I don't own The Hunger Games or these characters.

CHAPTER 1: THE DECISION

Katniss watched as Gale turned his back and headed for the door. She had never seen him look so hurt and defeated. And she knew she was the reason for his pain. He paused at the door, as if waiting for her to stop him.

She wanted to stop him. To go after him and tell him that she didn't mean what she had said. That they would find a way to work things out. But, she couldn't make herself move. Her throat felt constricted, like it was closing, and she couldn't call out to him - as he was shutting the door.

She stood there wanting him to come back and dreading that he might. She took a step forward then stepped backwards turned and started pacing. She hated this indecisiveness. This not being sure of herself and what she really wanted. How long had this been going on with her? She stopped and rubbed her forehead. It started after the first games. After she defied the Capitol with a handful of berries. And Snow began his mission to destroy her. Now, she just didn't care anymore. With Prim... gone. She was trying to choke back the tears when a sharp knock startled her out of her memory of flames.

She moved toward the door then stopped. What if it was Gale. She didn't want to see him... not now. She let out an exasperated sigh.

There was another louder knock. Then a voice called out, "Miss Everdeen we are here to escort you to the firing range."

Katniss took a deep breath and swiped the tears away. She walked over to the table and picked up her bow and quiver. When she opened the door four soldiers snapped to attention and stepped back to allow her to enter the hallway. The soldiers stepped into formation around her. Two in the front and two in the back. They moved as a unit toward the firing range. Toward her destiny.

Katniss stood at her mark and looked straight ahead where Snow was tied to the post staring at her. His eyes were cold and snake like. She was surprised, looking at him now, that she had no fear. She knew what she wanted to do... she wanted to kill him. To take her revenge for all that he had done to her and everyone else he chose to destroy.

As she looked at Snow, nagging thoughts kept playing in her mind. Thoughts that started that day in his rose garden. Things that he had implied about Coin and Prim and the bomb that killed her. She knew first hand what Coin could do. She had sent Peeta to her unit knowing that he wasn't better. Knowing that he would try to kill her. Didn't he try to do just that. She had been lucky - for the second time - to survive his attack.

Didn't Boggs try to warn her too. Not to go back to thirteen, not to trust anyone, and to kill Peeta. To kill Peeta because Coin had sent him there to kill her, just like Snow had done. He had sent Peeta to kill her too. To stop her from being the Mockingjay. To kill the rebellion with her death.

But Coin... she wanted to stop her. She knew the influence the Mockingjay had over the people in the Districts. Coin knew that the Mockingjay could influence what she wanted to do with her Presidency. And Katniss knew that Coin was on her way to being the same kind of monster that Snow had been.

She wanted the games to continue. If that happened then the rebellion would have been for nothing. Prim and Finnick would have died for nothing and there had to be meaning behind their deaths... everyone's deaths.

Katniss reached back and drew out her arrow. The arrow that Gale had brought to her room only moments before. She fitted the arrow to the bow string and couldn't stop her thoughts from going to the woods around twelve and to Gale. He was just as much a part of those woods as she was. Of the time they shared there hunting and surviving together while their friendship grew and deepened into something... special. Katniss shook her head to clear it and raised her bow. She looked down the arrow and took aim at Snow's chest. At the place where is heart should be, if he had one, which she doubted.

She shifted her eyes up and to the right where President Coin was standing on the balcony watching Katniss complete what she had set out to do. To kill the man who tried to take everything from her and her family. Then Katniss shifted her aim and let her arrow fly. The arrow hit its target and President Coin fell forward over the balcony.

Katniss looked at Snow and reached back for another arrow realizing - dammit - she only had one. Snow looked at her and started laughing. His laughter turned to coughing and soon he was coughing up large amounts of blood. Snow died laughing at her. He had won. He had used fear, death and lies to take every thing, she truly loved, away from her.

With her choice she finally became a monster. No better than the two lying dead in front of her. With this decision, she had destroyed whatever hope she had left for her future.

As the numbness slowly started to set in and spread. She knew she had to finish what she started out to do. She had come to the Capital to kill Snow and then die. She raised her arm up, so that she could bite open the patch. Inside the patch, was the pill that would stop this numbness. But her teeth didn't rip into the material of her uniform. They sank into the back of someone's hand. She looked up into clear grey eyes. Eyes that were so much like her own. She should have known that Gale would be there to stop her. After all, he knew her better than anyone.

She looked into those grey eyes and pleaded, "Gale, please. Let me go." As tears rolled down her face.

"Never, catnip! You know I will always have your back... always." He reached over with his other hand and turned her towards him. He looked in her eyes trying to convey everything he felt for her. His love. His pain. His determination that she live. Willing her to understand. They stood their staring at each other as the square around them erupted into complete turmoil.

Several soldiers appeared out of the jumble of people and jerked Katniss out of his grasp. Gale barreled into the one on her left knocking him out of the way. Turning he punched the one on the right in the stomach. And slammed his elbow into the back of his head. He grabbed Katniss' hand trying to get her to move. But, she just stood there and stared off into the distance.

Gale was caught in the side of the head by a blow that spun him around. He countered, by side stepping and kicking out at the soldiers knee. It buckled, dropping him to the ground. More soldiers grabbed Katniss and were dragging her toward the buildings. While several more piled on him forcing him to the ground. Gale gathered all his strength and regained his feet. Still fighting, still moving toward her. He yelled out... "KATNISS... HERE... I'M HERE." They brought him down to his hands and knees. As an officer stepped forward and cracked Gale in the head with the butt of his rifle. The last thing Gale remembered seeing was Katniss' blank grey eyes looking back at him.

Katniss was dragged through the crowd and taken into a nearby building. Where the soldier in command was shouting into a radio and barking commands to the other soldiers. He glared at her as they hustled her into the elevator and he jabbed at the buttons. When the doors slid open they dragged her forward and shoved her through a door. She landed hard on her hands and knees. Slowly, mind numbingly she rocked back on her haunches and looked around the room. Realizing, it was the same room she had been in for the games; she began to laugh hysterically. How ironic that things would end back where it had all started. She clapped her hands over her mouth and laid her forehead on the floor.

Through her muffled hysteria she could make out the door being locked and orders for guards to be posted. She stayed on the floor, for along time, swaying side to side. Trying to comfort herself enough to stop screaming inside. After several hours she crawled over to the bed. Pulled her boots off and slithered out of her pants. She tunneled under the blankets pulling them over her head. She was determined never to leave here... not alive anyway.

She wasn't really sure how much time had gone by. She spent most of it in bed sleeping or sitting in the shower crying. Meals were delivered and rejected on a regular basis until a medical team came in and sedated her so that they could feed her nutrients through IV's. Katniss had put up a valiant struggle, not to be sedated, but in the end she had lost.

She opened her eyes and blinked at the blinding light that was assaulting her. She raised her right hand up to shield her eyes and tried to focus her mind on remembering where she was and what had happened to her. Everything seemed to be just out of reach.

She tried to concentrate on just one detail... tried to remember. Slowly, her eyes began to focus and her mind became less foggy. Everything, she never wanted to remember, came slamming back to her. The tears began to fall, rolling down the side of her face and into her ears. She wished she could take the last few minuets back. That she could go back to not knowing, not remembering anything. Prim. The bomb. Burning fire. Killing Coin. Snow laughing at her. Gale stopping her from ending this pain. Being dragged to this room and kept prisoner. She covered her face with both her hands. Wishing again that they would just end this... one way or another.

"It's about time sweetheart." Katniss jumped and turned toward the sound of Haymitch's voice. He was sprawled in a chair in the corner of her room drinking from a bottle. Well, katniss thought, his forced dry spell must be over.

"You sure know how to make friends and influence people." He slurred through the smirk he had on his face.

She wasn't even going to dignify his remark with a comment. Besides, she really didn't have one. "How long?" She croaked out.

"How long total? Or how long since they knocked you out?"

She coughed and rasped out, "Both."

"Well, lets see. They let you try to starve yourself for... oh... about seven days. Then they came in and knocked you out. They didn't want you to kill yourself before they got a chance to finish your trial. You've been out for... hmm... about two weeks. Give or take a few days." He took a long pull on the bottle in his hand.

"So, sweetheart, that would be about twenty-one days." He took a big swallow from his bottle and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. "Yep, I would like to thank you for all those days of hell you put us through."

"Trial?" She grunted. "When... when... is my execution?"

He just laughed and took another big swallow. "Do you really think the boy would let them kill you. He has been turning over everything he can get his hands on to prove that Coin's whole agenda was corrupt. That it was Coin who signed the paper allowing Prim, a thirteen year old, to go to the front lines."

"Who... Ga... Peeta?"

"No, sweetheart." Haymitch shook his head. "Peeta has been, in the hospital, working with the doctors to see if they can help him get his memories back." Haymitch leaned forward and added, "Delly has been there trying to help him too."

Gale... it was Gale. First, he stops me from swallowing that pill and now he is interfering in my execution. Can't he just let me go. She felt her anger start to rise. If he was here, right now... she would just... throttle him. Damn it!

Haymitch smirked and thought to himself, 'it's good to see her getting upset about Delly being with Peeta.'

Haymitch got up from his chair and walked over to the side of her bed. He bent over and looked her in the eyes. She glared up at him as his alcohol soaked breath hit her in the face. "Good! Good, sweetheart... it's about time you showed up."

He straightened up and turned towards the door. "Your going home." He threw over his shoulder, as he walked out the door, slamming it behind him.

Home. She was going home. Katniss swiped at the drying tears on her face, her anger growing. It's gathering storm focusing on the one person who should have known to stay out of her way.

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