Hana stood outside and watched the figures, unrecognisable in their white surgeon's uniforms, as they worked on Genji.

Worked on. What a horrible phrase. Like he was a machine, an engine, a… a MEKA suit. Worked on. She hoped that Genji left that horrible studio in one piece.

But what if he didn't? The rumour going around was that Genji had fallen quite a distance. Hanzo hadn't given many details when she'd spoken with him, but some even said that Hanzo was the one who'd pushed Genji down…

Surely not. What could cause two brothers to fight in such a way? Nothing. Surely. Hanzo had been pleading with her to allow the Japanese to analyse her MEKA suit. He was doing everything in his power to save Genji's life. There was no way he could be behind the grievous injuries.

One of the surgeons turned around, and Hana saw his bloodstained apron. She cringed, stepped back instinctively. She did not like blood. She was a fighter, yes, one of the most effective weapons and allies the Japanese had. But fighting the Omnics, the robots… it didn't seem real. Their mechanical bodies fell apart so easily. It was like being back in a game, one of those games she had used to play so often. Her fingers twitched instinctively. She missed the feel of a controller in her hands. She even missed twitch, for that matter.

But this was the life she had now. She had to make the most of it.

Shunladi left the operating studio. The other surgeons remained inside.

'How is it going?' Hana asked. The older doctor shrugged, looked away.

'There is a strong chance.'

'That he will be as healthy as he was before?'

'That he will live.'

Hana gulped. And then, although she didn't mean to, she yawned. It was almost dawn. She had been there all night, waiting for news, waiting for a miraculous and instant recovery. But it did not seem she was going to get one. Genji would be under for some time yet. She turned back to the old doctor, thinking to ask him a question, but the man had draped himself over a chair and looked ready to fall asleep, dark rings under his eyes.

'Thank you, Hana.' He said.

'For what?'

'For allowing us to use your MEKA suit.'

'No trouble. It is… it is working again, right?'

'The engineers are putting it back together as we speak.'

'Good. Thank you.' She knew there were spares, of course, all programmed to her DNA alone, waiting for deployment. But she did not like to waste them. 'What did you need it for?'

'Genji's nervous system and many of his bones are broken. His internal organs are… suffering. We have the best biologists, engineers, neurosurgeons, and equipment in the world. Since the Fallout that almost goes without saying. But if we want to give him a shot at life again we need to make him part…'

The doctor fumbled for the right words. 'Well, we need to make him part robot.'

Hana stood up, shocked. 'Like… a cyborg? Like treasure planet?'

'A cyborg, yes.'

It was a dirty word. Since the Omnics, the robots, the Fallout, people didn't really talk about robots anymore. Cyborgs were even worse. Half man, half monster. Parents told little ones stories of cyborgs at night, just to scare them. They were the creatures of nightmares.

'That is no kind of life!' Hana exclaimed.

'It is the only kind of life we can give him.'

'But the Omnic virus. As soon as he realises what he is, he…'

'That's why we needed your MEKA suit.' Shunladi hushed her. 'South Korean tech is some of the only remaining hardware that was not affected by the Omnic virus. Using that, plus some custom machines we have developed since the Fallout, we can give Genji a new body. One that is faster, stronger than his old one. One that will respond to his movements the same way your MEKA suit responds to your commands. Perhaps even more effectively.'

'And Hanzo is happy with this?'

'He asked you for the tech, didn't he?'

Hana frowned, sunk back into her chair beside the doctor, and wondered what else she could say. They were turning Genji into a monster. They were turning him into a cyborg. Suddenly the flashing lights, the machinery, the dogged surgeons, it all looked a little more sinister. And Genji, lying on the table like Frankenstein's monster, waiting for the bolt of lightning to wake him up.

She shivered. Maybe it would be kinder if he never woke up.

Hana woke up. This was something of a shock to her because she could not remember falling asleep. She looked around, and saw that the waiting room was empty. So was the operating studio. She got to her feet, started to open her mouth, when a hand fell on her shoulder.

Hanzo.

The heir to the Shimada Empire looked down at her with emotionless eyes, lips pursed, brawny shoulders tensed. She admired the tattoo on his shoulder, as always.

'You have resting bitch face.' She said.

'I know.' His face remained passive. 'Come with me.'

They walked together down a corridor beneath the facility, then up a flight of stairs. They entered out onto the grounds beyond the military base, and passed some security guards who knew them by sight.

'Look, Hana,' Hanzo said, spreading his arm wide. 'Look at my home.'

It was impressive. She had thought that since the first time she had arrived. Hanamura, it was called, a suburban area which had once held nothing but the Shimada Clan castle, a small temple, and something of a village. These days it was dwarfed by the military complex that joined it, the hangars, the training grounds, the landing strips, the medical offices. The village was much larger now, too. A city in itself, with restaurants and shops for all occasions, stocked by the locals for the locals.

After the Fallout Japan had been the only country to make it through almost unscathed. Hanzo's father, General Shimada, was one of the primary forces responsible. Hana knew that was why his castle – and the surrounding area – had become prime land in the days since. The major cities of Japan, Tokyo, Kyoto, and the like, all remained, but they were not military outposts. They were just cities, pretending the rest of the world no longer existed.

'It's very nice.' Hana nodded.

'It is disgusting.' Hanzo spat into the grass. 'This was once a glorious place, a place of meditation and peace. The grounds of my family's castle were praised throughout the land for their cherry blossoms and now?'

He stepped over to the nearest blossom tree, picked one of the last remaining blossoms and let it flutter to the grass. 'Now it is dying. Hanamura is a place of industry and war.'

'Why are you saying this?' Hana asked, feeling small.

'Because my brother is the same. He is a symbol of the Shimada Clan, and his life force is dying, to be replaced by a battery. I should not have asked you for the MEKA suit. I should have let him die an honourable death.'

'Hanzo, you can't mean that!'

'Of course I can.' He put a hand on her shoulder once more, tenderly, like he used to. It was a brotherly move.

She pulled away.

'I want to see him.'

'You can't. He has not woken up yet. We have put him in a room near the Pit.'

The Pit was where they took the nearly dead. It was an underground dungeon, reeked of death and misery. But it was what they had to do. Everyone knew what happened when people died, and no one wanted that to happen around the living. The big cities had a Pit-like building of their own, one in every province, for the elderly or the wounded or the sick.

It was for the best. Hana had seen them, the living dead, with their hungry foaming mouths, and their wild red eyes, shambling and moaning and rushing to feast…

She shuddered. 'I do not think that is a good place for him to heal.'

'It doesn't matter what you think. That's where he is. And if I say the word we will put him in a cell of his own to await death. I do not want one of the undead loose in Hanamura, especially not one with cybernetic enhancements.'

It was not a pretty thought at all.

'I have asked you here,' Hanzo said softly, 'because I want to warn you. Genji may not live the rest of this day. He almost certainly won't live the rest of this week. What has happened to him is… almost irreparable.'

'Then why try?' Hana exclaimed. 'Why try at all if you're just going to give up on…'

'We only ever tried,' Hanzo said, voice firm, 'to give him a chance to die on his feet. An honourable death. The last time he almost died it was fighting against his own brother. If we can wake him up at least he can take his own life, as is fitting…'

Hana slapped the taller man. Her viciousness surprised them both. A little Dorito dust flecked his beard – she'd been snacking last night before she drifted to sleep, and the traces were still on her fingers.

'How dare you!' He exclaimed.

'No, how dare you!' She snapped back. 'You can't bring a man back to life and then ask him to kill himself!'

'It is the right thing to do. He was a traitor, and a murderer, and he attempted to commit fratricide. He was a thief, and now he is a cyborg, and death by his own hand is the best death he can hope for now.'

Hana's eyes were wild with anger. 'You did not tell me that…'

'I did not tell Shunladi either. Even my father does not know the details of what I planned. But he knows that Genji lives a half-life, and he knows that it must end. The sooner the better.'

Hana could not believe this. She raised her left hand and, before Hanzo could stop her, tapped at her wrist. She looked up into the sky, saw the dark blot high above as the unmanned drone moved into position.

Hanzo sighed, and shook his head. 'Hana, I will not fight you over this.'

'You will have to.' She snapped. 'Because I'm fighting you.'

From the tiny blot above a second dark dot dispatched itself. Over the next few seconds that second dot grew larger and larger as it shot down to earth.

'Rethink this, Hana.' Hanzo said, his voice getting deeper and angrier now. She realised how serious this was. She was about to attack the heir to the Shimada Empire. She would imprisoned, certainly, and might never see Genji again.

But on the other hand, she had to fight for her own honour. And that meant fighting for Genji, even if he was a cyborg, and a traitor, and a thief. He had been her friend. Like a brother. And she did not like what Hanzo had planned for him.

'My name,' she replied through gritted teeth, 'is .'

The MEKA suit slammed into the earth right in front of her, causing Hanzo to jump back, and she reached out her hands. It drew her inside, the industrious technology closing around her. The HUD lit up and she looked forward.

'This is a bad idea.' Hanzo growled.

She lashed out with a fist, and he was forced to dodge. She jammed a finger on the trigger and for a few glorious seconds she was at war, pumping bullets out at nothing. Oh, how she had missed this sensation. It had been days since her last training exercise, and it felt good to be…

Hanzo appeared above her. He had leapt up onto the MEKA suit while was looking the other way, and now pressed a button. The entire suit shut down and she was ejected out the back, landing painfully on her bum.

'Ow.' She said. The Japanese must have installed an external off-switch, Hana realised, because the Koreans certainly hadn't before she came to the Hanamura military headquarters.

Hanzo jumped gracefully from the MEKA suit to stand above her. His eyes were dark and angry. 'You have forced me to do this,' he said. 'I do not want to, but you have given me no choice.'

She gulped, ready to accept her fate, no matter what it was.

The cell was dark, and did not smell very nice, but it was big enough for Hana to do some push ups and some sit ups and try to keep her figure. They'd given her a packet of Doritos, a book, and a chair. They had taken her wrist-watch, the device which allowed her to call on the MEKA suits. But overall it was not such a bad place. The air was cool, thanks to some air-conditioning units in the roof, and there was a private toilet and a bed.

She settled down, and had the unfortunate realisation that she was no longer an ally of the Japanese, an asset as they so often called her, but a political prisoner. A prisoner of war. She was one of few Koreans left living in the entire world, and she had made an enemy of the most powerful Empire still standing. What a poor outcome to today this had been. Perhaps, she thought, she had just been overtired. But surely her actions were justified? Hanzo was being a dick, and Genji… well, he needed a friend, now more than ever.

'Howdy.'

Hana looked around for the source of the voice, and spotted it. Across the walkway from her, sitting on a bed in an almost identical cell, was an American with a cowboy hat and a red shawl over his shoulders. He gave her a stubble-covered grin and tipped the broad hat.

'Name's Mcree.'

She smiled.