Chapter 1
My stomach lurches and I'm pushed forward in my seat as the ship bumps to a stop. The metal bar across my waist slides up and I stand. A hand grasps my shoulder and I look to my side to see Mercy smiling up at me.
"Ready, 76?," she says. She asks me this every day, and the answer is always the same.
"Ready, Ziegler." I place my mask over my nose and mouth, but still feel a cold breeze as the door of the ship drops open. A robotic voice over the loudspeaker blares:
"Welcome to Volskaya Industries. Your current objective is to stop your opponents from capturing both control points. The points are located towards the center of your location. Good luck."
I rush out of the ship, and feel thin patches of snow crunching under my boots as I hit the ground running. Mercy follows soon after, keeping up with the help of her wings. We're joined by the rest of the team as we make progress towards Point A.
"So," begins Reinhardt, his thick German accent breaking the silence, "What is the plan?"
I notice that he's addressing me when he speaks. He expects me to have something planned out. I do.
"Reinhardt, you stand in the center of the point. Make sure no one comes in," I say, "Torbjörn, help Reinhardt defend. Set up a turret at the corner of the area."
Torbjörn nods, his mouth a grim line under his golden beard.
"What about me?," asks Tracer, blinking to my side as we reach the control point.
"You and McCree will defend the west entrance while Mercy and I take the north. Take position, team. You all have two minutes."
At my words, they disperse into their positions, Reinhardt stepping into the center of the glowing rectangle, Torbjörn taking the bottom left-hand corner. He begins constructing a shiny red turret next to a safety canopy containing a large health pack. He finishes building his turret and we all meet at the center of the point. We form a circle as the speaker blares:
"Sixty seconds remaining! Assume your positions."
I place my hand in the middle of the circle, Mercy puts hers on top of mine, Tracer's on top of Mercy's, McCree's on top of Tracer's, Torbjörn's on top of McCree's, and Reinhardt's on top of all of ours.
"Alright, team," I start, "Today, we put our all in. We can't afford to lose this again."
I stare into the grim faces of my teammates. I can't help but feel nervous. Even after being a member of Overwatch for so many years and fighting so many battles, I still feel hesitant sometimes. I think Mercy feels the tension, so she squeezes my hand reassuringly. Her presence floods my body and I feel my cheeks grow warm under the mask. I clear my throat and stand up straighter.
I pull my mask off of my face and look at each one of my teammates.
"We just..." I begin, "We just can't lose again. And I know that every single one of you has the strength to win."
I smile at my team, my friends. It still feels a little bit forced, so I place my mask back on and count down.
"3, 2, 1," I say.
"Team!," we all respond and lift our hands in the air together.
McCree and Tracer rush to the west entrance as the countdown begins:
"5."
Reinhardt takes position in the middle of the point.
"4."
Torbjörn stands next to his turret, its red metal gleaming in the sunlight.
"3."
I sprint to the north entrance, and Mercy glides through the air, a string of yellow light leading her to me.
"2."
I pull my gun out of its holster and position it against my arm.
"1."
The distant sound of maniac cackling resonates through the air as a sinister dust settles, and the sound of boots crunching through snow seems to grow closer.
My shoulders tense up and I take a deep breathe as a dirty face cackles, staring at me from around the corner. The next thing I feel is a tingling warmth, tendrils crawling up my body until I am surrounded by a fuzzy halo of light. I turn around and, sure enough, I see Mercy holding her staff towards my back, a grim expression on her face as she nods. I nod back and turn away. I run into the sheltered tent-like alcove next to the objective and she follows.
Looking in front of me, I see Reinhardt and Junkrat battling. Reinhardt's hammer flies and lands a hit on Junkrat's stomach. Junkrat recovers and produces a concussion mine from his back pocket. He throws it above Reinhardt's head and presses a big red button, activating the bomb.
Mercy moves quickly, getting to Reinhardt just in time and healing him slightly, but she is immediately noticed by the junker. He launches a grenade out of his weapon and it explodes next to her. She stumbles into the shelter and grabs a large health pack from the pile of crates in the corner. She holds it up to her chest and it dissolves into her clothes as her chest heaves in relief.
Reinhardt has now pinned Junkrat against the cold metal wall, crushing his life away. Junkrat crumples on the ground, dead. But before Reinhardt has processed what happened, I see the bombs from Junkrat's body land at Reinhardt's feet and blow up. Mercy gasps but soon regains her composure. I speak into my mask headset.
"Ally down. Is everyone okay?"
I hear static coming in through my earpiece
"Fine. I just took down Mei and Tracer's working on Reaper," said McCree, the sound of gunfire interrupting his voice.
Mercy presses the button on her earpiece.
"Is Tracer okay on health?" she asks, doctorly concern ringing behind her voice.
I hear McCree repeat the question to Tracer from a distance. I don't hear her reply.
"She's doing fine," says McCree, but as he speaks, I hear a loud gunshot echo through my earpiece and Mercy and I cringe simultaneously.
"No!" shouts McCree, "No. She just took a bullet to the shoulder. You better get here quick, doc."
"I'm on my way," says Mercy, her voice echoing through the headset as she speeds over to Tracer, staff at the ready.
I try to catch up to her but I am stopped when a patch of snow flies up on the ground next to me. I look behind me and see Widowmaker standing on the platform, gun aiming at my feet.
"Bonjour," she scowls.
She begins to fire at me. She shoots me in the left leg and right arm. I fire back and hit a lucky shot in the middle of her chest. She clutches at her heart dramatically and falls to the ground. I begin to limp over to Mercy, McCree, and an injured Tracer, but hear the quick noise of Torjörn's turret firing at something that seems to be whirring. I don't recognize that sound. Then, as I round the corner, I the white tail of a dress disappearing into a safe house next to us.
Reaper is dead, riddled with holes from Tracer's pulse pistols. McCree is keeping watch.
"Sixty seconds remaining!" Athena's automated voice yells through the loudspeaker.
Mercy heals Tracer and she is back to normal health in a few seconds. However, before I have time to warn my teammates, Symmetra is on Tracer like a cheetah. She leaps from the safe house and points her photon projector at Tracer's back and it connects, embracing her like a spider leaping on its prey, cocooning her in hard-light.
Tracer falls on the ground dead, and before Symmetra can escape, I aim at her and fire. Symmetra dies too, tripping over her own feet as she tries to run away.
"Thirty seconds remaining!" Athena warns.
We go around the corner to see if anyone got on the point. A pink-haired head whips around when we show up. Zarya starts her gun, holding it on her knee and points it at me. No. She points it at Mercy. Zarya burns a whole through Mercy's stomach just as I jump in front of her. I shoot her down, McCree guarding my back. As Zarya falls, she flings her gun and it points at my chest, creating a dark hole across the chest of my jacket. My skin burns and I fall over onto McCree. He catches me and brings me to the nearest safe house for protection.
"Victory!" Athena's automated voice yells through the loudspeaker.
I sit with my back propped back up against the wall, pain searing through my chest and limbs. My gloves are bloody and I take them off, throwing them to the ground next to me, holding my stomach.
McCree sighs.
"I don't know about you but I'm gonna go meet the others on the ship. Give them the good news," he says.
"Alright," says Mercy, "We won't be long. I just need to get this idiot healed up."
She smiles at me and I take off my mask and return it weakly.
"Ok. Don't be too long. I hear a storm's coming. I think I saw some lightning in the distance." He looks up at the sky and sighs again as he walks away.
Mercy starts to raise her staff, but I hold my hand out and stop her.
"Don't," I say.
She whimpers in pain.
"Let me see," I try to bend down to see her wound but my own injuries force me back against the wall.
"It's my job to protect you, Jack," she says with a tone of seriousness in her voice.
"No!" I say too loudly. She jumps. "I said no. I'm sorry, but it's my turn to help you. You've done enough."
She nods, defeated. I pull my biotic field from a strap on my pants and slam it down on the concrete. Our gunshot wounds start to close in and my burn freezes over.
She sits back against the wall and closes her eyes. They open again and she looks into mine.
"Thank you, Jack. I mean, for jumping in front of me."
"Thank you," I say. "Ziegler, you save my life every day. Without you...without you..."
She shushes me by putting her finger over my lips. My face burns red.
"Shut up, you big idiot. I'm not going anywhere," she whispers.
She scoots closer to me. She's practically sitting on my lap now. My heart pounds as she touches my shoulder. I get chills when she moves her hand towards my cheek. And her lips touch my neck and I think I love her. And my jaw and I know love her. She kisses my cheek and my chin and my nose and my li-...I love her but I can't.
"I can't do this," I say, "I'm so sorry but I just...I...I can't be with you."
She backs up, worried and surprised.
"But-"
"I just can't. Please, I just can't," I don't know when I stood up but I'm on my feet now. So is Mercy. I start to walk out.
"Jack..."
But I'm gone already. She runs after me, catching up with her wings. She's right behind me now. I just keep walking
"Jack, can we just talk about this? Please?!"
I keep walking and she keeps flying back to me.
"Jack-"
My feet stop crunching in the snow and I turn to face her.
"Ziegler, are you fucking deaf?!" I'm startled at the loudness of my own voice and I almost choke on my words, "I told you I can't do this! I don't want to talk about this, please, just leave me alone!"
She stands there staring at me with dry eyes, emotionless.
It's so quiet and I just want it to stop. So I start walking, the sound of my footsteps filling the space between us. After a few seconds, I hear her following behind, but she doesn't try to catch up this time. I prepare myself for something, anything, maybe a sniffle or a sob, but nothing comes. So I keep walking until I get to the ship and we take off in silence.