Sorry for the lack of updates. Been a hectic past couple of weeks; I started college (which was great), got broken up with (which was not so great) and then Hurricane Harvey was on top of me and my family (which straight up sucked). Needless to say, it has been a completely unique start of college for me, with a solar eclipse on my first day of classes and then a hurricane to end the week.
Hope you enjoy the chapter c:
There are moments in life that, even if they were to stretch for the entirety of their participants' existence, could never last long enough. The kiss between Genji and Angela was certainly one of those. It was a second that stretched for an eternity, because both of them knew that as soon as that precious moment faded, reality would crash back down on them. The way their lives would work from now until the end had been permanently changed by the events of the past few hours, and neither of them were quite ready to face it.
However, some things are just not meant to be ignored for long. The seconds fell apart from around them as Angela's eyes opened, noticing the state of her living room. Her precious collection of antique movies were scattered over the floor, DVDs scattered in shards from countless bullets. Her coffee table was nothing more than splinters, and she could hardly see her couch beneath the stuffing that had exploded from within it.
She pulled away with a wince, knowing that there was no retreating back into the cocoon of safety Genji had brought her. Her life was in shambles, and it needed to be addressed.
For a brief moment Genji looked hurt by her pulling away, before the look on her face brought him back to reality. They stared at each other for half a second in somber silence, neither knowing what to say first. How could you possibly start a conversation this important?
That silence was broken by a sad mewling sound from behind Genji. The green dragon, now about the size of Angela's arm, appeared from behind the cyborg to stare up at her with a similar look to the one that held her captive only a few minutes earlier, though the same effect did not take place. The creature didn't pause for more than an instant before it padded over to the doctor, curling into her lap almost like a cat would. A sense of comforting warmth that she was starting to recognize as this spirit's primary effect on her spread through her body, radiating from the portions of her legs and chest that came into contact with the creature.
Despite everything, a small smile crossed her face as she reached out to pet it. It leaned into her touch, purring slightly at the contact – definitely cat like. The words she was thinking hardly needed to be spoken, a quiet, 'Thank you for saving me,' communicated through every stroke of the dragon's head. Eventually, Angela glanced back up at Genji, whose smile was small but bright, asking the question she had been wondering since the dragon appeared, "What is it?"
Genji's smile turned softer as he reached out to stroke the creature's head. "His name is Soba. It's very hard to explain, but he is a part of me as well as my guardian. I wouldn't be complete without him, as he holds a piece of my soul, but I don't have control over him. He has his own mind and consciousness while still being a part of me, if that makes any sense. Everyone has something like him that is a part of them, but the ability to draw them out and make use of them is something entirely unique to the Shimada family. Also, we're the only family with dragons as our spirits."
Genji's smile faltered at that moment, shaking his head sadly as he continued speaking. "I hated him for so long, after what Hanzo did. He was a piece of me that undeniably tied me to the Shimada clan. That's why, until I met Zenyatta, I shut him out and pretended that he didn't exist." The smile came back then, a chuckle rumbling through his throat. Soba purred in unison. "Despite that, he was persistent. After he failed to save me from Hanzo, he felt as if he owed you a greater debt than could ever be repaid when you saved my life. You protected my life when he could not, and for that he may have fallen in love with you even faster than I did, if that is even possible. Every time you were in danger he fought to be free from me so he could save you. Do you remember that time I accidentally left you in Hanamura castle and I only saved you at the last second? I only knew to start looking because he was fighting so desperately to escape and come to your aid. That day was the closest he ever got to his freedom while I was suppressing him."
At that, Soba began nuzzling his head into Angela's hand, looking up at her with a gaze that seemed to say, 'He's telling the truth.' Which was silly, since Angela had never once thought to doubt her friend's – if they could still just be called friends – words. She looked back up at Genji and bit her lip as she digested the information, before coming up with a new question. "So is that why he came to save me?"
The cyborg nodded. "He sensed that something was wrong, and since I no longer restrain him he rushed to aid you. Not only was he saving your life, but he knew that saving you also meant saving me. I would be a wreck if something happened to you." He lifted his gaze from the dragon back to her face. "Speaking of which, Angela, what happened?"
Her eyes filled with tears immediately as her mind flooded with images that she had been suppressing since the dragon arrived, pictures of every face she had ever seen on the news as victims of the Reaper, and by extension victims of her own pride and selfishness. She looked back up at Genji, eyes wide, and mouth slightly agape as the shock and horror that hadn't had time to develop properly since the revelation of the Reaper's identity settled back into her. She had killed them, all of them. Their blood was on her hands.
Genji immediately noticed and wrapped her into a hug. Soba yelped, jumping quickly out of the way to avoid being crushed before finding his way to her shoulders, wrapping around her in his own sort of embrace. Strong fingers found their way into her hair, running through the tangled blonde strands. "It's okay. You don't have to talk about it right now if you don't want to. But we need to talk about it soon, love."
The softly spoken nickname just brought on more terrible thoughts. Would Genji think the same of her if he knew what she knew, if he knew what she had done, however unintentional? She hated to doubt him; after all, he was the only person she had ever trusted with everything, lying only when she absolutely had to. But, just like with her recent experiments, this felt like a burden that she simply couldn't share with anyone, even him. It was a guilt she needed to shoulder alone.
"Winston was right. The Reaper came after me." Angela could feel Genji's body jolt with shock. "At first I heard someone outside, so I figured it was a regular thief. I turned the shower on to distract them, locked the bathroom door from the outside, and then hid in my bedroom closet with my pistol. The front and back doors didn't open, no windows shattered, but there were still footsteps inside my house. He fell for the bathroom trick, broke down that door before realizing that I had fooled him and beginning to search for me."
Angela had taken comfort in the fact that her words so far had been the truth, praying that no more questions followed. Her hopes were very promptly shattered. "What did he want?"
The doctor started trembling, at both the memories and the fact that half-truths would soon begin to flood her story. "He wanted me to join Talon. And in order to prove my allegiance, I had to lead him to you. Apparently I was one of the few agents that he had managed to get info on from Athena. As you can probably tell, I refused. I fought, simply because if I died I wanted you to know that I had tried to stay. I realized in the moments before I refused the Reaper's offer that I would never get to tell you how much I loved you. You were the one thing that anchored me when my own mind tried to tear me apart, and I would never get to tell you how much you mean to me. I had almost no hope that I would win, but I desperately hoped that you would realize how much I loved you by how hard I tried to stay with you." Now she was fully crying, because despite the partial lies, the last piece of her story was unbelievably real. She was alive now because she had fought so hard to tell Genji in some small way that she loved him, giving Soba enough time to save her.
"We can't stay, you know." Those words hit Angela hard, and she clutched tightly onto the person delivering the bad news to try to lessen the impact. "You only didn't rejoin Overwatch to try to keep us safe, but we aren't safe anymore. Until Talon is gone, we probably never will be. There is only one place where we'll have at least some protection." Genji pulled out of the hug, holding Angela's hands while giving her a kind but stern look. "You know that, right?"
Angela stared at her lap where their hands were joined, eyes somehow still pouring tears while managing to be almost entirely vacant. "I'll call Winston in the morning."
"I love you." The words were whispered softly, wrapping Angela in a comforting blanket that told her at least something was right in the world. "I love you and I'm proud of how strong you are. Despite what masks you sometimes put up, I know that you hurt more deeply than you let on. You've been through so much more than I have, and somehow you're stronger than I am despite it. God, I love you."
"I love you too." The words almost hurt, knowing how much she was hiding from him. It was all to protect him from her own mistakes, in the end.
They stayed like that for a few minutes, Angela too lost in thought to form words and Genji not knowing what to say to break her out of it. Eventually, Soba tired of their nonsense and jumped from Angela's shoulders, nudging at her arm. She jumped in surprise before laughing and petting the small dragon's head. "You said everyone has one of these?"
The cyborg seemed utterly relieved at the new topic to jump on. "Indeed, though the only living dragons I know of are Hanzo and I."
"So I have one?"
"Of course." A mischievous grin made its way onto his face. "Would you like to see it?"
Her face lit up in excitement. "You can do that?"
"No, but Soba can. You want to?"
"Obviously."
Soba seemed to understand every word they were saying, a thrilled shiver coursing through his spine when Angela gave him the go ahead. Within an instant he was floating a few feet above the ground so that their faces were level, staring at her as if sizing her up for a fight.
That was all the warning she received before he dived straight towards her chest, seamlessly flowing through her skin. The warmth that sunk into her was indescribable; it was as if someone had lit a flame in her stomach, all of the heat and fire with none of the pain. It was only a few seconds before Soba reappeared, and the warmth left, replaced with an oddly empty feeling. Clutched in his claws were wisps of color, light yellow and gold hues shifting before forming into something more corporeal. A minute barely passed before a small golden phoenix fluttered above their heads, blinking down upon the three with confusion.
It made a gentle cooing noise before flapping down into Angela's lap, tilting its head curiously while blinking owlishly at her. There was something so strange about seeing the physical representation of her soul sitting in front of her, and her soul seemed to feel the same way about her. It was strange, because while she couldn't tell what the creature was planning or thinking, she knew every detail about what it was feeling.
All she could think to do was reach out and touch it, at which point the hollow feeling inside of her disappeared entirely. It didn't take much time for her to realize that the emptiness was an adjustment to lacking this part of her soul.
The feeling of emptiness returned as the phoenix flew back up into the air and out of her reach, perching on Genji's shoulder and nuzzling its head at his face. His eyes widened in shock, presumably experiencing the same warmth that she had when Soba first came in contact with her. As soon as he reached out to touch the creature, it flew up into the air, finding its way back to Soba, who was floating a few feet above their heads. She pecked softly at the dragon's head, and the two started to chase each other around the air, the sounds coming from their mouths akin to that of playful laughter.
"They sure seem to get along well." Genji stated, smiling warmly at the pair. "What are you going to name her?"
Angela thought for a moment, humming quietly to herself. "I think I'll call her Lily. When I was little I always wanted to name my child that, but this works too." They watched the spirits in relative silence as Soba chased Lily around until the two finally ceased, seemingly tired. Lily flapped back to Angela, peering up at her for half a second before flying straight into her, the odd emptiness disappearing entirely. Soba did essentially the same thing to Genji, except with a notably greater amount of grace to their movements. They had clearly done this quite a few times.
With that handled, Angela stood up, ambling towards her basement door. "I need to see if he took anything." She flinched when opening the door, expecting the worst. As she made her way down it surprised her to realize that nothing appeared to be missing. Gabe probably hadn't expected her to both refuse him and to live through it. There wouldn't be much point in stealing her items if she would give them willingly or if he could take them from her corpse. The only thing that seemed out of place were some papers on her assorted desks that had been flipped through. She looked through the pages herself to see if any of the information was important; luckily, everything on the desks either hadn't been secret or pertained to something Gabe would have known she was researching prior to this visit.
Footsteps thudded from the stairway as Genji came down. "I swept up some of the glass on the floor in your room and the living room, which are a total mess, but all of the other rooms seem untouched. Also, I recovered your phone." He tossed her the small rectangle, which she caught with a grunt of thanks. "Do you want to stay at my apartment until we leave? I'm not sure how comfortable I am with you staying here."
Angela hugged her arms around herself, swaying gently on the spot as she thought. She couldn't stand the idea of someone being able to come into her house while she was gone. It would be a disaster if Talon came back for her work and she wasn't there to protect it. "I don't know if I want to leave everything in the basement alone until I can talk with Winston about a way to get it out of here. There are some things in this room that hold secrets more valuable than my life."
He just nodded. "I thought you'd stay that. If you don't mind, I'd like to stay here with you. I don't feel comfortable leaving you alone just after something like this."
"I'm okay with that. Do you think it's a good idea to call Hanzo and tell him about it? I know he'll probably want to follow us to Gibraltar, and he might want to stay here while we wait." With a nod from Genji, she pulled out her phone and called Hanzo, who responded so quickly that he couldn't possibly have been asleep. She immediately put the call on speaker mode.
"Angela? What do you need?"
"My house was just attacked by the Reaper." Angela waited for a second for a response, but only got complete and utter silence. "I'm fine, but only because Soba saved me. Genji and I decided that joining Overwatch is probably the safest path for us now, and we would want you to come with us, if you're willing. You're also welcome to stay over while we wait for Winston to organize a way to get us there, though I must warn you that my house is a disaster zone."
A clipped and strained "I'll be there," echoed from the other side before the call went silent.
"You heard him." Genji muttered. "We should probably wait for him upstairs." His companion simply nodded in response, her brain seemingly acting on autopilot. They made their way into the kitchen, pulling a couple of chairs next to each other and cuddling together as they sat in silence, Angela processing everything that was happening.
Hanzo arrived about an hour later, dark bags under his eyes and worry clear within them. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw the couple staring back at him. His eyes lit up with curiosity when the two settled back down into their previous position and Genji placed a gentle kiss on the top of the doctor's head, but he said nothing.
They stayed like that for the rest of the night. Genji refused to turn his sleeping function on, so he explained what happened to a very alert Hanzo as Angela drifted off every so often, always waking up screaming about thirty minutes after falling asleep. All three of them were worse for wear after the night ended, and the only thing that made them feel better was Winston's assurance in the morning that he would send Lena over immediately to get them to Gibraltar safely.
The next few hours passed by in a blur. Genji and Hanzo went back to their apartments to gather the things they wanted to take with them while Angela set up ways to automatically make payments for each of their homes while they were gone. She had enough funds from her time working for Overwatch as a doctor that she had invested intelligently to last her a dozen lifetimes; she'd take it upon herself to make sure they had a place to stay when this all blew over.
When the two men came back with a few suitcases worth of things each, they all started the long process of moving everything out of Angela's basement. A few of her machines took all three of them to get up and out of the stairs, resulting in intensely hard work. With all of her papers stuffed neatly into folders and her creations piled in the free spaces in the living room, they got to work helping her pack her personal items. Genji was charged with salvaging as many photos and DVDs as he could from the living room while Hanzo threw away all of the broken pieces of door and furniture scattered around the room. While they worked on that, Angela packed all of her clothes and personal belongings, almost crying when she saw how bare the home she had lived in for nearly ten years looked. It was like a robber had gone through and taken everything that wasn't too heavy to carry; her furniture was really the only thing left.
Genji came in then, wrapping her in a hug when he saw the look of distress on her face. "We'll come back here one day, Angela. I swear to you we will."
She shook her head as if to get out the bad thoughts. "I'm sure you're right. I'll just miss it."
Lena arrived not long after, managing to land their plane nearly vertically and almost completely silently in front of the house. She ran out of the plane immediately, throwing herself at Angela. "It's been so long, love! I've missed you." The endearment made her smile, because Lena really was the only one who could pull off making "love" sound completely platonic at all times.
The doctor ruffled the energetic pilot's hair before returning the hug. "Indeed, it has. It still feels like just yesterday was your first mission."
Lena blushed at that, before detaching herself and giving a bear hug to Genji as well. "I can't believe you're here too! Angela used to tell me so much about you, since I didn't get to see you much outside of training." She seemed ready to give the same treatment to Hanzo before realizing that she didn't actually recognize him. "No offense loves, but who is that?"
Hanzo stretched out his hand to her. "My name is Hanzo Shimada. I am Genji's brother."
Lena looked a little wary before accepting it, her smile faltering for half a second as she recognized the name but eventually returning to its normal bright shine. "Nice to meet ya! I'm Lena Oxton, codename Tracer." She let go of his hand to clap loudly, bouncing on the spot a little as she did. "Alright, now let's start moving your stuff!"
It took about an hour to get everything on board, all the fragile pieces of machinery strapped in carefully. Angela wasn't concerned at all about her creations' wellbeing; Lena was the best pilot she had ever encountered, and almost nothing could shake the doctor's confidence in her friend's abilities.
No, it was her life's work all being in one place that was scaring her. It was the idea that everything she knew, all her safety and security, was gone. She was about to leave her life of safety and security, and that thought terrified her to no end. As she closed her eyes so as not to look at the ground slowly getting further and further away as they ascended, she started to wish that she could go back to how things were before she knew that the Reaper was Gabriel Reyes, back before her home had lost its safety.
It was then she felt the gentle squeeze of Genji's hand in hers. She opened her eyes to see him looking at her intently, concern etched across his face. Her smile was genuine as she returned the pressure on his hand, closing her eyes and allowing her face to react.
Sometimes it was worth going through tragedies for the life experience that could be gained as a result. And to her, knowing that Genji loved her was worth losing everything and more.
A lot of people think Angela's spirit animal would be something like a dove. Even though it isn't a real creature, I think it would be a phoenix. The themes of rebirth and new life are just too strong to ignore.
Also I realize it's a bit of a short chapter, but this felt like a good cut off point and I'm busy writing other Gency things (which you should stay tuned for ;D) so hopefully that's understandable. Love you guys!