Disclaimer: All rights go to Jeff Kaplan and the Overwatch creation team. A lot of thanks to the staff there, specifically the dorky and lovable voice actors :)

Chapter I: Welcome Party

"We officially welcome you to Overwatch, Miss Vaswani," cheered an excited Brit, popping a confetti popper as she said it. Symmetra winced at the noise and colorful strips of paper that haphazardly floated through the air, but she nodded her head in appreciation at the meaning behind the gesture. All about the room, celebration unfolded in the presence of the party-goers that gathered. Their merriment was overwhelming, to put it politely. Voices raised above one another in idle chatter and sparkling soda bottles were being popped open with fizz threatening to spill over. It occurred to her that they were likely celebrating a few days of break from missions rather than her entrance into Overwatch, but she didn't let that bother her. That being said, she still couldn't find comfort in festivities, even one so small as this.

It took everything in her power not to leave the room right then, but she had to at least make herself look approachable if she were work with these people. Commander's orders. She accepted the proffered cup of punch, though the choice of beverage was not to her preference, and politely refused an invitation to mingle with a rather rowdy group. There were still some things she would not do. Lumping together with those who made bids on who could eat the most chips or those who brought actual explosives as party "noisers" was one of those things. It was enough that they had given her their welcome.

Oh, she felt welcome alright. Not that there was anything wrong with the group as a whole, but there were some questionable characters that had either annoyed her or made her feel completely uncomfortable or incredibly nauseous just looking at them. Her eyes averted from the two barbarians covered in filth, one of whom was the exact physical depiction of a pig that she had to remind herself that he was actually a person. His wiry-framed companion conversed loudly, without a care of others hearing, singed hair emitting the foulest odor she had ever had to encounter. How the two former criminals come to work along with Overwatch, she hated to find out. According to Commander Morrison, they were only present as standby mercenaries. The two were revolting to say the least, but that was the least of her concern with her new company. Topped off with a bristle-bearded drunk of a cowboy and an overly flirty, married Swedish man, she had to will herself to ignore their antics while in the company of the rest of Overwatch.

Then, there was him, the root of all of her problems as of late. The one to cause disturbance to her former company of Vishkar, a corporation that had almost all but crumbled under the weight of civilian uprisings and internal affairs. A corporation developed with the justifying ideal of bettering the world, all faded due to one street hoodlum's uprising. Technically, he hadn't done it alone. He had all the popularity and support to help him achieve dismantling the Vishkar, and he succeeded. The street performer wasn't currently present, much to her relief, but she was more than aware of his recent existence as an Overwatch soldier. How a thief managed to get on the good side of notorious heroes, recruited even, she still couldn't figure out. It wouldn't surprise her if he had connections with the members during his little rebellion.

Reluctant though she was to say it aloud, Symmetra admitted that the Vishkar earned every bit of dislike from the people as she and her closest coworkers discovered other employees' inexcusable activities. Regardless, she was still adamant about the purpose of her company, and every fiber of her being blamed him for its fall. Vishkar was disbanded as of now, but it will not be for forever, and she'll be damned if she were to allow it to diminish completely. She had plans to continue her work, even if she had to do so in another organization. Her opinions of the matter concerning Vishkar were similar to how Overwatch was recalled, the only drawback being that she had no contact with any of her former coworkers, even her closest confidant, Sanjay. Perhaps, that's why she had been cordially invited to join Overwatch's forces by a couple of its more respectable members.

Satya's memory of her company's disbanding had been locked away deep in her mind, far too troubling for her to tell about it. She had felt like an empty shell ever since, never having expected that she would want no other lifestyle than the one she had. Wandering around ever sense that day, she desperately sought a new purpose, but had found none. Until she was approached by the energized British brunette and quite the clever primate. They had expressed their knowledge on Vishkar's prowess and advancement, offering her a position in their ranks after they heard of its decline. Whether they had invited her out of pity or what, she dared not dwell on. However, it had taken her nearly two months to accept the recruitment, and even now she still wondered whether her choice was the right one.

Symmetra's gaze fell to the punch in her hand, the surface of the purple liquid hardly lowered due to the few sips she had taken. Her mind idled away from the commotion around her as she found focus in the smooth, perfect circle of the glass's rim. Decisions had hardly been her strong suit. The only other one she's known to make was her joining Vishkar in the first place. Its quiet, orderly ambience beckoned her to leave her chaotic mess of a home town, and she did not regret obliging. Most of her decisions afterward were null, her actions only fueled by those of higher rank who commanded her. She enjoyed the order and direction that the company had given her. Without it, she felt lost on what to do. So when the recruitment to Overwatch was offered to her, Satya had no choice but to reply that she'd think on it. Her mind had wandered endlessly about the possibilities, all of the advantages and disadvantages to accepting, her thoughts becoming the very chaos that she abhorred. It had even made her feel sick at times. The whole of Overwatch itself was far from being as organized as Vishkar, but it was still better than a purposeless existence, she supposed. And Overwatch held ideals similar in nature to her own.

They were a rag-tag group of fighters, protectors of the innocent civilians all over the globe, even after the termination of the Omnic Crisis. Up until now, each member worked individually to keep their homes safe, and now they work together once more for that protection to run more smoothly. Originally founded as a special military unit to counter aggressive omnics, Overwatch now worked in different types of fields. They have been called for escort missions, defense operations, infiltrations, and the occasional check-up of current holds. They were a team of soldiers nonetheless, and she was not. Her abilities proved fair in encounters, but she's never been one to initiate combat herself. She refused wholly on taking lives. Only in desperate measures did she find the need to take up her own arms. In truth, she found violence distasteful and barbaric, even in the instances of protecting one's self. Despite her frustrations with some people, she was a rather diplomatic negotiator, preferring to resolve conflict through speech and contract. This ideal earned her both respect and envy from her peers. And the wrath from the treacherous, former Vishkar employees. They had warped her words as they saw fit, giving rise to outrage amongst the populace, wrongly accused her and the higher ups of the corporation of fraud, manipulation, and tyranny. Hardly anybody trusted the Vishkar now.

Satya sighed heavily, taking another miniscule sip of her punch before discarding it discreetly in the sink. Being crowded by the noise was beginning to take its toll on her. She politely excused herself from their company to rest, creating a lie that she had an exhausting day in hopes they wouldn't be too disappointed in her premature retreat. It wasn't a complete lie. A few heads nodded, while most of the other members continued about their conversations. She would let them enjoy the party to their heart's content, to revel in the peaceful atmosphere between missions. Meanwhile, her relaxation came from isolating herself in her room.

She entered the key code for the room, hearing the faint hiss of tech-locks releasing. The doors closed softly behind her as she made her way to a table still covered in small boxes. Her eyes darted to the wall décor momentarily, scanning over the multicolored hues of video game posters, most relating to Starcraft. The other side of the room was packed with video game contents, pop figures, electronic music, chips and soda. Though organized in its own way, with the snacks stacked according to flavors and drinks in a cooler, that half contrasted to Symmetra's perfectly clean side of the room. Her belongings consisted of nothing more than neatly stacked books, disconnected turrets that were packed away, a yoga mat, and a few outfits that were already relocated to the closet. There was no allowance for food or drink products for her side of the room, that much she made sure of.

Satya sighed, returning her attention to the small boxes of books that needed to be shelved. Much to her displeasure, she could not claim the room as her own. As Overwatch was originally founded as a small band of fighters, its main base's housing structures were never made to accommodate an influx of members, only enough for the core members. Other, larger units were assigned to barracks. Had she still been in Vishkar, they could have just updated her housing easily using their hard-light technology. As a result, she had to grow accustomed to the fact that she would be sharing the room with gaming idol Dva. Just the mere presence of beverages and food being in the room had begun to bother her, but Satya bit her tongue. After all, it's only the first day. She's determined to at least try this roommate thing. There were much worse options that she could think of, like living on the streets or sharing a room with one of the barbarians from earlier. Symmetra shuddered at the thought. She couldn't even imagine going on missions with them. The two were the types to be disastrous at any given moment, mission or not. That being said, she could also think of better scenarios. If she had been given the choice, she'd prefer to share a room with a quieter and more reserved companion such as the Chinese climatologist or Dr. Ziegler. More than anything else, she wished to return to the comfort and safety of her former home in Vishkar.

She shook her head of that thought. There's no helping that now; it's in the past. Satya's tried everything, but there was nothing keeping her from reminiscing parts of the past, even the times she had spent living in poverty. She idly wondered from time to time how her family had coped without her, but she's never acted on any impulse to visit the whole time she was at Vishkar. Her hands rested on the final book to be put away, a memento left to her from Sanjay, her mentor ever since joining the corporation. To others, it was simply just another literature explaining different hard-light architecture prototypes and examples used since the founding of Vishkar. To her, it was a treasure that she cherished as she's been one of the few who'd actually fashioned her own structures due to its abundant illustrations. Setting the book gingerly on her bedside table, she had every intention of light reading it every night to help calm her nerves. Satya dismantled the hard-light box that she had carried her items in, nodding in satisfaction at the perfection of her organization.

She took note of the time on her hologram clock, her ears picking up the faint sounds of merriment in the main hall. It never made sense to her how anyone could hold a party for as long as they had. Satya never truly disliked parties, but she'd considered two hours was the maximum amount of time needed to throw one. Not double that amount. Once she had everything sorted about the room, it was late, half an hour past 11. That was far too late to be up and bantering in her account. The curfew she had grown used to in Vishkar was the ideal time for someone to settle down and get ready for sleep. Too much adrenaline so late in the night resulted in a disastrous daily routine and affected work efficiency. Even if they didn't have a mission to go to in the morning, they'd surely still have something to do. How could the commander ever tolerate such irresponsibility, she pondered. There were many differences between Overwatch and Vishkar that she'd have to slowly adjust to.

Redirecting her attention elsewhere, she set her gear to the side and changed out of her formal clothes into sleepwear. Satya crawled under the sheets, grimacing slightly at the foreign texture in comparison to the silky fabrics made of hard-light that she had been so used to. Were she not determined to conserve her energy, she would have made her own. After struggling to find comfort in the new place, she finally let sleep take over.