[19 years ago: Hanzo's POV]
A small village, once known as a mineral village, remains a skeleton of what it once was. The tiny houses are torn to shreds, and many of them were covered in scorch marks. The old wooden walls now lay ransacked in needles across the ground.
There is a large blast crater in the center of the village. The scorched earth continued to burn endlessly. Among the ominous silence and the low crackling of flames, a family is rummaging through the wreckage.
A child and his parents are scavenging what is left for scraps of food and supplies.
"Is that really all there was? Those damned soldiers left nothing behind.." The father says, his voice full of rage. He rips the front door off of its hinges as he leaves the small tattered domicile.
His wife and son are sitting on the stairs of the neighboring building, and the woman is replacing the wrappings on the little boy's arms and legs. The old, blood-filled bandages are replaced with fresh ones by the time he reaches them.
They look up at the crunching of his feet scraping against the gravel. "That was the last one, and it was empty," he says, throwing down his hands and dropping his head in defeat.
The news is met with a sorrowful silence. The little boy hugs his mother closer with tears in his eyes; his stomach begins to rumble loudly, causing him to keel over.
The father catches him and gently lays him down. He then reaches into a small bag he is keeping in his coat pocket. After a moment he pulls out a tiny morsel of food, handing it to his son "This is the last of our food, take it, you'll need the energy to grow big and strong like me" he flexes one of his biceps and grins.
He scoops his son from the ground and props him up onto his shoulders. The boy laughs and smiles as he messes up his fathers hair.
They leave their village behind, never looking back again. Eventually, the family comes to a nearby town. The town was surrounded by powerful wooden walls that towered far above nearby trees, there's are multiple guard towers stationed around the wall. As they approach, a wagon is stopped at the front gate with soldiers rummaging through its contents.
Boxes of jewelry and clothing are being tossed from the wagon, their contents spilled out and destroyed right next to an old man who is on the ground pleading for the men to stop.
One of the soldiers jumps off of the wagon and points his gun at the helpless man, "Shut up! We're just checking for weapons, " he says. He hits the old man in the chin with the butt of his gun and chuckles.
"We're with the Ironwell grand army. We can do whatever we want." The soldier gloats as he delivers a solid kick to the old man.
Bang! A shot rings out. All of the soldiers scatter, searching for the source. The soldier's greedy smile disappears. He looks at his chest, which is gushing blood, and he stumbles forward. Hitting the ground with a thump.
The father brandishes the smoking revolver before releasing three more shots. The other soldiers hit the dirt simultaneously; the old man couldn't believe his eyes, he is staring with his jaw wide open dumbfounded.
The old man calls out to the man who saved his life. "You're a great man, Thank you. But you probably should get going. The Ironwell Grand Army won't take kindly to this."
He helps the old man to his feet and introduces himself , asking for his name. The old man tells him that his name is Brucite. He continues on and explains how he ended up here.
"I'm a merchant who travels the land, making stops in every town. Business has been slow lately because the small countries have been decimated, "the old man informs Hanzo's father.
Hanzo's dad frowns, a flash of a bomb hitting his village and wiping out everything crosses his mind. he looks away to conceal a singular tear.
"Ironwell will pay." Hanzo's father looks at the wall around Ironwell with fresh ambition.
[Return to present]
Hanzo is hiding from Brakus. He is stalking him like a predator hidden by mist. After a while of
"From that day forward, my father dedicated the rest of his life to destroying Ironwell"
"He would spend the next few years hijacking supply vehicles and destroying any munitions that were entering Ironwell"
"During one of his ventures, he met your father, and they became the best of friends."
"My father met Diamond during a revolt at the capital of Ironwell. He was standing on the rooftop with the decapitated head of a statue in his hand. He only cared about revolution against banking corporations in those times... my father disagreed vehemently with him, but nothing would change his mind. Not yet."
"Diamond, Silver (Hanzo's father), and Brucite, along with his 3 sons, formed a revolutionary army that was meant to bring Ironwell to ruins."
"Silver replaced me with Diamond. He spent more time with his dear old friend than me, his own son. So I turned to the old man for guidance
"Brucite started training me to become an assassin behind my fathers back before I was 8 years old. My only purpose was to become a cold-hearted monster capable of eliminating anyone who got in our way. "
"Brucite had different plans for the army, more efficient ones. He wanted to use their own weapons against them."
Hanzo cuts Brakus' cheek and continues.
"After seeing what happened to my father. I agreed with him."
"We needed to be more violent, more... destructive, in order to reach our goal of destroying Ironwell once and for all. The Shade group was.. is perfect."
Hanzo rematerrealizes behind Brakus and pins him with the deadly blade of his sword scraping against his neck.
"As we speak, our perfect plan is coming to fruition. After all of these years, just wait until you get a taste of what we have planned for this wretched country."
Brakus struggles to free himself but to no avail.
"What did you guys do?!?" Brakus snaps at Hanzo, recklessly flailing his body in every direction in an attempt to escape.
Hanzo tightens his grip and begins squeezing the life out of him.
"We used Ironwell's weapons against them, their great weapon of mass destruction: Project Awakening."
Brakus slowly returns to his normal appearance, and his breathing grows weaker until its a raspy gasp.
"Soon, the entire world will bow down to shade groups mighty embrace," Hanzo points the tip of his sword at Brakus's jugular and laughs psychotically.
The blade pierces into soft flesh, and blood begins to squirt from Brakus's neck, "Sadly you won't survive to witness our new world. I----"
'Thoom!'
Hanzo is cut off abruptly by a huge explosion from within his body. Smoke blasts from eyes, removing one of them as it passed through. Flames and charred blood spew from his mouth, and he collapses. More explosions ring out until Hanzo's body is engulfed by the pitch black flames.
The sword clatters to the ground with a metallic pang; blood stained the tip of the sharp blade. A few moments later, Brakus slams onto the dirt; directly on top of the katana.