As much as Lilith wanted to do her best to stop thinking about it, her mind was still buzzing with theories about Erudite's current activities as she walked to the training room, on the next morning. Her left hand still burned from when Nate had stepped on it while they practiced, on the former night, all because she'd been too distracted to move it out of the way in time. Their session had still continued, however, and the brunette hadn't bothered to hold back a proud smirk upon seeing Nate's black eye, earlier that morning.

Craddling her hand against her chest, Lilith looked to where Eric was standing with Four, near the chalkboard with their names on it. Most traces of exhaustion she had noticed on him two days prior had faded, and the scowl on the other male's face told her that his attitude too had returned to normal. Maybe Siobhan had been right and they were being paranoid about Erudite. Maybe Eric hadn't been sleeping well, for some reason, and that was why he had looked so exhausted. She had no reasons to believe otherwise.

Her eyes drifted to the chalkboard, and she froze in place as she read her name. However, her lips soon twisted into a smirk, and she looked around the room for Nate. The boy had a similar expression on his face when their gazes met, and she took the wink he sent her way as a challenge. She quickly looked through the rest of the names, noticing that Tris was fighting Myra and Christina was up against Al. Lilith trusted that they could handle their respective fights.

"I think today's finally going to be the day we see you lose," she didn't even have to turn around to know that it was Peter speaking, which made her roll her eyes. The boy continued, "Perhaps this is where your luck ends."

"Do you have a problem?" her voice was firm as she turned to him, a single eyebrow raised. Molly and Drew stood close to them as well, silently watching the exchange. The smirk on Drew's face was enough to make her angry, but Lilith kept her features schooled. There was no way she'd give Peter the satisfaction of having the reaction he wanted.

"Not a problem. Just..." his eyes twinkled with mischief, as he glanced towards Eric, and then focused back on her, "Suspicions."

"I heard about those," Lilith nodded her head, before glancing towards the arena, where Will and Edward were currently circling eachother, "Might want to go get checked at the hospital wing. I think you have a severe case of paranoia."

"Maybe I'm just observant."

"Maybe you're just wrong."

Peter didn't give her an answer, but instead smirked as he faced the arena. The whole initiation process was making him a worse person as well, she realized, not that he'd ever been particularly good. Ever since she could remember, Peter had shown signs of not belonging in Candor, and there was a time in her life where she had envied him for being such a good liar. Lilith had grown out of that mindset, however, and her former neighbour's actions started to make her despise him. Like she used to put it, the boy was an annoyance, and she worried that he was becoming even worse, and that Dauntless was bringing his worst traits to the surface, much like it had been doing with hers.

Her fight with Nate was one of the last on the board, so the girl busied herself with watching the other combats once more. Mostly everyone was improving, with the exception of people like Myra, who just didn't belong in the faction she had chosen, and Al. The boy seemed to have just given up, after his fight with Will. Not even when Eric yelled at him to do something did he move, instead allowing Christina to send him down after five minutes of fighting. That wouldn't be good for his ranking.

After what seemed like an eternity, their names finally echoed in the training room, and Lilith pushed herself from where she was sitting on the ground. Nate still had that same smirk painted on his lips as he positioned himself a few feet away from her, and Lilith took a deep breath before shielding her face with her hands. There was no denying that fighting Nate made her nervous. During the nights they had been training together, she'd managed to get a few good hits, but she'd never managed to win, or even make the blond want to tap out. There was a low chance she'd achieve that, that day, and she knew it.

One thing Lilith knew, however, and that was that Nate always attacked first. He was fast, and he was strong, but she'd noticed that she was a little quicker than the boy. Keeping that in mind, the brunette kept her eyes on her opponent, looking for any sign that he was going to lunge. The corner of Nate's lips twisted upwards and, not a second later, he was advancing in her direction. His fist was halfway to her face when she managed to react, dodging the hit just in time. Her instincts kicked in as she took advantage of his distraction to firmly grip his wrist, and then twist his arm behind his back. A wince left Nate's lips as she pulled his arm even more, before Lilith's whole face was burning with pain. There was a crack coming from her nose, and she realized that he had knocked his head against her face with all the strenght he could muster. Her vision was blurry, but she still managed to send the boy to the ground.

She tried to take a few steps back to regain control of her senses, but Nate didn't let his fall slow him down, as he wrapped a hand around Lilith's ankle and yanked it forwards. The impact her back had against the ground made her wheeze, her ears ringing as blood poured out of her most likely broken nose. Her breaths came out ragged as she saw Nate's sillhoutte above her, his fist connecting with her jaw. Clenching her teeth, Lilith raised one of her legs and kicked the boy away from her. Ignoring the pain that coarsed through her whole body, the girl rose to her knees, her vision focusing on Nate as stayed on his back. Her kick seemed to have injured him in the ribs, and she took advantage of the rare moment of weakness to wrap her most vulnerable hand around his neck. Red clouded her vision as her fist collided with the pale boy's face again and again. Blood gushed out of his nose and out of his mouth, but he ignored that as he grabbed her wrist, twisting it in a way that made her whole arm sting.

For the first time since training had started, a scream fueled with nothing but pain left the girl's lips. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she tried to back away, but Nate landed one final hit against the side of her head, that made her collapse to the ground once more. Blood immediately started pooling beneath her cheek, staining her skin as she sobbed. Her right hand was shaking as she watched Nate stumble to his feet, and she wasn't even sure she could move her fingers. Her sight became clearer, after a few seconds, and she looked up to Nate, who currently had his back to her as he looked to Eric and Four. She clenched her left hand into a fist, ignoring the pain that ignited, and gritted her teeth.

He didn't hear her as she got back up, and the other iniciates started muttering amongst themselves when she was back on her feet. Four had been halfway to circling Nate's name on the board when he froze, his eyes wide as he caught sight of the girl with blood all over face. Eric himself seemed like he could hardly believe in what he was seeing when Lilith send her fist flying against the back on Nate's head, the boy losing his balance immediately and collapsing to the blood stained ground. A groan left his lips as his eyes fluttered close, and Lilith wobbled on her feet. Someone's alarmed voice echoed in the area, but she couldn't see who had spoken, for she too fell forwards and lost her consciousness.

Lilith had no idea of how much time had passed since she'd passed out, but she opened her eyes to now familiar walls of the hospital wing. Saying that she felt like she'd been run over by a train wouldn't be enough to describe how she actually felt, at that moment. The bright lights shining on the ceiling above her made her head hurt, and she winced as she gazed down at her right hand, that was currently wrapped up in gauze. The ammount of pain in her opposite hand had decreased, and she felt relieved that she could at least use of them.

"Congrats, kid," Nate's familiar voice cut through the silence. Lilith glanced at the bed to her right, where her friend was looking miserable. Bruises had formed all over his pale skin and his knuckles were in the worst condition she'd seen them in, but that still didn't stop him from smiling as he held an ice pack against the bump on his forehead. He then gestured at another one that was resting on the table between their beds, "Nurse said you should put that on your nose, when you woke up."

The brunette gave him a nod, wincing as she reached for it. Her fingertips burned as she held the ice to her face, but her gaze remained locked on Nate, "What happened?"

"What happened?" he chuckled, "You won, that's what happened."

"And you're not mad?"

The boy's smile widened, "Why would I be? It was a good fight."

Nate didn't show any signs of lying, and Lilith relaxed as she layed against her pillows, before slowly nodding her head, "It was."

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

It seemed like Lilith wouldn't be getting any rest, after her fight with Nate. The two of them had left the hospital wing during dinner, assisting eachother as they walked down the paths that led to the bottom of the Pit, and on their way back to the dorm. They'd also decided to push their training session to the following night, seeing as Nate's ribs were still injured and the girl could barely keep her eyes open. Once back in the empty dorm, they'd both crashed into their respective beds and fallen into a deep slumber.

It couldn't have been more than two hours when their dorm was invaded by several other Dauntless people carrying flashlights, Eric at the very front of the group. Lilith had been half asleep as he announced that they'd be going on yet another field trip, then giving them five minutes to get ready and run to the train tracks. Despite every muscle in her body being sore, she'd made it, along with the others, not forgetting to bring an ice pack for her broken nose. The leader had then instructed them to grab guns from a pile next to the tracks. Just the thought of walking there was exhausting to Lilith, but Siobhan saved her of that effort when she brought a gun and a box of what appeared to be paintballs to her. The brunette had thanked her with a smile, before they'd jumped into the train.

"You look like hell," Siobhan commented, once they were sat down against the wall.

Lilith snorted, "Thanks."

"Is it broken?" Marlene wondered, from her spot in front of them.

The girl simply nodded her head in response, "But I can barely feel it," her eyes met Jonathan's as he furrowed his eyebrows, "Painkillers."

"We'll be dividing into two teams to play Capture The Flag," Four spoke up, and everyone in the wagon quieted down as they looked in his direction, "Each team will have an even mix of members, Dauntless-born iniciates and transfers. One team will get off first and find a place to hide their flag. Then the second team will get off and do the same. This is a Dauntless tradition, so I suggest you take it seriously."

"What do we get if we win?" someone questioned.

Four raised an eyebrow, "Sounds like the kind of question someone not from Dauntless would ask," there was a pause, and then the instructor smirked, "You get to win, of course."

"Four and I will be your team captains," Eric stepped forwards, until he was next to Four. Lilith rolled her eyes out of instinct, "Let's divide up transfers first, shall we?"

The other male shrugged, "You go first."

"Edward."

Four took a while longer to choose, his gaze sweeping over the transfers, "I want the Stiff."

Laughter errupted from various places in the wagon, and a smirk made its way to Eric's face as he glanced at Four, "Got something to prove? Or are you just picking the weak ones so that if you lose, you'll have someone to blame it on?"

Lilith narrowed her eyes as she tried to analyze Four's reaction to Eric's words, but he hid it well, "Something like that. Your turn."

"Lilith."

Raising her head to meet Eric's eyes, the brunette raised her eyebrows as she gestured at herself dramatically. Some giggles errupted from Rita and Siobhan, but the only response she got from Eric was a glare, before he looked away when Four made his next choice. Siobhan shook her head as Lilith went back to pressing the ice pack against her nose, adjusting her weapon on her lap as she sat up straighter against the wall.

She'd ended up in the same team as Siobhan and Jonathan and, by the time Eric and Four had chosen their teams, she was fairly sure that their instructor was up to something. He'd gone for those who were usually seen as weaker, and there was something about the look in his eyes that made her believe that Four had a plan. She just didn't know what it was.

"Your team can get off second," Eric told Four, shooting yet another smirk in his direction.

Four had a similar expression on his face when he replied, "Don't do me any favors. You know I don't need them to win."

"No, I know that you'll lose no matter when you get off," he paused, "Take your scrawny team and get off first, then."

Their opponents jumped out of the vehicle, and Lilith sighed to herself as she stood. The ice pack was pretty much melted by then, and she placed it on the floor, before wiping her hand on her pants. When she raised her eyes, she came face to face with Molly and Peter, who were currenly looking at her like she was the most despicable thing they'd ever seen. She gave them a grin and waved, only to give them the middle finger after a few seconds. That was enough to make them turn away from her, and Lilith sighed as she waited for Eric to tell them it was time to jump.

After a few minutes, they too leaped out of the wagon. Lilith's legs burned as her feet clashed against the ground, but she forced herself to hold back a wince and followed after the rest of her team. She had no clue of where they currently where, but that didn't really matter. Eric stood in front of the group, and everyone stayed quiet as he looked around.

"Here's the plan," he began, "We'll play this defensively. We'll hide our flag, and wait for them to come to us. Once they do, we'll be ready and we'll take out as many of them as we can," he paused, "Looking for their flag won't be a priority until we manage to bring a decent number of them down. Does everyone understand?" he looked around the group, seeming satisfied at the nods he was getting, "Very well. Everyone follow me and turn off your flashlights. We've got no time to lose."

Lilith couldn't stop her expression from turning sour as she walked. She was sure that Four had some sort of tactic to win, something that she wasn't seeing, and it was starting to stress her out. Maybe she would have been able to figure it out if she hadn't been so exhausted, she thought.

"What's on your mind?" Siobhan wondered, as both her and Jonathan caught up to the brunette.

"I have the feeling Four has a plan," she shrugged her shoulders.

"Yeah, a plan to lose," Jonathan chuckled, "You know, I thought he had good judgement, until he chose the Stiff. She doesn't even look like she can hold the gun."

The brunette's lips were pressed into a thin line, "Yeah, well, appearances can be deceiving."

"You're telling me that the Stiff is good?" he shook his head, "What next? The Amity boy being some sort of fighting legend?"

"Quiet!" Eric's voice interrupted their conversation, his eyes as cold as steel as he looked at the three of them. He seemed to be expecting some sort of comeback from Lilith, but she wasn't in the mood to even let out her usual Or what?, instead keeping her gaze locked on him as she adjusted her grip around her gun. Finally, the leader made his way to a tree, tying their flag to a branch that hung high even above his own head. He adressed them, "Spread around the area. They will come to us. And Molly, for fuck's sake, turn off your goddamn flashlight."

A giggle left Lilith's lips before she could hold it back, and the other girl clenched her jaw as she quickly put her light away. The team started finding cover around what Lilith now realized was a park, and she quickly ducked behind a bush. If anyone were to come for their flag, they'd have to pass in front of her and, though she'd never shot at a moving target before, she was determined not to let her opponents pass. Siobhan gave her a wink as she hid behind a tree close to her, before silence fell over the area.

It was a while before anyone made any sort of sound, and Lilith had just finished making sure that her gun was properly loaded when a yell echoed in the park, "I see them!"

Chaos ensued, as everyone peered out from their respective covers and tried to shoot the members from Four's team who had approached their area. Lilith had managed to take out a girl with pink highlights from the opposing team when a paintball almost hit her in the shoulder, sending her back into hiding. Her eyes were closed as she attempted to catch her breath, but Siobhan's gasp brought her back to the game. Collapsing to the ground in a dramatic fashion, the brown haired girl was holding out a hand in her direction.

"Avenge me," she breathed out, before fluttering her eyes close.

Lilith couldn't hold back a smirk, "Do you want bonus points for the drama?"

Siobhan simply winked at her, and the brunette reloaded her gun before looking back to where most of the action was taking place. A decent number of members of their team had gone down, but they'd managed to take about half of their opponents down as well. A boy with a tattoo on the back of his hand was currently trying to sneak towards their flag, and her lips spread into a grin as she sent a paintball right into his stomach. The boy sighed in defeat before letting his weapon fall to the ground, and Lilith would have laughed, had it not been for someone crashing against her side.

A wince left her lips as she almost lost her balance, her eyes widening at the sight of Eric now occupying most of her cover. She felt herself getting angry, and she attempted to shove him out of her spot, though he barely moved, "Eric, what the fuck! Get out!"

"Shut up," he finally looked at her, speaking through clenched teeth, "Four is coming for me and I'm all out of ammo."

Lilith simply blinked as she realized that this was only happening because of the rivalry between them, before she rolled her eyes and pulled him further into cover, "For fuck's sake," she muttered, before silently looking back to where most people were still trying to shoot eachother. Four was carefully approaching the area they were hiding in, walking slowly and stopping at any sign that someone could be present. Chewing on her lower lip, the girl quickly crawled over to Siobhan's hiding spot, kicking Eric's hand when he tried to hold onto her ankle to stop her.

Her fingers wrapped around a rock and she threw it to Four's left, managing to distract him for long enough for her to pop out from behind the bushes and shoot a paintball that collided with his chest. She heard the instructor mutter something as he lowered his gun, but she didn't pay too much attention to it as she bent down to pick up Siobhan's gun, procceding to throw it at Eric. Surprise was evident on his face as he stared at her, and she raised her eyebrows.

"What?" she questioned, "You're welcome."

There was a whoop, following by more victorious screams, and Lilith looked over her shoulder to see that Christina had somehow managed to get to their flag and was waving it around, with a grin on her face. Releasing a sigh, she looked back at Eric, who watched the scene with narrowed eyes. His free hand was clenched into a fist at his side, and that was when Lilith realized just how much he hated losing, mainly to Four.

"It's just a game," she finally spoke, shrugging her shoulders when his gaze landed on her once more.

He didn't seem to agree, but it seemed like her words had grounded him. Taking a deep breath, Eric nodded his head, "You were good tonight, Candor," he paused, before glancing at his boots. Then, without looking up, he continued, "Or, guess I should say, today."

Lilith's eyebrows raised in surprise. She was too baffled to reply, her eyes fixated on the leader as he finally faced her once more. The way his jaw was clenched told her that he was still unhappy with how the game had ended, but there's was a red tint on his cheeks as he looked at her. For once, she didn't feel like there was that weird atmosphere between them, the one where they only put up with eachother because they had to. It was like Eric was looking at her as Lilith, and not simply the smartmouth iniciate who couldn't hold back her tongue. Eric too seemed to have some sort of realization, for his eyes softened as he looked at her.

Siobhan's voice cut through the silence, "Can I come back to life now?"

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Hi! Here I am with Chapter 10!
For those of you who are interested, I did pass that exam I mentioned in my previous author's note, so my first semester of uni is officially done! Yay me!
Anyways, I wanted to ask you guys if you've been having the same issue as me, where I can't copy and paste stuff whenever I'm writing on here? Like I try to grab the divider I use between different scenes in the chapters of this book and Wattpad just crashes when I try to copy and/or paste it? I've reached out to Wattpad but I'm curious if any of you have that issue as well. I noticed it a few weeks ago but it didn't bother me because I figured out I could still copy and paste on my phone, but now Wattpad won't even let me do that and ((((((:
Changing the subject, this chapter has always been one of my favorites in all versions of Bullets, though this is definitely the least cringy version ever and that makes me fucking happy. The fight with Nate is obviously new because he didn't exist in previous writing attempts, but the Capture The Flag section has always been a thing and it's one of my favorite Erith moments, so yeah!
Let me know what you thought! I'm hoping to update this book again next weekend, so I'll see you then!