"Why are you in a wheelchair?" Taiya asked Beetee as she watched him wheel himself through the breakfast queue.

"The lightning from the quarter quell. I lost a lot of my mobility. How are you Taiya?" he asked. She'd been avoiding him since she was rescued. He'd tried to visit her but she'd always say she was too tired, or she'd have Gloss answer the door, and that would be enough to scare Beetee away. He'd watched that same man kill Wiress after all.

"Fine." She wasn't. "Got to go. Buck's waiting for me," Taiya turned and walked to the end of the breakfast line, shamelessly cutting in to get served first. No one stopped her. They were scared of her.

"Yo," Buck greeted.

"Hey," she smiled, reaching over and plopping some 'sugar' into his coffee.

"Act cool while I tell you this. Tyler doesn't want to tell you. Says it might set you off."

"What's up?" she asked urgently, doing her best to keep her smile straight, but she was already tense, her knuckles going white as she clenched her tray.

"Two nights ago, yours and Peeta's prep teams were executed live on television," he whispered.

Taiya immediately spun around to face her friend, her eyes wide. "Tigris!" she panicked.

"Not Tigris, I said act cool," he spun her back.

"How can I act cool when you tell me my prep team were murdered!"

"Tigris is safe. It seems it was just your team from the last Games."

"Oh thank god."

"Thank god people were killed?" Buck frowned as they got closer to their friend's table.

"Thank god it wasn't Tigris. I love Tigris."

"But the others?" he asked.

"Nonplussed," she shrugged as she placed her tray down and sat beside Gloss.

"Nonplussed about what?" Gloss asked.

"Mind your own business," she grabbed some bread and mashed it into his face.

"What are we talking about?" Finnick asked as he took a seat on the other side of Taiya.

"Taiya and Buck are keeping secrets," Gloss whined.

"Oh yeah," Finnick smiled. "That's not unusual. You've got some bread on your face," he politely pointed out to Gloss who returned his kindness with a cold glare. "Ok, never mind."

"They're trying something new with Peeta today," Haymitch declared as he joined the table, taking a seat next to Buck whose eyes instantly widened and his whole body tensed up.

"What?" Taiya immediately demanded of him.

"Well, they're going to put someone in the room with him that he knows from home, but hopefully won't connect with Katniss. A school friend called Delly. Then they're going to monitor his reaction."

"He was fine with me, put me back in there," Taiya leant forward eagerly.

"You didn't," Tyler groaned, he hadn't been told she'd broken into his room.

"Oh don't act surprised," Taiya just rolled her eyes.

"Unbelievable."

"Plutarch, Katniss and I are going to watch over it. I'll let you know how it goes," Haymitch said directly to Taiya.

"Urgh, Katniss," Taiya groaned.

"Tay," Finnick nudged her softly.

"Oh yippee, girl on fire, woohoo," Taiya mockingly perked up. "How is Plutarch this morning anyway?"

"Well funny you should ask sweetheart," Haymitch sassed. "He's actually in the hospital at the moment. Something about a whole can of olive oil being spilt right outside his door this morning. He slipped and fell right on his face."

"Bummer," Taiya smiled as she scooped oatmeal into her mouth to try and suppress her smile.

"You wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you?"

"Me? No, absolutely no clue," she smirked.

Then a thump was heard as Tyler aggressively dropped his head into his hands. Buck just reached over and tapped him once on the shoulder, not even looking up from his breakfast.

"Speak of the devil," Haymitch lit up in anticipation as he spotted Plutarch walking towards the table.

Everyone immediately turned to look at him. He had a bandage across his nose and a bruise that was beginning to form.

"Hello everybody," Plutarch greeted, a smile on his face, which pissed Taiya off to no end. "Are you ready Haymitch? We've got Delly all prepped and ready to go, Katniss is waiting there for us."

"Yeah," Haymitch took a last bite of his roll. "Let's go."

"Oh Miss Ambersnow," Plutarch smiled her. "I was wondering if you and I could have a meeting later? Say at 11? President Coin will be joining in."

"Whatever," Taiya scowled at her meal.

"I can join?" Finnick suggested, running his hand down her back to comfort her.

"I'm afraid Finnick you've got weapons training then," Plutarch smiled as he glanced down at the schedule imprinted on his arm. "You already missed some of your schedule yesterday, and I'm sure you want to be setting a good example for our two newest members of 13," he nodded at Taiya and Gloss.

It took everything within Taiya not to roll her eyes in his face, but somehow she refrained.

"I'll go with her," Buck sighed with annoyance. "I'm the only one with that slot free. Tyler you can join later if you want, you finish your meeting at 11:15 am."

Taiya glanced up in Tyler's direction to see him studying her.

"Yeah I better show up," he agreed once Taiya smirked. She definitely couldn't be trusted with just Buck. "You guys start and I'll get there when I can."

"Great," Plutarch clapped his hands. "So it's settled. Haymitch?"

"Yep, coming," the man stood up and started to follow Plutarch out.

As soon as Plutarch had turned around, Gloss had passed his bagel over to Taiya, who had absolutely no hesitation in hurling it at the back of Plutarch's head.

The man instantly froze before slowly turning around in confusion. Both Taiya and Gloss had their heads down as they ate their meals, but Finnick was staring at Plutarch with an open mouth.

"Finnick?" Plutarch frowned as he looked down to see the bagel on the floor. "Did you throw that at me?"

"No... no... I didn't. I swear," Finnick stumbled over his words. He wasn't about to dob Taiya in.

"Ok..." Plutarch was very confused as he turned back around and left. He thought he and Finnick were getting on fine.

As soon as Plutarch was out of sight Gloss and Taiya cracked up and started laughing together.

"Not your circus, not your monkeys, not your circus, not your monkeys," Tyler was chanting to himself over and over again.

"That side of the table is your circus, and they are most definitely your monkeys," Buck leant over as he chuckled before slapping his friend's back and returning to his food. He took a sip of his coffee before he spit it back in his cup with a loud huff of outrage. "What the hell is that? That's disgusting!"

"That's a coffee dude. It's bitter, but you get used to the taste," Taiya took a sip of hers to prove a point. "See it's fine. Stop being so dramatic."

"Give me yours," Buck leant over and took Tyler's off his tray and immediately took a sip. He froze, tasting the same vile salty taste before he slowly lifted his gaze to Taiya who had her lips pursed in amusement. "It's fine," he swallowed it reluctantly as he placed it back down in front of Tyler. "Maybe I got a dodgy one."

"Taiya probably sabotaged it, like she's trying to sabotage our reputation here," Tyler grumbled quietly to himself as he picked up his cup of coffee. "What if they find out and they come after her, can we plead mentally unstable or have we as a district played that card too many times," he mumbled to himself before taking a sip. "AH!" he yelled as he slammed the coffee down. "That's foul!" he turned to Buck accusingly. "Did you swap our coffees?"

"No man," Buck shuddered. He could still taste the salt on his tongue. "Yours was rubbish as well, I just thought it'd be funnier to watch you drink it."

"You!" Tyler turned his accusing finger to Taiya who was smiling at him like a Cheshire cat. "Oh god what am I going to do?" he groaned, dropping his head back down.

"Annie! Mags!" Finnick greeted excitedly as they joined them at the table.

"Annie!" Taiya perked up immediately seeing her sweet little friend.

"Taiya! Finnick!" Annie smiled widely. "Who's that?" she asked, pointing out Gloss.

"Oh that's just Gloss," Taiya tried to brush over him, but Annie unfortunately recognised the name.

"District 1," she breathed as her eyes widened in fear. "No, no, no, no," she began pulling at her hair.

All of the District Four victors spun into action to help her. Just the thought of District 1 was terrifying to her, they'd been there when she'd watched the District 2 tribute murder Shark. So she was extra sensitive when it came to citizens of 1 and 2.

"He's not from District One," Taiya lied as she leaned over and grabbed the girl's arm. Tyler and Buck were trying to remove her hands from her hair before she hurt herself and Finnick was humming a tune that usually comforted her. "He's from Twelve, he's a refugee like some of the others. It's a different Gloss."

"He's from Twelve?" her wide doe eyes looked up at Taiya.

"Yes. Twelve," Taiya nodded, letting out a sigh of relief as she noticed Annie's hands loosen from her hair.

"You're from Twelve?" Annie asked Gloss.

"Um. Yep," he nodded. "I like... coal."

"Oh. Ok," she smiled, completely breaking out of her meltdown. "Yum coffee!" she picked up her cup.

"Annie no!" Taiya tried to warn, but it was too late, she'd already taken a sip.

"Mmm, this is really good!" Annie praised as she took another sip. "Wow. This is way better than the coffee Buck makes at home. No offence Buck."

"Offence taken," he frowned in confusion. "Mags, did she put sugar in her cup?" Buck asked the older lady who immediately nodded.

"Oh Annie," Taiya watched the mad girl as she happily drank her salty coffee. "Did you put sugar in yours Mags?" Taiya asked.

Mags nodded.

"Yeah, don't drink that," Finnick reached over and took his mentor's coffee away from her.

Mags just pointed at Taiya with a smile. She didn't even need to ask.

"Yeah," Taiya nodded. "I did it. She seems to like it though," they smiled at Annie who had already finished her coffee. "He helped though," she dobbed in Gloss. "It was my idea to target only certain people but Gloss decided to switch out all the sugar in the kitchen with the salt. That was a fun midnight task last night," she glared at her friend beside her.

Her eyes froze as she looked over at Tyler to see him smiling at her.

"You ok?" she asked nervously.

"You know what," he nodded. "I'm great. I'm not here to be a bad guy, I don't know why I'm trying to control you. You're an adult, I'm an adult, we're all friends here."

"Uh oh," Buck muttered quietly.

"I'm going to have a great day," Tyler stood up. "I'm going to go see Beetee," he smiled widely at them all before walking away.

"You two broke him," Buck mused. "Well done."

"Oops," Taiya shrugged.

The victors had been some of the first people to arrive at breakfast, but now that others had shown up, it was like a chorus echoing around the room as people spat out their coffee. "Here," Taiya pulled out four wrapped-up sugar cubes from her pocket and handed them to Finnick under the table.

"For me!" he gasped excitedly. "Thank you very much, my love," he leaned forward to kiss her cheek.

Taiya wasn't quite sure what happened, but she jerked away.

A flash came over her eyes and she saw her dad standing over Buck's shoulder.

"I can't believe you fell for their lies again," he sneered before disappearing.

Taiya threw herself backwards, she flew off the bench she was sitting on and landed on the floor, her breath rattling through her chest erratically.

"You're ok," a soft voice whispered in her ear. "They think they have you fooled. You can beat them I know you can. I'll help you through it. I'll be by your side. You can trust me," Theo's voice fluttered through the air.

Taiya was immediately on her feet looking around. He sounded so close, how could he have disappeared? He was right there.

Slowly she turned back to look at the table, they were all on their feet as they watched her, Gloss' hand held out in warning was the only thing keeping them from swarming her.

She held her breath as she looked around the cafeteria, they weren't the only ones watching her. Everyone was.

"Tay, honey?" Finnick cautiously spoke first.

"Got to go," Taiya turned around and took off, determined to hide out in her room until her meeting with Plutarch.

*********************

"Ah, Miss Ambersnow," President Coin greeted when Taiya finally knocked on the command room door. "Please, take a seat."

Taiya stalked forward and aggressively dropped down into the chair beside Buck.

"Bit late kid," he grumbled to her quietly.

"Yes, Miss Ambersnow," President Coin admonished her. "We do value timing in District 13 and I would personally appreciate it if you were punctual next time."

The glare on Taiya's face said it all. She really didn't care about what District 13 wanted.

Plutarch cleared his throat, desperate to ease the tension. They needed a favour from Taiya, they wanted to get her on side, not irritate her.

"So what's this about?" Taiya demanded.

"So as you probably know, most of the Districts are currently in active rebellion against the Capitol," Plutarch tried to explain.

"Actually, I didn't know that. You see fun fact, I was held captive in the Capitol for two months, so I'm a little out of the loop," Taiya smirked at him.

"Right," Buck filled in the awkward silence. "Districts in rebellion, yay!" he clapped his hands.

Taiya couldn't help but smirk as she glanced at him out the side of her eye.

"Yes, well," Plutarch leaned forward. "The fighting's almost over. The only ones still actively resisting us is District 2."

"You've got 1 and 4?" Taiya asked and Plutarch nodded with a smile. "Well, great. What do you want from me?

"We're not getting enough manpower in from 4," President Coin explained. "The District is secure, but they're not actively joining in the fighting."

"That sounds like a you problem," Taiya grumbled.

"What we're hoping is, that you'll agree to do a propo."

"A propo? One of your campaign videos?" Taiya snorted.

"Exactly," Plutarch nodded.

"No thanks," Taiya shook her head as she leaned forward and grabbed a pen from the middle of the table and began spinning it through her hands.

"Taiya, this is something all victors are taking part in," Plutarch rubbed his forehead. He knew this was going to be a hard sell, but they needed her. She wasn't just a victor to District 4, she was also the daughter of a much-loved mayor. She could speak to the people in the District, and convince them to join in the march on the Capitol.

"Why should I help you?" Taiya asked, focussing instead on the pen in her hand. "What would you even want me to say?"

"We were hoping to blend yours and Finnick's propos together. We've already filmed his. He told us about his experience in the Capitol. But we'd like to film your side, go into detail about your relationship with Seneca, about why your cousin Shark was reaped, about how President Snow had the Games rigged to ensure there was a District 4 winner...."

Plutarch didn't even have a chance to finish his pitch.

Because Taiya had lunged out of her seat and flown across the table at him. She collided with him and sent them both slamming to the ground.

She held the pen up in the air so that when they hit the ground, she had the momentum to slam the pen right into his shoulder.

She'd only just managed to shove the pen into his shoulder when she was quickly ripped off him.

Timing was Tyler's forte and he'd entered the room just in time to see Taiya leap up from her chair.

"YOU KILLED THEM! YOU KILLED THEM! YOU ALL KILLED THEM!" Taiya screamed as she thrashed against Tyler's hold. "YOU'RE ALL GOING TO PAY! THEY'RE ALL DEAD! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE! LET ME GO!"

"What the hell happened?" Tyler demanded of Buck who was sat in his chair still, stunned at how quickly this meeting had taken a turn.

"LET ME GO!" she screamed as she tried to bite Tyler. She stopped her thrashing when she saw him standing there with a smile on his face. He looked the same as the last time she'd seen him. She'd only seen him in her dreams for the past eight and a half years. But there he was. "THEO!" she roared. "THEO! HELP ME!" her violent thrashings got worse as she fought against Tyler to reunite with her best friend.

"Theo?" Tyler asked in confusion. "Theo's not here Taiya."

"Let me go! Let me go! I need to see him! THEO!" she wailed.

Theo's smile dropped and his body jolted, and she froze as she waited to see what was wrong with him. He let out a cough and some blood came spluttering out of his mouth.

"NO!" she screamed bloody murder.

This hit a switch in her brain which changed her fighting style, instead of trying to get out of Tyler's hold, she began fighting him. She had to get to Theo to help, no matter who stood in the way.

So he wasn't expecting it when her elbow swung and collided with his cheek.

"Shit," he instinctively let go of her to clasp his face.

That was a mistake though, because she took off running.

Theo was running away, so she had to chase after him. She sprinted down the corridor, her eyes wide with desperation.

She sprinted right near the weapons room, screaming as she ran.

That's where he was, and he heard her desperate screams.

"TAIYA! TAIYA!" he panicked as he immediately dropped his trident and ran out of the room, abandoning his training session with Gale.

"Finnick!" Buck yelled when he spotted the boy. "Grab her!"

Taiya was fast approaching as she quickly came charging down the hallway.

"Grab her please!" Tyler pleaded as he and Buck chased her.

Finnick jumped toward her when she was close and wrapped his hands around her waist, sending them both tumbling to the ground with her momentum.

She whipped her head up from the floor to see Theo fall to the ground just in front of her.

"Theo!" she sobbed as she tried to claw her way forward, but Finnick's weight held her in place.

She watched Theo take his last breath before he disappeared into dust.

"No please," she sobbed as tears flowed down her cheek. "Come back! Please come back!"

Finnick felt the fight leave her body so he lifted himself off of her.

"What the hell is going on? I heard her screaming! What did you do!" he snapped at Buck and Tyler as he stood up and protectively stood in front of Taiya.

"She had some kind of episode," Tyler tried to explain. "I don't know what happened. Buck? You were there?"

"I don't... I don't know," Buck breathed as he ran his hand over the top of his head. "Plutarch wanted her to be a propo about her experience as a victor and she just... snapped. She attacked Plutarch, stabbed a pen into his shoulder."

Tyler stepped closer to Finnick, keeping an eye on Taiya who was on the floor curled up on a ball as she sobbed.

"She seemed to think Theo was there. She was yelling about people being dead," he said quietly to Finnick. "She's not ok Finnick. She's been covering it up, but something just made her snap."

Gale had been standing in the doorway observing the victors and cautiously took a few steps towards the girl crying on the floor.

He leant down and hovered a hand over her. "Hey," he whispered.

Taiya jerked up to look at him, her eyes bloodshot and delirious.

"Step away from her," Finnick turned around to see Gale crouching over his girl.

"She's exhausted," Gale pointed out. "Has she been sleeping?"

"No," Tyler admitted. "She said she's been avoiding it. Nightmares."

They heard running footsteps and all the men turned to face the quickly approaching person, it might not take much to set her off again.

"How is she?" Plutarch asked, stopping a safe distance away as he clutched at his shoulder. "What was that?"

"I think she's hallucinating," Tyler explained. "I'm really, really sorry," he apologised on her behalf. Plutarch just shook his head. "It's ok. But we'll need to get her back to the hospital. She'll need re-evaluation."

"Do you need me to..." Gale offered, but Finnick just shook his head.

"No, I've got her," he took a few steps toward Taiya and crouched down. "I'm going to pick you up, is that ok?"

She just nodded, she was too exhausted to stand anyway.

Finnick gently moved his arms around her and lifted her off the ground.

"I've got you," he kissed the top of her head.

*********************

"I heard you got thrown in the slammer," Gloss smirked as he walked into her hospital room. "What'd you do?"

"I stabbed Plutarch," Taiya grumbled as she pulled her blanket higher up over her shoulders. "Do you know how long I have to stay here?"

"No clue. Why'd you stab Plutarch?"

"I didn't like his idea."

"No but for real. Why did you stab Plutarch?"

"That is the reason," she snapped, glaring up at him. "He just sees us as commodities. Not people. He just wants to use us for his own purpose. It's the same as the Capitol. He wants to profit off our trauma."

"Look T," Gloss sat down next to her bed. "You might be right, but he wants us to beat the Capitol, it's a good cause. We just have a weapon to use against them, and that's the truth, our stories."

"Yeah, well I don't want to share mine," she turned to look at the ceiling. "He never should have made Finnick tell his."

"Is that why you got so mad?"

"Partly. He targeted Finnick when he was vulnerable to get him to tell his story. It's not fair. Finnick never should have been asked to do that. The doctor says I'm not sleeping enough either," Taiya added on as an afterthought.

"Well that's fair," Gloss snorted and Taiya directed her glare at him. "Oh come on dude you barely sleep."

"I don't want to do this," she started crying.

"Oh crap," Gloss tensed before he rushed for the door. "Finnick!"

Finnick was immediately in the room and raced to sit beside her on the bed.

"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry," she cried as she clung to him.

"It's ok, no one's mad at you," he promised.

"I don't know what happened."

"You haven't slept properly in days. You're exhausted, you were hallucinating."

"No," she shook her head and pulled back to look at him. "It's Snow. He did this to me. I hear the voices, but now I'm seeing them. I don't know what to do."

"Them? Who else did you see?"

"I saw my dad. I just want my..." she stopped herself. She knew if she said she wanted her dad he'd feel awful. She didn't blame him, but he still blamed himself for their deaths. "I just want to go home," she pulled him so he lay down next to her and she cuddled up into his side.

"Are you tired?"

"I'm so tired," she nodded.

"Go to sleep, babe."

"Please don't leave me. Just stay please," she pleaded, looking up at him through bleary eyes.

"I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying by your side. I think we're both saner when we're together," he joked. 'Just go to sleep, honey. If you have a nightmare I'll be here."