Villain Retirement

VR 760 A Glimpse Of the D

Diana Ross believes that the universe will always have a way to balance itself. Always, no matter what. This was the thought that made her want to create a higher species than the themarians in the first place.

The themarians hide themselves in their dying planet from the rest of the universe because they were too strong to interact with them, at least that was the ideology passed down. They have looked down upon the others, treating them as nothing but space trash.

But if Diana creates a higher species stronger than them, the themarians will ultimately have no choice but to start leaving Theran. Either by their own volition, or the rest of the universe that treated them as gods would finally start asking them for help.

Either way, they will be forced to act and finally start discovering a world out of Theran.

Diana traveled the universe for thousands of years, moving to different dying worlds to try and create this supposed higher species. But alas, even after more than a hundred worlds were destroyed, she was unsuccessful—she was starting to lose hope. Until, that is…

…she found Earth.

Earth was primitive when she found it, some of their weapons were still crafted from iron. But then, some of them did not even need a weapon—they had abilities, unique abilities that transcended anything that Diana had seen throughout her travels.

They were different from the rest of the universe, they were even different from themselves.

But the only problem was that the planet and its people were young; barely even out of its infancy. Diana was not going to be able to experiment on them. And so, she chose to wait—wait and watch them grow; mingling and meddling here and there, but not too much.

That was perhaps her mistake. Because as she lived with the humans, the themarian side of her died slowly but surely. She didn't realize it herself, but she has grown attached to the humans. Their culture, their way of life, their people… and at the end, a single person.

A boy.

A boy that did not have the abilities of the superhumans. Diana found herself attracted to the intellect he showed; an intellect that far surpasses her own—a boy that just knows how things work.

She once showed him a Themarian artifact, and he was able to reverse engineer it in less than half a day, and then create a better version of it by the end of the day. Diana was extremely fascinated by the boy. The boy was lazy, however, extremely so.

Most of the time, he just chooses to shut off his mind and do senseless things. But he grew up. And as he grew older, Diana's fascination soon turned into affection.

The boy turned into a man, and they fell in love. Diana had slightly pushed aside her life-long mission and decided to switch her priority to actually living, even if it was just for a while.

She and the man had a child, a beautiful baby girl. But perhaps like her mother and father, the daughter was cursed by her overpowering abilities, forcing Diana and the man she loved to make a move. A move that slightly caused her and the man to slightly grow apart from each other.

Even then, however, Diana was already too close to the humans; even gaining a friend that she could consider perhaps the closest person to her. And soon, this person asked her for a ridiculous favor—a child.

A child born from a single parent; abnormal, but extremely joyful. But then tragedy struck, and Diana took it upon herself to take care of her best friend's son—who she turned out to be the most powerful being amongst the humans.

Perhaps not a human entirely, but something different… something more.

And just like that, not even meaning to, Diana was able to create a species higher than the themarians… but she also grew attached to the boy—and perhaps it was for the best, as the boy turned out to be… really different.

And so, once again, Diana continued to live her life as a normal mother to her children, while sneakily still indulging herself in research here and there—the plan she set for herself continues, albeit slowly.

And then, came the time when her children were old enough, separating from her and living by themselves in the Academy. Her husband too, started to become busy, leaving her all alone which gave her all the time she needed to fully commit to her research again.

This time, she went off-world, going to one of the hundreds of research bases she had scattered throughout the Known Universe–and it was then that she discovered that the death of Theran was nearer than she thought… and so, once again, she disappeared into her research all while maintaining the facade of a normal mother.

…or perhaps the facade has become her real one. But either way, she did not let her identity crisis cloud her judgment. She needed to act fast, very fast… but all her efforts were in vain.

Until finally, a chance presented itself in the form of Katherine Reads. Since Diana has already grown so attached to her son, she never once thought of using him as a way to lure out the themarians—but a child from him?

Diana promised herself that she wouldn't let herself get attached. And so, she enacted the plan—she made it so that Katherine would be pregnant and carry the higher species she had always dreamed of creating.

And she did—she created Karina, boosting and hastening her growth as she was losing time. Whether or not Karina was undying like her son was yet to be determined, but she was strong; abnormally so.

But alas…

…Diana also got attached to the girl.

And so, Diana just let all the cogs move by themselves, allowing fate to decide everything.

And it did, and now they were here.

But still, the fact remains.

Karina is a new species higher than the themarians. Stronger, smarter, just… better.

Well… at least she should be.

"Did… did you do all of this? Did you… hurt aunt Silvie…?"

"..." Queen Adel could not help but squint her eyes as she felt Karina's tears trailing down her hand. Soon, however, Queen Adel felt nothing from her hand at all as Karina suddenly dropped to the floor. Queen Adel was slightly confused at first as she didn't let go of the child, but as Adel looked at her hand… she found that it was no longer there.

"Hm…?" Queen Adel pulled her hand back, watching it regenerate before glancing at Karina, who was now crying almost uncontrollably; wiping her tears while she sat clumsily on the floor.

"You dare do that to the Queen!?"

"No, stand down!"

One of the female themarians close to them rushed toward Karina. Queen Adel ordered for her to stop, but it was already too late as her hand was already threatening to rip Karina's head off.

Queen Adel was going to stop her physically, but as soon as she was within the arm's reach of Karina, she found her flesh suddenly being ripped apart—like her arm was just some dried leaf being ripped apart.

Fortunately for Queen Adel, she was already expecting something to happen as she quickly retrieved her arm back. Unfortunately, however, the same could not be said the same for the female themarian that rushed toward the crying Karina.

And with her speed, it happened in an instant.

She just… disappeared. At first, her ashes were left. But as the ashes snowed down even closer to Karina, any trace of her disappeared before any part of her could regenerate; ensuring her eternal death.

Karina did not seem to notice this, however, as after she was done wiping her tears, she quickly crawled her way to the still-unconscious Silvie.

"A… aunt Silv? Are you… are you okay?"

Everyone could really only just watch as Karina very gently lifted Silvie's head, placing it on her lap as she gently tapped her cheek,

"Aunt Silv… please, please wake up! You have to wake up!"

"Karina, she's alive."

And finally, Diana, who had kept still all this time, stood up from the floor with her hands still behind her. The themarians guarding her did not even think to stop her, as they were still shocked by what they had just witnessed.

"But she needs to be hospitalized."

"She… she's alive?" A small smile crawled on Karina's face as she heard her grandmother's words.

As for Aerith, Diana-1, Edith, and Queen Adel, all of them had confused expressions on their faces.

…Hospitalized? As long as a themarian still had a chunk of flesh left, or even a single cell, they will regenerate completely healed in just a matter of seconds; sometimes even less than.

Silvie was going to wake up soon—no, she was actually already awake, already realizing what Diana's plan was.

"..." Queen Adel squinted her eyes for a few seconds, before also finally realizing what was happening, "Caitlain…

…what did you do?"

"What should have happened a very long time ago, Your Highness," Diana looked Queen Adel in the eyes, "Giving the themarians a chance to experience what it is like for the other beings in the universe."

"..."

"Mortal."

And with those words, Karina very slowly stood up; her eyes, looking at each of the themarians surrounding them.

And there and then, the themarians felt something they haven't before.

Fea—"

"Uhmm, excuse me…" Karina then raised her hand,

"...Can you please let us go? My aunt needs help!"

"..."

"..."

Stronger, smarter… just better.

But not just yet.