What if Tris chose not to leave Abnegation after all? How would things have ended up for her? Everything was going pretty well: quiet and peaceful… normal. But of course, she knew better. She was Divergent. Destiny had something else in mind for her.

Disclaimer: I do not own Divergent and anything else related to it. All rights to Veronica Roth and HarperCollins and everyone else who has rights to it.

I probably only own this idea that strays from the original, and there's my laptop. Everything else around me: my parent's or the government's. :D

Chapter 1

The Choice

On the bus on the way to the Choosing Ceremony, I sit by the window, right beside Caleb, our parents stand in the aisle, holding the railing above their heads and the seats beside them for balance. I stare out blankly before Robert, seated in front of Caleb and beside Susan, snaps a finger in front of me. He smiles gently as he pulls back his arm and shifts to his side to look at me.

"Stop spacing out or you might get lost in it. We can't afford that today, you know," he says with a sly smile. It's a subtle joke we've been sharing the past year; he's always noticed me spacing out and he always teases me about it. At one point, I told him that I like spacing out, what with the Abnegation life we live.

I told him about the story my parents used to read Caleb and me when we were kids, about a girl who looked like me, they said. She wandered around pointlessly and ended up venturing into a hole filled with mysteries. She was lost for a while but find her way back, apparently.

"I know," I reply, "I was just thinking."

"Think all you can, Beatrice. In a few minutes, I doubt you'd still be able to think straight," he smiles one more time and sits up properly again, looking straight ahead. I peer back at the window and realize he was right: the Hub looms above us. Even from this far, the building is awe-worthy with its towering height. I try not to think about it, but I realize that the inevitable is just a few minutes away.

I have to make my choice.

When we get off the bus, I grab Caleb's arm to steady myself. My hands are shaking, compared to his which is as still as it would be. I look up at him and see his plain expression. He has a final decision, but I can't read it. With what he said last night, I couldn't tell, really.

The elevator is crowded, so my father volunteers to give a cluster of Amity our place. Being Abnegation, we climb the stairs instead, along with our fellow faction members. I catch up to Caleb so as not to get lost in the crowd of the gray-clad Abnegation. I hear Susan and Robert's hushed voices somewhere behind us but I do not turn my head towards them, focusing on the steps in front of us instead.

My father holds the door open on the twentieth floor as I crouch a while beside the top of the stairs to rub my aching leg. I don't see Caleb anywhere, but Robert stands behind me to the right, shielding me from the Abnegation piling into the room. Not wanting to inconvenience him, I stand as soon as I notice him and smile at him, walking into the room together.

The room is arranged in concentric circles. On the edges stand the sixteen-year-olds of every faction, arranged in alphabetical order. We are not called members yet; our decisions today will make us initiates, and we will become members if we complete initiation.

Rows of chairs for our families make up the next circle, arranged in five sections, according to faction. The responsibility to conduct the ceremony rotates from faction to faction each year, and this year is Abnegation's. Marcus will give the opening address and read the names in reverse alphabetical order. Caleb will choose before me.

In the last circle are five metal bowls, each one containing a substance that represents each faction: gray stones for Abnegation, water for Erudite, earth for Amity, lit coals for Dauntless, and glass for Candor. When Marcus calls us to the center, he will offer us a knife to cut into our hands for the blood we will sprinkle into the faction bowl of our choice.

Before my parents sit down, they stand in front of Caleb and me. My father kisses my forehead and claps Caleb on the shoulder, grinning. "See you soon," he says. Without a trace of doubt.

My mother hugs me, and what little resolve I have left almost breaks. I bite back my tears. Before she pulls away, she turns her head and whispers in my ear, "I love you. No matter what." I frown at her back as she walks away. She knows what I might do. She must know, or she wouldn't feel the need to say that.

Caleb grabs my hand, squeezing my palm so tightly it hurts, but I don't let go. The last time we held hands was at my uncle's funeral, as my father cried. We need each other's strength now, just as we did then. I squeeze his fingers as hard as he is squeezing mine.

Marcus stands at the podium between the Erudite and the Dauntless and clears his throat into the microphone. He gives the speech that must be given in every Choosing Ceremony every year. I feel a buzzing in my ear as I glance at the bowls again. My hand shakes, Caleb steadying me, and I can barely concentrate nor hear what Marcus is saying.

"Those who blamed ignorance became the Erudite." That brought me back to reality. Erudite. No chance.

"Those who blamed duplicity created Candor… Those who blamed selfishness made Abnegation."

I blame selfishness; I do.

"And those who blamed cowardice were the Dauntless."

Am not selfless enough? Would I be brave enough?

Erudite. Abnegation. Dauntless. Oh, right. I was Divergent.

… Whatever that meant.

Marcus' speech drags on, but the memory of the aptitude test has crept into my mind at the last minute.

Then the choosing starts. The process seemed fast at first: new name, and constant choices of their home faction… until James Tucker, a Dauntless-born, was called.

He stumbles on his way to the bowls, almost falling to the ground. When he stands in the center, he looks from the Dauntless bowl to the Candor bowl. Flames or glass. Marcus offers him the knife. A quick moment of hesitation before he finally lets his arm go. Glass. Candor. He becomes the first faction transfer this year. Murmurs rise from the Dauntless section, and I stare at the floor. They will see him as a traitor from now on; his family might, too. A space that can't be filled at first, but it won't last. Humans can't last with holes left in them like that. No, the hole will be temporary.

And then it was his turn.

"Caleb Prior," says Marcus. Caleb squeezes my hand one last time, and as he walks away, casts a long look at me over his shoulder. His hands were steady as they accept the knife from Marcus, deft as one presses the knife into the other. Then he stands with blood pooling in his palm, and his lip snags on his teeth.

He breathes out. And then in. And then he holds his hand over the Erudite bowl, and his blood drips into the water, turning it a deeper shade of red.

I hear mutters that lift into outraged cries, glares from the Abnegation directed towards my brother, faction traitor. Smug smiles on the Erudite's faces. I can barely think straight. My brother, my selfless brother, a faction transfer?

My brother, born for Abnegation, Erudite?

If Caleb wasn't fit for Abnegation, how can I be?

"Excuse me," says Marcus, but the crowd doesn't hear him. He shouts, "Quiet, please!"

The room goes silent. Except for a ringing in my ear.

I hear my name and a shudder propels me forward.

Halfway to the bowls, I am sure that I will choose Abnegation. I can see it now. I watch myself grow into a woman in Abnegation robes, marrying Susan's brother, Robert, volunteering on the weekends, the peace of routine, the quiet nights spent in front of the fireplace, the certainty that I will be

safe, and if not good enough, better than I am now.

I look at Caleb, who now stands behind the Erudite. He stares back at me and nods a little, like he knows what I'm thinking, and agrees. My footsteps falter.

He left me no other option. I set my jaw. I will be the child that stays; I have to do this for my parents. I have to.

Marcus offers me my knife. I take it, staring into his eyes. He nods, and I turn toward the bowls. Dauntless fire and Abnegation stones are both on my left, one in front of my shoulder and one behind. I hold the knife in my right hand and touch the blade to my palm. Gritting my teeth, I drag the blade down. It stings, but I barely notice. I hold both hands to my chest, and my next breath shudders on the way out.

I open my eyes and thrust my arm out. My blood drips onto the carpet between the two bowls. Then, with a gasp I can't contain, I shift my hand.

And my blood makes a strange sound as it hits the rocks.

At the last minute, I want to take it back. If I wipe my blood from the stones, will that count? But no, it was too late. I was too scared. I was a coward. I am nowhere near brave. I thought of my parents, not myself. I think of my family, my faction.

I am selfless.

I may be Divergent, but it matters not.

I am Abnegation. That is all.