A/N:
Ok guys and girls. I say this in all seriousness now. This chapter is dark. Like, properly dark. We are talking explicit, heavy torture. Don't worry, we aren't going back to such depth again in this story, if you made it through this, I promise you have seen the worst.
I hope you have that bottle of Scotch still somewhere. You might need it.
Let's get started.
-/-
Newsflash: In the late evening Washington DC was struck by yet another wave of violence. For yet unknown reasons a minor population of Omnics seemed to have attacked civilians in the area of the capitol, claiming the lives of 32 civilians and 56 officers of the armed response team dispatched to deal with the situation. As of now it appears the area has been pacified. 124 Omnics have been permanently disabled after an hour long gunfight.
But not only America is the source of bad news.
Reports from Zürich, Switzerland indicate that there has been an armed attack on the annual Congress of Medical affairs. The situation on site is very unclear as of now, as the police is currently investigating, and the whole area has been locked down, but as reports keep coming in, it seems that various guests of the congress have been abducted by unknown human assailants. It has been confirmed that the well known Dr. Angela Ziegler is among the victims, her bodyguard was found dead in an alley next to the event hall. Ziegler, who is best known for her Nobel prize winning resurrection technology, which was deemed unethical by the WHO, was a long time Overwatch member and passionate world-peace activist. Her whereabouts remain unknown as of now. While the UN has yet to comment on the events of both DC and Zürich, people are organizing impromptu protests under the motto of 'Peace for People - Bring back Overwatch'.
Meanwhile Thiery Savant, a French businessman who has recently announced his candidacy for the position of the UN general secretary, declared that, should he be elected into office, he'd work hard to put an end to these continuous waves of violence, promising that he'd do whatever it took to stop both the terror attacks as well as the Omnic rebels. He addressed specifically those increasing numbers of people demanding the abolishment of the Petras act and the re-activation of Overwatch. He told all those demanding the re-establishment of Overwatch that while this is an option worth considering, there are other effective options to evaluate before changing existing laws. He promised that, should he be elected, there would be decisive measures to ensure world peace in a desirable way.
In recent surveys Thiery Savant had been at a close second place to the current general secretary Lilith Royce. His strong position for a decisive fight against terror and Omnic attacks could grant Savant the necessary advantage in the upcoming elections as the general mood is swinging toward a more aggressive approach for solving these problems.
-/-
Unmarked Talon controlled freighter, North sea, 1209 hours.
Angela Ziegler's world was dark, as she had yet to regain consciousness.
That state was rather violently forced upon her when she felt a sharp pain stinging her cheek accompanied by a loud smacking noise.
"Nap time is over. Wake up, bitch!" a breathy voice yelled. Mercy's eyes fluttered open after another heavy and painful smack to her face. Her lower lip was throbbing, and she had a metallic taste in her mouth.
Blood.
Mercy swallowed heavily, trying to comprehend what was going as she forced her eyes open. Her memory was completely blank, and there was an annoying tingling pain in the back of her head. 'Gah, what happened?' Angela squeezed her eyes shut for a second and opened them again, hoping it would somehow improve her blurry vision... which it only did partly, yet enough to take in her surroundings.
The first thing Mercy noticed was how dirty the room around her was. The filthy metal was covered in a mix of brown-red rust and an indistinguishable green slime, most likely some kind of algae. The dim light, coming from an old dark green lampshade, was softly swinging back and forth. Just like a few heavy chains, not any less rusty than the walls, which were hanging from strong metal rails on the ceiling. Mercy had to be on some kind of ship.
Apart from that, there wasn't an awful lot worth mentioning in the small room other than maybe the revolting stench of decay and old blood. Strangely enough, there also was the slightest hint of hot coffee in the air, but that was basically everything. Oh, yes, and the uncomfortable chair Mercy was currently sitting on. Her slender arms were tied tightly to the armrests and her legs bound to each side of the chair. The rope was sharp and cut deeply into her skin.
Mercy's head was hurting like the twelve o'clock train just rushed through it, but she was sure the reason for that weren't the two punches to her face before. Her memories were starting to go from nonexistent to hazy.
She had been to the medical convention which she had been looking forward to for quite some time. That much Mercy remembered. Pharah accompanied her and... suddenly everything came back to her in an instant.
Talon's attack in Zürich.
Pharah and her attempted escape from the terror organization, the RPG which blew their car up, and Fareeha getting executed in front of Angela's burning eyes before Talon abducted her.
And now Mercy was tied to this chair inside a damp and moldy room God knows where. She took a deep breath which would have almost proven a mistake. The smell was so disgusting, Mercy almost puked. But the doctor knew she had to try and stay calm and, even more importantly, quiet for now. There were heavy footsteps walking around somewhere behind her. So she was not alone. Obviously someone had to have smacked her before.
Angela took this opportunity to gather as much information about her circumstances. There were a couple of cameras on tripods which were recording her and opposite to her the rusty wall was interrupted by a large mirror. Most likely one of these semi see-through versions with a small room on the other side. Mercy saw her reflection in the mirror, her formerly perfectly white dress dirty and torn. Her hair had become undone and was falling out of the tight topknot she liked to tie.
Angela looked almost as filthy as she felt. Strangely enough, whoever had punched her in the face was nowhere to be seen in the reflection. Angela could only hear that person move around somewhere behind her.
She groaned, looking down on her body, and saw that something on her lower arm, shortly above the inside of her wrist, wasn't quite the way it used to be. Something was added which should not have been there. Mercy had to concentrate on the spot for a moment, her eyes still not fully complying to her brain's orders. But once they did, Mercy immediately recognized what was added to her body.
Now there was a bar-code tattooed onto her forearm, a mark which obviously had not been there before. It bore some horribly close resemblance to the identification number of a pig in a slaughter-house. Apparently Angela Ziegler was little else to Talon.
A wave of panic started to get the better of Angela while she inwardly cursed the people who did this to her; the very same people who had executed Pharah. The mere thought made Mercy so angry. The doctor usually wasn't one to be easily enraged, but, as with everyone, there was a certain line which, once crossed, made Mercy see red. And that line was if someone dared to mess with her family. Pharah might have been a very new member of her Overwatch-family, but she still was family. And someone dared to hurt her. Dared to shoot her in front of Mercy's eyes.
Inwardly, she was fuming, way angrier at Talon than actually scared.
Still, Angela knew full well that the things which were to come would hardly be enjoyable and that she should be scared.
She needed to compose herself. Dr. Ziegler had been an Overwatch operative. She was taught how to handle herself in these situations and she promised herself that she would get out of here -wherever here was supposed to be - and home safe and sound. No matter what.
And then she'd make Talon her public enemy number one. She would avenge Fareeha.
The sound of heavy footsteps on rusty ground was coming closer, and a figure holding a steaming hot mug in his hand walked into her view. Angela gulped as she prepared her mind for what she knew would come soon. Interrogation counteraction training had been some time ago for her, but Angela remembered. It wasn't like the stuff they taught you during these two weeks of necessary hell was easily forgotten.
Right now she was happy that her arguments of 'a field medic not needing any training in these kind of affairs' was met by deaf ears of her superiors.
Mercy grunted as she tried to pull on her restrains, knowing nothing would happen, but still wanting to at least try. She yanked two times on her hands and her feet, only for the ropes to cut in deeper into her flesh.
"That is wasted energy" the creepy male said, smirking at Mercy in a very unsettling way before sipping from his mug, making an obnoxious, slurping sound. The nameless man wasn't at all like Mercy expected. From the sound he made while he was moving, the guy had to be at least 6' 5'' tall and more than 350 pound heavy.
But that wasn't the case
The man was a beanpole if there ever was one. And while he was ridiculously tall, he quite literally lacked any substance apart from his bones and some grey skin to hold it all together. His face was pale and sunken, and his eyes were glowing red while his hair was almost as white as snow. The man wore a black uniform underneath a dark grey rubber apron, which reminded Mercy horribly of the things butchers at a slaughterhouse wore. There was dried blood on the apron as well.
'Oh Gott...'
The interrogator bowed down to Angela's forcibly composed face, letting a hand run up on the inside of Mercy's thigh before he turned it outwards and continued up her side. Mercy tried not to twitch at his disgusting touch, but she probably failed to some extent. Her body was too tense; she couldn't tell. His boney hand was gliding up her body, suddenly cupping her chin, lifting it up with two fingers. Angela noticed that the torturer was wearing at least one ring on almost every finger, some made from silver, some were golden, but all were rather large.
"It's good to see that you have finally woken up, Dr. Ziegler" he whispered in a mocking tone, his breath smelling rotten and like cold smoke. Mercy tried to turn her face away in disgust, at least as far as his skinny fingers would allow her to.
The doctor felt her heart rate skyrocket, but she did her best to let this go by unnoticed. She needed to concentrate. Mercy knew there was torture ahead of her and she needed to be ready. The nanoprobes her body was constantly producing would help her, but she would still have to steel her mind for what Talon had in store for her. "I have been growing impatient" the man murmured and sounded positively excited, almost needy, about getting started.
'Oh great, someone who likes his job.' Naturally, Dr. Ziegler's excitement was very limited at this point.
"And who are you supposed to be?" Angela asked, trying to completely ignore the hand roaming freely over her beautiful body. Luckily she was still wearing that dress, otherwise Mercy would have thrown up. If touching her was supposed to scare her, it failed miserably. At least Angela tried to tell herself that she wasn't scared. She insisted that, if anything, she was disgusted. "And get your filthy hands off me, Arschloch" she hissed.
The man's face fell. He took a moment in which he didn't move, and Mercy almost suspected she might have struck a nerve. Then, out of nowhere, he brought his other hand forward, the one holding his steaming hot mug, and hurled the entire cup of boiling coffee straight into her face.
A fraction of a second Mercy didn't feel anything. Then the pain hit her like a gigantic tsunami, her skin feeling like it was torn off by acid and on fire all the same time, while the hot liquid was flowing down her face and onto her body, burning her flesh.
No matter how hard she tried not to, Mercy cried in pain, her hands gripping tightly on the chair's armrest as she tried to shake the liquid off her face. But the damage was done, it felt like someone was rubbing the skin off her attractive face with rough sandpaper.
It took some minutes until the pain had faded away and Angela didn't scream anymore. She was breathing heavily, glad that the nasty scars and burns on her face and chest would be gone in a few minutes again. Her self-healing would both proof a blessing and a curse. A blessing because she would be able to survive way more than ordinary humans, and a curse for the very same reason.
"You talk only when I ask you to!" the man ordered harshly "But you are right; how rude of me, not introducing myself properly. Where are my manners?" he laughed haughtily "My name is Archibald Montgomery. Welcome to my kingdom." he whispered creepily. "We are going to have a lot of fun together while I mold you into your new self"
Somehow Mercy expected more.
Sure, the pain fading from her face was enough of a reminder that this guy was not to be underestimated, but still. Angela expected more, she thought he would threaten her with more pain or with whatever else. But that was... it was ridiculous.
He was mocking her.
And that made Angela furious. After all those sick fucks did to her and, even more importantly, after they killed Pharah, they don't even have the decency to take her seriously?
She was past her no-violence philosophy. Negotiations weren't over; they never started. Angela swore that she'd kill them all. With her own two hands, she'd rip them to pieces and she would start with this guy in front of her. As soon as she got out of this hell, she'd make him pay.
Her blood was boiling and, for a second, there might have been a faint purplish shimmer in her otherwise ocean blue eyes; one that Montgomery missed.
This would hardly be the first time the otherwise peaceful and gentle Mercy would turn into her polar opposite. It was almost like a devil replaced the spot usually occupied by an angel at the push of a button. Usually she hated violence or the use thereof, but then there were certain moments, especially when Angela felt someone was threatening people she cared for, when that changed on a whim. Mercy would then start to absolutely adore violence. She then enjoyed some very unpleasant moments in rather twisted ways, taking deep pleasure out of hurting those who dared to hurt others.
It made Angela feel detached from the world, both physically and emotionally, and Mercy would get an almost godlike feeling, becoming quite literally the master of death and life, deciding who would walk away and who would decay in the dust. Whenever that happened, everyone seemed all so small and unimportant, like they were merely toys Mercy could bend to her will. That was one of her best kept secrets. The only person on earth aware of it was Tracer.
The last time Angela felt like this was when she had finally found the guy who had been poisoning the water-source of a child-refugee camp in Africa a couple of years ago.
Mercy had been spending months there to help the kids as best as she could. She was making slow progress, but then, out of nowhere, the kids started dying like flies, and Angela had no idea what was going on or how to stop it. She had lost all 320 kids in the end before she figured out that there was poison in the spring. It wasn't lethal to adults; just to kids. And that was when Angela figured that it was yet another day to abandon her non-violence philosophy. Someone had been hurting her patients; those she swore to protect. Her family. That person had to die. The doctor was brutally binary in that regard, again, something only Tracer really was aware of. Lena never commented on that darker side of her best friend. Angela was eternally grateful for that.
Mercy found the culprit a few days later in a brothel filled with child-prostitutes. She threatened to skin him alive, explaining how she'd cut where while displaying her vast knowledge of the human anatomy, before the bastard confessed. Mercy didn't hesitate long, and shot him right between the eyes. Angela hated to admit that she enjoyed punishing him. It was... amusing. Killing that bastard felt good.
Yet it had little to nothing to do with her current situation.
This now? With this crazy torturer about to do God knows what to her? Why did Mercy get the same feeling she had that day? There it was again, that... amusing feeling. Yet this time, it was less because Mercy enjoyed her situation, because she clearly didn't; this time it was actually more comical.
His kingdom? What was this guy thinking? Didn't he take himself seriously at all? Or was he actually believing his own bullshit? Mercy's lips escaped a slightly bemused snort.
Which probably wasn't the smartest idea the doctor ever had.
"Oh, you think that is laughable?" Montgomery asked, raising a brow. He looked rather murderous in that moment.
"Your kingdom? Please. I am sure you could have come up with something both more intimidating and original, oder nicht?" Mercy replied. Montgomery nodded slowly before he leaned close to Angela, grabbing the neck of her dress and roughly tearing it down. The fine silk tore apart with a loud noise as he ripped the fabric apart.
"You don't get it, do you? You are in my kingdom because I can do with you whatever I please. No one cares as long as I get the job done." he said, roughly ripping Mercy's dress in two halves. He took a moment to stare at her now exposed chest. "Ts ts. No bra. What a filthy bitch" he laughed, patting her cheek way too hard to be friendly. Obviously.
The lids on Montgomery's left eye were twitching as he noticed that the beautiful burn on Angela's face and chest was already gone. He read her file and knew she could do that whole self-healing thing, but still, Archibald hoped it wouldn't work so fast. Where was the fun in that?
Mercy just snorted in bemusement at his strange expression. That brought Montgomery back as he stepped in reverse a little before punching Mercy straight across her face without any warning. His knuckles impacted harshly on Angela's face, the true function of his many rings becoming painfully apparent while they pierced through her skin. The doctor's head was yanked to the side, and the skin on her cheekbone burst open, dark red blood streaming out of the wound. Her lower lip was throbbing in pain again, and Mercy had an iron taste in her mouth yet another time.
"Still think this is funny?" Archibald asked before he hit the other side of Mercy's face as well, followed by a hard kick into her stomach. His heavy military boots connected with her abdomen. If the torturer had aimed just a little bit higher, he would have smashed a few of Angela's ribs. Her chair tripped from the impact and crashed roughly to the floor. Angela's head smashed against the ground and there was a short second of all consuming darkness rising in her head, while she was coughing up blood.
She didn't even want to know how that would have felt for a normal human, because it felt really bad for her, and her body was capable of sustaining much more damage than she could have before she worked on herself. So much research for medical equipment which was deemed too dangerous to license by the WHO. Mercy wouldn't destroy years of hard work or let it collect dust in a corner. So, she used it on the only person she was allowed to: Herself.
Mercy knew she certainly didn't look the part, but the Swiss doctor could really absorb blows. Her nanoprobe enhanced physiology, which she had been working on all her life, was good for more than stopping her aging. It immediately repaired inflicted damage, at least to a non-fatal degree. If only the WHO would have licensed her technology for mass use, more people could live with this benefit. She had tried so hard to convince them, spending months talking to their representatives, telling them that her technology was safe, that is was able to solve almost all medical problems. That she had found the solutions and all they had to do was to take it and use it.
But they didn't. They thought it was too dangerous. Too much technology inside a human body. The risk of the Omnics finding some way to tamper with her technology and turning it into a weapon too high. Thus, Mercy stayed the only one with this kind of ability. Not that she wouldn't have shared. It was all the WHO's fault.
And while Archibald's blows were painful, Angela knew they wouldn't leave a trace on her. Just like her burns from the coffee, which were most likely already gone again. Knowing that was a huge mental confidence booster. No matter how much he would try to hurt her, and no matter how much it would actually hurt, as long as Mercy didn't cry out or admit the pain, it wouldn't leave any marks on her. No proof of the torturers work. Not that Angela was confident that she wouldn't cry, because she already did that.
But judging from his lusty smile, this guy enjoyed his job. So, taking this satisfaction away from him would be quite interesting.
Quite... amusing. She could hurt him by not screaming.
Mercy was actually laughing now, which was visibly annoying to Montgomery. She took the opportunity to get the upper hand; at least the mental one. Angela promised herself she would not sit here and pretend to be an easy victim. She would make this very hard for Archibald Montgomery. As hard as she could. For as long as she could.
Someone would come to rescue her sooner or later.
"Oh, you think you are so clever, don't you?" Mercy laughed, still lying on the ground, ignoring the dull, throbbing pain in the back of her head. "Tie a girl naked to a chair and you already expect we piss ourselves out of shame." Mercy smiled a devious smirk at her tormenter as the wound on her cheek quickly closed itself. No more than ten seconds after it was inflicted upon her it was already gone again. The pain would fade away soon after. "You look at me and only see the fragile little miss Doctor who can't defend herself. Who tries to help others and refuses to use violence. You see her and you think her kindness and peaceful nature is a weakness. But don't misunderstand. Refusing to use violence does not make me weak, or fragile. It just proves that I am more advanced in solving my issues than you are. You think you are shaming me here, because you ripped my clothes off? Or hurting me because you can beat me up while I am tied to a chair? Please. My body heals quickly, and if you think you can humiliate me, you will only humiliate yourself. You aren't the first one to see me naked, and you won't be the last either." Mercy stared at her tormenter, her deep blue eyes almost looking a little violet in the dim light of the torture chamber. She was dead serious about this. Her laughing died off as she promised herself that she would win this game no matter what the odds were.
She just had to hold out. Someone would come to help her. It was only a matter of time until the heavy door into the room would be blown out of its angles followed by Tracer blinking through the hole with guns blazing.
Angela could see it in front of her eyes already. And Mercy also knew that her best friend would have a snippy comment about Angela's state of undress on her lips.
However, now it was Montgomery's time to chuckle as he leaned over Mercy, roughly pulling the chair up with her obviously still tied to it. Immediately he elbowed her violently in her chest, making Angela gasp for air for a moment. "You are adorable. It has been some time since I got to break the last fighter." he laughed with chilling excitement. "But don't get me wrong. You aren't the first one who sat on this chair and talked big. And as you so eloquently put it, you won't be the last either" he grinned devilishly before he reached out and pinched one of Angela's nipples, tearing it forward until Mercy was almost certain he would rip it off. The pain rushing into her body was almost proving too much and she may have flinched slightly before Montgomery let go again.
"But there is the big difference between your point and mine. Where you think you will walk away from this, I know you won't. In the end, it's the same for each and every last one of you. You all do my bidding. Some of you sooner. Some later. Some need to be hurt more, some less, but no matter what, in the end, they all do what I say without even thinking about it twice. When I am done with you, Mercy, you will gladly hurt those you call your friends now. And you will like it. So much so, that you will come crawling back to me, begging me for more" he smiled an eerie smile at her, revealing his sharp teeth and long fangs while his red eyes were glowing brightly "I can promise you that much." Montgomery reassured, punching Angela in her face once again, this time even harder.
Angela had to admit that maybe she was a little over-confident concerning her ability to not show how much this actually hurt. She would live through this. Angela told that to herself as she felt the newest scar on her body close itself.
She would live through this hell, and she would pay them back for what they did to Fareeha Amari. No one messes with her Overwatch family and walks away from it unpunished on Mercy's watch.
"Though I admit that your self-healing is annoying me. We'll have to figure something out in that regard" he said, walking past Mercy before pulling a small cart, much like the ones used in operation rooms for the different tools, to her side. He stood between the doctor and the metal wagon so Angela didn't see what was going on. The rattling of metallic instruments, however, was doing little to calm her down.
'Relax, take a deep breath. You will get out of here. Concentrate. He is arrogant; use that against him. Keep a clear mind and remember who you are and why you are here. Your name is Angela Ziegler. You work for Overwatch. You were abducted by Talon. Someone will come and rescue you. I just need to hold out. I just-' Angela's self-preparation was cut short by Archibald.
"Screwdriver, knife, or nail?" Montgomery asked indecisively, while he was clicking his heel to the floor in an unsteady pattern. The sound was unnerving.
"What?" Angela asked in shock. She didn't even want to know.
"Ah, never mind. I figured it out" he laughed, grabbing something from the cart. "Hey, do you want to see what our big brains at the research department have planned for you?" he suddenly asked, turning around with a smug smile on his ugly, chapped lips. He hid whatever he picked up from the cart somewhere behind him so Mercy couldn't see it.
Angela snorted in disgust, rolling her eyes "It's not like I'd have a choice."
"Correct, you don't." Montgomery laughed before it suddenly vanished. From one second to the next, his laugh was simply gone, just like someone flicked a switch. Then, he showed Angela two rusty old nails, which he had been hiding, and nodded toward them. A moment of silence spread between the torturer and his victim before he violently slammed the two nails deeply into Mercy's thighs, one into her left and one into her right. The sound was god-awful, especially when the tip pierced through her and into the chair. She could almost feel the rough rust rubbing off on the insides of her flesh, its remnants being carried away into her bloodstream.
Mercy tried not to, but she couldn't contain her pain-filled cry which escaped loudly through her teeth. That shit did hurt quite a lot. "But I don't like you talking back to me, so these little fellows will stay here for a while." he smiled at her, giving each nail a quick flick before he turned around and walked past Mercy to grab something else behind her. Montgomery returned moments later with two long starter cables which he clipped to the heads of the nails. The other ends were apparently already fixed to a power source. "I like the sound of you screaming though." He chuckled.
Mercy knew what would come, but the shock of the sudden electric current rushing through her body, sending her muscles into a painful frenzy and robbing her of any control she had, was way more brutal than she had anticipated.
"So scream some more for me!"
Her mind was painfully forced blank from one moment to the next. There was nothing but pain filling her head, and body and the world around her was clouded by darkness. Angela's heart was close to exploding as adrenaline levels were rising well above critical levels. She may have screamed, or maybe she didn't; Mercy had no idea. There was just this horrible, all shattering tension in every last fiber of her body, and it felt like her flesh was on fire. If this would go on for a moment longer she'd-
Suddenly, the current was gone again, and Mercy slumped in her chair, breathing heavily, trying to regain some composure, but failing. Even though the electricity wasn't rushing through her anymore, her nerves were still firing rapidly, desperately trying to compensate the now absent current. Mercy felt like she was boiled from the inside. Slight steam was rising up from her legs, where the nails were stuck, and she realized that she had bitten her lips tightly enough to draw blood. Just like her palms, which her nails were buried into. She didn't know when she let go of the armrests. Angela's legs were still shaking violently despite the current being turned off. It was most likely an after-effect.
"Oh, don't worry. That gets most people" Montgomery laughed, leaning close to Angela. "Why beat around the bush, don't you agree? I don't have enough coffee around here for you. But don't worry, that was just the foreplay. The really fun stuff will come soon enough once the doctor arrives. Just for you, we recruited a good friend of yours. I bet you will like him and the stuff he fills you up with" Archibald's eyes were glowing in anticipation as he imagined the pain he'd bring upon this woman. He didn't care what Talon did with them afterward. He was paid to turn them into blank hulls; worn out and exhausted to the point where Talon's brainwashers had an easy job of it.
And he always did his job before he handed them over to Talon's scientists to work their magic. Archibald never saw his friends again after that.
And he was fine with it.
Mercy lifted her head up to look at him with the most murderous glare Angela had ever shot anyone, before she spit into his face. The pink slime was smeared just below his left eye and slowly running down his greenish pale cheek.
Angela would not be broken here. She would never allow that.
Montgomery's priggish smile froze as he hesitated for a moment. There was fury building up inside of him, and a part of Mercy was proud that she had angered this bastard far enough for him to grow so livid. Yet she was well aware who would pay the price for his anger.
He reached for a piece of dirty cloth on the small wagon full of different torture instruments where the nails and jump cables had also been from. He quickly wiped Mercy's bloody spit off his face before he jumped forward and roughly stuffed the cloth into her mouth.
"Well, you asked for it" he shrugged nonchalantly. Mercy's helpless body was tortured by electricity seconds later. Montgomery disappeared behind Angela, and she neither saw what he was doing there, nor could she concentrate on the noises he made while the painful current was rushing through her body once again, numbing everything worldly out and replacing it with nothing but stinging pain.
It felt like hours, yet it could hardly have been more than a minute before the flood of electricity disappeared again as fast as it came. It was even worse the second time.
Montgomery was pushing something on castors and covered by a large white blanket into Mercy's view. "Look! That's our little gift to you. Despite you being such a brat, you get something from us. At least... once you behave" he said with a sly grin "since you like to wear wings so much, we had these made for you" Montgomery pulled the blanket off the object and revealed a pair of large black wings with feathers as dark as the night. They were held in between a special frame made of premium steel. Lots of tiny tubes and little wires were connected to the end of these long, dark wings, and a whole array of diagnostic devices apparently made sure they stayed operational. "They were specifically bioengineered for your body, doctor. It was very complicated to procure a genetic sample from you, but we luckily had some help there. They were growing for months now, waiting for their new owner. Once your progress is satisfactory, they will be implanted in your body. Maybe even a little sooner, depending on how much you struggle."
Mercy stared at the large wings, struggling to comprehend what was going on. Her massive intellect felt like it was reduced to nothing but wobbly goo as she waited for Montgomery's words to make any kind of sense. All she saw were those wings which could have been beautiful in literally any other scenario but this one. On a stage, as a prop, they would surely have been amazing; really impressive and the sign of an expensive production. But right in this moment, being told they were bio-engineered specifically for her and that they soon would be implanted on her back, she could not find a single positive aspect to these abominations. And where normally Mercy would have been interested in the technologies and the procedures used for such a project, she now had nothing but disgust left.
"What do you say?" Montgomery asked before raising an eyebrow. "Right, can't say anything" he chuckled to himself before ripping the cloth out of Angela's mouth, leaving an uncomfortable dryness behind.
"You are crazy." Mercy simply stated.
Montgomery laughed "No, no, nooo. Crazy would be to pump my own body full of nanoprobes to bypass aging. Crazy would be to look like a 25 year old at 37. Crazy is also being able to resurrect the dead. All things you did, or things you can do. Powers only God should possess. And now we want those powers."
"Ihr habt wohl nicht mehr alle Tassen im Schrank?! I will never tell you what you want to know. Never!"
"Oh, don't worry. You won't need to tell us." Montgomery laughed as he shoved the cloth back into Mercy's mouth before he turned the electricity back on for a moment, enjoying the violent shaking of Angela's beautiful body.
"You will show us soon enough. Just like Dr. Müller already did. He didn't last very long. It was a bit disappointing, to be honest. But placing him at the convention was a good idea. So much information." Montgomery said, as he nodded toward the door.
Mercy stared blankly as the old metal gate was pulled open and her former colleague, the one she attended the convention with and whose company she found rather pleasant, entered the room. He was wearing a dark grey lab coat while he pushed a small wagon in front of him, a plethora of different liquids, IV-bags, and other chemicals on it. Dr. Ziegler recognized some of the labels, and was anything but reassured. These were some very, very nasty drugs they had on there. They were also some very illegal drugs. Simply because of the horrible things they could do if applied in the wrong way. Or in the right way, depending on what you wanted to achieve in the first place.
Staring at Dr. Müller, it dawned on Angela, that he had more the latter than the former in mind. His eyes were glowing in the same red as Montgomery's as he eyed Mercy.
"Doctor, please begin" Montgomery said and the kind and gentle physician, who Mercy had gotten to know nodded coolly.
"Of course" he replied without hesitation, picking up different supplies from the wagon.
"Nein, Doktor Müller, ich bitte Sie!"Angela screamed against her gag as her colleague started to plug an IV into her arm. An uncomfortable burning sensation was already spreading into her body, making Angela's resolve to stand through this crumble. "Hören Sie auf!" she tried to yell, but her voice was nothing but an incoherent mumble.
"I don't know who you are talking about, Talon test-subject 627" he replied in an emotionless tone. Mercy frowned, her eyes darting to the tattoo on her arm. Just now did she realize the numbers written underneath it.
"Oh, yes! I completely forgot about that!" Montgomery mockingly face palmed "You don't have a name anymore. From now on you are TTS-627" Montgomery laughed. "I'll go and have some lunch now. But don't worry, I will be back in a jiffy. Have fun 627" he said, passing Dr. Müller a remote control for what was supposedly the switch to electrocute Mercy further.
Angela took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
'Your name is Angela Ziegler. My name is Angela Ziegler. I am from Zürich. My best friend is Lena Oxton. I met her at Overwatch. Talon executed my bodyguard and friend in Zürich. Her name was Fareeha Amari. I will not give in to anything Talon promises. Someone will come and rescue me. All I need to do is be patient.'
-/-
A/N:
Alright, so there was that. I don't suspect a lot of you enjoyed this chapter, but maybe I got you shaken up a little bit. Being a captive of Talon is no fun. Maybe you get an idea of what hell Amélie had to go through.
I dropped some bits of Mercy's past here and there to give everyone a bit of time to relax in between and fill some holes concerning her. Personally I like to imagine Mercy as someone who has two modi operandi. Either the sweet angelic creature who cares about those she holds close, willing to help whoever needs her. Or the polar opposite, an almost evil part of her, which comes forth should someone dare to hurt the people Mercy cares about, making her mercilessly hunt the culprits.
I feel like the two different types of skins we get ingame (ignoring the Valkyrie skins, which would have a totally different meaning, considering what Valkyries mean in history) should have some importance for her character. I hope you all agree with that. It's not like devil Mercy will be a frequent thing in the future, if at all.
Well, that's it, basically.
Drop me a review and tell me what you think, even though I can imagine most of you are pretty upset with me. If you aren't and actually liked it enough to consider funding my next coffee to fuel my fingers, you can do so here:
tipeee com slash e82s-fanfiction
Don't worry, things will be fine soon, we will get Mercy back soon ^^
Beta as usual EhMattissimo and also special thanks to Azuki Rose and River Rhyme for the epic feedback! You guys rock!
o7
E82
Some translations:
Ihr habt wohl nicht mehr alle Tassen im Schrank?! = (German) You got to have a few screws loose somewhere?!
Nein, Doktor Müller, ich bitte Sie! = (German) No, Doctor Müller, I beg you!
Hören Sie auf! = (German) Stop it!