Katniss was woken the following morning by Boggs shaking her shoulders.
"Come with me," he said quietly. She was led through the corridors and into the control room that the government was continuing to operate from. Coin looked up when they walked in.
"They took their best shot," Coin said. Katniss nodded and glanced around the room. "Your mother and sister okay?"
"Yeah, they're fine," Katniss confirmed, and Coin wasted no more time with pleasentries.
"I need you to do something for us. I need you to tell Panem that we survived an attack from the Capitol with no casualties. And we remain fully operational"
It seemed a simple enough task. "Okay."
"You should know something," Coin said. She stepped toward Katniss in an appreciative manor. Her typical wall that the president insisted on building between them was down. "We had eight extra minutes of civilian evacuation because of Peeta's warning. I won't forget that."
Katniss felt a burden relieved from her shoulders. If Coin was warming up to Peeta, she might understand that everything for the cameras was a lie. What the victors had to do inside that Capitol, they had to do to survive.
But she still remembered Coin's warning. If she didn't participate as the Mockingjay, the deal was off. So, when dawn came, Katniss and her propo team were marching out of the bunker and out onto the surface.
The last time she had been out here was to hunt with Gale right before Peeta's announcement. It felt like everything had changed since that moment. Including, it would seem, the layout of District Thirteen.
Katniss could barely move as she took in the rubble that was once the wide forest of Thirteen. Right outside the doors, a bomb had been dropped. It seemed whatever building had been here had been caved in. Wires that had broken were sparking sporadically, and there were a few pipes draining of the water they contained.
In the center of it all were hundreds of white roses.
Snow.
Katniss could barely breathe as she picked one up and examined it.
"Why would they drop these?" Gale asked.
"For me," Katniss breathed, realizing that just like her, the white roses were a symbol.
"Ready to go, Katniss?" Cressida, the director she spent so much time with, asked. "We're going to do this just like District Eight."
Right. District Eight. They filmed a propo there right after the hospital was bombed. Now, they're doing one here. Katniss noticed a pattern she wasn't a fan of.
There were always consequences for these videos. Would Peeta be her consequence?
"Tell me about the roses," Cressida prompted. Katniss didn't respond. "Tell Snow Thirteen is alive and well."
But all Katniss could think about was the look of horror on Peeta's face as he was dragged out of that chair.
"He's gonna kill Peeta," she breathed.
"Let's try again. Can you speak up? We don't have a mic on you," Cressida reminded her. "Thirteen is alive and well, and so am I."
But Cressida's instructions fell on deaf ears.
"He's gonna kill Peeta," she could feel the tears start to brim her eyes. "I can't."
"Katniss?" Cressida prompted.
"You can do it, Katniss," Gale encouraged her, but they didn't know. How could they ask her to do this right now? They were going to kill Peeta, and it was entirely her fault.
"I can't do this."
"Thirteen is alive and well and so am I," Cressida tried to prompt again, but Katniss wasn't listening.
"He's just gonna keep," but she cut herself off. She could barely breathe. "He's never gonna stop--"
Cressida tried again, but Haymitch was already moving toward her. He pulled her into his arms as Effie told Cressida to cut the cameras.
"--as long as I'm the Mockingjay."
"It's okay, Katniss," Haymitch tried, but she was pushing him away.
"No. He warned me. He warned me about this. He's doing this because I'm the Mockingjay. He's punishing Peeta to punish me. No, I can't do this."
"Katniss--" Cressida tried, but Katniss turned her anger on the director.
"Don't make me do this," she seethed. She needed to move. She needed to get out of there. She needed to be anywhere but in a place that could get Peeta killed. She couldn't breathe.
"Let her go," Boggs interrupted, sensing her stress.
"I gotta get out of here," she said, struggling to get enough air into her lungs. Effie and Haymitch attempted to follow, but there was no point. Katniss knew where she needed to go. She needed to rescue Peeta, and was willing to do anything to make sure it happened.
**
It didn't take her very long to find Beetee. He was sitting behind table of computers. There were a few officials around him, but they made themselves scarce when she walked into the room.
"Katniss," Beetee grinned. "How was the propo?"
"Do you have contact with anyone inside the Capitol?" she asked quickly. Beetee seemed startled by the question, but nodded. "I need to send a message to the Heiress."
Beetee laughed, and when he realized Katniss wasn't telling a joke, he calmed down and pointed to the computer.
"Do you see this?" he asked. She looked over at the screen to see some kind of circular system running. She had no idea what she was looking at. "The power went off in the Capitol, and I have an opportunity to break into their system and send our videos directly into the heart of the Capitol. I don't have time to send messages right now."
"Beetee, please," Katniss said, dropping to her knees next to him and placing her hand on his arm. "They're going to kill Peeta."
Beetee hesitated for just a second longer before he sighed and nodded, taking out a piece of paper.
"What do you need to say?"
**
A knock on the door pulled Amara out of bed that morning. She tried to reach for the light, but found that the lights were still down. She groaned and pulled herself toward the door. She threw on a sweater and opened the door just in time for Tigris to plow through.
"I can't do this right now," Amara protested. The bombing of District Thirteen was all she could think about all night long. If they were successful, and it was the Capitol so of course they were, Finnick was most likely dead.
She'd spent the entire night curled up in a ball sobbing. Her Finnick was most likely dead. Everything she'd been working so hard for was worthless. She'd been fighting for a future she no longer had.
In between tears, she'd pulled herself together just long enough to make it to the bathroom and lose the content of her stomach. Everything in her body ached. Her Finnick was gone.
Tigris didn't seem to care as she marched right into the kitchen. Amara stumbled slightly and rubbed her very painful eyes.
"I have the most beautiful dress design for you," she gushed. Amara yawned and followed her into the kitchen.
"It's too early for this," she said, and tried to move around Tigris to get to her tea. Instead, Tigris yanked her to the stool and threw open her portfolio.
It took a second to register what she was looking at, but it certainly wasn't a dress.
"Isn't it beautiful?" Tigris asked, and Amara nodded.
"I love the lace," she said. Tigris startled prattling on about Reiner feeling under the weather and how she could whip the design together in time for her next show, but Amara was focused on the note.
To the Heiress-
I need you to rescue Peeta.
K.E
Amara looked up to see Tigris leaning over the counter. The woman raised a brow, silently asking the only question that mattered.
"Yes, I think you can pull it off. Let's get started."
**
The first thing they would need was a distraction. To her advantage, no one knew the Tribute Center quite like Amara. Having been in there countless times to visit Finnick.
Finnick.
It took all her self control to not cry. If Katniss was sending messages, there had to be a chance some of Thirteen made it, and if some of them made it, perhaps Finnick was one of them. She had to know. She had to send the victors to safety. She had the chance to go with them again, and she had to take it.
The best opportunity to extract the victors would be during this power outage, but it also meant that everyone was completely bored. There would be nothing for security to do but watch their hostages.
She needed a plan.
**
"Finnick?" Finnick glanced over to see Jade standing in the doorway of his room. He pulled her into a hug so quickly that it knocked the breath out of her.
"I didn't know you were here," he said, and she squeezed him just as tight.
"Effie sent me," she said. "I've... been in hiding the last few weeks."
He pulled away from her and scanned her from head to toe.
"You're not hurt," he observed, and she shook her head. He never saw her in the hospital wing.
"They kept me in the back for observation," she said quietly, and he had no idea what she meant by that. She must have seen the confusion on his face because she slowly rubbed her stomach as if she was clutching it. "They killed Cinna," she revealed. Finnick pulled her into another hug.
"I'm so sorry," he said. "But--"
"Grief isn't good for the baby," she finished. Finnick's jaw dropped, and his eyes moved down to her stomach.
"You're--"
She nodded and held onto her stomach like a lifeline.
"Almost five months," she said. "We wanted to keep it a secret. We didn't want anyone in the Capitol to know so no one could exploit it. We were going to come here and have the baby in a free Panem, but--"
Her voice cracked, and Finnick was holding her once more.
"I'm so sorry," he said quietly.
"Katniss' mother and Prim have been a big help, but it's been a rough few weeks."
"But they finally let you out?" he asked, and she nodded.
"I'm stable, and Effie asked me to talk to you."
"If I'd known, I would have come and visited," he promised, but she shrugged.
"Only Effie and Beetee have visited," she said. He glanced at her, confused. She had no idea she and Beetee were friends. She must have seen the question in his eye because she gave him a small smile. "Effie kept me up to date on how everyone was doing, and Beetee agreed to let me send a message to Amara."
"She's--"
"Alive," Jade reassured him. "I don't know much more than that."
Finnick was silent for a moment, taking it all in.
"Why don't you want to perform for the cameras?" she asked. Finnick glanced at her, surprised. Surely she of all people would be able to understand. He didn't even know how he found out about the conversation with Coin. Jade grinned and shrugged. "Effie is a terrible gossip. I don't know how she finds out everything she does."
"I've been performing for a camera for the last decade," he said. "I'm tired of it."
Jade was silent for a moment. "I need to ask you to do it again."
Finnick studied the pained look on her face. She knew what she was asking him to do. She knew that he was done with all of this. "Why?"
"Beetee got into their system," she said. "They have a plan to get the victors out; they have a chance to save them, but we need to infiltrate their system with a video to do it."
"You want me to distract them," Finnick said, and Jade nodded.
"We want you to tell the world what it was truly like as a victor. We want you to reveal Panem's secrets."
Her wording made Finnick whirl around. He studied her face. There was a flicker of horror for just a moment before it disappeared.
"You knew," he breathed, and she nodded her head in shame.
"Yes, I knew, and I'm sorry I never did anything about it, but I can now. We can be apart of something bigger than this, and you can tell the world what it really meant to be a victor."
Finnick shook his head. No. No, he couldn't do this.
"How?" he asked, but she shook her head.
"It doesn't matter--"
"It does to me," he snapped, and Jade flinched. He immediately felt bad. "Does Amara--"
"No," she promised. "I only knew because most things Celeste sent to Amara were filtered through me. Someone asked if she was interested in buying, but I refused on her behalf."
"She would be horrified," Finnick agreed, and Jade nodded.
"I figured if you hadn't told her, there was a reason, and if she knew, she would never forgive the Capitol for asking. I knew she would retaliate, and it would get her in trouble."
Finnick had no doubt she would have stormed right into Snow's office and make demands that would get her killed.
"She would be so mad that she heard from you and not me," he added. Jade didn't disagree.
"Are you going to tell her?" Jade asked, and Finnick nodded.
"One day," he said. "If she doesn't see this video you're asking me to make."
"Making this video will help us save the victors, but it could also cause unrest in the Capitol. It would bring you one step closer to Amara."
He was silent for a moment too long.
For Amara. He could do this for Amara. He could bring Ezra home. He could bring Annie back to Adrien. He could save all of them.
Jade stood. He had been quiet for too long.
"I'll tell Effie you can't--"
"No," he interrupted. "I'll do it. For all of them. To bring me closer to Amara, and to bring Johanna, Ezra, Peeta, and Annie home. They shouldn't have to sit in those cells because of me."
"It wouldn't be because of you," Jade tried to say, but she was interrupted.
"If I ruin this chance of escape, it will be."