A/N: We would like to say thanks to 21sparkles for reviewing and favoriting almost two minutes after The221cTimeLord first posted this story! That was amazing and she just spammed me about it. Really thank you so much! So, Madam 21sparkles, you get your wish! Another chapter!
That night, I stay up past the normal Erudite regulations, my head pounding with the information I have gained today. What faction will I choose tomorrow? If Erudite is dangerous, where can I go? I pace back and forth in front of my window, the wind and rain pounding the glass and increasing my headache. This isn't going to be easy. I have to choose a faction that won't expose my Divergence. But I can hide it well, thanks to my mother and father. I can hide it.
I turn away from the glass and reach up to put on my dressing gown over my short sleeve and pants. I rush out of my room and down the hall, opening a door to my right that leads to stairs. I take them two at a time and I'm at the twelfth level from the twenty-fifth in no time at all. I walk silently down the hall, the feelling of the cold marble beneath my feat sends shivers up my back. I take a couple of rights then a left and I reach my destination: the library. I quickly glance at the security camera that I know's in the corner and wave at it. Tanner, a boy I've known for a while, is watching the cameras in this section tonight. A couple years ago, I convinced him to not tell anyone if he saw me walking around past lights-out. I push the doors open, grimacing at the creaking sound they make from the sudden humidity of the rainstorm. I quickly turn around and close them behind me. I take a key out of my pocket and lock the doors. Upon hearing the click of the lock I turn and walk down the halls, the shelves of books towering over me. I drift down to the area containing books on simulation serums. I let my hand glide over the spines of the tomes. Almost all of them are of little to no interest to me. I grind my teeth together, annoyance is something that always gets to me. Well, that and boredom. I pull a random book from the shelves and open it to a page, only noticing the very old book that had been teetering on the edge of a shelf when it crashes down on my foot. "Son of a-" I shout, not bothering to cover my mouth because Tanner must really laughing his head off. I shoot a murderous look to the camera in the corner. I slam the book in my hands back into its place on the shelve. I glare at the book on the floor. You didn't have to fall on my foot, I told it. I carefully pick it up, 'A Split State of Mind' it reads. Interesting title. I open it up to the table of contents and scroll through the chapters until one catches my attention 'To Take Control of the Serum'. I open it to the the page and read until dawn.
The next morning, I still don't know what to do. The whole car ride to the Pire, I'm trying to figure it out, but my head is pounding too hard to think. While I was reading the book the lights came on, and knowing the Erudite, someone would have been in there very soon. I sprinted from the nook I'd wriggled into the previous night and barreled out the door. I climbed the steps faster then I knew was possible and made it to my room in record time.
Once we've ridden the elevator all the way to the Choosing room, I start panicking slightly. My parents face me, and say, "See you soon," without a doubt in their voices. They think I will, for sure, choose Erudite. But I know, I can't do that.
The natural thought would be Amity or Abnegation, but I'm too selfish for Abnegation, too volatile for Amity. What about Candor? No, you have to go under truth serum, I would have to tell people about my Divergence... Eric, my old friend, it looks like I will be following you to Dauntless.
The names start being read by Jack Kang, leader of Candor, after he finishes the usual speech.
I'm standing between an Abnegation boy and an Amity girl. My last name is Johnson, so I'm going to be called up around the middle of the ceremony. "Jeremy Zenner," Jack Kang calls, and a nervous-looking Candor walks up to the bowls, cuts his hand, and drops his blood onto the glass of his home faction.
"Anthony Xander." An Abnegation walks up to the bowls, and drops his blood into the Amity bowl. The first transfer.
"Maria Vox." Another Candor walks to the stage, cuts her hand carefully, and lets her blood drop onto the coals. The first transfer to Dauntless.
"Timothy Vale." A confident-looking Dauntless walks up to the bowls, cuts his hand, and drops his blood onto the coals, walking to join Maria behind the other Dauntless.
"Jane Tyre." My friend Jane, who I've known for years, steps up to the bowls. I fully expect her to choose Erudite, but at the last second, she shifts her hands over the Abnegation stones.
"Sophie Turner." An Amity, clad in yellow and red, walks up to the stage, and chooses Dauntless.
"Percy Phoeler." He walks up to the stage, wearing his Candor black and white and with a cocky expression on his face. He chooses Dauntless without hesitation.
"Aaron Mendel." Another friend of mine from Erudite, who also transfers, but to Dauntless instead of Abnegation.
"Anna Kohl." Another Candor, also a transfer to Dauntless.
"Emily Johnson." Finally. I step up to the stage, not stumbling, keeping my expression neutral. I look over the bowls, then I turn my eyes to the Erudite section and meet my parent's eyes. My mother seemed to sense my decision, because she nods and smiles encouragingly.
That's all the push I need. With a quick move, I cut my palm and hold my hand over the Dauntless coals, letting my blood sizzle as I turned and walked to the back of the Dauntless section.
"James Howler." A Candor boy steps up, and leaves his faction for the Dauntless- us, I remind myself.
"John Howler." A similar-looking boy steps up to the stage, also choosing Dauntless.
"Alice Fredrickson." An Erudite girl I vaguely recognize steps up, joining Aaron and I as the Erudite transfers to Dauntless.
"Jessica Brown." The last transfer, from Amity to Dauntless. She seems close to Sophie; almost immediately after Jessica chooses she links arms tightly with Sophie and doesn't let go. I roll my eyes at them. Childish, I chide silently. But I let my wander from this dull moment and try to think how it will be to see a real friend after all this time.
The minute the last name is called (Beth Adams from Candor), and she chooses (Candor), the Dauntless all stand, and run out the door. All the transfers are stuck at the back, panting, inexperienced in most physical activities. I lead the pack of transfers, but not by much. It's only because of the minimal training Eric gave me before he left Erudite that I'm able to almost reach out and touch the backs of the Dauntless-born.
We reach the train platform, and I can already hear it coming. Next to me, Sophie and Jessica look terrified. They must have not thought about jumping onto the train. Hmm, they must not teach forethought in Amity.
"We have to jump on, right?" Sophie says nervously. A Dauntless member hears her, and points off to one side, shouting, "Well, you could just walk over to the factionless sector, it's right over that way." I laugh, bouncing on the balls of my feet as the train gets nearer. When it is right by the edge of the platform, I take off.
I run side-by-side with the Dauntless-borns, grabbing the handle on the edge of the door of the last car. I don't look back as I pull myself in, but I feel the car shake as the other transfers jump in. I look out the still-open door, back at the Pire, and see a Dauntless-born still running. At the last second, he grabs the handle of our car and pulls himself in, gasping for air.
John looks him over quickly, saying, "What happened to you? Why aren't you with the rest of the Dauntless-born?"
"Someone.." he pants. "Someone tripped me as I was running."
James, John's brother, smirks. "Not much of a Dauntless, are you then?"
The boy glares at them. Sophie walks over to him, saying, "Hey, what's your name?"
I look at him closely - He was Timothy Vale, I recognize him from the Choosing Ceremony. Sophie should remember him, even she isn't that thick.
"I.. uh.. I'm.. Tim," he says, hesitatingly. Clearly, he doesn't want to be called Timothy anymore.
His eyes sweep over the other transfers, settling on me for a bit longer, then he turns to the door, looking out at the passing landscape.
I feel a strong wind coming from the door, and sit down. Aaron, Alice, and surprisingly, Tim, copy me, with the rest giving us strange looks. Then, a strong gust of wind corresponds with a sharp turn from the train, and they all fall into a pile on top of each other.
Aaron and Alice laugh together, and I grin.
As we get farther and farther from the Pire, from our old lives, I start noticing the train sloping upward. At the rate we are going, we should be on top of buildings within a half hour. We stay seated, until Sophie, from her position standing by the door, shouts, "They're jumping off!"
"What? Where?" Tim says.
I narrow my eyes at him. "Wouldn't you know? I mean, you've lived there all your life!" I ask him, a hint of anger in my voice but mostly overshadowed by curiousness.
He seems slightly unnerved. "W-well, they never let us see the Choosing Day entrance until our Choosing Day.."
"Hey, it's fine," I say, laying a hand on his shoulder. A small smile crossed his face.
I stand up, holding out a hand to help Tim up. He took it, a grateful expression on his face. "C'mon!" I say loudly, as the wind whistles in our ears. "We gotta jump!" We fight the wind to get close to the door, and start to see the roof the Dauntless are jumping onto. Tim goes green.
"A roof?" he says, his voice sounding strained.
"Hey, it's okay, look," I say, pointing to Jessica, who has just jumped to the roof. "If Amity transfers can do it, so can you." He nods, though his face is still green. "Okay, now, you go before me," I say. "I'll be going right after, okay?" He nods again, backs up a bit to get a head start, then runs and jumps, landing on his knees and scraping his elbow, by the looks of it.
My turn. I back all the way to the other side of the car, then run, jumping onto the gravel of the roof. I land on my feet, running a bit to dispel the momentum.
I look around, see the Dauntless-born all on their hands and knees, examining various scrapes and cuts, and I grin. For the heck of it, I run around the edge of the roof, laughing like a little kid. I put my hands out to either side, and, just like I used to when I was little, pretended I was flying, feeling the wind whistling past me.
I start humming to myself a song I used to hear some Candor children sing on the old playground at break.
"Dauntless is the cruelest of the five. They tear each other to pieces.
Erudite is the coldest of the five. Knowledge is a costly thing.
Candor is the most merciless of the five. Honesty can hurt the most.
Abnegation is the most selfless of the five. Sometimes help can do the most harm.
Amity is the kindest of the five. Forgiveness can do the most damage.
Factionless is the most burdened. Being alone can harm more than oneself.
Divergent is the most free. Sometimes being unique has its downfalls." The song tells no lies.
"Okay, listen up!" I hear a stern voice shouting, and I cease my humming and run over to the side of the roof that everyone is gathered at. A man stands on the edge of the roof, tattoos covering his arms. "My name's Max, I'm one of your new leaders. Several stories beneath us is the entrance to Dauntless. If you can't jump off, you don't belong here," he says, smirking at all of us. "Our initiates have the honor of going first," he finishes, jumping down to our level and sweeping an arm towards us. "Well? Who's first?"
I look around, expecting a Dauntless-born to step forward, but everyone is avoiding each other's eyes. I shake my head in disappointment, and step forward, each foot placed exactly after the other, gaining speed. The Dauntless separate for me, and I break into a run, leaping off the building without a second thought. As I fall, I shout, "THIS. IS. AWESOME!" before I'm surrounded by darkness.
I slam into a hard, yet flexible surface, and I feel ropes digging into my back. My heart pounding, I sit up, looking around wildly at what looks like to be a cavern.
"Cool," I breathe out. I let my gaze drop and see hands reaching out to me. I grab one and pull myself across the net, landing on a hard wooden platform with some stairs off to the side. In front of me, I see a young man, no more than seventeen years old, standing, his face covered in piercings. It takes me a moment to recognize him, my best friend before he transferred. I almost squeal with joy, and jump on him, yelling, "ERIC! ERIC! ERIC!"
He freezes for a second, before putting one arm around me and hugging me back. "Emily, you can't really do that here," he says quietly, so only I can hear. I step back slightly, and look around at the people around us. Next to the net is the guy who helped me down from it, who also looks about seventeen. He has a smirk on his face, as he raises his eyebrow at Eric. "So, who's this, your old girlfriend?" the boy asks.
Eric glares at him, crossing his arms. "No, we were just friends, Four." Four, as the boy is apparently called, glares back.
While they are having their epic staring contest of manliness, I start running around, trying to see as much as possible of the room and the people in it. Then, I hear, "Hey, girl, what's your name?" It's Four.
"Emily, why?" I say, hearing the childishness of my voice, but I'm having too much fun to care.
He smiles. "First jumper, Emily!" he calls out to the side of the platform, and I hear cheers and whoops as I see a crowd of Dauntless step forward into the little light. There are also a few calls of "You owe me ten points!" Apparently, the Dauntless had made bets on who the first jumper would be. Then, I hear screams, and Tim comes falling down into the net. Laughs echo through the room, before being replaced with more cheering.
Behind me, Eric says, "Welcome to Dauntless," as I walk down the steps.
A/N: Super long chapter this time! I hope that makes up for the previous one's shortness.
In the A/N of the version The221cTimeLord posted, we had this epic conversation (I'm italic):
I know I had fun, and so did Astro, right?
Yep, I had a lot of fun!
What was your favorite part?
Hmm… correcting all your grammar mistakes! Jk, it was actually.. gosh I can't think of one. All of it! (and writing ahead and making Four a bit of a bitch… then changing him.)
Totally! I think I liked writing Emily's childish behavior the best. Because to tell you the truth that is pretty much me every single day.
Haha, yeah, kinda. (btw, guys, I just had to fix her spelling of 'behavior')
Oi! I can't help it if I can't spell correctly! But that's what I have you for.
Haha, what are Spelling Nazi friends for besides fixing all your spelling all the time!
Exactly! Ok, Astro! I think we've bored out our reading friend here to bits. Time to say 'bye'. GOOD BYE!
BYE GUYS!
Until next time. GERONIMO!
ALLONS-Y!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Can you fe~el my lo- Sorry! I'll go now.
xD
She's a huge Whovian, obviously. And she's getting me to jump on the bandwagon.