here to kingdom come - Chapter Seven: watch as it all fades away
Title: here to kingdom come
Author: alinaandalion
Rating: M/NC-17
Spoilers: All three books of the Hunger Games trilogy.
Warnings: Drug use, cursing, dubious con, and character death
Characters: Sophie Devereaux, Nathan Ford, Finnick Odair, Johanna Mason, Eliot Spencer, Parker, Alec Hardison, Tara Cole, Katniss Everdeen, Peeta Mellark, various other characters, and minor OCs.
Pairings: Nate/Sophie, Sophie/Finnick, Sophie/Tara, Parker/Hardison, Annie/Finnick, Peeta/Katniss, and Johanna/Gale.
Summary: As a Victor, Sophie Devereaux has spent the last fifteen years of her life trying not to feel. But rumors bring news of rebellion, hope for a better future. A second chance.
Part Three: to fall apart
“It takes ten times as long to put yourself back together as it does to fall apart.”
- Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
“And I asked myself about the present: how wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep.”
- Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
“What change would have altered the course of events? In the big picture, nothing. In the small picture, so much.”
- Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Chapter Seven: watch as it all fades away
“Can’t make this all go away
Now that you’re bleeding, you stare at the ceiling,
And watch as it all fades away
From what you do, because of you.”
- “Because of You” by Nickelback
“You look like shit.”
Sophie doesn’t look up from her plate as she says, “You’re the one who is going through withdrawal, Haymitch.”
“I went through withdrawal.”
“Right.” Sophie looks up at him with a placid smile. “What exactly do you want?”
Haymitch sits down at the table across from her, his tray clattering against the wood. “Maybe I just want to enjoy your company.”
“You never talk to anyone without some ulterior motive. You forget that I know you.”
“Okay, look, I need a favor.” He pushes his fork deep into his mound of turnips and frowns.
“Another one?” she asks flatly as she picks up the small heel of her bread and starts to tear it into tiny pieces, the shreds falling indiscriminately on top of her meat stew.
Sighing, he rubs a hand along his forehead and says, “Seriously, sweetheart, I have a migraine, and I don’t need to deal with this kind of shit from you. I know that you’re angry, and, listen, I get it. But I’m not the only one who fucked that up, and you know it.”
“Tell me what you want.”
“It’s Katniss. She wants to go back to District Twelve. I don’t trust most of these people to keep a handle on her.”
“And you think I’m just right for the job?” Sophie raises an eyebrow and shakes her head. “Haymitch, the girl doesn’t like me. She thinks I’m a manipulative whore.”
Haymitch snorts. “She actually said that to you?”
“No. Gale keeps muttering similar things while we’re on the training field together, and those two are joined at the hip.”
Taking a big bite of his stew, Haymitch chews it as Sophie watches, smiling in amusement when he chokes and pulls a bone out of his mouth. He drops his fork and takes a long swallow of water.
“Well, I don’t need her to be your biggest fan. What I need is to know that there’s at least one person out there who will keep her safe. I don’t trust anyone else to look out for her best interests,” he explains carefully.
“What about Gale? They’re best friends.”
“He’s…angry. In the heat of the moment, I don’t know exactly what he might do, and that makes him untrustworthy.”
She sighs and taps her fork against her plate as she stares across the table at him. The thing is, she’ll have more power over him if she refuses; but she’ll have less of a chance of getting what she really wants.
“I’ll do it,” she tells him finally. “On one condition.”
“What do you want?”
“Get Nate and all the others back.”
“Done.”
***************
Sophie glances out the hovercraft window again and watches the ashes in the streets float on a meandering breeze. Katniss has long since disappeared from sight. However, Hardison equipped everyone on board with earbuds manufactured in Special Defense back in District Thirteen, so they’re still able to hear Katniss.
As she observes the ruins of District Twelve through the hazy light, Sophie shudders and wraps her arms tight around her body. She can’t imagine going back to her home to find it like this. The thought makes bile crawl up her throat.
“I think we should call her back now,” Boggs says quietly, looking to Gale who is sprawled in a seat across from Sophie.
“Is there an incoming threat?” Gale asks.
“No,” Boggs says slowly.
“Then we should give her a little bit longer. This is…was her home.” Gale balls his right hand into a fist and shakes his head.
“Do you think this will help her?” Sophie says in a soft voice.
Gale frowns. “With what? Putting her life back together? Being the Mockingjay?”
“Move on,” Sophie clarifies. “Which might involve becoming the Mockingjay, but that’s her decision.”
“She thinks all of this is her fault. How the hell is she going to move on from that?”
“I don’t know. You’re her best friend, Gale.” Sophie sighs. “I assume you know more about what she needs to move past all of this than any of us.”
“Because it’s so easy to move on.” His mouth twists as he looks out the window. “It’s not that easy for us, me and Katniss. Not like it is for people like you.”
Sophie presses her mouth into a thin line and leans forward. “There are a lot of things you don’t know about me, Gale. Don’t assume you know me just because I am a victor and you saw me a few times on your television.”
“We’ve got an incoming hovercraft,” Boggs announces from where he’s standing with the pilot. “They’re a little over an hour out, but we should leave now before they know we’ve been here.”
Gale presses the switch that changes the frequency of his earbud and says, “Katniss, we need to go.”
A few minutes pass, during which Gale shifts uncomfortably in his seat, clearly worried that Katniss is going to ignore him. Boggs watches him with an impassive expression. Sophie curls her legs underneath her and eventually closes her eyes until the ladder is lowered and pulls Katniss back up into the hovercraft.
Katniss dumps a leather bag into the seat beside Sophie and collapses on Gale’s left, sweat gathered on her upper lip and her eyes slightly wider than normal. Sophie peers at the worn bag and jumps back when it moves with a vicious hiss.
“What’s in there?” Sophie asks.
Katniss digs her earbud out of her ear and hands it off to Gale. “My sister’s cat. Buttercup.”
“Do they even allow pets in District Thirteen?” Gale says as he pulls out his own earbud.
“They’ll make an exception.” Katniss shrugs and smiles slightly. “People always make exceptions for Prim.”
As the cat’s hisses escalate into howls, Sophie considers asking if she can at least hold the poor animal for the duration of the journey back to District Thirteen, but Katniss just kicks the bag and relaxes into her seat when the noises stop.
Sophie decides that she won’t push her luck.
***************
“What was it like there? Was there anything left?”
Sophie turns her head, her cheek pressing against the cool grass, and looks at Parker. “It was awful. There were ashes everywhere, and I just…it was horrible.”
Parker stares back at her and after a few seconds pass by without a response, Sophie focuses back on the hummingbirds flying around the enclosed glass dome. Hardison and Beetee sit at a table right behind the two women, and she can catch pieces of their conversation.
She and Parker aren’t technically supposed to be down here in Special Defense as much as they are, but no one in District Thirteen seems too eager to point that out. Especially since Parker is still wearing a bracelet that marks her as “mentally disoriented.”
Sophie cut hers off and tossed it into the trash the second she was allowed out of her hospital bed.
Rolling onto her side, Sophie closes her eyes, curls her fingers into the grass, and listens to the gentle hum of noise around her. It isn’t long before her muscles tighten in her legs and her heartbeat echoes loudly in her ears, so she pushes herself up and wraps her arms around her knees.
“I don’t like it underground,” Parker says softly, her blonde hair lusterless under the stark lighting. “I feel like I’m suffocating.”
“They let you out for exercise above ground,” Sophie replies.
Parker frowns and moves swiftly to her feet. “That wasn’t what I meant.” She rolls her sleeve up and rubs a finger against the schedule inked onto her skin. “I’m still not free.”
“We will be one day.” Sophie digs her nails deep into the fabric of her grey clothing and watches one bright red hummingbird flutter close to the top of the dome.
“Will we?”
Parker whirls around and stalks out of the glass dome; Hardison follows after her, leaving Sophie and Beetee behind in the glass dome. Pulling up her sleeve, Sophie stares down at the words written along the inside of her arm until her vision blurs.
***************
Sophie sits on a narrow hospital bed across from Finnick and watches as his fingers tie knots in his short piece of rope. She has a similar string in her hands, but it’s hanging listlessly over her knee.
After the evening’s previous events in Command, with the first Capitol broadcast of Peeta since their escape from the arena, Sophie feels the urge to start running instead of sitting here tying knots.
“They’re calling Peeta a traitor in Command,” she finally says when the silence stretches on too long.
Finnick doesn’t look up from his rope. “He’s calling for a ceasefire. Of course they think that.”
“But he didn’t sign up for this.” She sighs and twists her rope through her fingers, pulls it taut against her skin. “We don’t know when his interview was recorded, what he was told by the Capitol. How can we hold him accountable to standards he doesn’t even know exist?”
“They’re coming at it from a different angle. Peeta is really the one who got people to listen to him, not Katniss. What happens if this interview harms the rebellion?”
“Then we never had a chance to begin with.”
“But everyone needs to hold someone accountable for when things go wrong.” Finnick smiles, but his fingers tremble. “You know how it’s been for us for years. Why should it ever change?”
“Because what’s the point in fighting the Capitol if we’re going to be the exact same?” Sophie asks quietly.
“I don’t know.” He runs his fingers through his hair and starts tying his knots again. “But Peeta looked all right, didn’t he? I mean, he didn’t look like they were torturing him. So, maybe Annie’s okay?”
“Finnick.”
“No, don’t. Don’t say it.”
“It’s getting late. You know they don’t like it when I’m here too long,” Sophie tells him.
She slides her feet to the floor and stands, shoving her rope deep into her pocket. When she reaches the door, she looks back to where Finnick is still crouched in his bed, fingers tugging and pulling the rope into intricate knots. She fumbles her hand into her right pocket and curls her fingers tight around her length of rope as she leaves.
***************
Sophie trails her fingers over the cool underground walls as she winds her way to the hospital wing to see Finnick. She’s taking a circuitous route because she has no desire to run into anyone at the moment, not after the arguments in Command over Peeta where Sophie was his sole defender and insinuated that District Thirteen should be punished for abandoning the other districts for seventy-five years if they insisted on holding Peeta accountable for words he was forced to say.
Even though none of her privileges have been revoked, Sophie is in no hurry to put herself in the line of fire.
Then Haymitch appears in front of her, and she stops in her tracks, eyeing him warily as she frowns.
“You’re to report with me to the Airborne Division,” he says simply.
Sighing, she asks, “Another trip to District Twelve?”
“Nope, District Eight this time.”
“We’re going to drop into the middle of a war zone? With Katniss? Whose genius idea was that?”
“Well, sweetheart, if you weren’t too busy avoiding Command after your…spirited defense of Peeta, you would know that Katniss is useless on script. If we want to get anything inspiring out of her, we have to let her do something.” He turns and starts to walk away from her, taking the first left as she follows. “You’ll finally be getting a chance to put your new skills to use.”
“But, wait, if you’re going, why do I have to?” she says hesitantly, stopping.
“You don’t actually think I’m part of the ground troops?” He snorts and grabs her arm. “You’re smarter than that. I’ll be supervising from the hovercraft, but you’re the back-up in case our little Mockingjay gets it into her head to do something reckless and stupid.”
“And when exactly are you going to deliver on your half of the bargain? I’m not going to continue to run around after Katniss indefinitely, Haymitch.”
“I’m working on it. Hopefully, a rescue can happen soon. The tricky part is convincing Coin and her lackeys that the benefits outweigh the costs.”
“Well, do it. And soon.” Sophie frowns and pulls free from his grasp. “Don’t forget that I know all of the same tricks as you.”
Pushing past him, she walks the rest of the way to the hovercraft storage area by herself.
***************
“How’s she doing?” Haymitch asks through the earbud in Sophie’s ear.
Sophie smiles slightly as she watches Katniss move through the makeshift hospital in District Eight, Gale by her side. “She’s doing very well. Is everything all right up there?”
“Just peachy, sweetheart.”
Rolling her eyes, Sophie pulls at the strap over her shoulders attached to her gun. She has specialized knives Hardison crafted for her, light and slender and deadly, but they’re more effective in close range. But she does have a couple of the knives tucked into her belt in case she needs them.
Not that she will be fighting any battles today. If a conflict arises, they all have strict orders to get Katniss out of the area as quickly as possible.
Sophie sincerely doubts that Katniss will go along with that plan, though.
Paylor comes up beside Boggs and peers around him at Sophie. “You’re a victor, too, aren’t you? From District…Four?”
“That’s correct,” Sophie replies. “Do you need me to do anything?”
“I guess no one really believed any victors would be interested in rebelling against the Capitol,” Paylor says with a shrug of her shoulders. “I mean, everyone understood why Katniss would want to.”
Sophie eyes Paylor carefully and presses her mouth into a thin line, finally saying, “I don’t think you do know the real reason Katniss chose to be the Mockingjay. And all of the victors have good reason to be angry with the Capitol.”
“Well, what?”
Boggs clears his throat and gestures toward the hospital. “Looks like Katniss is done. We should probably see how she is.”
Looking in the direction of the hospital, Sophie sees Katniss approaching the small group, her body shaking and her face white. Gale keeps a firm grip on Katniss’ hand as the camera crew forms a small semi-circle around them.
“Did you get what you needed?” Katniss asks quietly.
“You did great,” Boggs says with a warm smile.
Then Haymitch’s voice says sharply, “We’ve got approaching hovercraft. You need to get Katniss back to us right now. We’ll meet you at the airstrip.”
Immediately, Boggs grabs Katniss as he says, “Incoming bombers. We need to go to the airstrip. Now.”
Sophie sees a confused look pass over Katniss’ face, but she ignores it for now and falls in just behind Boggs and Katniss, Gale jogging beside her. The skies are still clear, and Katniss drags her feet. Then the sirens start, and Sophie can hear the panic starting in the hospital area, feels the fear hum through her veins as Boggs picks up the pace.
Hover-planes appear in a V-formation, and bombs rain down. The first explosions knock them all to the ground. Sophie hits the wall of the warehouse they just passed, and before she can move, Gale flings himself on top of her and shields her from the next wave.
“There’s a light blue warehouse three down from you. It has an underground bunker where you can wait this out,” Plutarch says calmly in her earbud. “Do you think you can make it there?”
“We’ll do our best,” Boggs replies, keeping a firm grip on Katniss as he moves forward.
“You have about forty-five seconds until the next wave,” Plutarch tells them.
Sophie keeps close on Gale’s tail, and when they are just about to reach the warehouse, she catches the scream of fresh bombs falling through the air. Someone shoves her, hard, and Sophie’s back hits the wall with enough force to knock the breath from her lungs. This time, Boggs is the one who braces himself between her and the explosions.
“They don’t know Katniss is here, do they?” Sophie asks.
“No. They have to be targeting something else,” Boggs replies slowly.
Then Gale jumps off the ground, shouting, “They’re targeting the hospital!”
Sophie watches Katniss grab her earbud out of her ear and throw it to the ground, and then the Mockingjay runs to the brown warehouse across the street.
“Go after her!” Haymitch bellows in Sophie’s ear.
Gritting her teeth, Sophie takes off across the street right behind Boggs. He starts up the access ladder, but then he grunts and falls heavily against the metal.
“What’s wrong?” Sophie calls up to him.
Boggs turns to look down at her, his face a bloody mess. “Broke my nose. Get up there.”
He’s close enough to the ground that he jumps down, and Sophie keeps climbing until she reaches the roof. Katniss and Gale are already in a machine gun nest, kneeling with their bows strung.
Sophie runs to the next nest and crouches behind one of the unmanned guns.
“You know what you’re doing?” a man shouts at her.
Smiling grimly, Sophie loads the gun with ammunition and angles it up to where the bombers will appear when they drop their sight shields.
“A little bit,” she tosses back with a laugh.
As the hovercrafts fly into view, Sophie tracks one in the middle, shooting a short burst of bullets at it. She misses completely. Swearing under her breath, she locks onto the next one and aims a little ahead of it. This time, she scores several hits, one that severely damages a wing.
It still manages to drop its bombs before swerving away, and as the formation disappears, another moves forward to take its place. Now that she has an idea of the speed of the hovercraft, Sophie sends a barrage of bullets into the craft just behind the point one. It crashes into the street below.
Then a third wave comes in, and Sophie scrambles to re-load before they get too close. Her fingers tremble as she grabs fresh bullets and loads them into the gun. She positions her sightline so she can get one of the trailing hover-planes, and she manages to decimate one wing so that the hovercraft tilts and falls out of the air.
“All right, that’s it!” Paylor shouts down the line of nests.
Sophie releases her death-grip on the machine gun to clamber out of the nest, and she runs over to join Gale and Katniss.
“Did they hit the hospital?” he asks as Paylor wipes some dirt off her face.
Paylor frowns. “Must have.”
“We need to get out of here,” Sophie interrupts gently. “Come on. The rest of them are close by.”
Katniss acknowledges Sophie with a nod of her head and runs to the ladder. Sophie follows behind, and Haymitch starts with a litany of complaints now that it’s not too loud for him to be heard. Or maybe he’s been talking in her ear this entire time and she just didn’t notice.
“So, instead of doing your job and protecting Katniss, you climb right up there with her and start shooting hovercraft? Are all of you insane? Why the fuck didn’t you grab her and make her get out of there?”
Sophie sighs and falls in with the group that is trailing Katniss to the smoldering ruins of the hospital. “If you don’t like how I’m doing this job, why don’t you just do it yourself, Haymitch? Then you can be the one she shoots when you get in her way.”
Then she takes the earbud out of her ear and draws even with Gale and Katniss.
“Why would they do something like that?” Katniss asks quietly. “They were all injured. They couldn’t do anything.”
“Because this is what the Capitol does. It attacks where you’re weakest until you give in,” Sophie says in a soft voice. “In the end, Snow would rather make Panem a burning crater than surrender power.”
“How do you know so much about the Capitol?” Gale asks as he turns to look at Sophie, his eyes hard.
Sophie just shakes her head and stares at the embers flickering in the ashes of the hospital. “I know.”
***************
When Sophie walks into her room, she pauses in the doorway at the sight of Finnick huddled on the edge of her bed.
“Finnick?” she asks softly, shutting the door and walking over to him.
He looks up at her with eyes red and swollen from crying. “What are they doing to them? Just…they have Annie, and it’s my fault.”
Sophie closes her eyes, tries not to think about Peeta’s shaking hands, wide fearful eyes, a body that trembled in pain with every movement, because each time she remembers, she sees Nate in Peeta’s place. Whatever is happening in the Capitol to the surviving Victors taken from the arena, it will only get worse.
“You saw Peeta’s interview,” Sophie says as she threads her fingers through his messy hair. “You think they’re doing the same thing to Annie.”
“But I don’t know what the fuck made him look like that!” Finnick wrenches away from her and buries his face in his hands. “I was supposed to take care of her. But we’re here, and the Capitol has Annie, and I can’t do a fucking thing about it.”
Sighing, she sits down beside him and wraps her left arm around his waist, resting her chin on his shoulder. “Annie isn’t defenseless, Finnick. She’s stronger than you sometimes give her credit for. You’re going to get her back. I promise.”
“It isn’t fair,” he whispers. “It should have been me.”
“I know.”
She frowns and tightens her arm around him. Finnick lifts his head and looks at her steadily. He kisses her before she can move away, but it only takes a moment before Sophie is leaning into his lips, fingers digging reflexively into his hip. His teeth bite down hard on her bottom lip until she can taste copper, feel the slick slide of blood on the tip of her tongue as she opens her mouth with a gasp.
They’ve always used each other through the years, taking and giving equally. It’s never been exactly right or fair, but it’s been the two of them for so long that she knows this is about forgetting, needing someone who knows and cares. Besides, this is all they’ve known for so long that this is all she has left to give to him or to almost anyone.
As she pulls his loose cotton shirt over his head, his fingers find the buttons of her muted grey blouse and unfasten them with a gentleness that is at odds with the way his tongue pushes into her mouth. He flicks her plain black bra’s clasp open with ease that comes from years of practice and gropes her breast, tugging at her nipple until she gasps and rolls her hips up into his.
Sophie pushes her pants down her thighs, underwear going with them, and loops her legs around Finnick’s waist as the fabric hits the floor. He presses a hand against her center, slides two fingers through her growing dampness. He gets his pants down just enough for his cock to spring free, and then he pushes into her with a grunt.
She whines at the press of him inside her and feels him shudder underneath her fingertips; urging him on with a rock of her hips, Sophie lets her head fall back and her eyes close as he thrusts into her roughly. His thumb rubs her clit, and he presses his face against her neck, murmuring words she can’t understand.
It doesn’t take long, both of them already desperate and on edge, and she cries out when she comes, her teeth sinking into his shoulder as he jerks into her one last time. She can feel the dampness of his tears against her skin.
Eventually, he rolls to the side, and she sits up. She watches him stare at the ceiling for a few moments until she can trust her legs to hold her weight.
Standing, Sophie says softly, “Stay here tonight.”
“Okay.” He doesn’t look at her.
She goes to her small bathroom and turns on the shower. Avoiding her reflection in the mirror, she steps gingerly under the steaming hot spray, and the water beats against her back as tears slide down her cheeks.
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Author: alinaandalion
Rating: M/NC-17
Spoilers: All three books of the Hunger Games trilogy.
Warnings: Drug use, cursing, dubious con, and character death
Characters: Sophie Devereaux, Nathan Ford, Finnick Odair, Johanna Mason, Eliot Spencer, Parker, Alec Hardison, Tara Cole, Katniss Everdeen, Peeta Mellark, various other characters, and minor OCs.
Pairings: Nate/Sophie, Sophie/Finnick, Sophie/Tara, Parker/Hardison, Annie/Finnick, Peeta/Katniss, and Johanna/Gale.
Summary: As a Victor, Sophie Devereaux has spent the last fifteen years of her life trying not to feel. But rumors bring news of rebellion, hope for a better future. A second chance.
Part Three: to fall apart
“It takes ten times as long to put yourself back together as it does to fall apart.”
- Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
“And I asked myself about the present: how wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep.”
- Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
“What change would have altered the course of events? In the big picture, nothing. In the small picture, so much.”
- Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Chapter Seven: watch as it all fades away
“Can’t make this all go away
Now that you’re bleeding, you stare at the ceiling,
And watch as it all fades away
From what you do, because of you.”
- “Because of You” by Nickelback
“You look like shit.”
Sophie doesn’t look up from her plate as she says, “You’re the one who is going through withdrawal, Haymitch.”
“I went through withdrawal.”
“Right.” Sophie looks up at him with a placid smile. “What exactly do you want?”
Haymitch sits down at the table across from her, his tray clattering against the wood. “Maybe I just want to enjoy your company.”
“You never talk to anyone without some ulterior motive. You forget that I know you.”
“Okay, look, I need a favor.” He pushes his fork deep into his mound of turnips and frowns.
“Another one?” she asks flatly as she picks up the small heel of her bread and starts to tear it into tiny pieces, the shreds falling indiscriminately on top of her meat stew.
Sighing, he rubs a hand along his forehead and says, “Seriously, sweetheart, I have a migraine, and I don’t need to deal with this kind of shit from you. I know that you’re angry, and, listen, I get it. But I’m not the only one who fucked that up, and you know it.”
“Tell me what you want.”
“It’s Katniss. She wants to go back to District Twelve. I don’t trust most of these people to keep a handle on her.”
“And you think I’m just right for the job?” Sophie raises an eyebrow and shakes her head. “Haymitch, the girl doesn’t like me. She thinks I’m a manipulative whore.”
Haymitch snorts. “She actually said that to you?”
“No. Gale keeps muttering similar things while we’re on the training field together, and those two are joined at the hip.”
Taking a big bite of his stew, Haymitch chews it as Sophie watches, smiling in amusement when he chokes and pulls a bone out of his mouth. He drops his fork and takes a long swallow of water.
“Well, I don’t need her to be your biggest fan. What I need is to know that there’s at least one person out there who will keep her safe. I don’t trust anyone else to look out for her best interests,” he explains carefully.
“What about Gale? They’re best friends.”
“He’s…angry. In the heat of the moment, I don’t know exactly what he might do, and that makes him untrustworthy.”
She sighs and taps her fork against her plate as she stares across the table at him. The thing is, she’ll have more power over him if she refuses; but she’ll have less of a chance of getting what she really wants.
“I’ll do it,” she tells him finally. “On one condition.”
“What do you want?”
“Get Nate and all the others back.”
“Done.”
***************
Sophie glances out the hovercraft window again and watches the ashes in the streets float on a meandering breeze. Katniss has long since disappeared from sight. However, Hardison equipped everyone on board with earbuds manufactured in Special Defense back in District Thirteen, so they’re still able to hear Katniss.
As she observes the ruins of District Twelve through the hazy light, Sophie shudders and wraps her arms tight around her body. She can’t imagine going back to her home to find it like this. The thought makes bile crawl up her throat.
“I think we should call her back now,” Boggs says quietly, looking to Gale who is sprawled in a seat across from Sophie.
“Is there an incoming threat?” Gale asks.
“No,” Boggs says slowly.
“Then we should give her a little bit longer. This is…was her home.” Gale balls his right hand into a fist and shakes his head.
“Do you think this will help her?” Sophie says in a soft voice.
Gale frowns. “With what? Putting her life back together? Being the Mockingjay?”
“Move on,” Sophie clarifies. “Which might involve becoming the Mockingjay, but that’s her decision.”
“She thinks all of this is her fault. How the hell is she going to move on from that?”
“I don’t know. You’re her best friend, Gale.” Sophie sighs. “I assume you know more about what she needs to move past all of this than any of us.”
“Because it’s so easy to move on.” His mouth twists as he looks out the window. “It’s not that easy for us, me and Katniss. Not like it is for people like you.”
Sophie presses her mouth into a thin line and leans forward. “There are a lot of things you don’t know about me, Gale. Don’t assume you know me just because I am a victor and you saw me a few times on your television.”
“We’ve got an incoming hovercraft,” Boggs announces from where he’s standing with the pilot. “They’re a little over an hour out, but we should leave now before they know we’ve been here.”
Gale presses the switch that changes the frequency of his earbud and says, “Katniss, we need to go.”
A few minutes pass, during which Gale shifts uncomfortably in his seat, clearly worried that Katniss is going to ignore him. Boggs watches him with an impassive expression. Sophie curls her legs underneath her and eventually closes her eyes until the ladder is lowered and pulls Katniss back up into the hovercraft.
Katniss dumps a leather bag into the seat beside Sophie and collapses on Gale’s left, sweat gathered on her upper lip and her eyes slightly wider than normal. Sophie peers at the worn bag and jumps back when it moves with a vicious hiss.
“What’s in there?” Sophie asks.
Katniss digs her earbud out of her ear and hands it off to Gale. “My sister’s cat. Buttercup.”
“Do they even allow pets in District Thirteen?” Gale says as he pulls out his own earbud.
“They’ll make an exception.” Katniss shrugs and smiles slightly. “People always make exceptions for Prim.”
As the cat’s hisses escalate into howls, Sophie considers asking if she can at least hold the poor animal for the duration of the journey back to District Thirteen, but Katniss just kicks the bag and relaxes into her seat when the noises stop.
Sophie decides that she won’t push her luck.
***************
“What was it like there? Was there anything left?”
Sophie turns her head, her cheek pressing against the cool grass, and looks at Parker. “It was awful. There were ashes everywhere, and I just…it was horrible.”
Parker stares back at her and after a few seconds pass by without a response, Sophie focuses back on the hummingbirds flying around the enclosed glass dome. Hardison and Beetee sit at a table right behind the two women, and she can catch pieces of their conversation.
She and Parker aren’t technically supposed to be down here in Special Defense as much as they are, but no one in District Thirteen seems too eager to point that out. Especially since Parker is still wearing a bracelet that marks her as “mentally disoriented.”
Sophie cut hers off and tossed it into the trash the second she was allowed out of her hospital bed.
Rolling onto her side, Sophie closes her eyes, curls her fingers into the grass, and listens to the gentle hum of noise around her. It isn’t long before her muscles tighten in her legs and her heartbeat echoes loudly in her ears, so she pushes herself up and wraps her arms around her knees.
“I don’t like it underground,” Parker says softly, her blonde hair lusterless under the stark lighting. “I feel like I’m suffocating.”
“They let you out for exercise above ground,” Sophie replies.
Parker frowns and moves swiftly to her feet. “That wasn’t what I meant.” She rolls her sleeve up and rubs a finger against the schedule inked onto her skin. “I’m still not free.”
“We will be one day.” Sophie digs her nails deep into the fabric of her grey clothing and watches one bright red hummingbird flutter close to the top of the dome.
“Will we?”
Parker whirls around and stalks out of the glass dome; Hardison follows after her, leaving Sophie and Beetee behind in the glass dome. Pulling up her sleeve, Sophie stares down at the words written along the inside of her arm until her vision blurs.
***************
Sophie sits on a narrow hospital bed across from Finnick and watches as his fingers tie knots in his short piece of rope. She has a similar string in her hands, but it’s hanging listlessly over her knee.
After the evening’s previous events in Command, with the first Capitol broadcast of Peeta since their escape from the arena, Sophie feels the urge to start running instead of sitting here tying knots.
“They’re calling Peeta a traitor in Command,” she finally says when the silence stretches on too long.
Finnick doesn’t look up from his rope. “He’s calling for a ceasefire. Of course they think that.”
“But he didn’t sign up for this.” She sighs and twists her rope through her fingers, pulls it taut against her skin. “We don’t know when his interview was recorded, what he was told by the Capitol. How can we hold him accountable to standards he doesn’t even know exist?”
“They’re coming at it from a different angle. Peeta is really the one who got people to listen to him, not Katniss. What happens if this interview harms the rebellion?”
“Then we never had a chance to begin with.”
“But everyone needs to hold someone accountable for when things go wrong.” Finnick smiles, but his fingers tremble. “You know how it’s been for us for years. Why should it ever change?”
“Because what’s the point in fighting the Capitol if we’re going to be the exact same?” Sophie asks quietly.
“I don’t know.” He runs his fingers through his hair and starts tying his knots again. “But Peeta looked all right, didn’t he? I mean, he didn’t look like they were torturing him. So, maybe Annie’s okay?”
“Finnick.”
“No, don’t. Don’t say it.”
“It’s getting late. You know they don’t like it when I’m here too long,” Sophie tells him.
She slides her feet to the floor and stands, shoving her rope deep into her pocket. When she reaches the door, she looks back to where Finnick is still crouched in his bed, fingers tugging and pulling the rope into intricate knots. She fumbles her hand into her right pocket and curls her fingers tight around her length of rope as she leaves.
***************
Sophie trails her fingers over the cool underground walls as she winds her way to the hospital wing to see Finnick. She’s taking a circuitous route because she has no desire to run into anyone at the moment, not after the arguments in Command over Peeta where Sophie was his sole defender and insinuated that District Thirteen should be punished for abandoning the other districts for seventy-five years if they insisted on holding Peeta accountable for words he was forced to say.
Even though none of her privileges have been revoked, Sophie is in no hurry to put herself in the line of fire.
Then Haymitch appears in front of her, and she stops in her tracks, eyeing him warily as she frowns.
“You’re to report with me to the Airborne Division,” he says simply.
Sighing, she asks, “Another trip to District Twelve?”
“Nope, District Eight this time.”
“We’re going to drop into the middle of a war zone? With Katniss? Whose genius idea was that?”
“Well, sweetheart, if you weren’t too busy avoiding Command after your…spirited defense of Peeta, you would know that Katniss is useless on script. If we want to get anything inspiring out of her, we have to let her do something.” He turns and starts to walk away from her, taking the first left as she follows. “You’ll finally be getting a chance to put your new skills to use.”
“But, wait, if you’re going, why do I have to?” she says hesitantly, stopping.
“You don’t actually think I’m part of the ground troops?” He snorts and grabs her arm. “You’re smarter than that. I’ll be supervising from the hovercraft, but you’re the back-up in case our little Mockingjay gets it into her head to do something reckless and stupid.”
“And when exactly are you going to deliver on your half of the bargain? I’m not going to continue to run around after Katniss indefinitely, Haymitch.”
“I’m working on it. Hopefully, a rescue can happen soon. The tricky part is convincing Coin and her lackeys that the benefits outweigh the costs.”
“Well, do it. And soon.” Sophie frowns and pulls free from his grasp. “Don’t forget that I know all of the same tricks as you.”
Pushing past him, she walks the rest of the way to the hovercraft storage area by herself.
***************
“How’s she doing?” Haymitch asks through the earbud in Sophie’s ear.
Sophie smiles slightly as she watches Katniss move through the makeshift hospital in District Eight, Gale by her side. “She’s doing very well. Is everything all right up there?”
“Just peachy, sweetheart.”
Rolling her eyes, Sophie pulls at the strap over her shoulders attached to her gun. She has specialized knives Hardison crafted for her, light and slender and deadly, but they’re more effective in close range. But she does have a couple of the knives tucked into her belt in case she needs them.
Not that she will be fighting any battles today. If a conflict arises, they all have strict orders to get Katniss out of the area as quickly as possible.
Sophie sincerely doubts that Katniss will go along with that plan, though.
Paylor comes up beside Boggs and peers around him at Sophie. “You’re a victor, too, aren’t you? From District…Four?”
“That’s correct,” Sophie replies. “Do you need me to do anything?”
“I guess no one really believed any victors would be interested in rebelling against the Capitol,” Paylor says with a shrug of her shoulders. “I mean, everyone understood why Katniss would want to.”
Sophie eyes Paylor carefully and presses her mouth into a thin line, finally saying, “I don’t think you do know the real reason Katniss chose to be the Mockingjay. And all of the victors have good reason to be angry with the Capitol.”
“Well, what?”
Boggs clears his throat and gestures toward the hospital. “Looks like Katniss is done. We should probably see how she is.”
Looking in the direction of the hospital, Sophie sees Katniss approaching the small group, her body shaking and her face white. Gale keeps a firm grip on Katniss’ hand as the camera crew forms a small semi-circle around them.
“Did you get what you needed?” Katniss asks quietly.
“You did great,” Boggs says with a warm smile.
Then Haymitch’s voice says sharply, “We’ve got approaching hovercraft. You need to get Katniss back to us right now. We’ll meet you at the airstrip.”
Immediately, Boggs grabs Katniss as he says, “Incoming bombers. We need to go to the airstrip. Now.”
Sophie sees a confused look pass over Katniss’ face, but she ignores it for now and falls in just behind Boggs and Katniss, Gale jogging beside her. The skies are still clear, and Katniss drags her feet. Then the sirens start, and Sophie can hear the panic starting in the hospital area, feels the fear hum through her veins as Boggs picks up the pace.
Hover-planes appear in a V-formation, and bombs rain down. The first explosions knock them all to the ground. Sophie hits the wall of the warehouse they just passed, and before she can move, Gale flings himself on top of her and shields her from the next wave.
“There’s a light blue warehouse three down from you. It has an underground bunker where you can wait this out,” Plutarch says calmly in her earbud. “Do you think you can make it there?”
“We’ll do our best,” Boggs replies, keeping a firm grip on Katniss as he moves forward.
“You have about forty-five seconds until the next wave,” Plutarch tells them.
Sophie keeps close on Gale’s tail, and when they are just about to reach the warehouse, she catches the scream of fresh bombs falling through the air. Someone shoves her, hard, and Sophie’s back hits the wall with enough force to knock the breath from her lungs. This time, Boggs is the one who braces himself between her and the explosions.
“They don’t know Katniss is here, do they?” Sophie asks.
“No. They have to be targeting something else,” Boggs replies slowly.
Then Gale jumps off the ground, shouting, “They’re targeting the hospital!”
Sophie watches Katniss grab her earbud out of her ear and throw it to the ground, and then the Mockingjay runs to the brown warehouse across the street.
“Go after her!” Haymitch bellows in Sophie’s ear.
Gritting her teeth, Sophie takes off across the street right behind Boggs. He starts up the access ladder, but then he grunts and falls heavily against the metal.
“What’s wrong?” Sophie calls up to him.
Boggs turns to look down at her, his face a bloody mess. “Broke my nose. Get up there.”
He’s close enough to the ground that he jumps down, and Sophie keeps climbing until she reaches the roof. Katniss and Gale are already in a machine gun nest, kneeling with their bows strung.
Sophie runs to the next nest and crouches behind one of the unmanned guns.
“You know what you’re doing?” a man shouts at her.
Smiling grimly, Sophie loads the gun with ammunition and angles it up to where the bombers will appear when they drop their sight shields.
“A little bit,” she tosses back with a laugh.
As the hovercrafts fly into view, Sophie tracks one in the middle, shooting a short burst of bullets at it. She misses completely. Swearing under her breath, she locks onto the next one and aims a little ahead of it. This time, she scores several hits, one that severely damages a wing.
It still manages to drop its bombs before swerving away, and as the formation disappears, another moves forward to take its place. Now that she has an idea of the speed of the hovercraft, Sophie sends a barrage of bullets into the craft just behind the point one. It crashes into the street below.
Then a third wave comes in, and Sophie scrambles to re-load before they get too close. Her fingers tremble as she grabs fresh bullets and loads them into the gun. She positions her sightline so she can get one of the trailing hover-planes, and she manages to decimate one wing so that the hovercraft tilts and falls out of the air.
“All right, that’s it!” Paylor shouts down the line of nests.
Sophie releases her death-grip on the machine gun to clamber out of the nest, and she runs over to join Gale and Katniss.
“Did they hit the hospital?” he asks as Paylor wipes some dirt off her face.
Paylor frowns. “Must have.”
“We need to get out of here,” Sophie interrupts gently. “Come on. The rest of them are close by.”
Katniss acknowledges Sophie with a nod of her head and runs to the ladder. Sophie follows behind, and Haymitch starts with a litany of complaints now that it’s not too loud for him to be heard. Or maybe he’s been talking in her ear this entire time and she just didn’t notice.
“So, instead of doing your job and protecting Katniss, you climb right up there with her and start shooting hovercraft? Are all of you insane? Why the fuck didn’t you grab her and make her get out of there?”
Sophie sighs and falls in with the group that is trailing Katniss to the smoldering ruins of the hospital. “If you don’t like how I’m doing this job, why don’t you just do it yourself, Haymitch? Then you can be the one she shoots when you get in her way.”
Then she takes the earbud out of her ear and draws even with Gale and Katniss.
“Why would they do something like that?” Katniss asks quietly. “They were all injured. They couldn’t do anything.”
“Because this is what the Capitol does. It attacks where you’re weakest until you give in,” Sophie says in a soft voice. “In the end, Snow would rather make Panem a burning crater than surrender power.”
“How do you know so much about the Capitol?” Gale asks as he turns to look at Sophie, his eyes hard.
Sophie just shakes her head and stares at the embers flickering in the ashes of the hospital. “I know.”
***************
When Sophie walks into her room, she pauses in the doorway at the sight of Finnick huddled on the edge of her bed.
“Finnick?” she asks softly, shutting the door and walking over to him.
He looks up at her with eyes red and swollen from crying. “What are they doing to them? Just…they have Annie, and it’s my fault.”
Sophie closes her eyes, tries not to think about Peeta’s shaking hands, wide fearful eyes, a body that trembled in pain with every movement, because each time she remembers, she sees Nate in Peeta’s place. Whatever is happening in the Capitol to the surviving Victors taken from the arena, it will only get worse.
“You saw Peeta’s interview,” Sophie says as she threads her fingers through his messy hair. “You think they’re doing the same thing to Annie.”
“But I don’t know what the fuck made him look like that!” Finnick wrenches away from her and buries his face in his hands. “I was supposed to take care of her. But we’re here, and the Capitol has Annie, and I can’t do a fucking thing about it.”
Sighing, she sits down beside him and wraps her left arm around his waist, resting her chin on his shoulder. “Annie isn’t defenseless, Finnick. She’s stronger than you sometimes give her credit for. You’re going to get her back. I promise.”
“It isn’t fair,” he whispers. “It should have been me.”
“I know.”
She frowns and tightens her arm around him. Finnick lifts his head and looks at her steadily. He kisses her before she can move away, but it only takes a moment before Sophie is leaning into his lips, fingers digging reflexively into his hip. His teeth bite down hard on her bottom lip until she can taste copper, feel the slick slide of blood on the tip of her tongue as she opens her mouth with a gasp.
They’ve always used each other through the years, taking and giving equally. It’s never been exactly right or fair, but it’s been the two of them for so long that she knows this is about forgetting, needing someone who knows and cares. Besides, this is all they’ve known for so long that this is all she has left to give to him or to almost anyone.
As she pulls his loose cotton shirt over his head, his fingers find the buttons of her muted grey blouse and unfasten them with a gentleness that is at odds with the way his tongue pushes into her mouth. He flicks her plain black bra’s clasp open with ease that comes from years of practice and gropes her breast, tugging at her nipple until she gasps and rolls her hips up into his.
Sophie pushes her pants down her thighs, underwear going with them, and loops her legs around Finnick’s waist as the fabric hits the floor. He presses a hand against her center, slides two fingers through her growing dampness. He gets his pants down just enough for his cock to spring free, and then he pushes into her with a grunt.
She whines at the press of him inside her and feels him shudder underneath her fingertips; urging him on with a rock of her hips, Sophie lets her head fall back and her eyes close as he thrusts into her roughly. His thumb rubs her clit, and he presses his face against her neck, murmuring words she can’t understand.
It doesn’t take long, both of them already desperate and on edge, and she cries out when she comes, her teeth sinking into his shoulder as he jerks into her one last time. She can feel the dampness of his tears against her skin.
Eventually, he rolls to the side, and she sits up. She watches him stare at the ceiling for a few moments until she can trust her legs to hold her weight.
Standing, Sophie says softly, “Stay here tonight.”
“Okay.” He doesn’t look at her.
She goes to her small bathroom and turns on the shower. Avoiding her reflection in the mirror, she steps gingerly under the steaming hot spray, and the water beats against her back as tears slide down her cheeks.
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six