A/N: Thanks for reading! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed but especially you guest reviewers, since I don't get the chance to thank you individually.
Every once in a while there's something in the broadcasts about survivors from district 12. Mostly, it's Katniss or Peeta or Gale. Katniss and Peeta were both in the square outside the President's Mansion when those bombs went off, and were badly injured; last we heard they were still recovering under the care of Capitol doctors. Gale is still in district 2, where he seems to have become the spokesperson for the military's efforts to shut down the remaining pockets of resistance from Capitol supporters. It's only when the broadcasts documenting war damage in the districts reaches 12 that I find out some of the survivors are returning to the district to rebuild. Not much was left standing other than the Victor's Village, but they have set up a crew of able-bodied survivors, as well as a small number of soldiers from district 13, to begin preparing the district for their return. The group, who from the limited footage shown appear to all be from the Seam, are cleaning out the rubble and burying what remains of the dead. I can't imagine going back to those ruins.
Headquarters gives the okay for our move back to Carlo's apartment, which now officially belongs to Johnny, and before I know it we are gathering our possessions into whatever boxes and bags we can find. Though the place is Johnny's, we don't know when he'll be back in district 4. The last message from the Capitol was that he is still in the Capitol hospital and won't be released for at least a month.
Before we actually move back in, we spend a couple evenings rearranging the old furniture and cleaning up the accumulated layers of dust. An hour in on the first visit, I send Bear back home. There are too many remnants of Carlo and Johnny's lives. It's not as bad for Mick and me, so we take over and get everything packed away. Little is thrown out, since we're not sure what Johnny might want to keep, but it all gets sorted into a few boxes that fit into the back of a closet. After a few days of work, Bear rejoins us to move furniture around inside the apartment. We rearrange things so that there's a bedroom for me and Bear, and another for Mick, and in no time we're moved back in.
It's bittersweet, reminding me of how much has changed since Spinner and I took off for Sector Two that morning, the last time I lived here. It's worse for Bear, who has so many more memories of them in these rooms. We talk about them often, the ghosts that seem to share our home. One of us will remember something of our friends and put it into words, the time Spinner snuck up on Rose, or when he burned that night's meal and everyone ate nothing but stale bread and water just to get under his skin. Bear tells stories from before I came, and pulls stories from our old lives out of me and Mick. Sometimes we laugh until our sides hurt, sometimes we're all in tears.
After about a week in the new / old apartment, Mick heads off on his own for an evening, probably tired of reminiscing every night. Alone in the apartment, Bear and I only half pay attention the broadcast, which seems to suggest Snow's trial may finally be nearing an end.
With a grin Bear asks me, "You think Mick's sick of us already?"
"Wouldn't you be?" I laugh, leaning close to him on the couch. "He's probably tired of me dropping hints about school."
"You still on him about that, huh? Just let him do his thing," Bear says.
"Ugh, I will. I know I can't make him do it if he doesn't want to. I just think it would be good for him."
"Getting out and making friends will be good for him," Bear counters. "Hopefully he has some fun tonight."
"Mick will be fine," I say. Sliding a hand along his jaw and turning his face to me, I tell him, "come here" and pull him to me, capturing his lips with mine. "Besides," I add, "you just want him out of the apartment." Not that I blame him. Bear and I deserve some fun tonight too.
Later we learn Mick did have fun; he spent his time at the old school building where the musicians meet to play.
To no one's surprise, ex-President Snow is found guilty and sentenced to execution. As a symbolic closure to our rebellion, the Mockingjay will be the one to end him with an arrow to the heart. I wonder how Katniss feels about it, being the one who will kill him. It's an aimless thought that comes back to me at odd moments after hearing the news. The day of the execution, President Coin will be giving a speech to all of Panem during the evening broadcast.
The day of Snow's execution, I visit with Naiya at her apartment. We've worked out a routine for provisions that has us each splitting time between the store and working with headquarters and other locations, but it means we only meet twice a week to coordinate our work. Between Mick coming, the move to the larger apartment, and how busy our work with provisions has been, we haven't had much time together. When I arrive at her apartment, Naiya has one of her delicious fish stews simmering on the stove.
"Oh Maddie, thanks for coming over. It's so nice to see you. You'll never believe the news. I stopped by headquarters this morning to talk with Sandra, you know her right? She's the one that helped straighten out those shipments from 11 last week. Anyway I was talking with her and she said more soldiers were scheduled to arrive later this week, so I asked around and it sounds like Rose is coming home! I'm just going to be so much happier when she's here where she belongs and I can take care of her. You know how I worry. I couldn't bear it if something happened to her."
"She's coming home?" I ask. "That's wonderful! Do you know when?"
"No, I don't know for sure yet," she replies. "I guess they didn't want to get my hopes up, but I guess I'll have to wait to find out when she'll be here. Don't worry, darling, I'll let you know when I hear anything. I couldn't wait to tell you the news! Wouldn't it be nice if everyone came home? Since they've been calling Snow's execution the end of the war, maybe Coin will be sending all the troops home. Do you think she'll say something about it in her speech?"
"Who knows? It would be nice," I agree.
Over bowls of fish stew, we speculate about what Coin might have to say, and Naiya fills me in on her plans for when Rose comes home as we wait for the evening broadcast. When the broadcast begins, it's obvious from the reporters' tense demeanor that something is terribly wrong.
Even so it is a complete shock as the reporters announce that President Coin has been assassinated. By Katniss. I don't know what to think. I can't believe it. Rather than hearing a speech about the end of the war and the new future of Panem, we are instead taken to footage of today's execution, at the President's Mansion itself.
In the broadcast, the square around the mansion has been rebuilt and cleaned up since that horrific bombing in the war. Soldiers in gray stand in front of the crowd, giving a sense of solemnity to the pristine buildings gleaming in the sunlight. A crowd of people fill the square in front of the mansion, while President Coin and her closest advisors and officials overlook the scene from a balcony. One of the reporters narrates as the scene unfolds on screen.
Anxiety grips me as Katniss appears at the door to the Mansion in her Mockingjay uniform, my aunt's gold pin gleaming against the black material over her heart, as if this is somehow all my fault. When the broadcast shows a close-up shot of her with bow in hand and a single arrow in the sheath on her back, I can see that her hands and arms are marked with burn scars. Her face remains resolutely blank, an expression I think of as her mask, the blank slate that has always hidden her more dangerous thoughts. I wonder what she was thinking at that moment.
Our detested ex-President is wearing a fancy suit and white rose pinned to his lapel when he is escorted from the Mansion by more gray-clad soldiers, and shackled to a post not thirty feet from Katniss. He looks like death warmed over. Katniss could make that shot with her eyes closed and one hand tied behind her back. I have to ask myself, why didn't she?
The crowd quiets in anticipation as she raises the bow. Maybe it's because I know what's coming, but I would swear I can tell she's thinking about something behind that unreadable expression. I just don't understand why it would be anything but finally putting an end to President Snow, who was the cause of everything she's been throuh. At the last second, the bow tilts up and Katniss' arrow flies into our new President Coin, who falls from the balcony to the ground below with a sickening crunch. My mouth drops open as we stare at the broadcast in mute shock at actually seeing it happen, hearing Snow's cackling which is quickly drowned out by the chaos in the square.
The rest happens in an instant. A broad-shouldered figure I recognize as Peeta rushes to Katniss' side along with several of the soldiers, who in the struggle drag her, kicking and screaming, from him and through the rioting crowd back into the mansion. I swear I hear her screams over the sounds of the crowd, crying desperately for Gale, before the doors of the mansion close her off from the cameras.
I don't know why Katniss would shoot Coin instead of Snow. I thought I knew how much she must hate Snow, how much she hated him before she left for the Quarter Quell. I can't imagine what reason she could have for shooting Coin instead, but I'm sure there is one. Katniss may be impulsive, but she's smart. She'd never have survived this long if those impulses hadn't led her right. Katniss does what it takes to survive. However, it doesn't make much sense to think that Coin was somehow a threat to Katniss. And assassinating the new President in front of the entire nation seems like insanity.
Silly though it seems in comparison, there is a part of me that is stuck on Peeta, a little piece of heartbreak that even after he rushed to her side, it was Gale she cried out for, as if she was pleading for him to rescue her.
The broadcast reporters confirm the deaths of both Alma Coin and Coriolanus Snow. Katniss has been taken into custody and will be put on trial for the murder of President Coinn. We're told that an emergency election will be held to select a new President for Panem.
Naiya and I share a look of disbelief when the broadcast cuts out. Finally Naiya speaks. "Well, that's just terrible. It just never ends, does it? Not that I really liked that Coin woman anyway, but even so, why would anyone want to kill her? Poor messed up girl. Why was she supposed to kill Snow anyway? And in front of all those people ... I hate to think about it. You don't think they'll keep Rose from coming home do you?"
I'm more worried about what they'll do to Katniss.