Author's Note: Only two more chapters until we wrap this up. Please leave a comment to let me know how I'm doing.
It all happened so fast for Basho. The speech was going well. Zenyatta spoke eloquently. He had captivated the audience. Basho was proud to stand beside him. He knew that if Master Mondatta could see this, that he would be proud of how the mission was going. There were still level headed minds even in a hell hole like King's Row. Cooler head could and would prevail. Omnics would live to see the day were they weren't considered an abomination. And then just as everything was going so well, there was shot. Basho never saw it happened. All he saw was Will on the ground and bleeding.
Humans could bleed so much and so fast.
Zenyatta sprang into action. He healed Will. He stopped the bleeding and worked under the pressure like it was nothing but Basho? He ran. It was too much like being back in Russia during the crisis. All the screaming, the shouting, the blood. So much blood. He hated blood. People shouldn't bleed. Their insides should stay exactly where they were – on the inside. Basho took to the streets. He had to get away. He couldn't watch Will bleed to death. The crowd became wild and devolved into a mob. People were fighting and clawing their way to escape the death that rained from above.
"OUT OF THE WAY!" A passerby who didn't want to die shoved Basho to the ground. The mob was a stampede that had no problem for stepping on a monk. The mob trampled him. They broke his body. They didn't hear his screams. They just wanted to live. As Basho laid ruined in the street, he thought back to Russia. Despite everything, it was his home. It was where he was built and where he was activated. He remembered the first time his sensors came online. He was able to see the world and it was a beautiful. His creators had given him a name, a job, and even a place to live.
And then the Omnic Crisis happened.
Everything he had ever known was torn asunder. Russia was a mad free for all. Humans and omnics were killing each other.
He hated Zenyatta. He hated the way he saw the world. He hated that he knew nothing of the world or how it truly was. He envied his innocence. Zenyatta was everything that he could have been. Zenyatta was everything that Basho wished he still was. He was glad when was Zenyatta was banished but he hated what it did to Mondatta.
"Master? Master, please." He recalled begging one cold winter's evening. "We need to review the tour schedule for the spring."
Mondatta didn't answer. He stared out the window, almost dead to the world.
"Master?"
He jolted. "Sorry." Mondatta pulled himself away from the window. "It is cold tonight."
"I will turn up the heat, master."
"Where do you think he is?" Mondatta asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
No need to ask who he was. It was Zenyatta. It was always Zenyatta.
"I-I do not know, Master."
"I…I should not have banished him. It is too cold for anyone to be out."
"Master, please. Zenyatta…he-"
"-He is but a child compared to the likes of you and I. He does not know the world as I have seen it. He does not, he can not-"
"Zenyatta killed people."
"I know but…Zenyatta." Mondatta sighed. "You were not the one to find him. He was wandering the streets alone. He did not know where he was or who he was. He was lost. I promised him when I found him, that I would protect him. I have failed him."
That conversation seemed like a lifetime ago. Who was he kidding? It was a lifetime ago. And now he was dying. Thundering footsteps, sounding like a stampede were in his direction. Basho weakly looked up. He saw a giant. Malfunction sensors be damned, he knew what he saw was true. There was a giant in England. If he stepped on him, that was it. He would be crushed.
"P-Please, please don't kill me." Basho begged.
"Nonsense, friend!" The towering giant roared. "I will be your shield!"
The street burst into fire. Anti-omnics had taken to the streets with Molotov cocktails. Reinhardt brought up his shield. For the first time in his life, Basho witnessed the power of Overwatch. Across King's row, rousing victory cries could be heard.
"It's high noon!"
"Let's drop the beat!"
"Ryuu ga waga teki wo kurau!"
McCree, Lucio, and Hanzo joined the chaos as Talon agents came onto the scene. "It appears we've stumbled upon a Talon operation." Hanzo drew his bow.
"We can take them!" said a confident Lucio, "Ain't no one is getting hurt in this part of town."
"Alright, fellas, let's do this. Winston? What are our orders?"
Up on the rooftops, Winston could not reply. His mind was focused on saving Tracer whose body was phasing out of the current time stream. Only a few feet away, laid Widowmaker. Memories flitted through. The smell of his cologne, the way he kissed her on her neck…she was Amelie Lacroix. And she was still alive. Talon's mind broken wasn't broken but it was cracked and that was all that Amelie needed. She had always been a strong person. Even when Talon tortured her, she had been tough to break. Widowmaker may have been her new dominant mindset but with this tiny crack in her psyche, Amelie Lacroix was going to claw her way back on top. She remembered who she was and she was never going to forget again. Everything was still murky but she remembered Overwatch. She recalled the familiar faces of agents. Amelie knew that Tracer having her chest opened was bad and if Winston was working it then also bad.
It was very bad all around.
She stood up, her body still reeling from Winston's ruthless assault, and went to work. She was still an assassin. Jumping onto Winston's back she jumped off and tackled the Talon agent. She fired below, taking out the Talon agents that threatened McCree, Hanzo, and Lucio. McCree lifted his hat and shot
"Winston! You didn't tell us that she was here!" McCree shouted.
"I'm a bit busy at the moment!"
"Reinhardt, there are six talon agents on your left. Frog boy-"
"Name's Lucio."
"Lucio, three behind you, dressed as civilians."
"Shimada, you targets are north and southwest of you, precisely two hundred feet away."
"Noted." Hanzo spotted more Talon agents on the roofs but no sign of his brother, Genji. Genji had been at the lead. Where was he? "There are five snipers. Can you handle them?"
"But of course." She flipped her helmet down. "I am Amelie."
Genji raced across the rooftops of King's Row. He didn't stop for the Talon agents, he didn't stop for the crowds, or anyone. He knew that the team could handle Talon. They were experts. What Genji was focused on finding was his master. He had heard gunfire and he feared the worst. He reached the theater and saw no one. Blood was splattered on the floor. Genji cautiously entered the theater. There was a single omnic inside.
"Master!"
The omnic screamed. "I-I'm not your master."
Upon further inspection, this omnic was female. In the dark, she appeared to look like Zenyatta. "Wh-Who are you?"
"Genji Shimada."
"Oh! Oh dear Iris. Y-You-You're Genji. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry but Zenyatta, he's-he's-I'm so sorry."
"What do you mean?"
Elia pointed silently to the backdoor out of the theater. There was a trail of blood. He followed the blood and found Zenyatta. There he was – lying in the garbage like he was nothing with a man in a slick black suit opening his master's chest cavity and tearing him open. Rage took over. Without thinking, Genji hand his sword to the man's neck.
"Unhand my master."
"I'm trying to save him." The man said. "His core is severely damaged."
"Gei-Ge-NNNN-jijijiji." Zenyatta's voice skipped and cracked.
"Sir, please don't speak." Will begged. "Save your strength."
But it was too late. The bullet had shattered Zenyatta's plating and destroyed his core. Unregulated and wild, his core burned. It ate away at his body, burning him alive from the inside out. His systems crashed. Will attempted to salvage what was left but as every second passed, a new system was destroyed. Genji held his master close as Will tried to save the core. It didn't matter if everything else failed – bodies could be fixed, wounds could be healed but if the core fried then it was all gone. Everything that made Zenyatta Zenyatta was safely stored in a palm sized core. The core, too hot to hold, continued to burn and eat away at Zenyatta. Will looked on hopelessly. He knew some medical know-how for omnics but this was too advanced. The core was going to burn itself and Zenyatta out.
"I-I can't stop this. We need a medic."
"He is our medic."
"G-En-Ji-Ji-Ji…" Zenyatta wanted Genji. His sight was gone. He couldn't hear anymore. All systems were shutting down but he just wanted Genji. He didn't want to die alone.
"I'm here, Master!" He held Zenyatta tighter but Zenyatta couldn't feel it. His sensors were the first major system to go in a desperate attempt to save the core from self-destruction. "Master, I'm here."
At this point, Zenyatta was little more than a broken doll. His limbs were useless, his sight was gone, and the only thing that was left was his mind. Every synapse was on fire. In the blink of an eye, Zenyatta's own core erased himself. Gone were his memories of Mondatta, of the monastery, of his precious Genji. Everything was gone.
Tekhartha Zenyatta died in a back alley among the trash.
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