Chapter 9

Ana gasps for air as she wakes up in the room. She tries to get her bearings and remember what had just happened. As she does she hears the sounds of others awakening. As she turns she sees Gabriel waking up. When she turns the other way, she sees Pharah waking up as well. She then noticed something she hadn't before about Pharah, she was young, very young, much younger than she was in the simulation. She looked to be about 16. Suddenly it all came back to her. She came to the Overwatch Simulation Program for a better life for her and her daughter, she remembers her husband leaving and taking everything from them. Moira was telling the truth.

She struggles at the restraints for a moment before the doctors rushed into the room. She knew what was going to happen next, they were going to try and put her down under again, but this time, she fears they won't be able to wake up this time. She quickly pulls and tugs at the restraints but to no avail. As the doctors got closer she screams out.

"I want to talk to Moira!" Ana shouts

The doctors stop and stare at one another for a moment. They whisper to each other and seem unsure of what to do. There is suddenly a sound of heels walking along the floor. The doctors move out of the way to let Moira pass through.

"What is it?" Moira snaps

"You can't do this, you can't hold us here against our will." Ana responds

Moira doesn't appear to think it over before speaking

"You will ruin us if you leave. We can't allow that."

"Then we'll escape!" Ana says

"Oh, I highly doubt that."

Moira sighs and looks at the doctor nearest to her

"Put them back under, don't let them wake up ever again." Moira says

Ana begins to panic

"No!" She shouts

"Don't take it personally, dear. It's just business." Moira says coyly as she begins to turn around.

As Moira turns she's suddenly face to face with Junkrat, her eyes widen.

"Rise and shine!" He says and hits her across the face.

Moira falls to the floor and is out cold. The doctors turn around and quickly try to apprehend him, but suddenly are face to face with Roadhog, who proceeds to take them all on. As Roadhog fights off the doctors, Junkrat runs over to Ana and quickly pulls off her restraints.

"How did you get free?" Ana asks as she gets out of the bed

"Don't you remember? I've done this four times now! It only gets easier to break free each time." Ana then runs over to Pharah and pulls her free from the bed.

"Mom?" Pharah says as she is suddenly aware of her younger form

"I'll explain later, come on, help me get everyone out, can you do that?" Ana says

Pharah nods her head and runs over to the others to break them free.

Roadhog had managed to knock out the doctors and he runs over to Junkrat

"When are we getting out of here?" He asks

"Just as soon as we get everyone out, come on!" Junkrat says and he proceeds to undo the restraints of Genji and Hanzo.

Soon, everyone is free.

"Okay, is everyone out? Everyone here?" Ana asks

As she looks around she notices the sunken faces of some of them.

"What's wrong?" She asks

A few of them only stare.

"Look, I know our real lives are shit, but we can't let that stop us from living! Remember what Zenyatta said? We need to continue-" Ana stopped and looked around the room, Zenyatta was nowhere to be seen.

She suddenly realizes the reason for their empty faces. Zenyatta wasn't there. He never was. Her heart sinks and she turns away.

"He… He was just a simulation, he was programed to say those things…" Mei says quietly

Ana doesn't look at them, she could only think. But what could she say? Mei was right, Zenyatta wasn't real this entire time. He was just part of the simulation.

"No!" Genji shouts

Everyone turns to him in confusion

"My master… He was real!"

"Genji, I know you're upset but-" was cut off

"He was real… I could speak to him, I could hear him, I could feel him," Genji continues "He wouldn't tell us to leave if he was part of the Overwatch program! He would of told us to stay! But he didn't. He gave us hope, he gave us a reason to live, he didn't give up on us!" Genji yells

Everyone stares at Genji.

"If you want to stay here and live a lie, go ahead. But I will not let Zenyatta's life be in vain; he spent the last few moments of his time telling us to keep moving forward. So that's what I will do!" Genji huffs and stares at the crowd

No one says anything.

"Zenyatta," Ana begins before breaking out of her rut "Zenyatta was right! We need to continue! Our lives may not be what we hoped, but, we have each other; and we'll stick together!"

Everyone is still unsure of what to do.

There's someone waving their hands in the background, everyone turns and sees Lucio. His legs are gone, and he's silent, but once he has everyone's attention he beings to sign.

"Does anyone know sign language?" A tall dark skinned woman says; she sounds like Orisa.

"I do." A voice says.

Everyone turns and sees someone they didn't quite recognize. His voice was soft and low. Tracer runs up to him and inspects his face, before her eyes widen.

"Winston? Is that you?" She says in complete shock.

Winston gives a small smile before walking over to Lucio.

He looks at Lucio, who begins to sign again. He stares at him for a moment.

"What? What did he say?" Hanzo questions

Winston turns around and looks at everyone.

"He said 'Can we go now?'"

Everyone is silent, before they all break into soft laughter and chuckling.

"Let's get out of here." Symmetra says, and everyone agrees.

"N… not so fast!" Moira shouts, trying to bring herself up from the ground.

"What do you want?" The Junker Town Queen snaps

"This isn't over! I have a thousand guards on their way here right now to stop you." Moira says as she wipes the blood from her nose.

Everyone looks at one another.

"We'll be fine." Ana says smugly before gesturing at everyone to follow her. They all run out of the room and into the hallway, Winston carrying Lucio.

Moira was right, many guards began running towards them.

Reinhardt steps in front of everyone

"Get behind me!" He shouts

They stand back as Reinhardt gives out a large war cry and runs into the crowd of guards, knocking them all down and fighting each one. They all stare in awe, before joining in on the fight. They weren't used to not having their weapons, but fisticuffs would have to work for now.

All 23 of them seemed to be too much for the guards as they began to retreat. They stormed out of the building and made it outside. They stopped running for a moment to get their bearings. The sky was dark, and only stars lit up the sky. It must have been night. There were buildings all over that filled the area. They hear footsteps behind them and they all turn around to see Moira.

"It's over!" Ana shouts

Moira spits blood and glares at the group.

"You won't get away with this! You'll all end up just like Sombra!" She shouts

They all stare.

"What happened to Sombra?" Ana asks, suddenly remembering she didn't leave with them.

Moira cracks a smile

"Our program had some kinks to work out before we could begin the simulation program. We couldn't test on lab rats, we needed people. Sombra volunteered," Moira is silent for a moment before she continues "She died during the first simulation test. Her body couldn't handle it apparently. But somehow, her consciousness stayed in the simulation, even when we got rid of her body, her mind was still there. She was able to hack and sneak around the simulation acting like she was a real person."

"What's your point?" Zarya says, arms crossed

"You think you can just walk back into the real world like normal people; But, no, you're all going to die out there. Just like she did." Moira exclaims

They all look at each other before Ana nods.

"We'll take our chances." Ana says and begins to walk away, and so do the others.

"Get back here! You can't leave! You'll ruin me!" Moira screams

The farther away they got from the building, the more quiet it got, as Moira's screams of anger became softer and softer before going completely silent. They stood around as people passed by, making comments, all 23 of them stuck out like a sore thumb.

"Now what?" Widowmaker asks

They all seem to agree with her, what were they to do now?

Ana looks at them and smiles

"We stay together, we live our lives together..." Ana says as she stares at the night sky.

"We continue."