Chapter 4: The Dauntless Compound

Reviews:

Brandelia: Ugh no, I haven't gotten round to reading the rest of the Throne of Glass series - I do have them though, they just sit on my bookshelf of books I need to read and torments me when I am supposed to be working.

rainbowchameleon: Mmhmm, at the moment Tris and Nico aren't particularly close or anything but they will grow closer and become like brother/sister.

Iamrainbowparchment: Jason? hmm I had started writing this before BoO at the point when we were unsure if he was Roman or Greek and so in this fic, Jason is very much Roman and whilst he likes Nico, he stayed at Camp Jupiter and Piper moved there with him.

Summary: Nico accepts a dangerous quest from an ancient deity, even though Hades warns him that he may never be able to come back. The quest lands him in the future with the task of stopping the horrendous amount of deaths written by the Fates. Can Nico find Tobias and Tris before the events of the Divergent trilogy play out into the Fates' hands?

Disclaimer: Nothing is owned by me but the plot line

WARNINGS: I haven't really worked out fully what's in this story yet, but oh well, I predict that there will be deaths, swearing, injuries and probably a hell of a lot of weapons. No slash relationships planned…yet… OH, WAIT!

SEVERE SPOILERS FOR HOUSE OF HADES AND ALLEGIANT DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THEM OR DON'T MIND IT BEING SPOILED. I REPEAT, DO NOT READ THIS STORY IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS FOR HoH OR ALLEGIANT.

≈Ωne Fandom Is Not Enough

Previously:

As she stood on stage, she could feel the air thicken with heavy tension.

As the blood started to trickle down her palm onto the carpet between the two bowls, she remembered how Nico Di Angelo had transferred to Dauntless. It she went, then she wouldn't be alone.

She gulped and jerked her hand to the right and watched the blood sizzle on the hot coals of the Dauntless bowl.

She was selfish.

She was brave.

Beatrice Prior-

Beatrice forced herself to look away from the burning, betrayed gaze of her father. Her eyes drilled into the plain wall of the Upper Levels building as she stood at the very back of the Dauntless initiates, watching the Dauntless born initiates snigger at meaningless sentences.

They seemed to have found a new form of entertainment in trying to force the mysterious Nico Di Angelo to laugh. Or display some form of emotion.

Obviously, they were not succeeding; Nico was looking at them rather like they were tiny children that couldn't hope to comprehend what was going on in his head.

She glanced at the initiates from the other factions (well, the ones that aren't Nico Di Angelo – he didn't even look excited), they all looked as pale and nervous as she felt.

Her eyes accidentally slid over to her parents, and she flinched at the harsh, look in her father's eyes. Next to him however, her mother was smiling.

Her heart clenched as the group of Dauntless started to move out of the building, they ran – exhilarated, down the many stair cases, whooping as they skip steps and sprint towards the doors.

"What's going on?" yelped a scared looking Erudite transfer that was sprinting next to her. She shrugged, breathless with the pleasure of running.

She had not run in so long as Abnegation discouraged any form of activity done for pleasure, her lungs heaved gratefully as they reached the cool, crisp outdoor air.

She noticed, perplexingly, that Nico, several paces in front of her, seemed relaxed, keeping up with the group effortlessly.

However, she didn't have enough time to ponder on this as they were fast approaching a familiar looking area and the recognizable hooting sound of a train grows nearer.

"Oh no," whimpered the boy to her left. "We're not gonna have to…"

As they paused, waiting for the train, Beatrice tried to catch her breath, watching interestedly as Nico rolled his eyes at the boy.

She was right there with him though – they had just joined Dauntless of course they were going to jump on the train. Had they ever seen the Dauntless travel in any other way? She would have also rolled her eyes if her body wasn't still trying to cope with the fact that she had just full-out sprinted for about 7 flights of stairs.

She noticed once again that Nico Di Angelo hadn't even lost his breath or composure.

The crowd of black spread out into a line and the train hurtled past, each car door was open and groups of Dauntless piled in, grabbing the silver handles that line the train.

Only the faction transfers were left and the train was running out of carriages. Beatrice stepped forwards and started to jog along with a few others. They ran with the car for a few steps and then threw themselves sideways.

Beatrice clung to a handle, she wasn't as strong or tall as some of the others and her shoulder slammed painfully into the carriage wall as she tried to pull herself in.

Eventually a Candor girl wrapped a hand around her wrist and tried to help her in. Unfortunately, the train was picking up speed and the Candor's girl's grip was weakening.

Beatrice began to panic, if she didn't get herself into the carriage, she was going to fly off the side.

Suddenly, a pale hand tightly enveloped her other hand and with a strong pull, she was hauled inside. She fought to control her breathing and panted "Thanks." to the Candor girl and looked up to find the emotionless face of Nico Di Angelo.

She glanced out the train and watched as an Erudite boy tried to catch up with the train, an Erudite girl stretched her hand out to try and grab him, but he was too far behind.

As the train sped up, leaving the boy behind, Beatrice realised that he had already failed the Dauntless initiation.

He was now factionless – it could happen at any time.

"Are you alright?" yelled the Candor girl over the wind, raising an eyebrow as Beatrice sat down against the wall.

She nodded; the girl was tall, with brown dark skin and short hair. Nico, who still dwarfed her, rolled his eyes again. "If you're wondering why she's sitting down, its because she's logical. It's easier to your balance if you are lower to the ground. The train is moving fast and the wind could easily knock you over if you are not careful."

The girl held her hands up in surrender as she sat down next to Beatrice. "Whoa, I meant no harm Mr Cheerful."

Beatrice snorted. "Its nothing personal, I'm sure. The only emotion he can do is sarcasm."

Nico rolled his eyes yet again.

The girl hid a snigger at that and grinned. "I'm Christina, you and mister tall, dark and handsome are?"

"Beatrice and that's Nico." She replied, starting to like this girl. She was pretty sure that she knew exactly who we were, what with us being Abnegation transfers and all.

With that thought, Beatrice's mind was drawn back to her old faction.

It was Caleb's turn to make dinner, she wondered how her mother and father were coping. Both their children transferred to factions, in their opinion (at least her father's) abhorred.

She wondered absently if her brother had always known that he would choose Erudite? If their parents were to clear out his room his room tonight, would they find books stacked around his room in hidden places?

What a good actor he had been. The thought made her sick to her stomach, because even though she had left them too, at least she had been no good at pretending. At least they all had known that she hadn't been selfless.

She closed her eyes and pictured her mother and father sitting at the dinner table in silence. She wondered if it was a lingering hint of selflessness that made her throat tighten at the thought of them, or was it selfishness, because she knew that she will never be their daughter again?

"They're jumping off!" someone yelled, breaking the her from her miserable thoughts.

They stumbled up, staring out the door at the carriages up ahead that were emptying as blurs of black launched themselves onto a building.

Beatrice heard Nico curse and she couldn't help agreeing even though she was shocked at his out of character behaviour.

"They want us to jump out a moving train across a- what..." he looked speculatively at the gap between the train and the building as it neared. "1.5 meter gap, onto a seven story high building. Makes perfect sense. This is going to be a fun initiation."

Christina nodded with a gulp. "But this is what we signed up for. Dauntless."

"Well, I'm not doing it." muttered an Amity boy that stood behind the three of them.

"You've got to, or you'll fail. Come on, it'll be alright." replied Christina, readying herself for the jump as they drew nearer the building.

She held out her hand and Beatrice slipped her hand into it readily, understanding how she was feeling. She herself felt like she couldn't make it without someone there to drag her across.

As the train began to pass the roof of the building, Beatrice counted. "One...two...three."

On three, they launched themselves into the air and after an exhilarating, weightless moment, they landed on the roof. Beatrice's shins jarred as her feet slammed into the floor and she looked at Christina who was laughing.

"That was fun." she grinned.

Beatrice turned back to look at the rest of the initiates, she frowned slightly when she could not find her other Abnegation transfer - the mysterious Nico Di Angelo.

But her fears were quelled when she saw a flash of grey fly across the gap and roll gracefully back to his feet in one fluid movement.

Christina and Beatrice were suitably impressed. "Wow. How the hell did he do that? He made that look even easier than the Dauntless adults!"

Beatrice shrugged, just as confused, it seemed to only confirm her sinking suspicions that she had had ever since he had appeared two months beforehand. He couldn't possibly have been raised in Abnegation.

He would fit perfectly in Dauntless it seemed.

Speaking of Dauntless...

There was a loud wail and they turned to see a crying Dauntless initiate being restrained at the roofs edge by another. A girl clad in black lay on the floor seven stories below them with her limbs bent at odd angles and her hair fanned out on the pavement.

Not everyone made it. Not even the Dauntless were safe.

Beatrice turned away, refusing to cry, noticing that all the other transfers, made it to the rooftop except the Amity boy who had refused to jump.

She gulped and told herself sternly that this is was it was like to be Dauntless. They did dangerous things and people...died.

The sooner she accepted that, the better her chances she of surviving the initiation.

Nico Di Angelo-

Nico blew a sigh of relief when Beatrice's hand when over the Dauntless bowl as planned. For a second she looked so unsure and off put be her brother's action that she was seriously considering Abnegation.

Chronos was decidedly being a dick and so Nico resolved to ignore the voice in his head until further notice.

The Choosing Ceremony was drawing to a close and Nico could feel Beatrice next to him practically vibrating with nerves and...something halfway between regret and self loathing due to the heavy stares she was receiving from her father.

Nico almost felt like comforting her - he had plenty of experience in the 'disappointing your dad' department but he concluded in the end that she would probably be more freaked out than comforted if he suddenly lent her a shoulder to cry on.

And seeing as she had just joined Dauntless she probably wouldn't want to be seen crying straight away. Might single her out as a weaker character or some such nonsense.

Nico knew only too well how these 'brave', shallow and arrogant types functioned - Dauntless was bound to be full of them and thus Beatrice was doing herself and resisting so to keep up appearances.

It was always a good idea to keep up a consistent mask when speaking to people - that way if they were shallow enough to judge you by that type of thing, they couldn't...because they would only ever see your mask. At least...that's what Nico had always done.

He wasn't really eligible to try any other options because once you started the 'mask' thing, you couldn't really stop.

Sighing, Nico started to move off with the rest of the group they ran down the many stairs and he began to curse how sloppy he had become, he really ought to train more if he were to succeed this mission (especially seeing as Chronos was being so ridiculously obstinate about everything).

They reached the tracks and Nico wondered absently why there even was a train if there were no train stations at the Upper Levels Building - was it only Dauntless who caught the trains then?

He shrugged it off as they drew to a halt and heard the familiar whistle of the train.

He heard the other initiates panicking as they realised what they were required to do. "Oh no..." whimpered one boy far to his right. "We're not gonna have to..."

Nico rolled his eyes. Duh. Had they ever seen the Dauntless take any other method of transport to and from the Upper Levels Building? Did they suddenly expect them to bring out flowers and limousines(did they still have those?) just for their arrival?

As far as he could tell, Dauntless seemed like a despicable and corrupt place they wouldn't not hesitate to prey on the weaker ones and would not try too hard to cater for their initiates.

But then again all the factions seemed pretty corrupt - even Amity, the most harmless looking of the bunch! When Nico had been investigating Amity he had been wondering how the faction functioned, he had discovered it was not nearly as 'peaceful' as it seemed.

*SPOILERS*

They dumped the Peace Serum (the bloody Peace Serum!) in their factions food to ensure complete cooperation and peacefulness. Nico wondered if the people of Amity even realised that they were being drugged on a day to day basis.

He also wondered if any of this entire population realised that they were merely a bloody fucking experiment on genetics. Nico hated how all these petty quarrels and things like the initiations seemed pretty meaningless now that he looked at it on the grand scale of things.

What did the people running the experiment think of him? Surely there must be some perverse godly legacy behind all of this - did they realise that he had simply appeared out of no where?

Nico was still rather pissed off with the people running the experiment. Mind you, he had been really pissed off for about an entire month but the full on righteous fury had stewed down to a quietly simmering condensed ball of rage in the corner of his mind.

Were they really content to leave these people to kill each other off? They had no perception of an outside world, they had been born and bred in captivity and then were monitored to the end of their miserable lives.

Nico had snick into the building outside of the fence containing the record sheets for past 'terminated' failed experiments, for a few of them, they had let the people out of the enclosed area before destroying it, but with others, they were perfectly happy to destroy it with the people sill inside of it.

Disgusting.

He growled under is breath as he hoisted himself onto the carriage car of the speeding train. The girl who had already clambered on gave him a funny look. She was quite tall for a girl of 16, had dark skin and wore the obvious black and white Candor clothing.

Nico sent a glare back in her direction that he knew wasn't really fair and so it was quite half-hearted. A true glare from Nico Di Angelo would have sent her scampering away to the back of the carriage in fright.

There was a thud and Nico glanced up to see a slender hand clasped to the handle of the carriage. the Candor girl immediately wrapped her hand around the wrist of the other person in an attempt to haul them on, unfortunately she was far to weak to pull another 16 year old body into the narrow opening of the carriage on a moving train that was ever picking up speed.

"Are you going to help your friend or are you that heartless?" muttered the Candor girl staring intently at Nico as her grip began to severely weaken on the other's wrist.

Friend? Nico snorted what the Hades was she on about? She didn't even know him.

How would she know who-

Oh. Damn it must be Beatrice - the only other Abnegation transfer into Dauntless.

Nico shot forward, cursing himself as to why he hadn't tried to help in the first place (would have really let that person fall if it hadn't been Beatrice?) he shook his head, dispelling the thoughts as he maneuvered himself around the Candor girl to grasp Beatrice's wrist and haul her into the carriage.

She was surprisingly light and Nico almost fell over as he withdrew back into the carriage - had misjudged the amount of power that would have been needed to pull her back into the carriage. He should have realised how light she would be due to her slender and slight build.

Dusting himself off imperceptibly, Nico stood back up watching as the two girls introduced themselves (and him) and adding a snide remark when he felt it appropriate.

After a while - approximately 15 minutes of Christina (that was the Candor girl's name) and Nico brooding and Beatrice wallowing in sadness and self-loathing, they heard a shout from another boy in the carriage. "They're jumping off!"

"Shit. What the fuck is this?" Nico muttered as he watched in horror at the gap between the train and the rooftop they were expected to jump off of. What the Tartarus kind of initiation was this!

Many off the initiates from other factions had not even been allowed to run let alone jump a 1.5 meter gap off a fast moving train before in their lives. He could see Beatrice looking at him in shock.

She probably didn't even know what those words meant - what with being born and bred in Abnegation.

"They want us to jump out a moving train across a- what..." he looked speculatively at the gap between the train and the building as it neared. "1.5 meter gap, onto a seven story high building. Makes perfect sense. This is going to be a fun initiation."

Did they want their initiates to die?

Like before even reaching the Dauntless Compound?

Why did anyone even want to sign up for this faction?

And on an unrelated note, why did no one ever venture outside of the damned fence? Did they seriously never question the purpose of the fence?

Even the Dauntless? Who were told they had to guard the fence and protect the people but were never told what from?

How oblivious was this entire society?

Christina muttered back something about this being what they signed up for - Dauntless and Nico mentally sneered at her (in reality he clenched his teeth and kept his face stoic to keep from letting another curse slip out through his lips.

He watched in interest Beatrice and Christina clasped hands and prepared themselves to jump. Christina claimed she 'wouldn't feel safe without someone to drag her over', but Nico felt like she was more concerned about how painfully thin and weak Beatrice seemed. She possibly thought she wouldn't make it over the gap.

Nico sympathised. Personally, at the moment, he couldn't see how this little girl (okay maybe she was only one year younger than him, but experience-wise and compared to Nico...she was very little and young) would lead the people 'to victory' as Chronos claimed.

I never said that and don't doubt her. She hasn't even had a chance to reveal her true colours underneath that Abnegation mask of hers. She's actually a lovely, strong and independent girl. Quite a similar character to you. In fact I think the two of you would be quite a stunning couple y'know? I mean the Fates have paired her with someone else and okay he's hot but really (?) he's nowhere near as interesting or mysterious as you. Or dangerous. Well, actually that's debatable - sometimes I'm actually convinced that you have the heart of a puppy I mean you're adorable enough to be one after all-

Nico dutifully ignored Chronos' useless babbling and watched as the pair launched themselves from the carriage with enthusiasm fueled by nerves and fear.

He wondered if Chronos would always be like this.

He hoped to the (now nonexistent) Gods that he wouldn't as after all, he would have to live with him in his head for the rest of his time on this damned mission that may be the entirety of the rest of his life!

In any case he hoped that Chronos' appalling matchmaking skills improved dramatically as he listened to him start to prattle about Christina. Not only was the impossible Primordial God neglecting that fact that the Fates had already planned all the relationships in this world, he seemed to have forgotten the minute bloody fucking detail the Nico was in fact gay.

Oh yeah. Hmm...well, we can work with that.

"For the love of the Gods, shut up!" muttered Nico and he leapt out of the carriage and rolled smoothly back to his feet with a practices ease as he hit the rooftop.

Nico had had enough practice jumping off moving things at greater distances to be off put by such a small jump. He himself hadn't been afraid of the drop, but he feared for the other teenagers' safety.

And rightly so, he thought grimly as he felt three souls depart from their bodies. He looked in disgust at the three broken bodies lying below the 7 story high train track. Whoever designed the Dauntless initiation was a heartless bastard.

His thoughts wandered back over to the departed souls as the Dauntless and the transfers began to congregate at the opposite rooftop. His eyes quickly found Beatrice and noted gladly that she did not seem to be that injured. Where did the departed souls go? If the Underworld and Hades no longer existed?

They simply cease to be attached to their body, and start to exist on a separate field of existence but without the Underworld to guide them, many of them loose the will to exist...and cease to do so.

What? That was possible?

Afraid so.

Nico shuddered in horror. At least that explained why the whole place reeked of Death and dead souls. Nico had noticed it before but wasn't particularly sure if it was just his newly gained powers acting up or something similar.

A man with deep creases in his dark skin and grey hair at his temples stood on the side of the building like it was a sidewalk, like someone didn't just fall to their death. He introduced himself as Max, one of the leaders of Dauntless.

Nico took an instant dislike to him. As a leader of the Dauntless he had obviously been one of the ones to design the initiation.

"Several stories below us is the entrance to the compound." he declared, gesturing vaguely to the empty air behind him. "If you can't muster the will to jump off, you don't belong here."

Nico felt is dislike for the man strengthening with every sentence he spoke. He hoped for his sake that he stopped talking soon.

"Our initiates have the privilege of going first."

Nico scanned the crowd of trembling initiates and was surprised to see that Beatrice, unlike the rest of the faces, didn't look surprised. If anything, she looked like she didn't understand why the others were so shocked at Max's announcement.

"Is there water at the bottom or something?" questioned an Erudite girl with mousy brown hair.

"Who knows?" Max raised his eyebrows.

Nico ground his teeth. What the fuck kind of 'bravery' test was this? This didn't test bravery? This was gullibility. Seriously though, who in their right mind would leap off a seven story high building into a hole with only the word of this 'leader' of a corrupt society? Obviously these people were being brainwashed or something into thinking that mindless obedience and recklessness without reasoning was a good thing. They were encouraging stupidity.

He could see all the initiates avoiding his gaze- at least they had some sort of common sense- wait no, NO NO.

The only initiate holding Max's gaze was Beatrice.

What the fuck did she think she was doing no nope NOPE come back here you useless piece of-

Too late. Beatrice had walked off to the edge of the rooftop, the wind whipping at her loose Abnegation clothing. Her slight frame was battered by the wind as she removed her outer top and threw it at one of the cocky Erudite boys.

Nico frowned. Obviously he had missed something - there was a lot of tension in the gaze they held.

She turned her head back to stare at the bottomless pit that she was supposed to leap into and steeled herself.

And jumped.

Well fuck.

Nico was gong to have a harder time protecting her than he had originally thought.

A/N" *hides* I know I know I haven't updated it an era but pffff life happens guys. Sorry. :(

I HAVE HAD AN EPIPHANY! I know exactly who Nico is going to be with in this story, yes I am a genius and yes you will be a genius too if you can guess who it his.

But then that poses a problem as to the original person that person was going to be with.

Hmmm.

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