24

Down here, the mice mutts are preparing for war. Or rather, rebellion, to be more specific. Up there, there's a cat on the loose-and the cat has a reluctant owner who hates mice just as much as she hates cats. Needless to say the mice mutts will have to work harder than District 13 during the Revolution to bring down both the bitch and the son of the other bitch...whoever that was.

The mutts show Peeta around. They show him their weapons factories...which are always VERY busy.

There are cat traps. Some are simple, and merely trap Buttercup for as long as it takes for him to rediscover his willpower (which will never be for very long, considering a cat's legendary selfishness). Others are built to kill. And these are the ones the best of the mutts hope never to have to use.

But there again, if the rats in the Secret of NIMH had Jenner, then it's not unlikely that these mice mutts have a Jenner of their own... But since Peeta does not know the mice mutts' language, there's no reliable way for him to know that for sure.

These are old factories. From here, the mutts show Peeta the new ones.

The weapons in this one are designed to attack HUMAN targets; Katniss specifically. It seems that Peeta's hosts are just as afraid of Katniss as they are of Buttercup.

Peeta starts to worry about his hosts. He wonders if they're actually trying to protect him-or to just keep him prisoner until they figure out what to do with him.

But then, if they wanted Peeta dead, why didn't they just leave him to the bobcat? Do these mice mutts truly hate cats so much that they no longer trust cats to do their jobs?

Well, the mice mutts have definitely done too much to prove their intelligence. And Peeta's been told that insanity thrives where intelligence is wrought.

With time, and as the rebellion is out making rounds, the mice mutts get through to Peeta. And slowly, Peeta begins to understand their greater purpose.

In the beginning, they were in the Capitol-as begin all other mutts. They were designated as test subjects, who became mutts as a result of fluke experiments. The Capitol tried caging them, but one day their escape was bound to happen. And when it did, the mice mutts went on the run-to nowhere specific.

By chance, they ended up here. Like a human, they learned of the story of the Girl on Fire's success. The mice mutts thought that as an oppressed population, Katniss would understand their need for a benign ruler. But then they learned that Buttercup was there too...and their priorities changed.

Their original plan was to leave. Some of the mice mutts suggested that killing Katniss and the cat was in order-but those were just the ones who were tired of rambling.

But then the mice mutts observed Katniss and Buttercup more closely, and realized that Katniss was only keeping Buttercup around to remember her sister by. And with that, the mice mutts came up with a plan.

They developed a chemical-one that would've forced Buttercup to shapeshift into Snow, if it'd worked. And it did. The first problem was that the chemical wasn't inside Buttercup when it worked. The second problem was that it wasn't inside a cat when it worked.

Katniss would've killed Buttercup, thinking he was Snow. This would've killed three birds with one stone, as far as the mice mutts were concerned. Katniss would've had a bigger motivation to get over Prim's death than she did as things were. And she would've gotten to satisfy her grudge against Snow, since she didn't kill him at the end of the Revolution-as the people expected her to. But most importantly, to the mice mutts, their new home would've been cat-free-if not bobcat-free. But as Peeta can already tell, something went wrong when they tried to deliver the chemical to Buttercup, and Katniss consumed it instead.

Somehow, the chemical has forged an involuntarily dualism inside Katniss's psychology. And her obsession with Snow seems to empower it.

Peeta doesn't understand. Before he met Katlanna, Katniss never talked to him about how much she hates Snow-if she ever talked at all.

From what the mice mutts can figure, Katlanna is what was once Snow's good side-or rather, what it would've been if Snow had better nourished it-and if Snow were a young woman-and Katniss, by contrast, is who Snow was politically; i.e. the villain everyone in Panem hated, and fought the Revolution for. Although rather than oppressing Panem, as Snow did in life, Katniss is instead oppressing the mice, the mice mutts, and all of Buttercup's failures-both accidental and not-to cure the estate of its mouse problem.

Peeta admits that "Katniss" has, in fact, reminded him of Snow lately. As much as the mice mutts have considered making an antidote, they don't think that's a good idea, based on what happened when they tried to get Buttercup to consume the first chemical.

Peeta volunteers to give Katniss an antidote when and if he ever gets big again, and if the mice mutts decide to reconsider making an antidote. And in exchange, he'll get rid of Buttercup and try to convince Katniss to use more conventional mouse traps.

Alas, the mice mutts don't understand anything Peeta says. And Peeta doesn't know how badly he wants them to understand him-in that he risks miscommunicating with them if he spends too long trying to get through to them.

He might get the mice mutts to make him smaller while trying to make him bigger. They might try to kill him to guarantee that he doesn't kill them when and if he gets bigger. They might make something else instead of the antidote. They might think he's going to make Buttercup better at catching mice than he is.

Yes, talking to these mice mutts is probably going to be as effective as talking to Katniss or Katlanna themselves. Once again, Peeta is back with the only asset he ever had to begin with: luck.

And yet, these mice mutts have made an industry out of their rebellion against Buttercup and Katniss. And if Peeta can bake, surely he can...

But to what end? He doesn't know for a fact he'll grow back to his normal size on his own. And he doesn't want to hurt Katniss. He'd only hurt Katlanna if he thought she'd turn back into Katniss. He also doesn't know how he feels about getting rid of Buttercup. Katniss might come to her senses and accuse him of destroying the one last link she had with her sister's memory.

What to do... And to think that all Mrs. Brisby had to do in the Secret of NIMH was ask the rats to keep her sick son from sinking into a swamp...