The audience watches in utter disbelief as the referee declares Peacemaker as the winner of the duel at seventeen minutes, twenty four seconds. A sinister smile graces her triumphant face as she waves back at her human friends who are now jumping and whistling in joy to cheer her. Albatross doesn't understand how she knocked out one of his strongest champions in just one strike, he watches the scene unravel in frozen shock, along with the rest of his comrades on the raised platform.

Peacemaker turns around, away from her people in audience and looks back at Galok, who's still passed out on the ground. She bends down to check his neck with a look of concentration on her face. The affected part of his neck is still not in view, so nobody in the audience can really see the wound clearly.

"Commander, change the camera angle", Albatross commands as he bends forward in his seat to watch the scene with raising interest.

He complies and as soon as the camera angle changes, loud gasps are heard from the audience. And to Albatross' utter horror, one of gasps is his own.

There is no deep, bloody gash on his neck like he had expected, no injury, not even a tiny scratch. The dagger lies on his side, clean and sparkling, without even a droplet of blood shed from his body. Peacemaker lifts up her weapon of choice with ease.

With the same predator-like precision as before, she cleans invisible dust on the blades of the dagger on her own palm, and suddenly, in one quick motion, she plunges the tip of the dagger into her own hand.

Albatross involuntarily holds a breath at her insane action, he expects her to cry out in pain at her own stupidity, but no groan of agony leaves her mouth. No blood pours out of her hand. Not even an inch of her skin is cut. She releases the knife and again plunges it back. Nothing.

"It's a fake dagger."

Albatross' eyes widen and he looks at Vadarius in disbelief.

Does that mean- ?

He looks back with same disbelief on his face. "Yes, I think we're both the thinking the same thing brother."

Albatross' whole world tilts on its axis once again at the realization that she's indeed innocent. His brain refuses to process that he distrusted her all over again over a trifle, that he threw her in a dark, dingy dungeon over this. He groans mentally, as her words from the day repeatedly play on his mind. It's a misunderstanding!

Peacemaker's voice over the speakers halts his guilt trip.

"So, beloved Volzites of Volzolks, a human finally won against your strong, superior champion. Do I get to make a victory speech?"

She looks at Albatross with a fierce challenge in her eyes, an accusation in her features, as she continues to play fake plunge with her dagger on her own palm. He nods back at her reluctantly in permission, no matter what this revelation means regarding what happened that day, he still wants to know how the hell did managed to defeat Galok with this fake dagger today.

"Thank you for agreeing to listen to words coming out of my disgusting mouth, Mr. King. It's a rare privilege to be able to speak for yourself on a planet where you're judged every waking minute of every damn day on the basis of whether you smell honest or not."

Her sharp words are a tight slap to his face and Albatross knows he probably deserves it.

"As you all must have noticed by now, this little piece of art here, is a special dagger", she looks Albatross in the eye as she continues, "Its blades are blunt and its cutting power is practically zero. It can't give anyone even a scratch, it can't make someone bleed and it certainly cannot murder anyone in cold blood."

Vadarius sucks in a deep breath and Albatross mentally slaps himself. He had let her get it designed, from his own weapons expert at that, and didn't even bother to study the design or the changes she requested.

A dagger is a dagger, he had thought. It's meant to kill, he had thought. He shakes his head at his own ignorance.

"So you smart, advanced, intelligent species must be wondering how a pathetic little pest like me managed to take this giant beast down. Well, allow me to demonstrate."

She grabs a bottle of water and pours half of it on Galok's unconscious face. He immediately jerks awake, but when he tries to sit up, a bout of dizziness hit him and he grabs his head with both hands, groaning in pain and falls flat on the ground again.

"Don't overstress yourself, Mr. Galok. Just lie down, take a few deep breaths and you'll be fine in a few minutes. Meanwhile, how about I tell you and everyone else how I managed to knock you out."

She crouches down next to him, and exposes his neck to the camera.

"You see, this tiny nerve right here in a Volzite's neck, goes straight to his central nervous system, and the artery just under it, controls blood flow to it. All you need is one powerful impact here and your central nervous system doesn't get anymore blood or oxygen. Your nerves go haywire and your brain fuses temporarily. But if you know exactly how to regulate the pressure and how long to maintain it, lo and behold, a giant beast of an alien knocked out on the floor in seconds."

She grabs the water bottle again and passes it to Galok.

"Here, drink it. It will help with your dizziness."

He tries to sit up again and takes the bottle from her hesitantly.

"Drink up, Mr. Galok, it's not poisonous. If I really wanted to kill you, you would have died already. All I had to do was press that nerve for a couple of minutes more."

"Wow, she sure knows how to drive a point home", Vadarius comments absentmindedly.

"Now, I'd really like to thank Mr. King and Vadarius. Without their training and especially, without Mr. King's exclusive and kind permission to study Volzite anatomy, I wouldn't have come up with this idea."

Albatross' brows shoot up in surprise again. Damn, he thinks, she's truly a politician, but definitely not the kind he thought her to be. She set him up so easily and he didn't even see it coming.

He looks around and notices a lot of his own people looking at him accusingly and humans looking at him in amusement. He glares back at them.

"Though I'm sure, if he knew what he allowed would backfire on him like this, he might have not allowed me at all. Anyway, this is a message to all the children who watched today, don't try this stunt at home okay? It's too damn dangerous."

Several snickers are heard from human stands, while peacemaker pauses to look back at Galok who's sitting up and looks much better now.

"Ready to honor the bet, Mr. Galok?"

Galok gulps visibly, then nods.

He adjusts his position on the ground to kneel before her, then begins to follow through the bet, but his words leave his mouth as if he's spitting venom, "I apologize to all humans for calling them pests and wanting to crush them."

"Now, now, Mr. Galok, it's not an apology until it's atleast partially genuine. Can you try again?"

"Like hell woman! I honoured my side of the bet. I am leaving now."

He tries to get up, but Peacemaker pushes him down to his knees again.

"Not so soon, Mr. Galok", she says with a dangerous tint to her voice, as she points her fake dagger to his neck again.

Commander and several guards begin to move towards them, apparently to help Galok, but Albatross stops them with a raised hand. Galok dug his own grave, he can sleep in it himself.

"You know what your problem is, Mr. Galok. You think you and your species is the fucking best in the whole damn universe. And who are we humans? Greedy, selfish, cruel, racist, murderers, right?"

Her words are met by silence.

"Right?", she presses the dagger harder at his neck but her gaze is fixated on Albatross, who shuffles in his seat uneasily at her unwavering gaze. She's asking Galok, yet he feels like he's the one getting interrogated instead.

"Y-yeah, right!" Galok manages to mumble out.

"Today, I'll show you and your beloved, superior species a special kind of mirror. So, let's start from the beginning. One fine day, out of the blue, you and your men decide to invade a faraway planet, whose people by the way, were minding their own business, and not meddling in yours. You knock an entire city down, threaten to kill thousands of innocent-, oh wait, we're not innocent right? My mistake, thousands of clueless people by not giving them releasing toxins in the air they inhaled. But you don't stop there, no!

You blackmail over two hundred people into hostage, kidnap them onto a spaceship and bring them to your planet. You don't stop there either. You threaten them with death and destruction, not once, not twice, but day and night, repeatedly. Is that what a gentle, kind species does? I don't think so, Mr. Galok. I think, this is what a cruel species does. What do you think?"

She presses down on his neck hard again and he squirms.

"Speak up!"

"What do you want me to say?"

"I want you to tell me whether all those actions are acts of an innocent, gentle species or a cruel species? Be quick Mr. Galok, I don't have all day."

"Yes, yes! Those acts were cruel."

"Thank you for your honesty, Mr. Galok. Vadarius, can you smell his honesty from there?"

"Yes!"

Albatross glares at Vadarius who shrugs nonchalantly. He's enjoying the direction of Avni's victory speech way too much.

"Good. Now, Mr. Galok, tell me why did your species first approach Earth?"

"To explore the life there."

"Okay, but why did you keep returning?"

Silence.

"Why did you keep returning, Mr. Galok? Don't make me repeat myself, I am not a very patient person. The quicker you answer, the sooner we'll be on our merry ways!"

"Because we needed several minerals and resources, and Earth has a lot of them."

"That's right. And where did your own planet's mineral reserves go?"

"We exhausted them."

"Exactly. You exhausted your own planet's resources and you have the audacity to blame us for destroying our planet. Anyway, that's not the point. You needed resources, so you began stealing them from Earth right?"

"We weren't stealing!"

"Oh really? What would you call it if I enter your home without your knowledge and take your belongings without your permission? I believe you'll call me a thief, Mr. Galok and you'll throw me into your beloved dungeons without even the decency of a fair trial! So don't give me this crap, because that's exactly what you were doing. You were stealing from us, right under our noses."

"Damn right, we were! We ran out of resources, several of them, one after the other, so we decided since we're visiting Earth regularly, why not get them from there too?"

"Thank you for your honesty, Mr. Galok. Vadarius?"

"Yes, totally honest."

"Good, so first you exhaust your own planet's resources, then you go to a foreign planet and start stealing from there. When you're not satisfied with just a few resources, you begin stealing more. I believe it's called greed, Mr. Galok. Don't you agree?"

"No!"

"Really? You're being childish now. Do I need to pick up a dictionary and explain the meaning of greed to you? Anyway, I think I made my point just fine. So far, we've covered that you're cruel and greedy.

Moving on, tell me, Mr. Galok, why do you hate humans so much? And don't say because we are greedy, cruel, racists, murderers, I'm tired of that crap. I want the real deal. Why do you hate us?"

"I don't know, okay! You're humans, you're pests, you're scum of Earth. You're violent, you kill your own kind, you don't care about your planet and you run all your life after money."

"These are just excuses, Mr. Galok. Petty things you keep telling yourself to convince your dumb brains that you're right and we're wrong. Do you know the real underlying reason behind why you hate us so much?"

"I just told you the reasons!"

"And I just proved to you that your people are cruel and greedy too. And trust me, I'm getting to the rest of the vices you share with us too. So don't give me that nonsense. If you don't know the real reason, admit that you don't."

"If you know the reason Avni, why don't you tell us?" Vadarius interrupts her over the speakers and for a split moment, Albatross notices peacemaker's eyes soften at him, before they harden once again.

He takes a deep breath and braces himself for her answer.

"Because Vadarius, your species is racist too! I am not saying that you treat your own species partially on the basis of birth, gender, color, no! Your upbringing and community life is too strong to allow that. Hell, you don't even fight wars or disobey your King. There's no crime in your society. You identify yourselves as one big family. And all of this is commendable. I wish we on Earth were this tight and strong too. But we're not. Humans aren't perfect, but Volzites aren't perfect either.

The moment you found another living species in a far off galaxy of the universe, what did you do? You started hating them. You formed prejudices against them, viewed them in a constant bad light. Why? Because they're not one of your own? Because their societal norms and laws are different than yours? Because they have a different moral compass and different upbringing? Because they fight different wars and vices than you? Because they are born humans and you're born Volzites?

That's the only major difference between you and me, Vadarius. Your soul found a body as Volzite on Volzolks, while mine became a Human on Earth. We're both born in flesh we didn't choose. So, why hate each other because of it?

What else is your rationalization for your species' hatred for us? What's the reason you all here sit in the audience and rejoice participating in the evil scheme that will end up mercilessly murdering billions of souls that live as humans? I think it's because you're cruel, greedy, racists! Just like us!"

Everybody around her grows mum under the weight of her heavy words.

Albatross doesn't really understand what to feel anymore. A part of him feels terrible at misunderstanding her so much, another part feels horrible because if whatever she says is true, he and his people as bad as hers. Maybe worse. A whole new part of him, however, feels strangely proud of her somehow for standing up this way. It's beyond his comprehension. He doesn't know what to do anymore.

Peacemaker sighs heavily, "You know what, Mr. Galok, I can sit here and prove to you, point by point, how your people and mine aren't entirely different. Yes, some of us kill our own kind. But you want to kill us too, don't you? Then, how come we are murderers, and you're not? What kind of skewed logic is that?

You think you are superior and fair, because you have better technology, better strength, better resources to fight us, possibly enough to blow our whole planet up so quickly, we wouldn't even know what hit us, right?

But you forget that we didn't come picking up fight with an unknown life form, you did.

I don't deny that if we would have found any of you first, we wouldn't have tried to know you, experiment on you, and do God knows what in the name of trying to know more about you. But, I can guarantee you this, we wouldn't have barged onto your planet and threatened to blow it up. Because no matter how cruel you think we are, we are still humane. And humanity doesn't relish in wiping out another planet just because we can.

Humanity teaches us to extend a friendly hand to try and bridge gaps. Humanity inspires to accept our vices, and try to look past them to build a better future. Humanity means trying to forgive those who do us wrong, whether they are one of us or not.

Humanity means hope, Mr. Galok, it means kindness and compassion. And I know you think you're superior to us, but you kneel at my feet here and I have a weapon at your throat, but I don't feel superior to you at all. Because I see you as an equal. You have a soul in you, just like I've, the only difference is we were born in different species, on different planets, several galaxies apart."

Galok stares back at her blankly as her words hit straight home. She removes the dagger from his throat and sheaths it.

"You call me a hypocrite, Mr. Galok, because I talk of peace, preach peace and can do anything to keep peace. Even if I'm forced to fight a duel for it. Look at me, Mr. Galok, I didn't shed even one droplet of your blood. I didn't kill you. I won peacefully. Still think you're the honest one, and I am the hypocrite?"

When he doesn't respond, she sighs and shakes her head. "I have to fight Vadarius or my fellow humans in next fights though, so I can't entirely avoid this pool of impending bloodshed. But if participating in it now will give me a chance at greater peace between Volzolks and Earth later, I'm willing to take it. If that makes me a hypocrite, then so be it!"

"No Avni", Galok whispers suddenly, making her look at him in surprise.

"You're not a hypocrite. We are. I'm sorry I called your people pests. I don't even know humans that well, so I don't have any right to subject them to that kind of hatred."

Peacemaker gives him a warm smile as she holds out a hand to help him up. He takes it and they shake hands.

"Thanks Mr. Galok. I really appreciate it. And this time, I don't need Vadarius to tell me you're being honest. I identify genuine honesty when I see it."

He smiles back at her.

"Good luck for your next fight, Avni. I hope you win." Galok's words are a total surprise after all the hatred he has thrown at her till now.

Galok leaves the arena, and when Avni turns back towards Albatross again, her smile disappears and her face hardens again.

The audience begins dispersing quietly, and she starts walking in his direction.

When she finally arrives near their seats on the platform, she pulls out her dagger from its sheath and places it on the table in front of both brothers. She looks Albatross in the eye and taps her nose, probably to remind him to smell her.

"I didn't try to or ever intend to kill your Precious. I have no plots for anyone's murder or revenge or whatever bullshit you accuse me of. If you had heard me out that day, I'd have told you it was just a misunderstanding. I loved that innocent li'l child like I love my niece, but you find it too fucking hard to understand and believe this small detail. So, it's best in everyone's interest that you keep her away from me. Because next time, I won't tolerate any baseless allegation. And honestly speaking, repeating the same mistakes again doesn't suit your 'fair' reputation."

Vadarius responds to her before he can even find any words to say.

"I'm so sorry Avni, I should have listened to you. I knew you couldn't hurt her. You had to stay in that filthy dungeon cell for two days, for no damn fault of yours. I don't believe how I allowed that injustice. I just-"

"I don't really blame you, Vadarius."

He immediately deflates and looks away, but doesn't defends himself anymore. Instead he calls for Commander.

"Please escort her back to her room, Commander. She won't stay in dungeons anymore."

Commander looks at his King for confirmation, who he nods in agreement, then gets up and leaves the arena.

That's a lot to process for him in a single day.