Allegiant

Tris continues reading Natalie’s journal. Natalie tells David she has the right to choose what she does with her life, accusing him of jealousy and doubting her. Tris flips to the end of the journal entries and finds her mother’s death certificate.

Tris walks with Zoe to the control room and sees Evelyn on the screen. She is sitting on her bed, touching a sculpture that used to be in Tobias’s room, and Tris realizes Evelyn is grieving losing Tobias. Tris asks Zoe how her parents met. Zoe says they were in a psychology class together, and Natalie helped tutor Andrew. They began meeting in secret. Andrew wanted to leave Erudite because he was friends with Jeanine Matthews and saw her use the Dauntless fear serum on a factionless man. Tris and Zoe walk into the same office where she received the tablet. Zoe says this is why Tris’s parents joined Abnegation together.

Tris walks back to the dorm and sees Caleb. She tells him their mom lived here after David took her from the fringe. Tris hands Caleb the tablet and tells him to read her file. Caleb tells Tris he has something to show her about Edith Prior. He takes her to the compound’s record room, pulls a large book off the shelf, and shows Tris a contract where Amanda Ritter consents to several procedures. Amanda Ritter is Edith Prior, Caleb and Tris’s ancestor seven generations back. The contract shows when Amanda joined the experiment and that she was one of the original designers. Caleb says most of their ancestors were in Erudite. Tris asks him if this is an excuse for his betrayal and leaves the room.

When Tobias goes to bed that night, he feels a note in his pillowcase. It’s from Nita, and she asks him to meet her outside the hotel at 11 pm, which is in 10 minutes. He gets up, and she is already there. Nita takes Tobias to a panel on a wall, which displays the family trees for Chicago’s citizens. She shows Tobias his name and says their previous conversation was a test. She wanted to see how he would react to having damaged genes. Nita says the Bureau exploits the GDs and that there’s a group working against it; they want Tobias to join them. Tobias is skeptical but curious, so he agrees. Nita then tells Tobias not to tell Tris.

Tobias follows Nita to an underground tunnel. After walking 20 minutes, the tunnel lets out at the crumbled buildings Tobias passed on his way into the compound. There is an old truck waiting for them, placed by the people they’re going to meet. They make their way through the streets and head northeast, away from the compound.

After a long time, Nita stops the truck in an alley. They continue on foot, and Tobias sees people in the windows above him. They’re in the fringe, where people live outside of government control. Tobias asks why they want to live independently, and Nita says the government discriminates against the GDs. So, they leave areas under government control, but Nita says she wants to fix the problem, not run away from it. She intends to take some of the Bureau’s power.

They eventually come to a door with a guard posted outside it. Someone inside hears Nita’s voice and comes to let them in. His name is Rafi. He takes Nita and Tobias to a table where a woman named Mary sits. She and Rafi are part of a larger rebel movement that spans the country. They talk for a moment, and Nita asks Tobias to go outside. He stands outside the door with the guard, and they chat as he waits. Eventually, Nita comes out, and they return to the truck. As they drive away from the fringe, Tobias says he doesn’t understand why people would prefer this life. He asks Nita what she talked about with Mary and Rafi, and she says she was solidifying plans and wanted them to meet Tobias. She then tells him the government caused wars and suffering before the issue of damaged genes. The experiments are just a show of making things better. They arrive back at the compound, and Tobias goes to sleep.

The next day, Tris asks Christina what’s happening between her and Uriah. Christina responds that they’re just friends who are both in mourning. The conversation turns to genetic damage. Christina believes her genes are genuinely damaged, but Tris thinks genes can be different without damage, such as eye or hair color. They also discuss how bias and perspective affect their outlook on the issue.

Tobias enters the dorm, and Christina leaves. Tobias tells Tris about meeting with Nita and going to the fringe. Tris feels suspicious about Nita, but she doesn’t know if it’s instinct or jealousy. Tobias asks her to go with him when he meets Nita tonight; Tris is uneasy but agrees to go.

Tris and Tobias meet Nita in the hotel lobby. Nita is annoyed that Tris is there but says she’d rather have both of them than neither. They walk through the compound to Nita’s lab, moving deeper into the building until they reach a storage room. They meet another GD named Reggie; he is scrolling through black-and-white pictures on a computer. The pictures show wars before genetic manipulation. Nita tells Tris and Tobias that the government hid knowledge about these wars by limiting the information to which the US citizens had access.

Nita then says the Bureau gave the advanced simulation serum to Jeanine Matthews, which she used to destroy Abnegation. Tris is still skeptical, so Nita shows her a vial of an orange serum. Reggie takes it, places it under a microscope, and uses a computer program to analyze it. Tris and Tobias confirm it is the simulation serum. Nita says that because the serum is here, the Bureau must have given it to Jeanine. When Tris asks why the Bureau would make it, Nita replies they did it because Abnegation was about to reveal the truth to the city, jeopardizing the experiment. The Bureau likely thought it was better for Jeanine to destroy Abnegation than for the government to destroy the entire city. So, they must have reached out to Jeanine for help, knowing she would agree. Nita feels this is proof that the Bureau values the experiment over the lives of the GDs. She believes things will worsen, but David will find a way to prevent Chicago from getting shut down. He can use the memory serum to reset everyone in the city.

Tobias believes all that Nita says and agrees they must stop the Bureau. Nita explains her plan. Her friends in the fringe will enter the compound through the underground tunnel, and Tobias will disable the security system. They’ll then break into the Weapons Lab, steal the memory serum, and destroy it. Tobias feels this plan isn’t very aggressive, and Tris thinks Nita is lying and wants to do something worse than she’s saying. Nita counters their arguments and says this is just the beginning. Tobias agrees to help them, and Nita and Reggie leave. Tris tries to convince Tobias that Nita is lying, but Tobias accuses her of being jealous. Tris then accuses Tobias of following Nita because he’s trying to convince himself he’s not damaged. Tobias leaves the room.