He was sitting at his desk completing his normal paperwork, like any other typical day at the U.N. He suddenly felt a cold breeze sweep through his office. He went to go close the window before he was caught off guard and startled by the embodiment of death standing in his office.
"Oh." He staggered backwards placing a hand over his heart. "I wasn't expecting you here." He ran to his office door to lock the door, not wanting to be seen with him. Reaper slinked around the office picking up the little trinkets on his desk before putting them back down.
"Have you told anyone else about the captive Overwatch has?" The man was tilted his head to the side before realizing who he was talking about.
"Oh S-13. No I only notified HQ. Though likely the council has already notified the proper personnel to deal with the situation." The man replied.
"Good." Was all Reaper said back to him before he pulled out on of his hellfire shotguns and blasted the man through his chest. Before he could admire his work his comm link started to go off with Moira on the other end.
"Report." Was all she demanded.
"The loose end is taken care of. You'll be in the clear now. Assuming Sombra has taken care of her end." He said back.
"You didn't make it messy did you.?"
He paused before observing the massive wound his gun made in the man's chest with blood dripping off of his clothes and staining the floor. "They'll just think your assassin came back to kill him."
"The authorities are not the problem what will Talon think when they find out?" She yelled back in a fit of anger.
"Overwatch discovered his connection and eliminated him." He said back earning no further response from the scientist.
"Come back to base, I've yet to hear back from Sombra which is troubling."
"You should have sent me to kill the mutt, I'm more capable than she is."
"And yet your failure to take care of him the first time is why you are taking care of a defenseless ambassador." She barked back through the earpiece before cutting the channel off. Reaper growled at her remark before turning into his mist and escaping through the window and out of sight.
"We need to send a team to that facility sooner rather than later." Ana said to Morrison. "The data we acquire from there could be vital to discovering what Talon is planning to do or what they have done."
"We do need to be cautious, we don't know what we will be walking into there." Morrison replied.
"She said it was abandoned right? Hard to believe we will find anything of value there." McCree added as he sat in the corner of the room.
"While yes she did say it was abandoned, Winston has made a device for us to extract memory of everything keeping data there." Morrison said. "That includes camera footage there too." He went over to his desk and sat down. "However this does not mean we throw caution to the wind. Captain Amari, assemble a team to infiltrate and extract the data." Ana nodded and saluted Morrison quickly before exiting his office. Morrison started rubbing the bridge of his nose after the exchange.
"Problem there chief?" McCree asked liftling his hat slightly peering at him?
"Two high profile Talon members being kept here, and we'll be putting ourselves in a vulnerable position sending a team out to investigate this lab." He got up from his desk and motioned for McCree to follow him out of his office. "We're making a risky move, but hopefully it will pay off in the end."
"I think you ought to stop referring to the kid as Talon there chief. He's shown desire to go escape or hang us out to dry."
"Regardless of how he behaves here, he's got a target on his back through Talon's cross-hair's." Morrison added. "Talon doesn't just kill off their agents for no reason at all."
"Guess there's no denying that." McCree said. The two of them entered the medical lab where Angela was analyzing Starkiller's blood sample she took a couple of days ago. Though she seemed puzzled at her results. Morrison noticed her look as soon as he entered the room.
"What's the matter?" He asked her.
"This can't be right." She mumbled under her breath. "This is the third time I've ran his blood through the scanner, but the results are, not found."
"So he's not on record big deal." McCree replied.
"No I mean his blood type is, well, unique. It doesn't match any pattern that is on any medical record. And his DNA is structured differently too. It's almost as if it was customized for lack of a better term." She said getting up from her seat at her desk.
"Guess if O'Deorain was messing around with him that's not at all surprising." McCree stated but still noticing the puzzled look on Angela's face. "Isn't it."
"This is troubling to say the least, but it would explain why he survived her, procedures." She said turning off her computer. "Who knows what untapped abilities lie within him, what hes capable of."
"Then I guess it's a good thing he's on our side isn't it." McCree replied.
"For the time being, but that still doesn't rule him out as a threat." Morrison said.
"I don't know chief, might want to give the kid a chance, he hasn't let us down so far." McCree said exiting the room.
Lena was sitting with her usual group in the mess hall. Her wounds were healed for the most part and she was enjoying the company of Lucio ad Hana, when she saw Starkiller walk in and grab a cup of coffee. She waved him over to join them and he nodded and obliged.
"Nice to see they aren't confining you to a room anymore." Lucio remarked.
"Well, I wouldn't say that." He replied. Lucio and Hana looked confused at the remark, as he took a sip of his coffee. "Ever since the Sombra incident, they've turned kind of a blind eye to me, probably focusing more on her than me."
"I think they may be coming around to you love." Lena remarked nudging him slightly. He shrugged his shoulders not convinced that it was the actual reason why he was being allotted more freedoms around the facility. As the other three continued their conversation, Starkiller noticed Ana approaching the table with Fareeha and another member he had not met before.
"Captain Amari!" Lena said and gave her little salute, "What can I do for you love?"
"Are you well enough to go back in the field?" she asked. Lena nodded in excitement.
"Good, we are infiltrating some abandoned Talon lab in the Amazon rain forest. Suit up and meet us in the shuttle bay in 2 hours."
Lena gave another little salute. "Aye aye captain." The three were leaving the table before Starkiller scampered out of his seat trying to get Ana's attention.
"Excuse me captain." The three turned to him surprised by his approach. "If it's all the same to you, I'd like to accompany your team on this mission."
"Like we need any help from the likes of-" Fareeha was cut off by Ana holding up her hand to silence her daughter.
"Why do you want to join us?" She asked cocking her head to the side showing her curiosity in his motive.
"I'm just trying to prove my worth here, maybe this is a good start for me." Ana showed a small but brief smile.
"This isn't the place for you to start." She replied as Starkiller sunk his posture at her response. "That is not until you disclose you're real reason for wanting to come." Starkiller peered up at her with wide eyes taken off guard. She was a very observant person, almost has the ability to see right through you. Starkiller took a deep breathe and sighed deeply.
"This place that you are going to, it could have all the answers or at least point me in the right direction of who I am. And it's not that I don't trust Overwatch, I mean you guys saved my life so I'm forever in your debt. It's just that I'd feel more comfortable and at peace with myself if I were to see this place first hand."
Ana put a hand to her chin exaggerating her thinking of his answer. "The path of redemption starts with admission of the truth and accepting one's fate." The other man said. "Captain, I do believe this is a good place for him to start."
"I believe you are correct Genji." Ana replied. She looked at Starkiller with a small smirk on her face. "Lena can show you the armory to gear up. Welcome aboard." Starkiller bowed his head to gesture his thanks. Ana and Genji didn't seemed to mind his company but Fareeha gave him an intimidating glare before she followed the other two out of the mess hall. Starkiller returned to his seat with the other three agents, all of them staring at him waiting to hear what he had just talked about.
"So?" Lena asked waiting for a response.
"So..what?" He said as he took another sip of his coffee.
"What was all that about man?" Lucio asked.
"Oh yea I'm coming with you on this mission."
"That's awesome!" Lena threw her hands up in the air.
"Yea man, the captain is usually pretty picky when it comes to her strike teams, she must see something special in you." Lucio added on.
"I suppose."
"Well come on then we better get ready." Lena got up and dragged him out of his chair towards the armory. When they arrived, Starkiller was in awe of how massive their armory was. Anything you could think of they had it, rifles, pistols, shotguns, anything that could shoot a bullet they had. He looked to see Lena equipping her light armor and holster her pistols. The short dwarf looking man who was in charge of the armory walked up to Starkiller with his armor.
"Here ya go, we kept this to study the material and design Talon was using." Torbjorn said handing him his old armor. He nodded to him as he took his armor and started to equip it piece by piece. The familiarity of the armor was haunting him to a certain extent. Reminding him of the deeds Talon had him perform. He was all but suited up except for the helmet. Torbjorn walked up to him once again holding a sword in it's sheath.
"I noticed you are a fan of blades as oppose to guns. Got rid of the old stick Talon gave you and refined one of Genji's old blades. I know he won't mind you using it." Starkiller drew the sword, and flung it around seeing how it handled. It handled well, much better than his old sword. The blade was sleek and sharp looking as he took the sheath and attached it to his back and twirled the sword around and sheathed it in a smooth motion.
"Appreciate all the trouble you went through for me." Starkiller said as he saw himself in the mirror in his old armor.
"No trouble at all. Don't worry, most of us here know you have a good heart, despite what those bastards did to ya." The mechanic said as he went back to his tools to continue maintenance on some other pieces of equipment he had lying around.
Starkiller took a deep breath and placed the helmet over his head closing his eyes until the helmet was completely on. He opened his eyes and saw the menacing helmet staring back at him through the mirror. The pitch black visor hid his face from the outside, something he was fairly good at these days without the helmet. The door swung open with a loud bang as Fareeha stormed her way up to Starkiller and slammed him against the wall pinning him as she stared at him through his helmet.
"Let's get this clear, I don't like you. And if you even think of even looking in the wrong direction, I will end you before you even get the chance to pull your little disappearing act, get me?" She said in an intimidating low tone in his face. Starkiller didn't say anything back but just slowly nodded his head, not wanting to stir up any more trouble.
"Back off Fareeha! He hasn't done anything to you that you didn't provoke." Lena shot at her, but Fareeha paid her no mind. She said what she had to say and started to storm out towards the shuttle bay. Starkiller pushed himself off of the wall and adjusted his helmet making sure everything was in check. "Sorry about her, she's pretty hard headed about her opinions." Lena added. Starkiller just shrugged his shoulders.
"As long as she doesn't point a gun at me again, she can say whatever she wants." Lena and him made their final preparations before heading towards the hangar where the rest of the team was waiting for them. Ana gave them a nod before heading onto the shuttle followed by the others. Lena took the controls as the shuttle took off and took flight. As the shuttle reached its cruising altitude, Lena put the shuttle on autopilot and joined the others who were discussing their plan.
"We don't know exactly the layout of this place, but what we need to find is the main terminal of some kind." Ana said placing the device Winston had made on the table. "We'll need to find an access point to extract the data from the lab." She placed another device down on the table as well. "We'll split up into two teams to cover more ground, one device per team."
"Where do we even start? The facility is probably going to be massive." Lena asked.
"We'll have to just trust our judgement here." Ana replied. Everyone was huddled around the table while Starkiller was leaning up against the wall with his arms folded simply observing the others, though offering no insight to suggestions on the mission.
"Perhaps we'll have a better idea once we arrive on how to tackle this objective, we still are going in blind to a certain extent." Genji added.
"We'll have to be weary of automated defenses still active inside." The others looked over at Starkiller. "It may be abandoned but if there's one thing I've learned from Talon, they spare no expenses in preserving their hidden image. We should proceed with caution."
"Agreed." Ana nodded. There was a beeping noise sounding throughout the shuttle. Lena scampered back to the pilots seat and switched off the autopilot and took controls of the ship.
"Approaching the facility, everyone strap in for landing." Lena yelled back at them as the ship made it's decent and found an opening in the foliage. The landing gear came out and the ship gingerly touched down. The ramp came out the side as the team walked down and entered the humid environment not too far from the lab. They walked through a small path, rustling through some leaves off of some low hanging branches. The five got to the doors of the facility, Ana brought up some goggles and scanned the building.
"No heat signatures. Nobody is in there." She put the goggles down.
"Good then lets get inside." Fareeha said as she raised her rocket launcher at the door. Starkiller placed a hand on her weapon and slowly lowered it.
"We might trigger their defenses if we blast our way in, better to find a different way inside." Fareeha jerked her weapon back from him scuffing at him in the process. Starkiller approached the front doors touching them gently. They were familiar to him and he couldn't shake that unnerving feeling. "Wait here, I'll find a way to open the doors." He said to them as he vanished from their sight, and appeared inside the facility on the other side of the doors. He took in the sight, the place had moss and mold protruding through the walls and ceiling. He turned to the door and examined the controls. He looked carefully and typed some numbers in the number pad. He glanced at the door, nothing.
"Hurry up in there!" He heard the muffled shout from outside he could only assume it was from Fareeha. He looked around to see if he could find anything to help give him a clue. He looked around before he saw what appeared to be a hand print scan. He took his glove off and placed his hand on the scanner. The screen lit up as a holographic line scanned his hand print. CODENAME REAPER. The VI voice said over the intercomm as the doors made a cluncking noise as the gears started turning and the doors rise, the light from the outside slowly engulfing the inside of the hall. "Reaper.." Starkiller said to himself putting his glove back on. "That can't be right." He said to himself. The four walked in and examined the place as it looked like nobody had been here in a while. They walked inside down the hall and came at to a divide. The hallways split in two leaving the team at an impasse.
"Genji and I will explore down this way, you three take the other hall." Ana handed her daughter the other device Winston had made. "Remember we are looking for a terminal, or a control center of some kind. Keep in touch and stay vigilant." They nodded and went their separate ways. Fareeha, Lena, and Starkiller walked cautiously down the dimly lit hallway. Doors were on either side of the hall all of which didn't lead to any indication of any terminals or access point to a server of some kind. Until Starkiller noticed a door way that seemed familiar to him.
"Hold on." He said causing the other two stop and watch him open the door as he entered a dark room. The other two followed him not knowing what he was doing. Starkiller held his hand up and illuminated the room with an energy ball he formed in his hand. The other two looked around examining the room that was deceptively big, the size being hidden in the darkness. Starkiller slowly crept to the center of the room and knelt down on one knee examining a spot on the ground.
"Find something?" Lena asked walking up to him.
"This is the place." He said almost mumbling.
"Yes we know this is the place, come on we are wasting time here." Fareeha barked at him starting to exit the room.
"This is the place where I killed him Lena." The spot he was touching was the blood stained ground where he had impaled the other test subject. He got up from his knee, Lena put her hand on his shoulder trying to comfort him slightly.
"Cmon love, we need to keep looking."
The three exited the room and continued down the narrow hall, still on their guard for anything. Every door they came across they opened in hopes for finding a terminal of some sort. The three came to another divide one hall having another series of doors and another that appeared to be a dead end.
"This way." Fareeha commanded, pointing to the one having all the doors, though Starkiller ignored her and started walking down the other hall. "I said this way." She raised her voice at him. He turned so that only the side of his helmet was seen by her and Lena. He raised his hand and motioned for them to follow him. Lena and Fareeha both looked at each other before Lena shrugged her shoulders and followed him, Fareeha just grunted out of frustration and followed suit as well. The darkness started to engulf the trio the deeper they went, Starkiller again illuminating light from his energy before they came to a rusty door with the insignia on the side, "L-3".
Starkiller opened the door slowly as the trio's gaze fell upon a big monitor in the background of the lab with a single exam table next to a intricate machine that had a plethora of gadgets and needles sticking out of it.
"This is it." Starkiller said walking up to the exam table placing a hand on it. Though the touch was through his gloves he wore with his armor, the coldness of the table brought back unwelcomed memories of his time being strapped down on the table. He broke his concentration as he saw a computer sitting on the desk at the far end of the room, one which Fareeha had approached and looked for a way to extract the data.
"Wait." Starkiller said making her pause in her tracks. "Let me see the data first."
"Why would I do that?" She barked back.
Starkiller went up to her forcing his way in front of her as he started to type away at the keyboard trying to access the server. "I know you hate me and want nothing to do with me but this is my only chance to find out who I am." He paused and took his helmet off placing it next to the keyboard. "Please don't deny me this opportunity." His eyes stared at hers with a plead that even she couldn't deny, despite her hatred of him. She motioned for him to carry on as she went on to examine the other devices in the room.
His attention was drawn back to the monitor where he accessed a data packet that was filled with audio and video files. He opened the first audio file titled "S-00" and Moira's voice filled the room.
The recovery of Gabriel Reyes' body was a success. Though the nano technology of Dr. Ziegler had an unforeseen side effect to his body. His body is in a constant battle between decaying and structural repairs from the nano tech, likely from the fact that he was deceased for a couple of days before starting the procedure. The change in his DNA is interesting to say the least. It would appear manipulating one's DNA in this way could give one the abilities one could dream of. This does make one wonder, if this can be accomplished with resurrecting someone from the dead, what could one achieve with someone already living.
Starkiller's brow furrowed as he looked up at Lena who's attention was drawn to the devices in the room. Fareeha's attention was fixated on him watching to make sure he wasn't doing anything to mess up the data extraction.
He scrolled down to the next audio file and again Moira's voice filled the room as soon as he clicked on it.
It would appear that the soldier enhancement program was an essential variable that made this effect possible for Mr. Reyes. The nano technology mixed with the the small biotic doses injected into the soldiers is a major cause for the abilities of Mr. Reyes. With the success of what has resulted in Mr. Reyes, Talon has already backed my research and wants me to further explore the possibilities of creating the perfect soldier, the perfect killing machine.
"We are wasting time nothing here is giving you the answers you desire." Fareeha said to him. Starkiller ignored her and scrolled down past some of the audio and video files and clicked one that had a bigger data size. This one was a video file that popped up on the screen in the background. It immediately showed what appeared to be a lifeless body being carried away behind Moira as she documented more of her research.
The last of the list of candidates presumed to be perfect for the program didn't survive even the beginning of the procedures. None of them survived the first stage of the biotic amplifiers. These results are troubling to say the least. Talon isn't known for their patience in these situations, I need to tell them something. What if instead of picking someone, we create a perfect specimen. But how is the question. Perhaps Mr. Reyes may still be of some use to me.
Now even Fareeha was intrigued by this. She was standing over his shoulder with Lena standing and watching as well. "Play the next one." Fareeha said staring at the screen. He obliged and again another video popped up on screen.
The first batch was a success. The DNA of Mr. Reyes took and the incubation of thirty specimens are well on their way to growth. The incubators will accelerate their growth to their peak physical form, only then will we attempt to place the amplifiers in them and await their powers to be unmatched by anyone or anything.
The video showed a series of tiny test tubes that only had a small organism in each one, but the video cut to one of the test subjects being strapped to the table fully grown.
Beginning the procedure of placing amplifier one on the spine. The video was now from the perspective of Moira performing the procedure. Making the first incision down the length of the subjects spine. The man was yelling and screaming in agony that was starting to drown out her lecture. Please muffle the subject. Now his yells were drowned out by a cloth shoved in his mouth. Attaching the first amplifier to the spine. A tiny device was placed over the exposed bone. The device then started drilling itself onto the spine causing the man to yell in agony still muffled. Heart rate is climbing doctor, one of the assistants said shortly before the sound of a flat line filled the room. Moira paused and let out a sigh. Subject A-30 deceased during first surgical procedure of biotic enhancement devices. We'll need to create more subjects for us to continue my research.
"My God." Escaped Fareeha's mouth, Lena remained speechless. Starkiller scrolled down to one of the largest files hoping it would provide insight to him, though he had a sinking feeling he now already suspected where he came from. He opened the video titled "S-s01."
The adjustments made to this batch will warrant a lower mortality rate for these subjects. Mr. Reyes' base DNA was still used with a few adjustments made to better acclimate the biotic fluids injected. Subjects S-01 to S-30 have already shown promising results so far, yielding the lowest mortality rate to date. S-20 and S-13 seem to be the most promising making it through stage one and stage two procedures with little complications. Once the final stage is complete, we will begin testing the subjects range of abilities and make further adjustments if necessary.
There was a long silent pause in the room, no one wanted to be the first to break the silence. Lena was the first to do so after no one eve dared to move. "So uh, that means that.."
"I came from a test tube." Starkiller cut her off sounding disappointing at the revelation. He got up from the seat and placed his helmet back on, welcoming hiding his face from the other agents. "We have what we want." He said to them.
Fareeha nodded and contacted the other two. "Captain we found the data. Beginning extraction, we'll see you back at the shuttle."
"Understood. See you there."
Fareeha placed the device into the usb hard drive slot as the screen showed that the device was beginning to move all data files to the drive. Lena walked over to Starkiller to see how he was holding up after finding out something as troubling as this. "Hey I just want you to know.."
"Stop. Just stop." He said holding his hand up. Before he could say anything else, suddenly all the lights turned on bright and a siren began sounding throughout the facility.
ALERT ALERT SYSTEM COMPROMISED. INITIATING SELF DESTRUCT PROTOCOL.
"Fuck we need to move now." Fareeha yelled as the device was finishing up extracting the data. As soon as the device was done she pulled it out and stuck it in her pocket as the three darted out of the room and ran for the exit. Security bots appeared from the ducts and started to fire at them forcing them to take cover from the fire. Fareeha handed Lena the usb stick. "Go. It's more important the data gets back to Overwatch safely. No arguments." She said before popping out of cover and firing her rockets at the bots. Lena took the device and in a blink of an eye ran past all the security and out the doors meeting Genji and Ana who were standing outside.
"What's going on?" Ana yelled at her.
"We need to get back the place is going to blow any minute!" Lena yelled back. The three started sprinting towards the shuttle getting on board.
"Where are the other two?" Genji asked.
Fareeha and Starkiller were fending off the seemingly endless stream of security bots shooting at them. She was dismantling the bots from afar before she was running low on ammo. "Shit" She muttered to herself. One bot came around the corner about to light her up before Starkiller sliced it in half. He blasted a few more back with his enegry blasts as the bots shattered against the wall.
DETONATION IN 30 SECONDS. The automated voice started counting down each second. "There's too many! we'll never make it out in time!" Fareeha yelled at him through all the fire. Starkiller took a few more blasts fending off some more bots that were advancing on their position before he hid back behind cover. He looked around and saw an opening. He motioned for Fareeha to follow him before he took a few more blasts attempting to clear a path from the infinite number of bots coming at them.
20. 19. 18. The two were in a full sprint before a blast door came down and cut them off from the exit. "Fuck!" She yelled "We're cut off!" Starkiller tried to shield her as there was no cover for them to hide behind his armor was surprisingly sturdy for how light it was. He blasted back more of the drones before cutting down more that were getting closer, teleporting from bot to bot in rapid succession. 10. 9. 8. He teleported back to Fareeha and took her harm and teleported them through the door 5. 4. 3. Fareeha braced herself for the blast as Starkiller turned around. 1. The explosion engulfed the center of the facility and seemingly both Fareeha and Starkiller.
The shuttle was in the air as the explosion went off, the shock wave rocked the shuttle in the air slightly. Genji and Ana looked at the explosion out of the window, Ana covering her mouth struggling to find any words. Lena looked out of the window and saw the smoke starting to clear. She caught a glimpse of a purple light starting to peak through the smoke. "Look!" She yelled as she landed the shuttle quickly.
Fareeha was covering herself, bracing for the impact of the explosion. As she slowly opened her eyes she saw that she and Starkiller were surrounded by a small barrier being projected by Starkiller. He was struggling to keep his footing as forming this barrier drained all of his strength. He was grunting and grimacing in pain from the strain this put on his body. The barrier diminished as Starkiller collapsed to the ground and fell to his knees panting from exhaustion.
"How..did you.." Fareeha trailed off from her question looking around that the area around them was completely decimated. "I didn't know you could do that."
"If I'm being..completely honest...I didn't either." Starkiller said between breathes. His head was filled with pain as he took his helmet off trying to find any way to relieve the pain. He immediately grabbed his head as the pain was starting to increase from a dull throb to an intense screech in his head. The shuttle landed as Ana ran out and embraced her daughter.
"I thought I lost you." She whispered in her ear. Ana then approached Starkiller helping him to his feet and helped him onto the shuttle sitting him down in a chair in the passenger part of the shuttle. The shuttle took off as they made their way back to Gibraltar. Lena set the ship on auto pilot and went to see how Starkiller was doing.
"You're nose. It's bleeding." She said, getting some tissues helping him stop the blood dripping from him. Starkiller held his head still trying to relieve himself of the pressure making his head feel like it was going to explode. The pain finally started to subside after a little while though a low throb was still bugging him. Ana walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Thank you." She knelt down to him and gave him a hug. "I don't know how I could ever repay you." She whispered in his ear before she got up and smiled at him. He gave her a nod, still holding a tissue up to his bleeding nose. Ana went back to the other two on the other end of the room before Lena pulled up a chair and sat in front of him placing a hand on his knee.
"How are you holding up from, well, you know."
"You mean discovering I was made in a lab and came from a test tube?" He said in a sarcastic annoyed tone. "Great. Never been better."
"I'm sorry I wish there was.."
"Look, stop!" He yelled at her getting up from his seat. The other three came into the room hearing the shouting. "I don't need your pity, I don't need anything from anyone!" He turned to the others staring at him from the outburst. He took a deep breath to regain his composure. "Let's just get the data back to your base." He tried to walk away before he started to become light headed and staggered to the side and caught himself against the wall. Lena went to go help him up. "Don't touch me!" He yelled at her and pulled himself back up and walked away from the bunch.
"What happened in there?" Ana asked.
"He found out what he is." Fareeha said.