April 2nd 2030
Watch point: Gibraltar – Gibraltar Overseas Territory
It was early morning at the Watch point, the sun still hadn't come up and the entire facility was cladded in darkness, most of the members were currently asleep, including Pretoria, she was currently tucked away in her undergarments and grey nightgown in the duvet of her large double bed (she was lucky to have one, especially as she slept alone), with the late moon shining through her window and bathing the bed with its soft, blue light, her Transvaali Vierkleur which was now hanging on the wall was also visible in the softness of the atmosphere, however as she was sleeping, the door to her room opened and a figure stepped through, the person then moved over to Pretoria's sleeping body, pulling the sheets back slightly to reveal her shoulder, the figure then placed it's hand on her shoulder and shook it slightly, it then tried to say something…
But before the words could come out, Pretoria suddenly shot up, grabbing the figures hair and pushing its head down into the blankets by one hand and reaching under her pillow with the other, that hand pulled out her Hi-Power pistol from under the pillow and she then jammed the barrel against the figures head, "I've got you sneaky…" the huntswomen began to say, but she fell silent as she was rather confused at the figures familiar looks, she then gasped as she realised it was Tracer she was pinning down, she immediately let go and pulled the pistol away, "o kak! I'm so sorry Lena!" she apologised profusely, also trying to cover the blush oh her face as she was rather embarrassed, "it's okay love, I didn't realise you were so twitchy" Tracer comforted, while rubbing her hair as some of the strands had been sharply pulled on, "anyways it's five in the morning, why are you up so early?" Pretoria questioned while putting her pistol away, Tracer then sat on the bed near Pretoria's legs, "well love, remember when I said I was with someone on the outside?" she began to explained, "I do remember, Emily was her name yes?" Pretoria replied, Tracer nodded her head in response, "yeah, and me, Winston, Baron, D. Va and Lúcio are going to see her, and I wanted to know if you wanted to come as well" she continued, the Boer thought about it for a second, "yeah i'll come, but why so early?" she continued to question, "well, we want to be there and back before breakfast at 9AM, so we don't make Morrison suspicious" Tracer explained, Pretoria nodded, "okay, just wait outside while I get dressed, I can't go walking around in a nightgown you know?" she said while tugging at said article of clothing, Tracer nodded and got off the bed, she walked back outside the door and closed it, Pretoria sighed, "o, Lena, wat het jy my nou ingetrek?" she said to herself in her mother's tongue.
Tracer tapped her foot on the floor as she stood outside Pretoria's room, she huffed in boredom as it seemed Pretoria was taking longer than usual to get ready, after some more time she finally came out, wearing her normal attire of her dark khaki jacket. Brown trousers, rugged boots and her black beret, which was covering the light, brown hair which she was currently tying back into her usual short ponytail, "you took longer than I do, what was with the delay?" she asked while walking with her towards the outside, "I'm sorry, I was having trouble, erm, deciding on lingerie" Pretoria responded looking rather nervous, "let me guess, your bra givin' ya trouble?" Tracer probed, "yeah, this one which I have one is rather tight, how could you tell?" Pretoria asked in response, "I don't know, it was probably because you're nice average bust was looking rather flat" Tracer sniggered as they walked down another hallway, "hey!" Pretoria whined, covering her jacket-cladded chest with her hands and blushing slightly, like she felt naked all of a sudden, Tracer giggled in response, "oh yeah I almost forgot to mention, you almost had me thinking of you in my sleep because of that bust" she continued to tease, "god you're so weird" Pretoria replied bluntly, Tracer let out another small laugh, "I'm just playing with ya love, you do have a rather nice body under all of that" she comforted, "yeah, says the lesbian with paedophile grade, fantasising x-ray vision" the Transvaali quipped, Tracer looked at her with an unnerved look on her face, then the two burst out laughing, "okay you me there love, I'm just saying, from my gay point of view, you are a rather nice looking girl" Tracer praised, Pretoria chuckled "okay you vreemde vrou" she responded, Tracer looked at her weirdly as she didn't know what she had just said in her own language, the two continued walking until they reached a door that went outside.
They both walked down the payload road until they met up with the others at the dirt access road which led out of the facility, Winston was standing with D. Va and Lúcio seeming discussing something while Baron was leaning against the closed gate, he spotted the other two girls walking towards them, "Lena, did you at least tell Eliza why you dragged her out of bed?" he asked, "don't worry George, she told me" Pretoria answered, "so, are we all ready?" Winston told the group, "do we have to walk there?" D. Va complained, she didn't look like the type who liked physical exercise, "yes we do Hana, you need to get your legs moving anyways" Winston retorted, D. Va just huffed in response, Winston then went to the access gate and opened it, the entire group then started their journey along the dirt access road to Emily's residence.
The dirt road soon ended up on Europa road, a main road which went from Europa point up into the town itself, since it was early morning, the road was rather quiet as the group walked on the pavement next to it, D. Va was next to Lúcio tapping on her phone with the DJ having his arm around the back of her neck, Pretoria and Baron were walking beside each other, with Pretoria looking out towards the ocean with the sun starting to come up amount the orange sky, with Transvaal being a landlocked country after all, it was rare for someone like her to see such a huge stretch of watery vastness and a beautiful sunrise to go with it, Tracer was still skipping ahead rather joyfully, being excited to see her partner after all.
After some more time, the group ended up at their destination, a small apartment building on a crossroad, with one side looking out towards the bay of Gibraltar, Tracer walked up to the front door and saw a box with different names written on, each with a button next to them, Tracer found the button she was looking for and pressed it, a buzz accompanied her action, after the while a crackle came over the intercom, "hello?" A slightly groggy voice came over the line, "hey love, it's me, and I brought some friends over" Tracer spoke, "oh hi sweetheart, yeah come on up, I'm on the third floor" the voice replied cheerfully, Winston huffed the sight of the tight door, "well, at least not bringing some of the armour will help" he sighed.
After helping Winston through any tight gaps and walking up two flights of stairs, they all came up to the door, Tracer did the honours and hit the doorbell on the frame of the door, after a while there was the sound of a lock being undone and then the door opened, revealing the person opening it, she had bright red hair and bright brown eyes, to go with that, her face was covered in freckles, these even covered her shoulders, in which one of them was visible, poking out of the baggy shirt she wore, "Emily, how are you my love?" Tracer said excitingly, hugging and then pecking her girlfriend on the cheek, "I'm great Lena, god it's been so long!" Emily responded quite ecstatically, "well come in, all of you", she stood to the side to let Tracer and the other walk into her apartment, Winston again struggled with the door, but he managed to get himself through.
They all found themselves in the living room, it was rather simplistic, the wood floor had a single colourful rug adorning it, there were two green couches facing at an angle towards a glass TV, in the corner was the kitchen area, with multiple appliances and utensils lying around, there were also a few pictures on the wall, one having the common saying of 'home sweet home', and another which was a picture of both Tracer and Emily in London on Christmas, "well sit yourselves anywhere, make yourselves feel right in" Emily said, D. Va, Lúcio and Pretoria managed to squeeze themselves on one of the sofas, with Baron standing next to the arm which Pretoria was sitting next to, Tracer sat herself on the second couch, Winston knowing that the seating may not be able to take his weight sat on the floor instead, after a while at the kitchen area, Emily came back with a glass of juice in her hand and then sat next to Tracer, "well, thanks to all of you for coming to see my new apartment" she said joyfully, "well it was our pleasure, I needed to get out of that Watchpoint or I would catch a case of cabin fever, heh" Winston replied, Emily chuckled and then she noticed the two extra faces looking at her from the opposite couch, "I know most of Overwatch already, but I haven't see you two before" she said while pointing at the two Alkinson's, "oh bollocks, I forgot to tell you about them, that grand man who's standing there is Lord George the III of Alkinson" Tracer explained with a hint of sarcasm, "just call me George if you find that a mouthful mate" Baron properly and blankly introduced himself, Emily giggled in response, "and this load of beautiful here is Eliza the I of Alkinson" Tracer introduced the other figure, "hoe gaan dit?" Pretoria said to Emily cheerfully, Emily however looked confused from the sudden language barrier, "she said how are you in Afrikaans" D. Va answered the question Emily was about to ask, "oh, yeah I'm fine Eliza, nice to meet you, I'm guessing you're from South Africa right?" Emily responded and then asked, "Transvaal, but you were close enough" Pretoria corrected, showing off the Vierkleur she had stitched to her jackets upper left arm, along with Transvaal's national motto underneath it, "well it's nice to meet you both, what brought you two into Overwatch?" Emily questioned the two Alkinson's, "well, long story short, Talon decided to try and kill me in my home because I didn't agree to their terms, luckily Tracer, D. Va and Mercy were with me and we managed to fight those disrespectful pikers off, I knew they were going to come back so I joined Overwatch just for my and my family's wellbeing, and also because saving the world is more fun than sitting in a castle all day long" Baron told, "mhm, anyways, speaking of Mercy, where is she and her girlfriend?" the redhead asked her partner, "ahh they couldn't come, Fareeha was called back to Egypt by Helix yesterday, she said it was something important and Angela went with her" Tracer explained, a small silence then went across the room, "so Hana and Lúcio, how have your first few days together been?" Winston said, trying to get another conversation going, "it's been great, we did some good stuff together" D. Va replied, "yeah like that time when someone on your stream dared you to stuff your mouth full of chips?" the DJ joked, a bit of shock and then a sudden smile came across Winston's, Tracer's and Emily's face, Pretoria also let out a slight giggle, "hey! I didn't do that!" D. Va retorted, "you should've seen her, she was a little gremlin" he continued with a smile on her face, Pretoria then burst out laughing after she thought about D. Va looking like the thing Lúcio had compared her to, D. Va was blushing in embarrassment as all the others except Baron followed Pretoria's suit, with the lord shaking his head in shame, also hiding a smile on his face, she then punched Lúcio in the arm, "you don't know how much I hate you right now" she said, "aww come on Hana, that's what boyfriends do" Lúcio comforted, pulling her closer to him, "at least tell me I'm not a gremlin" she seemed to demand, "don't worry, you aren't girl" the Brazilian replied, Pretoria finally stopped laughing after wiping some tears from her blue eyes, "that was one of the best things I heard for a while, you want to hear something else embarrassing?" she suggested, "oh god" Baron rolled his eyes, "it's a moment with Brisbane, back when I was seven and when I was on tour with my father, George, Paul and Simon, we were in New Zealand at the time and staying in one of the country houses we owned, Simon tried get rid of some fallen bushes on top of the house as Paul said they were irritating him, we watched him get one off, and he then fell backwards and rolled off the roof and landed face first into the backyard's pool" she giggled when she spoke, the others started laughing, with Baron smiling as well, "I remember Adelbert having to stick his fingers in your ears due to all the 'colourful' adjectives which were coming out of Simon's mouth, and my father in his own words literally said, 'you know what Simon, leave the branches, I can't be sure if you can get something off a top shelf without falling into a sink'", everyone else after a while stopped laughing as they noticed a ringing tone in the air, they soon found it was coming from Baron's blazer, he pulled out of his pocket a rather retro-looking flip-phone, it looked so old he may have had it ever since he was a child, "oh sorry, my family accountant is calling, don't mind me" he said with a slight apologetic tone, "go for it luv" Tracer replied, Baron walked out the apartment, closing the door behind him.
He came outside onto the pavement as he had the phone against his ear just under his peaked cap, "Clyde what is it?" he answered on the phone, Clyde Porcher was the main accountant for the family, the man who was responsible for keeping track of the family's finances, "Lord, I've been looking into you're expenditures and you seem to have taken a lot of gold bullion out of the family's stores recently" the man explained himself, with a slight Welsh accent in his voice, "oh yeah I forgot to mention that to you, that went to Overwatch, I did unite the family with them" the lord replied, "wait? Overwatch? Lord, you do know under the UN's Petras act that all of their behaviour and any behaviour of other entities supporting them is illegal?" Clyde explained with worry in his voice, "yes Clyde, and let me explain to you that the UN is the most toothless organisation, remember that Serbia invaded Kosovo, practically undoing the legacy of the then US president Bill Clinton in the area and then proceeded to practically chase the entire population and force them into Albania and then illegally settled Serbs into all the towns, what did the UN do in response? ...Nothing of course, and I can tell you from that they will not do anything about me supporting Overwatch" Baron reasoned, Clyde thought about it for a second, "very well Lord, also it seems that you forgot to clean the mess in the manor when you left, the butler got a large shock when he saw the bodies and it took a lot of string pulling to get them rid of" Clyde told in a slight irate voice, "oh yeah I forgot to tell you about that large fight I had with Talon, they're the reason why I'm with Overwatch in the first place, if the UN wants to go after someone…" but then, Baron was cut off by another person walking up to him, he was rather surprised by the fact that the man looked British as well, he saw he had a long black trench coat covering his body, however he also wore an officer cap like Baron's, but the major difference being it was black and not khaki, "Lord Alkinson, we have been following you for a while and I think it's time you meet my associate, can you please step into the limo?" the man said with a hit of fake politeness in his voice, on que, a black hovering limousine pulled up beside them, with the man opening the door, "why the hell should I go with you?" Baron questioned with a bit of hostility, "Lord we can do this the easy way or the hard way" the man replied, brandishing a revolver in his coat pocket, Baron was practically caught with his pants down as he didn't bring his double-rifle with him, after awhile of thinking about his options in his head, he then brought his phone back up to his ear, "Clyde… I'm going to have to call you back" he said, he then closed his phone and proceeded to follow the orders he was given.
After some driving and walking with his 'captors', he found himself strangely in a restaurant, it looked generically Mediterranean in design incorporating some Spanish, Italian and Greek design philosophies, the area was mostly quiet, Baron could only see one or two people sitting at the many tables, the only ones of interest were an Omnic couple enjoying their time, however the man who was leading him tapped him on the arm, Baron took this as a que to look forward and the sight gave him a shocked look, a man, wearing a black version of his uniform, tucking into some of his breakfast, he looked like he was in his late fifties, around the same age as Ana, had grey hair mostly hidden by the black cap he wore, and slightly tired looking brown eyes, he looks a little more heavier than Baron was as he had a little more around the waist, the man then looked up from his food and noticed the two new men standing before him, "you finally got him didn't you" he answered, his voice mostly containing a Londoner accent, "yes, and I'm glad now I'm rid of him" the escort said, spinning on his heel and starting to walk away, "HEY!" the man shouted, the escort then turned around and looked at him again, "you see his face!" the man ordered, the escort then gave Baron a look as he studied the person he had just 'kidnapped', "you better bloody remember it because he's my goddamn cousin!" the man finished, a wave of shock then hit Baron square on, "wait, cousin!?", he thought to himself confused, he turned back to the suited man and proceeded to sit at the chair opposite to him, "after all this time, I finally get to meet him, George III" the man rejoiced, "ok hold on, firstly how am I your cousin and secondly, who the hell are you?" George questioned, "that's because i'm an Alkinson too, and what other branch of the family existed to have me?" the man then answered and questioned in return, George after some thinking came up to one conclusion, "wait… you're Edward III's descendent?" he asked, "Edward IV, that's who I am mate" the man replied, Baron should've known, of course because Edward III got kicked out of the family didn't mean he couldn't create his own branch in exile, marry someone and bear a child to succeed him, you could tell it was an exiled branch as Edward wore a similar uniform to George, albeit being black rather than khaki, and also he bore the Alkinson coat of arms, however instead of a prancing lion on a shield in the centre, Edward's version had the flash and circle in the centre, a definite reference to Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts which Edward III had mingled with in the past.
"So you are Edward III's son, so may I ask how life has been on the outside of the family?" George started, trying to at least make a good impression, since Edward had the same blood as him, he had a claim to the baron title, and he could use this either through the legitimate process and waiting for George to die and not have a successor, or do it the Dumfries way and take the title by force, George didn't want the latter to happen so at least keeping Edward in comfort would help to keep a good opinion, "outside the family it's been rather tough, but my father pulled together what he had and managed to get his own source of income by dealing weapons to many different factions during the Cold War, I think he dealt weapons to the contra's, the mujahideen, the NVA, the MPLA and UNITA, the Americans, the Soviets, basically anyone who had a gap in arms supply, he was happy to fill up" Edward told his father's history, George was rather sickened, Edward III and his son didn't seem to care that those weapons were going towards killing thousands of people, if people were offering million dollar bills for them, he was obliged to send them in droves, "after he got his new assets together, he formed a paramilitary wing out of any loyal members, mercenaries and bounty hunters, they all fought in the Yugoslav wars alongside the Serbs, in the Rhodesian bush war for the minority government, oh and also helped bolster numbers in the Bophuthatswana coup for the AWB", George knew he should keep his mouth shut about the last theatre, if he said anything about that in front of his family, Pretoria would probably throw a hissy-fit knowing how much she hated those neo-apartheid fascists, "well then, okay then, after all of that, you are now enjoying your high life?" He questioned, "yeah, everything has been plain sailing ever since" Edward replied, George still looked like he had something on his mind however, "look George" Edward then said, seemingly reading the Baron's mind, "I know that my line was supposed to be in the same place that yours is supposed to be in, but I totally respect your position as the leader, looking back on it, my father was going to end up tearing the family apart if he continued", George was rather surprised by Edward's understanding of the situation, at least he wasn't as delusional he had thought, both of them talked about other family business before George checked his watch, his eyes widened as it was almost 9AM, breakfast at the Watchpoint was due to happen any moment, he then quickly pulled himself out of his seat and rushed to the door, "hey, where are you going?" Edward quickly questioned him, "sorry Edward, I forgot I had some… err, important business to attend to, i'll talk to you later" George quickly said, before Edward could reply, George was already out of the door of the restaurant.
Baron was now running back along the road to get back to the Watchpoint, he had taken his old phone and was punching numbers into the number pad, he brought it back up to his ear as the dial tone played its course, "Lena!" He shouted over the line as it was picked up, "George! Where the bloody hell are you? All of us thought something happened to you, especially Eliza, she's worried sick about you" Tracer's voice responded quite distressed, "I got visited by one of my old family members and he has rather complicated the situation even more, I need you to get my two cousins, my niece, Morrison and Winston in the control room as soon as I get back" he ordered, "wait, what is Morrison asks where you've been?" Lena said, concerned that their cover was going to be blown, "I'll just say I went out for a stroll around the town, you get that done and I'll be right with you after I have catched my breath" he finished, he hung up the call and kept on running up the dirt track.
After catching his breath and straightening himself out, Baron walked into the control room, and sitting at the seats as he requested were Tracer, Pretoria, Brisbane and Vancouver, with 76 and Winston standing in front of the big screen, "George, you're okay!" The Transvaali blubbered, rushing to him and hugging him tightly, "don't worry Eliza I'm right as rain" he conforted, they soon broke apart and Pretoria went back to her seat reassured, "George, what the hell is going on?" the commander asked his British associate, "a lot of bloody family rubbish has risen up to the surface, in the form of a relative I thought didn't exist" Baron replied, "wait, slow down, who is this relative?" Winston tried to grasp the situation, "remember how my great grandfather Dumfries I kicked out the old baron of the family Edward III?" He tried to recap, everyone nodded their heads, "well it turns out that he had a son, Edward IV, I could sit here and talk about him but you can just look it all up to save me the trouble" the baron explained, Winston then went to a computer console and typed a few search queries, then a page appeared on the big screen showing information on Edward, all the agents took their time to examine the text, "so this guy and his father were in the arms trading and mercenary business?" 76 concluded, "yep, and they have been involved in some very dodgy events ever since they started that" Baron added on, "and another scary thing is, because he his still Alkinson blood, if I ever perished prematurely and didn't have anyone to succeed me; which I currently don't, he can just swoop in and take the baron title, and since he doesn't really like Overwatch, he can just pull us out and even join the cartel of he wanted, knowing his father colluded with them in the past and that I have a suspicious feeling that he has been talking to Alfondo behind my back", "well you better make sure that doesn't bloody happen mate", Brisbane warned, Vancouver however didn't look interested as all of this happened, also while reading the text, a part of it caught Pretoria's eye, "hold on, according to this, he had supported the AWB during the Bophuthatswana coup!", Baron face cringed, he should've checked the page before showing it, he and the other agents saw Pretoria's pretty face turn red with anger, "I'm going to kill that traitorous kerel!" she shouted as she got up from her seat, Baron then quickly grabbed her by her shoulders and lightly shook her, "Eliza! We can't afford to piss him off as well! We already have Talon and the cartel to deal with, we don't need him ganging up on us as well" he tried to calm her down, "by the way, those guys aren't that bad ain't they?" Tracer brought up, Pretoria then huffed, stomped o and gently pushed Winston aside on the console, after sitting down and some typing, a information tab popped up about the group, the main thing which stood out was a red flag with a white circle in the middle, and in that circle were three black sevens arranged in a triskelion pattern, "the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging?" Tracer read out the group's name, badly butchering the Afrikaans pronunciation, "the Afrikaner Resistance Movement, that's what it means in English, their a white-supremacist, Neo-apartheid group who believed Transvaal sound be a state for the Boers and Boers only, they fell quiet during the time of the ANC, but after that South African moron Babatunde took power and the Omnic crisis, the group had a resurgence, and after Transvaal got its independence, they saw wonderful things like a equal, mixed society where men and women are not judged by the colour of their skin as 'unpatriotic' and 'smearing on the legacy of the great trek', so they rose up on the cities of Klerksdorp, Vryburg and Wolmaransstad and are now skirmishing against the TDF (Transvaal Defence Force) daily, of course nobody has heard of this conflict outside of Southern Africa, that's why we call it Die Vergete Oorlog, or the forgotten war" the boer explained, "why are you telling us this now?" 76 asked after hearing this information, "because of one man, the leader of the group, Hans De Geer, I know he doesn't really like Alfondo that much as he considers him not a true nationalist and someone who colluded with socialists, a.k.a Petrović and his Silver Eagles, but looking at his options, I bet he would cozy up nicely with Talon, him and Reaper look like a fitting pair", "what does he look like?" Winston asked in curiosity, "err, in his late 40's, blonde hair, dark blue eyes, wears a charcoal black military uniform with the triskelion on a red armband on his right arm, he's your typical blackshirt" Pretoria described, 76 at this point was rubbing his forehead, "this just gets more complicated by the day doesn't it?" He complained, "to be honest mate, even I have started to lose track" Baron admitted, "okay lads, how about we get a board out, draw a triangle on it, one corner represents Overwatch and the Alkinson's, the next Talon and the last one the Sperrazi's, we then stick on the names of all the different factions we know of in the triangle and their placement on the triangle shows who they are aligned towards, we used that technique back in the force to keep track of the different junker factions, I think here it will help us make better sense of the situation", Brisbane suggested, "okay then, I think we can do that, if it helps make more sense of the situation" Winston agreed, "well thanks for this nonsensical information, now if you excuse me, I have a plane to catch" Vancouver scoffed, getting out of his seat, "where ya going love?" Tracer questioned, Vancouver then shot a sharp glare at her, "former JTF2 business which doesn't need a nosey, tights wearing cockney like you getting involved in" he snarled in tandem, Tracer sank back into the seat she was in feeling a bit frightening from that threat, Vancouver then turned around and walked out of the room, "is he like that all the time?" Winston said concerned, "you get used to it over some time, let's just say he and his mother had a few 'issues' with his father, that's probably what turned him into the soulless shadow he is now" Baron tried to reassure, "I wonder where he's going" Pretoria added on, Baron just signed, "I don't really know, and being brutally honest, I don't even want to know" he replied.
Translations
o kak! = Oh crap! (Afrikaans)
o, Lena, wat het jy my nou ingetrek? = Oh Lena, what did you pull me into now? (Afrikaans)
vreemde vrou = Strange woman (Afrikaans)
Okay, I am terribly sorry for the stupidly long delay, I practically lost all motivation to write and this part crawled at a snails pace in development (it seemed like other Overwatch stories are having the same issues I guess), also I fear that I maybe boaring you all to death with all these politics and plot holes, but this is me trying to describe in the best way I can about the overall situation of the many factions in this story and how they came to be, anyways thanks for being patient and R&R.
