Buffy reacted with lightning speed, leaping over the slab and tackling Gale a split second before his blade met its target, slamming into him with such force that he skidded several feet on his back before coming to rest with her hand around his throat. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

Gale frowned up at her, his expression indignant. "You heard Coin - she caused the blight!"

"Not willingly!"

"So? If we lose all our food because of her, I don't think the fact that she didn't want it to happen will make anybody feel better!" He tried to push Buffy off, but she caught his wrist in the hand not grasping his throat and slammed it to the ground while pinning his other hand with her knee.

"If you think there's any way I'm letting you cut my best friend's head off-"

That was when Angel stepped in and pulled her off of Gale. "Relax, no one's getting beheaded here. Alma, I need you to find a way of breaking the curse that doesn't involve hurting Willow."

"That complicates matters."

"Are you saying you can't do it?"

Coin's mouth pressed into a thin line; though she would have preferred the simpler, more efficient solution of eliminating the source, she didn't appreciate having her abilities questioned. "I'm sure I can, but it will take longer." She reached out to trace a rune with her finger; a spark flared up where she touched the stone, and she quickly withdrew her hand. "In the meantime, it doesn't look as if we'll be able to move her."

Angel sighed - spending more time in this unprotected location was the last thing he wanted to do, but there didn't seem to be any alternative. "Fine. Illyria, you're in charge of moving the wounded back to Thirteen and bringing Alma whatever spellcasting materials she needs. Everyone else, let's do a thorough sweep of these caves, make sure we don't run into any nasty surprises while we're stuck here."

Illyria was clearly dismayed at her assignment but obeyed nonetheless, while the others separated into groups of two or three in order to carry out the search Angel had ordered - all except Buffy, who refused to leave Willow's side until she was freed from Wolfram and Hart's device.

Because they happened to be standing nearest each other, Katniss, Gale, and Peeta ended up patrolling together. A few minutes of uneasy silence ensued, until Katniss broke it by asking, "You weren't really going to chop that woman's head off, were you, Gale?"

"Of course I was," he said at once, sounding surprised that she even had to ask. "Are you saying you wouldn't, when you know what it's like having nothing to eat? Would you rather have all the rebels starve to death or get so desperate that they go crawling back to the Capitol - because I'm sure they have plenty of food stored up - than sacrifice one woman?"

"Well, no," Katniss said uncomfortably. "I mean, if there was no other way to stop the curse from ruining all our food, then yeah, I guess I'd kill her. But-"

"But what? Who knows how many more crops and livestock might be destroyed while Coin looks for a non-lethal way to stop it?"

"So what are you saying?" Peeta demanded. "You think Angel was wrong to tell her to look for another way?"

Gale didn't answer right away, and when he did, his voice was much slower, each word chosen with far more care. "I think Angel's a good guy who wants to do the right thing... I'm just not sure he always has the right idea about what that is. He keeps trying to save everyone, to give everyone second chances, but not all of them deserve one, you know?"

"So what, we should just kill everybody who isn't us or that our enemies might use, even against their will?" Peeta shook his head. "If we do that, we're no better than them, and then what's the point of fighting, if whatever new system comes after this is just more of the same? If we want Panem without Wolfram and Hart to be different, we have to be different - like Angel."

Before Gale could respond, they heard shouting from elsewhere in the tunnels and rushed to investigate. Luckily, the issue wasn't demonic in nature; a trio from Eleven had found half a dozen humans tied up in another cavern.

"They must be the sacrifices the demons planned to offer Wolfram and Hart," Angel surmised as he bent down to untie the gag from one of the captives' mouths. "Where are you from?"

Throat too dry for speech, the woman held up five fingers. Further down the line, a man Peeta had just freed and given water began to tell their story in a dry, raspy voice. "We escaped to join you, but those mutts-"

"Demons," Peeta gently corrected him. "They weren't made in a lab."

"Then where did they come from?" another fugitive asked.

"I'm not sure, but they've been here since before Panem was founded."

None of the people from Five were reassured by this. "You mean there are more of those things?!"

"'Fraid so," Katniss said wearily; she was starting to think Plutarch's media campaign wasn't such a bad idea, if only so she wouldn't have to keep explaining the same thing over and over. "Creatures like that - only worse - are the real power behind the Capitol. That's what we're up against. Still want to join us?"

"Of course we do." The speaker was a girl around the same age as Katniss herself. "We won't let those monsters control our lives anymore!"

Though some of her companions looked unnerved at the thought of facing more hideous beasts like the ones that had captured and almost sacrificed them, her impassioned declaration seemed to have a galvanizing effect, and they all nodded resolutely.

"What about the rest of your district?" Gale demanded, fixing them with a flinty stare. "Is Five ready to do its part to overthrow the Capitol once and for all?"

"We are. That's why we were sent to you - there's an assault planned on the power plant...or maybe it's already happened. I'm not sure how long we've been here."

"What phase was the moon in when you left?" Angel asked.

After a short debate, the former prisoners agreed that the moon had been over half full and waxing at the time of their departure a week before the attack was scheduled to take place.

"It should be happening soon, then. Tomorrow night's the full moon."

"We should go back and help." It was the teenage girl who spoke, the one who had refused to be cowed by the revelation of their enemies' true nature. "We've made contact with the rebel alliance like we were supposed to, and they need us." She turned to Katniss, her eyes alight with the hope and fervor that the girl who had first defied the Capitol's power inspired in so many. "Now that you're here, will you fight with us?"

Looking into those eyes, Katniss felt there was only one answer she could give. "I will."

Peeta tugged at her elbow, and she let him lead her to a more private recess of the cave. When he turned to face her, she saw that he looked less than thrilled with her plans. "What do you think you're doing?" he asked her quietly yet forcefully. "You need medical attention, not another fight."

"I'm fine," she replied impatiently. "I feel great. Look, I'll get checked out as soon as District 5 is under rebel control, okay? I just couldn't say no to that girl, and you saw how they reacted when I said I'd be there, like they were ready to take on the Capitol all by themselves even after being held in a cave for days. If I can do that for the whole district, if I can get them to fight harder and help them win with fewer casualties on our side, then I have to do it. We need to win this war, Peeta, and we need to do it fast - I need it to be over." She also felt that she needed to end the war for Gale's sake as much as her own, because she was starting to worry about what it was turning her best friend into. However, she didn't want to admit as much to Peeta; doing so would feel disloyal and somehow dangerous, as if saying the words might make her fears more real, so instead she asked him, "Don't you want that too?"

"Of course I do; I just want you to be alive when it happens." Seeing a hint of cynicism creeping into her expression, he hastened to add, "And not just because of what you said when I came back from the Capitol either. Whatever does or doesn't happen between us, I really believe the world will be a better place when this is over...and you deserve that, Katniss. So don't get yourself killed before then, okay?"

Katniss opened her mouth to answer and found that her throat was too tight, forcing her to swallow several times before giving him the best reassurance she could offer under current circumstances. "I'll do my best."

###

As everyone began preparations to camp for the night, with plans to recon District 5 before dawn the next morning, Angel went to check on Coin's progress toward freeing Willow and inform Buffy of the latest developments. She was clearly excited at the prospect of moving another step closer to victory, but torn between her desire to participate in the battle and her reluctance to leave her best friend in such a vulnerable state.

"I can set new protections around her," Coin pointed out. "She'll be perfectly safe."

"What about the curse?" Angel put in before Buffy could argue; judging by the tense looks between the two women, he suspected they had already exchanged a few cross words. "Where are you on that?"

"She pulled that off," Buffy acknowledged with grudging respect. "She's been chanting and burning stuff and sprinkling magic dust on different runes since you left-"

"It's a bit more complicated than that," the witch demurred, slightly offended at Buffy describing her craft in such simplistic terms as 'magic dust', though she reminded herself that she shouldn't expect anything more from the prehistoric Slayer, whose mind was clearly devoid of subtlety and nuance. "She's essentially correct, though - I've halted the blight's progression."

"That's good; at least we won't lose any more food stores."

"Doesn't get Willow off this giant Pictogram board, though," Buffy groused, determined not to be satisfied with anything less.

"Extracting her is proving to be harder than expected," Coin admitted. "I believe this device may have been created by the Senior Partners themselves, and the power they imbued it with is parasitic in nature; it's attached itself to her magic the way ivy wraps itself around a tree, spreading its tendrils into the very core of her power... So maybe termites hollowing out the tree they live in would be a better analogy."

"But you can stop it, can't you?" Buffy pressed her, not liking the image of Willow being hollowed out one little bit.

"Attempting to cut out something so tightly entwined with her own magic would be an enormous undertaking, and there's no guarantee she would survive the process without sustaining extensive damage - or that she would survive at all - so I've decided to try a more creative approach. Now that I've broken the curse her magic was fueling, all that stolen power has nowhere to go. It's concentrating inside the rune-stone, which was designed as a conduit, not a storage device."

"So it'll eventually overload itself," Angel concluded. It was moments like this that reminded him - unwelcome as the reminders sometimes were - why Alma Coin was indispensable; not only was she powerful, she was also highly intelligent and innovative in her use of that power.

"That was my thinking..." The witch's voice trailed off as a low rumbling began to emanate from the stone. "Although I have to admit I thought it would take longer. It might be advisable to step back now."

She promptly took her own advice, retreating to the farthest corner of the cavern, but Buffy ignored it and moved closer instead. "Will? Will, can you hear me? Hang in there-"

If Willow could hear her, she gave no sign of it, but the rumbling grew louder as cracks appeared in the stone's glossy black surface, with shafts of brilliant white light shining through. As the cracks widened, the rumbling built until it shook the ground they stood on, and Angel deemed it prudent to step in.

"Move!" Grabbing Buffy around the waist, he pulled her away just as the device exploded in a retina-searing flash. They were flung across the cave, Angel landing on his back with a painful thud. Buffy ended up on top of him, barely managing to brace her arms against his chest in time to stop their noses from smashing into one another. Their faces were still very close together, though - close enough to rekindle the burning passion that had ignited between them after slaying the Turok-Han, and they would have picked up right where they'd left off if they hadn't been interrupted once again, this time by a soft, somewhat dazed voice.

"Hey, guys..."

Tearing her eyes off of Angel's face was like fighting against the pull of an incredibly powerful magnet, but when Buffy managed to turn her head away, the sight of Willow sitting up amidst the rubble of her shattered prison, blinking bemusedly at the scene around her, was enough to break the spell. Scrambling to disentangle her limbs from Angel's, she ran to her best friend and threw herself to her knees as she tackled the redhead in a hug that almost bowled her over. "Will! You're okay!"

"I will be as long as you don't suffocate me. Cracky ribs are also not good."

"Sorry." Buffy quickly removed her arms from around the other woman and rocked back on her toes. "I've just missed you so much since I woke up in this crazy Panem place..." Her eyes widened with realization as her brain caught up with her mouth, and she found herself apologizing again. "Sorry, I forgot you don't know. Will, this is gonna be a shock of epic proportions, but-"

"We're in a post-apocalyptic dystopia straight out of one of those YA novels that were so popular in the early twenty-first century? Yeah, I know. All that time they kept me on ice, the Senior Partners would drop in for a little chat about once every fifty years, or whenever they got bored doing whatever multi-dimensional demonic overlords do all day."

Buffy was rendered speechless by her horror at the implications of Willow's words, leaving Angel to ask, "So you were conscious the whole time?"

"Sort of - my mind was in some kind of limbo where I could think, but I wasn't aware of how much time had passed unless the Senior Partners told me." She paused, flexing her fingers as if to test how well they worked. "Feels kinda funny being back in my body now."

"Can you stand?"

"I don't know. I can try." Taking the hand Angel offered, she slowly rose to her feet, her knees shaking under the unaccustomed weight. "Ooh, wobbly... That's better," she said gratefully as Buffy jumped up and grasped her other arm to steady her. "I'll be fine; just gotta get the hang of this whole 'independent movement' thing again."

"What about your magic?"

Buffy shot Angel a reproachful look; she wasn't concerned about Willow's magic at the moment and didn't think he should be either, but he couldn't afford the luxury of treating her only as a friend. Her power made her a valuable asset as well, and as leader of the rebellion, he needed to know the condition of every potential weapon in his arsenal, even those he cared for.

"Seriously depleted," Willow confessed with obvious chagrin. "My magical senses are still there, but as far as actually casting any spells, I think I'm back to the 'floating pencil' level. Actually, floating a pencil would be a major achievement for me right now."

"And you can't take back any of the power that was drained out of you?" Angel asked, looking at the scattered pieces of stone littering the cave floor.

"With essence of the Senior Partners mixed in?" Willow shuddered. "No thank you." Turning to face the corner where Coin had retreated just before the explosion, she added, "I should thank you, though; that was brilliant, using my own magic to break the rune-stone."

Coin accepted her gratitude with a curt nod. "I'm glad it worked as I thought; there are so few magical texts in Panem that I couldn't be positive about the meaning of certain glyphs."

Willow was saddened to hear that so much knowledge had been lost, until an idea occurred to her. "You know, I read a lot of magic books in my day - I mean, a lot - and I have a pretty good memory, so maybe I can recreate some of them. We should put our heads together on that some time."

Coin was immediately suspicious of this offer - if she was the only person in the world in possession of lost magical secrets, she certainly wouldn't share them with anyone else - but she was careful not to show any reaction beyond another nod. If nothing else, it would be a good opportunity to learn more about the newcomer, exactly how powerful she might be when her magic returned...and whether she might be a threat when that day arrived.

###

Dinner that night consisted of the rations everyone had brought with them - which were rather meager, since they hadn't necessarily expected to be camping in the wilds overnight - supplemented with the game Angel, Buffy, Illyria, Katniss, and Gale were able to hunt (also meager, since the noise of District 5's dam had driven many animals away from the area). While they ate, Willow was introduced to the other key players in the rebellion who were present, including Gale - "AKA the guy who tried to turn you into Nearly-Headless Nick," as Buffy put it.

"Really?" Willow put down the spoonful of freeze-dried vegetables she'd been about to eat and fixed the boy with a calm yet probing stare that made him shift uncomfortably where he sat.

"It was nothing personal," he muttered. "Your magic was powering a blight that was destroying our food. I had to stop it."

"I see." She cocked her head inquisitively. "Do you always tackle problems with a sword?"

"No." He raised his eyes to meet her gaze squarely. "I use whatever's handy. I'm sorry for what they did to you, but you're not the only one who's suffered. They've done so much damage, hurt so many people, and we have to stop them. Nothing matters more than that." And he wasn't going to apologize or be made to feel guilty for doing what had to be done when others wouldn't. Cramming the last bite of his rations into his mouth, he got up and stalked away from the campfire, leaving an awkward silence in his wake.

"Sorry about that," Katniss said after a moment, somewhat self-consciously; she didn't fully agree with Gale's sentiments, after all, even if she understood why he felt that way and felt compelled to defend him. "Gale's... He's had a hard life - everyone in the districts has - and he sees this as our one chance to make things better. I want that too...but I wish he hadn't tried to kill you."

With that, she left as abruptly as Gale had; her role as Angel's ambassador had made her more comfortable with talking to people she didn't know well, but she still didn't enjoy having heart-to-hearts with strangers - especially ones like Willow Rosenberg, whose green eyes seemed to see right through her. Peeta soon followed her, and Angel left as well, ostensibly to take the first watch of the night, though in reality he thought the two women would appreciate some time alone together. He did intend to keep watch, but with temporary wards concealing their presence and protecting their campsite, he knew he was probably being overly cautious.

"What happened, Will?" Buffy asked softly once he was gone. "After they took me out, I mean?"

"Everything went to hell," Willow answered succinctly, though the haunted look in her eyes gave the impression that what had transpired was much worse than those deceptively simple words suggested; in fact, Buffy suspected there might not be any words that could adequately describe the horrors her best friend must have witnessed. "Most of the girls were slaughtered in about ten minutes after they lost their powers. A handful made it back to our base, and I did everything I could to protect them, to protect everyone that was left, but Wolfram and Hart kept getting stronger the more they took over, until finally I couldn't keep them out anymore. We tried to make a last stand then - me, Xander, Giles, Faith, Robin Wood...Dawn..." Her voice broke as she clapped a hand to her mouth to hold back a sob, and Buffy was thankful it did; she didn't think she could bear to hear any more.

"I'm so sorry..." She had done her best to meet the growing threat of Wolfram and Hart the only way she knew how, by facing them head-on, and had fought as hard as she could, but she couldn't help feeling a stab of guilt over the fact that she had failed, leaving Willow alone to watch the last of their loved ones die horribly.

Willow didn't seem to hold it against her, though; she slid closer and rested her head on Buffy's shoulder, letting the blonde hold her until she was able to reassemble a few fragments of her composure. "By the time they captured me, I was ready to die...only they had something else in mind. The Senior Partners said I still hadn't grasped how powerful I really was, but they were going to help me realize my full potential-"

"Bullshit. You, not grasping your full potential? Are you not the witch who empowered thousands of Slayers all over the world...and almost drained the earth of all life even if we don't talk about it much?"

Her effort at lightening their moods to some tiny degree mostly fell flat; the witch in question wasn't capable of laughing or smiling yet, but a watery snorting sound escaped her. "I think they meant immortality. They did things to me, Buffy... The only word I can think of for it is a magical vivisection, and that doesn't even come close to covering how it actually felt...but I don't think they changed me. Maybe I had the potential to make myself immortal all along, if I had wanted to. Not that I would," she hurried to add, sadness creeping into her face again. "Outliving everyone you know sucks - or almost everyone." She turned her head to look at Buffy, her gaze sharpening. "What about you, Buffy? How are you still alive after all this time?" As far as she knew, Buffy did not possess any latent magic that could have prolonged her lifespan to such an extent.

"Wesley - he's a ghost now-"

"I know," Willow interrupted, closing her eyes against a fresh stab of pain at hearing his name. "I could never decide who had it worse, me or him...although it was probably him. We were both trapped, they were using us both, but he was aware of every single minute of it."

"Well, he managed to resist enough to get one over on them; he saved my soul during the Slayer-depowering ritual and hid it from them until he was able to use my DNA and Peeta's blood to whip up a magical clone to stick it in. So here I am, Buffy 2.0, back and better than ever."

"So the new body's working okay? You feel...normal?"

"Yeah, everything checked out when Angel dragged me in for a physical. Tonight was the first time I really got to take it for a test drive outside the gym, and I'd say I've still got the edge."

Willow tried to be satisfied with these assurances, to convince herself that the magic she sensed swirling inside her friend was just an echo left over from the creation of her new body - such a tremendous and frankly extraordinary work of sorcery was bound to leave its mark, after all - yet she couldn't help feeling that there was something more lurking just beneath the surface, masked by the residual energy of Wesley's spells so that she couldn't quite put her finger on it... Something dark and insidious that slithered away like an oily snake whenever she tried to probe deeper.

I'll do a thorough exam as soon as we're back at Angel's base - the magical equivalent of an endoscopy - and if the Senior Partners did anything to her before she escaped, I'll fix... No, I'll get someone else to fix it. One hand clenched into a fist as she let out a barely audible sigh. Being able to sense magic, to feel it right at her fingertips while she lacked the strength to grasp it was almost maddening, especially since she knew her gifts were needed now more than ever. A war that would literally decide the fate of humankind was a very bad time to be powerless.

###

Willow was sent to Thirteen the next day, with Angel's assurances that the rebels had managed without her so far and would most likely continue to do so until she recovered her powers. Sure enough, the battle for District 5 went smoothly despite her absence; the district's people already had a well-thought-out strategy and a fierce determination to free themselves from the Capitol's rule, and Katniss' appearance in their midst only inspired them to fight harder.

After the fighting was done and the newly liberated workers had notified the rest of Panem of their change in status by cutting power to every district that wasn't part of the rebel alliance, the group from Thirteen - minus four who had sustained wounds of varying severity - were invited to dinner with the local leaders, to discuss Five's role in the war effort. The food was simple, and after Angel explained the situation with the blight, a decision was made not to completely abandon the rationing measures instituted by Capitol supervisors, but there was enough for everyone to eat their fill - except Katniss, who only took a couple of bites before pushing her plate away.

This behavior, which was highly unusual for her, did not go unnoticed. "Okay, who are you and what have you done with Katniss?" Gale demanded. "It's not like you to leave a single crumb behind when you eat."

"Guess I'm just more tired than hungry tonight."

"Are you feeling okay?" Peeta asked. "Maybe you should get checked out at the hospital; we can go with you if you want."

Katniss shook her head. "I'm fine; I just need some air."

Retreating from the mayor's house - which was nicer than any other dwellings in Five apart from those in the Victors' Village, though not grand enough to be called a mansion so as to avoid giving the impression that the mayor held any real power - she encountered Angel, who must have left by a different door since she hadn't seen him come out and was fairly certain he'd still been in the dining room when she made her exit. "What are you doing out here? Shouldn't you be in there planning our next move?"

"Yeah, I just needed a break." Not from strategizing, however; the whole time he was in that room, he'd been uncomfortably aware of Buffy's eyes burning holes in him, her stare only intensifying as he continued ignoring her, as he had done all day. He knew he couldn't keep it up forever, knew they would eventually have to talk about what had happened between them in the caves, but he preferred to put it off as long as possible.

He had never intended to kiss her but hadn't been able to stop himself - and then, even more disturbingly, the same thing had happened again when Willow broke free, accidentally knocking them into each other's arms for the second time. Now the same burning desire that had overtaken him in both instances kept tugging at him even when he wasn't touching her, growing stronger with each passing hour until merely being in the same room as her was almost unbearable... He knew he couldn't give in, but he wasn't sure he'd be able to resist if he let himself be alone with her. Even though he could see that his silence was hurting her and it killed him to cause her any more pain than he already had, avoidance seemed like his best option at the moment.

Obviously he wasn't going to share this with Katniss, so he responded to her inquisitive look with a diversionary question of his own. "What about you? I could tell you weren't feeling well at dinner, and you haven't gotten those scratches the Turok-Han gave you looked at yet."

"Why does everyone keep harping on that?" she asked with evident irritation. "Coin stopped the bleeding-"

"On the surface. You could still have deeper damage, especially since you haven't exactly been taking it easy, and if you do you could start bleeding internally."

"Fine," she huffed, "I'll go to the hospital right now if it'll get you off my back."

"Good girl. You know we only want you to take care of yourself because we care about you."

"Yeah, I know - figurehead of the rebellion and all that."

"No... Sure, you have an important part to play in this fight, but that's not why you're important to us. It's just because you're...you. You're a special person, Katniss Everdeen. Don't forget that." He reached out to briefly touch her shoulder, then quickly withdrew his hand and hurried away. The moment had seemed to call for an affectionate gesture, but he'd spent so long among people who didn't go for that sort of thing - except Drusilla, but showing her too much affection could be dangerous - that giving it felt very strange.

Katniss stood still for a second, too stunned to move as she watched him disappear into the darkness; during the months that she had trained under him and fought alongside him, she had come to think of him as a friend as well as a mentor and was aware on some level that he regarded her with a similar warmth, but this was the first time either of them had openly expressed it. Then she walked away too, but not toward the hospital. She would let Prim examine her as soon as she returned to Thirteen, but getting poked and prodded by a stranger was the last thing she wanted right now.

Convinced that the cool air and wet spray of waterfalls would make her feel better, she headed for the dam...never realizing she was being followed.

###

Buffy had watched Angel all evening, her frustration mounting as it became glaringly obvious that he was purposefully avoiding her; she understood why he hadn't had time to talk when they were all wrapped up in preparing for another fight, but now that it was over his behavior was just plain rude. He can't kiss me like that and then act like I don't exist! It's just like how he kept brushing me off when we first met, trying to pretend there was nothing between us, but we should be past that by now.

When she spied him slipping out of the mayor's house, she'd followed, intending to corner him somewhere private, with no other people around for him to hide behind...only to stop cold when she found him with Katniss, telling the dark-haired girl how special she was, touching her... Granted, it was a very brief touch, but from someone as reserved as Angel, it spoke volumes about how much he cared for her, as if the constant doting wasn't enough, and now the Faith flashbacks were coming on stronger than ever.

She leaned against the wall, one hand going to her head as a wave of memories assaulted her - Faith had always tried to take away everything that mattered to Buffy, tried to replace her as Sunnydale's resident Slayer, plotted to steal Angel's soul so she could have him for herself and then almost killed him with a poisoned arrow when that didn't work, even stole Buffy's very body and identity (which she used to seduce Riley while leaving Buffy to deal with the Watchers' Council's assassins), then fled to Los Angeles and won Angel over with her remorseful act, persuading him to choose her over Buffy - and she saw now that Katniss Everdeen was exactly the same. On the surface she seemed much more innocent than Faith, but she was just as conniving, just as manipulative, just as determined to take everything Buffy had or wanted for herself.

When she started walking, Buffy followed her as silently as a shadow, keeping enough distance between them that Katniss didn't notice her, her body moving with all the stealthy purpose of a jungle cat stalking its prey even though she wasn't entirely sure what she was doing, what she hoped to accomplish - or even which Slayer she was pursuing.

###

Katniss went out onto one of the walkways leading to the hydroelectric power plant - the original plan had been to bomb it, but with the aid of magic and preternaturally skilled fighters they were able to capture the plant while leaving much of it intact, thus reducing the amount of infrastructure repair that would be needed once the war was won, though she wasn't concerned with that right then. Crossing her arms on top of the safety railing, she closed her eyes and let the roar of water pouring through the dam on either side drown out her thoughts, the cold droplets that hit her face helping to ease the hot, heavy feeling in her head - at least until pain lanced through her side, making her gasp and lurch forward so that her arms nearly slipped off the rail.

Catching herself just in time, she turned around and rested her back against the railing as she caught her breath, then gingerly lifted the hem of her shirt. The shiny burn marks where her wounds had been cauterized looked the same as before, but the area around them had become a giant bruise, the blood pooling so darkly under her skin that it almost appeared black in the stark illumination of the moon and the lights lining the top of the dam. Her stomach clenched at the sight, and she quickly pulled her shirt down. Maybe I should've seen a doctor after all...

Keeping one hand on the rail to steady herself, she started to retrace her steps back toward the city and its hospital, but she hadn't gone far before a figure appeared out of the mist, blocking her path. Her head felt disconcertingly fuzzy now, and she had to squint to bring the interloper's face into focus. "Buffy?" As they moved closer to each other, she noticed that her fellow Slayer's expression was decidedly unfriendly. "What's wrong?"

"What's going on between you and Angel?"

The blonde's sharp voice cut through the cool, moist air like a whip but somehow failed to have the same effect on the fog that had taken hold of Katniss' brain; instead, the question made her feel more befuddled than ever. "Me and Angel? What are you-?"

"I saw your little rendezvous outside the mayor's house," Buffy hissed. "Looked awfully cozy to me."

"We were just talking," Katniss said slowly; her tongue felt strangely thick, making it hard to form words, or maybe the problem was in her head. Whatever the reason, stringing a sentence together was much harder than it should be. "We weren't... That's crazy."

"Crazy, huh?" Buffy let out a short laugh which did indeed sound slightly unhinged. "Maybe so... In the past Faith was always the outsider and I was the one everyone looked up to, the one who had it all, but now it's all been switched around so I'm where she was - so yeah, maybe I am losing my shit just like she did...or maybe it's you. You've been trying to replace me all along, haven't you? You've always wanted what was mine and now you've finally got it - like you haven't already taken enough!"

"Okay... I don't know what your problem is, but you're losing it. You need help."

She took hold of the blonde's arm with a vague intention of bringing her along to the hospital, but Buffy wrenched free of her feeble grip and shoved her away, one hand inadvertently striking the younger girl's bruised side. The resulting pain drove all the air from Katniss' lungs, and her vision went black for a split second as she reeled backward, all sense of proprioception lost until she felt her back hitting the rail.

Unfortunately for Katniss, several other people had already slammed into that particular section of railing during the battle, all with great force and some wearing the heavy armor of Peacekeepers, and each blow had jarred the rivets securing the railing to the concrete of the walkway. Now, when Buffy pushed her into it with all of her Slayer strength, the overtaxed bolts finally popped out, and panic replaced pain as the dominant emotion in Katniss' mind as she felt the railing fall away. She tried frantically to regain her balance, but it was too late; her heels slipped off the slick concrete, pitching her backward. Her arms flailed, desperately reaching out for anything she could use to catch herself, but her fingers grasped only air, leaving her powerless to stop herself from plummeting into the watery abyss below.

Just to clarify, that last line doesn't mean that Katniss did take a swan dive into the dam, just that she's about to (possibly in the very first paragraph of the next chapter) and there's nothing she can do about it. Also, I hope Buffy's breakdown didn't seem too out-of-the-blue; I tried to slip in some subtle foreshadowing with her mistaking Katniss for Faith when she first saw her in chapter 18, as well as mentioning in chapter 17 that Snow visited her several times while she was his prisoner and let her escape because he had plans for her (and we know he's able and willing to mess with people's minds to make them carry out his plans) but was it too subtle?

In other news, this might be my only update for February - in addition to being a shorter month, it's also shaping up to be much busier than January. I'm hard at work on the next chapter for Lost In Camelot and still hope I can get it posted this month, but the outlook is uncertain.