An Alternate Ending (to Allegiant)

by extremepurple

Starting with an excerpt from chapter 47 of Allegiant, the story takes a different turn, changing the ending to create new possibilities and twists. The ending will be written in the perspectives of Caleb and Tris. Spoiler alert! You shouldn't be reading this if you have not already finished reading Allegiant. Disclaimer: I do not own these characters; they belong to Veronica Roth.

1. Chapter 1: Caleb

" "Caleb," I say. "Give me the backpack."

"What?" he says.

I slip my hand under the back of my shirt and grab my gun. I point it at him. "Give me the backpack."

"Tris, no." He shakes his head. "No, I won't let you do that."

"Put down your weapon!" the guard screams at the end of the hallway. "Put down your weapon or we will fire!"

"I might survive the death serum," I say. "I'm good at fighting off serums. There's a chance I'll survive. There's no chance you would survive. Give me the backpack or I'll shoot you in the leg and take it from you."

Then I raise my voice so the guards can hear me. "He's my hostage! Come any closer and I'll kill him!"

In that moment he reminds me of our father. His eyes are tired and sad. There's a shadow of a beard on his chin. His hands shake as he pulls the backpack to the front of his body and offers it to me.

I take it and swing it over my shoulder. I keep my gun pointed at him and shift so he's blocking my view of the soldiers at the end of the hallway.

"Caleb," I say, "I love you."

His eyes gleam with tears as he says, "I love you, too, Beatrice."

"Get down on the floor!" I yell, for the benefit of the guards.

Caleb sinks to his knees.

"If I don't survive," I say, "tell Tobias I didn't want to leave him." "

-Allegiant, chapter 47

Caleb

Hearing those words is what made me change my mind. Time and time again, whenever I had the choice or the ability to save someone close to me, I didn't take it. I let them go. Tris, our mother, our father, some of the other transfers that I had befriended, Susan, other people from Abnegation. Everyone. I am alone, but Tris is not. And that is why, in that single second of tension, I changed my mind. From behind me, I could hear my sister shoot at one of the guards, and from in front of me, I saw both guards go down: one from his wound, and the other to catch and aid his comrade.

Swiftly, I stand up, turn around, and sprint after Tris. I can't let her sacrifice herself for me. The hallways are a blur as I speed fast. I wasn't aware I could run this fast, but it may just be the desperation and the adrenaline and the sheer fact that I can't let my sister die for me. Guilt washes over me as I catch up to Tris. I leap and tackle her to the floor just before she can turn into another hallway. I pin her to the ground as I release her grip from her gun. I lean in close to her and urgently whisper, "Tris. No. I can't let you do this." I know she will retaliate, and I am prepared for when she struggles free from my grip and attempts to disbalance me. Instead of falling like she had intended, I land on both balls of my feet, ready to once again jump at her and push her against a wall. I know simply fighting her would fail, as she has been trained in fighting one on one, whereas I could only study from books back at the Erudite Headquarters. Almost frantically, I mentally go through everything I read discussing single combat, trying to think of a way to stall my sister long enough to save her from going on a suicide mission. It was then that I remember a quote from an ancient book. "The whole secret lies in confusing the enemy." But how? And then it hit me.

I continued to keep my firm grip on Tris's shoulders as I pushed her against the wall. In order to confuse her, I need to do something she wouldn't expect me to do. In this current situation, there were two. I used both methods against her.

Though our positions were not ideal, they were close enough. Our eyes were level, and I could see a hurricane of emotions go through them: anger, hate, love, sacrifice, sadness, love, pain. She was sacrificing herself to save me, but I will not let her. It will be me who dies, and that is because Tris, my little sister, still has so much to live for.

I angle my head slightly before pressing my lips against hers. I felt her body tense up against the wall, but before she could shove me off and fight back, I drew a gun that I had stuck in the waistband of my pants and shot Tris in the leg. I felt her body go stiff before she slid down the wall to the floor in pain. I could tell that she was furious, but I couldn't let my sister die for me. "Sorry," I whisper pathetically as I turn around and sprint down the next hallway, determined to get there and activate the memory serum.