Chapter Text
July 13, HGY 76
As District 13's medics carted Gale Hawthorne away on a stretcher, followed by the rest of the Hawthornes, Haymitch stood over Katniss and her family, Madge Undersee, and Delly Cartwright on the hovercraft landing platform and wondered what to do next. Eventually, a gray-uniformed man stepped over to them. “Folks, we’ve still got wounded coming in. If all your family are accounted for, we need to get you to quarters and out of the hangar.”
Haymitch nodded and pulled the dazed Katniss to her feet. She kept staring after the Hawthornes. “I’ve never seen Gale like that,” she murmured.
Delly Cartwright smiled wearily as she pulled Madge upright. “What happened at home struck all of us pretty hard, but Gale was already in a bad way since Rory was reaped. I’m sure he’ll start to get better now.” She looked around. “I wonder where my family is staying.”
“What’s the name, Miss?” asked the soldier, pulling a tablet from his belt.
“Cartwright. I’m Delly Cartwright. My parents are Jackson and Ivy, my brother is Jonathan. I…can’t remember which hovercraft they were on.” Delly looked pretty ragged herself, if not as bad as Gale.
“Not to worry. Let me look them up…Cartwright, Cartwright from District 12…here we go: Jackson, Ivy, and Jonathan Cartwright, with an extra room for another family member joining them. Compartment 615. Just follow the crowd to the elevators. My name is Dalton, Dalton Crown. Until you get assigned to an orientation group, you can reach out to me for questions. In your room, there will be an interface - a screen and a pad of numbers next to it. My number is 5309. Dial that number, and it will send me a message to get in touch with you.” He jotted down the information on a little notepad and tore the sheet off for Delly.
“Thank you, sir,” said Delly. She looked at Haymitch, the Everdeens, and Madge. “I hope I see you soon.”
“You’ll likely be in the same orientation group,” said Dalton. Reassured, Delly followed the trail of people up the stairs. “Okay, next…it’s Haymitch Abernathy, isn’t it?”
“Yep,” said Haymitch.
“Would you like to share a place with someone or do you prefer a compartment to yourself?”
Haymitch shrugged. “Myself, if you can spare the space.”
“Oh, space we’ve got. This installation was built for eighty-five thousand people and there’s less than forty thousand even with all the refugees.” Dalton jotted numbers onto a new sheet on his notepad. “Compartment 309.” Haymitch lingered as Dalton turned to Katniss. “So. Miss Katniss Everdeen, the one and only.” Katniss just cringed, though Prim and Clara smiled. “If you’re over eighteen, you can choose to live with your family or have a place of your own.”
Katniss answered at once. “I’ll stay with them.”
“No problem. Compartment 368. Orientation will start in about forty-eight hours, once everyone has had a chance to rest and recover, but I have a feeling President Coin will want to see you tomorrow if you’re up to it.” Katniss looked less than enthusiastic.
Dalton moved on to Madge. “What’s your name, young lady?”
“Margaret Undersee. My father is Paul Undersee, though I…it sounds as if…” Madge looked down.
“I’m so sorry,” said Dalton gently. “We can give you a two-person compartment if you want to wait and see if he’s brought in, or we can assign you a roommate so you won’t be alone while you wait for news.”
Madge pondered it for a few moments, then said, “I think…I think I would like to live with someone else."
Katniss shot her mother and sister a quick look, and at their nod, asked Dalton, "Is there room in our, uh, compartment for Madge to stay with us?"
Madge blinked, then gave the Everdeens a wobbly smile as Dalton said, "Oh! Well, that one would be a tight squeeze with four. Let me bump you up to a bigger one. Compartment 307." He took back the slip he'd given Katniss and scribbled over the original room number, jotting down the new one.
"You...you don't have to, you know," Madge murmured, and Katniss and Prim snorted in unison.
"Don't be silly, dear," said Mrs. Everdeen. "You're more than welcome." She put one arm around Madge, the other around Katniss, and Haymitch let himself put an arm around Katniss's other side for the walk to the elevators. It was a relief to know she was only two doors away.
After Seven’s two tributes departed (Citra to rejoin her family and Buck to stay with Larch and Blight until (everyone hoped) his family reached Thirteen), Johanna found herself hovering near the stylists and Twelve’s prep team - or rather, near Cinna.
Twelve’s preps huddled nervously with the stylists, who were defending their presence to Thirteen’s soldiers. “Katniss Everdeen herself insisted they come with us,” said Portia. “Do you have any idea what the Capitol would do to them to hurt Katniss?”
“We can’t admit anyone and everyone from the Capitol who wasn’t part of this revolution!” insisted Fereno, the senior soldier.
Johanna had no love lost for the preps, but for Cinna and Katniss’s sake (though she’d never admit the latter), she sidled over. “Are you gonna be the one to explain to the Mockingjay that you expelled three people she loves and who love her to certain death?”
Octavia sobbed. Fereno sighed and sent a message on his communicuff. “I’m pinging my superiors. This isn’t within my authority to say yes or no.”
“Maybe we should track down Katniss,” suggested Selene, the stylist from One. “I doubt they’d say no to her face.”
“No,” said Venia suddenly, though the three preps maintained a death grip on each other. “No, I saw her go with her family. Let her alone. She can’t be shepherding us through all this. We know how important she is.” As scared as they were, Flavius and Octavia nodded.
Two junior officers, Leeg and Mitchell, raised their eyebrows at each other, and Johanna had to admit she too was a little impressed. It was the first halfway mature thing she’d heard from any of the preps for any district.
A handsome black soldier entered the hangar area after a little while, and Cinna, Portia, and Selene beamed when they saw him. He didn’t smile back, but shook their hands. “Mr. Helvin, Ms. Franklin. Ms. Meeropol. It’s a pleasure to meet you all in person at last.”
“Likewise, Soldier Boggs,” said Cinna. He gestured to the preps. “During the riots, my prep team - Katniss Everdeen’s prep team - and Twelve’s escort, Effie Trinket, stayed with us in every respect. Effie Trinket threw herself in front of a tank to buy us time to escape.” Boggs nodded. “Katniss insisted - and I agree - that her preps come with us, to protect them from becoming hostages for her in the Capitol. They have no intention of helping the Capitol to hunt down Katniss or harm anyone involved in the revolution.”
“Mm.” Noncommittal, Boggs studied the preps.
“We know it was wrong,” whimpered Flavius. “We’re so sorry! Please, we’d never hurt Katniss or help anyone who wants to hurt her!”
“Cinna and I could - that is - ” Portia shot a sly smile at Cinna and Johanna, “I could stay with them. I could take responsibility for them.”
Selene surprised Johanna by saying, “So could I. I’ve known these three a long time; they won’t help Snow’s regime. And we owe it to Katniss to protect the people she cares about.”
After a long silence, Boggs gestured to one of the junior soldiers. “For now, they can stay. Put them in one of the large family apartments with Ms. Meeropol and Ms. Franklin and Mr. - ” Even as he started to say Cinna’s name, he looked up, looked between Cinna and Johanna, and smiled, very faintly. “That’ll do until we have a chance to run it by President Coin.”
The others also looked from Cinna to Johanna and began smirking. Shit, is it that obvious? thought Johanna. She’d never considered herself or Cinna Helvin to be types who wore their hearts on their sleeves (unlike a certain Mockingjay, though that was probably why Katniss was the Mockingjay).
Boggs turned back to the preps. “You’ll find an orientation packet for each person in your apartment. Be sure to read it thoroughly and focus especially on rules of behavior. I believe that you care about Katniss Everdeen, and I don’t blame her for wanting you to be safe, but you need to recognize our lifestyle in District Thirteen is very different from what you’re used to in the Capitol.”
Flavius gulped, but to Johanna’s surprise, Octavia finally met Boggs’ eyes. “Yes, sir,” she said in a small voice, before straightening a little. “I know we’re…from there, but we’d never want to do anything to embarrass Katniss. We’re…grateful if you’ll let us stay.” The other two nodded.
Then Leeg and Mitchell turned their attention to Cinna and Johanna, and to Johanna’s mortification, all the other rebel stylists stuck around to watch. “Ms. Mason, welcome to District Thirteen,” said Mitchell. “We’re very glad to have you and the other victors who’ve been so instrumental in getting this revolution started. You’ve probably heard, you have your choice of types of compartment, on your own or with someone else.”
To his credit, he managed not to look immediately at Cinna.
1:00am District 13 Time, July 14, HGY 76
Finnick’s father had invited Annie to call him “Papa” as Finnick did a long time ago.
Papa’s house was above Starlight Beach on Catalina Island. He’d moved back there a few years ago, claiming he missed it.
Annie and Finnick both knew the real reason was the ever-growing rift between father and son over Finnick’s apparently loose ways. Not that Papa would ever admit it. After a few memorable rows, Papa had abandoned all efforts to bring his wayward son to heel and accepted the distance between them.
Annie spent a lot of time nursing the Odair men’s broken hearts.
To both of their credit, Finnick and Papa kept things casual and friendly during visits, and Annie knew it was for her own sake. She couldn’t help being glad of it. Apart from Mags and the other mentors, Papa was the closest thing to a parent she’d ever had. He was definitely her only parent figure not nursing demons of his own from victorhood.
She loved the house where Finnick had grown up. Finnick changed when he was there, and she was sure that this was a shadow of who he’d been before his childhood was stolen away by the reaping. It was smaller than the house in the Victors’ Village, of course, but open and airy with big windows catching sea breezes from every direction. It was right on the deep sea vessels’ departure lane, and Annie learned to recognize the flags on the ships’ masts announcing their need for a skilled spear fisherman.
If he hadn’t been reaped, Finnick would have answered those calls all his life and made an excellent living, as his father’s family before him had done. Amid all the turmoil in their world, at that house, he was at peace in a way he never was anywhere else, singing to himself as he mended nets, laughing as he taught local kids to tie knots and wield a spear or trident.
Until fire came raining down from the sky, shattering the white plastered walls of Papa’s house in concussive booms. The world filled with the screams of men, women, and children, ashes and burning flesh. Annie screamed for Finnick and Papa, but her voice was snatched away in the chaos, the rat-a-tat-tat of Peacekeeper guns, the boom of firebombs, the horrid, snarling, hissing of fire ripping through wood and nets, and the agonized shrieks of people burned.
Finnick and Papa were here somewhere. Annie ducked and dodged flying debris and gouts of flame to find them…find them…
Then there was someone standing in the midst of the fire, clothed all in white with a white rose on his lapel, a hideous red smile above his white beard as he looked at her, paralyzing her like a mouse in the gaze of a snake.
“I did warn you that everything has a price, Miss Cresta.”
At his feet lay Finnick and Papa, burned and broken.
Annie’s screams woke Mags. Even when Finnick came running and wrapped her in his arms, she couldn’t stop until District Thirteen’s medics sedated her.
District 12 was on fire. Everything and everyone was on fire. Katniss sprinted through the trees, dodging fireballs that roared through the air like they had in the arena. The fireballs continuously struck her in the legs, sizzling as she screamed and clawed at them.
Even amid the pain and the heat, she rushed to try to help someone, anyone, as people ran flailing in all directions covered in fire.
Every time she reached someone, she was too late. They dissolved into ash even as they screamed to her for help and reached out.
Finally, she saw Prim and her mother, clinging to each other where they were bound between two stakes on the stage in the square. Their faces, their eyes, full of terror and pain, were so clear despite the flames raging around them as they cried out to her.
She was too late again. But Prim and her mother didn’t dissolve into ash the way the others had. The fire seemed to grow brighter, and they screamed in agony as their flesh turned red and pink and black and melted off their bodies. She reached them, but they had fallen silent, hideous and unrecognizable.
Someone laughed. She turned, and there he was, smirking cruelly the way he had that night as he handed her over to Augustus Anders to be raped and tortured to death.
“Did you really think challenging me would end any other way?”
Behind him, bodies and piles of ash lay as far as her eyes could see. None were recognizable, but she knew who each one was.
Haymitch. Cashmere and Gloss. Finnick. Seeder. Gale. Madge and Rory. Hazelle. Posy. Cinna. All had died screaming in agony.
“You started this fire, Katniss Everdeen. Never forget that.”
Katniss thrashed, soaked in sweat and screaming, in some hazy limbo between asleep and awake. She was in a strange bed, but she could still see the burning bodies and Snow’s cruel smile…
“Katniss." Someone was there. Something far more familiar formed around her, pushing the horror of the fires and the bodies and Snow away, replacing it all with something more substantial. Familiar hands cupped her face.
“Peeta,” she breathed and sank into his arms.
“It’s okay,” he murmured, rocking her gently. “It’s just a dream. He’s not here. You’re safe here.”
“Here” was, ironically, the arena. Not just Katniss and Peeta’s arena but every arena, and here were all the tributes who hadn’t survived the nightmare. The arenas here were a sanctuary, not the hell where the tributes had died. Now they were paradise, and Katniss felt safe here as nowhere else.
The wheat field sparkled golden in the sun under a cloudless sky, and trees and bushes were laden with ripe fruits and vegetables in brilliant colors. The animals who’d once been terrifying mutts romped and played with even the youngest tributes without fear. The tributes lounged on soft, comfortable beds and mats or strolled contented in meadows of green grass and flowers.
Rue Crawford was perched in a tree, singing as she tossed fat oranges down to other kids, accompanied by a chorus of mockingjays. Thresh Wilson was sprawled on a bed beside the lake, chatting with a group of boys from District 4 who were fishing on a nearby dock. Glimmer Wyatt was braiding Foxface’s hair with flowers.
The Seventy-Fourth arena blended naturally into the Seventy-Fifth, and the Quarter Quell tributes played and relaxed and ate there as carefree as Katniss’s own fellows. There were her lost tributes - Twelve's girl, Anise McRae, splashing around in the little sea with Cherry Shaw from Eleven and Pearl Moreno from Four, and Twelve's boy, Glen Sheridan, grilling meat and fish on the beach with Fabian Hall from Two and Byte Cheong from Three.
No one went hungry anymore. Nothing and no one threatened the tributes. They were friends now, not enemies.
Katniss leaned against Peeta and let the peace drive away her nightmare. “I wish I could stay here forever,” she sighed, not for the first time.
“I know,” he said. “One day you will.”
A blonde girl came up the sand dune where they sat. It was Maysilee Donner from the Fiftieth Games. She was wearing a familiar gold pin on her collar, and Katniss looked down to see the same pin over her own heart. “Some had to stay for us,” Maysilee said. “You all had to stay and speak for us. Otherwise, this place will just get bigger and bigger.”
Katniss shivered, and Peeta tightened his arm around here. “You can do this,” he said. “Everyone back home knows it. All of us here know it too.”
To Be Continued...