Welcome back for another chapter! These past chapters have been posted all within 2 days. The reason for this was so I could just get things moving. Future chapters will be posted less often, though I'll be aiming to put one up each day. Hope you enjoy this chapter, and thank you for reading!

Disclaimer: I do not own the Divergent Trilogy (or Four). Veronica Roth does. Still.

Chapter 3: Training

We are sitting in the training room waiting for Thomas, the last initiate, to arrive, stifling yawns and blinking sleep from our eyes. At last he strolls into the room looking smug as if he isn't ten minutes late. Four walks over to him.

"Do you think the rules don't apply to you, initiate?" He growls.

"I don't see what the hurry is. It's not like you've even started anyway." Thomas replies grinning at Four. I have to admit, he must have some courage to stand there and say that when Four is glaring down at him.

Unbelievably though, Four just turns away from him. He's just going to let Thomas off with that? I think to myself.

Six speaks up, "Everyone, listen up!" We all gather round Six and Four. "Dauntless initiation is split up into three stages. In stage one, you will be tested on your physical abilities and it will include knife and gun skills as well as one-on-one combat." Laura glances at me worriedly. I can tell she isn't looking forward to fighting. Maybe I'm not the only one having trouble letting go of my old faction. "We will be training you in fitness and fighting technique for the next few days," Six carries on. "We will push your bodies to breaking point. You will fight each other and the results of those fights will determine your rank." She pauses to look at each of us, as if this is of great importance, though I don't know why, then lets Four take over.

"For stage two, we will be testing your emotional ability. You will face your worst fears and conquer them, pushing your minds to breaking point." He stops and looks around at us, almost sympathetically. I wander what he means by we will face our worst fears. "In stage three, you will be tested on your mental ability to act in the midst of fear. In Dauntless, we pride ourselves in being able to push fear to the back of our minds and act immediately in any situation. To get started today, you will run a few laps of the training room, get some blood flowing."

We all gather behind Four and follow him as he sets the pace around the training room. It is quite large and after a few laps, we're all breathing heavily. I'm used to the running, having run around the abandoned areas of the Erudite section pretty often. Others are having difficulties. Simon is red-faced, his breathing raspy, and he is falling further and further from the group. Maria and Rory seem to be keeping up but Laura and Thomas are lagging behind. Finally, we stop and are all bent over, massaging stitches. Thomas and Simon are clearly worse off and I can't help but feel satisfaction that Thomas is already doing badly.

"Okay, Thomas, you carry on for a bit, whilst Six and I talk to the others," Four tells him casually, turning away from him to face the rest of us. Thomas looks up, disbelieving. Four opens his mouth to speak to us, ignoring Thomas' stare.

"Wait, why do I have to continue?" He breathes out.

"Well, as you clearly think you above the rules the rest of us follow, you can do something else. Now get moving before I decide to make you run for the rest of the day." Four glares at him. Thomas starts off, staring daggers at Four's back.

"Now, the rest of you are going to get a bit of a demonstration. Then you can get started with the punch bags." Four turns to Six. "Ready to get your ass kicked, Six?" he raises his eyebrows at her.

"Let's do it," she replies, grinning. They both step onto the mats in the centre of the room and enter a fighting stance, keeping their feet apart, their weight on the balls of their feet, their knees slightly bent, their arms up protecting their faces. I try to remember everything about the way they are standing.

Four pushes his left foot forward, pretending to attack Six. She flinches and moves back. "Heh, you okay there Six?" Four is grinning.

"Quit playing around," she replies frowning. Then she darts forward, so quick I barely register her moving, and smacks her right foot at Four's side. I am surprised he doesn't even fall over, the kick was so hard and fast. Then I realize that he actually caught her foot. He looks at Six and flashes another grin, before pulling her leg forward to try and pull her over. Six moves with the momentum though and pushes her foot further into Four's hands, launching herself into the air. She jumps over Four, lands and smacks the bottom of her foot into the back of Four's leg, forcing him to kneel on one leg. Then, she moves in a blur, moving her arms and legs in a complicated way. Before I know what's happened she is on top of Four, one knee pinning his chest to the ground. This time, it's her turn to grin wickedly at Four. She leans right into his face, biting her bottom lip and whispers something to him I can't hear. The fight seems to go out of Four suddenly, and he almost looks... comfortable. But then, he simply flexes his muscles and throws her off him. Four is on his feet in a heartbeat, Six not far behind.

They run at each other, hands a blur as Four launches punch after punch at Six, but none of them hit; she is weaving between them, dodging from side to side before kneeing him in the groin. Four keels over, groaning, while Six just looks on amused. She kicks Four lightly in the stomach and he looks up. "No... fair!" he gasps. She just shrugs and walks off the mat.

"Hopefully, you were all paying attention and can now perform a simple punch. Does anyone want to demonstrate?" Six looks around expectantly. Nobody seems to have really been watching, too awed by the speed of the fight. I step forward though, determined to put my solitary life behind me.

"I think I can do it," I offer. I see Laura smiling at me out the corner of my eye.

Six raises her eyebrows at me but says, "Okay, let's see it."

I turn side on to everyone else and plant my feet the way I saw Four and Six before they started fighting. I hold my arms up near my face, trying to mimic everything that they did, then, I snap my arm straight forward in a fist in front of me.

Six nods at me, "Good. But it's a weak punch. Keep tension here," she slaps my stomach, automatically making me tense up. "When you punch, push your shoulder forward too, so that the weight of your upper body is behind the strength of the punch, not just your arm. Also, tighten your fist more. Punching anything harder than a sponge with your fist that loose will break your fingers. Try it again." I try again, doing everything she said.

"That's it, well done," she's grinning at me.

"Okay, everyone go to a punch bag and practice just that punch, we'll be watching," she tells everyone. Then she turns, and goes to Four who is now sitting up, a scowl on his face.

I walk towards a punch bag and Laura is beside me again.

"Good job, I'm glad you are getting more confident." she looks at me, genuinely smiling and my stomach soars. She's very pretty. A voice in my head suddenly says, and I look away, embarrassed.

I don't know what it is, but that's the second time I've volunteered to do something no one else was willing to do. Each time, it seems my body has stepped forward before my mind even told it to. Maybe I'm more Dauntless than I thought.

For the rest of the morning, we practice that punch and then move on to a simple kick. Pulling our knees up, and snapping our foot out at a low angle. It's supposed to be a kick to someone's shin, to get them on the ground. Six and Four walk back and forth, sometimes stopping to give someone a hint or to demonstrate to them.

When we stop for lunch, I leave with Laura, Simon and Georgina to head to the cafeteria. As we leave, I look over my shoulder to see Four telling Thomas to stop running. Thomas stops, sweat pouring down his face and immediately throws up. He keels over, gasping for air. The others all smile at each other, but I can't help but feel a little sorry for him.

P/B

"So, tell us, O great and mighty 'First Jumper'," Georgina jokingly says to me at lunch, "what made you leave Erudite? You too stupid?"

I grin, amused, "Something like that. I never passed a single test at school so maybe I am stupid," I tell them. They all lean back aghast.

"How can you not pass a single school test? They're so easy!" Simon exclaims, rolling his eyes. In Erudite, it's common for parents to hire a private tutor for their children, not only to push their intelligence to the limit, but because most of the Erudite children found the school education a walk in the park. Simon seems like one of those kids.

"Maybe for you they were. My parents pretty much hated me; I was a disappointment to them," I shrug, "I didn't fit in. So I left." Laura is staring at me, her features etched with kindness and pity. I look down, unable to bear the care in her expression.

"What about you, Laura?" I try to draw attention away from me, "What made you leave Amity?" Her reaction is immediate, a look of pain flashing through her face, her eyes fogging over at some distant memory. Guilt wrenches through me, wandering what experience could possibly change her usually friendly and kind self, to total withdrawal. She begins to shrink into herself, tears forming in her eyes.

"Hey, look! Thomas is here," Georgina changes the subject.

I look up and see Thomas stagger in, his face pale, a stain down the front of his jacket.

"Eww!" Georgina exclaims. He grabs a glass of water, and sits at the other end of the table with Rory, his eyes never leaving Four who is laughing with Six and the other instructors, I remember they are called Uriah and Lynn. I see Six lean over to Uriah, speaking with the same wicked grin on her face as earlier. Then she gestures at Four's lap and Uriah roars with laughter, holding his stomach while Four's face turns bright red.

P/B

After lunch, we all head back to the training room where Four and Six are already waiting for us.

"This afternoon," Four begins. "We will be working on exercises designed to improve your strength and fitness. Pay attention; this is the only time we will do these in a training session. You are expected to carry on in your own time."

We spend the whole afternoon doing push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups until our torsos and arms are shaking with exhaustion. When we are dismissed, I throw myself onto my bed and close my eyes.

"Hey, wanna grab some food?" A voice interrupts my nap. Laura. I glance at my watch, seeing it is nine o'clock. I missed dinner in the cafeteria again. We'll have to pay for a meal with the cards Four gave to us yesterday. I nod at her.

"Sure thing," I say.

We head to one of the restaurants on the edge of the Pit, and when we enter, I notice Six and Four holding hands at a table. They snap apart when they see us.

"What are you guys doing here?" Six says, her cheeks colouring.

I glance at my feet, suddenly awkward, "I slept through dinner, so we're gonna grab something here," I mumble. Four nods.

We sit down at a table and I turn to Laura who has her eyebrows raised at me. "You think they're together?" she asks me.

I shrug, "Maybe. Not really my business," I say. She looks at me strangely, her head tilted to the side. "You're an odd one," she smiles.

"Yeah, I know," I reply. I don't need her to tell me that I've always been the odd one, never fitting in anywhere. We order our food and are silent until it arrives, although she keeps looking at me and I try to look anywhere else, suddenly feeling awkward.

When our food arrives, I clear my throat, "So, um, what was that about earlier?" I ask her, as casually as I can.

She looks at me, feigning ignorance, "What do you mean?"

"Well, when I asked why you left Amity, you reacted strangely," I realize how tense I am in apprehension of her answer, and try to seem more casual.

"It was nothing. I was bored of my life and wanted an adventure so I joined Dauntless. That's all there is to it," she shrugs, as if it doesn't matter, but I don't buy it.

"Anyway, we're in Dauntless now, and we should be more concerned about our initiation then the factions we've left behind." she says.

I nod, "Yeah, you're right," and don't press the matter further.

Six and Four get up to leave, and pass by us. Four stops and says, "Try to get as much sleep as possible, you'll have your first fights tomorrow and we'll be beginning to rank you."

"Why are the rankings so important?" I ask him.

Six looks at her feet as Four says, "Well, they'll determine what job you go into when you become a member. And also... only the top ten initiates will become members." He looks at us sadly.

"But there's only six of us, right? How can ten of us make it through?" I ask, confused.

"You may be trained separately from the Dauntless-born initiates, but, when you are ranked, you are ranked against them. And there are fourteen of them this year. Remember, they've been here their whole life and are already better than you."

"But that's not fair!" Laura exclaims, standing up. "Why would you not let us join you when we chose you as our faction? We chose to live here for the rest of our lives! Where would we go?" She's glaring up at Four.

"Listen," Four says, his voice low, his posture tense. "If you don't make it, you will be kicked out. Made factionless!" I feel a huge weight on me suddenly, pushing me into the ground. "If you don't like it, that's too bad, you'll just have to suck it up. You chose us, yes. Now we choose you." He whirls around and leaves the restaurant. Six looks at us apologetically, before running after him.

"I don't believe it!" Laura is frantic. "How can they do this? This was my only chance. My only hope!" Tears form in her eyes and she breaks down, her sobs jerking her body. I sit, stunned for a moment, realizing I have never seen someone else cry before. I sit there like an idiot, before my body acts without me thinking, yet again. I am on the other side of the table and I wrap my arms around her and tuck her head under my chin until her sobs stop.

"Hey, it's okay! I'll get you through it. We'll get each other through it," I say, though doubt claws at my chest. She looks up at me, her bright eyes, usually full of a kindness and selflessness that I've never seen in anyone else, now watery with her tears.

I pull back, suddenly aware that I am touching someone other than my family, again something I've never even done before. Not only was I touching someone, I was hugging them, and it was a girl. I wince at my mind's slowness. I step away from her, and cringe as her eyes show the hurt of being left alone. But then she nods, and we head back to the dorm.

P/B

When we are back, Laura goes to bed, but I summon my courage and walk to the edge of the group in the corner of the room. I speak up, interrupting Rory who is showing everyone the bruises on his knuckles from hitting the punch bag.

"They're going to cut ten of us at the end of initiation," I say quietly, but it immediately catches everyone's attention. "We're being ranked against the fourteen Dauntless-born initiates, and out of all of us, only ten will become full members."

Everyone's eyes are wide with fear for a second then they all begin shouting at once, things like "That's not fair!" and "How can they do that?!"

Thomas' voice cuts over everyone else's. "Wait, wait, wait. Who told you this?" he asks me, frowning.

"Laura and I went to get dinner and saw Six and Four. Four told me." I answer, guardedly. I don't want him to know that I went to dinner alone with Laura.

After that, we all withdraw to our beds, but all night I stay awake, imagining living factionless, with no purpose to my life. I can tell everyone else is awake too, thinking the same thing. I have to pass initiation. I tell myself. Then I hear Laura crying quietly on her bed and vow that, no matter what, we will both become full Dauntless members.

No matter what.

Okay, so this has gotten pretty grim pretty fast. Thanks, again for reading and look out for the next chapter. Bye bye!

~Crysics~