WARNING: HG CHARACTERS DO NOT BELONG TO ME.

Chapter 131-Honor Them

Thursday December 28-The Capitol

Katniss held Juniper close to her chest as she stood with Gale, Sienna, Avery and Jackson in the large hall in the newly built museum that was about to be unveiled to those only invited in attendance. She didn't want to be there, but knew she and Gale were expected to be. The Capitol was about to open to the public a new museum, a museum dedicated to the Tributes and Victors of the Hunger Games, the entire three floor building immortalizing the 75 years of the history of the games. The building was large, each floor five times the size of the floors of the District museum which had 12 floors. Each tribute throughout the 75 years was to be featured, with a larger area dedicated to each Victor and a special area dedicated to the three Quarter Quells, the last Quarter Quell in the final section on the third floor.

The museum was to officially open on January 2, the day after the New Year holiday, but the remaining Victors and their families along with Government and Capitol officials were invited to a see the museum privately before the residents of Panem. President Paylor had wanted to build the museum as a way to honor the memory of the Tributes and Victors ever since she came to the Capitol, but felt Panem needed time to heal. Now 20 years after the end of the war, she felt the time was right.

Katniss wanted no part of this, but she knew being one of the few former Victors left along with being the wife of Government Official, she was expected to be there. She knew how bad it would look if Gale was there with their children without her. This was the day she most dreaded, the day she would have to explain to her children her role in the Hunger Games. She knew that Sienna and Avery knew that she was a Victor, as a teacher, Katniss knew that in grade 3 all students learned about the history of the Hunger Games throughout the school year. Sienna had been learning about it and Avery had just begun learning about it since starting grade 3 in September. But neither Sienna nor Avery had actually seen footage of Katniss fighting in the games. Katniss wasn't sure it she was ready to answer the questions she knew she was going to be asked. She knew she was going to have to do a lot of deep breathing and repeating her list of kind acts and Sioux words in her head over and over to get through the tour of the museum today.

She sees Heavensbee towards the front, about to head to the podium that was in the front of the large double doors that lead into the front entrance. Katniss sees him standing next to Haymitch. Katniss sees a very large flask in Haymitch's hand.

"Hey stranger" Katniss hears Johanna call out to her as she approaches her. Katniss gives a small smile as she approaches and gives Johanna a half hug with Juniper still in her arms.

"You are going to have to fake it a little bit better than that Mockingjay" Johanna says with a smirk.

"Where's Holly?"

"Not here-she's 14 now remember? The last place she wants to be is here with me. Just wait-you got three girls to deal with. She's at a friend's house till I get back to District 7. I didn't want to be here, but I HAD to see what I looked like on my giant interactive screen. You heard we get our own section right?"

"Yeah I heard."

"And we get to be featured twice!" Johanna says sarcastically.

"I can hardly wait" Katniss says.

"Hand over that baby" Johanna says as she reaches for Juniper who was now 10 months old. Katniss obliges and unstraps Juniper from the carrier strapped to Katniss's body.

"Is she walking yet?" Johanna asks.

"No, only standing with assistance."

"Well, plenty of time for walking and running later."

They are interrupted by Heavensbee who taps on the microphone and says, "Welcome! In a few moments we will be opening the doors and you will be able to roam freely throughout the building and throughout the three floors. If you are here, it is because you have been invited by the President. All of us who work here in the Capitol are very proud of this museum, we feel this is the best museum we've done yet. We've waited a long time to build it, and we hope you are as proud of it as we are. Ladies and gentlemen, I present, the President of Panem."

Heavensbee begins applauding and the audience applauds. Katniss keeps her hands firmly places at her sides as she watches Heavensbee move to the side as Paylor comes out and approaches the podium. She sees Gale stare at her out of the corner of her eye and she turns and gives him a nod letting him know she is alright.

"I would like to thank all the Victors who are here today. I know this is hard day for you. To come here and be forced to remember and see yet again the painful memories of the past. But I wanted to give you and your families a day for you to see this museum in private, away from the public eye. I wanted to give you a day for you to grieve, with or without your families. I wanted to build this museum so that Panem never forgets how we got here, what lead us here to this point in time. This museum was built to honor all of those who died in the Hunger Games, all of the Tributes, the Victors who died in the 3rd Quarter Quell, and to honor you, the current Victors. Panem honors you."

The large double doors then open. The crowd slowly moves in. Johanna hands Juniper back to Katniss as Haymitch comes over to them. Katniss, Gale, Haymitch, Johanna, Sienna, Avery, and Jackson head in together through the double doors and into an extremely large room. Katniss looks around the crowd trying to see if Peeta is there but she does not see him, she makes a mental note to ask Haymitch about it later. She also notices that she does not see Annie anywhere either. They start in chronological order, seeing the very first Hunger Games and the very first Tributes. Katniss was surprised by how much archive footage they had on the early Tributes. They had pictures and names for each Tribute. The pictures were not interactive but were in color and were clear pictures. At the end of each section showed a larger section dedicated to an area for each Victor, that had more information given about that person and what happened to them after the games. By the time they got to the 11th games, they saw Mags's area. Katniss was amazed to see a much younger version of Mags, she looked the same yet different from when Katniss knew her. Her first wave of sadness hitting her, Katniss remembering Mags's kindness to her during training right before the Quell along with the other list of kinds acts she has ingrained in her memory. They quickly make their way throughout the museum and come to the 50th games or second Quarter Quell, which is a much bigger section and is Haymitch's section. Sienna, Avery, and Jackson get a kick out of seeing a much younger version of the person they've come to known as "Uncle Haymitch".

"Uncle Haymitch is that you?" Jackson says staring up at the large interactive screen of Haymitch as a tribute. His younger self smiling and doing the poses his stylist no doubt taught him to do during the photo op.

"Yep that's me" Haymitch says while he takes a sip from his flask.

"How old are you?" Avery asks.

"Sixteen."

"Is this how you know my Mom?" Jackson asks.

"Jackson you already know this answer to this" Gale says sternly, annoyed that his son was asking questions he should know the answers to. While Jackson wasn't starting school until next year, Gale had briefly tried to explain to him what the Hunger Games was and why they were here today, including how Katniss knew Haymitch all these years.

"It's okay Gale, I know this place is….overwhelming" Haymitch says as he begins walking away from his sixteen year old holographic self projected above him.

After getting through the second Quarter Quell and through more of the museum, they arrive on the third floor and get to 65th Hunger Games and see the Victor from that year, Finnick Odair. Katniss starts to tear up as she sees a 14 year old Finnick on the large interactive screen projected in front of her.

"Still miss you buddy" Johanna says as she reaches out, her hand going through the holographic image of him.

"Do you need a break?" Gale whispers into Katniss's ear.

Katniss vehemently shakes her head no as she continues walking towards the 66th Hunger Games, she feels someone grab her hand and looks down and sees Sienna smile up at her. Katniss stops and bends down and hugs Sienna tight.

Katniss doesn't get to see much of the next few sections due to needing to take a break to feed Juniper, but meets up with the rest of the group at the 70th Hunger Games, Annie Cresta's section. Katniss reads the history about Annie's win and reads about her life after. She learns some things she didn't know, things Finnick nor Annie herself never told her.

Next up was Johanna's section, the 71st Hunger Games. When the reach the end and see Johanna's hologram, Johanna blurts out, "Ugh I remember that awful brown dress they put me in that day. Look at my hair! I look so stupid."

When Katniss first met Johanna, Johanna was 21. The image Katniss saw before her was a much different looking Johanna from the 21 year old Katniss knew. This Johanna looked so young, so innocent. This was the Johanna that still had a family, still had people she cared about.

"I think you look pretty" Avery says to Johanna.

"Thanks Av, but I look silly, I know I do. I've matured with age" Johanna says with a wink.

Katniss begins repeating Sioux words in her head as they walk towards her section, the 74th Hunger Games. Katniss lets the tears flow as she looks at Rue, Thresh, Marvel, Cato, Foxface and all the other Tributes small interactive screens with a small biography written about them below. Katniss reads and every one of them. When she reaches the end, she sees the two large screens of herself and Peeta before her. Her picture on the right, with Peeta on the left.

She's wearing the dress she wore during her interview with Caesar the day before the games started, Peeta wearing the suit he was interviewed in. She sees the stiffness in her face, the nervousness, trying to remember to smile when Cinna told her to.

"Mom! You look so young!" Sienna cries out. All three of them running over to her hologram.

"I was sixteen, just like Uncle Haymitch was when I was in the Hunger Games" Katniss says wiping the tears from her face.

"You look so pretty" Avery says reaching out and like with Johanna, her hand going right through Katniss's hologram.

"Who's that?" Jackson asks pointing to Peeta's hologram.

"Peeta Mellark, the other Victor who won with Mom" Sienna says.

Katniss is not surprised to hear that Sienna knows who Peeta is, she had turned 10 in October and was in grade 5 this year. She was still learning about the Hunger Games and no doubt had heard about how she and Peeta had won. Jackson however was not understanding how two victors could win and had a look of confusion on his face.

"Peeta and I got to win together because we were both from the same District" Katniss says gently to her son.

The next section was the third Quarter Quell and it was the last section of the museum. It was designed differently, with each Tribute/former Victor with their own interactive area. Katniss again looks at all the former Victor's screens and sees Mags, Johanna, and Finnick along with Betee, Wiress, Enobaria, and Peeta's. Instead of showing the Victor at the end, it leads to a room, when they all enter, they see a large screen on the wall. It is an interactive video that shows the purpose of the Quarter Quell, to jumpstart the rebellion, and ends with footage of the Mockingjay, Katniss in the black Mockingjay suit with the words, "Fire is Catching" written above.

Not prepared for what was in that room, Katniss hears Sienna say, "What is that? Why is mom in that black suit?"

Katniss looks over at Gale who was holding Juniper and sees him hand the baby to Haymitch. He quickly goes over to Katniss as she hisses, "Did you know about this room?"

"No, well, I suspected that they were going to do something in regards to the rebellion but I wasn't given details into what exactly, all I know is that Heavensbee had a lot of say in how this museum was designed."

"I have to get out of here."

"Katniss wait-"

"I can't Gale" and she begins running out of the room, Gale looking back at his family with Haymitch and Johanna nodding letting him know it was alright as he chases after her. He begins to lose sight of her as more and more people pour into the room.


Katniss feels as if she has turned the clock back 20 years. She is running away in fear, unfocused and crying. Her anxiety high, she is looking for an exit out of the museum and pushes her way through the crowd of people.

When she makes it to the first floor and begins heading to the exit, she bumps into someone hard. She doesn't look at the person and tries to go around them, she mumbles her apologies but is caught off guard by the familiar voice that says, "Katniss? Is that you?"

She looks up and sees Peeta staring back at her.