Welcome all to my first Divergent fanfiction (original novel by Veronica Roth.) This story is rated T for moderate violence, language, and sexual themes.

Ciao, Gabrielle.

Chapter 8: Catch Fire

The sound of the smack reverberated in the room and Nina instantly regretted having dared to hit Eric, though she had no doubt that he had deserved it. The force of her slap had pushed his face to the side, and he kept it there, the muscles in his neck stiff and tense. "Everybody get out," he growled.

Four lead the initiates out of the weapons training room, and Nina backed away cautiously; the way prey tries to sneak away from a predator. Eric reached out and grabbed her wrist, keeping her anchored. "Not you," he stated frigidly. His blue eyes revealed icy anger, but she looked resolutely into them, determined not to look away.

Tae passed her, and Nina trembled as she recalled the way the sleek gun had fit in her hands. The bullets had punctured the bulls-eye just an inch above Tae's head. One bullet had grazed Tae's scalp, and she'd cried out in pain. 'I almost killed someone today.' The metal door clanged shut with the departure of the last initiate. Eric swept down to pick up the gun that lay at Nina's feet. The gun she'd almost killed an innocent girl with. Because of him.

Eric spun the gun carelessly in his palms. "Do you want to explain why the fuck you just smacked me?"

"Cause you're an asshole," she snapped. "You are sadistic and cruel. I almost just killed someone because of you!"

He chuckled darkly. "I don't think so."

"Oh, so you're denying being an asshole." She stubbornly crossed her arms.

"No. I'm saying that you're lying about why you hit me."

Nina tensed and warily eyed the gun, which he was haphazardly flipping in the air. "What the fuck does that mean?"

"It means I think you have a problem with authority, Nina." Eric stepped close to her, his body heat radiating over her. He lifted the barrel of the gun and rested it against her jawline. Nina instantly stiffened. "I think you don't like being told what to do. Am I right?"

"What the fuck are you doing, Eric?" The barrel of the gun was cold and hard on her jaw. 'This is it. I'm done for. I should have shot him when I had the chance.'

Eric moved the barrel of the gun across Nina's lips like it was a lover's caress. "I want to make you scream." His voice was husky. Then he stepped back, aimed the gun at Nina's foot, and fired.

She instantly dropped to the floor, the pain tearing through her flesh like wildfire. She bit back a scream, refusing to give Eric the pleasure of accomplishing what he'd set out to do. "Oh my fucking god, you fucking maniac. What the fuck is wrong with you?!" She tenderly cradled her foot and stared up at Eric incredulously.

"You have a dirty mouth, Nina. I like that about you. What I don't like about you is that you think you know fucking everything. You're constantly questioning everything I say, and it's about time you learned your lesson."

She pressed her eyes shut and tried to calm down by taking deep, even breaths. Her foot was throbbing with agonizing pain.

"Why don't you tell me what you know about this gun, little miss know-it-all?"

Her eyes snapped open. "I don't know Eric, what the hell?! You just shot me!"

He paced in front of her calmly, undeterred by her shouts. "It's a BS-60 Hart. It weighs in heavily for a gun of its size and it's constructed primarily of stainless steel. It has a relatively low rate of fire, for obvious reasons - well, obvious to anyone who knows anything about guns, which you clearly do not."

"I don't give a fuck! You're trying to kill me, you fucking psycho!" She glanced around in panic, searching for potential exit paths, and began to breath erratically.

"Nina, calm the fuck down." He raised the gun and fired at Nina's shoulder. She clamped her hand over her mouth to muffle her scream. An image of a cat playing with a mouse before killing it suddenly came to her mind. The pain from her shoulder overrode the pain in her foot, which was beginning to feel numb.

Eric didn't spare Nina a glance as he continued to talk. "The BS-60 Hart is often used in initiate training, combat simulation, and exercises like today's - with that miserable, whiny cunt Tae. Can you guess what sets this particular gun apart from others?"

"What the fuck do you want, Eric?!" Nina begged him. He replied by shooting her again, in the leg. This time she could not contain her cry of pain, and she was fuming for having screamed like he'd wanted her to. She whimpered and clutched at her leg, but was surprised to see no sign of bleeding.

"'BS' stands for bullet simulator. '60' indicates how many seconds the pain lasts. In another minute you won't be feeling anything." Then he dropped the weapon to the floor and walked away, leaving Nina angry and humiliated.

In the late afternoon, Nina stopped by the tattoo parlour in search of Sonya. It was dinnertime, so the parlour was empty expect for the dark, dread-locked woman, who was diligently cleaning up and organizing. An empty plate littered with crumbs rested on her workbench.

"Hey, kitty cat. How come you're skipping dinner?"

"I'm not particularly hungry…" Nina stated irritably. She hopped onto Sonya's workbench and flipped through a sketchbook.

Sonya placed her fist on her hip. "Could that have anything to do with you slapping Eric this morning?"

Nina shrugged and sighed. "How did you hear about that?"

"Let's just say word spreads fast around here." Sonya began to run her fingers through the tangles in Nina's hair. She'd been pulling at her locks all day as she mulled over what had happened with Eric. She was pissed. She was really fucking pissed. And she was especially pissed because deep down, she understood the reason why he'd done it. He'd taught Tae a valuable lesson in facing her fears. And when Nina had retaliated, he'd had to put her in her place. Remind her that she didn't know everything. Remind her who was the boss. "Well you're not the boss of me," she muttered under her breath. "No one's the boss of me."

Sonya cocked her eyebrow. "Mhmm, girl, I know you have a story for me. Tell me what happened. Eric's been in a foul-ass mood all day and he won't tell me anything…"

"Ouch, bitch," joked Nina as Sonya worked through a particularly tangled lock of her hair. Then she began to narrate what had happened to her that day, the lesson that Eric had taught her… or, had attempted to teach her anyways. She shuddered as she recounted Eric's caustic words and the biting pain of the BS-60 Hart. The fake bullets had detached themselves from her skin after 60 seconds, as Eric had promised, but they left small, circular marks that were sore.

By the time Nina finished telling Sonya everything that had happened, her hair was tangle-free. Yet Sonya continued to gently run her fingers through Nina's hair, in a way that she found comforting. After a few moments of peace, Sonya broke the silence. "He wasn't always like that, you know. He hasn't always been so… obsessed with power."

Nina spun to look at Sonya. "What do you mean?"

"Did you know I was a transfer from Erudite?"

Nina's eyes widened with shock, and she nodded her head 'no.'

"Yup. I was a good ol' bookworm from Erudite. Just like Eric."

Nina's jaw dropped. Eric was so arrogant, so confident, so cocky… she'd just assumed he was a Dauntless-born.

"Want a tat, kitty cat?" Sonya asked, grinning at her clever little rhyme. Nina shrugged and nodded, so Sonya inserted a clean needle into her tattoo gun. "Eric and I have always been tight, even before we went through initiation together. I guess it was just natural for us to be close. Who else in Erudite understood the desire for recklessness? Who else in Erudite understood the desire to want to be –"

"- a total bad ass?" Nina cut her off with a smile, and Sonya nodded. "So, you and Eric…?" She let the unspoken question hang in the air, and her chest suddenly felt tense as she waited for the answer.

"Um, ew, no," laughed Sonya. "I don't roll that way, if you know what I mean."

The coil in Nina's chest immediately relaxed. "It was like that for me and Maddie too. We've been best friends forever. We just get each other, the way no one else in Amity ever did." She pursed her lips as she anxiously added in her head 'not that it seems that way anymore sometimes, now that Amir is in the way…' She forced herself to banish that thought from her head.

"Eric was always rebellious and brash," Sonya continued as she began to clean the skin on Nina's collarbone with a wipe. "Always competitive, as you might imagine. But when he transferred to Dauntless, it just got worse. He's so competitive with Four. They're constantly competing for authority. Eric is so power-hungry these days. It's so unlike him. Back in the day, he was all 'Fuck Authority,' you know what I mean? He used to question everything, he never let himself be swayed by what the leaders said." Sonya shook her head side-to-side, disappointment clear in her expression.

Nina mulled this over as Sonya began to fill the tattoo well with dark ink. She recalled the tantalizing offer she'd overheard Max make Eric: "Just keep doing your part – I need you to uncover any Divergent members, including initiates. If you succeed, who knows, you might be up for promotion."

"I'm not saying that what Eric did today was good or bad. He had his reasons. Of course it's always good to be able to admit that you don't know everything. But that doesn't mean you should ever just blindly do what you're told. It takes courage to stand up for what you believe in. And if today you believed that Eric deserved a slap, well then..." Sonya chuckled, lightening the mood. "Anyways, I'm just telling you this so that you understand that Eric isn't a bad guy. He's fiercely loyal to his friends and he's smart as a whip. He's still got some of that 'Fuck Authority' attitude in him, somewhere deep down. Don't give up on him yet."

Nina nodded to indicate that she understood. "Thanks, Sonya. I appreciate your advice."

"No problem. So, kitty cat," Sonya lifted the tattoo gun to Nina's collarbone. "Have you decided what you want?"

"Saved you a burger from dinner." Amir tossed Nina a napkin-wrapped sandwich, and she instantly felt guilty for having thought poorly of him earlier.

"Thanks," she said with a genuine smile. She sat on the bottom bunk and devoured the burger.

"Feeling better?" asked Maddie from the top bunk, where she lay outstretched.

"Urhm-hrm," Nina answered through a thick mouthful of burger. Amir made a grossed-out face. Nina swallowed the last of her food and stuck her tongue out at him. "Sonya gave me a pep-talk, of sorts. What about you, Mads? You look kinda pale."

Maddie shifted on the top bunk and sat up. "Ugh, yea. Me and Amir went for a jog after dinner, and I got a weird cramp in my chest. It's gone away now though."

"It was a bad idea to exercise after dinner," added Amir.

"Well, anyways, I'm glad you're feeling better cause we have plans tonight." Nina wigged her eyebrows suggestively.

"Oh, really. And what plans are these?" asked Amir.

Nina winked and flashed a mysterious grin. "Dress warmly."

The wind blowing at the top of the building bit ferociously through Nina's clothing, despite the layers. Her hair whipped in the air, and Maddie offered her a hair tie that she gladly accepted.

"Glad you could make it," said Sonya as she approached them. "This is basically a sacred Dauntless tradition. You're not really Dauntless if you haven't zip-lined off the top of the John Hancock building."

"How high did you say we were?" asked Amir, his eyes flashing about alertly.

"Heights aren't really his thing," explained Maddie.

"Clearly," laughed Nina. "Better suck it up, big boy."

Amir lightly punched Nina. "I will." He wrapped his arms around Maddie.

They approached the edge of the building and watched members of Dauntless being strapped into the security harnesses attached to the zip-line. Some members flew solo, while others were strapped in with a friend or lover.

"You have to release yourself at the end of the zip-line," explained Sonya. "There'll be a group at the bottom to catch you."

"And if you don't detach in time?" asked Maddie.

"Splat," answered Sonya grimly.

Nina watched as a girl jumped from the platform edge and flew gracefully in the air like a bullet. She grew smaller and smaller until she disappeared between two distant buildings, following the convoluted path of the zip-line.

"Wow," she whispered in awe.

"It's awesome, isn't it?" One of the twins, Tommy/Timmy, appeared beside Nina. She resigned herself to the fact that she couldn't remember which twin was which.

"Yes, definitely," she smiled up at him.

Maddie and Amir were strapped in next. The harnesses linked them together, and Maddie looped her arms around Amir's neck. She leaned in and lightly kissed him on the mouth. He whispered something into her ear, and then they leapt off the platform together. They whisked into the cool night air, flying rapidly down the zip-line.

"Zip-lining is the best. And there's nothing like your first time," Tommy/Timmy winked. "Are you gonna fly tandem?"

"I don't know about that. I'm thinking of flying solo for my first experience." Nina looked at him in the moonlight, studying his handsome face. Her memory of his appearance had been blurred by alcohol the first time she met him, but now she saw that he had sharp features, bright green eyes, and messy red hair. "Maybe another time, it could be fun," she added flirtatiously.

Someone pulled on her ponytail lightly from behind. "Your hair is tangled again! After all the work I did today," laughed Sonya.

"I know, it's the wind's fault!"

"A likely story," Sonya stuck her tongue out. She stepped up to the platform to be strapped in. "Catch you on the flip side, kitty cat." Then she stepped off the building and whizzed down the zip-line.

"Next," called the purple-haired chick that was in charge of harnessing all the zip-liners.

Nina felt nerves dancing in her stomach as she stepped onto the platform. She looked down at the ground and her heart flipped. 'I'm so high up.' She breathed deeply and forced herself to look away.

"You flying tandem?" asked the girl with the vibrant hair. Her face was mottled with piercing and tattoos.

"Nah," answered Nina.

"Yes." Eric stepped onto the platform.

"Fuck off, Eric," snapped Nina. The purple-haired girl began to harness in Eric, linking his straps to Nina's.

"No, I don't think I will."

"Seriously Eric, go away."

The purple-haired girl smacked her bubble-gum loudly as she finished adjusting the harness. "Are y'all gonna go, or what?"

"No!" Nina lightly pushed on Eric's chest, momentarily forgetting that he was now physically attached to her.

He smirked, placing his hands on Nina's waist, and stepped off the platform. Then, suddenly, they were soaring through the air, the frigid air cutting through Nina's clothing. The swell of the wind lifted her up and she felt like a hawk in flight; for a moment she really thought that she was in free-fall. Terror and excitement and pure adrenaline ripped through her chest and she screamed out in delight.

As they whipped through the frosty air, she was thankful for the heat of Eric's body pressed against hers. She forgot every bit of anger she felt towards him as they zoomed between buildings, flying so rapidly that it made her lightheaded. She looked down at the city in wonder, amazed at how small it all looked from this height. She let go of Eric and leaned back, her arms outstretched so that the only thing holding her to him was the harness. She closed her eyes, and as the wind whipped through her hair, she imagined she was a phoenix in flight, catching fire. She cried out in pleasure. She never felt so alive.

Eric wrapped his strong arms around her waist, pulling her close to him, and she leaned in, placing her head in the crook of his neck. Over his shoulder, she saw their reflection briefly as they zoomed past the large windows of an abandoned skyscraper. The stars twinkled above, and she felt like she could almost reach out to touch one. In the giddiness she felt at the moment, she planted a tender kiss on Eric's neck. She worried briefly that it would upset him, and she hoped he hadn't noticed, but then she decided to relax and just live in the moment. Eric tightened his hold on Nina, pulling her closer to his broad chest.

The buildings grew in size as they approached the end of the zip-line. Eric's voice was husky as he whispered, the heat of his breath tickling her ear. "You need to unclip the harness on the count of three."

She nodded and reached up, feeling for the clip.

"One – two – three!"

Nina unclipped the harness from the zip-line and they were momentarily in free-fall, then they landed with a light bounce into the outstretched arms of Dauntless members. The Dauntless all cheered and hooted as they placed Eric and Nina onto their feet on the pavement.

"That was amazing! I wanna do it again, and again, and again!" exclaimed Nina, throwing her hands up and twirling. She had a smile on her face so big that she felt it would never go away. Never had she felt more fierce. Never had she felt more Dauntless.

Eric had only a small, conservative smile on his face, but it was more smile than Nina was used to seeing. He turned to walk away, and began to disappear into the crowd.

"Wait, Eric." Nina reached out and grabbed his wrist, pulling him gently back to her.

"What is it?" In his steely eyes was a lightness Nina hadn't seen before, and she realized she understood both so much and so little about him.

"I have an answer for you," she replied cryptically.

He cocked his eyebrow in confusion.

"Earlier, you asked me a question. You asked me if I have a problem with authority. You asked me if I have a problem doing what I'm told."

He nodded and crossed his arms. "That I did."

"Well, I have your answer." Nina pulled off her sweater, revealing a tight dark tank top underneath. She ripped off the white bandage that covered her new tattoo: in large, black, block letters over her left collarbone were the words 'FUCK AUTHORITY.'

What did you think of this chapter? Did you love it? Did you hate it? I definitely want to know what you think! And, as always, I appreciate constructive criticism.

Also, I want to apologize for updating later than usual! I aim to update biweekly: every other weekend. This past week has been hectic. Last week I had 3 exams and I also moved to a new house! I owe you all cookies.