Chapter 1 Trusting A Stranger

Gale was walking home in the fading light after his shift in the mines. Even two years later he still wanted to stop by the Everdeen's house to see Katniss. Sometimes he was halfway there before he remembered that Katniss and her family didn't live there anymore. He wondered if another family had moved into the house, but couldn't bring himself to find out.

Gale felt as if he was being watched, the hunter instincts that he had since he was young where telling him so. He turned to see a man walking towards him, brown hair and green eyes that seemed to have gold in them. The man was dressed in expensive clothes that was not seen in District 12, even among the higher class.

"Are you Gale?" he asked, a hint of Capitol accent in his voice. Gale felt hatred rising in him, this man was from the Capitol, the place that he had taken everything from him, the place that had tried to change Catnip.

"I can't see way it would matter to you" Gale said walking away. The man continued to follow him, for somebody from the Capitol he had no trouble keeping up with Gale "Leave me alone"

"No" the man said firmly "not until you talk to me"

Gale turned to face the man for the first time, glaring at him with a much force as he could "So talk" he said sharply " and talk fast, who are you?"

"My name is Cinna" he said, staring at Gale with the same intensity as Gale was glaring at him "I was Katniss' stylist before the Games"

"Get out" Gale said harshly "out of the district. What make you think I want anything to do with you, with the Capitol! You took her from me, from her family, from people who needed her and you destroyed her, killed her!" Gale knew he he shouldn't be saying this, blaming the Capitol for something, even if they did it was taking to much of a risk. He could be killed for saying that to the wrong person, a Capitol person.

"Good" said Cinna calmly "put the blame where it belongs. We need that, we need fire to fuel the rebellion"

"What rebellion?" Gale asked still angry, but confused.

"Don't tell me you believed that story with the land mines" Cinna said and for the first time Gale could see anger in the other man's green eyes. The story with the land mines was that the land mines set up around the Cornucopia had been reactivated, thanks to the boy from District 3 messing with them before he was killed. They had killed everyone left in the arena. They had been set off during the feast with all the commotion around them.

"No" Gale admitted. He had not believed it, but he could see how the rest of Panem had. Why would the Capitol stop the Games when Katniss was about to die at the knife of the girl of District 2? It didn't make any sense why they would end it when they did, but Gale knew they did. Part of him was glad they ended it, so he didn't have to watch his best friend be tortured and killed. Another part of knew she would have fought to the end, escape death as she had since she was twelve years old.

He was not the only one who was hurt by this, Prim had cried into his shirt for hours until she couldn't cry anymore. Mrs. Everdeen had gone back into her depression and never came out of it. His own family had been unusually silent and sad over the next few weeks. Haymitch and Chaff, a mentor from District 11 had drank themselves to death after losing the most promising tributes they had ever had. Both Katniss and Thresh had high training scores, not only for there districts, but in general. Also lost was both tributes for District 2, the girl from District 5, and Peeta Mellark, the baker's son.

"She missed you" said Cinna, startling Gale out of his thoughts "she never said anything but I could tell, for her interview I told her to pretend that she was talking to her best friend and she asked what the point was when you already knew everything about her" Gale could tell Cinna was trying to comfort him, bring some sort of peace to Gale's life. He failed, nothing could bring him peace, but maybe he could find truth. Find what happend in that arena and why.

"How can I trust you?" Gale asked

Cinna looked surprised by that question, he paused for a moment as if to collect his thoughts before answering "Because things need to change, Panem can't survive like this much longer. Maybe we'll die fighting for it, Katniss did"

Thousands of images ran through Gale's mind, of what life could be like under the capitol's rule "Okay" he said "I'm in"

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