"You know, I find this almost too perfect," Ender said, as he sipped his tea. "Granted, you've been a thorn in my side, but at the same time, think of the wonder of this many world travelers in the same place. I've never heard of such a phenomenon."

Shine wasn't answering.

"Not amused?" Ender said. "I suppose you're wondering why I'm here. I know why you're here. You came for those kids."

"Just answer me one thing," Shine spoke, her voice thin. "Are you really one of us? Were you a World Walker? Or are you having a bit of mad science fun?"

"Mad science is a demeaning term for it, but I think you know already." Ender's eyes darkened a little. "You can sense it, as much as I can sense your death-like aura."

Shine bit her lip. "You're one of us," she said, "or you were.... What was your real name?"

"Is Shine your real name?" Ender said.

"As much as any name we humans call ourselves is real," Shine said. "I don't know what my real name is."

"Ah, a reference to Revelation, isn't it? Clever," Ender said. "Well, my mortal name was and is Lucian Connigssu. I kept the last name."

"Lucian," Shine said, "derivative of Lucifer, angel of light. Means 'light' or 'bringer of light'. While the connection to the devil is not exactly flattering, in of itself, it's a good name. It's like mine."

"A little more subtle perhaps, but yes." Ender sipped more tea.

Shine cringed. "Are you doing that just because I do?"

"We Dimensional people like to keep our hands busy, a habit we pick up from always having to think about time," Ender said. "Am I offending you?"

"Lucian," Shine repeated it. "I am puzzled. Why are you here? I know you weren't assigned here."

"I'm surprised you'd ask that. You don't know much about us free agents, do you?" Ender said.

"Free? In what way are you free?" Shine said.

"Oh, don't try to be clever, Likstar. Let us understand each other, please. You know, I once was just like you. I set out to save worlds and people.... I thought small back then."

"Or did you think realistically?" Shine said.

"You think you're realistic?" Ender said. "Realistic is not thinking that the idea of going to another world, when you'd be better off improving your own, is a legitimate use of your time. And realistic is realizing that limiting yourself the way you by-the-book people do is making yourself just as useless in that world as you were in yours. Admit it, my guess is, at home, you're no one special. You have few friends and few interests, and you spend more time thinking about other realities than you do your own."

Shine was silent.

"I'm right, aren't I?" Ender said.

"It's not uncommon for us to have ordinary lives while we're at home," Shine said.

"Oh, well, I used to attend school and play games," Ender said, "so I know all about that. Waste of time, really. The public school system is terrible. I was better off studying on my own."

"I'm surprised you cared to after experiencing education done the wrong way," Shine said.

Ender sniffed. "I have an inquisitive mind--one of our common qualities, isn't it?"

"We are not alike," Shine said. "Don't insult me by comparing us."

"It's not an insult if it's true. I think we must have once been the same kind of DJ," Ender said. "I was like you, a thinker. I could read people, understand their weaknesses, and what they wanted. I tried to help them, give them a sense of purpose." He stared at his cup. "I did my best."

Shine tilted her head. "And you stopped."

"Not really, I just became wise to how futile it is to try to do all that without power." Ender gestured around with one hand. "No one listens to you, do they? Until you show them what you can do. What was it? 'A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign'? Nothing new under the sun."

"Is this to garner sympathy?" Shine said. "Because if it was, you should not have done what you did to Tenko."

"That boy had it coming," Ender said. "Come, you know as well as I do what a small-minded, petty, weakling he is."

"I don't see it that way," Shine said.

"No, you're still trying to believe people have good sides," Ender said, sounding amused. "But people don't, Likstar. Given the chance, they all revert to their basest instincts. Enough fear and enough hate, and they'll do anything to get away from it. They start off so promising, I admit.... My associates, they all thought they'd help people at some point with their research, but do you know what happened?"

"The artist effect," Shine said. "Lewis wrote of it. In time they began to value the thing not for the sake of helping humans but for its own sake, and it's an idol."

"Yes, and they are consumed by it," Ender said. "Such is the way of scientists and artists. They get lost in the joy of doing it and cease to care about the people they crush in the path of knowledge. The tree of knowledge of good and evil was the one we weren't to eat from."

"If you know that, why do you use them?" Shine said.

"It's the only thing left to do," Ender said. "Use them for some purpose, some good purpose, in order to justify their existence at all. You have to admit, it's more than your Master will ever do."

"It sounds like what He does to me," Shine said. "And have you forgotten Him? Whatever name you called Him by."

"I was always partial to Jehovah," Ender said. "Nice ring to it. Never went door to door though." He smirked. "But, well, we disagree a little on the rules. He's so limiting."

"And you really think you can stand to disagree with God?" Shine said. "That you can put your understanding against His, and it will measure up?"

"Perhaps he is not all knowing," Ender said. "Show me where in the Bible it says that He will tell us every little detail...or our future."

"It says He will direct our steps," Shine said. "Proverbs."

"He did not direct mine." Ender's eyes hardened even more. "Do you know when I got my gift I was ecstatic? I thought, how many people can I help? I thought, naively, that people wanted to be helped and didn't just prefer to be the same miserable wretches they were before. I went to my world, and I joined their army."

"That was true?" Shine said.

"Oh, yes, the writer was bound to get  a few details right." Ender shrugged slightly. "My powers made me a useful asset to them. I set about making friends with my bunk mates.... I thought I would teach them, the way you did...and for a time, it worked. We were getting along."

"I saw," Shine said.

"Then you know what happened next," Ender said, "while...it was a little different than that insulting movie showed. It wasn't just one man, and it wasn't that swift...but they did lie to us. We sacrificed thousands of people in that war...and then, I annihilated an entire race."

"Of bug people?" Shine said.

That must have been a sore point.

"No!!" Ender actually emoted, causing the holograms around to rattle and then sharpen. "That insufferable Card! He had such a wild imagination. Bug people, really--like I'd care about a bunch of insects?!"

Shine flinched. "Easy there, crazy," she said.

"You, shut up," Ender said. "They were real people.... Sometimes the natives called them Buggers. I suppose that's where it started. A whole planet of them--they weren't exactly human, but humanish..."

"Okay," Shine said. "And you...really did wipe them out."

"I thought it was a game!!" Ender said.

"So far the movie seems pretty on point," Shine said. "So...is it true you took the queen to another world?"

"There were a few survivors." Ender returned to his normal cold tone. "But do you think they would have been allowed to live in that world?"

Shine stared at him.

"You know that taking people from one world to another, without a specific calling and mission, is forbidden," she said seriously. "You could upset history, mix powers. People need to be trustworthy."

"Did He think of that before He allowed their entire race to be snuffed out?" Ender snapped. "Did He warn me before it happened? You're so quick to fall back on the rules. I was tasked to prevent that, and I didn't."

"You failed," Shine said. 

Ender clenched a fist. "It was never going to be possible to win, knowing so little."

"Perhaps you made a mistake earlier on," Shine said. "You could learn from it, but failure is always possible. We are merely mortal."

"'To err is human,'" Ender quoted. "That is the problem with mortals, isn't it?"

Shine didn't like the way he said that, like he wasn't mortal.

"And what happened when you took them?" She asked. "Did it end well?"

Silence.

"For a time," Ender said, "they did well, in my world.... Mine was something like this one...a bit farther back in time...but...I believe the writer wrote that it went well. He didn't get any visions of the distant future though.... I revisited their world. I thought I would check, see if it would welcome them back.... I found only rejoicing that they were gone. They would have been crushed as soon as they returned...and then I went home, and I found they'd developed some...side effects.... The environment of my world didn't suit them. Over a period of time, they...wasted away.... I tried to stop it. I used my powers to heal.... Nothing worked."

"It would take God's blessing," Shine said. "You disobeyed Him."

"And is He so petty He will not help some innocent people, just for that?" Ender said. "They all died, Likstar.... My failure, as you said, was complete, but I ask, was it really mine? He could have helped them, or provided a different place to live, or persuaded their own world to accept peace, but it didn't happen. Of course after that, I couldn't face my old friends. I swore never to return to that world."

He smiled. "Though I suspect the longer reaching effects of their tactics no doubt made it end in civil war some time ago now. I saw it coming, but they didn't heed my warnings, so they brought it on themselves."

"It takes longer than a few months," Shine said, "to change that. We've been here a year, there's still lots to be done."

"Ah, you mean your mission to bring peace between Hero and Villain?" Ender sounded amused. "Yes...I suspected you were trying that some time ago...which is why I sabotaged it."

A pause ensued.

"You...what?" Shine said.

"Nezu was easy to persuade," Ender said coolly. "He was already bitter against humans. Can't say I blame him. A little direction, and he worked against you every time, stirring up strife with these students, didn't he? Set the staff against you."

Shine's mouth dropped open.

"Mostly I just had to suggest things to him," Ender said. "Akume could use dreams for it, in a way. Panniku could aggravate fear...but Nezu has plenty of bitterness of his own, and he's clever. Mostly he did it himself. No doubt he would have sabotaged the school even without you there, but you made it so easy to get him to take even more risks, trying to have you eliminated...and then, Ujiko, he didn't know how long we were watching him, supplying things, helping him find people to turn to nomu. But I knew if he just saw you threatening his way, he'd try to kill you off and your friends too."

Shine swallowed. 

"I saw what they would do," Ender said. "And while I don't make them do things, I was always ready to help them--resources, powers, quirks...everything. My followers flocked to me when I arrived, thanks to Akume's research. I was just what they needed. They didn't even ask for details about why I knew all this, I just did.... Oh, I spent years after my failure studying different technology, studying human psychology, and learning all manner of useful things."

"Was witchcraft one of them?" Shine said tightly.

"You shouldn't be so close minded," Ender said. "Even if He will not aid us, any number of entities are perfectly willing to lend a hand. We called them false gods, but to me, they're far more useful than yours. You've never even seen Him."

"No man has seen God at any time," Shine said.

"Convenient," Ender said. "Always your excuse, isn't it? I used to believe that...but people see what they want to see, and some gods will show themselves."

"You cannot be this foolish," Shine said. "And...you're claiming it was you, ever since we arrived..."

"I don't know about that," Ender said. "It took me some time to realize you were here.... In fact, I believe I arrived later, some time after Overhaul's move...that fool. I've been searching for a good world to use...and this one, well, it's ripe for the taking. So much chaos and tension and struggle, with highly powerful people. Some of them are already afflicted with spiritually inflicted hang ups. It was on a path to a total collapse, even without me, but...with my skills and experience, I could have led them to a new world...but you and that idiot," glancing at Wally, "you were here already," Ender said, eyes narrowing. "He had decided to thwart me yet again, or so He thought.... So I bided my time, gathered my forces, and learned what I could about you. I had Kali and the LOV spying on you for months. But the LOV became less and less interested...thanks again to your interference, and so I fell back on her. She was a good spy, my first friend here, actually. She had a sad life, you know."

"I don't know anything about her," Shine said, "other than you let her die."

Ender was unmoved. "It was her time.... Kali's parents were interesting people, interested in people like me and in power like mine. They worked with Akume for a while, but one of his experiments unfortunately took their lives. Their daughter was quite fascinated by their work, however, and she was more than willing to abdicate her Hero career-- I'm pretty sure she only took that job so she could finally use her powers without people being repulsed by them.... You see, she had a difficult time growing up. She was a born sadist and no mistake, but...you know, for a while, she thought that was something bad about her. She used to feel ashamed of her enjoyment of hurting people and her corrupting effect on them."

"You could have helped her," Shine said.

"I did help her. I showed her the use for talents like that," Ender said. "She ceased to feel ashamed for it, but that inferiority complex of hers.... Well, your student, Utsushimi, she got in the way. Kali never could let go of a grudge.... Eventually I realized she was too far gone. She would always put her vengeance first. Sooner or later she'd have betrayed me for it, I believe. So, I let AFO kill her...but I'll fulfill her wishes. That is my last gift to an old friend. A sad story, isn't it?"

Shine felt sick. "You're...repulsive."

"You used your students' talents for your own purposes. Am I really so different?" Ender said. "I even know you took them out of world."

"I was commissioned," Shine said. "We didn't destroy anything."

"And you brought that woman back here."

"She has been called. Do not try to make this out to be the same thing," Shine said. "I do not follow my own wisdom."

"But you trust in your judgment," Ender said. "You trust even now, that you're right, and I'm wrong, and is that really because God told you, or is it because you've come to that conclusion on your own? Because of your overly simplistic way of looking at life."

"I've heard that one before," Shine said. "You won't sway me with a paltry attack like that."

"You tell him, Babe," Wally called.

Ender frowned, and the claws jerked him.

"Are you okay?" Shine called.

"Oh, you know, hanging in there," Wally said. "I...uh, can't use my speed on these things, by the way."

"Yes, I'm afraid I'm disrupting even the speed force," Ender said. "I don't really read comic books, but I finally did find out where he was from. I think I know how to contain him now. Those things will keep him nice and cold."

Shine frowned.

"What exactly is the point of you telling me your life story?" she asked. "It's interesting and tragic...but, you know, I'm not going to take your side. I know God too well by now to doubt Him. Even if I did, your methods are reprehensible. I am repulsed by them at every angle, so what is the point?"

"Well, it was less to enlighten you than it was to learn about you," Ender said. "I believe I've heard of many of your missions.... You've gotten around a lot. You've completed more missions than I ever did, working for Him..and so far, you think they're successful. But the worlds you go to will fall into disarray again, inevitably."

"I was never under the impression I could stop that, but preserving more people for longer was always our goal," Shine said.

"A small goal. In the end, who does it help...? I studied your ninja world. You became close to that Sasuke boy, didn't you? But yet, you couldn't stop all the horrible things that happened to him from his childhood on up, and he knew that...so he believes you for now, but in the future, when things like that happen again, and you won't be there either, he'll hate you. "

"He has learned to accept that life is not in our control," Shine said. "Life and Death are in God's hands."

"And that will comfort him greatly when God chooses more people to be massacred," Ender said. "But it's the same here. The Originals, such a fine group of people, so willing to do what is necessary for their cause, have massacred many people, and you could stop that. I'm amazed your own students even trust you now as it is. I know mine would turn on me."

"Sounds like you didn't go back to give them a chance," Shine said. "And if they knew you as well as ours know us, they might have talked some sense into you, but you cut them off, didn't you? Cut off anyone who could ever know who you really are, and you made yourself a god. Is that about right?"

Ender shrugged. "If you want to call it that, but I think I'm just doing what's best for everyone."

"By killing them? By plunging their world into darkness?"

"The darkness is only temporary, and darkness is good, you know. Even your Bible said God made the darkness."

"But those who fell took the darkness into themselves, and used it to hide their deeds," Shine said, "which is why we are bearers of light. And one day, God will throw away darkness altogether because it has turned against Him."

"If He did not expect us to make our own choices, why give us free will?" Ender said. "You are the fool, Likstar. You think it matters what you choose, if you work for Him, but it's only ever one choice, really. Real freedom is to leave off His orders and learn to think for yourself."

"You sound like The Unman from Perelandra," Shine said. "It's a world walking story. I trust you're familiar with it."

"You dare compare me to that monster?" Ender said. "Now you are trying my patience." He clenched the cup, and it...unmade itself. It just unraveled into molecules and then vanished.

It was somehow nauseating to see.

"I call it as I see it," Shine said. "Lucian...why did you abandon Our Lord? You might have failed, but our results are not guaranteed. We are like any other human...and that is okay. Being human is all right. I don't know where your error was, but just because the results were horrific doesn't mean you sinned greatly--we just never know...and you could have been forgiven. The Lord could have saved them. Why didn't you turn to him? Why did you snatch the power for yourself and use it your way? And when that didn't work, why didn't you understand that? We're supposed to know better."

"Don't be so melodramatic," Ender said coldly. "You speak of things you don't understand. You don't know what it's like to fail a mission yet, Likstar.... You have a partner here and protegees...things I never had. Perhaps He shows favoritism, but it won't save you. Because I intend to ensure that you have the same experience I had."

Shine's eyes widened. "What?"

"You brought them here for me, which was kind of you," Ender said. "I hoped you would. And now, when they are all dying, you can feel what I felt, and when I plunge this world into darkness for a time, you can know the sting of failure...and He'll turn His back on you, as He did to me...and then, and only then, can you tell me you understand."

Shine stood up. "I have lost people too, Ender, some of them because of you. Stain, Jeanist, Burnin, and some of those Originals, and Kurogiri...and you did that on purpose, didn't you? Did you kill them just to get to me?"

"I did more than that," Ender said. "I encouraged AFO to torture that boy, and his League, because I knew you were trying so very hard to sway him to your side.... Peace is that what you offer them? Love? Well, instead they will get Fear, Hate, and Pain."

Shine recoiled. "And why do you feel the need to describe this to me? We've never met."

Ender stood also. "I guess I just hate your blindness. You need to be taught how things are. And if you won't agree, then I will use you anyway."

"You're...jealous of me," Shine said, "my success...and Wally's."

"West's is dependent on yours, as far as I can see. You're the elder World Walker of the two, and it's more of a triumph to teach you," Ender said. "And now your friends are perishing. It's only justice--mine have been killed because of them."

"Because of you," Shine said.

"Your reasoning falls on deaf ears, Likstar.  I know your kind are tricky," Ender said. "But you're trapped here now. You can't portal out of here. Did I forget to mention that?"

Shine realized he was right.

"I understand you," Ender said. "That is why I wanted to have this chat, so I could understand you. Because once I understand my enemy, I know how to defeat them...and I also love them."

Shine was disgusted.

"But when I love them, I destroy them," Ender said. "I learned that years ago. Love is useless, Likstar. It doesn't save people's lives or guarantee their happiness." 

"You are willing to take both those things from them."

"From the people you touched," Ender said. "I will purge everyone you spoke to, everyone you tainted, from this world. They're all beyond reach--that's been proven! You aren't saving their lives, you're dooming them. You got in my way! They could have lived in peace. I would never have touched them!"

Shine leaned away from him, stricken.

* * *

Even as Ender was saying this, the scenarios the others were lost in got much worse.

Bakugo found himself surrounded by steam and fire.

Shoto felt like he was getting feverish, and the fire and ice also got much closer to him.

Camie couldn't think anymore because so many people were all yelling at her--and then they were coming out of the mirrors and actually shoving at her.

Dabi began to feel faint as the fire singed him.

Mabui was losing her grip on the tree.

Silk had it pretty bad. She now saw a huge spider also in the web, coming towards her, jaws open.... She just about fainted when she saw that.

Mirko hit a dead end and could hear the three-headed dog closing in on her--she felt like a hunted animal, and she looked back in terror.

Shigaraki was cowering away from AFO, but AFO wasn't attacking, yet. He was just watching. Then he started to come close, hand out. Shigaraki hit the fence and had nowhere to run.

* * *

"Come, see what I've done to them." Ender stood.

Shine recoiled. "I don't know if I really care to see your tricks."

Some force shoved her forward, and Ender grabbed her by the arm--he was stronger than he really should have been. Shine was a tall woman and had gained some strength on these missions, but Ender yanked her effortlessly across the floor.

"I insist," he said.

"Hey, leave her alone, you crazy creep!" Wally yelled at him, but the claws still held him in place.

Ender dragged Shine to the monitor. There was a square for each person.

Shine took in in. "You're torturing them," she said, "with...their greatest fears?"

"Well, I'm not sure it's that precise." Ender sounded like a doctor. "For instance, I doubt Silk's greatest fear is really giant spiders...but think of the reflection of her greatest fears--that she's that bloodsucking monstrosity? In a way they are all dueling themselves or their pasts. Shigaraki's is a bit more brazen, isn't it? No one else is seeing their actual past. Honestly, I think the rabbit got off easy. Greek mythology is interesting."

Shine jerked free. "And you don't intend to let them go, is that right? Or do I have to do something?"

"I assume you're noble enough to die for them, right?" Ender said.

Shine nodded.

"No," Wally said, scared.

"That's too easy, then," Ender said. "But...oh, here's a fun idea. The impossible choice, like what I was given. I make you choose--Either your husband is put into this machine, or, they can all be frightened to death."

"Between my husband and my children?" Shine said. "That is you choice?"

Ender shrugged. "I think it will punish you more to have to choose than it would to be tortured yourself. You have an annoying habit of ruining that, so I got tired of trying it."

"You sick freak," Wally gasped. "Shine, don't you do it! It's a trick!"

"I know it's a trick," Shine said.

"Shut up," Ender said. The claws suddenly covered Wally's mouth. "No outside help. Now choose."

"I'm not stupid," Shine said. "The two goblets, right? But either I choose, I die."

Ender's eyes narrowed. "Oh?"

Shine held up her sword. "You said I couldn't attack the maze, but you never said I couldn't attack you. That's the answer, isn't it? I fight you, and if I win, this all stops?"

"No guarantee of that," Ender said. "And if you really want to fight me, in my element, do you honestly expect to win?"

"I don't expect I am stronger than you," Shine said. "This is your death trap, and you're leaking negative energy into this area by the second with that gate." She took a stance. "But I do perceive I have no choice. Perhaps God will deliver you into my hand, like Goliath."

"Or perhaps this is your moment of humiliation," Ender said, eyes turning black as night...which was unnerving to see.

"Since you use a sword, I guess I'll oblige by matching it," he added. A black sword formed out of the darkness above their heads, from the look of it.

Shine noticed it wasn't raining in here, though she saw no roof...creepy.

Wally struggled frantically against the claws or to get his mouth free, but it was way stronger than he expected. He was getting tired just trying.

"You'll have to defeat me quickly," Ender said, like it was a game, "or they'll die anyway."

He struck at her.

Shine blocked it. His force was much greater than she thought.... Well, she suspected after how he grabbed her, but still. She stumbled back a few feet.

She'd heard that people like this had inhuman strength. She supposed she was seeing it now.

Not sure what else to do, she began to recite a psalm:

 "'I sought the Lord, and He heard me,
And delivered me from all my fears...

'6 This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him,
And saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him,
And delivers them.

'The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears,
And delivers them out of all their troubles.
18 The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart,
And saves such as have a contrite spirit.

'19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
But the Lord delivers him out of them all.
20 He guards all his bones;
Not one of them is broken.
21 Evil shall slay the wicked,
And those who hate the righteous shall be condemned.
22 The Lord redeems the soul of His servants,
And none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned." [Psalm 34]

She managed to dodge a few strikes while speaking.

"Stop saying that!" Ender suddenly yelled at her. "I hate it when you people do that! Just shut up and fight."

"'The pangs of death surrounded me,
And the floods of ungodliness made me afraid.
5 The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me;
The snares of death confronted me.
6 In my distress I called upon the Lord,
And cried out to my God...

'For You will light my lamp;
The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.
29 For by You I can run against a troop,
By my God I can leap over a wall.

'It is God who arms me with strength,
And makes my way perfect.
33 He makes my feet like the feet of deer,
And sets me on my high places.
34 He teaches my hands to make war,
So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

'35 You have also given me the shield of Your salvation;
Your right hand has held me up,
Your gentleness has made me great." [Excerpts from Psalm 18]

Shine continued.

She was backed up to a wall.

Before she could say anymore, the darkness in the air seemed to reach down and grab her by the throat.
She coughed.

Ender came closer. "Took you long enough," he said, seemingly to the darkness itself. "Now I will finish her, but not kill her, not yet, just immobilize her. I want her to see the destruction of all she tried to build...and you too," with a glance at Wally. "Even if you are just a fool, you're still one of them."

Wally's expression was both angry and scared. He wrenched at the claws more than ever.

Ender struck Shine with his blade, which she tried to deflect, but it was hard to do so.

He knocked her to the ground...

Like her sword, his didn't seem to pierce human skin...but it still had force.

"Keep her down," Ender said, lifting his foot.

What followed hardly gave Shine enough time to breathe let alone collect her thoughts. It was just blow after blow, knocking her about.

She tried to get up and was knocked back down. The shadow things kept tripping her or blocking her if she even had a bit of distance.

Ender didn't seem to enjoy this in a sadistic way. All his satisfaction seemed to be in humiliating her, and it seemed like he didn't really take pleasure in it, so much as he was driven by his hatred to do it, regardless of whether it was enjoyable or not.

It was almost worse that way. Shine had seen plenty of sadists before, but the few people like Ender she'd met...they were so much more deadly.

She also was getting the beating of her life...and she could barely focus anyway, because she knew that her friends were being tormented at the same time.

She started crying, not from pain--though that was bad enough--but from imagining that.

"Hold on," Ender said. "I think she's finally broken."

He didn't know Shine so well, Wally thought. Even if she was upset, she'd never just quit like that.

But on the plus side, he realized the claws holding him had loosened a little. Ender's attention seemed diverted to Shine now.

He began to push the claws away from his face, but he tried to do it quietly.

"I think it's time you witness the consequences," Ender said, taking Shine by her hair and yanking her back to the monitor.

Shine glanced over at Wally weakly, but gave no sign she saw him wiggling loose.

"Look," Ender said.