Heart of Gold • Finnick Odair

-40-

"This entire arena seems to be laid out like a clock," Katniss explains to everyone as they walk across one of the rock paths towards the cornucopia.

"With a new threat every hour," Rosalie figures out.

"Exactly. But they stay only in their time wedge," Katniss agrees. "It starts with the lighting. Then there's the blood rain, acid fog, and monkey mutts. That's the first four hours. At 10, that big wave hits from over there."

"You're a genius Wiress," Finnick compliments, his arm wrapped round Rosalie's shoulder.

"The tail points at twelve," Peeta states.

Katniss expands, "that's where the lightning strikes at noon and midnight."

"Strikes where?" Beetee asks to which Katniss points out the big tree.

Wiress sits at the edge of the cornucopia island as she hums some sort of 'hickory dickory dock' rhyme under her breath about clocks whilst Peeta draws out a clock in the dirt with his blade.

Rosalie turns her focus back to the group as Peeta says, "as long as we steer clear of whichever sector is active, we'll be safe."

Finnick, being more realistic, says, "yeah, relatively speaking."

The group look up when they hear a gasp to see Wiress dead in the arms of Gloss with her neck slit open. Katniss reacts the fastest, shooting an arrow into his chest and killing him.

Cashmere comes up from the other side, heading for Katniss, but Johanna pushes her out of the way and throws her axe at the blonde's chest, killing her instantly.

Meanwhile, Finnick fights with Brutus in attempts to protect Peeta.

Enobaria throws a knife at Finnick, grazing his arm, before she and Brutus make a run for it.

Katniss runs past Finnick but he manages to stop Peeta from following by blocking him with his good arm.

Rosalie follows the archer closely in order to keep her safe when the cornucopia starts spinning all of a sudden.

Katniss slips but Rosalie catches her wrist just in time, straining all the muscles in her body to keep the girl from falling, "hold on, archer!"

Katniss eventually looses her grip and falls into the depths of the water, the last thing she saw was the worried eyes of Rosalie May.

Almost as if acting on instinct, Rosalie let's go of the rock and follows after Katniss.

The rest is a blur of water and rocks, the odd box almost coming into contact with her body. She looks around the dangerous waters for Katniss when she notices a limp body.

The cornucopia stops spinning.

Finnick and the others are running towards one of the paths when they hear splashing. They see Rosalie and Katniss swimming up onto the rocks. Rosalie helps the Girl on Fire up before pulling herself to safety.

Before Rosalie can hoist herself up, a strong arm is helping her. Once her feet meet the ground shakily, she's immediately engulfed by Finnick and can feel a hand, Johanna's, rubbing her shoulder.

"Thank fuck you're okay, you had us worried," Finnick whispers as he kisses her temple.

"I'm okay," she nods reassuring both him and herself as Johanna passes her the spear she'd dropped.

The group happily make their way back to the beach, glad to be off the island. Or 'bloody island', as Johanna had said.

"So besides Brutus and Enobaria, whose left?" Katniss asks, her hair now free from her signature plait.

"Nobody, just those two," Rosalie answers, having kept track.

"I doubt they'll attack again knowing they're outnumbered," Finnick assumes. "We're safe here on the beach."

"So what do we do, hunt 'em down?" Johanna asks.

Before anyone can answer her or make a suggestion, a scream is heard, shouting for Katniss' help.

Her face changes in a split second from confusion to pure fear as she screams her sister's name.

"Katniss! Katniss, wait!" Finnick screams, grabbing his trident as he runs after her.

Being quicker than the rest, Finnick reaches her way before anyone else could, "you okay?"

Before Katniss can reply, another scream is heard. "Finnick, it's not her!"

Katniss tried to tell him it wasn't real but he wouldn't listen, he couldn't hear anything except the screams of Rosalie.

It made it so much more real for him, knowing the screams could be real. Rosalie is in the arena and for all he knows she could be in danger since he left.

The birds begin to dive down at the pair. Prim. Gale. Rosalie. Annie. Their screams echoed around the pair til it felt like their ears would bleed and brains would explode.

The pair eventually reach Peeta, Beetee, Johanna and Rosalie and are immediately confused why the four aren't making any effort to reach them.

Their questions are answered when they collide with one of the invisible sector walls.

Finnick gives up, pressing his hands to his ears on either side of his head with his face buried in his knees, rocking slightly. Despite his position, Rosalie doesn't leave his side, standing beside him with her face up close to the barrier until the hour runs out.

When the hour finally did run out, Rosalie was immediately at Finnick's side.

She placed one hand on his knee and the other on one of his hands that were still pressed to his head, "Finnick, it's over, the hours over, it's okay. They weren't real, they weren't real Finnick, it's over, it's okay."

His head snapped up at the soft contact and as soon as his tearful eyes met her soft ones, he fell into her arms. She wrapped one arm round his shoulder and the other holding his head against herself with her chin resting on top as she whispered soothing things. He began muttering her name under his breath as the screams came back in his head. "Hey, look at me, Finnick, it's okay, I'm here, I'll always be here."

Johanna attempted to comfort Katniss before losing her shit, "Hey, how does that sound, Snow? What if we.. what if we set your backyard on fire? You know, you can't put everybody in here!" everyone looks at her, shocked, apart from Finnick and Rosalie who expected nothing less, "what? He has no one left to use against me. I'll get you some water."