AN: Hi! I am very bored! that means more chapters!
I just finished all of my finals yesterday, so I have nothing to do with my free time but write ff's, but there's nothing wrong with that.

* Thank you to everyone who reviewed, as promised, next chapter has gotten all of my attention. I'm sorry if my character development is slow, I promise she unravels more as the story progresses, and as she interacts with Eric more. You'll get to know her more when he get's to know her more, isn't that great?

I hate editing. Which means I didn't edit this, I read through it very briefly and fixed obvious repetitive words and small errors, but otherwise I'm sorry. I don't like reading something I've just written, it bores me. If there are any obnoxious errors tell me, and I will fix them. I will read this eventually and cry at my poor grammatical skills, but for now I just want to upload it.

Anyway, enjoy my boredom in the form of a new chapter!


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Chapter Two

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What woke Reeve up was a sharp clanging sound that reverberated off the concrete walls of their shared living area. Her eyes opened immediately and she pulled herself into a sitting position before the lights turned on as well, she let her cold gaze find Four's figure by the stairs as he gazed around at all of the transfers. His eyes found hers before shifting on to the next person as everyone sat up in the abrupt way that they had been woken.

"I want everyone in the Pit," he said sternly. "Two minutes."

They all grumbled before shifting to get up in a timely manner, Reeve pulled off her covers quickly, shivering at the cold air that greeted her body with goose bumps. Christina and Tris were tired and sluggish next to her as she pulled her long flaming hair into a ponytail and forced her arms into her jacket.

"Hopefully it's not like this every morning," Christina tried to get a grin out of them. Tris complied with a weak smile while Reeve choked back her own remark, knowing that it would most likely be like this every morning if they wanted to stay here.

She was the first to climb the stairs towards the Pit with Peter, Will, Al, and the others following behind, as if they would let a girl show them up. When they got to where Four was standing Reeve couldn't help but notice that Eric, the leader from the roof, was there as well. His hardened blue eyes stared them down as if they were mere insects that needed to be squashed and dealt with, a demeaning gaze. He looked at her suddenly, catching her stare while she tried to figure out why all the leaders seemed so stiff. She held his gaze just as she had done the day before, if she showed weakness she was sure he would pounce.

"There are two stages in training," Four started. Reeve turned her head towards the other Dauntless without turning her eyes at first, she did this slowly, to show the leader in front of her that she wasn't intimidated no matter how much he glared. "The first is physical, push your bodies to the breaking point you'll master the methods of combat. The second is mental, again breaking point; you'll face your worst fears and conquer them, unless they get you first. "You'll be trained separately from the Dauntless born but you'll be ranked together," he explained while pointing at another group of initiates who looked more than at home.

It made Reeve's mind wander away from what Four had just said, eventually, would she also be able to hang out in the Pit and talk as freely as them?

"After initiation rankings will determine what jobs you move into. Leadership, guarding the fence, or keeping the factionless from killing each other," while he spoke Four walked back and forth in front of them. He tried to look everyone in the eyes at least once in order to make sure they were paying attention.

"The rankings will also determine who gets cut," a new voice spoke. Reeve's eyes darted to look towards the source to find that it was Eric; he turned towards the group slowly, his cold eyes stopping on her form.

His words were harsh and made Tris stiffen next to Reeve; she glanced over at Christina with a questioning look on her face. Beside her Reeve didn't look away from the man who seemed to smirk at them while they silently panicked in their minds, though he'd expected more of a reaction out of the red haired girl in front of him. She'd stared at him indifferently he day before and didn't seem to care that he was a leader who could take her down at any moment, so far he didn't like this initiate because she didn't react.

"Cut?" Christina asked.

"At the end of each stage of training the lowest ranking initiates will be leaving us," Eric went on. As he was speaking he got up slowly and walked towards them, his gaze shifted away from Reeve for a moment before settling on her again when he was closer. The piercing above his eyebrow made his eyes appear darker as he stalked towards them; certainly he fit in with the other Dauntless, what with the flashy appearance.

"To do what?" Al questioned making Eric look at him with a sigh.

"There's no going home to your families so you'll live factionless," he said in the same deep and bored voice.

Even if she could go back to her family there was no way Reeve would be able to stand going home to Collin, if she failed and wound up back in that house. There would be nothing she could say to get that man off her back and out of her mind, the brother she used to play with and push down hills. He didn't exist anymore, and she'd stopped being afraid of him a long time ago. Just like the man in front of her who thought he could scare them all away, she wouldn't give him the satisfaction.

"Why didn't we know that?" Will asks with a shaky voice.

"It's a new rule," Eric replies.

"A new rule? Somebody should have told us that," Christina said in an accusing tone.

"Why? Would you have chosen differently?" Eric's voice overlapped hers near the end. "Out of fear, and if that's the case you might as well get out now. If you're really one of us it won't matter to you that you might fail. You chose us, now we get to choose you," he finished before glancing down at Reeve.

She could feel the confusion and anger from the rest of the initiates behind her, but she simply cast her eyes across the room. Staring at a small cave in the wall that she imagined herself exploring one day, as long as she ignored everything else and fought her way through this the best she knew how, she'd have a chance.

-o-o-

They started off with running, something Reeve had loved as a child before her parents started to crack down on how inappropriate it was. She was fast, but only for a short amount of time before her stamina ran out and she fell to the back, her legs heavy with exhaustion that she ignored. A couple other initiates were slow as well, falling to the back of the group with her before sneering and picking up the pace even as their breath became ragged. When they finally stopped Reeve showed Tris, Christina, Al and Will how to hold their hands on their head in order to open up their lungs so they could breathe better and relax. It was something she had read in a book a long time ago, useless information she thought she would never need.

Four showed them a fight between him and another Dauntless member, he was ruthless and held nothing back against the other man. Tris turned away and averted her eyes, after being in Abnegation for so long it was probably hard for her to watch someone beat another person down. Reeve was watching Four's feet as he moved, trying to figure out when he threw his punch in order to get the most power behind it. She knew to aim for the throat, because if her opponent couldn't breathe they also wouldn't be able to fight. Before Collin decided to stay in Erudite and make her life a living hell she'd considered becoming a doctor if she were to stay, she knew how to hurt someone if she really needed to.

There was the firing range where they shot orange busts from a distance on the roof, peppering the bright color with black spots as bullets hit their target or whizzed by. Reeve was bad at first, she and Tris grinned at each other when they continued to miss, but instead of getting frustrated she relaxed into the shot and moved with the recoil, hitting the target in the chest finally. She tried to explain to Tris how she had finally accomplished it but Will had already made a smart remark that deflated the girls confidence.

It was hard to keep up during the constant strain of their bodies, waking every morning with sore muscles that cried out in pain whenever they moved to the cafeteria to get sustenance. Reeve started stretching in order to let them breathe in the morning wondering if it would hurt less if she did so. She was really starting to get tired of her hair, always in her face, her bangs pulling out of the ponytail made her growl in irritation.

Will had gotten into the habit of asking her how she was doing that morning and if she'd slept well, she didn't know what he was trying to pull but she wouldn't fall for it. Why would he care if she had gotten a good night's rest or not? They were fighting for the same spots on the ranking board, he shouldn't be able to be friendly until after initiation.

Only once had she run into Eric now that it was Four exclusively that was taking care of their training, they'd passed each other when she was on her way back from the cafeteria with Will. He was muttering something about how if she were to listen to him more she could shoot better and she was ignoring him like she always did. The leader walked right in between them, bumping both of their shoulders before turning to glare at the initiates darkly, Reeve held a cold gaze on her face as well.

"Sorry," Will muttered next to Reeve. It was the power that Eric had over them that made the other initiate crumble, he was a leader and they were lowly transfers, but Reeve didn't care. This was how people like him worked; they were commanding and didn't care if they were wrong as long as they won.

"Are you mute?" Eric pushed looking down at the small girl beneath him. He hated the way her expression didn't change when she spoke and wanted to throw her against the rocky wall behind them.

"My apologies for walking," she'd muttered before the man sneered and walked off.

It hadn't been a cheerful nor memorable meeting for Reeve, but for Eric it was enraging. He'd just wanted to get a reaction out of the girl, watching her from afar to see that she didn't show weakness was irritating. Her calm green and grey eyes looking up at him so disinterested made his blood boil. There should have been fear or some sort of remorse there for even coming into contact with him, but she didn't seem to care at all, the only question he didn't seem to ask himself was, why did he care?

"First jumper," Reeve recognized the deep voice of Eric before even looking at him. They were in pairs, practicing their stance by tapping forearms against the other persons, building up speed as they saw fit. The voice halted their movements as she and Al turned to look at Tris who seemed somewhat nervous to be called out by the leader, no one liked it when he called them out. "In the ring."

He glanced over at her then, and she did what she'd done the first time she looked away from him after jumping off the roof. Her mouth quirked the tiniest bit before turning to look at her friend who seemed more than a little anxious.

"Last jumper, time to fight," he said looking for who the last jumper was. Turned out to be Molly, the dark haired girl that Tris, Christina, Will, Al, and Reeve tended to shy away from as she hung out with Peter and Edward. She sauntered up to the mat slowly, and although both she and Tris seemed wary of what was going to happen her pasture held a more confident air than the once Abnegation girl.

"How long do we fight for?" Molly asked turning to look at Eric.

"Till one of you can't continue," he replied.

"Or one of you concedes," Four stepped in to say. Reeve turned to look at the two men on the other side of the ring curiously; she always liked watching conflict when it involved someone she disliked. Obviously there was some sort of tension between the two, and she was more than happy to watch it from the other side.

"According to the old rules, the new rules, no one concedes," he said without looking at anyone. Reeve had to strain her hearing in order to hear the next part of the conversation as they lowered their voices to speak to each other. Even going as far as inching closer towards where they were standing, for some reason she enjoyed riling her enemies up, especially when it had been her brother. Just to see the man's face crumple into one of hatred and blooming rage as he tore through the house unable to do anything as she poke the angry bear from behind a shield. Back then the shield had been her mother, father, and younger siblings, but here she would have to be careful because she didn't have anything like that.

"Really want to lose them on their first fight?" She almost didn't hear what Four said.

"Well a brave man never surrenders," was the response.

"Lucky for you those weren't the rules when we fought," Four said with a small grin on his face. Though Eric didn't turn to look at the other man Reeve could tell he was pissed off at the comment, his gaze shifted towards the others in the room until he found her again. Slowly she let a smirk find its way onto her features, a subtle expression that she carried with her as she turned away from him. Eric let his eyes flare dangerously; of course she had heard that.

"You'll be scored on this so fight hard," he bit out venomously. The two in the ring faltered for a few moments before Eric became impatient. "Go," he huffed.

Eric barely watched the fight, all he could think about was the way that girl had smirked at him and how angry it made him. He'd gotten used to, and even expected the indifferent expression on her face, but to see her react to something that Four had said was infuriating for reasons he did not know. Yet at the same time the way it had changed her face so easily was interesting, what other expressions could she make and would he be able to see them?

Reeve was watching the two girls fight carefully, analyzing how they struck each other and when they grew sluggish after taking a hit. Molly was slow but had powerful punches, forceful hits that threw Tris off balance, if Reeve ever went up against the once Candor girl she'd have to move fast and strike quickly. Probably aim for the neck to disorient her before stabbing under her ribs with clenched knuckles, perhaps an elbow to the head or a knee to the nose.

It was over with quickly and Reeve was the first to go to Tris, checking for blood like she had done many times for her brothers and sisters when they fell or hit their heads. She was unconscious and would more than likely need a cold cloth if there would be swelling, or just to keep the head ache down.

"Is there something cold I can put on her face?" She questioned towards Four. Eric didn't exist at the moment and he was annoyed that she disregarded him completely, irritated enough to shout out the next fight.

"You," he pointed the red haired girl. "Stay in the ring, someone take the stiff," he said keeping his gaze on the girl in front of him. Reeve glared at him darkly, pissing him off even more, it made him realize that he didn't even know her name while she obviously knew who he was. "Second to last jumper, your turn," he muttered not even remembering who had jumped just before Molly.

It was another girl who looked about the same size as the red haired one; he didn't know what the girl's name was either, just that she looked nervous.

"You've got this Reeve," Christina said while pulling Tris out of the ring. The red haired girl kept her gaze on the figure opposite of her as the other initiate, who turned out to be Myra, put her hands up in order to guard as they both waited for Eric to speak. She knew the girl from Erudite, she'd transferred over with Edward, her boyfriend, and Reeve often followed them with her gaze at school when nothing else exciting was happening.

The leader stared at them expectantly, waiting for the two of them to go at each other until he realized that they were waiting for something.

"Now," he spat out annoyed.

Reeve had been waiting for him to speak so the other girl would turn to look his way; it was at that moment that she lunged, taking two quick steps forward. Myra shifted backwards sharply, stepping awkwardly on her left foot and leaning that direction a little too much. Reeve saw it as an opportunity and swung a slightly cupped palm onto her ear drum, clapping against the skin for a second before she grunted and staggered away.

Myra sent a few weak punches in her direction and Reeve saw an opening while her arms were away from guarding her face. Intentionally she took a hit to the ribs in order to hit the other girl's throat which caused her to gag almost immediately and shrink away. They circled each other again as Myra gasped and Reeve watched carefully, where she'd been punched ached slightly but she ignored it. With a yell Myra launched at her, trying to hit her in the head and grabbing her hair when she missed. It made Reeve hiss angrily, if it had been up to her when she lived in Erudite she'd have lopped it all off a long time ago, now it was only making trouble for her.

Angry hands in her hair tore at her scalp as Myra pulled her around like a ragdoll, Reeve snarled darkly towards the girl before sinking her hands into the soft skin of the exposed stomach in front of her. Clenching the flesh against her fingers she twisted her wrists around before punching into the girl's stomach, the other could only react with a knee to the face, which Reeve caught in the cheek. She tasted blood in her mouth as her teeth bit through a layer of skin; the metallic warmth of it in her mouth was a wakeup call.

Instead of getting angry like she always did Reeve let a slow breath escape her lips as a little bit of blood trickled down her chin. Myra grinned at the small bit of crimson she had been able to produce from the other girl, though the calm gaze from the green and grey eyed girl did nothing to sate her nerves.

He'd been watching the fight carefully, noting the way the red haired girl analyzed what she was doing before attacking accordingly, and looking for openings and weak points as she fought. If anything it made him all the angrier that he wasn't watching her getting beat into a pulp, next time he'd make her fight one of the guys.

They'd been watching each other for no more than twenty seconds when Reeve smiled towards the other girl, showing off her bloody teeth, she wanted to make her uncomfortable. It made everyone else uneasy as well as Myra inched towards the girl once again, aiming to end the fight now that she was good an angry for being mocked. She went for a punch to the gut that Reeve dodged quickly, already she'd seen this fight in her head, and thinking of all the possible outcomes that could develop depending on what punch Myra threw first. Again she went for the next, liking the choking sound that came immediately after a soft hit to the wind pipe. Then as Myra sank towards the ground and lost her guarded posture Reeve pulled her elbow back and took a step towards the right, taking her elbow with her. Landing a swift hit to the back of the head had the other girl crumpling to the ground with a muffled yell.

She'd never fought anyone before, only verbal fights with her brother that left both of them with clenched fists and bitter tastes in their mouths. The amount of time she'd gone into her room to punch a hole in her wall were many, she'd always reveled at the stinging tingle of pain that laced her knuckles afterwards. But this was different, someone had been trying to get her down, to hurt her, and she'd protected herself admirably, smartly, and without mercy. At first she'd apologized to the girl silently in her mind but now all that was left was the adrenaline that came with finishing a fight, even with the taste of blood on her tongue she could only think of one word. Invigorating.

"Reeve wins," Four called out. A few of Myra's friends went to her then, moving the girl towards the medical bay as Four told them to.

Next to him Eric glowered down at the girl as she wiped her lips and chin, he hadn't been expecting the smile that crossed her features during the fight. The way her eyes had hardened just before she swung and the excited air about her after she'd finished, as if she'd enjoyed the whole thing, and now he knew her name.

Reeve.

If nothing else happened during initiation except watching this girl fail Eric would be happy, he just wanted to watch her crumble and see all the expressions that came with it. She'd be his project, how far could he push this girl before she finally snapped?

"Alright guys, over here," he turned to walk towards an electric board towards the middle of the training area. "Listen up," he stopped and turned once he made it next to the thing. "You know what this board is?" He questioned looking at all of them. Before seeing her own name Reeve saw Tris's in red and Christina in white, her name was also in white, a few spaces above the girl she had just fought. "Your life. Grade you every day, if you're still in the red by the end of the first stage, you're out," he explained glancing over at Reeve as she prodded the inside of her cheek with a bored expression on her face.

"That's it for today," Four called out behind them.

At dinner Reeve was careful of her cheek as the others congratulated her on a good fight, asking if her head was okay after the hit she took. She was more worried about Tris who had taken a beating in comparison to her fight; Reeve kept giving the girl pointers on how she might be able to get rid of the head ache. They went back to their shared living quarters to relax; Tris was worried about her ranking.

"I'm never gonna make it," she sighed sadly.

"Yes you are," Christina muttered.

"I'm the weakest one here," she added making Reeve frown next to them.

"Then you'll be most improved," the dark skinned girl countered with a grin.

"You're Candor; you're not supposed to lie."

"I was Candor, and I'm not lying," she replied while sitting down on her bed.

"At least you can't get any worse," Reeve murmured before catching what she said. Christina glanced over at the red haired girl with her mouth open; it was the first time she had made a joke about anything. Tris gave her a bland look while Christina held back a smile.

"Where did that come from?" She laughed while Reeve gave them a clueless expression. "Maybe we should hit you in the head more often." Tris laughed at this while Reeve frowned.

"I don't know how I feel about that," she responded blandly.

"If they cut me I think my parents will take me back," Al joined into the conversation from a few feet away.

"No it doesn't work like that," Will explained while taking off his boots. "Even if they wanted to their faction wouldn't allow it."

"Even if my parents would take me back, I wouldn't belong there anymore," Tris's voice got quieter near the end of her sentence.

"I'd rather be factionless than go back to my family," Reeve added letting her mouth speak before her brain caught up. They all glanced at her with wary expressions on their faces as she glared across the room, staring at something that didn't exist in their eyes.

"This is getting depressing," Christina said blandly looking at them. Will agreed with a laugh and Reeve couldn't help but feel the same, any time she thought of home or her old faction her brother popped into her mind. "You know what we should do?" She questioned rhetorically. "Get tattoos."

They all chuckled lightly before standing up, pulling a reluctant Reeve to her feet; she didn't really see the point in getting something permanently burned into her skin. There wasn't anything she had liked for more than a year that she would want anywhere on her body.

On the way to the parlor they passed a hair cutting place, the glint of shiny scissors had caught the red heads eyes as she grinned in anticipation. It was something she had always wanted to do, get her hair cut, but her mother was against a girl having short hair like a boy. Her mother was no longer here and Reeve's hair had been latched onto that day during a fight for the simple fact that it was too long, it needed a decent cut.

"I'll meet you there," she turned away from the group. Will turned around to jest her about being scared but saw where she was headed.

"Maybe we won't recognize you afterwards," Christina joked before they turned around a corner and left the girl to walk in alone.

It was a small area with two chairs that looked at mirrors and various other objects that lined a shelf just under the reflective surface. A girl with hair so blonde it looked white saw her walk in and smiled devilishly at her, as if the sight of her flaming hair was exciting. Her hair was long on one side and pulled into a weird sort of ponytail on the other side, spiked up in the back and wild looking. Reeve couldn't imagine it bouncing all over the place during a fight or even waving back and forth during a jog, it probably looked ridiculous.

"Ready to get crazy, or are you just looking for a trim?" She said leading Reeve towards a chair.

"I want it short," she answered realizing how foolish she probably sounded to the woman. She'd never been one to worry about her appearance and didn't know how to do anything with her hair like her sister had. "I don't know any styles so, whatever you think would look best," she concluded. If it was this woman's job to cut hair, she was probably pretty good at it, so if she left her with all the power she couldn't complain in the end.

"Are you sure?" The smile she was sporting looked devious. Reeve nodded before turning to look at herself in the mirror. Two different colored eyes looked back. "How about something to highlight those gorgeous eyes?" She questioned already ideas forming into her head about what she could do with such vibrantly red hair.

"Whatever you want," Reeve finished before closing her eyes like the woman instructed.

Throughout the whole thing Jyn, she'd told Reeve her name, tried to make small talk with the girl but soon found out that very minimal responses was all she was going to get. So instead she focused on getting everything perfect, it'd been a while since she'd gotten to do whatever she wanted with someone's hair.

"Alright, what do you think?" Jyn mused turning the girl around to look in the mirror. Reeve opened her eyes slowly, looking at the person in the mirror blandly before realizing she was looking at her own reflection.

Her bangs were swept towards the left across her green eye, covering it only slightly while her grey eye lay uncovered on the right side. A sort of asymmetrical look that drew attention to the odd color of her irises, something she wouldn't have wanted in the past but couldn't care less about now. The rest of her hair had been clipped close to her head and feathered; her ears just peaked through the red length trimmed around the lobes.

"You look completely different," Jyn said with a gasp.

"I don't even look like myself anymore," Reeve whispered breathlessly.

"You like it?" The crazy blonde haired girl asked while wagging her eye brows.

"Yeah," she answered in a breathy voice.

"Great," she squeaked. "Because I think you look hot," her comment made Reeve stare at her blandly. She didn't care about that; the big difference was how much lighter her head felt without so much hair holding her down. "Any guy looking at you will want to take a bite," she smirked slyly.

"What does that even mean?" Reeve questioned with a quirked eyebrow.

"I'm sure you'll find out," she muttered before laughing at the initiates' disgusted expression. Little by little she was opening up to the people in this faction; slowly she was coming out of her shell, something she hadn't done in a long time. "Make sure to come back and see me when it gets too long," Jyn called out to her as she left the store.

"Thanks," she muttered softly before turning towards the tattoo parlor. Just as she went around the corner someone came from the other side, Reeve was met with a hard chest that made her stumble backwards against the rocky wall.

"Damn short people," she heard a voice growl as someone pulled her back onto her feet harshly. The grip softened when the person saw that she was a girl, only to tighten again when they realized who she was. The voice had sounded familiar and only when Reeve looked up at the man did she understand why.

Eric was glowering down at her with a confused icy glare in his eyes.

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AN: Ehhh? What did you think? Still as good as the first chapter? Better than the first chapter? There really isn't that much going on right now, sorry about that, it'll get better. But there was more Eric in this chapter than the last one at least. I apologize for errors again (such hatred for editing).

Please remember that this story competes with all my other ones and reviews are what I look for. I'm actually going to write a chapter for a different story now, but if you all (ya'll) review a lot for this one I might ignore it to write chapter three.

Thanks for reading!