Happily ever after... assassin

“Happily ever after.” Eevi spat out the words. The young couple in front were holding each other, shaking. A beautiful princess with her ‘charming’ prince. “Is a myth. Nobody can be happy forever.”

She took a step back and pulled a long katana, “Any preference on who dies?”

The prince pushed the princess away, her long blonde hair falling in front of her face. “Her, take her!”

It was surprising to see how often the men were the cowards. Eevi took a quick step forward and slices the man's head clean off. The woman screamed.

"I did you a favor, he clearly was ready to betray you."

She turned around and waved her hand in the air. A device on her arm beeped and a green shimmering portal opened before her.

"Why?" The woman put a hand on her shoulder.

"They made me, your man is just collateral."

She pushed the hand off and stepped through the portal. The white castle walls made place for metal, the fresh air became stale mixed with a pungent smell of a fridge that needed to be cleaned. The portal closed with a small plop sound when she stepped through. The screens of her computer the only light in the small room.

She looked at the empty double bed. The memories of Astrid brought a tear to her eye. They had worked loyally for the Loom, keeping peace across the multi-verse and preventing rogue indivuals to damage one or more universes.

Astrid had been sick, so Eevi took a job for the Loom. When she came back, Astrid was dead, killed. But it should have been her. They believed Eevi was a rogue and needed to be dealt with.

Now she went across the multi-verse, to all places with a happily ever after. To end it like the Loom ended hers. Hopefully soon, they would send the same assassin after her, to finish the job. Or so he would think, Eevi was no longer the brainless grunt that she used to be.

She slowly walked to her computer. The pc was humming away, searching for the next happy couple that she could use to send a ripple across the multi-verse. Of course it suggested the famous ones, Aladdin and Jasmine or Ariel and Eric. They would create a immense ripple if one of them ceased to exist, but even Eevi wouldn't dare creating such a ripple. Besides that, their universes were heavily guarded by the Loom.

She scrolled to the list of couples that the algorithm had found. A new pair appeared on her monitor, Prince Kaelo and Princess Elai. Humanoid looking, protecting their part of the universe in the Mantle. The ship had a sleek, teardrop design, crafted for quick manouvers and fast travels. The plating was made of asteroid, it didn't look nice but was nearly indestructible.

Eevi stood up and changed into more matching outfit. They seemed to prefer close combat, so she grabbed her trusty katana and a blaster to be sure.

She loaded the data in her arm computer and walked to the centre of the room. She waved her hand and a green portal appeared in front of her. She walked towards it, just before she took her last step, the portal... shimmered? Like it had adjusted. The thought was too slow as she stepped through the portal.

She appeared in a white room with no light. No door, no window, nothing. Not even a smell came from it. A slight hiss came as she pulled the katana from its scabbard.

Then, a step behind her. She spun around, katana stretched. A man with white hair took a small step back, the katana barely missing him. He smiled, scars across his face. A thin rapier in one hand, his other hand was metal, titanium?

"I will have to apologise." His voice was smooth as silk, "Our intel was... off. I would have not done it would I have seen this ripple."

There he was, the man that had ruined everything, the one that had taken Astrid.

She stepped back and pulled the blaster, unloading into the man. The man didn’t flinch. As the blaster bolts shrieked through the air, smelling of scorched ions and ozone, he simply tilted his head. A hexagonal shimmer of blue light rippled an inch from his chest, catching the heat and dispersing it into harmless sparks that fell like dying fireflies.

Her jaw was locked so tight her teeth felt ready to shatter. The air in this white void was unnervingly sterile; it didn't just smell like nothing, it felt like it was being filtered of all life. It was a vacuum of the soul.

She lunged. The katana whistled, a silver arc aimed at his throat. He parried with the rapier, the sound of metal on metal not a clash, but a high-pitched, crystalline ping. The vibration traveled up Eevi’s arm, humming through her bone marrow.

He stepped into her guard with terrifying grace. "Eevi, you are a variable that has overstayed its welcome."

He moved faster than human biology should allow. His metal hand, clenched into a fist and drove into her ribs.

The sound of her own ribs snapping was like dry kindling breaking under a boot. Eevi gasped, the taste of iron flooding her mouth as she was thrown backward. She hit the invisible wall of the room with a thud that rattled her brain.

Vane didn't wait. He was a blur of white fabric and silver steel. The rapier flicked out, a snake’s tongue of light. Eevi rolled, the blade stitching a line of fire across her shoulder. The fabric of her new outfit tore, the scent of fresh blood finally breaking the sterile silence of the room.

"Astrid died well," The man remarked, his shadow falling over her. "She thought she was protecting you. A beautiful, useless sentiment."

Rage, hot and blinding, gave Eevi the strength to rise. She didn't use the katana; she dropped it, grabbing the rapier’s blade with her gloved hand. The edge sliced through the leather and bit deep into her palm, but she didn't let go.

With a guttural scream, she fired the blaster point-blank into the floor at his feet.

The feedback loop of the energy bolt hitting the reinforced floor created a localized shockwave. The shield buckled under the proximity of the blast. For a split second, he was off balance.

Eevi drove her forehead into his nose. She felt the cartilage give way, a satisfying crunch that echoed in the void. As he stumbled, she didn't reach for her sword. She reached for the device on her arm.

She jammed the "Emergency Extraction" sequence, but instead of aiming for a portal, she forced the device to overload. The green shimmer didn't open a door; it became a jagged, unstable saw of light. She put the sparking, screaming energy of her arm device around the man's rapier. She saw it slide down. Diving away from the man, and the device.

The explosion was silent.

A flash of white-green light filled the room. When the light vanished, she looked around. the man was gone—disintegrated or scattered across a dozen universes, she didn't know.

Eevi collapsed.

The silence returned, heavier than before. She lay on her back, staring up at a ceiling that didn't exist. Her breath came in ragged, wet hitches. Her left arm was a charred mess of melted plastic and raw skin; her ribs were a cage of agony. She tried to move her legs, but they felt like they belonged to someone else, miles away.

She was alone in the Loom’s dark heart. She had won, but the price was everything.

A single tear, hot and heavy, tracked through the blood on her cheek and fell onto the white floor. It was the only color left in her world.

"I got him, Astrid," she whispered, the words barely a vibration in the air. "I ended his story."

She closed her eyes, waiting for the void to finally claim the rogue variable she had become.