Angela remembers the day her parents died as clear as the blue of a cloudless morning sky.
The sickening smell of gunpowder and smoke, the resonating sounds of firing and her father shouting her name – the guilt in his eyes right before he hits the ground, lifeless in a pool of blood; next to her mother.
The scene flashes through her mind, as it often does, like a series of quick snapshots of which nothing remains but the momentary bitter taste of regret and a fleeting longing for the halcyon days gone by.
They say time heals all wounds. Well, that is debatable, Angela thinks. The unquestionable truth is that no matter how much time passes, there are certain things you can never rub away or assign to oblivion. Some things get forever and irremediably etched into your memory; into the core of your very own being. They turn into scars, and they stay with you. But scars are meant to be embraced. Make them your own, wear them like armor, and they ought to help shape you into the person you are meant to become. For better or for worse.
"We are almost there." She hears the quiet woman next to her speak up for the first time since they got into the glass-elevator and it successfully jolts Angela's attention back to the present. "I apologize if I have startled you, Doctor Ziegler," the woman adds. "It was not my intention." Her tone calm and respectful, all while maintaining a strict, no-nonsense demeanor and a stern facial expression.
"That's alright," Angela tells her, with no malice in her voice. There's no denying that she has been rather distracted and it must have shown. And the woman – an assistant – is merely doing her job, after all. Simply doing what she's been instructed to do: accompany Angela from the main entrance and all the way up to the tenth floor of the skyscraper which currently served as the MEKA headquarters.
It has been approximately one hour since her arrival in Busan and Angela realizes that she has, in fact, been so caught up in revisiting old memories that she paid little to no mind to her surroundings. Well, she figures the opportunity to explore the building and the city would eventually present itself, anyhow, in the span of the four weeks she'll be spending here.
She takes a quick glance at the small digital clock above them – 6:00 pm – when, right on cue, the elevator doors open, revealing a handsome man in a dark navy-blue suit and a few others dressed up accordingly, walking a few steps behind him as they approach the two women with steady movements.
The man in the front takes the initiative in greeting her first. "Doctor Ziegler, first and foremost, welcome to South Korea!" They all bow in unison and Angela feels compelled to return the gesture, so she does. "Choi Jin-Hyuk, CEO," he introduces himself, reaching for a handshake – a short, firm grasp – and Angela's nostrils pick up on a faint scent of cigars. "It is an honor to have you here and a pleasure to finally be able to make your acquaintance."
Angela simply nods in agreement and reciprocates with a polite smile, "Likewise."
"We have heard only great things about you and your work," he tells her. "I wanted to personally thank you once more for your willingness to cooperate and offer us your assistance in the devolpement of this project."
Angela can't help but notice how his blindingly white smile doesn't seem to reach his sharp, black eyes – and there is something about it that feels deeply unsettling. But before she could allow her mind to dwell on that particular aspect any further, the sound of rushed footsteps echoing throughout the large hall – someone cheerfully calling out to her from behind – makaes Angela want to turn her head around.
"Doctor Ziegler!"
She hears it again and, somehow, she knows exactly who to expect. Angela has to admit, she had rarely felt as relieved to see a familiar face as she does at the sight of the girl in a blue, form-fitting plugsuit striding towards them with resolute steps and a beaming smile on her face.
"Ah, perfect timing," the man remarks. "Doctor, I believe you are already acquainted with our own national pride and beloved hero: Song-Hana."
Angela feels a smile of her own tugging at the edge of her mouth. "Yes, of course." She knows the basics; she's done her research. Hana Song, a.k.a. . Former professional gamer. Elite MEKA pilot. National hero. Global icon. Young, talented, fierce and – Angela almost chuckles a little at her own choice of words – a merciless competitor. "We have met on several occasions before," she says. "Although, all of our previous encounters were rather brief and formal."
"There will be plenty of time to get properly acquainted, I am sure. Song-Hana here will show you around." He looks at the girl as if adding a silent 'if you please' to which the girl nods enthusiastically. "Excellent!" He claps his hands together, visibly pleased with the outcome, then shifts his attention back to Angela. "Now, I'm afraid I must excuse myself for I have several urgent matters to attend to. I shall see you tomorrow, in the conference room on the seventh floor, for the morning meeting. Rest well, Doctor Ziegler."
And with that, he bows once more out of courtesy and bids them good evening.
Apart from the constant clack of Angela's heels across the polished concrete floor – and a few muffled voices, heard in passing, coming from behind the closed doors of a conference room – not much else is intruding upon the silence that settled in the air between them.
Outside, the sun is already setting, engulfing the city in a pleasant late evening atmosphere and Angela can make out the shape of their reflection in the glass of the outer walls as they walk through a long and spacious office corridor on their way to the laboratory. Koreans seem rather fond of mirrors and transparency, from what Angela's gathered thus far – among other things – during the rather brief and basic tour of several other floors. Much like the rest of the building, everything around them has a certain elegant and modern simplicity about it, which leads Angela to believe that they may have a certain affinity for minimalistic interior design.
"So, how are things going for Overwatch these days?" She hears the younger girl ask, in an attempt to resume their prior moments of chatter.
"Well…" Angela pauses and lets her words trail off, unsure of how best to describe it. The harsh but undeniable reality of things is that ever since Winston initiated the Recall, they've had their fair share of struggles. They no longer have any sponsors, they are running low on funds and then there was, of course, the Petras Act; which is essentially deeming their activities as being illegal, thus forcing them to keep all their work under wraps. Without a doubt, there is plenty of room for improvement but even so, all things considered, Angela chooses to believe that they can and they will eventually succeed in bringing Overwatch back to its former glory.
"I suppose you could say that our current situation is… relatively stable," Angela concludes, at last, with a soft chuckle. At the end of the day, it's solely a matter of time and perseverance.
"That doesn't sound too bad," the younger girl chuckles too. "By the way, did Kang So-ra give you the MEKA holo-watch?"
Angela blinks. Who and what now— "You've met her, right? The lady assistant?" clarifies, with a hint of amusement coloring her words, as if guessing the confusion in Angela's thoughts.
"Ah, yes," Angela replies, in a sheepish tone, realization immediately dawning upon her, "Yes. I did."
Feeling a lingering sense of embarrassment at her own slip up, Angela digs into the right pocket of her coat, puling out a white bracelet-like gadget to which nods in confirmation, "Yup, that's the one."
Angela slips the device onto her left wrist and fiddles with it until she activates a small holographic user interface prompting her to confirm her identity. "It works with voice commands too," adds. "You've basically got everything you need in there." She points to her own left wrist to indicate that she's still talking about the so called holo-watch. "Log-in passwords, access code to your lab, identification key to your room, back-up data, so on and so forth. You can even import data from your personal computer. Or any other device, really." The girl informs her, as seriously as if she is reading it all from a manual. "Not as impressive as an A.I. like Athena, I'm guessing, but still pretty cool, right?"
She sounds so proud and accomplished that it makes Angela smile. She finds it all too endearing, really.
"I'm sure Winston would love it," Angela tells her. "As for me, it's more than enough. Thank you, ."
"You can call me Hana." And the moment she flashes a grin, Angela can't help but feel a sudden and inexplicable surge of fondness for the girl.
"Thank you, Hana," Angela repeats, averting her eyes. Somehow, this girl is making her feel completely at ease and oddly self-conscious – all at the same time. How strange…
Angela brushes that thought aside, refusing to entertain it any longer. She places the holo-watch near the digital screen display for the security identification procedure and the door slides open as soon as they are granted authorized access to the facility.
"She has an incurable case of the resting-bitch-face syndrome, that Kang So-ra unnie," Hana says, glancing over her shoulder as she casually wanders in first. "She's super nice, actually. She's one of the nicest people around here. If you need anything, you can just ring her up. It's like room-service."
Angela follows, two steps behind, hiding a chuckle behind her hand, "Is that part of her job description?"
"Nah," Hana sniggers. "But she'll do it anyway. That's what makes her so nice."
The lights turn on automatically as soon as they step inside, revealing a spotlessly clean and well-equipped hi-tech research laboratory and Angela finds herself glancing around, already inspecting the quality of the equipment. She'll be spending a considerable amount of time in here, she figures she might as well try to start making herself at home. "Hm… I wouldn't want to take advantage of her kindness," she says, belated, preoccupied with taking a quick, preliminary look through a file cabinet.
"Yikes, well now you just made me feel like a bad person in comparison." Hana sounds genuinely wounded and Angela's immediate reaction is to straighten up and swiftly turn around with an apologetic look on her face, "Oh, I didn't mean—"
"Kidding," Hana smirks; teasing Angela with a wink. She seems so pleased with herself, and Angela's lips quirk up the tiniest amount in a smile. This girl, honestly... Angela opens her mouth to reply but Hana's focus is all of a sudden snatched by something else and Angela finds herself — almost instinctively — following the line of Hana's curious gaze to where a large, in-wall aquarium tank is located. It stands out so much that, frankly, it's a wonder they didn't notice it sooner.
"Oh, wow! It's been a while since I've seen something like this! The local aquarium's been closed down for years." Hana moves closer to watch the pink and yellow jellyfish through the glass. "So pretty," she murmurs, thoroughly captivated; her eyes following their perpetual drift as they float by, trailing their long tentacles behind them. "How about you, doc? You like it?"
"I do," Angela says; her gaze, too, lingering curiously on the pastel-colored jellyfish inside. "Aquariums are known to have a beneficial effect on a person's health."
Hana quirks an inquisitive brow as if asking 'how so'.
"They reduce stress levels, help you relax, sleep better at night," Angela explains. "They also have this substance inside of them, so potent that a single sting can kill a human in minutes. But it can do wonders when turned into medicine." Truly remarkable creatures.
"Wait, you're not gonna, like—" Hana's eyes widen with feigned shock. "Dissect them or anything, are you?"
"Well…" Two can play the teasing game, Angela thinks. And with a sly look on her face — which makes Hana visibly tense for a second or two — she puts a finger to her lips and drops her voice to a confidential whisper, like she's about to disclose a top secret, "They are here for a reason, aren't they?"
Hana's eyes immediately widen in genuine disbelief and Angela waits a long, very calculated beat before she allows herself the satisfaction of adding, "Kidding." She chuckles and Hana heaves a sigh of relief at once then smirks in return, looking somewhat impressed. She mutters a 'good one, doc' under her breath before returning her attention back to the aquarium tank, and Angela thinks that she could get used to this. It's almost fascinating, peculiar even, how easily they can fall into this type of dynamic and how comfortably it fits.
For a moment, Angela debates on whether or not she should let Hana know that some jellyfish are, in fact, immortal. And even if she were to cut one in two, they could regenerate their lost pieces, being able to go as far as cloning themselves. Ultimately, she decides against it because, well, truthfully, she doesn't want to give off the impression of a boastful know-it-all. The two of them have already passed the point of making the first impression, and yet, for some reason, Angela can't quite shake off the persistent urge of wanting to make a lasting good impression on this girl, nonetheless.
"Say, doctor…" Hana begins, a little absent-mindedly, while lightly tapping the glass a few times as though she is trying to see if she could incite a livelier reaction from the jellyfish. "Aren't they supposed to light up at night? Glow in the dark or something?"
"Some species do," Angela tells her. "Many jellyfish have bioluminescent organs which emit light."
Hana mouths an 'I see' while staying focused on the sea creatures in question.
"Altough," Angela pauses, leaning in, trying to get a closer look — squinting her eyes a little, as if trying to decipher a rune. "I have to admit, I'm not quite sure whether these species fall under that particular category or not," she concludes with a dissatisfied sigh and she hopes Hana isn't too disappointed with her answer, but instead, she catches the younger girl looking at her with a devious twinkle in her eyes.
Hana quirks a playful eyebrow. "Only one way to find out," she quips, and with that, in one swift movement, without warning or breaking eye contact, she steps directly into Angela's personal space — dangerously close. They are barely inches apart and Angela can feel the quickening pace of her pulse as Hana reaches for her left wrist and brings it close to her mouth. The slightest suggestion of a smirk playing at the corners of her lips, Hana looks like she knows exactly what she is doing as she presses a small side button on Angela's holo-watch and half-whispers the voice-command into it: "Turn off the lights."
Her breath hot on Angela's wrist and Angela's heart skips a beat. One split second of brief anticipation and the room goes pitch dark. It all happens so suddenly that Angela barely has any time to react. She feels the warmth of a blush crawling up her neck. Is she imagining things or did Hana's thumb just brush over the back of her hand? She must have imagined it. She must have definitely imagined it.
As their eyes start to gradually adapt to darkness, the space around them is slowly coming back alive with the neon glow of the jellyfish...
"Whoa…" Hana murmurs, marveling at the sight, with child-like wonder eclipsed in her eyes. "It's like the Northern Lights…"
But Angela has a hard time focusing on anything other than the girl next to her; she can feel her behind her eyes. And she can't quite tell how long it lasts, really, but embarrassingly enough, when Hana lets go of her wrist and steps back, Angela finds she already misses the proximity. There is just something about this girl… Angela feels truly drawn to her side.
"People have grown so terrified of the sea nowadays..." Hana says, quietly, and more to herself than anything; the soft-spoken words effectively jarring Angela out of her daze. "Well, it's practically one giant graveyard if you think about it. Completely desolated, monotone and reeking of bad memories." Angela knows about it; about what happened twenty years ago in South Korea. She's read official reports about the colossal Omnic monstrosity that rose from the depths of the East China Sea and caused catastrophic damage to coastal cities before it was driven back beneath the waves. Entire cities crushed and dragged out to sea — into nothingness. And worst of all… it was only the beginning.
The silence continues to remain undisturbed, and Hana carries on, "I've heard stories though, of the days before I was born, when people would hold festivals and go watch the fireworks from the shore. I never got to experience any of that and, I guess, it makes me feel a little jealous..." The wistfulness in her voice as she utters those words makes Angela's heart ache for her. Hana looks so delicate with her fingertips gently pressed against the watery blue tank; a little pale in the dim light and yet still, so very pretty, with her doleful eyes aglow with the playful colors. It happens to remind Angela of the flickering lights of fireflies across a nightfield.
"Not many dare to go near the shore anymore. It's not even officially off-limits or anything, it's more like an unspoken consensus of sorts. Like stepping too close to the shore is supposed to be a bad omen or something. These people look at the sea and all they can picture is a countdown to the next disaster. It makes them feel uneasy, uncertain… afraid." Hana sighs and eventually adds, "If I'm being honest, I get it. I mean, sometimes it gets kinda hard to believe that things can be good again, you know, but even so…"
The moment her gaze returns to Angela, the girl's eyes shimmer with unwavering determination. "I would like to change that," Hana states resolutely. "I want them to feel the way I feel in this moment: safe and happy. Isn't that what being a hero is all about? Wanting to make a difference, a change for the better? That's what I want to do for these people."
The fierceness of her conviction leaves Angela no doubt that she could do it; that this girl could do anything she sets her mind to.
Another beat of silence goes by until Hana lets out a dry laugh. "Aish, sorry, doctor, I just randomly sprang all this on you. Am I freaking you out?"
But Angela's features only soften into a warm smile in return, as she gently rests a hand on Hana's shoulder, giving it a little squeeze. Angela knows that feeling. She knows it all too well… how difficult it can be at times, to seek hope amid the sorrow. Every hero does.
"Here's what I like to tell myself," Angela finally speaks up, after a moment's hesitation. "We, as heroes, have to always look beyond. Towards the unseen horizon. In the face of disaster lies opportunity for renewal. And amidst uncertainty and misery lie possibilities that can become reality."
Angela suddenly recalls the words Winston had always been so particularly fond of and Angela realizes that she's already smiling. Of course, she's heard those words on numerous occasions; enough times to know them by heart. "Always remember," she says, letting her hand slide gently on the small of Hana's back. "Never accept the world as it appears to be, dare to see it for what it could be."
Hana's eyes bore into Angela's, firmly holding her gaze as she utters, "When you say it like that, I think I could believe anything."
And there is something in the way Hana is looking at her now, with such pure and genuine admiration, that makes Angela's chest go warm and tight. She suddenly feels the strange need to look away. "Well," she clears her throat, awkwardly, as she brings her focus back to the lit-up aquarium in front of them. "Believing in the possibility of good things happening is a form of bravery in itself, wouldn't you say?"
Hana lets out a soft and vibrant giggle. "Then you are by far the bravest person I know, doctor," she declares, in a most earnest way, and Angela can't help but think that in the simple certainty of that one moment, with the two of them there, side by side, mending into each other's presence…
Well, believing in good things happening seems only natural.
By the time they've leisurely made their way, two floors below, to where Angela's temporary accommodation is, the sun had already set.
"This will be your room," Hana tells her, then she points out to the second to last door across the hall. "And that one's mine."
"You live here?" Angela asks.
"Um, yes and no." Hana says it like that answer alone should suffice. "I mean, most of the time, I do. It's best to stick close to the base as much as possible so I can answer emergency calls faster," she clarifies, shrugging nonchalantly. "I also help with the testing of new prototypes every now and then… you know, all that junk."
"I see. What about the other pilots? Do they all live in this building?"
Hana's eyes grow distant. "Uh, yeah... something like that," she says, quietly, almost as though they may be approaching a topic she didn't quite want to discuss, not yet at the very least, so Angela simply hums in understanding, having decided not to push the matter any further.
"Alright then! I'll let you unpack and get some rest." Hana bids her good night then halfway through the hallway she twirls around with a beaming smile. "See you around, doc."