Aha! Two chapters within four hours!

When Issy, Uriah and Luke nod in response, since the Trials were practically mandatory to attend, Max leaves the room, and they settle back into a silence as they watch over Tris.

It was literally the day later when the Trials for those in Leadership were held. Beta had just finished explaining different sections of the Front to squadron 187 when the PA systems started going off, calling all members to the Pit.

When they get to the Pit, Issy and Uriah don't even bother to fight their way through the crowds to their family's usual spot but climb up one of the walkways to they can see.

All the Leaders stand in the middle of the ground floor of the Pit instead of the usual ledge. Both Max and Harrison aren't dressed in their Leadership uniforms but in plain trousers and t-shirts with the Dauntless symbol on the backs. Eric, Lilah, Winnie and Liam stand around them, boxing them into the middle of the floor. Surprisingly, Jason also stands on the floor with the other Leaders with a small table and a brief case.

Jason holds his palms up and the murmuring ceases. "I'm not gonna lie, it feels weird standing in front of you all." Jason makes a nervous expression and the crowds snicker in response. "As you're all aware from Lilah's announcement the other day, Dauntless will hold trials for those in Leadership to find any traitors in own faction. if you haven't gathered by now, this is what that is." Jason grins as Max rolls his eyes half-heartedly. "Hey!" Jason points to Max while trying to stop grinning. "This was your idea to have me lead this!"

"Oh, get on with it." Max calls back and Jason laughs.

"Anyway!" Jason claps his hands, and his expression turns serious. "For the next couple of days, every day at one, two of our current Leaders will be tested under the truth serum one after the other. I'm just thankful we managed to get enough truth serum without Candor involving themselves. Dauntless polices itself!" The crowds shout their agreements before Jason quietens them again. "All the questions I will ask the Leaders, Max left me to come up with and the questions for others in Leadership will differ depending on their rank and job. Max, if you will?" Jason motions the head Leader forward and Max immediately steps away from Harrison. Without another word, Jason injects the truth serum into Max's neck, and they wait for it to kick in. "Leader of Dauntless, what is your full name?"

"Maximus Phifer but I prefer Max."

Jason nods his head. "What is your Faction of origin?"

"Dauntless."

"And is your allegiance to Dauntless?"

"Yes."

Jason asks a few more questions to ease him into the truth serum, ones like the final rank of his initiation – first place – and how many years Max has been a Leader of Dauntless – a little more than thirty years. Throughout each of the questions, Max stayed calm and collected as if he was talking about the weather.

"Were you aware of plans to invade Dauntless?"

"No I was not. Though I was aware that there would be another rebel attack somewhere within the city, but when and where was not discovered."

"How did you find out there would be another attack?"

"From the reports written by Leader Eric after one of the raids on a known rebel safe house."

Issy glances to Eric, who stands with his arms crossed, seemingly unbothered by the reveal of information in his reports to Max. Though his chin lifts a little higher, as if to challenge anyone he doubts him.

Jason nods again. "Was there any evidence that there was a traitor of Dauntless in everyday tasks?"

"There was a mutual agreement in Leadership that we had a traitor in the faction since some reports of our stock of weapons weren't correct by the numbers in the armoury."

"Were you aware that Kim was a traitor to the faction?"

"No, I was not. Kim appeared as loyal to this faction as the rest of us in Leadership."

"Did anything about Kim's recent behaviour appear as suspicious?"

Max sighed. "In the last two years, Kim's behaviour towards her Leadership duties has become lacking. Her reports of supplies weren't matching, and she didn't come to a lot of Leadership meetings unless I ordered her to with the threat of placing her on leave from Leadership for a while. Closer to the invasion, she was absent from a lot of meetings but also everywhere in the Faction, in places she would have no reason to be in. at the time I thought she was stressed but now as I look back on it, her intensions are definitely suspicious."

Json sighs as the population of Dauntless murmur amongst themselves. "And finally, did Kim ask you to join her cause, directly or not?"

"No, she did not. Kim never stayed in the same room as me for longer than necessary."

"Thank you for your honesty." Jason said, the phrase scientifically engineered to cut off the serum so it can deplete from Max's system. Jason turns to the rest of the faction. "Dauntless, what is your decision?"

"Not guilty!" The faction shouts back and Max inclines his head, stepping beside Eric and Winne, out of the middle of the room.

Jason smiles as he places the needle back into the brief case and pulls out another one, filled with the serum. "Harrison?" The second Leaders steps up, leaning his head to the side so that Jason can inject it into his system. "Leader of Dauntless," Jason asks again. "What is your full name?"

"Harrison Blaise Floyds."

"What is your Faction of origin?"

"Erudite."

"And is your allegiance to Dauntless?"

"Yes."

Jason takes Harrison through the same questions as Max. Some of his answers were the same but some lead to different questions too. Though, much like Max, Harrison breezes through the questions with no discomfort.

Were you aware of plans to invade Dauntless?

No.

Was there any evidence that there was a traitor of Dauntless in everyday tasks?

No but reports of the Factionless from patrols were increasing with mentions of them using Dauntless weapons.

Was there any major attacks from the Factionless that affected Dauntless?

Yes. There was a few attacks on some of my squadrons, leading to some heavy injures. There was also the attack on Amity and the reports of missing children from all of the Factions that made us post squadrons at the barracks in each of the other Factions. When we called them back, there was one major attack on the squadrons coming back from the Amity barracks, causing critical injuries to one of our soldiers.

Were you aware that Kim was a traitor to the Faction?

No, I was not. I didn't have to directly talk to Kim unless it was about supplies from my squadrons. Even then, Kim never came in person, she always sent one of her assistants.

Did anything about Kim's recent behaviour appear as suspicious?

No, I hardly saw her around the Faction.

Did Kim ask you to join her cause, directly or not?

No.

Just like Max, Harrison was cleared by the rest of Dauntless.

"Tomorrow another two Leaders will be tried with truth serum," Jason shouts out. "But for the rest of today, you're all dismissed back to whatever you were doing. That's all folks!"

Issy called back all of 226 and 187 to the training room to carry on with the plans that Red and BD had thrown together the day before.

xXx

For the next few days, Beta shifted her plans for 187 training around the times of the Trials. Both Max and Harrison's had taken close to an hour each, cutting a good chunk of their day out. In response, Beta got them up with alarms set an hour earlier and worked them all an hour later to make up for the lost time.

On the second day of the Trials, it was Winnie and Liam's turn to get injected with truth serum. Winnie was completely unaware that there was anything wrong with Kim since their departments hardly interacted during the years both of them had been Leaders. All Winnie's transactions were through an assistant in Kim's department, and had been for years. Liam had a lot more interactions with Kim since he had been trying to transfer a solider into Kim's department, where they would apparently be better suited. Many times, he and Kim and gotten into arguments over the transfer, both inside and outside of office hours.

Both Leaders were cleared by Dauntless, and once again, all the members were sent on their way.

In the mere hours that Issy had free from training 187, preparing for going back to the Front and resting, she had little time to spend with her family. Though Issy made sure she got to see everyone during the next week, since Issy had a feeling she wouldn't be back in the compound for very long between shifts.

On the third day, it was the last of the current Leaders, Lilah and Eric, until a new Leader was chosen to take over Kim's department.

This time around Uriah and Issy got there early enough that they could stand one the ledge with the rest of their family. Lilah was up first, dressed in plain clothes rather than the Leadership uniform. Jason guides her through the same questions, hardly diverting from the script since, similarly to Winnie, Lilah had no interactions with Kim outside of the monthly Leadership meetings. Lilah too was quickly cleared and reinstated with trust as a Leader.

Throughout Lilah's trial, nervous had begun to flare through Issy's body, though she was completely confident that Eric would be cleared since he has done nothing to be seen as a traitor to Dauntless.

Issy waited for Jason to appear on the floor and start today's Trials. Instead her family started at Jason in confusion as Jason appeared on the ledge with the rest of them.

"Jason?" Josh questioned, clearly confused as the rest of them. "Why are you not down on the floor?"

Jason snarl. "Apparently I'm compromised b being Eric's best friend and will only sway Dauntless into clearing him."

Issy turns back to the floor to see Karlton step up to Eric with a needle in his hands. There are many groans coming from the older members at the sight of Max's bitchy assistant. She glances to Eric, watching him sneer a little as Karlton got closer, reluctantly showing him his neck. In a different situation, it would be a form of submission and by the smirk on Karlton's face, he knows it too.

Even though a hundred bodies, and a couple of feet between them, Eric catches Issy's gaze. Issy nods firmly at him, staring at him with the confidence she feels for his trial. Eric's shoulders untense and he doesn't blink as the needle goes into his neck. He stares at Issy, adapting the same confidence she's showing him and looks away as Karlton begins.

"Leader of Dauntless," Karlton begins much like Jason had. "What is your full name?"

"Eric Coulter."

"What is your Faction of origin?"

"Erudite."

"And is your allegiance to Dauntless?"

"Yes."

Karlton's eyes narrow. "Is it?"

Around her, there's a few intakes of breath and Issy knows this is going to go so well.

"Karlton!" The assistant's name is hissed from one of the Leaders, probably Max.

Eric grits his teeth, his anger flaring. "My loyalty is to Dauntless and only Dauntless."

Karlton looks unimpressed with Eric's response. "Were you aware of plans to invade Dauntless?"

"Because my squadron and I have been on many raids that have originated from sightings of large amounts of Factionless, along with any coordinates we've extracted from prisoners, we've collected a lot of information regarding the movements of the rebellion, though not as much as I'd like. All of the information has been put into the reports I send to Max. As Max has said previously, we were aware that there was going to be an attack, but when and where was not specified."

"Was there any evidence that there was a traitor of Dauntless in everyday tasks?"

"Other than the forged reports coming out from Kim's department, no."

"Were you aware that Kim was a traitor to the faction?"

"While Kim's work ethic was rapidly decreasing, she showed no signs of betraying the Faction."

"Did anything about Kim's recent behaviour appear as suspicious?"

"Kim was easily angered, often tried to pick fights with my squadron. She had no respect for my family during work hours and even less so out of office hours. She wasn't doing any of her Leadership duties and left it all to those ranked lower than her."

It was clear than Karlton was becoming more and more annoyed with Eric's answers. "Did Kim ask you to join her cause, directly or not?"

"We hated each other, so that'll be a no." Even through the truth serum, Eric's sarcasm was obvious.

"Liar!" Karlton snarled immediately.

Members whispered amongst themselves. It was clear that Karlton wanted nothing more than to see Eric guilty. Eric simply raised a pierced eyebrow in response, his expression reading can you be more of a fucking moron clearly. Issy snickered, having thought the same herself.

"Karlton!" The assistant's name is hissed louder.

"What about Amar?" Karlton asked, and shocked gasps echoed throughout the Pit. "Did you help kill Amar?"

"KARLTON!"

"No!" Eric snarled. "Amar was a good friend of mine. I would never ever want to hurt him or have him killed!"

A few members call out – both in shock and surprise – at Eric's admission.

"You're a liar! You helped Erudite kill Amar, along with George Wu, and many others that have suddenly died over the years!"

Declan, along with Josh, Jason and a few others, roar with anger.

Around her, the members of Dauntless are in chaos. Some are standing in support of Eric and others clearly don't like Eric at all as they stare at him unbelievingly, despite the truth serum still being active in his system.

Issy stands, pulling at the hem of her squadron jacket, her eyes never leaving Eric.

Even as Karlton is restrained and pulled from the Pit by two guards on Max's order, the chaos thickens.

Eric turns slowly, looking at every side of the Pit.

"You will listen to me. LISTEN!" Eric yells out and the whole Faction falls silent. "I cut any ties I had with Erudite as soon as my blood hit those burning coals, just like the rest of you. Faction before blood! Any relatives by blood still living to Erudite, mean nothing to me, for they cannot begin to hold any light to the family that I have found in Dauntless." Eric stares up at the ledge where his family stands. There's a sniff from behind her and Issy glances behind to see Declan wiping at his eyes. Issy smiles as she turns back to the floor. Her eyes connect with Eric's and he nods at her firmly. He looks away to stare down the rest of the Faction. "The only deaths I have been a part of are those of the rebels. I have done everything in my power to support and protect this Faction, my home, and I will never betray it for as long as I breathe."

No one speaks when Eric finishes, though those that hadn't believed him before, are clearly shocked from Eric's passion for his Faction. He certainly wasn't a Leader for no reason.

Max steps up and places his hand on Eric's heaving shoulders. "Thank you for your honesty."

In a dull echo, the whole Faction says the same phrase. "Thank you for your honesty."