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Zoya was up again, not pacing but standing. The Mutts chased Katniss and Peeta all the way to the cornucopia. Peeta helped Katniss up as she pulled him up, one of the mutts already grabbing his bad leg. Zoya gasped loudly when he happened, Katniss yanking Peeta up and left the Mutts at the bottom.
The second Peeta was stood, Cato appeared behind them, shoving them both in opposite directions. Haymitch stood up as he grabbed Zoyas shoulders tightly. Peeta had tackled Cato before he managed to get ahold of Katniss, taking him down but the District Two tribute was prepared for this, training all his life for a situation like this.
"No!" Zoya cried out as Cato got his arms tightly around Peeta neck, one wrong move and the bakers sons neck would snap. Katniss aiming her arrow their way, freezing when she took notice of his ability to snap Peetas neck immediately if she shot his way. Zoya began to hold her breath.
She thought about what Peeta had said to her before he went into the arena, about not watching when he was about to die.
"Go on. Shoot." Cato encouraged Katniss, smiling through bloody teeth from his attack from the Mutts. "Then we both go down and you'd win. Go on. I'm dead anyway."
If Cato was the one to win this, Zoya swore to herself right then and there , she'd kill him. He did what everyone else did. But she couldn't imagine looking at the guy who killed Peeta and Katniss every victors night.
"I always was, right?" Cato laughed, but he'd been crying. Like the rest of them, the games got to his head just as bad as it did the fellow victors. "I didn't know that until now. How's that? Is that what they want? Huh?"
Katniss aimed her arrow at him more when he stumbled around slightly.
"I can still do this." Cato spoke, hands tightening around Peetas head. Zoya began to cry as she stared. "I can still do this. One more kill. It's the only thing I know how to do. Bringing pride to my district. Not that it matters."
Before either had a chance to react, Katniss shot Cato in the hand. He cried out in pain, loosening his grip on Peeta as the Mellark boy elbowing him harshly before shoving him off the side. The Mutts tore into him immediately, the boy from Two screaming out in pain and he suffered through his death.
Katniss went to Peetas side, the pair staring down at him before she pulled one of her arrows free, shooting him in the head to end his misery. Zoya realized that the hovercraft wouldn't be able to take his body back to his district. Only pieces of him. But she didn't have time to think about it too much as the final canon blew, Katniss and Peeta hugging tightly.
Zoyas legs gave out as she fell to the ground. No one cheered, but there was a rush of relief over the few in the penthouse of Twelve. Zoya realized that Katniss was coming home. They'd be able to have a chance at a real friendship, she wouldn't have to guiltily take care of her mother and sister and have to feel like she could have done more too save her. Peeta. Peeta was coming back to her. The only person she'd ever known that completely understood and comforted her entirely was coming back to her.
