*So I was kind of really sad with the lack of reviews for the chapter I put up earlier today...we couldn't even get TEN reviews :( BUT. This is the longest chapter yet! It's just over eleven pages in total and three thousand words! YAY! Oh, and just for the record, his chapter follows very closely the book. I did add and subtract and change some things, but for the most part it is VERY similar.*
Chapter 24
Tris POV
Her chest burned. Her eyes felt heavy, and every breath was labored. Slowly, Tris fought to open her eyes. There was a bright light shining over her head, swinging slowly. It hurt her head. She slowly turned her head from side to side, and she saw that she was in a glass box. When she tried to move her arms, she discovered they were bound by leather straps. She was in a new shirt, this one baggy. Her legs were bound as well. Tris fought listlessly against the straps binding her, but it was no use. She was stuck. And her body was too weak to fight.
Jeanine came into the room her glass box was in, Eric behind her. They smirked at her, seemingly pleased at the turn of events.
Tris tried her voice out. It was raspy and weak. "You must be loving this Eric. You'll finally get your apartment."
Eric ground his teeth, and was about to respond when Jeanine put her hand up to silence him. She spoke in a calm and calculated voice.
"Tris, you're quite weak. Would you like us to remove those restraints so you're a little more comfortable?"
She narrowed her eyes. "What are you getting at, Jeanine?"
Jeanine shrugged. "I would just like you to be a little more comfortable. You were putting up quite a fight last night when our doctors were trying to fix you up. You seem much calmer now."
"Where am I, Jeanine? What have you done to me?" Tris asked after an elongated silence.
Jeanine laughed lightly. "Dear, we fixed your bullet wound. It was foolish of you to try and kill me when you knew that there were multiple soldiers as well as Eric who had their weapons pointed at you. We simply stitched you up."
Eric rolled his eyes. "Four was so annoying. Took care of that."
Tris' eyes went wide. "Where is he? Did you kill him? What have you done to him, Eric! I swear to God—"
"Calm down, Tris. Please. Four is quite alright. Not that you'll be seeing him again." Jeanine turned to Eric. "Unhook her. It's time to get on with it."
Eric nodded and went over to the glass box. There was a sealed door, that he unlocked. He stepped inside, and while he unhooked her, she saw a knife sitting in his belt. Instead of fighting, when he unhooked her legs, she reached over and gently took the knife out of Eric's pants. She couldn't be sure what of her weapons she still had on her.
Eric turned back to Tris and grinned evilly. "Surprised you didn't try and murder me."
Tris shrugged. "Not much worth living for right now. And I'm not sure I could win if I tried to fight you right now. What with my bullet wound, and all. Thanks for that by the way."
Eric laughed and left the glass box, locking it again. "Heard you like water."
Tris furrowed her eyebrows. "What?"
"Have fun." Eric flipped a switch, and suddenly the box was filling with water.
Jeanine and Eric turned and left the room without another word. The water was at her ankles. Tris took a deep breath and tried not to panic. She could do this.
But this wasn't a simulation. This was real life. She couldn't just kick and pound and tap at the glass and have it shatter just because she was being resourceful and calm. Tris was stuck, and Jeanine was right.
She was never going to see Tobias again.
Tris sat down on the bed that still remained, and cried. The water reached where her feet were dangling on the bed. What did it really matter if she died anyway?
And then she remembered. Her boots. Tris reached into her boots and found her knife and her gun. Thank God Tobias had taught her how to hide weapons. She prayed to God this wouldn't backfire on her. Quite literally.
Tris aimed for anything that was glass. She closed her eyes and shot. The noise was so loud because it had been contained to the glass, but then there was a shattering. Water came spilling out and Tris was free. She laughed in relief. She wasn't going to die. Quickly, Tris ran to a window to try and find out where she was. She looked out and saw Dauntless surroundings. She was still here.
She turned around and headed for the door. It was locked. Tris pulled her knife out and quickly jimmied the lock open so that she wouldn't waste any bullets on the door. It would have been faster, easier, but his was more strategic. Tris quickly remembered this area as the Dauntless hospital. The goal was to get back to the control room and figure out what was going on. Like Tobias had originally planned on.
It's what he would have wanted.
She began moving quickly through the Dauntless compound, and when she got to the Chasm, she saw Peter standing guard.
"Stiff. What are you doing here? You should be—"
"What? Out murdering my own family?" Tris snapped at him. They both had guns pointed at each other. "Why aren't you a drone?"
"Why aren't you?"
"I asked you first."
Peter rolled his eyes. "They let me stay lucid. They needed people here who could discern between leaders and threats. Like you. Aren't you supposed to be dead? Jeanine was sure that you wouldn't be able to—"
"People should stop underestimating me." Tris shifted slightly, trying not to wince. She had been shot in the side. "I'll take you down if I have to Peter. Don't doubt me."
Peter shook his head and cocked his gun. Tris fired at his leg. Peter screamed in pain and collapsed to the ground.
"People keep making the mistake of overestimating my character." Tris spoke, moving towards Peter. "They think that because I'm small, or a girl, or a Stiff, that I can't possibly be cruel. They're wrong."
Peter reached for his gun inches away, and Tris took her heel and jammed it into his hand. He screamed. "I will not hesitate to shoot you again. You're going to answer some questions. Hope you're ready."
"You're…crazy…" He breathed out in between shaky breaths.
"Wrong answer." Tris pressed harder into his hand and reached down, only squeaking slightly at the pain in her side, to grab his gun.
"Beatrice?"
Tris whipped her head around, taken off guard, and saw her father, Caleb, and Marcus, all standing there, starting in horror.
"Dad?"
Next thing Tris knew, her back hit the ground hard, and there was a bang and sharp stinging pain in her shooting shoulder. Peter now had his gun pointed at her, and Tris' shooting arm was bleeding out.
"You think I don't know how to shoot with my non-dominant hand, Peter? Really?"
Tris picked her gun up, and aimed for Peter's arm. She could hear the gasps from Caleb and her father. Tris pulled herself up, despite the pain, and stepped on Peter's leg. He screamed in pain.
"You're such a pansycake." Tris said rolling her eyes. "Now tell me where Jeanine is."
"No…" He wheezed.
Tris sighed. "Wrong answer." She applied more pressure, ignoring the pang of immense guilt threatening to spill over. She needed to stay cold. She had to channel Six.
"They're listening! They'll kill me if I—"
"I'm getting sick of listening to you whine. Tell me what I want to know before I shoot you somewhere worse."
Tris was counting on Peter not to be selfless. And he didn't disappoint.
"Okay, okay, I'll tell you! But I want a deal." He begged.
"The deal is I don't shoot you numbskull." Tris hissed, cocking her gun.
"Beatrice!" He father said. "Is this really necessary?"
"Sometimes pain is for the greater good." Marcus said to her father and Caleb, who she imagined were in complete shock.
In that moment she could see Marcus, belt in hand standing over Tobias, speaking to him. His words echo. This is for your own good. Did he really think like that? Did Tris agree with him on some level?
She ignored him.
"If you'd let me finish," Peter said, "They're listening. Even if you don't shoot me, they will. I want you to take me with you. Protect me."
Tris blanched. "You've got to be kidding me."
"Not at all."
"So let me get this straight," Tris said after a moment. "You want me to take you—the person who tried to kill me—along and keep you safe. Just so we're on the same page."
Peter shrugged weakly. "It's the only way you'll get the information you need."
"Fine." Tris said, choking on the word. "Fine."
Footsteps behind her. She turned and saw her father and Caleb standing close behind her, at the ready. Slowly, so slowly, Tris released her foot off of Peter's leg, and her brother and father quickly got down to their knees, examining the damage. Her father pulled his shirt off and tied it around Peter's arm. Caleb tied his around Peter's leg.
"Now tell me where Jeanine is."
Peter chuckled and let out a shaky breath as hi wounds were tended to. "She's in the control room. But you won't be able to get to her."
Tris shook her head. Leave that part to me. Now get up, we're going."
Caleb whipped his head in Tris' direction. "You want him to walk? Are you crazy?"
"Did I shoot him in both legs?" Tris snapped. "No. He walks."
Caleb sighed and helped Peter to his feet. Marcus went to his other side, and together they all began to walk for the control room. Her father sped up to walk with Tris.
As she made her way through the deserted compound, Tris shivered. It was eerie, so empty. Even when she had gone walking late at night it hadn't been like this. She searched for signs of life. There weren't any. The only sound was their feet against the ground. Finally her father spoke.
"What makes you think that you have the right to shoot someone?" He hissed.
"Now isn't the time for a debate about ethics."
"Now is the perfect time," He continued. "Because you will soon get the opportunity to shoot someone again and if you don't realize—"
"Realize what?" Tris snapped, stopping and turning on her heel to look at her father angrily. "That every second we waste is another Abnegation dead, and another Dauntless turned into a murderer? I've realized it, and it's about time you did too."
"There is a right way to do things."
"And what makes you so sure that you know what it is?" Tris barked at her father.
As her father was about to respond, Caleb finally spoke. "Stop fighting. We have more important things to do."
Tris just started walking, her cheeks hot with anger. A month ago, she would never had dared snap at her father that way. But she was different now.
"Caleb, where is mom?"
They were silent.
Tris stopped walking and turned. "Where is she?"
Caleb gulped and couldn't speak, tears were in his eyes. Marcus' face was dark. Her father's face was stoic, but tears were pooling in his eyes as well.
"She's dead." Tris said simply.
Her father spoke, his voice rough with emotion. "She got Caleb out, and then she went looking for you. I came out of hiding to see where she had gone, and her body was—"
Tris shook her head and gulped. "Stop." She took in a shaky breath, and turned back around. "We have to keep moving. We're almost there, be prepared to need to defend yourself."
Tris didn't allow room for argument as she kept moving. Her mother was dead. Her friends were being turned into murderers. Tobias was God knows where, and she couldn't even be sure he was alive. How did everything go from being so perfect to completely falling apart the next?
They reached an elevator. There was an argument over who would stay and who would go, but they came to the conclusion that Tris and her father would go up, and Caleb and Marcus would stay with Peter. Caleb argued that he couldn't let them risk their lives and him stay, but Tris had to protect him. He wasn't ready for what was waiting upstairs.
"There are guards down there." Tris said as her and her father climbed into the elevator. "They have guns, and they will try to kill me, if they can. Should I let them?"
Her father stared at her for a long time. Long enough that Tris had to press the elevator stop button. Finally he said, "Go. And God help you. I'll try and cover you."
Tris breathed a sigh of relief. She handed her father Peter's gun, and took hers out of her waistband. She gave him a quick rundown on how to use it, and then hugged. Something about this felt so final.
"Are you ready?" She said softly, hand hovering over the stop button.
Her father took a deep breath in. "I think so. But Tris, I just wanted to say, thank you for protecting Caleb, I—"
"You can thank me later." She choked out. Tris wasn't going to do this now. "Come on, let's go kick ass."
"Okay." He laughed, rolling his eyes. This was nice. Tris and her father on the same side, getting ready to fight together.
Tris hit the stop button again, and the elevator stopped on the last floor. The one just outside of the control room. The elevator doors opened.
Shots were fired almost immediately by the guards, taken over by the simulation. Tris dropped to the floor and rolled. A guard was on the ground bleeding out, her father standing there, holding his gun out, shaking. Tris got up and started taking guards down left and right.
Together, they started running down a hallway for the control room, guards running after them. There is a hallway on the left—that was where the guards came from, that must be where the computers are—and there is a hallway to the right. It's a dead end. Her father must think the same thing, because before Tris can argue with him, he's running down the hallway on the right.
She wants to scream, to tell him that it ends. That there isn't an escape, but he's already gone, the guards chasing after him. They shoot at him, and Tris wanted to look away, to make it all disappear, but she watched.
Tris watched as her father tried to shoot over his shoulder, but was shot anyway in the gut first against the wall. He collapsed, but the guards didn't stop. They kept going until his body was covered in blood and mangled. Tris went to her father, and collapsed over his body as the guards left. They didn't know what they were doing.
Tris knew she couldn't blame them, not really, but hot tears burned down her cheeks, emotion spilling over. She wanted to just collapse and never get up again. What was the point? Her mother was dead, her father was dead. She didn't know where Tobias was. But the fact of the matter was that what she had said to her father earlier was right: Every moment Tris wastes is another moment more Abnegation die, and more Dauntless turn into murderers. There was a mass genocide going on, and Tris could do something to stop it.
The only thing she had left in this world now was to stop that simulation.
Tris pushed herself up, fighting the pain in her side, and the burning in her shoulder. She started to run again, down the hallway on the left, and found the door she was looking for. It was the only door down the hallway. Slowly, gun at the ready, Tris opened the door.
Tobias had been right when he had described the control room to her. You could see everything here. She could see her brother, Marcus, and Peter waiting for her to return. She could see her father, and she could see Abnegation. All of it. Tris took a moment to watch. She saw Will and Christina, Uriah and Marlene, walking aimlessly and shooting any grey that crossed their paths. Tris tried to keep herself composed. Finally she found the screen where her mother lay.
The soldiers were gone. It was just her mother, laying face-down in the dirt, looking completely undignified. It killed a part of Tris inside to know her father wasn't lying. That her mother was truly dead, and that she was just left there—like she meant nothing.
Tris had to look away before every part of her crumbled inside. She found the screen with the code to the simulation. In front of the screen there was a desk and a chair. In the chair was a Dauntless soldier.
"Tobias." She breathed.
His head turned and he looked straight into Tris' eyes. They were cold. He stood, and pulled his gun out of his waistband. "Drop your weapon."
Tris' eyes furrowed. What was happening? "Tobias, it's me."
"Drop your weapon or I'll fire." He repeats, lifting the gun and pointing it straight for Tris.
He was put into the simulation. He didn't know who Tris was. He was gone too. But she had to try. The best thing she could do was go along with what he was saying as best she could. He was programmed to kill her. Tris took a shaky breath, and set her gun at her feet.
"Drop your weapon!" He screamed.
"I did." Tris said calmly. She looked up and saw Tobias was close to her. She couldn't just let him shoot her. She had to try.
She moved quickly and grabbed his wrist, face to face with him. He pulled the trigger, and if Tris had moved a second later, the hole in the wall would have been her head. Gasping and fighting the screaming pain in her shoulder, she kicked Tobias in the ribs and twisted his wrist has hard to the side as she could. He dropped the gun.
Tris knew that trying to beat Tobias in a fight was futile. Even in perfect condition, it wasn't possible, but in her condition it was even more impossible. But Tris knew that she had to destroy the computer. She turned and reached for the gun, but Tobias grabbed Tris around the waist and brought her back roughly. She was able to stare into his dark, conflicted, stormy blue eyes before he punched her in the jaw. Tris thought she heard a crack.
She pulled her hands up to protect her face, cringing away from him. She had to stay standing. Otherwise he could kick her, and that would be much worse. Tris looked behind her, and kicked the gun away from them so that Tobias wouldn't be able to use it, and then swung her leg around to kick him. He grabbed her leg and pulled her off her feet, her shoulder slamming into the ground. Her vision went black around the edges. Tris fought to stay lucid.
Tobias pulled his foot back like he was about to kick her and Tris rolled, trying to grab the gun. She couldn't shoot him, she couldn't, but she needed something. Before her fingers could wrap around it, he yanked her by her hair back towards him, lifting her up again. Tris reached back to grab his wrist, but he was too strong, he slammed her face into the wall. Tris bit back a groan, breathing hard. She could do this. She knew she could.
He had to be in there somewhere.
"Tobias." Tris groaned.
Did his grip weaken? Tris took the opportunity and twisted back, her heel crashing into his leg. His fingers slipped through her short hair, and Tris jumped for the gun, her fingers finally wrapping around the cool metal, as she rolled onto her back, her shoulder and stomach screaming in protest as she aimed the gun at Tobias. Her eyes darted down. There was blood seeping through her shirt.
"Tobias," Tris whispered, her lip shaking, "I know you're in there somewhere."
He advanced on Tris like he was about to kill her. If he was in there, this wouldn't be happening. Tris forced herself to stand and back up, tears coming again.
"Tobias. Please see me. Please." Tris begged. She was pathetic. She was weak. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She couldn't lose Tobias too.
"Please!" She shouted as he continued to come closer. "Please see me, Tobias! Please!"
Tobias came closer. Even in his scowl, his eyes look thoughtful. Tris could remember his smile, his laugh earlier that morning. The way those lips had pressed against hers. Tris loved him. She couldn't kill him.
She was sure that if the positions were reversed, he would do the same.
Tris could remember doing this before, for her family. A gun in her hand, a voice shouting for her too shoot the people she loved. Tris had chosen to die instead. She wasn't sure how this was supposed to apply, but she did know what to do. She just knew what she needed to do.
Tobias was right in front of her. Tris turned the gun and pressed it into his palm. His fingers wrapped around the gun and he pressed it to her temple. Tris closed her eyes and breathed deep. Gently, she pressed her hand to his chest, and felt his strong, steady heartbeat. It was the only part of him left it seemed that was so truly him.
Tris was ready.
She was strong.
She was brave.
She was Dauntless.
She was Abnegation.
She was Divergent.
She was Tobias'.
The shot didn't come.
Tris opened her eyes and saw Tobias staring at her, his heartbeat still strong and steady against her palm. Tris smiled. He was Divergent. He could fight the simulation. He could fight anything.
"Tobias," Tris whispered, "It's me."
She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him, pressing her cheek to his chest. His heart beat faster. He was there. He had to be. His arms grabbed her shoulders and wrenched her back. Tris screamed out in pain. Maybe she was wrong, maybe he wasn't actually in there.
"Tris." He breathed. She practically laughed in relief, but his lips were pressed against hers. He wrapped his arms around her back and lifted her into the air, holding her close.
Her stomach was throbbing, and her shoulder was screaming in pain, but Tris didn't care. She didn't care at all. She started to cry, grasping at his neck, slick with sweat, his body shaking. When he set her down he stared at her, and something like a sob escaped his throat, and he was kissing her again. Tris kissed him back with everything she had in her.
Tobias pulled away and buried his face in her neck, crying. Tris never thought she would see Tobias cry again. Not after his mother died. He was strong. But maybe being brave enough to open himself up to her like this was strong too. Maybe there were a lot of ways to be strong.
They both cried. Tris was overcome with too much emotion, pain, loss, grief, love, happiness. Whoever said being sixteen was easy was a dirty liar. Compound the day's events and it was nearly impossible. Tris sobbed, horrible, terrible sobs that wracked her entire body.
Tobias supported her, and they sank down against the wall, holding onto each other.
"How did you do it?" She sobbed, holding on for dear life.
She could feel Tobias' head shake over her head as he rocked them back and forth. "I don't know. I just heard your voice."
*Can I please get some review love for this chapter? I worked really hard to give you guys some sort of resolution tonight, and I would really appreciate the reviews! Seriously, when I said that they made my day, I wasn't kidding! I love your feedback and hearing your thoughts on the chapters! Next chapter will go up sometime tomorrow hopefully! All my love, Always, Rosaline*