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Almost giddy with success, Opal ran through the halls, skidding around corners, bouncing down the stairs because the lift was too small and slow. She banged into the room before the oddity of the situation dawned on her. She shouldn't be in Command, she should be getting her hair buzzed. The people around the table weren't freshly minted soldiers but the ones calling the shots. Boggs smiled and shook his head when he saw Opal "Let's see it." Unsure now, she held out her stamped hand "You're with me. It's a special unit of sharpshooters. Join your squad." He nodded over to a group lining the wall. Finnick. Gale. Katniss. Five others she didn't know. Her squad. She wasn't the only one in, she got to work under Boggs. With her friends and Husband. Opal forced herself to stay calm, as she soldierly stepped to join them, instead of jumping up and down.

They must have been important too, because they were in Command, and it had nothing to do with a certain Mockingjay. Plutarch stood over a wide, flat panel in the center of the table. He was explaining something about the nature of what they would encounter in the Capitol. Opal was thinking that the presentation was awful because even on her tippy toes she couldn't see what was on the panel - until he hit a button. A holographic image of a block of the Capitol projected into the air.

"This, for example, is the area surrounding one of the Peacekeepers' barracks. Not unimportant, but not the most crucial targets, yet look." Plutarch entered some sort of code on a keyboard, and the lights began to blink at different speeds."Each light is called a pod. It represents a different obstacle, the nature of which could be anything from a bomb to a band of mutts. Make no mistake, whatever it contains is designed to either trap or kill you. Some have been in place since the Dark Days, others developed over the years. To be honest, I created a fair number myself. This program, which one of our people absconded with when we left the Capitol, is our most recent information. They don't know we have it but even so, it's likely that new pods have been activated in the last few months. This is what you will face."

Opal was unaware that her feet were moving to the table until she was centimeters from the hologram. Her hand reached out and cupped a rapidly blinking green light. Someone soon joined her, and his body tensed. Finnick, of course. Because only a victor would see what Opal saw so immediately. The arena. Laced with pods controlled by Gamemakers. Finnick's fingers caressed a steady red glow over a doorway. "Ladies and gentlemen..." his voice was quiet, but Opals rang through the room.

"Let the Seventy-sixth Hunger Games begin!" Opal laughed quickly before anyone had time to register the lies beneath the words she had just uttered. Before eyebrows were raised, objections are uttered, and two and two were put together, and the solution was that Opal should be kept as far away from the Capitol as possible. Because a revenge-filled, independently thinking victor with a layer of psychological scar tissue too thick to penetrate would be the last person you would want on your squad.

"I don't even know why you bothered to put me, Finnick, and Katniss through training, Plutarch," said Opal.

"Yeah, we're already the three best-equipped soldiers you have," Finnick added cockily.

"I thought I was supposed to be the face of this revolution," said Katniss.

"Do not think that fact escapes me," Plutarch said with an impatient wave "Now back in line, Soldiers. I have a presentation to finish."

They retreated to their places, ignoring the questioning looks that were being thrown their way. Opal adopted an attitude of extreme concentration, she nodded her head here and there, and a shifted her position to get a better view, all the while she kept telling herself to hang on until she could get to the woods and scream. Or curse. Or cry. Or maybe she would do all three at once. If it was a test, Finnick, her and Katniss all passed it. When Plutarch finished and the meeting was adjourned, Opal had a bad moment where she learned there was a special order for her squad. But it was merely that they skip the military haircut because they would like the Mockingjay squad to much just as like the tributes in the arena as possible.

Finnick and Opal gravitated towards each other in the hallway closely accompanied by Katniss "What will we tell Mags?" Opal said under her breath.

"Nothing." Katniss answered "That's what my mother and sister will be hearing from me." It was bad enough that they were heading back into a fully equipped arena. There was no point of dropping it onto their loved ones.

"If she sees that holograph-" Finnick began.

"She won't. It's classified information. It must be," Katniss said "Anyway, its not like an actual Game. Any number of people will survive. We're just overreacting because- well, you know why. You both still want to go, don't you?"

"Of course we want to destroy Snow as much as you do." Opal said.

"It won't be like the others," Katniss replied firmly trying to convince herself as well. The the real beauty of the situation dawned on her "This time Snow will be a player."

Before they could continue, Haymitch appeared. He wasn't at the meeting, and he wasn't thinking of the areas but he was thinking of something else "Johanna's back in the hospital."

Opal pulled away from Finnick bringing herself closer to Haymitch "Is she hurt? what happened?" she questioned panicked.

"It was while she was on the Block. They try to ferret out a soldiers weakness. So they flooded the street," said Haymitch. Opal pulled her face in disgust, Johanna could swim but not well, flooding the street was directly put in action to send her back into a flashback.

"So?" Katniss questioned.

"Thats how they tortured her in the Capitol. Soaked her and then used electric shocks," said Haymitch "In the Block she had some king of flashback. Panicked, didn't know where she was. She's back under sedation." The group stood there as if they had lost the ability to respond. Opal thought of the way Johanna never showered, how she had to force herself into the rain with Opal like it was acid that day.

"You three should go and see her. You're as close to friends as shes got," said Haymitch. Opal nodded her head, her and Johanna had gotten close after she won her games and during their time at the Capitol they were rarely seen apart "I better go tell Plutarch. He won't be happy," Haymitch continued "He wants as many victors as possible for the cameras to follow in the Capitol. Thinks it makes for better television."

"Are you and Beetee going?" Katniss questioned.

"As many young and attractive victors as possible," Haymitch corrected himself "So, no. We'll be here."

At the hospital room door, Finnick and Opal watched Johanna for a moment, Katniss had decided not to visit yet, and Opal realised all of her ferocity was in her abrasive attitude. Stripped of that, she was now only a young woman, her wide-set eyes were fighting to stay awake against the power of the drugs. Terriefed of what the sleep would bring. Opal wondered over to her taking the woman frail hand in hers.

Suddenly there was an iron grip on her wrist "You have to kill him, Opal."

"Don't worry." she resited the temptation to wrench her arm free.

"Swear it on something you care about," Johanna hissed.

"I swear it," Opal looked to Finnick for a brief moment "I swear it on mine and Finnick's baby."

Johanna's face contorted into a smile as her grip relaxed "There is going to be another Odair running around soon? God help me."

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