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Finnick kept expecting for the bottom to drop out. It was hard to believe that this wasn't a charade. He'd seen plenty of devious plans hatched and carried out in the Capitol, and there were certainly many that had this sort of longevity and creativity. But this lacked a certain level of cruelty that he had always been able to taste before. If it had been an arena, the need for blood would have won out long ago. No, this was something else. Maybe it was safety. Finnick wasn't ready to believe that yet.

Still, he had decided to lower his guard a little. It helped marginally that both Johanna and Katniss were here; if something was going to happen to him, it was going to happen to all three of them, and if there were any other Victors he wanted at his side, it was the two of them.

As it was, there was little else he could do. If the Capitol was playing a trick, they were holding out the cards. So, Finnick decided to enjoy the hotel. It was nice enough. Certainly on par with some of the nicer ones in the Capitol, although perhaps lacking the gaudier decorations.

He liked being out in the gardens, because he rarely saw anything resembled nature in the Capitol. But, without a doubt, his favorite area was the pool. There still was something unnatural about swimming indoors, but it was calming all the same to do lap after lap and just hear the quiet of the building surrounding him.

That's where he was at the moment, stripped to just his skin except for Annie's necklace, which was still tied securely about his neck. He treaded water for a moment before launching himself forward, heading back toward the shallow end of the pool again.

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It's strange to hear their plan laid out without real understanding. Vaguely, he thinks that there's no point in pretending that he wasn't a part of the rebellion anymore; it's all exposed now. If this really was a test to weed out which of the victors were in on the scheme, well, it's abundantly clear that Johanna Mason and Finnick Odair were on it.

The cynical part of his brain thinks that this would be the perfect way to do it -- to send something that looks and talks like Katniss Everdeen to trick him, because he's been told to save her at all costs. Or to pair her with something that looks looks and talks like Johanna Mason, because the person he had trusted most in the arena, after Mags, was certainly Jo -- weak as it might make him to admit it.

He falters, wars with himself for a minute, and then just gives in. He can theorize, after all, just what Johanna was doing just based off the mark Katniss has.

"Johanna wasn't trying to kill you," Finnick says. "We were working together to get you out of the arena, Katniss. That's what the alliance was for. She was probably trying to remove your tracker."

Katniss rubs her forearm where there's still an angry mark. It makes sense when Finnick says it that way but should she trust it? Does she have a choice?

"I guess. So why are we all here, then? Are you still as much in the dark as I am?"

"I don't know," Finnick admits, and they are words he loathes to say out loud. They are the ultimate weakness. Ignorance. Ignorance was inevitably killed any tribute -- the not knowing what was coming for them, the not knowing how to handle a given situation, quell the panic.

He deals heavily in knowledge, but there was never any indication that they were going to swept away. And now here, just three of them are, but without any contact. It both worries him and assures him that Katniss is here. Whatever is happening, he's at the center of it. It's either the safest or the most dangerous spot.

"We are a pair, huh?"

Katniss doesn't think that she would have chosen to be stranded with Finnick and Johanna but it hasn't been bad so far. Finnick, especially, is surprisingly kind. Katniss hasn't known a lot of kindness.

"I guess there's no sense in worrying about the unknown but I can't help it."

Finnick can't help but smile, something more genuine, something more himself, at her assessment of them. It's strange and oddly succinct and completely honest. Just days before he had been conniving, trying to find a way into Katniss Everdeen's good graces. And now, here they are, stranded and talking politely at least.

For the last year, it seems as if his entire life had orbited around hers. He'd been shocked as any when two victors had come out of the Games. And then there'd been the call to arms, the request that he go back into the arena to protect this girl who he'd seen only on a television screen.

"It's what we do," Finnick answers simply, leaving the notion of we an undefined and loose group. The worry because they need to control everything around them in order to survive.

"It's all we can do, for the most part. At least if they're intending for us to do something horrible, they're giving us a chance to get to full strength while they do. It doesn't seem very smart of the Capitol."

Katniss has never been a particularly strategic thinker and she has never been politics savvy. In this, she thinks Finnick probably has an advantage the way that Peeta and Haymitch did. Even still, she can see that putting them up in a nice hotel for a while isn't very smart.