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"I can't stand you." A simple sentence.
An unexpected one.
Venom present in an unwavering voice, dripping from each word that conveyed a concoction of complex emotions. As if wanting to be angry, to be upset at the capturer.
Cutting deeper than Amélie cared to admit.
'Don't say that.' She wanted to say.
A pathetic tiny voice.
She always had been a bit sensitive. Wanting to be accepted and perfect. More so by the woman clad in red and black.
The words a dagger straight to her heart, turning and mangled the muscle.
Leaving her blank faced, motionless and at a lost of words.
To think it had come from Angela.
Overwatch's very own angel, Mercy. The symbol of peace and health.
The one she thought she could've trust. To even love.
The very same person who taught her basic procedures in case she was wounded on the field. Knowledge to help others until Mercy could respond or other medics.
About Overwatch, Zürich, or miniscule facts about the different omnics, her own place in Overwatch as a sniper in training, or simple sparring sessions where Amélie would beat Angela or Angela 'beat' Amélie.
Some sessions closer than others. Angela almost winning, her strength just there but her knowledge about the body made it harder to overcome. Amélie almost winning others, her agility and usage of her flexibility of ballet too much for Angela to keep up with.
Accompanied by the occasional walk together afterwards to cool down.
Getting lost for hours deep in conversation. Angela ranting about how she should've won or venting about the state of Overwatch and the direction they were taking wasn't the same she agreed to join.
Or simply enjoying eachothers company. A break from duty and the hungry snakes at Talon always disrupting the few areas of peace between the war.
A routine created that the two looked forward to.
A sort of bond formed through these interactions.
Amélie finding herself looking up to the rather pale skinned woman. Mesmerized by blue eyes, her quick wit and calm demeanor. Inwardly excited whenever they crossed paths or anxiously waited for the times they did have planned together.
The only person who didn't judge; Who offered a listening ear.
A woman who had her wrapped around her finger without realizing it.
Angela lured in by a surprising rapacious strength and a softness behind walls. Nevermind the wealth she came from or that she had a husband. A woman searching for an identity outside of her family's name.
However, Angela wouldn't reveal her way of thinking. It wasn't her place nor would it go over smoothly with Amélie's husband, Gérard. But Amélie presisted, allowing moments to themselves. Feelings that had brewed over time. Longing for something that they knew was wrong but acted on it anyways, unable to keep away. Shared kisses and dates. Sworn to secrecy and hiding it from everyone.
To everyone else though, Angela more or less acted as a glorified doctor. The title giving foes a false sense of confidence over her.
Now that always did impress Amélie.
Watching Angela take on omnics or men twice her size, easily maneuvering herself around with the help of her suit and aiming exactly where she should. Minimalizing pain but all the more deadly. Every shot taken a killing blow that could make Ana and Amélie look untrained.
Amélie found it entertaining, alluring. Those so confident in their strength and power only to be laying dead the next minute. Their ego bruised and shamed by the rest.
Angela turning towards her after the fight, catching her breath. A sheen of sweat on her skin reflecting the hot sun.
Angela would look at her. Exasperated and something in her eyes would scream. At the fact that she had taken a life. Regardless of how many times she's done this before, it never sat well with her. Amélie knew this. She appeared so small and fragile. So human. It would take a few minutes of Amélie consoling her to get her to move back to their tents. A wram hand grabbing at hers and squeezing with appreciation.
Small moments that felt like a fleeting dream now. A past to a person that stood before her unrecognizable.
The glass allowing full view of the figure inside. A person who looked like Angela but was someone so much worse. Someone she hardly recognized. Conflicted emotions swimming behind hazel and biotic eyes.
Anger, sorrow, guilt. Staring down at the woman who betrayed Overwatch. Who turned her back on the hippocratic oath. Who bore the Talon emblem on her outfit. Battered and bruised. Purple and blue staining her face.
A line of red dripping from her nose that begun to flake off accompanied by dark circles forming under her eyes.
And yet, a sinister grin plastered across Angela's face. Blue eyes darting back and forth and Amélie watched the augments within them shift and turn.
Silence as they held this game of staring. Daring the other person to make a move, to speak first.
Not even a sound from the world above her cell corrected this silence. Enough to hear the slight breathing of each women and the faint beating of hearts to Amélie's ears.
And Amélie stared back, the effects of Angela's words finally sunk in. A scoff leaving her lips to appear unphased, moving her arms to cross them over her chest.
Making the first move in this game of chess.
A wave of laughter followed after. Deep from the prisoners chest. Mocking the overwatch agent. Getting what she's been waiting for. A reaction out of her former lover. Watching the walls put in place slowly crumble at her presence. A presence that has been absent for years now.
A hole left inside Amélie that Angela dug her claws into.
Skin scrunched at the nose with furrowed brows. So familiar yet so acute to a stranger. Amélie could give in but instead kept her ground, attempting to appear as stern as possible.
The quiet afterward felt suffocating. Words so cruel, Amélie could only muster up the one noise. A face full of scorn and hate. Betrayal. And perhaps embarrassment, to be seen so pathetically affected.
Tension so thick you could cut it.
The staring contest persisted before Amélie relented. A pained sigh escaping her.
"You know what you did. You can't stand the thoight if being captured, not me."
"I dont believe I do. Could you remind me?" Angela replies, smirking now. Wanting to see how far she could push the woman. Toying with her food, completely ignoring the rest of Amélie's words.
"You killed countless people!"
"Who are they in the grand scheme of things?"
"You may have disappeared," Amélie starts, "but I know this isn’t you." Her annoyance and anger accentuated by a closed fist and a step closer to the glass.
Her off angled body now completely facing the locked Talon member.
"You sprout the same nonsense they did when they captured me." Angela growls, rolling her eyes.
Amélie slams her fists against the thick glass, keeping it pressed against it. "They don't know you like I do!"
"You are nothing to me!" Angela yells, a snarl following her words as she stood to her feet. Positioning herself closer to the glass between them.
Her former lover taken aback by her words. A wave of emotions washing over her and clasping at her heart. The dagger shoved through mangling itself more. Biting back the tears threatening to form.
"Do I mean so little to you to betray me like this?"
Angela's jaw visibly clenches but the smile never left. "Yes."
Amélie's own attempts to stay stern and strong already failing at the mercy of Angela's anger and betrayal. The complete detachment and memory loss of the life they once shared.
"I wanted to protect you, Angela." A break in her voice. A vulnerability that only appeared with the blonde. One that Amélie desperately tried to fight back.
The mere mention of the name instigating something deep inside Angela. Anger over taking her once smug features. "That person. The person who you utter the name of is dead. The Angela you knew died and was replaced with someone better, stronger. Twice the woman she ever would be!"
Angela's face twists into frustration as she backs away. Wings swinging with her momentum as she turns her back towards the overwatch agent. A clear view of the mechanics. Amélie remembers how the world roared in excitement at the advancement Angela made with her valkyrie suit. A new step forward in technology. To see it be used for her own personal gain, as an extension of Talon instead of healing the broken planet tore her apart. The flight suit that helped the wounded had been used to aid in heists, bombings, assassinations.
When they subdued and apprehended Angela, Ana performed a scan over her body. To see how extensive Talons corruption over her was. The results rocked them all to their core. The wings surgically attached to her back and intertwined with her nerves for easier control. Her signature halo twisted and formed horns, also connected to the base of her head through nerves. The reason behind this still isn't clear. Her eyes also undergone surgery, adding biotics that Ana described as to allow her to magnify objects without the need of a microscope.
The most egregious change being her arms. Amputated by the elbows and replaced with robotic arms and hands. The design too clean and precise to have been talons handiwork and signature marks had Ana question if it was designed by Angela herself. A thought that no one wanted to dwell on. What she endured they couldn't begin to grasp.
"You know I only want to protect you. That has been a promise I never broke. Didnt I?" A rhetorical question, Amélie paused for the words to sink in. "Even with my marriage on the line, I never left your side. I stuck by and supported you through everything. When you began to question your alliance to Overwatch, I was there. When you confronted Amari about using your lifes work not for the intended purpose, who consoled you after the argument?"
Angela stays silent. Heterochromia eyes never leaving her back as the swiss thought over her words. The wings shifting before the mechanics relaxed and the hard light not as fierce as before.
"You wound me lieutenant. To say you care yet allow me to sit in here."
"They will have my head! To protect you, i need to be the one that visits you. I need to be the one you trust to talk to so they dont plan something rash."
The other agents were above them, talking amongst themselves. Arguing over Angela's fate and what they were going to do with her. Ana expressing her own dismay, Winston and Lena trying to keep the peace between the older members. The commotion allowed Amélie to sneak down to the subject of their arguments.
The blonde looks over her shoulder and for a split second Amélie sees Angela. The doctor she fell for poking through the reconditioning of talon. "I do trust you."
Her words lacked validity. Angela at any point could turn and stab her in the back like so many others. Although, her better half urging her to remember the times with Angela beforehand.
The trust and bond once created. The admiration and lulled walks.
Amélie sinks to a silence, the turmoil bubbling within. She couldn't trust her. This wasn't Angela. Straight from her mouth. A glare at the prisoner. A sign she wasn't falling for her games.
"Trust me, Amélie. I'm scared. You dont understand what i've been through. The torture they’ve done to me." Angela completely turns her body to the brunette, fear in blue.
The very same look she witnessed whenever Angela took a life.
"They imprisoned me. Neglected and abused me. They forced me to design these augments. The arms im forced to bear. To improve surgical hands they said. I can do surgery without breaks or fatigue. I can make the most miniscule incisions without equipment." The doctors voice borderline pleading.
And as predicted, Amélie's heart broke. After all these years, she's been distraught over the disappearance. Not even her husband's death brought her to this low like Angela's missing posters. She participated in every search, was the first on the scene when Zürich was broken into. She never stopped looking despite Ana and Jack telling her to give it a rest.
The blonde walks forward to the glass placing an open hand against it. A frown etched on her lips, a new softness on her features. The sight killed Amélie. Placing her own hand over hers.
"I promised to keep you safe. Allow me to keep doing so."
She pulls away much to Angela's dismay.
"Wait, Amélie."
Hearing her name from the accented voice made her skin crawl and her heart ache. The dagger from earlier slowly twisting out from her. Angela smiles which catches her off guard. At first genuine and sweet. Reminiscent of when they had first began talking.
"Yes?"
"Do you know how it is to be captured by Talon?"
"...what?"
"You see Amélie," Angela starts, closing her eyes as if reminding herself. "They took me from my office in the dead of night. Someone caught wind of my faltering allegiance and Talon saw it as an opportunity. They deprived me of light, food, water, proper anything. Given scraps to barely get by. Then they gave me a deal. I design technology for their resident doctor and I earn my freedom. I naively believed them, desperate to escape."
She woefully chuckles, quiet and pained. "How foolish I was. I designed them prosthetics that would revolutionize medical history. Just as my nanotechnology did. Whoever adorned them wouldn't get tired during the procedure. Steady fingers to make any surgery perform without mistakes. So they accepted it and freed me but failed to include how they would test the prosthetic on me."
Metal fingers curl on the glass into a fist. Anguish over taking her features. "They cut off my arms. They sloppily bandaged me up and threw me back into my cell until they finished making it. I sat there for God knows how long writhing in pain, almost dead from blood loss before they took me back and applied the prosthetics."
She opens her eyes and blue had glazed over at remembering. "And in the process, rewired me."
Amélie sat in silence, soaking up the information. Too much to unpack in such a short time. Her head swarming with thoughts. The lights flickered momentarily, causing her to glance towards the ceiling but her prisoner unphased.
"Rewired?" She croaked out, shifting her attention back.
Angela chuckles once more, that same mocking tone as before. Her eyes never left Amélie's. "The Angela you fell in love with is lost and you will never see her again."
There wasn't a moment to process what had been said before a fist slammed against the glass. Metal creating a small point of collision. A tiny white spot of cracks. The sniper jumped back in alarm.
"You will never have Angela again!" She screamed, fury in those biotic orbs. "The doctor you hold onto doesn't serve Overwatch! She is nothing but a memory. I am Malevolence. I serve my own goals. My own ambitions, aspirations! I am not held by this organization."
Another punch. The cracks spread like lightning.
"Talon helped me see my full potential. Overwatch limits and nullifies." Her voice laced in pure venom.
Then another punch that pulled Amélie from her stupor, scrambling to the control panel when realization set in on her situation.
Touching the screen to initiate Athena to lock down the cell when the screen went black. Frantically tapping the surface, Amélie turned to Angela who stopped and stared at her with a shit eating grin. She turns back to the screen that had faded to a purple and a skull appeared in its center.
"How good are you trained for the dark, Lacroix."
The lights shut off and Amélie places her hand on her sidearm, gripping the handle and a thumb on the side by the trigger. The distinct sound of the door opening alerts her, swiveling her body towards it. She hears the subtle sound of shoes against the tile floors and she focuses her biotic eye as best as possible. It wasn't entirely made for the dark, only to concentrate her aim, to be more precise on weak points.
Her only source of information were the blue eyes stalking her. The glow of red augments.
"Lacroix?"
"What do you want." Voice desperate to remain controlled.
"Do you ever wonder who shot you in the eye?"
A question Amélie wasn't prepared to hear. The mention of it has her muscles tense and gripping her sidearm harder; white knuckled.
She couldn't have..
"At night. You screamed they caught the bullet. Amari was first. Morrison didn't respond. You looked back up and stared down the barrel of a gun."
Cold metal on her check causes her to flinch backwards and pull her weapon out. Amélie wasn't even sure where she was aiming but kept her pistol towards the dark before her.
"Your desires are fruitless. What you seek to achieve at Overwatch will crumble alongside it."
"You monster.."
A laugh. Not a chuckle. A laugh. Loud and genuine.
"You will see the result of no mercy."
Amélie is left to ponder. Moments of silence before the lights flicker back on. Squeezing her eyes shut and blinking repeatedly as she adjusts to the change. The cell door open with cracks within the glass. The panel back to functioning but her prisoner missing. Gone without so much as a trace.
Left alone with her gun still aiming at the empty room. The dagger that had loosened dug deeper and completely removed her heart whole.
How naive.
How pathetically in love.
Angela didn't exist anymore.
Malevolence did.