Cato

She's nearly dead, but she's here, crumpled in the Cornucopia like a sick offering. The scent of vomit tinges my nose.

"Cato," she whispers, and I can see her reeling from the wound Thresh gave her as she tries to sit up to greet me.

"Don't move," I tell her. It takes everything in me not to scream at the top of my lungs because here she is. She's not dead. I'm not a failure. I imagine how her family must be reacting. Family... an old memory so far off it's like it never existed. And home? I can't even remember what that feels like. But here, with Clove alive and us together I get a feeling and it must be home.

"Home... we can go..." Clove smiles ruefully. But she's wounded terribly. Very terribly. And what can I do?

"Clove, we need medicine," I say measuredly.

"I bet Katniss has some. For Peeta," Clove sighs.

"God, for someone who just got their skull smashed in, you're thinking a lot straighter than me," I say jokingly, and we both laugh. Because we're so happy. We're finally together again. But Clove's face is soon overtaken by pain again.

"I love you," I say, touching her cheek with the gentlest flutter of a finger. She takes my hand and doesn't say anything. The rain pours down on us, huddled in the Cornucopia.

"Love you, too," she finally whispers. I move beside her and lean against the metal, holding her hand. I want to kiss her and hug her and hold her forever but I know it'll hurt her and I'm not gonna let that happen again so I must refrain.

"I can't wait to go home," I mutter, but we're not there yet. We have to focus. And the first step is getting Clove fixed up.

"Me either," Clove says.

"We have to get that medicine... but in this rain... and I can't leave you," I say, biting my lip. "Not again."

"Then we'll go together," Clove says.

"Together," I repeat.

"Or not at all."

-

I wake to the sound of cannons. I crawl out into the field, leaving Clove safely in the Cornucopia. Up in the sky three faces flash by; Katniss, Fynch, and Thresh. They're dead, all three. Which means-

"Attention tributes!" Bellows Claudius Templesmith. "We have our Victors! Clove Cray and Cato Dean!"

"Clove, we won!" I shout, and Clove walks out of the Cornucopia to greet me, fully healed.

"We can go home," she says with a smile. I think of my mom, my dad, my unborn baby sister...

Then out of nowhere comes an arrow. It strikes Clove right between the eyes.

"NO!" I scream so loud my voice hurts. Not again. Not again.

Katniss runs up maniacally yelling, "You fell for it! We tricked you!"

She sprints at me bearing an arrow but no bow. And I close my eyes as she gets closer. Because this time- it's really together or not at all.

And I feel the arrow dive through my neck and out the other side.

-

"AGHH!" I scream, jolting awake. The nightmare leaves me trembling and panting. Clove sleeps peacefully beside me, knocked out again by the wound. She really isn't getting better...

I stand up and pull on my jacket, staring at her all the while.

"I'm sorry Clove," I say, grabbing my sword. I have to get her medicine. I have to keep her alive.

I'll be back before the night's up, I reason, and start trotting in the direction Katniss went. In the direction of medicine for Clove. For a split second I wonder if she even has any. But I can't afford her not.

It doesn't even take me that long to find her, collapsed face-first in the mud by the river, blood oozing from a wound Clove must have given her. I storm over and rip her head up by her hair. This wakes her up... she turns around and swings a fist at me, but misses in her blind oblivion. I flip her over and slam her down, jamming my knee into her rib cage and pinning her down. I hear and feel bones snap.

"Agh!" she screams, trying to push her head up. "Get the hell-!"

"Why?!" I shout at her and pull her head back down by that hideous braid. "So you can save Lover Boy?! Well he's already dead, jackass! And you're next." I hold my sword to her throat.

"Peeta's dead?" She asks, a simple question, no pain behind it. She didn't even know... Rain beats down on us.

"You don't sound very sad for someone who's just lost the love of their life, huh?" I sneer. I'm being awful, I know, but she was one of the reasons Clove nearly died. And this is it. This is the climax. My moment. Where I can save us.

"I..." Is all Katniss gets out. Huh.

"That's strange... I thought you were head over heels for him!" I jest.

"Shut up," Katniss snaps, and I use my sword to draw a swift slash across her cheek. She cries out in pain as the blade bites her skin.

"Have we figured out your little secret here?" I ask, laughing aloud and aiming my words at the sky. At all of Panem, listening in. "Did you ever even love him?! The star-crossed lovers of District Twelve... don't even cry at each other's deaths."

"Agh!" Katniss screams in my face, earning a swift punch in hers.

"You don't even know what it's like!" I scream, gripping her face in one hand. "You don't know how it feels... knowing that any second... the only person you've ever really loved could be gone," I wipe the blood and rainwater from my face. "But I do. I do."

"Grr-" Katniss grunts.

"You already killed Marina, one of few friends Clove or I ever had... and you killed Marvel, too, didn't you? DIDN'T YOU?!" I scream and slash her again. She cringes as a cut her collar. It's all her fault. So many of these deaths. Friends, even foes, every single one is painful.

"Yes," she growls, fury hidden deep in her throat.

"And here you were going to kill Clove. You would've killed her. If Thresh hadn't gotten there first... Ah, Thresh. Ha!" I chortle. "It's amusing, isn't it? This game we're playing. It just goes around and around and around... and does it really ever stop?" I grin and hold the sword above our heads. And for a moment there- for a moment I hesitate. Because I see the fear in her eyes. The fear reflected in my eyes. Because we really are just players, and we're only kids. I'm an eighteen-year-old kid and I'm killing this girl I've never even met. But maybe it's better that way. I squeeze my eyes shut and let out a yell, a battle cry, a cry of anguish. And there's tears mixed with the rainwater. And I bring the sword down.

I sit limply on top of Katniss, letting my arms fall to my sides as I take it all in. Then I slide off and wrench my sword away and flip her over and take her bag. I unzip it and scout the inside searching for what I need so desperately. And then here it is. The medicine. In the tiny orange backpack labeled 12.

I jolt up with her backpack in hand and sprint back towards the Cornucopia, the first whispers of dawn streaking across the sky. I'm coming, Clove. I'm coming.

Clove

BOOM! Comes the sound of a cannon. The sound I've been trained to recognize as death. At least Cato is here beside-

"Cato?!" I gasp. He's not here. He must've left during the night. And that cannon could've been him. He could be dead. He could have died while I lay here sleeping. "Cato!" I shout again, dragging myself out of the Cornucopia as fast as I can. It's barely light outside but the rain still leaves the sky gray and ominous and my head throbs.

"Clove!" Comes a shout from the left, stopping my own shout for Cato before it leaves my throat. My head snaps in the direction of the call.

"Cato!" I yell as he runs and slides on his knees and pulls me into his arms.

"I got the medicine," Cato says. "I killed Katniss."

"You idiot!" I shout and he looks taken aback. "You could've died!"

"Clove, you already did die. I couldn't let some infection take you from me again," Cato says sweetly.

"I'm just glad you're back," I tell him, unable to stay upset when we're so close to being together and happy forever. Katniss dead, Peeta dead, and it's only Thresh and Fynch. Just them and us. And we can win.

"Me too," Cato says. "Me too." And he kisses me softly and it's only us alone in the universe again. I don't even mourn for the others anymore. There's only what's ahead.