Well, that took quite a long time. Sorry, didn't have much time to write. I have been dragged to Christmas parties the entire vacation.
Okay, so the first name will probably be familiar to you, as he participated in 'Twisted Wonderland'. But I am telling you, he will be so different in this story, and his death is really, really different from the actual story.
All spots are now filled in! May the odds be ever in your favor! :D
~ The Career leader and the frozen girl
Headgamemaker Iuno POV
I scurry up the stairs, to the second floor. This is the place where the once so glorious tributes from district 2 rest. I take the first door, knowing that Nate Brenner is awaiting me there. We weren't quite sure about him in the beginning. Most of us wanted a crazy guy for 2. But after picking that tribute I was definite that I wanted him to participate once again.
I gently push away the blanket hiding his corpse. A big guy, something about 6'5, with black spikey hair lays in front of me. His supervisor taps my shoulder and asks if we should begin awakening him.
"Great, let's start right away."
"But… shouldn't you sit behind the protection glass?"
"Depends. How did he die?"
"Stabbed. Fought his way to death."
"Okay, then we should raise it." I say, "I don't want to get attacked again. Well, not that they can kill me anyway. And even then it shouldn't make any difference. Death is just relative to people of my class."
I walk a bit backwards and seat myself in one of the comfortable couches. The glass slowly begins rising, and the doctor I just had a conversation with gets him out of his cryo-sleep.
Nate Brenner, District 2 male representative, 18 years old, 4th in the 18th Hunger Games
It was an unfortunate year for the group of trained tributes. So far I have reached the final 5, and I am the only one of them left. Besides me you still have Cicilia. The girl from eleven. There is Aster. Also from eleven, who is desperately in love with Cicilia, who would commit suicide without a moment of hesitation if that meant she would survive. The other one is Jinx Ramirez, the girl from 8. I don't know how she managed to survive that long, but I know the games have changed her, that she turned into a ruthless killer. And then there is Kaiden Sooner. The reason of our group being entirely murdered on only the third day, as he trapped us by going to the Red Queen, who send her entire army just to kill us. The only reason I survived was because I found the Cheshire Cat, who lead me to the White Castle. But there isn't much time to think about that right now. The only thing I should focus on right now is killing them. Although I should probably sit down to rest for a few moments.
BOOM!
The cannon rings just as I seat myself on a big rock. I hadn't noticed before about how dark it already is. The sky turns blue and the anthem rings through the arena. Everybody outside is now watching a recap of this day. And the person who had just died, of course. That's when her face lights up. Cicilia Trefford, district 11 female. Her face slowly fades away, and bright, blue letters appear instead.
Congradulations, Nate Brenner, Kaiden Sooner, Jinx Ramirez and Aster Marino!
Wait, what is this? Why are they announcing this. Do they think we forgot who our enemies are?
You have all reached the final 4.
"Come on, get to the point already!" I only realize after I screamed that out loud that there might be someone who heard me. Ah, probably not. As the blue letters say, we are only with 4 left right now. The chance they heard me is really small.
As you all probably already noticed, you are far, far away from each other.
It might take a few days before you all kill each other.
So that's why we decided to speed everything up a little.
It takes a while before I fully realize what is going on. And right now, the blue smoke is already surrounding me. A huge smile appears on my lips as I see the smoke materializing.
"Hello, cat."
"Good to see you too. I guess you would like me to show you the way to the other tributes?" The cat spins.
"Yes please." I answer. "Hey, can I ask you something?"
"Yes."
"How do they drive the others to the death spot?"
The cat grins. "You'll see. But I guess I can tell you their ways are a little bit more… violent."
And with that we leave. No more questions, no more answers. I keep following the cat until we reach a giant chessboard. At my right there is the White army, and on my left there is the Red. I am on the left upper corner of the field.
I see a small girl talk to the white Queen. She shakes her hand and seems to be having fun. Another girl in shining armor hugs her. She walks towards the left lower corner of the field. Jinx Ramirez. Suddenly she turns at me and smiles.
"GOOD LUCK!" She shouts at me. I don't know why, but since we are both at the White Queen's side, I suppose we could be seen as allies.
Suddenly, a boy runs out of the forest. Once he enters the field he puts both hands on his knees and shakes heavily, coughing purple smoke. Kaiden Sooner. I see shallow purple lines of smoke at the place he just came from.
He turns at me once he is recovered a bit. With an angry expression on his face he slowly walks to me, but suddenly stops in the middle of the field. He stretches his hands, but can't seem to get further.
I see. An invisible wall. I guess this final battle is more thought out then I noticed on first sight.
A red guard runs towards him and whispers something in his ear. He nods and then moves up to the right lower corner of the field. That's when our final enemy arrives.
The boy seems to be heavily wounded. He has scars all over his body, and misses a finger on his left hand. His hair is a mess, and his clothes nothing but miserable scrapes of fabric. I hear howling wolves behind him. I see. The drove him here with mutts. How horrible. I only now realize how lucky I was having the Cheshire Cat as my ally. And I think Jinx has been hiding in the castle of the White Queen the entire time.
Aster Marino walks up to the right upper corner.
A horn rings. The battle can begin.
Kaiden instantly runs up to me. He swings at me with his knive, but I easily dodge it. His clumsy movese make me wonder how he managed to stay alive that long, and kill so many tributes. A big opening appears, so I take the opportunity gratefully by kicking him in the crotch. He immediately collapses, buy I grab his hair and pull him up again, forcing him to face me.
"You should have never tricked us." I growl, "Now you will have to pay for your crimes."
I grab the knife in my belt and stab him in the stomach. After releasing his hair he falls down on the ground, but isn't dead just yet. I jump on him, raising my knife to deal the final blow, but then I notice a stabbing pain in my chest. I move my hand towards the spot, and feel a sticky, warm liquid running though my fingers.
I turn my eyes towards Kaiden, shocked about this turn of events.
"Maybe I did it because you are so easy to trick, Nate."
"You bastard." I manage to say, before entirely collapsing. My vision turns black. I never thought it would end this way.
But it doesn't end. Once I open my eyes again, I see a red room. I am absolutely positive I died, so what is this? Hell? No, that's not it. I stretch my arms. Moving them is so easy, yet it feels like they have been still for 500 years.
Headgamemaker Iuno POV
I have the feeling I stayed way too long with Nate. He really couldn't understand what I was talking about, him being resurrected and so. I quickly run down the hallway and take the second door. The girl from district two lays there in full glory. They really did a great job recovering her. When they brought her from the storage fridges she had no hair and her skin was almost entirely black. Well, for the parts of skin that didn't melt that is.
I gently streak the girl's raven black hair. Really, her passion for ice isn't the only thing we picked her for. She is one of the most beautiful tributes in this Games. And that says a lot, because we didn't only pick them because they were just good, but because they were exceptional. And that can involve beauty.
But let's not waste too much time on admiring her. Let's do that after all this is finished.
Annastasia "Annie" Marie Karma, District 2 female representative, 18 years old, 3rd in the 276th Hunger Games
I stare over the big lake, my lake, thinking about how everything turned out. So far I have reached the final four.
BOOM!
Okay, three. It's actually a miracle I managed to survive this long, thinking I rejected the Careers. They have been chasing me down the entire duration of the Games. But they could never find me here, hidden under the ice. I snuck up to them and killed them one by one. As well as some other alliances, by the way. I think I can say I killed the most tributes here. But maybe that was because of the Arena.
I hear something cracking above me. Something cold falls on my shoulder. It doesn't take long for me to realize it's water. The ice is melting. I snatch my backpack and take off to the opening in my small, yet fairly comfortable, ice-cave. That was a good decision, because a big piece of ice falls on the place I just sat.
Another crack. Ice comes down again. I reach my hand out of the opening and grab the stick I put there to easily climb up. Just as I stumble out of the cave, the roof collapses, and everything I worked so hard for is gone. But I have no time to mourn, as I now see what caused it to collapse. A flame, with a large pole in its hands, with an evil grin but no eyes is poking the ice to make small parts melt at once.
A mutt.
It instantly turns to me, and I think about what I should do to kill it. There is not enough water here to drown the mutt, as this is a winter-themed arena. So I just do the first thing that crosses your mind in a situation of fright. A primordial instinct. RUN!
I jump through the frozen forest, over fallen trees and small frozen streams. Every now and then I look over my shoulder, only to see red flames as a sign of the mutt's presence. After a while I start building up a small lead. I know I'm not fast, and my endurance is not exactly what you call good, but the weakness of this mutt seems to be that ice and snow slow him down, as it melts in front of his feet. And you've got to be honest, running on water is not exactly what you call easy, even for an inhuman being.
I turn my head once more to look at the mutt. It's gone. I allow myself to rest on a low tree-branch. I'm practically tearing up, but force myself to look around. My head feels light and the world is spinning around. That's why I don't see the flame appearing from behind a tree.
"Well, that was easy." It hisses. He raises his stick and a fireball starts growing on top of it.
Well if this is my fate then so it will be. I close my eyes and let the flames engulf me. I feel my hears being burned off. The fire eats away parts of my skin, and turns me into a horrible mutilation. There hangs a scent of burning flesh in the air. My burning flesh. I want to scream, but there won't come any sound out of my mouth. I sink to my knees and try to cool the fire with snow, but it doesn't matter anyway.
Fire defeats Ice. I should have known it from the very beginning.
A shudder goes through my spine and the horrific burning feeling suddenly dissapears. A soft breeze wipes the black hair out of my face. I open my eyes, slowly, just slowly, so I wouldn't be disappointed at what I will see. So that I can close them at sight of something horrible.
But what I see is not bad at all. The chamber around me is red, but it's obviously not Hell's fire. There is a man that looks like a Capitolian.
"How are you?" The man asks in a soft voice.
I inspect my body. There are no signs of burning wounds or whatsoever.
"What's happening?"
"You have died."
"What? But how is that possible? I am in the Capitol right now, that's obvious."
"You know, Annastasia, you died a long time ago, back in the 276th edition of the Hunger Games. This year the 20th Quarter Quell will occur."
"And how has that something to do with me?"
The man chuckles. "Isn't that obvious? You have to participate."
"But… why?"
"This is meant to give those who were exceptional a second chance." He says, and then he walks towards the door. He turns his head just before leaving. "But most of all to entertain the Capitol, of course."