Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Twilight or Divergent. Those rights are reserved for Stephanie Myer and Veronica Roth. I do own the original characters created for this story line. Please support the official release!
Writer's Notes: Happy holidays everyone. I hope everyone enjoys the multiple updates.
Max was in a bad mood. Lukas was missing and now he wouldn't get the information to uncover likely the biggest Divergent operation in history. He paced in his office in silence as Eric and Bella stood there. It was clear that Bella was pretty upset about nearly getting tossed off the catwalk. He stopped to stand in front of her. His hand came up and stroked her face. "You're okay?" He asked, his voice still quaking with anger.
"I'm fine sir. I survived." Bella said with a nod.
Max blew out a breath and nodded. "Eric, do we have a location on him or anything to go off of?"
"No sir. No one reported any sightings of him. He's likely gone underground." Eric said.
"God damnit!" Max swore and knocked his computer off his desk and it clashed to the floor.
Bella and Eric didn't move, they watched Max lose his cool and didn't say a word.
"We killed the Priors and Marcus. We have no information on where this Divergent cell is located. Jeanine wants Abnegation burnt to the ground yesterday." Max ran his hands over his face. "Okay. Okay, go to Abnegation. Look for information anywhere. I want answers to this Divergent issue." He said to Eric and then he stopped in front of Bella and then reached a hand out and stroked her cheek again. "You're sure you're okay?"
"Yes sir, I am fine." Bella was confused why Max was acting like he cared.
Max sighed. "Okay. The plan must go on. Find out information. I want something." He said and looked at Eric. "I need a moment alone with Bella."
Eric started to say something but then closed his mouth and nodded. "Yes sir." He said and left Bella there with Max against his better judgement.
Bella's blue-green eyes studied Max and what he was planning. "Sir?"
"You almost died." Max said, his voice dropping the angry tone. He looked at her worried.
"It is my duty as a Dauntless leader to put my life on the line for my faction and for my city." Bella said. "I am not afraid of dying."
"I'm afraid you'll die." Max said.
"I'm not sure I follow sir." Bella said, frowning a little.
Max sighed. "I don't know what is happening to me." He said and turned his back on Bella. He was starting to… care. That wasn't right, it couldn't be. "I don't understand."
Bella didn't understand either. What was going through Max's head. He was always cold and calculated, never lost his temper like he just did. Having emotion like that, was not in his demeanor and Bella was traveling in uncharted territory with him now. She wasn't sure which move was the right one. If this was a test. Max said that Dauntless didn't form attachments or that was his belief. So was he testing her to see if she would fall into a trap and admit something that wasn't true? "Sir?"
Max turned and he instantly stepped to Bella and kissed her, his mouth was aggressive and it startled Bella a little making her mouth open in response and his tongue collided against hers. His hands framed her face, careful of her nose and he forced himself to break away. He stared into her eyes and saw the confusion in them and realized that he was acting crazy. "I…."
"Sir, are you okay?" Bella asked. "This isn't you…"
"I know I don't feel like myself." Max said and ran his hands over his face again, his breathing had increased. "I don't know what is happening. I want… to fuck you but I also don't want to cause you pain."
"Are you… forming an attachment?" Bella's brows furrowed together.
Max's eyes widened. "No. I don't… I'm not attached to you."
"You're acting like you do. Getting clingy like Lukas tried to," Bella's mind was working again. If she could convince Max that he was being forced to be Divergent somehow. It might just work.
"I'm not." Max rebutted. "I'm just-"
"You said that Dauntless don't form attachments… emotions, the feelings that is Divergent." Bella said and put her hand on her gun and took a step back. "How do I know you're not Divergent?" She accused, taking on a serious stance now.
"I'm not Divergent!"
"That's what they all say before I have to kill them." Bella said and unholstered her gun and hit her recording device.
Max shook his head. "I'm not Divergent. I am not working with the Divergent society to take down the faction system."
"How do you know if that is the Divergent plan? NO one has admitted to any plan." Bella questioned.
"I'm assuming! What else do Divergents want. Peace and harmony? To sing kumbaya around the fire?" Max said, trying not to look scared right now, but the truth was, he wasn't sure what was happening right now and what had spurred the feelings he got.
"What if the Divergents are infecting people? Compromising our leaders? How do I know you're not Divergent now?" Bella demanded.
Max thought about it. Could Divergents be infecting people? Could that explain what was happening to him? What happened to Lukas, what if that's how it started? No one was safe then. Jeanine could be Divergent too. The whole city could be Divergent. "I…" he didn't know how to answer. "I'm Divergent." He said it outloud as if testing it out.
That was all Bella needed to hear and record. Max saying out loud that he was Divergent. She put a bullet in him, right between the eyes with no hesitation. When his body slumped to the ground she let out the breath she was holding. Her eyes widened a little as she watched Max's lifeless eyes stare back up at her. She took his life. Without a second thought. And she did it easily. She felt her stomach roll a little and she threw up in the trash can. She knew it was also pregnancy hormones. Stuff like this shouldn't affect her, but it did. She wiped her face and the tears that had escaped. "Okay. Okay." She said out loud. She grabbed her palm pilot and she called Eric.
"Yeah?" Eric's voice was gruff.
"I need you to come to Max's office. Now." Bella said and then hung up without other explanation. She unhooked her recording device and she went through the footage as it appeared in front of her as a hologram. She sniffed a little and tweaked everything and only saved the part where Max looked at her and admitted he was Divergent. "Okay. Okay." She said and then she saved copies of it. She then sent a message to Four for him to come to Max's office and she waited.
Eric and Four made it to the office at the same time. "Did Bella send for you too?"
Four frowned. "Yeah. She said it was urgent, I left Jasper in charge of the other recruits." He said and then knocked on the door.
Bella answered, pulling the two inside quickly and shut the door.
Eric and Four's eyes landed on Max's dead body and Eric looked at Bella a serious expression. "What did he try to do?"
"Nothing." Bella said and ran a hand over her hair. "He… admitted to being Divergent." She said and then hit the recording to project the hologram.
Eric ran his hands over his mouth and then to his hair. "Okay. Why? He wasn't Divergent."
"I… convinced him." Bella said. "He was acting strange. He kissed me and he was being emotional and then I got the idea to turn it on him. He said earlier the reason Lukas had to be Divergent was that he was forming attachments to me. So I questioned him. He denied it and then I insinuated that Divergents could potentially be infecting people and turning them Divergent."
"You what?" Four said, not believing what he was hearing.
"Yeah. So he said he was Divergent and I shot him. That was it. I needed a confession. That's all, and I recorded it. This is how… this is how we take Jeanine down." Bella said.
Eric looked at Max's body and then to Four. "She's right. This was what we needed. She eliminated one target. I was about to go raze Abnegation at his order. But now…"
"We can redirect." Bella said. "Turn this on its head. Jeanine won't question Max's death with this confession."
"What about Tris? She's still on a mental hold." Four said. "If Jeanine gets ahold of her…"
"She won't." Bella said. "She's a threat. Get rid of her. I have another recording of Max ordering her being killed."
Eric nodded. "Okay, I'll handle that. Four, help prepare Max for incineration. Bella, bring the recording to Erudite. Let's get out in front of this now. I'm taking command." He said and reached down and ripped the patch off Max's arm. "Promote Jasper today. Hand him the recruits. Get them ready to graduate the program. We need more people to flood the walls and patrol to make it look like we're running things." He said and looked at Bella. "This is good."
Bella nodded. "It is." She said and looked at Four. "Four…"
"I'll handle this. Go on, go to Erudite. Keep us in the loop." Four said and Bella left the office.
Eric was silent a moment. "I can't believe she did it."
"I wanted to put a bullet in him quite a few times." Four grumbled and stooped to examine Max. "She did it."
"And we have the proof to justify the shooting." Eric said. "This just changed a lot."
"It did. And now we just have to take down Jeanine."
"If anyone is going to do it, it will be Bella." Eric said.
"What about Kang? Has Johanna gotten to him yet?" Four asked.
Eric nodded. "He's with us. He's finding the Divergents in his section and he's sending them to safety. Johanna is organizing a relief effort for in case Jeanine's plan to burn down Abnegation goes into effect, but it looks like we aren't going to need those relief efforts."
[Erudite]
Bella walked into Jeanine's office, not sparing Caleb a glance. "Ma'am." She gave a bow and Jeanine nodded to her.
"What was urgent that you had to come in person?" Jeanine asked, her tone airy, light.
"Ma'am, Max is dead."
"What?" Jeanine got to her feet. "How is that possible. What happened?"
"He admitted to being Divergent. I executed him per protocol-"
Jeanine shook her head. "That's not possible. Max isn't Divergent. I would know."
Bella played the recording for Jeanine and watched the shock register on Jeanine's face. "Ma'am?"
"He played me… this whole time." Jeanine sounded angry. "He tricked me."
"Eric Coulter is taking command in Dauntless. He was the next in line." Bella relayed.
Jeanine smoothed her hands over her skirt as she thought about everything. "So his manhunt for Lukas Storm?"
"Misguided I believe. I believe that Max was trying to create a scapegoat and he picked from the top of Dauntless." Bella explained.
"So Lukas is in hiding-"
"Because he is running from Max." Bella finished. "There's more."
"What else?"
"Tris Prior, the daughter of Natalie and Andrew-"
"Your sister." Jeanine interupted and didn't even cast a look in Caleb's direction. She knew that Tris was Bella and Caleb's sister.
Bella nodded. "She was executed this morning." She said. "Treason. Divergent."
"Max said that Tris was Divergent. Was she executed before his death?"
"Yes. That was the order he gave before he admitted to being Divergent." Bella said.
"Good god. That poor girl." Jeanine said. "Divergents will try to kill us all. I am terribly sorry for you loss. Both of you." She said, looking at Caleb, who seemed to be in shock right now.
Bella gave a nod. "Their bodies are being incinerated. I found documents in Max's office." She said and handed them over to Jeanine.
Jeanine looked at the documents. "These are blueprints to my office." She said and frowned. "What was he doing with these?"
"Unclear." Bella said. She had given her the blueprints she found in Max's office and she snagged them because she felt that it would solidify the fact that Max was Divergent and planning something. She was banking on Jeanine's paranoia to ride this out.
"Others could have copies of this. My life is in danger." Jeanine said and looked at Bella. "You just saved my life."
Bella bowed her head. "My mission is your mission."
"Good." Jeanine said and looked at Caleb and then back to Bella. "I have a new serum. I want it injected in all of Dauntless. We're taking Abnegation and burning it to the ground."
"Yes ma'am." Bella said mechanically. She would play this game. For now.