Ana had been hiding in a small room atop an old, crumbling hotel for days. It was the first time she was in Istanbul, and she was not sure she wanted to travel there ever again. It was unfair to think like that, provided she had seen nothing else, but she was so bored.
The job of a sniper was not exciting unless in combat; it was all about waiting, looking, being patient. Ana could pride herself in the latter, if only because she had to deal with both Jack and Gabriel on top of her usual duties as Captain, but everything had a limit.
Fortunately, her plight was about to end.
Someone knocked at the door which such strength that the old wood cracked— someone that would never ever learn what stealth meant. Ana sighed, grabbed the gun strapped on her thigh, and got ready.
She had set up a series of cords so she could pull at one of them and open the door while holding the gun at her head's level— but there was nothing where she was half-expecting a muscular chest.
"What's with the disappointed face?" Torbjörn growled, hands on his hips, way below than where she was pointing at.
"Hey, Torbjörn," Ana put the gun down in its holster and made a gesture for him to come in. "Did you bring food and water?"
"Reinhardt is taking care of that."
She closed the door and took a deep breath. The small room had a couple of windows, one on each side of the building, which was the reason she chose it in the first place. Ana had two rifles set up on tripods, one on each of the windows— but she still could not see the German.
"Stop worrying," Torbjörn left a heavy belt of tools over a dusty table, and the sound made her look at him askance. "He's a big boy. Besides, he can mingle in a crowd if he wants to."
"In a crowd of giants, maybe," she said, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. He was way too recognisable, way too easy to follow. "Did you find a safe place for our troops to land?"
"Ah, yes, of course," Torbjörn snapped his fingers, then checked on his pockets for his small but heavy datapad with a tin can sticker on the backside. Its drive was encrypted, and all the communications required three symmetric cipher keys stored in a card that was almost bigger than the datapad itself.
Torbjörn showed her a map of the city on the screen. Their aircraft should not have any problems to get close to their little red dot by the sea— provided the Omnics did not have seafaring anti-air guns, of course. The Hagia Sophia was the big rectangle just by their hideout, easy to spot.
"Here seems a good place," he touched the screen, which then displayed the coordinates and the name of the street. He would never say where it was out loud, in case there was someone listening to their conversation. "There's a good area over here, too, which is not far away," he touched another point. "I'll send these to your datap-"
The door almost dissolved in a cloud of dust and eaten wood after a single, powerful knock, and Ana sighed in relief.
"See?" Torbjörn snorted and went to open the door while she grabbed her gun again. "What did I tell you?"
The door creaked as it opened, miraculously still in one piece, and Reinhardt ducked to save the doorway, a smile already on his lips.
"Hello, my friends!" His voice boomed on the small room, but neither that nor his ever-present smile made Ana stare— his attire did.
Sandals. Shorts that looked like they had been cut out not very carefully from a pair of skinny trousers. Sunglasses and a tank-top hoodie zipped up to the collarbones. On his back, a large military-green bag that had a sleeping bag strapped to it. His hair was dishevelled in uneven spikes and his pale arms were pink— just like his cheeks and nose.
Ana put the gun down, uncocked it, but failed to put it in its holster for three times. The next she knew, she was being squeezed in a bear hug.
"Ah, Ana! You are looking as lovely as ever," he said, his head against hers for a moment. Then, the German left her on the ground and turned to bump fists with the engineer. "Torbjörn! How's Ingrid? Little Frieda's not born yet, right?"
"She's fine, and no. Not yet. And don't start with the names again!" Torbjörn grabbed his beard and pulled at its ends. "Ana, please, stop him. He only listens to you!"
"He listens to nobody," she snorted and shook her head. Reinhardt put his hands over his heart, pouting. "It's true. How many times have I told you not to charge in?"
His laughter echoed on the room, and Ana found herself smiling. The last months had been something else. After they destroyed the last omnium in January, the war was ending. The last God program standing, Hermes, only had whatever units were still operative, and both Jack and Gabriel had been working tirelessly to contain it. Once Overwatch found how to keep it under control, it would be definitely over.
For now, Gabriel had sent every other member of the Strike Team to act as peacekeepers in recently liberated countries; A lot of people were on the edge, and the UN wanted to avoid the genocide of peaceful Omnics. While Ana had seen the Swiss HQ frequently to keep tabs with Fareeha, Gabriel and Jack, she had not seen Reinhardt or Torbjorn in, at least, three months.
It had felt like an eternity.
"Ah, I've missed you," Reinhardt chuckled, echoing her thoughts, and put down the large backpack he was shouldering before sitting down on the ground. "Let's celebrate our reunion with some nice food!"
The room filled with the smell of spices and sour cream as he unpacked a bag containing a handful of kebabs and, for a moment, she found herself transported back in time. Eating on the ground was an Arab tradition that Ana had not practiced since she was a little girl, one she would rather not partake in that wrecked hotel room with the old, stained rug- but the only table was in no better condition, nor she had the means to clean it up.
"I heard water was less than ideal, so I brought tea instead," the German produced two transparent bottles, one containing a red liquid, while the other one was dark, and Torbjörn looked at him as if he had grown another head. "Black tea for Ana. Apple tea for Torbjörn and myself. Ah, stop growling, I know you don't like it, but that's all there was."
"Pah. Next time I'll get the supplies!"
"Sure," Ana rolled her eyes. "But for now, keep an eye on that rifle, would you?" She sat on her legs, trying not to think about what the rug under her had seen and lived through. "I'll watch the other one."
She would not lose three days of trying to spot Omnics to a meal, not at all.
Their mission was to destroy an armed Omnic cell entrenched inside the Hagia Sophia. Though filthy, the hotel was in a privileged position; the building to their right was a fantastic construction around 1500 years old and almost the size of a football stadium. Its main body was crowned with a grandiose white dome and surrounded by smaller domed constructions and minarets— or what was left of them. The war had not been kind to the museum, as it was obvious by the piles of rubble, graffiti, and yes, the Omnics that were using it as a base.
Why had they used it, though, Ana could not guess, but it was time to kick them out of there for good and let the Turk people continue with their lives.
This was one of the last known cells that remained active across the world. Across the world . It sounded impossible— and would have been impossible to achieve, if not because of the omnium plans that gave Overwatch the insight to turn the tide of the war.
Ana took a mouthful of her kebab and was instantly delighted. The meat was tender and savoury, and the yogurt was sour enough to make it all blend nicely— sure a sign that the city had begun recovering already.
Peace was at reach, at last. Ah, it did not feel real.
"Did you meet with Sarioglu, Reinhardt?" Torbjörn asked him while eyeing his food, unconvinced. "I've been waiting for him to send the intel about the anti-air guns."
"Ah, yes. We had dinner together just-"
"Wait, so you had dinner and still bought this much food?"
"Well, our Turkish friend almost lives on air! I'm still hungry!" He frowned, then devoured half of his kebab in two bites. "Anyway, yes. He could not make the encryption work, so I asked him to mark the turrets-"
"Not turrets. Anti-air guns!" The engineer interrupted again, making him roll his eyes.
"The whatevers , on my datapad."
Holding the bit left of his food with his mouth, Reinhardt rummaged on the backpack again until he produced a datapad with a sticker of a flower on it. Ana bit inside her mouth to stop herself from laughing. Her own datapad had a ginger cat sticker. She knew the whole Strike Team had something or another, courtesy of her daughter, but Fareeha never said which sticker belonged to who, or why. The only thing she said, cryptically, was that it was so they remembered what was important.
What should ginger cats remind to Ana about, she did not know, but she was glad to carry a bit of her darling with her— just, she was not that little anymore. She and another lot of kids of her same age had overgrown the nursery by far, and Gabriel had to make for them a school. It was a temporary solution, Ana knew. They needed to see the world. They needed to talk to other people and socialise outside their Overwatch bubble, because Fareeha asking Ana to hang a poster of Reinhardt on her room was beyond ridiculous.
Once the war was over, they would need to think about the best course of action. Maybe Fareeha would fare best going to a boarding school, where Ana could visit on her free time. Or maybe Ana would not need to be deployed anymore and they could live a normal life as a normal fam-
"Ana, are you ok?" Reinhardt's voice startled her.
"I'm— Was miles away. Sorry," she put her hair behind an ear, embarrassed. "Thinking of Fareeha."
The worry on his face melted into a smile, and he patted her knee with a big hand.
"Ah, you two would be back to your kiddies in no time," he said, leaning back and rubbing his pink nose. A shadow crossed his eyes for a moment, but he was grinning. "They should meet sometime. Maybe when war is over Ingrid and the kids can visit. Ah, I know! We could have a barbecue— Jack's always boasting about his grilling skills!"
"You're eating and yet drooling about more food, you pig!" Torbjörn threw at him a piece of kebab bread to the face, and Reinhardt caught it in his mouth while in flight. Ana almost choked on her tea. "That a challenge? Want to lose again, old man?"
"Who are you calling old ?"
They threw food at each other making wide parabolas to see who could calculate the angle better, all while Ana munched her kebab undisturbed. She knew, just like they did, that if she got just a breadcrumb on her, there would be consequences .
Still, it made her warm inside to see them behave like children despite all the horrible things they have seen and lived through, just like she loved watching Gabriel and Jack bickering over who got to eat the last chip in the bag.
She should actually call Jack, ensure there was no last-minute change of plans and report back the intel they had gained— and she should call Fareeha. When Ana was deployed far from the base for a long time, she tried to talk to her daughter at least, before every mission. Knowing that Fareeha was good and safe always gave her peace of mind, helped her focus. And, in the event that Ana did not make it home, at least Fareeha would have a recent memory of her.
Ah, but to live together away from a military base. That was a dream come true.
As if Overwatch's second in command knew she had been thinking about him, her wrist datapad flashed to life. The call was encrypted, and she had to provide both her fingerprints and a password to accept it.
"Hey, Ana," Jack grumped a greeting. "How's things?"
"Good, it's-" the two guys yelled a loud hello so Jack could hear them, and Ana almost laughed out loud. "Yeah, that."
"So much for stealth."
"It's fine. We're safe here," she put her hair behind her ears. "Did you get all the intel?"
"Yes, the team is flying right now, ETA twenty minutes. I'm marking the landing spot on your maps."
"Ah, I'll be on my way there in a minute," Reinhardt said, stuffing more kebab on his mouth like it was nothing and getting up.
"The local authorities have started the evacuation already, so it should be all clear for the morning job," Jack continued. "Ah, the UN council had asked us to not to destroy the Hagia Sophia. It's one of the few heritage sites that had not been levelled during the war."
"Cannot promise anything," Torbjörn waved a hand. "You know how much the Omnics like to entrench."
"I do, indeed," he sighed. He got injured in their last mission while they were destroying the last Omnic redoubt in Belgium and was still recovering despite the nanites and his super-soldier healing. "Foremost, be safe out there."
He cut the transmission, and Ana watched Reinhardt pick up his bag and shoulder it again. They would split for a while; he would make sure everything was safe for landing, then Ana and Torbjörn would be on their way too to get some rest and prepare for the morning.
"Well, I'll keep you posted. Bring the leftovers," he grinned, and the door almost did not survive his strength when he left.
The Hagia Sophia was, intrinsically, an open-plan squared museum with humongous columns, quite a high dome on top of their heads, and an arcaded second floor that offered views to the centre of the mosque. It was the worst defensive place possible- or it should have been, if the Omnics had not erected so many wall-like constructions that it felt like they were in a maze. The arcaded second floor was almost more like a big corridor than a floor itself, planned this way by the last architect that dared to touch the wonder of the world so more people could admire its beauty. Yet, it was now crawling with things that could shoot at them; random Omnics, turrets and, at least a bunch of Bastion tanks.
Yes, tanks .
Ana was not naïve enough to think everything would go perfectly; nothing ever did. But really, deploying tanks inside the wonder of the world was the worst. It was not just the building itself, but the whole place was a museum- the collections were still hanging around, since looters would never approach the place and the Omnics had no use for them. The last thing she wanted was to see more human heritage blown up and lost, but they may not have a way to avoid it.
It would have been easy to get inside the building with some good firepower, trench behind their barriers, and melt the Omnics, but the maze walls were electrified and made of a hard alloy their engineers could not melt or break through easily. Basically, they were playing the Omnic's hand trying to salvage the building and its contents.
For now.
"Barrier won't hold forever!" Reinhardt's voice boomed in the comms as his shield protecting their front-line from the Bastion's shells as they tried to squeeze at the wall. They were not exactly in the open— to their left there was one of the building's stone walls, twenty feet to their right continued the maze, and covering half that the space over their heads was the second floor. Yet, enclosed spaces where the worse when dealing with explosions. "Need to kill that tank, now!"
"We are trying," Ana said from the back, reloading her rifle for the umpteenth time already. "But they have a lot of firepower and we don't have a barrier to cover us, here."
The wall structures looked strangely organic despite the rough, sharp edges, and they were usually in the way of Ana's shots. It was shit, because she needed the high ground to be effective, and they had not even reached the stairs up yet. Nor they would, if they could not kill the Bastions attacking them.
They were not expecting a massive amount of resistance- and up to now, they had been progressing just fine. Of course, Omnics never made it easy for them, but the tanks made she think they were protecting something.
"We're on it," by her side, Torbjörn and his engineers were erecting a stationary half-dome to help Reinhardt protect them while they were in a strangely open section of the maze. Sarioglu had informed them of the interesting pattern inside the building, which was why the engineer had insisted on taking the additional barriers despite their weight and size. Ana was glad to have listened to him.
The blue and curved barrier, a replica of the technology in Reinhardt's armour, hummed to life not a moment too soon, and the Crusader ducked and got under cover. Now that was sorted for some seconds —which was the time it would take the Omnics to destroy the new barrier— Torbjörn was getting one of his turrets ready, pulling parts from his oversized backpack like he had a bloody engineering supermarket there.
Ana hated Bastion tanks in particular because she did not know of any weak spots to exploit, unlike their turret counterparts— or any other Omnic, really. With a frustrated grunt, she shot a flimsy-looking one in the head and made it fell from the second floor. At least, their soldiers were seasoned and well trained; she could rely on them to make a dent on the enemy forces even in bad circumstances. It was a matter of time they would blow the tank to pieces.
"That sounds like trouble…" Torbjörn said. A moment later, Ana heard a sizzling sound. "What…?"
"Get away from here, now!" Reinhardt yelled, running in front of several of their soldiers and deploying his still cracking barrier.
"Why? What kind of trouble? What's-?" Ana could only register a green glow coming from the second floor before a something hit Reinhardt's barrier straight on, exploding on contact and breaking it to smithereens before sending the Crusader flying backward several feet.
The stationary barrier deployed several feet to the right absorbed the rest of the explosion before breaking, but the heat wave made Ana curl on her knees and hid her face on them. The air almost burned her throat, her eyes, her ears— and, for a moment, she could only think they would not make it. When the roaring stopped and she could look back again, the column she was using as a hiding spot was sizzling and part of the rock had crystalised. Several of their soldiers lying on the ground almost carbonised.
Shit.
"Reinhardt?" She called, and the German answered with a heartfelt groan. He was in all fours after having crashed into the building's wall— which now sported a Crusader-sized dent. "Torbjörn, what the hell was that?" She asked, trying to spot the offender on the second floor and just seeing incoming bullets and walls. Walls. Of course, one of them must move to allow such a blast to go through.
"A plasma pulse, I think," he said. "From quite a big gun. Nothing mine, thankfully."
"Start thinking about how we deal with it," Ana continued, then switched to the general comms. "Team, deploy all the stationary barriers. We won't move from here until we clear up that tank and all the second floor in front of us."
A second barrier just hummed into life. If their engineers hurried up, they could get the third one up before the second was completely gone.
"Torbjörn, half the systems are flashing red," Reinhardt called on the comms after a while, voice strained.
"Of course they are red! You're lucky if something works after getting hit face-first by plasma like that. If your barrier hadn't repelled the incoming bunch of electrons, they would have melted through you!" The engineer growled, but then his voice softened somewhat. "Tell me they didn't melt through you."
"Not melted. Just got really, really hot," he sighed. "Can you fix my armour?"
"Circuits are probably toasted, so nope, unless I can replace them. What's dead?"
"Shield generator, main vents, half the functions of the left hand, ah… And something else I cannot read. Too on the left of the display."
The news made Ana want to pinch her eyes. It was not his fault, getting angry at him would solve nothing, yet she had to bit a curse. Fine. They would manage. Somehow.
"Torbjörn, try to fix whatever you can," she told the engineer while recharging her rifle. "Give me some good news, if you can."
She had not finished saying that when she had to roll on the ground to avoid a round of bullets. Her enhanced eyes saw their enemy even before she stopped rolling, and cursed inwardly.
"We've company at the rear!"
Three OR-14s dropped in the middle of their soldiers from the second floor, raining dead all over the place. It was lucky they were not Bastions, but the OR-14s seemed to have plating even on their led eyes, and their automatic weapon was no laughing matter, either.
"Did I say we're in trouble, here?" Ana retreated with some soldiers, bullets flying around her as she ran to hide behind a corner. Heart thumping, she leaned the rifle on her knee and took a peek— and a shot. She hit one of the OR's heads, blowing an eye to pieces— just, they had three more. And even blinding it did not damage them enough to disable them, most of the times.
Reinhardt was at the opposite side of the corridor, trying to cover the engineers with his body before they were annihilated. On top of it, their second half-dome barrier flicked at the umpteenth tank shell.
"Get to cover— find a corner, anywhere!" He yelled, covering his head against the bullets for a moment. Then, he swiped his massive hammer on the ground and fired a half-moon of plasma at the ORs. It was always more spectacular than effective, but things were getting desperate.
"Reinhardt, I don't think there's ever been a better time to charge…" Ana said, taking another shot. Her hiding spot was being constantly attacked, and the other four soldiers by her side were having a lot of trouble trying to divert the fire from the German and the rest of their troops.
"I can't!" He said as he dashed forward, bullets mostly rebounding on his armour. One of the OR-14s was directly attacking him, its gun-arm pointing straight to his head, while the other two were walking over the corner where Ana was hiding— and not she or the soldiers with her had the firepower to stop them straight.
Soon, the sound of bullets firing and the Omnics' servos were almost all Ana could hear. Someone yelled in the comms that their second barrier was down, and a tank shell exploded in the corridor, raining dust and shards all over the place.
She looked back; there was only corridor behind them, and they would not run fast enough under fire to make it to the next corner. One soldier fell to the ground with a cry of pain, and the next she knew, she had a gun to her face. A gun that was reloading just in that same moment.
Without even thinking, she hit the OR's arm with the butt of her rifle. Had it been a person, she would have broken their nose at the very least, but the Omnic did not even budge. What it did, though, was unsheathe the sword hidden in its left arm, which glowed red-hot in a moment.
Shit.
Ana rolled on the ground again as it took a swing at her, covering her head instinctively with a hand as she got up; the soldiers with her were emptying their clips at the OR at such short range that the bullets rebounding on the plate were more dangerous than the Omnic itself.
And, suddenly, the OR was gone. On its wake, there was a rush of silver.
Finally.
So much for not being able to charge, she snorted, watching them fly past her. The stone slabs on the ground were coming apart as they headed for a wall— Wait, coming apart ? The OR-14 had grown more legs, if such a thing was possible, and was countering the Crusader's momentum. The engine on his armour died all of sudden and they tilted dangerously before crashing.
Ana had to blink at the scenario. Did the OR-14 counter his charge, or did the engine died on him— maybe another casualty of the plasma pulse? Or maybe both?
The momentum made them roll on the ground in a ruckus of limbs and metallic noises, and she winced in sympathy; it was not a good day for the Crusader.
She cried out in surprise when the wall by her side was blown up to dust by the second-floor friendly Bastion tank, and rolled away promptly away to avoid being hit by shrapnel. Her ears rang, hurting all the way down her teeth, and she hated, really hated explosions with all her might.
"We are sitting ducks to that tank!" Torbjörn exclaimed on the comms right after, and she wanted to strangle him enough to make his voice stop echoing in her poor head. It was obvious that the Bastion was a problem, yet there was still two OR-14— wait, where was the second one? A quick scan revealed it was lying in a pile of crushed parts on a side— parts their engineers were trying to salvage already. Good! The team may still live enough to see the next two minutes.
Ana shot straight to the head of the remaining Omnic. It was much easier when she was not under fire, being attacked with a blade, or shoot at by a tank. Much easier.
"Reinhardt, you need a hand there?" She asked, reloading and taking another shot. He had been awfully silent for the last minutes, though she could hear metal clanking at her back.
Her target fell to the ground when a very courageous engineer sliced through one of its rear legs with a plasma cutter, and Ana decided they could deal with the aftermath just fine. She turned around to help the Crusader finish his fight, and what she saw made her blink; Reinhardt had the OR-14 pinned on the ground and was punching it like there was no tomorrow, each blow sending sparks out of the twitching Omnic.
The OR's head detached after a vicious, barbaric blow, and he leaned forward, hands on his knees, breathing heavily.
"Reinhardt?" Ana called, not moving an inch other than to stay as protected as possible from enemy fire.
The Crusader tensed for a moment and got up, grabbing his hammer on the way. Then, he brought it over his head on what it seemed a titanic effort and slammed it against the OR-14's midsection, destroying the Omnic despite the poor grip of his left hand.
When he turned, holding himself tall and proud of his deed yet tired, he was still silent. His armour was dented in places, probably due to the two rough landings, had bullets lodged here and there, and sported several scalpel-like cuts on it, too— the most noticeable one, a diagonal line on his helmet that reached the visor and had cracked it.
He stared in her direction for a moment, his shoulders relaxing somewhat, then smacked the helmet with a hand a couple of times.
"-hear me, now?" The audio was broken, he was out of wind, but his voice seeped happiness. Ana let go a breath she did not know she was holding. Shit. While he was smashing the OR-14, she thought he had snapped for good.
"Yeah, at last," she nodded and checked her rifle. It was all set and ready to keep on fighting. Good. "Are you-?
"Oh, you two are alive?" Torbjörn's gruff voice boomed on the comms. "I thought you were goners since we had to deal with the tank and the OR on our own !"
"We were busy, here."
"Hah."
Ana looked at their team and saw the three barriers deployed and soaking Omnic fire. It looked like heaven, provided the Omnics would not shoot the bloody plasma thing again on them. On a second look, she noticed Torbjörn had moved all the barriers to the side; maybe he had figured out where the green bolt came from.
She took a bunch of shots to get the Omics to scatter or just plain die , and Reinhardt and she rushed under the cover of their barriers. The Crusader slumped on the ground by the pillar where Ana had been hiding before —had he limped the last few feet?- and Torbjörn appeared from nowhere holding a bunch of tools.
Their soldiers were protected behind the barriers, shooting up and down to keep the enemy fire to a minimum, and Ana felt a burst of pride. Good people. She would treat them when they made it home, she thought, getting her datapad and going one by one over all the security measures that would unlock it. It was time they stopped screwing around, wonder of the world or not.
"Main power supply is inoperative," Reinhardt's voice sounded distorted under his helmet. "And the backup one is almost depleted."
"You are damn lucky to be alive, as usual," the engineer sighed while touching the armour here and there. "Damn it, Reinhardt. Don't get in the fire of a plasma cannon next time."
"Hardly my fault…"
"Ah, Ana, grab his helmet, and pull when I tell you."
Datapad just unlocked, she looked at the engineer with a raised eyebrow. It was not like he did not have minions to help him out, but they seemed to be assisting the soldiers and keeping the barriers operational. With a little snort, she walked towards them, pocketed the datapad for a moment, and put her hands on the sides of his helmet, her thumb tracing the line crossing it without even thinking. Once Torbjörn poked at her, she pulled the helmet up.
The German leaned his head on the pillar, smiling the moment he spotted her. His golden hair was sticking to his scalp with sweat and blood, and Ana frowned.
"Medic to my position, please," she called in the comms as she parted his hair to check the wound.
"It's just a bump," he made a gesture with an arm, but that did not faze her. After seeing him destroying that OR-14 like a deranged savage, she better double check with a doctor. Just in case. "It was the wall. Or the floor. Not sure any longer- ah, that probably hurts my case, doesn't it?"
Torbjörn opened up the armour's chest piece, which made the German tense and flex his arms to keep the rest in place. He seemed to be in one piece, though surely bruised and sore. And he could not stop grinning like a maniac.
"What is so damn funny?" She snorted. As much as she was trying, she could just read that his happiness was not due to his usual 'I'm having fun at cracking Omnic heads'. That involved more laughing, taunting, and flexing.
"Ah, let him be happy to compensate for both of us," Torbjörn produced some strange pen-like screwdriver and used it to, apparently, take some readings. Ana looked at the Crusader, expecting an answer.
"I had, ah, unfinished business , with the ORs," he said, making a face. "You saw me charge it?"
"Yes. It did not look very effective."
" Ja , that's part of the business ," his smile wavered just like she had seen it do many times when he talked about the past, but then it came back wider than before. He had come a long way since he started telling stories to Fareeha regularly, and she could not be prouder. "But now I know how to counter that, and it feels damn good to break them to pieces! The bastards. Wait until I get my hands on another!"
So, he was not insane, after all. Or, not any more than usual, at least.
"I don't even know how you managed. The circuits to the main power supply are fried up, as I thought," Torbjörn continued. "I've been looking for parts as well while you had fun, but I don't think I can fix it. What I may do is route the power that's still on it to the backup generator— charge it up, so to speak."
"It'll overheat and the battery will end up melting," Reinhardt frowned, and then half-winced as the medic poked his head here and there. "Now I still can handle the hammer, at least."
"Pah," Torbjörn snorted. "The charge almost dried up the backup generator for good— you're running in the lowest power settings, it's a miracle the gauntlets still work. And even if they do," he continued, pointing at him with the screwdriver-pen-thing, "don't think I don't know you are powerlifting the hammer plus the armour. You'll throw out your back in the next three swings."
Ana sighed and took the datapad back to call Sarioglu. While communication got established, she perched on a pile of half-broken of rubble that had fallen from the second-floor balcony. The position did not give her an advantage over the tall walls but, at least, she could help with the second floor better.
"Captain Amari. How's things in the Hagia Sophia?" Their contact in the Turkish Resistance asked, his accent thick yet similar to Ana's.
"The bloody Omnics are entrenched with a plasma cannon , Sarioglu," she growled, taking a couple shots. "They almost blew us up to pieces. Why weren't we informed of it?"
"A plasma cannon? Oh, that's— Well, we didn't-"
"This will end poorly," Reinhardt's concerned voice made her turn her head towards them again. He was leaning forward to give Torbjörn access to his back, and the engineer was hooking a half-burned cord from the battery on the front to somewhere near the engine. "For me!"
"Ah, shut it. I've done this hundreds of times."
"No, you've not!"
She saw the German roll his eyes to the ceiling with that exasperated expression only Torbjörn could get out of him, and then realised her comms were too quiet.
"Sarioglu?"
"I'm here. You stopped receiving me, I think. I said we are ready to assist you."
"Good. Bring any barrier you have," she nodded to-one in particular. "I'll call you when ready. Amari out."
It was not the best plan. It was not even a plan, yet, but they needed the firepower. Now, if she remembered correctly, the resistance had half a platoon of infantry more or less armed, plus a dozen rocket-launchers. Blowing the place to oblivion was not exactly what she was looking forward to doing, but it was definitely a way to get rid of that cannon.
"All set and done, you crybaby," Torbjörn disconnected the now charred cord and almost shoved it in the Crusader's face. Then, he pushed the chest plate together and hooked everything back in place. "Just don't charge, or you'll eat the battery again— and it will not survive a second recharge like this."
Reinhardt got up with more ease and made fists with the armoured gauntlets —even though two fingers on the left hand did not move. The doctor had reported nothing to her, so he was fine. Still smiling, his hair curling so slightly now that it was drying.
"Understood," he nodded, then put his helmet on. The cracked visor lightened up- or part of it did, at least.
"I guess the barrier is still out of order?" Ana asked, making him turn towards her. He rolled his shoulders and picked up his hammer and, for some reason, she wondered what would be like perching on his back while attacking. It would probably be suicidal and fun at the same time.
" Ja , sorry," he said on the comms, and she nodded. It would have to make do.
"We need a plan to clean the rest of this place. I've called Sarioglu— the Resistance will come to assist us. Torbjörn, did you learn anything about the plasma cannon?"
"Well, I know one thing for sure. It is not like a plasma barrier- it is not a projection of atoms in a grid that can be stabilised in a relatively small cell," he said, knocking his knuckles against the Crusader's armour. "It is a burst of furious, sped up particles, and that requires a lot of energy and cannot be kept in a battery, so to speak."
"So?" Ana asked, frowning. She was not dumb at all, yet could not imagine for the life of her where the engineer was going with all that.
"So, the cannon itself must be large and also must use quite a big power supply. We don't have intel about Omnics hijacking any electricity grid…"
"You think there's nuclear reactor here ?" Reinhardt asked, bewildered.
"Of course not," Ana could imagine the engineer rolling his eyes. "But, if you notice the background noise, there's a turbine somewhere that they may be using for their purposes. So, I bet their stupid cannon will take a while to charge up."
"How much is 'a while'?"
"I don't know, between ten and twenty minutes. Probably," he said, hammering rhythmically on the gun of a turret he had just built to make it straight. "Heh, this will keep them entertained for a while if they show their ugly mugs."
"We don't have long, then," she took a deep breath. "We need to move, take the high ground. Doesn't seem to be many of them left, there. Once up, we use Sarioglu's rocket launchers to destroy any resistance at the back of the building."
"What would you have me doing?" The Crusader asked, sounding chaffed.
"Help Torbjörn move the barriers. When that's done and we engage, cover our rear and go get Sarioglu. We don't want more surprises like the last one."
"Roger."
"Let's go."
With the pertinent orders, the team moved one barrier first. The walls were taller than Reinhardt, so adventuring past a corner was a lottery. The Crusader walked forward with the anchor points of one of their barriers and dropped them whenever he encountered a turret or an Omnic and, little by little, they moved closer to the stairs to the second level.
Finding so little resistance was getting on Ana's nerves, and she was dreading the moment they would encounter a sentry-mode Bastion head-on waiting for them.
Because it would happen.
A pained grunt from Reinhardt and the unmistakable sound of a machine gun made her cringe. Jackpot. What she was not prepared for was for the Crusader to grab his hammer in his two hands, lift it over his head, and crush the Bastion to oblivion.
"Efficient," she said in the comms, to which he just flexed his bulky arms.
"I'm so not fixing your armour this time, show-off," Torbjörn pushed him. "Get moving. I don't want us to be here when the cannon fires again. We're still very much in its trajectory. That, if it cannot change places."
Ana could not agree more. The good thing was, this was not an omnium. There were not infinite Omnics there to attack them, and they must have taken down already most of the heavy hitters.
Several minutes later they had got out of the maze and on the staircase. Before Reinhardt could climb up the steps, the engineer grabbed one of his legs and knocked his knuckles against the armour.
"Wait, waaait a moment, Reinhardt," he snorted, and looked for something in his backpack, producing a… something . Rubbish, probably, with cables and broken parts. Then, he threw it up the stairs into the second floor.
There was a buzzing, and then, a flash of light and the zapping sound of several high-intensity lasers. What fell back to them was a fraction of what had gone up, burned up and perforated.
Reinhardt looked down at the charred remains that rebounded to his feet, and Ana could swear he was sweating.
"Thank you, my friend!"
"It's nothing. I just think before acting," Torbjörn waved a hand. "Now, look at this and brace yourself for awesomeness."
He produced a cube from his backpack that unfolded in several reflective panels. He was grinning when he threw it up the staircase.
There was quite more buzzing and zapping, and also the sound of electronics frying up and sparkling. The mirror-like device came back down, rebounding on the steps and, when Torbjörn picked it up, it barely showed burning marks.
"Good boy," he chuckled. "One more time, for the people at the back."
He threw it back up, this time with more strength, and there was only a bit of zapping this time before the device rebounded back to them.
"Ok, it is mostly safe, now. You can-"
Reinhardt was already trotting up, hammer in his hands, before Torbjörn could even finish speaking.
"Aha!" The German exclaimed, and there was a lot of cracking, crashing, and crunching noises that Ana ignored for the sake of her mental health. Their soldiers at the rear were still firing, since there seemed to be an unholy number of the most basic infantry Omnics coming at them from the high ground, but everything seemed to be under control so far.
Good. They may still pull this off without destroying the whole building.
"All clear," Reinhardt came back almost without laser marks on his armour, and grabbed the anchor points of one barrier before getting back to the second floor. Part of what should be balcony was covered in organic-looking Omnic walls. And it was handy; the moment they showed up there, the Omnics at the back of the building shot towards their position. If Ana's idea of the building was correct, they have got in the Hagia Sophia on the eastern wing, and they were now in the southern wing's second floor. The enemy shoots should come skewed, which would also help them until they reached the eastern part of the second floor.
The only downside was that their team would be straight in front of where the plasma cannon should be. That, if it could not be moved on rails. Another surprise ambush would suck.
Ana cocked her rifle and sighed. At least, she had got the high ground. It was about time. Crouching on the ground, she tapped at her wrist datapad.
"Sarioglu, we're almost there," she said. "I'll send Reinhardt to fetch you. Be ready."
"Roger," the Turk answered, and she cut out the communications.
"Reinhardt, go to the entrance, get Sarioglu and his team," she said in the comms. "Don't get up here with us just yet, hold your ground downstairs. Don't want all of us in the same place, in case the cannon's ready."
"Understood," he replied, leaving one barrier in such a way it covered an opening between walls. Torbjörn was already building a turret there, and a couple of soldiers were on their knees, shooting. "Will bring them close to the stairs."
"Right. When you are ready, we swap out."
The Crusader marched away, and she looked for a position from which she could watch his back. He should not find much resistance in his way back, yet she would not risk it. Not when half his armour was not working.
A couple of Torbjörn's turrets kept on shooting rhythmically, and Ana missed being able to put on some music. It had been a long time now since she went on a mission with Jack or Gabriel being in charge, where she could relax and just kill as she was supposed to do.
Well, she would have time to relax when the war was over.
"How are we doing?" She asked in the comms, and then received a trickle of information from their troops. Barriers were deployed, they controlled the front and back exits to their positions so far, did not have good visibility to shoot their objective, and had no sign of the plasma cannon. Good. But also bad. The notion that they were running out of time before it shot again was nagging at the back of her mind. "Keep your eyes open for any glowing. That's our main priority after holding our position. Reinhardt?"
"Almost at the door, now."
Good. The plan was simple. Reinhardt and Sarioglu would come back to them. They would hold their position down the stairs where there should be minimum resistance. Ana and Torbjörn would pick up the barriers and move forward, getting on the northern part of the second floor, where they would have direct visibility over the enemy and be under heavy fire. They would keep the enemies engaged while Sarioglu's rocketeers get up the stairs and blast walls and anything in their way to the back of the building in a forty-five-degree angle.
While that was in motion, she would send Reinhardt, Torbjörn, and a bunch of soldiers further ahead in the second floor to deal with any remaining Omnic and the blasted cannon.
That should be enough to soften the opposition enough so they could get down there and finish them for good.
A tank shell made its way towards them, exploding in one of the Omnic-made walls making a hell of a lot of noise. The wall got a dent on it but it did not budge otherwise. Those shits were strong as hell, Ana frowned.
"Coming your way, Captain," Reinhardt said on the comms, and she took a deep breath. Time for the fun.
At her command, the engineers grabbed two of their three barriers and moved them forwards, closer to the corner between the southern and eastern sides. Enemy firepower intensified the moment the Omnics had a better angle at them, but their soldiers could say the same thing. Ana kept her original position, lying on her belly while following the Crusader and now Sarioglu and his troops around.
The Omnics seemed to have built some extra auto-turrets that crawled on top of the walls, but they were easy to deal with. What was crap, though, was the tank firing at them. And the cannon. The bloody cannon.
"Everyone, ready to switch?" Ana got up once she noticed the newcomers were at the stairs and ran through the barrier to regroup with Torbjörn at a corner between both corridors. The engineer was building a couple of turrets, the backpack he was shouldering looking considerably smaller already. He gave her a nod while hammering
There was a bunch of "ayes", and Ana gave the order to strike. If all went as planned, they would be back at HQ by night time.
She advanced with her team, keeping herself out of trouble and looking around to ensure the rest were doing fine. Soon, the noise increased to a horrible cacophony of explosions, machine guns, and shots of different types, and she really, really missed her music when her ears started hurting.
Reinhardt got by her side, glanced at her briefly, and kept going to meet with Torbjörn. The engineer had put together a long-range weapon and was building it some legs from strange-looking parts.
"We need more firepower!" A soldier directly in front of the Omnics cried out, and a moment later one of their barriers blew up to pieces.
Ana frowned and looked around; the incoming fire came from below instead of from the front.
"Torbjörn, Reinhardt, you two go to check on the cannon. Fall back immediately if there's any danger, understood? The rest, reinforce our position."
She could barely hear herself over the explosions, but everyone moved around, so they seemed clear on their orders. Ana prepared her rifle again even if it was almost impossible to see anything among the dust and smoke.
"You five go with Captain Amari," Sarioglu's voice echoed among the noise. "The rest, keep firing!"
Good thinking. The engineers were rotating the barriers to make sure there was always one with some charge on it, but they took forever to recharge. Some rocketeers in the front line would help keep the Omnics at bay.
They could do this.
A tank shell impacted on one of the big pillars of the building, making rocks and dust explode in all directions. Glass rained from the windows above, and Ana ran to get cover deeper in the corridor. A big chunk of rocks fell on the corridor, smashing it to pieces that crumbled down to the first floor.
Fuck, they did not have much protection against the bastards blowing the building up. Ears ringing, she checked up the damage; some of their soldiers seemed to have been caught in the landslide, and there was no way to cross to the side with the stairs easily. They were all trapped on the second floor, for now.
"Torbjörn, need you here to find us way to get down safely ASAP."
"Can't, now!" He squeaked. She glimpsed the Crusader's hammer; they were fighting something, but that did not seem to be the problem. "Found the cannon and have bad news! BAD! It's overloading!"
"Can you fix it?" Ana said, trying to remain calm. "Unplug it, somehow?"
"Can I smash it to pieces?" Reinhardt pitched in.
"No, NO!" The engineer growled, and Ana could imagine him checking up the cannon while bitting the tip of his tongue. "Reinhardt, try to turn it to the side, carefully ."
Ana stopped firing. She stopped even looking through the scope and tried to find her friends. Thankfully, Reinhardt was always easy to spot, which also told her where the cannon was. She had a good idea of the destructive power, but not of the size of the beam. Would their barriers be able to contain it, cracking as badly as they were? Would they survive the heatwave?
"Won't budge," the Crusader grunted on the comms.
"Shit. Shit . Get to the corner, all of you, curl under the barriers and pray . I will blow it up before it overloads completely."
"You sure? That sounds like something I would do…"
"Shut up and help me!"
Ana felt her throat drying. Ok. She trusted him. If blowing it up now was better than let it overcharge and blow up later on, they would go ahead with the plan- even if all fibers of her body said it was nuts.
"Everyone, grab the barriers and come to the corner ASAP!" She called on the comms.
"What's happening?" Sarioglu asked the moment he reached her position. "The Omnics are mostly done for, we should keep attacking."
He blanched the moment Ana explained the situation to him.
"Got a fuse. Or something that would work as good as one- but it's short," Torbjörn said in the comms, clearly talking to Reinhardt. "Can you take us away from here fast enough?"
"Of course! I'll pick you up, run to the end, and charge down the hall. We'll be under the barrier in no time."
The moment he said that, Ana's breath hitched. Then, she looked at their positioning and made sure there was enough space for him to brake while injuring no one. Shit. Could not believe they would eat a blast straight-on again.
"Ready!" Torbjörn cried out, and she looked around to see everyone was under cover. She hated this. Having everyone at the same place was such a horrible idea that her skin was crawling. "Run FASTER, you big dope!"
He sounded terrified, and Ana could not blame him. She looked around the umpteenth time to make sure the barriers were around them. The corner was protected by a pillar, too, which was taking most of the damage from the Omnics weapons.
"Brace for impact! Cover your ears!" She yelled on the comms when she saw the Crusader charging. He approached them at high speed carrying Torbjörn on his arms, the light on his visor flickering— oh boy, Torbjörn had said the armour had one charge on it, at most. She could only hope-
Her train of thought was absolutely shaken by a detonation followed by a huge blast. Not that she really felt it consciously, really. All her senses got overwhelmed the moment the sound wave made her squeeze her head on her hands as if it was going to explode despite the earpieces she was wearing for music and for exactly this shit . The shock and heat waves came next, hitting their barriers and the pillar full-force. Ana curled into a ball, conscious of being squeezed, of the heat burning her throat, of the bits and pieces biting at her body. Rocks pounded against rocks, metal bent under stress, hissing, cracking— and then, the blast sucked her to her knees, taking her breath with it.
A cloud of dust engulfed her, making her eyes and lungs burn, but she was alive. Terrifying as explosions were, barriers seemed to make life much easier. Ana cracked her eyes open after a while, coughing. She noticed their team moving around her, squeezing her as they moved and got up, elbows and knees sticking everywhere. Her ears hurt, though not as badly as they could have, and she could even hear something over the ringing.
"Recount, people," she said on the comms, getting up. In front of her, the Crusader was curled on the floor against the wall, blocking most of the corridor. "Point the medics towards the injured."
"Are we alive?" Torbjörn panted, appearing from between the large armour arms. "Holy shit, I thought we wouldn't make it."
Their barriers were down, the pillar that had sheltered them was charred and half-melted by the heat. It had cracked, it was displaced, and it was absolutely at the brink of collapsing— but it had held, and had protected them from the worst of the explosion. Which, to be fair, must not have been that big if they had escaped mostly unscathed. Torbjörn had made a great call; she would call it out in the mission report.
Once on her feet, Ana looked around to establish their situation. She could not help but groan. The building was missing half a side, now— well, not missing. It was in a big pile of rubble, just like the Omnic walls and everything in a good radius around it, so she had no hopes for the museum's collections. The Board would not be pleased.
The only good thing was that a lot of that debris was on top of the Omnics, screw them. They were not shooting anymore and, hopefully, their troops could clean up any remaining enemies without problems, now.
"We get down there and secure the area," Sarioglu told to his troops, "and then, we go home."
There was a loud cheer, coming even from Overwatch's troops, and Ana snorted softly. Yeah, she could do with a long shower. And Fareeha. She snorted softly and checked that her rifle was still loaded. Good. She would look over them from there even if they probably had neutralised all resistance already.
While his engineers were figuring out a way of getting them all down to the ground in the safest way possible, Torbjörn stopped by her side, arms crossed.
"I don't like this. Omnics don't self-destruct. They never stop fighting," he said, and Ana could imagine him frowning even without looking at him.
"They played all their cards to surprise us, I guess," Ana shrugged, and felt a myriad of aches and pains now that she allowed herself to relax. "Not the first time they blow up a place with them inside for the casualties."
"Still!" He grumbled. "Could have more cards waiting. We'll get down there with the barriers, too. Just in case."
"Sure," she nodded. After all, they had only lasted this long against the Omnics because they had always been extremely careful.
Ana turned at the sound of metal smashing rocks, rifle ready- but it was only Reinhardt kicking debris away as he walked, a true elephant in a china shop. He was carrying his hammer with both hands while his helmet balanced precariously in the hammer's counterweight.
"Wait, look at that. There's still power for the gauntlets to work!" Torbjörn said, hands on hips. "Hah, even I impress myself sometimes…"
"Are we ready to leave?" Reinhardt rested the weapon on the ground with a loud clunking noise and smiled warily.
"Nope, not yet," the engineer waved a hand. "We're going downstairs to check everything's in order. And to see if we can find why the bloody things were entrenched here."
"You need me?"
"Well. We can move the barriers without you, but the team would feel safer if you're around. You know how they are…" He crossed his arms and cleared his throat, obviously not talking for himself.
"Of course, my friend," the German nodded and picked the hammer once again. "Let's go."
"Actually," Torbjörn waved a hand, "stay here for a moment while we build a ramp down, eh? The fewer distractions, the harder we'll work," he said and left them for the engineering team, which seemed to be discussing the best plan of action.
Reinhardt let the weapon on the ground with an exasperated growl and Ana half-smiled in sympathy.
"You look tired. Perhaps you can leave the hammer here with me? Doubt you'd be needing it."
"Ah, that's kind of you, but I rather haul it while I can. That said," he raised an armoured hand to rub the back of his head, "I can't wait to get back to HQ..."
"I know what you mean," she said, rolling her shoulders to relieve her aching back. "I cannot wait for the war to be over, either."
The German chuckled in a very particular way, a cross between a snort and a giggle. He was grinning like the big idiot he was, and Ana could not imagine for the life of her what had lifted his mood so dramatically.
She looked away when she saw something moving out of the corner of her eye, but she could not spot it now.
"Do you see anything out of ordinary ahead of us?" She asked, eyes scanning the other side of the building, where their soldiers were going to head the moment they could get to the ground floor safely.
"Nothing. But I only see half of what you do. At best ."
"Point taken. Now, sit down."
Ana repositioned her rifle on one of the Crusader's shoulders to look upwards through the scope, hoping it would give her the edge she needed to see what was going on.
"Don't even breathe," she instructed him as she scanned the walls closely. There were no turrets there, no Omnics she could see. No animals, either. The wall was just grey and sandy rock blocks held together with mortar, though she could not see that in detail. Her scope was great, more accurate than her eyes, but its range was limited. Plus, it did not allow her to see the bigger picture. And something in her mind was screaming that the bigger picture was, actually, what she had to consider.
Ana made a thin line with her lips and checked the wall again, scanning every inch and noting every singularity. A black spot. A missing chunk. A water stain. Moss.
"Captain?" Reinhardt wheezed, and she would have smacked him in the head.
"You moron..."
A literal quake shook her rifle as he gulped in a big breath, and she sighed, using the time to scan the wall as a whole. No, nothing. She could see nothing out of ordinary. Her hands itched in anxiety, and she bit inside her mouth. Maybe she was being paranoid, but her ears were still ringing softly and she trusted nothing on the battleground.
"Ey, Reinhardt! Care to give us a hand?" Simmons, Torbjörn's second in command waved, and the German cleared his throat.
"Permission to relinquish the tripod position, sir?" He asked in a very serious voice, eye glinting.
Ana snorted and gave the armour a playful slap. It did not matter if he stayed or not, she still could not find what she saw. Damn it.
"Go. Keep close to Torbjörn for communications, ok? And keep them safe."
"Always, Captain," he got up with a grunt and smiled at her before making his way to the Engineering team
Several minutes later, their troops made it down using the ramp the engineers had built using debris and Omnic parts. Now that they were not being shot at, Torbjörn had rerouted the power on several half-destroyed Omnics to a couple of welders and his men were burning through the maze's walls in a straight line.
"How's things there, Sarioglu?" Ana called her Turkish counterpart over their shared frequency. "All clear?"
"Yes. Very quiet," Sarioglu answered, his high morale clear on his tone. "Good so far. We're almost there."
"I think I saw something moving on the wall over you before, but I cannot spot it now."
"There's nothing wrong I can-" he looked up, then suddenly lowered his head. "Oh, my, I didn't see you there."
"Because you weren't looking!" Torbjörn growled, but she could not spot him near Sarioglu even trying. "Oh sorry, were those your nuts? I didn't see them there!"
Reinhardt let go a hearty laugh Ana could hear even without comms, and she sighed.
"All good there, Torbjörn? Cannot see you."
"I'm under a comms tower, trying to brute-force hack it. Emits in Omnic frequency," he said. The words came garbled; he seemed to have something in his mouth. "May tell us if there is anything communicating here, or if something is communicating from the outside."
"Good idea, maybe we can get a clue where the last God program is," she nodded, even if his friend could not see her.
"We're going through the last wall," Sarioglu pitched in as the team moved forward like smudges in the distance. "Leaving a soldier to guard your engineer here, Captain Amari."
"Thanks. Be careful."
The moment she said that, she caught another glimpse of movement— a line running down, getting longer and longer as if someone was painting it with the tiniest pen. Or, maybe it was going up. It was difficult to tell, but it was above one of the arched windows placed just over the destroyed second floor.
Just over their troops.
"Everyone, get away from there ASAP. The wall may collapse if-"
Ana could not finish the sentence. Their soldiers were pushing through the rubble that had fallen over the Omnics when there was a loud crack akin to a lightning bolt.
"Move away! Move!" Sarioglu yelled on the comms, and the soldiers scattered around— just, it was not the wall what was falling down. It was the legendary white dome, Istanbul's landmark. The UN was going to be livid about it.
Ana lost her footing when several tonnes of rock crashed on the maze, bending Omnic walls and breaking everything in their wake. She curled on herself, covering her head and ears with her arms as everything trembled.
If she survived the war, she was moving to a one-storey house by the sea in the equator. A cabana at the beach where it never snowed and the only thing falling from the sky were rain and stars. Yes. Fareeha would have to grow up a bit and Ana would have to save some money, but it was definitely a goal.
The dense dust made her choke, so she raised the neck of her combat suit to cover her mouth as pebbles rebounded here and there over and around her. Her eyes itched and her ears hurt badly; the cabana was always a nice thought. A distraction. A dream .
The reality was way, way worse.
"Team, report," she coughed on the comms, getting on her knees. For what she could see, half the maze was now under a pile of broken rocks, chunks of windows, and the bricks that used to be part of the ceiling.
Shit. Shit . Ana changed the comm's frequency and called Command.
"Jack, send the airships now. We need evac and medical attention- not sure how much or for how many. Just be ready."
"Copy Ana, incoming," Jack's voice rasped, concerned. "Be safe, please."
She could not find in herself to answer that. There was a magnificent hole on top of the building that comprised the dome and part of the southern roof, but the rest seemed steady, for now. The dust was clearing, and she could make some silhouettes now.
There were some survivors, at least. She swallowed hard, and her mouth tasted of dust and ashes, sand and blood.
It was her fault. She should have seen the fracture line. She should have thought that the explosion could have weakened the building's structure. She should have called it a day.
"Sarioglu and team reporting," his musical accent took over the line, and she had never been happier to hear him. "We have some soldiers with minor injuries and are forming a perimeter around the area. There's no sign of Omnics, though."
Ana squinted and found him making gestures to a bunch of soldiers. Most of them were going for the closer exit already, but she could see the unmistakable marks of their medics and engineers on the field.
"Good, I leave that with you," she said, her right hand clawing at the nearby pillar. "Team, keep reporting. Evacuate the injured. And someone that knows about buildings, please assess the structure and report ASAP if there's a risk of more collapses."
Ana could spot several people getting up, gathering together near a pillar and looking around, but she could not see a glint of silver in the dust nor a big, bulky silhouette. But there was a lot of rubble, so much rubble-
"Teams 00 and 01 reporting, sir. We are unharmed and helping others evacuate."
"Cadet Lukic of Team 02 reporting. Sgt Lee is unaccounted for. Same for half of the team."
That was probably three-quarters of their whole team accounted for, now, bless the little miracles.
"Simmons from Engineering, here. We're trying to find our way to the comms tower where the Chief was. He's unaccounted for. Lt. Wilhelm, too."
The words plunged a knife through her chest. She closed her eyes for a moment, breathless, but the world kept on moving even if it could well have frozen over for her.
"Medical reporting, one of us is unconscious. We're helping across the board but we need supplies and evac ASAP, sir."
"Already called Command," Ana almost did not find her voice and had to clear her throat. It did not help much. "Do as much as you can in the meanwhile."
She grabbed her rifle, which was still on the ground after the collapse, and lumbered towards the ramp to the ground floor. She climbed rubble mounds in autopilot and slid them down effortlessly. As if they were not there.
Just like Sam was after Samalut. Missing. AWOL. Lost to her, even if he was right there. Lost to Fareeha, who never had a father. Lost to the world and even to himself.
Just like-
A hand on her shoulder made her gasp and reconsider her surroundings; she had made it past the center of the building and had not even noticed. Ana turned around, shaking his hand off in the process, just to face Sarioglu. Dust clung to his dark skin, to his hair. Everywhere- something told her she was not any better.
"Captain Amari, are you ok?" He asked, eyebrows slightly furrowed.
No, she wanted to say. The icy hand squeezing her lungs was not ok. The raw ache in her chest was not ok. Her friends — her family— were far worse than not ok. She nodded, instead. It was easy than trying to talk. Than having to explain that the war was almost over and this should not be happening to any of them . Let alone under her command.
"How's- How's evacuation doing?" She managed to say, putting up her best cold mask.
"Most people, injured or not, are outside. Also, we found most of the missing members of team 02, although news is not exactly positive," he made a face. "A handful of soldiers that offered to stay are standing guard or looking for survivors. I think you should get outside and let me-"
"No," she snapped, burning down the sympathy in his eyes with a glare. She would not leave without her team. "Get outside. Form a perimeter. Keep us safe. The aircraft will arrive any moment, now."
He seemed ready to say something else, but only nodded in the end and then he left her with her thoughts. Now the dust had settled, it was easy to recognize the soldiers, engineers and medics kneeling on the ground or helping people out.
When they lifted the second body, Ana looked down. She wanted to help, but her limbs were paralyzed. It was not because she was queasy— that was impossible, after what she had seen during her soldier life- but because she could not bear to remember Reinhardt without his stupid smile.
The idiot. She hated him. Hated his devotion, his selflessness. How terrible he was at taking care of himself— not purposely, she had learned. He was just eager to please and help and, sometimes, just because he was so absurdly resilient than he did not notice how serious his injuries were.
She hated it, and loved his dedication at the same time. His courage, his loyalty. The way the air rumbled in his chest when he laughed, and how his beard tickled when he hugged her.
The goddamn idiot, she thought, biting at her lower lip. She should go there. Help. Do something, be in charge. They would never let her to rot, if roles were reversed, but—
"Found the Lieutenant!" She heard Simmons faintly in the distance, and her heart skipped a beat. "He's alive! Shit! The Chief's here, too! Someone help me, quick!"
She skidded down the mound, her legs moving on their own mind, her rifle jumping at her back as she ran towards the engineer, and the scenario playing in front of her made her want to laugh and cry at the same time. That- That was exactly why she did not want to see it.
Reinhardt was pinned under what looked like a ton of rubble, face red and twisted in a grimace. More than half of his armour was not visible, but he seemed to be in all fours, holding himself precariously on his right arm and left elbow. The frontal panel of the armour was scrunched against the ground, giving off sparks every now and then. Blood scurried down his face and also dripped sluggishly from the plating at his waist, but there was too much already under him to be only his.
Ana knelt by his side, her mind racing to come up with a plan to help, and she spotted a hand between the rocks and the narrow space under the armour; Torbjörn's.
Oh, good Lord.
They could not take him out, there was just not enough space. Reinhardt's trembling arms were giving out inch by inch, the armour's plate bending against the ground despite its thickness. It was a matter of time it would bend enough for his bones to snap with it. The engineers were already taking chunks of debris from his back, but it was not enough. They had to be much faster if they wanted to— But, that was it!
She fumbled in her pockets until she found a little white box, all while blessing Gabriel for giving it to her. She took one of the two little syringes inside, shook it a couple of times, and plunged it on the side of Reinhardt's neck.
"The nanoboost would kick any moment now," she said while cupping his cheek to force him to focus on her. "You must push back. Get on your knees, you understand? We cannot take Torbjörn out if you don't."
He grunted on his throat, almost hiding his face on her hand, and it honestly seemed to be the only sound he could make. She could only imagine the strain he was under, and cursed the drug for taking so long.
"You can do it," she said, voice unwavering despite the knot on her guts. It might not be of much use, but she prepared herself to push the rubble with her gloved hands. "I'll help."
A moment later, Reinhardt gasped and almost fell flat to his face, as if taking that breath had shuffled the weight over him. He held in the last instance, eyes squeezed and shoulders shaking.
The veins on his neck bulged out and, with a long, heartfelt grunt, he pushed up. The rubble moved an inch, then two. Debris skidded backward and to the sides.
Ana dug the heel of her boots on the ground and pushed with her back, her legs- with everything. The engineers piled by her side and joined efforts with her, but it was taking forever to move the debris. Forever . She gritted her teeth. The nanoboost would not last enough, and his heart would not cope with another shot.
"Goodness' sake, Reinhardt, push harder!"
The Crusader grunted among teeth and the debris mound on top of him trembled. A large chunk of concrete and rock slid down like a small tectonic plaque, dragging with it a bunch more of rubble and metal pieces. A moment later, he rose from his elbow into his two arms with one mighty push.
Nanites or not, his strength was not for the faint of heart— he would boast about this for ages if he made it.
And he would. He must .
"Still cannot get the Chief out, there's more rubble on top of him," one of the medics said after a moment. "We need to free the Lieutenant first."
Ana could not agree more, but the tone of the Reinhardt's grunting had moved from `this is taking a lot of effort` to `this hurts like stupid` and he was still lopsided to the left. Damn. Maybe he was—
Her train of thought was interrupted when he got on his knees with a roar that would put a lion to shame, sending debris flying all over. Ana covered her head with her arms and flinched on instinct at the noise of rocks and metal crashing together. His sudden cry of pain made her dread the outcome of the explosion, but the Crusader had actually fallen on his side over a bunch of debris and was trying to breathe, grimace, and hold himself together while doing none well.
"Well done," Ana said, her body growing weak with relief— relief that did not last much when she looked at Torbjörn. His left arm was trapped under a big boulder, and there was blood . Too much of it. He seemed unconscious, which meant the gash on his head that was bleeding all over his face was worse than it seemed. If he was not worse was because Reinhardt's hammer was bent in a way that helped create an air pocket around him.
"Oh shit, not good," Simmons said loud enough that Ana could hear, and then broke into a run towards the Crusader. He had actually gotten up to his feet, as impossible as it seemed. "Lieutenant, don't move!"
The rest of the medics and engineers split into teams and rushed to action after him, and Ana patched in comms to the incoming ships.
"Captain Amari speaking," she said, watching the engineers helping Reinhardt to the ground again. "We need we need medical evac for the Chief Engineer and Lt. Wilhelm along with at least ten of our soldiers."
"Copy, sir. We will provide for them. ETA is six minutes. We've received landing clearance already."
"Roger. Thanks-"
"Louis, we need you here, now!" One of the medics called, and the man seemed torn for a moment before leaving Reinhardt and turning around. He had been exchanging words with the Crusader she could not hear, but it was obvious the medic would not be able to help unless the engineers got him out of his armour.
"What's the problem?" Ana asked, crouching by the engineers. "Cannot get him out?"
"We've more pressing issues," Simmons pointed to the front of the armour, and it was only then that Ana spotted the bubbling dark foam forming underneath the bent and sparking armour chest panel. "The battery will blow up if we don't stop the degradation, but the plate is too bent to remove the unit. Ralph's trying to open the frontal panel now so we can unhinge it and freeze the battery until we can dispose of it at HQ," he scratched the back of his head with a dirty hand, "or maybe, we'll just let it blow up far from us, whatever floats our boat."
"Sorry," Reinhardt managed to wince and make a sheepish face at the same time. Sweat pearled his face, smudging the dirt and grime that cling to him from the collapse. "Couldn't help it- but you saw it? Wasn't it amazing?"
"Sure, just- What about the backup battery?" Ana's voice lost strength when she turned around to check on his back. There was an imprint of something large, long and heavy crossing diagonally the engine and several of the plates on Reinhardt's left side. Whatever hit him had bent some plates and torn others into sharp edges that disappeared inwards.
"There's no abnormal readings coming from it. Seems to be absolutely depleted," Simmons waved a screwdriver. "We'll freeze it nevertheless when we deal with this one, though."
" Freeze it?"
"We throw a pack a pair of cryofreeze aerosol canisters whenever he jumps in an aircraft for days like this. Never told you that?"
"No, good to know," she said, feeling her body draining of adrenaline and leaving her tired. So tired. "Take the panel off; we'll freeze it if we can."
"The first lock opened fine, but the second is stuck," Ralph hammered the butt of the screwdriver he had placed on the chest plate upper lock. "But, I'm getting it open right now."
Ana tried not to think how close to the unstable battery he was hammering. She sat on the rubble, hearing the doctors talk about a tourniquet, and tried to find anything that would distract her mind. Eventually, she noticed how each hammer blow made the Crusader's eyes wrinkle.
She expected his joints and muscles to be sore from the strain of holding that much weight, and his back… After looking at the armour, it sure was going to be a mess. Adrenaline was still helping, she supposed, because he was taking the whole thing fairly well. The nanoboost may still not be where they wanted it to be, but it did force the body to generate a lot of it. Yet, neither adrenaline or his endurance were infinite.
"Lieutenant, report," she said when he downright winced, hoping to both distract him and her thoughts. "What happened to you both?"
"Couldn't get Torbjörn out in time, had to improvise," he made a face. Ana could see the freckles on his cheeks despite the grime, his wolfish teeth as the pain made him breathe through his mouth. Both his arms were on his lap and, even if the armour's gauntlets did not work, he seemed to be squeezing his left arm against himself. "How's he?"
"He's-" she looked over her shoulder. The medics were in the way, so she could not see him, but the blood on the ground glared at her. "He's bad. Medics are with him, now."
Reinhardt's face grew sombre, disappointment and failure weighing more than his dead armour, but there was no point in hiding him the truth.
"Ingrid will give birth any day, now."
"Evac is on the way," she said. "He has a chance. You gave him a chance, even if-" Ana trailed off, shutting her mouth close at the sudden ache in her chest. He had scared her to death. It had been so close. So close . "Even if slim," she said in the end, ignoring the empty pit of her stomach. "But he's as stubborn as you are. If no more."
Reinhardt cracked a humourless half-smile, but the engineers' last efforts to get the front panel loose made him throw his head back and barely hold a cry on his throat. As they ran away with the panel, he dropped back into his right elbow, grimacing like Ana had not seen him do since he shattered his leg.
" Ow , shit," he swallowed once the engine found the ground, blood scurrying anew from the junctures at the waist. He was pale like a ghost, and Ana could not unsee the jarred edges of the bent plate pointing downward like knives.
Tapping on her wrist datapad, she called on the comms again.
"Team, ETA for evac?"
"We're landing, Captain, less than a minute. Is everything ready, there?"
She turned around. The doctors seemed to be discussing over Torbjörn's prone figure, but they would be as ready as they could get, because they were not staying in the half-destroyed building a minute longer than necessary.
"Yeah. Let's go home."