MOCKINGJAY: REIMAGINED

CHAPTER 8 - THE MEETING

District 13 has never seen an event like it. Neither has Plutarch but both for very different reasons. A lifelong Capitol citizen trying to plan a wedding under the restrictions of a society that functions for survival alone isn't easy.

I sit in the hummingbird room with Finnick and Annie and we all watch Pearl admire the birds. It feels good to have Finnick back in my life, after all those months we spent together before Annie was rescued and before Pearl was born it was strange of me to avoid him. The wedding is going to be used as a propo, since Coin seems to have given up trying to convince me to do one announcing Pearl's existence, meaning Plutarch is in charge of almost everything. Finnick and Annie don't seem to mind though, their only request being that they are allowed to do their District traditions during the ceremony which involve a fishing net of some kind. Annie explained the whole thing to me but I was distracted thinking about Peeta's interview before the Quarter Quell. How he'd told everyone that we'd got married, that we'd even had a Toasting. A District 12 tradition. My heart yearns for him.

I haven't seen him since he called me a mutt. Since I realised my Peeta was gone for good. Nobody but Johanna talks to me about him either, it's as if he simply doesn't exist anymore. Which is fitting, because he doesn't. Not in the way that he used to. But Johanna says he's doing better. What exactly that means I don't know. Something about his shackles being removed and him being able to hold a conversation that doesn't end with him calling for your execution.

"Sorry to interrupt, Soldier Everdeen and Soldier Odair, you're needed in command." Says a solider at the door.

"I'll watch her. We'll be just fine." Says Annie gently stroking Pearl's face with her finger.

"Ok. We'll be back as soon as we can." I lean down and plant a kiss on Pearl's head, she gives me what I understand as a smile despite her age. Like Finnick said, as the daughter of two Victors she must be somewhat extraordinary.

We arrive at command and take our seats next to Haymitch and Gale. The meeting begins promptly as Coin stands at the head of the table waiting for our attention.

"As you all know, the wedding taking place in a few days will be filmed by our team and broadcast across Panem in the hopes of rallying the troops and sending a message to Snow. Thank you Solider Odair for your cooperation." Coin doesn't look at me as she gives her words of thanks but I hear her message loud and clear. You aren't of use to me. You aren't helping us win this war. You are an obstacle.

"But we need more than just that. We need new propos. A lot of them. I welcome your ideas." says Coin inviting us to do the work for her. To show her how useful we really are.

Everyone comes up with something or other, I sit there silently knowing the propo she wants me to agree to. Everyone else knows too. It makes for a long and painful meeting that brings relief when it ends. Finnick and I stand, planning to head back to the hummingbird room, before Plutarch calls to stop us.

"By the way, if you're looking for Annie, I had her go down to the kitchen to check something on the cake. They needed a decision about decoration and I thought she'd like to be a part of it." Plutarch looks more flustered trying to organise this wedding than I've seen him since arriving in 13. It's comical.

"I left Pearl with her. Is she still with Annie?" I try to keep my tone calm knowing that my hysteria about Pearl's whereabouts has never been necessary before.

"Oh." Plutarch pauses and a flash of guilt crosses his face, "I didn't realise. I thought she was with your mother. Maybe I should go down first just to check what's going on." He looks panicked, like he might have instigated something terrible.

I realise what's happened before anyone else does and start running in the direction of the kitchen. The panic starts rising in my chest again and my need for fresh air skyrockets but I continue to run down deeper into 13 to get to the kitchen. I can hear the shouts of Haymitch and Finnick behind me to stop but it's Gale who catches up with me. He's put the pieces together too. We turn the corner and see the door guarded by two soldiers,

"Move." Says Gale.

"You can't go in." one of them replies without moving his eyes to look at us.

I let out a sob in between my gasps for air, the other soldier must realise who I am because he reaches out and puts a hand on my shoulder forcing me to meet his eye.

"Hey, you're her mother right? Katniss?" it's a genuine question. He looks young, too young to be a solider.

"Y-yes." I reply as best I can though I'm still gasping for air.

"Before I let you inside, I really think you should see something." He leads me around the corner to a one-way window looking into a small room leading off of the main kitchen.

At first I don't know what to make of what I see. On the table in the centre of the room stands a beautiful three-tier wedding cake, which could've only been decorated by one person in all of 13. Peeta. And there he is. His bruises faded and his strong frame clearly returning. He almost looks like him again. Annie perches daintily on a stool next to him admiring his work on the cake, placing careful crafted roses made from icing in places of her choosing. Peeta's hands are not working on the cake, neither are they shackled. Instead, they are clutching Pearl. Rocking her gently in his arms as she sleeps. I let out a small sigh of relief as a sweet smile breaks across his face and I see the old Peeta return.

I feel Gale beside me, "He thinks she's Annie's." he says. I frown at him and he answers with a simple, "The guard told me."

"So, the only reason he isn't attacking Pearl is because he doesn't know she's half of me." Saying the words out loud make them hurt even more. Still, I thought Peeta had been stolen from Pearl forever. This shows that he hasn't. She can still know her father. Even if I can't know the safety of his arms anymore, maybe she can. There is still hope.

*

"Ok, Katniss you ready?" Plutarch gives me a thumbs up from behind the camera and I begin to regret agreeing to this. "And, ACTION!"

The red light on the camera starts to flash and I take a deep breath before starting my speech. I've only been given prompts after Haymitch advised them that a full script would only go to waste. Apparently everyone loves my spontaneity a lot more anyway.

"I've been known to you all as many titles. I was introduced as a sister. Then a tribute. A lover. A victor. A symbol. A rebel. A mockingjay. A soldier. Well, now I have a new title. Now I'm a mother. And I refuse to let my child live in a world where she is forced to fight to the death. Where she goes hungry and cold. This is what I fight for now. This is who I fight for."

The camera pans down to show her. Wrapped peacefully in the blankets knitted by my prep team. She coos in her sleep and I have to stop myself from pulling the camera away from her. Let them see her. Let Snow see her. Let him see that there's another mockingjay in the world now, that he can't kill us all. That he'll never get to her. And I know that he won't, because he'd have to go through an army to do it. I look at the group lining the walls behind the camera all watching the livestream on the tv mounted to the wall.

Finnick and Annie stand hand in hand smiling at Pearl as if she was their own. Haymitch is there too, with that same look in his eyes. So is Prim and my mother, even Gale. My prep team beam with pride at the thought of their handiwork being broadcast across Panem once again. And I realise, this my army. The one Snow has to get through to get to Pearl. They've survived this far, I don't see them giving up any time soon. Especially not with this new symbol of hope all wrapped up in woolly blankets beaming down at them.