Angela appeared in a well furnished, darkened room in a flash of light a second before Sombra appeared. Sombra took a look at Angela and took a shot in the dark.
"Bucket's over here"
Angela nodded her thanks and retched into the bucket, coughing and spluttering. She breathed for a moment and looked at Sombra.
"Who in their right mind would choose to be drunk?"
"Ask a glass of water" She offered Angela a stick of gum.
Angela happily accepted and looked around the room. It was well furnished and comfortable, with large windows looking out over stars and complete blackness. It's still night, so I'm not too far out concerning longitude. A picture on the table in the middle of the room caught her eye and she went over to pick it up, feeling a sense of anger and disgust as she looked. A picture of her class from University, with Moira in the centre and Angela on her right, the rest of the class, many of whom Angela didn't remember dispersed around them, Einar in the back. Sombra walked over.
"Which was you"
"Next to Moira"
Sombra's eyes widened as she looked at the younger Angela and took another glance at Angela.
"Oh" she managed weakly. "You lost weight"
Angela raised a eyebrow. "Really?"
Sombra licked her lips. "And... gained some height"
Angela wasn't listening. She was looking at Moira in the picture, smiling into the camera with red hair tumbling behind her, sunlight glinting of the gold crucifix she wore around her neck. Angela remembered listening in rapt attention to her lectures, the joy she felt as she was told she could join in the Idun project and the nights after each day afterwards, which showed on Moira's face, the broken veins on her nose and the hand on her students back. She was aware to a door opening behind her.
"You were so self conscious about your scar"
Angela didn't turn around to the rich, Irish accented voice. She looked to her younger self, head bowed down towards the camera in the hopes of avoiding the scar that crossed her face showing, hand pressed into her back.
"I wish I still had it"
Moira extended a hand and then thought better of it. "Shows that your brave?"
"No" At that Angela turned to look at her old professor. The broken veins in her nose have disappeared and her red hair; clipped short, was flecked with grey. Despite that she hadn't appeared to have aged. Moira flexed her metallic arm and looked nervously at Angela. Two other figures watched from the doorway.
"Why then?"
Angela didn't reply. Moira clicked her tounge and glanced at the other figures. Sombra was leaning against a wall and watching with interested eyes. Moira broke the silence first.
"Would you like a drink?"
"Yes, I came all the way here for a drink"
"Ah" Moira gave a nervous laugh "good to see you still have your temper. You seem to lose it quite often"
"Nothing compared to what you have lost".
Moira clicked her tounge again. "I'm sorry Angela, I wouldn't do this if I thought it wasn't necessary"
"If what wasn't necessary?"
Moira glanced over to the other figures in the doorway and they came through, allowing Angela her first good look at them. One was a tall, gangly young man with dark olive skin. The other wore a black combat uniform and a mask. "Your work Angela, it is necessary we finish it" at that Moira looked desperate, beaten and sad. Angela stared at her, her eyes were large and pleading, arms hanging limply by her side and back hunched and for a moment she looked older then her 37 years. My god, what has happened to you?
Angela broke her stare over Moira and turned it too the window. "I refused to use that way to produce Idun, and I thought you had as well"
Moira hands shook as she spoke. "What we were working on Pet" the hungry look Angela had seen so often before was in her eyes. "The ability to heal a broken arm in seconds, giving brain cells a chance to heal, growing back ribs at the press of a button, how could I deny humanity this chance. Such power would put us equal to the god's as you used to say. You were joking, sacrilege, but still, it was satisfying. Yes, I must have Idun, it must be massed produced, regardless of what you think."
Angela stared in disbelief at Moira. "I've been trying to get it mass produced for years after you ran. The body farming plan, oh yes it's fine. Just impractical for the cost of equipment, requires constant upkeep and, oh that's right! Completely fucking unethical!"
Moira looked at Angela and sighed. "The bodies we need can be gotten from criminals, people no one will miss. Besides, we will only produce as much as needed."
"Oh, sure you will! At first. Then when do you think people will be selling Idun in shops, using it for paper cuts? Monetising it? It'll start of small and then people will want more! When do you think people will be sent off to be blood bags for minor offences?"
"If that's how it will be, that's how it will be"
"And then what? You realise the amount of work necessary to work the Pure Idun into a workable state will be fucking insane!"
"Oh, so now it'll be too much work? We can use them as blood bags; like you say, if we need too. I believe you did something similar for your friend?"
"So we're going to just use O- blood type criminals then? Those are the only ones who bond. Also, who in their right mind would let something like that be hooked up to them?"
"You'll be amazed with what people can get used too" muttered Sombra.
Angela ignored her "You don't give a shit about using Idun to help people, you just fucking want it so as to feel like someone important, so you have control over it!"
Moira voice dripped with anger. "Then find me a fucking alternative"
"I was if you don't remember"
"Your acting like we are killing them!"
"You aren't. Your doing so much worse"
For the moment Angela and Moira glared at each other. Moira started walking away into the next room, Angela following closely. Finally Moira turned and broke the silence.
"You ungrateful bitch. Nothing can ever be enough for you can it? It's never enough, you have to keep going until you have everything the way you want things, and damn the consequences"
"As you say, nothing is enough. And I will have my way"
"Not this time"
"Meaning?"
Moira glared at Angela. "You think you really have another way to finish what you started?"
"I'll rather die then have it happen this way"
"Seeing what happened, that is your only other option"
Angela did not speak. She stepped away from Moira and She took a quick look around the room, a laboratory. There was complicated machinery that Angela assumed would be powered by large amount of electricity. Perhaps a lethal dose. Then she looked at a window and noticed something. There were lights, far away and below in the distance. Flurries of snow were falling outside the window and the snow on the ground was thick. A mountain, maybe thousands of metres up. Angela guessed that the lights were too far away to reach, several miles down and across. Even with her healing factor she doubted she would survive the trek. She bit her lip. 25 days, then I go out into the mountains to die. She thought for a moment and then buried her head in her hands.
"You're right" Moira started, surprised at that admission. "You're right, I've been fooling myself in thinking there is another way besides this" Angela looked up and Moura was shocked to see her face contorted in anguish. "This is the only way to finish of Idun. Please stop. Just stop. I don't want to do this anymore. It's too much!" Angela felt anger rise in her stomach as she realised what she had to do and say. "I'll start tomorrow. We'll put the drip in, just please stop talking about this. I just want a fucking break. Just tonight, please"
Moira seemed shocked by this reaction and she reached out tentatively with her hand and placed it on Angela's shoulder, as if to comfort her. If you tried that before, you would have lost the other fucking arm. As it was Angela forced herself to look up, her face a mask of misery belying the anger beneath.
Moira nodded. "Of course pet, I'm sorry. But you must understand this is for the best. You'll see that one day". She hugged Angela fiercely and then turned to the man. "Please show her where she will be sleeping, Ibrahim"
The tall man obliged, and took Angela deep inside the facility to the rooms. Damn, if the one in the black suit is security it will be hard to avoid it. She thanked Ibrahim who stood awkwardly, Angela noticed that his right shoulder dropped more then the left. She wasn't expecting him to speak and was slightly surprised when he did.
"I just want to say, thank you for the opportunity, I am sorry about what is going on. I wish this was happening in better circumstances"
Angela looked inquisitively at Ibrahim. "opportunity?"
She didn't have enough time before he left. The Uniformed one replaced him.
"What do you want?"
"You think me or Sombra are fooled by that?" Angela imagined the face beneath grinning.
Angela paused. "I recognise your voice..." It was heavily modulated at the time, yet Angela felt as though she had heard it before.
The Uniformed one hesitated for a moment and then took off her helmet. Underneath was a black haired women, pale skinned with beautiful blue eyes. She stared at Angela and sighed.
"I just wanted to say, thank you for saving my life. Burning to death is a hell of a way to go." She gave a shy smile at Angela's shocked expression. "My name is Evelyn. But first, we need to talk about a man called Reaper, he's my commanding officer in Blackwatch."
"So, Moira is working with Blackwatch?" Angela said, having recovered enough.
"She gives them medical support, they give her funding"
Angela gritted her teeth.
"I take it Blackwatch is interested in the use of Idun for their soldiers?"
Evelyn hesitated and then nodded.
"who is Reaper?"
"A monster, a rapist, a murderer. You've met him twice, said "remember me"?
Angela's brow furrowed. "But then I've only met him once"
The woman looked down. "No... he has the ability to accelerate the decay of his cells because of Moira's work... Then his cells heal"
Angela's eyes got wide at the realisation of what the woman had said. "So Moira has already injected Idun into someone, and is keeping them alive?"
"I believe the only people she has done it to was you and him" Evelyn made to leave and looked behind at Angela. "Better take a shower in the morning, we're inserting the drip tomorrow"
Angela sat alone, watching the flurries of snow pile beneath her window outside her nicely furnished room. Her mind was going faster and faster every second, trying to piece together the information she had just been told.
This "Reaper" has accelerated healing and decay of his cells. He and me are the only person who carry Idun. Which means...
Oh god. Zurich. It was him. He was the body bag. He was the first.