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District 13 is not nearly as bad as everyone who complains about it makes it out to be, Enobaria decides. District 2 and District 13 seem to have a lot in common, actually, and now that she's here, she understands what Plutarch was alluding to. Those who push back against it the most, like Haymitch, just must come from Districts without a lot of rules and order and bureaucracy. For Enobaria, it's just another system to learn, like the Training Academy, and so it doesn't take that long to adjust.
Breakfast in the morning, once she receives her schedule in a temporary tattoo on her arm. A workout session with military training baked in. A session in the afternoon with the advisory council. Dinner, then a mandatory visit to one of the recreation facilities. A shower, and then back to her bunk, which was a double, the other half currently unoccupied. Then a rather sleepless night.
The advisory sessions are the worst, in fact, they feel like torture specifically designed for Enobaria, and probably for Finnick and Katniss, too. They review clips recorded in the Capitol for any clues, forced to watched and rewatch and study and zoom in for even the most mundane details. They know Johanna is being held captive there, as well as Peeta and Annie. Sometimes they'll show Annie, at some Capitol function, or sitting near Snow at some press event. Sometimes they'll show Peeta, having him read a script or give an interview. But usually it's Johanna, her game show slot converted to a nightly report called 'Tonight in Panem' where she reviews news, special interest stories, and Capitol war propaganda.
"She's on Tranks again," Haymitch says, watching that night's episode as they sit in the conference room. Coin looks on with her usual non-expression, and her scribe takes notes. "You can tell because she's blinking for too long."
"At least they took away the Peacekeepers," Finnick says. There had been two days when the entire episode had been recorded when two Peacekeepers with rifles standing on the soundstage behind Johanna. No soldiers on the stage was indeed a marked improvement, optics-wise.
"Tonight in Panem, we visit a village in District 12 that has been decimated by rebel forces," Johanna says. Her words are clipped, a little unnatural, but she makes them sound convincing.
"Does she really think anyone would buy that the rebels bombed District 12?" Katniss asks. Enobaria can tell she's emotional, and more than once she's thought about asking if it's necessary to make Katniss attend these. But she doesn't want to watch Johanna forced to record these, so she doesn't have much emotion to spare for anyone else.
"I think some people will buy it," Plutarch says. "They trust Johanna, they've been watching her for years."
"I think they just moved the Peacekeepers and the rifles to the other side of the camera," Enobaria says. Haymitch gives her a look that indicates he was thinking the same thing.
Her whole existence in 13 is like being in purgatory, mainly because of the fact that Johanna is still being held by the Capitol and Cashmere is dead. She has tried and tried to get Coin to go back to rescue Johanna and the others, and has been met with 'when the time is right' sort of non-answers.
The only respite is that her brother is here. Tullus, Antonia, her two nieces have all somehow found their way to District 13. They've both been training with the military here, in communications, and the girls have been going to school and helping in the greenhouses. She likes to challenge her brother in games during the recreation hour, just to get rid of some of her pent-up energy.
But it doesn't matter what they do, the conversation always ends up going the same way. "I bet they're being held in the same kind of prison I was," he says, one evening as they're shooting pool. "The way she looks on television, it's like she hasn't seen the sun in weeks."
Enobaria had noticed it, of course. The pale skin, the weight loss, the bruises that makeup couldn't quite cover. Even in District 13 they were allowed some time above ground to get sun, and they had areas to let some light in. But it isn't until almost a month later that something finally changes.
"And lastly, tonight in Panem, keep an eye on the sky," Johanna says.
"What is that, that's off script," Haymitch says, rewinding. They replay it, watching closely to follow Johanna's eyes. She looks to be staring right into the camera.
"Keep playing it."
"Even if you aren't someone who follows the constellations, take a look outside, it might surprise you. Alright, from the Capitol, this is Johanna Mason, signing off."
The broadcast cuts out roughly, there are no credits, just a black screen and then, after a few seconds, the Capitol logo. Enobaria has a bad feeling about it.
"That had to be a warning," Katniss says.
"You think?"
Enobaria nods. "I don't think she's kept anywhere with a view of the sky. That was probably a bombing warning."
Coin requests some of her soldiers scan for incoming aircraft, and an alert is issued as some are detected. "Get into the lower shelters, now!"
She sits near her family, waiting out the bombs, her nieces sniffling quietly. Haymitch comes to sit beside her. "Hey," he says.
"I should have found her earlier in the Games."
"You played the Games perfectly," he says. "You both did. It was our fault, on the outside, for not being able to rescue everyone."
She wonders why she's not more angry, why she doesn't have a knife to Coin's throat demanding she get Johanna out of the Capitol. Why she doesn't punch Haymitch in the face for trying to placate her with his words, for shifting the blame onto himself and other vague conspirators instead of some mistake she made somewhere along the line that doomed Johanna. She's defective, she thinks, probably. The Capitol broke something in her, made her incapable of believing that things would ever turn out well.
She'd wanted to believe in the same rebellion as the rest of them, but it was impossible for her. Maybe it was growing up in 2, where the Peacekeepers were beside her every day, instilling in her that the Capitol's might was inevitable, that she needed to fall in line or die. Or maybe it came later, after she had won her Games, when she learned that any time she tried to claim a small pleasure for herself, the realities of her situation would come down twice as hard. She thinks of that photograph, still probably lodged in a drawer in her now-abandoned apartment in the Capitol. Snow made good on the threat, she realizes. She tried to exercise her ability to rebel, and now he was doing who knows what, probably unspeakable things to Johanna.
The decision is made to rescue the hostages the day after the bombing, once Coin realizes that she can't get Katniss to 'perform' the way she wants if Peeta is likely being tortured. Secretly, Enobaria thinks that if not for this, Coin would have let it go a lot longer, since Johanna has been feeding them so much information about the Capitol.
Plutarch steps in as well, on Johanna's behalf. "We need her on this side. Whoever has Johanna Mason controls public opinion," he tells Coin. "The longer we let Snow make broadcasts telling everyone things are fine, the more people will believe it."
This, too, seems to sway Coin, and a team is put together to rescue the captives. She doesn't want to go. She is terrified to return to the Capitol, terrified to encounter that prison like the one she found her brother in. And yet she has to go. How could she stay behind while Johanna is suffering in the Capitol? Her life here is fine, but it would always be lacking, always be filled with regret if she didn't go. And so she suits up with the others, in the District 13 military uniform, standard issue gun in hand, and loads into the hovercraft.
It's strange that the first military uniform she's ever worn is the rebel one, but no one else seems to find it strange. It's customary in District 13 to be addressed by last name only, so a little patch with 'Weaver' embroidered on it is velcroed to her chest. They all know who she is by her teeth, though. Everyone always does.
It's tense on the flight out, the techs scanning for anti-aircraft weapons in the vicinity of the Capitol, using shielding and evasive actions to get through. They land on the roof of a building on the edge of the east district of the Capitol, and then it's a flurry of movement. They need to break into the hatch on the roof, disable the two people inside the building, get to the tunnel in the basement, and follow a maze of underground corridors until they get to the right one that leads to the prison. They had somehow mapped this in advance, Enobaria has no idea how, but she follows along, weapon ready. Her job is assault on the guards in the prison. They know she has killed, that she can kill again. She takes a deep breath as the soldier at the front, Hawthorne, kicks in the door.
It's chilly, and lit by fluorescent lights, more like a kennel than a place to put humans. She sees Annie Cresta first, behind a metal grate, backed up against the wall, looking at them with such fear. They make their way in further, Hawthorne holding up the shield, and she sees Johanna, across from Annie in a similar cell, in a prison uniform instead of the pretty outfits they put her in for television, no makeup, her hair loose and limp. She looks over, but barely, like she's in a morphling daze.
"Mellark is here," one of the other soldiers says, and she assumes Peeta looks about the same: starved and unwell, kept in conditions more suited for an animal than a human.
It's odd that the guards aren't around, she thinks, until suddenly there are people on all sides. Annie screams first, alerting her to a man behind her holding some sort of electrical prod. She shoots him almost reflexively, but he has that awful Peacekeeper armor that is almost bulletproof unless you get in between the plating. Or right in the face. She fixes her aim and shoots him between the eyes. It's too easy to kill when she imagines that this person is the one who hurt Johanna, and the one behind him, and the one behind him.
The next two have guns, and she needs to be more careful, but even so, they're kind of slow, like they're not used to using them, or they're shocked by the sheer violence of these soldiers coming in and gunning everyone down. She sees the fourth and final guard on her side turn to point the gun at Annie instead, which does allow for the shielding at his temples to do its job protecting his face, but she kicks him, forcing him to look back at her for just a moment before she gets the final shot in.
A few more seconds, and the violence quiets down on the other side too. "Hold on, I think the release is in this station up here," Hawthorne says, walking up to some sort of booth at the end of the corridor. Enobaria shudders as he passes at least 6 more cells, currently empty, but she can easily imagine them full, enemies of the Capitol rotting away down here without anyone knowing. Had this been going on while she was sipping wine at the clubs? Almost certainly. It happened to her brother.
Hawthorne releases the locks on the cells, and they help the captives out. She kneels beside Johanna, realizing only then that this is the first time she's seen her since they were lowered into the arena. "Hey, it's me," she says quietly. "It's going to be alright."
"They're going to come back," Johanna says, mumbling a bit from the drugs, but the fear in her voice is evident.
Enobaria doesn't ask who. She doesn't want to know who. "Then let's go before that happens. Can you walk?"
She and another soldier help Johanna to her feet. She sees that all three of the captives need help walking after so much time imprisoned, and she hopes that they've accounted for the extra time it will take to get back to the hovercraft. "Let's move," Hawthorne calls, setting a brisk pace.
They end up drag-carrying Annie, Peeta, and Johanna, but the most important thing is escaping the Capitol. The stairs back up to the roof are the hardest part. One of the soldiers just carries Peeta, and Enobaria realizes she can probably do the same. Johanna is too light - she can feel her bones pressing against her, all the muscle and fat wasted away after a month of starving in that prison.
One of the soldiers throws a towel over the captives eyes before they reach the roof. At first Enobaria thinks it's for any cameras, but then she realizes they're in full rebel garb, cameras would identify them right away. It was for the bright sunlight, which must be hard to adjust to after a month.
The hovercraft is still there, for which she is grateful, but she can hear shouting following them from behind. "We need to go, now!" Hawthorne shouts at the pilot as they enter, pulling up the door behind him as soon as the last person is on board. "Now!"
The hovercraft takes off, shields activated, and not a moment too soon, as Enobaria can hear something hitting the hull, bullets perhaps, and the can hear the techs murmuring with more and more urgency. "Anti-aircraft weapons detected eastbound, rerouting 2 ticks south."
She focuses on the captives, now free, who were laying on makeshift cots in the cabin. Peeta was sleeping, dark circles under his eyes, a light sheen of sweat on his brow. One of the women is looking him over. Annie is sitting wide awake, blatant worry on her face, and she pulls her knees to her chest, as if to make herself as small as possible. "We're from District 13," Hawthorne tells her. "We're going to take you there. Finnick is there, and Katniss Everdeen."
She brightens visibly at the mention of Finnick, but she still looks at them with distrust, as if perhaps this is a trick, and they were getting her hopes up only to show her some new horror. Enobaria can't blame her. She feels the same way after spending time in the Capitol.
Johanna is half-leaning on the wall and half leaning on Enobaria, some Capitol drug obviously working its way through her system. One of the soldiers rolls up her sleeve, and they can see the injection tracks on her left elbow. "Hey, I don't know what they gave you, so I need you to stay awake until we get to District 13, ok?" the soldier says.
Johanna seems to not have understood any of this. "She's not a mutt," is all she says in reply, something that Enobaria cannot make heads of tails of.
When they finally get back to District 13, it feels like it's been hours. Perhaps it has. The pilot and navigator insist on taking circuitous routes in case they're being followed, and only when they're completely certain that they're alone do they land back underground in District 13. Johanna has nodded off at some point, but Enobaria has a hand on her wrist, feeling her pulse, and is watching her chest rise and fall. Only Annie remains awake, hyperalert, as if waiting to see if she's moments away from rejoining Finnick or falling into a new and different trap.
They emerge into a corridor in District 13 that is buzzing with activity. There are Healers, more soldiers and other support staff. Enobaria watches as Peeta, Johanna, and Annie are taken to the infirmary, while she and the others are taken in for a debriefing, assessed for injuries, and given a meal, her first in almost a day. "I think they wanted us to take them," one of the female soldiers says, during the debriefing.
Coin isn't there, but her scribe is taking notes, watching them attentively. "What do you mean?" she asks.
"The anti-aircraft artillery never activated, even though it had the lock-on. The hovercraft was spotted on the roof, and they didn't even try to put restraints on it. And the prison itself, it was almost too easy to break into."
"But why?" one of the other soldiers in their crew asks. "Why would they willingly give up assets?"
Enobaria thinks she learns why after she leaves the dining room, when she gets a report from Haymitch that Peeta tried to kill Katniss. "He called her a mutt," he says, "He tried to strangle her."
She doesn't know what to make of this, exactly, except that it was exactly the sort of insanity that would come out of that underground facility. "They drugged Jo. You think they drugged him?"
"It's the only thing that makes sense. He's not in his right mind, and it's not wearing off. This is more than just a drug, though. This is like… brainwashing."
Enobaria thinks of Johanna on the hovercraft, murmuring 'she's not a mutt'. Had she been saying such things to Peeta for days? Had she known this was the plan? "They let us rescue them, with the hope he'd kill the Mockingjay," she concludes.
"Looks that way," Haymitch says. "Tried to give Johanna a lethal dose of something, too, but the Healers have stabilized her."
Enobaria goes to the infirmary, unsure if they'll allow visitors in, but she sees Finnick sitting beside Annie, and quietly walks in further until she sees Johanna on a cot in the corner. She looks exhausted but awake, hooked up to an IV line and staring at the ceiling tiles, her eyes shifting to Enobaria as she sits down in the chair beside the bed. "I missed you," Enobaria says, the other things she wants to say suddenly feeling like too much or not enough. She wants to apologize, and she wants to say she's been scared. She wants to say that maybe this was all a mistake, but how could they have avoided any of this? The Quarter Quell would have killed them if they didn't try the rebel plan.
Johanna shifts under the blankets, and Enobaria realizes belatedly that she's reaching for her hand. She finds it and holds it, Johanna's hand too cold, too bony. "I thought… maybe… you died," she says, her voice quiet. She's unable to meet Enobaria's eyes.
Enobaria shakes her head. "No, I'm still here. If they told you I died, it was a lie," she says. She can't imagine what lies they probably told Johanna, who they said was dead, what they said was happening in Panem outside of her cell and the studio where she recorded the television program. For all she knew, she, Peeta, and Annie were all that was left. "I'm sorry it took so long to come," she says.
Johanna squeezes her hand, an acknowledgement. The Capitol has wronged them both, the rebels may not be any better. But Johanna does trust her, at least. "Stay here?" she asks.
"Of course."