A/N- This is an AU no war story. Tris doesn't exist. (I love her to death but I wanted to write an OC with Four, and I can't imagine him with anyone else but her if she exists anywhere in the world!) I have made the choosing ceremony happen when they turn 18 instead of 16. Please let me know what you think! Reviews are like crack!

Blue. Anytime Veronica looked in the mirror, she always saw the blue first. The blue in her eyes, a family trademark, followed by the blue of her clothes. Blue had always been a good color for her, the dark brown of her hair and the natural tan of her skin offset the blue nicely. She wondered absently if black would look as good on her, before laughing at the ridiculousness of her thoughts. She wondered if her brother Dominic worried how he would look in Dauntless black before making his choice. Of course he didn't. Dom was born to wear black. She thought to herself as she paced in her room, debating on trying to sneak out of the house and go to the choosing ceremony on her own, rather than face her parents.

She wished that she was as decisive as her brother was, but she wasn't delusional enough to let herself believe she could measure up to her brother in that regard. Once again she ran her fingers over the pale scars on the palms of her hands, thinking about the matching scars running across her torso, and cursed the position her Aunt Jeanine had put her in when she received them. It will be a black mark across the entire faction. Her Aunt's calm, reasonable tone echoed in her head as she remembered her words. The memories, much like the scars, hadn't faded much in the past four years. She shook her head to clear the ghosts from her past, and resigned herself to joining her parents downstairs.

As soon as she reached the living room, her parents' quiet chatter ceased as the both looked at her with worry. "I'm ready." She told them attempting what she hoped was an encouraging smile. Her Mother stood and crossed the room to her, placing her hand on Veronica's head, smoothing her hair. "Your Aunt has a position in her lab earmarked for you, if you want it." Her mother told her hopefully.

"I don't want to work in her lab." Veronica said flatly, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. She wasn't supposed to discuss her aptitude test results or her choice with anyone, but Erudite never followed rules they considered to be irrational very closely. Surely her parents realized that Erudite had been tainted for her, after 'the inconvenience', as she often referred to it.

"There are always teaching opportunities." Her Father chimed in, as though he didn't pick up the meaning behind her words. She ignored him, her jaw tightening as her teeth clenched in frustration.

"You don't have to leave." Her Mother told her softly.

"Yes, I do."

"Candor works very closely with Erudite, we would see you…" Her Father began, before trailing off as he realized the fault in that logic.

"Yeah I don't think Aunt Jeanine would be crazy about me choosing Honesty." Veronica said, barely able to keep the venom out of her voice. She sighed when she realized her last minutes alone with her parents shouldn't be spent arguing with them. They'd done enough of that the past few years. "I love you." She told them, "but I can't stay here. Candor isn't an option, and I'm not Amity or Abnegation material."

Her Father nodded and stood, putting an arm around her Mother's waist. "It's time to go." He told her, the tone of his voice conveying that while he wasn't happy about it, he'd come to terms with her decision.

"Veronica Cassell." Veronica's head jerked as her Aunt Jeanine read her place behind the choosing ceremony bowls. She'd been so lost in her thoughts, turning her decision over and over in her head; she hadn't been paying attention to the ceremony at all. She stood, making her way to the designated spot in front of the bowls, pausing to stare at the knife lying on the white bandage. The thought of cutting her hand made her stomach churn, but she knew that being brave started now. She took the knife and drug it across her palm, being careful to not reopen one of the scars on her hand. She didn't want to reopen old wounds, figuratively or literally. Her eyes scanned the bowls, and she finally looked at her Aunt, who was smiling warmly at her. Veronica eyed the bowl of glass representing Candor, and smiled, holding her hand over the bowl and locking her eyes with her Aunt. Jeanine's smile faded and she gave Veronica a warning look. Veronica thought she saw a brief glimpse of fear behind her Aunt's calm façade and relented, counting it as a small victory. She moved her hand, letting her blood drip over the coals representing Dauntless. Her Aunt called out her choice and a cheer came from the Dauntless crowd as Veronica walked through them, getting slaps on the shoulders and other good natured jostling. She realized how widely she was grinning when she took her place next to an Amity transfer, and knew that she made the right choice.

The rest of the ceremony passed without incident, and before she knew it Veronica was in a crowd of Dauntless running for the train tracks. As they waited for the train to come past them, Veronica looked to her right and saw Will, a classmate and casual friend standing next to her. He met her gaze and grinned, his breathing slightly ragged from the run to the tracks. She smiled back, before her attention turned to the train, and the Dauntless that were now jumping on it. She looked back at Will, whose eyes had widened after watching. "I guess we need to jump." She told him with a shrug, doing her best to ignore the butterflies that had suddenly appeared in her stomach. She tried recalling her studies of the human brain, how fear can be overcome if the rational part of the brain took over, but that didn't comfort her much.

"Are they crazy?" Will asked her in shock, but he had already scooted closer to the edge, watching the cars for a place to jump.

"Yes." Veronica answered absently as she also watched the train. "Ready?" She asked him. She assumed he nodded as she heard no response, and didn't turn her gaze to him. "Jump!" She yelled before launching herself towards the train, grabbing a railing and throwing herself into the train ungracefully, her shoulder hitting the opposite wall. Will pulled himself in after and they both put their backs to the wall, before slowly sliding down to sit on the floor. Veronica stared at the floor on the ground between her knees as she digested the last 15 minutes of her life, and how drastically it had changed. She didn't look up until Will nudged her shoulder with his own.

"Edward and Myra made it." He told her, glancing in their direction. Veronica's heart gave a familiar pang as she looked at the two. She and Edward had dated for almost 2 years, and had only broken up five months ago, when she'd found out he'd been with Myra for the last three months of their relationship.

She shrugged and flippantly told Will; "whatever", but honestly, it had hurt her to find out Edward didn't love her. He'd been a constant in her life, and they'd shared many things. Edward taught her how to fight and how to not feel helpless, and she'd helped him keep his grades up to the high standards of their faction. He'd never asked about her attack, and her scars, and that made it easy to be with him, and endeared him to her. They'd said they'd loved each other and lost their virginity to each other, but in the end, they'd both fallen out of love, and Edward hadn't wanted to keep up the charade any longer.

"I think these people are crazy." A pretty Candor girl sitting beside Veronica said, and Veronica jumped. She hadn't even noticed the girl, she'd been so wrapped in her thoughts.

"That's what I said." Will told her, before looking at Veronica. "I told you."

Veronica gave him an exasperated look. "I agreed with you." She reminded him. Erudite's really liked to be right, and clearly he just wanted to remind her that he had been.

"I'm Will." He told the Candor girl, ignoring Veronica.

"Christina." The girl told him with a smile.

"Veronica." Veronica told her, mustering a tight smile, even though her thoughts were to the exiting of the train. She'd seen the Dauntless get off the train for school each morning, and she knew that it would make getting on the moving train seem preferable.

"I think they're trying to kill us." Christina said, though she had an uncontrollable grin on her face as she said it.

"They wouldn't try to kill us, Dauntless already has the lowest amount of initiates every year, and they require a large force as they are the protectors of the city, so attempting to kill us would go against their goal." Will rattled off his explanation while Christina looked at him as though he'd started speaking a different language.

"Does he do this a lot?" Christina asked Veronica with an amused smile.

Veronica shrugged. "It's kind of an Erudite thing." She admitted. She had a similar train of thought when Christina asked the question, she just hadn't voiced it.

"Gross." Christina said, only a slight hint of playfulness in her voice. She looked at them and gave a sheepish grin. "Sorry, not having a filter is…"

"kind of a Candor thing?" Will finished for her. She nodded and they sat in silence staring out the open door at the city passing by in a blur in front of them. "When will we know to get off?" Will mused after a minute.

"When the train stops?" Christina asked in a tone that implied 'duh'.

"If it didn't stop for us to get on, why would it stop for us to get off?" Veronica asked her in the same tone, making Christina flush.

"They are trying to kill us!" She moaned as the Dauntless milling around the car began gathering around the open doors, confirming Veronica's hypothesis. Christina stood, albeit slowly, as though the Dauntless would suddenly come to their senses. Will and Veronica followed suit and their eyes widened as the Dauntless began leaping from the opening, not to the ground, but to a building rooftop.

"Just don't think about it." Christina yelled over the wind as the three edged to the doorway.

Veronica nodded, taking a deep breath and jumping as soon as Christina shouted "jump!" She landed hard, and fell to her knees from the momentum, throwing her hands in front of her to prevent her face from hitting the ground, scraping her palms on the rough concrete. She groaned, more from embarrassment of not keeping her footing than from pain. A hand was extended out to her, and she took it, looking up at the tall Amity transfer that she had stood next to during the choosing ceremony.

"Thanks. I guess I need to get better at that." She told him, brushing herself off.

"Which part? The jumping or the landing?" He asked her with a lopsided grin, pushing his shaggy blonde hair back from his face.

She laughed, "both I guess…" She admitted, looking around the rooftop at the others. They'd started with 13 transfers, they were down to 10.

"Hey, I think you're in the wrong place farmer boy, Amity is outside the gate." A rough voice shouted, before joining a chorus of laughter. A severe looking Candor boy standing with another Candor boy and a plain Candor girl sneered at them when the Amity transfer and Veronica turned to look at them.

Veronica rolled her eyes muttering "I wonder how long it took him to come up with that golden piece of wit."

The Amity boy shrugged as though he hadn't even heard the attempt at an insult. "I'm Jeremy." He told her.

"Veronica." She told him, before a heavily pierced and tattooed man dressed in all black began shouting for the initiates.

"Good luck Veronica." He said, giving her a genuine smile before they reached the crowd of initiates watching the Dauntless man pace back and forth on the ledge. She thought he was a nice guy, but she wasn't sure if there was room for nice in Dauntless.

"My name is Eric, and I am one of the Dauntless leaders. I am one of your leaders." He said the last part with a hard stare, seeming to look at everyone and no one all at once. "I am not going to waste time on speeches until we are in the compound, because I don't want to waste my time on any of you who don't make it to the compound." The crowd shifted uneasily, and Veronica noticed even some of the Dauntless born initiates looking worried. Clearly this was not someone to take lightly. "The Dauntless compound is down there." Eric continued, pointing into the blank space behind him, between two buildings. "And there are no stairs." He added with the smile of someone who enjoyed watching others squirm.

"You want us to jump?" Myra asked in disbelief.

"Unless you know how to fly." Eric quipped.

"Is there like water or something down there?" Will asked curiously. Veronica wished she was standing close enough to pinch him hard enough to shut him up. The Erudite transfers were making themselves stand out, and not in a good way.

"Does it matter?" Eric snapped. "Would knowing what was down there make you less afraid? Because you are in the wrong place if that is the case. Now who is jumping first?!" He demanded, seeming to lose his patience with the questions.

Veronica quickly realized this exercise wasn't just a test of bravery, but was also testing their ability to follow orders, and to trust their leaders. She thought back to her aptitude test, how picking up the knife and killing the dog had been an immediate reaction, not because she wanted to kill something, but because self-preservation had become the most important thing in her life, ever since 'the inconvenience'. She didn't hesitate to jump on and off the train, and she decided it wasn't the time to start. "I'll go." She volunteered.

Heads swiveled in her direction, and Eric smiled at her, appraising her with his gaze as she walked towards the ledge. He jumped down, putting his arms up in an offering gesture. "It's all yours."

I hope everyone enjoys the beginning of this. I can't wait to upload the next chapter, but I don't want to update so frequently I run out of steam before the end, so I am shooting for a weekly update. However, if I get some wonderful, thoughtful, or helpful reviews, I could be persuaded to update more frequently! :) PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!