A/N: Hi. This is the first story I have posted so please forgive me when I make errors or if it doesn't turn out too well. I am trying =) R&R to help me become better and put up more chapters.

I don't own the characters or anything related to the books, just the slight alteration in the storyline.

The Price of Winning
Chapter 1, Target Acquired

Cato

It doesn't take a genius to know that Cato had just made them his target. The moment District 12's chariot entered, the crowd went crazy. The cameras were on them and so were the game makers' eyes. Cato knew that his chances of getting sponsors were slowly decreasing, and he hated it.

"Don't worry," Clove leans over to whisper, "No amount of sponsors will stop us from ripping them apart."

"What makes you think I'm worried?" Cato says in an annoyed tone.

"It's not exactly that difficult to read your thoughts, Cato. You give yourself too much credit."

Cato hisses. Who does Clove think she is? He could kill her in less than a second if he wanted to. But she was right, I mean, how much effort does is it take to kill off two tributes from an outlying district like District 12? None. Pretty clothes won't help them once they're in the arena. He could kill them in an instant and everyone knows it. When all the other tributes are dead, he'd kill Clove -assuming she'd still be alive then- and then he'd be crowned victor, bringing pride to his district.

President Snow finishes his speech with the infamous Capitol stellar phrase, "May the odds be ever in your favor!".

The audience roars and claps their hands, the moment the chariots were dismissed. They reach backstage and almost immediately, Cato wanted to leave. He could hear them, the rats from District 12, their stylists, and the pink haired lady that escorts them. They went on about how fabulous the two looked and how they had completely won the Capitol over by holding each others' hands up in the air.

"Katniss Everdeen, the girl who was on fire."

"The two of you stole the show in a second!"

"Quite an entrance, sweetheart."

Upon hearing this, the girl tribute from District 12 just smiles and looks at her fellow male tribute, who in return, smiles back.

"Now that, that might have just earned you some sp-" Their mentor trails off as soon as he noticed Cato's eyes on his tributes and the dirty look that goes with it.

"I think we better go upstairs." He says without looking away from Cato, gesturing the others to follow.

Haymitch Abernathy, that was his name. Cato remembers this because, despite how he is now, he was one of the most talked-about victors in District 2. Using the arena's force field in such a way is not something to be easily forgotten. Haymitch leads the group to the elevator as the District 12 girl steals a glance at what her mentor was uncertain about. Cato's expression hardens as the girl's eyes survey him, though, her expression blank, not the least bit intimidated, or at least that's what her face said. The second later, she turns away and follows the group to the elevator.

"Not what you expected?" Clove's snake-like voice reaches his ear from behind, "She wasn't the least bit scared of you." Cato had to admit the girl moved like a ninja. Even he didn't notice her coming.

Cato scowls then turns around to face her "She should be."

"But she's not."

"She will be."

"She might not."

Cato scoffs "People who have something to live for, always fear for their death, Clove."

Clove rolls her eyes. "Even if it was so, you and I know that you intended for her to fear you at this moment, but failed."

Cato ignores her and goes to look for their mentors so they could just get the hell out of this floor. Training starts tomorrow, and he and Clove will need a good night sleep 'til then.

Katniss

Ever since last night, Katniss knew her chances of getting killed got higher than ever. By the time their chariot had entered, the crowd went wild and more than half of the tributes' glaring eyes were glued to them. The same eyes still glaring as they reach backstage.

"Nice try, twelve." Glimmer, the girl from District 1, whose name she had picked up on after watching the replays of the reaping, said as she passed by her. Then there was that guy from District 2, Cato. Even Haymitch thought it was something that they had to get away from. Blue eyes that wanted to see blood. It made her shiver, but she knew better than to show her fear.

Katniss had been so caught up in her thoughts that she hadn't realized Haymitch staring at her from across the table.

"Careers, sweetheart, that's what they are." Haymitch says, as if he had read her thoughts.

"Careers? You mean those who actually train for this all their life?" Peeta questions.

Haymitch nods "They're dangerous, avoid them as much as possible."

"Well that's not likely to happen since they want us dead." Silence takes place in the room after Katniss says this. They don't say anything because they know its true and there's nothing they could do about it.

Breaking the silence, Katniss gets up from her seat "Training is about to start, isn't it? Let's get going."

Haymitch nods his head, and follows her along with Peeta.

In the Training Center, they gather in a circle with Atala, their head trainer, in the middle. She explains to them about the rules and different stations set up around the place. While she's at it, Katniss' eyes accidentally land on the monstrous boy from District 2, who looked like he couldn't care less about what the trainer was saying. He just wanted to get his hands on a weapon and slice a dummy in half with it, or if he could, a human being. Katniss continues to look at Cato absent-mindedly before his eyes land on her as well. A smirk slowly quickly forming on his face, like he wanted her to be the person he'd sever. Katniss looks away, her eyes find Peeta listening intently to what the trainer was saying, then she turns to the opposite side where a red-headed girl, who couldn't look anymore like a fox, stood poised.

A minute passes and Atala sends off the tributes to start training. Katniss decides to start small, since it was the first day and she didn't want to show off what she was capable of just yet. Especially since the careers have their eye on her. She'll have to save her archery skills for the private sessions. She heads over to the knot-tying station with Peeta and starts tying ropes.

This goes on for twenty minutes before she notices the District 2 girl named Clove in the station next to hers, the knives station. By this time, Peeta had already left for the rope course. Katniss watches as Clove throws her knives at the five dummies' targets before her. She hits them all in the middle in less than 10 seconds, not surprising coming from District 2.

Katniss draws her attention back to her rope, and attempts to make a bowline knot. The minute after, she felt two taps on her shoulder. She turns her head to see the knife-thrower, Clove. Clove places herself on the free space next to where Katniss was sitting. She takes a second to take out her knife before she says anything.

"Busy, twelve?"

Katniss shook her head then looks back at her knot, carefully inserting the ropes in different spaces.

"Interesting choice of stations girl on fire, don't you want to get handy with a weapon?" Clove brushes the tip of her knife on her finger as she eyes Katniss.

"Not today." Katniss says showing no hint of emotion in her voice, her eyes sill focused on the rope in her hands.

Clove smirks "I see. So it's just knots for now?"

"I might try the snares."

"Fun. Why don't you try sword training? My partner Cato is quite good at it."

"No thanks."

Clove gets up and starts playing with the knots on display on the table in front of them, her back facing Katniss "Speaking of Cato, isn't he just terrifying? That look in his eyes, that just screams "I want to kill you, and kill you slowly." Doesn't that just scare you?" She says this in such a perplexing way that Katniss had to look at her to find out what her intentions were.

"I don't know. Should it?" Katniss puts a play in her words as well, just to see what Clove was getting at.

"Well, being scared does grant you a quicker and less painful death, in case you didn't know. But I'm not making any promises."

Katniss was puzzled. Was she trying to help her? Scare her maybe? Or was she trying to get her to admit something? "I don't think being scared will help me in this case, but thanks for the heads up." Katniss says with an edge of sarcasm then leaves to go look for Peeta. Clove just couldn't help but be slightly impressed, the girl presented herself to be truly fearless.

Cato

From where he was standing, Cato could see Clove sharing a conversation with the fire girl. He was curious as to what they were talking about. Was Clove trying to befriend her? Does she want her to join their alliance? He wouldn't stand for it, cause he knew the second the countdown was finished in the arena, he'll be hunting down 12's tributes like a wolf. Cato took a few steps over to where Clove was, he didn't want her to be making some stupid decision on her own, but just then District 1's tribute girl stopped him in his tracks.

She stepped in front of him with a smug look on her face "Is your friend there trying to form an alliance with District 12? Is she an idiot or something?" She says as she points her chin to the two females conversing.

"If that's what she's planning on doing, she might be." Cato said while attempting to move forward, but the girl from 1 just wouldn't let him. He could easily topple her to the floor but he decided not to, since the game makers were watching, and rules are rules. Plus, he was slightly curious as to what the District 1 girl wanted with him.

"I'm Glimmer, a career, from District One." She offers up her hand for a shake.

Cato ignored her offer by crossing his arms against his chest "Cato from 2. What do you want?"

Glimmer pulls back her arm and starts playing with one of her braids "Marvel and I would like to join in on your alliance with the brunette over there. Marvel is good with the spear, and I could make with a bow. Think about it, it'll be quicker for us to kill off the other tributes."

"It also means that there'll be more careers to kill towards the end."

Glimmer smiles "Well…the more the merrier, right?"

Cato smirks at this. Normal for a psychotic killing machine anyway. "I'll think about it."

"You do that." Glimmer whispers as she walks pass him.

Cato wipes one of the corners of his lip with his thumb as he looked down. The thought of killing more people, people who can actually put up with a fight, intrigued him. It was risky, but very tempting.

"What did crayola face want?" Cato looked up to see his partner, Clove with her hands or her hips.

"Crayola face?"

"A nickname I made for the girl from 1, I always see her with too much makeup."

"Oh. She just wanted in on our partnership, along with her fellow male tribute. What about you? What did you want with the girl from twelve?"

"None of your business."

"As long as it isn't an idiotic alliance, I'm fine with it."

Clove scowls at him "I'm the one making idiotic alliances? You're the one who is considering teaming with 1! They are as dumb as a brick. And as if I'd ever invite 12 into our alliance. I want them dead just as much as you do."

"I think it would be wise. And don't worry, I promise to kill you last if it came down to the four of us." A sly grin crept to his face as Clove narrows her eyes at him.

"Don't get cocky with me." Clove said this, but they both knew he was right. She knew she was strong, but she also knew that Cato was stronger. She had already accepted her death, she just didn't want to be reminded of it. "Do whatever you want, just make sure those two morons can actually bring something to the plate."

"I'll cut off their heads if they don't."

Just then, the boy from District 12 was taking on the rope course. Clove and Cato almost burst in laughter as the blonde boy dropped to the ground, making a loud thud of a sound as his back meets the surface. The boy sees them, but pays little attention since from the looks of it, his leg was hurting. The minute later, the girl on fire approaches him, "Peeta, are you okay?" she asks. The boy nods his head and with the help of the fire girl, he gets up.

Cato looks away and rolls his eyes "They'll be an easy kill." He says to the brunette next to him.

Katniss

Katniss helps Peeta get off the ground and glares at the two careers from District 2 who carefully eyed them. Peeta looks over to where her eyes were. "Ignore them." He said. Katniss nods her head takes a few steps towards the snares with Peeta on her side.

"Fire girl, you take good care of your boyfriend now, yeah?" In the distance, Clove's voice rings with sarcasm. Katniss looks at the two careers again, her face showing no expression.

"Katniss don't-" Peeta starts.

"I'll do my best." She says this in response and the two careers' smug expression changes to a more surprised look. Katniss continues to walk towards the snares, which is placed across the room. Far from them, She thought.

Peeta follows "You didn't have to say that." He said.

"If I hadn't, they wouldn't have shut up."

Peeta wonders if he should be offended by this, but he shrugs it off and just nods his head.

On the way to the snare station, they see one of the peacekeepers trying to separate two men off of each other.

"You touch her again, and I'll kill you!" One of them yelled.

"Relax big guy, I was just having a little bit of fun. I told her to give it to me. She obviously didn't listen."

From afar, Katniss could see a young dark skinned girl with brown hair -she recognized as Rue- hiding behind one of the posts. Katniss figures that she's the girl the guy from 11 -who she now remembers is Thresh- was talking about.

Katniss snakes her way to the small girl, "Hey there Rue." Katniss kneels down so she could see her properly. "What happened here?"

She hesitates, but decides to tell her "The guy from District 1, he shoved me cause he wanted the spear in my hands. I would've given it, but I didn't hear him. It wasn't a big deal but Thresh got mad."

Katniss nods and gets up "I see." Then she pats Rue's head with a smile. She reminded her so much of Prim, it hurt to look her in the eye.

By that time the peacekeeper had finally relaxed the two men. Thresh comes over to Rue and tells her to follow him. He lifts his chin at Katniss and Peeta in thanks, then walks away with Rue by his side. Katniss dwells on the thought of Prim being shoved to the ground by someone twice her size. Her dearest sister, fall to the ground like she was nothing.

The second later, Katniss loses it. She charges at the District 1 male so quick that Peeta didn't have enough time to stop her. Katniss pushes the boy hard enough to make him take a few steps back.

"What the hell was that for, princess?" He scowls.

"Oh please, Marvel, can't you just stop getting into fights?" Glimmer rolls her eyes "Just get it over with."

Katniss could just feel the everyone's eyes on her, the tributes, the game makers, even the careers from District 2 who she thought she finally had gotten away from.

"I didn't do anything this time!" Marvel reasons.

Katniss calms herself down, "Save your actions for the games."

"Oh! So it's still about that girl from 11? What's your deal? It's not like she's your sister or anything."

As Marvel said this, Katniss sees Peeta by the corner of her eye as he slowly comes to realize her reasons for pushing him. "She might as well have been." With that, Katniss leaves the training area.

Cato

It was night by this time. After training they had eaten lunch, the girl from twelve wasn't present then, but it's not like Cato cared. He and Clove just lazed in the room all afternoon. Now, she was playing with her knife as he was cracking his knuckles for show.

"Did you see her face? For a second there, she looked like she wanted to rip that guy apart just because of some unfortunate little girl."

"The girl probably reminded her of her sister."

"Right, I heard she volunteered in her place."

"You heard? Didn't you watch the replays of the reaping?"

"It's just a waste of time trying to observe the other tributes, they're all going to end up dead anyway." Cato gets up and heads to his room "I'm going to bed." Clove just nods without looking at him.

Cato lies on his bed and lets his thoughts wander. He thinks about the possibility of having District 1 as an ally. He thinks about him being crowned as victor and how all the people in Capitol would cheer him on. Then he thinks on ways to kill each and every tribute slowly and painfully.

Eventually, he drifts to sleep. He dreams about being in the arena, it was bloody as hell. Tributes lie dead on the ground and he somehow made himself believe that he killed them all. And now there's just one more before him, twelve's tribute girl, Katniss Everdeen.

He throws her to a tree and her back slams against it, making the knife in her hand fly away. Cato slowly approaches her like a predator about to devour its prey as she scrambles around in search for her melee.
The moment she spots the glint of the silver item, Cato charges at her. He grabs then pushes her throat, making her head slam against the tree behind her. Katniss tries to break free by pushing off his arms and kicking him while at it. Cato just laughs then looks at her in the eyes. She calms down and looked up at his eyes as well. It's only then when Cato's smirk fades. Her grey eyes look at his, he noticed that her eyes seem different from the blank, boring usual look that it reflected. Fear. She examined every aspect of his face as he did with hers, then she froze and Cato swore he could hear her heart beating. Fear resonates in her eyes and Cato can't help but feel like he had just been stabbed in the gut. He felt guilty. Guilty for hurting her. Guilty for having to kill her

"Cato, please." She starts to speak.

"Katniss," He whispers her name. Hesitatingly, he takes out his sword and drives it through her chest, quickly ending her life, "I'm sorry."

Cato wakes up. His eyes moving rapidly as his hands gripped the sheets. He lets go of the fabric then starts to tug at his hair. What the hell was that? He thought. Why would he feel guilty about killing her? Why did he even hesitate? Questions kept flooding his head about what the dream meant, yet no answer came to light.

"I didn't expect that little show from you, Cato. And here I thought you despised the girl." Clove smirks as she looks down at her partner from the wall she was leaning on. "Very surprising."

A/N: Was it too long? Should I continue it? R&R, tell me what you think.
I know that there's little Cato/Katniss interaction =( I'm sorry. But it's still the start of the story and there'll be lots of interaction as the story progresses. I can assure you that. I hope I kept them in character. =)