting in it; she was clearly in good shape, with a thin but muscular build that reminded me of some of the Careers I'd faced in the Games, but the fact that she seemed to only be a few years older than Clarke and I was completely unexpected. As Anya started to speak with the woman, I exchanged a quick glance with Clarke, but it was clear that Clarke only knew a little more of this language than I did, and certainly not enough to keep up with what we were hearing right now.
After a few moments of heated exchange between the two Grounder leaders, Anya stepped aside and indicated that the three of us should step forward, with Clarke and I moving up to stand directly in front of the throne while Peeta waited behind us, faceplate still up as he looked cautiously at his surroundings.
"You… are not Skaikru?" the Commander asked, looking at me in surprise.
"No, I'm not," I replied, refusing to let myself be intimidated; after standing up to the Maestro when he was fully transformed, I wasn't going to back down when faced with someone only a few years older than me, even if she commanded such a potentially large group even without Snow's advantages. "We come from… another coalition in another part of the country; we were unaware of your existence until recently due to our former leader's control."
"How could one leader restrict your knowledge?"
"He confined everyone in our… coalition… to twelve different areas, restricted us to only what knowledge and items we needed to produce specific resources, limited our ability to communicate with each other, and the only times we ever met was when a group of our children were sent to kill each other as part of an annual competition," I replied; on some level, it was odd not to think myself as a 'child' any more when I still using my reputation from the Games, but as an Avenger I didn't have the luxury of still being a 'kid'. "Iron Man and I attracted a great deal of attention a few years ago when we were the last contestants standing in our Games and refused to kill each other, which sparked off a revolution that led to us forming this team."
"'Team'?" the Commander repeated.
"Think of us as a… hunting patrol for unique threats," Clarke put in, looking at the Commander with a new awkwardness about her manner; evidently she was a lot more intimidated by this meeting than I was. "Mockingjay has exceptional skill with a bow and arrow and her shield is made of the strongest material ever encountered, two of the others are well-known for their experience with other distinctive weapons, and Iron Man… well, he goes without saying."
"And you have joined this… 'team'?" the Commander asked, looking curiously at Anya.
"Things have changed since I was in the Mountain," Anya replied. "I have… changed… in a manner that leads me to conclude that I would be best suited to join them."
"What kind of changes?" the Commander asked. Instead of replying, Anya closed her eyes and concentrated for a moment before her skin turned green and her body began to grow, shrugging off her jacket and trousers before they tore under the strain of the transformation to leave only her purple bodysuit and the gloves and boots.
"This sort of change," Anya replied, her voice notably deeper as the Commander looked at her in surprise.
"How?" the other woman asked, managing to sound only slightly shocked despite the fact that she obviously couldn't have seen something similar before.
"It's complicated to explain; let's just say that we were trying to save Anya's life and there was an unexpected side-effect," I said, hoping that would be enough; I couldn't be sure how much the Commander would understand if I started talking about gamma radiation and blood transfusions, and the last thing I wanted was to cause a misunderstanding at such a crucial moment. "We invited her and Clarke to join the team while we're dealing with the Mountain Men, and she's accepted."
"You will face the Mountain Men?" the Commander asked.
"We don't like what they're doing to your people and we're worried about what they'll do if they get out," I said firmly, as Anya returned to her human form and put her clothes back on. "We know that you have no reason to trust us, but believe me; now that we know about Mount Weather, we're not going to leave them to cause more trouble in the future until we're sure they've been neutralised as a threat."
"And what makes you believe that your aid is wanted?"
"They have found a means of curing the Reapers," Anya said.
The Commander blinked in surprise, prompting a brief exchange in whatever the Grounder language was before they turned back to us as one of her guards left the tent.
"I will release our prisoners and you may return them to your people," the Commander said, before she fixed a particularly intense glare at Clarke and I. "However, there is one condition for this alliance to work."
"Specifically…?" I asked, already apprehensive about what she might ask.
"We have heard that one of the Skaikru was responsible for the deaths of a village near here," the Commander replied grimly. "You must hand over the one responsible for those deaths to our justice."
"Ah," I said, pausing for a moment to make sure that Clarke wasn't about to do or say anything drastic before replying myself. "Can we… have a couple of days to run this by our leaders? You have to understand that we're protectors; we don't have the authority to make that kind of decision ourselves…"
The Commander nodded in acknowledgement before Anya turned to lead us out of the tent, the conversation apparently concluded. As we emerged from the tent, the guard who had left earlier returned, accompanied by two men, one dark-skinned with a greying beard and one with lighter skin and thick black hair.
"Marcus?" Clarke said, looking at the younger man in surprise before her expression became literally incredulous as she took in the older man. "Chancellor Wells? Mom told me that you were-"
"I managed to get a rocket working and get back down," the Chancellor said, smiling briefly at Clarke before he turned to look at the rest of us, his expression quizzical for a moment before his gaze fixed on Peeta. "Hold on; Iron Man?"
"Yes, we're the Avengers, yes we live on Earth, no we're not part of this Coalition, and this isn't the time to talk about that," I put in; these two men might be leaders among their people, but for the moment I had bigger priorities than filling them in on my team's complicated history. "We've managed to negotiate a peace, but you need to tell everyone at the Ark what's been decided."
I was inwardly surprised at the ease with which I was now attempting to command authority from people who didn't know me by reputation already, but I had to deal with the immediate issues facing us as a team as well as our latest crisis, which meant reporting to Steve and the new Panem government as well.
It was only when Clarke picked me up and started flying back towards our facility that I realised two things; I was already thinking of Clarke and Anya as automatic parts of the team, and neither of them seemed to object to it.
This wasn't going to be easy, but if I could command their respect, I might just be able to pull off the role of leader in my first truly solo crisis…