Warning: OOC, a whole lot of OC's and AU. Initiation age is eighteen years old instead. The Insurgent and Allegiant books have never occurred. I do not think that my OC is Mary Sue-ish or that my story is full of fluff. But that is what I have been told so don't continue reading if you don't like that sort of thing.
Reviews: While I do not totally object to negative reviews, if you are just going to rant about something you dislike about the story and not offer any advice to encourage improvement then please stop reading and move on. I do appreciate constructive criticism not destructive criticism.
Disclaimer: I do not own Divergent. Credit goes to Veronica Roth.
All OC's are property of missalohahula.
Acknowledgements: Certain lines and phrases are taken from other various books, television shows and movies. Among them are Big Bang Theory, Pirates of the Caribbean, Game of Thrones, Frozen, Fast and Furious, Despicable Me and others. There are too many to list but credit goes to those respective writers, producers, etc.
Summary: It has been two years since an Abnegation born initiate by the name of Beatrice Prior became a member of Dauntless. Now it is JoyAnna "Ana" Summers from Amity who will leap off the train, jump into the net and fight her way through the ranks showing that she too belongs in the faction of the brave.
Along the way she will discover the consequences of her choices, changing her name, making new friends, the dangers, the hurt of betrayal, and falling in and out of love. Meanwhile, in Dauntless the hunt is still on for the Divergent threat and Jeanine Matthews is now losing hope in the determined, arrogant, and ruthless young leader Eric. He is eager to prove himself but will this new initiate from Amity show him another path?
Can JoyAnna help Eric differentiate between fear and respect, cruelty and justice, or love and lust? Or will it be too late?
Part 1/3 in the Differentiate series.
DIFFERENTIATE
Meaning: To see or state the difference between two or more things, people, places, etc.
Related words: comprehend, discern, understand, and change
Aptitude Test
"Choose." The girl looked just like me. But she seemed younger. Like a couple years younger. "Choose."
"What happens if I don't choose?"
"Choose." That was all that she stated.
What good is food going to do me right now? I'm not hungry. And what's up with the knife? Is someone coming to attack me? I grabbed the knife and the girl and everything around me disappeared. I took a couple steps back preparing for whatever was coming next. I heard a low growl come from behind me. I spun around with the knife ready but obviously I was not fast enough.
A huge dog, almost tall as me, with fangs like razors jumped forward and tackled me to the ground. I lost the knife. I had to do something. I felt the fangs sink into my neck. My sash around my skirt, I thought. I pulled it off and wrapped it around the dog's neck. The dog thrashed in my arms until it finally choked to death. As it finally stopped, I stood up slowly and thought what in the world did that have to do with my aptitude test? I wanted to cry. I just killed an animal. I felt shattered and guilty now.
Suddenly, I was thrusted forward. There were walls all around me, like I'm in a box. I run a finger along the wall. It's wet. I sniff over the liquid dripping down the wall. It's gas. Flames engulf the walls. I see a little boy about two years old crying in the corner. Smoke is starting to cloud my vision. I rip part of my skirt and run to the boy and tell him to cover his mouth.
"My teddy," he shouts and points to a dark hallway.
"I'll get it," I say calmly. "You need to get out of here. Stay low and hurry," I ordered, grabbing and pushing him towards the exit that just appeared.
I ripped more of my skirt off to cover the flames by the hallway entrance so that I could get through. Fire needs oxygen to live, right? I take off my long sleeve shirt and wrap it around my mouth so as not to breathe in the smoke. Fire is starting to rise to the ceiling and stays there. I creep low to the ground and see the teddy bear way at the end. Right when I touch it the fire stops and an old lady stands in front of me.
"Is that for me," she asks and points towards my hands. I look and see that the stuffed bear is gone and there's a bottle of water instead. The bottle says Bob's water. But she's an old lady. She's weak, tired, looks hurt, and needs it badly, right? I handed it over to her only to turn around when there was a tap on my shoulder.
"My name is Bob. Have you seen my water bottle," a young man stands in front of me. He looks healthy, like he didn't need it. I glance at the old lady, enjoying the water.
"No," I said plainly staring at him.
"It had my name and it's in a red plastic bottle," he starts to describe it by telling me the shape and what type of water it is. The more he goes on the more I can't help but realize that it fits the description perfectly as being the bottle I handed the old lady. Was I going to tell him that though?
"Look, I already said 'no'," I said still staring at him. "Why don't you look over there," I motion behind him at a water stand.
"I already checked," he replied.
"Couldn't hurt to double check," I snap back. He looks at me for a moment and then turns mad.
"It's not there! Now you tell me where it is," he gripped onto my arm.
I pushed him back. It was something that would not have happened in Amity but that was what I did. How dare he touch me like that? Before I could say anything he insisted that I tell him immediately where his water bottle was or else something bad would happen.
"Really," I questioned looking at him.
He may have looked young and healthy but he was in no way intimidating, at least not to me.
"Look, there are tons of water bottles over there. This one is mountain spring water," I said picking up a bottle. "Just like how you described it. It's an hour glass shape and even has a push pull cap. But it's an orange plastic, same concept, just different color. No need to get all emotional!"
He takes the bottle and walks away like nothing happened.
I turned around to see that the flames had come back. They're blocking my only exit from this room. The water, I thought. I looked over at the bottles trying desperately to uncap them but they wouldn't come off. Oh wells! I turn the stand over and watch the bottles roll and explode into the flames. They die down only a little. Here goes nothing. I run full speed and jump out the door only to awaken back in the testing room.
Present
I jumped awake at my name being called at the choosing ceremony.
"JoyAnna Summers," the man with a long black jacket called. I think he was one of the Dauntless leaders.
My mother squeezed my hand and smiled. I looked at my one of my older brothers, Jack. He was four years older than me and the only one who stayed back in Amity. My other two older brothers, Jordan and Jonathan went to Erudite during their choosing ceremony. I had three younger brothers at home. Dad wouldn't let them come. He never displayed anger for my two brothers leaving, which would have been the natural thing to do, but he just remained calm. Perhaps he would cry a little but the next morning he would always smile. Now it was my turn to choose. Jack nodded at me. What was I going to do?
The Dauntless girl who took my test told me not to tell anyone that I was Divergent, whatever the hell that was. I would have gotten in trouble for saying that, let alone thinking of that word 'hell'.
According to her my choices were either Erudite or Dauntless. How could I get two test results? Is that what she meant by Divergent? Because a faction needed to be submitted, the girl had placed Amity as my aptitude test result. It felt wrong that she would put Amity especially since that wasn't one of the two that I had received. When I asked her what I should choose the only answer I got was to choose wisely.
I slowly stood up and took the knife on the platform. I made up my mind that it would be either Erudite or Dauntless. I obviously wasn't Amity. Thinking back to when I was growing up I always was reprimanded, if that's what you call being reprimanded. Receiving a shot full of peace serum or having to eat bread for being sassy, mean, or too outspoken isn't really strict discipline in other factions.
I ran my eyes quickly over the Candor and Abnegation bowls. Hell to the no I was going to Candor. Talk about being outspoken! I grew up not liking a lot of them anyways. A lot of them didn't like me either. Abnegation was not far off from Amity in some ways. But there was no color or life there. Everything looked the same and I couldn't see myself living there for the rest of my life.
The Dauntless man cleared his throat causing me to look up at him. Obviously every other dependent was quick about this but I was taking my time. I noticed a few of the other leaders who sat up on the table looking me over.
My eyes fell upon the woman everyone knew as Jeanine Matthews, leader of Erudite. A brief smile showed on her lips. She must have recognized my last name. I would always be compared to my brothers if I went to Erudite. True, I enjoyed learning and reading. But was that enough for me to be happy? What if I didn't like what I was learning? What if the constant studying, reading, listening, and writing overwhelmed me? What if I was not smart enough?
Then again my father had always thought that I might join my brothers. He would often tell me that he could understand why they had chosen Erudite. I never asked him why. Perhaps he knew this morning when I woke up and he said goodbye to me that I would be going there too.
Honestly, I didn't want to be JoyAnna Summers anymore and follow in the footsteps on my two brothers. That left me with only one other option. I slit my hand and squeezed a couple drops of blood over the bowl.
"Dauntless," screamed the man. I looked up at him and he smiled and nodded. I heard gasps almost immediately but they were drowned out quickly by the cheers and screams coming from the section of black clothing. I turned around and walked down there and was immediately greeted with claps and pats on the back.
"Alright Amity," shouted one of them as I sat down. My heart was pounding so fast. I couldn't help but smile. I did it. I'm going to be my own person now! No more people telling me to be nice, be friendly, smile more, or remind me of my polite manners.
It was not long until I was joined by a boy who came down from the platform to sit by me.
"Sup Amity," he said looking at me with a smile. "I'm Hector Rodriguez but you can call me Hec."
"You can call me Ana," I replied with a small smile. Hec nodded and looked forward.
Ana. I liked how that sounded. It wasn't really like Anna but it was just so, I paused. It was just so Ana. I held back a small laugh.
I took note of a few others who had come to sit alongside Hec. There were some Dauntless-born, Candor-born, and even Erudite-born. I should have known that there would be no other Amity or Abnegation coming here. I found myself cheering alongside Hec and couldn't believe that I was actually enjoying it here. This was only sitting among the Dauntless too. I couldn't imagine the adventure that awaiting me once I actually gotten to Dauntless.
After the ceremony was over, Hec hit my leg. "Let's go Ana! It's time to see your new home!"
Home, I thought. I took one last look at my mom. She smiled and I smiled back as a tear rolled down her cheek. Next to her was Jack. Jack smiled and gave me a small wave as I got pushed forward through the crowd of black clothes. I wonder how my dad would react. Three of his kids have left their home. One of them went to Dauntless, of all places.
Someone would have to sing lullabies to Jameson or as I call him Jimmy bean, my youngest brother. Joshua was three years younger than me. He would go to the dairy by himself now and look at the baby animals, without me. Jensen was a year younger than I. We were close and he would never forgive me for leaving. I almost cried thinking about the family I was leaving behind.
The sudden whooping had broken me out of my distress. The next thing I knew we were running full speed down the streets with everyone laughing and shouting. We ran up a short hill to see the train coming around the corner. I turned to look and half of the black clothing was all running down the tracks. I didn't get it the train was way over there and yet they were running still. Wait, the train wasn't way over there!
The train was coming up fast. I had to keep up with everyone else so I ran after them, too. I made a mental note to ditch this long yellow-orange skirt the second I got into the Dauntless compound, especially if I was going to be doing a whole lot of running. A girl in a tight blue skirt and a light blue cardigan ran alongside me laughing.
"This doesn't seem so smart, wouldn't it be better to stop the train and get on," she said smiling at me.
"I think that's why they're Dauntless," I joked back as we both started to laugh.
I could see her point though. It would have been better to stop it. But what would that prove? It would prove that we were weak and couldn't run after the only mode of transportation that the Dauntless used. It was so different than the train that came through Amity to drop off and pick up supplies. I let out a breath of frustration as the train came closer. I didn't think that I could have made it on. Right as the middle car of the train passed, a hand reached out for mine.
"Come on, Amity," called out Hec.
I grabbed his hand and he pulled me in. I turned around to look for the Erudite girl who had been running alongside me but she wasn't there.
"The girl that was next to me," I pointed asking Hec but he nodded behind him. I turned just in time to see another Dauntless boy pull her in.
"Who are your friends, Hec," asked the boy as he released the girl's arm.
"Ana," he said pointing to me. I gave the boy a small wave, still breathless from the running. "And this is," he motioned towards the girl.
"Mina," she stated. "My name is Mina." She stole a glance at me and then turned back to the two boys. Something told me that she had just changed or shortened her name as well.
"Noah Pedrad," the boy said smiling. Boy did they have gorgeous smiles. They looked so much more striking than Amity smiles. "I guess we'll see you ladies around," they said before walking back to the other Dauntless kids.
"So, your name is Mina," I asked turning to her.
"My name is Minerva."
"Ah, Roman goddess of wisdom," I stated. She looked over at me probably wondering how an Amity would know such a thing. "Don't ask," I simply answered.
"Hey, I'm no judge. If I was I would go to Candor," she said quietly nodding at four girls who stood on the other side of the train dressed in white and black.
We both started to laugh. For some reason even laughing here felt better than laughing at Amity. It felt like I was going through the motions at home, whereas this felt natural.
"Ana," I turned back to look at her. "That must be short for something too."
"JoyAnna," I smiled and she held back a laugh.
"Yeah, that sounds so Amity," she said as we both started to laugh. "Let's not use our old names again."
I readily agreed with her. We moved until we were sitting down on one of the benches. Two more of the Dauntless born came to sit by us, breathlessly laughing about something. It wasn't until one of them got playfully pushed into us that he stopped.
Both he and I looked at one another for a moment until he graced me with a handsome smile. I couldn't help but smile back. Mina cleared her throat next to me.
"Sorry," he smiled as he moved out of my lap.
"It's okay," I said looking down.
"You must be a transfer."
"Way to state the obvious," Mina nodded to him.
I could tell by the way my heart was starting to flutter that he was still staring at me.
"Scott," the other boy yelled at his friend.
"Uh yeah," the boy said shyly. "I'll see you two around. Sorry again for falling into you," he said. I refused to look up. Something just was so striking about his smile.
"Of course," Mina said next to me. It was a few seconds until he was gone that Mina nudged me. "You were blushing."
"No, I wasn't," I shook my head.
"Yes, you were," Mina let out a giggle and I felt my cheeks get warm.
I looked down trying to hide my smile. "He's kind of cute."
"What did you say," Mina was started to push the issue.
I rarely talked to girls and in the brief time that I was talking to Mina, it felt like we were friends forever.
"He's kind of cute," I mumbled again trying to hide my smile.
"Girl, come on. We're in Dauntless," Mina said bumping my shoulder. "You need to shout that kind of thing out." We both laughed and then she let out a sigh as if she were daydreaming. "The Dauntless born are handsome, aren't they?"
"Is that the reason why you transferred," I asked.
"Totally, someone told me that the boys here are way too gorgeous to pass up so I had to see for myself. You know us Erudite born, we need our hard evidence," she said as she sat up straighter. I couldn't help but laugh again.
"Minerva," called out a boy in a blue suit as he walked over to us.
"Compare him to the boys that we just encountered," Mina whispered pointing to the boy who called her, her Erudite name. I turned to hide my laughter. The Erudite boy walking up to us was not that bad but he seemed more of a gentle soul. "By the way, it's Mina now," she stated louder once he sat down.
The boy started to chuckle.
"Predictable. I was thinking of changing my name to Dio," the boy said as Mina laughed.
"Dio," I asked him. "Is that short for something or a totally different name altogether?"
"It's a shortened version of Dionysus," he said extending his hand which I shook. "And may I have the pleasure of knowing your name?"
"Ana," I smiled at him. "Your name is the name of a Greek God, right," I responded.
Dionysus, or Dio as he preferred to be called now, gave a questioning look at Mina.
"Hey don't tease my new found friend, just because she has brain," Mina said as she grabbed my shoulders and we all started to laugh.
I didn't want to explain that my brothers defected to Erudite and I had picked up a few things when going to see them on visiting day. They probably met my brothers. I wonder what Jordan and Jonathan would have thought about me choosing Dauntless over Erudite.
"Alright, we're here," shouted someone at the front.
"Here, where," asked Dio. We looked out the door to see a bunch of buildings creeping by.
"We're at Dauntless," I said as I turned to look at the two of them.
"Ladies first," said Hec as he leaned by the door and motioned for us to jump out.
I turned to Mina as she grabbed my hand. "Let's do this," she replied and we ran full speed out the door.
I took a quick look around me. Oh dear lord would my mother freak out! We landed, more like tumbled, across the roof of the building.
"That was fun," I said looking at Mina. Mina's skirt was ripped and shredded, just like mine. But I didn't care anymore. These clothes belonged to JoyAnna, not Ana.
"I still say they should have stopped the train. Seems like the reasonable thing to do," she replied still smiling. "But yes you're right. That was totally fun," she grabbed my hand and led me to where the crowd was forming.
Hec and Noah, along with a couple other Dauntless boys ran up behind us. I guess because they met us already, they thought it was okay to pull our hair or poke our sides. We would turn around and hit them playfully. I had never been around so much fun before. Yes you would think that coming from Amity I would have witnessed it all, the fun and laughs. But now I was actually part of it. I was actually in a group, smiling, laughing and making friends.
"Shut up! Shut up," screamed someone in the front. All the Dauntless kids straightened out quickly. I turned to see a guy massaging his temples.
"Looks like Eric cut his hair for the special occasion," snickered Noah.
"What was that Pedrad," the guy, who I'm assuming is Eric, looked up in our direction.
His hair was short with the exception of three slices he had even shorter on each side. It looked rugged and it matched him well. His eyes were greenish almost and piercing. He titled his head at us. Wrong, I thought. They were a mixture of blueish-grey. His gaze looked cruel. His muscles seemed to flex as he cocked his head to the side, awaiting an answer.
"Nothing, sir," Noah called out. Did he just call him 'sir'?
"My name is Eric, if you didn't know by now," he snapped his head in our direction again.
"Great job, Noah," muttered one of the Dauntless born girls.
"He's pissed off now," another Dauntless born said.
"Eric is always pissed off," Noah scoffed.
"I am one of the leaders here at Dauntless," Eric announced. What the heck? That's why he was called 'sir'. "In order to get into Dauntless, you will need to enter this way," he continued as he got up and walked towards the ledge of the roof and looked down.
"He wants us to jump off," asked Mina. I shrugged.
We all continued to look around at each other. We just got off a moving train to jump onto a building and now he wants us to jump off of said building. It didn't really make sense to me. I glanced at Mina. Now I was starting to think like her. Well, I guess that's why I got Erudite as well.
"So," Eric turned around but kept his balance. "Should I pick someone?"
"Is that the only way in," someone asked.
Mina turned to me. Oh hell, that was me that spoke up. Eric got off the ledge and walked casually towards me but stopped at the group of people in front of us. Thank God there was a blockade, because it looked like he wanted to strangle me for talking without raising my hand. Something I hated back at home. Wait your turn, JoyAnna. Listen to other's concerns, JoyAnna. It was JoyAnna this or JoyAnna that. Well, there's no JoyAnna now!
"There's got to be another way in, right," I asked again smiling. There had to be. Did we always jump off of things?
"Ana," Hec whispered behind me. I side glanced at him and he shook his head as if telling me to keep my mouth shut.
It was too late. My curiosity got the better of me. And now I had to face a Dauntless leader for it. I shifted my eyes to look back at Eric. He continued to stare at me. No one seemed to respond or come to my aid. I guess no one ever questions Eric. He scanned over me quickly and then put on a wicked smile.
"I never would have thought an Amity would have so many questions," his smiled then disappeared and he stared me dead in the eye.
He made a hissing sound as if he was cleaning something that was stuck in his teeth. It was like a predatory move I had seen some animals do. I'm guessing that I was going to be treated like prey. Was it because I was Amity born that he immediately wrote me off and decided to turn away? I had been saying it so much in my head now it was time to say it out loud.
"It's obvious I didn't belong in Amity," I snapped back.
He stopped, turned, and with one wave of his hand, everyone around me departed out of his way to make a clear path for him to face me.
"A sassy Amity, too," Eric let out a grunt. "Well being a disrespectful bitch," I looked away at the word. I rarely heard swearing at home. "And disobeying authority does not automatically make you Dauntless," he raised an eyebrow as if daring me to move yet he continued to stare me down.
I was scared for a moment but I wasn't buying any of his scare tactics. I grew up with six brothers! At the same time I thought it was obvious that actions spoke louder than words here in Dauntless. It wasn't enough that I said I that I was Dauntless now, I had to actually show it.
"Then why don't I prove I'm Dauntless," I said straightening out.
Mina grabbed my hand and I gave her a smile. She let me go and I walked with my chin up past Eric and was sure to bump his shoulder on the way there. He growled at me as he watched me walk over to the ledge. This is it, Ana, I thought. You need to do this! I looked over and saw a huge hole in the ceiling of a smaller building below. It seemed like a pretty far drop. The hole was nothing but blackness.
"We're waiting," Eric snarled behind me.
I stood up on the ledge refusing to back down now. You need to, I thought. You need to get rid of JoyAnna. I closed my eyes and threw myself forward. The wind whipped around me as I fell through the hole.
Suddenly something went swoosh as it caught me. Something had stopped me in this darkness. I turned my head to see a net was at the bottom of my fall. I looked around and saw nothing but darkness. Was I in the Dauntless compound? I started to crawl to one side.
"This way, Amity," called out a voice.
I felt the net tug me the other way and I rolled down towards a boy, probably a couple years or so older than me. He was tall, with black hair and had a couple tattoos on him, like Eric. But he looked nowhere as impressive masculine wise. Neither were his eyes captivating. When he raised his eyebrow at me, it wasn't the same scary way Eric did it. Almost like this boy was trying too hard to look frightening. He was still good looking.
I jumped out of the net as the boy helped me down to the ground. The boy's eyes ran over me also. I remembered my skirt was ripped and my jacket was somewhere on the roof up there, tattered from the jumping I did earlier. I was showing more skin than my mother would have allowed.
"An Amity," questioned a deep voice behind me. I turned to see a really handsome guy who had an equally as deadly look as Eric. The boy behind me motioned up above, probably saying that I got in alright. "What's your name?" I couldn't help but stare at those lips. Why weren't guys this alluring at Amity? He looked down at me and cleared his throat.
"Um, it's, it's Ana."
"You don't sound so certain."
Well you scared me, I wanted to reply but instead found myself standing taller. "I am certain. And my name is Ana," I answered with determination.
He nodded, accepting that answer and then looked at the boy behind me. "This is when you make an announcement, Peter."
"Of course," said the boy behind me. I'm assuming he was training. "First jumper: Ana!"
"Welcome to Dauntless, Ana," the other guy said as he motioned for me to walk out into the darkness. But just before I hit the shadows someone stepped forward.
"Welcome to Dauntless," said another tall, dark, good looking guy. He extended his hand, which I shook. Slowly I saw other people come out and welcome me. I turned to see the next person crash on the net. It was Noah!
"Second jumper: Noah," called out that Peter guy.
"Dude, that was totally awesome what you did to Eric up there," he said coming over to give me a high five.
"What did she do," called out another guy who looked somewhat like Noah and the other guy who welcomed me.
"She stood her ground against Eric. Of all people, Eric," Noah said smiling. "Ana, this is my oldest brother, Zeke," he motioned to the guy by us. I shook his hand. "That dude you just met is my other brother, Uriah."
Wow! Good looks certainly run in the family, I thought as someone else came down on the net. That someone else happened to be Hec.
"Third jumper: Hec!"
"Not bad for someone from Amity," said Zeke. A very beautiful girl came up behind him and extended her hand.
"Well, she's not an Amity anymore," the girl answered. "I'm Shauna. Welcome to Dauntless."
Hec ran up to her, kissed her cheek, and then pulled me into a hug.
"I never saw that before!" Hec screamed as he twirled me around. "I was shitting in my pants for you. Who would have thought an Amity would talk back to Eric. I am in awe."
I couldn't help but laugh and playfully pushed him back once he set me down. "Well I try," I joked.
"I guess bad ass Eric met his match." Hec turned back to Shauna. "Ana this is my sister. Shauna, this is..."
"I've met her. She's the first jumper, Ana!" I looked between the two of them. "I see you've met my baby brother," she said in a baby voice and tussling his hair.
"Really, Shauna," Hec complained.
It made me miss my brothers a little. Noah had his older brothers here with him, Hec had his older sister, and I had no one here. A couple jumpers later, Mina came down followed by Dio. Mina ran over to hug me. After so many cheers for the falling initiates, Eric finally came down into the net. Everyone must have been done or probably chose not to jump.
The second Eric got off the net he scanned the room until his eyes met mine. He stared at me and cocked his head a little as if to say 'I'm not done with you.' I straightened out and winked at back him. He looked shocked by the gesture and let a small smirk display before turning to one of the guys that had been there at the net.
He nodded at Eric. "Dauntless born," said the guy. "Go with Lauren and Uriah."
"See you around, Amity," said Hec as they departed.
"Now you have to agree with me that he is kind of hot," Mina whispers.
"Hec," I ask her smiling. "He's cool, I guess."
"You guess? Come on Ana. Look at them and then look at the lot we have," Mina gestured to the boys behind us.
"Excuse me," Dio said looking hurt.
"Sorry," Mina replied. I noticed there were four more boys from Erudite, besides Dio, two other girls from Erudite, besides Mina, four girls and six boys from Candor, and of course one Amity, me. A total of nineteen transfers had defected to Dauntless.
"Transfers," one of the Dauntless guys by Eric shouted. "My name is Four." Two girls from Candor giggled. I wonder why he changed his name to that. He paused and shot them a glance and they stopped. "For the next three months, I'll be in charge of your training along with Peter," he nodded to the guy who shouted my name. "You all have met Eric, one of our leaders here."
"Four is training to become a leader also," stated Eric. "That means there are some days where I will be in charge of overseeing your training," he took a glance at me. "Peter is taking over the instructor position so there will be other days you will also be receiving training from him. You will report to one of us three. If all else fails, then report to the Dauntless-born trainers, Lauren and Uriah."
"Our training," asked one of the Erudite boys.
"What is your name," asked Four.
"Odysseus," the boy answered straightening out.
I shot Mina a glance as if to ask were they all named after someone in Greek or Roman Mythology? She put on small smile and nodded. It was like we could read each other's thoughts already. Perhaps my mind was suited for Erudite.
Peter chuckled until Eric side eyed him.
"Odysseus, you all need to become Dauntless. Just because you jumped off the train and into the building, doesn't mean that you made it already." He scanned Odysseus's clothing. "Erudite-born initiates should have some brief knowledge of our procedures," he scanned Dio, Mina, and the other Erudite boy. I wonder how they would know about it. "Next time, leave your thirst for knowledge up there," Four points to the hole in the ceiling we just fell out of.
"Since introductions are over, let's get moving," Eric called out to Four.
Four nodded as he walked ahead with Peter following closely and then us. Eric followed right behind. I didn't want to look back at him.
We continued to walk down some hallways until we came to one with a bright light at the end and loud noise. As we walk through the entrance way, we're standing on a big ledge that had no railings to keep us from falling over. Despite that there were still some Dauntless sitting on the ledge dangling their legs over like they have no care in the world.
"This is the Pit. This is the source of life here at Dauntless," Four explains. "You'll come to know this place in time. Most of you will eventually find a spot to hang out," Four then turned to us. "That's if you make it."
People were shouting, wrestling, running around, dancing, basically having a good time and doing whatever it seems like they wanted to do. It was different from Amity's gathering place. The fun here looked uninhibited.
"Everything looks exciting," Mina says grabbing my arm.
Another thing that I knew was going to be different from Amity. I rarely made any friends at Amity. I didn't take to the girls who were there. For some reason I was really enjoying Mina's company. She wasn't too girly or to cheery. She was just right. I had a feeling that she and I would become close friends.
Four then led us to a place where water fell down through the rocks overhead. Rapids came out from a couple caverns and poured into the huge opening between the rocks in front of us. It was beautiful in a way. There was only one single railing here while it looked like the other had been pulled out as if someone fell on it and Dauntless never got around to repairing it. Four cocked his head at Peter who looked away. I wondered what that was about.
"This is the Chasm. Sometimes the loud roar of the water is calming. Many of you will try to find a sanctuary here," Four said as he reached out his hand to get it wet with a couple drops of water and then shook it off.
"Many of you will also find that it can be really dangerous."
We turned to see a pretty blonde come out from behind the shadows of one of the walls. She smiled quickly at Four who replied with the same gesture. Quickly it faded from both of them, as if they were trying to hide it. Well, too bad, because I caught it.
"My name is Six," she replied.
I wanted to ask where 'Five' was. Mina nudged me with a small smile. Yeah, she was thinking it too. Six walked pass Four, stopped in front of Peter and they both exchanged dirty looks. She nodded at Eric and then turned to us to finish her small introduction.
"There are times when we will push you to your breaking point, challenge every muscle in your body, and test every darkest fear in your mind. Many fear the unknown and have given themselves up to this," she pointed towards the Chasm.
I heard of suicide, it was rarely spoke of at Amity. Once, Father caught Jack, Jordan, Jensen, and I speaking about suicide after we had visited Jonathan at Erudite. We didn't go back the following year to see him.
"Training has been extended, thanks to our friends at Erudite and new leadership tactics here at Dauntless," Six continued. "Because of that, I along with Will," she nodded at another Dauntless guy coming out from the shadows. "We'll see you during the third month, if some of you make pass the first two months and this," she then took one final glance behind her at the Chasm.
They were already expecting some of us to fail, which made me wonder how many people jumped off this thing, choosing death as being their only option.
"Be careful and good luck to all of you." Six and Will departed from our group after that.
We continued to follow Four, Peter, and Eric until we reached a long tunnel with some loud talking at the end. The lighting wasn't the best here. I assumed I had to get used to not seeing fields of fruits and vegetables or visiting any of the animal farms out in the sun and the glory of nature. Why was I missing all of that now? A little voice in the back of my head kept reminding me that I didn't enjoy it there. Perhaps, it was the darkness and closure of everything here at Dauntless that just made me feel homesick.
Four opened the doors and brought us into a room where the Dauntless-born initiates were.
"This is where you all will be sleeping," he stated.