𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐋 | Hunger Games

ʟɪᴠ

       KATNISS EVERDEEN LEFT THE Capitol on the first train out the following morning. Haymitch Abernathy left with her. Aella had already said her goodbyes to Katniss before Snow's execution, it didn't bother her that she didn't get to see her afterward. That had always been their plan.

Besides, she had problems of her own to deal with without having to wave Katniss and Haymitch off back to District Twelve. Plutarch Heavensbee had been right, her family were unjustifiably furious with her for not telling them she and Katniss had formed a secret alliance to assassinate both Snow and Coin.

It was more her lack of regard for the potential consequences that infuriated them, not that actual assassination of Snow. No, they were thrilled in that regard but they wouldn't tell her that just yet. There was only Johanna who saw amusement to it all. After all, it had been she and Aella that Katniss had confined in when she told them she was leaving Thirteen to kill Snow. She wasn't shocked in the slightest that they'd made a secret agreement to kill both Snow and Coin at the same time, literally.

They all got over it though...eventually.

So they moved on, tried that thing called life that Plutarch told Aella about. It was so undeniably strange at first. No one knew really what to do or where to go and they gathered in Finnick and Aella's suite to discuss it.

Aella and Finnick would be going to District Four, together. She'd always said she'd been born in the wrong District. Yes, she still loved District Five. It was her home. She'd made beautiful memories there but they were also tarnished with everything that had happened. Her house in the Victors Village had been destroyed... she only had her family home and there wasn't much left there, either.

Daniel and Clio didn't want to be far from them, not with the baby four months away, and Aella didn't want to be apart from them either. The decision was a no brainier for them. Daniel had always hated District Five and Clio had always lived in the Capitol and hated it there, too...so why wouldn't they move to a new District to start their new life?

Annie of course would always choose to return to her home but Sam shocked them all by announcing he'd follow her anywhere she went and that he was in love with her. Natalia decided she quite liked the idea of moving to a new District and taking life day by day. She'd never had the opportunity to make her own decisions, to be spontaneous, but first she knew she wanted to help with the rebuilding of the Districts.

Sal chose to follow her son and his new love to District Four, to follow her adopted daughter and adopted—soon to be—son-in-law, to follow Daniel and Clio. They all decided to go together which only left Johanna who'd be damned if she was going to return to her District that she hated with an absolute passion. So she followed them all, too.

They remained in the Capitol for another week after the execution of Snow and Coin before the day for them to leave arrived. Aella had spent those seven days already working to build this new world they were embarking on. The symbolic Games had been abandoned and branded an inhumane idea and the Presidential Election began. Commander Paylor was the favourite from the very beginning and Aella threw all her support to the woman while telling the world the story of how Alma Coin had come to meet her end and everything she'd done to deserve it.

But ultimately, their final seven days in the Capitol came to an end and it was time for them to leave.

The train station wasn't busy, in fact it was only the new family—because that was what they were calling themselves—and a few who had gathered to bid them farewell.

Peeta Mellark, Cressida and Pollux stood in the station, ready to say goodbye to the people they'd come to know exceptionally well over the last six or so months. It was the part Aella had been dreading. It had been that cloud over the happiness of starting a new life.