AUTHOR'S NOTES: This was a really fun chapter to write. While obviously not a canon character considering the number of these games, this is a "canon" victor from my established universe. In my "91st Hunger Games" fic, I mentioned that the main characters' mentor was the victor of the 84th Hunger Games, and the 2nd chapter of the fic kind of touches on it. Welp, here's the more detailed account.
Happy Reading!

The 84th Annual Hunger Games

While the citizens and potential tributes were no longer on edge about being put into a nightmarish arena like one of the two from the last couple or three years, they were obviously still nervous about the games as a whole, considering that 23 of the 24 children that were dragged to the games never came back, and thus these arenas were considered their graves.

The 84th Annual Hunger Games had an interesting arena in store for the tributes, but the results of these games were also a reminder that there was a shift in performance, and that certain districts formerly thought to be a joke were becoming formidable, and perhaps some of the other districts that people might have considered the sole and only threat in times past, were no longer considered to have a monopoly on the danger of the games.

There was no formal alliance between District 11 and District 12, although the District 1/District 2 career pack formed as it usually did. If anything, it was a departure from the last few years, where a career had died, and the two years before that where the chaotic arena had prevented the formation of any alliances at all. District 1's tributes paired up their fellow District 2 careers Gaius and Cordelia, and had something of an alliance with Rue Tallarico from District 5. Her partner, Shiro Vargas, actually went and joined an alliance with District 12's Dento Kegami and Vigo Zakatau. They did not formally ally with District 11's Zelda and Dante, but they did form something of a pact not to hurt each other for the early half of the games.

There was nothing particularly noteworthy about any of the scores, but at the same time, perhaps the 12-point scale was no longer remarkable because so many people had achieved (deservingly, albeit) the perfect score of 12, and even 11s were also still very common as well, especially among the careers. Gaius scored an 11, Cordelia scored a 10, while the boy and girl from District 1 scored a 12 and 9 respectively. Rue took a 12, reminding some tributes of the dangers of District 5, while her partner Shiro scored an 11. Zelda, Dante, and Dento scored between 8 and 9, and Vigo surprised some people by taking an 11. It seemed Katniss' victory from hardly a decade ago had inspired members of District 12 to a certain extent.

The arena was nothing necessarily new, but a twist in one of the designs was. The deceptively rocky desert that stood in front of them was made more treacherous by the fact that the arena uniform did not come with footwear of any kind—which also explained the abundance of boots at the cornucopia. The hot, rocky ground was harsh on the feet of many, although tributes from the outer districts such as '10, '11, and '12 had little trouble with it (since some of them didn't even own shoes back home).

This small advantage gave them enough time to run right into the cornucopia and snag some of the best supplies. All six of them made it out unscathed, even if none of them had formed alliances outside of their own district partners. Surprisingly, among the 8 tributes that died in the bloodbath that year was the girl from District 1, who had stumbled against the hot ground, allowing an opportunistic Zelda to take her down with a well-placed trident. The career pack remained at four that year due to Rue's presence with them, and the four of them managed to scare off the remaining tributes as they seized the cornucopia and its fairly ample stocks of food and supplies.

Shiro managed to meet back up with Dento and Vigo in the meantime, and the trio set out in search of water. The desert was surprisingly not very hot, but the ground was covered in rocks and pebbles, rendering it a jagged and unforgiving landscape. They also quickly noticed that there were stone and brick ruins of buildings, although they looked much older than anything from Panem's time. These had either been here long before the Capitol had bombed and erased District 13, or had been artificially reconstructed by the Capitol for this arena. Sometimes the Capitol just built an electric forcefield around an already existing site and made a few modifications to it; while other times they revamped the entire landscape for the games. The 84th arena was one of the former.

Shiro, Vigo, and Dento wandered through the desert until they found dry lakebeds and riverbeds. Deciding to follow them, they figured it was their best bet for obtaining water. If this was in fact a real city at some point in the distant past, it was clear that it had been built around water. Maybe they had ways to contain it.

There wasn't any water till later that evening after a small rainstorm moved in. Had it gone on longer it would have easily turned into a flash flood in the arid landscape, but since it was short, the tributes just used it as a chance to hydrate themselves before they tried sleeping.

Noting these rain patterns, the trio found shelter near water and let the others duke it out. A week into the games, and 5 more tributes had been slain, with Vigo himself cutting down the District 10 pair in a botched ambush against them. Their friends from '11 were still alive, somewhere down one of the rivers building traps or something.

Day 10 saw District 12 pull ahead with an advantage as they stormed the careers. Shiro killed off Gaius and the boy from District 1, while Dento wounded Rue and Vigo finished her off. Only Cordelia managed to escape them, disappearing into the sands again.

Sometime over the next couple of days (as the rain suspiciously stopped falling during day 11 and day 12), the District 11 pair came back to haunt the trio, figuring they could capitalize on the smaller alliances. They thought wrong, however, and Shiro and Dento managed to off them both. They managed to quench some of their thirst with District 11's water, but the drought that had started three days ago was still in full force, which meant finding any water that had not dried up was increasingly difficult.

By day 14, the remaining 5 tributes were searching for water with little to no success. A cannon went off in the afternoon, as the girl from District 9, one of the other remaining survivors, was offed by Cordelia. The alliance between District 12 and Shiro was the largest one remaining, and it really looked like District 12 would produce a victor this year. Only Cordelia from District 2 remained of the careers, but she wouldn't go down without a fight.

Near dusk, the monsoons happened. A flash flood swept through parts of the arena, and since Shiro, Vigo, and Dento were walking in the sandy riverbed (none of them wearing any shoes), they were swept away. They managed not to drown, although they did wash right past Cordelia, who threw a knife with deadly accuracy right into Dento's chest, killing her. Vigo and Shiro attempted to pull themselves to the bank of the wild river, but this too proved to be a mistake. Shortly after disappearing from Cordelia's line of sight, Shiro triggered a riverside trap that Dante had built a few days earlier. The triggers helped Vigo pull himself to shore, the trap no longer dangerous. He was a bit dizzy, but clutched his knife as he regained his bearings and raced through the rain to have his final showdown with Cordelia.

Both tributes were armed with knives, and even in the rain, Cordelia and Vigo flipped and spun with grace and elegance. Both tributes had long hair that flowed down to their backs, and it was flinging everywhere in the fierce knife fight. Eventually, fortune favored Vigo as he knifed his opponent in her vitals, killing her and ending the games in the storm. Vigo had become the 4th victor from District 12, and the 84th victor of the Hunger Games.

For District 12, this was news to rave about. Up until this point they had literally only had a victor once every 25 years. Vigo was a foreteller of things to come with his victory, and he was not afraid to be a little proud of his accomplishment. He did not revel in the games, however, and like most victors, became somewhat more reclusive as he retreated to his mansion, becoming an artist in the process. Many of his images were rather unsettling due to their violent nature, but it was his way of coping, and no one argued that. Moreover, he was determined to bring back another victor in even less time than Katniss Everdeen did. That was his next quest, and his journey started now…

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)
74HG: Clove Kazera (#13, District 2)
75HG: Katniss Everdeen (#3, District 12)
76HG: Johnny Stallings (#9, District 5)
77HG: Ikki Ortolani (#7, District 3)
78HG: Ryuka Satoru (#6, District 6)
79HG: Nailah Zoraki (#13, District 1)
80HG: Zenzi Tallarico (#7, District 11)
81HG: Kaede Raiden (#14, District 2)
82HG: Katsuo Raiden (#15, District 2)
83HG: Mandy Ikezhen (#7, District 4)
84HG: Vigo Zakatau (#4, District 12)