Chapter 19:

"Throat drop?" Ana offered, handing one over.

Roadhog nodded, accepting it. "Thanks,"

He lifted his mask slightly to pop it into his mouth while looking at the two Talon agents through the two-way glass. "I've never done a questioning before. Not this kind anyway,"

Ana shrugged. "Well, I figured you would be good at it. Since you're so intimidating and all,"

Roadhog couldn't help but chuckle. "I guess you're right," he inhaled, long and loud through his mask. "All right, let's do this,"

The door opened, and both entered, seeing Reaper and Moira restrained to separate chairs. Ana stopped to stare at Reaper for a few seconds before taking a breath.

"Let's start this the easy way: just give us a list of reasons why you attacked the base today. It can be a short or long list, we've got time,"

"We're aren't telling you anything, let's be clear on that," Reaper hissed. "More Talon agents will be coming for us, and you'll all be dead,"

Roadhog took a step forward, his giant figure looming over Reaper. "Oh, really?" he clapped his meaty hand on the smaller man's shoulder, his masked eyes staring into Reaper's eyes, which were also concealed by a mask. "You might want to consider that again,"

Reaper jolted only slightly but held his ground. "Do you think I'm scared of you? I know you have Black Flu- you'll be dead within the month, asshole!"

All of the sudden, Roadhog lifted Reaper up, chair and all, preparing to smash him into the ground. Ana put out a hand to stop him before he could. "Mako! Stop it! It's not the time for that yet,"

Growling, Roadhog set Reaper down with a thud but did not injure him. Ana prodded Roadhog out of the way to stare Reaper in the eyes. "Listen here, Gabe: it's certainly bold of you to mock an enemy for having Black Flu when your sniper has the same illness,"

The room went silent. Moira's expression changed from a cold and blank one to one of distress, and she looked away quickly, muttering to herself with wide eyes.

This got Ana's attention. "Moira? Do you have something to share with us?"

Moira looked back, and she pursed her lips together in irritation. "No, Ana, dear. I do not,"

"Widowmaker has Black Flu!?" Reaper demanded to know. "Why did she tell you this and not us!?"

"Oh, she never said anything about it," Ana responded. "But the sickness progressed to the point where everyone could see it. I'm actually surprised you didn't know she had it since you all seem to spend every waking moment around each other," she paused, then inquired, "You wouldn't happen to know anything about the Black Flu spread, would you?"

Reaper suddenly leapt from his chair, the shackles still connecting him to the furniture but not stopping him. He lunged at Ana, only to be struck down instantly by Roadhog and knocked unconscious.

Ana sighed. "Thank you, Mako. Get these two into separate cells,"

Roadhog slung Reaper over his shoulder while he seized Moira by the wrists. "Should I arrange to get them to prison?"

"Not yet," Ana answered, heading for the door. "I'm going to ask Winston what his actual intentions for them are,"

Ana headed to Winston's office, where she saw him just arriving at it. "There you are, Winston! I was going to ask-"

"Hang on, Ana, I'm sorry," Mercy entered with a clipboard in her hand. "Winston, we need to talk about Widowmaker-"

"One at a time!" Winston nearly barked. He took a deep breath. "Okay. I apologize, I just had a stressful meeting with a wizard- don't ask. Anyway, please come inside,"

Winston ushered the two women inside, where he began, "Angela, please go first,"

Mercy sat down in one of the chairs, crossing a leg over her lap and laying the clipboard aside. "Winston, I did a full examination on Widowmaker or Amélie Lacroix, and I've made some discoveries. First of all, she has Black Flu,"

"How long as she had it?" Winston wanted to know.

"I'm not sure precisely how long, but it has been in her system for a while. She hasn't had it as long as Roadhog, though," Mercy responded. "I also discovered something else, something I didn't expect to find," she paused, and then checked her clipboard again before continuing. "She's also pregnant,"

Winston froze. "...What?"

Mercy sighed. "Yes, it appears she's pregnant, and rather far along, too. Although she certainly doesn't look it,"

"How do you know how far along she is?" Ana asked, perplexed.

"I did an ultrasound," Mercy explained. "I discovered the pregnancy through a urine test, and to confirm if it was accurate I did the ultrasound. She's at least six months along, but she's not in good condition, not in the slightest. If her baby is born alive, it's likely going to have developmental issues due to the restricted oxygen, and the Black Flu will possibly damage its health as well,"

Winston took all of this in, and then asked, "What was Amélie's reaction to this?"

Mercy shrugged. "No reaction when I told her. I think she knew. I asked her who the father was, and she didn't say. I chose not to pry her for more information on that,"

"What did you learn about the baby, when you did the ultrasound?" Winston wanted to know. "Does it also have Black Flu?"

"I couldn't tell," Mercy admitted. "Not from the examination I did. It's big enough to survive outside of the womb, though, and if a cure for this virus is not found in time, she would need an emergency cesarean section,"

"Before the virus shuts her body down," Ana remarked quietly. She cleared her throat, turning her attention to Winston. "Should we keep them all here?"

Winston thought for a while, his eyes fixated on the floor. "Well," he spoke after a moment. "I want to keep them here for more questioning and investigation, especially Widowmaker. If the other two continue not to cooperate, then we'll have them moved to an institution,"

Mercy and Ana exchanged glances, and then Mercy nodded. "Thank you, Winston, "

The TV played a strange, old cartoon at a low volume. Widowmaker watched it from the bed she was restrained to, although she hardly paid much attention to it. She wished the Overwatch agents would just kill her already and get it over with, her existence was already miserable at this point.

She heard the door open but didn't look to see who it was. It was probably the doctor again.

However, this thought was banished when a masculine voice cut in, "Oh, you actually are in here. Lucky guess,"

Brow furrowing a bit in slight confusion, she looked up. Oh...it's him.

Sniper approached her bed, his hands in his pockets as he leaned in to get a better look at her. "Hey, there. I just...I'm leavin' for my hotel soon. I wanted to check and see if you were doing okay,"

Widowmaker only stared at him blankly from where she was restrained. "You should have killed me,"

"Well, I didn't want to," Sniper told her simply. "I wanted to let you live. Besides, you're already sick,"

She didn't respond to that, and she just looked away, gazing at the TV again. There was a pause, and Sniper sat beside her on the edge of the bed. "Widowmaker-"

"Don't call me by that name," she hissed suddenly. She turned to look back at him. "You...I want you to call me Amélie,"

"Amélie," Sniper repeated, and he smiled. "That's a lovely name,"

"Thank you," she murmured in response.

The door opened suddenly, and Demo stuck his head in. "There you are! I wondered where you'd gotten off ta. We're leavin' in a hot second, we just dropped Heavy back off,"

"Ah, yeah, 'course. I'm comin'," he turned and waved awkwardly at Amélie. "Goodbye. I'll see you later, okay?"

She only nodded at him, looking away as he left the room.

Demo didn't ask questions about what he'd seen until everyone was back in the van on the way to the hotel, and it was then that he announced, "You lads should know that our brilliant little Aussie bagged himself a French blue woman!"

Sniper whirled around in his seat, swatting at Demo with his hat. "You cheeky little-!"

"Ew, her!?" Scout made a sound of disgust. "No offence, Snipes- I mean, she's hot and all, but she looks creepy as Hell! With those yellow eyes? No thank you!"

"Oh, and like the bird you're after is any better lookin'," Sniper scoffed.

"Hey, hey!" Karen interjected. "Don't talk about women's appearances like that, okay?"

"Right, sorry," Sniper corrected himself, apologetic. "By the way, Scout, did you ask that girl out yet?"

Scout shook his head. "Nah. Well, I tried to, but she wouldn't give me a straight answer. I might try again soon,"

"Which girl is that?" Spy asked from the back seat. "Tracer?"

"You bet!" Scout remarked. "She's really cute, and she saved my life!"

Spy went silent for a few seconds. "I don't know, Scout," he spoke up finally. "When I saw her today, she seemed...oh, how do I say it?"

Scout turned to look at him from his own seat, glaring daggers at his father. "She seemed what?"

"She seemed gay to me," Spy affirmed finally. "I think she's a lesbian,"

Scout immediately scoffed at the notion. "Hell no! There's no way, I mean..." he trailed off, pausing. "I mean...how can you tell?"

Spy shrugged. "Everything. Her demeanour, her appearance, her behaviour: everything,"

Karen turned in her seat to look at Spy, a rather annoyed expression on her face. "Seriously, Spy? Are you really doing this?"

"Doing what?"

"You're doing the whole 'gay-dar' thing, and I don't appreciate it!" Karen chided. "I mean, you can't tell stuff like that based off of how someone looks!"

Spy raised an eyebrow. "Oh, so you think she's straight?"

"I don't know, okay?" Karen rolled her eyes, turning to look at her phone. "I mean, none of you knew I was gay for years, so-"

"Hold up," Scout cut in. "You're...you're gay?"

The entire car was silent now. Karen took a deep breath. "Um...yeah. I'm a lesbian,"

"I thought you were American!" Soldier piped up.

"Well, ya know what, Karen?" Engineer commented from the driver's seat. "I'm glad we were all born again into a world that's a little more accepting than the last,"

"It's really just the same world as before," Sniper commented, staring out the window. "Things have just changed a bit, "

Upon returning back to the hotel, Karen got back to her job effortlessly. She went to vacuum a few rooms, and then wipe down some bathrooms. Yet as she was leaving one of the rooms, someone grabbed her and pulled her aside.

Karen yelped in surprise. "What the-!?"

"Shh!" a finger pressed against her lips, silencing her. It was Sombra.

Sombra turned Karen around to look her in the eyes, an expression of concern written across her features. "You need to get out of here, now," she whispered. "You gotta leave, quick!"

Karen squirmed to get away. "What-what are you talking about?"

"I'm telling you this because you're the only bitch here I respect," Sombra hissed. "So listen to me and get out while you can!"

And just like that, Sombra vanished.

Feeling panicked, Karen left her cart behind and started jogging briskly down the hallway, speaking into the device on her utility belt. "Hey, I need some help. Did anyone notice-"

Suddenly, a noise which sounded like a firework going off came from further down the hallway, and Karen lost her footing from the impact and tumbled onto the carpet. Grunting, she pushed herself up, looking over her shoulder to see that the broom closet had apparently exploded.

Numbly, she approached the scene, mouth opened wide as she stared at the destroyed closet. Concerned residents slowly began to filter out of their rooms, murmuring in confusion as they took in the destruction before them.

The presence of the customers seemed to snap Karen out of the trance, and she pressed the button on her belt again. "David!? Engie! We have a problem!"

He responded, "What's goin' on?"

"You aren't gonna believe this, but-"

Another explosion went off, this one coming from a floor below, but much louder and more forceful this time. Screams began ringing through the halls, and Karen tried to compose herself again.

"No one panic!" she ran for the fire alarm, pulling it and shouting, "Everyone, out! Quickly!"

"Karen, what's goin' on up there!?" Engineer yelled through the device. "Why did you pull the fire alarm!?"

"Everyone has to evacuate!" Karen yelled back. "There have been at least 2 explosions! I think someone planted bombs in the building!"

Karen helped usher customers down the stairs, and then began to make her way down the stairs herself, when she heard a ticking sound. She froze, and then knelt down, and her gut twisted when she realized what the sound was.

"Everyone, run!" She screamed, jolting up and trying to get everyone down to the next floor. "Quickly! There's-"

At the bottom of the stairwell on the floor below, Scout, Spy, Sniper and Demo were just evacuating when the second explosion went off behind them. Demo turned to look instantly, and the severed hand of a man flew towards him and struck him in the side.

"Oh, Lord!" he exclaimed, and the screams got louder from the stairs just above.

Karen came tumbling down, toppling onto the carpet, and Scout rushed to her aid. "Shit! What the hell's goin' on!?"

Karen coughed, struggling to her feet. "Help everyone off! Make sure someone gets here!" she looked behind again, and she covered her mouth at the sight of the destruction and scattered remains. "Oh, my God!"

At this moment, Soldier came rushing in, exclaiming, "I'm here!"

Sniper was up instantly, trying to get him out. "No! It's too dangerous-"

Soldier grabbed his collar, growling at him, "Don't tell me what's dangerous!" and then disappeared into the flock of people.

"Soldier!" Scout tried to look for him, but Spy pulled him back.

"We need to leave! Come on!"

Eventually, just about everyone was outside, but a handful of people were still unaccounted for, including Soldier. Engineer was outside with everyone now, and he was frantically trying to figure out how this had happened.

"Did you see anybody near the stairs or utility closets before this!?" he was shouting at various bewildered employees. "Anybody at all!?"

No one was giving clear answers, everyone was still stressed and terrified. It was then that the fourth, and final explosion went off, this one bigger than the others.

Debris went flying, along with ash and dust, and the hotel's sprinkler system turned on in response. The people outside could hear the water rushing from the shattered windows, and everything else was silent.

"Soldier!?" Scout leapt up, running towards the building. "Soldier!"

Engineer chased after him. "Scout! Get back here!"

Scout looked in through the windows but saw no one, and he began panicking. "Oh, my God, oh my God! He got blown up!"

This, however, was not the case, as one of the front doors to the hotel swung wide open.

Soldier came limping out, announcing, "Congratulations, maggots! I have been informed that what just happened was the last explosion. We..." he trailed off, his eyes rolled back, and he collapsed.

The others swarmed him, and Demo checked his pulse. "Ah, he's all right," he confirmed. "He just fainted, there,"

Someone else emerged from the wreckage, and Karen was the one to look up from where she was crouched. Her eyes got wide when she saw who was coming.

"It's..." she stood up, and she got Engineer's attention by shaking his shoulder. "Look! Look who it is!"

The woman, who carried a large gun at her side, dropped the weapon on the ground and ran to Soldier, where she knelt beside him and touched his face. She then looked up at the others, who all looked stunned to see her.

She scanned their faces for a moment, and then asked, "Where is my brother!? Is he with you!?"