Mortica had approached Ana 5 hours ago, saying Arach still hadn't come back from his walk. Ana frowned as she scanned the cafeteria: nothing. She sighed, continuing onward. "Arach? Your sister is getting worried." Ana called. There was no reply, not that she expected one. She walked along, finding Bridgette.
"Miss Amari!" Bridgette saluted.
"No need for that. I heard I was moving in with you."
"Yeah. Weird, huh?" Ana chuckled at Bridgette trying to conceal her excitement.
"I'm sure we'll get along fine. I have a question."
"How can I help?"
"Have you seen the boy twin?"
"No. Do you want some help looking for him?"
"No, I'll find him. Thank you, Bridgette. Good luck in training." Bridgette gasped lightly.
"How'd you know I was heading to training?"
"It's 3. You always go to training at 3." Bridgette blushed.
"Oh, yeah…" Ana chuckled, walking away as she shook her head. "Good luck, ma'am!" *She needs to get her excitement about being a member under control. This is war, and we need to stay focused.* Ana checked in the training room. Lucio was on the ground in a chokehold from Locarno.
"Told you I was good!"
"Release!" Lucio wheezed out, Locarno complying. Ana continued onwards. *Someone should start their training soon. I'll mention it to Jack: he'll set it up.* She walked to the firing range, pausing to look inside. She saw Widow standing there, and was about to continue onward when she heard Reaper,
"So that's it?" She frowned, listening carefully.
"Oui."
"Our kids are here, are confused and scared, and you aren't even going to tell them you're related to them?" He growled, sounding angrier than Ana had ever heard, which was saying a lot.
"It does not make a difference: I am not their mother."
"YES, YOU ARE!" He shouted, making Ana wince. There were a few seconds of pause, then he continued more controlled. "You gave birth to them: do you feel anything towards them at all?!"
"You know the answer, Mon Cherie."
"I'm not your 'Cherie'."
"Whatever you say, Mon Cherie."
"Yo no tu 'Cherie'! Tu velve mi loco! (I'm not your Cherie! You drive me insane!)" He shouted. Ana heard Amelie's heels quietly clicking as she left the room, and Ana just stood outside, not caring if Amelie knew she overheard. Amelie did a side glance, but didn't greet Ana with anything. Ana did think she saw a tear sliding down her expressionless face. *No, I imagined it. She doesn't feel anything if she can say that about her own children.* She began to walk into the room when Arach appeared from the room across.
"So I'm not the only one who eavesdrops."
"Your sister is worried, Arach." *Jessie wasn't kidding about him being a good hider.*
"I'm fine. We have different methods of getting information." He walked into the room, and Ana hesitated. *It's better I not get involved, but I want to make sure it goes smoothly.*
"Go away, Amelie."
"Who?"
"You're not Amelie." *For once, talk to someone…*
"No, I'm not."
"Go away, Arach." Ana heard the boy getting more frustrated, but trying to stay calm.
"We need to talk." There was no reply, and Arach repeated, "I have to talk to you. It's about-"
"What part of 'go away' wasn't clear, kid? I don't want to talk to you." *Come on, Gabriel…*
"I honestly don't care what you want. I'm going to talk to you. It's about-"
"I don't care what it's about. I need to train." Arach's voice turned into one of forced calm, one that Reinhardt had used frequently on Gabriel during training.
"You want to train? We can train, fatso." Ana groaned. *This is not good at all.*
"What did you just call me?"
"Fatso. But before we train, I'm going to talk to you. It's about my sister."
"I'm busy."
"Busy?! You made my sister cry!" Ana heard a gun fire, and headed inside. Arach had a gun aimed at Reaper, and there was a bullet hole in the wall. "You are hurting Mortica!" Arach switched to melee, not even close to hitting the wraith but raging. "You're avoiding her! You're breaking her heart! You can't do that! She believed that you loved her! She believed in you when I wouldn't!" Arach was shouting loudly, voice cracking as he ranted at the silent Gabriel. "Now you're ignoring her! You're acting like you hate her! When she wouldn't give up trying to find you! She was relentless in her hope that you didn't abandon us and now her hope is crushed because of you!" Arach stopped trying to hit Reaper and Reaper stopped, still silent. Arach glare up at him, hatred obvious without even an attempt to hide it. "I thought that if I talked to you, you would tell me something, anything to help me stop her pain. I was wrong. Never come near my sister or me again. We don't need any of you." Arach began walking away when Reaper grabbed his shoulder. Arach tried to punch him in the face. Reaper was expecting it, grabbing his hand. He looked right at Arach, saying,
"Go back to your quarters to your sister." Arach hissed,
"You can't tell me what to-" Reaper's grip tightened, and Ana was worried he would break the boy's fingers.
"That's an order." Arach ripped out of Reaper's grip, storming off. Reaper turned and shot a full ammo clip into a target, obliterating it haphazardly with no clear bullet pattern. "What?" He tossed the gun to the side, creating a new one and unloading it as well. Ana could hear his voice cracking.
"Take off the mask."
"Why?"
"Because I can't read you with it on, and we need to talk." Reaper complied, and Ana saw tears streaming down his face. *He never cries…*
"I thought that if I avoided them, it would be better, but…uh…"
"It's okay." Reaper laughed harshly, wiping water away from his eyes.
"How is any of this okay, Ana?! I destroyed Mortica's hope. I destroyed my daughter's hope."
"How are you going to fix it?" Reaper gave a hollow laugh.
"How am I supposed to do that? Tell them I'm a mass murderer of many of my old friends, that we left her at an orphanage to protect her from that life? That I've killed thousands of innocent people while working with a terrorist organization?"
"Anything is better than silence." Reaper pulled out a new pair of guns and decimated another target.
"I just don't know, Ana, and I hate it."