Disclaimer: I own nothing

Summary: What does fire do when fueled? It burns stronger than before. The Capitol has taken her home and the father of her child. Katniss Everdeen is about to show the world what damage a girl on fire can really do. Let the war begin. My take on book 3.

Phoenix Rising

Chapter 2: Contain

I felt the hovercraft start to descend I watch as the ramp slowly lowered and a cloud of dust appears when it hits the ground. When it clears I see hundreds of hovercrafts and other vehicles I don't recognize. In front of us is a large building with what looks like tunnels with stairs leading to it. I had never seen a building quite like this one before it looked like it was made for vehicles in the air. I follow Hevensbee and Haymitch outside and see hundreds of people gathered around; it reminded me of the opening ceremonies of the games. Everyone goes silent when I appear, then slowly every single one of them presses three fingers from their left hand to their lips then out, our sign from District 12.

All these people could not have been from District 12 we didn't have that many people. Gale told me they got as many people out as they could but not all of them did, my warning had stuck with him as had is beating from the new peacekeeper. They knew that they would not leave us alone. He has also said word had gotten out to the other Districts and people had made their way over to District 13 and hovercrafts were on missions to bring family members that were left behind.

I spot Bonnie and Twill in front; they were the ones that had told me about District 13 and the Mockingjay. They must have found a way to spread the word that it really existed. My eyes scan the crowd and I see them, my mother and Prim. I run down the ramp throw my arms around them. Were all sobbing in each other's arms, I had never been so happy to see them. Still holding on tightly I see Finnnick searching the crowd. I know who he's looking for so I help him look for Annie. Finally I see her wavy brown hair; she's facing the other direction away from the hovercraft and staring into the sky.

"Finnick" I scream over the crowd, when he looks at me I point towards her. Relief spreads across his in face as he runs to her. I watch as he gently places his hand on her shoulder, she turns to look at him, she smiles briefly then looks back towards the sky. She was the only one to truly have Finnick's heart but was too far gone to know it. I see Gale hugging his mother and brothers and I let out the breath I didn't know I was holding, I was happy that were all save too. "Mrs. Mellark" I hear and it takes me a moment to realize they are talking to me. I keep forgetting that everyone thinks Peeta and I got married. I turn to face a young man with dark hair and blue eyes. He's wearing a plain black suit with a white shirt. It was kind of shocking to see these people, their dress was so different than anything I've seen, it was so normal.

"Mrs. Mellark, My name is Gaven and I will be your driver I'm here to take you and your family to your apartment"

I look to my mother who smiles and nods. "It's where we are living now" she tells me.

"It's so amazing Katniss" Prim says to me with excitement in her eyes. I smile back and tell Gaven to lead the way. I also tell him to call me Katniss, since Peeta and I weren't actually married it felt wrong to be using that name. But I couldn't tell them it wasn't true, maybe it would make them want to help me rescue him more if he thought he was my husband. We stop in front of a black vehicle that was bigger than anything I'd ever seen. It had four doors and space in the back to store items. I had seen cars in the Capitol but none of them looked like this. Gaven holds the door open and I climb in.

We drive on nicely paved streets with rich green grass on either side with all different kind of flowers and trees with long wide leaves like the ones they had in District 4. Other trees have different fruits growing on them some I've never even heard of, there were fields stretching on for miles growing grain and vegetables, meadows with even more flowers. In the distance I can hear the lapping of waves on a beach and when I look out I see two huge structures that Gaven told me are called castles. One is a deep brown and the other is white and blue both tower of the town along with a giant white ball.

When I ask Gaven gives the history of their new world. When the rebellion started a few were worried about the Capitols retaliation so they started building underground bunkers with food and supplies for people to go and when the bombs came that's where they went. So they did live underground for a while until their scientists sent up rovers to see if the air was breathable. Eventually it was. When the first few went up there they saw that the bombs had cleared away their home but unearthed another.

The ancient world that was thought to be lost when the hurricanes and earthquakes hit, the buildings we see now belonged to them. The world of our ancestors, they found a library with maps and blue prints of what the city looked like and started to reconstruct the structures to build a new life. They figured the Capitol had thought them long dead but just in case they built the wall that surrounded them.

A wall that I hadn't noticed until he said something then I saw the large thick wall that surrounded the perimeter of the land. A wall that looked impossible to scale.

They were free from the Capitols influence and life got better, they all worked together to rebuild a new life without the Capitol's influence. At one point a hovercraft flew over here to see what had happened to them and they shot it down. District 13 was a land of scientist, the smartest in the world. They were developing new ways to travel and new weapons to use against the Capitol before they tried to destroy them. But that helped us more than they could ever imagine by unearthing the world that came before they gave our scientist access to ever more data.

As we drove by a bridge Gaven tells me that across that body of water is where their top scientists are working on things that have the Capitol scared. "Our hovercrafts go higher and faster and our weapons are more dangerous." he tells me.

I lean my head against the window and just stare out watching the beautiful houses and buildings pass by me. This world looked like a dream, a dream that most of the districts of Panem had been wishing for. We finally pull up to tall building and Gaven gets out and opens the door. I follow my mother and Prim to the elevator and we ride up a long way up. The doors finally open and we enter a hallway with only four doors. My mother goes to one and opens it.

When I walk inside I'm amazed by its size, it was bigger than our entire house but it fit on part of a floor of a tall building. I go to the wide panoramic window and can see all of district 13, the two castles, the white ball and tons of other large building and structures. This place was beautiful. We eat a dinner of fresh fish and clams caught from the ocean just outside our window and potatoes sliced in to thick sticks and then fried in oil. For dessert they have cakes with the fresh fruit picked from the orchards. This was the kind of feast I've only had the Capitol.

After dinner Prim tells me all about the hospital her and my mother work at. She tells me about the medicines and the machines they have to heal people. She tells me it's so big they could treat thousands of people and my mother laughs and says it more like hundreds but it is an amazing place. I had never seen my mother so at peace, after my father was killed she treated into a world of despair and I was left to pick up the pieces. But here in this new place like everyone else they felt free. I knew it couldn't last the rebellion was just beginning and by taking us all in District 13 just made themselves the number one target. But I'd let them have their happiness for as long as could because I knew in a crisis my mother would come through, if that hospital was as good as they both said was then they would be needed there when the war began.

I take a shower and crawl into the huge bed in my room. I look out the window and can hear the city finishing up their day below me.

I wake up in a cold sweat, breathing heavily the nightmare still running through my mind. I saw Peeta and I was running to him, he opens his mouth to say something but no sound comes out, they took his tongue he was an Avox. Tears were streaming down his face and he kept yelling with silence. They couldn't take Peeta's voice; I needed that voice it's what kept me going in the games. I needed to hear his words again any words so I run faster thinking that will help but I seem to be stuck in slow motion I try to tell him I love him but I can't talk either, I feel inside my mouth and realize my tongue is gone too. But maybe it always was since I could never tell him how I really felt about him, I was too afraid and now it was too late. I see him opening and closing his mouth with fear in his eyes as he's pointing at something behind me. I finally turn around to see one the beast that was chasing us in the first games we were in but this one had Cinna's eyes, he was wearing the outfit we wore in the first opening ceremonies the one that made him look like he was on fire, he was barreling towards me growling and swatting his huge claws. I could do nothing but stand there when the beast jumps on top of me I look up I no longer see Cinna I see Peeta's blue eyes staring back at me with so much anger and hatred in them.

I bolt upright in my bed, gasping for air as the tears wreck through my body. I don't know if I made it sound no one comes running so I suppose I didn't. I try to calm down and catch my breath I run to the bathroom that I have inside my new room. I splash water on my face but the image of Peeta as the beast won't go away. The guilt I have only intensifies, I failed him and the Capitol could be turning him into an Avox or a beast or anything worse they could think off. Tears are streaming down my face.

I can't be in here any longer I throw on some clothes and ride the elevator down. I walk past the guard at the door who just smiles and nods as he holds the door open for me. He doesn't ask any questions or try to follow me. It was different here than anywhere else. I could walk around freely without worrying about who's watching me. This is the place where children could grow up normally without fear of fighting to the death or losing loved one to some stupid game the Capitol used for entertainment. I walk out into the darkness of the early morning.

As I'm walking my stomach growls I hadn't thought to bring food, that wasn't like me. I hadn't even realized how long I had been walking or what time I had left. I was just wandering around aimlessly so food wasn't on the top of my mind. The sky was just starting to brighten as the sun rose slowly but it was still dark enough that not many people were out.

A wonderful smell passes my sense and I turn to look and a few feet in front of me is a bakery. I feel tears starting to form in my eyes as I looked in the store, Peeta I whisper. This store was different than Peeta's it was bigger and better lit. This one had a large window and a glass door so you could see inside the whole shop, the ovens and the different breads hanging or lying on shelves. I looked around and see the bread with greenish tint from District 4, the flat hard bread that Bonnie and Twill showed me from District 8 and so many others including the one from District 12. But how? They couldn't know what we all had they were living their lives in secret. I placed my hand on stomach and closed my eyes as I took in the smells. I wanted some but I didn't know how to get some, I didn't have anything to trade and I didn't know how things worked here. And it was also the middle of the night.

With my eyes still closed I felt movement and I opened them and turned and there in the doorway stood Peeta's mother. She looked at me with the same stern look she always she gave me but then it softened. At first I thought it was a trick of the lighting that came through the door but she kept staring at me. Her hands were behind her back as she leaned her shoulder against the doorframe. Then her eyes lowered to my stomach where I still had my hand. We stood there neither of saying a word staring at each other.

"Thank you" she says breaking the silence.

I look at her and confused. She barely spoke to me, mostly to tell me to get away from the garbage. I knew she hated me because of my mother, she believed her husband was still in love with my mother but couldn't have her. She hated that her son was falling down the same path.

"Thank you for keeping him safe" she says.

This was strange; Peeta's mother was talking to me nicely. I looked around for the baker but couldn't see him inside the shop. Did he make it? He had to have; Peeta couldn't lose his father too and it would be harder to talk to his mother without him.

"You gave him a reason to survive, he wanted to protect you" She continues "…and you protected him kept him safe"

I was too shocked to say anything. I've barely said two words to Peeta's mother she always did her best to ignore me and now she went out of her way to talk to me to tell me this.

"And I know if he's out there he's fighting just as hard to get back to you." She says. I start to shake my head, Peeta wanted me safe and if he thinks I am safe then he will have kept his promise. I'm the one that broke mine.

She shakes her head. "No, it's in his blood…" she pauses and takes a breath "to be stubborn like that. He will continue to fight for you like everyone else, Katniss"

It was so weird to hear my name leave Peeta's mother lips. I didn't care what people thought but it hurt me that Peeta's mother didn't like me even before I got to know him. I knew deep down that Peeta and I had always shared a connection I tried to ignore it but I couldn't, he was always the boy with the bread and I never forgot that or him. I did notice him as we got older and I was interested in what he was doing even though we never talked he was on my mind.

"You have awoken something that was inside of us all, you have showed us what we are capable of. You have given us a reason to hope. "

I look at Mrs. Mellark. Hope that was what Peeta gave to me when I thought I had lost it. I gave everyone else hope but Peeta gave that to me. Hearing her say those things was both frightening and exhilarating. I didn't know how I did that or why. I thought I was just being myself. But I suppose myself was always rebellious, going underneath the fence to hunt on illegal land, trading in the black market and with the peace makers, shooting an arrow at the game makers when they were ignoring me. I wanted to be seen, I wanted them to know I was there. I stared a rebellion because that's what was in me.

When I look back at her she's holding out a loaf of bread, the kind with the melted cheese that Peeta knew I loved. I'm still in shock over our conversation that I just stand there. She holds it out further and I hesitantly take it.

"I don't want my grandchild to starve" she tells me now knowing that we could never go back to our usually indifferent manner, she may not like that I'm the one her son chose but we had an understanding that we would both do anything to protect to Peeta and we were now connected forever now through the child growing inside of me.

As I walk back towards my new home I think about the baby. I promised myself I'd never have children and now I'm going to be a mother at 17. What was I thinking when I slept with Peeta? That day was the happiest most relaxed day I had ever had and I wanted him, I needed to be closer to him and I had no idea what came over me when I started removing his clothes. I barely even thought about sex but in that moment it felt right. And maybe it was like that for all the other things I've done, in the moment it felt like the right thing to do. Shoot the gamemakers and show the poison berries to the Capitol before bringing them to my mouth to ruin their games. Maybe I really was the girl on fire I could barely control myself.

Now I knew the right thing to do was stop this madness that Capitol created, stop the fear they had installed us for so long, stop the deaths used for their entertainment. All lose lost in the 75 hunger games would not be pointless they would be used to make a point.

We were going to show them that they could no longer contain the fire.

Tbc…