Both Vitus and Purnia had found the transition to the military fairly easily, and they have been with us for three months, as it was now June. The hunger games was set to start next month, as it always did. That's when we really had more meetings and more discussions about what to do, and sending secret messages back and forth with Plutarch, whom was the head Gamemaker this year. Which that was very, very convenient.

I had dropped Hera off with her babysitter and then met with my unit at the conference building to discuss everything that was going on. I arrived right at 8 on the dot that morning, followed by Purnia. Vitus was already waiting at the door. We went in and took our seats once everyone else arrived.

Augustus Davis, was the that was behind the operations here and kept in contact with Plutarch. If I'm not mistaken, he was a former gamemaker and had been one up until like 15 years ago when he had enough and moved his family here, faking their deaths in a house fire.

"I've been in touch with Plutarch, and we are definitely starting the rebellion this year. Now, the reapings haven't started yet, so we're not sure whom exactly is going into the games, but there are a majority of victors that are on our side."

"So the tributes this year will be pulled from the current group of victors?" Vitus asked. "That has been completely confirmed?"

"Yes, that has, Snow was completely serious about that." Augustus confirmed.

"Damn." He shook his head.

"The way Plutarch has the games designed, he can easily break the force shield when its the right time to do so. He's also trying to work with District 13, but they're hesitant to take too many people in. They've agreed to take in whomever that Plutarch manages to pull from the arena, but they're not wanting to take anyone else." He said. "This is where we come in." He looked all of us over. "We will go in right behind them and liberate whom all we can from the dungeons, avoxes, servants, prisoners, and whomever will be useful."

"What do you mean by useful?" Purnia asked.

"Yeah, that was a poor choice of words." Augustus rubbed the back of his hand. "What I meant by that is, we have rebels that are currently been imprisoned, and they hold viable information and skills that will help us to free the Districts from the Capitol's rule. We know that they have not been made avoxes because if they are silenced, they will not be able to retract that information from them." He explained. "They're among the ones that we need to rescue, so we can accomplish our goals and free Panem once and for all."

It would be nice to finally see Panem freed from the clutches of the Capitol, though what happens once they finally are and can be rebuilt to the nation that they want to be? Would I want to return? Sure, I do miss home, but now, I don't think that I would ever want to return to that place, even if it was free. For one, we won't know what kind of government that they will be building up, what they will do to the Capitol citizens and those who are loyal to the Capitol.

Here in Libertas, I felt at home, it felt more like home than District 2, it was peaceful and had a sense of serenity, and I was sure I wouldn't ever feel that way in Panem.

"So, what are we going to do about the Districts?" I asked, as I was highly curious about this. "I mean, how will this actually start? I know we have to take Snow out, but there will also be Districts highly loyal to the Capitol, especially the Career districts."

"I'm not entirely sure how this will play out yet. We have to contact District 13 about this and see what they want to do first of all. Plutarch is going to contact us about the next step once we've extracted everyone that we need to extract and see how Snow reacts. We really just have to play this by ear."

The meeting was adjourned after this, and we were pretty much free for the rest of the day. Purnia looked over to me. "Lunch?" She asked. "Pancake House?"

I nodded. "Sure, that sounds really good actually. I just have to go pick up Hera first." I told her. "I promised her babysitter that I wouldn't be gone too long."

"Yeah, no problem!" Purnia said as she followed me out to the car. I drove to where I needed to pick up my baby and went in and got her while Purnia waited in the car. I came back out and buckled Hera into her car seat before driving to the Pancake House.

"So how are you holding up?" Purnia asked me once we were seated. Really?"

I sighed, knowing what she was talking about. "I'm... I'm holding." I nodded. "It's just hard thinking about what he's going through, but I try not to think about that too much, and instead, just hold out hope that it won't be too much longer before I have him back, that they will be able to rescue him."

She nodded. "They'll make every effort, I'm sure." She said, taking a sip of her orange juice. "Though what I can't get over is, how you two managed hide your relationship for two years."

I smiled a bit. "We knew what would happen if anyone found out, so we had no choice but to keep quiet and act like nothing was going on behind closed doors."

She snorted. "You two are hell of good actors to have had pulled that off." She shook her head.

I shrugged. "I knew that we wouldn't have kept it up long, since no one stays in one district for their entire service, but we were just going with the flow, and it felt right." I shook my head. "He's always felt like home. And home is wherever he is."

She nodded. "Speaking of home, do you think you'll go back to Panem after the rebellion?"

"Honestly?" I took a bite from my pancakes. "No, I don't think so, I see this place as home now, and I like it. Panem is just so... so..-"

"Dark?" Purnia offered up.

"Yeah." I nodded, taking a bite from my pancakes. "Dark and sheltered. The air even feels lighter, if that makes sense?"

"It does." She nodded.

We sat and talked for another hour or so, until we heard thunder.

"I didn't know it was supposed to rain today." Purnia sighed.

"Yeah, it rains a lot in the summer months." I shook my head. "I suppose we should leave before the bottom falls out." I stood and picked up Hera before paying my bill, and we went back out to the car. I dropped Purnia off at her condo before driving to the house.