"I thought she was dead," I begin slowly. "That's what they told me, that they had moved up the day of her execution." I look over at Leo, his teeth clenched and his eyes closed, as Cara stitches the wound in his thigh.
"That's what you told me," I clarify. He nods slightly, without opening his eyes.
"Jeanine said she had gotten all she was going to get from Tris, and that she would just use you instead." Leo pauses as Cara jabs the needle roughly into his skin.
He inhales and holds his breath for a moment. "I walked her to this room," he says faintly. "And she held her head up, uncompromised, refusing to show fear." He barks out a laugh, jarring his leg, and Cara shoots him a dirty look.
"You need to hold still, unless you want to bleed to death," she notes coolly.
"She even opened the door for herself," Leo continues, not moving this time. "This tiny girl, who had been tortured and everything she loved taken from her, and she actually opened the door."
"I thought – I knew – that it was wrong. We were wrong. It was just not Dauntless for us to be sending this girl to her death in some sterile laboratory. To be helping Jeanine...Everything she was doing was corrupt, and cowardly."
"Tris made you feel ashamed," I say without emotion.
He opens his eyes and looks right at me.
"She did more than that," he says, quietly. "She reminded me, and everyone who was here that day, who we were. Who we all wanted to be when we chose Dauntless."
"And so did you," he adds, closing his eyes and leaning back against the wall.
"I promise you, none of us who were here that day will forget again." He gestures weakly at me to continue.
Just then, the overhead screen starts to flicker. The activity lines quiver.
"What's happening?" Christina demands, staring nervously at the screen.
I rush over to the table. "She's in a simulation," I say hurriedly. "Jeanine said she's been in it for three days and can't get out – she may never get out."
"She trapped in a fear landscape?" Christina whispers, looking horrified.
"No," I say thoughtfully. "I don't think it's a fear landscape. Not exactly. This is something else."
The screen is still flickering, colors coming into view, as if Tris is waking up slowly, stretching and yawning.
"That screen" I point at the overhead, "is showing what she's seeing right now. And that screen," I say, pointing at the computer without taking my eyes off the overhead, "has data files from the last three days on it."
"How much have you watched so far?" Cara asks.
"Oh, um, about a day," I respond, flushing, as I remember what I was watching when they got here. I look over at Cara, who appears to have finished with Leo and is looking back at me, one eyebrow up, a little quirk at the corner of her mouth. "And some of today, just before she fell asleep," I rush on.
"I take it you saw yourself," she observes, chuckling at my discomfort.
Tris comes into view on the screen, stumbling to the bathroom. I make a move for the headphones as I see Tris take off her clothes and step into the shower.
"No, Tobias," Cara says sharply, raising her voice. "Let Christina keep an eye on Tris. You need to tell us the rest."
Anger and resentment rise in my chest as I look at her coldly. She does not get to give me orders and she will not keep me from Tris.
"Tobias" Leo says evenly. "We're with you, man." There's a gray cast to his skin. You don't always have to fight so hard, I can almost hear him saying.
In the simulation, Tris is in a different Abnegation house now, and she's with, of all people, Christina, who appears to be giving her a makeover. A makeover?
Well, I might not care what Cara and Leo want me to do, but I do care what Tris wants. And I am certain, looking at the screen, that Tris wants Christina to be with her right now. It can't be a coincidence that she suddenly has a starring role in the simulation.
Resigned, I hold the headphones out to Christina, who takes them eagerly.
