Chapter 25: Just a Mad Dog
Efi's POV
Scott stood there with a twisted grin plastered on his face as the blood continued to drip down the few brick walls remaining after the blast. I stared at him for a moment, watching his teeth bite into his own lip, seemingly savoring the blood he could draw out of the cuts that littered his mouth. His cloak wrapped tightly around his shoulders, flowing down to his hips, soaked in the thick blood that clung to it. The poor fools it belonged to were left staring at the sky lifelessly, frozen looks of terror on what remained of their faces.
He tortured that man just to get a whiff of where that woman was. Olivia Colomar, the one with the scars and piercing eyes. Our supposed savior, if the news was to be believed. I couldn't help but feel like they were made for each other.
"She's close..." He nearly giggled to himself, shakily sheathing his blade and releasing a satisfied sigh. His eye whipped around to meet Amelia and me. The lenses in his dark eye zoomed in on my intense gaze, his brows narrowing in response. "We've gotta move." He stated coldly.
I let go of Amelia's shaking hands for a moment, a newfound bravery snaking its way into my system as I stepped towards Scott despite his rampage. "We've gotta get Amelia back safely and take care of those goons Talon sent, remember? Don't you want to help her?" I asked, feeling remarkably dumber as soon as I did.
"The hell would I do that for?" He replied, shifting his balance to glance at the still terrified girl behind me. Then his eye fixated on me again. "You just promised you'd help!" I exclaimed, anger rising for a moment. 'Why is he so cruel to people who show him the utmost kindness?'
"Do you think I have time for this? Each moment I sit talking to you bugs is more time she breathes. Let me make this completely clear. I do not care what happens to you. I do not care what happens to her, or her shit village, or her brainwashed friends. None of you matter."
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" I demanded, refusing to back down from him as he moved to push past me. "They took us in and fed us! She's asking for your help! The only person who's even capable of standing up to Talon! The least you could do is use your blades to repay the damn favor!"
"Shut up. Move out of my way or end up like them." His voice lowered motioning to the bodies that littered the floor, a twinge of fear flooding my body. "D-don't bluff about this. I know deep down you want to help them. There's gotta be some form of humanity left in that sorry head of yours." I reasoned, trying to offer a bit of sympathy.
He hesitated for a moment, his eye softening for a split second before hardening again. "You don't know me. Don't pretend to understand me."
He shoved past me, nearly knocking me over as I stumbled into Amelia. I met her eyes, watching all hope of her saving her mother and any other villagers drain out of her face. "You can't be serious!" I cried, Scott with his back turned to me as he went to grab his bag and sling it over his broad shoulders. The wind stopped for a moment, as if scared of what he'd do next.
"I'm not going to repeat myself." He muttered, turning around and glaring at both of us. "Steer clear of where I'm headed, and you won't get yourselves killed."
"I won't let you do this! You're the only person who can help! Why the hell is she more important than this?" I stood in his way with my arms stretched out, as though that would bar his attempts at moving onwards.
I stared up at him as he towered over me, scowling as his wrinkled brow furrowed. His unkempt hair fell in his face, a few strands falling down into his field of vision. "Please. Think about that girl we met and her grandfather. Do you really want that to repeat itself?" I appealed to any semblance of humanity I could try to scrounge up in this 'Scourge'.
His eye glanced down at his feet as he remembered that night. He hesitated that day. I knew I saw it. Even he couldn't stomach it, no matter what lies he tells himself.
He looked over at Amelia, offering a smug smile. "You want to try and save that village of yours?" He watched as she slowly nodded, still unable to voice her thoughts under his cold gaze. "Save yourself the bother. Slit your wrists and be done with it."
Growling, I shoved him as hard as I could. My anger drowned out my fear of him for the time being. "You've got to be the biggest piece of shit in the entire world! Everything you do, you do out of spite, malice, hatred for other people! People who haven't done a damn thing to you! You think you're so much more important than everyone else, huh?! What the hell are you still drawing breath for? For some petty vengeance? Payback for losing an eye?!"
"YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!" He bellowed while withdrawing his blade, the hilt of it glowing with a green hue. It almost seemed to glow with a fire of its own for a second, sparking in his grasp. "YOU THINK THIS IS OVER PETTY VENGEANCE?!"
"There is cruelty in this world so far beyond your comprehension, you can't even fathom it." He offered a condescending remark, the malice spreading across his sharp features. "You've no idea what a monster is. Not a god damn clue. Don't presume to tell me what a monster I am. Don't you dare."
"Mr. Swordsman," Amelia began awkwardly, and I nearly laughed at the way she referred to Scott. "I-"
"SAVE IT!" Scott snarled. Amelia halted in her approach towards him, fearing he may lash out.
He snorted. "You both think I'm such a monster, then why're you begging me for help? Go save those scum you call people from those that would do them harm. Be a hero. I'm done with that life." His voice twisted, as if the words were catching in his throat. I could tell he was holding more than his blade back as he sheathed it again, regaining his composure.
"You bastard. You know I can't go with you. I have to help them." I stated, meeting his hateful eye. "Like I give a shit. I'm better off on my own." He replied.
"So that's it, huh? Just wandering off on your own. Maybe I was being dumb, but I figured you'd at least hear me out on this, given the risks I've taken being around you and helping."
He snickered, turning and glaring at both of us. "Your help? Don't make me laugh. What, like I owe either of you anything? I never asked for either of you to come snipping at my heel, so don't go complaining when you get crushed under it."
"Please, at least help me get my mother out of there..." Amelia begged, and Scott only growled. "Your mother is going to die tonight. I'm not wasting a second on trying to save her from her own fate. Not when she is close."
"You know, I really thought I could get down to the bottom of this god damn facade you put on. That I could pull you out of this shit. I promised a good friend I'd always try and see the good in people, but you're the lowest of the low. You're not worth the damn air you breathe, let alone more wasted effort. You're just a mad dog, and soon Talon will put you down, just like all the rest." I couldn't keep my composure any longer, reminding myself of Orisa, before the Omni-Incident. I choked back the urge to cry.
His eye blazed with a raging inferno upon hearing me speak up, as if some word struck a match in his heart. Then, just as quickly as the emotion ran across his face, it faded and was replaced with a dejected smirk. His shoulders slumped. "A mad dog, huh? I've heard that one before." He offered a sad smile, before he turned and walked off, stepping over the corpses left in his wake.
A part of me felt bad for what I had said, basically wishing death upon him. An apology was stuck on the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed it all the same, scowling as he waltzed past the girl who begged for his help. 'What an asshole. I've no idea what I expected.' I huffed.
He shifted for a second, glancing at both of us. His mouth opened, then tightened in a grimace as he adjusted his raven black cloak. He held his tongue, seemingly for the first time ever. I watched as he disappeared down the beaten path, blowing past anything and anyone in his way, just like he always did.
Scott's POV
Angela's voice had been rattling in my skull even more so than usual after that damn brat kept prattling on about my duty to save a bunch of worthless fools. I turned to my right for the moment, my remaining eye hallucinating her walking in stride with me, a small smile on her fair features. I shook my head, stripping her from my vision again. My lack of sleep was catching up with me.
'You're just a mad dog, and soon Talon will put you down, just like all the rest.' Her words repeated in my head, stampeding over any other thoughts that could fill my head. "Just leave me alone, please. I don't need another voice taunting me." I muttered to myself, aware of how insane I must've seemed.
'All you care about is swinging those blades of yours and killing people.' Angela's voice soon joined the cacophony that was my brain, memories overflowing a mixing with the world around me, making it even more of a jumbled mess. My loose grip on reality was slipping.
'You're just a mad dog!' I could still feel the shame from all those years ago, my mind rushing to Genji and Angela, the care she showed for him. Why did I feel this way again? Why? Why must they haunt me the way they do?
Maybe the real torture Olivia put me through was forcing me to live in this world without them, knowing they'll follow my every step. I can't escape their voices.
Will killing her ever rid me of this guilt? It was a question I don't think I've the strength to answer yet. All I knew was that their voices demanded tribute. The only way to satisfy them was to maim, kill, brutalize anyone who stood in my way and finally bring that woman down with me. Nothing else mattered.
Yet here I was, following this dirt path through the wilds of Africa, tracking my way back to the nearest city to get to Lomé, finding that stupid brat on my mind. Hopefully once the sun goes down, I'll be able to follow the lights illuminating Lomé, seeing as it's a rather large city, then put some distance between myself and whatever I was feeling. Maybe I could find an actual bed.
My muscles ached from the incessant movement that the voices demanded, yet I couldn't refuse them, not after what I cost them. I had no right to complain, nor anything else to live for at this point, so why bother? Standing still gave me too much time to reminisce anyways, so I was doing myself a big favor. The less choice I felt I had, the better.
'What the hell are you still drawing breath for? For some petty vengeance? Payback for losing an eye?!' There she was again, already making herself comfortable in the ranks of people who'd never leave my head. I instinctively reached for Genji's blade, as if cutting the wind beside me would drive her out of my mind. "LEAVE ME ALONE!"
Instead, I placed a hand in my bag and fumbled with the cigarettes I had rummaged off a dead Talon agent. Wiping the blood from the carton, I shakily placed the cigarette in my mouth and struck a match. I could hear Olivia chastising me for my smoking habits, making me grimace as I inhaled.
They never worked how they did for everyone else, yet another thing stripped from me when I was augmented, yet I kept trying all the same. The habit comforted me for a second, the scent drawing me back to Gibraltar and the smell of smoke in the salty night air. 'Scott, are you thinking of...of leaving us?' It was Lena's voice this time as I reflected on all the time I spent on the rooftops. My nose and eyes burned for a second, the threat of a tear revealing itself.
'I don't know what the future holds. I just want a happy ending, for all of us...' Genji smiled at me, even when I shut my remaining eye, trying to cleanse his face from my memory.
The cigarette in my hand fell into the mud beneath my boots as I screamed in anger, wrenching Genji's blade from its sheathe and slashing at the trees next to me. My tears fell to the ground next to the trees, stumps being all that remained next to me. I tried to steady my breathing, but to no avail.
The scent of blood and rotting flesh now filled my nostrils, snapping me from my thoughts as I focused on tracking where it originated from. I expected to find yet another mass grave, seeing as they're pretty common with Talon around, but that wasn't the case.
Peering behind the stumps and dead branches around me, I could make out the mangled figures of a handful of citizens. I scowled, analyzing them as I zoomed in on their faces, a bad habit of mine as I committed them to memory. Talon was responsible, no doubt about it, the familiar shells confirming my suspicions.
This was recent. Getting a closer look at the corpses as I began to look for anything of value, I carelessly tossed one of their bodies to the side. Underneath it, was the small, crumpled body of a child, his tiny figure crushed under the weight of everyone else. His skin was a faint purple, the trademark of a toxin used by Talon agents during their raids. It belonged to the one and only Widowmaker, yet another monster responsible for the murder of everyone I knew and loved. I scowled, gritting my teeth as their voices clambered over one another, each clawing at the back of my eyelids to jump out. I shut my eye, feeling the familiar sensation of what felt like nails scratching underneath the floorboards, trying to rip their way out of my skin.
When I opened my eye, it was Efi that lay at my feet, replacing the child before me. I jumped ever so slightly, losing my balance. 'I'm abandoning a child to this fate. She'll end up this way, I know it.' I told myself, trying to ignore the thoughts.
'There are more important things than that brat! We can't afford to stop, not when she's so close!' I wrestled with my thoughts, beginning to track the footsteps that circled the pile of corpses and returned to the same muddy path I was taking towards Lomé. My heart dropped.
'They'll kill her. They'll take yet another person from you.' I reminded myself, but the other voices soon drowned it out. 'She means nothing! Nothing in the wake of our mission! Remember why you're here!'
I followed the tracks towards the direction I came from, envisioning Efi's body riddled with bullets and dumped in some gutter as the village we'd come from burned in the background.
'You're free from all this, remember? If you want to go, then you can. You have no further obligation to stay with us.' I could remember the way Genji looked at me as he told me that, the memory overwhelming the voices for a moment. Was that what he wanted? His voice in my head told me otherwise. I could feel his blade calling out to bathe in the blood of all those responsible.
I stared at the path, thinking about that damn kid. "You stupid, stupid kid." I mumbled.
"Son of a bitch." I cursed, setting off back the way I came.
Apologies, not only for how much shorter this chapter is but also for the near year long wait I made you guys sit through. I feel terrible, but I just really had to work through a small depression, a lack of motivation and a shit load of college work.
With a bit of distance from writing, I really feel a lot better now and know that I love doing this. Please, be patient with me as I do my best to stop making an awful fool of myself every time that I promise not to go on yet another long hiatus. I hope you all know I appreciate you taking your time not only to bear with me during this process but also for being so supportive and receptive of the story.
With Scott being the edgelord he is, I'm thoroughly enjoying breaking him down and forcing him to look at his, quite frankly, shitty actions. With enough time, maybe we can get him back on track? Who knows?
All I know is that I love you guys. Thanks, from the bottom of my heart.
Also, anyone been keeping up with Overwatch 2 updates? Bastion seems like a beast. Might just bring him in this story because of how cool he looks.
Sorry, keep getting sidetracked, as per usual. Once again, thanks, especially for reading through my silly rants after every chapter these days. Feel free to tell me to stop being a lazy bum and to get to work on new chapters!
Until next time (hopefully not months from now)!
