Villain Retirement

"People are dying, Megawoman."

"Maybe if you just stop!"

"Now, now. Where would the fun be if I stopped, m'lady?"

"Stop doing a British accent! No one talks like that anymore!"

"How do you know I'm not from that part of the world?"

"Because I know who you are, Riley!"

"Oh, but do you?"

Megawoman and Darkday were now on top of a building. Or to be more precise, they were on top of a building that was floating above the city of Miami; the people that were inside, very slowly disappearing one by one as Megawoman was rescuing them while having a casual conversation with Darkday. Her silhouette, very slightly flickering more than a thousand times in a single second.

And soon, with the last person now safely a kilometer away from the battle and hidden underground; Megawoman's silhouette stopped flickering. Her eyes which were barely visible from all the wind blasting on her face, now glowing red.

No violent beam gushed from her eyes, however. Instead, she placed her palms together, before a large sword, a zweihander, emerged from her hands. The zweihander almost looked crystal; it was dark, but there were hints of red glimmering across it when glanced at in a certain direction.

"That's new, Megawoman. Where have you been hiding that?" Darkday's helmet tilted to the side as his visor reflected the fading light from Megawoman's weapon.

"I just don't use it," Megawoman slightly moved the sword to the left, revealing her eyes that also reflected Darkday's silhouette, "But I am now since I am going for the kill."

"How generous of you, Megawoman. Will you finally be the lucky one to actually end me?" Darkday let out a small chuckle as he too, placed his palms together and summoned his own zweihander made with Hannah's abilities; compressed to the point that the light looked solid.

"Oh…" Darkday then stretched the zweihander away from him and looked at, "...Very sneaky, Megawoman. You're copying what I'm doing and compressing your Themarian energy, very sneak—"

And before Darkday could finish his words, the glimmering reflecting on his visor disappeared. And even with the threat of Megawoman's attack, Darkday just stayed standing on the roof extremely still.

His frozen silhouette did not last long, however, as he suddenly plunged the zweihander toward the floor—causing lava to instantly crawl throughout the entire building and turning the entire infrastructure into magma in less than a second.

One would think the magma would rain down on the city below, but no—instead, it flew up due to a turbulent gale that was blasting from below; the fiery debris, quickly turning cold as they soon floated above the skies and out into space. Darkday quickly looked down, only to see Megawoman wiping her lips.

"Oh…?" Darkday could not appreciate the view, however, as the image faded away; with Megawoman now directly behind him, slicing his entire body in half.

Megawoman's eyes, however, did not leave Darkday's cleaved body as she watched the two halves start to drop—and as soon as they turned into sand, Megawoman quickly waved her sword behind her.

"Oops."

The blade, however, quickly halted in the air as she saw Darkday… holding an old man and using it as a shield, "You almost killed him, Megawoman."

"M…Megawoman?" The old man quickly glanced at Megawoman, "Is… Is it really you—"

But alas, Darkday pushed the old man's head toward the halted zweihander before he could finish struggling with his words.

"You!" Megawoman gritted her teeth as Darkday let go of the old man's corpse.

"Well, he was going to die sooner or later," Darkday shrugged, "In fact, each and every one of these people is going to die sooner or later. So, what is the point in trying to save any of them, Megawoman?"

"Life, no matter how short, is precious. I have told you that so many times," Megawoman almost roared as she rammed her entire body on Darkday. Darkday blocked the sudden attack with his telekinetic barriers, but it wasn't enough as it completely broke his entire arm,

"But you are clearly incapable of learning anything other than murder!"

"That is not true, Megawoman," Darkday clicked his tongue several times as he grabbed Megawoman's wrist to prevent him from being completely eviscerated by the zweihander, "I don't learn how to murder, I invent new ways…

…like this."

And as he said that, the sky that was already dark started to dim even darker; the clouds, compressing as rumbles of thunder could be heard growling throughout the city of Miami.

"You… could control the weather?" Megawoman looked around.

"It is actually one of the earlier powers I received," Darkday let out a small chuckle as he allowed himself to be hit by Megawoman's weapon; the blade made with compressed energy, going through him like he was foam. Darkday, however, used this chance to embrace Megawoman once more and lock her even just for a single second,

"I know the power looks boring, but watch this."

And as soon as he said that, rain started to fall from the clouds. It looked normal at first—but soon, several deafening explosions blasted into the air. And it wasn't the sound of thunder, no. The sound was more akin to that of an Armalite, or perhaps a minigun.

"You…"

Megawoman completely ripped Darkday's entire body in half again—but it was too late. The rain… did not fall gently at all, no. All of them dropped toward the ground at several Mach speeds.

Megawoman tried to clap her hands to clear the rain, but two Darkdays caught both her arms before her palms could even touch each other. Of course, this only delayed Megawoman for a fraction of a second as the clones' arms were ripped away from their torso, but that was enough.

That was enough to completely erase the entire city of Miami.

Megawoman sucked in a deep breath as she grabbed the clones' heads, squashing them without even glancing at them as she watched as the city was devoured by a simple rain.

"I have to admit, it's not that creative," another Darkday then floated behind Megawoman, sighing as he clicked his tongue several times, "What about it, Megawoman? Want to make a deal?"

"..." Megawoman did not answer Darkday and just stared at him.

"If you guess whether or not this is my original body, then I will stop this rampage right now," Darkday crossed his legs, sitting in the air as he circled around Megawoman's silhouette, "You can stop this, right here and now."

"It's not your real body!" The zweihander Megawoman was wielding turned into a spear; a spear that quickly lodged through Darkday's head like a drill, completely mangling his head. And as Megawoman guessed, the body turned into concrete and sand.

"It would seem I underestimated how much you know me, Megawoman."

A series of claps then whispered into Megawoman's ears as another Darkday just emerged out of nowhere in front of her,

"I truly appreciate that."

"Enough of this. Now that I have played your pathetic games, let us go home to our own universe and deal with this there. Do not involve—"

"Oh, I lied," Darkday let out a small chuckle,

"Pavoom."

And without even any hesitation, Darkday pointed toward the horizon—and in a flash, the horizon disappeared.

"Oh, I overdid it a little."

The horizon disappeared—and with it, anything within the path of Darkday's 'Pavoom' attack which reached all the way to the Arctic Ocean.

"There goes Canada. I might have killed your husband again here."

"We… had a deal, Riley," the weapon Aerith was holding faded away as she looked at the clear horizon; the sky, torn; the celestial bodies now, overlooking them.

"We did," Darkday let out a long and deep sigh,

"And you broke it."

"...What?"

"You said you were going to stay by my side forever, Megawoman. You said that you were going to be the one that ends me…

…but you abandoned me."

"I—"

"You tried to kill yourself."

"You annihilated my people, Riley. What point is there to live!?"

"You tried to kill yourself," Darkday's voice started to tremble, "You know very well that I can't do that, Megawoman. You know very well that I have tried to kill myself a hundred times but I remain alive…

…did you want to show me… show me that you could end your life whenever you want to, and I can't?"

"...What?" Aerith squinted her eyes as she looked at her reflection on Darkday's visor, "What are you even talking about!? Why would I even think about you during that time!?"

"It is true," Darkday grabbed his helmet with both hands as he started to curl his entire body, "You were mocking me, Megawoman. Mocking the fact that I can not die—that I will be alone for eternity once you and Hannah are gone. You…

…you were going to leave me."

"Are you even hearing yourself? You… you're pathetic, Riley," Aerith's voice also started to tremble, "So what if you are going to be alone for eternity? You deserve it. And I thought you didn't mind being alone, you've said so several times!"

"I don't mind being alone, Megawoman," Darkday removed his hands from his helmet as he looked at Aerith,

"But I do mind being abandoned by you."

"..."

"I was happy when I saw you wake up from death, but then you…

…you threw me away. You said we were going to be together forever, Megawoman."

"..." Aerith could not really say anything; her tongue almost felt like it had the weight of the entire universe hanging on it—and perhaps it did,

"What if… What if we just go away again? This time… this time for real?"

"..."

"..."

"No...

...the fun is just starting, Megawoman. Everyone has to die."