The world around Onyx seemed to freeze in the moment as everything around them seemed to stop, the clearing that they stood in had gone silent, no birds were chirping in the air as if they stopped in midflight, the trees stood still as the breeze seemed to stiffen due to the crack of a gun that shocked the small group.

Time started to move once again in what seemd like hours when it was onle seconds as pain shot through the young girls abdomen; Marvel, Thresh and Cato all seemed to rush into action as Rissa and Clove both began throwing knives at the peacekeepers that were now rushing towards the survivors, Glimmer grabbed the spare bow from her back and started letting arrows loose as Coral and Link grabbed Rue and rushed into trees to hide the little girl from the sight before them.

Letting out a shout of anger, Cato rushed towards the nearest peacekeeper, who just happened to be the one who pulled the trigger that had hit Onyx, he attacked in fury as he grabbed the man and snapped his neck like it was a twig; Thresh soon joined Cato in using their bare hands to attack, he cared about the young girl who had helped them escape killing each other, helped keep his little niece safe.

As the two large boys ran into the fray, the peacekeepers gave up on using their guns, the peacekeepers knew they had a better chance of hitting the tributes with the guns but there's still the chance that while they were reloading, they would get hit and killed in minutes with the boys in close quarters.

Ignoring the fights going on around them, Marvel rushed to Onyx's side as her knees gave in and she started to fall from the gunshot wound in her abdomen, he caught her in his arms before she could hit the floor and dropped down on his knees so that she was laying comfortably on the ground.

"You're okay, you're going to be okay" Marvel whimpers almost desperately as he held his little sister close to him, the both of them looking up numbly as they watched their large group take care the of peacekeepers; making them fall one by one to knives, arrows and the two large boys bare hands.

Onyx gasped out lightly with a small whimper as it felt like small fires had been lit at the ends of her nerves running from her abdomen and up along her stomach and down her waist; every little movement causing pain to shoot through her.

"Should have waited for you huh" Onyx chocked out as Marvel pressed his hands to her abdomen to at least try and slow the bleeding so that at least she wouldn't bleed out in his arms.

"Cato stop!" Clove shouts, the loud voice ringing out pulled the two surrogate siblings away from the small world that was each other, and sending their gazes over to where the brute from District Two was releasing his pent up anger.

Cato was angrily pummelling an already dead peacekeeper into the ground, his fist covered in blood as the peacekeepers face caved in from the constant force; Cato had lost himself in his anger and continued to release his anger on someone he blamed for his anger and upset.

Whimpering in pain, Onyx tried to climb up from Marvels' arms slowly and shakily to try and help their friend and protector, at first Marvel protested but knew that she was probably the only one that could calm the older boy down, he helped her up carefully and more or less carried her over to the furious boy.

Placing her hand on Cato's shoulder gently, Onyx clenched her jaw as she tried to keep back the cries of pain, her vision was starting to become blurry and fuzzy at the edges as the blood run freely from the wound that the peacekeepers had caused, she knew that she was lucky that the bullet hadn't gone a little further in and ruptured her stomach otherwise she would have been dead within moments as the stomach acid would have eaten away at her body with no chance of healing; witnessing that happening during a hunt was rather traumatising.

Cato stopped punching the body on the ground in front of him and spun to punch whoever had stopped him, but the moment he caughtsight of Onyx beside him as white as a sheet with Marvel helping her stay standing; he stopped and instantly pulled her down into his arms, pressing his hand to her abdomen.

"Coral grab the medical supplies" Cato called out in slight panic as he pressed down harder than Marvel originally had which caused Onyx to let out a cry of pain and grip Marvels hand tightly. "How the hell are you still conscious, let alone still standing?"

Onyx let out a small cough of laughter as she felt the adrenaline slowly leaving her body, she leant into Cato's chest as Coral ran to their side with a small pack in her hands. "Stubbornness"

"We don't have much" Coral whispered apologetically as she pulled out some bandages and thankfully a shot of adrenaline to try and save the young girl that had brought them together. "She'll be a goner quite quickly if we don't get her proper care"

Cato looked like he was ready to kill Coral for bringing him bad news but Marvel put his free hand on the other boys shoulder to stop him from fighting one of their allies, he took the shot of adrenaline out of Coral's hands and sent an apologetic look to Onyx before stabbing the needle through the thick layers around her heart and injecting her instantly.

Onyx cried out in pain as the needle stabbed through her chest and tightened the grip that she had on her brother's hand almost breaking his fingers to give him the pain that he had just caused her even though he was trying to keep her alive with adrenaline shot.

"Is Nyx going to be okay?" Rue whispered quietly as she hid behind Link, who had brought the young girl back to the group when the noise died down, watching the scene unfold in front of her, she was scared for her new best friend; she could see the blood soaking up her shirt, she was scared that they were going to lose her.

Both of the older boys looked up at the youngest of the group and then down at the person that was the heart of their small family, Coral had lifted the girl's shirt up and started to haphazardly stitch the wound closed as best as she could with a fish hook and wire to slow down the bleeding and keep the girl alive for just that little bit longer

"We should be near a district" Onyx whispered softly, she couldn't feel the fish hook going in and out of her skin, her abdomen and below was slowly going numb now even with the adrenaline still running through her system.

Everyone's attention was brought down to the young girl and the statement that she had just made, but they all looked at her confused; everyone except for Glimmer who seemed to have caught on to the girls' train of thought.

"Such a big group wouldn't have travelled far from a district" Glimmer added on to the whispered statement "They would have sent a smaller group if they were far away from a district and would have taken better precautions if they had actually expected to find us"

"They didn't think we'd be here?" Rissa asked confused and then jumped slightly when Cato climbed up from the floor, lifting Onyx up from the floor bridal style.

"Whatever they expected to find, I don't care" Cato growled out and looked around them, the whole group looked surprised and confused at Cato's statement "If we're near, One, Two, Three, Four, Eleven or even Twelve. We all have somewhere that may be able to help Onyx survive, all our families might help the symbol of rebellion, so we need to find out where we are so we can get her the help she needs"

"My mom would help her, dad may not but also might because I'm alive because of her" Marvel stated as he looked around the area and then moved to grab his and Onyx's packs from the floor where they had dropped.

The rest of them followed his example, grabbing their packs as well as their weapons, keeping their weapons close so that if they were accosted again, they could fight before any of them got hurt again.

"My dad might actually give us up" Cato murmured lightly in slight fear, watching as Clove grabbed his pack and his sword so that Onyx was the only weight he had to carry "He relies on the Capitol too much, and helps with the training of Peacekeepers"

"We need to hurry" Clove stated urgently interrupting his train of thought as she noticed that Onyx was getting paler and falling unconscious in Cato's arms.

Looking down at the young girl in his, Cato nodded and picked up the pace so that he was almost running and trying not to jostle the young girl too much.

"Please, just let us stay until she heals"

Onyx whined lightly as she heared raised voices ringing through her ears from her surroundings, her fingers twitched to get to her bow but she wasn't outside anymore. So where was she?

Feeling the heat around her, the softness of a blanket covering her and pillows keeping her head up, she knew that she was definitely nowhere near the forest which was where she was the last time she remembered falling asleep; then the memories of the previous day passed through her mind.

The crack of the gun, the pain that shot through her entire body, Cato's anger and then Marvels sadness as he held her close in his arms.

Onyx gasped aloud and shot up from where she was laid out, did the peacekeepers get them? Why wasn't she dead, after all she supposedly caused the rebellion along with her dad? She looked around her frantically, but there was no one in the room with her.

The room was silent and rather sophisticated looking, it reminded her of the penthouse in the Capitol, which was rather homely even with the threat of death hanging over them as they stayed there during training, it was a study from what she could tell because it held desks and bookshelves which reminded her of the space where her dad would sit and either drink or write.

Dropping off of the bed that she had been set up in, she was shocked to feel no pain shooting through her; looking down at her abdomen Onyx lifted the loose top that she had been dressed in and was surprised to find a clean white bandage wrapped around her blood free waist.

Looking around her in fear at the new surroundings, Nyx was worried about where her little family were, where was Marvel? Or Cato? She looked around for any sign of a weapon and came across a pair of scissors close to her.

A door opening startled Onyx into action as she rolled across the floor and grabbed the scissors, turning so that she was wielding the scissors towards the intruder but is confused when she spotted Cato in the doorway.

Feeling both shocked and elated, Cato relaxes against the doorway at the sight of the girl awake and alive but tensed soon after when he felt someone's presence come up from behind him.

"She's healed, now get her out of here" A male voice stated harshly causing Onyx to go into a defensive manoeuvre as she looked up at the man behind Cato, assessing him for any sign of danger.

Onyx tightened her grip on the scissors and observed the man carefully, before realising that she could easily tell who he was; he was Cato's' father. She could make out where Cato got his good looks from but the man had light brown hair rather than blonde although he had Cato's ice blue eyes and was just as strong as his son too, looking closely, she could spot features that were from the man that aided Cato in his charisma.

"Nyx calm down" Cato soothed carefully as he sent a glare over his shoulder towards his father who just stood there watching them curiously, he moved further into the room to where the young girl was kneeling brandishing scissors as a weapon. He gently put his hand over hers and removed the scissors from her grip as she watched the unknown man behind him; she didn't know if he was an ally or an enemy.

Cato sighed as he looked the young girl up and down to see if she was okay before catching sight of a red patch beginning to bloom on her shirt. "You broke your stitches"

Looking at him confused, Onyx looked down at her waist where he had noticed the red pooling on the white shirt that she had been put into, Cato looked over at his father with a glare and lifted the girl up into his arms ignoring her protests; she was fourteen not four.

"He won't hurt you Nyx, will you dad?" His voice went harder as he turned his attention to his father. His father was assessing his son closely, he had never seen Cato like this unless he was with his younger siblings and usually he never showed his father this side of him; all of this for the young girl that he had watched his son nearly kill in annoyance.

"You need to get her out of here Cato" Caleb informed his son sternly, he didn't want the small group to leave but he knew that they needed to get away from District Two. "if the neighbours notice more people in the house, then they will gossip and I won't be able to stop the peacekeepers from coming, it's been difficult keeping the missing group you ended from being reported as it is"

Nyx looked over at Cato's father studying him as Cato placed her onto the table that she was originally on, she knew the look that he wore; he looked at Cato like her father used to before anyone knew of their connection. Having spent so many years on the streets, Onyx knew what to look for when people watching and knew the emotions that many people kept hidden; she was very good at picking through peoples masks to find out if they were threats or not. He was keeping his feelings for his son under a mask, it was a mask that she had seen Haymitch use around her but had never clicked as to what it meant until he admitted how he felt about her too.

Cato looked over at his father curiously, he didn't know he was helping them at work, he thought his father was just being a jackass and pushing them to get out of the house because he didn't want his son or the threats anywhere near him and the perfect image that their family held.

"Can you get mom for me?" Cato asked ignoring the repeated order to leave, he needed to stop the bleeding of the wound, they weren't able to get the proper medicines to instantly close the wound but his mom knew medicine anyway so she was very helpful. "Nyx needs to get the stitches redone before we can head out"

Onyx instantly lifted the shirt up and over her head at the mention of needing stitches once more, but this time Cato didn't look away knowing that she would do it, he just rolled his eyes while Caleb looked away causing his son to smirk.

"She's not shy dad, plus she has her bindings around her chest so nothing is showing" Cato smirked causing Caleb to turn and glare at his son. He turned his small glare to the young girl on the table before moving to the small table next to his son to grab the medical supplies that were left there by his wife after she had looked after the girl earlier on.

The fact that his son knew that made him question just what had happened during the journey from the arena to the moment that she had gotten shot, but he knew that he and his wife had taught his son to be gentleman even with his demeanour and nothing would have occurred between them; his son also didn't show emotions very well so both teenagers probably didn't see what he saw clear as day in front of him.

"You shouldn't do that young lady" Caleb scolded halfheartedly as he moved the small table over to the bed where Onyx was leaning into Cato watching the older man cautiously. He understood that the worst of Districts often had no need to be shy with their bodies, and that she had very rarely anyone there to instruct her on what she needed to do in situations like this as she got older and became a young woman.

"Where's Marvel?" Onyx asked Cato quietly as she eyed the needle and wire in the man's hands cautiously, she was numb the first time they had to stitch her up and unconscious the second time. She didn't want stitches again.

"Sleeping, Rissa and Glimmer made him take some sleeping medication so that he would actually get some sleep before we left" Cato informed her quietly as he leant over to grab the numbing serum from the table before his dad could, handing it to him after he had finished taking the bandage off of the girls abdomen.

Caleb nodded silently in thanks for the serum and gently injected the area of the wound so that she wouldn't feel the pain of the needle, he looked up at the young girl with a small reassuring smile which confused the hell out of Cato.

"My husband uses his medical qualifications for good at last" A woman's voice spoke out sarcastically from the doorway startling all three of the study's occupants, luckily Caleb hadn't started stitching the wound closed yet so he hadn't done any damage.

Gripping Cato's arm cautiously Onyx looked up at the woman shyly, she wanted to check out whether or not they would be perceived as threats but then she smiled as she spotted Glimmer and Link desperately wanting to run to her and see if she was okay causing her to relax; if Glimmer and Link were relaxed then she was safe, they were more cautious than her most of the time.

"What happened Caleb, Cato?" the woman asked as she walked into the room casually, closely followed by the two tributes that stuck by the door like glue since they had pushed the older boy from One out.

"She tore her stitches grabbing the scissors from the table across the room to use as a weapon" Caleb explained to his wife, Arya, in slight amusement, ignoring the jab she had aimed at him for using his medical training, they both knew that he wouldn't have let her bleed out or let her sit as her wound bled while either his son or he ran to grab her. Arya cocked her eyebrow at the young girl in question before shaking her head slightly and crouched down slightly to observe her husbands stitches.

Onyx glanced up at Glimmer sheepishly as the girl rolled her eyes "I thought the peacekeepers had gotten us" Nyx mumbled to the older girl sheepishly at the amusement glittering in her eyes.

"They have" Cato glowers at his father a little, Caleb looked up at his son and rolled his eyes at the quiet remark before continuing to stitch the wound closed; Caleb understood why his son held him in such contempt but it still hurt to see how much he distrusted him.

The six occupants of the room all sat in silence after the remark, leaving Caleb work in silence as Arya scowled lightly at her son for the remarks, she wished she had back the son who admired his father but she knew that was wishful thinking at this moment. Once Caleb finished the task of stitching the wound closed he grabbed a bandage to rewrap Onyx's waist, he looked up at his son with worry and apology in his eyes but Cato couldn't see it; Nyx could.

"There's a supply train leaving here, going down to District Eleven so that they can put their supplies on there and bring them back" Caleb told Cato flatly as he started to wrap up the newly stitched wound "I won't put any peacekeepers on there, I'll say it was a rota mix up, get out of here and get them safe"

Cato, Glimmer and Link all looked at Caleb surprised and grateful at his decision to help them out of the situation they had found themselves in, Cato's mother smiled proudly at her husband and places her hand on his shoulder with a light squeeze of pride; Cato turned to Glimmer and nodded lightly in agreement for them to go sort things out.

"Go get the others, we need to pack our stuff and get out of here, we've been here too long already" Cato ordered lightly, hopefully the others were able to get enough sleep so that they could move about wide awake rather than half asleep.

Glimmer nodded and pulled Link out of the room with her after sending a relaxed smile at her little sister, Cato turned to his mother and sent her a small smile "I'm sorry we couldn't stay any longer, will you and the boys be safe?"

Arya smiled at her son and placed a soft kiss on his brow, ignoring the small shuffle of discomfort coming from the young girl between them; the young girl that she could already see was changing her son for the best. "We'll be fine, come get some food that you and the others will like for your journey"

Cato opened his mouth to protest as he held onto Onyx a little tighter at the thought of leaving her alone in the room with his father, the young girl rolled her eyes at his protectiveness and flicked his forehead lightly, shocking the other occupants "Go help your mom, your father won't hurt me, after all he did just stop me from bleeding out again"

Caro blinked in shock at the actions of the young girl, he remembered the anger he held against the girl because she had risked her safety in waking him from his sleep after nearly getting killed by him a few hours earlier; and yet, here she was ready to sit in a room with his peacekeeper father without hesitation.

Looking between his mother and his friend, Cato sighs releasing his grip on Onyx when he realised he was facing a losing battle and followed his mother out of the room; not before sending one last warning look over his shoulder at his father and Onyx.

The two of them sat in silence for a few minutes before Caleb began to clean up the makeshift medical table that Arya had set up the moment that she had set eyes on their son holding a dying girl in his arms in their doorway, the group were lucky that they had staggered their arrivals, his son and the boy from One had arrived first followed by their district partners and then a big boy with a red head and a little one and then finally the other two careers.

Caleb knew that he needed to help his son but also worried for the safety of the rest of his family so had nodded to Arya to help them before walking out to begin damage control about the small group that had been sent along the border earlier that day.

"You need to tell him how you feel" Onyx broke the silence as she looked around the room, keeping her eyes away from the man who she had unknowingly pulled from his own thoughts "He thinks you would sell us out for the Capitol, he thinks you care more about the Capitol than him"

"Well that's bullshit" Caleb exclaimed quietly as he spun around to face her properly, which in turn made Onyx smirk lightly, she knew that Cato was wrong, she could see that clearly even if he couldn't.

"Which is why you need to tell him that" Onyx informed him sternly as she moved to grab the shirt that she had been wearing when she had woken up, she needed to cover up again if they were going to get out of District Two; they were very lucky that a supply train needed to head to District Eleven but that could have been his doing rather than coincidence.

Caleb put his hand on Onyx's head lightly to stop her from putting the shirt back on and moved towards the chest of draws that held his second eldest sons spare clothes, while they were too big for the young girl, they were clean and could help them all disguise themselves to get to the train without any trouble; he was putting some uniforms on the train so they could hopefully get through districts three to eleven without trouble.

Nyx happily put on the clean shirt and smiled, accepting the hand of the man to help her down from the table so she wouldn't tear her new stitches again.

"It's too late" Caleb whispered to her sadly, he had wondered why his son was so cautious of him while he was here, he knew that they weren't extremely close; but did he really believe he would get him killed because of him surviving the Games?

"Maybe not" Onyx suggests to him, she didn't like when families argued or were torn apart by mistakes or misunderstandings "Maybe you could help the rebellion that is starting, that would show him the truth, just try, everyone needs a dad in their life"

Caleb looked at the young girl closely and hid a proud smile, he could see why the other districts could stand behind her and Abernathy against the Capitol and Snow, she was young and innocent even with the horrors in her life but could also bring the most unlikely of people together without even trying.

"The reason I never stood against the Capitol is my children and my wife, I can't see them hurt, and I keep quiet so I don't hurt them" Caleb explained to her quietly, as he grabbed one of the hats that he had put away years ago in a draw, it was from one of his first dates with Arya and it always held a meaning to him but he didn't have any qualms about letting the young girl use it.

Taking a brush that his wife had left by the bed, when she brushed the young girl's hair, he moved behind the girl and began to brush her hair lightly so that he could weave it into a bun on the top of her head and use the hat to hide it. "I see a different side of my son with you, and a different side of Clove, she and that boy from One stayed by your side after my wife originally took care of the wound and dirt, you've helped the both of them get out of the arena without hurting each other"

He placed the cap on the girls head and moved to in front of her before nodding lightly at the disguise, it wasn't perfect but it would work for those in the district since they were all too worried about rebels in the arena clothing rather than someone in district two clothing.

"I didn't mean too" She admitted to him honestly as she readjusted the hat a little so she could actually see "I wanted to go home to my dad, I've never liked the Capitol because of the situation my district is in, I'm glad that it happened though, I have a new family, I've been through more with this family than my other family in district twelve"

Caleb let the smile break through this time as he placed his hand on her back to propel her forward lightly so that they could move into the living room where the rest of the group stood, Marvel sat on the couch yawning and rubbing his eyes unaware of the new situation but when he saw his little doe walking into the room; he immediately rushed to her side and pulled her into a hug, making sure not to hurt her.

Caleb looked over at Cato who stood watching him wearily with a bag of food over his shoulder, their weapons were all hidden in bags and each of them were in new clothing to hide who they were, each of the girls had something covering their features while the boys had some make up on to give them an older look or make them look completely different.

"I'm sorry I couldn't do more" Caleb apologised to his son making the young man freeze in shock

"You've done enough" Cato stammered out lightly with wide eyes as he glanced between his father and his friend, wondering what in earth they had been talking about to get this sort of send off.

Onyx pulled away from Marvel and moved over to Cato's mother before shocking the woman as she pulled her into a small hug in thanks of helping her out of the situation that they had been in.

"Thank you for saving my life, I hope we haven't brought you and your family any trouble, maybe next time we meet I can meet Cato's siblings too" Onyx thanked the woman smiling which caused Arya to smile back at the young girl and hug her to her a little less hesitantly.

"It was the least I could do for you saving my son" Arya promised as she patted the girls back and released her to go and see the rest of her friends.

Onyx smiled at Arya and moved over to Rue, who was being held back by Thresh so that she wouldn't injure the fourteen year old and cause the stitches to break, and quickly pulled the little girl into a hug, leaning into Thresh at the same time to reassure him that she was okay; the only ones left that she needed to reassure were Coral, Rissa and Clove but she knew there was no time right now.

"It's time to go" Clove states as she moved from the window, checking to make sure the street was empty, she sent a quick look to Onyx who smiled lightly and nodded to her to reassure her that she was okay.

The two adults look at the small group of survivors in front of them and her to each other as they came together, Caleb wrapping his arm around his wife's waist and pulling her close to him.

"Cato, there's peacekeeper uniforms on the train for you boys, keep the girls hidden and you should be okay" Caleb told his son carefully, there were cameras on the trains but that was only in the compartments so they'd be safe in the loading carriages. "Just keep out of the compartments when you aren't in uniforms"

Cato nodded at the instructions, words escaping him as he moved to the head of the group at the door, he looked over his shoulder at his parents and sent them a hesitant smile before opening the door and leaving the safety of his old childhood home to catch a train that may be their saviour or their grave.