A/N: Okay so this is the last chapter of this story. Thank you to everyone who took the time to review! If you liked it, I urge you to follow the sequel to this story which will be called, "Phoenix Rising."

I might also give my sequel an M rating just to cover all my bases, so don't freak out if it's not listed in the T ratings. I might end up changing the rating for this story as well, just to be safe.

Anyway, please please review this chapter since it is the last one for this story and I hope to see you following my sequel. I shall post the first chapter of that one once I get a few reviews from this one.

Chapter Fifteen: Rebellion, Part Deux

. . .

After I took a pair of wire cutters and snapped both ends of the arrow that was lodged in Haymitch's shoulder, I pulled the shaft of the arrow out as cleanly and painlessly as possible. I made sure to do all of this while he was passed out and apart from the occasional twitch or groan, he didn't seem to be in extensive pain.

"He'll be feeling all this when he wakes up," Peeta said as I glanced over at Haymitch once I placed the arrow on the floor.

"Yeah, but it's a good thing that he keeps a large supply of alcohol under the sink. Can you come over here and press this down on his shoulder as hard as you can? I need the bleeding to slow down a bit."

Peeta hurried over to my side and knelt down beside Haymitch and did as I asked, applying pressure to the cloth that I had covering the wound. "I still can't believe you shot him to save me. I gotta say I wasn't expecting that…"

I looked up at him as I poured the tiny single serving bottle of rubbing alcohol on the wound, feeling almost offended, but shook it off as I grabbed the sewing kit and started threading the needle with standard black thread. "Well I feel stupid now, thinking that you'd be grateful I stopped him from slitting your throat open," I replied a bit coldly, unable to stop myself.

"Katniss, of course I'm grateful. I just meant… that I know how much you love him and I didn't think you'd even try to protect me after all the times I've tried to kill you."

I knew this wasn't the time to fight about this so I just let the anger slide down my throat and form a knot in the pit of my stomach. "Peeta, I do love him, but we have history. We were in our first and second Hunger Games together. We've saved each other countless times, more times than I can count, and if it hadn't been for you throwing that bread to me all those years ago, I might've died. I think at this point, it'd be ridiculous if we didn't at least attempt to save each other."

He nodded and ran a hand through his hair before slowly taking his hands off Haymitch's shoulder. I looked over and saw the bleeding and slowed down and smiled to myself in relief. Even though he had slept with someone else, I believe it really had been against his will so I could hardly hold that against him. He had no choice just like how Peeta had been programmed to attempt to kill me at unpredictable times.

I began to sew his shoulder up so the bleeding would clot and it wouldn't get infected. I had just broken the needle through a small patch of his skin when I heard him shout out in pain and curse.

"Damn it! Peeta, try to hold him still so he doesn't jerk around with this needle in him. I don't want to tear him open," I ordered him as Haymitch had begun to try to move his body away from the pain.

Peeta almost too easily pinned Haymitch on the floor and positioned himself at his head so he could hold his good shoulder and part of the bad one down. I was surprised at how Haymitch seemed to let him do this without any trouble, besides the occasional jolt. I had to reposition myself so I was in line with Haymitch's shoulder; as I did this, I purposely sat on his arm to help Peeta restrain him.

"Get off of me, both of you!" He growled. "Oh god… what the hell did you do to me, Katniss?!"

"Quit your whining. I did what I had to! I didn't think you wanted blood stains on your precious floor," I answered him, trying to make quick work of stitching him up. "You would think you'd be used to pain after being hurt in the Games."

Haymitch let out a half-hearted chuckle now, but I assumed it had been a chuckle of disbelief and contempt. "Let me shoot you in the arm and see if you handle it coolly, sweetheart."

When I saw him give into my stitching job, I got off his arm and glanced up at Peeta. "Get him one of the whiskey bottles from under the sink, Peeta." I didn't wait for him to nod as I continued my task. "In case you forgot, my forearm was practically ripped open and a fireball burned away the skin on my leg so I know pain, and I did handle it pretty well, all things considering. I had to…"

He seemed to look up at me with regret and a kind of sadness in his eyes. "I-I know, sweetheart," he replied in a tone that was half sarcastic, half genuine.

I didn't really know what to say to him after that and was grateful when Peeta came back with the bottle in his hand. I finished up the makeshift stitches and then placed antiseptic over the stitches and then gauze before taping it to his chest. I handed the bottle to Haymitch and he reached for it with his good arm and began to chug it before I could say anything.

Peeta and I exchanged glances and then sat down on either side of Haymitch to try and calm down a bit. We watched our mentor try to down the bottle as fast as he could but once he made it halfway, I took the bottle from him.

"I want you to apologize and shake hands. I can't have you two being enemies when we go take down the Capitol again. I need you two on the same side," I stated, feeling like I was scolding a couple of children.

Haymitch sat up halfway and looked over at Peeta, both of my guys looking so pitiful at one another. I didn't think they were going to do anything for the longest time. I was starting to become uneasy when I saw Haymitch hold his hand out to Peeta, and then watched him grab it and shake it firmly. I felt a flicker of hope and happiness light up inside me; a part of me feeling satisfied that they had even listened to me.

"Good. We need to figure out what we're going to do now. We can't let them repopulate the Capitol and let the cycle start all over. We need to figure out how we're going to handle this." I didn't know who in particular I was talking to but I was mostly just thinking aloud.

"Well, let's think, Katniss. Are we going to go on a killing spree and just kill everyone there? Or are we going to let some live and walk away?"

I hadn't thought about that aspect. I knew that there were still young Capitol children who were growing up there. "What if the ones we let live decide to follow in their parents' footsteps and go back to the old ways?"

"Wait, Katniss," Peeta chimed in. "We can't kill children. I can't believe we're even talking about killing anyone at all. Why can't we just have you say a speech like you did before during the rebellion?"

"People died during the rebellion, and it was our side that killed them, Peeta. Do you think the Peacekeepers there are going to let us walk in there without any attempts on our life? Haymitch pretty much ran away from the Capitol. We're going to have to kill some people in self defense," I tried to reason with him.

"Exactly. Now isn't the time to become a pacifist, Mellark."

Peeta looked at me with impatience written all over his face and I could tell he didn't like that me and Haymitch were on the same team in this discussion. What did he think I was going to side with? He knew what I had to do during the rebellion. Not everyone is innocent and we had to bring down anyone who dared to question our motives. It was a matter of self preservation. Situations like these couldn't be thought in terms of mass genocide.

"We all need a couple weeks to build our strength back up. We'll figure out the details once you two heal up and we get our weapon count back up."

Peeta gave a short nod and stood back up before he hurried outside. I debated going after him as I heard him start to chop wood behind the house. I looked over at Haymitch, feeling like I just couldn't win, no matter whose side I chose. He seemed to recognize my helplessness because he wrapped his good arm around my shoulders and kissed my hair, lingering there.

"It's going to be okay, sweetheart. We'll make him understand. He just needs a bit to cool off."

I bit my lip with uncertainty and nodded against Haymitch, wanting him to be right more than anything else but I had to admit that I was also having doubts. What if Peeta suddenly took the side Gale once did, about how the Games are good and maybe having a Capitol government was for the best? I wouldn't know what to do then, but I just knew that I couldn't kill Peeta if I had to. I think I'd be more likely to kill myself than him. Then another thought came to me.

"Gale…"

Haymitch leaned back and grabbed the bottle of alcohol again before taking a long swig from it again. "What about Mr. Hawthorne?"

Hearing Gale's name made me want to reach over and take the whiskey from Haymitch, wanting to forget everything relating to him. "What if Gale finds out what we're trying to do? What if he stops us? What if he tries to kill us?"

Haymitch set the bottle down on the floor and gently brought my chin up to force me to meet his eyes. "We'll be ready for him, Katniss. I won't let him touch you and I know that Peeta would die before ever letting Gale hurt you too. If he tries to stop us we'll do whatever we have to, even if it means killing him. I figure that we'll take these two to three weeks to help you get your muscle back and we'll all work out a solid plan to take the Capitol down for good. Whatever happens, we're all in this together."

I nodded, truly believing his words. I rarely ever heard him speak with confidence but whenever I did, I could just feel it in my bones that what he told me was true. It felt like a weird sort of sixth sense to me and a part of me felt like Haymitch knew I was feeling this. When he met my eyes, I felt like we had a mutual understanding.

We sat in a somewhat uncomfortable silence for several minutes as he occasionally drank from the whiskey bottle until I felt the need to speak up. "I'm not sorry, about shooting you earlier," I barely whispered to him, feeling guilty.

"I know, kiddo. I was just… seeing red, and I get that you did it in all of our best interest. I'm just glad to see that you can pick up that bow so easily again, just like the old days."

I forced a smile and looked down at my hands. "I don't want to repeat the old days, Haymitch. I don't want to lead another rebellion. The first one failed so why should this one be any different?"

He sighed and handed me the bottle. I reluctantly took a drink out of it. "You can't think like that. We have a better chance of winning this one. There are less people in charge. Snow's dead so the same leadership isn't there. People are still questioning the Capitol's motives. Not everyone believes it's for the greater good."

I shrugged but knew he was just trying to help me. It wouldn't be that easy to take it all down. Not when it had taken years to build it up. True, there would be some who wouldn't be working against us, but there would definitely be more people resisting. I didn't know exactly what to expect but I knew that this wasn't going to be as easy as he was making it sound. I took another drink and then handed the bottle back to him to finish.

"I'm going to go see how Peeta's doing. Do you need anything?"

Haymitch let out a cough and then smirked at me. "How about some aspirin, sweetheart?"

I looked at him, unsure if he was being serious or not. I raised my eyebrows and then felt the sides of my mouth curve upwards as I looked down at him. "You probably shouldn't take aspirin with whiskey."

He laughed now and then finished off the bottle but he didn't seem that drunk. The bad part of Haymitch was that he had drank so much after his Quarter Quell that he had built up such a tolerance that it took at least two or three bottles to get him completely drunk. I walked into the kitchen, imagining that he was feeling the pain in his shoulder again so I grabbed another bottle and handed it to him.

"I can't believe your stash of alcohol under the sink. You have to have at least nine bottles under there. You know some people would say that you're an alcoholic," I teased him playfully.

He unscrewed the top from the bottle and rolled his eyes at me as he took a sip. "Don't you have a baker to see?"

I chuckled and then kissed Haymitch's temple before I walked out the back door and into the enclosed, small backyard. I stood there, watching Peeta splitting wood for a good five minutes. I didn't know if he was ignoring me and hoped I would eventually go away or if he genuinely didn't know I was standing there.

"How's your arm?" I asked, trying to sound casual.

He threw the two pieces of wood into the small pile he had accumulated and glanced back at me before he swung the axe back down a fresh log. "Obviously it's good enough for me to be splitting wood."

I watched him carefully and noticed he winced every time he broke the axe down. He was in pain but he just didn't want to appear weak. "You shouldn't be doing this with your arm. You should wait until the muscle heals. You're just going to make it worse, Peeta."

"Like it matters," he said icily, throwing more wood into the pile. "You don't need me for your second rebellion, Katniss. You and Haymitch have it covered. Why should I get in your way of what you really want?"

I stiffened and crossed my arms in front of my chest defensively. "What are you talking about, Peeta? Of course we need you."

"Bullshit. I'm just going to get in the way. You want to lead this rebellion again and be the hero. You want to be responsible for taking down the Capitol and you need Haymitch to help you."

Peeta's bizarre conclusions were making me feel nervous. I walked over to him and grabbed the axe from him, just in case. "Stop. Stop talking like this! Where is all this coming from? You were okay earlier when we were discussing the plan. Why are you suddenly turning against me?"

Peeta wiped the sweat from his forehead and grabbed at his hair, anger laced in his eyes. Something didn't feel right. I took a step back although more than anything, I wanted to walk over to him, wrap my arms around his body and make him feel safe. I wanted to undo everything the Capitol had done when they hijacked his mind, feeding him lies.

"You think you're above me! You just want the fame and glory, you and Haymitch both! You don't me to help you… you just want me to die for the two of you! Well, I won't do that… I can't…"

In mid speech, he had started to pace back and forth, just adding to my nervousness. I knew I had to be brave now and try to reverse this attack he was having. I forced myself to take a step towards him when I just wanted to turn and run back into the house.

"Peeta, take a deep breath and try to think clearly. What you're saying doesn't make any sense. Why would we want you to die? We don't. We both care about you. The last thing we want is for you to hurt. We would both take bullets for you…"

He continued to pace and his hands were shaking as he gripped his hair with them, his face filled with panic and rage. "No… no! You want me to die for your cause! You don't need me… no one needs me! I'm just a pawn in your games…"

This wasn't like his normal hijack attacks. This was like a combination of a panic attack and a suicidal ideation. I didn't recognize this and it scared me because I didn't know how to handle this. I needed help.

"Haymitch!" I called out, feeling desperate but hoping he hadn't reached total intoxication yet.

My hopes were answered when I saw him rush out to where we were, reeking of whiskey but still seemed sober enough to realize what was going on. He placed a cautious hand on my shoulder and then moved in front of me protectively towards Gale.

"Mellark… what's going on?"

Peeta started towards Haymitch but then seemed to remember he didn't have the axe anymore and then stopped. He put his hand on his chest and I began to panic a bit myself. This was a new development and we weren't sure how to handle it.

"You… stay away from me! You just want me dead too! Well I'm not going to die for your cause! I'm not!"

Haymitch moved towards me but kept an eye on Peeta the whole time. He moved closer to me and I thought he was going to kiss my neck but when he moved in, he whispered in my ear. "Go inside and open the bedside table drawer. There should be one of the syringes we used to calm him down from before."

I kissed his cheek, trying to make it look like we weren't planning a secret attack on Peeta. I moved into the house and then ran into the bedroom to the bedside table. I hurriedly opened it and grabbed the syringe that was in there. Giving him the shot of serum that calmed him down and knocked him out for an hour was our best hope until we figured out what was going on. It seemed like the Capital didn't need him any longer to program thoughts into his head. What scared me the most though was the mention of utter worthless he had felt. Maybe that was the new plan for the Capital, to make anyone who was on my side suicidal to the point of killing themselves off themselves.

I walked back out, holding the syringe in my sleeve and started to move towards Peeta. "Listen to me… this is the Capital's doing, Peeta. They're the ones who are making you have these thoughts. They're not real. They just want you to hate me,"

Peeta searched my face and shook his head but didn't seem fully convinced. I continued to walk closer and closer to him until we were inches apart. "Please don't let them in. Just focus on me, and my voice. I'm real, Peeta. Remember our game? Real or not real… I'm real. Haymitch is real. You are real, but the voices in your head are not. They're robotic and heartless. You don't want to hurt us, do you? We love you, Peeta. We don't want to hurt you."

He nodded slowly but his eyes still looked clouded over with uncertainty. He began to move in closer to me and it was this time when I realized I was still holding the axe in one hand. Suddenly, he jumped on top of me, knocking me to the ground and then took the axe from my hand before I had time to react. As soon as I saw him raise it, I heard Haymitch yell and start towards Peeta. I grabbed the syringe from my sleeve and then plunged it into Peeta's upper leg, the only place I was physically able to get to the quickest. Just as he brought down the axe, I rolled out of the way and then saw Haymitch spear him to the ground and then pin his arms down.

I watched as Peeta struggled violently at first and then, almost all at once, seemed to fall asleep on the ground. I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding and then walked over to Haymitch who stood back up and then scooped Peeta up easily like a child.

"Are you okay, sweetheart?"

I nodded and then thumbed the empty syringe in my hand as we walked back inside, watching as Haymitch gently set Peeta on the couch. I started the fire again to help distract my thoughts. I was terrified but I didn't want to let Haymitch know that.

"What are we going to do with him? We won't have time to give him a shot every time he flies into an attack, Haymitch."

He sighed and wrapped a blanket around Peeta before kneeling down beside me. "I know, but… what are we going to? We can't leave him here. What was he saying to you?"

"The same thing he said to you except he was saying how he was just a pawn for us and how he was worthless and pretty much better off dead," I answered as calmly as I could before I got the fire going again.

"Jesus… if we leave him here, he might end up killing himself."

"I know," I agreed solemnly. "I don't want him to die like that. It was different when we had the pills before in the first rebellion. That somehow seemed nobler. It made more sense."

Haymitch nodded. "Yeah, I understand, Katniss. He should come with us. He won't be having the attacks all the time or anything. He could still be our muscle and he could come in handy if we do run into Gale and you and I are caught up doing something else…"

I thought for a bit. That sounded like Peeta really was just a pawn in our schemes but I knew that's not what Haymitch really meant to say. We would need anyone we could get on our side and Peeta was better off with us than totally alone. If we left him here to rot, then he really would kill himself; he was better off in the action with us. In the end, Haymitch was just looking out for his well-being.

"I agree. We still have some time. We'll keep with our schedule as planned. We'll spend some time getting stronger and making weapons. I'm going to need more arrows, stronger ones. We should still pack as many syringes with the calming serum as we can and when we have to use it, we'll just find a safe house at the Capital and barricade ourselves in until we can continue on."

I looked down where Peeta was sleeping on the couch and suddenly felt a burst of determination and courage. We could do this; we had to. Haymitch and I could make the situation work with Peeta. It was almost as if we were back at rebellion stage one with him except he appeared to be more of a danger to himself than to me. I could at least stop him from killing himself, if nothing else. He could hate me all he wanted but I would know for sure that it was the Capital's hijacking that did this to him. Maybe this was one of the stages that happened; maybe after the feeling of wanting to hurt and maim the selected victim, being me, the chemical in his brain transformed into something else and made himself the target. It was the only possibility I could think of at the moment.

Haymitch wrapped both his arms around me, wincing slightly. "We can do this. You've thought of everything, haven't you?"

I smiled weakly and nodded. "Someone has to think ahead in all this. I hate going into things unprepared," I admitted.

He started to stroke my hair again and just held me in front of the fire. We stayed like this for about an hour and I finally spoke up just as the sun was about to set. "I don't know what I would do if something happens to Peeta," I confessed softly.

Haymitch tensed up slightly but leaned down and kissed my neck playfully before I felt his breath on my ear. "We would do just as we always have, sweetheart. We'd keep going. If something does happen to him, we'll figure out what to do when that time comes, okay?"

I wanted to say I felt better, that I wasn't that worried anymore, but that wasn't true at all. I felt even more apprehensive about this whole thing, if that was possible. Haymitch had said 'when that time comes.' He seemed confident that Peeta really was going to go off the deep end and the only thing that did make me feel better was that I wasn't going to be alone in this. As always, I would have my guys who would help look out for me. This seemed almost insignificant but is somehow comforted me and gave me the push I would need to start training myself again, building my strength back up to what it was before, and maybe even finding a way to help Peeta slow down whatever was happening to his brain. Maybe I could do this; maybe I really could bring down the Capital. I had to.

After all, I was the Mockingjay. I had to help Panem sing our song of freedom. I had to destroy the Capital, once and for all, even if it killed me.

That's it! This story is complete :) Don't forget to follow the sequel when I put it up - Phoenix Rising!