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He'd been careful. He'd been really careful, because the last thing he wanted to do was go back into the arena.

But maybe he'd gotten complacent since the last door that had been special had been weeks ago, resulting in him being a girl for a couple of days. But since then, there'd been nothing. So maybe he hadn't been as diligent about watching where he was going, and maybe he'd been more than a little tired because Tristan hadn't slept well the night before and Finnick had been up with him for most of the night, trying to calm his son back down.

When Finnick did look up and found himself looking out into the jungle instead of into his room at the Nexus, he took a step back, his heart stuttering in his chest. Reflexively, he looked down: He was wearing the wetsuit he'd arrived at the hotel in.

He was back in the 75th Games.

"No, no," Finnick said out loud before he could stop himself. He turned around, desperately looking for the door that had led him in. He had to get back out. He couldn't be here. He couldn't be back here.

His brain suddenly snagged on a horrific thought: What if this wasn't a door at all? What if he had been sent back. It was something he couldn't even begin to fathom. It meant losing Annie and Tristan, and that was something he couldn't contend with.

The arena provided suitable distraction though: the sound of a cannon booming in the distance jolted Finnick back to the present. Door or home, he needed to stay alive. Weapon and water, Finnick thought, years of training fall back into place. The cornucopia was still in the middle of the arena, looking strangely deserted. He ran hastily across the beach and headed out into the water. He swam as fast as he could, reaching the cornucopia where a trident still sat, gleaming. He wrapped his hands around it -- just as he heard footsteps behind him. He turned, brandishing the trident in front of him.

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"The Arena is a clock," she explains. "There's a lightning strike against a tree at 12, that's what we need to aim for. If we can get up there, I can shoot an arrow...damn."

They needed Beetee's wiring. It's not something Katniss knows how to do, wire anything, and while she saw him work with it before she doesn't know if she can replicate it. "We need the wire, Beetee was supposed to be here too. I don't know if I can get us out the same way."

Finnick pays attention the entire time she's speaking, aware that the more he understands about the arena, the better both their chances of surviving are. He can see the trees she's talking about, a massive thing easily visible.

Not for the first time, he wishes that Plutarch had been more forthcoming with information. He knows that the man is a brilliant strategist. But there's something that sits unsteadily underneath Finnick's skin, an awareness that Plutarch is still a man of the Capitol: the show is important, and he only keeps things until they're not helpful anymore. When he and Johanna had first arrived in the hotel, it hadn't been hard to imagine that they had both been discarded for the dream of keeping the mockingjay alive. Of course, he also knows it's easier to judge on this side of things. He hadn't had many options going into the arena a second time.

"Do we commit to the wire or look for another way?" Finnick asks. A plan. A plan was enough to keep either of them going.

"Whatever we do, we have to disable the force field," Katniss says. She keeps her voice low in hopes that the microphones can't pick it up and she tries to obscure her mouth with her hand so they can't read her lips; she knows how to play the game on the third time around.

"So if you have an idea how to do it without the wire, I'm all ears."

It is still strange to be turning back to the plan they had concocted weeks ago: Johanna and he had been too volatile to be trusted by Katniss. Haymitch and Plutarch had made that much clear. He'd had Mags and the bangle to win Katniss over, but Johanna had needed to get Beetee and Wiress. It's strange now to know just how much of their plan hinged on them. Not for the first time, Finnick wonders exactly what would have happened to them if they hadn't succeeded. (He doesn't actually need to wonder. He knows. Expendable.)

"You saw Beetee use the wire," Finnick returns. "Do you think we could do it without him?"

"Hard to say. If it's just wire attached to an arrow, I can figure that out, but if he did anything special to the wire, I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm resourceful but I'm not a genius."

Few people were on a level with Beetee and Wiress had figured out the clock; Katniss just doesn't think like that and doesn't think she ever will.