So, you all recognize this one, right?

Right! It's Gail :D But, I'm missing Acer's chapter, and sadly cannot remember the submitter for that incredible character. So, if you're Acer's owner, PM me? I need him! Until then, he'll kind of be like a MIA man :(

-Okki

*Disclaimer: We do not own The Hunger Games, or anything affiliated with it. It all belongs to the wonderful Suzanne Collins.

"Gail, who is she?"

Gail Maxwell had been so enraptured by the events unfurling following the passing of Katniss Everdeen that she hadn't even heard her little brother enter the room.

"Adam, what are you doing up?" She motioned him to come over to her with her hands, to which he obliged, rushing across the floor and slamming into her, arms like little boa constrictors around her waist. Her breath rushed out of her from the force of the impact, but she recovered quickly, laughing as she tousled his dirty blonde locks.

"I'll ask you again; what are you doing up? You have school in the morning."

Instead of saying anything, the little boy only snuggled his nose against her stomach, a happy sigh coming from him once he was comfortable. Gail could only roll her eyes and smile while she continued her diligent threading of her slender fingers through his hair, which seemed to be relaxing him even more.

He'll be asleep, alright. Just not in his bed, she thought with a soft chuckle.

"Gail?"

Her head jerked up as her father's strained voice broke through the quiet her and Adam had themselves wrapped in. Frown lines creased his forehead and he pinched the bridge of his nose, due to what Gail could only presume to be a migraine coming on.

"Adam, go back to your room," his words and voice were final, brooked no room for refusal.

"But, dad—,"

"Now, Adam."

Adam looked up at Gail one last time, cerulean eyes pleading with her to make their father let him stay. He didn't get his wish though.

"Go on, Adam, you need to get to sleep," she whispered before pressing a tender kiss to the top of his head and turning him around in the direction of his room. He ambled off in that direction, but not without glancing back at his sister. She only waved her fingers at him before turning her full attention on their father, who waited until he heard the close of his little boy's bedroom door to say anything to her.

"I suppose you've already heard about Katniss," it wasn't a question. Gail was certain there was no one who hadn't heard of the death of the Mockingjay, or what events were tailing close on its heels.

"I'm going to start training early in the morning."

Her dad merely sighed, an unsteady sound, and closed his eyes tight, almost refusing to show any emotion.

"Dad," she began, hoping he would open his eyes. To her dismay, they stayed sealed shut. "Dad, please look at me."

The older man slowly revealed his eyes, looking down at his daughter's pleading face.

Gail could see the turmoil in them, the complete heartbreak of his little girl leaving him to train for something they were sure would never come back. She wrapped her arms around his torso, latching her hands behind his back and burying her face against him.

"Don't worry, dad. I'm strong," she tried to be reassuring, but even she couldn't help but hear the quaver her voice had adopted.

"As if I don't know that," he grimaced and rested his chin on top of her sleek blonde head, holding her tight around her shoulders. "I'm just not ready to see my little girl grow up, and here you are going to go train for…for the…," his words were lost in the tears he could not stop, even if he tried.

Gail felt him shaking against her, but didn't know what to do other than to tighten her hold on him as much as possible.

"Don't cry," she whispered, fighting tears back as she spoke. She could not, would not show herself to be weak whenever her family needed to see she was strong enough to handle this, strong enough to come back home to them. She was from District One! They were the strongest of the Districts. The only competition she presumed to have is whoever her District partner ended up being. But then her thoughts swayed, thinking over all of the stories she had been told since she was little. Every Hunger Games only had one victor, until the 74th, the Games where Katniss came out as victor, with her District partner close behind her (hand in hand, she recalled hearing). And the only way her partner made it out with her was because they attempted some wild suicide act in defiance of the Capitol, which spurred the whole rebellion mess she was born during, but had brought the Games to a halting stop. But since there was no Mockingjay to hold those back any longer, the President decided it would be best to honor her by announcing the grand return of the Hunger Games.

"Maybe District One will bring home two victors," her words came out almost like a question, so she made sure her next statement was strong. "We could be the next Katniss and Peeta."

"I hope with everything in me that you all are."

Gail lifted her shining eyes towards her father's watery ones. He looked so much older in the dim light of their parlor, so much more wizened. She didn't like it.

"Bring a final stop to this hell," he poked her nose with his pinky and bent his knees until he was eye level with her, which forced them to have to release one another, whispering in her ear, "Take that woman down."

"It would be great if I could ally with him. The thought of killing someone…" she trailed off, her thoughts going unbidden to Adam. While there obviously would be no five year old competing (she hoped! This President seemed to get a thrill from making everything so sick and twisted.), there would still be little kids only twelve years old, and in danger of losing their lives' before they even get the chance to begin!

"Listen to you, Gail! You're talking as though you've already been selected! It could very well be someone other than you. Everyone from age twelve to eighteen is having their name submitted twelve times."

That caught her attention.

"Twelve times?" she practically shouted.

Her father held a finger to her lips to silence her, nodding and listening for any sound that they may have woken her mother or brother. The rest of the house was quiet except for the bated breath coming from Gail.

"Why twelve?"

"It's her sick way of a memorial for Katniss. The way she sees it, since Katniss came from District Twelve, then every potential Tribute deserves to have their name entered that many times."

"What about the Districts who are offered Tesserae?"

"That doesn't exist anymore. Since President Snow was generous enough, as the Capitol states, to hold that offer out, but was in the end killed by one who had applied for it to help her family, the new President thought it just to eliminate it."

Gail sneered as she thought of what kind of human being this President was showing herself to be.

Obviously not a remorseful one…

"Why do you want to train for the Games?"

The complete 360 turn of the conversation took her by surprise. She looked back at him, wide eyed, only to be met with gray eyes like stones, hard and determined.

"Well," she tried to swallow past the lump forming in her throat and concentrate on breathing. "It's just…a…it is for precautionary measures!" she finally managed to spiel, biting down on her lip as she rethought what she had just said.

"Precautionary measures, huh? Gail you know as well as I that if it came down to it, you couldn't harm a hair on someone's head."

"I could if it would get me home!" she defended herself, thoroughly agitated with the way her father was viewing her at the moment. "Or if it would mean a better life for Adam."

"What better life? Is there something wrong with how we're living now?" he challenged her.

Gail shook her head once, quickly.

"No, there isn't. But what would his life be like if he could tell everyone his older sister came back as the victor of the Hunger Games that had been a thing of the past for sixty long years? Or better yet," she paused, inhaling deeply. "What if we could be the next Katniss and Peeta, whoever the male Tribute is and I? Then you and mom could enjoy Adam's childhood and never fear him being picked to fight in those Games, because he and I would bring them to an end."

"Who says he wouldn't turn on you in the end?" Her father was certainly relentless.

"I'd back myself up with another ally, someone else from another District! It doesn't have to be from my own, does it?"

"Gail, if you even came close to finding someone with enough heart, or sense, in there to spare you and agree to partner up with you, who's to say they'll pull that surprise ending of two victors, when they probably won't be willing to go down that road ever again? What makes you think that if you attempted something like Katniss and Peeta, the Gamemakers' wouldn't just sit there and let you do it?" His voice had steadily begun to rise during his tirade until he was full out yelling at her.

"We've never been afraid of the Games! You and mom seemed so careless, even about the topic of if they returned! Why are you acting like this now?"

"Gail?"

The hushed voice stopped them both. Gail lifted up on her toes to peer over her father's shoulder at the same time he turned his upper body around to see behind him.

"Dad?" Adam poked his mussed head around the edge of his door, which was barely opened in the first place, granting them the sight of only his wide, frightened eyes.

"Everything's okay, Adam, go back to sleep," Gail spoke to him reassuringly while stepping around her father and walking over to his door, patting down his hair and pulling it closed. She then turned back to her father, who looked completely spent.

"I'm going to the Academy to train first thing in the morning," she started to make her way down the hall to her own room, but not before her father said one last thing to her.

"You don't have a weapon."

Gail sighed, closing her tired, blue eyes.

"I'll find something."

With that, she took the final steps to her room, sauntered in, and shut the door forcefully, wedging her desk chair under the handle so no one would barge in and disturb her.

"I'll show you, dad. I'll show you how strong I am. I won't let Adam grow up and face this as his future."

She reached up and flipped the little oval switch on her wall, blanketing herself and her room in the coolness of the dark.