DAUNTLESS (Divergent sequil, no war)

chapter 10

*Tobias' point of view*

(Hours after Tris' operation)

Why is she so still? The slow rise and fall of her chest is the only sign of any life. I hold her hand in mine, the plate of food Shauna brought over for me sits on the floor, cold and untouched. I sit and stroke the back of her hand with my thumb. I don't want to leave her, but nature calls. I stand and kiss the top of her head, lingering there for a second before all but running out of the room. I don't know how long I've needed to go but I can't hold it any longer.

I walk back along the corridor to the room where they are keeping her, I managed to pull some strings and get her a room of her own. I haven't even reached the room when I hear him. Why would he do this? I run the rest of the distance and burst into the room.

"What are you doing here?" I demand, every muscle is tight and every blood vessel pulses.

"I have as much right to be here as you." He is calm, surprisingly. "I'll go, but please tell her that I was here, tell her I was asking after her." I don't want to but I nod, seeing him so placid makes me feel exhausted, there seems to be no reason to fight him and he hasn't actually done anything wrong. He leaves and looks over his shoulder at her then at me. I take a seat carefully on the side of her bed and brush a strand of hair from her face.

(The fight)

I hear the whistle then that's it. I block out any other sound, all I can see or hear is Eric. He stands tall, shoulders back, arms up in front of him, ready to fight. The light glints on his lip piercing. I make it my first target. I bring my fists up, then roll with it. Muscles move bones which shudder on the impact. With the blessing of hindsight I realise the piercing was not such a good target, one punch in and my fist it already bleeding, however it did send Eric reeling back, his own blood dripping from his mouth, I see the ring that used to sit on his lip has been removed and thrown to the floor. It was well worth a bloody knuckle.

I see Eric wake up, as I have so many times before. But I also see his fear of failure shoot through him, two parts of his mind struggling, the adrenalin from the pain urging him to attack and the paralyzing fear that he could lose this fight. He shakes off the hit and spits blood to the floor. It dribbles from his chin but he makes no attempt to clear it off.

He charges like a bull and wraps his arms around my waist, knocking the air out of me. I bring my elbow to his throat and he staggers back, letting go for long a

enough to allow me to kick at his ribs, but I'm not fast enough. He takes the blow but catches my leg and pulls then kicks my other leg from under me. I fall with a thud and he is on top of me, throwing punch after punch, a grown escapes my lips and I'm sure I see him smile, but with all the blood, both his and mine now it's hard to tell. I grab his ankles and dig my fingers in to get a firm grip then pull his legs toward my face. He looses his balance. I push him off and drag myself up.

Eric still lies on the floor trying to stand. A large cut has opened up on the back of his head, he must have hit it on one of the metal poles when he fell. He places his hands on the floor, which is now covered in a fine layer of blood, and tries to push himself up. I go over and kneel on one of his legs. He lets out a grunt which, to my shame, brings a smile to my face. I lean in close to his face,

"Give up, there is no shame in it." I try to sound sincere but there is no hiding the smirk that covers my lips. He pulls his head back and spits blood and saliva into my eyes. His elbow makes its way to my ribs but I dump up. I bring my foot back and with one little kick he is out.

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You know the drill with voting ect.

Sorry it's so short but I wanted to try Tobias' point of view, back to Tris for the next chapter I think but I might do it again at some point. I hope you like it :)