Villain Retirement

"—Not be allowed to discover the multiverse!"

"Megawoman…?"

"Huh…?"

"I want all of you out of my universe, now!"

Aerith's breaths were loud as she was forcefully thrown to another universe mid-sentence, but not as loud as Bard's voice as he stood in front of her and Riley. Just from the quiver of his lips alone, one could see the rage and resentment he was trying his best to hide.

"You… you gave me your word that you would and could reign in this monster," Bard gritted his teeth and sucked in a deep breath; his fat cheeks, trembling along with the rest of his body,

"And yet look at what happened!"

Bard took several steps back and stretched his hands to the side, gesturing to the ruined street that surrounded them. Nannah, Hannah, and Chihiro were there, guarding Chihiro Prime who was inside a small glass cage.

"More than a hundred million of my people, dead! I have kept my people safe from harm, from threats that exist here and on the outside. And you… You always try to be a hero and people around you suffer, Aerith. That is what you are—you're bad luck."

"Dad, that's enough," Nannah tried grabbing his dad away, but Bard just slapped her hand before pointing at her.

"And you…" Bard once again sucked in a breath, "You're not actually patronizing with these people, are you? They are the ones that brought it here. They brought Riley Ross here."

"It's not Riley's fault, Dad. Megawoman obviously triggered her, you know how she is with—"

"Aerith has always been the good guy, Nannah! No matter what, she is good. She's stupid, makes rash decisions, indirectly fucks up everything around her—but the only thing constant about her in all multiverses is that she's actually genuinely one of the good guys," Bard raised his voice,

"Riley Ross is the real problem here and why can't any of you women fucking see it!? Are all of you that obsessed with him!?"

"But you killed the Aerith of our world and a few others, Dad. Does that mean we're the bad guys?" Nannah breathed out.

"It was necessary!"

"Like how it was necessary to play god and kill other variants that could have been saved?" Hannah joined in on the conversation with crossed arms. But as everyone looked at her, she immediately raised both her hands and shook her head,

"Look. Now that everyone is here, we'll just go home. Okay? I am truly, truly sorry for all the loss you have experienced here, I truly am—but it is best for us to just go before more deaths follow."

"Are you?"

"Hm?"

"Are you truly sorry?" Bard looked Hannah in the eyes.

"What the fuck does that mean?" Hannah did not back down, "You think I don't regret or resent, or blame myself for all of this? I do, every second of my life, I do. That's my fucking default setting now and fuck me, I must be getting numb with all of this shit happening. But I am telling you, I am truly and deeply sorry."

"For now, but you won't be in the future," Bard scoffed and smiled.

"What…?"

"Dad!" Nannah tried stopping Bard from whatever it is he wanted to say, but he raised a finger and ordered her to stand down.

"You have no idea what you are capable of, Hannah. No idea," a soft laugh escaped from Bard's lips, "You, out of all the Enders, have ended more universes…

…and it is not even close."

"Dad!" Nannah once again raised her voice. And this time, it was partnered with a slap as she stood in front of her dad, "That's enough. Just… just let them leave!"

"They will leave," Bard only scoffed before stretching his hand to the side and summoning a portal, "And don't any of you dare to come back. Keep your promise to no longer travel to different universes. You've done enough damage to the multiverse as it is. And take your murderous Golden Fox back."

"..." Aerith and the others did not really say anything. Aerith just nodded her head, before walking toward Chihiro Prime and carrying her cage, "Riley, Hannah—you and your brother should go first so we can be sure he's not… escaping anywhere."

"Hm…" Hannah was the same, not saying anything and just nodding her head. Grabbing Riley by the arm before just casually stepping and disappearing behind the portal; not even saying her farewells to her variant and Chihiro's variant. How could she even do so, when all she was thinking about was what Bard said?

As for Riley, he just smiled at Chihiro and Nannah.

Nannah did not really know how to respond to that and only looked away, wanting to cry for some reason. She truly has grown abnormally attached to Riley, perhaps it was a multiverse thing. But whatever it is, she has to say goodbye to it…

…for now.

And with the two gone, Aerith also started walking toward the portal.

"This isn't over, my dear little variant." And all this time, Chihiro Prime's eyes did not leave Chihiro for even a single second, "I have the ability to travel across the multiverse. Once the cooldown is done, I will come ba—"

But alas, before she could finish her final words, Aerith just threw her inside the portal. Aerith was about to follow in, but she shook her head and turned her focus back to Bard.

"You shouldn't have called us back, Whiteking."

"What?" Bard's eyebrows lowered, "You wanted me to let the two of you continue rampaging across the multiverse? That was the only time I could actually do so since I detected the two of you weren't moving."

"We've… resolved some things between us," Aerith meekly said, "But that is not what I wanted to talk about."

"I don't care what you want to say, just leave."

"Another Whiteking was in the vicinity when you pulled us out. He saw the portal."

"...What?" Bard's eyes slightly turned wide as he heard Aerith's voice.

"What kind?" He asked nervously, "What kind of Bernard was there?"

"Not the good kind," Aerith let out a small sigh as she turned around. Before she could leave, however, Bard grabbed her arm in panic.

"What do you mean not the good kind? I need more specifics, god damn it!"

"This one was controlling Elder Tedi's corpse and using it as a weapon," Aerith looked Bard in the eyes, "I looked in his eyes, the same as I am now with you and I saw something I have only seen in Darkday's eyes…

…an unhinged evil."

"No…" Bard's breaths began to tremble as he looked at Nannah, "It's… it's him."

"What!? I thought you already fucking locked access to that universe!" And it wasn't just him, Nannah's voice also immediately trembled as her father's words reached her ears, "Fuck… fuck!"

"It… I must have accidentally opened it while I was fighting with Riley's clone! No… No!" Bard began tapping his fingers in the air as he accessed his computer wirelessly.

"You… know of him?" Aerith's eyes squinted as she realized how nervous—no, how afraid the two were.

"Know him?" Bard let out a fettered breath, "He is from the universe where Machina showed itself to me…

…A primordial showed itself to me just to warn me about him…

…King The Conqueror."