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
Looking at the material spread out in front of me, I wondered if I was ever going to be ready for something on this scale. Beetee had contacted me to confirm that he'd managed to gain access to Mount Weather's computer files from back at the compound, but he had made it clear to me that he was only able to discreetly look at their files or he'd risk tipping them off to the existence of a group out there that could actually rival them technologically. As a result, he could provide us with a general picture of what was going on inside the mountain,
He'd been unable to find explicit information about where the mountain kept Blonsky, but he had been able to establish why they'd taken so long to go after the dropship. From what Beetee had found, Mount Weather had assumed that the dropship was nothing more than a standard meteor and ignored it until the Coalition had begun to gather around the area, which at least explained why they'd taken so long to try and take anyone prisoner.
We were still working on exactly how we'd get into the mountain, but in the absence of conflicting information, we had to assume that there was still time until we reached a point when Clarke's friends still stuck inside that mountain would be in danger…
"Does it ever get easier?" I looked at Steve as we sat in the heart of the Avengers facility, once again looking over everything we'd assembled about Mount Weather's defences since this began.
"This isn't just about the strategic issues of this problem, is it?" Steve looked at me with an understanding smile.
"It's just…" I sighed, shaking my head as I looked at the plans. "This isn't the hardest target we've gone after since we came together as a team, but this is the first time we've gone after a target like this when we had to worry about innocent people getting caught in the crossfire."
"You attacked Snow in the Capitol-"
"While doing everything possible to keep the fighting contained to areas where his people would be while giving everyone outside the combat zone a chance to get to safety; we don't have that option here…"
"And that's why I wanted you as an Avenger, Katniss," Steve smiled at me. "Because you care about that kind of thing even when you don't know any of the people you're worried about."
"Thanks," I said, putting my concerns aside for a moment to appreciate that compliment before I looked more seriously at my mentor. "But seriously… how do I deal with this?"
"There is no easy answer to that, Katniss," Steve said solemnly. "As a wise man once wrote, if you try not to get anybody killed, you end up getting everyone killed. No matter what you do here, your actions are going to put lives at risk; what we have to do is work out the plan that minimises innocent casualties while ensuring that our enemies take maximum damage."
"And I get that; I just…" I began, before I sighed in resignation; Steve couldn't give me any information I didn't have already, so the best way to take my mind off this was to find something else to think about. "I'd better go and see how Clarke's team is doing; we still need Bellamy's update from inside."
"Nothing yet?" I observed as I walked into the small 'hut' that had been set aside as our planning room for anything relating to the current 'war' with Mount Weather.
"Nothing definite, anyway," Clarke clarified. "Raven's still looking over the dam, but there's not enough for us to know what we can do in there to that would cut their power without cutting their air supply in the process."
"On the bright side," Raven put in with a smile as she glanced at me, "with your tech guys available to help out, we have been able to put together more of those tone generator things they use to control the Reapers."
"Which we'd be using to knock them out, right?" I put in.
"If all goes well, yeah," Raven said, her expression becoming slightly anxious as I fixed her with a pointed glare. "Hey, I just meant that this is going to be a delicate situation in the middle of a war; you can't guarantee anything against these numbers!"
"Considering the acid fog's still a possible threat, everything we can knock out right now is a good thing…" Clarke noted, just as the radio came on again.
"Ark Station, do you read me?" Bellamy's voice reported. "Anybody there?"
"The birds are in the house, Bell," Raven put in with a relieved smile.
"And for the record, Mr Blake," I said, moving in to take the radio from Raven, "when we say 'every three hours', we mean 'every three hours'; this isn't the kind of situation where you can play around, you know!"
"I don't have time for this, Mockingjay; our friends are in trouble here!" Bellamy countered (I reminded myself that I had no reason to feel angry because he didn't show me respect; he didn't know what I'd done so he could only acknowledge my skills based on what he'd seen). "They've started taking them from the dormitories every three hours!"
"Taking them where?" Clarke asked.
"I don't know. We tried to follow them, but they went to a classified level. Maya borrowed the schematics of the vent system from her boss, and I'm still trying to find a way in."
"You've got the earbud and walkie we asked you to find, right?" Raven asked.
"She's just getting them now," Bellamy replied. "I'll get back to you when I'm mobile."
"And I'll go over our map," Raven added.
"I'll-" Clarke began.
"Be accompanying me to TonDC to brief Lexa on our situation," I said firmly.
"I have to stay-"
"Why?" I asked her, part of me surprised at how easily I was settling into a command role with a relative stranger after months thinking of myself as the public face of the team. "What can you do here that can't be done by someone else with more relevant experience?"
"I'm the one in charge-"
"Which means you have the authority to delegate when it comes to your people," I countered. "You were the leader of the 100 when you got down here, but now you're also an Avenger, which means you have wider responsibilities; you're not neglecting Bellamy if you leave Raven and Peeta here to keep in touch with him."
"I…" Clarke began, looking at me for a moment before she signed in resignation. "You're right, and I know that; it's just… I…"
"You've been the one in charge so long it's hard to let that go," I nodded sympathetically, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "I actually had the opposite problem when this started; I spent so long being told what to do by everyone else that it took me a while to get used to the idea that I was the one calling the shots for the Avengers."
"Yeah, I guess going from propaganda piece to leader of Earth's mightiest heroes would be a jump for anyone," Raven smiled.
"Steve helps," I admitted with a slight smile. "I mean, he can't replacemy dad, but he… he does a good job at being my mentor."
It was something I'd never tell the original Captain America directly, but I could share it with these people who'd lived such unique lives even before they joined me in becoming Avengers (and the fact that Clarke was the one in the field while Raven was 'just' support staff didn't change the facts). Steve might just consider me his protégé in terms of becoming the symbol for a new generation just as he had been a symbol for his… but the more time I spent with him, the more comfortable I was considering him a new father figure.
"Yeah…" Clarke smiled for a moment, before she looked resolutely at me. "OK, let's get going before I change my mind."
"I'll send Peeta here before we leave," I said as I glanced over at Raven. "He can keep in touch with Clarke over the radio in her gear."
"I have one?" Clarke looked at me in surprise.
"It's one of the features Beetee added when he learned that we were bringing that suit back onto the team," I explained. "You have the standard team comm links, but you're also automatically linked to Peeta, and Thor once he gets back; it was thought that it would be a good idea if our fliers could coordinate efforts while being sure that nobody could track them through the transmissions."
"Nice," Clarke said, looking at me with a new sense of approval before she adopted a more serious manner once again. "OK, let's get going."
It wasn't quite as smooth a ride as when I was flying with Peeta, but I had to admit that travelling with Clarke had its interesting points as well. While the Falcon gear wasn't as fast as the Iron Man armur, as Iron Man was designed to completely protect the wearer from issues such as G-force and friction, the Falcon's lighter design made it more manoeuvrable so long as Clarke remembered to retract the wings in tight spaces, and the wings even gave her a limited gliding ability for a few moments at a time, so long as she'd built up enough speed before turning off its rockets. I would have liked the chance to talk more with her about our current plans, but considering Clarke's need for experience in dealing with the Falcon suit, I decided that it would be safer to stay quiet and let her focus on flying.
Eventually we reached the village where the Coalition forces had gathered to prepare for our final assault, Clarke adjusting her aerial position to head towards the ground before she adjusted her stance to land on her feet. I jumped off her back once she was less than a metre from the ground, nodding politely as the Coalition all turned to look at the two of us in surprise while Clarke touched down, the new Falcon offering her own awkward nods to the soldiers around us before we headed for Lexa's tent.
"Mockingjay, Falcon," Lexa said, nodding briskly at the two of us as we walked inside, where she was currently talking with a few other figures I was fairly sure were other leaders in the Coalition. "All is well?"
"As well as can be expected," I replied. "Our inside man is still working his way through the mountain, but so far all of our information about its internal layout appears to be accurate, and he's close to identifying the most important areas of the mountain."
"And this will benefit us?" one of the generals asked.
"We're trying to attack a heavily fortified area; anything we can do to stop them trying to attack us in return has to be a benefit," I informed the older, scarred warrior, taking care to balance my tone between respecting his own experience without appearing too deferential.
"You have great confidence in your warriors," another general observed. "We have heard many tales of their prowess…"
"And tales will be enough until the time comes for our battle with the Mountain Men," I cut the other man off, guessing what he was about to ask and wanting to nip that idea in the bud. "The more we demonstrate our abilities here, the more likely it is that the Mountain will learn what we are capable of; surprise remains our greatest asset."
"You claim to have power and yet you fear the Mountain?"
"Criticise us for being cautious when you've done something other than sit here for years," Clarke countered with a warning glare.
"You dare-!"
"Falcon dares because it is true," Lexa cut in, shooting a glare at the general. "We can defend it all we wish, but the fact remains that the Mountain Men have held an unspoken power over us for far too long, and the Avengers and the skaikru are our best chance to end this for good."
The general glared at Lexa for a moment, but finally nodded in acknowledgement of our points as he sat back down once again. Lexa was about to continue when Clarke held up a hand and indicated her blinking earpiece, which indicated that a message was coming in from back at the compound.
"Excuse us, please; we have an update coming in," I said, automatically grabbing Lexa and Clarke's wrists and walking out the back of the tent to a nearby cluster of trees, only to look awkwardly at the Coalition commander when I realised what I'd just done. "Uh… sorry about that-"
"You had urgent information to relate to me and you are not explicitly part of the Coalition; some leeway is granted to you in these circumstances," Lexa said, looking at me in a manner I couldn't quite read before she turned to Clarke. "What is wrong?"
"We're getting contacted by our allies back at our compound about the situation in the mountain, so I thought you'd prefer to hear it directly before we share it with the generals," Clarke explained, before she reached up and adjusted her radio. "Raven, Iron Man, you're on loudspeaker, and it's me, Mockingjay and the Commander here; what's up?"
"Progress has been made, but whether it's good or bad is a matter of debate," Peeta replied.
"In what way?" Lexa asked.
"Bellamy found a room where they were talking about bone marrow extraction and worrying about our message that we were planning an attack," Raven explained. "Good news is that he didn't hear anything to suggest they know for a fact about our new assets- guessing Miss Green didn't change in an area where our chosen survivor could see her before we knocked him out- but Bell heard something about some guy called Whitman and a missile-"
"Missile?" Clarke and I yelled simultaneously.
"They want to take out as many targets as possible in one go, and they know that you and at least some of the Coalition leaders are going to be in that village now," Peeta said, his tone grim. "It sounded like this 'Whitman' person is responsible for setting up a target for them, so you might be able to stop it if you can find him in time, but if that's not an option, can you evacuate the village once the missile goes up?"
"No," Lexa said.
"Excuse me?" Clarke looked sharply at the Coalition leader. "We have time-"
"But we don't have a reason," I cut my new teammate off, looking at Lexa in understanding. "If we evacuate the village now, Mount Weather may realise that we have an inside man and we lose a major advantage and put everyone inside in danger at the same time."
"But we can't just do nothing-!" Clarke began.
"I didn't say we couldn't do anything," I interjected, looking at Lexa and Clarke with a smile as I tapped Clarke's radio. "Peeta, how soon can you get down here?"
"Under half an hour," Peeta said, understanding my request before I'd even made it. "Raven's making good progress hacking the acid fog system; I'm on my way."
"But if he comes-" Lexa began.
"Even if Mount Weather realises that we have Iron Man on our side, there's no way anyone could be certain that Peeta being here was anything more than a really freaky coincidence," I clarified. "The three of us are here already, and Iron Man's one of the strongest Avengers; we could easily have been drawing up battle plans and asked him to come along once he finished something back at the base."
"You make many assumptions," Lexa noted.
"Sometimes you have to make assumptions," I countered. "It was an assumption that let me kill the Maestro."
"As I recall from your tales, it was the explosive arrow you shot into his head-"
"Which I had no guarantee would actually kill him," I pointed out.
"It's better than just waiting here to get blown up or running away to let everyone else get blown up," Clarke pointed out.
"People die in war, Falcon," Lexa looked at Clarke with a particularly pointed stare. "You cannot ignore this."
"And I'm not," Clarke said. "I'm just not willing to let these people die now when we have a good reason to save them that doesn't compromise our inside man."
Lexa looked at the two of us in a solemn manner for a few moments, and finally nodded with a slight smile.
"Mochof," she said at last. "Do it."
"Check," I replied, before turning back to Clarke's radio. "Peeta, you and Raven keep an eye on things, and get ready to leave for here as soon as Mount Weather start preparing to fire the missile; leave enough space between the two events that they can argue your timing was just a coincidence."
"I'll need Raven and Beetee to run a few estimates on how fast I can get to you, but I think that should work," Peeta replied.
"See you soon," I said, before I looked back at Clarke and Lexa. "OK, if they're using a spotter to get the target for that missile, he can't be too far from here, which means I might be able to find him-"
"You?" Clarke and Lexa said at once.
"Even if he saw me come here with you, so far we haven't given Mount Weather any reason to see me as anything important," I explained, as I indicated my Mockingjay costume. "Add in the fact that I'm not explicitly needed here and have some training in stealth, and I'm the best candidate of the three of us to try and find him and make it look like chance."
I acknowledged that this plan was risky, but I could guess what would happen if we tried to tell anyone else in the village about the latest threat from the mountain, and there was no way we could evacuate this entire village without giving away Bellamy's existence to somebody. This patrol and calling in Iron Man for air support could just about work if I was careful about it, but anything more public would raise too many questions.
"…Very well," Lexa nodded at me. "It is your decision; if you are sure that you can achieve this, I will not oppose it."
"Thanks," I nodded back at her, making a mental note to thank her for her understanding once I'd found the spotter; Lexa had been friendly enough so far, but I got the impression that she wasn't used to dealing with people who could explicitly defy her orders as individuals, considering the respect she received from her people and our status as Avengers defying so many rules.
It wasn't that I was going to start taking it for granted that people back in Panem would basically fall over themselves to give me anything I asked for because I was Mockingjay, but at the same time it was nice to know that I could speak and get people to listen, as opposed to the way I'd been basically pushed around when the resistance started.
God, if Steve hadn't been there, I'd have been nothing more than a propaganda tool for whatever side had me, I reflected, once again struck by how lucky I'd been that I'd been chosen by Steve Rogers as his unofficial successor. Being an Avenger was a stressful job even when I wasn't deliberately searching for people who wanted to kill me, but everything I did as Mockingjay made the world a safer place for innocent people.
Granted, I still hated it when I was on this kind of stealth mission, discreetly hunting a possible target in the dark when I had no way of knowing where he was or even if there was anyone to find-
A Reaper appeared in front of me and I immediately sprang into action, striking the feral man in the side of the head with my shield before taking on the next opponent. The next couple of Reapers were fairly standard opponents, but when the fourth Reaper didn't immediately lunge at me like a particularly human-shaped mutt, it took me a moment to realise who it was.
"Lincoln?" I said, lowering the shield as I looked at Octavia's sort-of-boyfriend (there was probably some term for their relationship in the Coalition's culture that I should look into learning later). "What are you-?"
"Get away!" Lincoln yelled, leaping towards me even as I dived to the side; I didn't need to be Steve Rogers' student to see that Lincoln was holding back. "I can't… I can't fight…"
"You can," I cut him off firmly. "We can."
"Bellamy Blake is a prisoner because of me-" Lincoln began.
"He's still active inside the mountain," I cut my new ally off abruptly, guessing where he was going with that and wanting to get him back on track. "Whatever happened when you took him to the mountain, we have our inside man; now I just need you to get yourself together and show me where your handler is."
"My… handler?" Lincoln repeated uncertainly.
"Mount Weather wouldn't send a group of Reapers this size to attack a camp this big; you're here because you were guarding-" I began, before I heard something in the sky-
Not something, I realised as I glanced up, smiling as I saw two intense orange glows heading towards each other. Two somethings… and one of them is on my side.
For a moment I was tense, anxious about whether the plan I had created and the young man I had such complicated feelings about could actually work, but then I saw the small blue bursts of repulsor energy leap from one golden glow to strike the other, followed by an even more brilliant explosion at the other end, and I relaxed.
"What… was that?" Lincoln asked, looking up at the sky in shock.
"That, Lincoln," I said, looking at the ex-Reaper with a smile, "was Iron Man taking out a missile."
"Iron Man to Mockingjay," Peeta's voice sounded over the radio I'd pre-linked to Clarke's Falcon gear. "Missile intercepted; should I backtrack?"
"Not right now; we're still working on our final plan of attack," I replied, mind already considering how the Mountain Men would react to this turn of events and how we needed to respond to keep them thinking a certain way. "Take another assessment of the area and come down to me as though you're going to tell us what happened."
"Understood," Peeta said, the remaining glow now turning around to head towards our camp.
"OK," I turned back to Lincoln, "Peeta can tell Clarke and your Heda what happened; in the meantime, care to help me find your spotter?"