Angela and Zarya lead Reinhardt deeper into the forest, and as it happened, Angela began to feel more and more apprehensive about what they were doing. While she was angry, she knew that this was a bad plan. And the forest was far from welcoming. Every now and then, Angela could feel cold eyes of a Bastion on her back, and the heating of her suit did little to keep the chills from dancing down her spine.
"I don't think we're going to find them" Reinhard finally spoke up. "They don't like me very much, and the other one would be mad to attack all three of us"
Angela raised an eyebrow, and turned to look at the grim face of Zarya.
Perhaps not.
"This is far enough" Zarya said, stopping abruptly and turning back to face the armour.
"For what?"
"You tell me" She glared through the armour. "This forest, it's thick. Kind of like the Black Forest"
"Umm, yes" Reinhardt was confused. "But the Black Forest is much more welcoming"
"And useful for storing drugs"
Reinhardt stiffened, and he took a step back.
"You… what?"
Angela watched him, and felt a burn over his reaction. She had been hoping, against all hope, that he had not known of the truth in the files
"Yes. How many were unfairly exported back to Iran to be forced into crowded prisons?"
"You know about that?" Angela could imagine his eyes widening in shock. "The files"
Zarya looked directly at the armour eyes "All of them downloaded onto my holophone. When I wish, It will be sent straight to the biggest media companies possible"
"You do that and you'll face life imprisonment!" Reinhardt shouted hysterically.
"I'll meet you in the cantina"
Angela had to admit, Zarya was cutting an impressive figure in the snow. The thing she was facing stood over 9 feet tall and as wide as it was tall. Yet from the way it seemed to shrank back before her showed Angela all that she needed to know.
Reinhardt fell over his words trying to make his case "That's insane, Zarya. Do that and it will be the end for both our teams. Suicidal"
"The winter nights do funny things to one's mind, Reinhardt" Zarya's face was a cold stone mask, and her voice was the icy calm of the truly furious. "Would you rather I kept this secret until it grows out of hand? See your friends shoot villagers into a mass grave?"
"That never-" Reinhardt took another step back, and then froze totally, his arms hung uselessly.
He paused before talking, taking into account his new situation. "Seems you did your job well, Angela"
This is wrong. Angela thought. Zarya is too aggressive. The thought came with a shock, and she began to scan the treeline.
Where are you?
"Answer the question, German!"
Definitely not her.
Reinhardt stayed quiet, but Angela could tell he was staring through her. "I was never there. I always avoided getting chosen. I never allowed them to use me like they used Morrison and Ana"
"But you knew. How long will it be until we're being cherry picked?"
"It won't happen if you stay strong. But if you continue on like this, you'll be removed!"
"Angela! Get him out of the armour!"
Angela started as the command came.
"What?"
"Get him out of this armour!" Her fists were balled as she said it. "I'm going to show him what happens when someone threatens me"
"That's insane. You're not acting rationally!"
"Get him out of the armour!"
"He's only wearing a connector suit, if he's brought out he could freeze!"
Zarya stayed quiet, taking that into thought. Then, with a clean motion she began to take off her parka.
"Then let's make it fair"
Scheiss
"Right. Desperate times" Angela turned to face the forest. "I know you're out there you glorified cheese grater! I don't care why you're doing this, but I'm done asking nicely for the coding you cycloptic cunt!"
With that, the trees burst apart into splinters, and Angela cursed her fat mouth. Standing before her was a beast. A tracked monster with its dead, emotionless eye focused on her.
With a roar of an engine and the howling of metallic tracks it charged directly for Angela, and Angela soared upwards to avoid its relentless charge, her heart beating like a drum and her stomach tightened in fear from its single look. It turned far faster than it should be able to, lightning fast. It stared once again at Angela.
No
The thought filled her mind, her arms began to shake and all her bravado and courage that had filled her earlier fled her. She only had one desire, and that was to fly as far as possible.
Desire and reality however are two different things. The surge of fear and worry fled through Angela's entire body, and she froze in the sky. Her grip on Gungnir was lost, and it dropped to the ground to stick out of the snow. Before her was the body of Einar, and the Reaper who took him.
"Angela!" Reinhardt screamed as she fell to the ground, her body stiff and motionless. She knew bones had cracked when she fell. Her rib cage felt broken, sharp and her ankle was twisted upwards towards her face. Nausea, fear, guilt all coalesced, and she was reduced to crawling to escape the Bastion.
Zarya ran to help her, but the Bastion stood in her way. They charged again, and Zarya dodged nimbly out of the way.
"Angela! You have to let me out of the armour!" Angela heard the voice. Heard the words, but they made no sense. All that made sense was to escape from the metallic beast careening down on them. She hadn't felt fear like this since opening the door. The smell of rot, and the sight of the thing that was created under her eye. The meat retreating, advancing. Looking at her hand, she could see it happening. Flesh retreating from her fingers, the palms becoming slick with blood. She didn't have the control to scream. All she could do was watch in her mind as she was slowly stripped from her skin. Reaper began to laugh with his boot on Einars ringed finger.
No. Not again. Please. I couldn't take it. Don't put me through that again.
Zarya was trying to reach her, the Bastion's influence had passed from her to Angela. She continued to keep dodging the Bastion, quickly moving and leaping away from it. Like a mattardore with her bull.
Realising that the Bastion was too deep in control over Angela, she weighed up the pros and cons of what she was about to do next. With a grim look, she began firing up her Gravity Projector, the Bastion was slowed and had it harder to get through the snow. Her blood pulsing, she let it pass her one last time. Then, with a practised flick, she turned it to lighten the weight of the Bastion.
The bastion picked up speed immediately and it lost control, skidding away from Angela and crashing heavily into the trees. With this, Zarya lowered the setting once again. From half the gravity of the planet to suddenly facing twice, the Bastion suddenly sagged under the strain of the weight. Poppets creaked and welds creaked as it moved torturously slow forward. Knowing full well that if it did not do what it had to, it would lose Angela. The mirror neuron lock focused it's new target.
Zarya suddenly felt the true crushing force of a frenzy and battle lust that she had never felt before. Her mind was lost to the frenzy and the crazed pulse of blood in her temples as she saw assassins behind every tree and the world bending towards her.
What Zarya lost in the battle lust, Angela slowly gained.
"Angela!" She heard this time. She understood. The snow had not been this thick. He hadn't died in a forest, and her hand was fine.
She stood as best she could with the spell broken. She extended her hand out, and grimaced as Gungnir flew to her hand. She knew that it would be useless against the beast.
"Let me out!" Came the call again, and Angela hissed through her teeth..
"Zurücksetzen: User Ziegler. Überschreiben. Code Barbarossa. Auswurf!" She didn't stop to see if it worked. Instead she dived for Zarya, who has started to bleed from the mouth.
The armour opened from the back, and spat out Reinhardt into the snow. He swore as the cold hit him like an Iron Fist, and looked up to see Zarya sprawled with her chest caved in, and Angela flying in a circle too fast for the Bastion to generate a lock on her.
"Barbarossa… Arscheloch" still, he readied himself for what he had to do.
"Einchenwalde!" He shouted. As he hoped, it got through. The beast jerked at the name.
You remember.
He shouted out in German. "I destroyed dozens of your kind back then. I rendered them to scrap. Now I have the pleasure again!"
He didn't mean what he said. As he said it he felt the crushing weight of what he said. He was back in the battle, and had seen his friend die. He saw Ana becoming cruel and hard. Morrison losing himself to despair. His marriages ending each time in a lawyer's office.
My fault. All my fault.
He hadn't felt it like this before. It was much stronger than it had ever been before. He had learnt how to deal with it once. He could not now.
Angela gave Zarya a quick burst of Idun, and took her up in her arms.
"I'm getting you back to the lodge. You need to warn the others"
"... Yes. Do so" Zarya replied. She closed her eyes as she was lifted quickly into the sky.
"Angela. It's stronger than it should be. One is helping it. Augmenting it"
"You have a plan"
"You know how to combat One. Zen taught you how. Find him. We will deal with the Bastion"
"What? You need me for this!"
"If it's being controlled by One, you can cut it off from it. Finish this now!"
Angela gently alighted on the lodge balcony, putting Zarya on her feet.
"What on earth is happening out there!" Lucio shouted as he saw them.
"The Bastion attacked" Angela threw Gungnir to him. "I need you to keep us alive while I search for One. Where's Lena?" Angela asked.
"She went out to help when we heard the carnage"
Angela shouted from frustration and leapt back into the sky. Zarya watched her go and bit her lip in worry.
"Don't be an idiot. Please" she muttered beneath her breath. Then she turned to Lucio. "Let's go. Reinhardt could be dead" with that said, she ran past him and down to the snow covered ground.
"What? That doesn't make sense!" Lucio ran closely next to Zarya "Why would they-" His eyes widened. "One"
"Precisely"
Lucio blanched. Then set his jaw.
"We don't have to kill them"
