A lil moody music. Show us just how dark this moment really is....  enjoy ;)

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It had all moved too fast. I am no hunter like Katniss. I couldn't track so many things at once without my head spinning. The plan was simple enough. Beetee sets the wire around the tree and shocks everyone on the beach. I didn't feel the need to understand more.

I remembered the plan on the beach. If we hear a cannon, we run. But I, if I was being completely honest, also expected to run the minute this plan was over. Like thieves in the night, Katniss and I would sprint into the forest, leaving our allies behind with mutters of apologies under my breath. I thought of them all as friends. Maybe not Katniss, but I did. At least a semblance of friendship. In the end, keeping Katniss alive was all that mattered. Haymitch and I made few promises, but mine revolved around her holding Prim outside this arena. Never to step foot in one again.

It started with the wire. It was taught and softly creaking and jolting as the girls rolled it down to the ocean. I was trying to figure out my sword. It felt wrong in my hand, but if I was protecting Beetee, I should do it more than just wildly swinging at anyone I deem a threat. Katniss says my hand-to-hand combat is impeccable. As does my sparring partners. But I feel like a lunatic trying to get people away like a neanderthal in hand-to-hand combat. During our first games, Katniss boasted about my position on the wrestling team during high school, and my cheeks had burned in embarrassment. I never thought of those matches as my shining moments that would get my crush's attention.

Just as I was about to ask Finnick to come over and help with my form, the line went slack. We froze, and my breathing shortened as I resisted the urge to scream for her. It was just a mistake. Maybe Johanna's axe nicked it-

Katniss's scream of pain made my body go cold. One of torture. Of pain.

"Stay with Beetee!" Finnick started towards the woods without a second word. My mouth dropped open, scoffing at him.

"No!" I snapped, sprinting after him. I don't know where people got the perception that I was to be told what to do. I was a piece for them to control. It started with Katniss and Haymitch hiding everything from him, and as far as he was concerned, it ended today. Right now, the one thing my world revolves around in this arena is hurt. Possibly already dead. 

I am fast, yes, but not as fast as Finnick. And with my leg, I'm at a disadvantage. His copper hair and tanned body of pure muscle had flittered into the jungle like an elusive dream faster than I could comprehend. Soon the jungle was silent except for my boarish heaving steps.

"Finnick?" I hiss out, my head whipping towards any sound. But it was no use. I was lost. Now having left Beetee and even less help to Katniss.

Katniss.

Is she dead already? Was I too late? Were Primrose and Gale screaming at their screens? Watching her breathe her last breaths alone in a jungle after I swore to everyone who would listen that I would be there?

My voice couldn't stop shaking, tears threatening to spill over when I begged, "Katniss?! Please."

More silence.

It was then the body fell before me. It was like he fell out of the sky, sent by the game makers to land only four feet away from me in a cruel joke. I should've been silent; I was already giving away my position enough by my panting and begging of Katniss and Finnick. But when I saw Chaff's desperate bloodshot eyes, I fell on my ass trying to scramble away. Chaff raised a hand for me, and my shock melted away to terrified empathy. Chaff and I had spoken before the games. Very briefly, and I only brought it up the Haymitch. I wanted to consider him an ally for the games. He lost a limb just as I did. He spoke with the kind cadence of someone who saw the worst of the world and still tried to stir confidence in all. He held my hand in his right before the Tribute parade. Told me to stand as steady as my heart.

I grabbed his hand to help him to his feet, but the man was a boulder, even for me. I flipped him to his back and instantly knew I could do nothing. Blood pooled from his mouth, nose, and eyes. It clotted and sunk his once-plump features. He gasped and sputtered for air, but it all leaked from the gaping wound through his stomach.

"I-I d-don't know- I'm..." Get words out! Come on, Peeta! Could he tell me how to help? Or maybe he saw Katniss? I could do nothing as tears began to flow.

Chaff pursed his lips, steadying his slowing heart enough to say, "The tree. Run." He separated his hand from mine long enough to point through the canvas of the jungle. I followed the direction of the finger and quickly put together that it was the direction of the tree. Why on earth would he want me back at the tree? Did he know about Beetee's plan? How could he?

A dark figure breathing like a wild animal was sprinting towards us from the south. I looked down at Chaff as if he would have any answers for me.

His dull eyes greeted me. Just like that, the ground beneath me was gone.

The tree. Run.

He was trying to warn me. Chaff, this kind man and the only one who could relate to my experiences, was trying to warn me.

I glanced up to see Brutus marveling at his work with Chaff, chuckling. His eyes honed on me. And a vicious smile graced his lips. One of a victor who knew nothing but the blood he was forced to drink in his youth. What had once clouded my mind- finding Katniss, following Finnick- suddenly racked a little softer in my mind.

I stood at my full height. I looked tiny compared to Brutus. And he reveled in it. He lunged with his spear, letting it loose for my eye. I ducked, tucking against Chaff's body. One last kindness Chaff granted was the shield of his dead body. I slid onto my knees with all the strength I could muster, my prosthetic barely able to withstand when I collided with his body. We fall to the ground in a mess of limbs, but he doesn't have that stupid spear. The spear that took Chaff. Somewhere in the altercation, I got the upper hand. My fists collided with his cheek, nose, and throat. Everywhere I could see, I hit with every fiber of my being. The skin over my knuckles split, mixing my blood with his as it splattered on the trees and leaves. Red painted my vision. Metal filled my air. The air he didn't deserve to breathe. The hands attempting to wrestle me off slowly went limp, Brutus dropping the fist fulls of my suit. I raised my fist with the intent of shattering his nose entirely when the cannon boomed. I froze, my panting the only thing I could hear over the rage screaming in my ears. I glanced at my fist, still in the air. There wasn't a hint of my fair skin, only pure dripping crimson. A shuttering sob stumbled out of me as I got off my victim. My kill.

I felt the blood and body matter slide down my face and hair. I heaved, shuffling away to prop myself against a boulder. My whole body was shaking. he didn't deserve the same air I breathe? Did I really think that? He was a human. A man with thoughts and a once-beating heart. 

My mind cleared slightly. Enough for me to hear the thundering roll above me.

"Katniss!" I screamed. I shouldn't be looking for her after this. She would be horrified. Disgusted. I would be. But I continue to scream her name.

"Katniss! Katniss!"

I wait for a beat, slowly heading back towards the tree when her voice answers.

"Peeta!"

My voice hitches, relief flooding my bones.

"Peeta! I'm here! Peeta!" Katniss shrieks for me, almost in comfort.

I howl her name like a lost dog, sprinting towards the tree faster and faster. I find her, and we run. I don't care about the others anymore.

The thunder grows hotter and louder, the air still with electricity. I push through the canopy with no time to compute. Katniss, the woman who has haunted my dreams and made my days tolerable, has her arrow pointed to the swirling vortex in the sky.

"Katniss get away from that tree!" Finnick rushed forward too late. Katniss roared as her arrow went loose, a delicate tail of wire following as it raced for the sky. The lightning struck the tree, trailing along the wire and skittering up the line following Katniss's arrow.

My world went white, and I was vaguely aware of my body colliding with the tree behind me. My back barked in pain, my prosthetic almost entirely separating itself from my body. My eyes flicker open to the true blue of the sky above me and a metal claw securing around my torso. I barely have the energy to look down but look for her through my heavily lidded eyes with the sole desire to see her grey eyes glaring and a gentle smile of rebellion.

In the dirt below, without its owner, Katniss's bow and arrows shone in the glowing sun from above. 

Okay, so what went down during this time was a tad confusing, but I interpreted it as Peeta getting lost trying to find Katniss and then getting distracted with Brutus. So, what if Chaff in his dying breaths was able to redirect Peeta back towards the tree instead of Peeta getting lost further in the jungle? This way he is at the rendevous point when the arena breaks, unlike in the books? 

The Hunger Games Renaissance is here for my throat man, lol. 

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Sibylline