Chapter 28: His Wall Part 1: The first Brick, Restless Denial.

Emily's Home, 9 Weeks After Gibraltar Evacuation

Abel laid on his bed in the attic, Emily and Lena both were getting rather... Intimate... in their bedroom the floor below him. He just laid their in awkward silence as the panting and moans echoed through the house. He honestly wasn't sure on how to react to this, so he chose the path of least resistance, and laid there, motionless as the couple downstairs continued in their act of love making.

Abel looked outside for a moment, feeling a dull sense of vertigo, making him sit up.

He rubbed his face, stopping when he recalled the obvious fact that he was missing his left arm. He punched the bridge of his nose, then looked out the window as it continued to rain, watching as the water poured. Abel focused on that, letting the sound of the rain drown out everything else, at least until his own head reminded him of Vietnam, making him mutter "For fuck's sake..."

He got up, teleported into the bathroom and looked himself in the mirror, then feeling genuinely disappointed in what he saw. Abel saw his younger self glaring right back at himself, making it clear where Abel's head was at the current moment.

Hill 937 Laos/Vietnam Border, 2 Years & 7 Months Ago

- Insert Song: Dogs of War by Pink Floyd -

Alex and Abel both slowly made their way through the dense jungle canopy, peeking out at the hill as the locals and targets armed themselves with older pattern assault rifles, mortars and some abandoned APCs.

Alex frowned then looked at Abel, nodding at him as he loaded a flare gun, holstered it, then nodded back. He disappeared into thin air as she called into the radio "AB-29 here, requesting air support... Yes, a bombing run will do just fine... Yes... Yes, bring in the boys too. Thank you."

Abel appeared in the trenches dug into the hill and ran up to the first patrol, stabbing him in the head while throwing a second knife at the coming patrol behind him. With Alex, the squad was locked'n loaded, and moved in to the base of the hill, silently killing the guards and dogs as Abel reached the Hill's anti air batteries and SAM sites, setting up explosives, then teleporting out of there.

He landed beside Alex, aimed his flare up to the hill, detonated the explosives, then fired his flare at the top of the hill.

The firing started in full rage as Alex's squad assumed a defensive position, firing their pulse rifles and throwing grenades. Abel teleported Alex to the top of a tree as the sound of a jet flying over head echoed through the sky.

Alex watched as the 28's bomber jets flew over the hill and dropped their ordinances on the flare, sending earth, man and structure alike flying skywards. The carnage turned the sky into a mess of dirt and dust, after this a troop transport flew over the hill and let loose over two hundred paratroopers off it's rear doors.

Alex sniped out the enemy that came out of the tunnels from her perch, while Abel approached the bombed out trenches with a flamethrower and scorched any Vietnamese that attacked him. Behind him the squad helped the paratroopers get up and moving, snuffing out the pockets of resistance as the smoke filled the air, Abel burning everything until it was a chard mess.

His eyes were ablaze with pure murderous intention as the fires raged, followed by the explosions of grenades being thrown his way. Abel growled at them, pulled out his C96 and fired at them as the flamethrower cooled down, making Alex cover him from his blind spots, mainly over the trenches, where he couldn't see.

Her shots echoed loudly as she emptied her rifle's clip, making her duck and reload within the thick leaves of the trees.

Abel had to reload, and got tackled by one of the Vietnamese, forced down into the mud as he stabbed his enemy in the gut repeatedly. He fired at the onslaught as the squad and paratroopers reached him, holding onto the top of the hill while Alex prepared to call off the Jets and send them back, until a counter sniper shot her leg, and caused her to fall off the tree top and land leg first into the earth, sending a scream of pain as she held her left leg.

- Song Ends -

Abel froze as the scream reached his ears, causing him to teleport back to Alex and take the follow-up shot to the back. Medics came running to her aid as Abel covered her, setting up energy shields around her as they looked at the damage.

Abel fired at the sniper, missing as he screamed and chased after the him, leaving the medical team to do their work. They looked at the leg and found the sniper had blown a hole clean through her knee, the ligaments were snapped and the kneecap shattered.

They looked up at her, shook their heads and pulled out a plasma cutter. Alex went wide eyed, then swallowed and nodded at them, taking the piece of rubber in her mouth to bite on as they injected a small dose of morphine into her system, then held the cutter about two inches above the knee area, and in one quick motion, amputated her leg, the plasma cauterizing the cut in the process.

She bit hard on the rubber, then spat it out with a deafening scream, she panted, gasped and cried as she looked down as the medics put her leg in a black bag and vacuum sealed it, followed by them laying her on a stretcher, then carrying her out the battlefield to a nearby transport.

By she watched as the hill was a blaze, followed by more bombs falling onto it, making her yell with the last of her energy "ABEL!"

Abel opened his eyes as light crept into the bathroom through the window, making him to groan and sit up in the bathtub. He got out and teleported to his bedroom to find Emily placing a plate of scrambled eggs and toast on his bed.

They both stared at each other, Abel sighing and thanking her in a low tone, stating "... Thank you, Emily..." She watched him place the plate on the desk opposite of the bed in the room, then take a seat and eat, all the while Emily asked "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine." Snapped Abel, finishing his breakfast in record time and telling her "Thanks for the breakfast." Emily however knew he wasn't doing well, for starters, Abel looked like he was miserable, his skin was pale, gruff was starting to grow on his chin and jawline, and his eyes had this deep, near melancholic look in them that made her feel inexplicably sad.

Abel teleported down to leave his plate down in the kitchen sink, where he found Lena about to leave out the front door. She paused for a moment and told Abel "Morning love, gonna go see what I can pick up on Talon with my contacts over in London, won't take long."

Abel nodded a weak nod, making Lena sigh and ask "Love, you know you can talk to us about anything that's bothering you, right?" Abel rolled his eyes and replied "Lena, I'm fine, really. There's nothing wrong with me."

Lena sighed, but gave him a smile, telling him "Alright... Just, please don't forget you're not alone." Abel nodded and watched Lena zip up her leather jacket and walk out the door, allowing him to slump his stance and teleport back up to his room, where Emily waited for him .

He stared at her for a while, and asked "... Another session?" in a rather rude tone, making Emily reply "No... This time i want you to tell me what happened during the fight back in Vegas..." Abel went silent, the red raging memory of that whole day coming back as he sat and rubbed his face.

Emily clearly saw this reaction, and took mental note as she asked "Why don't you want to talk about it?" Abel looked at her, this time his look was cold, and ferocious look as he told her "Not really proud of that day... I would rather not talk about it..."

Emily didn't falter, and insisted with "Why? What happened that was so bad that you-?" She stopped herself when she saw Abel giving her a look that genuinely made her feel like she was in danger, his snarl made him look like he was on his last bit of patience.

Emily swallowed the lump in her throat, then told Abel in a low tone "We'll talk about this later..." then stepped out of his room silently. Abel remained still for a moment, then sighed and rubbed his face again, feeling disgusted with his actions to Emily.

MEKA HQ, Busan, 9 Weeks after Gibraltar Evacuation

Hana sighed as she rubbed her face, unsure why she was doing this, she stopped and looked out her window. She sighed and looked at her computer's monitor and unpaused her game, receiving a few questions in her live chat asking "Are you alright?"

She smiled and told the audience watching her "I'm fine guys, just felt something on my face." She then took a sip of her soda as she continued playing and looked at her clock, seeing it was already four in the afternoon and told her audience "Gonna have to stop for now, got important MEKA things to do. Bye~."

She said her good-byes, cut the stream, then let herself sit back on her gaming chair. She felt strange as she positioned herself so her right arm was lazily on the armrest, outstretched her left leg, then let her head hang low.

She sighed, her eyes going hazy as she asked "Hey..."

Back in England Abel was in the exact same position, siting with his right arm on the armrest, and left leg outstretched as he stared at the powered down TV. He replied and asked "... What's wrong...?"

Hana shrugged, feeling a strange sense of heaviness as she replied "I should be asking that to you..." Abel groaned, and replied in a dull, almost bored tone "I'm fine, Hana."

She frowned, and reminded him "I know you don't feel fine... I can feel it too... What's hurting you?" Abel was also frowning as she asked that, and insisted "There is nothing hurting me, really, I'm fine." Hana closed her eyes, genuinely worried as she asked "Is it Alex-?"

Abel cut this connection, getting up abruptly and making Hana fall onto the floor of her room and enter an intense coughing fit.

She coughed for a whole minute, and looked at her hand, finding some blood on it as she swore "Fucking..." but stopped herself and got up. She hurried to her private bathroom and washed the blood off, ignoring the mirror until she finished, and found her reflection glaring at her. She jumped a bit, and noticed the reflection wasn't of her, and instead was of a younger Abel glaring at her, closing his eyes and fading back to her normal reflection.

She raised a brow and felt herself get drowsy, and went to her bed, laid down and slowly drifted to sleep, unaware that Abel was doing the exact same thing.

Talon Airbase, Netherlands

Drake sighed to himself as he took off on his Spitfire for another flight over continental Europe, flying under the radar as he started think where the hell Abel could be hiding, or more accurately, where was Overwatch hiding.

He started thinking harder, and got an outlandish idea as he turned northward, and flew over the English canal, towards London.

Talon HQ, Unknown Location

Doomfist stood in his room, staring at the reports brought up on AB-31, then looked up and asked "Can you handle this?"

Coming out of the shadows was a woman with dark Navy blue hair and a matching turncoat that had yellow sleeve loops and interior. She smiled, and replied "Ja, my Lord." On the back of her coat there was the Roman numeral "XXVII"

Chapter 28:Done.

And getting into a short arc for Abel himself, just to bridge to the next arc. Not much to say today, there was a hail storm where i live on Wednesday, and a window broke right next to my head, but nothing too bad happened, thankfully. Now onto the reviews:

BlueN0va: Hope you enjoy the next few chapters, let's just say, follow the title.

Sinner's Mask: While that's a creative challenge, i will have to pass, can't find a good way for a cross like that to work.

And with the reviews done, i guess i should wrap this up, so...

I'm still in the Trenches, and I hope You Enjoyed.