The air is cold at this time of the morning, I take deep breaths preparing myself for what the day has in store for me. The tiredness I feel is not the ideal state for everything I plan to do today, but I couldn't help it. I could not sleep peacefully, nor could I avoid the whirlwind of nightmares that invaded my head relentlessly: subterranean rivers splashing water on stone walls while piercing screams competed with the noise of the current; rooms surrounded by mirrors with gurneys in between and trays full of syringes with clear, orange, black and blue liquids; the bowls of the selection ceremony breaking on the floor and scattering their contents while a cloud of gunpowder surrounds them; my clothes soaked with blood while I try to break a glass box where I am trapped; and then infinite darkness, heavy, heartbreaking, I walk through it while I hear hundreds of sobs that I cannot understand, I think I am going to die in it and when I accept it a hand takes my arm, I do not see who it belongs to, I only feel the electric pulses that causes the contact of our skin.

"Beatrice, good morning" Robert's monotonous voice brings me back to the present, I don't know how long I've been standing in the doorway of my house. Robert smiles at me as his eyes stare at me intently, as if I am the vision of the most perfect thing he has ever seen. I shouldn't feel so uncomfortable in his presence. I know I should be excited just to see him and be near him. I don't have much of an idea of what romantic relationships should really be like if I weren't in Abnegation, but I remember seeing different couples at school. Of course the interaction between people from other factions and ours is very different. Here we could never hold hands to walk, let alone do any of the things I saw in the hallways or empty classrooms. It's not like I wanted to act that way with Robert either, I always figured if I fell in love someday, it would be quite the adventure. Before I considered switching factions, I imagined that despite the rules, our love would be so strong that we couldn't keep from touching each other or sneaking a kiss when no one was watching. When I decided my only option was to leave, I imagined myself taking moving trains, climbing buildings or patrolling the city with someone, being free, brave and in love.

Of course none of this appealed to me with Robert. When our courtship ends and we inevitably get married, I imagine the rest of my life will be a constant battle to show myself selfless in front of him. A life without passion or emotion, I just hope that habit and time will help me to love him even a little. "Robert good morning" I have no choice but to start pretending from this point on... "Susan told us you won't be going to The Hub until the afternoon, I was wondering since you have the morning off if you would like to join me in my activities." Think fast Tris, I have to see Evelyn today and Robert can't know anything about her, but of course it's not acceptable to turn someone down just because you don't feel like it.

"Ahm, actually Robert I was thinking of taking advantage of my morning to go to the hospital..." hope Robert doesn't want to dig into it any further, shit, I hope he doesn't offer to join me.

"Is everything alright Beatrice, are you feeling unwell?" Of course Robert is going to worry, think Beatrice, think.

"Everything's fine, it's just a routine visit" Not good enough Beatrice, "It's just a female thing" I can't help but blush, no way I want to nurse that Robert thinks of me as a woman, but just as it makes me uncomfortable to say it even if it's a lie, it makes Robert even more uncomfortable, he looks down as I see his cheeks turn two colors redder than normal. Well, that should be enough.

"Oh, I understand. Well, I'd like you to consider coming over tonight for dinner at my house" Robert still won't look me in the eye and while I'm not looking forward to spending time with him tonight either, I no longer have the ability to come up with another excuse, plus I can't help but think about what my father would say if he knew I wasn't putting any effort into this courtship. "Of course, I would love to" No, I wouldn't but I have no choice. With that we say our goodbyes, Robert heads for the warehouses and I start my fake walk to the hospital.

The factionless area starts just outside our compound, around here you always see selfless people handing out packages, helping repair clothes or assisting the factionless. Because of my leader training I hardly ever have to come to these areas. Most of my work consists of administrative and government issues, which I am thankful for because I never, even as a child liked being in this area. All my life I believed that factionless people were unstable people, whose minds did not work the same as everyone else's and therefore could not belong to a faction. My fear only increased when I began to notice how differently my own head worked, for a long time I was sure that my destiny would be to be a factionless. My angst was only somewhat lessened two years ago when Tori told me that I was divergent; then I met Evelyn and she finished explaining it to me.

I couldn't help but notice the irony that indeed, my fears were not unjustified: the factionless and I had a lot in common, we don't belong to one faction and our minds don't work the same as the rest.

Although in these two years I have found that I was not so wrong either and there are many factionless people who are quite unstable, not because of their divergence, but simply because of the hard life they have had to lead. So whenever I come to this area and have to go deeper into it, I have to do it cautiously. I walk two more streets towards a building that used to be some kind of hotel, the doors that used to be made of glass are now covered with wooden boards, the place looks empty and dirty, only some letters that were once golden announce the name of the place "Pa k Hya t Chic go". I move forward to go around the building until I find a metal door that sits at the back, I knock three times as Evelyn taught me and wait for someone to open.

I recognize Edgar, a factionless man who always accompanies Evelyn to each of the meetings we have had. He has dark skin and is full of tattoos that are only interrupted by the scars that go through every inch of his skin. He is over 50 years old and from what I know, he has been living on the streets for at least 30 of them. "Stiff" he greets me by giving me passage as he calls me by the nickname the rest of the citizens use to tease the abnegated. I wait for him to lead me down a series of hallways to a set of service stairs, up two flights of stairs, and he indicates that I can continue on my own. Evelyn is constantly on the move, she changes quarters every so often as well as escorts, many of those who accompany her disappear, others like Edgar or Myra have been with her since I first met her.

I reach the end of the hallway where there are some double doors, I knock and wait for a female voice to indicate that I can pass. I open and the room is partially lit by a fireplace, the girl who gives me access is new or at least I have not seen her before. She is tall and has long ginger hair. Her skin is white but not like mine, hers is full of freckles of the same color as her hair, her light green eyes watch me closely, even though her life on the streets shows in her appearance, her face is still beautiful. I can't help but look away and wonder what they will all think when they see me, will they be sorry to see me all gangly, with the body of a 12 year old and clothes that look like they are three sizes too big for me to wear? None of that matters Beatrice, don't be stupid; this girl would trade every one of her freckles for three meals a day.

The girl indicates that I can go into the next room, there is a desk, a couch and a fireplace. Evelyn is leaning on the desk reading some dirty plans of what looks like a building. She looks up and indicates to the girl that she may leave, she closes the door. "Beatrice, what can we do to help you?" If there is one thing I have to give Evelyn credit for, it is that she never wastes time, she always gets straight to the point and I have found over time that I had better do the same. "Evelyn, I have to agree that I have run into a wall in my research. The council meetings we've had the last few weeks have come to nothing, I can't seem to get the others to want to address the problem of your population increase. Even my own faction doesn't seem interested in what I'm saying." Evelyn signals me to take a seat and invites me to continue.

"Someone has brought to my attention about the initiation processes of the different factions, that has led me to ponder what you and I have come to talk about before. I know that throughout the year more factionless arrive periodically, but I remember you had said that it was during the initiation weeks of the last two years that more people were exiled to the streets." The look on Evelyn's face is impossible to read, I can't know what she thinks of this brainstorm, not until she decides to share what she thinks. "Yesterday I reviewed the burial records turned over to the government by the factions the last two years; for the most part three of the factions have natural deaths that don't raise my suspicions, but as for Dauntless and Erudite I can't help but find something disturbing. The only records they turned in, belong to initiates, they don't expand in detail what happened to them beyond fatal accident marks, but you and I know that many more people than are in those records left the factions they chose at the ceremony; they left there in two ways: dead in suspicious circumstances or exiled to live on the streets."

Evelyn is still attentive to everything I say, she doesn't seem surprised by anything I just said. Again I can't help but question whether it's wise to trust her on this. "What do you think records and expelled persons mean, what's the difference between them?" Evelyn asks me as if she's a teacher who knows I know the right answer.

"I think the death records are of divergent people, I also think that all the banished people do not belong to those groups" I answer and I surprise myself, until this moment I had not pondered on that possibility, that these two factions get rid of divergent people is nothing new, that is why it is so dangerous to be one, but why do they kick so many members out of their ranks? "And what do all the new factionless ones that have come to us in the last two years have in common Beatrice?" she asks me again with the same look on her face.

"They are all disoriented, they remember facts about their lives but are confused about where they come from. What do you think about that?" I need to cut this interrogation short, Evelyn needs to be involved in this conversation. "I think..." she starts to say though careful where her thinking takes her. "I think it's not a coincidence, just as I don't think they come from the factions they think" Evelyn looks down at the plans she has on the table. "What do you mean by that?" I ask her even though part of me thinks I already know the answer.

"We've welcomed too many exiles into our shelters over the years, I think I've developed the ability to distinguish who comes from which faction. It is one thing to discover a Candor with an excess of joy and study him to find his divergence and quite another to find an Amity with all legs tattooed with fire spitting dragons" I feel my heart start to beat faster. I remember each and every time during the council the leaders of Dauntless and Erudite have dismissed my comments about the factionless, the hateful looks they give me every time I try to get the others to listen. I know they are despicable on their own, are they in this together, if that's true then the danger I imagined is not even a quarter of what it really means.

"They are disguising their exiles to throw us off the scent. They all come from Dauntless and Erudite" I don't mean it as a question, no point in playing dumb now. "But why?" this time I ask in exasperation. "Why? Exactly Beatrice. If we knew we could fix it. I think you are right about the death certificates, as for the outcasts there may be some divergent ones among them, but whatever the reason for their disorientation it does not allow us to classify them as such." I may not be able to blindly trust her, but I am confident that whatever the reason she wants me to bring lawsuits on behalf of the factionless to the council, it is to help them have a better life.

"I also think whoever gave you the initiations tip knows something else, in the last few years our population has increased during the 12 weeks of both Dauntless and Erudite. The fact that those kicked out don't remember anything about their respective factions doesn't help us know what's going on inside their complexes and the members who are with me and belonged to them, left them so long ago that we can't expect things to be the same as before. Do you have a way to find out in more detail what they are all about?"

"No, my contact made it pretty clear that he couldn't give me accurate information, but he warned me that they were getting more and more extreme" I remember the look on Uriah's face when he told me that he was glad he was a member and not an initiate. Evelyn is right, this all points to something shady going on inside the compounds. "It's no secret that Dauntless initiation has always been dangerous, at the end of the day when you join that faction you do so knowing that you will train to be a soldier, for a reason it is the faction in charge of the security and well being of Chicago" Evelyn says with a blank stare, whenever we have touched on the subject of Dauntless and its role in the city, I notice that her thoughts are disturbed. Maybe she comes from there, maybe that's why she has managed to organize the factionless and equip them to protect themselves. "Then it is troubling to realize that there are so many rejected from there, what kind of training are they implementing that makes not all the brave people give the breadth for whatever it is they are preparing" she says taking a seat.

"Do you think it's more important to focus on them than Erudite?" I guess I've always thought to myself that from watching my back it's more important to look at Dauntless than Erudite, so far their newsletters are the most damaging thing they've done, and beyond that, the danger they pose comes from their agile minds and meticulous planting. Dauntless has the strength and the weapons, if they wanted to exert their will no one in Chicago could stand up against them, no one except the factionless and even then they could never overcome them.

"Do you know where one of the leaders of Dauntless comes from?" Evelyn asks me with a smirk, I shake my head no "Eric Coulter is not only the youngest leader they have ever had in Dauntless, four years ago he chose to transfer from Erudite, and according to a reliable source there he was a rising star dependant. To get a position in leadership or ambassadorship at Dauntless they use a point scale, every initiate who successfully completes the process ends up in a place on that scale, only the top places get that privilege. Somehow Eric was a star in Erudite and he was a star in Dauntless too, maybe he's just that good or maybe it's all perfectly calculated..."

"Do you think Erudite planted Eric in Dauntless so he could infiltrate the faction?" The very idea is ludicrous, I've already lost count of the number of times Eric has recited the motto 'Faction before blood' at meetings and to think that his role was calculated goes against what he professes. "I think it is no coincidence that the two factions are currently on such friendly terms" Evelyn says sharply and this makes me doubt, how does she know the relationship the two factions have, I have noticed it at the assemblies and at The Hub, but she is not there, how does she knows, as if reading my mind she adds with a mocking tone "I don't need to be in the meetings to know this Beatrice, I am going to confide you a secret that we factionless have known how to keep until now, for two years we have been observing hundreds of secret meetings of both factions in somewhat suspicious hours, what are these about, I couldn't tell you."

"But if this is true there is nothing I can do about it, I can't even get others interested in something as obvious as the increase of factionless on the streets, to talk about this is to do so as mere assumptions. No one is going to listen to me" I don't even bother to hide the defeated tone coming out of my mouth, there is no point in passing myself off as someone capable in front of Evelyn, something tells me she knows exactly the extent of the failure of my efforts before the council.

"You don't know because this was going on a long time ago, long before you and I met, even before you were born but there was a time when transparency between factions existed to bring harmony to this city, ambassadors and other council members oversaw the initiations of other factions as well as from time to time daily life. All this was done simply to keep the peace in the city, little by little the personal interests of each faction were influencing the diplomacy that existed and there began to be more secrecy. The supervisions ended and what was going on inside the complexes became a mystery to the others. Maybe it's time to reopen communication between factions."

It's impossible, we can barely organize for simple tasks like patrolling certain areas or producing supplies for one faction or another, asking the other factions to institute a policy of open initiations would be impossible. "I imagine it won't be easy to get them to agree to it but we don't lose anything in trying don't you think so Beatrice?" Evelyn again has something in her eyes that I can't quite figure out, 'we lose', what does she have to gain from all this. "I would venture to suspect that if you raise this point for example with your informant, you might be able to get him to support you."

"What makes you think that whoever told me this would want to help me with something like this?" I ask with more annoyance than I want it to show, but I don't like the mocking tone this conversation is taking. "Please Beatrice, ambassadors change every so often, I imagine whoever told you this assumes this position and is therefore someone young. You are not stupid and you know what your face looks like and all the whole aura around you, I am sure that boy did not give you such important information just for the sake of keeping good relationship with your faction. I know in Abnegation they teach you not to think too much of yourself, but sometimes taking advantage of your looks can give you a certain perk."

The lack of proper nutrition must hurt Evelyn's capacity if she thinks Uriah sees me as anything more than a stiff he has to work with from time to time, especially when there are hundreds of girls in his compound who are much prettier and much better looking than me, but I can't help but think of all the times I've had to turn away to keep Uriah from seeing my cheeks flare from some comments he's made to me. "It's not happening the way you're imagining it Evelyn" I say crisply.

"As you say Beatrice, but hear me out, I think you've hit the nail on the head with this, and if you want to find out what is really going on in the city this is the only way. Convince the others to send someone from Abnegation to oversee the Dauntless initiation, I think the Erudite one can wait."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

As I walk to get to The Hub, I think about everything I talked about with Evelyn this morning. I don't like to admit it, I don't know why, but she's right and something tells me that supervising Dauntless is the only way to stop whatever is going on in Chicago, how do I get everyone to accept it? I guess I'll have to improvise, I don't have much time left, there are three days until the aptitude tests and four until the selection ceremony. If I want to get to the bottom of this, I will have to fight my point tooth and nail in front of and against everyone, even against my own faction.

A/N

Wow, I didn't think I'd write a longer chapter than usual but I couldn't find another way to lay out the whole theory of my story without spending more chapters talking about just this. Also, I really need to start writing from the pov of other characters (I'm not going to lie, I really need to write Tobias' pov haha) I think we have one more chapter of politics left to start with the action and why not, the romance (finally).

Thanks for reading :)