I. Katniss Hawthorne
She could always depend on big brother Gale. Gale, who held her hand firmly when he walked her to school as children and once fought off a wild dog when they were stupidly hunting in the forest without their father in their youth. Gale was the one who kept their family from starving after their father's death and as a result, has over forty slips in the bowl at the age of eighteen because he refuses to let her or Rory take tessera.
Still, in the end it doesn't even matter because Katniss Hawthorne is called as the female tribute for the 74th Hunger Games. She tucks her hand-me-down shirt in the back of her skirt and walks to the stage grimly with the certainty that as much as Gale would like to take her place, he can't.
She's right.
Instead he does the next best thing and volunteers as the male tribute, shoving aside wimpy Peeta Mellark and standing tall in his place. It's the first time anybody could remember having someone volunteer in District 12 but the audience doesn't applaud. That would be like condoning the show the Capitol puts on every year. They rebel in their own way, with silence. Then, one by one, they raise three fingers in the air, a sign of thanks, admiration, they mean it as a symbol of respect for the brave boy who volunteered to save his sister.
.
On the train Haymitch gazes at them wearily. "You know only one of you can come back, if that."
Gale nods tersely. "I know. And it's going to be Katniss."
But Katniss Hawthorne has a stubborn streak in her and in her fury she practically stabs his hand with her steak knife. "You didn't have to volunteer! I'm sixteen and I can take care of myself, dummy!"
"I know Kat, but I couldn't just watch you go and donothing." Katniss glares at him but is silent. They have three younger siblings between them and she knows that if any of them had been reaped she would have done the same.
They don't know it, but it's that fire that gets Haymitch to sober up and take them seriously as tributes.
They decide to ally (obviously) and sail through training together. The Capitol audience adore them and Flickerman can't stop gushing about the shining, protective love that only siblings could have for each other.
During his interview Gale pleads for everyone to just stop watching, because without viewers the Hunger Games lose their impact. It's rebellious talk, but from a boy about to die there is really no power in his words. Because what can anyone do when the televisions automatically switch on during mandatory broadcast and can't be switched off?
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They find the answer soon after Katniss' death. A few days in, Katniss and Gale are chased into the tall grass where Katniss is stung by the smallest of scorpions and trips, already weak and dizzy. It takes two days for the poison to course through her body, two days of Gale begging Haymitch for the medicine he can't afford despite the donations pouring in.
After two days of agony, her cannon finally sounds. It is the first time Gale allows himself to cry and lets out a heart-rending scream over her body. Through the television screens, his tortured, primal grief hits them like nothing ever has before. Suddenly, everybody who has someone they love are uncomfortably aware that it could very well be them having someone killed by the Capitol.
A man watching the Games from some dim District tavern, maybe someone who lost his own brother or sister or friend smashes the flickering old television screen with the heel of his boot, littering the ground with broken glass and people have their answer. Riots spill out onto the streets, wielding makeshift crowbars or two by fours or whatever items they could use to destroy the public televisions that line street corners, shops, and town square- the mob swarms the overwhelmed Peacekeeping force and from then on the tides begin to turn.
Within a few days there isn't a single working television in the Districts. The revolt spreads and whole factories are set alight until there are no means to replace the broken screens.
No one is watching the Hunger Games anymore.
And under the backdrop of torches and buildings aflame, fire is catching.
II. Katniss Abernathy
Her father tumbles head-first off the stage when her name is announced but Katniss Abernathy isn't too surprised. Victor's children have been in the arena before, it happens too often to just be about odds.
The commentator murmurs about how the odds are not in the Abernathy's favour while their escort's face lights up at the time. "Oh it's Haymitch's girl, how very exciting," Effie trills.
Katniss makes a rude gesture that she's sure will be blurred out and swings her shaggy braid over her shoulder. She takes after her father with her dark and swarthy features, closer to handsome than feminine, and inherited more than just his looks. While her mother is the prim and proper victor's wife, Katniss herself is a surly recluse who likes nothing more than shutting out her feelings.
For as long as she could remember, her childhood had alternated between frantically training in case she was reaped and a firm denial that anything was going to happen to the only daughter of District 12's only living victor. With a wry twist of her mouth she hopes the periods of half-assed training would be enough. At sixteen she's fair enough with a bow and knows her way around a forest and it shows, her body is healthy and toned because unlike most of her District she has never had to go hungry. Speaking of which...
She groans when they announce the male no,she him, anyone but him.
The male tribute is none other than Peeta Everdeen, her training partner.
It was common knowledge that the Everdeens hunted illegally outside of the District border and were the owners of precious few illegal weapons. Her father had paid him handsomely to train Katniss in hunting and survival in case she ever needed it. And if she ever counted one person as a friend it was quiet, dependable Peeta who never lingered longer than he was welcome or asked favours of the wealthy Victor's daughter.
Her mood darkens at the turn of events and she takes out her anger on the next person she sees. During her goodbyes her mother hesitates, trying to hug her prickly daughter one last time.
"Save it Ruth," Katniss snaps. "What's with the dramatics, you're acting like you're the one going into the arena and instead of me."
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On the train the first thing she does is knock back a bottle of something bitter and strong. "Katniss!" her father hollars.
"What?" she slurs. "I'm gonna be dead in a few days, I'll do what I want." Which happens to be tumbling on the floor and taking a nap.
Haymitch should be furious at her, but right now his daughter reminds him so much of himself and the situation is so hopeless that all he can do is shake his head and laugh bitterly.
.
During training she's invited to join the Careers, which she bluntly refuses.
"No way, you guys are only going to slow me down. I work alone," she waves breezily. If they're offended they don't show it, but Katniss knows better than to underestimate the tributes who've trained to do anything to win.
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The day of the Games arrive and Katniss and Peeta are drawn to each other naturally, years of hunting together have made them accustomed to the other and they fall into a familiar partnership. Though she could never quite match Peeta's skill with the bow she makes up for it in cleverness and knows how to match wit for wit against the Gamemakers. Odds against odds, she wins.
.
Afterwards her days are spent like her father's, drinking, sulking, and blacking out. She makes sure the Everdeens are taken care of though. Maybe they throw away the boxes of foodstuffs and groceries she sends to their house but she doesn't care, it's more of an attempt to ease her guilt than anything and even if they don't accept it at least she could say she tried.
Once in awhile she thinks of Peeta and something like regret bubbles up through her drunken consciousness, remembering the way she drove her knife into his heart. It's those times that make her reach for the bottle until her she's not sure if the wetness on her face is from whisky or tears.
III. Katniss Undersee
She is the picture-perfect mayor's daughter, quiet, demure, and dutiful. Her only friends are the musty-smelling books in the library that tell of swooning princesses rescued by brave heros. The two roles never overlap so young Katniss decides that you can only be one or the other.
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On the day of the 74th Reaping she has five slips in the bowl and her sister has even less, the odds should have been in their favour. But they aren't. And when Primrose Undersee is Reaped she is struck dumb like everyone else in the District.
As Prim walks bravely up to the stage Katniss knows that she should do what a good sister would do and volunteer to take her place, but she doesn't because Katniss Undersee isn't strong or courageous.
She's a sheltered princess only capable of being a damsel in distress- not a hero, and this is why she stays silent when Effie calls for volunteers.
Prim doesn't blame her, she would never expect her sister to die in her place but when they embrace one last time all Katniss can feel is the accusation of her cowardice lingering in the room and creeping in her thoughts.
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Before the gong sounds a small part of her holds its breath, fervently hoping against hope that Prim has a prayer of a chance. It's a lie she tells herself because deep down she knows that gentle twelve year old girls with no fighting ability never win.
Her sister dies in the bloodbath. The male tribute dies three days in. District 2's Cato is the winner of the 74th Hunger Games and Katniss dreads his visit to District 12 for the victory tour in the winter.
.
He's surprisingly glum and downcast for a Career victor and Katniss is surprised by how much smaller he is in real life, back when he was snapping that girl's neck he seemed like a giant. Nevertheless Katniss grits her teeth as she presents him his plaque and forces herself to endure his presence at his celebratory dinner.
"I didn't want to," he says to her quietly as they pick at their limp salad and overcooked potato.
Katniss looks away. It wasn't his knife that struck Prim as she was fleeing the bloodbath but she could never forgive him for coming back instead of her sister.
He ducks his head and his voice is so soft she has to strain to hear. "I didn't want to kill Clove either, but that's all I know how to do. Bring pride to the District... not that it matters." For a second she sees anger flash in his eyes but it's gone before she can blink.
She's left wondering the meaning behind his dark tone, but she doesn't have to wait long.
.
After the Victory Tour something in the atmosphere changes and there is an almost ominous roiling in the air leading up to the announcement of the Third Quarter Quell.
"On the seventy-fifth anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that even the strongest among them cannot overcome the power of the Capitol, the male and female tributes will be reaped from their existing pool of victors."
An unmistakable gasp rises from every house in Victor's Village across the Districts. It turns out to be a big mistake for President Snow to not change the card, because it ends up being the last Quarter Quell announced.
People everywhere in the Capitol protest the idea of losing their favourite victors when already precious few remain. Human rights groups in the Capitol sympathetic to the cause rise to protest- and are brutally shut down by the Peacekeepers. It is this brutality against their own finally starts raising apprehension.
The rebels of Districts 11, 8 and 4 take advantage of the tumultuous times and use the opportunity to wreak havoc. Katniss sees it all on her father's private screens, the riots, the graffiti, the uprisings as citizens storm the streets.
And as the daughter of the mayor of District 12, Katniss also knows a secret, that their old neighbour District 13 is alive and well and ready to strike at any time, and that time just might be now.
Katniss runs to the one person in District 12 she knows who will help her, Gale Hawthorne. He's the boy who brings her strawberries and makes angry jabs at her just because she's from town. Sometimes she feels like she hates him, but sometimes she also feels like she loves him. She pushes her conflicting feelings aside, either way she couldn't save Prim back then but she can be a hero now and finally stand up for what was right. It shouldn't matter that she's a princess, she realizes as she runs across the dusty and hopeless Seam, because princesses take care of their people and she's ready to do what she should have been doing all along.
.
And it's that revelation that changes everything. Gale's eyes light up with the fire she realizes that was in Cato's at her words and agrees to help. Gale rouses the Seam while Katniss takes up cause in the town. Between the two of them, District 12 falls under rebel occupation soon after District 1. One by one the other Districts fall as well, until finally District 2, led by Cato and Lyme capture its Peacekeepers and storm to victory.
After that its only the Capitol. President Snow fights back but is no match for the rebels. In a show of mercy, Commander Paylor allows him to step down and abdicate peacefully, earning the Capitol's trust.
In the aftermath, it is unclear who the next leader will be. President Coin from District 13 argues that it should be her but nobody trusts these strange soldiers who had hidden away during 75 years of the Capitol's regime and never bothered to help until now. Eventually a council represented by the thirteen districts and the Capitol is formed. The Hunger Games are over forever.
As they try to rebuild their lives, Katniss plants flowers in the meadow, slowly returning colour to the dull landscape. Yellow primroses wave about in the wind, and Katniss watches the young children play. Boys and girls too young to know about the Reaping run and laugh, blissfully unaware that they are playing on in a graveyard.
Her shoulders relax and she could feel Gale's arm curl around her waist.
"They're free you know, free forever from the menace of the Hunger Games."
She nods, feeling a lump in her throat as she thinks about one more girl she wished she had saved. "I know."
IV. Katniss Mellark
Her magical fairy tales spun from aging parchment and fading ink tell her that the purest, truest love is the all-consuming romantic love between a man and a woman. To Katniss Mellark, life revolves around being with the one you love, all she has to do is look at her parents' glowing happiness to know.
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By the time she is sixteen she has her sights set on solemn Peeta Everdeen who has been the object of her affections ever since she could remember. It had started on the first day in kindergarten when her mother pointed him out to her, "I almost ran off with his father you know, even though he was a poor coal miner."
Katniss blinked incredulously. "A coal miner? Why would you want him when you had poppa?" Katniss had asked, with wide curious eyes.
Her mother had smiled, a rare wistful smile Katniss had never seen before. "Because when Robin Everdeen sang, even the birds stop to listen."
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And so she had drank in every detail about Peeta Everdeen, from the way his hair stood up at the back to the patched trousers he wore and wondered if his voice could also make the birds fall silent.
She got her wish in music assembly, when Peeta sang the valley song and every bird outside the window fell silent. She had watched, spell-bound long after the song was over and knew right then that she was a goner.
.
They grew up and made their own friends. Peeta Everdeen wasn't exactly a friendly boy, he mainly kept to himself and avoided others but Katniss knew he was a good person underneath, and she is sure that if only he knew how she felt about him he would love her back.
Unfortunately Katniss could never manage more than a note signed from his secret admirer slipped in his desk and locker time to time (she never did have much courage). But all Peeta would do was read them with a bored look on his face and crumple them up to throw away, her heart breaking just a little bit each time.
I'll tell him later, she would say to herself. When they moved up to the middle school, when they survived their first Reaping, at the next Fall Harmony Day, she would always hesitate and tell herself that she would tell him later.
But during the 74th Reaping they're Reaped together and with despair she realizes that time was going to run out.
.
Still it was the same evasive dance for Katniss,I'll tell him on the train. I'll tell him after training. I'll tell him briefly considers telling the world at the interviews but the words never come and she goes into the Games with the fervent goal of finding Peeta before she dies.
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She gets her wish as she and Peeta literally run into each other trying to escape the artificial forest fire. Her heart soars when he decides to let her tag along in an alliance, right after he sees the burn medicine come down on parachutes. He treats his wounds knowing just where the medicine comes from and whispers a silent thank you.
You see, Katniss Mellark is beautiful- just like her mother was at her age. Like a princess from storybooks her hair is as gold as sunlight and her face is like an angel's, innocent and virginal. She doesn't know it but men (and women) clamour to sponsor her, no one wants to see such a pretty girl suffer. But it's this attention plus her fiery costumes that draws the Careers' ire like a moth to a flame.
It only takes a couple of days for the Careers find them, but before they can finish their job they're alerted to their supplies being sabotaged and leave Katniss and Peeta to bleed out to their inevitable deaths.
As they lay dying side by side, her pale hand finds his tan one. With the last of his energy he turns to look at her inquiringly. Her vision is already starting to haze and the world seems to slow down, she knows this is her last chance, so with her final shaking breath while the entire country watches she says the words she's wanted say since she was five years old.
"I love you."
In too much pain to speak, Peeta raises a trembling hand and strokes her face just before her eyelids close for the last time. He doesn't know her enough to love her back but he acknowledges her feelings. The touch is only to comfort her in her dying moments but Katniss smiles all the same.
Across Panem thousands of hearts crack as they watch the star-crossed lovers die side by side but this alone does not spark a rebellion. Finch Crossley wins the 74th Hunger Games and life in Panem continues as usual, the story of the star-crossed lovers Katniss and Peeta fading away until they are eventually forgotten.
And that's all that she wrote...
A/N Which alternate universe was your favourite? Mine's the last one. I don't know if you can tell but I really dislike Everlark.