2.

The silence in the truck was deafening.

Katniss felt like her body was weighing a ton but it wasn't just exhaustion, it was… All the dead children she had not wanted to look at… The knowledge they had failed and Snow was free… Probably because she had done the stupid selfish thing and gone after Prim instead of stopping the witch from doing the ritual. Those dead kids… They were on her. Her fault. Her responsibility. Her ghosts.

And now Peeta…

Maybe it was cosmic punishment.

She had been selfish and thus she had lost…

The pain in her chest. It was terrible. It was like she couldn't breathe. Couldn't… She tried not to think about it. They would get him and Effie back. They would.

Time is relative. It's always going faster in hellish dimensions. Sixty minutes. That could be two days for them. Or two months. Or even two fucking years. No way to tell.

She tried not to picture them fighting for their lives for two fucking years, wondering why they hadn't come for them yet, wondering if they would come… Peeta would know she would never leave him behind, wouldn't he? He would know.

And Effie… They were a sisterhood. A family. They had acknowledged that much. She was hard on her sometimes but she did love her second Watcher. The witch too would know that Katniss would never abandon her, wouldn't she?

Trunks flashed back through her windows, greenery slowly leaving place to the more familiar landscape of small houses at the town edge

They were all so lost in their respective thoughts that they all startled very badly when something beeped. It was a few seconds and several racy heartbeats before she recognized Gale's phone ringtone.

Her friend swore and muttered curses under his breath as he tried to keep the truck from swerving while he fetched the phone from his pocket. In the end, Katniss took pity on him and just batted his hand away to grab it. It was awkward like it never would have been before but she didn't even care.

All she cared about was finding Peeta.

She couldn't even be bothered to worry about what it meant for Snow to be free.

All she could care about was Peeta.

The phone had stopped ringing by the time she got it out but it was as old as hers was, not modern enough for password protection. She only had to type on a key to get it to light up. "It's your mom."

"Call her back." Gale requested immediately.

She did but she didn't hand the phone over because, following Haymitch's instructions, Gale was driving much faster than was reasonable. Belatedly, she checked in the rear-view mirror that both of their siblings had their seatbelts on.

"Gale!" Hazelle's frenzied voice came through the phone. "Something happened to your brother's field trip and I can't get a hold of him. The school doesn't…"

"It's Katniss, Mrs Hawthorne." she cut the woman off slowly. She barely recognized her own voice. She sounded so tired. "Gale can't talk to you 'cause he's driving."

"Driving?" Hazelle repeated. "Driving what? Are you going to the meadow? Your sister… They're always together those two. Did you get a hold on your sister?"

"We have them, Mrs Hawthorne." she promised and maybe she should have led with that. "They're both fine." She glanced at the rear-view mirror again and reconsidered. Her sister's clothes were a bit torn and one of her braids had come undone. Rory didn't look any better. "Well, they're not hurt."

"Oh, thank god…" the woman sobbed. "Thank god… Come to Sae's. Parents are waiting here. Everyone's coming here for news…"

"We can't." she winced. "We're…" They couldn't afford to drop Rory off. "We're fine. All four of us. But two of our friends are missing. We're…" A lie… She needed a good lie that would explain why she didn't want to go to the diner to wait for news with everyone else. "We got separated. We're going home. To Haymitch's. In case they come back, you know."

There was a pause on the other side of the line. Hazelle clearly wasn't happy with that plan because she wanted to hug her sons and see with her own eyes that they were okay. "Can you put Rory on the phone?"

She wordlessly handed the phone to the little boy who took it eagerly. He didn't last two seconds before starting to cry. Prim immediately grabbed his hand and did her very best to pretend she wasn't also crying.

"I lost my bag, I don't know where my phone is." was the first thing Rory said between gasps. "No, I'm… I'm okay. Gale came and saved me. Katniss and her friends helped. But… It was… It was horrible. Mom, they're all… They're all dead… I saw… Yes, I'm fine, I promise. Gale too. Yes, Prim and Katniss too." Katniss slouched in her seat, feeling… Feeling like a failure. "No, it's… I think we're going to Prim's house to get her friends." Rory said, sounding hesitant and careful, maybe a bit unsure. But at least he had stopped crying. "No, that's alright. I'm fine, I promise. Do you think… Do you think we should have waited for the police? It just… It was horrible back there… Okay… Okay… yeah… Okay, I'll tell him. I love you too."

He hung up, stared at the phone in his hand for a moment and then made an effort to swallow the lump in his throat. "Mom said she's gonna tell the police we've gone home. She doesn't think they will mind. I just… I don't want it to look suspect. It'd look suspect on TV if people were there and they just ran away…"

"It won't look suspect, Rory." Gale promised. "We're not gonna get in trouble. Madge's gonna take care of it, you heard her. Her dad's the Mayor, you know."

Rory sniffed and glanced at Prim, quickly wiping his wet cheek on his sleeves. "Mom says we can go to Mr Abernathy's if it's okay with him but that she wants you to call her regularly so she knows what we're doing and where we are. She's gonna stay at Sae's and help.."

"Okay." He nodded. "That's cool. Hey, you know Mellark's got the latest Xbox? I'm sure he wouldn't mind you borrowing it for a while. Right, Catnip?"

"Right." she said flatly. She was sure of one thing, Peeta would have been the first one to offer anything to comfort the boy. And he would have been doing a better job than either of them were doing. Even her sister looked shell-shocked and it wasn't her first vampire attack.

"It's gonna be okay." Prim promised but Katniss wasn't sure who she was talking to.

"Gale…" Rory asked, after a minute of tense silence. "What just happened?"

Gale took his grey eyes off the road long enough to glance at the rear-view mirror and meet his brother's gaze. "The important part's that it's over. You're safe. I've got you. And Katniss, here… Well, she's like a superhero, alright? Nothing bad can happen to you while she's around."

That was a change of tune.

Katniss looked at him, a silent question on her face, but he shrugged it off. Prim started explaining everything, from the vampires to the Slayer thing. Katniss should probably have stopped her but… Again, she couldn't really bother to care.

"Okay, so…" Gale said when the Village's gates were looming in the distance. Finally. She glanced at the clock on the dashboard and it had been almost twenty minutes since they had left the meadow. Roughly thirty minutes since the Hellmouth closed. How long for them? "I didn't get what we're doing now… How are we getting them back? Magic?"

He looked just as pleased about that prospect as expected.

"I don't know." she admitted. "Cinna's gonna open a portal or something."

"To Hell?" He winced. "Weren't the bad guys trying to do just that and that's why we had to stop them?"

"They were trying to free a monster and we want our friends back. It's different." she snapped. "And Cinna won't use dark magic or…" Her mind flashed back to Effie's forearms splitting open, to the blood covering the library's floor… "It's different." She had to believe it was because she wasn't sure it would be enough to stop her from letting him do it even if it weren't. "And it's not Hell Hell."

"Hellmouth." he deadpanned. "Mouth to hell. It's in the name, Katniss."

"They call it that because it's dark magic. And, yeah, it leads to hell, but… Hell isn't just hell… It's…" She sighed. "It's complicated, alright?" She had read so many books and it still wasn't clear to her. She let Haymitch and Effie handle that side of things. "It's a hell. There are a lot of hellish dimensions. Awful places. The Hellmouth can open on any of them. But they're not the same. It's not all like… Flames and a devil and I don't know… "

"You can count on demons, though." Prim pointed out from the backseat. When Katniss tossed her a look, she shrugged. "I've been researching."

"Yeah." Katniss pursed her mouth. "You've been doing a lot of things you shouldn't have been doing and we're gonna have a long talk about that."

Prim flinched.

She didn't feel good about hurting her sister's feelings but… Going to that field trip… Prim had known exactly why it wasn't a good idea. And she had gone anyway. And, what was worse, she had lied by omission about it.

"Okay so… We open a portal to a hellish dimension…" Gale insisted, bringing them back on track. "And then… What? We wait for them to jump through?"

Haymitch hadn't explained that part.

But it was obvious, wasn't it?

They wouldn't wait for them to come through.

They would go and get them.

But she doubted Gale would approve that part…

The truck barreled past the Village's rusty gates and she felt… nothing. She always felt a tingle when she passed the gates. Barely there and gone. A tingle of something at the edge of her awareness.

When she had told Haymitch, he had said she was feeling the wards on the Village, that what she was feeling was really Effie's magic, that it was just her Slayer's senses.

But now…

Now she felt… nothing.

The wards had fallen.

As if Effie had never casted them.

As if Effie was dead.

°O°O°O°O°

Haymitch's consciousness was trying to slip away from him.

His shoulder throbbed, his body was stiff. His good arm clung to Cinna's body but he felt himself slipping as if underwater…

Had Brutus hit his head at some point?

That seemed likely.

Maybe he had a concussion.

Or maybe you're just going in withdrawals, a voice that sounded like Effie's nagged at the back of his mind.

That was likely too.

He hadn't drunk in two long. He felt like shit.

He felt like…

Don't make me bury you.

How many times had he demanded that of her? How many fucking times? Again and again he had warned her it would end this way. Again and again. Of course, it ended this way. Of course. Every time he got close to a woman…

Don't make me bury you.

This was exactly like Mabel but worse. Because with Mabel, there had been a body. Unseeing eyes, a large gaping wound on her chest that ran from her shoulder to her hip, almost matching the one on his stomach… He had cradled her and held her and… He had still been holding her when the police had showed up and arrested him for murder. Murder. The sweet irony.

But Effie… He didn't have a body to hold. He didn't have the finality of looking into her dead eyes. All he had was a mouthed I'm sorry and the looping memory of her falling down in that mess of light, straight into hell.

He tried to figure out how long it had been since she fell.

He tried to figure out how long she had already been trapped in that hell, doing her utmost best to protect the boy he couldn't bring himself to think about – because if he was already doubtful she could hold for a while with her powers, he was pretty sure the boy would be dead before long – wondering if, by the time they got to them, there would still be a body or if she would be dust in the wind. It could have been weeks or months or years or centuries for them. No way to know.

Were they in a place where fighting was even possible at all? Or were they just prisoners? Were they being tortured? Had they become food for something hungry for flesh?

When the bike rushed through the Village's gate he felt… He felt nothing. No magic that tingled like a kiss…

He closed his eyes and tried to swallow back the lump in his throat.

Don't make me bury you.

He had thought he would die for sure, this time around, that it was his time, that she would take over and…

Snow was free.

He had known it would happen all along.

That feeling in his guts…

The bike stopped in front of his house and he tried to get off but without Cinna's help he would have fallen flat on his face. The warlock tossed him a serious look.

"I will put some temporary wards up around the Village. Then I'll fix your shoulder the best I can." Cinna announced.

"No time." he argued. "We've got…"

"You are about to jump through a portal to hell." Cinna cut him off. "We will do it the clever way."

"Cause there's a clever way?" he deadpanned and then rubbed his face. "What do you need? I'll go get it from her house."

"I'll do it." his friend argued. "Get inside before you drop down."

He didn't protest.

Mostly because it would save time but also because he needed to get ready. The moment he was past the threshold of his house, he dropped the jacket that was shredded beyond repairs, wincing because of his shoulder, and found another one. That hellish dimension could be hot or cold and there would be no way to know until they got there. He slung his mother's sword right back over his good shoulder. He had lost his stakes and his knives in the fray so he grabbed a handful of spares and then headed to the kitchen, intending to sneak a swing of a bottle, just enough to calm his nerves and stop the withdrawals from kicking in…

He couldn't go past the door frame.

A handful of hours earlier only, he had stood right there, his arms wrapped around Effie's body and…

I feel fate closing in on us, Haymitch… I am scared somebody will die…

He licked his lips.

Duty first, they had sworn.

And he had made a fucking bullshit job of that.

He should have been able to control Katniss so she didn't run straight into the battle instead of taking out that witch. Short of that, he should have finished the job himself instead of charging after his Slayer. He had fucked up badly.

Now, Snow was walking the Earth again.

All because he couldn't keep his priorities straight.

All because he couldn't keep his Slayer in line.

Effie should be the active Watcher from now on, he decided. Her mind wasn't as easily mudded. Unlike him, she had gone straight for the threat and she had obviously tried to put an end to it even when she had realized the threat was her own mother.

Except, officially, she already was in charge, wasn't she? Coin had told her to take point weeks ago, after Gloss had showed up. They had ignored it. So it would be her mess to clean over as far as the Council would be concerned. Another unfair thing to add to the pile.

And, for the first time in forever, Haymitch could admit the Council had been right and he had been wrong.

And, shit, how epically had he fucked up…

"Haymitch?" Katniss called almost as soon as he heard the front door opening.

He backtracked out of the kitchen without touching a drop.

Also for the first time in forever, he didn't feel like drinking.

I'm saying we keep Rory. He seems like a sensible person to have around, a bit traumatized now maybe but... he's not the only one, is he? For someone who wasn't sure she wanted a boyfriend, Katniss is veeeeery focused on getting Peeta back, isn't she? And Haymitch... Is now really the best time to go sober... Might be the time to admit to those pesky little feelings though...

So... What do we think? Will Effie make Haymitch burry her? Will Haymitch make it sober? Will Katniss get Peeta back? Will Gale be happy when he realizes what they're planning? Should Rory and Prim start the junior Slayer team? Let me know EVERYTHING!