The two Hunters sit across from each other, separated by a holo-map that had blue, red, yellow and green shapes dotted all over. Russell sits on a holographic chair and is leaning forward with his fingers locked together. Xiao sits in a relaxed manner, one foot tapping at a constant, slow pace.
"So." She begins, and stands up, slowly making her way towards Russell through the holo-map. She steps in her usual cattish way but the aura surrounding her feels a lot less harsh than normal. "I've been arguing with a simulation this entire time."
Russell chuckles and scratches the back of his head. "I guess so. I'm Strike Commander of Overwatch, now?" He smirks and taps his knee. "when I mentioned I wanted to become Hunter Vanguard, I didn't mean this."
Xiao closes the distance between them, and looks down on him. She softly puts her hand on his shoulder, her fingertips barely touching him. "Quit looking at my stomach, first of all." She says, making him look up. "Second, stand up, we need to have an actual talk."
Russell stands up and gazes into her eyes. He backs away one step. "If it's about Cassandra…I know."
She sighs. "I'm scared that it's gonna be hard on you. I can't imagine losing a loved one as close as she was to you twice."
A tear forms in one of his eyes, and he can only laugh at the absurdity of the situation. "I enjoyed my time with her. The actual her would want me to pull the trigger."
Xiao holds his shoulder a bit tighter, and lightly shakes him. "I'm sorry it came to this." She says, no genuine emotion breaking through.
He slams his eyes shut, and clenches one fist.
She's just saying this to ease the pain, he thinks. "Don't worry about it." He lets loose a shaky breath. "I know you really don't care about my feelings."
Xiao steps back and gasps. "Russell!"
"Please, just don't bother." He mumbles, his voice barely above a whisper. "I'm fine."
She sighs. "I don't know what to say."
"Then don't say anything."
"I know it's hard but-"
"Please, just shut up."
Two pairs of footsteps landing grab their attention. Crow and Edgar stand there, the latter carrying a teenage woman over his shoulder.
The Titan takes great strides and puffs his chest up as he makes his way to Xiao. "Objective accomplished!" He says, proudness dripping from his lips. He drops the act a second later, and starts hysterically laughing. "That was incredibly stupid, I'm sorry."
"Broke the mood, thanks." Russell mumbles as a water bottle materializes in his hand, and he takes a sip from it after unscrewing the cap. "Titan antics…"
"Hey, Russell's back! Is it the real one?" Crow asks, slapping Russell in the shoulder, making him stumble to the side. "Feels real."
"Thanks for making sure, but yes, I am very real." The Hunter says, doing a short bow. "My head's killing me, though."
"If you're the real Russell Dulk…then I think you can handle this." A hand cannon materializes on the Titan's hand. "Your fake counterpart built…this."
When Russell set his eyes on the weapon, he jumped back and looked disgusted. "I, well not really I, made that?"
Jingles materializes, the Ghost chuckling sheepishly. "Half drunk and very salty. He told the story about your Luna's-"
He immediately grabs the weapon and points it at the construct. "Now you don't even mention that!"
"Whoa! I'm sorry!" Jingles exclaims as he banks downwards and hides between Russell's legs. "You spilled it to Sombra!"
"I did?"
"You did!"
"In a miserable state, might I add!" Russell hurls the gun at Jingles and ends up throwing it off of the platform they were on. "Whoa! You're just gonna throw that out?"
"Yeah, I don't like it." The Hunter mumbles and looks down to the void below. "I might have regretted that decision."
"What's done is done!" Edgar buts in and puts down the woman, then rolls his shoulder. "Now what do we do with this girl!"
"Not a girl." Hana Song snaps back. "Fully grown adult." She says, annoyed.
Edgar scoffs. "Please."
"Just because you can do space magic doesn't mean you get to be all condescending!"
"…Space magic?" Crow asks.
"Isn't that what you guys…do? You know, with the self-missile technique and fire-sword-from-nowhere thing?" She waves her arms around as she talks.
Crow raises a finger, then puts it down. "Sure, let's go with that. Space magic, I like it."
"Crow, don't be so stupid, she's clearly still in shock!" Edgar practically yells out, pointing at the seated teenager, who doesn't look very phased. "We just un-took her twenty minutes ago!"
"Are you always such an asshole?" Hana squints and stands herself up on wobbly feet.
"What?" Edgar asks, fire burning out of his hand. "Little lady, you best take that back."
"And you'll do what about it?" She hmphs and crosses her arms, looking away. "You can kill me, that'd be better than having to breath the same air you do."
The Warlock can barely restrain himself as his pride is viciously attacked by a teenager only three quarters his size. He exhales. "Crow, deal with her." He spins and takes a few steps.
"What makes you think I can deal with her if you can't?" Crow asks as he looks at Hana worried.
"You don't need to worry about me, you're cool."
"I'm cool?"
Russell groans. "Kids, and that's including you too Crow-"
"I'm not a kid!" Hana interjects.
"Okay, okay, whatever. We're getting off track, Xiao, what's the plan?" He turns around and looks around. "Xiao?"
The Huntress is nowhere to be seen.
/
Cassandra twirls a piece of the Darkness in between her fingers, watching with interest as the fragment stretches and closes on itself, as if it was fighting something inside. She summons it away and closes her fist, then exhales.
Her Taken Servitor, quite possibly the only thing she has left, hovers daintily and does slow, deliberate paces back and forth. Its eye blinks, then it turns to her.
"A gift. From your lovely." It says, then a hand cannon drops to her lap. She picks it up and inspects it, her bare thumb smoothing over the rough texture, and pokes the jagged edge at the barrel.
"A Thorn?" Cassandra ponders out loud, grasping her palm around the grip, feeling it morph into the perfect shape for her hand. She flicks it to the left and the cylinder slides out. Her interest in the weapon dwindles and she stashes it at her waist. "That's what…it was working on?"
She shakes her head as she puts away the thought of her being duped so easily from her mind. She takes a shaky breath and rests her hands on the armrests of her throne.
"They are preparing an assault." The Servitor says, in a matter-of-fact tone. She flicks her hand in the air in a dismissive manner. "I feel it would be best if you would prepare. Your…lovely will be present."
Cassandra snorts. "Of course, he would." She bitterly says. "When they do strike, I want him isolated."
"The Gatekeeper Wizards will be informed."
"Good, then let them come." She sighs again. "Bring me a Thrall."
"For what purpose, may I inquire?"
"I need a moment to vent, take out all the bad emotions."
"Ah. Very well." A second later, a very confused looking Thrall appears on top of a green rune a yard in front of looks to be young, with no indications of any growth to an Acolyte yet. It looks around dazed, and turns its attention to her before scrambling to kneel.
"Do away with the formalities, and come close. Sit down over here." She beckons the being with her finger, and it obeys, sitting cross-legged a foot away from her throne. "Tell me, Thrall, are you aware of what passes in a human's head when they experience great loss?"
It shakes its head, and says that it hasn't really thought about it.
"Rhetorical question, but I'll explain." She shifts forward and puts her arms on her thighs, putting her hands together.
It nods slowly and looks at her attentively. Then ponders in excitement about what its queen is about to tell it, and how it would put itself as superior to its peers.
Cassandra laughs. "So…it begins when two humans find each other attractive, when they're enamored by one another's physical appearance." She pauses and looks up, asking herself if she forgot anything. "When they're attracted to each other, the first goal is to…have fun together, as in mating."
The Thrall asks if it's to reproduce and make great offspring.
"No, not yet. Like I said, if you were listening, it's for fun."
The Thrall asks what fun is.
"That's besides the point, now listen." Cassandra hisses, making it snap its back straight in fear, of course fearing death. "Anyways, past the initial attraction phase, comes the phase of 'if they can live together'."
The Thrall nods in half-understanding, and shrugs.
"They can either hate each other…" She pauses to wait for a question.
The Thrall inquires as to how that could be.
"Things happen, and their love gets solidified when they figure out their differences, and come to accept and appreciate them." She says. "Are you aware of who I love?"
The Thrall doesn't.
"Well, it's a Guardian."
It tilts its head in confusion, and asks why.
"It's complicated. We were supposed to be together, forever. I did all of…this for him, and he doesn't understand any of it, refuses to believe because he's so stuck up with his foolish Light and Traveler that he outright denies me, can you believe it!?" She snarls in frustration, and slams her hand down, sending a tremor that makes the Thrall jump. "Observe! Everything I've built was for him! The pact I've made with Xol, all for naught!" She yells into empty air, then lashes out at the Thrall, killing it in one fell swoop.
She sighs once looking at what used to be a Thrall.
"Call another, about as young as that one."
"Very well." Her Servitor says.
She would finish her explanation, no matter how many useless Thrall it took.
. . .
An hour later…
Cassandra crushes yet another Hive into the ground, watching it crumple up like a pile of paper and discarding it like one.
"Why do they all ask so many questions!?" She bellows out into the void, stomping once and carving a small crater inside the bone-like substance under her. "I need something that doesn't ask any questions!"
She grits her teeth and swings a fist in the air, small amounts of pent-up anger being released in the gesture. She then sighs and slumps onto her throne. A small recording device materializes in her palm, and she grips it tightly.
Bringing it to face level, she hums in thought at it. "This'll do…I guess." She mumbles.
Sighing, she presses the red button labelled 'RECORD' and throws down the device.
"So…where do I begin? Russell, I'm sorry things have lead to this, just know that I always have you in mind every time I do something…" She sighs. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry…I can't say it enough, everything's a disaster because of me. Funny, really, normally it was you that caused all the disasters, but we managed to overcome them every time, but Traveler forbid I cause something." She hisses the name of the deity that gifts the Light.
"Russell…I love you, and nothing in the universe will change that. Whether it be Worm Gods or Hive magic, you'll always have a place in my heart." She starts sobbing at the ridiculousness of her speech, Russell was the type to deliver these over-the-top gushes of emotion, but fate brought her to this, and here she is confessing her emotions into a rectangular tablet about the size of her palm. "I hope you understand this…even though you probably don't feel the same anymore, and that's what hurts me, how we can be torn apart so ruthlessly and how love tears away like a frayed rope."
Cassandra takes a moment to cry.
"You know…you could compare fate to a frayed rope. You pull on it and it slowly breaks apart." She comes to a revelation.
"I should have stayed dead, now I'm forced into all this…Taken stuff." She chuckles. "Well, that's what I get, I guess. I still have that Quickfang you gifted me a long time ago, I still appreciate it, you know? Thanks for the Thorn by the way. Anyways, you're probably getting bored with this, so I'll cut to the chase. Stay alive. As soon as you put your hand on this thing, you'll be teleported to me, so I can see you one last time, please just do this for me before I lose my mind to the Darkness."
She gently steps on the record button and stops the recording. Her fingers swirl and a green energy transfer from her hand to the device. Then she takes the object and tosses it in the air, for her Servitor to catch.
"Deliver this to a Lightbearer, no matter how hard it tries to kill you, and even if it does, well, that doesn't matter, does it?" She puts on a fake smirk and brandishes a Quickfang.
She has a meeting with a certain Worm God.
/
Xiao pinches the bridge of her nose.
Inhale, exhale. She thinks to herself as her exhale prolongs a second longer than her inhale. Calm down, Russell's just a bit emotional right now.
"Stupid, stupid idiot!" She blurts out to no one, then groans. "Fuck, what's wrong with me!?"
"I shouldn't have talked to him in the first place, great going Xiao!" She throws her hand in the air and lets it fall to her side. "Why did I try in the first place!"
Her palm smashes into her forehead and she starts rambling nothings to herself. "I definitely hurt his feelings, fuck, Russell, I'm sorry!"
If only she has to strength to say it to him in person.
She slaps herself in the face and rubs her eyes.
"Xiao! Holy shit, how'd you get here!?" She pales upon hearing Russell's voice behind her, and snaps her head in that direction. "Fuck, did I say something wrong!?"
He bends over with his hands on his knees, panting. Xiao opens her mouth but he reaches out a finger pointed upwards, indicating to her that he needs a few seconds.
"Damn, you ran far!" Russell exclaims as he catches his breath. "Holy shit I knew you were good at covering distance in Crucible but god damn!"
"I absolutely hate that you're so cheerful all the damn time." Xiao mutters. "I guess it's part of your charm."
"Hold on…what?" He asks. "I don't think now's the time to discuss about me."
"I despise you, you know that, right? Loathe is a better word."
"Uh-"
"With how you dragged me and my fireteam into this whole mess, you need to give me a good reason to not pummel the shit out of you right now."
"Xiao, um-"
"Fucking idiot, you are, I hope you keep that in mind, since nobody's told you yet."
"Xiao."
"And the one time I try to sympathize-"
"XIAO."
"WHAT!?"
"Look up."
Xiao looks straight and sees a massive Taken Servitor with translucent tentacles floating out of it hovering in front of her. "What the-"
"Kill it?" Russell asks.
"Yeah, let's kill it first." She agrees.
The Servitor apparently hears them speak and screeches, its tentacles extending. They make a sideways arc shape on both sides, with the tips pointing forward.
Russell makes the first move and reaches into the air, a Golden Gun appearing in his palm. He takes aim and the Celestial Nighthawk helmet materializes on his head. He glances to her.
"Hold on a second." Xiao says as she pulls a bow from the Void and shoots an arrow to the Servitor, then follows up with a few more, managing to fire five before her ability ran out. "Now!" She cries and throws down a smoke bomb between the two and turning them both invisible.
Russell lets out a battle cry as he fires a single shot from his Golden Gun, straight into the Servitor's only eye. It flinches and jabs him with a tentacle, sending him tumbling to the side before spawning a Blight that is a fraction of its size to its left.
A white beam linking the Servitor and the Blight gives a glossy white sheen to the Servitor, rendering it invulnerable to any damage dealt to it.
"Focus on the Blight! I'll distract it!" Xiao cries out as she narrowly dodges a swipe to her legs from a tentacle, rolling to the side. "Damnit, it sees me!"
Her invisibility wears off and she grabs Malfeasance, making sure to fire a few rounds before moving again. She draws a Vortex grenade and attempts to fling it at the beast, only to have her hand be snagged.
"Damn!" She exclaims as she struggles against the unending strength the Servitor carried. She is lifted in the air and something slimy wraps around her neck, quickly crushing her windpipe as she feels reality slip away from her.
"Xiao!" Is all she hears before she dies, and her Ghost appears at the edge of the platform they were on.
/
Russell swears to himself as he sees Xiao's Ghost materialize in the edge of his peripheral vision. He curses the sight of the bright-blue aura formed by the separation of the construct's facets.
Rolling to the right, he approaches the Ghost and lets out a few shots from Ace, before his attention is taken by the collective lion roars that are made when Taken are spawning in.
He throws down an Incendiary Grenade below one of the Blights and headshots a Thrall as soon as it appears, making its head explode in a burst of Solar energy. He loads a fresh glowing cylinder into his hand cannon a second after to activate Memento Mori. Using the fresh damage boost from the first five shots, he takes down a Taken Knight in three, then uses the last two rounds to kill two Taken Phalanxes.
A Taken Goblin gives invincibility to an invisible Minotaur. Russell targets the former first before dodging as soon as the latter attempts to whack him in the face with its arm. He throws a knife to the small glowing white eye on its head and unloads two rounds into its head.
He twirls his gun vertically and loads a fresh cylinder, flicking the weapon to its side to prime it. He cocks the hammer back and lets it clang as it looks like it has a mind of its own when the barrel seamlessly flicks from enemy to enemy after every bullet ejected.
Russell tackles a Shadow Thrall to the floor, struggling with the fragile being for a second before crushing its head with his boot, quickly sliding backwards to evade a shield bash from a Taken Phalanx.
His eyes are blinded by the shine of Xiao's Ghost and he reaches out for it, sharing his Light to accelerate her revive process, before the Huntress jumps in with a bright glow to her that lasts for a few seconds.
Xiao cracks her neck and rolls her shoulders before drawing her weapon.
"Spider sends his regards!" Crow's voice cracks through their comms as a Fallen Walker drops in and crushes a dozen or so Taken before taking aim with its main gun at the Servitor. "Invincibility orb, please!"
Russell deals with the Blight and shudders as the Walker fires a shell of Arc misery at the Servitor's single eye. Its six feet, three on both side of its chassis like a spider start shuffling to evade the enemy's tentacle but is far too slow to react and is almost knocked to its back. The Fallen machine charges up, its main chassis and legs stretching up a bit before slamming back to the ground, creating a shockwave around it, while the sounds of its mechanisms grinding together sounded.
"This is awesome!" Hana Song yells out from within the Walker.
"How exactly did she get on our comms?" Xiao asks.
"Question for later, Xiao." The front part of the Fallen Walker, where it would normally reveal its exposed orange heated weak spot, opened to a cockpit with Crow and Hana huddled up within. The Titan hops out and jumps off the tank's frame to propel himself as he did his signature Thundercrash on the Servitor.
"He's doing it again!" Hana pumps a fist in the air and cheers as Crow hits the Servitor like a dart and jumps back, unphased. She fistbumps the Titan as he hops back into the Walker and the piece of metal that covered the cockpit slides back in.
The tank charges another shot, and Russell scoops the orbs of Light that Crow dropped. He draws another Golden Gun in the air and synchronizes the timing of his hyper-powered bullet with the Walker's.
A combination of Solar and Arc put the Servitor down and it explodes in a giant mess of black goop. A small rectangular object pops out from it, landing in Russell's hand.
A sudden flash of white, and he is no longer in a creepy dark realm, instead in a creepier Hive throne room.
Russell lets the device drop and looks at Cassandra, his mouth agape. Her fallen Quickfang has a green blood dripping off of it, and the Warlock is sitting atop her throne, one foot tapping, as if she was expecting him.
"Hey." She says, and Russell raises the Ace of Spades at her. She laughs at him. "I knew you would do that." Her wrist flicks and the weapon is yanked from his grip, settling itself a good few feet to his left.
"Come close." Cassandra beckons, curling her index finger in and out. "Please, it's been a rough day."
"For all of us, yeah." Russell snorts as he stands there, his posture leaning forward a bit and his general posture aggressive. "You could've told me you were keeping me in a simulation." He seethes out, one hand balling up.
She rolls her eyes. "Please, if you were in my position, you would have done the exact same thing." She sighs. "This was all for you, Russell. This is what undying love does to a person."
Russell chuckles. "I guess it does. If only I knew…I'm a fool."
Cassandra smiles. "You were my fool, though. I loved you because of your bumbling idiocy."
"I'm sorry it has to end this way."
"I'm the one that should be sorry, for putting you through all this. For-" She gasps as a Light-imbued bullet is driven through her stomach. The wound disappears soon after. "Rude."
"Before we fight…" She bites her inner-cheek. "Do you still love me?"
"I...don't want to answer that." Russell says.
Cassandra looks downwards in shame before taking a deep breath. She assumes a battle-ready pose and gestures for him to come at her.
His enflamed body is extinguished as he cracks his knuckles, and twists his neck, hearing a satisfying pop.
"Alright, let's go." He mumbles as he takes a few tentative steps closer, and they both wait at a standstill, the one expecting the other to strike first.
Cassandra rushes him with ungodly swiftness and strikes him in the chest. "I don't want to win this fight, Russell. Please, I don't want to see you die-" He punches her in cheek.
There is a buzzing noise in his ear. "Russell—Sombra's down—what is tha-" He ignores the voice and throws himself at her once more, reaching for her neck and drawing his knife, intent on gouging her throat out.
She parries and pushes his hands to the side, pushing her knee into his stomach before shoving him off. She smirks. "Come on, I want a better fight." She taunts.
Russell grimaces under the Celestial Nighthawk and charges forward once more, punching upwards in a burst of Arc energy as his knuckles collide with her chin. She barely recoils and only steps back to grab his arm and throw her over herself.
"Diversifying your ability pool, I see?" Cassandra asks as dark energy swirls in her palm. "I like it."
Russell groans as he feels something eating at him from within. "You fuck…cheater." He falls over unconscious.
/
"Alright, no time to explain, you see that woman?" Sombra's new Ghost flicks around and leans towards a woman in bony-looking armor kneeling over a young man being consumed by some sort of aura.
Everything leading up to this point has been a blur, but the Ghost managed to fill in a bit of the gaps. Apparently she died in battle and was immediately revived by this thing, then it set a goal for her to kill whoever this person is.
She hadn't even unlocked a majority of her abilities, but she was pretty good at summoning a flaming gun from nothing and shooting burning lead at whoever she wanted.
Sombra's brows furrow as she tries to find any weak spots this woman could have, but finds none.
"Might not be a good idea…" She mumbles.
"Oh nonsense, you'll do fine!" The Ghost nudges her forward.
The woman's head snaps to her.
"…You?" She says, a bit of astonishment in her voice. "How did you…?"
There is a light-blue blur behind the woman and then a few high-pitched beeps, followed by a short explosion.
A woman named Lena Oxton is grabbed by the neck as she attempts to revert to her original position.
"Not so fast." The woman says.
"Bollocks." Lena says. "Cass, please, you're being unreasonable."
"It's always me being unreasonable, huh?" 'Cass' snorts and throws Lena aside, putting her boot to her neck. "Last words?"
"Okay, change of plans, you see the guy laying down? Shoot him, I've tuned your Light."
"What? Okay."
Sombra reaches into the air and a Golden Gun spawns in her palm, instead of the regular orange she saw maybe a few times, it was instead a golden yellow that shone brightly. She trains the weapon and fires all three shots into the unconscious man.
There is no reaction.
"Uh oh." Sombra says out loud as her eyes widen under Cass' questioning stare.
"Now what was the point of that?" She says, removing her foot from Lena's throat and stepping towards Sombra.
Cass closes the distance between the two in a second and she presses Sombra up to an invisible barrier, using some sort of telekinetic ability. She feels her throat constricting.
The man that was laying down a few seconds ago is suddenly slowly rising up and is wielding a massive looking Golden Gun in his hand. His gun arm is outstretched upwards and there is a glaring light coming from the weapon's barrel, accompanied by a high-pitched humming.
His eyes glow completely yellow and his arm moves downwards, pointing his revolver at Cass.
"Be…hind…you." Sombra barely manages to rasp out.
Cass turns around and is immediately obliterated. Her body is charred and she is crushed into the ground.
Sombra falls down wheezing beside her and stumbles her way standing.
"Did I do it?" She asks her Ghost.
"I think you did, now let's get out of here."
"What about them?"
"We're gonna bring them along."
/
Days later…
Russell's eyes snap open, and his visual senses are overpowered by blinding white light from fixtures all around him.
His back snaps up straight and he tears off a few tubes attached to him, freeing his movement up a bit.
"What the-" He mumbles as he looks at himself, all burned up and injured. "What…?"
Jingles appears in front of him. "Whoo! It's done, baby! She's gone!"
An oddly joyful electronic music that reminded Russell of crabs started playing.
"I was for sure dead there, what happened?" He asks, confused.
"She happened!" Jingles turns towards Sombra, who's sleeping in a chair on the other side of the medical bed. "She super-powered your Light and you went full Calus-on-Val-Ca'our on her!"
"What? I'm-I'm not following."
"You shot her in the back!"
"Ah."
Russell slumps back down on his bed. "Guess that's over." He mutters.
"Yes, it is, now we can go back to a normal Guardian life!" Jingles says, excitedly.
"I'm gonna need some time off, and by some I mean a lot."
"Consider it granted, Guardian." Ikora's voice makes him jump. "You've done well, considering the weight on your shoulders." The Warlock Vanguard stands straight and looks at him with a small smile.
"Thanks…I guess, but what about…her?" Russell points to Sombra.
"She has been informed and has went through official channels to be incorporated into the system. A fine Hunter, she'll be, although I am not one to decide on that." Ikora stops herself. "We'll see how she fares."
"Please do, I'm in no mood to be tutoring anyone." Russell groans and his chest rises, then falls.
Ikora chuckles. "She's been assigned to Xiao."
"Yeah…that's fine, I guess."
"Have a good rest, Guardian."
Russell did enjoy his newly earned rest.
Short epilogue after this. So that's it, the end of this little-ish story.