Chapter Text
Jesse sneezed into his elbow. It was a cold winter evening in the town he was staying in for a short time, and while it was nice to see snow again, the poor man wasn’t used to being in such cold weather. He didn’t have any thick enough clothes to even keep the chill off him, just his serape, cowboy hat and whatever clothes were on his back. He knew that the place he was going to was warm, however, and was rushing through the crowd of people.
Once in the large, stone building, a wall of hot air greeted Jesse McCree, which made him smile. He closed the door and rubbed his hands together. Inside, there were a few people, most looked like hunters, the others looked like staff. An older woman was stationed behind the main counter, looking intently at the computer she was standing at. Jesse walked up and leaned against the counter. The woman looked up and put on a smile that he knew was reserved for clientele.
“Hello sir, what can I help you with?”
Jesse pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket. “Yeah, uhm, I got a letter from a Mr. Young? Something about a job offer?”
Her eyes widened the slightest bit. “Oh! You must be Mr. McCree, yes?”
He looked up with a little confusion in his eyes. “Uhm, yes. How did you-”
“Mr. Young told me to have you come straight to his office when arrived.” She tapped a few keys on her keyboard before walking around the counter and extending her arm to the long hallway. “This way, please.”
McCree didn’t complain, he thought he was going to be given some spectacular job that only he could do. He shrugged and followed the woman down the long, warmly lit hall.
A door near the end of the corridor is where the two stopped. The woman gestured for him to stay there while she peaked her head inside the door. “Sir, Mr. McCree is here.”
“Oh, bring him in, bring him in.” It sounded like a younger man.
The woman stepped aside and Jesse nodded to her before entering. It was a room lined with bookshelves and old paintings. A large window was letting street light come to settle on the deep brown carpet. A man, maybe in his late 20’s stood beside the desk on the far side of the room. He had an aura and smile that smelled of business. He extended his hand to McCree, who made his way further into the room.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. McCree. I’ve heard many a story of your sharp shooting.”
Jesse shook the man’s hand firmly. “Now don’t go on a be flattering me now.” He smiled. “Flattery won’t get you nowhere.”
The man gave a small laugh before his eyes started to harden into business. “My job offer interested you, I assume?”
Jesse dug back into his pocket for the letter he had received a few weeks prior. He only skimmed over it, but stopped and reread the pages when he saw what the man was willing to pay. “Yeah, but I don’t know why you want me on your team. I ain’t no hunter.”
“But you are an excellent shot, however.” Mr. Young walked back behind his desk and sat down. “I need your skills with that handgun of yours. I already have hunters and trackers that do this for a living, I just need you to shoot the thing through the heart.”
“Right, but,” Jesse sat down at a chair that was positioned in front of Mr. Young’s desk. “You didn’t specify what I’m shooting. Don’t sound too friendly, though.”
The younger man sat forward and laced his fingers together. “His name is Hanzo.”
McCree put his hands up. “Whoa whoa wait, I ain’t no hitma-”
“Hanzo is not a person.” He interrupts. “He is a dragon.”
Jesse just stares at the other man for a moment with a you’ve gotta be kidding me look. “... Dragons died out a long while ago, my friend.”
“That’s what we thought too, until we started building our city and that thing started obliterating everything to ash.” His lips turned into a thin line. “People lost their lives because of Hanzo, and he’s not going to stop until all our villages surrounding this forest are burned to the ground. I want you to bring him to justice.”
Jesse sat back in the chair and scratched his chin, thinking. “... I don’t want to be the one responsible for killing the last dragon, ya know.”
“Do you forget the reward I offered?”
Oh damn, right. Jesse was still thinking about all those zeros. What he could do with money like that. Jesse shrugged and moved his jaw around.
“You would be renowned as a hero. Dragons only cause destruction and death. You’d be doing good for this world.”
He bit the side of his lips as he stared at the man behind the desk with a friendly smile. “... Fine… Fine, fine, I’ll do it.”
Mr. Young’s smile grew and he offered a hand to Jesse. “I know you won’t disappoint.”
He just raised a brow and shook his hand. “You’ve got high hopes for me, then.”
McCree sneezed again. Thank God they had given him thicker clothes to travel in. They being Mr. Young and the hunters he had hired. The people he was traveling with were much older than McCree, and much more scruffy looking. One man even had a raccoon hat in his head. All the more power to ya, man, he thought.
You could see in the snow the tracks of rabbits, squirrels, maybe deer every so often, but no dragon by the looks of it. A downed tree that came into sight once in awhile would spark some attention within the group of trackers however. These weren't small, skinny trees either, they were fat, old trees that had seen much in their days. It wasn't the wind or a storm that broke their limbs, it looked like something had internally broken them. Whatever did that was powerful, and McCree wasn't too keen about being eye to eye with that thing.
The first few days weren't fruitful, only found rabbits and rocks. Jesse wasn't really complaining since he'd be the one to kill this massive thing that he's heard so much about. On the eighth night, when McCree’s back was hurting from all the provisions and supplies he had to carry, they had decided to make camp in a clearing. Nothing fancy, a fire, thin cotts and logs to sit on and cook their MREs. McCree would just sit and listen to the hunters’ stories about their family, or some game that they've hunted. Some were interesting, and others were so poorly told that they were boring. At least these men were better at killing things than telling stories.
02:37, and the fire was dying. Only a dim orange glow was all that was left. McCree was curled up in his thin blankets and down coat trying to keep the chill off him. He woke up, however, since he had eaten a lot of snow that day, and trugged his feet over to a bush. He could hear soft clanking behind him near the fire. Jesse figured someone was going to try and get the fire going again. He zipped up his pants and decided to see if he could help with the fire.
“Ya need anythi-” McCree stopped mid step and let his mouth hang open. The only thing he could see were a pair of shining, yellow eyes, eight feet in the air, staring straight at him. McCrees first thought was that it was a bear standing on its back legs, but he could see the faint outline of the creature. It was long and thin, almost snake like, but had two pairs of short legs.
McCrees legs felt like lead and his mouth was dry. He didn't know what to do. His Peacekeeper was sitting ten feet away on his cott. Even if he did have it, would it be a good idea to try shooting at the thing?
The eyes lowered and moved closer towards the paralyzed cowboy. The creature took slow, careful steps, the only sound was the crunching of the snow. Jesse wanted to run, he wanted to shout, but he couldn't, his body was frozen. The eyes were only feet away now. The creature was so close that Jesse could see that it had blue, glass-like scales and feel the heat coming off it. He would've marveled at the scales if he wasn't about to die. The eyes squinted at him. A huff of air told McCree that he was being smelled.
“... This isn't how I thought I'd die…” He said under his breath. There was a small growling, almost more like a chuckle. Jesses eyes grew bigger than they already were. “Y-You can understand me?”
Now the creature let out more of a growl, its eyes narrowing further. McCree put his hands up in defense.
“Okay, okay, sorry.” He said with a nervous laugh.
There was another huff of air then the eyes blinked away. Not a sound, not even the feeling of the air moving when someone leaves, nothing. The eyes and silhouette were just gone. They left Jesse standing in the middle of the snow looking around.
One of the hunters started to stir. “...Mnn… Boy… What're you doin’?...”
McCree spun around. “Oh uh, nothing. Just taking a piss.”
“Okay…” And he went back to sleep.
Once breakfast was over, the men hopped on their hover bikes and out into the woods again. It wasn’t snowing too hard, but hard enough to where Jesse had to squint his eyes very thin to be able to see in front of him. The snow had covered up the tracks from what Jesse assumed to be the dragon and he didn’t dare say anything for the fear of all of that being a dream.
“I got something!” One of the hunters had detached from the group to investigate the snow. Turns out that he had found big, clawed footprints. They must not have been too old since the snow was falling faster by the second. Excitement flowed over the group, they could go home soon.
They followed the tracks, broken branches would lay in their path occasionally, but the hover bikes would just move right over them. The group stopped when the tracks did. There was only a large dent in the snow. It looked like the dragon had laid down but got up not too long ago. Everything was silent, only the sound of the wind rustling the evergreen trees and the soft hum of the hover bikes. All eyes were spotting for anything that could lead them to their target. Jesse held his breath, he was afraid that even just breathing would cause the beast to come forward.
“In the tree!” Someone shouted and pointed up to the top of one of the thick evergreens. McCree could see the same shining yellow eyes that he had met last night. They were wide with anger, their hiding spot had been found out. Everyone was grabbing for their guns, including McCree who didn’t have to go far, he always kept his Peacekeeper on his hip. He pointed it up at the tree, but didn’t dare pull the trigger. The hunters were yelling at each other and getting their rifles lined up. Once a few vollies of bullets had missed, the dragon jumped out of the tree and started gliding through the snow. McCree could see it clearly now, and he was captivated by how beautiful the thing was. He lowered his Peacekeeper until he heard someone shout in his direction.
“SHOOT IT, SON!” He stopped marveling at the dragon long enough to get a good enough shot. He didn’t even have to try and hit it, it only took him one bullet. The dragon screeched before falling out of the sky and into some nearby trees. The men were cheering and patting Jesse on the back, but he was still in a daze about what all just happened. Everyone rode in the direction where they could hear the roars and hisses of the dragon. It was flailing around how Jesse could only describe it as a snake with its rattle cut off. Before anyone could get close, one of the men used what looked like a sedation dart. It wasn’t small, either. After three or four darts, the dragon stopped moving around enough for the hunters to tie it up. Jesse looked around for some explanation.
“Uh,” He stuck his finger up “I thought we were going to kill this thing.”
“We are,” One of them said without looking up from tying its jaws shut. “But big Mr. Young wants to see him before we gut ‘im.”
McCree just stood frozen in the snow. His only words were “Oh.”
The man moved away once he was done, which left McCree with the glowing yellow eyes. They were half lidded but still full of loathing. Jesse took off his hat and pat his hair, he still couldn’t believe that he had shot this thing.
“I…” He wanted to say something to it. “I… I-I’m sorry…” Jesse said it low enough so only they could hear it.
He heard a voice in the back of his head. ‘No, you are not.’ The dragon growled before all the hunters were picking it up to put it in the heat resistant cage they had brought in on the back of a bike.
Everyone was celebrating their capture with cans of beer they’ve been saving just for this occasion. The hunters were patting Jesse on the back and giving him praise, but he'd just play it off like it wasn't a big deal. ‘Could've done it with my eyes closed’ or ‘Y’all did most of the work, I just pulled a trigger’. The dragon was still drugged off at the edge of camp, but close enough for everyone to keep an eye on it. He'd pout and drunkenly press against the bulletproof glass in a vain attempt to get free. Jesse would look over now and then, half taking in its beauty, the other half contemplating why he decided to come on this trip.
01:52, and McCree was up again. He was careful not to make much noise when he started backing his bag full of provisions. He should've never come on this trip, all that money wasn't worth the life of what could most likely be the last dragon alive.
He heard a small voice in the back of his mind. “What are you doing, buta .”
He froze of a moment. His first thought was ‘what's a buta?’ But then he could feel eyes on him. McCree turned around and those yellow eyes were staring at him again, full of annoyance and anger.
“Was that you?” He said just below a whisper.
The dragon huffed. “No, of course it wasn't me.” Jesse could taste the sarcasm.
He gave a little giggle before going back to his packing. “Well, no sense in being snippy with me, I'm only trying to help.”
The dragon raised its head and widened its eyes. “Help? You call this helping, ushi ? A hole in my side?”
Jesse raised his hands in defense. “Look, I'm sorry, I was paid to do it.”
The beast growled. “You humans are so infatuated by material goods, it makes me ill.”
“Do you want my help or not?” Jesse snapped in a harsh whisper.
It was silent, eyes and head unmoving. He eventually lowered his head and closed his eyes. “... I do, yes…”
McCree let out a sigh and threw his bag over his shoulder. “That's what I thought, now hold on tight, I'm gonna get you outta here.”
The key to the lock was nowhere to be found, one of the hunters probably had it in his coat. He wasn't willing to get caught just to loot one of them. The next idea Jesse had was to break the lock with a rock, but that would cause a lot of noise. His last idea was going to be a stretch, he didn't know how to hotwire a bike, not anymore anyway, but he could sure as hell try.
The dragon watched as he took off the front paneling of the bike and started working. A few sparks, and some cursing later, the soft hum of the hoverbike filled the quiet air. The dragon lifted his head at the sound. Jesse smiled at it and hopped on the bike.
“Hold on, once we start ridin’ away, there's a good chance we'll be shot at.”
“I am safe in here.” There was almost a smirk on the dragon's face.
“Yeah yeah.” He shook his head and put his foot on the gas. The two started to roll away, no one stirring surprisingly.
They rode until morning, far from where they had been. They stopped at the side of a cliff where the snow wasn't pelting them as bad. Jesse got off the bike and fell back into the snow with a long sigh. He heard a small chuckle from inside the cage.
“You humans are so fragile.”
“Hey, you try riding this goddamn thing for five hours and tell me how you feel.”
It put its head back down. “I will not.”
Jesse shook his head, stretching his arms over his head and arching his back with a satisfying crack. The dragon growled.
“Do not do that.”
He stared at it for a second. “What, you mean this?” He smirked and twisted his neck with a loud snap.
It growled louder this time and shut its eyes. “Yes, that!”
Jesse laughed and stood up. “Alright, I'll quit.”
The dragon put its head back down. “Are you going to let me out or shall I take another nap?”
“Give me a minute.” The rock nearby was just what he needed. The clanking echoed through the forest with every stroke of the rock on the lock. His arm was going to be sore, but Jesse finally got the lock broken enough to rip open the door.
“Untie me.” The dragon's tail fell onto the snow.
“I'm getting there.” He took the knife on his hip and cut the rope around its jaws and legs. It crawled out of the cage, laying down in the snow and making a big dent where it laid. The snow around it started to melt with a low hiss.
“You sure look mighty comfy.” McCree tipped his hat up and rubbed his neck.
The dragon sighed. “This is my forest, I know I will be safe here.” It opened his eyes and stared at Jesse for a moment. “...You have my thanks.”
McCree smiled. “It's nothing, friend.”
“Friend?” It narrowed its eyes. “What do you mean.”
“Well,” He placed his hands in front of him as if to explain something grand. “Friend is a term we use for people we like.”
“I know what a friend is, but why did you call me your friend?”
Jesse shrugged and gave a goofy smile. “I call everyone friend.”
The dragon closed his eyes again. “You’re idiotic, but nevertheless, I am in your debt.”
There was a long silence between the two. Jesse rolled back on the balls of his feet and tried to look anywhere else but the dragon.
“I uh,” the dragon opened its eyes. “I should get going. They're going to be after my hide sooner or later.”
“Wait.” The dragon lifted his head slowly. “I have one more favor to ask of you.” Jesse turned his head to listen. “I… I am searching for my brother.”
He lifted his chin up a bit. “You have a brother?”
“Yes. His name is Genji.”
“... Why do you need me to find your dragon brother? Don't you guys have like… sound waves or something that you communicate-” The glare the dragon was giving him made him stop talking. “Okay, but why me?”
The dragon shifted in the snow. “I thought… Genji had been dead for years, and only months ago have I discovered that he is alive. I want to find him, I want to talk with him.”
“That didn't answer my question.”
“The reason,” the dragon snapped “I need you, human, is that my brother… prefers to be human.”
“I beg your pardon?”
The dragon closed its eyes. “We have a human form, and my brother stayed in his for so long that he had forgotten how to turn back.”
“So can-”
“I will not change for you.” The dragon growled.
“Damn.” He pretended to pout.
The dragon stretched then screeched. It rolled onto its side and growled. The bullet hole in its side was brown and red with blood. Jesse jogged over and knelt by its head.
“Hey hey, are you okay?”
“Do I look okay?!”
McCree glanced at the wound. He could fix it up if he had the supplies. He turned up his lip and turned back toward the dragon. “I’m so sorry, darlin’.”
“Now is not the time for apologies!” It growled and tried to relax it’s body. “There’s a mountain, a few days journey from here” It started. “If I can get there, I will be able to heal myself…”
“Ya got a shack or somethin’ up there?”
“I am not that unhygienic.” It huffed out a growl. “A pool of water is atop the mountain. It’s been blessed by my family.”
“Ya got a whole family, Jesus Christ.” Jesse sat back in the snow.
“I did .” The dragon stretched out its legs and started to stand up. “We mustn’t waste time, let us go.”
“Whoa whoa wait,” McCree stood up and put his hands in front of the beast. “I never agreed to go on a cross country journey with a lizard.”
“Yes, you did,” The dragon lowered its head to look into Jesse’s eyes. “Your mission was to help me, and you’re still going to help me.”
“And if I refuse?” He crossed his arms
“Well, I know for a fact that humans taste almost exactly like pig.” It smirked and walked past Jesse. “I’ll let you see how I appear as a human,” It slinked up to the hover bike. “I beleive that will be more efficient, anyway.”
There was a soft glow around the body of the dragon, and Jesse could just see a faint outline start to shrink. It was only a short moment before a short, dark haired man was standing in front of Jesse. He wore blue clothing that he hadn’t seen anyone wear before, his hand was holding his side where a tear in his, what McCree could only describe as a tunic, was stained with blood. His face held a scowl, along with a thin beard that hugged his jaw line. Those same yellow eyes were still staring at him, however.
Jesse didn’t say anything, but just tilted his hand up with his thumb. Only silence between the two was all that remained.
The dragon looked McCree up and down before he moved toward the hover bike. “Let us move.”