A/N: Thank you for the lovely response to the first chapter! Especially to Guest for your review - I agree, an older Eric is a hotter Eric. He's probably in his early twenties in this story. Also for future readers, some parts of Roth's original story is changed; I'm still ironing out the specifics, but this may become slightly A/U just to make it more interesting and relevant to my OC's story. Please R&R!

Disclaimer: I don't own Divergent (I wish)

I was surprised at how long it took for me to feel winded. It seemed that, despite the end goal not being the same, the amount of time my mother had forced me to exercise to lose weight had at least improved my stamina. I felt my arms and chest wiggling slightly as I ran but any bad thoughts I had about them were gone with the cheers and whoops of the others running alongside me. I caught up to Tony, a boy I knew from school. He had long legs and was taking it in stride, but I could see his face reddening as he exerted himself. He was nice, but I hadn't ever really spoken to him before. I followed him to where everyone was stopping, underneath the train tracks and watched as others started climbing up the scaffolding bases. It seemed our tests began before we even reached Dauntless. I watched as Tony started climbing up, and tried to copy his movements. It was hard; between stretching my arms to their full length to grab the next rung up, and the pain at moving some of my previous injuries, I was panting by the time I got close to the top. A hand stretched out to me; Tony had waited for me, and helped pull me to the tracks.

"Thanks, you didn't have to wait for me," I said in between breaths. He gave me a smile, but for once I couldn't read it very well. He had an attractive face I would admit. Sandy coloured hair and dark eyes gave him an Amity look, but I knew from school that it hid his smart brain and quick retorts.

"No worries. Us noses have to stick together you know?" he chuckled. I guess others would have a harder time brushing off their birth faction; I was ready to leave it behind.

We started down the tracks, following the others. Some kept looking back behind us. I felt the train before I saw it; the other initiates up ahead started running, and I balked as I realised we were probably going to have to jump on it, as it sped past us. If you were even able to keep up with the train.

Being in front of Tony, I started running as fast as I could, glancing to my left to see where I could grab hold of. A glimmer of something caught my eye, and I intuitively jumped. Stretching out my arms as far as I could, I felt two of my fingers grab onto something and swung myself in the direction of the door. I hit the side of the train with a thud, and once again a hand stuck itself out in front of me. I was hauled into the train, and I briefly wondered if all this made Erudite actually a safer place to be than a faction that expected us to jump onto moving trains.

I looked up into the face of the person who had helped me. He had dark, short hair and a blinding smile.

"Hi, I'm Chris, your knight in shining armour!"

Everyone watching the scene laughed, and I couldn't help but join in. I thanked him, and went to sit in a corner, sliding down to the floor as my legs shook. I looked around at the others in the car. A couple Dauntless-born had joined us, but it seemed most of the transfers were there. I spotted Tony talking to the other two Erudite transfers, Paul and Emmeline, two that I made sure not to look at. They had been amongst the loudest and less-subtle of the kids at school who made their dislike of me known. I was sure to stay away from them. I spent most of the ride trying to catch my breath, and watching those around me. I spotted another transfer standing around by themselves. Pushing myself up, I walked over to her. She was wringing her hands like a nun, her red sleeves pushed up to her elbows.

"Nervous?" I asked softly so as to not surprise her. She turned her head, and gave me a small smile. She was taller than me, with a pretty face and long flowing blonde hair. "You?" she asked.

I thought about it for a second, but didn't get to reply with an answer. We heard shouts from the cars in front of us and darted our heads out the doors. We were coming up to some rooftops, and we could start to see some of the Dauntless-born jump from the train and landing on the rooftop. I shuddered. I really might die before I get to Dauntless.

I looked at the girl next to me and stretched out my hand. I didn't know where this confidence was coming from; maybe the adrenaline, or the fact that this was the furthest from home I had ever been.

"Together" I told her. She nodded her head and grabbed my hand. We stalked to the back of the car, watching as some of the others flew out into the air. Once there was space for us, we ran as fast as we could, and prayed.

I felt rocks and tarmac stick into my other side when I hit the floor; now both sides of my body ached. Thank god I had let go of the other girl's hand before we hit, otherwise I may have crushed her on the landing. I found her eyes as she too brushed dirt and other sharp bits from her body.

"Don't think I'm nervous anymore," I finally said. We fell into a fit of giggles; the fear and adrenaline taking over us.

"Initiates!"

We heard a booming voice and once we had gotten up, followed it. It was hard to look over the heads of the taller initiates in front of me, so I pushed towards the front. My eyes were drawn to a man standing by a ledge. His whole body screamed confidence; taut arm muscles were crossed over his puffed out chest, piercing grey eyes with two black stones glittering in the sun above his right eye. I couldn't take my eyes off him, and I knew this had to have been the man that had called out to us. Relationships in Erudite had never been discouraged, but were mostly pointless at a young age. Intelligence and hard work were more important, and besides, I never felt confident to put myself out there, let alone even think about any boy. This, however, was a real man.

"My name is Eric, one of your Dauntless leaders," the man's voice was like silk to my ears, a deep voice that hit every nerve in my body. "In order to enter Dauntless, you need to show us you mean it. The only way in," his eyes moved to glance behind him, "is through there."

I heard several people gasp. To me, even if the Erudite in me was miniscule, it made sense. They had thrown several obstacles in front of us already, so why stop there? Surely they wouldn't kill us at this point, even though it was possible for someone to fall off the tracks or crack their head on the rooftop from the jump. That thought made me shiver slightly.

"Well, who's going to be first?" Eric asked. His eyes never met mine, didn't even fall on me. I was feeling brave, or at least wanting to be brave, to show myself. Before I could do anything about it, I heard someone call out. Tony pushed past the others around him and walked forwards towards Eric and the ledge. Eric glanced at him as if he was bored, and watched with us as Tony stepped up onto the ledge. He spent a few minutes just looking down, and I watched as Eric grew more pissed off.

"Are you going to jump Initiate, or are you waiting for the ground to come to you?"

Tony took another moment, and a breath later, stepped out into the air and fell. We heard as his scream grew more quiet until it disappeared. I felt the tension grow as people realised Eric would be calling for others to join Tony in wherever he had gone. I thought about my father, what he would say to me if he was here. "You're weak," the voice in my head said. "You could never do this. You're a coward, unworthy of us."

I pushed past the few remaining people in front of me before I even realised what I was doing. Eric hadn't even called out yet for more jumpers; he watched me with an unreadable expression. His was the second face that day that I couldn't read.

"I hadn't called for another jumper yet, Initiate."

I bristled at his tone. "There's no point in waiting around, is there?" I asked incredulously. The voices of my parents still echoed in my head and for once, I let the anger take over me. Eric had nothing to respond to my question, he just glanced up and down my body once, and for some reason, that made me angry too.

I pushed up onto the ledge without waiting for Eric's approval. All I could hear was the wind whistling in my ears from the height we were at, not even a breath from anyone around me. Before Eric could say anything about me taking my time, I turned around and closed my eyes, those unreadable slate eyes the last thing I saw before I tilted back and fell into oblivion.

The wind rushed up to meet me, and I couldn't help but let out a breath. It was exhilarating, a pure thrill. I felt light, like everything I held onto was left behind on that rooftop. If this was what flying felt like, I never wanted it to end. But it did, with my back hitting the net and bouncing up slightly. I felt somewhat proud to know I had been right in thinking the Dauntless wouldn't have put us through more dangerous tasks to get into the compound. And I felt a slight tinge of strength from standing up to Eric.

Another attractive Dauntless man helped me off the net.

"You alright Initiate?" he asked, his voice deep too but not as delicious-sounding as Eric's voice had been. I nodded, the wind having stolen my voice.

"What's your name Initiate? You can pick a new one, but you only get one chance to change it," the man said.

I took a moment to think. Would I want to keep my birth name? It wasn't a bad one, it was just that it had been chosen for me by my parents, a traditional, good name. I realised in that moment that that wasn't me. But what was? I reflected on all the books I had enjoyed growing up, who I would want to be like.

"Cain. My name's Cain."

The man looked at me quizzically, but didn't question it. "Second jumper, Cain! Welcome to Dauntless."