Thanks for your patience, everyone and I apologize profusely for not being able to keep up with my weekly updates and for not answering reviews for the last chapter. That won't happen again. I very much appreciate your interest in my story, thank you for reading :)

"What are you talking about?" Katniss asked, sitting up in bed. She pulled the bedsheet close to her body, securing it under her arms.

"I saw it, Katniss," Peeta muttered. He slipped out of bed, pulling his lounge pants on before pacing the room.

"You were outside?"

It was the only thing Katniss could think of to ask him. Peeta and Finnick weren't scheduled to go to the surface for another two days. What was Peeta doing out there, and how had he heard her conversation with Gale?

"No, Katniss. I saw it," Peeta repeated, frustrated. "In my head. It started during lunch, right after you came back from the surface. I didn't see anything then, but I just felt like something was wrong again, like that day in the woods when I felt the earthquake before it happened. When you told me Gale was in the hospital, I thought maybe that was it and that the feeling would stop once you told me, but it didn't."

"When did the visions start?" Katniss asked from the bed, watching Peeta as he ran a hand through his hair.

"When we were with Haymitch." Peeta stopped his pacing when Katniss's hand found his arm. She pulled him gently back toward the bed, scooting close to him when he sat down. "I thought I was hallucinating," he finished, his voice just a whisper.

It was then that Katniss realized that for the first time in Peeta's life, an irrefutable power had presented itself, and if the look on his face was any indication, it scared him. He hadn't had the last six years to come to terms with who he was the way Katniss had. It was all new for him.

"I thought it was some kind of negative reaction to being down here," Peeta continued. "Like my mind was playing tricks on me or something, but it just kept happening over and over again, clearer and clearer every single time I looked at you. It wasn't a hallucination."

"It wasn't," Katniss confirmed. "I didn't want to tell you what Gale said. I couldn't. It's already hard enough being stuck down here, I didn't want to add this to it. How much did you see?"

"Not a lot," Peeta said. "Gale saying he still doesn't trust me, and you telling him to stop. It fades out right after that."

For a moment, Katniss was relieved. Peeta hadn't seen or heard Gale drag Peeta's family into the conversation. And for that moment, she intended to keep it that way. But hadn't that been her plan when she'd tried to keep everything from Peeta before? And that hadn't worked at all. Just because he hadn't seen it yet didn't mean he wouldn't eventually.

"He seems to think you still have some kind of allegiance to your family," Katniss blurted out. She had to tell him before she chickened out. "He's worried that you're planning to finish what they started when they were hunting me."

"You know that keeping this from me wasn't going to make it go away, right?" Peeta asked. He didn't sound angry with her, just concerned. "Wiress said that.."

"I know what she said. I know. I just.. I," Katniss stammered, trying to find her words. "I want to.. to.."

"Protect me?" Peeta asked with a smile.

"Yes," Katniss breathed. "Just as much as you want to protect me."

"We saw how well hiding things worked out for me," Peeta reminded her. "Gale's words mean nothing." He brought a hand up to Katniss's cheek. Katniss turned her head and planted a kiss to his thumb. "We can protect each other without hiding things, you know. I let it go way too long before I figured that out. I don't want it to be like that between us ever again."

"I wanted to tell him how wrong he was," Katniss said, resting her head on Peeta's bare shoulder. "But I wasn't sure what I should be telling him."

"He's already made up his mind. It's not your job to change it," Peeta said sadly. "What our job is now is to figure ourselves out. Tomorrow, we have to talk to Wiress about what happened today and what happened to you in the woods a few weeks ago. We need to start getting more answers."

Katniss nodded in agreement, pulling herself away from Peeta just long enough to lie back down and settle in for the night. In the morning, they'd tell Wiress everything and hope for the answers they'd been wanting from the moment they'd arrived in District 13.

XXXX

Katniss stared at Peeta more than she stared at her food during breakfast the next morning. He looked anxious, to say the least. His eyes were practically glued to the table top, occasionally traveling back up to scan the room in a panic before he forced his head back down again.

"Katniss?" Peeta whispered, wringing his hands together nervously. "I'm hearing other voices now, too."

"What?" Katniss asked. "What are you seeing?"

Peeta shook his head. "Nothing. It's just voices. Every time I look up and catch a glimpse of someone, a voice starts. Sometimes two or three at a time. I don't know who the voices belong to, but if I keep my head down, they stop."

Luckily, their next activity on the day's agenda was their meeting with Wiress. But it was the waiting before the guards dismissed them that was grueling. The longer Katniss observed Peeta, the harder it got to watch him. She could tell when he'd hear another voice when his body tensed up and he forced his head down further. If he kept going, soon his face would be in his breakfast.

"Are you looking forward to going to the surface with Finnick tomorrow?" Katniss asked, trying to keep Peeta's mind occupied. "You two get along pretty well."

"Yeah," Peeta nodded, refusing to look up from his tray "He's a good guy. Says the lake in the grove sounds like nothing compared to the ocean in District 4."

"But he's never seen one of your drawings of the lake," Katniss said. "I bet he'd change his mind if he saw one."

"Too bad I don't have any of them here," Peeta sighed, raising his eyes slightly. "Or anything to draw with at all, for that matter."

"Maybe we can find you something," Katniss suggested. "After we talk to Wiress we could-"

"What if I really am hallucinating this time, Katniss?"

The confusion in Peeta's voice cut through Katniss like a knife.

"You're not."

"How do you know?" Peeta insisted. "Have you ever heard voices without a vision like this?"

"Well, no…"

"Then how do you know?" Peeta snapped. His eyes widening at the sound of impatience in his voice. "I'm sorry," he said quickly. "This isn't your fault, you're just trying to help."

And she was doing a terrible job of it. How was it that Peeta could find the words to put her at ease without so much as a pause, but when she tried to do the same, all it did was make things worse?

"Just…" Katniss paused, making sure her voice was as soothing as possible. "Try to think of other things until we see Wiress."

Pathetic. She'd probably help him more if she just kept her mouth shut.

With her focus entirely on Peeta, Katniss barely noticed Prim waving enthusiastically at her from her own table. Katniss waved back, unable to force a smile to her face, and wished that her sister could come sit with them. Maybe she'd have words for Peeta more soothing than what Katniss had to offer.

There was so much Katniss wanted to ask Prim, and so much she needed to hear. But with their schedules having to be District 13 approved, there was never time for them to see each other.

"Your table is dismissed," a guard said, tapping Katniss on the shoulder.

She and Peeta practically jumped from the table, hastily throwing their dirty trays in a pile with the others before walking as fast as they could in the direction of Wiress's compartment.

There'd be changes made to the compartment since their visit the day before. In place of the second single bed that seemed customary to all of the compartments in District 13, a small desk with books and papers strewn across it in messy organization occupied the space. Wiress sat behind it in a swiveling chair and motioned to the two chairs placed front of the desk.

"You can sit down," she said with an almost giddy tone.

The most noticeable addition to the compartment, however, was the man that stood behind Wiress. He wore professional clothing perfectly tailored to his stout frame, topped off with a red tie that was secured tightly around his fat neck. The lack of District 13's signature uniform made it clear he wasn't a guard.

Katniss eyed him tentatively. Who was he?

"This is Dr. Aurelius," Wiress said, noticing Katniss's glare. Her words seemed to come easier than they did the day before as she introduced the teenagers to the man known as Dr. Aurelius. "He'll be present during some of our meetings."

"Nice to meet you both." He leaned over the desk and shook both of their hands, moving back behind Wiress when he was done. "I'll be helping you both where mental power and control is involved as you begin to delve deeper into your training with Wiress."

"You're a head doctor," Katniss announced, a bit put off by the sugarcoated arrangement of his words.

"If you want to call me that." Dr. Aurelius shoved his hands in his pocket and shifted his weight from one side to the other before asking, "Is he alright?"

Katniss's attention was drawn back to Peeta, who now sat in his chair with his head bowed down, refusing to look at anyone once again. She hesitated, unsure of whether or not she should speak for him, or if she should speak at all with this man in the room. Dr. Aurelius seemed to sense her hesitation.

"Anything you say in this room stays between the four of us," he assured her. "I'll ask again. Is he alright?"

Katniss turned her attention to Wiress, choosing to speak to her rather than directly to Dr. Aurelius. "Just before we met with you yesterday, Peeta had a bit of a…"

"Breakthrough?" Wiress asked.

"Yes," Katniss said, looking over to Peeta.

"Peeta?" Wiress said gently. "Can you talk? Tell me what happened?"

"I can talk," he confirmed. "I'm just going to keep my head down if that's okay."

"That's fine," Wiress said. "You can keep your head down."

"I think I tapped into Katniss's mind yesterday," Peeta began. "It was like I was watching her memory on a television. She was outside in the woods with Gale, and he was telling her he didn't trust me. It repeated over and over for hours, every single time I looked at her."

"Is it still happening?" Wiress asked.

"No. Not since I told her what I saw," he explained. "But now I'm hearing voices."

"What kind of voices?" Dr. Aurelius cut in, his interest piqued. "Do they sound like you? Are they telling you to do things?"

"No, they don't sound like me," Peeta said, annoyed. "They're other people. Men, women, children, all talking. Or I think I'm hearing them talking. Maybe I'm just hallucinating."

"Do the voices start when you look at someone?" Wiress asked. "The way the vision of Katniss's memory started after you looked at her?"

"Yes," Peeta breathed in relief. "But I'm trying not to look at anyone. I don't want to hear their thoughts."

"So that's why you have your head down," Wiress said out loud, though she was clearly only talking to herself. "Peeta, in order to stop hearing the memories of people you're not trying to read, you have to accept what's happening."

"That's it?" Peeta said, his head snapping up to look at her for the first time.

Wiress laughed. "Half of controlling your powers is accepting that you have them in the first place."

"But I'm not exactly in denial here," Peeta argued.

"Maybe not, but you're still not embracing who you are," Wiress explained. "If you fight against your powers like you were this morning, it'll only cause the powers to fight even harder to come out." She paused, taking a moment to breath and crack her knuckles nervously. Though her speech had evened out considerably in the last day, her nervous ticks still remained. "Similarly, if you try to force these things to happen when your mind isn't quite ready, it'll make it even harder to call upon that power. Your mind and your powers have to work together, not against each other."

"How do I get it to stop?" Peeta asked.

"Is it happening right now?" Wiress moved forward in her chair. "Can you hear my memories?"

"I can't," Peeta said, a joyful realization washing over him. "I don't hear anything."

"Because you paid attention and responded to the information I just gave you." Wiress smiled." It's a good thing, but it's temporary. This will happen again."

"How do I control this?" Peeta asked. "I know it won't stop forever, but if I don't want to hear memories, how do I ensure that I don't?"

"That's something you'll have to work on," Wiress said. "Finding a balance between your power and your mind. It's not something I can just tell you how to do. You'll probably make some mistakes along the way. Hear things you don't want to hear, but that's part of learning how to control your power."

"And what about if I want to read someone's memories?"

"That's even harder," Wiress admitted. "What you experienced was your power presenting itself. It's always very strong when a power is ready to come out, whatever the reason."

"So why would some powers be present right away and some not show up until later?" Katniss asked. "What determines when they show up?"

"There are two different types of powers that Uprisers and Incendiaries possess," Wiress said. "Powers that exist from the first moments of their lives, and some that need time to mature. Our hopes going into this was that you and Peeta would be able to stay in the grove, where you were comfortable, for as long as possible. That way powers could mature and show themselves in a more organic way."

"But would we have even known what they were?" Peeta asked.

"Haymitch was days away from revealed that he'd been around keeping tabs on the two of you. He was also instructed to tell you about who you are, Peeta. But the Mockingjay Hunters closed in." Wiress stopped, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes. Had that been when the Capitol began their torture? "Bringing you here this soon was not our plan, and this is going to be harder now because of it. Powers that should have been allowed to mature and show themselves will have to be coaxed out of you with time. It's not going to happen overnight, but I'll do everything I can to help this make sense to you both."

"You said that we were born with powers that already exist," Peeta said. "But I wasn't."

A wide smile grew on Wiress's face. "Dr. Aurelius? Could you turn off the lights, please?"

The portly man was confused, but he complied. He took long strides to the lightswitch and clipped the switch with two fingers, sending the room into darkness.

"Peeta? Tell me what you see," Wiress said.

"You're holding up six fingers," Peeta replied.

"And Katniss? What do you see?"

"Nothing," Katniss said. "It's pitch black."

"You can put the lights back on, Dr. Aurelius," Wiress called. When the compartment was lit up again, the smile on Wiress's face seemed even wider than it was before. "Not everyone is born with the ability to see beyond darkness, Peeta. That is an ability that is special only to Incendiaries. As time goes on, you'll learn that there are things that only Katniss can do, things only you can do, and things the two of you can only do together, as one."

"Do you know what would trigger a particular power to present itself?" Peeta asked. "What made these voices show up the way they did?"

"Moments of high stress or discontentment could cause a power to present itself," Wiress explained. "You've experienced visions already, right Katniss?"

"You know that?" Katniss said, her mouth hanging open.

"It was just a guess," Wiress laughed. "This is a power you both possess."

"It happened to me while we were still in District 12," Katniss started, her voice becoming ethereal. "It was when the Mockingjay hunters had closed in. Peeta ran into the woods and he was standing there, between me and my family and the hunters. Seeing him there like that, forced to be there by both sides must have triggered something and suddenly I was in his head. I saw his life, heard his refusals to join his family in hunting me. Everything. But it hasn't happened since."

"Stress," Wiress said with a nod. "That's likely what brought it out for you. Have you tried it again since then?"

"Yes," Katniss whispered. "Yesterday… on Peeta. While we were with Haymitch." She flashed an apologetic look in Peeta's direction, hoping he wasn't angry.

"And what happened?"

"Nothing."

"That's when I saw Gale…" Peeta added.

Wiress looked at Peeta. "Elaborate?"

"The first time I saw the memory with Gale, Katniss had been staring at me. She had this look on her face like she was concentrating on something really hard," Peeta said, turning to Katniss. "I asked you what you were doing, but you played it off like you weren't doing anything but listening to Haymitch. That had to be when you were trying to tap into my mind."

"Is he right, Katniss?" Wiress asked.

"Yes…" Katniss admitted, her cheeks flushing red with embarrassment. "I wanted to know what he talked about with Haymitch while I was on the surface. They'd agreed to alter our compartment but didn't mention any of it to me until it was happening, so I wanted to know."

"It bothered you that much?" Peeta whispered, turning away from Wiress and Dr. Aurelius. "We weren't keeping anything from you."

"I know. It was just that..." Katniss muttered. She looked up to Wiress and Dr. Aurelius and wished they were anywhere but in the room with them. "Can we talk about this later?"

"You should talk about it now," Dr. Aurelius interrupted. "Get things out in the open."

"I'm sorry, but is this your business?" Katniss snapped.

"My job is to make sure the two of you are communicating and keeping your minds active," Dr. Aurelius said, haughtily. "I'm just doing my job. Peeta? Did you have something to say to Katniss?"

Katniss threw herself back against her chair angrily. They weren't there to have a therapy session.

"You didn't trust me," Peeta said. "You thought we'd planned something and didn't tell you about it on purpose. Because of what Gale said."

"No!" Katniss argued. "Well… I did think about what he said, but I trust you."

"How can you both take into consideration what he said about me and trust me at the same time?" Peeta protested. "Do you really think I would do something like that to you? That Haymitch, who's been there to keep you alive from day one, would do something like that to you?"

"No!" Katniss repeated. "I don't. I realized how stupid the thought was. I wasn't thinking clearly. I only spent five minutes on the surface. I couldn't stay up there and listen to Gale say those things anymore. I'm just… I'm not holding it together very well." The crack of her voice caused Wiress to lean forward as speak softly.

"Katniss?" she murmured. "Is the fact that you can't be outside for very long impacting you that badly?"

"Both of us," Katniss admitted, a tear sliding down her cheek.

Wiress nodded, a concerned look sullying her features as she looked back and forth from Katniss to Peeta. She cleared her throat and moved back against her chair. "Any suggestions, Dr. Aurelius?"

"A hobby," he answered. "Something you two can work on between visits to the surface to keep your minds from getting too addled down here."

"Is there any way to get paints or chalk here so I can draw?" Peeta asked. "That was my hobby back home."

"I can probably do that," Dr. Aurelius nodded. "What about you, Katniss?"

"I don't really have any hobbies," she admitted. "Besides spending time with my sister."

"And you haven't been able to do that here?" Dr. Aurelius asked.

"No. They don't exactly give us much time for visits with our daily agendas." She could have said more. A complaint about Coin's attempts to use her family as a way to control her, the guards in the dining hall refusing to let the sisters visit each other's tables, but she stopped herself, letting Dr. Aurelius put everything together on his own.

"I can probably change that for you," he finally said. "I'm your doctor now, and I can tell them it's required that you spend time with your sister a few times a week as part of your treatment."

Katniss's face lit up. Maybe Dr. Aurelius wasn't so bad, afterall.

"Great." Wiress nodded, trying to force a smile to her face but there was nothing genuine in her expression. Something was bothering her, but she was trying not to make it known. "We got a little off track, though…"

"One moment," Dr. Aurelius said. "We should probably talk more about the trust issues between Katniss and Peeta."

"Dr. Aurelius, please!" Wiress barked, her voice reaching an angered tone they never would have expected from her. "Let them talk about it alone and we can revisit the issue tomorrow."

Dr. Aurelius looked like he wanted to argue and insist that they talk about it now, but Wiress seemed to be fading fast. The nervous ticks came constantly, and she swayed in her sweat from side to side.

"Peeta?" she said, taking a deep breath in attempts to pull herself together. "There are a few things I need to tell you. First, it seems likely that by Katniss trying to force her powers out, that it triggered one of yours. I can't explain how that happened, but it's not surprising considering how connected the two of you are. Don't let it scare you. For an Incendiary, it's a perfectly normal occurrence to hear voices."

"Good to know," Peeta said with a nod.

After another short pause, Wiress continued. "I also wanted you to know up front that a lot of my work with you will be a learning experience for everyone involved. We know enough about Incendiaries to help you, but not nearly as much as we know about Uprisers. This is both good and bad. Good, because we're changing history - writing new versions of it and altering it by adding onto things that are already known about you."

"And why's it bad?" Peeta asked.

"Because it makes you more of a loose cannon," Wiress revealed, drawing a mindless doodle on a blanket sheet of paper in front of her. "You're liable to present a new power at any time. We know what you're capable of, but there's less in writing about how to deal with it. You have to be open to working with us so we can figure out the best approach to your powers."

"I can do that," Peeta nodded. "I do have a question for Dr. Aurelius, though…" he looked at the head doctor, cocking his head to the side. "Before we got here today, you seemed pretty eager to tell Wiress that you think we're going to fail. But why haven't you told us, yet?"