I turn back to the TV. The crowd behind me all dies away. I feel like the world has jolted and I teeter, even on my knees. My head spins. It has nothing to do with the hit from last night. I feel Sonya sinks down beside me. I feel her hand reach out and grasp mine, almost like she's trying to keep herself from spiraling. I understand.

I search her eyes for any sign of hurt, any reflection of the agony of torture. There is nothing. Hailey looks healthy to the point of robustness. Her skin is glowing, flawless, in that full-body-polish way. Her manner's composed, serious. I can't reconcile this image with the battered, bleeding broken girl who haunts my dreams.

Effie settles herself more comfortably in the chair across from Hailey and gives her a long look.

"So...Hailey...welcome back."

Hailey smiles slightly. "I bet you thought you'd done your last interview with me, Effie."

She smiles at my little sister and leans in to her a little. "I think it was clear to all of us what your plan was. To sacrifice yourself in the maze to let your girls survive."

"That was it. Clear and simple." Hailey's fingers trace the upholstered pattern on the arm of the chair. She frowns slightly. I see the crease forming on her forehead.

"What is it? What's going on inside your beautiful little head?"

Hailey's head twitches and she blinks a few times, and then looks up at the camera and then looks at Effie. She chews her lip for a moment, the confused look deepens. "I...I don't really remember. It's all fuzzy. Parts of that night are blank. Like it's been erased."

"Erased?" Effie laughs, its high pitched, and feels forced.

Yes, I think, WICKED has done something, they probably did erase her memory of what happened. I don't know what's going on, but she was ripped to shreds, we all saw it on live TV. But now there is no trace of what happened. I don't know what game WICKED is playing. Why kill her and then bring her back. Are they implying they have the power of God and they can kill off who ever they want and then bring them back. That's probably exactly what they are trying to do. Have they figured out that the rebels want to use me and thought maybe they could mess with me and bring out my little sister who they killed off when they thought I was a rebel?

In the silence that follows, I notice the lines that have formed between Hailey's eyebrows. She has guessed or she has been told. But the Capitol has not killed or even punished her. For right now, that exceeds my wildest hopes. I drink in her wholeness, the soundness of her body and mind. It runs through me like adrenaline.

"Once you're in the Maze, the rest of the world becomes very distant," she continues quietly. "All the people and things you loved or cared about cease to exist. The creators, they take away all that, all your memories, so its just you the other girls and your survival instincts. The fake sky and the monsters in the maze and the terrible things that happen inside the maze, the gruesome deaths and horrible decisions you have to make to keep your tribe safe....As bad as it makes you feel, you're going to have to do some killing, because in the maze, you only get one wish. And it's very costly."

"It costs your life," says Effie, she reaches out and takes Hailey's hand. Hailey frowns, looking at her hand in Effie's wild elaborately painted fingers, and all her rings on her fingers.

"Oh, no. It costs a lot more than your life. To murder innocent children? To watch them die horrible deaths, sending them out into the maze at night where you know monsters are waitng to rip them apart?" says Hailey. "It costs everything you are."

"Everything you are," repeats Effie quietly.

A hush has fallen over the room, and I can feel it spreading across the whole country, not just in the dinning room. A nation leaning in toward its screens. Because no one has ever talked about what it's really like in the Maze before. Hailey rips her hand away and fidgets. Her head twitches weird again. She's blinking hard, the frown is deep, and her eyes are looking troubled. Like she's trying to remember something that's slipped her mind.

I feel someone behind me. Theo. He's crouched down behind me. His dark eyes are flicking back and forth between me and the screen. I can't figure out what he's thinking. His thoughts are hidden behind mask of stone. I look back to the TV. Hailey looks agitated, she's twisting a strand of her dark hair. She has had a shower since the last time I saw her in the Maze. It's clean and shiny, her clothes are clean and simple. Pants and a top, but they are clean, dirt free, blood free, no traces of sweat or rips.

Effie pats Hailey's shoulder. "We can stop now if you want."

"Was there more to discuss?" says Hailey wryly.

"I was going to ask your thoughts on the rebel uprising, and your sister's involvement but if you're too upset..." begins Effie.

"Oh, I'm not too upset to answer that." Hailey takes a deep breath and then looks straight into the camera. "I want everyone watching - whether you're on the Capitol or the rebel side - to stop for just a moment and think about what this war could mean. For human beings. We almost went extinct before. Do you remember the Sun Flares? Those nearly killed our entire population! Now our numbers are even fewer, thanks to The Flare, most of our population are immune and will eventually catch it and become cranks. Our conditions more tenuous. Is this really what we want to do? Kill ourselves off completely? In the hopes that - what? Some decent species will inherit the smoking remains of the earth?"

"I don't really...I'm not sure I'm following..." says Effie.

"We can't fight one another, Effie" Hailey explains. "There won't be enough of us left to keep going. If everybody doesn't lay down their weapons - and I mean, as in very soon - it's all over, anyway. WICKED is trying to find a cure. They are doing their best. WICKED is good... We can't afford to be fighting cranks and now each other."

"What about your sisters involvement?" Effie asks.

"My...my what?" Hailey frowns at this. Her head jerks to the side. Her eyes blink a few more times and they they become slightly fuzzy and unfocussed. I see Effie glance off camera to someone her eyes wide in fear, maybe? Realization she said something she shouldn't have. Hailey is looking down at her knees. Her hands are clenching her pants in her fists, I can see her mouth moving, but there are no words coming out. Suddenly Her body stills and she looks up at Effie, her eyes slightly dazed. Effie clears her throat. I glance at Sonya, and she looks just as concerned as me, yet, no one else seemed to notice her odd behavior.

"So...Hailey, you were saying... you were saying to call for a cease-fire?" Effie asks.

"Yes. I'm calling for a cease-fire," says Hailey tiredly. "Now why don't we ask the guards to take me back to my quarters so I can build another hundred card houses?"

Effie turns to the camera. "All right. I think that wraps it up. So back to our regularly scheduled programming."

Music plays them out, and then there's a woman reading a list of expected shortages behind The Wall - fresh fruit, solar batteries, soap. I watch her with uncharacteristic absorption, because I know everyone will be waiting for my reaction to the interview. But there's no way I can process it all so quickly - the joy of seeing Hailey alive and unharmed, talking about the horrors of being inside the maze, her odd behavior when they mentioned me and her undeniable complicity with the WICKED now that she's called for a cease-fire. Oh, she made it sound as if she were condemning both sides in the war.

Behind me, I can hear the accusations against Hailey building. The words traitor ,liar , and enemy bounce off the walls. Since I can neither join in the rebels' outrage nor counter it, I decide the best thing to do is clear out. I ripped my hand away from Sonya, she was still on her knees her other hand covering her mouth. I turned and fled the dinning area.

One of Coin's men lays a hand on my arm. It's not an aggressive move, really, but after the attack last night, and being a solider, I react defensively to any unfamiliar touch. I jerk my arm free, letting my elbow fly into the nose of the guy and take off running down the halls. Behind me, there's the sound of a scuffle, but I don't stop. My mind does a quick inventory of where I am and the places I could hide and I wind up in the supply closet, curled up against a crate of chalk.

"You're alive," I whisper, pressing my palms against my cheeks, feeling the smile that's so wide it must look like a grimace. Hailey's alive. And a traitor. But at the moment, I don't care. Not what she says, or who she says it for, only that she is still capable of speech.

After a while, the door opens and someone slips in. Theo slides down beside me, his nose trickling blood.

"What happened?" I ask.

"I got in someone's way," he answers with a shrug. I use my sleeve to wipe his nose. "Watch it!"

I try to be gentler. Patting, not wiping. "Which one?"

"Oh, who shucken knows...or cares." He pushes my hand away.

"Stop! You'll bleed me to death. Good thing you weren't our squad medic, cut it out woman!"

The trickle has turned to a steady stream. I give up on the first-aid attempts. "You fought with a Right Arm leader?"

"No, just blocked the doorway when he tried to follow you. His elbow caught me in the nose," says Theo.

"They'll probably punish you," I say.

"Already have." He holds up his wrist. I stare at it uncomprehendingly. "Coin took back my communicuff."

I bite my lip, trying to remain serious. But it seems so ridiculous. "I'm sorry, Soldier Theo."

"Don't be, Soldier Raya Turner." He grins. "I felt like a jerk walking around with it anyway." We both start laughing. "I think it was quite a demotion." I wince at the pain in my side. He slowly slides a hand around my back and places is hand over my bruised ribs. I sigh and scooch closer. I close my eyes and I lean my head on his shoulder. He leans his head on top of mine.

"Who are these people?" I say.

"They're us. A group of people who knew what was going on was wrong...and saw nukes and opportunity. It's been years...In a way, it's remarkable they survived at all."

I hum.

"But now? They seem to...i don't know, there's something wrong. It's uncomfortable and they are just as bad as WICKED. Different name, different place...but there are so many similarities. Down here in the mounting, anyways. Commander Paylor seems to have it together better then Coin and her people."

"Agreed."

But for the first time, I think about everything. And I give the people of the Mountain people something I have withheld from them: credit. For staying alive against all odds. Their early years must have been terrible, huddled in the chambers beneath the ground. Population decimated, no possible ally to turn to for aid. Over the past seventy-five years, they've learned to be self-sufficient, turned their citizens into an army, and built a new society with no help from anyone. They would be even more powerful if that pox epidemic hadn't flattened their birthrate and made them so desperate for a new gene pool and breeders. Maybe they are militaristic, overly programmed, and somewhat lacking in a sense of humor. They're here. And willing to take on the Capitol.

"Still, it took them long enough to show up," I say.

"It wasn't simple. They had to build up a rebel base inside WICKED, get some sort of underground organized in the cities," he says. "Then they needed someone or something to set the whole thing in motion. They needed you."

"Me?" I ask lifting my head.

He nods. "The moment you stepped in front of Hailey, to take her spot. You were the first to publicly defy them. You were the first to say something is off with the system, the government in place. You were right. You were a child, ten years old and you told the entire country she was too little to understand what's going on, so you would take her spot."

"Oh..." I whisper. "I was just trying to protect her. I wasn't trying to be a child rebel. She was seven Theo! Seven!"

"I know. But that was the tipping point. You were the straw that broke the camels back."

Oh.

"They needed all the other kids, they needed Hailey, too, but they seem to have forgotten that," I say. "They took her anyway, and people today seemed to have forgotten, they took a seven year old child."

Theo's expression darkens. "Hailey might have done a lot of damage tonight. Most of the rebels will dismiss what she said immediately, of course. But there are areas where the resistance is shakier. The cease-fire's clearly Chancellor Paige's idea. But it seems so reasonable coming out of Hailey's mouth."

I'm afraid of Theo's answer, but I ask anyway. "Why do you think she said it?"

"She might have been tortured. Or persuaded. Or forced. You saw the way her eyes went blank when they mentioned you, and the way her head kept jerking weird. Like-"

"Mind control!" I whisper, the realization hitting hard. Theo hums with a small nod.

"You think they would do that?" I turn to look at him. His eyes are dark and they flash dangerously.

"Yes." He hisses. "There was talk about mind control. Eric talked about it all the time. each kid inside the Maze has a chip inside their brains it blocks the memories-"

"Yeah...I know. The girls from Maze B had them removed and all their memories came back...what about it?"

"Well, what if WICKED also figured out how to control them with those same mind chips?" He said slowly, thinking the theory out loud.

"Wholly shit." The thought that someone inside WICKED could make my sister do and say anything against her will made my stomach sick. Images flash through my mind: Them ripping Hailey away anyways; watching them torture children to extract some kind of enzyme; all the non immune citizens locked out of the walls, WICKED refusing to help; the truck loads of dead cranks; the Grievers chasing children through stone walls; watching Minho drag his best friend through the walls because he had lost hope and jumped off the wall, but failed to die; holding Minho's hand on stage when we were first reaped in solidarity. And then busting the Elite girls from Maze B, and how badly I wanted it to lodge deep in the heart of my enemy.

I spring up, upsetting a box of a hundred pencils, sending them scattering around the floor.

"What is it?" Theo asks.

"There can't be a cease-fire." I slap a hand over my bruised ribs.

"I know."

"We can't go back!"

"I know."

"WICKED has to be taken down. Chancellor Ava Paig, Eric...and-" I glance at Theo quickly, " and even Director Janson...all of them."

"Agreed."

"We have to bring them down. I have to bring them down."

"I'm not arguing with you Ray, I agree. If I could hit a button and kill every living soul working for WICKED, I would do it. Without hesitation." He slides his hands up my arms to my shoulders, and then up my neck, holding my jaw. "The question is, what are you going to do?"

It turns out the question that's been eating away at me has only ever had one possible answer. But it took Hailey's ploy for me to recognize it. What am I going to do?

I take a deep breath. My hands grab onto his forearms and hold on tight.

"I'm going to be the shucken face of a rebellion."

If Hailey has even the slightest chance of seeing my face...maybe it'll break through the mind block. I have to try. For her. For Minho. For Sonya's brother who lost all hope of escape, all the kids who have no idea why this is happening to them. All the kids who lost parents over the Reaping. For all the other kids who died pointless deaths inside the Maze. All the torture and manipulation those kids have gone through. The horrible life outside the walls.

"There she is." A ghost of a smile appears on his face, his eyes light up in a hungry and vindictive way. It made my tummy flutter, and I matched his smile.

•×•

A little Hailey Board