A/N: At last, the chapter we've been waiting for. I can't stall any more. It is time to meet the victor of the seventy-first Hunger Games.
District 4: Aquamarine Mer's POV:
Two tributes left. Me and Glint, from One. We started off with twenty-four, and we're down to two. Honestly, I wish that someone else had been my last opponent. Glint is one of the few tributes in this arena who could take me down with no trouble. Well, some trouble. Lots of trouble, I guess. Actually, correction: Glint is one of the few tributes in this batch of tributes. Not in the arena. There is only him and me left in the arena.
I was startled last night when I heard the four cannons. And then when I realized that two of the cannons were Careers. Well, obviously, I guess. It's the minimum.
I wonder how this will come into play. We're twelve days into the Games, and there are two of us left. Will they rush on the end or will they continue to drag it out, increasing the suspense? If I'm right about the Capitol, they'll rush it on. But maybe not. I don't know. The Capitol is unpredictable.
I finish off the last of my food at noon. If the Games are coming to an end, I should be as well fed as possible.
Shortly after lunch, the light begins to dim rapidly. I look around, nervous. This is it. The Games will end today.
I pack up all my supplies into my bag, and sling the pack over my shoulder. I sit on the ice, only carrying a spear. I fidget with my weapon, nervous and hyper. When will Glint and I be forced together? And can I beat him?
Nonsense, I tell myself. Of course you can beat him. You're so much better than that huge git.
But still I am nervous. Today I will leave the arena. I just don't know if I'll be alive, or dead and cold in a box, shipped back to my district. Speaking of my district, they've already lost Luxe, and from what I've heard, more hoped were riding on him than on me. Oh, they'll regret than when I win. When I beat that brute from One into a pulp. A dead pulp.
Suddenly, something wraps around my waist. I yelp and scramble away, jabbing at the...white tendril.
Nixrope.
It's all around me. The ground is buzzing, very alive. I'm stuck in a field of Nixrope.
District 1: Glint Harson:
I'm fantasizing about killing that girl, Aquamarine, when I notice the Nixrope. It's all around me. The ground has come alive with thrashing white tendrils. The ground is bubbling. I'm freaked out in spite of myself. I know that this is it. Today is the finale.
I grab my sword and my jacket. That's all I'll be needing. I've finished off the remaining food. Everything else stays at the Cornucopia. I walk away from the golden horn.
"Where are you, little girl?" I ask loudly. My voice echoes across the open wasteland occupied only by me, another human, and tons of Nixrope. "Come and fight! Or are you too scared? You just know you have no chance beating me, isn't that right?"
I open my mouth to yell something else, something demeaning, but then I snap it shut, remembering something Luxe said on the night Chayenne died.
I know something about Aquamarine. Her ear - her left, I think...no, her right... - is damaged. Not sure why, but it's bad. She won't be as well protected on that side.
I'm giving up a huge advantage by yelling. I have to be quiet. It doesn't come naturally, but I manage to shut up. I walk on, silent and as stealthy as I can be. I'm not very stealthy, though. But with Aquamarine's bad ear, things should balance out.
I walk for an hour or so, avoiding Nixrope that grabs at my shoes, my ankles. I can't stop and sleep, or it'll get me and drag me down. I can't find even a square meter of Nixrope-free ice. There's no stopping.
The daylight fades away, and the arena is cloaked in a perpetual twilight.
The final battle is coming, I can sense it. And I know I will be the winner.
Head Gamemaker: Teylin Ravine's POV:
I glance at the map. Two dots are on it. One, D1M, is near the water, beeping along the shore. The other, D4F, is about half a mile away, down the coast. How to drive them together? Easy.
"Marja," I say.
"Yes, Gamemaker Ravine?" My vice glances up at me.
"No need for that," I say, though I am pleased. "I was just going to say, we need to drive them together. You know this, of course. The question is, how?"
"They're already pretty close," Marja replies.
"Not close enough for a fight," I point out.
"No, not that close," Marja agrees. "We could get them closer, though. And we could spice things up a bit more, even, while we're at it. There's no harm in more drama."
"Any ideas?" I ask.
"Oh, yes." Marja grins. "I was thinking we should focus on the boy. Here's what I suggest..."
3rd Person POV:
The huge teenager walks along the shore, sword in hand. He looks ready for a fight, but no opponent is in sight. He glances around him - at the glaciers, even at the icy ocean. One cannot be too careful.
Glint appears to be quite comfortable. He seems confident in his success. He does not believe that he will have trouble besting a mere girl from Four. A Career she may be, but Glint too can claim that title. And he has no doubt that he is stronger. He has nothing to fear from Aquamarine Mer.
Quite casually, Glint wipes dried blood from his sword. At first he does not notice when the water recedes. He glances up from his sword a minute later, though, and sees the water several meters back. He frowns.
He knows it isn't a good sign. His brain attempts to find an explanation for the odd occurrence, but fails. Glint shrugs. Who cares that the water is receding? What harm can water do?
Glint, never the most intelligent, does not connect receding water with disasters. But Aquamarine, half a mile down the shore, knows more.
.
Aquamarine walks down the shore, new trident in hand. She just received it the previous night. She stares out at the water to calm her jumping nerves. While doing so, she notices the retreat in the water line.
Distressed, Aquamarine walks nervously from the shore. Coming from District Four, right on the water, she has experienced many a natural disaster. She remembers the signs. The water recedes right before...
And there it is, on the horizon - a bump of water. It comes closer, and forms a wave. It roars toward the shore - a huge tidal wave. Aquamarine's breath catches. She has to get away now. But behind her is a steep cliff that stretches to either side as far as the eye can see. She will have to climb.
.
Glint hears the roaring. He whips around, his eyes straining to make out the blip on the horizon. It comes closer, and his eyes identify it as a wave. A huge wave. Glint has only seen the smaller, tamer waves, and only in his time in the arena. Never has he seen such a huge wave. Nor one as threatening.
Glint stares at the wave as it comes closer. He has to get away from the shore, that he knows. Looking around, he spots the edge of the cliff on his right. There - he'll have to get behind the cliff. Hopefully it'll break the wave.
Glint scrambles to the edge of the cliff. Looking behind, he sees only a minefield of icy boulders next to the rising form of the cliff. He struggles inland. Aquamarine will be able to swim, he reasons. He, on the other hand, cannot. She has the advantage. He cannot deny that.
.
Aquamarine, after a minute of hard climbing and scraped hands, is still meters from the top. Her arms are aching. The wave is sure to arrive any minute. She will have to make it over before that.
She twists her head, and sees he towering wave. It's approaching quickly, and it's far taller that the cliff. She'll need to get far away from the cliff, too, if she is to survive.
Aquamarine grabs a jutting piece of ice, and pushes up with her legs. Her head pops above the cliff. She's so close. Painfully, she hoists herself up, and rolls onto the ice, gasping.
Aquamarine scrambles to her feet and glances back at the tidal wave. It's close, too close. She tilts her head to see the top. No luck. She grabs her trident from her bag.
The tribute turns and sprints away from the water below. She runs as hard as she can, trying desperately to increase the distance between herself and the upcoming disaster. She is a hundred or so meters away from the clifftop when she hears the boom. The sound of the fury of untamed water unleashing its wrath onto a poor glacier.
.
Glint rushes inland. He sees the girl, Aquamarine, from a distance. She is scrambling down the side of the ice cliff. Now would be the time to do it. To kill her. To win. He comes up behind her, sword raised high. Transfixed by the upcoming wave, her ear bad, Aquamarine does not her him. Glint strikes out with his sword.
Aquamarine's hand falls to the ice. She yelps, whipping around and lashing out with her trident. Blood streams from her arm, and from Glint's torso where the trident scrapes across. Glint attacks again, to finish the job.
But he does not get this chance. There is a deafening boom as the tidal wave crashes into the clifftop. Glint spins around just as the rush of water comes.
The water sweeps Glint off of his feet. He lands in the icy water with a grunt. He opens his eyes only to feel the pang of water in them. He squeezes them tightly shut.
Glint struggles to his feet. His head breaks through the surface, and he gasps for air. He sees Aquamarine's head several meters away, bobbing above the surface. She's swimming. Though the water is only a few feet deep, she is swimming. Waves bash her and she disappears from sight. Dead, Glint hopes.
The raging water is too strong even for Glint, and again he is forced beneath the surface. Spitting and gasping, he fights his way back to the air.
Quite suddenly, Glint feels a tug, and realizes that the water is puling him. Pulling him out. Glint forces his head to turn, and he sees the edge of the cliff just a few meters away. The water is streaming over it...in a waterfall.
Glint yells aloud and fights, desperately trying to go west, away from the waterfall. If he goes over, the fall will kill him. That he knows. Standing up will not last; the currents will pull him over. There is nothing to grab onto. The only real way would be to swim.
But Glint can't swim.
.
Aquamarine sees the waterfall, and the mat of blond hair slowly approaching it. It's Glint. Aquamarine doubts that her adversary can swim. And he's barely a meter from the dropout.
Aquamarine feels the current tugging at her, and she fights against it, swimming west. She knows she is not making any progress, though. Her right arm is out of commission, her arm a bloody stump, and the icy water stings the wound.
But Aquamarine tries to ignore her pain. Her life depends on staying way from the waterfall. Not going over.
Desperately, Aquamarine beats the water behind her, scrabbles at the ice beneath her with her feet. She is six meters away...five...four...
.
Glint pushes at the ground under the water, trying to propel the water behind him, the way they say you swim. His heart pounding, he fights the current pulling him over the cliff. This is it. Life or death. The finale.
Glint stabs at the ground with his foot, stabs downward, but finds no ice. His weight is still above the waterfall, but he knows his leg is over it.
And Glint falls backward.
Glint yells as he falls, plummeting toward the water somewhere below. His stomach is still at the top of the cliff, left behind.
And then Glint hits the ground.
The air is knocked from his lungs. Pain shoots through every cell of his body. He tries to gauge the damage, but he can feel his life slipping away. And soon Glint is but a broken teenager's body, floating in the icy sea.
.
BOOM!
Aquamarine's head jerks above the water's surface. The icy wind punishes her face. She hears the cannon, Glint's cannon, and knows it - she has won. But she cannot stop. She still fights the current, desperation rising above all sense of victory.
But then there is no current left to fight.
The water sinks into the glacier, and Aquamarine's bloody but living form is left all alone on a ravaged clifftop. She hears the trumpets signifying her victory. Through her pain and tiredness, Aquamarine feels the fruits of victory.
She has done it.
She, Aquamarine Mer, is the victor of the seventy-first Hunger Games.
A/N: This is probably the only SYOT ever that had a Career win. (I've never read another, which is weird.)
When I began writing the Games a month or two ago, I had about six potential victors in mind. Then, I narrowed that down to three, and then to one. I'll admit, it was hard to choose. But I chose. And it makes sense, doesn't it? Aquamarine trained for the Games all her childhood, and was a strong tribute. But there were many strong tributes out there.
This story is not over! I'll be writing the victory tour and the interview and stuff. Any suggestions for that will be greatly appreciated.
I know that MaximumAngel1 is probably the only person who submitted to my SYOT who does not now hate me. Sorry to everyone else.
So...reactions?
