Chronal Disassociation Ch. 43

It was hard, leaving home. Not the least because Emily was horrified to learn about what had happened. No, it was the fact that Lena would be leaving her alone to deal with her grief, while the pilot would be hunting down their friend.

Their friend.

She felt like she was going in circles. Her friend wasn't someone that would hurt her own husband. Wasn’t some cold blooded assassin that had been waiting in their ranks for who knows how long. Her friend was someone who was shy, but would open up once you got to know her.

Her friend was a good person. Amélie Lacroix was a good person.

But was that even the truth?

When Archer had mentioned the possibility of Amélie being controlled, but was resisting, she had quite a bit of hope. Hope that the person she knew would still be there once they rescued her.

It was shadowed by the doubt that was left in her. The doubt that had gnawed at Lena ever since they had rescued her, in an operation that, while flawed, was still far easier than she should have expected. It grated at her that she had ignored it, that she had put it off as the insane plans of Doomfist trying to just recruit Archer.

She should have figured that there must’ve been another reason to let them rescue Amélie that easily. Then again, maybe everyone else should have thought of that as well. Archer sure did, and while she hated that he had spied on a friend, Lena had to admit it was the smartest move he could’ve done.

Now, the real question was, was the Amélie she knew a real person and not just some fabrication that had been in the making this entire time?

She didn't know. But she sure as hell would find out. Even if Lena had to drag the answers out of Doomfist himself, she'd have her answers.

And maybe, just maybe, she’d be able to save her. For real, this time.

“Eyes up, Oxton.” From beside her, Archer sat in the co-pilot seat, while she herself piloted the dropship. The rest were preparing in the main area as they approached Polish airspace.

And wasn’t that a surprise? Cassidy had made good on his data, back in London. He had produced a damning amount of evidence that Overwatch had apparently heard about, but was still in the process of confirming the truth of. Multiple scientists, all having some connection to Oasis, had been going missing for several months now. Nobody had any clue where they were, until one managed to sneak out a distress call through public channels.

The Polish government had quickly decried the message as nothing more than a hoax, but had quietly reached out to Overwatch in private. If the message was real, they might have a mass panic on their hands, as the Poles had not had a terrorist threat in years, not since the Crisis. The mere idea that one was operating in the country with such blatant kidnapping was terrifying for everyone involved.

Nobody wanted another Crisis. And with Talon being what it was, it was public opinion that their goal was to start yet another one.

So, here they were, flying in as a clandestine operation once again. The team consisted of herself, Archer, Cassidy, Angela, Genji, Ana, and Sombra. Reinhardt and Winston had both been denied the opportunity to join, as they weren’t exactly the most stealthy of individuals.

Commanders Morrison and Reyes were overviewing the entire operation, with the former being the head of the entire thing. Lena shuddered as she remembered the two of them finally entering the war room back in London.

The two of them had seemingly beaten each other to the brink of grievous injury. They both sported purpling bruises, swollen eyes, and Reyes had been cradling his arm. Going by the unnatural protrusion that Lena had seen in his shoulder blades, she had been willing to bet that the entire arm had been restructured, courtesy of Morrison.

Still, the fact that they walked in together and seemingly didn’t have any more ill-will was a good sign. She hoped. Honestly, it was either that, or the both of them just had mean poker faces. They were meant to join in on the ground, but Angela had exercised her right as the main doctor on base to force them into not doing so.

It had taken quite a bit of arguing on the medic’s part, and it was only with Captain Amari joining her in making the two stay put that cemented their benching, though not without quite a bit of grumbling on Reyes’ part.

Lena hadn’t asked what that entire fiasco was about, but she could guess. With Moira - O’Deorain - being part of Blackwatch, it was safe to assume that it was Reyes that had recruited her. And while it was clear to Lena that not everyone in Blackwatch was irredeemable, Genji and Cassidy being prime examples of that, there were just some people that were.

She had to admit, she was lowkey pissed at Reyes. If O’Deorain hadn’t joined, they wouldn’t be in this mess. Amélie wouldn’t have to suffer as she did. Wouldn’t be hunted down by Lena and the others. And O’Deorain wouldn’t have joined had Reyes and the others done their homework.

Cassidy, she at least couldn’t entirely blame. The man was just as powerless as Lena when it came to the top brass’ decisions.

“Oi, the bug I put on Lacroix just lit up.” Sombra suddenly piped up, breaking the tense silence in the cockpit. Lena’s grip on the controls tightened involuntarily as she glanced back toward the hacker, who was lounging in the doorway with her usual smirk, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes this time.

"Where?" Archer demanded, his voice sharp.

"About two klicks east of the facility we’re heading to." Sombra replied, pulling up a holographic map on her wrist display. A red dot pulsed ominously in the middle of dense woodland, "She’s moving fast. Too fast for someone just wandering around. Plus, I doubt that she'd be in the middle of nowhere just because."

Lena’s stomach twisted. That wasn’t good. If Amélie was already in the area, it meant Talon was either expecting them - or worse, they’d already begun whatever operation they had planned.

"Could be a trap." Cassidy muttered from behind them, his arms crossed, "Talon ain’t stupid. If they’ve got her, they know we’re comin’ for her."

"Or she’s trying to stop whatever they’re doing." Angela suggested quietly. The medic had been unusually subdued since they’d left London, her fingers absently tracing the edges of her caduceus staff. "If there’s even a part of her still fighting..."

Lena wanted to believe that. Desperately. Archer's hand on her shoulder almost made her lash out in surprise. The only reason she didn't was his sending of a feeling of caution through their link. Shaking her head, Lena focused. Right, she was still piloting a damn dropship.

Ana, who had been silent up until now, leaned forward, her single eye narrowing. "We stick to the plan. Infiltrate the facility, secure the hostages, extract any intel we can, find O'Deorain and secure her. Even if we capture Lacroix, it doesn't matter if we have no way to actually cure her of whatever was done to her. If Lacroix is there, we assess the situation before engaging." Her gaze flicked to Lena, "No reckless moves. Understood?"

Lena swallowed hard but nodded. She knew the risks. Knew that if Amélie was too far gone, she might not have a choice in how this ended. But she still had to try.

“Confirming this on my end, Morrison, Reyes. Going radio silent for a while.”

“Confirmed. Good luck, Amari.”

She just didn’t know how many more tries she had in her.

…

The city they landed near had seen better days. Located in the northeastern part of Poland, it was closer to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad than it was to any major Polish settlement. Before the Crisis, Mołtajny was more or less an isolated village that didn’t see much in terms of, just about anything really.

It was not to be during the Crisis.

When the Omnics raided from the Baltic Sea, they quickly overtook Kaliningrad, pushing into the heart of Poland soon after. Mołtajny was a victim of the invasion, being reduced to rubble as E54’s and OR-14’s rolled through without care. The town was made into a siege engine made to launch artillery fire into the county capital of Kętrzyn.

They were successful. Kętrzyn fell when the people there were forced to evacuate due to the unrelenting artillery fire.

After the Crisis, while Kętrzyn recovered, Mołtajny did not. With the death and destruction all around, nobody had wanted to return. And the government, having been strained by the economic downturn that came with rebuilding after a war, did not see fit to clean it up any more than just putting a warning sign in the area.

Which made it a perfect place to house a terrorist cell.

The town still had some fortifications from the Crisis, though rusted over. That didn’t mean they were any less effective.

The team moved cautiously through the skeletal remains of the abandoned town, their footsteps muffled by years of accumulated debris and overgrown vegetation. The air was thick with the scent of damp earth and rusted metal, the silence broken only by the occasional creak of a decaying structure or the distant call of a bird.

Sombra led the way, her fingers dancing over her holographic interface as she scanned for security measures. "Talon’s got the place wired." She murmured, her voice barely above a whisper, "Motion sensors, cameras - old but functional. They’ve definitely been here a while."

"Any chance they've already spotted our arrival?" Archer muttered back, a question that quickly tensed everyone up.

"Guapo, you doubting my tech?" Sombra sounded impressively offended, "No chance of that, trust me."

That's right, Lena had forgotten. The dropship they were using had been upgraded by Sombra with her own brand of invisibility tech. Reflecting just about every form of observation that the user wanted, including visible light, rendered the ship just about completely unobservable by anyone. It was times like these that, for all the snarkiness that Sombra showed, the woman was undoubtedly a genius in what she knew.

Then, Sombra froze.

"Got movement." She hissed, her smirk gone, "Not Lacroix, not O'Deorain. Human signatures. Armed."

Ana signaled for the group to take cover behind a crumbling wall. Lena peered over the edge, her breath catching as she spotted them. Talon operatives in dark armor, patrolling the perimeter. They moved lazily, a clear sign that they hadn't been spotted, at least.

"Hostages?" Angela whispered.

Sombra shook her head, "No sign yet. But if they’re here, they’ll be underground. This place has bunkers, old Omnic war tunnels. I'm pulling up the schematics now."

Genji’s visor glowed faintly, "Then we go quietly. Eliminate patrols, find the entrance."

"No need for that, I think." Cassidy was crouched behind a ruined OR-14, watching the Talon operatives stop in front of a door, "I'd like to say that these guys wouldn't be guarding a place that's empty, but then again, might be wrong."

Lena clenched her fists, her pulse hammering in her ears. Every second they hesitated was another second Talon had to prepare. Everyone knew this, and everyone was tense. Captain Amari quickly assigned them their positions, ready to ambush the guards as quietly and efficiently as possible.

Then, the door to the bunker slammed open.

It was comical how it hit one of the guards square in the face.

"Sorry, little man, didn't see you there." A man that was quite possibly larger than Reinhardt, if not in height, then in frame, "You shouldn't be standing right in front of the door like that, you know?" Even from a distance, Lena could hear the man clear as day.

The man had a head of black hair, interspersed with a streak of white. On his chest, a clear indication of cybernetics that was linked to where his heart would be. Yet, above all else, the most glaringly obvious things that nobody could ignore were the two massive miniguns that the man had strapped on both his arms.

If Lena had to guess, the man must've ripped them straight off of a Bastion unit with how they looked. And he was walking with them around as if they didn't even weigh anything!

"Apologies, sir!" There was a nervous undertone to the Talon agents as they spoke. The hulking figure waved them off.

"It's fine, just be careful next time, don't want to break your nose and all that." With a jaunty wave, he started walking off in a random direction, thankfully one that none of them were in, "Well, keep up the good work, will you? If Moira asks, I'm going on a walk to let off some steam. Meeting's pretty much over anyway."

The two Talon agents saluted the man. Just long enough for everyone to realize that they had left the door wide open.

‘Archer!’

“Already inside.”

She had to blink as she realized that the Spirit was telling the truth - when he left, even Lena didn’t know. Still, that made things much easier, even as Sombra perked up with a smirk.

“Guapo’s managed to get inside already? Caray, el tipo sí que es un fantasma.”

“We’ll wait then.” Amari ignored the latter half of Sombra’s words as she spoke through their communicators, “Sombra, tell Archer to update us as soon as he’s found something. The rest of us are going to prepare to secure the perimeter. Map out where each patrol is, then once we’re ready, we execute the extraction plan.”

…