Don't think I'm unaware of how delayed this is, and honestly, I'd like to delay it further, but I've just been busy. Albeit reading other people's fanfics and playing Undertale but nevertheless, still being busy. I just felt really guilt, and I know this is hardly an original idea, but it's my take on it. And besides, I'm killing someone soon.
You're welcome. –Blur
DISCLAIMER: I am not Veronica Roth. I am simply borrowing her characters.
Tris's P.O.V
Leaping off the train in the middle of the night reminds of me of some well spent evenings and days with friends out in the park, be it paintballing, climbing the Ferris wheel – with the exception of Tobias – or just simply talking, and they all bring back good memories, though some others resurface and I don't think about them before pushing them away. I can't let emotions get it in the way, so I take a few seconds to compose myself then reluctantly regroup with the group of girls stood huddled a few feet away. They look at me expectantly and Lynn sighs.
"Well, now that our group leader has finally turned up, we can begin," she says, jokingly, but she knows the burdens this place carries and I glare at her. She mouths her apologies to me and shrinks back into the crowd, with Marlene and a still slightly upset Christina by her side. I make my way to a large piece of debris and jump onto it, clearing my throat to get the attention on me. I wait until it's silent, and then a while longer to see if anyone has any ideas.
I clap my hands together. "So what's the plan?"
All the girls look at me with either confused or information hungry stares. Tori looks at me funnily. "You're the captain, shouldn't you be telling us?"
"Ugh, honestly, Six, we expected better from you," Marlene says sarcastically, rolling her eyes, making her way through the crowd, before stepping up onto the large lump of building I'm stood on. "But on a more serious note, Six makes a good point."
Some of the transfer initiates look confused, so Jamie decides to fill everyone in. "What they're saying, is that we need to make the plan, and not rely on them," she says loudly, eyeing me for approval, looking away when I subtly nod my head.
"So, what's the plan, Jamie?" Someone accuses playfully, pushing her in the shoulder. Jamie blushes.
"I don't know! I was just making a point!"
A smile flickers onto my face. "Well, let's just start jogging that way, and you guys make a plan, because the boys will be getting off soon," I point out, hopping daintily off the debris, Marlene in tow. We set off at a fairly quick, steady pace, and separate into groups of members and initiates, the latter trailing behind us, chattering away, Jamie and Janet clearly taking control. I think Janet is the girl that was with Mekhi on the day of the guns, and that was really good. I can only tell Janet is a leader, because I can hear the yells of other people shouting her name, begging for her attention.
I jog over to Christina, and she actually greets me this time, smiling.
"Hey," I say quietly, putting a hand on her shoulder whilst we run, slowing her only a bit. I've learned to keep up with faster speeds than my own, and I'm used to it. "How are you?" It's a risky question, and I worry that Christina might break down again, but I doubt it. Her smile fades a bit but it's still there, shadowing her face.
She shakes her head gently. "I've been better, but I'm not going to cry again," she says quietly, looking at me with warmth in her eyes. I must visibly relax because Christina laughs when she sees my tense body go limp and hear me sigh with relief. "You didn't have to worry about me that much, but it's nice to know you care."
I roll my eyes. "You can be a bit of an idiot sometimes."
"What? How?"
"I've lived with you for almost a year now, and apparently you didn't know that I care about you," I grin, taking my hand from Christina's shoulder, and shoving her lightly. She chuckles breathlessly.
"I know, I'm sorry, but-." She pauses and takes in a breath, "Will's being really distant with me, and I don't want him to break up with me. I mean, last night, I caught him on the phone by the chasm, talking to some girl for hours. He seemed really happy speaking with her as well, but kept checking to see if other people were watching. And the worst thing about the whole thing, is that he is acting as if he has done nothing wrong." She puts her head in her hands and sucks in a breath, and I pinch my lips. I don't know what to say. I can't lie to her; she's an ex-Candor, and isn't stupid, and it doesn't look good.
"Do you want to know what I'd do?" I ask her.
"Yes," I hear her whisper, sniffing.
"I'd show him you don't care. Just be happy, and if that means totally ignoring him, do it. Sisters before misters, right? Just hang out with me and Mar, and don't give him any of the reactions he wants out of you. Got it?"
Christina nods, and a grin spreads over her face. "It sounds like a plan."
I punch her shoulder in a friendly manner, and we swerve towards the rest of the group. I don't know how long we've been running, but we've ended up in the forest that Eric's group hid their flag in during initiation. I come to a halt and everyone else follows suit.
"Do you have a plan yet?" I ask the initiates, rather demandingly, "because I just want this night over with as soon as possible."
I hear a few murmurs of agreement, but Tori cheers, obviously tired and wanting to go home. I snicker.
"Yeah," shouts Jamie, "we've got a plan."
She doesn't continue, though, so I motion for her to with my hands and she explains further. "We were going to go to Navy Pier, but we don't know where the boys will have gone, or be planning on going."
I bite my lip and Christina looks pointedly at me. "So Six, do you know where Four might have gone?" The way she says our names so suggestively is rather disconcerting and I shuffle uncomfortably.
"I wouldn't be too surprised if he went to Navy Pier, because he knows that I always go there, but also because it is has superior strategic positioning potential." Now that the words are out of my mouth, I sound too smart and start giggling at some shocked expression.
Christina starts to cough uncontrollably and all eyes are quickly on her, but she is obviously faking it, which is proved when she mutters "Erudite", and continues to cough heavily. Everyone finds this hilarious, apart from me, and I elbow her in the chest, and she just laughs harder.
"Well, we all know you especially want to go to Navy Pier, T-Six, if you know he's going to be there," Tori exclaims, laughing like a young girl, and I flush a shade of red, that I pray can't be detected in the darkness. I glare at Tori.
"Tori. I didn't tell them."
Tori's face drops and her eyes widen in alarm. "Oh shit. Sorry about that," she says, scratching the back of her neck.
"It's fine," I assure her, and she nods.
"I know," she tells me, dropping her arm. "Besides, all the Dauntless-borns already knew, didn't you!" She yells, trying to get us to start yelling and whooping, rile us all up.
All the Dauntless-born girls whoop until I yell at them to stop, and eventually, they quiet down, at least enough to think. All the transfers are frantically asking for details, and much to my satisfaction, the Dauntless-borns refuse to answer, saying that it isn't 'their problem to expose'. Tobias is my problem? Knowing that if these girls are anything like Christina, which is annoying yet persistent, they won't give up without any information, so I decide to chip in.
"My problem? Are you kidding me? He isn't my problem!" I chirp, much to my amusement. All of the girls whistle and howl with joy, and our position will be given away pretty soon, but I couldn't care less. I'm having too much fun.
"Guys! Guys," I shout, motioning for them to shut up, "you're giving away our position!"
"Is it Uriah?" Somebody yells from within the crowd, and I look to Marlene, who just bites her lip and shrugs, grinning all the same. I'm taken aback at the suggestion of Uriah, though.
"Uriah?" I ask, incredulous. "You know what? Sure. Whatever. If it'll make you shut up. Now let's go."
The girls all squeal and we start to charge to Navy Pier, which isn't too far away, but is in the opposite direction to where we are now, which could prove as a useful diversion, if the boys' squad was drawn to our large amount of noise, which I don't doubt they will have been. We run rather quickly and make it to Navy Pier in less than ten minutes, which must mean we were sprinting for most of the journey. The girls make a huddle in the centre of the pier and begin to discuss places to put the flag. I manage to slip out of the conversation and I jog off and lean against one of the horses on the carousel, my gun slung over my shoulder. Nobody notices my departure apart from a tall, skinny brunette, who also manages to escape the group. She bounds over to me, almost like an excited puppy.
"Please can I have the flag?" She asks politely, holding her hands out.
I nod. "Sure, but first, what's your name?"
"Pace," she says, shaking her head. "Stupid name, I know."
"At least you aren't called Four," I point out, handing her the flag and I hoist myself up onto the horse.
She quizzically tilts her head to the side. "Your name is a number, too."
"Nah," I say casually, readjusting my gun, "I have a real name. I only use the name 'Six' during initiation. Did you not notice Tori call me 'T-Six'? She almost gave me away!"
Pace laughs lightly and tucks the flag into the back of her trousers, like a tail. I raise my eyebrows in confusion.
"So when they haven't decided where to hide it," Pace explains, throwing her head over her shoulder to the argument behind her, "I can run off with it like this, diverting all of the boys away from you guys so you can attack them as they chase me."
"That seems like a plan. Why don't you go tell them," I suggest, much to Pace's joking dismay.
"But, Six! Where's the fun in that?"
I laugh and we stand in a comfortable silence for a few minutes, or it would have been silence if it weren't for Christina yelling out orders and everyone else countering her.
Pace breaks the quietude. "So is Four's name not really 'Four'?" She asks, and if anyone else had asked, I'd have snapped at them, but not only do I already like this girl, she's polite, and I respect that.
"It's not my place to say," I reply simply and she nods.
"So what's your real name?"
"What faction are you from, Pace?"
"Candor."
"So how do I know you aren't going to go tell everyone else?"
She smiles a sly grin and her teeth almost glow in the moonlight. "I left Candor for a reason, Six; I'm a sneaky, lying, bitch."
I chuckle. "Well, if you are a liar, as you say, then you could be lying to me right now, which means you were telling the truth just then, which means you are a liar and then-," I say, giggling, but I'm interrupted by somebody behind me.
"And then you are caught in an infinite paradox," a deep voice says. A masculine voice. I turn around and see Will grinning in the shadows, and he shoots a paintball at me that I narrowly miss. I turn to Pace and shove her away.
"RUN!" I yell, getting the attention of the rest of the girls. They all quickly get out their guns and split, getting into good defensive positions. It is mostly silent, except for Pace's feet pounding down the pier, all of the girls with their guns trained around her, ready to fire at anyone who races after her. Will, after being mesmerised by Pace running away, lifts his gun back at me, and I brace myself for a hit, but fluorescent pink paint spatters across his chest first and he drops to his knees, grunting in pain, dropping his gun in the process. I look around and see Tori firing rapidly at anything that moves before diving into a bush. I know the boys have us surrounded, but I think only Will found me, because I wasn't with the rest of our team. I manoeuvre through an array of colourfully decorated animals before finding myself only a hundred feet or so away from the Ferris wheel. None of the other girls have moved or shot anything, and remain still and silent in the bushes, but I don't doubt the boys are moving in on us, so I decide to do something truly ridiculous.
As soon as I first jump off the carousel and start running into the open, I start to wave my arms in the air and scream, charging at a great speed towards the Ferris wheel. Most of the boys' attention must have been directed to me by now, and I can hear paintballs puffing behind me, though none manage to hit target.
"Now!" I yell, knowing that only the qualified members on my team will know what I mean. We decided earlier that year that if a circumstance like this ever happened, there should be a protocol for what we need to do, and I know that they know what I meant because they all start screaming a tribal holler as they start firing at anything that laughs. I can hear male yells of pain and female cheers, and soon enough, I'm sure that all of the girls are frantically firing everywhere, because then all of the boys because charge too, and when I glance back, I see the male initiates and Uriah and Zeke are attacking. The only person missing, is Four, so he is targeting either me or Pace, who I'm sure is very far away by now, if she managed to keep at the same speed that she started at, the same pace. Pace. Come to think of it, she is very aptly named, and either her parents anticipated her being a fabulous runner, it's a nickname, or her parents actually were runners. It makes me smile, anyhow.
I reach the base of the Ferris wheel and grip the rungs tightly, reassuring myself that they do actually work. I have climbed the Ferris wheel, since the incident with Eric, but it hasn't stopped me from shivering every time I even approach it. Eric is in a place where he deserves to be, now. And he will be there for as long as I live.
I sling my gun over my shoulder and start to quickly climb upwards, knowing that either someone will follow me, or they'll just leave me ascending. I might still get shot at, lower down, but when I get higher, there is no hope of hitting me, and if it is windy, even a small ping in the shoulder could knock me off balance easily.
I must only be up ten rungs when I hear somebody shuffling beneath me. I smile to myself before turning to the bottom of the ladder.
"Hey Four," I say, biting my lip, avoiding his real name, just to be cautious of any people watching us. He grins at me.
"Hey Six," he mocks, running his hands along the metal bars of the ladder. We sit for a moment in silence, and I slip when a torrent of wind buffets me.
"Are we going up today or are we just going to sit here and talk?" I ask sarcastically, knowing the answer. I don't listen for the reply, and just scurry up the ladder faster, and I hear Tobias sigh behind me, but the way the ladder shakes under the new addition of weight is comforting. As I keep on climbing, I feel Four's warm breath upon my heels. I look down at him and he is consciously avoiding looking down, and looks as if he is about to faint. His breaths are shallow and rapid and I laugh.
"What's so funny, Tris?" He pants, his eyebrows creased.
"And you were telling me not to faint!" I laugh, continuing upwards.
"Oh shut up. We've been up here so many times, I'm actually getting used to it," he says confidently, but his breathlessness is unconvincing, and I laugh in disbelief. "Okay, maybe that wasn't the most convincing I could have been, but at least I haven't screamed yet."
I let out a happy huff and continue climbing until I come across the platform in the centre of the wheel. Tobias scrambles to his feet and leans against the metal struts supporting the carriages. His knuckles have gone white from his tight grasp on the bars, but at least more colour has come into his face.
I focus on my breaths in the air, white puffs of smoke escaping from my mouth. I remember something in the news about the invention of cigarettes from a while ago. When the Erudite first tested them, they decided that they were unnecessary and they were supposedly all destroyed. Rumours that some rogue Erudite still create cigarettes and distribute them illegally around Dauntless still float around, but I take no notice to them. I know Caleb wouldn't do something like that, and that's all I care about.
I jump around a bit to warm up, before looking onto the game below me. I can't see the pulsing light of Pace anymore, but I guess she must have made it incredibly far away or hidden the flag very well, if I can't find it from up here. Below, there is still a battle commencing, screams and yelps of pain echoing up to us. Tobias is still pressed against the cold struts and I walk over to him.
"Where did you lads hide your flag?" I ask him, walking over slowly and looking him right in the eye. Each step is placed directly in front of the other, just how Christina taught me to seduce people, once upon a time. I never thought I'd use those techniques though. Tobias doesn't seem to care.
He chortles. "Lads?"
My face remains straight. "Don't avoid the question. Where did your team hide the flag?" I reiterate, enunciating each word slowly and clearly.
"Why should I tell you?"
"Why wouldn't you?" I taunt, moving closer to his face, so that my lips are almost touching Tobias's ear. I can feel his shiver.
"Uriah hid it."
"Is that all I'm getting?" I ask, pulling away to look him in the eye.
"I don't actually know where he hid it though. He just took it and ran."
I sigh. I doubt Tobias would lie to me, and it does honestly sound like a plausible idea, bearing in mind that this is Uriah we are talking about. And I trust Tobias. I smile a little and press my lips to his. He returns this kiss, but pushes me back a bit, so he can stand upright properly, elsewise he'd have had no hands on the bar behind him and we'd have fallen to our death.
Once in the middle of the platform, he kisses me again, and places a hand on the nape of my neck, whilst one of my arms runs under his shirt and up traces his spine. After a while, I pull away, much to Tobias's disappointment.
"I have a wild Uriah to catch," I state, turning towards the ladder, but quickly spin back around. "Are you coming?"
A penny for your pagebreak!
After eventually rediscovering Uriah's flag, which he'd buried in some sand, we were tasked with finding Pace, who'd run off so quickly that not only had no one followed her, but nobody had even seen where she had gone. We all split up and ran around screaming her name for what felt like hours, until she eventually ran into Zeke, who tried to take her flag and pretend like the game was still going and that we had lost, but when we all met at the trains later, I had to explain to her that we had, in fact, won.
"Pace! We won!" I whoop, sticking my tongue out at a sullen Zeke, who was sticking out his lower lip. Pace looks at me sadly and shakes her head.
"No, we didn't. This person-," she says, pointing at Zeke, "he caught me and took the flag. Sorry." She tries to walk off but I grab her shoulder and spin her around.
"You know he's joking, right? We found their flag ages ago!" I explain, emphasising the word 'ages'. She perks up.
"Wait, really?" Pace asks brightly, her eyes wide. I nod my head. "Wow, I'm too used to nobody lying," she mutters to herself before walking off. I'm glad Abnegation didn't have any undesirable qualities that could prove difficult in Dauntless, like a Candor's tendency to believe everything. It makes sense.
We stand around, amiably chatting for a couple of minutes until the next train arrives and we all jump on, all of us managing to squeeze into the same carriage.
"Alright everyone, guns back in the box," Four orders and everyone obeys. I walk up to Christina, who seems to be frothing with excitement and bubbling over the top.
"Calm down, Chris," I say, using her most hated nickname to try and knock some sense into her. She doesn't even realise and keeps squeaking.
"I can't! I'm just so happy. Today's been really great," she says far too loudly, and I think everyone can hear her, but she isn't done yet. "I mean, we won, we won against Four's team, too, and you didn't faint," she squeals, and I flinch at the mention of me. Some people look at me funnily, but I straighten up and pretend not to care, when I really do. My first thought is that it would be selfless to show that I care, so I shrug her comment off as nothing, but I can't ignore the strange looks from Tori, who didn't know about everything that's happened with me fainting.
I just smile and nod. "Yeah. Yeah, today has been a pretty great day, hasn't it?"
I probably didn't write as much as you wanted me to, but I wrote it all in one sitting, which is new (for me), and I used some fancy words (for me) too! As I say I've just been busy doing nothing and all.
YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW HARD IT WAS TO NOT ACCIDENTALLY TIP TRIS OFF THE EDGE OF THE FERRIS WHEEL I WAS SERIOUSLY CONSIDERING IT. God forbid, though. You guys would fucking kill me.
Later bitches
-Flucy