As he approached Ender and the others, he registered that there was a tall, reddish figure jumping down the mountain. It didn't matter.

Suddenly, an intense pain gripped his heart. A bright purple aura surrounded him, flashing with patches of yellow. It was agonizing. But he knew something had happened. And the flashing yellow lights confirmed it.

He knew this day would have come eventually, but not nearly this soon. It had been merely three days since he left the Complex, so someone, or something, had helped him revive.

He could make out figures through the now-fading purple haze, one of which was the oh-so-familiar face of…

"…E…Ender…"

"Yes…?

"He… He's…"

"Who?"

"Him… He's back…"

"Tell me, WHO?"

"Heh… I think you know…"

Ender froze. Conner could see that much. There was actual fear in his eyes… Nothing like he'd ever seen before.

"No…"

"Trust me… old friend…"

"How do you know?"

Conner paused. He knew that Ender was his friend, but he was afraid to break the secret code of the New Order.

Then again, Sonake had broken it too. So what difference would it make?

"Oh… It began long ago…

A/N

And… that's where we go into Conner's backstory. Also, I got a request for a new OC named Dan from minerspalace64. Thanks!

The OC form is in the last chapter, and you can put up as many OCs as you want!

Dan will almost certainly star in the chapter following chapters "Past II" and "Conner III", which will be… "Ender XI" according to the chart I made. Look forward to it!

Ender OUT!