Johanna Mason had won the 73rd Hunger Games and was back home. She moved back into her childhood home while she was waiting on her Victor House to be built. She couldn't stop thinking about all that she had seen in the games and what she had had to do to survive. Killing is not something you could ever simply just walk away from. No one can kill someone in cold blood and walk away and be fine. She didn't regret surviving, she just didn't want to do all the things she had to do. But she was a survivor and now that she was home she could relax, or so she thought.

President Snow wanted her to prostitute herself out because who didn't want to say that they 'did' the current most famous person in Panem? Johanna refused and laughed at him. She wanted to wait for her soul mate, Katniss Everdeen. That was a mistake. When Snow didn't get his way, he had a temper tantrum and hurt the person who told him 'no.' In her case it was her little brothers being pulled out of her home and shot in the head. Johanna was angry that someone would do this just to get their way, and refused Snow again. That time Snow didn't have anyone shot. He set the woods behind her childhood home on fire and, eventually, her house was engulfed in flames and burnt to the ground. Her remaining family got caught and all died with Johanna stuck watching and having no way to help.

She had no one. She didn't care to know her neighbours or make friends when she was in school.

She had nothing.

She was left with what was on her. The clothes on her back, an axe and the name written on her right wrist. But that was alright with her, she needed the time to cry and grieve her losses. She couldn't do that with anyone watching her. She could never cry in front of anyone.

She spent a month in the woods, waiting on her Victor Check to come so she could have some money for clothes and shelter. Her Victor House was almost done being built anyway.

Johanna remade herself. She was strong before but now she had to be a cold, uncaring, rock, showing no emotion. She couldn't let the Capitol win. It wasn't hard, she had nothing left to care for anyway. If they couldn't touch her, they had nothing to use against her to hurt her with.

Johanna did come out of the woods and she moved into her Victor's house. It was big and empty, cold even. She hated it. She only slept there and spent the rest of her time keeping in shape and talking with the other Victors from District 7. The same kind of thing had happened to them, she found. This fuelled her hate for the Capital even more. She wanted to beat them but didn't know how. That didn't stop her though.

Eventually it was time for the 74th Hunger Games and Johanna was forced to be on stage, shown off like some kind of prize. She hated this. She tried to keep a blank expression and found it wasn't too hard to do. The Capital had put up the screens and forced everyone to watch, in real time, the Reaping, starting in One until it was time for Seven. It wasn't someone Johanna knew so she didn't care much. She was spacing out, waiting for it to end so she could leave, when it happened. A little girl got called from District Twelve, but that wasn't what was interesting. It was the older girl running out after her.

"I volunteer! I volunteer as tribute!" Yelled the girl and was pulled on stage. The escort from Twelve asked the girl her name.

"Katniss Everdeen."

The breath was knocked out of Johanna. She looked at the name on her wrist. Yep. It still said Katniss Everdeen. Her eyes widened. This was her soul mate. How many other Katniss' were there in the world? It wasn't likely there was many. Katniss is pretty, was her second thought. Johanna hoped that she could win. She didn't think that she could handle losing another person in her life. She wasn't that strong. But there was nothing she could do but wait and hope.

She watched the training on the projector screens and saw that Katniss was good at traps and was a good shot with the bow and arrow. There was hope for the girl yet. She was smart enough to know how to get food and not worry about getting a sword right away. But with a bow, the girl was a genius. She could hit the target from twenty feet away and hit it like she it was only five feet away. Johanna had confidence in her.

Johanna was at home watching the interviews. She wanted to see if this girl was an air head or something else. She was bored with the first few so she started to whittle with a knife on a small piece of wood on her floor. She was not impressed with the kids so far. When they finally got to Twelve, Johanna sat up in her chair and watched Katniss come out of the back in a nice looking red dress that sparkled in the lights. Caesar Flickerman, the airhead host, greeted Katniss and held out his hand for her to take. Katniss stared out into the audience, seemingly scared, when Caesar sat them down and asked her a question. When she didn't answer he laughed and said that she must be nervous. It was kind of adorable. Johanna watched as Katniss made fumbling attempts at conversation, grimacing. This was not going well for her image. When Katniss got the audience to laugh she seemed not so tense and when she twirled and her dress caught on fire, she seemed to be a little more at ease. Johanna had a small smile on her face. That went away when Caesar asked about Prim, Katniss' little sister whom she volunteered for. Katniss admitted that she told her sister that she would try to win for her. Then she was out of time. All in all, it wasn't the worst interview of the night. Johanna really liked Katniss and found her cute.

When the boy from Twelve came out, Peeta they said, he admitted that he loved Katniss. Johanna felt a surge of possessiveness and jealousy flow through her. Katniss was her soul mate, hers, not this stupid boy's! How dare he love what is hers! Johanna wanted to punch the boy. She didn't even notice that she had crushed the tiny horse she had been carving. She didn't know who this boy was but if he was going to try to take her soul mate away Johanna wanted fight him. Was he going to take her away from her before she even met Katniss? Over Johanna's dead body. Johanna would fight Peeta for Katniss if she needed to and, by the looks of it, she would have to.

When the games started, Johanna's heart felt like she would explode with nerves.

The sound of the cannons went off, officially starting the games and Katniss didn't run away. She stared into the mess of fighting bodies, a look of shock on her face. When she started to move, only, she ran to the mess of gear instead of the woods. When She turned her head, she and saw Peeta running away and which that must have made her think instead of act. Clove, the girl from District Two, threw a knife into her backpack, trying to hit Katniss but she had gotten up and finally ran to the woods. She got a little ways and smacked into the girl from Five. Both of them were scared and ran from one another.

'Well, at least she survived the first few minutes,' Johanna thought.

She didn't see any more of Katniss until the next day. She was tied to a tree limb asleep when fire started to erupt around her. Katniss untangled herself from the rope and started to run away.

Johanna felt her chest seize up with fear.

A burning tree almost fell on top of Katniss but she dodged and took cover by some rocks, causing some fire to hit her leg. That was when a fire ball flew to her head, almost hitting her, but she ducked and started to run again. There was another fire ball come at her so she dodged again and fell down a hill. She stopped rolling and found that she was by the river, she slipped in the water, to clean out her burn. When she was mostly submerged, the Career Pack and Peeta found her. She heard the shouts of who was going threats to kill her and got up, and running into the woods. Katniss climbed a tree. The careers followed, some blonde girl tried to hit her with an arrow but missed. Cato grabbed the bow and an arrow and also tried to hit her but still also missed.

"Why don't you throw the sword?" Katniss shouted at them, taunting Cato who was famous for being possessive of his knifes and sword. Cato got mad and tried to climb the tree to get to her; he ended up falling to the ground.

"Why don't we wait her out? I mean she has to come down sometime, right?" Peeta said. The others agreed and went on to get food or start a fire.

Johanna's palms were sweating. Actually all of her was sweating. She was nervous. The careers had Katniss trapped in a tree, and she was injured. This was not good.

The rest of the night nothing happened until Katniss got a package containing some kind of salve for her burn. Well, that's one less thing to worry about.

The next day before the Careers woke, Katniss heard a whisper and looked to another tree to find Rue, the little girl from District Eleven, motioning for her to cut down a tree limb with a Tracker Jacker nest in it. Katniss climbed up, edging her way out onto the branch that held the nest. Stretching out as far as she dared, drawing her knife she began to work the blade back and forth across the branch. The bough creaked and popped as it began to splinter. Inquisitive Tracker Jackers came from the nest, buzzing around her.

Katniss felt a sudden burning in her arm and looked in horror to see the Tracker Jacker embedded in her arm. Quickly she redoubled her efforts, sawing even harder. More fiery bursts of agony flared across her body as multiple Tracker Jackers pierced her skin. After what seemed like an eternity of sawing, the branch crashed to the floor right on top of the Careers and sent them running for their lives. Katniss half clambered, half fell down from the tree with the Tracker Jacker venom starting to make her head swim. She began to stumble around and almost fell over the blonde girl with the bow and arrows. The girl had been stung fatally, her body grotesque. Katniss took the bow and arrows from her and attempted to walk away. Before she got to a safe distance away her legs refused to obey her. The forest seemed to whirl and dance before her eyes. Her breath was short. Her chest was tight. She knew something was very, very wrong. Then all she knew was darkness.

Johanna was worried to the point of being sick.

When Katniss came to, she had leaves stuck to her and was next to a partially hollowed out log. She saw movement out of the corner of her eye. It was Rue, the girl who had helped her. It seemed that she had an ally in this after all. When she told Rue that she wasn't going to hurt her and that they could be allies, they made a plan to blow up the Cornucopia and set out to do just that. Rue went off to set the fires and Katniss carefully made her way to the Cornucopia, making sure not to make sound.

When she arrived, she crouched in the tree line and waited for the Careers to disappear before creeping out of her hiding place. She set an arrow and slowly exhaled as she let it fly.

It missed.

Johanna was on the edge of her seat. Why did she feel the need to do this?

Katniss got another arrow ready and took two steps closer to her intended target. This one hit home. Apples fell out of a mesh bag that she cut open and fell onto the buried mines, causing everything to explode and for her to fall back from the blast.

Her ears were ringing and she was dizzy as she stumbled into the woods. She clumsily made her way to where she thought Rue would be, but she wasn't. Katniss did the whistle they had for a code. Rue didn't respond.

Shit.

Katniss ran to the last fuse Rue was supposed to set and found the small girl trapped under a net. She quickly got her knife, cut her out and pulled her up right. Katniss held her close in a hug but when she let go Rue yelled out her name and fell to the ground, a spear stuck in her chest. Katniss quickly turned and shot an arrow at Marvel, who had thrown the spear, hitting him in the chest and killing him instantly. Katniss turned back to Rue, who pulled the spear out and fell to the ground, bleeding profusely. Katniss did her best to comfort her as she bled out, she even sang for her. Rue died in her arms. She couldn't save her.

Rue died and there was nothing she could do to save her.

Katniss screamed, not caring if others could hear her. She made a bed of flowers for Rue to have as a final resting place. When she walked away, she turned and kissed her fingers and held them up, saluting Rue.

Johanna felt her heart break over how bad Katniss was taking this. Yeah, it was sad, but there was nothing she could do. Johanna could see that her soul mate was very loving and gentle. She smiled a little.

Katniss was hiding out for a little bit after the incident. She cried hard after she lost Rue. She felt so bad. Rue was just a little girl, she even reminded her of Prim a bit. She tried so hard but a little girl died and she could do nothing about that.

There was an announcement broadcast around where ever the Game Makers stuck them in. They said that if there was any two people from the same district they could win as a team.

Peeta.

She needed to see if he wanted to be her ally. She couldn't do this alone.

She packed up her gear and started walking, trying to find a sign of him. Rue had mentioned seeing him by the river so she decided to search there first. She found a bit of blood near the water and decided to follow it. She walked along the rocks near the water when a hand grabbed her by the ankle. It was Peeta, disguised as rocks. She helped him up to his feet. That was when she saw the huge gash in his thigh. It looked to be infected. She led him to a cave near where he was hiding and lowered him in. Peeta collapsed when he was on level ground. Katniss was about to say something when there was an announcement being broadcast. It was the head game maker, Seneca Crane, announcing that they all needed something and they would be "generous hosts" and provide them that the next morning at the Cornucopia. Katniss looked at Peeta's leg. He needed some medicine for it or it would get infected. Peeta seemed to know what she was thinking and told her not to go. She couldn't do that. Not after Rue. She had to help if she could. No, she was going and that was that.

Peeta didn't want her to sacrifice herself for him. She didn't see it like that, she just saw it as helping.

Peeta soon fell asleep and was shivering violently. He was not going to make it if she didn't go and get it for him.

She waited until it was daybreak and snuck out of the cave. She made it all the way to what used to be the Cornucopia and waited until she didn't see any movement and started walking out carefully. There was a flash of red hair from Foxface as she came and went, vanishing into the woods.

Katniss looked again and ran to the bags laid out and grabbed the one marked twelve and turned to run when a knife hit her forehead, slicing it open. Clove, the girl from Two, who was excellent at throwing knifes, came into view. Katniss tried to run past her but Clove knocked her to the ground and pulled her wrists up above her head. She pulled another knife out with a free hand and tried to stab Katniss in the face but she dodged and tried to buck her off to no avail. Clove sneered down at her, laughing at her attempts to fight her off.

Johanna's heart stopped with fear as she watched from her living room. She wanted, more than anything, to help but she couldn't. She was stuck.

Clove was taunting her by telling her that she could have saved Rue. Katniss was pissed. She tried hard to push Clove off. That moment was one that would haunt Katniss for years to come. Thresh, from Eleven, the same as Rue, pulled Clove off of her and held her by the throat.

"You killed Rue?"
Clove kicked her legs which were a foot off the ground. "No!" She yelled.
Thresh closed his fist tighter. "I heard you admit it!"
Clove yelled for Cato right before Thresh smashed her head into the metal, crushing her skull, making a horrific sound. Thresh turned to Katniss and said. "Just this time, Twelve. For Rue."

He ran to the woods. Katniss was stunned but got up and ran to the cave. When she went in, she found Peeta laying on the ground motionless. Katniss went to shake him awake when she felt his skin. He was cold. She heard the sound of the cannon. She quickly found his pulse. There was none. Peeta bleed out.

She couldn't save him.

She couldn't save Rue.

She was a failure.

She had to get out. She had to think.

Katniss climbed out of the cave and went to the trees. The only ones left were herself, Thresh, Foxface and Cato. She could do this. She could fight for them, Peeta and Rue. She had to. She would fight in their memory and for Johanna, Gale, Prim and her mom. She had people that she loved and she needed to stay alive for. She would do it for all of them.

She knew that Foxface was following her so she decided to trick her with berries. She didn't want to kill her but it was the only way she could go home so she would do what she had to do to stay alive. Even if that meant having to kill someone. So she started to walk around the berries and started to pick them, laying them out in a pile on a small piece of tarpaulin. A minute later she heard the sound of the cannon.

She went back to the tarp and sure enough, there was Foxface with a hand full of Nightlock. She hated herself for doing this but she had no choice.

Katniss had no idea where Thresh was but she knew that Cato wouldn't stray from the Cornucopia so she starting making her way there when it starting getting dark. It was only a little after noon so it shouldn't be getting dark for a while. The Game Makers must be in a hurry to finish this. She heard the sound of dogs barking and running. She starting running to the Cornucopia for higher ground. She was almost there when she heard the sound of shouting and then a cannon. She ran faster. She saw the metal horn come into view and ran even faster, jumping onto it and climbing to the top.

She heard the sound of more screaming and saw Cato running and bloody, being chased by a pack of wolf-dog hybrids. The dogs caught up to Cato and started biting and ripping into him. Katniss felt sick. Cato's face came into view for a second and he begged for mercy. She pulled out an arrow and shot him, killing him. And just like that she became the victor of the 74th hunger games. The dogs ran off and Katniss became sick at what was left behind.

How was she ever supposed to forget this? How could she ever not see this when she closed her eyes?

Johanna was glad that Katniss won but after seeing her become sick, she knew that Katniss needed time to heal from this. It would take time but it had to be done. Johanna had to wait a little longer for Katniss.

There was no room for romance or soulmates right now. Now it was just about letting Katniss heal.

Thanks for reading! The next update will be a little while but I will never abandon this. Review if you want to.