Katniss had woken up the next day. She was greeted with the news of the bombing of district 12 and the capture of Peeta, and understandably, denied the position of becoming the mockingjay. After that, the week had gone by rather eventlessly. Finnick and I were still stuck in the hospital, having no news about the prisoners held captive by the Capitol.

Every once in a while, Newt would visit us. We would pester him with questions, but he would always reply with, "I'm sorry guys, I'm not supposed to tell anyone about anything." Finnick grew more worried about Annie everyday, and I could hear him occasionally sob from his room next to mine, my heart breaking for him everytime.

On one sunny morning, I was sitting on my bed, reading a book that Delcy had gotten me from the library. Finnick's blond hair was sprawled across my lap as he stared up at the ceiling, lost in his thoughts.

Newt walked into my room, causing Finnick to sit up and look at him expectantly for any news. "Hello there." Newt greeted with a smile. "President Coin wants to speak with you, (Y/n)." He said while looking at me.

Finn's eyes narrowed at him as he scoffed. "And now you're her errand boy?"

"It's something important, Finnick." Newt said with a sigh.

"What does she want to talk with me about?" I asked.

"I dunno, she wants you in her office in 5 minutes." He said while checking his watch, something called a 'communicuff', a device Coin had given him a while ago, which allowed her to contact him whenever she pleased.

"WHY WON'T YOU JUST TELL US WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!" Finnick yelled all of a sudden, causing me to flinch.

"You know why, Finn. I'm not allowed to." Newt replied in a rather calm voice.

"Since when did that stop us from sharing secrets, huh? We're best friends for God's sake! We're supposed to keep eachother informed about everything that's important!" He snapped. I placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down, but he shrugged it off and stood up. "You know what? Forget it. Go back to being a slave for Coin for all I care." He stormed out of the room, leaving the door swinging behind him.

"He has got a point." I whispered. "You need to tell us, Newt. We care about Annie too. You can't just keep us in the dark about that."

"Coin has put Gale and I in a position that requires loyalty. We had to pledge not to tell anyone, or else we won't be able to give our views on the mockingjay situation." He said. "If we step out of line, she will take back our communicuffs and deny us access to any information regarding the attack against the Capitol. I thought you'd understand." He finished with his voice low. "Her office is 5 floors up, second door to the right. Be there as soon as you can. I need to talk to Finn." He said and walked out of the room.

I let out a dejected sigh, hoping that the two of them would come to an understanding and sort out their differences. I got out of bed and made my way to Coin's office. While I was turning around a corner, I bumped into Katniss, causing her to trip and nearly fall down. She looked up with annoyed eyes, but when she saw that it was me, her expression softened. "Sorry, I didn't see where I was going." I mumbled.

"It's alright." She said with a tight lipped smile. We stood awkwardly for a few moments, not having a clue what to say or do.

I shuffled on my feet while saying, "Um, I need to go right now, so I guess I'll see you later?"

"Uh yeah, sure." She said and the both of us parted ways.

I reached Coin's office and knocked on the door, panting a bit due to the five flights of stairs I had to climb. The door opened to reveal Plutarch Heavensbee and Coin, seated around a large conference table and Beetee was sitting on a wheelchair by the computers. He smiled at me in greeting, and I returned the gesture.

"Ms (l/n). Come in please." Plutarch said. "Have a seat." He gestured to a chair opposite to him and Coin. "How are you feeling?"

"Good, I guess. Um, Newt said that you wanted to talk to me?" I questioned.

"Cutting to the chase I see?" He said with a chuckle to which I shrugged in reply.

"Here's the thing, Miss (Y/n)." Coin said, her steel grey eyes meeting mine. "Under unfortunate circumstances, Peeta Mellark couldn't be rescued from the arena. His tracker was still in his arm when the force field was blown out."

It was my fault that I couldn't get the tracker out in time.

"And because he is being held captive, Katniss Everdeen has refused to become the face of the revolution." Plutarch supplied. "We are planning on taking her to district 12, show her what has become of her district. To motivate her to take the role of the mockingjay."

"And we need you to accompany her, just to make sure she is alright and report back to us on what happened during the visit to 12." Coin finished.

"Why me? Why not Gale? Isn't he from her district?"

"Yes, he is. He will be accompanying her too. Gale is a very good friend of hers and that's why he cannot be trusted in that situation. He may make some irrational decisions or withhold information from us in order to protect her." She replied.

"Why not anyone else? What about Boggs?"

"We need someone who Katniss can trust. You're a young girl, just like her, going through similar situations in life." Plutarch said.

I scoffed and mumbled, "After the fact that I betrayed her in the arena and couldn't get Peeta's tracker out, I'm pretty sure she hates me. Trust is out of option."

"Then you have your work cut out for you." Coin said in a pointed voice. "You will be released from the hospital today. A compartment will be allocated to you next to hers. You can talk to Katniss about it during lun-"

"Whoa whoa whoa." I cut her off with my hands raised. "Slow down a minute." She raised an eyebrow expectantly, an impatient look on her face. "You want me to warm up to her, go with her on a trip down memory lane to a demolished district 12, become her neighbour, have lunch dates with her and all that because you want information on what is going on in that poor girl's life?"

"Yes, you've summed it all up." Plutarch said with a grin. "Newt is right, you're a smart girl."

I shook my head, still confused as to what their plans were. "What exactly are you going to do with the information?"

"Just making sure that she is on the right track to becoming the face of this revolution." Coin said, skeptically. Something told me that there was more than what she said.

"That's absurd. I'm not going to spy on her for you." I said with my eyes narrowed.

Coin had a tinge of annoyance in her voice when she spoke, "You need to understand that you signed up to do anything for the rebellion to actually succeed."

"I risked my life for her in the arena. I nearly died. Finnick and I did everything we could on our part to keep the both of them alive."

"Yet Peeta isn't here." She gritted out. "He is being tortured in the Capitol, because you couldn't get him out of the arena."

"He is being tortured?" I asked, my voice dropping to a mere whisper.

She let out a sigh while pinching the bridge of her nose. "We think so."

"And the others? Annie and Johanna. What about them?" I asked with a shaky voice.

"They may be facing the same fate as him, (Y/n). Maybe not Annie Cresta, but Johanna might as well be dead, we're not sure." Plutarch said.

"Why aren't you sending out a rescue team?!" I exclaimed.

"Because the bigger problem is to unify the districts and that can happen only when Katniss is the mockingjay! You need to convince her that!" Coin demanded.

I looked into her eyes and spoke with clarity. "You and I both know that if Katniss is going to even consider becoming the mockingjay, it will only happen when Peeta is safe. And I will agree to go along with her to district 12 only if you promise to get Annie and Johanna back alive. If not, I swear to god, I'll make sure Katniss knows better than to become the face of this revolution and I don't care what the consequences are."

She stared at me for many moments with anger. She looked towards Plutarch and said, "Can I have a moment alone with (Y/n), please?"

He nodded and left the room, leaving a tense atmosphere behind.

She put her elbows on the table and sighed. "If I start preparing a rescue team, will you go with her?"

"And I get a room next to Newt's."

Her face was void of emotions as she simply looked at me, her mind calculating the odds. "Fine. You leave in one hour."

"Everything cleared up between the two of you?" I asked Newt, the both of us standing near the hovercraft, waiting for Katniss.

"Yup." He said with a small grin. "Are you sure you wanna go?"

"If it means there is a chance to save them, yes."

"Hey." I turned around to see Katniss standing behind me in a dark grey jumpsuit, similar to my green one. The hospital discharged me as soon as I left Coin's office. Finnick unfortunately, was held back for a few more days.

"I'll get going then. See you soon." Newt said while giving me a side hug. He gave Katniss a nod, to which she returned one and he walked towards the elevators.

"Gale told me that Coin wanted you to accompany me." She said hesitantly.

"Yeah, she did. Are you okay with that?" I asked, unsure of her reaction.

"Yeah, I guess." At that moment the door to the hovercraft opened and Gale walked over to us. Katniss's eyes lit up and rushed into his arms for a hug.

"I can't believe you're going through with this. You can say no." He said while pulling away.

"I need to see it for myself." She replied. Boggs placed a hand on my shoulder and gently guided me into the hovercraft. "This way."

Once we were strapped in, he bid farewell as the doors to the hovercraft closed. With a rumble, the plane took off to our destination, district 12.

During the flight, I couldn't handle the awkwardness that lingered in the air. I turned towards Katniss and said, "I'm sorry I couldn't get Peeta out." She was surprised at my apology, but covered it up. She simply gave a curt nod in reply. I let out a small sigh and leaned back against my seat. After a few moments, I heard her mumble, "I heard about Annie, I'm sorry that the Capitol has her."

"Guess we both have something that the Capitol has taken."

"Yeah."

We reached district 12 about an hour later and I could see Katniss visibly nervous. "Hey, it's going to be alright." I said while placing a reassuring hand on her.

"My home is destroyed. How could it be alright?" She grumbled.

"Do you want me to come with you?"

"Isn't that what Coin asked you to do?"

"I'll stay here if you don't want me to come. I'll make up a story for Coin."

"Thank you." She said with a smile. Small, but genuine.

I nodded and looked outside the glass window, at what remained of the district of coals. Nothing but ashes and rubble scattered the grounds, and I frowned at the thought of all the innocent lives taken. Katniss and Gale had an exchange of few words before the door to the hovercraft opened, and the former got down.

I felt the plane rise and my eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Wait, why are we taking off?" I asked Gale.

"We're gonna circle the perimeter, just in case. We'll be back when Katniss is done there." He sat down beside me and rested his elbows on his knees, hunching forward.

I felt sad for him. What he had been through was horrible, having to watch his entire district go down in flames. "I'm sorry about what happened here." I whispered, glancing at the young man who looked like he carried the weight of his world on his shoulders.

He looked at me with sad eyes. "I wish that this was all a nightmare and I'd just wake up one day to find everything back to normal." A few moments later he spoke up, "Tell me about district 4."

I sat up straighter, leaning my head against the headrest of the seat, a smile forming on lips as I thought about home. "We lived a simple life at 4. Nothing too extravagant and fancy. The people were down to earth, always laughing and passing around salted bread or fish fingers." I saw him listening to me with a smile. "We used to have a swim in the oceans nearly everyday. Just the feeling of freedom in the waters was enough for us to find happiness in the worst of times."

"Sounds like paradise." He said.

"It was. If I go back now, all I'll ever see are the memories of what I used to have as a kid. My perspective of it has changed after the games." I mumbled.

"That's unfortunate."

I nodded. "Any precious moments of your life you'd like to share?" I asked in a soft voice.

He let out a laugh. "Very few moments like that I'm afraid, district 12 wasn't the place you'd necessarily have fun in."

"C'mon, I'm sure there was something you loved to do."

"Well, umm...Katniss and I used to love hunting together. Running through the woods chasing a rabbit or a squirrel, setting up snares and shooting at partridges or something. We were the ones supporting our families. And we found peace, I guess, while being in the forest." It was clear that he admired her, the distant look in his eyes and the small smile that he wore, gave it away. I wondered if Katniss returned those feelings and what he must have felt with the whole star crossed lovers ordeal with Peeta.

We waited for Katniss to contact us in comfortable silence. When she did, Gale directed the pilot to where she was and picked her up before heading back to 13. She dropped an overly stuffed bag on the seat and my eyes widened in surprise, when a hiss was heard from the bag.

"What the-" I began but she cut me off by mouthing,
"It's a cat." I simply nodded with an amused smile.

Gale was talking to one of the guards near the front of the plane. Katniss's posture was tense as she sat down, her eyes angry and worried. "You okay?" I asked. She nodded absentmindedly.

She suddenly looked up at me, before leaning over and whispered. "I need to get this off my chest and I don't want to worry Gale." I waited expectantly for her to continue. "Snow left a white rose for me in my house. In order to show that he is capable of destroying everything that I hold dear. As though tempting me to challenge him."

"I think this rebellion is going to be one hell of a challenge for that old man to face, if I'm honest."

"Do you think I should become the mockingjay?" She asked in a mere whisper a few moments later.

"Yes. If there is anyone who can get stir up a crowd, it's you." I said with sincerity. "The question is, do you want to become the mockingjay?"

She didn't reply, the distant look was back in her eyes as she contemplated the decision that would affect the entire country.
________________________________________________

"Nothing much happened. She went about her district, and we came back around 20 minutes later." I said, hiding the fact that I didn't go with her, or that she found a rose from Snow. And the cat too.

"And do you think she'll take on her role as mockingjay?" Coin inquired.

"I guess. She needs some time to think about it."

"Very well. To keep up my end of the deal, I've started recruiting members for the rescue team. Beetee will work on how to get into the Capitol's airspace without being caught."

"Thank you."

Newt, who was standing beside me, placed a hand on my shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze with a smile. "If we're done here, let's go get some lunch, shall we?"

At that moment, the screen on the big wall lit up to play the anthem of the Capitol. Snow's face appeared on the screen as he spoke with authority, "Citizens, tonight I address all of Panem as one. Since the dark days, Panem has had an unprecedented era of peace."

"What is he up to now?" Plutarch muttered under his breath.

"In the past, week you have heard of sporadic violence," Snow continued, "following the actions of a few radicals in the Quarter Quell." I scowled at the screen. The fact that he called us 'radicals' was enough to make my blood boil. He went on about how the Capitol and districts were codependent with eachother. "The Capitol is the beating heart of Panem. The criminals that kneel before you, use symbols for the purpose of sedition. Which is why all images of the mockingjay are now forbidden. Possessing them will be considered treason, punishable by death. Justice shall be served swiftly. To those who ignore the warning of history, prepare to pay the ultimate price."

The screen went blank and we all stood there for many moments, taking in what Snow just said to the entire country. People were definitely going to be more afraid than they were before, it would be much more harder to stir up a revolution now. Katniss better have made the right decision, for the sake of Panem.