Happy New Year. Thank you for your patience it's been an interesting beginning to the year. We are heading to the end. I know I've said that before but I am finally writing the last chapter...lol. It's true. From this point on things begin to wind up, and not even my beautiful beta Norbertsmom knows turns KENS is going to be taking.

Things in District Twelve are getting worse. There is no summer, only winter. Thread is terrorizing the residence. However, Madge is spearheading rebellion. Gale married Delly, Katniss is engaged to Peeta. Corky is still causing havoc, Jackson continues to be an idiot, and the Citizen is still lurking...

Darius walked with the filming crew. Thread couldn't attend, excusing himself with a meeting from high command. This suited Darius well; he could speak to the members of the rebellion without codes. He knocked on the door of the Everdeen's home and then to the Hawthorne's, finding them both empty. He wondered where they could be.

When warning the families to move, it was agreed to only speak to the families that were in the worst homes. Many had family in better homes, and they moved in with them. Others were moved to the homes in the Victor's Village. Katniss' and Gale's homes were fine, and they had such limited space. Katniss' home only had one bedroom and Gale's house was bigger than Katniss'. Yet the Hawthorne family were all cramped because the boys were so huge. For those reasons, Darius and Madge didn't bother with them.

For a moment he asked himself if they had struck out into the woods. If there was anyone who could survive in the woods, it was those two. Darius shook his head momentarily to get that thought out of his brain. Gale was committed to the rebellion and Katniss wouldn't dare move with Prim. She was the one person Katniss would protect with her life.

Still, the nagging feeling in his gut didn't dissipate. The last time he had seen either one was at the Reaping.

"Is everything okay?" Cressida asked.

"Yes. We're done with the Seam for now."

"I think we should get to the rest of the Merchants on our lists. I'm sure Madge is going bananas with worry," Cressida said. She turned to her film crew, Castor and Pollux. "Okay boys, we're done here."

Pollux signed to his brother.

"You're right, it's freezing outside," Castor said, signing back.

"Me too. I could use some hot coffee or hot chocolate," Castor signed to his brother.

Darius watched the twins talk to the other with their hands.

"Boy's lets cut the chit-chat, so we can get warm in the SJ7," Cressida said.

Darius agreed with Cressida, it was freezing outside. They didn't have many houses left to hand out parcels to. Given what happened before between Katniss and Thread, he'd purposefully left the Everdeen and Hawthorne families for last in the Seam. He walked with Cressida back to the truck where Randy was waiting for them. Randy was one of the Peacekeepers on their side.

"To the Merchant side, Randy." Darius was glad to be inside of the SJ7.

"Will, they really not work?" Randy asked.

"The entire nation will be immobilized for three days until the weather lets up."

Randy lifted the visor of his helmet. His eyes were filled with worry. "Back home things are so bad people are hungry. These rations will do nothing to help them. If they don't get food, they will starve."

"Things aren't good now, but I hope after this, things will be better, Randy. Snow has stores of food for the government, things that they could be handing out to the districts to help them survive," Cressida said, "I saw it with my own eyes when we went to pick up the parcels. They have the resources but are not sharing them with anyone. We've got a team in place headed up by Madge and a woman from eight named Paylor who will step in once Snow goes down."

"I can't believe this started with a teenager," Randy said as they drove into the Merchant side.

"All it takes is one person to take a stand. The funny thing is the only reason she became that way was because of Katniss and Peeta," Darius said.

Randy grinned. "That video was epic. Peacekeepers across the nation are talking about it. No one in particular likes Thread and them standing up to him like that took some guts."

This was news to Darius. He looked behind him and made eye contact with Cressida, who grinned.

The SJ7 arrived in the lower end of town and they began to hand out the packages. When they arrived at the Cobbler's place, they found the Cartwrights were not at home. Darius was puzzled. He looked through the window and saw it was dark.

"Where do you think they are?" Cressida asked.

"I don't know?" Darius was starting to get worried. The Hawthornes, The Cartwrights and the Everdeen's were all missing.

"Do you think they left?"

"With a crippled child, I don't think so. Delly Cartwright would never put her baby brother Andy in such a position."

"I hope you're right," Cressida said.

"I'm going to head over to the Mellarks. They're next on the list, and maybe they know what's going on?" Darius walked toward the Bakery. He knocked on the door and he heard laughter coming from the inside of the bakery.

Darius frowned, the laughter sounded like a child. The witch never allowed the boys to laugh and carry on. He heard another giggle, and it sounded younger. Rye and Peeta were big strapping guys, they would never giggle.

He knocked once more, and the bakery became as quiet as a tomb. Darius had encountered this type of behavior amongst the residents of District Twelve as they were leery of the Peacekeepers. When he was a Peacekeeper, he wasn't always welcome, but he was always respected. The trepidation the residents had in their eyes these days did not stem from respect, it came from fear.

Darius knocked once more. He heard footsteps right before the door opened.

"Darius," Rye greeted, his face looked relieved. He opened the door to reveal two small faces pop out from the corner. One was Andy's and the other Posy's.

"What's going on?" Darius asked as they made their way inside. It was warm and toasty in the house, a welcome relief from the cold.

"We're having a slumber party," Posy said. Her bright little eyes sparkled. "You're so pretty," Posy said looking at Cressida. "I like your colors, did you use crayons?"

Cressida blushed, she knelt on the floor and allowed Posy to touch her tattoos. "Very big crayons."

"Vick, Rory, Primrose, take Andy and Posy upstairs," Rye said letting them in.

"Do I have to go?" Posy pouted.

"Sorry Posy, this is grown-up talk, but tell you what, how about later on I teach you how to make cookies."

"Really?"

"Really," Rye promised.

Darius grinned when he saw all of the kids come out of their hiding spaces. He forgot Katniss was engaged to Peeta. That would explain why the Everdeens were in the bakery, but not the Hawthorne and the Cartwrights. It was funny; they were all shacked up at the bakery, the home of the one woman in all of District Twelve that loathed people from the Seam.

Rory gently picked up Andy and all the kids ran upstairs.

"So what are you doing here?" Rye asked once the kids were gone.

"We're here to give you your Capitol issued rations," Darius said, handing them four rations boxes.

"Is that all?"

"We'd also like to know how you intercepted a communication from the Citizen," Cressida asked.

Peeta came downstairs followed by Katniss. "Darius," they said in unison. They were joined by Gale.

"Darius," Gale greeted.

Gale looked different; he looked relaxed. Darius watched Cressida give Gale the once over. Darius shook his head. "We want to know how you intercepted the message."

"Corky," Katniss and Peeta once more said at the same time.

"Who is Corky and how can we get in contact with him?" Cressida asked.

"Corky isn't a who, per say," Peeta began.

"He's vermin," Katniss finished.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"It's a squirrel that lives in Peeta's room. The squirrel got its hands on the letter to pad its den," Gale said.

"Do you have the paper, maybe we can have it analyzed," Cressida said.

Rye removed it from his pocket. "I was planning on giving this to Madge tonight."

"About that, we made changes." Darius looked into their eyes. He remembered different times with them. Buying bread from Peeta. Katniss rolling pinecones down the hill to redirect the Peacekeeper's attention. Poking fun at Gale at the Hob for not seeing how beautiful Katniss was. Rye joining the rebellion.

He had great memories with each one. Dread settled into his stomach. After tonight there was a chance, he or any one of them wouldn't survive. Clearing his throat to tamper down the emotions and forced himself to calm down. His training kicked in, and in a professional calm voice, Darius said, "You guys will be meeting up in the Apothecary at eleven. The attack will commence at midnight just as the storm is revving up. We'll have a one-hour window for the attack. Katniss, you will be with me and the rest of the sharpshooters. Rye, Peeta, Gale you're in your same assigned groups."

"We'll see you tonight," Rye confirmed.

"Okay, see you then."

Darius left with Cressida and her film crew in tow.

"They are so young," Castor said as he spoke to his brother Pollux with his hands.

"They are, and I have a feeling that across Panem, all ages will be fighting for their freedom tonight," Cressida said.

When they arrived at the Mayor's mansion it was lunchtime. After warming up and eating it was agreed to make their way to the hidden room.

Madge held the latest report in her hands. Her mind was on that note written by the Citizen. It was unsettling. It nagged at her that there was someone out there that could potentially ruin all of the rebellion's carefully laid out plans. She sighed and read the weather report once more.

People around her were busily moving things from the room to the meeting destination. They were doing things as discreetly as possible. An hour later, everything was in place. She stood in front of the map quietly contemplating the plan. At midnight all hell was going to break loose all over Panem.

Last night after Rye's call Madge nearly tripped when she moved away from the phone. Rye had information on the spy which he called the Citizen. She couldn't believe it, they found some sort of clue that had to do with the Citizen. She wanted to speak to Rye but couldn't. The confirmation that the Citizen was local plus the weather report forced her hand to move up the plans.

She composed herself enough to have dinner with her family. When the meal was over, she met with Cressida and her crew who were using the room to send out a message to all of the others about the attack, then she met with Darius to go over the last details before going to sleep. To say she didn't get much sleep was an understatement.

She'd found her mother wandering around the house looking for liquor last night. Her mother was drunk. It took Madge nearly an hour to get her mother back into bed. By the time she finished, Madge was exhausted.

They were hours away from the biggest gamble of her life.

"The districts are ready," Cressida said.

"The attack will begin at midnight. All of the people will be meeting up at their designated areas." Darius pointed on the map to the train station, the apothecary, and the second Peacekeeper bunker, the one without the HVAC units.

"Are you sure they are with us?" Madge turned to Cressida. She needed hard assurances.

"Positive, we moved our guys in not just here but across Panem. They will be wearing black bands on their arms so that we can distinguish them." Cressida tilted her head to look at the map.

"Hey Madge, I just got word, District five has confirmed they will be taking down the hydroelectric dam five minutes before midnight to help bring down Snow's palace and the Peacekeeper's grid of communication."

Madge frowned. There was a very good chance those who volunteered to take down the dam would be killed when the bombs went off. "Will they make it out on time?"

"We're going to sustain casualties, but the people are behind the rebellion." Cressida put her hand on Madge's shoulder. "Those images of Katniss and Peeta standing up to Thread changed the hearts of many in Panem, even in the Capitol. It gave a lot of us hope, and hope is stronger than fear, Madge."

Madge breathed in deeply. "They have that effect on people and they don't even know it."

"Now with the special weather gear you brought from the Capitol we will have a fighting chance. We'll be able to withstand the temperatures for up to an hour," Purina said.

"You can thank Cinna and Beetee. Those two have been working around the clock to get these out to you guys in time," Cressida said while looking at her team.

Madge sighed. "Okay, let's go over the plan again."

"At eleven o'clock everyone leaves their homes to get to their station. Once at their designated spots they get dressed for the party," Cressida said.

"At Midnight we take out the guard," Purina said.

Madge listened to the plan, making slight adjustments. She hoped everyone would be ready, the attack would begin in less than four hours.