Chapter 23!

Oh my god I am SO sorry for the delay in my "daily" chapter. A lot has happened during the summer and I can tell you a few things about it.
1. I recently bought an appartment together with my boyfriend;
2. I passed all the tests I was studying for;
3. I AM NOW A TEACHER! WHOOHOO!

A quick yet warm thanks to all my reviewers, followers and favouriters! I've reached 5000 views and I am more than thrilled. Thank you all so much!
I'm glad to be back.

Because I am a teacher now, I'm quite busy and working hard to keep up with all my students, but I am set on finishing this story.

Right. Have fun with the new chapter!

Disclaimer: I wish my friends would stop nagging about me owning them, I bet Tobias wouldn't nag this much.
Hmm. Probably he would. I'll stick to just owning my friends.

Tobias

'Marcus,' I stated, trying to maintain my firm voice and keeping it from breaking. He looked at me, it even seemed like he was checking whether I still looked the same.

'I heard that you chose Dauntless, my boy,' he said, with a slight smile as if he'd forgot our past. Something in his words made me snap, him saying "my boy"... He no longer had the right to say it.

'I am not your boy anymore, Marcus, I've been adopted. There is a family that actually loves me,' I snapped. I felt myself getting mad, but then I saw Jeanine smile from the corner of my eye, making my stomach feel like it was churning again.

"Even though I hated his guts, once I had actually loved him- a time when he still loved me too, and I didn't want to be the person who killed him.

"I didn't really care for his life, because a few months ago he hadn't cared for mine either as he almost killed me, but I wanted to be the bigger person.

'I'm glad you found happiness, Tobias,' Marcus said, his face became serious as the mood changed. My face still taciturn, he understood that we would never be father and son ever again.

'But there is something I need to tell you, why I have been looking for you the way I have,' he explained solemnly, sparking my interest. 'What is it?' I spoke, my voice somewhat small as both leaders stared at me.

The words came from Jeanine as Marcus stared at his feet, frankly too worried to even glance at my face.

'Your mother is back, she's alive, Tobias.'

Iris

My mind was too exhausted to work. It was no longer working on plans to escape, because I knew that it wasn't going to happen, and probably wouldn't work.

My weapons were found by Eric, causing him to cut my shoulder with one of the knives I had hidden. Even after a few days, it was still bleeding, because his sadistic self kept ripping it open.

It did make sure that I was weak because of all the blood I was losing, and Tim and Jenna weren't doing any better than I was. Eric served them potions, what made them strangely quiet and tired so they would cooperate with their tests.

I had to admit, he was doing his job pretty well.

Being Jeanine's bitch.

I tried to sit up, moaning when I finally did. I sat back against the wall of our little prison, and felt Jenna's hand reach out to mine. We grabbed each others hand and pinched it softly.

'They promised,' she said, her voice cracking. 'They will come,' Tim said weakly from the other side of the room where he laid in a corner, trying to open his eyes to look at us.

His face was pale and his usual sparkly blue eyes were blear and lusterless. 'Guys, I'm so sorry,' I said softly, looking at the both of them. Jenna's eyes caught mine, and a shimmer of her hope shone through.

'It's not your fault, you know that,' she said, coughing between breaths. They said it all the time because I felt bad, but it didn't make me feel less guilty.

My friends were in there because of me, we all knew it, they were just too nice to admit it.

We were quiet for a little time, until Tim coughed and crawled up. 'Shouldn't Eric or Jeanine have come for us already? I feel like it's way past our test time,' he croaked.

'You're right,' Jenna said, surprised. Tim was right indeed, something was up.

It didn't take long after that for the expected knock on the door. Jeanine came in with three guards who pulled us up to our feet. All three of us couldn't really stand, so we almost fell down right away.

The guards held us somewhat tighter, and pulled us with them. 'We have a different agenda than usual,' Jeanine stated, looking at us. 'Why,' Jelma said weakly, her voice not even able to form the question syllable at the end of the word.

'Because I promised someone that he could see you,' she said. I couldn't put my finger on her tone, she didn't sound mad, or sad, but she wasn't happy about something, I did know that.

The guards dragged us down to the room where we were being tested. I could tell, even though my eyes were closed, strange how it works.

They opened the doors, and I felt the cold breeze that permanently hangs in that room brush against my face, forcing me to pry open my eyes.

Before I managed to, I heard Jenna gasp, then cough and Tim groan out a name. 'Four,' I heard him say. My head jerked up with all the power I had left in me, and my eyes caught his... Tobias was standing in the room.

'Tobi,' I whispered, not having enough strength to either speak up, nor walk over to him. 'Iris,' he said, his voice worried as he ran up to us. He grabbed me from the guard and hugged me.

He had to support me as I almost fell down again. 'You're so weak, this is terrible,' he whispered, his blue eyes turning black as he spoke. He put his hand on my stomach, making me realise that he wasn't leaving me again.

'Jenna, Tim,' he said as he wrapped my arm around his shoulders and supported me as we walked over to our friends. 'Tobias, you look like Four, please save us,' Tim said drowsily, before he passed out.

Jenna grabbed Tobias' hand and tried to smile. 'You're here,' she whispered. 'I'm not leaving,' he said, looking at Jeanine. 'We have a deal,' he said. 'You have to let them go.'

'Wh..what?' I asked, my mind still a bit blurry. What was happening, and why was he there? 'That's not happening until you have completed your end of the bargain,' Jeanine stated, folding her arms and sticking her chin into the air. "His end of the bargain? It was confusing me so badly that my head started spinning. 'Tobias,' I mumbled, and grabbed his arm. "He looked at me immediately, and pulled me closer to him. 'I don't...' I started, but he shook his head. 'It's something between Jeanine and me, love, don't worry about it,' he explained. "I tried to nod, but his face became more blurry with the second. His eyes faded away, until there was nothing more than black.

Tobias

In my arms I held an unconscious Iris, and somewhere between the time I had spoken to her last and then, Jenna had also passed out. I lifted Iris and held her bridal style. "'What have you done to them,' I snapped at Jeanine, before I noticed my girlfriend was bleeding. 'She's bleeding!' I called out, quickly put her down on the ground and ripped a part off my shirt to bind her arm.

'They didn't cooperate, so Eric had to think of something,' Jeanine said with a smile. All of a sudden, I felt scared. My friends were still looking for Tim, Jenna and Iris, but they were here with me. "Maybe we could attack Jeanine and skip the building?

I could signal Zeke as soon as he steps in, maybe we could immediately take Jeanine down, and have the others fight the guards, then grab our unconscious friends and run away. "Could it work?"I had to stall her as long as I could.

'Why do you want me to kill my father, Jeanine?' I asked, looking into her bright emotionless eyes. She smiled.

Please Zeke, hurry up...

Zeke

Where the hell where they? Was Layla lying about the hallways and the prison rooms? 'They should be here,' she said, and she pointed towards three different rooms. "We sneaked a peak at the inside of every room, but two were occupied and one was empty. 'I bet that this is their room, Zeke,' she whispered, pointing at the second room. There was nothing inside, but something told me that she was right.

'So, if they're not here, then where are they?' Dax hissed, and looked around frantically. 'We have to save them now!' I nodded, and stared at Layla.

'If they're not here, I'm afraid that they are being tested,' she admitted. 'Well, let's go there then?' Dax suggested. I nodded again. 'Well, we can't drag them along if they're being tested guys, Jeanine will be there!' Layla snapped."I clenched my fists and my teeth. "'Even better, she's going down,' I growled, and started running. Dax and Layla ran after me.

'ZEKE!' Layla yelled, pulling me back. 'We need the others! We can't kill her by ourselves, then run and face the possibility that the others are still here! Just calm down!' "I stopped dead in my tracks and gripped my hair with both my hands. 'I'm dying here, Layla! I don't know where my girlfriend and best friends are! I don't know how Four is doing and whether Jeanine and Marcus are torturing him too, and I can't handle it. We have to put some action into this mission right now,' I said, my whole being frustrated.

'I understand, Zeke, but we really can't do this alone,' Dax admitted. I sighed and shook my head. 'Fine, let's go find the others and invade the test room. Don't mind Jeanine, she's mine and Four's,' I growled once more, and walked away with Layla and Dax right behind me.