A/N: I'm sorry that I haven't updated in a few days, but I'm here! This alternate ending pretends that anything after the end of Chapter 22 didn't happen. It's probably not necessary to read over all those chapters again, and all you need to know is that Newt and y/n have just noticed the Careers. The first part of the chapter and some lines from it may seem familiar, but this is just because the beginning follows some of the same plotline as Chapter 22.
"Shh, love," Newt murmurs, his voice barely reaching my ears. "If we stay quiet, they might not notice us."
I nod almost imperceptibly, trying to slow my breathing so even I can't hear it. Newt does the same as he removes his hand from my mouth. The only thing that I can hear is the soft footsteps of the Careers walking past. Even they have slowed down, as if the world is stopping for what is to come. I can hear their footsteps as they walk right outside the cave, three sets of thumping feet. I try to think about who's still alive. Gally, Beth and Teresa. The two from One and the girl from Two.
The footsteps pause right outside our cave, our home, and I can see three pairs of combat boots right outside the opening. I freeze in fear, and Newt does the same.
"We know you're in there, Twelve!" a masculine voice calls out, and Newt shoves me behind him, as if to protect me. He stands up and raises his dagger in front of his eyes, and I realise that he's going to fight them.
Fight them for my sake.
I swallow audibly, and that's all it takes for the world to tumble down with me, leaving only the Careers standing. Newt grabs my hand.
"I'll fight them, love," he murmurs. "You stay here."
"No!" I protest as quietly as possible.
"Twelve, we know you're there!" the voice repeats, which must belong to Gally from One.
"Let's just go in and get them. We'd beat them in a second," a feminine voice says, and I recognise it as Teresa from Two's.
"No," Gally argues. "I want to see how the boy protects his girlfriend. She won't be alive much longer for him to protect."
Newt's hand slips from mine, and those few seconds are the worst of my life, the ones where he jumps from the cave with only a dagger to protect him. After only a second, I follow after him into the darkening evening.
"And here they are," Gally says, snarling at me. Newt growls and chargers at him, knocking him to the ground, ready to plunge his dagger into Gally's neck.
"You won't bloody hurt her," Newt snaps.
"What if I do?" Gally smirks.
He knocks Newt's dagger from his hand and kicks metres away. Gally flips him over, so his sword is held on a point on Newt's neck. Teresa and Beth just stand there, small smirks on each of their faces. They've probably seen this, done this, many times before.
"No!" I shout, and diving to the ground, I knock Newt out of Gally's grasp.
In doing so, Gally manages to push me to the dirt ground, knocking the wind out of me.
It feels as if the world's in slow motion as he holds me down. I attempt to push him off, struggling with his strong arms.
"STOP!" Newt yells from the ground a few metres away, and struggles to stand up, but he manages to stand on his feet. "You won't bloody hurt her!" I see him snatch his dagger that Gally discarded previously and charge towards Gally in anger.
The dagger pierces Gally through the neck.
The dying Career takes a gasp of air and swallows. Newt pulls Gally's body off mine.
"You won't buggin' hurt y/n in front of me. Or in front of anyone," the boy whispers, his body shaking. Gally takes another deep breath and coughs. Thick blood spills out of his mouth, staining his teeth a red colour.
"I know," the dying boy chokes out, "but it's all any of us wanted, isn't it? To-" he breaks off into a fit of severe coughing. "To win the Games. To go home. To see our family again. I never would have been a killer if it weren't for-" he breaks off into another fit of violent coughing. "The Games. I never wanted to kill. I'm s-" the boy's voice breaks off for the final time and the dead Career's body falls, limp, to the ground.
Newt nods his head, once, slowly, and removes his dagger from Gally's neck. Then, carefully, he shuts Gally's eyelids in a form of forgiveness, just as his cannon goes.
"They're not the real villains, love," he says in a raspy tone, and he signifies to me with his chocolate eyes what he can't say on live television to the entire country. The Careers aren't the real villains. The Capitol is.
I nod my head in response and look around to see Beth and Teresa standing there, weapons lying on the floor. Why are they not attacking?
I look over at Newt and exchange a glance with him before I realise.
They don't want to kill us. Because of Gally.
"Just this once, Twelve," Beth says. "But Gally's right. This is what he would have wanted. We don't want to be killers. We don't want them to control us any longer."
Teresa nods her agreement. "But next time, we will not hesitate to send the arrows flying."
And with that, Beth walks over to Gally's dead body, bends down, and kisses him lightly, a sisterly sort of kiss, on the forehead. "Goodbye," she says.
When the hovercraft comes to pick the dead Career's body up, Teresa and Beth are both long gone.
"I-" I run over to Newt and hug him fiercely, "you could have died. We both could have died."
Newt kisses me on the top of the head softly. "But we bloody didn't, love. And that's all that matters."
My fists come to a rest on his warm chest. "I know," I say in a forlorn tone.
"You know what I would have told you if you'd have died? What would have taken you dying for me to realise?"
"No," I reply, wiping my eyes. "What?"
"I love you."
With his three words, my body freezes up, yet a warm feeling runs through my body, from my head to my toes, thawing my frozen body.
"I love you too, Newt," I respond truthfully, and my arms rest behind his neck. "I love all the things that make you Newt. When you ruffle your hair when you're nervous or scared. When you say 'bloody' and 'bugging'. I love your accent, and the fierceness in your voice when you disagree with something. I love you, Newt, and everything about you."
"And I love you more," he murmurs back, just as truthfully. "I love learning the little things that make you y/n. I love your obsession with mint tea, and the way you sometimes trail off in the middle of sentences. I love it when you tuck your hair behind your ear when you're nervous, and the fire in your eyes when you throw a dagger with perfect precision. I bloody love you."
Then he kisses me. He kisses me with more fire that I've ever felt from him before and I can smell the sweat and tension from the day all over his worn body, but for some reason, I don't mind.
I pull back and chuckle softly. "Now, let's get inside, shall we?"
He looks at me with a loving expression. "I'm bloody glad you're not dead, love," he says.
"I'm glad you're not dead, too, Newton."
YOU ARE READING
The Tributes of Twelve | Newt x Reader
Fanfiction(y/n) (y/l/n). A girl from the Seam in District Twelve. She lives under the control of the Capitol with her father and younger brother Chuck. She has avoided the Hunger Games her entire life and has instead focused on putting food on her family's ta...
