Defected - A Divergent FanFic

Chapter Ten

STAGE TWO IS nothing like I expected. I didn't know what to expect to be honest, but it most definitely wasn't what I'm experiencing now.

All the initiates are sat in a room, in chairs, outside a door. One at a time, each initiate is called into the room and is gone for several long minutes, and then returns as pale as snow and sweating and shaking. Four is the one who calls us.

"Tris, you're up next." Four calls as Molly leaves, muttering under her breath in acute fear.

I watch Tris go and I'm left with a few final initiates, I'm nervous to find out what is unnerving some of the stronger initiates and terrifying the weaker ones. Whatever it is, it's affecting everyone.

I'm surprised to see Tris leave so quickly. She was in there for less than half the time than the others were. I feel my stomach drop when Four looks at me.

"Come on, Blue." He says and beckons me.

I wipe my sweaty palms on my jeans and walk as confidently as possible as I can into the room.

Inside there is a monitor and a chair. It looks a lot like the aptitude testing rooms but without the mirrors.

"Have a seat." Four commands and I obey, he begins sticking electrodes to my head which are connected to the terminal. "I'm going to inject you with a serum which contains a transmitter. The serum will simulate one of your fears and relay the images onto my screen."

I look nervously at the monitor and raise an eyebrow. "You'll be able to see my fear?"

"Yes," Four nods, inserting a vial containing neon-orange liquid into a syringe. "Whilst you're in the sim, you need to lower your heart rate and breathing rate - that's how you'll get through."

I nod but don't say anything. Four holds the needle next to my neck and I cringe away. I hate needles. Four jabs the needle in my neck and I squeak in shock. Four drops the drained syringe onto a tray and I close my eyes involuntarily.

~

I wake up in the same chair, I'm standing in a room with large glass windows overlooking Erudite. I don't know how I got here. Did something go wrong during the sim?

There's a creak and the door opens. In steps four Erudite guards, armed with pistols, and my mother behind them.

"Well you tried, you must've realised that I'd catch up eventually." She says in an unfriendly tone.

"I don't understand." I reply, eyeing the pistols.

"Don't play the fool!" She bellows.

I fold my arms and then remember. None of this is real, I'm just in a sim and none of what is happening is really happening.

"Kill me then." I shrug, moving towards a chair and grabbing the back with my hand.

"I might have to." My mother mutters.

I shrug again and, with a quick movement, launch the chair towards the window, the glass shatters easily and I run and launch myself out of the shattered pane and plummeted towards the ground.

~

Someone's gasping for air. It takes me several minutes to realise that that someone is me. I wipe beads of sweat off my face and look up at Four who's watching me with curiosity.

"Why did you do that?" Four asks.

"Do what?" I wonder.

"Jump out of the window, it's not something most Dauntless would do."

I shrug and stand up, my legs are a bit shaky but I soon walk it off. My hands quiver and I wipe the collecting sweat on my jeans.

"Divergent..." Four mutters under his breath.

I whip around, terrified. "What did you say?"

"Divergent." Four repeats so I can hear him. He looks at me carefully.

"What are you going to do about it? Have me killed?" My voice breaks under the pressure.

"I'm not going to do anything." Four replies. "But you need to learn that you can't do things like that, it makes your Divergence noticeable - you need to deal with things the way a Dauntless would, otherwise..."

I finish his sentence for him. "I'm dead." And drop my head.

I go to the door but before I can leave, Four speaks again.

"Why was Jeanine Matthews in your fear?"

I pause, my hand on the handle, and say with my back to him. "Find out who I am and you'll understand why."

"And what was the fear? I couldn't quite figure it out."

"I'm afraid of being discovered. I'm afraid she'll find out I'm Divergent." I turn to face Four and look him fully in the face, my defiance burning like a fire. "That can never happen."