I want to cry because something terrible happened, and I saw it, and I could not see a way to mend it.

This is what I wanted most to avoid: for my rises and falls to become Tobias's rises and falls. That's why I can't let him step in to defend me now.

I glance at Tris. She grins at me, then leans in to whisper something to Christina. "Are you here to help or what, Stiff?" I say.

The official strategy is defensive pessimism, always.

Killing you is not the worst thing they can do to you," I say. "Controlling you is.

I hold the gun out from my body, my arms straight, just as Four taught me, when that was his only name. I used a gun like this to defend my father and brother from simulation-bound Dauntless. I used it to stop Eric from shooting Tobias in the head. It is not inherently evil. It is just a tool.

We don't know what's happened out there since they put us in here, or how many generations have lived and died since they did.We could be the last people left.