Summary
Chapter 7: Day
Thomas shows Day some pictures of suspected Patriots and asks him to identify anyone who looks familiar. Of course, Day refuses to help the man who killed his mother, and he doesn’t know any of the people in the pictures anyway. That is, until Thomas arrives at a photo of Kaede. Day tries to hide his recognition by pointing out that he wouldn’t identify someone even if he did recognize them. Thomas abruptly tells him that the session is over.
Day taunts Thomas, suggesting that he is a coward for killing his mother instead of fighting Day man to man. It’s not long before Day realizes that Thomas is uncomfortable and resentful around Day because he kissed June before he was caught. Day teases him about June and Thomas beats him brutally.
Chapter 8: June
Thomas stands outside June’s apartment for half an hour that night, apologizing for pushing her during the riot and begging to be let in. He doesn’t realize that June is angry about his cold-hearted murder of civilians, not being pushed. Eventually he leaves, and June falls asleep reading Metias’s journals, which he wrote by hand. She dreams that Day comes to her and swears he didn’t kill Metias. When she wakes up, she seriously considers Day’s claims for the first time. She reviews the crime scene photos and notices that it looks like Metias was wounded on the shoulder before he was killed, just like Day said. However, the photos are grainy and taken at an angle that makes it hard to see the wounds. June wonders why the photographer did such a bad job and considers that Commander Jameson is trying to cover up the facts of Metias’s murder. She observes that the knife in Metias’s heart has rifle grease on it, and she remembers that Thomas had rifle grease on his forehead when he picked her up the night of the murder.
Chapter 9: Day
June visits Day and asks for the surveillance cameras to be turned off. She asks him one more time if he killed Metias. He confirms that he didn’t, and desperately wants to hold her when he sees her grief. Both of them realize that they should be on the same side but that they’ve been pitted against each other. June gives Day his pendant back.
He remembers how he got it. When Day was a child, his father - who had a secretive job involving the Colonies - found a United States quarter from 1990 in a swamp. Day’s parents were very excited about it because it proves that the Republic and the Colonies were once one country - history the Republic suppresses to remain in power. They decided to weld it into a piece of metal and make it a pendant for Day, believing that hiding it in plain sight would be more secure if they got raided.
Chapter 10: June
June goes out to dinner with Thomas, who asks her about her secret meeting with Day. She tells him that she’s still trying to find out why he killed Metias. Thomas urges her not to see him again because interacting with Day is taking an emotional toll on her. That night, June rereads Metias’s journals and notices there are many misspelled words. June knows that Metias was too intelligent to make that many errors so she concludes that they were intentional. She singles out the misplaced letters and arranges them into an anagram that leads to a web site: “WWW DOT FOLLOW ME JUNE BUG DOT COM” (241). June Bug was Metias's nickname for his sister.
The web site is a blog where Metias explains the evidence he’s found that their parents were murdered. He has proof that the Republic murdered them after their father, a medical researcher, discovered that the Republic engineers the plague and spreads it in poor sectors to cull the weakest genes from the population. They also test new strains on children who fail the Trial; these strains are eventually developed into biological weapons to use against the Colonies. Metias writes that the plague is sent to poor sectors using the system of pipes that Day uncovered earlier in the novel. In the last entry, he writes that Thomas has found out what he knows.
June doesn't report for duty the next day, and Thomas calls to check on her. She turns him away with an excuse that she is not feeling well. She sits and thinks, sitting motionless on her couch and not rising for the anthem when the Republic pledge is played outside. June remembers when Metias appealed for another mentor. Chian had ordered him to kill a girl who was trying to escape from Trial Stadium. Thomas was disturbed by his actions and hoped June never had to kill anyone.
After June reflects for the day, she decides to help Day escape.
Chapter 11: Day
Day pretends to be sick and tries to force his way out of his cell when the guards try to help him. One of the guards mentions that his brother is "Patient Zero," confirming Day's suspicion that Eden is a test subject for a new mutation of the plague. Day overpowers the guards, but he is outnumbered and the back-up soldiers quickly restrain him. June is among the back-up, and she whispers to him that she’ll help him escape. After she leaves, Commander Jameson threatens to make his execution slow and painful. Day bites her.
Chapter 12: June
June travels along the rooftops to get to the Lake sector. She finds Kaede and Tess, who has joined the Patriots as a medic. Kaede is reluctant to listen to June’s story. However, June eventually convinces her to rescue Day by offering her the 200,000 Notes she received as a reward for his capture. She also throws in an expensive electro-bomb, which disables most guns in the vicinity of the blast for two minutes. Although the Patriots would not normally participate in such a risky rescue of one person, June’s money convinces Kaede to help out. After all, the Patriots have tried to recruit Day for a long time. June urges Kaede to help John escape tomorrow and keep him safe. In two days, they will rescue Day by creating a diversion shortly before the execution and then sneaking him out of Batalla, using Patriots dressed as soldiers for reinforcements.
Analysis
The two main characters in Legend are prodigies, but that doesn’t mean they’re perfect. Day and June are both brilliant in some ways and naive in others. In these chapters, their strengths and flaws complement each other. Working together, Day and June are able to combine their best skills and learn things about the Republic that they would never have been able to figure out alone.
Both their upbringings have shaped their strengths and flaws. Because she was born into a privileged family, June has had better access to formal education. This shows in her math skills, which she often uses in the field. However, it has also led her to trust authority even when she shouldn’t. For example, she has never questioned the story that children who fail the Trial go to labor camps, even though she has occasionally seen evidence to the contrary.
Although Day lacks June’s formal education, his life in the Lake sector has given him a clear vision of the evil the Republic is capable of. He is also more willing to question authority and develop his own opinions. Although both Day and June are smart and perceptive enough to guess the truth about the plague, Day is the one who ultimately figures it out. This is because he has developed strong critical thinking skills over time.
It’s also worthwhile to compare and contrast some of the novel’s secondary characters, especially Metias and Thomas. These two young men have played the most active roles in June’s life since her parents died. Both work for the military and they seem to be friends, so readers might assume that they’d be similar in other ways, too. However, their different personalities lead them to make very different life decisions. Metias has a rebellious and curious spirit. Even though he seems to conform on the outside, in private he hacks computer files and teaches June to do the same. Thomas, on the other hand, blindly follows authority and doesn’t seem interested in questioning his leaders or learning more about his surroundings. These qualities help explain why he is so slavishly obedient to Commander Jameson, even when this requires him to commit violent acts, including the murder of his closest friend.
June’s interaction with Kaede introduces another element to the novel: the Patriots, a shadowy resistance group. The Patriots will save the day when Day and June are about to be captured in the next section. However, they also care more about being practical than about helping individual people. They only want to help Day if the benefits for them outweigh the risks. Although they seem like allies for Day and June at this point, it’s not clear if they are a good alternative to the Republic’s totalitarian government.
