Bet you all thought I was dead, huh?
Nah, I just wrote a 14,000 word chapter, and debated for months on whether or not I liked where those events occurred in my timeline before deleting it because I wasn't happy with it. As you can imagine, that's a pretty big damper on productivity and motivation.
Hopefully you guys like the content of this chapter enough to make up for it *wink wink nudge nudge*
Also, this story is intended to be a chronicle of basically the entirety of Gency's relationship. So I'll keep updating (however frequently) until then.
After that night, the brother's relationship improved drastically. Every day that passed Angela got to experience another moment of her new family being happy together. At first, the occasions were small things. The two brothers would share a small moment or act agreeable in each other's presence. It escalated from there into shared jokes and laughs, and every once in a while she'd exit her lab to find the two of them engaged in an enthusiastic conversation. It always brought a small grin to her face because now her small family was, in her eyes, completely perfect.
She should have known that everything wouldn't stay that way for long.
She first suspected that something was wrong when she got a call from Winston for the first time in years. In the shower at the time, her phone had been turned off, so it had gone straight to her voicemail, and the scientist hadn't bothered to leave a message. When she tried to call back, no one responded.
It wasn't long before another call came, which she answered immediately. "Winston? Is that you?"
"It is." Her face curled into a grimace instinctively at the familiar voice, even if it the sound was marred slightly by static. As much as she loved Winston, he too had left her in her hour of need after Overwatch's trial. This was the first time she had heard from him since that day. "Angela, I need to know, are you safe?"
What an unsettling question that was. "I… I believe so? Why do you ask?"
"I've been staying in the old watch point at Gibraltar since Overwatch disbanded. It had been completely undisturbed until a few days ago when I was attacked Talon." The very name of the terrorist organization commanded a moment of silence from the pair before the gorilla began speaking once more. "My main assailant was Reaper, the man who has been causing most of the trouble you see on the news. He… he is more unsettling in person than any media can describe. He moves in this unnatural cloud of smoke. It's truly terrifying."
"I'm glad you're okay, Winston, but what does this have to do with me?"
"Talon was trying to download my computer database for Overwatch agents' locations. I managed to destroy the main device they used, but he might have seen some information while he was hacking into Athena. I decided to recall all agents. We can't sit by any longer, and we probably won't be safe if we do."
Her mouth went dry. "That's illegal. The PETRAS act disbanded Overwatch. I was there when it happened. How could you do something that could get all of us arrested?"
"Mercy, I understand that you lost a lot to this organization. But haven't you seen the news? The world needs us."
"No, you need the world. I'm not about to get wrapped up in some illegal business just because you want to go back to our glory days. The police can handle this. We don't need to get involved."
"You already are involved, Angela. You can't ignore this."
"Watch me." With that, she hung up, anger coursing through her veins. She looked at the door that connected her lab to the living room, where Genji and Hanzo were probably talking. Her family was just starting to form. She hadn't had a functioning family since Ana died, and she wasn't about to lose everything she had worked for over the past few years on one of Winston's heroic whims. She owed him nothing, especially not after how he had treated her.
That didn't stop her heart from quietly aching at losing the potential of rekindling some of the relationships from her past. She truly did love her old coworkers, but there was no way to convince herself that Winston's idea was a good one. In fact, there was a high probability that all of his worries had no foundation in reality. What was the chance that Talon wanted information of a long dead organization's members? What could they possibly do with that data? No, the attack at Gibraltar must have just been an isolated occurrence, an anomaly in the system. They probably wanted something else from Athena.
Even though she had thoroughly convinced herself that Winston was lying, that there was nothing to worry about, she couldn't stop the pounding in her chest or the ringing in her ears as she made her way out of her room. Hanzo and Genji were sitting in the living room, chatting amiably about something. She couldn't tell what they were saying and didn't particularly care, because just the sight of the two of them almost made her cry. By calling her, Winston was threatening to tear apart something she had worked so hard for. This fragile happiness was the one thing she could call her own. How dare he try to put her family in danger?
She stumbled over to the couch where Genji was and crashed onto the cushion next to him, burying her face in the plating on his neck as she did so. The cyborg jumped in slight surprise, chuckling fondly as he ran fingers through her hair. "Angela? You okay, or are you just tired?"
"Winston called." That got Genji's attention immediately. Even Hanzo, who didn't understand what those words entailed, stilled immediately at the gravity in the doctor's tone. "He's trying to recall Overwatch. He actually thought I would agree that it was a good idea." There was obvious venom in Angela's tone, so much so that it almost surprised her and certainly surprised the other two.
"What did you tell him?"
"I told him to leave us alone. There is no way that reforming that organization is a good idea. There was so much that I lost, and I'm not willing to lose anything more. Maybe that's selfish of me, but I don't care. I would sooner die than allow for the possibility that both of you might get swallowed and hurt by my ridiculous past choices."
Hanzo coughed awkwardly, drawing her attention. "Excuse me, but I'm not sure I understand the gravity of the situation. Would you mind filling me in?"
A long sigh left the girl's lips as she pulled herself away from the cyborg and sat properly on the couch. "I suppose that would only be fair. You know the basics of my relationship with the organization, but what you might not know is that I lost much of my life's work, three people who had practically adopted me as their daughter, and so many friends and colleagues to Overwatch. To top it all off, any activity by previous members under the organization's name is strictly illegal. I was there when the PETRAS Act was signed into law. It would take more than a terrorist attacking the base in Gibraltar to make me rejoin."
Genji's eyebrows raised in curiosity. "A terrorist attack? You failed to mention that."
"You've heard of Talon and Reaper. They attacked Winston and he thinks they're going to target other old agents. But honestly, I think he's being ridiculous and irrational. They probably just wanted some information Athena had stored on her. I'm sure someone was developing some secret weapon back in the day, and it wouldn't surprise me if they were interested in it. So it's just that stupid scientist making irrational decisions and trying to ruin my world by dragging me into those decisions. And I'll have you know that I am having none of that. The only way I'm interacting with Overwatch again is if something dramatic happens or if I get called to court to testify against them."
"Aren't you worried about them, though?" Genji asked quietly from next to her. "I know how dearly you loved them all. Surely there would be no better hands to tend their wounds than yours?"
A tinkling laugh echoed throughout the room as Angela turned to face the cyborg, gently placing her hands on the side of his face, making him face her. She smiled for a moment, one of her thumbs running over scarred skin as her finger's warmth melted into the cool metal on the sides of his head. "In this life, there is no higher priority for me than you. I know that it's crazy, but I would sacrifice every person I knew back then just to keep you safe and by my side. That's just the honest truth, and I wouldn't change it for the world."
Genji closed his eyes for a second, leaning into her hand. "If that classifies as crazy, then I suppose I've gone insane too. I would do the same."
Angela smiled before letting go of his face and standing up. "I'm glad we're in agreement, then. Until all hell breaks loose, we won't be joining." She glanced at Hanzo. "I assume you agree with this decision?"
The archer shrugged. "I will follow my brother in whatever he chooses, but I believe with great certainty that following your lead is a wise decision on his end."
Despite the confidence that each member of the conversation displayed when walking away from their talk, all three had a small sense of unease that simply failed to go away. They had chosen their path, but at what cost? What pieces of the machine of fate had been set into motion that were out of their control? None of them knew, and that was truly unsettling.
The next few weeks passed by with relative ease. Life fell back into its usual rhythm, and the Winston incident, as Angela had nicknamed it, seemed to disappear from relevance altogether. Her small family developed a constancy to it almost like a heartbeat. Genji would arrive at her house sometime between the crack of dawn and when she woke up. Sometimes they'd meditate together, and sometimes they would just talk while Angela made herself breakfast. Hanzo normally arrived sometime around lunch. He and Genji would talk while the doctor tinkered in her lab. Normally Hanzo stayed at least for dinner, and Genji always left late into the night if he didn't just crash in her guest room. Occasionally they'd go out and do something as a group, like watch a movie or visit a park – the one with the beautiful lake was everyone's favorite.
After Genji left, he would always exchange a few messages with Angela before she crashed. That was what she was doing that night, just as always. She had stepped out of the shower moments before, toweling her hair drying as she pulled on a shirt and sleep shorts. Her phone had been buzzing angrily at her from the sink's counter almost since she had stepped in, since she no longer turned it off while showering in case someone important called, and it was equally parts endearing and annoying.
The message was simple and sweet, just like always. It had never varied from something along the lines of "Have a good night," or, "If you have any nightmares, call me, okay?" Even so, they never failed to bring a smile to her face.
She was in the middle of typing a reply when something out of the ordinary occurred. A loud crashing sound came from the direction of her front door, and her pulse quickened almost instantly. Adrenaline pumped through her veins as the sense that something was distinctly wrong with the situation invaded her mind.
It was probably Hanzo or Genji, but she had never known them to come over so late uninvited, excluding the first time she had met the older Shimada. While it was probably them, she decided not to take a chance in case it wasn't. Making a split second decision, she turned the water back on in her shower, before stepping out of the room. She reached around for the inside of the doorknob and locked it before shutting the door, effectively locking out anyone that didn't know about the spare key in her bedside drawer.
With that taken care of and providing what would be enough of a distraction for her to assess the situation, she tiptoed her way into the bedroom across the hallway, finding her pistol in her bedside drawer before climbing into her closet. She could just barely see out from underneath the door, so all there was to do now was watch and wait.
Minutes crawled by like that, with her cheek pressed into the floor, listening for more noises or trying to see something in the dark. She was about to leave her hiding spot when something confusing happened. She heard no noise from her front door, which had rusted hinges that produced quite the squeak when opened nowadays, but there were clearly footsteps echoing through her home. There had been no windows shattering, no doors breaking down, and no squeaky doors opening. It had simply been silent until the footsteps began.
Her heart began thumping furiously in her chest. 'Something is wrong. Something is very, very wrong.' She realized with a curse that her phone was still on the counter in the bathroom, message to Genji still half-typed. 'Those three dots that say I'm typing are probably driving him crazy.' She almost chuckled at the thought, before realizing the gravity of her situation. There was someone in her house who was definitely not Hanzo or Genji, and she had no way of contacting either of them. The mystery person either wanted her or her research, and all she had to defend herself was a measly peashooter. Things were not looking good.
Suddenly, she heard the person knocking, presumably on the bathroom door. The voice that came out next felt faintly familiar, but more than that it was painful to listen to. It was like someone had driven knives into the vocal chords of the speaker, as if they had been meant never to speak again but somehow did. "Mercy, come out before I break this door down."
So they were after her. A few moments ago she had been willing to barter away some of her research, but that wasn't going to be an option, it seemed. It was also very clearly a man, which meant there was a higher likelihood that they would be harder to overpower. The situation was getting worse and worse.
Surprisingly, the man waited a few minutes before saying anything more. "Fine. I'm coming in, but you had better be clothed." The last bit of the sentence was spoken as a grumble, like he was annoyed with her. She only had a moment to consider this before the sound of wood violently splintering filled her ears. It was lucky that the noise completely covered her gasp, because for some reason she had simply not expected that. The man had gotten into her home almost as if by magic, and it was a logical assumption to think that he would do it again. That brought up another worrying factor, though. There had clearly only been one set of footsteps that made its way down her hall, and the doors in her house were not made of cheap wood. That meant he was either incredibly strong, or he had some type of heavy weapon on him.
A dry laugh echoed through the home. "You clever, clever girl. Always were the smartest one of us, weren't you? But you can't hide forever." It vaguely occurred to her that she probably should have run at some point while he was distracted. But where would she have gone? She had no phone, her closest friend was Genji, who lived at least ten minutes away, and she wasn't exactly in great running condition. This person, whoever he was, felt like a hunter stalking essentially helpless prey. Without outside help, finding her would just be an inevitability for him. Not to mention the fact that he likely had a gun, so she probably wouldn't make it far if she did try to run.
She heard the water in her bathroom stop, followed by the sounds of different doors opening. It would only be a little while until he found her, considering how small her home was. If this bedroom was the very last place he looked, there were still only four minutes tops to think out a strategy.
But even her brilliant mind was having trouble coming up with a way out of this. She had practically cornered herself in her own home. The only ways out were to talk or to fight. The former seemed like a much more viable option, so she tried to run through different scenarios in her head of things she could offer the mystery man. What could he possibly want? Perhaps someone close to him had died under her care, and this was his way of getting revenge on her. That would mean there was no way out for her, so a worst case scenario. At least she had her own gun, in case things got bad. She would kill herself before she let someone torture and then kill her.
There were only so many precious moments of worrying she had before the footsteps inevitably sounded from within her own room. "There is no place else you could be, little angel. Why don't you come out and make this easier on the both of us?"
She took a deep breath. If talking was going to be her key way out of this, it would help to be as compliant as possible. Steadying herself, she held her pistol in one hand and opened the door with the other.
She wasn't prepared for what faced her. Instead of a person, a dark cloud flooded the room, surrounding what seemed to be the vague form of a human. As soon as she stepped out of the closet the cloud surrounded her up to her knees, and recognition dawned upon her. This was the Reaper that news outlets constantly reported on. Everything Winston told her nearly a month ago crashed through her head at unbelievable speed, and the true gravity of her situation hit her as if someone had taken a sledgehammer to her chest. Despite all of this, something about the cloud felt almost familiar. There was a sense of comfort that it brought her, which was terrifying, considering the cloud was an international terrorist that had killed thousands.
Somehow, in spite of the terror that filled her, and perhaps even because of it, her voice remained steady as she spoke to the center, where the man appeared to be. "What do you want from me, Reaper?"
"Ah, so you came willingly. Such a smart girl." Slowly, the mist was drawn to its source, coalescing into a man in a black coat with a skull-like mask covering every defining feature. The man seemed to look at her appraisingly, before nodding. She could almost feel the fact that he was smirking.
"You have me where you want me. Now what do you want?" She asked again, this time through gritted teeth. Bargaining with a serial killer was more than she had mentally prepared for.
The man shook his head seemingly disappointed. "You know, you could at least great me with a little friendliness. It has been so long since we've seen each other." He laughed at the surprised look in her eyes, the sound unpleasant and painful. "In fact, I think the last time you saw me, I was dead. Isn't that right, Angie?"
Angela practically jumped at the nickname she hadn't heard in years, stumbling back away from the figure in the middle of the room until her back was pressed against the wall. Things clicked into place at an incredible speed, but it just seemed impossible. The nickname, the smoke, the voice, the familiarity, everything made sense in only one context. It seemed unbelievable, but she had once heard that if every other option has been exhausted, the final choice, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.
Tears filled the corners of her eyes and she lifted her hand to her mouth to try to muffle a choked noise her throat was making. "Gabe?"
The same terrible laughter filled her ears. "The one and only. Although I haven't heard that name in years." With a flick of his wrist he pulled off his mask, revealing his face. Or rather, what was left of it. Pieces of his skin seemed to be falling apart and decaying as she watched, only to mend in a matter of seconds. "Terrifying, right? Imagine how much it hurts."
It took her a few seconds of staring blankly at his cheeks before she locked eyes with him. His irises had almost completely grayed, only barely distinct from the whites of his eyes. For the first time that night, her voice faltered. "I-I did this… didn't I?"
"Only someone with the ability to create such beautiful miracles could also create such a monster, Angie." She broke down then, no longer bothering to save her pride by holding back tears. The implications of what he said settled in heavy on her chest. She had done this to him, and in doing so had allowed him to kill thousands of people and head up a massive terrorist organization. Talon was her fault. The attack on Gibraltar was her fault. Everything was a direct result of her own selfish desire to keep her father figure alive. In that moment, she no longer cared about whether or not she survived through the night. In her eyes, she deserved death.
The Reaper slowly moved over to where she had crumbled onto the floor. "If it makes you feel any better, I hated you for about a year, but I no longer blame you."
"How?" That seemed completely inconceivable to her. She had tried to revive him with this being the result; how could it possibly be anyone else's fault?
"Because I found out the full reality of what happened that night, something not even you could know but influenced you behind the scenes. You were nothing more than a puppet in a game bigger than yourself, and child mourning her parents and doing anything to get them back. No, who I really blame is Morrison, and to an extent, Amari."
That caused Angela to laugh bitterly. "Now you're just being ridiculous. How could you possibly find fault in the dead for the actions I took after their deaths?"
Gabe crouched down in front of the girl, so they were looking into each other's eyes again. "Simple. They're not dead."
That statement was met with yet another dry laugh. "You know, if you're going to mess around with me this much before you kill me I might just do it myself before you get the chance."
"But I'm not lying. What reason would I have to lie about this? Out of the three of us, I was the only one that ever died. Morrison escaped after the explosion, hiding in the woods like a coward as he healed. And do you know the worst part?" Gabe paused for a moment, as if for dramatic effect. "He watched you crying over my dead body. He saw our daughter broken and destroyed and he sat by and watched, not bothering to stop you from doing something drastic. While I was a fucking cloud, in immense pain and unable to even form my own limbs for months, while I was a silent spectator to everything that happened, he sat by and watched Overwatch fall apart, you along with it. Amari is only mildly better. She at least wasn't present when the base blew up. But she too sat as a spectator for the destruction of everything the strike team had worked for."
"How do you know this?" She sounded incredulous, but something strange inside of her said that he was telling the truth.
"Because I saw some of it. The rest I asked Morrison, between shotgun shots, and he told me. I asked him how he survived and he said that he was there for the whole thing, watching the Reaper's creation unfold before his eyes. And I realized then that I would do anything I could to tear every remnant of Overwatch to the ground. I would set fire to his life's work and watch it burn. Hell, I would dance in its ashes before kicking them back up into his face. And I want your help."
"You… you want me to help… destroy Overwatch?"
"Yes. Join Talon, Angie. If I had been in Morrison's situation, I never would have left you alone to fall apart simply because I had some vague notion that the world would be better off without me. You'll never have to be alone again." Gabe smiled kindly at her, before standing up and offering her a hand to help her up. "I saw the work you have downstairs. You could create so many brilliant things to help us destroy those that hurt us. No one in the world cares about you like I do."
She paused for a second, almost reaching for his hand before flinching back. "No, you're wrong. Genji-"
"Don't tell me you think that cyborg piece of trash actually cares about you?!" Angela flinched at the sudden yelling. "He's just using you. He doesn't actually love you, or he wouldn't have left you. In fact, we can start with him. Tell me where he lives and we can tear the place apart. Torture him to make up for every second of those five years."
A small, sad smile crossed the doctor's face. "You're right; I don't know if he loves me. But I love him so dearly. He is my everything, the only reason that I can face each day. Though I doubt it, perhaps I am being used, but what of it? I would gladly give my life if it saved him a few days." She looked up at the man now looming above her, her small smile forming into a wide grin, realizing that Genji had indirectly saved her from making an incredibly stupid decision. "You made such a mistake by underestimating how I feel for him, Gabe. For a split second, I almost considered that maybe what you suggested isn't insane. But it is, and I decline your offer." With that, she stood up on her own, refusing his hand, now visibly shaking from what was likely anger. The fingers on her right hand closed tightly around her gun; she knew that she would be needing it now.
"You know, I truly hoped that you would see reason, Angie. I really did. You always were my brilliant daughter."
Angela reached up with her left hand, wiping a stray tear from her eye. "I'm sorry, Gabe. You were a father to me for longer than my blood relations were." With that, the shotgun was aimed at her forehead, and she only just managed to jump out of the way before the sound of cracking sheetrock filled the air.
The only thing she could do was dodge. She ducked and weaved below shotgun shells aimed for her legs, her torso, her head, eventually stumbling out of the door to her bedroom and slamming it to buy a few precious seconds of time, taking shots with her own gun behind her at every chance.
Her best option was her living room, full of furniture to duck behind, so that was where she headed. Running into the street would probably be the worst mistake she could make; her house was pretty far from the nearest neighbor, and it wasn't surrounded by much foliage to hide behind. She'd be dead before she got twenty feet out. No, the only way to win this was through a fight.
As she ducked behind her sofa, half of her furniture already in the process of being destroyed, she realized just how impossible this fight would be to win. Gabriel Reyes was a trained assassin, built to destroy anything in his path. Added to that what she had done to him, and there was almost no stopping him. Entire task forces had been sent to destroy the Reaper and returned as bloody bodies, little to no life left in them. And here she was, trying to fight him off with only a pistol.
Perhaps it was hopeless, but she certainly wasn't going down without trying. For once, the idea of fighting filled her with comfort. She would let anyone who found her know that she had tried. Genji had to know that she had tried to stay with him.
With that in mind, she attempted a different strategy. Jumping out from behind her cover, she swept one foot under Gabe's legs, knocking him off balance and onto his back. She stumbled a little too, unused to the feeling of taking someone down like this. However, she had taken enough self-defense classes back in the day to be awful at it. Funnily enough, Gabe and Jack had been the ones to insist she attend.
The Reaper's eyes widened noticeably as his back hit the floor. Angela grinned, firing a few shots of her own towards his arms and face, the only places on his body that weren't covered in the thick black material of his outfit that was likely bulletproof. All of the shots aimed at his head missed, but a couple grazed the sides of his arms, causing blood much too black to be natural to seep out of the wounds.
However, Gabe inevitably got back up, and this time she no longer had surprise to back her up. She couldn't take him in a true hand to hand fight, and so she ended up using the strategy of hiding behind cover and throwing attacks at him as unpredictably as possible, taking shots whenever she could.
It worked rather well, but it came with a drawback. She was much more vulnerable when she was trying to fight back, and thus she had been grazed by some shotgun pellets herself. The sides of her loose t-shirt were ripped to shreds, and a few bullets had grazed through the skin there. Luckily, the immortality she hated so much was hard at work saving her life a hundred times over. With the extra adrenaline in her system, bullet wounds were closing only moments after forming. As long as the pellets weren't lodged in her flesh, the injuries closed over in a matter of seconds. For all Gabe knew, she was invincible.
Their battle continued for what must have only been a couple of minutes, but felt like an eternity. Each second brought incredible pain, miraculous healing following it in the next. However, it was only a matter of time before Angela made a mistake against such a formidable opponent. Her entire living room was in shreds, including the picture frames on the wall. In a single instant in which she wasn't paying perfect attention to where she stepped, and a large shard of glass from one of her pictures buried itself deep into her foot. She couldn't stop the scream that left her mouth as she stumbled, only barely managing to keep from falling face first into the floor by using her hands to break her fall. Her bones crackled ominously as she landed, her wrists groaning under having to unexpectedly support the full weight of her body.
She turned over in horror and looked at her injury. A piece of glass about the size of a large kitchen knife had sliced the bottom of her foot open from heel to toe. The gash was bleeding furiously, spewing red blood over what had once been a picture of her Overwatch family.
It only took one glance up at Gabe's face to know that she had lost. He was smirking down at her, examining the gash that was very, very slowly beginning to heal itself. He tilted his head curiously as he watched scar tissue form before their eyes. "You truly are remarkable. How does your body do that?"
There was no way she was giving him such important information. "It just does. I've yet to figure it out. I suppose now I never will."
Gabe paused for a moment, face contorted in thought, before he gave her a wicked smile. "I suppose I'm the antithesis of you, am I not? My body constantly decays, while yours seems to heal itself indefinitely. All you ever wanted to do was save the human race, while now I only want to watch every single one of them burn." His eyes twinkled, and it looked like he was trying to hold back laughter. "You know, you could still join us. Just tell me where the cyborg is."
And while he may have been holding back laughter, there was nothing keeping Angela from letting out a dry chuckle. "Never. Do me a favor; when he comes to avenge me, let him know that I love him. I never told him myself." Tears glittered in her eyes as the realization hit her hard. Genji might never know how much he meant to her. He would never know how every new second he spent with her was her greatest treasure. He would never know that, while he was not the source of her strength, he gave her a reason to stay strong.
"Goodbye, Angie. You put up a good fight." She closed her eyes as Gabe lifted one of his shotguns to her forehead. Perhaps death at the hands of the Reaper was her retribution for creating this monster, but she refused to look at him as she died. Instead, her thoughts were full of cold metal that was wonderful to cuddle up to and a brilliantly warm smile. Genji deserved the honor of being the last thing she thought of before she died; it was only right.
Death came like a roar, it seemed. She was shocked that she didn't feel any pain of shotgun shells, despite hearing the noise of the shot; it was almost as if they never came. A massive gust of winds blew across her skin as her ears nearly bled at just how loud and angry death sounded. It was as if a massive beast was crawling around her, roaring at the top of it lungs. And it was odd, because she had always heard that it was a white light that came with passing away, but the light that burned through her eyelids was distinctively green.
She dared crack open an eyelid, deathly afraid of what the afterlife was like. However, neither heaven nor hell was what greeted her. Instead, an ethereal green… thing… grew and grew in front of her, separating her from Gabriel. It seemed to be the source of the rumbling and growling, each noise another menacing threat. She could somewhat see through its glowing green body, and the Reaper locked eyes with her for a moment. The mutual shock in both of their expressions was immediately apparent. Neither of them had any idea what was going on.
The beast grew larger and larger, its features defining as it did. Soon it was clear what exactly it was that stood between them – a dragon. A newly defined head roared, glittering green teeth barring at the Reaper. It was then that realized that this dragon seemed to be surrounding her in a protective manner; it had formed a half circle with its body around the pitiful form of the injured doctor pressed against the wall. She also could vaguely make out bluish green liquid forming a small puddle on the ground, a few shapes that vaguely resembled scales scattered among the ooze. It dawned on her that this dragon had likely taken the bullets meant for her, and she hesitantly reached out to touch it, as if to say thanks. Every inch of skin that came into contact with the scales radiated with a comforting warmth that almost made her melt on the spot. She could only describe it as feeling like home.
The creature glanced back at her, eyes harsh for a split second before melting in a soft expression. The beautiful teal orbs threatened to absorb her, before the dragon turned away, shaking her hand off as it did.
What happened next Angela couldn't say. Something happened between the dragon and Gabriel Reyes that caused the Reaper to go away. It was unlikely that he had died; she wasn't sure if he even could die. But the dragon seemed to fill the entire house with its power, expelling the monster from the room and likely causing him to disintegrate into a cloud for the time being.
Truth be told, she wasn't paying much attention. The adrenaline of fighting Gabe had finally begun to dissolve, and she was left alone to confront the information that she had learned that night.
She, indirectly, had killed thousands of people. She had created an unstoppable killing machine. All of Winston's recent problems and worries were real, and they had been created by her own choices. Gabe, Ana, and Jack were alive. They were all alive.
Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes as that particular thought hit her. They were alive. How many nightmares had she had about her failure concerning those three? Was it even possible to count the number of tears she shed over their deaths? Could anyone quantify the utter despair she experienced as she felt responsible for their fates?
She was on the verge of a mental breakdown when the dragon caught her eye. It had become much smaller; instead of filling the entire room, it was about the size of an average person, and it was looking directly at her. Suddenly, it lunged straight at her, claws extended towards her chest.
It was only rational of her to expect immense pain, and there is no understating her surprise when the opposite happened. Instead of piercing her chest, the claws seemed to phase through her skin, causing a warm sensation to extend out from what should have been deep, horrifying gouges. There was no doubt that the claws were incredibly sharp; in fact, there seemed to be holes ripped in her shirt where each of them entered. However, they only brought warmth and that wonderful sense of home to her, flooding out from each of the incisions and into the rest of her body.
Their eyes locked once again, and this time Angela did sink into the liquid pools of teal. They were utterly mesmerizing, and she was unable to do anything about the way they captured her attention. Every time her thoughts started to wander to something that would break her down, another presence in her mind nudged her away, insisted that she stay right here and wait patiently. There was nothing else to do but comply, and so she waited. Eventually she reached out with one hand, placing it on the dragon's scales just like she had earlier. It was an odd feeling, like if she pressed too hard her hand might sink through what should be completely solid material. This time, the dragon didn't pull away, allowing her to pet it, still staring at her with what could only be describe as an undeniably fond expression.
What knocked her out of her daze was the slamming open of her front door. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, she broke her gaze from that of the dragon's, and looked up to see what the disturbance was. Before she could even fully look up, Genji practically threw himself at her, the dragon moving out of the way before the cyborg crashed into the poor doctor, whose mind was still clearing from her trance like state.
He wrapped his arms around her so tightly that for a moment she worried that she might not be able to breathe, before she hugged him back just as tightly. Genji's voice wavered, broken by sobs, as he attempted speech. "I thought you had died. Angela, I thought I'd never see you again." He pulled out of the hug, holding her shoulders as he sobbed. "I love you. God, I love you so much. You almost died and you never would have known."
The doctor was beginning to tear up as well, the haziness of her head finally clearing. "It's okay, I-"
"NO IT'S NOT!" He yelled, shaking her shoulders slightly. "Don't you get it?! You mean fucking everything to me, Angela Ziegler! Had Soba not realized something was wrong you would be lying dead right where you are!" The anger dissipated from his voice as another choked sob ran through him. "You would be dead and I never would have told you how much I love you. Do you have any idea what it's like to believe that your entire world could be gone with nothing you could do to save it?" Genji's face fell, his eyes dropping to the floor as his sobbing began again in earnest.
Angela let out a small sigh, grabbing the sides of his face and lifting it up to look at her. "Yes. Of course I do." Brown eyes locked with blue for a solitary moment before the doctor smiled fondly and leaned in, placing her lips on his.
It only took a moment for Genji to realize what was happening, and in that second he latched onto her like a lifeline, fingers grasping at the front of her shirt, hands balling up and refusing to let go. There were no fireworks and there were no sparks, only the taste of the tears falling down both of their cheeks. Their kiss was not deep, and it was not magical. In fact, it was broken by a bitter sob from at least one of them almost every other second. It was nothing more than two broken people, one physically and one mentally, that were completely in love, and that was what made it so beautiful. Every tragedy that had ever occurred to either of them had brought them to this one moment, and when later asked, both wouldn't hesitate for a second in saying that it was worth the pain. Being truly loved by someone that they loved back just as much was worth every moment of hurt.
Yeah I know, bad place to cut it off, but do you really want there to be any chance I might change my mind and write another draft? :P