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Opal was starving and the stew was simply so delicious - beef, potatoes, turnips, and onions in a thick gravy - that she had to force herself to slow down. All around the dining hall, you could feel the rejuvenating effect that a good meal could bring on. The way it can make people kinder, funnier, and more optimistic, and remind them it's not a mistake to go on living. It's better than any medicine. So Opal tried to make it last and joined in on the conversation. She sopped up the gravy on her bread and nibbed on it as she listened to Finnick telling some ridiculous story about how a sea turtle had swam off with both his and her hat a few summers ago. Opal laughed quickly stopping as Katniss's expression changed. Peeta was standing there directly across the table from her, behind the empty seat next to Johanna. Katniss momentarily choked on the breadsticks in her throat, Opal shot her a reassuring glance giving the teen a small squeeze under the table.

"Peeta," Opal smiled "It's so nice to see you out...and about." Two large guards stood behind him and he held his tray awkwardly balanced on his fingertips since his wrists were shackled with a short chain between them.

"What's with the fancy bracelets?" asked Johanna.

"I'm not quite trustworthy yet," said Peeta "I can't even sit here without your permission." he indicated to the guards behind him.

"Sure he can sit here. We're old friends," said Johanna as she patted the space between her and Opal. The guards looked at Opal waiting for her permission, she gave them a nod which made them lead Peeta to the seat "Peeta, Opal and I had adjoining cells in the Capitol. We're very familiar with each other's screams." Opal felt herself tense up at the mention of the Capitol, her heart began to race as she zoned out. Finnick shot Johanna an angry look as his arm encircled Opal. "What? My head doctor says I'm not supposed to censor my thoughts. It's part of my therapy,"

The life had been drained from their little party. Finnick murmured things to Opal until she finally zoned back into reality. There was a long pause of silence where people pretended to eat.

"Opal," said Delly brightly, "did you know that it was Peeta who decorated your wedding cake? Back home, his family ran the bakery and he did all of the icing."

Opal smiled looking across Johanna "Thank you, Peeta. It was beautiful."

"My pleasure, Opal," said Peeta. Katniss smiled at the note of gentleness his voice held, something she thought was gone forever.

"If we're going to fit in that walk, we better go," Finnick told her, giving the women a light squeeze. He arranged both their trays so he could carry them both in one hand while holding Opal tight with his other "Good seeing you, Peeta."

"You be nice to her, Finnick. Or I might try and take her away from you" said Peeta. Opal contorted her face confused, it could have been a joke if his tone of voice wasn't so cold. Everything it conveyed was wrong. The open distrust of Finnick, the implication that Peeta had his eye on Opal, that Opal could desert Finnick, that Katniss did not even exist.

"Oh Peeta," said Finnick lightly "Don't make me sorry I restarted your heart." He led Opal away after the pair gave Katniss a concerned glare. At the door, a man stopped Opal due to there still being a chunk of bread in her hand but he went easy on her and let the woman quickly shove it into her mouth. The air held a sadness as they continued to walk, the halls of District thirteen feeling more ominous than ever.

"I want to go to the Capitol with you," Opal finally muttered, causing Finnick to shake his head.

"No way." he replied in a stern tone "I just got you back, I'm not losing you again."

Opal sighed running her hand through her hair "You told me that you never want to spend a day away from me again, Finnick if anything ever happened to you I'd lose myself and you know that."

"It's too dangerous," said Finnick.

"I'll be with you," Opal pleaded "You will keep me safe."

Finnick huffed unsure of what to do "Fine but you cannot leave me side. You understand?" Opal simply nodded her head giving him a small smile.

Opal threw herself into training with vengeance. Eat, live, and breathe the workouts, drills, weapons practice, and lecture on tactics. A handful of them were moved into an additional class that gave her hope that she may be a contender for the actual war. The soldiers simply called it the Block, but the tattoo on her arm listed it as S. S. C., short for Simulated Street combat. Deep in thirteen, they built an artificial Capitol City street. The instructor broke them into squads of eight and they attempted to carry out missions- gaining a position, destroying a target, searching a home - as if they were really fighting their way through the Capitol. The thing was rigged so that everything that can go wrong for you does. A false step triggered a land mine, a sniper appeared on a rooftop, your gun jammed, a crying child led you into an ambush, and your squadron leader - who was just a voice on the program - got hit by a mortar and you had to figure out what to do without instructions.

Part of Opal knew it was fake and that they weren't going to kill her. If you set off a land mine, you'd hear the explosion and have to pretend to fall over dead. But in other ways, it felt pretty real, the enemy soldiers were dressed in peacekeeper uniforms, the confusion of a smoke bomb. They even gassed them. Opal, Katniss, and Johanna were the only ones to get their masks on in time. The rest of their squad got knocked out for ten minutes. And the supposedly harmless gas that Opal took a few lungfuls of gave her a wicked headache for the rest of the day. Cressida and her new crew tape Johanna, Opal, and Katniss on the shooting range. Opal knew Finnick and Gale were also being filmed as well. It was part of a new proposed series to show the rebels preparing for the Capitol invasion. On the whole, things were going pretty well.

Just a few days before the first troops are to move out, York unexpectedly told Johanna, Katniss, and Opal that she had recommended them for the exam, and they were to report immediately. There were four parts: an obstacle course that assessed your physical condition, a written tactics exam, a test of weapons proficiency, and a simulated combat situation in the Block. Opal didn't even have time to get nervous for the first three and do well, but there was a backlog in the Block. Some sort of technical bug they were working out. A group of them exchanged information. You would have to go through it alone, with no idea of what situation you'd be thrown into. One boy said, under his breath, that he heard it was designed to target each individual's weakness.

Opal hitched her breath, her weakness was not a door she wished to be opened, but she found a quiet spot and tried to assess what it could have been. The length of the list depressed her. Lack of physical brute force. The idea of drowning. A bare minimum of training. And somehow her standout status as the Silverfish didn't seem to be an advantage in a situation where they were trying to get her to blend in with the pack. Johanna was called three ahead of Opal, and Katniss shortly after. She wished she had been at the top of the list because she had started to really overthink the whole thing. By the time Opal's name was called, she didn't know what her strategy would be. Fortunately, once she was in the Block, a certain amount of training started to kick in. It was an ambush situation. Peacekeepers appeared almost instantly and Opal had to make her way to a rendezvous point to meet up with her scattered squad. She slowly navigated the street, taking out Peacekeepers as she went.

Two on the rooftop to her left, another in the doorway up ahead. It was challenging, but not as hard as she expected. There was a nagging feeling that it was too simple and she must be missing something. She was within a couple of buildings from her goal when things started to heat up. A half dozen Peacekeepers come charging around the corner. They would outgun her, but Opal noticed something. A drum of petrol lying carelessly in the gutter. That was her test. Blowing up the drum would be the only way to achieve her mission. Just as she stepped out to do it, her squadron leader, who had been fairly useless up till that point, quietly ordered her to hit the ground. Every instinct she had told her to ignore it and blow the Peacekeepers up, after everything they had done they deserved it. And suddenly, Opal realized what the military would think her greatness weakness was. From the moment in her games where she had hunted all the other tributes down. Opal would never stop until the people she loved were avenged.

She smacked the ground so hard and fast, that she'd be picking gravel out of her chin for a week. Someone else blew up the petrol tank and the Peacekeepers died. Opal made her way to her rendezvous point and when she exited the Block on the far side, a solider congratulated her and stamped her hand with the squad number 451 and told her to report to Command.

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I know its been MONTHS since I updated this story but my laptop has been broken for ages, but I'm back to my normal writing activities now :)