Chapter Text
Part One: The Beginning
Over a hundred years ago, there was a great war. The war between supernatural beings and humans was long and it tore the world as we knew it to pieces. There weren’t many humans left, but those that were banded together and created the city. It has high walls that keep us safe from those supernaturals that are still out there. Living in the city is what we are used to.
The only ones that go outside the walls are Amity, they grow our food in the fields surrounding the city, and the Dauntless, they protect the wall and those that have to be outside of it. My name is Dean. My brother Sam and I live with our adoptive parents Bobby and Ellen in Abnegation. We don’t remember our birth parents. Bobby told us that they were factionless and left us with people who they hoped would take us in and raise us as their own. Usually children who grow up in one faction or the other end up staying in that faction as an adult.
Sam and I, since we don’t know what faction our parents should have been in, aren’t so sure what the tests will say tomorrow. The way the factions are set up, when you are eighteen, you choose the faction that you will be as a full fledged member of society. There is no going back. Once you choose you either succeed or you become factionless. The factionless are considered the scrugs of society and have no home and no family. You don’t want to be factionless.
The factions were set up after the war so people know their role in society. Amity are friendly and always smiling, they grow the food that everyone eats. Erudite are smart, they are the teachers and scientists. Candor are truthful and are the judges and lawyers. Dauntless are brave and they are the protectors. Abnegation are selfless and they are the government. Bobby and Ellen are in Abnegation. That is why our parents left us with them as infants. They said that Sam and I were just babies when we were left, so they assume us to be twins. We look enough alike that we are definitely siblings, but there are a lot of differences too. There are enough personality differences that I am terrified that we will be split up after the ceremony.
I’ve lived by one rule for as long as I can remember. Take care of Sammy, that’s been my life. Abnegation teaches selflessness, and the one person I have never had a problem putting above myself is Sam. Other than that, I don’t really feel like I belong in Abnegation. To be honest, I’m not sure that Sam does either. Sam is so smart, like smarter than anyone I have ever met. He could easily fit in with Erudite, although that is one faction I would really rather him not be associated with. The leader of the Erudite, Lucifer, has done nothing but cause my family grief.
Sam doesn’t seem to see that though. He was actually defending him at a discussion between our parents and another member of the committee. Sam is also headstrong. If he believes something to be the truth he will fight like no other to get his point across. Because of this, I think he would also fit in well with Candor. I used to joke and tell him that he would be a lawyer one day. Now, I don’t even want to joke about it. There is a very good chance that I won’t be with my brother after the choosing ceremony. Bobby and Ellen’s daughter Joanna turned eighteen last year and at her choosing ceremony she defected and chose Dauntless. That just adds one more worry to the pile going into the ceremony the day after tomorrow.
If Sam and I both leave, that will leave Bobby and Ellen alone. I don’t want them to think that they have done something wrong in the way that they raised their children. They have been the best parents that anyone could ask for, I just don’t know if I can be as selfless as I would have to be to remain in Abnegation. I guess I have to wait and let the test tell me where I belong. I keep being told to trust the test, guess it’s time I do that. The only problem is that Sam seems as down as I feel right now, and doesn’t want to go to bed either. It’s like he wants to spend that extra few minutes with the family.
Morning inevitably comes, even after a rough night with little sleep. Sam and I eat breakfast with Bobby and Ellen. They are encouraging, telling us that we shouldn’t be afraid of these tests. I don’t know why, they determine the rest of our lives. They have faith though, and that makes it easier for me to put our fate in the hands of the tests. Everyone seems well fit to the lives that the tests have chosen for them, so why can’t it be the same for Sam and I, even if we won’t be in the same faction. We can still see each other. I mean, it’s a city, we are bound to cross paths.
After breakfast, I want some alone time before testing. I climb up to the roof of our modest house to think. I still have a little while before we have to go to the testing center. I told Ellen that I wasn’t scared, but I am, I’m terrified. I’m afraid that the test will say that I’m not Abnegation and that I’ll have to leave the only family that I have ever known.
More than that though, I’m afraid that the test will say that I should stay. Abnegation has never seemed to be the faction that I am meant to be in. I don’t want to feel trapped the rest of my life. It must be time to go. Sam is calling for me. I climb down and we walk to the testing center.