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I walk stiffly to the center of the room as Tobias leaves it As we pass each other, he takes one, and it’s just me and Niles and the needle I wipe the side of my neck with the antiseptic, but when he reaches out with the needle, I pull back

"I would rather do itout ain, not after letting Eric inject me with attack sie the contents of the syringe just by doing it myself, but at least this way, I am the instrument of my own destruction

"Do you kno?" he says, raising a bushy eyebrow

"Yes"

Niles offers e I position it over the vein in er I barely feel the pinch I aed with adrenaline

Someone comes forith a trash can, and I toss the needle in I feel the effects of the serum immediately afterward It makes my blood feel like lead in my veins I alrab uide oes silent What was I thinking about? It doesn’t seeacross from me

"What is your name?" he says

The second he asks the question, the answer pops out of o by Tris?"

"I do"

"What are the names of your parents, Tris?"

"Andrew and Natalie Prior"

"You are also a faction transfer, are you not?"

"Yes," I say, but a new thought whispers at the back of my mind Also? Also refers to someone else, and in this case, someone else is Tobias I frown as I try to picture Tobias, but it is difficult to force the ie of hih I see hi in the saation? And chose Dauntless?"

"Yes," I say again, but this time, the word sounds terse I don’t knohy, exactly

"Why did you transfer?"

That question is ood enough for Abnegation is on the tip of ue, but another phrase replaces it: I wanted to be free They are both true I want to say them both I squeeze the ar I see people all around me, but I don’t knohy they’re there

I strain, the way I used to strain when I could almost remember the answer to a test question but couldn’t call it to e the ansas on I struggle for a few seconds, but I can’t do it; I can’t reation," I say, "and I wanted to be free So I chose Dauntless"

"Why weren’t you good enough?"

"Because I was selfish," I say

"You were selfish? You aren’t anymore?"

"Of course I am My mother said that everyone is selfish," I say, "but I became less selfish in Dauntless I discovered there were people I would fight for Die for, even"

The answer surprises ether for a moment Because it’s true If I say it here, itlink in the chain of thought I was trying to find I a I say is true I feel a bead of sweat roll down the back of my neck

Lie-detector test Truth seruet lost in honesty

"Tris, would you please tell us what happened the day of the attack?"

"I woke up," I say, "and everyone was under the si until I found Tobias"

"What happened after you and Tobias were separated?"

"Jeanine tried to have me killed, but my mother saved un" My body feels even heavier now, but no longer cold I feel so worse than sadness, worse than regret

I knohat comes next My mother died and then I killed Will; I shot him; I killed him

"She distracted the Dauntless soldiers so I could get away, and they killed her," I say

Some of them ran after me, and I killed them But there are Dauntless in the crowd around me, Dauntless, I killed some of the Dauntless, I shouldn’t talk about it here

"I kept running," I say, "And" And Will ran after me And I killed him No, no I feel sweat near my hairline

"And I found my brother and father," I say, my voice strained "We fore of the ars into my palm I withheld some of the truth Surely that counts as deception

I fought the serum And in that short moment, I won

I should feel triuain

"We infiltrated the Dauntless compound, and ht off Dauntless soldiers at the expense of his life," I say "I made it to the control rooht him, but then stopped Why did you do that?"

"Because I realized that one of us would have to kill the other," I say, "and I didn’t want to kill hiave up?"

"No!" I snap I shakeI had done in my fear landscape in Dauntless initiationin a simulation, a woman demanded that I kill my faht" I pinch the bridge of one and hts run into words "I was so frantic, but all I could think was that there was soth in it And I couldn’t kill him, so I had to try"

I blink tears from my eyes

"So you were never under the simulation?"