Disclaimer: I do not own Divergent, only my OCs, this story and my artwork.

Chapter 7

"If you can't go back to your mother's womb, you'd better learn to be a good fighter."
― Anchee Min, Red Azalea

"Every man I meet wants to protect me. I can't figure out what from."
― Mae West

Just as the windblown protagonist drew his sword, his loyal army behind him chanting their warcries, a muffled groan and the shifting of sheets drew my gaze from the data pad I was reading. Tris' squinting eyes met my own and took several seconds to focus. We looked at each for few moments until Tris mouthed to me "Hi..."

In response I leaned forward I slapped her as hard as I could across the face. A gasp of wide eyes and Tris threw herself backwards on the medical bed, sitting up and staring at me with shock.

"What. The. Hell. Were You Thinking? Why did you hesitate?!" I hissed, my face contorted into rage. "You had him! You could have actually fucking beat him and-"

"Shut the hell up Vallie, just SHUT UP!" Tris suddenly screamed. I froze, mesmerised by the raw emotion on her face, and the chilling shock curling through my skull. "I know what happened, I know what I did wrong. I don't need you to lecture me and baby me, so just shut up!"

She flinched as I suddenly got up, my metal chair falling back with an illuminated crash. "You think you can make it through initiation like this?" I leaned into her face, my fists balled and a sudden filthy urge to evoke fear overcoming me, to somehow make her understand. "You're a joke, Tris, a bloody meatbag just waiting to be slaughtered. Is that okay with you? Fuck, do you like to be beaten up? Some sort of fetish, huh?"

Large chaotic tears started to run down her cheeks. In a cracked voice she snapped, "S-Shut up-" But I was to caught up in my own emotional rampage.

"-Or is it just Peter? Do you like it when he kicks your face in, and fucks you up?"

"-I said Stop It!"

"-I get it, you think it's the only way he'll willing touch you-"

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!" Tris screamed, her voice shattering my taunts. She hurled the data pad at me, which I dodged without a second thought, a horrible rotting feeling swirling in my stomach, of regret and the strong urge to stop Tris looking at me like that. "HOW DARE YOU! HOW THE FUCK DARE YOU! You think you can just take over my life, tell me how to train, how to act, how to fucking breath! I hate it! You have no right!"

"I have every right!" I roared back, my vocal chords strained and stretching to their limits. "Face it Tris, without me you wouldn't have made it out of the fucking train. You would have given up and settled down in some frictionless camp, getting fed scraps by your old fraction."

"Fuck you! I jumped out of that train on my own! I entered Dauntless by jumping on my own! I don't need you!"

I started laughing deliriously, Tris snarling at me to shut up again. "You would've been a mess in that ring if it weren't for me. You don't understand you idiot! You think training's just something to moan about, or that we're all here to gossip and complain about Eric. This isn't another school Beatrice! It's a fucking food chain, and right now you're no better than Myra!"

"DON'T CALL ME BEATRICE!" She shrieked, throwing the sheet off and clambering onto wobbling legs that demanded she lean against the wall. I hissed at her, picking up some foreign looking medical machine the size of a stereo and hurled it at the wall. My blood was throbbing so loudly in my ears it was painful.

"What's the difference?! I'm not even sure you want to be Dauntless. You're not even trying to stay here!" I became aware of raised voices outside the room, and I reacted by picking up the chair and restricting the movement of the door handle, lock us in.

"What the hell do you know about me?! You're just some girl who I train with! I work my ass off and I don't care what you say, so stop ranting because I didn't isolate myself and train to beat people up since I was a kid."

My eyes were blurred and I was gasping unevenly. As my chest started to throb intensely from my raised heart beat, I grab my hair and screamed my lungs out. "YOU DON'T GET IT, YOU DON'T FUCKING GET IT! I had to, I have to be the best! They thought they were so fucking better that me! They thought I was some dumb retard! So I trained, and got stronger, because I refuse to be weaker." I threw my head up to glare hatefully at Tris. "It was so fucking simple. I was going to be where I belonged, I was going to be the best of Dauntless, and then you came along and it got so freaking complicated! What the fuck did you do!? Why don't you get that I'm trying to help!"

"Why the hell do you care!?" She sneered, hobbling forward to close the distance.

"I DON'T KNOW. I DON'T FUCKING KNOW!" the dampness of my throat threw my into a coughing fit, and with broken whine I crumpled against the wall. There was pounding at the door, most likely from some worried nurse. "You just did something, alright? And I fucking hate you for it! I kept trying to ignore it, but just thinking about you leaving Dauntless made me so fucking sick..." I broke off, and to both of our horrors, I started to cry. "What the hell did you do..."

Tris stood frozen for so long it felt like we had been frozen in a photograph. She just watched me on the floor crying, huddling into my own limbs, thinking of how much I looked and sounded like a dying animal. She tried to comprehend what I had just said; she was a smart girl, and understood people better than I did. I didn't know what she suddenly realised, but I suppose my 'emotional leakage' had let on a lot more than I thought. I didn't realise that Tris now realised why I had acted the way I had, because I sure as fuck didn't. I never had cared for someone in such a chaotic array of emotions; with family it was so much more stabler, and I just couldn't grasp why I cared for someone who didn't have the same surname as me.

When the door was finally broken open, a hysterical nurse, Four and two guards ran into find Tris and I asleep, and for once, she was cradling me, her arms tucked around where I lay in her lap and her soft hair draped over both our faces. I was forever grateful that Four let us sleep and chewed our asses off for ruining Dauntless medical facilities after we woke up.

OK, I know this is shorter that usual, but oh my god was that hard to write, but it needed to be done. 'Cause common guys, even if Tris is oblvious to the whole crush thing, she's gotta be wondering why Vallie's all mother hen with her. And of course, Vallie had her own steaming pot of things to let out as well.

Quick note - I know a lot of people assume that a writer's protagonist is always meant to be in the right and all, and I understand why, because sometimes they are written like that, but not in this case. Reading this, some may notice that Vallie's showing traits that people sometimes associate with abusive or controlling partners.

One, I would like to say that I do not condone that sort of behaviour in reality.

Two, that Vallie as a character isn't as centred as I first portrayed, nor did I want to turn her into a whiny Mary sue with an uber tragic 'I watched my parents die' backstory (even though a few of the fanfics that I love have that sort of story :P). Vallie's got issues, and she's just not sure how to deal with confronting Tris. She's just got all these emotions that contradict her original rules and plans, and it sort of blew up when she panicked about Tris' defeat. And then of course she got angry about caring and blah blah blah.

Dudes, I need some pizza, this shit is draining. I hope you all having a lovely evening, I plan on watching Hercules with my mother :D

Thank you to all the lovely people who have supported this story! Special thanks for Wholocker78218 for the review :)

Love,

Renzin xo