Dahlia and Finnick slept relatively undisturbed in each other's embrace, savouring the rare moments of peace while they could. Unfortunately that peace was disrupted far sooner than either of them would've liked by Peeta mumbling Katniss' name in his sleep. As he frightened himself awake with a gasp, his body jerked into Dahlia's and, in turn, roused her from sleep.

"Peeta?" Dahlia murmured in confusion, eyes squinting as the dim light flooded her vision. Rubbing her eyes, she turned to the boy with concern and asked, "Are you alright? What's wrong?"

But he could only anxiously reply with one word, "Katniss."

As he shot upright with his eyebrows furrowed, Dahlia noticed the faint hissing sound that had begun to echo around the tunnel. Nudging her elbow into Finnick caused him to stir and instinctively turn to check on Dahlia, paranoid that something had happened. And then he heard the noise. The rest of the squad around them started to hear it too.

"What is that?" Jackson questioned in suspicion as she sat up from her spot against the railing. No one had a proper answer for her... Apart from Peeta.

"We gotta go. We gotta get outta here now." He rambled fearfully, descending into panicked chaos as he scrambled to his feet. Instead of running straight away as many would expect, he next turned to Dahlia and Finnick, desperately tugging them to their feet.

Gale hissed at the boy, "Keep your voice down."

But Peeta ignored him as he revealed, "Mutts! They released mutts."

That announcement made everyone jump up from their spots and collect their gear at the speed of light. "Pollux, what's the fastest way out?" Katniss asked nervously, eyes stuck on the endless expanse of darkness in front of her.

"Come on! Go! Go!" Jackson commanded, ushering her squad out of their temporary resting spot and back out into the tunnel.

Pollux took up spot as the guide in front of Katniss as Gale shot a blast of fire down the end of the corridor. The blaze acted as their beacon of light, something to focus on as they waded through the water. Dahlia and Finnick once again found themselves following directly behind Katniss, Peeta's trembling body clinging to their side. Jackson held up the rear, covering their backs as her torchlight beamed out into the hissing shadows. Everyone was on edge.

As Gale peered round the corner of an intersecting tunnel, Dahlia slowly unsheathed her blade and kept one hand hovering over the assortment of weapons strapped to her body. She was waiting for the attack, waiting for the moment when the mutts grew tired of stalking them through the darkness, waiting for them to strike. But as Gale fired another detonation of flames, the illumination revealed that there was nothing there. The squad continued on, even more uneasy than they were before.

They approached a narrow gap in the wall which Pollux was quick to clamber through. Upon reaching the other side, he signalled for the others to wait while he checked for dangers. Dahlia hated just standing there. She felt vulnerable, like a duck sitting out in the open, eyes watching her from every angle. The mutts were the hunters and they were the prey.

Once Pollux had given them the all clear, the squad were able to start dragging themselves through the passage. Gale first, then Katniss with Peeta being ushered in behind her. Finnick motioned for Dahlia to slip through before him, which she knew better than to argue against. The tight confined space was less than ideal for Dahlia's claustrophobic nature, but this was not the time to let her fears get the best of her. Sucking up her nerves, she shuffled through as quickly as she could, trying her best to not accidentally impale someone with her outstretched sword. She was more than relieved to feel Katniss' hand sneak across the gap to latch onto hers and help her progress the rest of the way.

Finnick followed after her, the remainder of the squad lined up patiently behind him in a steadily diminishing queue. Dahlia was waiting for him on the other side, entrusted to hold his trident while he focused on quietly scaling across the concrete. Knowing she was there was enough to make him pick up his speed and exit unscathed. After landing on the water-covered ground once more, he collected up his trident and his wife.

Homes was the second last one through, leaving only Jackson left behind on her own. Ever a vigilant woman, she surveyed the area one last time with her torch and gun raised. Satisfied that there was absolutely nothing there, she turned her back on the tunnel. But she never made it through to the other side.

A pack of mutated reptilians overpowered Jackson within seconds, leaving no possible hope of rescue. When one of the mutts began to climb through the gap in pursuit of the remaining squad members, Katniss was left with no choice but to fire an explosive arrow at the opening. The force of the eruption knocked the girl off her feet, sending her sprawling backwards into the water.

Dahlia swiftly hooked her arm under Katniss' shoulder and dragged her back to her feet, not giving the girl time to steady herself before they were sprinting down the dark corridors. "Pollux, lead us out of here!" Homes screamed out as Dahlia immediately fell into step beside Finnick. "Come on!"

The frenzied light from the torches was all they had to illuminate the way, water splashed up frantically in their haste to escape. They swerved through the twists and turns, becoming lost in a complicated maze of tunnels. Dahlia's eyes were only able to focus on the back of the person in front of her, Castor's black backpack acting as her guide through the labyrinth... Until he was tackled by mutts.

Homes and Cressida called out the poor man's name as he screamed in anguish, but there was nothing any of them could do. Dahlia was forced to skid to a stop as the overwhelming number of mutts tore their squad member to shreds right in front of her. Then more mutts flooded in from the joining tunnel and turned their attention to the closest living thing. Dahlia. She managed to slash her sword at a few of them, but there were far too many to take on alone. Thankfully, she wasn't alone.

Finnick relentlessly stabbed his trident at any mutt that dared to approach his wife, beating them back enough for him to scoop her up and push her behind him. Cressida joined in with her quick firing gun, but even then the mutts kept coming. Separated from the other half of the team and soon to be outnumbered by the mutts, the cornered group were left with little choice.

"Fall back!" Homes commanded seconds before Katniss released another explosive arrow on the incoming mutts. The burst of flames engulfed the tunnel, forcing Dahlia and Finnick to retreat from the area. Cressida covered their backs as the pair along with Homes and Messalla withdrew back the way they came, Castor's pained yells following them down the tunnel.

"We need to regroup with Katniss and the others." Dahlia gasped out as they ran back through the winding passages, feeling anxious the longer they were separated from the Mockingjay. What if this was Snow's master plan? To split the squad up and pick them off one by one? They couldn't let that happen.

"We will." Finnick assured her, pausing briefly to spear his trident into a mutt with a powerful grunt. "Let's just survive this first."

Mutts came at them from so many angles and directions, Dahlia quickly lost count of how many she had killed. The sound of gunshots and wailing creatures filled their ears, accompanied only by the exhausted pants of the squad members putting up one hell of a fight. But they were running around completely lost, zigzagging through a space that none of them knew. Dahlia was convinced they were going round in circles. She was sure she had seen that crooked pipe before... Or was it a different pipe? Was that wall always charred or had they caused that?

Finnick seemed intent on leading them on a wild goose chase before he took a wrong turn and nearly ran into the claws of a vicious mutt. Dahlia managed to latch onto the material at the neck of his suit and yank him back before any damage could be done. Then she stabbed her sword deeply into the creature's flesh with a cry of anger before kicking it off her blade. Another tried to attack her from behind, but that was quickly dealt with by a swipe from Finnick's trident.

Homes wasn't nearly as lucky. His legs were swept out from beneath him before he could even move to defend himself. The gun slipped from his hands and he was tossed carelessly into a horrifying mass of mutts. The remaining soldiers could do nothing but run as Homes became lost in a sea of reptilian creatures. His cries echoed in their ears more than the gunshots piercing the air.

"We need to find Katniss." Dahlia announced once more, very aware of how long they'd been divided from the others. Anything could have happened to them. But as the group struggled to deduce a way to find their fellow squad members, a loud explosion was heard in the distance. "Found her."

They headed towards the rumbling blasts no doubt caused by the Girl on Fire, battling their way through hoards of mutts with gunfire and flashes of steel. Working in perfect unison with each other, Dahlia and Finnick took out any threat that came their way. In their eyes, nothing was going to touch their spouse if they could do anything to stop it.

With one final swing of her sword, Dahlia burst from the tunnel into the hub of the network system as the rest of the squad poured in behind her. And by the looks of it, they had arrived just in time. Peeta was helplessly being dragged off into the water as Katniss desperately crawled after him. But her approach was cut off as another mutt leapt out in front of her. The team were in dire need of backup and the Odairs were bringing it.

Splitting momentarily from each other's side, they divided and conquered. Finnick impaled the mutt cornering Katniss, flinging it to the side before twirling his trident and slamming it into another creature. His strikes were oddly graceful and calculated, each move flowing into the next like a choreographed dance. No mutt could go anywhere near him or Katniss as he fought expertly to keep them at bay.

Meanwhile, Peeta was trying to stop a mutt from snapping at his head by forcing the strap of his restraints into its mouth. The razor sharp teeth protruding from the unnatural creature managed to easily tear through the material and the biting mutt resumed its attack. But before it could close its jaws around Peeta's neck, a blade sliced cleanly through its skin and detached its head from the rest of the body. The boy gasped in shock before he spotted Dahlia's hand outstretched to help him up.

"Where have you been?" He asked with a slight jesting tone, reminding Dahlia of the Peeta she once knew in the Quarter Quell. The Peeta who could make jokes in the most miserable of situations just to make people smile. And this was no exception. But this was no time to stop and smile.

Still grinning in disbelief, she snatched his hand and heaved him up from the ground. "Get out of here." She demanded somewhat lightheartedly, shaking her head as she shoved him towards Cressida.

The former Capitol film director grabbed the boy's shoulder and forced him over to the ladder with yells of, "Go, go, go, go, go!"

Messalla emerged from the tunnel behind her, rapidly firing at the mutts as they charged forward to attack a new victim. Once Peeta had scaled the majority of the ladder, Cressida hopped up after him, still shooting bullets at lightning speed. After seeing them reach safety, Dahlia returned her focus to Finnick and the Mockingjay.

Her husband had just finished taking down another attacking mutt and was pulling Katniss from the ground. "Go, go, go!" He yelled, holding off the pursuing creatures as Katniss plunged into the water.

The Mockingjay clambered up onto the platform where Dahlia stood guard and rushed to help her up. One mutt leapt from the stony banks to tackle Katniss, but Dahlia simply kicked it away to become impaled on Finnick's awaiting trident.

The young girl turned to Dahlia in worry, prepared to wait until her friends were there with her before ascending the ladder. But that idea was shut down before it could even leave her lips as Dahlia forced her over to the railing and shouted, "Go, Katniss! Now!"

Katniss begrudgingly complied, scaling the rungs of the ladder quickly so the two could follow. As Dahlia glanced up to ensure Katniss made it up without harm, she failed to notice the mutt lurking at her back.

"Lia!" Finnick screamed out in desperation as he saw the creature preparing to slaughter his love. No way would he let that happen. Aiming his trident for the most important attack he'd ever made, he gritted his teeth in determination before launching the blade to spear the mutt's body. The mutated reptile convulsed and tumbled into the water as Finnick successfully protected his wife. But now he was left without his main weapon.

As Dahlia turned at the sound of Finnick's cry, she watched him face off against another mutt armed only with one of her small black knives. Though he was more than capable of taking down one opponent with such a compact weapon, he would never last forever against all the other mutts swarming in around him. That was a feat too great for even her wonderful Golden Boy.

"Dahls!" Katniss called, making Dahlia's head snap up to the girl who'd now reached the top of the ladder. The Mockingjay stared down at her with pleading eyes, her hand extended encouragingly as she noted Dahlia's hands already on the rungs of the ladder. "Come on! You're nearly there!"

A flower of hope blossomed in her chest at the prospect of being so close to getting out of this hellish tunnel. One step closer to freedom for Panem. One step closer to happiness in her life... But she would never find happiness without Finnick. He was her happiness. And right now, he was practically weaponless and wrestling against a mutt to cover her escape.

There was once a time in the Quarter Quell where Dahlia had been in a very similar predicament. Choosing between the Mockingjay and the rebellion, or Finnick and her heart? Back then she had pondered what Alaric would've done and acted accordingly. She thought he would've gone with his head and done what was necessary to protect the revolution. So that's what she did, and she regretted it. But after she watched Alaric jump in front of a knife that was meant for her, she began to think differently. Family meant everything to him. He sacrificed his life and a chance at freedom just so she could live. That didn't seem like the type of man who would lead with his head and not his heart. And so, the answer of who to run to this time was more than obvious for Dahlia.

"Finn!" She gasped out, darting away from the ladder as Katniss screamed after her. Finnick had just disappeared under the surface of the water amidst his scuffle with the mutt, making Dahlia's heart leap in worry. Without hesitation, she jumped in after him.