A/N: Sorry for the wait! and Thanks for being patient! I'm back friends! Leave me a review to let me know you're still around ;) And always, don't hesitate to tell me what you think!
Tris
At this point, it's a miracle that I haven't passed out.
I have depleted absolutely all of my energy, but Tobias keeps running behind me and I try to keep up the pace until I simply can't anymore.
I collapse against the wall, breathing hard.
"Tris!"
He tugs on my arm to keep me moving but I trip over my own feet.
I fall to the floor, my palms pressed flat against the ground.
"I can't…" I breathe. "I can't run anymore…"
He kneels down quickly, taking my face in his hands.
"Hey, don't give up on me." He presses his forehead against mine for a moment, as if trying to give me some of his energy.
He hooks his arms underneath mine and then gently lifts me to my feet.
The alarm is still blaring loudly, vibrating in my chest.
"You can do this, Tris. Come on." He pleads.
I want nothing more than to be strong for him, but my body is simply not allowing it.
The gun feels cold and heavy in my hand and I'm not even sure I'd have the strength to fire it.
I press the gun into Tobias's palm, but he doesn't take it.
I let out a tiny sigh, lifting my shaky hands for him to see.
"I'd be a terrible shot right now."
He lets out a small sigh, but then nods, wrapping his fingers around the gun.
"Okay." He breathes.
"Just stay close to me."
I nod as he starts to move again, taking the lead this time, and I do my best to follow him.
Since I've been trapped in Erudite, nothing has felt real.
Everything has felt like a giant nightmare that I'm too tired to wake up from.
This is no exception.
It's incomprehensible to me that I'm actually going to leave Erudite alive.
The alarm gets louder and louder as Tobias sprints down the long, narrow hallways, but the sound doesn't deter him in the least.
He is more determined than I've ever seen him.
He's moving so quickly and with such confidence that for a moment, one fleeting moment, I think it will be enough to get us both out of here in one piece.
Then I spot the two armed Erudite blocking the end of the hallway.
The Erudite aren't naturally fighters, but anyone becomes a threat with a gun in their hand.
Popping sounds fill the hallway and it takes me a moment to realize that the sounds are gunshots.
The Erudite are firing without restraint.
"Tris!"
Tobias's voice reaches my ears quickly.
"Tris! Move! Get down, now!"
His voice jolts me out of my temporary paralysis and I hit the ground hard, my ear pressed to the floor.
A glance backward tells me that our attackers are coming from both ends of the hallway now, closing in on us.
I see black mixed in with blue and know that the Dauntless guards have joined in this fight.
Barely a moment passes and something large and heavy collides with me.
It takes me a few moments to realize that the something is a person, dressed in Dauntless black, with a shiny knife gleaming in his hand.
I hardly have time to scream as the Dauntless pins my arms to the ground with one hand, the other pressing the knife against my throat.
I raise my knee and ram it as hard as I can upwards.
As soon as my knee makes contact, the Dauntless above me lets out a groan, instantly releasing my hands.
His knife slips, slicing my throat.
I don't have time to think about the pain.
I lift my hands and shove the Dauntless in the chest as hard as I can. He rolls over to my right, giving me exactly what I need to attempt a getaway.
I crawl quickly across the floor, trying to ignore the loud gunshots and the steady trickle of blood that's trailing down my neck and onto my chest.
I lift my gaze to see Tobias wielding the shiny black gun like he was made for it.
He aims with such certainty and conviction that it makes me remember that he's been harboring Dauntless skills for years now.
He hits an Erudite in the thigh and the scream that follows tells me that the pain is excruciating.
The Erudite falls to the ground the moment the bullet makes contact.
Tobias fires again and this time he hits another Erudite in the side, causing him to fall on top of his partner.
It becomes apparent to me that Tobias isn't shooting for the kill.
He's shooting for maximum pain alone, just enough for us to make our getaway.
He wants to get out of this without hurting anyone beyond repair, a clear expression of his Abnegation roots.
I press myself against the wall, reaching one hand up to hold my throat.
It's a shallow cut, but the pain is intense.
I hardly have time to catch my breath when I feel a hand wrap around my ankle and yank me backward.
I'm being dragged quickly across the floor of the hallway with no way to stop it.
My first instinct is to scream for Tobias, but as soon as I open my mouth, my assailant drags me forward hard, slamming my head against the wall.
My head explodes in pain as my eyes fill up with blurry tears.
I have no idea where I'm being dragged to, and my eyes are having trouble taking in my surroundings due to the bright white dots swimming in and out of my vision.
The dragging ceases and suddenly I am being pulled up by the arms, my back shoved against a wall.
When I open my eyes, the first thing I notice is that my assailant is Peter. The second is that he has a gun in his shaky right hand, pointing not at me but at the ground.
"Please don't do this."
The words are out of my mouth before I can stop them.
He grins at me, a laugh escaping his lips.
"Like begging is going to help you now." He snorts.
"What else do you want from me?" I breathe.
"You already have everything! You have all your Divergent information! I cooperated! What more do you want from me?!"
"Your head on a platter." He replies, lifting the gun to point it in my direction.
"Why?" I insist, my eyes locked on the gun.
"What's in it for you? It's not going to make you more valuable to Jeanine. She doesn't care about you, Peter."
"What makes you think I care about her?"
I let out a small sigh.
"Because you wouldn't be here if you didn't."
He's quiet for a moment, tilting his head towards me.
"How about you beg some more and I'll consider letting you go?"
I bite down hard on the inside of my cheek to keep myself together.
"You don't have to do this, Peter."
He lets out a loud laugh.
"God, could you be any more of a Stiff? Listen, all the freaks like you are going to meet the same fate eventually. Consider yourself lucky that I want to start with you. You have no idea what's coming for the rest of them."
He grins a little.
"Our problem is that we allowed you to survive this long in the first place. Jeanine should've gotten rid of you the moment your test came back as inconclusive. We can never give Divergents the benefit of the doubt. All of them have to meet the same end. Consider your death a gift to society, Tris."
He takes a few steps closer to me and presses the barrel of the gun into my forehead.
"It's time to end you."
"And you can live with that?" I ask, my eyes boring into his. "You can live with my blood on your hands?"
"It's Divergent blood." He corrects me.
"It's all the same." I say quietly.
Peter snorts loudly.
"Hardly. You're not normal. Not like the rest of us. You're not really a person, Tris."
He cocks the gun, throws his head back, and laughs.
Unbridled fury explodes inside of me; searing rage surges through my veins and coats my brain with red-hot heat.
His voice echoes in my brain on a continuous loop.
Those words out of Peter's mouth ignite something inside of me.
Anger, mixed with something strong and determined.
Jeanine and Peter both think that I'm worthless.
That I'm not capable of a fight.
That I'm not a person.
They're wrong.
A scream leaves my lips as I lift my arm and slam it as hard as I can against Peter's.
The gun clatters to the ground loudly as Peter stares at me with wide eyes.
I don't give him a chance to adjust to my sudden breakthrough.
I am all fists and legs as I attack, not using any real technique.
My blows are hard and fast, days of pent-up frustration fueling them.
I don't miss making contact once.
I don't know where the strength comes from, but I am grateful for it now.
Peter doesn't stand a chance against me.
I hit him back towards the wall, jamming my elbow into his nose.
I can't help but grin at the groan he emits.
He lunges forward, pulling me down to the floor.
He's above me now, a low growl in his throat.
His fist connects with my jaw twice before I manage to shift our positions with a quick roll.
I am above him now as he's pressed to the floor, trying to guard against my blows with his arm.
A quick glance to the right tells me the forgotten gun I knocked from Peter's grasp earlier is now laying just next to his head.
He sees it at almost exactly the same time I do, but I'm too quick for him.
The gun fits perfectly in my hand as I press the barrel into Peter's forehead.
"Whoa, Stiff!" He says quickly, panic written all over his face.
"You don't want to do this!"
"I don't?" I question, pressing the barrel harder against his head.
He shakes his head quickly.
"It's not you. You don't do this. You don't kill people. It's not in you. You're a Stiff! Remember?"
My finger lightly presses against the trigger.
"I'm not a Stiff. I'm Divergent, remember? The thing you're so afraid of? You'd think you'd know the definition by now."
"This isn't you."
"You don't know anything about me."
"I know that you won't pull that trigger."
Even with a gun pressed to his head he's arrogant and smug; it infuriates me.
"Watch me."
The words leave my mouth in a voice that I don't recognize.
My finger presses hard against the trigger and the hallway is filled with a loud pop.
Peter lies still, his head tilted to one side, his eyes open and glassy.
I stay where I am, positioned over him, the gun shaking in my hand as blood starts to pool around his head.
The weight of what I've done crashes over me all at once and the gun clatters to the ground beside me.
What did I do?
"Peter?" I whisper softly, my hands grasping his T-shirt.
"Peter!?"
Panic floods my veins and seizes my lungs, making it hard for me to breathe.
He can't be dead.
He can't be.
Because if he's dead it means that I…
"Tris?"
I turn my head and spot Tobias sprinting his way towards me from the end of the hallway.
I can't bring myself to move, or to stop shaking.
"Hey…" He breathes when he finally reaches me.
"…What happened?"
I shake my head slowly.
"I…I…don't…I…"
I can't find the words for what happened.
My hands are shaking and I clasp them together hard.
"Okay…" Tobias says slowly, gently lifting me up and away from Peter.
He presses a hand to my cheek.
"Tris, you have to tell me what happened." He repeats.
I shake my head slowly.
"I…can't…"
"Did he attack you?"
The fight replays itself over and over again in quick flashes in my head.
No.
We attacked each other.
That much is obvious to me; it can even be said that I attacked him, but I can't bring myself to say it out loud.
I can't bring myself to say anything out loud.
I close my eyes, shaking my head in response.
"Did he do this to you?" He lifts his hand, running his finger over the cut on my throat.
When he pulls his hand away, there's a smear of my blood across his palm.
I shake my head again, no.
"Tris…" He breathes.
"We have to move…I don't know how much longer we have."
I suddenly remember that Erudite and Dauntless guards were surrounding Tobias when Peter dragged me away.
I look up at him and really take him in for the first time.
"How did you…you were surrounded—"
He shook his head.
"You bought me immunity, remember? It's easy to take out guards who aren't allowed to hurt you."
He takes my hand and squeezes it tightly.
Immunity.
My deal with Jeanine.
It seems like lifetimes ago.
"Tris, we have to go." He whispers again.
He tugs on my hand, but I can't bring myself to move.
I turn my head back towards Peter lying on the ground.
"We're just going to leave him there?" I ask in a shaky voice.
Tobias looks at me for a moment, and then down at Peter, taking in the awkward angle of his legs and the pool of blood around his head.
When he looks up at me again, it's with a pained expression.
"We don't really have a choice."
My whole body shakes violently at his words.
"Hey…hey…"
He pulls me into his chest, holding me there for a moment, his cheek pressed to my forehead, his hand cradling the back of my head.
"It's going to be okay…It's going to be alright." He whispers.
"It's not."
As the words leave my mouth, I'm hit with how completely true they are.
Tears start to sting my eyes and I know that I am moments away from a catastrophic meltdown.
"Tris…" Tobias says firmly. "You can't fall apart right now. We don't have time."
I hear his words and know that I have no other choice.
If I fall apart now, we'll never get out of here and that's not an option.
I nod slowly.
He presses his lips to my forehead and then takes hold of my hand, pulling me forward, and I surrender.
I don't really remember exiting the Erudite building or getting on the train; eventually I become aware that I'm sitting with my back pressed against the train wall, listening to the wheels rolling along the track.
My brain is fuzzy and full of confusion and fear.
The last twenty minutes happened so quickly that I barely had time to catch my breath.
One quick blur and it was over…
It could have all been a dream.
Could have.
I wish it had been.
But I know that it wasn't.
As the train barrels along the tracks, I try to focus on the sound it makes rather than the picture permanently imprinted into my brain.
A constant loop of Peter lying still and cold on the floor, blood pooling around his head from what I did to him.
I am responsible for someone's death.
My stomach turns and I suppress the urge to vomit.
I don't think I'll ever be able to erase that particular image from my brain.
Tobias sits across the train from me, his back pressed against the wall, gun resting in his trembling hand.
He has blood smeared across his right cheek and a cut gracing his forehead, but he's still in better shape than I am.
I reach a hand up to finger the cut across my neck for a moment, remembering the quick slice of the Dauntless's blade.
"Does it hurt?"
I look up sharply when Tobias speaks, swallowing hard.
He hasn't spoken to me directly since we left Erudite.
His voice sounds rough and gravelly, as if he hasn't slept in three days.
I shake my head slowly.
"Not as bad as my arm." I say, lifting it slightly to direct his gaze to the make-shift tourniquet he devised for me earlier.
He looks at me, his expression turning into one that I know well.
He feels guilty, even though none of this has been his fault.
It makes my heart ache.
"I'm sorry that I had to do that."
I shake my head quickly.
"Don't be. It was necessary."
I chew on my bottom lip for a moment, dreading the inevitable questions about Peter, but they don't come.
Instead, Tobias turns his head to stare determinedly out the window.
My heart sinks into my stomach.
I would have to learn to accept what I did to Peter, but would Tobias be able to?
I swallow hard, choking back the need to ask him why he isn't holding my gaze.
"Where are we going?" I finally ask.
"Abnegation." He says, eyes still fixed on the window.
"Abnegation?" I ask, confusion lacing my tone.
"Why? What's happening in Abnegation?"
He turns his head towards me, his eyes locking on mine for the first time.
He doesn't need to say what's happening in Abnegation now.
I can read it in his eyes.
"The attack…" I let out in a breath.
He nods slowly.
My stomach tightens at the thought.
"There's a lot going on." He says slowly.
"A lot…that you've missed."
He stands up, moving towards me, holding out his hand for me to take.
"But we don't have time to talk about it right now." He nods towards the open compartment door.
"We have to jump."
I take his hand and he easily pulls me to a standing position.
"It never ends, does it?"
He looks at me for a moment and then drops my hand in favor of bringing both hands up to cover my cheeks.
"Listen to me, okay?" He presses his lips to my forehead.
"I'm not going to let anything happen to you. This will end and then you and I can…" He pauses for a moment, blowing out a breath.
He doesn't need to finish.
I know where he thinks all of this is leading.
To our happy ending.
I'm just not sure that it really exists anymore.
I bite down hard on my lip to keep the tears at bay and nod.
He slides his hand down my arm and then clasps our hands together, squeezing my hand tightly.
"Even if the world implodes on us, you and I are going to be fine. I promise you that."
His words inspire comfort, but I don't trust them.
It's a promise that he can't really keep.
"Come on, let's jump together." He says before pulling me towards the open compartment.
"Wait…"
I tug on his hand a little and he turns around to face me.
"How are we supposed to get through Abnegation? We're not exactly inconspicuous."
He looks me over, taking in my ripped and dirty clothing, the dried blood across my neck.
"Do you trust me?"
I let out a soft breath.
"You know that I do."
"Good." He says quickly, continuing to pull me closer to the open train doors.
He watches the ground rush below our feet for a moment and then turns to me.
"The second we hit the ground, we don't stop running until I say so. Understood?"
I nod slowly.
"Okay." He breathes.
"On three."
"One…" I say quietly.
"Two…" He says firmly.
Then we jump.