2.2k words (A LOT longer than the last one. hopefully it makes up for the wait!)
WARNINGS: heavy angst, violence, guns, blood, major character death
You've been in Candor for a while now. Laying low with your fellow faction members. Waiting for... something. A sign. A sound. Anything that could tell you that all was not lost.
And when it finally comes, its in the form of more Divergent. One's you never would have guessed. Four. Tris. Leaders and trusted fighters. More than you ever thought possible.
You’d been asleep. Laying on that cot in some room in the middle of Candor, covered in a thin blanket, restlessly dreaming of things you tried your damnedest not to think about in your waking hours. Things that still haunted you. A face, a voice, a touch that you wished you could go back to, yet you knew you’d never feel again.
He’d turned on all of Dauntless. Every faction that wasn’t Erudite. For what? You still hadn’t figured that part out. All the broadcasts plastered with Jeanine’s face said progress this and peace that – all while pointing the finger directly at Abnegation. The one faction anyone with a working brain knew wouldn’t ever cause so many problems.
Not unless their ultimate goal was to just have everyone help each other and would that really be so bad? After all the death, the mind control, the pain, the fear, the loss. Some fucking help would be wonderful!
But you didn’t get help. You got the screams. Rattling you free from your own subconscious in an instant, sending you straight up onto your feet. The years of training kicked in before anything else and by the time your thoughts caught up with your body, you were already in your boots, peeking around the corner of the doorway that led into the hall. Others were behind you, around you, waiting for you to report your findings.
There was nothing. So you moved forward.
Silent as the grave, yet twice as deadly thanks to… him.
The sound of quick, shuffling footsteps around the next corner made you freeze. In seconds, your mind spun and so did you, motioning to the Dauntless behind you to retreat. Go the other way. Something, some one was coming and none of you knew what it was or what it would hold. Fighting was always an option – always the answer for your faction – however you had no idea what was waiting for you. What was actively coming closer. So that meant backing up, gathering information, and regrouping.
Candor didn’t allow anyone but their guards to have weapons, meaning all you had to rely on was your speed, your strength, and your skills. All things you’d trusted well in the past. Things that never let you down before.
You made it back to your makeshift dorm right as the first gun barrel turned your way.
The figures were dark and they were many and you did the only thing you could think of in that moment.
Warn the others.
“Guns!”
Then they fired and you were hit… but not by a bullet. It stung, the shot, yet it wasn’t that awful ripping, tearing, red hot fire of an actual bullet. You’d felt that before. You knew that feeling well. This was a bite. A pinch. Almost like a needle or a dart.
No, your mind howled as you toppled over, onto your knees, but still able to move of your own free will. Not again. Not another serum-
They’d taken your mind once. Once. You would not let it happen again.
“This one’s still up-”
You growled like an animal, whirling around, slamming your elbow into the hard plastic that covered the voice’s face. Whoever it was on the other-side of the armor yelled in pain and surprise and your hand wrapped around the barrel of his gun, yanking it hard in an attempt to knock him back or, better yet, rip it free and take it for yourself.
Unfortunately your attackers were grouped together. Tight knit and difficult to manage when it was one against who knows how many.
The second gun came in the form of the butt slamming into your face. That attack left you bleeding, but it was the way your cheek split open and oozed. Better than a new hole and no one to enjoy it with-
“Get the cuffs!”
Before you could recover you were on the ground. A knee to your spine and gloves gripping your wrists. Forcing you to submit as thick, heavy handcuffs were secured in place.
You were captured. Captive.
And before you knew it, you were hauled right back up to your feet and told to walk without actually being given a choice.
The hateful, burning, Dauntless glare you’d perfected through the years was wiped clean off your face when they forced you to round a corner into a large room with floor the ceiling windows and more enemies then you could immediately count.
And there, in the middle of it all, gun in hand, was the man you’d been dreaming of. The man that forced you here. The one that had pushed you, kicked you, stuck you with a serum and kissed your forehead while he thought you were nothing more than a lifeless shell. A weapon of his own making.
Eric Coulter.
Max was beside him and they both turned to look at you as your captors shoved you into the room.
Max’s brows raised in surprise. He turned to look at Eric.
Eric didn’t move.
Not until you were kicked in the back of the knee and slammed to the floor with brutal efficiency. Though, all he did was hold up a hand to stop your wardens from hitting you again. A few seconds later, his jaw clenched under his skin and you saw his Adam’s apple shift as he swallowed hard, his arm lowering. Then he started forward.
Without a word, he held up some sort of… device. Something you’d never seen before. No doubt some new toy Erudite made for him.
Sure enough, a screen popped up behind it and you swore you saw the light in Eric’s eyes go out as a percentage – 86% - flashed up at him.
“Damn,” Max muttered, shaking his head from where he now stood at Eric’s elbow. “That’s gotta hurt.”
“Shut up,” Eric snapped. He didn’t look at Max. Didn’t even glance. His cold, gray eyes were fixed on you and you alone. Slowly, he sucked in a deep, deep breath. When he let it out, he forced his shoulders to relax.
But you saw his hands shaking as he lowered the device.
“I was wondering why you ran,” he said. Casual. Like you were talking in the Pit, like you always did after a long day. “I knew it had to be something… something that’d make you not listen to me.” He scoffed. Shook his head and breathed in again. “You were never under the sim that day, were you?”
“No.” You expected your voice to shake like Eric’s hands. Like your hands. Tied behind your back, your fingers curled so tight it hurt, trembling hard enough that it nearly rattled your teeth. Yet, your voice was steady. Strong.
Like you. Like Dauntless.
Like Divergent.
Eric shook his head again. Slower. More disappointment this time. The usual mask he screwed in place so no one else could see what was really going on in his head. You knew it was all an act, though you’d never actually managed to see through it when he had it on.
And now, you were sure you never would.
“Surprised you managed to survive this long,” he stated, a mean smirk curling at one side of his lips. “Most slip up before they’re out of training.”
“Guess that means I’m more dangerous than other Divergent, huh?”
Any other time, any other place, any other world the two of you were in, and he’d have graced you with a laugh. An actual, real laugh that would ring clear through the air. Now? Now the smile simply slipped away like it was never there and his brow twitched where it sat furrowed on his forehead.
“You think you’re in the position to make jokes?” His voice was ice cold, now, but you didn’t care. You never had, even when you first got to the dorms after your choosing.
“Am I ever?”
Before he could react, more people appeared behind you and your wardens. Other captives. More enemies. Then, another voice.
“We’ve spotted the Stiff.”
Tris.
Finally, Eric’s eyes broke away. Cutting up towards the man that had spoken. “Get on her. Don’t let her slip away.” Only long enough to speak, it seems, as he was looking at you again. Eyes deep and hollow and practically bleeding with the force of the emotions they had to hold back. “Put this one… somewhere else. Separate. I’ll handle this when I get back.”
“Eric,” Max started, voice full of warning.
Eric rounded on him.
“Which one of us did Jeanine put in charge of this operation?” The question was nothing more than a sharp, cold stab and Max’s features slowly twisted into an equally cold glare.
“Fine,” he spat, “but don’t come crying to me when the boss makes you put down your pet.”
Eric didn’t react any more than tightening his fist around his gun.
Then he turned. Nodded to the men behind you. And was off, stalking past you without a second glance.
Something inside of you started to panic.
As you were hauled to your feet by a hand on your cuffs, you couldn’t stop yourself from calling out, voice horse and threaded with worry.
“Eric-”
“Shut up!”
Another hit to the back of your head, rattling your brain and scattering your thoughts. You don’t even know if he turned around. If you watched you be pushed away, into a side room. The doors slammed behind you and you were now left with your thoughts, four guards, and a cracked heart that was bleeding in your chest.
You heard a gunshot. Then voices. Then yelling. Your guards had left exactly two minutes ago to make sure everything was okay, but only after securing you to a piece of furniture that was bolted to the floor. Conveniently out of reach of anything that could help you escape.
Thankfully, you wouldn’t have to.
When the doors burst open again, not long after a second shot rang out, it wasn’t more traitors coming to keep an eye on you and it wasn’t Eric coming to ‘handle’ you. It was the rest of your faction! The only ones that counted, in your mind.
They let you loose, checked you for injuries – just a few nasty bruises and that… thing they’d shot into your back – then let you lead the way out of the room.
Only for you to stop dead at what you saw next.
Blood.
A body.
Black fabric. Skin that was too pale. Eyes that saw nothing.
Eric.
Dead.
A single hole punched straight through his forehead. No doubt tearing through his brain so fast he didn’t even have time to feel it before he hit the ground.
Slowly, ever so slowly, you stepped forward.
Four called to you. You weren’t sure what he said. It had sounded like your name, but it didn’t make you stop like it usually did. Everything felt like it was under water. Your lungs ached as you struggled to remember how to breathe. All you could hear was a sharp, shrill ringing in your ears. The stench of death hung heavy in the air.
You felt like the walk to his side took ten years. It took maybe ten steps. Maybe.
Your knees hit the floor again. Polished. Once clean, now soiled. Soiled by the blood of the man you’d never dared to admit you loved. Not to him. Not to yourself. Not to anyone.
Now he was gone.
And you felt like your soul had gone with him.
A hand settled on your shoulder. Another voice called out. Someone answered. You didn’t hear them. You didn’t move.
He looked… at peace.
That was probably the part that hurt the most.
“He deserved it,” you manage. Barely. And you know he did. He’d betrayed everyone. Everyone. Not just Dauntless, but every single faction. Even Erudite, in a way. He betrayed the very core of the faction system! The peace, the order. He’d taken it in his hands and crushed it without hesitation. Killing without hesitation! Turning his weapons on the people he was supposed to protect without even a moment of thought. Taking what he could, when he could, just because he could.
He was a monster. He deserved to die. Hell, he deserved worse.
None of that stopped the tears from falling.
None of that stopped your heart from splitting clean in two.
None of that stopped you from putting your hand to his chest, like you used to when you’d lay together in the small hours of the morning. But this time there was no warm skin. No steady, reliable beat of his strong heart in his strong chest.
There was only silence. Only grief.
You don’t know how long you were there. Beside him. Watching his blood spread further and further until there was none left to flow. It was on your knees. Sticking you to the marble floor. Still, you didn’t move. You couldn’t. You didn’t remember how.
Time kept passing. People moved around you. The tears kept falling, because you knew this was the last time you’d let them. For him, at least. This was all he’d get. Even if the pain would never go away, the scars would never fade, you’d never, ever, cry for Eric Coulter ever again.
Its literally going to break records with how hot it is tomorrow and my college still won't close, dont they know I'll be shimmering like a disco ball???
To be honest, I wasn’t a fan of how they changed Caius and Marcus’s ages in the films. It just didn’t feel necessary. That said, the actor who played Marcus did such a great job capturing that quiet, eternal sadness. I’m not sure if I conveyed those feelings well myself, but I gave it a try.
Honestly I think this is one of the best depictions of Marcus I've ever seen! His gauntness and the darkness if his eyes really show the toll losing Didyme took on him, the outfit is really cool too! 🦇
Very random question, but if Stephanie Meyer wrote an alternate universe book about bella ending up with jacob would you be interested? I know there's a lot of fanfiction on this topic but I was wondering what people would think about an official book 🦇
Yes
No
I would read it but only because its new twilight content
So vampires in twilight are frozen as they were when they were turned and Stephanie said that's why female vampires can't have kids but what if the vampire in question had been ovulating when she was turned like could that work technically or could you harvest eggs from a vampire and have a kid that way
I mean if they get frozen at the time they change then you've got to be able to harvest their eggs right? I understand that their body can't change and therefore can't accommodate a pregnancy but they must be able to have a baby by IVF... right? 🦇
Hello people of twilight, I was wondering if y’all would be interested in a Charlie x Carlisle fanfic where it more explores their power struggle with Charlie being a police officer and Carlisle a vampire full of knowledge and patience. Would anyone be interested in that? :)
