It has come to my attention that there is already a novel called Heart of Darkness in existence. Just to be clear my story has nothing to do with it and the fact that I picked that as the title for my story is purely coincidental. Just FYI. I added on to the end of this chapter and added in some details so at least scan the beginning. And yes Tris is older than Tobias and the only reason for that was so my timelines would match up correctly.

Four was startled awake from a dreamless sleep when he felt something touching his stomach. The movement was gentle but still, it hurt! His eyes popped open and his hand shot out and grabbed at whatever was hurting him. He caught a wrist and focused more clearly on the irritant. To his surprise gray-blue eyes met his and he realized the owner of those eyes was Tris.

It was also her wrist that he was holding preventing her from continuing to clean his abdomen. "I know it hurts Four but I can guarantee that infected it will be much worse."

Four nodded and let go of her wrist so she continued to clean his wound. Then he suddenly remembered and looked around, "Where's my family Tris? Where are they?" He tried to sit up so he could see more, but all he managed to do was make the pain in his stomach worse. A hiss escaped him and Tris put her arm across his chest, pushing him back down.

"Lay down Four or you're going to start bleeding again. Your family's right over there." She sidestepped to the left, removed her arm, and pointed to the hammock that was now visible. At the sight of his family sleeping peacefully Four relaxed. "Now could you stay still so I can keep you from getting an infection?"

He narrowed his eyes at her and tried to see if she was serious or teasing. He wasn't sure. She could do one hell of a poker face and was obviously applying it now. Four wondered why Tris felt that it was necessary for her to hide any and all feelings from him. Though, it was more likely that she always hid her feelings from everyone, for some reason he felt that this mask was more personal, more intentional.

Either way she continued to clean the knife wound with gentle hands. Tris then did something that surprised him. She put her right arm under his back and lifted him off the bed. "Wha-I, uh, what are you doing," he spluttered.

"Oh, shush I'm just replacing your bandages." Tris wrapped them around Four with her left hand them lowered him back onto the bed. She grabbed the dirty rags and bandages before turning away from him.

Four watched her retreating figure with an annoyed and slightly amused look, "Well way to save my dignity."

Tris walked over to a barrel full of water and began cleaning the rags and used bandages. She looked back at him and smirked. "If you think your dignity was hurt by that then you should have been awake yesterday."

"What happened yesterday?"

"You were attacked by Dark Elves," Tris deadpanned.

Four glared at her, "I remember that much thanks. What happened after I passed out?"

Tris gave him a curious look, he apparently didn't remember what he'd said. Then again just her name wasn't much to work off of. Unless of course you thought about the fact that he may have thought it would have been his last word. That conclusion, however, was not one she wanted to think too much about. Nor did she want to bring down the light mood before she had to. "Well after you passed out I carried you to my tree house. You know with one arm."

He gave a small scowl, "Was that necessary or did you do it just to spite me."

She smirked again, "I had to carry my sword somehow."

At her words Four rolled his eyes and put his head back on the pillow. Silence surrounded them for a few minutes before Tris asked, "Hungry?"

"I could eat," Four responded.

Tris nodded and grabbed the bowl of berries. She had gathered them a few days ago and had set them out to ripen from her table. She brought it over to him and set the bowl down on a small table next to the bed. Then she stepped back and crossed her arms as if waiting for something.

Four looked at her confused then realized what she was waiting for. For him to ask her for help sitting up. "Really Tris?"

She gave a shrug, "I prefer to make my patients ask for help. Watching them swallow their pride can be entertaining."

He rolled his eyes, "So you find attacking my ego to be an entertaining pastime? While I am injured no less?"

"Absolutely. It is much easier to wound a man's ego when he is already at your mercy. Though if you can manage to do it when he's not the pleasure is all the more." Tris had always been one to enjoy verbal banter, even more so now that she a had a worthy opponent, in what was quite literally years. Or at the very least someone to exasperate.

Tris turned then and acted as if she were about to walk away. She even went as far as opening her wings from where they had been folded comfortably on her back, out of the way. "Wait!" Four said a touch too desperately. Opposed to his outward countenance he had been enjoying their verbal joust. Tris had of course picked up on this and had planned to use it to her full advantage. He fell for it too, he'd been too entrapped with her not to. As legend would have it Fairies were quick-witted and silver-tongued; Tris was no exception.

At his words she turned back to him with a small amount of flourish and refolded her wings, her smile glittering with mirth, "Yes?"

Four tried to look irritated, especially as he realized what she had done, but in the end her smile was too much for him and he let a small one of his own grace his lips. It was surprising to him how quickly Tris had become such an important part of his life and possibly a little disconcerting, but that wasn't really his focus right now. Instead he was focused on getting her to smile as often as possible. For now that he had seen it he was completely taken by it. "Do I really need to ask?"

Tris walked over and rested one knee on the cot bending over him slightly, "No but it would be nice." Her voice was softer now than before and she leaned in slightly as if she was drawn in by some invisible force. The atmosphere around the two had shifted. Now you could feel the tension in the room. What kind of tension it was remained to be seen.

Four sucked in his breath and said quietly, "Tris will you help me sit up? Please."

She nodded ever so slightly in answer to his question and put her arm under his armpits and lifted, letting him do most of the work. He hissed in pain again but sat up nonetheless. Her skin was warm on his and almost burned but not painfully It was more of a tingle that made him even more breathless. Four hoped that Tris took his sudden lack of breath as a result of sitting up. Maybe she wouldn't notice at all.

Tris of course noticed but didn't really dwell on it as she was preoccupied with her own hope that Four didn't notice the brief lingering of her arm on his bare chest. She handed him the bowl before standing up and moving to the open trunk where she was packing the things she was going to take with her. She would end up leaving most of her herbs and domestic items such as bowls and plates, but that didn't bother her. In fact as long as she had her weapons she was happy.

As he ate Four watched Tris move around the platform easily. She was packing things in a large trunk and he wanted to ask why she was packing. He also wanted to ask other things like... What she planned to do next? Was she leaving them? Did she have a clue what he was supposed to do now? And yes it also occurred to him to ask why she even cared about them. As he could believe her refusing payment, but going this far without reason was unbelievable. But instead he asked a much more random and unrelated question to hopefully break the not quite awkward, but uncomfortable silence that had fallen. "Why aren't your hair and eyes red?"

"What?" Tris turned around startled. She had expected him to ask questions, but not that question. Not that she was offended, he was legitimately asking, but still couldn't quite see where it was coming from.

He clarified himself, "I mean yesterday when you came to my cabin. Your hair and eyes were red but when I first met you they weren't. Why does that happen? Is it because you're a Fire Fairy?"

A look of understanding crossed her face and she nodded, pleased that he remembered that she was Fire Fairy. She had always felt as though there was a fire that almost lived inside of her. It kept her alive in a way and she could draw energy from it. It was going to be much harder to explain that because he wasn't a Fairy. Then again there were multiple Fairies, who she'd explained this to many times, that still didn't understand. "Yes it's because I'm a Fire Fairy. It happens when I get really mad. Umm, gee, how do I explain this without sounding like I'm crazy? Okay, so it's kind of like there's this like constantly burning flame inside of me keeping me alive. And so it shows when I'm really worked and it's a sign that I could possibly lose control. But don't worry that hasn't happened since I was like 13."

"Really and your hair?" He seemed apprehensive yet still asked.

"Oh normally I just do that for show. It distracts my enemies."

"Well then... That's umm interesting. Can it do anything else?" This time he was curious, but not freaked out, so Tris counted it as a win.

"Yeah, when I get hurt or cut in battle I heal quicker than most. Its weird whenever I get cut a random fire just like leaps up from underneath my skin and heals it. Also I could just stop breathing and the fire would literally keep me alive. And it can act like a reservoir so I can make fire from nothing. See." She demonstrated by creating a small flame in her right hand.

Four eyes widened slightly and he nodded, "That's cool but," now he was frowning, "Did you say you that you've been in battle?"

Tris nodded, "More than that, a lot more than that really. I was the General of the Fairy Army for two years." She let that knowledge sink in. It was a good sign that he frowned when she had mentioned that she'd been in battle. It was a sign that he cared. Or she could be overthinking this.

His eyes almost bugged out of his head and, "What!" was all he could get out. Then he followed with an incredulous, "But you can't be older than 25!"

"I'm 26 actually and yes as unbelievable as it sounds I was a general of an entire army for two years. As a matter of fact I was the General in the last war we had with the Dark Elves. It ended six years ago."

He nodded, he remembered that much. It was three years after they had left Marcus. The market had crashed because the Fairies had pulled out of the humans' economy and they couldn't really function without them. His mom had lost her job and he had had to go find one. Yeah that had really sucked, but fighting in the war would have been much worse. Then he did the math in his head and realized that Tris had been eighteen when the war had started. "So how do you even become a General that young? Since I doubt something like that is common."

"More common than you'd think. In the Fairy Kingdom age doesn't matter so much as skill does. And I happened to be one of the best of my age. Not to mention when the Second Dark War started we weren't very prepared. And all of the old war heroes from the First Dark War could no longer fight or were dead, so there were few with actual experience in battle. It had been a time of peace and so the Fairies between the ages of 25-35 weren't trained. The newer generation, my generation, however were trained just in case something happened. It was Queen's foresight to do that, even though many believed we were wasting resources. It was lucky that she had. Anyway I became General when the one before me General Savannah died. I had been one of her favorites and everyone knew that I was going to be the next General just not that soon."

"So did you just like leave right after the war and not come back or what?"

"Yes, I left right after the war ended and I haven't gone back until now."

Four raised both eyebrows, "Until now?"

Tris took a deep breath. She knew where this was going, "Yes I've gotten you, Evelyn, and Violet sanctuary in the Fairy Kingdom for an indefinite amount of time. Or as long as the Dark Elves target you. Granted you will all be held to the laws of our land, be useful, and I have to become General again, but I think it's a pretty good deal."

He just stared at her. Was this for real? Or was he dreaming? He could not believe it. After a minute or two of stunned silence Tris said, "Okay Four can I get some feedback or are you just going to keep staring at me?"

Eventually Four managed a choked out, "Why?" Then cleared his throat, "Why would you do something like that Tris? What do you want from us?" Oh god what if this was some kind of scam cooked up by Marcus to torture him. Lull him into a false since of safety then reek havoc like he had done Four's whole life.

Something of his thoughts must have shown on his face because Tris instantly stood and explained, "No I'm not scamming you Four this is real. And I'm certainly not in league with Marcus. The Dark Elves are the Fairies sworn enemies. I would never help them."

"Then why are you doing this Tris?" He looks desperate for an answer and Tris wasn't sure she could give one that he would accept.

"You may not accept the answer," Tris said stalling.

That answer ticked Four off and he went from desperate to angry in a few seconds. "Just give it to me. I will decide whether or not it's good enough!"

Now Tris was mad. Between the two of them they had a very short temper. It would be the first of many screaming matches. And honestly it was lucky that Evelyn and Violet were such deep sleepers or it would have been an awkward "discussion" to explain. "Because you are my soulmate Four!" Tris snapped at him. Then paled as she realized what she had said. "So umm yeah... Fairies have soulmates and you are mine. No I don't know how or why or that it even makes sense, but here you go. The reason behind my involvement in what has happened to you."

There was a long silence in which Four just stared at her. Trying to process everything she assumed. Tris looked around at everything but him. Eventually she muttered, "Say something," quietly.

"Umm...," but was cut off Violet's happy voice, "Tobias you're awake!" She rolled off the hammock, waking Evelyn up in the process, and ran towards Four. Or should she say Tobias. No probably not; if had wanted her to call him that he would have said something. Violet hugged her brother tightly, but carefully. The girl would be a good healer Tris thought, but then abruptly turned away. They were having a moment and deserved as much privacy as she could give them.

Four couldn't help the grin that spread across his face when Violet hugged him. He was so happy to see her bright eyes and smile and for a moment it allowed him to forget the events of the last few days. She stepped back after and said, "Are you going to be okay now?"

He nodded, "Definitely. All I need is time to heal Violet."

Violet's grin stretched impossibly wide after that and she kissed him on the forehead and said, "Good," in the bright happy confident way she was known for.

"Yes I think we all were," his mother replied. She hugged him too and whispered in his ear, "I love you and I was so worried about you."

As she pulled back he said, "Thanks mom but I'm okay now."

Evelyn nodded and turned away but he could still see worry in her eyes. She was after all his mother.

She walked over to Tris. "Did you manage to contact the Queen?" Evelyn asked as Tris gathered food from her shelves for breakfast.

Tris placed the items, berries and dried meat, and put them on the table as well as two glasses of water before answering. "Yes I contacted her and a patrol will be here by mid-afternoon. Oh and here's breakfast sorry I don't have anything else."

Evelyn nodded, "It's completely fine Tris and besides we should be the ones thanking you."

"No don't bother. I've never been good a taking thanks or compliments."

"Well alright," she replied and sat down with her daughter at the table to eat breakfast. The four of them made small talk consisting mostly of Violet asking questions about the Kingdom and Tris answering all of them with a small smile on her face. The underlying tension, however, did not leave. Evelyn picked up on it and suspected what it was about, but didn't question or bring it up. 1.) Not a conversation you have with a 14 year old around and 2.) Not a conversation you had with your mother around. And she knew that this was something the two of them had to work out themselves.

Violet continued to ask questions and Tris answered with ease; happy that the young girl had been able to diffuse some of the underlying tension. Though Tris knew it wouldn't completely go away until she and Four talked. That was something she could not see happening until at least another day and a half. And that was being optimistic. As they wouldn't get back until mid-morning, then Four and his family had to get settled, she had to get settled, and if Tris was being completely honest with herself five days without sleep was a long time even for a Fairy. She was really tired. And although she hadn't really been expending that much energy, in the past few days, she was still tired enough to sleep for a good seven hours. Which for Fairies was intense. Most only got four or five hours every two days and they were fine.

Tris told Evelyn and Four the details of what would happen when they arrived at the Kingdom. Evelyn thought that the terms of their stay were reasonable and agreed to help at the Healing Center. Four also agreed with the terms, but was still acting aloof, unsurprisingly. Violet was, at least, excited at the prospect of helping out. The girl was so young and bright and absolutely innocent. It almost made Tris jealous; she had never really had the chance to be a child. I mean sure as much as she missed her father, when he died, she'd been too young at the time to really, process his death. Then her mother had left, defected to the enemy no less, and she and Caleb had had to grow up quick. No more harmless pranks or sneaking out to fly by moonlight like every other Fairy child. No their every move was watched with suspicion from everyone. Then when they acted exactly like they were supposed to they were also acting suspicious because they were blending in like the spies they were; destined to follow in their mother's footsteps. Tris and Caleb had been ten at the time and everyone thought that they were fucking spies bent on taking over the Kingdom. She felt as though she had been unnecessarily robbed of a normal childhood. Though if she thought hers was bad it was probably nothing on Four's so... it could always be worse.

Then Tris's head jerked up from where she had been triple checking her weapons (she was not leaving anything behind when it came to weapons). "Is there something wrong," Evelyn asked trepidations.

"Oh no, I just sensed the patrol," Tris unfolded her wings and flew upwards into the upper branches of the huge oak tree not missing Evelyn's sigh of relief. As Tris searched the southwest skies for the patrol she vaguely heard Violet say, "Oh my God were flying there aren't we," then Evelyn's reply. Tris saw them then, seven pin-pricks in the distance. She couldn't tell who they were from this far way, but she had an inkling about their identities anyway. Tris sent up a shower of sparks that they were bound to see and flew back down to the platform.

"They should be here in about two minutes," Tris told them when she got back onto the platform. She didn't bother folding her wings against her back as they would be leaving soon. She turned away from the family to do something, rearrange the jars on her shelves again maybe, even though she wasn't taking them with her. More than likely forest animals and other creatures would raid her stores, but why should she care? Tris was honestly unlikely to come back and if someone/thing could benefit from what she left behind then she was happy about it.

The sudden soft sound of flapping wings was the only warning before seven Fairies landed neatly on the platform; folding their wings in sync so they could stand more comfortably. Four looked up at them and swallowed ever so slightly. They were an impressive group all tall (except for one women, but she somehow looked scarier than the rest) and armed to the teeth. There were three men and four women. Two of the men looked as though they were brothers both dark-skinned with the same hair, but one was taller than the other.

For a few seconds there was complete silence. Then the short woman stepped towards Tris, she had dark hair chopped short and was wearing a golden halo around her head. No one said a word as they stared at each other. The male Fairies in the room tensed and one of them even rested a hand on the hilt of his sword. Four read the challenge in the newcomer's eyes and then watched as Tris matched it. The staring contest somehow reminded him of two bucks fighting over the same territory. He doubted either of the women would appreciate that comparison.

After a full minute of staring the dark-haired women smiled slowly, "Good to see you Tris."

Tris smiled too, "Good to see you to Lynn." The two embraced then and the male Fairies relaxed.

When Lynn stepped back one of the two brothers stepped forward arms wide, "Trissy!" He wrapped his arms tightly around Tris and spun her in a wide circle. She laughed loudly and with pure joy. He hadn't heard a sound like that from her before and he sincerely hoped that it wasn't the last time. A surprising bit of jealously crawled up his spine at the fact that this unknown Fairy could do it so quickly when he hadn't be able to.

After the spin he sat her down, but kept an arm around her shoulder. Lynn turned to her and said, "Going to introduce us?"

Tris nodded, "Of course. This is Violet, her older brother Four, and their mother Evelyn. Evelyn, Violet, Four meet my friends Lynn, Uriah," she gestured to the Fairy with an arm wrapped around her still, "his Mate Marlene, his brother Zeke, his Mate Shauna who is also Lynn's sister, Christina, and her Mate Will."

"So," Uriah said in a stage whisper to Tris, "is Four really your ma-," she elbowed him in the ribs, hard. He unwrapped his arm from her shoulder an affronted look on his face.

"Yes Four is injured so good of you to ask," she gave him a long look.

Shauna stepped forward saving Tris from any further embarrassment, "I'm gonna go ahead and take a look at the wound before we leave."

A Four's slightly wide eyes Tris explained, "Shauna is a healer Four."

Four nodded and Shauna walked over to him and began talking quietly. The rest of the Fairies greeted Evelyn and Violet with smiles. After Tris had a short reunion with the rest of her friends they began getting ready to leave. Uriah and Zeke, in usual fashion, began making jokes that had Violet giggling and Evelyn smiling. Lynn walked over to her, "So," she said quietly, "he know?"

Tris nodded, "Yeah but we didn't get to talk about it because Violet woke up."

Lynn nodded back and Tris's eyes caught on the golden halo in her hair. Lynn smirked a little, "Miss it?"

"In a way. I suppose it was time for me to come back anyway. Though I must admit my social skills might be a little lacking."

She snorted, "Tris your social skills were always lacking."

Tris laughed, "Oh yeah and yours were really something to learn from."

A grin, "You know it." Then she gestured to the chest, "I assume that's what your taking with you."

"Yep that's all of it. I don't need anything else."

"Five pieces of sliver says that it's just full of weapons."

"It's not all weapons," Tris said a little indignant. "Besides pot calling the kettle black much?"

Lynn rolled her eyes, "Ugh I forgot how alike we are. Then again it will be nice to have a buffer for when Shauna, Marlene, and Chris want to go shopping."

"Shit," Tris muttered. Shauna, Marlene, and Chis had always been shopaholics. Tris and Lynn were not. But in the end they were almost always dragged along against their will. It would be made worse by the fact that she didn't have a lot of clothes anymore. Plenty to shop for they would say. Great she thought dryly.

"Hey," Zeke shouted covering Uriah's ears with his hands, "don't curse around the children."

"Watch it," Uriah retorted shoving Zeke's hand away pretending to tackle his brother. Violet laughed loudly at their antics. Tris and Lynn rolled their eyes.

Evelyn smiled a little at the brothers scuffle, then turned to Tris and Lynn, "I was wondering if I could ask you a favor Tris?"

Tris nodded, "Of course anything I can do to make this easier." Lynn scoffed, but Tris elbowed her in the ribs and gave her a look.

She narrowed her eyes back and mouthed back how dare you treat me like Uriah?

Tris just turned back to Evelyn with a snort, "The favor Evelyn?"

"Yes I was wondering if you would go back to our house and get some of our stuff. Clothes and other personal items. Violet has a stuffed rabbit that she does want to leave behind."

"Mooom! You weren't supposed to tell anyone that," Violet said indignant.

Uriah just laughed, "Don't worry Zeke slept with a stuffed bear until he started training. Didn't want everyone to see Mr. Snuggles."

"Hey! What the hell man. I told you that in strictest confidence."

"No brother you shouted that when you were drunk on graduation night."

Everyone laughed and Christina said, "I remember that. And if I remember correctly you Uriah admitted to wetting the bed until you were seven."

More laughter sounded and Uriah shouted, "Oh yeah and I remember what you and Will were doing graduation night to don't you?"

Will went a light shade of pink and said, "Let's all stop now while we're ahead. Please?"

"Yes," Tris said as the laughter died down, "Lynn and I are going back to Four's house to get personal items. If were aren't back 45 minutes, leave without us and haul ass. Understood?" Without meaning to her voice had switched back to the one she used to command with.

They all snapped to attention and Uriah, who was a surprising second in command, said, "Understood." Then his face broke into a grin, "You missed that didn't you Tris?"

She didn't respond, but a small smile crept across her face. "Ready to go Lynn?"

Lynn nodded and Tris turned to everyone, "If all goes well, we'll see you in about thirty minutes. Be ready to leave when we get back." They both flew off then; headed for Four's house. The question was what would they find there?