AUTHOR'S NOTES: Enter Mags Cohen, the first canon character to appear in this fanfic series. Obviously we don't know much of what happened that year, but we know that she lived off of nuts and could make fishhooks out of anything. With those little thoughts in mind, here is how I imagined her games to have played out. It's a little longer than the usual chapters, given that it was particularly fun to write. Also... our first actual dialogue snippets!
But I've rambled enough. Obviously we all know who's going to win this one given the name that appears, but still... Happy Reading!

The 9th Annual Hunger Games

More and more victors were emerging from different districts, and so it was only a matter of time before another district gained another victor, apart from District 5. While District 1 and District 2 continued to perform fairly well and kept consistently posing a threat, District 3 and District 5 were also proving to be dangerous, through their wit and cunning.

On the other hand, another rising star by the time of the 9th Annual Hunger Games was District 4. With an increase of fishing practices, the tributes that year proved to be wickedly adept with spears and harpoons, to the point where the career tributes from Districts 1 and 2 offered both Argus McCoy and Mags Cohen positions in the career alliance that year. Both of them graciously accepted, having proven that they were strong, smart, and physically fit.

The arena this year was another desert-style locale, and so water was scarce. The careers anticipated that District 4 would not last long being so out of their element, but that was where they were fortunately wrong. In fact, they managed to wreak havoc in the bloodbath themselves.

The tributes from Districts 8, 9, 10, and 12 lost their lives in the bloodbath, as did the girl from '7 and the boy from '11. They soon perished as well, as did District 6, although the latter seemed to be more from withdrawals rather than starvation or thirst.

The alliances were precarious this year. On one hand, Mags and Argus both knew that this years' career leader, Romulus Bartok from District 1, was going to try and backstab District 4 before backstabbing District 2, and so they needed a plan. Besides, District 3's Ferra Callen had an alliance of her own, which included her partner Derek, and the tributes from District 5.

The desert landscape provided the tributes with a lot of interesting things, one of them being ample amounts of metal scraps and wooden brambles, some of which produced edible nuts. The District 2 pair (Saitou and Katara), who were somewhat familiar with a desert environment in parts of their district, knew how to handle and consume the ample cacti that flourished in the arena, and Mags even managed to make a rather intricate weapon using brambles, cacti needles, and a few bits of metal. The weapon in question resembled a cat-o'-nine-tails, except at the end of each 'tail' was a massive hook, almost like an oversized fishhook. She kept this tool a secret from the others, and otherwise bided her time with the careers until more tributes were eliminated.

Gradually, they wore down the enemy alliance, eliminating District 5, but District 3 continued to elude them. They seemed to know their way around rocks and brambles fairly well.

On the evening of the 8th day, Argus turned to Mags, since the two of them were on watch duty at the moment, and had a conversation about their situation.

"There are only 8 of us left," he warned, "If those kids from '3 drop, then guess who Romulus'll kick from the pack next?"
"So we need to make a run for it," Mags suggested, "since I don't imagine they'd spare us if they saw us trying to break away on our own terms here."

"You wanna do it tonight?" Argus whispered,

"I'm down if you are," Mags stretched her legs and cracked her knuckles, "just keep your weapons close. The danger zone is pretty large for an operation like this."

It would be a risky operation indeed, for Districts 1 and 2 never took kindly to being betrayed until it was just them turning on each other. If they were caught running, surely Romulus or his partner Amber would catch up to them and slaughter them on the spot. If Saitou woke up, they would be knifed in the back by the boy's throwing knives; and if Katara woke up, it'd be an arrow in the skull. It was high-risk, low reward, for sure. Such was the nature of many tricks and stunts in the Hunger Games.

Argus and Mags made a break for it, although in the darkness, one of them crunched on some brambles, which alerted Amber, who was the swift one of the group. She was quickly gaining on them, reaching Argus first and cutting him down. In this moment, Mags spun around, whipping out her spiked, hooked weapon, and lashing it like a whip. The hooks latched onto parts of Amber's face, neck, and shoulder, and she yanked it sharply back towards her, which caused the hooks to tear into the District 1 girl's flesh, including nearly cutting her throat out. She recoiled, and Mags struck with the knife that she had been using for most of the games to finish her off. Two cannons went off, and then three more followed later that morning. Later on Evening 9, Mags watched the faces in the sky, and saw Amber, Argus, Saitou, Katara, and Derek's names show up. That meant it was just her, Ferra, and Romulus left. She wondered who she would meet first.

The wait was longer than she thought. Day 10 was eventless, and Day 11 was similar. Sometime around midnight though, another cannon fired, and so as Day 12 drew to a close, Mags saw, to her surprise, Romulus' face. Somehow Ferra had done him in. Had he died on day 11 or day 12? Mags wasn't sure. It was probably one of those deaths that had toed the line around midnight. Either way, she clutched her cat-o'-nine-tails tighter, and migrated towards the cornucopia. She would bring that District 3 girl to her.

As if to build up for a finale, the rain started, and that was exactly what the just-barely-15-year-old Mags Cohen needed to revitalize herself. She popped the remaining nuts from her bag into her mouth, and cracked her knuckles. She too was fairly certain that this fight would end here.

Sure enough, the girl soon appeared as a silhouette in the rain, before she lunged at Mags, who evaded the attack. They continued blocking and evading for what seemed like hours before Ferra lunged, and Mags struck her with her whip. Ferra cried out, but not before slashing Mag's right arm lengthwise, virtually disabling it on the spot. Megs was not left-handed, and so this changed her playstyle significantly—for the better, no less.

The difference in Mags' behavior proved to be enough to throw Ferra off for just long enough for Mag's whip to wrap around (and lacerate) Ferra's knife-arm, before she yanked it forward and thus pulled her to the ground. Once she was knocked down, Ferra knew her life was over, and Mags helped prove that theory seconds later, and thus ended the games. Mags became the 1st victor from District 4, and the 9th victor of the Hunger Games.

Despite her antics in the arena, Mags remained cool and level-headed, like most of District 4. She continued to share her talent of being able to make fishhooks out of anything, although she would not share the secrets of how she had kept that bramble-whip of hers together. However, even though she practically lived off of them in the arena, she was—and is still to this day—very fond of nuts.

VICTORS BY YEAR:
1HG: Fukaya Kerezaki (#1, District 5)
2HG: Lucy Takamatzu (#1, District 11)
3HG: Naseru Litzak (#1, District 3)
4HG: Naisha Szasz (#1, District 2)
5HG: Jade Prima (#1, District 1)
6HG: Cedar Hardin (#1, District 7)
7HG: Susan Jackman (#2, District 5)
8HG: Malcolm Reed (#1, District 6)
9HG: Mags Cohen (#1, District 4)