"What are you doing here?" Alex asked in shock as Lucas and Kylie sneaked into the archive room.
"Well, we didn't get to see you the last few days and couldn't really talk, so we decided it's time to change that," Kylie answered and sat down with her.
Lucas followed her example. "Yeah, so now please tell us what's going on. Kylie has been driving me crazy with her theories."
"What theories?" Alex asked with raised eyebrows.
"Well, my personal favourite was that the ninja rabbits of your parents have sworn revenge on their creators and threatened to kill you, so you got personal protection."
"Lovely."
"Right?" Kylie said proudly, "but now tell us what's really going on. I'm dying to know why you're getting escorted everywhere."
"Well, Max allowed me to stay under the condition that a Dauntless member is monitoring me at all times."
"What?"
"What the hell did you do?"
Alex sighed and bit her lip.
"Something stupid."
"Mutated-ninja-rabbit kind of stupid?" Kylie asked.
"Worse … do you know Jack, the Factionless?"
Lucas and Kylie exchanged a quick glance.
"Yeah?"
"Well, I might have been caught … in bed with him."
For a moment, they both stared at her, their eyes wide with shock. Then, they burst out laughing.
"Could we please not laugh about this", Alex said but laughed as well. Their light reaction seemed to take some of the pressure off the situation.
"What do you mean you got caught in bed with him? How do you go out to fuck Jack and get caught doing so?"
"I don't know! It was all so stupid."
"So that's what you were up to when we covered for you to sneak out of Dauntless?" Kylie asked.
"Well, I did meet him that night but the other thing happened more recently."
"When?"
"During the drill."
Lucas and Kylie exchanged a confused glance.
"What? How? I thought you were with Eric?"
Alex took a deep breath. Then she told them the whole story
"I never imagined Jack to be so … nice to someone?" Lucas said.
"What do you mean?" Alex asked.
"Well, we've only been told stories about his riots and vandalism, about the deaths he caused and the-"
"Deaths? What deaths?" Alex asked confused.
Lucas and Kylie shared a confused glance as well.
"Well, you know the people who died because of his riots?"
"What people?" Alex' voice became tenser.
"Ehm… well mostly Dauntless soldiers but sometimes also innocent bystanders of other factions."
"Really? That's what they're telling everyone? That is so unfair. They're really turning things around."
"What do you mean?" Lucas asked carefully.
"The people who die are factionless. They're the ones suffering from the "so-called" riots. They're the ones getting attacked."
Kylie opened her mouth but then closed it again. She didn't have to say anything, Alex had already noticed the tense atmosphere herself. She sounded like one of Jack's people, delirious.
But she had seen it with her own eyes. Control visits that turned into riots. She had never resented the factionless after seeing how some officers had incited their troops to violence. If she had only experienced these control visits, she probably would have joined Jack's movement. But there were other troops, troops whose leaders listened to the factionless on their control visits, occasionally dropping off toys or new clothes. Those moments gave her hope. She would never admit it to Jack, but she hadn't chosen Dauntless just because she wanted to feel free and leave Erudite behind. Secretly, she hoped maybe she could make a difference. But that hope seemed so fragile and delicate that she didn't dare tell anyone about it, or even believe in it too much herself. It was a hope she couldn't afford to fail at.
Alex looked at Lucas and Kylie watching her with tense jaws. Frustration spread through her stomach. Frustration, at a system that wanted to portray the factionless in such a brutal light that it allowed violent ones to rise to officers and made anyone who said anything against it look like a conspiracy theorist.
She was about to explain what she had seen when the door opened. The three flinched and looked at Eric with wide eyes. They had lost track of time.