A/N: I'm sorry this chapter is a day late. I had to write it along with the next three in order to iron out the flow of events properly. On the bright side, that means it won't be nearly as long before I post the next one.

As always, thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! I know I say this a lot, but I really, really appreciate your feedback and support. You always keep me going when it's hard to find time to write.

Thank you also to Rosalie and BK2U, who both reviewed this chapter at different points in time while I was trying to get it to work with the following ones. You're both fantastic!

Chapter 13: Anna – Incident

Tris is clearly delighted to see me. It's obvious from the worn expression on her face and the way she hugs me for an extra-long time that she's had a rough week and missed having her grandmother around. Perhaps it will help to deliver some good news.

"Chicago is officially part of the UCA," I tell her triumphantly.

"Finally," she breathes out in relief. "I was about to send Christina to knock some sense into Evelyn."

Judging by how she bites her lip, she immediately thinks better of the words. And it's no wonder, given how often Marcus apparently attempted to do exactly that.

"I didn't mean it that way," she says quickly.

"I know." I place a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Trust me, I understand. The negotiations were long and frustrating, and Evelyn was certainly not a joy to work with. But in the end, she led the city leaders in the vote, and it was unanimous."

"With no other modifications to the deal?" Tris asks skeptically.

"None, thank God. I couldn't have handled a sixth trip."

She chuckles, looking at me warmly. "Thank you again for doing that," she says after a moment. "It was important to me."

I nod in acknowledgement before admitting, "Actually, I'm glad you were so insistent on it. I would have given up earlier if you hadn't been, but it's much better that they'll be part of our country."

The words are true, but they seem to make her more thoughtful than happy. "I hope so," she murmurs, looking away as if she's debating adding something else.

For once, I have no idea what's going through her head. I consider asking, but instead I decide to give her some time. After a little while, she continues on her own.

"I've been thinking about moving back there," she comments, her voice careful. "After the new government is in place, and they don't need me anymore. It…would be nice, I think."

"I always assumed that you would," I respond, wondering what she isn't saying. She's hiding something behind that tone.

"I probably will, too," I add, "though I'm not sure exactly where within the city. The bomb shelter is closed now, and the Dauntless compound would be rather hard to navigate at my age." My lips curve upwards at the admission. "Maybe I'll return to my roots and live in Abnegation."

An answering smile forms on her face – the type we both grew up seeing. Small, with no teeth showing. It makes me rethink my answer. I'm not sure I want to spend the rest of my life looking at nothing but a polite veneer.

"Personally," Tris says, her voice sounding nervous, "I was thinking of living in Christina's faction."

My eyebrow lifts on its own as I suddenly understand her hesitation. The last I knew, Christina lived in Tobias' Kaizen faction. So, she's basically admitting that she wants to be near him again.

Tris clears her throat before adding, "She's still my closest friend." The words are defensive.

For a moment, I just watch her, wondering how much I should push the conversation. It's been difficult for her to learn to open up, as it is for everyone who's raised in Abnegation, and it has often proven to be a good thing to nudge her into talking more.

But at the same time, she rarely wants to discuss her former boyfriend. It's obvious that she still thinks about him a lot, but the subject seems to be painful, and I don't want to make that worse.

"I think," I begin carefully, "that where you live is up to you. And if you choose the Kaizen faction, I'm sure that all of its members would be delighted to have you there."

She looks away, biting her lip as if she doesn't quite believe me. Maybe this would be a good time to tell her about my conversation with Tobias, and about how he retrieved my ring. He clearly did it for her, after all.

But before I can decide, Caleb comes in the door, looking as exhausted as his sister.

"Nana!" he exclaims, plainly thrilled to see me, and the corners of my mouth tug upwards at the term. It's close to my name, and is a commonly used word for grandmother, so as we started to become close, he suggested using it for me. Tris was a little slower to adopt it, but I have to admit it's nice to have both of them calling me that now. It makes us more of a family.

Caleb steps over to me, hugging me as tightly as Tris did. It makes me wonder just what happened this week to have them both so tired and upset.

"Did you run into any trouble on your trip?" he asks in concern.

"No," I respond simply, "but it sounds like something is going on?" I move my gaze between the two of them. "Please enlighten me."

They exchange a glance before Caleb sighs. "There was an incident in Morgantown. One of the old NUSA families managed to get serum into the drinking water for the entire town and started broadcasting messages to them." His expression is sour.

"Fortunately," he continues, "the person they used to send the transmission wasn't…." He glances at Tris, who looks away uncomfortably, and he clears his throat. "Well, she wasn't nearly as good at it as Tobias, so it didn't work the way they wanted. But it resulted in a small riot, and twenty-three people were killed."

Tris looks up again, frowning as she says, "Peter and Lauren took a task force in there and captured what was left of the family, so they won't be a problem again. But we don't know how many others are still out there, and this just shows that they're getting bolder."

"Or more desperate," I comment. "As we get closer and closer to elections, they must know that their chances of restoring NUSA are vanishing."

"That's what I said," Caleb agrees, glancing at his sister again. "I think it's normal to see more activity now. It doesn't mean anything new is going wrong."

I turn my attention to Tris, too, studying her expression. She's obviously more worried than her brother, and it's easy to tell why.

"You still don't trust Peter, do you?"

"Can you blame me?" She rubs her hands up her cheeks in a frustrated motion. "For all we know, he's been lying in his status reports to make himself look better. It's the kind of thing he would do."

Caleb sighs. "That's not fair," he says softly. "I know Peter has done some awful things in the past, but there were valid reasons for giving him this position, and I still think it was the right thing to do." He rubs the back of his neck in a gesture that always reminds me of Tobias. "He's done a very good job."

"So you keep telling me," Tris states shortly, and I can't help wincing at the doubt in her tone. She forgave Caleb for his betrayal a long time ago, but there's a difference between forgiveness and trust. She still struggles with the latter.

But in this particular case, I agree with Caleb.

"Tris," I begin reassuringly, "I have personally talked with many of the people that Peter works with, including Lauren – who, as you say, was involved in this cleanup. And they've all told me that he's done a phenomenal job of tracking down the NUSA leaders and capturing them. I don't think we should doubt that just because of one incident – even if we are talking about Peter."

Her eyes move to mine as she debates that, biting her lip uncertainly. She and I have a good relationship at this point, and I know she trusts my judgment as much as I trust hers, but her dislike of Peter runs deep. It's certainly understandable.

"Peter has changed, you know," Caleb says, his voice almost pleading as he looks between me and his sister. In some ways, I think he feels like Tris won't fully trust him until she forgives Peter, too. "He'll never admit it, but Tobias' broadcast affected him…. Not as much as the rest of us, but some."

This time, there's no way to miss Tris' skepticism. "I don't see him rubbing the back of his neck," she remarks somewhat caustically, "or biting his lip, or looking at me the way virtually everyone else does."

I can't help smiling a little at the comment. Caleb picked up all of those habits from the broadcast…as did the vast majority of the population. It occurs to me that I should mention that.

"True enough," I say calmly. Caleb opens his mouth in protest, but I hold up a hand to stop him. "And that might or might not indicate much about Peter. But ultimately, it doesn't really matter. Because the fact that you see those mannerisms in everyone else tells us all we need to know."

They both look at me as I continue. "It tells us that Tobias' message still affects them. And no matter how many transmissions the old NUSA families manage to get out there, they'll never be able to counter that. Not enough to pose a wide-scale danger." I shake my head. "His broadcast was simply too strong."

For a moment, they're silent, digesting that. Tris looks thoughtful as she says, "Peter might be able to do it."

I don't even have to think before I shake my head. "He has the ability, yes," I respond, "but there's a reason we never considered him for that part of the mission. He doesn't feel deeply enough to put real emotion behind a message, and the broadcast draws its power from emotion. Peter could never override what Tobias sent."

I meet her eyes, making sure she knows how much I mean it as I emphasize that again. "Never."

And finally, she nods.

A/N: The next chapter starts a long action sequence. I'm going to try very hard to update twice a week throughout that sequence, so I don't keep you waiting too long. In the meantime, please take a moment to leave a review. Those always motivate me to post quickly! :-)