This story starts off a few months before the choosing ceremony.

Disclaimer: I am not Veronica Roth and I do not own Divergent.

ENJOY!

Jeannine greets Eric in the hallway on her way to a meeting. "This is my assistant Karen and she will show you to the lab where we've been working on the projects you've contracted with us. She is to help you with anything you need. Please stop by my office when you're done."

Karens walks with Eric in silence down to the labs. She's extremely uncomfortable with him but does her best to hide it. She's relieved when they finally enter the lab.

"This is the lab where we've been working on your projects. I'd like to introduce you to Sofie who has been heading this project." They both stare at a blonde haired girl sitting at a desk that's facing the wall. She is immersed in paperwork and seems to be oblivious to the fact that they're standing just a few feet behind her.

"Sofie?... Sof... I'm sorry... She must have her headphones in." Eric huffs in frustration as Karen walks over and sets her hand on Sofie's shoulder. Sofie doesn't appear to be startled as she reaches up to remove her right earpiece without looking up from her paperwork. "Yes?"

"Sofie would you have a moment to go over the Dauntless projects?"

"Can't we do that later? I'm sorta in the middle of something right now." Karen smiles nervously at Eric.

Sofie finally looks up from her work when Eric clears his throat. When she sees him standing there she jumps up. "Oh I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were coming today."

Eric sounding extra annoyed says "You forgot a Dauntless leader was coming for a visit?"

Sofie, trying to recover says "No... No...I just... didn't realize today...was today."

Eric huffs. "It's good to know the person heading our project is incompetent."

Sofie gives him a strained smile. "Well I promise you won't be disappointed with the project. There will be knives, blood, and guns." Sofie walks to another door and holds it open. "Shall we?"

After Eric walks through the doorway Sofie looks back at Karen. "If you want to wait here we won't be long."

Karen smiles at Sofie and mouths "Thank you." Sofie nods and closes the door before continuing.

"Eric, do you happen to have a knife?" Eric smirks and pulls a knife from his pocket. Sofie takes the blade from Eric and drags it across her hand causing a gash in her palm. Eric raises an eyebrow but doesn't say anything. Sofie hands the knife back and says "Thank you."

She walks to the sink and grabs some paper towels to soak up some of the blood running down her arm. Eric returns the knife to his pocket, crosses his arms and gives Sofie a curious look.

"Ok so this project was designed to help somone who is injured recover quickly. Once you have a wound you..." Sofie fumbles to reload a syringe. "Sorry. This will just take a second... "

"I'm happy to see you're well prepared." Eric says while Sofie loads the syringe

Sofie ignores his comment. "You inject this directly into the wound." She pushes the needle into the cut and holds her hand up for Eric to see.

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.. Done." She walks over to the sink and rinses the blood from her hand and dries it. She turns and holds her hand up again. "As you can see the bleeding has ceased. Next we have to seal it." She grabs another device and squeezes one end while a blue paste comes out of the other end and she pushes it against the cut. "Put on however much you need to fill in the wound and wipe off the excess. The blue color will disappear when it has dried." She holds her hand up and counts to ten again while the blue paste turns clear. "Once clear the paste is like a second skin and the cut is sealed." She rubs her thumb over the wound to show the seal. "Feel it." She holds out her hand for Eric.

Eric grabs her hand and has a smile on his face as he roughly pushes his thumb into the wound. Sofie isn't phased. "The paste has disinfectant and a numbing agent. It also has an ingredient in it that promotes healing. The seal will stay in place for 3 to 5 days and the wound will heal twice as fast with it." She pulls her hand back.

"How does it work with deeper wounds like a gunshot?"

"We're still in the testing phase with the large wounds."

Eric huffs. "If you're still testing then why show this to me in the first place?"

Sofie is slighty annoyed by that but stays calm. "The injection is proven on slashes and smaller injuries... But if you aren't satisfied with it then I understand and we can revisit this later when we have more testing done."

Eric says nothing.

"If you follow me I'll show you the next part." She walks to a door at the end of the room and holds it open for Eric and follows him out. She leads him down a long hallway and into another room. This room has computers setup on one end and mannequins setup at the far end. She opens a case and pulls out a small gun.

"The gun we've been working on I think you'll find very intriguing. It weighs just a few pounds, is pretty compact, and has little to no kick. The round that's in it has the same effect on your assailant as a real bullet but without the damage. The pain subsides after just a few minutes. Would you like to try one?"

Eric takes the gun from Sofie and loads the magazine. "You want to stand down at the end? I'll aim for your leg." Eric smiles his cold smile.

Sofie gives him a half smile back. "That won't be necessary. The targets at the end are hooked up to these computers and once a bullet penatrates the target a reading is sent back to the computer showing the pain level for the spot you hit."

Eric takes aim and pops off a few rounds. All hit dead center in the chest of the mannequin. "Now if you look over here you can see the damage that would've been done if the target were a real person." Sofie walks over to a touch screen and shows Eric the different readings.

Eric smiles as Sofie looks at the computer screens and he sets a hand on her back. This startles Sofie and she turns around quickly and takes a step back. She hopes she did that smooth enough as not to offend him. He smirks. "Is there a problem?"

"No problem. Did you have any questions before we continue?"

Eric still with a smirk on his face asks "If we truly want to take someone down why would we be worried about them being injured?"

"It's the more humane way to immobilize someone."

"Clearly you have a lot to learn about Dauntless."

Sofie tries her best to not show her annoyance as she takes the gun from him and places it back in its case. "Did you have any other questions before we move on to the final project?"

"Yeah, is the final project better than the last two?"

"I guess we'll see." She then leads him out of the room and shows him to another room that has a different looking simulation chair in the center.

"This chair is the new and more efficient way to see inside a subject's simulation. As you can see no wires or electrodes are required for this one. The chair automatically reads a subject's vitals and sends them to that computer and once the subject is fully under the effects of the serum the chair will transmit the visual to this monitor. I've recorded a previous simulation to show you."

Sofie goes to the computer and with a few clicks a video pops up on the screen. "I understand that Dauntless work with fear serums so that is what we used for this test." A second later the video starts.

Eric walks closer to the screen. Sofie turns away.

A few minutes later when the video ends Eric turns to Sofie. "We'll take them."

Sofie gives Eric a confused look. "Them."

"Yeah. All of them. How soon can you have them delivered?"

"Oh, well I'll need a couple of days to get everything organized and packed."

Eric nods. "I'll expect you to delivery everything on Friday then."

"That won't be a problem. Jamie, another tech that's familiar with all of the projects, will deliver and setup everything for you."

Eric raises an eyebrow. "You're too good to deliver it to Dauntless yourself?"

Sofie fumbles again. "No... No. Not at all. It's not necessary that I be there.

"I insist."

"I haven't been through the choosing ceremony yet so it's inapropriate that I visit other factions on behalf of Erudite."

Eric sighs and walks towards Sofie. "Well you can either deliver everything to Dauntless yourself or I can tell Jeannine that we are no longer interested."

Sofie is shocked but nods. "I will be there."