I sit on the beach, watching Finnick try and teach Austin to swim. I jump when Johanna appears behind me, but when it's just to give me a shell full of water, I relax. "Thank you."

She sits beside me, taking her axe out. I frown, not being able to shake the question on my mind. "Who's Annie?" I finally ask, looking at Johanna. I just couldn't ask Finnick.

"Annie Cresta, the girl Mags volunteered for," she explains. "She won like four years- five years ago."

That explains it. I was out hunting so much after my father's death, so I didn't get to watch much of the games. Technically, I should've been executed for this. But I don't mention it.

"Is she the one that went a little... crazy?" I ask. I remember my family talking about a tribute like this.

Johanna nods, turning away from me. "Love's weird."

I answer this non verbally. True.

"I have a plan," Beetee distracts us. Johanna gets up and calls Finnick and Austin back, and we all sit and stand round Beetee.

"Where do the careers feel safest, the jungle?" He asks.

"The jungle's a nightmare," Johanna puts in.

"So probably here on the beach," Austin contributes.

Beetee presses on. "So why are they not here?"

"Because we are. We claimed it," shrugs Johanna.

"And if we left, they would come?" Beetee asks.

"Or stay hidden in the tree line," Finnick, I think, knows where this is going. I certainly don't.

"Which, in just over four hours, will be soaked with water from the ten o'clock wave," Beetee lays out his plan. "And what happens at midnight?"

I answer instantly. "Lightning strikes that tree."

"Here's what I suggest," Beetee looks around the circle. "We leave the beach at dusk, we head to the lightning tree, that should draw them back to the beach. Prior to midnight, we then run this wire from the tree to the water. Anyone in the water, or on the damp sand, will be electrocuted."

We all look around in shock as Johanna asks. "How do we know the wire's not gonna burn up?"

"Because I invented it," Beetee says, shocking us all. "I assure you, it won't burn up."

We all digest this as Johanna speaks again after a quick look with Finnick. "Well, it's better than hunting them down."

"Yeah, why not?" I shrug. "If it fails, no harm done anyway, right?"

"Okay, I say we try it."

"So what can we do to help?"

"Keep me alive for the next six hours," he says it like a joke, but I know Beetee is everything but. "That would be extremely useful."

☘︎☘︎☘︎

Beetee and Johanna sit, planning as Finnick goes in the water again, but Austin and I stay out, sitting on the beach at the other side.

"I think we need to go," I say to Austin.

He looks at me. "This plan's gonna work."

"I think so, too," I say in panic. "And once the careers are dead, we both know what happens next. I don't wanna be the one that throws first."

"Well, what if they don't either?" He asks me. "What if all of us refuse to shoot first?"

"We might still end up dead."

"Maybe not, I mean, worked for us last time."

"They're not gonna make the same mistake again," I shake my head, imploring him to listen. "You know and I know that there's only one person walking out of here. And it's gonna be one of us."

"Why don't we stay with these guys 'till midnight and, if we we hear a cannon, we go?" Austin suggests. I nod slowly and he turns to the sea. "Willow... I don't know what kind of deals you made with Haymitch but, you should know that he made me promises too."

"Austin..." I trail off.

He takes the 'medallion' Effie gave him, the gold one, off his neck. "If you die... and I live, I'd have nothing, no body else I care about."

"Austin, you understand that I can't just..." I begin, but he shushes me.

"There's still stuff at home for you, your family needs you."

From there, he opens the medallion from a catch at the side, and it now becomes a locket, handing it to me, I see three pictures inside. One of Prim and Katniss. One of Posy, Rory, Vick and my mother. One of Gale, actually smiling.

I hold it in my hand as Austin goes on, trying to tip the scale. "You have to live. For them."

I look up from the locket. "What about you?"

He shakes his head, smiling. "No one needs me."

And he's right. His family's got enough money to be getting on with, and an older daughter that probably outdoes their son. His friends (the ones that used to bully me) never really liked him. And he never liked them. No.

Sitting here, looking out at the sea, I realise two things.

One, that only one person in the world will be fully broken beyond repair if Austin dies.

Me.

And two... that I never hated Austin. I was just in denial about my own feelings. All this time, I...

I've loved him.

I've just never realised it.

But I've let him slip away from me before.

No, I say to myself this time. No, I'm not letting him go again.

"I do," I say, staring at his lips then his eyes. "I need you."

It's like our first kiss again. The way we're so eager yet so scared to lean in, and the way our foreheads touch when we lean out. I realise how much I love Austin in that moment. Even though, in a few short hours, I won't exist anymore.

Because even now, after all that Austin's done, I'm still bent upon keeping him alive.

"Alright, lovebirds!" Johanna calls across the shore. I know this is time. The plan's in action.

☘︎☘︎☘︎

We trek through the jungle, stopping only to watch the anthem when it plays. Cashmere. Gloss. Wiress. Mags. Female from Five. The morphling that saved Austin. Blight from Seven. Chaff from Eleven.

Eight more dead. Eight left to play. We have to run after this. Fast.

We continue on, arriving at the tree soon enough. Beetee looks it up and down. "Minimal charring. Impressive conductor. Let's get started."

The boys wrap the wire round the tree whilst Johanna and I clean up the weapons. "Typically a lightning strike contains five billion joules of energy," Beetee rambles on. "We don't wanna be anywhere in the vicinity when this hits.

"You two girls, go together now," he looks at Johanna and I, handing us the wire. "Take this to the beach. Unspool it carefully, make sure the wire is in the water, you understand? Then head to the tree in the two o'clock sector. We'll meet you there."

No. No. No, no, no, no, no. This is all wrong. Austin and I separated? No. "I'm gonna go with them as a guard," Austin says point blank.

"No, you're staying here to protect me," Beetee shuts him down. "And the tree."

"No, I need to go with Willow," Austin says, holding my hand.

"There are two careers out there, I need two guards," Beetee presses.

"Finnick can protect you fine on his own," Austin raises his voice a notch.

"Yeah, why don't Finnick and Johanna stay with you and Austin and I go with the wire?" I suggest.

"You all agreed to keep me alive till midnight, correct?" Beetee steps close to me. I stand my ground.

"It's his plan, we all agreed to it," Johanna rolls her eyes.

"Is there a problem here?" Finnick raises his eyebrows. I turn, my hair flying, my eyes holding fire.

"Excellent question," Beetee says, looking down upon me.

"No," I say. "No problem."

I go to Austin and squeeze his hand gently, then I look at Johanna, who rolls her eyes and nods. We walk on. I take one look back at Austin and he looks defeated. I can't do this.

"Come on," Johanna tells me. "I wanna put as much distance between me and this beach as possible. Frying is not how I wanna go."

Suddenly, the wire catches and we turn. "There's something-" I say, pulling on it.

Suddenly, the wire gets cut by something. I almost fall but regain my balance immediately as Brutus appears behind some rocks. I aim my axe at him but Johanna surprises everyone then by grabbing something I can't see and knocking me down. I cry out as she kneels down beside me, cutting into my arm.

This is it. She's going to kill me.

However, soon the cutting stops. "Stay. Down." She hisses to me. She grunts, throwing an axe, I suspect, then she runs.

I stay lying, with blood on my neck from her hand. Then, slowly but surely, I sit up. "Johanna, where are you?!" I hear Finnick shout. I back into the hollow I'm in as I hear Finnick run, looking for Johanna.

"Austin," I suddenly realise. If the allies have already split, what have they done to him?

I run back to the tree, seeing the wire in a coil from where it was cut. "Austin?" I hiss as I pick it up. Might be useful.

Up ahead, there's a big spark, as someone has thrown something into a forcefield. "Oh my-" I run to where I see Beetee, convulsing on the ground. "Beetee? Beetee?"

He doesn't answer. But what I do see, beside him, is the thing he was using. It's a stick, with wire bound round the end, and a knife attached to it. What does this mean?

A cannon.

"AUSTIN!"

I stand up and go round the tree, seeing someone run through the jungle. But one look tells me it's Finnick. I take an axe out and aim. But he yells my name.

"WILLOW, WHERE ARE YOU?"

I raise the axe above my head, getting ready to release it-

Finnick's noticed me by now, and he pauses. "Willow... remember who the real enemy is!"

This makes me pause. The real enemy? That was what Haymitch had said to me before the games. Of course I know who the real enemy is, it's the Capitol, in all its riches and glory-

So then why am I aiming to kill someone that isn't the real enemy?

I lower my axe as thunder crackles in the sky. Then I look to Beetee, and in a flash, it all makes sense.

"Willow, get away from that tree!" Finnick shouts.

But I do not. I take the wire, the end that was cut, and wrap it around the handle of my axe.

"Willow get away from the tree!" Finnick now attempts to run towards me, but I don't let up.

I aim my axe at the sky. I need to do this.

"THE TREE, WILLOW! THE TREE!"

It's midnight. But, just as the lightning strikes, I throw my axe up, into the sky. The wire follows it and conducts the lightning all the way up it, blowing both Finnick and I back in the air. But, more importantly, blowing a hole in the force field.