Suddenly the lights come on. I stand alone in the empty room with the concrete walls, shaking. I sink to my knees, wrapping my arms around my chest. I feel cold and I rub my arms to get rid of the goose bumps.

Coming out of the simulation, I feel relief like I've never felt it before. Every muscle in my body relaxes at once and I breathe freely again.

The door opens and I quickly stand to my feet. Max, Eric, Four, and a few people I don't know walk into the room in a line, standing in a small crowd in front of me. When I exchange glances with Four, he sends a small nod my way, I guess to signal that the test went well. He had to coach me on how to hide my divergence during the simulations. I wonder how he knows so much about Divergents.

"Congratulations, Tris," Eric says. "You have successfully completed your final evaluation."

"Thanks," I say, my voice cracking. Honestly, I never thought I'd make it this far. I was in last place after stage one. The only reason I'm still here is because I had the unfair advantage of being aware during stage two. I guess you could say that my divergence is what saved me. In other words, I'm a cheat, an imposter.

"There is one more thing before you can go and get ready for the welcoming banquet," Eric adds. He beckons to one of the unfamiliar people behind him. A woman with blue hair hands him a small black case. He opens it and takes out a syringe and a long needle.

I tense up at the sight of it. The orange-brown liquid in the syringe reminds me of what they inject us with before simulations, and I am supposed to be finished with those.

Maybe he'll let me do it again, I think with a shudder. Maybe he's figured out that I don't belong here.

"This will inject you with a tracking device that will be activated only if you are reported missing. Just a precaution."

"Oh," I say.

I find that strange. I mean, how often do people go missing? But wanting to get out of here as quickly as possible, or at least before the leaders change their minds about me, I pull my hair away from my neck and tilt my head to the side. I look away as Eric wipes my neck with an antiseptic wipe and eases the needle into my skin. And then he pulls it out, placing it back in its case.

"The banquet is in two hours," he says. "Your ranking among the other initiates, Dauntless-born included, will be announced then. Good luck."

I rush off almost immediately, heading for the dormitories, in search of Will and Christina. When I enter the room, some of the other initiates are cheering and laughing and shouting. Others are pacing back and forth with blank looks on their faces. Others look paralyzed.

Will sits alone on his bed, trying to iron out the creases on his pants. He looks nervous. I don't know what for. I'm sure he did great.

"Will!" I call out to him as I approach. "How'd your test go? Where's Christina?"

He looks up at me as I walk to the edge of his bed. "It was ok," he shrugs. "And Chris took off after the simulation," he says. "Said she wanted to be alone."

I sulk as I take a seat beside Will. I don't think she wants to be alone. I think she just wants to be away from me.

Things have been a bit awkward between us since I said all that I did after the towel incident with Peter, and more and more she's been avoiding me. And granted, I hated that she was pitying me so much and acting like my guard dog at every turn, but I never wanted this. I didn't want my best friend to push me away, I just wanted her to see me as an equal. But what did I really expect to happen after I started pushing her away first?

It just hurt so much knowing that no matter how much I love her, she would never love me back. And it was torturous being around her knowing how little she thought of me. But more painful still is watching her slowly walk out of my life.

"Do you know what's been going on with her?" I ask Will hesitantly, wondering if she's told him anything.

Will just shrugs. "Maybe you should ask her that."

"I thought you two told each other everything. I was almost beginning to think you two were gonna become an item," I say as I jab Will playfully in the side, making an extra effort to keep the jealousy out of my voice.

"You know for a time I thought so too," Will says, and then he chuckles. "I tried to kiss her and she laughed at me."

I suddenly sit up straight. "Oh my God! That's horrible! Why would she do that?"

He laughs. "I was cool with it really, after she explained why she wasn't into me." Will pauses and when I give him a look urging him to go on he says, "She likes you. Like… she really likes you, Tris."

I suddenly forget how to breathe.

"What?" I choke.

"Sorry," Will says nervously, shaking his head. "Please don't tell her I told you that. I promised her I wouldn't have."

She likes me? I think, over and over again, as if the answer will come to me from out of nowhere.

"Tris?" Will urges me. "You won't say anything, right?"

My mouth hangs open but I still can't seem to find my words and I only come back to reality when Will touches my leg and says, "Here she comes."

I twist around anxiously only to see Christina briskly walking into the dormitory. "Hey guys!" she yells at us. "It's time to head for the banquet! They're about to post the rankings." And although she wasn't talking to them, all of the other initiates make a break for the door in frantic excitement.

"You go ahead, Will. I'm gonna stay here for a while," I say. He nods with evident unease but without argument he takes off, and just as Chris is about to follow behind him I grab her by the arm. "Can we talk?" I ask.

"Sure," she says apprehensively. "But… don't you wanna see how you did?"

"No," I say levelly, and my tone surprises us both. It's not that I don't care how I did. She is just more important to me than that.

"I guess you have no reason to be nervous," Christina shrugs. "You were always good at the simulations."

I nod, too embarrassed to tell her the truth. I'm not good at anything. If I was a normal personal like everybody else, I wouldn't have seen the end of stage two, much less initiation day.

I take Chris by the hand, surprising her, and I take a seat on Will's bed. She follows suit. My thumb traces nervously against her fingers as I think about where to begin.

"So…," Christina says softly after a while.

I've wasted enough time trying to figure out what to say or how to say it so I decide to just come out with it. "I miss you," I say. "I'm sorry I yelled at you and that I pushed you away. It's just that…" I squeeze her hand. "It's just that it was hard for me to watch you watch me struggle through Dauntless initiation."

She nods slowly. "Because you think I feel sorry for you?" she says more than asks, and I look up at her. "Why would you even think that?" she asks me, but why would I not think that? I'm sure she thought I'd never finish. It's obviously what everyone else thought of me.

When I'm quiet for too long, she says, "Tris, you can tell me anything, you know." She takes my face in her hands, her palms are warm.

I believe her.

"You were doing so great and I was having my ass handed to me over and over again," I explain. "I don't belong here and everyone could see it. You could see it."

"You think you don't belong in Dauntless?" Christina yelps before I can finish explaining myself. "That's ridiculous, Tris."

"No, it's not," I say. "I barely made it through stage one."

"But you did make it through, and you did because when you fought Peter you never gave up. When you missed the target, you'd just aim and throw again. And after today, you officially have the least amount of fears in our entire initiate class. How could you possibly think that you don't belong here?"

I shrug. I guess I never thought about it like that.

"And who cares what anybody else thinks?" she continues. "They're all morons anyways. Especially Peter. He's like the king of morons."

I laugh at this until my eyes tear up, and then I squeeze Christina's hand as I stare into her eyes. I've missed this. She just smiles sweetly at me. "Thanks, Chris," I say sincerely.

"You're welcome." She reaches her hand out and tucks a few strands of hair behind my ear. "I wish you'd stop doubting yourself. You're stronger than you give yourself credit for, Tris," she says. "You are stronger than anybody I've ever met. It's why I fell in love with you," she confesses softly, biting her lip. It sends a rush through me, hearing her say those words. "You didn't push me away as much as I chose to walk away. I knew that you'd never feel about me the way I felt about you. And when you told me off in the bathroom I realized that I couldn't force myself on you and-"

"I love you too, Chris," I interrupt her and her eyes open wide. "It's why I was so frustrated when I thought that everything you did for me was out of pity. I thought that you were always defending me and protecting me because you thought I was weak and you felt sorry for me. Not because…" And I blush.

"Not because… I love you too?" she asks, grinning a little.

I nod. "And as unfamiliar as my feelings were I knew that I wanted to be more than just your friend. I'm crazy about you and I've always been," I say. "But I just thought you'd never feel the same way about me."

"Well now you know better," she says as she passes her thumb against my cheek. "I think you're amazing, Tris," she says solemnly, the sound of her voice making me flush. "And I think you're crazy for thinking that you're anything but."

I smile and I bite my lip when Christina kisses me between the eyebrows, and on the tip of my nose. I am on edge. Then for a second her dark eyes are on mine, and she's quiet. Then she leans in close, brushing my lips with hers. I feel her breath on my face and then there's electricity coursing through my veins instead of blood. I want her to kiss me, I want her to.

Suddenly, she presses her mouth to mine. I tense up at first, unsure of myself, so when she pulls away I'm sure I did something wrong, or badly. But she takes my face in her hands, her fingers strong against my skin, and kisses me again, firmer this time. I wrap an arm around her, sliding my hand up her neck and into her hair as the feel of her soft lips on mine sends rapid pulses of want and desire throughout my body.

For a few minutes we kiss like that, our arms wrapped around each other, seated on the bed. Then playfully she pushes me over, pressing me hard against the bed. I laugh as she straddles me, and I pull her down on top of me.

Her eyes become serious again and her hands shift to my neck and her fingers brush over the edge of my shoulders making me shiver. I turn my head away, giving her access as she kisses my neck and then my shoulders, and gently she nips at where my breasts are supposed to be. I feel a sudden pounding in between my legs.

"Beautiful," she whispers against my chest. But she's the beautiful one. As I stare at her I become lost in the glow of her flawless, moca skin and her vibrant, brown eyes. And as much as she's said it, I still don't understand why she loves me. I press my hand in the curve of her waist, bringing her closer to me.

"So we're really doing this? You and me?" I ask pleadingly, because it seems more like a beautiful dream than reality. And if it is a dream, I hope I never wake up.

"Yeah," she grins. "We are." And she wraps her arms around my neck, our faces only inches apart.

"Peter would freak out if he walked in on us," I say, laughing.

"Don't worry. They won't be back anytime soon," Chris says.

"I don't even think I care," I say. "They're gonna find out eventually right? It's not like we're planning on keeping it a secret." I blurt out the words before taking the time to think about them. What if she's not ready to let people know about us yet?

I search her eyes for an answer, but she just smiles at me, stroking my cheek with her thumb. "You're so brave, Tris," she says.

"No, I'm not," I blush.

"Yes, you are. You… you're new to all this yet you're just so ready to embrace it, to embrace me. No one knows about me and I've known for years." Christina lets out a breath and without moving her arms from around me she rolls to the side of me. She says, "One of the reasons I left Candor was because I wasn't ready to let my mom find out about me yet. There, during initiation, instead of simulations, you get lie detector tests. All day, every day. And the final test…" she wrinkles her nose. "They give you this stuff they call truth serum and sit you in front of the entire faction and ask you a load of really personal questions. The theory is that if you spill all your secrets, you'll have no desire to lie about anything, ever again. Like the worst about you is already in the open, so why not just be honest?"

"Sounds awful," I say, cringing. I can't imagine what that must be like, having everybody know your secrets. I wouldn't survive it. Not now. Not when my life depends on keeping the secret of my divergence.

"It is," Chris says. "And I didn't want that. I wanted to talk to my mom on my own terms, you know? Not while under truth serum and certainly not in front of the entire faction. But I always knew I couldn't be Candor. I mean, I try to be honest, but some things you just don't want people to know. Plus, I like to be in control of my own mind."

"Don't we all?" I ask with a nervous chuckle. I feel faint traces of fear climbing up my throat and getting stronger by the second. I don't want us to be a secret, but if she's not ready yet then I'll just have to find a way to be ok with that until she is.

"I'm not afraid anymore, though," Christina adds when she sees the worry in my eyes. "With you, I feel different, braver. I actually feel like running to the roof and screaming it out for the whole city to hear."

I smile and let out a breath of relief. "Me too," I say and then she kisses me again, softly and slowly.

We spend the next two hours lying on the bed, talking and kissing until eventually we doze off, wrapped in each other's arms. It is the best moment of my life.


I wake to squeaking mattresses and shuffling feet. It's too dark for me to see clearly, but as my eyes adjust, I see that Christina is sitting at the edge of the bed, tying her shoelaces. I open my mouth to ask her what she's doing, but then I notice that across from me, Will is putting on a shirt. Everyone is awake, but everyone is silent.

"Christina," I hiss. She doesn't look at me, so I grab her shoulder and shake it. "Christina!"

She just keeps tying her shoelaces.

My stomach squeezes when I see her face. Her eyes are open, but blank, and her facial muscles are slack. She moves without looking at what she's doing, her mouth half-open, not awake but seeming awake. And everyone else looks just like her.

"Will?" I ask, hopping out of the bed and crossing the room. He doesn't answer either.

All the initiates fall into a line when they finish dressing. They start to file silently out of the dormitory. I grab Christina's arm to keep her from leaving, but she moves forward with irrepressible force. I grit my teeth and hold on as hard as I can, digging my heels into the ground. She just drags me along with her.

They are all sleepwalkers. Why am I awake?

I fumble for my shoes. I can't stay here alone. I tie my shoes in a hurry, pull on a jacket, and sprint out of the room, catching up to the line of initiates quickly.

I follow behind them, trying to match my paces with their own, but I step out of line and hide behind a large column when I hear two familiar voices softly exchanging words. I peep around the large cement post and my eyes open wide when I see that it's Amar and Four.

Why are they awake?

"Of course," Four whispers. "It has to be. Eric said every Dauntless was injected. So now the entire faction is brain-dead, obedient, and trained to kill. Perfect soldiers trapped in a simulation."

I gasp at the thought.

Amar shakes his head. "This has to be why Jeanine was looking into the abnormal results. It's why she wanted to observe our fear simulations."

"She knew that if we were aware during those simulations, then we'd be aware during this one."

"Exactly," Amar says, and my eyes open wide. Four and Amar are aware during simulations? Like me?

They must be Divergent, I realize. That's why Four knows so much about it.

"She's been planning this for years," Amar continues. And if she had discovered us then, she probably would have killed us both. They'll kill us now if they see us. We need to stay out of sight."

"There are others out there, awake just like we are. We can't just hide," Four says, his voice insistent, and I know that they're on my side, whatever side that is. "We have to do something, Amar," he adds.

"I know, Tobias."

Tobias?

"We need to find Uri-"

"I want in," I say as I jump out from behind the column. For whatever reason, I seem to have lost my mind. "Whatever you're doing, I want in."

Amar and Four walk quickly toward me and push me back behind the column. My heart picks up speed and my throat tightens. Maybe I shouldn't have revealed myself just yet.

"Keep quiet," Four snarls at me. "This is not a game, Tris. You could get hurt. Stay here and stay hidden."

"Listen, Four," I bark back. "My girlfriend is out there, mindless and armed. You're not stopping me."

They both tower over me but I stand firm. I feel determined. I suddenly feel like I am strong enough. I am brave. I am Dauntless. And I know that it's because of her. I have to save her. I won't stop until I save her.

"Now what's the plan?" I demand. They look at each other and then they look back at me.

When Four rolls his eyes at me Amar smiles a wicked smile, and leaning his elbow on Four's shoulder he mumbles, "What is it with you Stiffs?"


A/N: And that's the conclusion of our two shots you guys :) Amour and Tristina team up to save the day. How do they do it? Well that's up to your imagination lol Who dies and who is left to comfort who? Well... that is also up to your imagination ;)
Thank you guys so much for your kind reviews and also to those who followed or favourited the story. I really hope you all enjoyed it. Please feel free to check out my other story and leave me a review if you like it.
I'll be back in a month or two with another full length story, Four/Tris of course, so look out for it.
Thanks again you guys.

Until next time ;)

Jojoboo90