The first second Ellie stepped out of the Candor's grounds, she was blindfolded and left with handcuffed hands, so she wouldn't see where are the rebels they taking her.
She was entirely oblivious to whatever was occurring around her and she was okay with that.
Eleanor somehow realized that she was the only person taken captive by the rebels and it didn't matter.
Drew mumbled quietly to someone near them, probably thinking she won't listen.
He admitted honestly his wonders: why she isn't fighting back and protesting?
"You can kill me right now if you wish.", Ellie uttered to him, strolling reluctantly beside him.
He was the one taking her on the captivity tour. "I am blindfolded, Drew, not deaf."
But there was no reply in return.
And she didn't mind. Again.
After all, she has been through, they have been through, and went astray, it didn't matter.
Her sorrow was deeper than the ocean and greater than the mountains.
She knew that this would hurt as bitch if it happens. But the tot missing him could destroy her, that much she wasn't aware of.
After a long voyage, she felt they have arrived at some kind of hangar or a repository.
She couldn't see a thing, but she was receptive now more than ever to the sounds surrounding her;
All that distant murmuring and clatter she has heard all around reminded her of Dauntless, only... it wasn't Dauntless;
And it was needless to say that it anguished her to reckon that she was presumed to be arriving back with Eric to Dauntless at this time.
To an environment like this.
But instead, she was waddling blindfolded and deserted, ashamed, lingering, and anticipating her death sentence.
If they could only just get it over with; at least she'd meet with Eric at the end.
She hoped, at least.
Because, if there isn't another stage after the death, a place where he will wait for her, she didn't want to die either.
She was never this superstitious, but losing someone makes you believe in all the miracles and tales you have ever heard of.
The only thing she didn't want is to die and to end up alone on the other side.
Without him.
"Ok, Cabbano, this is your commodity. I wish you a great stay.", Drew shoved her somewhere, taking her handcuffs off.
God knows for how long have they been walking through the area, Ellie wasn't present in this reality anymore.
Her blindfold was still on so after she was knocked down on the concrete ground, she took it roughly off to scope her surroundings.
She was trapped somewhere like a critter.
But, this didn't matter too.
For in whatever state she was, she had no name.
Ericeless state.
Loveless state.
Eleanorless state.
She wasn't herself anymore.
Four stripped her out of everything she allegedly was tonight.
Something must be coming for her.
Whatever it was, she didn't mind anymore.
She closed her eyes, trying to recall every bit of Eric's existence in her life.
It was the only thing she yearned for.
***
It's been a while.
Notions wandered through her mind, mostly resemblances of Eric, but one very frequently reappeared in her mind.
The image of him glancing at her for the first time when she freaked out and panicked.
It constantly haunted her, as if it wanted to remind her of his presence in her lifetime.
At some points during her few short and intermittent naps, she wanted to let it all go, but it kept coming back.
The final time it arose, how many hours after everything happened, only God knew, it freaked her out and she startled, opening her eyes and gasping for air.
"Shit.", she uttered a curse, clutching her head and waiting for her heart to de-stress, now realizing that she needs to prevent the panic attack.
She never had those before, but she know what they were.
And her rapid breathing signalized that she was at the beginning of one.
No surprise, after all, she has been through a lot and her organism was trying to deal with it on its way.
"I thought Erudites do not swear.", she heard Four's distant voice coming from somewhere around her.
It was not something she anticipated, but again, it was very logical. After all, he, Tris, and their iconic love stirred up the regiment.
"The thing is, I'm not Erudite anymore.", she was quick to retort, lowering her head comfortably back to the fence. Her breathtaking was getting back in order slowly, as distractions were always welcome around panic attacks. "You made us forget all about our past factions. Remember?"
"You are a good learner, Ellie.", he snickered, unlocking the threshold.
"I prefer to be killed in here, if possible.", she acknowledged, not making a single move to protect herself. She saw that he held up the firearm and still somehow hoped to go through it without being publicly humiliated moreover.
And after all, she had done to save Tris's ass, she had the right to at least decide how to die.
"Let me make peace with myself alone.", she looked away disinterestedly, as he walked into the enclosure and stood in front of her, with a small smirk on his face.
It still reminded her of what he did to Eric.
It was still very fresh.
He stood like that above his head.
And she recalled that image still very vividly.
C'mon, mate, let's get it over with, she thought to herself.
Maybe peace was really on the other side.
Maybe not.
Maybe there was no actual peace without him.
"You are really in the mood for dying today."
"And you are in the mood for killing. I gather that we are compatible in this.", she looked at him reluctantly, still sitting leaning against the wall. "Let's get it over with.", she spoke her thoughts loudly.
"And what makes you think I want to kill you?", he raised a question.
"Because I am the only sheep he managed to stigmatize.", she again looked away, not having the court to look Four in his eyes.
No matter what he did to Eric, and he did what needed to be done, she still couldn't feel hostility towards him.
She faultlessly knew that she was dating a killer machine.
It was crazy of her to think it will end otherwise, to be honest. "So, let's get on with it. Finish it.
"Wow.", he said. "None of us has our mother's bad temper."
That's when her head stopped listening to her mind and she turned back and gawked at him.
Their mother ...who...what?!
What was he talking about? They didn't even belong to the same faction before Dauntless.
True, she didn't know his origins, but it wasn't Erudite that's for sure. She would have known him. He wasn't much older than her.
"Four, please, spare me from playing games.", she told. "That was Eric's thing, you and I both know it."
"Come on, Eleanor. Get up, we need to have a chat."
"Or you can skip to the point and just kill me? If a dead girl has a right for one last wish, I'd like to skip the chatting part.", he weakly defied him, but he was quick to pull her up from the ground. Either way, she was far too drowsy to be fighting right now. "Or not.", she eventually saw no way out of this.
"Don't you think I wouldn't have killed you by now if I wanted to?", he asked, holding her upper arm tightly.
"No, but it doesn't matter what you want.", she said. "I am the one who doesn't want to go on with this agony."
"Don't be so pathetic, Ellie.", he spoke sternly, roughly yanking her along with him. "Let's go."
***
They were soon on the floor, arriving into, from what it looked like, someone's flat.
It had bouquets, so Ellie assumed it was inhabited by a woman.
Much to her demise, she saw Caleb Prior walking around before entering the room and, even in this state, she couldn't help herself and rolled her eyes.
The Prior children weren't concretely the brightest ones.
And Caleb went for Erudite.
How, absurd that was?
They should have stayed in Abnegation, maybe it would spare them all the turmoil. Maybe they were part of some kind of butterfly effect that started all this mess in the first place.
They shouldn't have left their factions.
Jeanine would have never gotten her perfect subject.
"Mother.", Four called for someone. "Here's your family reunion."
"Will someone explain to me what kind of charade is this?", Ellie got nasty and shouted, but was promptly pushed to seat on the chair by Four's hand.
She didn't control her feelings and actions anymore, and they all knew it.
"Are we finally all here?", a delicate voice enunciated from the compartment next door and it was followed by a beautiful, dark-haired woman coming across their way.
"Yes, we are all here.", Four said. "Will you get to the point?"
The door behind them soon cracked with being open again and Ellie could only guess who was joining the room.
Four's beloved Beatris.
It tingled her how unjust it was that she saved her to the point of lying and deceiving and it came back to her in sacrificing Eric.
It was not fair.
No matter what he did, he was her companion.
The same way as Tris was Four's, even though they ended up on the opposing sides of the uprising.
She loathed her at this moment more than anyone in this room.
Because whatever good deeds she made, they always took its price. And they kept with it until there was nothing left to take.
"Well, Eleanor.", the woman eloquently rested in front of her. "I imagine you have some questions for us."
"No, actually, I don't.", Ellie said stubbornly. "I don't care who you people are. Besides these two, much to my misfortune.", she enlarged, glaring at Four and Tris with a look of a madman.
"I told you she won't cooperate without him.", Tris bent on the table, next to Four, crossing her arms.
"It's a good thing we took care of it, then.", the woman smirked, still glancing at her.
"Oh, you took excellent care of it.", Ellie erupted. "You handled the situation never better. Good job, well done."
For some reason, Tris and Four exchanged expressive looks while the woman in front of her gazed at her somehow warmly.
"I can ensure you, we did.", she said. "Anyway, you are here now.", she added. "I gather that you should know that I am Evelyn and that I am your mother. And the leader of Factionless.", she clarified slowly and those words rang in Eleanor's ears like a horn.
"You are my what?", she asked, once again feeling her sentiments drenching her.
Evelyne just smirked.
"That was my reaction too when she reached out to me about a year ago.", Four dabbed her strongly on her shoulder with a scathing remark. "How good it is to hear from your dead mother after ten years, m?"
"And how are you exactly my mother, excuse me? This is nonsense.", she was still in denial.
"Well, I can only guess as much that Gale and Dalila didn't share the information.", Evelyn said. "After I faked my death to escape Marcus and he violate ways, I was pregnant.", she said. "I couldn't give birth to a factionless child. My Abnegation connections linked me to two barren academics desperate for a child."
"In other words, she couldn't cope with being a mother.", Four's observation was full of irony once again. "One child was more than enough, so the second one also had to be left behind, right, Evelyn?"
"Tobias, I am sorry that it brings you so much pain to talk about this.", Evelyn said in her steady manner.
"No, it doesn't pain me at all.", Four said, keeping his indifference. "I just want to know what do you want from us, now that we are here."
"I want us to stand together against this barbarity posed upon us.", Evelyn said. "As a family, we can end this."
"In other words, again, she needs an army. And both you and I were a deal in Dauntless.", Four explained once again, but Eleanor was quick to gather the pieces too.
Evelyn was not here to huddle her lovely family under one roof. She was the one leading this place, so she needed some strong-willed youngsters to boil the blood around here a little bit.
And Ellie couldn't care less.
"You know what... It's Evelyn, right?", Ellie tried to stand up. "I will pass. Two ignorant parents were more than enough for me, I don't need to cope with a third one now. Not now."
She didn't know where was she going precisely. She would have probably voluntarily gone back to the cell to root.
Now, more than ever.
She didn't have any nerves left for this.
"What if I told you that I am not oblivious to your pain, Eleanor?", Evelyn enunciated loudly after her, still settled at her spot at the table. "That there is a way to bring Eric back?"
That is where Eleanor halted. Eric, above all, was the only person she was devoted to. And nobody else.
"It's such a lovely name you have.", she chuckled, when she saw Eleanor turning back to her, increasing all the gathered resentment possible in the world.
The first thing she did, was as she snatched the knife out of the table and threw it at Evelyn, fairly aiming her arm to injure her, not to kill her.
She will pay for even saying his name. Let alone disgracing it.
Evelyn, being a great fighter herself, pulled herself out of the mark and this was the first time, ever since she went to Dauntless, that Ellie missed her target.
After that, to the awe of Tris and Four, she slammed her hands on the table looking intimidating at her.
"And how are you supposed to bring people from the grave, m?", she asked furiously. "You don't get to say his name or to talk about him. You don't. I have forgiven enough already.", she gaped at Four considerably. "It ends now."
"And I thought she doesn't have Evelyn's temper.", Four noted with irony, looking at Tris, still having his arms crossed.
"Ha hah hah.", Evelyn giggled, still looking collected as ever. "Who said that he was in the grave, in the first place?"
She flinched from the table, taking a step forwards. Her eyes broadened again in terror, darkening.
Where is he?!, she thought.
"What?", she scarcely had the hehe strength to ask, afraid of the response. She did not know what to think.
"Tobias, I believe you should take your sister for a tour.", she said, standing finally up from the table.
He had a bitter face at the mention of his first name, which, by the way, Eleanor learned only now, but he gritted his teeth and restrained himself.
"Four, go.", Tris nodded her head in consent and he rolled his eyes, while Evelyn unhurriedly fled to the other room.
Meanwhile, Ellie found her upper arm again in his tight grip, already being dragged along the way with him.
"Listen, Ellie.", he shoved her to stand in front of him. "Let's cut this short."
She looked at him without a tone, stunned by what just occurred there.
"I knew I will spare your life even before I found out about this. You protected Tris. You saved her despite the risk, despite everything Eric said to you, not one, but a couple of times.", he asserted plainly.
"At least someone counted.", she crossed her arms.
"I will take you there.", he said. "After that, we will talk. You will talk not Evelyn, to me.", he uttered. "She is manipulative as ever and you will soon find out how much."
"Four, you will get me where?", she asked, still being bewildered and confused with the last twenty-four hours."
"Just ...come on!", he barked and then they ran together through the foyer.