AELLA BARELY MANAGED TO keep her body from trembling. There was so much emotion surging through her she didn't know how to control it all. For the first time since she'd been rescued from the Capitol she just wanted to be numb again. She didn't want to feel any of it but she knew she'd never get her way, not unless she grabbed that bag full of sedatives and administered them all to herself.

There were far too many watchful and cautious eyes on her. She could feel them all staring into her soul and the people she didn't know—didn't recognise—were putting her on edge.

The building they'd found to take shelter in for the night was surprisingly intact despite the disarray on the street. She had sat down with Peeta in a far corner and tried to keep him from slipping into that distant place in his mind when Boggs had returned. Everyone straightened, waiting to see what he had to say, for the explanation as to why Aella and Peeta had joined them. Only a few of them truly believed the words she'd spoken about Coin using them.

Everyone was surprised when Boggs ignored them all and walked straight over to Aella and Peeta. Like he'd expected her to, she froze when she sensed him nearing her. He stopped a reasonable distance away, six or so feet, and crouched down so he was in level with her sitting on a bench with Peeta. He was relaxed around her, weapon completely discarded somewhere and he was open. He tried to show her he wasn't a threat in the only way he knew how and it worked.

Her shoulders loosened while she looked at him, "Everything okay?"

He merely nodded at her, "I want to introduce you to the team," he said to her with somewhat of a soft tone, "I don't want anyone to be a stranger to you."

Her throat bobbed. Boggs knew how she felt about people she didn't know being around her. It had never bothered her until she had been captured. The fact that he remembered... it made her feel slightly less on edge and she found herself nodding. He copied her action and rose to his feet, holding his arm out for her to go first.

He didn't guide her far. Peeta was still within close distance to her but she could see everyone around her and she squared her shoulders again. She stood beside Boggs, the person closest to her after that was Finnick but even then he was fifteen feet away from her, easily.

"Aella and Peeta will be joining our team," Boggs announced, "most of you already know each other but there are unfamiliar faces here." He turned to Aella, "Aella I want you to meet Second Lieutenant Mitchell, best sharpshooter in Panem."

Aella swallowed as she looked at the unfamiliar man. He seemed to be middle aged, average size, average build. She didn't know him and he was probably a nice man but he made her feel uncomfortable and Boggs saw that he did.

He pointed to two blonde haired women next who looked to be twins. They both gave Aella a warm smile that she couldn't reciprocate no matter how hard she tried, "These are the Leeg sisters, they're First Combat Division."

She met Boggs gaze and said dryly, "I don't know what that means."

"I know," he nodded before he gestured to a smaller man with dark hair and a beard, "This is Corporal Homes."

He nodded once at Aella but still that discomfort remained.

Her eyes landed on the dark haired woman standing opposite her then. Boggs had called her Jackson. Her face was stoic. She offered no warm smile like the Leeg sisters had. Instead, she looked at Aella with cool indifference, almost as if she was trying to figure her out.

The man saw her look at Jackson. Everyone was well aware of the two women looking at one another. Aella still had all her daggers sheathed in the many holsters built into her clothes but she made no move to retrieve one. Instead, her hands were fisted by her sides, anything to make the tremble of her right hand unnoticeable.

"This is Lieutenant Jackson." Boggs introduced.

Aella made no move to regard her and Jackson was the same. Both women just stared at each other for a short period of time before Boggs eventually cleared his throat and looked around their squad, "They want us to add him to the propo. Show that he's on our side now."

Aella's eyes slid from Jackson to Boggs and she said, "I told you." Something unfamiliar flashed in Boggs' eyes when he looked at Aella. She saw it and lifted her chin, folding her arms tightly over her chest she asked, "And what did they say about me?"

"They want you in the propo's too," he began, "but ultimately it's to try and keep Peeta calm."

A pressed smile rose to Aella's face as a bitter expression pulled at her features. She looked almost smug but she didn't say anything else on the matter.

"We'll move forward a few blocks tomorrow and shoot the new footage." Boggs said to them all.

"He's not in control of himself." Gale said and Aella fixed her eyes on him and narrowed them into a glare.

"I say we schedule an around-the-clock watch on him." Jackson said from beside Boggs, "The Leegs till 1700, Homes and Mitchell till 1900–"

"Give me a watch." Katniss interrupted.

"And if it really came down to it, you think you could shoot him?"

"I wouldn't be shooting Peeta." Katniss argued, "I'd be killing a Capitol mutt."

Aella's eyes narrowed into slits as she glared at those who surrounded her, "Wow, Katniss," She spat with such fire. Her anger was growing with each passing second they stood and spoke about him as if he wasn't a real person with real feelings... but to them he wasn't, not anymore anyway.

"I'm not sure that kind of a comment recommends you for the job, either, soldier." Jackson responded.

"Put her in the rotation." Boggs ordered.

Aella scoffed bitterly, her hand clutching her arm so tightly while she shook her head to herself. The edges of her vision were starting to darken—blurring in sheer and utter rage. She couldn't control it. No matter how hard she tried. All eyes were on her. She could feel them weighing her out, passing their judgement on her. She could hear their thoughts, she wasn't any less sane as Peeta, would she try to kill them, too? She had a track record for attacking first and asking questions later but she hadn't killed anyone in District Thirteen. She'd come close but ultimately no one had died under her hand.

Yet.

Perhaps they thought she was just as much as a ticking time bomb as Peeta.

"You're talking about him as if he isn't sitting right there." She said finally, looking back at where Peeta sat at a discarded table. The Leeg sisters sat behind him—armed—and Finnick sat opposite him, a deep frown on his face and concern swirling in those sea-foam green eyes. She looked away, back at those who deemed themselves high enough to pass judgment on she and him and for what? What gave them the right to do that? What made Peeta and Aella different from any of them. Just because they had gone through something traumatic that had changed them didn't give them the right to be judged so heavily by people who didn't know them.

"You know nothing." She said to them before pointing at Katniss and Gale, "And you two?" She scoffed again, "Christ. I don't know how you dare. You haven't seen him in weeks. But even then, Katniss, the last time you bothered to visit him he was still locked under restraint."

She squared her shoulders in defence, "He tried to kill me."

"And he shattered my fucking hand." She responded with a level voice but her tone was sharp. She wouldn't raise her voice in front of Peeta. She knew it would frighten him, "Yet I went back. What kind of person does that make me, hmm? What kind of person does that make you?"

Gale rose to his feet and looked at Aella, "That's enough—"

But Aella wasn't done, "The second he came back and you realised he wasn't the same Peeta you left in that arena you cast him aside as if he was nothing." She snarled, "You wanted nothing to do with him. Everyone gave up on him. I refused. He protected you in the Capitol. You were the only person who truly kept him going, not me Katniss, you.... And you left him."

Red hot anger sliced through Aella's veins and she couldn't keep it down any longer. It tore her apart from the inside out but instead of attacking, she fell apart. Tears pricked her eyes as she defended Peeta. She would defend him until the day either one of them died and then afterward. Her lip trembled as she looked around the room and dished out hateful glares to them all, "Think what you want of him but he's not some fucking mutt. He's still a person. He's still Peeta...just as much as I am Aella."

•    •   •

The tension had been thick since Aella had spoke her mind all those hours ago. No one dared speak much after it. She had sat on one of the many sofas in the abandoned apartment in utter silence until it had gotten dark. Finnick tried to speak to her but she ignored him. He didn't leave her side though, he was always there. 

The passing of hours was marked when the rotations for Peeta's watch were changed. Katniss had a two hour slot from eleven until one in the morning and while most of them slept Aella remained wide awake. She wanted to tell them there was no point in setting up a watch, that she'd be awake all night anyway but no one even thought to include her in it. They all knew she wouldn't kill him.

The very distant sound of a bomb exploding made her jump. That silence she hated so much was plaguing her and it made the sound of the bombing feel closer than what it was. Every part of her was on high alert and she hated it. She drew her knees up to her chest and locked her arms around them, dropping her head to rest on her knees. Finnick didn't even stir beside her.

She didn't move from that position, not for a long time until she heard Peeta say, "We've been here before, you know."

Aella lifted her head silently. She, Katniss and Peeta were the only three in the room awake. Katniss was leaning against the wall to Aella's left and Peeta was on the sofa opposite her.

Aella wasn't sure if Katniss knew she was awake but if she did she didn't say anything. She merely looked at Peeta and said, "What?"

"That look." Peeta said to her, "I've seen that look. You're trying to decide whether or not you should kill me."

"I never wanted to kill you." Katniss said before she paused and turned away from him, "And that's not what I'm doing."

Aella remained silent, watching with interest. She and Peeta had had plenty of conversations about Katniss while she was trying to help him recover what was real and what was been modified and implanted by the Capitol. It had been a very rocky start but toward the end he'd managed to talk about her without showing any signs of hostility or hate. This was the first proper conversation he and Katniss were having in a long time and she was curious to see how Peeta handled himself.

"I saw it with my own eyes." He responded calmly, "In the first Games."

"In the first Games, I thought you were trying to help the Careers kill me." Katniss explained, "After that, I always saw you as an ally."

Peeta nodded before he said, "Friend, lover, Victor, fiancee, enemy, target, mutt. And now ally?" He snapped, "Yeah, I'll add that to the list of words I use to try to figure you out."

Aella remained seated. She could see the frustration on Peeta's face, hear it in his voice but she wasn't so sure he was going to actually do anything. Katniss was a complex person and to make it worse she liked to hide and lie about her feelings. She wasn't exactly making it easier for him when he was trying to figure out something he probably hadn't even made sense of before the Capitol twisted his mind.

Around them, people began to wake up. Peeta's quiet voice had turned harsh and somewhat raised. No one was getting proper sleep to start with. The sound of someone's snore was waking someone else up. It was no surprise his outburst woke the whole team up.

Beside her Finnick sat up slowly. He rubbed his eyes tiredly, looking from Peeta to Aella and she met his gaze for a fleeting second as his brows furrowed. He seemed to be asking her whether she'd been to sleep and she pressed her lips together and shook her head once before she looked back at Peeta.

"I'm sorry." He apologised to everyone he'd woke up, "I just can't tell what's real and what's made up anymore."

"Ask me, Peeta." Aella said softly from across the room. He met her gaze and his eyes softened as he looked at her. She merely nodded in encouragement, reminding him she was right there.

Finnick was sitting right beside her, his arm resting over his bent knee as he looked at Peeta and nodded, "It helps remember?"

"You can ask any of us." Jackson said, "We're your unit now."

Aella's throat bobbed and she bit into her top lip while continuing to watch Peeta. He looked away from Jackson and dropped his gaze to the ground fleetingly before he looked up at Katniss. Aella had tried to help him as much as she possibly could but there were questions she couldn't answer. She hoped Katniss would be able to fill in those gaps for him.

"Your favorite color is green. Is that real?" He asked her.

"Yeah. That's real." Katniss nodded before she said, "Yours is orange. Not bright orange. Soft, like the sunset."

Peeta barely nodded and said, "El told me."

Katniss glanced fleetingly at Aella. She'd never heard anyone call her by that specific nickname before, never mind Peeta. Aella noticed her attention, sensed her confusion and shrugged once nonchalantly before saying quietly, "Our cells were next to each other. It got lonely in the nights were we couldn't sleep," she offered briefly before looking to her knees and whispering, "talking kept us sane."

She swallowed the lump in her throat as the vulnerability crept in. Finnick shifted closer to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. When she didn't tense under him he guided her body into his, pulling her flush against his chest and wrapping her in an embrace. Her eyes stared distantly at the floor and he pressed a loving kiss to her hair, feeling her curl into his body after a few short seconds.

It was their first embrace since she'd arrived.

Katniss watched it—watched them. The envy that took hold of her was almost suffocating and she looked at away and to Peeta, offering more, "You're a painter... You're a Baker... You always sleep with the windows open... You never take sugar in your tea... You always double-knot your shoelaces." And then she swallowed the lump in her throat and looked fleetingly at Jackson, "You were right. I can't do this."

She grabbed her bow and arrow and got up, walking away from him and over to the opposite side of the room to sit next to Gale.

Aella offered Peeta a sympathetic smile as everyone began to settle back down. She felt Finnick brushing a stray lock of hair away from her face that had fallen from her braid and twisted her head to look up at him above her, "You should get some sleep."

Her throat bobbed. He felt her fist his shirt as she whispered, "I'm scared."

"It's okay," He reassured her, "I'm right here." She looked at him, not convinced and he brushed his knuckle across the new scar near her eye, "Even if you lie down, close your eyes. Just rest, Ella."

Finally she nodded, "Okay."

A pressed smile stretched over his lips and he shifted to lie down with her. He laid on his back on the sofa bench, his arm still wrapped around her as her body curled into his side. Her head rested against his chest and she heard the steady drum of his heart. His warmth mixed with that familiar scent of sandalwood and the ocean breeze calmed her. It eased the roaring in her head and she closed her eyes, the lull of his heart coaxing her into sleep.

But what she wished would've been dreamless slumber ended up being one of the worst nightmares she'd ever had in her life. Mutants chasing her down the street, tearing her family to pieces... Finnick's agonising screams continued to pound in her ears even as she awoke with a start.

She gasped, eyes wide as she looked around the darkened space she'd fallen asleep in. The small hand held lamps they were using to illuminate the room were still on but it was still predominantly dark. The moon was still high in the sky outside.

She noticed Peeta was still sitting near her and Finnick was sleeping soundly next to her, his chest rising and falling with each even breath. She hadn't woken either of them and for that she was thankful. But she could feel the erratic pounding of her heart and that familiar tightness in her chest.

The dishevelled entry way they'd sought out shelter underneath while large enough to fit over a hundred people still made her feel eerily claustrophobic. Or perhaps it was Finnick's hand on her thigh.

Either way, she moved it off of her slowly and pushed herself up on to shaking feet. Getting to her feet while trying to keep quiet was a hard enough job. She doubted many of her squad would truly be asleep. Most of them were probably just lightly sleeping—still on alert whether they wanted to be or not and she knew even the quietest of sounds would wake them. She'd been there, she'd done it...twice. She knew when your life was truly threatened you couldn't actually sleep properly.

It was sleep versus rest. Resting was the next best thing. She didn't want to disturb anyone.

She didn't even bother to look at who was on watch over Peeta. She'd rather not have to look at them the next morning and know they'd watched her jump awake from a nightmare. She'd rather lie to their face in the morning when they asked if she was okay.

She tip-toed her way through the living room and out to the threshold of the broken doors. Once over them, she walked over to a crumbling wall and sat down on it before taking a deep breath and willing it to calm her down. The soft breeze of wind against her face was a blissful feeling. She couldn't believe she'd come to a point in her life when she thought herself lucky to be able to feel such a thing, that she could look up at the night sky and see the stars dancing over her.

She focused on that. The simple beauty of such things and continued to breathe. Eventually the pressure on her chest lessened and she felt her heart lull to a calming beat once more. She had no desire, however, to go back inside and pretend to be asleep. No, she was awake now and that would be it until she crashed again.

Light footsteps behind her caught her off guard and she jumped hearing them. She turned her head quickly, cursing herself for leaving all her weapons inside, but eased somewhat when she saw Boggs walking toward her. He didn't say anything as he approached, he merely offered her a very faint smile—the first kind of emotion she'd ever seen him display. It wasn't until he reached her did he say, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

She shook her head dismissively and responded, "It's fine. I'm afraid of my own shadow these days."

He nodded in silence before gesturing to a part of the wall that was still standing, "Can I sit?"

"Yeah." She nodded dryly, tilting her head back and looking up at the stars again, "I didn't wake you did I?"

Boggs shook his head. He wasn't on watch over Peeta but he hadn't been able to sleep either. He'd been sitting awake for longer than he cared to admit and when he'd seen Aella startle awake with a gasp he'd followed her outside to make sure she was okay.

"No." He told her, "You didn't."

"Good." She nodded and silence seeped between them again before she broke it, "You know when Coin forced Finnick out here I demanded she send me with him." Boggs looked over at her but kept silent waiting for her to continue, "The idea of him not being close by was terrifying to me but actually being here is far, far, worse."

He swallowed, "Why did she really send you here, Aella?"

A contemplative look flashed across her face before she said, "After Finnick told me she was sending him out I went up to command and called her a cold hearted, selfish, bitch," she admitted honestly, "and then I told her that she was poison just like President Snow and that Panem would realise soon enough..." she looked at Boggs and saw neutrality on his face before she added, "I've spent years in the hamster wheel, Boggs. I know when someone is using me as a pawn. Coin might've had everyone fooled at the beginning but it never passed me."

He nodded thoughtfully and said, "She said from the very moment she met you that she didn't like you." He told her truthfully, "But she knew she needed you if she wanted to stand any chance at winning this war."

Aella held Boggs' gaze, not at all surprised to hear his words. She had known all along that Coin disliked her. It was no skin off her nose, "I knew from the moment she made that announcement stating if Katniss and I were to fail at rallying the Districts she would call off our agreement to rescue Peeta, Johanna and Annie she was a snake." She said to him, "And I honestly believe she would've left me to rot in the Capitol if it was just me there."

It felt refreshing to be able to say that aloud, even if it was to someone President Coin considered to be loyal to her. Aella didn't trust many people in her life but she had grown to trust Boggs. His silence was her answer however. She was right in her assumptions. That, or Boggs agreed with her. If it had just been her in the Capitol, Coin would've left her for dead.

"I am no one's pawn, Boggs." She told the man truthfully, "Four years ago I lost everything because I refused to be a pawn. I'll be damned if I start letting someone control me now."

Boggs nodded and cleared his throat before saying, "President Coin doesn't like anyone she can't control. I know in her mind we've already won this war. She's thinking about the election, about how she's going to win, and who's going to support her."

Aella snorted, "It definitely won't be me."

"Exactly," Boggs nodded, "and that makes you a threat."

"We're all a threat to her." Aella responded, "She knows that I'll drag her through the mud because she knows I can. She's seen me do it with Snow and I made a promise to her that Panem would see her for what she truly was. I am many things, Boggs, but I'm a woman of honour. I keep my promises. Katniss is the thorn in her side she can't control. You and I both know Coin didn't send her to the front lines like she claimed to have done."

"No, she didn't." He agreed.

"She knows Finnick will follow whatever I do or decide. He wanted to believe that her intentions were pure when she agreed to take us in after the Quell but he's realised she's just as bad as Snow. So has Daniel and Clio."

"And Peeta?" Boggs asked her curiously, "What about him?"

Aella sighed heavily, "She knows he's a ticking time bomb," she said quietly, something like pain in her tone, "she's hoping that he loses it knowing I'll try to keep him sane. Probably hopes that he'll kill me before killing Katniss and then one of you will kill him."

"I won't let that happen." Boggs told her honestly.

"No," Aella said, "neither will I."

"I plan on you all having long and healthy lives, Aella," Boggs said reassuringly, "god knows you deserve it."

She nodded in gratitude, her heart squeezing at the notion and said, "Thank you, Boggs."

•    •    •

The sun was slow to rise that morning. Aella knew it had to have been at least six hours she had been awake for before the first of the team woke up that morning. When Finnick had rubbed his tired eyes he'd looked at her and asked if she'd gotten any sleep and Aella had nodded her head with a small smile and lied straight to his face. She hadn't wanted to give him anything else to worry about when it came to her. The small white lie was practically nothing anyway.

The team had readied themselves to push forward. Cressida had given Peeta his lines for the propaganda video they'd be shooting later that day while Finnick and Aella had been with him. Finnick had taken the paper from Peeta with a genuine smile and promised he'd help him memorise them all the while Katniss watched the three of them from afar with indifference on her face.

Aella and Peeta had taken the medication the doctors in District Thirteen had put them on and they were all getting ready to leave when Boggs cleared his throat.

Aella had been busy checking the straps of her holsters and ensuring they were tight enough when he caught her attention. She looked up when she heard a gun cock.

"Listen up," Boggs said, walking over to them, he held an empty magazine for them all to see in one hand and a gun in the other, "mag's empty. It's only for the propo." He fitted it, cocked the gun again and handed it to Peeta who had taken it silently in his still cuffed hands.

Aella was biting into her gums when Boggs focused his attention on her as she stood next to Peeta. He pulled something small out of his pocket and handed it to her in the palm of his hand. She glanced curiously at it, a small blue capsule, before pursing her lips and looking back up at Boggs, "You should know I won't take anything anyone gives me without seeing a label first, Boggs."

The air in the room shifted significantly. It had already been tense but hearing her insinuate to her time in the Capitol where she was drugged repeatedly made it worse by tenfold.

"It's a Nightlock pill." He replied simply.

Aella's brows pulled into a frown as she looked back at the blue pill in the man's hand. Her arms remained by her side when she said, "Poison?"

"In the event of capture."

Blood pulsated behind her ear from them words alone. She wasn't sure she was breathing when she lifted her palm up and allowed Boggs to drop the pill into her hand. For whatever reason, she expected it to feel heavy as she held it. Such a small pill held such power. It would kill her in seconds if it was anything like real Nightlock.

She wasn't sure she should truly be in possession of one but clearly Boggs trusted her enough to give her one and she was grateful for that. But his words... capture. It made her feel something she didn't want to feel.

With a composing breath she tucked the pill into a small pocket in the vest of her jacket and zipped it up, making sure it was safe there. She didn't want to think about if she'd ever need to reach for it but she knew deep down if it came to something like that Snow would prefer her execution to be public where he could watch rather than hearing how she'd been shot dead on a desolate street by some nobody Peacekeeper.

When she looked up at Boggs again she masked that mind numbing fear in her eyes and nodded, "Thanks."

He reciprocated her action before looking around the team, "Let's move," he ordered, "We're headed five blocks north."

Everyone piled out, following Boggs as he lead the way with the Holo in his hands. Aella and Finnick walked silently in the middle of the group, Peeta between them, as they began their walk but before they had even left the abandoned apartment block they'd taken shelter in Finnick grasped Aella's arm lightly and looked at her in concern, "You okay?"

Aella nodded before rising on her toes and pressing a surprise chaste kiss to his lips, "Fine, promise." Were her words.

He could only nod, surprised from her kiss as she walked out beside Peeta. He caught up to them in less than five strides, the paper with Peeta's lines on in his hand as he read over it while they walked. The journey was entirely silent apart from him and Peeta rehearsing his lines.

Aella slipped off to a far away place in her mind as they walked but she tried to stay out of it. She found herself often looking over at Peeta and Finnick as they spoke amongst themselves, grateful to have them both there with her. She was grateful to Finnick for not holding what Peeta did to her arm against him. For helping her try to help him over the months. Seeing them able to converse—watching Finnick help Peeta—made her choke up.

"To the citizens of the capitol, our war is not with you." Finnick read aloud for Peeta.

"To the citizens of the capitol, our war is not with you." He recited.

"You will be a vital part of the democracy that follows our victory."

"Be a vital part of the democracy that follows our victory." Peeta replied though his tone was practically monotonous. Aella had a feeling it wouldn't get anymore enthusiastic, or even have a little more emotion behind it.

Finnick looked at Peeta, a smile on his face, "You got it."

"Okay." Peeta responded.

They continued to walk through the blocks, the buildings becoming higher and more extravagant. They'd left the wrecked and decrepit apartments behind and moved on to streets where the war hadn't reached but it was still abundantly clear they'd been evacuated. They were still desolate.

Boggs led them under a breezeway and into a new block of tall apartment buildings. Grey stone surrounded them and the buildings circled around a mundane courtyard that the path led to, fifteen or so steps down. The pathway continued to an archway in the courtyard and then led to the narrow exit. Everyone seemed to slow down, looking at the tall buildings looming over them but all Aella could feel was claustrophobia.

Twisted realities of those high buildings curling in toward her, crumbling down on her and suffocating her sprang to her mind and she released a shuddering breath, "It's like fucking deja vu." She mumbled.

Cressida stepped past Aella as she stopped completely, "Boggs." She called and the man stopped to turn to her, 'This is a good spot." She nodded, "Through there, in the courtyard."

"Okay, let us clear it." He nodded, guiding the way down the steps. Aella followed the group listening as the Holo started beeping in a way she hadn't heard and they all drew to a stop at the bottom of the steps before the tall archway when Boggs said, "Got a pod. Split. Take cover."

Aella's feet carried her off to the left, following Cressida, without even thinking about it. She stood between the blonde woman and Gale but when she looked across she saw that Finnick and Peeta had split to the right. Finnick was frowning at Aella next to Peeta and just as Aella stepped past Gale to walk over to them Boggs tossed a rock between the stone archway and raging gunfire began.

Gale grabbed Aella—who had been far too close to the edge of the wall—and pulled her back just in time. Her heart lurched in her throat as her stomach became a hollow pit. She felt Gale's strong and large arms wrap around her small frame, her back now tucked against his chest and she reached up with her hands and clapped them over her ears while screwing her eyes shut.

The gunfire pounded against the pavement between them, chipping away at the stone slabs, and Aella felt her heart beating faster and faster with each passing second. She hummed to herself—anything to drown out the horrid noise and after what felt like hours it stopped and Gale's arms were loosening around her.

She swallowed deeply when Boggs yelled out, "All clear. Gale, Homes, with me. Leegs, take the wings."

Gale's hand slipped over her shoulder and she looked at him briefly while he glanced at her in concern, "Sorry." He apologised but she had no idea what it was for, "Are you alright?"

She nodded silently, not trusting her voice to come out clear and Gale merely nodded before stepping out into the street and following Boggs.

Aella loosed a heavy sigh while she placed her trembling hand against her chest. Her heart was slamming against her ribs and her knees were shaking so violently she thought she was going to collapse. She barely managed to get her hand against the cool stone to hold herself up before she fell and she dipped her chin as bile rose up into her throat. She coaxed herself to take deep, calming, breaths but her body was still shaking ferociously.

"Aella." She heard her name being whispered and she turned her head to the right to see Katniss looking at her. The woman said nothing about her state and Aella was thankful for that but she did glance fleetingly over to the rest of the team hiding behind the opposing stone wall and say, "Peeta."

Aella looked past Katniss and over to him. He was crouched against the floor, gun against the wall and his head dipped, pressing into the body of the weapon, butting his head off it lightly. Aella could see his shoulders heaving, could see his face turning red and for a split second she felt her heart stop.

It was happening.

Without even thinking twice about what Boggs had ordered of them she stepped out from beneath the wall and walked hurriedly over to Peeta, calling his name softly to warn him she was approaching. She stepped on empty gun shells but she barely made it five steps before a loud explosion shattered around them.

Her head whipped to the side so quick she saw stars for a brief moment. A puff of grey cloud seeped into the air fifty or so feet away from her and distant agonising screams bounced off the high walls entrapping them. The cloud of smoke dispersed and Aella saw a body lying on the ground.

She'd played this game before and lost it. Knew how it ended whenever she ran to the person who laid there and sobbed over their body as they laid dead.

So while everyone sprang into action around her to save both Boggs and one of the Leeg sisters, Aella merely glanced down and looked at the pavement underneath her boots. She looked for the tripwire, for the evident ridge that meant she'd stepped on some kind of pressure plate while her mind screamed that it was all her fault over and over again.

She hadn't even realised she was crying until strong hands wrapped around her upper arms and she was looking up at Finnick with blurry eyes. His mouth was moving but she could hear nothing over the forceful ringing in her ears. All she could do was turn her head and look at Katniss, Gale and Homes kneeled either side of Boggs' body with the Leeg sisters separated either side of them—one crying on the floor injured and the other looking desperately at her sister.

It was her fault. Her fault her fault her fault.

It was all she could hear, all she could think, but she watched the Leeg sister get up and run across the courtyard to her sister before falling to a startling stop and looking at the ground underneath her as the sound of a pressure plate shifting echoed around them.

It made Aella's heart stall in her chest as heavy metal clanked together and made a grinding noise. It almost felt real with Finnick standing in front of her, holding her arms so tight but that was what made her realise it wasn't. It was just another twisted nightmare—some cruel hallucination the Captiol implanted into her mind. But even if it was, her entire body still flooded with fear as each of the four exits of the block was cornered off with thick, heavy, metal doors.

And she could do nothing but stand there in paralysing fear as that familiar black oil fell on to the street in ferocious waves.

• • •