The 28th Annual Hunger Games.

Seeder Quint, District 11.

The Capitol was getting a real kick out of Caesar Flickerman, the new host of the Hunger Games. The young man couldn't have been much older than Seeder but he was already commanding the crowds with natural grace, grinning and spinning back and forth, like a top. Seeder wondered if she could get away with holding her breath for the entire interview. If she fainted perhaps they wouldn't be able to complete it. Better that then have to look straight at Flickerman's bright purple hair for 2 hours. Or try and relive the horrors of the frozen arena it had taken 2 weeks to survive.

Woof laid a hand on her shoulder from behind her. 'I'll be right back here the whole time' he muttered. Seeder was grateful for that. Ivy, her 'actual' mentor, was off doing who knew what. Seeder didn't think she was the type to get into drugs or drink to an excess. Maybe she was having a meeting with the new president, the tall man with icy blonde hair, about keeping her under control back in 11? Make sure she doesn't stoke any rebel flames? Seeder raised an eyebrow at that notion's futility. The rebellion against the Capitol would continue, would grow back and succeed one day. It's inevitability was built into the centuries-long structure of oppression and desperation Panem had pushed itself through. But she would offer what she could to it.

Flickerman was waving his hand backstage, summoning Seeder. Then, she found herself pushed ungracefully on stage. Oh well. She held up a hand to the Capitol, waving across the swarms of people…. and tried to hide her complete revulsion at these people. They thought of themselves as so superior, really? Well Seeder was the one who'd survived from the worse upbringing, in chaos, with lack of food and shelter and safety, and then she'd survived their death tournament as well [she still had frostbite on her toes]. Wouldn't that make her the superior one, really?

Flickerman was making some sort of joke as Seeder turned her head to the side, startled as he bent down to take and kiss her right hand. She squashed her remaining toes against each other hard to numb the discomfort at the kiss.

Flickerman lead her to the interview chairs and the crowds finally went silent. Seeder squinted out across the rows. There must have been many hundreds, even a few thousand people in the room. All of them come in to see her, and why exactly? What had she actually done that captivated their attention like this, that they needed to be here, that she was a symbol of…..what? A sort of savage ingenuity? A sign that they could all overcome their challenges [again, Seeder mused, pretty fun that the enlightened Capitol needed anything from the Districts at all, let alone how to overcome their non existent obstacles].

Flickerman was asking her questions. Seeder tilted her head to the side, smiled and leaned in.

'And so you, dear girl, stalked the alliance pack in the middle of the frozen wasteland? How did you pluck up the…..strength of will Seeder? What made this the right strategy, to take things close to the offensive, as opposed to hiding and biding your time?'

Seeder considered her words very carefully before answering.

'Well Caesar'…At this point her lips broke into a smile that looked almost real. My strategy in here was to battle the challenges that were given. I was given the challenge of these opponents who were confident, allied with each other, who got access to food and water quickly, who were ready to try and end the Games as quickly as possible. I knew I couldn't kill them all by myself; they might even make my end difficult if I did try that!' [Visible laughter from parts of the crowd, she noticed].

Caesar nodded. 'I think I see. So it was all about planting yourself in what was given to you, eh? Seeing things for what they are…..and then taking the steps to help yourself through it, right?' He nodded as if she'd answered the question already. 'I think we can say that's something the all-powerful Capitol and the mighty District 11 have in common, am I right folks?'

The crowd burst into roars of agreement, shrieking approval and praise. Seeder just took increasingly deep breaths. If it had been any other year, any other combination of events she might have been fine up here but everything was so much worse, so much more stressful with this new president and new speaker and now she knew she'd have to mentor for years and decades and the arena had been so particularly awful and for what? What was it all for?

In that moment she tried desperately to keep her eyes off the crowds. Up to the rafters. Glimpsing backstage to where Woof must be, as supportive as ever. She really hoped he'd be there the whole time; she needed someone to talk to after this was all over. Maybe their tributes could make an alliance next year; 8 deserved another victor as soon as possible. Why couldn't they just fast forward through all of this…

Caesar Flickerman had a very different plan in mind for the next three hours. Seeder gripped the side of her seat tightly as the cameras rolled in on the frozen tundra the tributes had been launched into.

Seeder had made just one kill in the bloodbath. She hadn't caught for sure who it was, the arctic winds were howling too fiercely. As the cameras zoned in she could see the corpse of the male District 6 tribute.

The rest of the recap largely passed by as a strategic secret game; the Career pack presented as the hunters who were themselves being hunted. [Of course this hadn't been Seeder's intention at all. She'd meant what she said to Flickerman about just trying to follow things for what they were. This was the only way she could guarantee not being sneaked up upon by the Careers and ripped apart defencelessly, with no time to fight back. It hadn't been meant as an aggressive strategy at all].

The set up of Seeder's strategy that year had been especially fun to the Capitol. She'd stalked the Careers in order to guarantee they couldn't sneak up on her. Fortunately they'd lost the girl from 2 to frostbite before the final battle so there was one less person to spot her.

Seeder hadn't exactly planned her strategy perfectly. If she were still alive by the time all the other outliers were dead, if the Careers knew, then obviously they'd come after her. She'd hoped they might sort of wear down, get overconfident and fall to mutts while they went around to search for her. She could then stay on their tail end long enough that they'd get angry, turn on each other anyway and hopefully all die before she had to face off against them.

Unfortunately the pack that year had been smarter than she'd anticipated. The boy from District 1, who'd been leading the pack that year, must have guessed Seeder's strategy to some degree of accuracy because he'd ordered the pack to stay together, lead them back to Seeder's hiding place under one of the large snow dunes, and cut it open.

Seeder wasn't there…but she also wasn't far away. Desperately scrambling away but with no way to escape through the surface before they speared her down or got her with an arrow, she'd decided to dig through the snow. It was over 5 feet deep now so if she kept horizontal and tried to listen out she could avoid the Careers…

Not forever. While the pack suspiciously combed over the area, Seeder tried to bare the cold as long as possible, but after 4 minutes, she simply couldn't take it any more. She sprung up out of the snow and sprinted towards the Career camp.

Her 5 remaining opponents immediately sprinted after her but Seeder had the advantage. What was the strategy now….that was a good question, for which Seeder did not have the answer. She just sprinted as absolutely fast as she could away from the pack, not sure if it would be worse to be slowly cut into bloody pieces or slowly freeze to death. In either case it would be inevitable once it began…

The pack continued, and Seeder wasn't far from giving up at this point. She'd raised an eyebrow suddenly after hearing a couple of quick screams in succession and a cannon booming off. The voice had sounded like the…boy from District 4. He'd probably slipped on the snow, lost his balance and broken his leg in the freezing cold, unprotected and unprepared. The others must have killed him to stop him slowing them down.

If she could just keep going maybe she wouldn't have to kill any more….

Present-time Seeder was visibly shuddering on stage as she re lived each and every event in her head. She'd been close to death so many times-come to think of it, it was ironic that an 11, a tribute from one of the hottest Districts of Panem, had won in such a desparetely cold place. Maybe it'd be a note for the history buffs.

In a way Seeder had actually gotten lucky. The Careers may have been smart enough to find her but they were also each greedy enough in each case-or maybe just impatient, and desperate themselves, and scared-that they each thought the others would only slow them down. She heard the sounds of a tribute duel from the distance; then another three cannons sounded off in quick succession. She didn't stopped running. Not for a second.

The well stocked but exhausted fisher girl eventually caught up to her at least a couple of miles away from the Career base. Both girls were so exhausted they didn't have the stomach to fight for at least a couple of minutes, gasping for breath and trying not to freeze to death before the other.

Seeder tried to plan exactly what to do in the few seconds she had left. Desperately, as quickly as possible, she dug for hard ground under the snow, throwing huge scoops of it up as fast as possible.

The fisher girl was almost back to full strength and advancing menacingly…Seeder had no chance at beating a Career in her current state.

She bent over in the hole in the snow she'd dug, appearing to give up as though she'd dug her own grave. The Career girl prepared to strike.

Seeder threw herself out of the hole with all her strength and shoved the other girl in. With a slight squeal of panic, the other girl's cracked against a hard surface.

Seeder had waited for the cannon to go off. It hadn't.

She leaned in and quickly pulled out the spear that the Career girl had wielded. She took the last step between losing and winning.

Present day Seeder had turned away from the screen some time ago. She was sure Ivy and President Snow and the Victory Tour and the ghost of the dead tributes and everything else would make her life miserable enough.

Then the recap ended. Seeder took a look out at the crowds again.

They were not monsters exactly. Really, they were just….children. They hadn't ever truly learnt the difference between right and wrong…they didn't know anything about the outside world. And Seeder had been 'tainted' in a way, like them. Like it or not she'd taken 2 lives and couldn't take it back. It wasn't her fault; not the same as if she'd done it for no reason or made them torturous but…she was part of this system too.

As Seeder's interview came to a close and she was prepared to be sent back to 11, and Woof hugged her tightly round the shoulders as soon as he could, she came to a decision. Spending energy on disdain and hatred would just…..drain her. It would make everything that she'd survived pointless. She'd turn into another Ivy, become isolated and alone from everyone.

She'd have to throw herself back into the good of District 11; try and find friends, family; let life go on and deal with the problems and nightmares when they came-because Seeder knew they would, was absolutely positive of it-but if she didn't try to improve, to see the world continue and grow in little positive ways, it would be as if she'd frozen with all the others. If she froze she might as well be dead.

Eventually they could try and take down this system. The system that had changed her and the others forever; Seeder would give her life to stop it if need be. That, if nothing else, would bring her satisfaction.

AN. So there you go, the 1st canon victor in over a decade, and my interpretation of the older woman from District 11. It ended up being longer than I expected, with a smaller role for Caesar Flickerman than I expected in his first year of interviews, and considerably darker in some places, though I think the ending is less bleak than Plutonia's chapter. What do you guys think? [Those last lines are making me consider the possibilities of a Capitol origins prequel story]. Let me know in the reviews and of course, be back soon…..

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