Disclaimer: I do not own Divergent, any of the characters or any of the dialogue that comes directly from the text.


Chapter 26

I'm not one for small talk. I don't like talking for the sake of talking. If you're going to speak you should have something useful to say. In spite of that, the relentless loud chatter of the dining hall has always been one of my favourite parts of being Dauntless.

At Erudite, the conversations are calm and composed. Everyone is extremely rational and professional with each other. Even the most heated of arguments rarely get as loud as a typical Dauntless conversation. When I transferred, the biggest culture shock I encountered was the familiarity and affection everyone here showed each other.

There's just something so uniquely Dauntless about the way everyone here interacts. It doesn't matter who you are, whether you were born here or transferred, there's an unspoken rule that if you chose Dauntless and you made it through initiation you belong here, unequivocally. No one here questions your intelligence. No one here judges you for your choices. You don't have to walk on eggshells around anyone. At Dauntless, you are just free. Free to be you.

I look out across the rows of Dauntless, talking and laughing cheerfully. Innocently eating their burgers and cake. I wonder how free everyone here would feel if they knew what was going to happen to them. What would they think if they knew their faction was in the process of betraying them? What would they do if they knew that their faction leaders had sold them out to Erudite in exchange for power and wealth?

"Eric," Max says, leaning over my shoulder from behind me, interrupting my thoughts. "Tomorrow night, after the initiation celebration, we will be meeting in the leadership conference room. It's time to bring everyone up to speed."

I nod my head and he walks away.

They must be nearly ready, if not completely ready, if they are bringing everyone in on the plan.

I look over at Tris who is sitting with Will, Christina, Uriah and Lynn. While her friends are among those talking and laughing, I can tell that Tris isn't really paying attention. I'm sure our impending meeting is distracting her.

Four on the other hand is nowhere to be seen. He may have agreed to meet, but I'm starting to wonder if he will actually show up.

Finishing the last bite of my burger, I get up and discard my tray. On the way out, I make sure to pass by Tris' table, catching her eye briefly to let her know I'm heading back to my apartment.


I've barely managed to use the washroom when Tris arrives. I'm surprised she's here already. She can't have waited longer than a minute or two before following me out.

"You didn't wait very long before leaving then?" I say, raising my eyebrow at her.

She shrugs. "I wanted to talk to you before Four gets here."

"About what?" I ask.

"About what happened earlier. About what happened between me and Four."

Do we really have to do this?

"I thought we moved on from that," I reply, sighing and crossing my arms.

"No, you moved on from it and didn't let me explain what happened."

"If it's all the same to you, I'd rather not discuss what the two of you do in private." I intend for it to sound neutral, but my jealousy leaks through.

"Eric, it's not like that," she says kindly, walking towards me. Once in front of me, she lifts her hand and rests it on my forearm. My first instinct is to push her away, but her hand feels soft and warm and my body starts to relax under her touch. How does she do that?

"Then what's it like?" I ask, resigned to the fact that this conversation isn't going away.

"What happened with Four, it shouldn't…" she starts, but is interrupted by Four walking through the door.

It has to be some kind of a superpower, his timing skills are unparalleled. Don't worry kids, Captain Interruptus is here to halt all important conversations in their tracks!

Tris appears to be just as frustrated by his arrival as I am. She drops her hand from my arm and turns to face him.

Four looks between us and it's easy to identify the jealousy on his face. Clearly, we'd both rather the other one wasn't in Tris' life.

"So what is this all about, Eric?" he asks, ignoring the tension in the room.

Right, we're all here to talk about Max and Jeanine's plans. Where do I even start?

"I think we should sit," I say, walking over to the kitchen table.

They both follow me silently and once seated, look at me expectantly. The serum? The attack? The random object Jeanine needs?

"I assume you've read the articles that have been coming out about Abnegation lately?"

They both visibly tense.

"I'll take that as a yes. I don't think it's any secret that Erudite believe they should be in charge of the government, well, the articles were just the first step in Jeanine's plan to take over."

Neither of them look particularly surprised…interesting.

"When I visited Caleb earlier today," Tris starts, "he told me that Erudite has been making daily speeches against Abnegation. He was sure that something big was coming."

Four looks at her, seemingly caught off guard by this admission.

"Something big is coming, something way bigger than Caleb probably realizes," I reply. "I found out today, that Jeanine and Max are planning to attack Abnegation. They are going to kill off their leadership, force their members to choose between joining Dauntless or execution and then place themselves at the head of the government."

"What?" Tris' says loudly, her eyes growing wide. After a beat, "My father," she adds quietly.

"Yes, both of your father's," I say. Tris and I look over at Four simultaneously. The muscles in his jaw tighten but he remains silent. I look back over at Tris; her expression is a strange mixture of anger and sympathy. She must know who Four really is.

"How?" she asks.

"They are going to use the members of our faction as their army. They are going to send us in to take out the leaders of Abnegation and round up the rest of the members."

"But…" says Tris. "They can't think we will agree to that? Dauntless may be trained to fight and yes, a lot of the people here agree that Abnegation shouldn't run the government, but they aren't murderers….we aren't murderers."

"No, they don't think everyone will agree to it." I take a deep breath before continuing. "Jeanine has developed a longer lasting serum that will allow anyone injected with it to be run by a program from here. They're going to inject everyone with it, tomorrow, at the initiation celebration. They're going to claim it's a tracking device to keep our members safe."

"They're going to trick us and drug us into fighting for them?" she says, disgust unmistakeable in her tone.

I nod, then look over at Four who hasn't said anything since I began talking. "You've been pretty quiet over there."

He looks tense, but also like he has something to say.

"Anything to add?" I encourage.

Instead of responding to me, he turns to face Tris, "Can I trust him?" He asks, parroting my words from earlier today.

"He's trusting you isn't he?" she replies without hesitation. "Think about what he just told us. Based on their track record, I'm pretty sure they would kill him if they knew he was talking to us."

Oh, I would be dead in an instant.

He nods in response before turning back towards me. "About a month ago, I managed to mirror Max's computer. It wasn't clear exactly what they were planning, and I didn't realize how integral Erudite were, but I found what looked like war plans. Commands, supply lists and maps. Maps of Abnegation."

Shit, he's even smarter than I realized. Erudite smart. Just like Tris…I wonder, could he be…just like Tris?

"The commands are likely part of the program. If they plan to put this many people under a simulation, they'll have to have a lot of predetermined commands. What about the maps? Was there anything significant on those?" I ask.

"The houses of all of the leaders were clearly marked, as well as a few other buildings. The buildings didn't seem to have much of a connection so I couldn't tell why they had marked them."

"They're looking for something," I say. "There's something in Abnegation that Jeanine needs. After all the members are rounded up, I'm supposed to go in search of it with my team. I don't know what it does or even what it looks like…I don't think Jeanine even knows what it looks like…but she's desperate for it and it has something to do with Divergents. It's possible that those sites are search locations."

"When is this attack happening?" Tris asks.

"I don't know," I say, shaking my head. "Max said it would be shortly after everyone is injected with the serum, but last we talked they were still working out some kinks. After the celebration tomorrow they are gathering all of Dauntless leadership. Hopefully I'll find out more then."

They both nod. "Is there a way that we can stop everyone from being injected with the serum?"

I sigh. "Honestly? I don't know that there is. They're going to administer it in less than 24 hours. We're all expected to be at the final test in the morning and I'm sure everything is locked up...if not guarded. I don't even know where they're keeping it. If we had more time, maybe we could locate it and figure out a way to destroy it. But at this point, I think the best we can do is figure out how to keep you two from being injected."

"They won't inject you?" asks Tris.

"There's no point. They think I'm on their side. I'll be more useful to them with my freewill than not. Max said leadership and a few select members will be spared."

"Do you know who will be administering it?"

I shake my head no.

"We need more time," Tris says, sighing heavily in exasperation.

"At least we know when it's coming and we know to avoid it," Four adds. "Without this information we likely would have just accepted the serum. We'll just have to think on our feet and make sure we don't get injected."

"So what do we do after that? Sure, the three of us get away without being injected, but what then? We can't just wait for them to start the sim. We have to warn everyone, we have to warn Abnegation."

"It'll be hard to warn the Dauntless," I say. "Most people here are very loyal to our leadership, to Max. There aren't many of them that would take our word over what he tells them. Abnegation is different. Especially with it being both of your birth factions. I think our best bet would be to warn them as soon as possible. Maybe someone there will be able to help us strategize, or at the very least, they can prepare themselves for a fight."

"We'll go after the celebration," Four says. "You said Max is holding a leadership meeting then, right?"

I nod yes in response.

"Good," Four continues, "Then they'll be distracted. Tris and I can likely leave the compound without anyone noticing. We'll take the trains and then head on foot the rest of the way. It'll be late, but I know the layout like the back of my hand. It should be easy for us to track down all of the members of the council."

"Okay," I agree. Do I like that the two of them will be alone in the middle of the night traveling across the city? No. But they're right, someone needs to warn Abnegation and I can't leave the compound right now. My absence would be too obvious. "Hopefully Max will share some concrete information about when the attack is happening and then at least we will have a timeline to work with. Once you've warned Abnegation, make sure you get back here. I'll let you know what happened at the meeting and we can figure out our next move. Hopefully we can figure out a way to make sure the serum never gets activated then it won't matter that the others were injected."

"This is completely insane," Tris says.

She's not wrong.

"I know," I say. "I never realized Max and Jeanine were capable of something this horrific."

"We should all get some sleep," Four says, looking at Tris. "Between the final test, the celebration and heading to Abnegation it's going to be a long day."

"He's right," I say, agreeing with Four for the second time tonight. "You guys should head out. Get some rest."

Four walks towards the door then stops, turning to look at Tris expectantly. We both stand and make our way over to him.

"You go," she says. "I'll follow in a few minutes."

He raises an eyebrow at her and looks like he's about to argue, but instead, opens the door and leaves.

"You probably could have just left with him," I say.

"I didn't get to finish what I was saying before Four barged in here."

Oh right, we were talking about their kiss.

"I'm too tired for this Tris."

"Would you just shut up and listen to what I have to say? Stop trying to brush this off and pretend your assumptions are facts. God you are so stubborn, just let me freaking explain!"

I blink a few times, surprised by her outburst. Then without warning, I start to laugh. "I'm sorry," I say through my laughter. "I just wasn't expecting that."

She rolls her eyes but smiles. "So you'll let me talk?"

"Yes, I promise I'll shut up," I say, pretending to zip my lips closed.

"Good. Okay, so after the fear landscapes, I was upset. I was meant to be going through one of Lauren's fears but somehow it transformed into that night, at the Chasm. When I woke up from the sim, I was crying…like what happens after my nightmares. I ran out of the room and Four followed me. He tried to calm me down by hugging me and I just kept crying." She looks down at her lap, running her thumbnail underneath her other fingernails one at a time. "Once I had a bit of control over myself, I let go of him and that's when he kissed me. At first, I kissed him back, but then I just freaked out. I pulled away and I ran, I ran all the way out of the compound and I jumped onto the train. I wasn't sure at first why kissing him made me react like that. But on the drive back to the compound, Frederick told me that Jeanine had called you. I knew you would be waiting for me and I just felt so guilty."

She looks back up at me.

"I thought maybe the guilt was from leaving the compound, or because Jeanine had caught me but then I started thinking about my kiss with Four and I was so worried about what you would think of me. I couldn't shake the feeling that by kissing him I was cheating on you. I know that's crazy."

She looks away again. My heart beats fast and I wonder briefly if she can hear it. Finding out that she kissed Four had felt like being cheated on.

"I know that we aren't together and we can both kiss whoever we want. I know that last time we talked about it, I was still kind of trying to figure out my feelings and you were so nice about it, nicer than I probably deserved. I do care about both of you, that hasn't changed, but kissing Four…well, it made me realize that the only person I want to kiss is you."

As she finishes, she looks me directly in the eye, seemingly waiting for my reaction.

This is it Eric. This is the opening you've been waiting for.


What's our man gonna do next? We shall see soon! I hope you enjoyed this one and I hope everyone had a great Canada Day for those of you that celebrate.

As with every chapter, I always appreciate your comments/feedback. I look forward to hearing from you and I'll se you in a week! Thank you for sticking with me even with the slightly less frequent.

-MWB