Finding The Courage

Part 53

 My eyes traveled to the faces of my friends. Peter to his credit had puckered his lips in disdain despite all of his some people are better than others bullshit during initiation. Cara's mouth was open, Chrsitina looked skeptical, while Four had taken to staring at his shoes. Tris was scanning the group the same way I had and when she met my eyes I shot her a disgusted look and tried to convey my discomfort.

"When the genetic manipulations finally took effect, the alterations had horrible consequences. It turns out that the attempt had not resulted in corrected genes like we had theorized but instead in damaged ones. If you take away someone's fear, low intelligence, or dishonesty you take away their compassion. Take away aggression and you take away motivation or their ability to assert themselves. Take away selfishness and you take away any sense of self-preservation. If you think about it I'm sure you know exactly what I mean." David continued. I clenched my fist as I saw the correlations to the faction system. Dauntless brave but cruel, Erudite intelligent but vain, Amity peaceful but passive, Candor honest but inconsiderate, and home Abnegation selfless but stifling. My nails bit into the skin of my palm.

"Humanity had always been far from perfect but the altercation drew us further from perfection than we ever had been before. This manifested into what we now call the Purity War. This was a civil war waged by those with damaged genes against the government and everyone with pure genes. The Purity War caused such a level of destruction that it was unheard of before in history on American soil. It eliminated half the country's population." David was interrupted by one of the people who had been working at the desks.

"The visual is up." A map appeared on the screen above David. It was not a shape any of us had ever seen before but I would only assume this was the United States. David confirmed my assumption.

"This was our country before the Purity War." The map was covered in patches of pink, red, and crimson lights. "And this is after." The lights on the map started to flicker out. The lights had been people, the colors were based on how dense the population had been. "When the war was over people demanded a permanent solution to the genetics problem. That's why the Bureau was formed. We are armed with knowledge of all the experiments our predecessors designed in order to restore humanity to its most pure state. They asked that genetically damaged people come forward so that their genes could be altered. They were then placed in a secure environment to settle in for the long run. We gave them basic versions of the serums used in order to keep society in check. Their job was to wait for the generations to pass as each new generation produced a more healed generation. You call them Divergents."

Tris let a gasp slip. I shifted on my feet. We were healed, we had pure genes. I watched as Tris began to panic at this new revelation. "Your city is one of several put in place for the genetic healing to take place. Yours is also by far the most successful due to the factions." He smiled at us and I growled low in my throat as if we should be proud our whole lives had been some sort of sick experiment. They had fed us lies our whole lives.

"The factions were our predecessors' attempts to incorporate nurture into the experiment. They uncovered a problem with just genetic correction, it did not change the way people behaved. So a new social order was implemented which was determined to be the most complete solution to behavioral problems due to the genetic damage." David's face had begun to fall as he realized none of us were smiling back at him. "The factions were later introduced to most of the other experiments. Three are currently still active. We have gone to great lengths in order to protect, observe, and learn from you."

Cara ran her hand through her hair before opening her mouth to speak. "So Edith Prior said we were supposed to determine the cause of divergence and come out to help you. That was-"

"Divergent is the name we decided to give to those of you who had reached a desired level of genetic healing." David interrupted. "We wanted to make sure the leaders of your society valued them. We didn't expect the leader of Erudite to start a witch hunt to track them all down or for Abnegation to even inform her what they were. Contrary to what Edith Prior said, we never intended for you to send a divergent army to us. We don't truly need your help. We just need your healed genes to remain intact and be passed onto future generations."

"So if we aren't divergent than we are damaged?" Caleb exclaimed in a shaking voice. I turned to catch his face and saw that he looked ready to cry.

"Genetically damaged, yes. However we were surprised to discover that the behavioral modification was quite effective up until recently. It actually helped quite a bit with the behavior that had made the manipulations such a problem to start with. So in general you would not know who had damaged genes based on behavior alone."

"I'm smart. What you're saying is that because my ancestors were altered to be that way that I can not ever be fully compassionate? I and everyone else whose genetically damaged are limited due to those genes. The divergent are not." Caleb questioned.

"Well." David shrugged, "Think about it." Caleb and Tris stared at the first time in a long time. It was no excuse for his behavior.

"Genes aren't everything." Amar interrupted the stare off. "People make choices, even the damaged ones. That's what matters in the end." My mind wandered to all the people who had transferred factions. They were predisposed to be a certain way and many of them successfully fought that nature. I followed Tris's gaze to Four who looked like he was about to be sick and then checked Peter who also looked stunned and a little unstable on his feet. Everyone was lost in thought.

"It's a lot to take in." David offered.

"That's an understatement." I allowed my mouth to say the thoughts running through my mind. Christina snorted in agreement.

"You've been up all night." David ignored my interruption. "So I'll show you to a place where you can eat and rest." I could feel blood starting to well up around the fingernail indents in my palm as I tried to keep myself from lashing out.

"Wait," Tris said as David began to move. "You said you had been observing us. How?" The screens lit up around us.

"You know Dauntless observed the city. Well we have access to those same cameras." They had watched all those people be murdered and they did nothing.