Sweat coated Lilith's skin as she made her way inside of the Dauntless compound, silently closing the door behind her. It was well past midnight, and the Pit was mostly empty, despite for a few groups of intoxicated individuals who didn't seem to notice her. She'd figured out that it was actually pretty easy to sneak out on her second night there, seeing as there was no one guarding the exits and the paths that led to them were deserted, more often than not.

The streets were also empty whenever she stepped outside, and the brunette took full advantage of that to explore the area as she jogged. Back in the Candor section, there had been a park that she often enjoyed venturing into, running through the trees until she found the tallest one. It had become a habit for her to climb it and, whenever she made it on time, she could watch the train as it passed. On some special nights, she also heard the Dauntless yelling as they jumped off. Now, she was training to become one of them.

Despite being slightly sore from the past few days of training, that still didn't stop her from running until her calves burned and her skin was dripping with sweat. It calmed her down and it helped her think, and she did have a lot to think about. Homesickness had started to take over her and, as much as she tried to push it away from her mind, it was still there. She wondered how Scott was doing, if he was crying the same way that she had when Hortense had left. Her eyes travelled to the flower pattern now engraved in her arm. Had Hortense cried after leaving?

She hadn't realized that she was walking through the corridor that led to the training room until she heard the door closing, a few feet ahead of her. Letting out a curse word, she pressed herself against the wall, praying that whoever was coming out of it didn't see her. After a few seconds, she heard the person's steps as they walked in the opposite direction, towards the dorm. Furrowing her eyebrows, Lilith finally stepped away from the wall and tried to get a good look at whoever it was. The golden hair and scrawny figure were enough for her to recognize Nate. The lights also allowed her to see his bloody knuckles, and the dots connected in her head instantly.

"So that's how you got good so quickly," she called out, closing the distance between them.

Nate froze, before looking over his shoulder at her. He was quick to relax as she shot him a smirk, "Oh, it's you," a chuckle left his lips, "Scared the crap out of me."

"Why? It's not like you're breaking any rules."

"It's usually really quiet here, at this hour. Unless someone else has the same idea as me, but people are usually here earlier," he shrugged his shoulders. His eyes narrowed as he noticed the state Lilith was in, "But you sure seem to want to get in trouble. Were you outside?"

She hesitated for a few seconds, but gave the former Amity boy a nod, "Just a little harmless jog."

"Eric would skin you alive, if he knew."

"You know, I think I've given him enough reasons for him to want to do that, already," she grinned, "What's one more?"

"Your funeral, Lilith," the blond boy replied, shaking his head with a hint of a smile on his lips.

Silently, the two teenagers resumed their walk together to the dorm. Nate hadn't made friends among the other transfers or the Dauntless borns yet, and the others seemed to want to stay away from him when he'd revealed how good he was in combat. Christina had even gossiped about how he seemed to lose control when he entered the arena, but Lilith saw it differently. In the arena, Nate was calm and focused. He calculated his every move with precision that few people seemed to have, and he always seemed to be prepared for whoever his opponent turned out to be. He, along with Edward, a former Erudite, were the people the Lilith enjoyed watching the most.

"I have a proposition," she announced, stopping near the corner that would lead them to where the dorm was. Nate too paused, folding his arms over his chest as he looked down at her. Lilith continued, "We could help eachother. You're free to join me on my jogs whenever you want, and then we take some time to go to the training room. I help you with cardio, you give me some pointers when it comes to combat."

"You don't need them," he raised his eyebrows, "I haven't seen you lose a single fight."

"That doesn't mean I don't want to improve," Lilith mimicked his stance, "I want a place in the top eleven, Nate. Preferably the first one, and that means I have to be the best that I can be. I've gotten lucky with my opponents so far, but I'm aware I can't win against everyone. I need to train more, and you know what you're doing," her lips spread into a grin, "Plus, I bet it would be much more effective for you to train against an actual moving person, than to hit a punching bag that won't strike back."

"You do have a point there," Nate pondered over it for a few seconds, before returning her grin, "Deal."

"This is the beginning of a beautiful partnership, Nate," she clapped her hand against his shoulder, as they closed the distance to the dorm, "Thank you."

"Let's see if you still want to thank me when I break your nose," he released a laugh as she looked at him in surprise, "What? It's not my fault you leave it unprotected."

"Okay, wow, Amity boy. Just you wait."

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

The next morning came by quickly and, as usual, Lilith was one of the first to leave her bed. Most transfers were in different degrees of suffering, some dragging themselves to the bathroom and others just getting ready like they hadn't been training and fighting during the last three days. She prided herself in knowing that she was one of the few not struggling. After quickly throwing on her clothes, Lilith made her bed as best as she could and walked out of the room, making her way to the dining hall in search of some food.

As always, the dining hall was full to the brim with people. The number of iniciates showing up for breakfast had dwindled significantly since the first day, and Lilith assumed that it had to do with how tired training made everyone. However, no matter how exhausted she was, the brunette knew that training on an empty stomach wasn't good, so she always saved a little time to grab something to eat. Siobhan and Granger didn't seem to be present, that morning, and she had little interest in seeking out Eric. However, Christina and Will were sitting at one of the tables.

"Morning," she greeted, grabbing a muffin from the plate on the center of the table. Her fingers worked quickly as she opened the wrapper, before taking a bite. Her eyes moved to Christina, and she found herself holding back a wince at the black and blue bruises all over the other girl's face. Pursing her lips, she looked between the two other transfers, "How are both of you holding up?"

"Feels like someone dropped a brick on my head," Will forced a smile on his lips, "But I did sign up for this."

Christina attempted to chuckle, "I wish," she put the last piece of her muffin in her mouth, wincing in pain as she chewed, "My whole face feels numb," her eyes moved to Lilith, "Should have followed your advice and tired her out."

The corner of the brunette's lips twisted upwards, "Maybe. But I thought the way you attacked first was really brave."

"And stupid."

"One doesn't invalidate the other," Lilith retorted, as she turned back to her food. As she did, she noticed that Will's eyes were pinned on her.

"How are you good at everything?" he suddenly questioned.

The former Candor almost choked on her food, "I'm not!" she answered, but her words only made Will's eyes narrow, "Took me the whole morning to be able to hit the middle of the target when we learned about guns. I've been getting lucky with weaker opponents in combat, but when they put me against Edward, Nate, or maybe even Al, I'm going down."

"What Will's trying to ask if you've been getting lessons from Granger, or even Eric," Christina sighed, rolling her eyes when Lilith raised her eyebrows, "I know. But we heard Peter wondering about it to Drew. He finds it weird how Eric seems to get angry at everyone on a regular basis, yet is only slightly annoyed at you when you challenge him. He was even saying that maybe you were... doing stuff, to climb the ranks."

"That fucking asshole!"

"So you're not?" Will still asked.

"Do you really think so?!"

"Guess not," the boy mumbled, before his eyes drifted to the clock on the wall behind the girls, "We should get going. It's ten minutes to the training room, and the two of us can't walk that fast."

The trio rose from their seats, Christina still with a muffin on her hand and Will downing the rest of his coffee before they moved away from the table. Lilith was too furious to eat or drink anything else, her hands clenched into fists at her sides. How she wanted to find Peter and bash his head against the nearest wall. He had always been somewhat of an annoyance to her, but this behavior was making her dislike towards him grow even more. 

As soon as they entered the training room, Lilith's eyes moved to the board. Her name was the one with a blank space next to it, that day. On one hand, she was glad. She'd probably end up beating her opponent to a pulp, with how angry Christina's revelation had made her. The brunette looked around for Peter, who was chatting innocently with Molly and Drew. When he saw her, he had the nerve of sending her a wave, before turning back to his conversation. Clenching her jaw, the girl followed Christina to where Tris was standing with Al.

"Oh no," her best friend was saying, as she clutched the wrapper she was holding, "Are they serious? They're really going to make you fight him?"

Once more, Lilith looked at the board. Tris would be the one going against Peter. How she wished she could trade places with the light haired girl.

Al raised an eyebrow, before looking down at Tris, "Maybe you can just take a few hits and pretend to go unconscious. No one would blame you."

"Nonsense," Lilith interrupted, just as Tris opened her mouth to speak. It was clear that no one in the group believed that the girl could go up against someone like Peter, who had only lost one of his combats. He was ruthless when he fought and he was observant, certainly someone to look out for, but it wasn't like Tris didn't have a chance of beating him. Slim, sure, but it was there. She turned to Tris, "He goes down with brute force. Find an opening to hit him hard enough, you win."

Tris nodded her head, giving her a small smile. Christina and Al kept talking as the first few fights took place, as Lilith and Tris watched everything unfold in silence. The other girl was more thoughtful than usual, on that day, and Lilith found herself wondering if anything had happened. When she caught the former Abnegation girl all but glaring at Peter, she could only assume that he had started to reveal his true colors to even more people. 

Folding her arms over her chest, Lilith finally glanced to where Four and Eric were watching the combats. Four appeared to be in a bad mood, not that it was unsual, when the leader was around. Eric, on the other hand, seemed to be fidgeting every two seconds. To someone who wasn't as observant as her, he probably looked as normal and as impatient as ever, but Lilith could tell that there was something bothering him, other than the transfers. He didn't seem to be focused on the fights either, eyes often drifting to his shoes as he raised his hand to touch the piercings above his eyebrow. 

Tris' turn to fight finally came, and the girl looked sick to her stomach as she watched Peter make his way to the arena. She appeared even paler than usual, her breaths coming out ragged, and Lilith placed a hand on her shoulder. The gesture made her jump, and the brunette quickly retracted her hand.

"Good luck," she quietly said to the other girl, "You got this."

The blonde gave her a nod, before joining Peter in the arena. The boy looked certain that he was going to win, a cocky smirk on his lips as he approached Tris, and Lilith wanted nothing more than to wipe it off his face. Words that Lilith didn't catch left his lips, but Tris had no reaction to them, as she put her hands up protectively in front of her face.

His comments seemed to finally get to the blonde after a few seconds, Lilith's eyebrows shooting up as she saw Tris' foot leaving the ground and aiming straight for his ribs. However, Peter seemed to have been expecting an attack of the sort, for he was quick in grabbing her foot and pulling it towards him. Tris' back hit the ground with an audible smack that made even Lilith wince, but the former Abnegation girl didn't waste time as she crawled back to her feet.

The brunette smirked as Tris then pretended to throw a punch with her right hand, only to hit Peter with her left one. The sound of her knuckles hitting his face was loud, and the boy stumbled back. Unfortunaly, the hit hadn't been strong enough to knock him out, but it would surely leave a bruise. They circled around eachother for a few seconds, Peter narrowing his eyes as he tried to think of the best way to attack next. Tris seemed to be expecting retribution, standing in a more defensive position.

"Stop playing with her," Eric's voice cut through the silence, for the first time that morning, "I don't have all day."

His tone seemed to wake up something inside Peter, for the boy lost no time in punching Tris in the jaw. The impact was enough to make the girl lose her balance, and she stumbled back, but her opponent didn't show any mercy as his foot collided with her stomach, making her collapse to the ground for a second time. Tris' teeth were bared as she pushed herself up, but Peter didn't give her a chance to recover, grabbing her by the hair and punching her in the nose. It was at that moment that the girl started to panic, her hands hitting Peter's arm in a flurry as she struggled to free herself from his grip.

Chewing on her lower lip, Lilith watched Tris fall once again. A cough left her lips as she dragged herself to her feet, and crimson stained the ground. She tumbled to the left, and Peter took advantage of her disorientation to move to her side and kick her once more. This time, the girl managed to stay on her feet, her fist shooting out and hitting Peter's stomach with as much strenght as she could muster, at that moment. It barely had an effect, however, and the boy retaliated by smacking his palm against her ear.

It was then that Tris fell to her knees, the lower half of her face covered in thick blood that continued to gush out of her nose. A metallic taste invaded Lilith's mouth and she realized that she had opened the gash on her lip once more, but she couldn't stop herself as the blonde finally layed flat, on the center of the arena. She diverged her eyes when a scream left the girl's mouth, as Peter kicked her side again and again. 

There was way too much blood pooling around Tris' face.

"Enough!" Eric finally shouted.

Sweat coated Peter's skin as he backed away from Tris, heavy breaths leaving his lips as he looked down at his fallen opponent. He had gotten better since his fight with Lilith, that much she had to admit, and she wasn't sure that that was a good thing. The blonde was motionless on the ground, the only sign that she was alive being the rise and fall of her back as she breathed. Everyone waited a few more seconds, but it didn't seem like Tris would be waking up any time soon.

"Lilith," her eyes moved to Eric as her name left his lips, and she noticed the dark circles under his eyes that hadn't been there, on the previous day. She waited silently as the leader gestured to Tris, "Take Tris to the hospital wing. Peter can help you, if you can't take her on your own."

Just the thought of having to be around Peter made her nauseous. Lilith's lips twisted in disgust as she shook her head, making her way to the former Abnegation girl.

"I got it."

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Bullets is back, baby!
I didn't mention this in my last author's note, but I took a break from this book to focus on my book Zenith: I made a deadline for myself to complete Part One of that book before the end of 2020, and I achieved it, and now I'm finally back to writing for Bullets! I missed it a lot tbh!
I'm currently writing this author's note after finding out that there might be another lockdown in my country and my anxiety is very high, I did not do well last lockdown yeet, but anyways,,
This chapter is completely new and wasn't in any of the other versions of Bullets, it might feel like a filler but I believe it's necessary because I really wanted to show how Lilith and Nate start bonding and the last scene where Tris has her fight against Lilith will also have somewhat of an impact on Lilith and yea
Hope you enjoyed and I'll see you next week! Leave me your opinions in the comments, if you want! I missed y'all!