Lena's face didn't leave the tin can sitting on the table in front of her for more than a handful of times, only stealing the occasional glance to see what Jessie was doing when a sudden whirr or clanking of silverware broke the silence. Even without the ghastly meal placed before her, she hadn't the appetite to eat much of anything, instead choosing to stare into the canister of brown slop that Jesse had referred to as 'chili', though Lena seriously couldn't make heads or tails of it, seeing as how the label had been torn off.
There had been more to the meal, of course, though the reason she'd been given food despite her lack of an appetite in the first place was in hoping for something she could hide as contraband, and sure enough, the 'chili' had been accompanied by some small, shiny, wrapped-up packages with peanuts inside, though the peanuts were surrounded by chocolate and caramel, making the nutritional value rather negligible. Still, she'd hidden the few candies away in her pocket, more determined to find out about that man than anything else.
"There's one of 'em…" Jesse suddenly muttered, quietly.
Standing at the kitchen sink with his arms crossed, his index finger lazily clutching to an empty mug of coffee, he was turned away from Lena, peering out through the window into the vastly dark expanse that trapped him as much as it seemed to protect him. He pulled a hand out from his arm and reached over to the wall, flipping a light switch that suddenly darkened the entire kitchen, forcing Lena to look up in curiosity as the entire house was now encased in shadow.
Jesse went on, unenthused, "See those two pairs a' lights? Those are omnic eyes. Judgin' from its speed, probably some kind of quadrupedal beast of a thing."
Along the horizon, the two lights dimmed as the omnic's head lowered, faintly illuminating the ground beneath its feet, examining the sand for whatever caught its fancy. Slowly, its head arose once again, staring out into the vast darkness, pitter-pattering off with a lankish gait as if merely traversing the landscape for nothing in particular.
"If the lights're on, they like to stick around," Jesse explained, pulling his arms apart and bending over the sink to rinse out his mug, "One of 'em took out the back fence in a frenzy a while back. Had to pull out my rifle for the first time in…oh, two years? Damn thing nearly got me; I forgot how difficult they are to destroy."
"Where did he come from?" Lena asked, lips curling in regret at forcing herself to ask about that man in the secret room.
Jesse shrugged, shutting the faucet off and hanging the mug on a hook on the wall, "I guess Detroit; I wasn't about to tear it apart to find a serial number or anything."
"Not that," Lena replied, looking up to Jesse with a confused look on her face.
He turned toward her, a sincerely lost look on his face as if the man had completely left his mind. He bit his lip as he ran a hand along his cheek, his nerves lighting up at the touch of his stubble, trying to figure out what she had meant when he suddenly turned his head to the back hallway, groaning.
"Oh, him. He was just passing by; I literally just ran into him at a diner in town," he explained, simply, "I keep up enough with Overwatch, even out here, 'specially when it's my case."
Lena eyed him, continuing, "Who is he?"
Jesse sighed, crossing his arms once again as he leaned back against the counter, knowing he'd all but invited her to pry when he had accepted her help, "Michael. Hale. He's American-born, which explains why he's here, but spent some time teaching in France. Paris, specifically. Overwatch was able to ascertain that he had been in contact with one Amelie Guillard for some time, right before she vanished after murdering her husband. Obviously, we needed to talk to him, but conveniently enough, he had disappeared as well."
"So," Jesse went on, "Being a person of extreme interest, I had no option but to apprehend him."
Lena's face fell, shaking in disagreement as she sighed, "No doubt calling upon your own experience in Blackwatch in regards to skirting proper protocol and basic human rights as they relate to prisoners."
Jesse shrugged easily, "Somebody's gotta scoop up the shit you all don't want on your hands. They might have put your bodies on monuments, but we were the ones who built them, whether any of you like to admit it or not."
He noticed Lena's face falling, returning to its downturned stare as she felt the spirit within her begin to wane at his words. Jesse merely sighed, reaching up both of his eyes, rubbing both his eyes with the butt of his hands below the palms before spinning around, returning to his staring out the kitchen window.
"Nothing to look up to now, huh?" he wondered, more or less asking himself, recognizing his own bitterness, "I never asked for that sort of shit. Not from you, or him."
Lena's ear perked up at that mi or tidbit just as Jesse began to wander off back into the living room, just a black silhouette in the darkness still as Lena remained in her seat, pulling her can of chili closer to her. She heard the worn springs of the couch squeak beneath Jesse's weight, allowing her the chance to get to work, figuring he was going to sleep.
She pushed her chair back, rising to her feet as she spoke up, "I'm gonna get some air."
"Just watch for any headlights," Jesse warned lazily, already comforting himself as he lay there, apparently.
Lena nodded to herself, turning to the opposite end of the kitchen and making her way through the backdoor, sighing loudly now that she had the chance, sitting on the worn steps just outside and whipping out her phone with a frown. She thought back at her unsuccessful rendezvous with the infamous assassin Windowmaker. Would Jesse have been forced to become such a monster had she been able to capture her then?
She absently scrolled through her phone, her thumb wagging unsurely above Angela's picture as she weighed her urgency at needing answers, just barely tapping at the doctor's face to send her phone into call mode. Lena peered up toward the starlit sky, feeling about as empty as she had ever been, missing so much her home. Even with a familiar face just inside, this McCree was so foreign to anything she'd ever known of him.
"Lena, I'm not going to tell you again: stop calling me just before I head on home; I just want to-!"
"Mercy…"
The doctor paused immediately, hearing the tremble in Lena's voice, replying in a softer tome, "Tracer? What's wrong?"
Lena rubbed her face with her hand, groaning as she thought to herself, "Can you pull some stuff up for me?"
Angela spoke haltingly, "What kind of stuff…"
"Sorta confidential stuff," Lena admitted.
A massive sigh came from the phone, leading to a long pause from the doctor, after a moment leading to a quiet reply, "…hold on."
Lena smiled gently at Angela's sentiment, "Thanks."
"Hey, I'm not the one thousands of miles above the Atlantic headed to a warzone. If it helps Pharah out, I'd dose Winston with some peanut butter and hop on his computer if need be," Angela complained as she walked, her voice audibly shaking as she speedily made her way through wherever she was.
Lena replied, "Actually, it might be better if she not show up, but… I'll keep her on call, just in case."
"Not needed?"
"Well," Lena sighed, "There's more going on than we knew. Did you know Jesse even had a family?"
Angela didn't immediately reply, though Lena heard distant speaking through the receiver, before Angela began again, quieter, "Oh yeah. Well, just their names. It was all he'd put on his insurance forms. If my memory were more photographic, I'd be able to tell- is that why I'm being asked to go through the ninth floor?!"
Despite being thousands of miles away, Lena visibly turned her head from side to side in an innocent showing as she meandered to a reply, "W-Well, er… Nooooo…"
Angela groaned, "Well I'm already here, so you'd better come up with something else. Let me just pull up his file and… Here: Leslie, his wife, and two sons, Anthony and Joshua. He did put 'Josh' underneath as his nickname, though. Did you meet any of them?"
Lena bit her bottom lip, "Well, uh… I think they're, uh…"
She didn't need to complete the sentence before Angela halted her typing, leaving the two in utter silence across both sides of the phone, Lena in uncertainty and Angela in disbelief.
"What- What happened?" Angela finally managed to ask, almost in a quiet panic.
"I don't know, that's what I'm trying to figure out," Lena groaned, "Anything else over there?"
Angela returned to silence as she clacked at the keyboard, faster now, trying to hunt down what information she could, finally stumbling across something, "Oh. Here, in his deposition upon first joining Overwatch. He mentions his brother having died being one of the reasons he defected.
"Wow…" Lena whispered to herself listlessly, her body slumping down further between her knees, sadly musing loud enough for Angela to hear over the phone, "He's lost everyone here…"
She peered off into the distance, her eyelids dropped before her as she thought of Jesse living out here, in this barren desert of nowhere, raising a family, having a brother, and them all passing away, all without nary a whisper from Jesse himself. And even then, here he was, trying to defeat the last vestiges of the Deadlock gang, while simultaneously fulfilling his duty to Ana and Overwatch. This man was bound by transcendent loyalty, she thought; how could they have doubted his allegiance for a single moment?
"This is his battle," Lena spoke up quietly, "Let Pharah come out, but… Maybe just see what he does."
"What am I doin'?" came Jesse's voice from behind, forcing Lena to pounce into the air like a frightened cat, bursting through the air in a flash of blue before reappeared up atop the roof, her hands both latched onto two shingles, prepared to throw them at the slightest provocation.
Jesse swiped her phone as it fell toward the ground, having been abandoned by its owner, before raising it to his face with a droll expression, "Hi, Z."
"Jess."
"You wouldn't be snitchin' on me, now would ya, darlin'?"
Angela cracked a sarcastic chuckle just before a scoff, "Pfft, the only thing I'd snitch about is your propensity for martyrdom and stupidity. No wonder you took to Reyes so quick."
The scraggly cowboy merely smirked at her words, watching Lena as she shimmied down the gutter toward the ground, tossing the phone toward her as she freed herself to the ground with a relieved sigh, "Huh? You hung up?"
Jesse shrugged as he sat on his back porch, "If I did, I didn't mean to. What the hell were you two speakin' about anyway? I only caught the last bit."
"Hey, you weren't supposed to catch any of it! I thought you were asleep!" Lena complained, as if innocent of talking about Jesse behind his back.
Eyeing her skeptically, Jesse spoke with a gravelly voice, "I just told you about an omnic trashin' the place back here and the first thing you do is escape back to the same place. Besides, I know your heart's too pure for most of what you've just found out about my situation. I was kind of hopin' you were takin' off."
"I wouldn't do that," Lena confirmed, nervously lowering her head to eye her phone as Jesse tilted himself forward to shield his lighter from the gust of wind that traveled by, catching his cigarette alight while Lena counted the increasing numbers beside Angela's head, having only muted her speaker instead of hanging up.
"Well, the more you learn about Blackwatch," Jesse sighed, simultaneously sneaking a massive swig from his cigarette as he leaned back against the door, "The more you learn that, for every part of someone you think you know, there's just as much you don't."
"Yeah, like a family, apparently," Lena frowned.
Jesse only chuckled lightly at her statement, shaking his head, rolling it along the wooden frame behind him, "Exactly. I thought the farther they were from Overwatch, the safer they'd be, but… We all know how that turned out."
Sadly, Lena made her way to he small steps that made up his porch, sitting beside him while crossing her arms, "What were they like?"
He grinned, "You tryin' to catch a cowboy cryin'? That's about as likely as a hare runnin' abisselfa."
"Running what?!" Lena wondered loudly, spinning her head toward the man who simply chuckled at such a reaction.
"It ain't gonna happen, what I'm sayin'," he confirmed in common English.
Lena sighed in exasperation as she rolled her eyes, falling forward, making sure to keep her phone obscured from Jesse's view. Angela remained on the line, though had sent an email to communicate, Lena's eyes running across the darkly lit screen: [Abisselfa- by ones' self]. Her eyes dropped, Angela's text having helped little, and she merely picked herself back up beneath the guise of simply needing a stretch.
Jesse's cigarette singed quietly as he took a sip of its tonic, a lowly sort of sigh escaping as he released a plume of its smoke into the air, reaching a hand up to scratch his shoulder.
"You think I'm bad, huh."
Lena's lips spun to the side, "How did you come to that conclusion?"
Jesse half-shrugged, "It happens to most people; you get to know that look of shock. You wore it after I showed you that man- sort of a depraved sort of shock, like you can't believe a man could act in that sort of way."
Unable to find the words to speak, having suddenly removed that moment from just an hour or so ago, Lena simply lowered her gaze toward the ground, sliding her foot along the dirt beneath her as though attempting to distract herself from the ghastly appearance of that man.
[what man?]
Jesse sighed, shaking his head, "One of the reasons I like it out here, always have, is just how simple it is. Overwatch was all bureaucrats and getting little done- again, part of why I liked Blackwatch. We could torture criminals for answers, hunt down corruption, kill murders; Reyes and us, we could actually get stuff done while Morrison and you all had to wait for tape to be drawn up and cut. Of course, that just meant you all got the credit while we remained in the shadows."
He grinned, reaching into a pocket, "Out here, you actually get rewarded for riding the line out in the open. After the Omniums started up, civilization moved to the massive cities, leaving the outlying world without law enforcement, libraries, schools, utilities; we had to make our own law and order."
"Here," he muttered, tossing a small, shining object into the air for Lena to grab in mid-air, her eyes examining the badge-like object as Jesse continued, "Duelist badges. Present these to somebody you've got beef with, they have to duel. Winner gets the badge, loser gets an afterlife."
Lena's eyes slowly wandered up toward him with a distant air, "…how many of these have you gotten?"
"On my person? or all-time?" Jesse wondered, sincerely.
She groaned, "You make it sound like a sport."
"Nah," Jesse clarified simply, taking another swig, "I only take out bad guys. This one's special anyway."
"How so?"
Jesse grimaced as he reached over to retrieve the badge, stuffing it back into his pocket with a shake of his head, "That's for me to know. and for you to not find out."
Lena frowned, "So what if I just happened to steal this and challenge you?"
"Then I'd have to kill you."
Taken aback, Lena felt her body tense up, though Jesse's remained as calm as it'd ever been, "I've got more to do with my life. and I certainly don't plan on anything, even you, stopping me. Good example of how that works though; the only reason we weren't murders in Blackwatch was simply because we were backed by the powers that be. At the flip of a coin, we could have easily been enemies to everything Overwatch stood for- they just decided we were convenient for them."
"They?" Lena wondered, skeevily, as though catching something he was trying to slip in beneath the radar.
He grinned, "Well, I figured I needed to start disassociating you from my bitterness toward that life. While Overwatch has many fools, it still is home to a few heroes."
Unable to keep from releasing a sweet smile herself, Lena turned away to avoid her former associate from teasing her or anything, "This desert's got a few heroes too, you know."
She heard a massive sigh from behind her, offering the respect of not turning around to see a face that, undoubtably, Jesse wouldn't want seen, judging from his darkly lonesome voice, "Anthony would say the same thing."
Lena felt a chill run down her spine as Jesse inhaled sharply through his nose, pulling out his cigarette and flicking it off into the distance, getting quite a lot of yardage out of the action, "He said he wanted me to quit, too. Was the one habit my wife let me keep around her, and here comes a son, making the demand for her. He was looking around online, trying to be like me, but came across how bad it was and said he'd rather me be safe than cool."
"Joshua wasn't a few years old at the time; I barely even knew him. Rips my heart out every day knowing I can't conjure up everything I wish I could about him."
Other than a wavering voice at times, Lena couldn't hear much in the way of the man crying, figuring his word was sound, though also didn't feel comfortable enough to do much of anything other than simply remain there, horrified that Jesse was speaking such things to one more person than he was expecting. She turned her eyes down just low enough to catch the last few messages.
[TRACER!]
[WHAT MAN!]
[TELL ME!}
She cringed before lowering her thumb, ending the call and shutting off the phone silently, dropping it back down as her arms weakly slid down between her knees.
"That man who showed up and beat me. the Deadlock guy," Jesse spoke up, quietly, "That's my brother."
Lena's body whipped around, a look of sheer astonishment covering her face, "What..? I thought he'd died."
He grinned, "Ah, so that's what you 'n 'Z' were discussin', huh?"
Currently done with allowing any sort of explanatory action shifted from Jesse to her, Lena bit back, "Don't change the subject! Again, 'what'?"
"I thought he had died," Jesse explained, "When I joined- that's why I did it. I hadn't a thing to tie me down here at the time after he'd supposedly died. He'd gotten lost after a fire-fight with a rival gang; he'd been gone for weeks, what was I supposed to think?"
He shrugged, "Reyes offered me a better life if I sold out the Gang, atone for my past sins. Without my brother, I hadn't a goddamn second thought about those people; figured I'd get while the getting was good. Came back home after the disbanding, got married, had kids; then my brother finds me. Says he needs me to atone for selling out the gang, and him, the gang he single-handedly brought back to prominence after Overwatch took 'em out."
Lena's brow rose sadly as she put the piece together she was most concerned about at this moment, "So… So your brother, killed-"
"My wife and children, yes," Jesse finished, "Said I took his life 'n so he had to take mine."
Lena jumped up to her feet, holding one arm akimbo as she thrust a finger toward Jesse, earning a confused stare from the man in the process, "Then why are you bloody sitting around letting them beat you up?! Why don't you kill 'em back?!"
Jesse's eyes fell, his head following suit, before answering her with a sullen voice that Lena hadn't ever heard before from anybody, "Leslie."
As Lena's hand reached up to scratch her neck, she wore a concerned face, watching Jesse light up, pawing at his pocket for another cigarette that wasn't there. In the orange haze of flame, Lena's heart dropped as his once dead-eyes shivered, surrounded by the darkness.
"She swore me to never kill again," he muttered, reaching up to rub his mouth as if it were a tick from not having nicotine at the moment, "She let me smoke. if only I never take another life. Said as much as she wanted to take hold of my life and shield me from my demons, she knew she couldn't. I guess it's a bit poetic if I slowly take my own with these things rather than take anybody else's."
He went on, slowly, "Loyalty's all I've got now. Loyalty to a dead wife. a dead son. At least with that man in there, I'm loyal to something with a pulse."
Jesse went on scratching himself as his jitters increased, forcing him to slowly make his way up to his feet with a groan, ignoring the creaking of his bones as he did so, "I need to find another smoke. Stay out here as long as you'd like, or, please, get on out of here."
"You think you can get rid of me that easy after spilling all of that?" Lena asked, heartlessly.
He grinned, "No, I suppose not. Doesn't change the fact that this isn't your fight."
As he stepped up toward the back door, slowly swinging it open, he took a foothold in the door before stopping for a moment, lowering his head in thought as if assorting his next words before speaking, "If it's all the same to Overwatch, I'm not interested in helping that thing that claims to be Gabriel Reyes. I'd much rather they leave me alone to die out here so that I can be with my family one last time."
With that, he continued into his home, pushing the door back behind him, leaving Lena with her hand supporting her elbow as her hand cupped her chin in worry. She rushed to pull her phone back out, ignoring the massive chain of texts coming from a very upset Angela, scrolling almost aimlessly throughout the device before finally stopping on Emily's picture, stopping herself just before sending out the call, her forehead sunken in worry. Slowly, her thumb fell in line beside the phone, her eyes shutting as tears welled up above her cheeks, remembering protocol. Nobody on assignment was allowed to call a loved one, lest a signal get crossed somewhere.
As she stood there nearly drowning in tears, Lena couldn't help but think of violating that rule. She'd never needed to hear her voice as much as right in that moment.
A/N: I'm back! Thank you all for waiting on me to continue this! I had just sort of gotten burned out on Overwatch and decided to take a break and work on other stuff (finishing my massive Warcraft story, and actually doing two 'Breath of the Wild' tales O.o) However, I must continue this collection of stories! While I'm still quite sick of Corner-Bastion and Corner-Orisa camping the final point, I'm not at all sick of the characters or story of Overwatch :p
So, just a quick recap of what I've got going on in this universe, just as much for me as for you guys: In the grand scheme of this major storyline, after 'Deadlocked' there's two final stories- a Talon-exclusive, which sort of sets their stage for the finale story afterwards. I cannot tell you guys how many ideas I've conjured up since the last time I'd seriously planned on getting to write those, and for all intents and purposes, it's gonna be a wild ride! I have definite plans in including Moira to the story, however, I'm not entirely sure if/how Doomfist will fit in as anything more than a side character, but I'll have to reexamine that as my Talon story comes along. I did see Infinity War, so I'm sure I can think of something :p
Blizzard also announced Wrecking Ball today. Considering the darkening tone of this storyline, I think I missed the boat when it comes to including a hamster scientist :p
Aside from all this, I also have 'Primage', which is a 'seafaring Pharmercy' tale. I'd like to finish that up, especially since I have some nice ideas for it as well, though, with it being a complete departure from everything else, I don't feel all that compelled to write it as often (or at all, at this point, unless somebody legitimately wants me to be doing so)
'Days in the Life' is supposed to be more light-hearted and comedic, and while it's currently just another Pharmercy fic (can you guess how much I like the pairing?) it's supposed to be a collection of any Overwatch shipping stories that I might come up with. So after Pharmercy, I'm sure Mei and Junkrat will be getting into trouble. Back when I was writing 'Madness', the pairing seemed to be a bit too childish for romance, but as I've mulled over stuff, I can kind of see it as being more mature, I suppose, so we'll see.
Finally, my story, I'm too excited for words about it. Honestly, I've never been more apprehensive to write a story simply because I may not do my ideas for it justice, but hopefully, I can craft something wildly epic when I get around to it. I constantly am hearing epic pieces of music and thinking of scenes from the story I have in my head, and I'm just flabbergasted. I'm hoping beyond hope that it can be as amazing for you guys when I get around to finishing it :D
'Gravitate' is just there. Sorry Zarya... Someday, hopefully.
Anyway, thank you for your time xD Despite the memes, Overwatch isn't dead, at least not in my mind, and I can't wait to complete some of these stories for you guys! Thank you so much for the time, and even for ALL THE FOLLOWS AND REVIEWS FOR OLDER STUFF! Honestly, after your writing gets off the first page here, I have no idea how people find my old stories, but they do, apparently O.o I'm still getting people liking and following 'Reign From Above', which was forever ago O.o So literally, if you're old OR new, thank you so much for the support! For somebody who's not good at much of anything, your kind words mean the absolutely world to me, and I can't begin to thank you all enough.
Now go make some Wrecking Ball fan-art, won't you! :p
