Katniss has been kind and let me sleep past our usual trade-off on watches. I can tell because the sky's getting light in preparation for sunrise.

"I slept the whole night. That's not fair, Katniss, you should have woken me."

She stretches and burrows down into the bag. "I'll sleep now. Wake me if anything interesting happens."

As per usual, nothing of any interest happens. I'm not really surprised, though, Cato doesn't know where we are and we left no tracks on the way back. Unless somehow he can track us with his nose, he's got little to no chance of finding us. I pass the hours by thinking of home and playing with my token. I wonder how Delly is, how she's holding up. If she's watching. What would she think of Katniss?

My thoughts occupy me until the afternoon, when I wake Katniss.

"Any sign of our friend?" she asks.

"No, he's keeping a disturbingly low profile."

"How long do you think we'll have before the Gamemakers drive us together?" she asks.

"Well, Foxface died almost a day ago, so there's been plenty of time for the audience to place bets and get bored. I guess it could happen at any moment," I say.

"Yeah, I have a feeling today's the day," she says. She sits up and looks out at the terrain. "I wonder how they'll do it."

I remain silent. I mean, what can I say?

"Well, until they do, there's no use wasting a hunting day. But we should probably eat as much as we can hold just in case we run into trouble," she says.

I pack up our gear while Katniss prepares the remainder of our measly amount of leftover food. We eat the leftover rabbit, roots, greens and the rolls with goat cheese spread over them. She keeps the squirrel and the apple in case we don't catch anything.

When we leave the cave, it feels right. It has a sense of finality to it. The end of the games feels… real now. On the first day, I thought there was no chance in hell that I would be able to make it this far, let alone with Katniss as my ally. I just assumed she'd drop me once we got in but maybe the whole time she was just trying to find me. Maybe she likes me back, too. When we kissed… it felt like there was something there. Like she wanted it.

Katniss leads the way, stopping to pat the rocks, as if saying goodbye. We head to the stream because Katniss says she needs to wash up. I have no objections to this seeing as I don't really smell that nice anyway.

We reach the stream, or, more like, the remains of the stream. Katniss bends down to feel the stream bed.

"Not even a little damp. They must have drained it while we slept," she says.

"The lake," I say. "That's where they want us to go."

"Maybe the ponds still have some," she says.

"We can check," I say. We head over to the pond and find it, as suspected, empty.

"You're right. They're driving us to the lake," she says. "Do you want to go straightaway or wait until the water's tapped out?"

"Let's go now while we have food and rest. Let's just go end this thing," I say.

She nods. It's odd, I started this competition as Cato's ally and now I'm ending it with his number 1 enemy. It's funny, sometimes, how things work out.

I wrap my arms around her.

"Two against one. Should be a piece of cake," I say.

"Next time we eat, it will be in the Capitol," she says.

"You bet it will," I say.

We stand there for a while, locked in our embrace. We wordlessly break apart and head for the lake.

I try to step lightly but I still end up sending animals away with every step I take. Katniss didn't seem to mind, though.

We stop for a minute under the tree where the bugs attacked me. I see the spot where I found Adriana's body, the place where Glimmer lay, covered in lumps. I see the husk of the hive of the bugs that attacked me.

"Let's move on," says Katniss. I don't object.

This place holds bad memories. I will be glad to be rid of it when Katniss and I win.

We reach the Cornucopia in the early evening. No sign of Cato anywhere. We circle the Cornucopia to confirm that Cato hasn't pulled a Catherine and hidden on the inside. We cross to the lake and fill our water bottles.

Katniss frowns at the sun. "We don't want to fight him after dark. There's only one pair of glasses."

I squeeze some iodine into the water. "Maybe that's what he's waiting for. What do you want to do? Go back to the cave?"

"Either that or find a tree. But let's give him another half hour or so. Then we'll take cover," she says.

We sit by the lake for a while, there's no point in hiding now. Katniss sings a four note tune and all of the mockingjays pick it up.

"Just like your father," I say.

Her hand moves to the pin on her shirt. "That's Rue's song," she says. "I think they remember it."

The notes overlap and a heavenly combination of notes occurs. Katniss just sits with her eyes closed, the corners of her mouth turned upwards. All of a sudden, the runs cut off in jagged stops. Their calls turn into high pitched screeches.

We're on our feet; me armed with my knife and Katniss with her bow. Cato crashes through the greenery. He has no weapons, but is still heading straight towards us. It doesn't matter that much, Katniss told me he snapped Toby's neck with his hands. Katniss shoots, but the arrow falls to the side.

"He's got some kind of body armour!" she shouts.

Cato rockets towards us and I brace myself, but he runs straight past us. Katniss turns right around and follows suit.

I turn to see what has scared the two fiercest competitors in these Games turn on their heels.

Then, I see them.

The muttations.

I start running like my life depends on it, which, speaking literally, it does. Cato's heading straight for the Cornucopia, Katniss hot on his heels. I'm in no position to argue with their decisions so I follow Katniss.

She sprints to the Cornucopia and turns around, sprinting towards me. I feel the hot breath of a mutt on my neck and try to run faster, but I hear a wail and see that Katniss has shot it down.

I wave her away, saying, "Go, Katniss! Go!"

She takes my advice and starts to climb the Cornucopia. I see her turn to Cato, bow loaded, and aims. I let out a cry as I feel a sharp pain in my leg.

Typical that my one good leg gets injured.

My leg feels like it's been lit on fire. "Climb!" I hear Katniss yell.

I try my best and get up onto the Cornucopia. I feel a mutt beside me and Katniss shoots it down. I reach her feet and she grabs my hand and pulls me up.

I hear Cato cough out, "Can they climb it?"

"What?" shouts Katniss.

"He said, 'Can they climb it?'" I answer.

The mutts assemble. They start to rear up on their hind legs, giving them an eerily human quality. They put their snouts on the horn, scratching and sniffing the metal, occasionally making high pitched yipping sounds to each other.

Great. They can communicate.

A blonde-furred mutt leaps at the Cornucopia, missing by about 10 feet. Katniss shrieks and her arrow shakes in her bow.

She shoots a mutt. "Katniss?" I ask.

"It's her!" she yells.

"Who?" I ask.

She turns her head from side to side, a look of complete terror on her face.

"What is it Katniss?" I ask.

"It's them. All of them. The others. Rue and Foxface and… all of the other tributes," she chokes out.

I gasp. I look at their eyes… I see a pair of eyes that I know well. Deep, brown ones. I look at its tag. It has the number four on it.

Adriana tried to kill me.

"What did they do to them? You don't think… those could be their real eyes?"

I don't get an answer. I hear a snap and feel myself being pulled back on my injured leg. I mean the most recently injured leg.

Katniss holds on to me.

"Kill it, Peeta, kill it!" I hear Katniss yell.

I pull my knife out and stab blindly at the muttation until I feel the pull lessen. Katniss heaves me back over the edge.

I stand beside Katniss while she shoots a mutt that could only have been Thresh. I could tell because it was the one that jumped the highest.

I feel a pull and feel strong muscles wrap around my neck, cutting off the air from my windpipe.

I claw at his arm, not sure if I should make an attempt to stop my leg bleeding or try to get Cato to let go of me.

Katniss stands a bit away, arrow pointed at Cato's head. He laughs.

"Shoot me and he goes down with me."

He makes a good point.

The edges of my vision start turning black. A thought strikes me.

I get a bit of blood on my finger and paint an 'x' on his hand. I mouth the word 'shoot'. The arrow reaches its mark a second before Cato realises what's happening. He releases me as a reflex and I take that opportunity to slam back against him I lose my balance for a moment and Katniss dives to catch me. I don't fall, just stumble.

We hear Cato hit the ground and hear the air rush out of him. Katniss and I clutch each other, trying to block out the snarls and growls coming from the ground below us.

We hear the occasional clanging sound of metal-on-metal, so he must have a weapon on him. Add in the fact that he's got the body armour and that he's, well, him, and he may have a shot against the mutts.

Scary thought.

I think about the tribute mutts. What about Clove? How does Cato feel that his girlfriend died and is now, in mutt-form, trying to kill him?

I feel kind of sorry for the guy.

It feels like an eternity before I hear the mutts drag him away. I know that it's still going to be a while before the mutts kill him; the audience want a show, and the Gamemakers are hired to make the show 'interesting'.

Katniss turns to me and turns pale at the sight of my leg.

Not this again, I think.

She cuts a sleeve from her shirt, securing it around my leg and securing it with an arrow.

I feel a little bit faint, so I lie down.

I unzip my jacket and Katniss climbs in with me.

"Cato may win this thing yet," she whispers.

"Don't you believe it," I say, pulling up the hood.

The next hours are excruciating. The cold mixed with the occasional yelps are almost too much to handle.

"Why don't they just kill him?" asks Katniss.

"You know why," I say, pulling her closer to me.

I'm so tired, I think, so very tired.

"Don't go to sleep," I hear.

I try my hardest but it' no easy feat. I drift off a few times, each time being woken with Katniss screaming my name. It gets louder every time. With nothing to occupy our interests, I focus on the sky. I point out to Katniss the subtle shifts of the moon.

Hours later, I see a bit of gold in the black night sky.

"The sun is rising," I whisper.

Katniss puts her ear on the horn.

"I think he's closer now. Katniss, can you shoot him?" I ask.

"My last arrow's in your tourniquet," she says.

"Make it count," I say.

She gets up and moves to the mouth of the Cornucopia. She shoots.

"Did you get him?" I ask.

The canon answers my question.

"Then we won, Katniss," I say hollowly.

"Hurray for us," she says.

We wait for the hovercraft to come and watch the mutts bound into a hole in the ground.

"Hey!" Katniss shouts. "What's going on?"

"Maybe it's the body. Maybe we have to move away from it," I say.

"Okay. Think you can make it to the lake?" she asks.

"Think I better try," I say.

We make our way to the edge of the lake inch by inch. We make it to the lake and a mockingjay call signals the arrival of the hovercraft.

We wait for the trumpets, for Claudius Templesmith to announce us victors.

He doesn't.

"What are they waiting for?" I ask.

"I don't know," she says.

Katniss finds a stick to tie my tourniquet with.

"Greetings to the final contestants of the 74th Hunger Games. The earlier revision has been revoked. Closer examination of the rulebook has disclosed that only on winner be allowed," Claudius says. "Good luck and may the odds be ever in your favour."

There's a small burst of static and then everything is quiet. Katniss stares at me in disbelief.

"If you think about it, it's not that surprising," I say.

I reach towards my knife and in an instant Katniss has her bow loaded and aimed at my heart. I raise my eyebrows and throw my knife into the lake.

Katniss drops her weapon, blushing.

"No," I say. "Do it." I limp towards her and hand her back the weapon.

"I can't," she says. "I won't."

"Do it. Before they send back those mutts or something. I don't want to die like Cato," I say.

"Then you shoot me," she says, shoving the bow into my hands. "You shoot me and go home and live with it!"

"You know I can't," I say, throwing the weapons. "Fine. I'll go first anyway."

I reach down and rip off my tourniquet.

"No, you can't kill yourself," she says. She tries to put the bandage on my wound again.

"Katniss," I say. "It's what I want."

"You're not leaving me here alone," she says.

"Listen," I say, pulling her to her feet. "We both know they have to have a victor. It can only be one of us. Please, take it. For me. I've loved you since the first time we met, Katniss, and I haven't stopped loving you, not until this day. The day I die. You can't just… you can't give up. You deserve to go home. You have a life. Friends. A little sister to take care of. I have none of that. So just do it, leave me. Go home and be a victor."

I see her grab for a pouch on her belt.

The nightlock!

I clamp my hand around her wrist. "No, I won't let you."

"Trust me," she whispers. She pours some berries into my hands. She fills her own. "On the count of three?"

I lean down and kiss her gently. "The count of three."

We stand together.

"Hold them out. I want everyone to see," I say.

We hold them out to the invisible crowd.

"One."

"Two."

"Three."

We lift our hands to our mouths, filling them with berries.

A frantic Claudius Templesmith speaks.

"Stop! Stop! Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to present the victors of the 74th annual Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark! I give you – the tributes from District 12!"

I spit the berries from my mouth, scraping my tongue to clear any remaining juice. I pull Katniss to the lake to flush our mouths out.

"You didn't swallow any?" she asks.

I shake my head. "You?"

"Guess I'd be dead now if I did," she says.

"That's true," I say, but I know she can't hear me over the roar of the audience being played live from the Capitol. The hovercraft materializes over us and we hold onto the ladders that come down for us. We grab on, but don't let go of each other. I'm grateful for the electrical current keeping me on the wire, I know I wouldn't be able to hold on by myself. Sure enough, as soon as I got onto the hovercraft my vision blacked out and I felt myself fall.

A/N: Guys I am so sorry! I got heaps of assignments and stuff this week so this was the earliest I could update. I hope the length makes up for the delay and I would really appreciate it if you guys could review :) thank you