Chapter 25 (Tris' POV)
"This Stage is primarily mental and emotional, rather than physical, like Stage One," I said, walking in front of all the initiates lined up in Training Room 2. They looked nervous, especially the ones lower ranked. Namely, Hestia, Jose, and Clement. But their nerves most likely didn't match mine- I was supposed to report to Max about the divergents, and wasn't so sure how to manually upload the results, like Tori did with mine. Luckily, I have Tobias there with me, so he can just do the recording and uploading.
"You will be called into the simulation room one by one, from last to first in the order you were ranked yesterday," Christina said, taking over. "As in, first up would be Hestia, and then Jose, and the last ones in will be Alyssa and Skye."
Uriah then said, "You will not experience all of your fears now. You'll see one and then that's it for today. Spend the rest of the day doing whatever; thinking about your fear or working in the training room, I don't care. But for now, first up: Hestia."
She followed Tobias and me into the Simulation Room, while Uriah and Christina remained back to watch over the rest of the initiates. I sat in a chair in the corner, as Tobias injected her with the serum at the neck. She batted her eyelashes at him and said in a disgusting, sickly-sweet voice, "You won't let anyone hurt me while I'm not conscious of what's happening, won't you?"
Tobias glared at her, and she pouted in response.
She needs to cut it out- I'm right here for goodness' sake! I thought furiously, trying to control my face into a neutral mask.
In a few seconds, she slipped into her mind, and attentively, I watched the screen, Tobias standing next to me.
Hestia was in a dark room, lit only by one light bulb above her head. The only piece of furniture was a huge mirror in front of her. She looked around and called out, shakily, "Where am I? What's going on? Why am I here?" She turned around in circles, and I smiled, amused at her evident confusion. Suddenly, warts and zits appeared all over her face, and when she faced the mirror, she screamed.
Really? I thought, looking at Tobias and trying to stifle my laugh. She's scared of being ugly? You've got to be kidding me!
It took her nearly 15 minutes to snap out of the hysterical state she was in, and when she woke up, I couldn't help but note with satisfaction that her hands were trembling.
The next few initiates didn't really stand out to me, and so far everything was uploaded with no issues. Jose was afraid of cats, apparently, which was funny, until they became killers and scratched his face and arms badly. It took him 12 minutes to calm himself down enough to consider another way to get rid of them besides swatting at them with his hands. Clement was a predictable Erudite: he was afraid of being stupid. Basically, for 12 minutes, Tobias and I sat there watching him stare with horror at a clone of him acting stupidly and doing stupid acts. Zane had apotemnophobia, which was understandable since his mother died of an incorrectly amputated leg. Yikes. Scarlett feared heights, which was strange since she grew up in Dauntless and all. Being a determined Dauntless, however, it took her only 6 minutes to calm her heart rate down. Michael was an Amity, and feared being rejected by friends, which left him crying when he woke up. Xavier had a strange fear of some empty void-like thing, where he literally floated in for a whole 10 minutes before deciding that it was more cool than scary. Tesa feared hunger, where literally she was trapped in a glass box staring at food outside. Roxy feared being defeated, which I felt was understandable. As far as I knew, she was one of the best fighters, always working hard to get rid of her disadvantage of size.
The first simulation that actually seemed striking to me was Snow's.
She had iophobia, where she was slowly being poisoned. Somehow, about 3 minutes in, she stopped panicking and slowly, the green tinge of her skin and thinness of her fingers disappeared. I looked, startled, at Tobias, who immediately stood up and began typing long strings of numbers into a computer. Just as I suspected and hoped against- we had a divergent initiate here! I also suspected that Aly, Ivy, and Skye were too, but for now, Snow's divergent mind was already scaring me.
Suddenly, she sat up, having snapped out of the haze. Wordlessly, I took her into a non-monitored hallway as Tobias finished erasing her recorded simulation.
"Snow, what was your result for your Aptitude Test?" I asked, trying to still me slightly shaking hands.
She faked being confused, "What? I got Dauntless, duh. Why else would I be here?"
I raised an eyebrow at her, and said, "What did you actually get? This hallway is not monitored, so you don't have to worry. Tell me, you can trust me."
After staring at me with untrusting eyes, she finally backed down and muttered, "Erudite and Dauntless."
I knew it. But now wasn't the time to celebrate my intuition being accurate. I had to warn her. But first... "Who administered your test?"
"An abnegation woman. Natalie Prime? Prince? No... It was Natalie Prior, I think!" she replied.
Thank god. I didn't know what I would've done if it had been any other administrator. My mother was one of the people who I would trust in a heartbeat with my secret- she was divergent too, I knew.
"Who else knows about your results, Snow?" I asked.
"Other than myself and the administrator, only you."
"Good. I suspect others might be like you, so please go wait for me in the Tattoo Parlor and fake looking at the tattoos until I call you there. If anyone asks why you're taking so long, find Tori and just... just stay with her, okay?"
Wordlessly, she left, hands shaking.
I entered the room again, and Tobias looked up from the computer. "Almost done," he said, as he typed in a final string of numbers. "Her results have been uploaded. You've told her?"
I nodded in confirmation, "Yes. She's going to our apartment now, and I'm going to see if my suspicions about Skye, Alyssa, and Ivy are accurate. I don't want to repeat myself many times, you know?"
He nodded, and smiled grimly. "Let's get this over faster we move on, the better. Just in case Eric comes in."
I went out and took in Jess, who thank goodness didn't show any signs of awareness of divergence. Her fear of losing control (much like mine) was expected, since she was usually always so coordinated and precise. Blade, who was next, was afraid of being cut to pieces with huge knives. I cringed each time a slice appeared, and was thankful when the agonizing 9 minutes were over. Next was Ivy though, and I wasn't eager to see how this would play out. I prayed that my suspicions were wrong, even though I knew it to be futile.
She started out normally, with bees attacking her and she cringing away from them and trying to kill them. But then suddenly she screamed, a bloodcurdling scream, and right before my eyes, on the screen, the thousands of bees went Poof! and disappeared.
What? I thought, eyes wide. She opened her eyes and continued screaming, and then suddenly stopped.
She glanced around sheepishly and said, nervously, "Sorry about that. I hate bees, can't help but scream every time." Noticing out tense expressions, she asked, "What's wrong? What did I do wrong?"
Tobias turned to the computer and began to type numbers in as I led Ivy outside and asked her the same questions as I had to Snow: Who administered her test; What were her results (Dauntless and Candor); Who else knew about it? I sent her to Tattoo Parlor, where Tori worked, and told her to wait for me there.
Next was Alyssa. I was even more sure that she was divergent, despite my not knowing her for more than a few days. After Tobias inserted the serum through the needle with steady fingers, unlike mine, I sat down, watching the screen attentively. What I saw was appalling. Four people stood there, yelling at her: Two were older, about 30-40 years old, and looked like her parents. They seemed to be close to beating her, which was strange, for they were wearing Amity clothes and I've never before seen a hostile Amity. On the other side of her stood two younger people, about 25 years old. The girl had beautiful red hair and guy had had brown*. They were yelling at her too, even as flames appeared out of nowhere and began to devour them. "How could you? We sympathized with you and helped you- we treated you as a sister! And you left us! You let us be killed! How could you! You filth!" I didn't understand at first, but then I quickly grasped on. Turning to Tobias, I asked, "Was this the Great Fire four years ago?" He nodded, and gripped my hands tightly as Alyssa's parents descended upon her, beating her with sticks.
Suddenly, it rained, and the fires about to kill the red-haired girl and brown-haired boy were extinguished. The sticks vanished from the older couples' hands. She woke and looked at Tobias and I, an expression of grief, sorrow, and hopelessness etched on her face. I glanced worriedly at Tobias, who once again began to type in numbers in a computer, beginning to erase the recording.
"Aly, come with me." She followed me out into the hallway, blinking to get rid of the tears, refusing to let them fall. She's so strong, I though, wondering what she went through. Who were those two younger people?
"I'm not going to ask many questions, but for the ones that I do ask: It is imperative you answer honestly." I stared at her until she nodded in assent.
Like with Snow and Ivy, I asked her who administered her test (it happened to be my mom, again), what her results were (Amity and Dauntless-brave, but nice), and who else knew (no one except my mother, herself, and me). I sent her to the Tattoo Parlor, and then returned back into the room.
Last one, at last! But I also suspected Skye to be divergent.
Once the serum was in his system, I watched the screen as he began flailing his arms, trying to stay afloat in a large body of water. This was like my fear- losing control of the situation. His head ducked underwater for a moment as a wave crashed into him but he resurfaced, gasping for breath. Another wave crashed into him, and he went under again. But then the water began draining out of the pool, and I glanced worriedly at Tobias. This wasn't part of the simulation- Skye was controlling it himself, like I'd suspected but hoped against in fear for his safety. Once again, Tobias began erasing record of what just occurred, just as Skye woke up from the simulation, gasping for breath even though he was no longer trapped in his mind.
He looked around, eyes wide at the tense expression on Tobias' face as he erased the recording. Rather than trying to not answer, like Aly did, or feigning confusion, like Snow did, he sighed and said, turning to me, "You know, don't you?" I suppose that was due to him knowing me for nearly a whole year. Nodding, I motioned for him to follow me outside, and led him to the tattoo parlor, where the others were waiting. I told them to wait a few moments as Tobias (or Four, to them) finished up clearing Skye's simulation. I also informed that if anyone asked about them later on, they could just say that Four and I were giving them extra lessons.
Tobias arrived, and together, the six of us went to our apartment, where there were no cameras. Sitting in the living room, my fingers shook slightly, and I squeezed Tobias' hand to keep it from being too visible.
"You all, of course, know why you are here, right?"I began. When they all nodded, I continued, "You're divergent. It basically means you have more than one aptitude result, which is highly unlikely, although the numbers do seem to be increasing. Sometimes, you will be able to just be aware that you are in a simulation. Other times, you will be able to control and alter the simulation itself. Do not speak to anyone but Four and myself about this- not your parents, not your siblings, not your friends. We're supposed to inform Max, one of Dauntless' leaders, about this, but Four and I both agreed to keep it quiet. Telling them or letting them even suspect your divergence is, in a nutshell, a death wish and expressway to death. Tomorrow, we'll be doing the same thing, but you four should stay outside the room, in the hallway, until everyone's simulations are done. We need to prepare you to hide your divergence."
Four pairs of eyes looked back at me. Snow's and Alyssa's held uncertainty, while Ivy's displayed fear and Skye's shone with...regret? In all of them, however, I saw determination and the spark, the will to succeed, to stay undetected and alive.
"Alright. You're dismissed. I'll see you all tomorrow morning. Remember: remain silent about what just happened. All anyone else needs to know is that we were enhancing your fighting skills. Alright?" They nodded and as one, left. I saw Alyssa squeeze Skye's hands, and my heart clenched with fear at what would happen to these young, innocent children. Living in fear over something one can't control is no way to live a good life. But here, it is the only way to even have a life.
"They'll be alright. Ivy is good at being secretive when she wants to, and Snow came from Erudite. She is smart enough to remain under the radar. No one will suspect Skye's divergence as the reason of his top rank, they all respect him. And Skye'll keep Alyssa out of trouble as well, so that's a comfort. They'll be fine," Tobias said, and I slowly relaxed, smiling, if only slightly.
Suddenly, a violent crash was heard outside in the hallway, and we rushed outside toward the screams, Tobias in front of me. Glancing around with wild eyes, I noted with shock of the fresh splatter of blood on the walls, and a knife on the floor, glistening red. From the corner, I could make out a pair of feet being dragged, with quiet moans of pain. We both rushed forward, but something from the side crashed into Tobias, and he fell into me. The ground was rising to meet me quickly, and before the darkness consumed me, a yell of despair reached my ears. And then all was dark.
A/N: Well, that was interesting to write :) Don't you all just love cliffhangers? :P
Shadowpletlove, Abby7711, rycbarm415: Thanks for reading and reviewing :)
Candorinitiate: Aww thanks :) Well, I'm glad to hear you were excited about the "something big", but remember I never said it was "something good", as you probably realized by now after reading the last paragraph... Muahaha
Divergent Demigod Fangirl: Oh my gods I love you name :) Thanks for reviewing and reading (not in this order tho)
Candorinitiate: Reread the whole story? Oh my gods that's crazy. Thanks though :P Lol No problem, I had fun getting rid of Justin. Now who's next? (if it isn't obvious)
fanficforyou: Thanks! I like Skylyssa too XD Stage Two ^^
GwennyDee: Yea, it is kinda weird, no? But at the same time, it's understandable, to see that young people are just thrown out to live a factionless life :/ Yea, Skye and Aly's relationship is growing :) What were the Dauntless born doing? Paintball, rock-climbing=injuries
Booklover4610: Why would I just make Hestia leave? What's the fun in that? :P XD You need sleep? Well, don't we all? Lol Thanks for reviewing!
I'm tired. I'm physically tired. I'm physically and emotionally tired. I'm really really tired, physically, and emotionally. I want a cup of tea. Did I mention I was tired? XD
Till next time,
~myperfectionismyimperfection