Xavier, Maddy, and I carry Rose to the infirmary. We see Ian and Sabina there, still unconscious. Four and Six aren't there. They are probably having an early lunch.
Still too nauseous to eat lunch, I decide to go and find Four and Six. They aren't in their dining room either. I storm around the whole compound, searching for the two of them. I don't care about the people staring at me as I go around the place screaming for Four and Six. I probably look like a child demanding for lollies. I don't care.
"Liz? What are you doing?" It's Xavier. He probably followed me.
"Going – to – get – my – revenge – on – Four – and – Six –" I can barely get my words out. I am far too angry.
"You can probably ask one of their friends," Xavier says.
Just then I spot Christina, Rose's sister. "OY! CHRISTINA! COME OVER HERE!"
"What do you want?" she says, a little taken aback from my temper.
"Tell me where Four and Six are. Now."
"OK, but w-why do you need them?"
"IT DOESN'T MATTER! LEAD ME TO THEM RIGHT NOW!"
"What a temper…" Shaking her head, she leads me across the chasm and through a door, then several corridors until we're outside. I see a tall apartment building, and we walk towards it. She goes up some levels and leads us to a block.
"There."
Without saying thank you, I storm into the room without knocking. Four and Six are kissing. Ignoring the surprising fact that they are probably partners, I scream my lungs out.
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING?"
"L-Liz? What's wrong? Why are you here?" Six says, annoyed that I broke their kiss, but curious and worried at the same time.
"DID YOU THINK YOU COULD JUST LEAVE US POOR INITIATES ALONE WITH ERIC? DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHO HE IS, WHAT HE DOES?"
"Y-Yes," says Four quickly. I notice with pride that he treats me as a superior now, with my temper.
"WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG? JUST DUMPING TWO UNCONCIOUS PEOPLE IN THE INFIRMARY THAT'S FIVE MINUTES AWAY CAN TAKE YOU AN HOUR, RIGHT?"
"W-we –"
"I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU WERE DOING! WHAT I CARE ABOUT IS THAT WHEN YOU LEFT US IN THE HANDS OF ERIC, TWO OF OUR LIVES WERE THREATENED WITH DEATH! DID YOU NOT ANTICIPATE THAT? DID YOU SHRUGG ERIC OFF AS A KIND, REASONABLE INSTRUCTOR? WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?"
Six and Four exchange an uneasy glance, then back off slowly into the wall behind them.
"What did he do?" Four asks.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK? TYLER WAS BEATING ROSE UP BADLY, ROSE WAS HALF DEAD WITH ALL HER RIBS CRACKED, AND ERIC DIDN'T CALL THE FIGHT OFF! ROSE –"
"Wait a minute. Is this Rose you're talking about my sister?" Christina gasps.
"YES, YOUR SISTER! YOU TWO LEFT YOUR FRIEND'S SISTER'S LIFE IN THE HANDS OF ERIC!"
"Sorry," mumbles Six, looking at Christina. Christina sends her a death glare.
"Tell me. What else did Eric do to Rose?" Christina asks me, shaking my shoulders violently. Xavier brushes her off me.
I take a deep breath and try to calm myself down. "Well, Rose said she had enough, and Eric didn't take that as an answer, well, duh. So, forgetting that Rose was half dead and all ruined, he made her hang over the chasm for five minutes! FIVE MINUTES! ROSE NEARLY DIED! AND WHEN THE TIME WAS UP, A WAVE CAME UP AND PULLED ROSE DOWN! SHE FELL INTO THE CHASM, AND ALMOST DIED! AND YOU TWO WERE IN HERE, KISSING AND HAVING FUN WHILST I HAD TO JUMP INTO THE CHASM MYSELF AND SAVE HER!"
"WHAT?" Christina yelps. "DID YOU SAY MY SISTER FELL INTO THE CHASM?"
"Yes," Xavier says angrily. "Eric was taking his own sweet time daydreaming, and he didn't even realise the five minutes was up, and Rose couldn't take it anymore and the wave pulled her in! I have a feeling you might like to thank Liz here for saving her life," he adds coldly. "If she hadn't jumped in and grabbed onto her just in time, Rose would be dead by now."
"Wait a minute – you jumped in?" Six says horrified.
"Yes, I jumped in!" I say, rolling my eyes.
"And she nearly died herself too," Xavier says, looking panicked as if contemplating what could have happened.
Christina rushes forward and hugs me so tightly I can barely breathe.
"I owe you," she whispers. "Thanks so much."
"Yeah, yeah," I say awkwardly, then break free of the hug and narrow my eyes at Six and Four.
"So, time for you to explain. What took you so long?"
"Well, you see," Four says, his voice a bit uneven from hearing the events. "Ian woke up as we were carrying him to the infirmary. He was so angry that he didn't win, and screamed that he deserved to win, and he wouldn't accept a draw as the outcome. He took me by surprise and tried to beat up Sabina again, even though she was unconscious. That is an act of cowardice. Six and I knocked him out so he wouldn't do further damage, then we carried them both to the infirmary."
"I see what Sabina meant now," I say coldly. "Violence is always the answer to everything, right? I thought the Dauntless was brave, not cruel and unreasonable."
"I never said I liked the way most Dauntless go about," says Four coolly.
"Well why can't you change it then?" I ask.
"What makes you think I have the power to do so?"
"Well…" I hesitate. I always thought that any Dauntless member has the power to change things. Is this place not democratic?
"What rank were you in initiation?" Xavier cut through my thoughts. I look at him puzzled.
"They were both ranked first," Christina says. Four sends her a death glare. I still don't get why this is relevant, but I say, "Well done," to them both.
"Well, that explains a few things," Xavier says. Then it clicks. They were both Abnegation, and they both ranked first. That's why they dote on Ryan! And no wonder they are together. I roll my eyes.
"But first of all, if you were ranked first, surely you would be considered for leadership?"
"We didn't want a leadership position," says Six quickly.
"Not the way they are now," adds Four. "Max has a close alliance with Jeanine Matthews, and together they manipulate the leaders and basically turn them into puppets. That's what happened to Eric, and that's why he's the way he is now, not that he was any better before."
"And you can't change it?" Xavier says, raising his eyebrow.
"There are other and more personal reasons as to why I would not like to become a Dauntless leader," Four says coldly.
"Don't push it," I whisper to Xavier.
"Anyway, after that little incident with Ian, we headed back to the training room," Six says. "And we got distracted because there was a fight going on beside the chasm. A young boy was being beaten up and four other people were trying to push him into the chasm. We tried to stop it. We had no idea those things were happening in the training room. We didn't think Tyler was that bad. He didn't look that malicious to us."
"Well, now you know that there's more to what meets the eye," I mumble under my breath.
"We're really sorry," Six sincerely apologizes. "We didn't expect a repeat of last time."
"A repeat of last time?" Don't say that the same thing happened again with somebody else.
"Yeah," Christina says emotionlessly. "I guess bad luck runs in the family. Four years ago, Eric did the exact same thing to me, except I wasn't half dead."
"I swear I will kill Eric someday…" I curse.
"And I'm betting your other trainer wasn't there to stop it either?" Xavier says raising his eyebrow.
"Um…" Six says uneasily, looking at Four.
"So Four was your trainer," I say emotionlessly. "Well. Figures."
"I'm sorry," Four says. "The same thing happened to me again last time."
We stay silent for a few more minutes, and then Xavier says, "So what will happen to Ian? Will you make him factionless for his cowardice?"
"Eric wouldn't allow it," Four says. "He would call it 'bravery' and that what he did proved that he was stronger and deserved to win."
I scrunch up my nose in disgust. "Seriously?"
"Yeah," Four says. He looks and Six, then says, "But we can make his ranks lower. Don't tell Eric about it. He's not going to see the rest of the fights –"
"Phew –"
"So we can just say he failed all of his fights. He deserves to, anyway, so we'll make him factionless."
"That's a good idea," Christina says. "Rose used to always blabber on to me about how much she hated him. He always picked on her when she was little."
"Well, I guess that's solved then," Six says. She looks at her watch, then says, "Training's in ten minutes. You'd better go and eat some lunch before your fight, Liz."
I nod. We are ushered out, whilst Six and Four apologize again and Christina thanks me again. Maybe they're not quite so bad as I thought.
