ANNABETH

"Imagine a world - a peaceful, docile, controlled world where everyone is at mends and no one ever disagrees with the way things are - now look into a mirror, and imagine you're the one behind it."

"What could Jeanine possibly want from us?" Leo tugged on my arm as we climbed several flights of pristine white marble stairs leading to Jeanine's office. Knowing she'd be pissed over the fact I refer to her by first name, it just made me grin inside.

"As if I'd know," I say. But really, I'm trying to come up with plausible reasons. It's extremely hard to get a meeting with Jeanine - you're not worthy unless she says so or some random shit - and here is Leo, who has been here for not even a week.

Once we reached the door leading to her office, I hesitated to knock. So did Leo, apparently. Neither of us wanted to face that whirlwind of a woman. Or her perfectly aligned jaw, her cold gripping stare, or her wrinkle free blue outfits. My hand sprung from it's position by my side and knocked. No barging in on Ms. Matthews, that's for sure. It was one of her many, many rules.

"Come in." She called. I grasped the golden door knob and Leo traced behind me, timid but still somewhat confident in his appearance.

"Hello Ms. Matthews," Leo stood up straight, as if he was a pencil. It seemed so un-Leo like, ya know?

"Oh you're silly," She chuckled. "Just call me Jeanine! So, Mr. Valdez, how are you holding up on your first day here?"

"The people are really..." He trailed off. I could practically see him eat his words. Not nice, not kind, a bit manipulative, a bit too smart...Those words seem to fit the Erudite.

"...intriguing?" Leo coughed out. At least he learned that if you can't say anything nice but nor bad, just say 'interesting'. It works every time, trust me here. It was the word I used every time Percy tried to show me some weird contraption from Poseidon from underwater.

"Yes, that seems right on the dot." Why was she acting so...nice to Leo. I've known her a day and I've already caught on that she doesn't work that way. "But I have other business to discuss, now come." She gestured us to her desk, not cluttered and messy like Leo's at Bunker 9, but organized and neat - not a pencil out of place.

"What is this business we came here for?" I tried to ease her up - maybe suck up a little - but I wasn't gonna bury my pride for her.

"I'm sure you two are aware of the disarray these factions have been placed under ever since these divergents started becoming more popular." There she goes, bringing up those 'divergents' up again...what even are those? Instead of asking, we nodded instead.

But Leo had other plans. "What exactly are these divergents?"

"They'e the reason these factions will never be perfectly at peace. They put the entire city at the face of danger." I thought about my aptitude test - how my instructor started panicking that I was divergent - but I knew better than to bring that up.

"What can we do to stop them?" Leo asked, not sure if he was playing along or just generally curious.

"A serum would do the trick. A controlling serum. The abnegation are harboring the divergent, not punishing them. I've always despised them, especially that deceiving Andrew Prior. I actually went through the initiation for Erudite with him..." Now Jeanine was just rambling on about her memories or something.

"A controlling serum?" I asked. That didn't sound promising.

"Yes. You were learning about serums, yes, Leo?"

Leo jerked his head up. He was looking out the window, viewing the glittering aerial view of Chicago. "Yes, but mainly the truth serum."

"Ah yes, the truth serum. But no, the control serum is much more...effective, towards our citizens." Jeanine held a smug grin.

"What could I have possibly anything to do with it?" Leo asked.

"That's the thing, Mr. Valdez and Miss Chase. You're both now an important piece of this war and soon you'll know it yourself."

"What war?" I gestured outside her spotless bay window, the gathered congregations of newly Erudite initiates skipping happily through the courtyard. It sure as hell didn't look like chaos and war.

"Once we deliver the - " Jeanine cut herself off abruptly, taking in a giant swig of breath. " - can I trust you two with this...classified information?"

I hesitated answering. But I figured it seemed like the smartest choice, and I was a daughter of the goddess of wisdom. "Yes," I squeaked, sounding more confused than confident. Let's try this again. "Yes, you can trust me, Miss Matthews."

"There you go with the rigid 'Miss Matthews' again. Annabeth, I thought that establishing a trust between us would assure me that we can go by casual names." Jeanine laughed. "Same goes for you Leo."

"Okay, now that we're past that," Leo brushed off dust from his Camp Half-Blood shirt. "can you tell us what the control serum does and how you plan to use it?"

"Very well, where would humans be if we broke promises?" She asked, facing me. But it sounded more like she was just saying it aloud - to herself. She stood up from her position of leaning against her wooden desk. "The control serum can, it's self-explanatory really, control those who consume it. This - however - is not the primary reason we've created it. Divergents have a natural refusal against the serum and its chemicals. We'll be able to identify what factions are harboring these creatures and put both the divergents and their factions to justice." Jeanine spoke confidently. For a moment - a split moment - I had believed what she was doing was right, was fair.

"Are you sure - " The stability in my voice wavered. " - sure that's the best way to deal with divergence?"

"Annabeth," She reluctantly paused her voice, trying to calm the burning embers she calls a soul. "Imagine a world - a peaceful, docile, controlled world where everyone is at mends and no one ever disagrees with the way things are - now look into a mirror, and imagine you're the one behind it." She spun me towards the mirror hanging on her wall.

Despite the point she was trying to make, I just glared at the red dots appearing on the crevices next to my nose. Ugh, as if I need more of those little bastards. Also my awkward blond curls were frizzing up, why do I even bother brushing curls?

"A world without monsters, can you see it?" Jeanine asked, her voice as light as cotton balls.

She's probably not thinking of the same monsters as me, I thought, rather smugly. "Yes."

"Will you and Leo help me with the controlling serum?" Jeanine paused again.

As the word 'yes' dripped off my tongue, Leo interjected before I could speak. "No! We can't hurt innocent people just for your evil reasons!" He growled. His sudden anger broiling actually startled me.

"You have no choice." Jeanine simply stated, as if we were her property. "There is something you don't know."

"What could that possibly be?" Leo threw his hands in the air for emphasis.

"You're the one who created the serum, Mr. Valdez." Jeanine said, holding her stone cold expression of Ms. Matthews. She trudged over to Leo, gripping a piece of his vividly orange tee. "You won't stop me. This serum will be my ticket towards peace and stability. First, we start with controlling the Dauntless."

Percy's in Dauntless.

Percy's in Dauntless.

I have to go there and warn him.

Author's Note: Next day update! I regret nothing. I had a rare day that required no homework sooooo why not a chapter? I had a two hour delay so technically I wrote some of this chapter this morning ( before school ). A-chi (co-writer) has agreed to write the next chapter...yay! Hint: banjos and apple pickings, ahead!

Ps I'm listening to Hercules by Sara Bareilles while typing this and was obligated to make the reference to this story *bows*