Disclaimer: I do not own Divergent, any of the characters or any of the dialogue that comes directly from the text.
Chapter 24
Sometime during the night our bodies shift and I wake up on my side with Tris' back pressed up against me. I can feel the steady rise and fall of her breathing. The comfort her presence provides me is undeniable. I've never had anyone or anything put me at ease the way she does without even trying.
The thought of walking away, of moving on and letting her figure things out with Four, re-enters my mind. But how can I give this up? I wrap my arm around her waist and pull her in closer.
She moves against me, but her breathing remains even.
Is it selfish of me to want her?
"You think too much."
I let out a small laugh. How did she know?
"You're awake."
"So are you."
"Did you sleep okay?" I ask.
"Yes actually. Better than I have in weeks," she says rotating to face me.
"Good. I wish we could just spend the day like this."
"In bed?" she asks innocently.
"In bed," I reply, wiggling my eyebrows suggestively. "Kidding."
She giggles and it surprises me how nice it is to hear.
"We should probably head to the dining hall for breakfast soon."
"Do we have to?"
"Have to? No. Should? Yes. You said it yourself, it'll just get worse for you if the other initiates think you're shacking up with a leader," I say, winking at her. She laughs in return. "I figure if we get you to the dining hall soon, you can just tell them you woke up early and went for a walk or something. They won't even know that you didn't sleep in your bed."
"I guess you're right, we should probably get up and get going," she says, but remains in place, her head resting on her hands, propping it up just enough to stop the pillow from obscuring her gaze. Her hair flows out endlessly behind her and her lips hold a small hint of a smile.
I bring my hand up to caress the side of her face while looking into her eyes. Instinctively, I rub my thumb slowly across her lower lip. Her breath hitches but she doesn't pull away. The urge to kiss her takes over and I lean my head forward.
What if this isn't what she wants? She basically admitted to having feelings for Four. Will she think I'm pressuring her? At the last second, I tilt my chin upward and settle for gently kissing her on the forehead.
When I pull away, she looks slightly…disappointed?
"I think I have a new toothbrush under the sink in the bathroom. I'll go find it for you," I say, getting up and out of bed.
I shake my head. What the fuck am I doing?
It doesn't take long for us both to get ready. As we walk down the corridor towards the dining hall, she reaches towards me and takes my hand in hers. The smart thing to do would be to pull away. What if someone sees us? It's risky, but I can't bring myself to stop it.
Luckily, we don't cross paths with anyone as the dining hall doors come into view. I stop before we reach it. Noticing, Tris turns around to face me.
"You go in first."
"Okay," she says, her eyes locked on mine. For a split second, I swear her gaze wanders to my lips. Did I imagine that? Before I have time to contemplate doing anything about it, her eyes grow comically wide as she looks behind me.
"What?" I say, confused.
"Christina and Will. Behind you," she whispers, dropping my hand.
Shit.
As soon as the words leave her mouth I hear them approaching. Their chatter stops abruptly and I assume they've spotted us.
"Play along," I mouth. The nod Tris gives me is barely noticeable.
"I think I may have underestimated you, Stiff. You might make it through initiation yet."
It's simple, but they won't have heard anything else and as long as they didn't see her hand in mine it should do the trick.
I don't wait for Tris to respond before walking passed her and pushing through the doors to the dining hall. As they swing closed behind me, I hear Christina begin to speak.
"What did that creep want?" she asks.
I roll my eyes and walk towards the back of the hall to get breakfast.
It's still pretty early so the dining hall is far from full. Sam is the only other person at the leadership table, which is fine by me as the quiet has given me time to think about what Tris said in regards to Jeanine's longer lasting serum.
I'm going to ask Max about it. He knows more than he's telling me. Maybe if I go to him with this information he will finally fill me in on the plan.
I look up from my empty plate and smile when I see Tris sitting and talking with her friends. I'm glad she has people to take her mind off of everything that's going on.
"You feeling okay?" Sam asks quizzically, noticing my expression.
I ignore him and stand up.
I'm going to head to the leadership offices now; there's a good chance Max will already be there. On my way out, I walk passed Tris' table and can't help but overhear their conversation.
"Come on Tris, whose sweater is this?" Christina says, pulling at the sleeve of Tris'…my hoodie. "You got a secret boyfriend or something?"
I look over as Christina giggles. Tris blushes and our eyes meet. She quickly looks away.
"I already told you. It's my sweater, sometimes you just need something comfortable to wear. You know?"
Christina looks at her apprehensively. "I bet it's that Dauntless born, Uriah."
"Just let it go Chris," Will chimes in with a small laugh.
As expected, Max is already in his office when I arrive. His door is open, but I knock to announce my presence.
"Eric," he says. "You need something?"
"I was hoping you had a second to talk."
His eyes flit to the clock on his monitor. "I have a lot of shit to get through this morning, can it wait?"
"It's about the serum Jeanine is working on. The longer lasting one," I say.
He seems a bit surprised, but not as surprised as I expected him to be.
"Close the door and sit down."
I do as I'm told and once seated, I look at him expectantly.
"Where did you hear about that?" he asks.
"I overheard some of the initiates talking," I say, making sure to avoid bringing up Tris. "The Erudite transfer mentioned it. He didn't seem to have a clue as to what it's for. Actually, he didn't even seem remotely interested in its purpose. He was just explaining to his friends how smart Jeanine is. But it got me thinking about our last conversation about Jeanine."
He looks at me as I speak, calm and composed. "Refresh my memory?"
"We were talking about how Jeanine intends to turn Dauntless into her army and I was curious as to how she planned to make that happen."
"Right, so what does this have to do with that?"
I can tell by the way he asks the question that he knows where I'm going with this, but for some reason he wants me to be the one to say it.
"Jeanine is planning to use the longer lasting serum on the members of Dauntless in order to control them. I'm not sure how exactly, but I'm positive that that's what she is planning." Saying it…accusing her outright…is a bit of a gamble, but beating around the bush is pointless right now.
"Damn Eric. I keep forgetting you were raised Erudite. I'm impressed." I must be at least partially right then. "I'm not officially authorized to discuss the whole plan with you. We were only going to bring junior leadership on board in a couple of days, but since you figured out the key part of our strategy on your own…what the hell."
He pauses for a second and looks like he is trying to figure out where to start.
This is it, no matter what he says, I can't react. If I don't agree with whatever this plan is he can't know that.
"Yes, Jeanine intends to use a new serum that she created in order to bend most of the members of Dauntless to her will. The serum needs to last longer than the usual simulation serum in order to stretch the hallucination farther. It contains long range transmitters which will allow the program to be run from here, at our headquarters, while controlling those under its influence all the way in Abnegation."
Holy shit. I mean, as an abstract concept, I get it, but to actually pull it off? It might be evil, but it's also incredibly impressive.
"Okay, I get that Jeanine wants to take out the government and put herself in power. But what does Dauntless get out of it? What's in it for us, for you?"
Max smirks.
"She's promised that when she's in power, Dauntless will be by her side. She's offered us positions in the government, a chance to have a say in what happens. Think about that Eric. All the things we could change? All the benefits we would reap?" The glint in his eyes in practically manic. "Her plan is to have Dauntless absorb whatever willing members of Abnegation remain after the attack. I doubt there will be many. Plus with everything they are hiding and without everything being given away to that drain on society, the Factionless, she has assured us that wealth, comfort and prosperity are in our futures."
It would be nice to have a say in things and not just have to blindly go along with whatever Abnegation decides. A chance for the factions to work together and to thrive instead of just…surviving. I can see the appeal. But at what cost? Loss of trust from our faction? Countless lives? Can the factions really ever work together in government after all of that death and deception? Can a flourishing society really be built from the ashes of war?
"I can see that your mind is racing. Don't worry, you'll have your pick of positions. You are an asset to this faction Eric. Jeanine and I both know that. We will find something fitting of your skills."
My mind is racing, but the thought of how I would benefit personally hadn't even crossed my mind.
"When is this happening?" I ask.
"Soon, very soon. We don't have an exact date yet. The serum will be administered sometime after initiation ends, but the simulation won't be active until we start the program. Not everyone will be injected. Leadership and a few hand selected members will be excluded. There's still some technicalities we are working through before we execute. When it does go down, Jeanine has a special task for you. There's something she needs, something that's hidden in Abnegation. After we've rounded them all up, you'll lead a team to search for it."
"Why me?"
"Whatever she's looking for, it has to do with Divergents. I'm not sure how exactly. She's keeping that close to her chest for now, but she trusts you and she knows that you'll stop at nothing to find it."
I was hoping coming in here would give me some answers, and is has, but shit, is this ever a lot to process.
"Let me make sure I have this straight. After initiation is over, everyone will be injected with this serum…wait, how are we convincing everyone to get injected?"
"We're going to tell them that the serum contains a tracking device, that it's a precaution to keep our faction members safe."
They've thought of everything.
"Okay. Everyone is injected. When we are ready, we activate the simulation from here. Our…army then heads to Abnegation, kills off the government and rounds up everyone else. We give them the option to either join Dauntless or…be killed?" I say, clarifying if that's what he meant absorbing willing members of Abnegation.
He nods.
"While most of the teams are dealing with that, me and my team go in search of this thing Jeanine needs that has something to do with Divergents."
"Pretty much."
"Where exactly do we look? What does it look like? What does it do?"
"All I know is that it's somewhere in Abnegation and that it will be unmistakeable. You'll know immediately when you see it. Aside from that, you know as much as me," he replies, shrugging.
Oh good, so I'm basically in charge of locating the freaking Holy Grail. Perfect.
"So, what do you think?"
What do I think? I think it sounds insane. I think it sounds like genocide. I think it's going to blow up in their faces and cause revolts and civil war once everyone wakes up and realizes that they have been turned into murderers.
"I think it's a bold move. I can't say that a change in regime won't be nice. Being involved in making the decisions for all of the factions, that would be amazing," I say enthusiastically.
I can't let Max know how I'm really feeling about all of this. This plan is too big for my opinion to matter. He'd probably kill me on the spot if I object.
"I knew you'd be on board," he says, smiling. "Now, you aren't supposed to know all of this quite yet so it's imperative that you keep your mouth shut. Don't assume anyone, even those in senior leadership positions, know about the plan. Understand?"
"I understand," I reply, nodding.
"Do you have any questions?"
A million.
"No, I think I'm good for now."
"Good. Now I should get back to what I was working on."
I get up and move to leave.
"Oh and Eric?"
"Yes?"
"I know you'll make me proud and with all the new positions opening up alongside Erudite, who knows, my position might be up for grabs," he says, winking at me.
I smile before turning and leaving. Max's job has been my goal for the future since I joined leadership, but is it really what I want if I have to go along with this insane plan to get it?
What is this thing Jeanine needs me to find and how do Tris and the other Divergents play into it?
What the hell do I do now?
Hello there! What is Eric going to do now? I guess we shall see! As always, thank you for sticking with me.
Just a heads up, I may have to slow my updates from twice a week to once a week. I am currently doing school online, working full time and something happened in my personal life a week ago that is making it hard for me to focus.
I absolutely love this fic and I love writing it but I'm getting a bit stressed out trying to keep up with my writing schedule on top of everything else and this fic is mean to be fun so I don't want it to turn into a chore. I 100% promise that I will not leave you hanging. I have every chapter outlined until the very end and like I said, I frigging love this fic. (I already have two chapters after this one written – usually I'm ahead by 3 or 4).
If I do end up having to slow down, would you prefer Tuesday updates or Friday updates? Let me know!
Thanks for understanding and see you next week! 3
-MWB
