A/N: Some more Tris for everyone. The game is changing...

CHAPTER TWELVE

Tris' POV

She sat on a small rocky ledge several feet above the ground and out of sight of the Pit. She could hear the rumble of the Chasm and the occasional shouting voice from the large room.

Closing her eyes Tris leaned her head against the wall and counted her breaths. She didn't really feel like being around anyone else at the moment but being here with her own thoughts was almost as bad. That mornings training had been awful.

The fighting techniques themselves they'd learnt had been find, and they hadn't actually had to fight each other, but she hated how aware she was of every move Four made. She felt like even with her back turned she could sense him enter the room or move. It had been almost painful to try and not look at him. She had no reason to feel the anger she did, so she kept reminding herself, but it didn't stop her from wanting to hiss every time he came near. Perhaps he had sensed it because he had almost completely ignored her. Don't flatter yourself Tris, a mean little voice in her head said. It wasn't because he sensed anything. It was because he doesn't care. You don't mean anything to him, why should you?

Tris was so wrapped up in her twisting thoughts that she didn't hear the sound of approaching footsteps or the gasp of cruel delight as Peter spotted her sitting alone. She didn't even know he was there until she was wrenched from the ledge and shoved up against the wall.

"Well, look who it is all alone," Peter hissed in her face. The initial shock began to wear off and she kicked out at him viciously. Her foot connected with his kneecap and he gave an infuriated grunt and shoved her against the wall again.

She resisted the urge to cry out, not wanting to give him that satisfaction, but she was just realising what a stupid position she had put herself in. Being out of sight and out of hearing of everyone else was great if you wanted to think. But it was also great if you wanted to get attacked without anyone there to help you.

"Get off me Peter!" she snapped at him, trying to sound braver than the fear that was coursing through her mind. She gave him another kick but it was useless, he had moved out of the way of her legs.

"Oh is the little Stiff scared?" he sneered, his fingers digging painfully into her skin where he pinned her to the wall.

"No one's scared of a brainless idiot like you," she spat. Certainly not my Abnegation talking there she thought dryly. Suddenly several things happened at once. Peter gave a harsh cry and his hands disappeared from her arms and she dropped to the ground. She landed with a thump in a chaotic heap at the base of the wall but was already struggling to her feet, her arms raise defensively.

"What the hell!" Peter shouted, spinning around, away from her.

"Sorry. I was aiming for your head and I missed," Clove said sarcastically. She glared at him, her fists balled into angrily. Tris blinked in surprise at the sight of her but took Peter's distraction to dart forward and give a sharp kick to his knees. His leg buckled and he yelped as he half fell to the ground. His eyes flew angrily to Tris as he held his leg but he didn't move towards her.

"Don't call me Stiff," she hissed at him.

With a mixture of wariness and anger Peter's eyes flicked madly between Tris and Clove. Clearly he decided the odds weren't in his favour because he spat on the ground at Tris' feet and quickly loped away.

"Crazy bitches," Tris heard him mutter. She grinned at the sight of him limping away out of sight.

"You alright?" Clove asked, eyeing Tris warily and keeping her distance. Tris noticed her stance was still defensive. Perhaps she trusts me as little as I trust her Tris thought.

"Yeah," she said, rubbing her arm self-consciously. "Hey. Thanks."

Clove smiled grimly and looked down the corridor in the direction Peter had disappeared. "I don't like him much. He reminds me of someone..." she trailed off thoughtfully.

"Why would you help me?" Tris blurted out, her curiosity taking over her residual anger, and her assumptions about Four momentarily forgotten.

Clove shrugged, not looking at her and not giving her an answer. Tris took a deep breath. Maybe I should have gone to Candor she thought absently to herself as she spoke again, the words escaping against her better judgement.

"Last night...where were you?"

Clove looked at her sharply, frowning. Did she think she'd gotten away with it?

"I...couldn't sleep. I went to the training room, threw some knives."

"Alone?" Tris had no idea where her brutal interrogation was coming from.

"No," Clove said slowly, frowning at Tris, clearly confused as to why she cared. "With Four. He thought he could beat me and-"

"Won't Cato get jealous?" Tris interrupted bluntly. Was this twisting the proverbial knife? Huh. Ironic.

A dark look flickered across Clove's eyes. Hit a nerve thought Tris but she was beginning to doubt herself. Clove seemed sincere and despite herself Tris believed her. Some part of her was beginning to ask whether she was being fair. What if she had it wrong?

"Why would you think that?" Clove asked, lifting her chin defiantly, turning the question back on Tris.

Tris, caught by surprise, shrugged. "I don't know. You two seem...close. And if you're hanging out with Four..." she trailed off, not sounding as fierce as she wanted to as her conviction almost flickered out under Clove's hard gaze.

"We practiced knife throwing," Clove said coldly, clearly and slowly. Tris felt herself redden with embarrassment, knowing that Clove wasn't making it clear for the sake of her own defence. She was telling Tris in very firm words that nothing happened.

"Oh." Tris didn't know what else to say. She glanced at the ground. An uncomfortable silence stretched between them and she wondered if maybe she should go. She believed Clove and now she was kicking herself for what she had thought. And she was kicking herself for caring so much.

Suddenly, with a sigh Clove walked towards her and took a seat on the ground next to Tris, her back leaning against the wall."Cato wouldn't care anyway," Clove said eventually, playing with a hole in her sleeve.

After a beat Tris slid down the wall to sit next to her. "What are you two anyway?" she asked, her curiosity raising its head again.

Clove giggled, and it sounded strange, the sound of laughter from someone not disposed to it. Tris wouldn't have picked her as the type to giggle and she wondered how long it had been since she had properly laughed. "Who knows," Clove said, sadness replacing her smile.

"I don't really understand any of this," Tris said honestly.

"Me neither," Clove admitted.

"Yeah but...where you're from...I don't..." the thoughts formed into a jumbled sentence which she couldn't finish.

Clove nodded slowly. "I don't understand either," she repeated. "Who knew this- any of this- existed." She looked up at the ceiling.

Tris glanced around them. She knew they were alone but it still felt dangerous to talk about it in the open. She couldn't forget the fierceness that had blazed in Four's eyes as he had made them promise not to breathe a word. Even though she barely understood anything, the fear in his expression had been enough to convince her of the seriousness of the situation. She hadn't imagined he was scared of anything before that.

"Who does Peter remind you of?" Tris asked suddenly, changing the topic on a whim as the thought flashed into her mind.

Clove jolted at the question, she hadn't been expecting it, and looked at Tris frowning.

"You hated me before," she said simply, ignoring Tris' question. "What's changed?"

It was Tris' turn to react and she dropped her eyes with embarrassment, biting her lip. "I assumed certain...things," she muttered.

"You were jealous, weren't you?" Tris moved to defend herself but as she looked up she realise Clove was grinning mischievously. She was teasing her.

"Yeah," Tris admitted, smiling back. It was so strange to have this conversation. For the first time she considered Clove as a person just like her, not as a threat, or a rival. And for the first time she was overtaken with a profound curiosity.

"Who is it?" she pressed seriously. Clove frowned at her in confusion. "Who is it Peter reminds you of?"

Clove clearly didn't like being the one interrogated. She glared down at the ground and kicked at the floor with her shoe but Tris kept an intense gaze on her, unrelenting. "My brother," Clove muttered eventually. "He was cruel like that. Cruel and stupid."

"A dangerous combination," Tris murmured and Clove nodded in agreement. "Where is he?" she asked. She sensed that it was a touchy subject from the way Clove wouldn't look at her but her curiosity was getting the better of her and she didn't think an opportunity like this would happen again soon.

"At home." Clove said the words with a bitterness that surprised Tris. She had expected him to be dead from the sadness on her face. Tris opened her mouth to ask another question but Clove climbed to her feet before she could.

"Well. I'm going to go. Don't get yourself attacked again alright?" she said simply, not meeting Tris' eyes. Tris gazed up at her from the floor as she began to walk away.

"Hey Clove," she called after her suddenly, a thought striking her. Warily Clove turned around.

"Did you beat him? Four. Did you beat him at knife throwing?"

Clove paused a moment before giving a small, poignant smile. "Of course." She turned away again and walked away.

Tris found herself smiling as she walked back to the Pit.