I'm Ali Carlson Amity

by Allie Earnshaw

This is a tale of a girl, Ali, who was abandoned when she was born. She was left with nobody, and has been Factionless since the day she was born. A family - the Carlsons - took her in, and raised her as their own. Suddenly, Tris and Four come to the Amity compound, with a quest. Follow Ali, and her Quest, while she uncovers pieces about her family along the way.

Chapter 1

There is something I never understood about my faction. We are peaceful, we don't argue, and at the most time, we have fun. But I never knew my family. Ever since the day I was born, I've been factionless. I am very lucky. I have a loving adoptive family, and a beautiful sister. But, it's just not the same.

I don't know how to be happy without my family. I can't put on a smiling face and just pretend that nothing's wrong. So, when someone shouted that Dauntless were arriving to our compound, I raced to the door, leaving my fresh food, to become stale.

I watched in awe as two Dauntless figures emerged from the moving train. We don't use the train. It is very dangerous, and if someone gets hurt, it will just start a fight. The figures are very different in size. The girl was just about my height, while the boy was as tall as an adult, maybe even taller than the average Amity full-grown. Their hair swayed, their hands clasped as they turn towards the train. Was there some more Dauntless coming? I strained my neck to see the gap in the train. That's when I saw it. One Dauntless staggered, followed by an– Abnegation? And after them, came an – Erudite boy? I would've yelped. Since when did those three factions team together? I mean, we've all read the Erudite posts about Abnegation.

The figures walked calmly to our Entrance, the Amity leader, Reina Thorpe, walking up to greet them. That is the proper thing to do. It is the only way to keep peace.

As the people neared, everyone stepped out of the way, except me. I couldn't take my eyes off of our visitors. My best friend Petra grabbed the collar of my shirt and gently tugged me in. I shook my head to lose the rudeness, and gave my friend a small smile as thanks. You must pay respect to people, whether they're your best friend or a complete stranger.

The strangers arrive. They shake hands with Reina, and mutter something to her. Probably an explanation to why they are here. Reina nods her head solemnly, listening carefully to what the people have to say. I cannot hear. It annoys me, my curiosity. I have to know what's going on.

Finally, the chat comes to an end, and Reina turns around to the croud. "We have got visitors!" Reina's voice cut through the air, sharp as a needle. "They seek refuge. We will give them refuge. That is the proper thing to do" We all nodded, but our eyes are still focused on the silhouettes. "They come form three different factions." Finally, something that was actually useful to me. "We have three Dauntless, all of them members of their faction. Joining us, there is also an Abnegation from the hub itself. And finally," Reina frowned at the Erudite boy, "We have an Erudite, initiate."

They whole croud cheered, as the girl from Dauntless stepped forward, her voice rang through the crowd, clear and proud, "Hello, the people of Amity. We are very grateful that you have let us stay with you for a while. Something terrible is happening between the three factions that we are from. Meanwhile, here we are." The girl gestured to herself, "I am Tris Prior, and this," she pointed at the Erudite boy, "Is my brother, Caleb Prior. The Abnegation man is Marcus, and this," her hand fell onto the boy who emerged from the train with her," is Tobias, Marcus' son."

This was all very confusing to us Amity. We are used to simplicity. We are not split up this complicated. So, the Dauntless girl was related to the Erudite, and the Dauntless boy – who was dating the Dauntless girl, by the looks of it – was the son of an Abnegation leader. Who was the other Dauntless boy.

As if on cue, the Dauntless boy limped out of the shadows. A gasp erupted from the group. He was pretty battered up. His arm was thickly wrapped up with white cloth, and his face was swollen.

"Oh, yeah." Tris started speaking again, "And this is Peter." Was it me, or did she say that with disgust?

Reina smiled weakly and said to the Amity, "We have picked out rooms, in which these people will sleep in. If you are called, please step forward." Reina lifted her hand to the Bluetooth toggle on her ear and listened quietly. Everyone was quiet, even though they were mot asked to be. "Edward Grayson" Reina finally started. A strong transfer from Dauntless stepped forward. "You will room with Peter." Edward nodded and helped Peter, slowly inching towards our rooms. "Gregory Burns" one of the four Amity leaders stepped forward, "you will room with Marcus." Gregory smiled wholeheartedly at Marcus, who returned it with a cold stare. Names went by, as the people stepped forward, and took their assigned roommate to their rooms. Finally, only Tris stood in the Entrance of our faction. "Ali Carlson." Reina calls out. I feel as if a rush of wind has sweeped through my body, making my insides churn. Slowly I step forward. "You will be rooming with Tris Prior." Tris looked at me skeptically, but not in a mean way. It was almost as if she was studying me. I nod and walk to Tris. I introduced myself, and we walked through the entrance.

I didn't have to turn around to know that all 489 pairs of eyes were staring at me as I walked along with a Dauntless. In silence, I walked down the smooth road, glancing at Tris when I thought she wasn't looking. Obviously, I was not good at that. She turned to me, stopped, and studied me again. I stopped. It would not be right to leave her here alone. It will just start chaos. I look at her.

I wanted to ask why she kept studying me. I wanted to. I really wanted to. But I couldn't. I was not a Dauntless. I was not brave enough. Nor was I Abnegation though. I couldn't stay quiet. I open my mouth, then shut it. Then open it again, and close it.

"Why do you keep studying me?" I blurt out suddenly. I clasp my hand over my mouth and stare wide-eyed at Tris. This question sounded rude. Funnily enough, Tris started laughing. I just stare at her, and slowly let my hand fall off my mouth. When Tris stops laughing she smiles at me.

"You remind me of myself." She says kindly.

"How?" I don't take my eyes off her. "You're Dauntless. You're brave enough to ask these sort of questions."

He eyes soften and her face becomes sad, "I was Abnegation. My parents are – were in Abnegation."

"What do yo-" I stop myself. No. Those are not questions for right now. I look at my feet and say, "Let's keep going" Tris nods, and I can see she is grateful hat I dropped the subject. We walk quickly past the street numbers, until we get to street 24. The I quickly turn on my heel, without a thought and walk into the bright lane. I loved this lane. Part of it belonged to us, the Carlson's, part belonged to the Smith's (Petra's family) and the last part belonged to the Valerie's a cheerful family, who were always surrounded by kids. I take a second to marvel the fairy lights dancing around the sky, then quickly jogged down the pavement to my room. In Amity, each family gets 5 rooms, 4 of which are bedrooms and one, which is our dining room, kitchen and family room. My room was at the end of the street, so as I neared it, I looked through the window of the Family room. Just as I thought. My Dad was reading the posts online, my mum was re-cooking dinner, and Hayley, my older sister, was not there, which meant she was in her room. I caught my mum's eye and gave a quick wave, then I walked to my door, and grabbed my key card. I waved it in front of the lock, and it opened. It was does.

As I open the door I cringe, expecting to see a mess. But there is none. 'Wow', I think to myself, 'mum must've had a lot of time to do things today'. I walk proudly into my colourful room., Tris right behind me.

"Wow, nice room" she says. I can tell she doesn't love it, but I guess, for someone dark, like Tris, it is a bit too perky. By 'perky' I mean, my white walls are covered in peace signs, painted on by me, in many different colours. My bed was on the corner of the room, white sheets with patterns and all. I have a desk too, that sits in the corner, next to a gigantic bookshelf. On the floor, I have various coloured mats, that become soft under your toes. Opposite my bed, I have my extra 'Petra bed' that Petra usually uses, whenever she comes over. That was covered with a blue covers over a thick duvet.

This time, it is my turn to study Tris. I didn't pay much attention to her appearance before, but now, I can see her very clearly. Her black Dauntless uniform, her messed up blonde hair, her sharp check bones and round blue eyes. She is beautiful. Much more beautiful than me. I compare myself to her. My Red and Yellow Amity uniform, my brown hair that is infested with ringlets that make me look like a child. My blue eyes, are similar to hers, but my cheekbones are soft. I close my eyes, and lean back against the wall. Then I reposition myself, eyelids flying open. This was not polite.

I try to make up for it. "This is your bed, I go over the 'Petra bed' and examine it for flaws. There are none. Then I go over to my dresser, and take out a dressing gown and a top and bottom.

"Here" I show her my clothes, "You can use this tonight. I think we are the same height."

"It depends" Tris grins, "How old are you?"

This was a sincere question. "Sixteen. I just finished initiation"

"Me too." Tris replies quietly.

I hand her the clothes, and she walks to the bathroom, in silence.

When she comes out, I have to put my fist in my mouth to stop me from laughing. But still, a snort escapes me.

"What?" asked Tris spinning on the spot, "What's wrong with it?"

"Nothing, but, I think you should try on a tighter top." I suggest. The top Tris is wearing is huge, and it overlapped the red shorts. I grab a white T-shirt off my bedpost, and my simple yellow sweater from the coat rack and hand her that. "There, try that."

Tris nods and goes into my bathroom again, this time smiling.

"What's your original faction, Tris" My dad asks in the family room.

"Well, faction before blood, right? So I should say Dauntless, but my parents ar – were Abnegation." Tris chocked the last lines. She did it again. From are to were.

"And your brother?" I had filled my parents in on the introduction, and now they were firing questions at Tris. Hayley was the most interested in Tris' family. If my dad wasn't asking something, the seventeen-year-old brunette was.

"He chose Erudite."

"Did he pass?" Hayley asked.

"His tests were still going on." Tris said stiffly.

I change the subject, "So, you can jump off a moving train. That's so cool!"

"Yeah, it's one of the first things you do in Dauntless initiation. I remember, two people failed. One didn't make it onto the train, and the other didn't want to come off."

"Oh…" There was silence. Even Hayley kept her mouth shut. None of us wanted Dauntless. It was too brutal. Peace is the only thing that can keep things calm. Brutal strength doesn't matter if everyone's happy.

"You girls, should go to your room now" My mum broke, "Hayley needs to clean her room, Robert, you need to grade your history papers and I need to clean up."

I stand up, "I'll help you cl-"

"No, no. We are not abnegation. It's okay honey. You go to your room, and I'll see you and Tris tomorrow morning."

"Okay." I nod at Tris and we walk out of the warm light and onto the chilly streets again. Christmas was going to be white this year. I could feel it.

We walked down the road and went into my room. I bounced on my bed and leaned back onto the soft duvet. Tris stood in the doorway, closing the door, without taking her eyes off me. She was very quiet. Was that from her Abnegation part?

I feel more confident, now that I have a full stomach, unfortunately, whether I was confident or not, I would have spoken anyways. "Please stop looking at me!" I roll off my bed and go to stand in front of Tris.

She starts laughing, and this time I join in, not really knowing what's funny, but I feel like laughing. Then Tris says, "You are part Candor. I can tell."

"What!? No, never! I can't not lie. I always lie. What makes you think I'm Candor?" I blabber.

"You speak openly! You can't keep your thoughts to yourself"

"Oh, yeah. I guess that is a Candor thing" I shrug.

Tris tilts her head and mutters, "I am not Candor, but I'm going to try to be, for this one reason" She raises her voice so I can easily hear her, "Have you noticed anything. Anything weird?"

"Weird? No."

"I mean. You. Me. We. We look similar."

Instinctively, I grab one of my ringlets, just as I do when someone tells me I'm pretty. I guess this was the same thing. Tris was beautiful, and she was saying I look like her. "I'm not pretty" I mutter.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Tris went back to her first statement. "I mean look. We have the same coloured eyes, the same cheekbones, they're are both sharp. The only difference is our hair colour."

This time I let go of my hair and touch my cheeks. "I do not have sharp cheekbones! I have soft ones, and my hair are ringlets, that make me look like a little girl."

"You do too, have sharp cheekbones! We look similar."

"I cannot look similar to someone who is more beautiful than me."

"You are beautiful."

"Don't lie to me."

"I'm not" Tris squeaked. "You are beautiful." We stare at each other for a while, but then my legs start to ache, so I sit down on the edge of my bed. "Anyways." Tris sings after a while, "Let's agree to disagree."

"Fine." I scowl, then quickly tear it away from my face. The scowling when something doesn't go my way is something I got from my biological parents. But it is rude. Tris plunks herself onto her bed, so I do the same.

"Yay!" I giggle, "I have a Doppelgänger!"

Tris giggles too, "Yeah, so cool!"

Just then, Hayley walked into my room. I knew giving her a key was a bad Idea. "And then, he said 'Hayley, you are an amazing person, will you be my girlfriend?' and I was like-"

"Hayley!?" I interrupted.

She looked up at me, her clear grey eyes piercing through my skin.

"Please get out of my room!" I give her my sisterly smile, that is half cold and all 'Get out of my room… please'.

"Fine," she scowls, "But then I can't tell you the news."

"What news?"

"God, sis, you've got to get a phone," Hayley shook her head, "An Erudite girl has arrived to our compound. With a Dauntless"

Tris stood up, "An Erudite? I've had enough of Stupid Erudites going around thinking they can do wh-"

Gently, I touch Tris' arm. "Let's go see what they want." This is one of the things I like best about myself; my calmness and positivity. I always want to give people a chance. They are not guilty until proven that way.

Together we walk out of the street 24. I can see Tris thinking. I was about to ask what she was thinking of, but then Caleb joined us at the entrance of street nine, with Xander Falrox, who was obviously his roommate.

Xander is my age. We did initiation together, as in, we were in the same class. We didn't associate much, but I guess that was my fault. I stuck to Petra like bubblegum.

"Hey!" I say casually, "Remember me?"

"How can I forget?" Xander laughs, "Big mouth Ali.."

I hold my hand to my chest in mock surprise, "I am not a big mouth! And you shouldn't be talking, mister joker."

"Oh yeah. That was me." He smiled, "I got into lots of trouble for that, didn't I?"

"'Lots, would me an understatement." I laugh. I hug him in greeting, then as he hugs Tris, I turn to Caleb and hug him too. He stiffens. I stop and move back. "I'm Sorry. I'm not used to greeting people in any other way." I hold out my hand unnaturally, "I'm Ali, and everyone calls me Ali."

"I'm Caleb," He hesitates, then holds out his hand and firmly shakes mine. We both stare at our hands awkwardly. Both of us aren't used to this. Then Hayley's voice pops into my head: 'An Erudite girl has arrived at our compound. With a Dauntless'. I let go of Caleb's hand and run to the gate, leaving Tris, Xander and Caleb there. Oh well, they can find their way. I pushed that thought out of my mind. That was a mean thought, but I couldn't worry about that now. I needed to see who was at our gate, and why.

As I neared the gate, I felt a hot breath on the skin of my neck. I turned around, hitting Xander in the face, who then fell toward Caleb. But Caleb backed out of the way, hitting Tris. I cringed. Of course this was happening. I apologise, but keep going. I have to know what's going on. I have to know what's going on. As I turn on my last curve, I see Caleb helping Xander get up out of the corner of my eye. Then I sprint to the train tracks.

Chapter 2

The two things I saw at once jumbled up in my brain. There was the Erudite girl. She was standing there, confidently, in Erudite blue. Her black curly ringlets are big, and – unlike mine – make her look older, stronger. She had raven eyes, so dark her pupil was invisible, her milky skin tone bringing them out even more. Her stare was cold, and as I looked her in the eye, I got a shiver, so cold, I had to pretend I was next to a bon fire to make myself warm again.

On her right, stood the Dauntless. She had chocolate brown hair, that fell straight down over her shoulders. Most of it fell over her face too. Her eyes were emerald, that blended with sapphire. They were sharp, so sharp that if you came too close, she could stab you with them. Her clothes were Dauntless black, just like Tris' were. The feature I could not see, was her mouth, because, like a lot of her body, it was covered by a handkerchief, or wire. The Dauntless was tied up.

Her ankles were free, but a knotted cable held her knees together. Another handkerchief as well as her elbows held her arms together. These were then fastened to her side by rope.

As Tris came up behind me, I could hear her stifling a gasp. "Okay! That's it!" Tris started stomping to the Erudite girl while yelling, "I am sick and tired of Erudites thinking they can do Whatever they want!" I started running after Tris. "This ends here and n-" I grab onto Tris' elbow, with as much courage as I can muster. She is Dauntless, she can beat me up in two seconds.

"Tris" I said gently, "Calm down. Please." Tris looks at me, her eyes like flames.

"Why!? Are you going to let this… this… this imbecile off the hook!" Tris yelled again, pointing her finger accusingly at the Erudite girl, who just stood there, looking cool and calm.

"Tris." I said again, "The Dauntless is under some kind of hypnotization. She doesn't know what's happening."

"The spell Four was under" Tris muttered.

"The spell who was under?"

"Never mind" Tris raised her voice, "Wait a minute, how do you know she's under a spell."

Because I'm Divergent… Because it's the Erudite part of me. Because, I can feel it. How was I supposed to explain this to Tris?

"Umm, look at her eyes." I said quickly, "They're blank. And, she's not trying to get out of the handkerchiefs." This was also true.

Tris doesn't say anything, so I walk forward to the Erudite girl. "Why are you here?" I want to be firm, but welcoming at the same time. I bite my bottom lip to stop it from saying 'please' and stare straight into the Erudite girl's eyes.

I open my mouth to ask again when Caleb shouts from the gate, "Ashlynn?"

She cocked her head, "Caleb?"

"Wait, wait , wait. You know each other?" Xander hummed.

"Yeah. We did initiation together." Caleb said casually, "You transferred from Dauntless, right?"

Ashlynn nodded.

Tris shook her head. "So?" she snapped. "Doesn't mean we can trust her."

"Let's figure this out," I told her calmly. My eyes glanced over to the tied up Dauntless. "But before that, I think we should free her."

"Are you nuts?" The Erudite-Ashlynn-looked stunned. "She's evil. Her mind-it's being controlled by Jeanine using that (blah bla blah bla intellectual words)-"

"Can you speak English?" interrupted Tris irritably.

"Sorry," mocked Ashlynn. "Caleb, there should be an antidote for this. This Dauntless-someone should recognize her-do you recognize her?" she asked Tris politely.

"No."

"Well," shrugged Ashlynn. "I'm not sure then."

I suddenly had an idea. "Tobias!"

"Tobias, what?"

"No, Ashlynn, Tobias! Isn't he Dauntless?" I asked Tris, and she nodded. "Maybe he'll know!"

Instantly, Tris's expression brightened. "Fabulous idea."

"Who is he rooming with?" I asked Tris, trying to think of the layout of the compound I had had to learn when I was 9.

"I'm not sure." Tris said thoughtfully, "I wasn't really listening"

"He was called after me, so I didn't hear it either." Caleb was by Tris' side now.

"I think he was with Fred Hobhill," Xander said walking towards us, "You know, the instructor for the transfers."

"Oh yeah!" My heart brightened, then sank. I didn't know which room he was in.

"Lane 7," Xander added helpfully, "Room 6"

"When did you become so smart?" I laughed.

"Well," Xander joked back, "We did have to memorize the compound in year 5. So, should-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." I grabbed his arm and steered him towards the gate, "You don't have to continue." I gave him a little push, before beckoning to Tris and Caleb, who's eyes were still on the Erudite. Tris' cold, Caleb's almost welcoming.

"I dare you to open it." Xander said again. We had finally gotten to Fred Hobhill's room. I could see the light, and I could hear the TV, but I didn't want to open the door.

"Look at Ginny Jokester." I try to hide my fear by joking. "Seems like initiation all over again."

But before Xander could tease me again, I grab the doorknocker and pull my hand back. Help the Dauntless. Help the Dauntless. Get to Tobias.

My hand came down.

Help the Dauntless.

My eyes shut.

Get Tobias.

My hand reached the door.

Help the Dauntless.

The knocker fell onto the wooden door, and waited there. I breathed out, 'you're getting Tobias' I thought happily. I couldn't hear any sound coming from it, but a few seconds later, I could hear the locks, and finally, the door squeaked open.

"H-Hello Mr. Hobhill." I said, straining a smile."

"Oh, hello." Mr. Hobhill replied, giving us a broad grin. "Do come in."

One by one, we walked into the bright living room. I didn't look around though. I didn't bother. I never wanted to come here again. Instead, I sat onto the plush red couch and waited. Everyone followed my example, and soon, there were 5 people sitting on a 2 people couch, and the Dauntless, with Mr. Hobhill, on the one opposite.

The instructor's eyes fell on all of us, one by one. He started with Caleb, his eyes drifting over his Erudite clothes. Then, there was Tris. After that, he looked at me. But he didn't for long. He knew me already. Then he stared at Xander. I did it with him. Xander's curly blonde hair was piled on his head, while strands fell over his big sapphire eyes. The eyes that naturally twinkled with mischief.

Suddenly, Mr. Hobhill averted his eyes and stared at Ashlynn. He narrowed his eyes, when he saw the dauntless, but he didn't say anything. He just got up and went inside a small room. He murmured something, and came out with Tobias.

One look at the Dauntless and Tobias's jaw fell. Tris raised an eyebrow at him, but I did the talking. "Um, she's under some kind of spell, and I thought... maybe you'd know how to cure her...?"

"How did Thorn become like this?" Tobias said with horror.

"Thorn? Is that her name?" I asked.

"You know her?" Tris asked.

"Tobias' eyes darted quickly to Tris. "Tris…" He walked over to Tris – who was now standing up. He kissed her on the forehead and walked over to the rest of us.

Instinctively, I got up. Tobias put his hand in front of him. I took it awkwardly and shook is lightly. "I'm sorry!" Tobias laughed. "I keep forgetting that you guys hug." I smiled weakly.

"I'm Ali. Ali Carlson." I squeaked. Tobias set off this vibe, that made me lose the small amount of confidence that I had. "I'm rooming with Tris."

"Nice to meet you." Tobias replied, "I'm Four."

"What do you mean you're four?" I burst again, with my curiosity. I recoil myself, "I mean. Nice to meet you…Four?"

He nods and introduces himself to everyone else as well, before sitting on the couch next to Thorn. "To answer your earlier question, yes, I do know Thorn. She became a Dauntless last year."

"But she looks 16." Tris said.

"She is 16."

"B-But... she have done initiation last year and be 16 now!" stammered Tris.

Caleb's eyes were wide with disbelief. Now Ashlynn's jaw dropped. I shook my head. "It can't be," I insisted.

"She was 15, when she did initiation." Tobias said calmly, ignoring all of our complaints. "She needed to do initiation."

"Why?"

"Otherwise, she'd be factionless."

At the sound of that cruel word, everyone gasped. Everyone, except me. I would have been factionless too, if it weren't for the Carlson's.

"Why would she have been factionless?" Ashlynn asked.

"Her parents died." Four said plainly. I looked into his blue eyes, and immediately knew that that was all he'd be telling us.

"Do you know how to cure her?" I changed the subject.

"No, but maybe some-" Tobias was cut off by Ashlynn.

"I know. I have an Antidote."

"Of course you know" Tris rolled her eyes.

Ashlynn ignored her, "The antidote only works if someone knows her. That's why I needed you." She looked directly at Tobias.

Tobias nodded. "Fine. I can't believe Thorn has that serum inside of her-"

"I think Jeanine didn't either," Ashlynn interrupted. "I don't know how she got it. But she tried to attack me, so I had to… you know."

Tris snorted. "She did the right thing."

Ashlynn glared at her, but I cleared my throat so they wouldn't argue or anything. "Well, I guess you have to cure... Thorn." Whose name is Thorn? I wanted to know why she was called that. I made a mental note – Which was easy. I remember lots – to ask Four later. Did they make up their names together?

Ashlynn took out the serum from her bag and walked over to the tied up Thorn. Thorn looked up blankly at her, but I could see she looked like she was able to pounce any moment.

"Tris," I whispered, "what's going to happen?"

"I don't trust that girl," replied Tris with a hint of annoyance. "She looks like she thinks she knows everything-"

"I think she does."

"Just because she's Erudite?"

I didn't answer, and just looked at the scene in front of me. The antidote was in a syringe, which was in Ashlynn's hand. Tobias stood right in front of Thorn, looking right at her with seriousness. He untied her gently.

"Now," he said.

Ashlynn injected the serum.

"Thorn," Tobias whispered plainly.

Ashlynn quickly leaped backwards and ran to the door. I couldn't blame her, even though I didn't want to admit it, Thorn looked scary. But Tobias – I mean Four – stood in front of Thorn, not moving at all. The whole room was quiet, and all 12 eyes were focused on the still girl.

Minutes passed, and nothing happened, then suddenly, Tris broke our silence and said, "Well, I guess your antidote didn't work"

"I swear it should" Ashlynn argued, "I took it right off Jeanine."

"You what!?" Caleb said surprised, "You stole it from Jeanine?"

Tris stared wide-eyed at Ashlynn. "Yes. I did." Ashlynn said stubbornly, "I hate Jeanine Matthews. Someday, I am going to kill her."

There was more silence. Then Tris stood up and said, "What the hell did you think you were doing? Jeanine already hates me, and Four. And because of that, she hates Caleb too, and with you too, we're never going to-"

I tuned out the arguing conversation and went to stand next to Four. When he saw me, he nodded soundlessly, and we both looked at Thorn. I don't know why, but I felt as if Ashlynn's serum was working. Thorn hadn't moved, but, I still had hope that she'd wake up. The ramblings were silenced, and the whole room went blank. The only thing in my vision was the red sofa, Thorn and out of the corner of my eye, Tobias too.

Then, Thorn shifted a bit, she opened her pale lips, and murmured one thing, "Four."

Chapter 3

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Four." Thorn's voice was as sharp as her name. "What am I doing here? What are you doing here? And most importantly where is here?"

"Hi.. um Thorn?" My force field around the noise and setting dropped, and the arguing came back, jumbling up my thoughts. No-one had noticed anything yet. "I'm Ali…"

"And?" Thorne cocked her head, "That doesn't answer any of my questions."

"Right." She was not that nice, just after she woke up. "This is the Amity compound. Four's here with us. And so are you."

"That, is a very vague explanation."

"Ashlynn, the Erudite girl," I pointed at Ashlynn, "she tied you up and brought you here. You were being controlled by Jeanine's serum and you attacked Ashlynn. So she stole the Antidote from Jeanine, and ran here, and we saved you." I babbled, a hint of 'I told you so' in my voice.

Thorn stared wide eyed at me. Four raised his eyebrow, and his serious face had a hint of a smile tugging at his lips. I returned the tugging, staring into his eyes. Still looking, I clapped my hands and the rambles disappeared. I didn't have to say anything before everyone ran over to Thorn and started asking her questions.

I stood back and hovered by the door. I needed to go out. I can't believe I talked like that. It was rude and very disrespectful. A second ago, it sounded brave. Now, it sounded downright stupid. I couldn't believe I let Four's smile get to me.

"Need to go out?" I turned around to find Thorn waiting behind me. She had her arms crossed, impatiently. "I need to go out myself." The way she says it is really cool, but if I'd said it, it would sound stupid.

"Yeah." I stepped out of the way. "Sorry."

"No problem." Thorn faced me. "Can I ask why I was captured by an Erudite?"

"A good Erudite," a familiar voice said. Ashlynn came up to us, grinning. "I told Tris it would work. She didn't believe me. But it worked," she said proudly.

Thorn was observing her, as if summing her up. "Right..." she murmured.

"I heard you did the initiation last year," Ashlynn retorted.

"Yeah... your point?"

"Well, I don't find it very amusing. You might've become factionless, anyway."

Thorn stared at her, then smirked. "Ask Four." Then, she walked away.

Ashlynn stared at me, her eyes open wide, "What's her problem?"

"What do you mean?"

"She used wrong the wrong grammar struc-"

"Why don't you go and ask Four?" I interrupted. Too. Many. Intellectual. Words.

"Okay…" Ashlynn said confused as I grabbed her arm and steered her away from the door. Four was standing in the middle of the room, observing what was going on. Ashlynn bravely swept up to him and tapped him on the shoulder. "Four?"

"Yes, Ashlynn." Four knew something was coming, you could hear it in his voice.

"Why did Thorn do initiation early?" Ashlynn started, "She was 1 year younger than the others, she could've easily become factionless. Then what would she have done?"

Four laughed his head off. "Ashlynn, you worry about her too much."

"She could've become factionless."

"But. She didn't."

"It was a higher chance for her!"

Four stopped laughing and had a serious face on. "She hates pity, you know. If you say that, she might prove it by breaking your neck off."

"I'm serious," Ashlynn insisted. "She'd be factionless."

"She came third."

"What do you mean, 'She came third?'" Ashlynn mocked Four's low voice. She turned to me, "What does that even mean?"

"It's the rankings for the Dauntless. Only ten, out of all the initiates become Dauntless. The others become factionless."

Four stared at me again. "How do you know so much?"

"Ummmm," I quickly thought of a random excuse, "Edward told me." My mini-self rolled her eyes inside me. Then something suddenly clicked inside my head. "Oh no."

"What?" Four snapped to attention.

I closed my eyes and put my hand to my forehead, "Thorn just went out. I didn't realize that was a bad thing, I even moved to let her out, but she doesn't know how this place is laid out."

Four just stared at me with disbelief. "Why did you let her out?!"

"Sorry..." I mumbled.

"We'll find her again," Ashlynn said with determination. "She couldn't have gotten far."

"That," Four said, "is a very big overstatement."

Tris walked up to us, curious of our conversation. "Who is this Thorn? You seem to know her, but you guys," Tris looked at me and Ashlynn, "You don't know her at all. Why do you care what happens?"

"True..." I actually didn't realize why I was so worried. "Well, I'll go find her. Or maybe she'll come back here again. I mean, she can if she wants to-"

Four smirked. "When Jeanine Matthews gives out sweets to the little children, she will come back with her own free will."

"So, we've got to look for her?" Tris said.

"Yeah."

"No other option"

"We can't leave her out there to die"

Four, Ashlynn and I replied in unison, Ashlynn whining on the last bit. Tris shrugged and opened the door for us. "Okay" I take charge. I don't know if this is a Candor or Erudite quality, "Here's what we're going to do. We'll split up into two groups, and we look for her in different areas of the compound."

"What groups do we split up into?" Xander popped up. I didn't even know he was listening.

"Each group needs to have a Dauntless and an Amity." Ashlynn said, using her 'logical skills'.

"So, Xander and Ali go to different groups," Four splits us up, "and Tris and I go in different groups, then so do Ashlynn and Caleb." I'm shocked by his ability to short everyone out so smoothly, without stopping for even a second, to go over his plan. "I'll take Ali and Caleb" Four continued, "And Tris, you take Xander and Ashlynn?"

Tris scowled, but she agreed and we split off, Tris going right, us going left. We walked through the simple streets, seeing the occasional Christmas lights, illuminating the eerie darkness, and making the wet paths glisten. No-one calls for Thorn, like in the movies. No-one took of their jumpers and started yelling desperately. No. We just silently walked around, peering into the dark alleys and stopping at the occasional traffic light. I guided the two foreigners through the streets, before I reached my most feared area of the Amity compound. The bridge, that connects to the pathway to the Dauntless' farms.

I've only ever gone over that bridge once in my life. I was nine, and one of my arch-nemesis' dared me to go over the old, unstable bridge. The only reason I did it, is because, if I didn't, I'd be tormented for the rest of my school days. But, no matter how I experienced the bridge, I knew that I never wanted to do it again. Thus, it was the perfect place for a Dauntless – especially Thorn – to go to. If she found it.

"Why are we here?" Caleb asked, his voice shaking just a hint. I don't think Four could hear it, but I hate heights, so I could hear every movement and stutter around me.

"I think there's a good chance Thorn could be here." I replied, fiddling with my fingers, to calm myself down.

"It is." Four agreed. We stood in silence. "Well, then. Let's go."

I nodded and gulped. If I talked right know, or even attempted to, I would faint.

I looked into Caleb's eyes. He looked like a deer in headlights. I guess Four could see it too, because he said, "Caleb, why don't you stay here, just incase something happens, and you can run to call for help."

"Yes." Caleb squeaked. "Very logical."

Four looked at me, and nudged his head towards the bridge. I barely moved my own, but he got the message. I took a step forward, blood rushing into my ears. I take three deep breaths, and put one step in front of the other, with my eyes closed.

As I got onto the metal beam, I could hear Four breathing heavily behind me. "Four, you okay?" I asked, suddenly realizing that I was not the only one who could fall.

"Perfectly fine," he said back, but his voice sounded shaky.

I closed my eyes and took another step. I felt like I was walking into a trap again and again and again, I couldn't see where I was going anyways, but I didn't have the courage to open my eyes. What to do-

"Having your eyes closed while walking a bridge like this isn't safe."

With surprise, I open them and found Thorn in front of me, leaning against the bridge's metal railing. She looked completely unafraid of down below. But she had a stern and serious face on, as if the happiness in her was whooshed away by the wind. "Have you ever heard of falling to your death?" she whispered.

"We-We were trying to find you," I stammered. Her bravery made me feel weak. She is indeed a Dauntless.

"Well," she gave me her hand, "You've found me." She pulled me towards the dusty road. I limped next to her and leaned over, putting my hands on my knees, catching my breath. When I finally looked up again, Four was on the land as well, looking extremely relieved as I felt.

"You were r-right" Four breathed, "This was the perfect place for Thorn to be."

I smiled weakly, as Thorn talked. "You didn't need to look for me, Four." Thorn was smirking at him. "You must be really determined to find me if you did that-"

"Thorn..."

"Sorry," she said. "But you didn't need to find me." I opened my mouth to say something, but Thorn opened hers faster than I could, "Well, I'm going back over the bridge."

"You're going back?" I found my voice, "Over that?

"Yes." Thorn replied simply, "Ill wait on the other side for you two. Come in your own time. Though maybe sometime today. I'm really hungry."

My jaw dropped as she turned around and leaped over the bridge to the other end, like a cat. "How did-did she do that?"

"She's Thorn," Four replied. He didn't look as breathless anymore. "You can't force her to do anything... no one knows her weaknesses. If they do, it's really hard to make her fear them. She's brave. Very brave."

"Dauntless."

"Yes, Dauntless."

"Why can't you go over the bridge that easily?" I ask nervously. I needed to get some answers. "I mean, your Dauntless. Like, ten thousand times more Dauntless than me."

Four stared at me. He didn't say anything, but I didn't ask again. I knew that if I waited, I'd get something. Like training a horse. If you wait for long enough, she'll get the message. After 5 minutes, he sat down in the piles of sand and gestured for me to follow. So I did. When all was done, and I was settled, he started. "I am Tobias. You know that. Yet, I am also Four."

I nodded, "I wanted to ask you why you were Four… I guess now I don't have to."

The sand swirled around us, as the wind picked up. "I was in Abnegation. My father, Marcus, he – well, I'm pretty sure you know what he is. But my mother, she left, because my father beat her. Just like he used to beat me. When I was little."

"Wha-?"

Four cut me off, "I transferred to Dauntless at 16, just like Tris. I went through initiation. I passed. Top. But I didn't want to become the leader. So I became trainer. I trained Tris. Nicked her ear once" Four smiled, as If he was remembering the moment.

"And why are you called Four?"

"My fears. I have four of them."

"You only have four fears?!" I asked surprised. "That's amazing! What are they?"

Four took a deep breath, "I've never told anybody this much without knowing them for at least a year, and if I now them for that long, I have to Trust them. More than I trust anybody." The corners of his mouth came down naturally, "But for some reason, I trust you."

I want to thank, him. I want to say how much he is really cool, and awesome, and needs to have no shame in his fears. No fear of me, but I can't. I never can.

"My four fears," Four started, speaking really quietly, "I have Claustrophobia. I hate heights. I'm afraid of…" He gulped, "I'm afraid of… of my dad. And, I'm afraid of murdering people."

I sat there, not saying a thing. How could I. He just gave me the power to scare him. He gave me the power to rule over him. To blackmail him, not that I would ever do that, to anyone. "I'm not sure what I'm scared of." I try to comfort him, "Not everything anyways."

"What do you know you're scared of?"

"I know I'm scared of heights" I point to bridge , "Well, sort-of obvious right?" Four nodded. "And—and… I'm afraid of becoming factionless."

"Isn't everyone afraid of that, deep down?"

"Yeah," I wanted to tell him this. I've kept it to myself for so long, and I trusted Four, just like he trusted me. "But it's more realistic more me."

"How?"

"I was so close to becoming factionless myself"

"When?"

"When I was one month old."

Four drew a sharp breath, "How come?" he whispered.

"I was abandoned when I was born. My parents left… died… I don't know. Nobody does." I was taken aback to how calmly that came out of my mouth, so I continued, "The Carlson's, they, well, they found me. Under a tree. They decided to adopt me and raise me as their own. So I got a sister, a mother and a father. But I don't know who my biological parents are. I don't know if I have a biological brother or sister. I don't know if my family is somewhere in the forest, or in a cottage, or if they're really rich and live in a mansion. Maybe I have a pet. Maybe I have thirty. How should I know? I don't know anything." I didn't realize until something hot and wet fell onto my lap, that I was crying. The tears were pouring down my face, and my eyes were burning. My throat closed, so what I said next came out in a raspy voice, "I don't know if I'm illegal. I don't know if I'm supposed to be dead. I don't know if someone is looking for me. I don't know if my brother left the family because he wanted to search for me. I don't know. That's all I know, the fact that I don't know."

Four was silent for a while until I looked up. He was almost in tears too. "I'm so sorry."

"Don't be." I carefully wiped my tears away. "It's not like it's your fault."

"I have to be." His eyes looked soft, no longer hard. "You shouldn't blame yourself.

Now I was a little confused. "I... I didn't say I blamed myself."

Four look confused too, but then he says, "Oh, sorry. I thought I was talking to-" he stopped abruptly.

"To who?"

"No one," he said back in his normal stern voice. "Let's go back now." He gulped when he looked down below.

"Don't worry," I told him. "I'll be there too." It wasn't exactly helpful, maybe even more troubling, but he just smiled at me and we made our torturous way back. It didn't help that Caleb and Thorn were waiting for us on the other side, safe.

"What's your full name?" Ashlynn demanded.

"Thorn," Thorn replied.

"I mean your real name. Your full name."

"Thorn."

"That's not an answer." Ashlynn looked impatient. "Look, I'm the one who caught you, and I can do it again, you know."

Now Thorn's eyes burned. They almost melted me into lava at the sight of them, like melted emerald and sapphire. "Try me."

Ashlynn almost did, but Xander stopped them. "This is Amity," he said. "There's no fighting here. No fighting or arguing allowed."

We had gotten back to the other side, and our group met up with Tris'. We were now sitting in my Living room, sipping gingerbread-flavored tea. My favourite.

"Right," Ashlynn muttered. Her dark eyes reflected the light, making it look dangerous. I cringed, and wondered if I ever had such dangerousness in me. Could I do that too? Make my eyes like that? "I'm asking you a question," Ashlynn told Thorn. "But you won't answer me."

"I don't want to."

"You have to."

Four and Tris, who had been watching the argument from the dining room, came in. Tris held Ashlynn, and Four had to hold Thorn as tight as he could. I don't blame him. Thorn could be as menacing as her name. Maybe that's why she chose that name. What was her real name? Why didn't she tell us?

"I think you don't need to know," Four said loudly. "I think it's time we think of a plan to stop Jeanine Matthews."

That name instantly hushed up the whole room. Even Thorn was silent. Ashlynn looked like she was ready to murder. Her fists were clenched tightly, her teeth gritted. Even Thorn had the knife-slitting look about her.

"Well," I said a little nervously when they all turned to look at me, "I guess we should stop and... think of that plan."

"I agree," Ashlynn said immediately.

"Me too," growled Tris. "I hate that Jeanine Matthews. She made Four turn... turn into-"

"A monster," Four finished. He looked at Thorn. "And made Thorn one, too."

Everyone was silent, still a little bewildered by Thorn. Meanwhile, Thorn just sat on a table, sitting upright, tapping her fingers on the wooden table, almost as if she was impatient about the meeting and the plan. She raised an eyebrow at us, and instantly I knew my prediction was correct. "Let's start," I said.

At the same time, everyone took a seat. Thorn was already sitting.

"What's the plan?" asked Xander.

Before I could even think, Tris spoke up. "We kill her... maybe... a war?"

Xander and I almost spit out our guts. "Are you kidding?!" I said. "I'm not fighting. Amity's peaceful, not war. If you're thinking of making Amity fight, then good luck."

Suddenly I felt weird. I had argued. Argued. With my friends, too. It felt weird, but I couldn't control myself. Even Xander looked surprised. Thorn looked shocked. She was gaping at me like I was an alien from another planet.

It was like I was nine all over again, I could choose to walk over the bridge, and become popular and daring, or I could stand on the ground and be tormented. This time, I could forget what I was supposed to think, and lead this place to war, or I could be who I was, and remember, war is not an option.

"Amity will not fight." I say again, "And if you want to go to war, then you can count me out."

"Me too." Xander said. I give a grateful smile at Xander and look back at the others. Thorn spoke up, which surprised me.

"How about a guerrilla attack?"

Ashlynn snorted. "Not my style."

"OK..." Tris looked thoughtful. "I still think an army is good?"

"Of what? Dauntless?" challenged Ashlynn.

My heart sank. "Dauntless are under the control of the Erudite," I said, avoiding Ashlynn and Thorn's eye contact. "We wouldn't win with Dauntless on their side."

"I'm afraid to say this but it's true," blurted Four. He back-hugged Tris tightly, and Tris didn't resist.

"My faction is evil because of Jeanine," Ashlynn said. "If we bring down Matthews..."

"We can probably win!" Xander looked excited. "So all we have to do is bring down Jeanine!"

"It's not that easy," Ashlynn told him. "She's in Erudite. With the Erudites. And the Dauntless guards. Do you think it'll be that easy?" That deflated Xander like a balloon out of air.

"We need a distraction." Tris spoke up. "Something to avert their attention while we attack Matthews secretly."

"We need war!" Ashlynn argued.

"NO!" both Xander and I shouted together.

Ashlynn huffed. "Amity people are a bit too peaceful, for me."

"You can never be Divergent," Thorn said quietly, only loud enough for me to hear. I froze. Did Thorn just say... Thorn. Her cockiness. Her intelligence. The way she's peaceful as well as brave. Of course. She's Divergent. She has to be.

Ashlynn heard something from Thorn. "Pardon?"

"I said we need an ally," Thorn said loudly.

Ashlynn widened her eyes. "Of course!" She started muttering some calculations under her breath.

"Speak English, please." Tris rolled her eyes and looked at Caleb, who had said nothing. Even Thorn had spoken up, but not him. "Do you understand?"

"Of course," Caleb replied, smiling at Ashlynn. Ashlynn turned a little red in the face. "She's wondering if we can use Candor-"

"As a distraction," Ashlynn finished excitedly.

"What sort-of distraction?" Xander asked curiously.

"A Debate. Against the Erudite." I say, out of nowhere. I don't know why I think this would work, but I have a feeling. "If the Candor challenge the Erudite, the Erudite will be so offended, they'll spend time working on their debate, and then the actual debate, we have enough time to think of a plan, and hopefully put it into action." I look at Caleb and Ashlynn, "No Offence."

Caleb's smile brightened, "That's a great idea!"

Ashlynn, on the other hand, looked skeptical, "Will they fall for it?"

"Maybe not all of them, but Jeanine Matthews, she needs to win anything, so, Yeah. They'll fall for it." I replied smugly.

"Okay, we start planning tomorrow." Four said, "In the meantime, I think we should go get some rest." While saying this, he looked directly at me.

"Sure." I looked at Tris, "Do you want to go to the room?"

Tris shrugged, "Sure." I handed her the key and she started walking out of the door. Just as she was about to exit, she yelled over her shoulder, "I dibs the shower first!" And then she disappeared into the night.

"And now," I glanced over at Thorn, and then at Ashlynn, "We have a problem."

"It's fine," Thorn said coolly, "I'll just sleep on your sofa here." She lay down on it, putting her dirt-infested shoes on my mother's embroidered sofa cover.

I walked up to her and said sternly, "No." Like I was talking to a dog. Xander peered at me, as if he was trying to figure me out. Though he shouldn't try. Even I can't figure myself out. "No feet on the sofa." I say again.

Thorn scowled, "Fine." She removed her feet from the sofa.

"Now, you and Ashlynn can sleep with my sister. I don't have any more beds in my room." Then I turned to Four, Xander and Caleb, "Xander, can Four room with you?" He nodded, so I continued, "Can you bring them here for breakfast, please?"

"Yup"

"Super."

The boys left, so I was alone with my sister's roomies for the night. I curled my lips a bit and the thought. "Let's go." I grabbed my key card off the 'extra' compartment, and walked out, switching off the lights.

Hayley's room was, literally, three steps away, so we took those three steps, and I rang the doorbell. I heard some shuffling, and stuffing of wrappers, before Hayley came up to the door, wearing a pair of silky blue shorts, with a matching top.

"Oh, Hello Ali." Hayley said breathless.

"Hi…. Hayley." I grab the two newcomers and introduced them to Hayley's bedroom. "Have fun!" I sang before shutting the door in Hayley's surprised face.

When I finally got back to my own room, the lights were off, and Tris was breathing lightly in her bed, wearing my pajamas. I smiled as I took out another pair of pajamas, and changed. Then I climbed into my soft duvet, and fell asleep instantly.

Chapter 4

The next day, when I woke up, Tris was already gone. Instead, I woke up to find Ashlynn and Thorn in front of me. Well, that surprised the hell out of me. I fell out of my bed with a thump. They didn't even flinch.

"Took you long enough!" exclaimed Ashlynn.

"Yeah, how deeply do you sleep?" Thorn looked bored. I looked at through my hair, that was now fuzzed all over my head. "Well." Thorn starts, "You getting up, or not?"

"I guess." I leaned backwards, putting all my weight on my hands, then I got up, making my hair get even more messed up.

Thorn suddenly walked over to my dresser and took a brush. "Here," she said, handing it to me.

"Um, thanks," I mumbled.

"Your hair's a mess," Ashlynn said.

"Thanks for the helpful note. I'll keep that in mind."

"Your welcome."

I roll my eyes playfully, while I take my brush and flatten out my ringlets. Like always, it doesn't work. "Give me a sec, please." I grabbed some clothes, and went into my bathroom to get changed.

When I finished, and I'd done my hair, I self-checked myself in the mirror. The short yellow shorts looked fine, especially with the red leggings that I put under them, to save me from the winter chill. I wore a red long-sleeved T-Shirt, that was covered by a yellow, zip up short-sleeved jumper. It'll do, I thought. It's not as if I was meeting the Queen or anything.

I walked out of the bathroom and twirled. Thorn mock clapped, looking like she was about to fall asleep. That's when I realised what Ashlynn and Thorn were wearing. Ashlynn looked formal yet soldier-like-as if she was going to a party and a war after that. She didn't look cold. The blue shirt she had on looked perfect on her, and the stretchable skirt with leggings matched her shirt well. How can she be such a good fashionista?

Thorn went ninja style. She was wearing full black, and it was like she was darkness itself, except maybe her eyes, which stood out, while she kept on putting her hands into her pockets. Her eyes glowed suspicion wherever she looked. Even with all black she looked fine. Well, I'd say she didn't care about her attire as much, but she looked fine.

"Um..." I didn't know what to say. I was already embarrassed about the hair brush thing. "Why are you wearing...?"

"We're going to Candor today," Ashlynn said plainly. "I'd say you wear something representable." She glared at Thorn, who ignored the girl beside her. "And if you can convince this lady here to wear something representable I officially worship you."

I smiled at her. "Polish my shoes while you worship me, okay?"

Ashlynn rolled her eyes.

"Why can't you wear something like Ashlynn?" I asked Thorn.

Thorn raised an eyebrow at me. Instantly, I regretted asking her. The danger in her eyes grew. "I'm not wearing a dress."

"Since when did you have to?" I asked.

"Since Ash made me." Thorn took out her knife and was examining the shiny blade.

"Okay… Ashlynn. No dress." I change the subject quickly, before Ashlynn objects, "So, Candor?"

"Yeah…" Thorn replied knowingly, "While you were sleeping heavier than a Turkey on Thanksgiving, everyone was in your living room-"

"You have really nice parents" Ashlynn piped up.

"Like I was saying," Thorn glared at Ashlynn, "We made a plan. We're going to the Candor compound today." She looked at me, from head-to-toe. "You look fine."

"Wait a minute!" I put my hands up, "Slow down. You were all in my living room?"

Thorn and Ashlynn gave each other a look. "Um, yes," Ashlynn said uncomfortably. "We were discussing with Tris. Even she looked tired when we saw her. And grumpy. But the point is," Ashlynn continued when Thorn nudged her, "is that we decided to get that ally or... distraction we were talking about."

"Yeah..." I felt uncomfortable about the word distraction. Didn't it mean USING them? "So we're going to Candor?"

"Yes," Thorn said. She didn't explain any further, so Ashlynn continued for her.

"Candor can have an army against Jeanine and her forces, and while they do that, we can sneak in and... well, you know. Kill her, I guess." Her eyes shone with fury. "I will kill her."

"Nice to know," I snorted. "Leave out the Amity people. Have fun killing." I couldn't believe they were fine with killing. I mean, didn't it make them guilty? Even Four, who was Dauntless, hated murdering people. It was one of his fears. Didn't they feel the same?

"I know Amity people can be peaceful," Ashlynn interrupted, "but it's Jeanine Matthews we're talking about. If she wins, she won't bother rescuing Amity. She'll kill you all."

"Can't we resolve this in another way? In a peaceful way?"

"If you want to get your butt kicked, then sure," Thorn said.

I crossed my arms. "I can't believe I'm going to go with you guys."

Ashlynn nodded and folded her arms too. "Well, we're behind schedule, because I've been trying very hard to put her in reasonable clothes." Thorn looked like she was about to protest, but I told them, "No dress. That's the deal."

Finally, Ashlynn sighed. "Fine. No dress."

Before I could say any further, she dragged Thorn to Hayley's bedroom to change. I just looked at my mirror one more time, and I wondered if I, too, should change or not.

Candor could be our allies. If we were representable enough, maybe they'd join us. But if they don't-what if they're already Erudite's allies? It would be our doom. I shuddered at the thought. Our hard work would be for nothing.

When Thorn had changed – she was now wearing black leggings with a yellow top, that was covered by a black cardigan. – and we'd all gone over our plan, we went to the gate. To the train-tracks. We were going to take the train.

I was extremely nervous. What if we fell. What if we all died. What if I was the only one not to die – though that would never happen.

"How long 'till the train comes?" I asked nervously.

"It should be here," Four checked his watch, "In around 2 minutes."

Tris looked around at us non-dauntless, "So you guys remember how to get onto the train right?" We all nodded. "Whoever gets onto the train, helps each other. Don't think your not qualified if you cant get onto the train without help. Even Dauntless' need help sometimes."

'Yeah, Sometimes.' I thought to myself.

A rush of wind came from our left. "It's coming" Xander muttered to himself.

The train came closer. It was 20 meters away.

15.

10.

"Three!" Tris yelled over the noise, "Two!" I jogged on the spot, "One!" Everyone ran with the train, down the track. I sprinted, my feet making contact with the floor every second. I grabbed onto a handle, sticking out of the side of the train, and limped along with it. In front of me, I could see Tris easily hoisting herself into the train. Caleb was also doing it pretty well. Thorn was already inside – obviously, but I couldn't see Four, Ashlynn or Xander. Then suddenly, my legs gave out beneath me, and I was dragged along by the train. My hands became sweaty, and my grip loosened. My hand started slipping from the handle. My hand opened, and hand fell from the metal beam. I didn't scream. I had no energy to. Instead, I watched as I flew backwards.

I squeezed my eyes shut. 'I'm going to die. I'm going to die, trying to kill someone.' Somehow, having this thought in my head made me calm down. I was going to kill someone. That is nothing like me.

Time slowed down in my mind. I could hear Tris yelling. I could feel the chilly air, rushing around me in a whirlwind. I could feel myself nearing the last train compartment. When I get to the end, will I just fall, because there's no more wind? Will I-

I was grabbed by the waist by two, big, warm hands, who pulled me into the train. Instantly, I shrieked. Everyone was in front. A random stranger was grabbing me out of air. I kicked and punched the stranger. Only later, I realised, I was kicking and punching a stranger. Still, I kept punching.

"Stop it." The person hissed. I grabbed his fingers, and tried to uncoil them from my waist. Suddenly, my captor gasped, so I started screaming. He put his hand in front of my nose and mouth, and used his other one to hold my hands next to my body. I breathed in. He smelt like metal. Not a pleasant scent.

Although I was unable to use my hands, my feet were free. So I stepped on the person's tattered trainers. Like I expected, he immediately let go of me. I turned around and punched right on the mouth.

Then I reached to grab his arm, but he got there before me, and blocked my attempt. After that, he tried to get to me, but I ducked and ran to the back of the cart. 'He' came towards me, and cornered me. Then he took something out of his pocket, but it was too dark for me to see what it was.

"Ali." The man whispered. He knew my name. "Calm down."

I tried to disappear through the wall. Just let me sink into the wall.

The man comes closer. "Ali."

The turns his head, and I see red seeping out of his bottom lip. Oops.

"I'm not going to do anything to you."

"Stay away from me!" I screeched, my voice hoarse.

"Stop kicking and punching me, Ali."

I shook my head.

He comes up to me – and I kick him in the shin. Then I punch him in the stomach. Bad idea. He wrapped his arms around me, and used what he was holding – what I now know, was a rope – to tie my hands behind my back.

He pulled the rope hanging off my wrists, and held me close to his body. "Stop it." The person hissed. I grabbed his fingers, and tried to uncoil them from my waist. Suddenly, my captor gasped, so I started screaming. He put his hand in front of my nose and mouth, and used his other one to hold my hands next to my body. I breathed in. He smelt like metal. Not a pleasant scent.

"Mmhpfh." My voice gets muffled behind his hand. I could barely move in his clutches.

"It's okay," He whispered in my ear, "I'm not going to hurt you."

I bit his finger. He took his hand off my mouth, and I staggered away. Unfortunately, I didn't have any balance without my hands, so I staggered to the gap. I was hopping, and I nearly hopped off the edge. But my captor grabbed my arms, and pulled me back.

He grabbed my shoulders, and gently rested me onto the floor, my back against the wall. My hair was all over the place, and I had red marks on my legs. The stranger took something out of his pocket, and fiddled with it, before turning it on and showing me who he was. Four.

"F-Four?" my voice was quavering.

"I told you I wouldn't hurt you," Four kneeled next to me. "Now, will you stop running?"

I nodded my head silently, while he took out his pocketknife – have no idea how he got that into the Amity compound – and undid my hands.

"How…?"

"I saw you fly backwards. I ran to the end of the train, to catch you." Four looked serious, "You could've died. Why did you let go?"

"I didn't let go!" I argued, rubbing my arms, "My hands slipped."

"When I caught you, you started punching me…" Four asked the question I was dreading, "Why? I mean, you're Amity."

"I was scared." I whispered in a barely audible voice, "I thought I would die."

Four nodded quietly and changed the subject, "You landed a few good punches there," He smiled, "but no one can win against me."

"No Duh," I set my smile to a broad grin. "Thanks. For Saving me." I look at his lip. "And Sorry. About Your Lip."

"It's nothing." Four touched his lip, and cringed. I was surprised. It opened pretty wide. I reached into my pocket, and pulled out a mini-aid-kit. Out of it, I took 'Vaseline' and a special delicate Band-Aid, invented by the Amity – Surprising, I know. I moved to Four and dabbed the Vaseline onto his lip. Then I put the Band-Aid straight onto the cut.

"Thank you." He said, his eyes genuine.

"Nope."

He looked at me, a little curiously, so I stopped. "W-What?"

"Your mixture of personalities. I mean, you're obviously Amity. And the fact you love talking…" He froze, then changed his tone and barely moved his lips, "Are you 'Divergent'?"

"What?" I tried to cover up the truth, but for some reason, my lying skills weren't working, so everything came out really high, "No. I'm not Divergent. What is Divergence… I mean. Who's Divergent." I blabbered. I looked pleadingly into Four's eyes, "Are you Divergent?"

"You're... you're Divergent," Four muttered.

"No.." I stammered. "I'm not Divergent. You're Divergent?"

"... Then how do you know about Divergence?"

Shoot. "Um... I... I..."

"You're Divergent."

"Please don't hurt me!" I cowered.

"It's okay."

"Please!"

"I won't hurt you."

I opened my eyes. "R-Really?"

"Yes." Four looked at me and smiled. "I'll give you a secret. I'm Divergent too."

"You're Divergent too?"

Four nodded. "But you can't tell anyone, got it?" He looked grim.

That was when Tris came in. She walked through the door, took one look at us, and slid across the floor towards me. "Ali! I can't believe you're alive!"

She glanced at Four, then turned away. Then she noticed something wrong and turned back to him, "Four! What happened to your lip." My eyes widened, and I stared at Four. Was he going to tell her?

We eyes met in midair, and the question lingered. "Umm, You see. When I caught Ali out of midair, she got really… scared." I nodded in agreement, focusing on Tris, to see her reaction, "And she got really freaked out, and started… umm… kicking and punching." Tris' mouth fell open, and she stared at me, but no disgust was in her eyes. "And one of the hits, accidently fell on my lip."

"It split." I added.

"But… but, How?" Tris stuttered, "You're Amity. Why did you…?"

"I was scared."

"Oh."

"She's Divergent." Four said to Tris. My eyes nearly popped out of my head.

"Why did you just say that!?" I shrieked.

"I'm also Divergent." Tris whispered.

I shook my head in amazement. "No way," I whispered. my voice got louder. "No way!"

"SHUSH!" they both said together.

I quieted down. "Sorry."

"I think we should keep it a secret," Tris said. "If Ashlynn-or Thorn-finds out we're Divergent-"

"We know you're Divergent," we heard a voice say. Ashlynn was standing at the doorway with her arms crossed. I spotted Thorn slinking in the shadows, her eyes sparkling like a cat's.

"You better on tell anyone," Tris threatened.

"I won't." Ashlynn smirked. She walked towards us. "I'm in. I'm Divergent too."

"Wait a second!" I said in surprise, "We're all Divergent?"

"How do you know if I'm Divergent?" Thorn asked accusingly.

"Last night. In the house. You muttered something about… Divergence." I was careful to leave out the Ashlynn part.

"Okay fine." Thorn surrendered, "I'm Divergent. Happy?"

"Very." I said defiantly. She rolled her eyes in reply.

Four gasped. "Thorn! You're Divergent and you didn't tell me?"

Thorn just shrugged and said, "We have to jump off in 7 minutes."

We all forgot the first gathering of the 'Divergent Group' and stood up. Would the exit be even worse than the Entrance?

"We're missing Caleb and Xander." I pointed out.

"I'll go find them," volunteered Four, but he exchanged looks with Thorn, then added, "actually, Thorn's faster. They're on the train somewhere."

"You all will go first," Thorn said. She sprinted off to find Xander and Caleb.

"Let's jump." I said as casually as I could. Tris nodded, "It's not as bad getting on, right?"

"Ali, It'll be fine." Tris answered, looking really concentrated on the scenery.

"That's not an answer" I muttered, but Tris didn't hear anything.

Four grabbed the handle, and leaned out of the cart. "Okay, once you see the big orange Oak Tree, you jump." Four explained.

Ashlynn and I nodded, exchanging thoughts. 'You're going first' I said through my eyes, 'No, you're going first'. Ashlynn replied. 'Fine, lets do it t the same time. Ok?' 'Fine' came the irritated answer.

I studied the scenery, looking for an Oak tree. Trees, trees, trees. Green, green, green. Leaves, leaves, le- Oak Tree!

I took a giant leap forward and jumped off before anyone said anything. I landed on my feet, legs bent, but the pain was excruciating. The shock ran up my calves. I bent over, massaging my legs, and within a few seconds, it was gone.

I heard a thump. Next to me, and saw Ashlynn, landing perfectly on her feet, sweat pouring down her face.

"Guys, come on!" Tris called from the other side of the wide pavement. "Get out of the way so the others can jump off!"

Despite my now aching muscles, I ran to Tris and Four, at Ashlynn's heels. We waited, staring at the train, as the end neared. Just then, out of the second last compartment, Xander fell out and landed on his left cheek. "Ouch!" he got up wiping his face, "You didn't have to push me Thorn!"

Caleb followed, landing on his nose, "Thorn." His voice was accusing.

Thorn landed, like a cat, that I was pretty sure she was. A black cat. A black ninja cat.

"You would've missed the jump," Thorn said quietly while brushing bits of dust off her cardigan.

Caleb got off the floor. Caleb rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right," he said. "I would've gotten off with a better landing if you hadn't pushed me!" Xander nodded in agreement.

Thorn shrugged. "At least you are not like Peter," she said, which, by the looks of Tris, was the farthest Thorn went as a compliment. "Coward can't even jump with me waiting to catch him."

"I don't blame him," Xander muttered.

The three came to join us by the tree. "Is anyone hurt?" I asked, but the boys just shook their heads.

Suddenly, a Candor walked past. She was wearing a black mini-skirt, and a white shirt, with a fake black tie drawn on it. She had raven black hair, and bright red lips. She stopped walking, about one meter after she passed us, and walked back. "Can I help you?" she sounded like my old maths teacher.

"Can you please direct us to the entrance of your faction's are?" Xander asked politely.

"Of course," she smiled-though a little strained-and beckoned us to the entrance. We followed her, Tris looking nervous, Caleb looking amazed, Ashlynn looking serious.

The compound was big. and black. And white. Inside was filled with men dress in black and white business suits and women with black and white dresses. It made me a little queasy looking at them.

Ashlynn tapped me on the shoulder, "Hey Ali, you know what to do right?" she whispered.

"Do what?" I asked confused.

"We're going to do a truth test."

"How do you know?"

"We're in Candor," Ashlynn gestured to the girls black shoes, "We're going to do a truth test. Jeanine invented it. The girl will ask us a series of questions, but we – as Divergent people – can control it." Ashlynn looked at me seriously, "Don't give into the serum Ali, she could extract dark information."

I creased my eyebrows, "What about them?" I nodded to Xander and Caleb, "What if they say anything 'dark'?"

"Don't worry about them for now. We can help them later. For now just worry about yourself."

"What brings you here?" Interrupted the girl, oblivious to the conversation taking place.

"Oh, we need to see the Candor leader," Ashlynn said. "Immediately. It's an emergency, kind of."

"Hmm." The girl narrowed her eyes at Ashlynn, obvious suspicious because of being Erudite. "But first you need to go through the tests," she said after a while.

We gave each other a few shrugs. Xander said, "Fine."

She led us to a test room. It was pure white, except for a few syringes on a clean white table. Beside me, Tris whispered, "Reminds me a bit of the tests, except without the serums."

"I know right," I replied back.

I looked at the others to see if they were scared. Ashlynn looked a little nervous, Caleb was staring at it, and I could see the gears in his head turning, as though he was wondering if he should inspect it. He was such an Erudite. I wasn't surprised when Thorn just looked it with an eyebrow raised, then looked-sorry, studying-the Candor girl from the back of the group. Now I definitely knew she was a disguised cat.

"You need to each take a serum," she explained, even though we were fully aware of what was going on. "I'll be here to test you with any questions, and I can tell when you're lying, but I don't think that'll happen." She smirked, but out of the corner of my eye I spotted her glancing nervously at Thorn.

"I'll start," Xander volunteered.

The girl smiled. "Very well." She took a syringe and injected the serum inside his blood. Xander bit his lip, but didn't say anything. "Okay, I'll ask a question." She had a long thoughtful silence. "Why are you here?"

"We need to form allies with Candor," Xander replied immediately. The girl's eyebrows shot up.

"Okay... where are your friends from?"

"Ali and I are from Amity. The Erudite is called Ashlynn." He pointed out Ashlynn. "Thorn, the one you are staring nervously at, is from Dauntless." I choked back a laugh as the girl turned a little red. "So are Tris and Four. Caleb-" he pointed. "-is from Erudite."

The girl nodded, satisfied, though a little red in the face, and avoided Thorn completely. "What do you think of us Candors?"

"You look like zebras," Xander said plainly. This time no one hesitated to stop laughing. Even Thorn suppressed a little smile. The girl scowled but said nothing else. "You're free to go." I knew instantly she wasn't going to like Xander as much.

The others passed with flying colors. But I could tell they were lying. Tris said she didn't have a boyfriend, when she did-Four. Ashlynn said she didn't know where Jeanine hid her stuff-when she found a serum in her desk. Actually, I didn't listen properly to theirs. I was actually wondering about Thorn. She'd probably lie, but for some reason I had this weird feeling she'd say something of the truth, just in case. I know she was cunning, but she was Divergent. Perhaps she had Candor blood in her, too.

"Tell me about your family," the girl said. It was the last question she asked Thorn, and she looked relieved about it.

Thorn looked sad. "My parents died... because of me. I left them, and died because of that. I have no brothers or sisters, I was alone for two years. I've always been prepared ever since."

I nodded, grim. She and I were the same. I hoped she didn't feel any more grief than I did.

"Thank you, you may go," the girl said.

Now it was my turn.

I sat in the cold, plastic chair in front of the Candor, and tugged the back of my hair, like I always do when I'm nervous. The Candor walked up to me, tilted my neck, and injected the serum.

For a second, my mind went blank, and I couldn't think of anything. Then I gained control, and my mind went back to normal, and the world became really sharp. I turned to face my questioner. This time, I could see every single mole, freckle, every bit of make-up on her face.

"How old are you?" the girl asked, her blood red lips moving.

"16" I replied without thinking. 'Shoot' I thought to myself, 'Control your mouth for once, Ali' I scolded.

"Who is your Family?"

"The Carlson's," I lied, stretching the syllables on all the words, "I have an older sister, a beautiful mother, and a smart father."

The girl raised an eyebrow, and I tried not to fiddle in my chair. "Okay," The girls voice echoed around the room, "Final question."

I nodded, biting my bottom lip.

"What do you fear?" My eyes widened, and my eyes darted to Four. He mouthed something, barely moving his lips. Lie.

"I have no idea." I answered, trying to sound firm – like a brick. The girl opened her mouth, but words didn't come out.

"Okay." She said finally, "You all can enter." I had a feeling she didn't think we told the truth – Four and Tris were holding hands – but I think she was to afraid to say so, because of Thorn.

She led us into a huge black and white striped corridor. The walls were plastered with truth and it's benefits posters. I almost thought that these people are crazy, I mean who sticks tell the truth posters on their walls. But, well, I remembered that they were candor, of course. But still, it's so dull in here.

No colors, no beauty, it's only plain old black and white. Who could ever live like this?

Candor people, I suppose. I did wonder how they do it.

I almost asked, "How do you live so dully?" but I shut my mouth. The serum was controlling me in and out. I had to stop it. I looked at the others. Four seemed like he was having trouble, too. Tris looked fine, and so did Ashlynn. Caleb and Xander were talking to each other excitedly, experimenting on their "truths". Thorn just looked like her normal self. I didn't fail to notice the girl was the furthest away from her.

"We're here," the Candor said. A black door with a white knob stood at the end of the hallway. She opened it, revealing another black and white room. There was a desk in the middle, and a person had his back towards us. "Alford, you have some visitors."

The back of the chair turned and I found myself looking at a dark man. And by Dark, I mean extremely white. He had milky white skin, and light grey eyes, his lips were a light blue, almost as if he were cold. His hair was combed back, in a white-blonde colour, and it stuck up at the back of his head, like he had rubbed a balloon against it. He was wearing a white business suit, with a frosty tie – shocker – that was designed by little black ravens.

"Hello," he said rather curiously. He looked at Ashlynn and Caleb and frowned. I remembered Erudite and Candor didn't have the best relationship. Then, his eyes went on Thorn, Four and Tris-seeing they were all black and obviously Dauntless-and gave us a fake helpful smile. "What brings you here?"

"We want you to be our allies," Xander said immediately. I cringed.

Alford raised an eyebrow at us. We were a peculiar group to look at, I knew. "Really?" he asked. "Well... I'd want to know why. I'm sorry, I can't just say I'd be your allies without reasons." He gestured to Ashlynn and Erudite. "We aren't very friendly with Erudite people," he said truthfully – duh.

"Yes, Well, that is the reason we're here." I said, mustering as much courage as I could to speak. "You see, we want to stop Jeanine Matthews."

Alford raised an eyebrow at me. "You want to stop Jeanine Matthew doing what?"

I realised, that I didn't actually know why we wanted to stop Jeanine Matthews. I just did. I looked back at Tris, trying to use telepathy to talk to her, but I couldn't. Go Figure.

"Jeanine Matthews" Tris took charge, "is conspiring with the Dauntless leaders, and has taken control of all the Dauntless' minds. She has successfully take-" Tris gulped, "taken over Abnegation."

Alford's grip on his chair tightened, and his hands became white. "She's destroyed Abnegation?" He whispered. When Tris nodded, he leaned back in his chair, looking even paler than usual. He muttered something under his breath that I think he thought no-one could hear. I barely could, but once I'd thought it through a few times, I came to the conclusion that he muttered 'Mother'. Or something similar.

"Now you see why we need your help?" Ashlynn spoke clearly, "We need to stop Jeanine. Before she destroys everybody."

"Before she destroys everybody," Alford repeated softly. He looked at us with uncertainty. "And what could Candor do to help?"

"Start a debate with Erudite." Caleb spoke up. The truth must still be on him.

"How would that-?"

"Erudite would be really offended that you think that your better than them, they'll challenge you back." Ashlynn continued, "They'll spend the whole time thinking about ways to win against you, that they could be using to destroy other Factions. We can sneak in an-"

"Kill Jeanine Matthews." Thorn replied plainly.

"Exactly." Ashlynn agreed.

The leader looked skeptical. "Are you sure that the Erudite will do that?"

"Trust me." Ashlynn and Caleb said together.

Alford nodded, then his eyes turned to Xander and I. "And you? I'm surprised the Amity agree to 'killing'."

"We don't." I said simply, "Infact, they," I gestured to the others, "wanted to start a war. We went against it."

"And the killing?" he asked again.

"We aren't a big fan of that either." Xander nodded in agreement, "But it's Jeanine Matthews. We still haven't decided."

"Hmm." Was the reply we got.

After a few minutes of silence, Ashlynn said, "Does that 'Hmm' mean you'll help us?"

"Yes, I suppose so." His eyes drifted off to the walls. He turned his chair in a 360˚ and stood up. "Yes. It's a firm Yes. I will help you." He called forward the girl who led us here and said, "We will keep you for the night. I suggest the Dauntless and Erudite meet with me for a game plan." His grey eyes darted to me, "The Amity should not hear what we are going to do. You might not approve." I shrugged, "Meanwhile, you can wander around our faction, have fun. Melissa here will show you to a room." Alford walked to a metal door, with an icy handle, "Dauntless. Erudite. Please follow me."

As the sea of black and blue crowded into the tiny door, the girl took us out of the colorless room, and into an even more colorless street. "I feel like I'm in a silent movie." I whispered to Xander.

"Or in France." He replied. We giggled until the girl – Melissa – glared at us, and we shut up.

"I will prepare a room for you and your friends. In our best hotel. Meanwhile, feel free to look around." Her voice sounded bored, but attentive. She walked off, leaving Xander and I alone in a midst of Colorless life.

The compound was obviously black and white. There weren't many people around, but even I felt a little dizzy. It was like an illusion.

I had trouble walking around. Everywhere I looked, everything looked similar. It wasn't long until I bumped into someone while squinting at the black and white buildings.

"I'm so sorry!" I scrambled to help the girl up off the floor. "I'm so, so, so, so, so, sorry!"

"It's okay." The person laughed, "I didn't die."

Xander stepped forward, "I'm very sorry." He repeated, stifling a laugh, "Please forgive us."

"Amity." The girl said, "Even without the yellow outfits, I'd be able to tell."

I smiled, "I'm Ali."

"Amber." The girl smiled in return.

"Xander." Xander put in.

The girl ran her hand through her brown, curly hair, and smoothed down her black skirt. I looked at her white T-Shirt. It said 'Music Brings The World Together.'

Before I could say anything, Xander suddenly said, "You two look similar," He covered his mouth after he said that. "Sorry, I was being truthful."

"We do look similar. Don't we?" Amber said. My eyebrow shot up. "See! I do that too, when I'm skeptical!"

My lips curved up slightly. "I guess." I agreed, "We do have a similar nose." It was true. We did. The girl suddenly turned serious.

"Do you have any birth marks?"

"Numerous. Why?"

She grabbed my wrist and ran her hand up my arm, stopping at the small birthmark just above my elbow. "I have that same mark!" She pulled up her sleeve, revealing the same brown spot, on her pale skin.

"You do have the same mark!" Xander said excited. I raised my eyebrow again.

"You're being a bit too truthful," I said. "I mean, come on. How cliché would this be, to find out I have a long lost sister?"

Chapter 5

"Oh My God. You have a sister."

It was later in the evening, and Thorn, Caleb, Ashlynn, Four and Tris were back from their meeting with Alford. We didn't ask for what they decided, and they didn't tell – thankfully.

I had described what I did with my 'free time'. Meeting a girl. Who was my sister. Then my sister and I went to get ice-cream. It was so much to process. I had a sister. A sister I never knew about.

Amber – I found out – was 17. She doesn't know who her father is. She lives with her mother in the Candor compound. But she is an only child. So this was weird, for both me and her. Tomorrow, I was going to meet her mother, hopefully figuring out if she was my biological mother too.

Meanwhile, we were eating in our hotel room. We had ordered room service, and happily ate away, rejoicing at our success. We had almost everything from the menu; Pizza, Pasta, Noodles, Fries, Hamburgers. Everything!

At first we ate with complete awkward silence. I tried to break it by starting a conversation.

"Amber?" I asked. Amber gave me a "hmm?" because her mouth was too full of fries. "How-did you know I was your sister?"

"Hmm, Well," She swallowed her food, "My mum did say I had half-siblings. She never told me, girl or boy. One or two, or three. But she told me, that whoever it is, has the same birthmark as me. So naturally, I checked."

I nodded, "The one above your elbow." She smiled, and started eating a slice of Pizza.

Four froze, "Four?" Tris gently placed her hand on his arm, "Are you okay?"

He nodded his head slowly, rolling up his sleeve, "I just. It's just. I – I." He stopped, and I froze. Just above his elbow, he had a small, brown, mark.

"You – y- y – you." I couldn't finish my sentence. Instead, I fainted.

When I woke up, I was lying on the big, soft and extremely white hotel bed. No-one was in the room with me, and my head ached. Then I remembered. Sister. Amber. Mother. Brother. Four. Four. Four. I closed my eyes, willing for the headache to go away.

Four was my brother. Did he know he had siblings? I mean, to find out I had a long lost sister, was pretty weird, but at least I had no idea who the person was. But Four? The person who saved my life. The person I spilled my heart out to. My friends boyfriend. I'm surprised Tris didn't faint.

I got up slowly, going to the cupboard to dig for something to wear. I could tell it was daytime, and that someone had slept in the bed next to mine, but I was clueless to whom.

I couldn't find anything in the cupboard, so I went to a random bag, and dug around in there. All I could find was a water-bottle, 3 silver coins, and a compass. I sighed. Guess I have to stay like this.

I ran my fingers through my hair, and pulled it into a high ponytail. Then, I splashed water on my face, and pulled on my shoes. I then walked to the door, and opened it. The living room was empty.

"Great," I muttered, "They left me alone."

Then, as if on cue, Four walked into the living room, and stopped in his tracks, "Your awake" he said finally, forcing a smile.

"Uhuh."

"Great."

"Uhuh."

"Everyone's downstairs, in the dining hall. If you want to eat something." Four added shyly.

"Thanks," I said quietly, walking out the door. When I was outside, I held my breath, and leaned against the door. This was going to be fun, I thought sarcastically.

With my head down, I walked self-consciously through the corridors to the elevator. What floor was the dining hall? Where was the dining hall? God Ali, Your so blur.

I pressed the ground floor, and looked at myself in the mirror while going down the floors.

Look at yourself. You're a failure. The bad side of me was back.

'Go away!' I told myself.

You don't know a thing. You're not even Erudite enough. You're sad. You didn't know Four was your brother. Even Amber knew how to find stuff out. You don't.

'It's fine. It wasn't obvious.' I kept a cool head.

It may not have been obvious, but think. Did you always know you had siblings? No. Amber did.

"This isn't my fault!" I screeched out loud.

'Deep breaths, Ali. Deep breaths.' My Angel came back.

"Where were you when the devil was here?" I mumbled, scowling at myself in the mirror.

Ding!

The elevator door opened to reveal Tris, on the second floor. I would've gotten completely lost.

She smiled, and stylishly walked in, in her fresh black outfit, which included a top that revealed 3 birds tattooed on her collarbone. I stopped myself from asking anything about them, and just looked straight ahead.

"You've finally woken up," She said, over the soft elevator music, "We were afraid you'd be out for days." I didn't answer. I couldn't. If I did, I'd burst into laughter, or sobs.

There was silence.

"You haven't talked to Four yet have you?" she asked in a don't-argue-with-me-I-already-know-I'm-right voice.

"Hmm." I all I replied, not daring to open my lips.

"You've got to talk to him!" Tris insisted, "That's the only way you'll sort this out." She gave me a stern look, I could see through the reflection of the mirror, "You can't ignore him forever. You have to speak to him eventually." She sighed a fake sigh and said, "I'd rather sooner than later, before you ruin any chance of becoming good siblings."

And with that, she pressed the button for our floor, and easily held onto my arm. After a few seconds, we arrived, with the same telltale Ding! and Tris dragged me across the hall to our door.

She used they key card, and brought me into the living room. She pushed me down on the sofa, and quickly went to get Four from the other room.

She came out with a red faced Four, and dumped him on the sofa as well. After that, she dashed out of the room, taking all the keycards with her. Four spotted my eye and raised his eyebrow at me, but I quickly looked away.

From outside, I could hear something being dragged across the floorboards. A heavy something.

"She did not" were the first words I muttered to Four.

"She did," He cringed.

We both dashed to the door, and pushed against it. Nothing. I gabbed the handle and jiggled it. Nothing.

"Tris! Let us out!" I banged on the door. There was no answer.

"Let's call the front desk. They'll come and move it… Whatever it is." Four suggested. I agreed, and he went to make the call.

Meanwhile, I sat back down on the sofa. It's so weird how easily everything can go back into place. I wasn't speaking to Four. Now, we were scheming like it was yesterday. Like nothing went wrong. But something did go wrong.

I put my feet up on the couch – something I'd never do in normal circumstances.

Four was my brother. Amber was my sister. A family I never knew about was unfolding itself in two days. That'd be enough to make anyone go crazy. Right?

Four cursed and came back into the room. Immediately, I pulled my feet off the couch, and sat up straight. "They're coming?" I asked politely.

"No." Four replied, "Tris was the one who answered. She said we had to work out what was going out. Then she would let us out."

"Well, then"

I was expecting there to be a very long awkward silence, but Four cut right in, "Why aren't you talking to me? If I'm not wrong, this is exactly what you wanted to happen. You wanted to know if you had a family. Know you know." He sounded sort-of irritated. Like he wanted me to be happy.

"I'm sorry." I muttered.

"That's it?" I'm sorry?" Okay, he was definitely angry, "I just found out you were my sister too, remember? You don't think this is hard for me too? I grew up thinking my dad was horrible, and that my mum left because she was upset with her life. And now I find out she hid this whole world from me." His voice became quiet, "I just found out she was a whore."

I squeaked. What else could I do?

"And now. Now, my own sister won't talk to me." His voice broke, but he showed no signs of crying. Instead, he looked at me with his big blue eyes. Pleading. Begging.

I swallowed hard, "Well." I started, "Since I have to have a brother, I'm happy it's you." I joked, trying to break the ice. It was a lame attempt at a joke, but it worked. Four cracked a smile, and I hugged him.

And not in the greeting way.

In a loving way.

Suddenly, the doorknob turned, and Thorn walked in. Four and I stared at he in shock. "How did you get in?" Four asked.

Thorn went to the fruit bowl, and started peeling a banana, "Uhh." She stuffed it into her mouth, "The normal way?"

Then she walked into one of the bedrooms, and shut the door.