Seven

"Will we meet through the pine?

The leaves are green and fine."

Pandora eyes open. The song echoes through the darkness.

Clouds gently glide across the full moon, the sparkling stars.

Her breath rises through the cold air as snow starts to fall.

She is standing on a platform. A platform in a train station. A heavy steel engine is waiting to be boarded. Steam billows from the top, curling into the sky and filling the large platform with low rolling fog.

Somehow she knows why she is here.

Somehow she knows who she's waiting for.

Her lips anxiously tighten. Her hair dances through the night as she quickens her pace to the edge.

A shadow lurks nearby.

As the shadow turns, features come into view. Features that fill her with love and equal sadness. Even in the dark the green of Finnick's eyes shine.

She wants to speak, she has to speak…but nothing comes out. Her lips frantically move but there is no sound. Only the wind.

He never responds. His eyes simply stay on her face.

Sudden feelings start to unearth.

Dread.

Envy.

Doom.

An aftertaste of bitter agony.

The fog is swallowing them, growing between them.

In a rush she dashes towards him. Her hands are just close enough to touch him but he is dissolving.

Tears fill her eyes.

He is disappearing.

She gasps for air, for words but there is no sound.

The last thing that leaves is his eyes.

Then…then there's nothing.

Her eyes fluttered open in fright. Even with the fatigue in her body she could feel blood violently coursing through her veins, heart, and brain.

Pandora grasped the sheets for a moment, parting her lips to take in air.

It was terrifying nightmare, more terrifying then all the others combined.

She slowly wiped the beads of sweat from her brow and rolled over.

Nighttime, it was still night.

Her eyes unblinkingly stared at the city lights.

From beyond the bedroom door a garble and low hum of noise was murmuring. Her hands pushed against the mattress as she peered towards the floor. A crack under the door issued light onto the wooded planks.

In confusion her brow furrowed and her head whipped to the side. The space next to her was empty.

She hesitated only for a few moments before throwing the covers off and crawling out of bed. The floor creaked as she inched forward and gently pushed the door open.

Warm light made her eyes sting.

Sweat was still on her neck and chest when she peered into the living room.

Finnick was leaning forward. The screen was on. If it wasn't for the obvious anxiety written all over his face he would have almost seemed lifeless.

Her lips dryly rubbed together as took a step into the room.

"Finnick?" she was surprised at the sound of her own voice, it sounded cracked and uneven.

He didn't turn to look at her.

"What are you doing up?"

"I'm watching…" his voice trailed off as he bit at his nails and concentrated on the screen.

Pandora sadly followed his gaze.

The 70th Hunger Games had begun with the boom of the cannon.

Only 10 children died at the cornucopia. The rest made it out.

Every eye and ear was turned to the screens, screen that couldn't be escaped. On every corner, in every establishment, in every home, screens capturing the Hunger Games attacked her eyes.

She hated that she knew details of the Games, hated that it was on right now. Her arms crossed slowly. It had been several days into the arena and Finnick had only slept a few hours.

"It's late," she finally whispered, "Why don't you come to bed?"

"No, I don't want to."

She stared at his face before blinking her eyes to the ground.

"Finnick—"

"I'm not asking you to stay up…I need to, alright?!"

He finally looked at her, but it wasn't in a pleasant way. His eyes were tired, obsessively tired.

"You can't help them from the sofa."

He gave her a glare, one that made her eyes lower. She felt her heart thumping.

"I didn't mean it like that."

"I know how you meant it, Pandora. It's fine."

When she looked back up he was staring at the screen again.

"It's just not good for you, to worry like this over something you can't control. I want you to be happy."

"I am…"

It was a terrible lie. Even he knew it.

"Come to bed."

"No! Just go back to sleep."

"I don't want to be alone."

"I'm right here, I'll be here if you need me."

Her hand rubbed the side of her arm, sorrow was sparkling in her eyes.

"I had another nightmare, I'm afraid."

"It's not real, don't worry, they're only dreams."

She saw his face disappearing all over again and felt her stomach drop. Quietly Pandora moved towards the sofa, he barely gave her a glance as she took a seat next to him and settled against the pillows. She cleared her throat as she placed her hand on his back and leaned into him.

Her eyes closed as she gave him a gentle kiss on his neck and then his cheek.

"I don't want to be alone," She repeated.

Finnick's eyes shifted to the floor, he nodded to her silently, placing his hand on her knee.

"I know," he whispered back.

Her brown eyes gazed at him as she leaned her head against his shoulder, "Hold me."

He took her legs and threw them over his lap as he wrapped his other arm around her shoulders and rested back. The side of her face was pressed against his chest, she could hear his heart.

"Have I done something wrong?" She finally whispered.

"What?"

She could feel his hand tight around her shoulder.

"You seem—upset with me."

"How could I be upset with you? You've done nothing. Maybe you're the one who's tired, huh?"

He let out a laugh but Pandora could tell he was only trying to lighten the air.

Her hand rested on his chest, "I don't like to feel distant from you, it makes me feel—not myself."

Finnick creased his brow, his hand rose to her hair, "I'll always love you, Pandora. You don't need to worry about losing me."

But she didn't believe him. It was hard for Pandora to believe that she could have anyone forever. Nothing was forever.

"Yea," she responded, "I know."

"It's not like I'm just going—"

His voice abruptly cut off. She could feel his whole body tighten. Something on the screen had grabbed his attention.

Slowly she moved her eyes to the side, to catch a glimpse of what was being shown. The image that stared back at her filled her with unexpected anger.

It was just a shot of Annie Cresta climbing up the iron ladder of a dam. The camera zoomed into her face for a few seconds.

Instantly Pandora heard Finnick's heart begin to race.

Her eyes peered away quickly. She tried to logically reason but it was hard for her to suppress the envy burning through her. She leaned away from him suddenly.

"I think—I'm going for a walk."

He stared at her with surprise, "Wait, what? It's night."

She briefly glanced to Annie on the screen and then to her hands, "I just want fresh air."

"Just wait—I'll come with you."

"No," the smile she gave him was painful, "Don't bother. I know how much you want to make sure they're alright…"

"Are you sure?"

She climbed off the sofa and started walking with a nod. As quickly as she could she threw on clothes and shoes. She didn't bother saying bye to Finnick because she knew he would only half-hear her.

When she finally made it down the elevator and out of the front doors she stopped.

There was nowhere for her to go. It was the middle of the night.

She bit at her lips and glanced around the street, suddenly feeling more alone than ever. Without thinking she started moving. Her feet pattered against the white sidewalk, down long stretches of roads. From time to time she would look up to see a screen depicting the Games, each time she would swiftly snap her eyes away.

She walked for miles, and still her feet didn't hurt, still she wasn't tired. It wasn't until she stopped wandering that she realized where she was.

Her eyes lifted high into the sky.

Her lips parted.

Before her was the Panem Special Operations building. The lobby was still lit. She stared through the windows into the foyer, sadly panting for air as she wrestled with her sweater and feelings.

Her eyes narrowed as she started up the steps. The doors opened immediately, as if it were broad daylight.

A concierge stared at her in disbelief as she approached the desk.

"Miss Sullivan?"

She hated that he used her name and didn't even know her.

"It's the dead of night, what are you doing here?"

"I need to see, Viktor Mironov."

"It's the middle of the night!"

"I'm asking to see Dr. Mironov. I know he works here during nights sometime."

"Now?!"

Her eyebrow arched, "Yes."

The concierge shook his head, his hand searched for the phone. As he lifted it to his ear a slew of obscenities mumbled past his lips. Pandora pretended to ignore him, her face turned to the side as she leaned against the high white desk.

When he finally hung up, he cleared his throat and snobbishly scowled at her, "He says he'll be right down."

"Thank you," she coldly replied, immediately walking into the middle of the foyer and cupping her hands together.

She waited for several minutes before a single pair of limped footsteps echoed. As she turned around she scratched at her head and fluttered her eyes anxiously. Mironov had a worried look on his face. He was moving towards her slowly, his bad knee slowed him down quite a bit. When he was close enough he peered past his glasses and spoke.

"What are you doing here? Is there trouble?"

"I need to talk."

"About?"

She clenched her jaw and struggled for coherent thoughts, "I just—need to talk."

Mironov studied her for a moment.

"Alright, Pandora, come with me."

Silently she followed him.

She was expecting him to take her into his office. Instead they were heading to another part of the building. Her eyes darted around suspiciously as she walked side by side with Mironov.

As usual they had past the corridor of windows that showed several labs but when they neared his office door they turned right down another corridor. Doors with small windows lined the walls.

They were heading towards the door at the end marked RESTRICTED.

Mironov glanced at her before typing a code in and pushing the door open.

"What is this?"

He smiled and tapped the label to the right of the door. "Laboratory 15," he read.

"Don't be shy," he quickly continued, "Follow me."

Pandora peered back down the hall before following Mironov. The door shut with a click and her feet stopped.

The room was very white. White that seemed to glow.

Along one side of the wall cabinets full of test tubes rested, but that's not what caught her attention.

Her eyes abruptly moved to the opposite side of the room. Cages of various animals were covering the wall. All kinds of animals. She clenched her jaw and glanced to Mironov. He was sitting at one of the tables, next to him was a cage though she couldn't see what it contained.

"What's with the animals?"

Mironov swooshed a beaker full of serum in his hand while he lifted his eyes to Pandora, "This is where they come before we test them."

Her lips curled in disgust, "You mean turn them into muttations?"

"Into what?"

Pandora suddenly felt sick, "You make hybrids."

"Yes, I'm sure you're familiar with a few of them. Tracker Jackers, Mockingjays…"

"Sonar eels?"

His eyes dropped suddenly. "Yes—" he hesitated, "Yes them too."

"Have you brought me here to turn me into one of your lab experiments?" She quickly quipped, though her eyes and face looked rigid.

Mironov smiled, he pressed a dollop of serum onto a slide and placed it under a microscope, "Hardly. You happened to interrupt an experiment I was working on."

"Shouldn't this be top secret? Why are you letting me in here?"

"I'm letting you in here, Pandora, because you said you wanted to talk. And as far as the top secret experiments go this is not one of them. So feel free to take notes."

She smirked despite the tension and fear.

Her footsteps seemed to stir a few of the caged animals, but the noises quickly died down as she took a seat across from Mironov.

"Why are you here in the middle of the night?"

"A strange question to ask considering that you're here as well…"

"I just mean—" her eyes studied the slide on the microscope, "—Don't you ever sleep? Are you a robot or something?"

Again Mironov grinned, "No, Pandora."

"Don't you have a home?"

"I do."

"Then why aren't you there? I would think you'd want a life outside all this."

His smile quickly dropped, even though his eyes were on the lens of the microscope Pandora could see them darken.

"I don't have a family anymore, I have nothing to go home to. This is my life, Pandora."

He lifted his eyes to her face. His gaze lingered on her until she looked away in embarrassment. It wasn't a response she had expected.

"So what was it that bothered you so much that you needed to walk all the way here in the middle of the night?"

"Did you love your wife?"

"You came here to talk about my family?"

She rubbed the back of her neck, watching him work as he spoke, "It's just that you know about me, and I don't know anything really about you."

"Because it's my job."

"I know it's none of my business…"

He sighed slowly, leaning away from the microscope for a moment, "It's fine."

Nervously she twirled a thread that was loosely hanging from her sweater. Her foot tapped against the bar of the stool.

"To answer your question…of course I loved my wife."

She looked up.

"Why?"

He scratched at his beard and smiled, "That's a complicated question. I suppose I loved her because she was everything I wasn't and at the same time she was so much that I wanted to be. I couldn't live without her, it wasn't like I needed her—that wouldn't describe the emotion—it was that when I met her I realized that a part of me had always been missing."

Pandora's sad eyes glimmered as she let herself smile, "So you really loved her."

Mironov laughed, "Yes. Pandora…why did you really come here?"

She turned her face and shrugged, "I guess I didn't have anywhere else to go."

He waited for her to look at him before smiling. It wasn't a happy smile, not by a long shot. It was solemnly empathetic. Pandora parted her lips and blinked her eyes, she felt like crying and yet she knew she couldn't.

"You have Finnick."

Finally she looked away. Her eyes were getting watery.

"Don't you?"

"I used to think I'd grow up and get married to someone from home. That's what people do isn't it? You have a family, you have a mother and father…then you become a mother or father when you're older. I used to think I'd live in District 7 forever…"

Tears trickled down her face, but her voice was so distant, so eerily calm.

"And now all those thoughts are just…they're gone. Everything is gone. I'm so afraid that I'll wake up one day hollow, empty and rotten. I had a nightmare earlier, it was different then any other I've had before. I was searching for Finnick but he wasn't searching for me, and when I found him he disappeared in front of my eyes. When I woke up I felt like puking, I felt helpless…and then I realized something."

She pursed her lips and tilted her head up.

"For so long I blamed all my losses on the Capitol, but you see…it's not the truth. I think some people are just meant to be alone, and no one will fill that emptiness because they can't. The gap is too big, the emptiness somehow is too full of hate and regret to ever be filled with love."

Mironov let the quiet settle between them. He rested his elbows on the table's surface, his blue eyes watched her, and then slowly he reached out his hand and placed it over hers. His wrinkled skin warmly rubbed her knuckles.

"Love isn't about diminishing the fire of hate, Pandora, it's not about fixing things. Love isn't medicine. It's one of the strongest powers in the universe and you want to know why?"

She silently met his eyes.

"Because at the end of all things, when there is no hope, it's there. Even the cruelest of human beings has experienced it. The world could fall to ashes and still there's that glimmer, a glimmer worth fighting for. Love should never make you feel empty, not if it's shared. That's not real love, Pandora."

She sniffed and wiped her tears away shyly, "I didn't realize you were a poet."

He smirked and gave her hand a pat, "I'm many things. Come over here."

"Why?"

His hand moved toward the cage on the table, "Just come over here."

She cautiously wandered around the table, stopping next to Mironov. It was only then that she could see the inside of the cage.

Mironov slowly opened it. His hands sensibly crept inside. Suddenly Pandora could hear yipping.

Her eyes narrowed. It was hard to see inside, the cage was so dark, but as Mironov's hands retracted she stepped back.

"Don't be scared, he won't hurt you."

She stared at it quizzically. It looked like a wolf pup but not quite. Something about it was different. Another yip sounded from the pup as Mironov brought it to his chest and cradled it.

"This is the newest addition," he whispered, "You can pet him if you want."

Pandora swallowed loudly. Her hand carefully moved towards the wolf, her fingers relaxed as she pet his soft fur. He had bright blue eyes, eyes that looked similar to a human's. A very familiar blue.

"His eyes…"

Mironov slowly looked up. Her gaze twitched from the doctor to the wolf, her lips parted.

"He has your eyes?!"

"Don't be scared…"

"H—how?"

"I've found a way to mix human DNA with wolf…it makes them smarter, more adaptable, and it had an interesting physical outcome. You see? Everything about him is a wolf but his eyes look human. This is only the first test run. I used my own DNA on this one, he was the only one that survived out of the bunch. Test Subject Seven."

Pandora eased back towards the wolf. She studied his black and white fur markings, his human-like blue eyes that widely gazed at her. When her hand rested back on the pup he licked her. A slow smile formed on her face.

"Seven…" she whispered.

"He's strong. He'll be big too."

Her smile widened as she ran her finger along his snout and ears.

"You want to hold him?"

"Can I?"

Mironov smirked, offering her the wolf pup. Pandora stared into its eyes before wrapping her hands around it and holding it close to her face. She watched as it sniffed at her hair and neck and whimpered.

"He likes you."

"You think?" she eagerly asked, peering down at the pup.

"Oh yes, normally he's aggressive around anyone but me, he bit one of the lab workers the other day, gave him a nasty wound."

Pandora smiled again, her eyes scanned the wolf's face as she pet his neck and back. He was still small but she could tell from the size of his paws that Mironov was right, he was going to be big. Slowly the wolf reached its paw up to her face, the gesture made her eyes widen.

"He's beautiful."

Mironov observed her smile and nodded, "Yes, and after I'm done with this sample I'll be able to recreate the factors that allowed him to live, allowed the human DNA to meld with the wolf DNA, maybe then I can perfect it."

She laughed as the wolf licked her face and howled.

"You see?" He added slowly, "It's not all bad, some experiments work out for the best."

But Mironov smile faded. He had to look away because of the thoughts that suddenly started coursing through his brain, the plans and strategies that President Snow had coerced and forced the doctor into. Pandora was too preoccupied to notice.

He pulled his glasses off, when he finally looked back. For a moment he just watched them. A sad smile lingered on his bearded lips.

"Do you want him?"

Pandora shifted her eyes to Mironov in shock, "What?"
"He can keep you company."

"I thought you needed him to help recreate the right variables?"

"I just did," he replied, pointing to the test tubes and microscope, "And if I need more blood I can just have you bring him in, that is if you want him?"

Pandora unblinking stared at Mironov, she moved her lips but nothing came out. When she dropped her eyes to the wolf's face she felt a sudden need to keep it close to her, "Yes…I would."

"Good," he smiled, "Any ideas for a name?"

She cradled the wolf close to her chest and smiled thoughtfully, "Yea…yea, I think I'll call him Seven."