Panem Dawn: Mockingjay Reimagined

Chapter Eight: Assault on Thirteen

I had no sooner begun leaving after dropping off some things to report to Commander Hobson, which I was not looking forward to, by the way, when I suddenly felt a tug on one of my arms, it's Finnick, it turns out. "Alyssa, there's something that we both need to watch. It's Noah, he's on television. He just mentioned something about being jailed up next to Annie, and now he's talking about you." There's some desperate something in the look on Finnick's face that tells me he isn't lying. I suddenly forget about where it is I'm supposed to be going.

"Noah! Oh my God. Finnick, you have to show me where you saw him." And Finnick says, "follow me, it's on the next floor up from here." So, I follow Finnick into the nearest elevator, and from the elevator into a room with a screen with Noah sitting down in a beige coloured chair facing Caesar Flickerman. Damn it, I don't want to see any more of that Hunger Games loving psychopath. He is the one interviewing Noah by the looks of it. Of course he is.

But what's even more disturbing to me than anything to do with Caesar right now is the way Noah looks in comparison to when I last saw him. It's like he's been beaten around at least a few times, and something seems to suggest he must have even been tortured.

There's something Noah knows that Snow wants to know, and whatever reason he has can't possibly be good for our side. But if Noah looks this battered down, then he must have refused to reveal anything that would betray us. He might even have tried to give Snow and his lackeys a difficult time. It would be just like Noah. But I'll breathe freely again only when he's liberated.

Even in wartime, I can see no expense was spared in setting up the ridiculously luxurious room that Noah and Caesar are in. It's probably somewhere in the Presidential Palace.

"So Noah, let's talk more about what happened during the Third Quarter Quell, and even some of what might have happened before that particular Hunger Games. I think we all find it shocking that Alyssa Whitestone, a girl who was warned time and time again against choosing the wrong side and defying the Capitol, has thrown everything we ever did for her, everything the Capitol gave her back in our faces.

It looks as though she's not the only one. Beetee Latier with his electrifying act of sabotage in the arena, then Finnick Odair, and Katniss Everdeen as well. Even Plutarch Heavensbee it would seem, is a traitor. Indeed, it is difficult, especially in these dangerous days, to know who really can be trusted. But perhaps you've decided to act in your own best interests, unlike those foolish others I've mentioned."

I hear Finnick snort and say sarcastically, "Oh, we're the fools all right. The Capitol couldn't survive without the districts, or any of the back-breaking, thankless slave jobs the people have had to do to keep you in all your toys, mansions and glamor."

"It's more the fact that I'm still only trying to stay alive." Noah says from on the screen. "I don't know how many more times I have to say it, but I never knew anything about any rebel plan, any more than Peeta or Johanna, or Annie. I noticed Enobaria wasn't locked up. I guess as long as you are from One and Two, there are always certain loopholes." He points out sardonically.

"Perhaps we should be talking about other, more important things." Caesar then says in response to that, "Such as how Alyssa Whitestone, who you have claimed again and again under the full pressure of interrogation, knew nothing, still appears to have known about some old information from Gordon and Teresa Whitestone. I think we all find that more than just a little suspicious. Doesn't it bother you that the young woman you have confessed your undying love for in front of the country is nothing more than a rebel and traitor who has left you in this mess?"

"No, Alyssa's just a teenage girl, a famous one, but still just a silly girl more than anything. The truth of it Caesar, is that she might not have even lasted this long if it weren't for the rest of us. She couldn't possibly have been given that kind of information. So once again, we didn't know anything." Noah says flatly.