Katniss' POV

"Our female tribute is Lilian Mellark!" the over ecstatic woman exclaims.

I watch my 14 year old daughter make her way up to the stage. There is no hint of anger or fear in her fierce gaze, only pride, crazy pride, to follow in the footsteps of her mother. "And our male tribute is" She pauses for dramatic effect "Peter Hawthorn!" The stunned look in my best friend's eyes scared me.

"Gale! I'm so sorry!" I comfort him.

A soft voice, a very familiar voice pipes up. "I volunteer!"

"Cole! Not my son too!" I whirl around and plead.

"Mom, I have to. For Lily." As my 17 year old son tells me this I know he will protect her.

I nod and let him stalk forward, jumping gracefully up onto the stage and he takes his place next to his younger sister. My two beautiful children. I fill with pride until I glance over at a movement to my right. Peeta attacking a Peacekeeper. "You! You are doing this! You are going to kill my children! You, You!"

I step forward and Gale grabs my upper arm. "Katniss don't do this." He warns softly.

I step back, calmer now. I watch the fight with the rest of District 12, and then another Peacekeeper pulls out his gun. I watch, frozen in fear and anger. The Peacekeeper cocks his pistol and pulls the trigger. There is an explosion as I watch my husband crumple to the ground, dead. I am frozen. Scared speechless. Gale turns me around and pulls me to his chest in a hug.

Cole and Lily look at this, their faces expressionless masks. Cole leans down to her and whispers something in her ear. She nods then opens her mouth to speak. "We will win. And when we do, you," She points at the Peacekeepers." Will pay for the death of our father." Her words hang in the air. District 12 people lift the three middle fingers of their right hand to their lips then hold them out to my children. A goodbye gesture.

They turn around and take the hovercraft that will deposit them at their train. No goodbyes, they are gone just like that. I slip away and grab my bow from the log outside the fence. I sprint back to Peeta, an arrow notched on the bow string. "Come anywhere near us and you are as good as dead. I will kill you." They all see where my daughter's voice of rage came from.

Peeta groans and I know he is close to death. "Goodbye Katniss Everdeen,

I love you." His eyes close and he is gone, taken from me.

"Turning toward the murders, filled with rage, I scream like I did when I was in District Eight during the rebellion. "If we burn, you burn with us." They back off, seeing my fury. I think of Prim, and how she would try to save Peeta. But she can't, she is dead.

Gale takes me back to the house in Victor's Village that we share. We sit on the couch, my head on his chest, crying for Peeta, Lily and Cole. "Let's run away." He says quietly. I remember back to the day of the reaping, all those years ago. When he suggested it for the first time.

"Okay." I agree.