A/N: I'm not sure if this plot has been done many times before, I couldn't find many stories that have, but I thought I'd give my spin on it if not. Recently, I've gotten back into Divergent and as a professional Eric apologist, I have always wondered Eric's background and wanted an origin story for him like we got for Four. Clearly we never will, so I decided to make my own! How did Eric become the cruel Dauntless leader we all knew? What were the steps that led him there? Let's find out together! Let me know if I should continue this or what you think! I also posted this to Wattpad, not sure which site is more active, so let me know what you think and if I should continue this/if people care! xx
Chapter One: Choices
"Erudite." The clearly Dauntless woman administering my test said to me curtly.
"Oh." I grumbled, "Thanks."
As I got up out of the chair, she grabbed my arm gently.
"You know, you don't have to choose your test results. You can go anywhere you want."
"Yeah, but what's the point of that? The test tells me I'm an Erudite, I'm an Erudite."
"The test can only tell you so much." She shrugged, "Just because you're smart, doesn't mean you're not brave, or kind, or honest."
"What, like Diverg-" I said, not even able to finish the word. Divergent. We learned about them before. People who couldn't fit into one faction. My father had always told me they couldn't be controlled and were to be feared and eliminated.
"No, no, no." She shook her head, "You're not Divergent. Don't worry. Every single one of your results was textbook Erudite. What I'm saying is, there's a reason why you're allowed to pick another faction. There's still some degree of free will left in this world."
The conversation that Dauntless woman and I had at my test played in my head over and over again as I walked to the Choosing Ceremony. As an Erudite, I was used to my mind constantly moving a mile a minute, but today it felt like it was in overdrive. I couldn't shake her words. "There's still some degree of free will left in this world."
As I approached the building, I silently cursed to myself as I saw my parents talking to Jeanine Matthews, the new leader of our faction. I had known Jeanine for as long as I could remember and we had always gotten along; she was funny and always the smartest person in the room, but ever since taking a leadership position, I had noticed a change in her. She was a lot colder and more calculated, like she constantly aware that every move she made and word she said was being watched and judged. I didn't envy her new power.
"Ah, there he is." My mother beamed spotting me. I rarely saw my mother; she was always in a lab, "working on her research". You'd think her research was her child, the way she missed every single one of my piano recitals, spelling bees, sports games, or Science fairs since I was a child for it. Stupid research.
"Eric." My father nodded in my direction. My father, on the other hand, was a different story. He was always too involved. Nothing I did was good enough in his eyes. If I came home with an A+, he'd tell me that being smart was nothing to be proud of; it should be expected of an Erudite. If one of my sports teams won a game, he'd tell me I shouldn't waste my life playing "brutish games". If I won an award, he'd throw it away immediately and tell me I'll become lazy if I care about the appreciation of others. I was convinced that I could discover a new planet with human life, and my father would roll his eyes and tell me that discovering a new planet is no big accomplishment. I couldn't win with the man.
"I trust there will be no surprises today, Eric." Jeanine was now looking in my direction. My only response was a slight nod.
Ah, I knew this was coming. That's why this task force was waiting for me, making sure I didn't follow in my brother's footsteps, a grave mistake in their eyes.
My older brother Evan took the test last year, and had transferred to Amity. My parents were furious. My father didn't speak to anyone for almost a week, just walking around in silent anger, occasionally saying words like "pig farmer" and "betrayed" under his breath. My mother turned to her work. Shocking. I was mad at first that he abandoned me, but the more I thought about it, the more I understood his decision. My brother was clearly never an Erudite. He hated studying, he always ditched school to go hiking or go for a walk, and he'd even let the animals we'd test on in labs free because he thought it was "cruel and unusual". My father blamed it on laziness, but I blamed it on being born into the wrong faction.
My mother turned to me, smoothing down my slicked back light brown hair and straightening out my already perfect blue tie.
'Wow, so she can be maternal.' I thought to myself dryly.
"We just don't want you to make a mistake, Eric." She smiled. "Your life is here. You were born to be here. Don't forget that."
"Yes, ma'am. No surprises." I said this mostly to my father, who was giving me a gaze that made me want to crawl into a hole and never come out. No one could put fear in me like that man could.
With that, they were satisfied. They wished me luck, and headed inside. I sighed, sinking down to the front steps. I knew the test would tell me I was an Erudite. I was smart, I enjoyed Science, I loved the research we did, and I looked at problems from an analytical standpoint that was almost perfectly Erudite. But, I didn't want to stay in a lab all day. I didn't want to be under my father's thumb forever, constantly reminding me how disappointing I was. I looked down at my clothes, I was even sick of the perfectly tailored blue clothing. I was sick of it all.
Just then, a group of Dauntless kids arrived. They came barreling out of moving trains, laughing and hollering, zooming past me from all directions. I looked up at them, and tried to hide my obvious smile and interest.
'Now that, that looks fun.'I thought to myself.
Could I be Dauntless? I'm tough. And hell, I would say I was brave. I even got into a fight once. In third grade, two Candor kids stole Lenny Lebowski's lunch money in the school yard. Lenny Lebowski was probably one of the most intelligent people in all of Erudite, even when we were toddlers and most kids were playing with blocks, Lenny was solving complicated mathematical equations. But, he was also the most pathetic, smallest, skinniest kid in any room he was in. He was an easy target, especially for the jerks that were bred from Candor. I had walked up to the kids picking on him, took back Lenny's money, and punched them both square in the jaw. My brother high-fived me. My father grounded me for six months and constantly reminded me that Erudites don't fight with fists, they find with their minds. I hadn't fought since then, but I still remember the way it felt to hit someone. Powerful. Strong. I didn't hate it, to say the least.
I was so wrapped up in my own inner dialogue; I hadn't even noticed someone sit beside me. I glanced over at the loose, yellow pants and up at the person's face and busted out laughing.
"Oh man, they make you wear that stuff?" I chuckled, looking at my big brother, Evan.
"Hey, hey, I like this stuff. Better than the robot clothes they put you in." He said, returning my chuckle.
I looked at my brother. The clothes weren't the only difference. He looked totally different from the boy I knew a year ago. His buzz cut was now a long, crazy mane of brown curly hair, tied back with a hairband. He had bracelets up and down his wrists, and crystals hanging from his neck. But when he smiled, the same easy going, happy smile my brother always had, I knew it was still him. It was still Evan. The same Evan that checked under my bed for monsters as a child, or who gave me high fives and praise for my accomplishments when my father wouldn't. For every time my father told me I wasn't good enough, Evan told me "You're a rock star, E." And when my mother didn't go to my recitals or spelling bees or sports games or Science fairs, I'd look out into the crowd and find my brother beaming up at me. He was always there for me.
"So, ready for today?"
"Not really." I shrugged, "Were you ready?"
"Oh yeah. I couldn't wait to never see another Science lab again. But, it was hard leaving you."
I nodded slightly, trying not to let the fact that my brother did in fact leave sting me further. I got it, I reminded myself. I understood.
"Seriously, E." He grabbed my shoulder, "The only reason I even considered staying in that high tech hellhole was for you, you know that right?"
"I know." I turned to him, "I'm glad you left."
"You can too, you know."
"Can I?" I mumbled.
"Hell yeah you can." He said, raising his voice. "The world is your oyster, little brother. And I think you know you're better than sitting in an Erudite lab all day, looking through a microscope. You're worth a hell of a lot more than that."
I smiled weakly, wishing that was true.
"Don't. Don't you dare, Eric. That piece of shit father of ours has put these thoughts into your head that you're less than a rock star and it's wrong, okay? He's wrong. Fuck Erudite. Go out in the world. Explore."
"Then where can I go, Evan? I would rather die than live with the swine in Candor , no offense but the thought of singing campfire songs while braiding people's hair really doesn't excite me, and handing out food to the factionless in nothing but gray sure sounds like a blast."
"You're forgetting one faction, then." He raised an eyebrow.
"Dauntless." I said quietly, "Don't you think that's a little ambitious? Going from Erudite to that? I don't want to fail."
"You won't fail." He said simply.
"You can't possibly know that."
"Hell yes I can." He grabbed me by both the shoulders and turn me to him, "Eric, you're the bravest person I know. But besides that, you can go anywhere you want and not fail. You want to know why? Because you're Eric. You don't fail. And even when you do, you pick yourself up and keep going until you win. That sounds pretty Dauntless to me."
I didn't say anything for a while, and my brother spoke to break the silence.
"All I'm saying is, if you were meant to be an Erudite like you think you were, shouldn't this be an easy decision for you? Shouldn't you be excited to drop your blood in their bowl?"
"You're right." I sighed.
"You're damn right I'm right." He grinned, "You may be smart, but E, we know that you're so much more than a stuffy, snobby Erudite."
"Eric York." Marcus Eaton, the leader of Abnegation says from the stage.
I gulped. It was my turn. I watched person after person choose their fate. I watched factions cheer. I watched families cry as their child decided to leave them. I wasn't ready for this, I decided. I glanced at the exits, calculating if I could just make a run for it and live among the factionless street rats.
"No, Eric. Do it." A voice in my head said, which happened to sound a lot like Evan.
I walked past my parents, both touching me quickly before I made my way up to the stage. I took the knife from the table, gingerly cutting my hand, ready to make the biggest decision of my life. A decision that could possibly ruin my life.
I looked at the blood now in my hand and back at the five bowls at the table. My eyes shifted from the bowl of water for Erudite to the hot coals for Dauntless, back and forth, back and forth. Marcus cleared his throat in front of me, clearly trying to hurry me along. For someone so selfless, you'd think he wouldn't be so pushy.
Without thinking, I raised my hand above the bowl of hot coals and let the blood drip. The bowl sizzled, and I immediately heard the audible gasps from the group of Erudites behind me. I also heard the booming cheers of the Dauntless seated to the right, and made my way off the stage over to them. To my new faction.
I glanced to the left, and saw my brother now standing up in the Amity section whistling through his fingers. The smile plastered on my face from that sight quickly fell as I made eye contact with my father. If looks could kill, I would be dead on the spot.
I shook it off, and sat down next to a girl with long, curly blonde hair and the clearest blue eyes I've ever seen dressed in Amity yellow. I suddenly felt my palms sweat and my throat tense up. We had pretty girls in Erudite, but not that pretty.
"I'm Dove." She wave her hand that wasn't cut to the side, "Trying to get used to this whole 'not hugging to greet people' thing."
"Dove?" I chuckled, "Of course it is."
"And what's that supposed to mean?" She huffed, raising an eyebrow. But it was clear that was a tinge of humor in her voice.
"Nothing. It's just very Amity." I smiled, "Eric."
"Eric the Erudite." She nodded.
"Former Erudite." I corrected, "We're Dauntless now."
"That is very true." Dove leaned in to me, and I swear I thought my heart would stop at an any minute, "You ready for the start of the rest of your life?"
"I sure as shit hope so." I laughed.
A/N: Okay, so this was just kind of a intro chapter to see if people liked it or wanted me to continue! If I continue, there will obviously be a lot more action when he gets to Dauntless obviously. :) Please let me know if you want to see where this goes..thank ya kindly! x