If he thought too much about it, President Garnet Emerald could still feel the phantom pain in his chest.

It had been a month now since that fateful day: since the death of his mother, Ruby Emerald, since the death of Alexios Nox, one of the most prominent rebels in Panem, since his own near-death experience. Garnet was still struggling to process what exactly had happened in her office. He remembered clearly seeing her body slumped on the desk, bleeding out from who knew where, Alexios standing over her with a smirk and a smoking gun. But the next thing Garnet knew, he was lying on the floor, his entire body throbbing with pain as he tried to figure out where he was and what had happened.

It was only when he saw Alexios's body sprawled on the floor, bleeding from a wound in his own chest, that the truth really sunk in: not only was his mother dead, but Garnet himself was a murderer. It didn't matter that the man he'd killed wanted nothing more than to see him and his whole family die; nothing could change the fact that Garnet had ripped Alexios's life away. Alexios's blood would be on Garnet's hands for the rest of Garnet's life.

"Garnet?"

Garnet turned to see his cousin, Violet Emerald, waiting in his doorway. He could feel a tear slide down his cheek as his emerald-green eyes met hers. "Hi, Vi."

"How are you feeling?" she asked, coming up to him and delicately putting a hand on Garnet's shoulder.

"It's hard. I miss her."

"I do too."

"Is it time?"

"It is time. Are you ready?"

"As ready as I can be."

Garnet took one last look at himself in his mirror. While his hair was sandy brown rather than red, he had always been told he looked just like his mother, from the shape of his face to his trademark emerald-green eyes. Most of his family had them: his sister, his cousins, his nieces and nephews, somehow even his daughter. But he'd always been told that his looked the most like Ruby's out of any of the Emerald clan.

His appearance was a little piece of his mother that Garnet knew would always be with him as he strove to carry on her legacy.

Taking a deep breath, Garnet followed Violet through the halls of the President's Mansion. It was still strange to him that this was a place that he could now call home. Ruby had chosen not to, preferring to distance herself from anything that tied her too closely to her grandfather, Coriolanus Snow; she instead chose to use the mansion as an event space of sorts. But Garnet didn't know if he could bear to work in the same office in the Games Center in which his mother was murdered, or to live just a few floors away from her apartment, as most of the Emeralds had their apartments in the same building. It would be much easier to grieve and move on if he could get some distance - and yet something about the grandeur of the mansion was so intimidating, so overwhelming, that it felt wrong to disturb it, as if Garnet didn't deserve to be there.

But he did deserve to be there.

When they were finally able to move Ruby's body, they'd discovered signed Transfer of Power paperwork under her body, the once-white paper stained blood red. Had she not signed that document, the presidency would have automatically passed to Cerise at her death; instead, Ruby made the active choice to name Garnet her successor, as the person to carry on her legacy and shape Panem the way that she wanted. Garnet had to believe that he deserved to be president, because his mother believed in him.

As he reached the doors to the balcony, Garnet was greeted by his wife, Elizah, and daughter, Isabelle, the first time he'd seen them since his official inauguration that morning. Garnet gave his wife a delicate kiss on the cheek, then bent down and embraced little Isabelle. The girl seemed to know that something had changed in her father, and not just that he was now president, but she wasn't pushing it; she was just being her loving, happy self. And that was all that Garnet really needed.

"Are you sure about this?" Elizah asked.

"It's what my mother would have wanted, and what she herself could never do."

"But what if there is backlash?"

"If there is backlash, we will handle it. I am the president, and my word is final."

After a few moments of last-minute preparations, two people clothed in black pulled open to the doors to the balcony, and President Garnet Emerald stepped through to address the nation of Panem for the first time.

"Citizens of Panem," he began, quieting the crowd of politely applauding Capitolites as he stepped up to the podium. "It has been a long and difficult month for all of us, beginning with the death of my mother, President Ruby Emerald, and extending to the rebel attacks that have terrorized our country. Every person in our great nation, from the soldiers of Thirteen to the factory workers of Three, has felt the ripple effects of the seismic shifts that have been forced upon us. Know that we in the Capitol are working tirelessly with the authorities in all thirteen districts to find those perpetrators who took lives and destroyed property during this month's violence. I extend my deepest condolences to those who have lost friends and loved ones in this attack; I am hurting with you and I am mourning alongside you."

Garnet and his speechwriter had crafted the next part of his speech very carefully. Yes, it was the rebel attacks that had encouraged Garnet to advance his mother's plans for the country, perhaps a bit faster than he'd intended. But if he revealed that, gave too much of a peek behind the curtain, he'd be seen as weak, as succumbing to the rebels' demands, a president who couldn't make decisions for themselves. Garnet knew what he was going to say next would not be popular; he just hoped he'd earned the status necessary to make such a significant decision.

"With the death of President Emerald, we have an opportunity to move the country forward into a new era, towards a brighter future. It is in that spirit and in her memory that I announce, effective immediately, a formal end to the Hunger Games." Murmurings rippled through the crowd, but a simple raising of Garnet's hand put a stop to them. "I understand this may come as a shock to some of you, as the Hunger Games are so ingrained in our nation's culture. But a tree whose roots are destroyed cannot dream of flowering; if we want any hope of building the country we want, we cannot cripple ourselves by endangering our future and sacrificing our children.

"In order to fill the void left by the Hunger Games, we will be moving the Inter-District, Inter-Disciplinary Events from the winter to the summer. Preparations have already begun for an Events to fill this summer's slot, hosted by District Two. More information will be provided for our mentors and mayors in the coming weeks.

"While this may be a sharp turn, I am confident that today's announcement will help bring Panem towards a brighter future. Panem today, Panem tomorrow, Panem forever."

It was 12 years ago to the day that I posted the first chapter of a fic that (if I remember correctly) was titled The 84th Hunger Games. Not long after, I had an idea for an absolutely batshit quell twist. I updated the story to make it a Quell; it eventually gained its true title of Only Time Will Tell, and the rest was history!

In the twelve years since, I have always written a story featuring at least one of the characters I developed at age 12. Sure, they were just subplot characters, but Ruby, Amethyst, Cerise, Violet, and eventually Garnet provided me a sense of stability even as the casts around them changed. I explored the dynamics between mother and children, and how well-meaning decisions could have unintended, complex consequences. I took them through a lot - not a lot by today's standards, but what felt to me like a lot at the time.

And they took me through a lot too! I had my bat mitzvah. I moved to a new town. I graduated high school and college and grad school. I survived a global pandemic. I made friends, lost some, and made more, stronger ones.

I grew up.

And I realized my characters couldn't.

Sure, they could grow and change. I could give them character development. But fundamentally, these people and their actions would forever be tied to choices made by a child who was so blissfully unaware of so much of the world. And when, as an adult, I tried to reconcile my worldview with my younger self's, to synthesize how I liked to write then with how i want to write now, I realized there might not be a way.

The best thing I could do for younger Goldie was let her go.

So I put twelve years of work aside and began to build from scratch. And it was exactly what I needed. But I couldn't shake the feeling that there was something younger Goldie still deserved. I kept thinking about it as I wrote and world built, until I finally realized what it was: closure.

Younger Goldie put so much of her life into her writing and her characters. They were - really, they still are - a part of her. If I was going to leave everything behind, to start with a whole new verse, I had to give my past self the verse ending she always wanted.

The exact structure of the end of the Emerald Verse changed over time. I had various ideas for different iterations of the Events, who would be the antagonist by the end, etc. But one thing always remained consistent: that the Hunger Games would end. I think many verses go that direction, but I wanted mine to be motivated by my government. (Perhaps out of some sort of naive hope or worldview that a leader of Panem would do that.) I also planned for quite some time that Ruby would die at the end. I felt that someone like Ruby would be willing to give up everything and anything to save the soul of the country she built - even if that meant her life.

So today, though it is far from the ending I had originally conceptualized, I present this chapter as the canon ending of the EmeraldVerse trilogy. It allows me to return to Let Him Feel No Pain should I someday choose to do so, but until then, if that day ever comes, allows the verse to end in peace. There is a lot of work still for Garnet to do, but I believe that, in fulfilling Ruby's wishes and upholding her legacy, he has found peace.

I am so grateful to my characters - to Ruby and Amethyst and Violet and Cerise and Garnet - for being with me for so many of my life's ups and downs. I'm also grateful for all of the submitted characters I got to write in that time, from Elizah, Carissa, and Lavender to Sigmund and Ella. Each of these characters, in their own way, helped me to develop into the writer and the person I am today. I hope that I can make them proud as I move on, as I become the writer that I always hoped that I could be.

And of course, thank you all for reading and keeping up with my work for so long. I hope you will stick with me as I begin this new journey, as I start fresh the way that current Goldie truly needs.

For the last time in this verse,
Truly yours,
Goldie031