AN: Thank you to everyone who has been kind enough to review! I really appreciate all your comments. They are what keep me going!
That one second. That one second she hesitated and saw Prim's face before her. Saw her mother. And Peeta. And Haymitch and Cinna and all the other rebels she hadn't even met but had heard of and who'd said they believed in her…said that she was important…said that she was the only one…the only one who could lead this rebellion…inspire the people…be the face of the uprising…take down Snow...And in that second when she thought of all these people and how important she was to them, she knew…
That I am nothing without Gale. And she found her answer in that moment.
But in that moment, in the few seconds she needed to process all that information, Gale was gone, taken up into the underbelly of one of those white machines and flying away from her.
Katniss knew she could waste no more time thinking. It was time to act.
She jumped from the bow of the tree, landing heavily on the ground. She rolled and got up, ignoring the slight pain in her ankle and started to run. Not carefully like Gale before, but wildly and openly out in the sun, zigzagging towards town.
"Come on, you Capitol bastards, see me!" She screamed, trying to make her flight as obvious as possible. "I'm right here! Come and get me!"
One obeyed. A hovercraft had found her. She felt it above her and froze, sensing that faint hum of its engines. She'd seen these machines at work before before. Once as a child in the woods with Gale, snatching up a runaway to be turned into an avox. Several time during the Games, coming down to claim dead bodies. And just now with Gale. All these encounters did not make her afraid. She has one advantage over all its other victims. She was ready for it. As the giant claw was lowered down, Katniss carefully listened to its sounds, recalled it's movement, and just at the last second just when it was about to snatch her, she jumped to the side and lunged herself above it, clinging on to the long rope that supported the claw. She held on as it slowly retracted, every last one of her muscles at the ready, waiting to be taken inside.
She couldn't waste a second. Not again. She stared upwards, watching as the black box opening became bigger and bigger. She poised herself for the attack. She saw the white uniforms of two men by the sides of the entrance. Two, she thought, two I can take. She wouldn't have any time to second guess herself, once she was inside.
Luckily, neither of the men were looking down at her, they were turned, facing the front of the machine, presumably talking to the pilot. One of their guns was in reach.
Katniss jumped for it, taking the man by total surprise.
"What the – " he cried as Katniss yanked his weapon from his arm and sent him tumbling to the ground. The second man was running towards her now, but he had to go around the opening in the floor. This gave Katniss the momentary advantage she needed. She jumped into the craft and swung the weapon around in her hands, holding it like a great bat, and hit the man in the head, sending him too, tumbling out the hole.
The pilot looked back and panicked, "What's going on?" she heard his muffed voice cry. Katniss ran for him, holding the weapon like she knew how to use it, and pointed it at the back of his head.
"Your friends are dead," she forcefully pushed it into his skull, "now you do exactly as I say."
"Yeah, all right!"
"Did one of the other hovercrafts just pick up a man?"
"A boy?" She jabbed him again, "Yeah, a young man. They just radioed it in."
"I want you to follow them."
The pilot complied, and soon they changed direction. Katniss suddenly realized she had no way of knowing if this man was telling her the truth, and she tried to keep herself from panicking until the other ship was in view.
"That's the one he's in?" she asked pointedly.
"Yeah, I think so!" She smacked him with the gun again. "Yeah, I mean, yes. He's in there."
Okay, Katniss tried to calm herself. Now, I guess I need a plan.
But in the moment that Katniss tried to compose herself and think, the pilot must have sensed her relax. He took the wheel and thrust it upwards. The vehicle began to climb vertically, and Katniss lost her hold on the ground and went tumbling backwards. She landed smack against the opposite wall, which was now serving as the floor as they shot upwards. As she tried to think of what to do, she watched the pilot swing around, pulling something out from under the dashboard in front of him. Her brain screamed gun! Still holding the one she'd stolen from the first Peacekeeper, she aimed it at the man.
I hope this is how you use this thing, she thought as she pulled the trigger. Before she had even finished her thought the front window was sprayed with red. Great, now I have to figure out how to fly this thing…
She pulled herself to the side of the ship, grabbing onto miscellaneous parts of the wall, as she hoisted herself up to the pilot's seat. She kicked his body loose and let it sink to the back of the ship. Before her was a great display of buttons and screens, and Katniss had no idea what to do.
They couldn't keep going upwards, though, so she grabbed the wheel and thrust it back down. Her stomach did flips inside herself and the machine tumbled back down again. She reached forward and wiped as much blood from the window as possible, trying to increase her view. Where had Gale's ship gone? She panicked. She tugged at the wheel, trying to ignore her stomach as they lurched up and down, until she was able to guide the plane in what she hoped was a mostly horizontal direction. Her eyes darted from side to side as she carefully tried to turn it.
"Come on, Gale," she said audibly, "where are you?" her fingers anxiously drummed the wheel.
No sooner had she asked it, than she saw it, in the far left corner of her view. "Thank you," she whispered, trying to bring him to the center of her window by turning the wheel. Katniss had become familiar with some of its uses. Pulling back makes you go up, pushing forward makes you go down, she could spin it in all directions to go around. The other ship was now safely in front of her, but small and far away.
Well, she though, if she knew what all the other turns of the wheel did, then she wondered what pushing it inward would do…And it did exactly what she expected. Katniss was pushed to the back of her seat as her speed multiplied. She was gaining on her fellow ship, heading right for it, and suddenly she realized she needed a plan to take it down.
"Oh, god, Gale," she said as she knew what she had to do, "I hope I don't kill you…"
And she crashed her ship into its side. She tried to pull away as soon as she made contact, ripping apart its one side, sending thick, black billows of smoke into the air and watching it spiral downward.
Please don't die, please don't die, she repeated to herself as she realized her ship was still firmly in the air.
With no other idea of how to land, she took the wheel and forced it downward.
The ground came rushing up towards her and Katniss braced for impact. A jolt hit her body, shaking her bones and slamming through her. She felt like she was being ripped into little pieces when they hit. Her ears rang with pain and her sides ached, but she seemed to be intact. Now that she was on the ground and she didn't have a second to lose. She quickly, and shakily, climbed out of the ship, and spun around, looking for the telltale smoke column to guide her way. She saw it to her left, not too far away, and lunged in that direction, running, stumbling, falling, but making her way towards the burning machine.
"Gale," she screamed as soon as it was in view. "Gale," she dashed towards it, kicking in the bottom door, and forcing herself inside. The small room was filled with smoke. The two Peacekeepers, who were not buckled in, lay motionless to one side. The pilot struggled with a giant air bag in his face, and Katniss ignored them all as she looked for Gale.
She heard a moan and her eyes found him. Luckily, he'd been tied in to a seat in the wall. "Gale!"
"Katniss?" he asked groggily, trying to make sense of what was happening. "Katniss! What the hell are you doing here?"
"I came to save you, of course." She smiled as she struggled with the clasps that held him in place.
"But…how did you?"
"I commandeered a hovercraft and crashed it into yours," she said, trying not to sound too proud as Gale looked at her astonishedly. She'd given up on the clasps and took out her knife and cut Gale loose. She draped his arm over his shoulder and helped him climb out of the vehicle. The couple hopped down and hobbled away as it belched more smoke and flames.
"Are you okay?" she desperately asked him one they were safely several yards away.
"Yeah, I think so," he said sorely as she leaned him against a rock.
"Are you sure?" she said, not wanting to believe too soon. Her hands kept frantically searching his body for wounds, patting him up and down.
"I'm okay, Katniss, I'm okay," he assured her with a slight chucked as she spun him around, searching some more.
"I was so worried about you!" she yelled at him.
"Hey," he took her hands and locked her eyes with his, smiling as he said, "they didn't have time to do anything to me, I promise…" He took her face in his hand and brought it up to his, kissing her and telling her for certain, "I'm okay," he said breaking away. But as he did, his eyes flashed downward and the smile fell off his lips. "But you're not!" And she let her eyes drop to follow his, wondering what on earth he could mean, and for the first time she saw the spot of red growing on her side.