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Updated 4/10


Tris groans as Amar bangs on the railing of the transfer dorms for morning wake-up. Normally she was used to getting up early. Last night she'd been so excited about meeting her father, her aunt, and her two cousins, along with all of the excitement from Choosing Day, she'd been wired, barely able to sleep.

She throws her legs over the side of the bed and looks at Christina who still had her blanket over her head.

"Better get up and moving," Tris laughs and pats Christina on the leg.

Tris feels weird with all the eyes on her as she makes her way to the bathroom. She figured people were curious about her, with the expectation of Tobias who knows when the last time someone transferred to Dauntless from Abnegation. She didn't like the looks she got from some of them though.

At breakfast, she grabs a seat and Christina sits down next to her. Will, an Erudite transfer sits next to her. Al a Candor transfer sits next to Tris.

"So, what was last night about? Why did you get pulled from dinner?" Christina asks before biting into her muffin.

"Nothing, they just randomly picked one transfer and one Dauntless born to share their experience about Choosing Day, apparently all the factions were asked to do it this year"

Christina shrugs, accepting the answer.

"Hey, Uriah" Tris grins as he sits down in front of her. She recognizes the girl with the sides of her head shaved from the train the day before who sits on his left.

"Hey Tris" He grins. He knew immediately that he and Tris would get along great after meeting her last night. Max said not to let anyone know he was her father, but he didn't say anything about their family connection.

"This is Lynn" Uriah motions.

Lynn gives a head nod without smiling "Nice to meet you"

"Don't let her grumpiness put you off, Lynn's cool" Uriah teases with a chuckle and Lynn rolls her eyes.

"This is Christina, Will, and Al," Tris says introducing her newfound friends. She doesn't miss how Uriah's eyes linger on Christina.

"How did you meet Uriah?" Christina asks, squirming in her seat a little. She could tell he was checking her out and she offered him a smile in return.

"Tris is my cousin" Uriah smiles big.

"Cousin? How?" Lynn comments eyeing Tris again. She was intrigued by the Stiff. She didn't seem like any Abnegation she had encountered before. She was definitely beautiful.

"My mom and Uriah's mom are sisters. My mom transferred to Abnegation" Tris explains.

"That's cool you have family here already," Will says with a nod before taking a bite of his eggs.

"I can't believe Marlene didn't tell us she was transferring" Lynn grumbles poking at the food on her plate.

"Yeah, I didn't see that one coming" Uriah adds. He and Marlene dated for a year when they were sixteen. She was great, fun, and caring but both of them wanted to explore and not be tied down, feeling they were better suited as friends.

"Was she the one who transferred to Abnegation?" Will asks as both Lynn and Uriah nod in confirmation.

"Initiates let's go" Amar calls from the end of their table putting an end to the conversation causing everyone to get up and scramble to follow him.

Tris feels nothing but excitement as she takes in her surroundings as they walk through the pit and wind around to exit to an area on one of the rooftops. Tobias joins the group outside of the shooting range for the first activity to address the group. Tris wants to run over and hug him, but she reminds herself she can't.

"While Amar and Lauren are your primary instructors, I'll be assisting with your initiation. My name is Four. In order to pass Dauntless Initiation, you are required to accumulate a minimum of 250 points. After each stage, those with not enough points for that stage will be cut. For each task you will be assigned, you will be graded. Stage one the Dauntless-Born are ranked separately, Stage two, and Stage 3 you are ranked together."

"Cut?" Christina squeaks. Tobias walks over to her, and she looks down feeling nervous at his presence.

"Yes, cut…you become factionless. Amar tells them in a stern voice.

"Dauntless-Born on the left side with Lauren, Transfers on the right with me, grab a gun, and set up in front of a target"

"God he's a little scary but it's also kind of hot" Christina whispers as she and Tris walk off to grab a weapon. Tris just smiles and chuckles. Seeing Tobias commanding and in charge was for sure a new look. She was proud of him. She couldn't wait until initiation was over and they could be free about their friendship again.

"I know it's the first day, but how are you feeling about this group?" Tobias asks as he walks up to Amar who was supervising the initiates as they took target practice. He crosses his arms; He's glad he has his shades on as watches Tris her eyebrows furrowed in concentration as she reloaded her weapon.

"The usual spread. Several who I think will do well in the fighting stage, but you can never tell how they will pan out under the fear landscapes. A few don't have a chance in Hell. I will tell you Uriah is one hell of a shooter. If we ever need a sniper, he's it"

Tobias nods as he moves his eyes across the group and watches Uriah nail shot after shot in the dead center of his target. One girl with long blonde hair couldn't hit the target to save her life. A tall blonde guy next to her easily hits the target and then tries to coach her through trying to make another shot.

"How's the first jumper doing?" Tobias inquires not moving his eyes from the group.

"The Stiff? Oh, she's amazing kind of like someone else I know who came from Abnegation" Tobias snorts in response, and Amar grins.

"Keep an eye on her for me? Will you?"

"This sounds like a story for a drink later." Amar chuckles as he crosses his arms.

Tobias tries to keep his face even, but Amar notices the corners of his mouth turn up slightly as he walks over to talk to Lauren.


Evelyn looks up from her meal when Natalie walks into her room.

"Feeling like being social again?" Evelyn asks, setting down her fork.

Natalie rolls her eyes and takes a seat at the table.

"We need to talk. This thing with Erudite experimenting and dumping the bodies is bigger than we originally thought."

"How so?" Evelyn asks, intrigued now.

"They are using stem cells from divergent to create a new serum that can enhance a person's strength"

"And where did you get this information? Your kids?" Evelyn challenges.

Natalie rolls her tongue over her back teeth before responding.

"Don't underestimate me Evelyn" Natalie threatens.

Evelyn holds her hands up in surrender.

"I'm telling you this because if it's true we need to rethink our strategy. People are going to die for nothing"

"We're planning a war Nat; people are going to die" Evelyn huffs.

"At least you finally admit this is about waging war and not actually about getting equal rights for us"

"They took everything from us, Nat, we deserve a better life than the scraps they give us to live on! " Evelyn slams her fist down on the table in frustration.

"I agree but we don't have to kill people to do it" Natalie argues. "You know you better be careful Evelyn, one day everyone here is going to realize you don't give a damn about them"

Evelyn closes her eyes and takes a deep breath through her nose. She had to be smarter than this. Natalie was still Dauntless at heart, going at her headfirst wound never work.

"You're right, I'm sorry Nat. I think I've gotten carried away with things. It's just what Marcus and Andrew, what they did to us…I just…" Evelyn lets her voice crack at the end.

Natalie softens and sits down next to her. She understood. The rage she had for Marcus and Andrew was locked deep inside her and Evelyn was the only one who really understood that.

"We've been through a lot together" Natalie sighs. She remembered the year she caught pneumonia; Evelyn was there with her every step of the way finding things to trade until she could get some medical supplies to help Natalie.

"I know, you're my best friend Nat, I trust you. I need you in this. We can't do this without you. You're the one who keeps me grounded" Evelyn reminds her.

Natalie nods in understanding.

"If Erudite needs Divergent and the other factions are not going to give in to her demands, we have to assume that she's going to take them from where no cares to look."

"Which means we need to be ready. Are you prepared to fight then?" Evelyn offers.

"I was Dauntless, I'm always ready to fight when needed," Natalie reminds her.

"Where do we start?" Evelyn asks, pushing her plate away. "I think we need to get a count of how many of our people are divergent and come up with some kind of safe house plan"

"Good idea, but we might need to test people, we need to get our hands on the serum for the aptitude tests…I think I have an idea."

Evelyn smiles as Natalie gets up to grab the walk-talkies they had commandeered from a heist of a van of equipment developed by Erudite to radio Charlie, Darcy, Mason, and Victor. If Erudite was looking for allies, she just needed to make sure she had something to offer.


"What the hell is this?" Zeke asks as he read the paper Max threw in front of him. Zeke and Four were in Max's apartment looking at the giant board he had set up in the living room that now served as a way to try and connect all the information they gathered about Erudite.

"Erudite turning up the heat," Max says angrily. He knew Jeanie was going to find a way to gain more divergent for her experiments, the question had been how until that morning. Erudite published an article with the heading "The Divergent Problem" which had been circulating around Chicago.

"What are they thinking they will get out of this?" Zeke asks.

"If there are enough people willing to out suspected Divergent, Jeanine doesn't need to make deals with anyone."

"She's more diabolical than I would have ever imagined" Hana sighs.

"Four, anything new on your front," Max asks looking across the table.

"Yeah, there are three Erudite transfers in the class of initiates, they seem on the up and up, but you never know. Who I have been keeping my eye on is Eric Preston"

"He was in your initiate class last year, right? He was an Erudite transfer... Has he done anything?" Max asks, curious now.

"Not recently but I can tell you he was so determined and pissed off during initiation that he wasn't at the top of our class"

"Four is right, dude seemed like he had it in for Four I never got a good vibe from him" Zeke confirms.

"Zeke, see if you can pick up anything on the cameras or if he's leaving the compound frequently"

"I also did a sweep of Andrew's computer again. There's a list of names about 20 people long going back five years. All are listed as having died in the factionless section"

Max nods. Right now, he was less concerned about Abnegation. His personal rage about how his daughter and Natalie were treated would have to take a back burner to Erudite at the moment but one way or another, Andrew and Marcus were going down eventually.

"I think Amar would be a real asset but I'm hesitant" Tobias adds quietly.

Max sighs and wipes his face with his hand knowing exactly why Tobias was hesitant.

"Oh because…" Zeke starts, and Tobias just nods in response.

"Tori's been trying to protect anyone she can taking the aptitude test, changing their results to manual entry of the faction they were born in"

"Does Erudite have access to the Dauntless Born test results?" Zeke asks.

"Every faction has access to them because they are housed by Erudite because they claim to make improvements on the testing equipment and the serum," Max tells them and now he was worried. Tris and Uriah could be in danger.


Marlene gasps as she feels herself lose her balance. Her arms were carrying several blankets so she couldn't really see in front of her. To her surprise, a pair of strong arms catches her as the blankets topple to the floor.

"Careful," Caleb says closer to her ear.

"Umm Thanks," she tells him as he helps her stand up straight. She felt her core tighten at the feel of his hands on her and his breath tickled her ears. She had to tell herself to get it together.

Susan and Miranda were nice, everything Abnegation should be. Whenever she tried to take things to the next level, talk, she was given a polite smile and reminded that idle chit-chat wasn't the Abnegation way. However, In the three weeks she had been in Abnegation, Caleb had been the bright spot for her. Being polite came easy, she had always been overly friendly. She missed looking in the mirror, she missed people laughing and telling jokes, and the quiet in Abnegation could be deafening at times. But God did she miss sex, and every time Caleb got close to her, his light blue eyes and slightly curly hair, and devilishly handsome smile, she shivered thinking about running his hands over her body.

"Let me help you pick these up" he offers. Caleb smiles as he watches her wondering why she seemed flustered.

"Caleb, Marlene, you two have done a wonderful job organizing everything today. Tomorrow, you can start handing out these supplies for the rest of the week. Caleb, I'm trusting you to show Marlene around and how to be safe in the Factionless section. Susan and Miranda will assist in making clothing for the elderly and families with new babies since we're a little behind."

"Yes, Ms. Haskins" Caleb nods respectfully as he grabs the last blanket.

"You and me alone for the rest of the week, whatever will we do with ourselves," Marlene whispers when they leave the donation center to head back to the dorms.

Caleb smiles big as Marlene giggles.

Later that night Caleb rolls over and looks at the ceiling. The only sound in the room was the clock ticking. He couldn't sleep. His mind was racing thinking about Marlene. He liked her a lot. It was funny when he thought Susan was the greatest, pretty, the ideal Abnegation woman, the kind you would settle down with. But Marlene, she was this ball of light that couldn't be dimmed. They chatted at night, cooking together or doing the dishes or if they were alone in the donation center. She was sweet and genuine, and he couldn't wait to get to know her better.


Marlene grabs her satchel full of the fresh bread she, Susan, and Miranda baked the day before and packed to give away. Caleb had several bags of frozen foods and stuffed in a backpack as the two set off.

"I actually like this part of being in Abnegation," Caleb tells her as they walk down the cracked street.

"How come?"

"It's the real deal of helping people, feeling like I'm doing something"

"Caleb, Caleb! did you bring us anything?" A group of kids call running up to Caleb. Marlene feels her heart tug as she sees the little girl wearing a tattered black shirt with a pair of yellow amity shorts. The boy was wearing an Abnegation grey shirt with blue jeans that looked to short for him and the knees were torn. Neither one hand on any shoes.

"Grayson, Emila, what's up. Guess what I have today, apples and my friend Marlene made fresh bread too"

Emila squeals with delight as Caleb kneels down and gives them each an apple and a bag of food. Marlene takes out a loaf of bread for them.

"Thank you, thank you" Emila squeals again throwing her arms around Marlene's legs and squeezing tight.

"We haven't seen you before" Grayson observes taking a bite of an apple.

"Yeah, I'm new here, Caleb is showing me around" Marlene tells him bending down to his level just like Caleb.

"Where did you come from?" Grayson asks curiously.

"Dauntless" Marlene tells him with a smile.

"That's where our dad was from!" Grayson exclaims hopping up and down.

"I'm sure he's very brave," Marlene grins.

A woman's voice calls Emilia and Grayson from down the street and they both sigh causing Caleb to chuckle.

"Bye Caleb, Bye Marlene" Emila and Grayson tell them as they wave goodbye.

"See you around guys," Caleb tells them as he stands up and they run off.

"You are amazing with them" Marlene observed as they started walking again.

"I see them every week, the kids are so great, I just wish it was more I could do for them"

Marlene nods, she'd never really thought about kids who were born factionless before. It was breaking her heart a little now thinking about it.

"Can I ask you, why did you choose Abnegation?"

Marlene sighs and tries to find her words. She'd been so terrified when Tori told her that her aptitude test was inconclusive, and she was divergent. Tori warned her not to say anything to anyone and that she wasn't safe in Dauntless, the best place for her to go was Abnegation where no one would look into her tests. Her mother was nowhere to be found; she left a note saying she was leaving. It pained her not to tell Uriah and Lynn that she was leaving but she knew they would only try to talk her out of it.

"I thought it was the best place for me," she says vaguely.

Caleb nods.

"You can trust me, Marlene, I promise" he reassures her. He doesn't say anything else as they come upon another family and start handing out bags.

"This isn't very Abnegation of me, but I need to ask you a favor," Caleb tells her about half an hour later.

"I'm still learning so I think you have a little leeway," Marlene teases.

"I feel like I can trust you, even though we haven't known each other that long."

Marlene nods. She did trust him and wanted him to trust her too.

"I have to make one more stop but I need you to not tell anyone," Caleb asks.

He'd debated what he should do, but he really wanted to see his mother. Going his entire life without her and now it had been three weeks since he'd seen her. He missed her.

"Yeah sure," Marlene shrugs.

"It's outside of the area where we are supposed to go, so we'd kind of be breaking the rules." Caleb sing songs and Marlene laughs.

"Look at us breaking the rules and we aren't even through initiation. Are you sure you aren't secretly Dauntless?"

"Come on it's this way" Caleb grins. This girl was amazing.

Caleb knocks on the door to his mother's home and opens the door. He smiles when he sees her at the kettle heating up some tea.

"Hi, Sweetheart" Natalie calls. She had heard when she was out that morning that Caleb was handing out supplies from Emila and Grayson's mother, so she made sure to head home in case he was able to stop by.

"Hi, I umm brought you some things" Caleb announces as Marlene follows him in. "This is my friend Marlene. Marlene, this is Natalie"

Natalie smiles catching on that Caleb didn't call her mom, and that he hadn't revealed her identity to this young lady.

"Well hello Marlene"

"Marlene just transferred from Dauntless," Caleb tells his mother as he unloads the last of the things in his backpack that he had saved for her.

"Really…that doesn't happen too often. How are you adjusting?" Natalie looks at the younger woman. She was pretty, her golden-brown skin tone much like her own. Her hair was braided back in an acceptable Abnegation style. She could tell that she had a nose ring with a tiny hole on the side of her nose. What would make her transfer? Why did she need to leave Dauntless?

"Somethings are easy, I'm still getting used to how quiet it is and reminding myself not to get too excited" Marlene admits.

"I think that was the hardest thing for me too. And the food" Natalie says honestly as she pours a cup of tea for each of them.

"Oh, I miss Dauntless food so much. I would give anything for a hamburger and a piece of cake" Marlene says mournfully with a sigh as she sits in the chair as Natalie motions for her to sit down.

"I'll be happy to show you some things that you can keep a secret once initiation is over" Natalie whispers causing Marlene to giggle.

Caleb sits back and smiles as he watches the two women talk. A feeling of contentment comes over him.

"We should get going," Caleb tells them looking at his watch. He wanted to make sure there weren't any questions.

Natalie gets up to give Marlene a hug. "Caleb will look out for you and help keep you safe," Natalie tells her. After speaking with her she could see why she left. She was divergent and told Abnegation was the best place for her to hide.

Marlene nods with a smile, wondering if Natalie left Dauntless for the same reasons she did. She steps back as Caleb goes to hug Natalie. Surprised at his affection toward the woman. She could tell there was more to the story between the two.

"Thanks, Mom, I love you" he whispers in her ear as he hugged her.

"I love you too sweetheart, see you soon" Natalie whispers back and gives him one last squeeze.

"Be careful" Natalie calls from the doorway and Caleb turns to wave as they head down the alley.

"I thought you would enjoy meeting Natalie since you have some things in common," Caleb says as they wind back through the streets.

"I think you might be the best person I've ever met Caleb Prior" Marlene comments as they walk back to Abnegation.