idk number whatever

[need_healing]

[Leading up to the Shimada Clan's final days as a cohesive and respectable organization, Genji had thought that finally bringing low the family that had caused him so much pain would make him feel... better. The weight would lift and he would find some sort of respite from his emotions. Anyone outside looking in would have been able to quite simply tell him that such an idea was a load of shit, but it had driven him. Instead, when the deed was done and he's torn the last leg out from under the clan, he'd only been left with a feeling of aching emptiness.

Perhaps it had seemed strange then for that to be the time he finally agreed to the cybernetic streamlining that Dr. Ziegler had been quietly trying to convince him of for far too long. Her gentle approach had been rebuffed, if not outright ignored, every time. There was a part of him that preferred the hellish appearance Blackwatch had gifted him with, whether he thought he deserved it or it simply made his job easier.

But there was no job anymore. Certainly Commander Reyes could continue to send him on operations, but he's seen enough to know that even that isn't going to last forever. Overwatch, Blackwatch... it was all spiraling out of hand and eventually nothing was going to be able to sustain it. He couldn't stay, Reyes' wishes be damned, but he wasn't going to leave like this either.

He knows Dr. Ziegler worries about him- he fights her on it whenever he has his appointments. The rest of the time, when he's not in her office because he has to be, when they pass in the hall, or cross ways during mealtimes... it scares him. But he owes her this and he can't leave without her knowing.

So the night before the operation- the night before he makes his decision final- he sneaks out. The window to her personal quarters is on the tenth floor and certainly not an entrance any sane person would expect, which makes it all the better for clandestine arrivals. Bare metal feet make the softest of clicking noises when they touch down on the sill, the dark shape of his body nearly hidden against the backdrop of the night sky, save for the dim red glow of his cybernetics.

He shouldn't be here.]

Dr. Ziegler... [A pause, then softer, as if he's said something he shouldn't.] Angela.

Comments

[eidgenossen]

[Venice had been the turning point for Overwatch, and for many people as well. Angela certainly still felt the bitter sting at the revelation that O'Deorain had been harbored by Reyes in Blackwatch, but it wasn't just that. Cairo, Japan, the London Uprising- Gérard Lacroix was dead. The cracks were starting to spread, and the hardest pill to swallow was that they weren't all caused by outside blows.

Like most nights recently, sleep wasn't coming to Angela. Too often these days she's woken up by an emergency call- Talon was growing more and more bold by the day. She's hovering over her desk in her pajamas, a simple tank top and shorts, several holograms hovering above its surface- news reports, several obituaries, upcoming appointments. One was a diagram of a new cybernetic suit that every now and then draws her attention away from her work.

Angela had made her feelings on Genji's recruitment into Blackwatch embarrassingly clear, but ultimately there was nothing she could do, not even when Reyes had requested a more "intimidating" look. Eventually she let it go for a time, but not without occasionally (and gently) suggesting to Genji that he always had other options. Most of the time he flat out ignored her, although on his good days he would respond with an uninterested grunt.

So it was a surprise when, as one of their more recent appointments was beginning to end, he had been the one to bring it up... in a sort of grumbling, reluctant way. Angela hadn't missed that it was around the time that the Shimada clan was officially no longer considered a threat by Overwatch.

She did her best to get him involved in the designing of his new cybernetics, making it clear that his input was the most important of all. It wasn't easy, but he eventually graduated from quiet grunts to actually saying 'yes' when she asked him a question. She also learned his favorite color is green.

She idly turns the hologram around, studying its shape. Angela could write papers on Genji- her colleagues had wanted her to. But it didn't feel right, to break a man's pain into medical jargon. It was unprofessional- borderline unethical- of her to feel the way she does about Genji Shimada, but it's been year since they first met. Whatever was felt between them had gone nowhere, her professionalism and his desire to keep the world at arm's length working together, for once. It's just something that was, that Angela thinks will go away once they were removed from each other's lives... an idea that hurts her more than she'd like.

It's late and she should go to bed, but the sudden feeling of another presence has the hair on the back of her neck standing up. She turns around in her chair, hands fumbling for her blaster, the red glow in her window sending a jolt of panic through her-]

Genji? Scheisse- [She doesn't drop her blaster but she looks visibly less panicked.] What's going on? Is there an attack?