Golden Flames Chapter 40, a divergent trilogy fanfic

To the guest that made me laugh this morning, I got this done as soon as was convenient for me ;)

Slowly, the goo starts to evaporate and she catches him when there's not enough goo to hold him in place.

"I'm not gonna say sorry." He whispers into her shoulder as he gives her a limp hug.

She hugs him back tighter. "I know that too."

Issy wakes up early the next morning, when all of Dauntless is definitely asleep. She sighs as she rubs her eyes with the heel of her hand. The twins had stood in each others arms for a while. Not saying anything but what needed to be said was done in other ways. They pulled away, letting their foreheads touch for a moment before they went their separate ways. Issy looked around her room, noticing the sun had yet to rise.

She got out of bed and put the clothes she had on yesterday back on. Once dressed, she got back into bed with the sheet Captain had given yesterday. At the top of the page is Captain's quick scribble of her name and the rest of the sheet was mostly filled with numbers, dates and times of the shifts her squad is doing for the next six months. Looking over it, Issy was more amused that the first of November is a Monday than anything else.

SQUAD 226 – SUN'S PRIDE, CAPTAIN – CLARK COOPER

NOVEMBER

Monday 1 st – Sunday 14 th: Day shift, 09:00 – 18:00

Monday 15 th – Sunday 28 th: Morning shift, 01:00 – 09:00

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER

Monday 29 th – 12 th: Night shift, 18:00 – 01:00

DECEMBER

Monday 13 th – 26 th: Off

DECEMBER/JANUARY

Monday 27 th – Sunday 9 th: Day shift, 09:00 – 18:00

JANUARY

Monday 10 th – Sunday 23 rd: Morning shift, 01:00 – 09:00

JANUARY/FEBRUARY

Monday 24 th – Sunday 6 th: Night shift, 18:00 – 01:00

FEBRUARY

Monday 7 th – Sunday 20 th: Off

FEBRUARY/MARCH

Monday 21 th – Sunday 6 th: Day shift, 09:00 – 18:00

MARCH

Monday 7 th – Sunday 20 th: Morning shift, 01:00 – 09:00

MARCH/APRIL

Monday 21 th – Sunday 3 rd: Night shift, 18:00 – 01:00

APRIL

Monday 4 th – Sunday 17 th: Off

APRIL/MAY

Monday 18 th – Sunday 1 st: Day shift, 09:00 – 18:00

As she sits looking at the dates, Issy feels like she forgotten something for today, something important, but she can't remember what it was. It bugs her while she takes a picture of her rota and putting it as her lock screen. She got back up from her bed to stick the sheet to the back of her door before she retrieved her sketch pad and pencils from her bedside table. Tucking her pad under her arm and the pencils through her hair, Issy picked up a thick grey blanket and a large cushion. She slid her window all the way up, the wind bit at her cheeks as she stepped onto the metal stairs and sat down on a step with the blanket covering her shoulders and her hood pulled over her head. Issy flips her pad to the fist empty page she comes across with a pencil in hand. Then, she pauses, unsure of what to draw.

It takes her a minutes or two before inspiration hits her and her pencil touches the paper, coping one image of six that lays behind her eyes. The sun rises slowly as she draws each image out on the page, all of them laughing or grinning in some way, until her five a.m. alarm goes off and the faces of her squad members look back at her. Issy smiles softly as she tears the page out of the book. Picking up the rest of her stuff, she climbed back into her room. Issy turns off her alarm that won't stop yelling at her as she puts the blanket back onto the bed and her pad back onto her table.

In one of her draws is an A4 landscape book with black pages Issy had gotten sometime after she had finished initiation. On the front cover in cursive script was Family and inside she has everyone she considers family hand drawn and filling the pages. In the first three pages were her family by blood before her brothers transferred, she included Reese as well. Then the next six pages were filled with those in her initiation class from the start of stage two. First there was a drawing of Lilah and Flare leaning against each other at a table in the cafeteria, followed by Hec, Sam and Luke holding each other up as they laughed hard – that would have been around the time when Issy and Bree had made Four flustered as fuck. The next two pages were of Meg and Crystal then Charlie and Kayden, all of them discussing something with troublesome glints in their eyes. And the final two pages are of Noah, Cody and Alec smirking at each other in the Pit and one of Issy and Bree sat in the tattoo parlor as they get their matching tattoos. The next few pages consist of those she met through her initiation. Declan and Eric stood side by side with goofy grins. Hugo and Blake sharing a knowing look. Shauna, Marlene and Lynn looking through the shops. Josh, Tori and Bud leaning over one of Issy's sketchbooks. Jason and Max bent over a map of the factions. Zeke with Uri in a headlock. Tris and Four watching as some of their more reckless friends fuck about. Issy's never told anyone about this album she has, not even Bree, but she tries to show that bond through other ways…. Like Issy's inability to not to prank and taunt Four. On the page after Tris and Four, she sticks in the drawings she did just a moment ago of her squad members excluding Hec.

After Issy strapped her watch to her left wrist, her headphones on her head and her phone in her hoodie pocket, she lifted the mattress up and took out a gun, sliding it into the sheath on her thigh. Issy put her trainers on and left her flat with her keys spinning around her fingers.

The walk through Dauntless was quiet. It took Issy a second or too before she realised the reason it was so quiet was that her music wasn't playing. She stopped in a random corridor and scrolled through her songs before she just presses shuffle. Issy smiles as she starts walking again, placing her phone back into her pocket. Her smile widens when This Is Me by Keala Settle comes on. Her walks slowly turns into a jog and she smiles at those she passes until she stands just outside of the main entrance. Issy lifts her head up and closes her eyes, breathing in the fresh air as she mouths the lyrics. I am Brave. I am bruised. This is who I'm meant to be. This is me. She reopens her eyes and takes off jogging down her normal route.

Her route was a little bit different from the one she took with her squad. Her route goes all the way around Dauntless' territory, past ruined buildings and sometimes over and through them. Today she just runs around, even if it does take up more time. An hour in and she stops at what she calls her halfway point. Most of it is just grass but then it comes to a small concrete cliff with metal fencing that overlooks sparse land. The river that runs through Dauntless pours through a large gap somewhere below her and leads to Amity. To her left is a medium sized alcove that she normally sits under if its raining or too sunny. Issy leans her forearms on the fence as she watches the water crash into the river below. Her fingers tap on her arms as the next songs begins to play and this time she whispers the lyrics.

"All my wolves begin to howl. Wake me up, the time is now. Oh, can you hear the drumming. Oh, there's a revolution coming." Issy thinks of her wolves, her pack, her family. Words of what they, he could say, words that could make her or break her. The wolves that run across the side of her bike, the wolves in her fear landscape and her little Lucifer that howls behind her ear. Howling a reminder, a reminder she better remember. Issy shakes her head, ridding herself of those thoughts and she skips to the next song.

She relaxes slightly, listening to the lyrics of one of the songs she'd play just to put her in the headset before her patrol training purely because it reminds her of her little brother, of Reece.

I was just a kid then skipping stones. Innocent and so alone. And I could sense we were all alone. You could take my heart and you could take my home but you'll never ever break my soul. No, you'll never ever break my soul. But you know me, I wanna go back but I can't back down.

Issy breathed in and out deeply. Her heart rate rising as images of Jeremy's snarl surfaced. She connects with this song so much. She did want to go back, only to see if she did things differently, Reece might have lived.

And you know me too well. 'Cause I'm a soldier, 'til its over. You and I fighting for the art of war. I'm a soldier, up against the war. I'm a soldier, 'til its over. Live and die fighting for the art of war. I'm a soldier, I will never fall. I will never fall. I will never fall. I will never fall. I will never fall.

"I will never fall." Issy whispers, her eyes still closed and a lone tear trailing down her cheek. "Not again."

We were just two kids thrown into the flames. We would never ever be the same. We would never ever be the same. We were just a spark that lit the change. They could never ever bring the rain. They could never ever bring the rain. But you know me, I wanna go back but I can't back down.

Follow me into the dark and I will lead you to the light. Flawless, soundless, hearts keep holding through the night.

I'm a soldier, 'til its over. You and I fighting for the art of war. I'm a soldier, up against the war. I'm a soldier, 'til its over. Live and die fighting for the art of war. I'm a soldier, I will never fall. I will never fall. I will never fall. I will never fall. I will never fall. I will never fall. I will never fall. I will never fall. I will never fall.

Follow me into the dark and I will lead you to the light. Flawless, soundless, hearts keep holding through the night.

Issy sniffs, her eyes reopen and are burning blue instead of gold with determination. Like she had said to Max all those weeks ago, she joined a patrol squad so no one had to feel a pain like hers. A pain she lives with ever second of the day. A pain she hides through her confidence and arrogance. She breathes in deeply again, thankful for the cold air that already makes her cheeks red. Issy scrolls through her song queue looking for a happier, upbeat song to take her mind off of such a deep subject. 'Its too early for this…' She reprimands herself despite the time being a few minutes past twelve. 'Happy song Issy, happy song.' When she pressed a random song, her lips twitched up into a soft smile as Sun Is Shining played and she began to run the rest of her route.

An hour later she nods to the guards stood outside the main entrance and they nodded back. By now she recognize most of the guards that stood by this door due to her run. One of them smiled at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Isn't this a bit late for you Golden Eyes? You're normally out first thing…"

"Yeah." She laughed lightly, grateful of the distraction. "I couldn't be arsed this morning. It's the last day before I start my patrol rota so I gifted myself with a lay in."

The guards laugh merrily and the second one nods her in. "Yeah, we know how that feels. Later Golden Eyes."

Issy walks back through the hallways in the direction of her flat. When she walks through the Pit near the fighting rings however, Alec suddenly appears, shouting her name and running in her direction. A moment later she is on the floor, the result of Alec tackling her. They skid to a halt with her twin on top of her and her arm burning.

"Where the fuck have you been bitch?" He yells in her ear.

"What the fuck is wrong with you arsehole?" Issy shouts back as their brothers crowd around them. They watch the twins with smirks on their faces chuckling now and then. "What special-assed little snowflake tackles people for no reason?" Issy pushes her twin off of her when he opens his mouth. "Don't answer that! Dickhead…" Issy's arm is still burning and when she pushes up her sleeve, blood is smudged along her arm and her skin is red and scrapped. "My arm. You bastard!" Issy lifts her forearm closer and inspects the damage with a snarl on her face. She shakes it a bit as blood runs slowly down to her elbow. Eyes narrowed and golden, she stares at her brother. "Fucking dickhead… Why was that necessary?" Issy manages to kick him hard as he shuffles away from her.

"Are you serious?" Alec looks at her with disbelief in his eyes. He looks to their brothers who arch around them. "Is she serious?" Hugo simply shakes his head and Declan laugh as Issy kicks Alec again.

"Yes! I'm serious! What the fuck Alec?"

Alec laughs and Issy watches him in confusion. When Alec catches her expression he laughs harder. "Issy," He wipes a tear away from the corner of his eye as he stands up before he pulls his sister to her feet. "It's our birthday."

Issy freezes. Her eyes narrow in thought before they widen and her mouth parts in surprise. 'So that's what she forgot this morning…' Her brothers chuckle at her response as she blinks rapidly. "Oh…"

"Who's the special-assed little snowflake now?" Alec asks mockingly as he begins to walk away.

Issy's spine clicks as her back straightens. Her face neutral and emotionless but her eyes narrow and shift into gold. Her gaze burning into Alec's head. As he takes a step forward, Issy sticks her foot out and Alec stumbles to the floor, groaning and hissing in pain. "The fucker on the floor apparently." She mocks him back, jumping out of Alec's way as he swings at her. She smiles down at him as she dodges with ease. Issy sticks her bottom lip out in a pout and she watches his anger fuel his eyes, the blue vanishing as gold takes over, his shoulders tense and ready to pounce.

"Ah, ah, ah!" Josh calls out, his tone authoritative as he grabs Alec's collar and yanks him up. "No fighting unless you're in a ring or one of the training room." The twins ignore him, Issy's eyes twinkling with a silent challenge and Alec's jaw lifted in defiance.

"It's not really fighting, is it?" Issy drawls tauntingly quiet but loud enough that her brothers and those that had followed Josh can still hear her. "Not if ickle Alekay can't land a hit." Someone laughs behind Josh but Issy's eyes are still on Alec. His eyes narrow and before anyone else can react, he launches himself at Issy. She reacts just as quickly ducking under his first punch and evading his second. She steps to his left, her arm wrapping around his neck as she moves behind him. Issy jabs the back of his knees, hooking one leg around his to hold him in place and Alec slumps back a bit, his eyes wide.

"S-shit." He gasps and their brothers clap.

"Alright!" Lottie, one of the Leaders calls out, pushing through the small crowd that had formed. "That's enough! Issy, let your brother go." Issy lets him go immediately and Alec stumbles forward as Issy takes a step back, rolling her shoulders. Alec glances back at Issy with a smirk forming on his face and her lips twitch up in response. Lottie nods her head once before looking to Josh and Jason. "I assume you can keep an eye on them Josh?"

"Yes ma'am."

When Lottie is out of hearing distance, Dec and Jason burst out laughing. Jason slaps his brothers arm as he speaks and Issy can tell he's trying to talk quietly.

"You should invite her to The –"

Josh turns to Jason quickly. "No!" He hisses. "You know they need to find it themselves."

Alec is still smirking at Issy and when they make eye contact, they start snickering. Issy throws her uninjured arm over Alec's shoulders as he walks with her to the infirmary.

Songs in order of appearance:

This Is Me by Keala Settle

Revolution by The Score

Art of War by We The Kings

Sun Is Shining by Axwell /\ Ingrosso