This Life
Crystet walked out from behind the trees, his wings furled into his back. He was stretching his legs as Aaron appeared outside the village. "About time," Crystet muttered to himself as he saw Aaron walking over to him with Clair on his back. "So, what did you do to them?" Crystet asked, curious as to what took Aaron so long. "Well, I threatened their lives, destroyed their cockiness, and also traumatised them enough to make it so that my presence is the trigger to making them faint. Only four of them, though. They'll spread the word, and the second the lesser villagers hear of this, they'll get an advantage against them." Aaron explained as Crystet simply clapped his hands.
"Wow. You traumatised some villagers and gave some lesser villagers a means of escaping their lives. Although, what will happen if they tell you the upper villagers are abusing them?" Crystet pondered as Aaron gave him the answer. "Well, first I'd confirm it, and then, should it be true, I will personally make each villager involved sufferer a fate worse than death. That fate would be me killing them quickly. I can already imagine one punishment I'd give to them. Maybe I might make them overdose on projectiles if you know what I'm saying." Aaron stated, smiling at Crystet with the smile of a killer.
"I understand what you mean, and I'm just going to tell you that what you just suggested is absolutely going to be painful. Please do not ever use it on me." Crystet requested Aaron, who just lessened the creepiness of his smile. "I won't, Crystet. Not unless you were to REALLY annoy me." Aaron reassured him, making sure he knew that it was an extreme option, just in case he ever needed something that extreme. Crystet's shoulders relaxed as he heard Aaron speak. "Oh, thank god. A genocidal version of you now would actually be worse than the Corrupted One, as the Corrupted version of you actually killed his targets quickly. With you...you'd torture the living shit out them, wouldn't you?" Crystet asked him, making sure he knew where he stood in Aaron's eyes. He wanted to know what Aaron was thinking.
"Well, it depends on the situation, Crystet. If they were just designated to be killed, I wouldn't do anything special. If they were absolute assholes like those villagers are, I would make sure each one remembered my warning. If they decided to discard my warning, then I'd do something for them." Aaron explained, trying to explain his reasoning to Crystet. If he could understand his rationing, they wouldn't have any disagreements about their plans in the future. "If they were to, for instance, try to harm you or even myself, hell itself would crack open before I took action because, despite my past lives, I can be peaceful. However, to harm an innocent child like this," Aaron continued, pointing to Clair, who was sitting on his shoulders. "I will murder everyone I know before I let a child get harmed due to my actions. I know that was not the same a few days ago, but people can change with different experiences." Aaron finished, taking a breath. He didn't need to, but he could, so he did.
"I see where you're coming from, Aaron. We're strong enough to not need to worry about being attacked, but for the girl, Clair, she'd be easily injured. Self-sacrifice is what you enjoy now, huh?" Crystet reworded, changing Aaton's statement into something he could understand. He also mocked Aaron with it, and all Aaron could do was smile. "Taking a leaf out of my book now, are you, Crystet? Well played! Although, I wouldn't call it self sacrifice. More like protection of the weak, if you want to call it by a name." Aaron retorted, giving a unique smile to Crystet. It was almost as if he was expecting some form of retort. As he was smiling, though, Clair interrupted him. "What are we going to do now?" Clair asked, her eyes back to black. "It's not like we have any home to go to, right?"
"True, I didn't think about that as I scared the hell out of the villagers," Aaron realised, thinking of the different possibilities. "I want to live a decently peaceful life this time around. It was the same last time, except you were there and we had that fight. You let innocent people die and even opened your mouth to watch a suicide bomber drop into your stomach, killing them in an attempt to end your life." Aaron recalled, directing his sentence at Crystet, who just looked at him with regret. "Listen, I'm still sorry about all that, but you aren't off the hook yourself! Mass genocide, the destruction of a planet, and the murder of your parents, friend, and literally everybody around you, yet you still won't tell us what set off that trigger in your head." Crystet rebuked, and Aaron couldn't give a good argument. It was true. "You aren't wrong about that, but I've had time to reflect. Much more than you, and I'd still need more because of the sheer severity of my actions. I've killed billions, but not here. I'm only here because of the sheer amount of coincidences that have occurred for me to be here. You wouldn't have died without my death happening first, or at least, I'd assume first. After all, I went to the last planet first, and you arrived many years before me. I can't wrap my head around how any of this works, but it does not excuse what I've done." Aaron finished as he felt a weight lift off his shoulders. Literally.
Clair jumped off of his shoulders before backing away slowly, her eyes glowing crimson. It was her alter ego. "Who...who the hell are you guys? Surely you wouldn't be able to kill eight billion people without at least SOMEBODY remembering!" She yelled, looking at the pair in fear. Aaron sighed, turning to her and crouching. "I'm going to tell you straight, Clair's alter ego. We are very special people, and this isn't the first planet we've visited. A while ago, we did some things, but now we've changed, and we're trying to live this life peacefully." Aaron explained. "What do you mean by 'this life'?" She asked, her eyes still crimson.
"Well, we've died before, me more than him."