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 further we ran up the stairs inside the mountain, the harder it was for me to ignore my fears about what would happen as this situation continued. Anya and Octavia had assured me before this mission began that they weren't going to do any damage to the mountain that would compromise the innocent people in here, but when we were dealing with a large number of enemy forces I knew how easily mistakes could happen, and that was before the Abomination had entered the picture…
God, why did anyone think it was a good idea to let that thing out of its box? I found myself wondering. Snow might have been evil, but I had to give him a degree of credit for not simply using his 'Maestro' persona to tear through his enemies; the idea that anyone would have thought it was useful to let out a rampaging monster like the Abomination was just warped at best.
At least it makes it easier for us to know who we should be siding with right now…
"Hold on," Clarke said, holding up a hand as she studied a nearby door.
"What?" Thor asked.
"That door…" Clarke trailed off, taking in the corridor ahead of us for a moment before she nodded. "Of course; this way!"
"What is it?" I asked Clarke even as I followed her lead.
"When I was here the first time around, I was shown a map of the complex, remember?" Clarke explained. "Obviously they were keeping a few details from me, but coupled with what I remember of Bellamy's reports before he was captured, and I'm fairly sure the equipment they use to generate the acid fog is this way."
As we ran through the corridors, I heard a few faint thuds from above, but I pushed that thought aside, based on the frequency of the sounds, I assumed that they were the result of Anya fighting with the Abomination, so I had to hope that our new teammate was holding her own. After a few more turns and a couple of flights of stairs down, we were outside a locked metal door.
"Here," Clarke patted the door. "This is the way into their external environment controls; if we can get inside, we can shut down the acid fog machine."
"Are you sure we need to do this?" I asked. "I mean, Raven seemed to be making good progress hacking the system last time we spoke-"
"Which doesn't rule out the possibility of someone triggering the fog manually," Clarke cut me off. "We might be inside the mountain already, but it doesn't hurt to make sure that these people can't deploy their main weapon against us all over again. After all, they just need to keep wearing their protective suits and they're fine; I'm not sure any of us have… well, 'immunity to poison' as an ability."
"Anya and Thor are a possible, and Finnick's suit has its own air supply if we're just dealing with a toxin, but I get your point," I nodded at her, studying the equipment for a moment before I made my decision. "Thor, just to cover all our options, you said you can channel lightning without Mjolnir, right?"
"With more effort and less easily focused than when I wield the hammer, but yes," Thor nodded. "Should I-?"
"It's something to consider, but if we set off an explosion of toxic gas inside this place, we might start a bigger explosion than we're ready to cope with," I cut him off, once again grateful for Steve's tactical instruction since we'd become an official team. "Our best chance is to find some way to neutralise the equipment directly without risking releasing the gas, which means it's time to bring in our science division."
"Science division?" Clarke repeated, before her eyes widened in understanding. "Raven?"
"Peeta's working on his experiences in that area himself, but it doesn't hurt to bring in an expert," I observed. "From what you've told us about Raven, she could be an asset to put everything together here."
"What about… Beetee?" Thor asked. "I have heard that he is good with technology-"
"And he's also older and took a few knocks over the years; it's safer to keep him in a more removed supervisory position where he can do work in our base than take him into the field where he could get hurt," I explained. "If we can get Raven in, she might be able to take a look at this stuff and work out some way to trap the gas for the fog in the machinery before we dispose of it."
I briefly wondered if it had been worth creating my original plan, considering how often we were having to improvise now that we were here, but pushed that thought aside; the original plan had still managed to get us through the door, so the fact that we had a few other hurdles to deal with was just an example of my ability to improvise.
"That… sounds good," Clarke nodded tentatively. "If we can disarm the mountain, we might have a stronger bargaining position to talk some sense into these people…"
"Exactly," I nodded at Clarke. "We make sure that the people here don't have the means necessary to keep trying to kill us, and then we can focus on getting everything important out before we have to start working out who the Coalition needs to judge."
"Wait a- who they 'need' to judge?" Clarke repeated, looking sharply at me. "You're judging people as something with value-?"
"Look, even if some of the people here are… well, stuck in a bad situation, that doesn't change the fact that there are people here who have no problem treating human beings like cattle," I explained. "Like I've already told you, we're not going to kill everyone here, but we have to face facts that some people here… well, at least some of the Coalition aren't going to be particularly happy if we just give the entire mountain a 'Get Out of Jail Free' card."
"…Point," Clarke nodded tentatively, looking at me with a sad little smile. "I guess we can't just… save everyone, can we?"
"At least we can try to save anyone these days," I replied, even as I acknowledged her tentative smile with my own. "Believe me, if you'd landed here during the Games, Snow's only priority would have been to force some of you to act as Tributes if he didn't just kill you all so that he could claim your technology for himself, and I'm not sure how he'd have reacted to the Coalition…"
"Wouldn't he have known about them already?" Clarke asked.
"Doubtful," Thor observed grimly. "Obviously we cannot know how Snow operated, but the area where the Coalition has formed was struck by several bombs during the wars the Maestro initiated; it is frankly remarkable that any survived long enough to breed, and from what I have seen, Snow had little interest in exploring this area before his defeat."
"Which at least explains why he never came to this mountain to deal with the Abomination," I observed, indicating the upper level where we'd heard the fighting earlier. "I can't see him tolerating the continued existence of someone who could actually hold their own against him in a fight."
"True," Thor said, before he studied the corridor around us with a cold stare of contempt. "There has been far too much death here; the innocents must be saved, but after that…"
"Once we get the innocents to safety," Clarke affirmed.
"Can we do that?" I looked curiously at the new Falcon; I might like to hope for the best, but after I'd spent so much time willing to die for Peeta in the Quarter Quell, Steve had made a point of teaching me to consider all the angles to get my desired outcome rather than just fixate on one goal without thinking it through. "I mean, you said that these people couldn't leave the mountain because even the normal background radiation would be dangerous to them; I get that you have some medical experience, but that seems-"
"It would not be a problem if we were able to bypass the exterior," Thor observed.
"What?" Clarke and I looked at Thor in surprise.
"The Bifrost," Thor explained. "I spent some time conferring with Heimdell while Octavia was being examined back in Asgard, and it may be possible for him to create a Bifrost that would transfer anyone from an interior area, such as this mountain, directly to a contained area in Asgard, so long as we have no external threats to deal with at that time."
"Which would allow your people to… treat them?" Clarke asked tentatively. "I mean, you could… make them immune to the radiation?"
"It will take time, but it should be possible," Thor nodded.
"That's…" Clarke began tentatively, before she sighed solemnly. "We'll need to make a choice."
"Choice?" I asked, looking probingly at our team medic.
"We can't…" Clarke began awkwardly. "It's just… you've seen how the Coalition treat the guilty; we can't just… let the entire population of Mount Weather out and act as though they've all been forgiven for their sins."
"They'd kill the children?" I asked, suddenly concerned about the morality of the people we'd made an alliance with.
"I don't think they'd go that far, and I want to believe we can make a case to spare some of the adults as well, but if we just give them all a blanket pardon…"
"I get it," I nodded, trying not to think about the challenges we'd all faced coming up with a satisfactory 'peace treaty' with Snow's government after his death that would have allowed everyone wronged by the Capitol to feel satisfied with our terms.
"We should move on," Thor said. "We can discuss this in depth later, but we do not wish to be cornered before we have the chance to make our offer."
"Agreed," I nodded, walking along the corridor even as I reached up to my ear to tap my comlink. "Iron Man, this is Mockingjay; status?"
"It's all stable out here," Peeta replied. "What's happening in there?"
"We've got these guys on the run, and we have a few ideas for how to keep these people on the run, but we're going to need assistance with a few technical matters," I explained. "I've been conferring with Clarke, and she has a few ideas about how we can ensure we don't have any other surprises, but she suggested that it might be a good idea if you bring Raven in here via the dam tunnels."
"Dam tunnels?"
"Clarke and Anya used them to get out of the mountain during their original escape, remember?" I answered. "It's difficult for anyone else to get to that door from the outside, but that dam door is some distance up from the ground and at best, everyone in the mountain would probably still be adjusting to the idea that we have anyone who can fly; you should be able to use that door to get Raven inside and take her where we need her."
"Which is?"
"Talk to Clarke and she'll give you directions," I explained. "Right now, I need to talk to the Commander."
"The Commander?"
"We have to straighten out a few details regarding the treatment of future prisoners."
I waited for a few moments, the sounds of an earpiece being moved around on the other end, before I heard a new voice. "Yes?"
"Commander?" I asked. "This is Mockingjay, of the Avengers; we have plans for the residents of Mount Weather, but I need to talk to you before we do any more."
"In what way?"
"In the sense that we need to know that you won't just have them all killed if we bring anyone else out of this mountain."
"They have killed us-"
"And if you start arguing that you get to kill them because they've been killing you, you just open yourself up to a cycle of killing each other until everyone's dead," I cut her off, hoping that she'd see that as a sign of strength rather than disrespect as I stopped walking to better focus on my words. "We're not going to deny that some of them deserve to die, but are you really going to kill children who never did anything more than be born inside this mountain?"
As Clarke and Thor moved in to stand on either side of me, Lexa's silence after that question was enough of an answer for me, and it made me impossibly relieved.
"We're not going to deny that there are soldiers and scientists in this mountain who deserve to be punished, but there are also families who tried to reject anything that would force others to suffer for their own sake, and children who haven't ever had the ability to make any kind of choice about what their parents are doing here," I continued, recalling all of Steve's lessons about maintaining control. "We'll do what we can to identify some of the guards and doctors for you to actually charge for the crimes this mountain has committed against your people, but if you're going to work with the Avengers, you need to recognise that there are lines that we won't cross."
"And this is conditional for our future association?" Lexa asked. "When Anya has already agreed to join you?"
"If she can't agree with this view, she's welcome to leave the team," I affirmed. "This is a request, not an ultimatum; if your people can't agree to this rule, then you'll still get the truly guilty to judge as you see fit, but the Avengers and I will take the rest of the mountain's residents into protective custody and leave the Coalition in peace unless you give us a reason not to."
"I… understand," Lexa said, a tone in her voice as though she was unused to conceding anything. "I will… keep that in mind."
"Not enough," I said firmly. "You need to acknowledge that this is how things stand; I'm not going to take this any further if you're going to go back on your word."
"You are a stubborn woman, Mockingjay," Lexa observed, and I was sure she would have a wry smile on her face if I saw her now. "I concede to your request; so long as a… suitable number of guards and scientists are provided for my people to punish for the sins of the Maunon, I will convince the ambassadors to be… content with your suggested legislation."
"Thank you," I replied, before I terminated the call and looked over at Clarke, who had just apparently just finished her talk with Peeta. "All good?"
"He's been given instructions on where the fog generator is, and Raven sounds keen on the idea of seeing the armour in action up-close; I think they'll be fine," Clarke smiled at me. "So what now?"
"We track down the others and then try and find the rest of your people in here," I decided. "Your associates should be able to help us find those we actually want to save from this place; if we can get them all in one room, I assume you can get them to Asgard?"
"Heimdell is watching and awaits only my signal," Thor nodded at me.
"Let's move," I indicated the corridor ahead. "We should try and find Anya and the others first; if we're going to get these people to safety, we need to be sure nobody's going to do anything stupid like-"
"Keep trying to fight us?" a voice I recognised as Cage Wallace said, before the president in question walked around the corner to glare at me.
I strongly doubted that this man could do anything to me if it came down to a fight, but I had to confess that a part of me was interested in hearing what the self-proclaimed President had to say for himself right now…