I'm so sorry peeps. What did I say a few chapters ago about life happening? I'm not usually one for excuses, but I have a really good one this time. We had a fish incident/disaster (sorry Kate, I know I promised no fish in this story, but you know how it is). Our five foot, saltwater tank up and cracked on us. There where no fish in it yet, but about 300 liters of saltwater went through a wall, up the hallway and into my girls' bedroom. I've spent the last week or so drying out carpet and washing/drying towels. :-/
I will try desperately to get another chapter out this week sometime, but, in the meantime I own Kella, my medic and my mechanic, and that's it. I don't own Divergent, Dauntless, or any songs.
Unbetta'd
Ten
Max is about to knock on Eric's door when they hear an interesting shout from inside the apartment.
"It stains! It fucking stains, Kella! My hands are purple for Christ's sake!"
Smiley stops Max and puts in the code for the door. He quietly opens it and steps through. Four can hear Kella laughing as he and Max walk through after the medic. Kella's laugh is cut short with a squeal as Eric leaps after her and catches her. It didn't look like she was trying real hard to get away though. Four thought about what he had seen last night and was sure that if she didn't want to be ensconced in Eric's arms, she wouldn't be.
"Did you know it stained? You little bitch! You knew it stained! I'm purple up to my elbows, woman! What sort of fearless leader is fucking purple?" Four was having a hard time trying not to laugh. Eric looked like he was trying very hard to give Kella his most intimidating stare, but he was failing miserably. And Kella just thought that it was fucking hilarious.
Eric must've given up on the intimidation tactic, because the look he was giving the laughing woman in his arms changed. He was staring at her like a drowning man stares at a raft, like a starving man stares at a feast, like she was the most important thing in the world. She cupped his face in her hands as he looked at her with complete and utter adoration, and the hair on Four's arms stood on end; he'd never seen anyone fall in love in front of his eyes before.
He could've strangled Max when he cleared his throat, indicating to Eric and Kella that they weren't alone. Eric looked up, his arms still wrapped around Kella like vines, his eyes still clouded with emotion.
"That's not good for her ribs Eric, put my patient down right now!"
Eric glared balefully at the medic, growling under his breath, while Kella continued to ignore everyone except Eric.
"Eric! Put that girl down" Max's tone brooked no argument and Eric slowly disentangled himself from Kella. Once he no longer had ahold of her, he seemed to come back to somewhat normal. His ice cold eyes lost the warmth they'd had when they where lost in the little white haired woman.
"Right! We're gonna get us some answers here now, so you best be sittin down little miss. Eric, you too. Sit... explain." Max definitely had his cranky pants on this morning. But then again, if it'd been Four's job to explain why two Dauntless leaders, and a Dauntless security officer, broke into Erudite and stolea person, he'd probably be cranky too. Four could well imagine what dealing with Marcus Eaton had been like this morning.
Kella sits on the lounge and looks at Max expectantly, while Smiley starts strapping her ribs. Eric sits beside her and says "Explain what Max. You where there, you saw what happened. We gained access to Kella's cell, broke her out, and made a run for it. We took down a shit load of Erudite security on the way out, but they're Erudite, for Christ's sake, they're fucking useless."
"Stop deflecting and fucking explain! How the hell did she disable that many guards at once? What where the devices she used to do it? Where did that tech come from? How the hell did she move the way she did with the injuries she had? How is she healing so fucking fast? What is she?" Max's last question was a whisper as he glanced in Kella's direction, fear and worry written on his face.
"Christ Max! Breath man. The tech looks simple enough. It's basically a universal remote control and a music storage device. Looks like she can program it to hack just about anything, including Erudite's PA system. It's the way she used it that was genius. She didn't kill anyone, Max, go eat some Amity bread and chill, man."
"So she's got Erudite level intelligence then" Both Four and Eric took a breath at Max's insinuation. That was heading into dangerous territory.
"She's battle tested, Max. She's conditioned to use all the tools at her disposal. She's trained to survive" Eric's straight denial of Kella's obvious intelligence grated on Four, but it was the right thing to say. If people started on that line of questioning, Kella was going to get attention she really didn't need. Four wondered if Eric was just lying to Max, or if he was lying to himself as well.
Max grunted at Eric's assessment. "How did she move the way she did with the injuries she had?" He repeated
"Conditioning Max. The same way she survived the torture without going mad. She's seen war. Not just the pissy little fights we have with the factionless, actual war. She's made of stronger stuff than your average Dauntless."
"The healing..."
"I'm not sure. Could be people on the outside are stronger and heal faster as an evolutionary quirk. It's gotta be rough out there, and she's a soldier. It makes sense that she would be the best of the best"
Four had watched Max's eyes glaze over as soon as Eric mentioned evolution. It was above his pay grade, and he obviously knew it. Dauntless where not known for their academic ability.
"How do you know all this when she won't talk to you"
Eric points to himself "Ex-Erudite. You said it yourself, I probably have the highest IQ in this faction."
Smiley had finished with Kella's wounds and ribs by this stage, and she'd waved him off when he'd tried to do more. She'd got up and was wandering around the apartment, unpacking her bags by the looks of it. Max turned toward her
"I have questions for you too, little miss. I'd appreciate some answers " Kella smiled sweetly and nodded her consent. "Where do you come from?" She shakes her head and Max snarls "You need to answer these questions Kella! There's only so long I can be kept in the dark. I need to know if you're a threat to my faction and my city..." he is cut off by Eric growling a warning.
"Stop there Max, she'll talk about that stuff when she's ready. If she wanted to do damage, I doubt you, me, or anyone else could actually stop her"
Kella ignored them as they bickered at each other and wandered over to Eric's stereo. Both mens voices where cut off by the sound of a piano tinkling, drums, and then guitars. Kella started lip synching along, *Woke up this morning from the strangest dream. I was in the biggest army the world had ever seen. We where marching as one, on the road to the holy grail.* The song sang of an epic crusade for a holy relic. It was a good song, but the hair stood up on Four's arms when Kella mimed *We where full of beans, but we where dying like flies. And those big black birds, they where circling in the skies. And you know what they say, yeah, nobody deserves to die.* Kella's eyes where closed until she opened them to look at Max *I've been high and I've been low, but I've got nowhere else to go.* She walked over to Eric during the instrumental and then 'sang' to him *If I'd followed orders, God knows where I'd be. But I woke up alone, all my wounds where clean. I'm still here. I'm still a fool for the holy grail.*
All four men stood in silence as Kella turned the music down and wandered into the kitchen and out of sight.
Eric is the first to recover "Well, that's a new one. Communication via music. I could get used to that. It's much better than a smack up the back of the head. Do you see why we've gotta give her the time though Max? Maybe if we'd managed to keep her here, instead of letting Erudite torture her for months, she'd be talking by now" Eric's internal self flagellation is written all over his face as he stares Max down.
Max sighs "Alright, alright. I get it. It's like dealing with you. Doesn't matter what I say, you'll do whatever you want to do anyway, and no one is game enough to stop you. We'll do this your way... But... there's got to be some ground rules Eric." Max's voice drops to not much more than a whisper "You can't start a relationship with this woman. She's not one of us yet, and you're going to be one of her instructors. It's not right and it's not professional." Eric was beginning to snarl under his breath again "Now cut the crap Eric, you know I'm right. Do you want the whole faction screaming favouritism?"
Max's question stops Eric in his tracks. She was going to cop enough crap because she was from outside the fence, trust was going to be an issue for the rest of the faction.
oOoOo
It was three days after the incident in Eric's apartment, and Four was back on night shift. It was hard to keep his mind from wandering back to Dauntless' guest while staring at the rotating security feed in the control room. He hadn't seen the little woman directly, but he'd watched the screens as Eric started her "physical training". It was more of an assessment, from what Four could see, because there was very little that Eric could teach her. It'd made his shifts more interesting, at least. It was 2am now and dead boring. Zeke was pumping out z's from his console, and Four was about ready to join him when he was startled awake. A cascade of silver white hair was skipping across a bridge over the chasm. "What the fuck..."
Four chased her with the camera's, following her from the pit down to the mechanics workshop. She walked straight in like she owned the place and Four jumped up from his chair.
"Zeke, man. Wake up!" Zeke snuffled and snorted as Four shook him awake.
"Shit, Four, fuck. I'm up man, I'm up" Zeke was bleary eyed, but coherent.
"I need you to cover for me, I gotta go check the workshop out. You got the rest of shift man?" Zeke nods as he stretches himself into alertness. Four thanks him before he bolts out the door toward whatever trouble the girl has got him into this time.
oOoOo
She'd put her hair back into a neat braid by the time Four made it down to the workshop. He got there just in time to see her disappear underneath a patrol vehicle on a dolly. He grabbed ahold of her ankle and dragged her straight back out.
"What the hell do you think you're doing here Kella?" She blinks at him and turns her head questioningly like a puppy. "Don't give me that innocent little girl shit! Does Eric know you're down here?" She grins, shakes her head, and puts her finger to her lips
"Shhhhh"
It was the closest she'd come to actually talking to Four, and he was left a little stunned. She used that to her advantage as she broke free of his grip and scooted herself back under the huge vehicle.
"Oi! You leave Little Blondie alone. She's got plenty of work to do tonight" A huge, dark haired, grease covered mechanic spoke like Four was an annoying little kid "Don't you go distracting her now, I need that truck running right by dawn" The mechanics name tag read 'Vincent'
"Wait. Back up a minute. What the hell is going on here?" A very bewildered Four was back pedaling like crazy, trying to calm the situation, and work out what was going on.
"You know her?" Vincent's curiosity seems to be piqued.
"As well as anyone does" is Four's cryptic reply.
"The little blonde girly. I don't know who she belongs to, but she's a hell of a mechanic. Shows up three nights ago and starts pulling shit apart. I would've stopped her, but it was an old junker she was working on. That and she's just so damn cute when she's covered in grease and crap." Vincent's smile is smitten. "Well, this old junker that we'd all said was unfixable, little girl fixed it. Then she gave it a tune. Now it pulls like a teenage boy and runs on the smell of an oily rag." Vincent puffed his chest out with pride "Now she's fixing whatever I give her, and she's doing it four times as fast as I can. We might actually have a chance at keeping up with demand for the first time ever."
"She talks to you?" Four asked hopefully.
"Nah, she writes on the whiteboard if she wants us to know something, but she's pretty self sufficient"
Four looks over to the whiteboard the mechanic had indicated toward, and isn't surprised to see Kella's handwriting. It was mostly mechanical nonsense that Four didn't comprehend, but there was also little comments like 'Bite me, Vince, told you I could fix it', 'Don't touch my parts pile, asshole!', and 'Let's play a game! It's called hide and go fuck yourself...'
Four shakes his head as he sits to wait for her to finish the vehicle. She doesn't take long. She motions to him when they're done. He follows her to the whiteboard, where she writes 'Get in loser, we're going shopping...'
oOoOo
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The song is called "Holy Grail" and it's by -Hunters and Collectors