This is a story that I posted quite a while ago, and then took down. I am republishing it now, with even more chapters that I originally have showen. I'm not done with it yet, but am done with at least part one of it. Part one is the prolouge and from chapter 1 to 5, and is quite long. I will publishe them as fast as I can correct them from spellerrors and such.
UPDATE (20th July, 2018): This chapter, together with the nexcoming chapters, have been corrected by the talented ShizzySavage16. Thank you, Shizzy!
Late march, 2082
Location: Somewhere in the most northern part of Russia...
Winston stood by the entrance without moving an inch, his eyes focused on the cryo-beds in the room.
His interest of the content in this room grows with every minute... ever since he found the damaged files about them in an old even more damaged hard drive. This is a bunker that, prior to his entry only hours before, have been unknown and forgotten since the First World War. It has been a secret safe bunker back then, and has been used as one again during the Second World War.
But after that, it has been refitted for something else...
The hard drive that he had found and succeeded to get access to has been given to him from an old historical museum. The staff in the museum have found the hard drive hidden away behind much other historical objects and document in their archive after a raid there of Talon agents — Widowmaker and Reaper.
Since none of the staff had any knowledge of how to extract any information out of the hard drive that Winston found, the ape in turn has discreetly took it of their hands as a promise to get the information out for them.
It is so that two terrorists — Widowmaker and Reaper — have made many raids lately on different locations, mostly to gain different weapons that they and other of their likes are to use for their foul deeds.
One of these raids have for example, been on Winston's own hiding spot in the abandoned Watchpoint of Gibraltar, in an attempt to try and gain information of past Overwatch operatives from his database.
Another example was on the museum that is dedicated to Overwatch itself, the reasoning behind this was to get access to the weapons that were stored there (Doomfist's Fist Gauntlet).
Fortunately, they didn't succeed thanks to the combined efforts of Winston and Overwatch agent — Tracer.
After these raids... it just appeared as strange to Winston that Widowmaker and Reaper would search for effective weapons in a historical museum that is of the two world wars: The Vietnam War and other wars in the same time period.
The technology in this specific museum was completely outdated compared to today's equivalent. When the hard drive was found though, a mystery that has been hidden away even from the staff... the great ape gets the feeling that the information contained within might have something to do with it.
The technology of the hard drive is from the 1970's, outdated and inefficient to today's technologies. It can even be compared to the tools of the stone-age according to Winston, and extracting the information from the device has been a pain with the means available. He has had to make a custom device of his own, recreating some from that time's technologies to make it possible.
He did it.. And what he had found surprised him greatly.
It was information about 8 soldiers from the worried times during the Vietnam war, frozen down to be preserved in case if needed later...
But the fact that these 8 soldiers may have even been around for the Vietnam war was in itself — uncertain.
Winston didn't really know why these 8 have been frozen and put into stasis... so much of the information couldn't be understood due to damages files.
The ape was quite disappointed to have found out that the hard drive sustained injury from the raid.
He has only made assumptions while he tried to understand the little information he has been able to extract.
The need, whatever that need have been, has obviously never arrived.
These eight have been forgotten since long then.
When Winston found this specific piece of information, and learned where these cryo-beds were, he has taken it to the only Overwatch carrier plane that Overwatch had left, and has traveled here immediately.
"Winston!" Comes a voice behind him.
He turns around to see Mei approach in a light jog, "I came as fast as I could." She panted out. She stopped in front of him and smiles up at the giant, "It's a good thing that Overwatch helped to take me here... Maybe we can travel together next time, yes?"
The great ape has taken contact with Mei over a cryptic overwatch comlink shortly after his arrival here.
He has told her about his findings and instructed her to meet him here.
Mei had great knowledge in cryo-technique, and has also successfully been able to freeze herself without the use of advanced cryo-technology itself. She has been able to survive a polar storm together with a few other scientists. They had researched on the different climate phenomenon that has been occurring over the whole world; like why there is snowfall in the Sahara, why the Antarctic is melting and why the jungles are drying out...
Another... is that most of Russia has been doomed to a long winter that had spanned for several decades...
And that's only mentioning a few extreme examples...
Mei's group has been stuck in Watchpoint Antarctica due to the severe storm, and the rations have slowly disappeared in wait for a rescue.
After some time and some panic, her group quickly realized, and made the decision to sleep in cryo-beds until rescue... it was their only hope for survival...
Well... Mei's survival.
Unfortunately, she was the only one out of her group that came out of the cryo-technology alive...
"Of course," Winston responded to Mei, "We can travel together next time if the opportunity presents itself." He then moved from the open entrance, "Please, take a look."
Mei entered the room and began to look around.
"This technology, Winston," she muttered, "... It's very old... Do you really think it still works?" She asked skeptically.
"I hope so," The great ape said as he stood near the entrance, "See what you can find." He inquired.
Winston has been very surprised over the information he have found.
Cryo-technology has existed in the early 1970's and have first been profound!
But after he had seen it himself... well, he had to believe it.
He had then thought that this technology, even with how old it might be, can still be of use to either Mei or himself. Maybe even to D. Va and her mechsuit... Whoever that had this technology way back might provide with some kind of breakthrough that today's scientists haven't even thought of.
"Have you taken a look on this?" Asks Mei after a while, tinkering with a panel that is connected to a big screen on the wall above it.
Winston nods, "Yes. I have found some interesting parts that I like to either study here at site, or take back to base with me if possible. But I haven't touched much. I didn't want to disturb it until you have gotten a good look at this too."
Mei observed the panel in deep thought, "... By the looks of this panel it seems like they tried to keep someone alive for a long time, but I can't get out much more from just looking at it like this. I need to take a look among the circuits and see if I can find any indication of a storage unit." She then goes ahead and removes an ajar hatch from under the panel.
Winston enters the room for a second time that day.
He approaches one of the cryo-beds. He observed them this close the first time he entered the room, but then he swiftly moved along.
He wouldn't want to remove the thick layer of dust and frost from them in fear of how the ones lying in there have faired.
They are most certainly dead.
The technology that was to sustain them should have given up decades ago, and he wouldn't want to remind Mei of her earlier experience of this more than necessary.
The thought of this might even aggravate her past memories while doing this... it crossed Winston's mind when he decided to take contact with her about this, but contrary to his beliefs she didn't sound fazed at all over the commlink.
Not even now, when she entered the room or works with the technology she had been affected in the past by.
Winston wondered if it was truly so, that she is unfazed by the cryo-technology... or does she just hide it very well?
All of her group members have died on that fateful day, and she herself was to bear the burden.
And the work that she and her team have been working on?
Unfinished and disrupted.
Winston glanced at Mei, to see if there is any notion of how she feels about it.
However, she doesn't notice his glance. She is too concentrated on her work.
There's no signs of any negative emotions, but the great ape can't help but wonder...
He looks back at the cryo-beds again.
He reaches with his massive hand and wipes the dust and frost away from the surface, and leaves a small window where he can see in...
... There lies a carcass, half decayed but still frozen.
Winston guessed that the cryo-bed might have been heated during a certain time, and that it has the body a chance to break down, then the whole bunker's power have failed, therefore freezing the body again.
The body looks like it had some kind of gasmask over it's face and head.
Winston can't stop himself from wondering if this is how Mei's co-workers might've looked like...
"I think that I can actually get this station going," Mei pipes up, interrupting the great ape's thought process, "If only I can get a power source to get it functioning from within this room..." She said disappointingly, "... Any suggestions on how we can do that?"
Winston scratches his face in thought, "Hmm... I think I can connect the extra battery in the carrier plane we came with separately," He answers after a moment, "I have a few spare cables with me too."
Ten minutes later, the extra battery has been removed from the carrier plane and had been brought to the room with the cryo-beds.
It is only to be connected with the cables to the panel in question.
"Ready?" Mei asked, facing the great ape, the end of the cables that are to be attached to the battery firmly in her hands.
After a short second in observation of her, Winston answers. "Ready," He nods. "Let's see if this works." He mutters hopefully.
She crouches and attaches the cables to the battery.
The second after sparks sprays from the open hatch. Winston instinctually grabs Mei out of the way and puts his hefty body between her and the light.
The sparks then come to an abrupt stop, and instead, the huge screen lights up with a distinct green light.
The duo looks up at it in amazement. Winston was frozen where he stood while Mei was in an effort to peak over his big frame.
"It works," She speaks in wonder.
"It seems so," He confirms with a similar tone.
Mei rounds Winston and approaches the panel. She begins to push buttons as her gaze alternates between the panel and the screen.
The great ape observed the light, he has never thought that the old technology is operational after all this time.
Suddenly, Mei gasps.
Winston reacts, and takes a few worried steps towards her, "What is it?" He asks with concern.
"Some of them are still alive!" She exclaims, half in horror and half in euphoria over the discovery as she turns towards the cryo-beds.
Winston picks up somewhere in the back of his mind of the horror in her voice, and wonders if it is from recognition of the situation and sympathy towards the ones alive.
He makes a mental note to ask her about it later.
Now though, he looks over the cryo-beds with an uneasy feeling inside... He closes in on one, the body of the one that is beside another, he had already checked.
He wipes away the frost and the dust, and reveals that what Mei have said to be true; some of the eight people that have been frozen down in the early 1970's are in fact — still alive.
Late March, 2082
Location: Somewhere in the Atlantic sea...
Widowmaker and Reaper observed their boss with caution.
The figure in the chair is faced away from them, looking towards the big window that had a beautiful view of the cyan blue Atlantic sea. There wouldn't be much of a contrast between the sea and the sky if it wasn't for some of the white clouds in the distance. The rocky walls that cover the outer walls of the secret base peeks out around the window, and frames the view like a picture. The shiny floor and walls reflects the bright light that enters, and gives the illusion that there are several copies of the window and whatever or whoever that resides inside.
Aside from the chair, there is nothing inside the room except for the three people.
It had been three days since they staged a raid on the museum that held the history of the world wars. They have not dared to come back after the failure of bringing back the hard drive, for fear of what their boss would say... but they have returned, now they have been summoned by him, but the reasoning behind it is still unclear.
Widowmaker and Reaper have briefly discussed that it might be about their failed mission few days prior...
and they are proven right.
"Do you know what was on that hard drive?" Asks the man in the chair without turning to face the other two.
Widowmaker and Reaper observe each other.
She shrugs.
He remains neutral behind his mask.
They look back at the chair, but none of them give a vocal answer.
Even so, the man in the chair understands that both of them have answered 'no'.
He answers his own question for them with an exasperated sigh, "... On the hard drive, was the location and information of eight mercenaries… eight possible allies against the shameful Overwatch..."
There was silence for a while...
"... Now though, these mercenaries are in the clutches of our enemies."
Widowmaker perks an eyebrow. "Hmph. You tell us this now? Why haven't we been told earlier?"
"Because I want you to focus on your job; to simply collect the hard drive," the man in the chair answers with rising anger. "But it seems that you two can't do that, which is disappointing... I thought that you two would suffice in doing my main missions, but it seems I was mistaken." He scoffs, "... Thought that you would do a better job than Junkrat and Roadhog, but maybe that is the other way around."
"Those two?" Reaper chirps up in annoyance, first time for him to say anything on this meeting. "They're just idiots. The only thing they're good for is wreaking havoc."
"My first thought exactly," Their boss speaks, "But they at least focus on what they are doing, which is more than I can say for the two of you."
There is a pause, where Widowmaker and Reaper observes their boss with mild irritation.
The man in the chair starts again, this time not in anger, but rather cold and logical.
"The attack on Gibraltar was a complete waste, as well as the Overwatch museum. The only mission that succeeded was the assassination on Tekhartha Mondatta. That successfully plunged the omnic-human relationships into the gutter and created worldwide panic." The boss suddenly points on a button on one of the armrests of his chair.
The room rocks a little before it starts to sink into the water.
"Anyways," he continues as water and sea life starts to fill up the view of the window, and the Atlantic's cyan blue slowly turns to dark blue. "Three fails out of four is a bad score, and that they are the most important missions in these last 3 months is just worse. They happened to be important goals in my grand plan, but now I must be forced to rethink everything... If you would have succeeded in all of them it would have made things a lot easier."
He finally stands up, and straightens the light grey suit that he wears. He still refuses to turn around to face the other two. There is now barely any light that comes out from the window, but the lamps in the roof provides suitable lighting.
"Our numbers are dwindling," He states, matter-of-factly, "We need more people that are willing to fight for our cause. If not, we will fail."
"What do you want us to do?" Reaper asks.
"Get me those mercenaries." He says simply.
"D'accord... But what if they side with Overwatch?" Widowmaker asks.
"Isn't that obvious? They will be of no use to me. Kill them."
Early April, 2082
Location: Rio Xingú, Brazil
The world slowly comes back to him, and when it does, it is all in a foggy haze.
He feels himself lying down in a soft bed, and sighs at the welcoming comfort of warmth.
But even though that the thought of just laying down felt comfortable, he himself has never been much of to just be laying around...
Not when a nagging question is on his mind, anyway.
'What happened to me?' Is what he wonders first.
The way he is feeling right now... he can mostly describe as a really bad hangover.
'What a crazy last night it must have been. It felt like Demoman and Soldier drank me under the table ten times over.'
... Then he suddenly remembers that he doesn't usually drink, and when he does, he only drinks a small portion.
Has it been a special day yesterday for him to drink that much?
Weakly, he recalls that the last wave had gone bad… terrible.
Now that he's thinking about it some more, it has never gone worse.
And with a click in his brain, he remembers it suddenly, as it came back so fast and with such a force it might as well have been considered a mental bullet...
The robots have won.
They just kept coming, not just over the hill from Gray's movable base... but from everywhere, in infinite numbers.
The combined forces of the two mercenary squads have been forced to flee, and it have been a wonder that they have succeed without losing anyone, but then...
What happened after that?
He stressed his mind to remember, but despite how hard he tries, he can't really regain the memories.
He forces himself to open his eyes, and he rises himself into a sitting position by pure will.
He silently curses his foggy eyesight, and blinks several times in an attempt to get back somewhat of a view of his surroundings.
He makes out a big, clean, white room. One wall opens to a massive terrace, where the man sees a lot of colorful plants on the woodwork. Beyond there is nothing but light blue sky and deep green forest. The light from the sun is shining in gracefully from the opening.
In the room, futuristic machine stands are scattered along the walls. The man is not that good with any other machines than cars, but even with his limited knowledge, he gets a feeling that what he observes are hospital equipment; Far more advanced hospital equipment than what he has ever seen though...
He gets a nagging feeling in the back of his mind that the machines he sees are way beyond the technology that existed when he went to sleep.
'Where am I?' The question spreads a dark feeling of uncertainty and a sense of uncertainty.
But he feels some certainty again when he sees some of his mercenary teammates in beds in the room with him, on different sides of him.
All of them are asleep, with white sheets covering their bare chests.
He stresses his eyes to get a closer look on all of them just to be sure that they all are alive, and indeed all present are breathing... except for Pyro.
In the middle of his observation though, he halts.
His whole posture freezes, and he can only stare.
The... thing, he sees, is the massive frame of a great ape.
But the animal sitting in the very same room with man is not the cause for his reaction.
It is that the ape sits at a table near his bed, and acts like a human, with glasses that is neatly seated on the wide nostrils, and with a half-eaten banana in one hand, the ape reads a document that it had in it's free grasp!
There is even more documents spread out on the table that the ape is sitting at.
The man blinks slowly a few times, bewildered before he brings his hands up to his eyes to give both of them a good rubbing.
But the ape is still there.
It keeps doing what it is doing.
It READS the document.
It can READ!
And not only that!
It has clothes on, in the form of a well-fitting overall.
The man begins to doubt that he really is awake.
He pinches his own arm, hard... He is amazed to find that he feels the pain.
After that, he has no real idea on what to do. He figured he had to say something and open his mouth, but no sound agrees to come out.
What is he supposed to say to an ape?
The result is that the man sits there with his mouth open, with a puzzled pair of eyes and a face full of uncertainty. He must have stayed like that for five whole minutes.
A moan is suddenly heard to the man's right, and he glances that way without really moving his head.
In the corner of his eye, he see's Scout in the bed beside him.
The young boy moves a bit in his sleep, then he settles down again. The man looks back at the ape, and a cold knot makes itself known when he sees that the ape is indeed looking his way.
Old habit makes him note that the best exit and only safe way out of this room is the open terrace, just in case things get ugly...
"Ah, Mr. Mundy," The ape greets with a smile, much to the man's amazement, and puts the banana and the document down.
It's voice is deep, as massive as it's size, but there is a kindness there that is… somehow… soothing.
It can not only read, but to speak as well?
Mundy's eyes couldn't grow any bigger, and his jaw has never hung so low.
"Good morning," The ape continues. "My name is Winston."
Matthews "Mat" Mundy can't respond. For a moment he doesn't even know how to.
He never encountered anything like this, and he has encountered a lot of animals in his days. He even preferred the company of animals over the many people that he met over the years.
But no animal could do what this ape does.
"I see that you are shocked over what is in front of you," Winston continues on in an understanding tone and clasps his big hands together. The smile never leaves the ape's lips. "No animals with intellect that rivals the human race existed during your time. A lot has changed while you and your colleagues have been in cryo-sleep."
Cryo-sleep?
The word triggers something in Mat. A memory wakes to life that leads to another, and then another.
A chain-reaction begins in Matthews mind as well as his feelings and sense of incomprehension for the existence of an intelligent ape, are as good as blown away.
He remembers everything now.
They didn't really escape Gray.
They have been captured by the robots, and have been brought in front of the mastermind himself.
Matthew looks down on his bare chest and arms, and sees the very thing that he don't really want to see, as it only confirms the nightmare.
Ports of cold, grey metal have been operated into his body; two on both his arms, four in his chest, and when the man slightly lifts the sheets that covers the lower part of his body he confirms that he also has two on each leg. Every port is accompanied with prominent scars too, as well as wide scars around his wrists and ankles.
The devices have been added to the mercenaries so that the cryo-beds could be connected to them by tubes. Heavy sedatives and other chemicals have helped them to survive the sleep together with the cold, or so he have been told. The combination have almost completely stopped their ageing as well. But the surgeries have been nothing but horrid. Gray had let them be operated on without anything for the pain; a small payback from Gray for all the trouble the mercenaries have caused.
Pain strikes without a warning. Mat's whole body cramped up, and a roar of pain clawed its way up his throat as the back of his head thumps back into the pillow.
The world blinked in and out, and started to spin. He feels nauseous, but mostly does he feel pain. For a moment... one painful, long-spun moment, he is back on the operating table. He is in the very room that he, together with the other mercenaries, have been operated on at the same time.
The pain from the knives cutting him is unbearable as the medibots work with deadly precision on his body. There are leather straps that dig itself in his wrists and ankles. He distinctly feels additional straps over his chest and legs as well that works against his every movement. He screams through the pain, and throws the crudest curses and the most colorful imprecations he can come to think of at the unfeeling machines. But they have just kept working without a sound, nor reaction.
And the blood...
It was so much blood, that Mat himself thought towards the end that he might die of blood loss. But somehow, he didn't.
At some time during the operation he has thrown his head to his one side, to throw a particular rude rebuke to the bot standing there. In the process he caught a glance at Medic.
The other man had an inexpressive countenance, and his struggles have ceased. The bots that were assigned to Medic have stopped working on him...
Matthew instantly understands that the other man is dead.
The roar grows worse, as now there is not only one pain present... The sorrow from the loss of a friend and comrade mixes itself with the wrench from the knives.
And it is utter, utter unbearable.
There is a sudden calm that comes over Mundy.
His world gets fuzzy and unclear while the images of the memory slowly disappears, as he remembers that the room he actually is in at the moment is a completely different room than the one with the operating tables.
There are no leather straps that's holding him down, instead, there is stern but gentle hands that doesn't mean him any harm.
He sees a glimpse of a needle in one of those hands, and he knows what must have been in it.
Sedatives.
His thoughts gets slower and he feels his body grow heavy.
'They gave me sedatives.' He thought.
The hands let go as his movement became slower, suddenly getting to the point where he ceases his movement completely.
"What happened?"
He hears someone ask through the ever growing fogginess, a woman with glasses on her little nose and with a hair-pin in her hair.
"A flashback," States another woman.
Matthew struggles, but fails miserably, to stay awake when his eyes falls on this woman.
She looks to have wings just like an angel. He is certain that his deranged mind must be playing tricks on him.
"I have a feeling that it wasn't of a very good memory," The woman continues. "I fear for his mental health... Winston, where did you say that you have found them?"
"A bunker in northern Russia," The deep tone of the ape answers. "As far as I know, they have slept in there, in those cryo-beds for a hundred years."
A hundred years?
As the edges of the world starts to creep inward and finally disappear into darkness yet again Mat felt his soul shatter a bit.
A HUNDRED YEARS?
What happened to Gray?
What about his robot army?
What about my parents?
WHAT HAPPENED?
He couldn't imagine that it has been a hundred years since the war with Gray.
The machines that he had seen in the room before, the ones that he had a feeling to be ahead of any technology he could think of, would be a proof of it.
But it's proof that he refuses to believe... At least for now.
It just sounds too crazy, too unreal.
Right now, he would rather accept that he died and somehow gone to heaven. He spares a last glance at one of the women, and is amazed to still see the glowing white-yellow wings that comes out from her back.
'Yeah, heaven. I'm in heaven. Not like I expected it to be.' He sputters some deranged chuckles at that.
The last thing he sees is the two women and the ape giving him strange and worried looks before the darkness takes over completely.