Avni is walking through the lush green gardens of the royal castle, enjoying the scenic beauty of the beautiful alien planet in solace. It's the designated day off and there's no training today after a strenuous week of learning how to fight correctly.

Suddenly a worried, shrill voice infiltrates the calm of the garden.

"Princess! Please stop running. You'll get injured."

Avni turns around to find the source of the first female voice she has heard in several days and she is met with a feeble collision of tiny, delicate arms around her legs.

She immediately crouches down to look into the most beautiful blue eyes she has ever seen, blinking back at her innocently. Her skin has tiny sparkly dots that are dancing around with almost as much excitement as her.

"Hello li'l angel, what's your name?" Avni asks in a baby voice.

The little girl giggles, her eyes sparkling with a very familiar delight, though Avni finds it really hard to place where she has seen it.

"My name is Precious, and why are you talking like that?", she asks in a sweet, joyous tone that brings a smile to Avni's face.

"Well, I thought since Precious is such a cute li'l baby girl, maybe she likes being talked to like a baby".

She scrunches her nose immediately, "No, I'm a big girl, not a baby. I'll be six next month. Yet everybody treats me like a baby."

"Oh, I'm so sorry Precious, I won't baby you anymore."

"You promise?" She asks in a tiny, hopeful voice.

Avni offers her a reassuring smile, "I promise."

Her beautiful blue irises glow with tiny warm ambers immediately, warming Avni's heart as well.

"Okay I've to run now, if my nanny, Haile reaches that butterfly garden before I do, she won't let me play." She points to a beautiful section of the garden that has lots of colorful flowers as she tries to run away, but Avni stops her.

"No sweetie, don't run. Come, I'll take you to play."

"But what if she catches us? She will take me back to my room again and I don't want to go inside."

"I'll take care of it. Come, let's go."

Precious wraps her tiny hand around Avni's index finger as they walk towards that garden. Beautiful hues of pink, orange, yellow and red welcome them from  different corners of the garden, and the fragrance is so fresh and enchanting, it's out of the world.

Precious excitedly leaves her hand and runs in the direction of a beautiful multicolored butterfly that leaves a tiny trail of sparkles as it flies from flower to flower. She continues chasing it, until she spots another one that looks even more magical than first. Hence she starts chasing that instead.

Suddenly, to Avni's surprise, she jumps up and catches the second butterfly in her fist.

"Yeah! I caught it. See friend, I caught the butterfly", she comes running towards her to show her accomplishment.

Avni smiles meekly at her, as she wonders whether to be happy in her happiness or feel sad for the poor butterfly.

As soon as Precious opens her fist though, her beautiful smile drops immediately as she observes the butterfly struggling on her palm.

"Did I kill it?", she asks in a tiny voice, her glossy, blue orbs fading into depths of darkness.

"No sweetie, it's alive. See it's moving."

"But, it's not flying!"

Avni pulls her closer as she wipes the tears trickling from her glossy eyes.

"It's okay baby. Sometimes, we don't realize we're hurting someone until the damage is already done. You love these butterflies, and didn't want to hurt them right?"

She shakes her head vigorously, still too overwhelmed for words.

"I know you didn't hurt it intentionally. Sometimes when we love something too much, we try to keep it close to us, and bend it to our will. We hold it captive and forget it has a life too, it has feelings too. We become selfish, which is awful. You know what we should do to things we love the most?"

She shakes her cute head again, her tears have stopped falling and her tiny blue eyes look back into Avni's with such intensity, it's hard to blink.

"We should set them free. So, that they can do whatever they love."

She nods and Avni smile back at her.

"So next time when you see a beautiful butterfly that you love - play with it, chase it, but don't try to catch it. Because it loves to fly, and you love it when it flies, don't you?"

"Yes, I do."

"Good, so how about we set this one free now?"

"Will it be able to fly again?"

"I don't know sweetie, but I hope it does once it heals."

"I hope so too."

And, with that, she sets the butterfly free again.

"Well, that was unexpected, peacemaker!", a familiar powerful voice booms behind them, making them turn around immediately.

"Brother!", Precious shouts excitedly and runs towards a smiling Mr. King, who scoops her up lovingly into his open arms, twirling her around and making her giggle joyfully.

For a second there, Avni thinks she mistook Vadarius for Mr. King, but it's really him. He just looks so different, so normal as he smiles and plays with the little angel in his arms. She smirks at the realization, he isn't so heartless after all.

As she notices his face closely, she can see tiny flecks of red float in his eyes. But they're gone before she can be sure of it. She thinks it's her imagination, why would he be angry at his baby sister, when he's clearly smitten with her? It's certainly unexpected to see him like this though.

A shaky voice breaks the beautiful brother-sister moment unfolding before her eyes, causing the smile on Mr. King's face to disappear and Precious to run back to her favourite butterflies again.

"I'm r-really s-sorry, your Majesty. She is s-so naughty, she tricked me and ran so fast -"

"It's fine Haile, peacemaker here was doing your job for you. You should thank her, because if I'd have found my li'l princess crying alone in a garden over a dead butterfly, you would have got fired in a flash."

"Th-thank you ma'am."

"Please call me Avni. And Precious is a sweetheart, it was a pleasure looking after her. In fact, if you ever need help with her, please find me."

"That wouldn't be necessary. You're a hostage, not on a holiday. And taking care of Precious is Haile's job. If she can't do it, I'll find someone else."

"I'm sorry, your Majesty. I'll be more careful in future."

"You better! Now leave us."

Avni takes it as her cue to leave too, as Mr. King joins Precious for some family time she rightfully deserves.

_______

"So, how's your training going, Xi?" Avni asks him as they meet in the corridors next morning.

After he came to check on her in the spaceship, they have come to a silent understanding. They usually have food together, or casual conversations whenever they meet. It's the closest to a friend Avni ever made amongst these leaders, even after working with them as acquaintances for so many years.

"It's alright, I guess. I'm horrible at this fighting stuff, Avni. But, I'm learning."

"Same for me, Xi. Do you know anyone who is fairing well?"

"Yeah, Asahi Abe. He knows Taekwondo and he's really good at it. But what he makes up with martial arts in hand to hand combat, he lacks in weapon fighting. So he's learning too."

"Well that's a start at least."

Xi nods in response.

"Do you think we'll make it out of this alive?", he asks suddenly.

She shrugs, before adding, "I hope we do."

He sighs and nods again. "I hope so too. Anyway, I've to practice. See you around."

He waves goodbye and she's left alone with her thoughts again.

________

Avni is asleep in her room late at night, when loud alarms start blaring suddenly. Like a hundred sirens ringing altogether, only much worse.

She quickly wears a dress robe over her burgundy night dress, and bolts from her room, dashing for the corridors. It could be some fire alarm or something, but she isn't so sure about it.

She stumbles into several grumpy, sleepy humans and finds Xi on the way. He looks as clueless as everyone else, so she ignores him too. Her instincts kick in and she dashes towards the central lobby separating human wing from the rest of the palace. Nobody seems to follow her though. Everybody usually likes to stay confined to their rooms and she's usually the only one exploring around, just like tonight.

She runs around worriedly and suddenly bumps into a frenzied Commander.

"Commander, what's going on?"

"What the hell are you doing here, human? Go back to your room!"

"I will, if you tell me what's going on."

He mumbles something about stubbornness under his breath, then finally responds, "We're under an attack. This is a dangerous situation. Will you go back to your room now?"

She gulps and nods, then mumbles an okay, to which he sighs with relief.

"Please ask your fellow humans to stay back too. We don't need you all causing us more trouble."

"Okay, I'll take care of it."

"Thanks, Ms. Avni", he says with genuine gratitude, which is unlike his emotionless tone, and it takes her completely by surprise.

She nods and turns back towards the human wing of the palace. She informs Xi, and together they send everyone back to their respective rooms.

Once she returns to her room and sits down on a chair, her mind begins swirling with questions. Who could have attacked them? Didn't they say the crime rate here is negligible and they've never seen a civil war? Were they lying or has something changed?

Loud knocking on her door startles her and ends her train of thoughts. She gets up and walks towards the door, and meanwhile, the knocking becomes more insistent and relentless.

She opens the door to find a heaving and sweaty Haile in the corridor.

"What's wrong? Where's Precious?" Avni asks immediately.

"She's in her room, and she's crying badly. These sirens, she's not good with them. She gets really scared."

Her brows furrow with worry, "If she's scared and in her room, then what are you doing here? You should be there comforting her!"

"I-I can't stay. My sister is in labour. I've to take her to a doctor. I've to go. Now."

"Oh, I've a nursing degree, do you think I can help?"

"No, no! You know nothing about Volzite pregnancies! You can't help her."

"Okay, so what do you need me to do?"

"You said I should come find you if I ever need you to look after Precious."

"Of course. Take me to her."

Haile literally drags Avni through the corridors as she dashes towards the royal side of the palace. It's so much more beautiful and sparkling, and Avni wants to observe more closely, but the sirens blaring in the background and thoughts of a worried Precious make her refocus on moving faster.

Suddenly Haile stops and throws a room's door open. The room is all pink and sparkly, just like a princess' room from a fairytale.

Precious, however, is wailing in her fluffy pink bed and the sight of her discomfort and pain breaks Avni's heart. A guard is standing awkwardly in the room, probably to look over Precious, and he leaves as soon as they both enter.

"Thanks Avni, I really owe you one."

"You don't owe me anything, Haile. Now go, your sister needs you."

She nods back at her, her beautiful amber eyes sparkling with specks of blue and red. She looks back at Precious one last time, gulps hard then turns around and leaves hurriedly, closing the door behind her.

Avni approaches the bed cautiously, trying not to startle or scare the little girl.

"Precious, sweetie, please don't cry", she says softly and Precious immediately opens her gorgeous purple eyes and stops wailing to look at her.

"Friend?"

"Yes sweetie, call me Avni."

"Avni...", She whispers silently then jumps into her open arms, crying into the nook of her neck hysterically.

"Shh, dear. Please don't cry. I'm here. You're okay. You're safe", Avni mumbles sweet assurances into her ear gently as she cries her heart out in her arms.

Once she appears to have calmed down a bit, Avni tries to lift her tiny head to take a look at her.

"Precious, sweetie do you want some water?"

She nods her head but makes no effort to move back onto the bed. So, Avni lifts her in her arms as she walks towards the table on the left side of the room and pours her a glass of water.

"Here sweetie, have some water."

She finally lifts up her head and takes a sip of water from the glass in her hand.

As Avni turns to put the glass away again, the door to the room bursts open.

"Precious!" Mr. King's loud voice startles the little girl and she starts crying again.

He hurriedly takes her into his arms and kisses her forehead, gently rocking her back and forth.

"You okay, baby girl?" he asks her lovingly and she kisses his cheek and nods into his neck.

A giant, scary alien king calling a tiny tot his baby girl lovingly, it's a heartwarming, swoon-worthy sight for Avni.

"Peacemaker?", He finally registers her presence and she's sure she saw pure relief on his face. She nods at him hesitantly.

He sighs tiredly, "I saw Haile leaving from the side entrance when we were, umm, dealing with a situation nearby. I was so scared, I thought she left Precious alone."

"Her sister is in labour, so she had to leave at a short notice. She requested me to stay with Precious."

He nods in understanding and strangely, he doesn't appear angry like she expected. Neither at her, nor at Haile.

"You should go and rest now, peacemaker, you have training tomorrow. I'll take care of Precious."

She looks at him closely, as she tries to figure him out, but he's too much in control of his emotions to let anything slip.

"Don't you have a situation to take care of?" She asks cautiously, trying not to pry too much.

"My men will handle it. Vadarius is leading them."

"Umm, but I really want to stay, Precious might need me."

He looks at her with furrowed brows, then shakes his head.

"Fine, whatever. You can stay here, I don't care. She has a huge bed, you both can sleep easily. I've stuff to do anyways."

He lays down an almost sleepy Precious on the bed and tucks her in, gesturing Avni towards the bed too. She sit down beside Precious, while he shifts a chair into the balcony and sits there, facing outside.

Avni lies down next to Precious, and she immediately turns towards her to cuddle into her arms. She holds the little girl gently and lovingly, rubbing her back every now and then.

After a few minutes, her breath evens out and she falls asleep. Her shallow, soft breaths act as a lullaby and Avni slowly begins drifting into sleep too.

A loud thunder suddenly jolts her from her sleep, causing Precious to stir too, but thankfully she doesn't wake up. Mr. King immediately returns to the room and clicks a button on the wall, revealing a huge translucent panel.

A huge thunder bolts again and Avni's eyes gorge out of her sockets as she looks at the visual on the panel.

Is that? No way! Impossible!