Disclaimer – Suzanne Collins invented and owns all of the characters from Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay. I own nothing. I'm just helping some of her characters go on with life now that SC is done with them.

Content: If you don't like obnoxious army banter on mature themes, you shouldn't read on.

The Armory

We were getting our gear into the back of the truck, headed back to the Nut, when my communicuff beeped "Phone Call Report." I glanced at it, then looked at the time. We had an enormous pile of stuff to get through security, no time to go back for a phone call. The phone number was District 12, not marked "Urgent." It'd have to wait. I wouldn't even have thought about going back, except the call was so unusual.

It was from Peeta.

I got in the truck. They didn't have working phones over at the Nut yet. I'd call him when we got back.

"So Chervil was the lucky one this time," called out Asher.

Chervil grinned. "I didn't even have to buy her any perfume."

Johanna. I had made a mess there, even though I had gone to Mercurius for advice. But he had none when it came to how to turn a woman down, except to try to convince me that I was nuts. It didn't help that I couldn't sort out why I shouldn't go out with her. It came down to trusting my gut, which told me that I shouldn't get involved with Johanna. But I had no idea how methodically vindictive she'd be after I told her I just wanted to be friends.

"Walker, that means you are next, unless she's going to give Groves a go," said Shine.

"She already did," said Groves. "If my wife calls, you can tell her I was good."

"Yeah, but would Johanna tell her you were good?" asked Chervil, causing laughter and wolf whistles all around.

"As your Medic, I would advise against ever letting Johanna talk to your wife," added Burdock.

Over the past 6 months Johanna had gone out with almost all of my Squad. Whenever we emerged from the Nut for a few days she would pick a new one. I didn't want trouble within the Squad, rivalry, jealousy, but they all just seemed to think it was fun. Although Mercurius was being uncharacteristically quiet.

"Hey Sarge, she had a message for you," said Chervil. "She said you should let her know the next time Rory was in town. Who's Rory?"

Hell's teeth. She was a witch. I clenched my jaw, unable to think of any kind of witty response to that, or any response at all.

"His brother," answered Marik for me. Another whistle, this one acknowledging a low blow. I didn't discuss my family much although they knew about Posy since her artwork decorated my bunk.

I was glad to arrive at the security checkpoint. I shook off thoughts of Johanna and greeted the two guards on duty. "'Morning Soldier Plouton, Soldier Charon. How are things at the Nut today?" We were going to have a tough enough time clearing security without antagonizing the guards. The next couple of weeks we would be clearing the Nut's old armory, so we had a lot of specialized gear with us, shields, explosives, things these guys might not find familiar. Mercurius had visited the Capitol recently and brought back some helpful items that were not standard issue; in fact, some of them might not even be legal. I'd already assigned Redstone and Asher to help me deal with the guards. Redstone was from District 2 and spoke their language. Asher was now Assistant Squad Leader and was just good at getting along with people. I'd also assigned Mercurius to unload the truck, and inspect all weapons for cleanliness. The main point was to keep him far away from the guards. He talked too much.

It took two hours to clear security, but we got through. The guards kept an inventory of everything we brought in. I don't think they knew enough about explosives to recognize that some of our stuff was unconventional. I wondered who would review the inventory they took and whether they'd notice. It didn't matter. We had some dangerous things to clear and we were going to use the best tools we could get.

Inside we went to our base camp and started setting up.

Over the last few months we had developed our own routine for dealing with the Nut. Our squad was divided into two "Boom Teams," as we called them. Team 1 was Mercurius, Redstone, Delmar and Walker. Team 2 was Shine, Groves, Chervil and Asher. Mercurius and Shine had gone to extra training and were now our explosives specialists, the "Boomers," one on each team. Redstone and Groves were in charge of mapping and inventory. We called them the "Pencils." The others were all "Spotters," who each checked half of each room for "IOIs" – Items of Interest, in other words, things we might need to clear or beware of while we were in the area.

Doc and I were not on teams. Technically, Doc did not have any duties other than monitoring the fitness for duty of the Squad members and treat any injuries or illnesses. His medic badge with its twisted snakes set him apart. But Doc didn't like sitting around. He wrote up first aid pamphlets for the squad, predicted likely injuries from various missions, gave us advice - whether we wanted it or not – about diet and exercise, and willingly did whatever I needed him to do.

Partly under Doc's advice we found a way to get some exercise wherever we were. On base that was easy. Besides the morning run I had taken to swimming in the base pool most afternoons. On the Surface there was enough space for a run. When the weather was decent we included the outdoor area within the security perimeter. Underground the workouts were more of a challenge. Some areas had decent space cleared. In others we were limited to calisthenics and sparring. Doc agreed with me that maintaining this part of our routine helped keep life normal in the weird world of the deep abandoned Nut.

Another rule I had added was that no one in our Squad spent a whole week sleeping underground. After the first two nights below, we rotated and groups of 2-4 would go sleep up at the base camp at the Surface. Actually, I preferred to camp outside whenever I could. Sleeping under the open sky seemed the perfect antidote to the claustrophobia of being deep underground. The rotation was something I needed for my own sanity. Doc added medical language to our procedures to make it sound official.

Once we had set up our extra supplies at base camp, we were ready to go. Clearing the armory was a big deal. Ever since we first got over to the Surface other squads had been asking when we were going to get to it. It had been more than a year now since the avalanches shut down the Nut, but the place still felt unstable. In middle of the night there would be rumblings from the abyss as somewhere down there, something shifted, something collapsed. It set everyone on edge. Knowing that there was a fully stocked armory below, with guns, ammunition, bombs, who knows what, made everyone hold their breath when we heard noise down there.

By now we had cleared all of L4, the fourth level down from the Surface. Other squads were clearing L1, L2 & L3. We had started in on L5 and worked our way over to the armory.

Asher went over the plans. "Last trip we cleared these offices here just outside the armory. Hopefully, the charcoal boxes we left have cleared up the smell. If not, we will have to use more of Mercurius's magic cloth." Many of the areas we had already cleared included bodies left from the collapse of the Nut. By now they were basically skeletonized. They didn't smell that bad to Marik, Shine and I, but the rest of the squad wasn't used to it. Mercurius had brought us some cloth from the Capitol which could filter the odors. It was amazing stuff. Asher was particularly grateful since the guy had a nose like a bloodhound.

We did what we could to find some I.D. on the bodies, then wrap them and put them into body bags. We called it "bagging and tagging." I required that this be done with a certain amount of respect so the wisecracks were silenced while we dealt with them. After we were done I called up and another squad came down and got them.

Asher continued: "We have an inventory list obtained from the administrative offices which were cleared on L2. It's a guide, but no guarantee. We don't know how carefully this inventory was maintained, or how many things were taken out of the armory or put into it in its last days. Team 1 will go in this afternoon, mainly Pencil work. Tomorrow Team 2 will start clearing."

Before long we headed down. There were guards in charge of the elevators. Whenever there was a team below, which was most of the time lately, the elevators were kept on, but guarded. They were unbelievably slow and we had to go down in two groups. I went with Team 1. Once we were on L3 we had a hike over to the older lifts from the original mines. There had been newer elevators put in but they were in the front segment of the Nut which had completely collapsed. If the Armory had been in that segment the whole mountain probably would have blown. But the Armory was in the back, deeper into the mountain, where it was more secure.

The hand-operated old lifts were a problem for me. They were just like the death traps we had used in 12. A squad of engineers had been sent down to inspect them and had proclaimed them safe, but I wondered how many of them would have let their own sister ride in one.

I was riding with Team 1 which had two issues. Both of them were Marik Delmar. We had his sheer mass in the lift with us, and we didn't have his muscle moving the lift. Chervil and Asher together had to move the lift for us, where Delmar could easily move the lift for Team 2 by himself. It was set up so that it could be moved from either top or bottom. Now that we going to L5 we had two floors to go down. The whole time I tried to keep my mind busy, to go over plans in my head. I worked to keep my breathing slow and steady. I did not need to have my whole Squad thinking about how old these lifts were, how many times they had been up and down, how worn the ropes holding them were, how many trips they had left in them. I watched the monitors on my communicuff. They told me we were going deeper, getting warmer.

I looked at Redstone. He knew more about the Nut than anyone else on the Squad. He'd lived here for years.

"Why does this damn place smell so much like a coal mine?" I asked.

"Because it used to be one," he answered, looking surprised that I didn't know that.

"In 2?"

"A long time ago. Twelve wasn't the only district with coal, but they decided to use 2 for other things. So they made this old mine into the Nut." No wonder I hated the place.

Then Mercurius asked "Do you have a schedule for what we are clearing next after the Armory?"

"Yeah, why?" I asked. I hadn't looked at the schedule much past the Armory.

"Just wondering what Brighton put as next priority," he said.

"No idea," I said. "Why? You hoping to find the ladies' quarters?"

"No," he said. When he didn't say anything else I turned to look at him. It was not like him to give a one word answer. He shrugged. "I was wondering about the Detention Cells."

"Anybody you know there?" I asked, not exactly joking. He was interested in them for some reason. Unless releasing the prisoners was high priority during the collapse there were definitely going to be bodies there.

"Not me," he said. "Brighton."

"Is this more intel from Nick's?" I asked.

"It's why Brighton isn't coming over here to the Nut himself. He's sending us over to find what he doesn't want to see," said Mercurius.

"Lay off," said Redstone, jumping to Brighton's defense. "Why should he come over?"

"If it was my son, I'd want to be the one to find him," said Mercurius.

Chervil wasn't with us to make some crack about how many unknown sons Mercurius had. I'd never heard Mercurius be this serious.

I'd gone to the first Commission meeting with Captain Brighton and gotten to know him better. Peacekeepers had not been allowed to marry, but the higher officers were. Brighton had a family, lots of kids, in a house not too far from the base in District 2. I didn't know he had lost a son.

"Was his son a Peacekeeper?" I asked.

"No," answered Redstone. "He was just a kid. Nine or ten years old. I was here when Brighton left. He was the District 2 Commander. Big wig. Then one day we heard rumors. He had disappeared, joined the rebels, taken his whole family. Except he had one son who had been kept late at school that day. The Peacekeepers grabbed him and threw him in Detention. He was still there when the Nut collapsed."

I closed my eyes. More blood on my hands.

"I told you, you need to do more research at Nick's," said Mercurius.

"How about if I put you in charge of the Research Department? Report back to me if you find something I should know."

"Okay. Consider that your first report," said Mercurius. "I don't suppose you want a report on your latest tabloid exploits?" he teased.

"No," I said. "I'm not interested in complete fiction." We finally reached the bottom and got out of the lift.

There were offices next to the lift. The last time we were down we had piled all the desks to one side so now it was easy to set up camp. Mercurius had gotten us a better generator in the Capitol, quieter, less vibration. We didn't want to be shaking things up too much down here. The thought of what would happen to the entire Nut if we made a mistake made me shudder.

The whole squad gathered around to examine the first obstacle: the door. It was huge, steel and locked. Above ground it could have been blown open. Down here we had to be more delicate.

"Get me the blow torch," said Mercurius, pulling on his safety glasses. "I'll open the door."

All of a sudden my stomach lurched. "Wait!" I said. "There's a booby trap!"

Mercurius stepped back from the door. "What makes you think so?" he asked.

"There have been no reports of any booby traps in the Nut," Redstone added.

"But this is the Armory. They knew they were under attack. It's got to be procedure to booby trap it," I said.

We looked at Redstone, but he shook his head. "I never worked near the Armory."

"We've got to get in there somehow. Any ideas?" I asked.

"I'm sure there are cameras in there," said Redstone. "Any way we can get them to work?"

"Not that I've heard of," I answered.

"We need to get our own camera in there," said Delmar.

"I can get us a camera. There's probably one in here somewhere," said Mercurius as he started looking around the corners of the room. There were some advantages to working in a thoroughly bugged place.

"If he can get a camera, I can get it in there," said Chervil.

"We just have to get it to work then," I said. "Let me check with Brighton." I used my communicuff to buzz Brighton. He must have been working at his desk because he responded right away. He told me how to find the serial number on the camera, what program to enter it into, and how to watch its view on the communicuff.

By this time, Mercurius had found a camera. He used his knife to peel it off, then brought it over. The battery was long dead, but Chervil wired up another. We found the serial number easily enough and soon were ready to send the camera in.

While we were working on that, Redstone had found some thin cardboard in one of the desks. He brushed it off, tore it to the right size and we stuck on the camera sheet. Then Delmar pointed out that we were going to need some light.

"Now I can show off some of my new toys," said Mercurius. "Just don't get these two confused. The red is explosive tape. You can wrap it around anything, slip a fuse in and instant bomb. The blue is detonator tape. It can be the fuse, or in this case, we can use it for a bit of light. Anybody color blind should stay away from the tape."

"That's me," said Asher. "Won't touch them, but they smell different."

"You're barking," said Mercurius.

"No, close your eyes. The detonator tape smells like gunpowder. The explosive tape is like a combination of something chemical and old dust."

I tried it. I could definitely pick up the gunpowder, but I couldn't get anything from the explosive tape.

"Any chance it will set something off in there?" I asked.

"Only if there were bare explosives lying on the floor just inside the door," answered Mercurius.

"If the room's booby trapped, anything is possible."

We found a couple of rulers, taped them together with normal tape, and poked them under the door to make sure there wasn't anything on the floor inside it. Nothing.

Then we covered the ruler with fireproof cloth and wrapped the end with detonator tape. We would only have two minutes of time to see. We got the camera in place, on the floor next to the door. Chervil held the cardboard with the camera, Mercurius got the ruler with the tape. Everyone else gathered around the Communicuff.

"Sorry to say this, gents, but as your doc I would recommend that all spectators take shelter, just in case something blows," said Burdock.

"Yeah, you don't want to be part of the party if Chervil and I get lit," responded Mercurius lightly. The idea of getting blown up never seemed to bother him as much as I thought it should.

"You two, put on helmets," Doc chided them.

We huddled behind the desks around my communicuff. Two minutes proved enough time to find the booby trap. It was at the top of the door. Mercurius lit another piece of tape to get a good look at it. They got the camera right on top of it and decided it was a simple trigger with a wire that ran from the door to a small charge on the wall. The charge was on a fuse which then ran through some of the items on the nearest shelf.

I held my breath when Mercurius cut the wire, but, as he had predicted, nothing happened. We checked around the door one more time, then I gave Mercurius the go ahead to cut out the door knob. Up above there was some sophisticated security, but down in the older parts of the Nut, it was just a big door with three solid locks. Mercurius made short work of them.

Team 1 suited up and went in. I went with them to act as an extra Spotter. We all wore helmets, gloves and thick protective suits, our "Boom" gear. As the Boomer Mercurius wore a suit that made him look twice as big as usual, with an enormous helmet.

"Don't touch anything," I said. "First, check every inch for more booby traps. Start with the floor." We went over everything carefully, but found no other nasty surprises.

This was a well-stocked armory; it was going to be a busy two weeks. After a while I noticed that my heart was still pounding. The Armory was crowded with 5 of us in protective gear, one being Delmar. His protective suit was custom made, bigger than anything they had in stock. I was too wound up to be in such a tight room with so many explosives.

I went out to take a breather in the office. Team 2 was supposed to set up camp while Team 1 was in the Armory. That hadn't taken long, so they were inventorying the contents of a storage room next to the office. I sat down on the floor to update the register. What had made me so sure that the room had been booby-trapped? Gut instinct? That I would have booby trapped the room if I had been guarding it?

"Sarge – got a minute?" Asher sat down next to me. "I don't mean to be paranoid, but someone has been in here since we were last down here. Any other squads working on L5?"

"Not supposed to be. How do you know?"

"It was just habit. When we lived in the factory in 8, whenever we left our camp I left a hair in the doorway. Just so I would know if someone came in while we were gone. I did the same thing here. Hair was moved."

"Could it be something else? A mouse, a rat?"

"Then there would be droppings. We haven't seen any."

"Anybody on the Squad double back last time, forget something?"

"No. I was the last one out. Unless someone came back down the lift, but we'd know about that."

"Anybody maybe get in before you did today?" He shook his head.

"Any stuff taken?"

"Not that I can tell."

"Weird. Thanks for the heads up."

That night we had an impromptu movie night. Groves had found some of the propos Redstone had told me about. Once the batteries were replaced in the player they found a blank spot of wall and played them. I tried not to watch them too much. I pulled out some of my Commission reading. I was up to Aquinas.

Chervil and Mercurius provided a running commentary. The gory parts were pretty bad. Did they actually kill someone to make those or were they just special effects? Knowing the old Capitol, either was possible.

I looked up from my reading to see the beginning of one. They had used the footage where we shot down the hovercraft in District 8. I couldn't look away. We were hunting side by side, just a year and a half ago. I felt like that was someone else, someone whose life I had heard about, maybe read about. I knew my life hadn't been simple then, but at least I had known what I wanted. Now I had no idea.

I always had trouble sleeping down here. That was one reason for the rotation. As we were settling into our sleeping bags Marik looked over at me and said "You saved some lives today, including mine. Thanks."

"No problem," I said, but I was thinking that somehow saving lives couldn't make up for the lives I had taken. It wasn't a matter of one day hitting the magic number and being back in the black. None of that would bring back Prim. Or Brighton's son. Or the others whose names I'd never know.

Different emotions rolled through my brain forming, separating, reforming: the hatred that had burned while I worked in the mines, the helpless hopeless feeling of knowing we were just slaves. The worst had been after Katniss went back to her second games, with no chance to even say good-bye. I had little hope of ever seeing her in person again. The 75th Games seemed rigged from the beginning to get rid of the Mockingjay. The fences were live. No more hunting and there just wasn't enough food. How long could I keep my family alive? The others would have to take tesserae. And what would happen to Katniss's mom and Prim after she died? How could I keep my promise and keep them from starving, too?

How could I not hate? Whenever there was a chance they changed the rules. The only way not to hate was to be numb, not to care. How could anyone human watch their little sister starve and not care?

But who to hate? Snow, sure, everyone hated him. But he was only one man. Cray, who was never seen alive after the day Thread showed up? Darius, who became an Avox because he tried to help me and died a sickening death? What about Redstone who was a faithful Peacekeeper until he saw through their lies? Brighton, who had been one of their commanders, then lost a son when he joined the rebels? How about those who wouldn't risk their families' lives?

Then I came back to the Nut, this hideous tomb of a mine that I had demolished. Not only that, no one here knew that I had wanted to kill them all, block the air shafts, shoot those coming off the trains. Katniss knew, and she had known then that it was going too far. She had had a line she wouldn't cross. Where did she get that? And she was right. We could have won the war, should have won the war, without crossing that line. But what if we couldn't have won that way? The Capitol had no lines it wouldn't cross, creating mutts, slaughtering their own people, sacrificing everyone. Should we have stayed slaves?

I felt sick as my mind swirled. Was the Commission I was on the answer? Could we make rules of war that would let us keep our humanity? Now the Commission was talking about having war crimes trials. What would Brighton say when he found out that I was one of the criminals they would try? Would Posy watch my trial on T.V.?

Posy. I couldn't go back to District 12. My mom had let slip that they wanted to honor me for saving people when the District was bombed. I had thought maybe my family could visit me again here. But Johanna's cold comment about Rory made me sure I didn't want them here.

I pulled out the pouch Posy had given me. I held on to it and hoped that somewhere, right now, Posy was holding her second best rock and praying for me. Help me, Posy.

It was a long two weeks. Working in the mines had taught me that trapped gases and accumulated coal dust could make this place a tinder box. Then there was the armory full of who knows what - ammo, bombs, but what if there were odder things in there. I thought of the weapons Beetee and I had sketched, talked about, invented: daze bombs full of drugged smoke to disorient everyone; body armor blasters which would explode on contact with body armor; various 2-stage bomb arrays, including the one that killed Prim. What if the Capitol had things like that? What if time had made them unstable?

But the things we cleared from the armory were in reasonably good condition so after a few days I got over expecting something to blow any minute. We took turns taking up cleared ordnance every other day. Every trip up was a chance to sleep up top, but each time it was harder to go back down.

The last few days we worked 16 hour days, taking 4 hour shifts for each team. We had a lot of stuff to get out of the armory, and no one wanted this job to stretch out past the two weeks. We got it done, but the whole Squad was exhausted. The day we finally came up, it was dinner time when we got back to the base. In fact, we had to hurry over to the mess hall, no time to clean up, to get there before it closed. I had a backlog of Phone Call Reports. Peeta had called again. I'd do my phone calls after dinner.

It was great to have a hot meal again. No one was talking much. We all just wanted to eat, clean up and go to bed, in a real bed.

The mess hall was almost empty so it took me a while to notice when it fell silent. Someone at another table glanced at me and looked away. I turned to Marik, but his eyes were on the T.V.

There was Katniss. Looking terrible.

The sound was low, but the subtitles read: ". . . a small, private service here in the District. It's what he wanted."

"Is there a possibility of a memorial service in the Capitol, something for his many fans here?"

"I don't know."

"Again, tragic news here in District 12. Peeta Mellark died of heart failure yesterday at the age of 19. Back to you, Lucian."

Thanks again to IrishLuck19 who took time out from Spring Breaking to beta not one, but two chapters!

Thanks so much to my awesome reviewers. If you are reading this, just think – your name could be on this list. Come on. I would love to know what you think.

Deschanel10

Hope Never Dies

Heart the Squid

Koralblahblah

Solaryllis

KidsInLovex

Cattastrophies

KinaKalamari