Chapter 13

Showtime

"…I repeat, Jayson and Josephine will defend the bird. That's an order."

His second-in-command was glaring at him the whole time. She clearly didn't approve of being stuck with guard duty and had said as much. It was not like Josephine would be a hindrance, there was just nobody better suited to keep their only ticket out of here from blowing up.

There was no more room for discussion. Viktor motioned towards the holo-map that Josephine was projecting into the middle of the squad. He hated last minute briefings, but acquiring the blueprints of the base so late made it a necessity.

"We'll need to move through this corridor behind the canteen towards the medical bay. The target's cell is here. Her equipment here. We move in groups of two. I'll lead the charge together with Rania. Sergei and Marco cover the rear. Questions?"

A meek looking Turk with heavy sweat on his forehead immediately took the chance.

"H-How long do we have until the enemy security system is b-back up?"

"Impossible to tell, Doc. Depends on our man inside. Don't think about it."

Viktor already missed the last medic that was assigned to him. Doc Khaled's files showered him in praises, but here and now he was everything but steady. Bad timing to lose his nerves.

"Why do we have to take the detour for her stuff again, boss?"

"Expensive equipment Rania. R&D requested their recovery. Conall will give us 'access' to the armory, so no big delay."

Rania and her twin brother Marco were the most peculiar thing to him. While her bald, grizzled looking brother was nothing less than the embodiment of professionalism, Viktor simply hated how the blue haired woman never seemed to stop chewing bubblegum, throwing in a snarky comments from a seemingly endless supply.

Their briefing was suddenly interrupted.

"Security codes accepted, t minus twenty, coming in hot."

Their pilot's voice was barely understandable through all the commotion. Even though the engine sounds roared through the small cabin, it wasn't enough to drown out the sound of the heavy firefight outside.

"Our distraction has already engaged. Last checkup! I don't want to catch any of you girls with safety on!"

At a glance he saw his team obeying the order. At least he assumed that of Conall, their Irish demolitionist. Viktor knew jack shit of explosives and even less of grenade launchers.

He checked his own pulse combat rifle, discharging the clip and rearming. One of these babies felt way slicker than the old versions with lead munitions that his twin Moroccan assaults carried. The rest of the squad were equipped with special ordinance in addition to standard Pistols.

As their transport descended into the enemy base, no more words were exchanged. The whole squad was tense and ready for action, except for their medic who continuously fiddled around with his healing gloves. Viktor faintly remembered them being an imitation of the Caduceus equipment from doctor Ziegler. The bird hadn't even touched grounds when the air lock made way for overwhelming sounds of gunfire from outside the hangar, drowning out his thoughts.

Viktor screamed into his com link. There would be no understanding him otherwise.

"GO GO GO!"

The squad quickly disembarked under enemy fire. He saw a group of Helix Rockets coming their way, quickly shot out of the air by one of Josephine's remote controlled defense drones who whizzed past Viktor's head. Viktor hadn't even identified the first enemy agents in the hangar yet, as Jayson already opened fire in a storm of 7.62mm bullets at a rate of 6000 per minute from his aircraft-mounted gatling.

He and Rania ran for some metal cased storage boxes under the covering fire from their heavy assault agent.

"The full welcoming committee will arrive shortly! Showtime ladies, move to target!"

The sentence was barely done when a roaring gorilla jumped into the middle of their formation, directly in front of their second assault, throwing down some kind of barrier. They watched with horror as Marco was getting grilled by Winston's weapon, some kind of weaponized electrical generator. He screamed bloody murder under the shock treatment while the air was filled with the stench of burning flesh and his teams concentrated fire ricocheted off the blue shimmering shield.

This… animal only stopped when hellfire shotgun shells crashed into his armor from within the barrier, making him leap back for cover. Out of black mist their most dangerous special agent made his entrance.

"What are you waiting for?! I will deal with these insects. Move out! FIND HER!"

Amélie was fuming visibly.

She needed to be, to stave off various unpleasant emotions from what just had occurred in that small apartment. The cold London air outside at this cursed night made it hard to stay that way though. Her arm hurt after throwing herself against the front door to make leaving that much quicker. She had needed to get away.

Finding out that she had been lied to broke her heart.

Even more so that one of the only people she could've called a friend at Talon had been killed by Lena's hands. It was sick to imagine that Yang probably thought about her actions as a rescue. But maybe she didn't. Amélie would never find out.

Yang had been weak, just like Amélie was now. She couldn't help but empathize with the dead recon captain, finally understanding why she was so fearful and cowardly on their missions. They were alike. Amélie had experienced fear, too. She had been scared on that night in South Korea, scared for her life and had made mistakes because of it. Doubt made her wonder what would happen if Lena had no use for Amélie - her 'pet' - anymore. After all, Lena had shown her how she deals with weak Talon agents.

Out of these doubts, another dreadful thought crept up her spine.

On that one night on the rooftop, if Amélie hadn't enjoyed it like she did… would Lena have continued?

She wouldn't…

Used her?

Raped her then and there?

...Lena…

"You have lost your way."

There was a voice talking to her from behind, pulling her conscience away from the abyss. It was Genji. Amélie tried to calm herself, steadying her voice while marching on.

"What do you care how I handle myself?"

"The headquarter is in the opposite direction."

That stopped Amélie in her tracks. She shot the cyborg a few surprised blinks.

"Oh. You mean… oui, this way then."

They both turned around and walked side by side through the empty, darkened side streets of London.

"It is good to see you again with your senses intact, miss Lacroix."

"Senses? More or less… We never had much of a chance to get to know each other."

"That is true."

Then silence, neither of them said very much for a while. It was awkward to say the least. Amélie had too much going on in her head to focus on small talk. Secretly, she was thankful for his presence though. It was hard to stay angry while being all alone.

"Lena seems to care a lot about you."

"As much as a child cares for a toy. She does not think of me as equal."

Bitterness swung in her voice. She couldn't shake the feeling of being used.

"Lena tends to behave childlike. Maybe she feels more, but she does not know how to show it."

"Genji, she showed me too much already. She killed somebody who… who was so fearful every time… who couldn't hurt a fly if it meant her life…"

"That is regrettable. Lena was probably scared out of her mind for you.

"But… I never asked for her to kill... Surely she would've been able to restrain herself."

"I can't imagine what it must feel like, to see a loved one fall by my side. Maybe she didn't know that you were just pacified. Maybe her instinct to protect overpowered all reason."

Those simple thoughts didn't even occur to her. It had been so hard to think properly with all the pent up anger inside. It had been mostly against herself, for being so pathetic, for being a target, for getting Lena into this mess.

The worst part though was that she had found a kind of strength in scolding Lena. A strength of principle. Taking the moral high road, seeing the so much stronger agent squirm before her. A shiver ran through Amélie in retrospect.

I am pathetic, no matter what I do…

Yet there was one more thing her rage could cling to.

"…even then, she lied to me! As if I wouldn't be able to handle the truth!"

"You are right. Even though her intentions may be pure, deceit is not acceptable. The ends do not justify the means. I am confident that Lena will realize this and apologize to you in time."

Amélie blinked at him with a mix of surprise and hope.

"She… will?"

"I lacked restraint once, too, until a certain someone taught me an important lesson. If it is the Lena I know, I am sure she will come around."

Amélie couldn't spare any rage anymore. All she felt was remorse for how it all happened and the pitiful urge to crawl back to Lena. But it was too late now, she couldn't turn back. Even though it was shameful, Amélie found strength in her newfound principles and resisted her submissive desires.

Lena would never see her as equal otherwise.

"Genji?"

"Yo?"

"…merci."

"Nandemonai."

He hated it here. Mainly because nobody was dying yet.

Roadhog tried his luck again after that big, hulking crusader sent another energy wave into the ranks of the Talon agents behind them. They hurried out of the way, except for that one guy who was thrown a few meters back into the air, making the 'Wilhelm Scream'. Before his hook could connect with one of those juicy looking Overwatch agents though, the shield was back up and his butchers hook was repelled.

Mako grunted. He hated it here.

"Jamison. Get rid of that shield already."

"I'm righ' on it Roadie! I've got it, this try for sure…"

His partner in crime, Junkrat, was a bit more nervous than usual, mainly because Mako being in a talkative mood was a rare occurrence. Him saying Junkrat's old name meant that his big partner was suitably angry on top. Oh and of course the continuous gatling fire from this damned Bastion unit didn't help.

So he stuck out his grenade launcher out around the corner of their cover and shot the whole load blindly in the direction of the crusader's shield. All of them bonked against it… then hit the ground and rolled away, detonating harmlessly.

"Did I get it?!"

"Hm-hm."

"Oh… Well on the next try, surely!"

"Did I ever tell you the definition of insanity?"

"A buncha times I think!"

That's when Junkrat reloaded to try again in a few moments. Mako let out a heavy sigh.

Something caught his attention in between the downtime.

"Coming through!"

Mako tried to track the source of this cheery voice and was just in time to see a bubbly girl with spiky hair collide with another Talon agent.

"Uhf, didn' mean to!"

She quickly blinked on while the guy had his helmet so firmly turned that he couldn't see anymore and stumbled around, firing blindly, hitting his mates here and there. Mako cracked up with a hearty laugh. Finally, something interesting! There she blinked and directly crashed into portable cover.

"Whoops, sorrey!"

The metal wall fell right over, exposing two Talon agents who were quickly riddled with bullets from the Bastion unit.

With the next blink she stood in front of Roadhog, staggering from slight disorientation after all these collisions.

"Uhh, bigguy! What are you two doing here, luv?"

Mako was still laughing. He gently petted Lena on her spiky head and pulled Jamison over by the shoulder to do the talking.

"Oi, hi there missy! We're here to… what…"

Jamison was drooling, thinking about what they were doing here again. He caressed his grenade launcher while doing so.

"…blow stuff up I gue-"

"Hostage."

"Ooooh, righ'! We're here for a hostage! That blue Sheila!"

Tracer was baffled at that, lips wide open.

"But… but that can't be! She's no hostage, she isn't! She's my girlfriend!"

"Izzat so? Doesn't wanna leave then?"

"Well, yeah, probably, maybe… got into a bit of a scuffle an hour ago… B-But she wouldn't wanna leave! At least I don't want her to…"

The girl was staring at the ground, biting her lip and moved her foot as if she was drawing something in the sand. All the while gunshots were exchanged around them, people were hit and dying, the crusader was screaming something about his shield giving out… you know, irrelevant stuff.

"I'm sorry missy, we gots us a job to do. We've gotta go in there and blow up the hostage. Rescue. I mean rescue the hostage. We got a reputation to hold up!"

Tracer looked up at him with big puppy eyes.

"And… and what if I give you another of my shiny pulse bombs?"

Jamison narrowed his eyes at that.

"You aren't tryin ta bribe us, are ya?"

"Would never think of it! It's just… a friendly gesture for two good friends! We're friends, right luv?"

"Hmmmmm… one pulse bomb..."

He looked at her as if she wasn't off the hook yet, came closer to her face to make it clear that he was serious about this.

"…and…"

His eyes went wide. Tracer was dying of anticipation.

"…a can of red paint!"

Jamison grinned widely, then quickly shot over to Mako and whispered.

"I went out when painting the grenades for today!"

Then he shot back as if nothing happened, staring at Tracer only a few inches away from her face.

"Uhm. Thaz a hard bargain, Junkrat! I dunno… maybe if you guys could take care of those Talon guys who blatantly lied to you about the hostage?"

"DEAL!"

Junkrat laughed manically because of the jackpot he just struck. A shiny pulse bomb and a can of paint just to blow some other dudes up!

"Didn't like those suits anyway! Hey cobber, let's go- OH THAT HOON'S GRABBIN' ALL THE FUN!"

His partner in crime had already begun tearing through the Talon lines, laughing cheerfully in deep baritone while cleaving and scrap-shooting his way through them. Junkrat tried to catch up and lobbed grenades all over the Talon platoon's cover. Bastion took care of the rest.

Tracer on the other hand was standing there a bit baffled.

"N-No you shouldn't kill them! Oh my… uh… I… guess it's okay if it's not me?"

Lena scratched her head at that, but the voice in her head stayed silent.

So she smiled, shrugged and moved on away from the slaughter behind her.

nandemonai ~ no problem

Sooo, that was a week of waiting! Sorry for that dearest reader, the words don't flow like they used to.
I've gotta give some special thanks to Sneky, SkyDD and my good friend Viktor for helping me with this new chapter and egging me on to make it ready for publishing.

Whoever finds the blatant Far Cry reference gets a hug & cookie ~