"Yoongi-ssi, you know why I don't use my powers anymore."
Jisoo was perched on top of the counter of her store, her arms folded stubbornly across her chest. Ji-Hu, who was beside her, laid a hand on her shoulder supportively.
'I do know," nodded Yoongi. "And I'm sorry to bring this up with you, but we honestly might not have another option. The leaders want to make a move as soon as initiation is over, we're running out of time."
"They already know we're Divergent," said Ji-Hu. "The only reason they've left us be is because we've done nothing to disturb society since we completed our own initiation.
"That's all the more reason for you to help," sighed Yoongi. He felt sorry for the two of them, he really did, but it was hard to get through to them without being too harsh. "Look... you can stay here in your little bubble, and keep doing what you're doing and ignoring what's going on, but the thing is, like you just said, they already know. And they will come in for you, wether you like it or not. They want to get rid of every single one of us. So the way I see it, you can sit around and wait til they come for you, or you can try and help us fight our way out of here."
Ji-Hu and Jisoo stared at him, both of them speechless for a moment.
"Okay," sighed Jisoo. "But... what, you want me to listen in to what they're planning? You realise I can't sit here and do it, right? I've got to be at least close enough to them to be able to hear anything, and if they see me hanging around they'll immediately suspect something."
"We'll set something up so you can do it without them noticing," said Yoongi. "There are a lot of Divergents in this initiation class, and we've got at least two new shields on our side. We're better prepared than we've ever been for something like this to happen, we just need to pull ourselves together, and work out a plan."
"I'll do it," Jisoo nodded. She didn't look happy about her decision, as she glanced at Ji-Hu, but he gave her an encouraging smile.
"Have you spoken with Mi-Reu and Sehyun?" Ji-Hu asked.
"No," said Yoongi. "I was hoping you would, since you know them so well. Let them know what's going on. At some stage we'll need to get everyone together and talk about this, but in the mean time, we'll see if Jisoo can get some information out of the leaders. I'm thinking if you try for a meal time, wait outside the hall and see if you can hear through the walls, that would probably be your best chance at being unobtrusive about it."
"I'll try," Jisoo nodded.
"Thank you," said Yoongi, giving her a genuine smile.
"You too Yoongi. It's good to see you again. And nice to meet you, Tayeon."
Tayeon, who'd been silent for the entire discussion, smiled at Jisoo and Ji-Hu.
"Nice to meet you too."
~.~.~.~.~
Training was vastly different, when the initiates woke up on the morning of stage two.
For one thing, although the majority of them didn't know it, Namjoon and Yoongi had finally come to an understanding. They were trying to preserve the illusion that they didn't trust each other, but for someone like Tayeon, who could feel the shift in the atmosphere of the room, it was a little more calming.
For another, gone were the days of punching bags, knives, and guns. There was no one on one fights. In fact, in stage two, your greatest enemy was yourself.
Whilst the majority of the initiates waited in the training hall, Yoongi and Namjoon took one initiate each into separate rooms to undergo what appeared to be some kind of testing. Despite the shift in atmosphere, everyone could feel the sense of dread pervading the room. No one was really talking - most were deep in thought about what they imagined would happen to them in the testing rooms. Especially since most of the initiates looked like they'd seen a ghost when they came out afterwards.
When Yoongi finally called Tayeon's name, and she followed him into the room, her heart was already beating a little faster than usual. The door closed behind them, and Tayeon looked about the room, taking in the large screens, the metallic table covered with a few tools, and the large yellow chair, which was right in the middle.
"Today you'll be facing your worst fears," said Yoongi, gesturing for the blonde to take a seat in the chair. "It's a simulation induced by a serum that targets the part of the brain that processes fear. Most people have around ten to fifteen fears, maybe more, maybe less, and it will look and feel as if you're really in the situation that makes you so afraid. To get past each fear landscape, you've either got to slow your heart rate and your breathing to normal, or you have to face the fear. You'll score better if you can face it, but for your first time, just try to get out of there as quickly as possible.
Tayeon nodded wordlessly, looking at him with wide eyes.
"Can you see what I'm seeing?"
"Yes," he nodded, gesturing to a big screen on the wall. "Your heartbeat is monitored here as well, so the simulation will know when to move on." He moved closer to her, taking her hand, and squeezing it a little. "And this is really important, okay? You're Divergent, so you'll be able to affect the sim in a way a regular Dauntless wouldn't be able to. Everything is enhanced in the sim as well, so your powers are gonna feel a lot more overwhelming. But at the end of stage two, the Dauntless leaders will watch you go through this sim. If you're acting like a Divergent, they'll be able to tell. So try not to do anything like that, okay? You will get time to practice this more."
"Okay," she said, her voice a little shaky. Yoongi smiled at her, and patted her on the shoulder.
"You'll be fine, yeah? Just remember, you either slow your breathing down, or you face the fear."
__________
Tayeon blinked her eyes open with a start, suddenly realising she wasn't in the room with the chair anymore. She glanced around quickly, but Yoongi was nowhere to be seen. Instead of the four walls of the small testing room, her eyes were met with an endless forest of tall, dark green oaks, rough pines, and thick shrubbery underfoot. It was beautiful, in a way, and unlike anything that Tayeon had ever seen before.
The blonde began to move through the forest, staring around in wonder at what she was seeing. The forest floor was thick with debris, which made it difficult going, but soon she came to a thin, bubbling stream which wound its way through the trees. As she looked at it, she could feel something crawling up her legs. She batted it away absently, but the feeling remained, and when she looked down, she was startled to see there were several black and red beetles crawling up her leg.
Tayeon hated beetles.
She attempted to bat them away with her hands, but then there was a buzzing sound in her ears, and then an entire swarm of them were flying around her, landing in her hair, and on her face. She squealed in terror, trying to swat them away, but they continued to surround her, and Tayeon could feel her skin crawling.
She couldn't think straight, the only thing she could focus on was getting the tiny creatures off her skin as fast as possible. She felt her powers pricking at the edge of her skin, and she summoned it with surprising strength, feeling flames burst through every portion of her body. Thankfully, the beetles fled almost immediately, and she attempted to dismiss the fire she'd created. However, it was growing stronger by the minute, and she was forced to summon some water to put the flames out. Exhausted with her efforts, her eyes closed, and suddenly, everything was black again.
_________
This time when she opened her eyes, the water hadn't left her. In fact, she was completely underwater, and could barely see two foot in front of her face. She attempted to swim towards something she could use as a landmark, anything that could show her where she was or what she was doing, but there was nothing apart from wide, open space, almost as though she was in the middle of the ocean. She was beginning to run out of breath, but then suddenly, all the water was rushing to one side.
As she was carried with the current, she tried to see what was going on, but then all the water was rushing into what looked like a tank. As she was carried past the mouth of the tank, she managed to reach up and grab on to the lip of it, hanging on as best as she could. The water was fiercely dragging her in the opposite direction, filling her with alarm and fear. If she fell into the tank, it was unlikely she'd be able to get out again.
And then suddenly, it clicked in her mind.
Water.
She tried to block out the fear, and began to focus intently on the power that the water had. Once she'd managed to tap into it, she attempted to drive it in the opposite direction. The rushing slowed almost instantly, moving slower and slower, until it had finally stopped altogether, and then it was pushing the other way, up and out of the tank. It all happened so quickly, and Tayeon allowed it to carry her with it, out of whatever it was that had almost trapped her, and into the darkness once again.
________________
Tayeon could still feel something carrying her along, and once her eyes opened, she realised she was at the edge of a cliff. She looked back in alarm to see that the Dauntless compound behind her had exploded into flames. The cliff she was on had been the edge of a tall building, at one point, but but now the entire earth had apparently collapsed away underneath it.
"Tayeon!"
The blonde turned, upon hearing the voice, and the relief she felt upon seeing Yoongi there was palpable.
"Yoongi! What's going on? Why is everything on fire?"
"It doesn't matter now," he shook his head. "We have to get out of here. Come on!"
"Where can we go?" She exclaimed. "The cliff is literally right there!"
"Trust me, I know the way down," he told her, holding out a hand.
Tayeon stated at him, wondering how on earth they'd wound up in this situation. She didn't know what was going on, but if she didn't make a decision quickly, she'd either be burnt alive, or thrown to her death. She glanced back at the compound, and saw that it was about to collapse at any moment.
"Tayeon?" Yoongi asked, looking at her insistently. "Come on. You need to trust me."
And she understood that, she really did. But she was absolutely terrified of placing her life in someone else's hands. Having been raised her entire life to believe that no secrets were worth keeping, the world she'd been thrown into at Dauntless was confusing on so many levels. But it was Yoongi, who'd never given her a reason not to trust him. Who'd been there for her every step of the way,
She took his hand.
And they jumped together.
____________________
Suddenly, she was back on the pier, and it was the middle of the day. Namjoon was with her, as he had been the first time, but as she looked around, there was Jimin, Yoongi, Daehyun, Iseul, Taehyung, Hoseok... almost everyone she knew. She frowned a little, in confusion.
"Guys? What are you doing here?"
None of them said anything. They were all looking at her in a strange manner, and Tayeon found it a little eerie. Then, there came a sound from above the crates, and now, night had fallen. Everyone was looking around in alarm, reaching for each other in the darkness, and then suddenly, Dauntless soldiers burst onto the scene. They were everywhere, some above the crates, some crawling around the side of them. Tayeon's first instinct was to get to her friends, to protect them, but she was rooted to the spot. So she did the only thing she could think of.
She drew her powers to the surface, and allowed them to explode out of her, throwing back the soldiers from her friends, and forming a protective barrier between each of them.
However, the soldiers kept coming. Tayeon accordingly pushed more and more power into her forcefield, trying to hold them off, but as soon as one wave of soldiers had been dealt with, another followed swiftly behind them. She felt her control start to slip away at the edges, and suddenly, she wasn't forcing more power out, but trying desperately to maintain her grasp on what she was already dealing with.
Her friends were looking at her in alarm, as the wind began to pick up, and then fire began to burst from her skin, endangering the people she loved the most. She could hear screaming ringing loudly in her ears, before realising it was her own. Finally, she could hold on no longer, and was forced to release her grip on her sanity, sinking to her knees in defeat.
All around her, the world became a swirling hurricane until it too, dissolved into nothing.
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A/N: oop fear sims go brrrrr