Prior Rings

Chapter 17: Tris - Six

A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! I truly appreciate your support. Thank you also to Rosalie and BarbaraK2U, who both reviewed this chapter at different points in time. You're both wonderful! This is a very long chapter, so enjoy...

Chapter 17: Tris – Six

I watch Caleb while we wait, anxious to make sure he's okay. But I know he's not – it's impossible to go through that kind of torture and be fine afterwards.

He sits still, his body sagging as much as possible within his restraints, and I can't tell if he's conscious or not. He's alive, though. That much, at least, is obvious by the way his ragged breathing seems to fill the quiet room.

Memories keep flashing through my mind, starting with the last time my brother and I were prisoners together – when NUSA captured us both during our mission. He wanted me to kill him then, to keep him from being brainwashed by the serum and betraying me, but I couldn't do it. Fortunately, Tobias' broadcast freed us before Caleb's fears had a chance to come true.

I saw my brother in a very different context when I was imprisoned in Erudite. He was one of my tormentors then, causing me pain that isn't too different from what he's faced today. But as I learned later, he also helped me escape. He and Tobias and Peter. I suppose that's why he's still inclined to trust Peter these days.

The last time I was captured before that was with Tobias, during the attack on Abnegation. My mother saved me then, rescuing me from the tank of water I was drowning in. Caleb watched as my father stitched up my wounds.

And before that, I was dragged to Jeanine for questioning when I ran away from Dauntless to talk to Caleb. Tobias rescued me from Eric's wrath afterwards.

I never thought about it before, but Caleb and Tobias are associated with every memory I have of being in a situation like this. Even when I helped Marcus invade Erudite to retrieve Amanda Ritter's video, Caleb was there, trying to stop us – and Tobias got me out of there in the chaos after he played the video.

With the memories comes a realization. As many times as I've been a prisoner, I have never had to escape on my own.

That must explain why part of me expects Tobias to show up today, helping me the way he always has before. But the logical part of my brain knows that won't happen. And that same part says it would be foolish to just wait, broadcasting message after message in the hope that Peter will eventually find me – and do the right thing.

No, I need to find another way to get us out of here.

So, I let my eyes roam the room, looking for anything I can use to my advantage. The opportunities are certainly limited while we're restrained in these chairs, but at some point, our captors will have to move us to another town. And even before that, they'll probably feed us. And let us use the bathroom.

And of course, they'll have me do broadcasts….

My gaze turns to that equipment as I wonder again why Brian's lackeys are so loyal to him. They must have been manipulated by serum and messages – it's obvious in everything about their expressions and their instant, mindless obedience. So, that means one of three things: Tobias' message didn't affect them; or Brian found a way to overcome the effects of it; or they didn't hear it at all.

The first two options seem incredibly unlikely, but something clicks into place when I think of the third. Brian kept changing a knob on the equipment in between each message that he had me broadcast. My eyes find that knob, and I stare at the markings on it – increments of some sort with little notations above some of them.