So this is coming a little sooner than I planned cause I didn't want to leave you with last chapter's cliffhanger for too long. And I'm sure nobody minds reading a little more about the fourtris reunion. ;-)
As always, I'm happy to read your comments.
DISCLAIMER: I own neither the Divergent world nor the characters, they belong to Veronica Roth.
Tobias
As I turn, I see Eric holding Shauna right in front of himself. He's taken her weapon from her and is now pointing it at her temple. Her eyes are opened wide in fear, her lips parted in panic. Damn! We don't have our hands free to react and grab our own weapons fast enough, we stopped taking care once we stepped out of this stupid window. And Lauren is too far away from Eric to be able to shoot. The danger of accidentally hitting Shauna instead of him is too big. Shit! What an idiotic mistake.
But someone else has reacted faster than all of us together: Tris is pointing her weapon at Eric. She's much closer than Lauren, and she unlocks the gun. The low clicking sound is loud in the shocked silence.
"Put the weapon down and let her go, or I'll shoot you!" Tris shouts at Eric while glaring at him maliciously. It's the deadliest look I've ever seen her give anyone, and I'm so proud of her, although that might be an inappropriate thought right now.
Eric snorts at her condescendingly. "What, are you threatening me, little stiff? You won't shoot me, you can't shoot anyone. You're still way too Abnegation for that."
"Don't overestimate my character," Tris replies coldly. In the very same moment, she pulls the trigger, and a gunshot rings through the night.
Eric screams and his gun falls to the ground as the bullet hits his right shoulder. Shauna kicks the weapon away and tries to wriggle herself out of his arm, but Eric seems to direct all his pain and anger into his left arm to keep his grip around her. Now that he can't threaten her with a gun anymore, he starts strangling her. Shauna gasps for air in panic.
They are moving too fast to shoot at Eric again, and both Zeke and I drop our weapons and rush towards him to fight him with our bare hands. Eric drops Shauna, who takes a few steps away from him and into safety. She bows down, and I think she picks up our guns that we couldn't risk Eric to get his hands on.
"Hurry up, they're starting to wake up," Will shouts, and Zeke and I don't hesitate. It's not hard to overwhelm Eric. It's two against one, and he's injured. We handcuff him with deep satisfaction.
"This time you've lost, and everyone will know that you did," I hiss into his ear as I pull him up onto his feet roughly. "Tris, could you help to accompany Eric?" I turn towards Tris, who's already jogging towards us.
"With great pleasure," she smirks as she stands behind Eric and starts walking him forwards with the barrel of her gun pressed against his spine. "And never dare to doubt my status as a Dauntless again, coward," she makes clear.
And now I'm really proud of her. She has become Dauntless through and through, she doesn't need to be protected all the time anymore. She's become a protector herself.
We scoot across the unprotected area towards the trees that promise safety as fast as we can with our prisoners. Then Shauna digs into Eric's pockets and pulls out a few syringes triumphantly.
"I thought I'd felt them in there when you held me. You shouldn't have brought these," she says to him and then, with a flick of her hand, she injects him with the sedative that he himself has taken from the infirmary. It takes only seconds for him to pass out. After that, Shauna also injects Jeanine, Max and Cara, and they all fall back into complete unconsciousness.
"Marlene, we're all safe and we have the prisoners with us. We're leaving the range of the walkie-talkies now. We'll meet in Candor," Lauren reports the success of our mission.
"Okay, great! I'll pass the information on to Caleb," she replies.
We take off our jackets then and build stretchers with them and some long branches that we gather. For improvised tools, the stretchers turn out alright, and they're stable enough to carry our prisoners the few blocks that it takes to reach the meeting point with Jack and Niles. They're waiting for us with a transporter, and we load the prisoners into the back of it. We have to maneuver them into a sitting position to make them fit, and we have to buckle them up well to avoid them falling around in there during the ride.
I jump into the front of the car with Tris while the others take seats in a second one. I wish we could go directly back to Dauntless, I want some privacy with Tris. I can't hold my emotions together much longer. We sit as close together as we can, our arms wrapped around each other in silence while the car takes us to Candor.
Tris
It's hard to wrap my head around the fact that I'm free again. Everything went well, nobody got hurt. Well, except for Eric, but he deserved it. I shouldn't feel proud or happy about shooting someone, even if it's the biggest enemy we have, but I do. Secretly, I'm thrilled that I shot Eric's shoulder. He deserved it, full stop. I'd do it again, and not only in a situation of immediate danger or threat, but only to put him in his place. It's a cruel thought, and I'd never admit to anyone else but me that it crosses my mind.
I lean against Tobias' side as we make our way to Candor by car and enjoy being close to him. He's my savior, my hero. I knew he'd get me out of Erudite, I was convinced that the plans we had already made to capture our 'leaders' were a good basis to develop a further strategy among the Allegiant. They are the best. I can be lucky to have found friends like these, even if we're not always of the same opinion. They were all ready to risk their lives for us and each other, and that's what counts.
There's nothing I want more than to be alone with Tobias. I owe him an apology for leaving without really saying goodbye. I was convinced I was doing the right thing when I turned myself in to Erudite, but doubts started to fill my mind after I got there, and then it was too late to change anything about it. I had made my decision and couldn't take it back, none of it.
It's been the longest day of my life.
The trip to Candor is too short to sort all my emotions. It feels as if someone just hit the pause-button for a few minutes before life starts to go on around us again.
We get out of the car and I realize we've stopped at the back of the Merciless Mart, near a flight of stairs that leads downwards to an entrance below street level. It must be where the jail is located, in the basement. What a nice picture: The scum of our society is locked away at the very bottom of our city, below the area where everyone else's daily routine takes place.
With satisfaction, I watch as Candor men carry the still sleeping prisoners down into their cells, down into darkness.
"After you," Jack says, motioning us to follow them down the stairs. Tobias never takes his hand away from my back as we descend cautiously. The steps are well-trodden and uneven, and the lighting is poor.
It's cold inside and I shiver. I wouldn't want to be locked away in this place. Jack and Niles lead us into a conference room where we all take seats around a big round table.
"So, welcome to our Dauntless friends," Jack begins to speak. He's the only one who remains standing. "I'm glad to see you could accomplish your mission and all appear unharmed. I called for our doctor to check on our prisoners and to see what kind of treatment Eric's wound might need. But you don't have to worry about that now.
I have to say I'm proud of how you worked together and saved so many people's lives. It won't be long now until word gets out that Eric, Max and Jeanine were arrested tonight. We'll keep our doors locked tight for the night, and tomorrow we'll bring them up for questioning. They'll be given truth serum and then testify in front of our faction. As their testimonies are of interest to the other factions as well, I'll take care that we'll set up cameras that'll send their interrogations to all the other compounds. That way, everybody can watch and listen to them telling what was going on. I want the whole city to be a witness of the crimes they committed and were about to commit. That way, there'll be no room for rumors. Also, everybody should know who they have to thank for the continued peace of our society.
I don't know if you've thought about the future of Chicago already, maybe you didn't have the time or energy to do that during the last days. Well, I did. I've scheduled a faction meeting for Saturday morning to bring all the remaining leaders and ambassadors at the same table to discuss how things should develop from this point onward. We'll have to take a look at our laws and manifestos to identify the flaws that could lead to the point where we are now. It'll take months, maybe years, to reestablish our faction system as the heart of our society again, as the guarantor for peace and stability that it has been for generations.
But for tonight, I guess you're all exhausted. I can offer to take you back to Dauntless by car, or you can stay at Candor tonight, if it feels safer for you."
It's a nice offer, but I want nothing more than to go home, and home is in Dauntless with Tobias. That's where I belong, that's where I want to be.
That's how I end up in a car with Tobias, Shauna, Lynn and Uriah, while the rest of our friends decided to stay at Candor. They want to take turns guarding our precious prisoners until they are being led upstairs for interrogation tomorrow. It can't be bad to play it safe and make sure they won't escape.
"So Caleb and Marlene are waiting for us in Dauntless?" I ask Tobias as the car speeds through the night.
"Uhm, no. They're waiting for us to pick them up at our earlier meeting point. I told the driver to stop by."
"Oh, they must be cold then. It's been almost two hours, hasn't it? Marlene could have led Caleb back into our compound, that would have been more comfortable, wouldn't it? I mean, it has become quite cold."
"Yes, but it's - safer this way."
"Safer? Tobias, what are you not telling me?" I swear something is off. He never beats around the bush like that. Anyone else maybe wouldn't notice, but I do.
"Listen, there's been a complication with Caleb and Marlene."
"Complication? That's a polite way to phrase it!" Uriah snorts from his seat behind us. "Zeke told me what happened while we were in the car to Candor."
"What is it?" I repeat, now on edge.
"Well, Erudite has developed a memory serum. Apparently it's the official Abnegation serum - or rather an unofficial one, as hardly anyone knows they have one at all. Either way, Jeanine wiped Caleb and Marlene's memories with it before she set them free. Their memories miraculously started to return later during the day, and they still continue to come back. But they still can't fully remember everything about themselves and the people they know. They couldn't remember who any of us was this morning. Compared to that state, they are much, much better now. Will said it might take a few more days until they'll have recovered. He was surprised that their memories returned at all. According to what he knows, it should have been incurable."
"What?"
I'm shocked. That's what happened today? I quickly make the connection between what happened to my brother and Marlene to what Tobias must have dreaded to happen to me, and realize how much worse this must have made this day for him. Guilt shoots through me, so searing hot that I have to remind myself how to breathe. My grip around Tobias' hand tightens. There's so much I'd want to say to him right now, and I hate that I can't speak to him freely at the moment. How can I ever mend the scars I caused him today?
The car slows down, and we stop in front of a crumbling building that looks like a thousand other crumbling buildings in Chicago.
"I'll get them," Shauna says and jumps out of the vehicle. Only two minutes later she comes back with Caleb and Marlene in her wake. Caleb gets in beside me whereas Marlene squeezes herself into the back row.
I hug my brother as tightly as I can in this confined space, and I'm relieved he returns the gesture.
"Tris, I'm so glad you're okay. I can't imagine how I could forget about you, but I remember you again. Memories have been coming back all day, but seeing you in person now brings those memories back to live," he says while we sway gently in the moving car.
I try not to listen in to the whispers Uriah and Marlene share, it's none of my business, but I relax a bit as I hear Marlene mutter that she hasn't entirely forgotten about him and that she loves his smell.
We finally reach Dauntless, and it feels as if I'd been away much longer than I have. There are so many things I want to ask, but at the same time I'm too exhausted after all that has happened. We sneak inside as a group, then split up. Uriah, Marlene, Shauna and Lynn are going their way while Caleb, Tobias and I walk along the hallways to my apartment.
"Can you give me five minutes with Caleb, please? I'll come over as soon as I can," I ask Tobias as we reach my door.
"Five minutes, but please, no longer than that," he says and kisses me. Neither of us cares that we're still outside. What could they do to us now that we've saved our faction? Besides, there're no leaders left to make us Factionless.
I hurry inside my apartment after Caleb, anxious to say what I want to say and then quickly make my way over to Tobias. I really don't want to leave him waiting.
I want to start speaking, but Caleb is faster than I. "Thank you, Beatrice - Tris. Honestly, I admire your bravery. What you did was very selfless."
"Selflessness and bravery aren't that far apart," I say, blushing at hearing my brother's praise. For years and years, I've been listening to him scolding me for not being selfless enough.
"Maybe not. Neither are bravery and recklessness," he says.
It figures.
"There, your personality is coming back. You're well on the way to make a full recovery," I reply and pull him into another embrace. It's so good that we're finally past Abnegation etiquette.
"It's good to have you back here with us. I didn't want to lose my little sister," Caleb says, hiding his emotions inside his simple sentences. But I know what he wants to say anyway.
"I love you, too, Caleb," I laugh and pat his back before I let go of him. "You can stay at my apartment for as long as you need or want. I assume you can't go back to Erudite before the situation is clarified."
"Thank you. I'm still selfless enough to spend a few nights on a sofa," he jokes.
I smile. He must have misunderstood me.
"No, it's okay, Caleb. You can take the bed. I'll sleep over at Four's."
"Oh, does he have an aptitude for Abnegation as well?"
I look at him questioningly.
He clears his throat. "Cause he too doesn't mind taking the sofa, you know?"
Wow, is my brother trying to make a joke? I chuckle.
"Yeah, something like that," I say while I go to the kitchen and fill myself a glass with water from the faucet. I haven't drunken much today. I empty the glass in one go and then leave it in the sink. It can wait until tomorrow, or whenever I have time for cleaning it.
"So, goodnight Caleb. I'll be back in the morning. We could have breakfast together," I suggest and walk over to my apartment door.
"Wait, aren't you going to take your pajamas with you? Or your toothbrush?"
"No, I don't need that. I have enough clothes and a toothbrush over at Four's place."
"So you've slept there before?" Now Caleb's eyes grow big. He must have thought this was just an exception after the hard day Tobias and I have been through. My old self would have gotten a red face and avoided his eyes, but now I can't help finding this conversation funny - at least to a certain degree.
"Of course. He has some clothes in my wardrobe as well. Feel free to choose something comfortable for you to sleep in."
I watch Caleb open the wardrobe door and pull out a collection of Tobias' sweatpants and shirts.
"Looks like he hasn't worn any of it since he put it here," Caleb notices happily. "What?" he adds after he has caught me grinning at him. Naive Caleb is quite amusing. I'm glad I'm over my shyness.
"That might be because he doesn't need much clothing while he's here," I say dryly and leave my flabbergasted brother behind. On the way over to Tobias, it occurs to me what I've just admitted to him, but the very next moment, I remember to not care.
What is important now is to fix things with Tobias. I need to apologize to him for how I left this morning. It's going to be difficult.
Tobias
I walk up and down inside my apartment, waiting for Tris. She knocks before using her key to come in, then she leans against the wall next to the door and closes her eyes.
"Are you okay?" I ask.
"Yes, I just can't believe that I'm back here, and safe," she sighs.
"So you were fully aware of the danger you put yourself in when you left!" I accuse her.
"I'm sorry. I was also aware of the danger you were in, all of us were in. I wanted to keep you safe."
"To keep me safe? To keep me safe?" I shout, my anger suddenly overtaking me. I didn't want to get angry at her tonight, I really didn't. But I've fought so much against my emotions today that I'm tired of it now. I take three large steps towards her and place one hand on each side of her face. "What you've done was dangerously stupid! You could easily have gotten yourself killed!"
"I was trying to be brave, to be Dauntless. My brother's life was threatened, too," she tries to justify herself.
I ignore the tears welling in her eyes as I need to get out what haunted me all day. "I don't care about your brother, I care about you! You can't go and make such decisions all on your own, not anymore. Tris, we're together, you need to think about us, too. I want you to think of the consequences your actions have on us, on me. I can't lose you. Now that I've found the one person that brings light into my life, I can't lose you. Fuck, Tris, I was worried sick today. I'd rather die fighting against Jeanine with you than living in a world without you!" I bang my flat hand against the wall, right next to her head, the physical pain deafening the ghost of the emotional one I endured today.
My voice shakes from shouting. I didn't want to shout at her, I didn't want to pick a fight, but I have to let her know what this day was like for me, and I can't stop myself. All the tension is coming back to the surface.
"I'm sorry," Tris whispers again. "I didn't think of it that way. I didn't want you to risk your life by coming with me. I didn't feel like I was worth it."
"Like you're not worth it? I told you that I love you! It wasn't a lie. I love you, Tris!"
"I didn't realize how big that love was until now. I can't do anything else besides saying how sorry I am. I should have talked to you first. But I didn't want to put you in danger. I love you, too, and it wasn't a lie either. I trusted you to rescue me."
"Shit," - another bang against the wall - "but what if I hadn't?"
"But you have! And now we have a future together! In a better Dauntless that we can help to build."
"There almost wouldn't have been a future for us at all!"
"But now there is! Tobias, I'm here. I'm safe."
Tris moves for the first time since I've walked over to her. She slowly raises her hands and circles my wrists with her fingers, then she gently pulls my hands away from the cold wall. I let her.
"I'm here, Tobias," she repeats, placing my burning palms on her hips. "You can touch me. I'm not a simulation. I'm real. We're real."
For a moment, I'm paralyzed. I just stare into her eyes that look up at me pleadingly, lovingly. And then, like at the push of a button, my anger switches into something else. I close the distance between our lips and kiss her, hard enough that her head falls back against the wall. I force her lips open with my tongue, and she doesn't resist. She kisses me back hungrily and pulls my body against hers.
With all the adrenaline still running through me, I'm electrified immediately. I push myself against her, basically trapping her between me and the wall, as my hands run up under her shirt and to the sides of her breasts. My desire is the only emotion strong enough to completely replace the anger, the despair.
I roll my hips against Tris'. She grabs my ass tightly and rubs herself against my growing hardness. I pull at her shirt and unceremoniously take it off, then push down the straps of her bra and lower the fabric down from her soft breasts. I lower my head and suck at her nipples. From her surprised gasp I can tell I must have done it harder than usual. I don't care as long as she doesn't stop me. I bite my way up over her neck to her ear.
"I want you," I groan.
"I'm yours already," she replies and tears off my t-shirt. She unbuckles my belt while I open the buttons of her pants and jerk them down. I cover her sex outside of her panties, and the pressure makes her close her eyes and whimper. I suck at her lower lip until she turns the tables and bites down on mine. Liquid fire shoots through me, and I can't wait even a single minute to be inside her. I pull down my pants and her panties, then push her legs apart as I heave her up with my hands on her behind.
I'm glad there's the wall behind Tris to help us keep our balance as I push into her. She gasps and clings onto my shoulders, her nails digging into my flesh. It was a short foreplay, she's not as wet as the other times we've had sex, but I glide into her without resistance. She's hot inside, and I capture her lustful moans with my mouth as I begin to thrust into her.
I love how fiercely her hands clasp every part of me they can reach, requesting me to go faster. Right now, my desire for Tris is the most immediate, the most urgent emotion I've ever felt, strong enough to push everything else out of my mind; so strong that I even forget where my body ends and hers begins. The new position forces us to concentrate on each other's rhythm even more as we strive to move in unison.
It's not long until my lust consumes me entirely, and I feel myself pulsing inside Tris as my whole body is flooded by indescribable heat. I hiss her name, and she moans mine as I still and then rest my forehead against hers, panting.
Slowly my brain starts working again, and suddenly I'm uneasy. This really was quite rough, and nowhere near as gentle and loving as I imagined our first time after our reunion would be. I forgot myself the moment I pressed my lips to hers.
"Tris, are you alright?" I whisper, ashamed I let myself go like this and forgot all about her pleasure on the way.
"Yes, why?"
"I'm sorry I was so rough. I hope I didn't hurt you."
"No need to apologize," she replies, a grin spreading over her face.
"No?"
"Definitely no." The conviction with which she says this has me grinning, too. There's no way her message could be misunderstood.
"We should move to the bed then. I think I still owe you something," I whisper in her ear seductively. I want to give her the extra attention she needs to reach her climax as well.
"Lead the way," she says in between small kisses she plants on my neck, and I obey.
I carry her over and lay her down on my bed, enjoying the sight of her looking all messy. I bow down over her to take off her bra that is still around her waist, then start to kiss her all over her body before I settle down next to her and do some magic to her with my hands while we keep kissing.
We can talk tomorrow.