Somehow between reading "Four, A divergent Collection", and "Allegiant" (and yes, that's the order I read them in. I actually read Four before Insurgent, boy did that ruin the surprise of who was at the Factionless Safe House!) I got a very distinct impression of one of the characters. A piece, a sliver may be a better description, of their back story. This story has been working its way through me ever since then. At first I brushed it away, but the more time has gone by the more I have decided I wanted to explore the story.
The story has become Dauntless Gray. It is about what I feel I "discovered" between these two books. Tobias tells us in "The Traitor" that it was a "long time" before him that the last transfer from Abnegation to Dauntless happened. A long time is pretty vague, but I would have to guess that Tori with the gray streaks in her hair, would have to qualify as being a "long time" away from her initiation, and I think the person I noticed is a contemporary of hers. (And she isn't the Abnegation transfer. Tori we know came from Erudite.)
So who is this person? There were a couple of clues to me as to who this person is. In my mind, you have to remember that Amar in Allegiant told Tris that "I've noticed that when people switch to Dauntless, it creates some of the same types." So look for the person who is the same "type" as Tobias and Tris.
Someone who is not covered in noticeable tattoos or piercings. Someone who is serious, not boisterous. Someone who is dignified. Someone who, if Tobias and Tris had been able to finish growing up in a time when there was no war, they would have matured more like this person than any other "adult". There probably aren't even 200 words written about this person, but I feel like I know the secret of where they came from.
There is another observation I made from the books that you need to know about for this story. Tobias mentions in Allegiant that "Abnegation was just as broken as the other factions, but its evils were less obvious…" This got me to thinking. Why would the Bureau create broken factions? They wouldn't. The stereo types that they become would have to develop a little at a time.
Just like the Dauntless didn't always do bare knuckle fighting, but wore pads, I believe the Abnegation didn't always hide their mirrors behind a panel and only look at them once every three months. So some things that you are used to from the original books won't be quite the same. (Continuing with the example of the Abnegation mirror, I think at the time of this story the mirror is behind a panel, but I think it is used daily before you leave the house. This would allow you to make sure that there was nothing to draw attention to you by the way you look.) (Come on ladies, try to put a bun in your hair without a mirror and tell me it wouldn't draw attention. Mine would!)
I think you now have the background you will need for Dauntless Gray.
Oh, did you want to know who the last person to transfer from Dauntless to Abnegation before Tobias was?
You have to read the first chapter to find that out. Chapter One will be a short chapter, call it more of a prologue if you will, and if you could select "Prologue" instead of "Chapter One" I would, but I know it will drive me crazy to have my chapter numbers not match up so… we start with Chapter One.
However, there would be no chapter one without my amazing Beta reader / fact checker / collaborator bahrfamily. Thank you for everything.
And officially for the record…
I do not own any part the Divergent Trilogy or Four, a Divergent Collection. I have borrowed several of the characters in this story from the Divergent World, and I borrowed the Divergent world itself. These were created by Veronica Roth. The Divergent world and those characters still belong to her. I have tried to keep the story that I have created able to interact with her world and be consistent with all the books in this series published by her as of February 2015. Any mistakes that make that impossible are mine.
Chapter One Trading Places
Part of me feels like I should be insulted. Everyone in my family will be at dinner tonight, and even though Gayle is a member of Abnegation too, that is rare. Gayle, my married sister, will be here with her husband, Stephen, and their baby girl. They will all be here tonight to say good bye to me, because none of them think that at the Choosing Ceremony tomorrow I will choose to stay in Abnegation.
I'm supposed to spend tonight thinking about the results of our aptitude test, and I'll leave early so I can.
But we all know I'm leaving. We all know I don't belong in Abnegation, and that's what hurts the most. None of them believe that I can stay here and be selfless so I can remain with them.
They would all be surprised to find out what my aptitude test actually says. If they had to guess, they would probably guess I received Candor. The truth would shock them. I just have to decide if I'm going to follow what the tests says, pick the faction my family is expecting, or surprise everyone, including myself, and stay.
Even the only reason I can come up with for staying is selfish. My only reason for staying would be to remain with them. To watch my niece grow up. To stay close to my parents. To be there for my younger brother. Can you be selfless for selfish reasons? I don't know about anyone else, I just don't think I can.
I believe in telling the truth, but I do see times when it is better to stretch, ignore, or hide the truth than it is to say the truth. So, I really don't feel like Candor, which my family expects, is for me.
It's the piece of me that I have managed to keep hidden from my family that is calling me.
I hear the front door open, and I hurry to it. Mom must be home. This will be the last time I can meet her at the door and help her, so I do. Maybe there is a little bit of Abnegation in me after all, but it is not enough to keep me here.
I lose myself on the bus thinking not about what someone else might need, like I'm supposed to. Instead I think about dinner last night. The evening was bittersweet. It means so much to me that my family wanted to spend as much of last night with me as they could. It means so much to me that Gayle and Stephen let me have as much time as I wanted with Jillian. I will miss seeing her grow up so much, but I can't stay just to see that.
Even standing, the whole bus ride to the Hub the trip is shorter than it ever has been before. We are here quicker than I want. We wait for everyone else to exit the bus before we, the Abnegation, get off.
We look at the line for the elevator. Do we wait for the rest of our bus to take them up and hope that another bus won't show up in the meantime so we can ride the elevator the Choosing Ceremony, or do we start up the stairs? We stand there until we see the next bus pull up. The next elevator would be ours, but with the sight of that bus we will be selfless: I will be selfless one last time. We take the stairs. I hate climbing the stairs.
I will be one of the first to choose. Everyone will know soon where I am headed. There is an advantage to having a last name at the end of the alphabet today. We will go in reverse alphabetical order, so there isn't long to wait.
When I take my place in the circle, I discover the girl who will choose before me is Dauntless. I have to wonder, will she stay there? She doesn't look conflicted. Compared to the rest of us she looks at ease. Her long blonde hair looks out of place without the wild colors that make up much of Dauntless. Her green eyes have a sparkle and a peace to them. She is beautiful. I glance around the rest of the circle, but no one else catches my attention, only her.
It is Erudite's turn to host the ceremony this year, so Norton, the leader of Erudite comes to the podium to address us. I wish that it was someone else's turn. There is something about Norton that puts me on edge. I'm not sure if it is his wild and shaggy white eyebrows that seem to take up half of his forehead or if it is the white hair that sticks out from his head like he was experimenting with electricity and hasn't taken the time to brush it since then. It might even be the way his hands curve from the arthritis that it is whispered now cripples him. It doesn't matter what it is. It has always given me the creeps.
"Today we are following the path that our ancestors set before us," he starts, his voice rusty from lack of use. "This path leads us away from those things that inspire selfishness, meanness, lies, fear, stupidity, and therefore against war. This path leads us towards our factions. It leads us towards selflessness, kindness, honesty, bravery, intelligence and therefore towards peace."
My mind drifts again to the girl standing next to me. It strikes me as funny when I realize, in that instant that I don't know her name. I have almost no memory of her at all. The Dauntless always make an impression. I may not be able to name many of the sixteen year olds who form this circle from the other factions, but I can name every one of the Dauntless and tell you what wild or reckless event of theirs has burned their name into my memory. Everyone, I think, except this girl standing next to me. I don't remember her at all.
I wonder if her family knows she doesn't fit in, like mine knows I don't fit in. Did they have a gathering for her last night, like my family did for me? Did they come together one last time so they could say good-bye to her? Does she know where she is headed? I glance at her and the harmony I see in her green eyes tells me she knows exactly where she is going, and is at peace with it. If I had to guess, she's not staying in Dauntless; she looks too tame for that. The tranquility in her eyes makes me guess she's headed towards Amity.
I am missing Norton's speech. I pull my attention back to it just in time to hear him close.
"Today we do the logical thing. We give our dependents the chance to make their choice, just as we made ours. We give them the gift of finding their own way. We start with Zellner, Adam.
I watch as Adam Zellner walks to the center, takes his knife, cuts his hand, and lets his blood drop on the dirt of Amity. We have started.
It doesn't take long before we have our first transfer: Wu, Tori. Tori is the Erudite standing on the other side of the girl standing next to me. Her black hair comes to her chin and is held away from her face by her glasses which perch on the top of her head. Her brown eyes sparkle with excitement as she leaves Erudite and heads off to Dauntless.
Then they call the name of the girl next to me: "Wright, Natalie." I watch her carefully to see if she is staying in Dauntless or moving on somewhere else like I suspect. Her eyes meet the eyes of a dark haired boy in blue. She smiles. It almost looks like that smile is just for him, and with their eyes locked she cuts her hand. She holds it out. First I think it is to the flames. Then I realize that it is the bowl behind the coals that she has given her blood to.
I look at her stunned. I wish I could speak to her. I wish that we could have time, even 10 minutes to talk, but there is no time. There was never any time. We were never allowed to discuss any of this, and now it is too late for us to talk to each other, to give each other advice, to warn each other of what lies ahead. They are calling my name: "Wren, Hana". It's time to trade places with Natalie Wright. She gave her blood to the stones of Abnegation the way I should, and I give my blood to the way she should have, to the coals of Dauntless
So… did you guess it was Zeke and Uriah's mom? Leave me a review, and let me know what you think.
