Skye wakes up in the middle of the night. She thought she had heard a familiar sound, but there's no way it could be here. I must have dreamed it, she thinks, and rolls over to go back to sleep.
A moment later, she sits straight up in bed. There it is again! She gets out of bed and slips out of the dormitory without waking anyone else.
For a third time, she hears the three-note whistle used in Amity as a doorbell of sorts, to indicate that a friend was coming in the house. No one in Amity locks their doors; instead, manners dictate that one announce one's presence by whistling this particular pattern. She follows the sound of the whistle down a hallway, around a corner, and stops dead in her tracks.
Lincoln, however, breaks into a run. Wrapping his arms around her, he whispers "It's so good to see you" into her ear.
"Lincoln! What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to see you," he says, as if it should be obvious.
"And I'm happy to see you, really, but…you're not allowed to be here." Skye hears footsteps behind her, coming from the dorm. "Lincoln, someone's coming. Hide!"
Leo comes around the corner before Lincoln has a chance to find a hiding spot. "Who's this?" he asks, looking from Skye to Lincoln and back to Skye.
Lincoln offers Leo a hug of greeting, but Leo steps back. "Are you one of Mary Sue's friends?" Lincoln asks, still amiable.
Leo gets a look of incredulity on his face. "Mary Sue?"
"Leo, please go back to bed." When he doesn't move immediately, Skye turns to him and places her hands on his shoulders. "I will explain everything, I promise. Just…please."
"All right," Leo responds, still suspicious, and returns back the way he came.
"I go by Skye now," she tells him, slipping into an empty training room so they won't be so easily overheard.
Lincoln's face falls. "Why? Why would you change your name?"
"Mary Sue's not exactly a Dauntless name," she explains. "Actually, it's a kind of terrible name altogether."
"Skye," he says, the new name slipping hesitantly off his tongue, "I need to ask you something."
"What is it? What could possibly be so important that you'd sneak out of Amity, into the Dauntless compound—which I don't even know how you did, by the way—to come ask me?"
"Why did you leave?" he asks.
"What do you mean?"
"Why would you leave Amity? It's a beautiful place. I thought—I thought you'd make your life there. Out in the fields, in the farms, under the open sky, coming home every evening to break bread with people who love each other and care for each other—what is there in this dark cave that's so much better than that life?"
"Lincoln, I was a foster kid."
"So were half the kids in Amity. It doesn't make a difference—"
"It makes a difference to me!" she shouts. Fearing someone might overhear, she lowers her voice. "I knew that I didn't belong in Amity. I was never supposed to be there."
"Amity is a place where anyone belongs. Everyone who doesn't belong other places finds their place in Amity."
"But I believe I have a place, and it's not where people smile at me and pretend to be my friends just because they have to."
"No, apparently it's where people jump off trains and get themselves killed!" Lincoln is more agitated than Skye has ever seen him. "What was so wrong with Amity that you couldn't live there?"
"I'm not like you, Lincoln," she replies, her voice steady. "I can't love effortlessly and unconditionally like you can. I survived sixteen years in Amity by working hard to get along with people. I couldn't live the rest of my life like that."
"So getting along with people doesn't come naturally to you, but being brave does?" he asks.
"No, being brave isn't easy, but it's worth the effort. I jumped off a roof, Lincoln. I've fought someone twice my size. Look at me! I'm not Amity anymore. And the more I learn what it means to be Dauntless, the more I think I wasn't ever Amity to begin with."
He shakes his head. "I feel like I don't even know you."
"Maybe you don't," she tells him sadly. "You knew Mary Sue, but I don't think you know Skye."
"I'm not sure I want to." With that, he's gone.