{A/N:} Hello there! I'm back with a second chapter, and I'm on a role with my writing habits, with school taking up most of my free time! :)

Anywho, before the story, I would like to sincerely thank those who have reviewed, followed, and/or favorited, any and all feedback is appreciated so much more than you know. To all my loyal readers, I hope you enjoy this second chapter even more than the first! I'll do my best to keep up with my writing and I just hope you can keep up with your reading and enjoyment!

Thank ya, guys.

-Nb

Chapter 2: Stalemate

…

Genji stood in the shadows of the interrogation room, unseen by the only other pair of eyes in the room besides himself. Amelie's.

She had enough chains tying her down to her seat to keep a tank from moving, the steel chair beneath her being nailed to the floor along with the stainless, albeit dented table that was set in front of her for tests and examination studies. Her helmet and weapons were taken to forensics for further study, her suit and even her hair-tie were confiscated by the authorities and she was left only in a baggy, orange jumpsuit with an ID number stamped on the breast of it.

After the events of the previous night, Genji took the unconscious Widowmaker into custody and went straight for the church. The situation was bad, dire even. And that was still putting it light.

Genji could hear an intense argument in the other room with his robotically-enhanced senses.

"She detonated a bomb that levelled a church AND a business office, killed 16 innocent civilians, injured 36 more, and put 5 of our most trusted friends in critical condition, and you're asking me to be calm with her?!" shouted an enraged Winston.

An agitated and clearly stressed-out Angela sternly replied, "I'm asking you to honor her rights as a human being! You may have been put in charge of interrogation, but I'm staying here to make sure the law is followed!"

"This is ludicrous! You are acting like a sympathizer for this murderous assassin when our friends could potentially die because of her!" he retorted.

"And you are acting like a complete animal!"

"I AM an animal!"

A sly smirk slipped across Amelie's lips as she finally voiced a thought, "You can hear them too, can't you? Their pointless debate on how to handle me." Her voice carried out from her lips in a smooth, French accent. But not the relaxing sort of smooth. The unsettling, spider-silk thread sort of smooth that left you conflicted on if she was just being social or if she was planning your demise between every word of her sentence.

Genji glared suspiciously, "How did you know I was here? I haven't made a sound since you woke up in your seat and nobody saw me come in."

A dark chuckle escaped her throat, "I can hear your heart beating… A dull, mechanical tone. Pumping only due to the metallic shell encasing your body at all times. Beating only at the cost of your own humanity."

"I'm far more human than you showed yourself to be tonight, Amelie. You have a lot of explaining to do."

Amelie turned her head the slightest bit so Genji could see but the corner of her amber eye, "That's a naïve thing to say. That you are more human than I. The point of being human is that you are conscious enough to make your own moral decisions. Did I not make my own conscious decision tonight? Did I not choose to shoot your friend? And did I not willingly trigger the explosion that might have killed what family you have left?"

Genji slowly walked over to stand beside the table, his eyes staring daggers into her own, even with the green visor in his mask concealing them, "I don't believe you did."

Amelie glared up at him in a condescending fashion, "How stupid can you be? You are the only one who believes that, if you mean that. Everyone impacted by the events of last night knows what happened and have all the evidence they need to see clearly who did it. Whose side are you even on?"

He shook his head and turned away, "The girl I once knew would not have done this. She could not. I think someone made the decision for you."

She stared up at him in disbelief for a moment before giving a brief chortle, "Genji Shimada… Playing the hero for me again. A man after my own cold, dead heart."

"Did you tell your husband that too, before you murdered him?"

"Never even once."

A dry chuckle escaped him, "I'm not sure which is worse. The fact that you admitted that just now, or the fact that I want to believe you."

With some struggle from the shackles keeping her tied to her chair, she shifted one of her legs over the other and smirked at him ever so lightly, "Are either of those options really so bad?" she hummed.

"What happened, Amelie? Did you never love your husband at all to go so far as to murder him?"

She rolled her eyes in an irritated way and looked away from him, "You're not going to let this go, are you?"

Genji merely stared down at her expectantly.

"Love is for children, Shimada. I was young and naïve, but life taught me earlier than most that love is not a feeling but an idea. An idea that helped me grow up. My husband served his purpose in helping me mature… and when I matured, my emotional attachment to him became…" she leaned back in her seat as much as she was capable of, "…expendable."

"So your loyalty to your employer became stronger than your loyalty to your husband?" he asked curiously.

She raised a thin, blue-black brow and smirked amusedly, "You still think someone is controlling my actions."

He nodded to confirm her thought, "I do. In fact I am certain of it. Even when separating yourself from the people you love, you do not just lose your loyalty to them so suddenly. The love remains, untarnished and loyal, even when worlds apart."

A knowing simper graced her expression suddenly, "Using yourself as an example?"

"Yes. I live by example, something I think you're incapable of right now," he answered in a stern tone.

"Do you think I am weak?"

"I think you're trapped."

Amelie looked to the silver, mirror-like glass window behind Genji as she replied, "You think I am the one who's trapped. But maybe you should go back and reassess your casualties from last night. Then come back and tell me… Who is really trapped?"

Genji became silent in response, looking to the window and just now noticing that the distracted, argumentative voices had ceased behind the window. The eyes watching them through the window were invisible but both Genji and Amelie knew they were there.

Knowing that Amelie's words were more aimed at those watching them than they were at him, he turned to the window and crossed his arms casually, "Winston, Doctor Ziegler. Care to join us?"

An audible buzz rang out from the door to the interrogation room, meaning it was now unlocked.

Genji stared at the door for a long moment but nobody came in.

"It seems they are expecting you, Genji," Amelie broke the silence with a sarcastic smile.

"Seems that way. Don't go anywhere, I'll be right back," he retorted with equal sarcasm, despite his monotone, walking over to the door and turning the handle to the door to exit the interrogation room.

She glared at the back of his head, obviously too tied down to move more than an inch, "You're so funny."

Genji walked into the room that Angela and Winston were in, attached directly to the room he was just in by the mirror-like window that peered into the interrogation room.

"You called?" Genji asked, his tone low and mechanical as it usually was.

Winston waved an arm outward in greeting, "Genji! I must admit, I had no idea you were in there during our previous interrogation attempt. How long were you in there for?"

Genji smirked a bit beneath his mask and didn't even get the chance to answer before Winston added, "Actually… Doesn't matter," he chuckled sheepishly.

Angela gave him a concerned look and moved onto the topic at hand, "Genji, what was that in there?"

He crossed his arms casually, "I was giving my best shot at an interrogation. I haven't done enough since this all started and officially this is an Overwatch operation so I should be doing my part any chance I get."

She frowned a bit, but the frown instantly became a reassuring smile, "Genji, you chased down the shooter and took her into custody before she could get away with what she did. That by itself has taken a lot off of everyone's plates, already."

Genji's face reddened behind his mask at remembering the events of the previous night, the kiss he shared with Amelie being the first kiss he'd had with someone in years.

Winston cleared his throat in a deep tone, "She's right, Genji, in the sense of you already doing so much to help us out in this investigation. But after what we saw in that interrogation room, between you and this Widowmaker, I think I've found the perfect solution to prying information out of her brain."

Angela merely listened, Genji being rather surprised at already knowing what Winston had in mind.

Winston pointed at Genji with a single, thick-skinned finger, "I'm putting you, and you alone, in charge of interrogation."

Angela's eyes widened, "Just Genji and no one else? Winston, is that really such a good idea? She's clearly an operative of some revived Talon group to have any lasting grudge on our friends, you know full well what they're capable of…"

The gorilla let out a hearty laugh, "And you know full well what Genji is capable of! Come, Angela, you underestimate our Overwatch operatives. Our group has some of the strongest, most talented minds in the world and Genji is no exception to this rule."

Genji nodded, "This time, I must side with Winston, Doctor Ziegler. I am more than prepared for such a task as an interrogation. As you've already witnessed first-hand, I have been the only one thus far to be successful in getting any information or even a reaction out of her."

Winston nodded and looked to Angela with a careful look, pondering his words carefully so as to not upset her over this matter anymore than she already was, "Doctor Ziegler… He is correct, I think that it would be best if we—"

"Fine," she interjected, a sigh escaping her lips and a hand running through her thick, blonde locks, "But he's still not fully qualified for an interrogation alone, Winston."

The science-proficient primate scratched his chin thoughtfully, "Well, no I suppose he doesn't have to do it alone, but if you took notice, the Widowmaker assassin seemed more willing to open up to him while we were distracted and she believed that they were free to speak alone."

Those words alone were enough to make Angela suspicious as to what was going on beneath the surface between Genji and Amelie, but she said nothing of it. Rather, she gave a wide smile and pressed her hands together as if she'd come to a conclusion on the matter, "Then we will let them be alone with a recording device in the studio here! After each recorded interrogation session, I will take the video clips and the recordings and work with Genji during the later work hours to try to decipher what drove her to commit the assassination attempt."

Winston and Genji were both taken aback by the idea, both looking to each other to see if they were thinking the same thing and nodded to one another.

Genji looked to Angela again, "That would be a great assistance to me in the interrogation. And equally, it would provide a more comfortable environment for Amelie to speak to me in."

Angela passed a glance at Winston to see if she was the only one who noticed Genji was referring to Widowmaker by her original name still, despite Widow's distinct demand that she only be referred to as Widowmaker.

But judging by Winston exclaiming firmly, "Excellent! Then we have a plan of action!"

Her eyes trailed back to Genji uncertainly at that, "The Widowmaker has been going through examination since she regained consciousness and she's showing signs of fatigue. I think it would be best to call it a day and Genji can start his interrogation on her tomorrow."

"I agree. Besides we should…" Winston's grizzled, furry face grew a dreary look, "… start wrapping things up for the day. So we can visit everyone at the hospital."

Genji's eyes turned to look at Amelie through the mirror-like window, her eyelids half shut from drowsiness, and he nodded silently in reply. With a majority of the only family he had left all in various forms of critical condition, he needed to know what the situation was. How bad things were going to be from now on. All three of them needed to know, if they were going to get to the bottom of this investigation and stay alive doing it.

Angela made her way to the door and opened it up for Winston to go out first since he was closest to it of the group, "Yes, we should get ready to go now. No calls from the hospital have been made so far, so that's a good sign. But that doesn't mean anything is for certain. Critical condition is not a hopeful term in the medical world."

Winston made his way out the door first, his eyes turned down at the floor with an obvious look of being lost in his own thoughts. He used to only get that look when faced with a problem in one of his experiments, but since the events of last night, he'd been wearing that expression a lot. They all had in their own ways.

Genji went to leave the room behind the gorilla when Angela suddenly shut the door very gently before he could leave, a stern look on her face.

An unseen look of confusion crossed his expression, "Angela?"

She looked up at him, the corner of her lips quirking a bit, "You're hiding something… there's a reason the Miss Lacroix is so responsive to you, isn't there?"

Genji looked down from her, "… It's nothing important, Angela. Nothing about it is relevant to the case, other than the fact that we know each other from a long time ago. And even then, the only relevancy it brings up is that it makes her more responsive to my questions."

"I don't mean to pry. But please, it might help me understand the situation between you two better if you tell me."

"It's not important, Angela, please don't worry about it."

"I'm not worried about your relationship with her. I'm worried about you."

"It wasn't a relationship. It was—"

"An affair?"

"No!" Genji shook his head, rubbing the spot where his temple was on the side of his helmet with a sigh, "Look, I need to take Amelie— to take Widowmaker— back to solitary confinement. I'll meet you and Winston at the hospital, I'm right behind you, I promise."

He reached for the doorknob and Angela let go of it so Genji could open the door and take his leave, "Genji…"

Genji looked back at her out of the corner of his visor.

"I'm sorry… please, don't be upset with me."

He looked away from her for a moment before replying, "I can't be upset with you, Doctor Ziegler. You're only trying to help, I know. We'll talk more at the hospital." And with that, he left the room to return to interrogation where Amelie was waiting.

Angela watched him enter the room through her view from the window for a moment, before pressing a button on the studio's control panel to release all of Amelie's chains aside from the cuffs suspending her wrists and hands in place. With that, she took her leave as well, rushing to catch up with Winston who already had a head start on her.

Amelie took slow, steady steps down the hallway so as to not alert all the security turrets mounted on the ceiling but a few yards from each other. Genji walked behind her, hand pressed against the spot on her back between her shoulder blades as he guided her back to solitary confinement.

They had been walking in silence for a good five minutes before Amelie finally broke the silence, looking back at him and smirking as she whispered, "You can put your hand a little lower, I'm sure the auto-turrets don't mind," she snickered darkly.

Genji almost immediately replied with, "You're not setting me up for that, Miss Lacroix. I know you're only going to trick me into doing what you want."

She let out a dry chuckle, "Oh? What could I possibly trick you into doing? Shutting down all the security turrets and taking these cuffs off of me?"

"Very funny."

"About as funny as you are," she retorted.

He turned a corner with her and looked up to see the holographic sign suspended between the walls and the ceiling above it that read 'Solitary Confinement.'

"Well, I'm guessing there's not going to be any convincing you to make my solitary confinement for the night a little less solitary, oui?" she asked rhetorically.

"Uh… oui?" he replied.

She smirked a bit as they approached her cell, "Don't know much French, do you?"

"None at all. I have friends from all over the world and I usually pick up bits and pieces of their language but… we didn't get to know each other long enough for me to pick up yours."

She yawned lightly, "You could have stuck around a little while longer."

"And what? Your husband would be alive right now?"

"Don't put words in my mouth. My husband was the target, you were not. Technically, I can't guarantee you wouldn't have been my next target after him but…" she smirked, "That's history now."

"With luck, I'll get to the bottom of this and history can be rewritten. You'll be free…" Genji stopped with her at her cell, and turned her head away so he could enter the key to unlock her cell, the door suddenly sliding straight open from the floor to the ceiling, revealing a pure white room inside with a single bed and a metal toilet.

She turned to him afterwards and smirked, "You always did like to think you were a hero, Shimada. That you could fix any broken girl's problems with just a flash of that pretty smile under the mask and some soothing words. But you're going to figure out the hard way that I'm not being controlled. The girl you once knew and the girl you know now are one and the same. And I have to admit, I almost feel sorry for you. That things must be the way they are."

Genji gave her a light push to get her to walk into her cell, "You're wrong again, Amelie. I was never trying to be anyone's hero… and I'm still not," he trailed off, Amelie turning to face him with a blink of her narrow, golden eyes.

He reached his hand up to rest his first two fingers on the button to shut her cell door, but he paused before he could press it.

"I'm just a man trying to keep others from walking the path I've walked. Seeing the things I've seen. And I know you've already been through everything that I have, even worse than me actually," he looked back up at her, "But it's never too late to rewrite things for yourself. To find tranquility in the storm."

She listened to him closely, without a word.

"I'm not your hero, Amelie. I'm just an old friend trying to help."

"And that is where you are wrong, Genji."

A dark simper crossed her lips.

"You are my hero. And I'm going to make sure you regret every last second you spend on me."

With that, Genji pressed the button to shut her cell door with a loud, sharp sound. He looked down the hallway for a long moment before turning and making his way to back to the main section of the base so he could get ready to meet Angela and Winston at the hospital.

Inside her cell, Amelie continued to stare at the door, long after Genji locked her inside and left. Her knowing smirk would not fade.

"C'est la vie, Genji Shimada. C'est la vie."

…

{A/N:} Good Lord, you wanna talk about writing on an empty tank. I'm so tired. I didn't have a lot of time to do a spell check, so if any of you see errors or some story content that bugs you in any way, feel free to let me know and I'll be sure fix anything I missed between sessions of writing my next chapter. :)

So? How's it looking so far? Think you got the Amelie and Genji situation figured out yet?

All I can say is you may be surprised of what's really going on!

But by all means, let me know what you think! I love to hear your opinions and I also reply to any feedback you give me (to those that review on accounts with PM-access) so don't leave me hangin'!

Thanks so much, readers!

-Nb