"Winston?"

"Genji! What are you doing here? The carrier leaves in ten minutes."

"There is something I must ask you before I go."

"Ask away. Though you might want to be quick about it. I swear, those carrier pilots don't give two—"

"How did I end up here, on the watch point?"

"Why, you know the answer to that. The Japanese infantry team—"

"I mean," he interrupted, "who did this to me?"

Behind his desk, the ape paused for a moment before he cleared his throat, coughed, and looked off to the side. "The man who brought you within an inch of your life?"

The cyborg did not respond.

Winston started fidgeting and squirming. "Well, of course you would have the right to know. I mean, it's you. But with the bind we're in with the Shimada clan, and how you came here… it's unbelievable, honestly. I'm still not quite sure what to think in regards to you and Project Regicide—"

"Project Regicide," Genji repeated. Winston looked alarmed. "What is that?"

"Forget I said anything!" said Winston, frantically waving his hands. "Project Regicide? What project? No secrets or conspiring here, nope! Absolutely nothing to worry, talk, discuss, chat about, or ever bring up again."

The ape started sweating under his unrelenting gaze.

"Will I… ever learn?" began Genji, finally breaking the tense silence.

Winston sighed. "You will." He heavily sat onto the floor, shaking the jars of peanut butter on his desk. "I'm sorry I can't tell you more. I meant it when I said you out of anyone else deserves to know everything, but I'm under direct orders barring me from discussing that with you. And I can't help but feel like that's the right decision, at this juncture." He leaned forward. "What happened on the beach… it wasn't just a migraine, wasn't it?"

"No," answered Genji after a moment. "Visions… vivid images. But they're not from a dream. Something… a remnant. A memory I cannot recall."

"What did you see?"

"I saw… blood. Fire, and I…"

"Genji!"

"Just a chill." The cyborg managed to stay on his feet. "I am confused, Winston. I don't know what all of this is supposed to mean. The pain and frustration, it's gnawing at me. An incessant noise that resonates in my head."

"All in due time," sighed the ape, "this I promise you. And I will tell you personally if need be."

"I understand. And I do not believe it would be that bad. Not compared to the bizarre things I have already seen."

"Here? Like what?" asked Winston curiously.

"I have seen Lena disappear in front of me in a flash of blue light and reappear somewhere else."

"What?"

"It is as I said. Of course, it must have been an error in my calibration."

Winston was bewildered. "But we just calibrated—"

"I thought I might find you here!" Mercy walked into the room, eyes still hazy from last night. "Why aren't you on the carrier? It's leaving soon."

"I just wanted to ask—"

"Did you not hear what I said?" She grabbed Genji's wrist and led him out. "Carrier now, questions later, lest you miss it!"

"Goodbye, Genji," bid Winston, smiling warmly. Genji thought he saw the slightest hint of melancholy in his eyes. "Till next time."

McCree was shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot, clutching at his stomach every now and again. The soldier was watching fidget. "What's your problem?" he asked.

"Nothing."

Guilt resurfaced as they approached, Genji recalling the events of last night. "Are you feeling better? I again apologize—"

"What are you talking about," McCree cut in loudly, "ain't nothing to apologize for!" He looked at Genji pointedly. "Ain't nothing at all."

"But the peppers—"

"Peppers?" said the doctor.

"Yeah, peppers?" repeated McCree, with an exaggerated laugh. "What peppers?"

"The ones that I—"

The southerner silenced him with a look. The soldier, confused, shrugged and walked to the humming aircraft, where the pilot still tinged green, sat belted to the side of the cargo hold.

"What are you doing here?" questioned Genji.

"Same reason she is," he replied, nodding to Angela. "To wave a handkerchief as you disappear over the horizon, with maybe one or two tears in our eyes."

She snorted. Genji smiled. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it," he shouted, the engines growing louder as the humming began to crescendo. "You might want to get on quick though. I had a look at the pilot when he was doing maintenance, he did not look like one happy camper!"

"Understood." Genji briskly paced towards the white aircraft.

"One more thing, metal man!"

He turned around.

McCree hesitated. "I don't know what it's like, waking up and being told by everyone the place I came from was full of murderers, thieves, and all round bad men. Because the thing is, I know I came from a bad crop."

Genji kept silent. The turbines spun faster and louder.

"I'm not proud of anything I've done, so right now, I'm trying to make things right by me. To redeem myself. I felt so strong, invincible, untouchable before. Now, I realize how blind and stupid I truly was. I don't know what you may be looking for at the end of your road, Shimada, but damn it, I like you. Whether it be from your ignorance or infinite wisdom, your utter drive for something you barely know, which includes yourself, made its impression on me. I don't know if I'd ever see you again, but you better believe I'll never forget. Come on then, put 'er there!"

Genji moved forward and locked his arm with McCree's, at the forearms.

"Remember… remember why you decided to go to Korea, and don't you dare stray from your path!" His eyes were as cold and hard as steel. "Or you'd best believe I'd come to find you, and beat some sense into you. Don't make me waste my respect on you, you hunk of junk!"

The ex-gangster released his arm and stepped back. Genji's world became a head full of golden hair as the doctor tackled him in a hug. "I'll miss you. Call me when you reach Korea, and I'll try to reach you whenever I can." She tightened her embrace. "Anything that happens, I want to hear about it. Anything. You haven't been here long, but it feels like I've known you for years."

"Likewise," he said, returning the hug. "I will miss you as well."

"Shh. We'll definitely see each other again." She untangled herself and pushed him away to the carrier, rubbing at her eyes. "Go! Before I change my mind and drag you back here myself."

"Thank you, Doctor!" he yelled over his shoulder as he boarded the carrier, now starting to vibrate and move. He reciprocated the commander's nod who stood with arms crossed on the ground with one of his own. As the bay doors began to slowly slide close, Genji remembered something. "And McCree!"

The ex-gangster raised his head.

"Why Peacekeeper?"

He smiled. "Because no one else will!"

"I will, on my name as a Shinmatta—"

"Shimada!" Angela and McCree cried in unison.

"Shimada!"

The bay doors closed, nullifying the noise from the raging turbines as the carrier began to jerk and move. Metal ridges with holes punched into them were bolted to the inside of the hull in rows, giving the impression of the jaws of a great carnivorous beast. Pulling the seat down beside Lena, he sat down and fastened his seatbelt.

"Today… is not my day," she said shakily, resting her head on the wall. Beads of sweat crept down her neck.

"You look very ill," agreed Genji. "Perhaps you should have stayed behind and left another day?"

"No amount of sickness will keep me away from my family," she declared, managing a weak smile. "Besides, 's just a hangover."

Genji placed a hand on her forehead. "You have a fever," he breathed.

"How can you tell? Isn't your arm…"

"I do not know how to describe it. It… feels warm." He paused for a moment. His head twitched. "And there's a little box at the corner of my vision. It says 'A hundred and one—F'?"

"Thirty-eight degrees celsius," she groaned, "or somewhere close. Looks like I do have a fever."

"We can still land—"

"No," she interrupted, "I can handle it. It's nothing compared to the ache of missing my family." She smiled brightly at him, or at least as much as she could. "Besides, I have you to take care of me."

"I'm no Doctor Ziegler…"

"I'll be fine, love. Thank you."

The ride went by without much incidence, save for bouts of turbulence which caused an interesting range of colors taking on Lena's face. The two sat side by side in silence after the girl told the cyborg to ease off, for the final time being considerably more firm than the previous attempts following his overenthusiasm to assure her comfort on board. After a moment she finally succumbed to restless sleep, head lolling off to the side.

Left with nothing to do, Genji sat where he was, looking around the cargo hold of the plane, reading tags and labels on the side of brown cartons big and small, shifting about against neon orange tapes tethering them onto the pallets on which they stood each time the plane swayed. He did this while patting and rubbing his knees, idly humming a meaningless tune to himself. Or so he thought.

"That's McCree's song, isn't it?" whispered Lena, eyes still closed.

"Is it? I was not really thinking."

"It is," she confirmed. "I remember how it sounded like—so quiet, and full of sadness."

"I didn't mean to wake you."

"Don't worry about it, love. I've always been a light sleeper."

Genji vaguely recalled her snoring figure swinging from Winston's shoulder as he walked. He said nothing.

"Go on, then," she prompted. "Keep going."

Genji continued humming. When he reached the end of the song, he smoothly transitioned to another tune, another rhythm, one he was sure he had never heard before.

He could see it. As clear as day and as ephemeral as dawn. The smell of fresh, glittering grass, an emerald sea that rippled with the wind. Gargantuan bodies of white cumulus, only to be dwarfed by snow-capped mountains lining the land traveled the sky. Caws, croons and coos. Genji could hear it all as he saw birds flutter into a basin circumscribed by circles of yew, pine and evergreens which sought to touch the skyward blue.

Howls and the gentlest purring filled the air as little woodland critters peeked out of the branches to peer at him. Wolves, foxes, dogs and bears left the cool darkness of the woods and entered the glade, where the sun shined brilliantly off their coats. Gray, brown, black and white. He could watch them forever.

"That was beautiful," Lena said very quietly, disturbing the sacred silence that fell after his song. "Where have you heard that before?"

"A dream. One that was as short as it was beautiful. I could see it too: the forests and the life that resides within."

A silence fell.

"You'll see it again, one day."

"Hmm?"

"The place in your dream. I know you will."

"Perhaps," he said.

The plane now stood still, the roaring of the engines softening to a dull purr. Hydraulics hissed and whirred as the bay doors extended, revealing a thick, long metal platform where white lines, dotted and solid, ran across the ground in seemingly random sequences. Beyond that, sea as far as the eye could see. The skies were dark and the waters even more so. They churned and crashed into one another, but despite this, the platform did not sway.

Genji could smell the salt.

A man came around the doors. "Genji…" He squinted at his clipboard. "Shidama?"

"Shimada."

"Shimada," he rectified. "You're getting off here."

The cyborg unfastened his seatbelt uncertainly, looking left and right. "Is this… the place called Korea?"

The man snorted. "Sure, and I'm the local baron, the lord of the metal land."

Genji bowed. "It is an honor."

Lena snickered at the stranger's reaction.

"Are you—insulting me?" he asked suspiciously.

"I would never dream of it, your lordship."

"Is he being serious?"

Lena shrugged.

Nobody said anything.

"Right." He clicked his pen. "Anyway, we were supposed to have reached Korea yesterday, but the weather didn't permit it. We expect to arrive tomorrow morning. But I see that they saw it fit to drop you off right here." He looked up. "What are you waiting for, then? A heralding and fanfare? Head down to the gym: two floors below. Chop-chop!"

Lena grasped his arm as he made to leave. She hid her eyes behind her hair and whispered something.

"What?"

She whispered again.

"I cannot hear you." He leaned in. "What was that?"

Without raising her head, she gestured for him to come closer and spoke inaudibly again. Genji's face was almost an inch to hers now.

Quick as lightning, she shot both arms out and embraced him, pulling him closer. Positioning her mouth to his ear, she shouted as loudly as she could, "See you later, Genji!" before shoving him away.

Losing his balance, he stumbled away out of the plane, where the lip had already began to close. She waved energetically to him, all fatigue forgotten. "Don't forget meeee!"

The stranger shook his head and walked away as the aircraft once again started to hover and take off. Genji planted himself heavily onto the ground, still stunned as the plane streaked across the sky.

The man opened the door of the iron guardhouse some distance away and called, "oh, and training started five minutes ago!"

The gymnasium was a wide area, an expanse which stretched twice as long as its breadth. A small stage in the form of an elevated floor stood at the end of it, unremarkable save for a black podium which sat in the middle of it.

Portraits of people Genji didn't recognize and banners on which loud, patriotic words were written like 'Fight for your Country today' and 'We must ourselves defend the things we hold dear' to other, more general ones like 'Never give up' and 'Bite the bullet, and spit it right back out' lined the otherwise windowless, white walls.

The floor was polished wood, panels of which ran long and narrow where upon stood men with varying expressions about them. They were all dressed in blue fatigues with matching caps. Some stood in circles talking to one another, while others kept to themselves and lurked by the walls of the room. The largest group stood right by the double doors. None paid Genji any mind as he passed through them.

"…telling you, I saw him. Jumped right off the jet going full speed!"

"You're exaggerating. And what makes you think that he, of all people, would oversee our training? We're just privates, never seen a day of real battle."

"Bill isn't lying. I saw him too. Though the part about him jumping off is embellished—"

"Why does it matter? Wouldn't that just make training tougher? I already heard stories about the passing rates, I don't need you two making me feel more uncomfortable than I already am."

"You've come to the wrong place then if you're afraid of a little pain."

"Hardly! I'm as prepared as the next guy, but the numbers don't lie—"

"What is it, then? The percentage of people passing? Spit it out."

"Thirty percent," he replied grimly, "just for the Swallow trials."

The circle fell silent.

"We've come to do the best we can," the man called Bill said. "If we don't make it, there's always the infantry teams. No shame in that."

The rest muttered their agreement.

"Bill's right," acknowledged the recruit who spoke of the trials. "We're in this together—"

"Form up!"

All heads turned. The source of the commanding voice strode into the middle of the room as the recruits scurried into lines on either side. Genji followed suit, falling in beside Bill at the end of the column, and drawing curious glances from the others who stood opposite him.

The man reached the end of the columns and turned, standing at attention. What followed was pin-dropping silence. Genji noticed that instead of fatigues, he was wearing a deep blue blazer that was almost black under a stiffly starched white shirt. And instead of a cap, he wore a beret where a small, silver rectangle was pinned. "My name," he began, "is Herbert Sobel. That's Lieutenant Sobel to all of you. And I have to say – he smiled curtly – you grunts got lucky. Instead of me handling your training, which was as planned, a special guest have arrived and taken charge of the operation. I will be supervising you all and assisting him. Present—arms!"

Everyone snapped their hands to their brows, standing still in salute. Genji awkwardly mimicked the motion.

The doors burst forth, and in paced a blonde man wearing blue armor with a similarly blue energy rifle by his hip. "At ease!"

The recruits dropped their salute. Despite themselves, the men started murmuring immediately. Gasps could be heard here and there.

"Bill wasn't lying!"

"It's true, then."

"Can you believe it?"

"The soldier. The soldier!"

"Soldier 76!"

Silence quickly returned as Jack began pacing the right column.

"All of you came here for a reason," he started, looking into the eye of every person he passed. "A sense of patriotism, a desire to do something greater, to see how far you can go, or to protect a loved one. All of us has a different one for being here."

He reached the end of the right column, and began pacing back on the left. "But where your differences end, your life as soldiers begin. Right now, you stand here together. Soon, you will eat together, train together, and eventually fight together. Stay and fight, and you will learn trust, code, and loyalty as something more than just words. I have the great privilege of personally training all of you for the next few months, until you reach the trial of Storms. Till then, let me see the drive and determination unfaltering in your eyes. Make no mistake, I will not go easy on you. The time for fun and games have long since passed, boys. After all—"

He came to a stop in front of Genji, and looked him right in the eye. "—we're all soldiers now."

Author Notes:

I heard that there's some problems with the review system now. Don't worry about it though, even if it doesn't show up on the website, I'm still reading it when it shows up on my e-mail, so post away!

I refuse to delay this chapter till the issue's fixed, so here it is. It's crazy to think about how far we've come, from the 3 or 4 followers from the first chapter. Thank you so much for all your attention and stay tuned for the next chapter. Right now though, I'm going to bed. I'm absolutely dead on my feet.

Oh, and I changed the title a little so the premise of the story is a little less ambiguous.

Edit: Woah, just when I was gonna post it the issue got fixed. I didn't plan for this, I swear!
Also, for any questions I haven't answered, it's only because I don't really know the answer myself. The story goes off on its own, I'm just along for the ride, almost as much as you are! The only thing left to do is to keep reading to find out ;)