Hello, everyone. I know I should be updating my other stories, but this came into my head while watching Catching fire for the first time.
Warning for alluded to suicide.
Disclaimer: I don't own the amazing Hunger Games Series, only this, hopefully, original idea for how it could have gone. Enjoy!
Katniss listened with horror as Crane told them, and the whole of Panem that only one of them could win. That there would only be one victor. After all that they had been through. After all their struggles, all their sacrifices, all of the people they had been forced to kill, no murder in cold blood, they were being forced to turn on one another. She had no doubt that the Games masters had planned this ever since she and Peeta had decided to go for the star-crossed lovers angle.
She thought back on her life. All she had done, all she wanted to do. She wanted to live so badly, but was her life worth any more than Peeta's. He probably had just as many regrets, hopes, dreams. No. Her life was not worth more than Peeta's. She thought. And an idea, a brilliant, mad, totally insane idea came to her. The Games Masters needed a victor, someone to show off. She and Peeta could still make it out. They could make the suicide play. If they both died, the Capitol would have an outraged public to deal with. They would have to let them both go.
But would it be worth it? The Capitol would probably milk it for all it was worth. It would show the Capitol as merciful overlords, willing to alter the rules in order to let to lovers to stay together. And her children would never be safe. They would be reaped with all the rest. No. They would need to do something much more profound, something that might start the beginning of the end of the Hunger Games.
Katniss thought back to her history lessons, both those approved by the Capitol and those done in secret, in hidden rooms and behind closed doors. She thought back to the stories of the revolutions, because that was what Panem needed, a revolution that would bring down the Capitol and abolish the Hunger Games. The one thing that almost all of those revolutions that succeeded had in common was that they all started with a single act of defiance. Defiance against an outdated tradition or the government or what ever it was that the people rebelled against. Katniss had no doubt that, if she and Peeta both made it out of the Arena alive, she, Peeta or both of them would be turned into a symbol, a figure head for the Rebels to rally behind.
The only plan that would work, truly work to overthrow the Capitol and abolish the Hunger Games, would be for them to become martyrs, to show the Hunger Games for the atrocities they really were.
"Peeta, I have a plan."
"What is it?"
"You realize that even if we both get out of the Arena, President Snow will try to take revenge. And we would start a revolution and be made into figurehead, being used to further the cause of the Rebels."
"I...I hadn't thought of that."
"I think we should give the people of Panem a reason to abolish the Hunger Games, a reason to go against the Capitol. I think we should martyr ourselves."
"What! Are you insane?"
"Even if Snow doesn't try to take revenge, do you want to live in the world as it is? Not willing to have kids for fear that they'll be reaped for the Games? Have to watch and mentor children sent to the slaughter?"
"I-No, I don't"
"If we kill ourselves, after telling the people the truth, we will start a revolution. It might only start small, it might falter, but it will grow, and it will succeed."
"All right. I'm not happy about this, but if you think it'll work, then I'll do it."
"Ok, just follow my lead."
Katniss stood from where she was crouching with Peeta. "People of Panem! We were all just told that either me or Peeta will have to kill the other. This is after the Capitol changed the rules to allow me and Peeta to both get out. I have no doubt that, should Peeta and I threaten to kill ourselves, they'll let us both go. After all, they need a victor to parade around, to how how magnanimous and kind they are. However, Peeta and I have come to an agreement. We weren't in love at the start. We lied to you and used your sympathy to get what we needed. We played with your emotions. And for that, we are deeply sorry."
"All Revolutions start because of something, whether it's a corrupt government, a suppressed minority, or just a group of disgruntled people. The Capitol has suppressed everyone of its citizens, both by segregating them and through these atrocities they have the gal to call Games. Well no longer! The Capitol can make all the threats it wants, but in truth, It needs the Districts. It needs their production, their obedience. It may threaten to kill your families, but if there isn't anyone left to work, they will fall. So we say, down with the Capitol! And goodbye."
As she said goodbye, both she and Peeta swallowed the berries they had been holding.
They were dead before the hovercraft could get there.
In District Twelve, the people could only watch in horror as two of their own died to defy the Capitol oppression.
In District Eleven the people watched as the two tributes died to galvanize them to free them selves.
The same thing happened in every District, from Twelve to One, the people all vowing to live up to the belief and faith which the two martyrs had placed in them.
The next day, the people of the Districts began to meet, to plan to defy. It started small, it faltered, but all the people had to remember was the sacrifice of Katniss and Peeta to carry on. Slowly the Capitol began to lose influence, even in Districts One and Two, until, one day, The Citizens of Panem rose up in arms. They marched in their millions on the Capitol.
The Siege of the Capitol took months, and cost the Revolutionaries thousands of of men and women, but the Capitol did fall. And when District Thirteen revealed themselves, suggesting the initiation of a Hunger Games with tributes from the Capitol, they were thrown out by the leaders of the Twelve Revolution States as they had called themselves.
After the Revolution had succeeded and the rebuilding began, a statue was erected of Katniss and Peeta, with the inscription:
To Katniss and Peeta, who gave us courage with their sacrifice.
Who showed us, that even in the darkest of nights, we need not fear.
Who taught us that even the smallest action can change the world.
Never Again.
All right. That's it, tell me what you think, good, ok, or absolutely terrible, but no flames please.