FORTY SEVEN

VENGEANCE

Her fingers drummed the table as Coin and Plutarch debated in a separate room. Her mind wasn't focusing on anything but the sight of her parents and Rossan strung up outside the Justice Building of District 4. Her father's mumbled words repeating themselves over and over and over. Long live my pearl. Long live my pearl. Long live my pearl.

"Talia?" His voice was barely a whisper as he spoke, his hand over hers, her other hand was restlessly tapping. "Talia, please,"

She didn't look at him, she didn't even register what was in her actual, real-time view- her mind was replaying the images. Their pale bodies, covered in blood and clearly decaying. She blinks away the image and turns to look at Finnick. His soft eyes were focused on her, only her.

"I'm so sorry," He says again. It was all he'd said whenever she broke away from whatever was happening inside her head.

"Its not your fault," She says, voice steely.

President Coin and Plutarch Heavensbee walk back into the room, both of them frowning as they retake their seats.

"We will allow you to go to District 4 and retrieve their bodies and pay your respects...With your permission, we'd like the team to accompany you, to film it. And then, once thats done, you shall return here, where we will be reading for immediate deployment to District 2, where you will assist rebels in cracking the Nut," Plutarch explains. Talia's fingers hover above the table as she listens, focusing on the words.

"Very well," She nods, standing up, "I'll go and get ready,"

"Talia," Coin calls out as the girl turns her back. She looks back around. "We're sorry for your loss,"

Talia simply nods her head before leaving the room. She hears Finnick stand to follow her at first, but he slouches back into his seat. Talia walks slowly along the corridors, her feet leading the way, her mind not even processing her route.

As she's walking the corridors mindlessly, her path crosses with Katniss Everdeen and Gale Hawthorne.

"Talia," Katniss says, gently stopping Talia by grabbing her arm. Talia looks up slightly.

"Oh, Katniss, hi," She mumbles.

"Everything okay?" Gale asks, eyes glancing to Katniss full of concern.

"My parents...He killed them...And pinned them to posts...And burned them..." Talia's voice is flat, theres nothing there but dread.

A fire burns in Katniss's blood, anything to do with that crooked man in the Presidential seat made her fill with fury.

"I'll kill him," Katniss snarls, "Its my purpose,"

"Makes two of us," Talia says, shaking her head, "She'll put us against each other, you know,"

"Who?" Katniss asks, frowning.

"Coin. Don't trust her," Talia says before continuing on her walk, leaving a confused and awestruck Katniss and Gale behind her.

By the time she arrives at the hanger the sun is setting. Everyone is waiting for her, all of them armed to the teeth with weapons, including herself. She has a belt of knifes as well as guns strapped to either of her thighs. She was covered head to toe in Beetee's specially fitted armour and in her hair, braided through it, ribbons of pearl colour. The necklace from her mother still on her neck as always. She boards the hovercraft and sits down beside Jamie who was checking over his weapons. District 4 would be highly dangerous, especially for Talia.

She checks for Finnick and see's him sat with Jada, discussing something she can't make out. Talia breathes a sigh of relief at the sight of him, he'd be able to support her if she broke down.

The flight to District 4 is solemn and slow due to caution. They had no idea if there were any Capitol squadrons over District 4 since the District had "gone down". Beetee described it as a "power down, lights out, code red" to those that understood it. Talia assumed it meant that the District was in total darkness with no power supply. Though, Beetee also explained that due to the District 5 dam being completely shut down, this affected it- it was becoming much harder for all the Districts to get power- but the Capitol suffered too.

The hovercraft landed near the Victor's Village, it was safest there- after all, some Victor's were still living there. Before leaving the aircraft, Jamie makes sure Talia's face is well covered with the hooded robe Beetee had given him. Under the fabric she was holding a pistol tight, the safety already off. She was to stay in the middle of the squadron, and she would not be allowed to move to the front or rear unless commanded by Jamie.

The crew moved at the back, filming what they could despite Talia being incognito. Finnick remained by Talia's side, his trident strapped across his back. He had never been so tense as he had as they rounded the corner into the District Square. The stench was almost unbearable. One of the filming crew had to pause to heave their breakfast onto the floor.

"Keep the cameras rolling," Finnick heard someone say. They walked slowly across the blood covered District Square. After Talia's parents and Rossan had been strung up, it was clear to see a fight had gone down between Peacekeepers and Rebels.

Talia pushed herself up onto the stage alongside Jamie and Finnick. There was no longer bodies strung up on the wooden beams, but the scent of burn flesh and decaying bodies was still in the air. Talia kneeled down, her hood covering her head still.

She placed a hand at the base of the centre post and closed her eyes. Silence fell around them all. This was her moment, her moment to be alone. Her mind flooded with memories, as if she's willed them from the very beams of wood her parents had been hung from. Suddenly, she jumps back, standing up, her head turns and she see's it, the hovercars rushing towards the District Square from down the tall hill where the Peacekeeper base was.

"Ready your weapons!" Talia calls. The film crew are ushered to cover in some of the ruins of the District shops, but the cameras keep rolling. Talia, Jamie and Finnick rush to hide on the opposite side of the stage. Talia checks over her gun, making sure it was fully loaded. She was ready to kill every last one of them.

There were 4 hovercars, each of them carried 4 Peacekeepers. 16 people was not difficult to handle when you had the firepower. Finnick would be mostly useless with his poor marksmanship. This was up to Talia, Jamie and the rest of the group. Jamie signalled for the others to ready the aim, while he unbolted a grenade from his belt. He aimed the bomb and then hurled it through the air, the catch releasing. It landed on the floor metres from the first hovercar, rolled a few more metres closer and then blew. The front two cars flung into the air. 7 people dead already.

The rest of the fight was easy enough, gunshot after gunshot sounded around the Square, echoing. Talia killed the final Peacekeeper with a bullet to the head. Afterwards, she climbed into the drivers seat of the hovercar. Finnick rushed over and climbed in beside her.

"What're you doing?!" He asks as she begins to fiddle with the controls.

She turns to look him in the eyes, her heart thudded in her chest as she spoke,
"Ending this all,"

_______________

so...yeah...

sorry its been so long but hey-ho i'm on the path to completing this story now and i'm excited to announce there will be a brand new Finnick Odair fanfiction coming this year !!!

thank you for reading & please let me know if you enjoyed!

~cupidlies❤️