☆°.˙ ▍𝐎𝐍𝐋𝐘 𝐘𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐃𝐀𝐘

⎰𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧⎱

          𝐅𝐋𝐄𝐔𝐑 𝐆𝐀𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐃 𝐈𝐍 𝐏𝐀𝐈𝐍 𝐀𝐒 𝐀 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐏 𝐓𝐄𝐀𝐌 𝐓𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐒𝐓𝐔𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐃 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐈𝐍, the lingering bruises from all the torture, pain spreading through her veins. When a bunch of Peacekeepers arrived at the cells and pulled her, Peeta, and Johanna out, she was thinking that they were going to be tortured, not dressed up like porcelain dolls. 

          But now that she was struggling to breathe due to the tightness of the dress, she felt as if this was torture itself. After they made the bruises on her neck and arms disappear and covered the nail marks and cuts on her face, she was finally reunited with Peeta and Johanna without bars to separate the three of them. 

          Fleur wrapped her arms around the two of them, craving physical safety in the form of a comforting hug. Of course, the one person who could truly make her feel safe was safe himself, far away from the dangers of the Capitol. 

          Both Peeta and Johanna wrapped their arms around the woman and the three of them stood in the position for a couple seconds before pulling away and sitting on the edge of a set. There were lines written on a screen behind the camera, which was facing two chairs. 

          Fleur took notice of how a blonde wig was placed on Johanna's head, to cover up the fact that the Capitol had shaved her red–brown hair off so they could electrocute her. Her eyes moved towards the Peacekeepers who were in full uniform and noted that they were there to stop any of the three Victors from doing something Snow would dislike.

          "What are we doing here all dressed up like dolls?" Johanna questioned, her voice laced with even more than the usual amount of hatred directed at the Capitol.

          "I don't know." Peeta replied quietly. 

          "They're most likely going to use us as symbols. To get us to do their dirty work and convince the rebellion to end or something." Fleur answered softly. "To convince the Districts to not follow Katniss in the fight."

          "Of course. They can't be bothered to do it themselves without making the Districts hate them even more." Johanna groaned out softly. 

          Caesar Flickerman approached the three of them with an unreadable expression. "President Snow has requested Peeta to address the nation." He informed the three Victors. 

          Fleur tightened her grip on Peeta's hand as the purple haired man spoke. Peeta shot her a reassuring glance before squeezing her hand for comfort before pulling his hand out of her grasp and stood up.

          As Peeta and Caesar Flickerman sat down on the chairs as Johanna wrapped her arms around Fleur and cameras turned on as Caesar Flickerman began speaking to the entire nation — District Thirteen as well — on live camera.

.: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆

          Katniss in silence as she looked at her food, her appetite lost from what she had seen happen to her home. Ben and Finnick sat next to her, neither one making an effort to eat.

          "You should try eat something. You all should." Gale whispered.

          Finnick nodded in agreement as he glanced down to Ben. "Yeah, he's right. I don't think Fleur would appreciate it if you get sick from starvation."

          Ben sighed weakly and began eating slowly, the belief that his aunt would be rescued hopefully soon being his only source of comfort. The anthem of Panem began playing and the symbol of Capitol Television came on the screen. The symbol faded, revealing Caesar Flickerman in front of the cameras.

          Finnick groaned audibly as he shot the purple haired man a glare. "Oh god, not him."

          "Hello. Good evening, and a big welcome to all in Panem. I'm Caesar Flickerman. And whoever you are, whatever it is you're doing, if you're working, put down your work. If you're having dinner, stop having dinner." Caesar requested. "Because you are going to want to witness this tonight. There has been rampant speculation about what really happened in the Quarter Quell. And here to shed a little light on the subject for us is a very special guest. Please welcome Mr. Peeta Mellark."

          Finnick's jaw dropped to the floor while Katniss rose from where she was sitting in shock. The camera angle switched from Caesar Flickerman to show Peeta, in white clothes, Snow's color.

          "Peeta, a lot of people feel as though they are in the dark." Caesar continued. 

          "Yeah, Yeah. I know how they feel." Peeta replied sourly. 

          "Now, so set the stage for us. Talk us through what really happened on that final and controversial night." Caesar requested as Katniss walked closer to the screen to watch while Ben kept glanced from Finnick to Katniss to the screen.

          "Well, first off, you have to. . . you have to understand that when you're in the Games you only get one wish. It's very costly." Peeta replied.

          "You're alive." Katniss whispered in shock as she attempted to process what she was seeing.

          "It costs your life." Caesar deduced. 

          "I think it costs more than your life." He objected, voicing what Finnick was thinking in response to Caesar's words.

          "How do you mean? What's more than your life?" Caesar questioned as he looked genuinely confused.

          "I mean to. . . to murder innocent people." Peeta replied. "Now that costs everything that you are. So you. . . you hold on to that one wish, and that night my wish was to save Katniss. You know, I should've just run off with her, earlier in the day like she'd wanted." 

          "But you didn't. Why? Were you caught up in Beetee's plan?" Caesar asked. 

          "No, I was. . . was caught up trying to play allies. And then they separated us and. . . that's when I lost her. And then the lightning hit, and uh. . . and the whole force field around the arena just blew out." Peeta answered. 

          "Yes, but, Peeta, Katniss is the one who blew it out." Caesar stated. 

          "No." Peeta objected immediately. 

          "You saw the footage." Caesar attempted to reason with the blonde. 

          "No, she. . . she didn't know what she was doing. Neither of us knew there was a bigger plan going on, we had no idea." Peeta replied. 

          "You had no idea?" Caesar questioned. 

          "No." Peeta clarified. 

          "Alright. Well, Peeta, there are many who find this suspicious to say the least. It seems as though she was part of a rebel plan." Caesar stated.

          "What, do you think it was part of her plan to be almost killed by Johanna? Or part of the plan to be paralyzed by lightning? No, we...we were not part of any rebel plan. We had no idea what was going on." Peeta replied almost angrily. 

          "Alright. I believe you, Peeta Mellark. Thank you. Yeah. Now I was going to ask you to speak about the unrest, but I think you might be too upset." Caesar state.

          "No. No, I can." Peeta replied.

          "Are you sure?" Caesar asked. 

          Yeah, absolutely." The blonde confirmed. 

          "Thank you." Caesar replied. 

          "Yeah. I want everyone who's watching to stop and to think about what a civil war could mean. We almost went extinct once before, and now our numbers are even fewer." 

          "He's one of them." A woman in Thirteen stated in outrage. 

          "Is this really what we want to do? Kill ourselves off? Killing is not the answer."  

          "I can't believe he's doing this." A man muttered. 

          "Everyone needs to lay down their weapons immediately."

          "Traitor!"

          "For all of us." 

          "He's not one of us!" 

          "This is treason!" 

          "Are you calling for a ceasefire?" Caesar questioned.

          "Yeah, I am." 

          "You're a puppet!" 

          "Hang him!" 

          "I want everyone to stop the senseless violence. This is not the path to change." 

          "Traitor!" 

          "It's not the path to justice."