Here it is, the final bit. I'd like to take note that I did post this before the real Mockingjay hit shelves, yay I reached my goal! Thank you so much if you've stuck with me from the beginning and if you just caught on near the end! Your support is much appreciated and you are the reason I wanted to finish this project. It took me nine months to write this (because I'm a slow writer) which is the equivalent of making a baby. If you want to keep in touch with me, PM me your facebook name and I'll add you, plus it would be greatly appreciated if you subscribed to me on youtube, my username is MoggyMegs. Happy reading and I hope you enjoyed this and enjoy the real Mockingjay. I owe this all to Suzanne Collins for creating the wonderful characters and eerily realistic settings that I love to play in.

Epilogue: 17 Years Later

It is a Sunday, and it also happens to be the day of the Reaping. Now let me be clear, it's not the same kind of Reaping as before. No kids will have to go into the arena now, or ever again. But we couldn't let the horrors of the past lay forgotten, so every year on Reaping Day we head to town square and speeches are made about our version of the Dark Days and how evil the Capitol was. All the kids hate it because it's really boring, but they listen just the same.

Speaking of the Capitol, we are still not on perfect terms with them but everyone is civil. Lots of people from various districts came to live with us here –in what used to be called District 13 but is now called Expedius- after the war. But people from the Capitol didn't want to leave their way of life, plus a few Peacekeepers went back to get them in order. In the early days they tried to attack us a couple of times but we recently got them to sign a treaty.

It was scary starting a new way of life, especially when we, as in Gale, Madge, Peeta, and I, were really the ones in charge. The first few years were hard ones but eventually things started falling into place. Like when Jameson was elected for mayor, which really took a lot of weight off our soldiers. But of course we are all still on the council.

Since it's a Sunday I should be out hunting with Gale, but because of the ceremony I have to stay home and get ready. So I finally decide that I will go down to the kitchen and see what Peeta's up to. I put on my attire for the day (a simple red dress because of the Reaping ceremony, plus my mockingjay pin, of course) and plait my hair into its usual braid. Then I head downstairs.

Peeta made me breakfast as per usual so I grab a plate and sit down at the table beside him. We got married ten years ago. After we got married, although Prim was definitely old enough to take care of herself, she went to live with Ghita and Effie for a while. But now she's married and out of the house too, to Gale's oldest brother Rory. Gale and Madge tied the knot first, only a mere two years after the 76th and Final Hunger Games.

"Are the kids up yet?" Peeta asks me as I dig into my pastry.

I swallow and answer, "Surprisingly, no. But we're going to have to wake Rue up pretty soon. Madylin and Haymitch can sleep in until Annie comes over,"

Rue is our eldest daughter. She turned twelve this past year and children have to be at least twelve before they can come to the Reaping and listen first hand to what happened in the past. Madylin is only eight years old and Haymitch is seven so they can't come quite yet. Annie has never been able to handle the Reaping ceremonies so she never comes to them. She is a lot better than before though and baby-sits the kids every Reaping Day. Her own son Free, hence named because he was the first child born into the new and just colony, is sixteen and he does go to the ceremonies. He is the spitting image of Finnick and has also inherited some of his father's womanizing nature, I am afraid.

I am just finishing up my breakfast and putting my plate in the sink when Peeta walks over carrying his dishes too. After that he leans against the counter and I press into him, wrapping my arms around his waist as his hands trace lazy circles on my forearms. I feel him rest his chin on top of my head and we just stand like that for a while and I know we're both thinking the same thing.

My suspicions are confirmed when he kisses my forehead, looks down at me, and says, "I can't believe it's been seventeen years since the last Hunger Games."

"Me either," I mumble. It's still surreal to think that the world is safe again, as safe as it ever can be. "Before then I wasn't even sure if I liked you," I tell him coyly.

"But I was always hopelessly in love with you," he says with a mock sigh.

"Well," I continue. "I think I'm sure I like you now,"

Peeta looks down at me, "Oh really?" he asks with one eyebrow arched.

I stand up on my tiptoes to kiss him. This is one of those rare times when all three of our kids are asleep at the same time so we might as well take advantage of it. "Really," is all I have time to say before I am pressed up against the counter responding to Peeta's long, languid kisses. One of his hands trails from cupping my cheek to the nape of my neck and the other pulls me closer to him on the small of my back. My hands tangle into his hair, pulling him down to me as my lips make complicated patterns with his. He lifts me up and sets me on the counter to start kissing my neck right under my jaw line. I close my eyes and feel the pressure of his lips on my neck. Then I hear a voice.

"Uh…hi guys,"

I open my eyes and she smiles at me. It's Madge, with Gale by her side.

I quickly hop down from my perch on the counter and Peeta smoothes my hair. We look sheepishly at the other two.

"Sorry that we interrupted you," Madge tells us softly.

"It's okay," I tell her. Gale is the one who thinks it is fine to barge into my house without telling me he's coming in advance.

"You know Gale, there's this new thing called knocking. I know it might not have reached your neck of the woods yet, but you should give it a try sometime," I tell him. The neck of the woods bit really isn't relevant because Gale and Madge live just next door to us.

"Well, Catnip, I'm just glad the kids are still outside because I want them to see…" he starts to retaliate but then trails off under the wrath of my scowl.

After his statement the Hawthorne kids come. Gale and Madge always walk with us to the square, with their son Gage who's fifteen and old enough to attend the Reaping. Their eight year old daughter Maysilee is too young so she stays with our kids and Annie too.

The crazy thing about our daughter Madylin and their daughter Maysilee are the same age and were born only a day apart (one on May 16th and the other on May 17th). It was a crazy occurrence so we decided to name them after the Donner twins.

"Where's Madylin?" Maysilee pipes up eagerly, her blonde curls almost quivering with excitement. The two have been best friends since birth.

"She's still up in her room," Peeta tells her warmly. "Why don't you go get her?"

"Okay!" Maysilee says. "I'll get Rue and Haymitch too!"

With her gone the four of us make small talk and ask Gage how he's doing in school. School actually teaches useful things these days and doesn't just smother the kids in knowledge about coal mining and how glorious the Capitol is like I remember. Gage's resemblance to Gale is uncanny, but he has Madge's big blue eyes.

Maysilee comes back down with our kids. Madylin has Peeta's blonde hair, fair skin and blue eyes but he still insists her features are like mine. Haymitch has the full Seam look. Rue has tan skin, like me, but blue eyes and wavy blonde hair.

Annie comes over with Free shortly and it's time for us to get to the ceremony. Peeta and I kiss our children goodbye and are out the door with Gale and Madge, walking behind Rue, Gage, and Free. They are talking about some upcoming school thing.

"Can you guys believe it's been seventeen years?" Gale asks us and we shake our heads.

"We were just talking about that," I tell him. "It feels like only yesterday we were…"

"Fighting for our lives in a bloodthirsty arena?" Peeta asks.

"Saving these two from the Capitol, while fighting for our lives?" adds Gale.

"Just fighting for our lives in general?" asks Madge.

I think about it for a second. "Pretty much," I say and we all start laughing.

We reach the square and leave the kids in the crowd. Because we were so involved with the rebellion, the four of us always have to stand on stage with some other people. Effie Trinket says her welcoming speech and then turns it over to Jameson, who speaks in his slow and low voice about the rebellion and the Hunger Games and the Capitol to the audience.

I must admit, I zone out a little. I'm looking at the stars and remembering all the people who were lost in the war. I will never fully get over some of the sacrifices we had to make, but I have found a way to live with the sadness that sometimes comes over me. I find that if I try really hard I can still image Finnick's sly expression and the pressure of Cinna's hand on mine, my mother braiding my hair and Haymitch's gruff voice as he calls me "sweetheart."

The absence of sound greets my ears and I know that Jameson's speech is over and it's time for the moment of silence we have every year for the people who sacrificed their lives to make the world better for us. I grasp Peeta's hand and look out into the audience. Many of them are staring at Peeta and I, as they usually do at this time of the ceremony, because we were huge players in the rebellion. I was the mockingjay and he was the reason I kept trying. I need to set a good example for the watchers, and make sure my friends are not forgotten. I remember all the past times when Peeta and I held hands like this and looked out into a crowd. There were times when we smiled radiantly as they cheered our names, and other times when we stood hard as stones and expressionless. I need to pick one now.

I gaze into the crowd and see all the rebels, whether they were with us from the beginning or joined us later than that. We won our battle, we defeated the Capitol, and we earned the right to live freely without paying the tribute of our children each year. I hear one lone mockingjay sing the four note song I've been teaching them and feel a smile tugging at the corner of my lips. I let it shine and I know that beside me Peeta is doing the same thing. After my years in the Hunger Games and having to sway people in the direction of good and justice I have learned one thing. Radiant always wins the crowd in the end.

BAM! Just like that…it's finished. The real Mockingjay comes out in less than an hour and I'll be purchasing my copy first thing tomorrow morning. I hope you enjoyed my version. Please everyone review as one last favor to me! Tell me your favorite parts, chapters, scenes, OCs, anything. I've had some reviewers that reviewed a lot in the early days but just dropped off the Earth lately and if you are one of them, please review to let me know you are alive and well. Thank you all for your time, it's meant the world to me.

Please check out my other fanfics in the Hunger Games universe and in the Harry Potter and Twilight universes if you're fans of those too. I'm thinking of writing a new story about all the new kids from this story. Even though this is not the real outcome of Mockingjay, I think it would be a fun project, would any of you be interested in reading it?

Again, thank you and goodnight. 3 :)