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Eren Jeager is twelve when his name is drawn from the bowl. He's newly orphaned, isolated from the rest of the district, and angry as hell at the world.
When his friends come to visit him at the justice building to say goodbye, he is shocked to see the pain in Armin's face and the normally stoic Mikasa breakdown in tears.
It's then that he vows that he will do whatever it takes to come home from the games. Even if it means he will have to kill every single tribute himself.
When he finally makes it into the arena, his strategy is exactly what everyone expected from someone of his age, and exactly what no one expected from him.
Instead of charging headlong into the bloodbath at the Cornucopia, he runs, he hides, he lives off roots, berries and pure stubbornness before the gamemakers finally flush him out into the open. By then he has lasted long enough to make it into the top eight.
No one in Panem is surprised when he is soon cornered by a boy twice his size. They've all seen it before, they know what's going to happen next.
Instead, Eren slits that boy's throat from ear to ear.
From then on it's like a switch has been flipped. Instead of hiding, he goes on the offensive. He kills two more tributes before the night is out.
The final battle between Eren and a burly boy from ten, is one of the bloodiest in recent memory. They go at it for nearly an hour, until they both collapse in exhausted, bloody heaps.
But Eren holds on. Through sheer determination he keeps on breathing until his opponent's heart finally stops, and the gamemakers proclaim him victor.
He has just enough energy to reach up and grab hold of the ladder being dangled from the waiting hovercraft.
---
Mikasa's games are the shortest in the whole history of Panem.
When the initial bloodbath at the Cornucopia is over, and the canons sound, Mikasa is the only one left standing. The careers had been the first to go, cut down quickly before they even had time to realize what was going on. After that, Mikasa had kept going until everyone else had either fled or died.
Over the course of the next week, she then proceeds to methodically and systematically hunt down every remaining tribute. There's no long drawn out battles, no dramatic challenges, just one tribute after the other, quickly and efficiently. And the whole time her faces shows nothing but an indifferent stare, as if the other tributes aren't even worth the time it would take to think about them. It's enough to start a rumor that she is actually an automaton from Three.
That expression doesn't change. Not when she is declared victor and the hovercraft arrives to take her away. Not even for her victor's interview, during which she answers all questions with one word answers. It's as if her victory means as little to her, as the tributes she killed to get it.
---
No one expects much from Armin. While he's smart, friendly, and popular with the people of the Capitol; he clearly lacks in the physical fitness department. No one expects him to last long past the Cornicopia bloodbath.
Even when he manages to convince the career pack that he's worth keeping alive, no one expects him to last. At best he's bought himself a few days before the careers decide he's outlived his usefulness.
Except a few days soon turn into a few weeks. Every day seems to bring a new reason for the careers to let him live. All of Panem watches him bow and scrape to the careers, bearing all their derision with a happy smile, as if he was pleased to be of use to them.
When the careers finally splinter and turn on each other, Armin somehow lasts on. The lone survivor of the career pack, a blonde girl from one, seems to think he's harmless, and lets him tag along with her.
He's still around when the tributes have been reduced to three, and the girl from one and a boy from five battle it out. The nation holds its breath when the boy from five falls. It's only two of them left now. All that's left to do is for her to finally kill Armin, and she's won.
Armin just smiles trustingly at her, the very picture of oblivious innocence. "That only five more tributes to go right?" he asks, seemingly unaware of the peril he is now in. "You must be hungry. I've got some berries, here!"
A few moments later, the last cannon sounds. Armin's hand reaches up and grabs the rungs of the ladder. The remaining nightlock berries fall to the ground.