(Mercy's POV)
I tightly wrapped the bandage over the woman's arm, which had a large gash beginning at the top of her shoulder all the way down to her elbow. It didn't look infected, which was good, but it was definitely going to leave a scar.
"How's it lookin, doc?" she asked tiredly, a small smile on her face.
She was deployed about a month ago to King's Row, where a small omnic uprising was occuring. Though Overwatch had successfully put down the "rebellion", a lot of the agents were hurt, so they sent most of the injured to the medical base stationed in Hanamura.
I swiftly cut the bandage as I finished wrapping it, and tucked it all together so it would cover her entire arm. "Good news," I told her happily. "You're healing well."
"Thank you, Dr. Ziegler!"
"Ready to go?" a gruff yet gentle voice asked from the entryway of the examination room.
Placing the metallic scissors back down on the table, I turned with a smile. "Morrison!"
He looked exhausted, as usual. It was safe to say that Jack was no spring chicken anymore. You could easily tell by the crinkled crow's feet forming around the skin of his eyes, and this wary and aged expression that seemed to be present all the time as a result of all the stress a commander had to endure.
I looked up to him a lot. And I was always trying to pull my weight so he didn't regret letting someone as young as me into Overwatch.
"How is it that you're always smiling, Ziegler?" he asked, though the hardened look in his eyes had eased into a soft gaze.
I grinned wider, so that my teeth would show. "Because there's nothing to frown about, you grump!"
He sighed, but was slightly amused.
"At any rate, are you two ready to get going?"
My patient got off the table, lightly rubbing her hand over the bandage on her arm. She nodded wordlessly at Morrison, out of respect or to answer his question I don't know. I could tell she was nervous to be standing in his presence, though I couldn't understand why. He was a big softie.
Morrison gestured in the direction behind him with his thumb, and the woman quickly left the medical tent to join the others in the aircraft. I wasn't as quick to follow.
I bent over, zipping up some of the equipment I was packing up. "There's really no time for sightseeing?" I whined. "I heard that Hanamura has the prettiest cherry blossom trees if we were only to explore it a little more..."
"No can do. You know Overwatch has to keep switching the location of the medical bases to avoid getting too much attention."
"Arghhh, I know! I just wanted to see the trees."
"Maybe next time."
I hauled the bag of medical equipment over my shoulder, grunting with the amount of effort I was forced to put in. Morrison sighed and stepped forward, taking the bag off my hands like it weighed nothing. "Weakling."
"Hey!"
We both laughed as we exited the tent. Most of the patients from the base, and some other Overwatch agents, were already sitting inside the aircraft just waiting for the two of us to board.
As Morrison carried the bag inside the aircraft, I stopped walking to look back one last time at the quiet little town of Hanamura. It was such a shame that I was stuck in the tent 24/7, so much so that I hadn't even gotten the time to explore.
"Ziegler!"
I turned away towards the aircraft, and placed a step onto the metallic platform laying out in from of me.
That's when I heard the blood curling scream of a child. It was quiet, somewhere in the distance, but I still heard it. There was something really unnerving about the way it sounded. It was filled with horror.
I whipped back around, frowning instantly. "What was that?" I muttered to myself.
Morrison appeared next to me, not that I had even noticed him walk here. "What is it now?" he asked with a voice of irritation also coated with concern.
"Did you hear that? I swear I just heard a kid scream."
"Ziegler, they're kids. They play tag and scream when they're caught. I know we've seen the worst in the war zones, but there's nothing going on here..."
I met his eyes so he knew I was serious. Morrison was exhausted, I could see it on his face, but I couldn't just ignore it. "No, no... it was... a bad scream. Something happened."
I grabbed his arm before he could protest any further and dragged him down the ramp with me, heading in the direction where I had heard the scream. It was better to be safe than sorry.
Distantly, a sound of sobbing was very, very present. Morrison shut up immediately when he heard it, and slowly realized that I was right; that something was wrong.
As we weaved through the different alleyways, following the source of the crying, I noticed that the town seemed different. The usual sounds of the busting of the citizens had quieted down to an eerie silence. It was as if everyone was holding their breath, waiting for something.
Finally, we turned a corner and there was a girl, perhaps a tween, sitting right next to a window of a huge house. It appears that she had been peering in from the outside.
A middle-aged woman, her mother I guess, was knelt down next to her, her hand gripping the little girl's so tightly, her knuckles were turning white. "Cara," she begged desperately, trying to pull her away from the window. "Get away from there, it's dangerous!"
"H-he killed them!"
"Come on, let's go!"
"(Y/n)... Genji..." she cried, flattening herself against the window as if she could hardly bring herself to look away.
Morrison stepped in. I didn't even have to say anything; his hero instincts were already kicking in. He placed a hand on the mother's shoulder to calm her down. "Ma'm, I'm with Overwatch. What happened?"
The mother's calm demeanor broke and her eyes widened. He grabbed a fistful of Morrison's coat, bringing him down to her level with panic. "Thank god..." she began breathlessly. "Two family friends, (y/n) and Genji, are inside this house, and they're badly hurt! You have to stop Hanzo. You have to save them!"
"I'll handle it. Don't worry."
"Please," Cara begged, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Please hurry."
"Genji... and Hanzo? The Shimada brothers?" I gasped lightly, my hand flying to my lips in shock. The two next heirs to the criminal empire? They were... fighting?
"Ziegler! Get those two away from here, I'll break the glass!"
There was no time to be surprised. I gently guided the mother and kid away from the window, shielding them as Morrison pulled his gun out of his belt and smashed the glass like it was paper.
The two of us peered inside to see what kind of trouble this (y/n) and Genji were in.
I saw the girl first.
A man with long black hair was crouched down with her, his arms looping underneath her back and legs. He was carrying her, a hard look of hatred in his eyes as he stared at the girl in his arms.
She wasn't okay in the slightest. A huge arrow was protruding from her abdomen, wedged deep into her body, and several deep and gaping gashes lined the rest of her, staining her skin with dark red lines. It was as if someone took a knife and cut her, again and again, without mercy.
The cuts were jagged and savage, each one still bleeding profusely. Her clothes were soaked in the crimson. So much so that it was hard to decipher what color they were before this happened.
Blood dripped from the edges of her mouth onto the ground beneath her, and I couldn't help but be grateful that she wasn't conscious because she would be in a world of pain right now if she was.
Morrison pointed his gun at the man, growling quietly. "Hanzo Shimada. What have you done?"
"I'm taking her to the hospital," he spat back. Though he seemed angry and cold, I heard a little bit of regret in his words. "If she hadn't run into the room like an idiot, this would never have happened! I was aiming for my brother!"
"You think that justifies what happened to the person you're holding?!"
As the two argued, I noticed the other guy Cara had mentioned. The brother. Genji.
He was right at the foot of the window, so I had a full view of what had happened to him. His condition was far worse than the girl. In fact, I didn't think he was even alive.
A pool of blood matching the color of the girl's swirled around his body, or what was left of it at least. I was no stranger to gore. I was the head of a surgical wing, after all. But I couldn't help but gasp.
Parts of him had been completely dismembered from his actual body. His right arm. His legs, it seemed. And the rest of him was covered in deep cuts, same as the girl. He had actually lost limbs.
What kind of a person would do this to his own brother?
I knelt down and felt for a pulse. It was there. Weak and close to nonexistent, but it was there. I turned him over quickly and took off my lab jacket, covering his body in an attempt to stop even a little bit of the bleeding. I watched as the red liquid soaked through the pearly white material.
He was going to die. That much was clear.
I had been working on some technology in the aircraft. I'd been experimenting on the idea of a robotic life source, something that could act as a body for those who had lost parts just like the man in front of me.
But there was no way I could ask him if he wanted me to do that for him. It wouldn't be easy. It had a low success rate, and even if I did succeed... would he really want to live like that? Half machine?
Perhaps I would've just let him die if it wasn't for the look on his face.
He was young. Around my age, I could tell. Handsome. Even with the cuts.
And he didn't look like he was at peace. Not at all. There were so many things that he had left unaccomplished, I could see it in the way he looked as if he wasn't ready to succumb to the cold clutches of death just yet.
And maybe I was guessing wrong, but in that moment, I believed he would tell me to save him.
"Morrison!" I yelled, snapping him out of his argument with Hanzo. My eyes never left Genji's features. I was slightly mesmerized by him. "Let Hanzo take the girl to the hospital."
"I can't let him go unpunished!"
"There's not time! I need your help getting this man to the ship if I am to have a chance at saving him!"
"What?!"
Morrison looked down at me in horror. "He's dead, Ziegler! Look at him!"
"It's true," Hanzo announced, guilt apparent in his relenting voice. "A scatter arrow is... lethal."
"I have the means to save him! I can do this, I know I can!"
Hanzo slipped out of the doorway with (y/n) in his arms, probably to get her to the hospital like he said he was going to do. Morrison yelled his name and began to follow him, but I grabbed the hem of his coat.
I looked into his eyes. "Help me. Please."
He seemed conflicted. He looked from the doorway back at me, and then to the man laying on the ground. His eyes on what was left of him, he asked me, "What makes you think he wants to be saved? You're a lot of things, Angela. But you're not God."
I returned my focus to the man. Saw the discontent look on his face again. Though I was hearing and understanding Morrison's words, I had already made up my mind. "Whatever happens, I take responsibility for it. Help me get him to the ship."
Morrison hesitated for another second, but, trusting my faux confidence, he shoved his gun back into his belt and took the man by his shoulders, preparing to help me get him up. "Fine. But don't say I didn't warn you."
I shivered at what he said, fear breaking through the shield of confidence that I was trying to build. But I couldn't let doubt get in the way if I was really going to perform a surgery as complicated as this.
"I'm going to save you," I told him, though he couldn't hear me. "I promise."
A/N:
Surprise, bitch. I bet you thought you'd seen the last of me.
Lmao jkjk anyway... if you aren't following me then you won't know that my computer broke about two or three weeks ago...
So that's why I've been a scrub and not updated in 10000000000 years. Buttttt.... new laptop, so fresh start at updating regularly again!
Thank you for reading, as always! Arghghghghhg I've missed writing for you guys so much. *cries internally*