ME: Time for an underutilized scene that happened in canon to be described. A/N: Interlude.

BANG!

That was all the survivors and rebels alike heard before Katniss collapsed on the ground due to a 5.7x28mm round.

"WHO THE FUCK SHOT HER?!" Head Peacekeeper (Major General) Remus Thread screamed. "WHO SHOT THE MOCKINGJAY?!"

"I DID!" A young SSS member armed with a PDW shouted even louder. "DEATH TO THE MOCKINGJAY, HAIL SNOW!"

Just as he finished that sentence, Laura Fisher trained her pistol on his forehead before pulling the trigger twice.

As the two shots rang out, her brother yelled, "Laura, watch out!" He shoved her to the ground just as an assault rifle roared.

The 5.56x45mm burst slammed into Lawrence's chest, and even with his ballistic vest he would not survive his bullet wounds. As the young Victor bled out on the ground, his last thoughts were of his wife and unborn child plus his sister.

The assailant, Second Lieutenant Antonia Lopez of the State Security Service, aimed her rifle at Laura and pulled the trigger.

Click.

The SSS officer groaned; either she was out of ammo or her weapon had jammed. Lopez grabbed the cocking handle, preparing to reload if it wasn't a jam.

Suddenly a bulky quarrier's son, Cadet Nero Augustus, tackled Lopez before breaking her right wrist.

As the SSS Lieutenant screamed in pain, Nero ripped off her helmet with his left hand before punching her face with his right. "YOU! EVIL! BITCH!"

"Please, stop!" Lopez pleaded. "Have mercy-."

"Mercy?" He growled. "Like what the Mockingjay tried to extend!" Nero then growled, "YOU FREAKS DON'T DESERVE MERCY!" The Cadet proceeded to initiate a crude tracheotomy, turning her screams to gurgles.

A trio of Peacekeepers-the two men and one woman being the sole survivors of the twenty-two SSS sent to detain POWs taken by the First Battalion, First Regiment of the Second Peacekeeping Garrison by this point-charged at Nero to avenge their fallen Lieutenant.

However, before they could harm the Warrior Academy Cadet three arrows embedded themselves in a heart, head or neck. The crossbows that fired said arrows were wielded by Loyalist Militia Volunteers Diana and Apollo Kyle as well as Warrior Cadet Claudia Victoria.

Meanwhile the entire District Square was in chaos as survivors still loyal to the National Government in the Capitol attacked the less devout and vice versa. The rebel machine gunners simply watched while their superiors attempted to aid the two propo symbols (one of whom was now shielding the other with his body).

"Command," Boggs said into his radio, "this is Boggs at the square. Requesting immediate MEDEVAC for two critical WIAs ASAP, but be advised: One of the WIAs sustained a bullet wound to the chest, the other's a burn victim. I say again, one took a Golf-Sierra-Whiskey to the chest and the other has severe burns on his back. Do you copy, over?"

"Copy, Comrade Defense Minister," responded the operator. "We'll dispatch a hovercraft from Fort Mars immediately, please standby."

Fort Mars. Defense Minister Georgy Boggs remembered the long list of KIAs from taking that facility and the Peacekeeper Officer Candidate School to the north; meanwhile, it had taken three separate attacks on the western quadrant of the Central City to push the defending Loyalists back and capture the Air Force base.

The only good news was that survivors had emerged from Fort Cheyenne and that, apart from Fort Fidelis (formerly Fort Carson, a facility from the North America Era like Cheynne) and the Victors' Village to the south, there were no remaining Loyalist strongholds in all of Two apart from Sub-District One. That particularly loyal factory town's chemical, thermobaric and incendiary munitions had prevented them from completely encircling Two's Central City as originally planned. Soon the campaign would be over.

Lyme, after Boggs told her he would call for help for Katniss, spoke into her radio as well but for a different reason. "This is Commander Lyme to all available units, I need riot control gear sent to the square immediately. I repeat, get any available riot control gear to the square. How copy?"

After one of her soldiers replied in the affirmative, Boggs looked over at her. "Riot gear?"

"For the rioters," the Victor said. "We need to get them under control, and if we use machine guns we'll hit the non-zealots and civilians."

"Good thinking," he said. "And I'm sorry Coin ordered this; I couldn't stop her."

Lyme's eyes were full of anger as she quietly said, "I hope Hawthorne burns in hell forever for the idea he gave that bitch."

A few minutes later, a mixed squad of local rebels and Thirteen-born troops plus a Lieutenant joined them, all ten of the soldiers wearing gas masks.

The Lieutenant greeted the two senior rebel leaders but didn't salute to avoid identifying them to snipers. "Comrade Minister and Comrade Commander, I have the rest of my platoon in position downstairs. I've sent the medics to treat the Mockingjay and...her...protector. This squad's assembling a sonic cannon, so I suggest both of you protect your ears."

As they did so, the sonic cannon was assembled in addition to an automatic grenade launcher with knockout gas rounds. Boggs distinctly remembered that same gas being used to rescue the three captive Victors.

"Three...two...one...mark!"

Knockout gas grenades were fired into the crowd, while the sonic cannon (an improvement over the Long Range Acoustic Devices of the North American Era) began to emit loud screeches.

The effects were immediate. Anyone who inhaled the gas was knocked unconscious and collapsed to the ground; they were the lucky ones, for soon virtually every unprotected survivor (and even a few hapless rebels) were soon screaming in pain. Though the latest Peacekeeper helmet model provided at least some hearing protection, it evidently wasn't as great compared to the integrated gas mask. Some vomited because of the directed-energy weapon; even Lyme and Boggs felt nauseous in spite of their hearing protection.

As promised, a MEDEVAC hovercraft landed for Katniss and her protector, who turned out to be Captain (Snow saw fit to actually commission him as an officer) Stephanos Irons, AKA "Centurion Panem." Regardless of their loyalties, both national symbols were loaded onto stretchers and taken via the hovercraft to Fort Mars for treatment.

Boggs heard a report via radio that more hovercraft were inbound with medics to treat the survivors; he sighed in relief that Command considered it safe enough to send more than one for the anonymous and needy survivors.

Lyme spoke into her radio before facing him. "More good news; the Peacekeepers who launched a counterattack to try to retake this place are either falling back to Pueblo-yeah, we still use the original name-or surrendering. We've done it, Boggs; it's over."

"Not yet," he replied. "Coin will want to take the Capitol, in spite of the fact that apart from nukes that Snow won't launch that city of foppish hedonists poses no threat to us."

"Why?" Lyme asked. She didn't have a high moral opinion of Coin, not after she had ordered the destruction of Fort Cheyenne, but there were pragmatic reasons for laying a siege instead of invading.

The Minister of Defense began to outline reasons. "First, a lot of the rebels are bloodthirsty after seventy-five Hunger Games. She'll want to satisfy it. Second, those five bunker-buster ballistics they hit us with actually succeeded in causing damage to the structure of Thirteen; she'll need to move the civilian populace out soon, because maintaining that oversized bunker as a civilian population center is impractical even without the repairs we'll have to make to keep the hellhole from collapsing." He paused before whispered, "Third? It'll exhaust both the remaining Loyalists and the continental rebel forces. So watch your back, Commander."

ME: A/N: The sonic cannon (and it being used) is inspired by Chapter 31 of Vox Libertas by ForFutureReference. As you can tell, I imagine the Nut being Cheyenne Mountain (which is indicated via the name of "Fort Cheyenne") and Two's Central City being Colorado Springs. The second reason for Coin invading the Capitol (Thirteen suffering extensive damage from the bombing in Mockingjay) is also credited to ForFutureReference. I also have the Victors Village in Two as what used to be Fountain, Colorado. Not as pretty as ForFutureReference's interpretation, but within reasonable distance of the Central City (the town's ten miles south of Colorado Springs in real life) and probably better looking than Twelve's place since Fountain Creek flows south through the town.