AUTHOR'S NOTES: Enter Commander Lyme, a rebellious District 2 victor seen a bit in 'Mockingjay'. Always the leader with a commanding presence, some things don't change over the years or decades. Obviously something of a spoiler alert, but at the same time, anyone who knew Lyme would know that she would win the moment they first saw her name.
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The 28th Annual Hunger Games

The competitive spirit seen in Districts 1 and 2 was rather prevalent at this point in history, especially with them being neck-in-neck in terms of number of victories. District 2 seemed to catch these trends first, and then District 1 would cleverly imitate them shortly afterwards. It was a fairly sound strategy when all was said and done, considering that District 1 had practically repeated District 2's results over the last several years.

But perhaps the 28th Annual Hunger Games would be different. The volunteers this year were imposing—Felix Score and Lyme Golding were both tall, strong, and had the makings of good leaders written all over their appearances. As promising as the District 1 pair seemed to be, even they wound up falling for Lyme's charisma in particular, where even Felix conceded that she was the better tactician.

During her interview, Lyme left another powerful impression when she said that she would form an alliance and lead them like soldiers into battle. What few people knew was that she was one of the few people in District 2 that did not show much loyalty to the Capitol, and so her words were an underhanded attack towards them. However, nothing became of this, and so instead, people knew Lyme for being one of the few tributes to ever score a perfect 12 in training. Her partner Felix racked up an 11, and the pair from District 1 both scored 10s. Some of the older victors from District 1 were a bit miffed at this, figuring that since Lyme was leading the pack this year, that if a career tribute won, it would most likely be her.

One of the first surprises of the games was that shortly after the initial bloodbath, Lyme cornered the two tributes from District 3. Instead of killing them on the spot, she extended an offer of allegiance to them, which they graciously accepted. Lyme still felt that she would have to keep a close eye on them to ensure that they did not wind up stabbing her in the back—after all, the relationship between District 3 and Districts 2 and 1 was an interesting one. '1 and '2 formed the well-known career pack, and were loyal to the Capitol for the most part, while District 3, while cunning and clever, were much more rebellious in nature than their counterparts. As such, this behavior passed on to their tributes, where the kids from District 3 would often try to defect or backstab the career pack late into the games, with moderate success. District 4 had a similar strategy, for similar reasons, and since Lyme knew this, she was going to keep an eye out for them if they survived the bloodbath.

While the tributes from Districts 1, 2, 3, and 4 all survived the bloodbath, 10 tributes did not, and thus the games had kicked off and into action. The arena was a peculiar piece of work that had Lyme deep in thought. To the south were lush, green fields and gorgeous vistas, while to the north there appeared to be a barren, inhospitable desert. Naturally, almost all of the tributes went south, leaving the career pack in charge of the cornucopia, considering that it was stocked with food and supplies that would probably last about 2 or 3 days. The careers always had at least one weakness—unlike the outer districts, they were not too adept at going without food for long periods of time. Occasionally, this was used against them, but Lyme was not about to let that happen.

The six tributes kept watch over the next three days, noting that over this time, 4 more tributes died. Lyme wondered what might have been doing them in, but since District 4 and District 5 were also still out there, she did not want to compromise her position. It was only after the food ran out on the 5th morning that they made their move, heading south into the lush green forest. Under Lyme's leadership, a fight commenced between Districts 3, 2, and 1 against Districts 4 and to their surprise, District 11. This was complicated by a couple of snipers from District 5 that surprise attacked the District 1 pair and injured the District 3 boy, but Felix used a throwing axe to take one of them out while Lyme took the other out by throwing her sword after cutting down the girl from District 4. Her sword actually struck the boy with the hilt instead of the blade, but it knocked him out of his tree and she was able to use this opportunity to finish him off. The boy from '4 and the kids from '11 managed to escape, and so the remnants of the career pack went on the prowl. The boy from District 3 died that evening from injuries he had sustained earlier, and by the 7th morning, they realized that they were rather hungry. Their water supplies had been depleted, and Felix discovered (the easy way, luckily for him), that the brooklet in the area was poisonous.

A rift formed among the three remaining careers as Lyme suggested that they go north, while the other two insisted that they remain in the southern section and try to find safe food and water.

"It's already day 8 and there are only 7 of us left," Felix argued, "clearly if '4 and '11 have been able to survive down here just fine, then there's something to be said about this place. We just need to look harder."

For Lyme, this was not a good enough answer though. "I don't think that they would design part of the arena for no reason," she suggested, "but if we want to break up right now, then let's do so on peaceful terms. May the odds be ever in your favor."

Thus, with a simple handshake, Felix and Lyme parted ways, with the girl from '3 following the former of the two. Lyme headed northward, past the cornucopia clearing and up into the hostile desert. To her utter surprise, she found a beautiful oasis in no time, with pure, clean water and trees bearing an abundance of fruit of all kinds. A little further exploration had her discover several more of these little oases, which to her explained a lot. Similarly, it did not surprise her all that much when over the next few days, she saw the faces of her two former allies appear in the sky. Her theory of there not being any real food and water south of the cornucopia had apparently been a valid concern, but it also meant that whatever tributes were still out there had to come north if they had wanted to survive.

As such, Lyme organized a complex series of traps and tricks to catch them off guard, and managed to do just that over the next few days, finishing the games after 13 days. Lyme Golding thus became the 6th victor from District 2, and the 28th victor of the Hunger games.

Lyme's charisma did not fade even after her games, and although she still held a certain disdain for the Capitol, she did not act upon it much more than gathering a few like-minded people in District 2 that were something of an anti-Capitol faction. Some said that this was the true origin of the rebellion, while others claimed that the rebellion that had failed 28 years ago would one day rise again. Whatever the case, Lyme's cunning and charisma had won her the Hunger Games, and thus her wisdom would prove useful for career tributes to come.


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)
10HG: Faren Dragmire (#2, District 1)
11HG: Maius Karuha (#2, District 2)
12HG: Iunius Karuha (#3, District 2)
13HG: Hilda White (#1, District 10)
14HG: Minali Otoyome (#2, District 3)
15HG: Willow James (#3, District 1)
16HG: Lark Chandnea (#2, District 11)
17HG: Woof Casino (#1, District 8)
18HG: Leah Holden (#2, District 7)
19HG: Zeruda Mezkiel (#2, District 6)
20HG: Muscida Lee (#2, District 4)
21HG: Kada Lahka (#4, District 2)
22HG: Gleam DiFronzo (#4, District 1)
23HG: Ivette Coronado (#3, District 5)
24HG: Olivia Thurman (#1, District 9)
25HG: Laurel Fox (#1, District 12)
26HG: Daron Armstrong (#5, District 2)
27HG: Cobalt Evans (#5, District 1)
28HG: Lyme Golding (#6, District 2)