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𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘪𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘦𝘯 : 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘢𝘷𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘳

hattie stayed asleep on katniss' shoulder while finnick had his sleeping head in hattie's lap.

"i'm sorry. i just.. i can't figure out what's real anymore." peeta spoke. "then ask." finnick said, now seemingly awake. the coldness of the air that replaced finnick's head in hattie's lap made her slowly stir awake. "that's what annie does." "ask who?" peeta questioned. "me." everyone turned their head to the girl who still had her eyes closed on katniss' shoulder.

she finally opened her eyes, rubbing them to get the blurry lenses off her vision. "i've spent my whole life, figuring out what's real and what's not, lies from fantasies... right from wrong, truth from empty promises. i got most of it figured out by now... i bet finnick and kat know a lot of stuff. we're your unit now." she tiredly smiled, and shifted her weight from katniss over to finnick's body. he held her up, like steel.

"your favorite color is green." peeta said, "is that real?" "yeah. that's real. yours is orange. the sunset type of orange." katniss nodded. "...your little sister is rue, and you have nightmares about her still. is that real?" peeta inquired. "yeah. yeah, that's pretty real. you're a really light sleeper." hattie softly chuckled. "rue's your sister?" katniss asked. "yeah." "how fucked up is your family?" she laughed at the pale girl, "too much to even tell you."

peeta continued, "your signature weapon is a machete. real?" at that, hattie reached under the bench she sat at, and held up her sword, pressing the red button. it released flames. "real. and a fencing sword. i love me a good fencing sword. you literally hate any type of physical weapon, by the way." katniss smiled at her. "you love hunting. it puts you at peace. is that real?" the blonde asked. "real." katniss nodded. finnick put an arm around hattie.

"there we go. that's the spirit." he muttered.

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colonel walked out, holding up a device. hattie stood beside peeta, and she felt herself shifting her weight from foot to foot. "mag's empty. it's only for the propo." the man gave peeta an extra look as he spoke. "we got it, colonel." hattie assured. he handed peeta the gun. "you here that? no lighting up the squad, alright?" hattie joked, and spotted a small tip of peeta's lips. "let's move. we're headed five blocks north." "wait, lemme grab my sword." hattie touched peeta's arm, and he turned around, slightly shaking his head.

once outside, hattie saw colonel holding the holo in front of himself, letting the rest of the squad follow him. finnick slowed his pace, and caught up with the two. "we ready?" he asked. "as much as i can be." hattie smiled. "oh, let's go over our lines." finnick said, pulling out the small piece of paper. "lines?" peeta asked. "here, just repeat after me. 'to the citizens of the capitol, our war is not with you.'" "to the citizens of the capitol, our war is not with you'." peeta and hattie recited. "'you will be a vital part of our democracy that follows our victory.'" finnick read. "'you will be a vital part of the democracy that follows our victory'." "you got it. okay." he smiled.

hattie looked around, her mind lost in the air. "you alright, hattie?" hattie snapped back to reality, and saw the boys watching her as she looked up to the sky. "oh, uh, yeah." she nodded, grabbing her rubberband and starting to throw her hair into a high ponytail. "it's just... it's hard to watch my home fall apart, even if i know it deserves it, y'know? like, over there," she pointed to a place down the street where there was a abandoned barbers pole on the sidewalk. "cypress used to get his hair cut over there every month, and i would walk him. the owners loved us." hattie reminisced.

"who's cypress?" peeta asked, brows scrunching together. "my best friend. of 10 years. don't tell anyone, but he has a huge crush on katniss." hattie giggled as she gossiped. "not surprised." finnick sighed. "or over there," she pointed to another corner of the street. "that used to be my favorite ice cream shop. only shop in panem that had snickerdoodle ice cream." "oh, that sounds divine." finnick commented. "it is. was." hattie sighed, looking around the huge buildings and pillars.

"what is this place?" peeta asked, looking around as they followed the camera crew. "it's mostly a business office and housing, though, a lot of people walk through it for its courtyard. beautiful, i tell you. right through there." she pointed, adjusting her ponytail. just as she said that, colonel said, "found a pod. split and take cover." "now they're gonna destroy it." she sighed. "go with katniss, i'll take peeta." finnick said. "alright," hattie forcefully nodded her head, finally letting her hands fall down from her head and revealing her naturally pleasing ponytail.

as she walked away, finnick let out a deep breath and took peeta to the other side. "beautiful." peeta shook his head, watching hattie's hair lightly swing right to left. "yeah, she's pretty majestic." finnick shrugged. "she seems so emotional about this place being destroyed." peeta said. "well, it may not be the nicest place, but it's her home. she's been going through a lot of change outside of this, anyway." "why?" peeta asked.

the machine guns from the pods started, and they bent down to cover their ears. finnick sighed, "well, her mother died just about a month ago. she was wrecked... she's also been preparing herself to kill her father, and well, he's probably been telling the PK to kill her if they see her. no mercy, that family has." "her mom died?" peeta asked once the guns stopped, pulling his hands away. "all clear, gale, homes, with me. leegs, take the wings."

from the other side, hattie mumbled, "you're seriously gonna try to steal that holo? you can't, man." they waited for boggs to call all clear, until hattie's eyes caught onto the boy across from her, peeta. he stayed in the crotch position, and hit his head against the handle of his gun, mumbling things to himself. she was about to say something, when something exploded. "boggs !" katniss yelled, running towards the man. LJ told them to stay in place, and though hattie hated to do it, her anxiety let her freeze.

a minute later, she heard gale mumble, "he's gone. he's gone." up ahead, one of the leeg sisters looked seriously injured, groaning in pain. the other one caught attention of it, and started to run towards her, until she stepped on a block that sunk. suddenly, both openings on either side of the building started to close shut. "finnick." she swallowed, starting to feel her anxiety come up to her throat. he ran to grab her, and pulled her back over to be with peeta. she hung onto finnick, and he patted her back.

black goop started avalanching from the walls, and everyone started to run. "run ! run, soldiers !" hattie, surprisingly, ran the fastest out of all of them, running up the grass and stone steps of the circle yard. when they reached the top, peeta started trying to attack katniss with his gun, trying to hit her with the back of it. finnick threw himself into him, and though peeta pushed a man into the black waves, it just kept coming. the man bounced back with oil all over him, floating over the oil with the support of what looked like spider web strings. the shattering sound it made when peeta pushed him in is something hattie would never unhear.

"come on ! don't stop ! let's go !" "get inside !" "come on !" hattie yelled, quickly getting to the front of the group and clicking the grey button on her sword. immediately, she slashed the windows open and ran inside. "follow me ! upstairs !" hattie shouted, sprinting up the stairs with the others following, until they got to the second floor. the third floor stairs were destroyed. as she stood there, she heard peeta groaning, and finnick shushing him. "you guys okay?" she asked, barely looking back. "fine." finnick said. "don't kill him." she reminded him. "it's slowing down." cressida pointed out.

slowly, the black liquid stopped just in front of LJ's feet. "gamemakers are still putting on quite a show." "it's their job, isn't it?" hattie smiled. at that point, she wished she could call haymitch or cypress and just cry to them. about nothing, everything, it didn't matter. "451 to base. over."

"we better move." finnick said. hattie now realized he had knocked peeta out. maybe for the best. "if PKs didn't know where we were, they do now." he finished. "getting flashbacks?" hattie asked. "just a bit." he put a bit of distance between his thumb and index finger to show. "those surveillance cameras caught us." castor said. "451 to base. come in." LJ repeated. "this is a bad spot. we need to move now." gale suggested. "even i agree with the shitbird." hattie panted. "really?" gale asked her. "sorry. it stuck."

"i can't get a signal. but i can get us back to base. everdeen, give me the holo." katniss didn't respond to LJ. "everdeen, what did i just say? the holo. come on, let's go." "attitude." hattie mumbled to finnick. "just like you." she gave him a look. "boggs gave it to me." katniss said. "what are you talking about?" "he did. he transferred security clearance to her. i saw him." one of the guys supported. "and why would he do that?" "i'm on special orders from coin." katniss said. "to do what?" LJ asked.

"to assist hattie assassinate president snow." "i don't believe that for one second. that's her father. as your new unit commander, i order you to transfer security clearance to me now." the pale girl shook her head, "i can't do that." LJ pulled out her gun, and gale stepped in with his gun, pointing it to her. finnick and hattie gave each other looks with wide eyes.

"let's not lose our heads here." gale said. finnick joined gale, and so did hattie. a trident and a flaming machete. "i'm not asking you again, everdeen. give me that holo." "why do you want it so damn bad?" hattie asked. the woman just gave her a dirty look, "i suggest you don't talk to me like that, miss fire." "don't mess with the fire unless you wanna get burned." hattie warned.

suddenly, cressida stepped in front of LJ's gun. "she's telling the truth. plutarch wants it televised. he thinks if we could film president snow's daughter killing him, it'll make the capitol surrender before the casualties get too high. right, hattie?" without a second thought, the brown girl nodded, her hand still outreached with a sword at the end of it. "yeah. that's true."

"while we're arguing, there's 100 peacekeepers on their way here." gale said, but katniss pushed down his gun and stepped out from behind cressida. "boggs promised me that when the time came, you would help me. help us. help that girl." she pointed to hattie, "was he mistaken?" the woman hesitated for a couple seconds, before pulling the gun down. hattie clicked the red button in her sword again and sighed in relief. the flames died down. "alright, soldier. holo's yours. and hattie's." "right, right, of course."

"i don't think we're gonna leave any footprints. we should move know." "you know, the more you say it, the more fond i become of it." hattie mumbled. "and those camera outside should be covered up by the oil." "she can't move forward like this. her leg is too bad. we have to evacuate her. i'm sorry." castor told them. hattie watched the leeg sister breathe heavily. "i'll stay with her." her sister volunteered. "as soon as we make contact, we will send somebody back. i promise you. alright, let's move out, everybody."

hattie now saw peeta was awake, and gale walked towards him, "let's get him up." "stay away, shitbird. me and finnick got it." he stared at her, and she stared back with a cold look in her eyes, before he straightened his posture out, "fine." for  a girl either her last name being 'fire', she sure knew how to pull a frozen look. she looked back to him, and offered him her hands. "come on. yep." once he stood up, she pat his back, "can you walk?" "yeah." he grunted. "okay, finn, let's go." the blonde's head perked up, and he ran over to the two to catch up.

as they walked back across the courtyard, hattie noticed peeta keeping his head to the floor as he walked. she felt bad, like it was her fault he was doing that.

a / n :
THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH FOR 1k READS ! IM SO GRATEFUL FOR YOU GUYS. I LOVE YOU ! VOTE, COMMENT, AND TAKE CARE OF YOURSELVES.
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mel 💋