Villain Retirement

"What is it doing? It's just floating there."

"Let us just approach it, Ms. Dee."

"No. That's not going to happen."

"Are you afraid of Cherbi, Ms. Dee?"

"Will you approach a violent and deadly storm that could potentially wipe out the entire universe? Themarians have been taught to avoid the Cherbi ever since we were children — and that has not changed after thousands and thousands of years have passed."

"But Cherbi is cute, Ms. Dee."

"Just get it and let's leave."

The Cherbi was no longer in its humanoid form, and was back to its spherical shape as it just seemed to float aimlessly in the dark expanse.

It did not, however, return to its colossal size and instead just stayed the size of a yoga ball; a pink fluffy yoga ball of death and destruction, that is. It should have already sensed Dee's energy as soon as she stepped into this universe, and should have instinctively gone to her.

And yet, even now as she was only a hundred meters away, Cherbi remained completely still.

"Hm…" Riley noticed this, of course, as he just very slowly flew toward Cherbi; trying to see if it would react to him. But even as he floated directly behind it, it just remained stagnant. Riley did not call its name whatsoever, and just let it peacefully do whatever it was doing. Perhaps it was sleeping? Was that something it could do?

Riley did not really need to ask that long, however. Because as soon as he started floating around Cherbi, he saw two of its tendrils extruding from its spherical body…

…seemingly holding some sort of marble the size of a pool ball.

"..." Riley stretched his hand toward the marble. But as soon as he did so, he felt his hand being sucked into the marble by an unimaginable force. Riley did not move his hand away, however, as he just allowed his skin and flesh to slowly be absorbed by the marble.

Very soon, however, the flesh, blood, and bones that were being sucked in by the marble completely froze mid-space. And as his hand began to heal, Riley quickly grabbed the marble away from Cherbi; causing some sort of ripple.

"!!!" There wasn't really anything that could visualize how strong the ripple was as the universe was completely empty… except for Dee.

Dee could feel her flesh almost being torn apart just from the sheer shockwave. And it was able to do that to her body, she could really only imagine what that little marble had done to the planets of this universe — with just one ripple, an entire star system would probably be gone in the blink of an eye.

As for Cherbi, its spherical fluffy body began to tremble; with all of its million tendrils slowly starting to poke out from its body like vibrating fur. It was producing some sort of sound that was able to travel across the expanse of space. Its tendrils were about to reach for the marble, but as soon as its millions of eyes saw who was holding the marble, Cherbi started to spin in place.

It then started circling around Riley, very slowly shifting to its humanoid shape as it did so. Riley did not even hesitate as he grabbed something from his pocket and fed it to Cherbi — a Guardian Force stone.

And there, Dee watched as Cherbi started clapping as it continued to circle Riley like a little child. Dee couldn't really focus that much with the pink fluff of death's excitement, however, as she finally got a clear view of what Rhys was holding. And almost immediately as the marble reflected in her eyes, they turned wide.

"That's… a Star Compressor."

"Hm…?" Riley blinked as he heard Dee's words. He then raised the orb in the air; his head tilting to the side as he looked at it, "...I have heard that being uttered by Mother several times before, and I believe she had also explained briefly what it did. But what exactly is it, for you to be so surprised like that, Ms. Dee?"

"It absorbs and compresses the energy of a star, to be used as an energy source that would last for hundreds and thousands of years — even if it was used to fire up millions of motherships," Dee explained as she very slowly and carefully floated toward Riley, or more specifically, toward the Star Compressor.

"Similar to the Guardian Force?" Riley squinted his eyes as he grabbed another Guardian Force stone from his pocket, before feeding it to Cherbi again.

"No," Dee shook her head, "The Star Compressor, in the simplest of terms, is an illegal battery."

"I suppose that is why Cherbi seems to want to eat it," Riley once again looked at the Star Compressor, and it just looked like one of those large marbles that had some sort of liquid lava glowing inside of it,

"But why hasn't Cherbi eaten it yet?"

"...Because that thing doesn't only contain the single energy of a star," Dee stretched her hand toward the marble, but chose to pull them away at the last second, "That thing you are holding…

…is the universe we are in right now. All its stars, planets, cosmic energy… it is all there."

"...The Star Compressor is capable of doing something like that?" Riley blinked a couple of times, "I could see why they made it illegal."

"No," Dee shook her head, "A star compressor could, at most, only completely deplete the energy of a dwarf star. Whoever created that Star Compressor… surpasses the mind of everyone I know, including Bard."

"Hm, interesting."

"It is too bad the one who created it is probably dead now. I would have truly liked to have met such a person," Dee sighed as she slowly started floating away from the Star Compressor,

"It is better to leave that thing here."

"Why would I leave it here, Ms. Dee? This would make a nice gift for someone."

"What—who are you even going to give that to?" Dee raised an eyebrow as she pointed at the star compressor, "One mistake and that thing might leak. And if that thing leaks into another universe, even if it is just a fraction of a fraction of a fraction, then that is it for the other universe. It is too much of a ri—"

"I was thinking of giving it to you so you could study it, Ms. Dee."

"You know what, I think I may be able to build something to ensure that will make it impossible to leak," Dee quickly said as the tone of her voice changed, "How sure are you that you are able to contain it like you are now once we take it back to the space station?"

"I have already moved entire galaxies, Ms. Dee."

"But that is an entire universe, Riley Ross."

"..." Riley blinked as he looked at the orb, "Since the star compressor is already doing its job, Ms. Dee — I only have to make sure it does not explode."

"Hm, hm… let us go home quick, then," Dee nodded, "So we could continue our search for your friends, of course."

"I do not have friends, Ms. Dee," Riley shook his head, "And you need to go first, so you could at least make a prototype of the device that will make sure—"

"On it."

And before Riley could even finish his words, Dee instantly disappeared from her spot. Her silhouette, not even a dot in the distance.

"..." Riley and Cherbi could really only look at each other as they saw this before the two just decided to follow Dee.

***

"So, let me get this straight so that the others could hear it as well…"

Hera, whose entire ability centered on keeping her safe, could really only gather the rest of her variants in front of Riley as soon as they brought the star compressor.

"...You brought an army of planet-ending zombies, and now, you brought a bomb that could potentially wipe out an entire universe."

"Not potentially, Miss Hera. It will wipe out an entire universe, and with just a single drop of its energy," Riley nodded, seemingly proud of himself, "Dee and the others said that the reason for that is the universes have different energies, and would therefore collide with—"

"I do not want to hear the explanation, I want to hear why you brought it here!"

"...Where else would I have brought it, Ms. Hera?" Riley blinked a couple of times, "Perhaps if you could open up Talia's domain, I could hide them all there."

"Hide it in another universe where there are no people, Riley!" Hera wanted to pull her hair out there and then, "This place is literally our base! What if King just decides to suddenly appear here and detonates that star compressor thing!?"

"That is not going to happen, Ms. Hera," Riley shook his head, "I have already placed countermeasures so that King and his subordinates can not infiltrate the space station without me knowing."

"Ugh, whatever…" Hera pinched the bridge of her nose, "...We almost have all the gang back together. All that's left is… Paige and Megawoman?"

"Aerith," Riley nodded, "King told me that he has Paige."

"What? What do you think he is doing with her?"

"It doesn't matter, Ms. Hera. Paige will not die, and will not be broken by him."

"...How can you be so sure?" Hera's breaths turned heavy, "We should have been putting our focus on saving her instead!"

"No," Riley shook his head, "Paige will not die as she is only just a concept that Other Paige created, and she can not be broken…

…because she already is, Ms. Hera."

"..."

"Aerith," Riley closed his eyes and breathed out,

"...She's the only one left."