The sight of Watchpoint Gibraltar was something that Mercy had missed much more than she had originally imagined. The rusty and slightly run down old base had it's charm though, especially when compared to being stuck in some god forsaken temple with a crazed AI. Mercy sighed and rubbed her eyes a bit, the images of the place still flashing behind her eyelids. It had only been a few hours since her and her team had managed to escape the place, so she hadn't been able to fully relax just yet. She was dying to slip into something that wasn't filled with sand, the usually comfortable suit itchy and feeling rather heavy on her worn out body. The ship finally came into a descent near the entrance to the base, Mercy smiling softly as she stood and called for the other three team members.
"Mei, Jamison... Hog?... we're back!" She called out with a slightly upbeat tone to her, still in the leader role that she had done her best to maintain through their mission. The ragtag group slowly popped up from their places of rest, Mercy having to hold back a soft giggle as Junkrat and Mei slunk out from the same general area. She had assumed that something had happened between them, and the man's extra ruffled hair mixed with Mei's flushed cheeks helped Mercy's intuition figure the rest out.
As they lined up and waited for the door to lower, Mercy looked over them with one last smile.
"You all did very well out there, I will make sure that each of you is properly rewarded for your courage. 76 is very understanding, even if we sort of didn't get the mission completed the way he wanted." She giggled softly as she thought about the strong and silent man. She looked forward, awaiting a nice welcome back from a few of the other members of the renewed Overwatch.
What she got was a bare landing area, with nobody to be seen. Mercy sighed, part of her knowing that it would be too much to expect a welcome party. She took a few steps out to make sure nobody else was around before turning to her group.
"Alright then team, you're dismissed. Welcome home and enjoy your time off. I'll let you know if anything else comes up, just please stay within boundaries and all that, okay?"
Mei and Junkrat both grinned before running off towards the mess hall, with Roadhog simply shuffling off towards nothing in general. Mercy was going to point out that he was simply walking towards nothing but she decided against it. Not like her word would stop him now anyway.
She took a deep breath, hearing the ocean against the rocks and feeling herself calming down for the first time since they had gotten back on the ship. As she stood there, her mind wandered on it's own for a little. She could see the waves crashing against the rocks, the foam of the water fizzling out as she breathed in and out deeply. Before she knew what was happening, she opened her eyes to find herself back in the temple of Anubis, that large monitor gazing at her sadistically with a mad grin on it's face.
"YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD GET RID OF ME ANGELA?" It shrieked before Mercy shook herself back into the present, almost falling over from the shock of what she had seen. Her hands shook slightly as they rubbed her temples, her breathing a bit shaky as she tried to shake the thought from her mind.
"No... Angela... calm down... he's not here..." She tried to convince herself, the words only half working as she began to slowly make her way towards her room. The walk seemed short as her mind was preoccupied with why she was having such a hard time in moving on. Yes it had only been a few hours now, but that last vision felt so... real. She swallowed a bit as she arrived at her room finally, her hand resting on the lock, the thing scanning her palm and opening with a soft noise.
Once inside, Mercy began to undress, unlocking her breastplate first and setting the slightly dusty white piece of armor on it's holder, soon following it up with her wings and fabric undergarments. She noted a few holes in the woven material, the thought of it's original creator passing through her mind for a split second before she moved on to her shower.
The water was cold on her worn down body, her muscles aching as she stood there, back against the wall to let the cold mist cover her. Her eyes closed a bit as she took in the feeling, her breathing once again becoming calm. She smirked to herself as she finally pulled herself from the wall and began to clean herself. She heard a soft beeping coming from the next room as she began to shampoo, knowing that it meant 76 was wanting to speak with her about the mission. She smiled and sped up her washing a bit, soon drying off as best she could, putting her damp hair into a messy bun and slipping into her comfortable clothing. The soft white shirt and darker jogging pants did well enough to cover her as she slipped into some comfy house shoes and left her room, making her way towards the mission briefing area.
As she made her way through the halls, she found her hands running over any old names that she passed by as their rooms came and went. Torbjorn, McCree... even Reinhardt, that lovable old man. She missed all of them for her own reasons, but maybe one day they could all come back together. Her eyes passed over the last one before the mission briefing, her heart sinking slightly as she hurried past it. She didn't want to think about him, not today.
Walking into the room, Mercy looked around for 76 before finding him standing and looking out over the base. He looked like he usually did, official and careful. His stance softened as he heard her enter, though he did not turn to greet her.
"Glad to have you back Angela, I'm sure you have good news for me?" He turned his head to the side, his mask covering his face though she knew he was looking at her sideways.
She smiled and nodded as she made her way closer to the man, standing beside him and leaning into him a bit.
"Well of course, good news is... we didn't die!" She chuckled a bit at the silly joke, and to her surprise, the man gave her a single chuckle in response. Something was odd now, as he wasn't usually one for jokes and even worse, that hadn't even been a good one.
"Soooo... the bad news is..." She lowered her head a bit, looking away from him as she whispered slightly.
"We kinda destroyed the AI..." She closed her eyes, waiting for 76 to blow up.
He stood there, taking a deep breath before walking away from the window, leaving Mercy to stand on her own for a second.
"I see... who made the decision to destroy Anubis?" He looked at her, now grilling her about the fine details.
"Well you see, we were captured and it was either destroy the AI or let us die, Mei only did what she thought..."
"Mei? I thought you were in charge of the mission?" 76 interrupted abruptly and Mercy could feel his gaze on her.
Mercy felt her face get hot as she did her best to not meet the man's gaze.
"I, uhm... well I was out of commission, Junkrat and Mei were very courageous in the way they handled the situation given what was going on..." She did her best to be confident in her words, and yet the longer 76 stared at her, the less she felt like her words were the right ones.
"Oh Jack, don't be so hard on the girl! She's been through a lot!" A familiar voice filled Mercy's ears, and she quickly looked up to see a face that she had never expected to see again.
"A...Ana?!" She exclaimed before running towards the older woman and pulling her into a tight hug, the woman reciprocating the hug with a soft laugh.
"Hello Angela, so glad to see that you are doing well, though I must say... you look just as young as you did last time I saw you!"
Mercy held the woman tightly, feeling like this must be some form of dream. Ana had been dead, that's what Morrison had told them. After that everything had been different. Things just went bad and yet now here she was again. But had she said... Jack?
Mercy looked at 76 with wide eyes, her mouth dropping a little as she stood up, at a loss for words.
"Y-you... are you..." She finally stuttered out.
76 stared at her for a bit, before shooting a look at Ana as if they had had a different plan for this moment. He then reached up to unlock the mask from his face, pulling it away to reveal his face to Mercy.
"Hello Angela."