A/N: So, I have no clue where this came from, I just wrote it last night when the idea popped into my head. Let me know what you think! I can't decide if I should add a second part or not, so let me know what you guys want.
I don't own Divergent.
When the news first broke, ripping the Erudite from their books and experiments, Harriet had assumed that it was an exorbitant rumor. Then the security footage was leaked, and there was no denying the truth of the story. Harriet had been appalled by what she saw, she had wondered how anyone could do such horrible things to innocent people. The Abnegation were most certainly not her favorite people, she didn't believe their selfless act or that it was even within a person's nature at all to completely forget themselves. She also knew that the Dauntless were all most likely mentally unbalanced, you would have to be to show such an utter disregard for natural self-preservation instincts. Regardless, she wouldn't have wished this atrocity on anyone and she also couldn't believe that the Dauntless were this… unhinged.
She had just started to come to terms with the whole thing, when the truth came to light and her heart broke. People had started asking questions, and theories had begun to float around the complex, but when Jeanine returned with half of the Dauntless marching behind her there was no room for doubt. The truth was clear, and when a few outraged faction members pressed her for the truth she made no attempt to deny it. Her response was cold, utterly emotionless, and calculating. She preached her view, that she had just saved this city from the Abnegation and their supposed lies. Harriet couldn't stay to listen to her leader's full speech, what she had heard made her feel sick.
She had gone home, desperate for a distraction from this irrational desire to leave this all behind and disown her faction. The thought of being associated with this pained her, but could she really give it all up for the sake of moral fortitude? No, she needed to think with her head, not her heart. She would have to be a moron to leave her position behind because of her heart's irrational desires. She was safe here, she would not be out there.
When she got back to her apartment her father was already there, home unusually early from his lab. "Father, why are you here?" She asked as she slipped into the other chair across from him at their small kitchen table.
"I was working almost the entire night," He answered, taking a sip of his black coffee and glancing up from his tablet.
"Oh, I had not heard you leave," She replied, reaching for her own tablet in her purse. She was excited to continue her book. She was about to power the small device on, when something occurred to her. Surely she was wrong, but she had to ask nonetheless. "Why were you at your lab at such odd hours? Are you working on an experiment that required you to monitor it at night?"
"No, I was not at my lab," He replied, using his finger to flick the page of his electronic book, "I was out with Jeanine, preparing and monitoring the simulation."
Harriet felt her heart drop, her throat tightened as she remembered the footage. "You…" She trailed off for a moment, trying her best to control her emotions, "You were a part of this? You helped kill all of those innocent people?"
Her father chuckled in response, the mirth in his voice shattering her heart more than she had thought possible. "Oh my dear child, what do you mean innocent? Those leaches were sucking the rest of us dry. Stealing resources from the important factions under the guise of feeding those who do not deserve our help. Innocent? Not at all, and this city will be a much better place once their existence is little more than a blemish in our history books."
Harriet felt like the air had been sucked from her lungs; how could the man she admired most be capable of this? She pushed her chair back abruptly, the squeal it made as it moved across the tile floor grabbing her father's attention. She looked down for a moment before mumbling that she was going for a walk. She slung her bag over her shoulder and walked out the door, refusing to look back.
She walked around the complex, desperate for a quiet place to clear her head, but she had no luck. She went to the archive room first. She had been working there since she finished initiation three years ago, working to preserve the books they had from before the war and translating the printed material to an electronic form that could be studied without risking further damage to the relics. The usually quiet room was abuzz with conversation about the day's events.
Next, she tried the library, but she quickly realized that every nook seemed to have been overtaken by debates over the implications of Erudite supporting the Dauntless and the future of the city. The front lobby was no better, it was crawling with Dauntless. She did manage to glean that the other half of the faction, those who disagreed with what Jeanine and the Dauntless leaders had done, had retreated to Candor. There were also whispers of the factionless taking in Abnegation refugees, and there was much speculation over how the Amity would react, what side they would land on.
Amity. If she had just gone with her gut and defected when she had the chance, she wouldn't feel like she was being torn in two right now. She hadn't, though, her fear of disappointing her father and leaving him alone had kept her here. She had known that she would be safe at Amity, no one would question her choice and she could live without fear of her terrible secret being exposed, but the thought of the look on her fathers face when her blood hit the dirt had been too much.
She had spent the last three years trying to act as logical and cold as she could, if she only showed that half of herself no one would suspect that she had received another result. She had chosen to hide within the faction that would have seen her dead, and at this moment she felt like she had wasted the last three years of her life.
She found herself walking out the front door, smiling at the Dauntless watching it as if the sight of them didn't make her stomach turn. She didn't know where she was going, she just knew that she needed to get away. She didn't realize that her feet had led her to the Abnegation sector until the smell of blood and death hit her. Her first reaction was to turn around, to run far away from here, to shield herself from the horrors that would lie ahead. Yet the morbid desire to see what her father had helped cause, to see if these were the people her father claimed, propelled her forward.
She wandered for a while, until she turned a corner and nearly stumbled over the bodies.
It was quite possibly the worst mistake she had ever made, but for some reason she looked down. She had to cover her mouth to keep herself from screaming. She knew what she was walking into, yet seeing it in person was so much worse than she could have imagined. Her eyes landed on the still open, vacant eyes of a little girl. She couldn't be more than seven, her young face forever frozen in a state of perpetual terror. She felt her breath hitch in her throat and her eyes began to burn as they filled with tears. This little girl had done nothing wrong, even if what her father claimed about the faction as a whole was true.
Harriet bent down, slowly bringing her fingers to the pulse point on the tiny girl's neck, although she knew it was pointless. She slowly shut the girl's eyes, waiting for a moment as she tried to regain her composure. It was in this moment of relative silence that she heard a small whimper. She thought it had been her imagination, or maybe it had been a bird or a stray cat, but then the pitiful cry came again.
She poked through the bodies until she found the source of the cry, a little boy who couldn't have been much more than two years old. He had been protected by the body of a woman who shared his facial features and hair, his mother, she assumed. The woman's grey clad body lay frozen in one last act of selflessness, shielding her child from the Dauntless who had attacked her.
She fought to blink away the tears in her eyes as she picked the small boy up and held him to her chest. Glanced around, nervous that the cameras would catch her and put the boy in even more danger. Once she was fairly confident that it was okay, she hurried into a nearby house, and sat down out of sight with the little boy. She pulled back and scanned his little body. He didn't seem badly hurt, what blood was on him appeared to be his mother's, but his eyes were red from crying and he had a few scrapes on his face and arms.
He studied her for a moment before puckering his lips as his eyes teared up, he was going to start crying. She held a finger up to her lips, "Shhh, don't cry. You're okay now."
"Ma-mommy," The boy whined, his lip trembling now, "Mommy."
The fear in the little boy's eyes brought the tears back to Harriet's eyes. She didn't know what to say, she didn't know what to do. She finally settled for pulling the little boy back to her and rubbing his back softly as he cried. "It's okay, I won't let anything happen to you. You're safe now," She whispered into his curly blonde hair as she held him, "I'll take care of you."
The crying slowly turned into more soft whimpers, which then turned into him falling asleep in her arms. She wasn't sure how long she had been there, but when she got up again the sun was setting. She paced for a few minutes, trying to decide what to do. If the factionless were taking in Abnegation she could take him there, but how would she find them? She could be out there wandering around for hours and never find one of their safe houses. Not to mention that she would be out in the open, exposing the baby to the chance of being captured by Jeanine or the Dauntless under her thumb.
It was dark when she had finally made a decision and worked up the courage to go. She pulled off her sweater and wrapped the baby up in the blue fabric as best as she could, trying her best to make it look like a baby blanket. When she was satisfied with her attempt at camouflage she set out for Candor, if they had taken in the other half of Dauntless, she was willing to bet that they would take her and the baby in too. Even if it was only for the night, she could try to find a better solution tomorrow.
When she reached the front doors of the Merciless Mart she was greeted by several armed Dauntless, guns drawn. "Put your hands up," one of them yelled.
She couldn't raise her arms and still hold the little Abnegation, so she balanced him in her arms and raised her palms to show that she wasn't armed. "I'm just looking for somewhere safe," She informed them, trying her best to keep her tone even.
"Why would an Erudite need shelter? It's your faction who started this," One of the guard replies with a sneer.
Harriet shook her head, "I wasn't a part of that. Not all of us knew what Jeanine was planning, or agree with what she's done." Harriet shifted the little boy in her arms, "But I'm not the one that matters, I don't need protection as badly as he does."
"Why?" The guard asked, his young features tinted with curiosity.
She took a deep breath, taking one more moment to consider what she's about to do before unwrapping the bundle in her arms. "I found him in a pile of bodies," She announced softly.
The guards studied her for a moment before lowering their weapons. After a few minutes of discussion they decided to take her to Jack Kang. As she walked through the Candor headquarters she felt the little boy's grip tighten nervously around her neck.
"It's okay," She whispered, reaching up to rub his back, "We're safe now."