AN: Karategirl666 I hope that this is sufficient compensation for your sleepless night and nerves uploading your new and entirely wonderful chapter. Stay brave my friend.

Chapter 6

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.

-John Stuart Mill

The door closed and the lock slid loudly into place. The clang of it echoed through the high domed structure. As the echo died an eerie silence fell over the world. Katniss stood tense and still as a statue waiting. She did not know for what she waited until the crack of rifle fire split the air releasing her from the paralysis that had seized hold of her. The sound careened into the stone of the walls rebounding and reverberating and soon it was joined by the echoes screams and more gunshots. Guilt hit Katniss, twisting her insides, and seizing her lungs.

If it was possible to die from guilt she might have done so in that moment. She began to move, frenetic energy surged through her demanding she act. Katniss began to search the room for a way out. Stupidly she tried the giant door, and as expected could not budge it.

The room was more of a warehouse filled with rows of large crates stacked three high. There was no way out, Katniss could see that at a glance, but she examined every corner as though it might contain some secret method of egress.

While Katniss attempted to occupy her mind and outrun her feelings of guilt Peeta, exhausted, merely put his back against the wall, slid down it, pulled his knees to his chest and cupped his head in his hands. Briefly he tried covering his ears in an attempt to filter out the hateful din of whatever horror was happening outside. He gave it up when his hands could not filter out enough of the sound to matter and resolved that he must find a way to endure . The continued crack of gunfire and the ever mounting volume and desperation of the screams that followed hit him like physical blows.

"There is no way out." Katniss said.

Peeta did not look up.

"No, I don't think there is." His said through clenched teeth.

"I just checked the entire room, trust me there isn't."

"Not what I was talking about." Peeta growled.

Katniss paused. She had heard Peeta's voice grow harsh before but never with her. His tone grated on her already frayed nerves.

"What then were you talking about?"

"This war you seem determined to start."

"Pardon?"

"Your speech Katniss, you called them cowards, you scolded them for Rue's death. Unity Katniss you all but accused them of murdering her themselves."

"I did not."

"Katniss," by now Peeta was yelling both in anger and in order to be heard above the clamorous racket outside, "you don't know people."

"I know that, I did not understand why you tried to win their love and loyalty. That seemed like treason, like you were making the Capitol the enemy and us their friends."

"Unity, just yesterday you told me of how your rage kept you moving and that you feared you would crumble at the first sign of kindness. I was being that kindness for them. Couldn't you feel the hate and the anger that poured off of the crowd?"

"That makes every kind of sense. Did that occur to you standing up there or was it a plan you had mulled over?"

"It was always my plan."

"Then, love why did you not tell me? I would have remained silent. Am I supposed to divine what you are thinking through magic?"

"Is it too much to ask that you trust me? I know I can't shoot a bow or skin a deer but I can talk to people."

"I do trust you, in all things, and with my whole heart, but yes it is too much to ask that I guess what you are thinking. People invented language so that thoughts could be shared."

"What exactly did you think would happen after your little talk?"

"I didn't, I was afraid of what might happen after yours."

"You were afraid?"

"Yes."

"Of rebellion, secession, war?"

"Yes."

"Love, you lie to yourself. Haymitch was right, and it is going to get us all killed."

"Am I to guard every word that I say? I am to second guess every action? How can anyone live like that?"

"Yes! Yes! Yes! You have to think about the consequence of everything that you do and say because it might start a seceding war! Unity with every breath they let you breath you call for war, you choke on the collar you feel around your neck. I see you stagger under the weight of imaginary chains. I am the one who wants peace. I want a quiet, safe life, with you. I want children, and a home and peace."

"I want that too."

"No you don't unless you can remake the world, end the Hunger Games, win our freedom from the control the Capitol has over us, and in doing so you will bring the full weight of the Capitol down on our heads."

Katniss stopped. She had intended to tell Peeta that he was insane. That she wanted peace, and safety, but one thought stopped her. One image flitted through her mind. She pictured the Reaping when Prim's name had been called only it was her own daughter whose name came out of the bowl. Katniss pictured herself standing by, unable to even volunteer while a Peacekeeper dragged her child to her doom. In her mind Katniss ran at the stage drew a bow and shot the Peacekeeper. As she drew a second arrow her mind's eye conjured a squad of Peacekeepers all firing into the crowd, mowing down everyone in their determination to kill her.

She could never stand by and do nothing in the sight of a loved one in danger. She would have no children to be consigned to the Games, and as she thought this she realized that there was no safety in the District, that Peeta's hopes were illusory. She had not told him yet of her plan to escape from the District, her tracker still broadcast every word they said to the Capitol. She had not thought of escape as an act of war, but as things stood, it was. Escape was treason; any defiance of the Capitol's will was treason. She thought of a life free of such control and felt a switch flip in her mind. All her life treason, disunity, secession these were words of dread and guilt, they were words used in anger and profanity. Now they were words of fear and hope inextricably intertwined. They were the words that she knew spelled out her future, if she could but live to see it.

Katniss turned away from Peeta, not in anger, though it still coursed through her like a river of fire, but the anger was not with him. She picked a stack of crates at the end of the room farthest from Peeta, climbed up on top and sat, much as Peeta sat with her knees up and her head in her hands. They remained silent, but of course they were not sitting in silence. The din of gunshots, which had neither ceased nor slowed, except when interrupted by screams, still echoed through the room.

Seconds dragged by, each shot felt to Katniss like it was passing through her, and her throat was sore from the screams she did not voice. At last she looked down at Peeta. He sat as he had been sitting hunched over, but she could see that his shoulders shook. Silently she climbed down from her perch and walked over to where he sat. She slid down next to the man she loved, she was no less angry, but that paled in importance at the sight of him in pain. This was an argument they would have to finish, but later, when they were both stronger. She put her arms around him. Peeta shifted silently, not acknowledging the tears that rolled down his face and rested his head in his wife's lap. Katniss could feel the anger, shame and guilt that he also felt, she stroked his hair and hoped that this would all be over soon.

The echoes had long since died away when the door was finally opened. Katniss looked up, Peeta had gone silent over an hour past and the steady even rhythm of his breathing told her he was asleep. A familiar figure was silhouetted in the door.

"Where in the name of all Unity have you been?"

"What in the name of all Unity have you done," Was Haymitch's terse reply.

"According to Peeta, I started the Second Rebellion."

Haymitch crouched down next to them.

"I hope he is wrong, you know when I told the two of you to make the Tour memorable this is not what I had in mind."

"Well next time be more specific, help me with him."

Haymitch hauled Peeta off of her; he made no sign of stirring from sleep.

"I am not carrying him all the way back to the rebelling train."

Katniss rolled her eyes. She looked at Peeta; his eyes were red and swollen. Still the expression on his face was one of peace, she hated to wake him, to drag him back from whatever measure of serenity he had attained and back into the waking nightmare. As always she tried to be as gentle as possible. Carefully she ran her hand through his sweat matted hair, and called his name.

His eyes fluttered open and seeing her he smiled. She saw the moment when the memory of the previous day flooded into his mind. His face grew hard but his eyes no longer burned when he looked at her. She stood and offered a hand to help him up, he accepted.

Good start, she thought.

"Where have you been?"

"My boy you are an entire conversation behind, she'll fill you in. Come on we have to get to the train, it's almost nine."

Haymitch turned and started off before Katniss could point out that he had never actually answered her when she had asked him that question.

Long hours sitting on a cold stone floor, tense with anger and fear had stiffened their joints, so Katniss and Peeta leaned on each other as they followed Haymitch into the eerily silent night. Katniss froze and nearly fell over as Peeta's legs gave out. The square beyond, which mere hours ago had been teeming with life was now painted with the evidence of death. No bodies littered the ground, but the cleanup crew had not had time to scrub the blood from the square. The air was silent around them, even the wind seemed disinclined to rush through the streets emptied of all but the aftermath of massacre.

"Come on," Haymitch said, his voice cold, harsh, and insistent.

Katniss tried to pull Peeta to his feet; it was easier to focus on getting to the train than to try to process what she saw in the square. Peeta just knelt there his eyes unblinking, his mouth agape, shaking his head slowly in a gesture of denial. Katniss heard footsteps coming up from behind. She turned to see a Peacekeeper approaching.

"On your way, nothing to see here."

Without warning Peeta launched himself at the Peacekeeper, tackling him and began raining blows down upon the shocked man.

"Nothing to see? You callus evil bastard," he punctuated each word with a punch, and by the end of the sentence the man had gone limp.

"Peeta, no!"

Katniss tried to pull Peeta off of the unmoving figure, but he did not even notice her. Haymitch soon joined her but Peeta struggled in order to continue hitting the man. The Peacekeeper's face was a ruin of blood when Katniss, not knowing what else to do ran at Peeta putting her shoulder hard into his ribs. She failed to unseat him, but it did at least break his concentration long enough for a Peacekeeper that had heard the commotion to hit Peeta over the head with the butt of his rifle. Peeta slumped and was once again unconscious.

"Secession!"

The Peacekeeper Peeta had bloodied was carried by two of his fellows to a medic's tent, while Peeta was lifted by his shoulders by two other Peacekeepers and dragged onto the train.

"That could have gone better," Haymitch said trying to catch his breath.

"Could it have gone worse?"

"They could have shot him."

Katniss swore at him.

"Come on, we really do have to get back to the train."

"Haymitch, are we going to die, because of this."

"Definitely."

"My you seem cheery."

"Sweetheart I have been dead for so long that the prospect of dying holds no further terrors."

"Funny, I just came to life this year, and it scares the hell out of me."

"If you ever learn the secret of resuscitating the dead, please keep it to yourself."

"Alright old man, let's go to the train."

Katniss stood and helped Haymitch up. They made their way back to the train. Katniss tried not to look around. As soon as they were safely back aboard Haymitch snatched a bottle of something amber and disappeared again. Katniss went to her stateroom, and found it empty. The prospect of sleeping alone that night was unbearable so she wandered the corridors until she found Peeta's room. It had never been used, but she supposed the District 11 Peacekeepers had no way of knowing that. The door slid open Peeta lay, either already, or still, unconscious on top of the blanket. She felt a chill creeping through her, making her shiver slightly. Briefly she considered crawling under the covers, but scrapped the idea in favor the feel of Peeta's body against hers. She slid into bed carefully, trying not to disturb Peeta. Once in place she pulled his arm over her, and still shivering she closed her eyes hoping that the images that were crowding at the edges of her thoughts would not find their way into her dreams.