Ender Returns to Earth *Currently Editing*

Chapter 15 - Goodbye

If you win this war, people will see you as a hero.

You're a leader Ender, and that makes you special. Leaders aren't created. They're born.

The fate of the human race rests in your hands. You hold the weight of the world on your shoulders, and there is nobody else we would entrust with that.

Did you really think that a third could actually make it into BattleSchool and succeed? You're the biggest joke this place has seen since the beginning of this.

If you try, and you fail it isn't your fault. But if you don't try and we fail, it's all your fault.

I'm sick and tired of playing your games! For once, I just want to be told the truth.

You're strong Ender, and no matter how this ends, you will win. You've been fighting your whole life. You deserve it more than anybody.

The room was silent, for it felt like time had stopped. Ender couldn't bring himself to breath. So much so, he started feeling lightheaded and was forced to draw a breath.

The Martial staff had already finished their final speech, and had left the room. Everyone else remained; however. It was completely obvious that they were waiting for his reaction. They all wanted him to break, and they were right to wait. If there was ever a time when he would break, it was now. The words swirled around Ender's brain, not willing to leave.

You will have the power of the entire world at your fingertips, Ender.

I don't know what our family would do if you had to leave us again.

Graff had promised him power, and Valentine only wanted a home. Both of them were proven to be wrong today, and it was in those few moments after the court issued their decision, when Ender felt his heart shatter. It was an unbearable sensation. He felt as though his emotions were attacking him from every which angle, and for once in his lifetime, he wasn't sure if he would be able to contain them.

"Ender", It was Petra's voice.

It sounded burdened with pain. I did this to you, and I will spend my lifetime knowing that, he spoke silently to himself. There was no way he could even muster up the words. As soon as he turned to look at her, the tears he saw in her eyes made him want what he couldn't have.

So many words lingered between them both, and neither of them, definitely not Ender could even think of speaking. It was as if his brain had stopped working and he was incapable of the actions it would require.

But before he even knew what was happening, she had wrapped him into an emotional embrace. The two of them sat there for a minute before letting go; clinging to each other in silence. While the crowd became restless, and murmurs were being exchanged throughout the room.

Ender could've even swore Graff and Mazer exchanged a comment, but it was highly unlikely.

The rest of the afternoon was an absolute blur. The dismissal, the reading of when his departure could be, and the cameras that swarmed all of them as soon as they exited the building.

The only useful thing that registered in Ender's brain was that he was allowed to give interviews, and would be leaving Earth on the first available starship as long as he was medically cleared.

The next thing he knew, he was in his bed at the I.F. Command base. In the dark, closing his eyes, right across from Valentine.