A/N: Hey guys! Thanks for the support as always! I can't believe we're over 125 reviews already! GAH! I love you all so much, you're freaking awesome! peetagrl3... I know, believe me, I know... I don't like hurting Peeta, but with him not being hijacked in this story, he's gotta experience some pain along the journey. I admit that I'm a cruel heartless bastard cuz you're not gonna find out what's happened to Peeta in this chapter... I know, I'm crushed as well. But fear not! You will soon enough! And I think you'll all really adore this one. Special shoutout to mockingjmellark1210 and ct522 for acting as my soundboards and beta readers. But I don't want to take up too much time seeing as how I know you're all dying to know what happens next, so lets go!

Change of Fate

Chapter Sixteen: The B-Team

Haymitch

As soon as I see Cato's fist land on Peeta's jaw, I've seen enough and leave my office. I have to move quickly, because he's going to get hurt real bad if I don't. In reality, I'm four or five hours away from him so he's gonna still gonna get roughed up a bit. Or a lot. I can only hope that I can get out of here quickly - and that Coin doesn't put up a fight. Thoughts of what they might do to Peeta, even the idea they might take him to the Capitol, creep their way into my mind as I sprint down the hallway to reach Coin's office. As I reach it I'm ready to kick the door right in and make my demands, but I am surprised when Plutarch slyly steps out and shuts the door behind him without a sound.

"Move aside Plutarch, I gotta talk to the President," I say almost shoving him out of the way.

He shakes his head sternly, "No. I know what you want, and she's not gonna let you go." Anger swells in my chest and I'm about to unleash the fury on this stubby little fat man before me, yet he holds up a hand and says, "Let's go somewhere more private to talk. Your office?"

I'm not clear on what he's up to... Plutarch has always been a hard man to read, but I oblige. We walk back to my office in silence, and I let my anxiety about the safety of Peeta and Katniss take ahold of me. The things the Capitol could do to Peeta if they take him out of the arena are unthinkable. If Katniss thought what Thread did to him was painful, it will pale in comparison to what they'll do to him if they manage to get him to the Capitol. I shudder at the very thought of such things.

As we reach my office, I open the door and as soon as Plutarch closes it I let my thoughts explode into words, "I don't give a shit what that woman tells me I can or cannot do. I'm putting together a team, and I'm going to District 4 to rescue them."

He smirks, "Good. I'm glad, I'll help you. But we've got to be discreet and move quickly. They don't have much time."

I tilt my head and squint my eyes as I give Plutarch a quizzical look, "What are you getting at here? What's your play?"

He sighs, "The President and I may be in lockstep on a lot of things, but this is not one of them. She's letting this play out too far, she's convinced she's engaged in some sort of war of the minds with Snow... I don't understand it personally. Do you have any idea who you want to recruit for this mission?"

Come to think of it, not really. I realize that most of the people I'd want for this are already in the arena. My A-Team would consist of Katniss, Peeta, Finnick, Johanna, Boggs, and many of the others we sent with them. My options are going to be far more limited... Clearly Plutarch can see that I don't really know, so I say, "Well all I really need to do is go into the mess hall and tell everyone I'm going to rescue the Mockingjay, I'm sure I'll have more volunteers than I can fit on a hovercraft."

Plutarch, however, just shakes his head. "No, we can't do that. Remember, the President doesn't want this to happen yet. We have to do this, but quickly and very quietly... So think hard about this... Who can you trust? Who can we trust?"

"That's easy," I say. "Beetee without a doubt. And The good people of District 12, they would do anything for Katniss and Peeta."

"That's true. But how many of them have ever used a weapon before?"

I lower my head in dejection, "Hardly any... Except for the few that have joined the military since they arrived here."

Plutarch nods, "There's a few soldiers I have close relations with that I trust, I'll speak with them, and I'll get Beetee out of his dome in the weapons area... But you need to talk to Gale Hawthorne." I nod my head, "He's a fine soldier I've watched his progress in training, and he'll get the rest of the soldiers from 12 without you having to directly go around and talk to them all, arousing suspicions and what not... I get the feeling that the President is suspecting you're gonna try and pull something."

"Makes sense," I say dryly. "Plutarch, we're gonna need a distraction, and I don't mean here."

"I know what you meant," he replies. "The President is not gonna be happy..."

"We don't have a choice! We are at best five hours out, and that's if we can get everyone recruited and takeoff within the next hour. Our troops are just a few miles south of the arena's location. We need them to attack! We need them to draw out the Peacekeepers that are surrounding the arena. If they don't do that, this little rescue mission of ours is dead on arrival."

Plutarch and I just stare at each other for a long few minutes before he slowly nods his head. "You're right..."

"Who's in charge over in Four?" I ask.

"Paylor," he says quietly.

"Good. Paylor will want to do what's right, not what Coin tells her to do. Can you get in touch with her?"

"Yeah..." He pauses for a moment, perhaps wondering if what we're doing would be considered treasonous. "I'll call her from my office, just so things don't look suspicious. But you need to get a move on, Soldier Hawthorne should still be at his compartment in the residential zone. Room 339. Have your team meet in Hanger Bay 7, it's my personal hanger, we'll use my hovercraft."

I nod and shake Plutarch's hand, "Best of luck my friend," I say before be both leave.

I hurry off down the myriad of hallways and tunnels to the residential zone. On my way over, I begin to ponder what Gale's response will be. I never disliked the kid, and I'm sure he appreciated the fact I kept Katniss alive, but there is clearly tension. I haven't seen much of Gale, but the last I heard he was trying to steal Katniss away from Peeta. I can't help but roll my eyes even right now, I'm getting too old for love triangles, and given everything the two of them have been through I thought this was behind them. Clearly I was wrong as it led to Peeta overdosing, but that's neither here nor there. I find myself outside the door of Room 339, and I politely knock.

The door swings open to reveal a woman with olive skin tone and silver seam eyes, I knew her to be Hazelle Hawthorne. She eyes me gloomily, "Oh hello Mr. Abernathy," she begins, "How can I help you?"

"Please, call me Haymitch..." I state and she smiles. "How are you Hazelle? I was wondering if I could speak with your son Gale..." I say.

She opens the door more fully to reveal Gale sitting on the couch with his younger siblings watching the Games. The camera is on Katniss at this point who is having a conversation with Finnick. "Gale, Haymitch Abernathy would like a word."

Gale looks up at me and nods, kisses his younger brother on the forehead before greeting me at the door, but I squirm my way inside the room. I don't want to have a conversation such as this in the halls where we could be overheard. Gale eyes me carefully, "What do you want Haymitch?"

"Do you have somewhere we can speak privately?" I know that Gale's family is trustworthy, but who knows what his siblings might let slip at school or something.

Gale must be picking up what I'm putting down, and he leads me into a smaller room, which I take to be one he shares with his brothers. "What's the plan?" He asks. I am slightly taken aback at his understanding of why I'm here before I say a word. "I haven't been in the Hunger Games, but I'm not stupid Haymitch. So I'll ask again, what's the plan?"

I nod solemnly and speak very quietly, "The President doesn't want me to rescue them," Gale opens his mouth to interrupt but I stop him by putting my hand up, "I know, it's disgusting, it's horrible, it's vile, but it is what it is, and I'm doing it anyways. Plutarch is helping me, but we need to do this covertly and quickly. We need to get out of here in the next hour, but I also need a team... I know you're in, but I need you to get whoever you can from the military. Anyone from 12 that has joined the service since we arrived, I need them."

"It's done," he says matter of factly.

"Anyone else you deem trustworthy, anyone who you don't think will go running to Coin at the sound of the plan, we need them. We need anyone and everyone we can get. We're going to be dropping into a live action war zone by the time we get there, we're going to need all the guns we can get."

"Understood," Gale responds curtly.

I chuckle a bit. He really is a man of few words. "One more thing, and I apologize in advance if this gets a bit too personal but it needs to be said... Are you going to be able to put aside whatever... things you're dealing with when it comes to Katniss and Peeta?" He shifts a little in obvious uncomfortableness. "Because as much friction there is, I'm counting on you. They're both counting on you."

"I would never let anything bad happen to Katniss..." Gale trails off.

"I'm quite certain of that. But what about Peeta? I know you're not a fan, but as much as we're going to rescue all of them, Peeta is the one in immediate danger. The boy is walking off to his imminent torture and potential death if we don't get to him in time. I need to be able to count on you to put aside your animosity, and if the time comes and the need arises, you need to rescue him," I pause as I let that ring for a moment. "Can you do that?"

I can see him clench his jaw and then he cracks his neck before looking back at me, "I may not like Peeta very much, or that he stole Katniss from me in some ways," I can't help but roll my eyes as he says this. Oh teenage angst-romance! "But I don't hate him. He's too good of a person for that. You don't need to worry about me Haymitch..."

I nod. "Good. Now, we need to move very quickly. I need you to go and convince all the troops from 12, I would go with you, but Plutarch seems convinced that the President is watching me... So we don't want to arouse suspicions, which is why I need you to do it."

Gale stands up quickly, "Alright then what are we waiting for?"

I smile, we just might pull this off. "Nothing anymore. Meet me in Hanger Bay 7 as soon as humanly possible Gale."

He nods, and leaves without another word, leaving me alone in his room. Wow, he is just like Katniss with their deadly silence. I guess that's the hunter ability in both of them. I leave his compartment as well and head back to my office. I have a few loose ends I need to tie up before I head down to the Hanger. As I walk in, I'm a little shocked when I see a soldier sitting down waiting for me watching the television. I glance at the screen to see that the beating of Peeta is well underway and I make my return announced by turning it off.

"Can I help you?" I sneer, while privately hoping that someone did not leak the plan already.

The boy looks up at me and quickly stands. He is well built, with chiseled features. He's got light brown hair and deep hazel eyes, with tanned but not dark or olive skin. Much like Peeta. He looks strangely familiar, and yet I'm sure that I've never met him before in my life. "I'm sorry sir, my name is Arturo. Arturo Clementine. My friends call me AC for short, I am a soldier here in District 13."

I nod, but laugh somewhat mercilessly. Poor kid, if only he knew I was in such a rush to get out of here, "I can see that... And yet it still doesn't answer my question," I say derisively.

If I offended him at all, he does not show it. "Sorry Mr. Abernathy, I'm from District 12 too. I went to school with Peeta and Katniss, and I grew up watching you stumble around on stage..."

I roll my eyes, "Look kid, I'm glad you thought of stopping by to say hello, but I've got a lot on my plate right now. As you no doubt saw, your former classmates are in a bit of trouble right now."

"Yes, I know. That's why I'm here," he says sternly.

I eye him cautiously. Could this be a ploy from Coin? Is she trying to find out what I'm up to? "Explain," I say this more as an order than a question.

He shuffles his feet a little bit, "Sir, Peeta Mellark was my best friend growing up. He was my best friend till that day when he was reaped for his first Games. I was standing right next to him when his name was called... No one ever deserves to be reaped, but Peeta certainly didn't. He is too good of a person. After Katniss had volunteered for her sister, I almost expected one of Peeta's brothers to do the same, but they didn't. I realized shortly thereafter that I should've volunteered for him..." He trails off. But I plan on letting him continue. He's here on his own, not because Coin sent him. His eyes meet mine before moving on behind me, like he's looking into the past and reliving some of his memories. "After his first Games and he moved into the Victors' Village he sort of cut himself off from the rest of our friend group. I think he was too heartbroken, what with Katniss ignoring him and everything... And I haven't seen him at all since we've been here in 13, he's been much too busy being a leader of the Rebellion and all, while I've been training... That's not the reason I'm here though."

I laugh, "Then please tell me Arturo, why are you here?"

"You're Peeta's mentor. He is suffering, and I can't stand seeing that happen to him any longer. I figured that there must be a plan in motion to rescue them, and I wanted you to know that I want to be a part of it... I need to be a part of it," he says emphatically.

I smile widely. This is exactly what I needed to see. "You came to the right person. And at just the right time no less."

"What do you mean? He asks innocently.

I don't hesitate. "You say Peeta is your best friend. You say you need to be a part of the mission to rescue him. Are you willing to risk your position in 13 in order to do so?" He still doesn't quite get it, so I spill the beans. "President Coin does not want to rescue him, Katniss, and the others. She wants to drum up public support for the war effort by letting them stay in that arena."

"WHAT? That's horrible!" He exclaims.

"Yeah, no shit. So I'm taking matters into my own hands," I declare.

His face straightens, "I'm in."

"You're sure?"

"I've never been more sure of anything in my entire life," he replies.

I smirk. "Good, then grab that gun of yours, and welcome to the team. We're leaving right now."

He does as he's ordered and we quickly depart my office. Any potential hesitance or reluctance in his mind is not shown in his actions nor his body language. He seems to truly have Peeta's best interests at heart. I am curious as to what the extent of their relationship was - or is... Peeta never spoke much about his life before the reaping other than his family. Although from what I gathered from Katniss, Peeta was a very popular kid at school. He was 'always surrounded by friends,' she once told me. This was in stark contrast to Katniss herself who really only spoke to Gale, her friend Madge, and Prim. I make a note to ask Peeta about this part of his life when we get him back safe and sound... Eventually we get into an elevator, and before long we're outside of Hanger Bay 7. The doors quietly open and close quickly once we're inside. I'm shocked by how many soldiers are present, there are well over 50 people here. I swear I just left Gale a half hour ago.

"Holy shit..." I whisper.

Beetee makes his way out of the crowd to find me, "Haymitch long time, no see. Why don't you ever come to visit me?" he asks.

I laugh nervously, "Too busy feeling sorry for myself, I don't get to drink here."

"That must be terribly hard for you," Beetee quips.

"You have no idea. What I'd do for a bottle of whisky right now..."

"Ah, Haymitch, I was beginning to wonder when you'd get here," Plutarch says as he approaches me with Gale in tow.

"Yeah... You two certainly did a number rounding up people. How'd you manage this?" I ask.

Plutarch chuckles as Gale looks on in utter pride, "Well it's like you said. You let out a whisper that there's a plan to go and rescue the Mockingjay, we had more volunteers than we knew what to do with... I see you've found a recruit yourself! More the merrier I suppose," Plutarch adds.

"Yeah. He's from 12 as well, grew up with Peeta. He's a good soldier," I say without really knowing anything about the kid other than that he went to school with Peeta and Katniss.

Arturo speaks up, "Mr. Heavensbee, it's an honor to meet you sir. My name is Arturo Clementine," he sticks his hand out to shake.

Plutarch responds warmly, "Well met Soldier Clementine. I'm glad you've decided to join us on this little quest."

"I wouldn't miss it for the world sir... I owe it to Peeta," he trails off again, before looking back up and meeting a glare that was shot his way by Gale. This ought to be interesting. "Gale..."

"Arturo..." Gale hisses in response.

Plutarch and I share a chuckle, "You two seem a bit frosty. But there will be time to thaw out old friendships on the flight, we gotta get a move on, so huddle up with the rest of this platoon. I've got something to say before we depart."

The two of them don't take their eyes off of each other, but follow my order and line up with the rest of the team. Once things have settled down some, Plutarch and Beetee stand behind me and I begin to speak. "Alright ladies and gentlemen, you all know what we're doing. This is a top secret assignment, one that you have all volunteered for. I cannot promise that we will all return, but this mission could very well determine the fate of our Rebellion, and indeed the fate of all of Panem..." I pause for a moment to take in the looks of all the soldiers. I don't recognize all of them, but I do some. This is possibly the most important thing I've ever done in my life, and I'm doing it with a majority of people I do not know. My A-Team is in trouble, they're on the ropes. To save them, I've put together a rag tag collection of refugees and rookie soldiers, but this is all I'm gonna get. All I've got is the B-Team... "We might not know each other very well, hell I can count on one hand the number of you who's names I know, but that's not important. What's important is that we put our trust in each other, starting right now. If we don't, this mission will be a failure. So believe in yourselves, believe in me and Plutarch, but more than that... Believe in each other." I let that hang in the air for a while, I want them to believe... "Now let's get the hell out of here. We've got a battle to win and a team of soldiers that need saving!"

A collective, "Ooorah!" erupts from every single man as they all begin to file onto the Hovercraft. I realize that I may have wasted away the last 25 years of my life with a bottle in one hand and a knife in the other. But everything in my life has been a series of tests leading me to this one. This is the moment my life has led up to... I have to save Katniss and Peeta, there is no other option. This one, is for all the marbles...

And that's a wrap! What'd you think? I had planned on doing other characters as well in this chapter, but I just kept flowing as Haymitch, I couldn't stop. That, and the other characters sections went on as well, so I decided to just put them ahead into the next chapter. What'd you think of Gale's return? What do you think of my OC Arturo, and the potential for exploring Peeta's past before the Games? It's an area that I've never really seen explored in any fic I've read, which is why I decided to go for it. Like it? Hate it? Let me know, and please review! I've got a test on thursday and a quiz on monday so I probably won't get another chapter out for a little bit, I know the suspense is killing me too... :D