Hi everyone. Just wanted to let you know that I'm not planning an end for this story yet. I really enjoy writing and I will keep doing it for as long as I want to. No need to worry that I will stop writing. I just sometimes take little longer breaks between my chapters. If you want me to post more often, please tell me so I know. Happy reading!

Chapter 21

Tobias

While waiting for Tris I decide to go and see Shauna. I haven't talked to her in a while and honestly, I miss sitting by the chasm with her and Zeke, talking about everything that came to our minds. I knock on her door. "It's open," someone shouts from inside the apartment. I open the door and walk in. I can hear water running in the bathroom.

"Shauna?" I say and walk into the kitchen.

Zeke stands by the kitchen counter, holding a bowl with brown paste. "Hey Four. Shauna's in the shower."

"Oh, alright." I look at the bowl in his hands. "Baking?"

He laughs a little. "Yeah, Shauna wanted to make chocolate cake. Told her it's a secret recipe so we decided to make muffins instead."

"Really, secret?"

"Yeah, only the cooks know it. It's some special rare ingredient. Anyway, what are you doing here?"

"Ah, just wanted to see Shauna."

"Why?" He raises his eyebrows.

"Oh no reason, just haven't talked to her in a while."

"Alright." He licks the spoon with chocolate paste. "So good," he says, grinning with chocolate on his teeth.

I look away. "Yeah, okay. I'm gonna go. Tris is probably done with her meeting by now anyway. Tell Shauna I said hi."

"Will do."

I leave the apartment and head for Max's office. Halfway there, I see Tris walking towards me from the other end of the tunnel. "Tris, hey, how did the meeting go?"

She walks faster and when she reaches me, she slips her arms around me. Her breaths are fast and her heartbeat is racing. "It was… intense. Listen," she pulls away. "I need to talk to you, but not here. Can we go to your apartment?"

"Yeah, sure."

She sits down on the couch next to me. "I got a job in the control room."

"What?" I look at her with wide eyes. "Why would you do that? You know nothing about computers."

"I can learn. Listen, the reason I took the job was that I could watch Abnegation when they attack Jeanine. If I can't join them, at least I can monitor them."

"You're insane Tris. You can't just take a job for that kind of reason. This is serious. If Max finds out he'll have you thrown out of Dauntless without hesitation."

"He won't, and I could enjoy working there."

"You wouldn't." I sigh. "Look I know you're just want to help, but in this way you wont. We'll talk to Natalie, but I seriously doubt she'll involve you. She asked me not to tell you so…"

"I don't care. She's my mother. I can talk to her."

"Easier said than done," I say and shake my head.

"If she says no, I'll join you anyway. People I love are in danger and I'm not going to just sit back and watch if something happens to them." She raises her eyebrows. "Would you?"

"I still think you shouldn't have picked the control room."

"Well then we'll deal with that later. I'm going."

We walk in silence. I look at my watch. 9.30. Yesterday Tris and I slept in our own apartments. After our conversation we decided to not see each other for the rest of the day. I spent almost the whole evening in the control room. Usually this time of year, after the new dauntless members join, there're not a lot of people working. Hangovers are pretty common. Therefor I like being there, with not so many people around.

"Ready?" I say when we reach the door.

"Ready as I'll ever be."

Before she gets a chance to knock, the door opens. Natalie stands in the doorway. She wears a smile on her face, but then she sees Tris standing next to me. She doesn't look surprised or angry. More disappointed. She sighs. "I guess it was stupid of me to trust that you wouldn't tell her."

"I can explain…" I start.

"Don't. I understand." She takes Tris' hand. "Let's go inside."

We sit down at the dinner table. Natalie doesn't say anything. She just sits across from us, inspecting us. Finally she speaks. "We're taking action in three days. Marcus and myself will be leading a group of Abnegation and Erudite. We have people on the inside that will make sure Jeanine is where we want her to be when we strike."

"Are you sure we should wait three whole days? What if she attacks first?" Tris asks.

"She won't. An Erudite man gave us information about Jeanine's upcoming plans, and they're not scheduled until sometime next week. That's confirmed."

"What exactly will we do?" I ask.

"It won't be easy. We're doing this quietly; therefor there are not many of us actually going in there. Several from our forces will monitor us and help by telling us where potential guards will be. We'll be given erudite clothes to blend in, to avoid discovery."

"Who will go to erudite?" Tris asks.

"That has not yet been decided. Marcus and I will not go unfortunately. We'd be recognized."

"We wouldn't," Tris says. "We could go there."

"Tris," I say to stop her, though I'm not sure why.

"No, we could," she says. "We're dauntless. We're basically trained to do this. How many are you sending in there?"

Natalie doesn't answer right away. She looks at us and it makes me uncomfortable. I have a feeling it won't be a many. "Five. But…"

Tris exclaims. "Five? That's crazy!"

"Honey I'm not finished. We will send only five of us yes, but there will be three erudite insiders waiting there. They'll be waiting by the train tracks. Bigger groups are not that common in erudite and we don't want to draw attention to out selves."

"We're going. Me and Tobias."

I twist in my chair. I want to help, and I'm going to, but the fact that Tris is coming too makes me feel like it's not worth it. I don't dare to think about if something would happen to her.

"I'll have to talk to Marcus about it," Natalie says sternly. "But I understand that you two will be very useful." She takes our hands in each of hers. "But you have to know that this is not something I enjoy doing. I don't like sending you two there. Okay?"

"We know mom," Tris says. I try to smile, but it's hard to feel like smiling right now.

"Well," she let's go of our hands. "I'll go and talk to Marcus about it. I'll be back soon. Please stay here. We need to go through some more things. I need you two to be perfectly prepared." She gets up and leaves the house.

Tris turns to me. "Why aren't you saying anything?" Her anger surprises me. I didn't notice that I was being so absent in the conversation.

"I'm just… not sure what to say. This is all just very overwhelming."

"Since when does things get to overwhelming for you? I thought you of all people would be happy to do this."

"Yeah I would. But it's different now."

"How?"

"Because Tris," I get up. "Because you're coming too! Okay, I'm freaking out because you're also going." I back away and turn toward the window by the sink. I don't like showing this side of me. I almost never do, and sometimes I even forget that I have it.

"You don't think I can handle it?" Tris says from behind me.

"It has nothing to do with what you're capable of." I turn to her. "This is basically a suicide mission, you know that right? The chance of us making it out alive is not that great, terrible actually, and I'm afraid that I won't be able to protect you if something goes wrong."

"I know you think that that's your responsibility, but it's not. Your only responsibility is yourself." She walks over to me. "Okay?"

"Okay," I say, but I don't change my mind.

Tris

It doesn't take long until mom gets back, but she is not alone. Before she closes the door, Marcus walks in. I feel Tobias hand in mine and he squeezes it hard. You would think it's his protective instincts but no, he needs me to steady him.

"Son," Marcus says and nods toward Tobias, then me. "Tris." I don't answer.

Mom sighs. "If we're gonna do this together, you three are going to have to get along."

"I don't see that happening," Tobias says coldly, keeping his eyes focused on Marcus.

His whole body is tense, almost frozen. I look at him. His eyes are darker than usual, and his jaw is clenched.

"It's fine," I say and put my arm around Tobias. "Let's just go through this."

We sit down at the dinner table. Marcus is the first one to say something.

"So Natalie tells me you two want to go to Erudite. Is that right?"

"Yes," I say dryly.

"Alright then." He folds his hands in front of him on the table. "Then there's some information you need to know."

For some reason I'm surprised by the way he says it. Like it's no big deal that his son is about to risk his life for our city.

For almost two hours, we go through everything we will do and all the information there is to know. When Marcus finishes, a buzzing in my head that I wasn't aware of disappears. Taking this much information in at once is challenging. I straighten. My back hurts from sitting still so long and my whole body is stiff. I

"Okay, that's it," Marcus says. "You'll know what to do."

We all get up from our chairs. Mom takes my hand. "We'll see you Thursday, 6 pm."

See ya'll soon. Be brave! -s