A/N: This is it! Did Tris and Tobias find the files that Andrew left behind? And whatever happened to Natalie's key?

October 17, 2282

Tris

"Hey, what's this?" Tris suddenly felt a piece of wall give under the weight of her fingers. She pressed harder and the plaster cracked, revealing a hidden panel underneath.

"Are you kidding me? A secret hatch?" Tobias squinted critically at the wall.

"Apparently," Tris grunted, throwing her weight against the door of the panel. With a low groan, the slab of metal swung inward, revealing a small locker set into the wall. Inside sat a gleaming silver laptop. "Eureka!"

"Great! There's got to be something useful on there!" cried Tobias excitedly. "Mind if I…?"

Tris blinked. "Sure, you're much better with computers than I am." She lifted the laptop out of the cubbyhole and handed it to Tobias, who immediately set it down on the desk and turned it on. As Tris turned to join him, however, a glimmer of silver caught her eye.

She doubled back and peered into the hole in the wall. A small key was wedged in a far corner, attached to a thin gold chain. Holding it up to the light, she saw that the words "Ritter" and "Prior" were carved into each side. "Tobias! Look at this! What d'you think it is?" She dangled the key in front of him, only to realize that all the color had drained from his face. "Tobias? Tobias!"

With great effort, Tobias tore his eyes away from the laptop screen and looked up at her. "Tris, did you have an uncle called Perrier?"

What? Tris was startled by his strange question. "Yeah…I think I only met him once, because he transferred to Amity. He died a few years ago. Why?"

"I think you should take a look at this."

Tris took the laptop and saw that Tobias had pulled up a dense word document. She glanced at his face, wondering what had shocked him so much, but he just nodded towards the screen. Tris took a deep breath and began to read.

Dear Perrier,

By the time you read this, you will be fifteen years old. Undoubtedly, Mom and Dad will have told you all sorts of slanderous things about me: how I ruined our ancestors' grand plans for saving the city, how I betrayed you all by leaving Erudite, and so on. They are wrong. Operation Convergence is an evil plan, and I have been opposing it with every fiber of my being. What little you have been told about it has been carefully crafted to sound wonderful. Do not be fooled. There is another side to this story, an ugly reality that compelled me to make the choices I did. When you finish reading this letter, I hope you, too, will come to see why you must abandon our parents and their ambitious plans.

You see, long ago, we all came from outside the city…

The long document had the two teenagers absorbed for more than half an hour. Within these lines, Tris saw a whole other side to her father. He was no longer the oddball that struggled to fit into Abnegation. These are the words of a young Erudite who was forced to leave his home faction because he'd discovered a terrible secret.

"This...this changes everything," murmured Tobias after they finished reading. "Not only is there a world outside the fence, the Divergent are meant to save it."

"Did my father keep it all to himself, or did he tell the other Abnegation about this?" Tris wondered aloud, still reeling from the sheer volume of information that had just been thrust at her. The letter had explained everything from Operation Convergence to Amanda Ritter's message, and she felt completely overwhelmed.

"I think my father knew some of this from his own hacking," Tobias replied, "but I doubt they told anybody else."

"I can't believe my own grandparents were Divergent-killers," Tris groaned, rubbing her face in her hands.

"Don't put it like—" Tobias froze midsentence as a distant scream rent the air, followed by a hail of gunshots. "We need to leave. Now!"

Tris clapped her hands over her mouth. "Tori! The Dauntless! We left them at the mercy of the factionless!"

"Tris! Listen to me!" Tobias turned her around and looked seriously at her. "Tori and the army volunteered to create a diversion so we could come here and get the data. Our first priority now is to get this laptop someplace safe before we rush into battle, understand?"

She tried to protest, but Tobias had a point. My father risked his life to protect this data. I can't let it fall into the hands of the factionless now. Reluctantly, she nodded. "Okay, let's get out of here."

Together, they went out of the house and sidled quietly through what was left of the Abnegation sector, wincing as the din of the distant skirmish floated down on the wind. "Are we going to the Cavern?" Tris asked, referring to one of the Dauntless's secret hideouts.

Tobias nodded stiffly, watching an army of factionless run past the adjacent street. "It has the best security out of all our bases."

Block after block they crept, keeping to the shadows as much as possible. Tobias walked in front, shooting down any factionless they ran into, while Tris followed, clutching the silver laptop to her chest. She had just begun to hope that they might make it when Tobias abruptly stopped in his tracks.

"Back," he hissed, retreating down the wide street.

Craning her neck, Tris could see that scores of factionless were patrolling the entrance to the Cavern. As she watched, another group marched in from the opposite intersection.

"We're trapped," she whispered.

Tobias cursed under his breath and looked up and down the street. Without warning, he dashed towards a silver Erudite car abandoned by the curb. He popped open the hood with his knife and began rewiring the engine.

Tris tossed the laptop into the back seat and scrambled into the car, remembering how Marcus had hotwired an Amity truck. For once in his life, Marcus actually taught someone something useful.

Ping! A knife materialized out of nowhere and bounced off the windshield. She looked behind her. One of the factionless groups had spotted them. "Come on, hurry!" she urged Tobias as a volley of bullets flew about her.

"These cars aren't like Abnegation or Amity cars at all!" Tobias replied, gritting his teeth as he yanked out a circuit. "They don't even have a proper motor…"

Suddenly, the engine roared to life, making the whole automobile vibrate. "Got it!" cried Tobias triumphantly, slamming the hood down and dropping into the driver's seat. "Now, I wonder how you make this thing go forward…" He randomly pressed a button on the dashboard. The tires squealed and the car shot backwards, bowling over several of their factionless pursuers.

"DO YOU KNOW HOW TO DRIVE?!" Tris screamed, holding onto her seat for dear life as the car zigzagged backwards at two hundred miles per hour.

"OF COURSE NOT!" Tobias shouted over the rattle of the engine. "But we don't have a choice!"

"Well, press more buttons and see if anything can slow it down!" Tris yelled as they reversed through the city, the car missing street lights and buildings by inches.

Tobias slammed his fingers over the strange assortment of buttons, dials, and knobs on the dashboard, but other than turning on the headlights and air conditioning, they did nothing. "It's hotwired, so the controls aren't working properly!"

"FENCE!" Tris cried, pointing to the barbed wire fence coming rapidly up behind them. Instinctively, both of them dropped down beneath the seats and braced for impact. The car blasted right through and sailed on through the dirt fields beyond. "I think we can stop now!" called Tris as the Amity orchards shot past them.

"I can't!" Tobias jabbed furiously at the controls. "It just won't slow down!"

Before long, the Amity orchards had disappeared behind them (or, rather, in front of them) and the land opened up to a vast, scrubby plain dotted with clumps of trees. Yet Tobias still couldn't find a way to stop the car.

At last, Tris yelled, "We'll have to jump!"

Without waiting for a reply, Tris stuck her head out the window and squinted at the blurred landscape. They were going far faster than any train she had ever boarded, and in reverse, no less. This'll be fun. The Dauntless girl stuffed the laptop down her shirt, which she'd tucked into her pants, and edged out the window. In a blur of colors and howling wind, she launched herself forward and hit the ground with a painful crunch. Moments later, Tobias sprang from the car and came to a similarly ungraceful stop.

"Are you okay?" asked Tobias, examining several cuts on his arms.

Tris nodded. "Just a few scratches." She slid the laptop carefully out of her shirt and checked for any signs of damage. Miraculously, although her tank top had torn in several places, the computer had survived without a single dent.

In the distance, the silver car careened over the horizon and disappeared. "That's one crazy car," Tobias remarked, shielding his face from the glow of the setting sun. "When do you think it'll stop?"

Tris shrugged. "Perhaps never. It's solar-powered, after all."

Tobias seemed pensive. "Perhaps we shouldn't have jumped off. It might've taken us someplace else, away from all the mess in the city."

Tris shuddered. "I think that's an adventure for another day. We should really go back."

"True. Can anybody come fetch us? We've gone pretty far out." Tobias pulled out his cell phone, took one look at the screen, and stuck it back in his pocket again. "Never mind. No reception."

Together, the duo began to trudge back towards the city, following the ruts left in the dirt by the car's tires. They were silent for a long time, each one musing about all he or she had learned that afternoon.

I see why Mom and Dad kept all these things secret, thought Tris. It would've ruined everything if that traitorous brother of mine had gotten ahold of that information.

As though he'd just read her thoughts, Tobias said suddenly, "You know, I think those files left by your father can explain why Caleb turned out the way he did."

Tris looked up. "What do you mean?"

"Well, think of it this way." Tobias stopped to emphasize his point. "Your mother is descended from Edith Prior. Her whole family's mission has been to create the Divergent and work for the benefit of mankind. Your father, on the other hand, was an exception to a far darker lineage; his parents, along with the Matthews, were seeking to wipe out the Divergent and plunge the world into anarchy. When Natalie and Andrew bore you and your brother, they did not pass on their genes evenly."

"That's no excuse for acting the way he did," spat Tris. "My uncle left Erudite too!"

Tobias regarded her somberly. "I didn't mean—"

"It doesn't matter," Tris interrupted quickly. "The factionless killed Caleb anyway." When a hard pang of grief hit her chest, she scolded herself mentally, That's right. It doesn't matter. Caleb was a dirty traitor and you're no longer related to him. Staring at the darkening horizon, she asked aloud, "Speaking of factionless, what is your mother, then? Divergent? Convergent?"

Tobias sighed heavily. "Neither. Evelyn knows nothing and belongs nowhere. She is the rogue factor nobody thought to account for."

And now, the rogue factor is taking over everything, thought Tris dejectedly. "What does this mean for the city, though?" she whispered. "If we follow neither the plan of the UN nor the ICL?"

"I don't know," Tobias admitted. "And we can't wait to find out the hard way."

As they began walking again, they soon came upon what appeared to be a metal box on a four foot pole by the side of the dirt track. It was covered in weeds and looked as though it hadn't been touched in years.

"Hey, what do you think this is?" Tobias asked, circling around the metal box. "I've never seen anything like it."

"Me neither," Tris agreed. She turned her head and looked down the dirt path. "Would the Amity know? They'd surely see it if they drove a few miles out from their farm."

He shook his head. "No sane Amity would wander out here. They aren't curious by nature, after all."

"Hmm…then who built it?" she wondered.

"It's probably from before the war."

"Should we open it?" Tris wondered, scraping the leaves off the box. Perhaps there are some helpful inscriptions on it. "Darn, it's locked."

Tobias took out his handgun and shot the lock. To his immense surprise, the bullet bounced off the box and didn't even leave a mark. "What the heck? What is this made of?!"

But his companion wasn't listening. By the last rays of the setting sun, Tris had spotted the design pressed into the metal below the lock. It looked like a circular wire mesh with splotches… Instinctively, Tris reached into her pocket and pulled out the key she had found iin her father's room. The design etched onto its silver surface matched the box's perfectly.

Tobias broke off from his ruminations as Tris pushed the key into the lock and turned it. With a faint click! the front swung smoothly open. "Where did you get that?"

"I found it behind the computer," she muttered absently as she peered inside. "Hey, it's a telephone!"

Tobias craned his neck to look inside the box. "What's a phone booth doing all the way out here? And why would your parents have a key to it?"

And why didn't my father mention it in the document? Tris wondered. For the moment, though, she decided to clamp down on her curiosity. They needed to get back to the city, and the fastest way to do that was to contact one of their allies and have them come pick them up. In order to do that, they needed a working phone. And now they had one. Tris picked up the heavy handset, barely registering that it was painted bright red, and searched for the dial pad.

Though she was unable to find it, a crackle sounded from the other end of the line. Tris jumped as a male voice, deep and formal, said, "This is the United Nations Headquarters, Faction Experiment Retrieval Division. Chicago, I take it you have reached a critical density of Divergent. Will you be ready in forty hours to join us against the International Convergence Legion?"

Tris was only momentarily shocked. She had seen enough weird things in the past year to believe anything. "No," she answered. "You've got to help us."

The man on the other end of the line sighed. "First St. Petersburg, then Rio, now Chicago? The ICL is really getting out of hand!"

Natalie's daughter looked towards the distant orange glow that marked Evelyn's celebratory bonfires. "It's not the ICL. We're about to be overrun by the factionless."

THE END

The tale of Generation 1 ends here. Three out of the original seven are dead, and the remaining four will soon have to yield control to the next generation of Divergent. Although the ending might seem a bit abrupt, Tris and Tobias are Generation 2, which is out of the scope of this story. If I were to continue, then this would turn into a sequel, and that is Allegiant's job.

However, I understand if you are one of those people who just has to know what happened afterwards. Here is what I think would take place if the story were to continue: Tris and Tobias find out that the faction experiments around the world have evolved differently. Some were successful and produced thousands of Divergent, who joined the UN. Others were taken over by people like Jeanine, so they all turned into Convergent and sided with the ICL. Tris manages to persuade some of the people in her city to go to the UN side, while most of the surviving Erudite join the ICL. Meanwhile, Evelyn and her minions team up with other rogue forces around the world. There is a final massive battle between the Divergent, Convergent, and Factionless. After several decades, the Divergent finally win. Tris and Tobias, who are in late middle age, help set up a better society for the future.

I'd like to take a moment to thank all of my readers for supporting me on this amazing journey of writing. Your reviews really inspired me to keep going, even when I thought I just couldn't get some parts of the plot to fit together. I'd never written anything even close to this length before, and I would've given up long ago without your encouragement. Once again, thank you so much for taking the time to read my story, and I hope to write more fanfics soon. To find out what happened to Perrier, please read Generation 1—The Forgotten Variable. If you enjoy parodies, be sure to check out my Amity vs the Faction Representatives.

Survey

This information might help me figure out what kind of story to write next. Feel free to skip questions or make up other answer choices. :)

1. What did you think of this story overall?

a) The Erudite should be using this as a torture device.

b) It was kind of bad…

c) Neutral.

d) Pretty good.

e) Best thing I've ever read!

2. Who did you like the most?

a) Andrew

b) Evelyn

c) Jeanine

d) Johanna

e) Marcus

f) Natalie

g) Tori

h) Other (please specify)

3. Who did you hate the most?

a) Andrew

b) Evelyn

c) Jeanine

d) Johanna

e) Marcus

f) Natalie

g) Tori

h) Other (please specify)

4. Which of the following would you most want to read next?

a) A more detailed story about one of the Generation 1's (please specify)

b) An "alternate history" spinoff to this story

c) A prequel (probably concerning Edith Prior)

d) A sequel (Divergent vs. Convergent)

e) An unrelated parody (like my Amity vs the Faction Representatives)

f) Other (please describe)

5. Which chapter did you like best? Why?

(1-12)

FAQ

What inspired you to write this story?

Like I mentioned at the beginning of the first chapter, after reading Divergent and Insurgent I got the feeling that there was some history between the adults that Tris didn't know about. Originally I only planned to write about Evelyn, Andrew, Tori, and Jeanine because they were in the same class. As the plot progressed, I added in Natalie and Marcus because they would eventually become the spouses of some of the characters. Finally, I added in Johanna because I wanted to explain how she got that scar. While I'm sure Allegiant will shed some more light on the older generation, I created my own version of events while I waited.

Why did you use the year 2251?

The number "2251" itself doesn't have any particular significance to me. Rather, I guessed that Divergent is set between 100 and 500 years in the future based on the clues in the text. It would take more than a century for the buildings of Chicago to crumble to the dilapidated state they are in the novel, not to mention the time it would take for Lake Michigan to turn into a swamp. Thus, Divergent can't take place in our century. On the other hand, it probably isn't set more than 500 years in the future, either. While the Erudite have stuff like simulation serums that we don't have, they aren't teleporting or time traveling, etc. Even if the war set civilization back a bit, I don't think it would take more than a couple centuries to get to the level of technology as seen in Divergent.

Were Johanna/Marcus, Natalie/(Ethan or Wilson), or Jeanine/Andrew ever together?

No. The only real pairings in this story are Natalie/Andrew and Evelyn/Zachary (well, Phoebe/George sort of counts too, I guess). Johanna and Marcus are clearly good friends, but they both seem too reserved and caught up in politics to really click. Natalie was probably too carefree to think about any serious relationship before she became Abnegation; Ethan and Wilson were simply part of her band of Dauntless friends. As for Jeanine and Andrew…ugh. No, just no. Honestly, I have a hard time even imagining them having a normal conversation without trying to murder each other. (If you ship any of the above couples, please don't take this the wrong way. I'm just trying to explain which pairings in my story are real, which are fake, and why.)

What was your favorite character to write about?

I enjoyed writing about Andrew and Johanna the most. They have their own sense of right and wrong that conflicts with the values of both their home factions and their chosen factions. This made it easier for me to relate to them and add depth to their characters.

What was your least favorite character to write about?

Definitely Marcus. Out of all the characters in Divergent, he is the most unfathomable. What exactly goes on in his head? He seems like such a perfect Abnegation, but yet he's a menace to his wife and son. He claims to be on the good side, but he's also dark and secretive. Marcus pops up at the strangest times and always escapes from battles unscathed. What made him this way? I reckon he must've had a severely twisted family to begin with.

What happened to Yvonne?

She stayed in Candor. I think it would be too sad if the Reyes lost all three of their children.

Wasn't Natalie supposed to use the key?

Technically, yes. If everything had gone according to plan, the gates should've been opened when Natalie was about forty and she would've been the one to call the UN. However, the Matthews and the Carrs messed everything up, so Natalie died before she got to use the key.

Please review! Even if you are reading this many years from now, I will still look at your comments!