Ah… I have been waiting for this chapter for so long…and now it is finally here! Oh, yes… I dedicate it to my best friend and fellow author, junbug24. I know, I dedicate plenty of chapters to her, but oh well. :3 This chapter took a lot of brains to actually figure out how to write it, so I hope you aren't too disappointed. And I really hope it makes sense to you people… Read, read, read!

It didn't take us long to get back to the doctors, and when we did, Dr. Longarden told us that Alexis will be ready to go again once we have had a talk.

"Please follow me." He cast us worriers a smile and promptly began to walk the other direction.

With Peeta's arm secured around my waist, we all walked a short ways to a small conference room not unlike the one we were in previously. A large desk in the middle, with three chairs placed in front of it, and a bed in the back of the space. "The bad news room" the doctor had called it. Peeta and I nervously took a seat next to each other, gripping hands tightly.

"Now…" Dr. Longarden sat in front of us and looked sympathetic. "As you may have guessed, there is more to this than you already knew."

"Well, if there was more why didn't you tell us before, when you told me about Alexis being a mutt?" I had already snapped, glaring at the doctor. Peeta gave my hand a warning squeeze.

"Because you were in shock and I didn't want to stress you out more." His answer was so utterly legit that it made me embarrassed. "I will start where you would like me to and tell you everything we missed."

I nodded stiffly and turned to Peeta, unsure where to start.

"What makes her so much different than a regular infant?" Peeta's question was far better than any I had in mind. "Besides the…thing that happened to her half an hour ago."

After only a second of hesitation, Doctor Longarden looked at me. "You didn't think you were pregnant before I examined you, correct?"

I nodded cautiously.

"No random puking?"

I shook my head.

"No unexplained stomach pains?"

I shook my head.

"Your period was still regular?"

For a second I sat, bewildered, because I realized that it was true. Slowly, I nodded my head.

"See, Katniss," the doctor folded up his small glasses and pocketed them. "You know Alexis was made in the Capitol, correct?"

Peeta and I nodded. So far this was easy, just shaking and nodded our heads when needed.

"Since she wasn't 'made the normal was, measures had to be taken that effected your premarital symptoms. The child wasn't made with your egg; therefore they kept coming as if nothing happened. The child was man-made inside of you, so there wasn't anything your body did, really. Everything went on, just like normal, when there was a Capitol-made fetus growing inside of you, feeding off of your nutrients. It didn't demand more food or strength, so you weren't more hungry or tired."

We were intently watching the doctor as he explained. I understood things better, but I still had some questions. "If Alexis really is a muttation, what makes her different from the other babies?" I repeated Peeta's earlier question.

"Are you familiar with the process of hijacking?"

Both Peeta and I shook our heads, but the sound of it did not make either of us happy.

"Do not fret; your daughter has not been hijacked, but what has happened to her is somewhat similar. Her mind has been slightly altered to be repelled at the voice of one person, and one person alone. Can you guess who that person is?"

A sick feeling was starting to form in my gut. It was me, of course. "But she didn't always scream when I said her name."

The doctor shrugged. "It goes on and off."

"Is there anything to fix it?"

He nodded. "The liquid I shot into her was a mild sedative with a different type of medicine in it, which is normally used to supposedly slow down the process of hijacking. So, whenever your daughter has an attack, we insert the medicine into her blood stream."

"So she'll become a drug addict?" I said through gritted teeth. "Lovely. But if she is always going to have something against me, is there any way to stop that? You said the medicine 'supposedly slows the process down'."

"Only time can tell, Ms. Everdeen."

"It's Mellark!" I spat, standing up and facing the doctor. "And my baby girl is not going to be shot with a drug every time she has one of her attacks. I am not going to sedate her, and I am not going to sit by hoping time will erase her repulsion of me."

"What else is there to do?" The helplessness of the doctor's voice made me a little less upset, so I sat back down. "Like I said, only time can tell."

"So she will either grow to be my best friend, or my worst enemy, right? She will either be cured of the whatever-you-called-it or it will get worse, right?"

"Katniss," Peeta patted my hand reassuringly. "We don't know that. Things may turn out all right in the end."

I rolled my eyes, but turned to the doctor instead of responding to him. "Anything else you failed to tell us, Doctor?"

"Well…It might be best for me to mention her growth…"

"What about Alexis' growth?" I was getting really irritated, and it was all I could do not to launch myself across the desk at Dr. Longarden.

"Her mind," The doctor seemed really hesitant now. "is not that of an ordinary human. She was carefully monitored here in 13 and the doctors traced brain waves and found connections that no other new born child should have. At the rate and form that her conscious mind is developing, by the time she is of age, that is, eighteen years old, her brain will be more developed than your average thirty-year-old."

My hand tightened around Peeta's.

"Her thoughts will be so developed and, see," Now the doctor was looking worried and self-conscious. "the doctors found a certain…spark in her." He took a deep breath. "By the time she is eighteen, she will have enough strength, cunning, and willpower to lead an empire, to make it rise. Yet, at the same time, she will have enough of the same to…destroy an empire. And as we examine her brainwaves closer, we-we found that…"

This time it was Peeta who was getting hot. "Found that what?"

"That was her purpose. She was a tool." Dr. Longarden looked sick. "The Capitol implanted her inside of Katniss knowing she would be taken good care of until she was eighteen. Until she made the decision."

"And what would that decision be?" Peeta was returning my shaking, sweaty grip with his own.

"Alexis is meant to determine all of our futures. And when President Snow had her implanted, he meant for that to be the destruction of Panem."