Villain Retirement

"This… is my fault."

"Aerith… They… might just be unconscious, themarians are the strongest—"

"This is my fault."

Paige wanted to place her hand on Aerith's shoulder, but before she could do so, Aerith suddenly stepped forward—stretching the window and shattering a part of it as she let herself drop to the ground.

"Aerith!" Paige wanted to follow her outside, but the window healed and closed before she could even take a single step, "We… we need to go out there… now!"

And as Paige and the others scurried to rush out of the ship, Aerith's feet landed on New Theran; her knees touching it not even a second later as she lost all strength to even move.

And it wasn't only because of the weight that now drowned her, no—she truly felt heavy.

"...No," Aerith shook her head as she forced herself to look forward; her eyes, reflecting her people. She was no longer asking herself what happened—she knew why.

"What… what have I done?" Aerith tried lifting herself up, only to weakly tumble several steps forward… falling right in front of someone; her face, just inches away from Aerith's.

"...No," Aerith could not help but hold her breath as she quickly recognized the woman—she was one of the women that approached her before all of this happened. Aerith would remember, of course, she would remember her.

She was one of the only handful of women carrying an infant child, a baby.

"No… no…wake up… please wake up," Aerith's lips began to shiver as her tears started to dampen the ground. Aerith wanted to grit her teeth, but all it did was cause them to chitter as she lost control of her jaw.

Aerith then very slowly sat up; her eyes, not leaving the woman's face. The woman was lying face down, her back… slightly arched.

"..." Aerith's entire body trembled as she saw this; her hand, very slowly reaching toward her. Aerith then closed her eyes, before very gently turning the mother over… and as Aerith opened her eyes, she immediately looked away.

Her gasping breaths, now just whimpers—no matter where she looked, she saw everyone looking at her.

"Aerith!"

"..." Aerith felt an arm wrapping around her; her eyes, covered by a hand as Paige embraced her tight. Even then, however, she could still see all of her people looking at her.

Paige seemed to be telling her something, but the silence of her people drowned every other noise that tried to enter her ears.

"Mom…!?" The others also started arriving on the scene, with Hannah quickly flying away as she heard her mother's screams crying from the distance. And there, as she flew over the sea of themarians… she finally realized what truly happened.

Death.

Each and every one of them lay lifeless on the ground. The ones that were flying in the air, piling up and creating hills of corpses that spanned for almost a mile.

"..." Hannah didn't have any words to say as she found herself just literally hovering as she saw her father, as well as Xra standing at the very end of this harrowing sea that she wanted to very badly end.

"...Dad?" Hannah whispered as she quietly landed behind Bernard. She then saw her mother, kneeling on the ground and cradling herself—her mouth was still wide open, but no more screams escaped them, only gasps of anguish.

"..." Hannah could really only approach her mother, embracing her and not letting go until she felt the tremble in her body fade away.

A second.

A minute.

An hour.

Hannah stayed like that for an hour, letting her mother's tears dry on her shoulder as she finally returned her embrace.

"..." Diana then very slowly pulled away and stood up; her swollen eyes, immediately turning to Xra, "...What have you discovered about the ship?"

"..."

"I know your men are updating you right now," Diana breathed out, her voice, exhausted, "What did they say?"

"They—"

[We believe one of the Elders is responsible for this.]

And once again, a much-needed calmness whispered in the air as Tedi's voice vibrated in everyone's ears. Hannah looked up, only to see Tedi covering the view of space—beside her, was the planet-sized ship from which the weird light came from.

[I have examined this behemoth thoroughly, and it resembles the architecture of Elder Skeem's people. It is already destroyed, unable to survive from the power and energy it released—I'm afraid I could not recover any data from it to fully confirm anything at this point.]

"..." A loud squeaking noise whispered in the air as Dian squeezed her hands; blood, dripping from her fists as the ground beneath her feet started to crack, "Are you saying… the Common Council did this?"

[No. But there is a chance that Elder Skeem is involved.]

"Xra, let me borrow your ship," Diana gritted her teeth as she looked at Xra.

"..." Xra only returned Diana's glare, before letting out a small sigh and nodding her head, "We—"

"!!!"

And before Xra could offer an answer, a shriek thundered through the air. Diana did not even hesitate, as she quickly flew toward the voice that penetrated straight deep into her bones.

Hannah and the others also immediately followed, and as they reached where the wailing was loudest—there, they saw a mother clinging to her child.

Not a superhero, not a themarian, not a princess—just a mother.

"..." Hannah could really only gasp and cover her mouth as her feet landed on the ground. They were farther away from the sea of lifeless bodies, making the only thing that she could see was the sorrowful sight in front of her.

"Oh no, no…no," Aerith's tears and snot completely stained her face; her head shaking without pause as she swayed her body back and forth—and in her arms was her son. He was much larger than her; her arms barely even wrapping his entire body… and yet she held him like she was never going to let him go.

"Please… oh, god no…" Aerith placed her lips on Gary's forehead several times as she whispered, "My baby… not my baby. No…no, no, no."

"Gary…" Hannah could really only hold her mother's hand as she looked away from the scenery in front of her. They were surrounded by corpses, and yet it was only now that everything was truly registering in her mind.

"Diana… please, please help."

"Aerith…" Diana couldn't really say anything. Just closing her eyes as she shook her head.

"How… could this happen?" Hannah whispered, "Themarians… themarians aren't supposed to…"

Themarians are not supposed to die this easily, instantly—Hannah did not even need to finish her words as it was already in everyone's minds. For most of them, themarians might as well be immortal.

"It's… me." And almost as if to answer everyone's question…

…Aerith once again whispered.

"It's me…" She said, "I did this."

"No…" Paige slightly raised her voice, "None of this is your fault, Aerith. This is—"

"My fault… it's my fault," Aerith said as she looked at Gary's face, completely peaceful… seemingly just sleeping as she very gently place him on the blades of grass,

"I killed them… I killed my baby."

"Ae—"

"It's my fault…" Aerith repeated as she caressed her son's face, before very slowly turning her eyes toward Diana,

"...I told them how to do this."