AUTHOR'S NOTES: A slightly early update in light of an exciting chapter to counterbalance the less memorable one of last week. This chapter has another "legacy tribute", and as such, this character has shown up and been mentioned a few times in my other works. Either way, considering that this chapter is the one right before a very likely hotly anticipated chapter, and so I aim to not let this one get outshined so easily. For information on the parent-victor of this game's victor, check out Chapter 46.
Happy Reading!

The 73rd Annual Hunger Games

Every now and again, there would be controversy surrounding one of more of the Hunger Games, be it for the arena design, the types of mutts, one or more of the tributes, or sometimes even sponsor gifts or supplies. The 73rd Annual Hunger Games sported one of those controversies, but not in the usual manner that people in the Districts or Capitol suspected.

Everyone knew the rumor that any children an existing victor had would have a strangely higher chance of getting their names chosen for the games, but since so many victors didn't even marry, it was difficult to discern whether or not this was true. However, victor Alice DeSiete knew that his life was one that would never leave the eyes of the Capitol for his own controversial and revolutionary stunts back during his games 27 years prior to current time. He was also one of the few that were bold enough to have children: two girls, Paige and Hanna, named after his district partner from his games, and that girl's lover who had been turned into an Avox after the games.

The elder of these two girls, Paige Alwin DeSiete, was reaped for the games, alongside Azur Cheve. Mentor Cecelia Sanchez was joined by Alice himself, who wished to mentor his own daughter. Since technically the rules did not say this was illegal (and the mentor limit was 2), Alice managed to get away with it without incident. He knew the ins and outs of the Capitol enough to know what would send them over the edge into becoming "unwinnable" tributes or individuals that needed to "disappear" from the districts, and he taught his children how never to quite cross that line.

While Paige and Azur didn't exactly form an alliance, both of them knew when they reached the training center that there were much bigger fish to fry than each other. District 1's Cress Thompson and Lazuli Takamatzu had teamed up with District 2's Varric Tracy and Aveline Vikta to form the annual pack of career tributes. Similarly, while there were volunteers from Districts 3 and 4, they did not join the careers, forming an alliance of their own. Sakthi Vel and Nasira Karim were the brains of the operation (being from District 3), whilst their district 4 counterparts were more the brawn, as volunteer career tributes themselves.

Paige was fairly certain her score was rigged when she only scored a 5, but as far as any of the others knew she was just pretending to be weak. The other careers scored 9s, 10s, and 11s and a 12, with District 3 and District 4 scoring only the slightest bit lower than that. Azur scored an 8 even, and Paige knew that she had done better than him. Whatever the case, she was not about to appeal for a higher score. She'd just have to win the games like her father did many years ago.

The arena for her this year was a field of icy glaciers, and the blood of 9 different tributes stained the white snow and ice red. The careers stayed in the safety of the cornucopia, while the other tributes had to rely on supplies or the rest of the environment to protect themselves against the cold.

These massive chunks of ice they were on were essentially like plateaus. Some had large cracks in them, with icy water down below. One slip off one of these icebergs and that tribute was going to freeze in the frigid waters below. Paige had to make sure that this did not "accidentally" happen to her. Armed with only a few warm clothes, a pair of broadswords, a backpack, and a grappling hook, she set out into the frigid wilderness. She was not even sure she could trust Azur, since she knew that he feared his partner (her) would get played as a favorite.
In a way, she actually did. Rebels from the district pooled what they could together to send her a little bit of food and a grappling hook, figuring it could come in handy on these clifflike glaciers and ice sheets.

Bear mutts assaulted her hardly a few hours into the 2nd day, but her supreme fighting skills kept her alive. While many children from District 8 were not fighters, there were some that were staunch warriors. These were usually sons or daughters of known rebels, who covertly trained their children in combat in the event of getting reaped for the Hunger Games. Other districts that sometimes did this included District 11 and District 12, but while Paige knew they were all almost certainly rebellious, the odds were against the notion of her getting any allies from this deal—she was on her own.

As such, she dispatched the bear mutts with ease, and her survival skills learned in the training center kept her from freezing to death over the next few days like at least three more tributes did on day 5 (and another two on day 6). Similarly, she lured a couple of other tributes across the icy terrain, right towards traps or right into the reach of her swords. Paige was a competent fighter, especially for only being 16 when most of the remaining tributes were either 17 or 18.

The 14 deaths were soon 15 as the career pack closed in on and killed Azur, even after they found out that he did not know anything about where Paige had gone or what she was doing. For some reason the career pack had labeled her the biggest remaining threat, and wanted her blood. Naturally, Paige refused to allow that to happen, but knew that sooner or later there would be the inevitable confrontation. Until then though, she was going to try and give herself as strong of an advantage as she could for when the time came.

The Gamemakers weren't done throwing hazards her way, however. She was rudely awakened on day 9 by a large crack in the ice sheet, which was heading right for her, and about to cleave her camp in two. She snatched up what she could before jumping to one side, watching a few stranded supplies break away as the ice sheet split, and one half sunk and collapsed into the frigid sea below.

Heaving a sigh of relief, Paige got moving again. She was sponsored a spear that she threw through the body of a District 9 boy, but otherwise began moving back towards the center of the arena. She did actually manage to use her grappling hook as a rather powerful flail against Cress, hooking it into his chest before forcing him to stagger near the edge of the glacier they were on. As he tried to recover from his wound, Paige kicked him off into the abyss below, where he lost his life. Lazuli, who was the only one to witness this, attacked Paige in retaliation. Paige narrowly escaped with her life, but knew that the girl would be back for her later on.

Paige's skill as a fighter was definitely worth much more than the 5 she had scored in the arena. On day 14, she took out Varric and Aveline in a two-on-one swordfighting match, but only after they had dispatched two other tributes, leaving only three alive: herself, Lazuli, and a District 5 boy.

The District 5 boy was next to go, getting ambushed by Lazuli after nearly freezing to death anyways, and Paige knew that her time had come, and that this was the day of reckoning.

Or maybe day 15 would be, since the last two tributes did not see each other at all the rest of the evening. Day 16 came and went, and the arena felt like it was getting colder. Both tributes were bundled up against the cold with plenty of warm sponsor gifts, and it seemed that as much as the Capitol wanted Lazuli to win by virtue of her not being Paige, that people from the districts (including other rebellious districts apart from '8, such as '3, '11, and '12) now supported Paige.

Day 17 proved to be the real day of reckoning. Blades clashed as the two girls fought each other, but Lazuli's swings were so strong that it broke one of Paige's blades and eventually disarmed her of the other one, which fell down a crevice. Lazuli backed Paige towards the edge of the icy cliff they were battling on, but Paige retaliated. She threw the hilt of her broken blade at the girl, stunning her just long enough for Paige to pull out her grappling hook and swing it around. It hooked around Lazuli's weapon, and she wrenched the hook from the District 8 girl's hands. As Lazuli flung it aside, all Paige had left now was a small pair of hunting knives that she knew wouldn't be able to reach the District 1 girl unless Paige relieved her of her longsword, and the spear. As she brandished one of the blades and the spear, Lazuli responded by swinging her sword. Paige bent backwards, losing her footing, and tumbled off the cliff.
She was down but not out, however. Plunging her knife into the ice, she stopped her fall, now dangling at least 100 feet from the freezing waters from which there was no return. Naturally, Lazuli was curious after waiting a few seconds for a cannon that didn't go off, but this proved to be her undoing. Paige's left hand was clenched tightly around the dagger sticking out of the ice, and her right held her spear. When she saw Lazuli, she lobbed the spear at her, impaling her right in the sternum, killing her almost immediately. Her cannon fired, and the games were over. Paige was now the 5th victor from District 8, and the 73rd victor of the games.

Using her 2nd dagger alongside her first one, Paige scaled the ice sheet as the hovercrafts came to claim her, and she knew that her family would only continue to be harassed by the Capitol for defying them not once, but twice. Alice was in hotter water now because he had outsmarted the Capitol, but so had his daughter. It was not enough to faze either of them, and even their post-games trauma was minimal as a result. While Paige's father had won by mostly having good allies in the games, Paige won by having good allies in the districts. With them remaining alive, their quest to sow seeds of rebellion continued, and a few years down the road, Paige defied the odds against the Capitol and had two children of her own that she raised and reared in her and her father's rebellious anti-Capitol ways. Perhaps someday, they would be able to partake of the fruits of those labors…

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)
67HG: Varric Svenja (#6, District 11)
68HG: Carver Tabris (#2, District 9)
69HG: Bethany Shanza (#8, District 5)
70HG: Annie Cresta (#6, District 4)
71HG: Johanna Mason (#6, District 7)
72HG: Immanuel Cox (#3, District 10)
73HG: Paige DeSiete (#5, District 8)