A/N: This is the prequel to my no-war story Emergent. You can read them in either order, though I would recommend Emergent first. Hero of Chicago tells the story of Eric's work for and then against Jeanine Matthews (as was mentioned briefly in Emergent). It is set during Divergent until I veer off-canon.

I really enjoyed writing this from Eric's perspective. I love his mix of exaggerated Dauntless badass and repressed Erudite intellect. I have tried to show some of the vulnerability and desperation behind his cocky facade.

This story is completely written and will be updated regularly as I complete editing. I believe it will be presented in six or seven chapters.

Obviously I do not own Divergent, it's characters or world.

Enjoy!

xoxo,
Libby

Beep

Beep

Beep

A small but persistent sound from my computer grabs my attention. One of the emergency exit doors in the Dauntless compound has been opened. A few clicks of the mouse and I have the appropriate camera pulled up on my screen. There is no one by the door now, but I drag the timer back a minute and see one of the initiates leaving. It's Tris, the Abnegation transfer. Tris, the first jumper. Tris, the divergent.

I swear loudly and click a few more times to pull up video feeds from the outside of the compound. There she is, on the train platform. There is no way I can get to her before the train arrives. I have no way to stop her, and no way to warn her. I'm almost certain she just signed her own death certificate.

Tris is divergent. So is Zeke's little brother, Uriah. Uriah managed to get through the aptitude test without drawing attention to himself. He just looked like a Dauntless who happens to be goofy, fun-loving, and unusually upbeat. But when he came out of the simulation, he told his test administrator that he knew the dog in the simulation couldn't hurt him because the whole thing wasn't real. The fact that he got my contact, an Abnegation woman I know only as "Nat," for a test administrator saved the idiot's life. Nat gave him dire warnings about divergence and simulation awareness before sending him away. As far as I know, he has followed those warnings. I haven't seen anything that would suggest Uriah is aware in simulations, and no one in the Dauntless compound is talking about him being divergent. At least not around me.

Tris was not so lucky. Her divergence must have shown when she took the test, because the footage mysteriously disappeared, and her test result was manually entered as Abnegation. Her test was given by Tori, a Dauntless tattoo artist. Apparently Tori is familiar with divergence because she knew enough to dump the evidence. Unfortunately, that's exactly what Jeanine Matthews is looking for. A manually entered aptitude score puts an initiate right at the top of Jeanine's watch list.

Being on Jeanine's radar puts her on mine as well. As Dauntless' youngest leader, and the only leader to have transferred from Erudite, I'm Jeanine's top lieutenant in the Dauntless compound. I've worked for Jeanine since the day before my own choosing ceremony two years ago.

Jeanine knew about my Dauntless aptitude, so she looked up my school records, library checkout history, and computer search history (every teenage boy's worst nightmare - at that point I would have done anything she asked just to avoid having her share that information with my parents!). She then informed me that I would be transferring to Dauntless. It galled me that she would dictate my future like that, but I was thinking of Dauntless anyway, so I didn't get too upset.

I transferred, and knowing that Jeanine was watching me, I worked my ass off in initiation. Dauntless was a good fit for me. I was always too physical for Erudite, and though I did well in school, I wanted more action. Dauntless initiation allowed me to do all the running and fighting that I wanted. I also got to experience things I had only read about, like weapons and battle strategy. I was a natural.

But that wasn't enough for Jeanine. She didn't just want me to do well; she wanted me to be the best. A few days into training she sent Sal, the now-retired Dauntless leader who used to serve as Jeanine's lackey, to pull me out of bed in the middle of the night for a surprise visit. Jeanine threatened the lives of my parents and my little sister, Emma. She said that Sal was retiring after initiation and that my family would die painfully if I didn't finish in first place so I could take over his place in Dauntless leadership.

I worked harder than ever after that. I got up earlier to lift weights. I followed the nutrition guidelines that Jeanine devised to help me bulk up. I did everything I could, but I lost the last fight of phase one to Four.

Because we had been through our fear landscapes in the beginning of initiation, I knew that Number Boy's four fears would crush my twelve. There was no way I could pass him up in the final test, so when I lost that fight, I knew my family was as good as dead.

The first day of phase two is always brutal. No one expects to have to face their worst fears so literally. You don't have any idea it's a sim unless you're divergent, so from a mental and emotional standpoint you are literally experiencing the worst thing you can imagine. In my first sim I watched Jeanine and a trio of masked thugs torture and murder my family. Hearing my mom and sister scream as Jeanine's henchmen beat and burned them still gives me nightmares, and it wasn't even real. When I snapped out of it, my trainer, Amar, was sympathetic and kind, but I was inconsolable. He kept telling me it wasn't real, but I knew that it was, or would be in a matter of days.

I left the fear sim room and wandered aimlessly, ending up at the bridge over the chasm. As I stood watching the raging water crash against the rocks, I couldn't get the images of my family out of my mind. I was especially shaken by the thought of Jeanine hurting Emma. My little sister had always looked up to me, and I had always been protective of her. She was the one thing that made me consider staying in Erudite, and leaving her was like having one of my limbs torn off and leaving it behind. She was just twelve years old, with awkwardly long arms and legs, blonde hair usually done up in a braid, and braces on her teeth. Her life was just beginning; I couldn't let Jeanine hurt her.

Still deep in thought, I slunk back toward the dorms. Around a corner I heard the voice of Amar. He was talking to Four, and I heard enough to know that Amar was confessing his divergence. It crossed my mind that if I could pass this on to Jeanine she would be happy with me, and maybe my family would be safe. Then I could keep an eye on Four. After all, if Amar was talking to him about divergence, it was probably because Four was divergent too. I decided then and there to rat them out in a desperate attempt to save my family.

I told Sal, who promised to contact Jeanine. The next day Amar's body was found near the train tracks. I remember standing along the edge of the pit at Amar's funeral, desperately trying to drink away my guilt. But as I watched Amar's friends mourn his death I knew that what I put them through made me just as bad as Jeanine. Saving a life doesn't justify taking another, and Amar's death didn't even ensure my family's safety.

What did save my family, at least for the time being, was that Four turned down a leadership position after he outranked me in initiation. You have to be a top initiate to get invited for leadership; you can't become a leader if you're something like fifth rank just because the others above you turned it down. In fact, leadership training is usually only offered to the number one ranked initiate since leadership spots don't come available very often. Most years the top rank either turns it down or goes through leadership training and ends up doing something like leading a squadron of troops, or managing the kitchen staff. But in our year Sal was scheduled to retire, so when Four turned the job down, Sal put some pressure on Max. He told him that in any other year I would have been number one, and that I only lost because of the anomaly of Four's exceptionally low number of fears. So I got a chance at leadership, and my family got to live a bit longer.

I wasn't proud or excited when Max offered me the leadership position. I knew I didn't earn it. The only things I could feel at the time were relief that my family was still safe, and resignation to the fact that I would have to keep working under Jeanine. But I had no choice. If I didn't accept the leadership role my family would be killed. Plus, Amar's death would be even more in vain. I wanted out so bad, but the hole I found myself in kept getting deeper instead.

I knew what I had to do. I had to keep myself separate from others. No friendships, no attachments. As a leader I had business at the other factions, but I couldn't talk to my family. I hoped that if I let them go, exemplified 'faction before blood,' Jeanine would quit threatening them to get to me. I couldn't date, either, because that would give Jeanine another person to threaten. I couldn't even make friends who would get too close. I was stuck, alone, with no options.

Then one day Max sent me to Abnegation to represent Dauntless in front of the Council. Usually he handled the Council meetings, but he was persistent, so I went. The meeting was uneventful, and I started wondering if he sent me just so he could avoid the tedium himself. When we finished, I made my way to the train platform. Dauntless don't visit Abnegation very often, so the train station is usually empty, but while I waited to leave I noticed something that hadn't been there when I arrived in the morning. It was a single sheet of office paper with a photo printed on it. The paper was attached to a light pole. I walked closer and gasped when I realized that it was a photo of my parents and Emma, a new photo. Emma looked older, and her braces were gone. As I traced their faces with my fingertips, I was torn between relief at seeing that they were okay and alarm because someone had left that picture there for me to see. Was it a warning? A threat?

"They're doing well," said a soft, feminine voice. "They're safe and healthy."

"Who's there?" I demanded.

"A friend," said the voice from the other side of a tall sign. "Just stay still, Eric. Face the train tracks and act natural. I won't hurt you."

"I'll be the one hurting you if you don't tell me who you are and what's going on," I growled.

"You can call me Nat," she replied. "We've been watching you, and we just want you to know that you have options. You don't have to let Jeanine control you."

"Who is we?" I asked.

"I think we're both safer if we don't get into that right now," said Nat. "But we know Jeanine is hunting the divergent. They disappear all the time, especially from the factionless sector where no one looks into it. Within the factions the divergent suddenly die, and their families never see a body. Jeanine plants Erudite transfers in the factions, just like you, and she threatens their friends, families, and significant others so they'll do her bidding. But it doesn't have to be like this. Divergents aren't dangerous; they're just normal people with two aptitudes. They don't hurt anyone.

Jeanine hates them because she can't control them. Their bodies resist simulations, so they're aware that it isn't real. She isn't saving us from danger; she's eliminating a threat to her own dominance. She's setting herself up to be in control without the consent of the governed, so she has to get rid of those who can't be controlled."

"What do you want from me?" I asked.

"Nothing," she replied. "For now we just want you to know the truth, and know you have a choice. Think about it, Eric. We'll contact you again."

I heard her leaving and called out, "Wait!" But it was too late. Whoever this "Nat" was, she was gone.

I hopped on the train and went back to Dauntless. I knew that I had the option to contact Jeanine and let her know about this underground opposition. In fact, I wondered if Nat was a plant from Jeanine to test my loyalty. But I was desperate, and Nat had given me the tiny spark of hope that I needed. What if I wasn't really alone? What if there was a way out of Jeanine's web? What if my family could be safe and I could have my life back?