Disclaimer: All characters and things associated with The Hunger Games belongs to Suzanne Collins and Lionsgate. This writing is for pure entertainment only.

Summary: Katniss finally thought everything was going to be alright and her children would grow up in a safer world then she and Peeta had, but something changes and a new set of games begins.

CHAPTER 28

KATNISS POV

I am standing in the kitchen when I hear Peeta's cries from the bedroom. It is late; I didn't even know he was awake as I snuck out to get a glass of water, but his cries haunt me and I drop the glass in my hand, shattering it on the ground completely. I sprint in the bedroom to find Peeta sitting up straight in bed, his bad leg swung over the side as if he was contemplating getting out of bed, but his eyes are glued to the screen in front of me.

"What is it?" I panic, my eyes moving to the screen, worried something happened to Emberly.

"It's 12…" Peeta points to the screen.

I glance over the image to see Emberly, sunk down on her knees in the snow in the ruins of what appears to be an old abandoned town. I look closer at it, wondering what it is doing in the arena, when I notice the familiar building behind Emberly, or rather what is left of it. It is the bakery, our bakery.

"Peeta…what…what is that?" I hardly make my way to the bed, sitting down in front of Peeta. I feel his arms quickly wrap around mine and I shake my head. This can't be right. Would the Capitol destroy District 12 again? Would they put it in the arena for all to see?

"It doesn't make sense…" Peeta shakes his head and is standing now.

My eyes continue to scan the screen. Is it possible that the Capitol has stooped this low already? Are they trying to make a point? Would they really destroy an entire district and expect the others to do nothing?

"It can't be real," Peeta says after a minute.

"Peeta…" I whisper softly, my knees shaking. It has to be real. It doesn't make sense, otherwise. None of it makes sense.

"No," Peeta storms out into the living, waking Galen as he shouts at an Avox. "Bring me Effie! Bring me Haymitch!"

The Avox hustles off and I meet Peeta in the living room just as Galen is coming out of his own room, wiping the sleep from his eyes.

"What happened?" Galen asks.

"Galen, go back to your room," Peeta orders.

Galen immediately stiffens at this, his eyes darting back between Peeta and I. "Is it Emberly? Did something happen?"

"Galen—" Peeta starts, and I can hear his temper growing and his patience fleeting.

This time it's my turn to be strong. I don't know how I pull it together, maybe I am numb from what I have seen on the screen, but I don't think, I just act. I move toward my sun and wrap my arms around him, kissing his blonde hair and whispering to him. "Emberly is fine…she is okay."

Peeta glances over and realizes he has scared Galen. I see the regret in his eyes and he is about to apologize when the door opens and Effie, Haymitch, and to my surprise, Sarah walk in. I haven't seen Sarah since the Games started really, though I know it is unfair to assume she has not been around. I spent days in the bedroom not moving a muscle. She could have easily been here and I have not noticed.

"It's not District 12," Haymitch points to the screen before Peeta or I can even get a word out.

"How do you know?" Peeta asks.

"We called back home. Everyone is fine," Sarah says.

I narrow my eyes at her as she makes herself comfortable on our couch. Something tells me she has in fact been here while I was sulking in my room for days.

"You're sure they are actually in 12? Whoever you talked to?" Peeta asks.

"We are sure. Live video feed," Haymitch says, moving to pat my shoulder in a way I take as a warning to be nice to Sarah.

"The Capitol isn't that barbaric," Effie adds.

I roll my eyes in her direction and puff a piece of hair out of my face. That's exactly what the Capitol is. Surely even Effie remembers that from the revolution.

"I just mean they aren't going to blow up a District quite yet," Effie says.

"So why make that part of the Arena?" Peeta asks, motioning to the screen that shows the fake set of District 12 that Emberly is nearly hysterical in.

I study my daughter for a moment on the screen; she looks so vulnerable, so scared. I haven't seen her like that since the time Galen nearly drowned in the lake when he was four. She had stood on the beach shaking uncontrollably as she sobbed and it took Peeta a good hour to calm her down.

"For that…" Haymitch points to Emberly. "For the effect."

"But why target just our kids?" Peeta asks.

Haymitch and I give Peeta the same look. He knows exactly why, because they are our kids. The Capitol is still trying to punish us for our actions in the Games and the Revolution.

"We have to find a way to tell them it isn't real," I finally speak up, Galen has calmed down in my arms and has moved away from my hug now to find a seat on the couch opposite Sarah.

"There's no way they will let us send a warning in there," Peeta says.

I know what he says is true, but I also know if Emberly doesn't calm down she could very well get herself killed.

"Unfortunately, they are on their own for that," Haymitch sighs.

A silence glance passes around the room and then we do the only thing we can think of. We sit down and watch the Games, we watch Emberly have a near breakdown over a place that was created just to mess with her head. And as we watch, Peeta's arm firmly around me, I realize my daughter is more like me then I have realized, and not in a good way.


EMBERLY POV

I sit in the snow until my hands are nearly frozen to the ground. Then I continue to sit. At first, Mason tried to move me, but now he doesn't bother. Instead he sits, with Antu and Kerr on the fountain that is normally in the middle of the town square of 12 and they watch me, slump in a heap, while Damir is pacing a few feet away from me.

I can hear him cough every once in awhile and I know he is crying, moving to keep himself from completely breaking down.

But I don't care. Its as if nothing matters now anyway. I know my family is safe but what about the rest of District 12. Have I cost everyone I know their lives?

I am not sure how long they allow me to wallow in the silence, but eventually Mason takes a seat next to me and sighs. He is not on the ground completely but rather on a bent knee so he has to look down, or so I think. I don't bring my eyes up to meat his gaze.

"This can't be right, Emberly…this can't be real," Mason says softly.

I merely shrug. It looks real to me.

"Are you sure this is District 12? Could you be wrong?" Mason asks.

Now I look up at him or rather I glare. Of course I know what my own District looks like. "Yes."

Mason bits the inside of his lip as if he is trying to work something out. "Alright well…so that's it then? You are going to sit here and let it all be for nothing?"

I look up at him confused. "What?"

"If this is really 12. If this is what they did to it, you are just going to let them get away with it?" Mason asks, standing now and throwing his arms out.

Before I realize it, I am on my feet, enraged by him. "What do you want me to do?"

"Use it! Fight for them…" Mason motions around to the ruins of District 12.

"For what? What's the point? I have no home to go back to even if I make it out of here!" I snap, and its true. I can live through this, but if District 12 is really destroyed, I will never really go home. I will forever be trapped in the ruins of the District I helped destroy.

Mason looks surprised at my words; he opens his mouth to speak and then quickly shuts it again.

"Leave her alone," Damir says behind me.

"You can't really believe this too…" Mason says to Damir.

"What? That my District is the rubble around us? Looks it, doesn't it! You wouldn't know, your dad abandoned it years ago, but in case you forgot, this was his District too…" Damir is angry.

I turn to my best friend, shaking my head. What Mason's father did has nothing to do with this. It shouldn't even be an issue here and I don't know why it is.

"Sorry my dad wanted more then us then the blown up hole of a coal mine!" Mason snaps back.

Now I turn, shocked by Mason's harsh words. "Yeah, your dad was a real hero! His bombs only blew my aunt to pieces!"

"You don't know he did that! That's just what your crazy mother thinks! But what would she know? She hardly gave him a damn chance to explain anything! She was too busy hanging on to your suicidal dad and shooting people with arrows!" Mason snap at me now.

My hands ball in fists. "How fucking dare you—"

But then, before I even have time to register it, Damir and Mason are fighting, swinging and pushing one another and I think one of them is hell bent on killing the other now. I want to stop them, but can't find the strength. I am angry. I am numb. I don't care. I slump back into the snow.

Kerr and Antu do all they can to break the boys apart but by the time they do it is pretty obvious the group is broken, just the same way District 12 is broken around us.

The four of them are standing nearly on opposite corners of me, but I don't move, there is no reason to. I should die here, with my District.

And then I hear it, the beeping of a parachute. I don't move for it, and neither do the boys. They are still standing off. Antu doesn't either because she is the one between the boys. Kerr goes for the gift, and opens it and I hear a sigh of relief.

"It's not 12," Kerr says softly.

I snap my eyes up at the little girl. "What?"

"This…this is from your District, isn't it?" Kerr holds up something only Damir and I recognize. It is a small piece of barbed fence; the fence my mother used to climb under, the fence I climb under to hunt in District 12. Its familiar to both Damir and I because for show and tell, when I was seven, I brought a piece of it in that I had gotten stuck on my clothes and caused an uproar in town when everyone's kids wanted to venture out of the fence.

But I don't understand one thing. "How did you know it's from 12?"

Kerr holds up a small note. I move quickly toward it and read it, shocked by who it is from and knowing it has to be real because no one else would know it.

I quickly read the note

We are safe, inside our little fence. Marcus

It's from Marcus Plasser, the older brother of the girl whose place I took. I guess this is his way of repaying me, trying to get me to continue to fight. I recognize his handwriting from school and I know its true. He is safe, and so is District 12.

I let a sigh of relief out and turn to the group. "Its not 12."

"Are you sure?" Damir asks.

I nod, holding up the note. "Marcus. He wanted to let us know they are safe."

Damir examines the note and then gives a small nod. "Okay, so then where are we?"

I look around. It still looks like District 12. I have no idea.

"Do you think the Game Maker's constructed it to look like 12?" Antu finally speaks.

"Why would they do that?" Damir asks.

Antu raises an eyebrow and looks at me which makes me stand taller, balling my fists as if she is putting this on me.

"What does it have to do with me?" I ask.

"I don't know. Maybe to get to you? I mean…it worked, didn't it?" Antu motions to me and reminds me of how I was acting only a few minutes ago. Then, to my surprise, she looks up at the sky, speaking directly to the Game Makers. I have only seen one other person do this: Joanna Mason, in a small clip we saw in school.

"She is the target right? Daughter of the girl who brought you down? Why not try to break her?" Antu is yelling now.

"Antu…" Mason moves toward her, putting his hands on her shoulders to silence her. He shakes her head.

"What? What could they do to me that is worse then they already have? Kill my family? It will only make them look worse," Antu says, loud enough that I am sure the Game Maker's heard her.

"Even if it is meant to replicate 12, why hide it all the way up here on the mountain?" Damir asks.

"Maybe they didn't think we would climb that high?" Kerr speaks up for the first time in awhile. Her voice is soft and it causes me to whip my head in her direction. I nearly forgot she was here.

"Well, the fire pushed us up here practically," Damir says.

I nod, remembering the long hick up to the hill that we now resided on. How earlier in the day, we thought only the lake would be safe, and now we realize the further we climb, the safer we are.

Suddenly, it clicks it my head. The lake. The hill. The caves. We are in District 12.

"We are in 12…" I say slowly.

All eyes are on me and I know I must explain more.

"Not really…there aren't hills like the one we climbed in 12 but there is a hill…outside the District Fence…if you go far enough into the woods…the lake…" I am so excited, I can hardly get my thoughts out.

Everyone looks confused. Everyone but Damir who seems to realize where I am going.

"Shit…you are right. The Lake. Its our lake!" Damir is just as excited now because he realizes what I realize. The entire Arena is a reference to District 12. Some of the landscape is a bit off, like the hill we climbed, an din the snow there was no way we would have recognized it until now, but its true. The Arena is modeled after District 12 and the woods I grew up in.

"What are you saying?" Mason asks.

"They made this look like District 12. In the snow…it took me some time to realize but…the terrain isn't that different. There's a lake I grew up going to…the Cornucopia is on that, or the replica of it," I explain. I am so excited I forgot about the digs he took at my mother and father for a moment. Quickly, I am scowling at him again.

Mason looks like he wants to apologize, but he is cut off by Antu.

"So this whole place is a fake model of District 12?" Antu asks for confirmation.

"Essentially. It would seem that way. Of course…it looks like Distict 12 after a war but its roughly the same," Damir says.

"So maybe this is actually an advantage?' Antu smile a little.

It is. It is some sort of an advantage but I don't understand why it was given.

"You could say that. We certainly know this place," Damir looks at me.

I nod, turning from the bakery to the other building in District 12 that I know so well. My home, or the replica of it, seems to be intact a few blocks up the road.

"We at least have somewhere safe to stay tonight," I point to the copy of the home I grew up in.

"What is that?" Kerr asks.

"My home…or at least a replica of it. Come on, its cold out here," I say and lead the group forward, toward the fake version of my home just as the sun really sets among the trees.