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“KATNISS!” Peeta's voice howls for me. But this time, I don't answer. Beetee still breathes faintly beside me. He and I will soon die. Finnick and Enobaria will die. Peeta is alive. Two cannons have sounded. Brutus, Johanna, Chaff. Two of them are already dead. That will leave Peeta with only one tribute to kill. And that is the very best I can do. One enemy.
Enemy. Enemy. The word is tugging at a recent memory. Pulling it into the present. The look on Haymitch's face. “Katniss, when you're in the arena…” The scowl, the misgiving. “What.” I hear my own voice tighten as I bristle at some unspoken accusation. “You just remember who the enemy is.” Haymitch says. “That's all.”
Haymitch's last words of advice to me. Why would I need reminding? I have always known who the enemy is. Who starves and tortures and kills us in the arena. Who will soon kill everyone I love.
My bow drops as his meaning registers. Yes, I know who the enemy is. And it's not Enobaria.
I finally see Beetee's knife with clear eyes. My shaking hands slide the wire from the hilt, wind it around the arrow just above the feathers, and secure it with a knot picked up in training.
I rise, turning.
But not to the force field.
Instead, I- my- her- she is cast out, ripped out of her body, only a watcher to the fury she shows in her face.
“Girl.” Beetee whispers. “What are you-”
She fires an arrow in the direction of Peeta's scream. Only aiming upwards, to let the arrow fly in an arc.
The moment the arrow leaves her bow, she somehow yanks the bow over her back and grabs her arrows, holding them like knives.
“Oh.” She hears Beetee say over the roar of blood in her ears. “Oh, Katniss-”
‘Katniss,’ She thinks. ‘Isn't here right now.’
All that's present is her fury.
It's that fury and adrenaline that drives her to run back into the jabberjay forest, back into the screams and the wails of people long dead and barely alive.
Katniss watches as her body moves on pure autopilot, the details of the forest blurring around her as she runs, screaming Peeta's name as loud as she humanly can.
The jabberjays pick up on it, screaming with her as she runs.
‘Good.’ She thinks. ‘I'll make everyone come to me.’
She stops screaming and stops running, slowing to a stop next to a small lake she doesn't remember seeing.
The trees are still too small for her to climb, but she can adapt.
She’s learned how to.
She crouches down next to a tree, letting the leaves and plants hide her from view, forcing herself to stay on edge so the adrenaline can keep flooding her senses.
All around her, the jabberjays still scream for Peeta.
They're still screaming as Katniss hears footsteps nearby.
The running figure stops just a few feet away from where she's hiding. She looks up at the person and sees their face as they turn around in a slow circle-
And it's Peeta.
In a move that feels all too familiar, she reaches out from under the ferns and grabs Peeta’s prosthetic leg.
He jumps, nearly ripping his leg out of her grip.
He looks around in confusion, then finally looks down.
And sees her.
His eyes widen, mouth falling open in shock.
“Katniss-”
She doesn't care about the cameras watching or the tributes coming after her, after them both now. The jabberjays are still screaming for her and it should be enough to distract them all from this one moment.
She just cares about him.
She stands to her feet, stashes her arrows in her boots, and looks Peeta directly in his eyes.
“Come with me.” She tells him, holding out her hand.
Peeta takes it without a second thought.
“Always.”
For some reason, the jabberjays don't repeat them.
They still scream Peeta’s name.
Even as Katniss hands Peeta an arrow, knowing full well that he will do what needs to be done.
Even as they grip each other’s hands with a newfound strength.
Even as they run together, under the cover of birds and trees too thin to climb.
Even as they tear out of the forest, birds screaming behind them.
Finnick sees them first, hands covered in blood.
The words he says are lost to the wind roaring in her ears as she grabs Peeta and pushes him toward Beetee far harsher than she meant it.
Peeta stumbles, lands next to Beetee, and looks at her with confusion.
Whatever words he wants to say die in his throat as Katniss rips her bow off her back, loads the remaining arrow onto her bow, and points it at Beetee’s knife.
Except.
Her vision blurs, and Katniss is shoved back into her body by some force.
‘I don't need to aim at the knife.’ She remembers. ‘I need to aim at the…’
Her bow tilts up, now at the wavering square, and ignoring Peeta’s gasp, she lets the arrow fly.
She vaguely hears him yell her name as it hits its mark, vanishes, and her hair stands on end.
The lightning ‘strikes the tree, a flash of white runs up the wire, and for just a moment, the dome bursts into a dazzling blue light.’
That light is replaced by Peeta’s arms wrapping around her as they are both thrown to the ground.
Heads strike the ground and the screams they have been hearing are replaced by loud ringing, like the squeal of the wheels of the Victor train.
She gasps, left fingers pressing against Peeta’s neck, trying to find a pulse because the last time this happened, he couldn't move-
He coughs. Once.
Opens his eyes.
Their eyes meet in the middle as something falls down and brushes against her cheek
“...you’re alive.” She manages over the ringing.
He stares at her in clear disbelief.
“...that’s what you’re focusing on?”
His voice is gravelly and strained.
It's all she can hear, with the screams and rings fading away to the sound of their breaths and hearts beating just out of sync.
“Yeah.” She says. “I am.”
Then.
Everything.
Seems.
To.
Erupt.
At.
Once.
The earth explodes. The forest bursts into flames, and Katniss stares up into a fiery orange sky, almost like the sunsets back home in District 12.
Orange gives way to yellow, then red, then blue and green flower patterns that dissolve into shadows cast by the fire.
Peeta flinches as dirt and plant matter scatter over them and she stares up at the sky in confusion.
“They’re shooting off fireworks?” She hears herself ask.
“If they are.” Peeta inhales sharply as he rolls onto his back, mouth clamping shut in an almost scream.
“...We need to move.” She finishes for him.
Then the hovercraft appears, materializing above them without any warning.
‘Oh.’ Katniss realizes. ‘We’re in shock. And if it was quiet, and a mockingjay perched close at hand, I would have heard the jungle go silent and then the bird's call precede the appearance of the Capitol's aircraft.’
The claw drops from the underside until it's directly overhead. The metal talons slide underneath her body, lifting it into the air as Peeta screams beneath her. She wants to scream with him, to run, to rip her way out of the claw holding her, but she'll drop to the ground and her body will break but at least the Capitol won't have her or Peeta.
But she’s frozen, unable to move, helpless to do anything but fervently hope she will die from her wounds before she reaches the shadowy figures awaiting her on the helicraft.
‘They have not spared my life to crown me victor but to make my death as slow and public as possible.’
“Peeta.” She says, hoping he can hear her. “I'm so sorry. I'm a fool.”
Then she realizes that Peeta is still on the ground.
“No.” Katniss says quietly, as realization gives way to panic.
“No, no, no-”
She starts screaming as she's pulled into the helicraft.
Katniss sees the Capitol guards around her and brings her hands up, only for the guards to grab her wrists and wrench them behind her back.
“Miss Everdeen.” A guard says and she freezes because they're not supposed to speak to her- “Please don't fight us.”
“Let me go!!!” She snaps instead, attempting to pull her wrists out of the guards’ grip.
“Stop resisting or we'll break your wrists.” The guard holding her wrists hisses in her ear.
She immediately snaps her head back into his helmet and feels her wrists slide out of their grip-
“-eetheart, d-”
-long enough to sprint over to the entrance.
She stares out and down into the arena and sees Peeta still on the ground.
“Peeta!!!” She screams and thrusts her hand out. “Take my hand!!!”
The wind shifts. Just enough, but it shifts.
To allow the helicarrier to roll on its side and allow Peeta to use the last of his strength to leap from the ground-
And grab Katniss’s outstretched hand.
“I’ve got you!”
Tears flood her eyes and spill out into the air as Katniss uses the last of her strength to pull Peeta up onto the helicraft.
“I've got you.” She repeats. “I've got you.”
Peeta just lets out a shaky laugh.
“You really came for me.” He says as the ringing dies down, the screams go quiet, the door slides shut, and he hugs her tightly.
“You really came for me.” He repeats.
She has no words for him.
Just the feeling of exhaustion exploding in her chest as she collapses to her knees.
“But-” Peeta says quietly. “You weren't supposed to come for me.”
“Too bad.” She says between deep, gasping breaths and closes her eyes. “I wasn't going to leave you there.”
“Katniss.” He whispers.
She instinctively tenses up, preparing herself for a fight that neither of them were ready for-
“Thank you.” He says instead.
“You're welcome.” Katniss says.
There's commotion going on around them, the sound of people arguing slowly fills the air.
But this moment, like many, is theirs and theirs alone.
She's not sure how long they're in the air, but she knows that the only reason she is aware of anything happening is because Peeta has wrapped his arms around her shoulders, buried his head in the space between her neck and her shoulder, and is murmuring something she can't make out over the loud whirs of the helicraft.
“We're alive.” She says emptily.
“We're alive.” Peeta repeats, the warmth of his breath both reassuring and unnerving her.
They stay there, clinging to each other, as they fly into the unknown.
Together.