ME: Time to get back to Gale's perspective.
"Are you satisfied with how your life turned out?"
Gale was taken aback. "Huh, Enobaria?"
"Are you happy," she asked again, "with how your life turned out?"
"Of course!" He snapped, the former miner angry. "What kind of a question is that?"
"Really?" The Peacekeeper spirit replied. "Did you imagine at age sixteen that you and your family would not have seen each other for almost an entire year, with not even a letter or phone call? Did you imagine that your own brothers would have all but disowned you for your crimes, with your mother and sister being your only relatives preventing them from filing out the paperwork? Did you imagine that in your twenties you would have absolutely no friends whatsoever? Did you ever imagine you would not attend Katniss's wedding, or spend your twenty-second birthday with a revolver aimed at your forehead, failing to have the courage to pull the trigger?"
Gale opened his mouth but no retort came out; all he had to do was ask and Enobaria would verify all her claims. "Katniss and Peeta can't be doing much better, after what the Capitol did to them."
"Let's check on them, then."
Enobaria grabbed his forearm and suddenly the veterans were transferred to District Twelve-a place Gale had not been ever since the Second Rebellion.
The former Seam resident was shocked. Since coal was no longer necessary for heating in poorer Districts due to more advanced technology becoming available outside of the Capitol, many saw no point in spending valuable money rebuilding the small town while other, more important Districts needed to heal.
But others saw potential in Twelve. Replacing the mines as the primary source of employment was a pharmaceutical factory for producing medicine. It was poetic-in return for being healed, District Twelve manufactured products to heal the rest of Panem.
The two walked to the Victors Village before stopping outside one of the mansions.
Inside was Katniss, reading a book. Though the education in Antebellum Twelve was abysmal (to the point of where government clerks had to deal with functionally illiterate Seam residents on a frequent basis), she did not suffer for it outside of science and being told a twisted version of the Dark Days. Basic Panemanian (now Panemanian English) and math skills were what she learned outside of semi-accurate history and coal-related information. Many books, such as the one she was reading (Animal Farm), were forbidden in both continental Panem and District Thirteen and viewed as treasonous reading material by the State.
The young woman had healed from all the trauma she had experienced growing up, in the Games and during the Rebellion. Though she remembered her roots and thus dressed plainly, Katniss now wore a gold ring indicating her marriage with Peeta.
Peeta walked in wearing an apron, on his way to what was officially his home (now converted into a bakery). "Good morning, Katniss."
"Good morning, Peeta," and a kiss was her response to her husband.
"I could show you what they've been up to, you know," Enobaria said.
Gale shook his head. "Never got into porn."
"Not to mention reminded of what you'll never accomplish."
Gale was about to ask her to stop grilling him when the two suddenly moved to a shop in Twelve, a laundromat. His mother and siblings lived there.
"Rory," she asked his oldest (though still younger) brother, "why are you so intent on disowning Gale?"
"Oh, I don't know," Rory replied. "It could be that Posy nearly got fragged because Twofers wanted him dead. It could be the fact he tried to keep Fort Cheyenne from being able to evacuate and wouldn't let them surrender first. Or it could be these rumors about him being involved in designing the same bombs that killed Prim."
Gale remembered Beetee's testimony; he had confessed to designing a bomb under the orders of President Coin to target medics during Katniss's trial. For whatever reason, Gale's name was not mentioned. However, rumors spread regardless. Beetee was able to return to his home of Central in District Three instead of being imprisioned or executed (most likely due to realpolitik), but remained repentant, donating large amounts of money to a charity he established to aid victims of the war regardless of what side they fought for.
"Does-does he really-?"
"-is he really about to legally disown you?" Enobaria said. "Oh yes, he is. And if you hadn't committed your heinous crimes, he might still be living in Two with you."
"And did you ever get around to looking for Thom and Bristel?"
Gale remembered his two crew mates. "Didn't they die?"
The Lieutenant shook her head. "No. Like you, they survived the Praetorian Enforcers's destruction of Twelve. Unlike you, they did not use their experiences as an excuse to committ genocide or war crimes."
Now they were outside of a more modest house in District Twelve, only still luxurious by Seam standards.
Bristel had become the secretary of the Mayor of District Twelve (the head of the District government's executive branch was still known as Mayor, unlike the other and larger Districts, which had renamed those formerly powerless posts Governor after the American state leaders), while Thom had worked long and hard at the factory until he had become manager (and also taking night classes to make sure his employers knew he was smart enough for the job). Neither of the two former coal miners feared gaining black lung from a useless profession and would live much longer now because of that and now being able to afford three square meals a day on their salaries. The married couple now looked forward to their tomorrows instead of worrying about them.
"Did you hear about Gale, Bris?" Thom asked his wife.
"About how he got humiliated back in Two?" Bristel replied to her husband.
Gale knew exactly what they were talking about. After the fall of Coriolanus Snow and the death of his would-be successor, Alma Coin, Gale had been appointed Mayor (now Governor) of District Two under Paylor's new government until democratic elections could be held. Despite all the hatred he received while in office, the young and arrogant man believed that the local rebels would be enough to ensure he would keep his job.
But the elections proved otherwise; Gale didn't remember if he received a half-dozen votes or zero, but regardless he had lost by a wide margin. The Loyalists viewed him as a war criminal who only escaped thanks to the Rebellion's victory and threw their support behind a former Peacekeeper, while the local rebels believed (correctly) that he had perverted their cause and threw their support behind their Commander, a Career Victor named Lyme (who had faked her death briefly). Humiliated, Gale took a job as a quarry manager in one of the outer villages and never returned to District Two's Central City.
"He deserved it," Thom muttered bitterly. "I have a feeling he was the one behind those bombs that killed Prim and everyone else in the Capitol-why would Snow kill his own human shields for no benefit? That bastard was a fucking ghoul, but unfortunately for us he was a smart one. Too smart to turn his own citizens against him by killing their children out of spite. And I remember the footage-I saw Peacekeepers yanking away at the barricades and letting our medics run past them to join their guys in trying to save the kids."
"Not to mention his involvement in Fort Cheyenne over in Two," Bristel added. "Lyme's been saying he came up with the bombing, plus he wanted to take out the train tunnel so nobody could escape. Unfortunately, Coin's lackeys destroyed a lot of the evidence. Not to mention politics, it's really fucking politics why he isn't being sent to a courtroom and why shitty people like him don't get what they deserve; an ignoble death."
"Same shit," Thom agreed, "different useless government."
Gale tried to summon up anger against his two friends, but stopped when he couldn't. He realized what they were saying was true. He was guilty of crimes and hadn't answered for his sins.
"You know where we're going next?" Enobaria asked.
"No," Gale said, confused.
"We'll finish up my side getting pushed back into Fort Cheyenne, or the Nut as you rebels called it. After that, you shall be shown your darkest sin."
ME: No points for guessing what happens next. A/N: Central in District Three is the creation of fellow author ForFutureReference; check his work out, it's good.