Expectations and Suppositions

AN: Hi all! This is likely going to be very AU, as I have not read the Divergent Trilogy/ watched all the films. That being said, I still think this is going to be a fun story and get me back into the writing spirit. Also, why has no one written a Divergent/ Firefly cross-over yet?!

Also, I am actively looking for a Beta for this who is familiar with Divergent Trilogy and Firefly. If you fit that bill, please PM me!

A little heads up: There will be no war on Divergents. Choosing age is 18, and the rest you should be able to piece together.

Chapter 1

XXX

I stand at the top of the stairs leading into the amphitheater. I was dressed in my starched blue dress and matching heels. The image of Erudite perfection, and the living embodiment of the standards Jeanine Matthews expected from her faction.

And as I stand there, looking out over the sea of faction colors, Jeanine is exactly who I feel move to stand next to me.

"You know what is expected of you?" Jeanine says in hushed tones.

While someone else might have leapt for joy that Jeanine Matthews deigned to speak in their general direction, I do not. No, Jeanine Matthews had spent the last six years drilling into my head what she expected. Both figuratively and literally.

"Yes mother." I reply robotically, as expected.

She doesn't respond verbally, only with a simple curt nod before moving to take her place at the head of Erudite.

"Oh course I know what you expect." I think as I descend the stairs and moves to sit with the others in my class. "I know what you all expect."

I don't pay attention to what Marcus Eaton or any of the other faction leaders say to start the choosing day ceremony. I don't need to. I know what they are going to say before the words leave their mouths.

After the expected speeches are made, they begin to call the names of this years initiates. One by one, they descend to the front of the room to seal their fate with blood and fire.

"River Matthews."

Marcus Eaton calls out, and it is only then that I pay attention to what is going on around me.

I rise from my seat and calmly walk the few steps down to the front. I slowly draw the blade into my hand and slice a superficial line in my skin. I allow the blood to pool in my palm before I set the blade down and cast my fate in the coals.

What happens next is not met with applause like the other initiates had when they selected their faction.

No, my action is met with silence as Marcus Eaton calls out my choice.

"Dauntless."

No one dares to utter a sound as I move to sit with my new faction. No, they're all too preoccupied at looking at my mother, who sits silently. She'd never let it show, never let her perfect stone-faced expression falter, but she's radiating blinding anger.

I don't smile, despite how tempting it is.

But I feel someone smiling. Someone further up and towards the back. One person has taken a small momentary sliver of joy at seeing Jeanine Matthew's world tilt off axis.

"Interesting." The thought floats into my brain as the next name is called and the ceremony continues.

XXX

As the last name is called, and the initiate takes their seat in their new chosen faction. I feel it, feel the excitement from everyone coiling into a pit in my stomach. Feel the surge of energy as everyone begins to exit the amphitheater.

I let myself sink into it and be pulled along with the exiting crowd. It's like rushing water all around me, carrying me away to somewhere unknown. She won't break her perfect facade here, but I know she will try and come for me soon enough. She will try and use every loophole, every snare, every dirty tactic to try and get me back to Erudite. But I've been planning for this day for a long time, and while the war with Jeanine may be looming, I am going to enjoy my momentary victory.

As the crowd of Dauntless initiates breaks into a run as they hit the street, I immediately kick off the impractical heels and run along with the others. We make it to the tracks with seconds too spare as the train slows down momentarily and the Dauntless born being to jump aboard.

I force myself to take one breath more than they do before I jump. They had been groomed for this initiation from birth. I hadn't, and I didn't need anyone the wiser as to why I knew exactly what to do and when.

It's mainly Dauntless born in the compartment I jump into. They size me up, eye me suspiciously, in my 'perfect' blue dress. I can feel that no one wants me here; they think I don't belong. They may be right. But I am not about to let them see that.

No one bothers to approach me, they just talk amongst themselves in low whispers, but after a few minutes I feel their energy pick up again.

The next jump is almost here.

While the first jump had been manageable in my Erudite dress, this next one would be challenging. I lean down quickly and begin yanking at one of the seams to give myself more maneuverability to make this next jump. That's when I hear the first of the Dauntless born turn their attention towards me.

"It won't matter. You'll fall anyways." His friends snicker in response.

I close my eyes and breathe. "Engage people with what they expect." It's better they think I'll fail.

They don't have time for any other taunts though as our rooftop destination approaches. One of Dauntless born slides the door they are standing near open and they begin to prepare for the jump.

I move to the door I am near and do the same, and just as before I force myself to take a breath and take a second longer than the Dauntless born. The one thing I don't hide is the roll I tuck into after I jump. The landing will hurt all the same given the exposed skin of my legs and feet, but at least the gravel of the roof won't cut me as if I hadn't. The roll can also look accidental, and reinforce the idea that I am not cut out to be here.

After two rolls I spring to my feet and gingerly walk on the gravel to where the our 'welcoming committee' stands ready to greet us. The Dauntless born aren't subjected to this, it's meant to weed out the weak willed transfers… if jumping from a moving train five stories up hadn't already.

I turn around to see how many other transfers are in my class. There are at least twenty. A handful from Candor and a few bigger jock types from Amity, both with a good mix of girls and guys. There were also a few guys from Erudite, ones that fit the stereotypical egotistical mold that usually transferred to Dauntless. I was the only female transfer from Erudite. There are no transfers from Abnegation this year, which isn't too surprising.

I can feel them all sizing me up the way that the Dauntless born did. Again, I know that none of them want me here. But for vastly different reasons. To the Dauntless born I was weak, incapable of holding up the ideals of Dauntless. They were practically assured they would make it thru initiation. But to the transfers? To the other transfers, I am a threat. Something that threatens their place in their chosen home. Something foreign and menacing…

They all expect me to be just like her.

But that's when I feel it again. Feel the one person who enjoyed seeing the spectacle of my defection is waiting for us on a ledge in front of a dark opening in the roof. He stands there in his full uniform looking like a shark on dry land. His grin looks deadly, like he's just waiting to take a bite out of all of us and make us bleed.

"I'm Eric, I'm one of your leaders. And this is Zeke, one of your trainers for initiation."

"If you want to enter Dauntless, this is the way in, and if you don't have the guts to jump, then you don't belong in Dauntless."

The reality of the situation is hitting the other transfers. A tingling of fear pulsating between every breath they take.

"So, who's first?" Eric asks with a menacing grin.

I only feel anxious to get off this roof. I don't say anything as I walk towards the edge he had just been standing on and step up. Again, I want to give nothing away, and wait momentarily to appear trepidatious. Eric wants to say something, but he's also curious as to what I will do.

I allow myself to smile as an idea forms in the back of my mind. I slowly reach down and continue to rip the Erudite blue away from my body, all the way up until I can easily slide it off me like a robe. I'm left in nothing but my black underwear. It's symbolic, if only for me, shedding the last vestige of Erudite I will ever visibly wear. Even if I can't get rid of the other scars so easily.

I let it hit the roof behind me, take a breath, and fall into the darkness with my arms spread out, welcoming the great unknown underneath me.

I allow my body to shift in the air and by the time I land in the net below I am on my back and fighting to contain the laughter that threatens to bubble up out of me.

I then feel the net tilt and my body roll to one side.

"WOAH." Someone says they help me off the net. He blushes and quickly tries to divert his attention to anywhere but me.

"Did you purposely lose the clothes or did they make you strip?" The woman with the clipboard asks between chuckles at her associates reaction.

"I didn't need it anymore." I say with a shrug.

"Whatever you say. Name?" She says as she gets ready to write down what I give her.

"River… Tam."

"First Jumper, River Tam." The woman yells while the man still looks flustered. "Welcome to Dauntless. I'm Lauren, and that's Four." She says motioning towards the guy still blushing and averting his gaze.

"You can grab some training clothes from the room over there." She says as she motions to the left side of the open area we are standing in. "We'll be here until all the transfers are off the roof." She says as the next jumper hits the net.

"Thanks." I say as I quickly walk towards the direction she pointed me towards.

XXX

It didn't take me long to find some clothing that would fit me from the supply room Lauren had pointed me towards. I quickly grab a tank top, hoodie, leggings, socks, and boots in my size and start to pull them on. I'm faced away from the door, but I can feel someone enter, quietly creeping in behind me.

"Nice to see you too." I don't need to look to know who either. He doesn't say anything or acknowledge my statement until I turn around.

He's leaning against the door, his arms over his chest in manner that says he's relaxed. But his smile is anything but relaxed. It's tense, like he's seeing a ghost from his past he didn't think he would.

"You've changed." He says finally after his eyes roam up and down. He's seeing what he expects, and what he doesn't. Apprising and hunting for clues as to why I'm here.

I mimic his stance, we still had a few minutes before the jumpers would be done. "Six years will do that to someone."

"You're still tiny, little mouse." He says with a smirk.

He's expecting to get a rise out of me by calling me little mouse. It used to infuriate me that he would call me that, as I always longed to be accepted by him and my brother.

Eric and Simon had been best friends growing up in Erudite. They'd been practically joined at the hip in their younger years. His parents and our mother had left us together to fend for ourselves for the most part, as they were far too busy with their work to concern themselves with us. It suited Simon and Eric just fine for the most part, and they did their best to tolerate the annoying 'little mouse' who tagged along and loved to correct them. Simon was more patient of the two.

It all changed though, when they left six years ago. Simon followed his heart to be with Kaylee in Amity, while Eric followed his dreams to be in Dauntless.

A shiver runs over my scalp and quickly try think of anything but the last six years.

I merely shrug, and his eyes narrow in response. When this doesn't work as he expected he takes a few purposeful strides towards me so he can look down at me from his literal and metaphorical height of power.

He bends down slightly and leans in slightly to whisper in my ear. "Why are you here?"

I'm sure it is the million dollar question everyone is dying to know. Both of Jeanine Matthew's children defecting? The scandal!

It will also not go unnoticed that I had used the surname Simon selected for himself when the names of initiates and rankings are posted for the other factions. But the answer to Eric's question is both complicated and dangerous, when my future in Dauntless is anything but secure. After all, I don't know who Jeanine has sunk her claws into or how far her grasp truly reaches.

I try to move around him and leave. But he quickly sidesteps to block me and then grabs my forearm to hold me in place. "I asked you a question Initiate."

I can't help the smile that pulls at the corner of my lips and quirk my head at him. "Pulling rank already? Your interrogation tactics are getting rusty if that's what you resort to from the start."

His eyes narrow. "And your insubordination to your Leader will not win you any favors."

I don't turn away from his gaze, but I weigh my next words before I speak them. "Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win."

He smiles again, like he did at the choosing ceremony. It's momentary, but shows some understanding, even if he but does not quite comprehend what I mean yet. He plays it off well though. "Nice to see you remember your Sun Tzu. Let's see how well it serves you over the next ten weeks."

He doesn't release my arm though, and he doesn't back away. It's then that I feel something else. A momentary crack in his serious facade, a hairline fracture in his armor; a flicker of…affection.

"She's not the little mouse we left in Erudite anymore." It's an errant thought bubbling up from his subconscious.

And as his conscious thoughts catch up to that thought, the flicker is suppressed. He doesn't say anything else to me as he turns and leaves me in the supply room.

XXX

AN: So what do we think?