Ayano was twelve years old, in Russia during her training. She was in the Pit. The area of training that she was in was called Dauntless. She was training her skills against a punching bag right now. Only at this moment, she wasn't as skilled as she is now. And so, she was practicing different techniques.

She was using her arms and her fists right now, and she looked down at her knuckles that were bruises, but she ignored the aching in her body as she fist fought the bag.

Dominic, who was her mentor came and saw what she was doing and he observed. "Your weak, you have no muscle." He told her in his husky voice as he saw the young girl. "Your never going to win, not like that." He continued then he saw when she continued.

"Thats good to know." Ayano told him then looked when he stopped her.

"Your small, and you're fast. Which means you could win if you hit first. Once you're in, go for the throat and watch how they fight." He said to her then he looked at the bag again and let go.

Ayano when he gave her that talk, when he walked away she smiled small. He was like a big brother to her. And they said that whoever passed the test, then they got to go home. She wanted to see her sisters and her parents. And she wanted to see her best friend again.

Later on.....

Ayano was fighting a girl that was twice her size, she literally could fit two of her she was big. And before, all they had to do to get into the base, was they had to jump from a ledge onto a net. Only, they didn't know what was on the bottom. And she went first, while Big Bertha went last.

She was getting beat to a pulp by this girl, and she had to give up and she panted as blood and sweat was on her face.

Dimitri, who was the leader looked down at her and quirked an eyebrow. "You need to stop?" He asked her as he looked down. Pathetic. When she nodded helped her up. Only, he wasn't going to be as nice as it seemed. "You doing better?"

"Yeah." And before she knew it, he pushed her down the ledge of the makeshift bridge between the rooms. She screamed as she held onto the railing. And with her arms and body already screaming, she was struggling to stay up.

"Hang on to the railing. Or don't." Dimitri said as he let go of the hand he was holding and let her hang there. "You have three options. Hang there and i'll forget your cowardliness, fall and die, or give up." He told the girl as he looked down at her. "If you give up, your out." He said to her in almost a condescending way. But, what that really meant was that she was dead. He couldn't tell her that, though.

Ayano hung onto the ledge and she was determined. She had already come this far, dang it! No way was she giving up now! The twelve year old's body was aching, her jet black hair was in a low ponytail as it was coated with sweat slung over her shoulder. After about two minutes of letting her hang there, they called time and her little friend Rue, and Dominic helped her up as she was traumatized and went to her big brother.

"Dauntless, don't give up. Best if you remember that."

And all of this, was on a video that the teachers of UA High could see. They could see that Aya was determined to stay alive, and her pain as she hung there after taking a beating. She was more naive back then, so she didn't detect that Dimitri was the enemy. Because, they made them seem like the heroes.