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𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘷𝘦 : 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘣𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘦𝘺𝘦.
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hattie bent down to prim's level. "okay, you ready? you sure you wanna do this, babe?" "yes. yes. anything for katniss." the blonde nodded. "alright, atta girl. i'll be here the whole time. she's ready." hattie spoke into her small mic on her chest. "alright, send her in." the door buzzed open, and prim slowly walked in, with hattie following behind her.

the brown girl closed the door behind her, and prim looked through the window, making eye contact with her older sister. "hey." prim said to the blonde. "prim. hattie." "hi." hattie smiled. prim sat down on the bed, and the other girl stood close. "how you feelin'?" prim asked. "how'd you get here?" peeta asked her. prim glanced at hattie, and she nodded.

"we live in district 13 now. it's a real place. stories are true. you were rescued." the young blonde told him. "my family hasn't come to see me." he said. he looked off at the bottom of his bed. "there was an attack on 12." prim looked at hattie, and she nodded at peeta, "yes, peeta." "my family?" he looked from the teen girl to the preteen. prim shook her head, "the bakery didn't survive."

peeta let out a shaky exhale, and looked away from the two. as he continued to stare away from the girls, hattie saw his eyes darken. "prim," at the warning tone, the blonde girl looked at her, and slowly stood up from the bed, walking to hattie. hattie got closer to peeta, but not too close.

"it's because of katniss." "it wasn't because of her." hattie shook her head. "did she tell you to say that?" peeta made eye contact with her. "she didn't tell us to say anything." prim whispered. "she's a liar, prim. it's a trick." "peeta, what you're saying isn't real." prim told him. "she sent you here to talk to me. she knows you're here now." peeta's voice became panicked. "it's okay." prim tried to comfort the boy, but hattie kept her a healthy distance away.

"she knows... you can't trust her !" the boy outbursted, and hattie guarded prim with her arm. "she's a monster, hattie ! she's a mutt that the capitol created to destroy us !" hattie's hand flew to her mouth at the word he had called her friend. "do you understand me? you have to kill her, prim ! you have to kill her, hattie ! she's a mutt ! kill her ! she's a monster ! she's a mutt ! she's a mutt !" "get us outta here." hattie mumbled into her mic. "copy that."

the door buzzed open again, and hattie stared at the boy once more, before demanding the blonde girl. "go. go. go, go, go !" prim wasted no time as she turn away and run out the door. hattie stayed still for a few more moments, slowly walking back, before turning and running out. "hattie !" she heard peeta scream before shutting the door closed.

as she turned and let her back hit the door, she saw katniss standing between plutarch and cypress, an exasperated look on her best friend's face.

that was harriet fire.

« « « » » »

"please, come in."

as usual, katniss, cypress, and hattie took their seat sequence. cypress in the middle, and the two girls on his sides. cypress attended every meeting with katniss and hattie, and whenever gale decided to attend, he would sit beside katniss. cypress and hattie were still waiting for the ball to drop on gale. something had to be up.

"with any kind of manpower, if we..." "will you excuse us for just a moment? have a seat." they replaced the man, and sat in their sequence. katniss on the left, hattie on the right. "i'm glad you're feeling better, katniss." "snow has to pay for what he's done. i wanna help the rebels in any way i can." katniss said, and hattie stood up,

"preach !" she saw madam president staring at her. "sorry... y'know, support." as hattie sat back down, coin nodded. "it's hard to see peeta this way." "that's not peeta." the girls chorused. hattie looked at katniss, "may i?" the pale teen nodded.

"peeta has been heavily hijacked. this hijacking has effed him up so bad, that his real self is trying to come back out and stay, but the hijacking he has been through is so incredibly torturous, that it's really sensitive and triggering. when i went to visit him alone, he was fine. but when he had someone he remembered from more than six months ago that was associated with katniss, he went ballistic. they altered his memories with kat so bad that anything even close to related to her drives him crazy." coin nodded at the girl, and cypress leaned into her. "been spending a lot of time with beetee?" hattie responded with a nod.

"send me to the capitol. i'll do anything." katniss pleaded. "i can't... i can't send you there. we can't get into the capitol until we control district 2." "then send me to 2. you want me to fire up our troops? call out the loyalists? you've seen what i can do." coin nodded at katniss.

"yes, i have."

« « « » » »

hattie sat in the plane, on her bed, playing with the medallion while she finished her book she had been reading just a couple days ago.

suddenly, cypress ran over to her. "what? what?" she asked him, sitting up. he was jumping around, as if he didn't feel the slight shaking of the plane from turbulence. "he's crazy ! he's so, absolutely, batshit crazy !" he told her, as if a child on christmas. "who is? gale?" he nodded excitedly. "how do you know?" she asked, a small grin on her face.

cypress slid onto her bed, sitting across from her as she sat up. "okay, so i was sitting on my bunk, minding my business, when gale walked over to katniss and started talking to her about peeta, she tells him to not be jealous, they kiss, then he tells her kissing her is like kissing a drunk person ! 'it doesn't count' !" hattie's eyes widened and her jaw dropped. "whattt?" he nodded at her.

from a young age, hattie had trained cypress to gossip. whether it was the horrible outfits they saw on ladies at the diner or hattie's old fencing trainers, she had taught him how to give and receive talking in a gossip format.

"oh, shit."

« « « » » »

"thirty minutes until touchdown. prepare for landing."

hattie woke up with wide eyes, having woken up from an odd dream. "hey, nerd, ready to go?" cypress walked up to her bunk, and she sighed in relief. "oh, thank god." "what?" he asked as she stood up, and grabbed her clothes to change into. "i had a dream that we were married last night." cypress cackled, "oh, that must've been a dream ! i am quite a delightful husband." he joked.

"it was a nightmare. you kept calling me things like 'honey bunches', or, 'apple of my eye'." cypress closed his eyes and slapped his knee, "i'm gonna start calling you that now so you think you're still in a nightmare." he stood back up as hattie handed him her blanket and started to change. cypress held the blanket at its corners, holding it up and around hattie's body.

finally, she pulled down the blanket with a new outfit on. "thanks." "anything for you, honey bunches." cypress fluttered his eyelashes. "i will throw you into a ditch." she told him, walking away.

"no, honey, wait, you're the apple of my eye !"

« « « » » »

"welcome to district 2. in corporal homes. you follow me, please."

katniss and hattie walked together with gale and cypress on either side of them. as they walked after the corporal, an explosion sounded. everyone ducked, and katniss looked up to see what it was.

"don't worry. it's just how the loyalists say 'good morning'."

...

"president coin, we're indebted to you for the reinforcements, harriet fire, and the mockingjay. but i'm not sure that anyone outside of 2 knows what we've been up against. this is the nut." "nuts and volts." hattie whispered to herself.

"the capitol's headquarters for all offensive operations. it's manned by both military and civilian personnel from district 2. as you can see, the fortress lies so far beneath the bedrock, it's untouchable. yesterday, we attempted to take the northeastern gate. the enemy countered from higher up and we were forced to pull back. we took heavy losses." "could we create a decoy? send troops towards one gate, launch a staggered attack on another." a commander asked.

"whose troops do you propose as a decoy?" "we have the mockingjay. don't underestimate her. we could use her to erode support. harriet fire can help with anything you guys need. together, they may be able to sway some of the loyalists." katniss and hattie looked at each other, and nodded.

"you've been underground a long time, madam coin. this isn't like the rest of panem. support for the capitol runs deep here." "then there is no sacrifice too great. we need to control the arsenal inside the fortress. even with every district in this alliance, we are outgunned." "i won't commit my people to a ground assault just to pillage weapons." "commander paylor, your people have suffered more than just about anyone else at the hands of the capitol." coin said. "which is why i won't condone a mass suicide." "if we don't take district 2, we won't get into the capitol."

"would it be enough to disable the fortress instead of taking it? saves energy, and... less responsibility." cypress asked. "what do you have in mind?" lyme asked. "well, uh, think of it like a wolf den. you won't fight your way in, so you have two choices. you, uh, trap the wolves inside, or you chase 'em out. you can't attack straight on, you would lose too many people. so maybe we could use our hovercraft and, like, strike around it? we can use the mountains as cover." hattie watched her best friend explain battle plans in surprise. he had never been into tactical plans, more design and fashion plans.

"we could design the bomb targets in sequence using seismic data." beetee said, backing cypress up. "trigger avalanches." lyme nodded. "block all exits, cut off their supplies. you make it impossible for them to launch their hovercraft." gale suggested. "woah, morbid, slow your roll." hattie said, bending over to look past katniss. "it's not morbid if it helps." "that's like talking about the black plague and saying it 'helped'." hattie looked at the boy as if the dumbest person on earth. "yeah, not exactly what i was talking about." cypress told the other brunette boy. "bury them alive." lyme said, not hearing the teenager's conversation.

"we'd forfeit any chance to control the weapons." coin said. "yes, but we'd face a weakened capitol." "there's civilians there." colonel boggs said, "they should be given the chance to surrender. could use one of the supply tunnels for the evacuees." hattie nodded to the man. "that actually sounds rational." "it's a luxury we weren't given when they firebombed 12." gale stated.

"girl, reel in your psycho." hattie whispered to katniss. "there's gotta be a better way." katniss turned to gale. "i suggest we try to avalanche, but we leave the train tunnel alone. civilians can escape into the square, where our armies will be waiting for their surrender. we should have every available medic standing by." coin instructed. "and if they won't surrender?" "then we will need a compelling voice to persuade them."

hattie reached over and slapped gale. "thanks a lot, shit bird." "what did i do? cypress was the one to suggest it." "yeah, but he didn't start getting all death on them." "everything we speak of is about death." gale defended.

"no, that's all you speak of." hattie told him, before walking away from them.

« « « » » »

"don't worry, girls, there will be survivors."

as colonel boggs and haymitch lead katniss and hattie through the destruction, hattie pulled her hair into a high ponytail, and even then, her hair reached below her shoulders.

"let's focus on what it is you gotta say. now, plutarch wrote a speech for you..." haymitch started. "i'm not saying that." the girls chorused. "okay. didn't think so. let's, uh... just remember, you two are talking to everybody. not just the rebels, but the capitol, the survivors in 2. we want them to lay down their arms. so you might want to experiment with a little sensitivity, warmth." haymitch told them. "that's what i'm here for." hattie added. "make it quick. you're exposed." colonel said.

the girls walked away from the men, and hattie mumbled, "i'll take first base," "i'll take second." katniss finished. they stopped at the train tracks, and turned around.

"this is harriet fire and katniss everdeen, speaking to all of the loyalists from the heart of district 2." suddenly, a rebel interrupted hattie. "survivors ! inbound !" "ready ! ready ! guns up !" hattie turned around, and saw the two train head lights coming towards them. "on the ready. guns up !" hattie grabbed katniss' hand, and started to back away. "we gotta get you back." colonel said. "good idea." hattie said, turning around back to the train.

rebels started to yell over each other as the train stopped and people left the train setting. "drop your weapon ! you ! drop it ! stop !" a gun fired, and katniss ran towards the sound. "stop ! stop ! stop !" "hold your fire !" hattie and colonel boggs chorused. katniss bent down beside the man, "he needs help !" a man grabbed katniss and held a gun against her. "drop it !" colonel warned. "give me one reason why i shouldn't shoot you." "drop the gun !"

"i can't. i guess that's the problem, isn't it? we blew up your mine. you burned my district to the ground... we each have every reason to want to kill each other. so if you wanna kill me, do it. make snow happy. i'm tired of killing his slaves. but just know, i've got a partner. and she won't stop until snow is dead." "i'm not his slave." the man stated.

"i am. that's why i killed cato. and he killed thresh. and thresh killed clove. it just goes around and around. and who wins? always snow. i am done being a piece in his game. district 12, district 2. we have no fight. except the one the capitol gave us. why are you fighting the rebels? you're neighbors. you're family." eventually, he dropped the weapon at katniss' speech. she stood up and looked around at the others. hattie stepped beside her. "i got it." "thank you." katniss whispered.

"these people are not your enemy ! they never were. we all have one enemy." hattie held up her machete as she spoke, "and that's snow. my father. he corrupts everyone and everything. i'm pretty sure he corrupted me the moment i came to the capitol, because i was born in a district, just like all of you. my mother was killed the other month, sadly, and you know who said he was going to protect her? snow. he turns the best of us against each other. katniss used to hate me because she thought i was an arrogant brat. no one is an arrogant brat except for the president snow. stop killing for him." she looked over to katniss, and stepped back. katniss stepped forward.

"tonight, turn your weapons to the capitol. turn your weapons to snow." then, gunfire. katniss got hit in the chest.

"kat !" hattie cried, falling to the girl's side.

a / n :
FIRST CHAPTER OF ACT THREE !!! it's gonna slay pretty hard ngl. i know y'all are on another level of SCARED rn, but we'll have a fun time !!!!
xoxo,
mel 😔💋