We formulated a simple plan to infiltrate the army, taking a few hours to go over the details before settling into a restless sleep. I was anxious about the plan and my brain wouldn't let me rest. I had been the first to take watch, but I had been unable to fall asleep until Saris woke Demi up for her turn.

The next morning, Saris recommended that we go through it once more before enacting the plan, claiming that a second run-through would reveal potential problems that we didn't think about earlier. Demi would make a copy of herself and have that copy walk into the camp and join, claiming to have been a survivor at the graveyard. Afterward, the doppelganger would figure out where Fire King was and put her spear somewhere near or on his tent. Since the real Demi was a separate entity than her copy, she didn't get any of the information that her copy would get. The whole conversation about how her powers worked was confusing and Saris ended up telling me to "Relax," and to "Let it go," several times. If the spy Demi gets any important information, she'll try to sneak up to us at night to fill us in.

"How far can your copy go from you?" I asked.

Demi shrugged. "I dunno. Usually, I don't go too far. But, like I said yesterday, I'm positive she can make it at least to the center of the camp."

I was nervous about the plan. I knew that the real Demi was still safe with us, but that didn't make me less worried. Part of me thought this would be too easy like we'd be walking into a trap of some kind. "You sure about this?"

"He did say that he was looking for more people to join, didn't he?" Saris said. "It'll be fine. If nothing else, we'll see how they treat people that show up."

Demi winced, "What if they ask about powers?"

"Hmm," we all thought in unison.

Saris snapped his fingers, "Xander, bring out your sword." I did as he asked. "Now use your power to extend it."

"Sure." The length of the blade extended. The extension didn't look the same as the bright metal of the sword. It was an energy field that functioned the same as the blade but looked like a cloudy outline surrounding the weapon and extending far beyond where the sword stopped.

"Now give it to Demi."

"Oh, I get it now!" I said, handing the energized weapon to Demi and it stayed active.

"Alright, now back off a bit." I took several steps backward but the power stayed. "Now turn it off."

Turning a power on or off, or even making your weapon appear or vanish, was like moving an arm; you just knew how to do it. I wasn't sure if I could energize my sword without touching it. It was interesting to know that I could maintain it, even in an opponent's hands. I'd have to keep that in mind. I tried to turn it off and to my surprise, it worked.

"Good!" Saris said. "Now try to turn it back on." I did but nothing happened. As I suspected, I needed to touch my weapon in order to use my ability. I put up my hands to signal that it didn't work and Saris waved me back. "Well, we can use this, but it might look suspicious."

"You mean I go in using an already powered weapon and Xander turns it off to make them think that I have that ability?" Demi summarized.

"Yeah. It's either that, or we go in without powers and hope they don't ask you to show off."

"So we either look aggressive, or useless," I sighed.

"Aggressive might work better," Demi said. "If you think about it, this guy wants his three cycles done and over with. What better person to help him do that than someone who shows off as much as he does?"

"She's got a point," Saris said, tapping his chin. "Okay, I'm on board. Xander?"

I was surprised that I had a say in this. Usually, if I disagree, I get outvoted and have to do whatever plan the team comes up with anyway, but Saris was actually asking for my opinion. I was finally becoming a valued member of the team and not just the new guy who gets dragged along. "I agree!" I said, happily.

"Great. It's not really like it mattered; at this point, you would've already been outvoted. But it's good to know that everyone's on board."

The light and happy feeling I had died. "Wait a minute, what if someone recognizes you? They'll know what she can really do and this will all look like a big red flag."

"There's not a lot of people who know me," Demi said. "I usually keep to the shadows or find a hood to cover my face. It's unlikely that they'll recognize me."

"It's a toss-up either way," Saris said. "If they recognize her and we use the sword, the plan will fail because they'll know she doesn't use a sword. If they recognize her and she goes without the sword, they might expect her to split, which she can't do and the plan will fail anyway. But there's one thing that you're forgetting."

"What's that?" I asked.

"Everyone wants to win. Fire King is ruling the pack through fear. If there's a chance of taking him out, they should take it."

"So being suspicious might work in our favor?"

Saris shook his head. "No. I'm sure he's got some people loyal to him. But if someone notices something off and they aren't loyal to him, then they might let it slide."

Nodding, I took my sword back and powered it up again, handing it to Demi once she used her power. She took it and handed it to her copy, while I mentally facepalmed. The Demi-doppler went around the hill, so the enemy wouldn't look our way to find any other interested recruits. We positioned ourselves in the trees so we could get a good view of the doppelganger's progress and waited for her to arrive.

"I need to know," Demi said, "why are you calling him Fire King?"

"Xander," Saris explained, jabbing his thumb in my direction.

"Oh, come on! It was the first name I thought of! You didn't let me come up with anything better!" I complained.

"Next time pick a better name."

I groaned but didn't have more to say on the matter. After several minutes, a dark figure appeared from the distance, heading towards the camp. She held my sword in one hand and leaned the flat of the blade on her shoulder as she walked. When she was steps from entering the camp, three people greeted her. Saris instructed me to turn off my ability before making the sword vanish, so I did. We wanted to look cocky, not aggressive. The blade shrunk back to it's normal size and after a few more moments, I had the sword vanish entirely.

"What do you think they're saying?" I whispered.

"Probably just gauging what she wants," Saris surmised.

"There they go," Demi said.

We watched as one of the men turned to lead the fake Demi into the army's campsite, the other two trailing behind. A few steps inside the camp, a large sword materialized in the hands of one of the guards behind her and plunged it into her back. She sunk into the ground, vanishing without a trace. The guards looked around, seemingly confused, but were otherwise unperturbed.

"Are you freaking kidding me?" Demi spluttered. "What's their problem? Let me in and then stab me in the back!"

I was confused. Didn't they want to recruit more people? I looked to Saris and saw the wrinkles on his forehead loosen, recognition dawning in his eyes, "I get it now," he said nodding.

"What?" Demi spat.

"Do you remember what he said?" Saris asked me, "at the graveyard."

"Umm. No, not really."

"He said to 'join' him to get the cycle over faster. He's not looking to get a bigger army, he's looking for gullible people to show up and die so he doesn't have to look for them."

We took turns cursing Fire King, inventing creative insults and derogatory names that I hoped we'd be able to remember when we finally got close enough for him to hear us. It made me dislike him even more. For as powerful as he appeared to be, he was using cheap tricks to lure others in just so he could have them taken out without lifting a finger.

I looked at Saris. "Now what do we do?"

"Hmm. I'm not sure. Let me think on it for a while." And with that, he went back to staring at the camp.

Demi was moving out from the shade of the tree and into the sun, being careful to head far enough back on the hill so she wouldn't be seen by anyone. I joined her. She appeared much more relaxed than she had been a few moments ago, seeming to have already put her double's death behind her. We laid in the grass, looking up at the blue sky. A few clouds passed, keeping us cool from the constant blaze of the sun.

"Sorry about your double," I said.

Demi shrugged, "It happens. So, how was it for you?"

Unclear what she meant, I managed a "Huh?"

"You know," she insisted, "how did it feel? Weird, right?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

She sighed, "Dying. How did you take it? I mean, if you don't want to talk about it, that's fine. I just thought...I dunno. It's fine. Nevermind."

"I didn't die. I won."

There was a stunned silence for several minutes, then Demi smiled and said, "You're joking, right?"

"No!" I spluttered. "I really did win."

More silence. "You actually got him? Zack? We're talking about the same thing, right?" This time I didn't say anything. "Wow. I guess I got him pretty good for you to beat him."

"Oh, thanks," I said sarcastically.

"Look, all I'm saying is that we fought him together and we were having a real tough time. Then I die and you suddenly get way better? So good, in fact, that you beat him and win your first cycle? It sounds a little far-fetched."

"Well, he underestimated me and...I dunno. We did injure him, you know, and my power really helped too."

Demi nodded, "Well, you're welcome."

I smiled, "Thanks." After a few minutes of silence, I asked, "Do you miss home?"

"Well, yeah. Who wouldn't?"

"Yeah, sorry. Dumb question."

I scrambled to come up with another question. Bonding was becoming a fun pastime for me, especially in the past few days. I wanted to know more about her and she seemed to realize the intent to my stupid question because she continued talking without me having to ask, "I miss my parents most, I think. I was really close to my mom. After I got my own apartment, we'd either talk on the phone or meet up to hang out once a week. I was really busy with medical school, but somehow we always made time to be together."

"What made you want to be a doctor?"

"See this scar?" She pointed to her neck. "I got it in a bike accident when I was a kid. I had just made it past my neighbor's house when the bike hit a crack in the pavement and I wiped out. I don't remember the whole thing, but I do remember my mom thinking that I had cut open my jugular or something. She was convinced I was going to die; there was probably a lot of blood. Anyway, at the emergency room, the doctors were just really cool and calm about the whole thing and I remember thinking that I wanted to be like that too; cool under pressure. Then afterward, everyone was making a big deal of the accident and wanted to see the stitches. I thought it was cooler to be the stitcher, rather than the stitched."

When I had to get stitches, I hadn't thought of them as cool. Instead, I had been embarrassed about them, but I do remember people asking about what had happened. The memory, while not bad, was making me a bit lightheaded. I wasn't so comfortable with topics pertaining to blood and injuries. The thought of them was worse than the actual thing for me, so I didn't want to linger on the subject. "What did you like to do for fun before the game?"

"Umm...Well, I didn't really have all that much free time," Demi admitted. "When I was in high school, I was on the track team, so I liked to run. And my mom insisted that I be a flag twirler, like she had been. But when I went to college, school took up a big chunk of time and I was also working at a hospital for training, so I didn't really do much outside of that. I still ran, but I didn't have many friends outside of work because I didn't take the time to make them. The one thing I did like doing, was taking a tub of ice cream and watching movies."

"Sounds fun. What kind of movies do you like?" I asked, remembering her poor assessment of my movie collection when we were in my apartment.

"Lots. You can't go wrong with Harry Potter or Lord Of The Rings."

"Wait a minute," I said, propping myself onto an elbow. "You complained about my movie collection, but I have those series."

"Yeah, but do you know what else you have? You have superhero movies." She put her hand up defensively, "I'm not saying that they're all bad, but that's like fifty percent of what you own. Then you have some Disney movies, which are cute and I won't fault you for, but...come on. I guess it's not that your tastes are bad, necessarily, just that you don't have much of a selection."

"So, what are some of your favorites?"

She thought for a moment, "Let's see. Some of my favorite classics are: Wizard of Oz, E.T., Count of Monte Cristo, that kind of stuff. And some of my favorites for our generation are: The Dark Knight, yes it's a superhero movie, don't look too much into it. Anyway, Lala Land, Perks of Becoming a Wallflower and Bridesmaids."

"I've seen Lala Land. It's not that good."

"You just don't get it. When we're out of here, we can watch it together and I'll explain why it's good."

I smiled at the thought of watching a movie with her but said, "If it needs explaining, I'm not sure if it counts as good."

"You apparently need explaining on why you're wrong, but I still think you're a good guy." She winked.

"You got me there," I said, lying back down.

Demi laughed softly, "I still can't believe you won."

"Yeah. I sort of can't either. Can I ask you about your winnings?"

She paused at first and I wasn't sure if I had ruined the mood or not. I was about to apologize when she spoke, "Well, my first win was a fluke. I had gotten lucky enough to have been on a team that didn't meet many enemies; we just got lucky. When we realized it was us and one more team, we found them and attacked. I was too afraid to kill anyone and I let my copy do all the fighting. I reasoned with myself that I wasn't killing the people that she killed. That's how I got by for a while. But when that fight was over, there were just three of us left. My team killed my copy off quickly and I guess they didn't realize that it wasn't actually me and that I was hiding inside one of the houses nearby. They ended up killing each other and I won by default. The other time was when I left my team because they weren't good people and I'd had enough of them. I scavenged and ended up finding the last person and overwhelming them. That's the gist of it anyway."

"Hey!" Saris said, a hint of urgency in his voice. We stood up and rushed over to see what was going on. "They're on the move."