My eyes flutter open to the sound of someone crying. The small screeching noises fill my ears like batter getting stuck on a whisk while baking; it lingers onto my ears. I immediately jump out of bed and run to the crying sound. I see Rainbow on the edge of her bed, crying her eyes out. I stroke her shoulder, sitting next to her.

"Rainbow, hey, you're alright," I say, putting my arm around her.

"WHO THE F**K IS THIS?!" she yells, turning towards me.

"Your mom," I reply.

"She's an executioner," Rainbow mumbles between her choking fits of tears and her irrational breathing pattern.

I look at her and at the sleeping initiates. "Hey, let's talk about this outside."

She nods. We walk together in our pajamas towards the chasm in the freezing cold weather.

"My mom is an executioner. She executes people for a living," Rainbow says, explaining her situation.

"I know what that means. It's alright, Rainbow," I say.

"It's not!" she yells, "My mother kills, steals, and is a fraud!"

I look into her eyes with bewilderment. "Isn't that common in Dauntless?"

She shakes her head. "No. I'm f****d up, Kat."

"Well, we're all a bit f****d up, aren't we?" I ask.

Rainbow shakes her head, then shrugs. "How so?"

"Life in Abnegation is different than it seems," I say without thinking.

"You're a stiff?" she asks, "You? Seriously? Who would've expected that?

"The faction you come from doesn't define you," I say.

"The faction of which you choose does," Rainbow says.

No, it really doesn't, especially when you're a Divergent of all five factions: Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless, and Erudite. Then, your faction is out of the question. It might reflect on your sense of rationality, but nothing else is taken into account. It's strange how the system is wired. I eventually nod in agreement with Rainbow, seeing that she's not the type of person to politely disagree with.

"Especially when I knifed the dog during the test," she says bluntly.

Of course she did, no commentary needed. She's a citizen of Dauntless, as am I, but she's a born citizen. She's reckless, crazy, and relentless.

"Didn't you?" she asks.

I nod in agreement. I don't know how freezing on the chasm to free Rainbow's stress helped develop into a conversation about factions and test results. It kind of represents the world of politics, especially after Queen Elizabeth II died; everything is chaotic. The city tried to patch up things, but I'm sure it didn't. The chaotic world around me has come to a halt, as a world of monotone began.

"Well, my mother is being placed in trial this weekend," she says, "Would you come with me?"

I raise my eyebrows automatically. "When?"

"Tomorrow after training. We need to head over. She's in trouble with the law; she needs help," Rainbow says desperately.

I've never known her to be so vulnerable, so open. It leads me to believe that she's a highly depressed individual, with a depreciating amount of hope inside of her.

Training goes by with the same monotonous tone placed over it: fear simulations, breakfast, lunch, and all day I keep thinking about Rainbow.

"Kat?" Nathan asks me.

"Hmm?" I respond.

"I've been calling your name for the past 10 minutes," Nathan says, slightly concerned.

"You sure you know what minutes are?" I ask playfully.

Nathan playfully pushes me. "STOP IT!" he exclaims, laughing.

I stare at the training room ceiling, seeing the bloody indents that Nathan, Brad, and I left on the walls from Stage 1. I feel slightly proud that I left my mark; but I also feel like I've committed Abnegation's heavily-focused on crime, vandalism. Marcus used to hold secret executions in the attic of his house, hanging people and then slaughtering them. Tobias thought it was just us. He thought that Marcus was an angel to everyone else. In reality, Marcus is nice until he dislikes you. The moment he decides you're worthless shit, then he will treat you like crap behind closed doors; the fake sarcasm will piss you off when you're in front of his face. I hate how Marcus acts like a loving, grieving father in front of everyone else, but when we're with him alone, he acts like we're a mix of vomit and shit. I want to kill that man, but Tobias might feel regret. I know he wants to make peace with Marcus; whereas, I want to toss him down the drain and watch his organs being ripped out of his body.

"Marcus is dead," I mutter before sprinting full speed towards the train.

"KAT!" My boyfriend exclaims with concern, "WHERE THE F**K DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?"

I jump off of the platform and onto the train. I thrust open the handle. Nathan follows after me. I sit down in the corner of an empty train car; Nathan sits beside me.

"Catherine," he whispers, "what's wrong?"

"You don't know my past and you're glad you don't," I mutter.

"Same could be said about me," Nathan says, "I know you can keep your past a secret, but if you've turned into a creepy machine, then you should probably talk about it."

I laugh for a second. "I'm not a creepy machine! One of the Pedrad brothers said you should be arrested for being creepy!"

"I was always told that as a child. I'm sure you don't know this, but, I was a creepier child than I am teenager," Nathan says, "but besides, what's wrong?"

"I'm not weak," I say.

"I didn't say that," Nathan replied with concern and care.

"You know how Four's my brother?" I ask.

"Yes," Nathan replies.

"Well, I was born with an abusive father. He drove my mother out of the house, and once my brother transferred he beat the shit out of me," I say softly.

"Well, here's some word of advice for you. If we ever break up, which I hope we don't, don't go dating a douchebag. And also, as soon as I see your father, I will beat the shit out of him," Nathan says, looking into my eyes and wiping away my tears.

I start crying even harder, falling into Nathan's arms. "You don't understand. If you beat him up, he will kill you. If you say you are my boyfriend, or even my friend, he will kill you. He will take out a chainsaw and-" I say in between tears.

"An Abnegation leader with a chainsaw? Your father's Marcus Eaton, correct? He's the Abnegation leader. So, how in the world does he manage to kill people with chainsaws if he's a leader?" Nathan asks, a tad bit confused.

"Don't tell anyone," I say harshly, "Not even Tobias. He doesn't know. They don't know."

"Tobias doesn't know?! Catherine Eaton, do you see how much this is eating your life?" my boyfriend asks.

I nod. "Yes, but-"

"But what?" Nathan asks, kind of pissed off, "I'm glad you told me. This explains your crazy antics."

I raise my eyebrows. "Crazy? Aren't I acting normal?"

"Sort of," Nathan replies, "Sometimes, you skip so many meals in a row, and then the next day you eat like everything. Something's wrong."

"I haven't even thought about that," I say quietly, "Well, I have to visit a trial tomorrow-"

"I do too, but why are you going to Rainbow's mother's trial?" Nathan asks.

"Rainbow asked," I reply.

"You're way too nice. If she had asked me, and I've been friends with her for forever, I would tell her no, because I don't know her mother," Nathan says.

"Me? Too nice?" I say with disbelief.

"Good point. Catherine, even though you're nice, you can be mean as shit sometimes," Nathan says.

"That's true," I reply without even thinking, "Thanks boo."

I kiss him on the lips; he kisses back.

"Boo?" Nathan asks, "What's that mean?"

"Oh," I reply, "Abnegation slang."

"Okay that makes much more sense," he replies.

I hear loud booms. I stand up.

"What's that?" Nathan asks, still curled up into a ball where I once was.

"It's thunder. Oh no. I think the city's flooding," I reply.

The water level rises to higher than it ever was before.

"We need a draining system," I say confidently.

"A draining system? Like what? Like long pipes or deep holes?" Nathan asks, standing up to join me.

"Either would work, if we have the strength to do so," I reply.

"Oh god. Let's do this," Nathan says, "We need to see how the Dauntless people are doing."

I see the Abnegation streets flooding. "NO! We need to see Abnegation first!"

"You're smart like an Erudite. We need to dress up like Erudite," Nathan says.

"But nobody's awake, it's midnight!" I exclaim.

"That's also the case. Are you sure you want to do this?" Nathan asks.

I nod. The train passes by the front of Abnegation. Nathan and I jump off the train onto a stranger's house. The water levels are rising; those poor Abnegation citizens! I'm sure the Dauntless can handle it since they live in multiple story apartments; only the first floor or two will be damaged. I'm sure Erudite can handle it, because they are smart and have anti-flooding pipes. Also, Caleb Prior's brilliant and he lives there, so they have some people to help them. The Candor houses are elevated, and the Amity live on higher ground, but the Abnegation are practically helpless when it comes to these things. Wait. The factionless are also helpless. Oh god. Lightning strikes overhead.

"You realize this is kind of stupid, right?" Nathan asks.

"Of course I do. I don't want anybody dead."

We run into the Priors' house. The water levels are already rising. I grab some towels and push it against the doors to try and trap the water outside, but it's not working. I also put buckets near the front door so that the water could drip into the buckets, but I'm changing them out every 5 minutes. Nathan is handing me new towels and buckets so I could clean the house. I run outside and start digging many deep holes in the ground. The rain water starts to drain. I walk back inside the Prior household.

"WHO'S THERE?" Andrew Prior shouts, his eyes with deep under eye circles.

"I know you don't recognize me," I say, "You haven't seen me in two years. Its Catherine Eaton."

"Oh! Tobias's sister! Who's the stranger? He wasn't born in Abnegation!" he yells, raging at Nathan.

"This is Nathan, my boyfriend," I reply.

Nathan waves to Andrew Prior. Natalie Prior walks down the stairs, shocked.

"Catherine Eaton?" she asks.

I nod, "That's my boyfriend, Nathan," I say, gesturing towards Nathan. He waves.

"It's a pleasure to meet you both," Nathan says, "I know you're wondering what we're doing here. We just fixed the flooding problem in your house."

"You did?!" Natalie asks in disbelief, "Thank you!

Natalie hugs us both. "I'm sure Marcus would be delighted to see you, Catherine."

"We've got to go fix the flooding problems at the Blacks'. I'll see you around, Mr. and Mrs. Prior!" I say as Nathan and I run out of their house.

"That was close," Nathan says, "Even though you're well aware that I'd never let him hurt you again."

"You're so sweet, it drives me crazy sometimes," I say honestly.

Nathan laughs. "When's your birthday?"

"In Abnegation, you don't really have birthdays," I reply.

"Well, you're born on a certain day of the year. So, what you're saying is that in Abnegation, all babies are born on the same day every year? What is there, like a vaccine or something for babies to not be born on any other day but December 31st?" Nathan asks.

"Not really, but sort of," I reply.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Nathan asks with a look of bewilderment plastered across his face.

"It means that the birthday of any given person is hidden from the government-"

"So, selfish little b****es are running your life?" Nathan asks, raising his eyebrows.

"No-" I start.

"That's what the stiff life sounds to me," Nathan says while laughing.

We run towards the next few houses, doing the same thing. I even do it to Marcus's house. After we're done being plumbers, we jump back onto the train. I bury my skinny frame inside my sweatshirt. It's still pretty cold outside, even for a March. It's usually much warmer around this time of year.

"You're so cold, Kat, look at yourself!" Nathan says, taking off his shirt.

"Oh my god, stop!" I yell.

"F**k! It's cold!" Nathan yells, putting his shirt and his jacket back on.

"Ha!" I exclaim, playfully pushing him, "I'm always right."

"You're right about one thing," Nathan says.

"Hmm?" I ask, walking up towards him.

He places a strand of hair behind my ear. "I know exactly what you want." He presses his lips against mine, and then releases. "This." He kisses me again, this time I release.

"Oh, stop it," I say playfully, kissing him again.

"We're here!" Nathan yells, "We're in Dauntless!"

I look outside the narrow train door. I see the top of the Dauntless building; we leap together across some of the rocks until we land on our feet. I see a certain intimate standing right by the entrance.

"Hey," Helena says.

"Greetings, Helena, and condolences to your family," Nathan says.

"Why condolences? No one's grieving," Helena says, looking Nathan up and down and staring into his upper bicep.

"They will be once they find out how s***y you are," Nathan replies, "You fascinated by my biceps?"

Helena blushes. "Haha yea-"

"It's not my fault I'm irresistible," Nathan says.

I start laughing at the top of my lungs.

"What's so funny?" Helena asks, "He knows the truth-"

"You realize he's taken, right?" I ask.

"Oh I should've known, Nathan, wrong brother!" she yells, "Never too late for the d**k kick, huh?"

"Not before the breast punch," Nathan says.

Helena pulls out the gun and then shoots. Nathan ducks. Helena shoots again, but the gun made no noise.

"F**K!" Helena exclaims, "Come back when I have more bullets." She manages to push him to the ground with the gun but Nathan, being the strong body builder that he is, manages to grab the gun.

I start kicking Helena in the legs, again and again and again. Nathan the body builder manages to bend the gun.

"Bloody h**l, dude," Helena says.

"Shoo! You're like a cold sore that just keeps coming back and I'm like, 'god, GO AWAY!' And you're just like, 'I'm here! I'm here!'" I yell, punching Helena in the face.

Nathan and I run and then we jump down the chute, for us to realize, someone cut a hole in the middle of the net. We both manage to get out of the hole and grab onto the edges, but a knife comes swinging in my direction.

SLASH! The knife drags across my leg. My leg starts pooling blood. I grab the knife from the person's hands, but they're too good.

"IF YOU TOUCH HER, YOU'RE DEAD!" Nathan exclaims, but not before being knifed across his back. He keeps running and running until he possibly can't. He's lying in a pool of blood. Nathan starts limping towards me. "DON'T YOU DARE!" he exclaims at the top of his lungs.

I hear many punches nearby. BANG! BANG! I take the mask off. Jennifer. Predictable. Tom. Alright. I rip the mask off of the third person.

"Kristen?!" I yell at the top of my lungs, "HOW COULD YOU?!"

I start punching her again and again and again until one punch knocks her out.

"KAT!" Tobias exclaims, sprinting towards me, knocking the three people out with some simple fake darts.

He carries my limp body to the infirmary.

"NATHAN!" I yell, seeing his body covered in blood.

Uriah runs towards Nathan, helping him up; Nathan slaps Uriah.

"I can walk, you know," he snaps, getting up on his feet. He takes a step and then his body falls to the ground.

Uriah carries Nathan while he's squirming. "I don't care what you say, you can't walk to save your life."

Nathan kicks the entire walk to the infirmary.

"Kat?" he asks, "You okay?"

"Better than you," I say jokingly, but I wasn't joking. He looked bad; his body covered in bruises and knife marks.

We are both placed in infirmary beds. The world goes black.

3 hours later...

Matt comes rushing in, with Jo, Abel, and Rainbow soon after.

"Kristen," is all I manage to say, "KRISTEN!"

"Kristen what?" Jo croaks.

"Kirsten beat the h**l out of me," I reply.

"She's working for the other side," Nathan croaks.

"The other side of what?!" I demand.

"She's a spy for Erudite-" Nathan starts.

"Say what now?" Abel demands, taking a sip from a jug of coffee, "Not even coffee could help me predict that. I would've guessed Nathan or Jo."

"Hey!" Jo yells, "But still. I didn't expect that coming from Kristen."

I look at my friend with defeat. "Me neither," I croak.

Matt walks towards Nathan and whispers something in his ear.

"No, thankfully, he just helped," Nathan croaks.

"You sure?" Matt whispers with concern.

Nathan nods. Why are my boyfriend and his best friend whispering about everything? I guess I don't understand; that's an understatement, I have no worthy idea what's going on.

Rainbow walks up to me. "Still up for the trial?" she asks.

I nod. "I'll always be there for you, you know. I know I act like a d**k, but I'm not."

"Yea, you act a bit like a d**k," Jo says truthfully.

"Once a stiff, always a bit like a stiff," Nathan croaks jokingly.

I laugh.

Abel laughs. "Once a Dauntless, always having tattoos of silly things?" He points towards Rainbow, "Your freaking alphabet tattoo-"

The entire infirmary laughs, barely inhabited by anyone but us.

"I'll grab you some Dauntless cake," Jo says.

"And coffee!" Abel adds.

The entire crowd leaves. Soon enough, Tobias, Tris, Zeke, and Uriah walk in.

"You alright?" Tobias asks us.

We nod.

"Nathan, you look like s**t, seriously dude, you okay?" Uriah asks Nathan while studying him in his infirmary bed.

Nathan nods. "Don't tell anyone you had to help me walk, it's embarrassing-"

"Okay fine," Uriah interrupts, "You win. I wanted to record it for everyone to see that you're not so strong anymore."

Nathan laughs. "You imbecile, seriously, how dumb can you get?"

Uriah laughs. Tris brings me a muffin. "3:00 am breakfast!" she exclaims.

In Abnegation, no one ate until 10:00 or 11:00 in the morning, unless it was school and then we just ate at 8. Never at 3 in the morning! What is wrong with the Dauntless population? I take a bite out of the muffin and taste chocolate and hot sauce.

"This is odd for Dauntless breakfast," Nathan says, "Hot sauce and chocolate?"

"Uriah made them," Tobias says.

Nathan laughs. Uriah looks at Nathan with a death stare. "That explains why," Nathan says.

How does he know Uriah so well? I guess they're just friends? How long have they been friends for?

"How long have you two been friends?" I ask, gesturing towards Nathan and Uriah.

"A couple years," Uriah asks, "Not too long."

But..... how? My eyes become hazy and I fall asleep.

2 hours later...

I awaken to Rainbow violently shaking me awake. "The trial, the trial," she says repeatedly.

I cut the cords from my arms and jump out of bed. I see jugs of coffee and muffins lying beside my bed. I run towards the coffee and take them all.

"Thanks, Abel," I mutter.

"Abel's so obsessed with coffee," Rainbow says, stealing a jug from the ten that are in my arms.

The amount of caffeine rushing through our blood at this moment could possibly destroy our kidneys but we could care less. We walk across the training room, only to see a particular face with a few jugs of coffee.

"Hello, ladies, can I join you?" Abel asks.

"We're going to my mom's trial-"

"I don't care what you say, I'm going to go anyway!" Abel exclaims, completely cutting Rainbow off.

Rainbow rolls her eyes. "Fine."

Rainbow, Abel, and I sneak around Dauntless until we reach the train boarding station. Rainbow and I leap onto the train.

"YOU DROPPED THE COFFEE!" Abel exclaims, carrying our coffee as he jumps onto the train.

Abel drops the countless jugs of coffee onto the train floor but shockingly, none of the coffee is spilled. We sit on opposite corners of the train, avoiding the awkward small talk. Let's get to the trial as soon as possible.

(A/N: I'm so sorry guys; I haven't updated in about three months! I promise, I will update sometime within the next two weeks, I'll try to update every other Sunday, but I'm not sure that's possible. I'm so glad you people are asking me to update; that means I'm doing something right! Thanks so much for 3K+ reads, it means a lot! Next update: 07/12/2017. Who's your favorite character so far? Just curious, I've been writing this for two (maybe three) years. Thanks so much!)