Seven Sins- Divergent/Eric fanfic Book1-2 (complete)

14~ Ranking

Z laughed "we'll tell you later, your ranking is more important!"

"Right, yeah, of course" I cleared my throat, I was dying to know where I had ranked but at the same time I was eager to know more about Z and Eli "go on then, am I out?"

"No silly" Alyssa chuckled "out of the transfers you ranked fifth! You're still in!"

She seemed proud of my ranking, but I was disappointed "fifth?"

"Don't look so sad" Alyssa said "you did one better than me, I got sixth" she sighed.

"At least you're still here" Z grinned.

"Barely"

"What about you?" I asked Z "where'd you get?"

I could already tell she'd done well thanks to the revealing Cheshire grin on her face "second! Thackeray beat me"

"And I got third!" Adam cut in before Z could say anything.

A swell of pride ran through me, I had been sure that Adam would do well, and for some reason I felt rather like a proud parent "third?! I knew you'd do well!"

My friend grinned at my congratulations. Now all I wanted to know was, who out of the three others were gone "Tarrant got fourth, I think he one upped you because of shooting and combat"

"So that means..."

"Darlene ranked last, she's gone, and so is Edgar, their stuff was gone when we came back from the reveal" none of them looked very upset, except for Alyssa who had spoken to both Darlene and Edgar a few times, but I had predicted they were the ones who would be leaving, and I felt no joy in being right "Thackeray was in pieces, it took Eric, Four and Max to separate them, Thackeray kept begging them to let him go instead, but when they refused he said he'd go with her, that's when Darlene stopped struggling and told Eric to make sure he didn't follow her, she didn't want to condemn him to that life"

For whatever reason I thought I wouldn't feel guilty for ranking well, but the more Adam told me of their parting the more I wished I could have done something to keep them together. Alyssa's hand wrapped around mine, her expression mirrored mine "we've all been feeling guilty, but all we can do now is be there for Thackeray"

I nodded, I no longer wanted to dwell on this subject, I already knew it would haunt me in my sleep, I didn't want to give it too much power over me in the day "and you, Eli, where'd you rank?"

"Number one, baby!"

Z nudged his ribs "show off"

"So you two, how'd that happen?"

Z and Eli shrugged "it just sort of... did" she said, and Eli nodded in agreement.

"But I've never even seen you together, not at dinner or breakfast, and we're nearly always in training"

"He was getting a tattoo while I was getting mine, the biggest coincidence was that we were getting the same one, and then of course there was capture the flag"

"Great" Adam groaned "just what we needed, a new couple to gag over"

"Oh no, you're not gonna start feeding each other are you?" Alyssa said with a scrunched up face.

Eli laughed and Z looked offended "he can barely feed himself!" Everyone laughed except Eli who had started tickling Z as revenge.

*

Eric came to visit me again that night, when Adam and the others had left they told me that they weren't supposed to say anything about my ranking, and that Eric or Four would probably be along later to tell me, so it was probably best to pretend I didn't already know "you ranked fifth" he had told me with a nonchalant expression.

"Oh, that's good I guess, who's out?"

"Edgar and Darlene. But you knew that, didn't you?" I narrowed my eyebrows "I saw your friends leaving, figured they'd tell you"

I looked into Eric's eyes, searching for something I knew I wouldn't find "and yet you came anyway?" He didn't reply to this, and I knew he wouldn't anytime soon "I heard Thackeray threatened to leave with Darlene" it was the first thing I thought of to change the conversation.

"He didn't"

"Thanks to you, so I hear" I smiled but he didn't smile back, so I looked into my lap, I couldn't look at that emotionless expression anymore, it was hard enough to look at him knowing all the things I had said under the anaesthetic "it's sad, that they'll never see each other again"

"No, it's not, she was weak, she didn't deserve to be here"

My eyes looked up at him, I felt angry, but what did I expect him to say? "You don't think it's sad? Two people who loved each other so deeply that one would give up everything to stay together will be separated forever"

Eric was silent for a moment, as if contemplating the human answer to this, instead he chose the Eric answer "love has no place amongst soldiers"

My heart filled with such pity for him "you really believe that?"

Again he was silent, his eyes trained on me "I do"

With great pain in my shoulder I climbed out of bed, Eric moved to stop me but I held up my hand and stood on my weak legs. I walked towards him until we were a short step apart, I looked up into his grey eyes and searched again for what I hoped to find, but again did not "if we don't have love, then what is there for soldiers to fight for?" His stiff posture weakened slightly and his eyebrows narrowed, I stepped back and moved towards the table where the water jug sat, my back facing him "if you truly believe that without love we are better, then I pity you" I turned around again, and looked him in the eyes "I really do"

Eric turned to leave as I slowly climbed back into bed, sipping at my water, but just as he was leaving he turned back around and said "you need to do better in stage two, if you rank low again you'll end up on the fence, your injury won't affect your result, it's completely mental"

There was only one part of that which I focused on "why don't you want me to end up on the fence?"

He didn't reply, he gave me a look I didn't understand and left, leaving me alone with many questions.