Chapter Text
This is it. The moment your future, and that of all the factions, changes forever. You hear your name called again during the choosing ceremony.
As you walk towards the stage, your blue sweater clinging to your body, you recall that the choice of faction was already made by you. For a few years now, your life and training and education had been leading to this moment.
As you grab the knife in your hand, you take a moment to look over the five metal bowls. Each one contains a substance that represents each faction: gray stones for Abnegation, water for Erudite, earth for Amity, lit coals for Dauntless, and glass for Candor.
Taking the knife in your hand, you remind yourself that the cut will sting. Your training, however, kicks in before you can hesitate. You press the cool metal deeper into the palm of your hand and then drag it down until you see the blood pooling into your palm. Before it can fall onto your clothing or the floor, you move your hand so that the blood drips over the coals of Dauntless.
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Three Years Ago
“You can do this! You know how to cheat the aptitude test. You’ve already learned knife throwing. Now it’s hand-to-hand combat,” you hear your father exclaim.
You stand in the middle of the room facing the boxing bag. Hands bare and knuckles already red and bloodied, you make sure to keep your feet firmly planted and keep your core tense to ground yourself. Closing your eyes, your stop to focus on the sounds and air around you. Before the hit comes, you feel the change in the air of someone being in front of you. You turn to your left and bring your arms up to block the blow. Ducking, you punch your opponent’s stomach and you focus on the air that rushes out of them. You then sweep your leg under theirs and they fall. Finally opening your eyes, you move to wrestle them to keep them on the ground. What surprises you is the kick to your back which causes you to loosen your grip on them. “You will have to learn to take hits as well as giving them. You already chose Dauntless. You have three years to prepare for your initiation,” your father tells you as he helps you up from the floor. You nod and grab your water bottle and drink. “We still don’t know what exactly it is that Jeanine is trying to create. I’ve been following them to see but have found nothing so far.” “Just be careful. We can’t risk you getting caught and our plans falling through.”
You both walk in silence back to the living room.
“Dad? What if I can’t succeed in this…? What if out of the 10 other the factions have been and are being trained… what if I’m the one to fail?” You ask after a few minutes.
Normally, your Erudite training would suffice in keeping you confident. However, you were facing an uncertain future which caused your inner Candor to speak up.
"Love, you were not selected for this just because you're the daughter of two divergent and Erudite leaders. You were selected because you have always demonstrated your intelligence, bravery, and honesty when dealing with others. Those are the qualities of a true Dauntless leader that will restore our city to the original purpose for its founding.”
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After the Choosing Ceremony, you joined the other initiates in running to jump on the train. The adrenaline rushes as you, purposefully, jumped in at the last minute, just before the platform ended. You stay standing by the open door feeling the air rushing and letting the sound of the passing buildings calm you for what was to come.
An exhilarated shout comes out from you as you jump from the train to the top of the building. You knew you were here for a reason. You were trained for this moment. Leaving behind your family and friends in Erudite was not easy, but you knew the importance of you being Dauntless now.
The training, however, did not show you how to tamper down your excited energy. 'Oh well. I'm still me,' you think as you start listening to what is going on around you.
“Several stories below us is the members’ entrance to our compound. If you can’t muster the will to jump off, you don’t belong here.” You tuned out the rest of the speech as you made your way to the front of the group of initiates.
You knew what the leaders were trying to do: intimidate from the beginning to identify the weak initiates.
Next to Max, whom you had learned was one of the Dauntless leaders, stood a young man with piercings over his right brow and tattoos on his neck. There was something about him that called out to you, making him seem familiar, but you couldn’t pinpoint it at the moment. ‘Cute… but not my reason for being here,’ you think to yourself.
You don’t hesitate as you push your way to the front. Smiling, you stand on the ledge face up. “Took an oath by the blood on my hand, won't break it,” you say, and with a wink towards the young tattooed man you let yourself fall backward.
Max and the other Dauntless leaders look over the edge in disbelief.
“She’s a natural,” Max tells the rest. “She will be your biggest competition during the first stage of initiation. Now who is willing to go against her and jump next?”
As the initiates slowly make the jump, Max directs Eric and one of the other leaders to keep an eye on you throughout initiation. “She’ll be trouble if her smirk was anything to go by.”
At that, Eric’s interest was slightly piqued. From the moment you jumped from the train his eyes fell on you. The blue of your sweater reminded him of a place he once called home. But this is his home now and he refuses to let anything or anyone distract him from completing his mission.