DISCLAIMER: HG Characters do not belong to me.

WARNING: Some material may be disturbing and offensive.

Chapter 55-The End

Gale quickly arrives to his office in District 2, while the building is closed he has a key he can use to get into the building anytime. He changes into his black military combat uniform and calls the President's emergency number at the mansion. The line going immediately to a call center where a solider relays a message to the President, that Gale believes the Jay Killers have Katniss and that he needs soldiers and a hovercraft as soon as possible.

The minutes seem to take an eternity for him. He looks at his device and sees that Katniss is still in District 4, but she is not on land, the tracking device unable to give her exact location. The watch is signaling from off to the left, but that is it. Gale knows most likely she is on a boat, taken out to sea.

His office phone rings and he immediately picks up. Paylor is on the line and tells him a hovercraft will be there in 15 minutes with 10 soldiers on it to take them to District 4. Gale informs the President that he will need hovercrafts sent out to District 4 to scout the ocean, explaining what he read on the tracking device. Paylor states she will send two hovercrafts out right away, each going in opposite directions.

While waiting for the hovercraft, Gale decides to call Katniss's Mom to see if he can get any additional information on Katniss's whereabouts and to let her know what has happened. She does not answer at home, he then looks up the number of the hospital she works at and calls, explaining he needed to talk to her right away and that he was a military commander calling. Three minutes later she is on the line.

"Hello?" he hears her say, confusion in her voice.

"It's Gale. Something's happened, I think Katniss is in trouble."

"What happened?" Mrs. Everdeen says, she sounds calm, but Gale can tell she is beyond worried.

"Her tracking device went off about a half hour ago, a hovercraft is coming any minute for me with 10 soldiers. It looks like she is out in the ocean somewhere, the signal is showing she is not on land. Does she know anyone who owns a boat?"

"No, the only person we know who's around boats is Rory."

"Has she met anyone new? Someone who could have taken her?"

"Well, this past week she had been going on a couple of dates."

'Dates?' Gale thought, his jealousy rising, 'she's dating someone?'

He forces himself to focus on the task at hand, chastising himself for getting jealous about Katniss's dating life. "Who is this person?"

"I don't know much about him, all that I know is that he lives on her dorm floor, he's in a different PES program than her."

"Do you know his name?"

"All I know is his first name is Magnus, don't know the last name."

Gale sees the hovercraft approach the building from his office window. "I have to go, the hovercraft is here. I'll be on my way, I will call you back with updates I promise" and he hangs up before she has a chance to respond.

He runs to the hovercraft and bolts up the walkway and sees familiar faces waiting for him. He sees Spencer, Abraham, Stone, Hance, and Robin, along with some other soldiers he does not recognize. Spencer comes up to Gale immediately saying, "Woodard is our pilot, it's good to be back with you again Commander."

"Same here, only this is not good circumstances we find ourselves in, Katniss Everdeen has been taken" Gale says to the group.

"We know, we were briefed while in route here" Abraham responds.

"Well, I'm pretty sure she is on boat, so I hope you are all comfortable with getting wet."

They take their seats as the hovercraft takes off, heading for District 4. Gale goes into the control room and gets on the computer, trying to look up in Panem's registry of citizen's database for every citizen by the name of Magnus. He hopes that Magnus is indeed his real name. Or else a lot of innocent people by the name of Magnus would be taken against their will and questioned. The registry of citizen's database was only permitted to certain members of Panem's military and government. Gale, being a government official and commander, had full access.

The search shows 5 names, all 5 males who lived either in the Capitol, District 1, or District 2. He quickly clicks on each name, searching for more information. The first two appear that they could be Jay Killers, but when he clicks on the third name and looks at it, he knows most likely that is the man he's looking for.

Magnus Richards- Birthplace District 1-currently residing in District 4-student

The registry of citizens shows which District a citizen is currently living in. It is required when a person officially moves from their home district to report their new address to the Capitol, to help keep track of how many people are in each district. A person's occupation is listed in the registry as well.

Gale calls PES's main office, realizing it is dinnertime on a Saturday, the office is closed. He then calls Katniss's dorm and speaks with the front desk person there, for he knows the building has security around the clock. He explains that he is from Panem's military and that Magnus is a person of interest in a security matter. He learns that Magnus does indeed live on Katniss's floor, and that he is a student in the adult education program and has been there for 3 months. Gale instructs for the dorm's security guards to open his room, they report back that his room is empty. Gale gives them the number of the hovercraft they are on, telling them to call should he return and to not let anyone come into the room.

Gale then looks up whatever information he can find on the name Magnus Richards. All he learns is that he is 24 years old and had trained at the academy for future tributes until the academy shut down. It appears he comes from a family of jewelers, making them very wealthy.

He is not able to find anything else, so he leaves the control room and takes his seat by the others. The groups sits in silence in anticipation until finally arriving in District 4, landing at one of the military's facilities near the ocean. When Gale and the others descend down the walkway, they see a couple of soldiers waiting for them, permanent soldiers of the District. The two soldiers lead Gale away from the others, briefing him with that they found while patrolling the area. They inform him they found about 5 boats that could be what they are looking for, but says a couple of them are fishing boats, the other three charter boats. Gale knows they have to play this just right, for they cannot just bring the hovercraft to the boat, for they would be seen and would put Katniss in even more harm. He hopes against all hope she is still alive. He asks the soldiers how they could reach these boats without causing a disturbance.

They explain that they could transport Gale and his group by submarine and that they could provide wetsuits. Gale quickly thanks them and gathers his group and they are escorted to a hovercraft that takes them out to sea and drops them off at the submarine. Once on, the submarine submerges itself under water and takes off.

Gale decides to start with the three charter boats first, for he knows that it is common for fishing boats to be out on weekends. They head for the closest one first, reaching it pretty quickly for the submarine travels fast. Once near the first boat and in their wetsuits, Gale's group quickly swims underwater and stealthy gets on the boat. It is now night which makes it easier for them to climb onto the boat without being seen. They quickly storm the boat and find out pretty quickly this is not where Katniss is, for instead they find an older couple having an intimate dinner on the main deck, just the two of them. Gale apologizes for scaring them while his soldiers quickly scout the boat, just to make sure. Once all clear they leave and swim back to the submarine. Gale sees the next two boats are far away from each other. The one is extremely far west, the other is closer to mainland. Gale's instinct tells him Katniss is most likely on the boat that is the further out, for the Jay Killers would not want anyone to be near. He has the submarine take off for the one furthest west. He is told it would take another 20 minutes to get there. Gale's anxiety is at the breaking point, but he is almost there. 'Hang in there Katniss' he tells himself.


Katniss is back down in the lower deck, in the other bedroom she had seen earlier. She is in a room with Geffen and another man, one she didn't see before for he was upstairs on the top deck while she was downstairs with Chet and Magnus. She doesn't know this man's name, but she vividly recognizes him from her vision from the herb. Just as the vision showed her, she is tied up with her arms and wrists extended out. She is on her knees with her ankles tied up. Her arms are extended forwards and her wrists are tied to the bed post, unable to move.

She has been tortured in this room for what feels like an eternity. Once she awoke from blacking out again, she found herself in this room, tied up like this. She is naked, all of her clothes removed and she sees them laying on the bed in front of her, including her watch. She realizes with the watch still sitting there Geffen's men have not figured out what it is. It is what keeps her going, this hope that she will be rescued.

The first stage of her torture involved being punched and slapped multiple times in the face by Chet and Magnus, with Geffen watching off to the side. Katniss only able to try to move her head when she saw their hands and fists come at her. After a while Geffen gets bored and orders them to stop, dismissing them from the room. He then brings in the man she saw from her vision, just the three of them in the room. And that is when the second stage of her torture begins. She cannot feel her face at this point, her eyes almost swollen shut. She feels the man rub a sharp needle like object down the front of her chest, poking her nipples causing them to bleed. She doesn't cry out, holding her cries and anguish inside. She bites her lips hard, trying to muffle her sounds. The man then takes the long needle and starts running the needle down her back, forming multiple cuts and gashes. She feels her blood start to run down her back. Again she does not utter a sound, holding the pain in.

She knows Geffen is becoming impatient, for she can hear him pace back and forth, expecting more from her. She knows he wants her to scream, to beg for them to stop. She won't give him that satisfaction. Geffen then says, "Use the stick."

Katniss sees the man put the needle down and take out a long wooden stick, she panics not knowing what he plans to do with it. She feels her back getting pushed down, causing her to bend over slightly, with her arms still extended, her face in between. Suddenly she feels the stick go up her butt, penetrating her back and forth. This time, she cries out, unable to suppress her pain for she has never felt anything like it before. Geffen becomes excited to finally see a reaction from her. The man uses a few different objects, after a while Katniss becomes numb to the pain, her cries ceasing. Once Geffen gets bored of that he has the man stop and they leave Katniss laying sideways on the ground, a trail of blood slowly coming out from her backside. She lays there unable to move or feel anything.

She doesn't' know how long she had been laying there, but she figures it had to have been a little while. Geffen comes back in with the man still in tow, they force Katniss back up on her knees and the man takes a whip and begins slashing her wrists over and over, he also slashes her back. She cries out even louder, the stings of the whip unbearable by this point. Once that ends she feels her wrists being slashed by a knife. She knows the end is almost near, for she is unsure how much longer she can remain conscious. Geffen sees her start to slip and orders the man to stop. He kneels down in front of Katniss and says, "This moment has made the long process to find you all the more worth it."

She squints at him for her eyes are still heavily swollen and says, "Killing me won't change anything, the Panem you want back is gone-forever."

"It might not change anything, but at least I have the satisfaction of killing you, making sure you don't live another day to stir another rebellion. After my men deliver your body to Paylor, I will have to go into hiding again, perhaps I will go find your savage friends and kill them, setting up my own village in the wild territory."

Katniss is about to spit in his face for that's all she can do, but before she can do anything she sees a gun come into view pointing right at Geffen's head. She hears a loud bang right in her ears and feels the splatter of his blood and brains on her face. She looks up and sees Gale put his gun away, for he was the one who shot Geffen point blank in the head.

"Gale" she says softly, unsure of how much longer she can stay awake.

"Katniss, it's okay, I'm here" he says as he quickly unties her, another solider grabbing the sheets from the bed to cover her. She feels Gale's arms wrap around her, he begins applying pressure to her wrists for the bleeding is out of control.

"Just hang on" she hears him say as he picks her up and carries her up to the top of the boat.

"Gale stop" Katniss says as she feels the cold air from outside hit her. Without thinking he stops and looks at her.

"I love you, I always have and I always will. I know my words hurt you, I just…I just wanted to you to know" she says in between gasps, slowly dying. She closes her eyes and her head tilts to the side.

"KATNISS!" is the last thing she hears him scream.

A/N: FYI: this will be the only chapter that contains torture.