The rest of our time off of training passed quickly, and we'd all had a good time. None of us had a clue what stage two entailed, other than the fact that it was mental.

The anxiety of our group was incredibly clear as we sat opposite the Dauntless-born initiates in a dark hallway, wondering what was going on behind the closed door at the end.

One of the Dauntless-born initiates, Martin, had gone in first and never returned, even when Four called in the next person. I figured that there was a back door, but it made me feel even more anxious. If they had a back door, then clearly they didn't want people to see the other initiates after they'd done whatever it was that they were doing.

"So.. which one of you ranked first?" Leigh questioned. I looked up to see her slim figure perched on the edge of her chair, sat up straight, legs crossed.

"I did." Freddie answered, smiling at her softly. I could tell he was nervous.

"Not bad. You were an Erudite weren't you?"

"Yeah." He nodded. "Who was first in your group?"

"Dale." Leigh gestured to the pale boy sat on her right.

Dale looked up and nodded. "I trained for most of my life, so yeah."

It was quiet for a moment, then I spoke.

"Do you know what they're doing in there? Did you get to prepare for this stage too?"

Dale shook his head. "No one knows what this stage is. It's purely mental, so I don't think there would have been much that we could have done to prepare for it."

I frowned and it caught my attention that Freddie was now bouncing his leg up and down, and biting his thumb nail. He was more nervous than I was.

The door opened again, and Four appeared once more. "James."

James slowly got to his feet, and followed Four into the room, the door shutting behind him.

I tapped my foot and stared at the ceiling, wondering how long it'd be until it was my turn.

A good few minutes passed and I sighed, before asking what the time was.

"11.20." Dale answered, after checking his watch.

I thanked him and nodded, then stared up at the ceiling again. If it took so long, why did they make us sit outside for so long? Couldn't they send us in pairs or something?

Some time later, the door finally opened again and Four called out for the next person. "Nathan."

I sighed and watched as they disappeared, then asked for the time again.

"11.43." Dale read from his watch again.

James had been in there for almost twenty-five minutes. Why?

I sighed again and closed my eyes, allowing my mind to drift from the current situation...

I'd tried not to fuss about Rita much since I'd had that dream. Of course I still had plenty of questions about her, and everything Four had told me, but I knew I wouldn't get anywhere with it... and it wasn't worth worrying over. The dream had been my body's way of telling me that I think far too much.

"Jac."

The sound of my name tore me out of my thoughts, and I opened my eyes to see Four stood at the door, waiting for me.

That had been quick... I wondered why Nathan's had taken less time than everyone else's.

I rose to my feet and walked towards the door nervously. Four nodded at me encouragingly, then stepped out of the way for me.

I walked past him and into the room, then paused as the door shut behind me. Sat in the centre of the room was a reclining metal chair, similar to the one that had been in the aptitude test. I shuddered, remembering how weird I'd found that experience. Beside the chair was a familiar machine and it all looked fairly similar, but unlike the room from the tests, this room had no mirrors and barely any light. There was a computer screen on a desk in the corner.

"Sit." Four ordered, nudging me forwards a little.

"Is it a simulation? Like the aptitude tests?" I questioned, nervously walking over to the chair.

"Ever heard the phrase 'face your fears'?" He asked, and I nodded. "We're taking that literally. The simulation will teach you to control your emotions in the midst of a frightening situation."

I frowned and slowly took a seat, sitting back slowly, the chair feeling cold.

"So, do we drink the serum again?"

He shook his head and reached his hand out towards me. He quickly tucked my hair behind my ear and pushed the bottom of it over my shoulder, exposing my neck.

He tapped something, and I twisted my head back to see what it was. He had a syringe with a long needle in one hand, his thumb against the plunger. The sight of this caused my heart to pound, and I slowly start to lean away from him.

"That is huge..." I breathed, feeling my hands becoming clammy.

"We use a more advanced version of the simulation here. It's a different serum, no wires or electrodes for you." He said, looking down at me.

I stared at the tinted orange liquid in the syringe and raised my eyebrows. "You inject that... With that?"

"Yes."

I shuffled towards the edge of the chair and got to my feet, shaking my head. "No way!"

He sighed. Loudly. "You're afraid of needles aren't you?"

I swallowed, my throat ridiculously dry and nodded. I'd never been scared of them before, but I knew the second that I'd seen this one that I didn't want it anywhere near my body. I took a few steps away from him, then paused and stared at him.

"Look, you'll barely feel it. Then, I'll have wires so that I can see what's going on whilst you're in the simulation. There's a tiny transmitter in the serum that sends data to the computer, so you'll only need to be injected once."

"Barely feel it?! Look at the size of that thing!" I exclaimed, my heart still pounding away in my chest.

He pursed his lips. "Just come and sit down, I promise I won't inject you, and we'll go from there."

I narrowed my eyes and stared at him. "No.. I can't." My feet felt like they were glued to the floor.

He rolled his eyes and put the syringe down, before getting to his feet and walking towards me.

My feet actually moved this time, pretty quickly, away from Four as he approached me. He had a determined look on his face that made me feel even more anxious than I already did.

I tried to push him away when he got close enough, but it didn't work, and he quickly grabbed me and threw me over his shoulder. I tried to wriggle away, but he held me tightly.

"Get off of me, Four!" I cried. "Put me down! You are not sticking that thing in my neck!"

He let out an irritated growl as I thumped on his back, before slinging me backwards onto the chair.

I placed my hands down on either side of me, trying to push myself out of the chair again, but a heavy weight on top of me restricted my movement.

I glared up at Four, starting to feel sick. He'd fucking sat on me.

"Get off!" I spat, still trying to wriggle away from him.

"You're more likely to get hurt with this thing if you keep moving around like that." He stated and I noticed that the needle was in his hand again.

"Keep it away from me!"

He quickly pressed his arm underneath my chin, and titled my head back, practically pinning my head to the chair.

Tears started to sting in my eyes as I realised that my neck was exposed again and he was going to inject me.

He quickly placed the tip of the needle into the tender skin on the side of my neck, and my breath caught in my throat. I winced and tried to focus on something else, anything else, his concentrated face the only thing I could currently see.

"The serum will go into effect in sixty seconds." He told me, and pulled the needle away from my neck. I stared up at him as he slowly climbed off of me. "This simulation is different from the aptitude test. In addition to containing the transmitter, the serum stimulates the amygdala, which is the part of the brain involved in processing negative emotions -like fear-and then induces a hallucination. The brain's electrical activity is then transmitted to our computer, which then translates your hallucination into a simulated image that I can see and monitor. I will then forward the recording to Dauntless administrators. You stay in the hallucination until you calm down-that is, lower your heart rate and control your breathing."

I tried to listen to what he was saying, but my heart was still pounding, and I could hear it loudly in my head, it was rather distracting.

My chest started to tighten, and my breaths became shorter and quicker until my eyes started to become heavy.

"Be brave." Were Four's last words, before I saw nothing but black.

My eyes fluttered open, and all I could see was a bright white light. It took a while for them to adjust before I realised that I was in a room with a white tiled roof. It reminded me of Erudite. I twisted my head to the right to see a desk, with a metal tray of objects beside me. I frowned and tried to sit up, wondering where I was.

Suddenly, I was shoved back down and the face of an unknown man stared down at me.

"Where do you think you're going?" He questioned.

"Where am I?" I asked, my heart doing it's usual trick.. thumping away.

He smirked. "You don't remember? Good. It's working."

I frowned again. "What is?!"

He didn't answer my question, and I heard footsteps approach from the other side of me, where the desk was.

"Pass me the syringe." The unknown man ordered, and I stared as an enormous needle switched between two hands right above my face.

The needle was larger than the one Four had put into my neck, and I started to panic, trying to sit up again. It was then that I realised that my arms and legs were strapped down.

"Let me out!" I cried.

The man chuckled. "Not a chance."

Hands pressed down hard on my shoulders, and I stared as the unknown man lowered the needle down to my neck.

I let out a whimper as the tip of the needle pushed down into my neck, the flesh burning.

The pain didn't relent, even when the needle was pulled out of my neck.

I took a deep breath, trying to blink away the tears, when I felt it again, on the inside of my left arm.

I let out another whimper, the pain never subsiding.

It happened again, on the other side of neck, then my right arm.

"S-stop!" I choked out, then gritted my teeth, my flesh burning.

"No." Was the short, snappy reply, before I felt the needle press into my hips.

I almost gagged as I felt the metal of the needle scrape against the bone of my hip. That shouldn't have happened.

I heard the footsteps as the man made his way around me, and I guessed he was heading for the other hip.

I tried to wriggle away again, the pain becoming worse as I did so. I couldn't get away, I was stuck.

And then I remembered... It wasn't real.

"You stay in the hallucination until you calm down-that is, lower your heart rate and control your breathing.." Four's voice echoed in my head and I knew what I had to do.

I squeezed my eyes shut as tightly as I could and tried to blank out everything around me.

I remembered the sound of the punchbags in the first stage of training. I concentrated on the thudding of it for a moment, remembering what it was like when my fists connected with the hard material.

I felt a small prick in my right hip and tried to push it out of my head.

I remembered the clacking sound of the train on the tracks from the first day that I'd become a Dauntless. The day that I'd met Talulah by pulling her onto the train.

I took a deep breath, then did it again and again, still imagining the train.

Suddenly, I am back in the metal chair and I quickly sit up, gasping for air. My hand flew to my left hip, and I rubbed it, expecting to feel some kind of sharp pain, but nothing.

A hand is placed on my shoulder, and I quickly pull away from it, my hand flying up to hit whoever it is.

Four caught my hand, and held it tightly. "It's just me. The hallucination's over."

He stared at me, and once he was certain that I wasn't going to try and hit him again, he let go of my hand. I moved it down to my hip still expecting to feel something, before reaching up to rub my neck.

There was a small bump there from the needle that Four had injected me with, and my eyes started to fill with tears. Thanks to him, I'd experienced a complete nightmare with needles.

"That was good. You only took eighteen minutes."

I bit down on my bottom lip and tried to blink back the tears that were threatening to fall.

"The first time is always the worst."

I scoffed and glared at him. "I'm never having one of those," I jabbed my finger in the direction of the needle on the desk. "Things anywhere near me me ever again!"

He looked at me, no sympathy in his eyes at all. "The whole point of this is to overcome cowardice. If you feel like you can't continue because you're scared of a little needle, then you might as well leave now, because you won't be any use here."

I gritted my teeth together. So it was a choice between needles or Dauntless. Great.

I ran my hand through my hair and shuffled towards the edge of the chair. "How many more times am I going to have to do it?"

"A least seven. You'll be facing your fears everyday for the next week."

I swallowed, then took a deep breath. "Okay. Can I go now?"

"Yeah. Go out the back door." He told me. "Think about it, Jac. Is a needle really worth losing your life over?"

Nathan was laid on his bed, staring at the ceiling, when I arrived back at the accommodation. He didn't look up when I entered, and I slowly walked towards him, the room completely silent.

"What was yours?" I asked quietly, sitting on the edge of the bed.

He tilted his head to look at me. "Being drowned." He shuddered.

"That sounds horrible." I replied, biting down on my bottom lip.

"It was awful." He sighed. "What was yours?"

I brought my hand up to rub my neck again. "Needles."

He frowned. "I didn't realise you were scared of needles? I thought that you wanted to get a tattoo?"

"Neither did I." I felt the little bump on my neck and closed my eyes. "It appears that the giant one that Four wanted to stick in my neck brought it out."

"You didn't freak out before the simulation did you?"

I opened my eyes and looked at him, nodding. "Four had to sit on me to pin me down."

A small smile appeared on his lips.

I rolled my eyes. "That's right, use another's misfortune to cheer yourself up."

"Sorry..." He tried to suppress the smile by pursing his lips.

I half-smiled at him, then ran a hand through my hair. "How long did it take you to get out of your simulation?"

"Three minutes fifteen."

My mouth dropped open. "What?!"

He frowned. "What?"

"Mine took my eighteen minutes! That's ridiculous, how did you do it?!"

"I don't know... I just did it quickly.." He mumbled. "Four was surprised too."

I frowned. Being that quick was amazing, how did someone that ranked right at the bottom end up doing so well in this stage?

"Well, congrats, I guess." I said. "You'll definitely pass."

Talulah arrived back twenty minutes later, muttering something about having to help her sister give birth in her simulation before she headed for a shower to calm herself.

Freddie appeared about an hour later, looking as white as a sheet. He informed us that in his simulation he'd had acid poured over him, and stated that he could smell his skin burning. The thought of it made me cringe, and I hoped that it wasn't one of mine.

"I really need to get all this out of my head." Freddie said, from where he was laid on his bed. "Shall we go and do something?"

I shrugged. "Why not..."

Talulah hung her towel on the end of her bed, and scooped her hair up into a bun. "Can we go to the tattoo place? I want to get another one."

Freddie nodded. "Sure. I was thinking of looking at a few designs, see if I like anything."

"Great." Talulah smiled. "Didn't you say that you wanted one Jac?"

I swallowed and shook my head. "Not anymore."

Nathan chuckled. "She's no longer a fan of needles."

I remembered the needle touching my hip and shuddered. I definitely didn't want a tattoo any time soon.

Freddie looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"Four had to pin her down just to inject the serum."

Talulah frowned and put her hands on her hips. "I thought I'd heard more noise when you went it, everyone else had been pretty quiet."

"It was really big..." I attempted to defend myself.

"It wasn't too bad.." Freddie said, raising an eyebrow.

"Are you kidding? It was fine! Didn't even hurt!" Nathan cried.

I rolled my eyes.

"Well, I thought it was kind of scary. I'd much rather have drank the serum like in the aptitude tests." Talulah told us. "Anyway, seeings as you've now got a fear of needles, will you be able to come and watch us get tattoos? Or shall we go another time without you?"

I felt bad for wanting to say no. They all clearly wanted to go, and it would've been unfair to make them all do something else because I didn't want to. "It's fine. I'll come."

Once we'd arrived at the tattoo parlor, Talulah had ran off to get Bud to help draw out the tattoo that she'd envisioned. Nathan and Freddie searched through the displays for something they'd like, and I stood just behind them anxiously.

The sound of the tattoo guns made me feel a little sick, and incredibly nervous. The vision of the needles digging into skin made me cringe, and I tried my best to push the thoughts out of my head.

"You don't look so good..." Freddie looked at me.

"I'm a little freaked out." I told him quietly.

"Maybe actually getting one will help you get over it?"

I viscously shook my head. "No. I'm not ready for that."

He looked at me sympathetically. "I can get a new tattoo another day... Wanna get out of here?"

I nodded and he put his arm around my shoulders, and led me over to where Talulah was.

"We're going to go look in some other shops." He told her.

"Okay! I'll see you later?"

I nodded and said goodbye, then Freddie and I headed out into the Pit.

"Where'd you wanna go?" He asked, once we were outside.

"Um.. No idea."

He sighed and looked around. "Lu's up there." He pointed to one of the platforms. "Want to go say hi?"

"Sure."

We wandered over to Lu, who was sat with Calvin. I'd not seen her properly in a few days, yet it'd felt like forever.

"Hey sweet!" She greeted me, then looked up at Freddie. "Freds."

"Lu." He acknowledged her, then pulled his arm away from me and sat opposite the two older Dauntless.

"How've you guys been? Did you start stage two today?"

"Yeah.." I mumbled, and sat down too.

Lu glanced at me, then looked back at Freddie. "Not good?"

He shook his head. "You could have warned us about how horrible stage two is!"

"We're not allowed to tell you anything about stage two, that's why!" She replied.

"We'd have loved to help, but our mouths are pressed firmly shut on the leader's orders." Calvin said, pursing his lips as an example.

"How come the leaders don't want you to tell us about it?" I questioned.

"They want you to figure it out for yourselves. If we help you, then some of the Divergents may slip through." Calvin answered.

"Divergents?" Freddie sounded confused. "I didn't realise that they were real."

"Very real, and according to the Dauntless leaders; very dangerous."

I frowned. "Wow... Have you guys ever met one before?"

They both shook their heads.

"If we had, we wouldn't tell you." Lu spoke up. "It's not safe to talk about any of this. We should avoid anything to do with Divergence."

"Why?" I questioned.

"You ask too many questions." Calvin stated, and slowly got to his feet. "I need to get back to work. I'll see you later."

I watched as he tousled Lu's hair and how she pushed him away before saying goodbye. He then walked away, and disappeared out of the Pit.

"Where does he work?" Freddie asked.

"In the control room. He's had to work double time recently, covering for Four whilst he trains you lot."

"How come you're never at work?" I pondered.

"I work on the fence, so I'm on straight for three weeks, then I've got three off. I'm back out there on Wednesday."

"Is that a good job?" Freddie questioned. "What did you rank?"

"I was fifth. Two years ago." She answered. "Everything's changed since then though, Max has added new rules, they started off small last year when your instructors trained, but made them even stricter this year. It's harder to get better jobs."

"Wait, Four and Eric only trained last year?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

Of course they had. It explained why everyone was so shocked at Eric being a leader because he was so young. As if he was only a year older than me? In fact, he could be just a few months older than me... wow.

"They seem like they've been doing it for years though?" Freddie said.

"Then clearly they're good at it." Lu shrugged. "Lauren and Isla are my age, I think Four meets with them most days before he wakes you guys up just to get a few tips on what to do. Lauren did the transfers last year with Harrison, so she would've trained them."

"They were transfers?!" Freddie exclaimed.

"Of course! If Eric was a transfer, then so was Four..." I mumbled, not having pieced it together before.

"Yeah." Lu nodded. "Wait, you knew Eric was a transfer?"

I slowly nodded.

"How?"

I thought about it for a second. Eric'd asked me to keep quiet about him being a transfer. It was only fair that I did my part of the deal after he told me what I wanted. "I just guessed when I painted his apartment." I looked at Freddie. "Don't tell anyone though, I don't think he wants everyone to know, especially not the initiates."

He frowned. "Why does it matter what he wants?"

"Everyone deserves a bit of privacy, and it's not our place to tell anyone else."

I noticed Lu raise an eyebrow.

"What?"

"You're being very friendly to someone that punished you and forced you to do his dirty work for him.." She said.

I shrugged. "What can I say? I'm a nice person."

She snorted. "I'll believe that when I see it!"

"Hey!" I leant towards her and softly pushed her shoulder.

She tried to dodge me and laughed.

I giggled too, and heard Freddie laughing beside me. Even though stage two had started out terribly, I was still glad to be here. Four's ultimatum had left me stumped earlier, but I knew now that I'd have to face that particular fear, and probably many others, to continue with this life... And there was nothing that I wanted more.