Katniss POV

I carefully climb over the iron fence that covered the entrance of District 13, and manage to make a drop down without accidentally breaking a foot. The fence was rather high, and I was already slightly out of breath from climbing through the caverns and crevices that led up to the entrance of District 13.

If their goal was to make it hard for anyone to leave or anyone to get in, they sure achieved it.

As I stare out into the green grass and breathe in the natural air, that wasn't carbonated for once, I nearly melt with happiness. Placing the bow beside me, I slowly lean down to touch the grass, and feel it's softness and life again.

It feels as if I hadn't seen grass in years.

I miss this... I miss this so much.

I pick up the bow and adjust it over my shoulder, while I get up from the grass and make my way towards the trees.

By instinct, I avoid stepping on leaves or anything that might make too much noise, since it might scare the prey away. I was glad Gale taught me this when we were younger, the first time I hunted I sucked. I nearly scared all the prey away, even though I was skilled with my bow and arrow.

As soon as I heard the chirping of birds, I stopped in my tracks and raised the bow and arrow towards the trees up above that they might be resting on. It's not exactly the kind of prey that I had hoped for, but at least it's something. I doubt there would be any deers or rabbits roaming by.

I slowly grabbed a nearby pebble and threw it up high in the air, towards the spot where I thought the birds were. A few of them flew up, but as soon as I sent my arrow flying it missed by an inch.

I gave out a sigh of frustration as I picked up another pebble and threw it again. This time with a great amount of force, that I actually hit a bird while it was just about to raise itself into the air. The rock bounced off it's body, and sent the bird tumbling down onto the forest floor. It gave off a weak flap of it's wings before I shot it with an arrow to end it's life.

I shrug. At least I managed to kill one.

I usually could have shot one or two of the birds fairly easily, but I guess this time I hadn't practiced hardly enough or I wasn't used to this bow and arrow.

Making my way towards the dead bird, I pull out the arrow and wipe it clean with the grass before I put it back with my quiver of arrows. Realizing I forgot to being a knife to skin it, or a bag to carry it, I mutter a loud curse. My mind was too focused on getting the bow and arrow and going hunting that I completely forgot about those necessities. I guess I would have to carry it with my hands then.

I groan and throw another pebble out of sheer anger, before grabbing another arrow from the quiver and sending it flying towards a bird. This time, the arrow managed to hit straight through it, sending it flying towards another bush.

I smile at my success, before making my way through the leaves and trees that brushed against my skin as I tried to make my way towards the bush where the bird might have fallen. Having caught no sight of the bird, I heave a sigh of disappointment.

Great...

As soon as I start to walk back towards where I left the dead bird, I hear a crackle of leaves, signaling that there was someone walking across them. I could tell which animal caused the crackle of the leaves, whether it was large or small. However, this was no animal. It sounded like a human's footsteps.

Feeling my body freeze, I turn my head around to scan my surroundings of any possible danger. What if it's another search party? Or President Coin's guards?

I don't make any noise, not even the slightest breathing. If it was a search party, I needed to get their attention. But, I couldn't risk it. It was probably most likely one of President Coin's henchmen.

As the footsteps died down, I waited for a few minutes before walking towards where they came from. I was careful to hide my body among the shadows of the trees, since if it might be one of the guards or the elites. If I see one of them...I swear, I'll punch their faces in.

I hesitantly step out of the safety of the trees, as I find myself outside of the forest and inside a green valley, abundant with varieties of flowers. I was beautiful and for a second I forgot all about the footsteps that I had recently heard. A small breeze surged though the grass and flowers, causing them to swing back and forth like a rhythm.

The valley was right next to a lake, since I smelled nearby water, and heard a distant crashing of waves down below. I start to walk forwards, turning my back against the forest to stare at the valley and the flowers. I noticed I was on a hill, surrounded by flowers. Staring at all these flowers instantly reminded me of Prim. Since she was named after a flower. Sadness replaced the peaceful serenity I was feeling a few minutes ago once I begin to think about Prim.

I wonder how she's doing? And if my mother's taking proper care of her. Oh gosh, I miss her so much. Waking up to her little face, always bright with sunshine and cheerfulness. She was always so happy. She always kept our dysfunctional family full of life, even after father's death. Prim, Prim.. I'm so sorry.

I barely feel the gust of air rushing towards me, as I wallow in sadness and guilt. To think I actually forgot about her when I was thinking of going hunting! She's my first priority! My first priority over hunting or anything!

Just as I began to scold myself, I turn around right in time to see a knife coming straight at me, flying through the air with incredible speed. Just as it's about to hit me, I gasp and drop to the floor, letting my body roll down the hill and hit the grass below.

As I support my fall, I tremble and instantly push myself off the grass. I clumsily take a few steps back before wildly panting and scanning the area. Seeing a few elites running my way, I begin to run across the valley to try to get away from them. However, this quickly ends as I'm grabbed by a nearby elite who was faster than me, and forcefully thrown against the grass. I try to to get up, but the elite kicks me in the stomach.

I yelp and kick him back, blindly punching in the air as more elites start to approach.

The elite holds my hands together against the ground as he sits himself on top of me, causing my to flail around like a fish out of water.

"Don't move," He says. "Or we'll have to hurt your pretty little face."

He grins at me, and anger flashes across my grey gaze as I spit right in his face.

He wipes his face off with his sleeve and curses, before punching me right across the face.

I cough as the impact leaves my cheek and lip severely bruised. I carefully lick my lip and taste blood. Moving my head sideways so I could avoid their gaze, I heard a couple shouts from the elites, warning him not to hurt my face. I have no idea why.

"I think I'll enjoy hurting you, District 2's little pet." He sneers into my ear, which makes me shiver with disgust.

"I'm not anyone's pet!" I shout, turning myself over and forcefully knocking him off. As I try to crawl away, he grabs a knife and sinks it into my leg, causing me to scream in pain.

I bring my leg to my chest as I cradle it and scream once more. The agony was unbearable.

Some of the elites began to laugh when they saw me in such pain, and I felt like cursing them all. The elite that sank his knife into my leg, pulls it out as he draws closer to me, holding me down while he gets on top of me, once again.

A few of the other elites hold my arms down as I weakly flail around again, not wanting to appear weak in front of them.

"Hmm, no wonder Cato talks about you so much." The elites begins to stroke my face, which causes me to tremble.

"You're beautiful. Too bad, I have to hurt you, though." He removes his hand from my cheek and back to his knife, where he roughly pulls up my shirt and cuts through my stomach.

I painfully scream again, as the elite quickly puts his hand over my mouth to quiet me. I bite my lip and try to cough, but his hand is suffocating me. My gaze weakly averts over towards the bow and arrow and quiver that had fallen off my shoulder when I had fallen down the hill. It was still lying across the grass a couple feet away from me.

I try to reach for it, but with all the strength of the elites on my body, it's no use.

"Stop struggling, you filth." The elite spats, and roughly grabs my face to look at his gaze.

"Stupid District 12. You underdog. Nothing. You're pathetic. I don't even know why your District even exists. Even the Capitol's getting fed up with their shit, they're planning to bomb that crappy District once and for all." He grins, and I glare at him with complete and utter hatred.

"Aww. Am I making you mad? Look...the little rat is mad." He boasts, causing a few of the elites to chuckle.

Forgetting about the pain in that moment, I forcefully shake off the elites' grip on my arms and punch the guy in the face.

I watch as he wails in pain, before getting up and running towards the bow and arrow. I slide it over my shoulder as I quickly limp across the valley, trying to get away from the elites who were now chasing me like madmen.

I whimper in pain as I put pressure on my bleeding leg each time I limp. Seeing the elites getting closer to me, I turn around and send one of my arrows flying straight at them, hitting one of the elites in the shoulder.

The elite screams in pain, and falls to the ground, as I hit another one who falls to the ground right after him.

I begin to limp-run again, as the elites stare at me, dumb-founded. However, as soon as the elite that was holding me down barks orders at them, they continue to run after me, more cautiously this time.

Each time I take a step is agony, so I breathe out shaky pants to try to calm myself down.

A knife is sent flying towards me, so I drop down and fall down the rocky cliff that I was running towards. I inhale sharply as I try to avoid sharp rocks as much as possible. As soon as I come to a stop, I get up and walk forwards. However, what lies in front of me is a death fall below into the crashing waves of the lake.

Looking behind me, I discover several of the elites climbing down the cliff, some of them even running towards me.

I begin to pant again as I try to figure out what to do.

If I jump, I'll most likely die.

But, if I don't...

President Coin will do something terrible to me.

So it's kind of a Death vs. Death situation..

I let out a frustrated grunt as I close my eyes, jumping off the cliff, inches before the elites get to the spot where I was at. One of them reached for me, but they missed as I was sent to the watery death below me.

As I hit the water, the impact slapped my body, so it stung like crazy. I tried to lift my head above water and wail around, but a wave hitting me interrupted me. I opened my eyes, trying to see around the darkness of the water. As another wave hit, I'm sent flying backwards onto a nearby rocky wall. A sharp pain is sent through my entire left shoulder, and I barely have enough time to look at it before I feel myself running out of oxygen.

I swim towards the surface and take a few gasps of air before swimming in another direction, trying to avoid the waves throwing me back and forth like a rag doll. I whimper again, as I hold my shoulder, which is now bleeding. And my leg, feels numb as I try to move it along the waves. As I see shore, I clench my teeth in pain and move forward with agonizing pain.

I had to make it to shore.

Or else, I knew I was going to bleed to death.

Cato's POV

"How are you feeling?" I hear Ebon ask me, although his voice seems far away due to all the anesthetics given to me.

I flutter my eyes open and stare at him, slowly sitting myself up on the bed with his help. "Fine, my arm still hurts a little." I say, gaping at being able to look at my bare arm again. Most of the dead tissue was removed, so it was back to it's normal tan color again. Although, it still looked a little pale. As I moved it, I could see stitches around it.

"Woah." I blink, smiling at my ability to move my arm again. It felt so nice. Having all those bandages around it all the time made it feel heavy.

"Looks a lot better, huh?" Ebon grins, leaning back on the chair he was sitting on next to my bed.

"Yeah," I try to move out of the bed, but Ebon tries to stop me.

"You should wait a little while before you try getting up, unless you really feel good enough." He explains, but I merely shrug.

"I'm fine." I slide off the bed and move my arm a little bit more. "This is so great."

"Hey, what were the special enhancements they were talking about?" I ask.

"Oh, they added special enhancements to your arm to make it stronger. Cool, huh? Although, I guess it'll make you more of a handful than you already are." Ebon chuckles, which causes me to glare.

"What do you mean, stronger?"

"Try punching something. This time you do double the damage. Not like super strength, but lets say your arm can knock people a few feet back if you punch them good enough. That's what I mean. It's a little bit stronger than your regular arm."

I stare at my arm and smirk. "Cool,"

Before he has time to reply, a couple guards rush into the room, along with Boggs, who seemed deeply distressed. He was panting, his whole face was red, along with his shaky gaze.

"Boggs, what is it?" Ebon turned away from me, intrigued by the sight that stood before him.

Boggs pulled at his hair and cursed, muttering a "sorry" each time he panted.

"I should've been there, I should've prevented it from happening." He silently spoke, desperately trying to keep himself from hitting something.

"Boggs, what's wrong! Tell me!" Ebon pressed, shaking the older man's shoulders this time.

"It's Katniss. President Coin got upset with her, so she sent elites after her, and-we don't know where she is now." Boggs explained, finally meeting his gaze with Ebon's. "Damn that woman, damn her."

I felt my heart freeze, and my body grow cold.

"Oh god, how could this happen! Shit.." Ebon's face paled, and as he turned around, he grabbed a nearby flask from a table and threw it against a wall, watching it as it broke into a million pieces. "SHIT!"

I barely heard the flask as it collided to the wall across from me. My fists were clenched beside me, and I could feel my mind spin.

"We have to find her! Now!" Ebon barked orders at the several guards who were inside the room, whom I guessed were loyal to him, not to President Coin.

"I knew this would happen...knowing Katniss," Ebon continued to curse himself, while self-consciously pacing across the room.

"I'll find her," I say, feeling my eyes grow cold as I walk out of the room.

"Cato," Ebon warns, but I ignore him.

I nearly kick the door open and exit the room. Before continuing down the hallway, I spot several of the elites, wounded, holding their bleeding shoulders. Anyone could tell by their wound that it was made by an arrow.

Blinded by anger and rage, I lunge forward and manage to grab both of them, punching them square in the face and knocking them a few steps back into the wall. Well, the special enhancements really did work.

I ignore their screams and yelps as I grab one of them by the hair, violently knocking him back against the wall.

"Where is she!" I growl, clenching my teeth and putting my face inches away from his.

"I don't know..I don't-" He began to say, but I punched him in the stomach and spun him around.

"Help! Help, please!" He cried, however the nurses were to frightened to help. Instead, they called for backup.

"Tell me! Fucking tell me! Or I'll snap your arm in two. And believe me, I'll enjoy hearing the crunching sound when it finally snaps.." I sadistically grinned, feeling my normal self slowly fade away. My psychopathic personality began to creep out, as I felt like I was in the Games again.

No fear. No mercy.

I started to twist his arm, unaware of his screams of agony and his cries for help. The only thing I cared about right then, was to make his arm snap like a twig. I wasn't a person anymore. I didn't have any remorse or guilt.

"Please stop! Please! I'll do anything! She-the District 12 girl, she- was in the forest, outside of the District, last time we saw her. But, she jumped down into the lake, we couldn't find her! We tried! Please, let me go...please.." He panted for air, and screamed once again as I continued to move his arm in a twisted position.

I didn't even care if he told the truth at that point, I was so angry. I wanted to hurt him.

"Cato! Cato! Stop! STOP!" I heard Ebon shout.

But before I had any time to look at him, I was yanked away from the elite and tossed back into a wall.

I watched as the elite panted for air and painfully held his aching arm.

"What were you thinking! You could've broke his arm! Do you realize that?" Ebon sneered into my face, but I coldly pushed him back.

"Shut up, I don't give a crap what could've happened to him. I'm going to find Katniss, and you're not going to stop me." I argue back, shoving all the guards out of the way and making my way out of the hospital.

My first priority was to find Katniss. Then I was going to beat the shit out of any elite who even dared lay a hand on her.

She was mine.

Only mine.

Katniss POV

I shiver from both the freezing ice cold water and the cool breeze that was in the air. I don't know how long I had been wading in the water for, but it seemed forever. And the sun was beginning to go down.

I cough out lake water as I finally make it onto dry land, a well always from the forest that I had found when I first discovered the entrance of District 13.

Now, I could imagine I was far away from the entrance.

I could think if that was a good thing or not.

Trembling from the utter cold, I crawl forwards onto the sand, letting the slight warmth of the descending sun warm my skin. I sharply inhale as I felt the stinging of my wounds again, since the coldness of the water numbed the pain.

I give out a whimper as I helplessly toss around against the sand. With one look at the knife-wound on my leg and on my stomach, I could tell it was getting deeper and infected.

Why me...?

What did I do wrong?

As the last rays from the sun begins to die down, I manage to slowly get up on my hands and knees, scanning the area for any sort of shelter. I had to find a cave, or some sort of warmth, quick. Or else I was going to freeze to death, as well as bleed to death.

I get up from the sand, water falling down from my face and my entire body. At this point, I couldn't tell if the water on my face was because of the lake or tears.

I can't cry.

I have to be strong.

I try to crawl up the hill that was standing in front of the sandy beach, in order to try and get away from the water. However, I fail miserably as my leg explodes in pain and I'm sent falling back down to the beach.

Now laying on the ground again, I punch the sand, feeling frustrated with myself.

I get up from the sand once again, and clench my teeth shut in order to try to resist the pain. I climb up the hill more faster this time, holding in a few yelps of pain each time my wounds would object.

I collapse onto the grass, and to my surprise, see more trees and forests around the valley.

Feeling miserable at this moment, I decide to scream for no reason, instead to just let all the feelings I had inside of me out.

My scream echoes throughout the forest, sending birds flying in all sorts of directions.

I curl myself into a ball and hold my knees against my chest, careful not to touch the wound I had on my leg.

Right after I finished screaming, I breathed in heavy gasps of air, before it gradually reduced itself to a calm, relaxed breathing.

I feel myself drift off into slow darkness as I shut my eyes to try to sleep.

So ironic, that my District thought I was dead for so long. And now, I really am going to die.

I thought that if I had made it out of District 13, I had a chance to go back to my family, my home. But now, I guess my fate is to die. Even if I did survive the Games, I'm still going to die, no matter what.

I let out a miserable chuckle as my smile turns into a frown.

I bite my lip and bury my face into my knees, cursing myself for not being stronger. For being so careless. For allowing myself to be killed by those jerk elites.

As I drown in sorrow with my own thoughts, I barely hear running footsteps sprinting towards me with incredible speed. However, as soon as I open my eyes and see a blur running towards me, I begin to panic and violently toss myself up off the floor in order to try and run. I didn't even know who it was, but I couldn't take any chances.

Who else would be running towards me if it wasn't an elite?

"Katniss! Katniss!" I hear the voice shout, but I ignore them as I try to keep my grip on the bow and arrow.

I trip and fall onto the floor, injuring my leg even worse. I try to hold in a scream as I cradle it against me.

"Katniss! Stop, it's me!" The voice says again, sounding more familiar this time. However, my survival instinct gets the best of me as I whirl at my pursuer and pull one of my arrows out, letting it fly free.

To my horror, I instantly recognize Cato staring at me with a shocked expression.

Cato..

"Cato, look out!" I scream, stupidly running towards him, although I knew it was no use.

Seeing the arrow, he immediately dropped to the ground and rolled out of the arrow's way, letting it fall a few inches next to him.

I let out a sigh of relief. Why was I even worried? I knew he would dodge the arrow, I mean he's a career. But, still.

He gets up off the ground and glares at me. "What was that for?" He sneers.

I limp towards him. "I thought you were one of the elites! You idiot, never scare me like that again! I could've killed you!"

"I heard you scream! I got worried. And kill me, psh. Please, Firegirl. In your dreams." He smirks at me, which makes my heart melt. I couldn't be happier to see him, although I didn't want to show it.

"First of all, I screamed because I felt like it. And second of all, I could so kill you with my arrow, Cato. You may have the upper body strength, but I have the ranged strength."

"Who the hell screams because they want to? Never do that again, I thought someone was killing you." Cato narrows his eyes, keeping his gaze fixed onto mine.

He was actually worried about me?

I feel a slight blush rise to my cheeks as I continue to lip towards him. However, just as I'm about to reach him, I feel a sharp pain explode into my leg again, causing me to fall forwards.

Just before I fall, Cato catches me in his arms and slowly brings the both of us down into the grass, while he shushes my whimpering and heavily breathed labor due to the pain.

"I got you, It's okay." He strokes my hair back and continues to hold me in his arms. "Shh.."

I bite my lip to keep from whimpering anymore as I softly rest my head against his chest, listening to the soft beating of his heart.

"Who did this to you? Tell me, I'll kick their ass." He silently growls into my ear, sending shivers down my spine.

No matter if he was trying to protect me, I hated hearing his cold voice. I loved his other caring, soothing voice.

"No Cato, you don't have to-" I mumble, feeling the words slip out of my mouth. I tried shutting my eyes, since all I wanted to do was fall asleep.

"It's alright. Go to sleep, Katniss. I'm here. I'll always be here. I won't let anyone else hurt you, I promise. I love you.."

I barely catch the last words he says, since he manages to say it right above a whisper. The only thing I see is darkness surrounding my vision as I feel myself being lifted and carried in Cato's arms.

President Coin's POV

Having the elites return and tell me of Katniss's incident was deeply upsetting for me. I never wanted her dead, I merely wanted the elites to teach her a lesson. Maybe that had took it a tad too far.

"Incompetent idiots," I mutter, before walking over to my window.

I sent in at least six elites and they failed to bring me back a mere sixteen year old girl?

Hearing the door behind me open, I turn around to be faced with Ebon's furious face.

"President Coin, with all due respect, how could you do this? We need Katniss, you can't hurt her. Same with Cato."

I roll my eyes. "Calm yourself, Ebon. We will find the girl soon enough. She failed to show me respect, so she deserved to be punished. This is exactly why I hate children, Ebon."

"We can't find her. Cato just went looking for her. Hopefully he finds her, if not.." Ebon continues but I quiet him.

"Katniss is a very brave girl, she'll survive. That's why I was testing her. And she passed, since she sent two of my elites to the hospital. Can't you see Ebon, I'm trying to test them. I've tested Katniss, and next I'm going to test Cato. It's all in preparation for the 75th annual Hunger Games." I explain.

"You can't be serious. You're not honestly thinking to put them in the arena, are you?" Ebon incredulously stared at me.

"We have to Ebon, we have no other choice. It's all planned. The arena, the bombing of District 12, everything. Besides, we'll certainly surprise the District with the return of their former tributes to attend in these Hunger Games."

Ignoring anything else Ebon had to say, I turn to look outside my window.

As I felt a smile creep onto my lips, I couldn't help but think that the 75th Hunger Games were going to be far more intriguing than the rest.

A/N:

Hey guys! Thanks for all the reviews, I'm so glad so many people like my story, it really inspires me to write :'D Well, this chapter is sort of depressing, but at least Cato finally says I love you! If Katniss even heard him..haha. Well the next chapter is Cato getting tested by President Coin, and just to warn you, his is much worse than Katniss's. D: Dun Dun Dun Dun! Well, at least it adds to the drama. Hope you like this chapter! ^.^