I know I say it within the chapter, but in case you miss it, this is taking place three months later. Enjoy!

Gale's POV:

I look at the ruins around me. The Seam. Everyone knew that it would go up like a candle if it ever caught fire. And it did. The moment Thirteen bombed the Arena. Snowden had known and requested there be an evacuation team ready for any who was able to make it out. Katniss had told me that those who could, made it to the meadow and tore down the fence and into the woods beyond. No one had been back since. I try not to look at what I am stepping on. I did once when I first entered what remained of the Seam and didn't like what I saw. Since then, I started shuffling my feet. There is nothing left of the Seam.

I make it to the square and notice that it is still mostly intact. Some buildings have been destroyed, probably from the ground shaking as the bombs hit. Though, it looks like some of the fire spread here. Thread's torture devices are black, but still standing, and some of the other buildings are black. The ground is mostly cleared away here, but there are still skeletons of those who couldn't make it to the meadow. All of this destruction…why? Why punish so many people for the deeds of one woman? It would be so easy to blame this all on Snowden, but I can't. Nobody from Twelve can. Or so Katniss says. Snowden did what she could to keep them safe. I mean, for instance, there was a team ready to take them all to Thirteen when the air raid started.

I walk past Cray's house and stop. It's not Cray's house anymore. It became Thread's. I enter through the still intact door, bow armed and ready. They told me to stay out of buildings for the most part unless they had been cleared. All of the houses in Victor's Village had been, at least the inhabited ones. All the rest had been left alone. I doubt he's here, but I'm not going to miss a chance to get back at him for what he did to Snowden this past winter. No way in hell.

I check all the rooms and find everything empty. I go down to the cellar and look around. I find a cabinet and broken phials. Some of the labels are drugs that I have no idea what they are. But two I do recognize: morphling and tracker jacker venom. These bottles are still intact and mostly empty. There is a syringe next to them. That had to have been used on Snowden. In my mind, I can see it. Snowden beaten as she stands, tied to the nearby post. Thread approaching her with a syringe filled with the toxin and her going mad and screaming. It is a wonder that nobody heard anything. But Snowden is strong. She would have done her best to keep from screaming, to prevent Thread the satisfaction of knowing that he had beaten her. I turn on my heel and race out of the house. Outside, I put my hands on my knees and try to catch my breath. I can't stop the hot tears from racing down my face as I keep imagining Snowden's torture through the winter months when she should have been safe and secure in my arms at home.

"Gale, are you alright?" Katniss's voice reaches me through the headpiece I have on. She helped convince Coin that I had to see my home. I didn't want to believe that it was gone, that my only connection to Snowden was gone. This was where I had first met Snowden Caltrit. Where I saw her for the first time. Then, she was an obstacle I needed to overcome to get home. And know, I wake up everyday realizing that she was home. She became home to me in the months since the Games. I stand up straight and look at the sky before throwing a thumbs up to the it. Katniss is up there in a hovercraft with the crew. Katniss knows everything isn't alright. She knows that I am nothing without Snowden. Katniss hasn't left my side in the three months that we've been in Thirteen. The only time she leaves me alone is when we both go to our compartments to sleep with our families. I told her everything Snowden told me; the truth about who she was and what her mission was and that she had chosen me to take her place should something like this happen. I've done the best I could, but without Haymitch, I have no idea what I am doing. So, I've left everything to Coin, the president of Thirteen who knows Snowden second best. I finally met this Boggs that Snowden sees as a father figure in her life and who practically raised her. He seems just as heartbroken as I am that we couldn't get Snow out of the Arena. They had tried. She had been fighting Brutus which is why they had picked up Finnick, Haymitch, and Beetee first. She killed Brutus and was defending herself as the claw began reaching down for her, but then the Capitol ships had started firing on us and the pilot missed her and she needed to take cover while we were forced to flee. No one knows if she was captured or if she managed to escape and is hiding somewhere. I pray it's the latter. I know Snow was afraid of being captured again.

I begin walking again, towards the village where Haymitch, Snow, and I had made our homes. This is where I learned the truth. I shouldn't have stormed out that day. Maybe if I had stayed, she would have allowed me to go into the Arena. Haymitch admitted that Snow had ordered the Reaping rigged. Both of those slips of paper had my name on them. No matter what, my name would have been called and Haymitch would have volunteered to go in. Snowden did what she thought would save my life. I walk into my house first. It still smells like home, as if Mom were waiting for Dad to get home from the mines. I go upstairs and search through the rooms. I grab a stuffed toy for each of the kids, they haven't been sleeping well lately. Then I go into Mom's room and take the blanket that she made for her bed when Dad was still alive. I use that to make a sack to carry everything in. This blanket is Mom's prized possession. I skip my room. I don't want anything from here. Katniss got my bow from the forest and gave it to me when she saw me after we landed. I grab a few more things for Mom and the kids and then go to Snowden's house. I know Haymitch doesn't want anything, not to mention that he has very little of anything. I leave the blanket on the table and go to the cellar. This room is full of memories to. This is where Snowden let me back in, a little. This is where she let me help her. Sure, she knocked me on my ass, but I did walk up behind her.

I touch the punching bag and feel the weight of it. I can't believe she punched this willingly. I take a few swings and only end up hurting my hands. I go back into the main house and go up the stairs. I find Snow's sketchbook and look at all the drawings. She had been working on so many. I sit on the bed as I flip through them. A lot of them are of the Arena covered in snow. Most of those are of Rue, watching all of us. There are some of me, with and without the snow. After the ones of the Arena, I find pictures of people. I recognize Coin and Boggs. Haymitch is here along with Katniss with her family. There are also the kids, all together in here. Mom is in a couple of pictures as well. The book is almost full. After this is over, I'll have to get her another one to fill up. I brush my hand over the back cover where she had written a short poem and feel a slight lump. Curious, I pry open the seams and remove an extra layer of paper which had been glued on. Tucked inside is another piece of paper, folded up. I open it. It's the picture Snowden drew while on the way to Eleven during the Victory tour. Rue and I are curled into the dragon's tail. There is no color to this picture like there are in the others. But there is a single line in Snowden's somewhat messy handwriting.

May we all have a dragon to protect us.

That line hadn't been there before. She must have added it when we got home, when she finished the picture. I fold the picture again and tuck it into the paper. There should be glue in the study so I can fix it. I hurry back downstairs and into Snowden's study. I find the glue easily and glue down the paper and close the sketch book. I'm about to leave when I notice her easel set up next to the window. There is a cloth over it and her colored pencils are sitting next to it on a table. I walk over to it and notice the same colors are present as she had out on the train during the Victory Tour. I uncover the canvas and see me, sleeping under a tracker jacker nest. She had seen this shot on the television during the recaps after the Games ended. Funny, I don't remember the tree leaves being that emerald. Emerald, that's Snow's favorite color. I wonder if it just happened that way, or if she did it on purpose. I sit and notice that it is mostly done. At least I think it is. I cover it back up and carry both easel and canvas down to the cellar and leave it by the punching bag. Her two worlds. At least the picture will be safe for her to finish when we come home. Maybe she'll want to come and get it. I hurry back up to the study and get the pencils and the sketch book and put them in the sack as well and then go outside.

A twig snaps as I close the door behind me and I spin around, arming my bow. Katniss walks around the house and I take a deep breath.

"I could have killed you." I almost snap at her.

"You were taking a long time and you weren't answering on the wire. The crew was afraid that they had missed something." She answers and looks at the blanket sack at my feet. "Have you got everything you want?"

"Want?" I ask. "No. I don't have Snowden back with me. But her things will have to do until she does show up."

"You're worried she got captured." Katniss accuses and I don't deny it.

"It was her one fear this time. After what happened with Thread, I didn't know if she would stay with us or not. Those were the worst weeks of my life and then when she was found near death, I though I was going to die."

"And then she told you the truth and you couldn't take it." Another accusation that I can't deny. "Come on, let's get back. It's getting late and they're getting worried about bombers making another round." I nod and follow Katniss back to the hovercraft which has a ladder waiting for us. She gets on and climbs up a few rungs, enough for me to be able to get on. I take one last look at what is left of my home. I will come back here. Snowden and I will have our family here. I grab onto the ladder and we are pulled into the hovercraft and back on our way to Thirteen.

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