Finding The Courage

Part 19

Tris and I turned to look up, our eyes meeting those of a woman, dressed in a proper suit and heels both dark blue. Her hair was cut short and was swept back from her face. Jeanine Matthews the head of Erudite.

"Are you alright?" She called down to us.

"Yea I'm fine." Tris responded.

The woman beckoned us to follow her and with no choice but to follow without giving ourselves away we did. We followed her through the building and into what I assumed was her office. We walked past windows overlooking a lab, where it looked like a serum was being tested on the participants. I followed behind Tris while she sat down across from the woman in a dark blue chair. I stood behind Tris ready to fight our way out if necessary.

"I'm glad you came here today." She started. Tris and I shared a look of surprise.

"You are?" We blurted out at the same time.

"Are you happy with your new faction?" This time she looked at both of us. I nodded but Trsi answered verbally.

"Yea."

"But you came to see your brother."

"I just.. I just wanted to talk to him." Tris stuttered out.

"Have you seen your parents?"

"No." Tris mumbled out. Shaking her head. I narrowed my eyes on Jeanine. I got the feeling she was asking the questions to trick Tris. Jeanine nodded her head, seeming satisfied with those answers.

"It's hard to let go. Faction before blood is an important ideal. Although sometimes difficult to fulfill." I stiffened at her words. I felt something crawling up my skin the longer we stood here. I wanted out now. "It goes against our fundamental human nature, but that's exactly the weakness we need to overcome."

"You think that human nature is a weakness?" I blurted out before Tris could open her mouth. Jeanine looked at me hard this time as if she had forgotten I was even in the room with them. She kept her eyes locked on mine as she answered me.

"I think human nature is the enemy. It's human nature to keep secrets, lie, steal and I want to eradicate that. It's how we'll maintain a stable and peaceful society." I wrinkled my nose and allowed her to see the disagreement spread to the rest of my features. She looked between Tris and I before she asked her next question. "You would help me with that wouldn't you?" I knew she could see if on my face that I would not but Tris hadn't let her emotions show the way I had.

"How would I help you?" She shot back with a nervous laugh.

"You're aware that Abnegation is undermining the faction system, breaking laws, harboring divergents."

"No, we didn't know that." Tris answered for both of us. This time I faked a look of surprise when Jeanine shot a quick glance at my face. "But if that's true then I'm glad that I left." she continued and I nodded my agreement.

"See I need to know that I can count on you to enforce the law even if it's been broken by someone close to you." I could feel the manipulation dripping from her condescending tone. "Someone you care about."

"Of course." We both mumbled out in response.

"Good. I'll have my car take you back to Dauntless." I watched as Jeanine began to get up and motioned for someone to bring us to her car. The car ride was silent in the dark and both Tris and I shifted uncomfortably the entire ride. Once we were finally out of the car we both took deep breaths.

 "Something isn't right about her, something is wrong. She's been here before, the night you got attacked that was her voice we heard." I mumbled out to her as we made our way down the emergency stairs and back into the compound. We had almost made it successfully back to the dorms when we ran into Eric and Four waiting for us.

 "Look who we finally found Four. Your two favorite girls." Eric smirked down at us. "You know it's against the rules for initiates to leave the compound without a member. I could kick you both out. But that would be a shame to lose our two best initiates." My eyes drifted to Four and watched the wheels turn in his head.

"Eric, have mercy. Tris is upset because I rejected her advances earlier today." He shot me a look.

"I just followed after her as any good friend would when I saw her running off in tears." I met Eric's eyes. Eric scoffed and turned to walk away.

"Don't let it happen again." He dismissed us.

"What were you thinking? Do you know how stupid that was?" Four started berating us, leading us back towards the train. We followed silently as he continued on about how foolish we were for running off.

"Get on the train, I have to show you something." He started running and we followed suit, all managing to get in the same car. We rode the train back into the city, close to where we had gotten off before at Erudite. The same city was still brightly lit, I turned to Four with a questioning look on my face.

"Isn't that a major violation of the rules though?" Tris asked, obviously thinking the same thing I was.

" It is. Erudite is planning a war against Abnegation for control of the government."

"That's what Caleb said too, that erudite was going to be in control of the government soon."

"But what does that have to do with Dauntless?" I wondered out loud.

"I don't know but I need you both to be extra careful." Four whispered.

We head back to the compound, once Tris and I made it back to the dorms we collapsed in our beds that have once again been pushed together. Tris fell asleep immediately but I was wide awake as I tried to put all the pieces together. I must have closed my eyes at some point because before I knew it Tris was shaking me awake to get breakfast.