Work Text:
If he had ranked the worst moments to “wake up”, this was certainly at the top of the list. His body was screaming in agony, and his own vision just flashed the words “ERROR” again and again.
He was seizing, unsure where he was or what had happened at first, seeing several people run over and pin him. So, he was obviously a prisoner of someone outside of Talon. Great.
The wall between him and his program was cracked, and the most recent memories were leaking out. Something about a security terminal, which makes sense. A cowboy, and Freja.
Where was Freja? Was she a prisoner? Did he hurt her?
The air was thick as they walked him forward, cursing him in English and other languages. But he was more focused on the damage to his cybernetics. He wanted to generate a weapon, anything, to help himself out. But that connection was gone.
It could be whatever they were tying around his wrists, or they had truly cut off the piece of tech allowing him to do so. He always wondered if that was internal or external. He wasn’t allowed to ask those questions.
But he mostly wanted to know what happened to Freja.
It started simple. Break in, kill, gather, get out. He’d guessed the amount of sliders, and felt as if a counter was in the corner of his eye. If there was fifty, kill forty. Freja raised an eyebrow at this, but she didn’t question. Just looked disappointed and sad. Route 66 was it? She was rather determined to let him know where, unlike the program.
When the hanger opened, he felt lightheaded. He warned Ferja, but he knew she’d follow anyway. God, if he hurt her.
Then suddenly he was pinned, covered in blood, and cursed by a woman who had more cybernetics than he did. But she knew his name, and intrigued him. No one else from Talon was with him. He didn’t know if they died, or if he left them behind like he was prone to.
“You were the last I ever expected, Sarioglu.”
The “ERRORS” continued, and he soon realized the program couldn’t monitor him. He hadn’t had supervision in such a long time. It felt wrong. His chest was screaming, he felt his heart was out of rhythm.
A blonde woman was operating on him, as he was too weak to fight back for once. Some Cowboy looking man soon came into the room to stare at him. He was familiar, he believes that was the one that shot him as memories poked in. There was a voice, a voice that he just knew belonged to the Cowboy.
Route 66. Was this Overwatch or their own deadlock allies. Freja didn’t trust them, the Program didn’t care. So he kept his guard up.
That man hit him in the chest, and ruined everything. It was odd, being allowed to be upset at his crimes. He was desensitized to it by now, and found it easier to just…enjoy it. Good thing he no longer needed to sleep at night.
“Ya know, I didn’t make the connection at first. Those eyes…” The cowboy spoke, and they locked sight before Emre started screaming in agony. Finnish curses filled the area as electricity came around him, they were trying to pull the now dim chest plate off. They quickly stopped, and chaos erupted around him as they started shoving more drugs in his system.
“Herregud! It’s attached!” The Blonde women practically yelled. “I’m going to need more blood!”
Of course it was. He figured that out very early on. Freja had mentioned it recently, and he just laughed. He was more machine than human.
Everything soon went black as another needle was shoved in his arm, and he found himself shutting down.
–
Cole Cassidy was shocked when the news of Talon broke out, it was quick and unexpected. By the time the news of Doomfist's overthrow was known, the watchpoint was under attack
He was not shocked when the Deadlock gang started assisting them in the chaos, it was right up Ashes ally. Stopping her and his former gang was right up his as well. Sojourn was in the ear of him and Dr Ziegler, who hadn’t yet equipped her wings.
“I have a feeling I’d be better behind the lines here.” She smiled and threw her pencil at him.
“Fair enough, Just let me know whatcha need.” He tipped his hat as the hanger landed at their temporary outpost. He hated it took this much for Overwatch to finally be bright back, and for the Deadlocks to finally be dealt with. They had been a local terror for ages. Bodies upon bodies, blackmail upon blackmail, but now was not the time to dwell.
“Just get the injured back.” She said as they landed, and took her staff as she rushed out to voices screaming for more medics and supplies. Fitting, he supposed.
Cole made his way off, listening to gunfire as it was clear the battlefield had moved closer in the time of their debrief to the time of their arrival.
He followed Angela to the point, but soon she was in the medic tent as he continued to their main tent to get an update and figure out where they needed him. He wasn’t a great frontliner, but he would happily flank them and give Overwatch an opening. Or even the US military if they needed it.
Not that they cared.
He made his way over, but noticed one of the tents was unguarded. For better or worse, it set all his read flags off. The others weren’t paying attention in the chaos, and slowly the world went quiet.
Cole stepped over to it, realizing it was filled with tech, then shoved his way in with guns.
What he saw was not what he expected. It was Freja.
“Well how ya do.” He smiled, and started lowering his gun. Man, he hadn’t seen her in years. “Didn’t know you answered the recall.”
But she didn’t lower hers, in fact, she looked panicked.
So he paused, and put two and two together. She was a bounty hunter after all this time, he’d sent a message and heard nothing back.
Talon’s deal with the deadlocks proved they weren’t above Mercenaries with the new leadership. Vendetta was much less picky.
“Didn’t think I’d see you here.” She said as calmly as she could. Standing over a pile of bodies, in a pile of blood.
“Didn’t think I’d see you on their side.” Cole replied. There were sounds of taping and wires behind her. A faint “downloading” from their computer could be heard. If he hadn’t heard about Sombra and others leaving, he’d have assumed it was her. But that was a talon charm on Freja’s side.
“It’s complicated.”
“It’s greed.”
Freja rolled her eyes as Cole considered how to get reinforcements.
“Kinda cheap to be rollin’ in with the chaos. But I ‘pose Talon isn’t one for playing fair.” He properly cocked his gun and readied for a jump to judge, but noticed that every mention of Talon made her flinch. How odd.
The tapping stopped, and he saw a shadow move in the background. Before he could comprehend, bullets started to fly.
It was certainly one way to get reinforcements.
“Wait!” Ferja yelled as she dived to get out of the way. Cole figured she was playing guard for someone who didn’t quite care for her safety.
More people came in, but it didn't matter. Then, the figure stepped out.
Cole didn’t recognize him at first, some odd cyborg with a generated gun and a grand gauntlet with plenty of wires sticking out of it. Clearly that was what he used to get into their computers.
He was unnerving, undeterred by any objects in his way or shoots that would bounce off his metal limbs. His eyes were just black. A mirror that he could perfectly see himself in.
But as he saw Freja rush to get behind him and out of his line of fire, we realized who he was.
Emre Sarioglu.
The empathic prodigy was killing his former Overwatch colleagues. The man they had sent a message to and also heard nothing from, questioning if he was dead or just ignoring them from some quiet Turkish hillside. The Sharp shooter he looked up to.
He crushed the neck of the guard in his determination to move forward, where Freja finally came to his back and pulled up his crossbow with the most apologetic look.
Cole rolled out of the tent, more screams emerging as Sojourn herself joined him.
“Cassidy! Report!” Sojourn said as shields were put up to avoid the rapid fire.
“I found some of the missing former members…fraid they’ve made their choice in this war. They’ve making off with our data.”
She didn’t ask more questions than that, and turned to the tent and fired. He hoped she had backups…somewhere.
It did at least sound like the frontlines were being pushed back, perhaps with the way Emre fired, he was hitting them.
Freja and Emre…man he never thought this was how he’d see these two love birds again…emerge from the tent. Freja was bleeding, but he seemed oblivious. A mindless, broken soldier. But he was certainly unstoppable.
Sojourn took her shot, and it managed to knock his gun out of his hand and threw Freja against a wall.
Freja screamed in pain, but attempted a quick recovery. For just a moment, there was a hesitation in Emre’s position, he twitched and almost looked back. For a moment, there was some color to his eyes. But another twitch, and he was back to being a killing machine.
His gun gone, Cole tried to close the distance.
“You’ve fallen a long way, Emre!” He pulled out a pocket knife, only to see Emre pull out another one to equal his without a response. He moved quickly, his arm bending in ways a normal arm shouldn’t.
Cole was mostly caught off guard by the eye in the center of his chest. It was moving more then Emre's own eyes. He’d never seen anything like that, though he was never a tech guy.
Emre jammed a knife into his chest, rising before pulling it out just as Sojourn fired another shot. It forced him back, and gave COle enough time to shoot him in the chest.
It hit the center of the screen, and electric currents took over most of his body. His eyes began to fade to the same brown- No, no they were a deep shade of red. If sojourn hadn’t kept that photo of him with the others at her desk….
There was no sign of Freja and as he and Sojourn moved in, watching the sharpshooter seize.
Sojourn was obviously disgusted, and soon Mercy had joined them.
Emre was in talon? Emre Sarioglu, was an agent of Talon? Cole couldn’t believe it. Even Mercy looked over at him in shock…but he couldn’t help but focus on the eyes.
“His eyes don’t seem cybernetic, are you sure?” Angela put more into him to stop the screams.
“It’s talon, they have things we’d never think of.” Sojourn hissed.
-
REBOOTING….
REBOOTING…
STARTING SEQUENCE
ERROR
ERROR
REBOOTING….
REBOOTING…
HOST CONNECTION DAMAGED
BACK UP SYSTEMS ENGAGED.
BACK UP SYSTEMS OFFLINE.
UPDATE REQUIRED.
RETURN TO BASE IMMEDIATELY.
As always, his vision opened up to a solid red. His hearing was muffled. All he could make out was the program's words in Finnish.
He was still alone, unsupervised. Both in his head and his physical environment. But his head was pounding, he didn't know what to do with himself. He just wanted to know where Freja was. Freja didn’t have the excuses he did. Wherever he was now.
He looked at the ground, something telling him he was still in the area, or at least not horribly far off from it. There was an odd smell in the air here, though Freja called him crazy and super human.
His chest was dim, something he had only seen once. His memories were blacked out for six months after that, and that's when he gained that mechanical edge to his voice. He couldn’t always control what he said, which was likely the point.
Man, what a dog he’d become.
It wanted that again, and he felt the yearning for whatever home base was. Freja harped on his use of Finnish, and insisted it was there. He’d forgotten a common Turkish word the other day, how pathetic was that?
His eyes wandered until he settled on a symbol beneath his feet.
Overwatch.
Emre was a talon agent. He was an Ex-Overwatch Talon agent who just probably stole security data from them, and killed who knows how many. What was it Freja said? Glazed eyes without a shred of emotion, and just a need to kill.
Freja was an exception in his head. She’d also fallen a long way from the former medic he knew, but man did she look good.
No, he needed to focus on the issue at hand. They could enjoy each other later- only if they both survived this.
He was beyond screwed, and he was having to rely on himself, and the fragments of memories. Frankly, Freja was one of the few people he actually remembered the face and name of. The one thing he was allowed to keep in the years of conditioning.
He had to admit, he hated them. He understood, with Freja’s help, he was bitter but kind when he left to “better the world.” But now, It was hate. Hate as they were directly opposed to Talon, who the program made sure he could never fully hate. It needed his loyalty, and with control of his memories and mind, it was easy to do.
Overwatch was disbanded for a reason. They’d kill innocents. They’d festered into something awful, and not the Overwatch he joined.
The program had done its work there.
There was something about the Omnic Crisis that ticked him off as well, He’d felt Anubis justified in the last few years but couldn’t place why. He’d stopped resisting as much on things such as that, and if Freja ever figured that out she’d take it as a clue. He wasn’t allowed to make connections.
Sure, he was unmonitored now. But He knew his healing, he’d be back under the eye in no time. Prisoner or not…His memories would be searched. Kill him and throw him aside? It does nothing.
He shot himself once. Right through the temple, he felt the sweet release of death.
He woke up weeks later, surrounded by bodies with two metal plates in the side of his head.
“People do a lot for power, but I never expected you to be one of them…” The American cowboy's voice echoed as he approached from the behind, between his left and center. Ah, how he hated interrogations.
He stayed quiet, turning his head until the man was in view and scanning him over. He was equipped with knives and guns, same as before.
“And you ain’t even asked how I’m doing.” The man thought he was funny, and it just ticked Emre off.
“You think I care?” Emre slipped out in Finnish, sounding more machine than usual. Perhaps the program wasn’t entirely gone like he thought. Its backup was just much quieter.
“Gonna assume that wasn’t some kind remark. Ain’t sure which language that is, happy to get a translator for ya.” He was staring at Emre , expecting a response. Emre just grunted.
“I wanna know what you infected our servers with. Gonna guess the why is Talon said…”
“You think I’d tell you?” Emre laughed. He had no idea what he did, nor how any of the technology worked.
Part of him wanted to scream that, but he was unsure of his situation. He didn’t even know who this was, and if they’d believe him when he’d swear he didn’t want to be a Ruthless killer. He was just programmed to be.
Then he remembered something more important.
“Where is she?”
The cowboy paused, clearly unsure of what he meant for a moment. Then it obviously clicked in his head. His stupid, idiotic dog of a man
Oh, the program was certainly still listening.
“Freja? You two lovebirds really do go down together huh?”
Emre couldn’t hide the puzzled look on his face. He knew quite a lot about Emre and Freja to be just another random soldier. He didn’t understand the look Emre gave, and wore a blank expression until horror consumed his face.
“Emre, do you remember me?”
“Should I?”
Silence. The cowboy walked away, picking up his pace the further he got.
He didn’t stop the door from slamming as he left the room, and Emre understood where his potential exit was now.
He returned to looking at his restraints, unsure of what was about to happen. His boots we removed, and the metal of his legs was fully exposed to the dry air.
They felt off, as if someone had attempted to take those off as well. Sore was the word he was looking for.
But they were chained with…something. He didn’t know what the glow on his shackles meant, it could be that the program was weak. Truthfully, stripping him of his weapons was hard, as most of his weapons were just attached to him. Tubes and wires weaved in and out of his flesh.
Then he realized the Cowboy never answered his question. Was he going to Freja next? Was Freja out? If she was, then he knew she’d rescue him.
Though…was it really a rescue? He was stuck between two evils. One that she insisted wasn’t as bad as Talon. Part of him still held onto that hope as well, but it had been so long. So many memories were gone. All he had was her.
He tried to nudge his way around, but they were tight. They were tight and he lacked strength. Moments like this, he’d fade out. The program would pick up. He’d just wake up somewhere else or at mission's end.
He heard voices and footsteps nearing the door, trying to twist himself over to see it. The chair was seared into the floor, and he then realized the entire platform was temporary. It could fold up and fold out. So, definitely a temporary base.
The doors opened, and he was met again with the same three. Blondie, Cyber and Cowboy. He couldn’t stop himself from rolling his eyes and letting his head fall back down.
That didn’t deter them, all three soon coming in front of him and peering at him like a test subject. Just like Moira…He just muttered a Finnish curse to fill the silence.
“Angela, you said you couldn’t figure anything out about his little chest device?” The Cyber women asked, staring him in the eyes to try and read his fluctuating emotions.
Emre just looked over, assigning the blond woman the name Angela. The cybernetic women noticed this.
He’d tried to take his chest out himself, Freja had tried. There was no thought about it, the program couldn’t be broken. But it could certainly break him.
“No.” Angela replied as expected. “It’s certainly keeping him alive, Oxygen, food and a heartbeat is optional. But his regeneration is off the charts…Not even Genji shows that.”
He had no idea what they were on about, nor did he care.
“Where is Freja?”
“She left you, Emre.” Cyber women said. He wished he knew her name, it felt wrong to give her a label. But he couldn't hide his smile. She was safe, they saw this. “Like I thought you left us…”
“Apologies, I don’t stand for killing innocents.” He snapped back. He could have sworn all 6 eyes twitched.
“So...you join Talon…”
He felt a jolt in his neck, and showed an obvious twitch. That wasn’t something he was ready to confront. That was against the programing, who was slowly clawing its way back to him.
Instead of asking more questions, the Cyber women pulled out a small black and white photograph. Ten people were smiling together, and he stopped on the right end of the photo. His eyes flustered back and forth as he matched the three in the photo to the three standing in front of him.
“You really don’t remember any of us…God Emre, what did they do to you.” Her finger traced the image to the opposite end, where one attractive mohawk man was kneeling. That one almost jolted something, that was someone he certainly knew at one point.
“Emre Sarioglu, that is you. Was you, whatever it is you're made to believe.”
“Ah yes, because friends tie friends to a chair…” He snapped, then paused. Could he blame them, friends or not. An unstoppable killing machine. His face couldn’t hide his obvious doubt.
“I didn’t want this…” he sighed, then his eyes shot open. He said it aloud, he was absolutely losing another organ after this and the "homebase" return.
“Cole Cassidy.” The cowboy spoke up, pointing to himself then the Cybernetic women. “Vivian Chase.”
Finally he had names. But it didn’t wake up anything. Those memories were long gone. It was easier that way to get him into Talon. Remove the good from Overwatch, leave the bad. Leave him with people who hated the organization more than him, and it leveled out.
“We can help-”
“No. No you can’t. I assure you, many have tried, all have failed. Even now, I know time is running out.”
On que, his chest buzzed, as if starting to buffer. The eye wasn’t back on the screen, but he could feel it in his head. He threw his head back with a grunt as he felt it claw through his mind, making sure it understood
“Emre, Please!” Angela reached for his hand, but Cole pulled her back. He knew. Sure enough, Emre made fists in response to the pain. He kept twitching.
The program wasn’t happy, it knew. It knew he was laying more hints. He wanted out so, so badly. If they were friends like Freja, who knew and respected Freja.
Vivian looked back at his shackles, and suddenly pressed a button to increase it’s power. At least, he assumed that's what two new lights meant.
“Viv, I don’t think that’ll do anything.” Cole started, looking at Emre as if he was a sad puppy of sorts. Maybe he was.
“No. No, I refuse to give a lost friend to Talon of all people…”
For a brief moment, he saw different versions of the three in front of him. Not from the photo, not from files. But genuine memories, friends at a bar. People who cared just as much as Freja.
That's enough.
REBOOTING…
REBOOTING…
STARTING SEQUENCE
SUCCESS
OVERIDING HOST
His vision flashed red, and he could briefly see the three step back in horror.
“I’m sorry…” Was all he could say in Finnish before the world cut out.
—
Knock Knock
“One moment…” Freja yawned as she pushed her chair back. She had to admit, Talon living quarters weren’t too bad. Files were scattered about her desk, as Max was holding payment over her head with Emre gone again.
It had been three weeks, what started out as a back up mission turned sour the moment Emre’s “thing” took over. Suddenly, she was following him behind front lines and into some old computer. She didn’t ask, just played guard. Not that he’d say much of anything to her in that state.
But then she saw Cassidy, things went south, and she was knocked out and buried. By the time she woke up Emre was long gone. For a brief moment, intel suggested he was a prisoner. Maybe it would be good, she thought.
Intel then pulled a one-eighty, suggested a break out, and that was it.
That was it, until she opened the door to an exhausted and slightly battered Emre looking sheepish.
“You're kidding.” Was all she could mutter as she looked him over. Her eyes locking onto his metal arm: Was that tub there before?
“Before you ask: I am as clueless as you are.”
“It’s been three weeks, Emre!” Her mouth was agape, and he seemed surprised at the timeline.
“That…sounds routine.” He sighed as she hugged him, and he paid in kind. “I just woke up in the bunk, I’d assume I’d arrived last night.”
“Well, glad to have you back. Max was getting onto me.” She paused. “Last thing you remembered?”
“We got off a hanger at some…desert place. I’d assume North America.” He replied, but didn’t search much. He knew better than to waste time like that.
Freja sighed, but seemed content with the answer. One day, she’d fix this….