Katniss throws herself into training, especially the Simulated Street Combat Block, where soldiers practise urban missions under deliberately chaotic conditions. She and Johanna stand out, and Cressida films them, Gale, and Finnick for new propos about the coming Capitol assault. Peeta also begins appearing at training without manacles, but still under guard; when Katniss protests, Plutarch admits the rebels want footage proving Peeta is with them, and he even hopes to stage a reassuring image of Peeta and Katniss together, which Katniss refuses.

Just before the first offensive, York unexpectedly sends Katniss and Johanna to the qualifying exam. Katniss does well on the physical, written, and weapons tests, then faces a solo Block scenario that seems designed to expose her weakness. When a petrol drum offers an obvious chance to kill charging Peacekeepers, Katniss realizes the real test is whether she will obey orders; because her history shows dangerous impulsiveness, she forces herself to hit the ground when commanded. That decision earns Katniss a place in Squad 451 under Boggs, alongside Gale, Finnick, and five District 13 soldiers.

In Command, Plutarch shows the squad a holographic map of the Capitol and explains that the city is filled with hidden pods designed to trap or kill invaders. Katniss and Finnick instantly recognize the system as an arena controlled by Gamemakers, and Katniss jokes about the Seventy-sixth Hunger Games to hide how shaken she is. Afterward, Haymitch reveals that Johanna was hospitalized during her test because flooded streets triggered memories of the Capitol torturing her with water and electric shocks. Katniss visits Johanna with a pine-needle bundle that smells like District 7, and when Johanna demands reassurance, Katniss swears on her family’s life that she will kill Snow.

Squad 451 trains intensively with guns and specialty weapons, and Katniss learns the strengths of the team, including Jackson, the Leeg sisters, Mitchell, and Homes. Plutarch then reveals that they are not a standard combat unit but a televised Star Squad, chosen to be the on-screen faces of the invasion because they are more valuable to the rebellion as propaganda symbols. Gale and Finnick resent the decision, but Katniss hides her own plans because getting into the Capitol remains necessary if she wants a chance at Snow. She says goodbye to her mother and Prim, keeps Peeta’s pearl in her pocket, travels through District 12 and the mountain tunnels, and reaches the rebel camp outside the Capitol, where she sees that the advance will require clearing the pod-laced streets block by block.

At the front, Squad 451 spends days helping with disinformation footage rather than major fighting, while Katniss studies the Capitol map and realizes that stealing Boggs’s Holo would be the only practical way to navigate toward Snow. The Holo can be voice-activated by the squad, but it will self-destruct if anyone repeats nightlock three times, showing how dangerous capture would be. The danger becomes immediate when Leeg 2 is killed by a mislabeled pod that fires metal darts instead of muttation gnats. The next evening, the squad receives its replacement: Peeta, unmanacled and unguarded, assigned by President Coin herself. Seeing him added to the team convinces Katniss that Coin may now consider Katniss more useful dead than alive.