They'd only had a few more minutes to eat their breakfast, before Four had risen from his seat and told the transfers to follow him. The group had formed a wall around Tris as they left the dining hall, and Lilith had spotted Peter rolling his eyes at them, which prompted her to give him the coldest glare she could muster. Every time Peter did something bad, she thought she couldn't hate him any more; yet, the boy always proved that theory wrong, and Lilith was past the point of having hope that he wouldn't stoop to the lowest levels.

Their instructor had guided them to the building above the Pit, and Lilith had done her best to pretend like she hadn't been there before, mirrowing Will's confused expression as they made their way to a room with grafitti covering the walls, that smelled slightly of mold. Nate's face had twisted in disgust as he came to a stop, and Lilith's nose twitched as she attempted to figure out why they were all the way up there, when their training so far had been happening underground.

Once the group had quieted down, Four had cleared his throat and explained the next phase of their training, one that was supposed to join their physical and psychological assets in an evaluation of their mental attributes. Lilith had managed to hold her own pretty well during the second stage of initiation, even if she hadn't done as well as she'd hoped for. With stage three bringing their psysical abilities to the mix, she had a higher chance of finally reaching the first place in the rankings. Or, at least, she hoped so.

Four had been done with explaining things pretty quickly, and had dismissed them after that, advising them to take the next week to think about their fears and ways to face them. The test in the fear landscape, as he had called it, would be done in front of the Dauntless leaders, which had only made Lilith want to work harder to cause a good impression. Most of the leaders gave her a bad feeling, but that didn't mean she shouldn't want to impress them. They were the ones who would decide her future at her new faction, no matter how sketchy they seemed to be. She was pretty sure she didn't need to convince Eric, as he already seemed to think she was one the best, that year. The remaining leaders, however, probably didn't even know her name.

But they would.

The rest of their group had stuck with Tris as they went back to the Pit, but Lilith had decided to wander off on her own for the rest of the morning. Unsurprisingly, the girl found herself at the tattoo parlour once more. She'd been flipping through the several drawings for a few minutes when Rita entered the space with a confident stride, heading in Lavinia's direction instantly. Lilith immediately straightened up, hoping that her friend had finally gathered enough courage to ask out her crush. However, Rita stopped just before she reached Lavinia, clenching her fists, before she turned back and ran out of the parlour. Shaking her head, Lilith had turned back to the tattoo sketches.

"Fancy meeting you here."

She didn't have to look to the side to know that it was Eric standing beside her, and the fact that her heart immediately started pounding made her silently curse herself. After chewing the inside of her cheek for a few seconds, she flipped the page to take a look at the next sketch, "What do you want?"

"I'm just making sure you don't get yourself kicked out of Dauntless, with a week left of training to go," his words made her look up at him with furrowed eyebrows, and he shrugged, "I don't need to be a genius to know that you want to get revenge on Peter. Even if I like to think that I'm pretty smart."

Lilith scoffed, "Modest, too," she paused, running her hands over the lines of a constellation.

"I like that one."

Raising her eyebrows, the brunette immediately flipped to the next page, "Is my possible revenge the reason why you can't sleep at night? Or is it something else?" Lilith licked her lips as she glanced at Eric once more, standing up to her full height, "Maybe it's related to whatever Erudite is planning," the words had barely left her mouth, and the leader was already growing pale, "I don't have to be a genius, either."

Eric clenched his jaw, "Don't do this here, Lilith."

"So I'm right? Erudite is trying to do something sketchy, and Dauntless is in on it?"

"How did you even figure this out?" the male questioned, and Lilith noticed that his upper arm was wrapped in plastic, with a new design etched onto the skin. Even if she was curious about what he'd gotten tattooed, it wasn't the time to talk about it, not when she'd revealed she knew more than she should. Perhaps she'd been wrong in doing so, but it was officially too late to back down.

"It was when we went to the fence," she admitted, after a few seconds of silence, "A truck came through, carrying resources. I heard some of the guards on duty muttering about how Erudite has been getting more stuff lately, and that Max told them not to look into it," she shrugged, "It stuck on my mind, and then I noticed that sometimes you look really tired. And I know we're really annoying, but I highly doubt you're this exhausted because of me and the other transfers. It was just a matter of connecting the dots."

"You could have been a Erudite," there was a small smile on Eric's face, and Lilith immediately pulled a face at his comment. The humor was quick in fading away, and the leader's features were once again emotionless as he spoke, "Did you tell anyone else?"

Lilith shook her head, "No one else knows. Not from me, anyways."

"Good."

Even though she was most likely pushing her luck, the girl still wanted to know more, and she found herself insisting, "Are you going to tell me what's actually going on?"

Eric remained quiet for a few seconds, blue eyes fixated on her face, as if he was evaluating if she could be trusted with that kind of information. Upon noticing the way he hesitated, Lilith put on her most innocent expression, making herself look as trustworthy as possible. It was simply an exageration of how she normally presented herself, a way she had found to get what she wanted, even if she rarely used it. Manipulation was a complex thing, and Lilith preferred to stay away from it, but damn it, she wanted to know what Erudite was planning, badly. It would be one less weight on her shoulders, and that could make her reach the first ranking more easily.

"You won't tell anyone?"

"You have my word," she nodded once, trying her best to keep a neutral expression.

Eric gazed upon her for a few more instants, before he exhaled through his nose, "They're tracking devices," there was no response from Lilith, except for an eyebrow raise, and the leader rolled his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest, "Only to be activated if people go missing. Everyone in the city will get them, eventually."

"Lot of people missing, lately?" she questioned. If that was indeed a problem, she was sure that Erudite would have plastered it on the tabloids by then, and found a way to blame Abnegation for it. It was true that she hadn't really been keeping up with the news ever since she'd transferred, except from when Peter had tried to embarass Tris in front of all the other initiates, but she was sure it would be the talk of the compound if it was happening. So, unless the leaders of the factions were keeping it under wraps, it was nothing more than a lie.

He furrowed his eyebrows, "Happens, sometimes."

They stared at eachother for a few seconds, before Lilith shrugged her shoulders and turned back to the tattoo book, "Fine," she flipped a few pages, before pointing at a design of a wildcat, "I already chose, anyways."

"Were you just trying to corner me to ask questions, then?" 

Lilith gave him a half smile as she started walking away, "Don't flatter yourself, Eric. You're not that important to me."

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Ever since they'd left Candor, Lilith and Christina hadn't spend time together, just the two of them, like they used to, almost every day. The dark skinned girl had made friends with most of the other transfers, and spent her free time mostly with Will, something that Lilith wanted to question her about, after seeing her lovestruck expression at dinner, one particular night. However, Christina wasn't to blame for the fact that they had grown slightly apart; Lilith had focused on her training like she'd never focused on anything before, and she spent her time practicing with Nate or taking a breather by herself. So, she decided she'd be the one approaching Christina, and inviting her to have breakfast together.

They'd gotten up earlier than the other initiates, and quickly dressed up in casual clothes and headed to the dining hall, somehow managing to be in the first five people to get breakfast, that morning. Four hadn't left them with much to do until their final evaluation in front of the Dauntless leaders, with the exception of thinking about their fears and ways to move past them in the fear landscape. Lilith knew how to get past a few of her scenarios, but the possibility of there being more than those she had seen in phase two made her feel unprepared. She could only hope that she wouldn't embarass herself.

Lilith's hands were wrapped around a mug on steaming hot coffee, her hands warming up as she kept it in her grip. She'd had a nightmare during the previous night, about what she'd started calling the Edward Scenario, with the difference that, this time, it had been Christina and Nate on the floor with blades in their eyes, and the voice from the aptitude test had been insistently telling her to choose who to save. The brunette had woken up with tears streaming down her face and her ribcage hurting from how fast her heart had been beating, and she hadn't been able to sleep too well after that.

"We should do this more often," Christina began, as she tore the plastic that enveloped her muffin. Lilith raised an eyebrow in question, and the dark skinned girl elaborated, "I like how calm this is before the others start getting up. Breakfast always feels... tense, when we're all here at the same time."

"Is this about yesterday?"

"I guess," the girl shrugged, "Peter and Drew, those I can believe. But Al... he's too nice. I thought he was, anyways. Reyna used to be close with him, when we were younger, and I always saw him as one of the kindest people I'd ever met," her eyes met Lilith's, "He admitted it, yesterday, by the way."

Lilith furrowed her eyebrows, "When?"

"After Four explained what the fear landscape was," Christina revealed, "He was back at the dorm, crying his eyes out. The kid really seemed sorry, and he tried to apologize to Tris as soon as we got there," she paused, taking a bite from her muffin, "She didn't want to hear it, though. Told him she'd kill him if he came near her ever again. It was kind of terrifying."

The brunette scoffed, "Well deserved, too."

"Yeah," her friend agreed, releasing a deep breath, "It's hard to sleep in that room, knowing that anyone can turn on you at any point."

"Even Will?" Lilith's lips formed a smirk, and Christina instantly blushed.

"Well, not Will. He would never-" she paused, pressing her lips together, as if she had realized that she was saying too much. Shaking her head, Christina looked at her again, "Why do you care about Will?"

"You know why," Lilith grinned, "I've seen you have enough crushes to recognize the signs."

Her friend furrowed her eyebrows, though there was a smile on her face, "So what if I have a crush on Will? Do you think I don't see you spending pretty much all of your time with Nate?" Christina had yet to finish her question and Lilith had already burst out laughing, almost choking on her coffee. The other girl raised an eyebrow, "What?"

She was still laughing as she shrugged, "You couldn't be more fucking wrong," her eyes drifted to the door, where Eric was entering the room right behind Max and a few of the other leaders. He seemed to be fully focused on the conversation the group was having, and Lilith followed him with her gaze until he had reached the line of people waiting, on the other side of the room, "He's not my type."

Her actions hadn't gone undetected by Christina, whose eyes were wide, "Lilith. No."

"What do you mean, no?"

"He's a fucking asshole," she whispered, as Lilith gulped down her coffee, "He made me hang over the Chasm."

She licked her lips, "I know. I didn't forget that," even if Lilith knew that there was more to Eric than the way he acted when he was around the transfers, she also was aware that Christina had never seen that side of the leader. To everyone else, he was nothing but the cruel and merciless guy that they had to impress, if they wanted to survive initiation. Few people knew his softer side, and Lilith could count them in one hand: it was Granger, Siobhan, and her, occasionally. Even if she could tell Christina that Eric wasn't all that bad, she was sure that her friend wouldn't believe her. She bit down on her toast, "It's not like I'm gonna date him. He's just nice to look at. Sometimes, anyways. Plus, how did you know I was looking at him, and not Max? Huh?"

Christina snorted, "Max is old. I know you like older guys, but not that old."

"I've never told you that."

"You suck at it hiding it."

Lilith frowned playfully at her best friend, before turning back to her breakfast. The two girls ate their meals peacefully for a few more minutes, their conversation turning to the most various topics. If felt like they were back at school, debating over the most ridiculous things during the small breaks between classes, both with vastly different opinions and no shame in sharing them. The dining hall was halfway full when they were both done with their meals, and Christina had just put down her empty glass of juice on her tray when the door was thrown open, hitting the wall with a loud bang.

The room was instantly silent, and everyone turned to see who had made such a dramatic entrance. A heavily pierced man stood by the doorway, seeming out of breath as he looked around the room, "We need help," he paused, eyes landing on the leaders, "One of the initiates fell in the Chasm."

Those words had barely left his lips and everyone was already standing up from their seats, forgetting about their meals as they rushed to the Pit. Lilith's hand found Christina's, who had grown pale as soon as she realized what was happening. Knowing that her friend was mostly likely rooted to the same spot, the brunette pulled Christina behind her as they followed the crowd, soon finding themselves engulfed by the crowd of Dauntless members. Lilith was doing her best to keep her heart rate steady, hoping that it wasn't anyone she cared about. She found herself terrified at the thought that Nate was the one who had fallen, and that only made her speed up towards the ledge.

As soon as she was done pushing her way through the crowd, she released Christina's hand, wrapping her fingers around the railing as she leaned over it to get a better glimpse. Her eyes immediately found a large shape at the bottom, partially covered in red stained water. Christina released a loud sob from her side, turning her back on the scene and running back to where they had come from. Lilith was glued to same spot, her jaw slightly agape. 

It was Al.

A wave of relief washed over her. Lilith hated herself for it.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE

Wtf how are we already at 9.4k, thank you guys so much!
Anyways, this chapter doesn't have much to it, seeing as shit will hit the fan from the next one forwards. Please prepare yourselves, it will be a bumpy ride and I'm very excited to get into it.
I hope you enjoyed and don't forget to leave me your feedback! See you next week!