Hello everybody. I am sorry that I haven't had a lot of time to update this story. Work and family has kept me from finding enough time to write this. I do have to admit that I was having a little bit of writers block. Anyway, I want to thank everyone who has supported this story in any capacity. You guys are all incredible.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games or any of its characters.

Chapter 25:

Peeta POV:

I look up from my seat. Across from me sits Gale and my brother Rye. We are on our way to District 2. Katniss couldn't come with us. She is getting too far in her pregnancy to be put into any dangerous situations. I'm relieved that I don't have to worry about her getting hurt. I left her in the protective hands of her family. I'm glad that I don't have to worry about Coin doing anything to her while I'm gone.

The hover craft starts to lower to the ground. I unbuckle the safety harness and go to stand. Gale and Rye rise as well. Boggs moves to the hovercraft door. I grab my pack and reach for my rifle. Coin has forced me to train with all of the guns that we are capable of using. Out of all of the guns I have shot, I like the sniper rifle most. My steady hand from decorating cakes has helped a lot with using it. Katniss likes that I can still be useful from a distance.

District two is one of the last Districts that we need to take back before we head in for the Capital. Gale brushes past me and heads to help Boggs. Rye moves behind me. The door opens and we rush to leave. I step out into the bright sunny atmosphere of District 2. Gale and Boggs are in front of me with another soldier. Rye and a couple of other soldiers are behind me. This is a protective formation, meant to keep me safe. Katniss made it quite clear that I am to be as safe as possible. We sprint to where the rebel base is located at in this district.

After about a minute of running, we make it into the base. This district is supposed to be close to being fully taken, but there might be another wave of Capital soldiers. We slow down outside of a group of tents. I move to catch my breath as Boggs and Gale duck into a larger tent.

I turn to an out of breath Rye.

"How are you holding up Rye?" I ask.

He gives out a small laugh, "Fine, I'm just not as in shape as you Peeta. Not all of us get to train with Katniss' dad almost every day."

I laugh too, "Yeah, I know. But you could have at least worked harder in your training."

"I wasn't expecting to be sent out into combat this soon." He complains.

I roll my eyes, "We aren't really in a combat zone. They just needed help taking down the 'Nut'. And this war is almost over, did you expect it to end before you could fight?"

He just shakes his head and turns away.

I move to sit down on the ground, prepared to wait awhile for them to get done talking. I don't have to wait very long though. They walk out of the tent about ten minutes later.

I stand up, "Hey guys, what's the plan?"

Boggs looks at Gale, "Well, Gale came up with a plan on the ride over here. It will work."

"Oh, what is it?" I ask again.

Boggs face gets a little sad. "We are going to cause an explosion that will get everyone inside to come out."

I get confused, "Wait, an explosion. How big will it be?"

Gale says, "Big enough to cause a few casualties." Then he moves to walk away.

Anger rises in me, "No, we can find another way."

Gale turns around to say something, but doesn't get the chance. Gun fire fills the air to our right.

Boggs grabs my arm and starts to lead me away from the danger. I struggle a little thinking about helping out, but then Katniss crosses my mind. So I let him drag me away. Gale heads off to help out instead. Rye follows me and Boggs.

Eventually I turn around and look through the tents towards the fight. I can't see much through the obstacles, but what I do see makes my breath catch.

A young rebel soldier, who looks to be about fifteen years old, gets knocked to the ground by a Capital soldier. The Capital soldier raises his gun to take out the young man.

I raise my rifle and take aim through my scope. I focus in on the soldier and shoot towards his arm that is holding the gun. I fire and it strikes his upper arm. The soldier immediately drops his gun and reaches for his injury. I look up from my scope towards the scene. I'm happy that I was able to resolve it without killing the man. But my happiness is immediately cut off as a bullet flies through the Capital soldier's head.

Horror fills me.

I hear Boggs say, "I think there is another group headed towards us."

I'm still shocked about what happened to the man that I tried not to kill, so I don't move right away.

Boggs says, "Peeta, we have to move now."

He grabs my arm and leads me to a tent. He pushes me in and I fall to my knees. I put my gun down, deep in thought.

After a moment, Rye says, "They are almost here. Don't make any noises."

I move to the opening of the tent. I look out at the incoming soldiers. The group has five men in it. I can tell that at least three of them are probably in their early twenties, if not younger.

Boggs silently moves me away from the opening. Then he starts to raise his gun, about to shoot. My hand shoots out and I start to lower it again.

Boggs whispers, "Peeta, what are you doing?"

I whisper back, "Those men are young, I can tell. They probably don't even want to be here."

"Those are Capital soldiers Peeta. We are currently at war with them, or did you forget?"

I respond, "I didn't forget. But this war we are in could kill everyone in Panem. We can take them out without killing them."

Rye speaks up, "How Peeta?"

"Let them get closer then we ambush them. They will be forced to fight us without using their guns. We can take them."

Rye nods back in confirmation. Boggs exhales deeply, then he nods too.

I move back to the opening. Crouched down, I wait for them to get close enough.

These men are walking past tents without even bothering to check them. I plan on capitalizing on their mistake.

As the last soldier steps past our tent, I move out to attack. Rye and Boggs follow without hesitation. I sneak up behind the man, grab him by the shoulders and rip him down to the ground. He hits the ground with the wind knocked out of him. Rye and Boggs head off to fight their own soldiers. I move to the soldier's helmet and tear it off of his head.

This soldier seems to be older than I thought, so I reach back and punch him in the jaw. It knocks him out easily. I silently thank Gerard for all of his training. I look up and see Rye is still fighting his soldier. Boggs has knocked one out as well and is already headed for his second. The last soldier starts to raise his gun, but I can see that he has hesitated. I jump to my feet and run at him.

Once I get near, I hop up and kick towards his head. His helmet flies off, and the soldier falls to the ground. I expect to see a twenty year old man underneath the helmet but instead I see a kid who can't be over fifteen. I was going to knock him out like I did with the last man, but after seeing his face I decide that I should immobilize him another way. I quickly move to him and flip him over so that he is on his stomach. He starts struggling to get away from me. I drive my knee into his back. He lets out a gasp of pain.

I say, "Stop struggling. You lost."

He slowly starts to stop, breathing hard. I reach up and pinch hard where his shoulder and neck meet. The boy slumps down, knocked out.

I look up and see that Rye has now knocked his soldier out, and Boggs is choking out the other. He slowly puts the soldier on the ground and turns to me.

Boggs asks, "You guys alright?"

We both nod back.

He breathes out, "Good. That was easier than I thought. I'm going to go and check to see if everything is safe back at the main tent. Stay here and monitor these guys. If they start to regain consciousness, knock them out again."

We nod and he runs off.

After a few minutes, Boggs comes back with a few other men. We take the soldiers back to camp. The attack seems to be a last ditch effort to take us out, it didn't work very well.

The rest of the night goes by quickly. Gale and a few other guys move to go and plant the bombs. I still don't agree with the plan, but they aren't listening to me. I fall into a restless sleep, thinking about what the next day has in store.

I wake up the next morning to a loud bang and the ground shaking. I rush to stand up. They started bombing the Nut already. I grab my supplies and rush out of my tent. The scene that awaits me is amazing and scary. It looks like the whole mountain is crumbling on one side. Rocks are falling everywhere.

I look over to see Gale, Boggs and Rye all standing near each other. Then I look back to the Nut. The door slowly opens. Boggs, Gale and Rye rush forward with all of the other soldiers. Everyone trains their guns on the door, waiting for the Capital soldiers to come out.

The first Capital soldier walks out with his hands in the air, soon after more people flood out. Everyone settles once the last few walk out.

One of the Capital soldiers shouts out, "You tried to kill us with bombs?"

Gale shouts back, "We didn't try to kill you. We needed to get you out."

Another yells toward us, "A few of us did die. You killed them!"

The Capital soldiers raise their weapons, ready to shoot. One more provocation and bullets will fly.

I run out in between the opposing forces. "Stop!" Rye appears behind me, trying to pull me back. I shrug him off.

Everyone looks towards me.

I only have one shot at calming everyone down. I take a deep breath, "Sure, we set bombs off hoping that we could get you to come out. We don't want to kill you though. Think to yourselves, why haven't we opened fire on you already? Why didn't we plant bombs where you are standing now? Do you get what I'm saying? We don't want to kill anyone else. We just want a free Panem. Free from leaders like Snow. He doesn't worry about the people in this country that are dying from either being sick, being starved, or being put into the games. All he worries about is himself and the entertainment of the Capital. Nobody else in Panem wants to watch innocent children kill each other. If you do then you are sick. Sick and brain washed. How would you like it if you had to go into an arena and kill your friends? I can personally promise that you don't want to do that. It haunts me now, and it will haunt me for the rest of my life. So, everyone please drop your weapons and help us take back Panem. We can and will live in peace."

After a few seconds, Capital guns start to drop. Relief starts to fill me. Eventually all of the guns are on the ground. All but one.

I look at the Capital soldier holding the final gun. He seems to be thinking about what I said. He looks around at all of the people who have dropped their guns. Finally he looks back to me.

I say to him, "Please, drop your gun. We can take back Panem and we will make it better than it is now."

He looks down at his gun, then he looks back up to me. "I don't believe you."

He raises his gun and aims at me. I close my eyes and flinch away. My brain immediately jumps to Katniss and my unborn child. A bullet goes off, and a body hits the ground. I open my eyes, why wasn't I hit?

I look down at the ground.

Rye is on the ground by my feet.

The sounds of a struggle rise where the gunned soldier was.

I scan my fallen brother. I can't see where the bullet hit. But I do see a small pool of blood collecting by his left arm. I'm paralyzed with what just happened, so I don't move for a few moments. Boggs hits the ground right next to Rye. He starts to search for the wound. Eventually he finds it and starts to put pressure on it.

Boggs shouts out, "We need a medic here now!"

This seems to have fixed my paralysis. I fall to my knees on the other side of Rye.

I hear Rye say silently, "Peeta."

I look down at Rye, tears fill my eyes, "Damn it Rye, why did you save me?"

He takes a shaky breath, "Because I made promises to Katniss, Dad and myself. When we finally went back to twelve, I stood on the ashes of what was left of our bakery and I promised that I was going to keep you safe from now on. You have been through too much in your life. I didn't save you from your first games, and I have regretted it ever since. I should have already been dead by now if I did volunteer. Now, I have taken a bullet for you. I hope that this makes up for my mistake of not saving you."

"No Rye. There was no first mistake for you to make up. I chose to go in and save Katniss."

"Well, I chose to take this bullet. The rebellion needs you more. You just talked down Capital soldiers. No one else could have done that Peeta. Also, Katniss and your baby need you. You have too many reasons to live."

I don't like how he is talking, "Rye, stop talking like you are going to die. I'm not going to let you die for me."

The medics finally arrive and they start to work on Rye. I'm lead away shortly after.

The last thing I see is Rye's eyes shut.