A/N: Hey, thanks again for the review and favorites. I'm glad to see this story is getting a following so quickly! To 'ToWriteIsToLove,' I have taken note and changed it up, thanks for the heads up ;) Here is Chapter 3! This is the last one that I'd pre-written, so don't expect the next chapter to be up tomorrow like the first three have been. Still, given how much support I'm getting, I will be updating within the week. Thanks again, and here ya go!

Change of Fate

Chapter Three: What shall be, shall be

Peeta

My name is Peeta Mellark. I am a victor and survivor of the 74th and 75th Hunger Games. I am in District 13. My home of District 12 has been destroyed. My entire family is dead. I am alone. I am crying. I am confused. I am speechless. I don't know what to do. I am lost... I have come to the realization that I am in control of nothing in my life, and I haven't been for quite some time. I have not had any say in how my life goes since I was reaped for the 74th Hunger Games.

I am in despair. I do not think that anything could make me fell better at this moment in time. I am in love with Katniss Everdeen and have been since I was 5 years old, but I am not sure that even if she told me that she loved me too that I could feel better. I have been a pawn in the games of the Capital without even realizing it, and now my family has paid for it. I want to hurt myself as much as I can for being so incredibly stupid. I feel tears continue to run down my face. I do not know how I can ever forgive myself...

I have been sitting in a bright white room curled up in a ball, stuck in a corner for hours now since we arrived in 13 and Gale broke the news to me. He couldn't save my family. I don't blame him. As much as we don't necessarily get along, I know that he genuinely tried to save them. I know Katniss well enough that she is likely blaming herself for my family's death, and that is not fair. I don't want her to feel responsible for that. It is my fault. Only mine, and mine alone. I will tell her such whenever I decide to leave this room again, but at this point I have no desire to do so. To leave this room would mean I have to accept my new role in the Rebellion that I have unwittingly helped create. I would have to put on a different face for everyone to show that I am strong enough to continue. I am not strong enough to continue. At least I don't feel like I am.

Suddenly I hear a knock on the door. I don't know who it could be considering I don't even really know where I am. 13 is a really weird place. I stand up and open the door to reveal Katniss. In almost any other circumstance I would give her a radiant smile to reassure her that I am fine. I am not fine. I let her in, and as she closes the door, I sink back down into my corner and hide my face in my hands. She does not say anything, and I am thankful for this. She sits down next to me and simply rubs my back and holds my hand. I let the tears flow once more.

It is odd. Recently, it has been I that has comforted Katniss and I've been her rock while she was struggling. In this moment, she is the one there for me while I struggle. She stays with me and comforts me as I wallow in self pity and despair and let the tears stream out of me to the point I'm sure the room must have a puddle in it by now. Eventually, after what seems like several more hours, Katniss lightly grabs my face and pulls it close to hers and our eyes meet. She doesn't say anything right away, she just stares at me. It's as if she doesn't know what to say to make me feel better, she just wants me to know that she is there for me. That is enough to crack a smile out of me. In my darkest hour, in the deepest moment of my despair, somehow this beautiful girl is able to make me feel just a smidge better. I lean in and give her a quick kiss, which to my delight she does not pull out of. It feels so good. For a moment, if just a moment, I forget about everything else rushing through my mind.

When our lips finally do part, our eyes meet once more and finally she speaks. "Hey," she says with a small smile on her face.

I chuckle, "Hey."

We spend the next few minutes in silence just gazing into each other's eyes. A few smiles crack here and there, and a few laughs are shared, but for the most part it is perfectly tranquil silence that reigns over us. It is a thing of beauty. I have dreamed about this for as long as I remember, and I can't help but feel a wide smile quickly spread across my face as I think about this. She must see a thought forming in my head and gives me a curious smile.

"What are you thinking about?" she asks me.

I smile, "Despite everything else going on? Right now, just you..."

She blushes and hides her face for a moment before turning back to look at me. "Yeah? Well, you know you never did explain what exactly Finnick said about me in the jungle..."

It is my turn to blush and hide my face. What am I supposed to tell her? 'Finnick told me that you love me, even if you don't know it yet yourself. So do you love me?' Obviously that won't work as I laugh to myself.

"What's so funny?" she asks mildly seriously.

"It's just I don't know what I'm supposed to say. I don't know if you can handle the truth," I tease.

She scoffs, "I can't handle it? Just what did he say about me?"

Before I can answer, the door swings open to reveal Haymitch and Plutarch, "Hey lovebirds, sorry to interrupt but uh... It's time to go meet the leaders of the rebellion."

"Can it wait Haymitch?" Katniss retorts.

"Unfortunately no. C'mon, there will be lovey dovey time later, this is pretty important."

Katniss gives me a look that I can only interpret as 'don't think you're getting out of this so easily.' I smile in response as we're lead out of the room. Once with Haymitch and Plutarch, I find ourselves surrounded by a group of four soldiers. This is weird. We walk past many rooms and through several hallways on our way to a large conference room. Once inside, we are greeted by many faces. Some familiar and some not. Finnick, Johanna, and Beetee are present, as are some of the other victors from previous games who I recognize as mentors from our experiences in the Games. The rest of the people however, I do not recognize. This isn't surprising. If the Rebels have been underground for years until the first time we were in the games, it makes sense they haven't shown their faces publicly.

Plutarch turns to us and walks us forward to introduce us to apparently an important person. "Katniss, Peeta, this is President Alma Coin, the leader of the Rebellion. Madam President, this is -" but she cuts him off.

"I know who they are Plutarch. No need for formalities," she says cooly. I can't help but notice how dark of a presence she has. She has golden blonde hair and a narrow face, I instantly feel odd around her. Almost as if I don't belong in this room. I have never met President Snow, but I get the feeling he'd be very similar. 'That's great,' I think to myself. 'Let's overthrow one dictator for another.' She studies both of us very closely as she steps up inspecting both of our faces. "They do not appear to be wounded or have suffered that much. Are you both prepared to join the Rebellion?"

I feel so angry. We haven't suffered? I haven't suffered? My family hasn't suffered? I am trying to hold my tongue as best I can, but Katniss cannot. "What do you mean we haven't suffered? We just went through our second hunger games in as many years, barely escaping with our lives! Our home in district 12 is gone! Friends and family gone! Don't talk to me about suffering..."

I am glad she chose not to bring up my family, I don't want to have to confront those feelings while in the presence of the Rebel leadership. Coin turns to eye Katniss carefully, clearly not appreciating her outburst. "You are alive, are you not?"

Katniss grudgingly replies, "Yes."

"Than that is more than many can say. The Capital is trying to squash the uprisings in the Districts and those people are dying. Do not think yourself to be above the pains of anyone else Ms. Everdeen. I understand that you've gone through a lot in the Games, and you both fought valiantly. But remember, those were Games. Welcome to the real world. Welcome to a real war with real things on the line." We both remain silent for there is not much we can say to this. She is right on some level. The Hunger Games were just that, Games. As real as it was for us inside the arena, here we are alive outside of the arena. "Do not forget you two, that it was under my orders that Plutarch here rescued you from that arena. If I had not chosen this as the opportune moment to launch the Second Rebellion, both of you might be dead right now."

"If we hadn't pulled that stunt with the berries in the last games, you wouldn't have even been in a position to launch your rebellion," Katniss quipped. I can't help but feel like Haymitch is screaming on the inside behind us.

"Quite a tongue you have Ms. Everdeen. I see now why they call you the Mockingjay."

Katniss does not hesitate, and I couldn't be prouder of her, "They? Isn't it you that wants me to be your Mockingjay?"

This elicits a smile from President Coin, "Ah yes, you are a perceptive one. Am I to take it that you will accept your role as the symbol for our Rebellion?"

"Well, I guess I'd need to know more about your Rebellion before I agree to do anything for it. You don't just get to rescue me and expect me to repay you by throwing you my support. How do I know you aren't going to turn up as bad as Snow?"

I can tell where this is going, so before Katniss can stick her foot down her throat even further, I step in, "Madam President, I don't think Katniss is implying that you are worse than Snow. But you need to look at this from our perspective. We got sent into that arena without any knowledge of what was transpiring around us. We had no idea that you were planning on getting us out, nor that Haymitch, Plutarch, and half of the other tributes were in on it. So now not even a day after being rescued we are sitting in District 13, which we believed to be destroyed until we got here, talking with the leaders of the Rebellion we didn't even know about till very recently. Our home of District 12 is no more, and now all of a sudden you are trying to get us to pledge loyalty to a movement we know nothing about. It seems... strange. I can't speak for Katniss, but I for one cannot give you an answer today. Too much has happened, and I'm not thinking straight. Can you just give us a little time to process things?"

Coin turns to me and our eyes meet. Her stare is icy cold and deeply calculating, I can practically see the wheels turning in her head. "Yes Mr. Mellark, this is fine. I am not unreasonable. However, while you two are in District 13 you will obey our laws. You are correct though, the two of you and your fellow tributes have been through quite an ordeal. I will have the guards show you to your rooms. I look forward to discussing your respective roles in the rebellion in the coming days... That will be all."

We are led out of the room by several rebel soldiers, as we walk past Haymitch, he gives me a smile and a nod, indicating that I did well. Finnick and Johanna are also present with us. Together we walk down and through a myriad of hallways for sometime till we get to an area one of the guards calls the 'residential zone.' We stop at a block of the hallway, and the guards separate and line up along the sides of the wall.

"Ms. Everdeen, this is your room on the right," the guard says and Katniss moves to open the door revealing her mother and Prim. I am happy for her despite the fact that I know when we reach my room I will not have anyone waiting for me.

"Mr. Mellark, Mr. Odair, this is your room on the left. You will be compartment mates until further notice. Ms. Mason, you will be rooming over here..."

I look at Finnick, clearly neither of us had been expecting to be living togehter, but we enter our room to find it very bland and prison-looking. There are two beds, two closets, a single TV in the middle of the room between our two beds, and a side room which I can only expect to be the bathroom. I collapse onto my bed which is on the left, and Finnick does the same on his. We lay in silence for quite sometime until there is a loud banging noise on the door. I look at Finnick and he goes to open it, revealing Johanna and she storms right in and sits down next to me on my bed.

"Look at this rathole! Keeping us locked up in these prison cells! It's fucking ridiculous! And did you notice how they have all of us Victors tied up together in this secluded block. Away from everyone else, I mean seriously is there any difference between these people and the Capital?"

"Calm down Johanna," Finnick says, "Anything would be better than Snow."

"Oh yeah Finnick? Really? I'm not so sure about that! I mean -"

"Keep your voice down, if it's as bad as you say, then they'd obviously be listening in right now wouldn't they?" I remind her.

"Oh you are so smart little Peeta," she mocks, but she does lower her voice. "Still, I'm not sold on them yet."

Before she can continue, there is a light knock on the door and the three of us share a glance, hoping that it isn't a guard who overheard Johanna. She goes to answer the door, and replies with a sneer, "What do you want?"

I peek around the door to see Katniss standing in the doorway, "Let her in Johanna."

She scoffs but concedes and sits down on Finnick's bed this time as Katniss sits next to me and leans her head on my shoulder. "Long day?" I ask her, only somewhat jokingly.

This elicits a giggle out of her and a vomiting noise from Johanna, "You two make me want to barf sometimes."

I shoot her an angry look and say, "Yeah? Well you know what Johanna? This is my room, so you can leave if you don't like the fact that we're comforting each other." She responds by rolling her eyes and then I continue, "Besides, last night we both thought we were going to be dead by now. We weren't filled in on this plan like you two were."

Johanna looks like she has something to say, but nothing comes out, so she keeps her mouth shut and remains silent on Finnick's bed. We all stay silent together. This has been a very long day. I can't even fathom it to be honest. Evidently, neither can Finnick or Johanna.

After a long while, Finnick breaks the silence, "Why don't we turn on the TV? See what's actually been happening since the rescue?"

We all agree, and he turns on the television to put on the Capital news. There is coverage of the Games, Katniss shooting the arrow and breaking the arena, but most importantly; the subsequent uprisings in the districts. Everywhere, all across Panem people have risen to answer the 'call of the Mockingjay' as one reporter put it. Districts 8 and 11 were in full scale civil war, and rebels in Finnick's home of District 4 had taken control of the Peacekeeper's headquarters in the district. Curiously, there was no mention of how the Capital ships had burned District 12 to the ground. Perhaps they did not want to fuel the fires anymore than we already did...

Eventually Katniss whispers in my ear, "Peeta... What are we going to do?"

I turn to her and try to smile as I say, "Whatever we have to. I know you're not crazy about the Rebels yet, and neither am I, but if Haymitch trusts them and the others do, we owe the Rebels a chance to show us what they can do. If nothing else, we've got to try. I want to hear what it is exactly they want from us, but in a lot of ways we started this craziness. Don't you think we ought to see it through?"

She nods, probably not entirely convinced. Neither am I, but I'm willing to give them a chance at earning my loyalty. And I don't want the people in the districts dying for nothing either. If I can help them, maybe I can redeem myself in my own eyes for not being able to help my family and the people in 12. "Whatever is going to happen Katniss, we'll deal with it. Together." She smiles at this. "That's how things go with you and me. When things get tough, we help each other. We're there for each other. And you know what? What shall be, shall be. There's not a lot of control we have over what happens in the coming months or years, so let's try to appreciate where we are and the fact that we're both still alive."

Our eyes meet in the gaze that we've shared quite a lot of recently and she gives me a kiss that doesn't last long, likely because Finnick and Johanna are still in the room, but long enough so that I know she agrees with me. Then she snuggles up to me, leans her head back against my chest and closes her eyes as the news continues playing on in the background. "What shall be, shall be..." She echoes to me. Things will undoubtedly get way more chaotic in the coming days, but there's nothing we can do about it. Not yet anyways. So with that, we let our worries drift away as we both drift off to sleep...