XXVIII

"Hands down

I'm too proud for love

But with eyes shut

It's you I'm thinking of"

"Little Bit" -Lykke Li

Harper and Tobias got along better than anyone expected; he was a quick learner and bypassed everyone in the fighting portion of the training. The more Tobias seemed to progress, the more Harper noticed Eric's temper seemed to flare up. Mostly in the gym, Eric would shoot someone down, tell them that they weren't worth having the title of Dauntless. Every night he told her that the reason behind this was to push them mentally, to make them work harder to better themselves, to perfect themselves. Harper didn't see it that way; and she made it her silent goal to protect Tobias in a way she didn't know she ever wanted to. Not only did he come to Dauntless with a target on his back, there were speculations that he was Divergent. No one would know, and Harper planned to keep it that way.

Carson and Eliza spent as much time together as they could, working on plans and ideas, but nothing seemed to stick. Nothing seemed solid enough, strong enough to work. They were three against the world, it felt, and if they tried to go public, chances are it would be shrugged off and they would find themselves dead. Sure, they might become martyrs in that case, but they didn't want to die for the cause, not this early on. There was no promise, no guarantee that their deaths wouldn't be covered by Jeanine, forgotten about, and the world would move on with no idea what was coming their way.

"What about Xander?" Eliza asked Carson one evening, trying to think of other people to tell about everything that was going on.

Carson shook her head. "No. I don't think he'd... He is too loyal to Eric."

"You think Eric is in on it?"

Carson looked at Eliza and sighed. "He is far too close to Jeanine."

Carson and Eliza were piecing together the information that Harper had withheld from them, and she expected that they would at some point. Eliza felt something inside of her just not sitting right; she knew of Eric and Harper, and if Eric was part of the war on the other side, then who could Eliza trust? Harper had informed Eliza of the problems she had with Eric a year ago, but Eliza was unsure of how firm Harper's ability to stay away from the pull of Eric. If she got sucked into his way of thinking, Eliza would be the first to die. She caved, and expressed this to Carson, telling her everything and feeling an immense amount of guilt immediately afterwards.

Carson knew about Harper and Eric, she had speculated in the earlier days, but figured it out without too much effort. "She told me to trust her, and that she would be in close to information. She might love Eric, b

ut she knows what she has to do. She knows what she will be giving up when the day comes."

"Do you think she will be able to do it?"

"I know she will." Carson had no doubts about Harper.

****

Harper blocked a hit from a small woman who had transferred from Amity, Mina, who was having a hard time getting used to all this. She had the muscles, and the stamina from growing up farming, but she didn't have the skills and movements. They were already moving on to the next section soon, and Mina was in the bottom. She always expressed how worried she was, but she showed determination to improve. Harper told her that Eric was simply scaring them into all trying harder, and to not take him too seriously. She hoped that these initiates would test Eric as she had, to remind him that they were not as complacent as he wanted them to be.

"Speak of the devil, and he shall arrive," Harper mused as Eric came in. It was amazing how different they were together alone versus here, with the initiates. Both of them wanted to pull them in other direction.

"Initiates!" he shouted, "it's time to take this to the next level."

Harper rolled her eyes, but let Eric speak. She crossed her arms over her chest, like Eric always did, and waited for what new surprise he was going to bring up.

"You can punch a bag or pads all day," he said in his cocky voice, "but it is nothing compared to fighting a real person."

"Uh oh," Harper muttered under her breath.

"Stiff! Come on up," Eric said, then pointed at Mina. "You too."

Mina looked at Harper, but Harper decided to hold her tongue and wait to see what Tobias would do. It would be his decision that would change everything, and she was hoping that he would do what she thought he might. Tobias walked over from where he had been hitting a bag, and stepped onto the fighting mat. Mina tenderly placed her feet on the mat as well, hardly even in the square, her eyes trained on Tobias as she wondered if he was going to actually fight her. There was no hint in his dark eyes that suggested he would back off, but there was a tenseness in his jaw that suggested he didn't like what he was going to have to do.

"To knock out," Eric said, and then gestured towards the center of the mat. He backed off, and crossed his arms, waiting to see what Tobias and Mina would do. His eyes were more trained on Tobias, though.

Mina wasn't about to back down, and something inside of Harper soared. However, Tobias didn't back down like Harper half-expected him to do, and she knew that she was going to have to stand there and watch as Tobias took out this tiny little Amity. Harper found herself biting at her nails, something she hadn't done since she was a kid, and quickly pulled her nail from her teeth, following by digging it into her forearm. Mina threw the first hit, but Tobias simply stepped out of the way and avoided it. This little dance moved for a while, Tobias refusing to throw a punch right away. Maybe that was a fear; taking out someone who had no chance against him.

"Come on Stiff, afraid to lose?" Eric taunted.

"Come on, you have been training for this," Harper encouraged, shooting a glare at Eric. She was starting to get tired of how rude he would be when they weren't alone, and yet she always seemed to forget how much of an asshole he was when they were alone. How could someone be so nice to her and then so rude to everyone around her?

Mina made some good hits, making contact with Tobias once or twice. Tobias used his forearms to block her hits; she was too small to be aiming for the head, but she was trying to best to take him out quickly, rather than take him down with gruelling and time consuming body hits. She knew that she would wear herself down before Tobias went down, and so she was doing exactly what she should have been. 

But Tobias had size and strength on Mina, only he didn't quite have it in him to knock her out. He pushed her oncoming hit out of the way and hit her shoulder, weakening her strong arm. He kicked her at the knee and she stumbled, but didn't fall. She had balance, and Harper was trying hard not too root for the small teen. She wanted both of them to prevail, but she knew that there could only be one winner. It was obviously going to be Tobias, but if Mina put up a good fight, she would be ranked better than she thought. This faction was about bravery, and Mina was showing that easily. Eric might have thrown a low ball by putting her against Tobias, but he was giving her a chance to get herself higher up on the ranking. She didn't even seem too worried that she would be knocked out, she was giving her all and Harper made a mental note about that.

A few more punches and kicks, and Tobias swept out Mina's legs from underneath her. Harper sighed as she watched the small teen drop to her back. She scrambled to get into another position, but she was winded, and Tobias knelt down, putting his knee on her arm, pinning her down. But he didn't bring his arm back to end it. It took Tobias a total of five hits to bring Mina to her back, but he didn't finish it. Harper took a deep breath, both proud of Tobias, and preparing herself for how Eric was going to respond to this.

"What's this?" Eric asked, walking up to the edge of the mat. "I said knock out."

"She's half my size."

"Harper is half my size, I didn't hesitate," Eric said, reminding Harper of their first fight.

Tobias glanced at Harper, a sympathetic look in her direction, and back at Eric. "If this was out there, in the real world, I'd bring the person to submission, knock out only if I had to."

Eric's lips twitched. "That'll be considered in your scoring."

"Put me in the bottom ten, I don't care," Tobias threw at him, "It isn't brave to take down someone half your size. Did you feel good knocking out Harper?"

Everyone held their breath. Harper was smirking though, and Eric saw it, and if he was embarrassed, he hid it very well. He hid a lot of things.

Harper saw something of herself in Tobias, something that was shining bright. She shook her head with that smile still plastered on her lips; this kid was standing up for her, for something that happened a year ago and hardly mattered now. She hadn't even thought of it in a long time. She knew that things had gone too far and she raised her hands in surrender. "Alright, the testosterone in the room is suffocating me. Let's tone it down."

Eric was grimacing. He looked at Tobias; Mina had stepped off of the fighting mat, but not before giving Tobias a thankful look, to which her returned with a nod. Tobias stayed on the mat, flexing his hands casually, and then looking at Eric to see what he was going to do next. What was the leader of Dauntless really like? How far would he be pushed before he snapped. Tobias liked to test him; he saw some of his father in Eric, and he hated it.

Eric calmed himself ever so slightly, and dove into his reasoning behind why he did what he did. "It doesn't feel good, but out there, you aren't going to have choice, sometimes you're going to have to do things that you don't want to. Things that make you lose sleep at night. That's why I push you, all of you, I need to weed out who is breakable and have them pack their things."

"You're kicking me out?" Tobias didn't seem threatened, he took Eric's threats without a care.

"If I could." Eric was about to leave.

"How about a rematch?" Harper asked.

A few mutters here and there followed, and Eric cocked his head to the side as if he hadn't heard her right. She smirked at him, locked her eyes on his to show that she still cared about him, that she wasn't doing this to test his leadership, but to truly redeem herself. She didn't know if she would win or lose, but that wasn't the point. She wanted to show her initiates that she was okay with losing or winning, and that she could fight someone who was twice her size. She wanted to give them some hope, or, if she could, put Eric in his place.

When Eric didn't reply, Harper chuckled. "Come on Eric, for old times sake."

"You want me to refresh your memory?" He was being playful now.

"Well, you knocked me out cold last time, I hardly remember the ten second-beating I took." She was poking fun at herself, showing him that it was possible to do that. She winked at him. "Just don't bruise this pretty face, I know someone who likes it the way it is."

Eric grinned. "No, I have something better in mind."

Harper raised her eyebrows. "Oh yeah?"

"Ever heard of Capture the Flag?"