The Other Side of the War (Tobias Eaton X OC)

Chapter 1

THE LAST TIME SHE JUMPED OFF A BUILDING it didn't end nearly as well. The bright side? Well, at least this time she did it out of her own free will.

Falling was natural to her. She fell when training, or when her mother was having a rough day.  Normally, falling would bring about emotions of frustration or abhorrence; but this time was different. Time had frozen all around her, like she possessed magical powers or a movie had been paused. For a moment she forgot to breath and for a moment, she had never felt so free in her entire life.

The possibilities of danger and death didn't cross her mind. Her heart was pounding far too loud for her brain to keep up. She wasn't fearful of the dark void she was being sucked into. Instead, all she felt was liberation.

Her only regret was that she didn't jump first.

When the intimidating dauntless leader,whom she absolutely hated, asked for volunteers she hesitated for a fraction of a second. A tiny moment that established her as weak, fearful, and worst of all; second best. Second best to a scrawny abnegation girl. It made her want to slit the girl's throat, but she assumed that would be going too far.

Oxygen was ripped from the girl's lunges when she hit something, then rebounded into the air.

A net. An anticlimactic ending, but what she expected nonetheless.

"What's your name?" A deep authoritative asked her after she had been roughly pulled out of the net.

She ripped her arms away from the strong grip that was holding her. After a small second of collecting her racing thoughts, she finally looked up.

His deep brown eyes lined with thick lashes met hers. To him she looked like a walking corpse. Her lifeless gray eyes and deathly pale skin was unmistakable.  Her sharp features were almost intimidating and her black hair was tied in a neat bun that did not budge an inch on the run.

But what caught his eye was the large scar across her face that told a thousand stories, yet he couldn't find the words to describe it.

Her face held no emotion whatsoever. There was nothing for this man to decipher.

Everything about her screamed detached. She was a painfully blank canvas.

When she didn't respond he asked again, "name?" This time his voice came out firmer. It sounded much more like an order than a question.

To be honest she didn't know what to name herself. She had never been in control of her own life. Every decision, every action was chosen for her. It was as if she didn't even exist. All she was a puppet for a master to control.

To everyone around her she was nothing, just a ghost in the wind.

She replayed every moment that led her to where she was now. Every mistake. Every punishment. Every fight. Every death. Everything.

And as a montage of memories played in the back of her mind she muttered only one word, "storm."

She knew everyone around her would perceive that as a strange or stupid name, but to her it was so much more. This was her rebirth.

The man turned to the group of dauntless gathered behind him, "second jumper: Storm!" As he cocked his head in the direction of the abnegation girl that previously jumped, he shot Storm a sideways smile. That's when she decided handsome was too much of a colorless word to describe him. "Welcome to Dauntless."

She did not return his gesture.

Storm carefully assessed each jumper after her. She examined everything about them: their features, their height, their weight, their muscle mass. Everyone around her was an open book. She picked apart every aspect of themselves that they left vulnerable.  Storm knew all their weaknesses before they even knew her name.