I own nothing

Willow

It turns out that there weren't that many rebels to get rid of. When we walked into the square the peacekeepers had a defensive line in front of the president's mansion and were slowly picking off a group of about a dozen rebels. The ground between them had quite a few bodies and was covered in blood and broken glass along with a few other things that I really didn't need to know; apparently the rebels were on a retreat.

"Rebels!" Came a voice from the balcony and the firing momentarily stopped. I grabbed James' arm, ignoring the electric shocks running down my own, and pulled him back into the shadow of the street out of the square, Aquila glanced at us and followed almost tripping over Alexis in the process, who was standing glaring at the balcony. The Peacekeepers and rebels had probably already seen us but there were no civilians around for a reason, I didn't think the president, at least I assumed it was the president, would be too pleased to see us."District Thirteen has been destroyed and all other Districts are surrendering. Surrender now and your lives will be spared; we will go forth into the future together learning from our mistakes."

There was a moment of silence as the rebels looked at each other before giving their answer. They opened fire on the person on the balcony and the peacekeepers split up, half of them returned fire while the other half rushed to the balcony where the president was. He had obviously been shot. Then through the gap I finally saw who had been talking and froze in shock.

Falling to the ground his white suit slowly tuning red was a young President Snow. Despite being dead for twenty years very person in Panem still knew his name; his looks; his crimes. The rebels had taken advantage of the momentary confusion and were getting the upper hand were they advancing slowly towards the peacekeepers.

"He's going to die." I realised.

"And good riddance." Alexis snorted.

"He can't die." I insisted. "As much as I would love for him to he needs to create the Hunger Games for time to get back on track and he can't do that if he's dead. He can't get my parents together."

"Well then let's go stop the rebels." James rolled his eyes like he'd just stated the obvious that we hadn't got. He had but it wasn't quite that simple.

"Somebody needs to get a medic for him." Rose said.

"I'll go." Aquila offered, "Rose, Al go help Snow you three stop the rebels." Then she turned and ran off, Al grabbed Rose's hand and dragged her past the Peacekeepers. I glanced at James only to realise that he'd already gone and Alexis was rushing after him having already caught the scent of blood. I rolled my eyes and followed, tripping over random dropped guns and avoiding glass shards the size of my foot and pools of blood alike. By the time I reached them half the rebels already had their guns pointed at their heads.

"Move out the way." The middle rebel said, he had a little badge on his shirt so I guessed he was the commander but what surprised me most was that he had a Twelve accent. I suppose that made sense, if you're going to send somebody on a suicide mission it should probably be a somebody from Twelve and they weren't surrendering so obviously Snow decided to take his anger out on the entire district, and here I was thinking that the only trouble Twelve caused was spawning my parents.

"Stop." I yelled and Commander Man's eyes momentarily flicked towards me before going back to James whom his gun was occupied with. Naturally James was still grinning like he had guns pointed at his head on a daily basis, I wouldn't be surprised. "You heard Snow, surrender and you'll live. It won't be easy but you and your families will live, if you don't he'll kill you, your family, your friends and punish the whole district."

"You sound pretty familiar with Snow girl." Commander Guy said a note of accusation in his voice.

"Not personally, no. My mother's been on the receiving end though." I retorted.

"How do I know you're not a Capitol spy?" The commander shot back at me.

"You don't, you just have to trust me and then learn to be specific about who you trust." I warned it really didn't seem right forcing the Hunger Games on them and not giving them a warning.

"That statement contradicts itself." Another guy said shaking his head.

"What if I said I don't trust you?" Commander guy asked through gritted teeth. "And I shot you and your young spy medic friends."

"You'd be making a big mistake." I advised.

"And if you shoot my little brother I'll make you regret it until the day you die which could very likely be today after I'm done with you." James growled. Commander guy moved his gun to point to my head, which I found unfair since James was the one who had just threaten him with painful death.

"I don't trust you." He stated, James plunged his hand in his pocket to get his wand but I grabbed his wrist.

"No James, we can't give it up." I said staring right at him, my blood thrumming in my ears as I did so. James stared for a second before removing his hand and stepping back. The Commander curled his lip and fired.

My mind went blank and my senses shut down as I started in confusion at the Commander who fell backwards, a large hole in his forehead. The other rebels threw down their weapons and raised their hands in surrender and the next thing I knew gunshots were ringing through the air and I was on the floor, James on top of me in a really awkward position, his hands either side of my head and his legs caught up in my own making me keenly aware of the pressure of his body, my ears feeling like they were bleeding and my shoulder was on fire.

"What's wrong?" I croaked, James shushed me and stared around. I blinked back tears and managed to turn my head to see exactly what was wrong. My shirt was stained red and blood was running rivers through the creases onto the ground where it collected around James' hand, he didn't seem to realise since he was putting his entire wait on it and not jumping back screaming. Most of my shirt had torn and a large black spider was embedded half way into my skin, it to me a moment to realise that it wasn't a spider. The Commander had managed to shoot my shoulder; the bullet in his head had obviously changed his aim but I still felt dizzy from blood loss, and arachnophobia,and my entire right size hurt like hell.

"James." I whispered.

"Hey." He said smiling at me. "Don't worry I'll get that bullet out when they stop shooting, it's quite easy."

"No." I told him and he frowned. "That wasn't what I was going to say. You're kneeing my stomach and it hurts." James threw his head back and laughed rolling off of me, I took a deep breath able to breathe easier now.

"Accio." James said and my vision flashed red as the bullet was wrenched free of my shoulder. James leaned over me again and I saw Alexis arguing with a couple of Peacekeepers about three metres away, James lifted me up slightly and I realised he was wrapping a bandage around my shoulder. Then he glanced around and tapped me with is wand, at once the pain vanished and I left feeling groggy but otherwise fine. "If anybody asked I got the bullet out with a knife and you're still in pain, so act more in pain."

I laughed at him and then winced as my bow dug into my back; I'd completely forgotten it was there. He helped me to my feet and then put his arm around my waist from me to lean on him, immediately we were surrounded by Peacekeepers and being lead to where Snow was sat on a chair being bandaged by a medic with Al, Rose and Aquila stood next to him, as we got closer I realised that Aquila's pocket was smoking and the golden bracelet was on the ground red hot, Snow nodded at us and then flicked the Peacekeepers away.

"Thank you." He said. "I can't do too much for you now but come here tomorrow and I will reward you." Then the medic helped him to his feet and they started to leave when Aquila spoke up.

"What will happen to the districts sir?" She asked politely. Snow smiled at her and I saw what my mum meant, in that second he resembled a snake so much that I had to resist the urge to swat him with my bow.

"You'll find out tomorrow." He walked back inside and most of the Peacekeepers left, either back to their stations or inside with the President, but three stayed behind glaring at us.

"Names." The one on the right snapped grouchily and while Aquila rattled off our names I tried not to let my eyes wonder towards the square where I knew the entire squad from Twelve lay dead. The Peacekeepers nodded and marched inside leaving us alone.

"You okay Willow?" Al asked eying my bandaged shoulder.

"Yeah. Just Panem can't heal gunshot wounds in thirty seconds." I replied and AL shot James and impressed look.

"It was nothing." James said trying to look modest. Key word being trying. "Just quick summoning charm and stitching charm." Rose rolled her eyes but didn't say anything.

"Anyway we need to go we can't stay here." Alexis pointed out.

"Yeah but where?" Rose asked. Aquila opened her mouth to answer when a wave of heat washed over me and somebody to my right yelled: "OW!" I grinned and span around to see Rye holding his head while curled up on the ground, Coral sat next to him looking dazed while Orion was laying down a crazy grin on him face on his other side; Amber, it seemed, had originally collapsed on the ground but crawled to the edge of the balcony to throw up. Lilly and Hugo were holding hands and had their eyes closed but were both smiling and standing; Scorpius stood next to them a soft smile on his face.

"Hey." He raised his hand in greeting. "Fancy seeing you here." Rose and Al both jumped forward and pulled all three wizards into a hug. I glanced at James and saw he was smiling sadly; I wondered what that was about before Rye pushed himself up and stared around, I stepped towards him and tripped falling off the five metre high balcony and dragging James with me.

James yelped as he landed onto of . "Sorry." I laughed. "I'm okay." I told him and he nodded and moved slightly.

"Shit. "He murmured.

"What?" I asked raising my eyebrow at him, his hair was a mess and he was looking more and more handsome by the second. Seriously my hormones chose now to play up?

"Stuck in a rose bush." He replied sheepishly. "I'm really sorry if I'm hurting you I mean my healing talents..."

"James." I interrupted but he continued talking over me.

"They aren't the best and your shoulder's probably got some internal damage and I'm making it worse."

"James." I tried again.

"Do they have good healthcare in your time because you're going to need it?" I gave up and grabbed his shirt pulling him down and kissing him successfully stopping him from yabbering on. When he finally pulled away my lips were swollen slightly and I really wanted to continue.

"I'm fine." I told him.

"I'm fine to however I would be better if we could have an encore." He leaned forward and I pressed my finger to his lips.

"We can't be together." I ignored James look of devastation and my own beating heart and concentrated on getting out of the rose bush because that was the simple truth of it.

We could never be together.