Brad wasn't exactly popular with anyone, so I moved to help Kali sit him on the seat I'd put Jackson. I grinned at her as we waited for Brad to regain consciousness. "I can't believe Eric compliment you. That's probably never happened in the history of... ever."
She laughed, "I didn't think he was even capable of saying nice things." She then wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, "You jealous?"
"Fuck yes." I didn't hesitate, Eric was a terrifying person, within the most terrifying faction, yet, he commanded respect and fear. It was a feat to impress such a man, and to have him acknowledge it, yeah, that was definitely something to be jealous of. "But I am also hella proud of you. Kali, you looked like you weren't even breaking a sweat!" I couldn't help but gush out what I had been thinking while watching the fight.
She blushed at the comment but quickly fired back "Yeah but, you weren't even in it long enough to sweat." She turned serious "In a real fight, the goal is to finish it as soon as possible, you did that." I was going to point out the differences in our opponents, but she continued on clearly wanting to say something. "If you had been fighting Brad-" She gestured to the still unconscious body "-how would you have ended it?"
I thought about it, Kali was smaller than me so if I were her, I would probably have done it her way, but me? I didn't really want to admit it, because it was brutal, but if I had been paired with Brad today... "I would have kicked his knee in first-" I admitted it with a little bit of shame because that action would result most likely would result in Brad not being able to continue with Dauntless initiation, however, with a non-judgmental nod from Kali to continue, I did "-then I would have hit him in the stomach so he doubled over, and then dropped down all my weight onto the back of his neck with the point of my elbow."
She was silent for a moment, "I think that might have been more merciful." I shot her a confused look and she elaborated, "Someone is not going to make it. Actually 5 people aren't going to make it through this first stage, it's almost cruel to give them hope."
"She's right." The voice caused us to jump and we saw Brad had woken up, "About me, I'm just taking someone else's place."
That wasn't really what she had said and his words pissed me off "It doesn't belong to someone else if it's yours." He looked confused by my statement "Brad, I've seen you shoot, you're really good. You're actually the third-best, after Archie and Zane." Judging by his face he hadn't known that.
Kali asked him the question I'd been thinking since day one, "Brad, why did you choose Dauntless? I mean you clearly hate hurting people why-"
"Dauntless isn't about hurting people." He snapped it in a rare show of anger, but quickly moved to explain "Dauntless is about being brave." He gave a sigh "Back at the farm when I was 6, our house caught on fire. I was outside when it happened, but my baby brother, who I was supposed to be watching, he was inside. The Dauntless response team arrived very quickly and we were all throwing water on the house, but it wasn't doing much good. I was screaming at the Dauntless when they arrived, I don't remember what I said, but I yelled something about them having to save my brother, they had to save Daniel. One of the soldiers patted me on the head and didn't even hesitate before running into the fire." He looked me in the eye "That man saved my brother and I never even knew his name, but he did it, all without recognition, at first I thought he must have been Abnegation cause surely it was an act of selflessness. It wasn't until I was older I realised that being brave is to be selfless but in a different way."
The story was touching and highlighted a part of Dauntless I hadn't really considered before, but upon thinking about it, I wondered why I hadn't. The Dauntless purpose was to be brave so we could protect those who cannot protect themselves, Brad was right, it was selfless.
