Thank you, Veronica Roth! Great book, great characters, and I don't own them. When I first read Insurgent, I thought Tris's escape from Erudite was a little too good to be true. I actually thought Peter's rescue was part of another simulation, so I thought I'd play with that idea. My story starts about halfway through Insurgent, from Tobias's POV - this may be hard to follow for a little while if you didn't read or don't remember that book, but then it goes on to be a new story, an Allegiant alternative. I haven't read Allegiant, and I'm not going to until I finish this. I really like reviews - please R&R!
"Tris!" I shout, my throat burning from the screaming. "I want to see her!" I'm drawing in a breath to yell again when a hand presses up to the glass at the top of the door.
Her hand. I would know it anywhere. The small oval of her fingertips and angle of her wrist, even the nails, ragged and bitten to the beds.
"Tris," my lips form her name soundlessly as I pull myself up to the window in the cell door.
She's there, barefoot, surrounded by Dauntless guards, her eyes red-rimmed with exhaustion. They told me they were going to execute her, but I don't see any obvious bruises on her, so at least they haven't been beating her, too. I guess that's one thing to be grateful for.
I think of everything I want to tell her - how much I love her, how sorry I am that I failed to save her, that I can't live without her... She gives me a little nod, never taking her eyes off mine, as if she can hear me. Beautiful. She's so beautiful, standing there, full of strength and grace.
I squeeze my eyes shut and lean my forehead against the door, lining my hand up with hers, imagining I can feel its warmth through the glass. And I stay like that, long after I know she's gone.
Later, when a Dauntless traitor comes in with a tray of food, it could be that only minutes have passed. Or maybe hours. Maybe days. It doesn't matter.
"Is she dead?" I ask dully, head bowed, knowing he won't answer. But he pauses at the door as he walks back out, and without turning around says quietly: "She was brave. She was Dauntless."
I stare after him in surprise as the door closes. Of course Tris was brave. That goes without saying, even by the traitors.
But the fact that he said she was Dauntless - and the way he said it...
Maybe the traitor Dauntless aren't so enamored of their Erudite allies after all.
I laugh out loud. Wouldn't that be ironic, if this were to be the thing that brings our broken faction back together? They'll say they're honoring her because she died Dauntless, but only I will know the truth. Her last act was not brave. It was not bold. It was selfless. This was all about being Abnegation, not Dauntless.
Well, it was both. She was both. Divergent, to the very end.
I sink my head into my hands and give myself over to the grief and loss and guilt. But it doesn't take me long to realize that Tris wouldn't want this. She saw me as strong and unstoppable. I sit up and shake my head.
Think, Tobias. Think. What comes next?
Tori and Harrison will know by now that we were wrong about the timing of our attack on Erudite headquarters. Our informants would have seen to that. The Factionless will know. It may be too late for them to save Tris, but it's not too late to stop Jeanine. If the traitor Dauntless are restive, that could be very much be to our advantage - if they help us, we might be able to surprise her before she can activate another attack simulation.
So I plan and I wait.
Later, when the guard comes into the room, I slide the tray of uneaten food next to me, so he will have to come close to get it. I touch his wrist when he reaches for it, and our eyes meet briefly. I raise my eyebrows, and he nods - it is a slight movement. So slight that anyone watching on camera would not have seen it.
He takes the tray.
"You should eat it next time," he says, flicking his chin at it. "You're going to need your strength," he adds ambiguously.
As the days inch by, I develop something of a routine: eat, pace, sit ups, push ups, recite the Dauntless manifesto. I try to sleep, but I'm finding that hard. I manage to work out a sort of code with the guard, so I'm pretty sure the traitor Dauntless are about to rebel against the Erudite, and that I will get to be part of the fight.
Some small part of me holds out hope that Tris is still alive out there somewhere, but the more rational part knows it can't be true. When I think about it, about her, my need for revenge is so thick it nearly chokes me.
The next time my Dauntless guard comes into the cell, he has two others with him, and my pulse quickens. The change in routine must mean something is about to happen.
"She wants to see you," the guard says in a carefully neutral tone.
"She" could only be Jeanine.
And it dawns on me - why now? I mean, why not sooner? I've been so focused on waiting for something to happen that it hadn't occurred to me that Jeanine's been leaving me alone.
The thought leaves me cold. Jeanine must have a new serum she wants to try out on me.
As we round a corner, momentarily out of the range of the cameras, one of the guards pushes a gun under my waistband, pulling my shirt over it. It feels good, familiar, nestled there against the small of my back. "You need to stall her, Four," he mutters. "we need as much time as you can get us."
I nod but say nothing as we emerge back under the unblinking eye of the camera.
I recognize the room they have brought me to - the last place I saw Tris alive, before they marched her past my door. Where Jeanine injected her with the fear serum and I gave up the Factionless safe houses.
I feel fingertips on my back, urging me forward. Reassuring, not relentless.