Life Without War (Divergent)

Chapter 18

[A/N- Sorry for not updating in a while. busy as always. enjoy!] 

*Tris' POV* 

My brother, Caleb Prior, looked back at me. 

"Caleb? What are you doing here?" I asked in shock. 

I hadn't seen him in so long. It's been nearly a year and I hadn't heard anything from him or about him. It seemed like I had almost forgotten him but I knew who he was in the back of my mind. 

He still looked the same. The same green eyes, brown hair. I remembered them so well from the days before he left. 

I realized I must have been staring at him for a long time. Christina was still behind me with a look of awe on her face. She kept her eyes trained on my brother, not even noticing my stare. 

Caleb tried to move in my grip and I turned back to him quickly. There was no way I was letting him get away this time. I had seen him everywhere for the past few weeks. Always wearing the mask with an outfit of all black. 

"Uh.. I-I needed to see you." He quietly stammered after the long silence. I had nearly forgotten the question I asked. 

"Really? Because whenever I've seen you recently, you run away when I see you. Why would you run if you wanted to see me that bad?" The look on his face showed that he was hiding something. You learn people's faces after living with them for that long. 

"I was sc-scared. You- you seem so much more powerful and I-I didn't want to get hu-hurt." He seemed to be biting his tongue to stop anything from slipping out. I gave him a disbelieving look. 

"Caleb, you're hiding something. I know you enough to know that." He eyes darted to the platform above us. 

He asked if we could talk in private, in a safer place. I was told that he wasn't allowed to tell anyone and he was risking his entire life in Erudite by telling me this. 

"I'm here on business. Jeanine and a few other scientists, including myself, have been working on a project including the factions for a while. They were experimenting to see who wasn't liking the life they had in their current faction. You must have heard the announcement by now. We were testing how many people wanted to leave and go back to their previous home. So we let them." 

I nodded in understanding. 

"But once they chose to leave, some were sent back. Some were even taken hostage- but that was mainly important figures trying to leave. Jeanine wanted to make an announcement to every faction letting them know who didn't like their life there and gave the factions the choice of how to deal with them. I didn't have control over who left and I wasn't able to see the list of names. I was worried you tried to go back to Abnegation- to mother and father. I had to make sure, I just had to." 

He took a deep breath and laid his head back on the wall. I had taken him into my apartment so we had a place to talk. Nobody ever came here, other than Tobias- who was busy right now. 

Caleb looked me in the eyes for the first time since I found him by the chasm. I felt the familiar, warm feeling that I used to experience every day. The sense of comfort and help was transported into me, just from the look in his eyes. I felt calm and felt my shoulders relax slightly. 

I reached over and took his hand. I held it in mine for a moment before dropping it. This wasn't supposed to happen. Coming to Dauntless was meant to erase every aspect of my old life. It didn't help when I had to go back for those two months. The memories had almost escaped my mind but Caleb came back and brought them with him. 

"Caleb, I love you but you need to go. You need to stay away from me and stop seeking me out. You know this is bad for both of us, it isn't helping anything. Our lives were meant to be separate when you left to Erudite and I came here. Being back together is ruining everything and I can't deal with that right now." 

I saw a look of hurt cross his face before he covered it. It was gone as fast as it had come. He slowly comprehended what i had said and nodded slightly. I felt terrible for doing this to him. He had no idea how much I wanted him to stay here with me forever and never go back. But that's not was is meant to happen. It's for the best. 

We slowly stood and I shyly stepped forward. I wrapped my arms around his waist and hugged him tightly. This was probably the last time we would be able to hug for a long time, maybe even forever. 

"I'm so sorry." I said as he put his mask back on and walked slowly to the door. He waved slightly before turning the handle and stepping into the hallway. I waved back as he swung the door closed and the sound of it closing echoed in my mind. 

After he left, I sat back down on my bed and looked into the mirror on the wall. 

What had I become?
What had the faction system done to my family? 
Why was I becoming this way? 

I wanted it to stop. 
Did I really want it to stop?
I did. 

It was a horrible thing. I grew up thinking my family was the number one thing in my life and we would never leave each other. Now I was in Dauntless, Caleb was in Erudite, my parents were in Abnegation. We were all separate and I hated it, but I loved it. 

Without this, I wouldn't have met the love of my life, my best friend, all the great people I know today. I wouldn't have become the person I am now. My life- my everything- would have been completely different. 

People thought of the faction system as their only way to be a perfect society. But I knew we were far from an ideal society. There was no such thing. There always had to be a flaw in the system that was 'perfect' to so many. 

I wanted it to end, but I didn't. 

No, I wanted it to end. 

And that was final. 

The Divergent were the only ones that could save this world from crumbling to nothing. We were the only ones who new how to defy the system. We could make a change. We would make a change. We knew what needed to be done, there were so many of us to help. 

There were only few I knew of. I was one. Tobias was another. He had never actually told me that but I assumed with everything he showed me. Uriah may be another. He had the spirits and showed to characteristics of a Divergent. Those were the 3 I knew of. But there had to be more. There was more. 

Then and there, I made my new goal and promised myself one thing. I needed to locate the other people like me. I needed to make a force to stop this. I needed to make a change. I vowed that I would find every last one of the Divergents in the society. I vowed to convince them to join me. I vowed to stop this system and make everyone a better life. 

It needed to happen. 

And soon. 

I had made up my mind and nothing would change it now. 

I, Beatrice Prior, vow to make a change- and a big one. 

[A/N- so that was that. I may have rambled a bit in the end because I wanted her to feel as though she was strong about it and knew what she was saying. 
I'm quite proud of what's happening int he story now and I hope it keeps going as good. 
I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it. 
This is a random Tuesday update so yay
I want to try and update another few times this week so we'll see how that goes. On Friday I have no school and I will try to write something for this while I'm at work with my mom.
This is literally the longest and worst author's not ever so sorry. 
I hope you enjoyed and don't forget to keep reading, comment, and vote. Thanks you so much for almost 18k reads! 
Thank you for everything. I love you all so much. 
Write to ya later! (that was dumb ugh)]