Chapter 5

A proofread to die for

"Bonjour, Emily."

The redhead was trying hard to keep calm. There would be no escaping to her asthma inhalator this time. Slowly, with shivering hands, she put the notebook away and looked up to the assassin at the edge of the couch.

Amber eyes looked down on her. To Emily, they were like those of a large cat that had stalked its prey for hours, finally ready to strike. Big cats were sadistic animals. They liked to play with their food, often even leaving it alive for the feasting.

Emily thought it was kind of funny that she was the definition of a prey animal, too. She was frail, certainly not able to fight back all that much and easy to scare. The only thing she had going for her was within her head.

This'll be a long shot.

For her to survive, she thought, Widowmaker had to be a certain way. If she was not…

Well, I guess I had a good run.

The little reporter gathered what little courage she could muster. Once she got going, she thought, it would at least be liberating, not being able to act like this around Lena and all.

Here goes nothing!

Widow had imagined the frail girl to be paralyzed in fear, obviously recognizing who was staring down at her right now, but little Emily didn't do that. She was rather visibly panicking instead.

Then Widow thought she might flee, as the girl fell over herself to stand up from the couch, but little Emily didn't do that either. It would have been foolish anyway.

Thoroughly intrigued, Widow finally thought this girl wanted to try to talk it out. All tough like, as her boss had tried, even though little Emily was clearly lacking the necessary composure.

But nothing of the sort.

Instead, little Emily threw herself on the ground as if to worship the grand assassin.

"…what …are you doing?"

The redhead's backside was rather unfortunately sticking out while groveling on the ground, revealing her panties: White fabric with a bunny motive.

"I am not worthy!"

Widow raised an eyebrow. Her rifle was leisurely resting on her shoulder, waiting patiently for its turn.

"Oui. You are not."

"Thank you for taking your time to visit me! I-I've always wanted to meet you!"

My target thanking me? That is a first.

"Did you now?"

Emily dared to look up. Widow was taken aback by expressions of sheer joy and relief on the smaller girl's face.

"Y-Yes! I absolutely adore your work! I mean, it's kind of killing people, but really you create art in your own way! I have so many quest-urgh!"

This was getting too weird for Widow. One of her stilettos pressed the red head back down to the ground. The pressure was nothing too strict, just enough so she couldn't raise it on her own.

"Calm down."

"O-Okay."

Widow stared at the docile girl and was positively confused. It took her some time to process.

"So, you are one of my… 'fans'?"

"Yes! Your greatest fan, if I say so mys-urgh!"

Her stiletto pressed down again, flattening Emily's cheek on the floor. That girl was way too eager for her own good. Widow dropped Emily's phone down next to her head to quell that eagerness. The little reporter had forgotten that one on Wellington Street. Widow made sure to thoroughly break it beneath her boot at one point.

"That's why you had my voice as ringtone, yes?"

The girl got the shivers as she recognized her wrecked phone. Just as intended. These gestures always had a nice message behind them, which Widow liked to use for her own amusement.

"Y-Yeah… Sorry about that. I just… really like your voice. "

The quiet honesty surprised Widow. Nobody had complimented her on something so mundane like that in a long time. It felt nice in a distant, almost numb way.

"You do more than just collect sound samples."

"Yes! I write fanfiction about you."

"How many of you do I have to kill?"

"Uhm… you mean fans? Reading about you or just writing?"

"Both."

"Well, there are about a thousand stories about you online, maybe half as much authors. They must have millions of viewers by now. You're very popular, being so beautiful and dangerous."

At the back of her mind, Widow knew that the little girl awkwardly tried to flatter her.

It worked.

She hadn't known how to feel about having fans before, but Widow was increasingly amused by it.

It's like I'm back in the ballet. The audience still loves me.

Widow allowed herself a reminiscing smile, just because Emily couldn't see it.

"I heard you are the most popular author of this 'fanfiction'"

"Naturally, since I'm your biggest fa-urgh!"

"Cut it out already. Are there more of your caliber?"

"My… y-yeah. There's Sagrada, she's the second most popular and writes tragedies. Then there's… Sica, she's more into corny stuff."

Widow made a mental note of those names, as well as Emily's hesitation on the second one.

"And you? You call yourself my biggest fan, yet write abhorrent slander about me."

The assassin's voice turned bittersweet as if she wanted to confess her love, but instead she talked about her torture plan for Emily:

"I wonder if I should start by ripping out your lying tongue or by breaking every bone in your hands for composing this bile."

It prompted another shiver from the girl below. As intended.

So easily played.

"T-The one where Tracer goes mad, right?"

Widow's foot let go of her little fan's head, so Emily could make her case. The way Widow narrowed her amber eyes should be ample hint as to guess the answer. Emily cautiously looked upwards with her own light-brown pair of eyes.

Like a beaten puppy.

"R-Right! That one was very experimental, a one-time thing, nothing worthy of repeat! The vast majority of my stories actually have you dominating Tracer. Which fits quite naturally!"

Widow raised another eyebrow. That sounded much more reasonable.

"They do?"

"Yes yes! The one I'm writing on right now, for example! Tracer hopelessly falls in love with you and you use her for your entertainment at every turn."

A lot more reasonable.

Widow found herself nodding once. Of course, she couldn't see herself ever doing something so naïve as to fall in love with someone. She had no use for these feelings. However, amusement is what she practically lived for these days.

"At every turn you say?"

"Quite deviously so!"

Emily shifted over to the couch beside her and opened the notebook again. The little fan quickly navigated the screens until a document opened. It wasn't the same interface as the one Sombra had shown Widow; This was the original document.

"Here, that's the first chapter! It begins back when you met Tracer and Winston at the museum. Only this time you and Reaper emerge victorious!"

Widow stared at the notebook.

"Do you think I would read this? Absurdité. It's not like I would enjoy that."

Emily fidgeted around, trying to think of something. Widow had to admit being at least a tiny bit curious, but she didn't show it. Having her little fan beg for it was much more tolerable.

"And… if it's my last wish? You can still do me in afterwards, if you really don't like it. Please?"

Emily looked up to her with hopeful, glimmering eyes, nibbling at her lower lip with anticipation. Kind of like a puppy wanting to be picked up at an animal shelter. Widow grimaced at the thought and set Widow's Kiss down for the moment, leaning her rifle against the couch.

"Fine. I'll have your head if you waste my time, foolish little girl…"

Lena suddenly sneezed as if someone far away had mentioned her by name. She was going across campus on the new grounds of Overwatch HQ. It was much less pompous than the last, more built for security and utility, at least in the main building. There was a canteen, agent quarters and an administrative building off to either side of the campus. She looked up at the clouds above while sniffling a bit.

"What a shitty day outside. I wish I could've stayed at home…"

A dopey smile found its way on her lips, thinking back to what might await her there.

I won't do anything funny, but I sure as hell gonna watch her sleep all day.

"Not only you! I've barely gotten any sleep, nhoooh…~"

Lena tensed up as a shrill, sleepy voice drew her out of her voyeuristic dreams. Hana fell in line beside Lena and quickly pressed up to her. The little Korean was lacking energy, as if she would collapse at any moment now. At least she managed to have one eye barely open.

"Let me guess: You pulled an all-nighter?"

"…"

"Not in the mood for a lecture? Might want to wake up before we meet Mom on the way."

Hana shivered in her body suit.

"I'll straighten up when I see her…"

Why do I doubt that?

Lena rolled her eyes and laid an arm around Hana to make walking easier on both of them. They entered the large main hall soon enough and wandered towards the elevators. There wasn't much going on this morning, just some agents checking in, accountants wandering between offices and secretaries tapping away at computer terminals.

"Do you have any idea what the emergency is about?"

"Howshdeikno…"

"Sorry luv, I don't speak 'sleepy Korean'"

Hana grumbled, prompting a smirk from Lena.

"Something really stupid I bet, like our peanut butter supply running low…"

Lena pressed the elevator button and smirked while watching sleepy Hana struggle to keep standing.

"Oh, I think Winston wouldn't call us all for… some… thing… like… huh."

The elevator opened in front of them to the sound of someone squirming helplessly. Lena's jaw dropped and Hana instantly straightened up.

Two women inhabited the elevator. One was pressing the other against a wall, wrapping her hands around the poor, squirming girl to grab fistfuls of her butt, all the while silencing her with a quite lewd interlocking of lips.

It took some time before Angela finally let go of that poor girl. She did so in one go and began straightening her hair and doctors overall in order to leave the elevator. Her sky-blue eyes found Lena and Hana standing there in mild shock. The doctor greeted them with a satisfied smirk, wordlessly walking past them in the direction of the hospital wing.

The small pair of heroes stood there, looking at poor Fareeha who was in the middle of collapsing along the elevator wall. The door threatened to close. Hana activated the sensors with one arm. They stared at her for a few more moments.

"Err, we should go in?"

"Yeah."

The two of them approached Fareeha and tried to help her up from either side. The Egyptian girl was wearing jeans, a colorful shirt and a black leather jacket. She also looked a little more than just flustered and was tense like a strung rope.

"You okay, luv?"

"Y-Yes… no! Maybe?"

Fareeha shivered all over, clearly confused. Hana giggled girlishly.

"I think I would answer like that if Angie ever did that to me."

"Me too."

They tried to console her that way, but Fareeha's blush just got worse.

"But I didn't think Pharah would. She's normally so cool and composed!"

"Yeah, if any of us got a chance…"

Fareeha whined in desperation.

"Y-You two don't understand… she's got two decades of experience on me. I can't keep up!"

Hana purred at that.

"So hot! She can show you all kinds of things!"

"Stop it Hana, she's already as red as a beet."

Lena said that, but giggled all the same as Fareeha buried her face in her hands. Thankfully, it was a long ride to the tenth floor.

"You've got that from our raid on Volskaya?"

"Oh yes, satellite footage is really helpful! It was awesome how you strangled that one guy with your grappling hook!"

At some point Widow had taken the notebook onto her knees. Around chapter 2, her little fan had climbed back onto the couch to point out certain parts of the story and explain how she got the ideas for Widow's motives and moves.

"This part is obviously ridiculous. I would never angle a rifle strike from below. You either ram it in straight or aim for the temple."

"Why is that?"

"The goal is to strike someone unconscious, not to crack a jaw."

"Fascinating!"

Emily quickly leaned over to correct that mistake. They were at the end of chapter 7 right now. At some point Emily had given up at holding her distance and sort of just pressed her side into Widows. A fool could think that they were actually cuddling up to another while reading a story.

"This won't do."

"Huh?"

Just as Emily wanted to lean back against the sofa, one light blue hand gripped both of her cheeks from below. Widow forced her to interlock gazes.

"You are clearly too incompetent when it comes to writing about me."

"I-I'm shorry…"

"Since I don't want you going around, tarnishing my reputation, ma petit, I'm going to… instruct you."

The word 'help' had almost left her lips. Emily blinked a few times with her light-brown eyes, looking like a chipmunk by the way Widow was holding her cheeks.

"You will?"

"Don't make me repeat myself. You will send every new chapter directly to me before publishing it. Publish a chapter without me or tell anybody about this deal and I'll drive a bullet through your cute little head."

Emily blinked a few times at that. Slowly but surely, her little fan developed a blush. Widow realized her error too late.

That was meant as a tease, not a compliment you stupid girl…

There was an awkward silence. At one point, Widow finally let go and quickly looked away. She typed an e-mail address into the text document and was about to close the notebook when Emily interjected by putting her hand on the assassin's.

"Uhm! S-Sorry, there's one more chapter."

Widow's amber eyes observed her dangerously.

"So?"

"I finished it today. It's in another folder. I was wondering… if you could help me go over that one, too?"

Emily was smiling shyly her way. She was visibly nervous for asking such a thing, but apparently couldn't let the opportunity pass.

For a moment, the French woman was at a loss. She questioned herself why she was sitting here at all; Reading stories with a random girl… that seemed to like her and what she did a lot.

Normality used to bore me to death. Is it her adoration?

There was no way to be certain. Most of Widow's feelings were either numb or faint. Sometimes the echoes of emotions, long forgotten, tugged her along for a ride. Sometimes just her sub consciousness remembered, making her rhyme and sing and dance like in the days of old.

Any witnesses would be strangled by her personally, of course.

"Is everything okay?"

Emily's voice pulled her out of these thoughts. Her little fan was smiling with concern.

You should be concerned for yourself… this is all wrong.

"Let's… just read that last chapter of yours."

They were a bit late to the meeting, each for their own, separate reasons. Hana had been too sleepy to hurry up and it had taken Lena a long time from home with that splint to hobble over to the campus. Fareeha already reached the 10th floor on the elevator before, but a certain someone had taken her for a ride back down. The Egyptian trooper was still a bit flustered, but it was not as bad as before.

The meeting room was in uproar as the three of them entered.

"…ck that ungracious piece of shit!"

A man in a colorful biker jacket slammed his fist to the conference table before him.

"Look, Jack, I know how you feel, but she's still the acting mayor of London."

"We have been relegated to guard duty! Are you okay with that, Winston? We should hunt those bastards down!"

"For that matter, yes, I am okay with concentrating our resources to protecting the populace."

Winston, a large, sentient gorilla and commander of Overwatch was in a heated discussion with his predecessor, Jack Morrison, an old and hardened military type. Also in attendance were Genji, best described as some kind of cyborg ninja and Jesse McCree, a gunslinger type hero.

"What resources?! You have Reinhardt and the medical department. The rest of us are sitting ducks!"

"And your quacking could wake the dead! I'm getting a headache over here, jeez! You should go easy on the vocal cords at your age, dad."

Lena almost cracked up aloud as Hana chewed the old soldier out.

"I am NOT your father…"

The three of them had been taking seats on the conference table. The Korean stared with a seething gaze over to Jack, propping her head up into her hands and sticking her tongue out. Jack narrowed his eyes but ultimately shut up.

"Hello there to the three of you! Err, I guess that's all of us. As you just heard, the rest of our top agents are busy keeping the peace outside."

McCree mumbled something into his cigar, seemingly just as unsatisfied as Jack was. Genji chimed in, too.

"Apart from master. He has been mourning for his old friend all day. Seriously though Winston, I'll start to rust if we get bogged down by politicians like that."

"That's why I called you all here. There is something we can do."

That quickly garnered the cyborgs attention.

"Nante omoshiroi."

Jack, Jesse and Fareeha were just as intrigued. The gorilla grinned cheerfully, as much as that was possible. He looked a bit more menacing than probably intended while doing so. Anyways, he had their attention.

"We cannot engage rioters, but Talon is another matter. Their activity in the city hasn't stopped at Mondatta's assassination. They used the chaos of last night as cover for another operation."

The projector in the room showed a picture of an office building.

"That's the Evening Standard, a London based newspaper operation."

Neither of the heroes seemed to react to that in any meaningful way. Except for Lena who blinked a few times in confusion.

Where have I heard that before?

"Security cameras around the perimeter were hacked by Talon agent Sombra, as far as ATHENA could establish. Two police officers stationed on roofs were injured. The editor in chief, Nathaniel Bernstein, was attacked and interrogated by none other than The Widowmaker in his own office. His secretary found him with a severe head trauma and a stab wound to the shoulder."

The room took a moment to process this load of information. Fareeha spoke up after having recovered from her earlier episode.

"How awful! Why would they target a journalist?"

It was Jack who provided analysis.

"Normally to stifle a certain type of coverage, but that doesn't fit the bill. The Evening Standard is notorious for being neutral to the T."

Hana's head was planted firmly on the conference table while Winston continued.

"We know why. The victim managed to regain consciousness and stated that one of his reporters, a certain-"

A loud snore interrupted Lena's capability to listen. She tried to shake Hana awake at the shoulder.

"… is the next target of Talon."

Lena blinked a few times because the room was suddenly in uproar again. Had she missed something?

"What?!"

"And she's just a reporter?"

"Is there no security?"

"Has she been found yet?"

"Is she really a-"

Another loud snore. Lena tried a bit harder to shake her back into the world of the living.

Man, Hana should really wake up and pay attention!

Finally, she managed to wake the beast. Hana blinked a few times, looking sleepily up to Winston.

"Yes. Nobody is supposed to know who this journalist really is. This is top-secret information and absolutely cannot leave this room. Her family has requested as much. We don't know where she is at this moment, but as far as we know this Emily girl is the next target of Widowmaker."

"WHAT?!"

The room was startled for a moment. The whole assortment of heroes was staring at Lena, who appeared to react about half a minute too late.

"Yes Tracer, is anything unclear?"

"I have to go!"

Lena scrambled to get onto her feet. Winston looked at her puzzled, surprised by the behavior.

"Where do you think you're going? The meeting is not concluded!"

She looked back for a moment after rushing to the next best window. Her panic was plainly visible. Lena simply blurted out whatever came to mind.

"That girl is sleeping in my bed right now!"

Jesse promptly starting coughing on his cigar smoke while Lena opened the window, stepped on the frame and jumped, leaving the lot of them baffled.

The conference room reacted in different ways, with Hana grinning like an idiot, Fareeha biting her lower lip and the rest of them thoroughly embarrassed. Genji broke the silence with amused laughter as he stood up.

"Lena sure is full of surprises!"

People small as ants looked on with shock as a person jumped out from the tenth floor. The wind was coldly whipping at her face as she fell, making it hard to look straight ahead. Lena braced for the fall, blinking at the last second through some startled onlookers. Once, twice and thrice.

She finally landed on her feet and lost no time to accelerate to a sprint. She set a brisk pace. Her face felt numb from the cold rush and her bad foot instantly protested with sharp pain.

Fuck the splint; Fuck my leg, if only I can make it home in time!

Lena cringed, but forced herself to run across the campus. She left the property and stepped onto York Way, crossing the busy street with little care for the ongoing traffic in a matter of two blinks, but failed to raise her foot high enough for the road curb. Lena fell, face first, barreling onto the sidewalk.

Shitshitshit!

Lena prepared to hit the ground hard. Then she felt a gush of wind blow past as someone rushed to catch her fall.

"Woah! Jesus, Genji! Talk about timing!"

Adrenaline coursed through Lena, making her laugh ecstatically.

"Mada mada! We'll be faster if you hold on tight!"

The cyborg lost no time. He used his position, having gone down to a squat to catch Lena, boosting the start of his sprint. Lena squealed with joy, being a speed junky and all, while trying to hold on as the ninja suggested.

"Go faster Genji! Take a left turn over there!"

They were working in tandem before long with Lena shouting directions as they traveled through the streets of London with inhuman speed.

Hang in there Emily!

This chapter was in much more need of correction than the ones before, mainly because Emily had just finished it.

"At least your French is quite acceptable."

"Oh, thanks! I learned a lot from you."

"I don't talk that much."

"More like… me imagining you do it? It sounds weird, I know."

Widow didn't think on these comments anymore. The little fan's adoration wasn't bothering her like she thought it would. It instead felt somewhat satisfying, a little bit more with each time.

They came across a scene with Widow on a bell tower. Widow already knew by heart that her in-story counterpart tried to lure Tracer there before it was revealed to the reader, so she was especially into this part, fully immersed in the story. The twist came as expected and had her smirk with satisfaction because of the correct prediction.

Another twist followed closely afterwards, much to her surprise this time. In-story Widow forced herself on Tracer, playing with her, slowly threatening to unveil Tracer's desperate moans on the intercom of her fellow Overwatch agents.

Quelle idée diabolique…

Until she eventually did.

Si cruel! Exquisite.

Widow read on intently until she reached the conclusion and subsequent cliffhanger. Only after that did she notice that her face felt a lot warmer. Her breathing was irregular, too. She felt as if she had just pulled off a grand assassination in front of a large crowd.

For some reason, she thought of Sombra's stupid grin. A blue pair of hands gripped the notebook harder.

If she notices… I'll have to kill her after all.

Widow turned her head to look at Emily's reaction, but there was none.

Her little fan had fallen asleep on her shoulder, weakly holding onto Widow's arm. Red hair was flowing down freely between them, covering half of the freckled girl's face. For some reason Widow hadn't noticed. Only now did the warmth to her side truly register.

We both didn't catch any sleep tonight. She must've been exhausted all this time.

Widow's killing intent evaporated completely. She closed the notebook in front of her, returning the room as close to darkness as the clouded autumn day outside would permit.

This will do.

There was no further movement inside the living room. Widowmaker allowed herself to rest.

Notes:

Nante omoshiroi ~ How interesting
Si cruel! Exquisite. ~ How cruel. Exquisite.
Quelle idée diabolique... ~ What a devilish idea...

I've finished this one quite fast. It was a ton of fun to write the Emily x Widow scenes! Did you like them?
Let's see what happens when Genji and Lena join the fun in the next chapter~