A/N: (Editited Version 12/28/18) To all the readers of this and my other stories; as always, I will and do appreciate any feedback you can or will provide. I strive to make my stories enjoyable for all and am always willing to listen to ways I can make that possible for you lovelies. I hope that my editing the story doesn't cause confusion.

Again, the story will remain the same on the whole. The edit is to clear up grammar, sentence structure and for clarity of vision that I am aiming for in the story and world.

Disclaimer: I still do not own the Divergent Universe, that is all V Roth. I'm just the girl throwing stick figures into her thunder dome.

Chapter 1 - Begin at The End

Third Person: Candor Complex, Final Justice Annex

In a cold and sterile room made of white marble with swirls of black covering the walls and floor, is a chair of black leather. It's the only piece of furniture in the center of the stark room and similar in shape to that of a dentist's chair.

Strapped to the chair is a man clothed all in black. This is the first time he has been allowed to wear the colors of his faction since his arrest a week and a half ago. A small gesture from those leaders that disagreed with what would be happening today.

Maybe it was supposed a kindness or a show of support. Just like their insistence that they still are allowed to be the ones to proceed with his sentence; his execution. It's ironic really that at the end of it all, he's finally getting the respect from the faction he always gave everything to. A respect he never received during his nine years there. A respect he never seemed to be deemed worthy of, no matter what he did or gave before now.

In the end, he's giving his life.

But it hadn't been all for his faction or even the city. He's selfish and honest enough about it to admit that freely.

'Was it worth it, Eric? Betraying your faction? Your city? Was she worth it, Coulter?'

Those bitter and taunting words still reverberate through his head. Words yelled by a deranged woman from her own cell when his sentence had been pronounced just hours before her own scheduled execution.

Movement around him draws his attention as the forms of the leader's council come into view. Filing into the room to witness the final justice of someone who had been one of them once. A leader of their people.

The Dauntless, his former faction, step forward from where the leaders from the other factions stand at the edges of the room, forming a circle around him. Circling him, but the ring isn't complete because there are just four of the five faction leaders present.

The absence of this specific person brings the man in the chair feelings of both relief and pain.

With the Dauntless leaders in place, the others mimic the circle formation but keep to the outer edges of the room with one exception.

A lone Erudite, Cara, joins the Dauntless.

In her hand, she holds the instrument of his death. A locked box containing an injection gun with the death serum that was pronounced would be used on him instead of being allowed the death of a Dauntless.

The customary bullet to the brain.

For all other executions, the serum is the usual method. It's painless and works within seconds of being injected into the neck of the person scheduled to be executed. But that isn't the way Dauntless executed members of their faction. The faction of warriors elected to hold to their way of life right up until the end.

This is purposely being denied the man. The reasoning is that because all five of the Dauntless leaders voted 'Not Guilty', it isn't a true Dauntless execution.

It's all just bullshit and another way to try and make him pay for the crimes he committed. Ones that were done in the line of duty and that he admitted to, but also the ones the other leaders wouldn't hold themselves responsible for. They needed another patsy to sacrifice to appease the masses demands for more blood.

Deep down he knows it was always going to end this way for him when he made the decision to switch sides. There really was too much blood on his hands and it wasn't until too late that he realized it hadn't been for the right reasons. That everything he believed before was based on lies and deceit. He could try and deny that he was guilty since he had been just doing what he believed was right at the time, but that isn't his style and it wouldn't do him a bit of good. He accepted it back then and he was doing the same now.

"Eric Coulter, for the crimes committed against your city, your faction, and humanity; you have been sentenced to death by injection of the Erudite death serum. This will be carried out by one of the Dauntless leaders, at their request and per permission of this council. Will the chosen for the proceedings step forward?" Jack Kang's voice rings out from the side of the room.

Eric tenses and a growl erupts from him as soon as the petite blonde steps forward. "Not her!" He barks out commandingly. "Anyone but her."

"Eric," She starts to object, tears in her eyes as she continues to step forward.

He tosses his head from side to side, lips thinned and red in anger. "Not happening, Tris. You know you can't do this. She will never fucking forgive you for it. Not like this, not after all the shit I…" He stops and takes a deep breath, letting it out slowly while trying to compose himself again. "She can't lose her sister too." His eyes implore her and demand this of her all at the same time.

Tris bites her lip and looks away nodding. He can tell she is torn between doing her duty as a leader and knowing that what is about to happen would probably destroy her sister.

"I'll do it." Four steps forward holding Eric's eyes and showing him he understands and will take care of it.

Just a year ago, Eric would have thought his former rival would have been eager to be the one to end him. Hell, a year ago Eric would have probably been the same if the roles were reversed.

But, things had changed over the last year.

They changed.

They weren't friends. Too many years and too many bad encounters had occurred for that to have happened. But they developed grudging respect here at the end. They had common goals and the main ones centered around the people they cared about most.

So, while he knew Four wasn't stepping up out of the goodness of his heart, he could trust that he would do what he could to protect her and Tris.

In the end, that's what all this was had been about.

Eric flashes a grateful look and relaxes back into the chair while Four puts a comforting hand on Tris' shoulder to move her back, but she shakes her head and raises her chin, and shrugs off the touch. Her eyes flash with fire, a look he knows so well, and it's comforting to see even if the color of her fire in those eyes is off from the ones he loves so much.

"She wanted to be here, but after the trial and then…" Tris trails off and Eric chuckles wryly knowing exactly why her sister wasn't allowed into this room.

"Unless you want to add to the body count this was the only way to go." Eric agrees.

There is a clearing of the throat and then Jack Kang speaks again. "Do you have any last words?"

There's a pause while they allow him to gather himself, or just give him time to speak if he's going to. The words of a deranged and enraged Jeanine Matthews are still ringing through his mind and a slow smile crosses his face. Not the cruel or wicked smile he is a legend for. This is her smile. The one that is only for her and could only be brought forward by her or thoughts of her.

They flood him now. From their first meeting to their last kiss, and he answers the question that has been in his mind from the day she leaped onto his roof.

"She's worth it. We were worth fighting for. I found my reason and my purpose, something greater than myself. I can live with it...the blood on my hands...because I know it all comes down to her and those she cares about being safe." Then Eric's face turned hard, more into the expression everyone who knew the ruthless and fierce ex-leader would expect him to have. "Don't fuck up this second chance." His tone rings with a command that sends chills through the other leaders but amusement and pride through those in black.

The rest of the world fades away for him as he tunes it all out. He already knows how he wants to spend his last few seconds and they sure as hell aren't with the people in this room. So he sends his mind somewhere else.

He doesn't see the room around him anymore as the murmured 'be brave' motto of their faction comes from the four people at his side.

He doesn't feel anything as Cara and Four begin to prep his neck for the injection.

All his senses and thoughts are on a playback mode.

The first time he saw her smile, how that wicked grin had rocked his world.

The first time he held her hand. When she opened herself up to him and shattered the illusions that were built up around him. She had torn his world apart within two days of knowing her and hadn't one clue what she had done to him. He should have hated her and everything he had been led to believe she stood for, but he didn't and never could.

Their first kiss and how hard he had fought himself before giving in. How nothing else had ever felt as good to him as that first touch of their lips together.

There are so many firsts that they shared together. Some of those firsts would seem insignificant to anyone else, but for them, they had meant everything. Starting from the day that changed his life and the course of the city forever and all the moments in between that made up life, good and bad. They were all well spent in his eyes.

It occurs to him during his reflections, that it actually started for the two of them much earlier than that day she jumped from the train into his life. It really all began with the promise a ten-year-old girl made to herself to set things right made for the love her city, her family and their faction.

Pride and love burn through him along with the pain of the modified serum.

"You did it, angel. You kept your promise." Eric's final words were a whisper on his last breath and a smile tilted his lips.