"Doctor Zielger, this is unnecessary." Genji protested, halting at the door.
"Genji, we haven't seen each other for years and I haven't given you a proper check-up since you arrived," I argued, putting on my lab coat and entering the examination room. "Neither of us have anything in particular to do, and I think it's high time we did some maintenance."
"I do not need maintenance, doctor," He tried again. "I am perfectly fine."
"Genji, I know you hate that body but it is mechanical whether you like it or not. We must do check-ups." I grabbed a few instruments, bio-regulator, screwdriver, staff, and set them down on a metal table next to the examination bed.
"I do not hate this body, doctor, you did a marvelous job with it," He answered quietly. "I may have not accepted it before but I do now. My eyes are wide open. I know I am not a robot, and therefore this body gives me no reason to despise it." He walked over to the bed and laid down. "You will find nothing wrong with it."
"You've changed…" I mumbled back, one hand going over his mask. "The last time we were together you weren't very fond of this body."
"People can change quite a lot very quickly, doctor," He replied with a chuckle. "I think we all know this."
"Yes…yes I suppose you are right," I said.
After that it was time for work. Both of us remained silent as I began removing the outer plates of armor on him. His mask came off, I removed most of his arms and legs which revealed shredded stumps, his chest was opened to reveal a very intricate machine keeping him alive, filled with tubes, gears and other parts. I bit my tongue, trying to hold back the anger that surged forward every time I did this. Violence was terrible, no matter who resorts to it or for what reason, but for someone to inflict this amount of damage, and on their own brother no less! It was despicable. I may have never met Hanzo, but I hated him with all my heart. No man that did this was a true human, I'd seen more heart in Bastion units from the war than this.
"Angela…" Genji whispered, his green eyes staring right at me. "It is in the past."
"That does not mean it is ok. What he did to you was wrong, disgraceful and unmoral," I scoffed, turning around and looking through my tools. I gently picked up the bio-regulator, a scanner not much bigger than my hand that would identify the few actual organic parts left in Genji and determine how well they were doing.
"You would judge me just as badly had I defeated my brother that day, or worse if I had managed to kill him," The ninja replied. "We were both angry, young and foolish. But we've changed."
"You say that as if you've seen Hanzo, as if you know he's changed," I answered quietly, passing the scanner over what used to be his legs. The machine beeped once to indicate there was no problem, and I moved to his arms and scanned them as well. His veins, muscle, and tissue seemed to be just fine. I frowned as I noticed he had turned uncomfortably silent. That wasn't like him. "Genji…where were you the week we sent the others to Russia?"
"Merely a visit. I had to see someone before our plans here began to advance," He answered calmly.
"You were gone an entire week on a visit? Who did you see?" I questioned, running the bio-regulator over his internal machinery. His liver, one lung and pancreas were still working well. Good. I scanned it over his chest and, much to my delight, his heart seemed to be doing better than last time. "You seem to be doing even better than last time I did a check-up. Perhaps it is because you are less stressed."
"Before I was in turmoil," He agreed. "Now I am in acceptance, I am in harmony with my body. I am at peace with myself."
"You have changed," I decided. "Now where were you? You're lucky nobody else has decided to question you, but I expect you to be honest with me."
"I…I went to see Hanzo." He admitted.
"What?!" I yelled, nearly dropping the bio-regulator into his chest. "Why would you do that?!"
"We need more abled fighters, Angela," Genji said. "Hanzo is skilled, he has survived countless battles, Overwatch, assassins and even defeated me. We need him."
"We are not going to accept a criminal here." I answered firmly, putting down the gadget and grabbing the screwdriver. This next part would require more work, and a lot of delicacy. "Please refrain from speaking, I must focus."
"Doctor, I will explain later. But Hanzo has changed in some ways. He will be a fine addition to our group," He insisted.
I ignored him and got to work. I wasn't very surprised that I still remembered how to do this so well. I had created his body, after all, and knew him better than he knew himself now. Besides, I had done several check-ups like this one back when Overwatch was running. I carefully unscrewed the cover for his heart, which was incased in small silver box that glowed green. The scanner said it was fine, but the inner-workings would need manual adjustments after so long and I'm sure most of his systems could use a little cleaning. I popped off the cover and put it gently on the table, observing the heart. It was maybe my greatest breakthrough, and perhaps my greatest regret. I had fused his heart with regenerative molecules, this is what kept it beating despite the severe damage to the organ. It had taken me weeks to invent this and get it to work, before this Genji had nearly always been in a delicate state. My only regret is that this never managed to get funded, it never spread across the world. It could've saved thousands of people, but once Overwatch fell my work was looked down on. Nobody would fund me or my ideas, which was quite foolish seeing that I am the best doctor in the world.
"Angela, you are thinking of the past again," Genji whispered. I pursed my lips and got back to work, grabbing a brush no bigger than my pinky and beginning. I began brushing the green tubes going into his heart delicately, the box as well, and then moved to the gears outside of it. Everything was in remarkable shape, I had designed it to be lasting, but it never hurts to clean. I grabbed another tool and removed one of the tubing's. Genji gasped, but I knew he'd be fine. Once I had cleaned it I set it back in. My eyes drifted downwards and I frowned.
"Oh my…" I muttered.
"What is the matter?" He asked.
"We…might have a problem." I admitted. "Your lung capacitor seems to be cracked. Did you get hit by a truck recently?"
"Pardon me?"
"I designed it to resist the force of a pick-up truck going twenty miles per hour. Yet it is broken," I responded. "We can figure out the reason later, perhaps it didn't last as long as I assumed it would, but right now I must fix it."
"Very well," He said.
"For that I must put you offline," I told him, speaking carefully. "You'll be powered down, your machinery and organs running at their lowest capacity simply to keep you alive. It'll be an entire day before I can reboot your systems. You'll be, essentially, gone until tomorrow…"
"I am in capable hands," He said without a trace of doubt or fear. "Do what you must doctor, I will thank you tomorrow."
"Very well, I'll take utmost care of you," I answered, my mouth suddenly feeling dry. It was stupid, but I always felt nervous when I shut him down. He wasn't dead, not really, but his body wouldn't be functioning well enough for him to move or even be conscious. I'd be able to work safely, although I'd still have to be extremely careful. "Here we go."
I gently put on of my hands inside his heart box, feeling the sides with my fingers before finding what I wanted. I pressed the small button there and pulled my hand out. It was quite horrifying to see, but I could never look away. Genji's entire body shuddered violently, he let out a strangled groan, and then after a few terrible minutes his body slowly eased up. If I didn't know better, I would've thought he was dead. No time to waste, I immediately went for the lung capacitator. This machine was vital for him to live since it made his one lung work at double its capacity to make up for its missing partner. Had he kept on living with this cracked…I didn't even want to think about it.
"Athena, monitor Genji's vitals," I ordered the AI, who I knew could see everything. "And make sure nobody interrupts me. I'll need absolute focus."
"Very well, and I inform you that nearly everyone has left the base. Tracer was quite intent on sight-seeing and she dragged most of the other members outside. The only people remaining in the base are Winston, Reinhardt, Genji and yourself."
"I don't like them going out so soon after Talon finding us…but I suppose it's too late to stop them now," I said. "Thank you for the update, Athena, advise Winston and Reinhardt that I'm busy."
And after that it was all work.
The box was a delicate piece of machinery filled with wires, gears, tubes, screws and more. I was no engineer, Winston had designed this bit of machinery based off of my initial ideas, but I had memorized everything and anything that I'd have to do with this. I began by pulling it open and removing the delicate tubes, which I then cleaned with the tiny brush. I left them aside and began removing the tiny gears. It was tedious work but I was very quickly absorbed into it. My mind shut everything else out and my hands seemed to work by themselves. Soon enough the gears had been removed and cleaned, an hour later so had the screws and bolts. The gadget itself was now considerably small without all of its other components. But now came the real problem, the crack. The biggest part of the device, a metal tube that connected to the lung and provided the air, was cracked. I was surprised Genji hadn't felt much difficulty breathing. To fix this I'd need a laser welder, the kind Torbjorn used to put together the smaller part of his machines, and more wires to replace the ones that had been damaged along with the tube. I sighed, beginning immediately. It was hard, but after another hour of cleaning, welding and replacing I was nearly done. It took me some more time to put the rest of the parts back in, test the machine to make sure everything was functioning fine and then put it back into Genji. When I was done I flicked his power back on. It'd be an entire day before he was up and running though. My stomach rumbled, but I couldn't take a break now. Grabbing the screwdriver, I began reassembling his body. Once I was finally done I let myself breath comfortably again, relieved the work was over. My head turned to the clock and I practically groaned. Five hours had passed.
"Athena, are the others back yet?" I asked tiredly, pulling a chair to Genji's side and sitting down. What was there going to be for dinner? I could really go for Jesse's barbecue again…
"Negative, they haven't returned. They aren't answering any forms of communications either," She answered. "I haven't been able to contact Alessandro and Dva either. Speaking of which, we need to make a call sign for him. It'd be terrible if the enemy learned his real name."
"Wait, you cannot contact anyone? Can you contact Winston and Reinhardt inside the base?" I asked, perking up. Something didn't seem right about this, our comms couldn't just go down.
"Yes, I can," Athena answered.
"Athena, triple check all systems, especially the security systems. Inform Winston and Reinhardt to be ready," I ordered. "It may be nothing, this base has been unused for a long time, but I'd like to be sure. Tell me if you find something."
"Yes ma'am." It took only a few moments for her to return. "You are smart, doctor Zielger. I've isolated, quarantined and am now destroying a virus hidden my system. It has compromised basic security measures such as sensors and cameras. Shall I begin lockdown?"
"Where are Winston and Reinhardt, and where are the others at?" I asked, walking to the other side of the room. I fumbled around some drawers, looking for a control.
"Warning, there has been a breach. Entering lockdown mode," Athena informed me. Immediately the lights went out, I heard several loud noises throughout the hallways, and a small circular turret popped out of the roof. "Winston and Reinhardt are already by the ship, fully armed. But they cannot reach you doctor."
I cursed in German, grabbing a small black control and pressing the one red button it had. I turned to my right to see the floor open up, revealing a pod with my beloved Valkyrie suit. I approached it, smiling just a tiny bit. It brought back good memories. My smile disappeared as Athena spoke. Genji would be out of the picture for hours to come, the rest will return unaware or too late to help us, Winston and Reinhardt were stuck by the ship.
"Angela, you understand your position here, correct?"
"Yes, Athena, and I have a plan. But I'll need your help," I answered, opening the pod and grabbing my suit. "Genji's life, and my own, will depend on it."
And that's it for this chapter! What will the doctor do, all alone without her team? If you enjoyed this chapter, don't forget to fav, follow (sharing it with others would be nice~) and most importantly REVIEW because your opinions are what matter most.
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