Chapter 8
TOBIAS
"Did they say how long it would take?"
My mother and I scrutinize the letter the Dauntless leaders sent in response to our demands. We're alone in her office, leaning against the front of her desk.
I take the letter from her hands and I read it again. The Dauntless agreed to disable their security system, all of it, just like she said they would. I suddenly wonder, how important can six people be? My mother has allowed many more than that to die for the cause.
"No," she answers me. She's read it about four times already. "I assume they'll let us know the moment it's done so we can release the prisoners."
"Do you really plan to release them?" I ask her out of sheer curiosity.
"Yes," she answers, walking around her desk to take a seat. "If we execute them, whoever is giving the Dauntless information is sure to run and tell them the second we do." I release a relieved breath. At least she's considered the consequences of killing them might be greater than we can manage. But even so, sending them back will only be buying us time and not enough of it.
"Still no idea who it is?"
"None," she sighs. "But it doesn't matter. My man on the inside knows everything they know. We'll always be a step ahead."
"Still, you know we might have to attack within days after the prisoners are released," I remind her. "They've seen too much. They'll come back. The fact that the Dauntless even sent soldiers here in the first place is a sure sign they're on to us."
"They're speculating."
"Not anymore," I scoff and I turn to face her. She leans back into her chair. "Not with these demands." I wave the paper in the air. "I really hope you know what you're doing," I say to her carefully. I've made it clear that our men are not ready for this attack. My mother keeps stressing our numbers, but this is a question of skill. Everyone in that faction above the age of sixteen has been trained to fight and kill; I'd go as far as saying that some start to train even younger. If we challenge them now, there's a great possibility we'll lose. My mother is hoping the element of surprise will be what turns the tide.
Before she can answer me, there are several loud footsteps approaching the door, and then Lucas, the head of our security team, comes barging in without knocking. His long, dark hair is wild and some of it sticks to his face. He's drenched in sweat, no doubt from going up and down the stairs.
"The prisoners are gone, Ma'am!" he says exasperatedly. "We've checked every floor. They're not here."
"What?!" My mother bellows. Instantly standing to her feet, she hits both her hands on the desk in front of her. "What do you mean they're not here?! How did they get out?!"
"We don't know, Ma'am. But the prison guard on duty is also missing. There's a lot of blood on the floor, so he's… most likely dead." Lucas swallows.
My mother growls and slams her fist into the desk again. "And the exits?"
"The exits are all manned. If they had walked out we would have seen them."
She turns to look at me, far more viciously than I'm used to. "And the other one? Where is she, Tobias?"
"I left her guarded in the solitary cell in the east wing," I say, knowing damn well Tris is long gone.
Lucas quickly shakes his head. "There's no one in any of the solitary cells, Sir. We checked."
"I told you she was smarter than that, Tobias!" my mother yells at me. "She most likely escaped and went back to rescue the others." She huffs and then turns to look at Lucas. "Well don't just stand there! Find them! They might still be in the building!"
Not if they escaped through the elevator shaft.
I run behind Lucas even though my mother's orders were not directed at me. I know exactly how the prisoners got out and I know exactly who showed them that route. I silently pray that Tris wasn't stupid enough to come back and rescue the others herself. If she is caught, I might not be able to save her this time, and I'm still opposed to anything happening to her before I get the answers I'm looking for.
I run down the stairs along with Lucas' men, and I watch them break off one by one on each floor. When we arrive at the twelfth floor, I yell, "I'll check this one!" and they all keep running down. I run to the middle of the hallway, and just as I suspected, the elevator door is pried open. What I don't expect to see is a lone Dauntless soldier, pointing a large gun at me.
He's tall, with dark hair and brown skin. I've never seen him before in my life, but he stares at me with utter confusion and undeniable recognition, the same way Tris stared at me when she first saw me. If this is all an act, it's a great one.
"Good to see you, Four," the soldier says.
Why do they keep calling me that?
Just as I'm about to reach for my gun, he pulls the trigger. But instead of a bullet, there's a dart lodged in my neck. And just as I pull it out, I feel my body go numb and my vision begins to blur.
"Fuck," I mutter, just before my body crashes into the ground against my will.
I hear voices first, distant angry voices.
"We cannot take him to Dauntless! They'll imprison him! Or worse!"
"And why would that be a problem?!"
"Because he is innocent!" I recognize Tris' voice as both become a bit clearer and a bit louder.
"Oh, please! He's been caught red handed and is playing the insanity card, and you're stupid enough to try and protect him?!"
"Say another word, Chad, and I swear I'll throw you off the roof of this building."
"Oh, I bet you'd like me to shut up."
"I'd love it!"
They're blurry, but I can see them now, Tris and the obnoxious, blonde man they call Chad, standing face to face, no less than an inch apart. There are three others, all standing behind Tris- Christina, the soldier who shot me, and another male I've never seen before. They're all dressed in full black, Dauntless standard issue mission gear.
I'm on the ground, in a strange, dark building. I don't see any windows, just a single door; a small but bright lamp is the only source of light. There's a bed and a night stand in the room, some mattresses leaned up against the wall to my right, and several black backpacks sit in front of them.
I try to pick myself up, but I'm still weak from the tranquilizer, and when I push my hands against the ground and try to bring them in front of me, I realize they're tied behind my back.
I've been kidnapped. Are they out of their damn minds?
"What do you people want with me?" I say groggily as I slowly come to.
Chad stands in place, but Tris and the others begin to make slow and careful steps toward me.
"Tobias Eaton," Christina says slowly, staring at me in awe and she takes another step closer.
"Careful, Chris," one of the men says. He grabs her by the arm and stands protectively in front of her. He's smart. Christina can handle her own, but not against me.
I scoff weakly. "Wrong Tobias, lady. My name is Johnson." I lean up against the wall behind me so I can look up at all their confused looking faces.
"Johnson? Is that what she told you?" says the soldier who shot me, his dark eyes are open wide and the light from the lamp burns bright in them. His voice is deep, angry, filled with venom. "What else did she tell you?"
"You can't begin to imagine," Tris answers with a frown. "I don't know what she did or how she did it, but I'm going to undo it, Zeke."
It doesn't sit well with me that Tris keeps blaming my mother for whatever the fuck is happening here. I may not have all the answers, or any answers at all, but I do know I can trust my mother and I won't let them turn me against her. For all I know, that's what they're hoping for.
"You people are out of your minds," I say levelly, feeling stronger now.
"You heard it from him," Chad mutters behind them.
All of a sudden, the one named Zeke pulls his gun out of the holster attached to his right hip, and he hits Chad right across the head with it, hard. There's a loud cracking sound echoing in the room, louder than Chad's screams of pain, and it springs me to life, neutralizing whatever was left of the tranquilizer in my blood.
"Careful, big bro," the other one says, and that's when I see the resemblance between them. "He's still a leader."
"Well so am I," Zeke says, sounding quite irritated, and he nonchalantly slips the gun back inside the holster and begins to make his way back over to where I'm sitting.
Chad, holding his head and still grunting in pain, collects himself enough to yell, "If you all think you can threaten me to keep silent about this, you're all wrong!"
"Threaten?" Zeke yells back, flinging himself back around. "Don't for a second think I wouldn't kill you and blame the factionless. You think anybody in this room would testify otherwise?"
Chad looks around him, and so do I. Why are they trying to protect me from their own faction?
I realize this has gone way beyond Erudite experiments; something else is happening here, something frighteningly bizarre. Either way, I don't know what to make of all this, and I can't expect the truth from them; they seem to have their own agenda, although Chad doesn't seem to be with it.
What an interesting dynamic between peers. As messed up as it is, it's actually entertaining.
"That's my best friend sitting there." Zeke points a rigid finger at me, but he's seething at Chad. "That's the soldier who trained you, the leader who redeemed the faction you pledged your allegiance to after he stopped us from committing genocide. You'll keep your mouth shut. You owe him that much."
I pinch my eyebrows together. There it is again, the idea that I once lived in a faction I've never set foot in. These people think they know me, all of them, not just Tris. I start to wonder if maybe they're confusing me with someone else, someone else named Tobias who shared some resemblance to me. It's the only explanation I can think about, although it still doesn't account for my dreams.
Chad nods hesitantly and with a scowl on his face. Still holding his head, he walks out of the room.
Entirely disconcerted, I just continue to sit there quietly.
"Do you really think he'll stay quiet?" Tris asks.
"Not for more than a day," Zeke says softly to Tris. "So you can't stay here for longer than that."
Christina takes a step back for some reason. She looks confused but she doesn't say anything.
Tris nods. I wonder how she plans to relocate me all by herself. Although, I doubt resisting would be in my best interest. I imagine Tris is trying to keep me away from the Dauntless because their plans for me aren't anything I would look forward to, not that that should surprise me. I'm the one who's to lead the charge against them; I'm sure their informant has already revealed that to them.
But still she's protecting me, just as I protected her. Or so it seems.
"We should be getting back," Zeke's brother says, and Christina adds, "We all should."
"Okay. Let's go," Zeke answers. He wraps his arms around Tris, and she squeezes him back tightly and buries her face in his chest. He whispers, "If Four gets dangerous, come get me or come home." I feel my entire mood shift inside me, from confused to bitter as fuck, and I have to look away from them.
I only lift my face up when I see his feet making careful and slow steps toward me. He stoops down and stares me square in the eye. "You better come back to us, you son of a bitch." And then he stands up and walks outside with his brother so that Christina and Tris are the only ones left standing there.
"You're really staying with him?" Christina asks, raising an eyebrow at her friend.
"I have to," Tris answers lowly.
"Tris, if you don't come back with us... they'll think you were involved."
"I know, Chris. But I can't leave him."
Christina pulls Tris aside and whispers something to her, but I don't hear what. Just as Tris is about to respond, Zeke's brother comes back inside and says, "We gotta go, Baby." I've gathered he's Christina's partner.
"Go," Tris says, after giving her friend a hug. She looks at her as she reluctantly walks out the door, hand in hand with the other.
Tris closes the door to the room, locking us both inside, and she hangs on to the handle for a few seconds. She stares at the metal door in front of her, taking slow and deep breaths. I think she's afraid… but of me? I've already made the mistake of proving to her that I won't hurt her.
"Just you and me now," I say to her, and she stands stiff. I shake my head. I'm not sure what her plan is, but I don't even know if I should oppose them. What if this is the way to finding out the truth? "What do you want with me?"
She finally turns around. She looks lean but strong, taller from this angle. There's that lock of blonde hair that falls in front of her face again; it always seems to be there. "I want to know how you ended up factionless. What are you doing with Evelyn?"
"Where else would I be? Dauntless?" I mock.
She walks over to the bed in the corner and takes a seat on the edge of it. She presses her hands to the side of her, and then on her lap, then to the side again, like she doesn't know what to do with them. "How do you think you lost your memory?"
For no reason at all, I answer honestly. "Erudite. They were experimenting on factionless people, innocent people, and I was kidnapped. I don't know what they did to me, but when I woke up I didn't remember anything."
"Five years ago?" she asks knowingly.
I clench my teeth together. "Yes."
"And let me guess… your mother filled in the blanks, told you all about your life before you lost your memory."
"Yes. I was lucky she rescued me," I snarl. I summon my resentment for Tris' impertinent notion that my mother was somehow responsible for me having lost my memory. I remind myself that the Dauntless condoned the Erudite in all their experiments, and whatever is going on here, it doesn't change that. They are the ones responsible, not my mother.
"She didn't rescue you, Tobias!" Tris says strongly, pushing herself up off the bed. "She did this to you!"
I scoff at her ridiculous suggestion. As if I could ever believe such a thing to be true. I didn't remember my mother when she found me, and I still remember the look on her face when I told her I didn't know who she was; she was heartbroken. And I still have no memories of her from before, but with everything she's done for me over the past five years, I have no doubt she loves me and she'd do anything for me. "Tell me, why would my own mother take away my memories?"
"Because you had none of her," Tris answers angrily. "None worth remembering, at least. She created a whole new life for you, one where she could get everything she ever wanted, no matter the cost to you."
"Bullshit!" I exclaim.
"Is it?! How do you think you ended up being the one to train her army?" She flings her hands at me.
"Because I'm good at it," I growl. I'm great at it. Growing up with nothing I was forced to learn to hunt, fight, strategize, work the streets so I could eat. It wasn't until my mother took control that the factionless stopped fighting one another for food. Why fight each other when the real enemies were comfortable in their beds with their stomachs full?
"How do you think that happened?" Tris demands.
"I taught myself because I had to survive!"
"Really?" Tris asks with a sick laugh. "Come on. You're smarter than that, Tobias. Isn't it far more likely that you were already trained?"
I scowl, twisting my face at her, but I hear the ex-Dauntless from our camps telling me how much my fighting style reminded them of the faction that deemed them unworthy.
I can't answer.
"Didn't you ever just wake up and feel like something was wrong? Like you didn't belong there?"
Only almost every day.
"No," I lie, feeling sick in my stomach. I refuse to believe any of this. My mother would never do such a thing to me. It's far too absurd, far too cruel.
"You can fight this, Tobias. But you have to try," she says, shaking her head at me as if she knows I'm lying. "What do I need to do to make you believe me?" She takes a few steps closer to me. The lamp begins to flicker, and her shadow dances against the wall.
"I doubt I ever will," I say through my teeth.
"You have a tattoo of a raven over your heart," she says to me, taking another step closer, "And one with all the faction symbols that covers your entire back."
I immediately look up at her. "Anybody could have told you that." But that's a lie. Kate is the only one who has ever seen them up close.
Her face becomes hard, determined. "And what about the round birthmark on the inside of your left thigh? The one that tickles every time you touch it."
I stop breathing. I don't think even Kate was that attentive.
"You prefer tea over coffee, you only eat your eggs scrambled," Tris continues, taking another step. "You're allergic to pineapples and you're afraid of heights. You always wake up at two in the morning for a snack, you hate peanut butter, and you sleep with the covers even when it's hot as fuck."
My hands are bound but I push myself off the ground and I scramble to my feet. I close the gap between us, standing threateningly close to her, but Tris doesn't move an inch or show even the slightest sign of fear.
"How do you know all these things about me?" I ask threateningly. I've never told anyone about my fear of heights. I've never shared a bed with anyone for more than a few hours.
She smiles, her eyes wet. "I know every last little thing there is to know about you, Tobias Eaton. And somewhere in there, deep inside you," she pushes a finger into my chest, "you know every last little thing there is to know about me. It's why you couldn't leave me there to die."
My breaths become jagged, and my mind absolutely refuses to process what she's implying. "More and more you're making me regret setting you free. Cause now you seem to think I give a damn about you."
Tris pushes herself up on her toes, and I can feel her breath on my cheek. My lips tremble a little, but I bite them between my teeth, refusing to let myself acknowledge the desire she evokes in me.
She whispers, "You can continue to pretend as though you don't recognize me, as though you haven't begun to realize your mother has been telling you horrible lies, or you can begin to accept that there's a whole other life you don't remember."
I won't deny that my mother has always done what she's needed to do, as unorthodox as it may have been. But when it came to me she was different; I am her son, her only child. Maybe she was misinformed about the new Erudite experiment, but she would never purposefully deceive me. And if she ever did, it had to have been to protect me from my own self, from my own past.
"Even if what you're saying is true," I humour her, "If anything my mother saved me."
"Saved you from what?!" Tris exclaims, taking a step back.
"I don't know why I left, but obviously I did," I say lowly, unintentionally admitting what I fear might be true. "And considering all I know about the corruption in Dauntless, why wouldn't I want to leave? Things couldn't have been that great if I chose to have my memory wiped."
"You would never have done this to yourself," Tris scowls at me.
"Well you obviously didn't know me as well as you thought you did."
I say the words with the intention to throw her off, but they seem to hurt her more than I had prepared myself for, and the look on her face makes me feel like I stabbed myself in the chest.
I can't deny it anymore. She obviously means something to me, and if my dreams are any indication of what, I need to be very careful of her. For all I know, she's the whole reason I left Dauntless.
"You're right. Maybe I didn't," she whispers, and she backs off. With pain in her eyes, she turns to leave.
"Where are you going?" I demand, suddenly feeling anxious at the thought of her leaving. "You're just going to leave me here?"
She turns around. "You'll be okay for one night."
"Will you? Do you even know what you're doing or who you're messing with? If my mother or any of her men even see you again, you're dead."
"What's it to you?" she chuckles sarcastically. "You don't give a damn about me. Remember?" Before she walks out the door she says, "I'll be back in the morning," and then I hear the sound of not one, but three separate metal doors slamming shut. Wherever I am, I am not getting out.
A/N: And Tobias has been taken! Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! :)
