Background: Tris runs into David while carrying out the plan to release the virus serum. She has survived through the death serum, and David has just admitted loving Tris's mother in the past. I apologize for any confusion!

TRIS

David loved my mother. He loved her. That must be why I was so easily invited into his circle of trust, why he had offered me so many opportunities. I am a piece of her, wearing her hair and speaking her voice. When he sees me, he sees her. Would he kill the daughter of a woman he loved? I don't doubt it for a second.

The sound of footsteps comes from in the hallway outside. Soldiers are coming. My first instinct is to panic, but I force myself to relax. They need to be exposed to the airborne serum and pass it on to the rest of the compound. I hope the death serum will have cleared by the time they arrive.

I stall. "My mother wasn't a fool," I say. "She understood something you didn't: it's not a sacrifice if it's someone else's life you're giving away – it's just evil."

I back up a step and keep talking, "My mother taught me all about true sacrifice: it should be done out of love and necessity, not without exhausting all other options, and it should be done for people who need your strength because they don't have enough of their own."

I shake my head and continue, "I didn't come here to steal anything, David. I came to stop you from 'sacrificing' all those people and their memories. I came to rid the world you and your disgusting practice of judging people based on their genes."

I twist and lunge toward the device. I hear the gun go off and pain seizes me. I don't even know where the bullet hit me.

In my head I hear Caleb repeating the code for Matthew. My quaking hand types in the numbers on the keypad. I am moving too slow. Surviving the death serum had stretched my limits, and this bullet was threatening to push me over. My vision blurs and darkness encroaches from the sides. I hope I do not press a wrong number.

The gun goes off again.

I expect more pain, but it does not come. Perhaps I have already gotten too numb to feel more pain. As my hand punches in the last few numbers, I hear Caleb's voice speaking again. The green button. The green button.

It suddenly dawns on me that Caleb's voice is not coming from my head.

My body loses its strength to support me and I fall. I slam my hand into the keypad on my way down. The green button lights up. There is a beep, and then a churning sound. Out of the corner of my eye, I see David slump over in his chair.

I slide to the floor. Something warm soaks my shirt. The floor around me is dark red. Blood is a strange color.

I feel the invisible thread tugging me again towards sleep. I almost comply; I am so, so tired. My body begs to give in, but my heart tugs the other way, telling me to stay awake. Reminding me of the importance to want to stay awake. The last time I was told to value my life was the night before I turned myself into the Erudite, when Tobias had made me promise to stay with him.

Tobias.

Images flicker through my mind as I try to recall everything I can about him. His dark blue eyes, with the speckle of light blue in his left eye. His strong hands, his tattooed back. The day he came for me in the Erudite compound and said "You die, I die too."

I remember the last night we slept together. His firm and warm embrace. Our parting in the atrium. His last words after saying he loved me were "I'll see you soon." I hear Tobias telling me to be brave.

The invisible thread tugs again, and I tug back.

TOBIAS

As we ride toward the compound and reach the outer limits of the city, it begins to snow again. I stare up at the sky, wondering if Tris is watching these falling crystals gather in piles by the airplanes, waiting for me to come back. The time for the reset has passed, and the serum has not been dropped upon the city, which must mean the plan back at the compound had been successful. Perhaps Tris is already living in a better world – a world in which people no longer differentiate between pure genes and damaged ones. A flicker of hope for a peaceful future with Tris sneaks its way my heart.

To my left, I hear Christina whisper into my ear. "So you did it? It worked?"

I nod, partially still distracted by thoughts of Tris. In my peripheral vision I see a grin manifesting on Christina's face. I know how she feels: we are safe. I dare let myself dream.

"Did you inoculate your family?" I ask Christina.

"Yep. Found them in the Hancock building, with the rest of the Allegiant." she says.

Hana and Zeke murmur to each other, marveling at the strange world we travel through. Amar provides them with a couple explanations as we go, looking back at them while he talks. I resist the urge to yell as he almost veers into an upcoming streetlight.

The vehicle carries us past the fences and stops by the front doors, which are empty of guards. We get out. Zeke seizes his mother's hand to steady her as she shuffles through the snow. I am certain that Caleb succeeded now, because there is no one in sight. The people must have been reset, their memories altered. Forever.

"Where is everyone?" Amar says. I quickly remember that he does not know what we had planned.

We walk through the abandoned security checkpoint without stopping. I feel myself speeding up now. At the far end I see Cara. Her face is badly bruised on the left side, and her head is bandaged, but that is not what concerns me. What concerns me is the troubled expression on her face.

"What is it?" I say.

Cara shakes her head. She is avoiding eye contact.

"Where's Tris?" I demand.

"She's…" Cara trails off.

"She's where?" Christina says roughly. "Tell us right now!"

"Tris went into the Weapons Lab instead of Caleb," Cara exhales. "She survived the death serum, and set off the memory serum, but she was shot. The doctors have her," she looks up at me now, "but they won't let anyone in."

I do not know what to think. Relief that she is still alive? Anger that she went in instead of her brother? Then I realize: Of course Tris went into the Weapons Lab instead of Caleb. Of course she did.

I should have known.

Christina and I race to the hospital sector of the compound. Everything is a blur to me. Tris's voice from this morning rings through my head, "If you don't acknowledge it, maybe it will go away." I cling to the memory.

The doctors do not guarantee anything. They do not tell us anything. It is like Uriah all over again. It is Uriah all over again. I should have known. I should have been there with her. But I know I couldn't have done that and my job, too.

I watch her lie on the hospital bed. I don't know how long it's been since we carried out the plan, and I don't know if I want to know. Sometimes I imagine that Tris is just sleeping, and if I touch her, she will wake up and smile and say she is just tired. Everything inside me screams for her to open her eyes, for look at me, for her to live. It had never occurred to me that a fire that burns as bright as her could burn out.

Her brother is in the bed next to her. They had found his injured body lying a couple feet away from Tris's. He was shot in the chest. The doctors are sure he will die, but I have begged with them to try to keep him alive until his sister regains consciousness. I don't really care what happens to him, but I know Tris would want to see him again after she wakes up – when she wakes up. She will wake up.