NOVEMBER 1, 2010. FOUR MONTHS BEFORE THE INVASION.

Summer Locket was the Watcher of a baby who hadn't been born.

Anne Majestic.

Lilly Majestic, Theo Majestic's wife, was pregnant with Anne.

Summer had met Nick Majestic and Hailey Majestic, but she had never met Anne, the unborn younger sister of Nick, Hailey, and Nova.

Nova. Summer had never met her.

Pristine Claude was Nick Majestic's Watcher. Nick was older than Hailey and Nova, and Summer didn't doubt he would try hard to keep his two sisters safe. When his third sister was born, he would keep her safe.

Summer would do the same.

The woman who was twenty-one years of age could put her hands against Lilly's belly, but she still wasn't close enough to Anne.

Lilly had a sibling. Camille Ascend, Don Ascend's wife, had a sibling. Summer did not.

She did not have a baby. The little Majestics in the royal palace had been newborn infants, and Summer desired for the child growing inside Lilly to be born. The wait hurled agony into the brown-haired woman, unwelcome and bitter agony.

Would baby Anne be born with blue eyes? Like Summer had been?

All the Majestics in the home had blue eyes. Even the young Majestic who didn't live in the royal palace had blue eyes, but Summer had never seen her. Theo and Lilly had given her details about the kid. Summer knew about Nova Majestic. She knew about the child, but she had never met her. She was not Theo or Lilly or Nick.

The one-year-old Hailey would turn two years old on the twenty-fifth of December.

Now, though, it was the first of November.

It was Summer's twenty-first birthday.

The afternoon sun casted warm light against the Soynite royal palace, a massive home harboring most of Theo Majestic's children, the long-lived man's pregnant wife, and several other Soynite people.

Sunlight entered the blue hall through windows in the hall. Summer stood in front of a sofa, but she did not sit on its soft blue.

Framed photographs were on the walls. One of them displayed Hailey Majestic. Another one displayed Nick Majestic, who was older than Hailey. He was Theo's eldest child, his firstborn. A framed photograph displaying Nova Majestic was not in the hall, and the girl herself did not stand in the hall.

Not far from Summer was a man with power and a woman with no present daughter.

"When I was waiting to meet Hailey, I remember Vera kept her hopes high," Boris Endman said, his voice emerging from a spot in the hall. He kept his hand against a woman who shared the same last name as him, but this woman was not biologically related to the High. "Alice is going to be found, Holly."

"I know," Holly said. "I just miss her so much."

Holly hugged her father-in-law, who hugged her back.

After the hug ended, Boris frowned and rubbed his neck.

His son's daughter had gone missing. A person had stolen High Boris's granddaughter. Perhaps the kidnapper was a Soynite. Perhaps the kidnapper was a Freeman.

Was the kidnapper vile?

Summer didn't know if Alice's kidnapper had taken her for a good reason, but it was not foolish to believe a person could kidnap a baby for a good reason.

Beyond Boris and Holly was Alice.

Inside Lilly was Anne Majestic. Like Anne's siblings Nick and Hailey, Summer desired to meet the would-be youngest child of Theo.

Theo Majestic's had children. He and Lilly kept Nick and Hailey hidden from the Soynite public. Nova was a Majestic, but the Soynite public didn't know she had come from Theo's wife. Nova could leave her home without having to be invisible. Her brother and sister didn't possess that luxury. The girl didn't know Theo Majestic and Lilly Majestic were her birth parents.

Nova's father, Theo, planned on telling her the truth. One day.

Lilly's friend Land Preachman was the reason why Nova didn't stand in the same massive home as Theo, Lilly, Nick, Hailey, Boris, Don, and other great Soynites. Land had named the Ascend Museum after Don, but Don's friend Lilly had given up her child for adoption because of him.

Nova was Lilly's second child. She had come after Nick. She had come before Hailey.

As the sun's light touched Boris's white hair, the man remained with no facial hair. Just like Archer Endman.

How long had Alice's hair become?

Unlike the other Highs, Boris had wrinkled skin and white hair.

All of the Highs had gained the power of immortality when they were twenty years old. Boris had shut off his immortality for many years, but he had been convinced to turn it back on.

"Both of you are going to see Alice again," Summer said, speaking to Boris and his son's wife. "The baby won't be away forever. She will be back."

A Majestic moved into the hall, the kid shorter than the adults in the space. Holly picked up Hailey. The woman couldn't hold her daughter, but she could hold Theo's.

Summer couldn't hold Anne. Not yet, at least.

Boris Endman, the grandfather of Holly's missing girl, made his exit. He could speak to young Hailey later. It wasn't as if the world would a couple months from now.

"Are you ready to see this little one's sister?" Holly said, holding Hailey.

As she pointed her blue eyes at Summer's, Hailey smiled. Theo's third child smiled at people more than Nick did. There was a possibility Hailey would continue to be more compassionate than her brother eleven years from now.

Eleven years.

Summer had been ten years old eleven years ago. Theo Majestic had decided Summer deserved to meet his oldest daughter, who wasn't ten years of age. If the adopted girl was a fortunate one, she would live to be twenty-one years old. Like her unborn sister's Watcher.

Don Ascend's unborn child hadn't come yet. Her name was Kara. Kara Ascend.

The kid hadn't been born, but her last name was part of the Ascend Museum's title.

People with blue jackets that had images of the Ascend Museum on them didn't have to become enemies with Summer.

Maybe Nova would wear the work uniform of an employee of the Ascend Museum.

"I am," Summer said. "I've already met Hailey and Nick. I'm going to meet Anne. And I'm ready to see Nova."

"When you meet Anne, be good to her," Holly said, the woman looking at the Watcher as Hailey toyed with her hair. "Please."

Anne deserved to be treated well. Alice Endman deserved to be treated well.

All life is precious.

"Of course," Summer said, Hailey listening as her unborn sibling's Watcher spoke. "All life is precious."

Holly Endman. Archer Endman. Alice Endman. One of those people hadn't been inside the royal palace for years. Summer was friends with Holly and Archer, and she hoped they would find Alice. They hadn't lost the right to reunite with their only daughter.

"All life is precious," Holly said.

Freeman lives were precious.

Those pale people hadn't set foot on planet Soy in a long time. Hailey's mother, Lilly Majestic, Land Preachman, and other Soynites believed the Freemans would return to Soy. They believed the Freemans would bring chaotic destruction to the Soynite people's home planet.

Hailey's distant aunt had murdered the first Freeman.

Terrible.

If Freemans attacked Soy, which Summer didn't believe would happen, would the Watcher find the will to kill?

Summer was not a murderer.

Even the young Hailey viewed killing Freemans as wrong. Kidnapping people and murdering other living beings were not precious acts. Soynites would not kidnap. They would not kill. They were not abominations. They were not Freemans.

Summer was not what Nerra Majestic had been.

The woman would not kill. She would never kill. Even Freemans did not deserve to be murdered.

If it became necessary to kill Freemans, which would not happen, Summer would take Freeman lives. She had been taught how to kill. If a laser gun became an important tool for her to use, she would use the weapon with efficient deadliness.

"Alice is precious," Summer said. "And we have a lot of time to find her."

If a Soynite had taken Alice, the kidnapper would be exiled. It was the way Soy punished cruel Soynites. Theo Majestic had already exiled Reed Pisces.

Nova hadn't been exiled, but Lilly hadn't allowed her to continue residing at the royal palace.

Summer would see that girl. She would pin her gaze on Theo Majestic's second child, the adopted child. Hase Majestic shared genes with Nova. The kid Holly held shared genes with Hase and Nova.

The Watcher in the hall never had a sister. She never had a daughter.

Having one would be nice.

Time passed.

A Watcher shouted a name, calling for Theo's child. The Watcher hadn't said Nova.

Holding hands, Theo Majestic and Summer Locket stood not far from a home. The female Watcher was invisible. Like Theo.

The sun's light bathed them in warmth. Green grass danced in the wind.

A girl stood near a sidewalk, dressed in blue, older than Hailey and younger than Nick.

Nova Majestic.

The child had met her older brother, Nick, but perhaps she didn't remember him. The person who stood in front of the house, Nova's Watcher, grinned. So did Theo. And Summer.

Nova, who hadn't been called Nova by her Watcher, faced the adult Soynite. She held a flower. As her biological father stood on her front lawn, Nova ran toward her Watcher. Her blonde hair trailed behind her as dropped the flower, the kid's Soynite pendant swinging.

She soon arrived in front of her Watcher, who lifted her off the ground. The mentor kissed Nova's cheek.

"Having fun?" the Watcher said.

"Yes," Nova replied.

She had been adopted years ago, but Summer saw her now. Her High had let Anne's Watcher see Nova Majestic, the first daughter of Theo and Lilly, their second child.

Nova didn't go unnoticed by Theo and Summer. Summer watched Theo's daughter. And Theo didn't live in the same home as Nova, but he tended to go out and see her. The High had let Summer accompany him this time.

Supreme High Theo Majestic was Nova's father.

The Watcher hadn't called the girl Nova, but it was still the first name she had been given by her birth parents.

Many Soynites knew Theo Majestic's name. But most Soynites didn't know Theo and Lilly had produced three children. Three blond-haired, blue-eyed children.

Theo, this great man, was a liar.

His wife, a great woman, was a liar.

They had lied about not having children. But they refused to let the Freemans uncover the reality that Theo and Lilly were parents. Their children, Nick, Hailey, and Nova were as real as the grass underneath Summer's shoes.

Summer crushed grass below her feet.

Theo crushed the urge to force Nova to live with him and his housemates. Nova no longer spent time as a royal palace resident.

Under the blue sky, Nova's home stood while Theo's home stood taller.

Nova and her Watcher went to the yard behind the house. They hadn't seen Summer. They hadn't seen Theo. Summer couldn't see Theo. Theo couldn't see her. But they didn't stop holding hands. Holly and Archer had stopped being able to hold Alice's hands. That had occurred against their will. Because of a kidnapper. Because of a vile person.

Alice had been taken. Her disappearance shoved sorrow into the lives of Holly and Archer. Someone, someone awful, had stolen that married couple's baby. The kidnapper hadn't given the child back to her parents.

No.

No one had taken Alice for a good reason.

Seeing Nova spend time having fun had made Summer throw more disappointment at the fact a kidnapper had made Alice become a missing person, a missing daughter, a missing granddaughter.

Summer Locket would never kidnap a baby.

After returning to the royal palace, visible, Summer found Lilly, Nick, and Pristine Claude inside the hall where she had spoken to Holly.

Pristine held the boy Nick.

Like the mother of the young boy she carried, Pristine's hair was blonde and her eyes were blue. Summer had seen another Soynite female with blonde hair and blue eyes. Nova Majestic.

Nick was with his Watcher now. Summer had witnessed his younger sister's Watcher pick her up, and Theo had seen it. His second child enjoyed her life, no doubt.

Lilly pressed a hand against her swollen belly. She lived.

Good.

"I saw Nova," Summer said. "She was happy. Me and Theo didn't speak to her, of course. We just watched her. It wasn't a bad sight."

Theo had teleported him and Summer to Nova's front lawn.

Nova had been renamed. It was why her Watcher hadn't called her Nova. Summer and Lilly and Theo and Nick and Hailey referred to Nova as Nova, but the girl had a different name. The child's Watcher had spoken that name. The Watcher hadn't called Nova what her biological parents called her.

"You are going to see her in the future," Lilly said. "And the truth about her heritage will be told to her. One day."

"I love Nova," Nick said.

"I agree with you, Nick," Lilly said. She smiled and caressed Nick's hair. The woman kissed the blond hair strands. "And I love you, son."

"I love you too," Nick responded.

Love.

Would Anne love Summer?

She and the Watcher had to meet for the first time. Anne, Lilly's would-be fourth child, stayed safe within her kind and loving mother.

The Soynites in the room, Summer, Lilly, Nick, and Pristine were surrounded by blue walls, a blue floor, and a blue ceiling. Anne's mother surrounded her. That truth would not last forever, and Summer preferred for Anne to emerge and see the world. The baby girl needed to see her. Watchers deserved to see their charges.

Nova's Watcher had been with the girl outside her house. Summer and Theo hadn't seen Nova's adoptive parents earlier, but they were alive.

No one in the hall was sure if Alice Endman hadn't been killed. They hoped for her return. Alice's home was the house she shared with her parents, Holly and Archer, two wonderful people who missed their only child.

Bitter sorrow stalked Holly and Archer like a shadow.

"Is Holly still here?" Summer said.

"Not anymore," Pristine said, keeping one hand against Nick's back, her hand pressed against the blue shirt's fabric. "She left."

Holly had left. Her daughter had left, but it had been a forced exit.

A horrible person hadn't kidnapped Nova when she was a baby, but she did not reside with her birth parents, and she didn't know who those two people were. Summer did. Nova did not.

Theo's goal was to reveal his status as Nova's biological father to her. The goal went incomplete.

Maybe he would reveal the truth to Nova eleven years from now.

Maybe a different Soynite would.

Unsatisfying remorse coursed through Theo, it ran rampant in him, and it stemmed from Nova's identity as someone who had been adopted. Theo had wrestled with the intention to stay as Nova's caretaker. The man had been forced to strangle that intention, because the man with ownership over the Ascend Museum had influenced his wife.

The belief that Freemans would attack Soy had stabbed into Lilly like a dagger.

Land Preachman had made Lilly adopt paranoia. That paranoia had made Lilly decide it was better to give her daughter up for adoption. The woman had been pregnant at the time, and she was pregnant now, while her three children remained alive and well.

The Ascend Museum's owner hadn't seen Land during her pregnancy with Nova. He had used a communication device to speak to her. The man who had named his museum after Don Ascend had never learned of Lilly's several pregnancies, pregnancies that had brought several good children into the world.

Anne Majestic would be Lilly's fourth child.

Theo and Lilly hadn't sent Hailey to live with a different married couple. The High and his wife would not send Anne to live with a couple that was not them. Theo had convinced Lilly not to turn Anne into an adopted child.

Because of Theo, Nick would have two sisters to play with. Lilly would have two daughters living in the same home she lived in.

Summer would have Anne Majestic in her life. Theo had personally selected her to be his child's Watcher. He had personally selected Nova's Watcher to be her Watcher. Lilly had loved that.

Land Preachman, Lilly's friend and owner of the Ascend Museum, had caused his dear friend to give her child up for adoption. Land didn't know it.

Would the Freemans launch a vicious assault on Soy and its people?

Summer didn't know. Lilly didn't know. Land didn't know. Believing armed and dangerous and pale warriors would attack the Soynites was speculation.

A Soynite didn't need to believe what Land and Lilly believed.

Would Lock Tannis send millions of pale warriors, dangerous creatures, and black spaceships to planet Soy?

Summer didn't know.

"Holly will come back," Nick said, clinging to Pristine. "Alice will come back."

Anne Majestic would come.

"And your sister is going to come, Nick," Summer said. "Anne Majestic will be here."

There they were, four Soynites, a brown-haired Watcher, a blonde-haired Watcher, a blond boy, and a mother. All alive. None dead.

In truth, Anne hadn't come yet.

Theo had failed to convince Lilly to let them raise Nova, but he had won at convincing Lilly to let them raise Anne.

Anne would come. The Freemans wouldn't.

Gazes landed on the place where Anne lived. That baby would bring great joy into Summer's life, the Watcher assumed. Anne would help her family and her Watcher live better lives, lives that were already great.

Beyond the hall, beyond the Soynite royal palace, the Freemans lived. They were so terrible that their ruler was chosen by whoever killed the current ruler. Lock Tannis, the present Freeman ruler, had murdered the previous one.

The Freemans had hated the Soynites for millions of years. In the current year, which was 2010 in Earth time, Soy remained untouched by Lock Tannis's Freeman warriors.

Not one dangerous Freeman warrior had arrived. Lock Tannis ruled the Freemans and planet Free. Theo Majestic led the Soynites and planet Soy. He was not a murderer.

A murderer was what Lock Tannis was.

A murderer was not what Summer Locket would become.

Murdering another living being would drop regret into Summer, the woman did not doubt.

"My daughter is going to be wonderful," Lilly said, touching her belly through the blue dress she wore. "My kids who are already here are great. Just like their Watchers."

Summer grinned. The royal palace was not without good Soynites. Lilly Majestic, the mother of Nick, Nova, and Hailey, was a good Soynite, and she had earned the right to enjoy her time alive.

Nick, Hailey, and Nova had a good mother.

Nick Majestic had been born years before. Nova, the only adopted child, had been born after him. Then Hailey had arrived.

The Majestic children would be teenagers eleven years from now.

Summer had gone through her teenage years, and Nick, Nova, and Hailey would have to go through their own years as teenagers. Summer had attended a Watcher academy as a teenager. She had graduated. And she now wished for Anne Majestic's birth to happen soon, the birth of the girl she would mentor and help and love.

Would Summer become as attached to Anne as Vera Mod was to Hailey?

Watcher Vera Mod.

She was a Bloodhound who could see the past and the future. Unlike Summer, Vera tended to stare at Theo longer than necessary.

"Your kids have a good mother, Lilly," Summer said.

She had needed to tell the woman that. It was true. Lilly was a good mother. She even regretted making Nova live with a different pair of people, and her longing to have Nova living in the same home as her was massive.

When Nova was younger, her birth parents had sent her away. Theo Majestic had personally given baby Nova to her current adoptive parents. That was what had occurred, and no one had succeeded in convincing Lilly to keep her daughter Nova.

"One of my kids isn't here," Lilly said. "I never should have sent her away."

Sending Nova away had come to an end. The girl Nova lived with a pair of parents that wasn't the Theo-Lilly pair. Nova lived a happy life with her adoptive parents, and that meant it would be terrible to steal that from her. Theo would have to inform Nova of the truth, then her birth parents could spend time bonding with her.

Summer looked at the framed photograph displaying Nick. He grinned in the picture. Even though the current Nick did not grin. His mother showed disappointment in herself, and he could not destroy it. Boris Endman had tried destroying Holly's sorrow, but Alice Endman's absence remained.

"Theo will tell her the truth, Lilly," Pristine said. "Nova will know who her birth parents are, and she will love both of them."

Lilly had let her museum-owning friend influence her too well. It would be wise for her to let her son's Watcher influence her. Pristine hadn't said unkind words that were meant to bury unfair hopelessness into the mother who lacked Nova.

The woman's daughter was gone. Nova the girl had been kissed by her Watcher, but her mother could not kiss her. Nick and Hailey knew Lilly's love for them, and Anne would experience it, but Nova was ignorant to how much her birth mother loved her.

Lilly set a hand against her forehead, shut her eyes, hiding their blue. Like she hid the truth from Nova.

Deep uneasiness shrouded Lilly.

A hand rested on Lilly's shoulder, but it was not a hand that belonged to Summer or Pristine or Nick.

"Come with me, please," Theo Majestic said, having the appearance of a twenty-year-old and not a man of millions of years of age. Lilly opened her eyes and moved her hand from her forehead to her husband's own hand. "You should rest, darling."

Theo didn't double as the man who had made a disastrous paranoia hook into Lilly. Theo and Land Preachman were not the same person. Theo had tried convincing Lilly that Nova didn't have to be adopted. Land had made Lilly view Nova as a person who would be safe with a different pair of Soynites.

Summer would never let a man convince her to perform a horrible act.

There was Theo, the man who made it known he preferred for Summer to become his unborn daughter's Watcher.

Lilly's body harbored the unborn child, a girl named Anne Majestic, and Summer could not rest her hands on the girl. Not yet. But she would. She, Watcher Summer Locket, would love to meet Anne. Anne's identity as an unborn child stayed as a present issue. Lilly longed for Nova to have a loving bond with her. Summer longed to have a loving bond with a person who hadn't been born.

"No one else is going to have this one," Lilly said, pressing a hand against her big belly.

She and Theo walked toward the hall's end.

If Lilly took in the urge to give Anne up for adoption, Summer would try her best to kill that urge. Anne did not have to become like Nova.

"You're a true example of what a Soynite should be, Summer," Pristine said, keeping one hand on Nick's butt and the other on his back. She held her charge. Summer didn't hold hers. "You called Lilly a good mother. What you said is going to help her."

"I told the truth," Summer replied.

Giving Nova up for adoption had been Lilly's idea. That was the truth. Regardless of what Lilly had done, she was a good mother. Regardless of what Land had told Lilly, he was a good museum owner, a good man.

If pale horrors brought destruction to planet Soy, Summer hoped Land Preachman would survive the vicious attack.

Summer's gaze swept from Pristine's face to Nick's head.

"Anyway, Nick, do you want to come with me?" Summer said. Nick nodded. Pristine handed the boy to the other Watcher. "Your father is with your mother, little one. He's going to make her feel better."

A man stepped into the hall, tall and thin.

"I know," Nick said, the kid's warmth mingling with Summer's.

Was Anne warm enough?

Lilly would give birth to the baby. Summer would keep the woman Lilly and the baby Anne safe.

Freemans had gone bad and mean, but Anne didn't have to. Most Soynites were good and great, and only a minority of their population was not. Anne would be born from the pleasant Theo Majestic and his wife, the loving Lilly Majestic. Anne's Watcher was Summer Locket.

"Your sister Nova is a great kid, Nick," Summer said. "Like you. Anne is going to be a great kid, too."

"So will Kara," Don Ascend said.

High Don Ascend stood in the hall, tall and thin. His pregnant wife, Camille Ascend, lived with her older brother. Don lived in the royal palace, which had visitors, Summer and Pristine. The Watchers didn't reside at the lavish palace, but Summer's charge was in Lilly's womb and the boy Summer carried had Pristine as his Watcher.

Summer and Don both had brown hair, but Don's eyes were not blue. They were brown.

What would his unborn daughter look like?

"Hello, you all," Don said.

The man with a museum named after him was here, in the hall, near Watcher Summer and Watcher Pristine and Nick Majestic.

When she was a young girl, Summer hadn't expected she would care about Theo, Lilly, Nick and other Soynites as much as she did in the present. Later, grown, the woman had adopted an even fiercer urge to protect Theo, Lilly, and their three children.

Nick. Nova. Hailey.

Those three kids would have a sister.

Three more than three was the number of Soynite Highs. Six people ruled Soy, with Don Ascend being one of them.

One person ruled Free.

Planet Free was the Freemans' planet. A planet belonging to a cruel Freeman ruler. Lock Tannis was a Freeman. And he wasn't like Theo or the other Soynites.

Planet Soy was the Soynites' place. A place belonging to Summer, six Highs, and other Soynites, Soynites who were not fugitives. The Freemans were not on the hunt for Soynites to kill.

Theo Majestic, the Soynite with the best chance at killing Lock Tannis and gaining ultimate authority over the Freemans, was within the same place as Summer. The High was not missing from the lives of Summer, Pristine, Nick, and Don. Theo wasn't absent. He wasn't what Alice Endman was.

A Soynite needed to find Alice and reunite her with Holly and Archer, two people who hadn't gone missing. Holly had left the royal palace, but she would visit it again, at some point in the future. It was where her father-in-law, Boris Endman, lived, and he loved Holly's husband. Boris cared about his son. And Theo and Lilly cared about Nova.

Assuming Alice hadn't been killed by her kidnapper, there was still hope she could be reunited with Holly and Archer. Alice was not a baby anymore, but that didn't matter. What mattered was getting her reunited with her parents, who were good people the young girl belonged with. Yes, Alice Endman needed to be with her family, and Summer hoped she would reach them.

The Freemans were absent. Armed and violent Freemans were not welcome on Soy, and they did not step foot on the planet.

Black spaceships didn't occupy Soy's white clouds. Freeman warriors didn't wield black laser rifles as they opened fire on innocent Soynites. Pale people didn't kill members of Summer's race, the Soynite race, which remained alive and thriving. The Soynite species was not extinct. It was not nearly extinct.

Years ago, there had only been six Soynites.

Hase Majestic and his fellow Soynite people had encountered the first six Freemans.

Freemans had become horrible.

Soynites hadn't. Not all of them, anyway.

"Two daughters of Highs are going to be here," Don said. He grinned at Nick. "You're going to have a new younger sibling, Nick. A new younger sister. My sweet Camille is going to have a baby girl, too. Like your mother."

And Summer would love that baby girl.

She would mentor Anne, cherish her, make her life as great as possible. It was Summer's goal.

Summer Locket and Anne Majestic, they would form a great duo. No Freeman warrior would take Anne away from Summer. No one would take Anne away from the woman.

The Watcher rubbed Nick's back.

"Anne is going to be wonderful," Summer said, her gaze meeting Don's.