Author's Note: I'm back! Sorry it's taken me so long. I've been busy with another writing engagement, and it took more time than I thought. This story should be finished within a few more chapters. :)

Chapter 21

Boggs just looks at me, with a blank expression smeared across his face, until I can't take the silence any longer.

"Now what?" I demand. "Do you think Coin already has them?" I hope not.

"We need to get out of here." Boggs says, rushing past me and out into the hallway again.

"What do you mean?" Finnick says. "You think this was a trap?"

"Maybe." Boggs says, still reserved. "I don't think Coin has the vials yet. She would've already sent the bombs if she did. I think she's planning on coming here and..."

"What?" I say irritably.

"I think she was hoping we'd find them for her." Boggs says with a big sigh.

"But we haven't found them!" I screech out. I'm not sure when my patience seems to be so thin, or my nerves so brittle, but it's all I can do to try and keep myself together.

Gale comes to my side. "Katniss, we'll find them before she does. This is working in our favor. She won't let the bombs drop until she has what she wants."

I know he's right about the bombs, but just how are we going to find the vials now before she does. They could be anywhere in the Capitol... The pieces are slowly clicking together in my head, and I look up at Boggs, my hands shaking as I voice what he must have already figured out.

"Snow has them, doesn't he? That's why Coin is letting us get this far." That's why the clonos we encountered earlier were unarmed. That's why they haven't killed us already. Coin is trying to lure us to Snow's mansion.

"Yes." Boggs replies in a tired way, slowly turning from me and heading towards the hallway.

"We can't just walk down the street to Snow's mansion," Finnick snorts out. "First of all, we won't be able to get past the force field without blowing it up and we all know how well that went the last time." Finnick looks at me gravely and I avert his icy stare by running after Boggs. He has to have a plan.

"What's the plan Boggs?" I ask, jogging behind his brisk pace down the hallway.

"I don't have one."

"What?" I say, perplexed. We didn't come this far to simply turn around and walk out of here. In fact, we can't walk out of here. We're trapped. "You've got to figure it out then. You need to get those vials. You know..."

"You heard me," he says, irritation overflowing in his voice. "I DON'T KNOW!" His face turns five colors of red and a big vein pops out from the side of his neck. I cower back a few steps, frightened by the sudden menacing stance that he's taken.

"Hey, Boggs. It's okay." Peeta brushes past me and stands between Boggs and myself.

Of course, it's Peeta. Peaceful Peeta. I silently wonder if there's ever been a time he hasn't tried to make peace between people. Why is he always so eager to calm others down? I wonder if it's because of the way his mother treated him, his witch of a mother who never thought twice about raising her arm against him. My stomach blanches at the thought of that red welt against his cheek in the pouring rain.

"Look. We'll figure something out." Peeta motions to Darius and says, "Where are the cameras? Is there a way we can see where the other clonos might be?"

"Like a security room?" I ask, following on the hind thought of Peeta's idea. Darius nods his head enthusiastically and motions towards the stairs. We all follow and, in no time at all, Darius and Scarlett have us two floors up behind steel doors in a room covered with screens. Live video is being shown from every part of the building. My eyes dart to a screen that shows a bedroom, just like the one I was in on level twelve. I gulp loudly.

"Ha!" Peeta yelps out gleefully. "There they are. Looks like there's a pair at almost every elevator door." Sure enough. A pair of clonos stand together guarding almost every floor above ours, except for the very top floors. I suck in my breath as their faces come across the screen. So many of the same faces that haunt my dreams.

"Wait," Boggs says calmly, holding an authoritative hand up, obviously with his anger under control once more. "What's your idea Peeta?"

He shakes his head and blushes a little bit before he says, "It's not really my idea. I picked it up from Gale, when we were out checking snares. He said you can always tell how to trap something by paying attention to the tracks the animals leave behind. I thought, maybe, if we could tell where the clonos are now, we might be able to..."

"Lead them straight into a trap," Gale finishes.

"Top of the roof," Gale and Peeta say together in unison. They both stand, staring at each other, in some type of goofy conspiratorial grin. I feel momentarily stupefied by the testosterone surging through the room.

"Wait," I say cautiously. "If we lead them to the top of the roof, then how are we supposed to escape?"

Finnick beats Johanna in rolling his eyes at me. "Wings," he says boringly, pretending to yawn.

"Duh," Johanna says, tapping her index finger hard against my skull as she struts past.

What? Oh, that's right. Beetee's crazy addition to our tactile suits. But how did Peeta and Johanna know about the wings? I feel like my mind is lagging behind on the details here.

"Boggs showed us, after we swam across the lake," Peeta says, as if reading my thoughts. "He told us not to push certain buttons on the suits, unless we were going to jump off a mountain or something." He grins at me in a big, toothy, boyish way and for a moment I forget that we're about ready to lure deadly clonos to the top of a building and then jump off it. I grin back at him.

"Of course, we're not all going to need to go to the roof. Darius and Scarlett are going to have to work their magic in the control room," Gale says, shooting a shy smile over to Scarlett. She blushes pink back at him and, for a moment, my breath catches. No way. Gale likes the Avox girl?

"Sounds like a good plan," Boggs voice booms out and distracts me from my gawking. "Let's split up. I'll stay with Scarlett and Darius, in case they run into trouble. That leaves you five to weed out the clonos." His eyes narrow into slits as he focuses on me and my heart does double-time. I know he's thinking about what just happened with the clonos we met earlier. I know he's wondering if I'm capable of handling myself. I pull my bow into my hands and load an arrow into it.

"I'm ready for whatever we come across," I say resolutely, even as my knees are beginning to feel like jelly.

"Why are we still standing here then?" Finnick says, annoyed. I can tell he's starting to get frantic about Annie again.

"We need a distraction," Peeta says. "Something that will lure them to the roof."

"Fire." Johanna and I mouth the words at the same time. It's eery. She smirks at me in a you-know-it kind of way and I lift the edges of my lips back to her. I am the 'Girl on Fire' after all.

Gale's face looks ashen at the sisterhood of Johanna and I. "Before we start any fires," he says tensely, "We need to disarm the force fields that surround this building and the mansion. And, we need to make sure that Darius, Scarlett and Boggs can get out safely." I roll my eyes effectively at Gale. Like Boggs wouldn't be able to get them to safety.

Scarlett rolls her eyes at Gale and points towards a door on one of the screens. It's the exit to the street and, for now, it stands unguarded. It's on this same floor. That means, right now, we're at ground level. Twelve flights of stairs to make it to the top, and then to jump off... I gulp again.

"Look," Boggs says, pointing to a series of red buttons underneath the monitors. "I don't even think we need a real fire. We can sound the alarms when you're close to the top. We'll be watching you on the monitors. I'll give you a few flares just in case, but, I think..." he digs around in his backpack for a while and then pulls something out, smirking like an adolescent school-boy. "Yes!" He grins widely. "Smoke bombs." Fake fire. This seems much better than the real thing. Instinct takes over, and I reach down and rub my leg, the place where fire scorched me last. Even though there is no scar to show it, my memory will never let the pain it caused recede.

Gale, with the smoke bombs in hand, races back towards the stairwell, with the rest of us following behind. I opt for bringing up the rear and, when Peeta starts to protest about my placement, I hold up my bow and arrow. He raises an unapproving eyebrow but turns around and marches ahead with everyone else. He knows my arrows from behind are much more effective than what anyone else has to offer.

We run, relentlessly spiraling upwards and upwards in the stairwell. I keep looking below, waiting for something to happen. Waiting for someone to be following us. But, the only thing to be heard is the click-clack of our footsteps. It's unnerving.

Finally, when we've reached the halfway mark, Gale pulls out a flare. "We'll throw this out in the hallway on floor eight. The cameras didn't show any clonos above that. Once we hear Boggs push the alarms, we're going to have to move. It won't take long for the clonos to find us." He says it quietly. Reverently. I wonder if he's scared. If he is, it doesn't show. His face remains cool and collected. More than I can say for myself. My hands have already started to tremble. Peeta catches one of my cold hands in his and gives it a reassuring squeeze as he walks past. My heat skips a beat. I wish he wouldn't do that.

Gale lets everyone go ahead of him and stays behind, keeping his eyes on me. "You okay Katniss?" he asks softly.

"Fine," I say, nodding my head, trying to mull over every crazy emotion that's running through my brain right now. This almost seems like nothing in comparison to what I've been subjected to in the arena and yet, I don't know... this seems so much harder. I could lose so much more than before, when it was just my life or Peeta's to save. All of Panem could be subjected to the terrors of these clonos if we don't succeed. Not to mention that Gale's little brother is back in District 13 on a supremely dangerous mission and then there's Peeta. I don't think he's going to like what I had to say about how I used his feelings for me this whole time. I wouldn't blame him if he never wanted to talk to me again. I can feel the sudden tears springing in the backs of my eyes as I contemplate it all and I shake my head fervently to rid myself of them. I'm not going to cry.

"Let's go," I say, beginning the tread upstairs warily.

"Katniss, it's going to be okay. We're going to get out of here. And then, we can all go back to rebuild District 12. We'll make it better than before." Gale says softly behind me. I know he's trying to calm me down, to cheer my thoughts, but instead it's just making it harder for me to breathe. I might not ever be able to set foot back in District 12 for the things I've done. The horrible crimes I'm guilty of.

"Stop talking," I say harshly back and then instantly wish I hadn't. I look back to see his eyes drop to the floor and guilt drowns me. I am such a bad friend. "I didn't mean to be like that," I stammer out. "Just, I want to get this over with." I say, with a big swooping motion of my hands. He nods his head silently back to me and we proceed up the stairs in silence.

When we reach the eighth floor, Johanna grabs the flare from Gale's hand and, with true pleading in her eyes, genuinely asks, "Can I?"

"Go ahead," he says dismissively, handing over a flare and the smoke bombs. He's still hurt by my words and I add his broken feeling to the long list of injustices I've subjected people to. Johanna's eyes, on the other hand, start to sparkle, like she's just been told the most fantastic news on earth, and heads for the door to the floor. Striking the flare like Boggs did, she opens the door and pitches it down the hall along with the smoke bombs, yelling, "Come and get us, you ugly little pieces of trash!"

"Johanna!" I gasp out, appalled with how she addressed them. Odds are, the clonos have no idea who or what they are. Do they?

"What?" Johanna says with a shrug of her shoulders. "They're only tissue and DNA that's been robbed from us. They aren't human. Plus, we needed to get their attention."

"I thought that was what the flare was for," I mutter in exchange with her scowl as she roughly brushes past me. So much for our moment of bonding earlier. The fire alarms start to sound and, for a moment, we all stand entranced before we start to run like crazy up the stairs. The elevators won't work once the alarms set off, and the clonos will be forced to find us in the stairwell.

As we race up and up, past the number 10 and nearing number 11, a knife comes searing through the air, right past Finnick's face, and lodges itself into the wall behind him. The clonos have found us. I suck in air between my teeth and send an arrow back down in the direction the knife came from, muttering, "I hope you find your mark," under my breath. A dull thud accompanies my thoughts and I secretly make a note to thank Beetee again for his magical bow and arrows. I hope he lets me keep them.

We race up the last flight of stairs to be warmly greeted by the number 12 and the last flight of stairs that lead to the roof. The place where the clonos need to be. I suddenly, and nervously, wonder to myself what the plan is once the clonos reach us up here. Peeta stands there at the door to the roof, waiting for me to pass through and I linger for a second, remembering the warm sunset from the last time I was up here. When it was just Peeta and I. When I was determined to give my life in exchange for Peeta's. Have things changed? I smile to myself and think, no. I'm still here, fighting to keep him alive.

He must be remembering too because a small smile is playing across his lips and a glint of something flashes across his blue eyes. I forget our purpose for being here, that clonos are chasing us, and I utter out quietly so only he can hear, "I remember the last time we were here."

"As do I," he says playfully back.

Something forbidden and urgent pulls in my chest and I lean in close to him, close enough to brush against his cheek, before I look up and see Johanna's wide eyes watching me. Ugh! What am I doing?

I scramble back away from Peeta and through the door, stumbling as I go. I watch as Peeta follows, disappointment spread across his face to match the blush in mine, as he starts to pull himself through the door before he stops. A white pang of terror spread across his face, as he screams out, "Aughh!" and flops to ground on the roof, blood pouring out from his leg where a knife has lodged itself.

"Peeta!" I scream, running over drag him away from the door. Oh no! What just happened?

I reload my bow as Gale and Finnick race over to drag Peeta away. Johanna stands next to me, ready with her ax. The door remains closed. I go over and give it a little tug, then a bigger one, trying to open it, before the realization comes to me. We've locked ourselves up here. "It's locked," I yell over to Gale as Johanna and I back away from it slowly.

I nervously look down at Peeta who has pulled the knife out, warm blood trickling down his leg from the small wound where the knife sunk in. Thankfully, it doesn't look too deep.

"I'm okay," he says, with a grimace on his face. I don't believe him.

"You're not going to be able to jump," I say frantically. There's no way he can put pressure on his leg without it bleeding like crazy. Even if the wound is small.

"I can do it. I'm not that much of a wimp," he says sarcastically.

"I'll help him," Gale says quickly. Peeta and I both look at him with trepidation. "What?" he says. I just shake my head.

Gale, who seems to have suddenly become our medic, kneels over Peeta and quickly wraps a bandage around his leg, securing it with tape. It'll have to do for now. I have no idea why he's being so kind to Peeta. If I hadn't taken so long getting across the threshold of the door, Peeta wouldn't be here bleeding. Again. He's already lost one leg due to me. Again, I'm thankful for Gale to take over my unspoken duties. I'm not sure I could bandage anyone right now.

"Thanks," I say to Gale. He keeps his eyes down and mutters something back to me under his breath. I couldn't exactly hear what he said, but whatever it was it made Peeta smile. My intestines do a flip and I walk away, not wanting to become a part of this Gale/Peeta bonding. It's too weird. I focus instead on my bow and the roof door. Waiting for it to open.

After a good minute of catching our breath and waiting for the door to open, Finnick starts to pace, back and forth. "What are they waiting for?" he mumbles.

"Did Scarlett get the force field down?" I ask. I assume she wouldn't have any problem with that, but I find myself searching in the sky for a chink. Sure enough, just as Johanna steadies herself to throw a rock in the air, I see it. The chink. The field is still on. And, right now, we're trapped on the roof, between a force field and clonos. Oh no. My heart sinks. We haven't led them into a trap as much as we've trapped ourselves.

Johanna's rock comes zinging back at us and hits Finnick on his arm. "Ouch!" he says, through barred teeth. Johanna grins sweetly back at him, like she hasn't done anything, and points at me. What?

"I didn't do it," I swear earnestly, but he just glares at me and walks past. Geez. "Thanks Johanna," I hiss.

"Anytime," she says. I feel like punching her, but I won't. Right now, I feel like hitting anything might make me feel better. I load an arrow into my bow and point it towards the sky.

"DON'T!" A myriad of cries go out and I lower my bow. I wasn't aiming for the chink, I just wanted to let off some steam.

"What?" I say sardonically, glaring at each of them. "You don't really think I'm going to try and hit the chink again, do you?" I roll my eyes at all of them as they stand there, and I sulk back over to the roof door and give it a swift kick. Willing it to open with my mind. What are the clonos waiting for? Did they find Boggs and the others? Do they really have us trapped up here? I swallow hard at our circumstance, wondering just what we're going to do now.

The door rattles back to me in response. I gasp and hear Johanna, Finnick and Gale ready themselves behind me. The door rattles again and my body quivers as I shift a few feet further away. Still, nothing. Seconds tick past and I feel myself counting them out loud. "One, two, three..." The door finally gives one last rattle before it swings open and lands broken, off the hinges. I stagger back as the clonos come pouring out towards us. Knives, spears, axes. Barbaric weaponry, just like what they'd give to us in the arena.

"Katniss! What are you waiting for?" I hear Finnick yell next to me as he plunges a trident through the boy from District 4. From his district. I shake my head and swallow, taking a deep breath, and close my eyes as I fire the first arrow into the boy from District 1. It sinks itself into his neck and I feel bile rising in my throat. I don't think I can do this anymore, but somehow my hands find themselves loading more arrows into the bow. Over and over. We make a tight circle around Peeta, keeping our backs towards him as he yells out instructions like a General.

"Johanna, to your left!"

"Gale! Nine o'clock!"

"Finnick, three feet to the right!"

When the last clono falls, I sink to the ground and count the bodies circled around us. Twelve. Twelve more clonos we've killed. Most of them were armed this time, which makes me feel better for some reason. Justifies the arrows protruding from their broken bodies, I suppose. The thought sickens me and I wrap my hands around my head, not wanting to view the carnage anymore. We need to get off this roof.

"Is the force field down yet?" I say flatly, to nobody in particular. The sound of a pebble sizzling and then being hurdled back towards us is my answer.

"Do we go back down the way we came up?" Johanna asks, sounding rather disappointed. I'm sure she was looking forward to hurtling towards the earth in the death trap of Beetee's tactile suit. I give a sigh of relief mixed with disappointment. I still remember the adrenaline surge from jumping, but glad we won't have to do it here.

"No. We're still going to jump..." Gale says quietly. I look up, puzzled. He waits a few seconds and then says, "Scarlett had to leave the shield up so we could trap the clonos for sure. We didn't want any to escape." He looks sheepishly at me and then back at a grinning Johanna. I swear, she looks like she's just received the best news ever as she gruesomely polishes off the tip of one of her blood-stained axes on her shirt.

Peeta takes a pebble, tosses it around in his hand for a few seconds, and then hobbles towards the edge and throws it. No hiss this time. Only silence and then, eventually, a ping as it hits bottom. My stomach sinks to my feet. Oh no. We're going to jump.

Johanna skips over to the edge, excitement oozing out of her pores. She climbs to the edge and, in a very serious voice, says, "See you on the other side." Then, without warning, she jumps. Gone. Just like that, over the side of the roof. I run to the edge, my mouth still open, and watch as she hurtles towards the ground for a few seconds before regaining her composure and opens her wings, sailing around the building and out of sight.

"Where's she going?" I ask.

"Looks like she's headed to Snow's mansion," Finnick says, his voice tense. Oh. Right. That's where we all need to go next. My body is filled with verve at the thought of sinking an arrow into Snow's chest next and I take a deep breath. I need to collect my arrows before we leave.

Not focusing on faces, I hurriedly scurry around picking arrows out of bodies and haphazardly wiping them off with my hands. There's no time to waste. Bright red stains my hands and arms. I somehow find it appropriate for what comes next. Snow and I will meet, both with the blood of others on our hands. Finally, closure. At least for what has happened in the arenas. It remains to be seen what fun Coin has in mind for me. The thought momentarily side-tracks me and I push it back into the recesses of my brain. I can only deal with one bloodthirsty ruler at a time.

"Penny for your thoughts," Peeta says, as I pass by him, wiping the sticky blood from my palms onto my pants.

"Snow. Dead." It's all I need to say. Peeta's face twists into a contorted image before he picks himself up and hobbles over to the edge of the building.

"I want to be there for it too," he says.

"You can't go. Not with your leg. You'll..." slow us down is what I want to say. Put yourself in unnecessary danger is the next thought that leaps into my mind. But, as I look at his eyes that are normally a light, warming shade of blue I see something dark and angry in them. It frightens me.

"You look the same way when you talk about Snow," he says, his voice steely. "And you're not going without me there. You know I'll follow, no matter what."

I turn around to see the resolve written across his face and sigh. He's so stubborn sometimes.

"Fine. But Snow's mine." I say.

"We'll see who gets to him first," Finnick says, as he leaps off the edge of the building. The thought startles me. Johanna is probably already half there. She's going to beat me to Snow! It unnerves me and I find myself lurching towards the edge.

"Wait!" It's Gale. He comes running over to me. "I need you to help me secure my bow, so I can help Peeta when he needs to land."

My hands have never worked so fast or so furiously. I'm going to be late in getting to Snow! The thought is killing me. I have Gales' bow tied tightly to his back and glance over at Peeta. My heart stops beating.

He's slowly lining the clonos bodies up, together, gently shutting their eyelids and folding their hands. If it weren't for the various gaping wounds and pools of dark blood scattered around their bodies, you could mistake them for sleeping. But that's not what has stopped my blood from running through my body. In my haste to fasten Gales' bow and in Peeta's respect for the dead, none of us have noticed the unwanted intruder. Another clono. But, not just any clono. It's Peeta's clono. I think. Somehow, he's injured his leg too. Or, is he just hobbling to mimic Peeta? Or, is it the clono lining up the dead bodies and Peeta who's limping over towards him? Panic swathes over me. I can't tell!

"Peeta!" I cry out. They both look up at me in that same exasperated way. "Watch out!" Is all I can say. I don't know who to protect from whom. I have my bow and arrow drawn, but I'm not sure where to shoot it at.

"Katniss!" The Peeta walking towards the other Peeta says, who's now slowly backing away from the clonos bodies. "Shoot him!" I look into the blue eyes and then over to the next pair of blue eyes and my hands freeze. What if I shoot the wrong Peeta?

"Don't shoot. It's me, Katniss." Peeta, the one who was just busy aligning the clonos bodies says softly. "You know it's me, don't you?" He questions. I swallow. No. I can't tell. They look so similar.

They both are limping slowly apart from each other yet echoing each others movements towards me. I shoot a nervous glance back at Gale who's desperately trying to get his bow off his back that I fastened just moments ago. There's no way he's getting that off in time to help me. I'm going to have to make the decision. What am I going to do? What am I going to do?

"Katniss, please," the Peeta closest to me, the one limping towards me without any blood on his hands, says quietly.

"How do I know it's you?" I say back, my voice cracking on the last syllables.

"Orange. The sunset was orange. I unbraided your hair. I asked you to stay with me..."

"Always," I say quietly.

"Always," he says back, a strained grin across his face.

I look down at my bow, remembering the words Beetee echoed to me, and carefully load an arrow into it. I point it towards the Peeta whose hands are covered with clono blood, and give him a solid look. The arrow tugs tightly against the bow. I swallow quickly and take a deep breath, looking straight into the blue eyes of Peeta's clono, and I can't bring myself to do it. Both Peeta's are advancing on me now, and I back away, towards Gale. I mercifully shove my bow and arrow into his capable hands, saying, "Please. I can't do it." He gives me a quick nod of the head before hastily setting his stance and letting go of the taut arrow. It hits him, the clono Peeta, squarely in the chest and he staggers back a few steps before falling backwards on the ground.

"Peeta!" I say, running towards the other boy. The boy who's slowly limping towards me. The boy with bright blue eyes whose clono Gale just killed. The Peeta I know. My boy with the bread.

"I'm okay Katniss. I'm okay." But my body won't listen to his words. He might be okay, but I'm not. It starts trembling hard, disintegrating when his arms wrap around me, and my inner conscience let's loose, tearing apart at the seams with sobs. I can't believe we just shot Peeta's replica in the chest. I look over at the crumpled body on the ground, the same blond hair tussled from falling, blood spread across the same fingers, the same blond hairs on the arms glistening in the midday sun. My body goes limp at the revelation leaving Peeta with the job of holding me up.

"Katniss!" he cries, sinking down to the ground with me. "It's okay! You did the right thing. That, that thing wasn't me. Look at me!" He places his two warm hands on my face, gently guiding my eyes to his, and says, "You had to do that. That clono would have killed you. Me. All of us if you'd let him go. Please, please listen to me."

I want to listen, but my thoughts are interrupted by the voice of another. My voice. Oh no. The interview. It's playing on every monitor along every quiet street. It's the only noise you can hear.

"That locket around your neck" Casear says. I grab the necklace around me neck. The locket that has the pearl from Peeta encased inside. My good luck charm. I smile weakly at Peeta and my face begins to blush. How embarrassing. I close my eyes as the conversation continues in the air around us.

"Do you still feel that way?" Caesar asks .

"Yes. I need him more than anything." My voice. The voice that sounds all desperate and breathy and ... oh. My face is on fire. Peeta's mouth is hanging open in a little O as he looks down at me with his bright eyes. Eyes that pierce right through my skin and sink into a warm spot in my stomach. I hear my breath catch. I remember what comes next.

"You need me more than anything," Peeta asks. Unbelieving. I swallow hard and gasp for air. I don't really want to have this conversation now. On the roof of the Training Building. In front of Gale.

"Maybe," I concede with a shy shrug of my shoulders. But my voice on the monitor keeps going. Giving me away. I suddenly hate that loose-lipped girl.

Caear. "If you could say one thing to Peeta right now Katniss, one thing that only he could hear, what would that be?" Now it's my turn to gape at Peeta. I'm not sure I'm ready for him to hear this. But he's all ears, attentive to the voices circling around us. I hold my breath. Here it comes.

"I'd ask him to stay with me."

This is beyond embarrassing. My body is ready to combust. Implode with self-loathing. I can't even bring myself to look at Peeta. But, I don't have to. Somehow, his lips have found mine. Lighting that dark, deep flame deep within my belly. I reciprocate with more vigor that I thought possible. I lose myself for a second.

It's only when I hear the crunching of gravel in front of us that I pull away, gasping for air. Gale comes around to the front of us and clears his voice. He's obviously wishing he were anywhere else than here. I wish he was too. A second round of blushing occurs.

"Katniss. The others are surely at Coin's mansion by now. We need to get off this roof. You don't have to go to see Snow," he glances nervously to Peeta and then back to me. They're already devising a plan to keep me away from Snow's mansion. Away from my own clono. That thought alone starts to clear my mind.

"No. I'm going. Let's go." I say, determined, wiping the tears from my eyes.

"I don't know Katniss. Let's just get down to the ground first. One thing at a time," Peeta says.

"I already know what I want, Peeta. And Snow is at the top of my list."

"What's second?" he asks.

I roll my eyes at him and then blow my nose loudly on the hem of my shirt. It's not ladylike, but my nose was running like crazy. He laughs at me and helps me stand up."You're hopeless. You know that?" he says, squeezing my hand and looking at me in only the way he can, making my heart pound. I shake my head in agreement back at him and let out a long sigh. I've known that for a while now.

"Okay. Let's go," Gale says huffily, handing me back my bow. I sling it across my back and step out onto the ledge. I look back only once, into the blue eyes of Peeta who's waiting patiently behind me, and I suddenly feel hopeful. This is all going to end and we're going to have a chance to start over again. Away from Snow. Away from the arena. Everyone is going to get a second chance. It's liberating and I feel much more confident about life than I ever had before.

I take a deep breath and jump off the roof. My destiny awaits.