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As the weeks go by after Johanna was brought to District 13, Enobaria notices that she leaves the room less and less. At first she attended the advisory committee meetings, went to meals, even went to some recreation activities, though she was never good about sticking to the schedule on her tattoo.
Now, a month in, she rarely leaves to even get the tattoo, which means she doesn't get breakfast, and usually spends the rest of the day in the room as well: sleeping, reading, finding small diversions, but generally just avoiding everyone else in District 13. Enobaria had mentioned this to Peeta, and he had made a rare exception to the meals rule to allow Johanna to eat in her room, even bringing her food twice per day.
The whole set up felt far too much like a prison for Enobaria's liking, and she brings it up to Johanna one evening after returning from her daily schedule: breakfast, morning workout and military training, lunch, afternoon shift at the communications center, dinner, and evening rec.
"You don't have to follow the schedule, you should just get out a bit. Go to the greenhouse, or take a walk." She doesn't know why she says this, exactly, it just feels right. Something was wrong with Johanna spending her entire life inside this little box underground, even if it was by choice.
"Maybe," Johanna says.
And so she goes, the next day, to work in the kitchen with Peeta. Enobaria doesn't understand the two of them, really, because they don't seem like a good match at first glance: Johanna so sarcastic, Peeta so genuine, Johanna easily frustrated, Peeta endlessly patient, Johanna picky and Peeta making due with the rations of District 13. But she sees them huddled together in the kitchens during lunch service, Peeta showing Johanna how to work a certain machine, or Johanna making Peeta laugh about something. She supposes it really is the connection forged in bad things happening to them: of being in the arena twice, of missing the hovercraft that should have been their salvation, and being stuck in that Capitol prison. Because Peeta was trapped just as long as Johanna, Enobaria remembers, so they probably kept each other company somehow, at least.
And while Johanna is in the kitchens, she goes to work in the communications center, alongside her brother and sister-in-law, working on hacking into Capitol broadcasts, or intercepting letters or digital messages that would give them insight into Capitol plans. Her current assignment is coded messages to Lyme, the rebel Victor who was still living in District 2. The rebel plan is to destroy the Nut, and everything inside: Capitol tech, weapons, intelligence, but she's trying to figure out a way to flush as many of the soldiers out as possible. Coin doesn't seem to care much, either way, but Tullus and Enobaria agree: it's bad optics, plus the soldiers in District 2 were assigned there since birth, they had no more choice than the miners of District 12 or the loggers of District 7.
Lyme writes back with her plan, encoded in a way that is similar to one of the encryptions taught at the Career academy, but not exactly the same. Enobaria spends the afternoon decrypting it, and presents the plan to the others. It involves a fake military parade that everyone must attend. The key is making it seem authentic.
"It might work," Antonia says. "There's nothing those guys love more than pomp."
"Imagine them all lined up in full regalia, and then 'boom'!" Tullus says.
"Only problem is it'll really piss them off," Enobaria points out.
"But what will they have left? Their ceremonial rifles?"
"You know a lot of them have private weapons in their homes," Antonia says.
The rest of communications is silent. The three of them are the only ones from District 2.
"So do the rebels," Tullus says.
They present the plan to Coin, and she gives the go ahead. Enobaria is nervous, knowing this will lead to fighting in the streets, to death, to her District changing beyond recognition. She wants to tell Johanna, or someone, but the plan hinged on its secrecy, so only the top level and communications were aware, and they watched from the advisory room as the military parade was assembled.
"Think Tamora is there?" Tullus asks.
Enobaria has thought of her sister often, and her mother as well. They both still lived in the District, still loyalists as far as she knew. She nods. She had to get everyone out of the mountain to protect her sister, at least.
When the bombs go off, it's less destructive than Enobaria expects. The mountain seems to change shape, somehow, but she can't see the damage. She expects the dozens of miles of snaking tunnels within it have collapsed, but it's impossible to tell from the outside, especially on the video feed of changing quality. The soldiers in their perfect formations take a few moments to realize what has happened: that this was not a fluke attack that happened during their military parade, but that the parade itself was a ruse.
Then, everything seems to turn to chaos. The formations dissolve. Ranks don't seem to matter anymore as Peacekeepers run in search of better weapons. Enobaria doubts they even know who they want to attack, but it's clear that whoever planted the bombs must still be around, might even be a rebel in Peacekeepers clothes. She goes back to her room unsettled that evening, knowing their plan was better than just killing everyone inside the mountain, but feeling a little too much like a puppet-master for her liking.
Johanna is there, hair still damp from the shower, and she seems to catch onto Enobaria's mood as soon as she enters. "What's wrong?" she asks, standing.
Enobaria doesn't know what to say. 'I might have killed my sister' doesn't feel right, nor does 'We bombed the biggest structure in my District'. "The Peacekeeper base is gone," she says instead, trying to reassure herself that this was actually a good thing.
Johanna seems to stop breathing, and Enobaria imagines she's thinking of all their interactions with Peacekeepers through the years. Buying their company, bullying people in their Districts, making sure they behaved on camera, as prison guards. "Oh," she says. "Oh wow."
Enobaria nods. There's a civil war in District 2, now, but Coin is opitimistic that once 2 falls to the rebels, the war is all but won. She feels cold, and empty. She wraps her arms around Johanna hoping to plug some hole that seems to be endlessly leaking. "It's a good thing," she says.
Johanna nods. "It's a good thing."
It's a few days later when Peeta comes to the communications room. "Enobaria, it's for you," Antonia says, answering the knock.
Enobaria goes to the door to see Peeta, a little red in the face, apron still on. "What is it?" she asks.
"I need you to come with me," he says, his breath a little shaky, obviously having run the distance between the kitchen and communications. "It's Johanna."
She puts her headset down and tells the others she needs to go, following him as he sets off quickly. "What's wrong?" she asks. Her heart is beating too fast in worry - Johanna in an accident, Johanna with a late reaction to one of the drugs they gave her - and she can't think clearly.
"I didn't want to leave her, but the only thing I could think of was to come get you," he says. "Gale is still there."
Gale? Soldier Hawthorne. She forgot they were both from District 12. "Back up, what happened?"
Peeta is almost running now, down the twisting corridors of District 13. "The two soldiers came, Coin's orders. Told Johanna she had to go with him to record some video. She freaked out."
They get to the kitchen, at last, and Enobaria sees Gale leaning against the doorframe, politely out of sight, but ensuring there was no escape. "Where's the other one?" Enobaria asks, to no one, either of them. "You said there was two soldiers."
"My partner went back to report to Coin that Mason is refusing to come."
Enobaria wants to go into the kitchen. She wants to find Johanna, ensure she's alright, but she also cannot just walk away. "You were there," she says. "You were in that fucking prison," she practically spits at him. "You know better than anyone that they kept her locked up until they needed her to be on camera, then they sent soldiers to go retrieve her. Now what? Coin's going to get the report that she won't come and send your partner back with drugs to calm her down?" She laughs, but it's a hollow, wounded sound. "It's the same fucking thing, isn't it?"
Gale holds her stare, his posture just as rigid as when they approached. "It's not the same thing," he says. "Look at this place, it's completely different. I think if you have a gift, to move all of Panem with your words, it's selfish not to use it."
She wants to punch him. She wants to wipe the arrogance off of his face. He's still so young, never been in an arena, and he's lecturing her like he knows so much. But she needs to see Johanna. "Stay out here," she says, her tone serious enough that even he looks nervous.
Inside, the kitchen is empty. It seems like the other staff have all taken their break, probably on Peeta's request, and Enobaria finally finds Johanna, tucked in the small space between two racks. "Hey," she says, crouching down.
"Hey." She can see the half-moon shapes on Johanna's upper arms when her nails have been digging in too hard. She can see her chest rising and falling too quickly.
"Want to go back to the room?"
"I can't," Johanna says. Finally, she meets Enobaria's eyes, but she looks completely hopeless. "They say I have to go with them, I owe it to my country."
"That's bullshit," Enobaria says. "If they can't win this war without one person, there was no way to win this war in the first place." She thinks of the first night she decided to join the rebels, after receiving a picture of herself and Johanna embracing. Now, she's considering betraying them, because they've pushed Johanna too far.
"I can't do it anymore, Enobaria. If I get in front of a camera, I feel like I'm going to die. So if they're going to make me do it again and again, I'd rather just kill myself now and get it over with."
For a moment, Enobaria has nothing to say. She'd considered the Capitol killing Johanna. She'd considered her dying from a drug overdose, or both of them dying in a bombing. Their mortality had always been considered, but they were Victors, they were trained to try to survive. She had never considered Johanna taking her own life, hadn't realized the true depth of her misery. "No," she says. "If that's how you feel, then you just won't have to get in front of a camera again, I promise." She remembers forbidding Johanna to die years ago, and Johanna had kept her promise. She wonders if Johanna remembers.
They leave the kitchen, walking right past Gale, who follows them down the hallway. Johanna doesn't look behind her, but Enobaria can feel her fear at being followed by a soldier back to their room, even one younger than her like Gale, even the very soldier that led her rescue from the prison. Enobaria kisses Johanna once they arrive. "Stay here. I need to talk to Coin, and then I'll be back." She turns to Gale. "Let's go."
They go upstairs to the President's office, and have to wait a few minutes until she is free. Gale is dismissed and then it is just Enobaria and Coin sitting across from each other, and Enobaria almost laughs at how much like the Capitol this all is, politics and power plays and the absolute guise of freedom.
"What can I do for you, Weaver?" Coin asks.
"Johanna can't do the video recordings anymore. She told me she'll kill herself if it comes down to it. So I'll do whatever you need instead." She hates it, offering herself up like this, like this is still the Capitol, but she thinks if she came back to Johanna's corpse she would have nothing left, so she feels little other choice.
Coin doesn't quite smile, but her normally impassive face slides into a sort of placid, pleasant look. "I see. We could really use her influence in our campaign, and we do have Healers to help with that sort of thing."
"No. Stop asking her. No drugs, no hypnosis or whatever. Just… leave her alone."
"In that case… I may have to transfer your assignment."
When she leaves, Enobaria passes Haymitch on his way up to Coin's office. He blocks her path, intentionally, and she wants to push past him, but he speaks before she does. "Heard Jo had a bad afternoon. Is she doing better?"
"I took care of it," she says, because she did.
He looks at her for too long, and puts a hand on her shoulder, and she doesn't know if Haymitch has ever touched her, and she doesn't think she likes it, because it's too gentle, really, from someone so flagrant and drunk. "You know, that's what started all of this," he says, "Making a deal."
And he's right, of course, but how could she have stopped Finnick from offering up Johanna on a platter to Snow? Or Johanna from protecting Finnick and taking the deal? And here she is now, possibly repeating those mistakes, but what choice did she have? "She was going to kill herself," she says, her voice barely more than a whisper.
Haymitch sighs, not at her, exactly, but maybe at the mess they all were in. "When this is over," he says, "Get out of here. Both of you. Just… get away from all of us, and go somewhere new."
She nods, passing by him, finally.
The deal with Coin means that Enobaria is assigned to Katniss's 'Star Squad' along with Finnick, Peeta, and a few others. Johanna realizes immediately what's happened, upset the night before Enobaria is to be shipped off to the Capitol. "I can do it, I'm sorry, I didn't realize this would happen," she says into Enobaria's shoulder as she holds her on the bed. Enobaria has managed to keep it a secret this long, long enough that there is no way to undo it now.
"Johanna, I was there that day, you meant what you said. And I made a choice knowing what it would mean. So please don't force yourself to do anything while I'm gone, I did this so that when I get back, we can both be left alone."
Johanna wraps her arms around Enobaria, pressing their bodies together. "What? Like go somewhere else?"
"Yeah, wherever you want."
Johanna is quiet for so long that Enobaria wonders if she's fallen asleep. "Ok, I'll think about it," she says, at last. "Don't disappoint me."
The Capitol is different than Enobaria remembers it. Now it's silent and boarded up, and feels entirely like an arena, full of traps and other things to kill them. Oh, and there's cameras to record them so all of Panem can see their efforts. It's Enobaria's second time in a military uniform and it's once again the District 13 uniform, the rebel colors. She hadn't imagined this, even just a few years ago, but finally, it feels like they might be on the cusp on a new Panem.
She can see the strain the war has had on Katniss. She seems older than a teenager, but she's already been in the arena twice, been into the Districts at war, and now is dead-set on murdering Snow, a task that Enobaria thinks is noble enough. She hasn't followed Katniss's path that closely, since she's been focused on her own jobs, but now they're side by side eating instant food, and despite everything, she can see Katniss is still so young.
Katniss doesn't like her, that much is clear. She doesn't seem to like anyone from District 2, and even though they all should just be rebel soldiers now, Katniss doesn't talk to her directly, barely looks at her. Enobaria mostly talks to the others, Peeta, typically, since she knows he's kind to Johanna. This, too, seems to irritate Katniss, and it becomes increasingly frustrating to work with her, since she just wants to get back alive.
But then there's a pod that activates and releases some sort of lizard mutt, the insane sort of thing that could eviscerate any of them in seconds, and Enobaria is the only one to have a moment of initiative on the thing, but even then it gets a good swipe in on Finnick. She shoots it several times through the head before the others even have their hands on their weapons, and it slumps down, dead, bleeding from the head, but Finnick also collapses, the entire left side of his face bleeding.
His eye is a bloody hole, and half his left ear is gone too, with a deep gash between them. A sheet of red is blanketing his face, and one of the other girls in their group takes out the first aid kit, applying a clotting kit and then heaps of gauze to try to stop the bleeding. Still, Finnick looks pale and can't answer their questions correctly, even if he does stay conscious, so they need to find a place for him to rest.
They do, somehow, find a Capitol ally, and she sits with Katniss and Peeta preparing for what is hopefully the final day of fighting. "Why did you come here?" Katniss asks her, which Enobaria thinks is a terrible way to say thank you for saving Finnick's life, but Enobaria lets it go.
But what to say? That this was a long time coming, a long, messy path of decisions, from Finnick to Snow to Johanna to herself, culminating in Coin contracting her to join the Star Squad? "I made a deal," she settles with, because what's the point in lying now? If Katniss has enough responsibility to act has the face of the rebellion, she shouldn't have people hide things from her. But then again, Johanna collapsed under the pressure of being a face for the people, who's to say Katniss won't?
"What kind of deal?"
Enobaria considers, meeting Peeta's eye for a moment. She has a feeling he suspects what's happened already. "To keep Johanna from making more propos, I would join this unit."
Katniss blinks as if trying to comprehend all this - all the rebel activities happening behind her back, perhaps, plus who would want Enobaria in the Star Squad. But Enobaria knew her worth. She was good looking, she'd heard that enough, and she had already saved Finnick's life. "Seems like a shit deal," Katniss says.
Enobaria is tired. She's dirty, she's tired, and she is afraid that somehow, at the end of this, she will not make it out with her life, that she will be killed in some freak attack, and lose her life in this war. "Yeah," she agrees. Because how is it that she's on the front lines just so that Johanna doesn't have to record any more videos? "Johanna got a shit deal for years. Now I do. You're getting a shit deal yourself," she says, earning herself a punch in the arm from Peeta. But she's not wrong, and Katniss doesn't reply, perhaps thinking about her words.
The next day they continue on without Finnick. The city center has children in it - human shields between themselves and Snow. Enobaria gets a message on her communication device, which hasn't gotten signal nearly this entire time due to blockers, but she reads it, memorizing the letters, trying to decrypt them in her mind as they continue to move. It's from Tullus, so he would use a cipher she could decrypt fairly easily. It was a short message: 6 letters, then 3. None of them repeated.
When the parachutes come, one of the soldiers with them says "That's a rebel hovercraft, definitely. It's disguised as Capitol, but that's one of ours."
They watch the children take the packages from the parachutes, and then the bombs go off. It's horrible. Enobaria wonders if they ever did shoot any of the children in front of Johanna while she was recording, because as she watches them die in front of her now, and the others badly injured, she thinks she'll never be able to forget what it looks like, or the sounds of their cries.
There are medics, somehow, rushing in, and then it comes to her all at once: Double Tap. The bombs will go off again. "We need to clear everyone out!" she calls. "They're going to go off again!"
Peeta nods, not questioning how she knows this, and immediately disseminates the message. They try moving some injured from the perimeter to an area outside of the blast zone, and tell the medics to back up, that the bombs will go off once more. But Katniss is gone, into the fray. "Primrose!" she's calling, running after her sister.
Enobaria sees the moment Peeta decides to go after Katniss, and she tackles him. She wonders if he'll hate her for the rest of his life. She thinks, somewhat sadly, of Johanna tackling Peeta away from certain death at the end of the Quarter Quell, and all the trouble it caused them, but how they were able to repair their relationship afterwards. So long as Katniss survives, they would be alright, she thinks. She holds onto him as he struggles underneath her, trying to get to Katniss, and then the bombs go off again, and the Capitol is again flames and thunder.
Somehow, it ends after that. She still can't believe it, but the war has ended. The others from District 13 are coming to the Capitol, and Snow's execution is planned to be televised to all of Panem. Katniss is alive, though badly injured, the little sister was killed. Finnick is receiving proper medical attention now, and she is at the train station, waiting for Annie and Haymitch and Johanna.
Johanna steps off the train, dark circles under her eyes, practically falling into Enobaria's arms. "They told me you were alright, but I didn't believe them," she says.
"I'm fine," she assures her, kissing her. Tullus steps off too, and she sees Antonia and her nieces behind, their first time in the Capitol. It's Tullus's first time here as a free man, and he smiles, despite the signs of war.
"I can't believe it," he says.
"Thank you for that message," she says quietly to him, "You saved my life."
"Johanna passed it on to me. She overheard the soldiers saying it near the kitchen. Loose lips."
Well, they had both been trained as spies, at one time.
They line up to watch the execution, all the Victors on stage, of course. Johanna wears a large hat, the brim enough to block her view of the camera. "Can you manage?" Enobaria asks. Even here, even now, she would defy Coin or Katniss or whoever, if it was needed.
Johanna nods, a little green but confident. "I don't have to speak, I just have to stand here. And this is it," she says, a smile on her face now. "He's going to die!"
But it isn't Snow who dies, but Coin, as Katniss's arrow strikes her right through the chest. And Enobaria knows why, too. Because Katniss had too long to think about how the rebellion felt a little too much like the Capitol. How her sister died for what? The pity of the viewers? It was all a little too much like the arena, at the end of the day. And Enobaria could feel it too. Making a deal with Coin was more or less the same as Johanna making one with Snow. They were all just pawns to be used in someone else's scheme.
It's chaos, after that, and Annie is pregnant and Finnick is missing half his face, and Johanna keeps looking back to where Snow is still alive, but somehow, they make it back to the Training Center, away from the chaos that is happening in the Capitol. Enobaria wonders if her prediction was right: Johanna was pushed too far, and couldn't perform any longer, and it was only a matter of time for Katniss, too. Her sister's death was the final straw, most likely, and now she will never be able to put on the mantle of the Mockingjay again.
Enobaria sits with Johanna long after dark, listening to the sounds of the Capitol: people trying to figure out what it means when the war is over, but no one is in charge. "Did you decide where you want to go?" she asks. Johanna's hair is getting long now, the roots back to brown, the ends still honey-blonde. She's beautiful, the only face Enobaria wants to look at for a long time.
Johanna shrugs. "Anywhere is fine, if it's away from here."
"Ok," Enobaria says. "Let me say goodbye to my brother, and we can go."
"Just like that?"
"Sure. What's left for us here?"
"No, you're right. Let's go."