I sat sulking in my room all day. I felt miserable that the misunderstanding between Damon and I still wasn't clearing. I was determined to do something though, so I sat with a tub of chocolate ice cream in front of the television and thought of ways that I could get him to speak to me again.

At around 7.15pm though, I heard a ear piercing siren. What the hell? I put my ice cream down and went to the balcony to see what the commotion was all about.

What I saw though terrified me.

There were about twenty men, all dressed in black and had masks on their faces. With guns in their hands they were killing anything that moved. Crap.

I quickly changed out of my pajamas while stumbling to the door. As I opened the door though, Vivian stood there as if he was just about to come in. I was relieved to know that he was safe. What about Damon though?

Vivian saw the worried look on my face and held my hand. He nodded at me, silently telling me to calm down.
I nodded back, assuring him that I was fine. Our entire floor was deserted. Hmm, looks like the other girls and guys were faster.

We were walking through the hallways when we saw two men with guns in their hands at a distance. We quickly hid behind a pillar.

"What do you say?" Vivian asked me.

"I say we can take them."

"They have guns Amelia," he whispered.

"Then we take those guns. Those two over there are currently facing the other side. We go closer and take them by surprise. They're currently talking to someone on their radio. We wait until their call is done so we don't alert the others and then take them. It's two on two Vivian, and with the element of surprise, we have a much better chance than them. You must have realised by now that it was them who must've taken the others on this floor too. Since we have single rooms on two completely opposite corners they would have assumed that they have got them all since no partners would be kept that far from each other under ideal conditions. We can do this."

Vivian sighed and then nodded.
"Yeah you are right. Let's do this."

We walked closer, pillar to pillar until they were in our earshot.

"There aren't any more people on this floor Frank," said one of the guys standing in front of us to someone on the radio.

"Yes, I know there are supposed to be 20 in total but tell boss we've checked the entire floor."

He listened to what the person on the line was saying and then replied again, "Yeah, we'll check once more. Over and out."

"What did Frank say?" asked his partner.

"There are only 18 of them down there besides the others. He's asked us to check for the remaining 2 again."

Vivian and I looked at each other.

"On the count of three," he said and I nodded. Both of us got hold of one of the vases that were beside us each.

"One,"

The men in front of me stopped.
"Did you hear that?" one of them asked.

"Two."

"Who's there?!" one of them yelled. About to turn behind.

"Three!"

Both of us got out from our hiding spots and launched at them. Our surprise element seemed to work because for a second they were confused about what was actually happening. We used exactly this confusion to our advantage and with all the force we had, we broke the vases on their head. Blood trickled down their foreheads as one of them fell onto the ground. The other one was still on his feet but was wobbling. I punched him hard on the face and he fell staggering back too.

"Where did you learn to punch like that?" Vivian asked me, shocked, as we hurriedly went to the sides of the men and grabbed their guns.

"Survival instinct I guess."

"How I hope that I had instincts like those too," he joked.

"Where to now?" I asked him.

"They must have held everyone hostage in the Great Hall down. It's the only place large enough to accommodate all the people in the palace here."

"Let's go then."

"Do you know how to use a gun?"

"What do you think?" I said, raising my eyebrows.

"Right, of course you do," he chuckled and said.

The only thing that was running in my mind all this while was that I hope that Damon was alright.

***

DAMON'S POV

"How dare you touch her?" I yelled as one of the attackers pushed Mother to where I was standing.

"I advice you to keep your voice down while speaking to us Your Majesty," said one of the men smugly. With the authority with which he was carrying himself with and the respect that everyone was giving him, it wasn't hard to join the dots that he was their leader.
"If not," he continued, "we will do a lot more than just push her."
All I saw was red in front of me. 'Calm down,' I said to myself, 'or else they will surely hurt someone.'

I was chatting with father in his office about some official business when we heard gunshots right outside the door. In under five seconds five men entered the room with masks and with Mother in their captivity. We did not have a choice but to co-operate with them otherwise they would have hurt her.

The three of us were brought to the Great Hall down where all the other people present here in the palace, including my friends were held captive. I searched all over for a familiar set of brown eyes but I couldn't find her. Where was Amelia?

Worry was eating me alive when I saw something in my periphery. There were two people hiding behind a pillar with guns in their hands. Amelia and Vivian. My eyes locked with hers. I tried telling her to stay where she was and not do anything stupid. She understood but shook her no. I knew she wouldn't just stay there doing nothing so I mouthed 'stay where you are until my signal' to her and then covered my mouth as if I was coughing. She nodded.

Phew. She was safe.

I was trying to device a plan to get out of this situation when I heard gasps.
Their leader, Marco (who's name I learned earlier) had taken Father by his collar and had forced him on his knees. The three of us were here on the stage while everyone else was standing down so even though Father was kneeling, I was sure that everyone could see him.

"This is your King," addressed Marco to the audience. "The one who is kneeling in front of me now. And those are your Queen and Prince, both standing defeated. This is the future of Aldrin, everyone! You will forever be slaves to us!"

"Who are you and what right do you have to treat the royal family like this?" I asked him, clearly upset.

Marco simply smirked and walked towards me. Then, he punched me right on my face. There were more gasps that I heard.

"Damon!" yelled mom.

"I'm fine Mother," I assured her and then looked behind her to where Amelia was standing. Her face was pale and she looked extremely worried. "I'm fine," I said once more and showed my palm to her discreetly, asking her to stay where she was. She looked at Vivian who looked at me. Both of us had a silent agreement and he put his hand on her shoulder, calming her down.

To everyone else it looked like I was talking only to my Mother and that's exactly what I wanted. Amelia shouldn't get hurt at any cost.

I straightened up and got my finger to my lips. There was blood that I saw on them as I tasted it in my mouth too.

"We gave ourselves that right Your Majesty," said Marco. "And to answer your question about who we are.... Time will tell, but for now, you can call us The Red Wings."

"I would like to speak to the person who kept that name," I said chuckling.
"With his terrible name choices, he sounds like a total idiot." I knew I was walking on thin ice but I had to buy time to formulate a plan.

Marco found what I said funny though, as he laughed. All the hundreds of people present here were watching our interaction with fear written on their faces.

"Let's see if you call that person an 'idiot' when you actually meet him for the first time. For now though, you are irritating me. Our original plan was to just abduct your King but why not have some fun before that?" he got out his gun and pointed it at me. With the revolver pointed towards me he was just about to shoot. I could hear some people crying in the audience while some shouting.

I could also very clearly hear Josh, Gabriella and Shawn's voice out of the many. All of them wanting me to not get hurt.

I knew that that was what Amelia wanted too. She didn't want me to get hurt. Maybe she doesn't feel the same way for me. Maybe she never can. I am no one to decide who can she love or not. I am no one to come in between her and Vivian. Just by looking at the way he could calm her down made me think that maybe he is better for her than I am and she deserves the best.

This is exactly why instead of signalling her to come help me, I remained right where I was, with a gun pointed towards me, extremely still. Maybe if I die right now, Vivian will take her some place safe and she could be happy. Maybe I was never meant to be with her.

The gun was pointed at my head but my gaze was still set on Marco with my head held high. We Holden's never learned to bow our heads, even before death.
"Hope you had a great life Your Majesty. Enjoy yourself up there."

I heard a gun shot after that and shut my eyes waiting for it's impact.
It never came though.
I then opened my eyes and saw that Marco had dropped his gun and was clutching his hand that was bleeding terribly.

Amelia and Vivian then came out and started shooting the attackers. Many of them dropped down while the others started shooting too. Soon she was at my side and handed me a gun.

"I'm never listening to you again," she said.
I narrowed my eyes at her, upset for not listening to me but I soon forgot about it and started shooting too.

There in the distance I could see a herd of people pushing Father out the door. I tried following them but was constantly stopped by someone.

Vivian and Amelia had gotten a few extra guns and passed it to some of the soldiers too and soon all the attackers were either dead or had fled.

While some people were injured, there were thankfully no casualties.

"Damon!" said mom running towards me. She hugged me and started crying.

"They took him son. They took Rupert. They took our King away."