Chapter Text
Above was a vast, cloudless summer sky that gave way to a sun too bright. The sky was layered above blooming crops as far as my eyes could see, pastures of farm animals, and a distinct smell of cow manure.
Frankly, I feel like I’ve taken my first two steps into hell.
“You doing alright over there?”
I rolled my eyes that were aimed out of the window before turning my head towards the source of the voice- my chauffeur. I was met with a split second of eye contact before she turned her gaze back towards the empty country road ahead- cracking a small smile beforehand.
“Just checking, you haven’t moved a muscle since we left the compound.”
I let my pointed gaze linger for a couple of seconds before pointedly ignoring the comment, and training my eyes back towards the passing countryside. There was nothing much else to do at the moment anyway.
For the past three hours, the passenger window has been the only source of freedom I’ve been given (besides staring out the front of the car or at my companion herself). The side window alongside the three others in the car is surrounded by thick, fortified steel, imprisoning me to only watch as the world passes me by.
What an utterly pathetic predicament.
I gaze down at the only reason I do not have my seatbelt wrapped around my driver’s neck until her face turns blue- a simple, snug-fitting titanium bracelet encircling my blue wrist. This is what anyone would think at first, but after several attempts of escape, all I know now is that the accessory is anything but. All of my attempts at escape have been met with a lapse in my consciousness, leaving enough time for Overwatch to either restrain me, add extra layers of security, or more often both.
All I’ve been told by the woman to my left is that it will activate if I seriously consider harming another individual, leave the parameters they have set for me, or consider forcing the device off. No explanation whatsoever.
So no loopholes thus far. I must give the doctor credit, the device has been extremely effective, much to my frustration.
After another few minutes of complete and utter silence, I hear a quiet sigh from beside me. “You know Amélie,” my muscles tensed at the use of the name- she just used it like it was normal.
“Your lack of cooperation may work when I’m here, but I can assure you it won’t with Lena.”
My fist clenched, hard. The fabric of the gray sweatpants I wore threatened to tear.
I grit my teeth in annoyance, before turning back towards my driver. “Did you expect cooperation from a prisoner of war, Angela?” I hissed back, as I glared daggers into the side of my current companion’s head.
Angela "Mercy" Ziegler. Both head of medical research and a field medic for Overwatch, my employers’ main adversary. Ever since my capture, she has been my primary caregiver during my imprisonment at Overwatch’s facilities, and has remained surprisingly tame despite my many attempts to rile her. She was currently dressed very casually- for a “professional” of her caliber at least: an oversized white tee with the Overwatch logo displayed on the front, a pair of ripped jeans, sunglasses, and her shoulder-length blonde hair contained in a messy bun.
Mercy’s eyes slightly widened at my combative response, although they were still aimed forward. I could see the fire shining through her bright blue eyes now.
“How was Talon-”
The blonde stopped herself, her head falling against her headrest. She let out an exasperated sigh.
“No, we will not start this argument again,” she declared.
“It never leads us anywhere.” the blonde further remarked, as she kept her eyes ahead.
Taking such a response as a triumph, I was about to turn back to watch the mundane countryside but noticed my driver now sported a small smile- a smirk almost.
I bore my eyes into the side of her head for several seconds, waiting for the expression to dissipate. Eventually, my curiosity overcame my silence.
“What?” I muttered, crossing my arms.
A brief pause ensued.
Mercy let out a small but genuine laugh- one of the first I’ve heard from her. She scanned ahead to make sure the road ahead was clear before looking at me from the corners of her eyes. “You called me by my name, it’s a first.” she stated before re-focusing on the journey ahead.
---
“Oooooh! Perfect timing, we could use a snack!”
I directed my eyes towards the source of the doctor's excitement, only to be sorely disappointed by the view of a heavily worn lemonade stand holding a small assortment of produce. The stand was standalone atop a soil driveway with a small house, flanked by an endless expanse of farmland.
Truly, a needle in a haystack.
It did not seem there was anyone attending the stall, despite all of the valuable baskets of produce begging to be stolen by anyone passing through. The front door and garage of the flanking house were also closed with no car in the driveway, silently asking anyone passing by to steal the merchandise.
All I could do was sigh in resignation as Mercy excitedly pulled over a few yards away from the stand.
After pulling the key out of the ignition and activating the emergency brake, she opened the door to exit the SUV. She paused before stepping out, however, turning back to stare at me expectantly.
A brief staring contest ensued.
“Please?” the doctor begged before she nodded her head towards my passenger door, “Stretch your legs at least.”
I scoffed and began the process of forcing myself to leave the confines of the vehicle. Once my feet made contact with the earth my legs nearly gave out from their lack of use, but made sure to maintain my composure to prevent the doctor from giving the “I told you so” look. Luckily, Mercy seemed too preoccupied with the produce stand to pay my struggle any mind.
I watched from my spot leaning on the side of the car as Mercy casually approached the produce stand, aimlessly searching for a vendor as she got closer. Once she got close enough, I observed her pause briefly and bend slightly forward to read the signs clumsily nailed to each basket of produce. After several moments of reading, an expression of mild surprise bloomed across Marcy’s features, and just as quickly morphed into a cheerful smile.
Another smile? The smell of cow manure must do something for the blonde.
On cue, a young girl with jet-black hair no older than 10 years old threw open the front door and began dashing towards the stand. “Papa! Hurry! Hurry!” she excitedly yelled back towards the house as she sped down the driveway, “We have a customer!”
The child’s obnoxiously bright yellow sundress flapped in the air as she quickly closed the gap between herself and the doctor. The child on the vendor’s side of the stand with a screeching halt.
Loudly panting from her sprint, the girl began her unrehearsed introduction.
“Hi Miss!” she exclaimed, as her energy-filled eyes met those of the doctor. “Are you gonna buy anything today?!” the small girl continued her barrage at eardrum-shattering decibels. I inwardly winced at the sheer volume and bluntness of the child’s delivery.
Mercy (of course) giggles at the girl’s pathetic display of salesmanship, and bends down to the same height as the girl before responding. After this point, the distance between myself and the conversation deemed it so I couldn’t hear much of their conversations besides the occasional phrase. Both parties kept their smiles however, so I could only assume the doctor was humoring the child to encourage her efforts.
How pitiful.
A few moments into the talk between the doctor and child, a man who I assume is the child’s father steps through the doorway, making his way towards the pair. The middle-aged man had the same, jet-black hair as the girl. His hair was mostly stored under a baseball cap, and had just enough facial hair to form a patchy beard. These features were accompanied by a mildly muscular frame under baggy jeans and an obnoxiously yellow plaid shirt, matching colors with his presumed daughter.
As the father joined the pair at the stand, the greetings began, with the doctor standing back up to shake the father’s hand (and the daughter’s after she protested). During their extended conversation, the father-daughter pair’s gazes occasionally darted towards my direction.
To my annoyance, both smiled and waved at me once they realized I was staring right back, before turning back to the conversation at hand.
Eventually, the daughter turned back to reciprocate my stare with a curious look across her face, commencing my second staring contest of the day. After several seconds of maintaining eye contact, the girl turned back to Mercy to interrupt the adults’ conversation and point at me. The girl then asked Mercy a question that was most definitely centered around the mysterious blue woman leaning against the doctor’s car.
Can’t blame the girl for being curious.
At the child’s question, Mercy’s eyes perked up. The blonde then turned her head to make subtle eye contact with me, simply assessing my reaction to the girl’s observed inquiry. To my surprise, the doctor only smiled at me after a few moments and turned back to the duo to give her (my?) answer. After listening to Mercy’s response, the girl’s curious expression quickly morphed into disappointment as she nodded. I suddenly felt my muscles relax as I let out a held in breath.
When did I become so tense?
After another few grueling minutes of pointless conversation, Mercy began actually making her picks from the offered fruits on the stand. She loaded all of her choices onto a small, handheld, wooden basket provided by the daughter. After the doctor finished filling her basket, she handed the daughter a handful of coins, much to the latter’s excitement. The trio then said their goodbyes with a false promise of the doctor’s eventual return.
Before the doctor could make her way back towards the vehicle, the father stopped her. He then offered her a second, smaller basket, briefly explaining the gesture after receiving a confused look from the blonde. Mercy's expression then flipped from confusion to mild surprise when looking into the new basket.
The doctor then briefly made eye contact with me before attempting to push the offered basket back. Despite the doctor's physical and verbal attempts at returning the offering, the duo eventually crossed their arms in sync and expressed their final denial.
I felt an amused smirk crawl onto my face.
The doctor’s expression morphed into a childish pout before making way for a kind smile. She then thanked them and bid a final farewell as she made her way back towards me with both baskets. The father then ruffled the daughter’s hair before they both turned back to walk towards their house.
Such a simple interaction, extended out far too long. All for the sake of temporary and pointless smiles on both sides.
How irritating.
As I turned to re-enter the car at the same time as Mercy, I noticed a small figure still behind the vendor stand.
It was the girl, smiling wide and waving farewell to me.
“Do you want to wave back?” asked the doctor who was already inside the car. I looked back to meet eyes with the doctor, then back at the girl.
I gently lifted my hand, and without a second thought, I slowly waved back. Weirdly enough, the motion almost felt like a foreign language.
Luckily, my attempt seemed to be enough. The girl’s smile somehow became infinitely brighter, and she ran back to the house to join her father.
I then entered the vehicle once more. Inwardly berating myself for such an embarrassing display, I kept my eyes on my lap to avoid eye contact as I buckled my seatbelt.
Suddenly, my view of gray sweatpants was replaced with a small basket full of bright, vibrant red.
It was filled to the brim with strawberries, my favorite food.
My head whipped towards my driver, completely forgetting my previous attempts to avoid eye contact. I was met with the doctor’s small smile. The smile wasn’t happy, yet, not outright sad either.
Just mysteriously conflicted.
After a strange, awkward moment of silence, the doctor shook her head as if waking up from a daydream.
“Oh yeah!” the doctor quickly perked up and was back to her obnoxious self. “This basket was from Dan and Isabelle, I told them they were your favorite.” said the blonde, smiling as she motioned towards the basket on my lap.
What?
Not giving me time to recover from my disbelief, the doctor continued. “You always ate them first when we gave you fruit,” she explained while plucking a blueberry from her basket. Mercy’s basket was filled with a hearty mix of berries, with the largest section dedicated to only strawberries.
“I picked you some before they were nice enough to give me the second basket, so feel free to eat from either one.” remarked the doctor, pointing at both baskets before popping a blueberry into her mouth.
My head began to pound painfully. I suddenly didn’t feel comfortable in my own skin.
“Why?”
Mercy began her routine of starting the SUV, “Because we can just give the rest to Lena and Natalie.”
“Non,”
The doctor paused after turning the ignition, swinging me a confused look.
My head continued to throb insistently.
“Why did they give you this?!” I vehemently questioned, gesturing down to the basket on my lap.
“Technically, they gave it to you,” the doctor responded nonchalantly, ”They wanted to make you feel better.” she continued, like the statement explained everything. She then turned the ignition, and pulled the car back onto the country road to continue our drive.
After settling back onto the empty country road, I regained my voice.
“But I did not pay them.”
Mercy’s expression contorted in confusion as she drove.
After a moment passed, the confused expression made way for realization, then made way for the same conflicted smile as before.
“Of course you didn’t, it was a gift.” stated the doctor softly. “They didn’t want anything in return, which was very thoughtful of them.”.
I furrowed my eyebrows. Such a simple explanation only confused me more.
However, my headache dissipated, and my body somehow felt lighter from the statement. Giving up on trying to understand such a strange interaction, I reached over to Mercy’s basket, picked the nicest looking strawberry, and took a cautious bite.
It, and all the others that followed, tasted divine.
---
Long after we both had our fill of berries, Mercy signals for a right turn. I turn my head towards the right as she signals to turn, and gaze upon the entrance to a forest graced by mother nature. Thick trees surrounded the road with vast amounts of foliage to shield its inhabitants from the harsh summer sun- only allowing the occasional sunray to pass through its defenses. Its borders expanded as far as the eyes can see, having no ending in sight from the main country road.
“Almost there.” came a familiar voice from my left, but the sound didn’t make it past my ears.
Once entering the forest, the original dirt road gradually became dominated by the plants of the forest, with the only exposed soil being in the dual tracks left behind by Mercy’s and others’ vehicles.
Looking out the passenger-side window, I found myself lost in the grandiose of the forest, failing to identify any landmarks and losing track of our place. My eyesight was unable to see more than several meters in one direction- the thickness of the forest seeming to reject my curious gaze.
Despite the lack of heterogeneity the forest provided, I couldn’t stop myself from getting lost in my search. Objectively, my current surroundings offered me less than the previous country landscape did, but the forest seemed to mesmerize me- forcing my sharply trained eyes to search for something- anything the entity could bring forth. The woodland seemed to have so much to offer me, but I was simply an outsider, someone with no knowledge of how to navigate it.
Yet, my eyes kept searching.
Before I knew it, the car approached a sizable clearing nestled inside the forest. The dirt road that was slowly being recovered by the greenery of the forest suddenly became a distinct dirt driveway. Surrounding the road was no longer the wondrous trees of the forest- but various bushes and (smaller) trees strictly organized into rows. After further inspection, I noticed the vegetation was the source of an assortment of different fruits.
We were driving through a small fruit farm.
Sitting on a small elevation that overlooked the vegetation, flanked by the far end of the clearing, sat an old-fashioned house consisting mostly of reddish-pink brick. The house’s structure stood tall against the test of time, despite the various amounts of vines climbing its sides.
It was…nice, the abode felt at peace with itself despite the clear lack of neighbors nearby.
Pulling the vehicle towards the bottom of the steps leading up to the house, Mercy stops the car and lets out a deep breath. Mercy then turns towards me to offer a soft, cautious smile.
“Let’s get going, then.”
With that simple statement, my consciousness suddenly kicks into high gear as I whip my head around to realize my situation. The road we arrived on did not branch off, it only ended at the house-topped hill a few meters in front of us, and all that lay behind the house was the dense forest. The forest surrounded the large property, with the only escapes being the entrance directly behind us or the sky above. My eyes aimed back to glare at the doctor as reality settled in.
This was my last stop, trapped in the middle of nowhere.
Feeling a muted burning in the back of my head, I forced myself to ignore it as I turned towards my door to face my new predicament.
My sore feet were met with the dark green grass below. I extended my arms far behind my head to stretch from the long journey prior to closing the passenger door.
As Mercy was opening the truck to retrieve supplies, I noticed the front door of the house slowly swung inwards to reveal a relatively short-haired woman with an erratic hairdo. I watched as the woman hesitated briefly before carefully approaching the sunlight.
The first detail I noticed was the woman’s wide smile, which was so cheery it seemed to make the illuminating sun shine brighter. This expression was framed by her light brown eyes, slightly tanned skin, and dark brown hair. The newcomer’s outfit consisted of a simple white tee tucked into a pair of dark brown jeans that matched her hair. Curiously, the area in the center of the woman’s chest seemed to glow a bright blue- easily bleeding through the t-shirt’s thin, white fabric.
My second observation of the woman was that she was staring down right back at me, her uplifted expression remaining unchanged.
Time seemed to stop for a few moments, with the two of us simply standing in place to stare into each other’s eyes, a honey brown clashing with sharp gold. The ambient noises of the forest around me were tuned out as I couldn’t find myself to break my upturned stare.
This newfound pocket of time was then torn back to reality with Mercy slamming her SUV’s trunk shut. I gaze towards the car briefly to find the doctor hoisting a strap holding a large duffel bag over her shoulder with a quiet grunt. The doctor then looked towards the house to find the mystery woman. A cheerful smile emerged on her face as she dusted herself off.
I turn back towards the mysterious brunette, who has already made her way down the long stone staircase.
The brunette didn’t utter a single word as she made her way towards the doctor to envelope her in a tight bear hug, the blonde squawked in surprise at the strength of the shorter brunette’s hug before returning the gesture.
“‘Doing well, Kleine?” asked Mercy, as the two unraveled themselves.
The brunette let out a loud snort, “‘Doing well, Mum, how about yourself?” responded the brunette in a high-pitched, cockney accent.
The doctor rolled her eyes before letting out a small chuckle.
“You're never going to stop with that title, are you?”
The brunette’s arms crossed in mock defiance.
“You can’t complain about Mum if you keep up with that ‘Kleine’ rubbish, love,”
The brunette continued before Mercy could offer a retort, quickly lifting a finger to demand the blonde’s silence.
“Oi, oi! Don’t even try it love, Willy told me what the word means.” the brunette claimed.
“You did this to yourself.” she further accused, crossing her arms in mock defiance.
Mercy’s eyes widened at the mentioning of a ‘Willy’. Her expression of silent shock maintained for a few moments after the brunette was finished.
Suddenly, the doctor burst out in giddy laughter, doubling over in the process as the accusing brunette could only roll her eyes.
“I was wondering how long it would take him to crack,” commented the blonde after regaining her composure, “He’s gonna have to pay for it though.”
“He told me you would say that,” chuckled the brunette.
After the two had finished their pleasantries, they both acknowledged my presence, turning towards me simultaneously.
I kept my stance leaned against the car, examining my nails in disinterest trying to pretend I wasn’t just eavesdropping on their conversation.
“Amélie,”
My eyes met the doctor's.
“This,” she ruffled the messy hair of the brunette, “Is Lena, you will be in her care for the time being.”
Lena subtly straightened herself at the mentioning of her name, before closing her eyes to form another wide smile.
“A pleasure to meet you, Amélie.” greeted the brunette, stiffly offering her petite hand.
Right then, I remembered why the brunette’s name sparked such familiarity.
Lena "Tracer" Oxton, the shining ”Face of Overwatch”. Also regarded as one of the organization's deadliest members due to her extreme mobility. Naturally, this made her Talon’s highest priority target.
Until I killed her 2 years ago.
By all accounts, the brunette standing in front of me should be a dead woman.