8

Effie had said the spell would knock a few demons off, she had been wrong.

Always so ready to forget she was so damn powerful…

It was hard enough to shake the castle's very foundation and Haymitch's head was ringing again when he managed to get to all four after hitting the hard stone wall at their backs. Katniss had fared better and was groaning, already back on her feet.

"Shoot him!" he ordered, not even caring that he was screaming in an otherwise silent room.

Katniss recovered quickly and understood at once, she shrugged off her bow as she bounced to the balcony, took aim and released an arrow. Haymitch crawled to the balustrade, grabbed the stone parapet and hauled himself up in time to hear her curse. The Peacekeeper was wagging left and right, the arrow imbedded in his chest, where the heart should be…

The skin was too thick, Haymitch mused, or the heart had shifted when he had grown two thousands.

"Get him in the eye." he snarled.

It was a difficult shot, almost an impossible one with the demon flailing that way, which was why she had chosen the safest bet of his chest. Besides, he could feel… It was like clammy fingers trying to close around his mind, trying to…

The Peacekeeper was trying to use what he had left of power to take control of them.

Katniss made a face and released three arrows one after the other.

The disagreeable feeling stopped and Haymitch watched the Peacekeeper slump on himself, dead. Hopefully.

He would suggest beheading him and burning the corpse just in case.

The thirty or so demons down there looked confused for a second and then started attacking each other.

It was chaos.

And in that chaos he had troubles spotting his witch because the golden bubble had disappeared and she was…

Lying on her side, half-fallen off the dais, next to the demon's corpse. She wasn't moving. He couldn't tell if she was still breathing.

Katniss scowled. "Why are they fighting? They should be free of the spell. Why are they fighting?"

'I can feel their minds again.' Bobbin told them. 'They don't feel wrong anymore but they are… confused. Scared. Jumbled.'

Haymitch got the last part in impressions rather than words.

He didn't care why the demons were fighting.

All he cared about was getting to Effie and hoping she wasn't dead. Because if she was dead… Fuck, he would hire her mother and rise her from the grave and then kill her zombie-self with his own bare hands…

"That'd probably be a good time to let the shamans in." he pointed out, looking around for stairs he could use. He didn't spot any so he estimated the drop again and the chances he would break an ankle on landing – and the chances he would get killed getting to her if he tried to make his way there with a broken ankle, a busted shoulder, and a recurring headache that may or may not mean he would start losing grip and hallucinating soon.

"I'll go get her." Katniss said, grabbing his arm before he could actually do the stupid thing and toss himself off a balcony. "You go with Bobbin. Make sure Peeta's safe."

He didn't want Katniss to go get her.

He wanted to get her himself.

He wanted to rescue her and tell her…

Her words echoed in his mind, sweet and sad. I love you. Why the fuck did she have to do this to him now of all times? With Snow around… She knew what…

"Haymitch." Katniss snapped and he blinked back into reality. Oh, this was bad. Really bad. His hands were shaking. His whole body was shaking. He was hot. Hot enough that he considered stripping down for a second, before getting a grip on himself. "Go with Bobbin."

"She might be dead."

He hadn't meant to say it like that.

The girl recoiled, her grey eyes snapping to where Effie laid. She hadn't moved. Not even a twitch.

He didn't want Katniss to get to her and only find a dead friend. He didn't want her to have to go through that. Fuck, he didn't want to go through that himself. Not again.

His brain flashed back and, for a moment, he was with Mabel again, holding her to him, their matching gaping wounds bleeding over each other…

"Go with Bobbin." Katniss insisted, expression hard and closed.

He didn't go with Bobbin as much as Bobbin dragged him out, impatient to get back to Paylor.

He made it five steps in the corridor before he bent in two and retched. He didn't have much in his stomach and it did very little for the nausea that had steadily been increasing over the last few hours.

°O°O°O°O°

Katniss had been ready for the drop to shake her and it did.

She landed on her two feet, thanks to her Slayer strength, but she felt the impact from her soles to her thighs.

It was a general brawl down there and she didn't feel guilty about hitting left and right, tracing herself a path to the dais where the huge blotted demon remained dead. The first thing she did when she finally reached him was to stab him in the neck – just to be sure. Then, she kneeled next to Effie, cautious of the fighting demons a few feet away, cautious also of the fact she really didn't want to know if the witch was…

She reached out with shaky fingers for the Watcher's neck because she couldn't tell if she was breathing. If the witch's chest was rising and falling, the movement was too small for her to catch it.

She couldn't feel anything.

Her heart was beating too hard, the fight was too loud… She couldn't feel anything.

Effie was cold to the touch but she knew that didn't really mean anything. Corpses didn't grow cold immediately. That was just her projecting her fears. Still, she shed off her jacket and wrapped the witch in it before picking her up.

She carried her to the closest door she could find, avoiding the enraged demons and kicking them with her legs when she couldn't help it.

The corridors outside the main room were blissfully empty but she didn't dare stop to try and find a pulse again. She was a bit scared she wouldn't find any.

Effie was far too light.

She had always been thin but she looked positively tiny in her arms, as if she had lost a lot of weight, and given how sunken her cheeks were… She might have. Had they even fed her? Or had they counted on her magic to sustain her?

She met Paylor and a group of male demons as she was trying not to get lost in the labyrinth that were the castle's corridors.

The shaman took one look at the woman in her arms and her face grew somber. 'Your soldier is sick.'

"Yeah." Katniss sighed. "I know." Haymitch had held off the withdrawal symptoms much longer than she had thought he could. "Can you… Can you help her?"

Paylor came closer and gently laid her big clawed hand on Effie's forehead.

'She lives' the shaman professed. 'But she is weak and her magic is foreign to me. I might hurt more than I help… Do you still want me to try?'

She hesitated and then shook her head. "We need to get back to the portal. There's someone on the other side who can help."

Paylor nodded. 'You freed us, Slayer. Anything we can do to help you, we will do.'

It all went very, very fast after that.

Paylor led the way outside the castle where fur tents had been erected for the wounded and the recovering brainwashed demons… Katniss was relieved to see that some of the demons in white rags seemed to be sitting calmly, dazed but not violent. That was good, certainly. It meant that the spell was broken, just that not everyone responded to that the same way…

'I will find gurneys for the trip' Paylor told her.

Katniss was about to follow her when Haymitch suddenly appeared in front of her, his face a mask of anguish he didn't bother to school… He looked sick, indeed. A bit yellow under the sun, bloodshot eyes, unsteady on his feet… Feverish.

"Is she…" He couldn't bring himself to finish the question.

"Paylor says she's alive." she promised quickly. "I just can't find her pulse. And I think she needs Cinna or a hospital. Right now. We're leaving as soon as Paylor can organize it."

"Yeah." He nodded and reached as if to take her from her arms.

Katniss stepped back. "Are you sure you can carry her? Your shoulder's…"

She was being kind by pretending the problem was the shoulder.

"I need to." he cut her off. "Please."

Knowing he would never hurt Effie, at least not purposefully, she relented and handed the witch over. He didn't manage to stay upright and hold her at the same time so he dropped down on the stony ground and cradled her in his lap…

He touched her face lightly, as if he was scared her skin would break under his touch.

"Effie…" he whispered. "Effie…" Her eyes remained closed, Katniss still couldn't see her chest rising or falling and the woman still looked far too pale. He adjusted his grip and the witch's head rolled on his shoulder. He buried his face in her blond hair. "Princess, please, don't do this to me… Don't do this to me…"

His voice was breaking and Katniss felt ill-at-ease watching it. This was private.

So she walked away in search of Peeta…

She had to ask three demons before she finally found him, sitting under one of the fur tents reserved for the wounded. He looked stunned and lost.

She crouched in front of him, careful not to step in his space. She wanted to touch him. She wanted to hold him. Hell, she wanted to kiss him. But… "Do you feel better?"

His blue eyes darted around before they settled on her, a bit vacant.

"Katniss."

His voice was raspy from lack of use.

A part of her wanted to weep at hearing it again.

"Yeah." She forced a grin. "To be clear, you asked me to be sure I was all in before kissing you and then, less than forty-eight hours after I told you I was sure, you go and jump into a Hellmouth? How should I take this?"

She had meant it as a joke but a bit of hurt and anger slipped through.

Peeta stared at her. His brow furrowing.

"I want to kill you. I want to kill you."

It was the only warning she got before he jumped on her but it was also what allowed her to duck and pin him to the ground on his stomach, his arms locked behind the small of his back. He kicked and struggled but she held firm, her heart sinking in her chest.

Wasn't he supposed to be fixed?

Shouldn't he…

A shaman that she almost mistook for Paylor for a second rushed over and touched his head. Peeta's body grew slack.

'He will sleep for a while' the she-demon told her 'Their minds are jumbled. It will take time.'

How much time exactly?

"What's going on?" Haymitch asked, staggering closer. He took one look at her still pinning Peeta's unconscious body down and it seemed to answer his own question because he shook his head. "We need to go, they're ready. We'll get him on another gurney and Cinna can fix him when we're home. It's okay, he might just need time." He made a face. "And tell your demon friend I'm fine and I don't need to be carried back. I can fucking walk by myself. I'm alright."

"Sure." she deadpanned.

She would humor him until he dropped, she decided.

But she was impressed because he didn't drop on the trek back to the portal. He stumbled and tripped plenty of times but he didn't drop and he didn't let go of Effie's limp hand either.

She kind of got that.

She walked right next to Peeta's gurney and spent more time watching him sleep than focusing on her surroundings.

The walk to the portal paradoxically felt endless and short. Once they reached it, Haymitch lost no time gathering Effie in his arms and, since Katniss was eager to go home too, she grabbed Peeta bridal style – spared a thought for what he would have to say about that and decided he would probably not care – and followed after him.

She was so eager to get their friends' help that she barely remembered to glance back at Paylor.

'Goodbye.' the shaman said. 'Sister.'

Goodbye, she thought back, hoping the demon would catch it, And thank you.

Then, she turned back to the portal.

Cinna had moved, she thought, so it must have been some time on the other side. How long? One minute? Two? It seemed crazy to think it had been more than a day for them.

Haymitch didn't pause for consideration, he jumped straight in and she followed.

Was the world she was going back to better than the hell she was leaving behind, though?

Only time would tell…

To Be Continued.

I knooooow I'm mean! Another cliffhanger! And so ends Episode 9 (or 2x01 depending on how we're counting). I hope you liked it! Katniss to the rescue! Peeta is at least alive for sure if not a bit confused still, that's something right? And as for Effie... We will have to wait and see!

Next Episode will start on September 13. I hope to see you there!