Ashe Illyrian, 14

Victor of the One-Hundredth Fifty-Third Annual Hunger Games

Cold dread fills her veins when Ashe is summoned to the office of the Head Gamemaker. She has never met Lanai Hollister, considering that Ashe bailed out on her Victory party, and she knows nothing about the woman. All she knows is that the Gamemakers have been in disarray after Silas Euphemia's untimely death.

She doesn't believe the story that he had a heart attack. He lives in the Capitol, the most technologically and medically advanced place in the world, and somehow died of a heart attack at thirty-eight. Sure. The Capitol could bring her back from being electrocuted to death, but cannot save a man who had a heart attack. She totally believes that.

Ashe arrives to the Head Gamemaker's office. The plaque beside the door still reads Silas Euphemia. Ashe takes a deep breath, tugs one of her sleeves down, and knocks.

"Come in," a voice says on the other side of the heavy door. Ashe pushes it open and steps into the office. Lanai Hollister is seated at a desk in front of a window. The blinds are drawn, allowing little natural light into the room. "Please close the door behind you, Miss Illyrian."

Ashe obeys and takes a step closer to Lanai. "You wanted to speak with me."

"Yes…" Lanai says. "Ashe, please have a seat."

Ashe glances at the plush armchair in front of the desk. The fabric is undoubtedly going to irritate her skin. "I'll stand."

Lanai purses her lips and waits a moment, as if she expects Ashe to change her mind. "Well, Ashe, I'm going to level with you. Everything around here is not even close to what it seems to be."

Ashe furrows her brow, uncertain of how to answer. "What do you mean?"

"What I mean is…" Lanai glances over Ashe's shoulder at the door, as if checking to make sure it's locked. "Sorry. You can never be too careful around here. Too many ears trying to listen…" She looks to the Avox standing in the corner, whom Ashe had not yet noticed.

The Avox looks familiar, somehow. Ashe figures he served her at some point.

Lanai shares a look with the Avox and then continues. "Your little…stunt in the arena has had an effect on the Districts, Ashe." She pulls up a holographic screen, showing footage of a riot happening in a square. Ashe doesn't know which District it is. "This happened in District Five after we cut the cameras. It's…anger to the likes of which I've never seen. And I spent six months traveling the Districts, looking for people with motivation for the cause…and all I found was those loonies in District Five and Divinity Faust!"

"What are you talking about?" Ashe says cautiously, watching the riot play out on the screen in front of her.

Lanai looks from her, to the Avox, to the onscreen riot, and then back to Ashe. "The Districts have made martyrs out of you and Ainsley. They see your act of killing the both of you as an intentional attempt to make the Games have no Victor."

Ashe simply gapes at her, half-expecting (or perhaps hoping) that she will say she is kidding. "But…that's not what I was trying to do. At all."

"It doesn't matter to the Districts, Ashe," Lanai says. "What you did is viewed as rebellious to them—so it's rebellious to us."

The blood drains from Ashe's face, and she takes a step back, as if she could ever escape.

"No! No, we're not mad," Lanai says quickly. "In fact…I'm glad. You're just what I've been looking for."

"What?"

"I've been trying to find a spark for years. Macy and Echo could have had it, but it wasn't the right time. Arthur was…well, Arthur. Even if he had done something to strike up a rebellion, he never would have been able to be the face of it. And Vin…well, Vin is the wrong type of rebel. She's not noble, you know? She's not the type you want to root for." Lanai shakes her head, and then starts to laugh. "But you? You struck that spark and you struck it hot. You're everything I've been looking for—you're young enough that it's horrifying. You're palatable—everyone loves a little badass with a dream. You're smart, and driven, and you keep everyone wanting more. You're it, Ashe. You're the rebellion."

Ashe drops into the plush armchair. "But that's not…I don't…I'm not a rebel."

"Sorry, Ashe," Lanai says. "You are now."

"I want to go home," Ashe exclaims. "That's all I want. I want to go home, and have everything go back to the way it was!"

"Oh, Ashe," Lanai says, and her voice is dripping with pity. It disgusts Ashe, everything about this disgusts her. Lanai is a Capitolite, who delights in her suffering just as much as anyone else. Ashe doesn't care about the reason. Ashe doesn't care that Lanai wants to start a rebellion. She's just as bad as the rest of them. "I'm sorry. But you're a Victor now. It doesn't matter if you're a rebel or the loyalist of lap dogs. Everything will never go back to the way it was."

"This is fucking stupid," Ashe says.

"Don't you want the Games to end?" Lanai says. "Don't you want to make sure that no other kid will ever have to go through what you did? Or go through what Ainsley did?"

"You keep her name out of your mouth!" Ashe yells. "You think I want to work with you, after everything you've done? You say you want to end the Games, but find so much delight in what I've been through! You're just like all of the other bastards here!" She slams her hands on the table and takes several deep, heaving breaths. "I don't want any part in this. Have your rebellion. End the Games. But keep me out of it."

Ashe turns to leave, but Lanai calls out and stops her. "But Ashe—there are so many people counting on you."

"Oh, yeah? Like who?"

"Like Quinn. Your district partner."

"He's not counting on me. He's dead." It hurts, just a little bit. She connected with Quinn, even if on the barest level. He was here for a noble reason, and that made Ashe admire him. He didn't deserve what he got.

None of them deserve what they got.

There's a lilt in Lanai's voice like she knows she got Ashe. "He isn't. He's alive, here in the Capitol."

"Don't lie to me," Ashe says, turning back around. "Quinn is dead, just like all of the other tributes."

"You know who else is counting on you?" Lanai says. "Lana. She's alive, too. She's in rough shape, but she's happy you won. I saw her this morning."

"Don't lie to me," Ashe repeats.

"I'm not lying."

"Then let me see them."

To her credit, Lanai looks genuinely sad. "I…can't. It's too much of a security risk. If their continued existence ever got out…well, they wouldn't have a continued existence anymore."

Ashe's anger quickly melts into sadness, and suddenly there's tears streaming down her cheeks. "Who else?"

The "Is Ainsley alive" hangs unsaid in the air.

"Sterne. And Shad," Lanai says. "That's it."

"Not…"

"No, Ashe. Not Ainsley," Lanai says. "It was…too much of a security risk. There were too many who would know. Trust me, I wanted to. But sometimes we have to play our cards carefully."

Ashe stares at her. "Ainsley wasn't a card to play."

Lanai purses her lips again. "We're all cards to play, Ashe. We're playing an enormous game of chess, and if you'll just work with us, we'll have our eyes on checkmate. Doesn't it sound nice? To live in a Panem without the Hunger Games?"

Ashe looks away. "I already told you. I don't want any part in this. My Games are over, and I'm not looking to play ever again."

"I'm sorry, Ashe. I really am. But the Districts have taken the decision away from you."

"No. They haven't," Ashe says. "You have."

Lanai sighs. "Well, at the very least, keep it in mind. It might sneak up on you."

Ashe looks at her oddly, wondering what exactly that means. "I'm not going to change my mind."

Lanai just shrugs. "Keep an eye out for Ezra Renius, Ashe. He does not take kindly to rebels."

Ashe pauses, and nods once, silently appreciative of the warning. She expects Lanai to add something else, to try to convince her more, but Lanai only watches her.

So Ashe pushes open the heavy door and leaves.

Everyone keeps telling her that she's lucky to be alive. Ashe does not feel lucky.

A/N: Surprise! I wrote this in an hour.

-Amanda