Great Balls of Fire

Phase 2 Advice

My friends, Peter, Molly, and Edward all make it to Phase Two and I'm ready to just pass the damn thing. I sit to Tris' left with Al on my left and look across the room to see Peter tracing the branches of ivy while his leg shakes a little.

"Ivy." Four calls and I get up to be psychologically tortured.

I close my eyes when I'm in the chair and wait for the fear to hit. I'm in a dark room that smells too sweet and flinch slightly when a few fires appear to light up the room. I put my hands over my mouth at the sight of dozens of spiders of different shapes and sizes surrounding me.

"Fuck this shit." I say, kicking over one of the fires to burn the spiders and run from the room, ripping off cobwebs as I do. When I come to a chasm I'm finally cornered and surrounded. The spiders begin to climb all over me and I try to push them of and kill them, but they just keep coming.

Finally I come out of it back in Dauntless.

"That sucked." I say after a few minutes of panting. Four just smirks slightly at that.

"Three minutes. Not bad." Four says. "You can go."

I shiver and walk out of the room, pulling my jacket closer around me.

"What did they do to her?" Christina asks Tris.

Once we're all done we relax on Christina and Tris' beds to go over it.

"What was yours?" Christina asks.

"Spiders chasing me through a dark room before cornering me and covering me from head to toe." I say before shivering. Christina pulls a face at that. "You didn't seem to have any problems at all."

"What? No. Oh my God, it was awful." Tris says.

"You have the best time out of all of us." Will says.

"You were amazing." Al says. I look at Christina and she smirks at me. Al has a crush on Tris.

"Nice job, Stiff. So, how'd you do it? What's your trick?" Peter asks, walking up to us.

"There's no trick."

"Do you ever stop talking?" Christina demands of Peter.

"At least tell your friends." Peter asks.

"And he wonders why the only reason you'd go out with him is on a bet." Will says.

"Is there a trick?" Al asks.

"No." Tris says, shaking her head.

The next day Tris and I go to the shooting range together alone.

"You did go from one of the worst to one of the best." I say and she looks at me in fear. "I mean, so did I, so..."

"Ivy." She says quietly.

"You've got to hide it better." I whisper. "These people are self-preservationists. They wouldn't try to make it worst to end it because, to them, it's real. You have to find a way to survive and get out of the situation as if it's real."

"How do you-what-you too?" She asks and I nod.

"The spiders? I could have just turned them all to ash since it's a sim, but I would have been found out. The small space? I could have just made the box go in the opposite direction." I say, aiming and firing.

"I've swum into a puddle and broken glass that wouldn't break when kicking it." Tris whispers doing the same.

"Self-preservationists wouldn't do that." I say and she nods. "Does anyone know?"

"Four suspects if not already know." She says. I shoot a few more times before having to reload. "How did you know to hide that way?"

"Remember all of Eric's threats? Always death or ending up as Factionless which would usually end in dying slowly and painfully."

"Self-preservation." Tris says in understanding while we both go back to shooting.

"And a cushy lifestyle." I say and she snorts.

"What are you two doing in here?" A voice says from behind us while we focus on shooting. I turn to see Four next to an attractive dark man.

"Practicing." I say, holding up the gun.

"You're not supposed to be here without a trainer." Four says.

"Well, you're here now." Tris says, continuing to shoot. I press my lips together, but my shoulders shake. Four's face hardens.

"I'm Zeke." The boys next to him says.

"Ivy. Miss Angry over there is Tris."

"And you already know Mr. Angry." Zeke says, nodding to Four. Both of them look at us indignantly.

"I make no apologies." Zeke and I say in unison.

"Those two do seem pretty dead, though. Come on." Zeke says, nodding towards the door. I put the gun down and Tris follows my lead.

The next day during training I find myself fending off a guy trying to rape me just to beat the crap out of him with anything near me. When I come out, I pointedly ignore Four.

"Can I go?"

"Being afraid of being raped isn't anything to be ashamed of, Ivy." Four says. I look at him with a vulnerable look on my face and I hate that I have it. "No one likes being forced to do something they don't want to do."

"Yeah." I say quietly while he plays with the screen in front of him.

"What'd you say to Tris?"

"What do you mean?" I ask in confusion.

"The cameras and speakers are disabled, frozen on you being in your fear landscape. Now, Tris actually acted as a Dauntless would today instead of how she had the last few days, and her time was less suspicious. What'd you tell her?" He asks and I raise an eyebrow. "I have also noticed when you nearly slip up, just like how my instructor had with me when I was in training."

"You too?" I ask and he nods. "I told her that Dauntless are self-preservationist. They'd find a way to stop the problem and/or get out of it rather than change things in our favor like she had been."

"And how'd you figure that out?"

"Eric's threats." I say and he snorts.

"Alight, get out of here." He says, playing with his screen again.