We are taken by gunpoint to Abnegation headquarters. I'm not sure what awaits us, but I will do whatever I need to do to try to save her life. Plans of how to get her out of this roll around in my head, but in every scenario, we are both shot and killed.
We are pushed into a room and a woman sits behind a desk. She is wearing Erudite blue, the president of the Erudite, Jeanine. This is woman who has been filing all of the reports about the Abnegation and trying to stir up resentment between the factions. She is talking on the telephone giving orders. She places the phone firmly back on the desk and she looks at us, but her eyes train on Tris.
"Divergent rebels," one of the Dauntless leaders says.
"Yes, I can see that," she says coldly as she takes her glasses off.
"You," she says pointing to Tris, "I expected. All the trouble with your aptitude test results made me suspicious from the beginning. But you..."
She shifts her eyes from Tris to me, "You, Tobias- or should I call you Four? -managed to elude me. Everything about you checked out; test results, initiation simulations, everything. But here you are none the less. Perhaps you could explain to me how that is?"
I guess Amar did a better job at hiding my Divergence than I ever realized. He gave me my aptitude test, so he probably manipulated that as well as my simulations. Tori gave Tris her test, and although she tried, she didn't hide her as well.
"You're the genius," I say coldly. "Why don't you tell me?"
She smiles, "My theory is that you really belong in Abnegation. That your Divergence is weaker."
Little does she know. "Your posers of deductive reasoning are stunning," I snipe. "Consider me awed."
Tris looks at me. She has just seen a side of me that she has never really seen. The side of me that is volatile, explosive, and very dangerous. The side of me that will sooner explode than lie down and die. I feel like my insides are going to spew molten lava. The fire from my rage is building inside me to the boiling point. But I need to hold it together for Tris.
"Now that your intelligence has been verified, you might want to get on with killing us." I close my eyes. "You have a lot of Abnegation leader to murder, after all."
Jeanine stands in front of us smiling. It is a smile that makes me want to rip off her face. "Don't be silly," she says. "There's no rush. You are both here for and extremely important purpose. You see, it perplexed me that the Divergent were immune to the serum that I developed, so I have been working to remedy that. I thought I might have , with the last batch, but as you know, I was wrong. Luckily I have another batch to test."
"Why bother," Tris asks. She is weak and has slumped against me more. I place my arm around her to support her from the waist.
"I have had a question since I began the Dauntless project, and it is this." She walks around the desk. "Why are most Divergent weak-willed, God-fearing nobodies from Abnegation, of all factions."
"Weak-willed," I sneer. "It requires a strong will to manipulate a simulation, last time I checked. Weak-willed is mind controlling an army because it is too hard for you to train one yourself."
"I'm not a fool," she says. "A faction of intellectuals is no army. We are tired of being dominated by a bunch of self-righteous idiots who reject wealth and advancement, but we couldn't do this on our own. And your Dauntless leaders were all too happy to oblige me if I guaranteed them place in our new, improved government."
"Improved," I snap.
"Yes, improved," Jeanine says. "Improved, and working toward a world in which people will live in wealth, comfort, and prosperity."
"At who's expense," Tris asks weakly. "All that wealth... doesn't come from nowhere."
"Certainly the factionless are a drain on our resources. As is Abnegation. I am sure that once the remains of your old faction are absorbed into the Dauntless army, Candor will cooperate and we will finally be able to get on with things."
Now I am furious. She is going to control everyone. She is going to make it so everyone is controlled by the serum so that she can have power and wealth for herself, no one else. No one but Jeanine and a few others are going to benefit from this new government. Everyone else will be no better than mindless zombies.
I'm getting sick of all of this talking, "Get on with things," my voice rises. "Make no mistake. You will be dead before the day is out, you-"
"Perhaps if you could control your temper, you would not be in this situation to begin with, Tobias."
"I'm in this situation because you put me here," I retort. "The second you orchestrated an attack against innocent people."
"Innocent people," Jeanine snickers. "I find that a little funny coming from you. I would expect Marcus' son to understand that not all those people are innocent." She sits up on the desk and looks at me. "Can you tell me honestly that you wouldn't be happy to discover that your father was killed in the attack."
"No," I say clenching my teeth. "But at least his evil didn't involve the widespread manipulation of an entire faction and the systematic murder of every political leader we have."
"What I was going to say," she says, "is that soon, dozens of Abnegation and their young children will be my responsibility to keep in order, and it does not bode well for me that a large number of them may be Divergent like yourselves, incapable of being controlled by the simulations." She stands and moves to the left. "Therefore it was necessary that I develop a new form of simulation to which they are not immune. I have been forced to reassess my own assumptions. That is where you come in." She moves to the right. "You are correct to say that you are strong- willed. I cannot control your will. But there are a few things I can control."
She stops and turns to us. Tris's head slumps to the side of my shoulder. I rub my thumb against her side. The blood oozing from her wound is making her weak.
"I can control what you see and hear," she continues. "So I created a new serum that will adjust your surroundings to manipulate your will. Those who refuse to accept our leadership must be closely monitored." In other words, we will cooperate or we will be controlled. Either way she gets what she wants. "You will be the first test subject, Tobias. Beatrice however..." She smiles at her. "You are too injured to be of much use to me, so your execution will occur at the conclusion of this meeting."
I feel like all the air was just drained from the room. I can't control the emotion that is building in me. More than fear or rage or terror, it is an overwhelming felling of sorrow. Tears that I didn't know I had anymore threaten to escape my eyes as I look down at her. All of my muscles tense around her and I hold her tight to me. I know that I could hurt her, but it is better than losing her. I will not let her go! They will have to kill me first. Now all of the emotions are building up in me at once, fear, anger,and terror makes my adrenaline pump through my veins. My blood is turned into pure acid burning inside me.
Tris looks up at me terrified. When she looks at me her tears begin to fall. I gather he closer to me. If I don't let her go, they can't kill her.
"No," I say, voice wavering. I shake my head. "I would rather die."
"I'm afraid you don't have much of a choice in the matter," Jeanine says. Her voice is light and matter of fact.
I will not let her go, and I have to do something now. I pull my hand from Tris's side, and my hands around her face. I kiss on her strong and hard, the pressure parting her lips allowing for a deeper more passionate kiss. I feel her strength entering me.
I pull away from her and she slumps to the wall. I lunge across the desk and force my fingers around Jeanine's throat. I am going to squeeze the life out of her. I'm going to break her neck. I can do it, Amar made sure to teach me how to kill people with my bare hands.
Two Dauntless come at me to try to subdue me, but I squeeze her neck as tight as I can. They wrestle me to the ground. One pins me to the floor with his knee between my shoulders and the other smashes my face into the carpet.
I can't see her, but I hear Tris try to attack my restrainers but one must shove her back against the wall because I hear her crumple against it and drop to the floor. I struggle to break free and help her, but it's no use. I can't move.
I hear Jeanine coming towards me. I throw my elbow into the Dauntless nearest me and hit him in the face. Jeanine leans down and I feel a stab in my neck, and all goes dark. That is all.
"Let him up," I hear a voice croak.
The pressure that was on my back leaves and I am able to stand. I look all around me and am not sure of what I see in front of me. Familiar faces surround me, my friends and my old trainer Amar. Wait... Isn't Amar dead? There is also a girl here that looks like she might be familiar, but I get a feeling of dread and danger when I look at her. I need to eliminate her.
"Tobias!" the girl says. How does she know my name? "Tobias!" She sounds worried but I know this is a trick, she is going to kill me if I don't kill her first.
I narrow my eyes at her and walk toward her. I grab her by the throat, my hands wrapping around her windpipe, cutting off all oxygen and blood. I will choke the life out of her.
I hear someone talking about a simulation. I know I need to stop the simulation. The Dauntless are in a simulation and I need to stop it. Is this girl who is controlling the simulation? Is that why I feel like I need to kill her?
One of my friends grabs me from behind and pulls me off of her. They must not want me to kill her yet.
I hear something about going to a control room. Yes, that is where I need to go. That is where I need to be to dismantle the simulation and stop what is happening. Maybe then they will let me kill this girl.