Villain Retirement

"...Aerith? Megawoman?"

Angela could really only stare at the woman slowly making their way towards her and Riley— and even with her wearing a sort of dark spandex suit, it was hard to mistake her for anyone else but the Earth\'s mightiest and strongest defender… and her master.

Angela\'s grip on her sword was confused as to what to do— not knowing whether it should loosen or tighten its hold on the weapon. After all, Angela knew how useless and pointless it was to try and fight against Megawoman.

"You… could you be the owner of this ship?" Angela gulped as all sorts of thoughts raced in her mind, "Wait, so all this time that you\'ve been here… but why would you train me… were you making me stronger to turn me into the ship\'s batteries!?"

"..." Aerith, who was slowly making her way towards Riley and Angela, could not help but stop in her tracks; the disbelief on her face, completely visible as she looked at Angela straight in the eyes,

"...What did I say about overthinking things, kid?" She then let out a small sigh as she shook her head,

"Still, I missed your well-thought-out theories, even if they tend to be far-fetched sometimes," Aerith chuckled, "But no, I don\'t own this ship."

"I thought as much," Riley finally spoke up, "All of the circumstances are too sophisticated to be thought of by you, mother."

"You stop calling me mother right now," Alice\'s eye started to twitch as she pointed at Riley; his words almost felt like sand as they reached Aerith\'s ears, "We tried so hard to give you a new identity and you go announce to the world who you are?"

"I don\'t like people using my name, Aerith."

"You— I suppose it doesn\'t matter," Aerith could really only shake her head and sigh, "Just don\'t move Alice\'s body. The ship is the only thing keeping her alive."

"...Alive?"

"This is the Mur Lav\'ir— the Room of Revival," Aerith then said as she looked at Alice\'s body.

"How do you know all of that if you don\'t own this ship?" Angela squinted her eyes.

"You haven\'t told her anything?" Aerith breathed out as she looked at Riley, who shook his head in response.

"It\'s not my secret to tell, Aerith," Riley said.

"...Right. You and I both know that you just didn\'t tell her because it didn\'t matter to you."

"You know me too well, Aerith. As expected of my 3rd mother."

"Stop," Aerith groaned before placing her attention on Angela, "You got something right with your theories, this is a Themarian ship, but it\'s not mine. I prefer the freedom of flying across galaxies with my own body."

"That\'s why you get lost."

"Shut up!" Aerith once again pointed at Riley, "And don\'t unplug Alice, she\'ll die."

"So, are you saying that Alice is alive, Aerith?" Riley muttered as he turned around to look at Alice\'s face, "She doesn\'t seem to be."

"Because she\'s not alive, not yet," Aerith stated as she approached Alice\'s body, "Themerians view death… quite differently from humans, from the rest of the other races and species, really."

"..." Angela and Riley did not really say anything so Aerith could continue her words.

"We view it differently because we rarely die. You need to erase us from our very last atom. But even then, we will live and recover fully in a few minutes."

"...But you didn\'t," Riley slightly tilted his head as he glanced at Aerith, "I kept you in the closet for an entire day."

"..." Angela\'s eyes widened upon hearing Riley\'s words. She seemed to want to say something, but Aerith spoke before she could do so.

"Because I didn\'t want to recover. I was tired," Aerith sighed, "I wanted to rest a little— but the humans saw that as a sign to use me. I can\'t blame them, of course. But I\'m still a little hurt."

"...Is that why you didn\'t help us with the House of Super?"

Aerith didn\'t really answer Angela\'s question, but she didn\'t need to; it was obvious from the way her eyes moved— Megawoman was done with the humans.

"I… am really sorry for what we\'ve done to you, master," Angela let out a small but deep breath as she looked to the side,

"...And thank you for not taking revenge against us."

"You didn\'t do anything to me, kid," Aerith only smiled as she patted Angela\'s shoulder; the two of them, looking at each other in the eyes with their gaze filled with memory and warmth.

"You really are kind, Aerith. You could\'ve killed all of us in anger. Well, all of them." But alas, the moment was ruined by Riley\'s words.

"...I don\'t commit genocide, Riley."

Aerith could really only sigh; waving her hand to gesture that she was done talking about the past. She then once again focused her attention on Alice, gently holding her hand as she looked at her face,

"Themarians rarely die. And so if one of us dies— we just make them alive again. The same could naturally be done with humans since our biology doesn\'t deviate that much from each other."

"Themarians… can resurrect the dead?" Angela took in a small gulp, "That… is unnatural."

"Yes. But it requires a large amount of energy to be transferred to the body of the deceased," Aerith nodded as her eyes traveled across the Mur Lav\'ir, "We get the energy from nature, the planet, lithium, grass— any energy that could be extracted. In this case…

…I think Caitlain is using the energy left from the corpses of the other supers to revive Alice."

"Energy… from supers?"

"Supers are a disease."

"Supers aren\'t the ones who nuked a third of the planet," Angela could not help but furrow her eyebrows from hearing Aerith\'s statement.

"I meant that in a literal sense," Aerith let out a small snicker, "Supers are a disease. I realized that when I gained an ability and even upgraded the ones I already had when I got to this planet…

…It\'s not from the Earth, it\'s not from your sun. I was infected with whatever you supers have," she then said as she looked at Riley.

"It\'s… not evolution?" Angela muttered.

"It might as well be," Aerith shook her head, "Because soon… normal humans would be gone from this planet."

"That\'s not evolution, master… that\'s taking over."

"Whatever it is, it is no longer of my concern," Aerith breathed out as she once again focused her attention on Alice; her eyes, slightly filled with melancholy and regret,

"I… am truly sorry I failed you back then. You seemed… to be in so much pain. If only I was strong enough to—"

"You said this room resurrects the dead, Aerith," Riley then suddenly disrupted Aerith\'s short accolade as he blocked her view with his face.

"..."

"But why would my mother try to resurrect my other mother?"

"I don\'t— You should ask her."

The melancholy in Aerith\'s eyes quickly faded away; her eyebrows, lowering as she slowly turned around to look at the corridor.

And there, amidst the silver hallway and bright lights— a sort of shadow stood. And soon, a step could be heard… and then, a loud whisper.

"Because she didn\'t deserve to die. Alice…

...Alice is a friend."

The shadow\'s approach was slow, but with each step the silhouette uncovers itself. Angela recognized who it was, of course… but she almost felt like a totally different person. Like each of her steps was enough to trample her completely.

Diana Ross. Supposedly just a normal human.

"You left this up there, Riley."

The very first thing Diana did as she revealed herself from the shadows that wrapped around her was look at Riley… and throw something towards him.

Riley wasn\'t going to catch it at first but saw what the object was… or rather, who it was.

"B… boss."--- it was Little Riley; his face, completely filled with tears, "I… I couldn\'t protect… my butt hurts. Mother flicked my butt."

"..." Riley only nodded, before gently playing Little Riley beside Alice.

"Oh, isn\'t this our other mother?" Little Riley said as he quickly climbed over her stomach, laying down and trying to hug her with his tiny limbs, "Hello, other mother."

"Wait… what did you do to the Pope!?"

Little Riley was supposed to be protecting the Pope, and now that he was suddenly brought here, Angela could really only tighten her grip on her sword as she pointed it towards Diana.

"Relax, he\'s alive," Diana smiled as she looked at Angela, "Y—"

"Go check on the Pope. Thank you for assisting me, Angela."

And before Angela and Diana could even say anything, Angela was suddenly flung away from the silver hall.

"..." Diana didn\'t try to stop her, only glancing at Angela as she passed by her before once again turning her eyes back to Riley— a smile, crawling on her face… but disappeared as soon as it formed.

"How are you, Riley?" She then muttered; her voice, slightly stiff and stern, "It… is good to see you alive."

"You should know that I can\'t die, mother," Riley took in a small breath as he looked Diana straight in the eyes, "After all, you made me."

"Oh, I wish I could take credit for creating you," Diana closed her eyes and shook her head.

Riley\'s head quickly tilted to the side. He was about to ask her even more questions, but Diana already turned her attention to Aerith.

"Aerith\'Hel."

"Caitlain\'Ur."

"That\'s a name I have not heard for a very long time," Diana let out a small giggle, "You\'ve finally found this place, thanks to the humans you are so dearly fond of. It was quite… fun watching you fly around. It is quite kind of you to help them with their problems."

"Right…" Aerith scoffed; her breaths, slightly heavy as she returned Diana\'s glare, "...Why are you still using Diana\'s face? Aren\'t you ashamed to be spouting dust with the mouth of this kid\'s mother?"

"...Because this is my real face?" Diana raised an eyebrow, "And please, lower your tone while addressing me…

…child."