CROSSFIRE [f. odiar]

chapter seven

"Where are you going to go next?" Finnick asked the girl as they walked away from their stations, him walking obviously towards the tridents.

"I don't know, I was supposed to try and make allies but-" She stopped with a shrug, her eyes flickering up to Finnick.

He somehow saw the question she was asking with her eyes and gave the girl a small nod. Ariadne wasn't if Haymitch had talked to a lot of people, but she was pretty sure that Finnick was one of them. He was strong, and even though arrogant, he was extremely loyal. Her eyes cut over to Katniss, who was talking with Peeta, and tried to find something on the girl that she hadn't noticed before. Something that made her so worth protecting.

Finnick nodded once more, more to himself, after a minute of silence and shot Ariadne a quick salute before walking over to the tridents. Ariadne contemplated going with him, but decided after a minute not to.

Instead, she walked over to Beetee and Wiress, odd company that she had found comforting all those Games they had mentored together. The two were too deep in their own world to even notice her walking up, but were quick to smile when they did.

"Ah, Ariadne Stone." Beetee said in his typical, wise and kind tone. "How are you?"

Ariadne sat beside the two as they worked over the poisonous plants station, giving Wiress a small squeeze and smile as she did. "Slightly worse than yesterday, but better than I'll be tomorrow."

Beetee, somehow always on a level of knowledge much beyond everyone else, seemed to appreciate her tiny riddle and gave her a nod of approval.

The three all sat and talked amongst eachother, mostly about the plants in front of them, but occasionally about things they had discovered about the other tributes. Wiress, who spoke in a way that Beetee always had to translate, seemed to observe a lot about the others, which was comical to Ariadne. It was always the ones you'd least expect figuring out all of your secrets.

She had also caught Katniss' eye across the room every few minutes, who seemed to be studying the girl and her friendship with the two seniors from afar. Ariadne gave a half hearted smile, but the District 12 tribute just turned away.

They were in a comfortable chatter when they were interrupted by Johanna's loud voice across the room. "Hey Stone!" She hollered, a wicked grin on her face as all the other tributes turned, "look what I found!"

In her arms were twin blades, too wickedly sharp for the way she was swinging them around. Twin swords - Ariadne's signature weapon from her previous games. With one in each hand, they always made the girl feel slightly more safe, or maybe just less exposed. She figured if she could hide behind the fancy killing machines, then no one would be able to notice her shaky hands.

Ariadne bit her lip, suddenly flooded with memories just from the sight of the two.

As they always did whenever she thought of her previous Games, images flashed across her mind. Each one sent shocks that seemed to reverberate among her whole body, but it was not an unfamiliar sensation.

As always, they were too quick to fully comprehend, but not fast enough to shrug off.

A boy, dressed in what was unmistakeably the uniform of the Games.

The image cut, the boy then looking down at his abdomen. No matter how hard she tried, she could never focus on what he was looking at.

It flashed again, her vision blurring as she sprinted closer to the boy.

And then she was crouching in front of him-

And then she was looking down at her own hands and-