Chapter 10:
Author's note: Sorry for the lateness of the update. I was busy with other fanfics that I was never satisfied with. In this chapter Eric and Jeanine's conversation seems a little unrealistic, but please just go with it.
Third person point of view:
Erudite Headquarters -
Jeanine Mathews, the sole representative of Erudite sat in her office as she waited expectantly for a certain visitor.
Her secretary then opened her door.
"Miss Mathews, he's here to see you."
"Send him in." said Jeanine, a tone of irritation and impatience in her voice.
Her irritation was not towards her secretary's interrupting her, she was expecting her secretary to do it. No, her irritation was toward her visitor and because of the circumstances of his being here.
Eric, former leader of Dauntless, now factionless, entered her office. Jeanine, gestured for him to sit.
He sat down. His posture betrayed no hint of nervousness at the idea of reprimand from this woman, though what he was actually feeling was the complete opposite. When he was fifteen years old, Jeanine Mathews had talked to him, told him about the Edith Prior/Amanda Ridder video currently in he hands of the Abnegation. Told him that it was imperative that the truth not get out, that the truth would destroy the faction system and that the ever growing population of the Divergent would do that. Though his aptitude test said that he was textbook-Erudite, he had agreed with Jeanine Mathews beforehand to choose Dauntless.
The only way to prevent Amanda Ridder's...'prophecy'...from coming true, was to exterminate the Divergent, or find a way to control them.
Eric's job had been simple; undermine the Dauntless Leadership and find the Divergent, erase all possible evidence of his connection to Erudite and act the part of a Dauntless. He was then to get rid of the Dauntless initiates who would be more resistant to mind-control, and to do that he needed to find only the most arrogant and cruel initiates. But don't let Dauntless pride and honor interfere with his job; a factor of his job that he was not always able to live up to.
Jeanine Mathews sighed with disappointment, "I don't like meeting with the Factionless."
"I'm not Factionless!" Eric said stubbornly in a state of denial.
Jeanine Mathews ignored his last remark, "But I think it will be 100% fair of me to allow you to give me a reasonable explanation of how this happened."
Eric paused for a while before reluctantly saying, "I can't."
"You can't?!" said Jeanine with both disbelief and anger. "So what then? Did a mythical fairy just fly along and wave it's magic wand and 'abra-kadabra', you're factionless?"
Eric, knew her question was rhetorical. He was quiet as he thought of what to tell her.
"Max, called me." said Jeanine Mathews. "He told me what happened. He said you wagered your Dauntless membership in a fight."
"I was trying to teach one of the initiates a lesson, and put them in there place!" said Eric defending his honor.
"And for one second did it not occur to you that the price for you losing the wager was too high?" asked Jeanine Mathews in a tone of voice as though she was speaking to a slow learning child.
"It wasn't like that." said Eric in agitated defense. "She wasn't supposed to win. She was only five feet tall and very skinny."
"I don't like excuses." said Jeanine Mathews.
"She was several times faster than me and had the strength of ten men." said Eric.
Eric's excuses began to cause Jeanine's curiosity to betray her.
'Who was this Dauntless initiate that can do this?' thought Jeanine.
"Who was she?" asked Jeanine.
"I don't know her real name? She changed it when she first arrived yesterday. She calls herself, Nessie."
Jeanine quickly tapped at her keyboard until a certain document came up.
"This is the candidate list of the Choosing Ceremony." said Jeanine as she turned the screen to him and pointed. "And these are the names of all of the Dauntless initiates."
Eric looked at it briefly.
"That one." Eric pointed. "Beatrice Prior. The stiff."
Jeanine Mathews, put on a confused face and raised one eyebrow.
"Andrew Prior's daughter?" said Jeanine, disbelieving. "It was an unusual turn of event when she chose Dauntless. Everyone was expecting her to join Abnegation. Though her brother did join Erudite."
Jeanine then brought up the Erudite Database's full profile on Beatrice Prior.
"Not much." said Jeanine off hand to herself as she read. "Personality, unknown; though the Abnegations are hard to tell, they're so quiet at school and in public. She volunteers on the weekend, just like all the others...here's something, her aptitude test results? It says she got Abnegation, but for some reason the computer didn't record what went on inside her head during her simulation, so her test examiner, had to report it manually."
"Divergent?" asked Eric suspiciously.
"Possible." said Jeanine. "But we can't kill her until we're sure. We can't afford any collateral damage at the expense of the non-divergent."
"Who was her examiner?" asked Eric.
Another few more key strokes.
"Tori Wu."
"Tori?" said Eric. "She's a tattoo artist."
"I knew her." said Jeanine reminiscent. "She, Andrew Prior, and me all used to work together back in middle school. We are all the same age, and all at the same Choosing Ceremony. He joined Abnegation, she joined Dauntless, I stayed here."
"You think she's protecting Beatrice Prior? And is trying to conceal her divergence?" asked Eric.
"It my be possible that she's pro-divergent." said Jeanine. "Sympathetic to them. Her brother George, was Divergent. He joined Dauntless too."
"You had him killed?" Eric asked.
"No, by an unusual coincidence, he jumped into the chasm the day after we tested him." said Jeanine. "It was initiation, so, the official public story was that he cracked under the pressure."
"Not just him." said Eric. "Several Divergent, and suspected Divergent have committed suicide in Dauntless for years. The bodies always damaged beyond recognition. Including, my former training instructor, Amar, two years ago."
"We are running off topic here." said Jeanine. "All of this still doesn't explain why and how, Beatrice Prior, was able to beat you in a fight without breaking a sweat, the reason you now can't do your job anymore. Though it is not all her fault; the fight itself could have simply been avoided by you, Dauntless pride be damned!"
She leaned back in her chair in defeat with a look of hopelessness on her face mixed in with the anger and irritation.
"I know what you want Eric." said Jeanine Matthews. "You want sanctuary from the factionless here in Erudite. But you understand the very difficult position that you have put me in. What will our fellow Erudite think if they see that I am allowing factionless to be members in the faction again. It has never been done before, no factionless person has ever been allowed back into a faction, except Abnegation, and I am trying to eliminate that." the hopelessness on her face disappeared and was replaced by just anger and irritation. "And if I might say, you have no one to blame except for yourself by accepting the girl's challenged to a fight and wagering your membership. Even if she wasn't supposed to win."
"Well, I would like you to offer me sanctuary here in Erudite, but I also wish to offer something else...I think that Beatrice Prior, is not human."
Jeanine Matthews had a look of confused interest on her face.
"May I ask what makes you think that?" Jeanine asked inquiringly.
"I don't know." said Eric with a confused and disbelieving voice. "You could call it a sixth sense; when I was near her, I just had this weird and unusual feeling in my mind and...gut...that...she was...not human. I don't understand it."
"So you think that by some mysterious knowledge of the universe that she's some kind of super humanoid being with superior strength and speed." asked Jeanine with a tone of sarcasm and disbelief.
"As unlikely and absolutely crazy as that sounds, it may be possible. And I think that I might be able to prove it if it is true. I have brought with me a sample of her DNA."
He then held up a single long strand of blond hair.
"Very well," said Jeanine Mathews, "if your evidence turns up something valuable, then I will...overlook your blunder, and pull a few strings, and grant you sanctuary."
A short time later, they were in one of the many laboratories there in the building. A younger girl was looking at the hair through a microscope.
"Well," said the girl as she looked through microscope. "It...is...a...hair."
She was confused as to what the point of this was.
The girl was studying to be both a microbiologist and geneticist.
"We know that it is a hair." said Jeanine Matthews. "We just need to know whether or not the hair is human."
She put her eye back to the microscope and took a closer examination, "Well, it appears to be a perfectly normal human hair through the microscope."
"Can you see anything out of the ordinary?" asked Jeanine Mathews.
The woman continued to look through the lens, "Not that I can see. The hair is made out of the same substantial biological material that all hair is made out of, which is called 'keratin'. This hair appears and feels as soft as normal hair. The only abnormality, if one would call it an abnormality, is that this hair is perfect."
"Why would a hair being perfect be an abnormality?" asked Eric.
"Because I have never seen one before." she said matter of factly. "I have seen plenty of healthy hairs before, but ultimately they are all flawed in some kind of small way. The hair might be dull, thin, brittle, or damaged in some kind of small way. No single strand of hair in the world is perfect...except this one."
There was a pause as Jeanine and Eric looked at each other. Clearly this was significant.
"Increasing magnification by another four-hundred times." the young woman announced. "Okay, this is interesting. The cuticle seems to be almost...crystalline?"
'Now that is peculiar.' thought Jeanine. 'Crystalline hair?'
"Run a DNA test!" ordered Jeanine Mathews. "We'll be back shortly."
In anticipation of the evidence being right, Jeanine decided to be nice and help Eric out. She had his facial piercings taken out and his tattoos removed. He was then dressed in clothing of Erudite blue.
Later, Eric and Jeanine went back to the lab. The young woman who had done the test was waiting. She had a look of confusion and interest on her face.
"Okay, I have done the analysis, and the results are in." said the young microbiology student.
"So," said Jeanine Mathews, "is the hair human?"
"Thaaaat's...complicated?" said the woman with a slightly frightened expression.
"What do you mean?" said Eric irritated. "Is the hair human or not?"
"I don't know how to say this, so I'll just say it straight out...it is human, and its not."
Eric and Jeanine, looked at each other with confused expressions.
"Show us the results of the test!" ordered Jeanine.
She then tapped the touch screen in several different places. The twisting-spiral image of a DNA strand appeared on the screen.
"Okay, this is the DNA of the hair." she then pointed to several of the chromosomes on the DNA strand on the screen, "Now, these here are the genetic markers of human DNA, these are particular genetic markers that are found only in humans and no other species, not even pigs or primates; therefore indicating that the hair is human. But these here," she pointed to all the rest which made up the majority of the DNA strand, "are completely different, unlike any other creature that I have ever seen on this earth. The creature who owns the head, who had the hair-follicle, that grew this hair...it's DNA is immensely superior to ours. But that is all that I can tell you. If you want more information on the lifeform that grew this hair, then I'm going to need more than hair; I will need blood, spinal fluid, brain tissue, bone-marrow, and a variety of other components from its body."
Jeanine thought about it for a moment.
"Thank you." she said.
She and Eric walked off.
They went back to Jeanine's office.
"Where did she come from?" asked Jeanine, bamboozled.
"Spontaneous evolution?" suggested Eric.
"No," said Jeanine Matthews dismissing the idea, "Spontaneous evolution, is an unproven and highly unorthodox scientific theory, and even if it is spontaneous evolution, then its far too big a leap."
Jeanine Matthews stood up from her chair and began pacing back and forth while rubbing her forehead in an attempt of trying to figure out what all of this meant. When she had allowed Eric the DNA test of the hair she didn't expect them to find anything, but instead what was found was what appeared to be a part human humanoid creature. 'A part human humanoid creature?' thought Jeanine in extreme frustration.
Recreational literature of science fiction and fantasy was virtually nonexistent in this day and age within the faction system, but to Jeanine this is what it seemed like, which as far as she was concerned, defy the laws of nature and the understanding of the universe. The very idea or concept of a half human humanoid creature with superior strength, speed, and DNA to that of normal human beings was far beyond any wild and crazy scientific theory that had ever worked on in the faction of Erudite. The idea of the actual existence of such a thing boggled her mind, and in that moment began to alter her perception of the universe, of what she had always believed as the truth. The idea of such a thing was telling her, 'Jeanine, you have to let go of the science that you know as truth and start considering alternative sciences by thinking outside of the box.' But at the same time she had a different thing to deal with in the immediate short-term.
She looked back at the data that was on her computer screen. It was the information that the computer had recorded while the hair was being analyzed by the DNA testing machine. Could this data be true? She tried to consider several other possibilities. Perhaps this was a misunderstanding. Maybe the DNA testing machine didn't scan a hair properly and came up with some garbled and distorted data. But the data on the DNA of the hair didn't look garbled and distorted, it looked real, just different from normal human DNA. But then her part of her mind that was pure science for logical understanding thought of another thing, maybe the creature that this hair came from is nothing 'science fiction' or 'fantasy'; may be it is just a new and more unorthodox science that the scientists of Erudite had yet to discover, and they merely needed a situation like this in order to consider doing research! She decided that she would have a group of scientists look into the science of half human creatures.
"I can't even conceive the idea of the meaning of her existence. We are in the middle of trying to deal with the divergent and save the faction system, and now this totally unusual anomaly drops into our lap."
"Perhaps we shouldn't allow ourselves to get distracted we should go through with the plan."
"I agree." said Jeanine Matthews. "Then we will have to alter the plan a little as your being deposed has caused us a major setback. But first, just returning to the subject briefly, I hope to find out some more information about Beatrice Prior."
She then tapped the intercom button to just outside of her office.
"Bring me the Abnegation transfer initiate, Caleb Prior." she said to her secretary.
Six minutes later, a boy with short hair in the Abnegation style wearing standard Erudite blue colored clothing was politely gestured into the room by the secretary.
Jeanine smiled, "Caleb Prior. I'm Jeanine Mathews, and this is my colleague, Eric Gobs. Thank you for responding to my summons. Please sit down."
Caleb sat in the empty chair.
"It is a pleasure." Caleb said politely.
"It's been only one day, but how are you finding your new faction?" asked Jeanine politely.
"It is very good." said Caleb enthusiastically. "The moment I got here I had immediate access to the database, and I love the scientific information I can study."
"I'm glad you have such an interest in science. It is the attitude that we most support here in Erudite." said Jeanine encouragingly.
"Thank you." said Caleb.
"How does Erudite compare to Abnegation?" asked Jeanine.
"Well, I think that both factions have there merits." said Caleb seriously. "But I feel I can better help people by contributing to science, than volunteering for the factionless."
"I agree." said Jeanine. "I personally am not against ordinary acts of selflessness. But I feel that perhaps Abnegation should consider a step up in lifestyle and prosperity for all people, do you agree with that?"
He raised his eyebrows in interest, "I do agree, yes. That is why I joined Erudite, I love volunteering for the Factionless, but that is only treating the symptoms; philosophically speaking, 'cut out the cancer and you...what? buy the patient a little time', but me personally, I want to find a cure, philosophically speaking; a long-term solution for everyone."
Jeanine smiled and pointed a stern finger at Caleb's face.
"I like your ambitions." Jeanine complemented. "I too desire that very same thing, to cure the human race as a whole rather than just treat the symptoms, that is."
She paused as she consulted her computer for a second.
"Now, your aptitude test two days ago." she went on with interest. "All through your test, the computer and simulation detected intelligent logic and calm reasoning through each choice; which immediately caused the aptitude test computer to say that you had a strong aptitude for Erudite. You picked the knife over the food, then you killed the dog, which ruled out Amity. Your insistence on lying to the to the passenger on the bus who needed help, then ruled out both Candor and Abnegation. You then were asked to solve the math-equation and then solve a complicated logic puzzle, and you solved them both, which strongly suggested you for Erudite. You then failed to stand up to the bully that tried picked on you that then finally ruled out Dauntless, leaving Erudite the best aptitude for you."
"That is the simulation that I remember, yes." he said, nodding in confirmation. "Then at the Choosing Ceremony, I wanted to join Abnegation, but I felt I should trust the test."
"Well, I am pleased that you chose to join Erudite." said Jeanine. "We are glad to have you here...but...I would like to ask you some questions if its ok?"
"Of course." said Caleb.
"During the aptitude test, when you were inside the hallucination did you forget that it was a simulation and you thought that it was real? Or, were you aware that it was not real during the simulation?"
Caleb frowned in confusion.
"I am not quite sure that I understand?"
"Before the aptitude test, you knew that you were going to take a test. But, after you drank the simulation serum, when the test started you should have believed that it was real. Understand?"
There was then a look of comprehension on Caleb's face. "Oh, okay. I understand now."
"Very good." said Jeanine. "Now, during the aptitude test were you aware that it was just a test?"
Caleb shrugged his shoulders, "No. I remember that I thought it was real."
Jeanine smiled, "Okay, thank you. I was just checking. I know these questions might sound a little unusual, but it is very important that you help me if you can."
"I understand. And I'll do my best." said Caleb.
"Thank you. I appreciate this." said Jeanine.
She became more serious.
"Caleb Prior. While you are here at Erudite I need you to trust me. There are going to be times when you will hear me say things, that perhaps you might disagree on, but again, I need you to trust me. I need you to understand that I would not say anything unless I had all the facts. Do you understand."
"Yes." said Caleb a little apprehensively at Jeanine's words. "I understand and I trust you."
"I'm glad to hear that Caleb." said Jeanine. "Caleb, you believe in the faction system, do you not?"
"Yes I do." said Caleb.
"Now, may I ask, what do you think would happen if the faction system was to collapse, hypothetically?"
Caleb thought for a moment with a serious face.
"Well, I imagine that there would be chaos. There would be no structure or order within this city."
"I am glad that you think that way because that is the way that I think. Caleb, something is going to happen!" said Jeanine very seriously in a grave voice. The Abnegation leadership is going to do something. It is going to be big, bigger than any one of us alone. They believe that it is a selfless act on their part, and that it is for the best. For the better of all mankind. But they do not understand the full implications of their actions. They're blind selflessness prevents them from seeing the bigger picture of what this grand act is going to do. The thing that they are going to do is going to shatter the foundation of the faction system."
"How did you come across this information?" asked Caleb.
"We have sources. But that is not important. The point is that this city is going to fall. This system that we live under will collapse in an instant, and all that we have worked so hard for for the past hundred years will be gone!"
Caleb was horror struck at what he had just heard.
Jeanine then brought up some files and documents on things that they had about the city's history about the Abnegation leadership and some of their actions. Though currently Jeanine did not have a copy of the Edith Prior/Amanda Ridder video, what's she showed Caleb seemed to convince him.
Jeanine Matthew smiled, subtly manipulating Caleb, with persuasion.
"The factionless need some help." said Jeanine Matthews. "But, all that the Abnegation are doing is treating the symptoms just as we just talked about a moment ago. I am on the verge of a breakthrough that will provide a better life everyone in the city and avert the catastrophe that the Abnegation leadership is going to cause."
"What are we to do?" asked Caleb.
"The reason that people are factionless is because they fail initiation. What I want to do is eliminate what would cause a person to fail initiation. But...it would require a little sacrifice." She then eyed him with a very serious face. "You understand; sacrifice something to save more? If we are going to save the city, we need to sacrifice some of our number to save the rest."
"Who exactly would be sacrificed?"
"It would be a special sacrifice, but one that is needed. The population of the factionless is growing. What we need to do is eliminate the cause of that, and Abnegation using so much food on the factionless is not helping."
She eyed Caleb, carefully.
"Caleb Prior. What I need is for you to trust me. I don't want you to think badly of me the way perhaps your father and other Abnegation leaders speak of me. I assure you, we have nothing but the best intentions for Abnegation once we avert this tragedy...'Faction Before Blood', it is a powerful ideal, but sometimes hard to follow. What we need is people who have the will and courage to do whatever they have to do in order to do the right thing for the greater good. Even if that means sacrificing someone you are close to."
Caleb looked worried at that.
"As I just told you, the Faction System will collapse if you don't. Will you trust me, Caleb Prior?"
Caleb had thrown his faith into his aptitude test and then he was so honored to meet Jeanine Matthews, and he believed on a level that her logic was correct about what was happening to the city. The adults in Abnegation never told him anything, but yet here he had so much access to information. He couldn't help but wonder if perhaps the so-called selfless leaders that he always believed in might be wrong. And he was prepared to sacrifice for the greater good.
"Yes. I will help you. And I will trust you. Let me know what I can do."
"Thank you. Now, would you mind if I asked you some questions about your sister?"
Caleb then looked surprised.
"Beatrice? What about her?" said Caleb, wondering why such a question was asked.
"Now, have you noticed any unusual behavior from your sister?"
Caleb thought for a moment.
"Well, I don't know. She has always being a little on the rebellious side. She was never really able to follow the rules of obligation very well, I always felt that 'selflessness' was never her strongest trait. I was usually the one constantly reprimanding her."
"That is not quite what I meant." said Jeanine. "If that was her usual behavior, then has she behaving in an unusual way at all?"
Caleb thought for a moment.
"Well, now that I think of it, it was just after her aptitude test two days ago, she claimed that she had gotten sick and that her test examiner had sent her home early. Then at home, I had asked her about her test. Now, we're supposed to keep the results of our tests to ourselves, but this would have totally been a rule that she would have broken. She breaks so many. And then she just got all weird and refused to tell me. I guess I found that a little bit strange. Though I will say that it did not surprise me that she joined Dauntless. She's always admired them from and distance with her eyes and the look on her face. She thought nobody noticed, but we all did."
Jeanine nodded and began to make some notes.
Then Eric spoke up, "Has your sister ever shown any unusual physical attributes?"
Caleb raised his eyebrow in confusion, "What do you mean?"
"I mean, has your sister shown signs of anything like...lets say...superior physical strength, or faster than normal speed?"
Caleb shook his head.
"No. If anything, I always found her to be a little on the weak side."
"And, your mother gave birth to her?" asked Eric.
Caleb then scrunched up his face and gave them an odd look as though he thought that Eric was weird for asking.
"I don't remember her birth, I was only 10 months old at the time. But it is what my parents told me, yeah."
Jeanine and Eric looked at each other with confused expressions.
Jeanine again nodded and took down some notes, "Thank you, Caleb. I think that we will do fine now. I'll send you on your way. You have your studies to do during initiation. And I am confident that you are going to do well here."
"Thank you. And if there's anything I can do for you don't hesitate to ask me."
Caleb left the office.
"This just gets more and more unusual." Said Eric. "Absolutely none of this makes any sense. It's as though the person that Beatrice Prior, is now is completely different from the person that she was 2 days ago."
"We will get to the bottom of this. In the meantime we will need to come up with another plan for the overthrowing of Abnegation now that you're out of Dauntless."
Janine then went down to another one of the lab's and selected a few geneticists and biologists.
"Listen." she said all of them. "I have a new project for you I'm sorry to simply just up and diverge away from your studies, but I need you to do some scientific research for me on and unorthodox science."
The scientists were confused at the request while simultaneously they were eager for the challenge.
"I would like you all to work together on the laboratory science and experimentation of splicing DNA of different species together to create hybrid animals."
Jeanine had been very careful with her choice of words. She wasn't even sure about the word, 'Splicing', she had had to look it up in the dictionary on her computer before she had come here to make the request of the scientists.
the scientists were about to respond when Jeanine continued, "I know that this seems unusual. But this is the task that I am giving all of you. Get to work on the scientific research, and I want daily reports."
She then up and left the room and left the scientists to go out at their own discretion.
Author's note: Please be patient. I don't know when I will update again.
Please review!