As medic slowly came too in their new house, he was met with loud rustling and even some stuff falling onto the carpeted floor.
Squinting, he quickly gets up and looks around, seeing heavy packing a suitcase and looking around for anything else.
-heavy, what's wrong?
-heavy is leaving.
As the small dove in the corner of the room was woken by the rustling too, he flies over to medic to smuggle into his pillow completely unaware of the conflict between the iconic duo.
-...where?
- to Russia. I am going back to motherland and staying.
-oh.
As medic looks down to come to terms with this, the shuffling stops for a second.
- does doctor not want heavy to leave?
- well no but-
-heavy, medic! Breakfast is ready.
-coming.
Heavy drops what he is holding into the bag and heads down for food, leaving medic to fall back onto the bed and look up to the ceiling...not realizing he almost crutches his pet.
-*coooo*
-sorry Archimedes.
There is a moment of silence as he looks back on all the moments he had saved heavy and moments heavy had saved him...every backstab and hunch of a spy instead of his beloved friend.
It was a miracle he wasn't in love but when heavy had said he was...it was quite the punch to the gut.
Sighing, he gets up...maybe it's worth grabbing food..it will take his mind off...everything.
Heading downstairs, the team all chatted. Just grabbing their food and heading off to wherever they need to be.
Heavy talks with spy and Engi about his plans to leave by tomorrow night, the two fall silent and spy even smiles to congratulate him, making medic feel slightly angry of someone on his team almost encouraging his coworker to leave.
The small group of 3 talk about something, soon steering away from the fact heavy is leaving.
Others talk about new friends and scout goes on about how he made friends with some people at the store he worked at.
The day goes on normally, spy leaves. Engi and pyro get stuck in their own room, soldier carries on watching shows.
Medic somehow feels empty through the day tho, he knows he still has a day with heavy but his voice is stuck in his throat, like he wants to say something but just can't.
What is this...why does he feel bad about a team member finally getting up and leaving to do what he wants...
Shaking it off, he looks at the page... deciding it's better to focus on what's in front of him and actually important.
The time comes quickly, the sun sets and heavy had 2 days to pack his stuff...soon dropping his stuff by the front door and staying with his team for presumably the last time.
Silent tears are shed and happy memory recounted...
An almost depressive feeling floats in the air, suffocating all and making them thank the years of memory created during hard times, the many times he had saved everyone
By next day, he is gone.
The room feel empty with no heavy...with no direct site to a huge DPS who could kill anything in seconds...his "test subject"
But for now, he needs to move on. The others will leave soon too and he has to be ready...
2 weeks pass and finally, the next member of the team finally stood up and notified there leave.
...this time, it was pyro.
Over the year, he had gotten homesick...if you could call it that. He wanted to be back home with the familiar walls and back to the past where he had lived for so much of his life, voluntarily forgetting his past to be with the people he trusted most.
He had more of a connection to materials than people, more connection to the sentry and dispensers than Engi myself...but still seeing Engi as almost a friend he would never want to leave.
Engi had been waiting for the moment pyro would up and leave...he had known the firebug would want home and just expected his bodyguard to leave.
But when that time did come, he felt almost betrayed...
Pyro was like his double, a helper who would do anything to keep Engis nest alive during the harder times when he had been under attack by the same spy that could almost duplicate at times
Now he was left alone in the small room the two had shared.
No more soft crackling of fire or "hudas" during the night.
When pyro had asked sniper for a trip back to the base, sniper was reluctant at first...but soon gave in, seeing this as the last time he would see the small fire spreader and say his last goodbyes.
No one else wanted to follow through as "home" was a sensitive topic, but when the day finally came. Pyro and sniper were nowhere to be seen during the day...they had left as planned
The once loud living room with both soldier and pyro had been silenced...only the occasional shouts from solder when something in the show didn't go as planned.
Once sniper and pyro pulled up to the building by almost midday, pyro had hugged the living hell out of sniper.
An unlikely friendship had been made that moment...the moment sniper had realized pyro's small world was in fact his world...something he would cherish...including the fantom people inside.
Including him
Hugging back, they spend a couple of seconds just embracing one another...coming to terms that this might truly be the last time the two would see each other.
When they finally let go, pyro waves goodbye and takes his stuff back to the base.
Back to his old room and back to their familiar spots across walls and on tables
When he comes out to say goodbye to sniper one last time...he is met with nothingness...
The silence of the desert fills him with slight sadness but also giddiness...he can finally create fire with no consequences....with no limit...with no administrator
Having put up his specialities, he was waiting ages for someone to pick him up and recruit him...turns out it only took 5 days.
Now he had a spot with some company in a different country and one that needed a medical professional to help create new tech.
He wasn't a techie person but his role was medical in nature anyway...so he wasn't going to be getting into territory he didn't know, sighing in relief when he read that
But finally, medic too started packing his stuff getting suitcases stacked and planning the trip to the location where he was needed.
He had refrained from telling the others but once he was caught packing by day 2 by scout...he knew he was done for.
-..wha...what's happening doc?
-I have gotten a contract...I am going to be off to fill out the request of people like before.
-but...
-I am sorry scout...I just want to get back to my old ways...I want to keep my memory fresh.
-...alright
With no warning scout falls into medics' chest, a small grip rustling the coat medic had on.
After the initial shock, medic hugs back. Almost like a mother would...his instinct to keep his team safe had rubbed off the most on scout. He knew he was capable... but still felt a sense of love for him.
-I will be sure to say hi whenever I meet you ok?
-alright doc...When are you leaving?
-tomorrow morning.
-...yea...alright
Scout sits down on the bed where heavy and medic had been sleeping for the past half a year and after medic finally packs his stuff, he also sits down...
There is a moment of tenseness but it soon falls apart once the medic pulled scout into the bed, hugging him and slowly falling asleep.
Scout doesn't move a muscle as he too soon falls asleep in the warm hug from his doctor...a healer at heart and a great parent.
When the next morning arrived and he woke to an empty bed, scout quickly runs down to the front doors to see everyone saying goodbye and just in time he gives one more hug to the medic.
-see you
-you to scout.
Finally, he leaves. Off to the new country with new information, Archimedes always being close and never forgotten, unlike the first time he came out of stasis.
While shooting guns for a living is and was fun, sniper had enough.
Teaching people how to shoot had just gotten on his nerves so much he had genuinely just gotten fed up with guns as a whole.
Now packing his stuff, he opts to just ditch everything entirely and head back to Australia...he knew it well enough and getting started there would maybe prove a lifelong grudge against his dad that he was good enough.
One day he had just said bye and left
-I am leaving for Australia.
Only spy had actually taken notice and walked up to ask if everything was ok
-yes, I am just heading off...I want to head home.
-ah, alright sniper... good luck.
-I don't need luck.
slipping something into snipers bag quickly, spy nods in amusement.
- yes... I figured.
With that, sniper leaves with nothing more than a bag and his van.
The house was becoming more and more empty by the week...from full and loud morning chats, it was all the down to 5...and many quiet days.
Soldier had gone from the animated set and shows to news, watching clips of the world's problems and what couldn't be done about them.
His child-like spirit when he was with pyro had been slimed to almost non now. He sits on the floor and watches of the attacks. The hurt of so many and this finally makes him decide to do something.
-I am off to Europe and I am going to destroy those omnics!!
-now soldier, don't be rash about this
-I have already decided what I want. I will see you later.
Picking up his rocket launcher and a bag packed with essentials, he leaves.
Not even planned and not even thought out, he just goes. The demo does end up finding him down the road and tries to convince him to stay for a day longer, Just so he wouldn't feel left behind.
but in the end, all he gets is a hug and soft words of soldiers' return...Nothing more as soldier just walks off to the sun...off to a dream he made up in seconds.
The mafia has become boring to spy, he wants to know more of the underground society and info only a select few would know, only people willing to search for it would end up finding... and just like that. He also signals his leave after a week.
His leave is signalled by nods from the 3 left, feeling slightly bad for leaving on such short notice after the soldier...he drops the final 3 stacks of cash on the table and smiles slightly to himself.
-*I hope we meet up soon*
And so he leaves. Letting the final 3 figure out what they want to do and how they will live their lives out.
However, the final 3, scout, demo and Engi...never leave.
They have nowhere to go. either to enthralled with their current job or just unneeded by the world.
In a month, just like that, the once-filled house had been downed to 3...now each had a lot less energy than they normally would.
None of them had been used to the lack of the others around them.
The almost year when they were in the future however had changed them. Each stood up individually and took up a task they wished to complete.
Smiling to themselves, each member of the team reminded of their time in the war...in the 50 years when fighting between RED and BLU was nothing more than a game with silly rules.
Now, they could do whatever, they could be with who they wanted to be, they could talk however they wanted they could truly be...free.