A Winter's Song Chapter 4: Stuff of Legends, an overwatch fanfic

~o~

Stuff of Legends

Jesse walked outside and wandered around to the other side of his cabin, stunned to find two sheep painted an icy blue color. They ran back and forth, letting out terrified yelling sounds as the bells tied to their legs rang loudly. It was chaos. He threw his hands in the air with a yell of frustration.

"What in the hell?" he snapped.

Olivia watched him from atop of the cabin, laughing and Jesse heard the sound. He looked up, slouched his shoulders and gave her a funny look.

"Really?" he said. "My sheep?"

"What?" Olivia teased, with a grin. "I have to keep you on your toes, don't I?"

"Hell, I'm plenty on my toes with this supernatural ice business," Jesse gestured to her with a wave of his hand before he placed a cigar into his mouth and lit it. "Still trying to wrap my head around who and what you are."

Olivia hopped down from the roof, opened her mouth to retort, but immediately looked beyond him with a deep, intense frown at the sound of a shout in the distance. Jesse looked over his shoulder, laughed and looked at her now with a wink.

"Sounds like I caught something in my trap. Wait here. I'll handle it."

He smiled to himself, made his way outside before he found one of the many hunters caught in a snare trap he'd set up at the edge of his property. The man was squirming, struggling to undo the snare and looked up when he saw Jesse standing there with his thumbs in his belt, smirking and shaking his head.

"Hey! Hey, get me down from here!" the man protested.

Jesse walked up, glanced down at picked up a handgun. He turned it in his hands for study and shook his head, squeezing the trigger and hitting the man in the chest with the pellet. He was wearing a bullet-proof vest and it rebounded off of him, but he still yelped in pain.

"Oops! I'm sorry," Jesse played, "Itchy trigger finger."

He squeezed another pellet into the man's midsection, earning a pained grunt. Jesse continued to feign an apology as well as shoot several more at the bound man.

"Hey, hey, stop it!" the man cried, angry, "That hurt!"

"Oh, what? You mean this?" Jesse said, grinning and firing the last iron pellet into the man's chest.

"Ow! YEAH!"

Then, Jesse's amusement disappeared from his face and he leaned forward, grabbing the man by the coat and taking a long drag from his cigar before he glared down at him.

"You're running around on my land," he said, "By rights, I can drop you right here and now. So, think twice before you snoop around here, or next time, it won't be iron pellets I put into you. Got me?"

The man looked frightened now and nodded his head. Jesse removed an enormous knife from his boot and cut the rope, sending the hunter tumbling to the ground before he was quickly fleeing. Jesse watched him go, shook his head before he looked down at the pellets on the ground.

He scooped them up, deposited them in his pocket and made his way into the cabin where Olivia was waiting. She was sitting in his chair, feet propped up on the table with a bored frown.

"I could have just killed him, you know," she said.

"Yeah, and what good would that do?" Jesse shook his head. "We have one thing on our side; they don't think I know about you or what's going on. We have to keep that for now."

Olivia rolled her eyes. "Fine."

"Now..." Jesse dropped to his knees and deposited the iron pellets to the floor. "I want to know about these and why they hurt you."

Olivia's smile disappeared and she eyed the iron pellets on the floor apprehensively. It was a look that came and went like lightning, but she had no witty retort to offer him this time. She slowly reached out, took one in her hand and Jesse watched with wide eyes when a sliver of smoke began to rise from her palm. But she continued to hold onto it, lips pursed and eyes locked onto Jesse.

"This is what happens." she told him.

Olivia hissed sharply, dropping the pellet to the floor and showing her hand to Jesse - a bright red mark had been left in the shape of the pellet.

"Shit..." he said, quickly gathering them back up. "I'm sorry, I didn't know they'd do that so quick."

Olivia huffed out a sound. "Well, now you do." she quipped. "I don't know why iron hurts so bad, but it does and those pendejos are armed with a lot more than just that handful."

"Hm." Jesse thought about this for a moment. "Why do they want to kill you so badly?"

"Really?" Olivia arched an eyebrow at him. "You're asking me that?" She shook her head with a long-suffering sigh. "Why is it always the cute ones?"

Jesse gave a bark of laughter. "Hey, come on now."

"Look," Olivia continued, the amusement disappearing now, "I know this town is hiding a secret and I think these hunters were hired to kill me. Now I was there, but they took a shot at me before I could get into their old computer systems. Beyond the Old Village is where the mayor's place is. I think I can learn something from them."

Jesse's brow knotted with a thoughtful sound. "So...how do we want to do this?"

Olivia waved her hand, producing a holographic image of an article. "He's hosting a party tomorrow night." she explained, "We can sneak our way in and get to his computers. Then, all I have to do is work my magic."

Jesse smiled broadly. "I like the way you think."

Hilda was sitting on a bench, eyes closed. Jesse was walking by with several bags of food when he saw her, sitting outside of the grocery store he had walked into. He paused, tilted his head and approached, unsure of how she looked; but Hilda spoke first.

"I'm not dead, young man, don't worry," she quipped.

Jesse let out a bark of laughter and she patted the spot next to her with one hand. He shrugged, sat down and set his bags beside him.

"How are you doing today?" Hilda asked.

"I'm doing just fine, ma'am. Thank you." He looked at her now. "Were you looking for me, or is this just a happy coincidence?"

"Mm, I'd like to think happy coincidence, really. I was thinking about our talk we had."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yes, it's been a while since I've had anyone kind enough to speak to me," Hilda told him, "My face puts them off. They think I'm bad luck."

Jesse made a face. "Does this whole town run on legends and superstition?"

Hilda chuckled sadly. "You could say that. They were victims of Null Sector all the same," she explained, "So they use my misfortune as a way to make themselves feel powerful."

"Like the story about the Rime."

"Yes. Like that one."

"Do you think the Rime is a bad lady - spirit - or what?"

"I believe that people sometimes displace much of their problems onto someone else, particularly something they believe is much weaker than they are," Hilda explained, "In order to find control in their lives. Whether it's this Rime or another person."

Jesse murmured thoughtfully. "Alright, doc; what about me?" he asked.

"What about you?"

"Do you think I'm displacing?"

"Do you believe you are?"

Jesse frowned at her, then shrugged his shoulders and leaned back in the bench. "I don't know. I thought I did when I was running with my gang, but then things changed. I left them, tried to do the right thing, made things worse and now here I am, trying to start all over again."

"It sounds like you're running from something." Hilda pointed out.

"Huh?"

"I spoke with a young woman who sounded just like you," Hilda continued to explain. "She was very...colorful about it, but she told me she was fine, dismissed everything I said. But in a way, you two have similarities. You're both in denial about your pasts."

Jesse's mind went to Sombra for some reason. That couldn't be who she was talking about. But he couldn't resist his curiosity.

"This lady wouldn't have been speaking Spanish, would she?"

"Yes, she was."

Jesse made a thoughtful noise.

Jesse returned to the cabin with the bags of food and Olivia was already there, grabbing one and digging her way through it.

"Finally!" she said, "Did you get what I asked for?"

Jesse nodded his head. He watched as she ripped open a box of cookies and began wolfing them down; he laughed now and shook his head. He set the rest of the bags down and took a seat in his favorite chair before regarding her with a curious tilt of his head.

"Did you ever speak to Hilda?" he asked.

Olivia frowned. "Who?" she asked, with mouthfuls of food. "I'm kind of elusive, you know. I don't do much talking to anybody."

"Old lady? Blind? Scarred up face?"

"Oh..." Olivia's chewing stopped and she swallowed her food before speaking again. "You're talking about flower vieja. Yeah, I saw her in the gardens at night. She's blind, so she didn't scream when she saw me. I was trying to get into the Old Village and she heard me. She was...nice, I guess."

"I hear ya'." Jesse replied, distracted with his thoughts for a moment.

Later that evening, Olivia was weaving a pattern of ice in front of Jesse, who looked amazed by the sight. She smirked at him, her hand shimmering with violet light before she clenched it, discharging shards of ice around him that narrowly missed his face.

"So you can really do that?" he asked. "Manipulate ice and snow?"

"Yeah. It gets cold when I get mad." Olivia explained. "I can turn a room into a winter wonderland if I wanted to."

Jesse blinked, stunned. "Wow."

Olivia smiled a little at his mystified tone. "You're easily impressed."

"Well, it ain't every day you meet a lady who can make it snow."

Olivia continued to smile. "Heh. Well stick around. I still have a lot more tricks up my sleeve."

Jesse was already making his way toward the enormous castle. Several others were also on their way, dressed properly for the party. His eyes scanned every detail of the castle, noticing a few armed guards, turrets mounted along the statues of gargoyles.

"They have traps set up that can catch me if I end up too close. You have to get to them first, amigo." Olivia explained. She reached up, placed a little Comm-link device into his right ear and smiled. "I'll be in touch."

Jesse thought about what she said regarding the traps. Did that mean that the mayor was aware of what she was? It made his suspicions about the hunters and Leonhard grow stronger; whatever was happening, Olivia had been right about it. Something was definitely going on.

"Alright, meet you inside."

Olivia vanished from the truck and Jesse looked around before he shook his head. "Damn. Hate it when you do that." he muttered, to himself.

He made his way to the castle now, thinking hard about how he was going to mingle with this crowd.

It was like his undercover job as a waiter all over again.

The suit he wore was tight against his chest, so he wiggled the tie a bit, frowned and noticed a guard standing there, raising a hand to him.

"Name?" he said.

Jesse smiled pleasantly. "Jesse McCree."

"By the way, they changed it to invite only at the last second and you're not on the list." Olivia told him, a grin lit her voice when she glanced briefly toward the guard from her spot at Jesse's truck. "Ay... este gruñón. Hold up. I'll take care of that for you."

It took only a few seconds; she typed in a few keys before Jesse's name was added to the list. The guard looked down, then nodded his approval and stepped aside to allow him to pass. Jesse walked by, tipped his hat with a nod as he entered.

"There. Now you're in," Olivia told him. "But you'll need to head away from the crowd first."

"Ugh..."

Jesse regarded the crowds with a sound of dismay; they were all too damn rich, too damn smug about how rich they were. It reminded him of his experiences with Ashe from the Deadlock Gang. The conversations were absolutely boring and he had no interest in mingling with anyone there. But Olivia's voice filled his ear and snapped him out of his thoughts.

"Hey, you awake there, vaquero?"

"Huh? Yeah, I am." Jesse tapped the Comm. "So, uh, what am I looking for?"

"Toward the back of the first floor, there's a kitchen," Olivia explained, "On your left. You see it?"

Jesse glanced toward the direction she indicated and nodded when he saw the door where several employees were making their way out.

"Yeah, I got it." he replied, "So what do I need to do?"

"Head through there."

"I'll just do that." Jesse was skeptical.

"Come on. They run on a schedule. Just count to ten and walk right in."

Jesse made a thoughtful note, but counted to ten like she suggested and sure enough, the staff departed from the kitchen; they were laughing, exchanging cigarettes, clearly meant for a lunch break. He crept his way through the door and found the kitchen was completely empty.

"Go toward the third freezer."

Jesse frowned, but walked toward the freezer in question and opened it. The plastic curtain was parted with one hand and Jesse was surprised when he noticed another door on the other side. He pushed it open and stepped through, entering a large room where several monitors lined the walls. He studied them in silence for a moment, recognizing images of the town, the Old Village, the entrance to the town and even the edge of the forest nearby.

The mayor had been watching everyone.

"Hey, are you going to disarm those traps, or what?" Olivia quipped, over the Comm.

Jesse snapped out of his distracting thoughts before he looked around. "Hold up." He looked down at the console before tilting his head. "What do I do?"

"It's simple. A child could do it," Olivia explained, with a laugh, "You just have to bypass the - Okay, hit the bright yellow button on your left first."

Jesse did as she said.

"Now type in seven, four, seven, eight, twenty, six, and two."

"Okay. Done deal."

"Finally, all you have to do is pull that lever on your right."

Jesse spotted the lever and pulled it down. Immediately, the sounds of gears clicked through the air. A small door opened to his right and he watched Olivia jump right through it. She smiled and winked at him.

"Well, good job." she said. "Not as dumb as you look after all."

Jesse laughed now and shrugged his shoulders. "Eh, I get that a lot."

Olivia looked down at the console before her and she raised her hands, ribbons of purple light flowing from them and into the computers. She worked quickly and Jesse watched her for a moment before he smiled his approval.

"You're pretty good at this kind of stuff." he said.

"Been doing it forever." Olivia replied, with a smirk of her own.

"So what do you think you're gonna find in these files?"

"You'll see."

She brought up a holographic readout of various tables of data. With a simple wave of her hand, several more screens were laid out in front of her and Jesse watched them with amazement.

"So..." Olivia began. "The Old Village was the sight of the Omnic Crisis before it was rebuilt. The mayor commissioned an outside party for construction. Not really impressive, to be honest. Mr. Albert Giacometti..."

Jesse leaned forward to look. "What's it say about the Omnic Crisis?"

"Omnics were forbidden to step foot here in Zermatt," Olivia continued, glancing at the screens. "Hmm, look at this! Looks like the Old Village was overrun when the barriers went down. Null Sector came through and killed nearly everyone there. Few survivors - It mentions the old woman, Hilda - were there when Albert arrived just in time to save them."

"Sounds like a crock of shit." Jesse muttered.

Olivia gave a bark of laughter and glanced at him. "Told you."

"Anybody else involved with this guy?" Jesse asked, studying one of Olivia's screens.

"Yeah, if you don't count the hunters. Says here he has a tio outside of the town; Louis Giacometti," Olivia continued, "He was sent to prison for fraud, but got out on bail. He's been hiding ever since. Well, not for long."

"So, say we get this guy..." Jesse frowned thoughtfully at her. "Then what?"

"We see what he knows about Albert. We get him to talk."

Jesse thought about that plan.

A shame he ended up doing exactly what he'd done before he'd come here. Trouble always found a way at his doorstep, it seemed.