~Cato~

We were on the hovercraft on the way to District Two, my home. Katniss sat to my left, her hand holding mine tightly. Something felt off about today, like something was going to happen but I wasn't sure what. We still had another hour before we landed and it was spent in total silence. Boggs was sitting a few seats away tapping away at his tablet, Cressida and her team were preparing to film us when we land. This mission was more dangerous than the last, we have eight people to get out instead of just two. We were going to Clove's family first before moving on to my family. Hopefully things won't be too difficult. Before I knew it we had landed and were getting into a new disguise for this District. When we made it to Clove's house with minimal difficulty, I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.

"Hello? Mr. and Mrs. Sinistra? Proti?" I called into the house quietly, Mr. Sinistra came down the stairs with Proti in his arms, follow by his wife.

"What's going on?" he asked, looking at us confused.

"You need to come with us." Katniss said beside me. "We can keep you safe." she continued and that was all it took for the three of them to follow us out of the house. An extra soldier took them back to the hovercraft while the rest of us continued to my house. On the way we met up with Citch and Selima who were taking Sessa for a walk, she has gotten so much bigger. They left with another soldier and when we made it to the house, the site was horrible. A scream ripped out of my throat and Katniss burst into tears behind me, holding me as I sank to my knees.

"Cameras off. Now." Cressida ordered and we heard the beeps of them being turned off.

"Let's give them some space." Boggs said, ushering them out of the house.

All I saw was red, literally. My parents lay on the floor of the living room, their clothes soak with blood, fresh blood. This had just happened, but why? What had they done? The room was a wreck as if they had been robbed, and were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Stab wounds were visible on their torsos. Looking at them, I was in a state of shock while Katniss had her arms around my shoulders from behind.

"I'm so sorry Cato." she whimpered through her tears. That broke me out of my state, tears fell as I turned and pulled Katniss into my lap and just held her. I had never cried in front of her, or anyone, but there was no way I could help it this time. The pain I felt in my chest up like a white hot fire poker to my heart, unbearable. After a few minutes of crying I was able to muster up my voice to speak.

"Does it ever go away?" I mumbled into her shoulder. "The pain?" she pulled away from me enough to look me in the eyes, wiping away my tears she sniffed.

"Not completely because they are always with you. Time helps some, but remembering the good times helps the most." she said and I nodded, looking down at the floor. I wasn't used to showing emotion like this, only ever in front of Katniss or my family. She tilted my chin up so I looked at her again. "One thing that will never change is that they loved you, no matter what." she said and again I nodded.

"Thank you."

"For what?" she asked, confused.

"Being here. Being you." I told her and she gave a small smile through her tears. I looked back at my parents and frowned, something was wrong.

"What is it?" Katniss asked, seeing the look on my face.

"They don't have any other injuries." I said, pulling away from Katniss and crawling towards my mom, I checked her arms and legs and there was nothing. "With the room the way it is, it looks like there was a struggle. So why don't they have any defensive wounds." I explained, gesturing around me. Katniss looked intently at my dad, studying him and she came to the same conclusion. She checked all around him before stopping at his neck.

"Cato look at this." she said. I made my way over to her and saw a puncture wound on his neck, something like you would get from a needle. After checking my mom we saw that she had the same thing. "That's why they didn't fight back, they couldn't." she stated.

"They never saw it coming." I said, filled with anger and sorrow. "It had to be Snow. Why else would somebody kill them?"

"I don't know but why would Snow kill your parents?" she asked and and I shook my head.

"I don't know. But let's grab some things before we go. We don't have much time." I said, standing up and pulling her with me. We made our way up to my parent's room where I grabbed a picture of the two of them, then a family picture and tucked them into my pack carefully. I turned to see what Katniss was doing and she was looking at the book shelf, filled with books. I walked over to her and stood behind her, taking her hand in mine, I'm still reeling from the discovery downstairs, she was my anchor right now. "Ever read any of these?" I asked, trying to take my mind off my parents.

"Didn't have much time for it." she said shaking her head, then paused and leaned in close to the shelf.

"What is it?" I asked as she took a few books off the shelf.

"Why is there a Mockingjay carved into the back of the shelf?" she asked and I took a closer look. She was right, etched perfectly into the wood was the symbol of the rebellion.

"I don't know. My parents never wore that symbol before."

"It's facing the wrong way. The bird is supposed to point left, it's pointing right." she observed before stepping away from me. To the right of the shelf was my parent's closet. We sifted through it only to find a hidden door behind all of their clothes. Opening it up led us to a ladder that went down, I looked at her, shrugged and started to climb down. Once we were at the bottom there was a door with a keypad on the wall.

"Password protected. Any idea what it could be?" she asked and I thought for a moment.

"Any names would be too obvious." I thought out loud.

"What about dates?" she asked and I nodded, trying my parent's anniversary which turned out to be wrong. "Okay let's think, what was the most important thing to your parents?" she asked.

"Citch and me. They never wanted us to train. They wanted us to grow up, get married and have a family."

"So you and your brother and the two of you having a family." she stated and I nodded. She took a step towards the pad and started typing. When she was done the door opened.

"What was it?" I asked, surprised.

"Family." she said with a small smile. The sight in the room left us confused. Two desks covered with papers and filing cabinets filled with files. Upon opening them I saw that they contained details on weaponry, specifically Capitol weaponry. There were files of code and messages on the desks. Were my parents spies? Why did they have all of this stuff? "Why have everything on paper and not on a computer?"

"Anything digital is easy to track. On paper it can be harder to burn." I explained turning to her to find her reading a book.

"And they knew that. This is a manual for the lock. If you get the password wrong three times everything in here gets burned." she said pointing to tiny holes lining the ceiling where fire would come out. "Why would your parents have this though? It doesn't make any sense."

"I found files on Caeser, Finnick, and Beetee. Maybe they were working together, collecting secrets and sending them to you parents." I said as I picked up a file titled 13. In it is anything you would need to know about communicating with somebody in secret.

"They were working with the Rebellion." I uttered in shock.

"We need to get out of here. We've been here too long. We need to take this back with us." Katniss said urgently.

"There's too much for us to take. We need Boggs." I told her and she went back up the latter, bringing Boggs back with her. We gathered all the files we could and distributed them out to the soldiers to put in their packs. Boggs, Cressida and her team, and the extra soldiers that were with us filled their packs with files, so full that Katniss and I didn't carry any. We made our way out of the house, having to walk by my parents one more time. I took a quick moment to close their open eyes, bidding them one last goodbye before leaving. I don't know what would happen to their bodies, but I didn't have time to think about that right now. As we were on our way back to the hovercraft Boggs got a message in his earphone.

"We need to get out of here. We've been spotted." he said seriously just as we heard a gunshot. One of the extra soldiers was killed. Boggs ripped the pack off the dead body and we ran. An explosion rang out to our left, blowing us sideways. Katniss's hand that was held in mine was pulled away in the explosion. My body slammed against the ground and my vision blurred for a moment. When it cleared I looked around furiously for Katniss to see her lying on the ground unconscious ten feet away from me. Just as I was getting to my feet, a herd of Peacekeepers descended on her as she came to, grabbing her by her arms and legs, carrying her away as she kicked and screamed my name.

"KATNISS! No! Katniss!" I shouted, trying to get to her but was held back by Boggs, more gunshots rang out as he dragged my to safety, I fought to go after her, punching and kicking anybody who got in my way. Suddenly there was a pain in my neck, and everything went dark.

When I woke up from the dark, everything was bright. Too bright for the hovercraft, and the consistent beeping from somewhere in the room. I squinted my eyes to try and fend off the light when I heard a door open and Brutus and Haymitch walked in. seeing the two of them told me two things; that I was back in Thirteen, and that something was wrong.

"What's going on? Where's Katniss?" I demanded, my voice hoarse. Brutus handed me a cup of water that I chugged down then looking at them expectantly.

"Cato you have to understand, we tried to do what we could." Brutus started.

"What happened?" I deadpanned, my heart rate rising.

"They took her." Haymitch said bluntly and my heart skipped a beat. He had to be lying. "The Capitol took her. Boggs tried getting her back but she was already gone." he explained and my breathing became ragged.

"So they..." I trailed off.

"They are holding her captive in the Capitol." Brutus stated. I started to rip out the IV and sitting up when they both held me down. "Where do you think you're going?"

"To get the love of my life, where do you think?!" I shouted but they still held me down.

"How far do you think you're going to get huh? You against the Capitol. Sorry boy but it's not that easy."

"Then what do you expect me to do? Just sit and wait?" I demanded.

"Boggs and Coin are putting together a plan to get her back now." Haymitch informed me and I laid back on my cot defeated.

"Leave me." I muttered, they looked at me hesitantly before I shouted at them. "Get out!" and they scurried out of the room. I looked to a TV in my room that was playing silently, seeing a picture of Katniss on the screen, informing anybody watching that she had been taken. I sat there and stared at her image when the door opened again.

"I said leave me alone." I said angrily, thinking it was Haymitch or Brutus again.

"Honestly Cato when have I ever listened to you?" the voice of Clove said in a snarky tone. I turned to look at her to see a sad look on her face. My face probably mirrored hers. "How are you holding up?" she asked, taking a step farther into the room. I rubbed my hands over my face and groaned.

"Horribly. If I had just held her hand a little tighter, kept her closer to me, she'd be here. But we got separated and now look where she's at. She's in the Capitol and God knows what they're doing to her. I don't even want to think about what they're doing to her." I told her, my voice cracking, letting everything off my chest. "But what hurts the most is that I failed her. I promised her that I wouldn't let anything happen to her again. That I wouldn't let the Capitol hurt her again. I promised her that I would always protect her, but I can't protect her from this. I've broken every promise I made to her. She'll hate me for it." I said, and I felt a slap across my face. My head snapped up to look at Clove who was shaking out her hand, trying to relieve the pain from hitting me.

"She could never hate you. You didn't know something like this could happen but it did. She knows that. And if she doesn't then she's crazy. But if I know Kat then I know she could never hate you, not after everything we've all been through. I also know that she doesn't need you here feeling sorry for yourself, she needs you to be strong so you can rescue her. She needs you Cato." she said to me sternly and I sighed.

"It's hard to be strong when I feel so broken Clove." I admitted, never n my life had I felt like this, even when I thought I lost Clove. I had lost the people who raised me forever, and the woman I love for the unforeseeable future. Clove's stern face turned soft as she processed what I had just said.

"I'm sorry Cato. For Katniss and your parents." she said, her voice cracking like she's about to cry. I whipped my head up to look at her when she mentioned my mom and dad. "Your brother told me." she muttered and I nodded. Tears started flowing down my cheeks, losing my parents and Katniss getting kidnapped all in one day is too much. Clove wrapped her arms around me gently as I cried and she cried with me.

After a few minutes she pulled away, saying she wanted to go be with her family so I let her go. Citch came in with Selima and Sessa a few minutes later and we grieved our loss together, talking and remembering the good times we had with our parents.

"I just can't believe they're gone?" Selima said, tears in her eyes. She's been a part of this family for years. Friends with Citch when they were kids, dating him as teenagers, then marrying him and having Sessa. She really was part of the family.

"What would have happened if we were there, if we hadn't gone on that walk?" Citch mumbled, his voice thick with tears.

"You probably wouldn't be here either. Snow did this. He did this to us. It was a message to us, to me and Katniss."

"What kind of message?" Selima asked, holding a squirming Sessa in her arms. She set her daughter down who walked to me.

"That he wants to break us. He wants to ruin us, to ruin any chance of a rebellion." I replied, picking up my niece and holding her in my lap. We continued to talk about what Snow is trying to do, but it wasn't too long that they left to put Sessa down for her nap. Peeta came by as well, giving me his condolences for my parents and we talked about how we could possibly get Katniss back.

"I heard Coin and Boggs is trying to form a plan to get her back. Who knows when they'll actually do it though." he informed me and I shook my head.

"I'm surprised that she's even trying. Kat isn't Coin's favorite person."

"She knows that without Katniss, there's a slim chance the rebellion will win. People follow the idea of the two of you, not just one. She knows that she needs you and Kat to win."

"What's going to happen when we get her back? What will her state be? And what does Coin plan to do once the war is won?" I think out loud. That last question has been on my mind since I got here.

"I don't know. I guess we just have to wait and find out." he said, walking out of the room. Then some time after he left Kat's mother and sister Prim came by and the look on Prim's face was heartbreaking. Her face was red and splotchy from crying and she looked like she was far from being done.

When she saw that I was crying she hugged me around my middle. I held her close as she wept, both of us crying for Katniss. Her mother rested a hand on our shoulder and the look we shared was the same. Worry. Worry for what could be happening to her. And worry that we might not get her back. They stayed the longest, talking about Katniss and how she was growing up. I knew she hunted but I never knew what all she did for her family. After her father died, she provided for them, not only them but for the rest of the Seam where she and her family lived. She did whatever she could for her family and more specifically her sister.

"She always did what she could for me, anything to make me happy, even if she didn't like it." Prim said, proud of her sister.

"She hated that cat of yours, tried to drown him on more than one occasion." Mrs. Everdeen chuckled. I looked at them questioningly, never hearing about a cat before.

"I found a cat when I was little and named him Buttercup. Katniss hated him because he was sick and was another mouth to feed that we couldn't afford." Prim explained.

"But you begged and pleaded her to let you keep him." her mom continued.

"And she did, but they never got along. He hisses at her all the time, but she just hisses back. Sometimes though, I find him following her or watching her. Sometimes even in her room or her bed when she's asleep." Prim mused.

"It's almost like they have a silent agreement." her mom said vaguely.

"What kind of agreement?"

"That as long as they don't do anything to each other, things will be okay." Prim said, her face changing from a smile to a frown in seconds. "Will she be okay?" she asked, looking up at me. My heart stopped at the question, I know she won't be okay. But how do I tell that to a twelve year old girl who thinks the world of her older sister.

"I don't know Prim, we just have to hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. When we get her back, we have to be there for her when she needs us. I don't know whats happening to her right now, but she'll need our help when she gets back." I explained to her as gently as I could. She eyes filled with tears, but she nodded and leaned in to hug me again.

Eventually, when we all grew tired they left to let me get some rest because of the emotional day I've had. Laying back on my bed my thoughts filled with Katniss. What were they doing to her? When are we going to get her back? After whatever they could be doing to her, she won't be the same as she used to be. But I'll be there to help her every step of the way.

I'm so sorry Katniss. I promised nothing would hurt you again. I failed you.

I'm so sorry.