The thickly padded grey and orange Flash suit fit Ender like a glove as he slid it on. The stiffness of the fabric felt unfamiliar and as he slipped on the gloves, he realized that he hadn't worn one of these for over five years. He wasn't bothered at all about being a bit under practiced, though. Everyone else was in the same boat, and he was more concerned with whether or not he should be thankful, or a bit weirded out by the fact that Graff somehow knew his measurements.
Ender picked up the sleekly designed helmet from where it rested in it's compartment, and held it tightly under his arm. The bright orange crest of Dragon Army on the back of it, stood out in the dim light of his quarters as if it were glowing. It wasn't, but it would be once he entered the Battle Room.
"Are you sure you don't want to participate?" Ender stepped out of his Commander's chambers, and faced Valentine who was patiently waiting for him against the wall.
"Me?" She mock laughed. "I know nothing of space battle, and I wouldn't stand a chance against any of you."
"We haven't exactly had occasion to practice, Val." Ender responded slyly. He really did want her to try it. She would get a better understanding of the game, and by seeing how difficult it is, she would realize that he is indeed an expert in his field of work.
He didn't doubt that she already knew that, but with the Martial and the rescue mission being her only in person experiences with Ender, he felt as though she needed to see more to fully understand who he was. And there wasn't a better way than to see him in a Battle and experience his element herself.
"My mind is made." She concluded. " Although, I reserve the right to try it another time."
He did not press the matter any further. It wouldn't get him anywhere, so he chose to take Valentine's declined invitation as a positive. If she had played, she would have had to be in Dragon and - without sugar coating anything - she wouldn't have been very useful.
This game was only for fun, but nobody could blame Ender for being competitive. He could just never find it in him to willingly lose. It wasn't written into his DNA.
"Okay, then follow me. We're going to be late if we don't hurry."
Ender started into a quick jog, and after initially struggling, not expecting him to do anything other than walk, Valentine fell into pace directly behind him. Only the patter of their boots could be heard as they speedily made their way down the corridor.
It took quite a while to make it to their destination, and it wasn't because they had to stop to catch their breath. Well...Valentine was a little exasperated once they did catch up with the others, but Ender had to take several detours to avoid any young prying eyes.
"Commander on deck!" The slightly deeper voice of Carn Carby called out from in front of the door to the Battle Room.
"Took you long enough!" Petra shouted from within the small group of soldiers dressed in Dragon Army uniforms.
"Neh", Ender replied as he came to a stop in front of her. "We went the long way so we wouldn't have an audience."
Crazy Tom stepped forward, smiling, and it was the first time he'd seen Ender in years.
"Welcome back, commander." The young teen, with his hair now dyed a deep red, stuck out his hand, and Ender shook it without hesitating.
"It's been a crazy couple of years." Ender admitted to the group of four soldiers who Dink had assigned to his army.
His group consisted of: himself, Petra, Crazy Tom, Carn Carby, and Shen. Right away, he realized that Bean wasn't there, and he couldn't blame Dink for his choice. Out of his entire Jeesh, Bean was the one who was the most similar to Ender himself. It wouldn't be a fair fight if they were on the same side.
Crazy Tom nodded, looking solemn for a moment, as if recalling a tragedy that Ender knew nothing about. "It has."
Petra came up behind the red-haired boy, somehow reading his negative energy, and gave him a pat on the shoulder. "It's been rough, but we made it here. And now we have the world's best commander leading us again. How could we lose?"
That caused the rest of the small group to holler and whistle, and it made Ender smile. He'd missed them. All of them. And even though most of them never considered him a confidante, only their commander like he trained them to see him as, he loved them all equally. And he knew that with their help, it was the best damn chance they had at stopping the Warsaw Pact.
"Attention!" Ender rose his voice, and couldn't help but grin as his army immediately complied.
He didn't want to admit it, but he was home. By home he didn't mean Battle School, he meant with his teammates, and after all of the time he'd spent being tossed around after the Martial, he came to realize that these people were all that mattered. As long as they were safe and he could keep them that way, he would be happy. Hell, he could die and the rest of the world could burn, but as long as his Jeesh and his Valentine were still alive, he'd be content.
"This isn't going to be like the old days." Ender continued, as Valentine stood about a foot behind him to his right.
"There are only five of us on each side. We aren't big enough to split into toons, or to have separate groups. In order to win, we only need one soldier to place their helmet at the gate while an unharmed soldier makes their way through."
Ender paused here, turned around to Valentine, and held out the small silver coloured Hook that had been used so many times before by Major Anderson. She looked at it sceptically, but then took it anyway, grasping it in the palm of her hand.
"My sister Valentine will control the Hook." He turned back to face his small army. "Once one army wins, she'll thaw everybody. There'll be no superiority between groups, and in the end, this is only for fun."
At that, he earned some full tooth smiles, and 'yes sirs' from the group, and Ender knew that they were looking forward to this just as much as he was. They were eager to play the game that had dictated so many years of their childhood. But this time, they'd be the ones controlling it. There would be no more manipulation on Graff and Anderson's part. At the end of the day when all of this was over, they'd all still be friends, fellow soldiers, and most of all, a part of the Jeesh that ended the Third Invasion. They were bonded forever because of that, and that bond was something that grew beyond a manipulative children's game. It was something else entirely. Something sacred.
"I talked to Dink, and we decided that there'll be no formations, and no deadlines. We only use each other, and the Battle Room. Any questions?" He opened up the floor for once, and saw some raised eyebrows.
"No, sir!" The response echoed the corridor, and Ender smiled holding up his right hand, bunched into a fist.
"Wait for my signal." He said, and made his way to the door.
It was still closed, but he had set it to open at exactly 16:00. Right now, it was 15:59. The game would start any second...
Silence filled the hallway, the only sound being the click of the helmets as the Dragon army soldiers secured them to their heads. Ender could hear his heart pounding anxiously in his chest with anticipation. He'd been out of the game for so long. He'd left hating it with every ounce of his being, but now he was willingly jumping back in. They all were...and it was only now, right before they were going into battle, that he was wondering whether or not it was a good idea.
He'd been so angry in his last battle. He had broke the rules, and was sent to Command School. Now, he didn't have to play ever again, yet here he was. What did that say about him? It led him to believe that maybe they'd all gained a bit of characteristics from the teachers who used to dictate their lives. Perhaps that was a good thing. It could help them win the land-side war...but it could also hinder them.
The sound of the metal door sliding open brought him out of his thoughts, and he was faced with the dim glow of Battle Room 5. The lights were set to appear as if it was late evening, or early morning, and there were stars scattered everywhere. As far as he could tell, there wasn't any sort of pattern to their placement, and just by glancing into the Null-G environment, and seeing the numerous obstacles, he knew that this was going to be interesting.
* * * * * * * * *
"Your brother, Ender Wiggin has left Earth."
"What?!"
If Peter had had anything in his mouth when hearing this proclamation, he would've spit it out. His jaw went slack, his heart rate quickened - with joy or worry he wasn't quite sure - and his mind was sent reeling.
This was crazy. Out of all the places he'd thought Ender would go, the last place he'd predicted was away from Earth.
"Where is he, then?"
Peter was surprised that he was actually able to form coherent sentences, considering the wheels in his mind were turning at full speed. Where was Ender? Was Valentine with him? How did he leave Earth without me knowing? I am in control of the I.F's ground forces, and I've supposed to have been told of every out of orbit departure.
"We don't know, exactly." Grenleigh spoke once more. His two colleagues looked a little too calm, and refused to join into the conversation. "Our division, doesn't have the technology available for out of orbit tracking."
The entire thing didn't make any sense. Unless...Peter had been busy covering up Rackham's disappearance. It had been his top priority recently, and by shifting his attention to that rather than the war, someone could've easily screwed him over.
"God damn it!" He banged a fist onto the metal table out of blind rage, and then just as quickly as he'd lost it, he pulled it back together.
Mr. Staph appeared a little taken aback by his outburst, but his surprised expression instantly morphed back into one of straight business once again. "We have reason to believe that the Admiral is planning an attack, and with the tracking tech in this base, we believe we could pin point his location."
Peter silently smoothed out his green I.F. uniform, stood up from the table, and braced his arms against it. He leaned forward slightly, making sure that all three men were giving him their undivided attention.
"Go." He stated a little too calmly to not be considered suspicious. "And once you find my brother, I'll be the one to go up there myself. You three will stay down here at the base until we get this sorted out, understood?"
He was met with silence and blank faces. Peter cleared his throat, and kept their gaze. If only looks could kill.
"Yes...of course sir." Grenleigh spoke for all three, and they got up from their seats, heading for the control room.
Peter momentarily wondered how they knew where it was, but dismissed the thought when he remembered they were associates of Mazer. The old fool probably told them everything, and he guessed that that included a whole lot about the Wiggin family as well. Lovely.
That little tid bit would cease to be useful to those idiots, however, since Peter was positive that Mazer didn't know a thing about him. Not anything that mattered, anyway. And so, if Grenleigh and the other two silent types proved to be dumber than a bag of bricks, he would simply dispose of them without reservation. The only way a person as close-minded as Grenleigh would ever intimidate Peter, was if he knew about what he'd done to the Admiral. And he was certain that they didn't. There was no absolute way.
_
Peter paced anxiously as waited outside the sturdy metal door to the control room. Why had he agreed to this? They were probably in there making a mess of the entire place.
He didn't have much of a choice, though. Grenleigh had said that they'd find Ender's location a lot faster without any 'external distractions' as he'd so eloquently put it. At the time, Peter grumbled a quick 'fine' and walked away. He'd busied himself with making sure his plans were still afoot.
The Warsaw Pact had been slowly, but surely gaining ground, and with every foot they gained, the closer Peter was to being the Hegemon. And at this point, he could almost smell the victory.
He had not told Mazer the entire story about what he was actually doing, but the old man got the gist. He was technically the unofficial leader of the Warsaw Pact, but he also wasn't. He'd struck a deal with some rather dangerous people, and when the deal was successful, he would be handed the reigns to the entire Hegemony. It was guaranteed that he would get what he had always wanted without having to wait for the current Hegemon to keel over, and that, in itself sounded like bliss.
If only it were as simple as it sounded. The truth was, Peter had determined a little over a year ago that if he didn't change his course of action, he wouldn't be the next Hegemon. And he needed that. He didn't want it, he needed it. Plain and simple. So, as any rational person would do, having grown up knowing the Russian members of the I.F. were in constant disagreement with the fleet, he decided to use all of his resources.
Adam Vasiliev
Peter'd gotten his name from one of his contacts he'd gained through his debates on the nets as Locke, and pitched the man, who appeared to be in his mid-thirties, an idea. It was an idea, that at the time, Peter thought was awfully far fetched. But luckily for him, Adam had been open to insane ideas.
'I want you to start a war with the International Fleet.' Peter could hear his own words echoing in his ears as he paced around the hall, imagining the day when he'd first video chatted through ansible with the Russian government official. 'I'll be in command of the American side of the war, and I'll ensure that you win. You'll have control of the world.'
Adam initially met Peter's suggestion with scepticism. The eldest Wiggin had expected nothing less. Why would Locke of all people offer the man the chance to finally annihilate the I.F. Without wanting anything in exchange?
'And what do I have to do for you to make that happen?'
They had immediately entered negotiations, and had ended on a mutual consensus. As long as Peter - now the proclaimed and agreed upon dual leader of the Second Warsaw Pact - ensured the I.F's failure in the war, Adam would initiate it, and Peter would become the next Hegemon.
The task sounded easy enough on paper, and at the time Peter was fully convinced that he would be able to do it. That is, until Ender reappeared...and well, that ruined a lot of things. So much for the easy road that he would much rather have taken.
His little brother had always been a pain in the ass, and even now, while Peter waited in the dimly lit corridor of the I.F's main base, Ender proved to be once again.
He stopped his pacing when the ridiculously heavy metal door to the control room slowly creaked open, and Grenleigh stepped out. Peter turned his head toward the balding man, cocked an eyebrow in what was obviously meant as an 'I'm waiting', and crossed his arms over his chest.
"We found him."
* * * * * * * * *
"Commander, move!"
The all too familiar shrill of pistols being fired erupted within the moderate space, and Ender felt a sense of security that he hadn't felt since he left Battle School. Despite the fact that they were currently playing a battle game that was designed to prepare children for real life or death situations, it was joyous to be somewhere where he knew everything that could potentially happen to him.
Out there. In the real world, he didn't have that luxury. Enemies could be anywhere, could be anyone, and everyone. It was mind boggling and this game took his mind off of the constant wondering, even if it was only for a little while.
Ender watched from behind a star, as Dink attempted to jump out of the way from one of Petra's shots. Bean had called out the warning, but it was too late.
Dink was hit square in the chest, and his entire suit froze. It was as if the entire Battle stood still as everyone watched the lights in Dink's suit ripple in response to the laser, and Ender swore he could almost see the fabric stiffening around him.
Dink was down. And he was still playing. In a way, that was a victory in itself, and he made a note to thank Petra for it later on. But for now, he had a game to win.
"Carn!" Ender hollered over the uproar of the battle, and the soldier turned to look at him.
Before they went through the gate, Ender had devised a quick, and entirely simple plan. Since there were only five of them, the only plausible strategy was to group off into two pairs and a single. He'd put Carn with Shen, and Petra with Crazy Tom. His instructions were clear. Stay together, Ender would try to draw their fire by staying partially visible for the most part, and the four of them would stay hidden amongst the stars and get a shot in where they could. And so far, it was working perfectly.
They had gotten both Dink and Fly Molo out. Shen injured Vlad by disabling his legs, and they'd only lost Crazy Tom.
"Yes, sir?" The teen replied, and Ender gestured directly under where he was gripping the hold on a star.
'Bean' He mouthed, and directed the soldier on exactly where he should shoot his flash weapon.
Ender would've taken him out if he could've, but being one of the smartest people there was, Bean made sure that he was out of both Ender's and Petra's firing range.
Carn smiled at the challenge of having to shoot an opponent blindly, and pulled the trigger at Ender's signal. There was a bright flash, the sound of Bean grunting in surprise, and the smaller boy was frozen.
Carn's face lit up and he howled in victory. That proved to be a mistake.
Out of the corner of Ender's eye, he could see Dumper aiming right at Carn's back from behind a star. Great.
He needed to think. They still had Carn, Petra, himself, and Shen. And he wouldn't hear the end of it if he let Carn get frozen. He could here the obnoxious comments coming from the boy now.
'What was that, Ender? You made me look like a dull bob, neh?'
He couldn't care less about whether or not the others considered Carn an idiot. He was sure that they already thought similar things, but if he was going into battle with the teen once again, he needed him to have no sour feelings.
With a sigh, Ender pushed himself off from the star he was hanging off of just as Dumper took the shot. He directed himself so he would float right behind Carn, and he just prayed that his timing had been right. Ender shut his eyes. He couldn't look.
A shocked gasp could be heard coming from his teammates, and the familiar tingling feeling of his suit tightening was all the reassurance he needed.
Instead of hitting Carn, Ender had successfully maneuvered himself in front of him and took the shot.
His helmet tightened around his mouth, preventing him from saying anything else, and he was sent spinning. He caught a slight glimpse at Carn as he soared by, and he knew that he'd done the right thing.
The young man was giving him a respectful look, and even though he was grateful, Ender could tell that he was also shocked at his sacrifice. Nobody would've expected him to do it. Ender Wiggin never willingly lost...but the truth is...he did. Only if it ensured that he would win.
_
The rest of the Battle was pretty slow. Ender found himself drifting off into the far corner toward the enemy's gate, while Petra, Shen, and Carn fought off Dumper and a partially disabled Vlad.
Shots were fired quite often. Most of them were sloppy since neither side had a commander left, but Ender didn't pay attention to that. He would never say it out loud, but he was more concerned with watching Petra.
Her shots were all carefully calculated and clean. They aimed to kill, and regardless of the fact that she missed her target, it was astounding. It reminded Ender about the free time training sessions they once had together. She'd been the one who taught him how to shoot, and he was glad that even after all this time, she hadn't lost a bit of her talent.
That wasn't all that he was thinking though, but it was the most intellectual thought that had passed through his mind while watching her. The rest, well, what could he say? He was a teenage boy. He might have been the most important military leader in the entire world, but he still had desires. And Petra, well he loved her. And watching her made him realize that she was indeed, something special.
Regrettably, Ender caught Valentine looking at him through the glass to the battle room. She had a thoughtful expression on her face as if she was trying to determine something, but then shook her head. She must've come to some sort of conclusion about whatever it was.
"Stop the game!" Shen cried out.
Ender took his gaze away from his sister, and would've screamed out as well if it wasn't for the clamp on his helmet preventing him from moving.
There wasn't any blood, but the suit was fairly thick and there was bound to be a pool of it within the lining. The way the limb contorted would've made any regular non-combatant sick, but it only brought Ender fear.
How could that've happened? He only looked away from the fight for a second, and not that he could've done anything about it, but somehow it all turned to shit.
A/N
I'm back! I'm so grateful to anyone who's still reading! And if by chance there's readers who haven't waiting a millennia for this, welcome!
I'm going to try to keep this shortish.Please comment, vote, etc. You have no idea how much it means and how much of a motivator for me to keep writing it truly is.
Side note: I took a very well needed break, and I'm happy to say that I found out a lot about myself, and have surprisingly grown as a person. This year has been a whirlwind for me in so many ways, and because of that, I thought for a time that my writing wasn't good enough to be published. I lost my confidence in it and was lost in almost every aspect of my life. I went through so many changes, lost so many people after graduating, and eventually became all the wiser for it. I just want to share that after getting through my struggles I literally feel so free, and I have a new understanding of myself. Thank you for waiting for me as I took a much needed personal exploration. Truly.
Thank you, thank you, thank you,
- Jess