CYOA – Life And Death Situations – Epilogue (Patreon)

This concludes our very first Choose Your Own Adventure fic!

There are quite a few questions that could still be answered if people are curious; either in another CYOA further down the line or through single commissions :) It was a good learning experience and I had a lot of fun! I hope you enjoyed it as well, despite it being a BIT chaotic from time to time haha

Warnings for this chapter: body horror-ish stuff (listened to too much Magnus Archives)

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Jesse feels shellshocked as he races along the road leading toward the beach. Something lands heavily on his shoulder and he startles bad enough to almost jerk the steering wheel around and drive them right into the underbrush next to the street.

He glances briefly over, staring at Hanzo wrapped up in a blanket and obviously exhausted as he leans into his shoulder, all but out.

In his ears still echoes Lúcio’s voice telling him to take them and get out of there as fast as possible.

“We’ll deal with the police,” he said, that scientist next to him looking pale and grim.

So he’d bundled everybody up and… drove.

He glances into the rearview mirror, but his gaze keeps being drawn to the blood and gore smeared around Genji’s mouth and caked to the sharp claws he has curled around Zenyatta’s thin upper arms. The sight makes him queasy.

He’s not usually a squeamish person, but he also has never seen a human getting ripped apart right in front of his eyes. The man’s screams are still ringing in his ears.

He realizes his hands are shaking; after a moment of debating, he quietly pulls up to the side of the abandoned street and kills the motor, just sitting there and staring out of the windshield while Hanzo leans even heavier against him, now fast asleep after the ordeal the brothers went through.

“Jesse…?” Zenyatta’s voice cautiously pipes up.

He shakes his head, and the robot falls quiet, letting him gather himself.

Jesse had never caught the name of the scientist that had helped them out. Lúcio had mumbled something about it being the other’s, the… the victim’s partner. He hadn’t thought to ask more at that point, attention focused on what had to be done in the ten minutes that Lúcio and this man would cause the blackout.

“You need to be careful. Louis is inside; I do not know if he has procured weapons of any kind since last time. He is… he is obsessed. What he is doing is not right.”

Jesse’s hands curl tight enough around the steering wheel to make it creak before he forces himself to let go and put his hands in his lap.

What that man had been doing had not been right, no. The laboratory they broke into had looked more like a torture chamber than anything else; the darkness only illuminated by the blinking lights of machines, casting wild shadows over the creature this Louis had become.

His skin had been an ashen gray, eyes large and unnaturally black. Through the ripped sleeve of his jacket, Jesse had been able to see an arm that had not looked right; it’s shape had been too sharp and thin, as if stuck somewhere between an actual human limb and the fin of a… of a fish.

Jesse looks down at his own hand, the black slashes like tattoos in his skin. Could that happen to himself as well? Is he just days away from starting to transform into a fish creature like that man?

Upon seeing them, the creature had opened its mouth wide as if to scream, though no sound had pierced the mild beeping of the machinery around them. Inside the gaping maw, Louis’ gums had been lined with rows upon rows of sharp, shark-like teeth.

Jesse had still been standing there, stunned by the sight when the creature had started barrelling toward them, a murderous look in its inhuman, dark eyes.

.o.

Jesse wants to make his limbs move, but they’re stuck, knees locked and legs unmoving as he watches the thing make its way toward them with the single-mindedness of an animal on the hunt.

Before it can reach him, something crashes into it from the side, sending it sprawling to the floor.

Jesse stares at the mass of limbs on the ground, realizing that it was Zenyatta who has jammed one of his thin metal arms between the sharp teeth, keeping them from snatching at one of the exposed cables on his person.

The struggle goes on with surprisingly little sound; just the heavy flopping of limbs as they keep hitting the ground, and the occasional inhuman… click coming from the throat of what was once human.

A dull thumping further into the laboratory has him finally look up to see a large tank standing in the back, Genji pressed up against its glass and hammering with both fists against it, eyes fixed on Jesse.

He lurches forward as if a string behind his navel has been tugged. For a second he stumbles, thinking that he will crash down to the ground, but he can catch his momentum and trudges onward, the shock from seeing what has become out of the scientist, finally falling off of him.

He presses a hand to the glass where Genji is still rampaging and looks up and down, searching for some kind of hatch that obviously isn’t there.

“How do I get you out?!” he screams. Behind himself he can hear the disconcerting sound of metal groaning and Zenyatta’s soft murmur of ‘oh dear’. He doesn’t dare to move around, forcing himself to stay focused on Genji who is hectically pointing upward.

Jesse looks around, then grabs a chair and pulls it closer. He has to awkwardly balance on it as he gets a look at the lid. There are heavy looking latches, but none of them have any kind of lock to them. Fucking finally.

He starts to unlatch one after the other while he keeps glancing around the room. Craning his neck, he can see a tank just like this one on the opposite side of the room. Hanzo is inside it, lying on the ground and pressed up against the glass. He is staring at them but he looks listless and drugged up.

The small hairs along Jesse’s body stand up on edge, prickling against his clothes as he turns back around, hectically pulling on the latches with shaking fingers that have gone slick with sweat.

Genji is by now running his whole body against the tank, the vibrations of it making Jesse’s arms ache as he is stuck trying to pull the last latch out while listening to the sounds behind him become more pronounced as the creature seems to slowly but surely gain the upper hand on Zenyatta. The sound of something scraping over metal has Jesse’s stomach turn.

Genji is a wild animal in the water beneath. There is no resemblance with the kid Jesse had been introduced with; his fins are standing on edge, flushed with color and looking dangerously sharp.

Face twisted into a mask of rage, showing off the rows of teeth Jesse had been so worried about whenever he had seen them on Hanzo, he slams himself against the glass once, twice, before suddenly changing his trajectory.

He rams up into the ceiling. Jesse has not gotten the latch open yet, but it doesn’t matter – the heavy iron bends with an explosive creak, the closing mechanism ripped off of its hinges. Jesse cries out in surprise, arms out, waving them through the air to try and regain his balance, but crashing to the floor nonetheless when the rolling chair slides out from underneath him.

He hisses at the pain radiating from his ass, knowing it will bruise a spectacular color – yet forgetting all about it when he hears the massive splat of something heavy and wet hitting the ground next to him.

Water droplets spray across his face. He blinks his eyes open, seeing Genji on the floor right next to him.

The seadragon is heaving breaths that have the gills at the sides of his throat and along his ribs flaring open and showing their soft pink insides.

Beyond Genji, Jesse can see the monster still fighting with Zenyatta. It has managed to twist them around, pinning the robot down to the ground. The thin metal arm still wedged between its jaws is showing distinct dents and the odd hole from the shark teeth.

Genji shrieks; Jesse’s hands jerk up and over his ears, face twisting in pain as the sound seems to pierce clean through his eardrums and right into his inner being. He feels… violated by it, almost. Nauseous.

The scientist turns his oddly pointed head and stares at Genji. The sound finally fades, leaving a ringing in Jesse’s head and a hollow pit in his stomach. Through the cacophony in his brain he can hear an answering sound from behind him; something blubbering like a growl or a purr, but he can’t turn around to Hanzo – for it could only be him that made the sound.

He is watching as Genji digs his claws into the ground, pulling himself across it and using his long, glittering tail to help propel himself toward his target with surprising speed.

Part of Jesse does wonder why he isn’t simply changing into his human form, but it… really is the least of his concerns. Maybe something keeps him from doing so. Maybe it is the same thing that has kept Hanzo from reaching out to him telepathically, or that kept him languidly floating in his tank.

The monster finally lets go of Hanzo, stumbling to its legs but crashing down again in its haste to advance on Genji with the same murderous intent.

It feels like minutes, but it had to be a split second until their bodies violently crash together. Jesse’s insides feel shrivelled up and dead from Genji’s harrowing screech, but they still pull together even tighter as the seadragon snaps his tail and wraps it around his victim.

When he hears what he thinks is a bone snapping, Jesse finally jerks out of his stupor. His work isn’t done. He needs to get Hanzo out of the tank and then they need to book it.

.o.

The fight between the two creatures hadn’t lasted too long, Jesse thinks in retrospect, but at the moment it had seemed like ages in which he had listened to the crunching and slicing and rolling growls and angry clicking as Genji had ripped the monster in the white coat apart.

He can still hear it even now, sitting in his car, his belly roiling while Hanzo is heavily leaning into him in exhaustion and Genji is passed out in the back.

Sometime during trying to drag them through the facility, their bodies finally caught up on their change of surroundings and had changed into their human forms, making their escape a lot easier to handle.

Jesse rubs a hand over his face, trying not to jostle Hanzo too much.

“Hey…” he looks toward Zenyatta through the rearview mirror. “You got any idea what’s up with them?”

Zenyatta twists his head as if thinking. The light catches on quite a few scratches on his faceplate that hadn’t been there beforehand. He suddenly looks a lot older than before.

“Hmm. My estimate would be that the water they have been suspended in had been laced with some form of chemicals to induce a disorientation or lethargy. Without blood samples I cannot say for sure.” After a moment of deliberation he continues in what sounds like a more gentle tone: “I am positive that the effects will wear off in due time.”

Jesse exhales explosively. He stares back out of the windshield, then finally glances at Hanzo’s face so close to his own. It is slack and pale, but the row of sharp teeth just about visible through his slightly opened mouth reminds Jesse that the brothers are far from damsels in distress.

Still… He can’t forget the sight of Hanzo stretched out across the bottom of the tank, trying so hard to push himself up toward the lip to grab onto Jesse’s arm and let himself pulled out into freedom. He’d looked… scared in that moment; eyes large and pupils blown wide.

Jesse reaches down and lightly drags his fingertips against the well-kept goatee around Hanzo’s mouth. His mind supplies him with the sickening crunch of Genji’s teeth digging against bone – he shudders and takes his hand away, finally putting them back onto the steering wheel to start the engine once more and get them farther away from the facility.

There’s movement in the rearview mirror and when he looks toward it, startled for no reason at all, he can see Zenyatta gently brushing hair from Genji’s forehead with the arm dented from the monster’s teeth.

.o.

He drives as close to the spot where he met Hanzo for the first time as possible. Eventually he has to admit, though, that his car won’t take kindly to all that sand, so he stops and shuts the engine off, quietly sitting once again and staring at the grey waves.

Hanzo is still leaning against him, but he can feel through their bond that he is no longer sleeping. Behind them, Genji is shifting restlessly. He fiddles with the door handles until he can kick the door open and slide out onto the ground. Jesse’s breath hitches. He wants to call him back and tell him he needs to cover up, but staring at Genji’s bloody hands and mouth, he can’t bring himself to say anything at all.

Instead he looks down at Hanzo and lightly moves his shoulder until the seadragon finally exhales a sigh through his nose and sits up, scrubbing two hands over his face.

Jesse could ask how he is feeling, but… he doesn’t need to. He can tell through the bond they’re sharing. The more time passes, the more their connection becomes… unmuddled, for lack of a better term.

“I… don’t know what t’ say,” he breaks the silence eventually. “I’m sorry for what happened.”

Hanzo throws him a weird look. He still looks… pale, his eyes bloodshot Jesse has wrapped his jacket around him, but it is woefully inadequate to keep him feeling less like shit.

“It wasn’t your fault.”

“No… s’pose not. Still feel horrible about it, though.”

He looks down at his lap for a little while, then back at Hanzo whose face has gone tight and twisted in a grimace.

“What is-”

“Jesse. I need to ask you a favor.”

Jesse immediately sits up straighter, wiping his palms against his jeans. “Yeah? What is it?”

“There are… eggs in that place. My eggs. I need you to find them and… and destroy them. There is nothing about them, but I don’t… I don’t feel well knowing they are there regardless.”

He reaches over and pushes his palm over Jesse’s mouth before he can get a sound out edgewise.

“Do not ask. Please. Just… do as I say.”

He nods slowly, fingers curling into his palms, then relaxing once more. He sighs deeply against the cup of Hanzo’s hand and reaches up to gently pull it off his face.

Jesse leans in, pressing a kiss against Hanzo’s forehead.

“Well then… come on.”

When he pulls back again, Hanzo is staring at him with a weird expression.

“What is going to happen now?”

“You will go back into the sea. I don’t think… you should be out here at the moment.”

He forces himself to smile, though he is infinitely tired at that moment. Feeling the confusion radiating from Hanzo through their bond doesn’t make it any easier.

“Come. It’ll all be fine… trust me.”

Hanzo’s tight expression relaxes at his words – for whatever reason – and he nods, quietly slipping out of the car with Jesse.

They move to the shore where they had met that first time. Genji and Zenyatta are already… gone… as if they had never existed in the first place. Jesse’s skin pebbles with goosebumps.

“Just… for a few days. I’ll come back. And… and we’re connected anyway, right?”

He nudges Hanzo’s side with his elbow, but his strained attempt at levity falls flat. Hanzo is just quietly staring at the water, a shellshocked expression on his face. Jesse has no idea what that emotion is that he can feel creeping over through their line.

What had transpired in that laboratory? What had Genji and Hanzo been subjected to while the scientist slowly dissolved into madness and changed into that monstrous form?

He doesn‘t think Hanzo‘ll ever be ready to divulge those secrets. He doesn‘t think he‘d want to hear them anyway.

Turning, Jesse grasps the lapels of his own jacket around Hanzo‘s shoulders, pulling him in so they are flush against each other. He stares right into those dark, secretive eyes.

“I don’t want anything like this to happen again, Hanzo. I need to make sure that nobody is… trailing y’all. That you and your brother and… and Zenyatta are safe. Okay? But I’ll come back. I’m pretty sure that Lúcio has a few questions for you anyway. This whole… whole thing back there was wild.”

For a moment he thinks back on the monster in the white coat. He swallows hard, willing himself not to look at his own mark stark against his forearm.

Trying not to let the doubts gnaw away at him… that little voice that sounds eerily like the octopus man that Lúcio is housing in his home, planting a seed of doubt whether he, too, will eventually end up a mindless beast.

Jesse leans in and presses their foreheads together.

“There is so much more that I want to know of you. Trust me. We will see each other again.”

After a moment, Hanzo moves closer and presses a kiss against Jesse’s mouth.

“I trust you. I will stay as close as possible.”

“Good… good, uh… good.”

He has to force himself to uncurl his fingers from the jacket, unable to make himself ask for it back. Hanzo looks so… exhausted. Not as vibrant as usually

“Now go. Take care of yourself.”

He thinks he wants to say I love you, or I kinda fell for you but he can’t quite say it. He can’t say anything at the moment.

The way Hanzo looks, slowly relaxing and nodding with an air of utter exhaustion, he suspects that he might be feeling it through their bond anyway.

No need for words.