Champion (novel)

Champion

Author	Marie Lu
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Legend (series)
Genre	Dystopian, young adult
Published	5 November 2013
Publisher	G. P. Putnam's Sons
Pages	384
Preceded by	Prodigy

Champion is a dystopian young adult novel and the third and final book in the Legend trilogy by novelist Marie Lu. It was released on 5 November 2013.^[1]

Plot

Day is wandering around San Francisco recalling the events of the last eight months. His health has been fluctuating due to a rare disease that affects his hippocampus (given to him when he was used as a test subject), the cause of his painful headaches throughout the books. Day enters a club, and dances with a girl that reminds him of June. He is then interrupted by Captain David Guzman, who is always tasked with contacting Day through his earpiece. Day is invited to a banquet in Denver (the country's capital) celebrating the Republic's Independence Day (which turns out to be the Elector Primo's birthday), but plans to refuse until he learns that June wants him to be there. Over the earpiece June explains that during the celebration an emergency meeting will be held to discuss a crisis. She elaborates and mentions that the peace treaty between the Republic and the Colonies is falling apart because one of the Republic's engineered plagues crossed the border and infected Colonies soldiers. She doesn't tell Day that the suspected cause of the plague is Eden.

Before Day arrives for the banquet, Commander Jameson and Thomas are put on trial for crimes against the Republic. Both are convicted guilty, and sentenced to death by firing squad.

During the banquet, Anden (the new Elector) requests that Day let Eden be subjected to experiments in order to find a cure. Day refuses, much to the chagrin of Anden. Some Senators aren't worried and argue that they've withstood attacks from the Colonies before. However, as Anden points out, now the Colonies have the backing of Africa, one of the world's superpowers. Despite the extra pressure on him, Day refuses.

Day is admitted to the hospital for the worst headache attack he's had while Thomas talks to June about the night he killed her brother, Metias, and the injustice he feels for being a criminal while Day is a celebrity.

Soon after Day is released from the hospital, he and June go out for dinner. While eating, Day reveals to her that he is extremely sick and he has two months to live at the very most.

Suddenly, an alarm goes off and he and June are forced to evacuate with the rest of Denver due to an attack from the Colonies. During the chaos, three prisoners escape from the prison in Denver - two of whom are Commander Jameson and Thomas. Day, June, and Eden are ushered into an underground bunker to wait for a subway to a safer city. Much to Day's anger, only the city's wealthy people (with a small handful of the poor who clean up after them) are in the bunker.

In the bunker, they discover that Tess and several other Patriots (including Pascao, a Patriot Runner that Day made friends with in Prodigy)are being held for "attempting to disable... military equipment and aid the Colonies." Day protests, and gets the authority to lead them on a mission to sabotage a nearby Colonies airbase. Before he leaves, he tells Eden that the only way to stop the war might be to let the Republic do experiments on him. Much to Day's surprise, Eden agrees to let them.

June and Anden head to Ross City, Antarctica. Despite the Republic owing money because of aid given by Antarctica, Anden thinks the rivalry between them and Africa might be enough for them to help the Republic. His assumption is incorrect, and the only offer Anden receives is one for the Antarctican scientists to help cure the plague. His only other option is to give up some of the Republic's land in exchange for military support. He declines, and is informed that because of the pandemic, all ports and borders will be sealed off.

In the meantime, Day is destroying Colonies jets outside of Denver in an effort to help protect the city. Before Colonies soldiers can kill him, Thomas comes to his rescue and shoots at them, but is killed in the process. Day ends up on the last train out of Denver, fleeing just as the escape tunnel is induced to collapse.

In Antarctica, June learns the history of the United States and the aftermath of a global rise in ocean level. On October 1, 2054, the U.S. split unofficially, and nearly a year later officially became two separate countries: the Republic and the Colonies. The Colonies have a government that is run by corporations, owing to the fact that the U.S. government did not have the money to help its citizens, while businesses did. Just before she and Anden leave Antarctica for the Republic, they get the news that Denver has fallen to the Colonies.

Back in the hospital again, after a severe headache was triggered by an explosion (to collapse the Denver to Los Angeles escape tunnel), Day is contacted by the Chancellor of the Colonies. He is blackmailed, under the threat that if he doesn't tell the people to revolt against the Republic, June and Eden will die. If Day does agree, he is promised access to medical care and protection. The Chancellor gives Day a three-day ceasefire to make up his mind. Right after the call ends, Tess is put into quarantine because she has become infected by the plague running rampant in the Colonies.

On the first night of the ceasefire, June and Day are reunited. They profess their love for each other and have sexual intercourse.

In the middle of the night, Day wakes up from a nightmare. He leaves June's apartment to visit his old home in the Lake sector, not knowing that June followed him. There, he reminisces what happened to his family. Then he breaks down in tears, because he doesn't want to feel the pain of losing his family, which June had been involved in.

On the second day of the ceasefire, Eden is admitted to the hospital for testing. After the testing is done, Day gets a call about June - she's been attacked by Commander Jameson, who is feeding the Colonies information about the military strengths and weaknesses of Los Angeles. Knowing the need to buy time, Day convinces Anden and June to pretend to surrender - who in turn convince the Senate. After the Senate meeting, Anden tells June he gave up Dakota, the Republic's largest territory, in exchange for military support (and treatment for Day) from Antarctica. At the same time, Day plans to use the people to help fight against the Colonies and puts out a message across LA using spray paint - "LISTEN FOR ME." When he gets back, the lab technicians tell him that Eden cannot provide a cure for the plague, because the virus is a mutated version of the one Eden was infected with.

Anden officially announces the Republic's surrender when enemy airships begin to approach LA in anticipation of the end of the three-day ceasefire. During the announcement, June heads to the hospital to check on the cure progress. When the lab tech explains why the cure isn't working, and where it originated, June realizes that the infection she caught (in Prodigy) might be the same disease as the plague. While June goes to be tested, Day heads out to sabotage the landing bases being used by the Colonies to dock their ships. Once the mission is complete, he receives a call from the Chancellor telling him that the speech to make the people revolt must be given on board one of the Colonies airships.

The results come back from June's testing - she isn't the origin of the virus, but she's close enough. June calls Day on her earpiece, but the frequencies are being jammed by the Colonies. The hospital is attacked, and soldiers begin to search for Eden. June attempts to defend him, but is knocked down by the soldiers. Before the last one can strike and knock her unconscious, Tess attacks him. The cure engineered using June had worked well enough for her to recover in a short span of time.

By this time, Day is on board giving his speech to the citizens of the Republic. At the last possible moment, he tells the people to revolt against the Colonies instead of the Republic, then flees. On cue, the bombs attached to the bases explode. This provokes the Colonies to action, and fighting begins in LA. June opts to fight instead of escaping to safety, and leaves Eden with a nurse. June disables several soldiers and then discovers one of them is Commander Jameson. Jameson is attempting to kill Day, but June attacks her. June, with the help of soldiers on the ground, kills Jameson.

When June rushes down to see Day, she finds that he is fatally injured. Day is soon taken to the hospital, where the doctors stitch up his wounds. Day would have died from the infection in his hippocampus, so the doctors also perform surgery on his brain.

Antarctica saves the Republic, and Day remains in a coma-like state for five months. When he wakes up, he has retrograde amnesia. He roughly remembers the happenings of the last year he spent with June; only remembering major details, such as his mother's death and how Eden was sick and managed to survive. The sad and terrible truth that he forgets who June is. June thinks the situation over and decides that she will not remind him of who she is and leaves after visiting him and acting as a stranger. After Day recovers, he and Eden are offered jobs in Antarctica. They decide to take the jobs and leave the Republic.

Epilogue

Ten years later, Eden and Day return to the Republic so that Eden can be interviewed for an engineering job in LA. It just so happens to be June's birthday, and she is on her way to dinner, when she gets a message from Tess telling her that Day and Eden are in town. Almost to her destination, she runs into Day and Eden. Day stops and recognizes (not completely though). He stops June after catching a glimpse at her asking if he knows her. Convinced he's seen her before, he decides to start over and introduces himself saying, "Hi, I'm Daniel." June responds, "Hi, I'm June."

^[2]

Characters

June Iparis

Daniel Altan 'Day' Wing

Reception

Alice Marvels called Champion a "worthy conclusion" to the Legend trilogy and "impossible to not feel" for the characters.^[3]

References