(Authors note: So whoops this chapter got really long because I didn't think there was a truly appropriate stopping place for a while. So enjoy this super long chapter! PS. I am not the best at writing action scenes so please feel free to give me honest feedback on any of this, I don't know why but I kind of struggled with a lot of the content in this. Anyway I'm done babbling now. Read on! :D)
Chapter 12
"How are you feeling?" Winston's booming voice carried from his seat in the cockpit all the way to the back passenger area of the small jet. It seemed DVa had agreed to let them borrow her brand new, expensive, top-of-the-line aircraft in order to get to Dorado as quickly as possible, but Hanzo had no idea how Winston had managed to convince her to loan it out. She was usually pretty protective of her equipment, and the jet probably cost a small fortune.
Hanzo couldn't hear Harley's reply; she was standing behind Winston, leaning on his seat, while Hanzo sat near the very back. They hadn't exchanged any words since the practice range; even when he'd gone to collect her she simply followed, completely silent. He suspected she was still angry about his cold manner and the way he'd neglected to answer her impossible question about why he behaved that way.
He glanced around, admiring the luxury of the jet's interior, though it didn't come without a pang of what was perhaps nostalgia for the life he no longer had. He remembered what it felt like to be rich, unquestioning as a child of where the money had come from, and uncaring when he was a teenager. Back when he was to become leader of the Shimada Empire, his focus was on training and becoming a ruthless warrior – basking in the luxuries would come when he was old.
Despite his near-forty years, Hanzo didn't feel old yet. He worked hard to keep the energy and performance he'd had since he was a teen. His spirit was conflicted though. He had the experience of so much battle, so many experiences all over the globe, and yet when it came to personal growth…
He reflected on all the women he'd pushed away – or had pushed away from him – as a young man. When he was still working to inherit his birthright, many options had presented themselves but few were taken. It wasn't that he'd never experienced physical closeness, but when he really reflected he didn't think he'd ever felt a genuine sense of love for anybody, other than perhaps his family. But that was a taught love, an unconditional love, a love that didn't grow from somewhere deep within his heart because it was always there from the beginning. He had to love his family, but loving another person as a romantic partner? The thought was still strangely foreign to him.
Hanzo examined the curve of Harley's back as she leaned all her weight on Winston's seat back. The skin exposed between her cropped top and her skirt was pale and inviting, and Hanzo had to bite down on the inside of his cheeks to keep his thoughts going any further.
"How are you doing back there?" Winston now called to him, shaking him completely free of his thoughts.
"Fine," He answered plainly. "How much longer?"
"Not much," Winston tapped something on the console. "Less than an hour probably."
Hanzo leaned back into his chair and closed his eyes. He'd tried to take a nap in the time Harley was practicing with McCree, but his mind was racing and he couldn't seem to calm down enough to lie in the bed for more than a few minutes, much less sleep. He'd never been much of a napping person anyway. However, with the white noise of the jet's engines and the gentle sway every now and again as they hit an air current, he could feel himself nodding off.
The familiar thudding of landing gear forced Hanzo awake and he looked around himself, groggy, trying to get his bearings. Harley was sitting beside him now, buckled in and looking at something on her communications device. He looked down at his own chest and noticed the seatbelt that hadn't been there before.
"Did you…?"
"Yeah," Harley said softly without looking up. "I didn't want to wake you but Winston figured the landing would be bumpy. You were really asleep there."
Was I? Hanzo's head thudded to confirm he must have been asleep for at least a short while. He supposed it must have been close to an hour, based on Winston's previous time estimate and the fact that they were now landing. He grimaced and rubbed his temples.
"You okay?" She still didn't look directly at him but must have noticed his discomfort from her periphery. Apparently even when she's mad she's still nice. It was infuriating and humbling all at the same time, and Hanzo had no idea how to react. He felt awkward just sitting in silence and despite his cold shoulder and snarky remark as he left the practice range, he didn't want to be silently feuding with her while they were trying to get a job done.
"I'm sorry," He tried to get the words out quickly and as a result they may have blended together a little bit.
Harley's blue eyes flickered upwards. "What was that?"
"I am sorry," He articulated. "For upsetting you earlier. It was not my intention."
"It sort of feels like our whole relationship is founded on apologizing to each other, huh?" Harley smiled broadly and Hanzo felt relieved, until her expression changed to concern. "I just wish you'd tell me why half the time you're nice and the other half you're…"
"Perhaps later," Hanzo unbuckled himself as the plane came to a full stop. He hated to cut her off again when that was part of the reason she'd been upset, but it wasn't the time to have a heart to heart. With any luck, he could skillfully evade it the rest of the mission and hopefully by the time they arrived back at Hanamura he could think up something good enough to tell her.
"Let's not waste any time," Winston came into the passenger area after shutting down the cockpit and all the controls. "Our key mission here is rescue and extract. If we happen to come across any information that may be useful then copy it onto your devices and get out. Don't make recon your priority; we already lost that opportunity. We just need to make sure we don't lose anyone."
Hanzo pulled his quiver over his shoulders and gripped his bow tightly. He watched Harley clip a pistol holster to her leg and absent-mindedly wondered how her training with McCree had gone. Winston popped the hatch and the three of them slipped out under the cover of night, slinking between the trees of some kind of forest. A few hundred feet away from where they stood, Pharah's jet could be seen glinting between the branches. They were just outside the city. The building of Talon's base – formerly an Overwatch base – could even be seen in the distance.
At Hanzo's instruction they were quiet as they hurried forward; the tension in the air made it seem like it wasn't just him who was eager to get the mission over with. A creased forehead and the subtle sound of grinding teeth betrayed Harley's feelings. Winston was large and clunky, and though he could leap through the air with grace, Hanzo still had his doubts about sneaking the gorilla into an enemy base. Not that they had a choice.
The moment they came within firing range of the building Hanzo fired a sonic arrow near the door they intended to enter. Surprisingly, no guards were positioned there. Their absence made Hanzo uncomfortable. Still, he signaled for them to move forwards, then darted off to the side, moving into a more strategic position to cover his allies should anyone come around the side of the building or down from the rooftop. Harley and Winston made it to the door without incident, but from where Hanzo was standing, he couldn't see them trying to open it – instead, they seemed to be staring down at something. He checked six points around him and, convinced no one was coming, moved up to the door.
"Is there a problem?"
"Yes and no…" Winston gestured to the electronic pad used to lock the doors. It was still snapped in half, and when he pushed on the door gently, it opened a crack. "They haven't replaced this lock."
Red flags sprung up inside Hanzo's head. "That cannot be an accident."
"I agree," Winston huffed, frowning. "There's no one Talon would notice six Overwatch agents break into their base and not check all the entrances. We should find another way in, this looks like a trap to me."
Hanzo checked his six points again, ears tuned to the slightest sound from anywhere near them. Harley's breathing was a little heavier than normal. He glanced up at the building.
"I will go to the roof to see if we can get in there," Hanzo didn't wait for a reply and immediately scaled the building, gripping poorly-laid bricks and barricaded windows to help with his ascent. If he could find a rooftop entrance they were much more likely to surprise any guards. Before fully pulling himself onto the roof he peered over the ledge, only exposing his eyes and the hair that stood out from the top of his head. There didn't seem to be any guards, so he heaved himself over the lip of the rooftop, landing elegantly with as little noise as possible. Checking his points again, he quickly spotted the stairwell door and fired another sonic arrow toward it; there wasn't anyone behind the door or on the first flight of stairs. It still felt suspicious that the back entrances would be so unguarded after a break-in, but unfortunately, Hanzo didn't have too much time to wonder. Instead, he lifted his communications device to his lips and whispered for his allies to join him.
He watched and listened while Harley and Winston made their way to the roof. Harley's ability to levitate herself was, like Hanzo's climbing, completely silent, but Winston's jetpack made a fair amount of noise. When he landed the three of them stood perfectly still, waiting to see if they'd attracted attention. When no one came, they relaxed.
"Where is everyone?" Harley breathed. "It's so quiet…"
"That is a good question," Hanzo muttered, testing the door handle. It was locked.
"Here, let me," Winston fiddled with the lock, which opened in a matter of moments. "You know, I don't know if they even changed the code on this one."
"Right, this used to be an Overwatch base…" Harley squinted into the dark stairwell before advancing after Winston. "So you guys must know your way around here. That's actually kind of a relief. I totally forgot Talon took this place over after the war started…"
"Winston is familiar," Hanzo corrected, following Harley and closing the door behind them. "I was never stationed here."
"Oh…" She sounded like that made her nervous.
As he followed her down the stairs, watching her orange mop bounce with every step, Hanzo had the odd urge to comfort her. Tell her some reassuring nonsense, pat her on the head, maybe give her a hug… What on earth is wrong with me? He made a face like he'd just bitten a lemon, realizing that he was allowing himself to become distracted from a highly dangerous infiltration mission just because of a girl. She's just a girl. Just another girl. He told himself, though he still felt his eyes coming back to watching her hips sway after every six point check.
Winston abruptly stopped. Harley almost crashed into him. The gorilla pointed down, at the door they were about to come up on in another half-flight of stairs. Hanzo heard it too. There were voices; unfamiliar, low-speaking, and the distinct whirring noise of computers. He listened more intently to determine how many people were in the room as he couldn't afford to have them hear his arrow hit the floor or wall. It sounded like there were three, maybe four. They were whispering.
Hanzo moved past Harley and Winston, nimbly making his way down the stairs. He tested the door: it was unlocked, and he pressed his body into it, holding on tightly, trying to make as little noise as possible. With the door ajar, he could make out the voices clearly. Definitely three. That's no problem, he smirked to himself, feeling in his element.
Moving back up the stairs like a cat, he whispered to Harley. "Three."
She looked back at him with wide eyes.
"We practiced this but hours ago," He said, trying his best to sound reassuring. "You are fully capable. When the door is open, reverse the poles."
Harley nodded hesitantly but followed him down the stairs. She leaned against the wall on one side of the door and Hanzo resumed his position against it. He looked up at her again and couldn't help but smile. Her face lit up and she looked ready to go.
Hanzo kicked the door open and rushed into the corner of the room, out of Harley's line of sight. She stepped into the doorway right as the agents turned around and suddenly they were all in the air, out of reach of the alarm triggers. After a second they crashed to the floor. Like lightning with his expert reflexes, Hanzo dashed around the room, knocking each of them unconscious with his bow. It wasn't his preferred way to fight, and he may not have been as quick or nimble as Genji would have been, but he could make do in a melee battle when it was required.
"Good work," Winston came in and closed the door behind him. "Did they get an alarm off?"
"No," Hanzo turned to look at Harley, who was looking uneasily at the unconscious agents. "But I don't think we should stay here."
"Don't plan to," Winston was already tapping away furiously at their computers; he seemed to have schematics of the building pulled up. "I just need to locate where they might be keeping Lena. Try to find out something about the mind-control, would you?"
Hanzo didn't need to be told twice and sat down at the second machine. He jammed an extraction device into the computer – it wasn't something Overwatch exactly condoned, ripping data in this way, but under the circumstances they had little other options. The extractor worked by pulling files with certain keywords, codes or algorithms and loading them into the hard drive within the device. Hanzo had no idea what Mei and Winston had come up with to extract the files and he didn't much care… until Genji's name flashed on the screen. He quickly clicked the folder and several photos and documents appeared on the screen, including one labeled "Nu_Utopaea". Utopaea. That's the name of the city Vishkar built after the first Omnic Crisis. Hanzo enlarged the document while the extraction device continued to pull data.
As he scanned the dense document, drawn up like a legal contract, trying to only read what was important, Harley came up behind him. She leaned on the back of his chair the way she'd leaned on Winston's in the jet. Her hair brushed against his neck and Hanzo felt goosebumps spread all down his arms. Unfortunately he didn't have much more opportunity to be distracted by her close proximity as he found a section that directly referred to Genji. Their plans are to… Oh no, no this can't happen… We have to find the others and now. Hanzo sprung to his feet aggressively, nearly knocking Harley over in the process.
"We must go!" Hanzo grabbed his bow and headed for the door.
"Wait, Hanzo, wait!" Winston turned around in his chair. "I have all the possible locations for where they're holding Lena as well as the others. You should know better than to go charging out there! What's gotten into you?"
"Read that," He pointed to the computer. "We may already be too late."
Winston's eyes traveled back and forth as he read the paragraph, his face slowly turning from confusion, to disgust, to anger. He snarled loudly when he finished and yanked the extractor out of the computer, stuffing it into his bag as he turned off the computer he'd been using. Harley looked back and forth between them as they reached for the door.
"Hey, what's going on?" She asked in a higher-than-normal-pitched voice. Their sudden frantic pace must have thrown her off, but Hanzo couldn't consider her feelings right now. This was bigger than them.
"These are the possible coordinates," Winston showed Hanzo a diagram on his communications device, acting as if he hadn't even heard Harley. "I narrowed it down to four different holding areas you might find the others. You'll have to move fast; if these three wake up and sound the alarm we'll have more trouble on our hands, and we can't afford the trouble we've already got."
"Done," Hanzo nodded at Harley. "You are with me while Winston attempts to find Lena."
"What did that document say?"
"I'll explain it as we go," Hanzo answered impatiently, stamping his foot like a horse to let her know he meant business. "Come on!"
Harley hustled towards him and the three of them headed down the next flight of stairs in silence. As soon as they reached the next floor unimpeded, without a single trace of any other Talon agents, Hanzo knew they were already in over their heads. This wasn't going to be easy, and he worried that Harley – who he was counting on for area control – wasn't going to be able to keep up. He wanted to believe in her but even he felt shaken by what he'd just read.
"You know where the rendezvous is," Winston tapped his ear. "Radio if something goes off course. Same for you Harley."
"Be careful!" She said, but Winston had already taken off down a long corridor, leaving Hanzo and Harley to go the other way. Harley looked up at Hanzo with her big blue eyes, obviously searching him for answers that he didn't know how to give. He fired a sonic arrow down the dark hall and then motioned her to walk close to him as it revealed the area was free of guards. For whatever reason the entire wing of the building seemed unlit, and she bumped into him a few times as they walked, her body brushing up against the bare arm and shoulder his tunic exposed. He swallowed hard, pulling his mind back to the task at hand, and the incredible danger they were potentially about to walk into. He hoped it was less than he imagined.
"Now can you tell me what's going on?" Harley whispered from the darkness.
"I will try," Hanzo didn't look down at her. "How much did they teach you about the Vishkar Corporation?"
"Mostly just about their attempts to rebuild sustainable living areas after the first Omnic crisis," Her voice was low and seemed calmer. "I always felt like there was a little more to them than that though. The trainers for the initiate program were always a little evasive when it came to answering questions about them… I was hoping to talk with Symmetra about it, she seems so nice."
"That is the basic principle of their operation, yes," Hanzo fired another arrow down the hallway, pinging back the continued lack of Talon agents. "Overwatch, however, has suspected for some time that Vishkar has been working on other projects that they do not expose to the public."
"Like what?"
"Their architects bend reality. Winston has believed for some time now that they may be attempting to create some kind of virtual reality generator that would allow for everyone to live in their own perfect world. This is of course only based on minimal evidence."
"Why don't you ask Symmetra?"
Hanzo snorted. "We have, many times. After the last recall Vishkar put her at a distance. In spite of her talent, we believe they questioned her loyalty to their vision."
"Oh…"
"But the document I just saw… it seems there is even more to the theories about Vishkar's side projects than we ever imagined."
"Like what?"
In the darkness Hanzo could just make out that they were coming up on the end of the hallway. The keypad on the door there glowed a dull blue, displaying the number "41". One of the possible locations Winston had given him was room 40, which would be on the other side of this room according to the schematic he'd briefly seen. Hanzo reached out to touch the pad when he stopped, a sound from the other side of the door capturing his attention. Harley must have heard it too because she moved up against the wall, flattening her body into the shadows. Hanzo snatched an arrow out of his quiver.
It sounded like someone shouting. It grew louder every moment, leading Hanzo to believe that whoever was yelling was coming their way. He leaned back against the wall opposite Harley, nocking his arrow. Heavy, angry footsteps were barreling towards the door.
"That was the deal!" A male voice screamed from just on the other side of the wall. "War now, peace later! When this is over you'll have your perfect world, but you made the deal that you would carry out our plan first!"
The door flew open, nearly hitting Harley in the face. She stayed still. Two men walked through the door, the one in front holding a communication device up to his masked face. They were both dressed in black from head to toe, wearing what looked like motorcycle helmets with the jaw area removed. Both of them had rifles strapped across their backs and pistols at their sides. They seemed completely oblivious to Hanzo and Harley; obviously they were more preoccupied with whoever they were speaking to. Hanzo knew he only had one shot since the communications device was already in the man's hand and he could instantly call for backup.
He fired the nocked arrow, landing it square in the back of the yelling man's knee. He went down with a howl, the device flying out of his hand. His partner turned around just in time to take an arrow to the shoulder before Hanzo was in his face. The man swung with his uninjured arm, Hanzo ducked and rolled behind him. One carefully placed blow to the back of the head and he was silent on the floor. The man who had been yelling was slowly crawling towards his communicator but Hanzo placed a foot on his back between his shoulder blades and pressed down. The man's body went limp.
"In here," Hanzo grabbed Harley by the wrist and pulled her through the still-open door into the room, closing the door behind him. There was a familiar clicking noise as the electronic lock went off.
"What the hell was he talking about?" Harley gasped as Hanzo took stock of the room they were in. It was a fairly small room with little in it, just a table and some video screens on the far wall. It was likely an interrogation room for the adjoining holding area. He didn't reply to her question, impatient to check the next room but logically knowing they couldn't just barrel into it. He took a deep breath to steady himself, just as he had always been trained.
He reached over his shoulder for another sonic arrow but his hand simply grasped at air. What the…? Hanzo pulled his quiver off and saw that it was completely empty. My arrows must have fallen out when I rolled past that guard. He clicked his tongue in annoyance and walked to the door they'd come through so he could collect his arrows. The door handle didn't move when he pulled it.
"What?" He snarled, tugging harder.
"What's the matter?" Harley appeared beside him.
Hanzo hesitated a moment, ashamed of his stupid mistake and furious about the situation he'd put himself in.
"I lost my arrows in that scuffle," He spoke flatly. "And the door will not open."
"Shit…"
He didn't think he'd ever heard Harley use so many curse words. She must be stressed out, and I'm certainly not helping, he growled internally. I'm supposed to be the experienced one, and I'm simply guiding her into more and more danger while being more and more unprepared. Not to mention the fact that all of our teammates might already be dead or…
"Can we get out the other door?" Harley ventured, sounding hesitant to make the suggestion.
"Perhaps," Hanzo spoke through clenched teeth, totally losing the calm he'd had mere moments earlier. "But there is no way to know what is on the other side now. We are now moving blindly, and unarmed."
"Unarmed?" Harley gave him an incredulous look. "Hello!"
She waved her hands around dramatically. Hanzo raised one of his eyebrows at her.
"I can still do everything you trained me for," She gave him the hint of a smile. "Plus you can have this."
Harley pulled the pistol out of her holster and handed it to him. The gun felt clunky and heavy in his hand; it had been a long time since he'd used one. Perhaps it really was better that McCree had been there for target practice instead of me…
"You cannot fight alone," Hanzo snapped out of his thoughts, back to the reality they were facing.
"Why not?"
"Because the situation has changed; this isn't simply Talon anymore."
"Then tell me what the new situation is," Harley's tone was sharp. "And let me deal with it."
"You cannot just…"
"Hanzo!" Harley snapped. "You were just going on about how we don't have time to waste, how we have to get to the others, how everything is worse than we thought… and now you're going to stand here and argue with me? I don't know if you still think of me as a child or what but you need to snap out of this self-involved delusion now."
Her words sliced through him like a blade. He felt his mouth agape and couldn't manage to close it. She looked at him with narrowed eyes, arms folded across her chest. She was right, he had been thinking of her as a child, as an accessory, but not as another soldier in this war. He wanted to apologize but his throat was dry and he didn't think he could manage the words. She was right and he was too angry and humiliated with himself to acknowledge it. His pride was winning the conflict raging within him. Defeated, he leaned back against the nearest wall.
"Look," She continued. "Before we try moving on, why don't you at least tell me what was in the document that made you and Winston freak out like that?"
"It…" Pain seared through Hanzo's head suddenly, a headache born of stress like he'd never felt before. Wincing, he did his best to speak evenly. "It explained that, much like we suspected, Vishkar developed a type of virtual reality that would allow for all people on earth to live in a world they deemed perfect. A world they could control and manipulate in any way they pleased, since the architects would no longer need to bend reality. They would become the reality. And all human beings would be subject to their desires."
"Oh my god…" Harley leaned back against the edge of the table. "But what does that have to do with Talon?"
"Vishkar has done some… questionable things in the past, but they would not brand themselves as terrorists, even for something as big as this," Hanzo rubbed his temples vigorously. "It seems the alternate reality does not take hold on everyone. Vishkar would want to be rid of those people, as they would interfere with their ideal world. However, they themselves would not bring the world to war. Talon on the other hand…"
"So Talon is just going to kill all these people?!"
"It seems that way, though I cannot imagine how they would go about simply killing millions of people. I did not manage to read the entire document, so I do not believe it's quite that straightforward. I was more concerned with Talon's end of the bargain… The only section I read thoroughly was a paragraph that distinctly mentioned Genji's name."
"What? What does Genji have to do with any of this?"
"He represents a medical marvel, a genetically and cybertronically enhanced soldier that even far exceeds the results of the program that Commander Morrison endured," Hanzo paused and bit down on his tongue, trying not to imagine what they would be doing with Genji if he had in fact been captured. "It seemed they were going to use him as some sort of prototype, working off everything Mercy had done to him. They may have never figured it out… but now…"
"Now they have Mercy," Harley's eyes were wide. "Oh my god, we have to find her. I mean find all of them. But we have to find her before they can force her to do anything. We can't face Talon if all their agents are like Genji!"
"And now you know why the outcome looks grim."
"Wait…" Harley snapped her fingers. "What about Tracer? They captured her first."
"I honestly don't know," Hanzo sighed. "Again, I did not manage to read the entire document. I shudder to think what Talon or Vishkar might want with the device she wears."
"Well then let's get going!"
Harley crossed the small room towards the yet-unexplored door. Hanzo didn't move; it felt like someone had nailed his feet to the floor and was slowly driving a spike through his head. He was in poor condition to fight as it was, and now he had to go in blind, with no weapons, and a splitting migraine to top it off. This was not going to be counted as one of his finer moments.
He'd just managed to push himself off the wall as Harley pushed on the door handle. It made the same stubborn clicking noise as when Hanzo had tried to open the other door.
"Uh oh," She turned around to face him, grimacing.
They were stuck.
