Whovergent Chapter 2: Tests

Fire and Water. They danced in Koschei's dreams that night, each momentarily beating him back into the other until he didn't know which was better, or even where one ended and the other started. When the dream started, he was standing at the choosing ceremony, with the 16-year-olds of all the factions sitting behind him. In front of him lay a semi-circle of bowls, each one filled with a substance representing a different faction. He would cut his hand with a knife and sprinkle his blood into the faction he would choose. Then his hand was outstretched, and there was blood dripping down his wrist onto the carpet, and Erudite water and Dauntless flame were on either side of him, in huge metal bowls, and his hand didn't know which was to go. Cool water, or hot fire. Bravery, or Intelligence. Was he smart enough to choose a life of certainty and studies and Theta by his side, or brave enough to choose uncertainty and danger and loneliness?
"Choose." A voice sounded behind him. It was cold and distant and unfamiliar, but when he looked up, Theta was standing in front of him. "Choose." His best friend repeated. He was wearing blue. He was Erudite. Koschei could feel the heat of the flames dancing at his back, and when he turned away from his best friend, he saw that the flames had leapt from the bowl to his navy blue t-shirt. He was burning, and yet there was water rising around his feet as well, soaking his socks, creeping up his ankles. He couldn't breath from the pain of it, and Theta just stood there, glassy-eyed, until a ring of flame cut Koschei off from his best friend. He was burning up, his blue shirt was gone now, the flames was dancing over his bare skin, the fire was winning, he could hear his scream as though it belonged to someone else, and then...

Koschei snapped upright, panting, in his bed. He could still smell smoke, still feel heat on his skin, and he just sat there for a minute, breathing hard and taking in his surrounding. He was at home. Safe. The clock read 5:40 am. Still pale from the terror of his nightmare, the boy slipped out of bed, his feet digging into the soft green carpet that covered his floor, and made his way to the door, pulling on a sweat-shirt. He walked on slipper feet to the kitchen, where the early light of dawn was seeping across the marsh and in through the wide windows. There was still a thin layer of snow covering everything, but Koschei didn't see why everyone thought it was so beautiful. Snow. It was cold and white and blank, and it made it everything look the same, but Theta would somehow see the beauty in it. He would look at every little tiny flake and examine like it like it was the most unique and marvelous thing in the whole world. Because that's what his best friend did, Koschei thought. He cracked open the most ordinary of things and made them wonderful. He had a whole world in his head, and yet he only saw the good things. Koschei scowled and looked out at the marsh. Stupid Theta. Stupid, stupid Theta and his whole dumb faction who would only tie him down, that would keep him from being who he was supposed to be. He hated it, and he hated how hard it was going to be to leave behind.

The 16-year-old Erudites sat in the school cafeteria with the other almost-initites, waiting to be called in for their aptitude tests. The grey-clothed abnegations sat quietly in one corner, quite obviously trying not to be noticed, the amity sat together in comfortable, red and yellow colored clumps, playing card games and chatting amiably, the Candor sat at tables, arguing about something; but it's clear that they weren't serious from the smiles on their faces, and the Dauntless stood, joking in the loud, almost harsh way known only to them. As Theta watched, one black-clad girl reached over and punched her friend on the shoulder jokingly. He laughed, only pretending to look offended, although to Theta, the punch had actually looked rather painful. He sat with the other Erudite, most of whom were reading or studying. Koschei sat next to him, but something was clearly bothering the smaller boy. The other's might not notice- Kos always came off as brusque or even harsh around them, and his moodiness wouldn't seem out of place to them, but his best friend was sure something was up. Koschei might not be overly eager to make friends, but he was never this closed off around Theta. Usually the tall brunet was able the read his friend's face like one of the books he was so fond of, but not today.
"You're quiet today." Theta tried weakly to break the uncomfortable silence. The other boy just shrugged and turned away. "Hey, what's going on with you?" He continued, a bit more forcefully. "You can tell me."
"Nothing's wrong, ok? Leave me alone."
"Ok, now I know something's up. Let me think...did you break up with someone? No, all the girls in school hate you. Um, fight with a friend? Well, I haven't done anything to offend you, so that rules that out. Let me think..." The other boy whirled around to glare at his friend, brown-green eyes sharp and deadly. "Shut up! I told you to leave me alone." Theta blinked, surprise and hurt in his large brown eyes. "I was just-" He trailed off at the look on his friend's face. Turning his shoulder again, Koschei stared at the opposite wall, refusing to turn back around and apologize. Stupid Theta. He didn't need him. He didn't need friends at all. Theta might not know it, but his best friend didn't need the test to decide what faction he belonged in. This 16-year-old had made up his own mind. He didn't need friends.
The friend in question was staring at the back of Koschei's light brown head, a lump of worry growing in his throat. After a few seconds of this, he tuned back to his book, although he might as well have kept looking at his friend, because his brain just kept skipping back to the same passage over and over. Finally, a tall blonde abnegation woman who was helping run the tests called out Koschei's name. Theta looked up as his friend stood, ready to say "good luck", but the memory of Kos's face when he had snapped at him popped into Theta's mind, and the words died on his lips. Koschei walked away, and Theta felt like something important was starting to crack, and he didn't know how to fix it.
Theta never saw his best friend come back out of the testing room, because a few minutes after Kos had walked away towards one of the empty classrooms where the tests were being administered, a tall bald man in Abnegation grey called, "Theta Sigma?" Theta stood, trying not to let himself be worried. A calm mind was a clear mind, that was what the Erudite taught. But he could feel his hands growing sweaty as he followed the man down a long hallway of white tile to an empty classroom. The long, brown trench coat that he loved so much suddenly felt like it weighed a thousand tons. Without really thinking, Theta followed the man to one corner of the classroom, where a large black chair was set up. He climbed into it, and the man silently attached two small suction cups to his forehead and buckled a few straps across his chest before handing him a small cup filled with orange liquid. "I assume the electrodes are to measure brain activity," The teen said, breaking the silence, as the abnegation man began punching controls into a computer on one of the nearby lab tables. "But what's the liquid for? Obviously the test isn't verbal or written; that's to prone to human error, so... oh, brilliant, it's a simulation!"
The administrator gave Theta a sharp look, but the boy wasn't paying attention. "I mean, I assume it's a simulation, and, no offense, but I'm usually right about these things, so what's it going to do?" He looked up at the man, eyes filled with the excitement of a discovery, but the grim-looking abnegation just shrugged. "I can't tell you, so you might as well drink it and find out. You aren't even supposed to know about the simulation serum."
"Yeah, well, school projects, you know." Theta supplied the lie with an easy shrug. He definitely wasn't made for Candor. In truth, him and Koschei had done a ton of research on the different serums to see if they could mix an accurate enough recreation of the truth serum to get one of their friends to tell the whole school his biggest secrets during lunch. Unfortunately, that had been one of their less successful experiments, and has just ended up turning both their faces bright blue for a day after they accidentally breathed in the fumes. Well, might as well get this over with. Theta thought, quickly gulping down the orange liquid. For a moment, the world went black, and then everything twisted, and he was back in the cafeteria. It was empty, all the other 16 year olds gone, and sitting in front of him, at the very table he had sat at only a few minutes ago, were two bowls. Theta peered into each one in turn, finding a knife in the first one and a hunk of cheese in the second. "Choose." Said a cold female voice behind him, but when he whipped around to see who had spoken, there was no one there. "Ok..." He muttered, reaching for the cheese. As he saw it, the knife couldn't mean anything good. Knives were meant for hurting things, and he'd never had much of a taste for violence. The moment his hand curled around the lump of cheese, the bowls disappeared, and he was left standing in front of an empty table. Then he heard a bark behind him, and whipped around.
A large, black dog was approaching slowly across the cafeteria, it's muscles bunched as it crept forward. Theta stared at it, analyzing the way it was crouched, the look in it's eyes, the ribs showing under it's raggedy black fur. His first instinct was to feel bad for the animal, but he also knew that it was stalking him. Only 5 feet and a row of tables separated the dog from the tall boy now. What do I do, what do I do? Theta could feel his pulse in his fingertips, but he wasn't panicking- he'd had too much practice at keeping a clear head for that. There is absolutely no chance of escape if I run, there is no way even I can out race a large dog, I'm not strong enough to fight it, not even if I had that knife-so what do I have? The boy's brown eyes caught on the piece of cheese in his hand. He approached the dog slowly, hand outstretched, and a growl grew low in it's throat. "It's ok..." Theta spoke quietly and deliberately. Dogs don't recognize words, but they know a calm tone of voice. I have to come off not like a threat, but not prey either. Kneeling in front of the dog and keeping his eyes fixed on the floor, he held out the piece of cheese slowly, letting the dog sniff it gently before throwing it to the other end of the room. "Go get it, boy!"
The dog raced off after the clump of cheese, and Theta stood, brushing off his knees, with a triumphant grin on his face. "That's it?" He said aloud to no one, "That wasn't so-" the last word never made it out of his mouth, because he'd just spotted something on the other side of the room. The cheese lay where he'd thrown it, but the dog had turned his attention somewhere else. Maybe 5 feet away from the lump of cheese, a little girl in Amity red was twirling around in a circle, laughing when she fell down. She didn't see the dog, who had looked up from sniffing the cheese and was resuming his predatory stalk towards her. Theta sprinted towards her, dodging tables, because he knew exactly what was coming next. He slid over a row of tables, eyes wide, but he knew perfectly well he wouldn't make it in time. "Hey!" he shouted at the dog, grabbing the cheese, but he knew he wasn't going to be able to use the same trick twice. At the sound of his voice, the dog sprang, and Theta stared, petrified. He wanted to close his eyes, but they seemed to be frozen open. "I'm sorry," He whispered, "I'm so, so sorry." And then the cafeteria dissolved around him.
Theta was sitting back in the black chair, looking up at a blank white patch of ceiling. It took maybe four seconds before he remembered where he was, and then he snapped upright-or at least tried to- before remembering that he was strapped into the chair. Unbuckling the straps easily on his own, the boy sat up, trying to peer over the Abnegation man's shoulder at the computer screen. "I wouldn't stand up for a minute or two." The abnegation said, not looking up from the screen. "The simulation makes most people a little dizzy."
Theta shook his head as if shaking off water, and stood up despite the man's advice. He'd never been good at listening to adults. Placing one hand on the headrest of the chair to keep himself from either puking or falling over, he looked intently at the test administrator.
"So? What's my result? What am I?"
"Erudite." Theta felt a weight drop out of his stomach and took the first easy breath he'd had since his conversation with Koschei yesterday. He was Erudite. He was in the right faction. He didn't have to worry. Smiling, the brown-haired 16 year old turned to leave the room and head back to the cafeteria, leaving the volunteer to log his information and results. His mouth was half open to proudly declare his results to Kos, when he noticed that his best friend wasn't sitting with the other Erudite. A quick scan of the room showed no trace of the younger boy, and a portion of the relief that Theta was feeling disappeared, leaving a familiar heaviness in it's place. So, apparently his worry wasn't over just yet. He whirled back around and went to search for Koschei.

It was more then 20 minutes later when Theta finally found his best friend curled up in an empty classroom. His back was to the wall, knees drawn up against his chest, and his head was bowed. Theta stepped closer cautiously, but his friend didn't even seem to notice that he was being watched. Koschei was shaking, hands buried in his sandy hair, and when he finally noticed Theta standing on the other side of the room, he looked up, eyes blazing with suppressed tears.
"Kos." Theta almost whispered. "What happened?" His best friend just shook his head, kneading his eyes with the palms of his hands as if he had a headache. "I don't want to talk about it." His voice was surprisingly calm and steady.
"Well, you have to, because I can't just have you ignoring me on our last day before the start of initiation."
"It's all about you, isn't it?" The younger boys face was fierce again. "All Theta, all the time. You can't think for one minute about me, can you?" He pressed his palm to the floor and stood up, taking a step closer to the other boy. There was something new in his eyes, something beyond anger, something that was bordering on madness, and it scared Theta. He had almost never seen his friend look so vulnerable, or so broken. "I am thinking about you, right now, so if you would just tell me what's wrong-"
"The drums, Theta, can you hear them?"
"Drums?" The brunet looked steadily at his friend, brown eyes trying to see inside him, see what was hurting him. "There are no drums that I can hear." Koschei shook his head. "No, they're-they're in my head, the drums, ever since the aptitude test. At first I thought it was just a side effect, but I can still hear them. Right now, listen. Listen. They're here. It hurts, Thete." There it was again, that look, like Koschei was breaking, cracking like glass. It broke Theta's heart, but he didn't know what to do. "What was your result?" He asked his friend, scared that he knew the answer.
"We're not supposed to talk about it..."
"Right." Came the immediate reply. "Because that's the one rule that we're not going to just disregard. We've already shredded the rulebook, Kos, what harm will it do."
"Fine. Fine, I got Dauntless, ok?" Koschei snapped. "And I-I don't know-" his became choked, and he took a deep breath. "I can't, I can't do this anymore, Theta, so I'm going to transfer." Theta nodded. "Ok. ok, so I'll, transfer with you, or something. You're not just leaving me, you idiot!" He could hear the desperation in his own voice, and he hated it, but he couldn't keep it from showing. Because the truth was that, as sad as it might sound, his best friend was the most important person in his life. Both of them were orphans, and while Theta had a foster family, he'd been a boarding student at school since he was 8 years old, so he didn't have a great relationship with his family. They'd always frowned on his rebellious behavior, the way he could never just settle for being a good student and nothing more. He needed an adventure, always, and Koschei got that. They were partners in crime, and best friends for forever. Except that forever might be ending tomorrow. The two boys stood there in silence for a few moments, Theta watching his friend carefully, and Koschei standing with his head bowed, trying to hide the tears in his eyes. "Theta," He said finally, "you could never be Dauntless."
Theta's face hardened slightly. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means that I've been trying to keep you away from me because you were made to be Erudite and once I'm Dauntless, we can't be friends anymore. And if you transfer, then I won't thank you for it, so you might as well stay away from me." He had collected himself and was standing straight and rigid again, as if his break-down had never happened.
"No," Theta snapped, "that's not the way it works. Koschei, you're not making sense. Just let me help..." He trailed off at the utterly emotionless look on his friend's face. He'd never believed that his friend could be this cruel; maybe getting his test results really had changed him. Or maybe he'd always been like this on the inside, always been Dauntless, and having it confirmed had just allowed him to stop pretending to be something he wasn't. The thought hurt almost too much to bear.
Koschei had already done his best to drive their friendship off a cliff, but he had to finish it off for good. So he said that one thing that he knew would totally crush his best friend.
"Faction before blood, remember? The way I see it, that also means faction before friendship."
Theta's eyes widened, and then became hard as ice as he realized that the other boy was serious about this. As the desperation in his face transformed into anger, he turned his back on Koschei and strode out of the room without even bothering to reply to his former friend's insult. But in the last moment before he was out of earshot, he heard the younger boy tapping out a rhythm of four on one of the empty desks.
one, two, three, four,
Thete and Kos are no more.