"You know Finnick used to think you were plotting to kill me."

"God, talk about paranoid," Cashmere snorted as she sipped her glass of wine.

"Sometimes," Taiya agreed.

"What do you see in Mr Surly anyway?" Cashmere asked as she rolled onto her side to look at Taiya. Cashmere and Gloss were sprawled across the floor in Gloss's room whilst Taiya was hanging upside down off the side of the bed.

"Well Mr Surly is non-existent back home," Taiya explained. "He's Mr Sexy Beach Chick."

"Sexy Beach Chick?" Gloss laughed as he looked at her.

"I said what I said."

"I'm sure he'd love to know you're calling him Beach Chick behind his back," Cashmere smirked.

"Well… in all honesty I don't think he'd hate it."

"And that's who you want to marry?" Gloss asked her.

"Alright. Instead of bullying me for my life choices why don't you look at yourselves hmm?" Taiya challenged.

"We're doing alright," Cashmere shrugged dismissively. "How's life for you Gloss?"

"No complaints. It's currently a Tuesday night and I'm drinking wine in my room with two of the most beloved victors. In most of Panem's minds, this is peak living."

"We are fantastic. Aren't we Cash?" Taiya flipped over and held her hand up for Cashmere to high-five.

"Cheers to that," she agreed. "In all honesty though, we're super happy for you. With the engagement."

"Each year Cashmere and I place bets on if you would get engaged," Gloss confessed.

"Yeah we knew," Taiya rolled her eyes. "You guys aren't subtle. Not suspicious at all that you would come up to us, ask if he'd popped the question yet and then exchange money. Not suspicious in the slightest."

"Gloss said you'd be too love-struck to notice."

"Since when do you listen to Gloss?" Taiya snorted.

"I know right? Brothers, they're all idiots," Cashmere punched his shoulder.

"Ok this is meant to be a fun night, not insult my intelligence night," Gloss chugged his drink.

"Oh please, it's always a good time to insult you," Cashmere poked her tongue out and the three of them burst into tipsy laughter.

"GLOSS! No!" Taiya screamed.

As the group turned around to look at Wiress, they were confronted with the sight of her having her throat cut by Gloss.

And the reaction was swift.

Or at least Katniss was swift.

None of the others made any immediate move to stop Gloss.

Killing Gloss wasn't a feasible option for them. If they killed Gloss in defence of Wiress, they risked the whole alliance falling apart.

If Taiya broke away from the group over this, they'd lose Finnick as well. Johanna would likely follow them, not having enough trust in the others to remain.

And with the Careers gunning for Katniss, it was unlikely the girl would be able to defend both herself and Peeta. They'd likely be beaten by the Careers and the plan would be over.

So no one moved against Gloss. They knew the risk.

Katniss didn't know this though. So she reacted.

She shot an arrow at him, sending it directly into his chest.

"NO!" Taiya screamed as a canon sounded and his body tumbled backwards into the water, pulling Wiress with him. She let out a loud scream and ran in the direction that he was in, maybe it wasn't too late.

But she couldn't get near him. Finnick immediately reached out and grabbed her, pulling her away from the edge and towards him.

That's when movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention.

Cashmere was enraged and was sprinting towards Katniss, knife at the ready. She was out for blood.

Johanna shoved Katniss to the ground and before Taiya could even call out a warning, she'd flung her axe and buried it straight into Cashmere's chest.

Boom!

Taiya let out a scream from deep within her stomach. A scream of agony. But before she could even think about reacting further, Finnick had flung her harshly to the ground.

District 2 was also here.

Brutus let out a yell as he threw a spear at Peeta, and with Taiya safely out of the way, Finnick could focus on keeping Peeta safe. He knocked the spear away, saving Peeta's life and immediately started attacking Brutus with his trident.

He had Brutus disarmed and was ready to deal a deadly blow when he yelped in pain. Enobaria had thrown a knife and embedded it in his thigh, allowing Brutus to run and escape.

Brutus and Enobaria took off running as Katniss let an arrow fly in their direction, the only thing that saved them was the edge of the Cornucopia they were able to duck behind.

Both Peeta and Katniss began to give chase, wanting to eliminate the threat of District 2 before they could hurt anyone else. Finnick was quick enough to catch Peeta, despite the knife in his thigh. He was able to grab the boy and strong enough to hold him back.

But Katniss snuck through. She got past Finnick and ran.

Taiya stood up from the ground, seeing red after witnessing her friend's deaths.

"YOU'RE DEAD!" she roared as she ran after Katniss.

"Taiya!" Finnick yelled after her, hoping he'd be able to calm down.

But she knew he wasn't in any danger. Pain yes, but not danger. So she didn't care to stop.

"I've got it," she heard Johanna assure her fiancé before she heard her footsteps running after her.

But she didn't care. She was chasing Katniss.

Just as she was about to let her knife fly, the ground jerked beneath her feet and she was flung down to the ground. The island that the Cornucopia was on had begun spinning fast. Really really fast. She had to cling to the rock with all her might in order to stay on.

She flung her head over her shoulder to get a look at the other two. Katniss had tumbled down beside Johanna and they were much closer to the edge.

One look at the water though told her everything she needed to know. The water was moving violently. If you fell in you'd become completely disoriented. You wouldn't know up from down.

Katniss was dangerously close to the edge.

There were only two people in these Games who could navigate these water conditions. Taiya and Finnick. And even for them, it could be a struggle.

Taiya began climbing her way down. She had to get closer to Johanna and Katniss.

Just as she got within reach, Katniss lost her grip and started to slide down the rock.

Johanna let out a yell as she slammed her axe into the rock and reached out to grab ahold of Katniss.

"Hold on!" Johanna pleaded with Katniss.

But Johanna couldn't help her. Because Taiya saw this as her opportunity. She was at just the right angle that when she released her hold, she'd be flung straight into Katniss. So that's what she did.

She released her grip on the rock and slammed down the island and straight into Katniss's body, ripping her from Johanna's grasp and plunging them both into the water.

Taiya kept a firm grip on the girl's body as they were both flung around under the water. Not long after they entered the water, however, the island began to stop spinning.

Plutarch was playing games. Trying to control their actions from within his Gamemaker centre. Despite the ordeal that he was putting them all through, he wanted this girl alive.

The water slowly began to stop churning, and Katniss, who could swim, began to orient herself underwater. She knew where she was and tried to swim upwards, but Taiya held her down.

It wasn't until she felt a hand grasp her upper arm and tug that she released her hold on the girl. Finnick knew exactly what she was planning on doing and he was putting a stop to it. She didn't even hear him dive in.

Katniss immediately began kicking her way to the surface, Taiya and Finnick following after.

Katniss was coughing and spluttering as she lifted herself up onto one of the strips. Taiya was completely fine as she and Finnick arose not too far down from her.

"Here," Finnick said quietly as he tried to give her a boost up onto the strip.

"I don't need help," she jerked away.

"Alright," he agreed as he lightly touched her back. He knew exactly how to handle her in this kind of rage, the only thing to do was to wait it out.

"Let's just get what we need and get off the bloody island," Johanna scowled as she looked at everyone. This day was definitely not going to plan.

"How's your leg?" Taiya asked Finnick quickly.

"It's ok," he nodded.

"Here," Taiya grabbed her wound cream and slammed it into his chest before she marched away from the group and towards the beach.

The rest of the alliance returned to the Cornucopia and began gathering what weapons remained while Taiya threw herself down on the sand. Finnick stayed positioned in the middle of the spike so he could keep an eye on both Taiya and the group.

Now that she was alone her emotions bubbled to the surface and a sob rattled throughout her chest.

She clutched at her chest, desperately trying to keep her emotions in there, but she couldn't stop the sobs that tore out of her. She thumped her fist onto the ground in anger as tears flowed down her cheeks.

It was then that a sponsor gift chime began to ring out.

It landed directly in front of her and she opened it. It was just a note. But she didn't even need to look at the name to know who it was from.

It was a different type of paper than was usually used.

It was a crisp white. She immediately pulled it close to her face. She couldn't let the cameras see it.

- An admirable try. Perhaps you should count the number of cannons that sounded?

Taiya's heart skipped a beat. Two cannons. She'd only heard two cannons.

Wiress, Gloss, Cashmere.

But only two cannons.

She'd just watched the hovercrafts retrieve 3 bodies though. One was alive.

She immediately ripped the paper up into small little pieces. She didn't want the others to read it and she ran it to the water's edge, releasing the pieces into the water to float away.

"What was the gift?" Johanna asked as the group arrived at the shore.

"Nothing that concerns anyone," Taiya answered before turning and sitting back down on the beach. "Don't worry about it."

"Tay…" Finnick started as he gently touched her arm as he sat beside her.

She didn't pull away this time though, and honestly, that confused Finnick more. He knew her behaviours and he knew her moods. This was something unexpected.

"Let's regroup," Taiya smiled. "What do you say Katnip?" Taiya asked the teenager and watched as she tensed up.

A tip from Snow. He'd told her before the Games began that the name Katnip would get under the girl's skin. A nickname from a lover in her district he told her. Perhaps now was the time to start using Snow's suggestions.

Johanna and Finnick exchanged nervous looks. Neither one knew what she was going to do next.

Katniss and Peeta hadn't fully comprehended what Taiya had been trying to do. They thought she'd been chasing down Enobaria for attacking Finnick. But Johanna and Finnick were both very aware that Katniss was now a potential target of Taiya's. And when she wanted to be, she was very dangerous. \

They knew they had to tread carefully. Whilst she didn't immediately go after Katniss again, that didn't mean she wouldn't try again.