Status: Edited

"You saw the way he protected her. He'll do anything for her."

"I know, and that's what worries me."

"I'm sure it won't cause any harm. He can confide in her, which should lift his burden and help him continue through his training. This is exactly what we need."

"I'm positive this will get in the way. He's supposed to be giving training his full attention."

"Don't be so proud. You're just upset that you didn't see this coming."

"This will do nothing but slow his progress. Love is a weakness, and you're a fool to think otherwise."

. . .

I had just finished getting dressed when Ender came rushing into the barrack. All eyes turned to him at once.

A grim expression was set across his face, but he looked more well rested than he had in a long time. The circles under his eyes had thankfully disappeared for the time being. Memories of last night invaded the forefront of my thoughts at the sight of him. I couldn't suppress the grin the spread across my features.

He spoke immediately. "I hope everyone learned something yesterday, because we're doing it again today. Battle against Phoenix Army at 0700 hours," he said.

Someone yelled from the back of the room, surfacing from behind their bunk. "It must be a mistake! No one's ever had a battle two days in a row!"

Ender's eyes landed darkly on the speaker, but he said nothing. Instead, he thrust a small slip of paper into my hand. I skimmed it over quickly before looking up. "Flash suits," I shouted. Everyone rushed to change, muttering mutinously to one another.

As we suited up, Ender's voice rung out around us. "We can't count on the old way of things anymore. They're changing the rules. But I know I have an army that can handle it." He gazed around proudly at us as we lined up in formation at the front of the room.

Right then and there, if Ender had asked us to follow him to the moon, we would have.

The battle against Phoenix Army was much more intense than Rabbit's. Petra, the commander of Phoenix, was flexible to our attacks, responding much quicker than Carn Carby had. By the end of the game, nine of us had been disabled, but only three were flashed, while we'd left the entire Phoenix Army disabled. Once again, we'd won.

. . .

We'd won seven battles by the end of the week, without a single lose. It might have been easy for other armies to hate Ender, but he made it very difficult not to respect him. It was no secret that Dragon Army had fought and won a battle every day for the last seven days.

It steadily became more apparent that other armies were beginning to use Ender's style as well. In more and more in battles, we were seeing the other army shoot from their gate with their knees bent, flying downward towards us.

As the days went on, Ender would dissappear time and time again into the video room in his free time. When I asked him about it one day, he said he was looking for new tactics, but didn't elaborate.

Curious to see what he was doing with all his time in the video room, I followed him one time. I watched from the doorway as he sat down before a screen, pulling up one of the formic vids that had often been shown back in Earth schools as propaganda. I continued to observe as he replayed the video a few times before making my way over to him.

"They don't show you anything more than that, do they?" I asked from behind his chair, studying the screen.

Ender barely reacted to my presence, but shook his head, eyes remaining on the video. We watched as a single fighter exploded the huge formic ship. He spoke after a moment. "All Mazer Rackhem's vids are cut short. They just show the formics' ship exploding, but there's nothing here about how we actually won."

I didn't respond and instead watched as he replayed the video once again. When we'd seen it three more times, I finally let out a harsh breath. Ender swiveled his chair around to face me, watching my expression carefully. "How could one single ship win the entire battle?" I asked, exasperated as I stared perplexed at the paused screen. "It doesn't make sense. We were losing."

Ender let out a troubled sigh. "That's what I'm trying to figure out. Knowing how we actually won might help us win our next game." He paused, seeming to look through me for a moment. "Obviously, that information would be useful for more than just the game, but right now I just need to worry about pulling us through our next battle."

"I'm sure you'll lead us through our next battle just fine, Ender." I smiled gently. "Like always." I bent slightly to kiss his cheek softly. "I'm going to head off to lunch. Don't fry your brain in here." And with that, I set out.

As word got out that Ender was spending time studying the vids, other commanders started visiting the video room to watch the formic invasion vids as well. No one seemed to be gleaning much of anything from them, however.

I'd started to make a habit of coming to the vid room with Ender, which he didn't have a problem with. Often times, he would even asked for my thought on some videos.

One day while we were watching another video on the formic invasion, Major Anderson stepped into the room. All eyes followed him as he approached Ender. "Colonel Graff wishes to see you in his office," he said, not a hint of emotion on his face.

Ender stood and followed Anderson. He turned back to me at the door and I sent him a questioning look, to which he shrugged in response. He disappeared into the corridor after the major.

I headed back the the barracks after that, settling down on my bed with my desk, wondering what Colonel Graff could possibly want with Ender. I was still pondering possibilities when said boy dashed into the room.

In a second, Ender had ordered three of the boys to go collect the rest of the army, wherever they were in their free period. Once they'd gone, he addressed the rest of us, telling us to get into our flash suits.

Ender spoke in a rush once everyone had arrived. "There's no time to explain. They gave Bonzo a notice twenty minutes ago. By the time we get there, they'll have been in the battle room for a good five minutes."

Cries of outrage filled the room. I sent Ender a worried look as our eyes connected across the room.

"That's two battles in one day!" One of the boys shouted angrily.

Ender's voice was cold as he addressed the soldier. "Right, but are you going to let this be our first loss?"

A stiff silence settled over the room. Ender had us form up before leading us on a jog to the battle room. By the time we got there, many were panting raggedly. A bad sign.

The gate was already open when we arrived, but it didn't seem like Salamander had entered yet. Inside, the lights had been turned completely up and there wasn't a star in sight. There was no where to hide, not even in darkness.

Crazy Tom spoke up first, confusion evident as he voiced what we were all wondering at the moment. "They haven't come out yet either," he observed.

Ender swiftly held up a finger to his lips, signaling us to be quiet. He pointed around the perimeter of the gate.

Suddenly, realization flooded through me. Salamander had undoubtedly stationed themselves around our gate, waiting to open fire on us as we passed through.

Ender motioned us away from the door and pulled Crazy Tom to the front. He had him kneel and sit back on his heels before flashing him. We watched as his suit seized up around him. Ender then had Bean kneel on top of Crazy Tom's legs, pull out his gun, and sticking his hands between Crazy Tom's armpits.

We understood the message in an instant. Crazy Tom was a shield for Bean. He wouldn't be untouchable, but it would give him time to shoot as many Salamander's as possible coming out of the gate.

Ender assigned two of the boys to throw Crazy Tom and Bean through the door, but signalled them to wait. He then went around and broke the rest of the army into groups of four. One shield, one shooter, and two throwers.

I was assigned as a shooter with Hot Soup as a shield. Once everyone was in position, Ender motioned for the throwers to toss their shield and shooter out into the room before following.

The second we entered the battle room, shots were flying everywhere. I shot with terrifying accuracy at any moving Salamander I saw. In less than a minute, none were unfrozen.

In the end, Dragon had twenty frozen or disabled, leaving only twelve undamaged. We'd managed to win, but had attained our worst score yet.

Major Anderson launched out of Salamanders' gate a minute later. But when he arrived, Ender didn't give him a chance to speak. I could see through his mask that his face had flushed red with anger.

He glowered at Anderson. "If you're going to cheat, why don't you at least teach the other armies to cheat intelligently!"

Anderson opened his mouth to speak, but Ender cut him off swiftly, barely in control of us temper. "Bean! What would you have done?"

Bean responded without hesitation. "I would have kept a moving pattern, sir, since the enemy knew where we were. It would make us harder to shoot."

My eyes were immediately drawn to the Salamander commander. I could see Bonzo glaring fixedly at Ender as he drifted near our gate. It made me feel like I'd been frozen, even though I'd been one of the twelve who remained undamaged. My heart beat increased dangerously.

Anderson cut in before Ender could speak again. "I suggest you remobilize your army," he stated, his expression unreadable.

Ender snatched the teachers hook from the major and pressed the button to thaw both armies at the same time. He continued to glare coldly at the teacher. "Dragon Army dismissed!"

I followed the rest of Dragon out of the battle room, my mind reeling. The teachers had meant for us to lose. It was only Bonzo's sheer stupidity that had won us the battle. I shook my head silently. Ender had always cautioned me about Bonzo's Spanish pride, yet he'd just purposefully humiliated him in front of both armies. If he hadn't already hated Ender, I was certain he did now.