Chapter Text
The sky was starting to set when Sombra finally woke up. Some strategically placed crates blocked the sun from hitting her directly.
She sat up, yawned and instinctively opened a holo screen in her hand. She was greeted with dozens of flashing red alert boxes. More than half of her firewalls were breached. Another alert popped up as she was watching, and then another one.
Sombra jumped up, looking for the others.
“Amélie!! Hanzo!! GUYS?!”
Amélie appeared from behind the house followed by Ashe and Bob.
“Hey, Som-”
“Where are the others?! We need to go now!”
The trio run closer to her.
“What? Why? What going on?”
“They figured out my code, all our defences are going down. We need to go before they discover this place!” Sombra was looking around as she talked, searching for the others.
Hanzo was walking towards them from her right. The girls and McCree were nowhere to be seen. Bob was already running to the house to pack whatever things they had. She turned to back to Amélie and Ashe.
“Where are the girls and McCree?”
“Hana and Brigitte went climbing on one of the rocks there.” Amélie pointed east, towards two thin buttes.
“I’ll call McCree,” Ashe said and went back into the house.
Sombra created a purple holographic keyboard and began working like crazy. She first deactivated Lena and Emily’s earrings and deleted any traces of their connection to her. She waited for that to finish and then began purging every single file in her databases.
Ashe shot her carbine to the air three times and three more shots came back as a response.
“McCree’s coming, he ain’t far.”
Amélie had run to Hanzo to explain what was going on and now they were running back. Sombra looked at Ashe.
“We’ll get the girls with the transport, how far is McCree?”
“He’s somewhere behind the butte here. He should-”
A siren blasted from the transport, drowning every other sound, and Sombra’s holo screen turned completely red. Whoever was hacking her had gained full access. Sombra’s connections disappeared in a flash, leaving her feeling blinded.
“Start the transport, we leave the moment McCree gets here.” Ashe took control. “BOB! INSIDE NOW! Leave the god damn crates!”
Amélie and Hanzo reached them a few seconds later. McCree’s figure finally showed up behind the butte, leaving a trail of dust behind him as he run. Ashe was waited at the door, scanning the horizon for any potential threats.
But she wasn’t looking at the sky. Hanzo was. He saw what looked like five flaming arrows falling from the sky. The one in the middle was falling faster and it looked like it was about to hit-
“JESSE!!!”
Hanzo’s heart stopped as he saw his love diving forward to the ground, barely avoiding the machine from the sky. McCree did a roll and kept running, now only meters away from the transport.
Behind him, the pink machine rose from the ground as four more, a green, a red, a yellow and a blue, landed near it.
“The shit?! Ain’t that Hana’s machine?!” Ashe yelled as she was getting her dynamites from a crate.
“They can be remotely controlled in emergencies! Fuck, they’re here already?” Sombra yelled from the pilot’s seat. “Amélie, come show me where the girls went, I can’t use any of my damn computers.”
The machines stood still for a few seconds, during which McCree reached the transport. A robotic voice came from the big red one.
“Hana Song is a fugitive of the Republic of Korea. Surrender her now and no one gets hurt.”
Nobody answered. Ashe was standing in the middle of the door, dynamite on one hand, carbine on the other. McCree was next to her, hand on his still sheathed revolver. Behind him, Hanzo had three arrows on hand, a slight frown his only indication of stress. Bob was crouching near Ashe, guns extending from both of his arms.
“Did you not hear us? Surrender-”
Whoever was speaking from the MEKA didn’t manage to finish his sentence. Ashe threw her dynamite and shot it in the air. McCree followed with his flashbang and Bob began shooting the dirt in front of the MEKA. Hanzo’s arrows ricocheted off the mecha’s armour. Then, the machines got lost in a cloud of smoke and dust as the transport’s engines roared and flew away, breaking bushes and raising more dust as it stayed close to the ground.
Seconds later, the five mechas burst through the smoke and followed. The smaller, blue MEKA was ahead of the others, shooting a single machine gun from its centre. Sombra began zigzagging, avoiding most of the bullets. As the other mechas caught up Ashe threw more dynamite sticks. The following explosions slowed down the MEKA only slightly.
“SOMBRA! We need to lose them before we pick up Hana and Brigitte!” Ashe screamed to be heard over the explosions.
“Lose them where? This place is basically a desert!”
“Fly around the buttes!” Amélie tried to help.
“No! These things are a hundred times more nimble than this flying cow.” Ashe yelled back as she threw more of the red sticks in the air.
“Then how are we supposed to lose them?!”
“No idea! But if we go for the girls now they’ll get caught in the crossfire!”
As if to reinforce her words, a stream of lead flew in front of the open door, barely missing the transport. More explosions came from the back of the transport. Ashe took a peek at the machines behind them. The pink and the yellow were behind the red one’s shields, and they were releasing more missiles.
“Aw, shit...” She jumped back pulling McCree and Hanzo with her. Bob followed them, hugging all three in a protective ball of steel.
The transport was violently pushed off balance, its right side hitting the ground first, throwing everyone to the wall. The tail followed, dragging on the dry dirt until Sombra managed to raise the transport of the ground and high in the air.
“SOMEONE DO SOMETHING! ANOTHER HIT LIKE THAT AND WE’RE DONE FOR!” Sombra screamed at the top of her lungs.
“Can’t we use the camouflage you added?” Amélie tried again.
“Not while they have us in their sights, they’ll just shoot at our position and cancel it.”
Back at the hall, Ashe had another crate full of dynamite sticks near her and was waiting for the next wave of rockets, hoping to explode them before they reach the transport. Ashe turned to her companions. Hanzo and McCree were looking around for anything that might be of use, but with no results. The transport was packed with dry foods and camping gear, nothing that could help against mecha that fired rockets at them. Surprisingly, Bob had stopped firing and was looking at her.
“Bob?”
The green lights in his eyes flickered for a moment. Slowly he took off his hat and offered it to her. She took it, confused.
“What-”
He gently grabbed her by the waist and not so gently threw her on McCree at the other side of the hall, crushing on a crate full of sheets and blankets. McCree said something and tried to get up but she ignored him. All her focus was on Bob. The omnic had picked up the dynamite crate and was standing at the door. He gave her one final look and jumped off.
“No, no, no...”
Ashe run to the door and looked behind them. Bob was on the ground crouching, ready to jump at the mechas, dynamite crate on his hands.
“BOB!!!”
She couldn’t tell if he heard her scream. He jumped unnaturally high in the air and came face to face with the MEKA squad. The machines tried to avoid him but it was too late. Holding the crate with one hand, he used his other one to grab onto the big red mecha that was leading the spear formation.
Ashe saw him climb on top of the red mecha, them aiming his arm cannons at the crate. The explosion from the old dynamites was barely enough to burn through the red mecha’s armour, but it was enough to get to its core. The red machine burned bright white as it exploded, its blast tearing through the other mechas, causing them to explode the same way as well. The force of the multiple explosions threw the transport out of balance and sent it crashing to the ground.
Ashe was the first that got out of the crash, a thin line of blood dripping from her forehead. She was clutching Bob’s bowler hat as she walked along the path the transport had dug in the dirt. After a short walk, she reached the area the mechas had exploded.
The ground was swept clean. If there was vegetation here before, there was nothing left of it now, everything was burned and turned to ashes. Only some charred rocks remained, the ones that had roots deep inside the ground. There was no trace of the mechas or Bob, the explosions’ force had seen to that. Ashe’s eyes fell on the hat in her hands and a stream of memories flooded her mind.
She remembered metallic hands, three times bigger than her head, gently pushing her on a swing.
Putting glue on a big fake moustache and giggling as she stuck it in the big omnic’s face. He straightened it and gave her a thumbs up. Ever since then, he had kept it clean and firmly stuck on his face.
Silent green eyes watching her as she jumped a mansion’s fence and run out to meet a young Jesse McCree.
Hiding in some woods, were McCree was teaching her to shoot an old rifle, the force of the shot pushing her off balance, a big hand stopping her from falling back.
Running away from the mansion she had lived all her life, Bob catching up to her hours later, carrying money, food and camping equipment in a big back on his back.
Sitting on Bob’s shoulder, hugging the omnic’s big head as he jumped through a bank window, suitcases filled with cash on his hands.
Herself crying on his metallic chest after McCree destroyed everything they had worked for.
And, most vividly, his green eyes flickering before he jumped from the transport.
Ashe began trembling and tears formed in her eyes. Stubbornly, she tried to fight them back.
“Eli?” she heard Amélie’s voice from behind.
She didn’t turn, her thoughts focused on Bob. How he was always there for her, in the good, the bad and the boring times. How he supported her through every crazy thing she set up to do. How she never thanked him. How she took him for granted. How-
“Eli, is he- Oh, no... Oh, mon cœur...”
She felt Amélie hugging her tight from behind. She broke into tears at her touch and dropped to her knees crying and shaking uncontrollably.