I enter the room to see an older woman, who I assume is Coin, sitting behind a large desk. She appears to have just finished having a heated conversation with Haymitch, who stands off to the side. Next to him, Gale Hawthorne leans against a bookshelf. He looks upset even before noticing me.

It all must have something to do with Katniss being shot, I think unconcerned.

"You're looking less awful," Haymitch comments, trying to break the silence that came the moment I entered the office.

There are three other people in the room. One of them is the soldier who brought me to Coin's office. The other two appear to be guards. Even though I had noticed and ignored the soldier taking glances back at me on the way here, they all silently observe me. I don't expect a fight, but the guns attached to their waists remind me to alert and careful.

The sound of Coin saying my name makes me turn to look at her.

"Isabelle Valentine. Also known as Isabelle the Heartbreaker by Panem. Current age: seventeen. Hair color: brown. Eye color: blue. Height: 5'7". Only child. Status of parents: dead. Mother taken by sickness. Father in a fire. Sent to the Academy late but made it into Specials program quickly. Put into the top group known as the Alphas. Specialty: knives and stamina. A tribute to the 72nd Games. Won after carving out the heart of the District 1 male tribute using her district partner's knife. Victor at age fifteen."

She finally looks up from the papers she retrieved from her desk. Her pale grey eyes were passive, but there was something distrustful hidden beneath them.

"So you can write a book about me," I say calmly, even though I don't like having details of my life told to complete strangers. "Complete with pictures."

"I have an offer for you," she states. "I've seen most of your records. I think you'll be a useful asset to District Thirteen. I believe you can help us with the Rebellion."

"Why would you want my help," I ask cautiously.

"Your records are impressive. You're a great fighter. You're well-known."

I laugh dryly. "Yeah. In the worst way. Have you seen the way people in this place look at me? How they look at the people from my District?"

"That'll all die down with your help. We need someone like you to change that."

"Let me ask you again. Have you seen the way that most of the citizens react to me? They're scared. I'm not saying I blame them. I'm just trying to get my point across. I'm not the person you're looking for."

"We need someone strong and determined. From my sources, I heard you are with the right push. We need somebody who has a good reputation with the Career districts."

"My classmates hardly respect me."

"I've heard otherwise."

I am about to question who her sources are but she continues speaking, "You're a Victor. That has earned you a lot of recognition and respect from the type of people that we want you to help us communicate with and keep us up to date on. As this war against the Capitol progresses, we get more and more people joining us in Thirteen. Most of them are aware of the Capitol's cruelty and are loyal to our cause, but I predict there will be some who have other goals or who need more convincing." She looks at me when she says the last categorization.

"You don't know me."

"I know a lot about you," she says. "These papers tell me more than you probably realize. The names of your friends. The name of your boyfriend."

My first reaction is surprise. She knows something like that. I wonder who else here does. My second is to glare, wondering how she could dare talk about him here.

"Late boyfriend," I remind her. "How did you even get my records?"

"Lyme."

"Lyme," I repeat to myself. "She's your source. Where is she? I haven't seen her."

"I regret to inform you that she's dead. She was killed in the Battle at Two."

Lyme and I were never close or anything. She visited the Academy every once and a while and we had interacted, but she was as secretive as I was. I am still affected by Coin's not so sorry condolences though. Lyme was a strong, independent woman. Stupidly, I am surprised to hear she has died. I am also sad. Another person from my District gone. Another Victor gone.

That could have been me.

Remembering that I am in a room with six other people who are watching my reaction closely, I recover fast. I swallow the lump that was beginning to form in my throat and speak, "So that's why you want me. With Lyme gone, you need someone else to assure peace with the Career districts. Why not use Finnick Odair? I've heard he's here somewhere. He's from Four and everybody loves him."

"Finnick is helping us," Haymitch answers for her. "But he's not what we're looking for. He made his loyalty clear in the Quarter Quell. He doesn't have the same connection that you do with the type of people we need to interact with. And he's from District Four. They don't get the same reactions from the other districts than the people from your place do."

Haymitch's words were true. It was my district that was especially known for having bloodthirsty Careers. The reason why the other rebels might not trust us is because of the concern that we would turn on them, that it was in our nature to like violence and stand up for the Capitol. My District wasn't made up of bad people born to be killers, but I can't deny that there were students at the Academy who were pretty close. Most kids who attended the Academy were eager to fight. They weren't scared to get in an argument.

And those were the type of people that Coin needed to have a connection to. There would be young adults like me who attended the Academy and would make good soldiers. They would be useful to the Rebellion but only if they were on our side. Some of them might have only came to Thirteen because of their families. They would not actually like being here and wouldn't try to hide it. They'd cause problems not for the Capitol but just to refuse authority. If they reacted to the dirty looks they would receive from the people here, then it would be a mess.

"We also need someone that we can depend on to not try a coup d'etat."

For the first time, I openly acknowledge Gale whose comment had pulled me from my thoughts. I turn to him and see the familiar expression that he has around me. It is serious, cautious, and somewhat angry. By the way he spoke, he does not think I am that someone.

"Let it go, Hawthorne," Haymitch says, sighing. "We can rely on her."

"I don't understand how you guys believe that? Especially from what we know of her relationships."

So he does know.

"How do we know you won't hurt Katniss," he asks me. "She might want revenge for her boyfriend," he tells the rest of the room.

The room is silent at first. I think they expect me to talk, to defend myself or argue with him. But I just look back at him blankly. I don't need to explain myself to any of these people.

"Drop it," Haymitch warns when he sees I won't respond.

"I don't trust her," Gale tells Haymitch. He says each word slowly.

"We can rely on her," Haymitch says, returning his look.

That's when I decide to speak up. Even I don't really understand where all this faith in me is coming from.

"How do you know that?"

The guards look a little thrown off that I'm not defending my case. Even Gale turns away from his stare down with Haymitch.

"Sweetheart, there's no doubt that you and Snow don't get along," Haymitch answers. I glare at his tone and his word choice.

"How canyou be so sure of my relationship with Snow? How do you know I don't have other goals?"

It is Coin that speaks next.

"I have multiple examples of evidence, including the condition that Soldier Hawthorne found you in at the Capitol prisons."

"If you were some Capitol-supporting Victor, you wouldn't have been tortured. You would have been set free." Haymitch says this about me but looks at Gale when he talks.

I glance at Gale and realize, it must have been a pretty horrible sight, finding me there. For once, he's not looking as though he wants to fight me. He notices my gaze. Our eyes lock and I send him a silent message: Don't feel sorry for me, don't you dare. When his expression hardens again, I am satisfied and look at Coin as she starts to speak.

"If you agree to this offer, you will be a vital part of taking down the Capitol and ultimately, Snow. You will also be allowed to train in the advanced sessions with my soldiers because eventually you'll be one of my soldiers. What is your answer?"

I've trained with arrogant potential Careers. I've had to deal with Snow and his politics. So I am completely aware of the undertone of her voice and the way she looks at me. She's presenting all of this as if it is a favor to me on her part. If I answer yes, I'm not only making her happy by agreeing to help her but also giving her the upper hand.

I've never been as prideful as the other people from my District. I want Snow's death and am usually eager to side with anyone who wants his downfall. I should just agree to help them and be grateful for being saved from the Capitol. But I couldn't do all of that. I really didn't like Coin or have respect for her. She had already tried intimidating me multiple times since I entered her office and I hated her way of power play. I was going to make things difficult for them.

"You blew up the Nut."

The atmosphere of the room changes instantly. I've been pretty dispassionate and distant during this whole conversation, but now my words are spoken with barely contained anger. I realize how upset I actually am about this action after hearing myself talk about it aloud.

"You blew up the Nut," I say again when no one responds. "You asking me to help your relationship with the people from my district when you've literally bombed it."

Coin glances to the side. I look at Gale whose expression is sympathetic and angry at the same time. There is some guilt too that usually I would care about, but right now, I'm not my normal self. All it tells me is he helped bomb the Nut.

"We weren't trying to blow the whole place up," Gale defends. "We were only disabling it. A tunnel was left intact for people to escape."

"Then explain to me why I heard people suffocated to death in there."

The muscle on Gale's jaw ticks. "We gave them a chance. They didn't take it. Instead, they turned on Katniss and shot her."

"She'll live," I comment. "A lot of them didn't, did they?"

He pushes off the wall and takes a step toward me. We're facing each other. "They didn't surrender!"

"Some of them didn't have the chance to," I shout back. "They were scared and trapped and they didn't know what to do! There were normal citizens working there. Good and innocent people."

"There were people like that too in my District. A lot of them," Gale says. I'm not the only one who is extremely pissed off now. "The Capitol didn't care when they bombed it, when people burned in the flames."

"So you take it out on us," I ask or rather scream.

"Calm down, Two," Haymitch says. He knows me as quiet and icy not violent and angry.

"You're asking me to calm down? What about this guy," I say, pointing a finger at Gale who just scowls back at me. "What did you tell him when thought bombing the Nut was a good idea? Based of what? His need for vengeance on the Capitol, an outlet for his anger."

I am breathing heavily now. The room is silent and tense, but I'm past uncomfortable, I'm hurt and extremely upset for all the citizens of my district that could not voice anything when they suffocated in the debris or were blown to pieces.

"It was a strategic move. The Nut is a major source of weapons for the Capitol. It was going to be captured, so it was smart of Soldier Hawthorne to disable it."

I just stare at Coin. I don't know why I'm so horrified but I am. I should have learned by now that people can do things that are so very wrong and never see the fault in their actions. I'm shocked by how unconcerned she is.

She doesn't feel bad at all.

Just like Snow, I realize.

"You asked me for my answer," I say quietly but clearly. I'm barely containing my anger again. "Fuck you. Fuck all of you."

I turn and head for the doors.

I hear Coin's crisp voice. "Our meeting is not over."

A guard, the soldier who brought me to her office in the first place, reaches for me, telling me to stop. I grab his hand at a certain angle then twist it. He tries to move out of the grip but only ends up hurting himself more.

"Don't try touching me again," I growl in his ear before releasing his hand and walking out of the room.