"HEY ERUDITE!" Eric stopped by the training room doors, he'd thought he was alone but the shout came from behind him. He knew who it was before he turned around and saw Dresden Yorke standing on the mats in the center of the room. He always knew when she was close because the hairs on the back of his arms and neck stood up. When he heard her voice he could barely hear anything else.

Turning to look at her he was stunned by how fierce she looked, her long dark hair held back by a series of braids, dark eye make-up and tight black clothing. Then there was the permanent look of disdain on her face, in the four weeks they'd been in Dauntless he'd never seen her smile. Smirk yes but never smile. Watching her fight was one thing, seeing the way her body coiled and released, but fighting her was a completely different thing. Feeling all her power and strength, trying desperately to control it, he'd never been so fucking turned on in his life than he had when he fought Dresden Yorke.

And now she was standing in front of him, her eyes cold and pinned on him. He was in trouble. He could tell from the look on her face. He should probably be afraid of what she would do, she did have her dagger in hand. He'd seen her do many things with that blade, but he didn't care in this moment. "Yorke." He smirked, folding his arms over his chest and planting his feet.

"I just went to see Four in the infirmary. Seems a group of the other transfers jumped him in the showers." From Dresden's cold hard tone it was clear she was accusing him of been involved.

"I take it think I was involved but as you can see, I've been in here all afternoon. I went to dinner with everyone else then I came back to train."

"You fight Four tomorrow right?" She questioned.

"Well I was supposed to."

"Oh you still will be. Your goons didn't do a good enough job." Oh that laugh. It might have been sarcastic but it was the sweetest sound he'd ever heard. The sound of joyous victory in her voice, but the thing she really didn't understand was he hadn't done shit this time.

"Just what are you accusing me of Yorke?"

"You know exactly what I am saying!" Dresden pocketed her dagger as she jumped down from the mats, now on his level but still a good ten feet away.

"But I want to hear you say it."

"You are a pathetic coward and rather than face Four tomorrow you orchestrated an attempt on his life!"

"What an imagination you have. How does it feel to be ranked third? Weren't you meant to be the darling of Dauntless? A prodigy? How does it feel being beaten to the spot you've been training for your whole life by two transfers?"

"I am the highest ranked female in initiation. I'm beating all the Dauntless-born male initiates and I can't even shoot a gun straight. No one has been able to pin me in a fight and thanks to you I am unbeatable at knife throwing now." It was true, since his impromptu lesson Dresden hadn't missed a target even once they'd started on to moving targets. Truthfully, she was still shit with a gun but give her a blade and she was lethal. "Rather a disappointment than a coward. Just admit it you arranged the whole hit on Four."

"I am not a coward!"

"You're a pathetic Erudite and you don't belong here!" She shouted. It probably wasn't the smartest idea he'd ever had but he blamed it on the fact he was thinking with the wrong head. Seeing Dresden all fired up storming towards him, all that uncontrolled rage, turned him on unbelievably. Blocking her slap with his forearm he grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled her face to his to claim her lips.

Dresden froze in his hands, her arm still in the air ready to slap him her eyes wide with shock. It took her a moment before she started to kiss him back and fuck it was the hottest thing. He had totally forgotten where he was as Dresden surrendered completely to him letting his tongue slip into her mouth when she fucking bit his lip.

"Fuck!" He grunted breaking away from her and running the heel of his hand over his bottom lip. The fucking crazy bitch had drawn blood. She'd just busted his fucking lip.

Hours could have past as they stood there, blood dripping from his lip, glaring at each other. Both of their chests heaving, a combination of anger and lust driving them. Something snapped inside both of them that had them lunging for one another. There was no finesse in their kissing, it was all teeth and fighting for dominance, a hunger that wouldn't be satisfied.

"I didn't have shit to do with an attack on Four… I want to fight him fair and square." Eric ground out as Dresden's lips latched onto his neck her teeth scrapping over his jugular.

Breaking away Dresden took a moment to look at him, "He's going to destroy you." She smirked, pushing him backwards on to the mat before crawling on his lap and claiming his lips again. Tearing her lips away again she ran her fingers over his jaw bone, "I just hope he doesn't make to much of a mess of your pretty face."

Growling Eric grabbed a fistful of hair and forced her lips back to his, "Shut the fuck up." Brushing his lips over hers he kept her eyes locked on his before claiming her lips forcefully and brutally.

Thinking about it now Eric realised it was a rather fitting start to their relationship, it certainly hadn't been the last time a fight had ended with them making out or tearing the clothes off each other. Fuck, once she'd held a blade to his throat while he was buried deep inside her. Before Dresden his life had been organised, neat and ordered like any good Erudite. Hurricane Dresden had no time for plans or organisation, she had a life to live and she'd woken something up inside him.

Jack Kang was standing at the foot of his hospital bed again. The nurse had told him he should be thankful the blade hadn't hit anything vital but fuck he had no idea how long he'd been out and he was feeling the furthest thing from grateful. Dresden was still in Erudite and now he was at the mercy of Candor and the traitorous Dauntless. "It would seem Jeanine is rather invested in getting you back. She reminded me of Candor's weak position in society and you will be traded back to her later today." Kang stated.

"Good ol' Mother." Eric laughed. Jeanine didn't give two shits if he lived or died. She was more scared that he would do exactly as he planned to do; switch sides and feed Four the information he needed to take Jeanine out and end the Factionless threat. She just wanted him back in Erudite where she could control him, but he was done being her fucking lap dog.

"In the meantime you'll be sent to the detention center to await transport." With that Jack was gone and the nurses were bringing him clothes. He batted away their hands as they attempted to help him get up and dressed. He could dress himself, he didn't need anyone fussing over him.

Pissed off, Eric stepped into the cell they had waiting for him. He had no idea how long he had left in Candor but it needed to be enough time for the Dauntless to get to him. He couldn't turn on Jeanine if there wasn't anyone to turn to. He needed to do it before he left Candor and was nicely presented back to his mother. Surely he'd done enough to piss them off that they would want to get to him before he was given back to Erudite to what they probably assumed was his nice cushy life.

It was Four that eventually led a group of the Dauntless traitors in to his cell, heading straight for him and dragging him to a chair, "mind the stitches." Eric remarked as he calmly sat down. This was a Dauntless style interrogation. "Already picked new leaders I see." He could tell from the way the others all stood deferentially behind Four, Tori and Harrison.

"Would you like me to tell you your crimes?" Tori's standing right in front of him. He notices how all her weight is on her left leg, her right must have been injured in the fight. "Or would you like to list them yourself?" He could say them himself but really they didn't matter.

"Honestly I am surprised you stayed so long in Erudite… actually no, what really surprised me is that you remained hidden for so long." Eric tried to laugh but finding it too painful settled for a smirk.

"You knew?" Tori looked confused like she'd actually thought she was being sneaky while spying in Erudite.

"Of course I knew, you're not that clever."

"Why not sell me out?" He could tell now Tori was genuinely shocked that she was still alive. That he'd known this whole time and not done anything about it.

"Let's call it curiosity."

"Enough" Four stated, "It's time for you to confess to your crimes."

"I want her to list them." Eric nodded his head towards Tris, running his fingers over the knife wound in his stomach. It still ached, a dull reminder of the blade she'd pushed into him.

"Leave her out of this!" Four shouted slamming his hand on the chair. Eric couldn't help goading him further. "Why? Because you are doing her? Oh wait I forgot Stiff's don't do that sort of thing. They just tie each other's shoes and cut each other's hair." Eric paused for a moment, "I want her to list them."

Tris stepped forward. "You conspired with Erudite. You are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Abnegation. You betrayed Dauntless. You ordered the death of fifteen Candor. You are a ridiculous plaything of Jeanine Matthews."

"Do I deserve to die?" Eric asked her.

"Yes." Her voice was so sure, he wanted to laugh.

"You won't kill me though." He was sure of that; they wouldn't kill him.

"Why?" Four asked and Tris moved out of his way so Four could stand directly in front of Eric again, "Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you."

"Because I am begging you!" Eric knew that Four wanted the satisfaction of him begging and god if it had only been his life on the line he wouldn't have given in. Dying didn't scare him, he was only too happy for Four to pull that trigger. After all it was Four that would suffer the most with the blood on his hands when he realised killing was necessary. But it wasn't his life he was begging for. Dresden's death at the hands of Jeanine would not be nearly as quick as a bullet to the head from Four. So he would beg for his life to keep Dresden alive and safe from Jeanine.

"What!?"

"If you kill me… you are killing Dresden. Right now she is comatose in Erudite and the only thing stopping Jeanine from killing and dissecting her is me."

"You don't have the kind of authority to stop them. You're lying because you're scared to die."

"You've seen my fears Four, you know I'm not afraid to die. I have six fears and you know what the biggest is." Eric was right, Four did know what Eric was afraid of. As the last initiate to be tested in the fear landscape, he had been the only initiate to see Eric's fears.

Four wondered many things about Eric Coulter. He wondered why the former Erudite hated him so much. Why Eric was so obsessed with the number one spot. What did Dresden see in him? What made Eric, who wanted nothing to do with anyone else Dauntless, want Dresden? What was Eric Coulter afraid of? And now he would get to find out as the screen on the wall went blue signalling Eric was being injected with the serum. Eric had an average sim time of seventeen minutes which made him, Dresden and Four the fastest initiates.

Blue quickly became water filled with fish, they kept swimming at Eric as he was fighting to break the surface. Even as he broke through the water, the fish kept coming. Four was pretty damn sure that fish didn't bite but these ones were going for Eric's toes as he treaded water. Four almost wants to laugh as Eric starts swimming for Navy Pier obviously planning on climbing out of the water. The big bad Eric Coulter is scared of fish, harmless fish – they eat fish in the canteen on Fridays and yet Eric is afraid.

As Eric climbed out of the water, spiders started crawling out from the structure and Four let his head drop back. Seriously. Of all the things Eric could be afraid of fish and spiders were his first two. Four's interest was quickly lost and he let his eyes drift shut.

Until he heard Dresden's voice, "You're pathetic, weak, useless. No wonder your parents had no time for you. Why would I ever want you?" His eyes shot open to see Eric in a situation not so different from the one he'd seen earlier from Dresden herself. Except this time, it was Eric being rejected. Now this was something interesting, Eric was scared of rejection whether this was rejection from Dresden specifically, or rejection as a whole, he couldn't tell but he was clearly afraid.

Dresden's reaction had been to lash out but Eric just took a breath and walked straight past her, though it visibly took him effort to push everything back as he got on with the task in front of him. Following Eric through to a huge open space, Four wondered what the hell this fear could be. There was literally nothing. Eric was alone in a vast wasteland. The complexity of what the landscape was trying to show had Four lost and yet Eric's vitals showed he was shaken by this barren sight.

And then it hit Four that maybe this wasn't as abstract as he was thinking. Perhaps, as he watched Eric walk through the empty space, it was just that simple. Eric was afraid of being alone. For someone who seemed to push everyone away it seemed a strange fear. Despite not doing anything physical it seemed the calming of his vitals was enough to get Eric through this fear as people started flooding the space fighting all around him.

It was chaos. No one had any control and around Eric countless Dauntless were dying. "PULL BACK!" Eric was shouting but no one was listening, to lost in the fight to survive. Control, this fear was the loss of control. Eric actually did really well keeping his calm and pulling everyone back, regaining control. He seemed to thrive as fear pounded through his veins. The type of person you'd want on your side when shit was going wrong. Except he was a total dick.

"ERIC!" it was Dresden again screaming this time. She sounded like she was in a lot of trouble. Eric was near the main entrance to Dauntless when the scream came. Four felt like he was watching an old time movie in slow motion as Eric started sprinting towards where the scream came from.

He was nearly there when he got thrown back as Dauntless exploded. Flames burst from the doors and windows as the building started to collapse. Four saw the hesitation in Eric's face as he looked at the flames but when Dresden's scream came again from inside Eric shook it off and ran into the flames. The fire was everywhere but Eric never slowed down as he ran.

Four watched as Eric ran through the ruins of Dauntless his gun in hand going room to room looking for survivors. In the third room he finds her, Dresden is half buried under a pile of rubble. Eric drops down to his knees next to her and Four swears he can see tears in the heartless bastards' eyes. There is obviously no pulse by the way Eric's body deflates after he checks her wrist for any sign of life. Eric is left kneeling next to her looking at her body. This is it, Eric's biggest fear is Dresden dying. It's also the fear that takes Eric the longest to overcome. Everything else has taken him two minutes at most, this though… he's been beside Dresden at least that long doing nothing. After three minutes he leans forward and places a kiss on her lips before getting up and continuing on his mission. Leaving the room, he wakes up and Eric finishes at 17 minutes and 37 seconds which makes him the fastest non-Divergent by five minutes.

Seeing Eric's fears had been enlightening. He had some pathetic little fears, spiders and fish, but others that were more deep and profound. And his biggest fear was Dresden dying.

"You need to get me back to Erudite so I can help you but I can't do that without risking Dresden here." Clearly Eric was trying his hardest to ensure the camera in the corner of his cell couldn't hear him speaking or see his mouth moving. But Four still couldn't bring himself to trust Eric, he was a cold blooded power hungry murderer.

"So die!"

"What?!" Eric asked his eyes widening as Four pulled the trigger.

A/N So big cliff hanger and I am the worst because I am now going on a ten day cycling holiday in the lake district (England) with no internet so I won't be able to update until I get back. But in the mean time your idea's and comments make me really happy! Do you guys think Eric is dead? And a big shout out to mmelody6 and the love you show my story thank you it makes me want to write more.