Bean

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"You manipulative bastard."

"Why, hello to you too."

"You knew this would happen. You wanted her to hate him."

"Me? No, of course not. I would never mess with the delicate balance of children's social lives."

"Your sarcasm won't excuse what you've done."

"Look at her standings. Look at her scores. Her competitiveness towards Ender is obviously working."

"But now you've got two brilliant possible commanders. We'll only use one. What does the other one do?"

"Study politics."

"The lack of joking tone worries me."

"No, really. Read the news. Locke and Demosthenes are stirring things up back on Earth. How long will it be until a war breaks out? If we beat the buggers, who is to run things back home? It's time we place our own child genius in the run for power."

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Within 6 months, Vlara was made a toon leader under Lenny. He refused to trade her, even for top soldiers in other armies. Even when Graff had called him in and told him that he had to let her go, he outright refused.

"Not until I told her everything or until you give her command."

Eventually, they just graduated him, and Vlara was placed in Rat army under a boy named Dink, who placed her in charge of a toon within two weeks. Apparently he and Lenny had been part of a jeesh, Battle School slang for a group of close friends. So when Lenny asked Dink to push her, he did just that, thinking of every possible challenge to throw at her during training and battles.

Three years passed with Vlara still just below Ender in the standings. It drove her crazy, but it pushed her. She worked until she was exhausted, drilling herself and her toon over and over until they were deadly. Still, she was never given command. She wanted to scream, watching how everyone praised Ender Wiggin. But there was one boy she found that didn't. Or rather, he found her. It was this little boy fresh from launch that called himself Bean.

He had caught up with her in the game room, which she had finally been forced to take part of, since it was common belief that they monitored the game rooms for prospective commanders. She had been playing and winning a single-player fighter when she felt a tiny hand tug at her uniform. When she turned around, she wasn't expecting to see an impossibly small child looking up at her. He looked no older than 4, dressed in the plain gray uniform of Launchies that barely fit him. Was she ever this small? Maybe when she was 3, but definitely not when she got to battle school at the age of 6. Now she was 9, and felt like a giant compared to this boy.

"You Vlara?" The boy asked. She nodded, and he grabbed her sleeve, pulling her over to a table in the corner of the room which was programmed with a game that, while it was called chess, bared only a passing resemblance to the game that was played on Earth.

"If you were looking for an opponent, you shoulda asked one of the other snot-nosed launchies, not bothered me."

"I wanted to talk to you."

"I won't help you with your homework."

"Not necessary. I wanted to talk to you about Ender Wiggin."

That shut her up. She turned on the table and started up a new game, "Your move. Talk."

"You're the only one that comes close to beating him in the rankings."

"What's your name, pinprick?"

The boy barely looked at the board as he moved his piece, "Bean."

"Named for size of body or brains?"

He didn't laugh, "You moved out of your launch group at the same time as Ender. Your rankings are nearly identical to his. Yet no one knows your name, do they?"

Vlara remained silent, watching the board as the little animated soldiers moved. She often felt like this, just another program being picked up and moved around by the teachers, and soon by Ender if she wasn't careful.

"He never asked you to practice with him." Bean continued.

"He couldn't. Bonzo wouldn't allow it."

"What's stopping him now?"

That was always what the little nagging voice at the back of her head asked her too. Why hadn't he ever invited her to practice? Sure, she could go, but he would be treating her as any of the launchies that went. The only ones he truly looked to learn from were Alai and Shen.

She did still practice with Alai, Just the two of them with occasional assistance from Lenny before he graduated. He understood her distaste for Wiggin. Not that he disliked him, but he just understood why she did. Ender had forgotten about her. He had forgotten about the day he told her about his brother. He had forgotten that she was the only person at Battle School that knew anything about his family. They confided in each other once, but he didn't feel the desire to do it again as she did. Maybe if she had told him about her Father and what he had done to her. Maybe they could've helped each other. But that was three years ago, and her father was a distant memory now.

"Your move." Bean reminded her in a quiet voice.

She chuckled at herself, at the way she had slipped away so easily, "Maybe that's why I ain't a commander, neh? I think too much. Did you want something, legume, or did you just bother me to remind me that I'm not Wiggin."

"I wanted to know that I wasn't the only one living in his shadow. They're giving him an army soon."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I chose it."

Vlara let out a small laugh. This little bugger of a Launchy? "I wouldn't let a pinprick like you pick out your own clothes, much less an army for the boy that's supposed to be the greatest military mind of our generation."

"I've scored higher than him on every test. Book wise, I'm much smarter than him. But he can make people trust him, and I'm not even on the scoreboard because I'm not in an army. That's why they like him better than me."

"Why do I feel like I'm going to get a firm talking to from the Colonel for this conversation?"

"You probably will. But they won't ice you, you're too important to them. You and I are the understudies in case Ender chokes on stage. They need us around in case they screw up."

"Do I even want to know why you know all of this?"

"I've been having some fun with the files, but our dear gods have been malevolent in allowing me to do so. They know that I won't do anything with the information."

"Except tell me."

"You won't do anything with it either. We both have too much at risk to jeopardize our placement here. Neither of us want to go home. We both have people waiting to kill us if we do."

Vlara's mouth clamped shut. So they had that on file, and this little doll of a boy had read all about it. She hated that. She hated that there was someone who knew more about her than she knew about them. She hated that all along she was meant to be second string to Ender. And most of all, she hated that it was this little boy who had to alert her to it all. She was so focused on the games to figure out why she was playing. She had been used to her father's ideals of total obedience, but Major Anderson told her that her rejection of them had been what secured her spot in Battle School to begin with. This child was right, they needed her. She could test the limits of the system as much as she wanted. 

"I'm not in Ender's Army, am I?" Vlara asked after a moment.

Bean shook his head, "He's only getting Launchies and boys who could barely count as veterans. I was supposed to make it hard on him."

Vlara snorted at this. They were trying to break Ender, stacking the odds against them as much as they could. So he really was their end game. They wouldn't be changing the rules so much if he wasn't. So Bean created a test for Ender to pass, but where did that leave her?

"As far as I can tell,"' Bean began as if he was reading her thoughts, "There's an entirely different war set up for you. Things on Earth aren't entirely stable. Even if the buggers don't blow up humanity, they might do it to themselves. I think they want you to become the new Locke."

"The 1700s philosopher?"

"No, someone new with the same name. Him and a different guy, Demosthenes, have been taking over the nets back home. They're mentioned several times in your file."

What Vlara couldn't figure out, as Bean sat telling her everything the teachers were hiding from her, is why he was telling her this to begin with. She believed him when he said that he couldn't return to earth because there was someone waiting to kill him, so why would he risk his placement here by leaking such important information to her? What reasons did he have to help her out like this?

Looking down at the game board, at the strategically placed pieces that Bean had set up, which already ensured his victory, she realized that he was doing the same thing in real life. Anderson and Graff couldn't ice him because he had made himself irreplaceable in this war. He no doubt placed himself in Ender's army to assure that he would be used in the war when the time comes. And now, as he fed her the information that she had craved for so long, he was setting up contacts for after the war was over. If she was going to be any political and military importance on Earth as they wanted her too, he wanted to establish a relationship now, so that when the war was over, he would have someone to go to. Because like he said: they both had people waiting to kill them on Earth.

She moved her piece on the board, and sure enough, he destroyed her. Now that she knew what this kid was doing, she trusted him. Not that she would go around risking herself for his wellbeing, but she knew he wouldn't stab her in the back. He'd rather trade for what he wanted than just take it. Just like that, free time was over, and Vlara had to go get ready for practice.

"I'll keep an eye out for you, mouse." She promised as they parted. It was similar to the promise Lenny had made to her when she was a Launchy, and just like he had, she would keep it.


AUTHORS NOTE

Hey guys! As promised, the first chapter has been updated, so if you haven't read it, please go back and do so! Love y'all!

-BKS

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