They woke early, and Clary listened to Maia as she explained what they would be doing. The physical training would be first, which was why the Dauntless born and transfers were separated. They'd all been given black clothes to wear, although they were slightly baggy on Clary. When Maia saw, she smiled sympathetically.

"Don't worry, we'll go shopping this weekend. Saturday. That's our first free day." Maia said. Clary quickly agreed. As much as she didn't want to let her family and Abnegation go, she knew it would be better the faster she did it, and real shopping sounded easy enough. She was confused as to why her mom had told her to leave Abnegation though, and vowed to try and find out when they saw each other.

They were worked hard throughout the training session, although they were only doing basics today. The instructor, a man named Uriah, pushed them but wasn't unkind. They had a quick lunch, and then did more work. When they were finally dismissed for the day, Clary was relieved. She ached all over, and was tired. She wasn't used to this kind of thing yet, but she could tell she would get the hang of it. She'd quickly figured out the punches and kicks they'd been working on.

Clary sat next to Maia at a vacant table, examining her food. She'd heard that the food here was going to be different, but she hadn't realized how different. Or how much she would like it. She ate as much as she could as her and Maia talked.

"You did well today, though! I'm jealous!" Maia said after Clary told her how tired she was. Clary laughed.

"You were good too!" Clary responded. "We'll both get the hang of it, it'll just take some time I think."

"You already have the hang of it! You're just a little tired, nothing some sleep won't fix." Maia argued, meaning it.

"Well thanks, but I'm not that good." Clary said. Maia gave her a pointed look. "Alright, I am decent, but I'm not amazing or anything. I'm not in shape. I've never exercised in my life!"

"I know, me neither. Not really anyway. Amity requires some work, but hardly anything like this." Maia explained. Before either of them could say anything else, a scream of horror ripped across the room. The hall was silenced quickly, and then burst with sound as everyone talked. Clary stood instantly, trying to figure out what had happened. There was a group gathering around the chasm, and Clary could hear someone sobbing. She and Maia pushed their way through the crowd. They couldn't get close enough to see it, but Clary heard from everyone around her. A young girl had jumped into the chasm. An initiate. Clary thought she heard the word 'Amity', but wasn't sure. Finally the Dauntless leader, Four, had a microphone.

"Everyone but the initiates are dismissed. Now." He said as people hesitated and grumbled. "Initiates, report here immediately." The room emptied slowly, until eventually it was just the initiates gathered around Four, near the chasm. Four sighed and rubbed his forehead. Somehow in the time the room was being emptied, the body had been pulled out of the water and covered.

"Listen up, initiates!" Four called, silencing the small amount of talk there had been. "First off, I'm sorry for your loss, but you all need to realize that death happens. We are a faction of risk-takers and risk can lead to death. So accept that." Clary stared at him, slightly annoyed. Was he really just going to brush off this girls' death like that?

"Second, I want you all to realize that if you have issues, with this faction, with people, with yourself, then you need to tell us. Suicide is not a solution. It is selfish and fearful, and we do not accept those things here." He continued. Clary could tell he meant more than what he was saying though. He didn't want to appear anything other than a Dauntless leader, but he also cared. He was hurt by this, but was too prideful— and bitter, she thought— to show it.

"Look, initiates. If you're choosing between suicide and being factionless, then choose being factionless." Four finished, clearly struggling to say what he wanted. "Death isn't worth it. It'll only hurt those around you." He finished finally.

"Say your goodbyes and head to bed, you all still have a lot of training to do tomorrow." Four said, turning and walking off before anyone could say anything. Clary looked around, finally figuring out who it was that had jumped. It was the only other girl from Amity, she knew that, but Clary couldn't recall her name. She turned to Maia, who was pale.

"Maia, I'm so sorry." Clary said. "Are you okay?" She tentatively placed a hand on the other girls' shoulder. Maia shook her head, clearing her thoughts.

"Yeah. I'll be okay." She said shakily. "I just— I need a minute." Clary nodded and watched the other girl walk over. Clary saw another girl kneeling by the dead Amity's dripping head, sobbing. She must have been the girl who screamed. Clary watched sadly as Maia spoke to her and knelt beside her. Clary felt detached, as if she were dreaming. They weren't even a day into training and already something terrible had happened. She could understand getting on and off the train, and maybe even jumping off the building, and losing people then, but here and now? To something so awful? It was appalling.

"Hey," a quiet voice by her ear made her jump slightly. She turned and saw Jace and barely refrained from rolling her eyes.

"What do you want now?" She snapped angrily. She didn't feel like company.

"I just wanted to see how you were holding up." Jace replied defensively. "Jumping first, training all day, then this. Probably takes a lot out of you."

"What's that supposed to mean? You think I can't handle things?" Clary asked, crossing her arms and glaring.

"I take it you're okay then," He said. "Guess you're more Dauntless than I realized, Stiff."

"I told you, my name's Clary. Not 'Stiff'." Clary said through clenched teeth, annoyed at the nickname for her faction. Her old faction, she corrected mentally.

"Well Clary, congratulations. You proved me wrong. That kind of thing doesn't happen every day." Jace said, smirking when he said her name. "Anyway, I guess I'll be seeing you around. G'night." He turned quickly and walked away, hands in his pockets. Clary quickly came to the conclusion that she would never be able to puzzle out what went through his head.

Clary turned when Maia touched her shoulder. There were tear streaks on her cheeks, and she was sniffling. Clary gave her a quick hug, then helped guide her back to their room (thankful that she was able to find the way at all). The two quickly got into their beds and fell asleep.

Surprisingly, the week went quickly and without another incident. Both Clary and Maia got better at their skills, and Maia teased Clary for being the top of the class. Clary brushed it off, telling her each time that she couldn't know for sure. There weren't any scores, and Uriah never said anything about her doing well. Maia was at it again while they were shopping in their first free hours since initiation began.

"Oh stop it! The only reason he doesn't say anything is because there've been incidents before with jealousy." Maia scolded after Clary had refused to believe her.

"What do you mean?" Clary asked, turning away from the rack of clothes she was examining to face the other girl.

"You haven't heard?" Maia asked, incredulous. "The Dauntless talk about things like that all the time! Are your ears permanently shut or something?"

"Just tell me what you heard this time!" Clary replied, rolling her eyes, used to Maia picking up on practically every rumor and bit of history there was in this place.

"You know Four?" Maia asked, and Clary glared impatiently. "Well apparently during his initiation, things were a lot more competitive. Dauntless was different back then. They only excepted a certain number of people, like the top ten or something. They were scored and everything."

"They just turned people away? Left them factionless? But why?" Clary asked, perplexed.

"I don't know," She replied with a shrug. "That's just what they did."

"So what happened?" Clary prompted.

"Apparently some guy that was a transfer got a little too aggressive. He stabbed a higher ranking kid in the eye. And then they just let him continue, as if he didn't do anything wrong." Maia explained, shaking her head.

"That's… brutal," She said, struggling for the right word.

"Thankfully that's over now though." Maia said more cheerfully. "I still haven't gotten the full story on that, but I don't think more than a few people alive lived it, so it wouldn't be easy to hear." Clary couldn't help but laugh at the girl's gossip; She never been interested in it, but she didn't mind it the way Maia told it.

"Come on," Clary interrupted her rambling. "Help me find some nice clothes so we have time to get our tattoos."

That night, Clary had to sleep on her stomach to keep her aching shoulder from keeping her awake. At least, her shoulder was the excuse she used— she still missed her family to tell the truth. She sighed and banished the thoughts, running her fingers over her shoulder again. She'd decided to get a tattoo of a strange symbol that she'd seen in the store, on the back of her right shoulder. It was a sort of rune-like symbol of a black design like an eye.

A/N: Hey guys! So, I am very very very sorry that it have been so long since I have updated. I lost interest in it, and then got swamped with school and my senior year. in fact, I still am… Anyway, I am sorry, and I will try to update again as soon as I can, however don't count on it being too soon. I hope you like it so far though! As always, reviews, follows, etc. are much appreciated (and encourage/remind me to continue this)! Thanks for reading, stay lovely~ Oh, and happy (early) holidays!