AUTHOR'S NOTES: Like the previous chapters, this one has a full-length fanfic based off of it, so y'all should totally read and favorite "The 93rd Annual Hunger Games" and what have you. The victor of this chapter is an important character in one of my other fanfics as well; definitely a face to watch for. Whatever the case, he's installment 93.
Happy Reading!
The 93rd Annual Hunger Games
The fast-paced action and events of the previous year's Hunger Games were still fresh on people's minds as the next year rang in. If the Gamemakers could continue their ongoing trend, they would possibly be able to make the 10th decade of the Hunger Games become another "Golden Age of Games" the way the latter half of the 5th decade had been.
As such, the Capitol, the Gamemakers, and the betters' guilds all had high hopes for the 93rd Annual Hunger Games as the plans began to unfold and the tributes were brought in. Like a lot of recent tributes, this year's batch seemed rather promising, producing five volunteers: the usual four from District 1 and District 2, as well as a boy from District 6 named Garrett Locke, who volunteered to protect a small girl named Alayna Marth, a 13-year-old who was reaped only moments earlier.
By contrast, Vincent Caruso and Korra Francisco from District 2 were the usual confident, cocky, and somewhat abrasive and gung-ho volunteer career tributes bent on making a name for themselves and coming home showered in glory after they had thinned out the tribute pool and then turned on their allies near the end of the game.
District 12 produced a promising fighter named Sacajawea Kwan (quickly nicknamed "Saki") who looked like she could come toe to toe with any of the other careers and possibly even come out on top. Rumors had it that controversy surrounded her reaping, and Saki herself knew that it had been rigged due to her status as a prominent rebel among the District 12 community. The district was growing tense as of recent, especially as Aveline Togisala's victory reminded them of their strength. Loyalty to the Capitol was thinning, and Saki was one of these rebel leaders.
While District 1's Cobalt Efran and Vivian Nelson seemed ditzy on the outside, both of them performed spectacularly in training, receiving high scores. Vincent was one of two tributes to score a perfect 12, while the other was Saki. Garrett and Korra both scored 11s, while Vivian and the District 11 pair, Sheaf and Laura, both scored 10s. If the District 11 tributes were as cunning and nefarious as their counterparts from the previous year, then the career pack had a valid threat on their hands.
Instead of taking it as a threat, however, one of the careers took initiative and invited her to join the career pack that year, which, to their surprise, she agreed to. Korra was lauded for her cleverness by the other three careers, and Saki joined the group in turn.
Unbeknownst to the other careers, however, Saki was going into these games knowing that she was not coming back out. President Snow himself pulled her aside to warn her that he had blatantly rigged her reaping, and that people would die if she were to emerge the victor. After learning this revelation, she aimed to go into the arena with a plan of action.
Unlike last year's maze or the previous year's mountainous forest, this year's arena shaped up to be a desert full of jagged rocks and cliffs. As someone from the masonry district, Korra and her partner Vincent felt right at home.
The bloodbath was fairly ordinary although still intense as the high-scoring tributes demonstrated their agility, power, and cunning, with only 9 tributes keeping this cornucopia clearing as their final resting place this year. The career pack, this year officially consisting of Cobalt, Vivian, Vincent, Korra, and Sacajawea—rounded up the supplies and made camp at the cornucopia that evening as they watched the faces of fallen tributes light up the evening sky. However, due to the nature of Saki's predicament, the Gamemakers had been instructed to keep her on her toes, and that was exactly what they did. Early the next morning they split the career pack by attacking them with flaming meteors. Vincent teamed up with the District 1 pair as they split, while Korra followed Saki. In turn, the former of these groups soon found themselves in the clear while the other two tributes found themselves fleeing in attempts to find safety. It took them several terrifying minutes to prevent being incinerated and crushed, but eventually they found refuge as the meteors stopped.
It was here that Saki finally explained to Korra what the early attack was all about. To her surprise, Korra seemed very passionate about the rampant injustice that the Capitol inflicted upon Saki, but the District 12 girl told her not to sweat it for now. They spent the rest of the afternoon scouting out the arena to get an idea of what it was like. The jagged rocks, small canyons, and arid landscape seemed to be the norm around here, although Saki predicted that the clouds that rolled in by the late afternoon would rain acid on them. Fortunately she was only half correct: it rained on them, but it was just normal water.
This was likely correlated with the flora that had started to grow sometime during the night. They woke up the next morning to find that the formerly dry, rocky landscape was a little lusher. Overall it was still arid, but not as arid as it had been.
They had hardly gotten up for the day when Korra received a sponsor gift consisting of a jagged sword. The message that came with it was enough to make jump and attack: It literally warned that a huge monster was breathing down her neck. After spinning around and slashing it, Korra discovered that it was some kind of bear mutt, and it had brought friends along. However, Korra did not care that they were now suddenly outnumbered 8-to-1, and in her fury she hardly even realized that they had attacked Saki. All she cared about was that it was not going to happen again, and to ensure this, Korra flew into combat with the rage of a berserker, not stopping until she had used her sword, Saki's arrows, and her own agility and brute strength to end the lives of every one of these creatures. She swore aloud that they would not have Saki, and she lived up to it. Of course, after her berserker rage simmered down, she needed a bit of rest, and so they ate some bear-mutt meat and called it an afternoon.
Saki learned that some of Korra's aggressive attitude actually stemmed from a humble insecurity. Further conversation also revealed that she had a gullible streak, much to Korra's chagrin. However, despite her jokes, Saki was actually nervous—Day 4 had completely passed without a single trap. The closest thing to a trap was Saki nearly shooting Koshu Varada, the District 3 boy. Instead, he successfully argued his case and convinced them to let him join them. His partner was not so lucky. That night when the anthem played, Koshu's partner Argenta Lao had her face in the sky, and Koshu revealed that they had parted ways when she had not wanted to take the chance he did. He assumed the other careers had gotten her.
The arena continued to get gradually more lush and humid, but Korra managed to shift those thoughts aside after she was sponsored another sword identical to her first one. Saki still expected traps or hazards to come her way since none happened on day 4, but instead all that the trio ran into were the other three careers, who seemed much less frazzled by all that. While the reunion was pleasant at first, it quickly went south as Cobalt realized that Koshu was the partner of Argenta, who had died at his hand. Both packs of tributes suddenly grew uneasy around each other until Korra managed to help diffuse the tension by explaining that it was too early for them to be at each other's throats. The leadership skills Korra wielded in diffusion the tense situation had Saki's gears turning as she mused about the possibility of Korra becoming the leader of something far greater. For now she kept quiet about that though. 7 other tributes (apart from the 6 of them) still drew breath, which meant that there was still plenty of opposition to go around.
Evening came and the careers were met with another rather nasty surprise: similar to the year before, these humanoid mutts made an appearance, except this time they were equipped with wings alongside their fangs, sharp claws, and red eyes. It did not take long for Korra to unleash her might as a berserker once again, however, and before they knew it, half of these monsters were dead at her feet. Koshu, Saki, and the others had helped, but most of the damage had been done by Korra, who was fiercely protecting her friend. Such was how day 5 ended, and so soon the arena fell silent as the tributes slept.
The tension between Koshu and the other careers came to a point early the next morning. The wily District 3 boy had offered to keep watch, and he did a good job at it for most of the evening. However, early the next morning a cannon fired, and by the time the careers had awoken, they discovered Cobalt dead with a knife plunged into his chest, and Koshu was nowhere to be found.
Korra offered to have them split up again as to keep the tension from dividing too soon. She did not want Vivian and Vincent turning on her this soon. The arena was still gradually growing more humid, with plant life and flora gradually springing to life in and on the rocks as if the arena was a chia pet. Korra and Saki made the mistake of exploring the trench and nearly getting killed by crumbling canyon walls. As such, Korra got Saki on her back and climbed them both out of there. Chuckling at their escape, Korra and Saki spoke more about this subtle revolution before they were interrupted by another cannon firing.
Neither one had an idea who it might have been, although they both started to think it was Jeremy (Sacajawea's partner) considering that he had allied with District 11, and that at this point the District 11 pair were in front of them.
Deciding to back away for now, the two groups parted ways, and another cannon went off. The faces that appeared in the sky that night were Cobalt, the District 5 girl, and Jeremy, leaving 10 other tributes.
That number would change within a couple days. As the arena grew more and more humid, day 7 saw an interesting conflict between the District 11 pair and Vincent and Vivian. Sheaf and Laura had placed their weapons in a fire and had caught the two careers off guard. They gave chase with the red-hot weapons, and Sheaf overtook Vivian, throwing his axe with such velocity that it severed her right arm between the elbow and the shoulder. The heat from the weapon cauterized the wound and Vivian was knocked down, but not out. As Sheaf jumped on top of her to snatch his weapon, Vivian snatched it up first, swinging it back around and lodging it into the boy's spinal column, instantly killing him. She would proceed to do great things despite missing an arm.
She and Vincent encountered Korra and Saki one more time, and agreed to part ways for good, since the tribute pool grew smaller and smaller each day and they didn't want to kill each other just yet. However, Laura was not finished with them and she managed to ambush them once again, killing Vincent. Before she could reach Vivian, however, she was shot down by Koshu. The two of them agreed to truce for the time being, and scoured the arena for other tributes. Vivian managed to kill the District 8 boy by throwing her sword and hitting him with the hilt. It knocked him down and allowed her a finishing strike, and she found the notion of throwing your sword to be rather funny after that.
In the meantime, Saki and Korra had found the elusive District 6 pair, and it was suddenly clear why they were so intimidating: both of them looked crazed from withdrawals. Korra got too close to little Alayna for comfort, and when she screamed Korra habitually attacked and killed her, which of course only set her partner into a fit of rage as he barreled after them. She and Saki managed to shake him off, but Garrett ran into Vivian and Koshu, signaling the end of that alliance. Vivian knew that she did not need to outrun Garrett; she just needed to outrun Koshu, and so that was what she did.
The final days of the arena saw the remaining four tributes draw closer together. Vivian ran into Korra and Saki again, and, knowing that she was outnumbered and outclassed due to her lack of a dominant arm, asked to settle it in a duel against Sacajawea, who agreed to it. For a while it seemed that they were equally matched until Saki revealed that she was not in fact left handed. Vivian surrendered and accepted her defeat with a final farewell.
The final day of the Hunger Games had Korra and Saki working on building traps to try and stop Garrett, but despite his size and craziness, the large boy had managed to sneak up on them and snap Saki's neck. In a panicked fit of fury, Korra dove at him, sending both of them off a cliff. They smashed against both the rocks, still locked in a grapple before they hit the ground, Korra's ankles taking the brunt of the fall for both of them. Korra felt her ankles shatter and was certain her shins had buckled as well from the momentum. Garrett proceeded to smash her knees with the heels of his boots, and was about to finish her off before Korra managed to use her still-working arms to seize a rock and hurl it at him. It collided with the side of his head, knocking him down. Korra dragged herself over to him, taking the rock, and smashing his skull in with it, ending his life, and the games. Through a fierce, intense, and blood-soaked conflict, Korra had just become the 17th victor from District 2, and the 93rd victor of the Hunger Games.
Korra was horribly traumatized from her win, but she managed to rebound even if her victory tour was spent in a wheelchair. Her indifferent treatment by the Capitol, however, led her to the firm belief that Saki was right. As such, while she remained subtle about it, Korra Francisco became the Mockingjay—and planned to help spearhead another revolution in the near future…
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)
85HG: Resin Balthezar (#7, District 7)
86HG: Marian Greene (#3, District 9)
87HG: Connor McIrish (#6, District 8)
88HG: Ian Nelson (#8, District 3)
89HG: Kozue Sowa (#8, District 11)
90HG: Gill Wainright (#8, District 4)
91HG: Aveline Togisala (#5, District 12)
92HG: Amy Zavala (#16, District 2)
93HG: Korra Francisco (#17, District 2)