My SuperVillain System: Building Legion of SSS-Ranked SuperHeroines
Chapter 44- Sugar’s Backstory

Chapter 44: Chapter 44- Sugar’s Backstory

Two women collapsed onto the fractured earth, shoulders heaving, skin torn and smeared with dirt, ash, and blood. The air reeked of sulfur, scorched flesh, and dying hopes.

Their weapons—blunt and cracked—hung useless in trembling hands. Even their powers, once radiant and unbreakable, sputtered like dying flames, their strength tethered to battered bodies and fraying willpower.

Sugar forced herself up, each breath a blade in her ribs. Sweat clung to her skin, mixing with the blood streaking down her face.

"Go," she rasped—voice hoarse, trembling, but resolute. "We’ll hold them... just go."

Beside her, the other woman sagged, eyes barely open, nodding with what little strength she had left.

They had done what no one else could—

Held back a tide of A-Rank monsters with nothing but grit and each other.

And for him—they would’ve done it again.

Sugar’s fingers shook as she conjured the gate, her last shred of power tearing open a rift in reality.

The portal shimmered—unstable, stuttering, threatening to collapse. A flickering hope.

It was never meant to be an escape for one.

She had told him he should be the one to go, but there had been a chance—however slim—for all three of them to make it out alive.

Even at death’s door, she had wanted to live.

Live to see a future with the man she loved.

Loved more than anything in this world.

But he—just for a moment—hesitated.

Then he moved.

Sugar took a half-step back toward the gate, close enough now to feel its pull—just two paces.

Two pairs of eyes looked at him, desperate only to ensure his safety.

He seized the other woman. Threw her through the portal.

Sugar waited. Waiting for his hand to reach back.

For him to pull her in, to just hold her hands like he always did.

He didn’t.

He looked at her.

Not in fear. Not in desperation.

But with cold finality.

"I tried," he said—quiet, measured. "Over and over. But it’s always the same. You have to die for us, Sugar."

Then he grabbed her wrist—rough, impersonal—and wrenched her away from the gate, throwing her down like discarded armor.

Her breath hitched.

Her mouth opened, but no sound came. Just silence. Just disbelief.

Then—

The light vanished.

The portal closed.

And so did something inside her.

Time stopped. Her heartbeat echoed in her ears like a dirge.

The monsters screamed behind her, but she didn’t turn. Couldn’t. Her limbs were stone. Her soul, hollowed.

He had left her.

No—he had chosen to.

He had betrayed her.

The man she trusted with her life.

The man she loved.

A tear broke free, tracing a lonely line down her bloodied cheek as she collapsed, knees cracking against the earth.

Behind her, the darkness surged.

She didn’t scream. She didn’t run.

There was nothing left to save.

—

Now—

She sat before him.

No battlefield. No blood. Only the sounds of reporters asking him questions about something she didn’t care about.

For her, it was emptiness.

Just silence. And the unbearable weight of memory.

Her hands trembled, resting on her thighs, fingers scuttling on the fabric as she observed him seated across the room.

Her eyes—filled with anger, betrayal, and pain—stared impassively, the hope of love long extinguished.

She said nothing.

Just sat there.

Because her heart had not yet caught up with the impossible thing standing before her.

He was alive.

And she was still the one who had died.

She didn’t know how to react, but one thing was clear—she was angry at him. He could have saved everyone, but he chose not to. And the one he chose to sacrifice was her. Her alone.

He had killed her—and their love.

And for the man—

Ding!

Emotional Failure Detected

Initiating Downgrade Protocol...

[ Dimensional Morph: Rank S ⇒ A ⇒ B+ ]

’System, how did she return to the past?’ Cruxius, ignoring the system notification—which was based on Sugar’s emotional fluctuation, now weakening the power he drew from her—asked something that made no sense.

Taking his own life had been easier. That was how he had returned. But now, seeing her there, again, among the reporters, gaze distant but burning—he avoided meeting her eyes.

He couldn’t afford for her to act out. Not now. Not when he had no answer for her.

What confused him most was that, like him, she retained her future memories. That alone broke the pattern—there was no reason he could find that would explain how she had them.

His fingers tapped the desk reflexively as he thought again and again, finding no signature, no trace of her ever possessing such an ability.

He was familiar with how someone with time-altering powers behaved.

He didn’t dismiss the possibility that someone else might share his gift.

But with Sugar—it was different.

He knew her better than anyone ever could. She had opened herself to him, shown her weaknesses, her heart—everything.

And he was sure: she did not possess the power to return through time.

Unless... perhaps she had a dormant ability, one that activated only upon her death. A rare condition-triggered second trait. It wasn’t unheard of.

’Let’s save Ytrisia first,’ he decided. Rising to his feet, rubbing the back of his neck, he adjusted himself, ignoring the flashes of the cameras as reporters looked on in confusion.

He turned and walked directly toward Sugar.

He was stunned to realize she, too, had future memories.

But Cruxius wasn’t afraid of her.

If anything, he was relieved. He wouldn’t need to rebuild their bond from scratch. Wouldn’t have to make her fall for him all over again.

And also, unlike in the past, he wouldn’t have to be cornered into making a decision.

Her eyes flickered slightly, narrowing as she watched him approach—hands in his pockets, calm, casual.

He stopped a short distance from her.

With a single gesture—just one finger—he motioned her to come closer.

And then he mouthed the words, slow and clear:

"You must be from the Hero Association, right?"

’!’

"...Yes," Sugar said, looking towards Cruxius as he approached her, feeling confused.

In the past, there was nothing like this; however, it was clear she had never met him in such an odd way.

So she just looked at him, observing without even standing from her seat.

"Follow me," Cruxius said as he moved his hand.

It was simple, given that he knew Sugar too well to be unaware of her powers, but as he did, all three of them—Darithi, him, and Sugar—passed through a green portal—or more like the portal passed through them—and they all vanished from there.