TBOSAS fix it AU where the bombs go off during the mentors only arena tour instead of the mentors and tributes tour, and the mentors are stuck in the arena. They were extremely lucky, as rubble and debris fell around and over them in a way that created a small “chamber” that will hold for now. The Capitol tries to get them out, but due to the severely damaged structure of the arena anything they do risks making the entire thing collapse onto the mentors completely. They need people specialized in building structure and stability or cave rescue to do this, which means people from the districts. Especially District 2, for their masonry expertise, and District 1 and 12 for their mining experience which has left them with knowledge on how to handle rescued in unstable environments after mining accidents like cave ins. These districts are initially pissed off that they are being forced to help the Capitol save their snobby, useless children from the place where their own, wonderful, innocent children will be forced to kill each other in a few days, but then they realize something.
The Capitol cannot save these mentors without their help.
They need the districts.
This is their chance
They all separately decide to refuse to send people to get the mentors out until the Capitol sends their children home and officially dissolve the games. Sadly, the Capitol refuses. They decide to try and solve the problem themselves. A week later, they have made no progress, and the mentors are starving. They’ve had to drink the water the Capitol has been dropping onto the roof, which seeps through the cracks and spills down to the ground. It gives them an intimate understanding of how the tributes must feel during the games, only they don’t have to kill each other. At least they have the privilege of knowing help is coming.
Some of the tributes begin to feel a little bad for their mentors and volunteer to get some kind of food to them. Treech, Lamina, Wovey, Mizzen, and Sheaf can slip through the debris blocking the entrance far enough to shove liquid nutrients through the cracks without risking a collapse of the whole thing, which would kill the mentors. They take this opportunity to eat some of the packs and hide a few more in their pockets for the other tributes, but they do give the mentors a few of the packs. It’s… surprisingly kind of them, and it makes the Capitol people consider if maybe they should just go along with the districts’ demands to bring their kids home. By the time they finally accept the districts’ demands, the districts aren’t satisfied anymore and demand the peacekeeper bases be emptied out, and all the supplies be left to the districts, in all districts, to ensure they won’t just go ahead and drag the kids back to the Capitol for the games. They want the arena flattened to the ground, and full jurisdiction to decide what will happen to the gamemakers. The Capitol initially refuses, but the families of the mentors demand the Capitol do everything the districts demand so they can get their children home safe. Finally, the president caves to saving his son over listening to the crazy doctor’s demands and gives in to all of the districts’ demands in hopes to get the mentors out.
And… it works. The districts actually keep their end of the deal once the peacekeepers have cleared out and all the districts have their children back. They get the mentors out, most of whom first ask about if their tributes are okay since they couldn’t feed them while stuck in the arena. Surprisingly, most of them are relieved to hear the games have ended, even though that means they can’t fight to have the prize anymore. Most of them even manage to negotiate with the district workers who got them out to be allowed to see their tributes in the districts once in a while.
After that, things are tense but healing. The districts, no longer under threat of being shot by peacekeepers and able to defend their borders again, negotiate better treatment and equal distribution of resources. They no longer let the Capitol rule them the way they did before. But they are open to trading with the Capitol, basically splitting the country into 13 small micro-nations that trade with each other. The Capitol can no longer live in luxury the way they used to now that they can no longer hoard supplies, but they end up finding that it doesn’t ruin their lives the way they thought it would. And the districts are happy with their independence and safety, so it all works out.
