#watch me confidently extrapolate based on two (2) data points

[wearethekat]

it's concerning that I've seen multiple people commenting Lews Therin is attractive. please, thinking Lews Therin is hot is the leading cause of becoming a forsaken...

[glitchinthesystemspiderbyte]

[39] Glitch in the System - Keep Your Enemies Closer (Crossroads pt. 2)

Crossroads part 2. Check out Part One here! Shout out to @illegalanger for opinions on river pollution.

By E.

A tenuous arrangement happens. _

It didn’t take Satya long to return, although Sombra would have sworn it was an eternity. When the Architech approached the bars of the cell, she was holding a bag.

“Here,” she said, shoving it through the bars and dropping it to the ground. Sombra walked up cautiously, picking it up and looking inside.

“What’s this?” she asked, extracting an unfamiliar, thin bread. It was mottled brown and she found it very suspicious.

“Chapati,” Satya replied, offering little more by way of explanation. “You implied you were hungry.”

“Not wrong,” Sombra shrugged, throwing caution to the wind and placing the bread between her teeth. Poisoning her would be stupid if they wanted anything at all from her. Besides - all signs indicated that the Architech was as ridiculously humanitarian as she professed herself to be, and Sombra didn’t think that murdering a prisoner was in her M.O.

Satya watched her eat, avoiding eye contact, but decidedly observing. It almost looked as though she were waiting on a verdict regarding the food.

“Not awful,” Sombra said, thinking that the bland bread could have used a little spice. Who just ate tortillas, anyway? “You make it yourself?”

“No,” Satya said, looking offended at the suggestion. Sombra wondered if she’d worn the same expression when Akande had informed her she’d be coming here in the first place. Cooking and paperwork, both beneath their stations.

Maybe they could be friends, after all.

Shoving the final bit of chapati into her mouth, she chewed it slowly, watching the Architech and wondering what she was thinking. There were so many questions, and Sombra was of the distinct opinion that she would be wise to choose which ones she asked carefully.

“So,” she said, wiping her hands off on her leggings. “What brought you back? The age old killer of cats?”

“We have work to do here,” she replied, stoic and focused. The yes to Sombra’s second question was unspoken, but easily apparent in her expression.

“Why are you here, anyway?” Sombra followed up, letting Satya extrapolate regarding her curiosity on her own. “This is a Talon base.”

“It is a Vishkar stronghold,” Satya corrected her, “containing important Vishkar documents.”

Sombra frowned, considering Satya’s words. The castle, by all appearances, had been abandoned long ago. Sombra wasn’t under the impression, based on her cursory perusal of the place that any newcomers had arrived for anything other than tours or upkeep. Which meant that, if the Vishkar were here for documents, then it was the same documents Sombra had been sent to locate and destroy.

“Yeah?” she asked, tilting her head curiously. “Just found out about its existence, did you?”

“...yes.”

“Strangely dire timeline for something that’s been languishing for years, don’t you think?” she added, wheels turning so fast that she nearly forgot about her predicament.

Satya’s look was all the answer she needed. “What are you implying?”

“Hijo de la chingada genio, Akande,” she cursed to herself, half laughing as the pieces of the puzzle she’d been locked up for came tumbling together. “You planned this meet.”

“What are you talking about?” Satya asked, looking decidedly less confident than she had a moment before.

“Nothing, amiga, just working out some details in the old brainpan.” Of course: this wasn’t a penance mission - Akande knew Sanjay and Satya would be there for the same reason she was. He knew they’d cross paths. Furthermore, he knew that Sombra would have found the very information Sanjay was there to destroy. The only real questions that remained were whether Akande had intended that the information be kept from the Vishkar or dispersed to them.

Doomfist knew how Sombra worked. He knew what she’d find, he knew she’d be placed in a position of bargaining, and he knew - he had to have known, or at least bet on - her using what she’d found as a bartering chip. It would absolve him of responsibility in the matter while still sowing a little seed of nuance into the garden if chaos he was carefully cultivating. The only thing she couldn’t be sure of was whether Akande had intended that Sombra’s dispersal of this information to one of the Vishkar’s top agents was intended to sow doubt within their ranks, or depose Sanjay. That motive remained a mystery, but Sombra’d be damned if she wasn’t impressed by the rest of it.

“Just give me your hand. I’ll transfer the data you want. It’s not like I can hack you into opening the door for me.” She laughed, sticking one hand daintily through the bars. “Although that might be an upgrade to consider.”

Satya stood there, staring at her outstretched hand. Sombra sighed, wiggling her fingers to beckon for her. “I’d say I don’t have all day but I guess that’s up to you, yeah?”

Pursing her lips into a frustrated line, she reached out and touched her fingers to Sombra’s. Smiling widely, Sombra dropped her firewall and let the files fly.

Unlike her, Satya had to pull up her own external screen to view the data she had sent her. It hadn’t been much - some tidbits of info that didn’t contain important Talon secrets alongside that single, damning photograph.

It didn’t take her long to review. A single click, a few swipes, and she had all the information she needed to send her world crashing down about her ears. Sombra watched her closely, and to her credit, Satya kept her expression mostly neutral.

Mostly.

“Sanjay will want to speak with you,” she said, her screen shrinking away as she returned the small, portable hard light generator to a clip on her belt.

“You know where to find me,” Sombra shrugged. “Hey,” she said as Satya turned to leave. The Architech paused, not turning around, but inclining her head to the side to hear what the hacker had to say.

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry they’re fucking with you.” Sombra wasn’t sure where that pang of empathy came from. If she had to guess, it was born of respect: even in her hubris, she had to admit that Satya Vaswani was a genius. An idealistic chump, sure, but a really smart one.

Satya grunted a soft acknowledgement of Sombra’s words and stepped into the teleporter. Sombra breathed a sigh of relief, ready for some alone time with her data until the next plot twist hit her.

Ten minutes later, two armed guards stepped out in the Architech’s place.

“Oh come on,” Sombra growled, watching the novice guards lean against the wall. “I can’t do anything. Why do I need babysitters?”

One guard, idly eating jerky, looked at the other. “She’s got a point,” he said, and for a moment Sombra thought they might actually leave her in peace. Then his face broke into a patronizing grin. “What’s she gonna do - hack the metal bars?” The guards had a good chuckle at Sombra’s expense, and she crossed her arms to turn away from them, booting up her screen. At least she still had her tech, even if there was no way to really make it work for her.

She fell asleep to the sound of rats gnawing at the walls of the cell beside her and the sound of her own stomach, only temporarily appeased by the bread. A glimmer of fear accompanied her as she drifted off, and she wondered if she might not be in more trouble than she had originally thought.

The same guards that had been there when she’d fallen asleep were there in the morning, arguing among themselves over some dice game they were playing in the dirt a few feet from her cell. Sighing, and in lieu of a proper breakfast, she casually tapped into the frequency of the larger guard’s communication device, throwing interference at it until it erupted in a pitch so high she could hear it across the hall. The guard shouted, grabbing his ear piece and tossing it to the ground.

“What happened?” his companion asked, watching his tantrum with confusion.

“Static. Shit,” he replied, and Sombra chuckled audibly from her cell.

“You -” he said, and he made it two steps toward her cell when the crack of a shot rang out. Sombra saw his shocked expression before he fell to the ground before her. A moment later his companion followed suit, their deaths in such quick succession that neither had had the chance to vocalize an alarm.

And out of the darkness behind them stepped Widowmaker.

“Holy shit,” Sombra said, her voice halfway between a sob and a laugh. “How did you find me?”

Widowmaker stepped over the slain men and up to the bars, glancing down the hallways to make certain they were alone. “I got your message,” she said, securing the gun along her back. She moved slowly, like liquid, and Sombra could tell that it was in part because she was still recovering. A fresh wave of guilt flooded through her, effectively nullifying the adrenaline of witnessing the sniper’s masterful entrance.

“I wasn’t sure Gabriel would send anyone. I...wasn’t sure…” she shook her head. “You came for me?” she asked, shocked, fingers curled tightly around the bars of her cell.

Widowmaker didn’t speak for a long time, looking away. Her golden eyes stared at nothing, but Sombra noticed the slow creep of a smile tugging at her lips.

“You said you would not lie to me again,” she said, shrugging. “I saw no reason not to believe you.”

Sombra pressed her face against the bars of her cell, relieved on a myriad of levels. “Please get me out of here so I can kiss you.”

Widowmaker chuckled, leaning over to pat down one of the slain guards until she found the ancient, heavy key ring with a variety of thick iron keys hanging from it.

“Well,” she said, resigned to trial and error. Stepping up to the cell, she tried one after the other until finally, with the sweet clank of rusted metal grating against the lock, the door swung open.

Sombra shot out with an alacrity of someone escaping a burning building, stepping immediately into the spider’s arms. Grabbing a fistful of her suit, she stood on her toes and pressed her head against Widow’s forehead, self-consciousness and guilt holding her back like a lead weight.

Widowmaker had no such compunctions, however, placing her hand against the line of Sombra’s jaw and pressing her lips against the softness of her own.

“I am glad to see you,” Widow said, smiling against the hacker’s cheek.

“Not as glad as I am to see you,” Sombra replied, laughing. “Let’s get out of here.”

The teleporter glowed in the darkness beside them, an ominous blue portal to somewhere else threatening to release a slew of combatants at any moment.

“What about this?” Widow asked, the length of her body still pressed against Sombra’s. At that point, Sombra was almost ready to throw caution entirely to the wind and suggest an intimate encounter with the office desk in the next room, but for once in her life chose caution over thrill.

“I’ll handle it.” Extracting herself from Widow’s grip, she frowned at the teleporter. “Give me one second,” Sombra said, walking over to it.

“Sombra -” Widowmaker cautioned, but the hacker didn’t try to step into it, kneeling before the glowing base and placing a hand against it. The portal shimmered a light purple, flickering for just a moment before the swirling colors leading to an unknown location changed direction. Overlaying the swirling light, Sombra’s skull blinked mockingly.

“What did you do?” Widow asked, tilting her head in her usual expression of curious suspicion.

“I changed the destination,” Sombra answered, shrugging, and unable to keep the mischief from her voice.

“To where?” Sombra smiled impishly, offering a helpless shrug

“Sombra.”

“The banks of the Thames.”

Widowmaker gave her a look.

“What?” Sombra laughed, stepping away from the portal now that her work had been done. “It was either that or the Cliffs of Moher, but somehow soggy Vishkar covered in dead fish and pollution were funnier to me than dead ones.” She slipped her hand into Widow’s, twining her fingers between the sniper’s.

“You would not be you without the pettiness,” Widowmaker mused, but there was no malice to her tone. In fact, it almost sounded warm. “Is this yours?” she added, holding out Sombra’s gun, wry smile on her face.

“My baby,” the hacker nearly sobbed, clutching it to her chest. “All I need is Oso and my family is complete.” She paused. “And something to eat. I am starving.”

“I secured a room at a boarding house in the village,” Widowmaker said. “They will have food, certainly. Our plane will be here to pick us up in the morning.”

“By ‘secured us a room’ you mean…” Sombra asked, raising an eyebrow.

Widowmaker offered her a poignant stare.

“Okay, fine,” Sombra gave in, putting up her hands. “I won’t ask.” She paused. “You took a plane?” she asked, staring at her incredulously.

“Of course I did,” she said, frowning in confusion. “How else would I get here?”

“You know what?” Sombra said, shaking her head. “Nevermind. Let’s go.” Reaching for the spider’s hand, they left the castle together.

*Read from the beginning or check out our intro post! All stories tagged under #glitchfic. Table of contents located here.