Villain Retirement

"...When are you going to get rid of Riley?"

"That's… not fair, Gary."

Aerith's hand, which was subconsciously pruning the blades of grass around her, finally stopped. She wanted to look at Gary, but for some reason felt her eyes too heavy to move.

"You know what kind of existence Riley is. I'm… the only one in the entire Known Universe that could serve as his—"

"Babysitter, I know. You've said that a hundred times already," Gary breathed out as he stood up from the ground, not looking back at Aerith as he started walking forward; the space between them, once again getting larger.

"Gar—"

"You don't actually believe that, do you?" Gary turned around, shaking his head as he looked at his mother in the eyes, "Diana's as strong as you mother. And I'm sorry to say this straight to your face, but she's definitely the better mother."

"..."

"..."

"...Not the kind of heart-to-heart talk you wanted?" Gary could really only let out a small but very deep sigh as he saw the melancholic expression painted on Aerith's face.

"..."

"..."

"...No, I don't really know what to expect," and finally, after a few breaths of silence, Aerith stood up and returned her son's gaze,

"But it's what I needed. I told you we were going to start anew here, and we are—so I would like to start with the truth."

"..." Gary did not really respond, instead letting his eyes speak for themselves as they did not stray away from Aerith as she walked closer to him.

"A large part of me feels responsible for creating Riley, for creating Darkday. I was too late to save both him and his mother—"

"I know the story, mother. How is that your responsibility!?" Gary stretched his arms to the side, "I'm your responsibility, mother. Me! Your son!"

"And you're not a mass murderer that tortures billions of people, are you!?"

"So, I need to kill billions of people to get your attention!?" Gary raised his voice even louder. "Is that what you want, mother!?"

"I can neutralize you before you could even take your next breath!" Aerith also raised her voice as she stood closer to her son, "That's the difference, Gary! Riley is unstoppable and you need to always be by his side to just hope that you can slow him down! Why can't you understand that concept!?"

"I know everything tends to revolve around Riley, but I was at least hoping that I would be a main character in your life!"

"..."

"..."

The two stared at each other for an entire minute; letting their heavy breaths speak to each other as they just stood there. Soon, however, a small smile started to crawl on both their faces at the same time.

And soon, the smile on their faces turned into chuckles.

"We… we're already arguing like mother and son," Gary covered his face as he prevented himself from bursting into laughter, "Y…you're really really bad at this whole mom thing."

"I know…" Tears also started to fall from Aerith's eyes as she chuckled, "We—I have time to be better, I will be better. We can build a home here."

"I'd… like that, mother," Gary nodded and started walking away, "I'll go now before we fight again. Lots… lots of things to share with these uncultured people."

"Don't teach them about those xianxia stories you keep reading!"

"Too late!"

"..." The smile on Aerith's face did not fade away even as Gary disappeared into the crowd; New Theran truly is a new beginning for all of them, especially for her.

[Princess Aerith, are you available at the moment?]

"...Yes?" Aerith quickly wiped the tears on her face as she heard a familiar voice suddenly whispering in her ears before she could even recover, "Did… you need something from me, Elder Olseyir?"

[I apologize, I know you're busy with speaking to your people. But if it's convenient to you, we need your signature to finalize New Theran as the newest sovereign planet recognized by the Common Council.]

"Already?" Aerith blinked a couple of times as she started looking around, trying to find where the voice was coming from, "I thought you need at least one more authoritative figure to register us in the Codex?"

[We have the Former Elder Tedi, as well as a Guardian overseeing the ceremony. That counts. We're on Pirate Queen Xra's ship, it's more stylish here.]

"...Okay?" Aerith squinted her eyes and nodded, "Should I also bring Queen Tifa? She is still in the midst of her speech, though."

[It's fine, Princess Aerith. You can do it, you deserve to do it.]

"Ha…" Aerith blinked a couple of times as a long and very deep breath escaped her lips. A few seconds after, she disappeared from her spot,

"I'm on my way."

***

"...Hey, they're waiting for you on the bridge."

Aerith entered Xra's ship, and as soon as she did so, an exhausted and seemingly lethargic Hera welcomed her aboard; her arm rested on the wall as she gestured to Aerith to follow her.

"Are… you okay?" Aerith could really only watch as Hera sluggishly walked in front of her; her feet, just sliding on the floor.

"No, I feel sick…" Hera gasped as she wiped the sweat forming on her forehead, "...Sorry I couldn't be down there to see what's up."

"It's… fine," Aerith couldn't help it anymore as she very gently placed Hera's arm on her shoulder, "Are you sure you don't just want to rest?"

"No way," Hera raised her thumb, "I already missed all the happenings below, I'm not going to miss this."

"Alright, it's really not that—"

"Hurry up, don't always keep people waiting for you."

And before Aerith could finish her words, Tomoe suddenly appeared from across the hallway, letting out a scoff as she looked Aerith in the eyes.

"..." This girl truly doesn't like her—is what Aerith thought. But even then, however, Tomoe walked with them all the way to the bridge, even taking Hera off her hands as they stepped inside.

And there, Aerith saw everyone lined up in two straight lines. Xra, her entire crew, and Tedi's hologram on one line; Hannah, Diana, Paige, and then Tomoe and Hera joining them on the other line… almost forming an aisle.

Although she was a little weird with the way everything was set up, she still made her way down the aisle they created. Each of them, nodding their head as she passed by them one by one.

Aerith was only looking ahead, however, as New Theran reflected on her eyes through the giant windows. Their new home was just the size of a baseball from this distance, but it was at its brightest.

Aerith then turned to look at Elder Olseyir, who was at the very end of the aisle; the view of New Theran on her back as her pink robes seemed even longer than before. And then, beside her was Bernard, whose face was completely clean-shaven as he said he would.

And finally, as Aerith reached the end of the aisle and stepped closer to Elder Olseyir, a presence that has been gone and sorely missed since earlier finally showed himself; stepping out from behind Bernard as his pale white skin reflected everything the expanse of space had to offer.

And with a smile, Riley gestured to Aerith to stand before Elder Olseyir.