EPILOGUE

Forty years pass in the blink of an eye. Soon after the retirement ceremony, Lizzy became pregnant with our second child. We both agreed that we didn't want to raise a family in the Capitol and moved back to the Odair family cottage in District 4 with Octavian and our new baby girl, Katniss. The years spent with my wife and children among the sand dunes and waves were by far the best of my life, but every day when I woke up and looked in the mirror, I couldn't help but be confronted with the ghosts of my past.

The nightmares changed, instead of Ohm's muttations and clouds of Shiver, they morphed into battlefields and explosions. I cannot tell you how many times I would bolt awake in the night screaming, covered in sweat and still feeling that I was in Grosfrere's sadistic presence. However, Lizzy's soft embrace and the beautiful faces of my children as they grew from innocent babes to adults wise beyond their years always reminded me that the sacrifices I made for them were completely worth the price.

Now, as the day that the news service has been talking about for months finally arrives, I find myself sitting at the end of a long wooden dock, holding a fishing pole in my hands and casting my line out into the waves.

"You're never gonna catch anything like that," Octavian would tell me over and over again as he grew up, but I found that being out in a boat with him was just too physically painful with my injuries. However, in his mature compassion, he would often put aside his own personal fishing trips to spend hours just talking with me as we stared out into the water together.

Now, as I find myself in this quiet place and he is far away shouldering his own new set of responsibilities, I cannot help but smile as I comprehend that the father has become the son, and the son the father.

"Ares!" Lizzy shouts from the porch of the cottage. "It's time." I quickly reel in my line, pick up my cane, and limp back towards the house. As I make my way up the steps to the front door, Lizzy holds out her arm to help me.

"Forty years, Liz, and have I ever taken that arm for help yet?" I say as I place my rod and reel next to the door and make my way over to my chair in front of the television.

"No," she says with a smile as she takes her seat next to mine, "but I'll keep trying to help you until the day I die…or you die first. I haven't decided yet which option I prefer," we both laugh before Lizzy turns up the volume on the television.

It is a live broadcast from the front of the Legislative Building the Capitol. On this Inauguration Day, the newscasters excitedly repeat the story of the closest election in Panem's history as they've done a million times since the ballots were tallied. A fisherman from District 4, the great-grandson of a President and the son of a war hero, who put aside all the power and benefits of his birth to become a working man, then decided to run for office when Panem began travelling down a path he didn't agree with. News anchors love human-interest stories like that.

"I really think we should have gone, Ares…for him."

"No, no," I say back to her. "The last thing I want is for some old worn out cripple to take any attention away from him and his accomplishments. Besides, Hatchet and Ratchet will be there and they promised they would look after him for us."

"I'd hope they'd be there considering Aurora is about to become first lady."

Our daughter-in-law, Aurora Snow, formerly Aurora Hightower, was the sixth surprise member of the Mockingjay team during our time in the TEC. Lizzy and I often took Octavian and little Katniss to visit Hatchet and Ratchet's new posting in District 2 as the kids grew up. Octavian and Aurora became best friends during their childhood, but by the time they were teenagers, had become much more.

The news cameras focus on the balcony of the Presidential Mansion as the official party makes their way outside. First, is the Chief Justice of the UDP Supreme Court, followed by Octavian, Aurora, our daughter Katniss and her husband Haymitch Mellark. Prim follows close behind with her husband as well. Then, the entire clan of Lizzy's and my grandchildren, twelve in all, spills out and takes their seats. Octavian insisted that not only his biological sister be present at the inauguration, but all his adopted siblings as well. When we lost Peeta, and then big Katniss a little over ten years ago, we made a promise that we would look after Prim and Haymitch like they were our own, and Lizzy and I have never faltered in that oath.

Finally, the Chief Justice takes his position. Octavian stands across from him and Aurora holds up a bound copy of the UDP Constitution.

"Mr. Snow," the Chief Justice says, "Are you prepared to take the oath?"

"I am," Octavian says with his shoulders cocked back.

"Then raise your right hand and repeat after me: I, Octavian Snow…"

"I, Octavian Snow…"

"Do solemnly swear to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United Districts of Panem…"

"Do solemnly swear to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United Districts of Panem…"

I watch in utter amazement as the little boy who clutched the teddy bear to his chest as I made a promise to him so many years ago becomes the most powerful leader in the land.

"As fate as my Judge," the Chief Justice says completing the oath.

"As fate as my Judge."

"Congratulations, Mr. President," the Chief Justice says with a smile as he shakes Octavian's hand. Aurora then leans over and Octavian plants a big kiss right on her lips. I look to the rear of the crowd on the balcony and make out Hatchet and Ratchet's smiling faces. Both of them have tears of joy in their eyes. Finally, Octavian approaches a podium and prepares to address his people for the first time as their new president.

He takes his place behind the microphone and looks out at the cheering crowd. The Mockingjay pin beams from the left lapel of his suit in the bright, Capitol sunlight. Then, Octavian begins his speech:

"It was not as easy decision for me to run for President of this Great Nation," he says with a solemn face, "Many people agreed, that a person with my last name should never hold this sacred office again. They said that it would hearken back to the Dark Days before the Revolution, and for a long time, I actually believed them. Then, as I saw that apathy, ignorance, and despair creeping back into the fabric of Panem, where the price of the latest hairstyle or the newest electronic gadget became bigger concerns than feeding the hungry or clothing the naked, I remembered something that my father told me when I was very young:

'You are so much more than your family's history. Never, let your name stand in your way.'

I thought about what that meant. I thought how even though my great-grandfather was an evil man, I am related to his victims as much as to his tyranny, both through blood and by marriage. My great aunt and uncle, my adopted grandmother and grandfather, and my wife's grandmother all were survivors of the Hunger Games who fought for this nation during the Revolution, and my father , my mother-in-law, and father-in-law all fought for us during the great TEC war.

Then, I finally realized that all this, while important, is not as important as WHO WE CHOOSE TO BE! Do we want to live by what we once were, or do we want to forge new and great chapters in our own time!" The crowd erupts in a cheer. Octavian graciously waits for them to calm down before starting again. "I think that my family history is a perfect metaphor for Panem. Yes, there are dark things that we must learn from, but they blend together with the glorious examples of self-sacrifice, courage, and honor that truly define us.

There are those who say that Panem's best days are behind us. That we have squandered the gifts our ancestors fought to provide us and have become the same indolent fools who left themselves to be ruled by tyranny, violence, and hate for so long….but I disagree. I think that the spirit that defined those who fought for our freedom, and then those who bestowed that freedom on another continent enslaved by evil men still runs strong within us! Britannia and the rest of the Independent Republics of Europe are now our closest allies. I have already conferred with their leaders and they all agree with my goals.

There are still those around the planet who have not yet felt freedom's warm embrace. They still live in poverty, in fear, in hopelessness, and in oppression. We, who now enjoy the gifts of those who sacrificed before us cannot in good conscience turn our backs on them, not when we claim as a nation to love and embrace our sacred liberty so much. I ask for the help of the brave peoples of Panem in fulfilling a solemn pledge. Centuries ago, the United Districts of Panem was once a land that was a beacon of hope, freedom, and prosperity to the entire rest of the world. Now, I want to make it that once again.

Many of us are now too young to recall the times when oppression, poverty, and hunger were here. Times when children had to choose between facing a horrific, agonizing, and public death in the arena or watching their family starve to death in private. But what I want us to remember is far more important. I want us to remember our blessings, work to increase our gifts, and fight to spread them to all fellow members of humanity regardless of nationality, race, or creed! If we do this, then the odds will truly be ever in our favor…

THE REVOLUTION IS NOW IN OUR HANDS!

THE END