DARKNESS...

It had many different meanings and many different properties. It was a prison. It captured its victims and dragged them into a never-ending abyss of fear, enslaving them to their most haunted nightmares. It trapped them within the same four walls with no escape and left them to fester until it claimed their soul. Only very few lived to tell the tale. But darkness could not exist without light—it was simply the absence of light. It was that notion that kept it's prisoners from breaking, knowing that it was never permanent and that there was escape if only you held out long enough.

Aella felt as if she'd been trapped for eternity.

She wasn't sure how long her mind had been trapped inside the dark abyss. It could have been hours, it could have been seconds. That was the catch. You could never tell the time when you were trapped. All you could do was fight it but no matter how hard she seemed to try nothing ever worked. It was as if her body couldn't respond to anything she told it to do—like she was entirely numb. She couldn't move, not even a finger.

For what she thought could be months all Aella felt was a darkening around her heart. It consumed her entirely and forced her mind into a sickening abyss. There was no escape.... or so it seemed. She held out, refusing to give in, and that small light appeared. She reached for it with trembling fingers and grasped it with both hands. She held on tight and against all the odds, she slipped through the cracks of her own personal hell. She released hands with Death and stepped away from those gates, fighting hard to hold on.

Injuries that should've killed her didn't. Somehow, that grit and determination she was born with served her even when she was on Death's door. It was like she had dug her heels in and refused to let go. Miraculously, she survived the journey and then she made it through the first night, and then the second, and the third and the fourth. She rose from the ashes that had fallen from the arena and she fought back.

No one expected her to. The doctors didn't think she would last the journey, or the first night, but she did. She proved them all wrong, even after they'd told her family to prepare themselves. But they didn't know the woman with an iron will. They'd never met Aella Barnes and bared witness to just how much of a fighter she was. They didn't know she was a survivor.

But they knew...her family knew. They knew she wouldn't give in. They knew she'd fight because for years Aella had fought. There hadn't been a day that had passed in her life since her reaping where she hadn't fought to stay alive. She was strong. Stronger than what the doctors and the nurses ever anticipated her to be. They didn't know her. All they could do was look at her clinically as she laid before them day after day and shake their heads.

She should've died...but she didn't.

Submerged within the darkness again for the millionth time, unable to move, she was overwhelmed with an excruciating pain in her head. It was entirely overwhelming. She hadn't felt anything quite like it before. It felt as so someone had cracked her over the head with a baseball bat but the reality was far worse. The pain was far too intense and when it reached its height a familiar sensation rippled through her body. It started from her shoulders, a deep tingling sensation, that scattered throughout her whole body and ran down to her toes. She felt her body, no longer was it numb and everything intensified.

The darkness began to dissipate. No longer was she a prisoner in its cage. Instead, everything became somewhat lighter and she clung on to it tightly with both hands. The light grew brighter and as it did, a dull ringing noise echoed through her ears. It wasn't as loud as she expected it to be but it didn't stop.

She was falling, fast and far and before she could land she sprang awake. Aella blinked but she couldn't see a thing. Her eyes burnt under the harsh white glare above her and she was forced to close them again as she tried to fight. Her body fell into overdrive. All she could feel was that pain radiating through her body, pulsating in her head. A tight pressure sat on her chest and as she opened her eyes again they burnt under the harsh glare above her.

Fear gripped her heart and she started to panic. Everything was hazy and blank. She had no recollection of what had happened, of where she was, but she felt threatened. She knew she had to protect herself, pain or no pain. So she continued to blink ferocity, tears streaming from her eyes as she tried to fight over the fire in her lungs and the pounding in her head.

"Shh, Aella."

The soothing voice that broke through the masses of ringing and voices and signals was one she recognised. It floated to her from a far away place and she grabbed on to it with all her might, desperate for the comfort and protection it offered against the pain and fear. She hadn't heard it in so long but she would never forget it—the love behind it.

"It's okay. You're safe. Calm down, okay?"

Aella complied with the voice, felt the present provided and the calming effect it had on her. Her body relaxed and the fire in her lungs eased. Her tense muscles felt as if they were floating on a cloud. The intense pain in her body eased out into a numbing calmness as a cool sensation ran through her right arm. She kept her eyes closed as she succumbed to the release of her body and listened to the voice that seemed to float on distant waves over the ringing in her skull. She released a deep breath through her nose, feeling the warmth of soft fingers running a hand through her hair, a hand wrapped around her own...

She laid awake with her eyes closed, mind and body lulling to a calming wave. There was no danger and the panic had relaxed it's grip on her pounding heart. She settled but didn't try to open her eyes again. Content where she laid—feeling safe enough she inhaled deeply but pain fired down her throat and scattered through her chest again. A grimace twisted on to her features as she winced and withered into herself, the pain attacking her from every angle.

"I know," The voice cooed gently, "A few broken ribs but the morphling helps."

Aella hummed in response as her heavy head lulled to the side. She tried to locate the owner of the familiar voice. It sounded so far away—so quiet—but the feeling of someone running their fingers through her hair was close.

Again, she tried to open her eyes and found she wasn't purely blinded by the lights above her. Her vision was overwhelmingly blurry, everything was just shapes and colours but after she blinked a few times it started to become clearer. It took a few minutes but she was eventually able to make out what looked like Clio's face.

Aella tried to pull her features into a frown as she looked at the woman. In all her years of knowing Clio she'd never seen her without her vibrant wigs and extravagant makeup, nor had she ever known her to wear a grey coloured jumpsuit. The woman she stared at is a different character but the eyes and the facial expressions were the same. Clio looked completely different as she sat close by her, her fingers clutching Aella's hand tightly as she combed her fingers through her hair.

"Clio?" She mumbled. Her voice was nothing but a raspy whisper. The faint bruising on her neck in the shape of Brutus' hands was still there. Faint relief grasped Clio when she heard her voice. There had been great worry that she would never be able to talk again but the days she'd spent unconscious had been the rest her swollen vocal cords had needed.

Still, she winced in pain feeling her voice scratching her dry throat. She coughed lightly and felt pain explode across her ribs, twisting her face into a grimace which hurt her head. She groaned as everything hurt and tried to relax her body, breathing as heavily as she could through her pain.

"It's okay." Clio reassured her, "It's me. I'm here."

Aella opened her eyes again as best she could. Or at least she thought she had. She hadn't figured out half of her head was bandaged heavily, covering half of her face and her right eye. Instead, she looked at Clio through tired eyes and said, "You look like shit."

Despite the insult, a smile tethered at Clio's lips. She'd never been so grateful to hear her voice, even if she was her usual brass self. Clio couldn't contain the grin that stretched across her lips as she looked at Aella and said, "Yeah?"

"Hmmm." Aella nodded in response, closing her eye for a brief second. She brought her hand to her face to lay it over her pounding forehead but met thick bandages instead. The injuries she'd sustained when she'd hit that tree had very nearly killed her. She was lucky to be alive and coherent.

Clio watched her frown as she poked at the bandages and slowly she guided Aella's hand away and laid it back down her side, "Try not to touch them, Aella." She told her softly, "You hit your head pretty hard when the arena exploded."

Confusion pooled in her eyes as she tried to look back on her memories.

"The arena exploded?" She asked her.

Clio merely nodded, a small frown on her face as she looked at Aella.

There was a substantial gap in her memories, she realised. She couldn't remember the arena exploding. In fact, she couldn't really recall anything before the ten o'clock wave when she'd been trying to catch fish with Finnick.

Finnick...

The memory of him made her heart race and not in a good way. Panic seized her completely and the monitor she was attached to began to beep wildly in reflection with her pounding heart. She gripped Clio's hand tightly and tried to sit up but she failed when a hand pushed gently on her shoulder, guiding her to lie back down. It didn't sate her however and she tried again while looking at Clio with a wild expression.

"Aella—"

"Finnick, Clio." She rasped, "I have to find him. I have to see if he's okay."

"Aella, he's right beside you." Clio frowned, her voice louder in her still ringing ears. She'd moved to sit on the edge of her bed, holding Aella's hand just as tight as she held hers. She glanced at Finnick sitting opposite her with worry in her eyes. Finnick mirrored her expression but Clio looked back to Aella still lying with fear in her eyes and said, "He's been talking to you this entire time."

"What?" She whispered.

She slowly turned her head then, though it surprised her how much of a chore it was, and she saw Finnick sitting right beside her as Clio had said. His chair was pulled right up to the side of her bed and he sat with her hand in both of his.

He looked relatively unscathed but it didn't stop her heart from pounding like a drum. There were a few small healing grazes on his face but that seemed to be about it, nothing that looked serious. She noticed what looked like a brace wrapped round her hand and wrist and wiggled her fingers gently. They ached but she could still feel them.

Finnick's face was one of great relief as he looked at her, lips wrapped in a devastatingly beautiful smile. It made butterflies gather in her stomach as he looked at her like that. He released his hand from hers and cupped her cheek lightly but she only felt the palm of his calloused hand against her skin. His fingers laid over the woollen bandages wrapped around her head.

She closed her eyes briefly and leaned into his hand, feeling the comfort of the simple action spread through her tense body. Her throat bobbed as she swallowed and a grimace twisted on her face in pain before she said softly, "What happened to me?"

She opened her eyes to look at him, saw his lips tremble as tears lined his eyes. Wordlessly, he leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead before looking back at her in sheer relief. His lips moved as he talked to her but she couldn't for the life of her hear his voice. Her brows furrowed lightly as she looked at him and she strained to really listen to him but she couldn't hear him.

"I-I..." She shook her head wordlessly as she continued to hold his gaze, "I can't hear you."

Finnick frowned deeply as concern raged through his eyes. Aella watched as he met Clio's gaze over her for a fleeting second before the woman's voice echoed quietly again, "Aella? Can you hear what I'm saying?"

She looked at Clio with furrowed brows and shook her head, "Barely." She rasped, "You're so quiet."

The relief Finnick and Clio felt when they saw her open her eyes had disappeared. Fear grips them again in full swing. They were lucky enough to have her but her memory was very clearly missing some crucial details of what had happened and for whatever reason she couldn't seem to hear very well at all.

Finnick saw her eyes twist into fear as they searched his and he forced a reassuring smile to his face while running his hand over her hair. He tried not to think about the bad—only that she was alive and conscious and he was looking into those breathtaking cobalt blue eyes of hers again. The relief that she was awake was enough to subdue the worry. The four longest, most agonising, days of his life waiting for her to wake up was over and he focused on that. He had her back, where he could protect her and keep her safe and that was all that mattered to him.

Whatever was happening was something they could figure out together in time. For now, though, he was going sit with her and comfort her in every way she needed him to.

• • •

The days that followed were hell for Aella. The unfamiliar room she awoke in turned out to be the hospital sector of District Thirteen. She couldn't say she was a fan of it, or the grey jumpsuits that Clio and Finnick visited her in everyday.

The day after she woke up—because not long after she had, she'd fallen straight back to sleep and slept for another thirteen hours—Daniel came to visit her. She had burst out into full, uncontrollable sobs the second she'd seen him walking through her door and they'd spent hours together. He told her how proud he was of her for cutting down her demons and they formed an unspoken agreement to never speak of Drew Lopez or utter his name ever again.

When she heard Sal, Natalia and Sam had made it from District Five she'd nearly fainted in relief. It had been overwhelming but everything had taken a sour turn from there.

She couldn't take the gaps in her memory any longer and when Clio and Finnick had sat down to talk to her about it they found she was missing a lot more than what they originally thought. Even moments prior to the Games she'd forgotten about. In the end, they had to start right back at the reaping and run through it all with her, taking her through each day up until that pivotal moment where Katniss wove the wire around her arrow and shot it into the force field.

And then Finnick told her everything that happened afterward, losing himself in the awful memories again after he'd done nothing but re-live it waiting for her to wake up.

The lightening strike knocked him back with so much force he landed some few feet away from where he had been standing. His back collided with the harsh ground on impact and it knocked all the air out of his lungs. He tried so hard to move—to get up and help the others—but his body was completely numb. He couldn't move even if he wanted to. The joules of electricity, the force of the lightening strike, ensued that he couldn't get up and he was stuck staring up at the arena as it collapsed in on itself.

The walls were on fire, the heavy metal structure collapsed in large parts around him but he couldn't move to escape it. All he could do was lie there and pray for rescue and he was thankful when it came.

The hovercraft emerged within the mess of the dilapidated roof of the arena. The dark, artificial, sky had disappeared and the sun beamed through the broken walls. He shielded his eyes as best he could as the claws of the hovercraft appeared and scooped Katniss up first.

It returned a second time but it still didn't come for him. He recognised the body it carried and pure, unparalleled relief filled him. Aella's body was limp in the cage and under the harsh sun he could see the blood that shone on her skin but they were rescuing her. He could only pray that she was alive, she had been the closest to the tree after all.

He watched the claw disappear inside the hovercraft and he held his breath the entire time it was gone. He never even thought for a second about it not coming back for him but with every second that passed the more the fear drove through him. When it re-emerged that third time, empty and hovering over him he exhaled deeply.

It scooped him up and he tried not to think about his body dangling in a metal cage as it pulled him out of the arena. He merely closed his eyes and focused on his body, feeling the sensation in his fingers starting to return. He remained still in the cage, with his eyes closed, until he was safe in the hovercraft and was released from the claw.

He laid on the ground for a moment, breathing heavily until the sound of shoes echoed off the floor. He opened his eyes, seeing two men and one woman walking over to him dressed in light grey uniform he'd never seen before. He sat up as they approached and looked around, felt their hands on his body, but didn't register the words that they said.

Instead he looked around frantically for Aella and saw unfamiliar people everywhere. He used the three people around him to push himself up to his feet, searching for her. He saw two bodies lying further into the room against the hard floor and stumbled toward them blindly, leaning on to those people who ran to him for support.

He limped to the body closest to him, half way there when Haymitch Abernathy stood in front of him and blocked his path. He man had his arms crossed over her chest and he looked at Finnick briefly before looking at his arm and saying, "If you won't let them help you at least let them remove your tracker, Finnick."

Finnick held his gaze as his chest heaved. His eyes were wide before he sighed and turned to the unfamiliar person beside him. He took the scalpel in the man's hand wordlessly and removed his tracker in one swift motion. He gritted his teeth through the pain, blood running down his arm and creating a pool underneath him on the floor but he didn't care. Instead, he dropped the scalpel to the ground, shoved the two men holding him up away lightly and hurried to find her amongst the chaos.

Aella was the body closest to him and he only saw her when he looked at her from above the men and women on their knees tending to her wounds. There were more people with her than there was with Katniss and when his eyes swept over her face he understood why.

He could hardly make out any of her features. Her skin was slick with blood. It seeped into her hair and ran down her neck. She was lying in a pool of it on the ground. He couldn't find the cause of bleeding—nothing but blood.

It made his gut twist as nausea roiled through him. His knees wobbled and he fell to his knees by her side. He reached out tentatively, his fingers shaking as he took her hand in his and gripped tight. It didn't matter to him that they were both drenched in blood. He couldn't stand to be far away from her when she looked so poorly.

"What happened?" His shaking voice asked.

"Sir, please step back."

When someone tried to force him back he shook his head firmly and reinforced himself, "Like hell."

Haymitch stepped in and he shook the man trying to force him back away. Instead, he stood over Finnick's shoulder as they watched the team try to analyse Aella's wounds. He could see enough, even if it was hard to see. It seemed to be coming from her forehead and it was deep. It made his heart clench in fear. He needed her to pull through this. After all the waiting they had done he couldn't close her now.

The rise and fall of her chest was the only indication that she was even alive.

"I can't visualise." A woman said, "There's too much blood. Let's just bandage and keep her sedated until we get to Thirteen."

They did exactly that and he was forced to watch in trepidation until Haymitch came to inform him that they'd ran into an issue that involved Johanna and Peeta. He had to leave her, as much as he didn't want to and the clock had started, counting the worst hours of his live that turned into days.

He thought her lucky to not be able to remember what had happened in the run up to the explosion. In his eyes, it meant she didn't carry even more trauma but the second they had to tell her Johanna and Peeta had been captured by the Capitol she spiralled.

At first she had been in disbelief and then shock and then as it slowly registered in her mind so much fear had gripped her. She punished herself so severely for losing Peeta in the Games she drove herself into her first panic attack in District Thirteen. She screamed and cried and hyperventilated so hard the doctors and nurses were forced to sedate her and all Finnick could do was watch and hold her as she fell limp in his arms.

The reassurance they provided her didn't nothing to help ease her guilty conscience. Even though she had done everything in her power to stop him she still blamed herself for losing Peeta. In her eyes she was the reason he was in the clutches of the Capitol. And Johanna? She couldn't even bring herself to think about her best friend in Snow's hands.

Her body started to heal and she began to regain her strength after days of feeling so weak. They'd been able to look closer at the injuries she'd sustained in the Games. What she had received at the hands of Cashmere had completely healed. It was what Brutus had done to her and then everything caused by the lightning strike.

Her vocal cords and her throat had healed pretty much on its own and the bruises had faded. The amnesia was caused by severe concussion though they weren't sure if she'd sustained it when Brutus had thrown her against a tree of from the lightning strike. The hearing loss though... it baffled them. It didn't come back. She could only hear out of her left ear and even then whoever was taking to her had to be standing close and talking loud. She'd had a proper hearing test and Finnick had held her hand through the whole thing.

He never left her, not even when visiting hours had finished. He had been cleared from the hospital long before she had even woke up but he hadn't once slept in the room District Thirteen had allocated him since his arrival. He couldn't leave her. She was far too fragile after their rescue and he couldn't bare to not have her within his line of sight. He needed to protect her no matter the cost.

They sat together on her bed, still confined within the walls of the hospital. Her fingers were so tangled within his it was hard to even figure out who's were who. It was the only thing that stopped her from cracking her knuckles every minute. Neither of them spoke much, being in one another's company was comfort enough.

Her head rested against his shoulder, long tresses finally clean and unknotted ran down her back in soft waves. Her skin had never been so pale before. The ghostly white colour haunted him daily but the white gown and the white walls didn't help much either.

They waited together until the door to her room opened up. Finnick's head moved sharply at the sound of someone entering and he saw her doctor followed by Sal. He'd never actually met Sal until they'd landed in District Thirteen. The older woman had introduced herself to him as his nurse and he immediately connected the dots. Sal spoke so highly of Aella. It was easy for Finnick to spot the love she held for the young woman. Aella had essentially become her daughter in the years since her mothers passing and her condition effected Sal just as much as it did him.

They'd spent hours talking about her and how wonderful she made the world, even with all her imperfections and temper tantrums. They'd laughed and cried together and formed a bond of their own they didn't expect to create. It was nice for him. He wasn't entirely alone in Thirteen without her. Sal was quick to sweep him under her wing and while it was down to her caring nature he appreciated it massively. He was quick to figure out why she had gone into nursing—the compassion she held, even for strangers she didn't even know, was unparalleled. A job had never suited a woman more.

Since his discharge, the woman had taken over as Aella's nurse. It was the added friendly face she needed when for whatever reason he could not be there with her. He felt some comfort knowing that he would be leaving Aella in Sal's care.

He gently squeezed her hands as a way to draw her attention to him seeing them both walk in. She pulled her head up from his shoulder and looked to him with a soft frown. Finnick only gestured toward them with a nod and Aella followed his line of sight, her eyes looming over them both—or rather her eye that wasn't covered by the bandaging still wrapped over her face.

"Aella," Dr. Vann greeted her with a warm smile. To Sal and Finnick her voice was loud but to Aella is was a mere whisper, "How are you today? Can you hear me well enough?"

With a dull expression Aella shook her head, "Barely."

Dr. Vann nodded once. A sympathetic smile stretched across her lips before she reached for a chair and pulled it over toward the young lovers. She sat as close as she could get to them and looked at Aella soothingly, "I have the results of your hearing test."

Aella swallowed thickly and nodded, "How bad is it?"

Dr. Vann hesitated and Aella's heart lurched in her chest. Over the years she'd learned that silence never meant anything good.

"I'm afraid you are deaf in your right ear," The woman delivered the first blow and she didn't even wait before hitting her with the next, "The damage is irreversible."

Aella took her hands out of Finnick's and dropped her face into them. She leaned forward on her knees, her hair falling around her as she sat there. The silence that fell between them all was harsh. The three surrounding her could hear a pin drop but for Aella all she heard was white noise. It had irritated her for days on end but as she sat there she released a deep breath and re-tuned herself.

A sense of comfort seeped into her veins and it relaxed her shoulders. It reminded her of being at home, lying in bed and sleeping with the television on even when the broadcasts had finished for the night. She had always hated the silence and now she'd never have to hear it again.

Finnick placed his large hand on her back and he rubbed it soothingly as she sat with her face in her hands. He wasn't sure how he expected her to react but this wasn't it. He wasn't even sure how to react. Neither of them had anticipated her to lose her hearing in her right ear, nor had they expected the damage to be irreversible. They hadn't seen her hit the tree when the arena exploded. The cameras had cut out just seconds before. All they had seen was her flying through the air, already unconscious due to the lightning strike.

"I predict it was the lightning strike that's caused your hearing loss." Dr. Vann followed by saying as she placed her hand on Aella's knee, "Traumatic brain injuries can cause deafness but your were lucky enough to escape with only a head injury."

The woman released her head from her hands and she met Dr. Vann's gaze again, "What about my left ear? Obviously there's damage there otherwise I'd be able to hear you clearly and I can't," she said, "you still sound like you're whispering and I know you're practically shouting because I can see Sal flinching every time you speak."

Dr. Vann inhaled sharply. Even with one eye Aella's senses were sharp. They didn't anticipate her to bounce back as well as she had. Dr. Vann was shocked. She hadn't ever had someone like Aella under her care before.. a Victor of the Hunger Games. She didn't realise how resilient she was, how much of a fighter she was.

"I'm so sorry, Aella," The woman said, "The test showed us you've lost seventy percent of hearing in your left ear. It's not what we were hoping for unfortunately."

Aella only nodded, "And that's irreversible as well, I suppose?"

"Yes," Dr. Vann nodded, "I'm afraid so."

"So.. what?" Finnick asked before he shrugged his shoulders, "We're supposed to shout at her for the rest of our lives to try and have a conversation with her?"

"No." Dr. Vann responded, "We don't have much here, but we've recently gained a new pair of hands with an extraordinary mind. I believe you are both well acquainted with him."

"Beetee?" Aella responded, her brows drawn into a frown.

Dr. Vann nodded with a hint of a smile on her face, "He worked for the Capitol. He's the brain behind some of the best technological advancements there. A pair of hearing aids are like a walk in the park to him."

Hope ignited within both Aella and Finnick. Their backs straightened significantly as they watched Dr. Vann carefully. She dangled the carrot in front of them but neither reached out to grab it. Apprehension gripped them tightly and refused to let go.

"He can do that?" Aella dared to ask, "He's said he can do it?"

"He's more than willing to try." The woman responded, "But until then we will be working with you to teach you and your loved ones sign language. Even though you have some hearing it's not great and we don't want to leave you completely alone with no means of communication."

Both Aella and Finnick nod. It wasn't what they hoped for but it was better than the very worst. Since the collapse of the arena eleven days ago Finnick had reminded himself to search for the silver linings. He knew every circumstance had one, it was just a matter of searching hard enough to find it. In this case, Beetee was going to try and fix her hearing to an extent. It was better than nothing but even if he couldn't do it, it wasn't the end of the world.

He glanced at her as she sat beside him, his eyes lingering over her features. Her soft skin was slowly starting to regain some colour and heal. The bruising she'd sustained within the Games had almost disappeared, as had the imprint of Brutus' hands around her throat. The fading yellow bruises had enraged him every time he cast his eyes over her skin.

He hated that it had happened to her and he wasn't there to protect her and from the footage he'd watched the only reason she had made it out alive was because of Peeta. He had been the one to kill the District Two male when he least expected it. He'd sat round a table with Heavensbee and Haymitch and watched the events that had transpired in the lead up to the arena crumbling. They'd been able to see where their plan had gone so horribly wrong and it was then he'd realised none of them could've saved it. It had fallen apart in so many different ways, all because of the Careers.

They had been the one to cut the wire. They'd forced Johanna to jump right to stage five and tackle Katniss to the ground, cut her tracker out and make it seem like she'd attacked her all in an attempt to protect her. She drew the Careers away from Katniss on her own with no weapon to defend herself with. The camera split, one hovering over Katniss as she laid dazed on the ground, one following Johanna and the other moved to them still by the tree. It focused on Peeta as he abandoned his post and ran to Katniss' aid after he'd heard her scream. The camera split again so Finnick could still watch himself and Beetee at the tree and it followed Aella as she ran dutifully after Peeta in the dense jungle.

He watched as she found him in a fight with Brutus that had been intervened by Chaff. They all saw as Aella dragged Peeta back to the tree before Brutus killed Chaff and turned to them. Finnick's heart pounded in his chest in the most suffocating way as he watched her put Peeta behind her and charge toward Brutus. They watched as they fought, saw how Brutus easily overpowered her but Finnick couldn't watch him drain the life from her eyes. He turned away and only looked back when he heard her gasp loudly in relief.

Peeta had driven her machete through Brutus' back and he'd struck once more to ensure he was really dead. He then looked at Aella as she struggled to keep herself upright, gasping for breath and dazed. He'd given her a small smile that seemed to be both apologetic and thankful at the same time before he took her machete and ran off in the jungle in search of Katniss.

Heavensbee, Haymitch and Finnick had then watched as Aella contested with herself in an attempt to chase after him but she could hardly pull her legs underneath her. They all knew that Peeta's capture wasn't her fault. She'd tried her hardest. It was just the way their plan had failed unfortunately.

He hated that she'd beat herself up over it for days on end. She couldn't sleep for the blame she was putting on herself and no matter how hard he'd tried to reassure her that it wasn't her fault she wouldn't listen.

The toll the Games had taken on them both was immense and they'd only lasted two days. Neither dared to imagine what damage would've been caused had they gone on for any longer. They couldn't dwell on it any longer. It was over and they were safe together and while their scars had only grown this time they had one another to lean on for the support they needed. They were going to be just fine and that was what mattered. That was the most important thing....

That they were finally together.

• • •

A/N; I had to re-write this whole chapter the old version literally sucked so sorry about that! Next update will be Monday.