And here it is! The chapter we've all been waiting for! This one is the one I am MOST excited/nervous about. I'm going to try to have the next update ready soon but my spring break just ended so...I will do my best to be as timely as I have been. Thanks for reading and I hope you guys enjoy! :)

Absolute: The Fray

The trip back to Four was a silent one. Getting off the train was different. All of Four was waiting for me and unlike Finnick, I was a timid victor. "Annie?" I heard a familiar call and my heart leapt. "Mama!" I ran to my family and hugged both my mother and father tightly, tears filling my eyes.

"I love you so much!" My mother cried, kissing me over and over on the cheeks.

"My girl!" Papa grinned, hugging me tightly. "I knew you could do it!" He told me with tears falling down his cheeks. I had missed them so much. Finnick's family was next and it was reassuring to know how many people were on my side. The afternoon whirred by, and although everyone doted on me, wanting to talk to me, wanting to ask me about Finn, and the games…we took off into the night just like the night of Finnick's return.

Finnick took me to the bank. He didn't talk right away. Instead he paced. Back and forth he marched across the sand and then he sank down to sit beside me. "We need a plan." He said finally.

I watched the waves rise and crash down in the light of the moon. "What's going on Finn?"

He shook his head, "I don't know how to tell you Annie." He was fidgeting. I had never seen him so nervous.

I pushed his hair back with a warm smile, "Tell me." He was so still, trapped in his thoughts. So I leaned into him, wrapping my hands around his arm, "There was a plan forming last night…why? What are you fighting against?" I asked him quietly.

He sighed. It was one word, so simple. I couldn't miss it. "Snow." My heart dropped.

"What will he do to you?" I asked quietly, my heart drumming loudly deafening almost every thought.

Finnick's eyes flickered from me to the waves, "Nothing more than what he's already done." He leaned into me letting my head rest on his shoulders and his free arm reaching for me. "It's what he'll try to do to you." He said quietly, his voice cracking slightly.

A wave of shock washed over me. Things didn't make sense again. A victor's life was a life of luxury, wasn't it? Finnick spent so much time in the Capitol and it was because he loved it there? I didn't realize until this moment that Finnick had been hiding so much more from me than just where he ran off. "Me? We're victors though… they can't hurt us?" I asked childishly, ignorantly.

He sighed, taking back his free arm and letting grains of sand run through his fingers. "Yes Annie, they very much can." He said with a gulp. He folded his lips in tightly and then spoke in a very stern voice. "I don't want him to hurt you anymore." Finnick said, gruffly, but even in his anger, he couldn't disguise the pain of betrayal. "He made a promise a few years ago and didn't live up to that…" The waves crept further on to the bank. The air was warm that night, but Finnick thought it was better to go back to his old house near the square. He took my hand and led me up the trail in silence.

When we reached the old house, he fell back into his thoughts, and I knew it was imperative for him to tell me everything now…but like him, I didn't really know what I wanted to know. "Finn, what scares you?" I asked quietly as he started a fire.

We sat on opposite sides of the couch. He didn't answer for awhile, but when he did…it made me cringe. "Them killing you." He said finally. Whatever Finnick did, he did it to protect me. He sacrificed everything for me, while I took to a selfish entitlement of love.

"The Capitol?" I squeaked.

He moved closer to me, but still kept his distance. "Annie they're not our friends. You know, as well as I, why we're thrown into the Games every year…it's to show every District that they still own us. And why don't Victors run home free? Because they still own us. The Capitol takes vicious murders and transforms them into weak victims." I knew he was right, but I was still confused.

"So what did they do to you?" I ran my hand over the dark, worn couch to meet his hand. I pulled my legs on the couch, folding my knees into my chest.

Finnick pulled his hand away and watched me with unease. I wrapped my arms around myself as a new drafty chill lingered in the room. "They sold me." Finnick's voice rang throughout the room and a horror stabbed at my chest. He wouldn't look at me and I knew Finnick detested himself. Any time he refused to look at something, he was ashamed of something. "That's where I went all those weekends."

My heart was demolished. I literally felt my heart stop. It was as if my entire body had just ripped at the seams, like my bones had disjointed. "But you were so young."

Finnick shook his head, staring absentmindedly at the flame. "It started more innocent. First, President Snow kept me as the flirt, told me I was the face of the Capitol and stupidly, I believed him. So I attended parties and wooed the women of the Capitol but once I turned seventeen that changed."

It wasn't registering. "He sold you as a…" I stuttered.

"Whore," Finnick sighed. To hear him say it was painful and distressing. "Yes. I am a disgusting, weak Capitol whore." He had a small smile on his face, but of course his self-effacing humor reminded me how unhappy he actually was.

"Oh, Finn…" I breathed. Something still didn't make sense. Finnick had power…how could he not use it to his advantage? "But you're a victor…you could have refused?"

He shook his head again. "President Snow promised he'd kill my family that was the first persuasion."

The idea of Capitol Officials invading District Four and making a public scene of the Odair family brought me to a new fear and conclusion. "Which is why you couldn't come back?" A single tear slipped down my cheek. I hid my face from Finnick, watching the flames dance with small embers on the hearth.

"He said he'd kill you." Finnick broke the silence and suddenly I didn't want to know anymore. But I knew we had to keep going. "That's why I stayed in the Capitol. I wanted to be here Annie." He reached for my hand and I could hear the sincerity in his voice. That I didn't doubt at all.

I sat up, enraged and in fear. "The President? The one who's supposed to be protecting us…?" I snapped, watching the fire building and then die down.

"Isn't above killing no," Finnick answered solemnly. "He keeps tributes as prisoners and uses us as pawns to keep the Capitol running," Finnick said, equally angry. "He's a murderer." He growled.

Finnick had faced awful things, all in reward for surviving. Anger left and sadness trilled in my voice, "I am so sorry." I crawled across the couch to him and curled up to his side. He sank beside me, wrapping his arm around my waist.

"Don't be," He whispered, kissing my forehead, "I would have been mad if I had been you."

I looked up to him, letting my hand rest on his chest. "So you're afraid he's going to sell me too?"

Finnick sat up, "I'm afraid he'll try…but he won't." He said, putting both hands on my shoulder.

I felt insecure with Finnick's handsome eyes watching me so close. "I'm not beautiful like the women in the Capitol…so what will happen when he can't sell me?" I felt insecure knowing that my body was so scrawny, my hair was a plain color, I wasn't extravagant in any way, shape, or form. I was simply a girl from District Four.

Finnick looked in pain, "Annie…you're more than beautiful. You're better than the women of the Capitol, which is why Snow is so interested in you!" He exclaimed holding my face with both his hands. His eyes inspected me and there was a true look of happiness there. "You're desirable. You're everything they want in the Capitol: innocent, beautiful, radiant…perfection. They want you and they'll pay…" He hooked his hand behind my ear and the happiness left as we both thought more on my future.

I grabbed his wrists, and then reached up to his neck, pulling him closer to me. "Finnick…"

"Do you still want to know everything?" He asked, forehead pressed to mine.

I nodded. "Yes," and I separated myself from him, "How did you save us in the arena? I didn't fight. That looked awful to sponsors." I knew the answer before he said it, but I had to be reassured. My body ached as the truth sank in.

"I found you sponsors." He whispered.

And I couldn't take it anymore. "Ok. No more," I breathed. It was sick, painful what they did to Finnick. "No more."

"I'm sorry Annie." He watched the fire and then let rested his elbows on his knees, head in his hands. I wish he had told me sooner.

But I didn't hate him for it…because I would have died a million deaths to protect him if I had to. I would have fought in a hundred Hunger Games…and actually fought. I would have charmed a thousand men to save the one. "No. No, you did what you had to. And that's why I love you…but this…this is…" I lost my words. Evil wasn't enough to describe the Capitol. Finnick didn't try to fill in blanks, instead he allowed me to let out every frustration, every angry word and harsh thought. "So your customers paid for me?" I asked, exasperated.

Finnick nodded gravely, "There was more persuasion there…instead of actual sex but yes," He said, there were some efforts of him trying keep the situation light, but we both knew there were no positives to come from this. "I did everything I could to keep you safe."

"You slept with the Capitol to save me?" I asked timidly, this time lifting myself on Finnick's lap. He nodded with a curious expression on his face, "And now I'll be sleeping with the Capitol too." I told him, kissing his lips. I broke into a smile, wanting to make Finnick laugh. "We'll make a wonderfully smutty couple…" I said as our lips parted.

Finnick chuckled, "Sleeping with everyone but each other," He whispered, supporting my neck and kissing me again. "But fortunately, my love, we will not share that aspect of our lives." He smiled with a sad glance.

I leaned back on his knees, nestling against his chest, my knees hugging his hips. "I'm not going to let my family or you suffer for my insolence. I can't surrender that. Joke or no joke."

He lifted my chin, "You won't." He said, running his hand through my hair, and placing his free hand on the small of my back to pull me closer. "You won't sacrifice them or me. And you won't be me. I have a plan, but you have to trust me." My hands wrapped around his neck and both of his hands were on my waist.

"I do trust you." I said, pressing my forehead to his.

Finnick let his hands search my face and I truly felt calm in his arms. He pushed back my hair and got my attention when his thumb swept over my lips and then jaw. "I need you to pretend to go mad."

I backed away from him, confused by his request. "What?" I breathed with a furrowed brow.

Finnick looked worried, but tried to keep calm. He kept running his thumb and palm over my cheek. "If Snow sees us parading around as a happy couple, he'll lose a lot of support from happy Capitol members. He'll destroy us and he'll do more than put us in bed with strangers." Finnick lifted me and sat me beside him, "We're going to publicly end our relationship, you're going to say you loved Thomas more than me, watching his death destroyed you, and you're going to go mad. You can stay here in Four and I'll be back as much possible." He said with reassurance, trying to console me, persuade me to warm up to the idea.

"I…" I started.

Finnick stopped me, seeing the doubt in my eyes. "I know it's crazy but…"

I kissed him. "I'll do it. If you think it'll protect us and my family…"

He smiled, that sad look never leaving his eyes, "I do." He said nodding. His hand pressed against my neck, and then his lips. "I love you Annie," He whispered in my ear.

My fingertips grazed his face and I pressed against his cheekbones, then his jaw line. I missed the way he looked at me or how he kissed me. I missed his voice, his laugh, everything about him…I loved it. "I love you too Finn." This would keep us safe. At least in District Four we could revel in the freedom of the waves.