Hello again, my lovelies! Here's the next one-shot. Be sure to follow, favorite, and/or review! - Loopy
"Tobias Eaton. I don't know why it doesn't surprise me to see you here." Jeanine's voice stings almost as much as my guard's attacks. My head throbs; my throat burns.
I look up at her and spit, not willing to humor her by weakly responding. Although it's kind of pointless now, since I came here to die with Tris, as far as Jeanine knows. Though I doubt she buys that.
I was placed here to plan for our attack, or at least that's what I told Evelyn. We were going to send another insider, but I made them speed up the timeframe so I could save Tris.
My mother wasn't particularly thrilled, but she knew how broken I'd be without Tris, whether she liked that or not, and a broken soldier is useless in a war. So she agreed.
"Tobias, I would like to know the location of the factionless safe houses."
A harsh laugh pushes past my cut lips. "You can punch me as much as you'd like. I'm not telling you anything," I snap at her. The smile she gives me sends chills down my spine.
"I figured that much. So I have an idea," she informs me. "Follow me."
My escorts grip my arms with bruising force, leading me down hall after brightened hall, my legs barely carrying me, my back burning every time I bend, until we reach a room.
The first thing I notice is the metal table in front. "What is this?" I demand. And then I see her.
Her skin is paler, her body weaker. The fire in her eyes has been reduced to only a single ember, barely kindled through defeat. There aren't many physical injuries, as far as I can tell, but she looks drained, like she's already given up.
I think it would have hurt me less to see her with bruises instead.
Even so, I can feel her warmth, that beautiful warmth only I am accustomed to, from across the room. "Tris." Just saying her name, hearing it and feeling it push past my lips, gives me strength. I rush toward her only to have my body yanked back, inflaming my aching wounds.
Her eyes lock on mine. "Tris, are you okay?" And even though she says she is, I don't believe her. Judging by the look she gives me when I nod to her, she doesn't believe me either.
We are both broken in different ways: she is mentally shattered while I am physically. Two parts of the same destructive whole. We are one.
"Rather than waste any more time, Mr. Eaton, I thought I would take a more logical approach. Truth serum would be preferable, of course, but it would take days to coerce Jack Kang into handing some over, as it is jealously guarded by the Candor, and I'd rather not waste a few days." I don't really know what Jeanine is talking about until she steps toward Tris with a syringe. My hands ball into fists.
"In a few seconds, I will inject Tris with this liquid. At that point, I trust, your selfless instincts will take over and you will tell me exactly what I need to know."
This is sick. Because of my stubbornness, Jeanine will go to my already dying girlfriend and inject her with something just to get me talk. And she's wearing a smile, like she enjoys torturing other people.
"What does she need to know?" I hear Tris's voice, almost strong, still curious. But I'm afraid if I look at her, my body will take over and I will do something stupid, something that will get her into more trouble. So I keep my eyes locked on Jeanine, watching her every move as I answer Tris.
"Information about the factionless safe houses." The factionless are the only ones big enough to have a large impact in this war right now, and giving Jeanine this information would place a death sentence on their heads if they haven't made it to the Abnegation sector yet. I can't give in.
But I may have to if Tris gets too hurt. Even as I think it, I don't believe Jeanine will try to hurt Tris physically. She's going to want to crush her spirit, the one thing it would kill me to see get destroyed. We'll see how far this goes.
"Don't give it to her. I'm going to die anyway. Don't give her anything." Tris pleads with me, and I want to tell her she's not going to die, I'm going to get her out of this. But I can't say anything with Jeanine in front of us, so she'll have to continue to believe she will die, for now.
"Remind me, Mr. Eaton," Jeanine says. She is only calling me that to connect me to my father, because I hate that. "What do Dauntless simulations do?"
I grit my teeth. She has tortured me, tortured Tris and sentenced her to death, and she can stand there and quiz me like I'm her student, her pupil. "This isn't a classroom. Tell me what you're going to do." Tell me Tris will survive this serum, tell me her death, her suffering won't be my fault. Even though I know it is.
"I will if you answer my very simple question." Jeanine watches me expectantly.
I know it's stupid to refuse to answer when I want her to answer my question. But I don't want to explain it to her like her student in the way I did for the initiates; I don't want to give her that satisfaction. So my eyes move to Tris as I respond. "Fine." My stare intensifies as I draw strength from her remaining fire. "The simulations stimulate the amygdala, which is responsible for processing fear, induce a hallucination based on that fear, and then transmit the data to a computer to be processed and observed."
Jeanine still looks satisfied. "Very good. When I was developing the Dauntless simulations, years ago, we discovered that certain levels of potency overwhelmed the brain and made it too insensible with terror to invent new surroundings, which was when we diluted the solution so that the simulations would be more instructive. But I still remember how to make it."
My stomach drops as she taps the syringe. "Fear is more powerful than pain. So is there anything you'd like to say, before I inject Ms. Prior?"
Tris is strong, has always been, ever since initiation. She can get through this. I have to try to stand it, because that information is vital for our win in the war. But even though Tris is strong, I remember the way she reacted to her first simulation. Still, all I do is squeeze my lips together to stop myself from responding as Jeanine presses the needle to Tris's neck.
My nails dig into my palms from clenching my fists for so long, but all I can do is watch as Tris's breathing starts to come in sharp bursts and she starts screaming.
Like her simulations, her scream is blind terror, and it eats away at me. Her body starts to thrash and her screams come louder and I'm straining against my guards' arms and tears are starting to streak her cheeks, but that pales in comparison when the screams start to take form as words. One word. My name.
Screams of my own pierce through my already burning throat because she's in pain and I'm somehow involved in what she sees and this is my fault and every time my name tears from her mouth, I feel my heart tear with it. She needs help and I can't help her and I want this to end.
"Stop!" I scream at Jeanine now, barely noticing the stinging of the hands on my arms. "Please! Just stop this!"
"Sedative," she says, and another Erudite stabs Tris. Her body starts to calm down until all I can hear are the sobs escaping her mouth. An overwhelming burst of pain and longing and anger comes over me, and I break at the sounds she emits.
"Let me go." My voice sounds worse than it did before, and Tris turns to look at me, blinking through her tears. Even though the serum isn't pulsing through her anymore, I know I have to give Jeanine what she wants if I don't want her to do that to Tris again. "That's the only way I'll tell you, is if you let me go."
The guards release me and I rush toward Tris, wrapping my hand around hers and pressing my forehead to hers. My other hand becomes damp from her tears, but I don't care. I want to keep her with me, want to keep her warmth on my skin, her breaths on my cheek. I don't trust myself to say anything to her, afraid I will let something important slip, and so I just revel in our closeness, dreading the moment I'll have to let go. "The factionless safe houses. Get me a map and I'll mark them for you."
It'll be problematic later on, to have Jeanine know that information, but at the moment I can only think about Tris's safety. I don't want to ever feel that helpless around her again. I don't know if I can take it.
We keep our hands locked as the guards drag me away, our fingers entwined until the last second, when I am wrenched from her fire, her strength.
And even though I am about to give them vital information, I don't regret anything except maybe putting the most important person in my life through that kind of Hell. We'll get through the war with Jeanine knowing the factionless locations, and we'll all be safe. And Tris will be in my arms once again.
It's not a very realistic thing to think, especially with the way things are going right now, but it calms me down. She calms me down. I really hope we can make it through two weeks.