Brigitte felt much better the next time she woke up.

The fogginess of everything was gone, as if the windshield of a car was wiped clear. The headache was gone. The nausea and dizziness disappeared. And best of all? She felt well-rested. She hadn't felt this recuperated since giving her papa a piggyback ride for half a marathon. He wasn't her preferred teacher.

She opened her eyes and sat up steadily. Last time, she didn't have the mental stamina to register the details of the ship she was on. Now, she noticed the three navy-blue chairs with pull-down vests like rollercoasters build into the wall to her right. She picked up on the cushion chairs around a table like at a fancy restaurant across drawbridge door from her. Pictures and miscellaneous objects were placed into a small space built into the wall next to it. Along the top of the ship's walls drawbridge were windows, letting in nothing but blue sky and sunlight. The area seemed very similar for a lounge for R&R.

"Brigitte?"

Brigitte spun her head left to see DVa in a pink hospital gown. Brigitte couldn't remember how far their beds were before, but now they were side by side like a queen-sized bed. They were close enough to hold hands if they tried. She expected at least one of them to reek, but they both smelled of a coconut-scented soap. Brigitte finally looked down at herself to see she was washed and also wore a pink hospital gown. "We...we…"

"We made it," DVa finished.

They stared at each other. Brigitte's body had already taken that fact in, but it didn't stop her sighing heavily. DVa, on the other hand, spun her head, analysing their surroundings. "There's no cameras, right?"

"Cameras?" Brigitte looked around once more. "No, not that I can tell. If there were hidden cameras, they'd have to be built so that...DVa?"

DVa had begun crying. Times before, she had only seen her on the verge of doing so, with red eyes or sniffles. But now, solid tears watered her eyes as they dripped down her cheeks. On top of putting her hands to her head, she wept, wailing loud enough for anyone on the ship to hear.

And with that being said, Tracer blinked down from the head of the ship behind her. "What's happened?" She quickly looked between Brigitte and DVa. She blinked right next to DVa's side of the bed. "DVa, what's wrong?"

DVa didn't look to shock to see her as Mercy and Reinhardt came running into the room as well.

DVa sniffled, trying to stop the moans, but she failed. She bawled over without saying a word.

Mercy looked to Brigitte. "What's wrong with her?"

"Nothing!" She explained. "Nothing's wrong! It's just…"

Huh?

Her eyes had begun to water as well. She willed for it to stop, but it only seemed to continue even more. "...we're relieved, is all." Her voice sounded froggy. "Nothing's wrong."

Brigitte didn't cry, but watching DVa sure almost changed that. Everyone's shoulders dropped as Zynx and two other figures walked into the room from the head of the ship.

She knew of Winston, the gorilla scientist. The gigantic animal was Reinhardt's size, but shorter and rounder. He walked on all fours, with rectangular glasses resting on his eyes. His space-suit-like armor only revealed his face, leaving everything else in black or white plating. On his back seemed to be a burst jet-pack, one with long, but powerful thrusters on its edges so that anyone could jump into orbit.

The second figure, she remembered from a few encounters along the road with Reinhardt: Genji. He was all robotic on the outside. If a muscular man was to replace his body parts with white plates, black bolts, green exhausts, and adobe...something for tendon muscles, you'd have the jest for his body. His head had a single-visor mask with devil horns on its sides. Strapped to the back of his waist was a shortsword and across his back was a longsword, both in black cases.

"Is something wrong?" Winston asked.

"No," Mercy said. "All is fine."

Brigitte tried to ignore the others were around and scooted closer to hug DVa. She was pleasantly surprised, however, that DVa dove her face into her chest before Brigitte could wrap her arms.

And it was the hug that cracked Brigitte. Tears began to roll down as flashes of what they've been through went through her head: Bunker 29, the OR14 Idina bot in the cafeteria, surviving the bastion unit, Bunker 1, the failed retake, and hiding from the squids. All of that was no longer than a week, but it felt like months. Brigitte could barely remember her daily workout routine and almost didn't recall her cat's name was Snowball.

As Brigitte hugged back, she could hear Reinhardt sniffling, too. She looked around to see the old man's face shading red as he scrunched his nose. He stepped up to both of them, knelt down, and stretched his wide arms over their backs.

The scene they were making was apparently contagious. Mercy turned away, fanning her face, as Tracer asked in an usually sad voice, "Makes you want to cry, huh, Winston?"

"Yeah," he said, dragging an arm across his face. "Almost."

*.*.*

They all calmed down before forming a circle. Going left, it was Brigitte and DVa still laying in the beds, Mercy behind a projector table, Winston, Tracer, Genji, Zynx, and Reinhardt. The eight of them were silent for a moment before Mercy cleared her throat. "I guess I'll start."

She looked at DVa and Brigitte. "Girls, I'm very glad to see you two as well as you both were when we found you, and much more alive. And I'm sure everyone overall shares the same sentiment."

Everyone nodded in agreement. Zynx didn't move his head as much. Brigitte noticed he seemed to be glancing at Genji and Mercy whenever he could.

"Before I go further, Brigitte, you've suffered a concussion. I just want to check on the last thing you remember before you woke up a while ago."

Brigitte frowned. "The last thing I remember...is you asking me the names of you, me, Rein, and DVa." She scratched her head. After knowing DVa was ok, she remembered closing her eyes and...that was it, as far as she could tell. "I remember hearing was you asking if I needed painkillers. That's it"

"Good." Mercy nodded in agreement. "If you experience any unusual symptoms in your day-to-day activities, come seek me out immediately. Injuries with the brain are nothing to second-prioritize. Next, DVa. I'm aware your actual name is Hana Song, so how would you like us to address you?"

DVa shrugged. "DVa or Hana works for me."

"Very well. I'm known equally from my work as both Mercy and Angela, so feel free to use either. And as for Lena...well, you can speak for yourself, Lena."

"Feel free to call me either, loves," she said, looking between DVa and Brigitte. "Though the public knows me better as 'Tracer," so if you're speaking about me, you might want to use that." She gave an opportunistic look at Mercy. "You say we can call you just Angela-"

"Only DVa and Brigitte. I still expect the prefix of 'Commander' from the rest of you." She looked amongst them all until she landed on Genji. "Um, that is, while we're in the public eye or performing operations."

Brigitte swore she saw Mercy just barely blush, but she went back to her firm face. Brigitte wondered how she became the commander of Overwatch as she continued, "I imagine what needs to be said are three things." She held up a finger as she counted. "First, everything Brigitte and DVa have been through since the attack on the mountain range. Two, Zynx's story and what to do with him."

Everyone looked at the omnic, who slightly looked down.

"W-wait a minute," DVa interrupted. "What do you mean by 'what to do with him?'"

Mercy sighed. "I can't imagine how the three of you met, but from the point of view of an Overwatch member, an 'ex'-Talon member shows up insisting he's no longer working for them is an extraordinary claim. And extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. We do welcome refugees, knowing Talon is something of a dictatorship. But by the same coin, we´ve had traitors before as well."

Mercy's eyes darkened. She looked as if she wanted to say more, but she shook her head. "I guess something to ask is if Zynx-or so he calls himself-is really being hunted by Sombra. Brigitte and DVa, can either of you confirm this?"

"We can," they both said. They both looked at each other, and Brigitte gestured for DVa to speak. "Not long after we met him in Bunker 8, we talked with Sombra. She's trying to assassinate him."

She nodded. "Then I won't be so cold as just to throw him out without some form of protection, if it's decided to not keep him around. However…" she paused, then shook her head. "Nevermind, I'm getting ahead of myself. The last thing to talk about is to bring you two up to speed about what's happened since the attack on the mountain range. Um, where should I start?"

She looked around, pausing more on Genji than the rest. Brigitte looked up to Reinhardt. She imagined he would've been much more talkative than this, but his eyes were staring off at the floor. She wasn't even sure if he was paying attention.

I wonder if he's really told you the truth about his retirement.

To ask Reinhardt about what Sombra said was a top priority for her, but now wouldn't have been appropriate. She stored the question for later.

"A question I've been wondering," Brigitte spoke up. "Where are we going?"

"Then we'll start with bringing you two up to speed." Mercy tapped the top of the island table she was behind. An orange projection of the globe the size of a fountain appeared, with longitude and latitude gridding. A blue targeter hovered over southern California, next to the Arizona boundary line. "We're heading to Phoenix, Arizona, where the next...suitable stronghold is located. ORTF is operating from its USA relays there, a private sector for communications, in order to gather intel about the omnic army's movements."

"The one escorting the payload," DVa guessed.

"Yes. There are numerous other military bases closer to the payload, but they're 'red' areas, due to Talon activity. We're acting on the request of Jeong Sung-Ho, the Commander of the Mobile Exo-Force of the Korean Army, to rescue you and Brigitte from the southern section of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. We should be back within a few hours. We're still in 'red' territory, so we're taking a detour to try and avoid complications."

"What about the payload?" DVa asked.

"As far as I know, the ORTF is doing its best to slow it down, but after its recent loss, it's still moving a lot faster than they're comfortable with."

"According to my calculations," Winston interrupted, "The payload will reach Fredonyer Pass in twelve days."

The globe changed to a zoomed-in layout of California, with Nevada in the top right and Arizona in the bottom right. A green line with a "P" marker over Mount Patterson connected itself to Freyondor Pass with a countdown next to it going down by the millisecond.

"Not as fast as we can," Mercy said, "but for the size of it, that's basically turbo-speed. Who knows what else is inside that's potentially heavy enough to slow it down. General Harold says he's developed a strategy to neutralize it, but it requires proper setup and timing. Time being a very big issue. But enough about that. You two will have your own worries, I'm sure."

Brigitte frowned. "We will?"

"Ah, well, DVa does, certainly." She looked towards her. "Commander Jeong asked me to pass down the order to regroup with the rest of your MEKA squad after landing. From there, I assume you'll be back under his command."

DVa hung her head. "Yeah."

"And as for you, Brigitte," Mercy said, turning her head towards her, "you have options. You're not particularly affiliated with any organization, so you don't have to involve yourself in this conflict any longer."

Brigitte almost took offense to that, but she knew Mercy. As the advocate of peace she was and their almost mother-daughter relationship, she was just trying to encourage the safer options. "You're also a well-established mechanic, a member of the Ironcload. Your skills are in high demand all around the base we're heading towards. And if you still want to be closer to the action, I'd gladly welcome you as a temporary member of Overwatch. As a doctor, I'd recommend light work with whatever you do for the next few days."

Brigitte felt disturbed that none of those options seemed close to working with DVa. As she thought about it, she wondered why she was disturbed. Their responsibilities were very different, and DVa was under militaristic command. What they had to do from now on, whatever Brigitte chose from those options, didn't seem to have many opportunities of at least seeing each other.

Assuming she would choose from those options.

"But enough about the future for now," Mercy said. "You two have came back from a lot, I'm sure. And it's become clearly obvious how much Tracer wants to hear about your stranding."

Tracer, though as centered as she was, was jittering, biting the bottom of her lip with a smile. "So what happened? How did it all start?"