A sickly green glow illuminated the hall. The dimmer night time lights were on in place of the blinding fluorescence of the day, which made navigating around the Battle school a little more difficult.
It was surprisingly silent considering the number of children who were being housed here, which made him place his steps a little more cautious.
Phoenix.
Rat.
Salamander.
Scorpion.
Where was Dragon? Would Ender even be there? He didn't know, but he needed to find the young Admiral fast.
Time wasn't on his side, and with everything that's been happening he didn't know how much of it he would have left.
One thing he was certain of, as he wandered aimlessly among the poorly lit corridors, was that this was his last chance to succeed.
* * * * * * * * *
Ender waited. Bean's expression was unreadable as he deliberated the legitimacy of Ender's proposal.
"Do you really think you can do this?" He finally spoke.
"I don't have much of a choice." Ender sat down on the bottom bunk across from Bean. The Lion Army insignia on the wall partially highlighted his face in a bright orange. "My brother's gone too far. He has to be stopped."
"So...what do you plan to do? Kill him?" The younger soldier couldn't help but ask, knowing full well about Ender's accidental murders he'd committed in the past.
"Neh! Not if I can help it." Ender's reply was quick, and to the point. "He needs to be arrested and held accountable for Mazer's death. And I have to go back to Earth and find him to make sure that's what happens."
"What do you want me to do in your absence, commander?" Bean looked thoughtful, awaiting orders that Ender knew he didn't need.
"I trust that you'll know which Launchies need the most training, do what needs to be done to knock down their egos, and make them ready to be put into armies. And when I get back, give me a group of them."
"Yes, sir." Bean nodded, half-heartedly. He wasn't going to contradict Ender out-loud, but it was obvious to him that this wasn't the best plan. Ender was needed here, which was currently as far away from his brother as humanly possible. He'd never actually witnessed an exchange between the two siblings, but from what he'd heard things were bound to get messy.
He also wasn't normally one to doubt himself or his abilities, but these children were told they were going to be trained by Ender. Not the scrawny member of his Jeesh that, in their minds, just so happened to fight along side him. They didn't understand what he went through, how similar he was to Ender, or how superior his skills were.
"Show them I'm not wrong in appointing you to lead." Ender smiled, albeit forced. "I'll be back soon anyway. Once I find my brother we will have the leader of the Warsaw Pact in our grasp."
"Is that so?"
Ender was about to send Bean on his way when another person decided to join into their meeting. The scepticism that laced those three words could only belong to one person. And thankfully, Ender knew her well.
"What has our older brother done this time?" Valentine added as she walked into the barracks with Carn Carby lingering in the doorway.
"I'll see you again before you head off." Once he saw Valentine, Bean quickly nodded at Ender, got up off the bed, and made his way out of the barracks. The younger soldier took Valentine's appearance as his cue to leave.
Carn turned and went with him, as he was aware that they weren't required or wanted while their commander was in his sister's presence.
As the two soldiers walked off, Ender watched, making sure they were both completely out of the room before he turned his attention toward Valentine.
"A lot has happened." He said simply. "But if I stayed to talk about it all with you, I'd be wasting time I don't necessarily have."
Valentine predictably rose an eyebrow. Her next words were once again full of criticism. "Oh I'm sorry little brother. If you don't have time, give me the short version."
Ender shook his head quite hastily as he stood up, attempted to somewhat straighten his uniform, and made a move towards the doorway. He didn't have the energy nor the time to engage in their usual banter. Valentine wasn't being serious with her apparent disapproval in her response, but that didn't matter.
She grabbed his arm.
"Look, Val this is important. I wouldn't be..." He stopped talking once he turned and saw her face.
She looked...understanding.
"I'm not an idiot, you know." She smiled. "I don't care if you tell me what Peter did or not right now. Just take me with you. Wherever you're going, I want in."
Ender gave her a look and opened his mouth to protest.
"Before you say anything stupid, you know that there's nothing you can say or do that'll stop me from being by your side. Peter is both of our responsibility."
Responsibility. Valentine used the term in order to indicate the shared connection the two of them had regarding their brother, and yet the word only made Ender want to vomit. If he had had anything left in his stomach, he was sure that it would've been on the floor by now.
The constant guilt that Ender felt since finding out what Peter did was consuming him. And Valentine was definitely right. Peter was his responsibility. He was supposed to keep his brother under control and because he failed, Mazer was dead. How could he blame anybody but himself?
"You're right." His voice came out weak which, as far as he could tell, startled his sister. She didn't question it however. "Let's go."
* * * * * * * *
"Back to class, you idiots! How do you expect us to beat the Warsaw Pact if all you do is skip vital strategy lessons?!"
At first glance, the young Launchies that had gathered outside of their quarters thought they could see smoke coming out of Colonel Graff's ears. As they looked closer, however, they realized that the red colour of his face made it seem as though he was actually fuming. Somehow, Graff had known exactly where they were supposed to be, and he wasn't exactly happy that they were playing card games instead.
"Well, what are you waiting for? The school to catch fire?! If you don't get off your asses, it will!"
The group of eight or so approximately nine to ten year olds all scrambled back onto their feet. Only a few stood at attention which displeased Graff even more. If they had been paying attention to their teachers, they would all know that they had to stand like that when addressed by their superiors.
He didn't even want to get started on everything that they were doing wrong.
"Civilians!" He yelled as he paced back and forth. "That's what you all are! Not soldiers! Now get back to class before I kick you out of my school."
Even if Graff wanted to, which he didn't, there was no opportunity for him to add another word. The now scared children all ran out of the room as if there were an actual fire. Graff smiled.
Despite his constant name calling, overly strict, and also downright terrifying personality, he enjoyed his job. Especially when the soldiers actually listened and followed protocol. There was nothing more annoying to him than seeing soldiers slacking off. Unlike the experienced soldiers, they lacked the understanding of how serious all of this was.
The corridor was quiet as Graff re-entered it from the newly empty barracks. The green soldiers had momentarily distracted him from his actual business. That business being Peter Wiggin. Surprisingly, Graff hadn't heard anything about a disturbance from where Peter had been staying all night. It was nice that the boy wasn't much trouble. It meant that it was quite an uneventful night.
Now though, the break was over. Graff knew he had to arrest Peter sooner rather than later, and there was no way to do it without causing some sort of scene. And today he was prepared. six fully armed soldiers, not former students of the BattleSchool, but I.F. officials, walked silently behind Graff as they made their way to Peter's room.
They walked in unison, the slight echo of their steps acting as a type of music that Graff quite enjoyed. After all of their scrambling, trying to find the mastermind behind the new Warsaw Pact, they had finally caught him. Once they officially arrested Peter, the war would be all that much easier.
Graff could only imagine the details the young man knew regarding the Warsaw Pact's strategies, the location of their main bases, and their plans. Once he got his hands on those and gave them to Ender, the young Admiral would blow the other side to hell and back.
"On my count." Graff stood directly in front of the closed door. Three soldiers were on his left, the others on his right, with their weapons drawn.
Graff used his hand to disable the security measures that kept the door closed, and stood back.
"Three...Two...One."
The door burst open under the soldier's boots.
* * * * * * * *
"Excuse me? Have you seen Admiral Wiggin?"
The young Launchy shook her head and continued walking after Alai asked her the question. He sighed, watching her back as she took off toward the hall full of classrooms to their right.
"This is a bunch of kuso! Ender isn't here." Han-Tzu was annoyed, as was Alai. The difference was, only one of them was voicing their frustration.
"He's here." Alai chimed in. "We just need to find someone other than these dirt babies to help us!"
After being dismissed, rather rudely, by Graff when he went to talk with Peter, the two soldiers had slept in the currently empty Salamander Army barracks. Once they woke up this morning, they set out to find their commander. A task that had proven to be more difficult than anticipated.
They started off at his old quarters near Dragon Army's, came up with nothing, and then slowly started weaving their way through the school. So far, they had been to the cafeteria, looked in all of the battle rooms, the exercise room, the classrooms, the majority of the bathrooms, and more than half of the armies.
"I don't remember it being this hard to find somebody before." Han-Tzu groaned.
"Yeah. Somebody." Alai gave Han-Tzu a look. "Ender isn't exactly somebody."
He got no response since Han-Tzu clearly knew he was right. If Ender wanted to stay on the down-low, he could. It was that simple. He had a certain skillset for being invisible when he needed to be. Alai had a hard time being able to comprehend how the most famous war hero in history could somehow disappear in a school full of people. He supposed that it was one of the reasons why everyone called Ender the best. There was truly nobody else quite like him.
"What about the snot armies?" Han-Tzu interrupted Alai's train of thought.
All of the former Battleschoolees called the less successful armies snots. It essentially meant idiot in battle school slang, and since those armies were always in the bottom ten on the scoreboard, the name suited them well.
"It's worth a try."
Alai had all but forgotten about the very easily forgotten armies, and was running out of ideas. Hopefully this was where they would find Ender. That is, if Peter hadn't already found him after his talk with Colonel Graff.
The pair walked side by side through the many lit up corridors to get to the area where they were seeking. Once they got there, both were surprised to find that there were actually quite a lot of soldiers residing in the space. And these weren't Launchies. They were members of Ender's Jeesh.
"Ho, Dink!" Alai waved a little too much as he flagged down the first familiar face he'd seen all day.
Dink Meeker turned away from whatever he was doing, and met eyes with Alai and then Han-Tzu. His face immediately lit up with recognition, and he started to make his way through the crowd of fifteen or so other soldiers towards the two of them.
"Ho, Alai! Ho, Hot Soup!" Dink exchanged pleasantries with both of them before asking, "They brought you in to fight too?"
"Neh!" Han-Tzu answered. "We came here on different business. Do you know where Ender is? We need to speak with him. It's quite urgent."
Dink's expression switched from cheerful teenager to soldier in a matter of seconds. "Yeah. He was with his sister in Lion Army a few minutes ago until they took off toward the departure deck. He's going back to Earth." He pointed to the hall on their left. "Is there something wrong? Should I alert the others?"
Alai smiled to reassure him. "No. It's nothing to do with the war. It's something personal he really needs to know."
"Okay." Dink still appeared unsure, but Alai could see that he brushed it off almost immediately. The smile that was there before resurfaced as he said his next words. "If anything does come up and Ender needs us, you know we'll all be there in a second."
Han-Tzu nodded. "So will we."
After a quick goodbye to Dink, Alai rushed down the hall with Han-Tzu following close behind. If what Dink said was accurate, they couldn't be that far behind Ender, and hopefully they could catch up to him before he got to the starship.
_
"Ho, Ender!" Alai could see someone in the far distance walking beside what looked like a young red head, and could only hope that it was who they were looking for. "Ender!"
He continued to run as the person stopped and turned to see who was shouting. The hall was empty aside from the four of them which Alai was thankful for. As he ran down the long stretch, he could hear the pounding of Han-Tzu's shoes on the ground behind him. The hall was ridiculously long since it led to the outside of the school, away from anyone in order to be deemed safe for departure.
"Alai? what are you doing here?"
As the two soldiers got closer, they slowed to a walk and stopped directly in front of Ender.
"Oh thank God!" Alai couldn't help but say the cliche phrase. "We've been looking for you all day."
He had to stop to catch his breath, and that gave Valentine the opportunity to ask a question.
"These are more members of your Jeesh I take it?"
Alai didn't hear Ender give a response, since he was currently hunched over with his hands on his knees, so he assumed he'd nodded. Once he stood up straight he knew that he needed to do more cardio. Spending over a year sitting at a desk in an I.F. base made him significantly weaker than he had been before.
"Sir," Han-Tzu spoke. "we've come to tell you about your brother."
"Yeah, he's-" Alai was abruptly cut off.
"I'm what?"
Alai didn't have to turn around to know exactly who was standing behind them. Peter. The malice in his voice was unmistakable.
Alai looked up at Ender. The young Admiral's expression was unreadable as his eyes met his older brothers'. He reminded Alai of a stone statue. Unmoving. No emotions. That is, until something changed. Alai could see it, he was sure Han Tzu saw it too, and so could Peter.
Was Ender angry?
* * * * * * * *
Ender couldn't believe his eyes. There, standing barely 4 meters away, was his older brother. He didn't remember the last time they'd been in the same room together. It felt like months. He didn't care to remember.
It was as if the old forbidden Gods had given him a gift. He didn't need to search the Earth for Peter. Somehow, he'd found them.
Ender wanted to feel relief, but as he stared into those deadly-dark eyes, he couldn't help but feel all of the air get sucked out of the room.
Peter may be his brother just as much as Valentine was his sister, but that didn't make him any less a killer.
I'm just like him. Ender thought, his memories of Bonzo and Stilson rising up to the forefront for the thousandth time. He made me the way I am. I knew he was a monster, and I left him to commit murder anyway. The guilt was excruciating.
Ender could feel his hands clench into fists at his sides. His breathing became just a bit more rushed, and his gaze locked on Peter. Nothing else mattered. The only way for him to stop Peter from harming people was to stop him. Permanently.
All of this happened within a couple seconds after Peter's comment. Before the others could anticipate what was about to transpire, Ender's fists we're flying.
His hand met Peter's face with an echoing crack, and the older boy was sent flying back.
"This is for Mazer."
Despite the anger now evident in Ender's expression, his voice remained calm and unwavering.
Stepping past Alai and Han Tzu, he stood over a shocked Peter who was currently holding his broken jaw.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Bug." Peter spat blood as he spoke.
"Admit-"
Ender was on the ground, Peter on top of him, his hands pinned down Ender's shoulders, and his feet stood on top of his ankles. Peter had used his foot to knock Ender off balance, just long enough for him to trap the young teen in his grip.
"Peter please!" Valentine urged. "This is ridiculous. Did you really come here to kill him?"
Peter looked up at Valentine, and as he did so Ender's view consisted of his older brother's chin and neck. Blood dripped from Peter's chin onto Ender's cheeks, and he couldn't help but think that it wasn't enough. Peter needed to lose more blood. Mazer lost everything, and he was going to walk away with nothing more than a broken jaw.
"Of course not, but do you expect me to let the bastard walk after that?" Peter snarled at Valentine. His words were slightly muffled due to his jaw.
"What good is going to come out of you two fighting, again!?" She was grasping onto nonexistent straws.
At that, Peter's grasp on Ender tightened causing the latter to gasp out in surprise. He turned away from Valentine, his snakelike expression filling Ender's vision once more.
"Your soldiers won't help you." He stated, referencing Alai and Han Tzu. "They mustn't love you as much as you thought they did."
Ender grimaced before answering. "They know I can fight my own battles."
Ender smiled, a frightening smile that could rival Peter's before he slammed his head against Peter's.
Ender's vision blurred and a loud ringing overtook the hearing in his ears, but Peter was off. He'd stumbled onto the ground, and Ender took the opportunity to stand up. He was a bit wobbly, but using the wall as support, he managed to get back to his feet before Peter did.
"Commander!?" Alai called. Apparently he didn't look good.
"I'm fine." Ender waved him off and turned back to Peter who was was just getting to his feet.
He had blood dripping in a steady stream down his forehead from his hairline, and his jaw was now caked with the half dry, half dripping liquid.
Ender could feel a throbbing pain in his own head, and figured he was bleeding as well. There was no time to check.
"Come on!" Ender yelled at Peter. He brought his fists up to his chest, and waited for Peter to make a move.
He didn't have to wait long. Peter's fist just missed his face as Ender moved out of the way. He jumped up into the air, his foot flying into his brother's rib cage in return.
He could feel the shattering of bone underneath his foot, and a sickening crack could be heard in response.
Peter cried out, his knee connected with Ender's stomach immediately after, knocking the wind out of him. He kicked repetitively until Ender broke free, and slammed his elbow into his chest.
He hit Peter again and again. He switched to his fist when he got enough room, and swung. He connected with nothing. Peter got a hold of Ender's head and yanked until a handful of his blond hair came away with his fingers.
Ender gave a cry, and involuntarily let go of Peter. This gave his brother an opportunity to take control.
One after another, he punched Ender. In the face, in the stomach, in the chest, in the face again. Before he knew it, he had the young Admiral up against the wall of the corridor, gasping for breath. His attempts at shielding Peter's attacks only worked half of the time.
"I always knew you were pathetic. Just because they trained you, gave you a fancy title, and made you play on an ansible, makes you nothing." He spat in Ender's face. "You've never fought a day in your life and this proves it. If I can beat you, you must've cheated your way to the top."
Ender snarled at Peter, ready to insult him but Peter had other plans. Both of his hands clamped down around Ender's neck and lifted him off the ground.
As a reflex, Ender gasped for breath, and clawed at Peter's ironclad grip on his windpipe.
Peter laughed at his attempts and stepped closer. Ender finally had an opening.
He pushed his feet away from the wall, coughing on the added pressure it added to his throat, and wrapped his legs around the back of Peter's. He applied pressure with his heels to the back of his brother's knees, causing his legs to give out underneath him.
He slid down the wall, his butt hitting the ground. Peter growled in disgust and opened his mouth to shout profanities, as Ender brought his feet around to be placed in between the two of them.
Peter's grip tightened on his throat, and Ender swore he was beginning to see stars. His vision felt foggy, and he began to feel lightheaded. It was only a matter of time before he'd pass out. With all of the force he could muster, he pushed his feet against Peter's stomach, creating distance between them. He kicked and kicked, and as he did Peter yanked his throat even more.
He began to cough violently, his head swimming in the clouds, as his legs worked without direction. His feet connected with Peter's shoulders, and chest, with no avail. Ender could see no other option.
In a last attempt to stay conscious. His foot connected with Peter's crotch.
The hands that held him were gone, replaced by a rapid coughing. Both Peter and Ender slid to the floor like a sack of potatoes. Ender gasped for the breath he so desperately needed and held his throat, all while trying to get back onto his feet.
He succeeded after a lot of effort, and looked around. Alai, Han Tzu, and even Valentine were gone. It was just him and Peter.
Where was Peter?
In a blur,Ender found himself spun around, his body pressed against the wall. His hands were pinned behind him, and he could feel the sickening breath of a serpent against his ear.
"You little bitch!" Peter snarled before bending Ender's arm in an impossible angle.
Ender screamed out as a loud crack could be heard. His arm burned with pain and fell limp at his side as Peter dropped it.
"Hasn't anybody ever told you," Ender started. "that you'll never survive a fight against Ender Wiggin."
Somehow, Peter was on the floor. Ender'd broken free from his older brother's grasp, threw him down to the ground, and climbed on top of him just as Peter had done to him.
His left hand found Peter's throat and he squeezed with all the strength he had. It wasn't enough. He could see he wasn't doing any damage to Peter, so he fought through the pain in his right arm. He swung it around to Peter's neck and grasped his throat with both hands.
As he squeezed, he felt the urge to cry out. The pain in his right arm was becoming too much, but he couldn't stop.
He watched as Peter struggled. His face went from red, to blue, to white. His hands clawed at Ender's but he didn't budge.
This is it. Ender thought as he watched the life slowly leave Peter's body. A life for a life.
And then Ender was thrown off Peter and hit the wall hard.
* * * * * * * *
-AN
Merry December! My plan of a mass update is clearly going poorly. This chapter took a lot of work, and I have two more I'm editing at the moment. Thank you SO SO much for the patience!! I know it was an unbearable and unreasonable wait!
It turns out University life is way different than college! Both are wonderful, but in university time seems to be something I will never have enough of. Thanks again for reading!
As a Christmas gift to my loyal readers, there will be more updates before the New Year. I promise!
-Jess xx