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
If it had happened in any other situation, I would have almost considered it amusing how ill-prepared I felt for this situation. We had spent the last few days training in as much secrecy as was possible when we didn't know exactly what we were going to go up against, and now we were preparing for an assault on the most heavily defended place on this planet (that wasn't in the hands of our allies) while I had to constantly adjust our plans to accommodate the possibility that we'd get back up to full strength any minute now.
Right now, while Lexa worked with the forces of the Coalition and the Ark to prepare for our upcoming final attack on the Mountain, I had to focus on working with the different strengths and capabilities of this team to determine our best plan of attack. Not only did I have to keep track of plans that both would and wouldn't use Thor and Johanna depending on when they got back to us, but I also had to try and work out how the plans including Thor and Johanna might incorporate Octavia if she was able to repeat her earlier 'trick', and that was on top of the question of whether the 'Mountain Men' would want to risk unleashing the Abomination onto us on top of the more conventional defences we'd already had to deal with. I was quietly confident that we could handle what the mountain had demonstrated so far, even if I didn't want to do too much damage to people who were basically just trying to survive even if I didn't approve of how they were doing it, but the man once known as Emil Blonsky was an X-factor I wasn't entirely comfortable with.
Finnick and Anya had spent some time trying to interrogate our new prisoner, on the grounds that Anya had better practise at inflicting pain while Finnick was the most experienced of the current Avengers when it came to reading people's reactions to personal questions, but we all knew that there was only so much our prisoner could offer even if he knew about Blonsky's existence. Peeta and Beetee had expressed approval of Raven's technical skill so far, and she'd apparently offered a couple of interesting suggestions for 'tweaks' she could make to the Iron Man armour right now and some interesting plans had been discussed for when we had the time to put them together, but while I approved of the idea of adding her to our support staff right now there wasn't time to deal with the paperwork needed to make it official.
"You OK?" Clarke's voice broke through my musing, prompting me to turn around and smile as she walked up to join me in what some of the team referred to as my 'office' in the compound. I didn't exactly have paperwork, and my position in our new legal structure was unconventional at best, but I still had to provide some kind of official documentation for what we were up to.
"Trying to work out what we've got for when we mount that final attack," I replied grimly. "Adding you and Anya to the line-up is straightforward enough, so long as I can decide if I want you both inside or outside the mountain when things kick off, but I'm not sure if I should be planning for Thor and Johanna to get here in time to help out or not, and then there's the question of Blonsky to take into account…"
"I get it," Clarke said, shaking her head with a smile as she sat down on the other side of my desk, smiling as she looked around the small room. "You really work here?"
"Only in the sense that it's where I fill out the occasional report when I need to explain what we're doing to the rest of the country," I replied. "We're granted a degree of freedom considering what we've done for Panem so far, but we still need to justify what we're doing when we're dealing with something this large-scale so people don't worry we're becoming as bad as Snow."
"The dictator you killed?"
"He was… a bit more than just another dictator, but yeah," I nodded, still uncomfortable dwelling on Snow after seeing what he'd been before he went crazy. "I mean, I know that it had to be done, and he was basically a psychopath who was never going to stop being anything more than that, but even if I don't think we'd ever go that far…"
"You need some kind of check to keep everything under control so everyone else is assured of it?"
"Exactly," I nodded. "Steve and the original Avengers had SHIELD when they started, but when they had to rely on themselves… well, cues were missed; it's complicated."
"Complicated?"
I was saved from answering that particular question when Prim suddenly hurried into my office, holding the radio in her hand with a terrified expression on her face.
"Hello?" an unfamiliar voice said at the other end of the radio, even if Clarke's sudden shock made it clear that she knew the speaker. "Who's there?"
"Hello, Doctor Tsing," Clarke said, answering my question as she took the radio.
"Clarke Griffin," the voice said, the voice expressing that same semi-detached satisfaction that put me in mind of my prep team from my first days as a Tribute, when they saw no point in becoming attached when they were certain I would be dead in a couple of weeks. "I wasn't expecting to hear from you again."
"I tend to defy peoples' expectations," Clarke replied, shooting a brief apologetic glance at me for taking over this conversation, even as I nodded in understanding. "Where's Bellamy?"
"Your inside agent?" the doctor replied. "Oh, President Wallace is dealing with him- and before you get excited, that's Cage, not Dante."
"The son staged a coup?" Clarke replied, even as she shot an anxious glance in my direction that made it clear that chain of events didn't bode well for us.
"We needed a leader who would get things done."
"And 'getting things done' involves using us as livestock?" Clarke countered.
"If you'd just cooperate-"
"I have trouble when the people who want us to 'cooperate' decide to start out by basically forcing us to serve as a resource," Clarke cut the doctor off. "You can't seriously expect us to accept that."
"We have to be able to move on from our current confinement if this world is going to move on," the doctor replied. "It's regrettable that your people have to suffer for that, but-"
"And that is why we won't help you now," Clarke countered, her tone grim as she addressed the radio. "But before we start our advance on Mount Weather, you need to understand something very important; if you'd asked for our help, we might have been willing to find a way to do this that wouldn't have meant some people had to die and give you a chance to become part of the wider world outside your mountain… but after what you've done, before this week's out, Mount Weather's crimes against the people of the Coalition will be avenged."
With that, she terminated the connection and looked at me with a new sense of apprehension. "If they have Bellamy-"
"We're as ready as we'll ever be," I nodded in understanding; whether it was for personal or tactical reasons, we had to get Bellamy Blake out of that mountain before Mount Weather did anything permanent to him. "I've got a few attack plans already, and Bellamy was able to give us a couple of details in his last messages; I'll need to make a few adjustments if Thor and Johanna come back, but if we're quick, we can do this."
The Avengers might be completely unconventional as any kind of military unit, but as much as I prided ourselves on that, I was also satisfied at how quickly we'd fallen into a routine when we got the call to action. As soon as I had announced to the other core members that we were prepping for the assault on Mount Weather, aside from needing to contact Lexa and Abby at the crashed Ark, the only challenge I had was making sure Anya didn't give into her new urges and try and attack the Mountain by herself.
"Look," I said, staring solemnly at the currently-human She-Hulk, "I understand that you have the raw strength to tear that place open, but you need to realise that doing that will kill everyone inside-"
"And do they not deserve such a fate?" Anya asked, the skin over her fists and around her eyes occasionally shifting to green.
"Maybe some of them do deserve it, but what about the children who've just grown up in that society?" I countered, refusing to be intimidated by Anya's moments of 'Hulk-ness'. "And besides, there could be people in there who object to what their leaders are doing but just don't have the courage to actually stand up to them."
"Then they are weak-"
"They're afraid," I cut Anya off. "And before you say anything about how that makes them weak, ask yourself if you'd have the courage to tell Lexa she's wrong about something."
"The Commander would not do such a thing-"
"I'm not saying that she would, but the point is that your people would be afraid to defy her in a situation like that even if you knew it was wrong, right?" I said, staring firmly at our new She-Hulk. "I'm not denying that there are some people who go along with it because they believe that you're nothing but primitives, and maybe some people should have done more to protest about what they were doing, but there are people in that mountain who could be persuaded to find another way if they were given that chance, and until we're certain things have reached a point where it's them or us, I'm going to give them that chance."
"…Very well," Anya said at last, nodding solemnly at me. "If you believe there is another way to resolve this… I will take it."
"Thanks," I smiled at her.
"You have proven yourself to be a strong warrior, Katniss kom Panemkru," Anya nodded at me. "If you seek another solution to conflict beyond the death of our enemies, I will agree that it is worth seeking another way."
"Thanks," I said, before turning back to the rest of the team as they stood gathered around the compound's hovercraft hanger. Clarke and Finnick were both making sure their suits and equipment were prepared, Clarke's wings extended for Finnick's examination while she gave his trident a once-over, while Raven sat by a computer screen running checks on the latest modifications to the Iron Man armour.
"Everything good?" I smiled at the team.
"As ready as we'll ever be," Raven nodded at me as she turned from the computer. "New features seem to be working out for this thing, and Clarke and Finnick report that everything's in peak shape for their gear."
"And what of plans for the one you call 'Blonsky'?" Anya asked.
"Well, obviously you're our best candidate for tackling him if he's released," Finnick noted.
"But if you want another edge," Raven added, reaching behind her desk to pull out a long sword, "I recommend this."
Anya took the sword from Raven and gave it a couple of experimental swings, swiftly noting the larger-than-normal size of the sword's hilt.
"A weapon for my transformed state?" she asked, nodding in approval at the other woman.
"And not just that," Raven smiled. "We put it together using some notes left by the original Avengers about forging particularly unique metals based on Kat-Jay's shield; obviously we can't copy that sucker exactly, but I've found a few-"
Her explanation was cut short when sound of thunder could be heard, only this was one that I was familiar with. Looking around, I was relieved that I only had to worry about the immediate members of the Avengers at this point, making it easy for me to indicate that the rest of the team should step back as the light that had once introduced me to Thor as he struck the Maestro once again filled the ground before me, followed by Thor and Johanna walking nonchalantly out of it, Mjolnir and Jarnbjorn in their right and left hands respectively.
"My friends," Thor said, nodding at the six of us. "It is good to see you all again."
"Same to you," I nodded at the king of Asgard, before looking at Johanna. "How was it?"
"Kinda cool, really," Johanna shrugged, even if the excited gleam in her eyes made it clear she'd enjoyed the experience. "Plus, I got a chance to test myself with this thing and pick up a few new tricks."
"Still as action-ready as ever, eh?" Finnick grinned at Johanna.
"Talking of new tricks, where's O.?" Raven asked, looking urgently between the two returned Avengers.
"Oh, you mean this girl?" Johanna asked, as she and Thor stepped aside to reveal the figure standing behind them.
"Octavia?" Clarke just let her jaw drop seeing Bellamy's sister, no longer wearing the clothes they had seen her in when Thor took her and Johanna to Asgard, but instead wearing a blue-and-silver outfit that seemed vaguely familiar.
"Wait, your eyes…" Raven stared, looking at Octavia's eyes which were now a dark shade of red. "What in the world happened to you?"
As if responding, Octavia held her right hand out towards a nearby tree and a stream of ice shot out from it, never stopping until the tree itself was completely encased in ice. She turned back to everyone, a smirk on her lips. "A lot."
"Oh my God…" Clarke whispered, staring at the suddenly-frozen tree in awe. Glancing around at the rest of the team, I noticed that Peeta had raised the face-mask of the Iron Man suit as though he wanted to make sure he was looking at something real, while Anya, Raven and Finnick were looking at it with subtler forms of awe. Privately I was trying to control my immediate urge to gawk while also considering how I might incorporate that into my battle strategy, considering that I'd only believed Octavia had superhuman strength before now.
"Well," I said at last, looking over Octavia with a smile. "Good to know you can control that, but I don't suppose you can clear up how you can do it?"
"We worked that out," Octavia confirmed, before indicating Thor with an expression that combined a teasing smile with a firm glare. "Although we might have been able to tell you more if the big guy here wasn't so impulsive."
"I wished to make up for my past mistakes as swiftly as possible-"
"Which meant that you had to grab me and summon up the bifrost before telling us anything about why you were doing that?"
"Even if I knew for sure then, would you have believed me?" Thor returned, giving her a look.
"…Yeah, probably not," Octavia conceded, shaking her head with a smile.
"Believed what?" Clarke asked, looking uncertainly at the young woman's clothing. "Where did you get that?"
Octavia stood there silent, as if trying to decide what she would say. "I want to keep this to just us, considering we'll be working together if you'll have me on the team."
"We're already keeping a couple of secrets from everyone else," I said, making a note to talk with our new teammates about Snow's true past as soon as the Mountain had fallen and I was satisfied they were all worthy of becoming full Avengers. "Tell us this one and we'll keep it."
"Right," Octavia said, nodding in resolution. "Turns out that… well, my dad's Loki."
"Huh," Finnick raised his eyebrows in surprise. "That was unexpected."
"Loki?" Clarke looked at Octavia in surprise. "As in-?"
"As in my brother," Thor nodded.
"Wait a- you saying O.'s your niece?" Raven grinned at the God of Thunder. "Cool!"
"Hold on," Peeta said, nervousness showing in his voice. "I get that I'm still working on the full history of the Avengers, but… when you say your father is Loki…"
"I mean the guy who was such a serious threat to the planet he's the reason this team came together in the first damn place," Octavia nodded.
"Just a moment…" Clarke said, holding up a thoughtful hand to stop anyone else talking as she searched her memory. "If Loki is your father, then that makes you… what, half Asgardian?"
"Half Frost Giant," Octavia clarified. "Loki was glamoured by Odin as a baby to look Asgardian. Part of that magic passed on to me apparently when he and my mom conceived me. It basically made the human part of me be dominant and suppressed my frost giant self." She looked over to Thor. "At least until my uncle here brushed past me with Mjolnir."
"When I first saw her, I felt like in a way I was seeing my brother, but I brushed it aside as I couldn't believe it possible," Thor explained. "Yet when I saw her strike that woman as hard as she did, almost all doubt vanished, even as I still needed to be absolutely certain. I apologize for the suddenness of my actions, Mockingjay, but this was a very personal matter that I wished to be sure of before I spoke to you."
"Family can make us do crazy things," I nodded at the last active original Avenger in understanding. "You're talking to the woman who volunteered for almost certain death to save her sister, remember?"
"True," Thor smiled.
"OK, I'm sorry, but cool factor aside there's still a few things I need to process here," Raven interjected as she looked resolutely at Octavia. "I mean, awesome that you've got an uncle, O., but how the hell is it possible that you're the daughter of one of the worst aliens in human history? I mean, the only way that works is if-"
"My father was on the Ark? Yeah, he was; escaped from his prison and ended up on the Ark, and lived there in secret for the next three years," Octavia explained, looking back at Thor, who then with resignation nodded. "Until Thor came and took him out."
"Took him," Clarke repeated, looking right at the King of Asgard with a new coolness about her attitude. "As in, you knew we were there in space?"
Thor met her gaze and looked at her with what I could see was shame. "Yes."
Clarke looked back to Octavia. "How long?"
"I'm seventeen years old, plus the nine months for mom's pregnancy. Thor took dad back Asgard before he even knew she was pregnant," Octavia answered. "I'm pretty sure when he asked uncle to save the Ark, he was thinking more mom and Bellamy than others."
"Your father asked Thor to save the ark?" Clarke asked incredulously, as she stared back at one of the men who had been part of the team she'd grown up hearing stories about.
"I- I don't believe this!" Raven exploded, advancing on Thor. "Eighteen years! You knew we existed for eighteen years and you did nothing for us! What was this just to get back at your brother for making a fool of you?"
"Making a fool of Loki was never my intent; I was in a bad place for many years after-"
"I don't care if you had an off century or whatever; do you even know how many people could have been saved?" Clarke cut him off, her voice trembling with anger. "There are thousands of people who could have been spared from death. Not just from the Fall, not just from the Cullings, but from everything that happened from the moment you took Loki until the day the Ark fell to pieces and burned in the sky! All of our lives could have been so different! My father would be alive!"
"And I regret that-"
"You regret-!"
"Hey!" Peeta cut in, moving forward to stand between Thor and Clarke. "You know, I get that it doesn't excuse what he didn't do, but Thor was not in a good place after the bombs went off, you know!"
"What; he felt sad because-"
"Because he saw one of his closest friends go completely psycho and kill another member of the team while crippling the other two to the point that they needed to create new limbs for themselves after he'd already seen his last teammate and the woman he loved die because he couldn't do anything to save them!" Peeta cut Clarke off. "It's not like he just woke up one day and decided we weren't saving; he'd seen humanity and life drive a man he considered one of his greatest allies to the point where he'd turn on the rest of their team just because he felt like it!"
"Wait a… are you saying an Avenger killed the Avengers?" Clarke looked at Peeta in shock. "Who?"
"That's not important right now; what you need to understand is that seeing that happen left Thor in a state where he couldn't even lift Mjolnir until we proved we were worth defending again," Peeta insisted. "He didn't abandon you just because he couldn't be bothered; he left you alone because he couldn't make himself believe we were worth defending-!"
"And that makes it OK?" Raven yelled.
"NO!" Peeta countered, displaying a raw anger I'd never seen from the young man who I still thought of as 'the boy with the bread' as he glared back at Raven, the two staring at each other for a moment before he calmed down with a grim sigh. "It doesn't excuse it… but I hope you can understand why he did it."
"Peeta's right," I said, stepping forward after a quick glance confirmed that Finnick and Anya were just watching this particular confrontation without any sign they'd join in; Finnick understood how some people made bad choices and I privately wondered if Anya even had the cultural context to understand the scale of what Thor had done to the Ark by doing nothing. "What Thor did was wrong, but he isn't denying that it was a mistake; he's just asking you to accept that he's trying to make for his past now, rather than judge him by what he didn't do before.
"…We aren't going to keep quiet about this," Clarke said, looking at me with a cool stare. "I'm still… beyond honoured that you chose me to be an Avenger… but you cannot tell us not to tell our people this."
"We can't," Octavia said suddenly. "Not now at least."
"O, are you for real?" Raven asked, leaving me privately relieved that I didn't have to ask that question myself and potentially undermine my own position.
"I get that both of you are angry, and believe me, nobody has more of a reason to be pissed off with my uncle than me," Octavia argued. "There is a part of me that will always be angry and never forget it, even if I've come to terms with it, but you drop something like this in our people's laps while we have the Mountain Men to deal with, we are never going stop them. We'll be too focused on the wrong problem."
"Right," I nodded at Octavia before turning to Clarke and Raven, praying that Steve's lessons on diplomacy would be enough for this mess. "I'd never order you to keep something from your people, but I'm asking you to wait until we've had the chance to handle Mount Weather and the crisis before us. After that, we'll… deal with this issue." Clarke and Raven looked back to each other and to Octavia before nodding, and I had never felt better to have had a potential situation defused.
"So, enough about that issue for now," Octavia said, a new sense of eagerness in her voice. "Where's Bellamy? I get that he's probably been letting you all have it and what not, but..."
She trailed off, seeing the silence and the looks she was attracting from several people, prompting her to focus on Clarke and Raven. "Where is my brother?"
"He went into the Mountain as a spy for us," Clarke replied, her tone tentative as she considered Octavia's likely reaction. "And… they found him."
Almost as soon as the words had left Clarke's mouth, I suddenly felt a chill fill the air around us, the temperature rapidly dropping as Octavia clenched her fists.
"They found him," Octavia repeated, looking coldly at my new team medic. "As in, the people who are planning to cut us up for our bone marrow have captured my brother."
"Yes, but-" Clarke began, only for Octavia to turn around and start grimly walking out of the compound.
"Octavia no!" Thor grabbed her by the arm. "Going at them head on is suicide!"
"They have my brother!" Octavia snapped, spinning around to glare at him. "I've already seen what they did to Lincoln! There is not a chance in hell I'm going to allow them to do anything similar to Bellamy!"
"I won't allow that to happen; I give you my word niece," Thor promised her. "But if we attack them as you are thinking, what is to stop them from simply executing every prisoner they have, including your brother? It would take a good amount of time to simply break through that mountain, more than enough time to slit his throat."
"And," I cut in, looking pointedly at the newly-identified hybrid, "keep in mind that I've been working on plans to get into that mountain since shortly before you went off to Asgard; I've got a couple of plans ready for dealing with this particular problem, but they would all be easier if you three can help me prepare for the next stage of my plan."
"Plan?" Octavia repeated, the temperature becoming suddenly warmer as she turned to look at me. "You… you really have a plan?"
"Still working out the kinks, but it should be easier now that you're all here," I confirmed, my hopes bolstered at the eager expression on her face. "If you want to charge down there at put our own plans at risk, I can't offer any guarantees, but if you stick with us and here me out… we might be able to make this work."
I waited tensely for a few moments, until our newest apparent member finally nodded in acceptance.
"OK," she said, looking at me with the kind of uncertainty I'd encountered when starting my new 'career', when nobody was sure what we stood for as Avengers after so long acting as the Tributes. "So… what now?"
I was about to start explaining the plan I'd drawn up so far, but paused as I registered the expression on Anya's face as she studied Octavia, an eager look in her eyes as she fingered her new sword.
"Do you really want to try your luck?" Octavia said somewhat cockily.
"Do not assume your new found skills make you invincible," Anya returned, and I could hear the eagerness in her voice, both women giving the impression that they were saying more than the obvious. As though acting on some unspoken cue, both women walked over to one of the open training areas, Anya drawing her sword as Octavia drew a sword that seemed to be made of pure silver.
"Uh… should we-?" Peeta asked.
"I think this is something they both need to find out for themselves," Clarke answered before Peeta could finish the question, a tentative smile on her face as she watched the fight before us.
"Find out what?" Finnick asked.
"Who can kick whose ass," Johanna grinned as the other two women charged at each other. "It's the way they do things."
As Anya brought her sword down, the blow was easily deflected by Octavia, the former Triku tribe leader working to force the sword down while Octavia held it back with ease. Anya tried shifting her stance to continue her current efforts, but Octavia effortlessly parried the blade and then delivered a kick to Anya's chest, knocking the sword out of Anya's hands and sending her flying backwards.
"I'm far stronger than a regular human now," Octavia replied, the mischievous grin on her face still. "So how about you show me what it means when you go green?"
As if on demand, the grounder immediately transformed into her Hulk state, charging towards Octavia as the other woman shifted into a combat stance. Octavia lashed out with her sword as soon as her green foe came in close enough, but Anya neatly ducked under the blow with surprising speed for something her size and struck Octavia in the chest, sending our newest member staggering backwards while gasping for air. Using this distraction, Anya dived to the ground in a roll that allowed her to come up with her sword once again in her hand, taking a tight grip of the handle before she charged towards Octavia once again.
Regaining her breath in time to register the threat coming towards her, Octavia held out her right hand to form an intricate ice duplicate of her original weapon and block Anya's attack. For a moment, both women stood there, gazes locked with their opponent, before the two slowly backed away, Octavia sheathing her metal sword and dispersing the ice blade into nothing while Anya slowly returned to normal.
"I did not believe there was anybody that could challenge me as I have become without the aid of mauontek," Anya said, a wide smile on her face. "It felt good."
"We will definitely need to do this again," Octavia agreed, grinning at Anya with a new sense of respect.
"OK," I said, stepping forward to look between the two women with a forced grin, "now that's out of the way, can we focus on the fact that we have a mountain to destroy?"
I had spent the last few hours working out my next plan of attack, but now that I knew that the Avengers would be going into action at full strength, I would need to adjust the plan to take that into account. I already had a clear idea what Thor and Johanna were capable of after our past training sessions, but after seeing Octavia's new control of ice, I wanted to be sure how far that ability extended before I started making too many adjustments that might depend on her doing something she might not be capable of.