Villain Retirement

"What kind of trouble have you brought now, Aerith?"

Inside some sort of room seemingly made of silver, the sound of Diana's steps almost clanged; her feet, almost stomping as she walked back and forth in front of a screen the size of a table.

Perhaps the only thing that was stagnant was the target of her stern glares— the view of the space that was almost a hologram as the far stars seemed to be popping out of the screen. And perhaps they do go far, as the light that was reflected in Diana's eyes almost looked like they spanned millions of kilometers.

It wasn't really clear what she was looking at— whatever it was, she was the only one that seemed to understand it.

"No…" And finally, after what seemed like an entire hour, Diana stopped walking as she stood right in front of the large screen, "...I suppose the humans did this to themselves."

Diana then raised her hand, controlling the screen as all sorts of cryptic letters and numbers appeared,

"Is there a way for me to stop them? No… the radiation signature is already too high. Even if I mask the energy coming from Earth, they would have already saved its location…" Diana continued to talk to herself as she stared at the digits in front of her,

"...Should I just leave?" She sighed, "I could probably leave, but I would never find a planet like this again, I'm sure of it. I have to stay, I need to stay. I'm not done yet… not yet."

Diana once again started waving her hands. And with each gesture, the contents of the holographic screen changed— almost as if it was zooming out on the map of the universe as the planets soon became like glitters in the expanse.

"Can you calculate several arrival dates based on the parameters I just entered?"

[...]

[...]

"All of them," Diana said as several colored dots appeared on the map, with lines suddenly protruding all the way to a green planet, "Now name them numerically depending on how fast each of the entered objects reaches Earth, with the headlines set as 'Higher Race'."

Diana then continued to stare at the screen, watching some sort of simulation.

"Of course, Higher Race 3 will be the fastest one to get here," Diana muttered to herself, "But based on the speed the thing is going, it's not them. Which one is it… data's too little to know."

"..."

"..."

"...I hate doing this," Diana then let out a deep sigh as she closed her eyes, before completely stopping her breaths, and even her already slowly beating heart. She let the sound of the universe enter the deepest parts of her, drowning any other noise as her mind wandered farther and farther off into the expanse of the darkness that is—

"What are you doing, aunt Diana!?"

"!!!"

Diana's eyes instantly opened wide as she let out an almost scratching gasp. She took a few steps back as she covered her ears, almost tumbling to the floor as the sudden noise that entered her brain almost incapacitated her.

"Are you playing a video game!?"

"..." Diana quickly turned her now opened eyes towards the girl that suddenly entered the room, who was now pressing and tapping all sorts of things on the holographic screen.

"What did I tell you about entering this room, Karina?" Diana could really only sigh as she tried her best to calm herself down, "Where's your mother?"

"Mom is with Gran gran. I requested snow for the next practice so mom's doing her thing."

"..." Once again, Diana sighed as she stared at Karina, whose height was now around her shoulders. If Diana's calculations were correct; then biologically, Karina should now be considered 12 years old.

If so, then things have just become tremendously complicated. The human brain starts being… completely unpredictable at that age. Sometime soon, this will be messy. Not to mention it was also time to stop accelerating Karina's growth, as continuing to do so would now be detrimental.

That means they would be stuck with her rebellious phase for a while. Diana remembered when Hannah was around that age and was starting to develop some sort of crush on a cartoon character.

She even wanted to marry the character and insisted that Bernard buy the person who drew it to make it possible. It would have been alright if it was just that, but the character was not even a human-- it was a white lion.

Of course, her fascination didn't last long. As after that, her attention turned to drawing because she didn't get her father to buy the artist-- and so, she said she would do it herself but then completely forgot about the white lion as she started drawing all sorts of different characters.

She wasn't very good at it; so in the end, she just focused on what she does best, martial arts.

It… was incredibly short, no— it was a blink, but it felt like forever when she had to calm her tantrums and—

"Why are you smiling, auntie?"

"I'm not smiling," Diana quickly furrowed her eyebrows as she glared at Karina, "And stop calling me your aunt, I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

"No. Can you get out now?" Diana let out another sigh before wearing her glasses— transferring the images on the screen to it with just a wave of her hand. She waved her hand a second time, this time to gesture to Karina to leave.

"But it's boring outside," Karina grunted before she stretched her arms and hugged the screen; her smile, also stretching as wide as they could from ear to ear, "Let me play some games here instead, I would be quiet, I pro—"

And before she could finish her words, the screen suddenly turned red— No, not only the screen, but the lights in the silver room also drowned the walls in red.

"I… I didn't do anything!" Karina bellowed as she took a few steps back.

Diana didn't really say anything to her and instead just rushed to look at the screen.

"No…" She then whispered, "It's not you. There's…

…an intruder."

***

"It's… a ship!"

Angela's words were loud enough to echo through the tunnel, almost reaching as a whisper to the Pope that was idly standing by at the surface. As for Riley, he didn't really say anything and just hastened their descent.

The rocks around them, almost trembling as he made the holes even larger so that they would be able to blitz their way down.

"It's getting near! Only a few seconds now!" Angela bellowed, "W… wait! Wait! Slow down…

…Slow down!"

And all of a sudden, Angela felt her organs almost being thrown out of her body as she and Riley stopped falling down without even any sort of warning. Still, she didn't let the discomfort stop her as she quickly looked around…

…only to find herself in some sort of void— a vast hollow space perfectly shaped into a sphere, and right at the very center of this domain, was the dagger-shaped ship.

And it would seem Angela's description of it was truly valid, a futurist dagger. It was still clearly a ship, but its edges were so smooth with not even a trace of a door or a window.

"...Oh."

Angela then turned her eyes towards Riley as she heard him whisper, only to see his long black hair floating in a weird way.

"There's no gravity here," Riley muttered as he slightly flicked his finger, causing the strands of his hair to once again fix themselves, "Is it the doing of the ship? What do you think, Angela?"

"..."

"..."

"Angela?"

"Are we… on the core of the planet?" Angela took in a small gulp as she let her eyes wander around.

"...No," Riley said; his eyes, almost judging Angela from head to toe, "The core is still a thousand kilometers down, I have seen it."

"...Right," the excitement in Angela's voice slightly dissipated as she looked at the ship, slightly squinting her eyes as she did so, "I… can't seem to see the inside of the ship clearly."

"There are things that you can't see through, Angela?"

"I will eventually see what's inside," Angela shook her head, "It's just not clear now so I can't make out anything. This happens when I am looking at a material I haven't seen before."

"Hm."

"In this case, it's quite obvious that whatever this ship is, it's alien," Angela muttered, "Let's stay here for a while so my eyes could adjust and—"

"No, let's just go in."

"Wait, we don't even know what's inside. It would be too dangerous to— Never mind."

And before Angela could finish her words, she once again felt herself being dragged around; the two of them, not orbiting around the dagger-like ship. And now that they were near it, they finally realized just how massive it was.

It was almost as large as the floating base of the Dark Millenium, except elongated in shape.

"Riley, stop. I see some sort of seam here, I think it's the door."

"..." Riley then floated Angela and himself closer to the ship. And as soon as he did so, a sharp blue light beamed and panned towards them from head to toe.

"...What was that?"

"I don't—"

[Welcome, Riley Lane Ross.]

"..." And as soon as those words echoed through their ears, the seam that Angela was talking about became visible to Riley— and soon, that square seam turned into a door… and that door faded away revealing the inside of the ship.

"Did… the ship just recognize you? Riley Lane Ross… is that your full name?"

"..." Riley didn't really answer Angela's words, and instead just shook his head as the two of them slowly floated to the opening.

And as soon as Riley stepped inside, lights started appearing on the floor, almost as if they were guiding them. The gravity, also returning as the door behind them once again popped up.

"Should… maybe we should think about this before we—"

But alas, Riley just started walking as he followed the lights. The inside of the ship has the same color as its exterior— silver, almost platinum-like in color. And like the outside, there were no windows or anything, just unending hallways.

Soon, however, they found themselves inside a large dark hall. But it didn't remain dark for long, because as soon as Riley once again stepped forward, lights started filling the room.

And just like the rest of the ship, the hall was empty. Devoid of anything except for a single object— a small platform right in the very center of the hall.

No, perhaps it was better to say that it was a bed… as someone was lying on top of it— a face that was very familiar to Riley...

…Alice Lane.