Aberrant

Epilogue

One year later

Brooke: 

I swivel round on my chair and stretch. I glance across the cramped computer room and catch Jo's eye. She grins.  

"You done for the day?" she asks. 

"Yeah," I smile, as I get up from my desk, "What about you?"

She shakes her head, "No, I've still got an hour to go. See you in later in the Pit?"

"Sure," I say smiling. Ever since we got into Dauntless, my relationship with the other transfers has improved so much over the past year, especially with Jo. Unlike Sam, she was more forgiving, and Sam only held a grudge because he felt he had to on Dex's behalf. 

I head out of the computer room and walk down the corridor towards Amar's office. I knock on the door with my knuckles. 

There's a pause, and then, "Come in." I smile and open the door, quickly shutting it behind me. Amar is sitting at his desk, seemingly buried in paperwork.

He glances up at me, "Hi Brooke." 

I raise an eyebrow, "Initiation has just started and you're already tired. Are this years batch of recruits really that bad?"

He sighs heavily, "They're a handful, I'll put it that way." He looks behind me to check if the door is properly shut and then says in a low voice, "And before you ask, no, I haven't spotted anyone like us yet. Hopefully, they'll all Dauntless but with out luck, I wouldn't put it past them."

"I didn't get any Divergents in my Aptitude test," I inform him. I specifically got a job in working with computers so I'd be asked to administer the tests, "But I spoke to Tori after hers. She says there was someone you should look out for."

"Oh?" Amar asks. 

"Some Abnegation kid who transferred to Dauntless?"

"Yeah, I know the one. What about him?" Amar asks. 

"He got Abnegation but she said she wasn't a hundred percent sure. He seemed too confident in the Aptitude test. Like he'd been trained for it or something."

Amar raises an eyebrow, "Alright, I'll keep an eye on him. It's hard to tell anyway in the first stage of training but that kid is very good at keeping his cards close to his chest."

"What's his name?" I ask. 

Amar smiles, "I don't even know that. He told me I could call him 'Stiff'." He takes in my reaction and laughs. "Well, anyway," he says, "I don't know for sure yet. But once it gets to the second stage, I'll let you know straight away if he's Divergent. Then we help him as much as we can."

I frown, "He doesn't seem to be the sort who'll accept help."

Amar smiles again, "No, that's true. But, who knows? With some luck, he won't be Divergent and everything will be fine."

I sigh, "I guess we'll have to just wait and see."

Dex: 

Rana aims a punch at Astro's head but she dodges last minute and delivers a knock-out blow. Rana falls unconscious. 

I beam and clap my hands to get their attention. I catch Astro's eye and smile as she flicks her long purple hair to one side. For someone originally from Erudite, she sure is good at this. 

"You know, me," I shout, "I hate lying. So let me tell you. That was slightly better than yesterday, but no one has managed to beat Astro yet. I'm expecting better tomorrow. You can go." There's a cheer and I watch as a couple of them carry off Rana. I smile. Even though Rana and I didn't start off on best of terms, I now consider him to be one of my friends. 

I look over at the other side of the room and spot Lyra and Amy training some of their students. Amy's busy talking but Lyra catches my eye and waves. I smile and wave back. I was so happy when they joined me in Factionless. 

Other people are here too-like Cassie, who's been using her Erudite and Dauntless knowledge to manufacture weapons, and, unfortunately, Edgar, who mainly keeps to himself and stays out of our way. I also expected to find Phoebe here, but in the past year I've been here, I haven't seen her. 

Callum comes up behind me and passes me a bottle of water. 

"How's it going?" He asks. Unlike me, Amy and Lyra, Callum didn't want to use his combat skills to train the Factionless like Evelyn requested. Instead, he mainly works in the factories in Erudite, getting food and clothes for us Factionless. 

I take a swig of water and shrug, "Getting better but still hopeless."

Callum smiles, "I doubt they'll ever be up to your standard, Dex."

I look at him sideways, "What's that supposed to mean?"

He flushes slightly, but whatever he's about to say is interrupted as Dixie, one of Evelyn's assistants, heads up to us. 

"Dex, Evelyn wants to see you in her office," she says curtly. 

"Alright," I say, passing my bottle back to Callum, "See you around?"

"Yeah," Callum smiles slightly. Dixie and I head towards Evelyn's office, with Dixie leading the way even though I already know where it is. 

Dixie knocks on the door and then holds it open for me to enter, shutting it behind me. 

Evelyn looks up from a piece of paper she's reading, "Ah, Dex. I hope the training is progressing well?"

I shrug, "There's plenty of room for improvement."

She smiles slightly, "There always is."

"I don't suppose you'll tell me at some point why you want me to train the Factionless to fight?" I ask tiredly. 

Evelyn just smiles again, "Good soldiers don't ask questions." She says somewhat patronizingly. 

"I'm not a good soldier. If my memory serves correctly, I was kicked out of Dauntless." 

"Was that an attempt at sarcasm I was detecting?" She asks. I remain silent so she sighs and says, "I know you want to know the truth, Dex. But the thing is, the plan I'm formulating isn't up to scratch yet. I'm still in the early stages of testing and trying new things."

"So you won't tell me what you're planning?" I ask. 

"Not yet," she says, and glances at me levelly, "You'll just have to trust me."

I narrow my eyes, "Trusting people hasn't worked for me in the past."

She leans forward and squeezes my hand, "I know Dex, I know. I can't tell you my plan yet, but just know that I have big dreams for the future. A better, brighter future. Can you work with that?"

I glance at her and nod, "A better brighter future is just what I need."

She smiles, but her dark eyes stare at me penetratingly, "I'm glad to hear it."