I turned Prince Peeta around and bounded his wrists behind his back with rope. I tied the knot tightly, to make him understand that I meant business. I pushed him towards the door, ordering him to move with a firm voice.

Like before, he didn't struggle or try to escape. He walked out of the door to the house, just as the remainder of my comrades arrived on the scene. They were watching me in shock before turning their gazing over to my hostage.

I looked at them all, my leader gaze piercing into them. I continued this gaze as I spoke in a clear, firm voice. "This is Prince Peeta of Panem. Son of Coriolanus and Alma. And he is now the hostage of the Panem Rebels."

It took a moment for the words to sink in before my comrades cheered, their words melding together into an incomprehensible sound. I led the Prince towards them, receiving words of congratulations and slaps on the back.

Gale gave me a quick smirk. "Permission to take him back to base, ma'am?" He asked me formally.

I answered with a slight nod. "Permission granted."

He looked at the Prince and began yelling at him to keep moving. I laughed lightly at the sight, but my laugh quickly faded when Peeta's words clouded my thoughts.

Though I do not want to have this title. What could he have meant by that? I was always under the impression that Snow and Coin's son was almost as unkind and cruel as his parents, that he didn't give a damn about anyone but himself. Now that I had met him, I was beginning to doubt this opinion. The only way to understand a person was to get to know them - so why had we all judged the Prince without knowing him. Surely he has to be like his parents, otherwise we will start doubting ourselves.

If it hadn't been for the rest of the unit arriving at the house, I would have been able to understand what this Prince had meant. But now I don't understand him at all.

"Katniss?" Cinna's voice interrupted my thoughts. I looked into his kind, fatherly-like gaze. Confusion still clouded my own eyes. "You should be proud of yourself. Your father would have been." Cinna smiled softly, his own pride for me was noticeable in his eyes.

He was right, my father would have been very proud of me. I accomplished a goal that he had been unable to complete for almost fifteen years. I could almost hear his words of praise in my ear. "Good job little mockingjay. I wouldn't have changed a thing. You were quick on your feet. Not everyone can notice the presence of more than one person in an unoccupied house.

I smiled at the thought before turning my head, my eyes flicking back to Cinna, "You're right. He would have been very proud."

I suddenly felt eyes looking at me. I turned my head over to my comrades who were currently staring at us, they were similar to an audience that wasn't needed. So I began barking out orders, "Stop standing around. I want this house searched from top to bottom. There may be more people hiding inside. People who are probably armed. Report back to-"

"There's no one there but my escort and myself." My hostage interrupted.

Every comrade stared at him in shock, no one interrupted a high ranking comrade. Not even a comrade of the same rank. I glared at him. Who did he think he was? In our eyes he was nothing more than a fake prince who was spoiled the way none of us could ever dream. Not to mention he was also a hostage, who we planned to use as the main pawn in our plan to cause his parents' arrest.

I continued to glare at him as I spoke the words again, "I want this house searched. There may be more people, armed people, inside." I looked at four comrades, "You four. Get into the house and search. Meet up at the base in one hour." The four of them nodded and headed into the house.

"The rest of you back to base." I ordered and started my way back to base without waiting for the others. Cinna was at my side in a second.

He didn't say a word as we walked but I could tell what was going through his head, "I will not calm down." I muttered, my words were directed at him.

"I understand that, but unlike what you did in the house, your father would dislike that his eldest daughter was yelling commands to her comrades the way a strict leader would. And you, Katniss Everdeen, are no strict leader."

As always, his words got to me. Yes, my father would dislike seeing me strict - but he'd understand why, and he'd be proud of my accomplishments. I allowed myself to calm down and regain my usual attitude and it would have worked had our female hostage had not at that moment decided to yell her head off.

"Where do you think you are taking me?!" She cried in a loud, shrill voice. "I demand you to release me immediately!"

Leferee walked up to her and tried to calm her down, "Ma'am we can't release you, you are a hostage and you can't change that. Now please calm down." She said the words in a gentle tone but that still didn't stop the woman from continuing to yell.

"If I'm a hostage then I demand to know where we are going and what you plan to do to us!" Every comrade groaned, including myself. Why couldn't she just have stayed quiet?

Gale came up to her, making her jump. His scarred face had probably frightened her, "What happened to your face?" Gale glared at the woman. Oh no. That was not what you wanted to say around Gale. Any mention of his scars and he gets hostile.

"The same thing that will happen to you if you don't shut your mouth." He almost growled the words.

"But I demand to know-"

The woman stopped talking when Gale hit her with the blunt of his knife, "Finally. Get use to the quiet comrades because once she wakes up, we won't have it for weeks." Some of our comrades chuckled as we continued back to base with Gale now carrying the unconscious woman.

"We should begin with simple questions, Gale. Don't make the boy any more nervous than he is, or else we won't get any information out of him." I instructed as we made our way to the tent in which Prince Peeta was being held guard in.

"I understand that, Katniss, but we need to get information out of him before he cracks." Gale told me in a hushed whisper.

I sighed, I knew what he meant. This boy would break into a thousand pieces if we pushed him too far, but I didn't know if that was the case. The fact that he didn't try to escape or yell or run away when I captured him, made me think that he would never break. Most people from the Capitol usually tried to escape us if we tried to capture them, or they would put up a fight, or something to get away from us. But not this boy, not this so called Prince. He didn't do anything to escape.

We soon reached the tent where the Prince was being held. It was a small tent that we called a mini tent or a small holding tent. We used it for prisoners and hostages, so we had a place to keep them while in a temporary base.

The guards in front of the tent stood at attention as me and Gale passed them and entered the tent. As I said, these tents were small. They basically consisted of one bed, a table with two chairs - one on side and one on the other- and a water basin with a mirror hanging above it. There was also a window that was big enough to look through, but not large enough to escape out of.

Prince Peeta was staring out of this window. He had changed out of his District Ten clothes and into a loose grey shirt, baggy grey pants and plain grey nurse mates. The clothes he wore were usually worn by our Healers but since we always had extras lying around we also used the uniform for dressing our hostages and prisoners.

The rope around his hands had been replaced by iron handcuffs. They were inescapable, even our most experienced lock pickers could not break out of them.

When we had fully entered the tent, Prince Peeta turned towards us. There was no fear in his eyes, just a look of curiosity. Maybe he was wondering what we would do to him or what we would say?

"Sit down, Your Highness." Gale said in a mocking voice.

Peeta looked at Gale. "Please don't call me that. I am no prince even in your eyes." His words got to me again. He said it the same why he had said that he didn't want his title.

I looked over at Gale. He didn't look as stunned as I did. "No you're not a prince in our eyes. In fact I think the only people who think you're a prince are the people in the Capital and maybe your parents. No one else in Panem believes you're a prince."

"I know that." Peeta replied in a calm, unfazed voice.

"Now that we have that over with, why don't we starting questioning him." I said, the tone of my voice indicating that Gale should stop talking.

Gale rolled his eyes and sat down in a chair in front of Peeta. I copied his actions and looked at Peeta, "Let's begin shall we?"

I turned the ring of my communicator to fall on the record setting and tapped the small bird, "Questioning of Hostage 558 on July 17th, 771 754 ADY. Questioners Leader Katniss Arella Everdeen."

"And 1st Lieutenant Gale Andrew Hawthrone." Gale said in a professional voice.

I looked at Peeta after Gale had said his name and rank. "Please state your name and titles for the record."

Peeta nodded and said in a clear voice, "Prince Peeta Benjamin Mellark. Lord of the Eleven Districts and Prince of all Panem."

I heard Gale scoff a little before I continued the basic questions, "Age."

"17."

"Date of Birth."

"May 8th, 754 ADY."

"Why were you in District Ten on 16th of July?" I asked him.

Peeta looked as calm as he do when he answered the last three questions. "I go on a three week holiday to a random District to observe how the Districts work and what they give to all of Panem. I've been doing this since I was ten. This year I was visiting District Ten to observe how the District works."

I rolled my eyes. Sounds more like a clever way to get this pampered Prince out of the Capital for a few weeks... and how come there was no sighting of this until today? I growled interiorly at the thought before continuing on to the next question. "Was there anyone else besides your escort who was accompanying you on this trip?"

Peeta nodded, "Yes. My bodyguard."

Gale and I exchanged glances. An hour beforehand, we had questioned his escort and she had told us that she was the only person accompanying him on the trip.

I looked at Peeta, "Who is this bodyguard?"

"He's a peacekeeper by the name of Abernathy." Peeta told us.

Again Gale and I looked at each other. "Haymitch Abernathy?" Gale asked is a curious tone.

Peeta nodded. "Yes, he's been my bodyguard since I began these trips."

"When was he to arrive?"

"Today at midnight. His hovercraft will probably land near the house." I looked at my wristwatch. 23:45. Only 15 minutes before his arrival.

Gale hit his communicator, "I want all available comrades at the house in which the hostages were captured. Capture anyone who enters the house at midnight. Make the place look occupied so as to not arouse suspicion." Gale ended the transmission.

"It will take more than three well trained Peacekeepers to take down a drunk Abernathy." Peeta said thoughtfully with a smirked, "When his sober... at least seven."

Gale tapped his communicator again, "Have you left yet?"

An answer came from the other side of the transmission before Gale said, "Good, I want just you, Sub Commander Rail and Sub Commander Gunthorn to go to the house. Understand Hadley?" An answer came and Gale added, "Make sure target is drunk." before he cut transmission.

With a small smile I began the questions again. They were still basic; what are your parents like, what were you taught by your tutors, who were your tutors. The basics.

Of course after the basic questions were answered, the more difficult ones arrived. The answers to these questions were like life and death to those of us in the Panem Rebels.

"What do you know about the bombings of Districts Twelve and Thirteen?" I asked in a calm voice. It was important for us to know, since it told us what he knew about his parents.

Peeta looked at me utterly confused, but still answered, "I was told that those Districts were destroyed by multiple factory explosions." His voice was extremely certain, as if it was all that he believed.

I sighed and then asked, "Did you know that your parents are responsible for the poverty and the mistreatment of people in District Three and in Districts Five to Eleven?"

Peeta's reply was similar to the first, "No, I thought that conditions were like that because of the increase in the annual food production amount."

Gale gave a sigh at Peeta's second answer. This Prince was told only what mommy and daddy wanted him to know.

The answer to the last question however, was a bit more helpful.

"I don't want my title because too many people are suffering and there is nothing I can do to stop it." Peeta told us. We both looked at each other and then at him. It was not what we had expected at all.

"Um... well... I guess that means we're finished questioning." I said trying to keep my leader voice from cracking. "End of questioning of Hostage 558." I tapped on my communicator and switched its setting back to communications.

Gale stood up, "We should be going now." He looked at me, probably waiting for me to join him. But I didn't move a muscle, instead I looked at Peeta, "Why didn't you try to run away from me when I first captured you?"

Peeta answered with silence. I sighed and rose from my chair. It wasn't like I expected him to actually answer. I glanced at Gale, "Let's go." He nodded and walked out of the tent with me.

Since my tent and the holding tents where opposite sides of the base, we reached my tent about a half an hour after leaving Peeta's. It was larger than the holding tents and with three separate areas. A simple living/dining room with a couch, a TV, and a dining table that sat four. There was a bedroom with a double bed, a closet, and a bedside table with a lamp and alarm clock on top. Last was a small bathroom with a portable toilet and bathroom and a counter with a basin for water.

Gale sat down on the couch and looked at me, "Do you think he was telling the truth with what he said?" He tilted his head back on the top of the couch as he spoke.

"I don't know, maybe he is." I said and sat down on the couch beside him. "I mean he sounded sincere enough to be telling the truth."

Gale gave me a false grimace, his eyebrow raised a bit, "You're not becoming weak on me are you, Katniss?" Gale asked me with a smirk, his voice had a playful tone to it.

I shook my head and ran my fingers over Gale's scars, looking at him my eyes shining, "I'll never be weak again, not after what happened on the day you got these." The memory ran through my mind.

I was ten when it happened and Gale, who was about to begin training as a junior comrade, was twelve. To celebrate Gale's acceptance into the ranks of our comrades, we snuck out of the main base to fish in the big lake that was miles away from home, and in the middle of a dangerous part of the forest.

We fished for hours on end until we caught more fish than even I could carry. We then made our way back. We were very close to home when a large Kodak bear came across our path. He had probably been lured to us by the smell of fresh fish and he was obviously hungry.

He took one sniff of the air, saw the fish I was carrying and charged towards me at an incredible speed.

In the time it took for me to blink, Gale was in front of my small form baring his teeth at the giant animal like a mad wolf. The bear who rightly saw Gale's actions as a sign of hostility, growled and slashed his long claws against Gale's face.

Gale had stood his ground with blood dripping down his face until my father, uncle and five of our comrades came bounding through the trees and scared off the large bear.

I survived the encounter without a scratch on me but Gale was in the healer's ward for a week before he was allowed to begin his training. Fortunately for him, the close encounter with the bear and my description of his bravery didn't go unnoticed by his fellow junior comrades. They nicknamed him the Howling Wolf for baring his teeth and howling at a large grizzly bear like a lone wolf would have done.

I pulled my hands off his face and sighed, "If it hadn't been for our dads and comrades we probably would have both died."

Gale nodded, "We owe them a lot for that. Unfortunately now we pay that debt we have towards them." He muttered the words sadly.

I clenched my fists, "I was so weak that day, I couldn't even protect my best friend." I said with clenched teeth.

Gale was about to say something but Cinna ran into the tent. He was clearly out of breath but he still managed to pant out, "Turn… on… TV." He panted.

Gale and I both look confused, but I did what he asked and turned on the TV.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Hunger Games series or any of the characters. They belong to Suzanne Collins.

I should note that the date system for this story is similar to the one used in the books. ADY meaning After Dark Years.

Also I greatly appreciate all comments and reviews, especially ones with ideas in them, which I'm happy to listen to and take into account since I help me move the story along fast... well most of the time :"3.

Current updated chapter count = 3