Chapter 4

"I think of myself as a freewheeling bisexual," added Magnus.

"Please never say those words in front of my parents," said Alec."

Cassandra Clare (City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments, #5))

"... But to remain historically accurate, I would have had to leave out an important question that I felt needed to be addressed, which is, 'What if Jesus had known kung fu?"

— Christopher Moore (Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal)

"You have a dad?!" I said in shock. "Max is your dad?!"

The senior Dauntless leader sat behind his desk with his fingers crossed over the stomach of Sera on his lap. Eric was pacing to the side, looking so fed up and just about done, while Four sat with me in front of the desk. Max raised an eyebrow demurely. "Is that really so surprising?"

"Well, yes..." I cringed a little at Max's eyebrow as it rose even further, which shut me up.

"How did she become fractionless in the first place?" Four said with furrowed brows.

Max sighed and looked down at Sera, who was playing with the collar of his jacket with not a care in the world. "It was before I became leader of Dauntless, when my girl was 6 years old. There was a particularly nasty protest going on in the Candor region with the fractionless, and my squad was sent out to contain the situation. I don't know how we were so careless, but this little monkey," he growled playfully at Sera so as not to upset her too much (Eric performed what looked like a painfully dramatic eye roll behind him), "Somehow snuck into one of our transport trucks."

"I only wanted to see you be a hero!" She informed us, bouncing her legs up and down. "I saw you fighting daddy, you were so brave! But then, then there was all this loud noise and banging, and then I fell and got covered in this sticky red stuff!"

Four was considerably paler as he listened to this, his eyes glazing over. I simply shakily nodded to encourage Sera to continue, still watching the bizarre sight that was Max, the fearless leader cuddling his long lost daughter. Hell, did he even have a wife?

"What happened then, Sera?" Four asked softly.

Her eyes welled a little but she carried on. "Then I got really scared and ran. I saw Daddy and his friends go back into the trucks, but they couldn't hear me, and then this fractionless man picked me up and ran the other way!" Sera wailed.

Max's expression became pained and dark as he realised how close he was to seeing Sera there and stopping their separation. "They took me all the way to the empty buildings and gave me to Ellie," Sera's eyes became sad again. "I miss Ellie, she was nice."

Max frowned and said, "Who is Ellie, darling?"

"Ellie looked after me, like you and Mummy! But then she was gone last month, and I don't know why…so I looked for home, but I kept getting so lost and scared, until finally I found Vallie! And then you daddy!" Sera cheered the ending of her tale.

A silence filled the room as we processed what had been said. Finally Eric spoke up with his growling voice. "And what exactly, do you have to do with all of this, initiate?"

Boy, this ought to be good-

Oh wait, he's talking to me.

Crap.

I swallowed to compose myself under his glare. "Well, I think… was it three years ago or something? I saw Sera, err your daughter, sir," I glanced to Max, "being chased by another fractionless guy. I threw a brick at him and lead him away while Sera got out of there. That's it really, we never spoke until today, though I'm glad you're ok Sera." I said nervously.

Sera beamed at me like I was a unicorn. "That's not all! I followed you back! I saw you beat that meanie up! Bang! Pow! Thump!" She threw her fists around. Max smiled widely as if he couldn't believe she was there, while Four wore a bemused expression and Eric still had his 'what the hell' face on.

I wonder if it's permanent.

Meh, he's still hot if not terrifying with it either way.

I doubled over slightly with a jerk at that thought, avoiding eye contact when everyone stared to check I wasn't having a seizure. Sure, running into Sera and finding out her dad's the leader of my fraction is weird, but stranger things have happened, right?

I really hope fate doesn't answer that.

Finally, Max resumed his 'great authority figure' aura and said, "I would like to express my thanks, initiate. Because of my inabilities, I was unable to protect my daughter's life, but I am truly grateful that you were there."

"Um, you're welcome." I gulped uncomfortably and looked away with a flushed face. "Should I… go now? I think lunch is almost done now."

Four, after receiving a nod from Max, got up and gestured me to follow him. "Come with me Vallie. Training's due to start now, so I hope you're not too hungry."

"Nah, I'm good." I muttered, though my sarcasm was thinly veiled and got an amused almost smile from Four again. As I walked out after him, Sera called a loud good bye. I glanced back with a weary smile, catching Eric's icy gaze before exiting again.

My first day of combat training was supposed to be awesome, the moment where I proved my true purpose in life. In my day dreams, flowers would be thrown, there would be lots of fireworks and revering of me and some unknown, extremely gorgeous Dauntless guy would come and make out with me because somehow I would've gotten over my fear of anything sexual by then.

While I never truly expected any of this, I was hoping to at least be in the mood to enjoy my first lesson.

When I followed Four into the main gym, I noticed the large ring that seemed to serve as a sort of gladiator ring. The other initiates turned and suddenly started talking when they saw us, until Four called them to shut up. I immediately moved over to Tris and Christina, preparing myself for the onslaught of questions.

As Four began explaining to us stage one's system of fights, points and rankings, Christina started the interrogation. "Ok, you wanna explain what happened out there?"

"Calm down mum, where's the fire?" I growled half heartedly back.

Tris frowned and joined in. "Common, Vallie, who was she? What happened to her?"

I rubbed the palm of my hand into my face, but conceded in answering. "Her name's Sera. I'm not really sure if I should tell you everything, but basically she's the daughter of a Dauntless member who accidently got lost during a fractionless riot near Candor."

Christina nodded in remembrance of them. "Yeah, that was a few years ago. The ones near Candor were the worst until we got them under control."

I noticed Tris's face contort at the memory; no doubt as Abnegation she saw a lot of the aftermath when feeding the fractionless later. "How did she survive for so long alone?"

I shrugged, "Not completely clear on that either. Some fractionless woman looked after her like a stepmother or something apparently. When she went missing, Sera started wandering around trying to find Dauntless HQ again."

"Shit, that must have been tough." Christina said with pity.

"Yeah. Chicago's a big city, isn't it?"

"How did you get tied into this then?" Tris asked.

"Well, it was a while ago now, a couple of years at least. I just saw her getting chased by some hobo guy and threw a brick at him. He started chasing me, I pushed him around a little, and didn't see Sera again until today."

"Jesus, that girl is lucky." Christina paused and added. "You know, apart from the whole lost from home thing."

I snorted, "You got that right, Candor."

My eyes widened when Tris leaned against me and smiled up, stiffening me to the spot. "That was really brave of you, Vallie. She's ok now, because of you."

I think I made a sort of "Hhhhgh" sound in reply, but the blood was pounding so much in my ears, I couldn't hear. Thankfully, Tris just smiled back and pulled me along to some punching bags.

Had Four finished talking already? Right, ok.

"What's happening?" I mused.

Tris laughed and stood in front of her bag, turned to me. "Just warming up really. Four's gonna come round and watch us to see what level we're all at." She grimaced a little, and I frowned at the worry that clearly showed. "I have no idea what I'm doing here. He's gonna chew me out, isn't he?"

I smiled to lighten the mood, though it was forced. I had to agree with her, Tris seemed to not be the greatest at physical activity. "Four's our instructor, he's here to teach us, not pummel us. Just copy me a bit, ok? Right, make sure your thumbs over your fingers. Get into this stance, look at where you're going to punch and let your torso follow through with you."

I demonstrated slowly, my stance equally balanced and on the balls of my feet. Tris mimicked me, but I shook my head. "Move your feet out more, or you'll topple over. Keep your guard up, yeah, like that. Now hit it." As I said the last sentence, I threw a standard punch at the bag, it swung back, the chain clattering loudly before I caught it on the way back. "You got that?"

Tris was gaping at me.

I'm not going to lie and say I wasn't showing off for her, or that I wasn't smirking at her face.

When she noticed this, she shook her head slightly. "Got it."

Tris took her time getting back into position, but after a few notes from me she seemed to have it down, if not a bit stiffly. She paused for a second, before pulling her fist back and letting it fly into the red plastic cover. The bag shook but didn't move from the weak punch, and Tris was rubbing her hand gingerly. "Ow."

"Yeah, the punching bag really got you good." I raised my hands innocently at her scowl, though my grin was still there. "What? Oh don't be like that, Tris. You need to put effort into it. Hold your core, that'll improve your balance. No, don't hunch over, just- ok, stop." I growled and made to move over, but like Dracula himself, Four had marched over with his hands behind his back. He had his emotionless instructor face back on. "Show me what you got, Stiff."

Tris glared at him, but obeyed. She lined herself up, breathed deeply and threw her fist at the punching bag. It still didn't move back, but she didn't stumble this time, and thankfully I hadn't had to tell her to breathe forcefully out on the punch.

Four stared for a moment, a very cruelly drawn out one that erased most of the nice thoughts I had about him as I watched him make Tris squirm. Finally, he said, "You've got a long way to go, but you're not the worst, Stiff."

"That's not my name." Tris growled. I honestly didn't think she was capable of sounding angry, but here was the evidence I guess.

Four didn't even turn around as he stalked over to my side. "I don't care." Four returned my glare, daring me to say something, but I let it go and tried to not be rude. "Your turn, initiate."

I huffed and turned towards the bag, sliding forward to deliver three short and fast punches before pulling away and glaring back at Four. They were weak and nothing special, but I had thought about my game plan before.

We were all practicing in front of each other, and I knew that people were sizing up the competition. I planned to beat their asses, but I didn't believe it was smart to give away how much practice I had had before the fighting matches for ranks even started. Dauntless gave me the impression that fighting dirty was almost expected.

If Four realised my plan, he didn't act like it. Like his usual baiting replies, he said, "That fractionless you beat up for the girl must have been quite the wimp."

I bit my tongue hard, ignoring the burst of throbbing before answering. "He had a crutch and an eye patch."

An obvious lie. He was most likely a failure from a previous Dauntless initiation and scary as hell, if not on the malnourished side.

Four paused and glared back at me, ready to 'put me in place'. "With punches as weak as that, so will you."

I scowled at his back, but carried on tapping away at the punching bag and instructing Tris, working with her again after Four had taken Peter to demonstrate techniques and the standard moves for offence and defence.

That was when I didn't have to completely fake my ineptitude.

The books and resources at Erudite I had used to train involved different, pre Great War styles like muay thai, kick boxing, taijustu and judo. They had all been blended together to resemble some sort of offensive parkour, but they were familiar and like breathing to me.

To me, the angle of my elbows being held up so stiffly as we were told to felt foreign and uncomfortable. I had to fight the urge to use it as a lever and swing out my fist, and had to internally coax myself to stop whining and treat it like muay thai, which was 'the art of the eight limbs'.

But I had always blocked more like a judo practitioner, and I knew that if I did now, I would give away my advantage of the element of surprise.

Tris funnily enough, seemed to ease into it. I grumbled and helped her with other aspects, while she told me at one point to loosen up when striking with my forearms.

She goddamn giggled at my expression when the bag bounced back like my normal punches after that.

But Tris still wasn't amazing, and that worried me. I still felt conflicted about why I cared so much, but had resolved to worry about that when we both survived initiation.

And Christina too.

What? She isn't that bad, and she's Tris's friend, so I might as well tolerate her.

By some miracle, training had granted me the gift of an appetite.

When I plopped down next to Gabe at dinner, the entire table looked up and stared at the return of my mountain of food. "What?" I challenged as I ripped into my apple.

Emmett shrugged, "We just figured that you would still be queasy."

I flicked my eyes to Hax, 'hmph'ed at his smirk and swallowed. "It was only 12 seconds. Hardly enough to incapacitate me."

Of course, Tris had to ruin my dignity. "You should've seen her at target practice today." She grinned wickedly. "She kept flinching every time her gun recoiled."

"Oh shut it!" I growled at them, but the others ignored me over their laughter. Gabe threw an arm over me. "You know, I can always help you with that." He gestured hopefully at my food.

I pushed him away and stole a chip. "Not a chance blue bear."

"Blue Bear? Where did that come from?!"

Uriah barked a laugh. "Aww, Vallie's so right! You're cuddly and-"

"Ahh, get the hell off dude!" Gabe yelped as Uriah latched onto him and squeezed tightly.

Lynn snorted, soda pouring out of her drink, and she leaned over to pinch Gabe's cheeks "Look at his face! How did we never come up with this before!"

"Get off me you assholes!"

I took my chance to immerse myself in my dinner again, but Hax just had to be the one to ruin my peace. "So, Vallie, what's this I hear about you adopting some fractionless kid?" he drawled.

The table froze comically; the pile of Lynn, Gabe and Uriah turned their heads, Marlene and Emmett abruptly stopping their conversation and Tris was trying to stop herself shaking with laughter.

I'll get you all.

"Oh shit."

So, the spot lights on Max's origins today!

I absolutely love writing for Sera; she's the only young character that I can write about and make really cutesy and its so much fun!

Note on the Dauntless fighting style with the elbows and forearms; if you don't know what I'm on about, just look up clips from the movie when they're training. It's similar to muay thai, but a lot stiffer and not as fluent, I suppose.

ForeverAmused – Thanks, I thought the same, and I figured that they're all pretty young to be going through initiation and puberty, there must have been some confusion. Or at least, here there is ;)

Lalalalalataz – (I think I got the right number of 'la's) thanks very much! You'll just have to wait and seeeeeeee!

AnnieV – Your wish is my command.

Guest – Vallie's gonna have multiple interests (we're just waiting for the sexual frustration to explode here guys), but the main pairing will be Eric/Vallie. It is, however going to be quite a slow burn.

Please tell me what you think, and thank you for reading!

Love,

Renzin xo