…

She felt like cowering in the car forever, even though the bright night lights hurt her eyes. She bit back a sob as she felt a shock of pain when she moved to exit the vehicle.

She didn't know what had happened- why President Snow had decided to release her- but here she was. She remembered the cell, the torture, but she didn't know what had happened after she'd fainted. When she woke up, she was lying in a stiff bed, a nurse hovering above her, checking her vitals. Then, she'd been given the all-clear and bundled into a car that had stopped in front of Victory Hall.

She stepped out of the car, shaking slightly. Everything was harsh, aggressive, violent. The sounds, the lights, the smells even...she whimpered before chastising herself. The torture was over now. She was safe.

What a joke.

And it wasn't even a funny one.

She entered the Hall, Peacekeepers walking her to the elevator, every step a struggle. Her body ached terribly, but that wasn't what bothered her the most- her mind kept replaying it all- her mother's demise, Prim's haunting screams, Peeta's fingers choking the life from her, Rue's accusing eyes...and the doctor's smile, cold, professional, even as he cut her nails to the bone, even as he ran sharp knives across her pulse points like some sort of sick foreplay.

She'd been there so long that she didn't know how to act outside of her cell anymore.

The Peacekeepers retreated from the elevator as the doors closed and she blinked. The walls were closing in on her, suffocating her, threatening to crush her...

And then, before she could scream, the elevator came grinding to a halt and the door opened. She took in the view warily, the long, white corridor, the bright lights, so clinical, all so clinical just like the man sent to torture her and oh please make it stop please please please I don't know anything-

A pretty redheaded woman stepped out of one of the doors lining the corridor, and her eyes widened almost comically as she saw Katniss.

"Fuck," she swore and Katniss almost chuckled- she was having trouble gaining her surroundings, but she knew that this woman never swore. "Finnick! Cashmere!"

She heard footsteps as she stumbled out of the elevator and her heart sped up. Footsteps were bad. They meant that more torture was to come. She wanted to run but her legs suddenly gave way and she fell to her knees, huddling against the corridor wall as she felt soft, cool hands run across her face, and heard a woman's soft voice muttering. She noticed gold curls, and knew that Cashmere was holding her. Red blurred her vision and it was like blood and she was dying, but it was only Annie, coming to Cashmere's aid. A male voice made her flinch, even though she knew that no harm would come to her from its owner, and she felt her eyelids drooping again before the world went dark.

…

She heard them talk before she managed to open her eyes. She wanted to move, to show them that she was awake, but she couldn't- it was too much effort. So she lay quietly, letting cool hands stroke her forehead and listening to them.

"...she's been tortured for absolutely no reason..."

"...arrested last night..."

"She doesn't know anything. This isn't fair..."

"When has life been fair to us anyway?"

"But this is..."

"...her legs and arms weren't functioning correctly when she returned, and..."

"...good thing these Capitol drugs are fast. I'm afraid that..."

"Where's the doctor?"

"No doctors, Cashmere. Don't trust..."

She managed to move her fingers and heard a soft gasp as someone took her hand, gently. She felt better as her eyes fluttered open. More like the old Katniss, and not like whatever she'd been when she'd been brought back to Victory Hall. She blinked the fuzziness away and Cashmere's worried face came into view.

"Hi, Girl on Fire," she heard a voice murmur. Finnick. Her eyes met his, above Cashmere's shoulder. His voice didn't make her flinch this time. "Welcome back."

She grunted and tried to sit. Annie came to her aid and she welcomed the pillows behind her back with relief. Cashmere smiled thinly at her, blue eyes worried.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, still holding her hand, rubbing small, soothing circles into the skin with her thumb.

"Like shit," Katniss managed to croak out after a couple of attempts, and Finnick guffawed, sitting on the floor in front of the sofa. Glancing around, Katniss realized she was in the District Room. She also noticed the state of the place. "Umm." She coughed, throat burning, and Annie pressed a glass of water to her lips. She drank gladly and gave Annie a despairing look when the glass emptied, but the redhead shook her head.

"Not too much, too fast," Annie refused. "Wait a couple of minutes."

"What happened here?" Katniss asked, voice still weak. "Did Snow drop a bomb while I was gone?"

It looked like it. Paintings were ripped from the walls, tossed carelessly to the ground. Glass shards glittered near the fireplace. Thick splinters of wood had rained upon the furniture.

"Ah," Annie answered, glancing at Finnick. "Peeta, he was..." she trailed off, unsure.

"Peeta didn't take too kindly to your arrest, Katniss," Finnick explained softly, watching her through thoughtful eyes.

Her eyebrows shot up. Peeta had clearly told her he wanted nothing to do with her. And upon her arrest, he'd gone berserk? She was missing something here.

Many things, if Haymitch was to be believed.

That thought reminded her of what got her arrested in the first place.

"I need to speak to Johanna," she whispered, pushing Peeta to the back of her mind. She'd deal with him later. She remembered the warmth she'd felt when Peeta had taken her into his arms whilst she was under the effects of the poison they'd injected her with. It had been a dream, a hallucination carefully crafted and monitored by the Capitol, but still...

"Johanna isn't here yet," Cashmere said. "It's just us. The others are working."

Katniss frowned slightly.

"How long?" she asked as Annie presented her with another lifesaving glass of water. How long had she been a prisoner of the Mansion? Several weeks, at the very least.

"You were arrested last night, Katniss," Finnick replied gently. "About ten hours ago. It's half seven in the morning. Needless to say, everyone was late to work, what with your arrest..."

"That's not possible," she murmured.

No. They couldn't have killed her mother and tortured Prim for days on end and led her through controlled hallucinations in only ten hours.

Annie patted her arm gently. There was a short silence, and then Katniss spoke again.

"They killed her," she whispered, voice blank. "They killed her. Made me watch."

"Oh, Katniss," Annie murmured, "who?"

"My mother."

There was silence after that. They needn't talk.

"I need to speak with Haymitch," she gasped suddenly. Her mother was dead, but Haymitch would know when they'd come to fetch Prim.

Finnick nodded and stood to grab the holophone. After merely a ring, Haymitch answered. For once, he wasn't holding a bottle, and his bloodshot eyes focused on Finnick straight away.

"Any news?" he barked immediately.

"She's here, Haymitch," Finnick said, turning the screen slightly to face the sofa and Katniss. Haymitch audibly sighed in relief, closing his eyes for a second, and Katniss felt a small smirk creep up on her face.

"Missed me, Haymitch?" she chuckled weakly, and her mentor shook his head.

"You stupid girl," he snarled. "Don't ever get arrested like that again, you hear me?"

Then he bent over, momentarily disappearing from the screen, and reappeared with a bottle of whisky. Things were back to normal just like that, and it was a relief- Katniss had never thought that she'd live the day she'd be happy to see Haymitch drink.

"I'll try not to," she answered snappily.

That was the way things worked between Haymitch and her. He yelled at her and she yelled back, she snarled at him and he growled at her. This was normal. She wondered for a moment if Haymitch had truly been worried for her.

"What'd they do to you?" he grunted, taking a swig.

She couldn't answer that. She didn't want to. She was safe here, under Haymitch's watchful eye and her fellow Victor's care, and she didn't want to return to that dark place in her mind.

"Haymitch," she whispered. "They killed my mother."

He set his bottle down on the table in front of him, slowly.

"They tortured Prim," she added quietly. "I heard her scream for hours. Please, please Haymitch...you need to find out for how long she's been in the Capitol. Please. And tell Gale and his family to..." She suddenly remembered that they were in the District Room, and that it was bugged.

Haymitch seemed to understand however.

"I'll call back as soon as I get the information for you," he said. "Until then, stay put, sweetheart. Don't isolate yourself again. Stay with the other Victors."

The call disconnected, true to Haymitch's style, and Katniss felt herself breathe. The bubble of anguish in her chest deflated somewhat. She felt tired, yet she knew she couldn't rest. She needed answers. If she'd been tortured because of something the Victors were hiding from her, she needed to find out what it was.

"I want Peeta," she muttered thickly, and Finnick's eyebrows rose almost comically as he carelessly tossed a sugar cube into his mouth.

"Sorry, Katniss, what was that?"

"Peeta," she repeated, struggling to stay awake. "I saw him there."

"Where?"

"In the arena. In the cell."

She noticed Finnick and Cashmere frowning at each other, as Annie stared at her.

"Katniss," Cashmere said slowly, "Peeta wasn't with you. He was here."

"I know," she snapped, frustrated. "I know. I just- he was there, in my mind. They made me believe- and he felt so warm and then he killed me and I murdered Rue..." She felt tears gathering. She wanted to explain it to them, so that they'd know what to expect if Snow ever came knocking at their doors, but she was failing, and it angered her to no end.

"What the fuck did they do to you down there?" Finnick muttered angrily, combing his hair with his fingers. "Shit. Katniss, whatever happened...Peeta wasn't there. He didn't hurt you. And Rue...you never killed her. She was your ally. Some Career bastard did, remember?"

She latched onto his words. She knew that he was right. But it had all felt so real that everything was confusing...

The holophone began ringing suddenly and Annie answered it. Haymitch's face appeared, and she read the truth in the lines of his face. Biting back a sob, she waited to hear it, however.

"I'm so sorry, sweetheart," he said, voice lacking its usual sarcasm. "I'm so, so sorry, Katniss."

She felt the tears flow, but her heart was numb. She heard Haymitch's voice break into her shell.

"Your mother was in her house when it exploded. It's been ruled as an accident by the fucking Peacekeepers. But, sweetheart...Primrose is fine."

Her head snapped up at that and she stared at him, cheeks wet.

"Your sister is still in 12, Katniss," Haymitch assured her. "She was staying with the Hawthorne family last night. I've seen her and she's fine, although shaken over your mother's death- she was never in the Capitol. They tricked you."

Katniss didn't know how to feel anymore. On one hand, her mother was dead. On the other, Prim, her love and joy, was fine. She was never tortured by the Capitol. She cast Haymitch a doubtful glance.

"But I heard her..."

"Primrose Everdeen is a Victor's sister, Katniss," Finnick interrupted gently. "There's tons of footage of her. She's been regularly interviewed by the Capitol, as the Girl on Fire's little sister and everything. I expect it would be easy to modify the audio..."

"Indeed," Haymitch nodded. "Trust me, Katniss- she's fine. She's with Gale at the moment. He'll protect her."

"Gale," Katniss murmured. "Is he-"

"Everyone is okay," Haymitch nodded, face serious.

Katniss wanted to relax, but she knew they were still in danger. Besides, she couldn't get the thought of her mother's last moments, before she was murdered, out of her head.

"My mother looked way too thin, Haymitch," she said. "Is my family receiving the money I've been sending?"

"Katniss," Haymitch sighed, grasping his bottle. "I had no idea you were sending anything. You never told anyone, remember? As for the Victor's care packages, they've been stopped. 12 hasn't received any since your Victory Tour. Punishment, I guess."

Katniss nodded slowly.

"Please, Haymitch...could you-"

"I'll keep an eye on them," Haymitch declared. "Primrose will be staying with the Hawthornes, according to Mrs Hawthorne. I believe she'll be safer there than with me. But I'll still see them fed."

She nodded, wanting to thank him, but couldn't get the words out. Haymitch didn't need her thanks, however. He nodded gruffly, winking at Finnick, and then raised his bottle in salute before the wall went blank.

"If you need me," Finnick stated gently, "I'll be in my room. That...that goes for you, as well, Katniss."

She raised her eyes to him, recognizing the gesture of friendship for what it was. She wouldn't get another chance. She couldn't screw this up again.

"Thanks, Finnick," she whispered. "I'll keep it in mind."

He nodded somewhat stiffly, and exited the room.