Nobody likes a mad woman. And certainly, nobody could ever love one. When the reaping begins for the Seventieth Hunger Games, Annie Cresta volunteers. She's trained for this her whole life. She made the decision herself. It should be easy. But as the arena draws closer, Annie finds herself caught in a net. It's not just her reasons for volunteering threatening to unravel, but the impossible feelings growing for her mentor, Finnick Odair. Once, he called her a mermaid. Now he wants her to become one, at least in the eyes of the Capitol. Yet nothing can prepare her for what it means to watch children die up close, or what it takes to survive them. As Annie's grip on reality begins to fracture under the weight of Capitol spectacle, torture, and a rebellion that may or may not exist, she finds solace in the one person who will tell her what's real. Even if he's drowning in secrets of his own. - a slow-burn pre-canon Annie x Finnick prequel. Canon-compliant but inspired by ABOSAS and SOTR, things are open for different interpretation and explained by unreliable narration and Capitol propaganda in the trilogy.