Resurgent

| Chapter 4 |

I wring my hands together as I pace by the chasm. I check the wristwatch that I brought with me from Abnegation. 

11:55

"Tris, if you check that thing one more time I swear I will take it and throw it into the chasm," Will says, already tensed and being further triggered by my wariness. Will, Al, and I are here waiting for Uriah, Marlene, Lynn, and Tobias. Tobias... He's going to find out everything now. How will he react? Will he even believe us? Well, he has to. I know things about him that would shock him so him believing us is not a question. 

Just then, I hear quiet footsteps against the echoing stone. Again, I feel his presence before I see him. Tobias walks into our field of vision. His posture rigid and his eyes calculating, as if he were trying to see what we knew just from looking at us.

"Well?" He asks impatiently.

"We're still waiting for -" I trail off as I see the people in question coming towards us as well.

"Ok, then. I guess I'll start the explanation. Just before you hear this... please know that we're telling the truth and we're not crazy. We promise we can prove it, too. Anyways... So basically, this, everything, has happened before. We all remember going through initiation and we have lived life after that. Now in that life, Erudite had injected all the Dauntless with a long-distance simulation serum. With this serum, the Erudite were able to control Dauntless to attack and kill the Abnegation. The only people immune to this simulation were the Divergent. We were obviously being hunted and killed while this was going on. You and I... We were able to shut down the simulation, but many people died including Will and my parents. Al had already died before the end of initiation because he jumped off the chasm. Then just as we thought that everything would be ok again, Jeanine started actively and openly hunting for Divergents and many of the Dauntless had allied with her. In summary, we were accused of running the simulations instead of stopping them and we were put on trial in Candor under truth serum. We both admitted things that we wanted to keep hidden. One of them being your identity which everybody found out then. I already knew it. Jeanine was gaining a lot of power and none of us liked that and neither did the loyal Dauntless. Jeanine manipulated me into handing myself over by making Marlene kill herself and while I knew I was going to my death, I still went. I blamed myself for my parents' death and I couldn't forgive myself for shooting Will when he was under the Dauntless attack simulation, so I wanted to die and escape life. You were mad at me for being so reckless and careless but you still showed up one day at Erudite headquarters. Long story short, we escaped. We allied ourselves with Evelyn Johnson and the Factionless in an attempt to get a number large enough so we could overthrow Jeanine. You wanted to overthrow her government and erase all the data with the Factionless but I wanted to salvage some of the data because Marcus Eaton told me that my mother and father had died trying to protect it and show it to the rest of us. I believed him and you told me I shouldn't. I lied to you and worked with Marcus anyways to get the data. I almost failed but with your help at the last moment, the data - which was a message from the original Founders - was released for the city to see. The message said that there were people outside the fence who had placed us in here and that this was an experiment. Those among us who were Divergent were the answer and the message told us to come and join them outside the fence. Evelyn had gained power until then so she decided that no one would leave the fence and in this power battle Lynn was also shot and killed. But Christina, Uriah, Tori, Cara - Will's sister - and I wanted to leave. You were convinced as well, although you were apprehensive at first. You betrayed Evelyn and came with us outside the fence. We had to bring along Peter and my traitorous brother Caleb, though. Tori died while we were going past the wall. I won't get into detail about what happened outside the fence right now because it will confuse you beyond reason right now, but just know that the people who we thought were our salvation were actually our doom. They don't care about us at all. As a result of the events that took place there, Uriah and I died. After I died I found myself in this white void with my parents, Tori, Will, Al, Uriah, Marlene, and Lynn. My parents and Tori explained that we six had a choice to make. We could either move on to whatever was after life, or we could go back to life but everything would be rebooted. And the choice had to be unanimous. We all chose to come back to life. From what I understand. The six of us woke up on Aptitude Test day from a very vivid and jarring dream and somehow we remembered everything through contact. Like we held each others' hands and the memory of that white void just came to us and everything made sense. That was when you found us here that day. We have been trying to think of ways to stop the war and all the following events from happening ever since," I take a few deep breaths after explaining all of this nonstop.

"We realize it's a lot to take in," Will said tentatively, not knowing how Tobias would react to this. He was staring at me wide-eyed, transfixed. Almost as if he thought that if he stared hard enough, he would wake up from this terribly confusing dream and laugh about how absurd it was. 

"So let me get this straight. This is basically life 2.0 for you guys. In this 'original life', let's call it, I told Tris my identity and I gather we were... close. Then everything went to shit. A lot of people died. Everybody found out who I was. My parents played a rather large part in everything that went to shit. And then even more people died," Tobias said rather brashly. I don't think this is going well. 

"You guys expect me to believe this crap?" Tobias suddenly yelled incredulously. I slowly walk up to him and put a hand on his chest. To my surprise and joy, he doesn't move away. 

"I knew you wouldn't believe us at first. But I know you, Tobias. You told me things you didn't tell anybody before," I say softly, staring into his eyes.

"Oh yeah? Like what? As much as I hate to admit it, anybody could find out my name and the name of my parents if they really looked hard enough," Tobias challenged me. I look at everyone around me. He wouldn't appreciate me saying these private things about him in front of everybody. I take Tobias' hand and pull him with me. The others are smart enough not to follow. I take him to the spot where we first kissed before the reboot. I sit down on a relatively flat rock and let the water spray on my ankles. He sits beside me.

"Well? Go on," Tobias urges. Again his voice sounds bored and calm, but his eyes give away his panic. 

"Your name is Tobias Eaton, son of Marcus Eaton and Evelyn Johnson. Marcus abused you and Evelyn and when Evelyn had an affair and ended up pregnant she wanted to leave. Marcus was all for the idea and supported her in faking her own death. She fled to Factionless, leaving you with that heartless monster. He beat you, whipped you with his belt, and locked you in the small coat closet in Abnegation houses. Your nickname is Four because you have four fears. Heights, confinement, killing an innocent, and Marcus. You are always afraid of telling people about Marcus because you don't want them to look at you like a kicked puppy. Evelyn contacted you a year ago, but you never responded. Right now, you are suspicious of Erudite and the Dauntless leaders so you are planning to install a computer mirroring program on one of the computers in the Control Room. You haven't told anybody this, but you have wanted to leave Dauntless because you have never felt like you truly belong here since, in your opinion, you chose Dauntless out of cowardice, to escape your father. Even though that couldn't be further from the truth since you're the bravest person I know. You also value the traits of all the factions which is why you have them tattooed on your back along with the Dauntless flames on your ribcage," I recite all of the facts and private information I know about Tobias. He simply looks at me, thoroughly shocked and disturbed. 

"How the hell, do you know all of this? Many of these things are something I never told anyone!" Tobias bursts out. 

"Before the reboot, we were together. We got together around the middle of Stage Two. We were already flirting in the subtle, tentative way only known to the Abnegation and then you took me through your fear landscape. You brought me here afterwards and we kissed. Right on this rock, actually. We were inseparable ever since. You showed me your tattoos when I told you about my fear of intimacy. The fear that I got over the night before I died. You helped me get over it. I have the second-lowest number of fears, actually. Six, not counting the fear of intimacy that I eventually got over. The point is. We were really close, Tobias. We were each others' family. But I'm not going to bombard you with all of that right now. As of now, just process all this information and accept that first," I explain. Tobias nods at me understandingly.

"Yeah, I definitely believe you. And I will take some time to process all of this, but I know I will. Just one last question before I take a step back to process, and please tell me the truth without being afraid of scaring me or pushing me away. Do you love me? I can guess that we were in love in this life before the reboot, but right now at this moment, do you love me?" Tobias asked, staring into my soul. 

"Of course, I do! How can I not. I have my memories from this life, Tobias. I know that you don't, and that makes this even harder. But no matter what we become or don't become in this version of life, always know that you can rely on me. I will always love you, Tobias. There is no one else for me," I say sadly, putting my hand on his cheek and caressing it. Then I stand up and walk away, stifling my tears and sobs, leaving him to his thoughts.