Champion

The third and final installment of the Legend trilogy is set in a dystopian future where the western United States has become the Republic of America, a militarized nation at war with the Colonies of America to the east. The story alternates between the perspectives of Day, a former street criminal turned national hero, and June, a prodigious young soldier turned political figure.

Day, now sixteen, lives in San Francisco with his younger brother Eden and their caretaker, Lucy. Eight months have passed since the events of the previous novel. Day has had no contact with June, who accepted a position as one of three Princeps-Elects, candidates training to become Princeps, or leader of the Republic's Senate. Her rivals for the position are Senators Mariana Dupree and Serge Carmichael, both resentful of June's youth. Day's silence hides a devastating secret: a problem area in his hippocampus, the brain region responsible for memory, is slowly killing him, and doctors estimate he has one to two months to live. One night, June calls and asks him to return to Denver for an emergency banquet. She reveals that a deadly plague has swept through the Colonies' warfront cities, believed to have originated from the Republic's biological weapons, and that the peace treaty has collapsed.

The Republic's leader, Elector Anden, has explained the crisis to June. The Colonies have allied with Africa, which will provide military support in exchange for half the Republic's land. The Republic has no cure, but Anden believes Eden, who was experimented on by the former Elector's scientists as part of the weapons program, may carry antibodies to help develop one. Anden needs Day's permission for further testing and asks June to persuade him. June hates the manipulation but agrees.

Meanwhile, June attends the trial of Thomas Bryant, the soldier who murdered her brother Metias, and Commander Natasha Jameson, the officer who ordered the killing. Both are found guilty and sentenced to death. Jameson delivers a chilling warning to Anden, predicting the Republic will burn. Before his execution, Thomas meets with June and reveals how he exploited Metias's romantic feelings for him to lure Metias into a private alley, then stabbed him on Jameson's orders. He seeks forgiveness, but June tells him she pities his weakness.

Day arrives in Denver and sees June for the first time in eight months. At a private dinner, Anden asks permission to experiment on Eden. Day flatly refuses and warns that if the Republic tries to take Eden by force, he will turn the people against Anden. Shortly after, Day suffers a severe medical episode and is rushed to the hospital, where he briefly cannot remember Lucy's name, confirming his memory deterioration.

Day and June reconnect at a café, where he reveals his terminal prognosis. June gives him a paper clip ring, echoing one he once made for her. An air raid siren cuts them short: The Colonies are attacking Denver, breaking the ceasefire. During the chaotic evacuation, June and Day rescue Eden, and Day demands equal protection for the poor sectors, which lack the underground bunkers available to the wealthy. They learn that explosions inside the Armor, Denver's defensive wall, have allowed Jameson to escape, suggesting the Colonies coordinated the attack with insiders.

In an underground bunker, Day and June discover Tess and several Patriots, members of a rebel group Day worked with months earlier, being held as prisoners after being captured while trying to help Republic soldiers. Day persuades Anden to release them and let him lead guerrilla operations. Before evacuating to Los Angeles, Eden stuns Day by declaring he knows the Republic wants him for experimentation and wants to help.

Day leads the Patriots on a nighttime sabotage mission against the Colonies' airfield outside Denver. He and Pascao, a fellow Patriot, plant explosives inside enemy jet exhaust nozzles. During the retreat, Thomas reappears and sacrifices himself, firing on pursuing Colonies soldiers before being killed. Day's headaches overwhelm him during the subway evacuation, and he loses consciousness. Denver eventually falls.

June and Anden fly to Ross City, Antarctica, seeking military aid, but President Ikari refuses, citing the Republic's debt and plague risk. He offers only scientists and demands Republic land in exchange for troops. June uses Antarctica's Internet to research how the United States split: The Colonies formed when corporations seized the bankrupt eastern government after a catastrophic flood in 2046, while the Republic enforced martial law in the west. Anden kisses June, but she pulls away, knowing she does not love him.

In Los Angeles, the Colonies' Chancellor contacts Day, offering a deal: if Day publicly endorses Colonies rule, he, Eden, and June will be spared. Day resolves to turn the offer against the Chancellor. Tess contracts the plague. June returns and resigns as Princeps-Elect, recognizing she is a soldier, not a politician. Anden accepts and prepares to select an acting Elector, as he must leave to lead troops at the Vegas warfront. Day reveals the Chancellor's blackmail to June, and they devise a counter-plan. That night, they acknowledge their love for each other despite Day's illness.

Day agrees to let Eden undergo experimentation after his brother insists, arguing that refusing is selfish when people are dying. The lab develops a partial cure from Eden's blood, but scientists discover the plague virus mutated in the Colonies, creating a component Eden's antibodies cannot address alone. June realizes she is the missing piece: She recalls being hospitalized in the Colonies months earlier, where she may have been unknowingly used in an experiment. The combination of Eden's and June's blood produces a viable cure, tested immediately on Tess.

Day, June, and the Patriots execute their plan. Anden announces a fake surrender while Day boards a Colonies airship, ostensibly to endorse their rule. On a citywide broadcast, Day instead urges the people to fight. He escapes using explosive discs hidden in his boots, while the Patriots' bombs cripple the docked Colonies fleet. At the Bank Tower hospital, Colonies soldiers storm the lab seeking Eden, but June fights them off. On the rooftops, Commander Jameson shoots Day twice. June engages Jameson, flips her over the roof's edge, and calls to soldiers below to fire. Jameson falls to her death.

Day lies critically wounded. He whispers to June that he loves her and hallucinates a vision of his mother telling him to return to Eden. As medics arrive, June sends a desperate silent prayer, willing to sacrifice anything if Day survives.

Day enters a coma lasting five months. Antarctica intervenes militarily after Anden cedes the territory of Dakota, the Republic's largest. A ceasefire is imposed. Anden announces reforms, including a new ranking system to replace the Trials, the former exams that determined citizens' fates. Mariana Dupree is inducted as Princeps.

When Day wakes, his surgery has succeeded, but damage to his hippocampus has caused retrograde amnesia. He remembers his family but has no recollection of June. She enters his room and he looks at her with the polite distance of a stranger. Recognizing this as the cost of her desperate prayer, June introduces herself only as a Republic official, conceals their history, and walks away. Antarctica offers Eden a place at one of their academies, and both brothers leave the Republic.

Ten years later, June is twenty-seven, the youngest lead commander of California's military squadrons. A news headline reveals Eden is in Los Angeles, meaning Day is in town. Walking home that evening, June passes two blond young men. Day turns back and approaches, saying she looks familiar. He still wears the paper clip ring. He introduces himself as Daniel; June takes his hand and introduces herself, suggesting a new beginning.