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.
Falling Hope, Rising Threat
Walking away from Finn's now-still body, Clarke tried not to think too much about what she'd just done. She'd taken the only action she could find that would spare a friend from suffering further pain because of something he would never have done under normal circumstances, and she had to focus on that, not the fact that Finn was… Finn was…
As she walked through the gates, she didn't even notice who came up to her before she found herself wrapped in comforting arms, Clarke returning the embrace as she sobbed into the figure's shoulder.
"I killed him," she croaked out, voice already hoarse from the scale of the sobs that now wracked her body.
"You set him free," the figure replied, the voice revealing that it was Anya even as Clarke looked up at her, revealing a compassion in the older Avenger's eyes that Clarke had never expected to see in the Grounder leader. "My people will be satisfied."
"They… they will?" Clarke asked, suddenly needing to know that she hadn't just created a new problem.
"Blood has had blood, and I will speak out against any who suggest otherwise," Anya said, her eyes flashing green for a moment before she turned to lead Clarke back into the Ark.
Clarke would analyse later why she felt so comfortable being held by a woman who could literally squeeze her flat with her bare hands; all that mattered now was that Anya was there to keep her safe until she could find somewhere private to cry…
As the two newest Avengers headed into the main part of the Ark, Raven moved to follow them with enraged tears on her face, but a bow that snapped to full length in front of her cut that plan off before it could start.
"Go near her right now and someone's going to get hurt," Katniss said, looking Raven over with a brief but grim assessment; as much as she sympathised with the mechanic's feelings right now, her team would always come first. "And no offence, but even in her current state, Falcon could easily take you if she was pushed to it."
"Her 'state'?" Raven repeated scathingly. "She chose to kill him-!"
"And what was the alternative?" Finnick asked, stepping in to address the mechanic, as always an intimidating figure despite his slight build and costume. "Kill the Commander and let this pointless scuffle continue in the face of the real enemy? Kill everyone out there who wanted Finn dead and be left with nothing to take on Mount Weather but a few exhausted survivors? I'm sorry, but it was kill Finn now, let him get horribly tortured and then killed, or kill a whole bunch of people and probably have him end up dead anyway; I get wanting another way, but I think it's clear there wasn't one."
"Mariner's right," Katniss said solemnly; in a situation like this, it somehow felt more appropriate to use code names than 'birth' names. "Falcon saved lives because she made an impossible choice; that's what it is to be an Avenger."
"Killing the people who trust you?"
"Saving people where and how we can, even if it's not always pleasant," Katniss countered; she hadn't been forced to face that kind of decision yet, but Steve's stories of some of the old team had focused on the idea that she might face such a decision some day. "Trust me, I wish there had been another way, but there wasn't."
"You don't know-"
"We did," Peeta said, looking firmly at Raven. "You think we just received that ultimatum from the Commander and then came straight here to give you the news? Trust me, we spent some time going over everything Anya had to tell us about her peoples' culture to work out some way around this, and the only alternatives involved killing more people or putting your entire station at risk just to save him. It was let one person get punished by the local legal system, or risk an open war when you've got enough problems in this part of the country already; don't ever think that we liked it, but it was the only thing we could do."
Raven continued to glare at Peeta, but the slumping of her shoulders made it clear that she was resigned to his argument, even if she didn't like to admit it.
"OK," Bellamy put in, stepping forward to look uncertainly at the armoured Avenger. "We've got a truce with the Grounders; now what?"
"We work on a battle plan tomorrow," Johanna put in, indicating the area where Anya had taken Clarke. "Right now, the Falcon needs a few hours to grieve-"
"Grieve?" Raven virtually spat. "For someone she killed-"
She was cut short when Johanna drew one of her smaller axes and brandished it under the mechanic's throat, taking a moment to be sure that the other girl registered what was at her neck before she continued.
"If you haven't been in a position where someone you know and like is facing probably certain death, don't go there," the District Seven Victor said firmly. "I've been stuck in two different competitions where it was expected that I'd work with some people and end up killing them at the end if I wanted to get out of there alive, and that was just if I was lucky enough to survive the opening bloodbath; when you're in a position where it's kill one person or risk a lot more dying, you have to make the call."
"Point made, Bloodaxe," Katniss said, shooting a firm stare at the one-armed Avenger as Anya came out of the Ark, an oddly thoughtful expression on her face.
"How is she?" Peeta asked, stepping over to look curiously at She-Hulk.
"Resting," Anya replied. "She is currently with her mother."
"That's good," Katniss said, nodding at Anya before she indicated the gate. "So, now that the issue of Finn's out the way… maybe we can talk to the Commander about the next plan?"
"Now he's-?" Raven began, before Finnick reached up and squeezed an area by Raven's neck, catching her as she slumped to the ground.
"Little martial arts trick I picked up at the Academy," he explained, as the rest of the Avengers looked at him in surprise. "It's not flashy enough for the Games, so it isn't used often, but the instructors recognised that sometimes you need something that does a quiet job rather than a cool one."
"Games?" Bellamy repeated.
"Believe me, you don't want to know right now," Peeta said, before looking back at Katniss. "You and She-Hulk see what the commander thinks about this; the rest of us will… keep things calm here."
Nodding in acknowledgement at Peeta, Katniss glanced over at Anya before heading out of the Ark camp, the newest Avenger close behind her; if she was going to continue negotiations, Anya would be the best candidate to make sure she didn't say the wrong thing.
The She-Hulk might be the newest Avenger, but she and Clarke were fitting into the role so comfortably it sometimes amazed Katniss that they hadn't even known these women existed last week.
As they walked through the crowd, Anya noted the stares the two of them were receiving from the rest of the skaikru, but chose to ignore it; with her new abilities, getting angry would accomplish nothing but cause greater fear, and if these people could help hers end the threat of the maunon, she would not be the one to jeopardise that chance.
Looking at the young woman walking beside her, Anya wondered once again what it was about Mockingjay and Clarke that inspired respect so easily. Lexa had already had a great deal of presence even before she was chosen by the Spirit of the Commander, but somehow these two women, each younger than Lexa, nevertheless commanded a presence that caught the attention and respect of others in vastly different ways. While the woman she was coming to think of as the Falcon captured Anya's interest in her genuine desire to avoid death and find peace- even when Anya had been deliberately provoking her, she could see that Clarke genuinely didn't want to have to kill anyone- Mockingjay, for all her youth, had a strength of will about her that made it almost impossible not to admire her even if it was hard to define why or how she did it.
If she truly commanded the respect of a being that could be a god, Anya could understand what that god might have seen in the Mockingjay that was worth following; she commanded attention simply by acting on the spot…
As they finally approached Lexa's tent, Anya brought her thoughts to focus on the present; she and Lexa might enjoy a closer relationship than other tribal leaders, given Lexa's former role as her Second, but that didn't mean that she could afford to be too casual when faced with a meeting like this. Once the two Avengers- a term that Anya was becoming more appreciative of every time she thought about it- were shown into the tent, Lexa dismissed her guards with a wave of her hand, looking contemplatively between the two women standing in front of her before she spoke.
"Did you instruct her to do that?"
"The Falcon made her choice," Katniss said firmly.
"You present yourself as their leader-"
"But I'm not their dictator," Katniss countered. "I expect my team to follow my orders, but I don't expect to have to order them to think; they can all make their own decisions, so long as they don't do anything I wouldn't fundamentally approve of."
"Which includes?"
"Attacking each other, using their abilities against the innocent, or aiding anyone who would treat innocent lives as things," Katniss said firmly. "We're here to ensure that the human race can rise up and lead itself without someone else trying to enforce their view; we're not here to dictate terms or take control. All we want to do is face the threats that nobody else could handle; after the threat of Mount Weather is over, you never have to see us again if you don't want to."
"And what of you, Anya?" Lexa asked, turning to look at her former mentor. "You serve this woman of your own will?"
"Sha, Heda," Anya nodded. "I have already felt the power that is now part of me when I changed for the first time, and I am satisfied that I can best use this power working with these… Avengers… rather than as part of the Coalition."
"Even if I ordered you to return to us as leader of your tribe?"
"My tribe has been decimated by our battle with the Skaikru," Anya admitted grimly; there was no shame in admitting that they had fallen to superior tactics and weapons in what had been a more balanced fight, as opposed to the mountain simply taking their people with no explanation. "No matter what we attempt, there will be too few of my people left to make it worth our while re-establishing my camp; I will remain with the Avengers, if you wish?"
Lexa studied the two women for a moment, until she nodded in acceptance.
"Very well," she said, looking at Anya with a slight smile. "If you feel that you can find a clan with these… Avengers… I see no reason to deprive you of the opportunity."
"Sha, Heda," Anya nodded.
"OK," Katniss said, after waiting a moment to confirm that nobody else had something to say, "with that sorted, I think it's only fair we let you know what we're bringing to this campaign."
"Aside from the power that Anya now possesses and the man in armour I witnessed earlier?"
"Exactly," Katniss said, reaching behind her back to present her shield to Lexa. "For example, I'm regarded as the best archer of my generation, but I've also been trusted with this shield, which is able to absorb any force thrown against it no matter how strong it is."
"There are two others you have not met yet," Anya said, as Lexa took the shield from Katniss to examine it thoughtfully. "A man they call the Mariner, who possesses a powerful trident that can act as a long-range weapon as well as a tool for hand-to-hand combat, and a woman known as Bloodaxe, who wields a powerful axe that I am told can pierce anything but this shield, and also has a metal arm."
"A metal arm?"
"Her original arm was crushed by our first adversary, so we… made her a new one," Katniss explained, hoping that Lexa wouldn't ask for too many details; she was aware of the key points of how Johanna's arm worked, but would the Coalition have enough background knowledge to understand anything she could tell them?
"And these are all your forces?" Lexa asked.
"The Avengers are primarily intended as an emergency strike force rather than a sustained army; we hit hard and fast using exceptional force and skill against equally exceptional opponents," Katniss explained. "Actually, we do have another member, but he's… well, he has other responsibilities, so he isn't always available to help us unless it's a serious emergency."
"Is that likely?" Lexa asked.
"And when will I meet him?" Anya put in.
"When he's needed," Katniss said, before she sighed. "Which… might actually be sooner than we'd like."
"Why?"
"Our… healer… discovered something about the Reapers when we were treating Lincoln," Katniss explained. "When we were examining him, we learned that the transformation into Reapers is aided by blood samples taken from an individual we call 'the Abomination'."
"The Abomination?" Lexa asked.
"Basically, he's the product of the same kind of experiments that gave Anya's ancestor his own abilities," Katniss explained. "Two hundred years ago, a soldier exposed himself to blood taken from the man we know as the Hulk with the goal of acquiring his power, only to be transformed into an exceptionally powerful being with a passion for destruction and the power to match it."
"Two centuries?" Lexa repeated, looking sceptically at the Avengers' leader. "No being could live so long-"
"They speak the truth," Anya put in. "I was shown moving images of what this 'Abomination' was capable of when he was first created, and they have shared… many details about what this transformation has done to him. I do not know for certain if they tell the truth about his continued existence, but if this being they call the Abomination still exists and possesses the power that he did then, we shall require the Avengers to defeat him."
"You speak the truth?" Lexa asked, looking curiously at Katniss.
"No offence, but if we were lying, wouldn't we come up with something slightly less outrageous than this?" Katniss pointed out. "We'll do what we can, but the mountain is going to be a problem for my team even without the Abomination as part of the equation; we're going to need every asset you can spare, and we need a few days to work out our next move."
"You have not defined your plan yet?"
"We've been a bit busy making sure we're clear on the stakes of the situation we're in at the moment; we can't afford to just dive in and start swinging or shooting," Katniss explained. "We can cure the Reapers, and that's a start at weakening what they have to throw at us, but that still leaves us with the issue of getting into the Mountain and past their defences."
"If you are as powerful as you say-"
"I will not countenance mass murder until I know there's no other option," Katniss cut in. "What's been done to your people is wrong, but I'm not going to condemn everyone in that mountain until I know for sure they all enjoyed or approved of what they were doing to you. We need your people to work out what we're up against, we all need Clarke's people to use their inside men to work out what we can do once we're in the bunker, and you all need us to actually mount any kind of effective attack against them."
Her 'leader tone' was something Katniss still felt she needed practise with when she was talking to anyone outside those who already knew and respected her as more than just the Mockingjay of the rebellion, but as Lexa looked at her with a slight hint of respect, the archer was surprised to see just how genuine that respect was.
This whole plan was a risk, but as she looked over at Anya, who had started out hostile to her other new teammate and had just shown Clarke a great deal of compassion over what had to be a controversial decision for her people…
Katniss was starting to hope that they might just be able to pull this off.