Villain Retirement

There was a certain solace in finding the truth.

Well, that's what they say when the truth is something that aligns with what you want. But truth is rarely gentle, if at all—but if it is, it will caress your entire existence and bring a euphoria you have not even felt before and will never again.

But the truth is… it's always better to live in a lie.

"I'm… not your mother?"

Navi was gone, but the revelation she left left Alice completely frozen in them. Her words, repeating over and over again in her mind. She looked at Charlotte, who was completely unconscious on the floor because neither she nor Riley bothered to pick her up when she fell as Navi left her body.

"But you came out of the Alice of this universe, isn't that… isn't that enough?" Alice forced a chuckle as she looked at Riley, who was just staring at Charlotte, not having moved an inch even once since Navi left,

"Does… does it matter that we don't actually share blood? You probably freaking drank a lot of Alice's fluids while you were inside her. That crap should make our bond even deeper. Riley…

…don't be sad, okay? You—we're still family."

"Hm?" Riley finally turned his head away from Charlotte, "I am not sad, Alice."

"Bullcrap. Look at you," Alice gestured to Riley's face; the side of his lips, slightly down and so were his eyebrows, "That's the most emotion I've seen on your face ever since I met you!"

"If I am sad, then it is not because of finding out that my biological mother and I are not exactly related biologically. And it does not matter even if we are not—Alice was my mother, and so is Diana."

"R…Riley," a stuttered gasp escaped Alice's lips. She quickly covered her mouth as she looked Riley in the eyes. She wanted to approach and hug him, but he quickly moved to the side to avoid her, "It's okay, Riley. I'm your mother… okay? It's oka—"

"Navi said that Italian Mafia Reborn is not that good."

"...What?" Alice's arms were already stretched wide open so she could once again attempt to hug Riley. But alas, Riley moved away once again.

"Why would a primordial with the specific role of being the watcher of creation itself say that?" Riley's voice once again slightly trembled; his eyes, even wanting to close.

"...That's what you're sad about?" Alice quickly dropped her arms to the side as she groaned, "It's fine, Riley. We're all entitled to our own opinions—that's just how life is. Some people believe the Earth is flat, and some think it's a doughnut… wait, I think I used the wrong analogy for—"

"Not a Primordial, Alice," Riley shook his head, "Primordials are involved in creation itself. That means they create the rules in which all of us live—if they say that Italian Mafia Reborn is not that good, then that means…"

Riley let out a small gasp as he let himself fall onto the nearest seat; quickly resting his elbows on the table while he covered his forehead,

"...That means Italian Mafia Reborn is not that good."

"..." Alice could really only stare at Riley with a blank stare. No longer knowing that she was even doing here anymore. But after a few seconds, she just let out a very long and deep sigh and sat in front of him,

"Riley—since Navi said that you are like them, then wouldn't that mean that if you say that Italian Mafia Reborn is good, then it's good?"

"..." Riley moved his head away from his hand as he looked at Alice. The thoughts that were racing and dancing in his mind, almost visible from his eyes,

"I suppose you might have a point there, Alice. But it is still different—they were born at the beginning of the universe."

"Then that makes your opinion even more valid than theirs," Alice sighed as she tried to touch Riley's hand. And to her surprise… she allowed him to, "The ending is always the most important part of the story, Riley. You heard what the Navigator said, you're the End. Endings make the story what they are."

"..."

"Endings… can either make everything that has happened throughout the story meaningless or make it even more meaningful. Or it could even make the rest of the story completely… useless."

"That is… true, Alice."

"Hm," Alice nodded to herself as she took this chance to hold Riley's hand with both hands, "Just look at Game of Crowns. The first seasons were incredibly critically acclaimed—but the ending made it completely forgettable—what was once the most talked show in the world, now no one even remembers it until it is mentioned again."

"I feel like that is pretty specific, Alice."

"...It was my favorite show. It was pretty boring in the start but it grew on me and then just went crap," Alice let out an awkward chuckle, before letting out a very long and deep sigh, "What I am trying to say, Riley…

…is that you make your—"

"Ugh… what… what the fuck just happened?"

Unfortunately for Alice, before she could stretch her advice that should have already ended in the first statement even longer, Charlotte woke up and immediately leaped from the floor. She then touched her throat, seemingly trying to clear it as it seemed incredibly dry for some reason.

"What… what the fuck?"

"Welcome back, Charlotte."

"W—wait!"

Even more unfortunately for Alice, Riley pulled his hand away as he approached Charlotte,

"Your body was possessed by a Primordial that was trying to talk to me, Charlotte."

"A… what now?"

"Navi is a primordial that knows everything that is before, everything that is now, and everything that might be later. She knew that you were connected to all of your variants, and therefore the fastest way to find me—and she did. She talked to me through you," Riley explained without even giving Charlotte time to process anything.

"You mean I was…"

"You were freaking possessed, Mother," Alice let out a playful giggle as she looked at Charlotte's disheveled hair, "It was freaky as freak. Like it was literally the Exorcism of Charmaine Elliot Lane just a couple of minutes ago here. Your eyes went like this."

"...What?" Charlotte watched as Alice desperately tried to make her eyes go in different directions. She even almost used her telekinetic abilities to do so, but was stopped by Riley, "Wait, a god went inside me?"

"Well, if you phrase it like that then you're like—Oh my god…" Alice pointed at Riley, "...I'm the Virgin Alice and you're literally Je—"

"Wait, just wait…!" Charlotte raised her voice as she started looking around her destroyed dessert shop, "...Can you children just tell me what the fuck just happened to me? I know that two of you don't like me, but I deserve to know at least that!"

"Oh, it turns out you're not really Riley's grandmother. So, I absolve you of all of your sins," Alice now suddenly had a scarf on her head as she very gently placed her hand on Charlotte's shoulders, "You have no responsibility in—"

"Cut the crap!" Charlotte quickly slapped Alice's hand away, "What do you mean I'm not his grandmother!?"

"Well…" Alice turned to look at Riley, who just nodded his head as he went to the other side of the counter to prepare himself a dessert,

"...It's like this."

***

And while Alice was retelling everything that had happened, the entity that was responsible for everything was now back in her domain.

Each of the Primordials lives in their own space… outside of the multiverse. Machina exists in its White Space, Death exists where death is, as for Navi—she lives in a storm of color. Even then, however, her silhouette that still resembled Charlotte could still be seen clearly.

Navi walked across this storm calmly, almost as if a feather that was just dancing within the calm embrace of a subtle wind. Her eyes, reflecting all the colors around her and not missing even a single drop.

For others, they may be just that—violent drops of paint. But Navi's eyes reflected a different picture.

Each of the multitudes of color represents life. A story, a beginning, and an end.

Each colorful drop of rain from the storm, a universe.

And Navi does not miss even a single one of them as they drop and fall in the space in which she lives. The storm creates a colorful pool, and which in turn, turns into oceans…in which in turn, creates waves.

Waves that Navi rides and dances across, in the beginning of time, and forever.

"So, you visited the young demiurge?"

This dance, however, quickly stopped as another entity started walking across the storm. But perhaps an entity was not the way to describe it—it was just an orb.

"Ruin," Navi stopped walking altogether as she looked at this floating orb.

"What is that form? I have to say, I quite fancy it a lot," the orb then very slowly started to tremble, until it instantly transformed into a form that was eerily similar to Navi's form, which is Charlotte's body,

"Is this one of the lives that live within these pebbles?" Ruin then plunged his arm down on the waves beneath them, grabbing a handful of the drops. Unlike the colorful wave that rippled through this colorful storm, however, what was in Ruin's hand was almost gray.

"You should know what they are, Ruin," Navi shook her head, "And I would appreciate it if you change your form—this is mine."

"I would not know what they would look like, Navi," the universes that Ruin was holding then faded away into nothing,

"I am given to them when they are already all gone."