Time passed quickly for Terra, winter was upon them and the heat had diminished quite a bit but never enough for them to see snow. Much of her time had been divided between working the cattle, spending time with her brother, and trips to the capitol.

The other Victor's had taken to conversing with the occupants of district 10 no matter how many names were thrown their way. They worked the crowd and began calling to their friends in the other districts to reassure themselves that they had not fallen to the pending rebellion that threatened the fragile safety that hung by a thread.

She was scared, feeling the danger growing around her and the peacekeepers must have felt the same because they visited more frequently, leaving gifts that would either imprison them or aid her in times of war.

One of the more expensive gifts she could tell was from Snow, the man baiting her into standing as a symbol for the Capitol - one to rival Katniss' mockingjay. The whip had arrived when she was in the town square going from one shop to the next. It was designed of the finest leathers that could be made from the cattle of her own district, the handle fitted for her hand.

The cameras had been on her then, a live video feed going through to the Capitol and other districts - a broadcast where she was posed to act the part of grateful victor in the ever-hungry eyes of Panem that were starving for something more.

The Capitol citizens were yearning for their Victors, to shroud them in gifts, to sit with them in fancy parlors for one event a year and watch as the tributes slaughter each other for the chance to live.

The districts were hungry for freedom from the oppressive rule that weighed down on them, working them like they were the cattle to feed and pamper the rich.

Terra had been gifted a whip, a weapon used to punish the people of the districts and work the cattle that she helped to raise. She had been publicly thrust into the light, Snow showing that she was one of them, holding a whip that they all knew she could use.

People had begun to go out of their way to throw insults at her and her name was being called more and more often to present herself to cut meat for the Capitol as a result. Her world was a mess before her.

With winter came more time for her to hide as well, the animals not needing much work as they fenced them close to the barns where the warmth was held. Cows and bulls did not fight when handlers came with blankets, horses choosing to stay in the ranches - the sheep were the hardest to handle as they were not happy to lose the warmth of their wool.

Henrik often left his daughter with his sister for the day when he needed to work with her father, both of the little girl's parents tried their hardest to include Terra into their lives after not speaking with her for so long.

It was one of those fateful days, the ones where she was watching Mella happily, that the televised announcement took place for news revolving around the Quarter Quell. The two girls were sat comfortably in front of the television awaiting the mandatory broadcast to begin.

Terra had found it was one of the few times she could bare looking at President Snow, her niece was an anchor that kept her rage and disgust from seeping through. It kept her from having to face him completely alone, vulnerable even if he was nowhere within her vicinity.

They had just finished watching news on the Katniss and Peeta's wedding when Caesar was telling them to stay tuned for the next event.

She had briefly wondered who did not know about the Quarter Quell, it was the only thing that the Capitol spoke to her about in each visit since the Victor's tour ended.

It started with the Panem anthem, the music making her feel sick and her lips involuntarily curled into a snarl but the adorable babble of her niece brought her back from the blurry haze of rage. Mella was young, far too young to understand the horrors that were the games and Terra was not going to be the one to enlighten her to the terrors of the world.

President snow stepped onto the screen, a young boy in a white suit followed behind carrying a wooden box. He began to speak of the dark days before that led to the Hunger Games, then moved onto the rules- how the Quell was meant to be extra bloody as a reminder of the rebellion that brought them on in the first place.

Terra spoke to Mella the entire time, distracting her from the screen in chance they showed images of any of these events- her thoughts sitting with the girl as she had heard these things before.

"On the twenty-fifth anniversary, every district held an election on who would represent their district as a reminder that their children were dying because of their choice," President Snow goes on to say. "On the fiftieth anniversary, every district was required to send twice as many tributes as a reminder that two rebels died for every Capitol citizen."

She pulled Mella into her lap, cradling her close as this year's events were to be announced. Her own thoughts were not creative enough to conjure up a possible scenario for this year. The last Quell had been horrible enough, having seen the tape she knew how frightening it could be- she wondered how Haymitch had lived through the aftereffects of something like that.

"And now we honour our third Quarter Quell," the President continues. The boy in the white steps forward and Snow pulled a card from the box marked 75 from the many that sat inside, it was horrible how far ahead they planned for the games. "On the seventy-fifth anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that even the strongest among them cannot overcome the power of the Capitol, the male and female tributes will be reaped from their existing pool of victors."

She blanched, her heart slamming to a stop in her chest. She could hear the crowd's cries, their protest getting cut off by Panem's emblem.

Shouts of horror sounded from the house next door - Marium, the only other girl that could possibly be reaped from their district. Her phone rang, someone with the ability to call her trying to reach.

Her limbs felt frozen and she couldn't move. She felt tapping on her face, Mella crying to get her to respond and then everything was moving too fast. Terra was up, moving through her home in a rush to lock her door and draw the blinds shut tightly.

Ensuring that all the lights were off, the pair disappeared upstairs. They moved to a room that faced the back of the house and sat there for hours under a fort of blankets to keep them comfortable.

Knocks had been constant for near an hour, her phone ringing long after the knocks had stopped but she didn't move to answer it.

The tributes would be reaped from the existing pool of victors. People she knew, her friends would all be going back to the game to kill each other because they had no choice if they so wished to live.

Her district only had two females that could be reaped, herself and Marium, a mother that was needed more than herself. It was clear what she had to do, what she would be expected to do even if she didn't wish to die in her friend's place.

She supposed it would be her to spend a few final moments with some of the people she cared about most, and the games were still months away - she would get the time to spend with the people that didn't hate her.

Mella was sound asleep by the time that someone had finally gotten into her home - her brother and his wife shouting through the quiet house frantically to find the pair. Terra wondered how much time had passed, she wondered if they had somehow only just heard the news or if they waited to come and see her - realisation dawning on them.

They had spent many years not paying any attention to her, it would be a foreign idea that they had forgotten what this would mean for her.

The nightmares that haunted her nightly reminded of what she had to do for her games - the consequences that she hid from the rest of 10. They did not see the way she clawed at her skin feeling as though she was sticky with blood, they didn't see the abuse that was engraved into her even after the terror was over.

It was fair for her admit that I was not a big deal if they had forgotten about her for just a few moments because they could not understand what she felt - a righteous sense of hate and fear, and anger that could level cities due to an injustice that was thrust upon her once again.

She shushed them when they came into the room, the parents finding their daughter tucked away peacefully in a bed and Terra seated in a spot by the window silently. They were loud and threatened to wake the dormant child.

"T," Henrik breathed and she looked to him. She felt a sense of déja-vu upon seeing his expression. Oddly, he looked younger, the same way he did six years ago when they all believed she was being sent to die in the arena.

"Don't look at me like that, Henny." She spoke to him softly, comfortingly. "It's not the end of the world, truly."

"But you could be going back," he argued just as quietly, tears threatened to spill - beside his Raven appeared just as distraught.

She looked at him sadly and stood to her feet. She laid a hand on his arm, closing the space between them with a timid hug.

"I am going back."

His protests were loud, arguing with her about how she stood a chance and didn't need to do anything rash. Raven agreed with him, though she was much quieter, mindful of her sleeping child.

"It's unavoidable," Terra hissed. "You cannot expect me to let a friend, a mother with children that depend on her, go to the games. I'm still young, I can probably survive longer than any other victor from our district."

"But you have people here that depend on you. We depend on you, Mella depends on you," Henrik pushed, holding onto his sister tightly.

Terra pat him on the back. "Do you know that feeling you get, the one in your chest where you see the person you love and your heart just soars? The one where you know you would never let anything hurt them no matter what and you would do everything to keep them safe?"

Henrik glanced to his wife then to his sleeping child, his panic beginning to fade away with the realisation that began to blossom in his eyes.

"The person I love is going back into the games, I know he will be," she continued. "I know that he's going to want me to try and stay away but I won't be able to live with myself if something happened to him and I wasn't there."

"Who?" Henrik breathed

A small smile came to her face when she thought about it, a fluttering in her chest when she thought about him. She tapped her nose causing her brother to groan, realising that she wasn't going to tell him.

"There are hints all over the house, maybe you can put it together," Terra teased.

Her brother nodded and pulled her into a tighter hug, placing a kiss to the top of her head. "Are you okay?"

"As much as someone going to the Hunger's Games for a second time ever can be."

♦♦♦

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2017-06-11

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