Chapter two

Katniss

Katniss jogged down the road to the copter cave. She reached it soon, waving to Caynor and Seelan, the Copter runners on the way.

"Hey there, Miss Mellark! So you need a ride, eh?" Seelan asked and skipped over to her.

"Yeah! That would be great, thanks Seelan." She smiled warmly at him.

"Where to?"

"The Capitol."

"I need more info!" He shouted as they entered the whirring, noisy helicopter.

"The Capitol building…..you know, the Octagon! Where the Board of Panem always meets!"

"Oh heck yes I know that building! I love landing on that big, long white roof….such a smooth landing!" He crooned as they flew swiftly away over the snow covered lands.

Soon, they arrived after she requested a meeting with the board, Katniss almost bursting with excitement. She would soon have her Prim and her Rue back! Wouldn't that be wonderous…

"We're here!" Seelan exclaimed happily as he grinned through the window, gazing dreamily at the roof of the Octagon.

"Yes!" He landed quickly, touching down softly as she leapt out of the door.

"Hey! Watch your head! Those Copter arms are low and fast, Miss Mellark!" She ducked and thanked him, hurrying to the elevator that went to the lobby. She leapt into the Elevator, relieved to be warm again. She sighed.

"Cold out there, isn't it, Mockingjay?" She jumped and fell against a big burly blond man, looking down at her kindly.

"Oh, well, yes. Hello! I'm Katniss Everde- I mean, Mellark. You probably already knew that." He nodded solemnly, although there was a laugh in his eyes. He pursed his lips to keep from smiling.

"Tephaan Alpoon. I'm part of the board of Panem. You probably already knew that."

"Well actually, no I did not. Wait- Board of Panem? I'm going to suggest someone to them right now!"

"Someone?"He looked questioning. "Oh, I get what you mean. A Mutt? Who you want, your sister? Or that girl from the games?"

"Both." She said sheepishly under his perfectly accurate guess.

"Hm. I'll vote for your cause. You will probably get 'em, since you are the Mockingjay."

"Was."

"Mmmhmm." They were silent the rest of the way down. "Beep. Beep. Beep. Lobby, floor one, intellectual services, Front desk, questioning hall, peace painting room. Enjoy your visit." The automated woman said on the speaker once they reached the first floor.

"I'll walk you to the request room if you'd like."

"That would be great. Thanks." They walked stiffly to the other elevator across the marble floor. They entered and he hit the "Floor 45" button. After they waited, the speaker woman spoke again,

"Is- is this thing on, Bill? Oh, darn it is- Floor 45, Electric machine testing, Mutt recreation, Request room, blue room, Board of Panem Hall, President Paylors daughters room. Enjoy your visit. Okay, is it off? Did you- no! Turn it OFF or I will- O Sh-"It cut off with a crackle. Katniss and Tephaan laughed. "What a great speaker woman."

"She's Effie Trinket."

"I thought I remembered that voice! Haha, she is perfect for this job!" She said as they walked out into the long marble hallway with the bright, clinical looking lights. They turned a sharp right and came to a huge bolted white door that said,

"Great Board Of Panem Hall"

"Woah, big door." Katniss said, the huge door dwarfing even the giant Tephaan. He nodded and stepped forward to a small metal microphone in the wall with a projection of a black haired man who said in a rough voice,

"Permission for visiting?" Tephaan pulled out a paper with his face and a set of complicated numbers on it, and a laser scanned it. The automated man nodded to Katniss. She pulled out the permission slip that had been spit out of the phone when she called for a request on the flight here. He nodded again. "Names?"

"Tephaan Alorry Corban Alpoon."

"Katniss Aspen Everdeen Mellark."

"Mother, Katniss?"

"Ennara Lane Everdeen."

"Welcome, Katniss Aspen Everdeen Mellark and Tephaan Alorry Corban Alpoon. Enjoy your visit." The machine said dully. The doors swung open smoothly, and they stepped in together. The room was huge- white, sleek shiny floors, the walls were made of the same thing. There was a row of tall, slanted gray glass bleachers where many people in black suits and white dresses were seated, watching their every move. Katniss waved warily. In the center of the Bleachers was a tall white glass chair surrounded by bullet proof glass where the President was supposed to sit. She wasn't there now. Katniss headed to the black chair in the center of the room, surrounded by the board of Panem. Tephaan headed up the bleachers and sat beside a woman with a green Afro. A woman with long brown hair stood. She looked like she was second in charge here- in fact, she was. She was vice president Laker!

"Welcome, Katniss Aspen Everdeen Mellark. So I hear you would like us to make a Mutt or two of your passed friends?" Some people on the bleachers whispered to each other, and Katniss heard snippets of it:

"The Mockingjay, It's the Mockingjay-"

"I know, cool isn't it-"

"A Mutt? Who does she want to bring back-"

"Probably that Prim girl and the other one-"

"Quiet!" Laker exclaimed to the people on the bleachers. "Speak, Mrs. Mellark."

"Yes Vice President, Ma'am, well, I'd like to bring my little sister, Primrose Jewel Everdeen back, and my friend from my first hunger games, Rue Cybele Averbury." Laker seemed to contemplate this for a moment, tapping her forefinger against her chin thoughtfully.

"We will speak together for a moment. Would you like both of them at the same time, or one of them at a time to test how realistic they are? And would you like them to be Mutated, or their old selves?"

"I guess…one at a time. Rue first. Not mutated, not at all, perfectly themselves."

"Alright, we will consider that. Stay quiet for a moment please while we check our idea cards." She sat down stiffly in her chair and began typing away at a computer screen that slowly went up to her desk. Everyone did the same. They were not making any noise, just facial expressions of thought as they liberated the others' ideas. This went on for almost half an hour, Katniss squirming uncomfortably in the hard glass chair. Finally, Laker stood up and spoke sternly,

"Your request is accepted. Return here or stay here for the next three days and Miss Averbury will be ready by the time your second day is over.." Katniss squealed with joy.

"Yes! Thank you! Thank you, Vice President Laker! Thank you so, so much! You don't know how grateful I am," She shouted as she skipped through the white door. "May the odds be ever in your favor!" She shouted over her shoulder, laughing. Tephaan ran out the door after her, panting.

"Boy, you have…practice….running….." He panted in between words.

"Yep! Hey, where's a phone? I have to tell my family!" She said happily. He pointed into a hallway in the wall that led to a small sound-proof glassed in room with a telephone. She made a thumbs up sign to him and ran down the hallway gleefully. Picking up the phone, she dialed her house's number quickly. Peeta picked up.

"Hello, Mellark household, who is this?"

"Me!"

"Katniss! Where are you? You've been gone half of the day!" She peeked through the window next to her and gasped. The sun was already going down!

"The Capitol, The octagon, I'm sorry, I-"

"What! You're at the capitol? Wait- WHAT? The OCTAGON?! Katniss, oh Katniss I should have gone with you-"

"No, It's alright. But guess what?!" He quieted.

"What?"

"I'm going to have Rue back tomorrow night!" He gasped through the phone.

"Oh my gosh, really? That's wonderful! So I'm guessing you won't be coming home tonight or tommorrow?"

"Yeah….Not the day after that, either. I'm sorry honey,"

"It's all right. The kids have been asking for a day or two alone with daddy for a long time, so this is perfectly okay. I'll miss you though!"

"I'll miss you too. I have to call mom, since I'm getting Prim back soon, too. I love you Peeta."

"Love you too." She hung up and punched in a set of other numbers.

"Mother!" She said when she heard the click of the phone picking up on the other end.

"Katniss! Where are you? Peeta called, he's so worried-"

"Mom, I'm at the capitol, I just called him. I am calling you from the Octagon!" She explained everything that had happened that morning, and she could almost imagine her mother nodding on the other end.

"Oh my gosh, Prim is coming soon, too?" She yelped.

"Yes Mother!"

"Oh my! Oh my dear- My Prim is coming back! Oh, I have to go set up her room and- and- and- Bye honey, good luck with Rue! Talk to you later, love ya!"

"Love you too!" Her mother hung up. She strode out of the glass room, meeting Tephaan and a chubby purple haired woman on the corner.

"Hello, Mrs. Everdeen!" The chubby woman said in a cheery, bubbly voice.

"Hello. It's Mellark now."

"Oh, Mrs. Mellark, alright, I got it. So I am Eeno Beelanz. It's wonderful to get to know you! So I will be your helper, guide, you know what I mean. I will show you your room if you like," She was practically bursting with energy, but sagged when she said the next words-"unless, of course, you won't be staying overnight."

"Oh, don't worry Eeno, I'm going to be staying here for the night. So where is my room? I'm sure it's great."

"Oh, ooh, follow me! It's just wonderful, bright gorgeous curtains in an elegant white, those pretty light yellow floors and sheets….." She continued talking, but Katniss gave up trying to listen: Eeno spoke much too quickly in that high pitched, excited voice for anyone to understand her. She imagined what it would be like to see Rue again, to play with her, to see her natural, warm smile again. But then a bad picture came into her mind- Rue's cold corpse laying, sprawled out on a metal table in a clinical looking room, spear still in her stomach, face stuck in a gruesome grimace. She shuddered.

"We're here!" Eeno exclaimed cheerfully, cheeks pink as she spread her arms wide to make a dramatic view of a perfectly normal looking black door. "Welcome, go on in. I'll be back later to get you for dinner!" She waddled away gleefully, grinning.

"What a funny little woman." Katniss said after she was around the corner.

"Oh yes, she's actually my secretary. It's quite fun working here with that funny little woman around all the time. She's very…..bouncy? I guess that's a good word. And she simply adores you. Not that I don't see a reason why anyone wouldn't." Tephaan smiled to her.

"So…are you going to go in your new room anytime soon?" He nodded to the door, and Katniss giggled to herself and pushed the door open lightly. The door went open at her fingerprints. This was only accessible by very particular people, apparently. She held it open as Tephaan followed her in. She smirked at the pretty little room. The floors were a white, shiny, milky glass once again, as they were almost everywhere in the Octagon. The walls were a clean, bright and sunny yellow, as were the fluffy blankets on the canopy bed. There was a warm fire burning in a tan fireplace in the corner, a chocolate brown coffee table and a slightly yellow, puffy couch in front of it. There was also a perfectly round brown wood table with a yellow top and a vase of flowers on top against a wood rimmed window in the other corner. The view outside was stunning. The snow covered meadows spread between the huge skyscrapers, with were caked with heavy white snow. Past the main downtown was a set of neighborhoods filled with big, beautiful Villas, covered in Christmas lights and trees sitting in the windows, children and their friends and family decorating them together, laughing. Far in the distance, just to top off the view were a group of ten mountains covered in pines and other dead trees, just waiting for their Rebirth, their awakening.

"Do you like it?" Tephaan asked hopefully.

"Oh yeah, I love it!" She grinned at him and went over to lean against the fluffy couch. "It's beautiful."

"Oh good. Now I think I should probably leave you to yourself now, I have an important job or three to do. Sorry that I have to leave like this, but I'll be at dinner tonight." He waved and headed out the white door, leaving her alone in the pleasant little room. She wandered around the room for a moment, then walking into the little yellow bathroom. There in the closet was her suitcase, everything in it unpacked and hung up. Man, these Capitol people were good. So she changed into lighter clothes, much better for the warm little room. After dressing and reading a good book on the couch for an hour or so, she went over to the mini-fridge behind the bed and grabbed a granola bar and some Soda, seating herself at the round table and staring absentmindedly out the window, chewing the crunchy granola. For a long time, she wandered around the room and waited for dinner to come, thinking of Rue and Prim and her family the whole time.

"Knock Knock, Dinner's ready Mrs. Everdeen!" The squeaky voice of Eeno came through the door. She opened it warily, Katniss already standing right in front of the door, very hungry. They walked down the hall towards the dinner room, Eeno chattering away gleefully the entire time. Katniss zoned out. They burst through the gray door, sitting down at the long, shiny glass table. Tephaan was there, sitting about five seats down from her. Eeno sat happily next to Katniss, smirking with pride at the fact that she was sitting next to The Katniss Everdeen Mellark. Katniss looked around at all of the people. Jeez, what was up with these clean, bare colors here? Everyone had white or gray outfits. Their backs were so straight, so strict. But at least a few had friendly enough smiles. Then a redheaded set of servants walked out from two metal doors with steaming dishes in their hands. After placing them on the table, everyone got to eating the delectable food. A few times Katniss thought she caught a cold, disgusted glance from one or two of the capitol workers. She ignored them and continued gorging herself.

After they had finished, they all stood up and dusted off the crumbs from their laps.

"Off to your rooms, everyone!" A tall, fat man said and clapped his hands, making the floor under each of the people split up and become floating platforms, with the people still on them. Katniss exclaimed a shocked curse word and wobbled in her spot, but all of the other people stood like stones. She tried to imitate them, wobblingly. Then the slabs pulled through the walls that slid open and Katniss landed, face first, on her bed.

"Ow." She groaned against her sheets. She stumbled into the bathroom, exhausted, and changed into her striped pajamas. She layed down in the fluffy bed and curled up, smiling.

"I'll see you again soon, Rue. I'll see you again, Prim…." She whispered before she fell into the abyss of sleep.