Okay Divergenters...the divergent part of Switched has officially ended! IMPORTANT! There will be two sequels, which is Insurgent and Allegiant. But due to the stupidity of only being able to have 10 stories per fandom, both sequels will still be under this story!
So Chapter 24, which is Insurgent chp 1, should be posted in at least two weeks because I am posting a brand new story soon.
I just want to thank all of you so much! I joined this site thinking that no one would actually even read my stories, and now I'm here with so many readers! Please help me get to 500 reviews and 300 followers! You are all amazing!
This story will continue Tris's POV until Swapped, or Allegiant, because that has both Tobias and Tris's POV.
UGH POOR NEYMAR WITH HIS BACK INJURY! :( WorldCup. But he's not giving up his dream! Well, I hope.
Introducing, The End of Divergent!
And for Unpredictable Futures.
Chapter XXIII. Unpredictable Futures
TRIS
"No," I say firmly and coldly. My voice is trembling, but I still sound deadly. "I would rather die."
"I'm afraid you don't have much of a choice in the matter," Jeanine says lightly.
Something snaps inside of me.
She can hold me hostage, but she will never take away my will, let alone Tobias's.
Never.
I swore I would keep Tobias safe and happy, no matter what the cost, and I'm not about to break that promise.
I kiss Tobias roughly, letting it say all the words I can't, and jump across the desk and grab Jeanine's throat.
The guards by the door grab me and shove me against the floor.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Tobias lunging at me, but he gets slammed against the wall.
He lets out a wail; one of Jeanine's guards is putting pressure on his bullet wound, and a little piece of me dies inside, knowing I'm the reason he's in pain.
I see Jeanine coming toward me with a large needle, and in a last escape attempt, I elbow the guard to my right in the face.
He takes the blow, but just as quickly hits me in the head with his gun. I feel a needle in my neck; Tobias screams bloody murder, and I fall unconscious.
-o0o-
When I come back, everything is so vivid. The lights are too bright, and I have mixed emotions about everyone in the room. I look for a familiar face, and when I think I find one, a blurry memory runs through my brain of him hitting me.
I am very confused by this. There's no way he would do that to me.
"TRIS! BEATRICE!" the boy screams.
Every inch of my body is screaming at me to kill him.
"She doesn't know you," Jeanine says.
Suddenly, and I can't stop it, my body lunges forward, and my hands are wrapped around the boy's throat.
"The simulation manipulates him by altering what he sees; making him confuse enemy with friend."
What?
The boy looks at me, his dark blue eyes filling with unspeakable pain. Those eyes…I swear I have seen them before. They fill me with an unexplainable comforting sensation, and part of me wants to comfort his pain.
But why? Why is he so sad that I tried to hurt him? He tried to kill me.
Right?
One of the familiar-looking guards pulls me off of him, and drags me out of the room. Once we are in the hallway, I feel an elbow hit the back of my head, and I pass out.
-o0o-
When I wake up, I am in a room filled with blinking computers with lines of mixed numbers and letters that mean nothing to me.
I close my eyes, trying to remember something, anything of what happened to me.
Don't let anyone touch the computers. Kill anyone who comes in here, a feminine voice commands in my head. I don't know whom or what it is, but I feel my muscles tense, obeying the intimidating voice. My legs move me towards a chair facing the door, and I sit down. My whole body is tensed, ready to attack any living thing. I'm not sure why I am doing this.
My twitchy eyes force me to stare at the large screen, which displays multiple ones with different things happening in them.
Cameras.
As much as I will my body to get up, it ends up obeying that strange voice ringing in my head.
So I stare at the screen instead, waiting.
-o0o-
After a couple of hours, the boy wakes up. Why they just don't kill him in his sleep, I don't know.
I'm fine with watching, as long as he dies. I almost died from him, I want to see him suffer.
Right?
It's hard to tell where he is in the building complex, since the security camera labels have been removed, but I look closer and see that he is in a thick glass tank in a concrete room.
As soon as he realized he's in a tank, he begins to panic.
And by panic, full on panic. His entire body trembles, his dark blue eyes dart around rapidly; it's almost like this is one of his worst nightmares.
The memory pierces through my brain so hard I nearly fall out of the chair.
He breathes heavily and stares at his friends and enemies, the two groups joining together and laughing at him. The water level begins to rise as he breathes in quick, short pants; desperate for air. A girl is next to him. She looks just like me. She breathes as heavily as him and comforts him. She, I mean, I, say, "We have to go down." He nods. We hold hands and go under the water.
The simulation is all in your head.
All in your head.
Why was I so scared for him? Was I…was I his friend?
That would explain why I was with him in his fear landscape.
He slams his heel at the wall, over and over until he is screaming in pain. It kills me inside. I don't even know why. It shouldn't hurt.
But it just does.
He sighs heavily and stops ramming at the walls, surrendering his attempts of breaking out.
Or just accepting that he has no chance.
I'm not sure which one it is.
The water level begins to reach his thighs.
He looks sad and stares right at the camera. Right at me.
And then he closes his eyes, looks away, and then breathes one last breath, and submerges under the water.
Then in the corner of the camera screen, is a woman, who stands cloaked in Abnegation grey with bits of red everywhere; blood.
I look closer and recognize her.
Natalie Prior.
She takes a gun out from her holster and shoots at the glass with a bang, and water squirts out from everywhere.
He steps out, taking in every possible breath of fresh air.
"Tobias. Tobias, we have to run," she says. How does she know this Tobias?
Heck, how does my brain kept registering that I know this mystery Tobias?
They run out of the room labeled 'B13', and I avert my eyes at the hallway camera screen.
She shoots at two guards who stand by the hallway door.
"Mom," Tobias says. So that's how they know each other, this Tobias folk was Abnegation. "You were Dauntless."
"Yes. And it has served me well today. Your father and Caleb and a few others are hiding in a basement at the intersection of North and Fairfield. We have to go get them." Natalie's voice is soft and caring; a motherly voice. "There will be time for questions, but for now, we must go."
Tobias takes a gun from her and they take off towards the said basement.
I click on a different screen and I see the two figures, paused in the basement of the Abnegation government building.
"How did you know where to find me?" Tobias asks.
"I've been watching the trains since the attacks started. I didn't know what I would do when I found you, but it was always my intention to save you." Natalie's voice sounds completely candid. I smile inwardly.
I wonder what it's like to have a motherly figure in your life.
"B-But I betrayed you," Tobias stammers. "I left you."
"You're my son. I don't care about factions, and that stupid 'Faction before Blood' rule. Look where they got us. Human beings as a whole cannot be good for long before the bad creeps in and just poisons us again."
Natalie is definitely correct. I mean, her son, who seems like a decent and kind enough person, tried to kill me.
"Mom, how do you know about Divergence? What is it? Why…" Tobias's voice trails off.
Looking down at his gun in sadness, Natalie says, "I know about them because I am one. I was only safe because my mother was a Dauntless leader. On Choosing Day, she told me to leave my own faction and find a safer one. I chose Abnegation, but I wanted you to be able to make your own choice.
A part of me believes it, but the rest of me says, Lies, my inner voice says, it's nothing but a lie.
"I don't understand why we're such a threat to the leaders," Tobias says, lost in thought.
I tune out their conversation as various words echo throughout my mind.
"Becoming fearless isn't the point. It's learning how to control your fear, and how to be free from it."
"I have a theory that selflessness and bravery aren't all that different; Abnegation and Dauntless aren't that much different."
"I want to be brave, and selfless, and smart, and honest, and kind."
"I might be in love with you."
The final line repeats itself in my brain over and over again. Who said that?
Did I say that?
Who was I speaking to?
"Four and Six…"
Four and Six.
The bang of a gunshot snaps me out of my thoughts. I look at a different screen and see Natalie Prior go stiff, and then falls, painted in red. Tobias holds her and cries, then kisses her forehead and blends in with the shadows when Dauntless guards run past.
-o0o-
I've been watching Tobias Prior run down corridors and escape Dauntless guards, and I get bored sooner or later trying to figure out the mysterious boy. I switch the computer screen displaying different camera feeds into a strange coded mechanism, and attempt to begin decoding.
Every half hour, I check my gun in my holster. Loaded. Then continue figuring out the mechanism.
My eyes start to hurt after several hours. I give in and close my bleary eyes, and try to drift into a deep slumber.
Suddenly, the door opens. I hear one voice, and one voice alone. "Tris," it says.
Is that my name?
I stand up.
Kill him! The voice screams, and I feel my arms raise a gun.
"Drop your weapon." The monotone words come out of my mouth, but I don't remember thinking them.
"Tris," he says, "You're in a simulation."
"Drop your weapon," I repeat. "Or I'll fire."
He slowly lowers his gun to his feet.
"Drop your weapon!" I hear myself scream again. But he already had. Why do I want to hurt him?
He is the enemy, the commanding voice tells me.
"I did," he says calmly, but he is shaking.
Suddenly he runs forward and grabs my wrists.
My finger pulls the trigger, but it misses his head by a few inches.
He kicks me in the side and twists my wrists, forcing the gun from my hands.
He reaches out for it, the voice controlling screams, hurt him! It forces my body to grab him and throw him against the wall. I stare at him.
Why is he so familiar? I don't want to hurt him.
Kill him, the voice hisses again. I feel my arm go back and make contact with his throat. His arm blocks some of the force, and he returns my punch with a hard kick to my stomach. I catch his foot and throw him against the wall again. This time he falls, and my arm reaches out and grabs him by the throat, forcing him up against the wall, and he grabs my wrist.
"Tris," he croaks.
When he says that name, an image of me kissing him by the chasm pops into my head. My grip on his throat loosens, and a look of hope flashes into his dark blue eyes.
"Tris, I know you're in there somewhere," he says.
Kill him now, the voice orders again, kill him. I start to move towards him.
"Tris, please. Please see me," he says; tears begin forming in his eyes. "Please see me, Tris, please!" he begs. He holds the gun up to my head.
He looks at me with pleading eyes, and places something in my hands.
My gun.
Without thinking, I place it to his head and click the bullet into its chamber.
My heart stops for some reason.
No, this is second nature to you, the voice commands, and my muscles relax a little, but not all the way.
Standing here, with the bullet in place, absolutely terrifies me.
A part of my mind knows that the serum will never be able to beat this out, because it is a deep-rooted fear that cannot be fixed.
A memory of the boy seeing this fear, along with my others, enters my mind. I trust him completely. But do I really?
No you do not; kill her! The voice screeches, pulsing in my head.
The muscles in my arms don't move.
I can't shoot him.
The shot doesn't come.
"Tris, it's me," he says quietly, and steps forward, wrapping his arms around me.
My body tenses, instinct telling me to rip his throat out, but my head telling me to hug him back.
The two sides are at war in my head.
But then one of the sides has declared victory.
I will always choose this boy; I will always choose Tobias.
Suddenly, the voice controlling my body is gone.
My body starts to shake.
"Tobias," I confirm. Before he can reply, I press my mouth against his. He wraps his arms around me and lifts me up. I feel him smile into the kiss. Words cannot describe how thankful I am right now. He places me down and I trace every crevice on his face just to be sure he's real. I start to cry, something I rarely do.
He saved me…again.
I lean against his chest and he tears up as well.
We stand there for I don't know how long, just holding each other.
"How did you do it?" he finally asks, my face still in his shirt.
"I don't know," I reply, my face never leaving his shirt and his lips placed on my head. "I just…heard your voice."
He pulls back and stares at me. I look at his bruised face, and want to hurt myself for doing that to him.
"Was I running the simulation?" I ask.
"I don't know if you were running it so much as monitoring it," he tells me. "It's already complete. I have no idea how but Jeanine made it so it could work on its own.
I shake my head. The power that was so wrong; that could have done so much good but was used with cruel intentions.
"It's incredible," I mumble. "Terrible, evil…but incredible."
Tobias moves his eyes to the side, and his eyes widen. "Tris, now!" he says.
I don't have to ask what he means; I walk and sit down, working on the computer, typing away the code Jeanine has set up.
I struggle slightly. "Tobias, can you help? You're the one who works at the control room, I decoded this but I can't hack into it."
He nods and sits down. I stand next to him. "Damn she's good…but not as good as me." He types away when a gunshot goes off somewhere.
"Tobias," I say, a tone of urgency in my voice.
"One last line…" he responds, presses the last button, and the program is down.
"I have to get the data, or they'll just start the program again," He explains as he types away again. "I'll delete what I can find, and it's easily enough to break up the program." He burns it and takes out the hard drive. "Got it," he says, and hold up the drive triumphantly.
"We have to leave," I say, pointing at a screen.
"Yes, we do," he says, and places an arm around me protectively. "Come on."
As we near the elevator, Tobias's eyes flicker to a pile of black-clothed bodies. They all surround a corpse dressed in grey.
Tobias tears up, and crouches next to him, brushing his hair back.
I recognize the man as Andrew Prior.
Few seconds later, we run.
Then we find a boy who looks like a carbon copy of Tobias except with less muscles and emerald green eyes surrounded by dimples; like Will.
Tobias man-hugs the boy, who I recognize as Caleb.
"Dad?" he asks. I frown even more.
Tobias shakes his head sadly, tears starting to well up in his eyes.
"Well," Caleb says, choking on the word, "he would have wanted it that way."
I see a face that also made initiation quite miserable, but without him, Tobias would have never taken me to his room.
Peter.
Then I feel a déjà vu moment; one of my fourth and final fear.
I freeze when I see him.
"My daughter," my father, who's never been one, sighs. He places a hand on my shoulder.
I feel a shudder go through my body, but I don't move.
Painful memories pierce my brain life a knife, and I stare into those lifeless eyes that haunt me every second.
I breathe heavily and tears prick at the edges of my eyes.
"Hey!" Tobias shouts protectively, stepping away from his brother. He shakes his wrist subconsciously, and I feel a huge wave of guilt crash over me. He steps between us, pushing Marcus away. "Hey. Get away from her." He growls.
A single tear escapes my eye.
"Stay away," he hisses.
"Tobias, what are you doing?" Caleb's brow furrows in confusion.
"Tobias," I whisper. I want to just say, don't get in the way, I don't want you to get hurt by him, but I just can't.
In all those times that I have just wanted to stand up to Marcus; I just can't now.
"Not all those Erudite articles were full of lies," he says bitterly.
"What are you talking about?" Marcus says quietly, and I flinch at his intimidating tone. "I don't know what you've been told, Tobias, but-"
"The only reason I haven't shot you yet is because she's the one who should get to do it," he says angrily. I can't help but admire him for standing up to him.
He is the bravest and most handsome person I have ever seen.
"Stay away from her or I'll decide that I no longer care." He threatens.
I squeeze his arm and avoid eye contact with Marcus. "We have to go," I say unsteadily. "The train should be here any second."
We run towards the train. I see guilt flashing in his enchanting dark blue eyes that I always seem to get lost in as we wait for the next train car.
"Sorry," he whispers, looking down.
"You have nothing to be sorry for," I tell her, and intertwine our fingers. I am amazed by how willing she was to stand up to Marcus like that, to protect me. My fingers still shake from the encounter.
"If we take the train in the opposite direction, out of the city instead of in, we can get to Amity headquarters," he says. "That's where the others went."
"What about Candor? What do you think they'll do?" Caleb's voice is as ever-curious as the Erudite. It's hard to believe that he was ever an Abnegation.
Tobias picks me up, bridal style, and holds me in his comforting arms. I close my eyes just to rest them.
I hear a train screech and Tobias nudges me gently and sets me down on the pavement. I smile gratefully at him, and hurl myself onto the train.
Marcus goes next, and I freeze when he sits next to me.
Tobias comes to the rescue and sits between us, and pulls me closely against him and we move over and lean against the train car wall.
Caleb is sitting across from us, studying me. I don't really care about him; what I care about is protecting myself from Marcus and Peter, who are a mere ten feet away, which is too close for comfort. Tobias pulls me in so our foreheads are touching.
Ever since I woke up from the simulation, I had to be in contact with him in some physical way.
I need this closeness.
"My parents," he says quietly, "They died today. They died for me."
"They loved you," I whisper into his ear, leaning my head softly against his chest. "To them, there was no better way to show you." He nods in response.
His eyes skim my face.
"You nearly died today," I point out. "I almost shot you. Why didn't you shoot me, Tobias?" Guilt pricks at my skin.
"I couldn't do that," he replies quickly. "It would have been like shooting myself."
I feel tears begin to well up, but I blink them away before anyone notices.
Any doubts about what I have to say next all fade away with his last sentence. I lean in close, close enough so only we can hear my next words.
"I have something to tell you," I whisper into his ear. He runs his fingers over my arm and looks down at me, waiting for whatever it is I have to say.
"I might be in love with you," I say lightly, and smile a little, earning three severely quizzical looks. "I'm waiting until I'm sure to tell you, though."
I feel the eyes of Marcus, Peter, and Caleb trained on me, but I don't care.
"That's sensible of you," he says, and laughs softly. "We should find you some paper so you can make a list or a chart or something." I laugh a little.
I slide my nose softly along his jaw, pressing my lips behind his ear. I feel his warm breath slightly falter.
"Maybe I'm already sure and I just don't want to frighten you," I mutter against his neck.
"Then you should know better," he says, laughing. I draw back and look at him in the eyes.
"Fine," I whisper. "Then I love you."
"I love you too." He replies.
I can almost feel the sarcastic remarks forming on Peter's lips, the scoff ready to escape Marcus's jaw, but I can tell he's angry about that, and the gasp about to leave Caleb's mouth. But they don't.
He kisses me full on the lips, and I embrace every last second of this moment. I can feel the thick tension that could be cut with a knife from our three viewers, but I don't care.
For just one moment, Tobias Prior is all mine, and I don't care what anyone has to say.
He breaks apart and wraps his arms around me as the train carries us into our unknown and unpredictable future.
Through all that we've been through, I am only certain of two things: that we can trust no one now, and that Tobias is my world; if he dies, I will shortly follow him. Everything I do, everything I choose is because of him. I will do anything and everything to make sure he stays safe. I'm not sure what life we will have, but I know it will be together.
Together as Four and Six.
*SOBS* OMG GUYS YOU R ALL SO AMAZING AND I JUST WANT TO THANK ALL OF YOU, BUT THAT WOULD TAKE UP MORE THAN THIS 4200 WORD CHAPTER. SO THANKS SO MUCH ALL OF YOU! THANKS FOR SUPPORTING ME, AND PLEASE CONTINUE TO BY HELPING ME GET 500 REVIEWS AND 300 FOLLOWERS! IT WOULD MEAN THE WORLD TO ME!
ILYASFM!
~TrissyPoo