Chapter 35: The Victor's Closing Ceremony
Author's note: Sorry for the lateness of the update. I was working on other projects, as well as having writers block. but here it is. Enjoy.
The Training Center, 5 days after the Games ended:
Lisa Derrick confronted Blaze Trenton with the confession of love he made to her on television during the Games after she had died, and told him that after everything that had happened that you need to cherish every moment and seize the opportunity... and that she proudly returns his affections. The yellow girl and the green-haired boy with the black stripe down his face held each other's shoulders while their lips were pressed tenderly against each other. Amanda was happy for them.
They all were nearly completely recovered.
David Crane came out of his coma and opened his eyes to his mother and sister and was told that he had been crowned Victor. They told him about the conspiracy of saving the dead tributes and that Amanda Snow had decided not to kill him, and then the President changed the terms of the tribute's victory on the last second.
David's body was back to full strength thanks to super special rapid healing medicine. The doctors cosmetic expertise had made him appear to have almost no scars.
He and Amanda met as they crossed each other in the hall walking with Susanna Xavier and Hector Ardamin. He walked with his mom and sister. All of the victors and revived tributes were escorted by armed Peacekeepers, as you never know when they might turn hostile on each other.
Sarelona Crane stepped forward and hugged Amanda.
"I don't approve of you beating my son half to death." said David's mother. "But thank you for not killing him." Amanda was touched.
"No problem. Just couldn't finish the deed when it came down to it."
David's mother looked at Amanda with admiration.
"Maybe I was wrong about you. Maybe you're nothing like your grandfather."
"Hey Breanna, sorry for breaking your nose." said Susanna.
"Don't mention it." said Breanna in an offhand dismissive tone of voice.
Breanna Crane and Amanda made eye contact for a moment, but then Amanda put her attention on David.
"David." said Amanda in polite acknowledgement.
"Amanda." said David, acknowledging her acknowledgement.
"How are you feeling?" asked Amanda.
"Good as new. Thanks to you." said David, his words implying gratitude, but his voice remained emotionless.
"Sorry about what happen there at the end. I just kind of lost it when I beat the crap out of you." said Amanda sounding repentant.
"Well, I tried to kill you too." said David with a little more humor in his voice.
Amanda extended her hand.
"Let us bury the hatchet and put it all in the past." suggested Amanda.
David looked at her hand but did not extend his own. He kept a plain, straight face, and spoke in an emotionless voice.
"Amanda, my sister is alive, you consciously chose to not kill me, and I am now a Hunger Games Victor." said David. "But I am a little jealous. Though you and I are technically and officially sharing the Victor's crown equally, everyone is saying that you are the true Victor. So how bout this, I want nothing to do with you. Let's just content ourselves with both of us going out of our way to just avoid each other."
"David, I don't want that." said Amanda with disappointment. "The Games are over. We aren't friends, but I remember you and I used to play together when we were little."
David looked at her for a while and then turned to walk away.
"Look, let's just leave each other alone, and you do what you want to do, and I'll do what I want to do."
He walked away with his guard and family.
"What a douche bag!" said Susanna in a criticizing voice after he was out of ear shot.
"Don't worry about it." said Amanda. "He just wants me to leave him alone, and that's what I'll do."
"You know, I never understood that phrase?" said Hector. "What is a douche bag?"
"A woman's form of birth control." responded Amanda.
"How does it work?" asked Hector.
"You're too young to know." said Amanda.
"What?" said Hector indignantly. "Come on! Is it too girly personal or something? I saw you and Blaze having sex!"
"Well... okay. You see, the way it works is..."
The Victor's Closing Ceremony, the stage set up outside the Training Center, 7 days after the Games ended:
Amanda was back stage in a dressing room. Her prep team had just finished dressing her in a backless, glossy and silver ballroom-gown and was now touching up her thin coat if makeup, glittery eyeliner, and light pink lipstick. The prep team finished up and then got in line, they were supposed to go on the stage first to be introduced to the audience as the victor's prep team, along with David Crane's prep team.
Her stylist Zoe Bluth then put a hand on Amanda's bare shoulder and whispered in her ear.
"You have your instructions for when you step onto the stage?" Zoe asked in confirmation of something.
"Yes." acknowledged Amanda.
Zoe smiled and nodded and took her place in line just after tugging one last time on the side of Amanda's dress one last time to straighten it.
On the stage the announcer spoke. "Ladies and gentlemen, your host of the Closing Ceremonies, CAESAR FLICKERMAAAAN!"
Caesar walked onto the the stage and smiled, welcomed by a cheers and applause from the crowd.
"Hello everyone!" said Caesar excitedly. "It's good to see you all! This is a very special moment for all of us. For today, we are going to invite onto the stage two victors from this year's Hunger Games in just a few moments. We will be going over three hours worth of footage of this year's Games's exciting moments. We will be asking the two victors questions, to get inside their heads. We will get to know this year's Games from inside the arena by their point of view rather than just the audience's point of view. But first we will introduce the hardworking men and women that made this year's victors possible. Let us introduce the prep teams."
The prep teams came out on the stage to applause from the audience.
"Now," said Caesar, "let us introduce the stylist of David Crane, Nick Paulson!" who then came onto the stage with applause.
"And now the Stylist of Amanda Snow, Zoe Bluth."
She came out onto the stage to applause.
Then came the District 1 escort and the District 12 escort, Effie Trinket.
"And now David Crane's volunteer mentor from District 6, Baba Wilcox."
More applause as the volunteer mentor walked onto the stage smiling.
"And now let's invite onto the stage Amanda Snow's mentor, our national hero, the Mockingjay, Katniss Everdeen, The Girl On Fire!"
Katniss walked onto the stage to cheers and applause.
"Now let us bring out our first victor of this year's Hunger Games, David Crane, the son of a Head Gamemaker."
The mentors, escorts, and prep teams were directed to sit in reserved seats in the front row as David Crane came out onto the stage to cheers and applause. He shook Caesar Flickerman's hand and then took a seat in one of the arm chairs.
"And now ladies and gentlemen, here she is, our second victor of this year's Games, let us bring out Amanda Snow, The Minotaur Slayer!"
Amanda came onto the stage smiling and waving as the crowd cheered and applauded.
Right then the crowd was silenced by a deafening loud angry roar of an angry bull. Then from the opposite side of the stage from behind the curtain came a six and a half foot Minotaur holding a spiked-mace. Some people in the audience screamed.
One random person in the front row of the audience stood up holding a short-handled battle-axe and tossed it to Amanda. Amanda caught it by the handle and threw it at the Minotaur, and the blade buried itself deep in the Minotaur's chest, and it fell to the ground flat on its back and didn't get up.
Amanda smiled and gave a bow. The audience paused in stunned confusion for a moment... then they all stood up and cheered and applauded.
It had been a prearranged amusing 'skit' for the benefit of the audience - the Minotaur was just an actor in a costume, the axe was fake and the guy was not actually stabbed, and Amanda and the guy in the audience with the axe were both in on it.
The guy in the costume was dragged off the stage as Amanda took her seat.
"Well Amanda," said Caesar enthusiastically, "You certainly put on a show."
"Thank you Caesar." said Amanda. "But in the arena I was just trying to stay alive."
"Well, I think that we all try to stay alive in this crazy world everyday." said Caesar. "But right now I just have to say that I think I speak for everyone when I say it is good to see you both alive and well."
The interview with both of them carried on for awhile.
"Now, a Victor's Village has been built here in the Capitol, and each of you gets your own mansion." said Caesar. "David, tell me, what are your plans for the future?"
"Well, first I think I would like to take a vacation to one of the Capitol's mountain resorts, then pursue some hobbies, and maybe extend my education. And I think I would like to invite my family and friends to come and live with me. Then when I'm older, maybe find a nice girl, raise a family."
The people in the audience all looked at each other and nodded in approval.
"Well David, that is certainly a beautiful picture for a promising future."
"Thank you Caesar."
He then turned to the pink haired girl in the glossy silver backless dress.
"Amanda, you in particular, made a very interesting impression in this year's Games. Tell me, right up to the end, what was your driving force that made you try so hard?"
Amanda thought for a moment to choose her words.
"Well, first off, I would like to say that I felt that I was well prepared, - When they told us a year and a half ago that there would be one more Hunger Games where the descendents of the High Ranking Officials of the Capitol would be reaped, I didn't know I would be picked at the Reaping, but I didn't want to die. So at the odd chance I'd get picked I decided to make sure that I was prepared to survive in the arena beforehand. I trained hard built up muscle, built up skill, but hoped I wouldn't get picked.
"Secondly, I was lucky - things in the arena by coincidence went in my favor, and could easily gone for the worse for me.
"Thirdly, I had help - I would like to thank the generosity and unwavering support from from my sponsors who virtually made me want for nothing in the arena. I do not think I could have won without the help of my allies. I would have died at the hand of Dennis Green if it was not for Susanna Xavier retrieving for me my sword at the last second before he was about to stab."
"Well, however you did it, we all admire you." Caesar said affectionately.
They were very careful not to put all the attention on Amanda. They very deliberately and carefully divided all the attention in half between both tributes so as not to show favoritism. Caesar went back and forth, sometimes David made a comment or anecdote towards Amanda, and sometimes Amanda made a comment or anecdote towards David, and the double interview went on for a while.
"Amanda, you told me in your TV interview at the beginning of the gains that there was a boy that you had a crush on you kind of liked. Tell me, was it your fallen ally Blaze Trenton?"
Amanda put on a wicked smile.
"Now Caesar. I promised you that I would not tell you that it was one of the male tributes."
But Amanda, the audience is dying here! You had an affair with him on live camera.
"Well, I guess it wouldn't be a violation of my promise if I tell you that it wasn't him. I only slept of him on camera to get sponsors. And I don't want anyone here to give me that look that I simply used him. It was the hunger games, I had to do everything that I had to do to win. And at the time it seemed that giving the audience a... SHOW, was a good idea for getting people to donate me money. Don't get me wrong, I considered Blaise Trenton a very good friend and I always respected him and held him in high regard but I was never interested in him romantically."
The audience began muttering and their faces indicated mixed feelings on the deception of what apparently was not a real romance. Caesar then decided to move on.
"And now ladies and gentlemen, you will now watch the 3 hour video of the most exciting moments of this year's Hunger Games! We have snacks and drinks along the side wall, and there will be a 20 minute intermission every hour. Now sit back, relax, and enjoy the show. Let's take a look."
Everyone turned their attention to the Jumbo Sized Screen there in the studio and the show began.
It started with the 24 Capitol kids in there own personal various abnormal fashion styles of the Capitol coming up out of the ground on their pedestals around the Cornucopia from the catacombs beneath the arena.
5... 4... 3... 2... 1... the gong sounded. They all ran to the supplies. They found no weapons. Susanna Xavier grabbed up three backpacks and a tent pack all at once. In the opening seconds Breanna Crane immediately realized that there were no weapons and decided right away to try to take out what she thought would be the biggest threat, Susanna Xavier. Breanna Crane had barely challenged Susanna for one second when Susanna lifted her boot and broke Breanna's nose knocking her out. It showed on the screen that Amanda had found a small thin metal steak-knife among some eating utensils in a backpack, saw Breanna go down and hesitated for only a short moment before capitalizing on it and driving the knife into Breanna's neck.
David shuddered at the sight and memory that he saw on the screen. He glanced at Amanda briefly, but said nothing as he felt that he had settled this earlier; it was the Hunger Games, Breanna was alive, she had saved his life (more or less), and given him the victory.
The screen showed David choking Blaze Trenton from behind. And then rushing to Breanna's aid, while Amanda shouted to her allies that there were no weapons so to just grab something semi-useful and go.
Amanda then stabbed Sherman Griffin in the back, the knife blade broke, saw May Salmon get killed by Giovanni Leon and told her allies to leave her. And they ran out of there.
The screen showed David pull an Enobaria on Chaz Zoltan's throat, and the footage did a quick cut around to all the bloodbath deaths.
Then the Hunger Games tape's video footage was cut ahead past the boring parts of the tributes just wandering around.
It showed the audio recording of the clever intelligence that the tributes made, like Blaze figuring out that the river was a canal.
The footage then jumped ahead to where Barney Simpson had then found a large Gamemakers stash of food two islands over in another direction and a hologram of Claudius Templesmith congratulating him on finding it and then giving him a clue to some of the secrets of the arena that 'one of these valuble treasures could be found on every individual square kilometer of the arena'.
The footage then showed Amanda, Lisa, and Blaze finding Hector, and then revealing some of their conversation including the part where a nine-year-old Amanda had had Hulk Denver the District 2 tribute of the 70th Games killed that year for sadistic torture of a 12 year old girl tribute from District 7.
The footage then jumped ahead to a strategic plan of the career pack after they had stocked up on supplies and gone looking for their fellow tributes. The footage then jumped ahead to Amanda's alliance finding the Gamemakers gas fire pit in the Arctic forest and then the message from Claudius Temple Smith saying that the arena would get gradually smaller.
The footage then jumped ahead to Gloria Goldwater silently stalking Beverly O'Malley and then the details of their fight until Beverly O'Malley killed Gloria Goldwater with her own wooden spear.
The screen then showed Amanda receiving her gift of a sword and set of throwing knives.
Then the career pack catching Randy Bing, and Dennis Green breaking his neck.
Fast-forward to Amanda and her allies climbing to the summit of the mountain where Blaze realized that they were in a middle of a network of islands.
Then the footage jumped ahead to where Amanda killed a hungry lion with her sword.
Clip after clip of Hunger Games footage was played one after another. A tribute encountering a dangerous mutt and escaping it. A tribute encountering a dangerous mutt and defeating it in a fight. A tribute almost dying of thirst, and then they find water.
The Gamemakers had then given all the tributes four days off until they started sinking the islands. Susanna Xavier, Irene Avion, and Amanda's allies were caught in the sinking islands at the time. The footage showed Susanna making her escape onto another island that was not sinking while the tidal wave washed over Amanda and her allies and then they climbed onto their inflatable boat while Lisa Derrick had gotten separated from them and she couldn't get her legs free from the tall grass that had gotten tangled in her legs.
The footage then showed Amanda Snow diving underwater several times trying to swim to the bottom to find her until she finally gave up.
Caesar Flickerman then tapped a button that stops the recorded footage there, and then he turned to Amanda.
"Amanda, if you could tell the audience please, how did you feel when your friend Lisa, who's color always brightened up someone's room, had died then and there?"
Amanda looked at him with regretful eyes.
"I felt like, why? why did this have to happen? and I couldn't believe that she was gone. She was my best friend."
"And you thought you could save her when you swam down into the water again and again?"
"At the time I refuse to believe that there was no hope. I felt that it had only been a little while that she'd been underwater, and that if I could find her and get her back up to the surface she could be saved."
"Well it was an act of great courage on your part," said Caesar tenderly, "and you were very brave."
Even David Crane looked at Amanda with new eyes, he looked at her with curiosity.
Caesar Flickerman hit a button and the footage resumed, but then jumped ahead to footage of the goth Beverly O'Malley stalking David and the other career tributes from a distance and then she followed them for days staying out of sight.
The footage jumped ahead to the career pack being on an island of both high cliffs and deep canyons and then they spot the goth Beverly O'Malley and then follow her. She was almost caught by Martha Filmer until she hit Martha in the head over her own shoulder and Martha fell back. She made a jump across a gap between two cliffs, followed by the rest, except that Giovanni Leon didn't make the jump and then fell from a great height until he hit the bottom and broke every bone in his body followed by the sound of the cannon. Then Beverly stood on a very precarious ledge over the water, flung out her rope which wrapped around Janice Miller's neck and then with a hard jerk broke the neck and pulled her into the water as she fell, and then Beverly got away. The remaining three career tributes then disbanded believing that they were holding each other back.
The footage then jumped ahead to the part where Blaze Trenton then made a confession of love that he had for Lisa Derrick.
The footage then jumped ahead to show Barney Simpson encountering a dangerous looking muttation and he fought it with his wooden spear and won.
Then Amanda, Blaze, and Hector finding the pool fed by a Gamemakers man made spring on the tropical paradise island. Amanda then stripped down to the nude, jumped into the water and was then joined by her two allies.
The audience there in the studio laughed affectionately.
Then after Hector slipped away Amanda seduced Blaze into a romantic round of human pleasures.
At that time the footage then showed Martha Filmer and Susanna Xavier entering the island from different bridges at about the same.
The footage then showed Martha Filmer catching sight of Hector and stealthly sneaking up behind Hector after he gave Amanda and Blaze some privacy, and then Martha in one quick motion reached around to his mouth and gagged him. She then started cutting him again and again not hurting any vital areas so as to prolong his pain.
The footage then showed Susanna Xavier catching sight of them both and running in their direction. She grabbed the knife from Martha's hand and then told Martha that she hates bullies before stabbing her in the heart. Then the cannon fired.
Amanda and Blaze heard the cannon and looked around for Hector and realized he wasn't within sight. They darned their clothes and went looking for him.
Susanna then told Hector about being half Capitol by blood, but District-born. Then the cannon fired.
Amanda and Blaze found Susanna and they formed an alliance.
The footage jumped ahead to the next day and showed David Crane escaping a sinking island and then crossing paths with Barney Simpson. They fought hard, Barney got in a few good hits but in the end David won the fight.
Beverly O'Malley got a really cool whip from a sponsor.
Dennis Green killed a lone wolf in the desert with his bare hands.
The footage jumped ahead to Irene Avion escaping a sinking island and then arrived at the the alien planet island, while simultaneously Amanda, Blaze, and Susanna did the very same thing. Both Amanda's alliance and Irene Avion tried to make their way around the beach to the south bridge but Irene was driven into the giant fungus forest by a swarm of giant tentacle covered cockroaches. At the same time, Amanda's alliance was driven into the alien fungus jungle by a giant squid.
Amanda's alliance, and Irene Avion were herded by the Gamemakers until they all arrived at the clearing in the center of the island, racks full of weapons of all kinds.
Then the footage showed the detailed fight with the alien muttations warriors.
Then the hard, evenly-matched, brutal fight between Irene Avion and Amanda. After Amanda had won, there was her statement to President Paylor that there had been enough killing, and the Games should end.
The footage jumped ahead to several other exciting encounters with muttations and perils with Beverly O'Malley, Dennis Green, and David.
The footage then jumped ahead to the invitation from Claudius Templesmith for all tributes to go to the cornucopia for a feast.
The footage jumped ahead to show all the tributes converging on the cornucopia and then Blaze running forward to trigger the fight a minute before the feast arrived.
David was hiding behind some bushes when he saw Blaze run towards the pile of supplies in the mouth of the cornucopia. In a quick motion he jumped out and lobbed a rock at Blaze. That triggered Amanda and Susanna to go after David, which triggered Dennis Green, who the footage showed was a minute late arriving, grab Susanna's neck from behind, while simultaneously Beverly O'Malley fought with Amanda before Amanda could render assistance to Blaze.
The footage showed Susanna almost beat Dennis when by complete surprise he got a knife in her stomach, then broke her leg, then disarmed her and hit her in the head with the staff. Beverly O'Malley retreated and Amanda was caught by Dennis and pinned to the ground. Dennis explained himself, in a calm reasonable tone of voice to make her understand that she couldn't be allowed to win because President Snow was her Grandfather, while simultaneously Susanna Xavier quickly got to them in her weakened state, picked up the dropped titanium sword, and put the handle into Amanda's hand before Dennis could plunge the blade of the knife into Amanda's throat, and Amanda cut off Dennis's head. The cannon sounded. Amanda held Susanna's face until her cannon sounded.
Amanda went for David just as Blaze got his throat slashed. David retreated. Blaze died in Amanda's arms.
The footage then jumped ahead to the next morning. On the screen it showed interspersing clips of Beverly, Amanda, and David on different islands fighting humanoid muttations of dead tributes. The ones that Beverly and David were fighting seemed to be a bit of a joke and far too easy to kill, while Amanda won every fight but had a great deal of difficulty. Beverly retrieved throwing knives from the dead clone of Clove from District 2, while David took the sword that the dead clone of Cato. Then it showed Amanda, Beverly, and David fighting victors.
After all of the muttations of clone victors were defeated, the footage then jumped ahead to David and Beverly encountering each other. At first it looked like Beverly O'Malley who was so strong and sure and resourceful had the upper hand but in the end it was David that won, though he was severely wounded.
Everyone there in the audience knew what was coming next. The epic climax of the Games that out-does the fight of the final. The fight with the Minotaur.
The footage on the screen then jumped ahead to Amanda in the desert with crumbling stone monuments of a combination of several different ancient civilizations of yore. Amanda received her sponsor gift of blindness potion. Then the loud roar of an angry bull. Amanda ran. The Minotaur swung the giant spiked ball on a chain. Amanda dodged again and again. There was one moment where she lay on her back after being tripped by the chain from behind and she hesitated for several seconds before she then decided to move out of the way just in the nick of time. She and the Minotaur were right up close and she sprayed it in the face with blindness potion and then quickly stepped out of its range. The Minotaur seemed confused and disoriented. Amanda had her back to the Minotaur for a brief moment as though to just run away, which would have been the logical choice, but then she turned back and faced the Minotaur with a look of defiance. She taunted the Minotaur, and got it to ram a crumbling stone spire to fall on top of itself, but the falling spire missed. She taunted it more and lured it to the Ziggurat and up some stone stairs, and then onto a precarious ledge.
The audience was on the edges of their seats as they watched the footage on the screen of Amanda climbing onto the ledge above, taunted the Minotaur to hit a life sized stone gargoyle with the spiked-ball, witch loosened the gargoyle's stone feet from the stone ledge it's feet were attached to. Amanda threw a knife through the Minotaur's neck and her second sword through it's heart and then body slammed the gargoyle with all her weight and the gargoyle fell on top of the Minotaur, breaking the crumbling ledge it was standing on, and it fell several stories to the ground, it's torso buried in rubble.
The footage showed Amanda sliding down a steep, smooth, stone incline of the side of the Ziggurat, her long pink hair blowing out behind her in rushing air of the hot desert sun, making her head look like it was flaming in a deep reddish-orange fire, a look of defiance and triumph in her eyes and face like an avenging warrior woman of old.
On the screen, she walked up behind the Minotaur's head while it lay on it's back flailing. She then told the story of the legend of Theseus, defied the Gamemakers, and stabbed the sword through the Muttation's head.
"IS THAT THE BEST YOU CAN DO?!" she shouted to the Gamemakers in mock defiant challenge.
David hadn't watched this footage on the tapes after he came out of his coma. His jaw dropped open in awe as he watched the screen from his arm chair on the stage.
'It is impossible?!' he thought.
His father Seneca Crane, a Head Gamemaker knew all about the workings of the genetically engineered laboratory grown giant monsters such as the Minotaur, and his father had taught him everything he knew. Such a Mutt set to kill on the maximum difficulty level is supposed to be completely unbeatable... though, the blindness potion on the eyes while it was basically on autopilot, was a stroke of genius. And then the sword triggering the brain implant's failsafe was impressive. But still?
He then looked over at Amanda Snow with a touch of fear and awe.
'Who is this girl that she can do the things she does?' thought David. 'Sometimes she seems so calm and normal, then she pulls off something like this!'
Caesar Flickerman was complementing Amanda for that extraordinary feat of strength, intellect, courage, and half admiration half criticism 'PURE RECKLESS NERVE'!
The footage showed on the screen the remaining islands sinking and David and Amanda getting onto the center island that held the cornucopia. They made their way to the clearing where that year's Games had all begun two weeks earlier. They faced each other, ran at each other, and fought. The fight was hard and brutal. Cutting each other and stabbing each other. First David disarms Amanda, then Amanda ducks under David's sword and spin kicks and her boot hits his hands and he loses the sword. He jumps forward, pushing her to the ground and chokes her. She bends her head forward and sinks her teeth into his forearm loosening his grip, headbutted him, and then sprayed his eyes with blindness potion. She then beat him to a pulp.
The footage shows she has a knife in her hand poised to plunge the blade into his throat, but she hesitates, and then her face has a look of resignation and despair. Then she tells the Gamemakers that she concedes because she's had enough and she would rather die than take David Crane's life.
Then the announcement of the last second rule change and that both remaining tributes were declared winners.
The footage ended there. There was applause from the audience, and then the Victor's interview resumed.
Caesar Flickerman turned to Amanda.
"Amanda, would you be able to tell our audience please, they want to know, how did you feel when you were face to face with the Minotaur?"
Amanda's face then had a serious but oddly mystical look.
"Caesar, tell me? ... Have you are faced fear before?" asked Amanda gravely.
Caesar was about to answer when Amanda cut him off before his first word and continued. "I don't mean just the odd time you in a situation where you were a little scared or something, no, I mean, have you Caesar ever been in a situation where you knew without a doubt in your mind that you were going to die? and there was no way out? there was no escape?"
Caesar raised his eyebrows in thought. "I must admit Amanda, I have never been in such a situation before."
"Well, that is how facing down a charging Minotaur is like." said Amanda.
"So, I think our audience's next question to that is, how did you know that you could defeat the Minotaur?" asked Caesar.
"I didn't." responded Amanda matter of factly.
"Well, I think the audience would like to know, what were you thinking when you tried to defeat the Minotaur? If, as you say, there was no way out, and no way to win, what made you try?"
"Well, when I was tripped and lay on my back on the desert sand my life flashed before my eyes. I know, silly cliche, but it actually happened for me. And I thought with defiance in my heart towards the Gamemakers that I thought were trying to kill me, 'I'm not going to die here like this on their terms'. I planned in that one second to survive, and escape. I then thought of the bottle of blindness potion I had just received, and that maybe if it couldn't see me I could escape. Then after it was blind and it couldn't find me... the rules changed!" she paused and then said the last part with a tone of serious inadvertent drama. "as I said before, fear is about knowing that you're going to die and that there is no way to escape, but after it was blinded and it couldn't find me, and I realized that I could escape and I wasn't going to die, my fear then went away and rather than run away, I felt I could win. So with the absence of fear I used my cunning and intellect to try to bury it in a few tons of rock. But even I will admit right now, it was reckless and stupid of me not to run away when I blinded it, and I just got lucky." she said the last part with offhand modesty and amusement.
"Well Amanda," said Caesar, "I think I speak for absolutely everyone here when I say that, you, the granddaughter of President Snow, have far exceeded the wildest expectations of all of us!"
"And Amanda," interrupted David, "My father taught me everything there is to know about the unbeatable-Muttations difficulty levels set to kill. And I just want to say, what you did with the Minotaur was the coolest thing I've ever seen. And I wish I had been there at the time to have seen it up close." and there was sincerity and admiration in his voice.
"Well, thanks David. That means a lot to me coming from you." responded Amanda.
Caesar Flickerman turned to David Crane.
"Now David, tell me, how did you feel in that final fight with Amanda when she broke your chokehold and blinded you?"
David had a thoughtful look for a few moments.
"I realized then that in that moment that she wouldn't make the same mistake again, and that without my sense of sight I would not have much of a chance." he said in a solemn voice. "When the fight began I assumed 'how tough could she really be?' But I tell you Amanda, you are feisty." he said the last part with subtle humor.
The jokes and anecdotes started.
"Well David, you are stubborn, you wouldn't die." said Amanda with amused criticism. "For someone with no heart you sure have a lot of blood."
"For someone only three-quarters my size you sure are strong."
"Well... umm... uh, your head is really hard, I broke both my hands punching your face."
"Well, I'm going to have to put up with ridicule for the rest of my life for getting beaten up by a girl with pink hair who is smaller than me."
"Does that include a whip-spanking by a goth dominatrix?"
"Your 12 year-old ally lost his life to a sadistic torturer because you were too busy having sex, just so you could get SPONSORS!"
"Okay, now I think we can all get along." said Caesar trying to quell the argument. Though Amanda and David were laughing.
The interview went on for a few more minutes.
"Ladies and gentleman, we are almost out of time. It is now time for the crowning of the victors. Will all please stand for the presence of President Paylor."
Everyone in the room stood up from their seats as President Paylor entered the room. She was followed by a young girl who carried a small wooden box. Paylor then opened up the box and pulled out two golden crowns, and placed one first on David's head and then the second one on Amanda's.
"Through your strength, courage, hard work, dedication, and extreme instinct of will to survive, you both have earned the title of 'Hunger Games Victor', and all of the rights and privileges thereto."
Paylor then address the crowd. "Ladies and gentlemen, may I formally and officially present to you, David Crane, and Amanda Snow, this year's victors of The 76th Hunger Games!"
She then addressed Amanda and David.
"Congratulations!"
And the crowd cheered and applauded.
Authors note: More to come still.
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