"So, I don't hate you."

"Huh, that's... good?" Oswald Payton raised his eyebrows, glancing up at Lilith from the pile of paperwork on his desk. 

She'd had the suspicion that he was only half listening as she tried to make ammends and, with the work he had to do, she hadn't really blamed him. It wasn't like she had picked the best time to come to the fifth floor of the Merciless Mart and clear up the air with her stepfather, but if she hadn't pushed herself to come as soon as the idea had crossed her mind, she knew that it would have never happened. And it really wasn't the best time to hold useless grudges, when the city could plunge into war at any given moment.

Lilith licked her lips, "I know I probably gave you that impression. God knows I was a brat to you, whenever you came over," she snorted. While she hadn't actively tried to sabotage her mother's relationship with the man, she'd made it extremely hard to have a good time at the Ovard house whenever Adelia invited him over. It had become so bad that Oswald eventually only made appearances to either pick up or drop off Scott, and even then Lilith hadn't acted in a pleasant manner. The brunette shrugged her shoulders, "Truth was, I blamed what happened with my dad on you. I should have seen that their marriage was disfuncional, and while that was no excuse for my mother to cheat, they were over long before you were in the picture," she paused, noticing how Oswald's attention was now fully on her. Her hands clenched themselves into fists as she forced herself to continue, "After he died, I... it just felt like my mom was trying to replace him with you, and it made me lash out. He may not have been the love of her life, but he was still my dad, you know?"

Oswald nodded once, "It was never my intention to replace Carson," he said, and Lilith's eyes drifted to the floor. Even if she'd held onto her grudge for a long time, she knew Oswald was a relatively good person, and most likely a better partner than what Adelia deserved. He was Scott's favorite individual in the entire city (coming in second place to her, obviously), and the smile her brother had whenever he spent time with his father was a special kind of pure. Oswald leaned back against his chair, "I only ever wanted to be there for your mother, and for all  three of you kids. Maybe we should have given you more time to adjust, and made more of an effort to become closer. But it wasn't easy."

"I'll bet. Kids are a handful," she chuckled, remembering how lost she'd been when she'd first gotten to Amity and met her niece, Ivy. The toddler had instantly taken to her, thankfully, but Lilith wouldn't have known what to do if she'd been received with the same hostility she'd shown Oswald. Her face shifted into a more serious expression as she folded her arms over her chest, "This all to say that I'm truly grateful that you took a more active role when it came to Scott, after I left. He's been really happy about being able to spend more time with you, and his happiness is all that matters to me."

The man nodded once, "As it is to me."

A sigh left the brunette's lips, "Now that that's over and done with, hopefully things won't be as awkward next time I go over."

"Speaking of, do you want to come over for dinner today?" Oswald invited, as he rose from his chair. He reached for his blazer as he continued, "I can drive you back here after, if you don't want to stay the night. Besides, whatever we cook at home is bound to be better than the grub they serve at the cafeteria here."

Lilith couldn't hold back a laugh. Truly, the food at the Candor headquarters left a lot to wish for, mainly after she'd grown used to the delicious meals and sweet desserts served at Dauntless. 

Just as she was about to agree to dinner, the sound of glass shattering echoed throughout the building, followed by an immense ammount of gunfire and shouts. Immediately, Lilith's hand moved to the pistol on the holster strapped around her waist, her fingers wrapping around the handle as she moved past Oswald and closer to the window. Night had fallen a while back, but the sillhouettes of the Dauntless-Erudites were visible, and she estimated that there seemed to be around fifty of them. Before she could analyze them any further, they started marching into the building, with someone she recognized as Rhiannon barking orders at the front.

"Shit," she let out, as she moved away from the glass. Her eyes moved to Oswald, "They're here."

That was the moment where it fully clicked. Erudite had caught them off guard, and they were trapped inside the Merciless Mart, with little to no chances of escaping. As terrifying as the attack on Abnegation had been, they hadn't been the target. They'd just been pawns used to carry out a massacre; now, they were the ones Jeanine wanted. Her breaths faltered as she recalled Lynn inviting her to go spy on the Erudite that night, and a look at the clock on the wall told her that it was precisely the time the girl had told her to meet them in the lobby, if she was interested. 

Right where the Dauntless-Erudites had first striked.

Not only were her friends at risk, but so was Adelia, who was no doubt still in her office somewhere inside the building. If this attack turned out to be a massacre, her mother wouldn't be able to defend herself, if she found herself stuck. There were so many people to save, so many possible casualties, and Lilith was just one person with a pistol and a knife. The odds stacked against her, higher with each passing second. 

She had absolutely no plan, but that had never stopped her before, and so she took a deep breath before making her way to the door. Her fingers were wrapped around the handle, ready to yank it open, when Oswald's hand landed on her shoulder, and she looked at him with a raised eyebrow. He rose a finger to his lips, instructing her to stay quiet, and that was when Lilith heard it. Footsteps coming down the hallway, and an occasional second of silence before a door was kicked open. 

It was too late. 

They were already there.

Oswald was still gesturing at her to stay silent as they both backed away from the door, and Lilith nodded her head as she pressed herself against the wall, regulating her heavy breaths as she did so. From the sounds made by the soldiers outside, she calculated that they were only two, and her confidence grew. If she managed to catch them off guard, she could take care of both in less than a minute. Her stepfather, apparently catching on to the idea, took a position on the other side of the door, and they exchanged a nod.

The instances between the soldiers inspecting the office next to Oswald's and them approaching the door seemed to last a hundred years, and Lilith's heart rate only accelerated at the thought that her friends could very well already be dead on the lobby. But then, the door was brutally kicked open, and the girl held her breath as the Dauntless-Erudites filed into the room, their weapons at the ready. They hadn't even considered glancing over their shoulders to check for people behind them, and Lilith's eyes moved to Oswald as she gestured for him to run. However, he refused, stubbornly staying rooted to the same spot.

Rolling her eyes, Lilith pushed herself away from the wall as silently as she could, slowly inching forwards. The soldier on the back was starting to turn around when she put him in a chokehold, and a muffled cough left his lips, alerting the other man to her presence. Though he was quick in raising his gun, Oswald was quicker in jumping on him, and the sound of his knuckles clashing against the soldier's cheekbone echoed in the room. Her eyes widened at the way Oswald had attacked but, before she had the time to do anything else, the soldier on her grip elbowed her in the stomach, knocking the air out of her as she stumbled back.

The soldier, who she now saw was a dark haired male in his late twenties, didn't seem to deem her as a target worthy enough of wasting a bullet on, instead charging in her direction like a bull. She hadn't forgotten her training and how her smaller size was an advantage, and so she waited until the last second to dodge out of the guard's way, and a grimace formed on her lips as he clashed headfirst against one of Oswald's bookshelves and collapsed to the floor. Still, he moved, turning his head to look at her, blood falling from a gash above his eyebrow. Knowing that she couldn't allow him to gain the upper hand, Lilith closed the distance between them, closing her eyes as she stomped on his temple with all of her strenght. 

A loud crack echoed in the office, and her head whipped to where Oswald had been fighting the other soldier. Her jaw nearly dropped as she saw the way her seemingly harmless stepfather had twisted the Dauntless-Erudite's neck, before letting the body fall limp on the carpet. 

She must have still looked surprised, for Oswald shrugged his shoulders, "You never really forget what they teach you at Dauntless."

Lilith shook her head as an attempt to focus on anything other than the fact that Oswald had apparently been born in Dauntless, before her dark eyes landed on the figures of the two soldiers crumpled on the floor, the patches of blue sewn on their uniforms sticking out like two sore thumbs. Blue was a color of betrayal, of loss, and of war. But it was also their only shot of making it through the Dauntless-Erudites, finding their loved ones, and getting through safely.

As sick as it made her, Lilith removed the jacket of the soldier at her feet, pointedly ignoring the pool of blood forming under his head, "Get that jacket and put it on. We're gonna have to blend in, if we have any hope in making it out of here," she said, and Oswald rushed to follow her instructions. The man she'd taken down was a lot bigger than her, and Lilith felt as if she was swimming inside of his jacket, but it was still something. Hopefully the traitors were too busy causing yet another massacre to notice that it didn't belong to her.

It was then that she noticed the guns wielded by the soldiers, and she furrowed her eyebrows as she realized that it wasn't like any other she'd seen at the Dauntless compound. They were painted silver, with a scope mounted on top of the barrel and, when Lilith aimed it at the wall, a blue beam of light illuminated the spot she aimed for. Still puzzled by the weird weapon, she removed a bullet from inside the maganize, twirling it in her fingers under the dim light coming from the outside.

Whatever they were shooting, it didn't seem lethal. 

It wasn't a massacre.

Still, Lilith couldn't shake off the feeling that it was probably much worse.

"We need to go, before more of them come this way," she finally decided, exchanging the pistol in her holster for the new weapon. With the knowledge that that one wouldn't kill anyone, should the need arise, she kept the pistol in her hand. Her eyes moved to Oswald, "I need you to find my mom and get her the hell out of here. Grab that gun," she nodded towards the one at her stepfather's feet, "It won't kill anyone, but it might get you out of a tight situation."

"And what about you?" he questioned, handling the gun as if he'd held one before. Lilith forced herself to remember that he probably had.

"I need to find my friends," she revealed, as they approached the open door. The corridor outside seemed empty, and the sound of gunfire coming from the lower floors had ceased. Still, voices were heard from somewhere bellow them, meaning that they weren't safe just yet. She nodded in the direction of her mother's office, "Get her and go out through the fire escape. Whatever you do, don't stop until you get home," she could only hope that Scott had made it there before the chaos, "I'm gonna search the building for my Dauntless."

She had already turned her back on Oswald when he spoke, "Be careful."

"Always am."

It wasn't exactly true, but he didn't need to know that. As she moved down the hallway, she tried to formulate a plan in her head. Oswald's office was on the fifth floor, and the attack had started on the lobby. If soldiers had made it all the way up there, it probably meant that they hadn't found what they were looking for down there, or perhaps it meant that some people had gotten lucky enough to run there before the Dauntless-Erudite got to them. However, the further she advanced, the less likely that seemed. Those floors of the Merciless Mart were hauntingly empty.

She'd made it down to the third story without any incidents, when two voices echoed close by. With her heart beating against her ribcage, she risked a glance around the corner, her eyes finding two Dauntless-Erudites coming in her direction. Their postures suggested that they weren't looking for anything, and were instead patrolling the building, only half paying attention to their surroundings as they walked. A curse almost left her lips as she recognized the girl on the right: Val, who had been the one to tattoo her. If she recognized her, she would most likely sound the alarm.

Doing her best to keep silent, Lilith attempted to open the door to the room closest to her, but it didn't budge, and Val and her companion only got closer by the second. Realizing that there was no time, the brunette pushed herself away from the wall, speed walking a few feet away from the corner where she'd spied on the duo. She pressed her lips together as she marched down the hallway in a way that she hoped wouldn't make the soldiers suspicious. Her only hope was pretending to be one of them, and hope that she wasn't recognizable from the back.

It wasn't long before they turned the corner somewhere behind her, and their voices died out for a few seconds, before Lilith heard them mutter between themselves. However, she acted as if she didn't notice anything, continuing to make her way down the hallway as if she too was patrolling. Something about it must have looked off though, because only a few seconds had gone by before Val's companion raised his voice, instructing her to stop. Lilith pretend as if she didn't hear a thing, her heart hammering against her ribcage as she followed the corridor's turn to the right.

She'd barely released a sigh when the door next to her was pulled open, and a hand latched itself around her upper arm, roughly yanking her inside the room before silently closing the door again. There was no time for her to do anything as the person pushed her against the nearest wall, their hand pressing against her mouth to stop her from releasing a single sound. The piece of blue fabric on the person's sleeve stood out in the dark, and Lilith started trashing against their grip, to no avail.

"Calm down," the voice was familiar, and Lilith's eyes widened as she looked up to meet Eric's anxious gaze, "I'm not here to hurt you."

She didn't trust a word that came out of his mouth, but she still nodded in agreement, her eyes moving down to his hand over her mouth. Figuring that the way she'd calmed down most likely meant that she wouldn't start screaming and give away their position, Eric removed his hand, and Lilith took the chance to catch her breath. She opened her mouth to start questioning him about what the hell was going on and why he'd gone back to Jeanine, but the way he suddenly put a finger over his lips made her realize that it was a terrible time for questions, seeing as Val and the other soldier had stopped extremely close to the door, discussing where she'd ran off to.

It seemed like the soldiers were standing there for an eternity, and during all of that time, Lilith's eyes were pinned accusingly on Eric. He had the decency of looking guilty, at least, from the way he refused to meet her stare again. As much as she didn't want to, she found herself analyzing his every feature like a schoolgirl that hadn't seen her crush during the entirety of summer break, noticing he'd let both his hair and his stubble grow. She would have thought he looked hotter than ever if it weren't for the very dark circles underneath his eyes and the way his cheekbones stood out in a way that spelled malnourishment. Half of her was glad that he seemed to be suffering, while the other wanted to smack him and tell him to make sure he got his eight hours and ate decent meals. 

She felt like a complete hypocrite.

The footsteps of the soldiers outside had barely faded when Lilith rose her hand with the pistol, narrowing her eyes as she aimed at the middle of Eric's chest. He seemed slightly panicked as he took a few steps back into the room they were in, holding his empty hands in the air. Truthfully, he didn't seem like he was there to hurt her, but she wasn't going to take any chances when it came to him. She'd trusted him before and it had only led to her getting hurt, and she'd be damned if she let it happen again.

"Put all of your weapons on the floor and kick them over," her voice was firm, disguising every emotion she was feeling. Even if he could easily overpower her, Eric nodded his head, grabbing both pistols at his hips and carefully placing them at his feet, before kicking them over to her. Her gaze drifted to his shoes, "The knife in your boot too."

The leader raised an eyebrow in surprise, seemingly caught off guard by the fact that she remembered he did that. Like it hadn't pretty much became second nature to her after the first attack. Still, he did as requested, his blue eyes meeting hers as he stood up straight after he'd given up all of his weapons. Lilith didn't allow herself to look at him for too long, instead busying herself with making sure that the pistols and the blade were out of his reach, between her and the wall.

"I know it looks bad," he started, Lilith's attention snapping back to him as soon as he opened his mouth, "But I can explain."

She simply raised both eyebrows, "You absolutely can. During your interrogation with the truth serum, after I hand you over to Jack."

Eric nodded his head once, "If that's what it takes."

"It is," Lilith confirmed. As much as she was in a rush to find her friends and make sure that everyone was alright, her chest burned with the weight of betrayal even more. She should have probably left the conversation to another time, but the words were leaving her lips before she could stop herself, "Why'd you go back? After everything you told me... you still went back to Jeanine. Why?"

"It was either that or they'd kill me. Jeanine's reputation would suffer if it got out that a Dauntless leader had turned on her, and they could pretend I'd died in the attack, if I didn't side with them again," the words sounded rehearsed, and Lilith couldn't help but wonder if this was a story meant to trick her. Her fingers gripped the pistol tighter, but Eric didn't seem to notice as he continued, "I've been working with others, trying to get more information about what exactly Jeanine wants to achieve," his features softened, "I wanted to tell you at Amity, but it was too risky. I couldn't, without compromising my position."

Her eyes had been on him the whole time he'd been telling her what had happened, and she was surprised when nothing in his body language indicated that he was lying. The person everyone thought Eric was would have gone back to Jeanine out of his own volition, for his own greedy goals and sick need of power. It was the same person she'd desperately tried to convince herself had played her and Granger, for nothing other than selfish reasons. But, deep down, Eric wasn't that person and, deep down, she still knew it.

"If any of what you just told me isn't true," she spoke, after a few tense seconds of silence, "I'm gonna know. The serum will rip the truth out of you, whether you want it to or not."

"I know."

Lilith nodded, finally lowering her weapon. Relief was obvious in Eric's eyes and, for a few seconds, the two just stared at eachother, not knowing what to do next. There was a small part of the brunette that wanted nothing more than for her to launch herself at him and hug him like he could slip away at any second. She missed the warmth of his arms around her and the way he made it feel like his hold was the safest place in the entire city. But that would be a gesture of forgiveness, and she wasn't sure she was ready to let everything go just yet.

They broke eye contact as soon as gunfire echoed from somewhere in the floor they were on, and Lilith's anxiety only grew as the shots were followed by muffled shouts. Her movements were mechanical as she clicked a bullet into place, turning back towards the door and readying herself to run out and join the fight. The tip of her boot sent one of Eric's pistols sliding under an armchair, and she ducked to pick up the other one and the knife, putting the blade inside one of her pockets as she looked back at the leader. Pressing her lips together, she threw the gun at him.

"Don't make me regret this," she said, as Eric caught it.

Not a second had passed between his nod and Lilith yanking the door open, her gun gripped tightly in one hand as she ran as fast as she could towards the gunfight. Eric followed close behind her at first, before he managed to catch up to her and the two remained side by side until the hallway opened into a room that Lilith recognized as one of the convivial spots of the Merciless Mart. Tables had been overturned and chairs were spread all around the area, and Lilith kneeled behind one of the tables, eyes quickly searching the crowd for the traitors. 

It was hard to distinguish them when most of their bodies were hidden behind pieces of furniture, but as soon as a hint of blue fabric was noticeable, Lilith made sure that a bullet found its way into the person's body. Bullets whizzed past her head non stop, and one of them grazed her hand strongly enough to make her wince, but it wasn't enough to stop her. 

Suddenly, an arm wrapped around her neck from behind.

Her pistol clattered to the ground, her vision becoming hazy as the oxygen left her body. Coughs sputtered from her lips, and she wondered where the hell Eric was, but she couldn't afford to wait for him or anyone else to come save her. As a last ditch effort, she shoved her hand inside the pocket of her jacket, her fingers wrapping around the handle of the blade she'd confiscated from the leader. Blindly, she stabbed the air to where she believed the traitor behind her was and, after a few attempts, the knife finally pierced skin. The person's weight crashed on top of her, and she hastily pushed them off, noticing how Eric's blade was coated in blood from the tip to the hilt.

Her throat burned in the area where the soldier's arm had squeezed, and she rubbed the tender skin with one of her hands as she looked around the room, slowly but surely catching her breath. The gunfire had died down, and bodies donning uniforms decorated with blue fabric were strewn across the convivial room. On the other side of the area, the survivors had managed to break one of the windows and were currently descending the fire escape, and though the Dauntless gave them chase, most of the traitors seemed to be getting away. 

Suddenly, the sound of someone's knuckles crashing against bone was heard, and Lilith's eyes widened as she spotted Eric falling on his knees in front of Four, who seemed absolutely furious as he grabbed the former leader by the collar of his jacket and dragged him to the center of the room. Panic was quick to settle over her as she looked for her pistol, quickly grabbing it from the cold floor as she pushed herself to her feet, making her way through the crowd  that had formed around the two males, meanwhile. 

"Are you serious, Four?" Eric raised his eyebrows, rubbing his jaw as he looked up at his long time rival. As she made her way to the front of the group, Lilith noticed the gun in Four's shaky hands, but he wasn't shaking out of fear. The more she looked at him, the more she realized that anger was the thing fueling him. Eric's eyes narrowed as he looked at the pistol, "If you shoot me, you're giving up on an ally. And god, does it look like you need one," he snorted after the last sentence.

His mockery only made Four tense up even more, and he didn't hesitate as he put the barrel of his pistol against Eric's forehead, "You're responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people," he spat out, "I wouldn't form an alliance with you even if it was my only choice," the crowd was silent as he clicked a bullet into place. Eric's features didn't shift as he came to terms with the fact that Four was more than willing to kill him, not afraid but refusing to fight. Her heart thumped against her chest as Four continued, "You know the punishment for what you did."

Eric didn't open his mouth to defend himself, and Lilith knew that if she didn't interviene, Four would pull the trigger, and he would be dead, just like that. Her whole body shook as she recalled when she'd wholeheartedly believed him to be dead, how much she had suffered, and how much she had hated him after seeing him alive and well. If Four killed him, she would have felt all of that for nothing.

Lilith clenched her jaw as she closed the distance between her and Four, clicking a bullet into place as she put her own pistol against his temple, "Back off," she muttered, her finger hovering above the trigger, "We need him."

Four's features twisted into a grimace as he glanced at her from the corner of his eye, "Of course you'd say that. You're so head over heels that you refuse to see him like the traitor he is."

"What I am doesn't fucking matter. He deserves the chance to stand trial, just like the rest of us," she said, her eyes drifting to Four's pistol. Though he hadn't made any moves to pull it away from Eric, his finger had moved away from the trigger. Her attention then moved to Eric. He watched the exchange intently, looking more concerned now that she had stepped up than when Four was seconds away from shooting him in the head. She looked back at Four, "If it turns out he's full of shit, at least we can get information out of him with the truth serum. Killing him now gives you nothing."

Mutters of agreement rose from the crowd, and Four exhaled through his nose as he stared down at Eric. Silently, Lilith hoped that he'd listen. Worst case scenario, they'd get intel on Jeanine's plans and then either kill Eric or lock him up. Best case scenario, Eric could prove that he wanted to do the best for Dauntless, and he'd be given the chance to do just that. Either way, they'd achieve something, and putting the leader through the trial was the right strategy. Four seemed to come to the same conclusion, pursing his lips as he withdrew the weapon.

Lilith put down her own pistol, her eyes drifting to where Nate and Rita stood, shoulder to shoulder. If there were people she trusted to handle Eric and not beat him up as soon as they made it out of the room, it was those two. She nodded towards Eric, "Take him to the holding room."

As her friends approached the leader and pulled him up by his arms, Four looked down at her with a sneer, "If he's as guilty as I think he is, I'm killing him."

Lilith's eyes were fixated on Eric as she replied, "Don't worry. If he's guilty, I'm shooting him myself."

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Hello!
Back into the action it is! This part was honestly hard to write because we only see it through Tris' POV, so it's hard to picture what's happening in places that she's not in. That said, we have Eric back! As you saw now at the end, he's not out of the woods! I would love to hear some theories about whether you guys think he's lying or not. 
I've prewritten a bunch this week and I think I can update next again! Was very inspired, for some reason!
I know I always ask, but this week I'd really enjoy some feedback! Been having a rough time and today was particularly shitty.
Thank you for reading!