AN: Okay so I'll be continuing for a while, but the updates may be only once a week or so, due to school. Thank you to all who reviewed! It means a lot. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or the plot. That all goes to Suzanne Collins.

No one knows what to say. How it possible for a girl's name to be pulled twice in a row? It, to my knowledge, has never happened before, because victor's are not able to be tributes again. But Prim didn't enter the arena last year. And this year, there is no one to volunteer for her.

I'm having an out of body experience as I watch the scene before me unfold. My mother is crying already, and people start shouting as Prim walks forward towards to the stage. It takes a moment for me to come to my senses before I can react. I jump from my seat. "This can't happen! She can't be drawn again! It's rigged!"

Haymitch wraps his arms around me and pulls me off the stage while I continue to scream at Effie. I can't help but blame her - after all, it is her hand that selects the tribute. Just as I'm being dragged out of sight, I see my little sister, with her duck tail hanging out, crossing the sage, before Haymitch pulls me away completely. I do everything I can to fight him off while he attempts to hold my arms down.

"Listen to me, sweetheart, or I'm not going to help you keep your sister alive," Haymitch spits at me. I can hear him perfectly over the silence from no on volunteering to save Prim.

I settle for a moment, letting my nails dig into my wrist to try and wake me from surely must be another nightmare. But no release comes. Haymitch takes a moment to assess if I'm really going to shut up before talking. "You have one way, and one way alone to keep her safe. You take all of your emotion out of it. She's not your sister, she's a kid you are trying to bring home to Twelve. It's the only way you'll be able to think logically, and keep yourself from going insane. Do you understand, Katniss?"

I let it sink in. Pretend that Prim has no connection to me. Be as tough on her as Haymitch was on me. "I can't do it! She's my sister!" I feel sobs threatening to break through the wall I've build.

Haymitch is not one to give pity. "Then watch her die. You're choice."

He walks away. I'm left in a stunned silence for moment before I see Peacekeepers marching Rory and Prim towards the Justice Building. I feel my legs running before my mind catches up. In the sea of people, I find Gale headed towards where his brother is being taken. I want to catch up with him, to cry in his arms. But I can't dare face him now. When you're a mentor, you try and keep one kid alive, and one kid alone. Even when both tributes have their own mentor, as they do this year, one child will be favored. I can't dare talk to Gale now, not knowing that his brother won't be coming home if it's up to me.

Once I reach the Justice Building, I find my mother. She sees me, but her eyes appear to go right through me. I can't begin to imagine what she's going through. The depression she felt after losing my father surely came back when I was selected as tribute, and it is no doubt creeping back now. I put my arm around her and allow her to put hers around me. We stand silently together until a Peacekeeper leads us to the room where Prim is sitting alone.

The room is all too familiar. I remember sitting on the couch with Prim on my lap just a year ago. I make my way over to my baby sister, and it hits me for the first time just how tiny she is. She's hardly bigger than Rue was. I pull her into me once I sit, and kiss her head. "Baby, you're going to be okay. I'm your mentor. I'm coming with you. You're not alone. You can do it." Words flow from my mouth without stopping.

Prim isn't crying though. She's become an emotionless statue, that allows herself to be hugged and pet. Eventually, she speaks. "Mom, you have to take care of Lady and Buttercup."

A small laugh escapes both my mother and me. Of course, Prim is concerned with her pet goat and cat. It hits me then that my mother will be all alone. With Prim as a tribute, and me as a mentor, my mother will have no one to share the house in Victor's Village with. I start reminding her of things she has to do to take care of herself, until Prim stops me and asks for one last kiss from my mother.

Before the Peacekeeper comes to pry me from my sister, I whisper, "See you on the train, duckie."

I'm not sure what to say once my mother and I are alone outside the room. A few other friends of Prim file into her room and my mother and I watch silently. Finally, she starts sobbing, and I try to comfort her. I tell her it will all be okay, that Prim will be coming home with me, but I honestly don't know that for sure. Mother is still crying when Effie finds me. She tells me my bags are packed on the train already, and that I will be riding in a separate car from my sister to get to the station.

All too soon, I'm being towed from my mother into a car that will take me to a train station, filled with people waiting to assess my sister. As I step out of the car, I'm bombarded with questions. How do I feel about having my sister picked again, do I think it's rigged, how I feel when she dies. I keep my gaze ahead of me and refuse to say a word, even a thank you to Haymitch who pushes some reporters out of my face.

The noise settles outside as I enter my room. What feels like only a few moments later, the noise starts up again, and I know Prim and Rory have arrived. Knowing I won't be able to see them live, I turn on the TV in my room, and watch a feed that is live from one of the cameras outside. Both thirteen year olds say nothing, as I'm sure they have been advised, before they step into the train. I throw the TV remote on the floor, and I run out of my room in search of Prim.

I find her being ushered by Effie towards a room down a hallway. "Prim!" I cry out. "Prim!" She turns, but Effie continues to push her forward. I grind my teeth together. Effie surely knows what I must be feeling. Can she not allow three seconds change in her damn schedule to allow me to see my sister? I know it's no use trying to go after them - for the train doors won't budge once they've been locked. I still walk down the hallway, though, because once Effie is done showing Prim around, she'll open the door for me.

I sit in the hall, waiting, until I hear Effie say, "Be in the main hall for dinner in an hour." I jump to my feet, and give Effie the death glare as she acknowledges me. "Oh, Katniss, there you are. I think Haymitch is waiting for you in the-"

"I'm not meeting Haymitch now," I cut her off. "I'm going in to see my sister now."

Effie purses her lips together, but does not object. Once she leaves, I knock on the door. No reply. I knock again. "Prim?"

At the sound of my voice, the door is thrown open. Her arms are around my waist in a second, and I pull her into her room to allow some privacy. I haven't yet figured out what I'm going to present my sister as, and I won't let her be exposed until I figure it out. After the door is closed, we don't even make it to the bed before the tears come. And this time, I'm crying with her. I cry because I'm scared. I cry because it's unfair. I cry with my sister until we just can't cry anymore. All my words this morning, words of comfort and promise, fade to dust.

Slowly, I bring us to our feet. I help her change into some more comfortable clothes. By the time Effie comes to collect us for dinner, my little Duckie is looking stronger than I've ever seen her look before. At dinner, I see Prim and Rory go through exactly what Peeta and I did the first night on the train. They eat as much food as they can, since there is never enough food in the Seam, and then they regret it after when they look ill. Haymitch is absent for dinner, once again, but we find in him in the other compartment, where our young tributes are going to have to watch other tributes being called.

I sit in the middle of the couch, and allow both Prim and Rory to lean into me. Prim naturally curls herself around me, after years of years of practice. Rory takes a little more time. At first, he just sat on the couch, then he looked in my eyes for permission. Who was I to deny him? I opened my arm and he let his head rest on my shoulder. Haymitch grumbles something about a big happy family while Effie turns on the TV.

One by one, we all watch the tributes being called. The Careers are huge and lethal, as usual. A twelve year old was selected from Two, but was quickly replaced by an eighteen year old who looks twice the size of Gale. A very vast majority of the tributes are younger. Weaker. The oldest tribute who's name was actually selected is a fifteen year old girl from Six. Everyone else is younger, or has been replaced by a seventeen or eighteen year old, though those are only the Career districts.

For the first time, I try to imagine Prim fighting someone that size. Trying to fight someone like Cato, who was lethal in every way. I quickly jump to pinch my wrist as thoughts of Prim's face being scared by Clove's knife scares me. Finally, they show Twelve's tributes being drawn. They see Rory, looking so much like Gale it takes me by surprise. Then they see Prim, and me going insane. Most of the time I have a good hold on my emotions, but I can't be blamed for losing it there.

Once we're done watching, Effie pulls out her little notebook, scribbles something in it, then excuses herself without any other words. Haymitch takes this time to drink some more. The two children are told they can do as they please now, and Prim holds onto my hand so tightly I think it might break, but I have to push her off. "Go to bed, duckie, I'll be there soon." Reluctantly, my little sister shoves herself off the couch. I nod to Rory. "You should get some sleep too."

I wait before the children have left the room before turning to Haymitch. "What do we do now?"

His answer is so simply Haymitch it almost makes me chuckle.

"Drink."

Wow, okay. That didn't feel like an amazing chapter, but I sort of stopped halfway through so I may have lost some motivation. Give me ideas and tips people! Pleasepleaseplease review and rate. Thanks!