The Fallen

Summary – Peeta Mellark is the Winner of the 74th Hunger Games after Katniss Everdeen sacrifices herself to save his life. He soon finds himself in the middle of the rebellion as their beacon of hope, their Mockingjay. But as Peeta will soon discover, not all fallen tributes stay dead.

Disclaimer: These are all Suzanne Collin's toys. They're just in my playground.

A/N: Hey! Don't forget to hit those follow/favourite buttons and please leave a review. I might have to take a short break from posting twice weekly, just so I can focus on churning out these last few chapters, but the more love I get the less time you'll have to wait for the next chapter... Enjoy!

There was a pounding on my door at 6am. As the son of a baker who'd been put to work before school, early each morning since I was a small child, I had been used to being up at 5am for as long as I could remember. I'd already been up for an hour already this morning and had just put a second tray of cheese buns in the oven. I suppose old habits die hard.

It was the morning my Victory tour began so I was expecting these visitors. I took off my apron and tried to dust off as much flour as I could then went to answer the door. As expected, it was Effie, Portia and the rest of my prep team. "Look at you!" Effie scolded immediately gesturing to my flour covered black t shirt, "It looks like you have your work cut out for you, Portia. We better get started, we have a schedule to keep to, it's a big, big day!"

Just then I saw Gale coming up with his game bag, he froze when he saw my house guests. "Nice to see you all, why don't you all come in. Help yourself to some buns, I've just got to grab something from my garden, I'll be right with you," I said quickly ushering them inside before they caught sight of my other visitor approaching.

"Very well Peeta, but be quick!" Effie said,

"It smells incredible in here!" Portia squeaked

I closed the door behind them and with a quick gesture to Gale he padded over and followed me around to the back of my house to my shed. "I'm sorry, I completely forgot about them coming today," he said screwing up his nose in disgust. He quickly unlocked the padlock to the shed with the spare key I had given him.

"Don't worry about it. I just wanted to make sure they didn't see you with that," I pointed to his game bag, "but they're not all bad, you know," I said defending my Capitol friends.

He shot me a look that clearly told me he disagreed, I wanted to protest but this wasn't the time for a debate about it. During the last few months that I had spent getting to know Gale, I've come to realise his hatred for the Capitol ran deep and was completely unparalleled to anything I'd ever seen before. I had tried to explain to him what it was truly like there but I felt like a hypocrite.

I understood their ways because I've seen first hand how they live. How everything is a like fairy tale to them and nothing seems real. But on the other hand I was so disappointed in them for not seeing through the mirage. For not seeming to care that children were dying and that it was completely unnecessary. Snow had gone to a lot of trouble to create this delicate balance and the Capitol's view of the world. That's why he was so threatened by my words.

We stepped inside the shed, Gale hung up 3 squirrels and a hare. I couldn't help but notice that they weren't shot right through the eye just like Katniss used to. His aim was indisputably impeccable but unlike Katniss, Gale's always went for head shots.

I had arranged for a freezer to be put out in the shed, filled with game prepped ready to be cooked and precooked meals that I had batch cooked in advance of my trip, "As you know I'm going to be away now for the next few weeks with the Victory tour so I've been filling this freezer for the last couple of weeks to try and leave as many meals for you guys as I can. There's plenty of meat frozen down in here to keep you going if you hit a dry run out there, so please help yourself when you need to." I told him. I didn't tell him that there was some stuff in there that I had gotten from the butchers too but considering that I had cuts of meat in there that he wouldn't usually find out in the woods he'd probably figure this out for himself, it was his choice whether or not to use it.

"Prim is going to stop by every day to maintain her garden and I've given her a key for the house too so if there's anything else you need just ask her, you are more than welcome to help yourselves." I'd given my brother Grain the other spare key and told him the same, he was the brother I trusted most not to wreck the place or worse, let my mother in. I placed several containers of the precooked meals into Gale's game bag.

"Thanks for everything Peeta," he said sincerely, "If we weren't helping each other out like this I'm sure I'd have been whipped in the square by now for sure," There had been far too many whippings over the last couple of weeks, particularly to the poorer people of the district, including many friends of Gale's. It was big of him to admit this, but I also knew he wasn't stupid. Like me, he felt a responsibility to not only his own family, but to the Everdeen's too. The recent events in Twelve were enough to make him realise that there are more important things than his ego and that he had a good thing going with our deal.

"It's no big thing," I said, "just remember to take care of everyone while I'm away,"

"You know I will," and I did. I trusted him to do so, "Good luck, Peeta," he said

"Thanks," I replied, and he snuck out carefully.

Before going back inside I picked some rosemary and thyme from Prim's garden. When I returned to the house everyone was gathered in my kitchen devouring the cheese buns, "These are absolutely delightful," Calista, one of Portia's prep team commented.

"Thank you," I smiled,

"We don't have any more time to dally around here chit-chatting, we need to get you ready and on that train to District Eleven!" Effie tapped her clipboard and looked at her watch. "Where have you been?"

"I needed some herbs from my garden," I showed her and put them into my dry store.

"Surely that could have waited Peeta, honestly," she muttered

I was ushered to the bathroom where a bath had already been run. My prep team, which consisted of Calista, Hans and Marigold, didn't just wash me; they scrubbed, buffed and polished until I was certain an entire layer of skin had been removed.

I tried to ignore their pitying stares when they saw my prosthetic leg. When they had finished their work in the bathroom, I was pink all over and I was pretty sure that my skin felt softer than it did when they last did this to me before my Games. Next came the manicure and pedicure, they wanted to wax me down first, but I refused just as I did last year. Instead Marigold sculpted my eyebrows with a pair of tweezers while Hans worked on my feet and Calista worked on my hands.

When they were finished doing those jobs, Hans moved on to my hair and started snipping away, Marigold and Calista brought in a selection of outfits, there was a suit for each District, and they were matching make up pallets with the colors of the suits.

"No!" I said firmly, "no make-up." The girls pouted at my adverse response.

"You read my mind," I looked up at the sound of the familiar voice and smiled when I saw Cinna walk in. "this man is beautiful enough," he smiled at the ladies who giggled, "can you give us a moment?" he asked my prep team, they nodded and vacated the room giving us some privacy, "Peeta," he smiled, "it's so good to see you again,"

"You too, Cinna," I said, "I didn't expect to see you here,"

"I've been helping Portia with your designs and I wanted to come and see how you were doing. How are you?" he asked

I scratched my brow, "Some days are better than others," I said, "but the thought of being thrown back into the Capitol and facing a new set of kids going back into the arena is filling me with dread. I've not been sleeping much, even less so than normal,"

"I'd be worried if you were," Cinna replied. He was the only person that I truly trusted from the Capitol. He wasn't like the others. He was clearly one of those that could see through the Fairy tale. And although sometimes I got the same feeling from Effie and Portia, they still weren't quite there yet. I began to wonder how much Cinna did see and if he had heard about the uprisings.

"Cinna, Snow visited a while back and told me that there had been some uprising in some of the districts, did you know anything about this?" I asked him, "I've tried asking Haymitch, but he's been drinking more than normal, every time I've gone over there he's been just about passed out,"

Cinna took a moment, like he was deciding what to tell me, eventually he said, "Yes, I've heard about them," I waited for him to elaborate and it looked like he was about to but stopped himself when Effie breezed into the room,

"Is he ready yet?" she called in a sing-song voice. I nearly screamed in frustration. Cinna picked up his design pad, gave me a brief nod and left the room.

Later when we were all on the train making our way to District Eleven, Effie went over my itinerary, handed me several pages of speeches, one for each district, "Now, you can put your own Peeta flare to these but you mustn't deviate from the content." She said while stirring a lump of sugar into her tea, "President's Snow's personal request." She added beaming with pride. It was evident that she didn't understand the weight of her words and the threat that was buried among them.

Later, when I was in my suite on the train, I found myself unable to sleep again. I got out of bed and pulled out the speech that I was supposed to read tomorrow in District Eleven. I glanced over the predictable words and inwardly cringed, I didn't want to pretend that I was happy about being the winner or thankful to the Capitol. Katniss would have hated having to read this. I doubted that she would even be able to go along with it, she was much braver than I ever was. I wondered what she would do if she knew her friends and family were at risk?

Frustrated at knowing what the right thing to do was, I pulled on some pants and a t-shirt and I took a stroll. I headed for dining cart to grab myself a drink when I heard hushed voices arguing. The door was only slightly ajar. I put my ear against the crack and listened in. It was Cinna and Haymitch.

"He knows something's up Haymitch," Cinna said

"The less he knows the safer he'll be," Haymitch replied,

"I don't think that's true anymore." Cinna muttered, "Are you sure it's safe to talk about this here?" he then asked, "Isn't this train bugged?"

"I had the bugs disabled in this cart only," Said a third voice that I didn't recognise "We know the rebellion are getting ready to make their move, more people, other districts have joined the cause. Peeta's inspired them. He did that and can do that again!"

"At what cost?" Haymitch cried

"Isn't freedom worth any cost?" the third voice asked

"Leave Peeta out of this, he's been through enough, Plutarch," Haymitch slurred, Who's Plutarch? I wondered

"We've all been through a lot, Haymitch. You especially. Why don't we at least talk to Peeta and let him decide what he wants to do?" Cinna asked, "I'm not sure I'm happy with the idea of using him like that again but at least he'll be safer if he's armed with the right information. I almost told him everything today, he knows somethings going on he asked me about it,"

"What did you say to him?" Haymitch sounded angry

"Nothing!" Cinna protested, "But he knows that I know something, and he'll ask me again,"

"I'm all for this war, but I won't let Coin use a decent young man like Peeta to start it," Haymitch said firmly

"Decent - exactly! He is just the kind of person we need!" Plutarch added, "We wouldn't be using him, he would be working with us, helping us, fighting with us!"

"What do you think it will do to him when he realises his speech started a war?" Haymitch asked, "I've never known a kid so freaking compassionate; it would destroy him."

"Peeta isn't that fragile, Haymitch," Cinna said then, "That kid has more strength than you're giving him credit for and you know it. He's a victor now. Do I need to remind you the kind of hell Snow puts the victors through? If anything, that will destroy him."

"He's right Haymitch," Plutarch spoke next, "if Peeta could help us to inspire the remainder of the Districts to join with us, this war will be over quickly with fewer casualties, the more people we get on our side the easier it will be. Peeta will not have to live the tragic life of a victor and the nation will no longer have to send 23 children to their deaths each year. He could be just the... the... spark we need to turn the tables,"

Neither one of them spoke for a few moments, "I'll sleep on it," Haymitch said finally, "But no one talks to Peeta unless I say so, got it?"

"Got it," Cinna replied

"Fine," said Plutarch

I heard someone leave the room, "You've become quite attached to him, haven't you?" Cinna said softly

"It's a lot to ask of anyone," Haymitch sighed, "I just want the kid to find some happiness however he can in this shit hand he's been dealt in life. It's unfair to expect all this to rest on his shoulders."

"I can understand that. I know it hasn't been easy for you, Haymitch. But you know you can't protect him from it all forever. Sooner or later he will have to face the lifestyle of a victor. Plutarch has worked a miracle for you and has managed to push it so that he would be left alone, for this year at least, to grieve Katniss. It makes sense to play up the star-crossed lovers routine this way but next year you know he won't be so fortunate. It's better for him to know everything now, because the day will come where he'll have to make a choice,"

"Like I said, I'll sleep on it. I'm going to bed," came his gruff reply

Haymitch's quarters was on this end of the train. I didn't want to be caught eavesdropping, so I hurried back down the corridor as quietly as possible to my own suite.

As I closed the door behind me I climbed onto my bed and prepared myself for another night of no sleep while I obsessed about the conversation I just overheard and try to work out what in the hell is going on.

When we arrived at District Eleven the next morning, I was ushered quickly from the train straight to the Justice Building. The first thing I noticed about the District was just how many armed Peacekeepers were around, many more than we had back in Twelve. I thought again, for the millionth time, about the conversation I overheard last night and what Snow told me the day he came to my house. From what I could piece together a war was brewing, my speech had somehow started that and now someone named Coin was wanting me to help start a revolution. I didn't have any more time to think about how I felt about that right now. I needed to get through this Victory tour. But one thing was for certain, I wanted, no I needed, to know the whole story.

My prep team gave me a quick once over inside the Justice building, I pinned Katniss's Mockingjay pin to the front of my shirt and then I was led outside to a microphone where the District Eleven's mayor was announcing me as the Winner of the 74th Hunger Games.

I was met with a round of applause, odd, you don't often hear this kind of greeting during the victory tour, unless it was from the District home of the Victor. Normally there was a really unenthused applause and an undeniable vibe of melancholy. Today, there was obvious mourning for the fallen victors, but the crowd weren't entirely displeased to see me.

I stood at the podium looking out at the crowd. Thresh's family were sat one side of the crowd and Rue's family on the other. My heart wept for them for enduring such pointless losses.

"Hello, District Eleven." I began. "Panem thanks you for your tributes this year," I read robotically from the page Effie gave me, making it as obvious as possible to that the crowd that these words are not mine, I paused looking through the page, could I really read out this rubbish? I had a choice to make now, the Districts were looking for a reason to rise up. A spark? That's what Plutarch and Haymitch had said, and they wanted me to fill that role. I thought about the warning from Snow, the lecture Haymitch gave me after my homecoming speech and about last nights conversation that I eavesdropped into.

It sounded like the rebellion wanted to start a war, a war that would bring down Snow and put an end to the Games - something that I swore to myself I would find a way to make happen. If all that they needed from me was this spark - words that would inspire the people to want to rise up, then surely it's the least I could do? I prayed that no harm would come to the people I loved. I was confident in Gale's ability to protect them in my absence.

Wasn't this was the opportunity I was looking for? If I did this and if we win this war, then no one would have to die in the Games ever again. Snow wouldn't be able to destroy countless lives and families anymore. Surely that was worth the risk?

I couldn't be reckless about this, I had to be smart. I needed to give a speech that was honest and inspiring without inciting any immediate riots. Again I knew I had to make it look like it was coming from a place of grief. The words of a man who had just lost his true love. I couldn't make it look like I was aligning myself with the rebellion but if I could say just enough to provide what they were looking for, I knew I had to try. I knew if Katniss had this chance, she would take it.

The crowd looked up at me, waiting with hope behind their eyes. I gave them honesty before and they were expecting it again. That's why I got the reception that I did. I glanced down at my notes, they deserved more than this. I folded the piece of paper up and tucked it into my pocket and could practically feel Haymitch's glare burning a hole in the back of my head.

"I'm sorry. I had a speech all prepared but the words feel meaningless now," I began, "Again I find myself in front of a crowd, being championed as a Victor and I know that it shouldn't have been me. I guess you all feel that way too, huh?"

I looked at the families with a sad look in my eyes. I empathised whole-heartedly with their pain. I wanted it to be Katniss so badly, just as they no doubt wished it were their children that had come home safe.

"I think it goes without saying that without Katniss, I wouldn't be standing here today. I never would have made it as far as I did. She saved me more than once and in the end she even gave her life for mine. But Katniss may not have been so fortunate without the help of the two tributes from Eleven this year, and I'd like to personally thank the families of our fallen tributes for showing kindness to Katniss in the arena."

I looked over to Thresh's family first, "I saw the footage of Thresh sparing Katniss's life when he could have easily killed her, anyone else would have done but he chose not to. I admired his moral code and I respected that he played the games on his own terms." I turned to Rue's family next, "Rue was a wonderful ally and friend to Katniss, she helped keep her safe when I couldn't. For such a small girl she really showed some pretty big courage." I smiled sadly, "I appreciate their efforts more than you can ever know. I've made it no secret that I wish Katniss was standing before you today, either at my side or in my place but ultimately, I failed her. Rue and Thresh didn't though, their goodness and decency will forever be remembered."

I took a deep shaky breath, the families of my fellow tributes were all in tears, "I know that it can never replace your losses but in honour of the courage, bravery and kindness displayed by this year's District Eleven's tributes, I'd like to donate one month of my winnings as a victor to their families each year." The crowd reacted in a chorus of gasps and hushed whispers, some even applauded. "Thank you," I say finally and when I take a step back from the podium a man in red overalls steps forward, he presses his three middle fingers of his left hand against his lips and extends them to me. Of course I was familiar with the sign of respect from District Twelve. I recalled the strong emotional impact it had on me when I saw Katniss do it after Rue died when I watched recapped footage of the Games and again during my homecoming speech.

I watched in horror as the rest of the crowd, every man, woman and child, in unison, repeated the same action. I quickly concluded that this reaction from the District must have been pre-planned as the motion was completely synchronized to follow the cue of the first man. Snow had mentioned that Eleven was one of the 'problem' Districts, and I had clearly made things worse here.

I was touched by their gesture, but it terrified me. This wasn't an outright riot, but this was clearly an act of defiance. An action Snow was certainly going to punish me for. I hoped that this speech was that spark of hope the rebels were looking for. I knew that I was more than willing to give my life to ensure that will lead to the end of Snow's tyranny, I just hoped Gale could protect my friends and family.

Half of the crowd began to slip away, mostly the women, children and some elderly. This was definitely a pre-meditated action. The rest of the crowd broke into a round of applause and began cheering as a peacekeeper came to escort me off the stage.

I stood my ground; the peacekeeper underestimated my strength. I wouldn't let him budge me. As I fought against him, I saw out of the corner of my eye, several peacekeepers making their way towards the man in red overalls and that was when I realised I wasn't the one they were going to punish. No!

The peacekeeper tried his hardest to drag me off stage and back into the justice building but I couldn't leave that man to suffer for my ignorance. The man was dragged up to the top of the steps near the podium, I managed to break free of the peacekeepers hold and threw him off me. As I turned to head towards the man, he was shot point blank in the head for the whole crowd to see. They just made an example out of him.

I stopped, horrified by what just happened. This was all my fault. The peacekeepers advanced on the crowd. People were screaming in terror, some fled the scene running for their lives, while others stayed behind and started picking fights with the peacekeepers. All of their efforts were clearly futile as the peacekeepers more than tripled them in number and were heavily armed. More shots were fired and more bodies dropped to the floor.

"Are you happy now, kid?" Haymitch spit venomously into my ear and dragged me away from the scene. Completely at a loss at what I just witnessed I let him and headed back to the train knowing that I was completely responsible for the murder of those people.