"Restraint and Decency"
Jeanetty cried as she watched the newest propo with Haymitch, Plutarch, Beetee, and Coin. "Wear a necklace of hope side-by-side with me."
"That line was originally 'necklace of rope,'" Jeanetty and Plutarch pointed out simultaneously before he continued, "I had it changed to 'necklace of hope.'"
"Wow," Haymitch said sarcastically. "You are a true wordsmith."
Plutarch nodded at him. "Little on the nose, but, of course, so is war."
"Every district's seeing this?" Coin looked to Beetee.
"Yes. But not the Capital. I designed the signal defense system for them. But I can't find my way through it." He laughed to himself. "Guess I did my job too well. At the time, I was just thinking of the science of it all. We'll get through it."
Later that day a man from security requested Haymitch and Jeanetty report to command. Ceasar was sitting with Peeta, once again conversing on recent events.
Peetalooked terrible, as though recent events were not the only thing keeping him up at night. "Tonight, we've received reports of derailed trains, of granaries on fire, and of a savage attack on the hydroelectric dam in District 5. I'm begging for restraint and decency." The imaged fuzzed to a piece of the new propos. "Katniss?"
"That's it. That's our footage," Coin pointed out.
"Beetee's in," Plutarch commented.
"He sees it. He sees our propo," Coin continued excitedly.
The two pieces of footage fought on screen before Peeta's face came back. "Katniss are you there? Katniss?"
Ceasar spoke from off camera. "Peeta, please continue. You were telling us about these savage attacks."
"Yeah," Peeta said nodding in agreement, though his voice was rough. "The attack on the dam was a callous and inhuman act of destruction..." The picture flickered to the propo of Katniss singing and back. "Think about it." Peeta seemed on the verge of tears. "How will this end? What will be left?" Jeanetty went to stand next to Katniss, putting her arms around the silently sobbing girl. "No one can survive this. No one's safe now. Not here in the Capitol. Not in any of the Districts." Peeta seemed to realize something. "They're coming, Katniss. They're gonna kill everyone." Someone tried pulling him out of his chair. "And in District 13 you'll be dead by morning."
The screen cut off and Haymitch spoke. "He's warning us. That was a warning."
Katniss turned to Coin. "We have to get him out of there before they kill him."
Coin was looking at air space security screens. "Is there anything in the air?"
"Nothing on Doppler, ma'am."
"He was in the mansion. He may have overheard something," Coin mused.
"Possibly," Plutarch agreed.
Coin thought for a moment before making her decision. "It's time for an air raid drill."
Haymitch pulled Jeanetty out of Command as the drill warnings went off around them. They proceeded to level 40 as instructed and curled around each other as the drill became real. The entire complex shook with the force of the bombs hitting the surface. Hours passed before the booming stopped. Hours more they were let back into the complex.
That's when Plutarch found them. "Coin wants Katniss to tell the Capitol and Snow that we're still alive."
"We're coming too," Haymitch decided, Plutarch simply nodded and showed them the way.
Boggs led the group up the stairs and through the rubble. The first things they saw were white roses. Thousands of white roses were scattered in a crater as they exited District 13 compound.
"Why drop these?" Gale watched as Katniss picked one up.
"For me," Katniss said turning to him numbly.
"Ready to go, Katniss?" The director of the film crew, Cressida, drew her attention. "We're gonna do this just like District 8. Tell me about the roses." Katniss looked lost in thoughts. "Tell Snow 13 is alive and well." Katniss whispered something with a look of realization. "Let's try again. Can you speak up? We don't have a mic on you. '13 is alive and well and so am I'." Katniss whispered again, looking worried. "Katniss?"
"You can do it, Katniss," Gale encouraged.
"I can't do this." Cressida repeated the line but Katniss heard none of it. "He's just gonna keep..." Haymitch and Jeanetty approached her waving off the cameras. "He's never gonna stop."
Haymitch folded his arms around her. "It's okay Katniss."
"No," she pushed him back slightly. "He warned me. He warned me about this. He's doing this because I'm the Mockingjay! He's punishing Peeta to punish me. No. No, I can't do this."
"Katniss," Cressida argued.
"Don't make me do this!"
"Let her go," Boggs said as Effie led Katniss back inside the compound.
"We should tell Coin," Haymitch said
"I want to talk to Finnick," Cressida pressed.
"Better me than you," Jeanetty said. "You go talk to Coin. I'll see Finnick about the propo."
An hour later word had come of sending a rescue team for Peeta and the others. Beetee explained on how to use a live feed propo to disrupt communications frequencies. Finnick agreed to talk to the camera about his life in the Capitol. He asked Jeanetty to join him up top. She agreed and they, as well as the camera crew, resurfaced.
"Okay, Finnick?"
"Yeah," he said giving a tight smile to Jeanetty.
Cressida gently directed him. "Go in the center there. Those rocks. Castor, go left. Pollux, you're with me. Jeanetty, do you want to speak too?"
Jeanetty just shrugged. "I don't know if I can."
Cressida nodded in understanding and turned back to Finnick. "So, we'll go straight to camera. Okay? Finnick?"
"Yeah." Finnick addressed the Capitol, describing what happened to Victors after the Games. How Snow had gained and kept his position through poison and fear. How the poison was killing him slowly.
"Hold up, Finnick," Cressida said interrupting him.
"What's going on?"
"We got cut off from the Capitol."
"Katniss!" Jeanetty and Finnick ran back inside the compound.
A/n: So im thinking of posting the rest of this over a few days so I have it done by Christmas. What do yall think?