Tris's P.O.V.

I was anxious for Four to get back to the compound. He had said that he had been going to visit a place that wasn't torn apart like our society. I guess that was what the gate was keeping us from seeing. It was only just about to be the beginning of stage two for the initiates. I was curious to see if he came back with anyone new. When I heard silence fall over the Pit, I knew Four must've gotten back. I raced towards him, hoping that everything was alright. I had a smile plastered across my face, because at first, I was happy to see him, but it faded as I actually saw him.

He was walking briskly across the room, the wrist of some unknown, never seen before girl, clenched in his hand. She was staggering along behind him, her head hung low. She lifted her head for mere seconds, and her eyes locked with mine. The girl stopped walking. I didn't know why, but I couldn't move my eyes from hers. It was like she was trying to tell me something. Despite the fact that Four was dragging her across the Pit, I knew that this girl wasn't going to move. I could hear Four grumble disapprovingly as he walked back towards the girl. When his eyes shifted from her to what she was looking at, which happened to be me, he sighed. He motioned me to follow them to where ever he was taking this girl.

As we walked the dark corridors of the Dauntless compound, I could hear Four whispering something to her. I'm sure he was just telling her it was going to be alright and that there was nothing to be afraid of. But then again, this was Dauntless, and she was probably an initiate. So what was there not to fear?

"Four?" I asked in a hushed tone. He didn't respond, but I kept going anyway. "What is this about? Why is there some stranger girl in the compound? Why did you do this?" questions flew out of my mouth. I couldn't stop them.

"I will tell you in a moment. Just please let me get to where we are going." He said sternly. I set my face in a look of slight annoyance that he couldn't see because he was facing the other way. I crossed my arms and sighed. Why was this girl here? What was so important about her that Four just HAD to bring her back with him?

Sami's P.O.V.

When I saw that girl, I somehow knew that I had seen her before. I just knew it. And we both looked at each other in a way as though we did know each other.

Four had been dragging me behind him, and I could say his grip was hard around my wrist, but I really didn't mind. I've had worse. It felt like we had been walking forever, but I knew we probably hadn't. I knew it always felt that way when you were somewhere knew and were kind of scared of it. Finally, Four stops in front of a door and turns towards me and the other girl. In that instant, I felt like I KNEW a lot of things. But then again, I probably didn't.

"Four, who is this girl?" she asked.

"In a minute." he said, opening the door. We walked into a place that was lined with bunk beds. Looking around, I couldn't see anyone, which was good, because the first minute I could, I was going to start crying. At least I felt that way. Four walked me over to one of the beds that didn't have any sheets on it. He sat me down and grabbed my shoulders, shaking me around a bit. I slapped his hands off me.

"Stop it Four... You're not helping." I snapped. He stood up and turned to the unidentified girl standing close behind him.

"This-" he said, nodding towards me. "-is-"

"Sami," I cut in. "My name is Sami." I stuck my tongue out at Four. "I can introduce myself, thanks." The girl smiled.

"Sami, this is Tris." Four smiled.

"Hi," Tris said. I smiled at her, but I didn't return her greetings. I didn't really feel like talking to anyone, but I guess I had to at some point. I opened my mouth to speak, but Four cut me off, just like I had him.

"Now, you'll need to catch up on everything. Stage one is done. You need to learn everything everyone else did from stage one. Stage two starts tomorrow, so you will need to fight everyone in order to get your rankings in comparison with everyone else."

"Fight? What?" I said, confused.

"Fight. It's how we got rankings for stage one. Relax. It's not that bad..." Tris said anxiously.

"Oh, this is the greatest shit I've every had to deal with." I mumbled.

"Relax. Everything will be fine."

"Sure it will." I said, crossing my arms. "Everything will be fine after I fight, what? Eight other people?" Someone walked into the room. This person was a very broad-shouldered, and very broad in general, person. He had gentle brown eyes that reminded me of Frank. He had a large nose, and full lips. I looked at him and straightened my posture, hoping that he wouldn't think I was some weakling opponent.

"Oh, and I forgot to mention." Four said. "Only the top ten get to remain in the faction. The rest become factionless." I tilted my head. "You no longer have a home. You no longer are allowed to be with your family. You live on the streets."

"The streets?" I repeated. "Well, it's not that bad. It's better than being kidnapped."

"Why would you get kidnapped?" The unidentified figure said. I started to open my mouth to explain, but shook my head.

"It's complicated," I mumbled. "I'm Sami. I'm guessing you're another person that is going through all the stages?"

"Yes," he said lightly. "I'm Al."

"Hello Al. It's nice to meet you." I smiled a bit.

"Now, as I was saying." Four said. "You will need start stage one training right away. Just because you got here later doesn't give you any excuse to not be where everyone else is."

"Yeah, yeah. I understand. Can't we just do that now?" I asked. I was getting the slightest bit annoyed with Four repeatedly saying I needed to start as soon as possible.

"Uh, sure." He said. "Stage one is testing your physical ability, so we need to train you to become a fighter."

"Can we skip the training? And like, go straight to the fighting? I really don't want to take long."

"But you need experience with training before you fight. I know you do." Tris stuttered. I gave her a half sarcastic half serious unamused look.

"Tris, I hate to break it to you, but with my old family, it was either you fight your way out of your shitty kidnapper's life or you get shot dead." I said, keeping a completely serious straight face. "I think I can handle fighting."

"But you don't know Peter. Or Edward. Or Molly. They will pummel you." Al said, concerned.

"If she wants to go right into fighting, let her." Four mumbled. "Don't say we didn't warn you."

I bit my lip. Dangit. My first impressions suck. "I'm sorry I snapped." I hastily apologized. "I'm just... Just kinda... Freaked out... I guess to be away from my family like this. I was essentially kidnapped, but I wasn't. Because I let you. It wasn't by force that I came here. It was on my own free conscience. I guess that's just an abnormally irrational thought for my mind, being a Hardy and all." I sighed. Tris's face lit up at the mention of my last name.

"Did you say Hardy?" She asked.

I nodded. "Yes, why?"

"Because," she said, grabbing something off the bunk adjacent to mine. "He's only the biggest name of Erudite there is." She thrust a newspaper into my lap. I didn't even read it. I just stared at it.

Dad had said something about having cases recently that we weren't allowed to interfere with AT ALL. And we knew nothing of them. Ever. He was rarely home anymore. So we never actually got the chance to ask him how his cases were going. And here he is, in the newspaper-no, the front page of the the newspaper-of some utterly insane dystopian society I never knew about. This is where he's been going. These were the cases that were so top secret.

"Wh-when was this newspaper p-printed?" I stuttered.

"Just today. Why?" Al said.

"Oh... Um... No reason. None at all..."