Chapter Text
Cassidy felt a prick of suspicion at the back of his neck when he saw a silhouette pass the rocky coast of Watchpoint Gibraltar. One might second-guess it as a trick of the light from the setting sun if they weren't a sharp eye, and a bit on edge.
As far as Cassidy was aware, the handful of Overwatch agents, a mix of familiar faces and inspired newcomers, should all be accounted for in the rec room. Cassidy hadn’t been in there with them too long as Winston nervously double-checked for the papers that the new-and-still-learning commander had forgotten for the recruits. Before he left, the group was bunched together, recalling stories of their journey here (mostly Reinhardt), rekindling friendships and the like after years of no contact. It was almost like there was no need to feel the impending doom of the world. The growing violence and the lurking enemies. It was just friends, some almost family, reconnecting through hugs and laughs.
Not that that's stopped Cassidy from worrying. And maybe he wasn't being as huggy as others either. Not since...
But that's besides the point. Something just had to happen, huh? A stone thrown into the still waters. The thought of another attack from Talon or something else at a tentative moment like this...
“Athena?” Cassidy called out behind him, eyes not leaving the tinted window. The AI's ever-calm and ever-present voice echoed in the office.
“Yes, Agent Cassidy?”
“Could ya pull up some surveillance from behind the communications tower? And, uh, zoom in on it would ya? Thanks, doll.”
Cassidy strode over to Winston's desk, side-stepping all the organizers and peanut butter containers on the floor. He took a final swig of his second- third?- coffee that day and grunted, half-kneeling on the tire seat.
Athena pulled up two holographic screens, displaying perpendicular angles of the area Cassidy had requested. Each camera zoomed in and turned steadily from side to side. Nothing suspicious. Not yet.
Setting down his mug and long-forgotten files, Cassidy squinted harder in search for the stranger. The right screen displayed the dusty main road between Gibraltar's facilities. Empty. The camera's rotation turned towards the rusting metal walls and staircase of the radar building. Those railings probably wouldn't hold any longer, but nothing else was concerning. Cassidy felt a tad jittery.
Cassidy grabbed to drink again and tsk'd at the sight of the white bottom of the mug. It was probably for the best since that was his third- fourth?- today.
Taking off his hat now, Cassidy leaned toward the next screen. The left camera revealed the dirt path, rocky terrain, sparse green wildlife, and silent ocean waves that captured flecks of remaining sunlight. A breathtaking view, if not for the wave of apprehension that washed over Cassidy with the continued absence of his mystery intruder. Did they already slip by?
The left screen suddenly flickered, catching his attention, but nothing. Just a brief weak connection, nothing that suggests a jammer. Damn old base and abandoned tech, needing a tune-up. Cassidy waved away the holograms and pinched his nose.
“Athena?” His voice was just the slightest bit tenser. “Everyone still 'n the rec room?”
“No, Agent Cassidy,” Athena answered as level as always. Cassidy almost relaxed but the AI continued, “The remaining members within the rec room are Agents Winston, Tracer, D.Va, Reinhardt and Mei. Agents Brigitte and Pharah have retired to their quarters. Ana is in the mess hall. Dr. Ziegler went to the medical facilities with Baptiste and Zar- Correction: Agent Zarya has split off. Presumably on her way to one of the training facilities.”
At that, Cassidy worried his lip.
"But none outside?"
"No one has left the buildings."
Cassidy clicked his tongue and put the hat back over his messy chestnut hair. He walked back over to the window to peer outside. There were three entrances to the facilities from this area and the paths toward them were all visible from this vantage point. Sure enough there was nothing and nobody there.
The cowboy started to pace, his jingling spurs the only sound filling the room other than the low hum of machinery. He pulled out a cigarillo but didn't light it. Winston wouldn't appreciate the smoke smell in his office.
“Agent Cassidy?” the AI's concerned inquiry went unheard.
With the unlit cigarillo rolling in his mouth, Cassidy contemplated his paranoia. It was entirely plausible that his years on the run had left him reasonably jumpy, even in the company of old friends again.
Or that was exactly fuel to the flames. Old friends and almost family. There was a more than a can of worms since Cassidy disappeared on everyone else first.
But what of the chances of bounty hunters following him out here? Higher than a civilian having wandered up here, using the dangerous cliff sides rather than the abandoned main roads. Either is technically still a possibility.
Cassidy glanced toward the coffee maker in the corner of the room. Maybe no one was there to begin with and his wary, sleep-deprived mind was getting the best of him.
Come on, Cole..
Then, before he could begin to reprimand himself, he saw it again. A whip of fabric disappeared behind the comm tower.
That was real. That had to be real now.
Without a second thought, Cassidy rushed out of the office with heavy footfalls. He needed to settle whether there was an intruder or not and barely heard Athena calling out to him in concern. He half-ran, half-jogged down the stairs past a curious Winston and Tracer and was through the lower exit in barely a word.
The thick, humid coastal air wrapped around Cassidy immediately once the door slid open. His eyes took only a moment to adjust to the new light. It felt just a bit muggy with his usual get up but that was far beyond his attention right now. He didn't even give himself enough time to appreciate the fresh outside air compared to the dusty Watchpoint’s. He adjusted the red serape away from his neck for a breath and continued to trudge along the cliff side, hand readily reaching for Peacekeeper.
Cassidy quietly marched the long way around the desolate looking comm tower and scanned the area. The direct route would have him in plain sight. Around him was just the usual dusty road, overgrowth, and the assorted vehicles and boxes abandoned long ago. Restoring full functionality to the Watchpoint was obviously still a process.
The ocean was much louder than when Cassidy was behind the orange glass of Winston’s office. The cries of gulls can be heard in the distance. Despite all this, Cassidy kept sharp to both sights and sounds.
He took another moment scout by the tarp-covered crates that revealed no hidden intruder when something blue flapped around the left corner of his eye. Just below the cliff's edge.
Gotcha.
Cassidy tightened his grip on Peacekeeper and slowly pulled her out of his holster. He moved carefully to lighten his steps before peering down the stony edge.
"Hands up," Cassidy demanded, voice low and threatening. He pointed his gun at the intruder, real, and in front of him. "Don' know if ya didn't notice, but yer trespassin'."
A beat of silence. But Cassidy kept his stance.
"Trespassing in abandoned property?" The stranger eventually retorted, sarcastic. His voice was deep and smooth, just a bit of a sharp accent to his words. Something Eastern, if Cassidy had to guess.
The man, Cassidy assumed from the voice and build, didn't move from his spot on the rock's edge. He didn't even bother turning to face the danger, still staring at something afar, or at nothing at all.
From what Cassidy could profile, the other appeared to be quite stocky, top heavy, but probably shorter than Cassidy even at the awkward angle they were in. The man's long black hair was pulled up into a short, high ponytail kept together by a silk blue ribbon that oddly reflected some gold from the setting sun. Unarmed, as far as Cassidy could tell. A bag or case slung across his back was open and empty. He wore a sort of robe-type clothing. White. Also strangely difficult to look at too long. Did he have a hard-light projector somewhere on his person? For what purpose?
Actually.. all of him really felt strange.
Call it a sixth sense or nerves, Cassidy just had more than a no-good feeling of this guy. There was something weird here.
The stranger then turned slowly, posture not quite ready to strike nor showing hostility. But definitely not putting his hands up to surrender, either. Cassidy didn't really expect him to anyway and stayed alert.
Once fully facing each other, the cowboy did another quick once-over. The man was definitely East Asian, most likely Japanese. He looked older than Cassidy from the hair greying at the sides and just slightly on his beard. He seemed to be wearing something traditional, the proper name escaping Cassidy when he did a very, very brief double take at the half-exposed chest. A cultural thing? Wardrobe malfunction? Or maybe this man was just like that.
There was a full tattoo sleeve. A dragon coiled around the man's arm.
Done with the once-over, Cassidy returned a sharp look to the other.
"Still trespassin'."
All the stranger replied to him was a scoff and an eye roll before dark brown eyes settled back on Cassidy's own lighter ones. Cassidy kept the gun trained on the other as he carefully dropped down onto the same ledge. They were were both taunting a watery death from here.
The lack of a visible weapon present on the stranger wasn't enough to make Cassidy put his own away. The clothing. The tattoo. It was the facial features the other possessed that struck Cassidy with familiarity. Of something. Someone. Of wanted posters and old photographs shown to him from Genji in their Blackwatch days. Of Genji himself. He sneered.
"Hanzo Shimada.”
"Winston, you know you could've asked me to get your stuff! Could've gone here and back in a blink of an eye, you know that."
"Oh, I know..." Winston sighed. "But you and Mei, and miss Song seemed to be in a very heated conversation about Mei's expeditions. Even I was a little intrigued! And- well, Cassidy had offered instead so..." He trailed off.
Speak of the devil, Cassidy shouldered passed the pair without much other than a quickly muttered "'scuse me". He rushed out the back exit with a swoosh of the metal door sliding closed before ether could get a word in. Tracer and Winston stood in their spots at the middle of staircase, gawking at the entrance. The lass gave a shrug and kept them moving.
"Huh! Did we miss something?" Tracer asked the air as they entered the office.
Athena's logo flicked on over the computer screens while Winston picked up his personnel files Cassidy seemed to have left spilling off his desk.
"Agent Cassidy became suspicious of movement outside the Watchpoint and had left to investigate." She explained, with as much exasperation an AI can voice.
"An intruder?" Winston asked, tone suddenly serious. With his experience with Talon's previous break-in of the Watchpoint, it only made sense.
"No," Athena corrected. This earned a baffled expression from her both agents. "Not quite."
Tracer bounded over to his side, brows furrowed and just as uncharacteristically stern. Athena didn’t say more. She instead pulled up the same surveillance cameras that Cassidy was looking at.
Standing face to face with his best friend's killer was a scenario that absolutely crossed Cassidy's mind a couple times back at Blackwatch. And recently as well, when Genji answered the Recall. The now green and serene cyborg caught Cassidy up with the fact that he did the exact opposite of getting his revenge and slicing his brother to shreds. He had explained the hogwash that was his upbringing, only making it worse that he had to be cut down, and then still wants to reach out an olive branch. What the hell.
Sure, some can be pardoned for some crimes. Hell, Cassidy was a prime example of a second chances and he wouldn’t trade away what Overwatch gave him for the world.
But forgiveness felt a little different when it's directed to your own flesh and blood that absolutely massacred you. Left you to die. Cassidy remembered how anger was practically the only thing keeping Genji alive in Blackwatch. To Hell with the bastard that would make Genji blame himself on all that and probably not regret a thing.
Cassidy clenched his teeth, biting down on the cigarillo, wishing he took time to light it. He focused his grip on his revolver. His fingers were itching to pull when the elder Shimada held his piercing glare. He could shoot him right now. Finger ready on the trigger. The air felt staticky, energies high.
Cassidy had more control than that, though. He would never hear the end of it from Genji. Despite how much his brother deserved a shot to his pretty face.
Unless, of course, the Shimada assassin made the first move.
Meanwhile, Hanzo seemed minutely shocked at the recognition but schooled his expression soon enough.
"And you... " Hanzo trailed off rather anticlimactically. He narrowed his sharp eyes, glanced off to the side, working his jaw before focusing on Cassidy again. He opened his mouth again, saying nothing. He waved his left arm in a vague gesture towards Cassidy, leaving him to continue the... interrogation? Confrontation?
This wasn't exactly going the way more of his imagined scenarios did.
"Cassidy." he supplied his name awkwardly. This really felt a different from what he imagined. This was the scion to the Shimada Clan, right? The cold, ruthless yakuza head?
"Not Jesse McCree?" Hanzo seemed finally able to place. Cassidy huffed. It made sense to assume he could be recognized, one way or another. Cassidy had quite a number to his names after all.
“Close, maybe if ya asked a couple aliases ago.”
Hanzo took notice of Cassidy's smirk at the recognition. He quietly tsk'd, straightening up and crossing his arms.
"Yes, I know of you. The bounty hunter with a bounty on his own head that would tempt any fool, if they didn't consider as to why the price was high."
The clan leader seemed to stare down at Cassidy despite their height difference. You know, as if he didn't just fumble for a menacing retort a while ago. Could this man really find this the time to act like someone doing a boring explanation to a child? Cassidy really didn't like him.
"An' assuming yer no fool?" The tension was returning as Cassidy became wary for any sudden movements.
"I am not here to kill you.” Okay. Sure. “Not that I wouldn't have been able to.” And there it was.
But why past tense? What changed his mind?
"Unfortunately I might be here t' kill you, Mr. Shimada." Cassidy chuckled while he gestured towards Hanzo with Peacekeeper. Even if he wasn't here to kill Cassidy for his bounty, or any other reason, he was still too dangerous to allow wandering around the base. "An' ya seem to be unarmed. So either you're comin' with me 'peacefully' or 'm draggin' yer dead body up instead”.
Rather than replying, Hanzo began to pace around the rocky platform they stood on. Cassidy kept Peacekeeper trained on him all the while. The steps were slow and short as he didn't much space to work with. Cassidy could only squint at the other. Shimada honestly couldn't be trying to stall or thinking of a way out of this, could he?
Not that anything he's done so far has helped hint to, well, anything. This man was still an assassin, a bounty hunter, with every reason to try to kill Cassidy, or possibly infiltrate the Watchpoint. But he hasn't done anything but be as vague as possible. This conversation was going as well as if he were talking to a corpse.
What if he didn't arrive alone? Cassidy spared a glance between the base's empty rooftops, and the crashing coastline below. It was not the most ideal point of entry if you asked him. Precarious as teasing death in the form of white waves and stone teeth. How did Shimada even get this far before even Athena could sense him?
Hanzo eventually settled closer to safe land and gazed back up to the Watchpoint. His expression unreadable. He watched the tattered flag atop the radar array, flying a faded Overwatch emblem. He was still too carefree for a man with a gun at his skull.
"Is…” His voice for once, seemed to croak. Hesitant. “Is Genji here?"
Cassidy's grip could not be any tighter.
Back to finish the job then?
"An' why would I tell his murderer where he is or ain't?"
Hanzo's eyes bore into him before he let out a sigh through his nose. As if this encounter was straining to him. Or irritating.
“You are his teammate? Part of this.. Recall ?"
Cassidy kept silent but his eyebrow raised slightly. Guess the news of the Recall reached a little further than he assumed. But damn it, Shimada was still being vague.
"You would protect him?"
Cassidy narrowed his eyes at the sudden change of tone. This son of a...
"Yeah, I would. I'd probably have m' life on the line protectin' the bastard. Hell, it's already happened a couple times." The words came out with a rather sardonic smile. "Frankly, somethin' you somehow couldn't do. Mister Shimada, heir to a clan that thinks killin' yer kin was the best way to prove your own worth."
The shorter man tensed up at those words, cold eyes with a searing glare towards the other. Cassidy kept going. Grinning. Baiting.
"Maybe, ya jus' really liked to kiss up when it came to those 'elders'."
Hanzo slowly took in the words with bared teeth, his hands clenching at his sides. His breathing became heavy. The last bits of sunlight cast him in a menacing shade. Cassidy believed that that had finally caused the Shimada to retaliate, armed weapon to his face be damned.
"Or, maybe, you really jus' hated 'im! Finally, a reason to finally do that spoiled brat in-!"
Hanzo lunged at him.
Whelp. Sorry, Genji.
The shot echoed across the cliff.
"What's Cass' doing way over there?" Tracer worried. She pointed out the blurred red figure on the holographic screen. "Athena, zoom in, zoom in!"
“Athena, can you get us a better angle?" Winston adjusted his glasses.
"A moment, please."
Athena launched a surveillance drone to get better quality than the wall-mounted security cameras. The drone flew swiftly and silently over to view a new angle; towards the comm tower walls that Cassidy stood in front of. He was dangerously close to the cliff edge. That was... mildly alarming.
The drone zoomed in closer to his face, no audio, but it was clear he was speaking. And his gun was drawn. More alarming.
"He’s talkin’ to someone?" Tracer was leaning her entire weight on the desk, as if looking closer and moving around the screen herself would help. Even if he had a comm with him to speak to, what’s with the gun?
”Athena?“ Winston asked.
Athena turned audio on in time to hear a rather troubling, one-sided conversation.
“...the bastard. Hell, it’s probably happened a couple times.”
The tone was acidic. Cassidy smiled despite it.
Athena piped up again, beginning to explain with a mild hint of concern.
"I had tried to inform Cassidy before he left that my sensors found no other heat signal outside other than the occasional wildlife."
“- s the best way to prove your own worth...”
“I am worried about his mental well-being, with all the stress that came with the recall.”
Athena continued to talk over the audio as the drone zoomed out once again. It relocated itself from focusing on the entire scene to facing Cassidy directly. It was like he couldn't see it.
"He hasn't slept in some time. His caffeine consumption should be informed to Dr. Ziegler. It is obvious he may been having trouble adjus-"
Suddenly the feed went to static
"Oh."
"Wh- What-.. the hell..?!"
Cassidy's voice wavered a bit more than he had liked. But he couldn't focus on keeping up the threat anymore. Peacekeeper trembled in his grip, still smoking from the shot. The shot that should’ve pierced through Shimada’s chest.
The elder Shimada was swift, like his younger brother back in the Blackwatch days. He pulled back, right arm rearing back, and shot off his right foot to strike Cassidy in a breath. The cowboy had the split second to wonder if the assassin had taken out a hidden blade in that moment. A lunging viper came to mind.
But Cassidy knew he didn't miss.
Shimada was fast, but he didn't. miss.
A solid shattering sound, a weak electrical fizz, and clattering ahead of him fell on deaf ears.
“A waste of a bullet.” A chilling voice mocked him.
Shimada was unharmed.
Right in front of Cassidy. With his right arm still held out. No blade. Through Cassidy's throat.
No, that didn't... That don' make sense...
Through Cassidy's throat.
The way the light and shadow shifted unnaturally on Shimada couldn't be more glaring.
"I am unsure if you'd be either pleased or disappointed to learn this.”
Cassidy wasn’t sure if he could listen, too occupied with the sudden low static in his ears. Processing the arm phasing through him. It felt cold and crackling.
Cassidy couldn’t breathe.
“But I think," Shimada’s voice took on a doubled effect. One part wry, one part sorrowful. Low, echoing, and whispery. "I am already dead."