Hey, guys. I've decided to rewrite In Due Time from the beginning. The plot will be basically the same, with a few minor changes. Before I get into that, I need to clear up a few things.

I know that it's pretty cliche to be devastated by a fictional character's death, but the way this series ended actually ruined me. I don't know why. I attempted to get through it by reading and writing fanfiction but tht just wasn't enough. So I took a very, very long and much needed break from the series. But I've matured in the last few years (God, that sounds bad. I'm sorry!) and I know that this time I can follow this through until the end, which will hopefully be better than VR's.

Secondly, I will be removing the use of NUSA from my story out of respect for Windchimed. The idea will remain, but I'll use a different name. I realize now that blatantly stealing that original idea was really shitty of me. Windchimed, if you ever happen to read this, I'm truly sorry. (And for the record, go read her stories. They're incredible.)

Also, this time around, the story will absolutely be rated M. Sex scenes will be included (from both points of view), so if that makes you uncomfortable, either skip those parts or just don't read it. Additionally, my versions of Tris and Tobias are going to differ quite a bit from VR's versions. I want to say they'll be more adult versions. Swearing, violence, heartbreak, substance abuse (ONLY ALCOHOL) will be prominent.

Some of the things said and done in this story may be triggers for some people, so be warned.

Lastly, this story is NOT CANON. It is meant to be a sort of crossover between a modern day AU and VR's universe. Meaning there will be modern elements, stuff like brand names, music, food. The factions will still exist, but I wanted to add a more modern feel to things. Plus it makes it WAY easier to write.

And I think that's it. I really hope you guys enjoy reading this as much as I do writing it. If you have any comments or suggestions, don't hesitate to leave a review or PM me. Also, a ghost editor wouldn't be entirely out of the question. So if you're down for that, please let me know. You'd be the absolute first person to read stories and you'd be a life saver. I also don't know what exactly my uploading schedule will be like, because I work a lot, but you can safely expect one or two chapters a week, sometimes more. Also, I've decided to leave the original story up for comparison. Feel free to read both, or just one or the other, and let me know what you think of the new story.

And without further ado, here's chapter one of the In Due Time rewrite.

PS: I do not own any of these characters. 90% of what is written here is credited to VR.

In Due Time: A Divergent fanfiction by Quinn Windsor

Chapter 1: Floating

Tris POV

I slam my hand down on top of a red button and hear a faint alarm going off, followed by the slow hiss of a gas leak. I smile briefly before I feel two bullets slam into me, one into my chest and the other into my thigh.

"I'm sorry, Tris," says David as I slowly slide down the wall to the ground. I take my hand from my chest and wave it in front of my face, watching the blood drip to the ground. I look down and see a gaping hole in my chest where the bullet hit me. And then the pain hits me. It's brief, but.. God, does it hurt. For all of a second, every inch of my body feels like it's being branded with a red-hot iron. I gasp once, my last breath before succumbing to the darkness.

"Beatrice.." says a faint voice from my right, and I open my eyes groggily. I seem to be.. floating. Darkness surounds me in every direction, a void completely empty save for two people: my mother and father, standing (on what, I'm still not sure) off to the right. Gravity seems to be a force here, so I stand up and slowly make my wat over to them. "Mom.. Dad.." I utter their names as tears spring to my eyes. "We're so proud of you," says my father as he pats my arm. "Proud of me? What happened?.. Where.. where am I?" And then I remember.

Tobias. Caleb. David. Memory serum. Shot. Blood. Pain. Last breath. The last twenty-four hours replay in my head at the speed of light, yet I take in every detail.

"No. No, no, no, no, NO!" I scream at the heavens. This can't be real. I didn't plan on leaving Tobias.. We had plans for a life together. Marriage, children, love..

My mother's hand on my shoulder pulls me from my waking nightmare, and I take a deep breath. "You don't have to go yet, honey.." she murmurs in my ear as she pulls me in for a hug, the way she use to when I was a kid. I nod, wiping away the last of my tears as I step back from her embrace. I look both of them in the eyes as I make my decision. "I love you two," I say as the tears start to fall again. "I love you so much. But I can't.. I can't go yet. I have a life to live. Please, understand that?" The last comes out as a question and, to my relief, they nod.

"Go," says my father in his deep, reassuring voice. "We're still proud of you, baby. And say hello to Tobias for us." I laugh shakily as I nod and in a split second, they're gone, leaving me in this void. I lay back down on the inky spread, and close my eyes.

Tobias POV

I sigh in relief as Amar parks the van outside the Bureau, and I'm the first one out. The claustrophobia subsides immediately, and I can breathe again. The rest of the delegation we sent back to the city climbs out of the van behind me, laughing and joking. And they have a right to do so. We successfully negotiated a treaty between Marcus, Johanna, and Evelyn, effectively ending the war. I smile to myself, picturing the look on Tris' face when I tell her the news.

Amar wraps an arm around my shoulder, the way he used to do when he was my trainer in Dauntless. "I can't tell you how proud I am, Four," he says in a voice meant for my ears only. "You singlehandedly ended a war that could have destroyed our lives as we know them. Every single person inside and outside of that city owes their lives to you." I nod, swallowing thickly. I still haven't learned how to take a compliment. I make a mental note to work on that with Tris.

We walk into the compound and see Cara pacing back and forth, chewing on the knuckle of her index finger. She's the only member of our team in site, and she looks like she's been crying for a good hour straight. Oh, God.. Caleb must not have made it. That would explain why Tris is nowhere to be seen.

Cara looks startled when she notices us, as if we purosely jerked her out of her thoughts. She wrings her hands for a few seconds before striding towards us.

"Tobias, I.." She visibly steels herself, and I frown. "I'm.. so, so sorry.." My frown deepens. Why would she be sorry? She knows very well that I would prefer it if Caleb didn't exist at all. Cara shakes her head again, tears forming in her eyes, and realization starts to sink in.

"Tris.. she.. she wouldn't let Caleb go into the lab. She.. she did it herself. The serum was released, but.. she was shot twice. We did everything we could, but she lost too much blood. I'm so sorry, Tobias."

I find myself on my knees, looking at nothing. Cara's words ring in my brain over and over, like a twisted, demonic mantra, but they don't sink in until I look to my left and see Christina on her knees as well. Tears stream down her face as she hyperventilates, and Amar rubs her shoulder, looking sad.

My eyes find Cara again. "You're.. joking right?" I ask with a small chuckle. This has to be someone's idea of a sick prank. Maybe it was Peter's, before he took the serum. Cara shakes her head sadly. "Tris is dead, Four," says Christina in an empty voice from below me. "She's.. gone.."

I feel a part of being physically ripped from my chest and tossed into the trash as my denial gives way to.. nothing. I feel nothing. "Where is she? Can I see her?" I ask in my robotic Four voice. I had the Four mask in place the whole trip back to Chicago, but all of a sudden it's glued to my face and I can't get it off no matter how hard I try.

"I'll take you to her," says Cara sadly and I just nod. I don't know what else to do at this point. Christina stands up and begins to follow us and Cara turns on her heel, staring the slim, dark-skinned woman down. "No, Christina. He needs to be alone with her. I'll find you when it's time." Christina opens her mouth to protest, but it gives way to heart-wrenching sobs as she sinks to the ground again. I tone them out as I wordlessly follow Cara towards to hospital wing of the compound.

We push through a set of double doors into complete pandemonium. Doctors and nurses are screaming orders at each other as if it's the last thing they'll ever say. "What.. the fuck?.." comes out of Cara's mouth, and if this were virtually any other situation, I would've stared at her, but I just.. can't.

I dimly hear words and phrases being shouted around the room. "Two hours...faint pulse...incredibly unstable...miracle...". Cara turns to me after conferring with a nurse, a strange look of shock on her face. "Tobias.. I don't know how, but.. she's.. Tris is alive.."

I nod and without a word stride to where I can sense her body, elbowing and shoving to the side anybody who gets in my way. Doctors surround her lifeless body, pumping countless drugs into her system and doing chest compressions. As if on cue, her heart rate stabilizes when I come within sight of her body. It's faint and painstakingly slow, but it's there.

I stare at her form on the bed, watching her chest rise and fall over and over again. I hear a throat clear from behind me and snap out of my reverie. A doctor still stands over Tris, monitoring her closely, but the chaos has died down completely. Turning around, I'm faced with a middle-aged man with graying dirty-blonde hair and piercing green eyes. My first thought is that this man could be Will's father.

"Are you Tobias Eaton?" the doctor asks, and I nod slowly. He puts a hand on my shoulder and leads me to a table in the corner of the ER with a plain chair on either side of it. "My name is Dr Arnwell. Let me explain everything to you. Okay?"

"I don't care. All that matters is that she's alive," I say clearly and Arnwell sighs. "I disagree. I think you need to hear this, Mr. Eaton." He states and narrows his eyes at me. "Fine," I surrender. "Make it quick. And if she dies again, I'll have your head on a platter." Arnwell swallows visibly before continuing.

"Well, first off, Beatrice-" I cut him off with a growled "Tris" and he nods again before continuing. "Tris defied all odds by surviving the death serum in the first place. The fact that her body could withstand that and retain enough strength to press the button and release the serum is nothing short of astounding. And yes, many of us knew about the serum and were inoculated against it," he adds, reading the confused look on my face.

"After she released the serum, she was shot twice by David, who ironically wasn't inoculated against the serum. The bullets hit her in the thigh and the chest, somehow missing both major arteries and organs. However, she lost almost half of the blood in her body from the wounds before anybody could get into the lab. She was declared deceased at the scene."

I nod slowly, committing every detail he says to memory. I need to be able to relive this day in and day out, because I can't forgive myself for not being there to save her, or deter her.

"And as I was examining her body and stitching up her wounds, my hands happened to brush across her neck, and I felt the faintest pulse I've ever felt in my twenty-something years as a doctor. So, naturally, once we were certain there was a pulse, we began doing everything we could to resuscitate her. I don't understand how she's alive," he says blatantly. "This is a medical miracle. The only explanation we could come up with without doing further research is that her body replaces blood cells at double the speed of a regular human, meaning that it'll take her twice as long to bleed out. In other terms, her body replaced the blood she lost before her body began to shut down completely." He pauses for a breath, and I take the opportunity to walk to the water fountain, splashing some on my face and taking a quick drink before sitting back down. "Continue," I say quietly and Arnwell obliges.

"Unfortunately, the shock to her system sent her into cardiac arrest, which basically means that her pulse is too fast. The opposite of what it was. We managed to get it under control just as you approached us." He shuts his mouth and I sigh, feeling relieved and very confused.

"Thank you, doctor.. I mean it. I don't think I can ever repay you for this.. I was ready to walk off a cliff after seeing her body, but you brought her back.." And for some reason I can't fathom, I pull him into a hug, a few tears leaking out the corners of my eyes. Dr. Arnwell returns the hug semi-awkwardly before pushing me to arms length.

"As of yet, she hasn't officially 'come back', yet," he says sadly. "We have no way of predicting when, or even if, she'll come out of this coma. But we hope that with around-the-clock care and the right medicine, we can wake her up. It also helps to have a loved one by her side as much as possible."

I suck in a deep breath, suddenly feeling winded. She could not wake up. Even though she's not dead, this could still be it for us. The thought plays over and over in my head as I stare at her unmoving form again. "I don't plan on leaving until she's awake," I say gruffly, taking a seat in a chair beside her hospital bed. I want nothing more than to pull her into my arms and hold her, willing her to wake up, but I know that won't do anything other than potentially harm her even more.

"I didn't expect you to. One last thing.. I wasn't planning on relaying the information regarding Ms. Prior's survival to the public until we're sure she'll make it. Is that okay with you?" I nod slowly, unable to take my eyes off of Tris' face. Her brow is slightly furrowed, so she looks like she's having a bad dream. Her face is paler than usual from the blood loss, but still beautiful with her long lashes and her blonde hair framing it. I slowly move a hand to cup her cheek, making sure that she's real. The pad of my thumb travels from her forehead down the bridge of her nose and comes to rest on her lips. I stay like that for an undetermined amount of time, until I realize that Tris and I are alone. I move my hand from her face to take one her small ones in mine, squeezing it gently. I can feel the faint pulse at her wrist.

"Tris.. I love you. Please wake up. I need you. I love you.. please wake up.. I need you.." I begin to chant it in a whisper, my own personal mantra. I continue chanting until I fall asleep in the chair, her tiny hand still in mine.