Hey Divergenters! So sorry I haven't updated in awhile, but you must know, that I am human and I have to update three stories weekly.

Please check out my newest story, 'Grey to Blue to Black' if you want to read a story about Tris joining Erudite and spying on Dauntless!

Please review, follow, favorite, and check out my other stories!

Goal: 230 favs, 329 followers, and 650 reviews!


Chapter XXVIII. Arrest

TRIS

I still can't believe that my own mother assumed that I came to join her and her band of factionless, after leaving me with Marcus. She doesn't even realize what she did was so wrong on so many levels. She basically left her only daughter with the devil. Unless Evelyn Johnson remarried and had a new kid to replace me.

It's not like I'm annoyed by it, I'm just upset at her not bringing me with her.

But I guess that's how life is.

We sit around a fire eating food out of a large metal can. I wonder if that's why so many Factionless get sick easily; this is a way of spreading disease.

I sit next to Tobias, and I feel the intense dark brown eyes of Edward watching us.

"So…" says Edward, trying to break the somewhat uncomfortable silence. "You were all Abnegation, huh?"

"We were," Tobias answers. He looks down at me. "But obviously Tris and I transferred and…" he trails off. "Caleb and Susan are still Abnegation." I frown. Isn't Caleb Erudite?

But then I realize what he's doing, and I feel my lips turn upward the slightest bit.

"Tris? I thought that Four's real name is Beatrice?" Edward asks.

"Oh, it's just another nickname. Short for my real one," I mutter.

"Oh." He replies. His eyes drift in the direction of Caleb. "And he's your brother. Caleb," He says, then looks back at Tobias. "Tobias, You ditched your family to become Dauntless?" His dark blue eyes turn darker and I frown.

"You sound like the Candor," I spit the words out like venom. Tobias doesn't need to be reminded of his loss, he deserves better, I think. We all do. "And he prefers Six. Mind keeping your judgments to yourself?" I say to my former fellow initiate.

Therese leans over. "He was Erudite first, actually. Not Candor."

"Yeah, I know," I start. "I—" I am about to mention how he was a fellow initiate when Therese interrupts me.

"So was I. Had to leave, though," she mumbles.

"What happened?"

"I wasn't smart enough," she says with a shrug. "I didn't get a high enough score on my initiation intelligence test. So they said, 'Spend your entire life cleaning up the research labs, or leave.' So I did."

She looks down at her spoon and licks it clean. Then she passes to beans to Tobias, who passes them to me.

"Are many of you from Erudite?" I ask. In the corner of my eye, I see Tobias look down, frowning.

"Most are from Dauntless, actually." She says, jerking her head at Edward, who scowls. "Then Erudite, then Candor, then a handful from Amity. No one fails the Abnegation initiation though, so we have very few of those, except a bunch who survived the simulation attack and came to us for refuge."

I almost scoff. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised about Dauntless," I mumble.

"Well, yeah," Therese responds. "You've got one of the worst initiations, and then there's that whole old-age thing," she says. I raise my eyebrows in surprise.

"Old-age thing?" I ask, glancing at Tobias.

He exhales softly. "Once the Dauntless reach a certain level of physical deterioration, they are asked to leave. In one way or another," he says quietly.

"What's…" I ask, my heart rate increasing. "What's the other way?"

"Let's just say," he whispers, "that for some, death is preferable to factionlessness.

I look down, remembering that once in my life, I wanted to be factionless and away from Marcus, which is death in itself. A death wish.

"Those people are complete idiots," Edward snorts, smoothing back his ruffled hair with a hand. "I'd rather be factionless than Dauntless."

"How fortunate that you ended up where you did, then," says Tobias coldly.

"Fortunate?" he snorts again. "Yeah, I'm so fortunate, with my one eye and all." His voice drips with sarcasm.

Tobias rolls his dark blue eyes, the hints of black sparkling in the moonlight. "I seem to recall hearing rumors that you provoked that attack."

"What are you talking about?" I exclaim. "He was winning, that's all, and Peter was jealous, so he just…"

When I see the smirk on Edward's face, I leave the sentence trailing off.

"There was an inciting incident," says Edward. "In which Peter did not come out the victor. But it certainly didn't warrant a butter knife to the eye."

"No arguments here," Tobias agrees. "If it makes you feel any better, he got shot in the arm from a foot away during the simulation attack," he mumbles.

Edward smiles. "Who did that?" he asks. "You?"

Tobias manages a smirk.

"Well done," Edward says.

Henods wearily.

"Do you know much about how things are right now?" I ask. "Did all the Dauntless side with Erudite? Has Candor done anything?"

"Dauntless is split in half," Edward says. "Half at Erudite headquarters, half at Candor headquarters. What's left of Abnegation is with us. Nothing much has happened yet. Except for whatever happened to you, I guess."

I nod softly, finishing my beans. Tobias and I stand up together. He finds blankets for us. After Tobias take off his shoes, I stand up and wrap my arms around him. He smiles and hugs me tight. I need the comfort. Especially near the mother who betrayed me.

I can feel his hands brushing across the tattoos on my back, sending sparks of electricity up my spine. He stops over the Erudite eye, and his hands move quickly away from it after the moment.

"I wish we were alone," He whispers in my ear, his warm breath bringing chills throughout my body.

"I almost always wish that," I whisper back.

We curl up in the blankets and I lean into his chest. And when I feel his chest moving up and down steadily, I close my eyes, and get the sleep I deserve.

-o0o-

I am awaken by a tap on my shoulder. I am alert and my hand travels toward my gun slowly until a hand stops me. I look and see the shining face of Evelyn beckoning me over to her office. I frown and carefully remove Tobias's arm draped around my waist, and stand up without waking him.

"You will have to tell me what's going on here if you ever even expect me to consider helping you," I say quietly. "Though I'm still not sure why you need me at all."

"What would you like to know, exactly?" she asks. I think of many questions, like asking about why she left me, but I focus on the present. Nothing good could come from dredging up the past.

"I don't know, probably useful information," I say coldly.

"Fine. Your friend was correct in thinking that the map and the chart listed all of our safe houses," Evelyn says. "He was wrong about the population counts…sort of. The numbers don't document all the factionless—only certain ones. And I'll bet you can guess which ones those are."

"I'm not in the mood for guessing," I say with a scowl.

She sighs. "The Divergent. We're documenting the Divergent." I gulp inaudibly. Her interest in the Divergents make me nervous. Does she know that I am one? Or Tobias?

"How do you know who they are?" I ask, shivering inwardly.

"Before the simulation attack, part of the Abnegation aid effort involved testing the factionless for a certain genetic anomaly. Sometimes that testing involved re-administering the aptitude test. Sometimes it was more complicated than that. But they explained to us that they suspected that we might have the highest Divergent population of any group in the city."

"I don't understand," I ask, shocked. "Why—"

"Why would the factionless have a high Divergent population?" she says with a smirk. "Obviously those who can't confine themselves to a particular way of thinking would be most likely to leave a faction or fail it's initiation, right?"

"That's not what I was going to ask," I say. "I want to know why you care how many Divergent there are."

"The Erudite are looking for man power. They found it temporarily in Dauntless. Now they'll be looking for more, and we're the obvious place, unless they figure out that we've got more Divergent than any other group. Just in case they don't, I want to know how many people we've got who are resistant to the simulations."

"Fair enough," I snap, "but why were the Abnegation so concerned with finding the Divergent? It wasn't to…help Jeanine, was it?" I ask wide-eyed.

"Of course not," she snaps back. "But I'm afraid that I don't know. The Abnegation were reluctant to provide information that only serves to relieve curiosity. They told us as much as they believed we should know."

"Strange," I mumble.

"Perhaps you should ask your father about it," she says. "He was the one who told me about you." My jaw almost drops in shock.

"About me," I say coldly. "What about me?"

"That he suspected you were Divergent. He was always watching you. Noting your behavior. He was very attentive to you. That's why…that's why I thought you would be safe with him. Safer with him than with me."

Her apology makes me sick to my stomach. I glare at her, setting my jaw.

"I see now that I must have been wrong."

I still don't respond. I only glare.

"I wish—"

"Don't you dare try to apologize," I whisper, my voice shaky and tears welling up in my eyes. "This is not something you can bandage with a word, or just some hugging, or something."

"Okay," she says glumly. "Okay. I won't."

"For what purpose are the factionless uniting? What do you intend to do?" I ask.

"We want to usurp Erudite. Once we get rid of them, there's not much stopping us from controlling the government ourselves," she says calmly.

"That's what you expect me to help you with. Overthrowing one corrupt government and instating some kind of factionless tyranny," I snort. "Not. A. Chance."

"We don't want to be tyrants. We want to establish a new society. One without factions."

I feel a sick laugh bubble in my throat. What a hypocrite."Right. So how are you going to usurp Erudite?"

"Sometimes drastic change requires drastic measures. I imagine it will involve a high level of destruction. As for why we need you," she says. "In order to do this, we will need the help of Dauntless. No traitors, no factionless Dauntless, just Dauntless. They have the weapons and the combat experience. You could bridge the gap between us and them."

"Do you think I'm important to the Dauntless?" I spit. She just stares at me."Because I'm not. I'm just someone who isn't afraid of much," I narrow my eyes at her.

"What I am suggesting is that you become important," I roll my eyes."I am sure you can find a way, if you want to. Think about it. The door is always open."

"Well I want that door to close," I mumble to myself.

I roll my eyes and leave.

I don't feel like leading a rebellion.

I just need to stay alive.

And keep Tobias and everyone else important in my life too.

I return to a sleeping Tobias. And I resume my previous position, putting his arm back around my waist. I peck him on the cheek, whispering, "I love you, Tobias. Always and forever, Four and Six…"

My words trail off as I drift asleep.

-o0o-

I immediately hit the showers after waking up. Tobias should be in the men's showers, as he wasn't there when I woke up.

After freshening up with the help of Susan covering me with a towel from the other naked woman, I begin to change into spare clothing from Therese.

I hear two voices coming from outside.

"I'm not stupid," A familiar masculinevoice says. "I can see that you're trying to use her. And I'll tell her so, if shehasn't figured it out already." I recognize the voice and my eyes widen.

Tobias.

I feel a chill go through my veins. I know who he's talking to.

"My dear boy," The feminine voice says. "I am her family. I am permanent. You are only temporary."

I hear Tobias say one final thing to Evelyn.

"Yeah," he says angrily. "Her mom abandoned him, and her dad beat her up. How could her loyalty not be with her blood, with a family like that?"

I feel a small smile creep on my lips.

I slide on a pair of blue Erudite jeans and a black Dauntless shirt, the water still dripping out of my hair as I walk out.

I look up at Tobias, and he flashes me one of his "famous" crooked smiles. I smile and suddenly find my feet very interesting.

He mouths the words, 'Time to go', in my general direction, and I nod softly.

I turn to him at the large glass doors.

"Here we go," he whispers to me. I nod back at him. I still haven't told him about the conversation between Evelyn and I last night and I'm still not sure I can.

We walk into the Candor lobby, and we find a large, well-lit room, with black marble floors and the symbol of Candor shaped in white.

A Dauntless soldier walks up to us, holding her gun.

"Identify yourselves," she says.

I don't recognize her, and according to the look in her eyes, neither does Tobias.

"Four," I say, trying to project my voice in the way that I used to. "And this is Tobias," I add, nodding at Tobiasnonchalantly. "Both Dauntless."

The woman doesn't lower her gun. "Some help here?" she asks the other guards, who step forward, but cautiously.

"Is there a problem?" Tobias asks, with a hint of sarcasm.

"Are you armed?"

"Of course I'm armed," I scoff, looking at the girl. "I'm Dauntless, aren't I?"

"Stand with your hands behind your head," the woman says cautiously, holding her gun up higher and waving it over her head.

Tobias sighs audibly. "We walked through the front door," he says slowly, as if he was talking to a child. "You think we would have done that if we were here to hurt you?"

I take in a slow, deep breath. I don't think dry sarcasm isn't going to help too much in this situation.

Not looking at Tobias, I just press my fingers to the back of my head. I feel his elbow knock against mine, letting me know that he's there.

The Dauntless soldiers begin to pat us down, and the red-faced boy who is patting me down makes me nervous. I see Tobias glare daggers at him, and the boy must have gotten the message because he squeaks to me, "I'm sorry." And I know he's talking to Tobias too.

I narrow my eyes ever so slightly.

"I have a knife in my back pocket," I whisper, looking at him. "Put your hands on me, and I will make you regret it." I growl.

The boy apologizes again, and this time, his hands shake as he pats me down, and I have to bite back a laugh.

"What's going on?" Tobias asks harshly, looking at the woman who roughly grabs his hands.

She exchanges a look with one of her lackeys.

"I'm sorry," she says. "But we were instructed to arrest you upon your arrival."


Please review, follow, favorite, and check out my other stories!

Goal: 230 favs, 329 followers, and 650 reviews!

~TrissyPoo