A/N: Alot of feels in this chapter D:
Sped it along ALOT, so i hope you guys enjoy! Let me know what else you'd like more of!

Chapter 13

Peeta was almost sick from watching the interviews. He knew it was what was best for Katniss, but that didn't mean he had to like it. Gale had played the mourning husband perfect, and the little bit about the daughter was also perfect. He didn't know why it bothered him so much, but it was fine.

They were going to give the tributes two hours of peace and quiet while they showed the interviews. Since they were prerecorded, if some action started to happen, they'd pause the interviews and come back to them when things were quiet again.

That day, Katniss and Rue decide to go hunting a little more, Peeta watches them from the screen, wishing he could talk to her. After the interviews tonight, Katniss should be set to receive anything she asks for because of how much sponsor money she should get.

It's like the cameras know this too, because they're spending a lot of time on her and Rue today. One zooms in and the volume turns up, hoping to hear their conversation.

"Do you miss him?" Rue asks.

"Gale? Yes…I miss him more than anything."

"I didn't think it was fair, when I saw your reaping tape."

Katniss smiles softly, knowing she has to carefully choose her words, "It's really not. They are punishing us for something that happened 75 years ago. It isn't our fault that our great, great," she tickled Rue, "great ancestors decided they didn't like the way things were."

Rue's eyes darkened, "No, it isn't fair. I mean, I'm only 12 years old. When I was picked, everybody just felt sorry for me… because a 12 year old getting picked is basically a death sentence."

"I'm sorry, Rue. It shouldn't have happened this way for you."

Peeta never knows what Rue says in return, because the cameras turn off, instead focusing on a group of Careers downstream from Rue and Katniss. The boy from 1, the boy from 2, and the girl from 4 are all that's left of them. Peeta wants to scream, he wants to tell them to run, but he can't. He can't do anything except watch helplessly.

He then watches the boy from 1 break off after a knowing look at Cato. As soon as Cato and the girl clear the trees, he slices her neck, signaling the cannon.

Katniss decides that she wants to go ahead and hunt more, having an uneasy feeling about tomorrow. Rue climbs a tree and teaches Katniss a whistle to signal that they're okay.

Katniss takes down three squirrels, and whistles back to Rue a few times before she hears the screams, "Katniss! KATNISS! KATNISS HELP ME!" She takes off in the direction of the screams, terrified of what she'll find.

Peeta looks down and clicks the screen to Rue's face. He then sets down his screen, afraid to start crying in front of a room full of people.

…

Gale heard Rory and Vick's calls from outside where he was gutting squirrels. The calls got more and more distressed, so Gale dropped what he was doing and sprinted for the living room. His eyes focused on the screen as Katniss found Rue with the spear through her stomach. The boy from district 1 already had an arrow through his heart as he tried to apologize.

"I'm…s-s-sorry. Cato's plan…I couldn't let him…just let me kill you, please."

"Hush up before I send another one through your eye!" Katniss spit at him.

"You were so b-b-beautiful, Girl on Fire…I w-wish I could be your husband…the one w-waiting for you"

Katniss continued to glare at him, "Gale would never murder an innocent person in cold blood." She fired another arrow through his neck, and the boy was dead in minutes.

Rue continued to sputter, "K-katniss. Will you sing for me again? It was so beautiful…"

Just like before, Katniss sang the lullaby. At home, Gale sang it with her, and the two of them whispered the last lines together, as if they were singing Keegan to sleep. Gale held Vick's hand as the two of them cried shamelessly, with Rory shedding the occasional tear. The screen turned off promptly after Rue's cannon.

By the time the interviews played that night, they were down to four people left in the arena. The boy from 2, the boy from 11, the girl from 2, and Katniss.

As Katniss tied herself in a sleeping bag on a branch, she wondered if the cameras were still on her. Whether they were or not, she didn't care. She touched her three middle fingers to her hand and outstretched them to the moon in the arena.

Gale smiled as Katniss set her jaw; there was no way she was going to let anyone else come out of that arena except her.

…

Peeta saw the salute, and on his screen of the whole arena, he knew what it meant. Katniss had just targeted herself, the Gamemakers were coming after her now. He saw the fire at the edge of the arena, and it was coming right for her. Peeta looked at Haymitch and saw his own horror reflected in the other's face. Peeta's voice was very small as he asked, "What do we do? What can we do?"

"There's nothing we can do," Haymitch said sullenly. "There ain't a damn thing we can do."

…

Cato stands at the other end of the arena from Katniss, he doesn't know that, but the audience at home does. All he wants is to find Thresh and the Girl on Fire. He doesn't even care if he wins as long as they die.

It pisses him off that Marvel took such a liking to her. In Cato's opinion, there wasn't a damn thing to like. She was scrawny, over confident, and apparently a whore. Children out of wedlock were a shameful thing in district 2, everyone had a condom or a birth control shot. He smiled, just another way 2 was better than every district. He couldn't believe that dumb ass Marvel had tried to defend her. Cato didn't give a shit if they couldn't afford birth control in 12.

Marvel had started to become weak, Cato was glad he was dead. He had started to fall for the Girl on Fire, and Cato knew love made a man weak.

Like Glimmer. Cato had thought maybe in another time, another place, Glimmer would have fallen in love with him. And he might have fallen for her, but love made one weak in this arena. That oaf Mellark had almost died last year because he'd thought too hard about his 'love' back in 12.

He looks at the tree line and sees smoke. Fire on the horizon, maybe the Girl on Fire was too. He chuckled and started to take a step that direction, but he then figured the game makers were bringing the girl and Thresh to him. He wasn't very worried about Clove. She'd had some bad wounds that would infect and kill her anyway, he knew all the district sponsor money was going to him, so they'd send her nothing.

He readies himself for the battle to come.

…

The fire makes Katniss run harder than she has in her life. She knows what the gamemakers are pushing her towards, and she can't find herself going in any other direction. She runs, runs, runs in front of the flames, pushing her to the destination. She only runs because tonight will be it. Tonight it will be over. Within 3 days, she will be back with her family. Either in person or in a box.

The fire stops just before the clearing. She sees Thresh and Cato are already locked in battle, and it looks like Thresh is winning. She watches the battle for a few minutes, readying her bow. It will come down to her and Thresh, and she will have to shoot him. A cannon sounds, but neither Thresh nor Cato falls. Katniss guesses that it's the girl from 2 and sighs relief.

At that moment, Thresh brings down a rock on Cato's head. He's still breathing, but Katniss can see the dent in his skull. She hopes Gale had the good sense to tear Keegan away from the screen for that.

Thresh looks at the sky as the cannon sounds. "Where are you, Girl on Fire? Face me."

Katniss emerges from the trees, "Here I am, Thresh."

He smiles when he sees her. "Kill me, Girl on Fire. You have a family to get home to, and I have nothing. Kill me or I shall kill myself."

"But… Thresh, why? You could over power me in an instant, take my life and take the riches for yourself?"

He smiled, "I know. But you tried to save Rue. I heard him talking about it. You have a little girl. Take my gift." He puts his chest out. "Make it quick."

She is torn by her morals and her desires to get back to her family.

…

Gale watches at home, screaming for Katniss to shoot.

Instead, she takes out nightlock, a poisonous berry. She smiles at Thresh, "They have to have a Victor."

"Yes they do, Girl on Fire. And that is you. I will be of more use as a martyr than alive. Remember what I sacrificed."

Gale did, he also remembered that Katniss valued her family over everything. She handed him the berries, and held his hand as he ate them. He sank to the ground, and she waited for the cannon.