Énouement

Chapter Fourteen

Salamander had a battle four days later. Bonzo had yet to assign me to a toon. He said that I was to follow behind him and only shoot when they shot at Bonzo. It was actually a good plan, even if it made me a glorified body guard. I'm small, smaller than any soldier, and would be easily missed in the thicket. By shooting those who would shoot Bonzo, I protected him, and kept him in the game. I just wished he'd give Ender the same orders.

I followed behind Bonzo as we jogged with the soldiers to the battle. I didn't have to glance behind me to know that Ender was the very last boy. There were two ribbons along the wall. The green green brown of Salamander and the black white black of Condor. When we came to the place the Battleroom had always been, the corridor split, and our color code went to the left. We went around and stopped in front of a blank wall.

"Is that how we get in, sir? So each army has their own side?" It sounded like a stupid question to me, but he had told me to ask him anything I didn't understand.
"That's right Victorie. The wall will disappear at the same time on each side, at least it's supposed to." I nodded silently. Sometimes the teachers would change their minds about which rules they would and would not follow.

The toons had formed up silently behind us, Ender behind all of them.
"A take the handles and go up. B left, C right, and D down. And you, pinprick, wait four minutes, then come just outside the door. Don't even take your gun out of your suit." My eyes met Ender's and I knew we were thinking the same thing. This idiot would rather loose, then let Ender even try to help them win.

Suddenly the wall became transparent. Not a wall at all then, but a force field. The Battle room was different too. Instead of a giant space like normally, or at least normal for me, it had massive brown boxes suspended in the air, partially obstructing our view. These must have been the obstacles that the soldiers called stars. Bonzo didn't seem to care where they were.

"Victorie, stay back for two minuets, then slip in quietly and cover my flank."
"Yes, sir." I waited back with Ender as everyone passed through. "Ender?"
"Tori?" He wouldn't look at me.
"Are you mad?" It was easy for us to ignore the fact that Bonzo had taken me under his wing. But now, here where we had to follow his commands, we couldn't ignore it any longer.

"I don't like how he is with you." I bit my lip.
"What do you want me to do Ender? I don't like how he is with you either, but we both know we can't change that just now. He's our commander, he's in charge of us. And he's bigger than us."

Ender let out a hard laugh. "Just like Peter was?" I froze and my blood ran cold.
"I was trying to protect you from him Ender-"
"Were you? Because you seemed pretty content to me. Just like you are now." A few tears slipped out, but my anger was stronger than my memories and hurt by his words.

"No girl would ever be content to let that happen. This, whatever this is with Bonzo, is not like it was with Peter. The teachers won't let that happen to me here and I won't either. But it's good to know that you would wish that on me Andrew." My two minutes were up and I didn't want to talk to him anymore. I didn't wait for his reply before I hopped into the battle room.

I had assumed that the soldiers would know how to handle the stars, but I was wrong. They didn't know how to soft land on one and use it for cover. They didn't use the stars at all, not even as a tactic to attack the enemy. The other commander was taking advantage of Bonzo's neglect of strategy. They were butchering us.

I floated as stealthily as possible over to Bonzo. He had been correct to assume that no one would notice me. I fired at the soldiers trying to swarm Bonzo. my aim had gotten much better, but I guess the practice I had with Bonzo and the Launchies were to thank. Soon enough we were down to a dozen individual shoot outs.

I stayed with Bonzo to cover him, and he didn't get hit once. I was quite proud, even if I myself had a few immobilized limbs from non direct hits. I was no where near as good if Petra of course. She was deadly.

Which was why they made a great effort to freeze her. She cursed a lot when they immobilized her shooting arm, until they got a direct hit on her and her helmet clamped down over her mouth. I sighed in relief, but in my moment of distraction I missed a soldier coming at Bonzo.

No time to shoot back, and Bonzo would take out more soldiers than I would. In the split second it took to make the decision, I had thrown myself in in front of Bonzo to take the direct hit. Bonzo understood what happened and instead of letting me drift aimlessly, used me as a shield to avoid being hit again. We didn't last another five or seven minutes before it was over.

Condor could only muster the minimal five soldiers needed to open the gate. Four of them touched their helmets to the lighted spots at the four corners of Salamander's door, while the fifth passed the tough the force field. That ended the game.

The lights came on and Anderson came out of the viewing room. I saw Ender floating near our gate, only partly damaged, but hadn't fired his gun. He wouldn't disobey a direct order, even if we could've won. Bonzo's anger made him an idiot. The official tally was not the expected forty-one disabled or eliminated. instead it was forty eliminated and one damaged.

Bonzo didn't understand until he looked at Anderson's records. I wasn't about to tell him that it was Ender. Bonzo simply stocked past him and I followed slowly. By the time I caught up to him, he was already stripping off his battle suit.

"Sir?" I asked hesitantly.
"Come in and shut the door." he said quietly, softly almost. I kept my eyes to the ground and did as he said. I could hear him sitting down on his bed. "Come here." I walked over and stood in front of him. He had his suit half off and a hard look on his face.

"I'm sorry, sir. I got distracted during battle and let an enemy soldier get too close. It won't happen again." I stood at attention but he was silent. "Sir I-"

"You did well today Victorie." I faltered confused. "It was your first battle and you covered me until the end. You also thought quickly enough to make the decision to throw yourself in front of me. Why?" There it was again, the thing Bonzo had forgotten while here, kindness.

"You gave me an order I could not fulfill and so it was all I could do to redeem myself. Besides you are the better shot between us and had a better chance of taking out more soldiers than I did." Bonzo seemed to accept my answer. I shifted on my feet nervously. Bonzo was half naked in front of me and sweaty from battle. We both needed a shower before lights out.

"You can go Victorie." I nodded and turned to make my way out of his quarters. I stopped at the door.
"Sir?"
"Yes?"

"Ender could've taken out those soldiers and it would've been a draw. I know you don't like him and don't want him to mess up your formations, but next time if it's like that-" I had been so focused on advocating for Ender that I hadn't noticed Bonzo walk up to me. He slammed his hand on the door next to my head and leaned down to my ear.

"What is he to you?" I swallowed nervously.
"He's my friend Bonzo. My best friend. We've been together since before ground school."

"Friends don't get you anywhere here and the pinprick definitely won't."

"It's not about where I want to get. It's about where I need to get him. He's special Bonzo. I see it, the teachers see it, and I think even you see it. maybe that's why you hate him so much." I was being bold now. I was afraid of Bonzo's anger, but Ender was more important. It was time I start making things better for him, even if I was still angry.

"He is nothing." Bonzo withdrew his hand and turned to go back to his bed. I took that as my cue to leave. I opened the door and paused before stepping out of his room.

"If friends aren't anything here, then what are we Bonito?" I didn't tell him how I knew his name. I simply walked out to go back to the barracks.