Hello readers! I just wanted to thank all of my followers for supporting my story: CatchingtheDrift, Hermione Sparkle, IzzyTheNinja, Music4ever19, TheZombieWolf, and paristraveler22! (If I misspelled your username I apologize!)

I never thought it would even be read amongst the Fanfiction world because of it being filtered with Finnick, OC, AND Seneca. Sometimes I feel like Seneca doesn't feel the love he deserves for being a pretty awesome character if you think about it. AAND this story is a few years old, but I'm going back and rewriting everything. I didn't like the original direction of the story and plot, so within the past year have edited, fixed, and written all new stuff for it!

Okay I wont rant, but thank you for those who are following and favouriting !

-Miche :)

Chapter 3: Train Ride

"NO!" someone shouted from my left, making me jump. My heart stopped, Finnick was looking at me now, I couldn't breathe, my throat seized up, and my limbs went numb.

"Er… Rain Troute? Anyone seen Rain Troute?" everyone around me turned to look and direct the peacekeeper's attention toward me; people shouting and cheering while others were calmed to know it wasn't them. I suddenly saw my face being broadcasted across the entire town as the cameras found me, bruised nose and everything. Stumbling the entire way, two sets of arms guided me to the front where I would be seen by my entire district.

"NO! RAIN!" The voice I recognized throughout all the noise of those around me was Saxon's. I almost tripped going up the stairs but made it up to the blinding stage, my heart racing and breathe almost at hyperventilation.

"Any volunteers?" silence. I saw Anna talking with the other kids in our age group and all of them refused to volunteer. "No? Alright then!" Oh god it was me now... "Now for the boys-or should I say, young men!" my eyes clouded up and all I heard was my raspy throat inhaling, and my heart beating. Deary's gloved hand picked through all the names in the other fishbowl before settling on one. Before she was able to open the name card, something incredible happened.

"I volunteer. Let me THROUGH! I VOLUNTEER! I VOLUNTEER!" a voice screamed from the crowd. I knew that voice... No!

Grey's face suddenly entered my field of vision as he walked toward the stage, pausing at first before stepping up. The peace keepers had to pull him back slightly from seeing me in order for Deary to ask him a few questions. He was furious but put on the show for the district. The crowd cheered louder that they did for me.

"Well then! Excited are we? May I ask what your name is?"

"G-Grey Twilight…" he said into the microphone watching me the whole time. Deary found pleasure in knowing his name. She smiled.

"Grey Twilight! May I ask why you volunteered?"

"Um..." he struggled. "For the glory I guess." He glanced at the crowd behind the bright lights, all the while trying his hardest not to sound panicked. Tears threatened to run down my face as I tried to breathe, smiling for the cameras and my district.

"This is going to be one exciting year! Thank you to both tributes for stepping forth with your sacrifice." There was an awkward silence between the three of us. "Now shake hands… go on!" I looked to my right where he was standing, my face burning. Grey slowly, but surely pulled me in for a tight hug, we whispered our message to the other.

"What the hell-"

"I'm sorry-" we parted. I looked past Grey to see Finnick glancing at me. He had a hidden expression behind that smile to the crowd. Everyone cheered gloriously as we waved to them. They assumed we were happy and had tears in our eyes from that. I was terrified.

"May the odds be ever in yourfavor." Deary finished with her cookie-cutter smile.

The peace keepers had to yank us away from the other to put us into separate rooms where our family and loved ones could say their last goodbyes. Saxon showed up first with a great embrace.

"Now I know you are good with the trident and spears, you can swim, hold your breath for seven minutes, and you're also really good at fighting." We smiled recalling the time we almost took the shop down because he stole my silver fishing hooks to make other things.

"You and your art projects…"

"Speaking of art projects…" Saxon searched his pockets for something he was keeping secret until now.

"What is this?" the small object was placed in my hand and was cool to the touch, telling me it was made of metal.

"I made for your birthday, but thought I'd give it to you now." The small object was formed out of melted fish hook metal made into the shape of a dolphin, my favorite animal. There was an opal cut, my birthstone, and fit to go along the side of the animal. A sliver of a gold hook in the charm, was present along its back. "It's supposed to remind you of where you came from." I smiled remembering when he would give dad things to remind him to come home. "Win the games for us." He pulled me in for one of his bear-hugs after helping to put the necklace on me. I nodded holding my tears away. The peace keepers rushed in, taking him away from me. "I love you!"

"I will… I love you, too!" I said as they took him away. A few seconds passed before someone else came through the doors: my father.

Words never came at first. He just ran up and held me, and I realized that for the first time since April's birth, he was crying. His breathing was uneasy as his grip around me tightened.

"Dad, don't cry… Don't cry…" I said holding back tears of my own.

"I'm sorry." He muttered. April came in next holding my mother's hand.

"It's okay, everybody cries…"

"No. Not for that…" He faced me, eyes red, face flushed slightly, and nose red. "For treating you the way I did when you began training… You just... You're my little girl. I don't want to see you grow up so fast. I told myself not to show you or your brothers what I was going through by taking up something else, but drinking only got me drunk and that only made me violent." The scars on his face were more prominent now that he was scrunching it, trying not to cry. "I didn't want anything to remind me of the pain of losing your mother's memories, but seeing you every day did. I should have kept you sacred and special because you look so much like her. Not punish you because of it… I… I'm sorry…"

"I'll always love you…" my words were muffled from his shoulder. Hey big girl, now don't you start crying." I laughed hugging my little sister. She was upset and did have an idea of where I was going, but I didn't think she really knew I wouldn't survive. All she thought was I wasn't coming home again.

"Don't lose. Come home okay?"

"I promise, Starfish." she smiled at her nickname. My mother hugged me next. We were friends now and had a sisterly bond since her accident. She had been working on relating to me growing up, but it was difficult with what she knew of me and learned every day. "I love you, Mom. Keep Dad sane and April spoiled." She smiled, a tear in her eye.

"I love you too, Rainbow, and I will."

"Dad?" he turned to look at me as the other two left the room. This might break his opinion of me, but I had to tell him before it was too late. "The training academy forced us to fight each other." he looked at me no different, knowing that already. "And a couple of years ago, I fought a smaller boy. I had him in a death hold, ready to be called off, but they ordered me to kill him." shock went in his eyes. "So I did. That's why I changed so much. I thought you ought to know." He seemed to contemplate something in his eyes before speaking again to.

"I'm glad you told me this, but I will never see you any different. I'm just happy you were honest about it now. I love you, Princess…" he used my title from when I was little.

"I love you, too, Daddy!" He was pulled from my grasp as the maple doors slammed.

They had me sit in the granite tiled, wooden room for another five minutes, as people came to visit Grey. I could tell by the sobs behind the wall that it was his mother and sisters. I'm sure they're confused as to why he volunteered to murder himself. What Grey did was idiotic and selfish. How could he put his happy family through the pain of losing a son? They had to have known that it might have been - no it was- my fault he did that. What was he thinking?

The peacekeepers once again entered my room.

"It's time to go ma'am." I followed them as they walked through the door and to the train platform where I would look out to my district one last time. I barely got a glimpse of my father's shocked face as I was shoved into the cart, the doors sealing themselves behind me.

A mechanical rev notified me that the train was now on the move, and probably far from the district walls. Then the sound of voices at the end of the hall I was in caused me to stumble upon whose voices I had heard. The first face I saw and recognized was Deary's. The other woman, about mid-twenties, had dark brown hair and dark brown eyes, like the others in our district. Abigail Thornton. She had been seventeen when she won the 63rd games at 16.

Finnick stood near her, but Deary was the first to approach me with her red nailed, green hands. Fire red lips smiled up at me, showing her pearly white teeth.

"Rain Troute! It's very wonderful to meet you." Her skin was like ice and I almost jerked away, but suddenly the door opened and two peacekeepers walked in with Grey. Without hesitation, I pushed past Deary and ran over to him. His arms were tight around me when we finally met.

"I'm sorry… I really am…" he mumbled quietly. I knew exactly what he was talking about.

"You should be, Grey… Why did you?"

"I just wanted to make sure you were safe. Saxon was petrified you were chosen, and he couldn't volunteer, so I did-"

"Isn't that perfect, Abby? They already know each other…" Finnick came up and congratulated us, "Well done". How can it possibly be a good thing that we know someone we might kill in the games? Wait… I might have to kill grey… I couldn't-I wouldn't! But could I, even if he tried to kill me?

Finnick's eyes found mine again. He knew who I was, and had known as soon as my name was called. How could he have remembered me of all people? Or was it all just another act to make me fall for him?

"I told you no!" Abigail walked over separated us completely, but more like wobbled from her apparent drunkenness. "IT DOESN'T MADDER! They're not going to pull a... a Romeo and Juliet!"

"But that's what the Capitol loves and what the sponsors love: the action, the drama. All the things that make television what it is!" He argued.

"Do you want them to have targets on their backs? The last time any district wanted to go for that, they were careers and were killed the second day buy an avalanche." By now my mind was going a million miles an hour trying to think about what was happening.

"What are you talking about?" Grey interrupted wanting to know what was up.

"We are working on what your motivation will be." Abigail explained.

"We've been fighting over 'strong, fighting, yet mysterious warriors' or 'Star-crossed lovers,' to gather the capitals attention."

"And the careers attention with a weakness they can use against them, Finnick!"

"Abigail! Don't you tell me you haven't ever rooted for the lovers from other districts? After all, you were one of them when youwere a fresh tribute!"

"NO!" Abby said rushing into a different room.

That night was the worst I ever had. It took me three hours just to fall asleep and when I did I had the most terrifying I think I've ever had since I was fifteen.

I was waiting by the column that led me into the arena. The clock said thirty seconds. I looked to my right and saw Finnick, then Grey, and Brutus, Gloss, and every last victor from the past games. To my left I saw April, the boy I had killed, and other small children. My last glance at five seconds was across and past the cornucopia.

Everyone wore the same colours. Grey was ready to jump for the bow and arrow on my side. I looked then to see eyeing his every move and, I tried to yell at Grey not to run, but my voice was broken. Everything I tried to say only came out as a whimper or whisper. Finnick kept saying he was sorry about everything and I didn't understand.

The gong sounded and everyone ran in at once. It was a blur as to what happened. But I did see that Grey, shockingly, had me pinned with a sword stabbing my chest. My eyes were just able to glance in time to see Finnick running towards me only to fall with an axe in his back.

I screamed in pain seeing Grey's grim expression, and woke with someone touching me.

"Rain?" My eyes shot open to see a mildly alarmed Finnick, his hair pointing this way and that. Why was he awake?

"Grey! He... He-"

"Grey is okay. He's safe in the other room-"

"He tried to kill me!"

"He won't hurt you." he tried to calm me, but I wasn't one to sooth easy.

"B-but he pinned me down and stabbed me-!"

"It was just a dream…" he pulled me close, knowing how to deal with me. "You're okay, it never happened okay? It was just a bad dream." He said as I shook and shuddered off the dream, letting him hold me against my own opinions. "It was just a bad dream..." I passed out soon after that, not remembering much, just Finnick's breathing from my head on his chest.

Okay, I promise to try and update you guys every Friday for however long the story is. I've planned around 22 chapters so far with each cha[ter being roughly around this same length if not longer, so I'm excited to what you all think of it! I loved writing this and hope Rain is identifiable and realistic in ways everyone can understand and pick up on.

Love you guys! Until next time!