Just an epilogue and a short story left! A big hug to everyone reading and leaving me comments! I'm so thrilled that I got you all hooked in my little head movie!

xXx

My steps are slow, measured, and silent to all but the most trained of ears. I creep along the hallway, feeling far too exposed and being far too suspicious of all the quiet around me. The lack of bustle.

Voices murmuring up ahead stop me in my tracks. I duck into a recessed doorway and listen, waiting for someone to walk down the hall, at the ready to subdue anyone who should notice me. I don't want to kill unnecessarily. At the thought of killing my stomach lurches, thinking of Kai's bloody body in the stairwell. That was a necessity for survival, I tell myself. Over and over again. I press closer against the wall and listen.

The murmur fades away and I realize the people must be walking in the opposite direction. Away from me. I sneak a peek around the corner and see that I was correct, watching their bodies walk away. I must be closer to command than I thought. Or I crept farther long the hallway than I anticipated. Either way I'm not paying attention and that's a bad sign.

I look behind me just for good measure and see the way clear. I look back ahead and continue creeping, inching my way along the hallway, careful not to make any sound. Murmuring voices get louder the closer I get to the open doorway.

I pause just outside it and lean forward just far enough to get a look inside. My sight adjusts quickly, the way my brain processes around the wall covering half my vision, and I see all I need to see. A giant touch screen takes up the far wall with Jeanine's perfectly coiffed head planted firmly in front of it. She reaches up to touch something and all I can imagine is the puppet master playing with her toys.

I've seen all of these pieces before. That screen, even bits of the program. Just not all thrown together like this in one central room of death and mayhem. I lean forward again and take in a better view of the room.

There aren't too many people around. Not surprising considering how secretive Jeanine's been with this whole project. It makes me even wonder if the few people in there know exactly what's going on. It wouldn't surprise me either if they didn't. Maybe a half dozen people occupy the larger-than-needed room, Jeanine included, and they all look fairly Erudite.

Until a black-clad figure walks into my view from off to the side.

Eric.

I don't need to see his face. I can tell by the way he holds himself, how he walks. I lean forward just a little more and catch the side of his face, confirming what I'm seeing.

Shit.

Not necessarily a plan-killer, but there's certainly a wrench in my spokes now. This isn't going to be easy. And I don't know how much Eric is going to help. Or hinder.

"Madeline, just come into the room, please. Your hovering is a disturbance."

I nearly choke on my tongue and before I yank myself back out of view I see Eric visibly stiffen, a lurch to his step. She set us up. The bitch set us both up. How long has she known?

I don't move and I watch her turn around to face me, her eyes lingering on Eric for just a second, the beginnings of a sneer curling up her lip. "I told you not to get romantically involved," she says before her eyes land on me.

"You're not as stealthy as you think. Plus, you made an incredible racket with Kai."

So that was it. I was too loud. Maybe she sent Kai out on something unrelated and heard our battle. Of course Erudite has cameras everywhere. I wasn't thinking. Not when I was in the heat of it with Kai. There was no thinking involved in that. Just doing. And it exposed me, and Eric, entirely.

So stupid. I'm so much weaker than I thought. So much more careless. Now I've killed the both of us.

Jeanine's eyes glance to the people at various desks off to the side and they scatter like mice, running away into corners and through back doors not the one I'm standing in.

"You understand why this has to happen," she says, a snide little smile on her lips that doesn't reach her eyes. Her hands clasp in front of her and she stands stock still.

Out of the corner of my eye I see a shadow slide along the wall behind Eric. Metal glints in the overhead light. Without a second thought I shoulder my rifle. Eric pulls his sidearm and points it at me. Maybe he will kill me this time. Well, I'm going to die saving him.

I put my finger on the trigger and I squeeze. A nanosecond later his gun fires and the reports battle in the enclosed room, making my eardrums throb. I watch the shadow go down in a heap on the floor, my aim accurate. Then I realize I'm still watching.

I look at Eric and frown. He lowers his gun, carbon still snaking from the barrel, and his eyes are at my feet. I look down, turn around, and see my own shadow crumpled at my feet, not moving. I look back at Eric and catch him as he turns around from looking at his assassin. My ears are still ringing, but the noise is lessening. I didn't hear the body at my feet slump down to the floor and I barely hear my boots tap against the tile before I come all the way into the room, my rifle still shouldered.

Eric turns to face Jeanine and raises his gun again, her heart sighted. My heart soars. In the end he's here for me. Saving me like I'm saving him. Still helping each other survive.

Jeanine puts her hands up and skitters backward, one of her heels catching on the floor and she losing her balance for a second. She recovers quickly, but stumbles into the main screen that's swirling with light and activity. We may have stopped her, but the system is still running. Dauntless is still under her control.

"Let's discuss this." Her voice is practically steady, strong. Practically. I hear the shudder just a little bit.

"There's nothing to discuss," Eric says, his deep timbre rumbling through my chest. I hide my smile deep down and keep my eyes on Jeanine while my hearing comes back and I listen to the rest of the room.

Jeanine turns to Eric then, her eyes filled with anger and hatred. "Your entire life for this?" she says, motioning to me. "She's Divergent and a traitor. That's what you throw your life away for?"

Then it's as if a light turns on in her head and her eyes widen, brighten just a little bit. "You kept killing. All those raids. Why?"

"So you wouldn't know," he says, his voice thick.

She smirks. "There are other ways so you wouldn't have to kill so many innocent people, Eric." She straightens up a little more and I take a step closer, the barrel of my rifle only feet from her. She looks at the gun, then up at me, and then back to Eric. "But you kept killing. You liked it."

"I did what I had to do to survive and keep Madeline's secret." He's stock still, only his jaw moving when he speaks. His pistol never wavers.

"Such justifications," she says as her gaze slides toward me. "If it helps you cope. I never realized you were so easily influenced. You and Madeline haven't been reunited for a year yet you abandon everything for her. You save the people you've been hunting for years. You changed your mind so quickly?"

"I never said that," he says and a rush of cold trails down my spine. I have to trust him. I have to. Doubt only gets me paranoid. I didn't get this far, we didn't get this far, just to have him pull the rug out from underneath me. "She just gave me a different point of view to consider. And I considered it."

"And accepted it," Jeanine adds, her hands inching toward a button on the base of the screen.

"Don't even think about it," I spit, readying to shoot her hand off her wrist.

"No so much accept as I now doubt my previous line of thinking more," he adds in proper Erudite fashion, even down to the final minutes.

"More," Jeanine adds, rolling her eyes away from me, away from my gun, and back over to Eric. She's trying to dig into him, claw him back to her side. "So you doubted some before."

"That's the problem with you," Eric says, as if taking the words right out of my mouth. I don't even need to say anything. He's saying it all for me. "You expect nothing less than absolute loyalty and the idea of me ever questioning you puzzles you. As if I were never Erudite, as if I've never had to think before. That I've always been a mindless solider for you to order around."

She cocks her head to the side like an expectant bird, waiting for a kernel of something. "But you have. Your parents groomed you that way. And your actions . . ." Jeanine let the thought trail off, let Eric's actions speak for themselves. We all know what he's done, what he continues to do. We all know what our parents put us through growing up.

"I did what I had to do to survive."

Jeanine's eyebrow quirks up, a snide little smirk trying to form on her face, but she fights it. "Some would say that was the excuse of the Nazis all those years ago. Merely following orders. Trying to survive in a time of war."

Eric snorts, derision thick in the sound of his voice. "If I'm a Nazi, then you're Hitler."

"And we know how that one ends," I add, my own smirk on my lips, except I'm not trying to hide mine.

Jeanine openly laughs, so much mocking. But I see her hand shake. She grabs the edge of the desk to hide it, but not quickly enough for me not to see her weakness. Her fear.

"Hitler died and the Nazis were hunted for decades after that war ended. Kill me and you still won't be free."

"That's where you're wrong," I say and take a step closer. I pull myself up, away from my rifle, and unsling the thing from around my shoulders. I drop it to the ground with a loud clatter and Jeanine's eyes go wide for just a fraction of a second. I reach into my waistband and pull out Kai's gun. I drop the magazine to make sure it's actually loaded, slap it back in, rack the slide, and flip the safety. "There's so much freedom in death. I should know." I smile, a shit-eating grin that pulls my lips wide. "Freedom for us for never having to deal with you again, and freedom for you for not having to worry about the survival of our world anymore."

I step to the side, closer to Eric, to get Jeanine to turn away from the console. I don't want to shoot the thing without shutting down the simulation first. She moves as I do and for the first time in my life I see her start to fold. Her shaking is obvious now. All the fisting she does can't hide her tremors. Beads of sweat roll down her temples, but she doesn't bother to wipe them away. Her eyes are wide, pupils dilated. She really is afraid.

"We can discuss this. Come to an understanding." Jeanine's hands are out to us, trying to stop us.

"In all my years of working with you, Jeanine, I've never known you to be the understanding type," I say.

Her eyes go even wider and she spits out, "People change!" She looks to Eric as an example, her hands out to him. "Don't they?"

"Not you," he says as he lowers his gun.

I raise mine, put my finger on the trigger and squeeze. The noise is an explosion in the enclosed space, one that reminds me of my own faked death. I remember Eric standing in front of me, the bullet coming at me, and then nothing. Except the bullets in the gun I'm holding aren't fake. It explodes out of the back of Jeanine's head in a spray of blood and gore, something that no one noticed when I died. I imagine they just assumed. Jeanine's body drops to the ground in a limp lump, arms and legs askew. Her eyes remain wide open, the hole in her forehead leaking blood.

I step over to her and nudge her further onto her stomach, letting her head roll forward. I have to be sure. The hole back there is the size of my fist. I can see into her skull clearly. It's awful and my stomach tries to fight back. I turn away before my eyes can take in anymore. Two in one day, from the nothing of my life before. Making up for lost time, maybe. Or just being exceptionally picky with who I kill. The two under my belt are well deserved, I think.

It takes me a second to compose myself, just a second. Then I'm turning to the console and I start tapping. It's been a little while since I've handled the program and where I pause over the controls, trying to remember what went to what, Eric picks up in my stead, tapping where I left off, helping me shut it down.

His body is a welcome wall next to me, hovering over me. I feel his heat wrapping around me like a blanket, comforting me. He doesn't place a hand on my shoulder, doesn't wrap me in his arms. That's not what he does and it's not what I need right now. The lack of space between us and his help in dismantling Jeanine's evil plan is perfect enough.

When we're done I turn to the monitors playing the carnage out for the two of us. As if a switch has been turned off the Dauntless under Jeanine's sim control snap out of their stupor. Look at the guns in their hands in shock. Look at the bodies around them in disgust. And the screams roar over the speakers, drown out the terrified Abnegation on the receiving end of that slaughter, and join in their pain.

But will anyone see it like that? Will anyone truly understand?

Then Eric grabs my hand and leads me out of the control room and to the stairwell I came up. He opens the door and pauses, taking in the sight of Kai's crumpled body on the landing underneath us. But it's only for a second before he's leading me down the stairs, jumping over her corpse, and continuing down.

"I'm going to have to find the people in that room that knew I was there," he says, his voice shaking with our steps.

"I know," I tell him. And I do. He's already planning his next moves, his next dozen moves, and for him that involves killing innocent people. I can't stomach it, but he can and a little part of me is disgusted by that. He touches me with those blood-covered hands. But another, much bigger part of me doesn't want him to die.

We get to the bottom floor and to a back door in an empty hallway, quiet for the time being. We both exit and we both stop and turn to each other, stare at each other, take each other in as if this is the last time we'll see each other.

"Evelyn's just as bad," I tell him and shake my head. "She'll need to be kept in control."

He nods. "And just because Jeanine's dead doesn't mean there aren't a half dozen others ready and willing to take her place."

"Eric, you can't go on with the status quo, hunting Factionless and Divergents. It'll be too much, especially now that Jeanine's dead."

"I'm not," he says as he places a hand on my neck, gentle, warm, and rubs his thumb along my jaw. "I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet, but I'll figure it out. I always do."

I place my hand on his and squeeze. "I'll stay with the Factionless for now. It won't make a difference if I killed Jeanine. Shit, they'll throw me a party."

He smiles and leans in, pressing his lips to mine. I revel in the taste of him, in the feeling of him. I wrap my arms around his neck and bring him in closer, never wanting to let him go. But he can't come with me. The Factionless will kill him. He needs to figure out his own short term game, and them we can figure out long term. Assuming Dauntless suspects nothing and doesn't kill him outright. I refuse to let that thought burrow in and I squeeze my eyes shut tight against it.

"This isn't over," he says as we break apart. "It's just the start."

I smirk at his words. "You say that like I don't know it. Please. Give me a little more credit."

He laughs as I take a step back, readying myself to get back to the Factionless before they do something stupid. Trying to tear my heart away from his hands so Eric can go do what he needs to do to save himself first.

"I'll be in touch in a few days, as soon as I figure out what to do next."

"Yeah, okay," I say with a smile, a laugh, trying to choke back my tears, my fear that this is the last time I'll be seeing him although I desperately hope it's not.

"Go," he says, as if allowing me to leave now.

I scoff. "Don't tell me what to do," I say as I turn and break into a run, back toward the Factionless, back toward the beginning of a new future, whatever that is going to look like.

Eric's laugh travels with me as I go, lingers in my ears, his touch imprinted on my skin. I will see him again. I know it. We'll figure this out and put this broken world back together somehow.