Devotion (Four/Theo Eaton x OC) [COMPLETE]

Chapter 10: Belonging

The ride felt longer than usual since the level of stress had significantly increased the pounding of my heart rate. When the train finally stopped in Abnegation, the soldiers stepped off and entered the village. It was difficult to maintain the same slow walking pace of the other Dauntless when my instinct was to reach Four as fast as possible. Running to him would expose me, however, so I restrained myself with great effort and managed to casually follow after him.

I almost caught up to him when a Dauntless stepped in front of me. I was forced to stop and focus on keeping my expression blank as I stared off into space in front of me.

"Is this her?" the girl asked another Dauntless. "She doesn't look Divergent."

"She's just faking, aren't you, Swift?" Eric sneered and punched me in the gut.

I recoiled with a groan and pointed my gun at his head, "Try that again, Eric, and you'll be dead."

He chuckled and nodded to the seven guards surrounding me with guns targeted at my brain, "Actually, Swift, You'll be dead."

I considered fighting them but decided against it. There were too many of them to chance losing my life when they didn't attack first. "What do you want with me?" I kept my gun raised.

"Just another little test," he grabbed the barrel of my gun, yanking the weapon from my hands and bringing the handle down hard against my skull. My entire body instantly weakened from the impact and I fell to the ground, surrounded by darkness.

When I regained consciousness, I could see through my eyes but couldn't control my body. I tried to move, but my limbs refused to obey. It wasn't only because my hands were tied to the arms of the chair; I couldn't even move my head to look down at the straps.

Suddenly, a man rushed into the room and touched a computer screen. My vision somehow changed. I was no longer seeing through my own eyes and consciousness but through a foreign control over my body.

The man undid the straps holding my arms to the chair and I stood, walking into the main section of the room where I was held captive. There were people running around me, not fleeing from me but from two figures fighting their way across the room. Tris and Four.

I wanted to run to them, but the foreign power willed me to attack. Both were my enemies, but Tris was not considered a major threat. Four was my main target.

"Swift!" Four started to run to me but stopped when he saw my eyes. He knew I wasn't thinking clearly.

I willed my fists to stop punching, but the other consciousness forced my body to fight. He grabbed me by the shoulders and tried to hold me down, but I kicked him in the stomach.

"Swift, listen to me, it's not you," Four scrambled to his feet after I had shoved him down. "I know it's not you. You can fight it. You have to fight it."

But I knew I couldn't.

I picked up a gun from the floor as I cornered him against a wall. The hammer clicked as I cocked it and pointed the weapon at his head.

"Four!" Tris ran up behind me, but Four held up his hand for her to stop.

"No, I know she can fight this," he said quietly.

But I couldn't. His faith in me was misplaced.

Instead of pulling the trigger, I fought against the opposite will and managed to point the gun at my own head. The foreign power over me was going to kill Four and the only way to stop it was to shoot myself.

Four began to panic and grabbed the gun with his hand to point it back at his head. "Don't do that to me, Maria," he whispered. "Not after all we've been through. I'm not going to leave you behind."

At the mention of my name, the foreign power seemed to leave. My legs went limp and Four caught me in his arms before I hit the ground. The gun slipped from my hand as he hugged me tightly, holding me upright until feeling returned again to my limbs.

"We've gotta get out of here," Four said. It all was a blur as he pulled me along through the halls of the building. As we ran outside and headed toward the tracks, a few stragglers joined our group and hopped inside the train car. I was too dazed to pay attention to who followed us.

At that moment, I didn't care where the train took us. I was where I belonged: with Four.