Prior Rings

Chapter 12: Anna - Restoration

A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! You flooded me with responses, and I really, really appreciate it. Thank you also to Rosalie and BarbaraK2U, who both reviewed this chapter at different points in time while I was struggling between it and the previous one. You're both fantastic!

Chapter 12: Anna – Restoration

It always feels strange to be back in Chicago these days. It's so small compared with Philadelphia, and the factions seem so…wealthy.

It's also very different than how it was when I lived here. The streets are no longer filled with factionless people, and there's a mix of colors among the clothing I see everywhere I look. In some ways, it's more like the country we're struggling to form.

We're getting close to that goal, I must say. The economy is doing much better, and there's a sense of community that Margot says never existed before. It keeps getting better as we wipe out the remaining traces of NUSA, too. Peter estimates that over ninety percent of the former leaders have been killed or imprisoned, and he's working hard on the rest.

And between Tris and our leadership group, we've finalized the structure we want for the new government. We've even picked out a name: the United Citizens of America, or the UCA. I think it has a nice ring to it.

The next big step will be to hold elections, but that will take a while to arrange. Tris is optimistic, though, and she has Caleb working on organizing the voting structure and getting equipment in place. Of course, that might have something to do with her desire to finish her term in office. I can't blame her. She's worked harder over the last months than I've ever seen anyone manage, and she certainly deserves a break.

We all do, really. I know I'm thoroughly exhausted, too, and I can't say I'm excited to be back here for the fifth time, still trying to figure out the details for Chicago to be part of the UCA. My first trip was a disaster, with Evelyn and Tori at each other's throats the way they were when we were preparing for NUSA's attack. I wouldn't have returned the second time if Tris hadn't had such a strong sentimental attachment to this city.

But after three more trips, I finally managed to work out an arrangement that both Evelyn and Tori were willing to accept, and the other city leaders quickly followed suit. I'm hopeful that this trip will be the last one we need to iron out the details.

I look around the small office that the leaders let me use whenever I'm here. It's in the Erudite headquarters, and part of me wonders if Douglas was ever in this room, before he transferred to Dauntless so many years ago. Before I met him.

My fingers find the ring that I wear around my neck – the one I slipped onto his finger at our wedding ceremony decades ago. It's a good thing I didn't have it with me when Tris and Tobias and the others left on their mission last year, or it would have been sold along with mine. I certainly don't regret giving them my ring – the money from it probably saved their lives – but I'm glad to have this one to comfort me on long days.

I know Douglas would be proud of what our grandchildren have accomplished, and touching this ring reminds me of that. Of him.

I jump at the sudden knock on the door. It's after dinner, and I can't imagine who would be here to see me this late in the day. Even Evelyn is generally long gone by now.

But I was Dauntless for far too long to hesitate. "Come in," I call.

Tobias Eaton enters the room. He's dressed in the mix of colors I've come to associate with his Kaizen faction – black pants with a gray and blue button-down shirt – and he looks serious, as I've always seen him.