What's your favorite part of this fanfic? - oh, it's coming, trust me. probably chapter 34 or 35. I know exactly which one but you can normally tell which chapters are my favorites just because they tend to be the longest.

Are you excited for the One? - words can't describe!

"Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you." - Ovid

America was woken up by a loud bang. She sat straight up in bed, her hand instinctively reaching for Maxon's but he wasn't there. Instead he was sitting at his desk with his spec-ops uniform on, wide awake and gazing at the door. "Maxon?" she asked. His head snapped around to look at her. "What's going on?" She started to rise out of bed as he approached her quickly.

"We're being attacked," he told her shortly. "My mother has gotten her army together."

"We have an army too, right?" She left all of the war planning to her husband, not being the best at strategizing and signing lives away.

He nodded and wrapped a sweater around her shoulders. "Yes, they're on patrol and are hopefully going to give us time to get down to the safe room. We have to move quickly though, okay?"

"Christian?" she asked.

"I sent him down with the maids earlier this morning when Sawyer came to warn me that the army was coming. He's already down there; I wanted you to sleep a little longer."

They ran to the entrance to the tunnels as more bangs echoed down the hallway. Inside the tunnel, she paused and let him pull the door closed behind him, sealing them off from their bedroom. Moisture licked at the ancient stone walls and chills seeped into her bones. Maxon started to pull her along the path, faster than she really felt comfortable going.

"You can't run from me for long!" someone's voice echoed through the passageway.

They both stopped moving, Maxon's hand clasping America's tightly. "That came from the direction of the safe room," he whispered urgently to her.

She nodded as the voice called out again, "I know you're in here somewhere!"

"We're surrounded," she said to him quietly.

Ahead of them, emerging from the shadows, Liam jumped into the passageway with his gun drawn. In a flash, Maxon had his own gun drawn and they stared each other down, neither of them daring to blink. "Shoot me I'll shoot you," Liam told him.

Maxon pressed a gun into America's hand from behind his back and she shifted it to tuck into the waistband of her yoga pants. The door behind them burst open and soldiers and guards alike stormed in, shooting at each other. Their only choice was to run straight. Liam started back tracking and Maxon and America ran after him.

"Why don't you just shoot him already?" America demanded, not caring if Liam heard her.

"I can't. I need him in order to know where my mother is hiding."

America frowned and struggled to keep up with him. "He tried to kill you!"

"And he'll try again but I'll win." Maxon pulled her along even faster and then shifted so that he was running behind her, leaving her between the two boys. Liam suddenly barreled out of one of the doors into the hallway and they followed him.

The hallway was empty but Liam was standing at one end, his gun drawn again. Maxon and America both pointed their weapons at him, America's hand wavering only a little. She missed the secure feeling of having a gun in her hand. Amberly appeared around the corner, drawing up short at the sight in front of her. "Everyone stop!" she yelled.

No one moved.

"Stop it, I said!" She turned to Liam. "You disobeyed my orders!"

He only shrugged. "Well I have Maxon just where you wanted him; vulnerable and at gun point."

"Don't forget; you're in the same place," Maxon said in a low voice. America had only seen this cold, calculating Maxon a few times. Come to think of it, this wasn't Maxon at all. This was Dax speaking. The boy who was abandoned by his parents and left with a man that beat him and a woman who only pretended to love him. This was the boy who had grown up alone in a beautiful cage with no companions. This was the boy who had grown into the man who had no problem pointing his gun at another person because he had spent his lonely days teaching himself how to fight and defend himself.

"I stopped taking orders from you when you sent me away," Liam growled at Amberly.

America frowned. "So whose orders are you acting on?"

"Mine," a quiet, strong voice said from behind them. America and Maxon both turned to see May standing at the other end of the hallway. Maxon held his arm out to point it at Liam as America slowly lowered hers.

"May…why?" America asked in a dreadful voice, drawing the question out.

She didn't look like the sixteen-year-old she was. Instead she looked years older, her eyes impassive and unwavering. "I had my reasons America."

Maxon decided that he didn't have time to deal with May. He turned back to Amberly. "Where are the documents Mother?"

Amberly smiled innocently at him. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"The documents America needs to become queen. I know you have them and you have them hidden somewhere in this palace. You wouldn't be stupid enough to move them from here and risk them getting damaged."

"And why is that son?"

Maxon rolled his eyes at the game she was playing. "Because you know that if they get destroyed, I get to name the queen myself as king."

Amberly nodded. "So it seems. Well I don't know which documents you're talking about."

"These documents?" May asked, holding up a stack of folded up parchment. "You couldn't be talking about these papers, right? The ones America and I stole out of your room earlier today?"

America and Maxon smiled at Amberly expectantly. Liam frowned. "You said you wanted to kill Maxon. You said nothing about stealing the throne from America." He shifted his gun to point it at Amberly.

She held her hands up defensively but she stared May down. "You double-crossed me!"

"You really think I would betray my family like this? You should have known that with Beckner gone, you would have nothing to hold over me. Pretty stupid of you, don't you think?"

"That boy did nothing for me!" Amberly exclaimed.

May advanced a couple steps to stand between Maxon and America and Maxon put an arm out to stop her from going further. Who knew what she would do if she got close enough to Amberly. "I loved him and you treated him like dirt! Like he was expendable! Well I've got news for you: you're no more important to all of us than he was to you. You're not queen; you're irrelevant. And you were an idiot for thinking that I would ever betray my sister." She held up the papers and drew out a lighter, lighting the corner of the papers on fire.

Amberly stumbled forward a few steps and reached for the papers but she knew it was a lost cause. "All hail Queen America," May said in a quiet, deadly voice as she dropped the burning papers to the floor.

The fire spread between them, blocking them from Amberly and Liam. They both turned and ran down the other hallway. "We have to get them!" America exclaimed, looking for a way around the fire.

Maxon shook his head. "No, we'll wait for them to come to us. They'll come again and then we will kill them."

A few guards came toward them with water buckets and a long hose stretching through the tunnels. Tanner approached them and smiled grimly at Maxon. "The warriors have been contained Your Majesty," he reported.

Maxon nodded. "Excellent work Officer." He reholstered his gun and slid an arm around America's shoulders on one side and May's on the other.

Later that morning, the whole Singer family was sitting in the music room with Maxon and America's family. Christian and Astra were playing with blocks on the floor between the sofas holding the adults. Maxon was nursing a glass of brandy and America wanted a glass herself but the small bump jutting out from between her hips reminded her that it wasn't an option.

"So, America, you knew that May was working to kill you?" Gerad asked, looking somewhat perturbed at the news that it was May who had really tried to poison him.

America shrugged. "Kenna and I had our suspicions but I left it to May to tell me. I guess losing Beckner was the final straw and she knew she had to get out so when I offered, she took me up on my assistance."

Kota frowned, leaning forward. "And she just told you everything?" he asked.

May nodded. "Yep."

"Including how she made Amberly promise to not kill Maxon," America added. May had left out the part of them agreeing to just let him die naturally, figuring that that fact would crumble whatever trust she had built again within her family.

"So everything is back to the way it's supposed to be?" James said from his seat at the piano.

Maxon smiled at America and pulled her closer to his side. "Well, except for one small detail," he told everyone. They all turned and looked at him, confused. "I believe there's a paper I wrote up with the advisers a couple hours ago that has your name on it, waiting to be signed to make you queen." He squeezed America's shoulders.

"How could I forget?" she asked, leaning in to kiss him gently.

Everyone else in the room then smiled at the two of them and relaxed, letting the happy couple have their moment and enjoy the peace that had finally settled within the palace walls.

man, this is a fast update but I just finished writing my last chapter. yay! I probably won't be finishing before the One comes out like I would've liked to but it'll be pretty much over by then, I think...lol. just review please!