The MATRIX: The One

11 - Katniss gains a partner

Katniss POV

My mouth drops open.

Oh my God.

Finnick can't be serious. The Jump Program? After only two days of training and a single sparring session? Is he insane?

This is the first time I've damned the lack of audio speakers. The operator is the only one patched into the conversation going on inside the training simulations, but I'd give anything to hear Finnick's justification for this. For now, though, there's nothing I can do except watch along with Johanna, Beetee, Gale, and Rory as Peeta sizes up the jump.

There's no way he'll be able to make it on the first try. Finnick is setting him up to fail. I grit my teeth, hating what I know is about to happen. Peeta's going to fall and then he's going to start doubting himself and I need Peeta to not doubt himself!

God damn it, why had Finnick decided to push him so fucking soon?

I stare at Peeta – not of his image on the screen, but the real him, stretched out in a broadcast chair just out of arm's reach.

"Shit, he's going for it," Johanna hisses and suddenly I'm staring at the monitor, my heart sinking as Peeta adopts a starting position that vaguely resembles one used by sprinters.

Fuck. If he needs to psych himself up for it this much, he'll never make it. I can't watch. I can't look away. He takes a deep breath. Glares into the distance. Propels himself forward – one, two, three, leap!

Holy fuck, he might actually make it.

Flatten out, damn you! Minimize the programmed air resistance!

He doesn't. Shit. He's gonna land short.

But he's so close. So close. So close!

But not close enough.

He reaches out, stretching forward to make up the distance but he misses the ledge.

He's falling.

Oh God. Peeta.

But then I realize that his hands are scrabbling over the side of the building. He hasn't given up. His fingertips just catch a window sill two stories below the roof. Somehow he holds on. Somehow, he convinces himself that his hands are strong enough to bear his weight, that his arms haven't been ripped from their shoulder joints. His momentum sends him crashing into the side of the building. He puts his foot through a pane of glass, but he doesn't let go.

He starts to climb.

"Oh holy shit," Johanna appraises.

I second that.

I'm still gaping when he hauls himself up over the edge of the roof with a winning smile.

Finnick replies with a grin and a nod. He must ask Gale to end the simulation because the next thing I know I'm watching Peeta's blue eyes blink open and I'm clamoring over to his chair so that I'm the first person he sees.

"How'd I do?" he asks me.

I kiss him. On the mouth. In front of everyone. His hands burrow into my loosely braided hair. His lips open and suddenly our connection is wet and lush. He tastes even better in the real world than he had in the Matrix.

Oh, fuck. How is that even possible?

Someone clears their throat. I don't want to lean away. Once I do, I'll get embarrassed, but I can imagine Peeta's delighted smile and that'll probably make up for it. Shit. Okay. I can do this. I can face the crew.

Bracing myself on Peeta's shoulders – still so thin! – I begin to lean away. For a moment, he follows after me, his lips clinging to mine hungrily, but then he sags back into the seat. I was right about his smile. How can I be embarrassed about anything that makes him so fucking happy?

He caresses along my jaw, beneath my ears, down the sides of my neck. "Whoa," he breathes.

I laugh and his smile becomes radiant.

"I hope you two can keep it under control tomorrow when you're on the inside," Finnick remarks off-handedly. In fact, his tone is so casual, it takes me a second before the words really register and then—

"What?"

Peeta winces as Rory removes the jack from the back of his skull. I glare at Finnick, waiting for an explanation.

"You're both going in tomorrow."

No way. Why? Is he crazy? "What for?"

Finnick gives me one of his you-must-be-new-to-this-whole-thinking-thing looks. "To see Haymitch of course. He told you to hijack Peeta, so we're taking Peeta to see him."

I gape. I want to say it's too soon. I want to say it's no use. I already know what Peeta's role is going to be and I don't need a reminder. Goddamn it, why the hell had Haymitch opened his stupid mouth in the first place and—!

"Okay, Finnick, now I really want to hit you," Peeta confesses. He sits forward and rubs a hand over his face as if he could scrub the urge off of his skin. He mutters, "You said I wasn't going in if I couldn't make the jump!"

"Well…" Finnick drawls, "If you'd failed I still would have had you go in… just after another round of training. But I was serious about the second part of the deal."

"What deal?"

Peeta fills me in, his voice dropping as if announcing the agreement will nullify it, "Zion for a year of training minimum, or a captain's recommendation and the two-month fast track plus my choice of ship."

"The fast track?" Johanna squawks, stalking over to Finnick. "Don't tell me you're gonna let him get away with that! Besides, he didn't make the jump!"

"Technically, he did," Finnick returns levelly.

I let them hash it out. Nothing I can say will make an appreciable contribution to the debate, and I refuse to deal with Johanna when she goes into semantics like this. What I should be doing is trying to convince Peeta to stay aboard. There's no reason for him to go in. In fact, he hasn't even finished the full training course! He's only been at this for two days!

"I can't go in tomorrow," I assert, causing both Finnick and Johanna to pause. "I've got data to comb through with Beetee."

Johanna grins triumphantly. "See?"

Finnick grins. "Don't pretend you two won't be done with that by dinnertime." He saunters over and throws an arm around my shoulders. "The truth of the matter, Katniss, is I figure it's about time you had a partner. Besides, Beetee's been on my case about implementing the most recent system upgrades. We can't afford to let him get behind."

Right. God fucking forbid Beetee lose an hour of coding time because I need him to hold my damn hand whenever we hack in. "I don't need a partner," I grit out.

Even Johanna laughs at that.

Finnick sighs indulgently. "We've talked about this, Catnip. The answer hasn't changed since."

"Goddamn it!" I snarl. "There's no point in going to see Haymitch! I already know why I had to get Peeta out and it's got nothing to do with the resistance!"

Everyone freezes. Stares. The soft hum of the engines and the buzz of the lights swell to fill the vacuum left in the wake of my declaration.

I rewind the moment. Retrace my exact words.

Oh. Shit.

I pinch my eyes shut, grit my teeth, and inhale deeply. Okay. Right. I can't hide my agenda from them forever. Sooner or later, they're going to need to know. Sooner or later, I'll need their help.

Finnick chuckles warmly from very close by.

My eyes fly open.

"Oh, Catnip."

I stiffen as Finnick's hands squeeze my shoulders and then teasingly cup my face. He sighs. His expression is so patronizing I'm half a breath away from pummeling him. "What Haymitch said was for you alone." The words strike a chord; I've heard them before. He continues, "His message prompted you to hijack Peeta, which was exactly what Haymitch wanted you to do. Now that we have him—"

I slap his hands away. "We just hand him over to Haymitch for that old lush to play with? Fuck off, Finn. Peeta doesn't have to go see that bastard."

"What are you afraid of? Haymitch doesn't bite."

No. He just… prophesizes. Which, in my opinion, is worse. There are some things you can't slap a bandage over to repair.

"Don't do this to him, Finn," I breathe. This is as close to begging as I'll ever come. "Let him have a choice."

"Katniss." Peeta's fingers graze my arm. I'm surprised that he's a bit blurry around the edges when I look at him. I blink and he snaps into focus. "I've already made my choice. Nothing this guy can say is going to change that."

That's exactly what I'm afraid of.

NOTES: Again, this is me totally making up how training for hacking into the Matrix and piloting a hovercraft would go. Katniss - as "the one" - has been given 6 years of training, which I think would be pretty unusual. In my mind, everyone who is hijacked gets a year at the academy before specializing in something, which doesn't have to be aboard a hovercraft.