Silence fell over the rubble before the rebel soldiers that were with the Teslas began digging out of the debris."Where are they?" One asked frantically as he used his hands to claw through the cement and metal.
"Leave them!" Another soldier called as he approached the leveled building. "Any remaining soldiers will be collected and they will be buried in a military funeral as soon as possible."
"The Teslas! They were in there!" A tech soldier named Ender replied angrily. "Or does all they did for the rebellion mean nothing?"
"Stand down!" Ender gulped as his fellow rebel aimed his machine gun at his face with the safety off. "Leave the area and assemble the other surviving soldiers at the Presidential Mansion. President Coin's orders."
"We do not leave our own behind! District Thirteen training!" Ender shot back angrily. "And they are as much part of the rebellion as any military official!"
"Do not disobey the Commander in Chief of Panem. If you do, she has ordered the execution of traitors on the spot."
"That won't be necessary." A tired voice called as a part of the rubble shifted. "Hon, go first. You can show the others your improvised lever." He paused as Wiress' said something. "Well, you can pull me out much better out there." The other rebel soldier huffed and walked away knowing Ender was bent on saving the victors, and silently agreeing with his decision.
"Victor Tesla, ma'am." Ender said solemnly as he pulled a shaking Wiress from the rubble. Surprisingly she only sustained a few cuts and bruises. Handing him some long pieces of cement and metal, she motioned to the pile. Other tech soldiers joined Ender in digging through the debris to rescue Beetee and their fellow soldiers.
"Most of us are in this general area, so you can move the pieces around here." Beetee directed before Wiress reached her hand down the hole.
"Pull!" Wiress gasped. "BEETEE TESLA YOUR CHAIR!" She yelped noting her husband's wheelchair was obscured by debris even though most of his body was freed.
"Yes, clear around there – it's at a bit of an odd angle –" Beetee instructed as Ender and some of the other soldiers began digging.
"No – you – oh – fine – " Wiress huffed before digging around to unbuckle Beetee from his wheelchair.
"I really like how this one runs, dear." Beetee protested before his wife along with some other soldiers pulled him free.
"And I will make you another –" Wiress huffed. "Stubborn." She muttered under her breath as Beetee's rescuers suppressed chuckles. "I'll have them bring any computers – hard drives to you.
"Don't worry, Teslas, we'll talk to Coin." Ender replied before gently plucking Beetee from the wreckage. He lay the victor on a wooden board and joined Wiress in rescuing the soldiers. Miraculously, everyone survived. After the salvageable computers and hard drives were placed in a metal box, Ender, a fellow tech soldier, and Wiress carried Beetee toward the Presidential Mansion where Coin was waiting.
"Is that Beetee and Wiress Tesla?" Plutarch Heavensbee asked as he looked out the window near the Situation Room to one of the entrances of the Presidential Mansion. Haymitch joined him and promptly choked on his liquor.
"Damn!" Haymitch coughed as he wiped some of the spit and liquor off the window pane ignoring Plutarch's grimace. "I'll be damned, it's them." Plutarch nodded and pushed a button on the wall that would summon the President from the Oval Office.
"Madame President, the Teslas have survived the bombing of rebel headquarters." Plutarch annouced as President Coin walked into the room.
"Have the soldiers bring them to me." She said sternly.
"Yes, ma'am." Plutarch replied exchanging worried glances with Haymitch after the President left the room. "Got a text from Medical." Plutarch told Haymitch as his communicuff buzzed. "They're using the hospital under the Mansion to treat Katniss, Prim, Peeta, and Gale. Gale's got some burns on his arms, Katniss, Prim, and Peeta got the worst of it. They're all in the ICU. Docs say they'll all make it, though."
"Damn, Snow had a whole hospital in the basement?" Haymitch asked.
"He did. For himself and trusted staff." Plutarch replied. The two men jumped slightly at a specific knock pattern on the door. "Cressida, you and the boys need something?"
"Yeah." Cressida said as she entered the room with Pollux and a new cameraman recruited from the Panem News Network. "We're just doing brief interviews with members of the Cabinet."
"Well that ain't me." Haymitch muttered. "Where's the kitchen again?" He asked gesturing to his empty bottle. Pollux tapped Cressida and signed.
"Down the hall, second door past the Blue Room. They stock the catering kitchen with drinks."
Meanwhile, Coin eyed the two District Three victors with a mix of distain and resignation. "You defied my direct orders to remain in District Thirteen. You also defied my plan to send The Mockingjay to martyrdom." She paused. "Yet you did hack into the pods and contributed much to the rebel victory. Therefore, I will sprare both your lives. For now." Glancing at Ender and his fellow rebel soldiers, she gave them cold looks. "Take the Victors to the hospital. Make sure they don't leave their room until I command them." She paused. "You all will be demoted one rank for disobeying orders. You are dismissed."
Wiress lay in bed watching Beetee sleep the next day after being pulled from the rubble. She smiled knowing he spent countless nights awake during their time in District Thirteen and in the Capitol Battle. He needs this sleep. She wrapped her arms around him and dozed.
They woke the next day to the sound of Katniss talking to some aides as she walked down the hall. "Ow – ow – my legs still feel like they're on fire!" She groaned.
"Yes, Ms. Everdeen, the skin grafts are setting, but we are helping you move your muscles."
"Can I visit Prim?" The aide said something in reply. "Another surgery? I thought she was getting better!" She paused and looked into the Teslas' room.
"Well, good morning, Katniss." Beetee said opening his eyes and reaching for his glasses.
"It's afternoon, dear." Wiress said before examining the call light on her side of the bed.
"Hi." Katniss replied before wincing. "You guys don't have to get up?"
"I suppose we will soon." Beetee replied. "You're coming along." He smiled at her. "How are the boys?"
"Gale just has to go to the burn clinic every few days, but he's already doing post war stuff. Peeta's up and keeps wanting to go to the kitchen." Beetee chuckled.
"I'd be lying if I told you I didn't want to find a computer and the Presidential Mansion servers – alas – another day." Katniss nodded before she walked on.
The Teslas were still in the hospital two weeks later, though medically they could be discharged. They knew Coin was keeping them away from the post-revolution planning, but they still had their uses. Beetee spent his days upgrading the hospital's computer system and fixing equipment. When Wiress wasn't helping him, she was visiting the Everdeen girls. After overhearing the staff remark that Mrs. Everdeen hadn't visited even though they contacted her several times, Wiress took it upon herself to be a mother of sorts to the girls.
"Will you invent for the hospital?" Prim asked Wiress as they thumbed through a nursing text that a nurse brought from the small hospital library. Prim liked to study after dressing changes and wound cleanings to keep her mind off of the pain. Wiress held Prim's hand and talked her through those procedures and then stayed with Prim for a while afterward to provide additional comfort.
"Here? They have pretty much everything." Wiress explained.
"No – the one in District Four. It's a research hospital. Mom told me about it." Wiress smiled.
"I will if they ask." She replied. Prim adjusted herself and pressed the button on her IV pump. "Does the nurse know how many of those you've had?"
"Yeah, the machine tells her. She just pushes in her code and looks at dosage history." Wiress nodded. "Mom said they have those in the District Four hospital."
"She's there already?" Wiress asked. Prim nodded. "Does she call you?"
"She did once when she got down there – then she got busy." Prim looked off beyond her book as Wiress gingerly smoothed hair away from her face. Her bandages were off her face and she was able to move her fingers, however, she had to be careful. Wiress nodded. "Kat says Mom doesn't want to be around us. Because we're hurt."
"I think – I think she does care – she just knows she's needed elsewhere –" Wiress paused. "She loves you." Prim nodded and leaned into Wiress' gentle embrace. "I think Katniss has her physical therapy. I'm going to see her, ok?"
"Ok." Prim said. "I can have more than one visitor at a time now." She said grinning. "Can you and Beetee and Katniss come have dinner with me? And maybe Peeta since he's getting out of his room too?" Wiress chuckled.
"Let me see if Katniss wants to and I'll ask the nurses how many people can be in the room. We might only have a girls' dinner, ok?" Prim grinned as Wiress left the room.
After what seemed like an eternity, the Teslas were allowed out of the hospital. They stayed in a room next to the main computer hub in the mansion and only left for meetings with Coin and her cabinet. After a while, Katniss came to the meetings. When it became apparent that she merely observed rather than added input, she was no longer on the meeting list. Instead she found herself helping the hospital staff with Prim's physical therapy and quizzing Prim on her continuing medical training.
The other members of the revolution were kept busy as well. Gale spent most of his time with the new Secretary of Defense and Peeta came in and out of meetings to provide sandwiches, cheese buns, and pastries that he baked in the industrial kitchen. Haymitch stayed in his room only venturing to the kitchen to refill his supply of liquor. Johanna flew back to District Seven to help rebuild the lumber plants and rebuild her cabin far in the woods while Finnick and Annie flew back to District Four to clean out their house and prepare their nursery for their first son.
Finally, there was one day when President Coin called a meeting of all the victors.
"This better be good. I put off rebuilding my fireplace for this." Johanna muttered.
"We decided to have a meeting with all the remaining victors." Coin said. "We want to have a Hunger Games with the Capitol children as Tributes." Silence filled the room. The Odairs looked horrified. Katniss and Peeta exchanged worried glances. The Teslas, however, glared at Coin.
"You dare." Wiress hissed, her large eyes blazing with fury. "You dare take back everything we worked for –" She paused and looked around at the other Victors. "You do this and it will only be a matter of time -"
"Before the former Capitol power players regain power." Beetee finished.
"That is where you are wrong, Victor Tesla." Coin said. "The power of Panem has been permanently shifted. To me." The room was silent. "Cast your votes."
"We vote No." Beetee and Wiress said.
"No." The Odairs repeated. They went around in a circle and voted predictably. When Katniss voted for the Hunger Games, the Teslas kept a neutral expression. However, they knew they needed to speak with her alone and soon.
"Katniss?" Wiress asked later that night as Katniss stirred next to her bed in Prim's room.
"Huh?" Katniss muttered sleepily, wondering why her fellow Victor was paying her a visit.
"Here, honey." Wiress placed her tablet under Katniss' fingers. Katniss' eyes widened and she gasped as she felt the message on a clear cover over the tablet that could form raised words: Panem is still not free under Coin. "There there." Wiress whispered feeling Katniss' forehead before nodding. Katniss groaned before Wiress gave her a glass of water. "You're just warm under all those covers. Your hands are healing just fine. No infection." Wiress said. True to her word, the tablet flashed showing the words: Skin integrity – 95%, surface temp: 98.6. "Sleep now."
"Yes – Yes, I'm fine." Wiress nodded and pushed a few buttons on her keyboard. The tablet appeared to go back to the lock screen mode. We're still on your side. "Thank you." Katniss whispered. Wiress left the room and left a protopye of the skin and temperature sensor tablet cover at the nurses' station with a manual she and Beetee had written.
Returning to her and Beetee's room in the Presidential Mansion, she glanced over at Beetee who was in his chair working at his desk. "Dear?"
"I got it." Beetee said as Wiress looked at a napkin with the Presidential seal on it. "After lunch. I offered to get President Coin a clean napkin."
"What –" Wiress gasped looking at Beetee's engineering sketchpad then looking at the new arrow on his desk.
"This arrow will hone in on a target based on that target's DNA."
"Katniss knows –" Wiress whispered.
"I know." Beetee said. "And we are making sure this last move works out." He placed the napkin and his notes in the desk drawer before locking it with a fingerprint encryption. "Dear, I forgot my pen on my bed, can you grab that for me?" He asked before slouching over in his chair letting out very realistic snores. Wiress sighed and grabbed the audiovisual scrambler shaped like a pen off the bed. She clicked it and turned to her loudly snoring husband.
"Beetee!" She hissed shaking him. "Beetee Tesla!" He groaned and popped his back in a few places as Wiress rolled his chair away from his desk.
"Mm – back from seeing the girls?" He muttered.
"I told you to get into bed before I went to the hospital!" Wiress hissed. The two bickered as they changed out of their clothes and settled into bed. "Men –" Wiress whispered before burying her face into Beetee's nightshirt.
"I heard that dear." Beetee muttered. "We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow. Good night."
The next day, everyone was ready for the public assassination of President Snow. The Teslas helped Katniss get into her Mockingjay uniform. "Will you be there?" Katniss asked the couple who had, over the course of the revolution, become like her parents.
"No, we'll be with Plutarch and the newscrew –"
"Maintaining the technical side of the broadcast." Beetee said before fitting her with her quiver with a single arrow. Wiress handed her a coin.
"Shoot straight." Wiress whispered. Katniss nodded.
"We'll tell Prim how you did once I bring her a tablet with a new app that can quiz her on nursing material. Make her proud."
"Make her free." Wiress whispered. Soon they were with the news crew. Cressida and Pollux were helping the camera crew set up. Soon they were absorbed in programming the various computers and equipment. However, they fell silent with the crowd as Coin fell from the balcony, Katniss' arrow through her heart.