MyGreatnessHasArrived120 asked for another chapter, and as I found this on my laptop the other day, I thought I might as well post it. Say hi if you read, and if any of my 'old' friends from the Hunger Games fandom are still out there then I'd love to hear from you. I'm back after a bit of an absence and might be looking for something new to write...

As ever with this, it fits around canon...

I push the back door open, catching it before it can slam against the wall. I take a step inside and then wait a second. Nothing happens. She's not here. If she was then she'd have heard me and she'd already be standing next to me.

But there's someone here. I can hear him coughing upstairs. There's a loud crash and I wonder what he's broken this time. Then as I climb I decide that if he touches her then it'll be his head breaking instead of this house.

He looks quite pathetic really, curled up on an armchair with a blanket wrapped around himself. He looks like a child, like the snivelling little coward I remember from Coates. In my head I can picture him crawling along behind Drake and Caine like it was yesterday. Every time I see him, I see that. The others might have forgotten but I haven't.

"Well if it isn't Traitor-, sorry, I mean Computer Jack."

"Dekka," he splutters. "What're you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same."

"I'm staying with Breeze for a bit. I'm sick and I don't want to be on my own."

"She's cute, too, isn't she, Jack? And the whole Supergirl thing makes her even cuter, doesn't it?"

"I… I… We haven't, you know…done anything. I'm just staying here."

"Staying here?" I repeat, taking a step back as seeing all Brianna's stuff scattered about the room abruptly makes me conscious of what I'm doing and think about how I'd explain it to her.

But then it's too late. She appears in the middle of the room at virtually the same time as the front door slams shut behind her. Jack looks at her, looks at me and then looks back at Brianna properly, gawking at her like he thinks she can't possibly be real in a way that almost makes me sympathise because I know exactly how it feels. Or at least would make me sympathise if he wasn't a pubescent boy whose mind is probably as filthy as the post-FAYZ sewers. When his eyes meet mine again, Jack sees something in them that makes him turn and run, coughing and spluttering down the landing into one of the other rooms.

"Jack! Dekka?" Brianna asks confusedly, staring after Jack and then turning back to me. "What's up? Something going on at town hall?"

I shake my head. She looks disappointed.

"I came to…to check you're okay."

"Why wouldn't I be? The Breeze is always okay."

"Good," I reply, already taking the coward's way out and moving towards the door. "I'll go back to my house then."

"Wait," she says, and my traitorous heart races just a little bit quicker.

"Yeah?"

"I'm going out again. To see if anything's going on outside."

"It isn't," I reply, still hovering in the doorway.

"It might be," she retorts with a grin. "Come with me?"

"Out to pick a fight? No way."

"Pick a fight? Me?" she replies, smiling up at me with a sweetness that doesn't even come close to convincing me because I know better. "I'm not that kind of girl."

"Yeah, right, Breeze. And I was head of the school cheerleading squad before the FAYZ came," I reply, amusedly sarcastic.

"Did you have the uniform and everything?" she asks, and she laughs when I roll my eyes at her. "Come on, it'll be fun."

"OK," I tell her with a sigh and a pretence of reluctance that couldn't be further from the reality of what I'm feeling. "If I must."

"You must."

"Because you say so? Does the whole world have to do what Brianna says?"

"Yes," she answers flatly. "Starting with you."

"You're not the boss of me, girl. Maybe I want to go home."

"But you don't. I know you. You get bored if you're doing nothing."

"Don't start with the logic, Breeze. It doesn't suit you."

"I could beat you down in less than a second, you know that, right?"

"Bring it on," I reply, smiling and widening my stance so I block the doorway.

"Not in my house, Dekka," she says, smiling back and pushing past me, grabbing the side of my jacket as she goes and dragging me around towards the staircase. "It's bad enough having Jack here trashing it without you cancelling gravity and totally destroying it."

"Outside then?"

"Outside. You're so gonna lose."

I roll my eyes and follow her outside, knowing she'll have moved back on to whatever she wanted to go out for in the first place by the time we get there. As I watch her dance down the garden path, all I can think is that I already lost a long time ago.

"Dekka! Dekka, are you in there?! You missed the council meeting! They sent me to get you!"

She appears in the middle of my bedroom casually, almost like it's her own, and she barely pauses for breath before she carries on.

"Saint Astrid's so pissed at you! She ranted about responsibility for ages and she looked like she was even thinking about swearing. You should have seen her, Dekka. But then I guess she wouldn't have been ranting if you'd been there… Dekka? Are you even listening to me? Dekka?"

"Brianna, you should go," I tell her, forcing the words out when I really want to keep her here with me so I'm not alone. I look at my watch again. "You shouldn't be here."

"Why not?" she replies stubbornly, moving closer instead of further away. "You've never thrown me out before."

And I don't want to now. The last thing I'd ever want is to drive her away. But I have to. She doesn't need to see this.

"Leave me alone," I growl. "Get out! Now!"

"Make me," she snarls back, making me want to smile at the same time as I curse myself for forgetting how she never backs down.

But then she stops. Just stops dead and almost seems to fade.

"Happy birthday, honey," says another voice from behind me, and it sounds very different to how it did when I heard it last.

"Dad?"

I turn around and he's there. He's smiling, like he used to before, back when the man who hit me and sent me away to Coates didn't exist even in my wildest nightmares.

"It's okay," he continues, reaching his hand out to me. "I love you. What happened is in the past, Dekka. Come with me and we can start again. We can be a family again, just like before."

He walks around me, and then he's standing in front of Brianna. Brianna. She's still there, her anger gone and replaced with something I can't work out right now. Brianna. It doesn't matter that she doesn't know what I feel. Her not knowing doesn't stop me feeling. And that means she's still a living, breathing reminder of everything about me that my father despises and could never forgive.

"We can't, Dad. You hit me. You sent me away. You hate me."

"I hate what you are, Dekka. That little bit of you. But I still love you. You're my daughter and we can work it out. I promise. Let's get you out of here."

He reaches for me and I start to reach for him, but Brianna's still standing there. Even if I did believe my dad, I'd still stay for her. Who else is going to stop her doing something stupid and getting herself killed? Who else is going to look out for her?

"No. I have to stay here. I want to stay here."

"Come with me! Now!" he shouts, his face contorting with rage as he raises his hand to me again.

I shake my head and reel back. As I do, Dad transforms into something else. It glows green, like that thing in the mineshaft that was there during the night that still haunts my nightmares.

"Soon," it hisses, and then it vanishes.

Abruptly everything's the right colour again, and then I'm flying backwards, crashing to the floor with my arms full of Brianna. She hugs me tightly and then jumps up, almost embarrassed by the strength of her reaction. Between what just happened with my almost-poof and her, I look at the floor because I don't know what to think.

"Why didn't you tell anyone it was your birthday?" she asks, hands on her hips as she stares accusingly down at me. "You should've said something."

"It's my business. What would they have done anyway? Got me some balloons and a cake?"

"I'll forgive you because you stayed," she says, carrying on like she didn't hear me. "But I'd never have forgiven you if you'd left, Talent. You're the second toughest chick in the FAYZ, after me, obviously. You couldn't have let the side down and poofed."

"Poofed isn't even a word," I tell her grouchily, slowly getting to my feet and letting her drag me towards the door.

"It is now," she replies. "And I'm taking you to town hall."

"I'm not justifying myself to Saint Astrid."

"Sam and Edilio were worried about you," she says. "God knows why. I told them nobody's stupid enough to take you on, but did they listen? Of course they didn't. If everyone listened to the Breeze then there'd be a lot less stress around here."

She carries on talking for virtually the whole time it takes us to get to town hall, walking at my pace not hers. For once I'm glad that I'm not as quick as she is.

"Shouldn't you be taking Jack's temperature and making sure he doesn't have his next dose of cough medicine too early and die of an overdose?"

She glares down at me from where she sits on the wall that surrounds the plaza. Then she jerks her head sharply in the direction of town hall.

"What was all that about?"

"Nothing," I reply quickly.

I turn and start to walk away, but I don't know why I bothered trying. A second later she's standing in front of me, hands on hips and with that determined, stubborn expression on her face that she has when she's not planning on taking no for an answer.

"Go away, Breeze. I'm tired and I can't talk about council business."

"Says who? Astrid? Rules are made to be broken. Tell me."

I shake my head and keep walking, sidestepping her only for her to be in front of me again instantly. I try again, cursing her super-speed under my breath. And that fierce stare. It works better than puppy-dog eyes on me, and she knows that even if she doesn't truly understand why.

"Dekka!"

"No, Brianna. No."

"Why? What's so bad you can't tell me? And I'm not Taylor. I won't tell anyone else."

I attempt to walk past her again but she doesn't let me even take a step this time. She moves with me, reacting so fast it almost feels like she's reading my mind to find out which direction I'm going in so she knows before I even start.

I sigh deeply, silently thanking God that she can't actually read my mind, and then turn my hand so my palm faces her feet. She cries out indignantly when she begins to float upwards, unable to run with no solid ground beneath her, and then she yells furiously at me as I skirt around my force field and continue heading home. But then I reach the corner and I have to release her. I don't have enough control when I can't see what I'm doing properly and I might hurt her. I'd tell her anything before I risked doing that.

"Don't do your freaky gravity thing on me!" she shouts as she skids to a halt in front of me a split second after I let her go. "It's not fair."

"Not fair?" I retort, trying desperately not to smile. "Says the one using her freaky superspeed thing to harass a girl who's just trying to go home."

"I'm not harassing you. I want answers. And I won't leave you alone until I get them."

"Counts as harassment to me," I reply mildly, hating the part of me that resolves to tell her nothing just so she won't go back to Traitor Jack.

"Fine, I'm harassing you. I don't care. Now tell me what you were talking about at the council meeting."

She narrows her eyes at me then, before stepping forwards and reaching her hand up to my head. She pulls a small piece of blue fabric from my hair and holds it out so I can see it. It must have got there when I was sorting through the boxes in the basement in search of a change of clothes earlier. She laughs, and when I scowl at her, she only laughs louder.

"I can't believe nobody told you."

"I think people had more important things to think about," I reply, grouchy because I don't let people laugh at me.

"Such as…?"

"We were talking about Orsay, all right? About this mad prophecy thing. About whether it's rubbish or not. And if you breathe a word then I'll kill you."

She smiles and then mimes zipping her lips closed. Predictably, it doesn't last.

"Is it rubbish?"

"I don't know, Breeze," I whisper, suddenly all out of lies. "How can any of us possibly know?"

"Lana will be here soon," whispers a voice I just about identify as belonging to Dahra. It's accompanied by a cool hand on my forehead that I haven't got the strength to pull away from. "Stay there and don't even think about moving."

I cough again and the whole bed shakes. I don't think I've ever felt so exhausted, and the pain coming from the burn on my hand only adds to my misery. But when I remember how it happened, how the fires that threatened to sweep through the whole of Perdido Beach trapped so many kids in their houses, I can't bring myself to protest. Inside my head, I can still hear them screaming.

"A lot more would have died if you hadn't done what you did," says Dahra as she pulls her hand away.

"How…did you…"

"-know what you were thinking?" she says, finishing my question when I can't. "I can see the pain on your face, Dekka. It isn't just because you're sick. And I know more about you than you think I do. You care more than you let on."

I start to shake my head in denial but it hurts too much so I settle for turning over to face the wall. She sighs and pulls the thin and torn blanket over my shoulders.

"I'll come back when Lana gets here."

I don't know how much time passes after that. The basement of the hospital is always dark and there are no windows so I can't look out at the sky. I should move, I know that, but I can't. It's so much easier and less painful to stay exactly where I am. And nobody is bothering me here.

Or so I thought. But then I hear movement outside the door and I know things are about to change. Hopefully it's Lana. Then at least my hand wouldn't hurt anymore. But Lana doesn't have the flu, and judging from the frantic coughing I can hear, the person outside definitely does.

The door swings open but I haven't got the strength to turn around to see who it is. The way I feel right now, I think one of the prees from the day care could beat me in a fight, so if they're here to attack me then they can go right on ahead.

The person coughs again, but it doesn't sound like a normal cough. It's speeded up, and is quickly followed by equally rapid gasps for breath. There's only one person who does anything at that speed. But I thought she was too sick to leave the house. So why is she here?

"Breeze?"

I'm shocked by the weak and feeble whimper that seems to have replaced my voice, but I force myself to turn around anyway. The amount of effort it takes makes me forget my burnt hand and I whimper again in agony as I press it down on the bed.

She looks dreadful, or I should say that she looks ill, because she's still Brianna so she never truly looks dreadful, not in my eyes at least. But her face is deathly pale and every stumbling step she takes sets off another coughing fit that doubles her over and makes her thin frame shake alarmingly.

"You're too sick to be out," I tell her as she crashes against the side of the bed. I reach for her to steady her but I'm as weak as she is and can't support even her tiny weight for long. "What're you doing here?"

"Come to see you," she wheezes, trying to pull herself up off the floor. "Jack said… Jack said you were hurt. He was going on about fires and crushing houses. Said you got burnt and were sick. Then he passed out."

"But why are you here?" I persist, grasping her wrist and pulling her back until she's sitting on the side of the bed.

"Told you. To see you. To check you're OK."

"Do I look OK?" I retort, but I instantly regret it when we both laugh and then start coughing at the same time.

It hurts. It hurts so much. But she recovers first and being able to look up at her makes it easier to bear. Then she lies down, pushing back against me briefly to make herself some space before sagging down on the bed, as sick and exhausted as I am.

"So Zil's going down when we're better then?" she whispers. "You tell the council and I'll meet you outside Human Crew HQ at sunset?"

"I want that so much," I tell her, just managing to get my words out before I pass out.

When I wake up, it's to find Lana standing over me. There isn't even a dent in the pillow where Brianna rested her head to tell me she was ever really there at all.

Back before all this happened, when kids at Coates were starting to discover their power, some of them used to speculate about if you could use up all your strength or not. Now I know you can. It's the only way I can explain it, the only way I can describe the way it feels because I want to lower my arms but can't at the same time. In the end, ironically, it's gravity that carries them back down to rest by my sides.

Instead of moving, I just lie in the sand. I listen to the ocean, to the voices drifting over as kids try to understand what happened. But most of all I listen to the littles crying. I'm not good with them, they're all scared of me and I like it that way, but right now all I can think is that if they're screaming and wailing then they're alive. There aren't many sounds I'd rather hear. Except perhaps the one that comes next, that drowns out all other noise to me completely.

"Dekka!" she shouts, appearing by my side at the same time as I hear her approach. "Dekka, wake up. Do you want me to get Lana? I'm going to get Lana, need to get Lana," she continues, her words coming out in a babbling rush as she gets ready to zoom off again.

"Brianna," I mumble eventually, focusing all my energy into making that one sound.

I open one eye and see her stop just as she's about to run. She thought I was out of it, and she's surprised enough to lose her balance on the wet sand. If I wasn't quite so exhausted then I'd have laughed when her legs fly out from under her and she abruptly lands hard on my stomach before sliding onto the ground beside me.

"God, you're heavier than you look, Breeze," I manage, the sight of her somehow making me feel better like it always does.

She looks furious with herself, blushing red with embarrassment. I reach up and put my hand over hers.

"I won't tell a soul that the mighty Breeze is still human," I tease, but instead of laughing, she frowns thoughtfully back at me.

"You still need Lana," she says. "And kids are all staring at us," she adds, looking around in that casual way she has, like they're all so far beneath her that she can barely see them. "You saved the prees. You're a heroine, Dekka."

"I'm not," I reply, scowling. "I did what anyone would do. And I'm not lying here like some kind of exhibit at a freak show. Help me stand up."

She's on her feet instantly, holding her hand out to me.

"Get out of the way," she yells at any of the kids who step forwards. "Find Lana and send her here."

"Ask the Healer if she's got time to help me," I add to another kid I really should recognise but don't, who's looking across at me with respect that's bordering on reverence. I don't like it. There are too many people staring at me. That's Brianna's thing, not mine. "Please. I've had a rough day."

I vaguely recognise the awe in their eyes, and I just about have time to realise I don't like the responsibility it brings before everything fades to black.

I'm inside when I wake up despite how my last proper memory is of the fake FAYZ sky and the sand of the beach. It's too warm in here and it smells funny. In a bad way. However when I try to sit up, my head spins and I have to lie down again.

"Dekka, are you awake?"

I fail to sit up again and in the end settle for turning around to face the direction of the voice.

"Just about."

"Everyone's talking about what you did, man. You were awesome."

"You weren't so bad yourself, Edilio," I reply softly as the memory of him trying to fight Drake on the beach fills my mind and opens the floodgates to other memories I'd rather forget.

He shrugs his shoulders dismissively in that modest way he has, and then when he tries to sit up, he's considerably more successful than I was. He pushes himself to his feet, walks a short distance towards the door and then turns to look back at me.

"I guess Lana's healing magic's worked again," he says. "Are you coming?"

"She can't heal exhaustion," I reply, deciding I'd rather be on my own than in the middle of the crowd that's sure to be hanging around outside. "I'll stay here for a bit."

Then Edilio vanishes, leaving me alone with my thoughts and unsure of what to think. I experimentally lift first one leg and then the other, remembering being shot at and the way the bits of shrapnel mixed with the stones and shards of glass I threw in the air as a shield, combining to rip my skin to shreds. There's no pain, no scars. Lana. She's healed me as well. Not that I'm sure I deserve it.

My eyes drift closed again and I try to picture the cliffs, to remember the faces of the littles who would have died there if I hadn't saved them. But I can't. I close my eyes and all I see is Zil. All I see is the fear in his eyes as I restored gravity and sent him plummeting to his death. I made a choice to let him fall. I killed him. Dekka Talent the Murderer. I never ever thought I'd take the life of another person like that. And now I can't take it back.

I turn around to face the wall, tucking my newly healed legs up towards my stomach and covering my face with my hands. When I lower them, I'm surprised to find them wet with tears. I never wanted this. I never wanted any of it. And now I can't take it back.

"Everyone wants to see you," she calls as she bounds into the room without knocking. "They've all heard about what you did. They all want to know you're OK."

I stay facing the wall because I can't let her see me like this. I hardly ever cry, and on the rare occasions that I do, I don't let anyone see, never mind her. I should tell her I'm fine or at least pretend to be asleep, but I know I won't be able to speak without my voice shaking and my breathing's too irregular from crying for her to believe I can't hear her.

"Dekka? I know you're not asleep. Let's go. Move."

"Give me a minute, Breeze. Wait outside for me," I manage eventually.

"Dekka, are you crying?" she asks with a level of incredulous disbelief I'd be flattered by if I hadn't just killed someone and my mind wasn't full of thoughts of that. "What're you crying about? I told you before: you're a hero. Tonight's Everyone-Loves-Dekka Night. Come out and enjoy it."

"I don't love myself, Brianna," I tell her shakily, and at the same time as I hear her move, I feel her hands pulling at mine in an attempt to get me to lower them. "I took someone else's life. In the morning, the council will probably send me away."

"This is about Zil?" she asks, sitting down on the bed when I look up at her with tear-stained eyes. "You're seriously crying over that creep?!"

"Creep or not, he was still a person. And I still killed him."

"Jeez, you're starting to sound like Saint Astrid," she says exasperatedly. "He was trying to kill you, Dekka. He was trying to kill lots of people. He did kill a lot of people when he set the town on fire. And you stopped him. Then you saved virtually every kid in the day care. You shouldn't be the one alone and crying in this stinking hospital room!"

"I know," I reply, trying to make myself believe it. "I'll be fine in a minute. Honestly."

I attempt to sit up for the third time and am a bit more successful, managing to prop myself up on one arm in a way I hope convinces her that I meant what I said.

Then she throws her arms around my neck and hugs me tightly. I'm totally paralysed. I don't hug easily, I never have, but I'm not stupid enough to push her away and instead stay totally still, waiting for her to let go first. But she doesn't.

"Is that better now?" she asks, the perfect mixture of arrogance and teasing that only Brianna can achieve. "Not just anyone gets a hug off the Breeze, you know. You have to be special."

"I'm not special," I reply, and to my dismay, my tears start to fall again and I have no control over them whatsoever.

I try to stop but I can't, and my whole body shakes with the force of my sobs. By the time I can't cry anymore I'm gasping for breath, and I'm sure it takes several minutes for me to become aware of a cold hand awkwardly stroking my hair and the sharpness of the bone in her shoulder digging into my temple on the other side.

"Good," she says. "You've stopped crying. I'm not good at this sort of thing."

"You did great," I reply, trying to make her laugh. "But I'll try not to do it again."

"Good," she repeats. "Because I know anything can happen in the FAYZ but Dekka Talent doesn't cry. Ever."

"How do you know?" I ask, genuinely curious about her answer as I reluctantly raise my head and push her away.

"Because if you were going to cry then you'd have cried when we were back at Coates. And you didn't. I did, but you didn't."

I nod once and push her all the way off the bed. It's true what she said. She was always the outspoken one who answered back to Drake and Caine and even managed to teach me some new insults and swear words, but my shoulder was dampened with her silent tears more than once in the dark when there was no one there to see or care. I hadn't wanted to give in to it because I didn't want her to think I'd given up.

I hadn't known she'd noticed.

"Dekka?"

"Breeze," I reply, looking up from the book I had open long before she sat down on my bed ten minutes ago but haven't turned a page of since.

"I- What's kissing someone supposed to be like?"

"What?" I splutter eventually, halfway between shock and laughter.

"You're older than me so you must have kissed someone. So what's it like?"

"That depends on who you're kissing," I say, trying and failing to catch the book as it falls from my lap. It hits the floor with a loud crash. "Why?" I add suspiciously.

"Because I kissed Jack."

It takes me a few minutes to rid myself of first that mental image and then of one of me testing how high in the air it's possible for me to send Jack by cancelling gravity beneath his feet. I tell myself I'd stop once he reached the moon, but I'm honestly not sure that's the truth.

"Right," I reply, pleased by how even my voice is despite my reeling emotions. "And?"

"I stopped because I got bored," she says flatly, as shameless as only Brianna can be.

I laugh. I can't help it. Her words and the expression on her face are priceless. But what can I possibly say to that? That I'm not boring? I laugh again at the thought of telling her that.

"Then you obviously didn't really want to kiss him, Breeze," I say with a smile. "If you did then you wouldn't have been bored."

"But I thought I did want to. That's what I'm meant to want, isn't it?"

"Only you know what you feel," I say, getting up to stare out of the window so I don't have to stare at her while we have this conversation. "But I do know that you can't make yourself feel something you don't. You can pretend, even to yourself, but it won't be real."

"How come you're so smart about feelings and stuff?"

"I'm not," I whisper back. "But I know about trying to feel something I don't and not feel something I do."

She doesn't speak after that, and eventually I turn away from the window and face into my room again, half expecting her to have left. But she hasn't. She lies there sprawled on top of my bed, her hair fanned out across my pillow. It physically hurts to look at her. And she has no idea.

"Get up, Breeze," I growl. "You're messing up my bed."

She narrows her eyes as they lock with mine, and then she deliberately swings her arms and legs at her usual lightning speed, twisting the sheets and blankets even more.

"Brianna!"

"Fine, fine. Jeez, Dekka. Chill out."

She's up and by the door in less than a second, reaching for the handle because I've driven her away. But what am I supposed to say? I can't think properly with you lying on my bed like you belong there? Breeze, I know you're probably straight but I don't just want to be your friend? Like that would ever work out how I want it to.

"You don't have to leave," I say. "Just don't…wreck anything."

I'm a lot more relieved than I should be when she backs away from the door and sits down again.