Disclaimer: I do not own Halo or Ender's Game, and I would like to thank the creators of both worlds for creating something awesome. Also, I don't have a Beta, nor do I want one. If you see an error, please let me know.

AN: Share your ideas for the story please! Yours may or may not make it in, but I plan on having an epilogue chapter that contains a mini-chapter for each idea. Just for the fun of it. So, share and see what happens.

Chapter 4, I've Been Here Before…

Anderson entered Graff's room with apprehension. He had been notified of that there was an issue that needed his and Graff's immediate attention. He just hadn't been told what the issue was.

"Ah, glad you're finally here."

Anderson nodded. "You said it was urgent?"

"It is."

There was a moment of silence as Graff flicked through files on his computer. Then he sighed, dropping his head into his hands.

"Sir?"

"You know that kid on Ender's launch that glared at us?" Anderson nodded. "I decided to look into him. Guess what I found."

"What, sir?"

"Nothing."

It took a moment to register. That they had a recruit in the BattleSchool that had no information whatsoever in the servers. That a ghost had made it onto the shuttle without being noticed.

"I also realized that he wasn't on the shuttle's manifest. Nor do any of the cameras show him boarding the shuttle. It's like he appeared out of nowhere."

Anderson had to take a minute to sort out his thoughts. "What should we do?"

Graff looked at him. "That's part of why you're here. We need to keep an eye on him, but I don't want you to let him know that you are. Keep tabs and keep your eyes peeled. I want to find out exactly what we're dealing with here."

Anderson nodded. "Yes sir."

After being dismissed, he took a shower. He stared at his reflection on a foggy mirror. What is this boy?


The Chief looked out at the Battle Room with excitement. This was his domain. Here he was the king of the hill, and he knew it was going to show. He just had to act somewhat clumsy at first to make it look like he had not had training in null gee. Once that was over, though, it was going to be fun.

The boys filed into the Battle Room slowly, gripping handholds tightly and sticking to the wall. He bounced in place, letting his impatience show. Why the heck is it taking so long?

Ender was in about the middle of the line. By the time it was the Chief's turn to go in, he had taken off towards a side of the chamber. John pulled himself out onto a railing as he watched Ender go flying. Suddenly, he re-oriented himself and flew towards the wall in a dive.

Yes. Then he tried landing on his feet and going into a roll. Suffice to say, it didn't work. However, it was obvious that Ender had noticed the way that his legs canted him off an angle. Eventually, he returned.

"What are you trying to do, kill yourself?" asked Shen.

"Try it," Ender encouraged. "The suit keeps you from hurting yourself, and you can control your bouncing with your legs, like this." Ender promptly demonstrated the leg movement, and Bernard and his friend, Alai took off.

The Chief decided that it was time to move. He gathered his legs underneath him, noticing that the suit enhanced his movements some. He grinned. This should be fun.

With a powerful thrust, he flung himself into the Battle Room. His angle was off because of the unfamiliarity of the suit, but he could adjust for it. Instead, to make his "learning" look real, he flailed around a bit and let himself bounce off the wall. After a couple minutes of practice, he "got the hang of it," and was flying around the Battle Room as if he was born there.

Suddenly he noticed that Ender and Alai were talking. Wait, what? Alai was Bernard's best friend. He must be making peace. The Chief watched with interest as they pushed off the wall together, spinning as they went. He was impressed when Ender made a few adjustments and stopped the orbiting. Then they pushed off each other, going flying in opposite directions.

At that point, he turned to his gun. Pulling it out, he examined it. There were two buttons by his thumb, one red and one white. He experimentally pulled the trigger, aiming at the wall. A small circle of red light appeared, and the gun warmed in his hand. After releasing the trigger, the gun cooled. Like Covenant weaponry. He thumbed the white button, and pulled the trigger. Apparently it was a lamp. The red button turned it back into a weapon. Wonder what happens when it hits the suit. He shot his foot. Instantly, his leg from the knee down locked up. It was a type of stun round.

He holstered his weapon and turned his attention back to Ender. Apparently him, Alai, Shen, and Bernard were planning something. With an expert push, he flew at them. It took a quick spin to avoid hitting a group of boys, but he made it easily.

"Planning something?" He landed with a thump on the railing.

Bernard looked at him with hatred. "What's it to you?"

Ender decided to intervene. "We were going to go freeze everyone with-"

"The gun? My thoughts exactly."

"We don't need him." Apparently Bernard held grudges.

"You shoot me and I'll shoot back."

Bernard narrowed his eyes. "You're on, after we freeze the wimps out there."

The Chief cracked a rare grin. He was too happy about being in zero gee with any type of firearm to care. "Will do."

So they went around freezing everyone. He subtly kept track of who got how many "kills". He came in first, with Ender second and Alai not far behind him. Then was Bernard, and then Shen. Unfortunately for them, they ran out of others to shoot.

"You're mine now!" Bernard charged him, firing rapidly.

Instead of firing back, he jumped away, flipping end-over-end and landing neatly on a wall, behind a group of frozen boys. He used it as cover when he fired, keeping the others from getting a good angle on him and managing to freeze some limbs.

"Hey, it's you guys against me. Unless you want to win, then you can come to my side."

He heard the laughter-filled cry of "Never!" from Ender.

"Suit yourself."

The fight raged on for another few minutes. They managed to freeze his left arm, but that wasn't a problem. He was debating over whether or not he should let them win. If he didn't, he would be drawing a lot of attention. A launchy defeating four others on his first time in the Battle Room? Unlikely.

So, he let them score a few more hits, before freeing him. By that point, everyone else had taken a side and was cheering enthusiastically. As he was finally frozen, there was a great cry, part in victory, part in defeat.

Then they started floating towards the opening through which they had entered. Everyone also rotated to orient themselves to the gravity from coming in. There stood Dap, with a device on his had.

He went around touching those that were frozen, and they became unfrozen. This brought the slew of complaints. Apparently it wasn't fair that the five of them had shot them all when they weren't ready. Dap chastised them and they began training.

It was mostly how to move and what the gun did, so he barely paid attention. For the most part, he just enjoyed being weightless.


The political pattern shifted amongst the group, more even than before. More open and friendly. When it came time to choose a launch leader, Alai was the pick. The Chief voted for Alai himself.

The next week was a bit rough. He continued to search every source he could for any information at all on any type of portal device. He couldn't find one. That, plus the unfamiliar surroundings and new body had him on edge. His savior was the Battle Room.

Being weightless calmed him, brought back the training and instincts that he so desperately missed. When he could, he went alone. He would sneak out and slip into an empty Battle Room. This was the only thing keeping him sane. For there, all alone, he could practice nearly fifty years of combat experience. He could perform maneuvers that these children could only dream of. He could use every ounce of his strength to go as fast as physically possible. It was the only thing tying him to home.

He was fairly sure that some of the administrators watched him once in a while, but there was little he could do. He couldn't give up his time alone, it would drive him mad. No, he'd just have to hope they left him be.

Unfortunately, the peace couldn't last.

One day at dinner, he noticed Ender and Alai leaving early. He looked down at his dinner, and decided he was done. Dumping the leftovers in the trash, he followed them. He walked slowly, allowing himself to admire the architecture of the BattleSchool. It wasn't nearly as awe-inspiring as a Halo, but it was pretty impressive for this world.

After a while, he reached the room. Ender was sitting on his bed holding a scrap of paper, looking like he was close to crying. Alai was talking to him, obviously quite upset.

"What's going on?" They looked up at him in surprise.

Ender handed him his paper. "I'm being transferred." He was going to Salamander Army.

John frowned. "It's too early. Besides, you're not that good yet." I am, though.

"Yeah, well…" Ender looked far from pleased.

He sighed. "Nothing that can be done about it." He smiled at Ender. It was something he did not do lightly. "I hope that the commander knows a good solider when he sees one." It was sincere. Coming from the Chief, it was high praise. At this point, everyone knew his serious down-to-business demeanor.

Ender smiled. "I'll miss you too."

John nodded and stood up, going to his own bunk. He let Alai and Ender say goodbye alone. After Ender left, Alai slumped and clambered onto his bunk.


Graff looked over the report that Anderson had given him. He had to re-read a few parts in shock. During his alone time in the Battle Room, the kid displayed strength and stamina that few adults could match. He also moved with a precision honed only by intense training and experience. Some of the moves weren't even known to the BattleSchool.

Then there was his mental capacity. His school work showed a fairly average kid for the BattleSchool in terms of grades. However, he was obviously finding the material easy. His mistakes were blatantly forced, and he never spent much time on his homework. He also had managed to crack a few of the teacher's firewalls. He was continually chipping away at their defenses, just a little faster than they could keep up. What intrigued him was why, though.

The only thing that he looked for was portals. He scoured anything that could have information about going from here to there without actually crossing the distance. Anything that might possibly contain such information was picked clean.

Top that off with his barely-suppressed intimacy with military tactics, and he didn't know what he was looking at.

"And you're telling me that he's not a threat because…?"

Anderson shifted uncomfortably. "Well, he's not doing any harm. He keeps his distance, only interacting with others when he needs to. With his digging, it's obvious what he's looking for, and we can track where he goes. As long as he doesn't touch anything that would be dangerous if leaked, there's not a problem."

Graff glared at Anderson. "I don't care. He hacked the administrator's network, and is starting to get to ship and weapon reports. If he gets into those, we'll have to do something drastic. Seeing as I'd rather not, You need to deal with this."

Anderson sighed. "Yes sir."