"Of course, peacemaker. You need a chance, and I'm giving it to you," Mr. King responds immediately to Avni's words.

"Commander", he nods to his loyal man who doesn't even need words to understand his King. Avni can see what Mr. Abe meant in that moment. Commander may be doing his job out of respect and loyalty to his King, but to an unwilling man, this will be slavery ultimately.

"Avni!", a soft, loving voice greets her ears suddenly, pulling her out of her musings abruptly. As her eyes drift towards the translucent panel, a feeling of nostalgia washes over her and treacherous tears begin to trickle down her cheeks. She doesn't wipe them away, she misses her family, she sees no shame in indulging in her emotional breakdown, before she becomes strong again.

"Mom, are you okay?" She asks as she reaches the translucent panel and touches the projection of her wizened face tentatively, collapsing on her knees before it, exactly where Mr. Abe was minutes ago.

"I'm okay sweetie, I hope these cruel sons-of-alien-bitches are treating you well!" Her mother's crude words make her snort abruptly, bringing a nostalgic smile to her face. That's her beautiful mom, fearless and filter-less.

"Hey little sis," her elder sister comes into the frame next and waves at her like Avni's on a routine conference and she is here to casually greet her. Her tough exterior can't hide the hint of worry in her eyes from Avni though.

"Are you talking to Avni maasi, mumma?", Avni's little niece, Navya, comes jumping into her arms and as soon as her eyes meet Avni's, her sweet face lights up like the sky on a Diwali night. Avni sends her a couple of flying kisses, which she eagerly returns.

"Enough with the greetings, peacemaker! We don't have all day", Mr. King's irritated voice breaks their blissful reunion moment, and Avni wipes her eyes and puts on a strong face for the impending trouble coming her way.

"Of course, Mr. King, go ahead."

"I promised you a chance peacemaker, here it is. I offer you a life of lavishness, luxury and peace on my planet -", She interrupts his words with a loud "No."

"I'm not finished yet, hear me out. Like I said, a peaceful life, away from the wars you hate so much, on my planet. With my peace-loving people. Everything you want or need will be provided to you, and you'll never have to work again for the rest of your life."

He pauses for effect as she looks him straight in his eyes, lifts her chin and raises a brow. Does he really think she will fall for that?

His lip twitches again, and the sparkle in his eyes tells Avni he's not revealed his hand yet. She taps her foot impatiently as she waits for him to drop the final metaphorical bomb.

"You can live as one of my subjects, my people will respect you -"

"Cut the chase, Mr. King, we don't have all day remember? You're wasting one of our good training days."

His lip twitches again, he sure enjoys riling her up.

"Very well, peacemaker. Here's my trump card, all of this will be provided to you, and..."

"And?"

"And to your beloved family."

A loud gasp escapes her mouth unwillingly as she stares at him with wide eyes. The smug jerk looks utterly amused, as if he anticipated this response. She tries to mask her reaction, the damage is already done, but she schools her features nonetheless.

As his offer continues to sink in, Avni's treacherous mind fills her with images of a life at this planet. With her family. Living peacefully without a care in the world. Watching little Navya growing up happily, perhaps with Precious, her mom growing older, her sister finding a new romantic alien prospect, the possibilities seem overwhelming.

"I'm glad you're considering it", Mr. King's surprised voice breaks her trance, and she tumbles back into bitter reality.

"No, I'm not", she retorts half-heartedly, though she knows she isn't fooling anyone. His lip twitches again.

"I can smell lies, peacemaker. You're better than this", he says with amusement and she sighs deeply as she pulls herself together and begins to compose her thoughts. One brief virtual meeting with her family and she fell apart like a house of cards. That's not her, how can she even think about this?

"It's okay to be selfish, peacemaker. Who doesn't want a happy, peaceful life with their family? Like Mrs. Abe had said before, I'd definitely choose it in a heartbeat."

"That's where you and me are different, Mr. King. Sure, your proposal is very tempting, for a moment there I was actually imagining a life of peace with my family. Because that's what I've always wanted back home too, but that doesn't mean I will sacrifice billions of innocent lives for it. I will rather die fighting than become a traitor to my own people."

All amusement is wiped out from his face as he proposes the deal again with total seriousness.

"That's how it is, peacemaker. You can make a selfish decision and be labelled as a traitor, or make a stupid, selfless choice to be proclaimed as a martyr. You'll either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become a villain.

You can fight for your people, but there will be no one left to honor your heroic sacrifices. Or you give in to your peace-loving tendencies, skip the bloodshed and choose a happy life for yourself and your family by joining us on our planet. Your call, peacemaker."

He looks into her eyes directly, the sheer challenge reflecting in his icy orbs making her feel uneasy.

"I can promise you this, peacemaker, if I offer this opportunity to anybody else on Earth, they will take it in a heartbeat. So, if you're tempted too, there's nothing wrong with that."

"No, Mr. King. There will be thousands like me, who won't take your offer, no matter how lucrative your it gets. You paint the picture of a beautiful, peaceful future for my family and I, but you forget one tiny, but important detail. The guilt of digging the graves of my people with my own hands. The feeling of having my hands coated with blood of millions of innocents. What kind of peace will that life give me? I'll die a new death everyday.

I am no hero Mr. King, but I won't become a villain by pushing innocent people deeper into the hands of death."

"Those people are not innocent, peacemaker, and even if they are, why will you be guilty of anything? Their lives are not your responsibility, you're not accountable for them. They don't think about you or your peacemaking beliefs, when they murder their own family or kill their planet daily. They mock you and your ideologies. Ask your leader friends if you don't believe me. You won't find anyone who doesn't mock you behind your back."

She sighs as she looks around at her fellow human leaders and notices their lowered heads, none of them meeting her eye. Not even Xi. She shakes her head at them in disappointment.

"It doesn't matter, Mr. King. My decision is made. I don't want your so called peaceful life, I choose to duel."

"I don't know if that's brave of you peacemaker or stupid." Mr. King huffs in irritation, "I'm afraid though, the final decision is not yours to make, it's theirs", he points at her family who are looking at her worriedly over the video call that has been muted after their earlier conversation.

"They'll agree with me, we don't need the life you offer," Avni says with determination, but her confident voice is interrupted immediately.

"Are you sure, Avni? You don't have to do this", her sister says, gulping visibly hard.

"What are you talking about?"

"Nobody values your efforts, Avni. You have no friends amongst those politicians you spent so many years of your life working with. He's right, they don't respect you, they mock your ideologies, they don't deserve you to die for any of them."

"Your sister is right, peacemaker, listen to her."

"Stay out of this, Mr. King. Stop trying to manipulate them. Let them make their choice on their own."

"Listen to me, Avni, I don't know what this man wants, but if he is giving me a chance to live a happy life with my family and watch my young daughter grow up, I'm going to take it."

Avni stares flabbergasted at her sister.

"How can you be so selfish, di?"

"How can you be so selfless, Avni? Don't you love us? Your family, your niece? She idolizes you, sings your praises day and night, misses you all the time, and you're going to let her die here in a few days? Especially if you have an exclusive chance to save her, no conditions applied?"

"How can you even blame me of that? I would die for her in a heartbeat, for all of you. You're my family, I love you unconditionally."

"Then choose us, Avni, it's that simple."

"But it isn't! Don't you see? There are millions of little boys and girls like Navya on Earth too. Their parents want to watch them grow up too. Those little ones don't deserve to die either. Who'll think about them? No, I can't shut my eyes and pretend to live a happy life with you all when my people are being hunt down by barbaric aliens. I am not that selfish!"

"But, I am. So here's my answer Mr. King, I accept your offer."

"What the hell?! Mom? Do you agree with this injustice too?" Avni asks in disbelief, her voice shaking so hard, she's afraid she'll break down into ugly sobs if her mother turns out selfish like her sister.

"Avni.. I don't know", her mother says in a confused, tiny whisper, but her indecisiveness is all the answer Avni needs to know her mother agrees with her deep in her heart.

"You know it, mom. You can't live peacefully either, not if your daughter could do something to save so many innocent lives. You don't want to live a life of a traitor either. You gave me this life mom, and I want use it to die fighting for the things I believe in, we believe in, till I take my last breath. Please mom, don't take this away from me."

"Mom, what about Navya and me?" her sister interrupts.

"You gave us your decision, sister, now stay out of this."

Her sister glares at her like she asked for her kidney. However, their mom's words put an abrupt end to their glaring contest.

"I've made my decision. Mr. King, my daughter will defeat your men like the fighter she is. You better watch out because when she's done with them, she'll be bringing you to your knees next."

Mr. King's brows shoot up in surprise at her confidence. Avni blushes at her mom's rudeness, but she's pleased nonetheless.

"I see where you get your smart mouth from, peacemaker. We'll see, Mrs. Singh, who brings whom to their knees. Anyway, it's a tie now, the little one gets to make the final choice."

He points at her niece, Navya who looks back at him with fire in her beautiful brown eyes.

"Mom, di, please leave the room. I want to talk to Navya alone."

"You know we can watch it on the TV right?" her sister interrupts and she can see what Mr. King means by smart-mouthing.

"Yeah, go do that. I don't want you to influence her decision."

Her mother pulls her sister out of the room and shuts the door behind them.

"Peacemaker, I will not allow you to manipulate or influence her decision either. She's a kid."

"She's a smart kid, Mr. King and she's ten already. I'll just present her with the options in a straightforward manner and clear any doubts she has, I won't make the final choice for her. She won't let me anyways, like you saw, the smart-mouth runs in the family. But if you see me manipulating her decision, call me out and I'll stop."

He nods and signals her to go on, so she turns to the panel again.

"Hey sweetie, you know what you have to do, don't you?"

"Yes maasi, I heard your fight with mommy earlier. She says she wants all of us to live happily on that bad uncle's planet, but you say you don't want to, because then you don't get the chance to save everyone else on Earth."

"That's right, sweetie. Mommy wants what's best for her family and her baby girl, and I want what's best for all of us, including my family, you - my sweetie, and all your friends, our neighbors, relatives, everyone."

She nods as her eyes gloss over.

"Do you know which of those two things do you want, sweetie?"

She shakes her head as a lone tear trickles down her face.

"Don't cry baby, I wish I could hug you so hard, it'll melt away your pain."

"If I choose mommy's side, you can hug me as long as you want."

Avni chuckles half-heartedly at her sass. "That I can, love. But, I can also do that if I win the duels and Mr. King here decides to have some mercy on us and let us live."

"What if you don't win, maasi? What if you die before any of that?"

"Then, I'll know I tried my best to save everyone, li'l one. We all have to die one day anyway, so why be scared of death?"

"Will we become stars and shine in the sky together if we all die?"

"I'm afraid, no, my love. If we die, we die. There's no after."

"Then why do you want to die?"

"I-I don't", she gulps down the throbbing ball of emotions in her throat as she tries to explain tough adult choices to a young impressionable mind, "I don't want to die, sweetie, but I don't want to live a traitor's life either. What's a life full of what-ifs? I don't want to look back and think that I could have saved my people if I had chosen to fight instead of taking a coward's way out."

"But, if you lose, will you look back and think you could have lived happily if you had chosen not to fight?"

"Maybe, but I don't think, Mr. King will spare me long enough to think too hard about it", she tries a bit of humor, but fails miserably.

"He's a very bad guy, it's all his fault."

"Hey! I didn't teach you to disrespect elders, Navya. Nobody's essentially good or bad sweetie, it's their thinking and choices that are perceived so."

"I don't care, massi, I know he's bad. First, he wants to kill us and now, he's making you fight your own family, even though this could be last time we talk."

"I believe you're right about that, big girl, he's indeed making us fight. Tell your mommy I love her okay? And I will fight till my last breath to ensure she gets to see her little girl grow up happily."

"Okay, I will tell her. But why are you so insistent on fighting? Can I do anything to change your mind?"

Avni sighs and looks at her little girl that talks all grown up now. She sounds even more mature than own her mother.

"You remember one night when you woke up from a scary dream and found me still talking on video call to the US and Russian Presidents?"

She furrows her tiny brows as she tries to remember, "Yes, it was four a.m. and you had another meeting at eight that morning. You stayed up till five, slept for two hours and went to your office like any other day."

"That's right, sweetie. You remember what did I tell you that evening, when you asked me why I'm trying so hard to stop them from fighting? When I can sleep peacefully knowing that they can't drag our country into their wars if we don't want to fight?"

"Yes, you said how can you sleep peacefully if you know you can-," she pauses and looks at me with a spark of understanding in her gorgeous eyes, "if you know you can stop their fight and save innocents that don't deserve to die. You will try your hardest. Because sleep is a very small price to pay for people's lives."

"That's right love, peace always comes at a price. And, my answer is still the same. My life is a very small price to pay for millions of people's lives."

She nods hesitantly, "Even if the price is the life of your family too?"

"Sweetie, do you really want to live a life here, where you'll have no friends, no relatives, no other people you've known all your life? With the guilt that they're dead because we were too selfish to save ourselves instead?"

"You can make friends here, li'l girl. I have a li'l sister who'll love to be your friend. You both can play together. And you can have new neighbors here too", Mr. King offers Navya an alternate world of possibilities.

Avni glares at Mr. King angrily, but before she can say anything to him, Navya beats her to it.

"If your people and your sister are anything like you, uncle, I don't want to be anywhere near them. You're a bad man and I'm sure your li'l sister will be a bad girl too!"

"Navya! Don't talk like that. She's a little kid who knows nothing of this. You shouldn't form opinions about people you know nothing about!"

"But-"

"No buts, missy! Apologize now."

"Fine, I am sorry!"

"That's better, now tell us your decision sweetie, we've already taken too long, and Mr. King isn't a very patient man."

"I don't mind peacemaker, in fact, I'm quite enjoying this. It's perfect entertainment to watch how your own family doesn't support your tall claims of selflessness in humans."

Avni sighs and ignores his comments, even though they're quite true so far.

"Come on sweetie, what do you say? You are a representative of our new generation. Your opinion reflects the thoughts of the future of our species. You get to decide if we want to continue with our selfish ways or try to become selfless and think of the greater good?"

Navya closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.

"Go ahead, sweetie, tell us. Do I get to fight? Do I get to try my hardest to save innocents or no?"

"Yes you do, but you'll have to promise me something."

Avni sighs with relief, as she responds with a smile, "Anything sweetie."

"If anytime during your fights with those big men, you think you cannot take it anymore, you think you're losing and you're probably gonna die, promise me you'll close your eyes, take a deep breath, gather all your strength and kick the shit out of your opponent one last time in my name."

Avni breaks into a fit of laughter at her neice's calmly delivered, yet impactful words, and traitorous tears find their way down her face again. That's my brave baby girl.

"I promise, if I ever feel like I'm going to lose, my final kick or punch to my opponent will be in my sweetie's name. Do I have your permission to fight now?"

"You have my permission to win, massi. I know you'll make us proud. Like you did when you won those Presidents to your side."

I smile at her optimism, "I will try my best, my love. I won't let you down. Thank you so much for trusting me."

"I will always trust you maasi, go show them they messed with the wrong species. Show them who we humans are!"

I chuckle heartily at her and nod, before the screen turns off to replace her beautiful face by a blank canvas.

Avni sighs loudly and turns around to find her place back amongst the humans still in the championship. When she looks ahead again, she's ready to face Mr. King with a renewed determination and energy.

I promise sweetie, I will show these aliens just who we humans really are!