Gore Warning for this Entire Chapter.

You awaken to nothing but the sound of violent ringing in your ears. You open your eyes slightly to find Hunter standing over you. You see his mouth moving— but his words don't reach your ears. The ringing is incessant. You notice that you aren't by the entrance to the hallway anymore as your eyes flutter open. You seem to behind some sort of makeshift barrier of tables and rubble.

"(Y/N)," you hear faintly. You can't quite keep your eyes open. Hunter pulls you up and sits you next to the barrier. "(Y/N)," you hear, this time clearer, and the world snaps back into focus. You hear the sound of gunshots nearly constantly around you. You look toward him, finally alert, and he hands you your pistol, which you had dropped.

"Thanks," you say, before peaking over the barrier.

You barely have time to process the sight before you. Small explosions seem to have gone off in all corners and there are Talon Agents and OR-15s everywhere. You miss the first few rounds— your vision is still hazy from the impact. You watch as a drop of blood falls past your right eye. You duck back into cover and touch your forehead, only for your hand to come back slick with blood. Shit. You peak back up and take a few precise shots that land true before realization dawns on you and your heart sinks into your chest. Liana.

"Hunter," you say, "cover me."

"Got it," he says, before peaking out and taking a few more shots. You corner yourself into the barricade, and pray that your radio's still working. You pull it out of your pocket to find that it's busted. You mumble some expletives before fumbling to find your backup radio. Of course you'd left your phone at home.

You grab it and fiddle with the settings, trying to find the channel that you and Jesse use. It seems to be working fine. Heart pounding, you speak into it. "Jess? Jesse, are you there? Can you hear me?"

There's a moment of static and silence, before you hear with slight distortion, "(Y/N)? I can hear you. Are you okay?"

Thank God. "I'm fine. Hit my head, but other than that I'm okay. Jesse, where is Liana?"

"I've got her. Don't worry. Windows are barricaded, as is the door. We're in the kitchen. I'm armed— she's behind me in the corner. We're fine. Hurry back." Jesse's voice holds a panic you haven't heard in years. He's trying his best to cover it up.

"Jesse—" you're interrupted by more heavy gunfire. A bullet whizzes right past you and nearly hits you. You peak out and take a few more shots.

"Darlin'?" You hear through the radio.

"Fine. I'm fine," you reply. "I don't know if I can make it back just yet. Stay there. There's got to be at least a hundred people here. Stay by the radio. I'll contact you."

"Got it," he says, clearly shaken, trying to hold himself together. You can't help but feel the same way. You feel as if every muscle in your body is trembling, and you have to take constant, measured breaths to avoid falling apart.

You pocket the radio and continue to help Hunter clear things out. Eventually, Madison joins you by the barricade. She looks rough.

"What the hell is going on?" She says over the gunfire.

"I think we had the wrong idea of their plan," you say.

"No shit!" Hunter replies.

The three of you spend the better part of ten minutes moving as a unit, peaking behind different barriers and taking out enemies. You watch as agent after agent of your own falls, and you try to keep your emotions steady as your heart sinks further and faster than it ever has.

The roar of gunfire stops. Silence permeates through the hall. No one dares to breathe— waiting for the inevitable—

and then it comes.

An ear shattering crash echoes throughout the building. You turn toward the source of the sound to find the glass portion of the ceiling shatter as an aircraft shatters through it, Gunfire rains down on you all from the Talon agents that begin flooding out of the aircraft, jumping from it to escape the falling craft. It hits the floor of the building, falling past the balcony and landing right next to you. You're knocked off of your feet from the impact. Your head snaps back and hits the ground with a thud. You see stars for a bit before you come to.

You manage to shakily stand, before you see a figure rappel down from the now-broken ceiling, Talon uniform glittering in the late morning sunlight. Her platinum blonde hair is pulled back into a slick ponytail, and her aviators are slightly cracked. A rifle is slung across her shoulder, and she takes a few precise shots before landing.

Hera.

You hear Hunter swear under his breath as he sits up. Madison is also in the middle of recovering when a shot fires down at you and nearly hits you in the head. You grab Hunter and pull him behind some debris. Madison is still shaken so you venture out of cover and pull her in. Another shot rings out, and you watch as blood flies from Madison's shoulder. She shouts in pain and surprise. This seems to snap Hunter out of it.

Hunter checks his rifle, and swears under his breath. "I'm out," he says.

You hand him your pistol. "I'll pick something up on the way. You know how this works. Stick with her. I'm going up."

"By yourself? No way. You'll get yourself killed," he shouts as he puts pressure on Madison's wound. His hands are becoming slick with her blood.

"I'll be fine. I've got a lot to stick around for," you say, looking him in the eye, "and so do you." You take his hand and squeeze it. "I'll see you on the other side," you say, hoping that it's true. You take a quick look at your surroundings, see a small window of opportunity, and dash for the stairs.

You run by countless bodies, some marked Overwatch, some marked Talon, and try not to think about who you could be stepping over. You nearly trip over a Red Agent. You catch a glimpse at their face— they can't be any older than eighteen. Their eyes are staring up at the ceiling, mouth agape, blood pouting out of their mouth and nose. You nearly puke at the sight. You see a pistol similar to yours gripped in their cold hands. You pry it from their hand as quickly as possible and keep moving. As you enter the stairwell, you check the pistol. It's fully loaded.

The stairwell provides a lot of cover, but also a lot of blindspots. You pin yourself up against the wall, and lead with your gun. There's a few Talon agents at the top of the stairwell. You nail two before the others shoot at you, and you feel a sharp and hot pain in your left arm before you duck back behind the wall. After a deep breath and a quick glance at the wound, which is beginning to bleed profusely, you poke out behind cover and land three more hits on the agents guarding the stairwell.

You wipe the splatters of blood from your face before ascending the rest of the stairs. You immediately dash out of the corridor in an attempt to get behind cover. Fire rains down on you as you leap and roll behind some debris. Back pressed up to some remnant of the Overwatch building, you fire at some Talon soldiers moving toward you, and after watching them crumple to the ground, you see something that just might save you.

The balcony where you and Jesse used to stand has broken railing, and the craft that fell through the ceiling is poking out at just an angle that you may be able to enter it. If you can get inside, you can call off the attack. Feign overwhelming. You don't see any of the higher ups here— just goons and a few OR-15s. They must be somewhere else, striking while they've kept you occupied here.

You take a deep breath. Come on, (Y/N), if you can do this, it will all be over.

You hear your radio echo faintly from your back pocket.

"(Y/N)? You there?" Jesse's panicked voice rings from the radio.

You fish it out, keeping your head on a swivel. In the panic and chaos, no one seems to have noticed your position yet.

"Yeah, I'm here."

"Morrison's given an evacuation order. Get out of there. We're headed to the drop point."

"Wait, I might be able to stop this."

"At this point, we need to save our resources and look out for the real strike, (Y/N). Please. Just get out of there," he says, frantically.

"Something's not right here, Jesse, we can't just—"

With a loud crack, you find your head whipped to the side. The radio goes flying out of your hand and skids to a stop on the floor. You've been hit in the head with the butt of a gun. Now on your knees, you glance up to see Hera standing above you.

"Hello there," she says in a voice that's unfamiliar to you. She has a strong English accent and is holding herself differently than usual.

"Hera," you spit out. Blood flies out of your mouth.

"I've waited a long time for this," she says with an all-too-familiar cocky grin. It seems that not everything about her was fake. "I was hoping to discourage you from continuing so that I wouldn't have to do this. I liked you." You remember her ruthless nature in the sparring ring. She broke both of your legs to shoot for Upper Agent. Maybe it was a mercy after all.

You hear the click of her rifle as she presses the barrel to your forehead.

"Please," you say in a measured tone, looking her right in the eyes, "I have a child, a family. You don't need to do this, Hera."

"That isn't my name, darling," she says with a grin, "there were plenty of warning signs— about all of this. You should've left while you had the chance."

You see her finger move and in that instant, your instincts kick in. You knock the rifle out of position, and as it fires it just barely glances your left shoulder. You stumble to your feet, and hold your pistol out in front of you.

You stare down Hera, who is already aiming another shot at you. You do the same. There's a brief moment of pause where neither party acts, where you both stand in stunned silence, glaring at each other.

Then the first shot rings out.

You aren't quite sure who fired fist. Both shots, however, miss. While Hera ducks for cover, you run toward the balcony. Seemingly realizing your plan, you hear Hera's shots cease. However, other shots begin to rain down on you. Surveying the ruins of Overwatch, you truly grasp just how much blood has been shed today. You see small skirmishes still happening in the bottom levels— Upper Agents such as both Amari women, Hana and Lucio, Lena, Genji, and Angela are still holding their own below you. Bodies of both groups litter the floor. You need to keep your focus.

You feel a sharp pain in your thigh. You've been hit.

"Wait," Hera calls out to the others, "she's mine."

The firing on the upper level ceases for a brief moment, before several Overwatch agents come charging out of a corridor. The rest of Talon seems to be occupied for the time being.

You see your radio teetering over the edge of the balcony, kicked further by a Talon agent after you dropped it. You grab it and pocket it before your weight is once again shifted and you fall to your knees. In desperation, you kick out, and find that it connects. You hear a grunt of pain as Hera stumbles backward. You take this moment as an opportunity, twist around, and fire. You watch as your hasty aim connects and the bullet sinks into her gut, and blood, moments later, begins to pour from her mouth.

She stumbles back, grasping her abdomen in pain, before the anger in her eyes cements and she approaches you. She cocks her rifle and aims it at you. Then she chuckles. She hits the gun out of your hand before you have a chance to cock your pistol.

"I'm going to enjoy this," she snarls, blood still seeping out of the corner of her mouth. You try to move away, but find that the balcony behind you is close to breaking off.

She grabs you by the collar and strikes you across the face with the barrel of her rifle. You can't move away. The pain in your thigh is too great, and you can't quite wriggle out of her grasp. She does it again. Then again, and again and again until your eye is nearly swollen shut and you can feel the blood trickle down your forehead. Your nose is bleeding, it might be broken. She shoves you backward. You nearly fall the twenty feet to the floor below you off of the balcony.

Panicking, staring down the barrel of a gun, in that brief instant, you weigh your options. You can push yourself off the balcony, hope you land on the bay of the ship and not on shrapnel, and hope the bullet misses you; or you can fight until you have nothing left.

The moments tick past, and just as you're about to force yourself backward, you watch as Hera crumples as a sickening crack echoes in your ears. You watch as her head twists in an unnatural motion with violent force. You hear the sickening sound of her neck snapping as her body crumples to the floor.

Standing over her, your see a beaten and bloodied Baines. She's holding a similar rifle in her left hand... and then you find your eyes drawn over to the right side of her body.

Her arm is missing, and the stump is bleeding profusely. Burn marks and jagged cuts mar the right side of her face. The burn climbs like a spider web up the side of her face. She's covered in blood, and looks looks barely strong enough to stand.

"Eli," you breathe in both relief in horror.

"You gotta get out of here, (Y/N)," she says weakly. "It's all goin' to shit."

You stumble to your feet. "Eli, you've done enough." At this time you see Ginger rushing with a group of people to the lower levels.

"Ginger!" You roar over the gunfire. She turns to face you. You point toward Baines. Horror dawns on her face. She nods, and immediately runs over to Eliana. You see that Ginger herself looks rough. She seems to have suffered from a glancing gunshot wound, and she's limping slightly. She gives you a knowing nod that says, "hurry."

You peer over the edge to the wreck of the aircraft beneath you. You can see that the communication systems seem to be intact. You give another glance over your shoulder, and run to grab the radio before taking a deep breath and jumping.

You hope that you gauged it correctly as you jump. Mid-air, you hear another ear-shattering explosion coming from the opposite wing of the Overwatch building. It shakes the floor, and you watch as the aircraft shifts.

Your only thoughts are those of expletives and fear as you watch as your landing shifts. You brace for impact. You can barely make it—

You land with a thud in the base of the aircraft. You hear a sickening crunch of metal and a shot of pain climbs up your body as you roll into the craft. Your momentum comes to an end as you're thrown against the end of the aircraft.

You try to get to your feet before realizing that your ankle is broken— the metal of your prosthetic has shifted and splintered and is jutting out at an odd angle. Stifling a grunt of pain, you use your arms to support yourself. The ship rocks as another bomb goes off somewhere in the building. You steady yourself against the controls. For the moment, nobody seems to take notice to your presence. You set your handheld radio on the console and begin to search for anything that could provide you guidance.

The radio crackles, and you hear a faint, "-yone seen (Y/N)?"

You fumble for the radio and say, "Jesse, I'm here, I'm okay. Can you read me?"

"Shit, (Y/N)," you hear him breathe a sigh of relief. You hear the white noise of panicked chatter behind his voice. "Where are you? You were talking and then I heard gunshots... I though you were..." he trails off.

"I'm fine," you assure him, trying to stand steadily despite your ruined ankle and worsening headache. "I'm close. I'll be with you all soon. Just keep Liana safe."

"(Y/N)," he says with urgency, "you don't have to fight this. We can regroup, come back stronger. Just get out of there." His voice is quiet but the panic in his voice is palpable. 

"If I don't stop this, thousands could die. This is my job, dammit, I'm going to do it."

"Your job is being apart of this family, (Y/N)—"

"And you were going to throw it out to do the same," you say with a surprising amount of venom. Silence rings from the other end. "I'm sorry," you finally say, "I'm in rough condition. I won't lie to you."

"How rough?"

"Busted ankle, head trauma, gunshot wound to the thigh, and I think another bullet scraped me— we'll have to see."

There's another brief moment of tension where you swear you hear Jesse mumble something on the other end. 

After another beat, you hear very faintly, "what does shit mean?"

You can't hold in your chuckle. You hear Jesse say, "uh, well," he begins to fumble for words, and then settles on, "not now Leeli. I'll tell you later."

There's a moment of pause where you can envision his soft smile as the two cling to each other.

"I'll hurry," you say quietly. "I won't be brash."

"You promise?"

"Of course. I have a lot to come back for."

You can picture Jesse's sad smile from the other end as you echo words he had spoken to you seven years ago. 

Pocketing the radio, you turn your attention back to the control panel. 

You try to enter the system, but after awhile, find that most of the machinery was busted in the crash. 

After enough fiddling, a solitary holographic screen buzzes to life in front of you. Written on the screen are four words: Fox Three, Bravo Alpha.

You furrow your brow in confusion. This is general military call-sign jargon. You try to wrack your brain about what it could mean. 

The phrase "Fox Three" evades you, but you recognize Bravo. Bravo, in terms of military threat levels, refers to terrorism... but it can also refer to bombs. 

Alpha, too, can mean a variety of things. You sit there, wracking your brain. You wish you had been militarily trained. 

You have no clue what it means. You wrack your brain for the moments you feel you can spare, and then resign yourself to escape. If I can't fix what's happening here, I can at least stay alive for my daughter.

Gunfire still rings out around you, so you know that the evacuation hasn't finished yet. 

You risk a peak out of your shelter. No one has noticed you, not for the time being. There are still several skirmishes. For a moment, you have hope. Down on the main level, the number of Overwatch agents appears to outnumber the number of Talon agents and OR-15s. You see several destroyed on the floor— though you do hear the lumbering and distant footsteps of some survivors.

Finding an opening within the battlefield, you say a quick and involuntary prayer and leap out of cover. You dash for the elevator, hoping for some more cover there. If you can get to the top floor, maybe you can get a better picture of the situation. If the ground levels are swarmed, you'll probably have a better chance climbing down from the roof. At least you'll have a chance to strategize. That's assuming the roof is safe.

You call the elevator, and turn, gun pointed out at the oncoming scene. You nail a few shots, before you hear one fire right at you. You hear the strange yet familiar sound of metal whining against an impact, and you find that Genji has dashed right in front of you. You see his sword outstretched from its sheath, taking the bullet for you. 

"Whatever it is that you're doing," he says over the gunfire, "I'd suggest hurrying it up. We're leaving soon."

"Got it," you say. "How are the exits?"

"Clogged.