Tobias P.O.V
"We're going to see your mother,Tobias"
What?!
Katniss's words make no sense to me.
"My mother's dead", I say stupidly. She died when I was little,along with my unborn sibling.
"No she isn't, Tobias,",says Katniss, shaking her head slowly,softly.
I must be dreaming.
If my my mother were alive I wouldn't have had to live alone with my father,living in constant fear of his tempers and beatings. My mother loved me,she wouldn't have left me alone with him!
I close my eyes,and I can immediately see my mother smiling down at me as she tucked me into bed, her dark curls undone and tumbling down her shoulders, crinkles at the corners of her dark eyes.
I never thought I would see her again.
"Tobias?" says Katniss uncertainly, her voice soft. "Are you okay?"
I realise that I'm sitting on my haunches,my face buried in my palms.
"Yeah." I say, nodding. " I'm fine." I don't know who I'm trying to convince,her or me."But how..?"
My voice trails off,leaving the question hanging in the air. The words feel like cotton on my tongue.
"She's the leader of the factionless,now, Tobias," says Katniss. "She's the one who sent me here."
"Did she ask to meet me?" I ask tentatively
Katniss turns pale. "No, actually" she says, biting the inside of her cheek.
She does that when she's nervous, I've noticed. "I'm probably going to get into huge trouble for bringing you."
"How do you plan to explain today to Eric, Katniss?" I ask, changing the topic of conversation. I can't talk about my mother anymore.
Katniss squeezes her eyes closed and pinches the bridge of her nose.
"I don't know," she answers woodenly. "I'm sort of hoping Evelyn has answers."
Evelyn. My mother. I realise with a start that Katniss may know my mother better than I do.
For the second time this week I find myself staring out at the city as it flits by,through the door of the train.
I imagine how my life would be right now if I hadn't met Katniss and her sister the day of my aptitude test. I might be still living in Abnegation,afraid of my father,believing that my mother was dead. And I wouldn't have met Tris. Just thinking about her makes a flood of warmth surge through my body.
"Katniss?" I say as softly as I can,over the noise of the train.
"Yeah?" she says,from the other side of the compartment,her hair,which has escaped from her braid creating a halo around her face.
"I'm glad we met."
"Me too, " she replies. Katniss reaches her arm out tentatively,and places it on my shoulder. The gesture is comforting.
We sit for a few more minutes in comfortable silence till Katniss stands up and gestures for me to come over.
When I reach her side, I see that we are passing by the Abnegation sector. For a brief instant, I catch a glimpse of my old house. Marcus's bedroom light is on. I can almost picture him,a scowl on his face as he sits on his unpolished old bureau,studying some government papers. Before I know it,we've reached the beginnings of the Factionless area.
"Get ready to jump, Four!" yells Katniss,over the wind. "The train doesn't slow down here."
Katniss jumps out in front of a dilapidated warehouse with boarded up windows. I time my jump all wrong,and end up landing landing on my butt. Katniss, who has as usual landed on her feet,smirks and heaves me up.
"Welcome to headquarters,' says Katniss,pushing a heavy rusted door open,and I step inside.
My jaw drops open in shock. The dingy exteriors of the warehouse give no clue as to what lies inside. Inside I can see literally tens of people of all ages, from little babbling toddlers to an ancient woman with a headscarf.
A little blonde figure quickly hurtles towards Katniss, who bends down, enveloping her in a hug.
"Little Duck!" she exclaims in joy, and swings her sister around in a circle. I cannot help but smile as Katinss and Prim break apart laughing and crying at the same time.
Prim looks at me and a huge grin appears on her face.
"Tobias!" she exclaims happily. "Did you take Dauntless too? Did are you here because of your mom?"
She realises what she has said, and claps her hand over her mouth immediately,looking guiltily at Katniss,who simply shakes her head.
"He knows,Prim. It's okay."
Prim heaves a sigh of relief.
"Evelyn is busy right now," she says. "She's talking to Amar."
"Are Haymitch and Finnick here?" asks Katniss
Prim nods. "Yeah. Mom's here too, Katniss. She misses you."
Katniss mouth is in a hard line. Something tells me she doesn't exactly have the best relationship with her mother.
"Okay," she acquiesces with a sigh. "I'll meet mom. Take Tobias to Haymitch and Finnick,okay?"
She looks at me questioningly,and I shrug.
Prim gives Katniss a beaming smile and proceeds to grab my hand and lead me down the hallway. The narrow corridors are lit with kerosene lamps,which cast a warm yellow glow on the walls. There are bulbs too,but those are either broken or the electric power isn't too reliable over here.
I wonder what sort of people Haymitch and Finnick are, though if they're friends of Katniss I'm sure they can't be all that bad.
The corridor opens into a huge room,larger than the dining rooms here. There are literally hundreds of sleeping pallets lined up against the wall,and there are peeling maps on the city,along with some sort of charts.
"What are those?" I ask Prim.
"Population counts," says. "Divergent population population counts"
I peer closely at the charts and my jaw drops open in shock. Nearly a third of the factionless population is Divergent. The Divergent populations in Abnegation are pretty high too. Not very surprisingly, the Divergent population is the lowest among the Erudite.
Prim tugs on my hand and I pull away from the maps reluctantly.
"I never go to thank you for your advise,Prim," I tell her. "It's only because of you that I managed to pluck up the courage to pick Dauntless"
I can practically see Prim fluffing up her feathers in an endearing way at the compliment. In a way, Prim is the complete opposite of Katniss, that's probably why she's so good for her.
Prim leads me into yet another corridor,and stops abruptly at a third door to the left.
Inside are two men,one middle aged with dirty hair hanging to a chin,and the other curly auburn hair and striking sea green eyes. They sit on a round circular table which is piled up with papers.
When the door opens, The auburn hair man turns around and grins at us.
"Prim!' he happily,revealing perfect white teeth. "And frowny boy! Decided that Dauntless wasn't good enough for you?"
"Finnick," says Prim,with a slight blush on her cheeks. " This is Tobias. Tobias Eaton. As in Evelyn's son."
The middle aged guy,who I'm assuming must be Haymitch,lets out a low whistle,as Finnick bursts out into laughter.
"She just can't help herself,can she?" he says,between chortles of laughter. "Evelyn is going to love this."
"Come, sit." says Haymitch to me, patting a chair. "You can go now,Prim,and take our guest with you. Send Katniss over when she's done."
With a start I realize that there's another person in the room,hidden by the shadows and piles of paper. She's short,with pale grey eyes the color of cement and equally grey hair that falls to her shoulder in an even fall. She is dressed in Erudite clothes, a well tailored navy blazer over dark pants.
She nods curtly at Finnick and Haymitch.
"Gentlemen." She nods at them. "Pleasure as always"
"Same here, Alma" says Finnick with a dazzling grin.
Alma seems unaffected by his charms as she briskly walks out of the door,Prim following her meekly.
I make my way to the chair and sits down,which sags down beneath my weight.
"Gods that woman scares me" says Finnick under his breath to no one in particular.
"Who was she?" I ask him. Out of the two,he seems more approachable.
"Alma Coin," he says. "Head of research in Erudite. Divergent,and she hates Jeanine. Of course,she hates Evelyn too.
"That woman hates everyone,"says Haymitch with a grunt,taking a swig from a silver flask he produces from his pocket.
"Why does she work with you then?"
"She'll work with whoever she thinks she'll get the most power from," replies Haymitch." But we're not talking about Coin right now, okay kid? Lets talk about how you got here."
"Katniss told me. She got me here."
"She shouldn't have," says Finnick with a frown. "I thought that she had that much sense."
"She told me and dragged me here. It was a spur of the moment thing. Both of us had had a pretty bad day."
"Still not an excuse," says Haymitch
"That girl couldn't charm a slug,but you can't deny she's got a good heart,Haymitch," says Finnick. "I'm sure she's got her reasons."
Haymitch nods,and redirects his attention towards me. "Aren't you the one of the kids Amar told us about who went off to Erudite at midnight?"
"Yeah" I answer. "My gir- uh,my friend and I. We'd gone to visit her brother. He shot me."
Both men exchange looks. "And who might this brother be?"
"Caleb. Caleb Prior."
Haymitch consults a sheaf of papers, sliding his finger along a list of names. ". ..Ah here we go. Caleb Prior. Max got him to transfer to Erudite. He's one of Jeanine's lackeys. He's been researching the simulation serum. Natalie Prior's his mother."
"That's him." I affirm. I'm surprised at the amount of information they have.
"There have been a lot of troubling developments in Erudite lately," says Finnick carefully. "My,ahem, sources have become even more reluctant to divulge information. I'm afraid the Erudite are going to put their plan into effect sooner than we expected."
"What plan?" I say, when the door swings open, revealing a flustered looking Katniss,who is holding an extremely ugly yellow cat which is trying to claw it's way out of Katniss's arms.
"Whats Buttercup doing here?" asks Finnick,reaching out for the cat,which purrs and leaps out of Katniss's arms to Finnick's, where it curls itself up contentedly as Finnick starts petting it.
"It probably came looking for Prim," says Katniss,a look of annoyance on her visage. "I had to take the stupid cat before somebody caught it and ate it. I don't even know why I even bother."
"Buttercup and Katniss are like an old married couple," explains Finnick. "They fight all the time but they looove each other."
"Buttercup's Prim's cat," says Katniss, as a manner of explanation. "She loves that little devil. "
A tall girl with dark hair raps at the open door. Buttercup hisses at her.
"What do you want,Therese?" snaps Haymitch
"Evelyn wants to see Katniss," she says,her tone businesslike yet haughty.
She notices me. "Who are you?" she says snidely.
"Evelyn's son," I reply, and her face blanches.
She turns to Katniss.
"Good luck explaining that." she tells Katniss abruptly before marching away.
My stomach is all tied up in knots with nervousness.
I'm meeting my mother.
Katniss leads me to the end of the corridor,to a plain brown door. Katniss knocks on the door.
I'm sweating all over.
"Come in." says a voice. My mother's voice.
Katniss looks at me reassuringly and squeezes my palm before she pushes the door open.
And right before me sits my mother.
She looks almost the same as I last remember her,only her hair is greyer and her face has more lines. She's even dressed like someone from Abnegation.
She's poring over some papers,and she hasn't looked up since we've come.
I clear my throat.
Evelyn looks up and her jaw drops.
"Mother" I say stiffly.
"Tobias..." she whispers,jumping up, like I'll disappear if she speaks too loudly. "Is that you?"
"Yes." my voice sounds strange,hollow.
"I'm so sorry,Evelyn," says Katniss. "I couldn't help bringing him here."
Instantaneously,Evelyn freezes,her face turning into an unreadable mask as she realises that she and I aren't the only ones in the room.
She turns to Katniss."What did you think you were doing when you got him here?" she whispers,enunciating every word carefully,each syllable promising murder.
"It wasn't her fault."
I'm not going to let her do this to Katniss.
"If anything,it was YOUR fault leaving me alone with my father. Do you have any idea what I've been through,Evelyn? Do you know how many times he has beaten me up? How many times he's locked me in a cupboard? How many times I've cried myself to sleep, while you were sitting here happily,running your own empire?Did you ever spare a thought for me? " I'm breathing heavily,my fists clenched at my sides and my entire body is shaking.
Both Katniss and my mother are staring at me in utter astonishment.
"I never knew." says Evelyn, sitting down abruptly on her table. "I thought you'd be fine with him."
"Why take the chance? " I ask " When you could've easily taken me with you?"
"I was protecting you!" she protests. "You think it's been easy for me in the factionless?"
"You should have been protecting me from my father! That's all that matters!" I roar.
"Enough." says Evelyn. "Now is not the time for such discussions. Katiss,Amar has told me everything,but I believe that you have questions."
Katniss nods her head. "Eric wants me to spy on the factionless. Do his dirty work for him. He wants me to help him sabotage some of the other intiates."
"Do it." says Evelyn. Do whatever you need for him to think you're on his side. Beetee has a few dummy surveillance footage tapes of the factionless for exactly such situations. Use those.
"Okay," she says. "and I need more information. On what you're trying to accomplish here, Evelyn, because I cannot work in the dark anymore."
"Fine." says Evelyn,and then she stands up. "Tobias," she says walking over to me. "Maybe you don't understand my actions now,but maybe you will later. And I want you to know that I love you."
I just nod at her. This meeting is far from what I expected. I take this as my dismissal and I go out and sit in the corridors, with my head between my knees.
This isn't the same woman whom I used to cry myself to sleep about- this is someone else entirely.
Fifteen minutes elapse before Katniss comes out. She gives me a wan but real smile, and after pausing get the tapes and to say goodbye to Haymitch and Finnick (Prim appears to have gone home) we board the Train and sit in silence till we reach. The corridors are deserted, and it's pretty easy to make our way back to the dormitory unnoticed.
But it seems someone has noticed our absence.
Gale.
He's standing by Katniss's bed, and he's been crying.
"Katniss,"he says. "I'm so sorry. I have a message from Eric."
"He has your sister Katniss, he's kidnapped Prim."
A/N: Well how did you all like that? As always, I'd love to hear from you! Maybe if I get a lot of reviews the next chapter will be from Eric's POV. ;)
*offers Dauntless cake*
Peeta:I baked those, you know. And she thanks me by not even mentioning me in this chapter. I feel the love. At least I have my fangirls!