The song for this chapter is "Rue's Farewell (Extended)," you can find it on YouTube here!

"Well, that's bad luck," replies Caesar. I don't think I've ever seen him get into a situation that he can't talk his way out of or brighten. It seems he's met his match in Peeta.

Peeta nods solemnly. "Yeah, it is."

After thanking Peeta and wishing him luck, Caesar shakes his hand.

All of us marvel at the display Peeta had just put on. Love and the Hunger Games aren't two concepts that are supposed to exist in the same sentence. Yet Peeta seems to have found a way to merge the two. But what I can't understand is why Haymitch wanted us to watch this if Peeta was going to announce he loves Katniss. There's no way that Peeta would turn against the girl if he's in love with her, right?

All of us watch as Peeta passes by us on his way back to the dressing room, being lead by his Escort. A few moments after he passes, we all hear yelling from around the corner where Peeta just went.

All of us poke our heads around the corner, not wanting to be seen eavesdropping. "...You don't talk to me and then you say you have a crush on me? You say you want to train alone? Is that how you want to play?" Katniss has Peeta pinned up against the wall and Haymitch eventually pulls her off of him. "Let's start right now!"

I turn my head upwards to look at Finnick, whose head is poking around the corner above mine. "So that's what Haymitch wanted us to see." They all begin to quiet down at the end of the hallway and we can't hear the conversation anymore.

Us Career Mentors huddle behind the corner, out of the view of the District 12 people. "She obviously didn't like that," voices Gloss.

Finnick shakes his head. "The question is, how does he feel. If there's even a little bit of truth in what he's saying, he's going to be loyal to her."

Gloss narrows his eyes at Finnick. "I forgot you were the authority on love." Finnick shoots him a glare as a response.

Cashmere rolls her eyes at the pettiness between the two men. "I say we take him on. Look at how aggressive she was towards him. She's strong, and we don't know what she did to get that 11. I say we take him on and then get rid of him once we find Katniss or figure out what her strength is."

We all nod in agreement, having reached a consensus. We're going to recommend to our tributes that they keep Peeta alive...for now.

~~~

Things start to quiet down once the Escorts take all the tributes upstairs. All that remains in the plain corridors are some Victors chatting away and gathering their things. Some VIP guests would soon be taken back to tour the dressing rooms, but no one usually stays around for that; no one wants to talk to the Capitolians more than they have to. Finnick stays downstairs with me as I pack up my bag to head back upstairs.

Out of nowhere, Finnick speaks up. "Could you imagine that?"

"Imagine what?"

"I know they're faking the whole star-crossed lovers thing and all, but imagine what it would be like to have to compete in the games against someone you love."

I put down the black coat that I had been folding to pack in my bag and turn around to face Finnick. "Well, it's a good thing you'll never have to worry about that because we both won already. And we're too old."

"I know it just--it just would suck."

I concede to his hypothetical story. "Yes, it would suck."

Knock, knock, knock.

I'm not sure who's at the door, but I answer it anyway. Once the door opens, I immediately know who it is and place a hand on my hip. "What do you want, Haymitch?"

Haymitch peeks past me and into the dressing room. "What are you two up to? I hope I haven't interrupted anything."

I narrow my eyes at his insinuation. "The only thing you've interrupted is my peace, tranquillity, and patience, so I'd speak fast if I were you."

Haymitch pushes past me into the dressing room uninvited and flops down onto the couch, which still has some popcorn on it. "Right, so, here's the deal, my guy teams up with your guy, and at some point, they go their separate ways and it's all fair game after that."

Seeing how bothered I am by having Haymitch here, Finnick takes the lead on this one. "As long as he doesn't do anything to sabotage, betray or intentionally mislead our tributes, he'll have nothing to worry about."

"What, Miss Stabbity over here lose her voice?" taunts Haymitch.

I cross my arms and look around the room to any and everywhere he isn't occupying space. I swear one wrong look from the guy and I will not hesitate to put him into place. "Haymitch, I swear I am one inch away from losing it on you. There may be a rule that the tributes aren't allowed to fight, but it's a good thing we're Victors, right?"

Haymitch stands up from the couch. "Want to tell me what's got you so hot and bothered, sweetheart? Because you usually don't even care enough to want to fight me."

Finnick steps in-between the two of us, presumably ready to stop me from lunging for the man's throat like I want to. "I'll tell you when you tell me how the Girl on Fire got an 11."

In a tense moment, Haymitch and I stare each other down, hoping the other will break. Much to my satisfaction, Haymitch is the one to break the gaze with a soft chuckle. "Fine then. Keep your secrets." Haymitch exists the room slowly, knowing that every second he flounders around aggravates me more.

~~~~

Once I return to my apartment I know that there are a few things still left to do. I need to give Cato the talk. It's the talk that every single Career gets when they're going to enter the games with someone they know. Luckily, I got Brutus to switch with me and take Clove. But now I feel my courage leaving me. I hope that him hearing it from his sister won't deter him from the important message.

I open the door to his room where he is still getting ready for bed, puttering around in his pyjamas as he prepares his stuff for the morning. "Oh, hey," says Cato as he pops his head out of his bathroom. He dabs his face off with a towel and walks towards me. "What's up?"

I take a deep breath and sit down on the edge of his bed. patting the spot next to me. "There's something important that we need to talk about. It's something that every Career hears before they enter the arena." Sensing the importance of the moment, he sits down next to me with no fuss. "I know it may be hard to think about, but there may come a time in the Games where you need to let your district partner go. That in order for you to advance your own game and survive, you may have to be the one who has to kill them."

Cato sits there for a moment, stewing in what I've said. I hope that he doesn't reject me for it, but at the same time I hope he doesn't come to the realization just yet that every tribute comes to eventually--the Games are hell.  But slowly, he nods, absorbing what I'm saying. "Ares..." is all he manages to say.

I know that name. I know it too well. Ares was my district partner all the way back in my own Games. He and I were the last two left. I still see his face sometimes in dreams, the face he made when my bladed boomerang lodged into his back and punctured his lung. If I'm honest, I never really was friends with him, but after the adrenaline and anger passed, the guilt came in that I'd just killed someone from home. Someone like me. I shake my head at my brother. "It will be harder for you. I know she's your best friend, but if it comes down to it, if it's you or her, you pick you. Understood?"

Cato turns to me with a heavy look on his face. "Is that an order from the Training Centre or is that you?"

"Both."  I can feel the sadness and desperation rising up in me. I just want to hold onto him and never let go. Because I know in my heart of hearts, no matter how much positivity and confidence I have, that this could be one of the last times I see my brother alive. I don't want to alarm him with my emotion and make him think that I doubt that he has the strength to win. But there are some things I need to tell him. "When you're out there, Cato, no matter what, just know you have a sister here who loves you. I will love you no matter what you have to do. Just come back." I feel the tears in my eyes welling up.

Cato pulls me into a side hug. "I'm gonna come back," he says softly. I stay there for a moment, assuring myself that things would be fine.

I wipe the tears out of my eyes and stand up to leave the room. "I should get going. I don't want to keep you up. Goodnight."

"Night."

And with that, I close the door to my brother's room. As I walk back to my room I pass the window where I can still hear the loud cheers of the Capitolians below. I want to shout down at them to keep the noise down, that the tributes were trying to sleep. But why should they care about their sleeping habits when they're going to watch a good chunk of them die the next day?

~~~

I get up at the crack of dawn, hardly sleeping at all. I figure if I'm going to be tossing and turning, that I should at least be productive. I don't think I've slept this poorly the night before my Games since my own. Even with Perseus, I still slept like a baby.

I begin to plan out what I'm going to say when I announce that I am Cato's sister later today, but don't write anything down in my notebook because I can't risk things getting out early; not when we've come this far.

Eventually, everyone starts to trickle down and out of their rooms, but the silence of the morning remains as I'm sure everyone else is in just as deep of thought as me. We try and let the tributes sleep as long as they can the night before the Games because who knows when they're going to get it next. We supply them with an oil that helps put them to sleep and wears off about eight hours after taking them. A lot of Victors would use it, however, they tend to make nightmares worse, so virtually everyone avoids it. Finally, Cato and Clove wake up and things begin to move. The stylists do their hair as they sit down at the table for breakfast to make things extra efficient and because they need to head to the arena early so that they're waiting there once the tributes arrive for last-minute touch-ups.

We make sure that they are provided with a healthy and well-balanced breakfast, which will keep them full for hours but at the same time not feel heavy on their stomachs. The time to walk to the ships is slowly approaching, and everyone who doesn't need to be there filters out so that the official Mentors, Brutus and I, can have some last private moments and talks with our tributes. I go to Clove first, knowing that Brutus will be the one to take her. Her hair is done in the same bubble-like style that I had during my Games. A small gesture that feels like the least I can do, considering the circumstances: it's hard to look at Clove, a girl I've seen grow up because I know deep down, I don't want her to come back. As cruel as it sounds, I know the sacrifice will have to be made. I just wish that somehow, this wasn't the case. "You represent us girls from District 2, alright?" I say. But I can't bring myself to say the simple and traditional words of may the odds be ever in your favour. Because that would be a bald-faced lie;  I need the odds to be in my favour.

Brutus gives me a nod and sets off with Clove, but not before she turns and runs back to hug me one last time. "Thank you for being my family," she whispers to me.

As if my heart hadn't been broken enough times over the course of the last few days, it certainly splintered into even more pieces upon hearing that. Mostly because I know that I don't deserve that sort of title.

Soon it's just me and Cato left in the apartment. I remember that I need to grab my security clearance badge and quickly run back to my room, apologizing to Cato.

As I move around my room, I notice a strange reflection coming off my desk while searching for the pass. I use the natural light of the sun rising to find my remote to turn on the rest of the lights so that I can inspect the reflection closer. I'm glad no one else is around because if they were, it would have been embarrassing for them to see how long it took me to find the damn remote. Once I find it, I switch the lights on and there on top of my desk is the source of the reflection; a wooden box with a nice and shiny finish. Leaning in-front of the box is a white envelope, presumably containing a note. I take the note into my hands, noticing that the paper is quite weighty and expensive. I carefully open it, hoping it's not about to spray poison at me from Seneca Crane or any of the other enemies I've made during my escapades in the Capitol.

To my luck, no such poison sprays me in the face. Rather, a small note which is clearly written using some sort of machine because no one's handwriting is that uniform.

The answer lies within.

Under the writing where a signature is supposed to be, there is instead a drawing of a rose.

Snow.

I open the solid wooden box on my desk carefully, The metal hinges creak a bit and I look in it. There, at the bottom of the metal-lined box is a single cheap present bow. I lift it up, expecting something to be under it, but there's nothing besides a package of matches. Huh? I lift the box up to see if there's anything under it, but nothing. I take the present decor and begin to pace with it. Trying to figure out what it means.

It's about Katniss. I know that because of the note, but what does a present have to do with it? Does she have some sort of secret sponsor working for her? Or maybe it's something to do with the box itself? No, that can't be it either. It can't be the matches, because I know they have been given to me to burn the evidence of what was inside the envelope and the box. But I need to figure things out and quick so that I can get rid of them quickly.

Present bow. Present bow? Present bow. Present. Bow. Bow...Bow!

That's it. Bow as in bow and arrow. That's how Katniss got an 11. She's a master with a bow and arrow. Gotcha bitch. You're going down.

Cato calls at me, telling me to hurry up. "One minute!" I call back to him.

Before I get too excited, I throw the bow into the box and carefully light the note and envelope's edges with a match. Once they've caught on fire sufficiently, I throw them in so that they can burn together with the bow. A small trail of smoke begins to rise from the box and I make sure to wave my hands over it to avoid setting off any fire alarms. All the items are soon consumed, and all the evidence of my insider information is gone.

I run back out wielding my badge and ready to tell Cato what I've learned. We exit the apartment to ensure that we still arrive early, so I speak to him in a hushed voice. "I've figured it out. I figured out how Katniss got an 11."

"How?" my brother exclaims.

"I thought of something that Haymitch said a few days ago and cross-referenced it with my notes," I lie. "It's a long story that I don't have time to tell, but you have to trust me on this one. You cannot let Katniss get her hands on a bow. I don't care if you have to kill the girl from 1 who thinks she can do archery, but you need to find the bow, bury it, tie rocks to it and throw it in a lake, destroy it, I don't care. You just need to get rid of it. You need to kill her before she gets her hands on it."

Cato nods. He explains that he's going to tell the other Careers that he worked it out on the ride over to the arena after he had time to think long and hard about what stations she didn't go to. I only hope they'll be sensible enough to go along with his plan.

We step out of the elevator and begin down the long and winding series of hallways and pathways towards the ship pad on top of one of the many buildings that make up the Tribute Centre. "Always make sure you're hydrated and you know where your next meal is coming from. Take out six if you can during the bloodbath so they don't draw the Games out, but worry about high priority targets like Thresh and Katniss, you want to attack them while the pack is still at full strength. Finish every kill, letting someone bleed out is not only unsportsmanlike, but you leave them in the Game which you don't want."

Finnick POV

Once I drop my tribute off at the transport, I find my way down a series of hallways to wait for Octavia and Cato. Octavia made sure to tell me to wait in a spot that is off the beaten path so that no one accidentally stumbles upon us. I wanted to give Cato some final words before sending him off. Soon I hear her hushed lecturing coming towards me down the hallway. She's nervous. It's completely normal for her to be nervous of course, but I can't say it's an emotion I see from her much. She's much more of a person to get angry.

I see the two of them around the corner and Cato has on the token bracelet I had made for him. Cato's face is nodding along to his sister's words, taking her more seriously than I've ever seen before. I can't help but wonder if this is what they were like when she was training him at the Academy. It feels strange to miss such a large part of the life of someone who is so important to me.

After a moment, Cato looks up to see me and I shoot him a grin. Octavia waits at the end of the hallway to make sure no one is coming but sends Cato the rest of the way to meet me. "Ready for this, buddy?"

He nods. "As I'll ever be."

There's a false confidence in his voice, but I don't want to ruin it by calling him out on it. "Your sister and I will be here, doing everything we can for you."

"I know I've only really known you for such a short time, but it feels like I've known you forever. All the stories I've heard about you, you always seemed so cool I thought, 'there's no way you're actually that cool in real life'. But you are." Flattery will get this kid everywhere in life. "I know I'm going to see you on the other side, but I want you to know that you have my blessing. With my sister, I mean." Just in case, I finish in my head. It means a lot. "I know it's the blessing of a brother so it's not really the same but..."

"It's the most important one," I say with conviction. Really, there's no one else that I would consider asking, save maybe Brutus, who I've come to discover is more of a father to Octavia than her own blood father. But even that one is iffy. I change to a lighter subject, trying to uplift him going into the Games and not depress him. He can be depressed after he wins, just like the rest of us. That's how you're supposed to do it. "Once you come back, I'll make sure to steal a bottle of champagne to celebrate."

Cato extends his hand for me to shake and I take it. "I'll be looking forward to it."

From the handshake, I pull him into a half hug, one that would be acceptable for 'bros' of course, and clap him on the back. I make my way over to switch spots with Octavia so that she can say her final goodbyes to her brother.

Octavia POV

Saying goodbye is never easy. But it doesn't get any easier when you don't know if it's the last time you're going to say it to someone. I don't want to cry because I don't want him to come to the realization here and now what he's about to walk into. The ignorance of the situation is bliss. But after holding back tears since the moment we stepped off the train, at least, for the most part, it seems that the tears have stacked up in my eyes over the last few days and now spill out over my cheeks. I reach up to hold both sides of his face, trying to engrave one last image of him into my brain just in case it's one of the last. "You're going to come back to me. Got it?"

He nods. "I can do this." And he really does seem to believe it. Cato straightens back up and I lower my hands back to my side.

I let out a small chuckle and lick one of the salty tears off of the corner of my lip. "You're always going to be that little boy who came up to me at the centre and called me lady and said things like 'wowee' with your little lisp." Both of us chuckle at the memory. "I only wish...I only wish I found you earlier. There's so much more I should have done for you." Like making sure he was never pulled into the Career ideology, I finish to myself. I'm a terrible sister.

Now I can see it in Cato's eyes that he's gotten emotional too. Dang it. I didn't want to upset him right before. He doesn't need my emotional baggage right before he's sent off to the Games. He has more than enough on his plate to worry about. He--

Cato pulls me into a hug. "You adopted me. You took me in. I never knew my mom. I don't know what it's like to have a mom, but I'd say it's a hell of a lot close to having you. My big, idiot sister." 

Those words make me want to bawl my eyes out so hard that I'd flood the arena with my tears just like the dam did in Annie's Games. Because Cato is right, as much as he is my brother, I'm his guardian. I raised him. He's my little boy. My little baby brother boy that is.

I pull out of the hug wipe off my tears, and I swear out of the corner of my eyes I see Cato doing the same. Finnick re-joins up with us as we walk down the rest of the hallway. Due to my forward-thinking, I thought to pack some sunglasses in my bag before I left the apartment so that I can conceal my puffy red eyes. Everyone will write it off as me having drank too much the night before.

Finally, it's time, and we reach the transport where quite a few of the tributes are already waiting inside. One other transport on the other side of the building will take a different half of them. This is it—the final moments. Since we're now in full view of the other tributes and Mentors, there's no way we can afford any signs of unusual affection here without being spotted.

I turn to Cato and give him a handshake just like I would any other tribute. There's a fierce look in his eyes as he walks on the ramp of the transport. "Cato," I call to him. He turns back to look at me from halfway up the ramp. "Win."

He gives me one final smirk and a District 2 salute--hitting his fist to his chest, above his heart-- as he boards the transport.

And with that, he disappears inside the machine that will take him to the 74th Annual Hunger Games.

Finally, the 74th Annual Hunger Games are only moments away from starting. How will the Victors and Capitol take Octavia's reveal? And perhaps an even greater question, what effects will Octavia have from here on out on the story we all know and love? Stay tuned...

The next chapter will open with a surprise POV (see if you can guess who it is in the comments) and we will hopefully get to the start of the Games where things will start to move fast.

This chapter really makes me want to go back and edit/re-write some of the old Cato chapters that were written years ago. But, I'm going to hold off on doing so until I finish the story as a whole before going back and making huge edits.

As always leave any suggestions in the comments and let me know what you guys like so I can try to incorporate it more in the coming chapters!

Here is my main source of serotonin, and the only reason I made it through my midterm today, the Chapterly memes: