*** DISCLAIMER ***
I own NOTHING regarding the divergent series e.g. the books/the movies
The only things I own are my own characters that I've created.
The other transfers were already in the pit when Nix and Andie arrived, the group was gathered around a man, a man that both girls realised simultaneously as they moved closer to him was that he wasn't just any man...he was the man from last night, Four.
"Cutting it a bit fine." he said and raised a brow as the girls quickly joined the back of the group, Nix acknowledged him with a sheepish look before looking at her feet, "Now that you're all here let me explain what's going to happen...each day you'll be training Monday to Saturday from eight till six with an hour for lunch...my name is Four and I'll be your instructor."
Nix inwardly groaned, how could she have managed to butt heads with their instructor right before training starts?
"Your training will run over the next ten weeks and there's two stages to it, physical and mental...for both stages you will need to push yourselves, push yourselves hard to the point where you'll want to quit...you'll be trained separately from the dauntless born initiates but you'll be ranked together, the rankings will determine what jobs you move into after initiation...the higher ranked you are the better job you'll receive." Four continued and some people started to murmurer.
"How is that fair?" One of the candor boys asked.
"What?" Four demanded in a tone that said he really wasn't in the mood for questions.
"Well they were born and brought up here, that means they've had years to practise for this." Another candor boy answered.
"And?" Four asked with a shrug and he was met by a brief silence.
"Well...I don't think that's fair, I'm going to end up with a shit job at the end of this." The first candor boy that spoke replied and he was about to say something else but Four stopped him in his tracks.
"Looks as if you'll need to work extra hard then." he told the boy with a glare.
"This is bullshit." the boy said angrily to his friends and Nix watched Four closely after the boy had spoken, he seamed to just stand where he was and stare for what felt like forever before he eventually started to walk towards the boy, the initiates immediately parted to make way for their instructor who didn't stop moving until he and the candor boy were then toe to toe.
An uncomfortable silence filled the air around them and it seamed as if it was never ending but Four then eventually spoke, "During your lunch hour today you'll be running laps of the training room." The boy began to immediately protest but Four cut him off, "Say another word and I'll add on an extra lap for each minute of that hour...you're already doing thirty."
The boy opened and closed his mouth a couple of times before wisely choosing to keep quiet, Four then swiftly turned and headed back to where he'd originally been stood just as Eric walked towards the group and nodded at their instructor, "Four."
Four replied to him with a nod and then he looked around each of the transfers, "Eric is going to be your other instructor through training."
Nix almost groaned at that statement and Eric glanced at her in that exact moment...he caught her rolling her eyes.
When she saw the corner of his mouth lift in a smirk she swallowed and looked down at her feet, wishing that the ground would open up and swallow her.
"Depending on how you rank at the end of each stage throughout your training you may be asked to leave." Eric said and everyone, including Nix's eyes shot to him.
"Asked to leave?" an erudite transfer asked after a beat.
"We will be keeping a close eye on you and the score board everyday and if we feel you're not improving or you're not pushing yourselves enough...you won't be continuing here." Eric replied and as he spoke he walked towards the group until he was standing a couple of feet away from Nix, she glanced up at him and he turned his head to look at her, "Understand?"
He was looking at her as he spoke but he was asking everyone, the erudite transfer then replied with, "So we leave and...become factionless?"
Eric turned his head to look at the erudite transfer and nodded, "That's right."
"That's not what usually happens here." a candor girl said.
"That's because it's a new rule we're trialling." Eric replied instantly and was met by silence.
"Trialling a new rule? So what, you're saying...we're just the guinea pigs in your experiment?" the candor girl then went on to say.
"That's exactly what I'm saying." Eric replied with a sardonic smile.
"This isn't right, this is our lives that you're messing with." the same girl said and Eric rolled his eyes infront of Nix, she stared up at him and watched his facial expression change to irritated.
"It's been in talks for a while now, we've just decided to finally try it out." Four told everyone from where he stood.
"No doubt the dauntless born will be separate from this trial too." the first candor boy said to his friends.
"I warned you." Four said to the boy in a raised voice, "Sixty extra laps added on."
"What?!" the candor boy snapped back and Four stared at him with a glare that could probably turn him to stone, the look dared him to say another word but the boy just looked at his feet with a scowl.
"If you don't like this rule or you're scared because of it then you might as well leave now." Eric said a beat later and a silence fell upon the group, "We have no place for cowards here."
The majority of the transfers were now looking down but Nix was looking up at Eric and he was staring back at her, he then spoke so only she could hear, "What's it gonna be stiff?"
"I'm not giving up." she found herself whispering back after a beat had passed and he gave her an incredulous look.
"Weapons handling, first part of your training." he then announced to everyone as he began to walk away, he called out the last part over his shoulder before he disappeared, "Follow Four."
"Let's go." Four told the group before he started to walk in the opposite direction Eric had gone.
Nix suddenly felt extremely nervous about choosing dauntless, there was a chance she could be kicked out before she'd finished initiation...when you choose your faction you're supposed to be set for life, that is your life from then on unless for whatever reason it doesn't work out but this new rule...it wouldn't be enough to just get through initiation, if the instructors felt she wasn't working hard enough...she could end up factionless.
She couldn't fail...she had to succeed.
O
"How are you so good at shooting?" Nix asked Andie as they both practised blocking and attacking each other.
They had not long finished weapons handling which was up on one of the roofs of the compound, there were around two dozen human like targets lined up on different areas of the roof, the group had spread out around each of them with two different guns per person, Four had given them a brief description then showed them how to properly use and reload them, he had then instructed them to use both weapons on their target until he told them otherwise.
Nix had struggled quite a bit in the beginning, she'd missed the target each time she shot, she had watched Four very carefully on how to aim and fire but when she tried to do it herself she failed.
She had emptied and reloaded both guns three times each before she even managed to hit the target and by hitting the target what really happened was she skimmed the edge of the body.
There was a very small improvement after that, she managed to hit some parts of the target sometimes and it was nowhere near the centre where they were told to aim for.
About eighty five percent of the time she missed the target entirely whilst everyone else around her was managing to hit it.
After they'd spent a couple hours weapons training they were escorted down to the training room which was a huge open plan area that looked like an old warehouse, after she saw it she almost felt sorry for the candor boy that would be running around it...almost.
"Beginner's luck?" Andie asked with a grin, "Don't worry about not hitting the target that many times, it was your first time shooting."
"And yours and you were amazing." Nix said with a sigh as she and Andie continued to use their arms in the blocking position that Eric had shown her the night before.
Four had taught them the block and showed them how to strike also, he then set them out in pairs to practise both techniques.
When they'd first entered the training room they were given a short tour, there was a large matted ring area in the middle of the room and around that were these huge punching bags lined up on either side, there were also some smaller matted areas around the room along with some training equipment.
After the tour Four had gathered them around the ring where he then began sparring with another dauntless member, he showed them the techniques to work on and he also showed them what else they'd be learning during their training, the display ended up with the dauntless member being punched and kicked to an extreme level before being flipped over onto his back.
The way the man was groaning afterwards told the group that he was hurt and that Four hadn't held back purely for a demonstration, he had told them that this was the kind of fight they were looking to see from each individual person, they expected them to win real fights against each other in order to earn points.
"What is that supposed to be?" A voice asked loudly and the girls turned their heads to see Eric walking towards them.
"Uh...what do you mean?" Andie asked hesitantly as he approached and he gestured to their arms.
"We're just doing what Four told us to do." Nix said and Eric's gaze turned to her.
"That isn't what he showed you to do." Eric said after he pointed at them and they both looked at one another briefly before he walked forward and elbowed Andie out of the way with a harsh, "Move."
Nix swallowed when her eyes were suddenly level with his chest and she glanced at Andie who was now stood at the side watching them with an anxious expression on her face before she looked up at him and as she did he removed his jacket to reveal a black short sleeved t-shirt underneath, her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when she saw his biceps, she knew the second she first saw him that he was a big built man but nothing could have prepared her for how his physique actually physically looked...he oozed power and it was terrifying yet at the same time, he was actually very nice to look at.
She could feel her cheeks heating up at her thoughts and she looked down briefly in hopes she could hide it, she noticed his forearms had matching tattoos from wrist to almost his elbow.
She could see the dauntless symbol in the middle surrounded by some type of pattern and before she could inspect further his arms were gone, she looked up to find he had his arms positioned in the blocking technique, she took a step back and sighed before she lifted her own arms up.
As soon as her arms were up one of his shot out and whacked hers hard so she stumbled backwards, she made a face at him and he lifted his brows before doing the same thing again which caused her to then glare at him.
"Come on, you were just doing this with your pal." he said and moved towards her again but she blocked his hit this time, barely though as she was still pushed backwards slightly, "I'll be scoring you on this."
His threat made her move toward him and she hit out as she did, however he easily blocked it and shook his head before saying, "That was pathetic."
She almost sighed in annoyance but thought better of it and instead attempted to hit at him again, he blocked it easily and countered with a light slap to the side of her head, the same thing she had done to him the night before and he grinned when he saw her shocked and annoyed reaction.
"Are you gonna hit me at any point stiff? This is getting boring." he said in a loud voice and she glared before giving him the impression she was going to hit out with her right hand but instead she shifted to reach up and elbow him in the shoulder with her left arm.
It barely did anything to him but he was surprised, that was obvious, however, his surprise didn't last long because he moved towards her whilst throwing a hit at her followed by another then another.
She managed to block them but as she did her body was shoved backwards by the force he put behind each of them, she tried to change direction and get him in the side of the body but his reflexes were sharp and he moved with her, as if he knew what she was thinking.
He threw another hit at her, then another and another, she continued to block but it started to become sloppy because her arms were beginning to hurt and she was growing tired, the constant spinning around in a circle and stepping backwards to deflect blows from a man that was built like a grizzly bear was consuming her energy quickly.
"I need-" she began to say but his hand shot towards her face and she had to quickly block him again, she groaned in frustration as he then hit at her again, she moved backwards quickly but he followed her every step and was on her again, his hits were relentless.
"Stop." she called out to him in a hurry and at that word he used his own blocked arms to shove hers backwards into her face and throat, he seamed to use a lot more force on that than he had before and she gasped out a breath and moved a hand to her throat but he grabbed her wrist and pulled it away from her neck to then spin it around so it was behind her back, she gasped out a pained cry at this.
The other initiates and Four around the room had gradually stopped what they were doing and were watching what was going on, Nix saw Four begin to slowly walk towards them.
"What was that stiff? You need to stop?" Eric asked, his mouth at her ear.
He pulled on her arm so it moved an inch further up her back and she bit her lip to stop the cry of pain leaving her mouth, she then tried to swing her free hand up to shove him away but it was impossible and also because he saw it coming, he grabbed it and held it tightly by her side.
"Phoenix." he whispered her name in her ear so only she could hear before he said in a louder voice, "I asked you a question."
"Yes." she said through gritted teeth a beat later but he didn't let her go, he tightened his hold and tears began to form in her eyes.
"Are you saying...you're giving up?" he asked in a mocking voice and she sighed in frustration.
"No." she managed to say after stealing a glance at the faces that were now gathered around watching the scene, she noticed the candor boy whom she learned was named Tom, the one that had thrown the rock at her on the roof the day before, the one that was being made to run laps of the training room for talking back to Four earlier that morning...he was whispering with his other candor friends and it was obvious that they were all clearly enjoying watching what Eric was doing to her, she looked away from them and continued to speak, "I just need...a break."
"Dauntless don't stop for breaks...they continue through the pain." he replied so that everyone could hear.
"I think she understands." Four finally said after a few more seconds of torture for Nix passed by, Eric however waited another few seconds before he eventually loosened his hold on her arms then he shoved her away so she almost stumbled to the ground, Andie however was there to grab her so she avoided it.
She couldn't bare to face the other initiates that were watching, she was too embarrassed and even more so since she was now crying, the tears were more out of frustration that she couldn't retaliate than they were about the burning pain she now felt in both of her arms.
"Dauntless never give up...let this be a lesson to you all." Eric said and he said the word 'this' with extra emphasis, Nix could feel his eyes on her but she didn't look at him she just let Andie hold her.
"Get back to it." Four called out to everyone after a brief silence, "Nix...two minutes."
Nix listened to the feet of the transfers moving away and then waited until she knew for definite that they were gone before she turned around.
Eric was still standing there and he was watching her with an expressionless face, she had to use extreme inner strength to stop herself from saying something she'd regret.
"Weak." he said before he walked away from them and she clenched her fists by her sides.
"Are you okay?" Andie asked her gently a beat later.
"We should get back to practising." she replied immediately then cleared her throat.
"Are you sure? Four said-" Andie began to say but Nix cut her off.
"I'm sure, come on." she said and sniffed before holding up her arms in the blocking technique and Andie's eyes widened.
"Your arms! There's bruises forming on them." she said and Nix inhaled deeply.
"He was hitting pretty hard." she replied as they both began to hit and block each other once more.
"No kidding! Are they allowed to do that to us? Physically hurt us I mean?" Andie said as Nix threw a hit her way that she wasn't prepared for, "Whoa, easy."
"It's dauntless...they do what they want here and Eric is a leader...no one is going to tell him what he can't do." she replied as she blocked an incoming attack from Andie.