Someone was watching me and my family. I could feel their intent resting itself on the space between my shoulders. The hairs in the back of my neck rose as I realized that somehow they were hiding who they were from me.

In my head, the world was suddenly all flashing red lights, and screaming klaxons. I got Margot and the girls out of there as soon as I could. Then I called down nearly the entirety of my FC-fleet’s reserve units and ordered them to watch over my girls just in case something untoward happened.

With the matter of my wife and two nieces’ safety having been seen too, I could now deal with the source of my anxiety in a more direct fashion. I drew heavily on the data-feed tearing through the meta-data like it was some kind of inverted rotoscope. Tracing the disparate data blocks that my unseen foe was trying to hide behind.

Once I knew who it was, I acted accordingly, teleporting myself and the target to a conveniently dead alternate-reality where it wouldn’t matter if, or rather, when, I completely lost my shit.

“H-, huh?! What?! Wait! Where is this?!” said a certain mousey, brown-haired, green-eyed, sallow-skinned, immortal cultivator.

“...So it’s you,” I said. My voice sounding oddly calm even to my ears.

I couldn’t help but notice the turbulent singularities made of nothingness, darkness, and agitated space-time, that were gathering within the palms of both of my hands, despite the fact I hadn’t intended to use any magic.

“O-, Okay, so...I’m pretty sure this looks super bad. Like super-super bad. I get that, but hear me out, because I absolutely swear that this isn’t what it looks like!” said the woman, who was the current incarnation, of the person I used to hate most in this world, when my self-loathing wasn’t feeling too jealous about the whole affair.

“I’m listening,” I said. Once again surprising myself with how very calm I was sounding, considering the fact that my inner-monologue had degraded to feral noises and the sound of grinding teeth. If were human, I’d have suspected that I was having some kind of medical emergency, and had unknowingly gone into shock. That was how calm I was in that moment. It was a bad kind of calm.

“R-, Really? Um, uh...So, after our, uh,...little reunion a few weeks ago, once I stopped freaking out I decided that I should get in contact with you and clear the air a bit. I wanted to have a balancing of the accounts, so to speak,” said the woman.

“Oh...I see,” I said. The blackhole bombs that floated in both my hands grew in scale as I quietly lost my cool. I was now calm enough to stay smiling and unperturbed, even as entire planets began to be stringulated by the immense gravitational force of the black holes in my hands.

“Er...I should probably clarify that by ‘balance the accounts’ I don’t mean that I’m trying to get even or anything like that. I don’t want or need to get even, and honestly, I’d really, really, like to not start a whole sort of chain of vengeance thing...especially since the last time that happened...I kind of lost, and I certainly don’t think that’d change now that you’ve uh...grown,” said the woman. Speaking very quickly.

“So...what did you want, Samantha?” I said. Smiling a smile so wide and forceful it felt like my teeth had fused together and had a million similarly fused babies.

“You…You know my name?” said the woman. Sounding shocked and even more nervous than before.

“Did you really think I wouldn’t look up the details of this particular incarnation of yours, after you walked into my office?... Also, it was on your job application, so....,” I said. My tone filled with a syrupy and dangerously, fraudulent innocence. The bawls of hypergravity and chaotic magic in my hands growing even more turbulent.

“Er...Right. That actually makes sense. Um, okay...All the more reason to clear the air. So, uh, moving on...First off, Thank you,” said the woman, who in this life, was known as Samantha Blue.

“...What?” I said. Genuinely thrown for a loop.

“Th-, Thank you…”

“What the hell is this? Is this some kind of joke? You show up while I’m with my family, and expect me to believe that you’re just here to ‘thank’ me? Especially with our shared past?!” I said. My eyes glowing with a bloody red light.

“It’s...It’s true! I just wanted to thank you! I don’t know if you remember what I remember, but from what I remember, things got out of hand and while the result was less than optimal, it was thanks to you that they didn’t end up worse,” said Samantha.

“...You call killing my family, then mutilating me, trapping me in my own skin, and then putting me and the souls of my dead family in what was essentially a torture machine where I would be condemned to try and fail to save my family from various fates worse than death for all eternity...things getting out of hand?” I said. So taken aback that the two miniature black holes I was holding dissipated. Fading into nothing.

“Er...Okay...I can see that was a bad choice of words, and I’d like you to also know that first off, as I’ve probably told you multiple times in my former iterations, while begging for my life...I’m really sorry about that. Yur-...”

“Don’t say her name...I’m trying very hard not to kill you, right now...At this rate, I’m pretty sure this universe isn’t going to survive for long even after I’ve left,” I warned. Glancing down to see an entire galaxy get swallowed up by the black hole in my left hand.

The woman looked around. Suddenly realizing that aside from the ground we were standing on and the air we were breathing, everything else in the reality I’d brought us to, was nothing static. Like the snowy black and white flurries that could often be found on old TVs when the channels went off-air.

“Eeps!...Right, cool...Sorry. Again, I’m...really, really, sorry. I didn’t know that Master would do what he did...But I know that’s no excuse, and that’s not what we’re here to talk about…We’ve already had that conversation…”

“I’m growing tired of this...You have...five more minutes before I simply decide to end you and scrub your soul to keep something like this from happening...Honestly, I’ve no clue why I didn’t do that sooner,” I said. The last bit more a bit of self-recrimination for leaving loose ends.

“And...that’s exactly one of the things I’m thankful for!” said Samantha.

“What?”

“You left me with my memories...which is probably why I’m here today, and has almost certainly saved my bacon from a broad number of terrible things,” said the woman.

I clucked my tongue at that first bit, well aware that the sole reason she was here today, stalking me and my family was that I’d failed to kill her that one final time.

During the times when I was hunting her and killing her, I always made sure to preserve her soul, because killing someone who didn’t remember their crimes would have been killing a stranger, an innocent, and I’d refused to allow her to escape her sins.

Failing to scatter her soul when I was done, like I’d done for all the rest...was just a bit of sloppiness. By the time I realized that it might not have been a good idea to just leave things unfinished as I had, several millennia had gone by and I was so far away from that part of the cosmos that honestly it hadn’t felt like a major concern.

The sheer unlikelihood of us ever meeting each other again made me feel safe. Especially since by then, I’d picked up several skills that made tracking me down nigh-impossible.

Her finding me by accident would have been like a grain of sand on an exploding planet somehow meetings its nearest neighbor on a beach, in a solar system, several galaxies away. Nevermind the unlikelihood of that one grain surviving, that two grains of sand from that one dead planet would survive, and then end up on the same beach without some outer force taking efforts to make it happen, verged on the impossible.

Also, I was of the opinion that I’d never feel love again, never have a family again, never not be alone ever again, so the only thing at stake was me. I’d figured at the very worst I’d just end her miserable existence then. So, uh...sloppiness, and just a hint of arrogance.

“Other reasons I had for wanting to thank you were, all the times you saved me,” said Samantha. Her annoying voice interrupting my train of thought.

“The hell I did! I did a lot of things to you...but saving you was never one of them,” I said. Glowering.

“Are you sure? Because I think you and I are remembering what happened back then, all those lifetimes ago, a little differently...Try to remember how our original world came to an end. Remember what happened when you first gained your powers of calamity generation,” said the woman.

I frowned, wondering why this woman wasn’t dead already, wondering why I didn’t just kill her and move on with my evening.

After all, she’d already done the worst possible thing she could do by skulking in the darkness and showing up while I was with Margot and the girls. Which was instantly, and inarguably, a causa belli that demanded her death considering what she’d done, what she and her fellow disciples and their damned master had a hand in.

Plus, I generally tried not to think about back then, sealing those memories away because I couldn’t really forget them, which made me even more reluctant to acquiesce to her request.

“Think about it...Was the power you found that day really just calamity generation?” said Samantha. Her tone desperate.

“Ah...that’s right...” I said. My face falling slack as I recalled how I’d escaped their inescapable cage.

I wasn’t just a being that could generate good and bad luck. I could freely manipulate probability as I needed to.

I recalled the first time I used those powers. I remembered the day of my escape from that damn battery made of nightmares. I recalled being a fish trapped in a globe, trapped in its own scales, and then remembered spawning as a near-infinite amount of identical fish. That fish was now a monstrous entity that appeared within all of the universes within that multiverse. Including the one where my cage was in.

“Those other yous….were quite cruel. The things they did...,” Samantha shuddered. Letting the words lapse into silence.

“And then you got free and you killed us all,” said Samantha. Smiling for the first time. The look was incongruous and annoyingly fetching on her stupid face.

“Those MEs were still me. I am still me. And they didn’t do anything that I wouldn’t have done had I been able to get free on my own,” I grumped.

“I know...but regardless of the details, you still saved us, and even if you took your revenge afterward, it was still better than those other YOUs getting us,” said Samantha.

A moment passed where neither of us said another. I checked to see that Margot and the girls were safe, and found my urge to kill fading. I was still angry but beyond being angry, I was just starting to feel impatient. I just wanted this whole...thing...to be over.

Then the woman said,

“Did you know that the first time you killed us and let us get reborn, we’d all already been cosigned hell?”

“It’s true...Apparently, the gods, the cosmos, whoever was in charge of processing our souls marked us as being high-priority sinners...It wasn’t for what we did to you, though I think that probably also hurt our case. No, apparently, because of us, the cosmos could no longer create beings like...whatever you once were. We’d apparently revealed a key flaw for the use of those kinds of beings in providing good fortune to worlds in need, which meant beyond dooming our own multiverse we’d doomed countless others because apparently, we’d inspired multiple copycats, who attempted but thankfully failed to do the same, but in the attempt, ultimately, caused an entire branch of the cosmos to collapse and beyond that, now that beings like you could no longer be allowed to exist there were a whole bunch of multiverses and universes that no longer be saved by having someone or something just add in a bunch of good luck to force a good outcome, when doom was already a statistical certainty,”

“I’m...I’m not sure what to say to that...honestly, I’m pretty sure you’re off your gourd, but that's neither here nor there. Why were you following me?”

“I already said, why I was following you. I wanted to clear the air and thank you,” said Samantha.

“We were all supposed to spend the rest of forever in the worst of the hell realms, but then you brought us, back, and then you killed us, and you brought us back, and then you killed us, and then you brought us back,...And you’re right, the ways you did it, and the things you did before you killed us, were quite cruel. Not quite as cruel as the other YOUs but still quite cruel indeed, and that lasted eons, but it wasn’t the eternity of endless hell that we would have gotten...so, uh...thank you for that. Even if I’m the only one of us who’s still sapient and the others may or may not still be free-floating fragments of soul, eventually, we’ll all get to go back to our lives because you intervened and whatever authorities that would have sent us to...that place, decided that it sufficed as a punishment,” said Samantha.

The woman’s words sunk in and I was struck by a wave of boiling anger as I realized that in getting vengeance for myself, I’d inadvertently acquitted the accursed group from getting properly punished for their crimes against me and my family.

I now knew why I didn’t kill this woman. I knew why I wouldn’t kill this woman even now. It wasn’t carelessness. It was a conscious decision, one that may, or may not, have been in error but was still a decision that I’d made and would stand by, all the same.

Back then a part of me had felt that, killing her or letting her go was a choice between giving in to my rage and despair, or trying to move on and find something better. I’d made my choice ages ago, and if possible I didn’t want to go back on it.

I didn’t regret what I did, because how was I supposed to know that this was the one time that the normally apathetic cosmos decided to give a damn, however, I still had enough hate left in me to regret making things a little easier on those people even if it was unintentional.

“And? Are you here to mock me? Is that it?” I said. Shrugging. Pretending not to care.

Samantha’s eyes widened, her expression making it look as if she’d been struck.

“What?! No! No, that is absolutely not the intent. I was...I was just trying to explain. All this time I was trying to explain!”

“Explain what?” I said.

“Explain why ‘I’ at the very least hold no grudge, have no umbrage, or animosity, towards you for anything that happened between us. I understand what I did. I understand that it was a mistake, and while I did have to spend multiple lifetimes trying to work through what you did. I’ve forgiven you because I know how bad you must have been hurting and beyond that, whether you intended to or not, in more ways than the ones I’ve mentioned, you’ve kind of helped me out...So uh,...truce? Peace? Can we be cool?... Please?” said the woman. Proffering her hand.

My face went blank and my eyes went wide. I suddenly understood why the woman had been watching me. I facepalmed and realized that I probably should have gone after her that first day just to clear this up on my own. It was more sloppiness. I’d been avoiding my past and unwittingly allowed what could have been a potential threat to wander free. Even if I wasn’t going to kill her, I should have confirmed that she wouldn’t become a future problem.

I decided right then and there to be more diligent when it came to handling my affairs, and though I didn’t know it yet, this decision would irrevocably alter my fate. Mostly for the better.

“....You do know I wasn’t planning to come and kill you, right?” I said

“You...You weren’t?” said the woman.

“Yes...Or rather, are you telling me you thought I was maybe planning to start the whole cycle of killing you and bringing you back all over again, and your instinct was to stalk me, with the grand sum of no methods for defending yourself or attacking me?”

“Well uh...I technically I was planning to try to ...maybe banish you from this reality, if talking things out didn’t work out?” said Samantha. Looking sheepish and afraid. Clearly fearing that her admission would make me take back my words.

“Hm...An interesting plan. It wouldn’t have worked for several reasons, but an interesting plan all the same. Did the people who gave you the artifacts you were planning to banish me with leave you a name?”

“Yeah, they did,” said Samantha. Looking surprised and then glumly nodding as she remembered that I’d always been able to simply know certain things. Even if she’d never really known the full details of how I knew those things.

“How about this? Give me their names, because I’m going to need to have a little chat with them, and everyone behind them...And then as a sign of good faith, I’ll hire you. Just to show you that everything that happened back then, is really just ancient history,” I said. Not bothering to mention that hiring her was also my way of keeping her close enough to keep an eye on till I figured out a way to make sure she wouldn’t become a problem, without my having to kill her.

“R-, Really?” said Samantha. Looking surprised.

“Yes, really,” I said. Nodding.

“No way! Awesome. Er...I’ve got a phone number from one of them too, if it helps,” said Samantha.

“Yes, it’d help...Also, aren’t you the least bit concerned that I might just be messing with you?” I said. One brow raised.

“Huh? No,..er not really. Though everything that’s happened between us was literally forever ago, I still remember enough to know that you’re tricky but not that kind of tricky, and you generally keep your word when you say you’re gonna do something,” said Samantha. Pulling out her smartphone and thumbing through the contacts menu.

“....Hm,” I wasn’t sure what to say to that.

“Here...I uh...I sent it to the office email. I hope that’s okay,” said the woman.

“It’s fine,” I said. Sighing. Suddenly feeling exhausted now that all the tension had drained out of the moment.

I teleported the two of us back to earth and then teleported away. Returning home because there was thankfully still enough time left in the evening for the girls and I, to go out and have some Korean barbecue.

Before I left, I heard the woman saying,

“Oh, man. I can’t believe I got the job. Mom’s going to be so happy!”