A/N
Hey everybody, how's it going? Thank you so much for being here and more importantly, thank you for the support. I wasn't sure if the last chapter went up properly but I'm glad to see it did. I will warn you that this is going to be a fairly long chapter but besides that I have no idea what else to put here so we're going straight to the disclaimer.
Disclaimer: Overwatch belongs to Blizzard Entertainment and it's respective developers. All I own is the plot of the story and some of the characters.
Now onto the story.
Alaska, United States, two days later
Ghost sat quietly in the cargo hold of the plane, listening to the hum of the engines through the hull. It had a day since he left the watchpoint, having taken awhile to cross the Atlantic before stopping in New York to refuel then stopping in Indiana for a drop off and a pick up of supplies. While Ghost would have preferred to have the job done as quick as possible, it all revolved around the pilot's schedule and the stop allowed him to head back to The Farm and grab some equipment he might need.
"We'll be over the drop zone in three minutes." Flyboy called out. Ghost looked over and saw the pilot. The dark haired man had been a pilot during the Omnic Crisis, providing close air support for troops on the ground. Now he was a cargo pilot, occasionally flying anyone who had enough money to pay or he owed favors to, such as Ghost. "Grab your gear and prep your bike for the drop." Of course, he always preferred to toss his passengers out the back of his plane before they could land. Ghost nodded to the man and made sure his bike and other supplies were safely secured to the hover platform they were on. Stepping onto the platform, he gave the man a thumbs up to signal he was ready and braced himself as the door opened. "Alright, remember to be at the Anchorage in two days if you want a ride out of here. If you aren't there when I get the go ahead, I leave without you. Good luck out there, kid." With that, the platform was moved out of the ship and into the open air, it's engines slowing it's decent to keep it from impacting the ground and exploding.
The decent to the ground was a quick one but felt like an eternity for Ghost, who was waiting for something to go wrong that would lead to his death. Alas, nothing went wrong and the young soldier reached the ground in one piece. Quickly removing his bike and other gear from the platform, Ghost made sure he had everything before hoping on his bike and taking off, leaving the platform alone in the clearing it had landed in before the engines gave out causing the platform to crash into the ground and turn into a fireball.
The trip took a several hours but by the time the sky had begun to darkened, Ghost had finally done it. He found his way back home. Getting off his bike, Ghost hesitantly took his first steps toward the remains of the house. Removing his mask, he looked around at the surrounding area and the sighed. All around him were pieces of the house as well as other reminders of that fateful night, all slightly grown over as nature began to reclaim the area in the year since the last human being stepped foot on the property. The Talon trucks still laid parked outside, rendered inoperable after the explosion. Remnants of the house scattered across the area. The ruined husks of his father's truck and mother's motorcycle. All of it just laid scattered about. Closing his eyes for a few seconds before reopening them, the house, in all it's former glory, stood proudly before him with a him and his father standing out front, training while his mother watched on from the sideline, laughing as she watched the training quickly turning into messing around before it scene reverted back to it's current state with a blink. Walking through what remained of the front door, James made his way through his former home, stopping in almost every room his mind replacing them with images what they use to be until the image was blown away like sand on the wind and all while grimacing at the occasional crunching and snapping of weathered down bones breaking under his boot or the kicking of ruined armor pieces left over from the squad of dead Talon operatives that were left here to rot after the explosion.
Finally, after a few minutes of slowly walking through his old home, he reached his father's bedroom, the room where he began his journey in becoming the person he is today, a ghost and a vigilante. He remembered the night of the attack was the first time he had ever killed someone, the first of what would become a long list nameless faces of people he's killed, all in the short span of a year. He tried making it easier on his conscious at first by telling himself that it was all in the name of protecting new family or avenging his old one but he knew that wasn't always the case and stopped lying to himself after a month. He's killed for numerous reasons, many of which were nowhere near as noble as protecting the innocent or his new family. While he didn't like to keep count or even the idea of it, he knew the exact number of people killed, a number that he knew was over 76's and Ana at this point. Contrary to popular belief, Soldier: 76 and Ana rarely left a body count when they went about their missions, almost always going with the non-lethal route if they could help it. It scared him a little over how many people he's killed and how it's become little more than an afterthought and a number to him.
"Guess all that Blackwatch training you gave me really payed off, huh, dad?" He said to the night sky with a cold laugh. Standing in the bedroom, he looked around and saw the spot he last saw his father, the part of the wall he was leaning against still standing with his long dried blood staining the ruined wall. Walking over, he sat on the floor and pressed his back against the wall next to where his father died, where he sat in silence. He wanted to say something to his father in the off chance that his spirit might be listening. There was so much he wanted to tell him. Of the adventures he had been on, the people he's helped, the lives he's saved, his newfound relationship with Lena, everything that's happened to him since he left home but he couldn't. He just didn't know where to start and every time he tried to speak, the words would get caught in his throat. Eventually, he just gave up trying and pulled his legs up to his chest with a heavy sigh, leaning his forehead against his knees until he leaned back a bit to retrieve something from his armor. Reaching into his armor, he quickly found the small compartment that held the old family photo. Holding the photo his hand in front of him and staring at it, he let his mind wander back to happier times.
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Necropolis, Egypt
All was quiet at the abandoned excavation site as Soldier: 76 and Ana both stood on the top of the roofs of structure Ana has been residing in. The old soldiers used the abandoned site as a hideout before as it served as once Ana's temporary base of operations before she joined up with 76 at the Hakim's stronghold. Now it served as a safe haven for them. A place to catch their breath and regroup after missions in Giza.
"Adjust the scope half an inch to the left." Ana instructed, looking at the live feed from the telescope on the computer next to it. Soldier complied, shifting the telescope slightly. "Perfect. Now we have a clear of the Temple of Anubis." Ana looked up from the computer and looked at the city in the distance, glaring at the pyramid housing the Anubis AI. Her daughter had been there. Fighting for her life to contain the rouge program, lost most of her unit in the process, and nearly lost her life as well when she was overwhelmed by the sentry bots under Anubis's control. The old sniper grimaced at the image of the structure.
"Everything okay, Ana?" Soldier: 76 asked.
"Anubis. I'm worried he'll break containment again."
"And that Fareeha will be sent in again and this time she won't be so lucky." Soldier said, knowing where her train of thought was going. He had read the mission report. For Anubis to come so close to breaking through Helix's firewalls...he didn't want to think of what kind of destruction that would have followed. He knew Ana didn't want Fareeha to follow in her footsteps and tried to dissuade her from this lifestyle but in the end, she still joined the Egyptian military and eventually Helix. The two stayed silent from there. After they finished adjusting the scope, they retreated back into the structure. Ana quickly put some water in the kettle and turned on the fire to let it boil before moving to create more darts and grenades while 76 added to the list on the computer of where Reaper has been sighted.
About ten minutes later, 76 heard his comms go off and answered the call, his visor letting him know that it was Winston calling."
"Soldier: 76 here." He answered.
"Soldier: 76, is Ghost there with you?"
"No, he's out on his own for personal matters and for a mission. Why?"
"'I've been trying to get into contact with him but he hasn't been responding."
"Well we haven't heard from him since yesterday so you're out of luck on this end. Why do you need to get into contact with him?"
"Just needed to go over some things in his report from Ilios, that's all."
"Alright, if we hear from him, I'll let him know." 76 said.
"That would be greatly appreciated." With that, the radio clicked as the call ended. 76 just sighed and took off his mask, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Who was that?" Ana asked from her as she dipped the tea bag in the water.
"Winston. He wanted to know if James was with us. He wasn't picking up his radio, not surprising since considering where he is."
"But they don't know that." Ana reminded him. "Why did they need him?"
"Something about his mission report from Ilios." 76 just shrugged. "I'll contact him and let him know." Ana didn't respond and just went back to making her tea. Switching channels to the one that only the three of them used, he waited for a few moments until a click was heard and James's voice came over the radio.
"Hey, Commander." James said, although there was distinct lack of emotion in his voice.
"James, how are you holding up?"
"I'll live. It's just hard coming back here after all that's happened. I guess this is how you felt coming back to Overwatch?"
"Something like that." 76 said. "I got a call from Winston saying he's been try to contact to you but you weren't responding."
"Yeah, I noticed I was getting incoming calls but ignored them since, well, I kinda felt this deserved my full attention. Did he mention what he wanted?"
"Something about your mission report from Ilios."
"Oh, that's not important in the slightest. I'll contact him after I'm done with Talon."
"Alright. Let me know how your mission goes when you're done."
"Got it. If you don't hear from me within the next few days, I'm probably dead or worse."
"Just stay safe out there. The last thing I need is your parents haunting me for the rest of my life because something happened to you." That got a laugh out the young soldier.
"Copy that, Commander. Good luck in Giza and tell Ana I said hi." With that, the radio shut off and 76 just sighed. Ana just let out an amused chuckle, having listened to the conversation, and handed a cup of tea to her former commander.
"He'll be fine, Jack. James knows how to handle himself."
"I know, Ana, but that's not what I'm worried about. He's driven by revenge and anger, even if he doesn't show it anymore. I'm worried he'll end up like me or Reyes if he keeps this up."
"I'm sure James will do what's right. We can only help whenever we can and if we can't do anything to help him, I'm sure Lena will keeps him on the right track." Ana said. "Now we better get ready for own mission." 76 nodded and reequipped his mask before heading out to the grab the rest of his gear.
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Alaska, United States
Ghost shut off his radio before he laid the last stone on his father's unofficial grave. Standing up, he look at his handy work, a pile of stones and a makeshift wooden cross made of sticks and twine to serve as a grave marker. Ghost let out a heavy sigh as he looked up to the now fully darken sky. He said one last farewell as he walked back to his motorcycle. Giving the destroyed home one last look, the young soldier revved up his motorcycle and sped away to his objective.
According the information he had, the facility itself wasn't too far. It would take him less than an hour to get there at his current speed but he was fine with that since it would give him time to formulate a general idea of what he wanted to do and the intel he was given beforehand. First thing he wanted to do was make Talon pay. The building was a research facility, a single surface buildings with multiple sub-levels underneath. The building itself belonged to a private medical research company that Talon used as a front to do their research without drawing too much attention to themselves and kept the building off the grid by using their own generators or reactors as well as had a communication jammer that was shut off only twice a day to minimize leaks, meaning whatever was going on in there, Talon wanted to keep it a secret. So if he really wanted to hurt Talon, this infiltration mission would be one of the best ways to do so.
Now, all he needed was a plan. Maybe he could destroy the jammer and leak all their data and research, see how long it takes Helix and the UN to pick up on the information and crack down the terrorist organization or he could just kill everyone inside, guards and researchers alike, and put an end to all their experiments or he could overload the generators or reactors, give Talon a taste of what happened to Strike-Commander Morrison and every other Overwatch agent that was force to go through the hell that was the destruction of the Swiss HQ or his father on the night he died. A sinister grin formed on his face as he thought over his options, however, it soon left him as his radio beeped again. He was about to ignore it when he noticed who was hailing him. How was it that whenever he start drifting back toward who he use to be, she would somehow be there to bring him back, even if it wasn't intentional? Clicking his radio, he responded.
"Hey, Lena." He said, a subtle smile appearing under his mask.
"James! Is everything alright? Winston said you haven't been answering his calls." Tracer's worried voice came over the radio.
"Sorry about that. Just need to be left alone for a bit." His voice had a subtle hint of sadness in his voice that Lena picked up on.
"Are you okay? You don't sound too good."
"Yeah, I'm fine. I just finished seeing my dad. He's...doing well, so to speak." She could almost imagine the sad smile on his face.
"Oh James." Lena said with a bit of sadness, knowing fully what he actually meant. She remembered him telling her that his parents had died prior to them meeting.
"I'll be okay." Ghost said but she wasn't sure how much she believed that. "How are things over there?" He asked, hoping to change topics.
"It's been quiet for the most part. Two of your teammates got into a fight."
"Let me guess, Adam and Garret?"
"I think so." She said causing Ghost to sigh.
"Should have expected that. The two didn't seem to get along initially and what happened in Ilios and the meeting afterward didn't help Adam's opinion of Garret." Ghost said. "I'll deal with them later. Do you know what happened?"
"Nope. All I know is one of them had to be sent to Doctor Ziegler afterwards. I believe it was Garret if I heard correctly."
"Alright, thanks, Lena. Remind me to give Adam a high five and ten bucks when I get back." Ghost said.
"James!" Lena gasped.
"I'm joking." He chuckled. "I sent myself a reminder."
"That's not funny. He could actually be hurt." She said but couldn't help but giggle a little along at his joking attitude toward it. Upon hearing her laugh, a genuine smile came across his face
"I doubt it. Adam knows better than to actually hurt him but I'll talk to them when I get back." Ghost said. Lena seem to have accepted that.
"Oh, I just remembered. Doctor Ziegler isn't happy with you."
"Really? What for?" Ghost asked before thinking about it. "I guess she did tell me not to take any missions because of my shoulder."
"She said she wanted to have a word with you and 76 when you both get back."
"Sounds like we're in trouble. Well, no use worrying about it now, I guess." Ghost said as he brought his vehicle off the road and slowed it to a halt. "Alright Lena, I'm going to have to call you back later. I got people to kill, a building to blow up, and a terrorist organization to piss off."
"So soon?" She asked with a giggle.
"I wasn't exactly following the speed limit." Ghost said jokingly. "But in all seriousness, I'm about to go dark. Intel says Talon has a jammer set up and I'm about to be in range."
"Alright. Stay safe, love. Call me when your done?" She asked.
"Of course." Ghost said with a smile. "I'll see you when I get back."
"See you when you get back." With that, the call ended and Ghost sighed as he turned off his radio.
Getting off of his bike and hiding it, Ghost made the rest of the journey on foot, wanting to minimize the chance of anything giving him away, utilizing the low light mood on his visor. It took him a bit longer than he would have liked as he had to move slowly to avoid showing up on motion sensors and avoid the occasional hunting camera but he made it none the less. Climbing up a tree and removing his mask so the blue glow didn't give him away, he looked at the facility through a pair of binoculars, hoping to scope out his 'opposition'. From what he could see, everything looked relatively standard, with the exception of the guards and the occasional patrol being a bit too heavily armed with military-grade gear. Ghost was starting to worry that the intel he got from his informant was bad when something caught his eye. On top of the building, he could see a few lookout armed with sniper rifles along with the the communications array and jammer. Zooming in on them, he could see that they wore Talon armor with the exception of the helmet, which was replaced with caps and sunglasses. No idea why they would need those in the middle of night but hey, who was he to judge. While it wasn't enough to confirm if the intel was good or not, it was reason enough for him to at least looking into things further because honestly, he's done more with less to go off of.
"Let's get to work." Ghost muttered to himself. Climbing down, Ghost reequipped his mask with the visor off and got as close as he could without being seen before finally activating his cloak. Slipping past the guards outside with ease, Ghost made his way into the building as someone walked out. Looking around, the only other person around was a security officer that sat lazily at his desk, flipping through magazine. If this guy and the guards outside were anything to go by, he could tell they weren't expecting anything to happen at this facility due to how lax the security was and how they lazily went about their jobs. He almost felt bad for them if his intel was right and this turned out to be a Talon facility. They were in for a rude awaking. Heading deeper into the building, Ghost explore the building, looking for anything that might would confirm if this was a Talon facility or not, only taking breaks to let his cloak recharge in isolated areas out of sight of cameras and the occasional patrolling guards. Despite having killed so many, he, like Soldier: 76 and Ana, was strictly against civilian causalities and would rather face more danger themselves than risk innocent lives. He may have been Blackwatch but he was still raised with Overwatch's ideals and morals. It's why he didn't just kill everyone on the way in. Exploring further, he was once again starting to worry about the validity of his intel and his informant when he heard some kind commotion coming from a few nearby. Rushing forward, he soon came across the evidence he needed. The cause of the commotion was a group of Talon soldiers arguing. On one side was a group of five Talon soldier, all unarmed and unarmored. The other side was a lone Talon soldier, fully armed and armored, and pointing an assault rifle at the others.
"You can't expect us to stay here. You saw what they're doing down there. What they did to those people." The Talon soldier in the front of the unarmed group said. "Most of us ended up with Talon because we wanted to put the bots back in their place. We don't want any part of an organization that does human experimentation."
"You're joking, right? How do you think humanity survived the Crisis. Countries experimented on humans to produce super soldiers to fight the Omnics." The armed man shouted. "If you really wanted to put the bots back in their place then you would understand why Talon does this. No one else has the balls to do what's necessary. They would much rather pretend that the war is over and go back to talking with the Omnics. Only Talon can save humanity before it brings itself to ruin." The two seemed to stare off with each other before the unarmed man spoke up again.
"Get out of our way. We're leaving." He growled.
"Not happening. When you signed on, you signed on for life. Talon doesn't let people walk. They pose major security risks for this organization and we can't have you leaking any information you know." The man said tightening his grip on his rifle and slipped his finger into the trigger well. "I wouldn't let that happen. I'll kill you all here before any of you have the chance." The two entered another stare down. Just as the armed man was getting ready to tighten his finger around the trigger, he was kicked from behind, sending him stumbling forward. Quickly turning around to see who kicked him, he was met with the sight of nothing. In that split second of confusion where he lowered his rifle a bit, Ghost flickered back into existence inches away from the man and plunged his knife directly into the man's face, the body stiffening as the knife penetrated through his head. The other group of Talon soldiers immediately took a step back. They knew full well who the man before them was and what he was capable of and they had all the reason to be cautious.
"You chose a hell of time to develop a conscience." Ghost said as he looked at the other group and removed his knife from the man's face, causing the body to crumble to the ground, and approached the group, who instinctively took a step back.
"Nice to see you're as violent as always. Thanks for the assist." The man in the front said, recovering from witnessing the sudden murder. He reached into a small pouch, which Ghost on edge thinking he was draw a weapon but instantly relaxed as he saw the object he took out. In his hand was a playing card, an ace of clubs with the image of a man with line going down him vertically. On one side, the man was dressed in a Overwatch uniform while the other side was the man in full Talon gear but as the angle from which he viewed the card changed, the image of the man changed as well to show him in different uniforms and outfits, each side never showing the same thing. "What took you so long?"
"Not my fault that I had to avoid security cameras and guards while trying to make sure this was actually a Talon facility." Ghost said, relaxing a bit. "Defectors?" Ghost pointed to the other Talon soldiers in the room who were awkwardly watching the exchange.
"Yeah, something like that." The informant said, looking back at the group. "They saw what Talon was doing to other humans, some of which were other member of Talon, and wanted out. Thought I'd lend them a hand. There's a few more scatter about the place so I'll let them know when and where to regroup with us. Most agreed to help us burn Talon, just don't expect them to act like Overwatch when they do."
"That's fine by me. Just remember that they're your responsibility for the time being." Ghost said taking his rifle off his back. "Anything I need to know?"
"Yeah, you can stop worrying about cameras. I disabled the security systems and the I messed around with the radios here on the upper floors so whenever you're ready to go loud, feel free. Also take this keycard, it should get you to the sub-levels of the facility." The informant said handing Ghost a keycard. In truth, he had just walked into the security room with an suppressed weapon he took off a guard he killed earlier and unloaded it into anything and everything in the room. People, monitors, machinery, all shot up before he tossed the empty weapon to the side and walked out. On a side note, he regretted throwing that weapon away. Would have been useful right about now.
"Thanks. Are you guys armed?"
"No but if you're willing to help us, we can raid the armory before we leave."
"Let's get a move on then. Lead the way." Ghost moved out of the way and the Talon soldiers go first. Following the squad of rogue soldiers, they reached the small armory meant for the security force here on upper portion of the base. Cloaking, Ghost made his way to the guards standing watch in the security checkpoint. The first one went down without a sound as Ghost snapped his neck before moving on to the second one and plunged the knife into the side of the man's throat and pushed the body out of the way. With the two guards dead, the informant quickly went to work and the opened up the armory. With the armory open, the rest of the defectors started getting all the gear they could while the informant contacted the rest of the of defectors. Heading inside, Ghost restocked on grenades as he didn't bring any and other explosive he could he use as well as spare ammo.
By the time everyone had finished showing up and gearing up, the small group of six had turned to a group of fifteen, with a handful of non-combatants personnel coming along as well. With everyone ready, Ghost nodded to his informant and the group did their best to not look conspicuous while heading toward the roof. Anyone guard who did try to stop them for anyone reason was swiftly dealt with by Ghost. Finally, ten minutes and a trail of dead bodies later, the group was on by the rooftop exit due to the a singular dropship that waited on the roof after dropping off the latest test subject for the scientist to experiment on. Opening the doors, the informant walked out and talked to the lookouts to try to get them away from the ledge while Ghost slipped out with him. Taking out the ones that didn't interact with the informant, Ghost doubled back to hear the muffled sounds of a suppressed sidearm being fire. When he got back, he saw both of the lookouts that had gone to talk to the informant both laid dead, one with a knife in his throat and the other with several bullet holes in their stomach from a pistol fired so close they had powder burns on them. Looking at the informant, he just struggled and holstered the sidearm. Signalling the others, Ghost and the informant watched as the rest of rogue soldiers secured the dropship and started loading everyone up before some of the soldier started heading back down to gather and load up supplies.
"Ghost, hold up." Ghost stopped and looked back at the informant as he grabbed a sniper rifle and a pair of shades and tossed it to him. "Pretend to be one of the guards." He said as he donned a cap and sunglasses to cover his blonde hair and blueish-grey eyes after removing his helmet. Ghost did the same to cover his black hair and brown eyes and they stood there pretending to be look out for any trouble. "So what's the story with you and 76 being a part of Overwatch?" He asked, standing near Ghost.
"Official reason, we ran into them in Ilios and we agreed to work together to shut down Talon in the area then we bailed before they could apprehend us." Ghost explained. The informant knew what that really meant. It was information he was going to spread around, posing as one of the surviving civilians from Ilios, saying that he saw the vigilante group investigating the town before Overwatch's arrival, and then also have Talon come across the information in hopes of throwing their intelligence gathering branch into disarray for a bit to buy 76 and Ghost some more time while Talon wasted time trying to figure out what was true or not.
"And the unofficial reason?" Ghost said nothing for a moment before giving his answer.
"Strength in numbers." He said simply. The informant knew there was something Ghost wasn't telling him, which isn't anything new but as a spy, he still didn't like having information withheld from him. However, he knew there was no way he would get him to talk at the moment and he didn't have the time to get him to slip up and reveal more information so he was just going to have to accept it for now.
"Alright, just stay on alert while working with them. They aren't exactly very welcoming when it comes to people like us."
"Oh believe me, I know."
"I'm serious, Jay. I can understand you running around with 76 and helping in his crusade but Overwatch...just be careful. I don't wanted see you thrown in jail or dead because you decided to trust them."
"I'll be fine, Mac. Just worry about yourself and not getting caught by Talon." Ghost said.
"Jay, we're Blackwatch. These guys have nothing on us." 'Mac' said with a cocky grin. The conversation stopped there and the two stood there continued to 'stand guard'. After a couple of minutes, they rotated with two other defectors who were doing the same thing as them. As they did so, Ghost quickly flip his hood back up and put his mask on. Walking back to the dropship, one of the non-combatants walked up to the pair.
"E-excuse me, you're the one called 'Ghost' right?"
"Yeah, what do you want?" Ghost said, going back to his cold demeanor.
"I'm, was, a doctor here. I was wondering if I can ask a favor of you on behalf of all of us?" The doctor asked.
"Depends on the favor."
"There are 127 souls in this facility, not including us. Like us, however, none of them are innocent." The doctor said. "I ask you that you kill them all." The request surprised them both.
"Whatever happened to 'do no harm', doc?" 'Mac' asked jokingly.
"Our hands may never be clean again but unlike our colleagues in still in the sub-levels, we did not relish in the pain brought to our patients. At least I tried to ease the pain the subjects felt when the experiments inevitably failed." The doctor defender himself. "I ask that you kill them so that none of those monsters can continue their work elsewhere. You can kill me as well for my roll in all this but please don't let them live either."
"No." Ghost said simply. "I already planned on killing the others but you're going to tell me everything Talon was doing here then you're going spend the rest of your life atoning for what you've done. Am I understood?"
"Yes, thank you." The doctor thank him and walked back to the dropship to sit with the others.
"Ever the hero, aren't you, Jay?" 'Mac' said with a hidden smile. "Guess you running around with Overwatch isn't all bad if you're like this. Any idea how you're going to accomplish that task?" Ghost thought about it for a moment, thinking back to his list of ideas from earlier.
"Does place have a reactor or power generator?"
"Yeah, bottom floor, sub-level 3." 'Mac' said questioningly until realization dawned on him. "You're going to blow this whole place up."
"And everyone in it." Ghost said with no emotion.
"Are you sure about this?"
"I've killed almost 200 people already. What's another 127 souls to my conscience?" Ghost said, his head looking down. He really didn't need to the exact number. 'Mac' sighed. Sooner or later, Ghost was going to snap. He may not show it but all the fighting and killing was starting to get to him.
"Shit, Jay. I know we're Blackwatch but I think you're taking too a bit too much inspiration from Commander Reyes." 'Mac' said rubbing the back of his neck.
"I am well aware."
"Just don't turn into him, okay? We've seen enough heroes turn bad."
"I'll do my best. For now, get them out of here. Get those who don't want to fight anymore settled with new identities and lives."
"I know and get the rest ready for when the fighting does kick off. I've been doing this just as as long, if not longer than you have, James."
"Get out of here, Macen. We'll regroup later." Ghost said, a smirk hidden behind his mask.
"Yes sir." Macen said with a mock salute and light chuckle as he but his helmet back on before heading toward the dropship. It was easy for these old friends to fall back into old habits despite all that happened. The familiarity that came with their interaction was welcome by both of them but short lived as they knew it would be. They were at war and they no longer had the luxury for some comforts, even if it was a war they waged in secret. With the defectors and his spy gone, Ghost headed inside. It was easy to walk in unnoticed. The guards, both Talon and otherwise, on the upper levels were all dead, many by Ghost's hand, and had been looted by the defectors as they left. Passing by the raided armory, he decided checked it one last time in the off chance something was left behind. Unsurprising, he found nothing but a few stray rounds and a suppressor with no pistol to go with. Grabbing the suppressor, he walked over to the where the guards laid dead and check them over, pleasantly surprised when he found that one of them still had their sidearm on them. Taking it, he attached the suppressor and made his way to the elevator that lead down below.
Using his keycard, Ghost went all the way down to the bottom floor. As the doors opened, he cloaked and stood there as the helmetless Talon Guard walked over to check out the seemingly unoccupied elevator. Once he was close enough, Ghost clamped his hand down tight over the man's mouth as he pressed the sidearm to the man's stomach and fired three rounds. The other guard in the room stood to check why he's partner suddenly stopped moving only to receive a bullet in the head for his troubles by the now uncloaked Ghost.
Pushing forward, Ghost made his way to the reactor room. Entering the control room, the people monitoring the equipment turned to look at the door and went wide eyed as they saw Ghost with the stolen pistol raised. Without hesitation, Ghost started firing. Some tried to run while others tried to reach for weapons of their own but none made it far before being killed. Lowering the pistol, Ghost walked up to the console and went to work. After a short while of flipping switches and pressing button that did nothing but make him feel a bit better, Ghost resigned to just shooting the console with what ammo was left in the sidearm, rewarding him with warnings flashing across the screens telling him that the coolant was being released and the failsafes were, ironically, failing. Taking a handful of explosives, Ghost wired them to the console and set a timer before rushing in and doing the same with the generator itself. With a grim expression over what he was about to do, Ghost headed back out of the room, discarding the empty pistol and taking his rifle in his hands. Running back to the elevator, Ghost was ready to head straight for the exit when something in his mind stopped him. Having a quick mental argument with himself, he cursed and pressed the button for the sub-level above him, the floor where the experiments were being held.
Arriving, the elevator doors opened and Ghost immediately sprinted out while cloaked, not bothering with the guards this time. Running through the halls, he killed anyone that got in his way as quietly as he could with his knife but never once slowing down. As imagined when leaving a trail of corpses, the alarm soon went off, alerting the rest of the facility to his presence, not that he minded seeing as they were going to die regardless. Seeing this as his reason to go loud, Ghost started running and gunning, mowing down the confused Talon guards and researchers until he finally arrived at where he wanted to be, the security room. Bursting to the room, the people in the room were scrambling around in a panic as they tried to assess the situation and find out what the problem was. Unloading the entirety of the battery in his rifle, Ghost cleared the room and rushed over to the main console.
Accessing it, he quickly plugged a flashdrive in and let the hacking program get him and start downloading as much of the Talon database as possible while he found the control for the all the rooms where the human experiments were being held and unlocked them. Once he had done that, he grabbed his flashdrive and pulling the pins on two grenades, tossing them back into the room to cause some extra chaos. The entire time he ran back to the elevator, his conscience argued with him to go back and do more for the prisoners, to make sure they were actually taking this opportunity to escape. As much as he wanted to, the logical part of his mind reminded him that he didn't have enough time to go back. This attempt put them behind schedule and they were already cutting it close. If he went back now, he wouldn't be making it out of this building alive either. With a frustrated groan, he forced himself to focus getting out alive. He's given them their chance to escape. If they didn't take it, it was on them. Reaching the elevator, he gunned down the two confused guards and the pressed the keycard on against the pad for the elevator.
"Come on. Come on." Ghost muttered to himself as the elevator took its sweet time to arrive. Once it did finally show up, Ghost rushed in and pressed the button for the ground floor. As the door was closing, he had a last minute decision and tossed the keycard out of the elevator before it closed. Maybe there was someone actually trying to escape and they could make use of it. Maybe it was an excuse to ease some of the guilt he was feeling. He didn't know but the choice had been made and he couldn't look back now.
As the elevator doors opened with a ding, Ghost ran out and made a beeline for the exit. However, since the alarm was sounded throughout the building, the guards from outside were alerted and had come back to investigate, stumbling on his handiwork. He could hear their distant shouts as they searched for survivors. Hearing them around the corner, Ghost across the hall to the corner, firing his rifle as he did so, taking down several of them while the other were forced to dive for cover. Jumping back to his feet, he continued his sprint for the door when a bullet hit him in the shoulder, causing him to stumbling. Swinging around, he gunned down the man who shot him and kept moving. As more bullets came flying at him and chipped the walls and floor around him, Ghost quickly turned the corner to arrive at the front entrance. However, he wasn't alone. In front of him were three guards. Before anyone could make a move as the entire building shook as Ghost's explosives went off, causing almost everyone to lose balance and fall as the explosions caused a chain reaction that caused the generator to go critical. Ghost, having luckily braced himself against the nearby wall, took the opportunity to run. Pushing off the wall, Ghost ran for the door and opened it, ducking under a burst from one of the guards as he slipped out and slammed the button to close it the door, dropping his last grenade on the way out. As the door closed, the grenade went off, killing everyone in the room. Turning to run, Ghost didn't get very far as the when the building exploded, the shockwave sending him flying a good distance and tumbling for several more meters.
As he laid on the ground, the HUD in his visor flickered and blurred as a warning flashed before his eyes as his vision began to fade. The last thing he saw before blacking out was a dropship landing and a Talon operative jogging over to him and dragging him away while muttering to themselves.
"What am I going to do with you, Jay?"
A/N
And that's a wrap. Thank you so much for being here and more importantly, for waiting for this chapter. I know it's been a long wait and but things have been pretty hectic for me since I'm going to college in a few weeks. Honestly, I'm still surprised I made it past the 3rd grade. On that, I also apologize for any mistakes that I might have missed because this chapter is long and I have short attention span.
So a couple of things I do want to cover. First thing, this is the first time we really see Ghost on his own and get a glimpse into what can basically be summed up as "Blackwatch Ghost" as well as some of the conflicting ideals in his head. He knows what has to be done in this fight and the necessary evils he has to commit as a member of Blackwatch but at the same time he has the Overwatch's morals and ideals. I'm really curious to know what you guys think and how I should approach this or if I should even continue doing things like this.
Second thing, don't worry Macen and the defectors. They're don't actually serve any importance as of yet. Much later on, however, they will. Just don't worry about them now.
Lastly, yes, Ghost has a small spy/information network. It kinda comes with being part of Blackwatch. Originally, it belonged to his father, who worked as 76's informant, but after his death, James took over the network, adding a few people that he trust as well. (For example, Macen and Adam before Adam was brought into Overwatch.)
But that's about it, so what did you think? Like it? Hate it? Somewhere in between? Let me know with a comment/review or shoot me a PM if you that's more your style.
Anyways, thanks again for reading and as always, have a great day.