An: So, I just wanted to say thank you very much for the reviews, follows, and favorites I've gotten so far! It has been refreshing to get feedback on my writing. I am trying to get a few chapters out this week, because I will be away for a couple of weeks after that, and I think I am doing well on that front. :D Hopefully I will get a little more interaction between Lilla and Four before I go. One note on Eric: I know he's a little off, but we never really see his inner thoughts in the book, only the behavior that results, and I figure that without the war and all, he might not be so nasty. I hope I've struck some semblance of a balance between him being just a complete jerk (which he is) and being the evil psychopath he is in canon. I quite like my headcanon for him! Haha.

Chapter Two: Friends and Foes

"Hey, up you get, Mouse," an amused, slightly raspy voice whispered, waking Lilla from her less than restful sleep well before the night was over. She'd fallen into bed without so much as another glance from Four almost as soon as he'd let them go for the night. She hadn't even bothered with going to find something to eat.

Something poked her shoulder. "Come on, little Mouse, or I am going to dump you off your cot." She recognized that voice.

"Let me sleep, Uriah."

"Hey now, look at that; I got a whole sentence, with more than one word!" he crowed on a whisper, poking her again and dodging her sleepy slap at his hand. "Come on now, it's not even midnight. Your fellow transfers are all asleep, but I wanted to talk to you. Get up. You can sleep more in a bit." He pulled insistently at her still grey-clad wrist, tugging her from the bed. Lilla gave in with little fight, restless from being unused to sharing a sleeping space with so many people anyway. Earlier in the night, she'd heard Al, the big Candor Transfer, sobbing. She had considered comforting him, but didn't want to cause more embarrassment by doing so in front of the others. And they were all so fidgety. Some snored, some talked in their sleep. Would there ever be any peace?

She followed him from the Transfer quarters in customary silence, until they were well away from the risk of waking one of the others.

"Where are we going?" she questioned, still keeping her voice soft. Uriah wondered if she even knew how to raise it more than the edge of a whisper. He stopped and turned, facing his blank-faced companion with an assessing look. He crossed his arms over his broad chest, a seemingly immovable force.

"What's wrong, Mouse?" It was the first time the nickname had registered with the former Abnegation, and she wasn't sure she liked it, but she didn't hate it either.

"What do you mean?"

Uriah sighed and decided to let it go, "Walk and talk, Transfer. I'm taking you to get something other than those awful grey clothes. Don't your lot miss having color?" The Dauntless wore all black most of the time, sure, but it was broken with bright hair colors, tattoos, and interesting jewelry. Abnegation had nothing but the solid swath of greys.

"I suppose I never really thought about it," she admitted.

"Plain clothes, plain food, plain life with no outward affection. It must be so boring!"

"I guess that's why people transfer out. They get bored," Lilla agreed. It wasn't a lie. She suspected that was one of Tris' main reasons for leaving the Abnegation compound. Boredom had never been something much on her mind before, though she suspected that it may have been had she had a more peaceful existence.

"Oh, speaking of that," Uriah said, reaching in his pocket as he remembered something, "The other girl said it was the food." He handed her a piece of cake with a grin. "You didn't come to dinner, so I grabbed this. Bet you've never had anything like it before!"

Lilla looked down at the small pastry in her hand. It was a dark, rich brown, with some sort of creamy substance on top. Sniffing it, she recognized the smell of something sugary.

"What is it?" she questioned, meeting her companion's eyes briefly.

"Cake. It's a desert."

"Oh."

"Try it, I think you'll like it." Hesitantly, as if afraid the treat would bite her back, she took a small nibble. Uriah watched as her eyes widened, flying to his, and she took a bigger bite. "It's chocolate," he informed her.

"Thank you."

It was the second time she was thanking him for something he thought shouldn't have warranted so much stark gratitude. He thought someone from a Faction who was supposed to be "selfless" would be used to others doing nice things, but it didn't seem that way.

"That other girl from Abnegation, the first jumper," he started.

"Tris," Lilla supplied.

"Yeah, her. She said you just wanted to go to bed." It was more a question than a statement.

"I was tired."

"Mhmm, you said that before, but weren't you hungry?"

Lilla regarded the Dauntless-born boy with something akin to suspicious curiosity. What was he getting at? Where was he going with this?

"No."

Uriah sighed. He wasn't sure what to make of this mousey little girl. She showed no fear, no emotions at all really, but hid from the other Initiates. She stood up to Eric - the cruelest leader the Dauntless had - without hesitation, but was reduced to a pale, almost shaking girl by Four - one of the kindest - in a single short conversation. Zeke, his older brother, was friends with Four, and had been since they were new Initiates themselves. For all his grouching, Uriah knew that the young instructor did his best to make sure every Initiate did as well as possible, often even going out of his way to help. In the two years the older boy had been in Dauntless, Uriah had never seen him be needlessly cruel to anyone, even Eric.

"Alright, Mouse, c'mon," he sighed again, grabbing her wrist and pulling her on toward the shops. Nothing ever closed down in this place. With patrol schedules going 24 hrs, so did the services available in the Pit. And Lilla desperately needed something else to wear. All her fellow Transfers had gotten themselves some appropriate clothing, and if she showed up in her grey shift to training the next day, it would be her head on a platter with both Four and Eric.

"Why?" Lilla asked suddenly between little bites of cake as she trailed Uriah through the Pit.

"Why what?"

"Why are you being so nice?"

"Would you rather I called you Stiff and let you get in trouble when you show up in the wrong colors tomorrow?"

"No," she admitted, as much to herself as to Uriah. "But it would make more sense if you did."

"What, you think because Four reduced you to a crying little girl, that we are all that rough around the edges?" he half-teased, but his voice was gentle, and he regretted even teasing about it at all when she briefly flinched at the reminder. He didn't regret getting her around to the question he really wanted to ask though. "What did he say to you anyway?"

Lilla stared after him in silence for a long minute. They were not moving quickly, but she suddenly wished they were. It would be a distraction at least. How could she answer that? He hadn't said anything really, had he? He'd asked her name and sent her off, just another Stiff who didn't belong. And that was the rub. She was just another Stiff. But then... so was he. And he'd struck her with his lack of acknowledgement worse than Marcus ever had with his belt. She had a sudden desire to confide in someone, anyone really, and here was a willing ear. But could she do it? She didn't remember having an honest conversation since Tobias left, not with anyone, and she wasn't sure she even remembered how.

"Is there somewhere we can go, somewhere no one else will be?" she asked on a whim, coming to the sudden determination to separate herself as wholly as possible from Abnegation, from Marcus, and – since it seemed to be his wish – even from Tobias. From Four.

"Sure." If Uriah was surprised by the sudden turn, he didn't say anything. It wasn't as if pressing her about it would get any further answers, so he'd wait until she was ready and then hear what she had to say. He led her up a back stairway, onto a little-known ledge over the pit. They could get her something to wear after he got his answers.

So, sitting down with legs over the ledge, he waited.

"I have a brother," Lilla blurted suddenly, earning a wide-eyed look from her new friend.

"Older or younger?" he asked.

"Older. He… he transferred out of Abnegation two years ago. I haven't heard from him since. I couldn't even go to the Choosing ceremony that year. I was… unwell."

"Oh, shit. That sucks, Mouse. Do you know where he is?"

"Yes…"

"And?"

What did this have to do with Four? Was he friends with her brother or something? Or did he know something the rest didn't?

"Here. He's Dauntless. I followed him here, even though he told me not to when he left. I'm here because my brother left me and came here, and for no other reason."

"So, your test wasn't Dauntless then?!" he asked, surprised. Technically, they weren't supposed to talk about their results, but was rare that someone chose something other than what the test told them to.

"No, it was Abnegation."

"I wouldn't share that information with just anyone if I was you," he warned. It was the sort of thing that could make her life more difficult, if the other Initiates knew she hadn't tested in.

"Are you planning on doing something with it?" Lilla questioned tonelessly. She didn't seem to care much what he did, but he wondered if that was an act. Almost everything about this girl seemed like it might be just that, an act.

"No," Uriah replied. "So who's your brother?" She hesitated, suddenly wary. When the urge to share – to confide in the kind boy who seemed to want to help her – had struck, it had seemed like a good idea; or, at least, not a bad one. But was she just making things more difficult on herself? If she couldn't count on her own brother, why should she trust this Dauntless-born boy with too many smiles and almost no concept of personal space? But she'd come too far now to stop. He'd only push if she didn't tell him now, and that could make things worse. Exposing her relationship with her brother was one thing. Risking the exposure of their biggest weakness… that was something else entirely, and not something she was willing to do.

"His name was once Tobias," she hedged.

"Holy shit!" Uriah yelped, facing his friend and turning her with a hand on her shoulder. "Four is your brother!?" Lilla nodded shortly, surprised.

"How do you know his real name if he doesn't use it anymore?" she couldn't help but ask.

"He's my older brother's best friend," he replied softly, not missing the edge of wariness in her tone, "I've known him since shortly after he got here."

No wonder she was upset. Her brother left her alone in a colorless, dreary life that she didn't belong in, and then treated her worse than a stranger when they finally saw each other after two years. If his brother pulled crap like that, he'd probably punch him in the face, but then again… he wasn't born Abnegation. And he wasn't as small as this girl either. Dauntless or not, punching someone twice your size without being sure you could beat them in a fight was stupid. Especially someone that would know you as well as a brother.

"You want me to ask Zeke what's up with him?" Uriah offered a bit hesitantly. He wasn't really sure what the correct response was here.

"No," Lilla rushed to assure him, "No, if he doesn't want me here… Well, it's too late now, and I won't go Factionless just because he isn't pleased to see me, but I won't bug him either. I have plenty to worry about without trying to get my brother to be less of a jerk." She gave the tall boy a once over. "You know… I have never had a friend before. Thank you… for listening." The words were said softly, not only in volume, but in tone. She sounded a little unsure of her admission, as if she wasn't supposed to say it. Uriah just smiled and bumped her shoulder with his own.

"Well, as your friend, I have to tell you," he said seriously, before cracking into a chuckle, "your clothes are terrible, and if you don't burn them once you have something new, I will!" This drew a half-smile from Lilla, and Uriah counted it as a victory. "Come on, Mouse," he continued, pulling himself to his feet and holding a hand out for her. "Let's get you something more… Dauntless."

Once back in her cot for the night, Lilla felt as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She'd gained a friend, as well as driving one more spike through her former life. Uriah had tried to talk her into getting something a little more daring to wear, something that would show a little skin. He even told her that Christina had convinced Tris to get a shorter, slim fitting dress. But nothing would sway the modest Abnegation girl to his arguments, and in the end she'd picked out several pairs of long pants and thin black turtlenecks with long sleeves. The fabric could breathe, which would keep her cool, and she had to cover her skin. She had no desire to face the inevitable questions, the attacks that would come if her wounds were exposed. It didn't take much to figure out that in this brutal competition, there was no quarter given. From anyone.

With new clothes in hand, Uriah escorted her back to the Transfer dorm and left her to grab a few hours rest before they had to be up for training in the morning. His parting shot was an order to show up to breakfast, on threat of being carried there over his shoulder if she didn't. With the barest hint of a smile and a wave, she watched him leave and climbed into bed.

Uriah left the Transfer where she needed to be, glad he'd sought her out. He couldn't believe what he'd learned, and speaking with Zeke at the first opportunity was top on his to-do list. He rejoined the other Dauntless-born and let himself drift off to sleep.

The next morning, the new pair of friends met up at 7:00 in the mess hall, as promised. Uriah was glad he wouldn't have to haul Lilla there over his shoulder, even if it would have been funny. He piled her plate with the best foods for long-lasting energy, and led her to an empty table. Before coming to the mess, the former Abnegation had showered, braided her long, curly hair around her head, and changed into the Dauntless blacks they'd picked out the night before. Changing in the dorm showers was a nerve-wracking experience. She'd worried the entire time that someone would come in at the wrong moment, and see her scars and lash marks that painted her skin so completely.

Her back was one giant bruise, but at least the lashing that had drawn blood two days ago was no longer leaking red fluid to give it away. There were even slight scabs forming over some of the mildest lacerations already.

"So Mouse," Uriah interrupted whatever deep thoughts she seemed to be processing, "you ready for training?" Lilla nodded once, before focusing on her food. "Not a morning person, huh?"

"You say that like you assume she has a personality," a new voice interjected, drawing the pair's attention. Peter stood, Molly and Drew behind him, glaring down at the Abnegation transfer with a sneer. "Stiffs don't know how to interact with people, Dauntless," he continued, "That's why she's so quiet. Too stupid to talk about anything other than their lies of giving to the 'poor', the lot of them."

Uriah stood, temper flaring immediately in defense of his friend, but a small hand on his wrist and a minute shake of Lilla's head had him sitting back down. Peter fumed at having the reaction tempered by the little Stiff.

From up above, another pair of eyes watched the interaction curiously. Was she really so stupid as to let the Candor boy torment her already? The other Abnegation wasn't taking flak from anyone, so why was this one? Eric considered the girl minutely through breakfast. Peter, coward that he was, stormed off as soon as he saw he wasn't going to get a rise from the Stiff, leaving her and the Dauntless-born boy in peace. The little girl reminded him of someone, he was sure of it, but who that was…

"Whatcha starin' at Eric?" a young woman asked, joining him leaning against the railing.

"Just this year's batch of children," he sneered.

"That girl with Zeke's kid brother, who is she?" Sinade, the woman beside him, inquired. She was one of the few who dared talk to him much, but even she had her limit.

"Don't know her name, but she's the first Stiff transfer of the year. The other one came after."

He watched as the girl slowly but surely began to speak to those around her, with Uriah's encouragement, as the other newbies filtered in around them. She was soon surrounded, and while she didn't seem to speak much, it was more than he'd seen from her yet. He desperately wanted to know why the chit seemed so damn familiar though! Damn his Erudite curiosity!

"I can't believe we got two this year. That's unheard of," the woman replied. With a smirk and a, "good luck training that lot!" she was gone, leaving Eric alone again.

"You ready Eric?" Four asked at the end of breakfast when they both stood over the training room. They didn't like each other, but they were assigned to the new Transfers' training together both years since their own Initiate class.

By 8:00 all the Transfers were present, some more ready than others. Four went through the motions of explaining how to shoot while Eric supervised. Both would wander around, instructing, once the trainees started practicing.

Lilla found herself a little less sure without Uriah by her side, and realized immediately that she would have to get over that. She couldn't afford to rely on anyone but herself, no matter how nice they were. She was positioned at a target between Al and Christina, and the feeling of a gun in her hand, she decided, was one of pure power. Even Marcus in all his raging wouldn't try to hurt her if she had a gun trained on him.

She watched a couple of people shoot once, before trying herself, and braced herself for the kickback she could see affecting the others. Breathing in, she readied herself, aimed the gun and slowly squeezed the trigger. Three… two… BANG! As she let the breath go, she squeezed the trigger, and to her shock, the bullet hit her target. Granted, it was too far right of the center to be considered a good shot, but she was still glad it had connected!

"Pathetic, Initiate," a growl of a voice said behind her, and she whirled to face the trainer she'd stood up to the day before; Eric, she remembered. "A shot like that might wing your opponent, who would then be free to shoot you right here." The words 'right here' were accompanied by two hard, bruising pokes to her chest, right over her heart. Bully, Lilla thought angrily. But she knew how to handle bullies.

Eric felt his irritation rise as she didn't step back under the poke. There was no cowering from this girl, even under his best glare. Did she have a death wish, or something?

"Answer me, girl," he spat.

"What do you want me to say, sir?" Lilla asked, her tone on the borderline of absolute innocence. There was nothing reasonably objectionable in her tone, despite the mildly mocking lilt on the term of respect, "I'm sure I will get better once I've shot a gun more than once in my life." Eric leaned down over her menacingly, invading her personal space worse than anyone else had yet.

"You watch yourself, little Stiff," he warned on a hiss of a whisper right in her ear, "My bad side is not a place anyone wants to be. I would hate to see you get too hurt before you get the chance to wash out." With another cruel sneer, he moved on, leaving Lilla to quickly catch her breath and continue on with the exercise. She suspected that she'd just made a lifetime enemy, and the apathy that had brought her through the first day was beginning to fade, making her a bit nervous about what Eric would do to her in the coming weeks. He was dangerous.

"Hey, Lilla!" Tris' excited voice brought her back to the gun range, "You hit the target, that's great!"

"Yeah," she agreed, "you too."

The rest of the morning continued on in much the same vein. Lilla improved with a few hours practice, but her shots were still going far too wide of the center. Still, she left the training room with her friends to go to lunch with a sense of satisfaction. They would have an hour and a half to eat and rest up for the afternoon activities. Lessons in hand to hand combat.

"Hey, Mouse! Guys," Uriah greeted happily, joining Lilla and the other Transfers with his indomitable personality shining through. The already stiffening muscles plaguing their group didn't seem to bother him; he was used to shooting practice. He just slid into the bench between Lilla and Tris, and stuck an extra piece of cake on Lilla's plate. She offered him a smile, but little more.

"So, I heard you talked back to Eric… again," he said after a long minute of silence reigned.

"That's right," Al snorted, "You gave him lip at the Pit entrance yesterday too. Is there something wrong with your brain?"

"Yeah, and I thought our girl Tris had a death wish, picking at Four. Eric is way, way scarier!" Christina chimed in with a bright giggle. It was only the first day of training, but they all knew better than to mess with either of their prickly instructors. There was no way of telling when those prickly spines would become far more prickly daggers.

"I don't have a death wish," Tris protested, "but he's just so… infuriating! And I don't think Four would actually hurt any of us." Uriah sneaked a glance at Lilla, worried for her, but she didn't give anything away on her face as they unknowingly discussed her brother. "Eric though… he's a nasty piece of work," Tris continued, "Maybe you should be careful with him Lil." Her easy, friendly use of a nickname startled Lilla a bit.

"She hasn't actually done anything he can really get pissed about," Will laughed from his place across from Christina.

"Like that matters," Al said, shaking his head.

"Hey, eat up Mouse," Uriah whispered in Lilla's ear as the others switched gears in their conversation. "Then you can come meet my goofy brother." He gave her a grin. "Just promise you won't listen to a word that comes out of his mouth."

"Alright. I'm finished anyway," Lilla agreed, brushing off her hands. She could get used to this food. It was tasty in a way no Abnegation meal ever could be, and there seemed to always be plenty. But after years of being deprived of adequate nutrition, she couldn't bring herself to eat as much at once as the others could.

"Nope," Uriah refused, "Finish your lunch. Trust me, you'll need the energy later!" She complied with an inward roll of her eyes, and then both said their goodbyes to the rest of the table. The others asked where the pair was going, but Uriah just shrugged and said that they would be harassing his brother, and that he'd deliver Lilla back to them in time to have them all make it back to the training room on time.

"So how'd training go?" he asked as he led his friend up a small set of stairs.

"It was alright. I hit the target at least."

"And working with Fo... erm… Tobias?"

"Just call him Four," she corrected, shaking her head. "I don't know who that guy is, but he's not Tobias, not anymore. I don't think he has been in a long time. And there isn't anything to talk about." She shrugged. "Eric started berating me on my first shot, I stood up to him, and both instructors left me alone for the rest of the lesson for the most part."

"I heard he threatened you."

"He did."

"Are you not afraid of him, Lilla? Because you should be. He's a scary dude. The only person who doesn't let him run all over them here is Four, and I think that's only because he doesn't rise to the bait when Eric starts on his crap, more than anything else. He could hurt you." Lilla was a little surprised to hear her name come from Uriah, rather than some epithet she wasn't even sure she liked.

"A lot of things could hurt me," she said after a minute, "That doesn't mean I am going to let any of them do it."

"I think I need to know if my new best friend has a death wish, Mouse," Uriah chuckled, but there was a strained edge to it. Lilla just elbowed him gently and asked how much longer until they found Zeke's apartment.

It wasn't far, and in a moment they were knocking on the black door of his brother's place. It was jerked open by a groggy man who looked a lot like Uriah, if a bit older. If she didn't know better, she would have guessed they were twins rather than two years apart.

"Go away, little brother, and take your girl with you," he said without sparing a glance in Lilla's direction. She didn't take offence; he wasn't really awake enough to be pleasant, and if he was Uriah's brother, surely he couldn't be all bad anyway, rude or not.

"Now now," Uriah chided with a grin, "You would turn your younger brother away on the lunch break of his first day as an Initiate? Really Zeke?"

"Fine," Zeke sighed, resigned, "get in here." His eyes flicked to Lilla. "You too, Transfer."

"I call her Mouse," the younger brother corrected, "but her name's Lilla. If I hear you call her Stiff or anything else like it, I swear I'll grind you into the mat the next time we spar."

"I don't care where she came from, and you know it." Zeke was beginning to wake up and wonder just who his brother had brought to his apartment. It was odd to see the younger man away from the other Dauntless-born, but this girl was certainly a Transfer. The only Dauntless thing about her was her black clothes, and even they were far more modest that any Dauntless-raised woman would pick.

"Hi Lilla," he greeted, "I'll leave the dumbass nicknames to my brother. I'm Zeke, the older, better version of your friend here." The sense of humor and good-natured teasing where the same, and Lilla wondered again if the two weren't twins.

Zeke and Uriah chatted for the remainder of the lunch break, with Lilla sitting quietly on a chair. With each passing moment, the older brother became more and more curious. She was familiar, but he couldn't quite place her, and she wasn't the type of person his brother would normally gravitate towards. Marlene and Lynn, Uriah's childhood friends, were both as Dauntless as they come, and had always been just as outgoing (and outrageous) as he was. This girl was unnaturally quiet. The way she walked, her tone, even her posture was unassuming and unnoticeable. Definitely not his brother's normal choice in friends.

Lilla, for her minimal part in the conversation, was remarkably comfortable with these two. They didn't press her to join, but let her say what came to mind. She liked her fellow Transfers well enough, but as a group they were a little overwhelming to a girl who'd never had a friend in her life. She was a little sorry as the end of lunch crept up on them, and Uriah walked her back to her fellow Transfers.

"He's nice," she said as they walked leisurely back to the mess hall to rejoin the other Initiates.

"He's a good brother. Our parents died when we were young. We were looked after by other family, but it's always pretty much been me and Zeke against the world."

"Why do I get the feeling that a lot of Dauntless die young?" she asked gently. Uriah shot her a grin.

"We do, Transfer," he agreed dryly, "But you gotta admit, you've lived more since your crazy self decided to join us, than you ever did in your old life."

"True." Truer than he even knew.

"Hey Uriah!" Christina's voice called teasingly as he and Lilla rejoined them, "You can't always steal our friend away like that!"

"I had a choice," Lilla chuckled a bit.

"Yeah maybe, but if you didn't, he'd just pick you up and carry you off anyway," Tris joked.

"Come on guys," Will interjected, tweaking Christina's hair, "If we're late, Eric just might skin us and hang our bodies up as an example. Or a gun target."

"Eww," the Candor girl groaned, pulling away from him and punching him in the arm. "Will… I'm going to have that disgusting image in my head for the rest of the day now!"

"Later," Uriah said with a wave, watching Lilla blend seamlessly back into the background of her group of friends. She really was good at remaining unseen, and he thought it was more a 'Lilla' thing than an Abnegation thing. The other Abnegation girl, Tris… she was noticeable, even when she didn't want to be.

He always wondered what reasons the Transfers had for transferring. Every year, there were a few in each Faction who didn't quite fit, a few who didn't know why, but always felt different. Even he had experienced it to some small extent. He thought like an Erudite, his brother told him, and had the kindness (if definitely not the passivity) of the Amity. Lilla had told him that her test said Abnegation, but he just didn't see it. The way she stood up to Eric's bullying, while a little foolish, was purely Dauntless. But her observation of the people around her, a trait he'd noticed only just now, was more Erudite. He had to wonder if any of them really fit as neatly as they were supposed to in the roles given to them.

The Transfer Initiates watched as Four took them through the hand-to-hand workout in rapt silence. He demonstrated with Eric, the pair moving in unified, if rather contemptuous, synchronization. Clearly, no matter how much they disliked one another, they trained together even though they were no longer Initiates in the same year.

Lilla watched her brother carefully. His movements were precise and quick, where Eric's sought to deal damage with the most power. Neither man was aiming to actually hurt the other, though she didn't think either would care if pain was the consequence of their spar. Once they'd gone through the basics of the punches, blocks, and kicks they were learning, the pair broke apart and sent the trainees off to practice on punching bags.

As Lilla faced off with the bag, she wondered if she would even be able to make it budge. It weighed more than she did!

"Don't just stand there, Initiate," Eric snarled, honing in on her hesitance. "Hit the damn thing, or you can practice with me." There was a challenge in his voice, and maybe a bit of a threat, and Lilla was not stupid enough to rise to it again. Two near-death brushes with one man was more than enough for two days.

She took her position, her stance a little off as she tried to mimic her brother's movements from his earlier demonstration. The position she was required to hold her arms in pulled at her healing back painfully, but she pushed it aside and threw a punch. Her fist crashed into the bag with a small thunk, but as expected, it didn't move.

"You're weak, Initiate," Eric sneered, watching her try again and again. The punches didn't improve, and he almost decided to leave it be. But Four's eyes on him stalled that thought. He'd get the little Stiff to do it right, if he had to throw punches of his own, just to prove to the other young man that he could. With a snarl, he grabbed Lilla by the shoulder and yanked her back away from the practice bag. He didn't miss the slight gasp as he pulled her shoulder, but didn't think much of it either. "Don't tell me you're so sore from a little shooting practice that you can't even throw a punch, girl."

Lilla said nothing, head down. Better to keep quiet than open her mouth and make it worse. He would get bored with her eventually.

"I asked you a question, Initiate!" he roared, drawing momentary attention. None of the other trainees were stupid enough to stop what they were doing completely, but he could see the struggle on his rival's face. Four wanted to intervene, and Eric wanted to know why.

"I am not too sore to throw a punch, Eric," she replied in a monotone, staring at a point in the middle of his forehead. The piercings and tattoos made him look all the more menacing, but she still couldn't find it in herself to fear him. On an instinctual level, maybe, in the same way she feared her father, who could lash out at any minute. But when she thought about it… no, she wasn't frightened of him.

"Then prove it, girl," he snapped, falling into a defensive stance. "Try and hit me."

"That's not fair," someone whispered. "He could break her with his pinky finger."

Other doubts were voiced as Lilla stared straight at her challenger. With a sigh, she took her own defensive posture, arms up, elbows ahead, weight balanced on both feet, with a bit more on the back one. This was not going to end well, and she knew it.

Lilla's first punch was blocked with a stinging slap to her wrist, forceful enough to knock her off balance, leaving a red mark behind. The next was quicker, as she got more comfortable with striking, but still very easily blocked.

"Again," Eric barked. He was grudgingly impressed with the little girl in front of him. She still didn't back down, even when he had a legitimate way to hurt her and make it look accidental.

For a few minutes, Lilla threw punch after punch at Eric's arms, rather than the bag as everyone else was doing. With each jab, she felt the barely closed lacerations pull across her shoulders, until finally one pulled open and she felt the warm trickle of blood down her back. She was glad her loose black shirt would conceal it until she could clean herself up.

Eric's eyes hadn't left the former Abnegation as she tried so hard to land a blow. He knew she wouldn't be able to do it – they all did – but in the privacy of his own mind, he could give her credit for determination. Because he was scrutinizing her so closely, he saw the wince and subtle hunch after less than five minutes of using him in place of the punching bag. What caused it? Despite his earlier taunt, he knew she wasn't that sore from the gun practice.

"Alright," he snapped, grabbing the next fist that came his way in his own much larger one. "Go back to the bag, and work on kicks. Your punches had best get better soon, or I am going to enjoy watching you get flattened."

It took all of Four's considerable willpower not to step in every time Eric picked on Lilla. First in the gun range, and now with this exercise too, he seemed to have something against the young transfer. If Four didn't know better, he'd think the larger man knew of their relationship and was getting back at him by harassing his sister. But it was impossible. He'd been careful not to tell anyone of their connection, and had gone as far as to avoid her completely. He was proud of his little sister though. There were none of the flying rages she would go into to protect him as children. She'd taken her strength and stubbornness born of harsh years, and honed it to something even more useful while he was gone. He wondered again if he'd not broken something in his sister when he left her alone for Dauntless, and the guilt that had plagued him – rightfully so, he thought – welled up once more. She'd always been a quiet girl, except in defense of her brother, but from all observations she'd become almost mute in the past two years. She spoke only when absolutely necessary, and spent the time she was around the other Initiates sitting as small as possible in a corner and making herself unnoticeable. Zeke's kid brother seemed to pull her out a bit, and that was good, but he was worried about her.

Like Eric, his attention remained firmly on Lilla, so he too noticed her posture change. Unlike the other man, he knew that posture. She was protecting her body after a beating from their father. He'd seen and felt that feeling himself far too many times to miss it. What the hell was she thinking, not telling anyone she was injured?! Still stupidly stubborn sometimes, apparently, he thought, fuming. But he wasn't sure what to do about it. He had two options. Draw everyone's attention to Lily and possibly their connection by pulling her from training himself, or… trust his nemesis to take her to the infirmary. As the trainees continued to punch and kick away at the bag, he knew he had to come to a decision.

With a single gesture, he and Eric met in the middle of the floor to hold a hushed conversation.

"The Stiff's injured," he said quietly, keeping his grey eyes roaming, rather than allowing them to rest on his sister as he wanted to.

"Which one?" Eric snorted derisively, "We've got two this year." There was a tinge of disgust in his tone.

"Don't be stupid, you saw it too," Four snapped.

"Yeah, yeah," Eric griped. "What do you want me to do about it Four? We're not babysitters. If she can't train she should have said so."

"Yes, because we give them that option," the shorter man snapped with a roll of his eyes.

"Fine. If she loses later because she missed practice, you get to scrape her off the floor."

"Fair enough."

With that settled, Four returned to overseeing the practice. He hated Eric, but he also knew that the other man wasn't nearly as cold or cruel as he acted. He was an arrogant SOB with a serious attitude problem, but he wasn't out to kill off their Initiates just yet. He suspected it was why the leaders paired them together on training each year. Good Dauntless, bad Dauntless. Or something like that.

Lilla continued to alternate kicking and punching the bag in front of her along with the others, although she didn't much feel like she was accomplishing anything. Her back, she suspected, still bled sluggishly, but there was nothing to be done for it. She even fell into the routine of repeating the moves they'd learned, finding it almost mind-numbing. Until she felt the rough hand on the back of her neck, pulling her once again away from her practice bag. Not again, she wanted to groan.

"With me, Initiate," Eric growled, tugging her away from the practice area with little care as she stumbled along beside him.