The Hunger Games: Book Four - How it Might Have Been ... Gale.

Page Twenty-Eight

A/N - Remember guys, this is entered in this year's Watty Awards, and so far we're number 686! I'd really appreciate some more votes and maybe sharing this around? You guys are great!!

Now, the age old question: Tell me below - Team Gale, or Team Peeta?!

Peeta

I don't want to land the hovercraft on this building, but my controlled body does. It's some random building on the outskirts of the burning city I've just flown over. I've seen the shattered remains of the Nut, screaming, crying civilians - images I haven't seen in so long, they rip open scars that have barely formed.

I feel a tingle in my chest - there's someone in this building I'm landing on. It's not some random location - my body, it can track people now. No - it's been programmed to track one person. Katniss. She's here. In this building.

And I've been instructed to kill her.

"NO!" I scream in my mind, trying my hardest to regain control of myself. But this controlling power the Capitol have over me is something I've never felt before. it's strong, so strong I can't break through it. But I have to try. I imagine Katniss, the first time I noticed her, the time she sang and I fell instantly in love. I remember the Games, not once, but twice. The determination in her scowl as she aims down the sights with her bow. I think of our children and what might happen to them if I kill their mother, in front of them. They'll think I'm a monster, and seeing Katniss die will destroy them like Katniss when Prim was killed. What will the Capitol do with Oeno and Ku when they have them in their clutches? A new, re-vamped version of the Hunger Games, ten times worse now since the new Rebellion? It's Katniss's worst nightmare.

I think about how much I love her, and deep down, how much she loves me.

I can't kill her.

I battle the Capitol's power more and more, fighting as the hovercraft goes down. It's like trying to catch a stone of glass in a raging river - I slip from it, again and again. I think about the first time Katniss and I kissed. That's all I need. I feel something - my mind, my body, they're connected again, though only momentarily. I take the opportunity to twist the steering controls, causing the hovercraft to sway violently to the left. I expect the engine to moan, but it is silent. I want to scream, to tell Katniss to run, but she can't hear me inside the building.

I lose control again, and my body straightens the craft and begins to descend slowly. I'm not strong enough, not yet. I can't get my body back. Maybe, if I had a little more time.

I have to get Katniss out of there.

My willpower crackles like electricity, flaring up higher and higher. This is my chance. I feel it again - the glass stone turns firm in my hands, and I have control of my body for a breath - then I slam down on the accelerator. The hovercraft descends far too quickly. My body takes back control and frantically tries to regain control of the craft, but it can't.

The hovercraft smashes through the building's roof.