If you had asked me ten months ago if I thought I'd ever make it here, I honestly don't know if I'd have said yes. But we made it here, to the final chapter of MMAM.

It's been a wild ride. Thanks for all of it.

Elizah and Garnet spent the night after the big announcement in Garnet's room. The entire situation was, quite simply, awkward; Elizah felt weird around Ruby, Ruby couldn't figure out how to handle her son with a girl, and then, to top it off, the only bed in Garnet's room was a king sized. The two decided to request a twin bed for Elizah for the night and figure out the long term when they weren't falling asleep.

The next morning – er, afternoon, Elizah went back to the Selection House to pack up her bag. When she got back to Garnet's, Elizah was actually able to call her family (luckily, they were wealthy enough to have a phone). It felt so good to her to hear their voices! They spent a little bit of time catching up, then got to the big questions: how would Elizah move to the Caiptol, and would her family come with her?

"I think your best bet," suggested her father, "is to come back to Seven for a few days and pack up your things to bring back there. We can help you pack and stuff, but I also get the sense that you're not gonna need a ton in terms of clothing or shoes. We can pack some stuff over here to help you out, but I want to leave most of it to you."

"That sounds good to me. But aren't you coming to the Capitol?"

"Well… we don't know yet. We'd love to, but Mom and I can't both leave the logging company. And we can't exactly send Kathryn or Correy on their own yet. Janelle and Stephen, maybe, but they've also got their own stuff to deal with. This all came along really quickly, so we just don't know yet. Maybe Correy can go to school there."

"But I miss you!"

"I know. We miss you too! But there's a lot of loose ends. Maybe we can visit soon."

"That'd be nice."

Elizah spent a bit more time talking with the rest of her family before she hung up. She and Garnet spent the rest of the afternoon just chilling. After dinner, the two sat down to talk for a bit with Ruby.

"First of all, Elizah, I want to make it clear that I don't have any preference for what you call me. Whatever makes you comfortable. So if that's Madam President, that's fine, and if that's Ruby, that's fine too, and Mom is also OK once you're ready. I know this is awkward for everyone involved, so whatever works for you works for me."

"Thank you."

"So let's talk a bit of business. First of all, what are your thoughts on a wedding date?"

Garnet shrugged, then looked at Elizah, who also shrugged. "It's September. I think doing a wedding before December or January would be a little bit crazy. I want to be relaxed about it."

"I'm fine with that. We like January in this family; Garnet's birthday is in January, after all, and that's when the Victory Tour is as well."

"No way! My birthday is in January too!" Elizah exclaimed.

"When?"

"The seventh."

"Oh, Garnet's is the eighteenth. That's so funny! Did you know that, Garnet?"

"No, I didn't."

"All right. So January is our target. Maybe we can use the wedding to kick off the Victory Tour? I like that idea. Anyway, on to something that's more akin to my role as President. We wanted to talk about what you're going to do with your life now. My husband has a job, but he had that before we were married. It's the same way with Cerise's husband. But you don't have a job. So we've got to figure out something for you to do. Garnet and I were talking during the Selection process as his choice became clear, and we came up with an idea that we want to run by you. How do you feel about being the leader of a new cultural movement in Panem?"

"What?"

"Among other things, one major change I want to make here in Panem is creating a stronger national culture that's not based around the Games. Music, art, dance, theater, literature, all of those things. Garnet was telling me that you have a passion for art, and so we want you to spearhead our push for culture. You'll be the head of the government's Department of Culture, which will get funding to bring arts education to the schools in all of the districts. We'll work to make the Capitol a center of entertainment, then bring the musicals, plays, ballets, and art exhibits on tour everywhere for free (or at least very little money). How exactly this works will be your responsibility, but it's something about which we're very excited."

Elizah's eyes were sparkling. "That sounds amazing."

"I'm very glad," smiled Ruby. "We're planning on rolling out the culture initiatives early next year as well, so that'll give you some time to think and plan. It's something that we're very excited about. All right, Garnet. She's all yours for the night."

Garnet nodded. "If you think you'll need a light jacket, go grab it. We're going somewhere tonight."

Elizah was a bit caught off guard, but obliged, and moments later the two were in a car with blacked-out windows, going to who knows where.

"One thing that you need to be aware of when you're this high up is the presence of rebel groups. That's not to scare you, it's to make you conscious of who's around you. We're not going to bog you down with all of them, just the three that we feel are most important.

"So the first one is the Alexios group. They are arguably the biggest threat to us of any rebel group in Panem. They're the first rebel group in the country where they're not trying to get rid of places or events, but people, specifically anyone blood-related to President Snow. While you're not blood-related to them, you're married to me, which is basically the same thing. They also go after other politicians, Gamemakers – basically anyone involved in government. That's why we have extra security right now. The one good thing is that they haven't actually attacked anything yet with force, just with words, which are powerful but not life-threatening. We've also managed to take care of three or four high-ranking people in the group, so they need some time to regroup and recover before they can do anything significant.

"The second group is the main rebel group in the districts, which is centered in Eight and migrated to Eleven in recent years. You'll probably see outposts of this group in Nine, Three, Twelve, and Ten, the bordering districts; Two also borders Eight and Eleven but they're so loyalist that it's totally fine. Anyway. We consider them an anarchist group; their goal is to get rid of the Capitol. Not a person in particular, the whole thing. They don't really understand, in my opinion, the disaster that would happen if this country went totally government-less, but that's beside the point. They are capable of planning and carrying out a full-blown attack; they almost did about fifty years ago."

"Really?"

"Yeah. This is confidential info, by the way. Basically, Eight and Eleven were planning on working with a Gamemaker contact to stage a rebellion around the time of the Third Quell. By a fluke – or at least, what I've been told was an actual fluke – the contact got sick. Then my great-grandfather found out about the potential rebellion and… knocked it out. They haven't tried anything since, but that doesn't mean they're not capable of doing so.

"The third rebel group you need to know about is a little different." The car came to a stop in front of an inconspicuous skyscraper on a street of skyscrapers. Garnet led Elizah down a hidden set of stairs; their car driver slash security guard followed. "They are the only rebel group in the country operating with the government's permission."

"How is that possible?"

"Because they're doing simple, inconspicuous things that are helping Mom's cause."

Garnet and Elizah emerged in a simple gray room, with corridors shooting off of it that seemed to lead to a larger complex. There, they met up with a woman with caramel colored hair, chocolate-brown eyes, and tannish skin; for a Capitolite, she looked quite… normal.

"This is Sami Rolo," Garnet said. "She's one of Aunt Amethyst's most trusted Gamemakers, and after the fallout between my aunt and Jameson Soneclair, who was once her assistant, Sami stepped into the role. That's a story for another time. Five years ago, Sami, who had a very good idea of how every aspect of the Arena works, proposed the idea of essentially smuggling tributes out of the Arena by faking Arena-caused deaths. Mom, Aunt Amethyst, and Sami worked out a deal that essentially established the acceptable way to choose tributes to smuggle out: one male and one female per Games, no tributes from One, Two, Four, Eight, or Eleven, and the Arena deaths had to make sense. We had to make an exception for this year's Games on multiple counts, as you can see, but there you go. This is a rebel group with which we will likely be working very closely."

Elizah scanned the room. "This is quite an impressive operation. Has anyone ever found out about this?"

"No," Sami said confidently. "When the tributes come out of the Arena, we keep them here in this underground complex to altercate and reeducate them. They'll then be placed in some of our more loyalist districts to begin our own war of words, to work on spreading the message that the Games maybe aren't so good. And I'm sure that some of the other things she's planning for the next decade or two will help as well. Would you like to meet the former tributes?"

Elizah nodded. "I'd love to!"

Sami led the couple down one of the hallways off of the main room. "We give each pair of tributes a little suite with a common area and a classroom." They entered the first room. "From the 121st Games, we have Laila Gray from District Five and Ilan Merics from District Seven." Elizah gave the boy a shy wave; the two had been in many classes together at school, as they were the same age. Somehow, the tall and willowy twelve-year-old had matured into a taller, but nicely built, young adult. His death, which she now knew was fake, had really scared Elizah, because they were the same age. She didn't remember Laila all that much; maybe that's why Sami and her crew had chosen her to save. The five made some small talk before Sami, Garnet, and Elizah moved on.

"From the 122nd Games, Bailee Graff from District Nine and Otto Frederickson from District Six." Elizah also remembered Bailee very well; the girl was tiny, even for the twelve-year-old she was during her Games. Bailee had taken a strategy similar to Rue McClellan's: stay in the trees. That worked really well until the tree she was in fell over a cliff during an earthquake that had also taken out Otto, three other tributes, and the Careers' food supply. Physically, the boy could have been a big threat, but had a poor showing in training and an even worse interview.

Sami led the couple farther down the . "From the 123rd Games, Juniper Anaf from District Seven and Ashton Phillips from District Twelve." Juniper and Elizah also knew each other from home, though Juniper was two years older than Elizah; however, she might have been the least memorable Seven tribute in the previous decade. The other tribute, Ashton, was genderfluid, and actually had a legit shot in the Arena, but a fluke accident had led to him losing his water and food supply really early on and being unable to find it; theoretically, he had died of dehydration. It was quite impressive to fake a death in plain sight of the audience.

"From the 124th Games, Deana Gadya from District Ten and Alistair Holt from District Three." Elizah was a bit surprised; Alistair was a huge name in the Games last year as the son of Three's mayor. She remembered the sinkhole that had opened up on the left side of the Arena that had taken him, Deana, and the male from Nine out; it surprised Elizah that they'd chosen to save him and let the Nine boy go. But, it wasn't her place to ask why they made the decisions they made.

Finally, Sami came up to the door of the fifth suite. "Any guesses, Elizah?"

"I'll let you surprise me."

Sami pushed the door open. "From District Six, Ferrari Benz, and from District Nine, Kylis Divola."

The next year was an exciting year for Elizah. In November, she and Ruby formally set up the Department of Culture. Thanks to Ruby's expansion of inter-district travel, Elizah immediately reached out to some of her musical friends from the Selection to help set things up, which brought Phoebe and Bonnie to the Capitol to do a concert for some important potential donors to the program. It worked really well, and soon the Department of Culture became a beloved institution in the Capitol.

At Ruby's suggestion, Garnet and Elizah got married as the kick-off to the Victory Tour. Their wedding date was smack in the middle of their two birthdays, condensing all of their celebrations into eleven days. The two made a promise not to have a kid until Elizah was eighteen and a half, which Ruby was totally fine with; Ruby didn't want her son raising a child he wasn't ready for.

Though they would visit frequently, Elizah's family would choose not to move to the Capitol, but her brother, Correy, would spend two months with his sister before starting school soon after the 126th Games. It took Elizah a little while to find a comfort zone in the Capitol without her family, but eventually acclimated to life with the President. Ruby would never admit it, but the proudest moment in her life was when Elizah called her mom for the first time.

Things were quite exciting for some of the other Selection girls as well. In December, Bellona Terminus received an invitation to begin to train to become a Gamemaker; as someone who was up-close and personal to the Games for her whole life, she was considered an obvious choice by the Gamemakers to join their ranks. After some discussion with her family, she chose to take the job; Bellona packed up a bag, said goodbye to her home, and made her way to the next phase of her career in the Games.

When she arrived in the Capitol, she was taken by car to the housing provided for the trainees. Bellona was nervous to find that she would be placed with a roommate. But, when her roommate walked in the door, she was ecstatic to find that she knew her. It was Euodia Grove! While the two hadn't been particularly close during their time in the Selection, it was comforting for Bellona to not only know her roommate but to have lived with her previously.

"So, Ruby offered me a seat on the Games Fairness Council. But I had to decline."

"Why would you decline that?" Bellona asked.

"Ruby forgot about the specifics of the Seven statutes."

Euodia went on to explain that the former mayor, Mayor Lafe, had been put under a statute: five years for bribery related to his election victory and two years for tampering with the Reaping slip. That meant that his only daughter, Pansy, would be under the statutes for the rest of the time that she was of Reaping age. "Pansy and I didn't get along in Seven, to say the least, and with her under the Statutes, I really don't trust myself to be fair. I can't be on the Games Fairness Council that way."

"That's very mature of you."

"Ruby thought so too. She then offered me a spot in the Gamemaker Training Program, which I took."

"So we'll be together!"

"Yeah!"

Bellona and Euodia would do very well in the early days of Gamemaker training, eventually becoming recognized as the strongest pair of trainees.

In September of the year of the 126th Games, Dania moved to the Capitol to begin her time in university. When she got there, she found herself in a very small minority of District students, one of whom was named Correy Klepper. The two began as simply friends, but slowly became much, much closer. Dania was initially hesitant to fully love Correy, a stark contrast to her love with Kylis. But, she also learned that relationships could exist without constant fighting. It took Dania a little while to fully trust in Correy and believe that, yes, there could be love after Kylis.

Of course, Dania didn't know that Kylis had never died. And Kylis didn't know that Dania was in the Capitol. In an ironic twist, Kylis would be sent out to One after her altercation; she wouldn't know what came of Dania until the tabloids in one printed reports of her wedding to Correy Klepper. For Kylis, Dania would always be the one that got away.

Despite Ruby's worries, there wasn't a giant outcry in the Capitol when it was announced that their own children would be participating in the Games; after all, as she had emphasized, it was a very small sliver of Capitol children who were eligible. What Ruby didn't expect was excitement to participate; to her surprise, the first two Capitol tributes to ever participate in the Games were volunteers, neither of whom were under the statutes. Even after the event of those Games, Capitol children would continue to train and volunteer their lives away.

Unfortunately for the two very excited Capitol tributes, the Outer District tributes were looking for revenge. Spearheaded by Polyna Nixon, the female from Eight, a secret acquaintanceship formed between every district tribute. The agreement was that nobody would leave the Cornucopia or kill each other until both Capitol tributes were dead.

When the 26 tributes launched into the Arena, everyone went along with the plan. Well, everyone except for two tributes: Edison Rakesh, a thirteen-year-old boy from Three in on a two-year statute for vandalizing a Capitol train car, and Tziporah Boronsky, a twelve-year-old girl from Ten in on her mom's one-year accidental manslaughter charge. Edison was the only tribute with enough street smarts to realize that there was something odd about the Careers agreeing to that deal; usually, they strayed far away from the Outer District tributes unless neither tribute from Four was trained. He had a feeling that going along with the plan was a bad idea, and may or may not have warned Tziporah about it because he had a small crush on her.

Edison was right.

When the gong sounded, Edison and Tziporah ran. All of the other Outer District tributes surrounded the Capitol pair and watched as Polyna, in the name of revenge for 125 years of Games deaths, brutally murdered them. Meanwhile, the Career tributes gained control of the whole area of the Cornucopia, which just so happened to be on top of a mountain from which one could see the entire Arena. They also gained control of the remaining weapons. Once Violet had finished her murder spree, the Careers attacked, leading to the biggest Bloodbath in the history of the Games; seventeen of the 26 tributes were dead within an hour. Other than Edison, Tziporah, and the Careers, the only other survivor was Polyna, meaning that the targets for Sami's group to save had to be Edison and Tziporah.

The second morning, the top of the mountain started shaking; suddenly, geysers of magma began spurting out of it. The Careers quickly gathered their weapons and went hunting for the first tribute they spotted, who just happened to be Polyna, to avoid getting torched by magma. Six Careers on one Outer District tribute wasn't even a fight; Polyna was dead in seconds.

It was at that point that the Careers committed a fatal flaw: miscounting the number of tributes in the Games. Instead of going by the number of tributes left, they went by the number of tributes dead. With eighteen gone, it had to be only the Careers left. At least, that was what the leader of the pack was telling her much less intelligent pack-mates. She tapped in to animosity between the boys from One and Two to orchestrate the pack essentially imploding on itself. (While the cameras were focused on that, Sami was able to wash tiny Tziporah into the ocean using the magma. It was a little disappointing for her that she was only able to save one tribute, but she figured that one was at least better than none.) After the dust had cleared, there was only one survivor: the girl who had inititated the battle in the first place.

Twenty-four hours after the Games had started, two Victors were announced, who would meet for the first time on stage at the Victory Ceremony: Edison Rakesh from District Three, and Calytrix Porcher from District Four.

In the January immediately preceding the 129th Games, Ruby announced the redistricting process, an attempt to adjust the economic gap between people in the districts, as well as between the districts. In addition to reassigning the districts' industries, Ruby planned to make Thirteen a district again, focused on military and Peacekeeper training. When she got there with a group of people planning to move in from the districts, she found a fully functioning, autonomous district. (She'd later find out that President Snow had known about it, but neglected to inform her of Thirteen's existence before his death.) After a conversation with the group's leader, Ruby decided to give all of the citizens of Thirteen full citizenship of Panem with all of the associated rights and privileges. But, the entire population of the district would be put under a special five-year Reaping Statute; any child originally from Thirteen who was of Reaping age would be eligible in two Reaping bowls, both in the district in which they live and in a special bowl for the children who were once in Thirteen.

The redistricting process was generally a success. With a few exceptions, the people in the districts that switched industries took to them well, and the economic gap began to lessen. One reason for that was that people were given the opportunity to choose a job about which they were passionate; the people of Panem worked harder, leading to a greater money flow. Additionally, with businesses less worried about hiring someone who could get Reaped, the number of people in the workforce increased; Ruby also created government stipends helping businesses hire more people so they could buy more goods and so on and so forth.

All of Ruby's changes to Panem not only helped the country thrive, but it also made her more popular with the districts; for the first time, the people felt that their leader was on their side. Much of the rebel activity in the country decreased in the decade following the Fifth Quell; Panem was finally becoming a truly livable country. And now that Ruby had her people's support, she was ready to make yet another big change; all she could hope was that the country looked at it just as positively as she did.

There it is. We've traveled ten years of time in the universe, found out more about post-125th Panem, and learned about more of Ruby's changes to Panem. And congrats to Celtic – not the most normal way to get a Victor, but I'd count it!

I can't believe that I've actually completed this story. It seems like so long ago that I started it, but I've gone through so many changes since then. I've loved getting to bring these characters to life, and I'm so happy that we'll get to see a bunch more of them in the next story!

Thank you all so much for your tributes, for your reviews, for your advice, for your… everything! This story wouldn't have been possible without all of your support, and I am so thrilled with all of it.

Finishing a story is a big accomplishment. I could not be more thrilled with how far this universe and this story have come, and I can't wait to see where I go.

Thank you all again.

-Goldie031