Mutatis

Edward took a long drag of his cigarette as he gazed out onto the leveled city-scape, his eyes slowly becoming heavier and heavier. "I didn't really realize how tired I was until just now," he breathed as Tamara approached him. "You should get some rest, you've earned it", she said as she walked up beside him.

Edward sighed heavily. "They had me identify Al's bod–", Tamara interjected, "Stop. You don't have to talk about it, if you don't want to." The silence hung heavy but...comforting, to Edward, he really was tired. "It just...", he trailed off a bit, stifling sobs, "it just doesn't seem fair. I mean, it was over. We won, y'know? I just...", Edward exhaled sharply, "Did you know?"

Tamara felt a pang of guilt, struggling to speak with how much her mouth was quivering. "No. I hadn't seen that far, I was so focused on making sure we stopped C–", Edward held his hand up, signaling her to stop. "It's okay, I don't blame you. Knowing what's about to happen without any way of stopping it is no different than it happening because you didn't see it was coming, it'd be unfair to expect any different even if you had foreseen it. Sometimes...", he paused, "some things are just inevitable. Even to you. Even with you, I guess."

Another long silence, the hum and activity of the emergency response team cleaning up the mess before them being the only noise that occasionally broke it. "What about the others?", Edward asked. Tamara's shoulders slumped, a long, tired, sigh escaped her mouth. "They all pretty much knew it was coming," Tamara paused, "everyone who died in the battle at least." Edward chuckled morbidly, "You told them they were going to die?" Tamara closed her eyes and gulped audibly, "It seemed crueler not to tell them ahead of time, at least they could get their affairs in order before it all went down...I don’t know...", she trailed off.

"You don't think telling them influenced how they acted? Maybe by telling them, that's what caused them to..." Edward stopped himself, Tamara was visibly holding back tears. "That was uncalled for. I'm sorry Tammy, I'm just thinking out loud...It's been a long fucking day." She buried her face in his shoulder, her cries muffled by his shirt. "It's okay," she barely made out, "I don't know. Do I see the future or do I cause it to occur?" Another long silence. "I wouldn't be able to tell you."

One of the members of the emergency response team approached them, fully garbed in a HazMat suit, their voice muffled and robotic sounding through their external speaker. "We're doing roll call. Aliases?" Edward exhaled angrily, "we're kind of having a moment." The emergency worker threw up his hands, "everyone is having a moment right now, can we hurry this up please? Tammy laughed, "it's okay Ed. Oracle." Ed rolled his eyes at the worker, "Skillshot."