Thank you for all the responses for Bree's outtake and the last chapter! Honestly all of it made me nearly scream after keeping them from you guys for sooo long!

So, there's an idea from the brilliant mind of memcfall and my sister that I will start writing soon. It's an AU of Golden Flames, basically the same up until the end of initiation of GF and then it changes slightly (I really mean a lot…kinda). It will be called The War of Dauntless… it sounds really serious and cutthroat… It's really not and its (personally) gonna be funny as fuck if it turns out right. GF and GFO will still be the priority but I will get round to posting it soon!

Song for the chapter: Hold On For Your Life by Sam Tinnesz

Several hisses of air flung past her, missing her by millimetres. Then there was a second wave that shot past her, a stabbing and somewhat electrifying pain in her leg and the front wheel suddenly locking up until it seized.

Issy's eyes widened and she inhaled sharply, bracing herself for what was to come.

Issy's POV

Pain. That's all she feels and all she knows. Like little shots of lightning all over her body whenever someone brushes against her.

Issy doesn't know where she is and she can't remember what happened last. Her memories feel blurring and static. She can't open her eyes either; she's too weak and her eyelids feel impossibly heavy.

What she does know though, is that she's safe. She can just make out slight murmurings of people around her. Issy can't tell if they're male or female but she feels secure when she can hear them and the panic of not knowing what happened lessens a little more.

But the darkness bids her closer. Wanting to allow her to need nothing. Be nothing. It offers a soft security of no more pain. But... There's something that ties her down to the murmurings around her. Something growls within her, snout turned up as the blazing red eyes becomes the only light in the darkness. She sees it as if it was in front of her. It chuckles deep and ferally but Issy recognises it, trusts it, even if it sounds oh so sinister. She can almost make out an outline of the beast that lives inside her. A four-legged creature, one that grins wickedly and howls in her ear. Lucifer. She remembers that.

He tilts its head and grins but not as wickedly now. Almost challenging. "Prove to me that you're not nothing." He whispers. "Prove to me that you belong."

xXx

Light pierces as Issy only manages to open her eyes the smallest amount. It sends stabbing pains straight to her head and her eyes snap shut again. She's finding it difficult to move any other limb, though she manages to clench her jaw. A small victory for her to celebrate. Her eyes remain shut as she listens to her surroundings. There's a constant beeping somewhere near her and the sound of breathing – it's not hers. Other than that, it's quiet.

Issy tries again and her eyes open a crack. Her surroundings are darkish grey and slightly cavernous but clean. The strong smell of cleaning products makes her crinkle her nose up in disgust. Her body feels odd. There's a cast around her left wrist, bandages wrapped around her ribs and her left leg just hurts. For some reason, she gets the feeling like she's been here before… Something to do with her brother Kayden and –

Kayden.

She had a fight once with Kayden and got knocked out during initiation –

– During her initiation into her new faction…

Dauntless.

She was in Dauntless.

She was safe.

Issy exhaled a deep sigh, yelping quietly as her ribs felt like they were crushing in on themselves. There's sudden movement to her left and it makes her jump. Even more main shoots through her and tears well in her eyes.

"OH MY GOD ISSY!" A voice gasps and Issy turns to see a guy with dark hair and blue eyes sitting in a chair. It takes a moment to place his face.

"Hugo!"

He leans forward and places a gentle kiss on her forehead. She leans into her brother as much as she could before nearly everything in her body started screaming at her. "Oh my god Issy! We have been so worried!" He breathes, his eyes clouding with tears. He leans forward and pulls a cord hanging from the ceiling before settling back down. "Everyone's gonna be so happy that you're awake now."

Issy narrows her eyes at him as confusion hits her. She can picture faces but has some difficulty remembering names. Memories were coming back to her in bits and pieces. Playing pranks in a strict faction. Jumping into the abyss after one with the same golden eyes as her. Being reunited with family and even gaining more. Taunting someone with a ridiculous name. Wandering through rocky halls on sleepless nights. Finding comfort and safety in someone that was feared by most. Finding her place in her new home. It all came back in flashes and Issy knew and loved the people that appeared in her memories but what are their names?! Issy wanted to scream but her throat felt raw enough. "Who –"

She cut off by the door opening and a guy with a greying mohawk, dressed in black scrubs. He held a clipboard in his hands and closed the door behind him. She knew him too, but once again she narrowed her eyes and had trouble placing him. "Hello Issy." His voice is gruff but his eyes twinkle. "It's good to see that you're awake. You've made a lot of people really worried."

There's so many questions spiralling around her mind but she asks the most relevant one she can think of. "What happened to me?"

The doctor sighs and glances to Hugo. "You were coming back from being posted at Amity for six weeks. Do you remember why?"

Issy frowns. "Factionless?" She says slowly and more memories flash in her mind. "We were at the cabin to keep them from raiding Amity."

"Yes. That's it." The doctor nods. "You were all on your way back home and there was an ambush –"

"URIAH! HECTOR!" Issy suddenly remembers them clearly. The younger Pedrad who was always laughing and the lad from her initiation, a brother, colleague and friend. Jokers, both of them, always up for a good laugh but always serious if its required. "Are they okay?"

"They're okay." Hugo says, rubbing her arm lightly.

"You got shot at and from the reports, a few bullets somehow got caught in the front wheel of your bike and it seized up, causing you to crash." He flips through the pages on the clipboard. "From the bullets and the impact of the crash you suffered a few bruised and broken ribs, a broken wrist –"

"Why is there pain in my leg?" Issy interrupts with a frown. It's one of the places that screams if she even attempts to move it…. Issy has the sudden urge to poke it…

"You got shot several times along the side of your leg."

"Rude."

The doctor gives her an exasperated look. "Please take this seriously."

Issy looks at him. Her face is void of emotion but her eyes are full of a certain look. The kind of look that says you can't tell me what to do and lol, nah mate. No one speaks. The doctor raises an eyebrow, daring her. She stares him dead in the eyes…. And pokes her injured leg….

Issy immediately regrets it. Her head is thrown back as a strangled scream rips through her throat. Her leg is lightning and fire; the pain shoots throughout her entire leg and burns so much her eyes water.

Hugo mutters something and she can feel his glare. The doctor simply smirks. "Your own fault."

"I was curious!"

"Well now you know not to do that again, don't you?"

Issy bit her lip. "Yes?"

"For fucks sake Issy." Hugo hisses and she hides her smile.

The doctor sighs. "The bullets were deep enough that we had to operate on you to get them out. It was difficult as your leg also appeared to have broken on impact. While operating, we fixed your leg as best as we could. There is a possibility that there might be some nerve damage be we'll keep an eye on that. As your leg gets better, you'll be put through physical therapy to build strength in your leg muscles again. You also have a concussion, so don't start panicking if you can't remember everything." Issy internally stopped panicking. The doctor looks to Hugo. "To avoid stressing her out and making it worse, I suggest you start by just having your brothers one by one come around to see her and we'll see how she reacts to that, then family can start visiting. Have the family visits of groups no more than three as Issy may start panicking if she can't remember who everyone is." Hugo nods and the doctor turns to Issy again. "I have a list of symptoms that you may get if the concussion gets worse." He proceeds to list the symptoms. "Headaches, vomiting, dizziness and difficulty balancing. Sensitivity to light and noise, confusion, memory loss and problems concentrating. Loss of consciousness, Problems sleeping –" Issy starts laughing, clutching her painful ribs as she does. Hugo glares at her again and she doesn't remember what the rest of the symptoms were.

The doctor listed a few more things that Issy should probably have listened to but her eyes had started to droop. He left her then, saying that he and a few nurses will check up on her. The last thing that Issy remembers is Hugo gently holding her good hand in his before her eyes closed and sleep took her.

xXx

A few days later when Issy wakes up Hugo is gone but in his place is a man with a mop of golden hair. He is leant forward with his elbows resting on his knees and his head in his hands. She pulls a face at the odd behaviour; all her memories of him are happy and he's always smiling – at least all the important memories. He's mumbling something to himself and slowly rocking back and forth but she can't make out what he's saying.

"Declan?" She whispers and his whole-body freezes. He looks up at her slowly and reveals glassy ocean eyes and red cheeks. He stares at her like she's not real. Maybe she's not and this is just some strange illusion playing out in her head before her last seconds are up. Though as he reaches forward and gently holds her hand in his, Issy knows it's real.

"Issy." He swallows harshly. "I thought – I –" Declan chokes on his words as tears fall from his eyes. Her heart clenches to see her eldest brother, the lionheart, so sad."It's like a trip down memory lane that I didn't want to revisit. You in a hospital bed, us not knowing when you'll wake up." Declan tries to smile; it turns into a grimace instead. He tries to laugh; it gets caught in his throat. "At least you weren't abducted this time."

Issy manages a weak smile. She doesn't remember a lot from the months that she woke up back in Erudite. It blurs together until she doesn't know what is real, what belongs to her imagination and what became her nightmares. It's definitely something she could not relive again. Issy can't imagine what her brothers are going through right now. She knows that Alec has more or less just lived through one of his fears. "But I'm here now. I'm alive. I'm home."

He squeezes her hand with a teary smile. "You're home. You're safe."

xXx

Declan had to leave not long after due to a meeting with the other ambassadors. She wasn't on her own for long as Alec came into the room moments later. With the palest blue eyes, Alec carefully climbed onto the bed next to her and stretched out. He made sure that he was careful of her ribs but soon enough, they were laid out next to each other. A memory resurfaced and she smirked.

"Do you not understand the concept of personal space?" She mocks herself lightly. It felt like years ago when she first said it.

Alec laughs quietly. "As your twin, I feel like it is my duty to remind you that we gave up the idea of personal space the moment we both decided to be stuck in the same small space for nine months."

Issy's head topples onto his shoulder and she sighs. "If you're referring to when mum was pregnant, I had no say in that."

Alec huffs and Issy doesn't need to look at him to see that he's grinning. They pause for a moment and take in each other's presence, borrow each other's strength and reassure each other that they're okay.

"Are you okay?" Alec asks out loud and Issy sighs again.

"My ribs and leg fucking kills if I attempt to move them slightly. My left wrist just feels odd and half the time I don't actually notice it. My head, I dunno really. I mean, I have good days and I have bad days but my bad days I struggle to put names to faces and sometimes forget things that have happened. I remember the next day and feel fucking shitty about it but things are slowly coming back to me."

"I'm glad you're getting better."

"I love you Alec."

"I love you too sis."

xXx

Within the next few days, Alec, Hugo and Declan juggled their jobs with shifts of staying with Issy in the infirmary. Her good days were improving but her bad days weren't changing. The days spent with her brothers were filled with testing Issy on what she remembers. Of course, the lads could only test Issy on what they knew sheknew but that didn't stop them. Occasionally, Issy would ask questions on whether she was right or her imagination had created something and pushed her to believe it was real. With the help of her brothers' interactions, Issy felt like she remembered everything – on a good day at least.

Due to her progress with interacting with them, her blood brothers thought it would be a good idea to start inviting her other brothers in. Josh was the first on to reply to the message in the group chat, quickly followed by Kayden so Josh would be staying with her throughout today and Kayden would come around the next day.

Issy had just finished a breakfast of hot porridge and orange juice provided by Vex. She remembered his name! The scary piece of shit in doctors' uniform had stared her down until she had eaten everything on the tray. When Issy had enquired after some coffee, Vex simply glared at her as he walked out of her room with the tray in his hands. Issy took that as a no.

Josh walked in with a warm smile on his face and when she noticed what he was carrying, Issy made desperate grabby motions with her good hand until he passed her the sketchbook with a laugh. He slouched down into the seat next to her bed. "Glad to see you're well enough to draw."

As she flipped the book open and grabbed the pencil that Josh handed her – thankfully it wasn't her dominant wrist she had broken – Issy groaned. "It's so boring here. Okay, fairs, I have company for most of it but I either have pills shoved down my throat, I'm happy like an Amity once they've plugged me into the morphine or I'm asleep. They took the sponge ball that Alec got me away because it's a danger." Issy flicked her good wrist in the air dramatically and Josh watched her in amusement. "Like we're in the most dangerous faction and I've been in an ambush but nah, that ball could do some serious damage so we're gonna take away the only thing that makes being in this room alone better." She huffs and Josh starts laughing.

"Sounds like you've been having a blast then."

Issy rolls her eyes. "You have no idea." She sketches some lines as she thinks of something to talk about. "I know that my other brothers are all like 'everyone is really happy you're up' and 'you have no idea how worried we've been'. How have the family been really?"

Josh doesn't say anything for a moment and she only asked him because Issy knows that Josh will tell her the truth rather than tell her everyone is fine. "The news of your accident wrecked everyone. Alec, Hugo and Declan were absolutely destroyed. They'd pace in the infirmary muttering please not again and even though we were all worried, it drove us crazy. Uriah and Hector were just as bad but they were really numb. I suppose it's because they were there and they saw you at your worst. The rest from your initiation couldn't really believe it. Bree and Noah were devasted – I don't think Bree has stopped crying. We'd send someone daily, almost hourly to check upon you when our careers stopped us from staying in here with you or Vex told us to get out."

He left out one person, the one person she's remembered from the start but has been scared to mention. She's constantly been wondering why he hasn't visited her yet but maybe, a little and cruel voice tells her, he doesn't want someone as broken as her. Issy draws in a breath. "What about Eric?"

Josh grimaces and he dips his head. "Eric's seen better days. He didn't take you leaving the compound to stay at Amity very well. His fuse was practically non-existent and he stopped eating at one point. Bree kicked him into gear and got him eating again but he wasn't dealing well. Then this happens and he spirals down into the abyss even more. He's getting better though, now he know that you're getting better and that you're awake."

She bites her lip. "So he's not avoiding me?"

"What?" Josh sat up straight in shock. "No! Of course not! I think he just wants to look like the Eric you know so that you're not worrying and stressing if he's okay or not."

"I've been worrying and stressing because I've been thinking he doesn't want to see me."

Josh raises both of his hands up in his own defence. "I never said he was smart."

Issy huffs even as a small smile makes its way onto her face. The little and cruel voice is drowned out by Josh's words replaying in her head. "Hey Josh? Can you bring me some permanent markers next time you come around? I wanna draw on my cast."

He leans back with a smirk on his face. "Sure thing Golden Eyes."

xXx

The next day Kayden walks in her room with a noticeable limp. He grins when his light eyes connect with hers as he sits on the side of her broken wrist.

"Hey Kay!" She grins back at him.

"Josh sends his love." He says as he places a few markers on the side table and she squeals. "How are you?"

Issy slowly bobs her head. "I have five weeks until I get this cast off." She waves her arm in the air before she settles it back down on the raised pile of pillows. Kayden uncapped a red marker as he nodded. Issy watched as Kayden started to doodle on her cast. "Nurses come in every few hours to apply healing creams to my ribs and rewrap them for me. I found out yesterday that actually it was a femur fracture in my leg." When Kayden raised an eyebrow in confusion, she gestured to her upper thigh. "I now have a steel rod in my bone and screws to keep it in place. Vex said that it may take up to three to six months to heal –" Kayden hissed. "– Though, it may take less than that 'cause they've been putting me on morphine and then injecting me with healing serums under Max's watchful gaze. I don't react to needles when I have morphine but I ripped into them as soon as it wore off."

"You're quite literally fucked over on one side… So will you be having crutches when you become mobile again?"

"I sure am not having a fucking wheelchair!" She huffed. "Though once I no longer need the crutches, Vex said that I may have a slight limp."

Kayden laughed as he looked up from his drawing. It was a flaming pattern and looked almost tribal. "We'll be limp buddies then!"

That made Issy laugh. "How is your leg? You were limping when you came in."

"Yeah, my own fault really. While you were out at Amity I collapsed and Marlene checked it over. Because I was walking on my leg when I still had bullets in there and then putting weight on it when the bullets were out, I was putting a serious amount of strain on my leg by not allowing it to heal properly. Marlene made me rest but it seems that I may have a limp for life now." He runs a hand through his hair and shrugs when Issy's expression drops. "It comes and goes. Doesn't really hurt either."

"You're an idiot."

"I know, Flare's told me several times."

"You're an idiot." She repeats and Kayden raises an eyebrow.

"I know." Kayden hands her a marker. "Now shut up and draw."

xXx

Uriah and Hector were sat on her good side. Issy had asked her brothers to bring them to her but when they brushed it off and said that maybe she wasn't ready, Issy levelled them all with a golden glare and demanded it so. They didn't refuse her and she was happy to know that even when she's laid in a hospital bed and injured, she is still ferocious.

Both lads looked at her with such pain in their eyes. Issy knows that while Hector was sat in the back of truck 226, Uriah was in the cab and had watched her get thrown from her bike. Issy had only heard bits and pieces from what happened when they were ambushed but no one seemed to want to tell her anything. The nurses said that it could cause Issy to have a panic attack but logically, if she remembers nothing after her bike seizing up then why would she panic?

None of them say anything for a while. She watches as they both analysis her for her injuries and check if she's really okay and Issy tries to order the amount of questions she has swirling in her head. Issy is the one to break the silence.

"Is my bike okay?"

Uriah's lips twitch up into a smile, the first one she's seen on him since he entered the room, and Hec shakes his head. "Out of all the questions you could have asked, that's what up come up with?" She simply blinks and waits for an answer. That bike is her baby and a lot of effort went into making it look and sound deadly. Hec sighs. "It's pretty beat up but fixable. Your friends that love your music have been fixing it up for you. Vince and Steve were there when you were putting it together so they have a good idea of what to do."

"You'll have to redraw your wolves on the bike though." Uriah says and Issy nods, thankful it not in the middle of the city somewhere.

"What happened?" Issy didn't have to explain what she meant. The lads knew exactly what she meant.

Uriah and Hec exchanged a look before Uriah launched into an explanation of what happened after her crash. She gasped, ignoring the stabbing from her ribs when he mentioned that their new prisoner is Captain's brother. Hector took over and explained their journey back to Dauntless in the med truck. During it, Hec started crying silently and Issy held his hand. Hec had to stop talking at one point, he could get his words through his tears and he pressed his forehead to the back of her hand as he carried on crying. Uriah rubbed Hector's back and told Issy about the band that Zack had on his arm.

"Erudite? What the fuck could Erudite want with the Factionless? Jeanine hates them."

Uriah shrugs. "It might not even be Erudite though. The Factionless could be wearing the symbol to set us against each other and destroy the city. I think Max is going to use truth serum on him but in the confidents of Dauntless so then the whole city doesn't know."

"That's a good idea." Hec said quietly, wiping the tears from his face. "Then we can work out what to do with the information once we know what's going on and why."

"I'm sure we'll find out soon." Uriah says before his serious expression is taken over by a mischievous one. "But for now give us a marker, I wanna draw a dick on your cast."