VA Transfers

Ch 1

"You're late," he whispered out of the corner of his mouth.

Oh, here we go I thought to myself.

"Sorry, I had something important to attend to," I responded tersely, not bothering to keep my voice down.

"I hope it was worth it," he said in his quiet voice. I sighed.

"Loosen up, Comrade, the cubs aren't even here yet." I said, turning to look at him. I could hear Uriah going through the speech at the top of the net. I had about five minutes to battle it out with my partner before we had to stop.

"You have such an... affectionate name for the transfers, yet refuse to be on time for them."

"I'm on time when I have to be. Besides, I don't think my cubs mind right now," I said sarcastically, pointing my arm towards the empty net to emphasize my point. He glared at me for a minute, and I returned his gaze with my signature smirk, daring him to respond. It might have seemed childish on my part, but he was the reason we were like this to begin with.

Breaking us from our stand-off, I heard the first initiate falling before I saw him. He was laughing the whole way down, and when he landed he looked like he had no intention of getting up. I felt bad for telling him he had to get off, it was like taking candy away from a little kid.

"What's your name?"

"Mason, your's?"

"Not important right now," I took his arm and raised it above his head, "First jumper, Mason!" The crowd cheered and I let go of his hand, pushing him to the side, "Go stand over there."

After that, they just kept falling one after the other.

In the low light, I tried to memorize their faces as they landed. They were our future and I was going to make sure that what they brought was bright. The last one immediately caught my attention. Blonde hair, green eyes, and pale skin, she looked nothing like a Dauntless, though that wasn't the only thing that caught my attention. Her bland, grey clothes also made her stick out.

"You're Abnegation."

"Yes," she said looking down, "Or at least I was."

I was puzzled, and I didn't think I'd get anymore out of her,"What's your name?"

"Vasilisa."

I looked at her, she had to be kidding. I turned around, thinking quickly, "Lissa!" I shouted to the crowd before turning to her, "You'll thank me later. Your name sounds like Vaseline. You don't want that."

Uriah jumped down, beside me, "That's it for the transfers. I'm gonna let the Dauntless born figure it out for themselves."

"Great, thanks sugarplum."

"Your welcome, cupcake."

"You are both very immature," the man beside me said. He had been silent this whole time, silently observing in his weird way, absorbing everything that happened. He waved to the cubs telling them silently to follow him. They didn't know who he was, but they could tell he was in charge of them.

I followed him and after a few seconds' hesitation the cubs followed me. We walked into the light and he finally came into clear view of the cubs. A few of them gasped, taking in everything about him. He was handsome: tall with brown, shoulder-length hair, that was currently pulled back, his long, black coat flowed behind him making him look like a god according to dauntless gossip.

More like the devil, I thought to myself.

An extremely good looking one, a voice inside me said back.

We walked into a tunnel that causes even the smallest of whispers to reverberate through the corridor. My co-trainer liked to use this place to introduce himself because he never liked raising his voice.

"I'm Dimitri, this is Rose," I waved when he nodded towards me, "We're going to show you around the complex then we're going to have dinner. Tomorrow you will be in the gym at eight AM, a minute late, you will not be allowed in. Any questions you have you can ask Rose at dinner."

He did this every year, throwing me all the questions. He didn't like talking and knew I loved it. That was the whole reason he did it, and I hated him for it. It made me love them too much, and if they died or were thrown out, I was the one that suffered, not him.

I had tried so hard in previous years to not become too attached but it never worked. Even the most annoying of kids managed to worm their way into my heart, and I felt responsible if they didn't make the cut. I gave up on this endeavor last year, letting them into my heart before I even knew them. It was easier for all of us that way. The cubs knew where they stood with me and no one blamed me when I was heart broken over one of them dying. I also found it decreased the suicide rates if they thought they had someone to go to who had been through what they are to talk to. Even with the new curriculum for training, it was still common to have those who thought death was better than being factionless.

I realized as we entered the dining hall that these thoughts had taken over my mind, and I had blanked out during the entire tour.

Luckily no one seemed to have noticed, well one person noticed.

"You okay?" Dimitri asked as we settled down at the tables. I scanned the room for the cubs, since they would no doubt come find me with their questions.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

For a moment, he stood there and I thought he was going to sit down with me, but then the first transfer arrived and he remembered why nobody sat with me on the first day of training; there had to be room for the transfers.

"Hi," the transfer said uncertainly as Dimitri walked away, "Can I sit here?"

"I don't know, can you?" The transfer paused for a moment before speaking again.

"May I sit here?"

"Yes, you may. What's your name again?"

"Mia, I'm a Candor."

I looked up at her with a smirk, "I'm sorry, I thought you were Dauntless."

She smiled a little, "I am now. Finally, I've always wanted to learn how to fight. Defend ourselves. We will learn that, won't we?"

"It's in the curriculum."

She looked excited, almost jumping in her seat, "What type? How much will we learn?"

I didn't answer for a second, weighing my options, "All types. Self-defense, knives, guns, one-on-one, group fighting. You'll be in good hands.

But make no mistake, I hope you don't have to use it. It's never fun when you do."

She looked a little crestfallen after that, but quickly perked up as the others sat down.

"So," a boy said, sitting beside Mia. Who was he? Chris. Christopher. Christian, that's it! "The Stiff just asked me what the food was. She's still sticking to that 'we don't do indulgence in Abnegation' thing. Can you believe that?"

"I'm sorry," I said, "Why is a Stiff in the Dauntless compound? There are only Dauntless in here."

"I know, so why is she still sticking to the dishonesty of the Abnegation?" he was challenging me and his fellow initiate.

"Abnegation have been sticking to that story for years now, almost as if it's" I paused putting a surprised look on my face, "Real."

"You honestly believe that?" he asked.

"I believe in what I see. I have seen no signs of indulgence within the Abnegation. End of discussion," I said before looking down at my food and mumbled quietly, "Dickhead."

Mia looked at me curiously, "What faction are you from?"

"Who says I'm not from Dauntless?"

"Well...no one, but-"

"I'm Dauntless now, that's all that matters. You're all Dauntless now. Deal with it or leave."

They were silent after that, as Lissa and the others sat down, "I'm guessing you all have questions about training and initiation. You may now ask them to your supreme leader."

"What's up with Dimitri?" Mason asked.

"He has a disease that eats his feelings," I said with a straight face. Mason and the other cubs looked at me incredulously and I couldn't keep myself from chuckling at their expressions. I took a deep breath before moving on, "Truthfully, he's quiet. He doesn't really let people in, which is smart in this field."

"In this field? What training us? What's so hard about training some recruits?" Christian scoffed.

Well, look who had a real question, though I was getting annoyed with his know-it-all attitude.

"Yes. You all are about to go through one of the worst or best times of your life, depending on the year and the group. Getting close to you is either great or horrible. I choose to get close, Dimitri...not so much."

"So, he gets a warrant to be a dick?" Christian said.

I actually laughed at that comment, "I'm going to have to remember that one. Warrant to be a dick!"

They looked at me expectantly and I sighed deciding to give them a brief explanation for Dimitri's behavior, though not too much since it was his story to tell.

"Fine, story time. Once there was a time when Dimitri was able to get close to the transfers, but he finally snapped after a particularly bad year. He had worked really hard to get the whole group to work as a team, and then it all fell apart. One member committed suicide and the rest went downhill after that. Most of them went into depression, quit and became factionless, or went insane and the rest that did end up finishing weren't the same as when they entered the compound. A girl that he had grown really close to made some bad choices. She was one of the few to make it in, but like the rest she was never the same. After that he learned not to grow attached to you all."

They were silent, so I said,"let's hope this will be a good year."