Great Balls of Fire

Keeping the Peace

After Tris saves Chicago again Christina and I are walking through Erudite headquarters and find Peter going through their serums.

"Haven't we delt with those enough?" I ask.

"Not this one." He says, holding up the familiar neon green serum. I sigh defeatedly at the sight of it.

"You want to go back in."

"Why would you want to do that?" Christina demands.

"I had a good life in the sim. I miss it."

"You can't go in without Uriah, Lynn, and me and I don't want to do it."

"Why not? You can fly freely again, not just around Chicago." He tries and it actually gains my attention. I do miss flying.

"Ivy." Christian says, knocking me out of it.

"No, Peter. I can't."

"How about we put it to a vote?" Peter asks.

"What makes you think the other two would be for it?"

"They love flying as much as we do, Lynn and Uriah were both in love with Marlene, and we all miss the lives we were forced out of." Peter lists off. "We'll have the vote in front of anyone left."

"You've got to be shitting me." I grumble, but let Peter run off to Four, Evelyn, Jack Kang, and Johanna to get it all organized.

"Come on." Christina says, sounding just as exasperated as I am.

"Hey, do you know what's going on?" Will asks us once we eventually manage to get to a large group that formed.

"Peter being his usual selfish self." I say with my arms crossed.

Everyone shuts up when Jack raises his hands.

"Thirty years ago Erudite learned of a part of the world's past! They learned of jets, fighter pilots, and past wars and missions. Obsessed with what they read and of the aviators they learned of they began to build their own jets that were replicas of those they read about and started to create a serum that would put them in the aviator's lives. Hearing of this and knowing how it would effect those put into their simulation Candor stole their jets, gear, and destroyed their serum. However, it has come to our attention that Erudite had managed to finish and perfect the serum anyway, and to those that it effects, I humbly apologize for not doing more.

"For Candor was right! The four initiates that were used as subjects have since had trouble readjusting to the lives they had before the simulation, thinking of the lives the serum had given them. It has come to our attention recently that at least one of the subjects would prefer to live in the simulation all together rather than staying here, it effected them so much. However, if one goes in all four have to, and so we have agreed to bring it to a vote. Could the four subjects please join us on stage?" Jack says, always one to be good with words.

I sigh deeply and make my way to the front with Peter, Lynn, and Uriah.

"Peter, you are the one who brough forward the idea of the four of you spending the rest of your days in the simulation." Jack says.

"What? You want us to spend the rest of our lives in a fake life?" I demand.

"Now, hold on, Ivy." Lynn says.

"You too?"

"What's really been good about life? It hasn't lived up to what we had in the simulation."

"And when life turns to shit in the sim? We can't just request for them to pull us out. We'd be stuck there."

"It's better than this."