'Maybe I should visit the bakery again? No…I'm hiding, no need for unwanted attention to the family.'

Olivia sighed and leaned back against the small bench she currently had her lunch on. It was one thing if she had something to do to alleviate her boredom but considering that she was more or less banned from doing her favorite activity she thought better. Normally she would be back at her "tech cave" (as Valeria called it) perusing the web and sticking her nose through government files (or the occasional video game griefing for fun) for the better part of the day. However, ever since that one day about a year ago when she had gotten caught she had been laying low, keeping her computer use at a minimum.

This wouldn't have been a problem if she hadn't developed a "slight" addiction to her admittedly illegal hobby (though she would strongly argue that said activity was a profession). Now she was pacing around Dorado in search of an activity to occupy her until it was time for her appointment.

…An activity that was proving to be harder than she had first thought.

"Ugggggh this is sooooo boring!" She groaned loudly. "What does a girl have to do to have some fun around here? Kill a cat?" Okay maybe that was a little much but she was dying of boredom…and hack deprivation. It had been soooo long since she'd actually hacked anything her body was literally trembling from typing withdrawal!

…It was a legitimate ailment in her mind!

Maybe.

Okay, she made it up.

'Just calm down Olivia…the wait will be worth it once you get the cyber neural-connector.' She thought, taking a bite out of the torta she had bought earlier, grimacing when she realized that Senor Chavez had forgotten to add extra poblano peppers like she wanted. '…Then again, everything is going to change once I actually get the connector. Never will I ever be Olivia Colomar: Genius of Dorado again…'

There was a brief moment where Olivia felt the reality of the situation, after her operation she'd no longer be able to live her normal leisurely life as she pleased. Not that her life was normal to begin with, but there was a modicum of the average pedestrian life in where she was able to go about and accomplish regular tasks without having to constantly look over her shoulder for enemies.

…and it was all because of the I.R.I.S. Organization.

If there was anything in the world that angered her, it was this organization and how it affected her life. It was bad enough as it was that they were responsible for the Omnic Crisis that wrecked her hometown and took away the lives of many people including her parents, but now they were essentially forcing her into erasing her existence. A meaningless existence in the grand scheme of things, but it was her existence regardless.

'…and now I've made myself depressed. Ugh. Too many bad thoughts. I better head down to Calveras for a drink.'

With that thought in mind, Olivia hopped off the bench and began making her trek back to Castillo.

Olivia sighed as the bitter scent of alcohol and other questionable fluid filled her nostrils. While most people who had common sense would more than question the bar's patrons and somewhat filthy state, Olivia felt that the old bar's grit added a bit of familiar charm. Sure, she was a girl who more or less despised things that were out of date, she couldn't deny that the retro feel of the bar made it feel more…homely.

That said, some things could bear to change.

'The old man really needs to clean the dried blood and motor oil off the tables one of these days.'

"Hey old man." She greeted, taking her seat on the right-most stool. "I've got a strong thirst that needs to be quenched. Think you can set a girl up with a few glasses? Maybe something a little hard?" She wanted to be a little buzzed when Val set her up in the chair later.

Fabián sighed before turning around and setting down the glass he was cleaning to face his "favorite" customer. "You know…it wouldn't kill you to show some respect to your elders."

"I'll show you some respect when you deserve it old man." Olivia retorted, waving her hand nonchalantly.

"I have a name." Fabián continued. "Anyway, I don't if I should give you anything. I still haven't forgotten that nice little bit of graffiti that you and your Los Muertos friends sprayed on the side of my bar."

Olivia groaned and slumped in her seat. "Oh come on that wasn't me! Besides, I thought you didn't mind us "kids" hanging around your bar to relax and have a drink?" She frowned and pushed her lower lip into a pout. "Don't tell me you're gonna start kicking us out."

The elder male shook his head, his previous annoyed expression changing into that of fatigue. "No…I just want all of you to show some more respect for the place. After all, I'm one of the few people willing to let your lot hang around and muck up the place."

One could say that Fabián had a soft spot for those in the Los Muertos considering how the group formed and why it still persists. Not everyone was willing to adopt the children orphaned from the Omnic Crisis, and with the government turning a blind eye to the devastation left from said crisis, hundreds of children were left to fend for themselves. It was because of this shunning and abandonment from society that Los Muertos was formed, a family formed by those who had been forgotten and left for dead from the world.

It was because of these reasons Fabián continued to house and serve the gang, even at the cost of his own sanity.

"So is there any reason why you're drinking in the middle of the afternoon with plenty of daylight to spare?" He asked, handing Olivia a glass filled with tequila. "As much as I enjoy your company I do have a home to go back to at night."

Olivia swirled the drink around a few times before cocking her head back and downing the contents of the mug in a few seconds. She then shuddered as the drink slid down her throat, sighing once the sweet aftertaste came in a few seconds later.

"If you must know old man, I'm going under the operating table later on today and I wanted to be a little buzzed for it." She replied, giving the elderly male a smirk as she set her glass back on the counter for a refill. "Also, I'm going out of town for a bit after operation and I kinda wanted to have one last drink, that way you can remember my happy, smiling face sitting at this counter at the same exact spot."

Fabián merely rolled his eyes, opting to refill her glass. "You must be going on some trip if you felt like you needed a drink. The only time I hear talk like that is when someone is on the run from the government."

Almost immediately Olivia's mischievous demeanor died as a glum look overtook her normally playful expression. "Yeah…I guess you can say something like that…"

Just like that…all good vibes were gone.

"…I better get going Fabián…" Olivia murmured, slinking off of the seat and making her way towards the exit, leaving her refill untouched on the counter.

Not one to leave someone hanging when they're clearly feeling down, the old bartender called out to Olivia's retreating form.

"Hey!" He shouted, causing her to stop and turn her head to look back at him. "Try to keep yourself out of too much trouble, okay?"

Unfortunately for Fabián, it was a bit too late for her to stay out of trouble at this point.

While the trek from Dorado to Castillo took the greater part of the day and afternoon, Val's tattoo/cybernetics garage only took Olivia a fifteen-minute walk in comparison. It was moments like these where she contemplated owning a car but seeing as how she spent most of her money on computers and most recently, her neural connector, she was sort of out of cash for a while.

That, and she didn't really have a driver's license…

…Maybe she should look into that…Nah.

"Val I'm here!" Olivia shouted as she stepped into the garage, hoping that [1]Valeria had actually gotten everything set-up in preparation for operation. "You better not be counting your register again!"

Of course…hoping for such a change would be wishful thinking on her part.

Walking into the large garage/tattoo parlor, Olivia found Val sitting in front of a small television. There was a small lottery ticket clutched within Val's left hand and a can of cherry cola in her right. It didn't take a genius to realize that the silver-haired Latina was currently in a very deep round of Not-Winning-Lottery…again.

"You do know that they purposely rig it so that you can't win?" Olivia commented, taking a seat. "I don't know why you always waste your time and money on this."

"Shhh!" Valeria snapped, her eyes glued to the TV. "The grand prize for tonight is 14 trillion pesos! I'm not going to miss out on a grand opportunity to make a bunch of plata!"

"…And the final number is 47! If you have these numbers please call immediately as you're the grand winner of tonight's jackpot!"

"RIGGED!" Val shouted, ripping her ticket in half and throwing it on the ground. "These stupid lotteries are always rigged! Honestly, why do I even waste my money on it anyway?! I swear, if it's the last thing I do, I'm gonna find every single host of these stupid lotteries and choke them to death with my cybernetic hand! Heck! I'll even bring my clamp attachment if I have to!"

Olivia rolled her eyes, checking her nails while Val vented out her frustration with once again losing the lottery, not that it was a new occurrence. "I'd hate to say I told you say…wait what am I talking about? I love being right!"

"Yeah, yeah…" Val replied, her tirade over and her previous rage absent from play. "…So, what brings you over to my side of town? Got tired of wasting time watching people get drunk at Calveras?"

Olivia raised an eyebrow, surely Val hadn't forgotten about the operation. "You're kidding me, right? Today is the day Val. We didn't raid LumériCo and steal one of their cyber-neural connectors just laughs and giggles."

Val hummed and tapped her chin. "Hmm…doesn't seem to ring a bell if you ask me." A devious then came across her face. "However, you can…refresh my memory if you leave 50 pesos in the tip jar."

"What? No! I already paid you for the operation!" Olivia exclaimed incredulously. "Even then, I find it stupid that I had to pay when you're supposed to be my girlfriend! What kind of lover makes their significant other pay for their services?"

"A smart one." Val responded before quickly bursting into laughter and pushing back the chair she used for her customers. "Calm down Via' I was just messing around with you. You know I don't forget things that easy."

While Olivia could bring up the various times where her dearest friend had flaked out on her due to some grand money opportunity she just couldn't miss, she opted to let this time slide. After all, it wasn't like she'd be seeing much of her after today…

"Anyway…you sure you actually want me to graft this slab of metal into your spinal column?" Val asked as she held the connecter in front of her face, not really impressed with the machinery. "It doesn't really look like all that much if you ask me."

"Yes I'm sure." Olivia responded, taking off her shirt and lying stomach down on the chair provided for her. "Also, that "slab of metal" as you call it, it's not just some paperweight like you think it is. That is a modified LumériCo Hyper-Core Cybernetic Neural Processor Connector that allows its user to access and operate machinery with just their thoughts."

"Uh-huh…"

"…I went through a lot of effort trying to get this thing, not to mention jailbreaking it so that it would work on tech outside of the LumériCo brand…"

"Neat…"

"…With this baby, I can hack, reprogram and manipulate ANY form of technology from across the globe. Not to mention without any remote access point for people to track me down, I'm practically in incognito mode every waking second! No NOBODY can stop me!"

"…So it's a slab of metal…that can control other slabs of metal. Gotcha." Val mused, pulling out her cybernetic arm before attaching the arm she used for grafting prosthetics onto customers. "You know if you were to sell this thing on the black market you'd probably make a lot of cash?"

"Why would I so something like that?" Olivia asked, surprised that Valeria would even suggest such a thing. "You of all people should know how much this whole thing means to me."

Val could only shrug her shoulders, completely missing the edge that had seeped into Olivia's voice. "I don't know? I just feel it would be the best thing. Heck with something this powerful, you'd get enough money to retired your grandchildren. Of course, it's the black market so you'd have to hide how you got the money but it's always an-

"I'm not selling this to the black market!" Olivia suddenly snapped. Her previous calm demeanor was now replaced with that of anger. "Don't you understand? If I'm to ever figure out the conspiracy I need the connector. Of course, you wouldn't understand this because you're always obsessing over how much money you can make! Well guess what? Unlike you, I'm not that desperate for plata!"

"I'm not that desperate either!" Val retorted angrily, causing any retort that Olivia had in her brain to fall flat. After all, it wasn't often where arguments like this happened between the two of them. "Maybe I don't want you to keep this thing?"

"Why not?!"

"Because I know once this is all over, you're gonna start obsessing over your hacking stuff all over, AGAIN, and completely forget about everyone, AGAIN. Then when you get yourself in trouble, AGAIN the whole entire cycle will just repeat itself…Except this time you're probably not gonna come back because you'll probably be in jail or something."

Silence overtook the inside of the garage as the two females sat down glaring daggers at one another, the only thing heard between them was the faint electronic hum of the machines whirring inside of the workshop.

That is until Olivia eventually broke the silence.

"…Yeah well…I don't know why you're making this such a big deal. It's not like you've ever really cared what I did anyway. I wouldn't put it past you to trade my soul for coins seeing as you clearly don't care about how much this means to me. After all, I'm not the one who'll flake on a date to go gamble with Ernesto and the others!"

"You know what?" Val interjected, completely done with arguing with her friend. "After I get done with this, I don't care what you do! You can go and get yourself killed by the feds and not a tear will escape from my eyelids!"

"FINE!" Olivia countered. "After this, you'll never see me set foot in this garage ever again!"

"GOOD!" Val shot back, falling silent moments thereafter.

Olivia opened her mouth for the briefest of moment but instead opted to remain silent for the rest of the operation. After all, not seeing Val again would make it easier on her to focus on her mission. People were actively looking for her now and Val not being on the same page as her would only hinder her in the long run. Also, she had already told herself that many sacrifices will have to made once she went full-time cyberterrorist, breaking up with Val just so happened to be the first.

So there was no surprise when nothing much was said once Val told her that her operation was done. However, what did surprise her was when she finally made her way to the door of the garage and Val stood in her way.

"…Look, about earlier Via I didn't-" Val began.

"Sombra."

Val raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What? What are you talking about?"

"My name is Sombra." Sombra corrected, opening the door to the parlor's exit. "You would be wise to remember that name from now on."

With that said, the girl formerly known Olivia Colomar exited the garage, never once looking back as she made her way back to her hideout free to live out the rest of her life as her namesake…

…Free to be a shadow of a girl who never existed.

(Author's Note: Hello to all readers who've finished this story! I just wanted to say thank you for making it the whole way through and I appreciate your time and patience with doing so! - The Red Thunder)

[1] Valeria "Val" Herrera: The name I've given to the silver-haired woman who did Sombra's operation in her origin story.