Querencia | Finnick Odair

Three

"Still as beautiful as ever. We need to cover those bags under your eyes though", is the first thing the man says and pushes me in the chair.

I know better than to complain or resist. They just want to make me look pretty. For what they will make me look pretty is the big question.

Propaganda photos, an execution, interviews?

Two hours later I am all polished up, berry coloured eyeshadow, dark lips, flawless skin and a tight white dress. It is covering because all the bruises and cuts have to be covered. Gloss and Peeta both wear white suits, Johanna a jumpsuit.

"We need Gloss and Johanna for a photoshoot in 5", a woman calls out and they are ushered out of the room.

Peeta and I exchange looks, then we get sent out, up the elevator into the room that once was the training space.

Now it seems to be a studio and Caesar Flickerman sits at its centre.

"Oh my darlings!", he exclaims and hurries towards us.

"We have two interviews. Peeta first and then Talisa. Each is life and about 8 to 10 minutes long. Just answer honestly and put emotions into it. You both are pros. Come Peeta."

And Peeta sits in front of the cameras while I get seated on a chair behind him, behind the crew.

And then he talks. About the arena, about Katniss, about the rebellion, that we got to know more about in the last few days. Revolts in the Districts, street fights and strikes. He calls for a ceasefire and I scream internally. I know he wants no bloodshed, but he has to see what is happening here is a good thing. The right thing.

The rebels will hate him for it.

If they are watching. Which means that Finnick is watching. Katniss is.

They will do anything to get us back. But they don't know where I am. So I have to show them. But if I say it out loud they will reposition us, cut the feed and whatever else.

But I have an idea. So when I take the seat on the couch, I sit slightly angled, my hands, which are folded in my lap, easily seen on screen.

"Miss Moreno. An honour to be talking to you again", Caesar greets and I send an ever so brilliant smile into the Camera.

"So we already heard Peeta's version of the evening. Is there anything you would like to add to that?"

"No Caesar, I am afraid I know as much as you do."
"Well, then. I must say I was very surprised by your actions in the arena?"
I tilt my head as if I had no clue what he is talking about.

"How so?"

"Well, many expected you to surpass your kill score from last time."
"See, I believe I told you before. These people are my friends. Would you like to kill your friends Caesar? Would you be able to look at Claudius Templesmith -he is your friend isn't he- and kill him?"

In District 13

Finnick stares at the screen as his love challenges the interview host. He smiles a little in his hospital bed.

"I...Probably not, no", Caesar admits and Talisa scoffs.

"See, but that is what you want us to do? Don't you think that is a little hypocritical?"

The showman stays silent.

"And if I remember correctly, they were your friends too, celebrities that people adore. Cashmere. Cecilia. Woof. Seeder. Chaff. Mags."

She gestures widely with her hands, then Finnick sees the pattern. Sees the words hidden in her motions and jumps up, still in his gown, running through the corridors of the underground District until he finds the command centre from which Katniss just storms.

He doesn't stop but pushes past people until he stands in front of Plutarch Heavensbee.

"She is in the Training Center. They are underground. There are four of them. Gloss and Johanna are alive too", he exclaims and some of the people turn to him, away from his fiance who is still listing names.

"How do you know that?", the ex-gamemaker asks.

"Her hands! She uses sign language. She learned it for Mags!"

The people who listened in now look back at the screen, where she just repeated that there are five doors that they need to go through to get to them.

"That is important intel. Thank you Finnick", Alma Coin says.

"Don't thank me. Thank her. Thank her by using that intel to rescue her."

In the Capitol

"Talisa, in the arena, is it right that you and Finnick Odair are engaged?"

I nod slowly.

"Yes. We are a couple. Were for a while now. But the Capitol and Snow would never have us have that kind of happiness, so we kept it a secret."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Not a story I want to tell Caesar", I say, raising my head up.

"I am sure you have heard of recent uprisings. The call for a civil war. What are your thoughts on that?", the blue-haired man asks.

"Do you really have to ask? People finally stand together as they should have so long ago. Even you need to realise that something is seriously wrong in this country right?! You are sending children to their death, you are letting people in the Districts starve, while here you throw up in order to be able to eat more Caesar. So what do I think?! I think that you had it coming."

And then my arms are grabbed from behind me, a gun collides with my temple and I am knocked out cold.