A/N: As always, go check out Dust by littlemissowl!

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"How do you feel about the Capitol, Katniss?"

"What do you mean?" I'm so confused right now. Why would Johanna Mason pull me into a closet and ask me about the Capitol…

"God, you are dumb. How. Do. You. Feel. About. The. Capitol," She enunciates each word like I am a two year old still learning to speak.

"Uhh…well…" I'm not really going to spill my guts to Johanna Mason, if that's what she was expecting. She sighs and rolls her eyes, and I try to continue, "I'm not…overly fond of it."

"Thank you, Sherlock,"—She has sarcasm that could rival Haymitch's—"But what would you be willing to do about them?"

"About them?" I'm even more confused now. You can't do anything about the Capitol, their power is omnipotent and obsolete.

"Look, I can't explain now, just…just, play by your own rules, okay? Give them trouble. Make them worried." She is constantly looking over her shoulder, even though we are in a small closet, and as soon as she finishes her sentence, she walks off, not waiting for a reply.

I make my way to the twelfth floor, hoping no one thinks anything of my absence. Johanna wouldn't tell me who I could trust, who I could talk to about this kind of thing, and I have to come up with a convincing lie.

The elevator door opens, and Peeta stands near it, pacing, until he notices me. He envelops me in a hug and runs his fingers through my hair.

"I was worried about you."

"Why?" I was only gone for a few minutes, I don't need an overprotective Peeta getting on my case about it.

"You have a habit of getting into trouble,"—Thanks, Peeta. I never realized that.—" I thought maybe you were going to go beat up the District Two boy. Very not good."

"Very not good," I repeat, glad that he does not think anything of me coming up nearly ten minutes later than Obadiah, who mouths to me that he hasn't told Peeta anything. Good.

I pull out of the hug, and he looks into my eye. Sometimes, I almost get overwhelmed by the blueness of his eyes, it seems like it's to blue to be real.

"So, where were you then?"

Well, this is very not good.

"I was…talking to Johanna," I say, telling him a half-truth, "She wanted to tell me that I should have shot straight at Amon's eye. That he deserved it. Very Johanna Mason-y, actually."

Peeta looks at me skeptically, and I hope against hope that my acting skills, however lacking, are able to convince him I'm telling the truth.

I hate lying to him, but I can't go throwing around information like that to anyone, especially in the hotbed of Capitol security.

"Do you want to go up to the roof?" He asks, "I can get us food and we can have a picnic dinner."

"Sure," I say, smiling genuinely, "I'd like that."

Ten minutes later, we are standing on top of the training center, hand in hand. His hand is big and strong and warm and comforting and I never want to let go of it. I am hit with a sudden realization, and I realize that the Capitol is in fact very stupid.

"Why do they let Tributes come up here?" I ask, "Couldn't they just jump off? It's more appealing than the Games for some…"

Peeta responds without a seconds hesitation, "I thought of that too, last year, you know. When Cinna brought me up here. I asked him the same question, I even phrased it the same," He smiles for a second and continues talking, "But you can't. They have a force field around the building, see."

He reaches his hand out over the edge, and I hear a zapping noise. There are blue lines that look like blood poisoning coming from where Peeta just put his finger. I am overcome by curiosity, and I reach my hand out.

It feels like a much stronger, somewhat painful version of an electric shock. I instantly pull my hand back to my side, and Peeta reaches out to grab it again. He rubs my hand, almost like he's soothing it.

"Peeta?" I ask, my voice timid.

"Yeah?"

"Were you scared? Before your Games, I mean. Like now, but a year ago."

"Terrified," He says simply. I can't even fathom how he's able to say such things, reveal his soft and weaker side so easily, "And sad. Horribly sad. I thought about you a lot, you know? Actually, you were all I thought about last time I came up here. I wondered what you were doing, how you were, how Prim was. I remember wishing you were here with me, just for a second. Just so I could say goodbye."

"And now I'm here with you," I say, cutting him off. I feel kind of uncomfortable during these times, when he professes his love for me. I don't know what to say.

"And we're going to have to say goodbye," His eyes take on a faraway, somewhat glassy look, And I can't take it, I can't.

"No we're not," I say, defiantly.

He looks at me, eyes red-rimmed, and gives me a questioning look. I don't even know myself where I am going with this, but I'm starting to get an idea.

I pull out the letter I wrote for him a while back, and I place it in his palms.

"Don't read it until my cannon goes off."

…

"Don't read it until my cannon goes off."

I don't know what to say. I don't want to think about that, even though I know what's going to happen. I know she has, at best, three weeks. The worst part is, if the Capitol didn't know her, didn't have a specific agenda for her, she would probably win.

But she can't, because of me.

"Don't say that," I say, and I know I must look like a teary-eyed mess, "Just don't, Katniss. I'm going to get you out of there alive if it's the last thing I do, do you hear me?"

She shakes her head, and it's all I can do to stop from screaming. I've been slowly formulating a plan in my head, but it's not crystal clear yet. I also know that she's spoken to Johanna, and I think I know what it's about.

It's too dangerous.

Johanna and whoever she's working with decided that since Katniss is going to die, she might as well make a statement against the Capitol. She told me that the people she's working with want Katniss to play the Games by different rules, do something like I did with the berries, but bigger.

And I know Katniss could do it.

But I also know what the Capitol would do to her family.

"Katniss, what did Johanna tell you? Tell me the truth."

She looks at me doubtfully but after a long pause begins in a tone that is almost a whisper.

"She told me to play by my own rules."

"And are you going to?"

Katniss nods, resolutely.

"Look, just don't do anything stupid, okay? The Capitol…if they can't take it out on you," I drop the one bomb that I know will make her do it, "They'll take it out on Prim."

…

Prim.

They can't. She's in District Twelve. They can't hurt her.

But I know they can.

"Why is it so important to you that I play by the Capitol's rules? I know it's more than just Prim."

Peeta takes a deep breath, like he's calming himself, "Look at what they're doing to you because of me, Katniss. Johanna came to me last year and told me to play by my own rules, and look where that got me. Got you. It doesn't work. I would have been blown to bits on the spot, but they needed a Victor. So they took it out on the people I love. You. It's a domino, Katniss. Johanna is just the mouthpiece for the people she's working for, don't you see! They try to rile the Games up every year, they try to get people to rebel against the Capitol! But it. Doesn't. work." Peeta has a crazed look in his eyes, and he's shaking me, like he's trying to get to the point.

Maybe it hasn't worked because they haven't met me.

This is so much bigger than me, or even Prim. One sentence grabbed my whole attention, one word.

Rebel.

I think about how I met Bonnie and Twill in the woods, how they ran away from District Eight during a freak explosion. How they had been planning to run away.

The footage. Peeta. District thirteen. I considered it a fairytale, but I could have sworn I saw a hovercraft labeled thirteen for just a second in the woods about a week later. They told me how there was rumor of a rebellion. Rumor that thirteen was alive, well, and going to attack.

I know Peeta will do all he can to keep Prim safe, everything in his power, I hope it is enough.

Because I want to help Johanna bring down the Capitol.

A/N: Oooh! Rebellion conversation! I'm planning to bring in 13 more later in the story. :D Katniss is really smart, you have to give her that. She figured out about the rebellion from little clues. Oh Katniss, please don't do anything stupid during your private session with the Gamemakers. xD