Her world had already been torn apart once; putting it back together was proving difficult, and staring back into her mother's eyes wasn't helping the situation. She didn't need to look around to know that there were quite a few sets of eyes upon her, but the one set she could feel the most belonged to Four. She turned her head slightly to see him staring at her, eyes wide. She wondered if he was having the same thoughts she was.

Four knew Natalie, remembered how kind she had been when he was younger. He also knew she was instrumental in his and Evelyn's escape from Marcus. Could she know about the Bureau? Was she suspicious that her daughter was still alive?

"I think," Matthew said from beside her, breaking the silence, "This might be a good time for some more tests." Beatrice shot him a glare that sent a shiver up his spine. His eyes lifted to Four's ― the shake of his head was subtle. "Or not." Matthew seemed to hesitate, but gave them both a smile and a nod.

Beatrice was quiet as she walked back to the common room with Four by her side. She didn't know what to think or how to start talking about what she saw. There was something there in her mother's eyes, she was sure of it, and she was desperate to talk to her mom in a way Abnegation didn't allow.

"What was that? I mean, I'm not completely crazy, am I?" she asked when they had settled back onto the couch.

Four shook his head. "No." His voice was firm. "And I wish I knew." She hesitated for a moment, afraid to hear the answer to her next question.

"Do… do you think she knows?" Four was almost certain she did. Why else would she look directly into a camera with so much defiance? That was not the Abnegation way. Then again, Natalie never struck Four as being a typical Abnegation.

"I don't think anything's impossible anymore." She bit her lip, and Four cleared his throat. "I know you have a lot of questions."

She snorted. "That's an understatement."

"But maybe Matthew's right. I have some knowledge, and can probably answer every question you have, but I have a feeling he knows more."

What he said made perfect sense, but she wasn't ready. She felt comfortable with Four ― she didn't really want to bring anyone else into the equation. "Okay. Just… later." He nodded. They sat there in silence for a bit while she tried to work through whatever she was thinking.

"What do you do?"

Her question was so vague he simply raised his eyebrows at her. "Like, for work?"

"No. Well, yes, but no. I mean, in Abnegation I had a routine. Wake up. Go to school. Volunteer with the factionless on Saturdays. Church on Sundays. Every other day was mine for dishes and dinner. I… I had stability, a routine. Here, I'm just… I have no idea what I'm doing. Every day is just more uncertainty and I can't… I'm having…" Trouble. She had a hard time thinking it, let alone saying it.

"You think a routine would help?" She nodded. He thought it wasn't a bad idea.

"Well, I wake up early and head over to Dauntless. Spend some time in there working out. Eat breakfast, then head to the security room and deal with whatever the day brings." It sounded mundane when he said it out loud. "Lunch and dinner, of course. After work…"

After work he would sometimes head down into the depths of the Bureau, where the 'undesirables' tended to hang out and get lost in their poison of choice. He got lost a few times, too; even considered drowning out the voices in his head with an abundance of alcohol or one of the women who seemed to always find him no matter how hard he tried to hide. But he could never bring himself to do it. While he wasn't a prude per se, at his core he was still a Stiff, and it just felt wrong.

"After work, I sometimes get lost in the compound or I watch the screens." He felt his heart lurch at the small admission.

"Oh." His pulse slowed again when she didn't seem that interested. "Could I join you?" Her voice was entirely too small for the amount of space her presence seemed to take up in the room. "I mean, maybe in the morning we could… be together. And then in the afternoons I'll agree to do whatever tests they want to do." She felt it was a good compromise. She could still have time to do whatever she chose while fulfilling her purpose at the Bureau, whatever that was.

"Sounds like a decent enough plan to me."

The morning already wasted, they agreed to visit Matthew after lunch. Struggling to find something to do, Four and Beatrice walked the compound together, ending up near the research wing. She turned, walking with a mission until she was staring up at the clasped hands. The door was cool when she touched it. She held her hands there for a minute, wondering if she would ever understand how a person could feel so connected to something just by touching it. She took a deep breath, and opened the door.

It was much smaller than Dauntless. There were a few tables and chairs as well as a wall of shelving filled with large, thick books. She heard Four let out a loud breath before moving towards the shelving. He seemed to know exactly where to go when he pulled a book down, setting it on a table and gesturing for her to sit. As she did, he flipped to one of the last pages.

Her eyes grazed the page until she saw it: her father's name.

They stung hot with tears as she put a face to each name she recognized: Jonah Smith; Noah Black; Doreen Warsaw; Marcus Eaton. For a brief second her eyes flitted over to Four. He was rigid, eyes glued to some nondescript spot on the wall. He seemed uncomfortable. She cleared her throat and flipped through some of the pages. This book alone went back almost one hundred years. She turned to look at the others still on the shelves behind her, wondering how far back the records went.

She got up, looking over the titles and pulling a few out — they were mostly records of laws and ordinances. She even found one that depicted an uprising in the city. There were a few pages missing so she had no idea what happened afterward. Peace, she imagined, since things seemed to return to normal in the records.

She stood there, feeling both closer to and further away from her family and her faction than she had ever felt in her life. Feeling like she didn't belong was one thing; actually not belonging was a whole other scenario she had never anticipated.

"Hey." She turned around to see Four leaning against the table. "I think there's something else you might like to see."

They walked in silence, turning down hallways she had never seen before, descending staircases she didn't know existed until it was just the two of them. He motioned to an open area as they passed it. It was lit with colorful lights, and a bright sign that said 'BAR', as well as a handful of tables and chairs placed around a counter covered in different colored bottles. When they didn't stop, she had a feeling that was the place he was referring to when he mentioned getting lost. She had never tried alcohol; that was something the Dauntless did. Eventually, they stopped in front of a set of double doors.

He looked at her for just a second before pushing them open. They were both bathed in a golden light that accentuated her features. His breath caught in his throat, and he swallowed hard. "This is the genealogy room." Her eyes darted around, taking in the whole room as she followed him in. "It goes back generations, listing all of the families and how they're connected. Everyone in the city is in here somewhere."

Beatrice turned slowly, staring at the bronze walls that seemed to glow all on their own. She stepped closer to one, realizing the walls were not solid but actually made up of thousands of small plates, some blank, and some with names engraved on them.

"What's this?" she asked, pointing to one. "It says Brenna Lewis, A-A."

"A-A means she was born into Amity, and she chose Amity."

"Oh."

She wandered further, until she started noticing more and more of the names having an AB underneath them. She searched frantically ― they must be there somewhere.

Andrew Prior, E-AB. She shook her head and read it again. Her eyes had to be deceiving her. Beatrice looked at the plate next to it. Natalie Wright-Prior, F-D-AB. She had no idea what the F meant, but the D both surprised and didn't surprise her. On the outside, her mother was born and bred for Abnegation, but in the privacy of their home she would hold Beatrice close, stroke her hair and plant soft kisses on her cheeks, telling her how much she loved her. The memory of her touch made her eyes prickle with heat.

"My mom was Dauntless," she said, brushing her fingertip over her name. "And my dad was Erudite."

"And you're Abnegation," Four added. All her aptitudes were laid out right in front of her. She took a deep breath and looked at the plates beneath her parents' names: Caleb Prior, AB-E. Beatrice Prior, AB- *. Someone had been there recently.

"What is that?" she asked, pointing to her name.

Four leaned in. "The asterisk is for people who are confirmed Divergent inside of the city." She knew she was different, but she felt an even greater divide manifesting inside of her, seeing everyone else's names and their choices. That part would forever be left blank next to her name.

"I didn't get to choose," she said quietly. "I was so concerned with my brother and my parents I didn't even think about myself." She let out a little laugh. It was probably one of the few times she had put others before herself. For once she was Abnegation.

"You could always choose now," Four offered.

"What, is there a copycat set of bowls here?" She didn't understand what the purpose of that would be. There wasn't any way they would ever be used.

"No," Four said. "But did you really want to cut your hand and bleed all over the place?" She thought about it and shook her head. "There's nothing stopping you from making that choice. You are what you say you are." She looked back at her name. Her choice was already made for her, forever engraved in brass right there next to her name. She was Divergent. She didn't belong anywhere.

"Is your name here?" Her voice was small, curious.

When her eyes found his, they were guarded. They stared at each other for a moment before he turned away. "It's lunchtime." It wasn't a suggestion.

They ate in silence. She wanted to press him further, to find out what his story was, but she was almost afraid to hear the answer. There was a reason he didn't go by his real name, and a reason he kept to himself most of the time.

"Ahh. Come in," Matthew said, opening the door wider for them both.

"I made a deal with Four that if I could have the mornings to do whatever I wanted, then I would agree to do what I needed to do here in the afternoons."

Matthew raised his eyebrows. "Well, alright. David will be pleased to hear about this. Don't worry. I'll start you off easy today."

She was excited to finally see Erudite. To connect to that part of herself, and to her father. The eye loomed larger than ever before her, almost taunting her for her insecurities. They moved aside as someone came out; her eyes were alive with curiosity when she got the briefest glance inside. "Ready?" Matthew asked, and she nodded.

The room felt as large as the cafeteria, with rows and rows of tables, each covered in items. Some she recognized from her science classes in school, while others she had never seen before. Around each table was a swarm of blue-clad workers, talking or arguing or frantically writing.

"Almost everyone here got an Erudite result," Matthew said as they walked.

"So they're all from the city?" Beatrice asked, the thought of all the dead bodies that weren't really these people lingering in the back of her mind.

"No. They just took the test. Everyone's always curious what they would get."

"Wait. You have the equipment here?" She wasn't sure why she was so surprised. Matthew smiled and veered to the right, heading towards a door with the same flames on it as Dauntless.

Inside was a chair identical to the one she sat in just a few days ago. There was more than one type of machine, though― she pointed at the one she didn't recognize. "The aptitude test isn't Dauntless, is it?"

"No, but the simulations are," Matthew answered. Four was silent as he watched her try to wrap her mind around everything.

"Simulations?"

"In Dauntless, part of their initiation involves going through their greatest fears to overcome them. This machine here," Matthew said, tapping it, "Lets you do just that." She looked at Four. "It's like the aptitude test," Matthew continued, "Only this one isn't pre-programmed. It charts your greatest fears and then presents them in a simulation which you must successfully navigate. Or, you must find a way to control your response to it."

Beatrice wasn't sure what her greatest fears were, but she was suddenly glad she didn't choose Dauntless. "And they go through this for fun?"

"Well, I wouldn't call it fun. You find a way make it through before everyone else or you wind up factionless." Four's voice was hard. There was something there, and she watched him closely for a second.

"Well, they do it here for fun," Matthew chimed in. "I'm terrified of ladybugs, if either of you were wondering." Beatrice laughed. "What, I'm not kidding!"

She laughed even harder, and even Four chuckled. He liked the sound of her laugh; it was the first time she'd really let go since she arrived. It felt good to be a part of it, and he smiled wider when she glanced at him and wiped a tear from her eye.

"You want to try it?" Matthew asked.

"What, now?" Her voice was noticeably higher-pitched.

"Yeah. I'm curious what you would do in there."

"I'd be afraid, wouldn't I? I mean, what else is there to do?"

"You might be able to manipulate it."

That piqued her curiosity. She looked over at Four who was back to business. She preferred the smile on his face. "I don't know. Maybe later."

"Okay," Matthew said. He pushed past them both, leading them back into the bustling lab.

She listened as he droned on about the different things they did in the lab: developed new seed technology, worked on weapons advancements, plotted out times for agriculture, worked on vaccines, developed and fine-tuned serums and more. It took her a moment to realize everything he was listing was Erudite technology.

"Wait. You guys develop everything here?" Her eyes darted back and forth between the two of them. "I don't understand. I mean, I knew deep down what you were saying, I think, but it just clicked right now. How do you guys get this stuff into Erudite? Is there someone there who knows about the Bureau? Someone you talk to?"

"There used to be. Quite a few people we communicated with, actually. It wasn't an issue with the other factions, but it's different with Erudite. If you have the same person coming up with all of the ideas, well, people tend to get jealous. And suspicious." Matthew fell quiet for a moment. "People even died over it."

"What?"

"It was a long time ago, so don't worry. Now we just give them the information in a way that lets them believe they came up with it all on their own."

Beatrice was dumbfounded. "Wait. So what you're telling me is that the people in Erudite aren't really smart? That my brother left my grieving parents because he thought that he could go there and make a difference in the city because your stupid test told him he could?"

"No, Beatrice―" Matthew interrupted.

"Don't Beatrice me! He's not going to do anything worthwhile unless you choose him, is he?"

The people closest to them paused for a moment, waiting to see what would happen. Beatrice shot a few of them a look but focused her hard eyes between Matthew and Four. She felt like she would never understand this place, or why they were doing any of it.

"It's not always like that. Sometimes they come up with something on their own."

"And then you steal it, right?" She crossed her arms and let out a loud breath. "Let's just do whatever it is you want to do so I can get out of here." Matthew nodded and walked quickly towards a door near the back of the room.

It reminded Beatrice of the rooms in the clinic her parents would take her and her brother to when they got sick. She hopped onto the table covered in paper and looked at Matthew expectantly.

"There are a number of tests we can run. X-rays, MRI, running through the simulations―"

"Just pick one." She was past the point of caring.

"Okay. Let's do an MRI then."

She lay down on the table in front of a huge machine. Someone named Paul locked her head into a cage while Four and Matthew waited in a little room off to the side. He gave her a thumbs up and a big smile before pushing her back into the machine. She rolled her eyes.

"Okay," Matthew's voice emanated from somewhere near her head. "It's going to be loud, so just close your eyes and hold completely still until it's done. It'll take just under a half an hour." Beatrice took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

"Don't ever make me do that again," she said when they pulled her out, undoing the cage around her head.

Matthew's lip turned up slightly. "I'll do my best." Four struggled to release his side; she swore she saw a hint of panic on his face that disappeared when he released her and she sat up.

It wasn't much of a secret that he was claustrophobic, but seeing her locked up like that, sensing her discomfort, sent his anxiety into overdrive. He relaxed a little when she gave him a nod and hopped off the table.

"I'll let you know what I find," Matthew said when they exited Erudite. "That's good for today. It'll take me a minute to do some research. And I'll let David know so he doesn't come and hunt you down."

"Thanks," Four said. They shook hands and parted ways.

Beatrice didn't feel like heading back to the dorms, so she turned towards Amity. Four was silent as they grabbed their gloves, found a plot, and began planting with the others.

"Tris," she said after a while, and he looked up at her. "I was doing what I could to distract myself during the MRI, so I thought of a name."

"Tris," he said.

She looked up at him to see a small smile on his face. "I figured it was different enough. And, you know, fierce."

His smile widened. "Yeah, it is."