Katniss and Peeta never make it back from the seventy-fourth Hunger Games.

Madge knows they won't after the last career dies, and suddenly it's only Katniss, Peeta, and Rue left. Katniss would never be able to kill Rue. Peeta would never be able to kill either of them. Rue's leg is broken, blood gushing everywhere, and Katniss is holding her, singing softly. Madge wonders for a moment whether Katniss is just waiting for her to bleed out. For half a second, she selfishly hopes she will. Madge can't bear thinking of the tiny girl lying there lifeless, but her death means a friend could come home. So when Katniss pins the mocking jay on Rue's jacket and gently lays her down, pulling Peeta aside, Madge understands. Her face is wet with tears, but she understands.

"Remember what you said, about our death being on our own terms?" Katniss asks softly.

Peeta nods. He's cradling his arm, which has been bitten down to the bone and all but torn off. He won't last much longer either.

"I can't do this." A tear slips out of the corner of Katniss' eye, and she turns her head.

Peeta sucks in a breath. "Do what, Katniss?"

"I can't watch you die." And she opens her hand and shows him the berries.

"Okay," is all he says. He pulls her close and kisses her like it's the last thing he'll ever do. Like that alone has made his life worthwhile. "I love you," he whispers against her lips, and he takes the berries, limping off toward the forest.

"No, Peeta!" Katniss calls, and he turns. She stumbles toward him, holding up another handful of poison. "Together."

Peeta looks at her, confused. Then his eyes flick to Rue for the briefest of seconds. She's still breathing. Barely, but she is. The only way she'll make it is if they get her to Capitol doctors – now. He looks back at Katniss. "Are you sure?"

She nods. "I can't live, if – if it means killing you, either of you."

Peeta puts his hand on the side of her face. "Together then."

"No! Katniss!" Gale Hawthorne fights his way toward the front of the crowd as Katniss and Peeta swallow the berries. "Katniss!" He chokes on her name as she convulses, and Madge cries for the angry boy with the strawberries as well as the kind baker's son and the girl on fire. One of his friends, it looks like Thom, catches him before he can tear the screen down. "It won't help her now, man. You can't help her now." It takes three grown men to keep Gale from doing something dangerous.

Madge turns back to the screen hoping, somehow, that this is a gamemaker hoax. It's not. It's real, and Katniss and Peeta are dead. Her knees give out. Her father catches her as the canons sound. They ring in her ears, and she's glad, because then she can't hear the commentators waxing poetic about the star-crossed lovers from District 12 who died in each other's arms.

Rue has managed to sit up, confused by the canons, but then she sees. The hovercraft is almost above her, about to pick her up. The announcers are congratulating her on her victory, but her face is pale and clearly says there are no victors here. The flash of sunlight on metal, and her knife says it too.

The screen goes black, but all of Panem has already seen.

The newest victor from District 11 has just slit her throat.