Hello, everyone
A couple of days ago after hours of playing Overwatch I decided to start yet another new game of Skyrim, just for fun. And that's when I came up with the concept for this story.
This is only chapter One, but more will come soon.
Hope you will enjoy it!
Some things aren't explained from the start, there will be explanation about them in future chapters.
Disclaimer: This is a fanfiction meant for fun. I do not own Overwatch or Elder Scrolls series, all rights belong to their respective creators, Blizzard and Bethesda. I claim the plot for this story though.
She blinked her eyes and slowly lifted her head. Her vision was still blurry.
"Hey! You're finally awake! You were trying to cross the border, right? Walked right into that Imperial ambush, same as us and that thief over there."
"Ugh….egh…" She heard a man talking. She was not sure if he was talking to her. She blinked a couple more times, her vision became clearer, she noticed some trees covered in snow.
"Damn you Stormcloaks! Skyrim was nice back then! Empire was nice and lazy until you came along."
She looked around and saw that she was on a horse carriage, along with three other men. One of them was muffled and dressed in a somewhat aristocratic outfit made of animal fur; from one look at him she could tell that he had the aura of a leader. The other one was clearly a common soldier, he wore a studded leather armor and a blue, tattered, wool blouse underneath and finally the third one…
"You there! You and me, we shouldn't be here. It's those Stormcloaks that the empire wants."
The third one - who was talking to her apparently - was the kind of people whom she despised the most, a petty common thug. And even though she could not feel any hate now or any kind of emotion, a grimace of disgust still formed on her face instinctively without her realizing it.
"We're all brothers and sisters in binds now, thief!"
"Shut up back there!" The soldier driving the carriage shouted annoyed.
She noticed that her arms were bound – a weak knot, she could easily untangle it behind her back and escape, but there was another problem. She lacked the rest of her equipment. The soldiers who captured her had stripped her of all her clothing and had worn some rags on her.
Some hours earlier
"Open fire" The imperial commander gave a silent signal to his men.
A rain of arrows from atop the hill bombarded the Stormcloak squad who were marching under the veil of the night. They were only a few miles outside the village of Riverwood near the Skyrim-Cyrodill border.
"An Ambush! It's the Imper—gah…" The Stormcloak soldier who tried to alert his comrades fell on the ground choking on his blood as a steel arrow pierced his neck.
"To arms!" Shouted Ulfric Stormcloak the leader of the rebellion in Skyrim.
He and a company of his most trusted and finest men were heading to Bruma for a secret meeting with allies who were willing to fund his cause. What he didn't know was that that meeting was a trap that the Empire had been laying for years now.
The Stormcloak soldiers fought valiantly and despite their strength and Ulfric power of Thu'um, they were quickly overwhelmed. Most of them died while the rest fell wounded on the ground, left on the mercy of their enemies.
Boom
After the fight had settled down and they were in the process of tying up the prisoners, a group of Imperials noticed a blue flash nearby and the sound of a small explosion reached their ears. So they went to investigate.
"What's that?"
"Is this a woman?"
"What she wearing?"
Widowmaker shook her head and looked around, she was taken aback for a moment when she noticed that she had landed in a completely strange place. She guessed that her battle with that obnoxious girl from Overwatch was the cause of her being here, but now was not the time for self-contemplating. She had other things to worry for now.
She quickly inspected her surroundings and saw no high ground where she could hook her grappler and escape, the only solution left was brute force. She saw the five armed men approaching her and she immediately recognized them as threats. Their archaic choice of attire didn't seem to bother her a bit – it was of course due to Talon's indoctrination which had killed all her feelings and emotions.
"Is she a Stormcloak…?" A soldier mumbled.
"Hey you! Hands where I can see them!" the Imperial soldier yelled at her and pointed his crude sword near her chest.
She slowly stood up and raised her hands.
"Now turn around!
She obeyed willingly and turned her back at him with her hands still raised.
"Gulp…" The man was slightly taken aback by her seemingly perfect backside, but regained his composure.
" I will tie you up now. No funny business or you will end up just like-guh"
With a quick reverse chop on his solar plexus which left him gasping for breath and a powerful, follow-up roundhouse kick on his chin, Widowmaker knocked the imperial soldier unconscious.
"Get her!"
Of course the other four were not about to let that go unpunished, but before they had time to draw their swords Widowmaker had managed to close in the distance between them. She went for the one closest to her.
She leaped at him and with a flying knee on the face, she took him out instantly; using her momentum she swiped the legs of the soldier next to her and then stomped hard on his head with her boot, fracturing his neck in process.
The other two watched with terror in their eyes as their poor friend was lying helpless on the floor convulsing like a fish out of the water due to lack of oxygen, but they did not run away, instead they charged at her, swords in hands.
Those soldiers had definitely underwent some basic combat training, she could tell from the way they swung their swords. But their skill was nowhere enough of that she was used to fight. Specifically when one of for her most exhilarating fights was against that cyborg agent of Overwatch who yielded a Japanese katana with deadly precision and could even deflect her bullets with it.
The two men surrounded her and thrust their swords; one aiming for her chest and the other for her stomach area. She blocked the frontal assailant with her grapple hook and with a reverse turning kick knocked the weapon of the soldier coming from behind.
She performed an uppercut with the pointy end of her grappling hook, cleanly piercing the jaw of the unfortunate soldier, nearly destroying his whole lower jaw. The last one tried to run away and called out for aid.
"Help! We're bein attac—gah…."
She fired her grapple hook, tangling his legs causing him to trip and fall head first on a nearby a boulder; a merciful elimination compared to his fellow soldiers, but she was too slow, she had been compromised.
She heard people's voices from up ahead and decided to run the other way, but as she was about to make her escape, a big group of soldiers had arrived from that route; they were the rest of the Imperial squad who had been sent ahead in order to block any escape routes for the Stormcloaks. They saw the bodies of their fellow comrades lying around her and immediately drew their blades and moved into position to surround her.
"In the name of Emperor, stop right there!" A man shouted threateningly at her.
He was the only wearing a metal armor, so she assumed that he must had been some sort of an officer.
Widowmaker was deadly in hand to hand combat, but even her was unable to take on 20 armored enemies simultaneously. She bolted towards the opposite direction hoping that there will be less resistance, but she was met with fifteen arrowheads pointed at her.
"Tsk…" She clicked her tongue and raised her hands.
"What is going on here?" Another man in metal armor showed up from behind the archers. This one had regalia on his armor, so she assumed that he must had been their leader.
"Sir…" the younger man in the armor stepped forth.
"We found that woman standing near the bodies of five imperial soldiers. Two of them are dead and the other three are in critical condition, they won't make it probably. They were no Stormcloaks nearby so we concluded that she must had attacked them." the man said in a clear voice.
"Hmm…" the man with the regalia armor approached her and took a good look at her. His gray, tired eyes met with her dead, yellow pupils of hers.
"Why did you kill them?" he asked in a calm yet imposing tone.
Widowmaker didn't say anything and just smirked at the old man. An action which enraged the old veteran , realizing that his subordinates had died for nothing.
"You bitch!" he yelled and punched her with the protruded edge of his steel gauntlet on the face, knocking Widowmaker down.
Immediately two soldiers rushed to stop him and took him away from her. The younger man in armor approached her and grabbed her by the wrist. He violently lifted her up with one arm and with the other grabbed her head and made her look him in the eyes. The blood from her cheek dripped on his arm.
"For the unjust and brutal murder of two Imperial soldiers you are hereby sentenced to death by beheading without a trial….May the Eight have mercy on your soul because we won't."
Again Widowmaker remained silent and emotionless.
"Huh….take her away! She will be taken to Helgen where she will be executed with the rest of the traitors. " He said tossing her aside.
Four armed soldiers rushed to restrain her while she was down.
"Bitch might be crazy, but she sure looks fine." One of them said as she started groping her in places.
"We will make sure that you wish that you were dead, whore."
What ensued was nothing worse than what she had been used to. Whatever those soldiers did to her was insignificant compared to what she had suffered at the hands of Talon during her indoctrination. Though she still passed out in the process because the meds which she had been taking to suppress the pain wore off.
Now,
"What's up with him?" the man in rags asked, pointing with his chin at the muffled man with the royal outfit.
"Watch your tongue! You're speaking to Ulfric Stormcloak, the True High King of Skyrim!" The soldier in blue suddenly snapped at him.
"Ulfric? But if they got him…Oh gods, where are they taking us?" the man in rags spoke in a shaky voice.
"I don't know where we are going, but Sovengarde awaits…" the soldier said in a stern tone. "Tell me…what village are you from horse thief?" The soldier asked the man in rags an unexpected question.
"Huh? Why do you care?" he asked half- angry, half confused.
"A Nord's last thoughts should be of home…" The soldier said calmly.
"I-I am from Rorikstead…Lokir of Rorikstead" the man replied after a brief pause.
"I am Ralof, from Riverwood!" The soldier answered briskly.
Widowmaker who was observing them quietly noticed that the speed of the carriage was slowing down.
"W-why are we stopping?" Lokir asked in shaky voice.
"Why do you think? End of the line…" Ralof said without averting his gaze from the snowy mountains behind them.
"Shor, Dibella, Mara, Kynareth, Akatosh…Divines please help me!" Lokir shouted; but his cry for aid was in vain, no god was going to save him today.
Widowmaker's gaze fell on some people on horses. She noticed that their outfits were different from the rest, probably some sort of officials.
"Hmpph… look at him. General Tulius, the military governor and it looks like the Thalmor are with him. Damn elves! I bet that they had something to do with this."
"Did he say elves…?"
Finally the cart stopped and two soldiers in metal armor approached them, a man and a woman. Widowmaker's gaze focused on the man, she recognized him. He was the one from from before, the young one.
"As we call out your names you will go stand over there." The woman in armor told them in a commanding voice and then nodded at the man beside her.
"Ulfric Stormcloak. Jarl of Windhelm!"
The muffled man from the cart stepped forth and walked to the designated place.
"It has been an honor, Jarl Ulfric." Widowmaker heard Ralof mumbling.
"Ralof of Riverwood."
Ralof accepting his fate followed after Ulfric with his head high.
"Lokir of Rorikstead!"
"No! I am not one of them! I am not a rebel, you can't do this!" The man in rags shouted and immediately started running.
"Halt!" The armor clad woman shouted, but he didn't stop.
"You are not going to kill me-" Lokir shouted.
"Archers!" The woman said raising her arm.
"I will be free! I will be free! I will-guh…grulp…" Loki fell down as two arrows pierced his body, one his belly and one his neck.
"Hmmph…anyone else fell like running…?" Silence. "Go on…" She nodded at the man.
"You! To the block with the rest!" The man said at Widowmaker.
"Doesn't that woman have a name?" The female officer asked.
"No…she hasn't spoken since we captured her." He replied.
"What's her crime?" The woman asked with a bit of curiosity in her voice.
"That woman murdered five Imperial soldiers. She killed two on sight and the other three succumbed to their wounds after a couple of hours." The man said, tightening his fist.
Widowmaker's feat didn't go unnoticed among the captured Stormcloaks who started cheering for her. The last time anyone had cheered for her was when she dancing for the National Ballet of France as the lead dancer. She still remembered the day, but she could not recall the feeling.
"To the block, scum!" The woman said to Widowmaker in a hateful tone.
She obeyed willingly and joined the rest who gave her a warm welcome, but Widomaker's attention was elsewhere. She noticed from afar that the elderly man in armor whom Ralof had called general Tullius before, was handing to those Thalmor people her outfit along with her grapple hook and the small cylindrical container where she stored her venom mines.
"Merde…."
She needed to escape if she was going to have her equipment back. She needed a distraction or else she would end up like Swiss cheese. She decided to wait for now, it didn't seem that they were going anywhere.
"Oh for the love of Talos. Shut the hell up and let's get this over with!" one Stormcloak soldier interrupted the priest who was giving them their last rites.
"As you wish…" the woman priest said in a somewhat annoyed tone.
"My ancestors are smiling at me Imperials, can you say the same?" The soldier in blue taunted them as he approached the executioner.
He fell on his knees and placed his head on the bloodied wooden log. Next to it, the executioner awaited with his man-sized axe at hand. A crude and barbaric weapon, but efficient anyhow. A sense of excitement surged from within her; a feeling similar to when she was killing people. It was strange because she had witnessed people getting executed before by others, usually with a bullet on the head, but up until now she hadn't felt like that.
The executioner raised his axe slowly and brought it down swiftly. A clean cut, the head of the unfortunate soldier fell on a straw basket which had been placed there beforehand and his body collapsed lifelessly on the ground. Widowmaker's eyes were fixed on the blade at first and then at the twitching body of the man.
"Next the murderer!" The woman in armor said, pointing at Widowmaker.
"C'est la vie! Looks like I have to improvise now!"
She walked towards the block when she heard a loud roar from afar.
"What was that?" A soldier asked.
"It was probably the wind, carry on." The armored woman said.
But Widowmaker was sure that was not the case. Talon had installed various cybernetic enhancements in her body, including better vision and hearing. She was sure that the roar she heard belonged to something big and it was coming this way, it was only a matter of seconds.
"Put your head on the block prisoner!" The woman said to her.
Widowmaker did as instructed though in a somewhat slow pace. She finally placed her head on the block and waited, no change on her expression whatsoever.
Roar
"There it is again! You heard it right?" the soldier asked his comrades in a panicked voice.
The woman in armor looked a bit concerned as well, but decided to focus on the task at hand and nodded at the executioner to carry on. The man in the black hood raised his axe once more, but just as he brought it down, Widowmaker rolled to the side, avoiding the fatal blow. And with a spinning, capoeira kick from the ground – she delivered a crushing blow on his chin.
For a moment, everyone was taken aback by the stunning manner which she took out the executioner. Wasting no time Widowmaker broke into a run. Her targets were the Thalmor on the horses who had her equipment.
"Guards get her!" The woman shouted.
As the soldiers drew their bows and aimed at her, a piercing thunder boomed across the place, followed by a beastly cry, causing them to lose their focus and miss the shot. The noise frightened the horses as well - one of them even dropped its rider as it rose on its two feet - and with their riders unable to calm them down the horses sprinted towards the exit of the fortress. By the time she arrived where they were a moment ago, they were all gone; all except for the man who fell off his horse.
Before the archers could draw a second arrow from their quivers, a voice filled with despair from atop of the fortress' walls reached their ears.
"W-what in Oblivion is that? "
"Sentries, what do you see?" the woman in armor asked in a loud voice.
"D-Dragon!"
Widowmaker noticed that the sky looked grim and then she saw the most unbelievable thing. A dragon flew over her head and landed atop of nearby tower, causing a mini-earthquake upon impact.
The dragon spread its black as the night wings and roared, the clouds on the sky started twirling and the heavens cried out; lightings, closely followed by a thunder struck the nearby wooden houses and set them on fire. And as if that was not enough, flaming meteors started raining down on them.
"Magnifique…" Widowmaker whispered under her breath as she saw people burning alive or getting crushed by falling rocks before her eyes.
But her excitement was short-lived, she quickly snapped back to reality when she saw that the black robed man was making a run for the exit. She dashed towards him and with a diving tackle she pinned him on the ground with her on top of him.
The man flailed around.
"What do you think you are doing? Do you know who I am? I am a high ranking Thalmor officer, if you don't release me at once I-AAAaaaah " he screamed in pain as Widowmaker broke four of his fingers on his left hand to make him shut up.
"Where did you take those things you received from the general?" She asked in a clearly, threatening voice.
"Aaah…do you think that pain will make me talk?" He said still; writhing in agony.
"Yes…" She said with a bored expression on her face while snapping one more of his fingers on his right hand.
"Aaargh….the embassy…we were taking them to the Thalmor embassy…to Elenwen…"
"Where is that embassy located?" She asked him in a cold voice.
"West of Solitude, at the base of the mountains…please let me go now" The hooded man begged her to release him.
"I am just a simple soldier. I lied, I am no official !I was just stationed here and this was my first - crack"
"What an annoyance…" She said, standing up after having broken the man's neck with her bare hands.
She had accomplished her goal and her next destination was known, she now needed to escape this place. But seeing as the entrance to the stone fortress, from which the carriage had entered had been blocked by flaming rubble, Widowmaker decided to follow some Stormcloak soldiers who were entering the stone keep. She moved stealthily across the courtyard as to avoid the Imperials. Not that anyone was paying any attention to her right now, half of them were busy shooting arrows to the dragon while the rest were trying to survive. Before entering the keep she took one last good look at the flame-spitting beast as if she wanted to etch its image on her memory.
She half opened the door and the first thing she saw was two Imperials ganking up on a Stormcloak soldier; she noticed that he was the man who was riding the carriage with her, Ralof. She knew that it would be to her best interest to help him, after all the imperials wanted to execute her and that man could help her find her next destination.
She burst through the entrance and equipped with a fancy looking dagger which she had looted from the Thalmor she killed; she stabbed one soldier through the neck and smacked the head of the other against the wall before piercing his skull through his eyeball. She looked at Ralof who stared back at his savior's expressionless face in total surprise. She prompted him to move as she started descending the stone staircase which lead to the cellar.
Ralof and Widowmaker pushed onwards searching for an exit, while also eliminating any Imperials who were unfortunate enough to cross them - even though it was Widowmaker who was doing all of the killing and Ralof basically was standing there, watching. Their road lead them to a cave which was connected to the underground tunnels of the fortress.
Moving forward Widowmaker and Ralof found themselves in a room full of spider-webs, and after they had taken a few steps inside the room, several frost-bite spiders descended from the ceiling.
"Ugh…" Widowmaker uttered and stepped away from them.
Ralof was genuinely surprised with her reaction. The woman who up until now had slaughtered without breaking a sweat or showing any emotion whatsoever several armored Imperial soldiers with a single dagger was afraid of an opponent like that. Sure if it was an adult frost-bite spider whose poison can freeze your blood, he too would be scared, but those were mere hatchlings, one swing was enough to cleave them in half and their poison would at worst give you a small frostbite.
The frost-spiders surrounded them and started spitting poison from their mouths. Widowmaker avoided the first two spits, but she was too preoccupied with the spiders to dodge the third and the fourth ones which splashed on her arm.
"Kuh…" she grunted.
"Die beasts!" Ralof shouted and with his axe at hand charged at the spiders, after a few good swings they were all dead.
Widowmaker scanned the place and saw a small side passage from which she felt air blowing. Without saying anything she headed towards it when she felt someone grabbing her wrist. She stopped and turned to face Ralof without saying anything.
"I have a healing potion for your wound. Here take it, it will soothe the pain from the poison and heal the frostbite more quickly"
He said handing her over a small vial with red liquid in it. He then realized that he was holding her hand for too long and let go, but Widowmaker hesitated and instead eyed its content suspiciously.
"It's okay you can drink it. It's not poison if that's what you are afraid. I'll drink too if you worried." He said and gulped down two sips, before attempting to pass it over one more time.
This time she took it and drank it. It was tasteless as every other food and drink which she had eaten or drunk after she lost the sense of taste and smell after her indoctrination. And even though the potion did nothing for her non-existent pain, she noticed surprised that after drinking it her injury was gone in a matter of seconds.
"Feeling better?" Ralof asked.
She didn't say anything and turned to leave, Ralof followed quietly after her. The side passage which they had chosen did indeed take them to the surface and after a few minutes walk they found the exit, unfortunately a huge bear was sleeping near it. They tried to sneak by, but due to a Ralof's misstep the bear woke up and charged at them. Unfortunately for the bear though, her opponent was Widowmaker, the bear stood no chance. Ultimately she fell lifeless on the ground with a dagger stuck on its neck. Again Ralof was just a witness to all that.
"So you are okay taking on armored soldier sand huge bears, but you are afraid of those tiny spiders?" He asked in a teasing tone.
"Tiny…? Those were tiny?" She thought to herself, before turning her back on him and heading for the exit.
"Hey, wait! I didn't mean to offend you, I only said a joke to lighten the mood –" he paused.
"Listen, once we get out I am guessing that you will probably go your own way, but I want you to know that I am truly grateful for your help. I wouldn't have made it on my own.
Thank you …"
For a moment there, Widowmaker suffered a mini brain-freeze. She couldn't believe the words she just heard were directed at her. All the pain, cruelty and suffering which she had experienced during her brainwashing had left her an empty, hollow husk of her past self. She was now a cold, emotionless killing machine who only found excitement in killing people; and she had murdered a lot, among other things. And now there was someone who was actually expressing his gratitude at her. Deep down she knew that he only did it because she saved his life but still, this was the first time someone had thanked her for anything in a long time. He was from a different world apparently which meant that he didn't know who she was, but still his words had an effect on her.
She stopped right on her tracks, turned around and looked at him. "Thalmor embassy, Solitude. How do I go there?"
Ralof blinked surprised. "You can talk…? No, more importantly what do you want to do in the Thalmor embassy, you can't be working with them or you wouldn't be getting executed. That's a dangerous place, you shouldn't go there." Ralof said to her in a concerned tone
She remained silent and turned around. "Wait!" Ralof said when she saw her walking away.
"I don't know where exactly the embassy is, but If you want to go to Solitude you can hire a carriage, there are usually carriages available at the gates of each Hold's capitals.
The closest capital from here is Whiterun. It's just past my hometown, Riverwood. I am heading there right now to inform them about the dragon and rest for a few days before rejoining my comrades. You are welcome to join me if you want. My family will be more than happy to accommodate you."
Widowmaker didn't say anything and just nodded at his offer. They stepped out of the cave and together they began walking towards Riverwood.
While she didn't realize it yet, something inside her had changed after arriving in this place. She would eventually take notice of it, one way or another, fate would make sure of it.
And so that's chapter one!
Don't hesitate to tell me your thoughts!