Twenty-four years have passed since Katniss Everdeen and the rebels ended Panem's bloody and terrifying revolution. Peace and democracy have been brought to the united country – but all is not well in this new world. A cancer spreads across the wastelands rendered by war, its corruption spreading from the Capitol all the way to lonely District 12. There, Laurel Mellark, daughter of Peeta and Katniss, has known not the Hunger Games nor the crippling affliction of poverty…but even she will not be free from the storm brewing within Panem's heart.

And another darkness, one long since forgotten and deemed vanquished, simmers beneath the surface of peace…

Excerpt from the Book of Memories

The price paid in the first rebellion should have bought peace.

Districts 2, 5, and 13 – devastated and destroyed by nuclear fire, left like dead relics in the years after the war. Tens, hundreds of thousands dead – more wounded, scarred, or traumatized. Whole regions of Panem left burned and torched in the final days of the war, as District 13 and the desperate Capitol engaged in a nuclear exchange to destroy each other's forces. This was the price we paid – the price we, the people of Panem, had to suffer through in the years following that horror.

Still it wasn't enough.

How quickly we forgot what we fought for – sacrificing freedom for the trappings of safety and security all too easily abused by power-hungry leaders we put in charge. How quickly it was that dissent brewed once again in the bellies of Panem's people – yet with no District 13 to ride to the rescue again, who would stand up to the Capitol's resurging tyranny? Who would beat back the horrible things we had created?

Why would it take the unlikeliest of heroes to once again save Panem…from itself?

District 12 – 24 Years After the Rebellion

The fight her parents had known and grown up with was an alien to Laurel Mellark. Unfortunately, it would find her before she could understand it.

She was born the youngest child of Panem's two favorite children – twice victors of the Hunger Games and heroes of the recent rebellion that brought democracy to Panem. They named her Laurel – flowering herald of the warm spring, daughter to Katniss and niece to Primrose.

Laurel grew up in a District 12 that soon came to recognize what the rebellion had wrought. No idyllic democracy had come to Panem – instead, little had changed far away in the materialistic, power-hungry Capitol. Men and women still starved on the streets of the district; children still knew the pain of hunger. While Katniss and Peeta, Laurel's father, may have reaped the benefits of fame and fortune, their contemporaries far on the outskirts of Panem did not.

The cool spring air of April, 24 years after the war died down, brought reflection for 16 year-old Laurel as she knelt on the banks of the woodland pond her mother had once hunted beside. Her reflection shimmered in the refreshing water, morphing and changing in ripples sent up by a frog leaping between lilies.

"Laur?"

Laurel perked her head up, her blue eyes scanning the woods around her. A tall boy with short-cropped blonde hair and grey eyes pushed past a pine tree – Ash, her brother of 19. His tall stature and bony, long face came from their mother – quite the opposite of Laurel, whose relative shortness, vivid blue eyes, and round face all came from Peeta.

"Hey," Laurel pulled her ponytail over her shoulder, turning her eyes back towards the pond. "I'm just…sitting."

"Mom told me to come find you," Ash replied, kneeling next to her in the mud of the pond. "Train to District 4's leaving in an hour and a half. Aunt Prim and Lily are already at our place."

"I don't really feel like going to District 4," Laurel opined, running her hand through the cool water of the pond. "I don't care about all those people we haven't seen in years."

"The Odairs? Or Plutarch?" Ash laughed half-heartedly, looking off into the woods. "Can't say I particularly care for Plutarch either. Why we're supposed to be meeting him there, I dunno…guy's Capitol swine. All that fakeness just reeks off him."

"I don't even remember Finnick and Annie," Laurel interjected, her eyes downcast. "Mom and Dad keep talking about them, but I don't want to be paraded around in front of a bunch of Capitol cameras."

"Don't remember them?" Ash put a hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort the volatile emotions of his little sister. "They have a son your age – Drake. Don't remember him? When we last saw them six years ago, I remember you and he getting along just fine. Lily certainly liked him."

"I was ten. Lily was six."

"Hey, just trying to help."

Laurel gave a feeble chuckle, staring into the water. She cared about her cousin Lily – Prim's only daughter of unfortunate circumstances. Lily hadn't been intentionally conceived, but Laurel had looked after the demure, 12 year-old blonde girl like a little sister of her own. As for the Odairs…and Drake…she hardly remembered them. Six years in District 12 was virtually an eternity, with little but the district's medical factory and small farms to distract one from the slowness of everyday life.

She knew Plutarch, however. The Capitol's spokesperson – right-hand-man to the shadowy President himself – paid too many visits to the Mellark household. Laurel would never feel comfortable around his snake-like voice; his empty promises. He was a man to avoid.

"Why can't we just stay here?" Laurel piped up after a minute of silence. "I don't wanna go somewhere else."

"You know how it is," Ash replied, a touch of exasperation entering his voice. "Rich people in the Capitol want to see everything Mom and Dad do. We're just stuck in the middle. Can't help that."

"It's always going to be like this," Laurel said, leaning against Ash's shoulder. "We're always just going to be their kids. We can't even be ourselves; we have to be whatever they want us to be."

"I don't think so," Ash answered truthfully. "Hey, if we want – "

A rustling in the brush across from the pond cut him off. Laurel took her head off his shoulder, squinting her eyes to get a better look at the trees. Something was coming – coming through the woods, creeping up on the pond. She didn't have to wait long to find out.

The tumor-laced head of a bony, scraggly brown horse poked through the underbrush, its teeth – hewn into points by overuse – bared and braying in the evening air. Even in the darkness, Laurel could make out its rider. A short, stocky man covered only by a loincloth sat atop the animal, his skin blackened by the radiation produced from the old rebellion's final days, when dozens of nuclear weapons flew between the Capitol and District 13 – wiping out Districts 2, 5, and 13 in the process. His eyes bore the scars of that exchange, irises yellowed by age and whites reddened by fire. His black skin was covered in cancerous sores and burn marks.

He was a Fury: A man without a homeland, a citizen of the old Panem left nomads by the rebellion Laurel's parents had sparked. They had once been residents of the districts later destroyed in the nuclear fire of the revolution, cast out into the world without friends or countrymen after Panem declared peace. Now, without love, allies, or even recognition, the Furies roamed the nuclear-torn wastes of Panem between districts as roving bandits, occasionally destroying trains and attacking the outskirts of villages with unbridled rage.

Few were ever left alive to see them…and one had stumbled right into defenseless Ash and Laurel.

"Chelovek!" the Fury shouted in the language adopted by his abandoned people, raising a crude blade above his head. "Ubit! Ubit!"

Laurel froze, her mouth agape. One moment she'd been opening up to her brother – the next, a horrifying demon of the wastelands had taken off across the pond, circling on the legs of a terrifying beast as fast he could come.

"Laurel! Run!" Ash grabbed her hand before she could move a muscle, dragging her through the woods as the horseman closed.

Laurel's legs obeyed instinctively, carrying her along at a breakneck pace. Trees whipped past her face as she ran through the woods she knew all too well, haunted by the war cries of the Fury somewhere behind her. She had to make it home – just make it home, and maybe somehow the thing would leave her. Furies wouldn't dare attack a whole district, would they – even District 12 had a small compliment of armed Peacekeepers.

She and Ash broke through the final line of trees before the edge of District 12's meadow, where the old electric fence now stood unpowered and welcoming their retreat. What confronted them wasn't safety and security, however.

Homes on the edge of the old Seam burned with red and yellow flames as screams echoed in the air. In the distance, Laurel could spot several other horsemen racing upon their diseased mounts, ransacking District 12 for whatever they could find.

"C'mon!" Ash shouted at her before she could absorb the scene. "We gotta find Mom and Dad. We have to get out of here."

"Where are we going to go?!" Laurel panicked, nearly hysterical by the sight as her hands fluttered. "They're…they're…"

"We don't have a choice!" Ash shook her shoulder violently. "Just follow me – now!"

Laurel took off without further questioning her brother. The Fury behind them was nowhere in sight, but acrid smoke filled her lungs as she raced across the meadow the two of them had played in as kids – now reduced to a field of sorrow as they scrambled to avoid the crisis befalling District 12. The stars Laurel idolized were shrouded by the flames, reduced to pinpricks of light in the fiery halo of burning buildings.

"Laurel! Ash!"

A male tenor cut through the commotion and smoke as Laurel pounded her way across the meadow. Sprinting through a column of smoke and carrying a long knife came a tall, blonde-haired man in his earl forties – Peeta Mellark, her father and still-spry victor of the Hunger Games. The reflection of the fires danced in his gray eyes as he spotted his children, rushing towards them without a second thought.

Laurel wasted no time, rushing into his arms before she could even think. Peeta held her tight for a moment before pushing her along.

"Train's waiting," he panted, his voice straining with exertion. "We're going to get out of here if they haven't destroyed it yet. The Peacekeepers are all stationed there."

"What's going on?!" Ash demanded, his eyes alight as Laurel looked on. "How are they just running through the place? They've never done this before!"

"Can't underestimate Furies," Peeta grimaced. "Don't know. Maybe they've organized somehow. We don't have time to think about it, however – we've got to go. Stick with your sister; stay behind me and – "

He was cut off by the arrival of another horseman – a short, bloated fellow riding atop a cancerous steed. The Fury bellowed out a roar, holding out a war hammer aloft and preparing to charge –

Twang!

An arrow impaled the Fury straight through the eye, sending him flying off his mount. A second arrow shot the diseased horse in the head, sticking through its cranium and downing the frenzied beast. Shrouded by a backdrop of fire, Katniss Everdeen held her bow aloft with a third arrow notched and ready to fire.

"Peeta!" she shouted over the din. "Do you have them?"

"Yeah!" he returned. "We gotta go."

Laurel grabbed Katniss's outstretched hand, her legs sprinting as fast as they could go as her mother's tell-tale braid danced and bobbed before her eyes. Lines of age showed on Katniss's forehead, but even in her early forties, she was still in her element – willing to fight to the end, no matter the enemy. If her opponent threatened the people she loved, all the more incentive to battle.

"I sent Lily and Prim to the train," Katniss shouted back to Peeta as she led Laurel forward. "Sent Madge, Rory, and Summer, too. Couldn't find Delly and her family."

"Can't worry about her," Peeta yelled as he and Ash held up the rear. "Not enough time."

Laurel nearly fell down as Katniss pushed her back, sending another arrow through the throat of an enraged Fury. The radiation-plagued man fell screaming, gurgling as blood poured from the wound. Laurel felt a haze overcome her as violence poured in from every angle: Seemingly everywhere she looked, fires blazed or people ran screaming, shouting for help. Just an hour ago, District 12 had been its usual calm self. Now, the entire world she'd grown to know over 16 years had fallen apart by the seams, torn asunder by anger and flames.

"Station's up ahead!" Katniss shouted back, snapping Laurel from her stupor. "C'mon!"

Laurel just got a glimpse of several white Peacekeeper uniforms when something else – something also white – entered her vision. This was no Peacekeeper; no enforcer of the status quo. This was pure evil – riding a beast hewn from Hell itself.

A pale monster of a man, his waist clothed in a loincloth made of human skin, strode before Laurel and her family with a cruel, flanged mace in his right hand. He was easily seven feet tall, perhaps taller – his face bearing radiation scars battle wounds, with eyes yellowed by the heat of long-forgotten nuclear fire. The fingernails on his hands had fallen out years ago, leaving well-muscled pink pits behind. His face bore pocks and pits of radiation poisoning, with even his teeth yellowed and pointed into angular daggers from age and wear. Two pistols – along with the cut-off faces of defeated foes – banded a belt that kept his loincloth in place.

His mount was even more terrifying. No mere horse was this, like the rest of the Furies attacking District 12. No, this was a hound mutated into impressive size; a wolf-retriever hybrid of at least eight feet in length, morphed by the fallout of the rebellion's final days. Its black coat bore splotched patches of bare red skin; its knife-like teeth hung out of its mouth like those of saber-toothed tigers of Neolithic yore. It snarled at Laurel as it slunk before them, carrying its fearsome rider with pride.

No stranger did this man seem to Laurel and her brood, however. The man pointed his mace at Katniss, his teeth clenching in an awful snarl as he let out a howling war cry:

"OSKVERNITEL!"

Laurel's mother let out a single arrow, catching the man in his shoulder as he charged. The shot barely slowed him down: The man shrugged off the blow, lowering his mace and catching Katniss squarely in the chest. Laurel dove to the side as the wolf barreled past as her mother fell, blood spurting from a deep incision.

Peacekeeper gunfire jolted the attacker from his assault as he rebounded to confront the threat. His wolf took apart the nearest Peacekeeper, decapitating him in one swift motion that left his helmeted head rolling on the bloodied grass.

"Katniss!" Peeta shouted, letting go of Ash and grabbing his wife's quivering body. "Ash, get your sister and go! Tell the conductor to get the train started!"

"Mom!" Laurel shouted as Ash grabbed her hand, fighting to get back to her injured mother. "No!"

"Laurel, we gotta go!" Ash snarled at her. "She'll be alright! C'mon, or we're all gonna die here!"

Ash half-dragged Laurel to the train station that had once hauled Katniss and Peeta off to the Hunger Games, pushing her forward to a shining silver train that stood ready for use. On the platform stood a petite blonde woman and her thin, young carbon-copy – Prim and Lily, waiting for word from the Mellarks.

"Go!" Ash shouted at them as he pushed Laurel forward. "Tell them to go! Mom and Dad are coming."

Laurel felt her heart racing as her brother pushed her on. She clawed at him, trying to get back to where they'd left their parents behind – at the mercy of whatever the pale giant was doing. He'd taken out a Peacekeeper with ease and smashed Katniss's chest with a single stroke; who could tell what else he'd do? She couldn't just leave them!

"Ash!" Laurel screamed. "We have to go back! We have to!"

"No, Laur!" He shoved her into the train's entrance car, blocking her from running with his body. "Get on! You heard Dad!"

With tears pouring out of her eyes, Laurel backpedaled onto the train – ignoring the opulent surroundings of the cabin as she scrambled for a window. Smoke and fire clouded District 12; with a scene like this, what was left of her parents?

Out of the gray shroud came her father – holding Katniss's still body in his arms and running with every ounce of strength in his body.

They weren't alone.

The pale giant came galloping out of the smoke after them, his wolf steed sprinting as fast as it could go. He snarled with malicious intent, his mace shining in the fiery night with the blood of innocents already spilled upon it. He had his eyes set on the two victors from District 12 – with nothing less than their deaths acceptable in his eyes.

Laurel couldn't stand by and do nothing.

She pushed past Ash to the door, keeping her feet on the final step of the entrance car as the train began to pull out from the station.

"Dad!" Laurel screamed. "C'mon!"

As the pale man almost overtook Peeta, a final Peacekeeper stepped in his way – blocking the assailant's path with his rifle. The pale giant barely slowed down, allowing himself a moment to crush the man's skull like a melon. A sickening crunch echoed through the train car as the Peacekeeper was reduced to a corpse, lain out by the pale giant as he surged after Peeta.

It was too late by now, however – the Peacekeeper had bought just enough time for Laurel's father to hoist her mother's body with one hand, grabbing Laurel's outstretched hand with the other. Peeta pulled his foot in the door as the train sped up – just in time to avoid a loud clang! as the pale giant's mace connected with the train's metal sheeting.

"NYET!" the man screamed, outraged at his quarry escaping.

Laurel slammed the train's door behind her father, catching a glimpse of the pale giant's hideous, angered face before District 12 fell away forever. Her final glimpse onto her home would be its burning – rendered unto ashes by the Furies and their anger.

As Peeta carried Katniss's still body forward, Laurel fell down in the train car and cried.

Author's Note: Welcome to an alternate future of Panem, where the rebellion's final days were marked by an intense fight between District 13 and the Capitol that saw nuclear weapons devastate the nation – wiping out District 2, District 5, and District 13. More than twenty years after the fighting has ceased, the enigmatic man known only as The President rules from the Capitol. Never seen by the eyes of the public, he rules through an increasingly strict set of laws that threaten to cast Panem's young democracy back into the Capitol's autocracy of yore.

Laurel Mellark is the younger child of Peeta and Katniss, rather than the older as in canon; Katniss had her son just five years after the war ended, rather than fifteen. For the sake of the story, some characters who died did not in this retelling; Finnick, Prim, and Madge are still alive.

All canon material belongs to Suzanne Collins; all original work is mine. Enjoy, and I always welcome feedback! Part 1 of 3.