From LostInYou-TDG

Yes... sorry but I love a good cliffy! I'll try not to leave you hanging too much!

Chapter 19

TOBIAS

I woke up with a headache and Candice asleep across my chest, snuggled into me. What on earth? Where were we? What had happened? My mind tried to make sense of it as I looked around us carefully, trying not to disturb the sleeping Candice. We were on a bed with a blanket draped over us. There was a lamp lit in the corner of the room. The room was clean and tidy and there was a night stand next to the bed that contained a glass of water.

I let my mind drift back. I had been kissing Candice. We admitted how we felt and essentially made up. Then what? Think, Tobias. Oh right, the men wearing masks. My hand lifted to my neck. There was a small lump that was quite warm to touch. Not painful exactly, but rather uncomfortable. I smoothed Candice's hair back away from her neck. She had the lump too. What had they injected us with?

I found it odd, that despite their menacing appearance when we were taken, we weren't tied up, chained or restrained in any way. We were quite comfortable on the bed and didn't appear in any immediate danger.

"Candice," I whispered. She didn't stir. "Candice," I said again, louder and she groaned then her eyes flicked open and I saw her take in her surroundings as I had. We both sat up.

"What? Where are we?" she asked, as confused as I was.

"I don't know. Remember the men in masks?" I asked her and she nodded, her hand going to her neck.

"So where are we?" she asked.

"I don't know," I replied and unwrapped my arms from around her.

"Shall we look around?" she asked and I nodded and we began to check out the room. There was nothing about the room that indicated where we were or even what times of day it was. The only window in the room was covered by thick curtains. Candice went to have a look out the window, and it brought back that memory of Tris being shot in my fear landscape. Actually, it had started somewhat similarly to this. We had woken up together though the location had been different. And we had woken up to noise before. But the fear of losing her again shot through me savagely.

"Don't," I said vehemently, forcing myself not to shout. Candice turned and looked at me and must have seen the fear and pain on my face because she stopped and came back over to me and wrapped her arms around my neck tightly, pressing up against me. My arms went around her and I crushed her to me.

"It's ok," she whispered in my ear, hugging me hard to her. "I'm here." She obviously read the flicker of my emotions well.

"I'm sorry," I said and my voice broke. I hugged her fiercely. "I just can't lose you," I said. The thought of losing her again almost broke me.

"I'm here Tobias. I'm not going anywhere. It's ok," she whispered again then kissed me. For some reason, that helped calm me down. "You ok?" she asked me afterward and I hesitated before nodding.

"Yeah."

"Shall we go check out the who, what and where of this?" she asked me and I hesitated. She pulled me with her to the door and we opened it slowly, peering around it defensively. I couldn't believe my eyes!

Andrew and Natalie Prior (Tris' parents), sitting there calmly waiting for us. They were chatting quietly to each other and smiling, sitting at what looked like the round table I saw in the landscape. Were they manipulating it from here? Did they have new personalities too? Or did they remember everything? Candice ran over and hugged her mother.

"We apologise for the appearance of brute force," Andrew Prior said, "but we needed to make it seem like we were foe not friend in case you were being watched."

"So even if we had resisted, if I had continued to resist, you wouldn't have hurt her?"

"Of course not. She's my daughter. Plus I'm not sure violence is ever necessary," Andy replied and I smiled slightly. That was very typical response of the Andrew of Abnegation that I remembered.

"Was that a test?" I asked, unimpressed with their antics. "To see if I would allow your daughter to be hurt on my account?"

"No dear," Natalie said gently and somewhat apologetically. "We already know how you feel about our daughter. But we needed to contact you properly. Both of you," she added. Properly? Meaning they already had? Were they FourTris? It explained the ForTris then FourTris correction I mused. As her parents they would do what they could for her. The FourTris would have been more so to catch my attention and it certainly did.

"So Mr and Mrs Prior, you're back?" I asked and they smiled at me.

"I guess you could say that," Andrew said. "I'm Andy and this is Natalia," he explained. So if they were new personalities then it meant they couldn't be FourTris. They would only know Tris as Candice and me as Tobias. Though how they knew me at all, I wasn't sure.

"Do you remember before?" I asked and Natalia winked at me. I guessed that meant that they did. Was it that they weren't going to give me the information in front of Candice? I changed tactics. "And if I said FourTris?"

"You would be correct," Natalia answered, letting go of Candice to sit down at the table. Candice came back over to me, standing closely to me and put an arm around my waist. She definitely wasn't Tris right now. There was no way Tris from Abnegation would show any kind of affection in front of her parents – even just an arm around my waist.

"Can someone please explain this to me?" I asked, frustrated. No one ever gave me any real information. I always felt like I was trying to make a house out of matches in the dark.

"What would you like to know?" Andy asked.

"Where are Cara and Matthew? Are they safe?" I asked, my tone bordering an accusation.

"They are here, and yes they are safe. Would you like to see them?" Natalia answered me patiently. She wasn't affected by my tone at all.

"Yes please. Are there any more of you?" I asked, trying to make my tone more civil. Andy gave a nod, I thought in answering my question, but turned out he was nodding to someone who was watching. And in walked Lynn, Eric, Cara and Matthew.

Cara ran over and hugged Candice. I barely noticed. I was too distracted by Eric. I wasn't sure I liked the idea of Eric being here. In fact I knew I didn't like the idea of Eric being here. The only thing that prevented me from charging across the room to restrain him, was the fact he looked more like the Eric in my landscape. The one who had prompted me to admit that Tris was back. I also saw Matthew walk over towards me.

"Are you alright Cara?" I asked her, without taking my eyes off Eric.

"I'm fine. It has been good getting to know the leaders of FourTris," she said and Eric smiled at me. I narrowed my eyes.

"What about you Matthew," I asked.

"I'm well thank you Tobias," he replied and put a hand on my shoulder briefly, giving it a squeeze.

"My name is Liana," Lynn said, coming over to shake my hand firmly. Her hair was still as short as ever. "And this is Ethan," she added, introducing Eric. I would be very surprised if Ethan wasn't the same as Eric always had been given that all the others were the same as they had been. Although Eric did look much better with the long, greasy hair. He almost looked presentable now.

"Good to meet you Liana," I said, ignoring Eric.

"I know all your prejudices and preconceived ideas about me Four," Ethan said, "but please know that that cruel persona does not accurately portray me now."

"I'll believe that when I see it," I said and Ethan grinned at me.

"Good," he said and I was a little confused. He was actually willing to prove it? Perhaps he actually had changed. Only time would tell. I tried to think of what I could ask and how I could ask it, without upsetting Candice. If she thought I only wanted her because she reminded me of Tris, she would be hurt again. She didn't yet know that she was Tris.

"So why did you take Matthew and Cara?"

"They were being hunted by the Revolutionists. We needed to make it look like they were taken hostilely so they would no longer be in danger," Andy explained.

"As annoying as it has been to be hidden from our friends and family Tobias, it has been a necessary evil. We have been safe here. And we have deduced some of the motivations behind the Revolutionists. I am sorry to tell you Tobias, that it seems Christina is involved," Cara said and put a hand on my arm.

"I can't believe she would betray us like that!" I said, outraged. Candice looked at me surprised. I hadn't really spoken to her about Christina and the two of them hadn't yet met. I actually hadn't seen Christina in weeks. "So what have you deduced?"

"Well as you know, they have been claiming we have the technology and the programs in place to wipe peoples' memories and "implant" them with the memories we want, calling it Project Tabula Rasa – the Blank Slate. This would allow us to create soldiers of a particular faction with the personalities, prejudices and memories that we like. It would also allow us to create and control political leaders and essentially do whatever we want. We of course don't have that technology and wouldn't create it," Matthew explained. "It would put a whole new spin on the memory serums we have been developing and would look at long term engagements rather than short transmitter bursts. It would be similar to the serum used in the Faction War."

"We believe that the Revolutionists do have some of this technology and there were rumours of them wanting to abduct Cara and Matthew to further develop this technology under duress," Natalia explained.

"So where does Christina fit into all this?" I asked.

"She seems to be a source of information for them. We believe she is the one supplying information about who would be able to develop the technology and how to transport in and out of the city. We also believe she is a go-between, delivering information to different sources all over the city and using the cover of her current position in relocating residents to achieve it relatively unnoticed and without arousing undue suspicion."

"So what do they have to gain by making the people believe we are the ones with the technology?" Candice asked.

"We believe it is so that once they develop the technology, they can implement it causing a two pronged effect. One that they can cause the issues or changes that they like with the technology and two that they will have the general public rebelling against us, keeping us busy while they do or take whatever they like, and think that they are the heroes. It would give them unprecedented control over the people and technology," Ethan/Eric said, adding his view.

"And who came to that conclusion?" I asked, feeling the scenario a little far-fetched or perhaps that was wishful thinking.

"I did," Ethan said and I nodded knowingly. Once an evil mastermind, always an evil mastermind.

"So what are we doing about it?" Candice asked.

"We are trying to get someone on the inside. We feel that is the only way to understand their organisation for us to get a step ahead of them."

"And where are we at with that?" I asked.

"We have two operatives who are working their way up through the ranks and gaining trust and influence. But it is a slow process. We are still trying to work out who is behind the group," Andy said.

"Any ideas?" I asked.

"Nothing at the moment. We don't seem to know enough about the organisation to even guess who the mastermind behind it is," Liana said.

"And so why are we here?" Candice asked, taking my hand.

"We wanted to fill you in on what we know and show Tobias the extent of our organisation in its current form," Natalia said.

"So once we leave, how will we contact you?" I asked.

"I believe I can answer that," Cara said proudly. She pulled out what looked similar to the tablet that David gave Tris with her mother's journal, but it is a smaller. It fits easily into the palm of Cara's hands. Cara taps the screen and it lights up. There are multiple applications and files on the tablet. She plugs it in to another device and suddenly it projects up on the wall. "I thought it would be easier to give everyone a tutorial at once," she explained.

"So you will all be given one of these. I tweaked the design and technology from the Bureau. This will allow us to all have access to the same files – publications, photos etc. We can all updated the files and add files to it, but only I have access to delete files. You can use the device to call or message anyone on the network, or multiple people at once. I felt this would be the best way for us all to keep in contact," Cara explains, running through the multi-use tool.

She passes one to each of us and we have a bit of a place with it. It's quite intuitive so we all find it quite easy to use and practise a conference call from different rooms. It has all the current information and photos on it of known operatives of the Revolutionists and is fantastic. We all meet again in the room with the table.

"Tobias, I will give you extra ones to distribute to those you see fit," Cara says and I nod.

"So what are we doing from now?" Candice asked.

"Continue to gather information and await their next move," Andy said and we nodded.

"What do we know about Vladimir Bostok? And do we know what he has to do with Johanna?" I asked.

"Only that he is working for the upper echelon of the Revolutionists. Not sure what he has to do with Johanna but we will start looking into that," Natalia answered.

"I think they have some kind of hold over her. That may assist you in working out who is running the show," I said. "Some of her reforms have changed lately, as have her priorities. And she seems to be more anxious now," I explained.

"Great, shall we get you two back now?" Liana asked. Candice and I looked at each other, then she nodded.

"Yes please," I answered and Candice went and said goodbye to her parents. I said goodbye to Cara and Matthew and then they injected something in our neck, catching us as everything went black and we fell to the ground.