I was burning, Christ Almighty, I was burning alive.
This had all been a trick of some sort, I had been a fool to trust Vishkar so easily, to think I could handle being alone in unknown territory and now I would burn for it. Literally.
I screamed again, my eyes flying open, and I realized I wasn't burning. No, I was looking at the roof of my posh room, laying on my soft bed, tucked in neatly. My body ached but, besides that, I felt fine. What about the fire? It had felt so real...
With a groan I rolled off the bed and onto my feet, letting the blankets fall to the floor, and I dashed into the bathroom to look at myself in the mirror. I had expected to see- Well, I'd rather not describe what I expected, but instead, I got nothing. I was perfectly fine, not a single mark on my face. I was wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants, all white of course, and a quick check showed the rest of my body was also unmarked. In fact, I'd say I was glowing with health.
"Jake?" I called unsurely. "Jake!"
"You require assistance?" The Omnic's robotic voice called as he entered.
"I...I need help getting back to bed," I admitted, embarrassed.
It was true, my tiny burst of energy when I woke up two minutes ago had disappeared. My aching increased, my body shaked, I could hardly stand up. What the hell had happened to me? Thankfully, Jake said nothing as he entered the bathroom and slung one of my arms around him, slowly and patiently helping me walk back to the main room and onto the bed. When I was finally settled, I spoke.
"What the hell happened?" I whispered, almost afraid to know the answer.
"..."
"Jake-"
"There was a malfunction in the training system," He cut in, unsurely. "Your entire section was burned, turned on fire, with you inside it."
So it wasn't just a dream. "But I just saw myself, I looked fine. Not, well, burnt."
"Somehow, mister Rivero, you healed. I'm unsure if anyone has a proper explanation as of yet, but you healed in less than a minute and passed out. Miss Vaswani then had Vishkar's best doctors remove your armor and clothing, which had practically melted onto you."
"Where is Vaswani right now?" I demanded, my voice cracking.
"She informed me, in the event that you may ask, that she is going to find out what happened. She is deeply sorry that this has happened, and understands if you wish to leave immediately."
I would have been mad if, well, if it didn't sound like she truly felt sorry. Had she been another rich prick, a businesswoman with her own agenda and a disregard for other people, she would have tried to convince me to stay. Yet here Jake was, telling me she would let me go without questioning it. Perhaps she wasn't that bad after all? And that reminded me, I was still supposed to recruit her. I hadn't found a good moment to bring that up since we arrived.
"Jake, please get me some food. Make sure it's cold, I've had enough heat for one lifetime," I requested. "And after I eat, I want my clothes."
One thing I didn't believe in were accidents, not after everything I'd been through. Something was wrong here, even if Satya wasn't involved, and after my meal, I planned to figure out exactly what. Jake wasted no time bringing me a large platter of food (he brought kiwi's, bless his soul) and I began to dig in. I didn't care for manners or cleanliness, I just shoved it down my throat and soon emptied the plate. I quickly got dressed (jeans, sneakers and a t-shirt. All made for heroes, of course) and opened the door to leave.
"Sir, I was told you weren't allowed to exit the room unless it was to leave us...shall I inform Miss Vaswani you are leaving?" Jake said, floating in front of me with both his hands tucked behind his back.
"No, Jake, I need your help. I'm going to do some...exploring, but no one can know I left."
"Sir, the security system here-"
"Is obsolete," I finished. "For some reason, Vishkar has no virtual security throughout most of the building, only guards which I can avoid. Why? I don't know."
"You have a sharp eye, Mister Rivero," Jake said. "I'm still not allowed to let you go."
"First off, call me Alessandro. I'm your friend, Jake, not your boss. Second off, you're gonna have to knock me out if you plan to stop me." I raised my fists, to prove my point, but we both knew I wasn't in any condition to fight.
"I...am your friend?" He questioned, his head tilting slightly to the right as if he were unsure of this.
"You've treated me right, you've been very helpful, and you're definitely not my servant bot," I said, smiling a bit. "I get this is your, uh, job. But I wouldn't mind calling you my friend."
"I- I wouldn't mind that either," He answered quickly, his voice overjoyed. "Thank you, Alessandro."
It wasn't hard to leave after that. He promised to tell them I was asleep and that I had ordered him to not let anyone in, under no circumstances at all, until I said so. That's how I found myself walking around the grounds of Vishkar's headquarters, feeling entirely out of place. Much like before, people rushed back and forth in the grand halls. Businessmen, scientists, more soldiery types. I ignored them all, pretending I knew where I was going, pretending I had a purpose. I had learned at a young age that having confidence makes it easier to go unnoticed and, surely enough, it worked this time. I had crossed half the grounds in twenty minutes and the guards didn't bat an eye.
"Excuse me, you!" Someone called. I turned towards a woman, blonde, old, expensive suit and a briefcase. I wasn't sure she meant me, but she made a beeline right for me so I guess she had. "You look remarkable!"
"Uh...thanks?" I offered, raising an eyebrow.
"I saw your performance test yesterday," She clarified, smiling kindly. "It was outstanding."
Now that she mentioned it I did recognize her! She was one of the several people in suits watching the other candidates, wondering who they wanted to hire, she must have seen what happened to me then. I didn't like her, not one bit, but maybe she could help me...
"I'm glad you think so," I answered good-mannerly. "And you are?"
"Miss Sally Jackson, but please, call me Sally," She replied, offering her hand. I gave her a firm handshake.
"Another American," I commented, feigning surprise. "Always a nice thing to see. What brings you here Sally?"
"I work for a company that is interested in hiring...outstanding individuals," She explained, her eyes looking around the room. She shifted her weight nervously. "It's classified if I'm honest."
"So that's why you were watching me yesterday? Have some sort of job offer for me?" I questioned, my smile growing. I made sure I oozed confidence, like I was perfectly fine with this, perfectly willing to partake in the business these people came here for.
"Precisely!" She beamed, falling for my act. "Someone with your talents would be incredibly useful, Mister Rivero. You see we specialize in-"
"I'm so sorry but I'm a bit short on time," I interrupted, my smile turning apologetic as I scratched the back of my head. "I was actually needed somewhere but it's nice to know some people are interested in me. Is there a way I could contact you later on?"
"Of course! Here, take this." Her free hand began darting across her pockets, looking for something. Finally, she dug out a small calling card and handed it to me. "Please, call whenever you like."
"And one more thing," I added, shoving the calling card in my pocket. "The training rooms I was in yesterday, where were they at exactly? I can't find my way back."
Half a minute later I had gotten precise instructions to the training rooms and had waved Sally Jackson goodbye. As before, I walked confidently down the halls in the directions she told me. I still felt weak, but not weak enough that I needed help walking. Besides, this was the only moment to do my little "exploration" mission. Everyone that cared would probably assume I was still recovering.
A few minutes later I began to recognize where I was going. The doors that led into the training room were wide open, with no guards standing watch, and after a quick check to make sure no one was paying attention I walked right on in. I had seen something before Satya showed me where I'd train, a metal door with a sign somewhere here...
"Ahi estas," I muttered after turning a corner and spotting it. I walked up to it and knocked three times.
"You're here already? I still have one hour left on my shift," A man said, opening the door. He froze, obviously surprised to see me, and I smiled right at him.
"Is this the little boy's room?" I asked.
"What the-"
Before he could react I jumped and punched him as hard as I could I the nose. He stumbled and fell back, out cold...and I let out a sharp yell of pain and crumpled to my knees when I landed, holding my hand. Yeah, I was definitely not ready to be punching stuff just yet. After a few moments to recompose myself I stood up and walked in, closing the door behind me.
Just as I thought, this room was an information center, probably from the training area. The entire room was filled with a giant computer tower, kind of like those supercomputers you sometimes see in movies, and in front of me was a single monitor made from light with a chair. I took my seat and cracked my knuckles, completely unsure of what to do next.
I hadn't thought I'd make it this far in this condition, and now that I was here I wasn't sure what my goal was. Found out who burned me? Yes. Maybe found out Vishkar's dirty secrets? Sure, why not. But how exactly would I do that?
"Focus," I muttered, my fingers hovering over the keys. "You're not from the last century, you can search through a computer."
It was awkward at first, I clumsily tried to figure out where the important info was saved and such, but soon enough my fingers were flying across the keyboard with practiced ease. It was just like writing one of my stories, I thought, just let yourself focus and forget everything else. I smirked, thinking about Sombra for a second. I felt much like her, a hacker of sorts, even though I wasn't really hacking anything. My eyes quickly scanned over files I revealed, then closed that tab and opened another, repeating the process over and over again. It was simple, the files all seemed to be stored here and they were organized in alphabetical order. I just had to go through them all.
Suddenly, I had an idea. I scrolled down, skipping a good chunk of the alphabet and probably a majority of the files.
Tahiti.
Taco Bell.
Talon.
Taxes.
My heart began to pick up speed. I hesitated, almost afraid of what I would see, and clicked on the Talon folder. Inside were three documents, only three.
Doomfist.
Targets.
Project Widowmaker.
Being the person I was, my first instinct was to see who are what the targets were. The important thing was making sure everyone was safe. I double-clicked the document and it opened up, just as neat and organized as everything before it.
Alessandro Rivero. Priority Beta. Capture.
Soldier 76. Priority Alpha. Kill.
Ana Amari. Priority Alpha. Kill.
Volskaya. Priority Charlie. Kill.
The names went on and on. I recognized the names of my friends from Overwatch, but plenty of others made no sense to me. Perhaps past members? Other people from around the world? I felt my heart racing as I read over the list one more time to make sure I hadn't missed anything. So many questions suddenly burst inside of me and I wanted them all to be answered this same instant. Ana Amari was supposed to be dead already. Who was Soldier 76? Volskaya? Why the hell did they want to capture me and why was I their second most important target, seeing that Beta normally meant secondary objective?
I sighed and went back, clicking on the Doomfist file. I had heard of Doomfist. Overwatch and defeated him back in the "good old days". Winston out-punched him I think. The document loaded and I narrowed my eyes in anger at what I saw. It was a diagram of his high-security prison, with extraction and rendezvous points, plus notes on where the guards were and when they made their rounds. Talon must be planning to break him out...
Finally, I went and double clicked on the "Project Widowmaker" file. I admit this had me more curious than the rest. Would I learn a weakness? What happened to her? What would I see?
The file loaded and, much to my surprise, it was bigger than the other two combined. Lots of random scientific information I couldn't really understand, although some of it made sense such as the "heart calibration". Angela had told me once that Widowmaker's skin was blue because lack of blood flow, I could assume from this that they had messed with her heart to slow the blood. Although how she survived the process was beyond me. My eyes kept scanning, skipping the three paragraphs dedicated to what gear Widowmaker should use, and finally landing on a video. I clicked it.
"What is your name?" Reaper asked a woman in front of him. The woman was chained to a wall, her limbs spread out.
"Amelie, you little-"
Without hesitation he gripped her lower leg, stabbing his claws into the flesh and making her cry out in pain.
"What. Is. Your. Name." He repeated.
"My name is Amelie," She replied defiantly. Again, he stabbed her.
This continued for awhile until the scene chained. It was from someone's point of view, they were walking down a hall, talking about the success of something I didn't understand. Too much science. He entered a room and I gasped.
Amelie was in there, stuck in a tube twice her size, tied up and with tons of cables and tubes plugged into her, floating in the clear water. Her eyes were wide and full of fear, her mouth was covered, probably to give her oxygen, and she was completely nude. That's not what caught my eyes though, what caught my eyes attention were the dozens upon dozens of scars across her body, of all shapes and kinds. Yet she still wasn't Widowmaker, she was Amelie. Her hair was lighter, nearly white. She had fair skin and golden eyes. Beautiful, but not in a deadly way.
"How are we doing today, Widowmaker?" The man of the camera asked, then continued without waiting for an answer. "Today is a big day, y'know? You'll be completed. Soon we'll send you home to your husband."
At this, Amelie began thrashing wildly. I heard muffled cursing and screaming, judging from the thick rubber that latched her breathing device to her mouth she must have tried to drown herself before.
"Give it a rest, will you? You should have known since you got your scars that this was going to happen, you weren't getting out of here in one piece."
There was a pleasant ding and suddenly the water turned a light shade of red. Amelie's expression turned into one of pure terror and pain, something I had never seen or even felt before, she began thrashing wildly and her skin began morphing between my eyes, changing-
Beep. Beep. Beep.
The video suddenly closed. My jaw dropped in surprise and I grabbed the sides of the monitor, wondering what had happened. Then there was another pleasant ding and a new file appeared on the screen, all by itself.
Hola, amigo. ;)
"This is not going to be good..." I muttered. I double clicked this file, noticing the others had disappeared.
Look behind.
I sighed, slowly raising my hands and turning around.
"What's up Som-"
Symmetra was standing there, looking extremely surprised.
"-bra...?" I raised an eyebrow, confused. "What are you doing here? Shit, are you with them?!"
I didn't wait for an answer, stumbling down between the processing towers, leaning against them lest I collapse once more. Symmetra followed me, blocking the only exit.
"I don't know what you mean by them," Symmetra said, her face stone cold serious. "But you've betrayed our trust here at Vishkar, please, come with me."
"I betrayed you!" I yelled, putting a hand to my chest and huffing with fake surprise. "You burned me alive!"
"I was informed that was not Vishkar's doing, someone has infiltrated our systems. I came here, assuming the perpetrator was gathering information. Yet here I find you."
"Wait wait hold up." I just now take notice of the odd weapon in her hand, backing up another step. "Infiltrated how? Digitally? Say...a hacker?"
"...Yes, how did you know?" She questioned.
"Talon, the terrorist organization, is working with Vishkar. They had several files on these servers which Talon's hacker, Sombra, deleted while I was going through them. Look at the screen, she even left me a message."
Symmetra seemed hesitant to even take her eyes off of me, but I lifted one hand (I still needed the other one to keep myself up) and gave her a pleading stare. She finally took a step back to the machine and scrutinized the screen.
"Why do you lie when nothing can come from it?" She finally said, sounding confused. "What was the point?"
"What do you mean lie? It's right there!"
"The screen is empty."
I couldn't help myself. I stumbled forward and grabbed onto the chair (startled Symmetra at the sudden movement and probably almost getting myself shot) and looked at the screen. Sure enough, it was blank. Sombra must have deleted the little message she left me.
"I swear to every god that I never believed in there was a message, Sombra hacked the system, she deleted her message just like the other files." I turned to Symmetra, defiant. "You have to believe me. She's in it with Vishkar, Talon is with Vishkar."
"You cannot prove this," She countered, although she sounded hesitant for some reason. "Please, come with me peacefully. I'll have you locked in your room until we decide what all this is."
"It is what it looks like, I was snooping," I admitted, raising my one hand again in a peaceful gesture. "Snooping because I knew something was wrong here, and I was right. Talon is with Vishkar. They had me on a list of targets, it- it said capture! Obviously, you're not part of this, you gotta believe me."
"Why are you telling me all this? Say I do believe you, what do you gain from this?" She demanded, stepping closer to me, her eyes suddenly fierce. "You come and everything goes out of order, everything becomes so confusing, my work was meant for harmony."
"This confusion started with me burning, and who did that?" I countered.
"The hacker-"
"Who is working with Vishkar," I ended. "As for what I gain, well that's simple. I gain you. Satya, Overwatch wants to recruit you. That's why I came here, I never had the intention to work for Vishkar at all. I just wanted to see if I could talk you into coming with us."
"I will not trust the word of a stranger and criminal who was just caught illegally going through Vishkar's sensitive files-"
"You work for a criminal organization!" I yelled back, definitely angry now. "Don't act like Vishkar hasn't done a lot of shady shit! I don't know much about you, Satya, and to be completely honest I wanted to slap that condescending look off your face a couple times-"
"Why are you telling me that?"
"-but if Overwatch deems its time and agents necessary to recruit you then...then you must not be a bad person. I trust you to make the right decision, so think about everything this company has done and make the right decision."
"Very well," She answered, holstering the weapon. "Come with me so I may escort you to your room. Show me how much trust you have in your colleagues and me."
Oh, that made my blood boil. She was still going to do what she was told...but I made no sarcastic or angry remarks, I didn't say a word to convince her she was wrong. There was nothing else I could do right now, so I did my best to not fall down as I walked out of the room, slowly making my way to my own quarters with Satya always nearby.