Hana felt terrible. She had betrayed everything she stood for.
She and the woman were alone in the passenger section of the dropship, sitting at opposite sides of the aisle. No one had said anything in the hours since takeoff.
Hana stared out the display port, watching the moonlit landscape of Korea pass by below, feeling on the verge of both crying and vomiting. She turned to glance at the woman, who had been staring at her wall of holograms ever since they left.
"You know, if I were you, child, I wouldn't look so sad." The woman said, still looking at her holograms, "If you had been any other pilot, you would be dead now."
"I would be better off dead."
The woman made an elegant gesture that shut off the holograms and stared intensely at her.
"Amiga, if you actually believed that, you would have let me shoot you"
Hana knew she was right and it made her feel even worse. She turned back to the display port.
"Ever going to tell me your name?" she muttered.
After a short delay, "Sombra."
Another hour passed in silence.
"On final approach for Outpost Raven." the PA system finally crackled.
The dropship shook as the landing gear settled on the ground. Hana pretended not to notice.
"Time to go." Sombra said, standing in the aisle.
Hana rose reluctantly with unecessary slowness.
Sombra gave her an annoyed stare.
"You should be more thankful, I am your only friend here."
Hana's face turned red with anger.
"You will never be my frie-"
Sombra grabbed Hana hard by the chin, jerking her face upwards.
"You live or die at my mercy, remember that, amiga."
She let go.
"Now, follow me" Sombra said as she started towards the exit.
Every fiber of Hana's body felt like disobeying. She clenched her hands into fists and growled under her breath, then followed Sombra outside. They were on a tiny island. From the grass plateau they had landed on she could see the entirety of the island, she estimated it was barely a kilometer across. The only feature she could make out in the glow of the moon, were some steep cliffs at the center of the plateau, studying them closer, she noticed some of the rocks looking strangely angular. They must artificial, which meant it was some kind of disguised structure. This since was only apparent since they had landed right next to it. No wonder no one had found this base.
A few meters away Sombra was talking with a Talon soldier.
Sombra stabbed a thumb in her direction "Get her marked and find her some quarters."
The man nodded and started approaching her. Hana didn't even have the spirit to insult him.
"Song," Sombra was looking at her with a cheeky smile, "Talk to you later, eh?"
She rolled her eyes.
A crack in the cliff had revealed a hidden door that let to a high-tech elevator. She was escorted by two soldiers, if they recognized here, they made no sign of it. The only noise was the rhythmic beep of the elevator passing a floor. She counted 20 floors. The base must be huge, nobody knew Talon was this well-funded and organized, especially not in this region.
At the end of the elevator ride she was put through some kind of security checkpoint.
A woman stabbed her with a some kind of blunt injector, she felt a flash of pain and something small being inserted inside her neck. Probably some kind of tracker. She barely registered this, her mind felt numb.
She was then shown her quarters. She had been expecting that she would share quarters with other Talon personnel, but was pleasantly surprised to see that she had both her own room and bathroom. She had expected a dark cramped underground military base, but except for the lack of windows, the base looked like a luxurious corporate office complete with Talon branding. It was unsettling seeing Talon being this well-organized.
Later a soldier escorted her to what she guessed were Sombra's quarters.
"Time to get rid of that ridiculous suit." she had said.
Considering the glowing arms and legs of Sombra, Hana wasn't sure she was the ridiculous one. But for once she kept her remarks to herself.
She had been handed a Talon suit. It was completely black(of course) and was layered with carbon fiber plates. The left breast was marked "M-Pilot" in bold red letters. It looked kind of cool in a bad guy way. Her stream would have loved it, she thought with a tinge of sadness.
"Amiga, you should know, that device in your neck," Sombra had said to her on her way out, "If do anything thing funny, like... trying to escape, broadcast something or even tamper with the device, a burst of cyanide will be blown right into to your bloodstream."
At first the days passed slowly.
She was assigned to some kind of black-ops mecha squadron. Her days consisted of long hours of simulation training followed by hours of oppressive boredom and loneliness in her quarters.
Even though most of the other pilots were in their twenties(she guessed it was because was without her trademark suit and makeup), thankfully, no one seemed to recognize her.
If she ever managed to escape, she would have more intel on Talon than anyone else. That gave her hope.
Her performance in the simulations quickly earned her the respect of the other pilots. Initially, several of them tried to befriend her, she got a small amount of satisfaction from refusing all attempts at social contact and soon they all started leaving her alone. The cost was crushing loneliness.
She spent all her free time in her bed, staring at the ceiling. She had betrayed herself, she knew that, but she did her best to avoid thinking about it. Instead, she though of her family, her friends, and all the people she would probably never see again.
After two weeks, the loneliness became too much.
One evening she stood outside Sombra's quarters, finger on the door scanner. To her surprise, the door was opened almost instantly.
Inside, Sombra was leaning back in a chair, crossed legs on a desk and surrounded by her usual wall of holograms.
"Hola." she said in a distracted voice without looking up.
"Check this out." Sombra made a flinging gesture and one of the holograms flipped and moved towards Hana. It was an article from an online paper, the headline read: 'Celebrity Dva still MIA. Presumed dead'. The rest of the article was bad news, the South Korean government presumed she was dead and was winding down the search. This killed any hope of rescue and she already regretted coming here.
"Don't look so sad, amiga, I got big plans for you."
Hana crossed her arms, "I'm not your amiga! And I will never do anything for you!"
Sombra chuckled.
"When the time comes, you won't have a choice."
Hana hated she was being used like this and put on her most despising look.
"If you came here to be angry child," Sombra said, still staring at her holograms, "you can leave right now."
Hana had a suitably fierce reply on her tongue, but realized that even talking to this nasty woman was better than being alone in her quarters. She slowly calmed herself by looking around Sombra quarters, it was very spartan, but of the few pieces hardware that were, she had managed to make a mess of. Unsurprisingly, there were no personal objects of any kind. She turned back to Sombra.
"Will I ever be released?"
Sombra tapped her chin and made an exaggerated thinking expression, "No." she said and turned back to her holograms.
Hana's heart barely sank, she had expected that answer. She then decided to leave, but then immediately decided against it. What else was she supposed to do? Go back to quarters and stare at the ceiling? Do more mind-numbing simulations? Might as well annoy Sombra as long as possible, even though she did not seem to mind, or in fact notice, her presence at all.
"Gosh, you are an even bigger nerd than me."
Sombra actually smiled at that, she then asked, "Do you miss your games?"
Sombra had arranged for a computer to be installed in Hana's quarters with a copy of Starcraft II on it. Whether this was a calculated move or an act of genuine kindness, it didn't really matter: Hana finally had something to do.
Of course, she had no internet connection and could only play against AI, but that was still infinitely better than studying the ceiling and it gave some from of connection to her previous life.
After a week, she saw Sombra again, then twice the next week. It felt like yet another defeat to admit it, but they were building a strange kind of friendship, even though neither liked the other very much, but for once it did need seem to be part of Sombra's scheming: She didn't seem to really speak with anyone else at the base, either.
It was an oddly pathetic relationship, but it was all Hana had.
Then one day, the moment she had been dreading arrived: She was assigned on a mission.