A/N: Am I posting chapters more quickly or is it just an impression? Hope you enjoy!

Chapter Twelve

When the door was opened and the person she had waited for entered with confident step, she froze. Evelyn.

"Evelyn?" Her whisper reflected her pure shock at seeing her there. At seeing her alive.

It was Evelyn. She had barely changed, her traits slightly sharper, probably because of the rough life as an outcast, but her life had not been easy before either, so the change was nothing which would stop her from recognizing her.

Jeanine hadn't even thought to ask who the leader was, convinced that she was someone without identity whose name would be meaningless to her. For her, being factionless equated being nobody, and Evelyn was not nobody.

"Hello, Jeanine," Evelyn replied lightly with a smirk.

Jeanine's first reaction was to ask about her, about how she was alive, why she had cut of all ties with everyone, and what had happened to her since. She wanted to speak with Evelyn Johnson, not with the leader of Factionless. But she knew this was not a time for her personal wishes, so she focused on the task at hand.

Jeanine waved her to one of the chairs opposite her. She was thankful for the desk between them, it gave a professional feeling to this meeting, and added some physical and emotional distance. She would need that. She took a deep breath. "Before we can agree to anything, I need to know a few things. First, how many Divergents do you have who agree to get involved?"

"Are we just going to talk about this, leader to leader?"

She swallowed and steeled herself. "There is nothing else to discuss, Evelyn."

"Jeanine…I had to leave. You don't know what it was like, it was worse than even you knew."

Jeanine shook her head. "Evelyn, please…" She took a deep breath. "We need to talk about the reason we're here. Once it is finished, if we survive this, then maybe…" She drifted off, but continued. "At the moment, there are other priorities. We both have responsibilities which are bigger than anything else."

Evelyn sighed. "Yeah, you're right," she said, sitting straighter in her chair.

Jeanine didn't trust her enough to divulge any of her plans, so she let Evelyn do the talking at first. From what she said, it was clear that Factionless' participation could turn the tide in their favor. At the moment, Jeanine was conscious of how low their chances were, she had even started to outline a last resort plan, the plan she had always had in the back of her mind but never wanted to seriously consider implementing: the complete destruction of all data and knowledge owned by Erudite.

The very idea was horrible; they would lose all the research made since the Faction system had started, the medical advancements, research that saved lives. They couldn't just destroy the dangerous substances, as the basis for many recent groundbreaking research in molecular biochemistry was the basis for both lifesaving treatments and the worst serums.

So they would have to destroy nearly everything, and even then, they wouldn't be safe if anyone who knew about crucial information was still alive and could be taken prisoner. Seeing the ruthlessness Dauntless had showed themselves capable of in the attack on Abnegation, she was not naive enough to believe that old-fashioned torture for information would be beneath them.

All in all, Evelyn's entrance into the scene was more than welcome. Even though not all of Factionless would participate, their numbers were significant and their strengths varied – they could make the difference needed to change the outcome. There was only one point which worried Jeanine. "What is your demand? What does Factionless want?" She asked, mistrust evident in her voice.

"We want a place in society." Evelyn's voice was the self-assured tone of a leader, laying her conditions bluntly on the table. "A part of Factionless wants to abolish the faction system entirely, but they are a minority. My demand in this agreement – the demand of the majority – is that members of Factionless are treated equally, to the others. We don't want to be considered outcasts, we want to be part of society, like a sixth faction."

In theory, it was an idea she agreed with, but it was also something which would take years to implement. "This change would need to take place on several levels. Laws can be changed, but it's the mentalities you want to change, and that will take time. It will take at least one generation to even start to change."

She really hated having to discuss diplomacy when there were so many pressing issues, but if these few precious minutes were the price to pay to have their numbers practically double, she wasn't going to complain.

"I understand that. But to be honest, the most pressing issue is the misery in which Factionless people live. They depend on Abnegation's generosity, which is abundant but not always enough and, more importantly, it's degrading. And the health of Factionless people is low, we have no access to diverse food, not to mention medication. We are literally outside of the system of exchange and are therefore unable to live in the same conditions. This is what should be changed first. This is my condition. If we win, if we keep Erudite's knowledge and technology from the hands of Dauntless, laws to change that will be discussed and you will do all that is in your power to pass them."

Jeanine was surprised at how well Evelyn had thought out her plan. She had probably crafted it years ago and simply waited for the moment when a faction would need their help, planning to bribe them with it in exchange for the only thing Factionless had in abundance: manpower. Still, no matter how planned this had been, Jeanine knew that Factionless' involvement would largely improve their chances. She also had to admit that the current conditions in which Factionless lived were unacceptable – quite similar, in fact, to those of the Genetically Damaged in the outside world.

She was also aware of the fact that if she refused, Evelyn might make the same offer to the other side, as she might not care about the means to her end. She knew that Factionless helping Dauntless leadership would be a disaster, so she agreed to the conditions, and immediately went to meet with those involved involved in strategy to inform them of the news.

As she walked back towards her office after talking to her colleagues, she felt even more drained than she had previously done. The meeting with Evelyn had been exhausting on a totally different level. She hadn't seen the woman in more than a decade, she had thought her dead.

She wondered how much of a choice she had had in the matter. Was it unfair of her to blame her for disappearing without a trace, without informing anyone, not even her? She tried to push the matter out of her mind, telling herself that it didn't matter anymore.

As she approached her door, she saw Beatrice arriving from the other direction, apparently there to meet her, so she unlocked the door, let her in and followed her, before closing the door behind her. She felt slightly dizzy and had to put a hand on her desk for support, and Beatrice responded by placing a hand between her shoulder blades. As if strengthened by the gesture, Jeanine sent Beatrice a smile and went to sit down at her desk. Beatrice sat on the chair on the other side, and finally addressed the reason she had come. "So, how did it go?"

The calm discussion with Beatrice helped Jeanine regain control of her priorities. The events had unfolded in a favorable way for them. The conditions laid out by Evelyn were not an obstacle, the alliance would be even broader and more diverse, adding not only to their number but to their skills, and their chances were significantly improved by this development.