AELLA AND FINNICK HAD SEEN the lowest of lows. They'd rode the highest of highs. This time they were stuck somewhere in between.

Every hour was different. Aella was all over the place and Finnick wasn't far behind her. They were struggling with how they were feeling. The miscarriage had really put things into perspective for them. Neither of them had realised that they were ready, war or no. All Finnick could seem to think about was what would he happening in that alternate universe where Aella hadn't miscarried. All he could picture was how happy he would be, how excited to have a child with the woman he loved.

It was painful to live in the real world and fantasise about what could've been. Especially when Aella wasn't handling it well.

She'd bottled it up for too long she'd almost completely ignored it. It had happened and she had put it to one side to focus on Finnick without even a second thought. For seven days she didn't talk about it and she didn't think about it. But when she told Finnick... all those emotions she should've felt in those seven days came. They washed over her like a tsunami and dragged her under. She didn't have any energy to swim to the surface either. She was so lost.

When she had seen Clio the morning after she'd told Finnick she broke down worse than she had the previous night. Just seeing her there, her hand on her swollen belly as she rubbed back and forth mindlessly had almost killed her. She just wanted that to be her. She wanted to be the one so happy to be bringing a child into the world. She wanted to be Clio and Daniel so bad but she couldn't be and it tore her apart.

It was Finnick who had to tell them when Aella suddenly excused herself from the room. They were both in shock when they heard, especially when Finnick told them she would've been almost nine weeks at the time she miscarried.

She was pregnant when Daniel carried her down to the hospital at District Thirteen. Pregnant when the doctors and nurses pinned her to the bed and restrained her, when they injected her with sedatives...

It made them both sick to their stomach. Their loss was unimaginable and nothing could be said to make it better.

Aella didn't want to talk about it with anyone aside from Finnick. Her family understood that. She was coming to terms with it. The least they could do was give her the time she needed to figure it out.

Finnick was willing to let Aella do whatever she needed to do but he insisted she see Dr. Vann about it. She'd given him a lot of resistance at first but he'd been firm. They needed to know everything was still okay and eventually she had folded and agreed.

The appointment was fine. Aella was fine... well, her body was fine. It would had been a mixture of factors contributing to the miscarriage, Dr. Vann had told her, there was nothing she could've done to prevent it.

Hearing those words gave her mixed emotions. For days she'd blamed herself for it because she was the only one she could blame but hearing Dr. Vann say that changed everything. People had miscarriages, they lost their children. It happened everyday for numerous reasons. Even if she had stayed in District Thirteen the stress of thinking Finnick had died could've caused her to miscarry. It was something that happened everyday but she still couldn't make peace with it. It had still happened to her.

When she got back to her suite after her appointment she was surprised to find Clio sitting on the sofa in her entrance room. She didn't dress 'Capitol' anymore but there was still a level of extravagant to her clothes. Her woollen knitted dress was still made out of the most expensive wool in Panem. It was causal compared to what Effie Trinket was walking around in but Clio still oozed Capitol grace in her four inch heeled boots.

Aella frowned as she closed the door behind her and looked around. She couldn't see or hear anyone else and she looked back at Clio again, "What are you doing here?" She asked softly.

"Finnick said you were at an appointment," she replied, still sitting on the sofa. She'd forgone the crazy wigs and extravagant up-dos, too. Instead, her mousy brown hair was in a loose, low bun. Clio tucked her bangs behind her ear and continued, "Coin called a meeting for Victors only. Daniel and Finnick left five minutes ago. I said I'd stay here incase you came back before someone had the chance to tell you."

"Finnick went?" Aella asked.

Clio nodded, "He did well getting up."

Aella swallowed thickly. When she'd left he was still in bed, asleep. She hadn't wanted to wake him up either. He'd had a big day the day prior, getting out of bed and walking for the first time. He'd exhausted himself before seven in the evening. Aella wanted to be there to help him get ready when he woke up like he'd helped her. She didn't know how to feel knowing he'd done it without her.

She didn't know how to feel in general.

"Where's the meeting?" She asked Clio.

"The board rooms on the—"

"East wing." Aella interrupted her with a nod. Unease washed over her, coiling in her stomach and making her palms sweat. The one wing she wanted to avoid was wing Coin had selected for their meeting. She couldn't decide whether she wanted to cry or scream.

Clio looked at Aella in concern. She had been through so much in the last six months yet nothing had effected her as much as her miscarriage. It was like she'd lost herself and she didn't know how to find herself again. Clio hated that. The war was over and they were moving into a free world and Aella couldn't even enjoy it because of the burden of her miscarriage on her shoulders.

"Will you be okay?" Clio asked her softly.

Aella nodded immediately, "Yeah, I'll be fine," she said dismissively, "better go."

Before Clio could say anything else she was scurrying out of the room. Aella hated that she knew her way to the east wing. She hated that she had fought to keep her mind alert when the Peacekeepers had drugged her so she could memorise the twists and turns incase she ever did get a chance of escaping. She hated that she walked past Snow's office knowing Cayenne and Flax had died there, she hated that she walked past that interview room knowing it was the last time she'd seen Peeta before they hijacked him.

She just hated being in the mansion and she knew if she didn't get out of it soon she'd lose herself.

The double doors at the end of the hallway were already open. Aella could see into the board room ahead but she kept her chin up and kept walking until she reached the threshold of the doors and announced herself by saying, "Nobody told me it was a party."

Eyes turned and danced on her. Aella scanned the room that held her fellow tributes, each an ally of the rebellion apart from the woman closest to her. She hadn't seen Enobaria in a very long time but she knew she had been in the Capitol with her and that she had been rescued and taken to District Thirteen the same night she had. She'd lived in seclusion though Aella knew it was partially down to the fact she didn't dare show her face in Thirteen after what she and her fellow Careers had done in the Quell.

Even months on, standing in their new world, Aella had half the mind to tackle the woman to the table and strangle her to death for the complications they'd caused them.

No one replied to her words, instead they all just looked at her as if she was a piece of cracked glass, seconds from shattering. It infuriated her. Her blood turned to lava in her veins, heart drumming behind her ear. She gave a flat glare and said, monotonous, "What's this?"

"The remaining Victors," Coin replied, looking at Aella with a smile. It was the first time she had seen the woman since she called her poison and said she was just like Snow in a blind fit of rage after Finnick told her he was being deployed to the war. Nothing much had changed aside from her grey hair. It had been cut into a long bob, one that she didn't suit in Aella's personal opinion. The woman continued to look at her with that same smile as if she didn't remember her threatening her and she said, "Won't you join us?"

She had half the mind to turn around and walk back out but she didn't. Instead, she took a look around the room and saw the chairs already out around the circular conference table, spaciously placed six feet apart. Finnick was the only one sitting down at the table already and when he met her gaze he gave her a small smile.

Aella walked to the chair directly opposite President Coin, in between Finnick and Daniel and she took her seat silently. Everyone took that as their queue to sit. To Aella's right was Finnick. He sat next to Peeta who sat next to Annie who sat next to Johanna. Johanna sat to Coin's left and on her right was Beetee. Next to Beetee was Enobaria—conveniently forgetting that she'd attempted to kill him in the Quater Quell—and Haymitch was next to her. Katniss sat to Haymitch's right and Daniel sat between Katniss and Aella.

Aella leaned her arms forward against the mahogany wood, her hands clasped together as she watched Coin look around at the Victors seated. Of all the Victors who had been alive before the Quarter Quell only ten of them were still alive. Ten out of over sixty. Those who hadn't been killed in the Quell were killed in the Victors Purge after the Quell on the grounds of conspiring with the rebellion. Those who weren't killed in either had made it to District Thirteen or had become captives of the Capitol.

"I have invited you all here for several reasons, but first, I have an announcement," Coin said to them all, "I have taken the burden and the honor of declaring myself Interim President of Panem.

Aella loved hearing her pair those two words in a sentence together. It amused her to no end hearing her talk of burdens. As if she didn't want to have to declare herself as anything but President. It took all her strength to contain the scoff that was desperate to pass her lips. Instead she rose her brows and nodded once asking, "Have you now?"

Finnick knew the bite back was coming from her but he still couldn't contain himself. He shook his head as he dropped it, his bandages stretching tight as he did so. Seated on her other side Daniel didn't seem to be having the same problem as him. Instead, he was glaring at Coin with barely disguised hate crossing his arms over his chest.

"Interim?" Haymitch voiced as he actually released his scoff, "Exactly how long is that interim?"

"We have no way of knowing for certain," Coin replied with some hint of upset in her tone that was most definitely fake, "but it's clear that people are far too emotional right now to make a rational decision. We'll plan an election when the time is right."

Aella wanted to scream. The walls were starting to feel awfully close and Coin lying through her back teeth pretending to be someone who cared was pushing her toward the edge. She clenched her jaw tight, the sound of her knuckles popping echoing through the near-silent room as she squeezed her hands too tight.

"But I have called you here for a far more important vote. A symbolic vote," Coin said to them, "This afternoon, we will execute Snow."

Aella wasn't sure she was even breathing. Not as Coin dropped the first bomb that Snow was being executed in a matter of hours. Why no one had told her that she didn't know. Perhaps that didn't know themselves. Perhaps this was news to them too and not just her.

She looked to Daniel first but he refused to meet her gaze. Instead, he started forward at Coin with a clenched jaw before he dropped his head and shook it to himself almost in disbelief. So she turned her head to Finnick and she looked at him with furrowed brows but she didn't expect to see the grimace on his face. When he looked at her with an apologetic expression she felt as if someone kicked her straight in the gut. All her air pooled out her body with one sharp inhale. A quick glance at Peeta saw him tense, looking at her with sorrow and pleading in his eyes... as if he was begging for her forgiveness.

They all knew. Not one of them looked surprised to hear of Snow's impending execution apart from her and it almost made her combust. All she could focus on was the mixture of anger and betrayal she was feeling. What were they going to do? Keep her occupied whilst Snow was executed publicly and let her find out about it the next day by hearsay?

She couldn't school her features no matter how hard she tried. She couldn't contain her anger. It rolled off her in waves. That icy blue flame danced in her eyes and if she were some kind of fantasy character it'd encase her body. Her vicious eyes swept across the room as she said, "I'm sorry, it sounds to me an awful lot like you just said Snow will be executed today."

Coin nodded simply and said, "That's right."

Aella's nostrils flared as the full extent of her anger rose to the surface. Her body trembled with rage as she said, "And not a single one of you thought to say something to me?"

Finnick sighed lowly beside her and dropped his head, "Ella—"

"Who's idea was it to keep me in the dark?" She said harshly, interrupting him.

It was Daniel who tried next, "Aella just lis—"

She slammed her fist on to the table in anger before shouting, "Who Daniel?"

"We decided as a collective." Daniel said before he lowered his voice and grumbled, "It was a group vote."

Aella scoffed in pure rage and stood up. Her chair went skidding back from underneath her and bounced off the ground harshly but she barely registered it. She shook her head to herself, "A fucking vote," she mumbled to herself as she walked over to the window, "bullshit. Absolute bullshit." She swore.

"I voted we tell you." Johanna said from somewhere behind her.

Aella didn't even have it in her to turn around. She couldn't look away from the window, from the greenhouse which ironically backed out onto this side of the mansion. President Snow was currently spending the last remaining hours of his life in there, sitting and probably doing nothing. Here she was, finding out he was to be executed later that evening.

She couldn't physically comprehend how they thought they'd keep it from her.

After everything that man had put her through her family really were going to keep her in the dark. The betrayal stung deep and yet that voice of sense couldn't help but suggest that President Coin had done this knowing Aella didn't know. That she'd done it to cause unrest.

"We were going to tell you, Ella," Finnick's soft voice echoed through the board room. It was strained and tense but she didn't let it pull at her heart as he said, "I promise."

Aella shook her head, "I don't want to hear it right now, Finnick." She snapped, reaching for the window latch and undoing it. She pushed the window open as wide as it could go, feeling the high ceilings closing in on her. She couldn't leave just yet, not until they'd addressed everything Coin wanted to discuss. She had to stick it out for a few more minutes before she could leave.

"What did you gather us for, Coin?" Aella asked impatiently, still facing the window.

The tense atmosphere shifted and became even more frigid. The Interim President of Panem cleared her throat and said, "Following Snow's execution hundreds of his accomplices also await their deaths. Capitol officials, Peacekeepers, torturers, Gamemakers," she told them, "but the danger is, once we begin, the rebels will not stop calling for retribution. Thirst for blood is a difficult urge to satisfy. So I offer an alternative plan. Majority of six may approve it. No one may abstain.... The proposal is this. In lieu of these barbaric executions, we hold a symbolic Hunger Games."

Aella never thought she'd have to hear those words again. This new world was supposed to have been about moving on from the corruption and the tyranny and the fear that was caused by the Games. It was supposed to be about not making a spectacle of one another... about living in peace as a united front.

Now Coin wanted to say to hell with that and host a final Hunger Games with Capitol children? No. She was poison and this was Coin just confirming it herself.

Johanna broke the silence with a humourless chuckle that turned into laughter. She shook her head to herself before she dropped it back against the high back of the chair behind her and sighed,  "You wanna have another Hunger Games with the Capitol's children?"

"You're joking?" Peeta asked, flabbergasted.

"Not in the slightest." Coin shook her head.

"Is this Plutarch's idea?" Haymitch asked her with a scoff.

"It was mine," Coin replied. From the window Aella looked over at Katniss. The two women made eye contact for a split second and saw what the other was thinking in their eyes. They had been right all along. Coin was just as evil and heinous as Snow, "It balances the need for revenge with the least loss of human life. You may cast your votes."

She said it as if she was giving them permission to do so. Aella thought she was about to erupt into flame.

"Why is this about revenge?" Aella asked, turning and leaning against the window ledge. She focused her fiery glare on Coin, folded her arms over her chest and said, "The war is over. We're a free world now. That's all that matters, that's all everyone cares about. Not killing a group of innocent children just because they lived in the wrong place.... This is how the war came about, or were you too busy living in your ignorant bliss in Thirteen to actually realise this?"

"Aella—" Finnick spoke but she didn't listen to him.

"What's to say these 'symbolic' Games only stays with just these Games, hmm?" She asked Coin, "What's to say they don't become a regular thing again and we're stuck in the same cycle. How can you guarantee that?"

Coin's face remained stoic as Aella spoke to her. The woman hardly ever faulted in the presence of Aella—only that once when she told her she was exactly like Snow.

"It's a one-time Games. That will be stressed when the announcement is made." Coin replied.

Aella nodded once before asking, "And what about mentors? Stylists? What are you going to do with that? An arena... are you going to make us mentor these kids? No one else knows how to do it, after all," she said before shaking her head, "it's all so poorly thought out. Not to mention untasteful and down right immoral. You want to win this election Coin? Keep doing what you're doing because I can guarantee you won't win by doing this."

"I'm with Aella." Peeta spoke firmly, "No. No, obviously not. This is crazy."

"I think it's more than fair," Johanna said next though her vote was one Aella expected, "Snow's got a granddaughter. I say yes."

"So do I. Let them have a taste of it." Enobaria voted.

Aella rolled her eyes. Enobaria bared her teeth at her.

"You guys, this way of thinking is what started these uprisings." Peeta tried to reason.

"I vote no with peeta." Annie said.

Silence elapsed across the room. The tension was heavy and thick until Daniel said, "I vote yes."

Aella's jaw would've hit the floor if it weren't attached. She couldn't believe what she was hearing, she really couldn't.

Yes, Daniel hated the Capitol just as much as the next person but Aella never thought he'd vote yes for the Games, especially with a child of his own on the way.

But he would've had reasons of his own. Aella just had to remember that.

"No," Beetee voted, "We need to stop viewing each other as enemies.

Finnick swallowed deeply and nodded in agreement with Beetee, "We won't move on as a united people if we keep killing each other. I vote no, this ends today."

The three left to vote were the three most unpredictable of them all.

Coin turned to Aella and said, "Your vote, Aella?"

She scoffed humourlessly and said, "You're fucking joking, right?"

Finnick grimaced hearing the violence in her tone. If Clio were there to hear her she'd be outraged. He, and everyone else in the room, knew whatever she was about to say would be bad. If not some kind of threat.

"I need to hear your objection verbally." Coin replied unphased.

Aella's eyes narrowed into thin slits when she looked at Coin and said with a feline smirk, "I can't wait to watch you burn this world to the ground after everything we've all just been through trying to keep it alive."

Johanna's amused scoff was the only sound that followed. Finnick clenched his jaw nervously, looking to Daniel before at Aella. She was digging her grave deeper by the second.

For the first time, her fellow Victors and President Coin herself saw how Aella had threatened to assassinate President Snow during her individual assessment. It wasn't just what Plutarch Heavensbee had told them all anymore. It was real. The Huntress stood facing them all—the embodiment of power and grace. There she was after so long.

And they knew it was coming when she said next, "My vote is no, Coin, if you hadn't already guessed," then she straightened her back and lifted her chin, looking at Coin down her nose when she said, "I look forward to watching your execution after we win the third war."

And with her head held high Aella Barnes walked out of the boardroom, leaving them all sitting there in complete and utter shock. 

•    •    •

She was still reeling two hours later.

It was a miracle no one had been and arrested her yet if she was being honest. She expected it after all she'd said to Coin, especially in a room full of witnesses. But in that room of witnesses all except one would have her back until the very end. They'd all been through something horrible together. They'd all lost but one thing about being a Victor—about facing those losses together—was that they stuck together through thick and thin.

Aella knew if it ever came to it, and she had a feeling it would, her fellow Victors would take her side rather than Coin's. They all knew she had much more ammunition. She had so much more to unload she could take President Coin down in a matter for minutes. But she'd only unload it if Coin actually threatened her. If she did order her arrest. If she did threaten an execution or banish her to whatever District she desired—which is what Aella predicted her to—she would unleash hell upon Coin.

She had walked the grounds long enough and not even venturing out into the city was enough to calm her mind. She still felt claustrophobic. She could still feel invisible hands gripping her throat.

With a heavy breath she pulled the neck of her knitted jumper away. She had no idea which direction she was heading in. All she knew was that she was back on the grounds of the mansion but when a familiar greenhouse came into view she stopped dead in her tracks. For a moment, the world stopped moving. Aella stopped breathing and her heart stopped beating. Everything just stopped.

He was there, right there, and this could be her last ever opportunity to hear what she had been longing to know for all those long and painful years.

"I'm surprised it's taken you this long to come."

Aella jumped when she heard the voice. It came up on her when she least expected it to and as a consequence she hadn't even heard her approaching footsteps.

"I'm sorry," Paylor apologised, "I didn't mean to scare you."

Aella barely shook her head, her eyes still on the greenhouse, "It's fine." She said dismissively.

Paylor examined Aella's face and swallowed before looking to the greenhouse herself. The two women were silent for a minute before she said, "Do you want to see him?"

"I—" Aella fell short. Her brain just wasn't working but she knew her answer and somehow she managed to force out a quiet, "Yes."

Paylor looped her arm around Aella and placed it on her shoulder while saying, "Well you better pull yourself together. You're going to need all your strength in there."

Aella swallowed thickly, "I know."

"His execution is in less than two hours." Paylor advised her, "You don't have long."

She nodded once and Paylor guided her forward toward the greenhouse. Aella took deep breath after deep breath as they neared. When they arrived at the double glass doors and stopped her knees almost buckled. In any other circumstance had she been given this opportunity to speak to Snow one on one she'd of took it by storm while looking for an easily concealable weapon. Now she didn't even have the ability to breathe.

"Aella Barnes is here to see Snow on my authority." Paylor spoke to the two guards. Both men nodded submissively, looking between the two equally powerful women standing before them, "She stays for however long she needs to."

"Yes, Commander." They both nodded before reaching for the door handles and pushing the doors open for Aella to pass through.

Aella noticed two things without even stepping inside. The first was the heat in the greenhouse. Even if it was close to freezing outside and they were in the dead of winter the greenhouse was stifling. The humidity reminded her of the Quarter Quell. The second, and perhaps more pivotal, was the strong scent of white roses.

For as long as she lived she would never forget the smell of white roses. They haunted her nightmares but in that particular instance they fuelled her with rage and gave her the courage she needed to walk into that greenhouse with her head held high.

She didn't even register the doors as they were locked behind her. All she could focus on was the scent of roses and knowing that the man who was responsible for causing her all this pain and suffering was somewhere in this glass house. Every single scar on her body was Snow's fault, every single scar on her mind was his fault.

She walked the path until she saw a white rose sitting prettily in the greenery. The pristine white colour was so startling compared to the green leaves that surrounded it. She couldn't help but reach out for it, plucking it from the bush. She rolled the stem between her fingers, looking at the thorns and knowing the flower was such an accurate representation of the man who wore them. The innocent flower and the serpent underneath them and all that.

She tucked the rose into the top pocket of her jacket before she continued down the path of the greenhouse until she found him. He had his back to her, tending to a cluster of white roses as if he wasn't a murderer and a tyrant, as if he wasn't mere hours away from his death.

Snow tensed and he turned sensing her presence. When he faced her, Aella lifted her chin and looked down at him.

"Well, well, well, Miss. Barnes... or is it Mrs. Odair now?" He addressed her with a horrible smile, lips quirking in amusement.

Aella's eyes narrowed, "Not quite yet." She replied.

"Ah." He nodded, "Well, either way, what a surprise it is to see you here."

"Is it though?" Aella asked him curiously.

Snow narrowed his eyes for a moment before he shook his head and said, "If I'm being honest—and I'm a pretty honest man—I knew you would come, whenever you were given the opportunity. I'm assuming Coin let you off your leash to come pay a visit to me."

Aella's lips curled in disgust as she said, "I'm not her puppet or her pet. I want nothing to do with that woman."

"Ah," Snow mused, "starting to see through her?"

Aella shook her head, "I'm not here to talk to you about President Coin." She told him through narrowed eyes.

"Then why are you here, Miss. Barnes?" He asked.

For a brief moment Aella looked at him. The last time she had seen him face to face had been the day he'd ordered Cayenne and Flax's deaths in front of her whilst demanding she turn her back on the rebels. At that point in her life she thought she'd already been through so much, that she couldn't take much more. That was when she learnt what strength really was, when she finally realised how strong she was. Nothing could break her, she was Aella Barnes for god sake. The Huntress of Panem, the one who walked with a goddess at her side.

She was above this man. She was stronger than him and most importantly, she was not afraid of him.

"Why did you do it?" She asked, "Why make a spectacle out of my life?"

Snow rose his brow and tilted his head before he said, "You were the one who refused my rule, Miss. Barnes. I simply treated you the same as any other Victor who denied me."

"I was barely sixteen!" She yelled in a blind fit of rage. Her hands clenched by her side as she trembled and said, "Sixteen... and you wanted me to prostitute myself out to men triple my age!"

"I asked of you what I ask of all my desirable Victors." Snow replied stoically, his face frustratingly calm, "Do not think it is because you were special."

"Special?" Aella scoffed angrily. She took a deep breath before shaking her head and saying, "You could've asked anything of me, Snow, and I'd of said yes for the sake of my family...but asking me to do that knowing what Drew did to me is despicable."

"My people expressed their interest in you and I bet if Mr. Odair hadn't of warned you about it you'd of said yes."

"Because I was still a child." She stressed, "We were still children when we were dragged into all this. I wouldn't have known any different!"

A sick and twisted smirk pulled on Snow's lips when he asked, "Did Mr. Odair ever tell you about the type of parties I had him attend when he was sixteen?"

Aella shook her head in disgust. Nausea roiled through her and forced her to take a step back. She looked at the man with hatred in her eyes and whispered, "You're a fucking monster."

"You know, Miss. Barnes, if you'd of agreed I might've allowed you and Mr. Odair to be romantically involved. It would've made you both much, much, more valuable." He said to her.

"Shut up." She whispered, closing her eyes to try and fight back the burning hot tears of rage.

"You think I didn't know you were in love?" He asked her, "You think I didn't know you were spending every night on the phone together? That he was sending you letters every week? Why do you think I kept him working, kept him in the Capitol? It was so he couldn't see you."

"I did nothing to you," Aella said, dumbfounded, "nothing.... And yet you punished me mercilessly for seven years."

"You made a spectacle of me and my government, Miss. Barnes, when we were forced to take Drew Lopez to trial. You caused riots and uprisings in the Districts."

She didn't know people had rioted because of her, in support of her. She vaguely recalled Plutarch saying something about her heading the riots but she thought he was talking about the recent riots. All this time he'd been talking about how she'd been the reason they occurred all those years ago.

"I didn't ask them to do that!" She yelled, "The Districts did that because they knew what Drew did was disgusting and twisted. All I did was out him like he deserved to be."

"You almost caused me a war."

That stunned Aella into silence. They had been willing to go to war over it? Surely not.

"Why do you think your rebels admire you so much, Miss. Barnes?" Snow asked her in her silence, "Why do you think they follow your leadership? It's because they've been looking to you for years."

"Well what does that say about you, President Snow, when a fourteen year old almost turned over your government?"

Aella could hardly believe it. She truly had no idea she'd had such an influence on Panem. She didn't realise how loved she actually was, how much she was respected.

Hearing it felt almost like a full circle moment. She had spent years doubting herself, wondering what it was she was doing with her life. When the rebellion came about she knew she'd give her all into it whether that meant she lived or died. She thought she was an insignificant part in the plan until Heavensbee asked her to join the propaganda team. She never once imagined it was because the Districts looked up to her, however.

She was loved and she was respected and the people of Panem looked to her. She couldn't fail them. Not when she had the opportunity sitting in the palm of her hand to get this right. They had one shot at reforming this world, they had to make it count.

But first, Aella had one final card to play in the game that President Snow had invented. It was her final move, the one that would take her out of check-mate and put her into the winning position.

So she took Snow by complete surprise when she said, "How did you know we were in those tunnels?"

"A surveillance camera picked you up." Snow replied innocently, not even knowing how Aella was about to put him into check-mate.

"So you released mutts to kill us," she nodded to herself, "not a bad plan...except we were a group made of highly skilled, specially trained, killers."

"If that's the case why did so many of your team perish?" He asked her tauntingly.

Aella didn't fall for his bait, instead she used her master quality to manipulate the conversation into the direction she wanted it to take, "We had a goal. They sacrificed themselves to save us and lucky for us we had a man on our team who knew the catacombs well."

"I had Peacekeepers searching every street for you." Snow said before he began coughing violently. He covered his mouth with a tissue while he coughed before he lowered it and said, "You disappeared."

Aella shrugged, "Cressida knew the streets and she knew there was a safe house nearby."

"Safe house?" Snow asked as if he hadn't heard her.

"Of course," Aella nodded, "there were safe houses all over the Capitol." She bluffed. Truthfully, she had no idea if there was or if there wasn't but she wasn't about to tell Snow that. She wanted him to know just how deep routed this rebellion—this war—went. She wanted him to know his own people had turned against him.

When he remained silent, Aella said, "Plutarch had contacts, Snow," her lips curved into a half smirk before she said, "how else did you think they found us in the Tribute Centre? Coincidence? No. One of your own sold you out."

Snow just sat there and watched her with that lethal indifference on his face. Not even his brow quirked as he sat there amongst the garden of flowers and plants—anything with a scent strong enough to disguise the blood and stench of death.

So she continued telling her story, "The owner of the safe house let us straight in. We spent a few days there, as you can imagine." She said, "There were a number of days between us escaping and the final attack that brought you and this city to damnation. Some of us stayed behind until the rebel forces came for us. She helped us, saved us, and one night we got talking, her and I... We knew of each other from the Games but even if I hadn't seen her before I'd of known who she was. Her distinctive fashion.. it wasn't hard to guess."

A sigh pooled out of the man's lips that turned into a vicious cough. He brought the white tissues to his lips again to shield his mouth and when he had finished and pulled the tissues away Aella spied the splotches of blood marking them. How long would it have been if they'd of just seen it through? If they'd of laid low in District Thirteen after escaping the arena? Warned the rebels to do the same.. but none of them knew Snow was sick. The man looked a breath away from death and Aella couldn't help but wonder if thousands of innocent people had died for nothing.

Snow tutted as he beheld the tissues before meeting her gaze again and saying with disdain, "Tigris."

Aella barely nodded. Instead, the shimmer of her eyes confirmed the man's suspicion.

Betrayed by his own blood. He deserved it.

"She told me everything." Aella said quietly, "Everything, Coriolanus." And that emphasis was enough for Snow to finally show some slither of a reaction. His eyes widened just enough for her to note. Finally, in all her years of playing, Aella Barnes had gained the upper hand on Coriolanus Snow and her victory was glorious.

But Snow schooled his expression into something impassive. Too little, too late, however. Aella had already seen the shock that swept over his aging features and basked in it.

"And you thought by coming here you could tell me all this for what..?" The man questioned her, "To provoke a reaction out of me?"

She shrugged. There wasn't really a reason behind her coming. Even then she hadn't truly figured out what had compelled her into walking through those glass doors. She knew it wouldn't ever change a thing. His story wouldn't change anything... but a small part of her was curious to hear his side of it.

"There was no reason." She replied honestly, "Perhaps I just wanted bask in the fact that you weren't the only one taking your history to the grave. I have no doubt what Tigris told me was only a slither of the corruption and chaos you had caused but even that slither was enough."

"You're right." Snow nodded simply, "She had no idea."

Aella hummed as a satisfied smile rose to her lips, "As I suspected." She said before clicking her tongue, "Still a pity though that the one you risked it all for left you alone in those woods.. no idea if you'd truly killed her or if she'd gotten away."

As if he thought she had been bluffing the entire time, Snow's face fell again. The power faded from his eyes and in that moment Aella knew he'd gone back sixty years. She knew, ultimately, she had won and so while her President succumbed to his shock she plucked the white rose from her pocket and tossed it to him. It landed in his hands, already stained red from her blood... a symbol of what was waiting for him.

She didn't say anything else. Instead, she turned on her heel and walked away, her head held even higher than it ever had been because for once she had won the game and that victory felt brilliant.

•    •    •

A/N; I know I suck with these late updates now but nightshift sucks. I'm hoping to get the next chapter written tomorrow for a late update but honestly I'm not sure. I'm not pushing myself to do it otherwise it'll end up rubbish.

But we're going into the last couple of chapters and snow is about to meet his demise...