Sorry for the late update, my internet wasn't working yesterday.

6

Dawn was a terribly slow process in this place and yet the heat was already smothering compared to the chill of the night.

Katniss was following the grey demon walking in front of them, focused on the stony path so she wouldn't miss a step and trip. Haymitch was right next to her, lost in his own thoughts.

She wondered if it all felt as unreal to him as it did to her.

Right after they had decided they were doing this, attacking the castle, Paylor had started making preparations. There had been no time to rest, no real time to pause and dwell. The shaman had pushed into their heads everything she knew about the castle – and it wasn't a lot but every tactical advantage would help.

The plan was simple enough.

The clans would attack the front while they sneaked through the sewers. They would need to be quick because, according to Paylor, the clans had no chance to win, even united, and it would be a slaughter if they didn't turn the odds in their favor. They would do that by reaching the cells and freeing the captured shamans who would then join the fight, even out the odds, and hopefully keep everyone distracted enough that nobody would notice Katniss, Haymitch and her small demons escort making their way to the heart of the castle and the huge room where the Peacekeeper had his lair – and where Effie was kept because Paylor was adamant the Peacekeeper never parted from her, not for one second. From then on, it would be improvisation.

Well… If Katniss had anything to say about it, it would be a dead Peacekeeper, a recovered witch and, hopefully, a found Peeta.

She was sort of praying he would be a prisoner in the cells with the shamans, that it would be that easy.

"You're sure you're up for a fight?" she asked Haymitch in a low voice.

The demon who was leading their small party shot them a glare over his shoulder. Bobbin had volunteered to go with them once they had left the long caravans of clans marching toward the castle. Katniss wasn't sure she liked him. She was pretty sure he didn't like them.

"Don't worry about me." Haymitch muttered, which didn't reassure her at all.

In theory, he wouldn't need his left arm to swing the sword since he was right-handed but he often favored a two-hands style of combat and the injured shoulder clearly slowed him down – Cinna truly wasn't that good with healing spells, it seemed. And the knives… She wasn't sure he would be able to hit the side of a house with a tossing knife right then, never mind a moving target they wouldn't actually be trying to kill – now that they knew the Peacekeeper's demons were brainwashed, it didn't seem right to kill them on sight so they had decided that it would only be a last resort. She supposed that left the various hunting knives stashed on him but his fingers were trembling badly and she wasn't certain how firm his grip would be.

She also knew Haymitch wouldn't stay behind. She had already half-heartedly suggested he should maybe guard the portal. He had asked Paylor to leave two demons there instead.

Of course, I worry about you, she wanted to answer. She had lost Peeta and Effie, she couldn't afford to lose him too, even if they were about to get the other two back. And it was different anyway. Haymitch was… Haymitch had changed her life. Haymitch had done things for her and her sister he didn't have to do, Watcher or not. She owed him. She loved him. And she would never confess that much out loud because he would relentlessly make fun of her for it but she would be utterly lost without him.

'There will be patrols in this area.' Bobbin suddenly said in their heads. 'We are close now. Be silent.'

Katniss and Haymitch exchanged a look. She shouldered off her bow while he unsheathed his mother's sword. The blade had seen better days and wasn't up to its usual gleaming state – Haymitch was a slob about many things but never weapons – because he hadn't had time to clean it since that afternoon's battle. Was it still the same afternoon? Was it the previous day? The whole time running at different speed was confusing.

They progressed quickly enough but they were all tense, on their guard. There were only five of them, they had agreed a small group would have a better chance of sneaking in, and the patrols had usually ten or more demons.

Bobbin was hoping the patrols would be more concerned with the huge army marching toward the castle though.

The castle that suddenly appeared behind a hill, looming in the distance like something out of a cartoon… It was so out of place that Katniss froze, a bit shocked. Sure, the demons had helpfully pushed images of it in their heads but seeing it in person…

"He must have gotten the idea from Snow's mind or something." Haymitch murmured, as if he was reading her very thoughts. "His style is more roman empire usually but he's been around for a while."

A while didn't cover it because the castle looked medieval – or what she figured was medieval, he was the history teacher, not her. It was made entirely of grey stones, with towers and a moat full of that green acidic stuff… They couldn't see the front since they were approaching from the back but she was ready to bet there was a drawbridge and everything… In the distance, she could hear the clamor of the army Paylor was leading.

They didn't discuss it but they all hurried their pace, aware that the clans wouldn't last long without reinforcement. They needed the captive shamans.

According to the info the demons had given them the sewers' entrance was a few miles away from the building itself so that was where they were headed when the Peacekeepers' demons attacked.

It was a small group and Katniss had already shot two before they truly closed in. Two arrows in the knees and the demons fell down. Bobbin clogged them over the head with his club. Haymitch cut one badly enough that he could knock him out and the other two demons in their group dispatched the three other attackers.

It was over before it began.

"They'll know we're coming." Katniss grumbled.

The Peacekeeper's demons were like a hive, Haymitch had hammered that into her head. They were all telepathically linked to the Peacekeeper. What one knew, they all knew.

"Let's hope they're too busy taking care of the army to notice us." Haymitch sighed.

'We can only hope to be discreet so long.' Bobbin remarked and started walking again, leaving his brainwashed brethrens to nap under the sun without one care in the world.

Katniss wasn't really happy about that, it seemed like a tactical mistake, but they couldn't afford to waste time tying them up. Bobbin was almost running now and they had no choice but to do the same. Haymitch was breathing so hard she was sure anything with ears could hear him coming a mile away.

Eventually Bobbin skittered to a halt and crouched, the two other demons doing the exact same at the exact same time because they were all so in synch it was frightening. Katniss adapted and flattened herself on her stomach when she saw the dark mouth at the base of the hill. Haymitch was slower in hitting the ground and clearly struggling to get his breath back under control.

She resisted the urge to ask him again if he was alright.

There was no point.

He wasn't.

And all he would do was lie to her again and say he was feeling great.

They all stared at the sewers' entrance for a long time. It was a while before Katniss caught the movements of a grey demon in one of those tattered white outfits. She wondered if that was another thing the Peacekeeper had gotten from Snow, an attempt at an uniform of some kind.

They waited some more and another joined him.

They both looked nervous.

It was flat ground from their hiding spot to the entrance, no way to discreetly sneak in. They would need to fight. And…

'Those ones we can't save.' Bobbin regretfully said in their heads. 'If they give the alarm, we will never get to the shamans.'

Katniss agreed but she didn't like it.

Knocking them out required getting close. Getting close would give their position away – and likely the plan.

She glanced at Haymitch. She didn't verbalize her question. She wasn't a telepath demon but she and Haymitch had never really needed words to understand each other. She lifted her eyebrows in interrogation and while there was a sad tug on his mouth he gave her a sharp nod.

She positioned herself on her side so she could still shoot flat on the ground, it was a difficult shot but she could make it. She would have to be fast. She notched an arrow, took a deep breath, remembered to take the fact it wasn't her arrows into account and that the trajectory would be different, and then breathed out. The arrow flew. The second one hit its target before the first demon fell down.

She hoped there wasn't a third one hiding in the shadows.

"Go." she ordered, already jumping to her feet and running. "Go. Go. Go."

Bobbin and his friends didn't need more incentives. Haymitch didn't either but he was less quick at obeying her orders.

She was the first to reach the sewers' entrance and she was glad to see there was no third demon. She was less glad to see that what they called sewer was basically a narrow stone embankment that looked far too slippery, with a steady stream of bubbling green acidic trickling by to aliment the moat. There wasn't much of the stuff but there was enough to make her eyes water and her throat itch.

She pulled her shirt up over her nose. Not ideal but it would have to do.

Behind her Haymitch had done the same.

"Let's get out of here quick." he told Bobbin, coughing a little.

From then on, they were operating blind.

Paylor knew from previous attempts at infiltrating the castle that there were cells on the lower levels but not how to get there.

Fortunately, the diversion seemed to be doing its role and if they sometimes saw brainwashed demons rushing past while they hid in the shadow, the castle's inhabitants seemed more worried about the attack than anyone potentially sneaking in.

They took a few wrong turns and they were forced to knock out one of the demons from behind once but they eventually left the embankment and its pool of acid behind for more… human-like corridors. No windows or arrow slits though and given the humidity, Katniss figured they were still below ground.

'I feel them.' Bobbin suddenly said, relief and joy tangled in a bubble that exploded in Katniss' head. 'The shamans. They are not under the Peacekeeper's control. They are calling for help.'

"Great." Haymitch muttered, not quite as relieved as their demon friend. He was tense and on his guard. "Are we sure it's not a trap?"

Katniss barely had time to figure out that was likely a trap with their luck before Bobbin was shaking his head. 'The corrupted ones cannot communicate. Their minds are…' Whatever it was that their minds were, it got lost in the telepathic translation. She felt the demon's frustration at being unable to explain better. 'They feel wrong. The shamans don't. The shamans feel right.'

"Well…" Haymitch sighed. "Maybe we're finally getting lucky. Can you follow the… signal or something?"

Bobbin seemed puzzled for a second and then nodded. 'I can get us to them, yes.'

He looked so eager and certain that they all followed without question. They seemed to be going down again but not toward the sewers. They had to hide more than once in a dark corner. The sounds of the attack were dulled down there but the brainwashed demons' panic was obvious. They rushed down the corridors, presumably to reinforce the troupes that were fighting the clans, not even pausing to check the shadows…

Finally, they reached a block of empty cells.

'Guards.' one of their other demon friends suddenly warned, a fraction of a second before Katniss sensed the presence.

It made sense.

There was no reason to guard empty cells but the shamans must be close, presumably through that archway at the other end of the block, and those were prisoners worth keeping an eye on…

They hid in the shadows just like they had done every time guards had rushed past, listening to the three sets of footsteps coming closer.

Those guards though, they were not like the other ones. They were not running to join the battle. They were clearly patrolling, the footsteps were unhurried, regular, there was no way their infiltration team wouldn't be spotted. It was one thing to fool a demon rushing past by huddling in a dark corner, it was another thing to hide in plain sight. Katniss didn't bother getting her bow, too close range for that, but she did pull out her knife. Haymitch did the same, foregoing the sword.

Fast and swift, she thought, hoping the telepathic demons would get it, we can't afford to be spotted now.

They would need the element of surprise.

The footsteps came closer to the archway that led to the next row of cells, she positioned herself behind the wall, her whole body was tense, ready to attack…

The three brainwashed demons walked by the archway and she didn't attack.

She didn't attack because one of them wasn't a demon at all.

The shout escaped her. "Peeta!"

Weeeeell, it seems our little infiltration team found Peeta. What could go wrong now, am I right? What are your thoughts? Let me know everything!