Author's Note: We've arrived at District Seven and the other half of my favourite headcanon pairing! This isn't a Johanna -centred Chapter but instead focusses on her fellow victors. Johanna is a favourite of mine so she comes up in many of my other ideas which hopefully I will get around to writing!

District Seven's Victors and their Games: Logan (1, deceased), Leah (7, deceased), Liev (24), Sawyer (30), Linden (41), Blight (56), Johanna (71)

….

The morning air was frigid as Linden left his home for his usual morning walk. Heading towards the station, he could see the paper mills coming to life again, signalling the start of the working day. Away from the main town, the lumber crews would be heading out as a new season of felling begins. Winter this year appeared to be coming to a harsh end but that did not delay the start of the new season for the district's many lumber workers. The Capitol has ordered that work begin as usual, so the Mayor was left with no choice but to order the crews out to work.

Approaching the station, Linden knew he had a couple of minutes before the train pulled in, so he stopped to talk to the men waiting to unload it of tesserae grain and refill it with a new supply of paper and manufactured furniture heading straight to the Capitol. Linden knew when every train originating in or stopping by Six was due in Seven thanks to Poppy providing him with the maintenance schedule, but he took this walk every day to try to avoid anyone who could be watching them making the link with Poppy. The train pulled into the station so Linden waited whilst Seven's workers, accompanied by peacekeepers, rushed to meet it before starting his walk alongside the platform where he would hopefully meet the conductor from Six.

In the usual way, the conductor made his way down the platform, overseeing the work whilst Linden walked towards him. They brushed past each other and Linden continued his walk. He carried on away from the station and towards the path that would eventually lead him back to Victors' Village. Once out of sight he took the note out of his pocket along with a lighter, took in every word and watched it burn away. The message he had sent with the conductor mirrored Poppy's letter to him. He had assured her that he would not volunteer, asked her to do the same and sent his best wishes to her fellow victors in Six. He added that he would try to help Johanna but that he was not sure how well his efforts would be received.

Upon arriving back in Victors' Village Linden saw Liev waving at him to come inside his house. They were to have this conversation now it seemed. District Seven's four surviving male victors were all present as they walked through the house, out to the edge of the village where the forest began and where Sawyer had previously crafted benches and a large table for the victors to use for their most private conversations.

"Johanna still not back?" Linden asked.

"Not yet," Blight replied. "She set out last night in the direction of her usual spot, so I'll look there if she's not back tomorrow morning." The other victors each indicated their agreement to the suggestion, knowing that Johanna needed her own space and often took off for a couple of days at a time, especially at particularly difficult moments such as this.

"Blight, what's with this Quell mess?" Liev started, eager to get to the heart of the matter. "Please tell me your contacts have come up with something useful, or even better, that we haven't been found out?" Blight's victor talent was his singing and guitar playing and when in the Capitol he performed with a group inspired by old American civilisation country and western music. The group's interest in historic, and often forbidden materials made them natural rebels, and coincidentally, Plutarch Heavensbee was a fan. Liev was hoping that one of the group members had been able to make contact in the days since the Quell was announced.

"Yes, I received a message from Aries yesterday. The group were performing at a smaller party for the Quell announcement and one of Heavensbee's men had got word to them. The Quell is part of the plan, it's going to happen from the arena," Blight announced.

"Some sort of plan this is. You really sure we can trust this?" Sawyer asked gruffly.

"Can't say I'm a fan of it either. But yes. Word has come directly from Plutarch to Aries, and for a Capitol, he's sound," Blight replied sharply.

"Anything else we need to know about? It's something to know that we haven't been discovered but we could do with something else to work from," Linden added. He could let Poppy know in his next message that the Quell was part of the plan, she did not mention anything in her note indicating that she knew, so he hoped he could reassure her.

"Yes, we are going to need fighters in there," Blight grimaced, thinking about what this may mean for him. "Got to keep the Twelves alive and apparently the Threes so there's a way to get out of the arena".

"Johanna will love that," Sawyer remarked sarcastically.

"Well it's not exactly what any of us had in mind," Blight replied.

Liev cut in, "The most immediate question is who is going in with Johanna?"

"Well with Heavensbee in on it, he will make sure it's sorted. If we need fighters, it's no good sending me or Liev in there," Sawyer answered bluntly. "Not to mention, the Capitol audiences will not want to watch a load of old men attempting a mad dash to the Cornucopia."

"Agreed," Liev said quietly. Linden and Blight were his victors and whilst Seven did not hold onto the mentor-tribute relationship long after the arena, he did not get those boys out only for it to end like this. "Whichever one of you it is," he looked towards Linden and Blight, "I will mentor. It's the least I can do."

"I'm sure I can deal with Johanna," Sawyer added. "Nobody is sitting here alone so that leaves whoever avoids the arena to deal with all that publicity rubbish and to set us up with sponsors. You both have more patience with Capitols than I do anyway."

"Yes," Liev laughed, "This isn't the time for you to go around scaring them all," Liev quickly became more serious and added, "Look, if it all goes to hell and something happens to the Twelves or Threes, can we agree, we look after our own and avoid any other scheming."

"Yes," Blight replied with certainty, "But if it's me in there with her, go ahead and save her. Liev, give anything you may have from sponsors to Sawyer. She won't thank me for it, but she deserves more than this and there should be people around to look out for her after."

Liev nodded in agreement but Linden cut in, "She won't go for it. There's no way she'd kill Finnick and I think we all know he's going to be in there."

Sawyer sighed, "We can sort out specifics if and when we get there. No point in arguing over it now. If whoever it is dies before Johanna, I get the funds. I'll do the same if she goes, but I'm hoping she'll avoid provoking the Ones and Twos long enough for that not to happen. And look after our own before helping anyone else if it comes to it."

"Fine," Blight added, sensing that conversation was ending. He stood up and walked away from the group "Linden, a word if that's alright?" Linden went to join him.

"I didn't want to say anything in front of everyone else, I don't know how much they know about Poppy. I don't know if you've made any deals with her so if you want to concentrate on her, that's okay with me," Blight said.

"Liev suspects I think, haven't a clue about Sawyer, so thanks for not mentioning it. All I've promised is that I won't volunteer, not going to force anyone in in my place though. She has done the same. And I know for you, that's not great but-" Linden replied.

"That's fine. No point in us volunteering for each other anyway. Whichever one of us it is, we go in and do our best," Blight stated with confidence.

"That's okay. Poppy knows it's the best I can offer her. If she goes in with me, we'll go with Johanna and look after whoever we have to. If it's you, and she's in there too… well if Cecelia's there, she'll find her, but I can get them to work with you. There's no way they'd go for you or Johanna though," Linden explained, hoping his thoughts made sense.

"Well that's some relief," Blight chuckled.

"Poppy's a pretty decent mentor though. Her tributes never seem to have a set skill like ours do and she's good with them, she can work something out often enough that they don't always die straight away. The gamemakers know that, so I'm hoping…. And she's smart enough to know Claudia, Max or Levi don't stand much of a chance of winning. She cares about Johanna too. Or would, if Johanna would let her in. So she could help, if we need it. Cecelia would understand," Linden stopped, knowing he was rambling a little.

"Don't worry. Poppy won't be a problem, I get it. I certainly have no intention of harming her. And if she can help, even better," Blight responded, understanding his friend's concerns.

"Thanks," Linden replied sincerely. "So we have the best chance of this actually working out how we want, you think we ought to make sure we're in better form?"

"You mean to say I'm not rivalling Finnick in all those Capitol magazines!" Blight joked and Linden laughed in response. "But yeah, that's not a bad idea actually. Stops us sitting about mulling things over too much," he continued.

"Good. I'll be out the back tomorrow. Up to you whenever you want to join. Johanna too," Linden confirmed.

"I'll let her know when she gets back," Blight answered.

With that the two victors parted ways and walked towards their respective homes. Blight would keep watch for Johanna whilst Linden writes another message to Poppy for when the next train arrives in a couple of weeks. Linden hoped someone else would get word to her before he was able or else he was worried about how frayed her nerves would become if she spent much longer in the dark.