His bike broke down just a few hours after, and with a sour face he had to climb behind her and hug her waist for support while she was laughing and making racy comments on him being so close.

After some hours of dashing through the desert, the horizon started to brighten and they both knew they will be easy prey once the sun was up.

'No matter how romantic this sunrise is' Sombra shouted 'We should maybe start coming up with a plan soon!'

'How far are we from the temple?' Hanzo asked, leaning down to her ears which gave her goosebumps.

'Not that far' and she nodded towards some mountains in front of them with a tall structure that was barely visible against the dawn in the background 'That should be an outpost or something. Your brother was here just yesterday.'

Hanzo let out a deep sigh, both because yesterday morning seemed ages ago and because the thought of confronting his brother again stirred uneasiness in him.

'Nervous?' Sombra asked half-serious, and patted his hand embracing her waist 'Family can be tough, eh guapo?'

'What would you know?'

And indeed. What would she know of family… of having a normal life, even…?

'I watch soap operas' she chided with a light tone, but did not pursue the matter any further. Hanzo, however, noticed her silence and went on:

'I think after saving your life the least I could have is to know your true name.'

'What does it matter?' she said annoyed and was glad she did not have to look him in the face. That girl… that girl was already long gone 'A name is nothing now. You can call me Mariana or Sofía or… Delia' she quickly blurted after a short pause 'But it won't change who I am. Besides' she added quickly, rather flustered 'You are also someone who hates their name so don't give me a hypocritical lesson on honor and all that bullshit.'

He found it hard not to smile at this comment, because she was right. Every day, he could try to delude himself that redemption was coming closer and closer; that he could atone for all the things that he has done... but by now he knew, it was just a vision at the end of the horizon, always just out of reach. And strangely, this thought did bring some peace of mind with it.

They soon reached the huge cliff and Sombra stopped the helibike to get off and look up at the structure, which was sitting halfway to the top.

'Ah maaan, that is steep' she huffed and puffed and turned back to the helipad 'I'll just hack this babe so it will lure them away but maybe you need to start using your fine archer hands to-' she looked back and saw Hanzo climb, very much like a cat, already on a higher cliff.

'Damn' she cursed but immediately had to smile. As the helipad stormed off she took one of her translocators, throwing it as high up as she could.

'Ha, gotcha' she laughed down at him a second later, and he looked up baffled, but hid a grin as he pushed himself even harder to be faster than her.

A good few minutes later, close to the structure, they were already both panting quite heavily under the rising sun.

'What if… what if we call it quits, eh?' Sombra mouthed, out of breath, and took out a water bottle from his duffel bag 'And maybe not a bad idea to get some rest.'

'Out of the question' Hanzo said, trying to regain his composure, and started to walk down a narrow path on the side of the cliff 'We need to press on.'

'We pretty much haven't slept in two days' Sombra remarked sharply 'And there should be still a good amount of desert and rock between us and that place.'

But he did not reply, only kept going on forward, eyes fixed on the building they were closing in on.

'Oh wait' she then said, dead set on getting him irritated for her own enjoyment 'I think I did read that your brother was a playboy back in the day. Maybe you had your own share of endless parties that went on for days? Or did you just sit in the back room and study all your youth like a good little boy, not ever attending a party or meeting a girl?'

Hanzo stopped in his tracks, and she had to as well, because he did the most unbelievable thing - he started laughing out loud. And it lasted a good few minutes, too, only fading away slowly, and she seemed to see him wipe a tear away from his eye.

'You really don't know?' he turned back towards her with a smug smile, the sun lighting him up from the side, that dirty, bruised, and a bit swollen face that was coming to life after laughing.

'No' Sombra said, rather flustered, but he turned away before she could really burn the image of him into her retina 'What… what is it?' she snapped, quickly catching up with him.

'Well, I guess you cannot know everything' Hanzo remarked brashly and the Mexican felt like exploding. She hated when people kept things from her.

'What? I don't think I was off by much!' she snapped back at him, getting more and more annoyed 'It's hard to imagine you otherwise than at training or with your books, being all serious and boring! I wouldn't even be surprised if you were still a virgin!'

A chuckle burst out of him and he was about to turn back to her and say something, but in the next moment he slipped and disappeared with a short cry.

'Hanzo!' Sombra yelled, and crouched down to look over the ledge at their feet. The archer was holding on, but just barely.

'Can you climb up?' she asked, trying to assess his position, which did not seem so great.

'Do I look like it?!' he growled back in response, and she reached down, grabbing his arms and trying to pull him up. He finally found some slight footing but the small hands trying to lift him didn't do much good.

'God, all that muscle makes you really heavy' Sombra moaned 'Can't you just call those dragones estúpidos of yours?!'

'They. Were. Not. Meant. For. That!' Hanzo fought to hiss each syllable as he strained his muscles to haul himself up, but the small rocks at his feet started to crumble away as he was inching his upper body over the cliff.

'AAARGH, what the HELL are they good for then?' Sombra yelled angrily, as she got on her knees and bent down to hug him firmly under his armpits and lift him up a few inches, growling from the struggle.

'You don't know anything!' Hanzo could only breathe this as enraged as he could, and, using her force, pushed himself up to his forearms.

'I know you are a fucking pain in the ass and THAT is just enough!' Sombra snapped back at him, and with one hand, reached down to his belt on his back and yanked him up with all the strength she had left in her.

Hanzo also pushed himself up and ended up crashing into Sombra's chest and they both toppled over, falling to the ground. They stayed there for a moment, not moving, just panting heavily.

'Thank you' Hanzo then breathed slightly embarrassed and got on his hands and knees above her 'Are you alright?'

'Well I didn't see that coming' Sombra admitted out of breath and looked into the archer's eyes with a tired smile. He remained there for just a few more seconds and paused to look at her dilated pupils and slightly parted, panting lips. He felt that urge again, deep within him, and a strange tinkle around his gut. He wanted to grab her hair, push her down and kiss her almost violently, to wipe that grin off of her and make her feel his strength.

'Hm. We… need to keep moving' he then said in a low, hoarse voice, and knelt back.

'Bah, what we need is to rest' Sombra said lazily, not in a hurry to get up 'Face it, we are both beat. Another two-three hours of restin' won't set us back by much.'

Hanzo did not like to admit it, but she was right. When he stood up he felt dizzy and spent, and had to rub his temples to fight a slowly forming headache.

'Hm, what do you propose then?' he asked nonchalantly. Sombra slowly sat up cross-legged, looking around and then setting her gaze on the structure.

'I have a hunch we can crash there for a bit' she said, pointing up 'Unless you have a better idea, oh great samurai.'

'That will suffice' he answered, giving her a look that was partially lecturing and partially amused 'And stop calling me that. You know nothing of my life, my youth, even if you claim you do. My family hid all that there was to hide' and he carefully leaped over the collapsed part in the pathway, stopping on the other side and looking back at her.

'Just not the fact what kind of a life your brother led… or what they ordered you to do to him' she replied, slightly surprised at his gesture, but after a few quick steps, graciously jumped over the path. She saw Hanzo raising both arms just a tiny bit towards her, just in case she fell or faltered, but he did not touch her in the end.

'My brother's childhood was… interesting, at best' Hanzo said, clear disapproval settling on his face as they continued their way towards the structure in the cliff 'He often went behind my family's back, and I guess we could not make each and every outing of his undone by the media. In any case - rest assured, we were both trained very strictly. But next to all my official obligations, I did live the life of a young man, even if briefly.'

'So like what, you had girls over?' Sombra grinned, highly amused that Hanzo was finally ready to have a two-way conversation.

'Hmmm, not quite' the archer gazed into the horizon with a slight smile himself as he thought about those times 'Our sensei would have killed us for that… if we were caught. Then again, Genji was always the quicker one of us, and I did not want to test my luck with the sensei.''

'Wow, sounds rough. I guess it was an old, boring dude, like in some of those anime?'

'Tsk, you are so stereotypical' Hanzo snickered, looking at her slyly from the side 'Our sensei, Tadayoshi Kimiko, was a woman, beautiful and fearsome, believe me.'

'No waaay, I am not buying it' Sombra said with a thrilled yet confused look on her face 'Your teacher was a lady? This smug, arrogant and cold someone was raised by a woman? No, no, no, that is too much, that is great!' she said, bursting out in laughter.

'You call yourself a hacker and do not even know this much?' Hanzo asked, pushing her a bit to signal it was not funny 'If you had known her you would not laugh so much now.'

'So… haha...oh Dios… so she was tough huh?' the Mexican asked, wiping a tear from her eye.

'Rather' Hanzo admitted, smiling, and hastened his steps. A bit of silence settled between the two of them. But then Sombra spoke and her next question caught him off guard:

'Do you ever think of... going back?'

He did not answer for a bit of time, only looked down at the path he was treading on And that was life, really, him just looking right down, never up or back. He had some good memories of the three of them, but…

'Going back is not an option' he said in a low voice, voicing his train of thought.

'Yeah, but, you know… sometimes, you think… maybe…' Sombra's voice trailed off, as she herself sometimes wondered if this was all worth it, if life would ever be… different from how it was now.

They reached the structure in silence after this.

When they got closer they saw it was a smaller dome, partially standing on columns and most of it resting against the rock. There was a small gate on one side, which seemingly lead inwards to the cliff via a carved hallway.

'Do you think what we are looking for is on the other side?' Hanzo asked at the hallway's entrance, reaching out and feeling a slight breeze on the tips of his fingers.

'It's anyone's guess' Sombra admitted, settling down against the wall in a corner 'But I think so, yeah.'

'We cannot stay for long' the man reminded her as she leaned back to the rocky wall and closed her eyes, whispering Yeah whatever.

She closed her eyes but instead of that long-awaited sleep, she remembered how she was bound and helpless just a few hours ago.

Let's wipe that pretty little brain, they said and she fought back as hard as she could, but inside of her a deep panic rose, especially when that weird engineer brought the cable to hook onto her. So far she was completely convinced she was still human, just… you know, more than human. But the possibility, even the thought of someone knowing how to alter her… well, that apparently was the only thing that could still make her feel remotely afraid.

She got a tiny bit of sleep, but awoke to the same troubling thoughts and rather opened her eyes to escape this stupid uneasiness inside.

The sun was high up and, though cool in the shade, the hot winds of the desert started battering the cliffs. Hanzo was sitting close to the edge with his back to her, probably keeping guard.

She was just considering to go over there, when something in her chest started buzzing. Staring carefully at Hanzo, she unzipped the camo suit a bit and took out a small device from her cleavage, placing it in her ear.

'Sombra, enough playing, report in. Do you have the target?' she heard the low, menacing sound of her favorite coworker.

'Not right now Gabe, sorry' she whispered to herself after she turned the device off, putting it back under her clothes. Then she stood up and took the bottle of water from the duffel bag, making her way to the man.

'Thirsty?' she asked and took a swing at the bottle herself.

'No' Hanzo growled back obviously tired, and did not take his eyes off the horizon.

'You should drink still. You are pushing yourself too much, and that is not helping' the Mexican rolled her eyes and stubbornly held out the bottle for him. Hanzo pressed his lips together, but after a few awkward minutes, reached out and took the bottle, not looking at the woman at all.

'You should sleep too' Sombra said, sitting down next to him 'Or do you still not trust me after all this?'

'Well… I'd rather we keep going' he said finally, rubbing his eyes.

'Just to fall off a cliff again?' she replied in a sassy tone.

'I am well enough' he said strictly, but she already got to know this tactic; when he was not at all that sure about himself, he just played all the more cool and tough. She grew up with guys like him, she knew when these people faltered. But she also knew that if they had their minds set on something, that was difficult to change.

'Ah yes, I forgot that you are a skilled assassin' she chided lightly, and stood up, reaching out to him 'But in your age, I mean, you gotta be cautious.'

'I do believe I am not as old as you think' Hanzo said with one raised eyebrow and took her hand, tugging strongly at it so she could feel his strength. She grinned widely in return, planting both of her feet to help him up;. and when he stood up they held on to each other for one more minute, looking into the other's eyes, but then they let go at the same time.

'Let's get this party started then' Sombra said in her usual sneaky tone, and grabbed the duffel bag, heading towards the entrance in the wall.
Hanzo looked back at the horizon, at something that might as well have been a sandstorm, but even if it wasn't… it shouldn't be a threat, since there is not trail they are leaving.
So he quickly followed the woman into the cave, one step closer to the confrontation with his brother.