From Tobias' Perspective

It's 4:30 in the morning and I'm wide awake. Again. This time I don't even bother trying to get back to sleep. The dream is always the same. I can't bear to relive it one more time. I'm with Tris in the elevator, and the door opens, and I realize it's a trap. And then she leaves me there. How could she do that, knowing what Eric was? She'd must have seen what they'd done to Marcus. I've been over it and over it in my mind, and I want to believe that she was fooled, too, and that she only left me to go get help. But she didn't look at me when she left. If only I had seen her eyes, I would know. But I have no idea how to contact her. The Erudite don't have cameras in the factionless district. An arrogant oversight.

Today I'm finally allowed out of bed. Just sitting up and swinging my legs over the side of the bed sends waves of nausea through me, and it takes several seconds and a couple of deep breaths before I am able to contemplate trying to stand. My mother – Evelyn just stands in the corner watching me, her lips pursed, and her arms crossed over her chest. She doesn't offer me help, but I don't want it. I will myself up, like I've done so many times before.

Over the past few days, I've gotten more affection from her than I got in in the nine years before she left me. Now that I'm on my feet, again though, it seems she has once again reverted. I wonder briefly which is the real Evelyn, but I quickly force the thought out of my mind. I don't need affection. I do need her protection, though, at least until I'm strong again. I choose my words carefully.

"Have you had any contact with Erudite or Dauntless?" I ask her.

She smiles wryly. "They don't even acknowledge our existence."

"I thought you had operatives..." She had told me that's how she learned that I was being held by Erudite – and that Tris had led me there.

She hesitates, as if trying to decide how much to tell me. "Eric hasn't returned to Dauntless. He fed them aggression serum – that's why they were so brutal to the Abnegation. Not that they didn't have it coming."

I look away, knowing no response I would give to this would please her. She continues. "They're scrambling now, trying to figure out what happened, but they have no idea it was Eric or the Erudite. They think he died a hero's death."

"And Marcus?" I ask.

Her eyes narrow. "Why do you care? You always said he was a monster."

I shrug. "Just trying to figure out what's going on."

"He's still being held by Erudite. But he knows nothing." She waves her hand dismissively.

"I never thanked you for getting me out of there."

A look of satisfaction crosses her face. "You're my son, Tobias."

"I'd like to thank them personally – the men you sent. Are they here now?" It's true that I want to thank them, but I have another reason for wanting to see them. A couple of times, the dream has continued on past the point where Tris leaves me. I go through Eric and Jeanine torturing me, once again. After that, I can feel someone carrying me on their shoulders - but it's Zeke. I'm sure of it. Then I'm in a huge room with rows and rows of bookshelves, and Tris is looking down at me. I want to ask them how they got me out of Erudite, so I can understand how much of the dream is real. Maybe if I figure it all out the dreams will stop.

She looks surprised. "They're my best men – they're out on patrol."

"When do you expect them back?"

"I'll let you know," she snaps, irritably.

"Do you think your people could find out what happened to Tris?"

I sense immediately I shouldn't have mentioned Tris. I can almost smell the anger emanating from her. "I promise when we capture her I'll let you watch."

I shake my head. "I don't know for sure that she knew what Jeanine was planning."

"Don't be so naïve. You still think you met her by accident?"

My mind flits back to the Ferris wheel. She knew who I was. And then I remember everything else. It was so real. I feel my chest contract again. Strangely, the thought of never seeing her again is worse even than the thought of her having betrayed me.

"Maybe."

My mother is incredulous. "You almost died. And still - you would forgive her. Unbelievable." She's shaking her head now. "If you were one of us, you'd have learned not to be so stupid."

Now she's the Evelyn I remember. I briefly consider telling her that, in fact, I am one of them – a Divergent. Something holds me back, though. If Evelyn knew about Tris' Divergence, would she let her come here? It's not my secret to tell, though, and I know Tris is safer in Erudite. I know she'd be better off if she'd never met me, but I still can't regret climbing that Ferris wheel, and saving her. I need to concentrate on the here and now, though. I know Evelyn will only protect me for as long as she thinks I'm useful. I need to show her I can be useful.

"I'm a good fighter. I could help you."

"True." She smiles now, but not kindly. "Who would have thought that scrawny little boy would end up Dauntless?

"I had to get away from Marcus."

"When you got here, I had them sequence your entire genome. Twice."

"Why?"

"I thought maybe I'd been wrong, that you were one of us."

"And..?"

"I wasn't wrong. My geneticists tell me you're a phenocopy. You're not truly Dauntless, but your environment made you appear so. How did you survive initiation? It must have been terrifying."

I know her question is motivated by detached curiosity, rather than concern. Until that cell in Erudite, I had managed to convince myself that I could become Dauntless, by sheer force of will. As I lay dying though, I realized that was all a fantasy. Even so, I don't like hearing how obvious it is, even to an observer. I forget myself for a moment, and clench my teeth.

"I was used to getting beat."

If she picks up on the accusation, she doesn't let on. "And why did they call you Four?"

"I had only four fears. It was a record."

She eyes me up and down. "Fascinating."

I'm done with this conversation, I'm bound to say something else that will anger her and I want to get a look around the compound. "Can I go for a walk?"

"I'll get someone here to escort you." She walks toward the communications panel on the wall, but then stops and turns around. "I almost forgot. The night my men brought you here, you were near a warehouse. You'd been seen near there before." She pauses now, waiting for me to confirm it, but I won't. She continues. "The day we got you out of Erudite, we found two bodies there. They were Abnegation. Do you know anything about?"

I don't want her to know who Tris really is, and there is no other way to explain why I would have helped the Priors. I shrug. "No. Who were they? Did you recognize them?"

She shakes her head, "No, I didn't."

Even knowing her as I do, I'm shocked how easily and how well she lies. Natalie Prior had been her best friend. What reason would she have for lying? I grope for something to say. "Maybe they weren't really Abnegation – maybe they were the ones who planted the bomb in Dauntless."

"Perhaps…" With that she turns back to the panel. "Send Jeremy down to show Tobias around."

"Why do I need an escort?" I know it's because she doesn't trust me, but I'm curious to see if she will admit it.

"I don't want you to get lost, and you're still getting your strength back."

I nod. I hear footsteps and soon a young man about my age enters the room.

"Yes, Evelyn?"

"I need you to show Tobias around. Bring him to the cafeteria for lunch when you're done."

"Yes, Evelyn." She turns and leaves, not bothering to say goodbye.

"You must be Jeremy?" He's blond, a bit shorter than me, but stockier, like Zeke. Like most of the factionless, he's dressed in rags, but I notice his boots are new. I wonder where they came from.

"Yeah. You're Tobias?"

"Call me Four."

At this, he look uncomfortable. "Uh, Evelyn told us we're supposed to call you Tobias – she said she doesn't want you to be confused."

It's clear he won't disobey my mother's orders, so I let it go. "OK – no problem."

"So, what do you want to see?"

"Everything."

Again, discomfort. "I'm not supposed to let you get too tired."

"Ok, well back in Dauntless, my job was to monitor the surveillance cameras. Do you have something like that here?"

"Sure, it's up in command. I guess I can show you a little bit of what's there."

He leads me down a long hallway past at least a dozen hospital rooms.

"Why do you have such a big hospital?" I ask.

Jeremy shrugs. "You never know when you might need it."

"When was it built?"

"As soon as Evelyn took over, we started building the hospital and the school. She's saved us all – before she came, we were starving – at the mercy of the Abnegation. Now we're like any another faction. We have food, clothes, security – everything."

"Is your family here as well?"

"You could say so. My original family brought me here when I was three and left me. They were Candor, and probably knew I'd be discovered, sooner or later."

"You've never been curious about them?"

"No, not really."

We step onto an elevator and he presses the button for the twentieth floor. Like everything I've seen so far, the elevator looks new and sophisticated – nothing like the exterior of the building. How have they been able to build all this?

"Where did all of this come from?" I ask.

"We have people embedded in each of the other factions. They keep us informed about what they're up to, and they also divert supplies and resources to us. We're pretty good at covering our tracks."

"You could stay hidden forever, then, huh?"

Jeremy regards me carefully for a moment. "Uh, yeah, definitely."

The elevator comes to a stop and he exits first, I follow. He gestures to the right. "That's command down there, but it's off limits." Instead, we walk to the left. Soon, he points to a door marked 'Cameras'.

"Do you think I could take a look inside? Just for a minute? I'm curious to see if it's similar to the Dauntless setup."

"Hold on, my bunkmate works here – I'll see if he's on duty." He taps quietly on the door, and another young man, about the same age as us, answers. "Hey, David. This is Tobias, mind if he takes a look at your setup?"

"Sure, OK – Stephanie's not here." He steps back and allows us to enter. There is an entire wall that shows views of the factionless compound. I quickly try to memorize all the locations, to get a sense of the layout. There are views of the exterior, including the front door, and at least twenty interior cameras. I abandon this though, when the labels for the monitors on another wall catch my eye. Erudite. My breath catches, but I try to stay calm.

David and Jeremy are behind me, now. "So, Tobias – what are you looking for?"

I'm peering at the Erudite screens now, looking for signs of Tris. There are only a few views, though. One looks like a large cafeteria, with wooden tables, and another appears to be some kind of atrium.

"I was looking for the cell they kept me in, but it's not here."

"Yeah, we only have a few cameras in Erudite, and I hear it wasn't easy getting them there."

Jeremy interjects. "I hear they tortured you?"

"Yeah." I don't want to talk about it, though. I turn back to David. "Is this all real-time, or do you store the video?"

"What you see is all real-time, but we store all the video for analysis on a separate mainframe that's only accessible from this room."

The door swings open just at that moment, and Evelyn enters. "Tobias, what are you doing here?"

I'm hoping I haven't gotten Jeremy or David in trouble. I this goes south, I won't get any more information out of them. Then I remember something Tris had told me about the Erudite always accepting curiosity without question. "I was wondering if your setup was like Dauntless. I thought I could help you."

Her eyes narrow. "That won't be necessary. I have another job in mind for you. An important one."

A/N: Thanks for reading and I welcome any comments or suggestions. Updates are going to be a lot slower for this book, as work has really picked up, but I will try to do at least a chapter a week. It's only fair to warn you that there's some stuff that needs to happen for both Tris and Four before they can be together again. I promise to do my best to keep it interesting until then, though.