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AN: Another chapter from the POV of parties other than Katniss, but I think you'll be surprised to see what's coming up…

AN 2: Thanks to Michael Weyer for helping me refine Clove's section of this chapter.

Twice Chosen

Finnick Odair

After his long years trading in the secrets of the Capitol, Finnick had believed he'd long since passed the point where anything could surprise him. He was doing his part to gather information and prepare for the next rebellion once Thirteen felt they had a suitable catalyst, but he would admit to himself that he was mostly doing that for the chance to feel like he was doing something even if he doubted that a suitable catalyst would appear any time soon.

In any case, even in his wildest fantasies, he could safely say that he'd never expected to find that the chance for a more open rebellion would come in the form of giant robot animals fighting some kind of golden monster. The battle would have been impressive on its own, but privately Finnick had been particularly impressed at how the final human-sized robot had taken care to do such deliberate damage to the Peacekeeper building as they left the District.

As if that hadn't been enough of a shock, Finnick had been even more stunned when the subsequent bombings against various other Districts had been followed by the revelation that some of the Tributes in the last Games had done the impossible and actually survived what they'd been through. He was sure he wasn't the only one currently wondering exactly how and why the Rangers had chosen those six people to basically make contact with Earth, but further questions had been basically cut off when those giant robot animal things arrived in Districts Four and Twelve.

It had basically reinforced one of the ironies that not even some of the Victors were willing to discuss out of fear of what might happen. The Capitol's constant sense of paranoia about rebellions in the Districts would have been a lot easier to suppress if they would just treat the Districts better, rather than trying to enforce the Capitol's authority. Once the Rangers' robots had attacked the Peacekeeper bases in each District, it had been easy enough for the District residents to turn the tables against the scattered and disorganised forces that hadn't been in the building at the time.

The Rangers hadn't done anything serious to those Peacekeeper forces, and seemed content to leave that matter to the District residents once the main building had been destroyed, but they were definitely making their presence felt. The cat-like robot and the thing like a multi-legged elephant had spent some time touring the District as though searching for something, but the large pink winged thing had settled into position on top of the Academy. It hadn't done anything since then, but Finnick had more than a few people compare it to a bird watching its prey.

When so many other questions were facing the residents of District Four about what would happen next, Finnick was both surprised and not surprised when he received a call from the head of the Academy that the Pink Ranger was waiting to meet with him. He didn't like to think of himself as arrogant, even if the Capitol liked him to play up his confidence, but it was still strange to realise that one of Panem's mysterious defenders wanted to talk to him over anyone else. When he arrived at the Academy building, he was led to one of the staff meeting rooms, where the Pink Ranger was standing nonchalantly off to the side, arms folded and waiting patiently.

"Hello there," Finnick said, deciding to start with the usual charm and play it by ear. This close up, it was easy to see that the figure was female, but Finnick reminded himself that he still didn't know enough about what he was dealing with to say any more. "So what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

"My associates and I have heard that you're the one to talk to if we want information," the Pink Ranger explained, tone nonchalant but the voice deep in a manner that made Finnick suspect she was lowering her voice.

"That depends," he said, hoping he wasn't about to get Annie or others in trouble by saying too much to a woman he knew basically nothing about (starting with if she actually was female, if the Rangers were actually aliens). "What kind of… information are you looking for?"

"Basically anything you have to tell us about District Thirteen."

Finnick thanked his long experience with the Capitol residents that he didn't express his reaction to that news.

Clove

The only thing that stopped Clove having a more serious breakdown was the knowledge that everyone else involved in the last Hunger Games had been fooled.

The moment that broadcast aired to reveal the six faces she'd last seen in the arena (four at the start and two during their brief alliance), Clove had fallen into such a blind rage that her father had only managed to stop her doing more damage after she'd already destroyed the television set. Her family had quickly spoken with the Capitol to confirm that her status as Victor still applied, considering that the six Tributes had essentially abandoned the Games and thus basically forfeited the chance of winning, but there was nothing she could actually do about it. The Capitol didn't even know where these 'Power Rangers' were, so there was no way anyone could punish them for interfering in the Games, and Clove doubted that she would get lucky enough to have a chance to go after them for interfering by herself.

The worst part was that even with this news, she ultimately still didn't have anyone to blame for the fact that Cato was dead. Even if these six had stayed in the Games and died like they should, there was no guarantee that one of them wouldn't have ultimately managed to get lucky and kill her or Cato before the end. Eleven's boy alone could obviously do some damage given his size, and both Twelves were a cut above the usual half-starved kids from that District. Clove didn't want to openly say that either of them could have beaten her, but it would at least drawn things out more. It was possible they could have taken out Three before he got to set off his own trap, or maybe Ten wouldn't have attacked like that until more of them had actually gone down…

She knew that there was no way the Capitol would have allowed her and Cato to survive, but the fact that six other people had survived what should have been her exclusive victory really got to Clove on so many levels.

Add in all this crap as these 'Power Rangers' started lashing out at Panem, and it was as though everything she had trained all her life to accomplish had just become irrelevant on what should have been the greatest year of her life.

Even after all that, the part that made her feel the most ashamed was the thought that she might just escape the worst parts of her new role. Clove wanted to believe it was all rumour and propaganda put out by the outer Districts who wanted to reinforce the idea that the Games were something to be feared rather than an opportunity for glory, but there was always that nagging part of her that wondered…

What if it was true?

She was still angry at the Rangers for taking away her glory, but if even half of those rumours were true…

Gale Hawthrone

What did it say about Gale's life that he couldn't get what he wanted even when it actually happened? He'd tried going out for a hunt to take his mind off things, but without Katniss's bow he couldn't find anything worth hunting at closer quarters, and he didn't have the patience right now to actually try sneaking up on anything.

He'd allowed himself to hope a bit when news trickled in of the attacks on Peacekeeper buildings in the other Districts, and he was definitely happy when he saw the broadcast revealing that Katniss was still alive, but ever since it seemed as though nothing was going right. He'd allowed himself a brief hope that the Rangers' broadcast meant that Katniss was coming back soon, but even after the Red and Blue Rangers' giant robots had shown up to trash the Peacekeeper base, it soon became clear that they weren't even interested in doing that much for the people they were allegedly here to 'help'.

He didn't know how they'd won Katniss over, but if all they were going to do was destroy a few buildings, Gale already knew they weren't going to do much. These 'Rangers' obviously had the power to completely destroy the Capitol directly, and they were wasting time by coming to the Districts and smashing empty buildings? If someone was going to come to Panem with those kind of powers, why couldn't they just see what the problem was and deal with the real problem? The Capitol had been in power for decades; it wasn't hard to see who the real enemy was…

Come to me…

Surprised at the voice, Gale looked around himself, but couldn't see anyone who might have spoken to him. Actually, when he took a moment to think about it, he realised that whatever voice he was 'hearing' had somehow managed to 'speak' to him without his ears actually hearing anything.

Follow my voice.

Looking back, Gale would like to say that he had resisted the urge to go along with that particular order, but it would have ultimately been a lie. He didn't know what the voice was talking about, but it was enough to grab his interest and head off in the indicated direction (he wasn't sure how he could tell what direction the voice was coming from, but he also knew this wasn't the time to think about things like that).

Gale wasn't sure how long he had been walking until the sensation became more focused, but he soon realised that there was definitely something out here drawing him towards a certain area of the forest. As far as he could recall there wasn't anything of particular note out here beyond a few open areas they'd used to set some traps, but there was also… now that he was thinking about it…

As soon as the idea came to him, Gale had focused his efforts on heading for the hillside where he had just remembered the location of a small cave. It wasn't much use for anything more than a place to shelter in heavy rain, or even store a few of their larger, less regularly-used weapons, but Gale had a sudden feeling there was something more there now…

When he approached the cave, Gale wasn't sure how to feel when that strange sensation in his head suddenly ceased, but he soon realised that it had actually become focused. Allowing his eyes to trace the source of what he was feeling, he found himself looking at a strange green gem surrounded by an elaborate gold design that he couldn't explain.

Staring at the strange green thing on the floor of the cave, Gale wondered what about this thing had made the voice so insistent he come here. It might fetch an interesting price for some Capitol collector, but it didn't look like it would be worth much to the kind of people he usually worked with…

Gale only realised that he'd picked it up when he felt a surge of power fill his body from the green coin… and what made him so sure it was a coin-?

Greetings, Gale Hawthorne.

"Who…?" Gale said, unable to release his grip on the coin despite his shock at the voice.

My name is Zedd, the voice said, a deep but confident tone to it as Gale once again 'heard' it in his head. And I have an offer to make to you…