Hi everyone
So thought I'd do a little house keeping first. This story is set 6 months after my other story, Everything Changes. If you haven't read that, then I'd recommend you do so, as it's only short and it explains the events that happen before this story.
Now on with the show.
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Talon outpost- location unknown.
The forestry moved slightly as a light breeze blew across the area. Birds went about their business and the sky was clear of clouds. It took a well trained eye, or someone looking for it, in order for the outpost to be found. It was hidden well, most of it underground while a small section of a metal building could be located amongst the trees.
The outpost was one of Talon's main facilities for holding prisoners, aimed at extracting information from them. Recently however, Moira had commandeered the base, using it for her experiments and the prisoners as her unfortunate lab rats.
That was until last night. Now the facility lay broken, the lights flickering and darkening the outpost. An entire underground section was left consumed by smoke as a fire raged near the main generator. The main entrance was forced open and dead Talon soldiers and scientists were scattered all around the base.
Reaper walked alone through the damaged outpost, the lights flickering as he advanced towards the control centre. Moira wasn't at the outpost at the time, so no one knew what had occurred to cause the outpost to go silent. Therefore, Talon had deployed Reaper to find out exactly what had happened.
That wasn't the only reason Reaper was here however. Both Sombra and Widowmaker were stationed at this outpost and both had failed to check in after the base fell silent. While Widow had been deployed a few days earlier, she should have returned by now. No one questioned it when Doomfist ordered Reaper to personally investigate. Two of their best agents were currently MIA and they had no intel on the current situation. Reaper was an obvious choice.
As Reaper reached his destination, he groaned in annoyance. The doors were heavily damaged and stuck half open. With so little power, any ordinary person trying to enter the command centre would have to force the heavy doors open. Fortunately, Reaper was no ordinary man. Black smoke formed around him as he flew though the gap in the door, reappearing inside the command centre.
The place was a mess. The base commander lay dead across the main console, while several other troopers lay around the command centre. Reaper approached the main terminal, grabbing the dead commander and pulling him up, before letting his body fall to the ground. By some miracle the console was still working, so Reaper began typing away to find the status report on the base. It took him a few moments to enter the password, kindly provided by Moira, before he opened up the report.
Emergency protocol in effect.
Emergency power online.
Emergency lockdown in effect.
"That didn't achieve much." Reaper said aloud as he continued reading.
Alert- Catastrophic system failure, generator malfunction. Manual restart required.
All prisoners detected outside of cells, all security forces to the detention level.
VIP prisoners 1 and 2 are detected outside of cell, security to the high security wing.
Alert- armoury breached, security are advised to fire at any armed prisoners.
Reaper closed down the console, conserving what little power the base had left. It was clear now what had happened. The prisoners had escaped, got into the armoury and shot the place up, killing anyone who was in the way. Yet, how did they manage to escape in the first place? Reaper had his suspicions but he didn't jump to any conclusions yet.
At least he had half the story now, yet this didn't bring him any closer to finding Sombra or Widow. He guessed that Sombra had set up a terminal out of the way, something she did at every base she was stationed at, so he began to search for it. After five minutes of looking in every room he came across, he found her terminal, the purple glow giving it away in the darkened base.
He now typed in a code Sombra gave him a while ago, allowing him access to her terminals if she had to abandon them. Sure enough, the terminal activated and he was given access to the desktop. Yet there was only one folder present. Clearly Sombra had wiped the terminal and this folder was a message. Upon opening the folder, Reaper was greeted with two documents and one video.
One document was titled "Message to Gabe" which he guessed was from Sombra, since she called him that frequently. The other document was titled "password" while the video was titled "Urgent to Reaper."
He decided to open the "Message to Gabe" document first, yet when he did, he froze still and stared at the text on the screen.
Code 14.
Don't try and cover it up, it's too late.
Sombra.
Reaper and Sombra had a set of codes for when they wanted to tell each other something, usually when they didn't want Talon to know but there was a high risk they would find out about it. He thought that a code 3 was the issue here, an inside man working for Overwatch. Even a code 8 was possible, Sombra and Widow being captured by Overwatch. However, a code 14 was much, much worse.
"I go out for three days and this happens." Reaper spoke to himself, clearly troubled by this development. He now attempted to open the video, only for a password prompt to appear. He attempted Sombra's code again, yet this was not correct. He quickly realised the purpose of the third file, opening it and reading through the instructions.
Gabriel
The password for the video is something Talon took from me many years ago.
Reaper stood confused for a moment. "Took from you? What did Talon take from you Sombra?"
It was then Reaper realised. She called him Gabriel. Sombra would have called him Gabe. This was Widowmaker. He realised what the password was.
Gerard
Upon typing in his name, the video loaded, showing the face of Widowmaker on the screen. He did a check to make sure no one was around, more out of habit due to the state of the base, before playing the clip.
Widow sat for a few moments, clearly struggling to find the words. Reaper even checked that the video was playing, before she finally spoke.
"I wish it didn't have to be this way... but I feel like I have no other choice now. Sombra said that you knew what was happening to me, you trusted her after she accessed my medical history."
Widow chuckled to herself before continuing.
"I'm pretty sure you know what this is about. My conditioning is breaking down, has been for many months now. Sombra explained it to me. It's like a dam, my old memories were held back on one side, while my current memories were left on the other. This dam has cracks now, allowing older memories to leak through. These cracks are getting larger every day, soon I'll remember everything. Hell, I don't know why I'm telling you this. You probably already know exactly what's happening to me."
Reaper didn't know. He knew Widow's conditioning would break down but he didn't know exactly how it would happen or when. Sombra had told him it was progressing but never told him it was at this stage. Sombra knew more than him at this point and this concerned him.
Widow paused for a short while, taking a large breath before continuing.
"I don't want to forget again. I won't forget again. Talon have taken so much from me. My life, my personality... Gerard... I will not let that happen again, not to me or anyone else. Once I remember, they will pay! I swear on it!"
"Goodbye Gabe... and thank you."
The recording ended, leaving Reaper speechless. He swore he saw a tear at one point falling down her cheek. He placed a hand on his mask, resting his head on it as he thought for a few moments. He thought back to Sombra's message.
Don't try and cover it up, it's too late.
Did the troops here realise and try and stop her? That would explain the bases condition, yet where was Sombra. He hoped that Widow hadn't killed her while she was escaping, something he was sure she could do if she needed to. Then again, why did Sombra leave a message if that was the case and where was her body? Clearly something bigger was going on and the answers he wanted were not here.
He decided to follow Sombra's orders, something he never thought he'd be doing. Reaper now deleted the files on Sombra's terminal, leaving no evidence. Talon would find out soon enough what had happened here, even if he didn't fully know himself. He could at least give them a little more time. Reaper now walked back to the entrance, stepping outside of the crippled base and contacted Doomfist.
"Report, what's the situation down there?" Doomfist asked.
Reaper looked back at the base, wondering once again what had happened behind those doors. He knew that everything was about to change, the war between Talon and Overwatch hung in the balance.
He turned away as he replied.
"We have a problem."