Summary: The Priors have five family members: Natalie, Andrew, Caleb, Beatrice and Antoinette. The adopted daughter of the Priors isn't like anybody in her faction; she's not even from that time period. But when she's told she's "divergent", she's thrust in a familiar life style. fem!Tony Stark. Smart Alack! Sassy! Kind of a bitch! Toni. Peter/Toni/Four
Megan Fox plays Toni Prior/Antoinette Stark
It's the day of the Choosing Ceremony. My hair is down my back in a curly braid. I wear a calf length grey dress dress, not so much loose that I loved, grey leggings and my favorite grey ankle boots. I also wear a knitted grey jacket and a slim black belt around my dress.
My father is not happy about my choice of wear but I say nothing as I walk beside my nervous sister to the Ceremony. She is always nervous, keeping her head down and searching for Robert anxiously.
She knew what she was going for. The only thing she could get: Amity. She was ecstatic because Robert got the same thing.
My brother was quieter than usual and uncomfortable at the silence around our family. Even if he got into my business and was annoying and irritating, he still was nervous as hell.
Our father, even from Erudite, fits the part of Abnegation perfectly. Instead of allowing us to to through the elevator, he instead allows a bunch of laughing Amity to take our place and we go up the stairs.
We walk up twenty flights of stairs and my father holds the door open for every Abnegation looking like a firm, stone wall. I see Beatrice attempt to wait for him but is jerked forward and gently grabbed by Robert and pulled into the room.
The room has five spaces for people to sit. From right to left - Dauntless, Candor, Erudite, Abnegation and Amity. All the 16 year olds and their families are being seated. My mother drags me, Beatrice and Caleb to Abnegation where we are quietly seated. Our father joins us moments afterwards and we wait patiently for thee Ceremony to begin.
Well, my family waits patiently. I'm impatient, squirming in my seat and my blue eyes flickering across the room. To Erudite where I quickly find the handsome boy, Peter. To Dauntless where my eyes linger on a brown haired girl with tattoos poking out of her jacket and piercings across her face and big blue eyes. To Marcus Eaton, who was being accused of abusing his only son, Tobias.
My eyes lingered on the Abnegation. I believed the rumors. I remember when I was younger, I stayed up late and I could never sleep. Even after being reincarnated, I had the Stark curse. Well, I remembered hearing Marcus and the boy, Tobias, and I remember burying myself in my soft covers and after getting grounded after telling my parents, I prayed.
I didn't believe in God. I didn't believe that I'll go somewhere after I died. But I prayed. And prayed. And prayed. Then he left. I remember snickering to myself, seeing Marcus' face and getting smacked by my brother who scolded furiously. I didn't give a shit. Marcus Eaton didn't have anyone to abuse and I was smug.
Sucked that I couldn't do anything though. Sucked that Caleb didn't like Tobias and refused to let me go by him. It just sucked.
On the stage is a table. On the table is five bowls and a single knife. In each bowl holds something that signifies each faction: grey stones for Abnegation, water for Erudite, earth for Amity, lit coals for Dauntless and glass for Candor.
When the ceremony starts, Marcus will call out each name in reverse alphabetical order. I'll be after both Caleb and Beatrice.
Marcus will call my name and I'll take the knife and cut the edge of my palm. My blood will drip into lit coals and it will be done. I will be brave and Dauntless and I will leave my siblings and parents.
My chest felt thick. Clogged. I shut my blue eyes and leaned back, feeling nauseous. I stayed in that position until my sister nudged me. "It's starting." She whispered. I opened my eyes and turned to her shaking, terrified form.
Marcus is on the stage, smiling. A fake smile. Terrible acting. For me at least.
"Welcome." Marcus greets with a warm (faake) smile. "Welcome to the Choosing Ceremony. Welcome to the day we honor the democratic philosophy of our ancestor, which tells us that every man has the right to choose his own way in the world." So you split us up in factions? Sometimes I wonder about the intelligence in this centuries' government.
Oh, Marcus is still speaking. Fan-fucking-tastic.
"Our dependents are now sixteen." He continues. "They stand on the precipice of adulthood and it is now up to them to decide what type of people they will be. Decades ago our ancestors realized that it is not political ideology, religious belief, race or nationalism that is to blame for warring world. Rather, they determined the it was the fault of human personality - of human's inclination toward evil, in whatever form that is. They divided into factions that sought to eradicate those qualities they believed responsible for the world's disarray." I stare at the bowls.
I believe greed tore us and the hunger for power.
"Those who blamed aggression formed Amity." Marcus says and Amity members smile, shifting to look at their fellow Amity. I see my sister shift out of the corner of my eye.
"Those who blamed ignorance formed Erudite." My eyes narrowed sharply, eyeing the Erudite. I see Peter grin to a few friends. They were intelligence hungry. Sharks.
"Those who blamed duplicity formed Candor." The white and black clad faction. I tilted my head. Duplicity was only part of the problem. Never fully the problem.
"Those who blamed selfishness made Abnegation." Us. Abnegation members didn't look around like the other factions. They just smiled. Just selfishness? No. Like Candor, we blamed a slim part of the problem. Of the reason for our fall.
"And those who blamed cowardice formed Dauntless." I'm stiff. I'm weary. I'm a coward. I am.
"You're nothing but a coward, Stark. A coward that hides behind her suits and her little machines and dammit if I let you continue play the hero."
Steve was right. I am a coward. But I'm a coward with a plan.
"Working together, these five factions have lived together in peace for many years, contributing to a different sector of society. Abnegation has fulfilled our need for selfless leaders in government; Candor has provided us with trustworthy and sound leaders in law; Erudite has supplied us with intelligent teachers and researchers; Amity has given us understanding counselors and caretakers; and Dauntless provides us with protection from threats both within and without. But the reach of each faction is not limited to these areas. We give one another far more than can be adequately summarized. In our factions, we find meaning, we find purpose, we find life." He smiled to the crowd.
I remember what the motto the government implant in our brains: faction before blood. Always.
"Apart from them, we cannot survive." Marcus adds on. He says nothing as the silence thickens. "Therefore this day marks a happy occasion - the day on which we receive our new initiates, who will work with us towards a better society and a better world." Marcus smiles as people applaud loudly.
A better world? What could get better than this?
The the Choosing begins. I watch, for once not cocky and arrogant but terrified. The first person to change factions is a clumsy Dauntless-born boy named James Tucker. Dauntless members mutter and I know they will never visit or accept James. He is a traitor. He is a betrayer.
"Caleb Prior." I shocked out of my thoughts as my brother squeezes my sister's hand and he walks onto the stage. I watch him, quietly, sharply, inquisitively.
He cuts his palm and it drips into water. Erudite's bowl. My brother is an Erudite now. Not Abnegation. My mother is sad but shocked, my father betrayed and angered.
I stay silent as my sister is called. She walks down, twisting her long white skirt in her hands. Marcus gives her a gentle smile and hands her the knife. She smiles weakly and cuts the side of her palm. I watch, again silent, as she drips it into Amity's bowl.
I'm not surprised. Beatrice belongs there.
My mother smiles softly. My father casts me a desperate stare, like, don't do it don't do it Antoinette.
"Antoinette Prior." I stand at my name as everyone turns their head to look at me. I tilt my head up and confidently stride up to the stage. I silently thank god that I didn't have any heels to wear. I'd probably trip.
Marcus hands me the knife. It's tinted red with the other initiates blood.
I cut my palm and swallow. My hand lingers over the Abnegation bowl, thinking of my mother and father, before I put it over the Dauntless bowl and squeeze. My blood drips onto the hot coals.
I watch it sizzle and burn.
Screams come from Dauntless as I walk off the stage and takes the offered seat. I'm Dauntless now.