I expected some kind of alarm to be raised when Fire Guy's army realized that one of the small teams they had stationed at the edge of their camp was gone, but that didn't happen. When they did take notice, we watched from the shadows of the lone tree that overlooked the army. It was the only cover that would allow us a full view of the enemy while not drawing attention to ourselves. The branches hung low and we were able to spy on our foes with little worry of being found.

When their ally's disappearance was noticed, a small group of people were called from the center of the army to check out the newly empty campsite. They spoke for a while, not that we could hear them from this distance, but they had apparently decided that it was nothing to worry about. I was puzzled by this and looked to Saris for answers.

"They don't know what happened," he explained. "All they know is that they aren't there anymore. The three people we took out last night could easily have just walked away, or had an argument and killed each other. Another team on their side could have come by and taken them out and just don't want to own up to it."

"So they're not even going to search the area for us?"

"Think of it from their perspective. They have an alarmingly large team. Who's going to make the ridiculous attempt to take it down all by themselves?"

I raised an eyebrow, "Well, we are."

Saris chuckled. "Yeah. But the point is that they feel pretty invincible right now, especially with that leader of theirs. They aren't going to worry about it if three of them go missing."

That raised an important question for me. "When will they worry?"

"We might find out sooner or later. But I'd like to take things slow."

"Do you think they'll let Flamy know about the missing people?" I asked.

"You've seen him. Do you think they'll want to tell him any kind of bad news? I doubt it. They'll think it's better to sweep it under the rug instead of risking his wrath if he gets angry." Then he turned to me, "And you've got to stop calling him Flamy."

"What? It's a great name! What would you call him?"

Saris made a lot of exasperated noises but conceded to my point. "It's fine. Flamy it is...No. Nope. I take it back. Anything is better than Flamy. Pick something else. Anything."

I thought about it. What should I call him? The Human Torch, like from Marvel's Fantastic Four? No, I don't want to give him a hero's name. Pyro? Eeh, makes me think of Spyro The Dragon from the video games. Maybe Fire Lord from the Avatar show? That's pretty good, but not quite right. "I've got it! Fire King." As soon as I said it, I realized it sounded corny and stupid but to my surprise, Saris didn't shoot it down.

"Fine, whatever."

I still wasn't sure about the name. "I'll keep thinking on it."

"Nope," Saris shot me down, "You had one chance. Fire King it is."

Last night, an hour or so after we killed the three attackers from the army below, Saris had snuck down to their tent and took all of the food he could carry. It was the only tent with a light, but no occupants. It was a decent amount for the two of us and we were set to keep an eye on them fairly comfortably for the next few days, but Saris had decided that we would ration the food, so instead of a few days, it would last just over a week. All of the food he brought was simple, dry foods, like peanuts or raisins; things I would call snacks more than meals. At the start of each not-meal, I would be hungry. After I had eaten all I was allowed to eat, I'd only be slightly less hungry. Saris kept us from starving, but only by a little.

A whole day came and went in a haze. Saris and I didn't talk much and I suspected it was because we were too preoccupied keeping an eye on the enemy. Since our sleep was cut short, we used some of the daylight to catch up on it. Saris was intensely focused on the camp below, seemingly taking in every detail. I suspected his residual anger about the graveyard incident was going to make him as calculated and cunning as I had ever seen him. It's not like I wasn't paying attention. I looked out for anyone that I might recognize, but I didn't have the experience that Saris did. I didn't know what most of the people here were capable of, so instead of studying them, I tended to just keep an eye out so I could be sure that we weren't found.

When it was my turn to sleep that night, I tossed and turned, trying to get comfortable. I finally drifted off and dreamt that I was back home, sitting on my couch and playing video games with my friends. The game was my present reality. I controlled myself in the game and I went down the hill to face the army. Surrounded by enemies on all sides, I slashed and shielded myself until the Fire King materialized in front of me. Tommy and Michael cheered me on excitedly and, for a moment, I thought I would win! But then I was engulfed in flames and my avatar died. Heat rose from the controller and burned my hands but it didn't stop there. My crispy hands flaked away and the burns crept upwards, covering my skin and turning it black as I slowly turned to ash.

I woke up with a start, just before Saris nudged me. He looked at me strangely but understood that I'd had a nightmare. "You okay?"

Taking deep breaths to calm my beating heart, I nodded and said, "I'm fine." Then I looked over to him. "Hey. Do you want to borrow my shirt for the night? You've been without one since Anne and I found you."

"I'll be fine," he said, resting against the cool ground and after a moment, he fell asleep.

A part of me was thankful for the nightmare. It woke me up enough so I wouldn't doze off during my night watch. Luckily, my watch was uneventful. I didn't see much activity down below. Occasionally, someone would get up to use the bathroom or just check around, but they never came up our way. I wondered why they were here. They weren't moving anywhere. All day they just stayed in the one spot. Shouldn't they be looking for more players of the game and taking them out? Something seemed off and I made a mental note to ask Saris about it in the morning.

I passed the time by picking grass and tearing it apart. It wasn't exciting, but nothing else was going on and I was still too nervous to get out my phone. Early in the morning, just before the sun came up, a small group of the army's night watchers came together, close to the edge of the camp. They seemed to be in a heated discussion and I wished that I could hear what they were saying. Just then, one of them brandished a curved sword at the man across from him. The handle for the blade covered the man's hand and the overall shape of the weapon made me think of a pirate's sword. The guy at the point of his sword retreated slightly, summoning a large dagger, the handle curved to cover his hand too. For a moment, nothing happened. But then a woman arrived holding a double-sided axe and got between them. It didn't take long for all of the weapons to vanish and the people went their separate ways, going to different parts of the camp.

A short while later, the sun peeked out of the clear sky to our left. I was looking at Pikachu when I heard Saris get up and stretch; it was about six-thirty. I couldn't help but think of Anne when I looked at the watch. It felt wrong that she was gone. She had asked me to protect her and I said I would, but when the chips were down, where was I? Hiding. A part of me knew that if I had fought against Fire King, I would have lost, but another part of me wondered if that was really true.

Saris walked over to me, "Anything interesting?"

I shook my head, "Not really. Some of them had some kind of argument, maybe a half-hour ago, but it didn't come to anything."

"You need some sleep?"

I felt pretty good and was eager to move. Sitting in one place wasn't doing me any favors. I had energy and didn't know what to do with it, not wanting to attract attention from below. I had a feeling we weren't the only ones eager to move. Looking down towards the army, I said, "I'm good. Hey, I have a question."

"Shoot."

"Why aren't they going anywhere?"

Saris considered my question for a moment. "I'm not sure. It's been bothering me too. On one hand, it can be difficult to move that many people efficiently, but that usually just means that it takes a while to get from place to place. They don't seem to be interested in doing anything. That argument you mentioned earlier might be related to it."

"You think they might be having second thoughts about following Fire King?"

Saris hesitated when he heard me call him by the new nickname. "Sure. Nobody can make everyone happy. I'm sure there's plenty of people down there that aren't satisfied with what's going on right now."

How many of the people below were there only because they were afraid of Fire King? Did anyone try to prevent the attack on the cemetery? Or had everyone here already given up and decided to follow him so he could win and leave as soon as possible? I shook my head. I couldn't think like this right now. It didn't make a difference if there were people who were simply too afraid to go against him. Our goal remained the same; take down Fire King.

After a few hours of watching the army and waiting for them to do something interesting, I got bored and looked at Saris. What did I really know about him? He was an assassin and a wicked good fighter. He could copy people's abilities or attributes and he was a tactical thinker. Was that it? I guess I now knew he had seen Pinocchio but he hadn't seen The Lion King. We were just sitting here, we might as well get to know each other.

"Hey, Saris?"

"Hmm?"

"Tell me about yourself."

Saris looked at me, his brows furrowed slightly, "Why?"

"Uhh...because." When he didn't say anything I added, "Oh, come on!"

Saris chuckled, "Well...what do you want to know?"

I shrugged. "Anything. Whatever you feel comfortable with. What was your childhood like?"

"I grew up in an orphanage. Didn't know my family."

"Oh. So you have foster parents?"

Saris shook his head. "No. I wasn't that lucky. Eventually, the government came by; some experimental division or something. They took me and trained me to be an assassin when I was young."

"How young were you?"

"Seven."

"Seven?" My eyes bugged out.

"Years later, I learned that it had been off the record; very secret and illegal. I'm not even sure if the president knew about it."

I remembered Saris telling me the first time he killed someone. He said he had to do it with his bare hands because he missed with his gun. "How old were you on your first mission?"

"Thirteen."

"Wow," was all I could think to say. "Were all of your missions for assassination?"

"No. There was some recon stuff, a few security details and surveillance, but the division I was taken to wanted to train someone specifically for assassinations. So I became the primary assassin for anything that took place in the states. That's not to say I was the only one, but when a mission came up, they looked to me first." Saris looked up at the clear sky for a moment, then peered back down to the enemy below. "Eventually, I got to pick the missions I wanted, instead of having to take every one they gave me. When I turned eighteen, they let me choose my life. There was a lot of debate around that. Plenty of people didn't want to give me the option to leave, but ultimately, they gave me the choice."

"What did you do?"

"I stayed on. It was all I knew. But since I was older, they treated me better. I had to sign a contract, which I was careful to read over, and I got to choose the missions I wanted. I was only required to do a certain number of jobs each year and every three years, I'd get a new contract. They tried to sign me up for a decade-long contract, but I refused."

"How come? Wouldn't it have been easier?"

Saris nodded, "Probably. But I didn't know what else was out there and I didn't want to be pinned down to serve my time with them if I was ready to leave."

This time I nodded, "That's smart."

"Well, kind of. Whenever the contract needed renewing, they kept upping the number of missions I had to take. I think they were trying to pressure me into the longer contract, but what it really did was start pushing me away."

"Why didn't you quit?"

"I was going to. I had finished my required contracts and was doing one more job. I wanted a little extra cash."

"What were you going to do with it?"

Saris smiled faintly, but it was gone almost as soon as it had appeared. "I was going to get married."

"Woah! I didn't even know you had met someone. You totally skipped that part. Backup. When did you meet? What's her name?"

"Relax," Saris chuckled. "We met while I was on a job. Her name is Rayne. We hit it off and after my mission was over, I decided that I would live there."

"Where was it?"

"Yeah, you're not gonna believe me, but it was in Michigan."

"No way! That's where I live!"

Saris chuckled, "I know."

"Wait," I held up a hand, "Where were you when you were pulled into this?"

"I had been on a mission out in Washington when the game started for me."

Suddenly, I was sad for Saris. He hadn't been able to properly say goodbye to Rayne. Maybe he did, but I'm sure he thought he'd be back before too long. I turned to him and asked, "How long have you been here Saris?"

"You've asked me that before. I told you. I don't know. This is my eleventh cycle."

"Then, what year were you taken?"

"Xander," he said firmly, "your first cycle was over in a couple weeks. Mine was more than five months and that's not the longest cycle I've been a part of. I don't want to know how long I've been here. Do you know why?" He didn't wait for me to respond. "Because I don't want to think that there's no one waiting for me to get out of here. There's only one person that I want to be there for me and... I'm just not sure I'm ready to accept that she's moved on."

I didn't know what to say, so I settled on an apology. "Sorry."

"You don't have to be."

"Well, I am. I know that I'm not the reason you're here, but it sucks that anyone has to be here. So for what it's worth, I'm sorry."

Saris stared at me for a long time. "It's worth a lot. Thanks."

Then I got an idea. "Saris, let's text her!"

"What?"

"Yeah! We'll text Rayne and let her know that you're coming home. I'll bet you remember her number, right?"

"First of all, if she has moved on, I don't need to make her choose between a possibility of seeing me again and staying with whoever she's with now."

I waited but when nothing else came, I asked, "And second?"

Saris huffed, irritated, "Get your phone out."

As my phone loaded up, I asked, "Does she know that you're an assassin?"

"Yeah, I told her."

"So, she probably thinks you're dead."

"Yeah."

"What are you gonna say?" Saris thought for a minute and I pulled up a new message screen. He gave me the number and told me what to say. "You sure?" I asked. "This doesn't make much sense to me."

"It will to her."

The message read:

I'm sorry I couldn't make it June 1st but I hope we can try again sometime when I get back.