Chapter Text
The leader of Talon.
For years Overwatch had looked for the person responsible for creating the worst terrorist organization the world had ever seen, the person responsible for the death of over 50,000 Omnic and human lives. Now that person had a name, Alarik and he was right in front of her, well in hologram form, but that did little to stop the mixed rise of fear and anger that formed within her.
Though she had always imagined him as a hideously deformed man with an evil maniacal laugh a fluffy white cat sitting in his lap. Yet, the man that sat before her could have passed for anyone nothing about him rang terrorist. He wore a black pinstriped suit along with a dark red tie if anything he looked like he was about to give a weather report. “Well Miss Oxton, having a nice evening are we?”
Startled that he had actually spoken she looked up and found two icy blue eyes staring back at her. And for the first time in her life, she was speechless. Not knowing how to respond she stared back trying to match his intensity to little effect. They looked lifeless
Alarik either unfazed or unaware of her attempt at intimidation continued “I see even the cheeriest of people can hold grudges. I do hope you are not still mad about the incident at that base of yours.”
Lena fought back a wave of anger the comment had drawn and responded through clenched teeth “What do you want?”
“Oh, I want many things Miss Oxton, some of which I have achieved and some that I have not, but right now I want you.”
Lena felt a pit form in her stomach. Memories of what had happened to Gerard's wife resurfaced, she had never personally known Amélie Lacroix, but she knew the heartless assassin she had become. Was that what they wanted to do to her?
He leaned forward interlacing his fingers “You see Miss Oxton you possess a unique set of skills that would be of great use to u-”
“I will never work for you,” she interrupted her courage returning “You, destroyed the only family I had left on this world,” she spat wishing he was there right now so she could wring his neck “And I swear that Overwatch will take you down, and I can only hope that I’m there to see you fall.”
Alarik looked at her hard for a while, then he let out a long sigh leaning back into his chair. “Overwatch is dead Miss Oxton, it has been for quite some time now, and needless to say it will never return to the mighty fighting force it once was.”
He stood, the camera or whatever was recording him rose to accommodate the change, the change though revealed a city skyline in the background, he turned and walked over to a small table full of liquor bottles.
He chuckled to himself as he lifted one of the bottles “You know just before Overwatch fell we were on the brink of collapsing,” He placed the bottle down grabbing a glass. “One of our best fighters was behind bars, your repeated attacks had weakened us immeasurably, we barely had the manpower to fight back, but then you fell, and like a body rid of cancer we began to thrive once more when all you had to do was keep fighting.”
Taking the bottle he poured himself a glass, and looked out the window, without turning around he continued “Alas, I am not here to speak of the past. Now, Miss Oxton before you there is a suitcase containing £100,000.”
As if they had rehearsed it Chadwick placed a metallic black suitcase in front of her just as Alarik finished speaking, he proceeded to open the suitcase quickly typing in the code to open it.
Alarik turned to face Lena once again, a glass of light brown liquor in his right hand. “This is how much you will be paid for every successful mission you complete.” He took a drink “I am quite confident that you will find a place here at our humble organization.”
Chadwick finished putting in the code and opened the suitcase with a click, he moved it around displaying its contents, row upon row of £100 pound notes.
Lena took one look at the money, then reached forward and slammed the top down nearly catching Chadwick’s fingers in the process.
She turned to Alarik disgusted “You could offer me all the money in the world you sick bastard, but I will never join a pile of human waste like you.” she spat.
Alarik looked at her calmly unaffected by her refusal instead he smiled, he placed his glass on the table. “I am afraid that this is a decision you have no choice in Miss Oxton, you either come with us willingly or we bring you here by force.”
Lena froze unable to move her gaze immediately fell on the front door she glanced at Griffin
he still had his back turned to them, but he was nonetheless aware of what was happening and Chadwick was sitting in front of her he didn't seem like much of a threat maybe she could-
“Now Miss Oxton I hope you aren't thinking of running off now.” Alarik's voice brought her back. “There is nowhere for you to run nowhere you can hide, but in the unlikely event that you do manage to get away I want you to think of your dear friend Winston.”
“Winston!? What did you do to him?” Panic tightening its hold on her
“Oh, nothing yet, but do remember how easily we got to him last time and how close we were to ending him right then and there, all I have to do is put in a call and two bombers will be in the air within the hour.”
Winston. She had to warn him, but how?
“So it’s really quite simple to come with us willingly, and your friend gets to live another day, make my men work harder to get you here on the other hand,” he walked closer till the screen had most of his face in it. “And I will have that base blown off the face of the earth. Do you understand?”
Lena's mind was in disarray, if she went with them with Talon there was no telling what would happen to her or if she would ever come back, but if she tried to run they might do something to Winston.
Winston. The Scientist. Her friend. Her family, she could protect him and everyone she cared for by just giving in and going with them, Overwatch would eventually stop Talon, but if she did she would eventually be forced into fighting those she loved.
Before she could give a response Alarik spoke, but not to her.
He was looking past the camera, unfortunately, it didn’t turn to let her see who was speaking, but whomever it was he wasn't happy.
"Alarik, auf der Konferenz in Hamburg wird um Ihre Anwesenheit für die Situation in Bezug auf Russland gebeten."
“Siehst du nicht, dass ich mich in einer Sache befinde! Geh jetzt, ich habe andere Angelegenheiten zu erledigen.”
“Der Rat wird Ihre Insolenz Alarik nicht länger tolerieren, dies ist keine Aufforderung, die Sie bei diesem Treffen erhalten. Es wird in einer Stunde beginnen, wir sehen uns dort, oder es kommt zu Unfällen, auf Wiedersehen.”
Now she had no idea what that had been about not understanding much German aside from what Reinhardt had taught her during their drinking competitions, but she knew it hadn’t gone well.
Alarik swore as he brought up his hand to pinch the bridge of his nose his left hand supporting his right at the elbow. He stood motionless, lost in thought.
“Um, sir.” Chadwick’s voice startled Lena considering he had remained quiet since Alarik had arrived. “What do you want us to do?”
Alarik brought up a hand and pulled back the sleeve showing off an expensive looking silver watch, and grunted at the time. He let his hand down and walked back to his desk.
“You will proceed with what we originally planned,” he picked up the phone on his desk and dialed a number “Holen Sie sich den Hubschrauber.” That done he turned his attention to back to her “Well I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today, I have other things to attend to, but I will see you if not today then tomorrow, so please make this easy on yourself and come along quietly, goodbye.” with those final words the transmission cut, the hologram projector shut off and Lena was left with a difficult decision.
She could go with Talon willingly or try to escape and endanger her friends. To her, the option was easy she would go with Talon if it meant Winston was spared, but she had to consider the repercussions of her choice.
The last time Lena had seen Winston in person they were told they would be arrested if they were seen together again, having him call her was the best thing that had happened in a long time. Now she had a chance to go meet him again and anyone else that showed up, but if she went with Talon she might meet his as an opponent instead of a friend.
“Get up.”
The sudden noise startled Lena out of her thoughts. She looked up to find Griffin towering over her a grave look on his face.
“What?” Lena nearly smacked herself for having played dumb she had heard him perfectly, trying to stop the inevitable would help no one.
His tone unchanging her repeated himself “I said, get up.”
It was then that Lena noticed he had something in his hand, something black. Too small to be a gun and too bulky to be a knife.
Griffin must have caught her looking at them because he gave a low chuckle “Don’t worry just hold your hands out.” He opened his hands revealing what he was holding, a pair of shiny black cuffs with a glowing red light that went all around the middle.
He picked one up “The eggheads that gave them to me called them chronal shackles. They said all I had to do was put them on you and let the shackles do the rest of the work, which makes things immensely easier for me to stand up and hold out your hands.”
Lena pulled her arms under the table, the only person she trusted to do anything that had to do with her chronal accelerator was Winston and she didn't want to see what would happen if she put them on.
“I’m coming with you, but I'm not putting those on.”
“Well, that isn't your choice.” He took a step forward, and his hand shot out.
Lena disappeared in a flash of blue light having blinked out of pure instinct, she reappeared behind Griffin stumbling a few feet forward this being the first time in a while since she’s used her Chronal accelerator, she caught herself at the bar and steadied herself.
Just as she was about to turn and see what had happened to Griffin and Chadwick something hit her head hard, her vision blurred as she fell forward clutching her head, someone called her name as she hit the floor.
She laid there on her side as her head spun, someone gripped her shoulder and flipped her on her back worsening her blurring vision.
Griffin stood over her the shackles in his hand, he knelt down and picked up one of her hands. Lena tried to fight him off knowing it would all be over if he put them on her, but Griffin just laughed at her attempts and clamped one of the shackles onto her wrist. Her vision was starting to return and her head stopped spinning so Lena fought him back with renewed vigor, but it was too late Griffin clamped on the second chronal shackle just as someone pulled him off her.
Now, there are only two times when she had felt intense pain and coincidentally they were both times when she had been ripped out of time, the first time was the slipstream malfunction the second was the time she had fought Doomfist, both had been incredibly painful but this was beyond even that.
Her entire body erupted in pain as the shackles began to glow red, she let out a shout of pain as she lay writhing on the floor feeling as if every molecule in her body was ablaze, every muscle feeling as if it was tearing from the bone, and then just as quickly as it had come it was gone.
Lena laid on the floor a ringing sound in her ear, her breathing heavy. She tried to move, but couldn't, her entire body felt numb light pulses of pain traveling up and down her body.
It hurt so much.
“Lena!” someone called out to her, the voice seeming to echo around her.
Maybe if I lay here for a while it’ll go away. She felt her eyelids getting heavier threatening to close, her vision becoming blurred.
“Lena!”
Who is that, and why are they yelling? She tried to find the source of the noise, but all she could make out were two shapeless blobs pushing into each other.
Lena!
Can’t they see I want to sleep…