~Jade's POV~
"What did you just injected him with?!" Lauren asks, and I could tell she wasn't too happy I went out on a lim. I look at her as Eric giggles his little head off beside her. "It should be obvious as to want I injected him with, look at him for gods sake! He's fine." I say, and Eric falls back onto the infirmary bed, fully laughing. "Not the Eric we're used to but, at least he's fine, and not attacking anyone." I say with a sigh. I walk back over next to Liam and Four, "Max probably made sure a nurse had a syringe out just in case. Was it just the peace serum?" Four asks looking at me, and I shake my head.
"Peace and Truth." I say, "So, for a few hours, he's gonna be the exact opposite of himself. Honest and peaceful." I add in triumph. Eric continues to chuckle, until he sets his sight beside him, at Lauren. He freezes, and just stares at her, "Eric, what's wrong?" She asks him. He smiles wide, "nothing, nothing at all actually." He says in a slurred tone. I watch as Eric looks at each and every person in the room, and stops at Four.
He squints his eyes and tilts his head, "for some reason," he begins, "In the back of my mind, I feel like I should be really mad at you. You did take my position after all." He sloppily says to Four, and I hear him stifle a chuckle from beside me. "I was given your position Eric, I didn't take it. After I won our little fight, that Max happened to witness, he decided it'd be best for a change in leadership, as did
all of our audience." Four says to him, and all that is heard from Eric is a singular 'huh'. Eventually he sighs, "Now I really feel like I should be mad at you. But I'm not. I feel so . . . Calm. This is strange." Eric responds with and even I laugh at his odd behavior. "Wait, did you say Truth serum? So if I ask him anything right now he'll tell the truth?" Lauren asks suddenly, and Four nods. "The truth and nothing but the truth. After injected, The truth serum will cause pain if he's holding something back, tries to lie when asked a question, or when asked if something is true or not." Four says with a smirk.
"I'll even prove it to you. Hey Eric," He calls his attention, "is it true that I am ultimately better then you at combat?" Four asks, and Eric opens his mouth seeming eager to speak but, his facial expression then hardened, just as he pressed his mouth back closed. He scrunches his face and begins to breath hard and fast through his nose. He hisses, and grunts through his breathing and that's when I realize he's fighting the truth. The serum literally effects the mind to where the result of dishonesty is discomfort. He groans out in pain, "just spit it out Eric. There's no point in fighting it." Four says with the biggest smile on his face.
"Nev-er", Eric says, still fighting it, just before he grabs his head with his hands and yells out in pain. He fights and fights and fights and fights until, "Yes! You are. Ever since that first time I fought you after our year of initiation, I realized how much stronger you were then me." Eric says in between grunts, and it is then my jaw drops to the floor. I look back at Eric and I see a look of disgust and anger on his face, for just a second of course, until he went back to smiling. "See? The Eric I know would rather die then say such a thing to me." Four says, "isn't that right Eric?" He asks him. And this time, he doesn't fight it at all, "that is correct, I'd have rather choked on the barrel of a gun then have said that to you." Eric proclaims calmly.
And everyone in the room, -except Peter of course- had a look of surprise on their faces. "Okay, you're obviously having way too much fun with this Four." Liam says, and Four laughs. "I had no idea choking on the barrel of a gun was peaceful, you sure the serums are working right?" Lauren asks aloud, and Four nods. "Oh they are, it's just, these two particular serums are so potent, they basically fight each other inside who ever injected. One minute he could act more peaceful than honest and the next, more honest then peaceful. But don't worry, one won't over power the other." Four explains but, all throughout his explanation, I could feel Eric's eyes on me. I look at him, and for the first time, the gaze he had on me finally represented his true feelings.
It was the same gaze Four gave me this morning, just before he told me he never thought he'd love someone the way he loves me. I furrow my eyebrows at him a bit, which apparently knocked him out of his enchanted trance. He looks over at Four, -who still happened to be talking to Lauren- and then back at me. And, I have to admit, the next look he gave me fractured my heart. He looked at me with this glint of heartbreak in his eyes.
And it only hurt me because, I put myself in Eric's shoes. I look at this situation in another perspective and imagined Four loving another girl. I imagine Four and Rose in a relationship. I let my mind linger even farther and imagined him picking her over me. And the pain I felt in my heart nearly overwhelmed me.
Which lead me to look at Eric remorsefully. Only because, if what he has said is true, if this man in front of me is truly in love with me, he'd be living with that exact pain. Not imagining, like myself. I realize Four and Lauren had stop talking and were now looking at me and Eric, looking at each other. Four gives me a questioning look, before momentarily glaring at Eric.
"Lauren can I ask Eric something? Only asking because it's quite a, sensitive, matter." Four asks, giving her a certain look. Lauren looks over to Molly and Drew with an expression of discomfort. Four eventually notices, "Drew, Molly. The next time I see you two, I expect for both of you to have picked one of the three choices I gave you earlier. For now, you two can visit Peter later." Four says, and the two of them just sit there, as if they didn't even hear him. Four looks at them and clenches his jaw, "What are you two? Deaf? Leave or I'll choose where you'll sleep tonight myself!" Four demands, and I've never seen Drew and Molly leave a room faster. Four relaxes, and looks to Lauren, "Might as well, it's most likely one of the many questions I have. And I trust you three." She says looking back at me, Four and my brother.
I smile at Lauren, as does Four and Liam. Four then loses his smile, clears his throat, and looks at Eric. "Ask me what?" Eric questions, obviously oblivious. "Ask if whether you being in love with my girlfriend is still true or not." Four asks, and Eric's eyes widen. Eventually, he winces and scrunches his eyes as he tries to hold the words from coming out of his mouth.
He hunches over cradling his head with a groan. "Why do you keep fighting it? Eric there's no reason to!" - "Yes there is!" He quickly yells back at me with tears in his eyes. As every vein on his neck and forehead began to show, I watched as Lauren placed her hand on his leg. The two of them look into each others eyes, "Eric, just tell me. Just say it already." Lauren says with tears of her own building. He shook his head, letting the tears fall from his eyes.
"Please." Lauren begs, and Eric definitely looked as if he were about burst any second. "FINE! It's true!" He finally breaks, "I loved her the moment I laid my eyes on her." Eric says weakly. He looks at me, "I fell in love with her so hard I . . ." He attempts to fight it again, "I broke," and again, "I-I broke up with Lauren thinking I'd be able to somehow make her fall in love with me and, just as I was about to try and make up for pretending to be a dickhead leader, and confess how I felt to her, I come to find out . . ." Eric trails off, and slowly turns his head and eyes over to Four. "You already got to her first." He says clenching his teeth, holding back a sob. And by then, my heart felt like an hundred pound weight in my chest.
I look over to Lauren as I hear a feminine sob, and before I know it Lauren stands from his bed and runs out the infirmary. I attempt to go after her but, I am stopped by Liam, and he gives me a reassuring look before going after her himself. I look back to Eric in disgust, "do you even realize how much that girl loved you? Do you even care that you literally broke her heart? Why couldn't you at least have the decency to tell her why? Why does it take a fucking Truth serum to get you to tell the truth?!" I question him in anger. He looks at me with tears lining his cheeks, "I did. I knew exactly how much she loved me. But I-I," He pauses, with a specific look of disgust and realization aimed at the floor. "I didn't care. And actually, I still don't." It is then that same facial expression fell nonchalant.
"I convinced myself that I was doing Lauren a favor by abandoning her. And after I did, I never told her the truth. Even when she asked, I lied and told her it was only because I didn't want to be with anybody anymore." Eric confesses, and then looks over to me. "I never told her how I felt about you because it didn't seem necessary to add onto her pain." He says. "Again, not that I cared though." He adds. "Oh and, it takes a serum just to get me to tell the truth because all my life, I've had people take advantage of me because of it. Because of the truth. Even my own parents. When I was younger, my Erudite, Dauntless-loathing mother had tricked me into telling her which faction I wanted to choose when I grew up. I told her Dauntless and, she told my father, who just so happened to hate Dauntless even more then she did. Or maybe, just as much as she did because, I was endlessly beat by my father from that day forward, while my mother stood by and acted as if the abuse was discipline." Eric continues to confess. And I look at Four, eyes wide and vision blurry, with my mouth agape.
He looks at me the same and I realize, what Eric just told us, was probably something he never wanted to tell anyone. Regardless of that, my heart now ached for the man in front of me. The amount of sympathy I held for him was merely unfathomable. "So don't you see Four," Eric says to him calmly, "you and I aren't that different. Of course, except for the fact your mother died loving you. And that, instead of spreading the hatred your father instilled in you, like I did, you somehow used that hatred and made yourself stronger. You made yourself, the almighty Four, top of his class but too badass to accept leadership. Or, that's what I thought, until I remembered your father runs the government, meaning you'd have to see him if you accepted. Speaking of which, have you seen him yet? Considering you did finally take the position. My position." Eric says, and after a brief pause, he furrows his eyebrows with a gasp. "Why did I just tell you all of that?" He seems to question himself, "I've never told anyone that," he says in sheer disbelief, "and now, this fucking serum just made me tell my sworn enemy and the love of my life, great." He says, and cringes at his own words.
"Goddammit! Please don't ask me anymore questions, this is literal torture." Eric nearly pleads. "Fine, we won't. But let me say this," I pause for a while, and I crouch down in front of him, placing my hand on his knee, "I'm sorry Eric, I really am." I say wholeheartedly, looking dead into his eyes. "I'm sorry for what your parents put you through. And I'm sorry for what I'm putting you through currently. I uh, actually don't know what else to do other than apologize really. I never meant to, nor did I think I'd be hurting anyone by getting into a relationship with someone else honestly." I add. And Eric's eyes fall to his hands, which laid in his lap. "There's no need to apologize Natalie." He responds, "And anyways, it was never you're fault to begin with. I'm the one who caused my own pain, and my own suffering." He adds.
He then looks over at Four, then back at me, again. "And uh, I'd like to be able to turn this into a 'if you're happy, I'm happy' type of moment and leave it at that but, the serum won't let me so, I'll just say this." He pauses, and looks at me, "I wish you the best Natalie Harris. Even if it's not me who's making you happy." He says sorrowfully, just before breaking eye contact, and laying back down in the infirmary bed. We get the hint and finally take our leave. Once out of the infirmary, I take a moment, and lean my back onto the nearest wall.
Four notices, and stands in front of me, and lifts my chin up to look at him. "What's wrong?" He asks me, obviously concerned. "It's just," I start, "I don't like hurting people like this, Four. I hate it, actually." I say to him, and I feel my bottom lip quiver. "I love you and, in a sense, I'm getting punished for it. I can't help but feel this overwhelming sense of guilt. Which is now continuously fueled by the fact that I want to fix this, fix him, and I-I don't know how." I add. Four looks at me confused, "w-what do you mean by fix?" He asks cautiously.
"By fix I mean, I wanna be able to have my cake," I say, beginning to walk my fingers up his chest, "and eat it too," I kiss his cheek, "without having the guilt demon over my shoulder, reminding me of how much Eric loves me so, I wanna try and do something to make him happy. I want him to be happy, just like we are." I explain. Oddly, Four sighs with what looks to be relief, just before tucking one of my brown curls behind my ear. I raise an eyebrow, and just as he was about to speak, I stop him. "Wait, was that a sigh of relief I just heard?" I ask him with squinted eyes, and he shakes his head with a chuckle. "No, it wasn't." - "Yes, it obviously was. Care to share what was going on in that mind of yours before it maybe?" I ask suspicious, yet more curious than ever.
"Really it's nothing," he says to me, and I roll my eyes. "It's not nothing, especially if you're trying this hard to keep what ever it is from me." I say, and I grab onto the collar of his open leather jacket, and gently pull him closer to me. "Alright alright, fine. I uh, for a second there, thought that Eric confessing his love for you while under the Truth serum might've, uh," - "might've what?" I ask him rhetorically, finally seeing what he was getting at, "changed the way I feel about you? Made me fall madly in love with him?" I ask him with a laugh, and after awhile, he nods. I shake my head and smile, "well, rest assured because my feelings stand the same. I don't love you any less then I did going into that infirmary. Can't believe you'd think such a thing. How absurd." I playfully say to him, making him laugh. "Forgive me my queen, for I have wronged you." He says to me, just as playfully, right before bowing and placing his lips on my knuckles and then, onto my own lips.
I kiss him back, placing my hands onto his muscular neck as he places his hands on the wall behind me. I pull away, and he gently presses his forehead against mine, looking deep into my eyes. "You mean the world to me Natalie, if I ever do lose you to someone, just know, I'll never be the same until I get you back. And if I would've lost you this morning, if your brothers and friends hadn't gotten there in time," He pauses, closing his eyes and taking in a deep breath, "I honestly don't know what I would've done." He says softly, with a ting of sadness in his voice. "Well, other then plot Peter's inevitable death of course, and that's only if your brothers decided to show him mercy." He says half joking, half not, making me laugh. "Well, I'm glad I'm still alive and breathing cuz, there will be absolutely no death plotting." I say, and he nods his head. "As you wish your majesty." He says to me, pecking me on the lips before standing up straight, and entwining his hand with mine.
We decide to head back to the training room, in search of Lauren and my brother. We enter the training room, and I instantly spot my brother but, no Lauren in sight. We approach him, "Where's Lauren?" Four asks curiously. Liam looks at him, "oh uh, after she ran out the infirmary, I followed her to her apartment and kept her company until she wanted to be alone so, I'm pretty sure she's still in her apartment." He answers, and I smile at my brother's kindness. "Let's give her some time. We can begin planning training and fill her in whenever she's ready." I say, and both Four and my brother nod.
Soon after that, the three of us head over to a table that laid right in front of the training rooms scoreboard. The same scoreboard that once held my own fate in numbers. We sit down at the table, "so, where do we begin?" I ask, looking at Four and Liam. "I say we start with discussing the differences, and the similarities between first stage transfer training and first stage Dauntless-Born training." Liam says, and we all agree it's a good starting point. We officially begin with the differences.
Liam mentions that the first stage of Dauntless-Born training mainly consisted of learning how to use weapons. Considering Dauntless-Born start their physical training by the time they're fourteen years old. Unlike transfer training, where I had to be taught how to physically fight within a month. We take both those facts into consideration and realize, we're going to have to keep a larger yet equal amount of both physical training and weaponry training for the first stage. Especially if we plan on challenging these new initiates.
We then transition in the similarities, and we come to the conclusion the only similarity we could connect was the choice of weaponry used for training. In the beginning of transfer training, the first thing we did was learn how to shoot a gun, while the Dauntless-born learnt how to throw knifes. We change it up and decide to have both groups learn how to throw knifes first. And after that, some physical training demonstrations, and then we let them practice. I notice a rack with a clipboard hanging off the side of the table, and I grab it.
Luckily, there was paper along with a pencil already clipped onto it. I write down the first plan at the top and leave room for more. Liam seems to get an idea, and suggests how we should pair them up for fights. He says we should randomize who fights who for the first fights. He also explains a way to randomize it.
Put doubles of each number in a hat, shuffle, and which ever two people draw the same number are pair for a fight. I write that down, and continue to listen as Four begins to add onto Liam's idea. He says that we can use these random fights as the initiates pre-test's to find out what each and every one of them is capable of. He also says after those fights, and after we evaluate their ranks from those fights, we could pair up initiates with who we'd think be a challenge for both ends. I'm impressed by his idea and I write it down too.
"What about you jade? What can we do differently from when I was training you and all the other initiates." Four asks me, I finished writing and ponder. I think back to my training and the first thing that pops into my head was the moment I was stories in the sky, hanging on the metal frame of the Ferris wheel with four. I remember the reason why we were up there, and I remember the bright green flag that I eventually spotted from being up that high. I get an idea, "I know what we could do," I blurt turning my head to both of them, and the two of them nod for me to go on. "Four, remember how you and Eric made us initiates play a game of capture the flag?" I ask him and he nods yet, he furrows his eyebrows.
"Yes but, with the transfers and Dauntless-Born combined, how would we still do that?" He pauses, "It'll be more like an actual game then a challenge to the Dauntless-Born." He adds, obviously strategizing in his head. "See that's where my idea comes in, all we gotta do is make it harder for both groups." I propose and Four tilts his head at me, "and how do you suggest we do that?" He asks me curiously. "Simple, instead of having two teams, two flags and pain stimulating darts. We could have four teams, one flag, and paintball guns. Each team gets a different color to represent and, the team that gets the flag wins the highest rankings. We also could rank the other teams by the amount of different colored paints on them." I explain, and both Four and Liam look at each other, impressed. "That's a really good idea, write that down." Four tells me, tapping on the clipboard. I write it down with a smile on my face and then suddenly, "Four!" Could be heard from a deep voice from across the room.
I look behind them while Four and Liam have to turn to see who the voice came from, and as expected, it was Max. He gestures for Four with his fingers. Four turns back around, "I guess we'll start back up after I'm done talking with Max." He says standing, I stand too. "That's okay, Liam and I will go check up on Lauren. Make sure she's okay." I say, and he engulfs me into an embrace. I hug him back and peck him on the cheek after releasing.
Him and Max then head out the right hand exit of the training room. I turn to Liam, who seem to be neatly folding the piece of paper I wrote our ideas on. He stood, and handed it to me. But before I could grab it he lifted it away. I try to grab it again but, he lifts it even higher.
I look at him and spot the wide grin he had on his face. "Liam come on! Not funny!" I jump to try and reach his extended arm in the air but, it was honestly no use. He bursts out in the laughter just before lowering his arm and finally handing it to me. "Just because you're taller then me does not mean you're older then me Liam. I'm still your older sister booger breath, no matter if I'm not the eldest." I say playfully. "Yeah whatever midget." He taunts back.
"Oh hush and let's go check up on Lauren you damn giraffe." I respond with, and he begins to lead the way. We exit from the left hand exit of training room, and turn down the same way towards Fours apartment but, instead of going straight, we turn left into the same hallway Eric once tried to manipulate me in. This hallways had apartments lining the halls all the way down to the hallway that lead to the cafeteria. But before I could count how many Liam stops in front of me. "What it is Liam?" I ask worried, since he didn't necessarily stop next to a door like expected.
He turns around, "I just uh, I just wanted to talk to you before we see Lauren." He says, and I nod, insisting for him to go on. "About what happened earlier, in the infirmary." He says looking down at his hand, the same hand that was once on my shoulder. "I know for a fact I wasn't the only one who saw those . . . Images." He says to me. I look down at his hand as well, "Just by the way you acted after I lifted my hand off your shoulder, you did see those flashes of pictures right? You had to've." Liam says, and I nod slowly. "The moment we made contact I saw Eric lunging out at Four, and then I saw the rest of us, myself even, try to pull Eric off Four. And when you lifted your hand it was like . . . like . . ." I trail off, not knowing how to form my next words.
"Like time went in reverse?" Liam attempts to finish my sentence, and he was spot on. "Yes, exactly like that actually. And then the next thing I know I see Eric rise from the bed and I just acted, like it was an impulse." I say, and it was true. I look back at Liam to see him still looking at his hand like he had grown an extra three fingers. "It's just, I placed my hand on your shoulder and I could feel like, a charge. It felt like a normal electric shock on my hand but, I could feel it go through my arm and veins. That's why I stopped to talk to you, I'm kinda weirded out about it." He says, and just then he looks directly at my shoulder with a perplexed expression. Eventually, he goes to place the same hand on it yet, he hovers his hand over my shoulder, unsure.
But only for few moments, we look at each other on contact, obviously expecting for something to happen but, nothing does. He lifts his hand, "huh. Why did it happen then and not now?" I ask. And he looks at me with a shrug, "see? Weird. I wish I could say it was nothing but, if you saw it too, that definitely was something. Let's just go see Lauren, and maybe it will happen again." He says to me turning around, and I laugh-scoff. "Yeah whatever it was." I say unsure, just before heading into Lauren's apartment right behind Liam.