DAUNTLESS (Divergent sequil, no war)

chapter 20

(Tobias' point of view)

"You okay mate?" Zeke asks as I start to assemble my gun. I don't answer, I focus on what lies in my hand, the power it has, the power it gives me. "Four?" I don't even look at him. "Look man, I'm sorry, I just need more practice in there before I can be any help with training them." I look him in the eye and click the final part in place.

"Do me a favour and don't keep lying to me." his gaze shifts to the floor. "Tell me why Tris didn't want to work with me? Or was it that she wanted to work with Eric?" I shift the gun a little in my hand, weighing it up.

"Honestly?" I nod and he continues. "Honestly, she thought she was distracting you around the initiates, she didn't think that you were being tough enough on them..." His body language suggests that he is telling the truth, but his words don't. Tris would tell me if that's what she thought, she wouldn't go behind my back like this.

"Whatever." I walk over to help a girl who has jammed her gun. "What did you do wrong?" She looks up at me, it's the girl who got her hair caught earlier.

"N...nothing," she looks like she's about to cry. Today hasn't been anyone's best, well not mine or hers, I can't speak for Tris or Eric.

"Well you have done something wrong. If you'd done what I'd said this wouldn't have happened." is this what Tris wanted? Did she want me to snap at them like this? I doubt it. "Give it to me." Hesitantly she hands me the gun. I snap it open and find the problem. I pull out the shell and flip it. "Rounded edge forward," She nods and takes the gun from me. I walk off shaking my head. This is going to be a hard month.

"Right everyone! There has been a slight change of plan." Zeke gives me a sideways glance as I talk. "Tomorrow morning there will be an introduction to physical contact demo. Tris will be fighting some one, it hasn't been decided who yet, but it will probably be myself or Eric." Zeke grabs my shoulder.

"What? What are you doing? Think about this." I push him off.

"After the fight we will be starting your hand to hand combat sessions then in the afternoon you will be free to mix round and choose what you want to practice. You can not take this as an opportunity to slack off. You all need to work as hard as you can. You can do whatever you want for the rest of the day." I find the girl with the ripped hair in the crowd and point at her. "You need a hair cut, and anyone with long hair needs to tie it back tomorrow." I leave the room followed closely by Zeke.

"What the hell man? What are you doing?" he pushes me against the wall, holding me by the collar of my shirt, his elbow planted against my chest. I push my leg through the gap between his and then pull back, knocking him off balance for long enough to spin him round and reverse our positions. He slams against the concrete and I feel the air leave him

"If you won't tell me the truth," I spit "I will find out for myself." I push him once more then storm off through the crowd of initiates.

I see Tris walking off with Eric and I run to catch up with them. I grab Tris by the arm, making no attempt to be gentle with her. "You two with me." I pull Tris so she has no choice but to follow me, Eric follows. I take them into an alley way which is empty then I let go of Tris.

"What's ..."

"Shut up. I'm talking not you. Tomorrow we're going to start hand on hand combat training."

"We're not starting that till..."

"What did I say about shutting up?" I will say what I have to say. "I have decided that we will start it tomorrow, it will begin with a fight between Tris and either myself, or you." I point at Eric. I don't look at Tris, I don't want to see what she is thinking. How she is feeling, she obviously doesn't care about what I think so why should I care what she does? She put me in this position, constantly fighting for her affections and attention. I'm constantly having to fight Eric for her favours, but not anymore. She can decide herself without my extra input. "You can choose who you fight," I still don't look at her.