Disclaimer: I do not own the Divergent story / series or any of it's canon characters.
This follows the canon story line, but with some twists.

Italics = Talking / thinking

A Silent Thought

Hazel eyes were locked onto the gaping hole in the ceiling, which opened up with a perfect view of the blue sky above. This is where it all starts. Initiates who chose Dauntless as their new faction, are tasked with their first "real" challenge to see if they are made for Dauntless or not. After running to get on the train in time, to actually climbing and getting on the train, were challenges to weed out the weak. But this was the main challenge. Who would be the first to jump?

Standing on the other side of the room, she continued to watch with a bored expression. Vaguely wondering if Eric was going to choose someone to jump if no one volunteered first. However, her thoughts were interrupted by a blob of gray hitting the net. She never expected an abnegation girl to fall through that ceiling without screaming her lungs out. 'Was she pushed?' Tilting her head slightly she watched as Four helped her out of the net, trying to hear what took place and what her name was. It was rare for abnegation to transfer into dauntless, but since last year it seemed to be a new trend for the teens.

"First jumper Tris!"

'Tris. The first jumper is Tris.'

Watching as Tris looked around and waited for the rest of the initiates to drop from the ceiling, the blond looked in her direction and locked eyes. And almost as expected, Tris dropped her gaze. 'Well, that's got to change if she wants to survive here.' She thought as a small dark skinned girl wearing candor attire walked up to the shy girl, and began to talk with her. She was too focused on Tris to notice that two other teens had dropped into the net, and was helped out by Four.

Then at last, after waiting for sometime, Eric was the last to fall into the net. Now they could get things going. Finally.

All the transfer initiates gathered around Four and followed behind him like ducklings, as he led them to their new living space. There was a few annoying ones, but she thought that they would be easy to handle, with the right discipline that is. There was no doubt that if not Four, then Eric would gladly put them in their places. She let out a tiny snort of amusement, that caught the attention of the latter, who was walking beside her.

"Tremor." The young leader greeted her. "That's the first sound I've heard out of you in a while. Want to tell me what got you in a good mood over there?" he asked with an annoying sweetness to it that made her want to puke. She snorted again, but this time in annoyance. Shaking her head and waving her hand in a dismissive gesture.

'It's nothing.'

He huffed at the response he was given. "You know… I've always wondered what you would sound like. Maybe someday you'd let me hear you." He said again in a sweet voice, before walking into the initiate's dormitory to announce the rest of the rules.

She knew better than to listen to him. He was very manipulative and sadistic. The last thing anyone would want was for him to know what you're scared of, for he'd use it against you any chance he got.

She huffed and started to walk towards the pit where everyone was soon going to gather for dinner. The best thing about the pit was the selection of different foods you could choose from. There was mostly things like hamburgers, pizza, salads, and etc. but they added new things to the menu every so often, so no one ever got bored of anything.

Reaching the pit she walked over and waited for the pizza to be cut before everyone started to pile in. She always tried to be first to the pit if possible, so that she'd have a pick of where she would sit, and even get the first pick of whatever she was going to eat. Grabbing a plate, now stacked with three slices of pizza, she walked over to a corner table to eat in silence.

She'd always appreciate a hot meal. It was requirement that all of the newbie initiates that had passed their initiation had fence duty. Unlucky for her, she had fence duty in the dead of winter. They got rid of that rule, however, she was a little disappointed that they weren't shipped off for awhile. But she'd always appreciate the warmth of the compound, even though it was cold in the winter, it was nothing compared to what it's like out there.

Not that long after she had started to eat, people started to file in. Then the initiates came right after. They looked around in wonder before taking off to get their food. She watched them as she ate her own food, and couldn't help a small snort of amusement at their childishness.

Four was sitting and eating his own food when some of the transfers sat down at his table, and she watched as he tried to ignore them. He was something else. It was packed by the time that Tris went over and sat down. That girl was a strange one also. She'd have to keep an eye on her, just in case. Coming out of her thoughts she realized that Tris was talking to Four, and it looked like he was giving her attitude. She let out another snort of laughter. 'What an asshole.'

About that time, the door opened and everyone became silent as Eric entered the pit and walked around. 'Great.' He walked over to Tris's table and started to talk to Four. About what, she wasn't sure, but she did know that whenever Eric had to talk to Four it wasn't going to be a good outcome. Her shoulders tensed as Eric got up and turned around, before he made his way up to Max; who was overlooking everyone. They gave the usual speech about being brave, and the initiates crowd surfed around as everyone cheered for them before they were let down so they could finish their meals.

She brought the metal cup up to her mouth and took some sips of her water, before wondering how the initiates will do this year. Most of them didn't look like dauntless material at all.

She came out of her thoughts yet again when she heard a commotion at the food court. Looks like a clumsy dauntless born accidentally bumped into Eric while getting his food, and now his plate was on the floor with a scowling Eric in his face; probably saying it was his fault, and to clean it up. The poor kid will probably have nightmares and wet the bed tonight. Eric however turned with his own plate in his hands and looked for a vacant seat. Then annoyance washed over her when he noticed her. His eyes locked with her's, and he started to walk in her direction. 'Double great.'

"Hey, Tremor. Why are you eating over here in the corner? Why not sit with Four and the initiates?" He asked as he sat down and leaned on the table to get closer to her; like she was just going to start chatting up a storm to him. 'As if.'

She had to admit that he was an ass. When she had trained his group of initiates he was okay, and he wasn't as bad as he is now. He used to be a good student, that is, until he figured out that he was good at something, and then turned into an arrogant asshole that rubbed his victories in everyone's faces. She blamed Erudite for that though. People in Erudite were taught at a young age that you have to be the best, no matter what. However since she didn't speak when they first met, that caught his attention, and like all Erudite born he was thirsty to know why.

He would always target her and pester her as an initiate with silly remarks and jokes to see if she'd crack and talk to him. Like he was some kind of special snowflake that rubbed his nose everywhere it didn't belong. What he didn't know was that even though she didn't talk, she was still his leader and needed his respect. Amar always punished him and made him run laps for his disrespect. But the fun part was when she would watch him. When he finished his laps Amar would always ask her how many laps he did, and she'd hold up ten fingers when he was supposed to run fifty, and Amar would scold him and make him run more. It was fun and a bit low of her, but he really needed it. You couldn't be weak and scrawny in dauntless, and she wasn't going to let any initiate fail because they didn't train hard enough.

"Hey, Trem. Before I forget. When we get done with showing these kids around, I have a package to give you." He said between bites of his hamburger. "You can come to my apartment and pick it up on the way back to yours."

'Kids. Like he wasn't a kid himself.' She thought, and wondered what the package was. She did know that Erudite was supposed to deliver some new things to Dauntless for the leaders; however, she missed the last meeting because she was sick, so she didn't know exactly what it was.

She raised her hand and gave him a thumbs up, to show that she agreed and would stop by after they escorted the initiates to their lovely dorm room.

Once everyone was settled and tucked into their new life; sarcasm, she left and headed to Eric's apartment.

She noticed that the three candors were a few to keep her eyes on, for their looks and behavior spelled out trouble. She's never had to deal with very much violence, but something in the back of her head told her that something wasn't right with those three.

The erudites… were okay, but they needed to know that they shouldn't ask question after question, and have some faith in what their leaders tells them to do. If they say jump, you jump. No questions asked.

The wimpy kid from candor was too timid, and she could see him getting stressed out already. That's not a good for the compound. Dauntless needed brave and level headed members. The more people gets stressed by fear, the more their heads get clouded and that makes for a very dangerous situation.

The Candor girl was a nice; however, she was more of an annoyance than anything. She needed to know how to shut her mouth. She was pretty sure that she was going to get in trouble the most in the weeks ahead.

Tris was quiet and took everything in. However, she could also see the wheels turning in the other girl's head as she looked around.

Wondering if her suspensions are correct, she came to Eric's apartment and gently knocked on the door. She only had to wait a moment or two before the door opened and Eric moved aside for her to walk in.

It was exactly like her apartment but everything was in a different place with different furniture. Walking into the middle of the room she sat down on the black leather couch and looked around again; waiting for Eric to shut the door and get her package.

"So all the leaders are required to have these, but since you weren't at the last meeting, Jeanine had Max and me to hold onto yours until you were well again." He said after he had closed the door, and went into the small kitchen space to grab the box, to which he brought to me. "Go ahead and open it."

'I thought I was just supposed to pick it up and leave.' She thought as she took out her knife and began to slice the tape on the box. After it was all sliced, she opened the folds of the box and looked in to see more boxes that had writing on them. "Leader Tablets" was what was written. Looking up from the box to look at Eric, she tilted her head.

"Go on and take them out. I'm going to show you how to use them, or at least show you the basics." Was his response before she gave him a quick nod back.

Taking the tablets out of the boxes, she noticed that one was the size of a notebook, while the other was small enough to be more portable. She wasn't from Erudite so tablets were fairly new to her, but she loved working with computers and technology; however she wasn't about to tell anyone that.

Turning over the bigger one she noticed the power button and quickly turned it on. Making a quick glance up to make sure she was doing everything right, and receiving a nod in approval.

"You'll notice that it has a limited amount of apps on the main screen, and you can edit what you want to show up from the setting panel, which is here." He said and pointed to a small button with a picture of a gear. That seems easy enough.

"The settings panel lets you customize your tablet so that is easier for you. You're emails are here. This app will automatically keep your messages organized for you, and you can archive them if you want. Messages with an exclamation mark means that the message is important and you need to read it asap." He goes on to explain, and again she nods to him to show she was following.

"I suggest you keep the bigger tablet in your apartment, and carry around the smaller one. They are exactly the same, besides the size. Both are synced to one another, so you don't have to worry about having to go back and forth between them. …So what do you think?"

She was annoyed again. Why did he have to do that? Did he think he could trick her into talking? When he knew she wasn't going to talk. So with a glare, she gave him a thumbs up. He started to chuckle a bit, and motioned for her to hand him the smaller tablet, which she did.

"There is one more thing I want to show you, one more app before you go, but I have to download it first. I asked Jeanine if I could go to the department where they had made the tablets, and she granted me access. I met with the department manager who developed the software, and asked about how difficult it was creating new apps…" He went on to ramble as he waited until the download was complete.

"They said it depended on what kind of app it was. So I explained to him what I was interested in and they said that there was an app already created, and I just had to download it onto the device. I didn't tell him why I wanted it, but I think it would help you out… That is if you decide to use it." He finished.

All she could do was tilt her head at him, for she didn't know what he was going on about. But was curious to why he went through all the trouble.

He looked back down at the device and the corners of his lips rose slightly, before he turned the tablet around to her and pointed to the new app on the screen.

"It's a text to talk app." He said and tapped the icon, and showed her the app.

"It lets you type out what you want to say in this box, and then you tap the little speaker icon here, and the tablet will say whatever you typed in the box." He explained and handed her the tablet. "Why don't you try it and see if it works?"

She was beyond surprised at what she just heard. But why would he go through all that for her? She just couldn't understand it. Looking down at the screen she tilted her head a bit and brought her hand up to start typing. However, she didn't know what to type.

Looking up at Eric again, she wanted to see what he'd say next.

"Well… what are you waiting on, for me to die? Sorry I've still got a while before I kick the bucket." He joked.

Looking back down at the device in her hand, she began typing. When she was finished she pressed the speaker button and looked up into Eric's eyes.

"Hello, it is nice to finally speak to you."

Author's Notes:

Feel free to review. Also let me know if I make any mistakes so I can correct them. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. Thank you!

Story Notes:

This story follows Tris' story. Ages: Tremor (24), Eric & Four (18), Tris (16).