A/N: Thank you very much for all the reviews you have given me. I want to know what you guys actually think of my chapters thus far, and what I can do to improve them. I have had so much fun writing this.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. All is property of Suzanne Collins.

I Am Born Again

The sheer darkness of the tunnel brings back a lot of dark memories. The dark memory of the loss of my father in the mining accident. I quickly close my eyes and cuddle into Catnip, she does the same with me, she's clearly suffering the same flashback I am with her own father. It feels like the tunnel continues forever. The tunnel runs through the mountains marking the border between the Capitol and rest of Panem.

I always think back to the times I had to go into the mines, as a practice for when I had my last reaping and would have to be in there as a full time job. Katniss couldn't do it. She lost it the first time we went back in after the accident. I was barely able to make it down without nearly losing it myself. After that day, I never saw her on the rickety elevator again. I was somewhat grateful, because I didn't want her down there. The mines were always dangerous, and we knew it, but we always thought it would never happen to us, not while someone we knew and loved was down there, but gate had a different plan.

It's incredibly ironic. The incident that killed my and Katniss's fathers was the worst and best thing that ever happened to me, and I hope her. Worst because we lost our fathers, and best for me because it brought me to Katniss. Of course I wish I still had my dad with me, but would I have still won Katniss's heart, even if that event didn't happen? I doubt it, the reason we met was because she was hunting because her father was no longer there to act as family man, and she had to assume the role in place of her catatonic mother.

"Gale, I wanna show you something." She gets up and pulls something out of her top drawer in the dresser. "Look at what Prim managed to sneak to me." It was the mockingjay pin I got for her birthday.

I smile. "How did she get that to you?"

"I gave it to her the day of the reaping, so that no harm would come to her, as I told her." Her face drops, indicating she thinks it failed. "She gave it back to me for the same reason."

"Catnip. It worked for her, because no harm came to her, she was reaped, but you saved her from it. And now, it's gonna ensure she never will come down with harm. Because you will go back to her."

The look on her face makes it clear that my words of inspiration worked. She smiles again, and then relaxes into me for a short stretch, until Effie walks in on us. I guess she didn't learn from last time. I'm just happy she missed our love session from less than 15 minutes ago. "Well now, here comes the big event," she declares, seemingly happy for what's coming up, "the tribute parade!"

Effie gestures for the two of us to come with her. She brings us to the dining car, and we emerge from the tunnel into the station for the Capitol, for the first time seeing the citizens of the Capitol for myself, and for Katniss. If I thought Effie looked horrible with her extravagant wigs, her unnaturally pale color and her outrageous outfits, the rest of the Capitol look like complete monstrosities. Despite this, I decide to appeal to Haymitch's suggestion of using our relationship to our own advantage, and I pull Katniss to me and give her a passionate kiss, a kiss she reciprocated. Even through the thick glass, I could hear a sharp increase in the uproar outside the train. We keep going until he train comes to a full stop, and when I break away from Katniss, she looks at me, and clearly was happy with that. Maybe it brought her some comfort she needed earlier, from the tunnels claustrophobic effects on us. I glance over to Haymitch, who just shakes his head and smiles. I hold Katniss to my chest, doubling as a show for the audience, and a comfort for her. I hope that's all she sees this as, something to make her feel better given the circumstances.

I'm guessing that the train station was to let the citizens of the Capitol take a look at us personally, since the train started up again and moved somewhere underground. Effie brought us inside the building nearby, where me and Katniss into different rooms, about four hours ago. Effie and the other three people in the room said they would make me look presentable for the parade.

First, they had requested me to strip naked, a prospect that took me a little bit to accept. When I finally did, they all looked at my body in shock, and kept murmuring about things they had to do. They made me lay down on a metal plate where they said that all the work would be done to make me presentable.

They started with hosing me down, to the point where it felt like I had just got out of the shower. One of the inhuman looking female stylists, with hair dyed slightly green and skin colored slightly gold, began mixing a bunch of chemicals hat she said would do something to make my skin glow. What she meant was remove several layers of my skin from my body, though by some miracle, the hair on my body was left untouched. The other barely recognizable human woman, with dyed pink skin and bright blue hair used a pair of tweezers to pluck away at my eyebrows. I genuinely thought that I would have no eyebrows left with how long she was doing it. She then took something that was buzzing, and ran it through my hair, cutting it down to a more healthy and neater style. The man washed it with some kind of blaming liquid as they called it, and it made my hair feel like the silk from the blankets. I hope that they do the same for Katniss's hair. Though, the guy who's washing my hair has bright purple ringlets going down his shoulders, and in the back of mind, I kind of fear for what he just did to my hair. At the end of it all, they gave me a good rinse and dry.

After everything and 1 more hour later, the pink-skinned woman urges, "Come, come. Stand up." All three of them just start gawking at my stark naked body, gasping at how I now look "remarkably human." I use that thinking to my advantage, to rationalize them off as more animals, like some kind of exotic peacocks or birds, rather than humans. It makes me feel more comfortable when I think of it that way. I don't know what they're checking for, but if i had to guess, probably any speck of dirt or something on my body, luckily, there were none. I didn't want to go through that for another second. I was so grateful that they didn't do anything to my most sensitive body part, and I hope Katniss was just as lucky. After giving me a good look-see, they all scream in joy, even the purple-haired guy squeals femininely. Curiously, I realize that I never got their names, I guess I didn't pay any mind to them when they introduced themselves, if they even did.

I decide to humor them a bit, saying "Thanks guys, I haven't felt this nice in my whole life."

The pink-skinned one responds, "Oh, well that's our job, making you nice and pristine for all of the audience to see." I don't know what I think about that. "Now stay just like this, we're gonna go get Portia."

They leave, and I'm here just completely buck nude, I'm tempted to put a robe on, but I don't know how literal these cleaner groups are in their commands. So I stay like this, but I do however cover my personal region. Right as I do, a woman walks in, she looks remarkably human. Her hair is actually a natural light gold blonde color, though not her natural color. If it's a wig, it's a damn good one, because it looks like it could be her real hair. Her skin is natural dark, like the tributes from 11. The only other evidence of her being from the Capitol is the pink aura around her eyes, though it doesn't look like it's dyed, it's like makeup.

"Hello there, Gale," even her Capitol accent isn't annoying, "I'm your stylist, Portia." She flashes me a smile, one that I genuinely return, which is rather weird given my current state.

"Are you a newbie? I've never seen you in any previous Games."

She nods, as she gives me a professional examination. She starts feeling my body, though not affectionately. It feels almost as if she's getting a feel for what she can tailor for me.

"Sucks that you got stuck with us isn't it?" District 12 is the default district for anyone new. Nobody who's anybody would choose our loser district.

"Whether you choose to believe it or not? Me and my stylist partner Cinna, Katniss's stylist, actually wanted District 12." She proceeds to finish her examination, and hands me the medical robe in the room. "Sit with me Gale."

Once I feel nicely covered, I sit with her. She presses a button on the nearby table, and a sandwich and a glass of water pop up. My rage shoots through the roof, because these people have it so fucking easy. They just gotta press buttons and food is given to them, while me and Katniss have spent our whole lives scrounging and struggling to even get decent meals. I reluctantly take the glass and sandwich, and simply put them down.

"Gale," Portia interjects, "I'm sorry."

I glance to her, and she seems a bit withdrawn, I guess my body and face speak volumes. The fact that she's even acknowledging what she correctly believes I'm thinking speaks volumes of its own. I gain a new kind of respect for her.

"Now. Let's talk about you and Katniss's chariot parade outfits. Tradition dictates that we represent the district's primary industry. In your case that's coal."

I give a nod in response. Every other Hunger Games parade I've seen presents our district as a sexualized, or even just a plain coal miner. In fact, people never paid any mind to us, so I kind of have to wonder what these people have planned, given they wanted us. "You're not putting us in a simple coal miner's outfit to time around, are you?"

Portia gives an approving smile. "Glad to see you got the body and brain. Hard to find them combined in one."

I laugh at that, an actual genuine laugh.

"Anyways, we want to change it. The chariot outfits will represent your industry, but in a much different manner. We will represent what coal itself does best."

"I don't follow."

"You'll find out what I mean. But first, let's get you into your outfit."

Something about her makes me believe that this year, District 12 may actually leave a lasting impression.

The outfit she puts on me is pitch black, no surprise, and is rather tight. It fits nicely against my legs, and the sleeveless top traces nicely over the figure of my entire torso, leaving very little to imagination. Strangely, I feel powerful in it, especially when I see my reflection.

Portia snaps me out of my hypnotic state. "Gale, let's head down to Katniss and Cinna, they're already waiting at the chariot."

When we get out to the subterranean-looking area full of horses and carriages, I search for Katniss I see someone, a girl waving me down, and her hair done in an ornate braid tiara-like style, and dressed in the same kind of black outfit I'm wearing, in the form of a cat-suit. Portia confirms she and the dark-skinned man with her are Katniss and Cinna. The first thing I do is start running for them. I pay no mind to the various other females trying to get my attention. As I get closer, she starts running to me as well. Once we reach one another, I lift her into the air, and our lips meet and fiery passion. Though we do keep it tame enough that it doesn't go further than that. I can imagine that the scene would indicate that we've been separated for weeks, not a few hours, but I guess that can be a testament to how close we are.

I hear a male voice call out to us, and that's what finally gets to stop and come back to reality. "You must be Gale, I'm Cinna." He reaches his hand out and I give him a nice handshake. He's noticeably human, even more so than Portia, because the only thing making it clear he's from the Capitol is the slight gold makeup on his eyes. Even his accent barely carries a hint of the Capitol.

"Nice to meet you, rumor has it you wanted District 12."

He gives a smile and confirms it. He then pulls out what looks like a match with a blue flame on the tip.

Catnip asks, "What's that for?"

A feminine voice answers, "That's what's gonna make District 12 shine brightly this year."

"Uh, Catnip. This is Portia."

They greet each other as well, and with formalities out of the way, we get to the real subject of conversation.

I take the initiative. "What is that?"

Cinna answers, "A synthetic flame, it'll light a certain area in the back of the outfit with outspread flames. It's not real or hot."

Katniss whimpers, "Looks real enough to me."

Portia reminds her that is the idea. I look back at her and realize what she meant by "what coal does best." She read my face well and responds with a wide grin.

Cinna ends the conversation. "Alright let's get you two ready, the parade will begin shortly."

With that, we get on the chariot, and they use a blow torch-like device to ignite our suits. The fake flames are not hot, just like they said, and they spread outwards, almost like wings.

With that, the grand doors open to a large avenue as the grandiose music commences, signaling for the chariots to start moving. The horses are so well-trained, they automatically move at the sound of it starting, immediately with District 1. When we finally emerge from the facility confines ourselves, the crowd's already loud cheering explodes into something far more when they see us. They start throwing everything good towards us, flowers, and even wigs and hats. I spot a large banner projecting us outward. We seem to be a grand attraction for the event. I take Katniss's hand in mine. "They'll love it, if they don't love us already."

She smiles, and we raise our joined hands in an expression of unity, a unity we don't see among any of the other tribute teams, and the crowd goes even more wild. When we reach the large city circle at the end of the avenue, the flames behind us go out, startling both of us.

And then he emerges. President Snow.

"Welcome! Welcome! Tributes. We welcome you…"

The rest of his speech is lost to us, and then suddenly the chariots begin moving back to the entrance.

When we get back, Cinna's applauding us, "That was amazing."

Haymitch and Effie are with him. Effie's cheering about how me and Katniss are all anyone's gonna be talking about.

Haymitch somewhat dryly remarks, "So brave."

He wants to be kind of sarcastic or dry, so will I. "Are you sure you should be near an open flame?"

He gives a slightly cocky smile. "A fake flame? Are you sure you-"

His pause is accompanied by an obvious change in focus. Me and Katniss follow his eyes, where we find the District 2 boy glaring daggers at us. Apparently we've outshone everyone tonight, even the careers. I don't know what that will mean for us.

Song credit: Wide Awake by Katy Perry