AN: Happy Monday, thanks for the follows and I hope you enjoy.
Eric chewed on his pen cap, as he went over the results from the fear sims from the previous day, finding a few anomalies but nothing that would really catch Jeanine's interest. Maybe the younger Pedrad, although Lauren had done a great job of ruining the footage when the machine allegedly malfunctioned. The first day was always a shit show, but Jeanine isn't backing down.
What was he going to do with the Stiff?
She's exactly what Jeanine wants, but why should she get all the credit with her father when he has done the work?
Besides, she's a damn good fuck.
"She's here." Max says as he leans against his open office doorframe, startling Eric.
Eric massages the bridge of his nose and sighs, "Why? She said one week, not one fucking day."
"Get off your ass and get into my office. Now." Max says sternly before walking away.
Eric was sick of her shit already. He does as he's told, striding into Max's open office and shutting the door behind him. Jeanine's smile pulls at her chemically enhanced lips, and he once again wishes he could slam her plastic face straight into the table.
It was a nice table, though.
"How did the fear simulations go yesterday?" She asks, wasting no time with formalities.
"The same as they always do day one. A shit show of terrified initiates. So sorry your unscheduled visit is also unnecessary." Eric replies flippantly.
"You have one fucking job, Eric." She seethes.
"Is daddy dearest not playing nice, Jeanine? Does he need something more interesting than you to play with?" Eric smirks, and then bites the inside of his cheek when he sees her pale skin flush.
"Faction before blood, Eric. Byron is no longer your father." She scolds.
"Eric, fucking stop. If you can't handle your responsibilities you'll be relieved." Max says and Eric sits back in his chair, "Tell us about the sims."
"Nothing remarkable." He replies and Max narrows his eyes at the younger leader.
"We have a timestamp of you being in with Beatrice Prior for more than an hour, yet her score was manually entered. Care to elaborate?" Jeanine asks smoothly.
"She's got issues with the serum, maybe you should read more of her file than just the test results. She had an adverse reaction to the aptitude serum, and the same to the fear serum. I can't successfully score someone who spends most of the day puking from the shit." Eric lies easily.
He was damn sure not a Candor.
"She'll be a good test subject for a new serum we're looking into, since we do seem to have some citizens who can't take the normal version of the alteration serums." Jeanine replies.
"How close are you to being ready to test?" Max asks.
"Days. We have a few adjustments to make to replicate the exact compounds used in the existing serums, but we are very close. Eric, wouldn't you agree that Miss Prior would be a good choice?" She asks.
"She would." He agrees.
"Perhaps you can bring her by this week for testing? I'm sure there could be an excuse made that it is some sort of training exercise." Jeanine asks with fake sweetness and he frowns.
"Get the compound right and I'll make it happen. No need to test this shit on a subpar initiate who could benefit from attending her normal training sessions here until you've got it working properly." He replies.
"Max?" Jeanine looks over and Eric watches as Max contemplates his response.
"I would agree with Eric. If the girl needs training, she should be here as much as possible. It's not often we get a promising transfer from Abnegation, and we know how much of an asset Four has become to our faction." Max says and Eric swallows back a sarcastic comment as Max continues, "She's done decently with weapons and physical, if we can get her through the process here we may have another opportunity for a distraction to Abnegation."
"A distraction?" Eric asks and Max turns to him.
"We have the children of both of the most prominent leaders of the government right under our roof. Wouldn't you think we could use that little bit of diplomacy to our advantage when it comes to our plans?" Max asks.
"Guns don't need diplomacy. Isn't the plan to shoot to kill?" Eric asks.
"A distraction to Marcus Eaton and Andrew Prior wouldn't necessarily be a negative." Jeanine answers for him, "I have Caleb Prior on my apprenticeship team, and he's very open to a change in the government. I'm curious to see if Beatrice is just as willing to do whatever we need to make this change happen."
"None of this makes sense, we're spreading the plans out too thin." Eric argues, "You want divergents for testing, you plan on using mind control to mow down Abnegation, why would we need the negotiation skills of the Stiff kids?"
"I like to have back up plans in place." Jeanine says with a finality that lets both men know the subject is closed, "Eric, we need progress on the divergents, and I think you spent too long with Beatrice Prior to truly be able to get an accurate read on the rest of your class. Do better today, and once she's over the sickness we need an actual test result in there. If you can't make it happen, bring her by tonight, and I'll use some of our lab testing on her."
"Got it." He replies.
"You're dismissed. Take the time with the class today, get Lauren and Four to help administer the sims. You and I can go over the results from home this evening and compare notes." Max replies and Eric nods on his way out the door.
He makes his way to the training gym and hears the familiar grunts from bag practice as he swings the door open. He doesn't miss the look he gets from Lauren and Four.
Or the way Four was watching the Stiff before he barged in.
"We're doing fear sims again." Eric says as he approaches the two trainers.
"Why are we continuing to interrupt the flow of our class? We structured it this way for a reason, and you agreed with that structure. Why change it now?" Lauren asks.
"For fucks sake, I told you yesterday that Max wants shit changed. I don't have time for this, you can take it up with him. For now, we need to split these initiates up, business as usual." Eric replies.
"Fine, I can take Will, Al, Christina and Tris with me right now." Four replies.
Eric looks at Tris and she's staring right back at him, "She's with me."
"Why?" Four asks and Eric looks over at his fellow leader, realizing that the other man has some sort of interest in the she-Stiff.
"We stick with who we've already tested. Per Max." He lies.
"Fine, whatever." Four sighs, "Edward, with me."
"Uriah." Lauren calls out, and Eric watches as they usher their initiates into their individual rooms.
Eric walks Tris into the same room they were in before and she turns to look at him. She opens her mouth to speak and he holds a hand up.
"You don't get to ask me questions." He says angrily and she just blinks at him, her wide hazel eyes watching him, "Are you ready to beat your fears like a Dauntless?"
"I don't know how." She protests.
"You will when I'm done with you." Eric says and he pulls her towards him, "Payment is due up front, decide now."
She looks at him, his perfectly gelled hair, intense eyes, the spare upper lip with full lower lip and the leadership blocks traveling up and down his neck. She should be disgusted by him, by his demands for sex in payment for sparing her life, but she's not.
She likes what they're doing.
She moves closer to him and presses her lips to his neck, finding his skin to be burning hot, and he sighs. He only lets her be gentle for a brief moment before pushing her down to her knees.
She looks up at him and brings her hand to the button of his jeans, knowing exactly what he wants from her. She should feel terrible for what she's about to do, but she doesn't want the alternative, where she will become a lab rat for Jeanine until she exhausts her usefulness, and then she'll be killed.
That's what her trainer had told her.
As soon as Eric had left her yesterday, Tobias had pulled her aside. He wanted to know everything, and she couldn't admit to any of it. How could she endanger her childhood friend by telling him that she's divergent, and that she's literally fucking the enemy in order to save herself and others like her?
So she lied.
He bought it, and he began to tell her about plans he was seeing himself in leadership. They'd known each other for eighteen years, meeting when two year old Tobias held her days after her birth. His mother Evelyn and her mother Natalie were best friends, and Tobias, her brother Caleb and she grew up incredibly close.
She and Tobias grew closer as they got older, and they'd secretly started a physical relationship while they were teenagers still in Abnegation. When he unexpectedly transferred to Dauntless, he'd left her behind, and by the time she followed him to Dauntless his heart belonged to someone else. She was surprisingly okay. Their two years apart had proven just how ill suited they were together, and they were working on being friends, even if his current girlfriend didn't much like it.
Lauren never made it a secret she didn't like her boyfriend training the ex he'd left behind. Tobias had always been honest with her, and when they went through their own initiation she was there for him when he explained he'd ended a relationship in Abnegation because the girl he'd left behind wouldn't ever choose someplace like Dauntless.
Imagine both of their surprise when Beatrice Prior not only transferred, but was the first jumper. As soon as Lauren saw the look on her boyfriend's face, she realized this Abnegation transfer was the one he'd left behind.
"Why does Number Boy look at you the way he does, Stiff?" Eric asks as she carefully unzips his pants.
"I don't know what you're talking about." She replies and he grabs her wrists and roughly pulls her up from the floor. He keeps her wrists in one of his large hands and pushes her into the wall.
"You will not lie to me." He hisses and she looks away from him. He grabs her cheek with his free hand, forcing her to look at him, "Are you fucking him too?"
"No." She replies quietly.
"You have before though, haven't you?" He asks. She nods her head and he squeezes her face, "When?"
"Abnegation. Not here, never here." She says quietly.
"You ever suck his dick?"
"No." She whispers.
He pushes her down again and she looks up at him, "Suck mine."
Tris pushes his pants down and then tugs his boxers down, and his cock springs free. She tentatively licks from the base to the tip and he moans lowly.
She's never done this before, but she must be doing something right. His soft moans fill the room as she takes him into her mouth, sucking and licking him and then bringing her hands in as well.
"Goddamn Stiff." He growls as he begins to move with her, causing her to almost choke as he bottoms out in her throat, "I'm going to come."
She pulls her mouth away, but continues to pump her hands around him until he releases. She studies the thick white semen on her hands and he looks down at her.
"You get one more day." He breathes out.
"Thank you." She whispers.
He brings her a towel from the gym, and she cleans up her hands. She watches him as he hooks her up to the leads and before he injects her he sits down on the edge of large reclined chair, facing her.
He's a bit more relaxed from their previous activities, but the serious look on his face worries her.
"You're not supposed to be aware that you're in a fear sim. Your fear is symbolic, and whatever it is doesn't necessarily matter. It's how you handle yourself and move past it. This means no manipulation, you don't conjure shit out of nowhere, and you deal with your fear only using what's available to you in the sim. Understand?" He asks.
"I do, but what if I can't find a way to beat the fear?" She asks.
"If I'm to believe you're Dauntless, then you don't allow yourself to fail." Eric replies.
"But what-"
"Failure is not an option, don't you dare allow yourself the errant thought that it is."
He injects her again, and watches as she slips away. He watches the sim carefully, and this time instead of her just letting the birds peck at her skin she runs, finding the source of the smoke when she reaches a barn that's on fire. She finds a burning board, waving it at the birds, who flap their wings to get away from the flames licking at them.
When she wakes up she looks over at Eric, who simply nods at her.
He goes through three more initiates, finding absolutely nothing to alert him of any divergence, and he realizes that tonight's review is going to be incredibly important to find anything he can turn over to Jeanine.
Just not the Stiff, not yet. She's his leverage to be more than Jeanine's and Max's bitch.
He's getting the feeling that it's his father who's pushing this divergent hunt, and Jeanine is using it to further her own career. Sure, she's Byron's mistress, but that's not enough. She wants his power, and she likely thinks finding his perfect divergent will cement her place in his government. Or if she's feeling really brazen, her government.
Not on Eric's watch. He'll groom the little Stiff, and when the time is right, he'll bring her to his father himself.
He heads back to his office to grab his laptop so he can start evaluating the results from todays sims. He's brought out of his thoughts by Max calling his name, and he walks into his office.
"Four came to complain about you." Max says and Eric rolls his eyes.
"What else is new?"
"He said you won't let anyone else test Prior, and that it was allegedly assigned per me. I covered for you, but care to explain why you felt it necessary to add this layer of complication?" Max asks.
"Jeanine tasked me with getting an actual result from her today and I did. If Four or Lauren had of coddled her when she got sick, we'd have nothing on her." Eric replies.
"You mean like you did yesterday?" Max asks and Eric holds his breath, releasing it slowly.
"I didn't fucking coddle her, I just dealt with a puking initiate. She wasn't able to continue yesterday, but today I gave her the serum in small doses until she'd been able to take it all. She made it though."
"And?" Max asks.
"Seemingly normal," Eric shrugs, "It's early though, anything is possible."
"Indeed. You can take the transfers and I'll take the Dauntless born. Tomorrow, we'll have a new toy to test." Max says as he passes the drive with the transfer sims over his desk to Eric.
"What kind of toy?" He asks.
"It's a scanning device, you point it at a person and it can actually detect divergence." Max replies as he types away on his keyboard.
"How is that even possible?" Eric asks.
"No fucking idea, but I'm thinking we tell the trainees it's a prototype to replace the aptitude tests. We can scan each of them, and if we find anyone we separate them out and get them to Erudite."
"What if it's half the class? How the fuck are we going to explain it to Lauren and Four? Or better yet, what if it doesn't actually work?" Eric asks.
"We'll figure it out. It could be explained as a training exercise, and Jeanine will do her own testing anyway, why do you care?"
"I don't. I just like to have a plan." Eric replies, "When does this start?"
"Tomorrow morning, I already have the devices." Max gestures to boxes on his conference table, "Be here early, Jeanine will be on-site around seven in the morning so she can immediately test anyone the device picks up." Max says.
"Understood." Eric replies.
He deposits his laptop and the drive on his desk at home and he scrubs a hand across his face. Things were happening faster than he was ready for, and he wasn't ready to let Jeanine have her victory when Tris's rare type of divergence is exposed.
Tris Prior will have to go tonight.