Fighting Fire With Fire
SUMMARY: AU. "You can't arrest her without a fair trial!" 2012 film Everlark set in a Panem where the Hunger Games do not exist.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I realize the alternate universe of Panem where all the characters live without the Games hanging over their heads has been done before, but I'm going to do my own twist on it. This fic will be mainly Everlark, and, because Gale does deserve some happiness, there will be mentions of Gadge, and references to Glato, Clarvel, and Finnie (or Odesta, whatever you want to call Finnick/Annie). Does anyone else think that Madge should have been in the movie? Or is it just me?
Fighting Fire With Fire, or FFWF as I will call it, is set in a movieverse Panem minus the Games, but the characters are a bit older than we first meet them in the book(s)/film(s). Katniss, Peeta, Gale, etc., are in their early twenties instead of being teenagers. Other than age changes and the absence of the Games, everything in FFWF will stay the same – District Twelve is still poor, President Snow is still evil, it's still illegal to hunt in the woods, etc.
I hope you enjoy Fighting Fire With Fire.
A young woman stood in a forest, a bow in hand and quivver of arrows slung across her back, an arrow notched in the string. She was tall and pale, her dark hair in a single braid down her back. Though physically just out of adolescent-hood, her brown eyes held a seriousness that marked those who hadn't had much a childhood.
Katniss Everdeen lifted the bow, letting the feathers at the end of the arrow brush her cheek. Her eyes were trained on the lean hare sitting on its haunches yards away. It wasn't much, but it was the only game she had seen for hours. The hare turned its head, nose twitching, and just as she was about to release the arrow, the creature moved away.
Mentally cursing, she kept her bow trained on the hare as it moved. Just as it was about to go behind a tree, she let the arrow fly. The force of the impact hurled the hare a foot or two into the underbrush, and she lost sight of it.
Katniss took a few long strides across the clearing, eyes scanning the bushes for the hare. She was so intent on finding the game that she nearly didn't see the flash of white out of the corner of her eye.
Peacekeepers.
Katniss ran.
The hare forgotten, she sprinted in the opposite direction of the white-clad guards. She knew the woods better than the Peacekeepers, but there were more of them. Suddenly, two Peacekeepers burst into her path, and two more came up behind her. She tried to lunge away, but one grabbed her arm.
"You're under arrest for hunting illegally!" the man said. Katniss responded by kicking him in the shin as she fought, but another Peacekeeper grabbed her other arm. She did her best to break free of their grip, but one – their leader, she assumed – struck her hard across the face.
"Come quietly or there will be trouble for you, girl," he ordered. She did not reply as blood oozed from her split lip.
Katniss felt the eyes of all of District Twelve on her as the Peacekeepers dragged her into the main square. The Justice Building towered over her as the men jerked her roughly to a stop; a crowd began to form around them.
Romulus Thread, the Head Peacekeeper of District Twelve, approached. "What's this one done?"
"We caught her hunting in the forest, sir."
"How did she get out of the District?"
As the Peacekeepers talked, Katniss saw her mother and younger sister push their way to the front to the crowd – rather, Prim was pulling Mrs. Everdeen behind her. The young girl gasped, letting go of her mother's arm, and suddenly shot forward.
"No, Prim!" Katniss cried as a Peacekeeper stopped Prim as the twelve-year-old screamed her older sister's name. Gale appeared out of nowhere and took Prim, pulling her back to Mrs. Everdeen, who stood pale and unmoving in shock. Katniss fought to reach her sister, but stopped cold as Thread spoke, his voice raising above the shouting.
"Six months in prison."
Dread ran its icy finger down her spine as her face drained of color.
Her family could starve in six months.
The Peacekeepers began to lead her towards the jail. She was too numb with shock and trepidation to protest, her face filled with fear; she did not dare look back as Prim screamed her name.
"Wait!"
Someone ran into the Peacekeepers' path, forcing them to stop. Katniss could not take her eyes from the young man standing before her.
Peeta Mellark.
Rain. Cold. She is so hungry. She collapses outside the bakery. Peeta comes out in the pouring rain as his mother yells at him, shoving burned bread in his hands.
Her stomach feels like its eating itself. The pigs look more well fed than she does. Peeta sees her on the ground, half-covered in mud, her face drained of all color.
She is so hungry.
"You can't arrest her without a fair trial!" Peeta said quickly, his eyes meeting hers for a split second.
He glances back at the bakery, but his mother is watching. He rips the bread in chunks and tosses them one by one to the pigs.
She is so cold, so tired. She looks up at him with the last of her draining energy. He looks back once more at the bakery, and his mother is gone.
He throws her a loaf of half-burned bread.
She will not starve. Not today.
"You have to give her a trial!" he repeated, his blond hair falling slightly in his eyes.
"She broke the law," snarled Thread.
"She deserves a trial!"
"Fine," said Thread. "She'll get a trial. Get out of the way!"
Katniss was dragged into the jail.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Stay tuned for the next chapter!