Lena and McCree sprinted to the location from the file, it was a small home not too far from the center of Paris. Talon was set to extract the VIP with a car, there wasn't enough space to land a shuttle. Lena blinked up to sweep the building from the top floor, while McCree breached the front door. The house was eerily quiet, not a single sound came from the darkened rooms. McCree slowly made his way through the first floor, searching for any signs of intruders. He made his way up the staircase, quickly peering into every room before stopping outside a closed door, Lena blinked down the stairs as he prepared to kick in the door. McCree's kick flung the door into the wall, a desk sat on the opposite side of the room, the chair behind it was turned away, facing at the window behind it. McCree turned the chair, the corpse of a man sat in it, the color of his skin indicated he had been dead for some time. Lena grabbed a small item off the desk, it was a badge with the Talon logo. "Well, that ain't good." McCree sighed as he holstered his revolver, "I say we make our way back to John. Talon was definitely here, but not for this guy." He made his way out of the home, Lena following close behind, the door closing behind her.
John groaned as he pushed himself from the hood of the car, his wound had stopped bleeding, but that didn't mean he wasn't in pain. He felt a small prick in his neck, reaching up he pulled a needle from his neck, he glanced upwards to find a Talon dropship flying towards him. "Seriously..." John muttered as he collapsed to the ground, his eyes slowing closing as the sound of heels approached him. Lena and McCree rounded the corner of the street as the shuttle began to take off, Widowmaker stood in the open door, a sneer on her face. Lena quickly scanned the area for John, he wasn't in sight.
"No, no, no!" Lena yelled, trying to blink up to the dropship, her hands mere inches from the metallic ledge of the cabin. Widowmaker let out a laugh before shutting the door, the ship flew off into the distance. Lena slid to a stop, dropping to her knees as she watching the shuttle disappear, they had no idea where they were taking him.
"We'll get him back." McCree spoke, placing a hand on Lena's shoulder, "But we've gotta get to Winston. If we're lucky, John still has his communicator, and that means we can track him." Lena slowly rose to her feet, a smile on her face, but her eyes told a different story, they held a sadness within them, though she hoped Jesse didn't notice. McCree sighed, speaking into his communicator to inform Winston of the situation, he dispatched a shuttle to their location to pick them up.
John groggily shook himself awake, trying to force his eyes to focus. He slowly lifted his head and peered around, he was in a shuttle of some sort. The cabin gently shook as they soared through the air, he lifted his arms to find that they were, surprisingly, not bound, though his pistol was missing. The only figure beside the pilot was the woman sitting across from him, his eyes struggled to focus, only making out her purple skin. "Good to see you're awake, Commander." Sarcasm laced the word, the woman slowly turned her head out the window. "Do you know where we're going?" She asked, keeping her focus on the scenery below.
"No, I don't." John grunted, "Though I suppose if you wanted to kill me I'd be dead already."
"Smart boy, we're taking to where this all began, somewhere very important to you. And then, when you realize the truth, you'll come with us, willingly." Widowmaker sneered, still not turning to face him.
"And why would I do that?" John questioned, he had never once considered joining Talon.
"Because you've hidden the truth from yourself, and I know how you struggle with being a hero. We don't hope that the world will do the right thing and improve, we force it to do so, it doesn't matter if they want to or not." The bitter words shook John, he did feel that the constant struggle of putting out the world's fires was fruitless, half of the fights he had were with enemies he had already met. The only ones who never returned were the ones he killed, he could add Junkrat and Roadhog to that list. "We're here." Widowmaker smiled, opening the door of the shuttle as they lowered to the ground. Wide dunes of sand covered the landscape, a lone stone building sat nestled near the foot of a mountain. John slowly stepped out of the shuttle, the sand crunching beneath his feet. He scanned the area, this is where he left Overwatch, where he killed those Omnics. His legs trembled as he neared the building, the corpses of the Omnics still littered the landscape, their chasises stained from years of unrelenting winds. The memories came flooding back, he killed the Omnics, reached down to save the woman, her hate filled eyes peering back. As he left the building into the light, his comrades stared at him in horror, aiming their weapons at him.
"You killed them, John." One of the men spoke, "They never gave us orders to fire!" John stood there, paralyzed as he stared at his comrades, a single shot rang out, killing the man who spoke to him. John looked down, his finger had pressed the trigger of his weapon, as he turned and fired on the rest of his men, one was missing, but it didn't matter. John fell to his knees inside the building, dragged back to reality, as Widowmaker slowly placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Now do you remember?" She coldly spoke, "Do you remember who you truly are, killer?" John's arms shook as he slowly dropped them to his side, unable to comprehend what he had done. "You hid the truth from yourself, hoping to cope with what you really did. You couldn't live with the knowledge that you killed innocents and then turned on your own squadmates, so you ran. You ran away from all this, hoping that you could escape from the past. You're no hero, John, you're a killer like us." Widowmaker's words rang through John, he just stared at the empty room. He was pulled to his feet by Widowmaker, who dragged him back towards the shuttle. "You won't need this anymore." She reached into his pocket, throwing his communicator into the sand, before shutting the door as the shuttle took off. "It's a lot to comprehend, but it's for the best. You need to know who you are if you ever want to truly live. And now, we can help one another. Talon is painted as the evil in the world, the shadow behind every crisis, but that's not the case. We're pushing the world in the way it needs to go, and there's always some resistance, but it's for the greater good. But, you don't need to hear me say it, you can listen to him." Widowmaker pointed towards a monitor on the wall, a shadowy figure appeared on the screen.
"Hello, John, I know this is a lot to take in." The voice spoke, his smooth voice contrasted with the dark visuals. "We need you to help us make the world better than it would otherwise be, not through hope and praise, but through action. You'll find that we're not as evil as we're made out to be, and that every freedom comes with a price." John slowly glanced at the monitor, his eyes sullen from the memories he relived.
"But why me?" He slowly asked, barely able to speak.
"You're a natural leader, someone the troops will obey, and you can relate to them. Everyone here has a difficult past, it binds us together, makes us a family. We need people like you, John, people willing to do what needs to be done. You're not an enigma like Reaper was, nor are you as cold as Widowmaker, you're a human, and that's what makes you perfect for us. We could offer you enhancements, though I imagine you'd refuse them, but we want you as whole as we can get. We can't afford to be making mistakes John, there's a war coming, but we have a chance to stop it."
"If there was something happening, Overwatch would-"
"Overwatch is too caught up in international politics and positivity to ever focus on the big picture." The man interrupted, "We're sending you in with Widowmaker to Russia, any doubts you have about us will be dispelled there. Welcome to Talon, John." The monitor shut off, dimming the cabin. Widowmaker handed John a pistol, a silencer had been built into the barrel, along with a small sight modification along the top.
"It's not as weak as that flimsy thing you had on you." Widowmaker spoke, returning to her seat.
"You don't think I'll shoot you with this?" John replied, examining the weapon.
"No, because I think you want to know if we're telling the truth." John looked up to meet Widowmaker's cold gaze, letting out a sigh as he prepared for the flight to Russia.
Lena and McCree flew towards the mountains of Afghanistan, Winston had said that his communicator was there. The shuttle quickly landed on the sand, footsteps could still be seen leading to the lone building. Lena and McCree examined the Omnic corpses around the area, whatever had happened had been a bloodbath. They made their way behind the building, where the communicator was transmitting from, several small graves were lined up, small wooden markings sat at the top of them. Lena picked up the communicator, a single message flashed on its screen, it had never been sent. Goodbye.