AN: Hi everyone! Thanks so much for all of the likes and follows. It was awesome to see how many people are enjoying the story, and I would love to hear all of your thoughts. I'm dying to know what you think about my own take on Dauntless initiation since it's a little different.

Don't anyone worry about me making Arya too perfect or beastly right away. She'll struggle and fight just like everyone else. I'm going to try and keep updating every other week for you, my lovelies :)

Enjoy!

Master The Maze

The room was black, musty and cold when I woke with a start. My heart pinched. My hands clenched. In a second, I closed my eyes, calming myself; I wasn't in Erudite anymore. This wasn't my soft plush mattress anymore. This was on the lumpy cold cot in a tiny little room with nine other people; this was the dark pit of Dauntless trapped a room with Candor and Erudite trying to become brave.

That's right. I was Dauntless. I was brave.

I am brave, I thought reverently, repeating it until the pounding in my chest eased by to a regular thump and the lingering tingle of nightmares faded away.

Siting up, I swung my leg over the side of the bed and waited for my eyes to adjust to the dark before looking around. A clock high up on the back wall read a quarter before seven, but after scanning the beds I noticed two people were already up and gone: Becca and one of the boys by the looks of it. Considering we didn't need to meet in the Pit until eight, there was still some time. They probably went for breakfast.

Regardless, I forced myself up, stumbling a little in the dark to wiggle into my skin-tight work out pants and a dark shirt. Finding my new shoes were harder, but with a little struggle I managed, and was out the door and down the halls towards the Pit. My stomach gurgled, leading me on, even as I took a few wrong turns.

By the time I found the burning flames bouncing off the stonewalls all around, I could see Becca and a boy—Thomas, if I remembered correctly—coming up the sideless walkways towards me. My eyes narrowed, seeing the two laughing over something and smiling. They were far too close, my mind warned, but really, if Becca made new friends it wasn't my place to say anything. It's what I should be doing.

Make friends. Find weak spots. Crush them to pass initiation, a voice hissed.

There wasn't a way around them. In the end, I stopped, waiting off to the side of the path for them to come up, and Becca quickly caught sight of me. "Ayra!" she called, waving an arm and shooting me a brilliant smile that shone with the pearls of suns. I tried to return it, but she probably couldn't even see it as she walked a little faster up the path, Thomas hanging back. "Tommy and I were just on our way back to wake everyone up."

Tommy? Well, that didn't take long.

I held my tongue.

Becca stopped a little in front, her eyes quickly scanning my body language, and before her Candor eyes could find anything I didn't want her to see, I let out an awkward laugh. Her attention narrowed in on my face, and I forced myself to rub the back of my neck in a standard bashful gesture. It was hard to tell if the distraction worked. "Yeah, I got a little lost on my way here." I shot the handful of muffins in her hands a look. They smelled heavenly. "Did you find breakfast?"

She offered one without protest, and by then, Thomas caught up. He stood a little taller than Becca, but at least an inch shorter than me, and I tried not to straighten my spine reflexively. The shaggy blonde hair framing his green eyes cast a deceptively innocent look.

Becca didn't seem bothered by his close proximity. "Yeah, we grabbed people some food since we figured they might not wake up in time. Wanna head back and see if anyone else is up?"

No. Finding breakfast and getting more delicious food sounded better, but I nodded anyways. Better to make friends than enemies so soon.

I took a big bite from the muffin, letting Becca pass, before falling in step behind her. The halls were too narrow to let the three of us walk side-by-side. Unexpectedly, Thomas fell in line next to me, offering a hesitant smile.

I blinked, realizing this was another chance to reach out and make a friend.

Shit.

"The names Thomas, but you can call me Tommy," he offered, eyeing me closely as I chewed my bite.

I studied his eyes a second longer, before giving him what I hoped was a convincing smile. "Arya," I stated simply. He nodded, and I forced myself to think of something else to keep the conversation going. "Did you know Becca before coming here?"

"Kind of. My parents were friends with hers so I saw her a few times. She looked better in white."

Becca's head turned around with a harmless glare. "You look better with your mouth shut."

Candors knew how to make things awkward. I flinched, unaware I'd made some sort of noise until Thomas looked over with a raised eyebrow, clearly seeing my discomfort. "It's a habit," he explained simply. Telling the truth, I realized after a beat. After a while, telling the truth would probably be more of a habit than anything else. "You'll get used to it."

Probably not, but ok.

Becca laughed and it sounded like damn church bells tinkering at the gates of heaven.

"What do you think is gonna happen today?" I asked mainly to keep my thoughts in a neutral territory.

"Amar said training was broke up into three separate parts so I bet that it's going to be physical," Becca stated. By now we were nearly back to the room. "I mean; have you looked at any of these people? They're huge."

I blinked, unaware Amar said anything—it was probably when I was off wondering—but kept my mouth shut.

"I hope so," Thomas shrugged, looking a little sheepish when Becca and I both shot him a look. With his broad shoulders and already beefy arms, I wasn't surprised. "It makes sense to get it out of the way. Why deal with people who can't make the cut?"

"I hope not," I muttered.

Thankfully, we made it back to the dorm room before anyone could comment, and I slipped inside behind Becca. She flicked on the lights with no remorse. The resounding groans and creaks of bed was oddly pleasing, but I ducked my head to hide my smile in case someone felt vindictive. Thomas offered us both one last grin before heading over to his own side to wake a few people.

I followed Becca lamely, blinking against the light in the room, while she stopped by Ian's bed first and then Sam's. Ian was already stirring when we made it over, taking his muffin with murmured thanks and stretching slowly. It took Ian smacking against the metal next to Sam's head to get the redhead up, and he let out a curse as she nearly head-butted him in the process. The little girl shot everyone a poisonous glare, but Becca rolled her eyes, tossing her the last muffin regardless.

We traveled out the door like a pack of newborn sheep clamoring together towards the Pit. Becca and Sam led the way, both shining in a type of confidence I couldn't help but envy, even if Sam still grumbled under her breath.

"So what was last night about?" Ian asked between bites as we stepped into the Pit.

I flinched, unprepared for the question and Becca and Sam both looked over expectantly. "What do you mean?" I hedged, glancing around in hopes that Amar would walk in soon.

"Everyone heard the racket last night and Becca told me you were the one that slipped out," Ian shrugged. "I was just curious about what happened, is all."

The large clock high up on the wall clicked to eight o'clock, but there wasn't any sign of Amar anywhere.

Hesitating a second, I glanced between all three of their faces only to see a couple others were listening in from where they'd clustered up to talk. It was obvious from the way they'd stop moving and talking they were eavesdropping, and I wasn't sure if it was more annoying that they tried to hide it or ridiculous. I stepped closer, dropping my voice until my tentative friends had to lean in.

"I think someone died last night," I finally breathed.

A weight slid off my shoulders at the confession. Becca gasped and Sam nearly choked on her muffin. I didn't dare look at Ian to see his expression.

"What do you mean you think someone died?" Becca whispered harshly. A few other heads glanced over at the sound, and I held up a hand to check her volume. She glanced around boldly. "Shouldn't you know?"

"It could have been some drill or something, couldn't it?" Ian asked hopefully.

Unable to help myself, I snapped back, "It's not like I stood around waiting for someone to explain it!" Taking a deep breath, I glanced around again and forced myself to hold by my own revolution as I leaned in closer. Feeling the four of our breaths mingling together sent my stomach rolling. "There was a body bag."

"Do you think it was an initiate?" Sam asked.

Pulling back, I hesitated, opening my mouth for a second before closing it unhelpfully. Honestly, I had no idea. People didn't fail initiation here and simply walk out to join the Factionless. People died. Dauntless expected people to die.

How could I know if it was an initiate?

"Listen up!" a familiar voice demands, and I nearly jumped out of my skin, heart racing at the thought of being overheard.

Becca shot me a look, clearly stating the conversation wasn't over, but I didn't have time to worry about it as I spun around to face forward.

Four walked down a pair of steps towards us. Wearing a dark t-shirt that exposed his arms, it suddenly struck me how … normal he looked compared to the other Dauntless walking around. His eyes found mine, and I carefully locked my jaw, knowing I was already on bad enough terms with him. Whether or not he was upset that I showed up on time, I couldn't tell.

"Today will be the only day anyone gets away with being late. If anyone shows up after eight, they're cut. No excuses," Four began. "Normally I work in the control room, but for the next few weeks I will be in charge of your training. My name's Four. Now, follow me," he stated, voice rolling in a threatening bass.

Hunter, the same Erudite that dared to question Amar, carefully raised his hand before Four could turn around. The strain in Four's neck as he closed his eyes for a moment was visible.

"I thought Amar was going to be overseeing our training."

In two hungry strides, Four stepped a reasonable distance infront of Hunter, hardly a foot away. The boy practically melted, and I shuttered, feeling my own skin prickle in anxiety watching. "Change of plans. I'm going to be heading your training now. Is that a problem?" Even from the little time I'd known him, Four seemed particularly prickly today.

"No," Hunter murmured, sounding too much like he'd swallowed his own tongue to get the word out.

Four looked around, scanning all of our faces again, and I try not to react when his eyes lingered on mine. Surely Becca, Sam, and Ian noticed. I wasn't ready to tell them why.

"Follow me," Four repeated again.

This time, no on disputed following Four down a new direction, careful to keep close and within the evenly spaced circles of light. Standing in the dark felt dangerous. Unlike before, no one dared to whisper. Instead, I forced my eyes to remain on Four's back, even as Sam leaned towards me to whisper a question of what that was all about.

"Later," was the only thing I could think to say, since I could feel her shirt brushing against my arm and the feeling was as unacceptable and nerve-wracking as ever. It felt like she pressed into my brain.

Four led us into a training room. It was large with tall ceilings, looking similar to a warehouse with high rectangular windows and thick pillars spaced evenly to divide the room into three sections. The floor is cleared out, but there are heavy sand bags resting on the far wall. A row of several boxing rings stood in the middle section of the floor where the lighting was the best from fluorescents up above, but what drew my eye was the table with guns laying in rows at the end of the room. Targets had been set out, shaped like a person with various rings over their chest and a smaller one on the head.

"This is where the first stage of your training will be for the most part. From here on out, I expect all of you to meet here at eight." When no one offered any question, Four continued. "As you've been told, training will be every day from eight to six, with a break for lunch. After six, you can do whatever you like, and there will be some time off between the three stages of initiation. Everything here runs on points. The better at your job you are after initiation, the more points you'll get, but for now, you'll each gets points monthly to spend. Don't forget, you're going to be evaluated with the Dauntless-born initiates."

The information swirled around in my head, and I blinked to try and memorize it all. Being a former Erudite—maybe, possibly; the detail wasn't large enough to argue about—retaining information wasn't too hard. My brain caught at the end. Evaluated with Dauntless-born, and it sunk in like a cold reality. Dauntless-born already knew how to act insane.

Four looked all of us over carefully again, before saying, "Tomorrow, I expect all of you to meet here, instead of the Pit at eight o'clock."

Instead of moving deeper in the room to start grueling training, Four walked back out the door. Everyone seemed to share a glance before following after him. "I thought we were going to be training?" Sam voiced everyone's thoughts, and I couldn't help but think back to Thomas saying he hoped training was physical first.

Ian was the only one to offer any suggestion. "Maybe the first day is something different?"

I kept my thoughts to myself.

The next room seemed small at first. There was more than enough room for everyone to fit, but outside of two lights, one green and one red up high on the wall next to a clock, there wasn't much special about the space. As I shuffled in further, trying to keep towards the outside to avoid standing too close to anyone, I noticed it. A single door lead back deeper in the room, only the floor was all wrong.

"Is that a maze?" Becca asked, hardly above a breath.

I didn't know what else it could be. There was a painted white line on the ground in front of the door. Past it was a twisting path of uneven terrain, wrapping around odd jutting angles on the wall. I could only see a few feet in before the path turned out of sight.

Everyone's murmurs fell silent as Four shifted. "Today is going to be an introduction to how initiation will work. Behind me is a course designed to test your conditioning. Your time determines your ranking for tomorrow. We will measure your progress and rank you according to your performance in each stage, but the stages are not weighed equally in determining your final rank. It is possible, though difficult, to drastically improve your rank over time."

I chanced a look towards the rest of the initiates, and it was only mildly assuring that others seemed as anxious as I felt.

"This obstacle course," Four continued, "will be one of your final physical tests. Anyone who can't make it through under a designated time will fail."

A cold pit fell in my stomach.

"What?" Cassidy, one of the smallest transfers asked. "What do you mean fail?"

Four expression never changed, even as his eyes moved to meet her, and I could hear the blood pounding in my ears. "This year, Dauntless is only accepting twenty initiates. Since there are twenty Dauntless-born initiates and ten of you, people with the lowest rankings will be cut at the end of every stage. Four at the end of the first and second stage, and two at the final stage."

All ten of us could fail.

"No one ever said anything about failing!" someone from the back of the group called. I couldn't see who spoke.

Four didn't even raise his voice; it would have been better if he had. "This is how Dauntless works. Anyone unwilling to try can leave now." His eyes scanned all of our faces again, and I forced myself to hold the contact until he broke away.

I would pass. I had to. I'd die before ending up hunted down like the Factionless memories I had poisoning my brain.

No one spoke another word and Four nodded in acceptance. "Only one person can enter at a time. It won't be like this every day, so I expect you to cherish it. When that person finishes, I'll call the next through. You will wait at the white line until the light turns green. Any questions?"

Surprisingly, Aaron was the only one that spoke up. "What's the best time?"

"Six minutes and twenty-eight seconds," Four recited off memory.

There was a unanimous silence.

He doesn't offer us good luck. Instead, he nodded, and called out the first contender. "Thomas, you're first." I looked over to see him swallow, before offering a nod, and Four stepped aside to let him step up to the line. "Wait at the other side when you're done," is the only other advice he says before vanishing through another door I hadn't noticed before.

"Is he supposed to say 'go' or something?" Becca asked after a beat of silence.

Thomas stood along with white line, bent and ready to move. It looked awkward, but his face seemed calm enough. Everyone stood around waiting.

The light changed.

And he took off, disappearing around the corner of the path.

Two other people went before my name was called over a speaker I couldn't find. With a jolt, I hopped to my feet from where I sat to pass the time. Sam and Becca both gave me small smiles of encouragement, but I could barely return the favor. Ian had already passed through, but the times between runners were anything but encouraging. My stomach rolled.

Carefully, I put one foot on the line, keeping a sharp eye on the light up above. My back prickled, feeling everyone staring. The light changed. Then I moved, keeping both hands out to feel along the dark walls.

Unlike the others, I didn't try to run. This was a practice round, an introduction to what initiation will be like, Four said. Figuring out the course was more important than rushing through, and I repeated that thought until my breathing evened and I leveled out in a jog.

Every step felt wobbly, the ground rocky, but dark enough I couldn't see it. My knees jarred.

My arms suddenly couldn't reach out the full span anymore. For a second, a trickle of panic crept up my throat as I realized the passage was getting narrower, but I shoved the feeling aside. Eventually I had to turn sideways, shuffling along as the walls pressed against me.

Be brave. Be Dauntless. Be brave. Be Dauntless, I repeated. Over and over as I pushed forward.

Pain lanced through my head. I blinked, realizing I'd smacked into something, and as I lifted my hand I realized the ceiling suddenly dropped. Crouching down, I awkwardly crawled forward, glad that the tunnel seemed to open up enough for me to face forward again once I got low enough.

There was a light.

The path emptied into another room, and I stood on the small platform of flat ground, hands trembling. A light up above was nearly blinding after being in the dark so long. There are several posts, scattered sporadically through the room in front of me, and below was dark. After a second, I realized it was water from the reflections, and another trickle of paranoia crept up my neck wondering if there was something swimming down there.

Instead of another door, there was only a bar, dangling down off of the last post. Jumping over there wasn't hard with my long legs. I could nearly step from one post to the other.

I hesitated at the bar.

My hands felt sweaty, and I anxiously rubbed them off on my pants, glancing around to see where I'd have to go after grabbing the bar. The only option were several others, each hanging a little higher up toward the ceiling.

Most people would probably try to climb them like monkey bars in children playgrounds. Only these stood two feet higher than the previous one, and only someone with considerable arm strength and a large wingspan would be able to make that. Even though I was tall, well able to probably swing from bar to bar, there was no way I could get high enough to reach. The only thing remotely heavy I'd ever lifted in Erudite was a book.

Good god, I was going to fall.

"No, no, no," I murmured, bracing myself and shoving those thoughts away.

With a deep breath, I jumped. The bar swung when I hit it, but I clenched hard enough my hands hurt, burning where I'd made the fateful cut yesterday at the choosing ceremony.

Taking another breath, I heaved, trying to pull myself up. Burning. My arms were burning. Clenching my teeth, I tried to fight through, managing to get high enough to hook my elbow around before my trembling fingers gave out.

Shit!

The scream died in my throat as I fell, and only a miracle let my hands grasp the cold metal again. My arms wouldn't stop trembling, and I could hear my heart pounding. The water waited down below, dark and foreboding.

I didn't have enough arm strength to pull myself up that way. Every second I hung, my arms grew more tired. Thinking quickly, I started to swing, arching my body until I could force my leg up. In a couple of tried I managed to hook it, and scrambling up was awkward but manageable.

The balance was terrible, and my mind screamed at me that this was timed, but slowly I managed to crawl up to the next one, using each bar like a latter until I could see a small air duck leading out of the room.

I nearly collapsed once I made it. The metal was cold, letting out a groan under my weight, but it made me realize how hot I felt. My skin was practically burning.

Crawling was much easier, even through the slight fog up here. I took my time shuffling along, making sure there weren't any random drop offs or turns. The last thing I needed was to fall out of an air duck and break a leg.

I coughed, eyes watering.

Pushing on, I ignored it for a second, but when the coughing didn't stop, I realized: this was gas.

What kind of place is this? I thought, horrified.

My mind scrambled over everything I'd ever learned about gases in school. Dizziness, headaches, fatigue, and shortness of breath were all signs of CO2 poisoning, but that was a sightless and scentless gas. Usually inhaling a gas took only minutes to kill someone, but most people pass out from high exposures within a minute.

Sucking in a deep breath, I wiggled as fast as I could through the rest of the tunnel, not even giving in to suck in another breath of air, even as my lungs shriveled and head started to spin.

Water. I tried sucking in, only to swallow a gulp of water and with a flail of panic, I realized I'd fallen down. Fighting the urge to gag, I kicked for the surface, vision going black.

I broke the surface with a lurching cough, fingers weaving through cold metal.

Gasping, I clung there, curling in on myself in the freezing water as I closed my eyes and just breathed.

I could have died.

I could have fucking died there.

Blearily, I opened my eyes, briefly checking to see if there was some way for anyone to know what could have happened. Would anyone have come in to save me if I couldn't have made it? Was there any type of surveillance? I blinked, checking the dark corners of the room, but a metal grate kept me from getting more than an inch or two of my head out of the water. If I moved to much, the ripples covered my face, so I tried to stay as still as possible.

I hated this place. Truly, deeply, hated it. Even my bones felt frozen, and if I didn't know I would freeze like this than the thought of giving up. Whatever was next couldn't be any better, and the thought was simply terrifying.

Once it felt like I wasn't going to die, I sucked in a deep breath and went back under, opening my eyes to see where I could possibly have to go next. Thanks to some lights at the bottom of the water, I could make out a path further in the room, where everything went black again.

Surfacing, I steadied my breathing one more time before taking the deepest breath I could manage.

I swam. Kicking and using my arms like Erudite taught me as a kid, I pushed myself through the water as fast as I could, too scared to look up and see if I was really swimming away from my only source of oxygen.

This maze went beyond anything a human should ever create.

By the end, my lungs were burning and my eyes were starting to get hazy again. A faint light showed through the end of the tunnel, but the walls were too far apart for me to use them well enough to push myself through faster. Right went I started to worry I wouldn't be able to hold on any longer, I passed into a larger opening, kicking up and breaking the surface for greedy breaths.

Thankfully, a glorious ledge waited only about six inches out of the water, and I'd never been so grateful for something normal in my entire life. Swimming over, I reached up, taking a breath to will my freezing fingers to cling to the edge before heaving myself out of the water. My entire body groaned at the effort, but it was worth it to lie on the floor, out of the water and out of harms way for a moment.

Screw the time; I didn't care anymore. I laid there, sucking in deep breaths.

With a yelp, I flailed as something shoved me back in the water. Shapes, padded and oddly shaped, circled around the edge of the outcrop when I popped back up, and I realized with a moment of horror that the ledge wasn't the end of this maze.

Wading back over, I reached up again, pulling myself high enough to look over. Mechanical gears shifted and this time I heard the spinning of a track, barely over the chattering of my own teeth. I watched as more shapes like the ones before, one on each side of the pathway, sucks out and began moving towards the edge. I had to drop by down into the water to avoid getting my head knocked off by a particularly low one.

I couldn't feel my toes anymore.

Waiting a second for the strange pieces to spin out of the way of the entrance again and for the sounds to go quiet, I swam up to pull myself out of the water as fast as possible. My entire body protested the effort, but somehow I managed to get up in time to dodge a shape sweeping towards my gut to knock my off.

They kept coming. I pushed through them as fast as possible, but it never felt like I was moving so slow in my entire life. Every time one caught me, it shoved me back towards the ledge. I had to duck and jump between them all.

Then all of the sudden, everything stopped, and for a moment, I thought I could almost cry in relief.

Thirteen minutes and forty-two seconds wasn't the best time. It certainly wasn't the worst, and if I wasn't wrapped in two large towels I might have cared more about where it could place me in the end. Everyone who finished sat in a room with chairs three sides and a large monitor on the fourth by the door I'd stumbled out of after passing through the awful forest of mechanical shapes.

Everyone could watch people go through, apparently. The thought was so horrifying, I wasn't even sure if I'd sunk in yet, but by Ian's worried stares and occasional assurances, my face must have been scandalized.

They'd seen me almost die.

Supposedly Ian took four tries to get past the arms in the end though. He said it like it was supposed to be reassuring.

I couldn't feel too bad about my own time though. Everyone vaguely short was struggling hard. Sam and Cassidy didn't even finish, and Hunter had to be pulled out of the water because he passed out from inhaling too much gas. Watching everyone was oddly numbing, and I was glad since I had to sit in a room with Luke shooting dirty glances and scathing comments, sopping wet and shivering.

Four congratulated me. Apparently my time wasn't bad, but the sentiment felt hollow and I was more interested in the room he kept vanishing into between each runner went through.

"D-Do you th-thin-k-k we hav-ve to run through ev-every day?" I asked through chattering teeth. Doing this every day might break me, if I was honest. I couldn't even imagine what the people who failed felt like.

Ian's expression was only slightly assuring. "I hope not." At least his voice was steady and his clothes nearly dry now.

With a small smile he offered me his towel as well, and I took it with greedy fingers, even as Becca stumbled through the exit, soaking wet and shivering as well. My bones felt like they would never be warm again.

"Th-Thank-ks," I murmured, burying myself deeper in the towels.

A taste of Dauntless initiation. Maybe if I was smart I could run away and hide out in the field of Amity. They were supposed to be nice after all.