The choices you made | Eric Coulter (Under Reconstruction)

x1. Eleanor Cabanno

"Have you never seen a hamburger before?", the Candor girl asked the Abnegation weirdo she saw first when joining her fellow initiates earlier.

"No, I've seen one. I just have never eaten one.", the girl replied kindly. Ellie looked at her with surprise. Were they really that stiffed?

"Abnegation eat plain food. A plant-based diet with no sauces and a minimum of seasoning.", Will started talking, clearly enjoying sharing his knowledge as always. Ellie always had a feeling he liked to brag sometimes.

"Which textbook did you swallow?", Candor girl chuckled.

"Nice to meet you, too. I'm Will. Erudite.", he introduced himself, hardly swallowing the piece of hamburger which, by the way, Eleanor found delicious.

"Of course you are.", the girl smiled, continuing her meal. "And you?", she turned to Eleanor with a friendly smile across her lips.

"Ellie, Erudite.", she smiled back, attacking the hamburger in her hands. This atmosphere she liked.

"No offense, but I'm surprised Abnegation even eats at all.", Peter just needed to interfere. "Too selfish, right?", he asked. "No wonder you left."

Ellie rolled her eyes once more.
"You gotta be pretty self-confident
to be friends with a Candor.", she decided to ignore him, looking at the Abnegation girl.

"What is that supposed to mean?", the Candor girl asked, not offended, but amused.

"You have no filter. You say the first
thing that comes into your head.", Will loudly said, still laughing.

"You mean like: 'You're an idiot?", the boy that Ellie found out to be Al made her burst in to laugh. The rest of the dinner party followed.

"Nice one, Al. At least we tell the truth.", the girl spoke proudly, enjoying her dinner.

"Erudite can tell the truth because we have the facts.", Will still wanted to debate and Ellie looked at him, rolling her eyes, with a smile still hung on the angles of her lips.

"I don't want to hear about your old factions.", Four interrupted the positive atmosphere, and the laughter ended in one second. Was he always this negative? "You're Dauntless now."

Which was true, by the way.

"Were you a transfer, too? Or Dauntless-born?", all of a sudden, Abnegation girl politely asked him.

"Are you kidding?", he was still arrogant.

"No."

"What makes you think you can talk to me?", he asked again arrogantly, with a mean look in his eyes.

"It must be because you're
so approachable.", the girl replied in a calm manner, which made Eleanor choke with her food.
Harsh girl, ha?

"You, my friend, have a death wish.", Candor girl spoke indistinctly. Eleanor heard some whispers, but she continued chewing in silent mode.

"Hey, El, you're still not preparing to leave with the Factionless?", Peter was amused by her way of handling things, so he tried to mock her.
There was no need to even look at her, he was still very acquainted with the ways and directions her mind always worked in.

"Do you ever stop talking?", she was finally irritated.
This caught the attention of two girls in front of her, but at that moment, the alarm blared.

"Initiates, stand.", the strong voice commanded coming from somewhere beyond their hands, and soon, she saw a black, strong-willed man on the terrace above them, followed by the group, she could guess, leaders.
When they stood up, he continued:
"You have chosen to join the warrior faction tasked with the defense of this
city and all its inhabitants. We believe in ordinary acts of bravery and the courage that drives one person to stand up for another. Respect that. Do us proud.", he finished his short speech encountered by cheering, applause and laughter.

***

Four woke them up rudely this morning, saying they need to be in the Pit in "two minutes" and he was not alone.

The black man, the leader, Max was there and so was the famous Eric, the younger one. Lauren, the girl with nice eyes, joined them soon.

"There are two stages of training.", Four approached them, sounding confident. "The first is physical. Push your bodies to the breaking point and you'll master the methods of combat. The second is mental. Again, breaking point. You'll face your worst fears and conquer them unless they get you first. You'll be trained separately from the Dauntless-born, but you'll be ranked together. After initiations, rankings will determine what jobs you move into. Leadership, guarding the fence or keeping the Factionless from killing each other.", he finished his monologue, but Eric added one shocking fact:

"The rankings will also determine who gets cut." ho gets cut.",

Candor girl, Christina was brave enough again to speak.

"Cut?", she was shocked, like the rest of them.

"At the end of each stage of training, the lowest-ranking Initiates will be leaving us."

"To do what?", Ellie's question followed, still stunned.
She wasn't that anxious, but Peter pocked her in the back, giggling behind her.

"There's no going home to your
families, so you'd live factionless.", Eric explained.

"Why didn't we know that?", Christina asked again.

"It's a new rule.", his answer was once again simple and short.

"A new rule? Somebody should have told us that!", she protested.

"Why? Would you have chosen differently? Out of fear? I mean, if that's the case, you might as well get out now.", he simply noted, with no gushing about that. "If you're one of us, it won't matter to you that you might fail. Now you chose us. Now we get to choose you."

This was going to be one hell of a spring.

Author's note:
Another fanfiction I have already written, but it is finally published. Sorry for the long chapter, I hope you'll like it. It will follow the movie storyline for a while, afterward,s we're switching to my imagination.
Lol,
Sasha. ❤️