The Butcher

[Mira Burke]

Mira brought the coffee cup up to her lips, taking a sip from the steaming beverage. “... and you’re sure he’s gonna be here? 0930, right Otto?”

“He is like clockwork, Miss Burke… Commisioner-General Smith is as reliable as a german watch, frau...” said the man sat across from her, clad in a heavy trench coat and a large gasmask-like peripheral. He was holding a cup of coffee up to an intake port at the top-center of his chest. “You are worrying over nothing. You’ve done an amazing job for the cause. I couldn’t be a prouder teacher…”

The scene they found themselves in wasn’t pretty, to say the least. They sat at a small cafe awning on one of the bustling sidestreets of New Pittsbugh on Saturn’s moon, Titan. The atmosphere was mildly toxic after terraforming… but the polution caused by the strip mining being done to the moon’s surface was far more destructive. Violent acid rain storms peppered the landscape and made survival for the masses nearly impossible. And yet… the city of New Pittsburgh stood, defiantly. One such acid rain event was happening that very day, causing the masses that could afford it to don their acid-resistant heavy clothes and treated-plastic umbrellas when they had to dash from awning to awning. Across the street, three buildings down from them, was a building with signage indicating that it was a Corpoutility Building... and since the Corpos owned the Solar Confederacy, it was a government building. In front of the building was a flashy-looking hover car, state-of-the-art, with all the bells and whistles. Even something extra, courtesy of Mira Burke.

“Go over it once more. What device did you place and where did you place it, Burke?” the large gasmasked man asked, a suctioning sound coming from the intake port.

“Er… typical charge, though admittedly it is my first solo build. Uh… lithium-powered, 5G and wifi… one-thousand and five-hundred pound charge. And don’t worry, I tinkered with the weight modulation, so the car won’t detect the weight… it’ll do its job… and more. I’m honestly hoping to bring the building down, too, if it hits just the sweet spot. It’d be nice to make them hurt...”

“Enough, Burke.” the man growled, not wanting Mira’s bloodlust to draw the attention of others on the street. “... and the trigger?”

Mira blushed a bit, realizing how hopped up on adrenaline she was. She needed this to go right… and for the timing to be perfect. She’d been doing a bit of scouting in the area herself, and there was a school bus route that passed the same area at about 0950, give or take. Mira was all about blowing up monsters like Commisioner-General Sterling Smith… but kids? That was a bridge too far. Plenty of these kids in places like this would grow up to be jackboots like their parents, but… that was for them to decide, in Mira’s opinion. Everyone gets a chance to choose. Good or evil. Hero or villain. Puppet or patriot. Mira had made her choice. Her parents, her childhood… she was born to be bad. But! She was going to break the cycle. This was her chance to do some real good in the world. This was her chance to change her stars.

“The switch is the best part... bottom button arms it, top switch - complete with safety latch! - detonates. Easy-peasy.” she said, beaming to her teacher like a proud student.

“Good girl, Miss Burke… though you didn’t need to trouble yourself with the bells and whistles. The mission will be completed today, hell or high water…” he said, finishing his coffee with a final slorp.

“... At 0930.” she said, looking at her phone. 0928.

“When CG Smith arrives at his vehicle.” he said, coldly.

0930 came and went. So did 0935… 0940… 0945. Mira was sweating, the detonator in her hand, which was beginning to shake. This wasn’t right… that damn bus… where was it… shit or get off the pot! Come or don’t come… just don’t show up when Smith…

And then, it happened. Smith and a few of his cronies exited the building, waxing on with a farewell, complete with shaking of hands and hugs.

“Miss Burke… Mira...” called Otto, leaning forward.

Mira pressed the button on the bottom of the controller, causing it to light up red. “Yeah, I’m-”

And then, the worst happened. There came the schoolbus, trudging forward like a monolith. It was chockablock full of kids… and it stopped at the light near the car bomb. Right there.

Mira...!”

“I… there are kids, Otto! Hell’s Bells, we gotta let it pass…” Mira gasped, her hand shaking.

CLICK.

The telltale sound of a gun’s hammer being locked back alerted Mira to the danger that Otto had created under the table.

“Fuck are you doing, Otto?!?”

“Making sure the mission is complete. Smith needs to die, and I’m going to make sure it happens, whether your morals agree to it or not! Time to grow up!”

Mira’s eyes narrowed, betrayal infecting her thoughts as her teacher made it clear that the mission was more important to him than she was. Smith was finishing up the farewells… and his driver opened the door…

“Mira! Now! Do it, or we’ll lose our opportunity to shake their foundation! This operation took months, you child! Sometimes you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette!!”

“Yeah?... and we’ll get another chance, Otto. I don’t give a shit if it’s a Chancellor-General or a fucking Councilman! I’m not killing kids!!! So you better be real sure that gun is strong enough to kill me if you think you’re gonna pry this trigger outta my hands, asshole!!!”

She flipped the protective cover down over the trigger in front of his face, defiantly… and the world turned upside down. Mira heard a POP, followed by a massive BANG. Everything was moving around her like gravity had been turned off, she was upside down in the air. No. Otto was? Or the table? Or all of them? All the cambion could feel was pain... and then darkness.

She roused in only about five minutes… to the devastation she wrought. The entire block was ablaze, bits of building and body strewn about in a grisly spectacle that would make the demon lords blush. Smoke and debris clouded her vision… but there, where the bus full of kids had been, was a chunk of the government building that had crumbled under the explosive charge. She hadn’t taken into account the gas line that was under the road nearby… she hadn’t thought the charge would blow it. And the trigger cover had triggered the damned explosive... exactly what she hadn’t wanted.

A million thoughts tried to process all at once in Mira’s brain, but it was already jumbled to bits by the shock and explosion… and the… gun wound. Her thigh was bleeding pretty good, though the pain hadn’t quite caught up. No time. She looked for Otto… and found him crumpled in a heap almost a whole building away from the cafe. Sirens were in the air. Sound was returning to her ears, and she could hear the misery and fear and lamentations of the dying around her. Shit. Shit. Shit.

She grabbed Otto’s gun and his cell phone… which rung in her hand like it knew it was picked up. The cambion girl shakily lifted it to her ear.

“Hello, Mira… if you are listening to this, a monitor attached to my heart has indicated to a server system that I am no longer with the living… which means you managed to kill me. Congratulations… though that may be slightly preemptive, my young padawan. I have automatically at my death sent your dossier to various authorities and news agencies, informing them of your actions today. You are famous, Miss Burke! Or should I call you… Burke the Butcher? Over the top, I know, but… it does have a ring to it! So again, a hearty congratulations! I believe you are out best hope to defeat the Confederacy… but you lack resolve. Perhaps a bit of hardening is what is needed to turn you into a proper diamond! I hope you enjoy your newly gained notoriety, frau... enjoy the chase!*”

Mira dropped the phone on the ground, the device sparking and lighting on fire in a final self-destruct sequence. She couldn’t think, couldn’t talk… maybe… maybe the kids are okay…? No… the dust settled a bit, showing the crumpled heap of yellow metal smushed under the rubble… with arms... bits... gods.

Run. Run! RUN!!!!

She bolted, trying to escape the scene, bleeding out from her wounds as she went. Mira Burke survived her first solo mission… and would go on to do more and more terrible things… but nothing that stung quite as badly as her first taste of true villainy. She may not have meant to kill those kids… all those people… but she had triggered it. How was that any different, in her eyes? From that day forward, Burke the Butcher grew into the nickname… slowly and steady… and Mira lost her goodness, little by little, every step of the way.

[Kira Adia]

A pair of figures in heavy hooded long coats walked through the rubble of the hell scape that was once a city block. One of the pair, a redheaded woman with emerald green eyes, wore a mask of stoic horror at the scene.

The bodies did not bother her. She acknowledged the tragic, pointless loss of life, of course, and was disturbed by it in her way. The scale of the death, however, especially in its pointlessness, offended her. Even greater was the callous way the now dead man had set this tragedy up for what proved to be little gain in a war supposedly about freedom from tyranny.

“I could have stopped this. There were so many ways. I could have killed that bastard before he could think to hurt her.”

“And what do you think would have happened?” The blue-eyed man looked over his companion. “This war will be horrific. Countless people will die for no reason. If not today, Mira would have had to face a tragedy like this eventually. I would wager next time would be worse.”

Kira considered the surrounding scene. “It’s hard for me to see how. Wouldn’t she have learned from this? Avoided it in the future?”

“Ideally, yes. This time?” James shook his head. “This failure taught her to be more thorough in her plans. Check the corners and look at the risks. Be sure she built everything right. And it taught her the cost of war. People will die.”

A firm edge set on her face as they walked past the café. “To learn it this way? To suffer like this? Is it really the best way?”

“No clue. But it saves Mira’s life and make her the woman you love.”

Her jaw clenched. “I’m not ready for that. Not this soon.” She shook her head. She did not want to mess this up. Falling in love now?

And yet, here she was, preparing to change a timeline to fulfill the desires of her partner. Creating a new universe where she could find a measure of peace Kira could not promise to offer in their own. She’d tell Mira about this one day, when she was ready for it and when she needed it.

Is this something you did on a whim? Or is there more to Kira’s motives?

The pair stopped, and Kira crouched next to the unconscious cambion at the heart of all of this. She looked different in small ways. Clear signs this woman was a century younger than the woman who she showers with affection. Different, and yet still so similar.

Kira reached out, nearly touching the prone woman’s cheek, but she stopped just short. This isn’t her. Not for long. Their presence alone ensured they were in another timeline. This is Emiria Burke, a rebel fighter against a despotic regime. This is not Mira. Not *her* Mira.

“You still want to go through with this? You can’t save everyone.” He nodded towards the unconscious Emiria. “She knows that now.”

Kira took a deep breath and let it out. “Yes. I cannot give her peace. This failure wounded her. But it’s not what broke her. I can still save her.” She stood up and began to walk further down the street. “We need to find The Edison and make sure that mission succeeds. We can make a difference there.”

That was the goal. If Mira could go back to change one thing, that must be the one failure she’d go back for. She can’t do it, but Kira can.

James walked, catching up to and falling in step with his other half. “Alright. What’s the plan, Kira? Know where we’re going?”

“I don’t. We’re going to have to look. Any suggestions you have will be great.”

As they continued, the world began to stir. The two chronomancers released their hold on time, and the chaos of the aftermath resumed. Emiria began to wake up into her new life. One that was irreversibly changed in ways she could not fathom. She was no longer the Mira the Huntress knew. The two time travelers had already altered history.