Jack could hear the door slam open.

"Explain yourself."

"Not even a good morning?" The commander didn't even bother looking in her direction, instead choosing to focus on the book he was reading. "What happened to common courtesy, Angela?"

"Good morning," she said curtly, not attempting to be cordial. "Now please, explain yourself."

Jack Morrison perused the text attentively. "I'm afraid… I don't know what you're talking about."

"Jack," the doctor said impatiently.

"Hold on."

His eyes moved slowly, carefully examining each line as he took his time to finish the passage. Upon doing so, he took off his reading glasses, set them aside, and casually flicked the book shut. With an extremely loud clap which echoed through the corridors, the book burst into pieces and crumbled from his hand.

"Ah." The soldier clicked his tongue. "It happened again."

"Jack Morrison."

"Don't worry, I'll replenish the issue. I was just getting to the good part too…"

"Jack."

"Angela? You look terrible. Did you just wake—"

"Explain to me," she interrupted, "why Genji is going to Korea."

"What's wrong with Korea?" he inquired defensively. "It's a nice place. Cool air, quiet… though I'm not a big fan of their music."

"Enough," she hissed.

He sighed. "What exactly did the Shimada tell you?" He got up from the table and approached the wall of mirrors away from her, which lent the small library an illusion of greater size.

The doctor's face was blushed in anger. "He told me he was going to fight, that he was going to take part in all this senseless violence."

"Did he say why, or how?"

"That's not important—"

"You stormed out of the room as soon as you heard that, didn't you?" He folded his hands behind his back and watched her carefully through the mirror. "After all, patience was never much your strong suit."

Her face grew redder. "I will not stand for—"

"Stand for what, Angela?" he asked coldly. "We are at war. Every day, more lives are being lost to it. Have you forgotten the cause which saved the Shimada's life?"

"His name is Genji," she replied, "and how dare you insinuate my ignorance of dying people. I am a doctor."

"And I am a soldier. If war and violence disgusts you so, does my being chemically augmented to fight in such wars revolt you too? Is my existence grotesque and incomprehensible to you as an active participant of such an ugly, evil thing?"

Mercy looked off to the side. "That's not fair."

"You're absolutely right. It's not fair. Since you didn't listen, allow me to enlighten you. Genji is going to Korea to learn how to defend something. An idea, a place, a life, it doesn't matter. Violence isn't as repulsive as you believe it is, Angela. It's about what you're fighting for."

"He doesn't remember anything." She pursed her lips. "Do you wish to impose war upon him? His mind shares a likeness of a child—"

"—and you his mother?"

Mercy held her silence.

"Don't forget, he is still a son of the Shimada clan. He may not understand this now, but what about tomorrow, next month, if and when he remembers? They are a family of criminals and killers. I'd like to show him another world of other loyalties apart from that; our world."

"Genji is not a killer," she said quietly.

"What's the matter with you, Angela? Look at me. Why that look in your eyes? You know better than to get emotionally invested with your patients."

"This is different."

"That it is," acknowledged the soldier solemnly, sighing.

"But why Korea? Why not here? I still need to keep an eye on him, there's still much to be confirmed about his new body keeping him alive."

"Political reasons. Don't scowl, you look ten years older when you do that. His survival is best kept a secret. We don't know why he's been found within an inch of his life when we did, but someone wanted him dead. It's due to the existing hostility between Korea and Japan that it would be the best decision to hide him there; right under the Japanese's nose. Speaking of proximity, it would also help with the initiation of phase two."

He walked back to the table and switched off the lamp. "Besides, Torbjörn's at the Korean base as well, he'll have no problem maintaining him. After all, he did help design—"

"Weaponize," corrected Mercy bitterly.

"—the suit," Jack continued, "not to mention that I have contacts in Japan I can call on for his combat training, as I have no doubt he would have received some form of as a Shimada. We'll just have to bring it out of him, whatever it might be. And it wouldn't hurt to give him a taste of the world outside the isolation of this rock."

Silence reigned while the doctor collected her thoughts. "Do you not think it is a painful—" she began, "—no, cruel irony to all this? And what is to say he will agree? I do not like it."

The commander approached her and looked her in the eye, where desperation welled in turquoise. "Some would call it destiny. Personally, I don't care. I just do what's needed to be done. That's all. And the first step to understanding that is knowing there are things in this world more important than any of us. Genji, you, or me."

He walked past her towards the door. "Have breakfast with me. I'm hungry."

She hesitated. "Jack?"

"Angela?"

"How can you stand it?" Her voice was soft, almost inaudible. "The wailing? The screams? Do they not haunt you, awake or otherwise?"

The soldier stopped at the threshold. Silence hung stagnant in the air. "They did. But I got used to it." He walked out into the corridor. "Maybe that's the scariest part."

Genji checked everywhere.

He walked through the entire east block trying to find the doctor to no avail. The cyborg thought she would be happy to hear him take an active role in Overwatch, like an esteemed hero the commander told him he could be. What he didn't expect was for her to sleepily rub sleep from her eyes, then stand at full attention before walking out without a word before he barely started telling her about it.

At first, he went around the ladies' toilets and awkwardly called out for her from the outside, thinking it was a simple stomachache which elicited her strange behavior. Now though, he felt that there's something more, something hidden from him that eluded his understanding.

Uneasy smiles, averted eyes and clearing of throats. The cyborg pretended he didn't notice, but those things took the place of answers when he asked certain questions to the people of the watch point. He didn't really mind, understanding the position they were in relative to his, but he wished that they would just tell it to him straight, instead of skirting around the issue and having to listen to their thought-to-be discreet circumlocution.

Sleeping and strolling about seemed like the only things he had been doing on the watch point. He was glad that he was going to leave, in a way, more due to the restlessness creeping onto him than anything. Crossing into an outdoor junction, Genji saw Lena sitting on the grass beneath a tree across the courtyard, which gave a view of a panorama of the rippling sea.

She was sat hugging her knees to her chest, and unlike the previous similar encounter he had with her, she did not look as dispirited as before. No, there was a contemplative nature about her face this time as she gazed out into the open waters, as though she was thinking about a particularly difficult puzzle.

The cyborg walked over to her, crossing the ground where metal gave way to green. "Greetings."

"Woah!" She jumped violently and snapped her head to him.

"I apologize."

"If you're really sorry, you'd stop doing that!" yelled the girl before calming down some. "Come to think of it, this is kind of how we first met, yeah?"

"Very much so." The cyborg sat himself down beside her, crossing his mechanical legs.

"You ever get that feeling of déjà vu?" laughed Lena.

"Only too many times," he sighed, "for only remembering so little."

At odds with herself, she gazed back into the sea where she watched fish break its surface and return, leaving white flowers of splash. "Genji, can I tell you — no, show you something?"

"If it will ease your disquiet."

The girl slowly got to her feet. "Don't freak out, okay?"

"My heart is strong," he said as she stood in front of him and looked past him, taking on a visage of measured caution. He figured that after being jumped by the eccentric American, he could suppress or at the very least hide his shock if something truly were to happen. "I am sure it is not as bad as you—"

A flash of blue light. Genji found himself looking out into the sea as his vision adjusted itself from the girl which stood in it a moment before. Such a nice view, he thought peacefully. Reaching behind his head, he depressed the pistons which held his visor in place. With a hiss of escaping air, he pulled it off and looked around. There was nothing in sight to wipe it with.

"Genji?" came the voice of the missing girl from behind him.

He twisted his body to face her. The wind tugged at her blurred outline. She was some distance away. Silently, he beckoned her with a hand.

Taking some of the white fabric which made up her shirt when she got close enough, he meticulously cleaned his visor before pushing it back onto his face. He gave it a moment to snap in place and activate, listening to the hum that always came with it.

"All right," he finally said, his voice a little hoarse, "what was it you wanted to show me?"

She stared at him. He stared back.

"I uh… just did." She touched her index fingers together. "It's a… a bit weird, don't you think?"

He stared at her. She stared back.

Wordlessly, he got up and walked back from where he came.

"Genji? Love? Where are you going?"

He continued walking. "I must find Doctor Ziegler. I think my broken is felled when I calibration just now."

"What? Genji?!"

"Yes," he agreed, entering the complex and returning to his search for the doctor.

Author Notes:

Exams are over, finally.

Sorry for the long break between chapters, but it'll be frequent from now on. It'll only be a few weeks before I start interning, so we'll see how it goes when it comes. Nonetheless, I'll keep you guys updated about coming chapters if there's any news of delay.

And don't worry, I won't abandon the story. I'm having too much of a blast writing it!

While we're here, I would like to thank each and every one, and I really mean this, each and every one of you which take the time to read all this, and though I don't reply to every review, I truly appreciate every favorite, follow, and review I receive. Whether it be on a good or bad note, my impression for this will never change. If I have done enough to earn your attention, it's my prolonged duty to sustain it.