Chapter Text
Our society functions using a unique system named the ‘Faction System’. The city had been divided into five of these factions and are desiccated to a singular virtue that is unique only to them. The first is called Abnegation. The people in this faction are selfless and value the needs of others before their own. The second is Amity whose values are based upon peace and harmony. They are happy people who believe that a person should let go of any anger and hatred they may hold. The third is Erudite whom value themselves on their intelligence. They believe that knowledge is the only way to absolve conflict. Candor is the fourth Faction. The people there are honest and open. They speak the truth even when it does not want to be heard. Finally, there’s Dauntless. The people of this faction are brave and strive to become courageous and indestructible. They are the soldiers and protect the city.
There is a sixth group who are separate from the other factions. The people there are called the Factionless. It is mostly made up of people who failed to complete their initiation or had been exiled for a number of reasons. They live a life of poverty and do all the jobs that no-one else wants to do. Only Abnegation seem to care about them, the other factions view them as next to nothing.
At the age of sixteen, everyone who is in a faction is presented the opportunity to choose which of the five factions they will spend the rest of their lives in. The take something called the Aptitude Test the day before which tells them where they belong. Although, this is merely a suggestion and they can listen to the result or ignore it. They do have a choice. However, once they have chosen, they cannot change. If they transfer to a different faction it means saying goodbye to any family and friends. After all, its faction before blood.
Once they have chosen their faction they must get through initiation. This changes with each faction with the most difficult easily awarded to Dauntless. Before their initiates even get to the compound they must successfully jump on and off a moving train. If they miss it, they become Factionless before they have even begun. Once they get there the only way in is by jumping off a building. There’s a net at the bottom to catch them, but from the rooftop there’s no way of knowing. They are then split into two groups: Dauntless-born and transfers. They are trained separately but are ranked together. They higher the rank, the better job they will get when they complete initiation. If they are below the red line, then they will be kicked out and become Factionless. Initiation is taken very seriously in Dauntless.
There are three stages to Dauntless initiation. The first is physical, the second mental and the final is emotional. Initiates have no idea of what each stage entails, and it is forbidden for members to tell them. They will only find out when they reach them. This year’s Initiates were in the first stage where the Dauntless-born and transfers were separated. The transfers were taught essential combat skills in this first stage, specifically hand-to-hand combat as well as how to fire a gun and throw knives with precision. In addition to this, they had to put their skills to the test by fighting each other. The results of which would help determine their rankings. It was simple. If they won fights, they would get points; lose and their points would decrease. As each day passed the transfers were getting stronger. The rankings had started to become more concrete with all the Initiates having done at least one fight. They also had a lesson on what would and would not be accepted in Dauntless. One girl had been hung over the chasm the previous day.
There was a tense atmosphere in the training room, but no-one dared mentioned what had happened just in case it would happen to them. The Initiates had been split into pairs and were practicing defence techniques before the round of fights. Four and Eric stood off to the side next to each other (with plenty of space between them) and watched them carefully. Well, that was until the training room doors slammed shut. Most of the Initiates paid little attention as a young woman entered the room. Either they had not noticed, or they didn’t want to face the wrath of their instructors for slacking. However, the two men watched her as she approached them.
“What are you doing here?” asked Four when she got within earshot.
“Always the warm welcome Four” she replied sarcastically as she placed herself in the space between them.
Both men immediately went back to watching the Initiates. They appeared tense with their arms crossed over their chests. Both of their mouths were pulled into a frown. They both looked pretty intimidating. On the other hand, the girl’s demeanour was the complete opposite. Her hands were placed in the back pocket of her back jeans and she swung on the balls of her feet. Her posture was relaxed. She smirked as she turned her own attention to the Initiates.
“Why are you here Myla? Isn’t there a meeting you should be in?” Eric mumbled, eyes still on the Initiates. She shook her head.
“Wow aren’t you both rays of sunshine this afternoon. I just wanted to see how our transfers are getting along…” Myla replied before looking up at Eric. “… And to make sure that you don’t hang another one over the chasm”.
“Did Max send you down?”
“Yes, but I also wanted to have a look for myself. Scope out anyone who has potential” she responded. Myla waited for a couple of seconds for either of them to say something, which neither of them did. They did not even spare her a glance. She sighed. “Well aren’t you going to introduce me?” she nudged Eric’s arm as she spoke. He rolled his eyes.
“Initiates gather around!” he shouted to gather their attention. They quickly stopped what they were doing and formed a semi-circle around the three of them. “I would like to introduce you all to Myla. It would be wise to impress her as most of you will end up with jobs working at the fence. She is the Chief Commander of Defence here at Dauntless which means that both the Fence Guard and other security forces are- “.
Eric immediately stopped speaking as he was interrupted by a snicker from the side of the group. All the Initiates surrounding the culprit moved away as if to say they had no part in it. This meant that is was obvious who had done it. A tall boy with dark, shiny hair, wide eyes and a long nose stood with his arms crossed. A smirk adorned his face with a look of snide disbelief.
“Something funny?” Eric asked him, his voice laced with anger. He stepped towards the boy but was stopped when the girl put her hand gently on his arm. She walked over to stand directly in front of the Initiate. It wasn’t too noticeable, but she limped slightly as she walked.
As she stood before him, almost all the other Initiates had a similar thought cross their minds. Myla did not look like she could intimidate a fly, let alone be able to control such a large defence operation. It wasn’t due to anything like her height. She was actually quite tall; only a few inches shorter than Four and Eric. She was pale with sharp facial features. Her nose was slightly crooked due to it previously being broken. Her mouth was thin but pulled into a smile. Her brown eyes were round and bright. A thin layer of black eyeliner lined them. Her jet-black hair was tied into a high ponytail and reached the nape of her neck. This made her earrings visible. On her left ear was a black snake which appeared to wind around the edge of her ear and on the right was a sliver leaf that covered her earlobe. Her frame looked tiny inside of the black sweater she was wearing which was at least two sizes too big. The sleeves covered her hands as she held one out to the boy. He didn’t shake it.
“What’s your name?” she asked. Her voice was soft and bubbly as if she was only speaking to a friend.
“Peter” he replied curtly.
“Nice to meet you Peter. How’s your training going?”
“Quite well” he bragged.
“Would you mind showing me?” she gestured to wrestling mat in the middle of the training room. Peter looked a little caught off guard but made his way over with everyone else following behind. They spaced themselves around the edge to watch.
“Who am I fighting?” he asked.
“Me” Myla announced as she stepped onto the mat. He scoffed. “You really doubt me, don’t you?”
She turned away and removed her sweater before throwing it to Eric who caught it with ease. When she turned back to Peter his face immediately dropped. With the sweater gone, she was now wearing just a black sports bra which revealed all the muscles that had been hidden by her clothing. This included a faint outline of abs on her stomach and her muscles on her arms. Additionally, her tattoos were now visible. On her right arm were black vines which twisted around her arm from the space between her thumb and finger before fading at her elbow. At the top of her spine was a melting rose, the petals dripping down her spine. On the inside of her left wrist there was something written, but it was hard to read at a distance.
Her entire demeanour had changed as well. Her cheery disposition had completely gone. Her mouth was straight, and her eyes narrowed. She positioned her feet to match the width of her shoulders and placed one slightly in front of the other. She balled her hands into fists and held them in front of her face ready to fight.
“Aren’t you going to take off your shoes?” Peter asked trying to keep his cool, but his nerves were shown through his voice. Up to this point the Initiates had fought without shoes in an attempt to avoid any serious injured and Myla’s heavy combat shoes looked like they would hurt. A lot.
“Call it” she said to no-one in particular, ignoring his question.
“Same rules as usual. You will fight until one of you is unable to carry on” Four called out. “Start!”.
There was absolute silence as they two circled around each other waiting for the other to make the first move. Usually Initiates would cheer each other on for support, but no-one did. Most of them didn’t like Peter anyway.
He swung his fist aiming for the side of Myla’s head which she dodged with ease. She dropped her defensive stance as Pete regained his balance. Her hands were placed on her hips and one eyebrow was raised as if to say, ‘is that all you’ve got?’. Taking advantage of her guard being lowered, or so he thought, he swung once more. Myla dodged it again and punched his squarely in the face, feeling his nose crack under her fist. The force of the punch made his body turn away from her. Without allowing him to recover, she grabbed onto one of his arms and twisted it behind his back, kicking his feet from underneath him. He hit the mat with a loud thud and groaned in pain. Blood rushed from his nose. Myla placed her knee in the small of his back using all her body weight, still twisting his arm. Peter weakly tried to get her off him, but it was futile. So, he gave up.
“The winner is Myla!” Four announced as if it wasn’t already obvious.
Myla let his arm fall to the floor and stood up. Peter groaned again as the pressure was gone from his back. He set up dazed and holding his nose. The older girl walked around the edge of the mat looking at each of the Initiates. Her eyes were cold and when she spoke her voice no longer had they bubbly tone. It was low, stable, and laced with authority.
“There are many things that you will need to learn before you finish Initiation which will be essential for your life here at Dauntless.” She held up one finger. “One: do not disrespect your superiors. I think there have been several examples now so I’m pretty sure you’ve all gotten the idea. Two: do not judge appearances or where people have come from. Everyone who is in our faction has proven that they belong here”.
With that she stepped off the mat and ordered two Initiates to help Peter and follow her to the infirmary. The other Initiates parted to allow them to pass through. It remained silent as they all tried to process what had just happened. Four watched Myla leave looking unimpressed whilst Eric tried his best, but failed, to hide his grin.
The previous thought had been wiped from their minds. There was no doubt that she was Dauntless.