Sacrifice

What happens if Tobias was with Tris when she was in the Weapon's Lab? Will things end differently? Major spoilers for Allegiant. Short fanfic, quite sad. You have been warned. One-shot completed.

Author's Note : I just went and bought the Divergent series a few days ago, at the book fair. Finished it, a bit sad at Tris' death, so I've decided that things need to change. This this short story. Go ahead and get some tissues if you cried at every death you read in Divergent, you'll need it.

It might not quite fit in the plot, but never mind that. Just a warning...

Tobias PoV

I hurried over to Tris, my heart pounding. I knew it, knew she would go into the Weapon's Lab instead of her brother. That was the Tris I knew and loved.

Could Tris survive the death serum? She did, after all, suppress all kinds of serums that had been tested on her. But she might not survive this, it is after all the death serum...

She lives. She is hurt and weak, and she is crumpled to the ground, but she lives. She rises up. She takes in deep breaths, and stands taller. Relief explodes inside of me, but quickly dies out as I see David raising a gun at her.

"Don't move," he says. "Hello, Tris."

"How did you inoculate yourself against the death serum?" He asks, still in his wheelchair. But I know he doesn't need to walk to be able to shoot a gun and take a life.

Tris blinks, looking rather dazed. "I didn't," she says.

"Don't be stupid," David responds. "You can't survive the death serum without an inoculation, and I'm the only one in the compound who has it."

Tris just stares at him. I want to tell her to move, to get away, but I can't move my limbs. They are frozen.

"I suppose it no longer matters," he says. "We're here now." My limbs are still locked.

"What are you doing here?" Tris mumbles. Oh darn. She doesn't have her gun, she doesn't expect to need it.

"I knew something was going on," he says. I fight back a snarl. "You've been running around with genetically damaged people all week, Tris, did you think I wouldn't notice?" He shakes his head. "And then your friend Cara was caught trying to manipulate the lights, but she very wisely knocked herself out before she could tell us anything. So I came here, just in case. I'm sad to say I'm not surprised to see you."

"You came here alone?" Tris says. "Not very smart, are you?"

His eyes narrow a little. "Well, you see, I have death serum resistance and a weapon, and you have no way to fight me. There's no way you can steal four virus devices while I have you at gunpoint. I'm afraid you've come all this way for no reason, and it will be at the expense of your life. The death serum may not have killed you, but I am going to. I'm sure you understand-officially we don't allow capital punishment, but I can't have you surviving this."

Tris is guarding her expression, I can see. She sweeps her eyes around the room, searching for the memory serum virus. But she knows she can't move.

"I know what you did," she says, starting to back up. "I know you are responsible for my parents' death-for my mother's death. I know."

"I am not responsible for her death!" The words burst out of David, too sudden and too loud. "I told her what was coming just before the attack began, so she had enough time to escort her loved ones to a safe house. If she had stayed put, she would have loved. But she was a foolish woman who didn't understand making sacrifices for the greater good, and it killed her!"

Tris frowns at him. I can see the gears of her mind turning.

"Did you love her?" She says. "All those years she was sending you correspondence...the reason you never wanted her to stay there...the reason you never told her you couldn't read her updates anymore, after she married my father..."

David is still, like a stone statue. "I did," he says after a moment of silence. "But that time is past."

I hear footsteps in the hallway, and I know that the soldiers are coming.

"My mother wasn't a fool," Tris says. "She just understood something you didn't. That's not sacrifice if it's someone else's life you're giving away, it's just evil."

She backs up another step.

"She taught me all about real sacrifice. That it should be done from love, not misplaced disgust for another person's genetics. That it should be done from necessity, not without exhausting all other options. That it should be for people who need your strength because they don't have enough of their own. That's why I need to stop you from 'sacrificing' all those people and their memories. Why I need to rid the world of you once and for all." She shakes her head. "I didn't come here to steal anything, David."

And I know what she's going to do. She's going to get the memory serum virus, but that means she will die.

Time slows and stops, and my limbs can move again. I am clear and alert, my head like crystal. I feel alive, humming with energy. I know what I need to do. Tris has taught me a lesson.

She twists for the serum. David raises his gun, and his finger pulls the trigger.

I lunge myself in front of Tris, and the bullet flies over to me, over and over. I push Tris to the ground, not caring the seeping red stain that has blossomed on my jacket, not caring about the stinging pain.

Tris doesn't waste time. She pushes the green button, the same time the gun fires again, the moment I turn and shield my body over Tris.

Pain, unlike anything I experienced before, explodes on my back. I gasp, and looking at the surprised look on David's face, I use the momentum to use all my strength, and pull the trigger.

David slumps in his wheelchair, but I can no longer see him. Blackness clouds my vision, but in my mind, I can still se her...

Tris is breathing.

Tris is moving.

Tris is still here.

Tris is alive...

But I no longer am.

Aha. There we go, people. I killed Tobias instead of Tris. *stifles a tear*