A/N Thanks everyone who reviewed the prologue :)

Chapter 1

World on Her Shoulders

Flora sat silently in her room, her engagement ring between her fingertips, contemplating what might be happening to Helia right this very moment. Some said that no news was good news, which she supposed was true in some regard, but in others it surely wasn't. She wanted to know if he was alright, wanted to see his face, wanted to see him smile, just so that she knew that he really was alive.

She replayed that moment in the arena, the moment just before the lightning struck the Tree of Life, when she saw Helia standing there with a smile on his face, the first genuine one she had seen since they entered. It told her that everything was going to be okay, that they had made it. But then she heard Icy's command and watched his smile disappear. She could feel her hand reaching towards his as his started to reach for hers and then… nothing. He was gone.

They had both been through so much together since they first met and their relationship had been one born from tragic circumstances. When he got onto his knee and proposed to her after they had won in their last games and had made it through the Victory Tour, she thought that was it. She honestly believed that their lives would remain entwined together until the way they died. That if they could survive all they had before that they could do it again now.

But she should have known the Ancestral Witches wouldn't be that kind, in fact, it seemed like the entire Magical Dimension was against her happiness. She'd played their game, had won with Helia and given them a victor, been paraded around from district to district like some walking, talking puppet and visited every relative or friend that they wanted her to, and still they needed to throw her into it again.

Back in the arena, with previous victors, surely that should have meant her death. But, the 'powers that be' had a very different idea. Sure she had given the districts hope but she didn't have any left for herself. All of her hope, her freedom, her future, laid with Helia, the man that she loved more than anything else in the world. The man who could have been dead for all she knew, badly beaten and tortured for her. And what was she doing in return for his sacrifices? Sitting miles below the earth in District Thirteen, twiddling his ring between her fingers.

Taking it firmly in her right hand she threw it to the other side of the room where it hit the wall with a bang and rolled across the floor. Bringing her knees to her chest, Flora leant against the wall with her back her forehead resting atop of arms as tears threatened to fall once more. Helia was in trouble because of her, because of what she did inside the first games, because of what she did inside the training centre, her explosion of the Mirta replica, her show of defiance.

The door opened just as two drops of salty tears slid silently down her face and landed on her knees. Miele stepped inside, a saddened expression written on her features as she closed the door behind her softly. It clicked shut and she looked to the ring lying on the floor, and then to her sister who hadn't moved from her position. She couldn't see her eyes but heard her stifled sobs. She bent down and picked up the gold symbol between her fingers before quietly crawling onto the bed and sitting next to her. She leant her head against her sister's shoulder and didn't say a word.

The two did nothing, said nothing, just sought comfort from one another until Miele hummed a melody. The lower hum slowly rose four notes before hovering over the first two and descending again.

Flora recognised it instantly.

She lifted her face from her knees and turned to Miele who stopped humming and took a breath. "Just close your eyes, the sun is going down," she sang and Flora licked her lips before following.

"You'll be alright, no one can hurt you now."

Miele smiled before the two sang together, "come morning light, you and I will be safe and sound."

"You miss him, don't you?" Miele asked, the answer being obvious. It was so obvious that she answered it herself. "I know you do."

Flora nodded, her throat constricted and she blinked away the new tears that wanted to fall. "He… he always knew what to do. Without him, I don't know what… what I'm supposed to do."

"Yes you do," Miele answered, catching her older sister slightly off guard. "You do what you've always done, you fight."

"It's more complicated than that, Miele."

"It doesn't have to be," she answered. "You're stronger than you were before, you've changed since you first went into the arena - you're not the girl you were when you volunteered to save me."

"That's true."

"Then you should know what to do. Keep on fighting. You promised me that you'd try and win, that you'd do what you had to do get home because I didn't want to lose you. But now I'm not the only one you have to protect." Flora looked Miele in the eye, her eyes drifting to the engagement ring held in her tiny fingers. She held it forwards and tilted her head towards Flora's left hand.

Flora shifted and obliged by handing it to her and Miele slid the ring into its proper position on her ring finger. Flora took Miele's hand in her own and smiled, her nose sniffling in the process before she bit hard on her back teeth to stop herself from choking up again. "You can do this," she reiterated, "you have so many other people that want to fight with you so you aren't alone and neither is Helia." Flora nodded before taking Miele into her arms and giving her a long and warm embrace. Miele's hands wrapped around her older sisters body, satisfied that she had said the right thing and provided the right words of comfort.

"Thank you," Flora whispered into her ear before there was a knock on the door and Faragonda stepped inside.

Miele leant away as Flora wiped the tear tracks from her eyes and blinked the remaining ones into submission. "The committee is asking for you to join them." Flora nodded and stood to her feet, following Faragonda out the door. But before she stepped beyond the threshold she turned to Miele whose smile beamed. She held her left hand into the air and closed it into a fist and Miele did the same before she entered the hallway to start her first official day of rebellion.

"Today's meeting is to address the hostage situation of Icy from District Six and Helia from District Twelve." Flora lifted her head and saw the two of their photos displayed on another television on the back wall. "Icy of District Six was taken from the games soon after Helia was, we believe that they had tried to go straight for Flora but ended up deciding to take him instead. Both Helia and Icy are valuable assets with a set of skills we need. Icy's particular abilities and magic will prove useful to us and Helia's social standing and relationship with Flora does win over the districts."

"But that could also be what kills him," Oritel noted, ever the optimist. Flora shot him a look from her position at the table but he didn't seem fazed by it. Sky cleared his throat and acknowledged the District Thirteen representative.

"That is correct, it may be what saves or puts him into more danger. But the purpose of today is to decide, officially, our course of action."

"What are the options?" Asked Nereus from Andros.

"We have two." Sky answered. "The first is a recognisance mission to Magix, we send a team of professionals into the field to locate and return both Icy and Helia to us here in District Thirteen."

"But isn't that dangerous!" Oritel yelled. "To just lead them straight to our location, not to mention how many resources we would waste and for what, this young woman's boyfriend."

"Fiancé!" Flora snapped, standing to her feet and slamming her fists on the table. "And Sky is right; he holds importance to our cause, not just to me."

"Don't be foolish," Oritel replied, stroking his beard calmly, "the only reason that he is useful to the cause is because of his relationship with you. If he hadn't proposed then they probably wouldn't have taken him in the first place."

"We don't know that," Sky interrupted.

"Yes we do." Flora waited for it; half of her struggling to stop herself from leaping over the table to grab this man's neck between her hands. "It's a fact, and the sooner this little drama queen gets it the better!"

"That's enough Oritel!" Faragonda ordered. "Flora, sit down. The last time I checked there were two options and this is not the forum to discuss why they were taken. Life is ten percent of events that happen and ninety percent of how we react to them. 'Why' isn't the question we should be asking it's 'what'. What are we going to do about it?" Oritel crossed his arms and leant back in his chair as Flora took her own seat.

"Our second option," Sky started, taking the opportunity to speak while the moment was ripe, "is a negotiation… a trade."

"And what are the chances of that being successful and in our favour?" Asked Roy from District One.

"By my calculations…" Babatea spoke up from Zenith, checking her figures three times in the space of a few seconds, "about ninety eight percent to them, not a viable option."

"But we do have a third option," Maia added, "do nothing."

"And leave them both to die!" Flora yelled.

"The odds are much better with that option," Babatea replied, noticing the anger written in Flora's eyes the minute she spoke. "I've nothing against Helia or Icy, but if we don't do anything then we retain our resources and we avoid the trade."

"Why can't we do the trade?" Flora asked. "All they want is me, they don't want Icy or Helia, they want me. So why not do the trade?"

"Because they will kill them both before you even get to the ground floor of this complex by elevator," Aurora's dark aura replied. She was frank, to the point and logical. "The worst case scenario, if we do nothing, is a public execution." Flora froze where she sat. Of course, it was always the Ancestresses signature to use the public domain to target and kill so she shouldn't have been so surprised. But to hear the words out loud, that made it a reality, a real possibility.

"They would broadcast it through the districts," Aurora continued, "to show them what happens to rebels, in an attempt to stop people from joining our side and fighting for our cause."

"Are there any other options?" Flora asked but there were none. Sky made a few notes on their book and checked the previous rebellion for information but there was nothing about hostage situations included, the witches killed everyone who stood in their way, so why had they changed their plan and kept these two in particular?

"We need to vote," he announced, "Eeach district representative, state your choice of the three options."

Roy looked to Flora sympathetically before opening his mouth, "three."

"Three," Bartleby followed.

"Three," Nereus answered and Flora's eyes looked to Lucy's screen, hoping that she would see the need to save their lives.

"I'm sorry, Flora," she apologised, obvious pain written in both of her eyes, "but they're right, we can't lose resources and we can't lose you… so I vote for option three."

The door burst open before Flora could do anything else and Alice, a young woman with long dark blue hair raced inside. "Prince Sky, you need to see this. Change the channel." He didn't question her sudden appearance or ask for an apology for interrupting the procedures. The images of Icy and Helia disappeared on screen and Flora's heart stopped beating in her chest.

Helia was alive.

He stood on the stage next to Icy, his face bloody, a cut lip, broken cheek bone and black eye masking his usually perfect complexion. Icy didn't look too good herself. Her eyes were red and a fresh cut above her left eye was still tricking blood down her pallor skin tone.

"Flora, our dear, we hope you are well."

"Away from this pain, this hatred, this hell."

"You're far away I know, somewhere safe and secure."

"Not in these hands or on deaths door."

"Prepare for the worst, but think for the best."

"Forget about me."

"Save yourself, your family."

"I love you more than the moonlights aura."

"I pray you are safe, my dear Flora."

Flora stood to her feet, she recognised those prose, their structure. Although the witches were renowned for their rhyming abilities and speech those weren't their words. Each one had taken a turn to read a line, each line dripping with malice and sarcasm, the way they were not supposed to be read.

"How sweet," spoke the first, "lover boys a little love sick."

"Let's give him something to think about," the second added before a television fell from above and landed on the stage in front of the two of them.

"Play on, play a little trick," the third smirked, "it's your fiancé no doubt."

Flora watched Helia smile slightly. It was the footage taken from the ship that attacked her the moment she set foot above ground. She watched as the missiles flew, watched as they ran and his smile disappeared as quickly as it came. But that wasn't good enough for the witches. One of them hit Helia in the back with a blast that sent him forwards onto his chest. He landed with a thud; his hands tied behind his back prevented him from stopping his fall.

Icy turned on her heel and pulled one foot into the air, high enough for the heel of her boot to scratch one of the witches faces. She was hit with a binding spell that slowly cut her off from any form of oxygen and the three of them watched as her face turned several different shades. Carefully Helia got to his feet but when he charged they hit him with another blast, sending him to the floor where they knocked him unconscious.

Just as Icy was about to stop breathing entirely they released her and she fell to the wood with a bang. Flora turned away, her eyes unable to behold such a sight. "The ball is in your corner."

"We promise not to lie."

"Surrender yourself, Flora," the first spoke, all three of them floating before the broadcast turned to the two unconscious victors on the stage, "or prepare to watch them die."

A/N: Thanks for reading and please review