The Iron Soldier: A FourTris Divergent Story

Chapter 42

AN: Well, this is it. This is the last chapter, but I will have an Epilog after this. It has been a wonderful experience to share this story with you. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thank you Eunice339 for the beta work and your amazing suggestions.

Tris' POV

It's been over three months since I last saw Four. My mother had been doing her best to keep me informed, but even she didn't completely know what happened to him. All she could tell me was that after the procedure he would be very confused; basic life functions like breathing, eating, walking and talking would be about the only things that he could do at that point. It would take a couple of weeks before more learned behaviors could return like self-care. Intellectual knowledge, all the things he had learned in school like the ability to read, write and do math, would come back slowly over a two-month period. Anything that hadn't returned after two months was assumed to be lost forever. Then that would be it. He wouldn't get any personal memories back of events, places or people he had known. At that point, they would've dismissed him from WWTR once they were sure he was no longer able to recall his past memories of his time with Dauntless.

It's been about a month since he was released and no one has seen him since. My mother keeps telling me to stay positive, but I don't have it in me anymore to keep my hopes up.

Since I was recovering, I missed graduation and received an incomplete in three of my five classes. So, I've returned to complete them during summer session. But my heart just isn't into it anymore. Life just isn't the same without Four.

The only good news comes from Christina. She got the internship with the New York Beat and has been packing up her things to move in a few weeks. Meanwhile, I haven't even turned in my final assignment for Journalism yet. We've talked about the future. Once I'm finished with school, I'll move to New York and we will continue to be roomies and best friends. She's convinced that I will find a job at one of the New York publications. There are enough of them. Someone is bound to hire me, I hope.

I close my journal and fall backwards on my bed. The dorm is eerily quiet, as most of the other students have moved out already. Christina is in New York this weekend with Will. He was able to get a job out there as well and they're now looking for a place for him to live. I can't help but feel guilty. There is no doubt in my mind that they'd move in together if I weren't in the way. If I were a halfway decent friend, I'd tell Christina to do it, and not to worry about me. Do I even want to move to New York? Not really, but the thought of living alone feels like a death sentence.

I let out a long exhale. I don't know if I'm ready, but I need to start working on my Journalism assignment. The quality of the article doesn't even matter anymore. There will be no internship for me. As long as I finish my assignment with a C or better, I'll finish the class with a B- at worse. I've never gotten a B before, but it's good enough now. I just want to be done with school. I've completely lost my drive to excel at everything I do and I can't help but wonder if I'll ever recover.

I pull my laptop onto my legs and begin to type: "The Iron Soldier" by Beatrice Prior.

I can think of no better way to honor Four, than to get the truth out about who he really was and not how history will remember him. He was one of our country's greatest unsung heroes and I'm going to make sure everyone I come across knows it.

It takes me about three hours total to write and proofread the entire article, and even though it's not necessary, I know this article is the finest piece I've ever written. Never before have I written with so much passion, so much emotion, as I did today.