"No."

My hands were shaking again. I'd fallen out of parade rest, but I hadn't lost my resolve. Kang lifted an eyebrow and I could see Kyle shaking his head in bewilderment next to me. "If Tris doesn't want to testify for Eric, I will," he insisted. "I go over every piece of paperwork that leaves his office. I know what's reasonable and what isn't. I can-"

I shook my head. "We're not testifying," I insisted. "No one is going to."

Kyle threw his hands in the air and stalked over to the window. Kang's eyes followed him and I saw how he tensed. Kyle wasn't going to react violently against the man, but Kang still feared him. Everyone feared us.

I didn't want to use that muscle to get Kang to reverse the inquiry, but I had to do something. "There are no grounds for a public trial. Dauntless' Leadership doesn't fall under the purview of Candor," I said.

Kang's attention slowly moved back to me. I ignored the sound of Kyle's fist slamming on the window. "We've been asked to intercede on this matter. And why shouldn't it be the place of Candor to ask questions and resolve justice? Just because the offense isn't within our faction doesn't mean that we cannot determine the truth for you," Kang said.

"Your vipers out there aren't looking for truth. They're on a witch hunt based on one person's very biased opinions," I countered.

"I suppose you are referring to Mr. Eaton's claims," Kang said. He moved to recline in his chair though his eyes still darted back and forth between Kyle and myself. "If I were a lesser man I might take offense to your assumption that we did not do our due diligence."

Kyle snorted. I hoped that he had figured out that I didn't intent to just throw Eric to the wolves. "Take offence, by all means. She meant it," he snapped. "Or if she didn't, I do. Dauntless polices itself."

"That is clearly no longer viable, not when it leads to genocide of a faction and mass hysteria. You need to be brought into check," Kang retorted.

"We have been. That's what the war tribunals were for. Eric's already been through that. Every single argument being made downstairs in that courtroom has been made. And he was allowed to stay in his position," I snarled. "The jury understood his rationale back then. He was trying to look out against a threat - a threat that was a lie, but a perceived threat nonetheless. Now Four's somehow snowed you into thinking that because Eric used to think that Divergents were a threat that he'll start hunting us again? That's fucking bullshit and we both know it."

Kang clenched his jaw, a vein on his forehead throbbing from barely tamped down fury. Come at me, I dared him silently.

"We've already begun the trial proceedings," he growled.

"Boo-fucking-hoo," Kyle drawled. "Don't lean into the mistake more. That's not going to suddenly give you actual precedence for it."

Kang fell silent. His teeth dragged over his bottom lip as he thought. Here was where we would see just how committed Candor were to their values. Whether they valued truth and justice more than they did painful openness. He once again looked between Kyle and I.

I couldn't stand the inaction. "If you're not going to do it, I'm going to shut that trial down myself. We're taking Eric back with us. We'll decide on our own if we don't trust him," I said. Here was where I could have stormed out, acted purely on force as Kang clearly thought we would.

Instead I stood and waited. Tension stretched tight between we three. My words acted as a catalyst. Kyle swept next to me, his fists shaking by his sides. I appreciated his support especially how clearly enraged he was. I'd made the right bet, trusting him.

Clearing his throat, Kang levered himself up from his chair. "Perhaps Candor has overstepped its bounds by not allowing Dauntless to attempt these matters internally first," he admitted. "I will call off the inquiry and yield until any formal, proper request comes from Dauntless." He wasn't quite taking responsibility and there was no apology for jumping on the back of someone who wasn't even part of Leadership, but it was enough.

"Fantastic," I said.

Kyle punched my shoulder lightly before vanishing out the lobby door. I hadn't the stomach to go back inside the courtroom itself, relying on Kyle's icey eyed glare to keep Kang on his word. I had heard angry shouting, a dull roar of intrigue from the audience, and repeated calls for order by the judge.

At that point I had forced myself to leave the hallway and linger instead in the downstairs lobby. Within the next hour I saw my fellow trainees and those who had been watching make their way down and out the building. Kyle was one of the last to leave, his easygoing stride back.

Still, there was one person I was waiting to see.

"Tris!" I heard the familiar voice call my name. I stopped twisting my hands around one another and turned to face him. My face had to be schooled into a neutral expression, though I soon abandoned that effort.

Four tore through the milling crowd like my favorite knife through leather. "Tris, I know it was you," he bellowed.

Now my hand itched to be holding that blade. Four's face was red and he didn't slow as he approached. He shoved me against the glass window behind me with both hands, and I pushed back just as hard. My heel kicked out to catch his ankle and trip him.

Four had to take a beat to pick himself up from the ground. It gave me enough time to knee him in the side for good measure. It was a dick move but so was shoving me around like a punching bag. "What, now you're going to just resolve everything with a fistfight?" I hissed. "I didn't think you were that kind of Dauntless. You seemed awfully content to sneak around instead."

His eyes narrowed but I think my words had their intended effect of kicking him down a few notches. He didn't try to retaliate furthur, but he did sidle up closer and jab his finger into my collarbone. "Why did you do that? Why did you stop the proceedings? I had him. He was going down," Four snarled.

"It was the right thing to do," I said.

Four barked out a laugh. His hand moved to run through his already mussed hair. "The right thing to… How can you even say that? First you bitch that I'm not doing enough and now- now that I had a chance to enact the goals I want, you put a stop to it?" he roared. All around us black and white shapes froze, their attention locked on our shouting match.

"Why do you care so goddamn much about Eric as Leader? Callum was around for all the same calls but I don't see you trying to rip his rank away," I retorted.

"Eric put a gun up to my head and laughed. That wasn't because he was misguided or not informed. He wanted to kill me for no reason and thought it was hilarious!" Four's voice had somehow gotten even louder.

My fist bounced against my leg. God how the hell had I gotten into this position? "He still didn't pull the trigger even after he saw you were Divergent. I can't get into Eric's head, I don't know why he did that, but I know that now - not then, now - that I trust him," I retorted.

If I thought long and hard enough, I was certain that I could figure out exactly why cocky, gun-sure Eric would have laughed at the chance to shoot Four in the face. But at the same time I trusted my gut. He wouldn't have done the same thing now, not after seeing the consequences of being so reckless and blind. Not when I'd watched his face turn ashen at any mention of the Abnegation siege in our meetings.

Four shook his head and stared at the ceiling. "You're unbelievable," he muttered under his breath. Now that the shouting had subsided some, the people started to mill around again. They did leave a wide berth around us, though.

"Tris," he started this time pleading, "come back to your senses. I was wrong to ignore what you were trying to do with the new Leadership training, I get that now. But we can work together, build up Dauntless into something better. Build Chicago into something better."

I smiled. It was so tempting, the shift to niceties and apparent rationality. It was all a rouse, one I was tired of falling for. Maybe he didn't see it, the subtle manipulations and machinations but I did. I had finally figured him out. "I'm all for that, Four," I replied. "But better for me isn't the 'better' that your mother keeps whispering in your ear."

His mouth dropped open as he tried to pull together a new argument to draw me in with. I walked away before he could finish. The elevator doors had opened again, dumping out a fresh batch of Candor and one single Dauntless.

Even with Four shouting full-force at me, my heart hadn't hammered as hard as it did when I approached the elevator bank. I was vaguely aware of Four trying again to yell my name, but that faded to the background of my mind. Eric was adjusting his collar, finally back in his Dauntless blacks. "Grey looks horrible on you," I teased.

He looked up, contempt written across his face. I regretted opening with the joke. Hell, maybe Eric resented our interference. He had won an impossible case before, the same impossible case. He could have thought he'd win it again and finally put an end to the questioning.

Relief flooded through me as his expression softened. "Grey doesn't look good on anyone," he agreed. "Isn't that why you transferred?" He started towards the front door, gesturing for me to follow with a twitch of his head. I fell in next to him, the movement comfortable. It felt like we were back in the gym, grabbing some extra sparring time after drills were over.

Except I didn't know what to do with my hands. Or where to look. Or what to say. I took some comfort in the fact that by the time I reached the door again Four was gone. If he'd shoved me, there was no question that he'd throw a punch at Eric.

I checked my watch and groaned. "Hang on," I said, grabbing Eric's forearm.

"Missed it by minutes, didn't we?" Eric grumbled. "I really don't want to wait an hour." We'd just missed the two o'clock train. This time of year with low exports from Amity they ran every other hour.

"It'll be longer than that. Seriously, how do you function without knowing the schedule?" I said with a laugh. Switching directions brought us to the slowly crowding bus stop. Shifting glances and quieted conversations nipped at my already frayed nerves. I saw how Eric even lost his usual swagger and his reply back died in his half-opened mouth.

I eyed the bus schedule. It would be another painful five minutes here, ten to make the loop through Candor, five at the junction to pick up a Dauntless bus… Far too long to be sitting next to the wary faction members who were edging their way away from Eric with every second. "C'mon," I muttered to Eric.

It would take us longer to walk all the way back home, but we would at least be able to duck out from the streets into one of the tunnels if my mental map was correct. Eric stuffed his hands in his pockets, a mirror of my own uncomfortable posture. "Thanks," he grunted after a minute of quiet walking.

"For what?" My ears were red from the wind tunnel effect from all the tall buildings, only. No other reason.

He knocked his elbow against mine before retreating back to his part of the sidewalk. "You know what," Eric murmured. The wind threatened to tear his words away before letting me hear. "I wouldn't have survived another week-long trial. It would have beaten me," he admitted.

I twisted my head to stare at him. Nothing made Eric give up. I'd seen him first hand brawling against four Dauntless at once, nose broken and sweat drenching his back, and he hadn't backed down from the fight. He'd won, too.

Now though, I could see exhaustion in his eyes. He didn't have the energy to fight against Candor's accusations. Four's accusations. I crossed the two-inch divide between us, wrapping my arm around his elbow to tie us together. "You would have been fine," I insisted. "Kyle and I just didn't want to have to take the train out every day. It gets dull, you know? They don't even cancel court on the weekend. The nerve!"

Eric started to laugh midway through my rant, the sound echoing as we passed under a decrepit underpass. I finally cracked a smile and squeeze his elbow. "See, you're fine," I said.

He stopped. "Why do you care? About me," he asked.

I let my arm drop from his. I didn't miss how his hand slipped from his pocket to start to reach for mine. I let him capture my fingers between his. "Because you're not what they were saying you were. You're… this," I explained as I lifted our hands up. His index finger curled around mine and the others dangled, not quite touching but not far off.

"You're more than just the brute who got power and didn't know what to do with it. I can see how you're different even just from three months ago and that you deserve the chance to… I don't know. Make things right," I muttered.

Eric lifted his other hand and I expected him to… well I don't know what I'd expected. He ran his fingertips down my exposed arm. I'd forgotten to cover up the tattoo today and most of my wardrobe was tank tops to avoid overheating while training. "I wanted to be mad about this, you know." His voice came out in a rumble. "About matching with you."

All my earlier fears from just a day ago reignited with a vengeance. Eric touched the edges of the triangles, his fingers trailing back up to my shoulder then along my neck to my chin. "Couldn't," he said simply.

There was something in the way that his eyes held mine that told me I'd been afraid of the complete wrong thing, that his rejection of my drunken kiss hadn't been so much because of the kiss as it was the state under which it had been given. I had to stop this. He had to realize that I wasn't, I couldn't be his choice. It just didn't make sense.

"I've got horrible baggage. Divergent, transfer, suspicious on all accounts," I blurted out. "And Four's-"

"I don't care," Eric interjected. "It doesn't matter to me." The earnesty in his insistence bowled over my feeble excuses.

I exhaled and tried to not lean into his hand. "I don't want this to be a rebound mistake," I admitted, though it wasn't much of an argument. I was losing the battle against myself, my fingers stealing the rest of his.

He lifted one shoulder. "If it is, then so be it," Eric said. His lips quirked in a small smile. "Won't be the end of the world to try."

I let him tip my chin just so. It was all that I needed to let go of that final reservation, and I lifted on my toes to press my lips to his. It didn't burn like fire and a choir of angels didn't sing up above us, but my heart did skip a beat as Eric's hand dropped to curl around my waist. He tugged me just that inch closer and I felt his lips move in a smile.

If it was a mistake, it was a very nice one. One I could happily keep making.

A/N: Hello dear readers! This final chapter has been long in the making and I'm terribly sorry for just how long it's taken to GET to. Truly, I wasn't very happy with the direction I dragged us all in with the end of ch 4. Not that I don't like the court sub-plot, but it was severely distracting from the core of this fic: Eric and Tris, dealing with their new ink. In the end, I finagled this final chapter and I really do hope that it still satisfied everyone's hopes for an ending.

If you enjoyed this fic and want to see more, please do check out my profile for more fics with other Eris goodness!