bakerstreet | ( picture prompt meme )

[ Lena lets out an awkward half-laugh, the kind that's a feeble attempt to hide the tears welling up in her eyes. ]

Using Winston is cheating and you know it.

[ Because she'd do anything for him. They both know that.

But she sees his point. If her loyalties are torn, wouldn't the others' be? If they knew, would they be angry? Force him to leave, refuse to work with him? Would others back him up, fight to keep him on? Would they all keep following Winston but really be following the ghost of Jack Morrison?

It would tear their already delicate reborn Overwatch apart. It would tear Winston apart. A shaky sigh, a soft reply: ] I won't tell.

Yeah, well. Look where I got by following the rules.

[He laughs a little bit himself, like he's making a joke, but there's a real undercurrent of bitterness there. It's cheating and manipulative, he knows, but maybe he's always been a little manipulative. Besides, he isn't out to play fair, not anymore. They both know that much.

This is the part where he says something reassuring--maybe reaches out to clasp her shoulder or provide some other physical comfort, let her know that he's proud and she's doing a good job, but even that proves to be too difficult. He sighs, instead, and nods as if to seal the deal.]

We should get moving.

[ The bitterness in his laugh cuts through her. She'd thought that maybe Soldier: 76 is just an image and he'd go back to being more like Jack now that she knows. But, no, the traces of an old warmth had come and gone. She's left with the bitter, world-weary 76 again. It hurts and she almost wishes she didn't know.

Almost.

Lena gives herself a few seconds to blink back unshed tears and take a deep breath. She stands, a little wobbly from the sudden lack of adrenaline in her system. She taps a finger against the ruined outer casing of her Accelerator. ]

Can't use it. I'm stuck traveling the old-fashioned way.

[Another selfish reason for withholding the truth—he isn’t the same, and doesn’t think he’ll ever be. Some fundamental part of him broke when HQ went up in flames, and it’s not something he’s going to get back. He spent his entire life fighting for a better world, and when that world rejected him, how else is he supposed to feel?

He stands alongside Tracer, still checking the accelerator for any signs of failure, but it seems like it’s going to hold, at least until they can get back to Winston. He’s relieved in spite of himself, and he’s quick to wave her on, away from the complex. Having to walk to their pickup, as opposed to blinking through time, isn’t the worst thing to happen today.]

It’s not far to rendezvous. We’ll make it.

[ Lena nods and follows his lead. She's quiet and distracted, so hopefully 76 is being extra vigilant. Everything still feels a little unreal, both because of her abrupt return to this time and because she knows she's walking next to her not-so-dead commander.

After a few minutes, she speaks again. ]

I'm glad you're alive.

[ She looks at him out of the corner of her eye. She's smiling a little, though it doesn't reach her eyes. ]

Even if you're a bit of an arsehole.

I know.

[That he’s an asshole—he can see the hurt on her face, even as she tries to downplay it. Lena has always worn her emotions on her sleeves, and the undercurrent of disappointment doesn’t escape him. He can’t exactly blame her, really.

All they can do is pick themselves up and start walking.]

I’m sorry.

[ Lena hadn't expected him to apologize-- she expected one of those bitter laughs or a dismissal. And she knew Jack well and knows 76 well enough to know that he's sincere. It doesn't change anything, doesn't make anything hurt less, but she appreciates the sentiment. ]

Why'd you come back?

[ She knows why 76 joined up. But why did the late Jack Morrison come back? ]

Edited 2016-11-20 21:58 (UTC)

[That’s an easier question to answer, even though what he’ll give her is only half the truth. It’s important information nonetheless, and now that he’s compromised himself to Lena, he might as well get something out of it. Having a second set of eyes looking into the conspiracy might be advantageous—or she might just knock some sense into him. Tell him that all he’s doing is chasing ghosts.

He’s not sure which he’d prefer, so he starts at the beginning.]

What happened to Overwatch ran deeper than any of you know.

[A conspiracy, he’s sure of it. The tension between himself and Reyes was real, and they had come to blows, but he’d known from the start that Gabriel had not intended to get caught in the explosion. Something bigger is at play.]

I need to make sure you don’t make the same mistakes I did.

[Restarting Overwatch is all well and good, but Winston is too idealistic. He doesn’t understand what went wrong in the first place. The government tearing their family apart is something nice that he can tell himself, but that’s barely scratching the surface.]

[ They'd always suspected something more was going on-- especially after the UN inquiry. It wasn't a trial, not officially. But the court of public opinion declared them guilty. Awfully convenient to the politicians who railed against them; now they had a scapegoat for all of the wrongs in the world.

But she didn't think it went deeper than petty political machinations. She certainly didn't think someone else could've had a hand in what happened in Switzerland. ]

Which mistakes?

[ Lena fully intends to be a proxy between 76 and the others. If he won't reveal himself, she can at least help guide them too. They'll trust her when they won't trust 76. ]

Edited 2016-11-20 23:49 (UTC)

Trusting the UN, for one.

[They'd mandated Blackwatch in the first place, only to turn on all of them when Gabriel went off the rails. It had all been very convenient for him to take the fall.

Still, with the Petras Act, there will be no working with the UN at all--they're finally on opposite sides, and there's no Gabriel to put misplaced trust in, either. They already have that going for them, but 76 likes to think he has a keener eye for problems, having lived it all already.]

The government was never on our side. They built us to fail.

Why would they do that? Just to blame us later?

[ She can't say that the sting of going from 'hero' to 'criminal' didn't still hurt. Lena saw the news reports. They questioned her motives whenever she did happen to show her face. Nobody believes in Overwatch, and nobody believes in her. But Lena can stand tall and walk through a tempest of insults and anger without crumbling. She'll do what's right, regardless of how the public sees her.

Maybe she and 76 aren't so far removed. ]

I don't know if it started that way.

[Even if it did, sort of. They'd chosen him over Gabriel because he was better at taking orders, and they thought he'd be easier to control. They just lucked out that he knew how to do the job. A nice bonus, that he'd been so full of ideas about peacekeeping and scientific innovation.]

But there were always contingencies. If we went off the rails-- [Which they did, of course.] --they made it easy to pull the plug.

[Which they did, of course.]

[ Quietly: ] Overwatch is ours this time.

[ 'Ours' includes him, given the look she's giving him. He's stuck on this ride, wherever it leads. They all are. ]

Suppose it helps that we'll be carted off to prison if the UN finds out. And the world don't want us, even if they need us. So no worries about that this time.

[That’s what 76 hopes, but there’s also the added factor of bringing in new agents. Winston is too easily swayed by idealistic desires to help—someone needs to properly vet everyone. Loyalties don’t stay the same forever, and 76 will not discount the possibility that ex-agents might answer the recall with ill intent.

And then, of course, there’s the government.]

The UN knows, trust me.

[They’ve hit the news, and Winston is fooling himself if he doesn’t think they don’t know about the Recall. Even if 76 doesn’t have the direct ties he used to, he still has informants. The UN is biding their time.]

You’re walking a fine line. I don’t know if they’re going to intervene, or what kind of stunt we’ll have to pull for them to make the call.

[Who knows what’s going to have them put their foot down?]

[ Lena feels a weight settle on her. Re-forming Overwatch had seemed simple. Get the band back together and right some of the wrongs in the world. Take on people they can't fight alone. They'd known it would be dangerous, not to mention highly illegal, but it seemed the right thing to do. And Lena will still stand by that-- the Recall isn't a mistake. The world need them.

Though the UN knowing but keeping its distance... that's worrying. Lena chews on her lip thoughtfully. ]

Why not just take us down before we regroup? [ She bites her lip a little more. ] Unless... it helps 'em somehow?

Overwatch is a convenient scapegoat.

[That much is still true, and it's going to keep being true for the foreseeable future. He's learned a great deal about politics over the past two decades, and he'll be surprised if things don't shake out this way.]

We're good to have around in case they need someone to blame.

[And he expects that sooner rather than later.]

Right. So we fail, they get to blame us for everythin' bad in the world. We succeed, they take the credit and still pin the bad bits on us. And either way we go to prison. Is that about the long and short of it?

[ There's bitterness in her voice, her eyes, her expression. It's a bitterness that hadn't been there six years ago. ]

You really know how to ruin a reunion, l--.

[ She catches herself, not quite comfortable being that informal now. ]

That's how it goes.

[Tracer has always been an incorrigible optimist. Hearing his own bitterness rub off on her isn't comforting, but he's not sure what else he can do. 76 isn't going to lie to her, not anymore. The reality of their situation is one he can't sugarcoat.

Even behind the mask, however he manages to look a little sympathetic. It's hard not to be, knowing what he does about her.]

I'm not gonna let anyone throw you in prison.

[ The threat of the UN hasn't impacted her drive to do good. But it's hard not to see the logic behind 76's assertion, given what they'd done before. Everything that she'd gone through after the fall of Overwatch had changed her in little ways. It made her a little less trusting.

Lena smiles a proper smile when she sees the sympathy in his expression (so to speak). She knows he'd fight tooth and nail for his people. Lena just hopes it won't end the same way it did before. ]

I know. But best not to let it get that far, yeah?

[The plan, of course, is to give himself up if it looks like the UN is going to crack down on the whole operation. 76 will be more than content to go to prison for the rest of his life if it means the rest of them get to walk free. Of course, he’s pretty sure it won’t shake out that way—they won’t let that happen, which means he has to keep this potential course of action to himself. Jack Morrison might be dead, and 76 would like to keep it that way, but he realizes there is value in coming back to life at the right time, should the situation arise. An ace up the sleeve is still an ace, even if it’s one he’d rather not play.]

Winston’s team isn’t half-bad. Just have to play it close to the chest.

[For now, anyway. He hesitates for a moment, as if he’s unsure what to do with his hands before deciding to cuff her on the arm, about the friendliest gesture he can manage. He hopes it’s reassuring—he’ll understand if it doesn’t quite come off that way.]

We're a small team. Layin' low when we have to won't be as hard.

[ Then he cuffs her on the shoulder, and she looks at him with a mix of incredulity and amusement before she laughs. It's not one of her full-on laughs but it's real. Some of the tension leaves her and she's a little bit brighter, as if that bitterness had never been there.

Lena gives him a brief sideways hug in response. ]

[He wants to be able to tell her that it will be the case, that smaller is easier and more believable when it comes to telling the UN that they're not operating as a new Overwatch, but it's all a bit more complicated than that. Talon is in the mix, too, and though 76 knows she's clashed with Reaper before, he's fairly certain that Tracer doesn't know who he really is.

That will be another discussion for another time. Her laugh proves a little infectious, and he manages one of his own as she leans in for the side-hug. The gesture is brief, but meaningful enough. He doesn't cut it short.]

Come on. They're waiting for us.

[ Lena can tell that he's holding back. Nothing has changed about his perception of the situation. What's changed is her understanding. Soldier: 76 is no longer a vigilante who only protects people to keep his alliance with Overwatch intact. He wants to keep his people alive and out of prison.

When 76 laughs and doesn't pull away, it makes her feel warm inside. Lena smiles at him brightly, the warmth shining through. ]

You got it.

( picture prompt meme )

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