This is it! My first completed story! Thanks for sticking with the story, even when I wasn't updating super regularly, and I hope you enjoyed it.

CHAPTER 31

When we arrive in Candor, none of the other Dauntless are here yet. I'm sure things are very chaotic in Abnegation, as they had to capture Max, Jeanine and anyone else who was clearly cooperating with them before meeting us here. Still, I'm disappointed, because I just cannot wait for Zeke and Mom to get here and see Dad.

I entrust Tris with the hard drive, and she goes with her parents to find Jack Kang, leader of Candor. As Candor is the faction of truthfulness, they are the city's judicial system, basically, while Dauntless acts as the law enforcement and military presence. I assume that the hard drive will be locked up somewhere safe and that Jack Kang should come back to the lobby of the Merciless Mart, Candor's headquarters, to process the traitors as they are brought in.

Will paces restlessly in front of the doors, anxiously waiting for Christina. We don't have communication with her, Zeke and Shauna, so we don't actually know whether they all made it through safely; I'm at least as anxious waiting for Zeke and Mom- who I can only assume was fighting under the simulation- as well as the friends that we were not able to include on our coup, mainly Lynn and Marlene.

"I missed you and your brother and mother every day, Uriah," Dad says out of the blue. "It wasn't safe for me here, you understand why. They didn't give me the option to bring you all along."

"Who are 'they'?" I ask, and I'm a little startled by the bitterness in my tone. I guess I didn't realize that I was angry at him for leaving us. Still, I'm more glad to have him back than I am angry. I know I'll have to work through that eventually, but I think we have all the time in the world for that now. It doesn't have to be today.

Dad sighs and gazes off into the distance. "Maybe I will tell you more about it someday. But I was at a place outside the fence. They... had access to all the security cameras around the city. I still watched you, every day. Your mom sure did a good job with you boys. I'm proud of you… and Zeke as well. Every day I hoped for a chance to come back."

"Well, we certainly missed you," I offer. I really don't know what to say. I haven't seen my father in over a decade, believed he was dead until just a couple weeks ago… finally I have the chance to talk to him and of course, now I can't think of a thing to say. "Will you be able to stay?" I finally ask.

"I think so. I have some details to work out but I'm going to make it happen somehow," he says softly just as I begin to see small groups of black clothed figures in the distance, walking toward us.

I grin. "Will! You ready for this? I see Dauntless coming!" Will jumps up from where he had finally settled sitting on the floor with his back to the wall and his head resting on his knees, and he sprints to the doors. We follow him out, the three of us heading to meet the group halfway and help get things settled with any prisoners they might (hopefully, anyway) be escorting.

When we reach the approaching Dauntless a few blocks away, my body goes weak for a moment with relief that Mom, Zeke, Shauna and Christina are among the first small crowd. "Lynn? Mar?" I call out to them.

"They're fine! A little further back!" Shauna calls back as she jerks her thumb pointing behind her. I think I could collapse here right now as all this stress is leaving my body.

When we reach them, I take Zeke's place helping Shauna to escort Max to Candor Headquarters so that Dad can have his emotional, teary reunion with Zeke and, especially, Mom. Mom never moved on after Dad 'died', in all these years. I know it was because she still missed him, and I smile thinking about how good it must feel for her to have the love of her life back.

"Did you get Jeanine?" I ask Shauna when we're less than two blocks from the Merciless Mart.

Shauna grins and nods. "Yes, as well as the other leaders, except Eric. We never found him. Max says he went back to Dauntless, so a team went to check for him."

"You'll find him," I say. "I shot him in the head to save my dad, and Tris's dad too." I sigh. "It didn't all go so well there… but we should wait for Zeke before I tell you." The look on her face… her jaw dropped, tears pooling in her wide hazel eyes… she knows something really bad happened there. Four was one of her best friends. I don't think she's sure that it's him, but she must know that it's likely, or he would be here with me, helping bring the traitors in.

Over an hour passes before we get the chance to tell my brother and friends what happened at the Dauntless compound. Tris' and my parents, Lynn, Shauna, Marlene, Zeke, Christina, Will, Tris and I sit together in the Candor dining hall around a large round table, and Tris presses into my side, staring down at her lap, as I take a deep breath. Zeke sits on my other side, and I put my hand on his shoulder. It's so hard to get these words out, even though I know they all pretty much know what's coming. We can all see who is missing at this table.

"We lost two people at the Dauntless compound," I say in a tight voice. "Marcus Eaton… and Four." Tris is weeping into her hands and I pull her tighter against me. A sob escapes Shauna as silent tears roll down Mom and Zeke's faces. Four had become a part of our family over the past two years, and we all really loved him.

Over the next hour, Will, Tris, my dad and I take turns telling what happened at Erudite and Dauntless, and Zeke and Shauna fill us in on the going-ons in Abnegation, though remarkably, that went much more smoothly than stopping the simulation did. Zeke, Shauna and Christina managed to stay near the most important leaders and quickly organize loyal Dauntless to arrest the traitors responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Abnegation. It will probably take a few days to get a final death count.

A month has passed since the attack on Abnegation. The factions are still intact, and there has been no conflict other than a small uprising from the Factionless. Dauntless was left enough intact that we had plenty of presence to squash that, and the leader of the Factionless- Four's mother, Evelyn- was captured, tried and sent outside the fence. There is talk, though, of making some changes to at least make life more fair for factionless children.

Max, Jeanine, and a handful of other Dauntless, as well as many Erudite, have been tried under truth serum and executed. I'm still sure not interested in advertising that I'm divergent, but in theory, it's not so dangerous any more. Tris chose to become one of the brand new leaders of Dauntless, along with Will, Tori, Harrison and Zeke. I know the whole faction wishes that Four could have been one of the five, though. I was actually also nominated, but declined. I've had enough conflict and I know that those we have running our faction now will be honest, fair and ethical. Instead, I chose to use my artistic talent to become a tattoo artist as I have always wanted to be. I am training under Tori and really enjoy my work.

Tris and I have moved into an apartment together. Everything has been going great with us. We both are plagued nightmares from the night of the simulation, but we are there to calm each other when the nightmares come. Zeke and Shauna are beginning to get more back into normal routines after having a difficult time handling Four's death. For the first week, Zeke hardly left his apartment- Four really was another brother to him. But Zeke is resilient, and he's bouncing back; Shauna is too.

Mom and Dad are together again, too. Dad did have to go back to wherever he had been living for the past decade and 'work some details out', and he said that he will tell me someday about what is outside the fence. It drives Tris crazy. She's so curious, she can't stand not knowing.

Life is getting back to normal. Well, as normal as it can be a month after our leaders used us to perform genocide, and after losing someone we all cared about. So tonight, a group of about twenty of us are going out to play capture the flag, and it feels good to do something that is so fun and just… normal.

We all hop on the moving train. Zeke and I stand at the front of the group: we're both captains. Tonight is the battle of the Pedrad boys.

"You can go first, Zeke," I suggest. He chooses Shauna. Predictable- though no more predictable than what I am about to do.

Before making my first pick, I think back to our game of capture the flag during initiation and smirk as I say, "I'll take the Stiff."

A few of our friends smile sadly, and Zeke catches on. "Picking the weak ones so you'll have an excuse when you lose?"

I laugh and kiss Tris's temple. "Something like that."

Half an hour later, while the rest of our team executes a plan they concocted to scout out Zeke's flag before we divide and conquer much like we did in our last game, Tris and I climb up to the platform on the Ferris wheel. We sit together in our spot halfway up the wheel, wrapped up in each other. "I really miss him," Tris whispers. At first, she had been hesitant to talk with me about her grief over her friend, but a good heart-to-heart talk cleared the air. He wasn't a threat to me, and she had chosen me, we had all cleared the air before he died. It has in many ways been harder on me than her or even Zeke, as he literally died saving my life. I guess that's what they call survivor's guilt.

"I know, Babe," I whisper. "We all do. He was my family. And he was the only piece of home you had at Dauntless. It's okay to be sad."

She sighs. "It's not all sad, though. Times like tonight, we get to remember, then he's never really gone."

After a few minutes of silence, I take her chin in my hand and turn it toward me. "I love you," I murmur as I press my lips against hers. The kiss starts out slow and gentle, and as it goes on becomes passionate and so full of love.

When we break away, Tris smiles slightly. "Come on, Amity," she says, "let's get back down there and steal your pansycake brother's flag so you can take me home.

"Uh, yeah, I'll meet you down there in a minute." I'm really wishing right now that we had just stayed home in the first place.

Tris smirks and shakes her head, and as I watch her climb down and in the distance can see my friends sneaking through the trees having a blast with this game, I smile a little. It was all worth it. This life is what we fought for, and we made it count.

A/N: There it is! I hope you enjoyed my first fanfic... I just wanted to thank everyone who favorited, followed, and especially those who reviewed. You have no idea how encouraging it is (unless you write too, maybe!) and I swear, I could easily rival Tris on the insecurity front, so reviews really help keep me going. I have several other story ideas and am starting to plot a new one, and also have another story about half-done that is published here called Reawakening. If you're interested please go check it out and/or follow me if you want to receive an alert when I begin to publish the next story I'm planning. Thank you all again! xoxo