𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘣𝘪𝘢; 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦 𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘣𝘪𝘢 𝘰𝘳 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳.

●・○・●・○・●

The morning after Caesars interviews was quiet. While eating breakfast, the silence that loomed over the District Four apartment was loud. Barely any words were exchanged on the way out either. A few stolen glances were shared between Finnick Odair and Juniper Plinth, but that was it.

The two said goodbye to Mags and were off on a ship to the arena. Juniper watched carefully as her wrist was grabbed and a syringe like object entered her skin. A light blue light emitted her tracker, and they moved on to Finnick and did the same thing.

Juniper looked at her right arm, remembering the exact spot for a later time. She also saw the golden snake bracelet she received from Snow many years before. Her token from her past games. A reminder.

The next thing she knew, she was being escorted through a tunnel by two peacekeepers, entering a gray room that was quite bare. Amirah Belle stood there.

The second the door closed, Amirah's arms wrapped around Juniper's neck, pulling her friend into a tight hug. Juniper wrapped her own arms around Amirah's torso. The two stayed like that for a minute, taking in each others company.

"I'm going to miss you so much." Amirah cried. 

"I'll miss you too." Juniper smiled, backing away from the hug. Amirah smiled, digging something out of her jacket.

"I have a small gift for you." Amirah pulled out a small item, opening Junipers hand and placing it in her palm. 

When Juniper opened her hand to see it, she noticed it was a round golden pin. Inside the circle, a bird and a snake. A mockingjay and a serpent. Juniper smiled, holding it up and pinning it to the inside of her outfit, pulling the black glove cloth over it. 

Amirah held Junipers hands in her own. "Remember who you're fighting for, and who you're fighting against. Remember the real enemy, okay?" 

Juniper nodded, hugging Amirah one last time before stepping inside the cylinder. Once it closed, it started moving upwards. Amirah waved goodbye. Juniper smiled at her, giving her a small wave too.

The light outside was bright as ever. And once she saw the arena, she froze completely. She was surrounded by water.

"They drowned." Abuela's voice sounded throughout her head.

Juniper Plinth ran outside the house, emotions flew through her head. She was angry. She was sad. She was terrified. She went to the beach, hesitating to run towards the water, but she did so anyway. Kicking it, screaming at the horizon. She knew nobody was out there. She knew nobody would listen to her. She knew no matter what she did, she wouldn't get her parents back.

She never willingly went into the ocean again. She never wanted to touch anything like it ever again. She quit her job by the water, she worked more inland, she worked with Martin. 

Her heartbeat started racing through her head, she heard it in her ears. 

She heard mumbled announcing through the arena and sat the countdown from 10 start over the cornucopia. 

"Come on mija! Get in the water!" Her father called to her. Juniper stood on the beach, embarrassed. She didn't want to be swept away by the current.

She slowly made her way in the water, making her way to her parents.

"That's it. See? Not so bad after all." Her mother said, splashing some water at her daughter. Juniper copied the action, laughter filled the air. She could see her baby sister and her grandmother watching from the beach, waving at them and laughing with them.

Juniper turned to face her parents again, they were gone.

"Mamá? Papá?" Juniper questioned, looking around in the water. She wasn't tall enough to stand, she couldn't see out very far aside from the waves that climbed over her. Suddenly, their bodies floated up. Juniper tapped her mothers shoulder. "Mamá?" 

Blood pooled from their bodies, Juniper screamed.

Wind picked up, the water grew darker. Dark clouds overcame the skies. Thunder sounded. Juniper was shaking. 

"Juniper!" She turned around, she could stand now. She saw Lilo, older now. Calling for her name. 

Juniper tried swimming out of the water, but its like she forgot how. The waves got taller, she got dragged out of the ocean even more. She reached a hand out for her sister, but her vision went totally dark.

"Good thing we're allies, right?" Finnick flashed his golden bracelet to Katniss, who was aiming an arrow at him.

"Where did you get that?"

"Where do you think?" Finnick questioned her. "Duck."

Katniss crouched on the ground, allowing Finnick to throw his trident and embed itself into a tributes chest.  Finnick grabbed his trident and noticed a chakram sitting on rocks. He grabbed it, not even knowing how to properly wield it- let alone fight with it. He had no idea how Juniper did it.

"Don't trust one and two. I'll take this side- you hold them off. I'll go find Peeta." Finnick ran off to the other side. Katniss fired an arrow at Enobaria- who dived into the water to avoid it. "Katniss! He's over here with Juniper!" 

Katniss followed where Finnick left before, running behind him along one of the giant rocks that connected the cornucopia to the island bordering it. The two of them noticed Peeta fighting in the water with another tribute, but a shaking Juniper was huddling to herself on the platform. Peeta was trying to protect her.

Finnick set down his trident and her weapon, diving into the water and swimming over to Peeta. Both of them went under, and a body floated up a moment later. Peeta emerged shortly after gasping for air. 

"What's wrong with her?" Finnick finally made it over to the podium. Peeta and him grabbed onto the top of it, hearing Juniper whispering to herself over and over again. They couldn't make out what she was saying.

"I don't know. She was like this the second she got up here. The guy tried pulling her under but I got here first." Peeta was still gasping for air, but he put a hand on Juniper's back. She flinched

"We need to get out of here. We are in the open." Finnick looked around, noticing the careers looting the cornucopia. "Get to Katniss, I'll meet you guys at the beach."

Peeta nodded his head, Finnick hoisted himself up onto the platform. He put his hands on Junipers shoulders and carefully sat her up straight. She looked traumatized. 

"Juniper." He called for her, she seem unfazed. "Juniper! If we want to make it out of here, I need you to swim, okay? Can you do that with me?" He shook her slightly, she seemed to come out of the mess she was in, but started hyperventilating when she saw the water again.

"The water." She choked. "No, I can't do it."

Finnick had never seen Juniper like this before, even when they were close during her games. She was vulnerable to him once, which she learned her lesson from. However, even when she did that, he had never seen her be this... low. 

"You have to do this for Lilo. Get up, we have to go." Finnick grabbed her arm and pulled her up, she was shaking tremendously, she could barely stand on her own two feet. "Ready?" It was unexpected when Juniper grabbed Finnicks hand, interlocking their fingers together and holding onto his hand tightly.

"Don't let go." She looked at him. He nodded repeatedly. The two jumped in, slowly swimming over to the beach where Peeta and Katniss waited for them. 

The two of them walked out of the water. They were no longer hanging on to each other. Finnick looked her up and down, wondering what had happened to make her get like that. Peeta handed Finnick his trident and Katniss gave Juniper her chakram.

"Let's get into the jungle." Peeta said, leading the way. Katniss, Finnick, and Juniper followed behind him. Juniper was completely silent. 

Walking through the beginning portion of the jungle was easy, however, the further they got, the more vines that appeared and covered the way. Peeta eventually had to take a machete Katniss grabbed for him and start hacking away at them every step of the way.

Finnick walked behind Juniper, he noticed that she seemed extremely tense. He wanted to ask her what was wrong, but he felt as if he was the last person she wanted to talk to about it. 

His mind filled with the thought of her in that state. She was terrified, shaking with complete fear, when he looked at her, he didn't even see Juniper at first. He just saw a scared helpless girl who looked as if she had went through hell and back.

"What was that?" Katniss whispered to Finnick. She didn't trust him, however, she trusted Juniper. She knew the two didn't get along, but if Juniper didn't hurt him by now, Katniss wouldn't either.

"I don't know." Finnick answered. The two looked to the woman walking in front of them. She was wiping her arms repeatedly, trying to get all of the water off of her. 

"The water. No, I can't do it."

"She's scared of water?" He questioned his own statement, but it seemed to be the case.

"You two are from District Four, didn't you grow up in the ocean?" Katniss asked, slightly joking with the statement. However, she wasn't completely wrong. Being born in District Four, you're practically forced to live on the beach and see the ocean every single day. Every citizen there would love the beach, they'd go swimming almost daily. What happened where Juniper despised it so much?

The two got quiet and continued walking up the hill. Katniss looked around at their surroundings, but back up at Peeta. She moved a little to the right looking at their destination. She remembered how Beetee pointed it out to her during training.

"Peeta! No!" Katniss yelled, but it was too late. Peeta had struck the forcefield and was sent flying back into Juniper. The force of the hit also knocked back Katniss and Finnick. 

Finnick watched the forcefield turn into a gold color, then go back to being its original form as a jungle piece. He looked at Juniper, who slowly sat up in her position on the ground. She was safe.

He looked to Peeta and Katniss, noticing how Katniss hovered over him, holding his head and calling his name a few times. He wasn't breathing.

Finnick pushed Katniss off of him and began doing CPR. Katniss withdrew her bow once she realized Finnick was attempting to help him. 

Juniper had no idea what was going on. She had just hit her head on a tree trunk after being struck with Peetas bodyweight, the force of the forcefield, and a tree. Her heart rate had started to slow down, she could now think clearly. The image of her family that seemed to be stapled into her head was now gone. 

She turned to the three in her group, seeing Finnick kiss Peeta. Now she was really confused. She shut her eyes tightly and rubbed her temples, opening them again and seeing Finnick push on Peeta's chest back and forth. 

Oh, he was doing CPR.

Juniper saw Katniss hovering near them, crying for Peeta to wake up. His heart must've stopped from the forcefield impact, he did hit it directly. 

The entire escape plan practically flashed before Junipers eyes, and she knew Finnick was thinking the same exact thing. They were both hoping Peeta would wake up, for his life and their own.

Finnick didn't give up hope and continued to give Peeta CPR until he took a gasp for air. A weight seemed to be lifted off of everybody's shoulders and Finnick sat back on his feet. Juniper took a deep breath and exhaled, thankful as hell.

She saw Finnick run a hand through his hair. His face was full of sweat. When he stood up, she followed his actions. The two looked at Katniss who was trying to help Peeta up off of the ground and then envelop one another into a hug.

Katniss was drowning in her own tears, hypervntinlating and looking as if she never wanted to let go of Peeta again.

"Katniss?" Peeta asked, trying to comfort her."

"She's alright. It's just the hormones." Peeta looked at him a bit confused, Katniss looked at Finnick as well, not knowing what he meant. "...From the baby."

Peeta nodded a few times, Katniss looked as if she wanted to fight Finnick on his statement, but she broke down into more hysterical sobs. Peeta hugged her close, burying her head in between his shoulder and neck. His head laid on the back of her head.

Finnick and Juniper seemed to look at the couple with envy. They thought their romance was fake, or at least, it seemed to be at one point. However, seeing how Katniss reacted to him almost dying changed their entire outlook on the two of them. However, that wasn't the only thing going through both of their minds.

The two of them had wished they could love someone that much and have it be reciprocated. They wanted to have someone that they could hold like that, someone who truly cared about them.

Finnick and Juniper looked at one another and Finnick smiled, tilting his head slightly and putting his hands in a shrug position by his shoulders.

"No chance, mi amor." Juniper answered quickly, walking down the hill where they had just come from.

"Worth a shot." Finnick followed her. Katniss eyed Juniper slightly.

●・○・●・○・●