Chapter 4: Ask Me A Question
Widowmaker hummed to herself as she eyed the target through her scope. The Omnic was sitting in the otherwise unoccupied apartment watching a news report about escalating violence in Russia. She could make out the words filtered through her visor's audio pick up as the newscaster droned on about the Omnium factory coming back online and a Second Omnic Crisis.
To Widowmaker's surprise she had been pulled away from her down time at her French villa for a mission far sooner then she expected. Now she was on a rooftop in Germany staring down the scope of her rifle once again. Not that she could complain. Being out for a mission was always more interesting.
The target in question this time was someone who had seen a Talon operation happening. The Omnic worked as a janitor at a local university and had been there when Talon operatives snuck in and stole copies of some rather detailed research on how nanotechnology affected the brain. It wasn't until they had stopped to scrub the security videos that one of the Talon infiltrators noticed the Omnic watching them from just out of their line of sight. By then it was too risky to go back inside. So instead they sent their best assassin to get rid of the threat.
A human mentioning that they saw something suspicious probably wouldn't warrant much attention, especially with no evidence left behind to prove it. Omnic's however stored all of their memories on specialized hard drives. If it decided to speak up all it had to do was bring up the information and show the video footage to the police.
Of course a single bullet could eliminate that possibility.
Widowmaker continued humming as she decreased the power slightly and adjusted for the wind. Her finger moved to the trigger preparing to fire.
The Omnic suddenly turned to face the door and stood up but didn't move. A second later a woman with light brown skin and dyed blue and purple hair walked into view. She threw her arms around the Omnic's neck, hugging them in a way that suggested more then just friendship. The Omnic shook their head and took the woman's hand before going back to sit on the couch next to her talking and gesturing to the TV.
Widowmaker narrowed her eyes and adjusted the audio filters on her headset to block out the TV.
"There has to be something we can do. The police..." the woman complained.
"The police are more likely to convict me then to listen to me. You know that," the Omnic gently replied.
"I... I know and I hate that so much. Especially now with the violence in Russia again with that factory thing starting up again?" she stopped and sighed. "Maybe I should say something instead."
"That would likely compound the issue. A person known to be romantically involved with an Omnic is controversial enough as it is. Bringing up what I saw would only lead to more questions and possibly more trouble then just me speaking up alone. I don't want you to get hurt," the Omnic said and squeezed her hand tightly.
"There has to be something. Can we copy the video and have someone edit it so that it doesn't lead back to you?"
"That... could work if we were careful but right know I'm just not sure. Especially after what happened to Mondata. Just promise you won't do anything on your own. Please?"
"I wont. Just as long as you promise to be careful. Maybe we should just move. I've heard there are safer places where Omnic citizens can live in safety."
Widowmaker turned off the audio as they turned to discussing something else. Technically speaking the Omnic was still in sight. It would be easy look through her scope again and take him out with one bullet even with the woman sitting next to him.
Still she kept hesitating.
The hunt. The chase. The thrill of hitting her target were the only things that really made her feel alive anymore but that didn't mean she went around shooting indiscriminately. Even during the chase between her and Tracer on the rooftops of King's Row she had been careful not to kill the policemen on the roofs. Granted they would have some nasty bruises and maybe some cracked ribs from her rifle bullets slamming into their kevlar vests but they were still alive. There was no point in shooting someone if there was another way of obtaining what she needed.
Her instructions for Mondata were to kill him. Period. Her instructions here were to eliminate the threat. That didn't necessarily mean the Omnic had to die in order for that to be accomplished.
Satisfied with her reasoning, Widowmaker stood up and rested her rifle across her shoulders as a better idea came to her. Now she just needed to wait for them both to go to sleep for the night.
The Omnic was the first one to register that someone was in the room. His eyes lit up as his systems woke up from rest mode. He froze upon seeing Widowmaker there leaning casually against the wall, but his gaze quickly turned to the sleeping woman beside him. His hands reached over to touch her and his body relaxed when she murmured and burrowed further into the covers.
"She's fine. Just a simple dose I gave her to make sure she stayed asleep. The one I'm really here for is you," Widowmaker explained smoothly and quietly. The Omnic kept his eyes on the woman for a few long seconds before looking up at her and sliding out of the bed. She couldn't help but notice that he was wearing pajama pants with the Overwatch logo on them.
Ugh, even some of the civilian Omnics love them, Widowmaker thought, her eye twitching in irritation as one Overwatch hero in particular popped into her mind. One that never sat still and used incredibly stupid catchphrases.
Pushing that out of her mind she refocused on the task at hand as the Omnic walked over to her. Widowmaker followed him out of the bedroom and into the living room where he turned back to around to look at her.
"This is about what I saw isn't it? At the University?" he asked her in a soft voice. When she nodded in confirmation he lowered his head and was silent for a moment.
"Did you come here to kill me? Or to take me away?" he added quietly.
"Killing you would be the simplest way to keep you from talking or showing anyone what you saw that night," Widowmaker responded even as her mind turned to what would happen if she brought him back alive. Talon would strap him into a chair or onto a table, hook up their machines to his brain and rip out...
Widowmaker stopped there and closed her eyes for a moment as hot anger and rage flooded her.
Don't go there. Not there. Not those memories. You know what happens when you do, she thought hurrying to push those forbidden thoughts back into the closed part of her mind where they were supposed to stay hidden and buried. Already her head was tensing and throbbing with a headache. With a warning.
Inhaling slowly and deeply, Widowmaker held it for a moment and let it out and as much anger as she could along with it. She locked the memories away and buried the emotions they carried before they could turn to hate and her slight headache into something far more dangerous.
"However," Widowmaker finally continued, "I... dislike killing if I feel there is no reason for it. So here's what you're going to do," she paused and walked up closer. To his credit the Omnic was staying surprisingly calm, clearly more worried about his sleeping girlfriend being hurt then himself.
More memories. More emotions. More...
Widowmaker fought not to let her grimace show as more then a flinch of her eyes as pain lanced through her head. She breathed in and out again letting the emotion bleed out until the pain faded and her tight heart relaxed.
Clearing her throat she reached up and pulled a small USB drive out from a hidden compartment in her helmet. She tossed it to the Omnic who fumbled to catch it and stared at it before looking up at her curiously.
"You will download your original memory files of the incident to that. Once it's done you will perform a hard erase on yourself to remove all memory traces of what you saw as well as discussions of what you saw," Widowmaker directed him. Thanks to advances in technology storage Omnic's were able to carry staggering amounts of digital storage in a very, very small space. This allowed them to store memories and data they deemed important just like any other computer. And like any other computer, that data could be moved, downloaded somewhere else and erased.
And still we use USB drives and SD cards for everything, Widowmaker thought scornfully.
"It will be as if I never saw anything. I will know the memories were taken from me but there will be no way to recover them... and no reason to come after me again as you will have the only remaining proof," the Omnic's eyes glowed brighter as he realized what she wanted. His hands closed around the USB drive and he stared down at it silently before looking back up at her.
"If I do this... we'll really be safe?" he pressed sounding urgent for the first time since he had woken up to find an assassin standing there in his apartment.
"I would advise moving, but yes. With no memory of the incident and no other evidence available you will no longer be considered a threat," Widowmaker said crossing her arms. Now she was starting to get impatient and the Omnic evidently picked up on it.
Walking over to the couch he sat down and inserted the USB drive into a slot on the side of his head. A small light on the USB drive flashed orange to show it was in use and about 15 seconds later it turned green signalling the job was done. He pulled it back out and handed it to her.
"Thank you for allowing me to live," he said gratefully. He didn't wait for her to reply though, instead within a few seconds all his lights went dark and he slumped forward. The six lights on his forehead flashed different colors as he wiped his memories and worked to reset himself.
Widowmaker put the USB drive back into its compartment in her visor and readied her grappling hook. She could wait around and check to make sure that he really did wipe everything but there was no need. He would do exactly as he said if only out of worry for his girlfriend.
Another job done. Perhaps not as satisfying as a good hunt but killing him could have brought up more problems then it solved. It would have been sloppy and Widowmaker was never sloppy. Even if someone did investigate and come to him to ask questions about whether he saw anything that night, which they likely would do soon, it wouldn't get them anywhere. An Omnic civilian with wiped memories was clearly a sign of someone covering their tracks. Ultimately though with no way to get evidence or testimony from him it would be a dead end and get stuffed into a case file and left there to collect dust. Literally or figuratively. On the other hand to get a call about a dead Omnic who was the only potential witness to a crime? Shot by an assassin just like Mondata was on the other side of the city? That would raise questions and comparisons that Talon didn't need. No it was much better to leave things this way.
Widowmaker turned and slipped out of the window and onto the fire escape. She grappled across the roof in front of her and was in the process of retracting her grappling hook when she heard a familiar sound. It wasn't quite a pop or a hiss but it was the unmistakable sound of air being displaced and Widowmaker felt a rare chill race across her skin as the air hit her. It was unbelievably cold even at just a slight brush. Something like that could only mean one thing.
"Evenin' love! We really should stop meetin' like this shouldn't we?"
Widowmaker's lips curled up into a smirk upon hearing Tracer's familiar accent behind her.
Perhaps this night wouldn't turn out to be so dull after all.
Tracer squeaked in surprise as Widowmaker suddenly appeared behind her, sweeping her legs out from under her and slamming the butt of her rifle into her stomach as she fell. With the wind driven out of her Tracer went crashing to the ground forgetting for a moment to try and blink away and put more distance between them.
They had been dancing across the rooftops for close to an hour now and Widowmaker showed no signs of tiring. Tracer had tried to set up a trap only to have Widowmaker kick her own pulse bomb straight back at her forcing her to recall back a few seconds to avoid the explosion.
Of course as soon as she did so Widowmaker had popped up to body slam her.
Groaning, Tracer opened her eyes just as Widowmaker placed a foot on her chest pressing down slightly on her chronal accelerator. She wanted to fire back a snarky comment but was too busy squirming in pain and trying to get air back in her lungs. So instead she grunted and started coughing as her lungs started working again and beautiful, sweet air filled her again. Okay technically it was more smoggy London air then clean air but that was a minor detail.
"You do realize chérie..." Widowmaker said with a slow drawl, "...that you have the bad habit of not looking at what's behind you before you teleport, no?"she had that infuriating smirk on her face as she said it to.
Stupid assassin. I'd show her if I could move, Tracer thought with another painful grimace. Coughing she finally got enough breath up to speak.
"I'll keep that in mind for the future," Tracer replied. She froze as Widowmaker lowered her rifle using the muzzle to tilt her chin up slightly.
"And why should I just let you walk out of here?" Widowmaker asked with a small tilt of her head.
"Because of my charming personality?" Tracer asked cheekily despite the cold press of metal against her chin. Widowmaker snorted at that.
"Um, because of my amazing catch phrases? You know you love the catch phrases," she tried again only to have Widowmaker narrow her eyes with irritation.
"No? Fine be a stick in the mud then," Tracer grumbled. She squawked suddenly as Widowmaker pressed the tip of the gun against her throat. Scrambling around for an answer she tried again.
"Because I asked nicely and I'm more fun alive then dead?" Tracer asked hopefully. The fact that Widowmaker hadn't killed her yet already was already giving more weight to her theory that the assassin enjoyed toying with her on some level. Well maybe not "enjoyed" exactly but it did seem to interest her at least.
Although there was still the fact that Widowmaker had yet to answer. It took a long agonizing minute, a full minute because Tracer counted all the seconds, before Widowmaker pulled her gun back from where it was pressing against Tracer's throat.
"Fun would be stretching the boundaries of my tolerance quite a bit," Widowmaker finally stated. "However... interest... now that is a better word. Now if only you could learn how to keep your mouth shut a bit more," she added with a heavy sigh. She took her foot off Tracer's chest and stepped back. She lifted her arm, clearly getting ready to fire her grappling hook and leave.
"Wait!" Tracer called out, scrambling to her feet. Widowmaker paused and raised an eyebrow.
"Why did you let that Omnic live? Why him and not Mondata?" she asked urgently. Widowmaker's face didn't register the slightest hint of surprise on learning that Tracer had been watching her. Instead she just stared back with a calm, frustratingly blank gaze.
"Does it always make that sound when you... teleport like that?" Widowmaker asked suddenly.
"What?" Tracer asked in confusion. Where did that come from?
"There is this... noise when you move like that. Like air rushing out of something or moving suddenly. Does that always happen?" Widowmaker asked again still perfectly calm as if noting that it was raining or something.
"Um... I guess? Winston said that air and molecules and whatsit get displaced before I physically arrive in a spot or something and that's what causes the sound? I honestly wasn't paying that much attention and most of it went over my head even when I was listening and..." Tracer stopped when she saw Widowmaker's eyes starting to narrow again.
Too much talking. Right.
"Yes. I guess it does happen every time because physics and stuff?" Tracer summed up. Also it was pretty creepy that Widowmaker had noticed a small detail like that. It wasn't a very loud sound. Something you really had to be listening for in order to catch. Tracer did want Widowmaker's attention but not quite like that.
"Is it cold? Being... between space and time like that?" Widowmaker asked but this time Tracer was ready.
"Sorry love. You caught only caught me once so that means one question only," Tracer replied with a grin.
Widowmaker hummed and stared at her. After a moment her lips curved up into a look that could almost, almost be called amusement.
"Catch me next time... and maybe I'll consider answering your question," Widowmaker replied before her grappling hook whipped out. The next second she was gone across the rooftops and out of sight. Leaving Tracer standing there more hopeful, and confused, then ever.
AN: Tracer and Widowmaker interact, hints are dropped, questions are asked and next time around Lena will have some explaining to do abut her most recent rooftop escapade when she meets up with Angela again.
Thanks for reading everyone!