"So we were trying to work out which direction 12 was in," Finnick coughed nervously. "It's hard to tell after Plutarch spun us around."

"Good old Plutarch," Taiya smiled wryly.

The tension in the group was palpable. Finnick, Johanna and Beetee were all sitting on high alert, just waiting for the moment she snapped. Katniss and Peeta weren't entirely sure of what was happening, but they definitely knew to tread carefully.

"Why don't you just wait for an active sector? We know what half of them are, just base the time on that," she sighed as she lay down on the ground and closed her eyes.

"It must be monkey hour," Peeta suggested.

She could hear them whispering. Finnick and Johanna. She could hear them whispering between themselves, about her.

"I'm going for a walk," Taiya leapt up.

"That doesn't sound like a wise idea," Beetee tried to reason.

"Well I'll make it productive," Taiya snapped as she leaned down and ripped the spile off of Katniss's belt. "I'll go get water."

"I'll come with you," Finnick stood up to follow her.

"I don't need a babysitter."

"I just want to watch your back."

"I'll be fine Finnick. I just want a quick walk. By myself. Please," she whispered the last bit to him.

"5 minutes," he whispered back nervously. "5 minutes and then I come after you. But if something happens… scream. Scream and I'll come running. And don't leave this sector"

"Ok," Taiya agreed, running a hand softly down the side of his face before she turned and walked into the jungle.

As soon as she was by herself again, her bottom lip began to wobble. One was alive. One was dead. One was alive, but who?

"Stupid girl on fire," she muttered to herself. "Self-righteous. Going to get everyone killed. Overrated. Murderer. That's not fair. We're all murderers, what makes her different? She didn't know Gloss and Cashmere, why would she let them live? I told them to stay away, why couldn't they stay away?"

"Taiya," a voice whispered. Cashmere's voice.

Taiya's head immediately jerked in the direction she heard the voice come from and she stopped her mutterings.

"Cash?"

"Taiya."

That was all it took for her to run off sprinting. Sprinting further into the jungle. Cashmere was here.

"Is she ok?" Peeta asked Finnick. Taiya had only been gone two minutes, but he couldn't take his eyes off the direction she'd walked in.

"I don't know," Finnick sighed honestly. "I should at least follow her. I mean this is ridiculous."

"Just give her a moment," Johanna tried to calm him down. "If she can pull herself together it'll be better for everyone."

"I didn't realise how close she was to Gloss and Cashmere," Peeta realised. "I mean I knew they were friends but… how's your leg?" Peeta asked Finnick.

"Well, as soon as this stuff starts working and it'll hopefully be good as new," he moved his leg to look at the treatment cream he'd applied to it. "Taiya always did get good sponsorship gifts. We should think about our next move."

"So besides Brutus and Enobaria, who's left?" Katniss asked.

"Maybe Chaff. Just those three," Peeta answered.

"They know they're outnumbered. I doubt they'll attack again," Finnick pointed out. "We're safe here on the beach."

"Taiya's in there outnumbered? Shouldn't we send someone after her?" Katniss asked.

Finnick sighed as he looked back in the direction of the jungle. "I don't like it, but she can handle herself. Trust me. Besides, I said I'd give her another two minutes. If I go in after her too early it'll just make her madder. That'd make her as dangerous as the Career's," he snorted.

"So what do we do?" Johanna asked aggressively. "We hunt them down?"

That's when the scream rang out. One full of fear and pain. One that only one person recognised. Katniss.

The scream of her little sister Prim.

"Katniss, help me!"

"PRIM!" Katniss roared as she jumped up and began sprinting into the jungle. "Prim! Prim!"

"No!" Finnick quickly grabbed his trident and sprinted after her. "Katniss! Katniss, wait!" She was his and Taiya's ticket out of that arena. He couldn't lose her.

"Prim! Prim!" Katniss continued yelling as she sprinted towards the screams.

"Please! Help!" Prim called as she continued screaming in pain.

"PRIM!" Katniss reached a small clearing and began spinning around, desperately trying to ascertain which direction the scream was coming from. It was coming from above her.

"Katniss! Please help me! Help me!" it called in fear until Katniss shot it down.

A jabberjay. It wasn't real. It was just a bird.

"Katniss!" Finnick came crashing into the clearing. "You ok?"

"FINNICK!" a very familiar voice screamed out in agony.

"Taiya," Cashmere's voice whispered again, drawing her further and further into the jungle.

Now Taiya was getting scared. If Cashmere was really here, surely the girl would just come out to say 'Hi, I'm alive'. But she wasn't.

So Taiya pulled out her knife. "Cash?"

"TAIYA!" a scream echoed through her eardrums and she immediately felt like throwing up.

"FINNICK!" she roared as she turned to her right and ran as fast as she could through the jungle.

"TAIYA! Help me! Hurry!" Finnick screamed for her again.

"Finnick! Where are you? Finn!" Taiya sobbed as she spun in circles, she had no idea which way to run. The voice sounded like it was coming from right there. Right with her.

The colour immediately vanished from Finnick's face and his pupils dilated in fear.

"Finnick, no, wait, it's not her," Katniss tried to grab at his arm to explain, but it was too late. He'd already bolted past her in pursuit. "Finnick!" she tried to call him back, but it was too late. He wasn't turning back to listen to Katniss's explanation. All she could do was follow.

"Finnick!"

"Taiya! Taiya! Taiya!" Finnick screamed as he ran through vines and bushes to get to her, leaving a trampled path for Katniss to follow.

By the time Katniss caught him, he was desperately circling a tree, trying to find her.

"Taiya! Taiya!" he screamed in despair, each cry becoming more and more heartbroken.

Katniss scanned the trees above them and spotted the offending jabberjay perched on a branch. She immediately loaded her bow and fired an arrow at it, allowing it to fall down dead right at Finnick's feet.

At the ceasing of the cries, Finnick seemed to regain his composure for a moment as he leant down to pick it up, making the connection between the bird and Taiya's pleas.

Katniss slowly approached him and grabbed his shoulder. "It's not her. It's just a jabberjay, it's not her."

But Finnick's face looked more broken than ever. "It was her voice," he replied shakily. "How do you think they got those screams, Katniss? Jabberjays copy. I told her to yell for me."

Katniss's own cheeks grew pale as she understood his meaning. If these jabberjay's were copying Taiya's screams from somewhere else in this arena, then it meant they were copying Prim's from somewhere else.

"Katniss! No!" a jabberjay screamed, this time in the voice of her best friend Gale.

"Gale," Katniss breathed.

Finnick let her run. He didn't have the energy to stop her. As far as he was aware, Taiya had been by herself, screaming his name and he hadn't come. And now these birds were here to taunt him with her fear. Her death pleas.

The only thing that got him moving again was the return of her screams. Despite knowing it was a jabberjay, there remained the hope that it was her, still alive. So he ran after Katniss and towards Taiya's calls.

As he and Katniss run, the birds amassed and dove at them. There were now birds everywhere, each screaming out in desperation for Katniss or Finnick.

And it wasn't just Taiya's voice screaming for him, although hers was loudest. He could hear Mags' in her long-lost voice, he could hear Tyler, Annie and Kenna. Each one screamed in pain and fear for him.

He didn't relax at all until he saw Johanna, and then some of the tension left him. She didn't look distraught, and he hadn't heard a cannon. So that increased the likelihood that Taiya was still out there.

Then he ran into a wall.

An invisible wall. Separating him and Katniss from the others. Keeping them from helping. His nose was gushing blood as he ran into it face-first. Johanna only took one look at him before she knew she needed to help him. She immediately began attacking the wall with her axe, but it wouldn't make a dent.

Then more birds arrived.

And Finnick gave up.

He fell to the ground, hunched over, clenching his hands over his ears in a fruitless attempt to block the screams.

They'd all heard the scream of Prim, and it didn't take a genius for Johanna, Peeta and Beetee to work out whose screams were torturing Finnick. So Johanna knew there was only one thing she could do to help him. She had to find her best friend and reunite her with her peacock of a fiancé before he lost his mind.

"You two stay here," Johanna instructed.

"Where are you going?" Peeta asked, not taking his eyes off a screaming Katniss.

"I have to find Taiya. He needs to see her," she answered quickly before running away.

Neither one of them would survive the other dying. If it wasn't such a pressing moment Johanna would maybe tease them about co-dependency.

"Taiya," Johanna hissed as she wandered around looking for her friend. She couldn't yell, because she still needed to avoid Brutus and Enobaria, and who knows where they were lurking. "Where are you, you psycho," Johanna muttered to herself before something in the corner of her eye caught her attention. A flock of birds over one spot. "Oh shit," she growled. Taiya was being tortured in the same way as Finnick.

"FINNICK!" Taiya screamed as tears ran down her face. She could hear him, it sounded as though he was right there. But she couldn't see him. "Where are you? Finnick!"

"TAIYA!"

"Annie?" Taiya gasped before she heard Finnick's screams start up again. What was happening?

"Taiya help us!" Johanna's voice screamed.

Taiya's body hit the ground as a bird swooped her, hitting her in the forehead.

"Jabberjays," she realised. "FINNICK!" she screamed as she stood up and started running back in the direction she thought the beach was. Jabberjays copy, and they'd led her here using Cashmere's voice, pulling her further and further away from the beach where Finnick was waiting, where Finnick was now likely being killed. "FINNICK!" she screamed again as she tore through the jungle.

Then she hit the wall. Straight with her nose.

"Ah!" she groaned as she clasped at it.

"Help me!" a Finnick bird swooped her as she collapsed to the ground.

"No, no, no, no," she rocked backwards and forth as she grabbed onto her ears. "Make it stop. Please, please make it stop," she cried to herself.

And then more birds came. More Finnick birds. Tyler birds. Kenna birds. Johanna birds. Annie birds. Mags birds. Romulus birds. Everyone she cared about was screaming at her, pleading with her for help.

It went on and on and on… until hands grabbed her shoulders.

"Ah!" Taiya screamed, quickly sitting up and scooting herself away, but refusing to remove her hands from her ears.

It was Johanna. Her mouth was moving, but Taiya couldn't hear. Her ears still rang with the screams.

"No, no, no," Taiya closed her eyes and pressed her head into her knees.

"He's fine, he's fine," Johanna's voice reassured, but Taiya was too distraught to process what she was saying. "Hey!" Johanna yelled before lightly slapping Taiya's face, partially breaking her out of her hysteria. "I wouldn't lie to you," Johanna grabbed Taiya's violently shaking hands. "I'm telling you, he's alive. He's fine. He heard the same things you did and you need to see him, ok? So just… come with me," Johanna slowly pulled Taiya up from the ground. "Come on," Johanna encouraged as she lead Taiya towards the beach.

"I can't," Taiya sobbed as she collapsed onto the sand. "He's dead, he's dead. Please don't make me move," Taiya pleaded as Johanna tried to lift her up again, instead she just curled up into a ball.

"Ok," Johanna sighed. "I'm going to get him. Bring him to you ok?" she said before she ran into the jungle.

"It's not even that difficult, Finnick," Johanna arrived to hear Beetee's explanation of the birds. "Our children learn a similar technique to engineer people's voices in school."

"Well of course it wasn't them," Johanna scoffed as she looked over at Peeta comforting Katniss. "I mean the whole country adores Katniss's little sister. If they tortured her or did anything to her, forget the districts, there'd be riots in the damn Capitol. Hey, how does that sound Snow?" Johanna yelled. "What if we… what if we set your backyard on fire? You know, you can't put everybody in here!" As she turned back to look at the group she saw their shocked faces. "What? They can't hurt me. There's no one left out there that I love."

"Johanna," Beetee interrupted. "Did you…"

"Yeah. I did. She's at the beach," she walked over to Finnick and crouched in front of him. "Look," she held up the spile. "I found her. She's fine. She had to hear the birds too, so she's a mess just like you are, but she's not hurt. I took this from her, it's proof, alright?" she explained while Finnick stared at the spile transfixed. When Taiya left she'd taken it with her. "Come on," she helped him stand up. "I took her to the beach, you two need to be with each other before you both lose it."

"She's ok?" Finnick asked, needing to hear it one more time.

"She's not hurt," Johanna assured. "Let's go," she hauled the man up and started walking him back to the beach. They were both traumatised beyond belief. He was quivering just like Taiya was. Johanna didn't even want to comment on the bloody nose they both had. Even apart they'd both managed to run into a wall with their nose. They definitely spent too much time together.

As Finnick reached the sand he froze. There she was. She'd moved from the sand to lie down in the shallows of the water, allowing the waves to wash up her body.

His entire body released its tension all at once.

"I'll go get water, you two just…" Johanna trailed off as she released him and turned back to get water from the jungle. Even if the birds were still there, the only ones she could be tortured with were together on the beach, she'd know it wasn't them.

Finnick trudged forward and stuck his trident into the sand before continuing down to the water where Taiya was. He lay down in the water beside her and looked at her, her eyes were closed and she hadn't even acknowledged his presence.

Slowly he intertwined his hand with hers and she opened her eyes to glance across at him. At first, she thought he was a figment of her imagination, but when she felt the squeeze of her hand she knew he was real. He was there, with her, alive.

"Finnick?"

He reached across to cup her cheek. "I heard your screams."

"I heard yours," she nodded as she grasped his hand closer to her cheek. "You were in pain," she explained as her eyes teared up.

"I'm not hurt. And you?"

"I'm not hurt," she confirmed. "I'm so sorry I left!"

"Don't leave me again. Please?"

"Never," she cried as she rolled on top of him, pulling him into a desperate hug as silent sobs wracked both of their chests.

Only two more chapters after this and Catching Fire is done!

Uchiha-no-Hime: Hey, hey! Thank you sooooo much for your comment! It means the world. This is on ao3, I have it published under the same name if you want to check it out! I also have it on Quotev and Wattpad