AUTHOR'S NOTES: And now with the four-in-a-row canon victors out of the way, we make our way towards the end of the Hunger Games line, and into uncharted territory in the very near future. The victor of these games is someone that some of you might recognize. They appeared as one of the mentors to a district in 'The 74th Annual Hunger Games', and so here's a bit of character development. As mentioned in my profile, I don't plan to stop at 75, since this story takes place in the same AU that all my other Hunger Games fanfics do. As such, we're climbing all the way to 99. Whatever the case, I'll cut the rambling short. Here's the chapter.
(It is also worth pointing out that I left out an important detail or two in the previous chapter. As such, there have been a few small amendments to chapter 65, mostly near the end after Finnick's victory.)
Happy Reading!

The 66th Annual Hunger Games

After watching another 14-year-old win the games the previous year, younger children saw it as another ray of hope that perhaps they were not all completely doomed if they got sent to the arena. Thankfully none of them volunteered for the 66th Annual Hunger Games when the reaping day came around, but the feelings of despair generally associated with the 'games was slightly lessened as different children from the different districts felt like they might stand a chance for one reason or another.

Despite this being the first notable time in history where District 1 had more victors than District 2, the tributes from there were unfazed. Determined to bring home a victor, both Heidi Gracia and Elroy Trujillo were raring to go, and were about as confident and cocky as the average career.

Of course, in response to this, District 1 was determined to hold onto their lead, and tributes Aiden Ewing and Michelle Osborne were there to help. It was thus far unheard of for a district to win three years in a row, especially because there would often be camaraderie between the other districts to stop it from happening if they could. This was more or less what Heidi and Elroy thought of, which jeopardized the career pack that year. Perhaps their opinions would change once they reached the training center. Hopefully Aiden and Michelle thought similarly.

An unlikely alliance was formed between District 5 and District 11, figuring that their combination of urban smarts and rural strength would help them complement each other in ways that other alliances normally did not. Michelle knew that the real culprits in this alliance would be the District 5 pair: Core and Riley. District 11's Rye Sandman would be more of the brawny type that would pose a threat in close combat. His partner, Slash Takamatzu, would be just as dangerous, especially if her first name was anything to go by regarding her fighting style.

The week of training came and went, and with it came the usual training scores, where Capitol citizens would place bets on tributes to win or lose—sometimes even going as far as betting what place a boy or girl would end up in, be it 1st or otherwise. Aiden and Heidi scored 10s, Elroy scored an 11, and Michelle scored a 9. Core surprised everyone, including his partner and the rest of his district, by scoring a 12. Perhaps he would be a viable threat in the games… unless someone were to team up and slay him in the opening minutes.

Riley scored a 9 alongside Rye, and Slash took home an 11. These two alliances were the largest threats today, for it didn't even seem like District 12 was going to get much attention this year because of their tributes. Time would tell.

The arena gave some tributes the impression that it would work out in District 1's favour, with the icy cliffs and mountains surrounding them giving a warning that it was going to be cold. Tributes from the more southerly districts, including '2, '5, and '11, might not do so well. Bets were changed, theories were made, and conjectures formed among mentors, sponsors, and gamblers alike. 10 tributes died in the bloodbath that morning, although surprisingly, none of them were from District 2, District 5, or District 11 (or District 1, but their location in the mountains north of the Capitol meant that they were probably used to this type of environment in the wintertime). There was plenty of food and warmer clothing at the cornucopia, and so Michelle, Elroy, Heidi, and Aiden gathered the crates of weapons, food and provisions and congregated them all within a few-foot radius of the mouth of the golden horn.

Core, however, didn't earn a perfect score based on his good looks (though he was not necessarily hard on the eyes), and so even though he and his alliance (which had survived the bloodbath fully intact) were chased away from the cornucopia clearing, they were far from out, and instead got to work exploring the arena. There was nothing overly remarkable about it other than the beauty that a dark, icy world offered. There was minimal light as if the arena was subjected to polar nights, but there were northern lights shimmering high above them, giving the tributes at least one breathtaking view before they died.

Typical to how they usually behaved, the career pack spent the next few days making little raids on the arena to try and discover what was out there. When they came across a tribute, they almost always engaged in combat, with the careers coming out on top. Their usual strategy was in full effect this year: roam the arena, sweeping aside any other tributes that stood in their way with the hopes of being able to turn on one another at the end. They spent an entire week camping out and hunting down tributes until their cornucopia supplies had been exhausted, and while they had made good progress by lowering the surviving tribute count down from 14 to 9, and the remaining other tribute wound up freezing to death or something. Elroy was the one to point out the oddity of their situation. So far, they had seen every tribute (and caused the deaths of all but one, barring those in the bloodbath) except their enemies from the District 5 and District 11 alliances. After nearly getting impaled by a massive icicle that had clearly not broken off by pure coincidence, Aiden was pretty sure they were getting close.

Sure enough, on day 9, they ran into Rye and Slash, both of whom proved to be just as adept now as they had been in the bloodbath. They taunted the career pack, luring them farther and farther away from the center of the arena, and towards a series of icy caves. The shimmering lights above them reflected these caves as blue, green, or purple. While beautiful, however, it was not enough to distract the careers from their goal. By the time they reached a clearing with multiple caves in front of them, they had a moment of pause before realizing which way they needed to go.

"I see footprints and wall markers." Heidi pointed to a small stick-like object dug into the wall of the cave. "I think they're in here."
"We should probably post guards though." Aiden suggested, "in case one or more of them is lying in wait for an ambush or something…"
"I'll do it," Elroy shrugged. He was taking a huge risk considering that if more than one tribute was waiting to ambush them, he would be outnumbered, but he also had a very shrewd idea that the small post Heidi had pointed out wasn't just a marker.

"Just don't die…" Heidi quipped, bumping fists with Elroy.

"I don't plan to." He chuckled in response.

As his three allies ventured into the cave, Elroy took a moment to analyze the post in the base of the icy wall. A bit of analysis revealed it was an explosive device. He wandered in a little ways (considering his job was just to make sure that no one tried coming in through the cave and trapping his alliance inside) and found another one. He suddenly had an idea, although it would require betraying his alliance.

Whipping out a lighter he had used over the last few weeks to keep himself and his friends warm, he raced back to the cave's opening before lighting the first "post" which was actually essentially dynamite. He raced for cover, and sure enough, it set off a huge chain reaction. The entire cave system was demolished, taking his three career allies with. As Elroy paused, he froze in silence to listen to how many cannon shots were fired. He heard three right away, which he assumed was from his own allies, and then suddenly, heard four more. Core, Riley, Rye, and Slash had all been inside and waiting, probably armed with who-knows-what. They had most likely planned to get the careers lost in the cave as they made their escape and then collapsed it on them, but Elroy had simply expedited the process by getting all 7 of them in one fell swoop. Similarly, seven cannon shots when 8 tributes were still alive. That in and of itself made Elroy the 12th victor from District 2, and the 66th victor of the Hunger Games.

Elroy wasn't too terribly fond of the cold after an arena like that, but he remained a fairly cool and levelheaded individual who became famous as "the demolition man", by some of his peers and by the Capitol despite that all he really did was set off a trap clearly meant for him. Whatever the case, District 2 had gone and earned itself another victor to tie with District 1, which helped their egos more than anything else. Such was the nature of the games—especially among the careers.

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)
29HG: Ash LosDias (#3, District 7)
30HG: Challis Worth (#2, District 8)
31HG: Beetee Latier (#3, District 3)
32HG: Fletch Crossley (#4, District 5)
33HG: Seeder Howell (#3, District 11)
34HG: Price Emerson (#6, District 1)
35HG: Leto Irizari (#7, District 2)
36HG: Jackson Kjelle (#5, District 5)
37HG: Zerviah Hawke (#3, District 6)
38HG: Wiress Plummer (#4, District 3)
39HG: Nephi Lott (#3, District 4)
40HG: Miriam Luxio (#7, District 1)
41HG: Marcelina Kovac (#6, District 5)
42HG: Niles Lincoln (#8, District 2)
43HG: Blight McKay (#4, District 7)
44HG: Sagittaria Svenja (#4, District 11)
45HG: Dezna Meraxa (#4, District 6)
46HG: Alice DeSiete (#3, District 8)
47HG: Aurum Zianja (#8, District 1)
48HG: Layla Aranai (#9, District 2)
49HG: Chip Sangster (#5, District 3)
50HG: Haymitch Abernathy (#2, District 12)
51HG: Derrick James (#7, District 5)
52HG: Chaff Mitchell (#5, District 11)
53HG: Brutus Gunn (#10, District 2)
54HG: Tiffany Waxler (#2, District 10)
55HG: Zak Dreggite (#4, District 4)
56HG: Zoroka Chandaki (#9, District 1)
57HG: Cecelia Sanchez (#4, District 8)
58HG: Meili Meisha (#5, District 6)
59HG: Zhin Lyautey (#6, District 3)
60HG: Lucas Drazen (#10, District 1)
61HG: Kara Petersen (#5, District 7)
62HG: Enobaria Taos (#11, District 2)
63HG: Gloss Zianja (#11, District 1)
64HG: Cashmere Zianja (#12, District 1)
65HG: Finnick Odair (#5, District 4)
66HG: Elroy Trujillo (#12, District 2)