Disclaimer: Alright, I think you get the point... IT AIN'T MINE!

Chapter 23

Disguises

Finnick's plan actually turned out to be a good one, despite Peeta's worries. The problem lay in executing it.

"You do realize that we are two of the most well-known people in Panem, right?"

"Yep," said Finnick bluntly.

"And you know that we are the faces of the rebellion?"

"Yep."

"And you think that a little bit of makeup and a new outfit will be enough to disguise us?"

"Yep."

"Seriously?"

"Yep."

"Say something other than 'yep'!"

"Nope."

"Urgh!"

"Calm down Katniss, this will work. It's a good plan," said Fulvia. I groaned. Why did we have to let her in on the plan? I know we need her but she just doesn't really seem like the best choice, if you know what I mean.

"I know it's a good plan," I said, "and it would work perfectly with anyone else, but just not with us."

"You won't be you though," said Fulvia. "You'll be completely unrecognizable by the time we're done with you."

"Wait - We're?"

"Ah yes, Venia, Flavius and Octavia will be helping with the make up stage."

"Do they know-"

"They know nothing of the, erm, plan," said Fulvia. "They think you are staying in Thirteen and don't want to be recognized because you're sick of the attention… yes, I know, not the best cover story, but it was the best we could do at the time. Now then, follow me."

Fulvia led me to the room where I had prepared for that first announcement, when Coin had informed the rebels of our deal after I had decided to be the Mockingjay. My prep team was in there, and they immediately began to work on us, making us look nothing like we had before.

With tears in his eyes, Flavius began attacking my hair with a pair of scissors. And a pot of dye. After making my hair a lighter color, he cut it off at odd angles, then started to frizz it up, finally pulling it back into a messy pony tail. Then, Octavia began to apply some sort of paste to my pale skin, which, when washed off, gave my skin what she called a 'healthy, summer glow'. Then she applied makeup to my face to highlight and shadow certain areas, making it look completely different than it had before. Venia, for once, didn't touch my nails, and actually used another sort of paste that was supposed to make my eyebrows grow back from the plucking they had endured before the last propo. Then, she gave me some sort of plasticy thing to put in my eyes, which she said would change the color. Then they added makeup to my lips and around my eyes. When they were done I looked in the mirror and gasped. Finnick had been right. There was no way anyone could recognize me.

I had brown, frizzy hair and bright green eyes. My skin was a light brown color, and my face just looked… different. My nose looked a little smaller, my eyes a little rounder and my lips a little fuller.

"Thanks, guys," I whispered. "This is amazing."

I heard footsteps and turned to see a man. He had messy black hair and shining brown eyes, with skin much the same colour as mine was. I wouldn't have known it was him if he hadn't spoken.

"Katniss?" he asked. I would recognize that voice anywhere.

"Peeta?"

He looked nothing like he used to. And not just because of his hair and eyes. Also, his face, like mine, looked a completely different shape.

"Wow," said Fulvia, coming back into the room. "You lot did a great job." My prep team smiled in appreciation, and then left the room. I frowned. They had been a lot quieter since they had come to Thirteen. They used to talk non-stop. And the way they looked at me… they almost seemed like they were feeling guilty or something.

"Who's that?" asked Peeta, gesturing to a man standing behind Fulvia.

I had never seen him before, and yet he seemed familiar somehow. But he couldn't be. He had bright red, wavy hair and shining blue eyes. Surely I'd remember some one like that.

"Katniss, Peeta, this is… Thomas Dwight. He'll be joining you on your mission… Finnick thought it would be better if you had some-one else with you."

I frowned. Finnick knew that we wanted to be by ourselves. Besides, if the plan worked, we would be with plenty of specialized soldiers when we got to the Capitol. Why did we need another person? This was so odd… it was supposed to be a plan to get us into the Capitol, just us. And now Finnick wants us to go with… this guy?

I must say, this seems a little out of character.

This sounds like something Haymitch would- wait.

"Finnick," I growled, "Did you tell Haymitch about this?"

"Uh, well, yes, I did actually. It was his plan in the first place… he agrees, you guys have more right than anyone to kill Snow. So he wants to give you a chance. But I had to take the credit because if Coin finds out-"

"Alright, alright, I get it," I said. "And I bet you just loved taking the credit, didn't you?"

Finnick winked at me.

"So, are you happy to go with Thomas?"

"Erm…" I thought for a moment. This was Haymitch's idea, and had he ever meant to harm me? Had following his instructions ever lead me into a bad, well, worse situation? No, it hadn't, unless you count his plan about pretending to love Peeta make the Capitol want to kill me and my family, but hey, it got us out of the Games alive. And if I were back there now, I would do exactly the same thing all over again.

I glanced at Peeta, and he nodded, clearly having similar thoughts.

"Alright then, I guess," I said, and Peeta nodded.

"Right then," said Finnick. "Let's get you in a squad! We have passes for you, which say you've completed you're training – you'll need to memorize the information on those, by the way, just in case they check. When you're in a squad, you will get into the Capitol, and then what you do is up to you, I guess. You can either stay with the group, and have little chance of actually getting to Snow, or go off by yourself, which is extremely dangerous. Haymitch's suggestion was to stay with the soldiers until you get close enough, and then peel off."

"If that's what Haymitch's suggestion was, then I guess that's what we'll do," said Peeta, sending a questioning glance at me.

"Definitely," I said.

"Right then," said Finnick, off you go!"

"Wait, what are we supposed to-"

"Don't worry, Katniss, I've explained it all to- erm, Thomas." He glanced around slightly, then leaned in towards me. "Watch out for him, Katniss. No, he's not a spy, don't worry, but he has a… bit of a temper, and he's had a bad past… he may react badly to different… situations… and he has a bit of a grudge towards Peeta. Not completely sure why…"

Fulvia heard us, jumped and ran forward.

"He's from District 5. He had a sister in the 74th Hunger Games, and Peeta killed her. I think you knew her as Foxface."

"Foxface?" I asked, glancing over at Thomas. He looked nothing like Foxface had. The only feature in his face that was the same was his read hair, and even that was a different shade. "Are you sure? They don't look anything alike."

"Well, look at you and Prim," said Fulvia, then quickly put a hand over her mouth. "Oh, Katniss, I'm sorry-"

"It's alright," I said sadly, shaking my head, trying to get the memories out. I needed to concentrate. "But I guess you're right." I glanced over to Thomas again. "And yeah, I suppose that would make sense."

"Hang on a sec," said Peeta, having heard our conversation and clearly sharing my suspicions as he walked over to us, "why wasn't he interviewed at the final eight?"

Fulvia and Finnick shared a frantic glance, then, after a few seconds, Finnick spoke up.

"They used to fight a lot, and they weren't very close. He didn't want to be interviewed, and as he seemed really distant or whatever, the Capitol let him be."

That seemed odd. Since when did the Capitol let other people do what they wanted. I narrowed my eyes.

"If they weren't close, why does he hate Peeta so much?"

"Because," said Finnick, drawing the word out, "it made him feel guilty, like he should have spent more time with his sister."

"Right, that makes sense," said Peeta. Then he walked over to Thomas. "Hello, I'm Peeta Mellark. Nice to meet you." Thomas scrunched his nose up and looked away, breathing heavily.

"Well, that's not very polite," I said, moving forward. "I'm Katniss Everdeen." Thomas shook my hand, but he didn't say a word. "Well, you could at least say hi back," I huffed.

"Actually, he can't," said Finnick. "He can't speak."

"Well, at least he won't be as annoying as another sibling of a tribute we know," I huffed, and Thomas actually cracked a small smile.

"Oh, do you know Bryce?" asked Peeta. Thomas just glared at him, and Peeta sighed.

"Alright then," said Finnick. "Off you go."

~~0~~

"We have arrived. Everyone please leave the hovercraft and head towards their commander. Move as quickly as you can."

Peeta and I got up hurriedly and followed the others, Thomas trailing behind us. We had managed to make our way onto the hovercraft and were now in the Capitol. We followed the other soldiers – all who had been sent as extra backup – over to a large tent, where we would be sorted into squads. I handed over my certificate that proved I had passed the military testing when I got over to the front of the line, and waited nervously as the soldier scrutinized my appearance.

"Name?"

"Soldier Eliza Spearwood, sir," I said in a high pitched voice so he wouldn't recognize me, telling him the name on the certificate.

"I haven't seen you around before," he said.

"New, sir, " I replied quickly. "I arrived from District Four not so long ago, and was trained to be a soldier. I know I'm not that experienced, but I'm good, if I do say so myself. Coin has been sending everyone she can, sir."

"Of course. And you?" he asked gesturing to Peeta.

"Soldier James Whiteash, sir," said Peeta, deepening his voice.

"And you?"

"He's Soldier Thomas Dwight, sir," said Peeta. "He can't speak."

"Ah, now then, Soldier Spearwood, you will go to squad number-"

"Sir, Soldiers Whiteash, Dwight and I must be put into the same squad," I said. "We have a letter here from-"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," he said. "All of you, head for squad number four-oh-five, over there with Commander Paylor."

"Thank you- wait. Paylor?" I asked. Oh no. This was not good. Of all the commanders we could have had, we had to be given one of the only two that have seen me up close.

"Yes, Commander Paylor. Now, hop to it!"

"Yes sir," said Peeta, grabbing my arm and dragging me over to Paylor, who was explaining the rules of squad 405.

Could we have anyone worse in our squad?

"Well, at least we don't have to do something absolutely ridiculous in this squad, like numbering off, like a group of little primary school kids."

Apparently, we could.

"Oh no," I moaned.

~~0~~

"Pod coming up!" called a soldier at the front of our group.

"Which one?"

"Net!"

"Everyone, to the right of the street!" called Paylor.

We were walking through the Capitol streets, heading for the center of the city. The plan was to surround the central square with soldiers, get the civilians out of there, and then storm Snow's house. Obviously, it was going to be a lot harder than that, what with the pods and the peacekeepers and most likely a heap of mutts, but that was the general idea.

We were about half way in, still in the housing area, but the houses were getting larger.

"Pod coming up!"

"Which one?"

"Mist!"

"Alright, everyone stay away from that pod, you got it! I don't want it set off at any cost, understood?"

I sighed. It would be so much more dramatic if it hadn't happened fifty times before in only 100 meters. Honestly, there were pods everywhere. I almost couldn't wait for the more populated part of the Capitol where the pods wouldn't be activated for fear of harming Capitol citizens, even if there would be peacekeepers.

People were starting to get bored, much like we had on our previous raid. I grimaced, remembering what had happened when we had gotten too confident. We had ended up almost being killed by giant bees, having two of our number caught by a barbed wire net and having our skin burnt of by acidic mud…

"Whoa – pod, pod, POD!"

It seems the people in this squad also got overconfident.

"What is it this time?"

"Waterfa- argh!"

Huge amounts of water started to flow from the roofs of the buildings so quickly it knocked us over. I gasped and reached out to grab Peeta's hand, who was on my right, and Thomas' shirt, who was on my left. No use getting separated.

"Everyone!" I heard Paylor yell in a gasping voice, "Get to the roof!"

Without a second thought, I pulled Peeta and Thomas to the closest house, and, spluttering, we got inside. We stood there for a while, gasping, but as water started to creep under the door we raced up the steps before climbing out the top window. How we got onto the roof with water pelting at us, stopping us for breathing and making it difficult to move let alone hold onto the gutter I will never know, but we made it. Luckily it was just water; I had been expecting kerosene or cement at least.

However, when we finally did make it to the roof, I realized that the water had done a lot of damage. It had cleaned all the make up off our faces and returned our hair to it's previous shape. The dye was still in it, of course, and we still had our contacts in, but the rest of it was gone. Peeta looked like Peeta, only with black hair and brown eyes. I glanced at Thomas briefly, then quickly looked away again. He was breathing heavily, like he was trying to calm himself down. I remembered what Finnick said about him reacting badly to difficult situations.

He looked different now too. I felt an even stronger feeling than before that I knew this man… but from where? I looked at him closely, and he turned away from me. I was about to ask him if I knew him – he could just nod or shake his head – when my thoughts were interrupted by another voice.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?"

I would recognize that voice anywhere. I turned around slowly to come face to face with a smirking and exceedingly wet Bryce Johnson.

"Katniss Everdeen, I believe," he said.

"Shut up, Johnson," growled Peeta, moving forward.

"And Peeta Mellark, how lovely. Aren't you two supposed to be in Thirteen? And why did you dye your hair? Black suited you better, Katniss."

"Shut up," I screeched. "If you know what's good for you, you will never breathe a single word of this to anybody else!"

"Oh don't worry, I won't," he said in a reassuring voice, catching me by surprise. Then he smirked. "I'll yell several words. I believe that fits with our restrictions?"

I jumped at him, trying to stop him, but he yelled out:

"KATNISS EVERDEEN AND PEETA MELLARK ARE UP HERE! THEY'VE DISOBEYED ORDERS! STAR-CROSSED LOVERS FROM DISTRICT TWELVE DISGUISED THEMSELVES AND WENT ON RAID! MOCKINGJAY AND BOYFRIEND SNUCK OUT OF THIRTEEN! KATNISS AND-"

"Shut up!" hissed Peeta, whacking him over his head.

"Honestly, Soldier Johnson, what are you, a newspaper headline?" Paylor climbed up over the edge of the roof.

Peeta groaned and I backed away.

"Commander!" called Bryce. "This is Everdeen and Mellark! They've snuck out of thirteen and-"

"Stop!" yelled Paylor. "I have had enough of your stories!"

Peeta and I exchanged a hopeful glance. Would Bryce's reputation be enough to save us?

"But commander! Look!" Bryce pointed at us. Out of reflex, Paylor glanced at us, and, upon seeing our black and brown hair, shook her head and looked away again.

"Soldier Johnson, I have been warned of your-" suddenly, Paylor's eyes widened, and she looked back at us. I could see in her eyes she recognized us. We shook our heads, and her eyes widened further. She seemed to be doing some quick thinking. "Soldier Johnson," she finally said turning back to Bryce. I groaned. This was it. We were found out. We were going back the Thirteen to be killed by Coin and- oh no! The Mockingjay deal! This consisted of stepping out of line! Coin was going to- "I think you are greatly mistaken. Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark are in District Thirteen. How could they have gotten out of Thirteen without Coin noticing? If you could recognise them, surely she would as well? Right then. The water has stopped now, I want you to get down to the ground and yell up to the other roof tops and get the rest of the squad down there. Use that loud voice of yours for something useful for once."

"But, commander Paylor, surely you can see that this is-"

"NOW!"

"Yes of course, I'm going now…" and with one last scathing look at Peeta and I, Bryce climbed over the edge of the roof and headed back down to the ground.

"Katniss. Peeta. I know that is you," said Paylor once Bruce was gone. We nodded. "Why are you here?"

"We want…" I glanced at Peeta, unsure of what to say. Peeta sighed.

"We wanted to help," he said. "We couldn't just sit there doing nothing, and neither could the others. I know Coin seems to want us to do more propos, but honestly, I don't think that is how we can help the rebels the most. Wouldn't it boost their morale more if we were fighting with them?"

"The why the disguises?" asked Paylor suspiciously.

"Well, you see, we had to get here first. This squad does not have a big part, so when we got into the Capitol, we were going to leave and join one of the larger groups."

" I see…" said Paylor, thinking. "Right then, I guess you're plan makes sense. But I need you to leave the squad now, as people will recognize you. Head for the square, it's straight ahead and we're almost there. When you are there, go to squad three-eight-four – they are the ones that are going to be out the front of Snow's house. I suggest you don't go in with squad three-four-two – you will be seen by more if you are out the front, and it would be better to let the more experienced people deal with Snow. Also, I take it you do not want to meet up with Coin?" we nodded vigorously. " I thought so. Try and get to the square before us, too; we will be blocking the road, remember?"

We nodded again and she smiled at us, then walked over to the edge of the roof. Before she climbed down, however, she said;

"Oh, and for future reference, I never saw you. I was helping Soldier Spearman, Soldier Whiteash and Soldier Dwight when they slipped from the gutter and ran away." We nodded, and then she left.

"Right then," said Peeta, glancing at Thomas and I. "Do we do what she said?"

"Obviously," I said. "We have no plan and not much of an idea of what Coin is doing. Paylor told us what she thought would be best for us to do."

Thomas nodded.

"Okay," said Peeta, "But how will we get there before them?"

Looked around carefully, and noticed that the houses were very close together, and that only two or so blocks down the houses became connected.

"Peeta, do you think you could jump that gap?" I asked.

"Probably," he said, looking at it. I sighed. I didn't want a probably. I didn't want to risk anyone getting hurt when there was an easier way.

Thomas grabbed my arm, and when turned to look at him he gestured over to the edge of the roof. Lying there was a tool box ad a large, strong plank of wood. Obviously, someone had been doing a repair job when they had to hurriedly evacuate. Grinning at Thomas, I grabbed the plank and lay it across the gap. It was long enough to span the gap with about twenty centimeters on either side. Thomas held the plank steady while Peeta and I crawled across, then I held it when Thomas crawled across. He had seemed more that just a little nervous when Peeta had tried to hold it; I think I might have too if my sister's killer had a way to chuck me off the roof of a three story building.

It was slow going, but we were able to keep up with the squad down below, as they were stopping every few moments for pods. When we got closer to the square, the roofs joined up, and we were able to leave our plank behind. We also moved ahead of the squad – they were no in the area where there were no pods, but people were wandering the streets. As they got closer, the people got thicker, and they were forced to push their way through. Several screams floated up to us from the road below as people realised what was going on; the Capitol was being invaded.

We expected everyone to run towards the square, as we had been told that that was where the Capitol people were staying once they had moved out of their houses, but the strange thing was, they were running away from it, back to the areas they had vacated.

Finally, we made it to the square. But when we got there, we did not see what we expected too. Instead of an area full of civilians, we saw an area full of peacekeepers. They were all moving around quickly, and seemed to be hiding themselves. Within minutes, all of the peacekeepers were gone. But if you looked closely you could still see them. Behind a door, peeking out from under a window, the but of a gun poking out from between curtains. Then I realized what was going on.

"Ambush," I whispered.

"We have to warn them," said Peeta.

I nodded, and we moved to yell at Paylor and her squad. Looking down from the roof, I could see them in position. Peeta checked the watch Finnick had given him.

"We still have about three minutes before the scheduled attack. Come on," he whispered. We started to move when Thomas grabbed our arms and gestured to the road behind squad 405. I gasped. Behind them was a cloud of gas, moving toward them. I wanted to go and warn them, but before I could move, the soldiers noticed. Some of the reached for their masks, before realising that none had been supplied for this mission. The rebels had not had enough masks for every person and so had given the masks to the groups that would be coming through the underground. So they began to run away from the gas towards the square.

Towards the ambush.

"Oh no," I whispered. I was about to run down to help them, but Peeta pulled me back.

"No, Katniss, you can't help them."

"But, the peacekeepers!" I yelled.

"They won't kill them all," said Peeta. "Snow can't risk wiping out our species." I nodded, but hated the way Peeta said 'kill them all'. Lots of them would die. And there was nothing I could do.

"At least we can warn them," I said, and stood up to yell.

"No!" yelled a voice, and something pulled me down. "Don't warn them, you'll only get caught yourself. Warn the other groups that aren't there yet; maybe we can catch them before the Capitol uses gas on them. They won't have all been sent at the same time or they would out number the peacekeepers."

I nodded at the person's logic, too stressed to find out who it was. But before we moved, Peeta called out and pointed back down to the square.

We were forced to watch as every squad ran into the square at the same time. We all expected the peacekeepers to jump out and start firing. But they didn't.

When all the soldiers were in the middle of the square, a few peacekeepers jumped out and bent down, pressing something on the ground. Suddenly, there was a large zapping noise, then everything went quiet. I looked around frantically to try and figure out what they had done. Then I saw a faint square hanging in the air, about four meters of the ground. It shimmered.

"No," I whispered, squeezing my eyes shut. "No, they can't!"

"They didn't…" said Peeta, glancing at me. I nodded.

Thomas sent a questioning look at me.

"Force field," Peeta and I whispered at the same time.

I watched a soldier, stuck in the trap, fired a shot at a peacekeeper. I watched as the bullet ricocheted off the force field and entered his body, killing him stone dead.

Once again, I felt the urge to jump off the roof and kill every peacekeeper in sight. But, once again, someone pulled me back, out of the line of a bullet that an observant peacekeeper had shot my way.

"Katniss!" yelled the same voice from before. "Stop doing that! Are you trying to kill yourself!"

I knew that voice. I knew it.

I looked at the speaker. Thomas.

"I thought you couldn't speak?" asked Peeta, glaring at Thomas suspiciously. Thomas didn't say anything.

I just kept looking at him. I knew him, I knew I did! I had noticed it before, but now, I had an urge in my gut, and I just knew I knew this person, and that voice…

Then it hit me. And when I did, I felt anger course through me like a wildfire.

"Gale? What the hell are you doing here?"

Okay, I hope that wasn't too confusing. Just ask if you need to.