A/N: I seem to have Hunger Games AUs on my brain lately as I have another Snowbarrisco focused one in progress. This one is Savifrost instead and isn't very long at all, and I imagine there's gonna be people who want more to it, but for now this is all there is and I'm hoping putting it out here is better than not. Enjoy. :)
Barry Allen survived his Hunger Games. Of course, he was never the same, and Barry made the mistake of bending the rules, thumbing his nose at Gamemaker Thawne. Unable to accept he was one-upped by a contestant Eobard Thawne planned his revenge, making Barry kill his love Iris West under the coercion of Gorilla Grodd, one of Thawne's secret meta experiments. Imprisoned for a crime he would never have willingly committed, and for which he despaired his inability to resist, Barry descended into a deep depression, living in the past – in memories and photos. After the tragedy, his mentor Harrison Wells was the only one who interacted with him; the West family shunned Barry, having no idea what really happened. Years later, when Thawne and all his machinations are exposed, Barry is released. Unfortunately, he's a shadow of his former self, he no longer cares about the world like he once used to. He defies the Capitol at every turn. He has nothing else to lose anymore.
Caitlin Snow and Ronnie Raymond went into their games together – a great love story for the viewers but not one that saved them. Only one of them came out. Once Ronnie died, Caitlin became Killer Frost, embracing her coldness in power and in heart, rising to the top of her game. She was ruthless and effortlessly entertaining but when she won she was too far gone to care. Wishing only death and destruction on anyone she came into contact with, she froze off her best friends arms when he was brought in to attempt to calm her. Needless to say, she didn't make for a good interviewee post-games, depriving them of a cooperative victor that year. Being locked up in a high security prison ever since had done little to improve her temperament. Somehow she preferred things that way – if she couldn't have autonomy over her life then the prison was at least honest of them, there was no pretense of how "lucky" she had been.
They thought the games had taken all it could from them. They were wrong. Both victors are called up for the anniversary games. Odds have them as evenly matched - speed and cold opposites that everyone is keen to see the resultant fights for. They make for a fun show with witty one liners thrown about with ease. Enough damage is done to thrill, never enough to kill, because sponsors want more than just death. They have a begrudging respect for each other so they tease, they challenge instead, picking off other contestants between their bouts. The presenters are quick to interpret it as broken souls finding each other. Glaringly, no attention is paid to what it is that broke them in the first place.
As the pool of enemies narrows down to only the fiercest competition, they team up temporarily. "Don't get used to it, Flash." she taunts, and he replies with an undercurrent of anger, "I'm not The Flash anymore. I'm Savitar, God of Speed." She's amused at his newly minted nickname, "Whatever you say."
Later he asks, curious, "Would you have killed him, Firestorm, if you'd had to?"
She deflects that uncomfortable blast from the past with a pointed question of her own, "Will you kill me when it comes down to it, or will you hesitate, give me the chance I need to survive?"
"Do you really need that chance?" he queries brusquely, unused to her presenting anything other than absolute confidence in her abilities. As he closes the distance between them, he wonders, would she be the one hesitating to kill him? It's not if for them, but when, and who. Their endgame is death. He could put a hand through her chest right here. She must know it's a possibility and still she stays her place, not moving away from him.
"Time isn't on my side," she replies wryly, looking up at him with an intensity that disproves the theory she is purely numb and emotionless.
He takes another step toward her, ignoring the chill wrapping around him. "But I am."
These past few weeks, knowing he isn't alone have warmed something deep inside him despite his intention to remain detached. Experience has taught him to care is to lose, but in the past he had been playing, mostly, by the book. A god does not accept man's plan; he creates, and destroys.
He decides there and then that this time he's not going to be so foolish as to simply cheat. He's learnt there's no subverting the system without a backlash. No, now he's going to flip the board, bring the game crashing down upon everyone. There shall be no destiny except that which they design. Maybe they'll still be standing when the chaos clears or maybe they won't. Either way, they'll make their own path through this misery and they will be set free.