Villain Retirement

"What do you mean the Dark Prison isn't a void?"

Back in Riley's universe, several of the most important people in the entire universe were seated in a circle. And considering the nature of the air surrounding them and the darkness that loomed over their eyes, whatever they were discussing was of utmost importance.

Even the large gray room they were in seemed to breathe—which it truly did, as these people were having a meeting in the heart of the Living Codex, Ahor Zai.

These individuals were the current members of the Common Council.

The Queen of Evaniels, Queen Vania, who was accompanied by her daughter, Princess Vera.

The representative of the Norinlad, Former Elder now once again Elder, Elder Tedi. Her main body was outside Ahor Zai.

The Secretary of Defense of the planet Earth, Adaeze the Empress, who was accompanied by Bernard and Bulwark.

And lastly, the only two remaining of the previous administration;

Elder Apo, who had been staring at Bulwark ever since he entered the room as the two of them shared the same golden glow on their skin.

Elder S'adar, whose spiky hair was even more spiky than before; his tail that was wagging around, leaving all sorts of fur to float in the air.

The rest of the Elders… are dead. The Grand Elder was executed by Riley Ross in front of the entire Known Universe. Elder Skeem's entire race was massacred, while Elder Bato, the Elder that looked like a literal rock, was found to be an accomplice of Elder Skeem and the Grand Elder in making the weapon responsible for wiping out the themarians.

As for Elder Olseyir, well—as soon as she was found to be one of the clones of Riley Ross, a bounty was immediately placed on her and the rest of her so-called race made of Riley clones, the Biolans. But alas, they have not been able to capture or even find a single one of them.

And for the sake of removing hierarchy, the current members of the Common Council decided to abolish the position of Grand Elder once and for all.

"What do you mean the prison isn't a void, Elder Tedi?" Empress repeated her words as she stood up from her seat. Even though she was still a bit fazed from traveling at warpspeed straight to the Ahor Zai from Earth, all her nausea disappeared upon hearing Elder Tedi's words.

"I meant what I meant, Elder Adaeze," Tedi remained seated; her arms crossed as she refused to look at anyone in the room, "We have discovered that the Dark Prison is not entirely a void."

"What is it, then?" Queen Vania raised her hand as she looked at Tedi.

"It is another universe like ours."

"..."

And with those words traveling across the meeting hall, everyone's eyes just instinctively planted themselves on Tedi. Elder S'adar's tail, which has been wagging since the start, completely stopped moving. Even Elder Apo removed his eyes away from Bulwark as all of them just waited for the next words coming out of Tedi's mouth.

"It is possible that this is what Riley Ross mentioned to us 5 years ago," Tedi still refused to look at anyone, "Riley Ross, who was holding the secret to our universe and all of you just decided to throw him away without my permission. I created the prototype for the Dark Prison, and none of you consulted me when you threw Riley in—"

"You're losing track, Elder Tedi," Elder Apo raised his hand; the cadence of his voice, also eerily similar to Bulwark's. Bulwark, of course, took notice of this—but it wasn't the right time to approach him.

"I already said what I wanted to divulge to all of you," Elder Tedi only scoffed as she adjusted her glasses, "Right now, the Ahor Zai and Diana Ross are currently trying to figure out a way to permanently make communication with the other side without permanently leaving a hole between our universe and theirs."

"Wait, wait…" Empress lightly slammed her fist on the table in front of her, "Are you telling me… that we have been throwing our worst criminals to another universe filled with innocent people who has got nothing to do with us!? We threw Riley there for god's sake!"

"What does it matter?" Queen Vania raised her hand again as she sighed, "As long as he is not creating trouble for us, then I believe we have nothing more to discuss—let the devil die there."

"Did you just not listen to what I said?" Empress was about to walk toward Queen Vania, but was immediately stopped by Bernard and Bulwark, "There could be innocent people there. We should be cleaning up our mess."

"We did. We threw the devil to another dimension because we could not expire him," Elder Vania once again raised her hand to speak, "As far as we are concerned, if there are indeed intelligent life forms out there, then they should deal with Riley Ross as we have—I fail to see how this is our problem now."

"Are you seriously that self-centered, you call yourself a Queen with that attitude?"

"I do not call myself Queen, my people do because I am their monarch," Queen Vania looked at Empress from head to toe, "You're the one who plays dress-up and calls herself an empress."

"Ooh," Elder S'adar's tail once again began wagging as he not-so-subtly moved closer to Elder Apo, "I think they're going to fight. I'm really glad I didn't quit."

"They're only having a heated discussion, Elder S'adar," Elder Apo monotonously answered as he also not-so-subtly moved away from Elder S'adar.

"We should be cleaning this up because we made the mess in the first place!" Empress did not relent as she looked and seemed to plead at the rest of the Elders.

"I know your people's history, Empress Adaeze—but this is not the time to be a hero or a super savior or whatever you call yourselves," Queen Vania shook her head as she too, finally stood up from her seat,

"Riley Ross is not our problem anymore. I thought we were called here to discuss the current matters at hand—like the Remnants of Riley that are still scattered everywhere even though their creator is already in another universe. Olseyir is still missing, and the Tamer of the Cherbi is deliberately leading the Pink Fluff to star systems with inhabitants."

"With all due respect, Queen Vania," Elder Apo raised his hand, "You volunteered yourself to be the only one in the task of finding and dealing with the Remnants of Riley—I fail to see how your failure is our problem."

"...What?" Queen Vania raised an eyebrow; her green hair, very slowly starting to light up.

"Woah, woah! Guys!"

But before the growing altercation could even start, Elder S'adar suddenly leaped out from his seat and stood in the middle of the meeting hall,

"I believe that we should all relax and not let our emotions get ahead of us; except you, Elder Tedi, because you have no emotions," Elder S'adar pointed at Tedi's hologram, which was obviously frustrated, "How about we just let her speak again? See her face? That means she still wants to say something… and she did call for this meeting, so… guys?"

"..." And with Elder S'adar gesturing and urging for everyone to look at Tedi, they all just breathed out their frustration; taking their seats as they waited for Tedi to say something else.

And after a few more silent breaths, Tedi truly did have more to say.

"I will trade Riley Ross for all of you right now."

"..."

"With the existence of another universe besides ours now a fact, it now makes Riley Ross the secret to unlocking the secrets of the multiverse. I have already told all of you that we need him—he is the only connection we have to the gods, the true gods."

"Enough with your obsession in finding out the truth of the universe, Norinlad," Queen Vania no longer raised her hand as she spoke, "Do you—"

[I am not done speaking.]

This time, Tedi's voice did not come from her hologram, but rather everywhere as her original body resting outside Ahor Zai was the one to speak—causing everyone there to cover their ears.

[We do have a problem,] Tedi's voice reverberated throughout Ahor Zai, [Diana, Ahor Zai, and I have reason to believe that the other universe is very much like ours—meaning other versions of us could potentially exist there.]

"..."

"Other versions of him," the rumbling stopped as Tedi's hologram was once again the one to speak; her finger, pointing at Bernard.

"...Me?" Bernard, who had been keeping quiet all this time, blinked a couple of times as he found himself the target of everyone's eyes. He did not really want to speak, obviously because the topic of their serious conversation was someone he raised.

"Yes. Other versions of you, someone who could reverse engineer advanced technology he had only seen once. Someone who solved the warpspeed problem a second after he saw it," Tedi exclaimed.

"Where… are you going with this?" Empress squinted her eyes as she glanced back and forth between Bernard and Tedi, even though she already had an idea of what Tedi wanted to say.

"Tell me, Bernard Ross. You were not directly involved in finishing the Dark Prison, and I am aware that you have not even seen it once," Tedi's hologram disappeared, only to appear again standing right in front of Bernard, "But if you were to see it in action, even just for a glimpse, even if it was just briefly explained to you…

…will you be capable of replicating it?"

"..."