Chapter 32:

Day Six

Lisia Arune, Head Gamemaker

The end of the Games brings a bittersweet feeling to Lisia as she watches the final preparations be made. After this, she'll never do this again… One last finale, one last victor… She hopes whoever it is will make her proud to call them her final victor.

All three have stories that make the Capitol root for them. The girl fighting to save her younger sister from misogynistic parents. The boy who rose up from a horrible accident to make it this far. The mother trying to save her children from their abusive father. Yet only one of them will make it through today alive. Only one of them will be with her celebrating in the Capitol.

"I can't believe it's about to happen," Seraphim says excitedly, arms resting on the railing as he leans over it, trying to get a closer look. "I thought being with the doctors on the hovercraft for Delmar was exciting but this is something else."

"This is my favorite part," Lisia mutters quietly, mostly to herself as the Gamemakers start giving her the signals that they're ready. They all look to her, waiting for her command, not realizing that she doesn't quite want to give it just yet. There's no more Games for her after she does this. Maybe she could stick around for another couple years…

No. It is time for her to step down and let others shine while her legacy is shining bright. She will never be able to top this arena if she were to continue, having poured so many hours and endless nights into it. It's time for the curtain to fall on her time as Head Gamemaker.

She just thought she would be more ready for it than she actually is.

Lisia takes a deep breath to steel herself before stepping up next to Seraphim. Below them, all the Gamemakers are turned towards her, waiting for her final command as their boss. Among them, Fabio and Mara give her proud smiles, having been her through the whole insane journey as Gamemakers. She can trust them to carry on without her and run a smooth ship. And that's the only thing making her keep her decision.

"Let's crown a victor," Lisia tells them confidently, getting a few cheers of excitement in response. She forces herself to smile as she turns towards the mutt team. "It's time for the tributes to get their rides."

The team quickly executes her command and the dragons start flying through the arena once more, but this time only three of them. The tributes don't startle as much at the roars from the dragons, but there's still apprehension on Abel's face. Marian on the other hand looks excited at the prospect and Iroha has a sharp determination in her eyes as she watches her dragon land in front of them.

"Elliot's turn," Lisia instructs the Gamemakers and fanfare starts to play throughout the arena.

"Good afternoon tributes!" Elliot Templesmith's voice booms through the arena as the dragons settle in front of the three. "Congratulations on making it to the finale. If you would please step towards the dragons and climb on up, you'll be going for a ride."

Marian listens to his command first, climbing up on the stark red and white dragon. As she settles into place, she swings her morningstar around and rolls her shoulders, ready for this fight. Iroha is next to climb aboard her gleaming purple and black dragon, struggling a little at first with the warhammer, before finally tucking her dagger and tranquilizer gun in her belt to free up her hands. And Abel is last to get in place on his sleek red and black dragon, struggling to climb up with his legs and slipping once, but he sets his determination on doing this and eventually makes it up. Lisia can't say she has the most hope for him, but she has certainly been surprised by many tributes over her years as Head Gamemaker.

And with all of the blessed and cursed weapons, anything is possible.

Lisia watches as the dragons lift the tributes up into the sky, flying around the arena for a couple minutes, letting the tributes see their opponents from across the sky. The two girls clearly have their targets set, while Abel hesitantly looks between the two of them, trying to determine which of them will be his biggest threat. But he doesn't have long to decide before the dragons start lowering them down on the area where the Cornucopia once stood, now cleared out to give a wide space to fight.

The dragons land at an equal distance apart and before her dragon has even folded in his wings, Marian is sliding down his side. She lands with a small 'oof' but she quickly recovers and takes off across the field, morningstar braced in both hands as she races towards her first target. It's clear she has learned her lesson about leaving Abel behind and views the other career as her biggest threat towards victory. Abel is almost unaware of her approach as he struggles to slide down his dragon slowly without injuring himself. When he glances up at her yell, she's nearly at him and he tries to brace himself with his mace to defend himself, getting buffeted by his dragon's wings as she takes off, leaving him on his own.

But Marian should not have been so cocky and dismissive about Iroha. For while Marian had set her targets on Abel, Iroha has slid down from her dragon and ran halfway, before bracing herself as she follows Marian's path across the field. She tracks Marian's run and fires the tranquilizer gun, cursing when her aim is off and doesn't hit Marian in the chest. But Marian cries out in pain as the dart skims her leg, not enough to inject the full dosage in her but enough to start paralyzing her leg.

Abel watches Marian slow to look down at her leg and when she looks up at him, rage in her eyes over the dart, he gives her a shrug. "That evens out the playing field, huh?" he asks her, prompting her to let out an angry yell as she raises the morningstar above her head. She makes a move towards him, stumbling over her leg as she brings down the weapon, and he is able to block it with his mace.

Marian curses at her leg as she takes a step back from him, readying her weapon to keep fighting him. "I can still run circles around you," she reassures him before launching into her next attack, still stumbling with her leg. But Abel was right: this does even the field between the two.

They launch into a fight, more evenly matched than Marian had initially thought, but her confidence keeps up as she wears him down. Across the field, Iroha loads up her tranquilizer gun and aims, but doesn't fire it, seemingly torn between intervening and letting the two just fight it out. She opts for watching the two fight for now, gun still aimed at them and ready to fire, knowing she can't win an outright fight against a career.

Marian is relentless with her swings, way better at her weapon than Abel is, but as time goes on, her leg starts to stiffen more and more. And while Abel isn't as skilled with his weapon, his arm strength outshines Marian's, truly putting them on an equal field. But the two start to tire and in that, they're able to start landing some hits. One will land a blow and in time it takes them to swing their heavy weapons back, the other lands a strike. Not yet any hits deep enough to be fatal, but with them using blessed and cursed weapons, the wounds don't need to be fatal to cause increased damage.

"It's just a matter of time before one of them makes a fatal move," Lisia comments to Seraphim, glancing over for just a fraction of a second, finding him enraptured by the fight on the screen. She turns back her focus, appreciating the fight for what it is. It's been a few years since they last had two careers in the finale and she didn't realize how much she missed watching them at their full skills.

But she certainly didn't predict the next move. She really thought Iroha was going to just wait out the fight, but something has changed in the girl and she sees an opportunity in the fight. She assesses the weight of the warhammer in her hands versus her dagger as she braces to run towards the weakening careers, before deciding to make the bold move. Lisia starts smirking as she watches Iroha run with the hammer raised, hoping she would make this foolish choice in the pressure of the battle.

Iroha aims for Marian, but the girl catches sight of her running towards them, and throws herself towards the ground. It opens her up for Abel to strike his mace down hard on her shoulder and she screams out in pain, but she isn't the only one doing that. Iroha can't stop the momentum of her hammer and it slams into Abel's chest. They both cry out, Abel from the blow and Iroha from the side effect of using a cursed weapon, and both collapse to the ground around Marian.

Lisia has to quickly look at the heart rate monitors to verify that they're all still alive, having truly expected one of them to die from that. But with all three on the ground and injured, it is just a matter of time. "Be ready with the cannon."

All three are in rough shape on the ground, within striking distance of each other. Iroha, arguably in the best shape since she's not outwardly bleeding, makes the first move and pulls her dagger out of her belt. She rolls over with a yell, bringing down the dagger towards Marian's chest. The career catches the dagger in her hand, crying as it pierces her hand, but she fights through the pain and tears in her eyes as she rips the dagger away from Iroha and brings up her good leg to knee her away. Marian uses the moment to chuck the dagger away from them, leaving Iroha without a good weapon to use. But Iroha still has the tranquilizers and fires one off without aiming, and Abel cries out as it lands in his shoulder. He yanks the dart out, but not before it can release the poison into his shoulder. And while it won't kill him, the paralysis is quickly spreading through his arm and rendering it useless.

Iroha starts fumbling to load another dose as Marian ditches her morningstar, opting for some of the single use knives in her jacket in their close proximity. Marian is fuming as she holds one in both hands, her eyes showing the immense pain she's in, but she pushes through it. But to Lisia's surprise, she doesn't go for Iroha first, instead lunging at Abel, who tries to raise up his arms to block her, but can't, and she drives the neck deep into his neck. The knife disintegrates immediately, letting blood start gushing out of the fatal wound.

Abel tries to put a hand to it to stop the bleeding, but he collapses to the ground, the life leaving him quickly. Lisia watches as his heart rate flatlines and her Gamemakers fire the cannon.

Boom.

"One more to go," Lisia whispers to herself, unable to take her eyes away from the two girls.

Marian turns away from Abel's body, switching her knife to her dominant hand as she glares over at Iroha, who is fumbling to get the tranquilizer gun shut. "I don't think so," Marian tells her, voice dripping in anger, as Iroha snaps the gun shut. Iroha raises the gun up towards Marian as she lunges towards her, slicing her knife at her hand. Iroha drops the gun right away and cries out, but the air is knocked out of her quickly as Marian tackles her back to the ground.

The pair start to roll as Iroha desperately tries to get the upper hand, her face showing fear over being pinned down by Marian. The two start punching and scratching at each other, pulling hair or whatever their hands can get on, the fight turning primal as both of them refuse to give up and let the other win. Iroha cries as she slams her head into Marian's, both of them stunned for a few seconds by it.

"Why do they always think that's a good idea?" Lisia comments to herself, shaking her head at the poor move. All it ever does is give both of them a headache.

Marian tries to shove Iroha's head away from her and Iroha bites down hard on her already injured hand, ripping away flesh as Marian yanks it back. Brought to a whole new level of anger, Marian punches Iroha in the stomach and Lisia winces at the dirty move, while Iroha tries to curl up at the pain. But Marian does not relent, keeping up her pummeling and Iroha brings her knee up, hitting Marian back in an equally sensitive spot.

Next to her, Seraphim lets out a sound of sympathy for Marian, but the move doesn't stop her for long. Nothing but death is going to stop her at this point and while Iroha is fighting with the will of a mother desperately protecting her children, she can't match the skill of someone who has trained for this.

Marian gets her hands around Iroha's neck and both of them know this could be the end for them. Iroha scratches and scratches at Marian's face, leaving bloody marks behind, but Marian doesn't relent, only letting out a scream of anger and pressing down harder. Iroha starts gasping for air and her attacks begin to slow as her body shuts down from the lack of oxygen.

Finally, Iroha takes her last breath and her heartrate flatlines. Lisia holds up her hand to the Gamemakers, stopping the final cannon just yet, waiting a few more seconds to make sure that Marian has truly killed her. And Marian doesn't let go, not until Lisia is confident and lets the final cannon fire.

Boom.

Marian lets out a scream as she finally lets go of Iroha and pushes herself back, trying to get to her feet and falling back to the ground. The fanfare starts in the arena and Marian turns her face up to the sky, listening as Elliot makes the announcement solidifying it. "The victor of the 137th Hunger Games is Marian Lilley!"

"That's it," Lisia tells the Gamemakers as a hollow feeling starts in her chest that she quickly pushes down. "We have our victor. Get her to medical attention immediately."

Lisia takes a step back from the railing so the others can't see her face, feeling her eyes beginning to prickle. She quickly blinks back the tears, shocked by it for a few seconds, but refuses to cry in front of the others. Yet Seraphim is still up there and he hesitantly turns towards her, offering a tentative smile. "That was an amazing Games. You did it, Lisia."

She nods at him and quickly forces a grin on her face as Fabio and Mara run up the stairs towards her, Fabio popping open a bottle of champagne and sending the cork flying. Now is not the time for her to be sad about it ending. She will do that after all the parties have ended and in the privacy of her home.

For now, she will celebrate her last victor.


You know, I'm right there with Lisia with this finale being bittersweet. Idk what it is about this story where it feels that way to crown the victor. Probably because I know all three were great tributes who could have been good victors in their own way and it was a tough decision to make. And also, I'm sad to say goodbye to the tributes. Or maybe it's because I'm listening to the album evermore while typing this up and that just hits a certain vibe lol. Anyways, lemme get our last batch of eulogies:

Eulogies:

3rd - Aberforth Barringer [4], Killed by Marian [2]: I am so sorry Mae, I know how much your hopes have gotten up and I have felt awful knowing you're probably going to be upset by this T.T Abel was such a good tribute who challenged what a career could be and was a delight to write from the start. I've loved his determination to prove he can still do things after his accident, but with the darker envious side to him still present. I didn't want to say goodbye to him and I've changed up my plans for these Games two or three times and each time I did, he went farther and farther because I've enjoyed writing him so much. Thank you so much for him, Mae! RIP Abel.

2nd - Iroha Kinoshita [6], Killed by Marian [2]: Once again, I am so sorry Vr because I know your hopes have been up too T.T Iroha quite easily had one of the darkest backstories I've written in a tribute and I've loved getting the opportunity to explore those darker things in this story. She was tough and willing to do whatever it took to get home to her children and keep them safe and I am a sucker for strong girls willing to fight with everything they have. When it came down to choosing a victor, the last decision was between Iroha and Marian and it certainly wasn't an easy choice to make. It would have been so nice for her to get reunited with her kids, but in the end, not everyone gets to have their happy ending after the Games. Thank you so much for her, Vr! RIP Iroha.

1st - Marian Lilley [2], Victor: I am aware that my D2 career bias is showing (and shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that knows me lol). I just couldn't help it. When it came time to finally pick between the contenders...I went with my gut feeling. Marian was one that came so easily to write from the start and so this shouldn't be too shocking. I wanted someone that wasn't a good person - one could make the argument for her being a villain - to be the victor. And I also had to consider what the victor of this would mean for Renegades since both Vr and Mae have tributes in that story and I didn't want to doom them before the Games even start. So here we are, another victor for D2!

And I just want to say thank you once more for everyone who submitted a tribute and made these Games fun and chaotic to write! I'll get into the sap at the end of the story, but just wanted to say that now.

So...now what? XD Wrapping up the Games is a weird feeling lol. I guess now we move into the post-Games and wrap up this story! Next chapter we will check in with Marian and Lisia at the celebration party. After that, we'll have two chapters of tribute epilogues and one epilogue looking six months later at some of the key people of this story.

RQ #32: Oops, I almost forgot to include this. I guess I'll just ask on your thoughts on the newest victor?

Alrighty, I'll see you on Monday with the next chapter. I think I'm going to update this Monday and Friday for the next two weeks to get this all finished up and stockpile some Renegades in the meantime. Thanks again for joining on this ride through the Games and see you Monday!