This story is told from Tris' mother's POV.
Disclaimer: I do not own Divergent, Insurgent or any of the relevant characters. I do own the characters of my creation however. Cailin x
Mother's Tale
Prologue
I grew up jumping on and off trains; running down treacherous and dangerous paths; shouting for joy; living in the moment; fighting for the hell of it; doing crazy things because I felt like it; throwing myself off impossibly high buildings; getting tattoos; eating deliciously chocolaty chocolate cake; daring each other to climb further and further up a statue and shooting targets with a gun.
But I traded all of that to live simply; to never use a gun; to eat plain food; to never think of myself; to live to serve others; to hide my body behind plain clothing; to forget myself and to never live like Dauntless again. Why? For my own safety. Because my mother told me to in order to save my life. Because I am what I will learn my daughter also is. It was, and is, dangerous to be what we are. It makes it harder to fit in anywhere. Yet Dauntless would have been the easiest. It is easy to be brave if you were raised in that way. But it would have also been one of the most dangerous. Abnegation was the safest. No one fails Abnegation initiation; no one would guess what I am. If only my mother could have known what would happen. I wonder if she still would have told me to go to Abnegation, or instead perhaps, to Amity, or Candor or even to stay in Dauntless. In the end, I don't think any of them could be safe for people like me. Maybe then, but not now.
I've never looked back, never thought of the future I could have had. But now our children have joined the factions we left, I think about it.