The Rebel's Secret (READ INTRO!)

"We've been working on a project, Katniss. I think you may want to see what it is." Coin tells Katniss Everdeen as they walk down 13's narrow hall way.

This was the high security section, where guards are everywhere and every door has a complicated lock.

“What kind of project?” Katniss asks quietly, her voice still dark and dense. It was another day of Katniss' 13 life. Blowing off the schedule, waiting anxiously for Finnick and Annie's long-awaited wedding.

“The kind the Capitol isn’t expecting,” Coin answered, stopping in front of a heavy looking metal door. Katniss noticeably tensed and her hand itched to go over her shoulder for the arrow she longed to hold in her bow.

“And what is it?” Katniss replied evenly as Coin pressed a few numbers into a key pad on the wall.

“We like to refer to it as project 742,” Coin slid a key into the lock, twisted it right, and then pushed one more number. The door made a loud noise that meant it was opening.

“Not much security for such an important project,” Katniss said, now watching as Coin pulled the door open.

“We found that the project can more or less protect itself,” Coin replied, and then she walked into the room. Katniss immediately looked at the blood on the walls. The broken manacles. The room was huge, with old couches and chairs. The walls were metal, like the floor. On the other side of the room there was another metal door.

Katniss suddenly found herself staring into eyes that she had last seen panicked and scared as they were faced with certain death as she sat, watching.

She was also looking at someone who should be buried six feet under, the body torn to a bloody pulp by the viscous teeth of mutts but was instead standing not three feet away from her, healthy and toned.

“Well well well,” Clove hissed, her eyes flashing, “Look here, Cato, if it isn’t our good friend, the Girl on fire."

But Katniss didn't see much after that. She fainted as soon as Clove's lips stopped moving.


"Katniss. Katniss. Wake up! Katniss!" Prim cried somewhere far away. Katniss mind reeled. Clove. Cato. Prim? Prim shouldn't be anywhere near those names! Was Prim in the same room as them?

Katniss struggled to open her eyes. When she did, she saw that she was in the familiar bed of 13's hospital.

"Prim?" Katniss croaked dryly, and slowly her eyes adjusted to the bright light above her.

"Katniss!" Prim said from beside her. She knocked the light away from Katniss eyes and looked down at her older sister gratefully.

"Mom told me they were going to show you the project. I was so scared!" Prim said and Katniss sat up, "You saw the project?"

Prim nodded fearfully, "I helped cure them all."

Katniss was about to hug Prim when all started rattling around in her brain. Katniss gripped her little sister's small shoulders, "All? What do you mean 'all'? Are there more? Are there more?"

Katniss stopped talking immediately. Prim and those questions only reminded her of Rue's last moments, when Katniss frantically asked her ally if there were any more attackers.

"Only some. Glimmer, Marvel, Cato, Clove, Finch, Thresh, a-and Rue. Rue, Katniss, Rue! She's so amazing and nice and lovely and you'll get to see her later, just not now because she's still resting, she was the last one we treated-" Katniss stops Prim's earnest babbling.

"R-Rue's alive? You met Rue?" Katniss whisper shakily, sounding so happy, so amazed.

"We talked for a little while. But you're not going anywhere until you're healed and rested." Prim says firmly, and then she turns her back to me and yells to the closed door, "Doctor!"

"Healed?" Katniss questions, not recalling any injury.

"You just bumped your head a bit when you fell. A little scrape on your elbow. Nothing serious, but the doctor's think you might have a concussion." Prim replies simply, and then Mrs. Everdeen comes in smiling grimly.

"When can I see Rue?" Katniss asks as her mother wraps her elbow up in a white bandage.

"As soon as you can say the ABC's without singing and then count backwards from 100." Prim replies immediately, having memorised the concussion procedure.

Two tries on the alphabet and 3 tries on counting backwards later, Prim and Coin led Katniss back to the metal room.

"They all just stay in there together? Don't they hate each other?" Katniss asks, excitement making her adrenaline pump and her hopeful thoughts seem to give her a headache.

"Yes, they do. Cato has already killed another Fallen Tribute, but you needn't worry, we now have guards in there as well-" Coin begins, and Prim cuts her off harshly, "and both Cato and Clove have already killed 3 other guards."

"Therefore," Coin presses on as she types in the keypad, "they both have to sit at the metal table in the corner now, with steel manacles on their wrists and ankles. They're not very happy."

Katniss swallows as she thinks of little Rue trying to find something to do in that room. They're keeping them in there like experiments!

"How'd you even get them here? I still don't get why they're here." Katniss asks as Coin opens the door.

"We have connections, as you young folk say. They are our new fighters." Coin motions for Katniss and Prim to step in.

"Oh, there's The Girl On Fire. Where's Loverboy?" Clove taunts in a menacing tone from her spot behind the metal table.

Cato and Clove were pushed up against the wall in steel chairs, a metal table almost crushing against their ribs. Their hands were on the table, forced by the steel cuffs around their wrists that attached to the table.Their feet stay planted by the steel anklets.

"Clove," Cato said quietly, and her eyes softened from glaring at Katniss and she turned her head to Cato. They speak quietly and Clove seems to relax. Katniss glances at Coin and whispers, "Are they together?"

"Ah, Katniss, you and Peeta weren't the only starcrossed lovers." Coin replies wisely. Katniss couldn't help but to pity Cato and Clove.

"Katniss!" an excited, youthful voice trilled from across the room. Katniss turned and saw Rue, amazing little Rue, running at Katniss with a big smile on her face. Her stomach looked like it was never pierced by anything except Katniss harmless pokes.

"Rue." Katniss whispered, tears stinging her eyes as she bent down to hug her fallen ally.

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Do you guys like it? I'm going to go on past Prim's death (so that part hasn't changed). It will be a kind of Clato story, but it won't focus entirely on them. Read the intro before you comment!