Soli Deo gloria

DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own the Host or Divergent. It's the last chapter, my friends. :)

"Tris. Tris. Tris." I feel someone's hand on my shoulder trying to shake me awake. I don't want to wake. No. Sleep is so calming. I've not been prone to nightmares ever since I shared those nights with Tobias. The habit still remains though he isn't with me now.

"Tris." No. He is here. That's his voice.

I open my eyes to see two hands clasped together in front of me. In quick check, I realize one is mine. I tug it out. It's asleep after having been in such a position for so long.

And then the other hand moves by itself. The body attached to the hand moves by itself. The eyes slowly twitch open, revealing green eyes.

Those eyes—

"Caleb," I whisper, sitting up straighter. He makes a noise in his throat and says, his voice raspy from not being used, "Tris?"

He's alive. He is responsive. This is more than I should have.

"It's about time," I say.

Now I have to explain everything once more.

Of course, having an aptitude for Erudite, he eats up the information. He nods, attentive, to all my words, which are carefully formed. I still don't trust him, but he hardly looks like we're against each other as he takes it all in.

"That's amazing," he says finally when I am done. "They've taken over the entire planet, except for the remnants left of the human race."

I let out a sigh. "More or less, Caleb."

He nods and looks at his sheets. Despite my joy at seeing him awake, all the thoughts of him betraying me fill my mind, and I'm suddenly cold. I don't want to be cold, but I am. How can he have done that? No apology. Barely an explanation.

He had been with Jeanine because of power. Despite their thirst for knowledge being good, there's something wrong with each Erudite. They also have a thirst for power.

Jeb is excited to show off his caves to the new humans. The place is bigger, with bigger rooms. I'll be sharing a room with Cara and Tori now. I highly doubt that I'll stay in their room, though. I often sneak into Tobias's room and whisper to him through the night.

New humans around here brings morale up. Everyone is more chatty at mealtimes. Everyone wants to know the experiences and abilities of the new humans. They especially take to listening to them tell stories of our lives in the factions. The seven of us never really spoke about the experiences, but Cara is more than open, and eventually Tori joins her.

While everyone is amazed by them, Melanie is most taken to them. She says to me, "Why didn't you tell us any of this before?"

I shrug. Of course, I don't want to say that I want to repress such memories. It's complicated. They're a part of my life, part of when things were normal. But they're also filled with blood. Guilt. Regret. Sickening anguish. It's not worth thinking about, agonizing over.

Melanie leans toward me and asks, her voice very low, "Did you all really think that we were bloodthirsty?"

"Our thoughts concerning that were because of the video. That had happened, at one time," I say. "There was murder. There was chaos."

Melanie looks a little pale as she looks off. "That's why the souls came here. Maybe they had had their point. But—but," she turns back to me, "we weren't all like that."

"Enough of you were," I say.

She looks dazed. "I guess so."

Caleb is . . . distant from me. It's strange, after so many months with him gone, that he is here and yet I can hardly reach him. He's quieter. He mostly listens to people, especially Wanda. She still tells stories of her past lives. They fascinate him.

We barely talk. I wish we would. But I have nothing to say to him without an apology, and he's too prideful, too stupid, despite his knowledge, to think to give me one.

Evelyn talks a lot to everyone. Jeb. Lucina. Sharon. Maggie. Barely to her own son. I think Tobias would rather have it that way. He's a lot quieter now as well.

He laughs more, though, when she's not around.

"Tobias," Doc says. Tobias barely acknowledges him. He's staring down at his father, still limp and lifeless on his pallet. "He hasn't woken up. I'm afraid the body will starve if it doesn't awaken."

"So how do you just save it?" Tobias says in a cold voice.

"Transplant the soul back into the body. The soul will take root around his nerves, take over his body once more, and he will awaken as a taken over host. Do I have your permission to do that?" Doc says.

Tobias doesn't say a word. My hand carefully goes to his, wary of his fleeing and coming on thoughts that are making this decision hard.

I squeeze his hand. Just enough to let him know what I feel about it.

He straightens. "Do it."

The procedure is done. Tobias watches the whole thing. I think he's trying to tell himself that that soul will take over, that Marcus will never be able to come back. He wasn't so strong a spirit to remain.

Once Doc is finished, Tobias nods. "There. He's kinder now. The soul is better than him. I might always still be Four, but at least he isn't Marcus anymore," he says quietly.

He doesn't sit and wait for Marcus to come back. I check in during breaks in my chores. The soul finally wakes up on the fourth day and comes into the kitchen at lunch. Tobias stops moving and stares at him. He still looks so much like Marcus.

Jeb finishes chewing a bite of beef jerky and says, "What's your name, then?"

"Marcus," the soul says.

"No," Tobias says. He shakes his head. "Don't be called that. I won't have him in these caves anymore."

Jeb looks to the soul, who nods. He seems obliging. "Then it's Streaks Through the Sky."

"How about just Streaks?" Evelyn offers. She is glaring at her ex-husband's body, though with not as much hostility as before. "Easier for everyone."

The soul nods, and Tobias turns back to the table he is sharing with Jared, Melanie, Ian, Wanda, Christina, Andy, and me. I nudge his foot under the table. He nudges me back, and we exchange looks. We don't smile, because this is nothing to smile about.

But the matter is settled, and Marcus is no longer in these caves.

A knock, "Tris?" I hear one morning. It's nearly a week after Streaks has come into the caves. I'm still hardly used to the new voices. I turn to my door and say, "Come in."

The door is removed so I can see Caleb. He looks distressed; Caleb never looked distressed. I've seen him look sad, tearful, fearful, but never distressed. It's a strange emotion on his face; he tries to hide it, trying to swallow it back. Erudite know that emotion is weakness. Power isn't weakness.

"Caleb," I say. I gulp. I need to keep my own emotions in check. Not display them to him. "Did you want to talk about something?"

"Yes," Caleb says. "Can I come in?"

I nod, and he sets the door behind him. I'm on my crumpled mattress, my sweaty hands clasped in front of me. He sits down cross-legged across from me.

He leans forward. "In Erudite, I was taught that asking questions helps you to seek knowledge. Gain knowledge. So, Tris, I would like an answer to my question." His words are sure now. He's got a bit of himself back. Erudite is a bigger part of him than I have ever thought.

Seconds pass. I fidget in my seat.

He asks, "Why are you avoiding me?"

I let out my breath. Okay. I can answer this question. It's so simple, yet so complicated. "Caleb, I am avoiding you because I am angry with you. I am angry that the Erudite in you is so dominant in taking over your mind. I'm mad that you chose Jeanine over your own sister!"

His face looks in lacking blood. "Tris, I was taught to learn in Erudite. I learned and kept to heart 'Faction before blood—'"

"Oh, it's nice to know that you cared more about your group of peers than your own little sister!" I spit.

"Tris, we were in the middle of a war." Caleb sounds so cold. "One must do what one has to in order to survive. By getting in with Jeanine, I was easily able to save myself from certain death—"

"Why would she have just killed you, you Erudite?" I say. I have no remorse for the anger in my words.

"Because I was with you. I was with you and didn't deliver you to her. Because I couldn't. Because I didn't think I had to. Because I thought I had no other choice," Caleb says quietly. His voice echoes in the cave.

I close my eyes. Choices. That's what brought us here. The choice Amanda Ritter made in making the factions. The choice the souls had in coming here and taking over our planet. The choice Caleb and I had to divide ourselves from our families.

And suddenly I laugh. The factions were useless. They fell apart; they dragged families apart because of how people were in their minds. Tobias was right in wanting to leave them.

Caleb squints at me. "Why are you laughing?"

"Because of choices," I say. "Because you were forced to make that choice." I'm still mad at him for making that choice, for he had also the choice to back out, run away. But that was cowardly. My brother has proven himself not cowardly.

"So are you still angry?" he wonders.

I let out a sigh. I am. Angry at him and angry at choices. But the past is past. Gone. Something I am trying to bury away. I need to forgive and forget. Just forget.

"Yes." I say. "But I forgive you." Forgiveness is the way the Dauntless wanted to be, and despite how the factions were so terribly stupid, they had good morals. They tried, but they hadn't had a good foundation.

Caleb swallows. Gulps down his pride. "I'm sorry, Tris. For betraying you."

Suddenly I'm wrapping my skinny arms around Caleb. That's all I've ever wanted to hear from him. That's what the Abnegation Caleb would have said. And despite how he lived in a lie in that way, I believe that he still has some of that good selflessness still left in him.

There's the sound of rapid footsteps, and Caleb and I stand up to see Christina bursting through the doorway. My door flies to the ground.

"Tris, Caleb," she says, wearing a grin bigger than any one I've seen her wear for the past week. "Guess what?" Without waiting for an answer, she continues. "We found another wild human group with a soul with them!"

I don't know if I should be more startled that another human group has been found or that they have a soul living with them.

I put my hand on Caleb's shoulder before he can starting rattling off questions as Christina explains, "You know how Wanda and Ian and Melanie and Jared and Uriah and a bunch of others were off on a raid? They just came back. Apparently there's another human group!" She waves her hand. "Come on!"

Another human group. There's more. There's more of the most wretched, kindest, strangest kind of being in the world.

We're not alone.

I don't think my feet can carry me to the plaza fast enough.

DA END, *TA DA*

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