Divergent Christina+Uriah Fan Fic

Part Twelve

"You... You're dying?" Four asked.

Caleb looked up at him in disgust. "Have you not seen the things I've done!? HAVE YOU NOT SEEN THE LENGTH TO WHICH I WILL GO? Do you honestly think I wanted to transfer to Erudite? Do you think I WANTED to hurt Beatrice?"

"Then," Four proposed, "You knew you were dying this whole time?"

"Caleb," Tris cried softly. "Why did I not know this?"

I gasped and ran at him when Caleb slapped her across her face. My hands froze against his neck. My concience was too strong.

"Don't you dare touch her again!" I yelled, and broke down in pain.

"Don't..." Uriah said quietly. He put his hands over mine from behind and pulled me back. He held me against his body as we stood in shock.

"What was THAT for!?" Four demanded.

Caleb glared at him and then turned to Tris. "Idiotic. I went to Erudite in hope of finding a cure. I left the family because I needed to cut off my emotion. Who better to learn from than Jeanine herself?" He sighed. "I needed... She- Jeanine- already had Tris, and was already going to torture her. Whether it was me or not. I needed to be there, I needed to see Tris mad at me. I needed her anger to match the guilt I had for leaving. I never hated her. I just needed a way to cut the rest of my emotional ties."

"That's sickening," I whispered.

"Comming from a girl whos original faction prized honesty?" Caleb laughed. "I'm dying, and Erudite is my only chance. I am willing to do whatever I have to so that I might live long enough to make up for whatever sins I might have commited along the way. I've grown up in the faction system like everyone else. I don't want to die without taking something for myself first from this world."

"Wasn't that going a bit far?" Tris asked with a breaking voice.

"You left Mom and Dad to feel freedom. When you decided on Dauntless, you chose to leave me too. After seperating- family didn't matter anymore. If it did, we wouldn't have left ours. Faction before blood. In my case, I simply valued my own life second to my faction. Above my family- which was gone anyways," Caleb replied.  "It was like harming a stranger. In your case... Tris- haven't you killed many with your own hands? You don't have the right to judge me...

None of you do."