Chapter Four:

Disclaimer: I do not own Divergent, or its characters they all belong to Veronica Roth.

A/N: Sorry it's taken me so long to update, I had a combination of writers block and no time to write. Thanks for sticking with me! I promise I won't ever give up on this story!

Cassandra's POV

The next day I walk into the training room with Jenna and look at the row of black bags hanging from the ceiling at the far end of the room. "What are those?" I ask.

"They're punching bags dumby. What have you never seen one before?" a snobby voice asks and I turn to see an Erudite boy standing a few feet behind us with a smug look on his face.

"Of course she hasn't she's from Amity, they don't even know what a punch is" a second Erudite boy pipes up.

"Oh yeah I forgot we had one of THOSE here. Better than a stiff I guess, ugh could you imagine rooming with a stiff? I think I'd leave wouldn't you?" the first boy says.

"Well then I guess you should pack your shit and move out then" a cold menacing voice says and we all look up startled to see Four standing in the shadows tightening the ropes holding up one of the bags.

"Why? There ain't no stiffs here." the boy says.

"You're right there aren't, there are initiates, dauntless members and two little toe-rags who are angling for six months cleaning duty at factionless." Four says coming to stand in front of the two Erudite boys and somehow managing to glare at both of them at the same time.

"Why are you so protective of stiffs? What did you transfer from there or something?" the second boy asks.

"Yeah I did, I also ranked first at the end of initiation. Same goes for Six except she was also the first jumper of her year. There have only ever been two Abnegation to Dauntless transfers and both of us ranked first so I suggest you get your facts straight before making snide comments." Four snarls at him before turning on his heel and walking to the front of the group.

"Today we will be teaching you the basics of hand-to-hand combat. Using the punching bags you will be taught how to kick, punch and block properly and then tomorrow you will use the skills you learned today when you fight each other. Rankings will be determined by how well you do in these fights as well as the other components of training that make up stage one of initiation, are there any questions?" Six asks once we have all arrived in the room.

"What are the other components of training for stage one?" a candor transfer asks.

"Wait and see." Four says "Now if there are not more questions everyone go and stand in front of a bag and we'll get started!"

"Wait, aren't you going to give us gloves? I read about boxing and you should always wear gloves to protect your hands." an erudite says.

"Unless you are going to be carrying gloves around with you everywhere you go for the rest of your life then no you don't get gloves. We are training you for real life situations not fights in the ring. In real life situations you will not have gloves, so you will not be provided with them in training." Four says.

"Who cares about reality? This is TRAINING, not real life!" an Erudite boy says.

Four strides over to the boy coming to a halt mere inches away from him, glaring at him menacingly. "Like I said yesterday initiate the most important lesson you will learn during your time here is to keep your mouth shut." he states his tone making it clear that he is not joking.

"We are aware that this is training and not real life, however the aim of training is to prepare you for real life situations. Dauntless is in charge or security for the city, you have to be brave and ready to fight for not only your own life but the lives of those around you. It is our job to prepare you for that, if you don't like the way we're doing that no one's forcing you to be here." Six says.

"What would you know about being brave? You use intimidation and scare tactic to make people do what you want, that doesn't make you brave it just makes you a bully" a Candor boy says from behind me.

"What's your name?" Six asks leaving her position at the front of the room and coming to stand in front of him.

"Todd" he says crossing his arms over his chest and glaring down at her with his jaw clenched.

"Well Todd, how about we put your claim to the test? Go stand in front of the target on the wall over there" she says pointing to the left where several human shaped wooden targets are lined up against the wall.

"Why?" he asks looking at her like he thinks she's a little crazy.

"You and I are going to stand in front of the targets while Four throws knives at us, first one to flinch loses." she says.

"That's not fair you know him, it's not as much of a test for you." he protests.

"Ok how about this, when he throws the knives at me both he and I will be blindfolded" she says.

"You're on little girl, there's no way you're going to stand in front of that target if he can't see where he's throwing." he says.

"Let's test that theory shall we?" she challenges striding over to one of the targets and standing in front of it.

"I so have this in the bag. There's no way a skinny little girl is gonna beat me in a test of bravery." Todd says.

"She's a Dauntless instructor I'm pretty sure that means she's proven herself to be brave Todd." a Candor girl says rolling her eyes at him.

********************time skip********page break*******************

"So how long do you think it will be before Todd mouths off the instructors again?" Jenna asks a few hours later as we get ready for bed.

"I'd say about an hour into our next training session. I think we're learning how to fire guns tomorrow I overheard Four and Six talking about it." she says.

"Do you know what their real names are?" she asks.

"No, I don't think they want any of the initiates to know their real names. Using nicknames is a good way for them to maintain their distance from us and remain in-personal which will make it easier for them to rank us fairly and cut us if needs be. They're here to prepare us for Dauntless not to be our friends, there will be plenty of time for friendship after initiation." I say.

"I guess that makes sense, they don't want to get attached to any of us if there's a chance they're going to have to cut us from Dauntless and send us to live out the rest of our lives with the factionless." she says.

"I hope I make it through initiation, I don't want to live factionless." I say.

"You'll make it through no problem." she says.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence. I'm not so sure. From what I hear this first stage of initiation is the easiest. The second and third stages are a lot harder. Plus we're ranked with the Dauntless borns so it's not just the people in our class we're competing with it's all the initiates in our year." I say

Tris POV

"So have you got any early predictions about who's gonna get cut?" Uriah asks when I sit down next to him at our usual table the next morning.

"Not really. Have you?" I ask.

"The little Amity girl seems like she'll do well. I spoke to her as we were running towards the train and she already has a Dauntless attitude.

"What is this the second time you've mentioned her since she chose to join our faction?" Christina comments. "If I didn't know better I might think you're developing a bit of a crush on the girl."

"Her name is Cass, and I don't have a crush on her. I just think she'll do well in Dauntless, she has the right attitude for it and she seems to be willing to try new things." he says defensively.

"You better not let Marlene hear you gushing about the new girl" Christina adds with a grin.

"I am not gushing about the new girl! I just admire her attitude that's all! If admitting you admire someone means you have a secret crush on them then I guess I'm in love with Four as well." he says.

"Where is he anyway? He said he was gonna meet me here." I say interrupting whatever retort Christina was about to come out with.

"He's in the control room, one of the other workers typed an old security code in and now the gate won't open. Traffics backed up because all the Amity are stuck on this side of the gate waiting to go back to their farms after the choosing ceremony." Zeke explains sitting down on the bench opposite us.

"But the ceremony finished hours ago." I say.

"Yeah well the guy tried to fix it himself, he was an Erudite transfer and still thinks he knows everything so it took him a while to admit he was in over his head and call for help. By which point the Dauntless guards on the gate were practically begging for someone to do something. So anyway to cut a long story short Max called Four to come fix it because he's the best computer tech we have and he's there now trying to do just that."

"Why didn't you stay and help him?" I demand.

"I tried to, I wanted to but he told me there was no point both of us missing out on dinner and sent me away." Zeke protests.

"Once a stiff always a stiff." Will jokes. "He's been out of that faction for three years now you'd think it would have worn off."

"Don't call him that." I snap a slight edge creeping into my tone.

"Relax Tris it was only a joke. Jeez if you're gonna react like that maybe we should start calling YOU stiff again." he says.

"I am so sick of everyone calling them stiffs, so they'd rather help someone else out than help themselves is that a crime? Selflessness and bravery are actually more similar than you might think so how about you try thinking before you open your mouth next time?" I snap before standing up from the table and walking away from my friends without at backward glance.

"Hey Tris hold up a minute what's wrong?" Uriah asks running after me. "You know he was only joking right?"

"Yes I know that but I am just sick of everyone acting like the Abnegation are worthless. You know as well as I do that being selfless is just as important as being brave, smart, honest or kind." I say.

"I do, but not everyone is Divergent, they can't all think the way we do. Most of them are wired to think one way and one way only or maybe two if they transferred from another faction, but one way of thinking will always be stronger. You, Four and I are different we can look at a situation in a few different ways and analyse it accordingly." he says.

"Careful Uriah, your aptitude for Erudite is showing." I comment grinning at him.

"Don't tell anyone." he jokes back "Go find Four, and help him fix the computer problem. I'll get Zeke to start training the transfers since he's got nothing to do."

"Thanks Uri I'll do that." I say giving him a quick hug before turning in the direction of the control room.

A/N:Again sorry for the long ass wait for a new chapter! I will try to get a new one out sooner this time! Please leave a little review to let me know what you think, reviews inspire me! Also if you have ideas for names of other initiates or would like a part in the story let me know in a review or a PM! Once again thanks for reading and I hope you liked it!