A/N: I had a depressing moment in a bookstore yesterday where I saw a book in between Divergent and Insurgent. I looked closer and the author's name was Roth! I started freaking out, like "OH MY GOD EMERGENT/CONVERGENT IS OUT!" And then I realized... it was a different Roth. That was sad. Anyway, the story. (Also for the record I like the name Emergent better. Convergent means coming together or the opposite of Divergent, which means a non-Divergent Tris. Emergent could be the city emerging up from the war. Anyway, again, the story.)

The whole flock is 16. Angel just turned 16, and Max's birthday is in a month or something like that.

It's the same year as Tris, only Tris, Edward, Myra, and Molly, and Al don't exist/ are dead/ didn't make it onto the train/ the roof/ the net. Whichever one. (Personally, I like Tris, Al, Edward and Myra not existing, and Molly dead.)

Oh, and (insert who the Voice is here— no spoilers) isn't the Voice. The Voice is just sorta there.

Disclaimer: If I were VR or JP, I would be writing even more of these awesome books instead of writing sadly obsessed fanfiction online. And I'm basing the structure on Divergent, so I don't own most of when people are talking.

Anyway, AGAIN, the story. I sound like Nudge going on and o— ya know, I think I'll just give you the story now.

Max POV

I sit down at the table I always sit at in the Upper Levels cafeteria, with the flock. We're about to go through the aptitude test, a way of seeing which faction you're cut out for.

"Hey," I say. "Scoot over, Ig."

The flock— Angel, Nudge, Gazzy, Fang, and me (Max)— are in Chicago. I don't know how we got here. There are five factions here, that you join one of at age 16: Abnegation, Dauntless, Amity, Candor, and Erudite. When we got here, we each chose a family in a different faction to live with until the Choosing day. Stupidly, I picked the Martinez family because of their name, and they were Erudite. The intelligent. WTF? I've been to school about a week of my life. And the Martinez family wasn't my mom and sister, of course.

Angel and Gazzy chose an Amity family (the peaceful), which is OK for Angel, but Gazzy has some trouble. Nudge chose a Candor family (the honest), because the Candor like to talk. A lot. Like, a lot a lot. So Nudge is doing fine. Iggy picked an Abnegation family (the selfless), which is fine with me. Uh, as long as he doesn't blow anything up. And Fang is in Erudite with me. Fang and I are saying we're unrelated but were both adopted into the Martinez family, which is true, and Angel and Gazzy are saying that they're siblings, which is also true. Also, Gazzy now just calls himself that, because the Gasman is a little too weird, especially for Amity.

When we thought about what we would choose, we've basically decided on Dauntless, the brave. I'm choosing first, since Martinez is after their last names— Angel and Gazzy Kainnel, Iggy Benson and Nudge Felan. So if the rest don't follow me... ouch. Fang, Iggy, and Nudge probably will, but I'm a little worried about Angel and Gazzy. Angel wants to be the leader, and she would be on her own with Gazzy, and Gazzy might want to follow his sister.

Finally, my name is called through the speaker. "From Erudite: Max Martinez and Fang Martinez."

Fang and I stand up and walk to the classrooms 14 and 15. "Good luck," I say, and walk into the room. A Dauntless woman is standing in the room next to a chair like a dentist's. "Sit," she says. "My name is Tori. Are you..." She checks the computer sitting on the table with wires hanging off of it. "...Max Martinez?"

"Yeah," I say. What does she think I'll say? "Whoops, no, wrong person, see ya?"

Tori hands me a vial of clear liquid. "Drink this," she says, connecting a wire to my forehead and one to her own. I look at her suspiciously, but drink it. I'm not as paranoid as I used to be. In two words: It's bad.

You're plenty paranoid, Maximum, the Voice says.

Gee, thanks, Voi—

I black out.

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—Liiiiiiiiiiiine—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-

When I wake up, I'm standing in front of a table in the cafeteria, which is empty. On the table is a basket with a wedge of cheese and a long knife.

"Choose." I look around me for the person, but no one's there. Is that you, Voice?

The Voice doesn't answer.

"Choose," I hear again. Well, no brainer. I grab the knife.

The table disappears, and a huge dog stands in front of me. It snarls and lunges at me, and with one motion I bring the knife down on it. The dog falls to the ground, dead.

The door to the cafeteria opens, and a little girl in a white dress runs in. She looks from the dog to me, to the knife, then runs at me. "You killed my puppy!" she yells. "You killed him!"

"I— no, I didn't— look, I..." I trail off.

"Don't lie to me!" she sobs. "You killed him!"

I stand up and wipe my hands on my jeans. "No, I didn't. I'm sorry your dog is dead. It wasn't me," I lie through my teeth. I ignore the girl's wails of, "Liar! You killed my puppy!" and walk out the door.

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-Hello my name is Fred, I will be your line break today-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-

Tori types something into the computer. "You have aptitude for Dauntless," she says.

"Why?" I ask.

"Well," she says, "first you picked the knife, which ruled out Amity. Then you killed the dog, which showed Dauntless and ruled out Erudite. Then, you refused to tell the girl the truth or comfort her, which ruled out Candor and Abnegation. So. You can go now."

"Thanks," I say and sit back down. The rest of the flock is still waiting to be called, except for Fang, who must have finished before me, and Nudge, who was called about five seconds ago when I got out. "What'd you get?" I ask. Fang grins. "Not allowed to tell you," he says. "But what do you think?"

"Hmmm..." I say sarcastically. "I wonder... Maybe Erudite?"

We all laugh. As if. Since we've been to school about once. Erudite's out for all of us— we'd fail initiation and become factionless. Amity's out too— Can you really picture us being peaceful? Candor's out because we'd have to tell the truth about our wings, and, well, no thanks. And Abnegation? ...No, just no.

"Well, I know what you got," Angel says.

"Oh, yeah?" I say. "What did I get, then?"

Angel shrugs. "I can't say, 'cause you can't tell me that I'm right and there's no point."

I sigh. That rule is so stupid.

Nudge comes back about five minutes later, trembling. "Max?" she says. "Can I talk to you?"

"Sure," I say, surprised. She drags me over to the bathroom, and takes a deep breath.

"Okay so I took my test and she said I was Divergent which means I have aptitude two factions and I have aptitude for Dauntless and Candor. Which actually totally makes sense because I heard that the Dauntless fight each other and we're like super fighters right? And the Candor like to talk a lot which I already know because I've been there and it's really nice cause everyone understands me. Anyway she said that it was really dangerous and I should never tell anyone even after initiation or I might get killed but you won't tell anyone right Max? Not even the flock?"

"Of course, Nudge," I say. "But what do you mean Divergent? And how is it dangerous?"

"Well she said it means I can control simulations and stuff like the aptitude test, and some people don't like that and might kill me. But I mean now I have to choose Dauntless because if I choose Candor they'll make me tell them and they can tell if people are lying. Plus you have to tell all your secrets and they'd probably think we're like witches or something. Ooh that would be kind of cool—"

"Okay," I cut her off. "Well, I'll keep it a secret, okay? And just so you know, I'm going to choose Dauntless too, and I was going to tell you guys after. I mean, we were already talking about it. But if you have to be in a simulation again, just pretend you aren't Divergent."

"Max? Can we stay? 'Cause I really like it here, Divergent or not. Everyone's so nice and they sort of understand me. And we never stay anywhere, and—"

I cut her off again. I'm too tired for a rant right now. "We wouldn't be able to leave even if we wanted to, which we don't. It's surrounded by a gate, and there's nowhere we could do an up-and-away without anyone seeing."

(A/N: Yeah, I got bored of the -—-— lines)

Nudge and I sit back down at the table.

"What was that about?" Iggy asks.

"Nothing," I say. I shoot a look at Nudge, then remember that Angel can read minds. Well, crap. And no Angel, if you can hear this, I didn't just say that. "Don't tell anyone, Angel," I say. "Not even the boys." Gazzy and Iggy both put on offended looks. Angel grins. "M'kay."

"Hey!" Iggy says. "You don't trust us?"

I snort. "No, I want as few people as possible to be on my Traitor? list if anyone finds out, Angel," I say.

"Why me?" Angel whines.

I roll my eyes. "Uh, because you're one of the three people who know, I can't wonder if I sold Nudge out, and Nudge has more than two brain cells and won't tell anyone."

Fang leans in a little. "So what are we doing?"

I lean in. "We're going with Dauntless," I say. "So if anyone has a problem with that, say it now." Angel looks like she wants to argue, but bites her lip. I hold out my fist and we stack and tap, just like always.

The Next Day

I sit between Fang and a Candor girl named Anna Matson at the Choosing ceremony. It's in alphabetical order according to last name, backwards.

Why backwards? the Voice muses.

Oh, shut up, Voice, I think.

"Max Martinez," says Marcus, one of the Stiff leaders. I stand up and take the knife from him, and press it into my palm. I guess it stings a little. We're comparing it to being tortured by whitecoats and torn up by Erasers here. Quickly, I hold my hand over the bowl with the flaming coals and walk over to the cheering Dauntless, snapping the fake glasses I was wearing and earning a whole new round of cheers. Fang, predictably, follows me. Then Nudge. I watch her blood spill into the Dauntless bowl.

Only two more, come on! Let's go, flock!

Since when are you a cheerleader, Voice?

I can almost see the Voice roll its eyes. I think you're rubbing off on me, Maximum.

I hold my breath as Angel's name is called. She pushes the point of the knife into her palm, then walks over to the five bowls. With a little huff of annoyance, she shifts her hand forward into the Amity soil.

No! I think. The Voice, thankfully, is silent.

Gazzy looks between the two bowls sadly, I think, then follows Angel, and before I know it the Choosing ceremony is over. I follow the Dauntless in sprinting down the stairs.

"Woohoo!" I yell, a little half-heartedly, running down two at a time and keeping pace with the Dauntless-born. My flock! She broke up my flock! I'll find that little...

"What the hell is going on?" the Erudite boy next to me shouts.

I laugh. "Who knows!" I say, and keep running. I cheer along with the Dauntless when we reach the first floor. I think I'll fit in well here. The Dauntless run outside. By now, it's sunset. What? How long were we in there for?

The crowd runs across the street and towards the train tracks, just as a train is approaching. It doesn't stop.

The boy from before's eyes widen. "Oh, no— are we supposed to hop on that thing?"

"We are?" I say. Well, whatever. I've done worse. Actually, he's right— the Dauntless have already started jumping on. Cool. Sounds... Actually, sounds kinda fun.

"On three?" I hear Iggy yell. "One, two, three!"

I jump, along with the rest of the flock, and the boy. I pull myself into the train, then help the boy up.

"Thanks," he says, breathless. "I'm Will. You guys?" He's talking to all of us, but he doesn't realize that we know each other.

"I'm Max, and that's Fang," I say. I have to shout over the wind to be heard.

Will looks us up and down. "Both Erudite, but I don't remember either of you. What about you three?"

"I'm Iggy."

"My name's Nudge, and I'm from Candor, and this is my friend Christina, who's obviously also from Candor."

Christina gives Will a quick smile. I look out the train's window to see an Erudite boy putting his head in his hands next to the tracks. He's factionless now. I wince, then look back around to the group.

"Does anyone know where we're going?" Christina shouts over the wind, which is coming through the open doors.

"You should probably sit down, or you'll fall out," Iggy says. She gives him a weird look, but sits down. Right. She thinks he's just another Stiff.

"Dauntless headquarters, probably, but... Do you guys know where Dauntless headquarters is?" I say, hoping I don't sound too stupid.

"Does anyone? It's like they just popped out of a hole in the ground or something," Christina says, grinning and shaking her head.

I hear someone shout, "They're jumping off!" and stand up to jump.

"Oh my god," Christina says, "You're not really going to? I mean, I guess I am too. We have to. You're brave, though."

"Thanks," I say. She offers me her hand. I'm about to laugh and shake it off, and maybe reconsider my choice of friends, but she says, "I just... I don't think I can do it unless someone drags me. Sorry," she says, seeing my expression.

I sigh, taking her hand, and jump. A moment later, I land on the roof. I look around and see the other five sprawled on the ground.

"That was fun," Christina says.

"Yeah," I say. "Definitely."

I hear a scream, and look around. A Dauntless-born girl is standing by the edge, sobbing. A boy is holding her back. I crouch down and look at the ground. On the pavement is a body. I gulp.

"Oh, wow," I hear Iggy say from next to me.

"Yeah," I say, standing up.

"Listen up!" shouts a man on the other side. "My name is Max! I am one of the leaders of your new faction!"

"What a coincidence," Fang whispers. I snort.

"Several stories below us is the members' entrance to our compound!" Max continues. "If you can't muster the will to jump off, then you don't belong here! Our initiates have the pleasure of going first!"

"You want us to jump off a ledge?" someone asks.

"Yes," Max says, smiling.

"Is there water at the bottom or something?"

He raises one pierced eyebrow. "Who knows?"

The crowd splits in half, making a pathway to the edge. Everyone looks like they're trying to avoid the fact that, you know, we have to jump off of a frickin' roof. The Candor boy that I heard called Peter before picks at the bottom of his fingernail.

I walk to the edge, the wind blowing the ends of my hair and clothes to the side. In the middle of the ground below me is a huge hole. I take a running start and jump, free falling towards the hole. I drop into the hole and feel a sharp pain in my knees. I look below me and see a net. Makes sense. They can't just kill us all. I jump of the side of the net.

"What's your name?" I look up and see a boy around my age, maybe a little bit older, with dark brown hair.

"Max," I say.

"Max," the girl next to him says. "Make the announcement, Four."

Four turns around and calls, "First jumper, Max!" The crowd cheers, and Fang drops into the net behind me.

"Welcome to Dauntless," Four says quietly.

A/N: So, did you like it so far? Tell me in a REVIEW! Please! Seriously, it'll only take you five seconds to type something up. All reviewers get a virtual cupcake.

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^TA DA! Hope the cupcake works...