I'm back again! I thought I'd write another chapter before I have to disappear into the void again in the new year because uni is tough but hey.

Thanks for the recent review on my story as well! Always nice to hear what you're thinking!

And I'm serious guys, stop PM ing me roleplay invites, the answer is no.

Chapter 9 – revelations

"Where's Two?" is the first thing that leaves her mouth with a sense of urgency. "relax, she's here and she's in good shape" and with that Toby steps aside to let her in. "oh thank god" she says rushing over to me and pulling me into a tight hug. "good to see you too Ems." "OH MY GODS SHE SPEAKS! HOW LONG HAVE YOU HIDDEN THIS!?" she rushes out "wow wow wow, I've only been speaking since yesterday, id have found you in better circumstances but well..." I trail off and she just hugs me closer. After a few moments she pulls away "come on let's get you changed. I brought some make up in case I needed to cover any bruises but you look like no ones touched you" at this point Toby pipes up "yeah, I had someone from the infirmary administer some healing serum so she doesn't have any visible injuries." Emily looks stunned and I just smile a little. "d'you have somewhere private we can get her changed?" I mean it's a silly question but I don't protest. Four is quick to respond that we can use his room which shockingly has a lock on the door, guess he's as paranoid as me.

Within minutes I am changed but I wonder what make up Emily brought. Tori has already shown me the various different items and various uses for them, I have a few of my own and like to apply light make up for my late shifts just as a little practice. "hey Ems, d'you have an eyeliner and stuff?" "yeah of course, d'you want me to apply them for you?" my face lights up when I'm hesitantly handed a waterproof eyeliner pencil and waterproof mascara. "nah, I got it, tori taught me how to use them, you really gotta show up to the parlour at some point" I say with a light chuckle. Emily huffs but I get right on applying the eyeliner in cat's eyes and adding a healthy amount of mascara to lengthen my already long lashes. Once I'm back in my usual boots, fishnets and shorts with a loose tank top, I get up to unlock the door but Emily stops me. "hey, I know its visiting day today and your final exam must be coming up soon but can we speak about why you're in fours apartment?" "of course" I respond a little nervously. "and Emily? I really do want to spend more time with you again, I know weve been busy so after we pass initiation? I promise I'll make some time for you, something tells me imma be busy well after we finish initiation" I say with a wink "noooooo shut up! They're not gonna give it to you, are they?" she says excitedly. My only response before unlocking the door is a finger over the lips.

Four ushers us all out of his apartment and drags us down to the mess hall. I walk with my head held high despite the incident last night, I'm certainly not invincible but a little hiccup like last night won't get me down. I've survived worse and I'll be damned if I give up now.

When we walk into the mess hall everything falls silent. You could hear a pin drop. "the hell are you staring at" I growl, and they're all stunned but way more afraid that my eyes have turned from their neutral blue-green to a flaming red that flickers just like fire and so most of them look away. We make our way over to my brother's table where we find everyone is still in stunned silence. "well good morning to you all too" I roll my eyes as I take a seat right on the end of the bench, Toby slides in next to me and Emily gestures for us to both move over before she takes a seat on my other side. "you.. you spoke and your eyes" is all that my brother can get out. "oh shit, sorry…" I flick my eyes back to their neutral colour which just seems to freak everyone out more "that came back yesterday I need to get a handle on that one again. as for speaking again, that's also a fairly new development, I only started speaking yesterday as well so don't get too excited" I chuckle and that seems to bring everyone back to their senses. Danny comes around the table and pulls me straight into a tight hug which I return. "love you baby Bea" he whispers "love you too shithead" I whisper back. "now back to breakfast"

"two" the voice behind me sends a flicker of rage through my body. Al. I don't know the big dufus very well, but I certainly don't appreciate being attacked and dumped in the chasm. I get up calmly and turn towards him, everything about my posture screaming very calm and collected rage. I wait for him to speak up and challenge me or for him to cower away from me not expecting the former. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry for…" I can feel the rage radiating from Emily and Toby, so I quickly cut him off. "sorry for ambushing me in a corridor late at night, attempting to violate me and trying to dump me in the chasm?" I say dangerously calm "that.. wasntttt…" "that doesn't matter now does it, you were still an accessory and you certainly grabbed be in the corridor, there also happens to be a video tape of the whole thing so I suggest you choose you next words very carefully coward" I say raising my voice carefully as I continue. After a few moments of silence, I speak up again "anything to say for yourself now? no? well then, I suggest you stay the hell away from me because if you dare lay another hand on me ever again, they won't be pulling you out of the chasm, oh no, they'll be scraping what's left of you off the stone floors under one of those pretty blue lights. Got it?" at this he scurries off and I notice Peter watching so I stand a moment longer and glare daggers at him, when I decide to flash my eyes red for a moment, he cowers away from my gaze. Satisfied I have won I sit back down between a pissed off Four and a highly amused Emily. I turn to Four and ask, "so where exactly is Drew, he's not dead is he?" "yet" at this is smirk and four can't help but crack a small smile himself. "he's in the infirmary badly bruised." I accept this assessment and move on

For a while we all eat breakfast bantering completely ignoring what the hell just happened. My mood only gets better when a very black and blue Drew walks into the mess hall and see that Four's definition of 'badly bruised' is quite spectacular. Walking is hardly what Drew is doing, he's barely dragging himself over to the transfer table. as he goes to sit down, he catches a glimpse of Four's triumphant glare and my satisfied one and flinches away from us.

"so, what exactly happened last night?" Danny pipes up. Four looks over to me and I give him a look pleading for him to handle it, I don't want him in trouble, were on thin ice as it is at the minute. "I was coming back from the control room and I heard a yell of pain and a muffled scream, so I came over to see what was happening and I saw Peter, Al and Drew holding Two over the chasm. They'd bound her and gagged her otherwise they wouldn't have gotten further than a step. I got them off her and decided she was better off in a member's apartment than the dorm. Because it was late, I dragged her back to mine, called lily to check her over. I called Eric and Max this morning to discuss what happened. It's all sorted now, I was going to ask if she can stay with you Danny until she gets her own apartment, not that she doesn't spend enough nights there as it is." He says looking at me knowingly. At this I laugh "Damn, I have been caught! Care to deal with me even more brother dearest?" I say mock shocked and the whole table laughs. "Well, about that…" a voice says from behind us, so I turn around only to be met by the one and only Max. "…in light of what happened yesterday, I'd like to have a meeting to discuss the next steps." "sure, I'm free after breakfast, it's not like I have anyone visiting me today" I say with a smile which confuses max a little. "perfect. Oh, and Two, it's good to see you're feeling better." At this he cracks a genuine smile which I immediately return.

The table chooses to ignore what the hell just happened further in favour of our usual light banter which I now happily join in with which seems to make the atmosphere all the more enjoyable. It is a great disappointment when I finish my breakfast and so I quickly bid farewell to everyone and make a beeline for the leadership offices but on the way past the pit I see a flash of grey and I freeze. Surely, they wouldn't dare. Looking back down at the pit I scan each and every face until I find just who I didn't want to see. Andrew Prior. What shocks me further is that all of my younger sisters have been dragged along with him. Behind them I spot one Marcus Eaton. Shit, I have to warn Four. I take one of the many side tunnels and dash back to the cafeteria as Four and Danny are leaving. I catch Fours arm to stop him quickly and Danny halts in his tracks too. "Don't go to the pit" I say urgently "why not?" Danny says looking both confused and worried. "the people we don't want to see are down there" I say with an urgent look accentuated by the light grey colour of my eyes. Danny knows what colour that means. Fear. not of them, but what they could and would do to our sisters. A burning in my chest right over my tattooed scar accompanies this thought and my hand instinctively reaches for it catching Danny's attention and the fear in his eyes grows even stronger.

"I have a meeting to get to but just stay away" and I turn away and run as fast as I can up to Max's office and tap on the door. "come in" I open the door and wait for max to offer me a seta before taking it. "as you well know, we will be making sure that the jobs of those who attacked you will be greatly restricted and the whole faction will know exactly what happened. Of course, this is the first offence as we can't prove that Edward was attacked by these three. What additional measures we are going to be taking though are unprecedented. We'd like to offer you your own apartment as we already know you spend a great deal of time at your brother's. if he had any bearing on your rankings this would obviously look bad and we'd have to sort it out but since he has no say in your scores whatsoever, you're not doing anything wrong although its generally frowned upon so we've just let it slip." "Thank you Max. I'm not exactly the social type so the dorm was a little suffocating." I say with a small chuckle which Max joins. "I understand that, god I hated it myself. Anyway, we'd ordinarily give you a member's apartment most likely near your brother as he ranked third in his initiate class and because you two seem to get along rather well. However, as we're fast tracking you for leadership so we're just gonna hand you a leadership apartment." I smile at this. I get my own space for once. No more sharing or creeping around, no fear of being stabbed or abused. I flash Max an award-winning smile which he takes as a cue to slide the envelope over to me with the apartment number, override key and passcode. "and we'd also like to give you access to the outside of the compound a little early so you can get to know the city streets although I have a feeling you already know them better than most" he says with a wink. Ah, so I have been spotted in the cameras before. "Anyway, this pass opens up all the doors to the outside, as a leader you'll have access to every single one with this card and access to all the doors inside with another, you'll get that after you officially become a leader." He slides a smaller envelope across the desk. At this my eyes flash a beautiful Lime green. Joy. Max seems to jump back a little, shocked by the sudden change. I look at him curiously before realising my eyes must've changed. "oh! Sorry…" I switch them back to my usual colour "…They change quite a lot, it's a remnant of the year that I want missing." Max seems to register this, and realisation crosses his face. "you know, I was part of the team that found you." I perk up at this. He helped find me? "I thought I'd recognised you, but I couldn't quite place it. I didn't realise you'd gone mute and changed your name. after we took you to the main erudite hospital we never saw or hear of you again. You're one Beatrice Prior aren't you?" I nod not quite understanding how to process this revelation. He smiles an incredibly bright smile "You're the daughter of Natalie Prior" I nod again at his statement still unsure of where this is going exactly. "I'm her brother, Max Wright. You're my Niece.

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