Hana's alarm rang, loud and shrill, cutting through the peaceful silence in the Ziegler household. Hana, bundled up in layers of blankets despite the warm summer morning, reached one hand out to turn it off, instead knocking the clock off her desk, prompting another round of incessant beeping. Grumbling, she untangled herself and rolled out of bed, picked up the offending device, and turned the alarm off. After tidying up, she dragged herself downstairs, where Angela and Fareeha sat, the former having woken up long ago. "Hey, Angie. Hey, Ree."

Fareeha waved in reply as Angela stood, pouring a glass of water as Hana reached into the cupboard for a bottle of Mountain Dew. "Hana, please. Not this early."

"But-"
"No buts. Eat something substantial first." Picking up the pan of scrambled eggs on the stove, she scooped half into Hana's plate and, along with a piece of toast and the glass of water, placed it in front of the girl as she sat down. As Hana scarfed down her food, Angela returned to her seat next to Fareeha. "So, Hana. You'll be entering your fourth year after summer. How would you feel about transferring schools?"

"Transferring? Like, going to a different secondary school?"
"Yes. Watchpoint Academy. It's a boarding school in Gibraltar run by a friend of mine. We think it would be beneficial to your education."

Fareeha chimed in. Angela and Moira think you've learnt enough control over your shift, so keeping it up for long periods of time shouldn't be a problem.

"...I don't really have a choice, do I?"

We'd like you to at least try it out for a year. After that, we'll let you decide.

"But what about my friends? Like Yuna, Dae-Hyun, King?"

"You have a cell phone," Angela chimed in. It's not as if you're going to be outside of the EU."

"Well…." Hana sighed. "I guess I should just make the best of it."

Fareeha clapped Hana on the back, startling her. I'm proud of you, habibti. We'll be leaving in a month, okay?

"Okay!"

Hana's last month of summer went by in a flash. She trained with Angela in the mornings and spent her afternoons out with her friends, watching movies, playing arcade games, and, as always, getting overly competitive when it came to Smash Bros. One hazy Friday afternoon, while inspecting her haul from the arcade's ticket shop, the group addressed the elephant that had been sitting in the room ever since Hana had broken the news to her friends.

"So," Yuna began, sorting the many pieces of candy she'd bought, "You're leaving tonight." It wasn't a question.

"Yeah," Hana replied. "I'm gonna miss you guys, you know that?"

"Of course we do! You're Hana Song, absolutely irreplaceable!" Dae-hyun laughed from where he was lounging on the couch. "...we'll miss you too," he added, more quietly than before.

Hana could feel tears coming to her eyes. "I'll call! I promise!" She smiled, but her sadness was evident to her friends.
"You better." Yuna scooted over to Hana and wrapped her arms around her in a hug. "We'll be mad if you don't, y'know."

"Yeah, I know." Hana hugged her friend in return, and Dae-hyun joined in, followed by Kyung-Soo, more widely known as King, and Seung-Hwa, or Overlord. The last member of their little group sat off to the side on the couch, trying his best to put on a tough-guy act, until Hana glared daggers at him. "C'mon, Casino, I'm gonna miss you too. Just get in here."

When Hana made it back home, her tears had mostly dried, however she didn't feel much better on the inside. The first thing she saw when she walked into the living room was a unfamiliar black-haired, brown-skinned woman in a simple muted blue t-shirt and black jeans. She was sitting on the couch conversing with Angela and Sombra, who Hana assumed had shown up while she was away. Upon noticing her arrival, Angela beckoned her over.
"Hana, this is Satya. She'll be taking you to Watchpoint via… magical means."

The woman, Satya, tilted her lips up in a slight smile. "Hello, Hana."

Hana recalled Satya's name from Sombra's tales of her fellow Mythicals, but did not recognize the woman in front of her as the same one from the photo. Must be her human disguise. She politely returned Satya's greeting and ran over to Sombra. "Hi Olivia!"

The former Hunter laughed. "Hello, amiga . You've got your bags packed, yeah?"

"Yeah… I'll go get them." Hana trudged upstairs to grab her suitcases, Fareeha in tow to do the heavy lifting. A yawn sounded from the door leading to the basement, and a bedraggled Moira emerged from the dark stairwell.

"She's leaving already?"
"Yes, but I'm sure she'll want to say goodbye to you. And," Angela added with a mischievous twinkle, "I know you want to see her off as well."

Moira stiffened, adopting a firm stance and a solemn expression. "That is irrelevant." A pause. "Although… I would like to not miss her departure."

Hana came back downstairs to Satya weaving her magic. Intrigued, she walked closer, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her from going any farther.

"You don't want to bother Satya when she's doing her stuff," Sombra whispered in her ear. "She gets rather… upset when surprised. Believe me, I know from personal experience."

" She can also hear you quite well, Sombra. And I did warn you." Satya turned to the two. "Hana, feel free to observe. Sombra here is… how do you say it? A pain in the ass, but not literally."

Hana laughed. "What are you making?"

"A portal. This will take you from this house here directly to Reyes's office at Watchpoint."

Reyes, Fareeha added, is Angela's friend, the director of the school .

Satya finished her spell as Angela and Moira returned to the living room. "Well, Hana, you'd best be going." Angela stepped forward and planted a gentle kiss on Hana's forehead. "We'll miss you, Schatzi ." Fareeha gave her a hug from behind, and Hana wriggled around in her armored grasp, wrapping her arms as much as she could around Fareeha's chestplate.

Seeing Moira off to the side, she ducked out of Fareeha's embrace and approached the banshee. "Moira, are you gonna say anything?"

The older woman paused briefly. "Hana, it's really been a pleasure to, uh, have a hand in raising you all these years." She smiled and ruffled Hana's hair. The girl laughed.

"Ha, Moira, you make it sound like you'll never see me again! You're so dramatic!" She hugged Moira tightly, and to her surprise, the banshee hugged her back.

"Ah, well, I've never been good at saying goodbye."

Hana, followed by Sombra, stepped out of Satya's portal into a dimly lit room. The Hunter looked around briefly, then, to Hana's surprise, began to speak loudly. Very loudly, given her small stature.

"GABE," she bellowed, "STOP BEING EDGY AND COME GREET YOUR NEW STUDENT, EH?"

A deep laugh sounded from the far end of the room. Hana squinted, and was able to see a figure in the corner, standing in the corner farthest away from the windows. "What, you didn't get Amélie's vampire eyes, Olivia?" Gabriel Reyes, head of Watchpoint Academy, reached over to what Hana assumed was a light switch and flicked it on. He held out his hand. "Welcome. Hana, is it?"

She took his hand and shook it, albeit not without apprehension. "Yeah, uh, Hana Song."

"Great. I'm Headmaster Reyes, but you can call me Gabe. Everyone does, no thanks to this one." He cast a sidelong glance at Sombra, who smiled innocently.

Hana squinted at the man. "If you're a friend of Angela's… are you a…"

"Mythical? Yes, in a sense, although unlike most of you, I was once human." He sat down at his desk and pulled Hana's papers up on his computer. "I made a… deal with Angela, the Witch, before she decided to settle down with Fareeha and not hurt humans anymore."

"Angela used to be evil or something?"

"You could say so. It was eventually Fareeha who started her change of heart, and after Angela left her old life behind, she let me go as well." A few clicks of the mouse, and Gabriel leaned back in his chair. "There. You should be in the system now. Let's get you situated, shall we?"

As Hana followed Gabriel through Watchpoint, questions tumbled around in her mind, mainly about Angela's "past life," as Gabriel had called it. There was little time for questions on Gabriel's tour of the school, however, and she resolved to instead ask Angela later. Somewhere around the cafeteria, she inadvertently tuned out Gabriel's voice and became lost in her own thoughts until an unfamiliar voice shook her out of it.

"Hey, Mr. Reyes!" A cheerful, red-haired girl waved at Gabriel, and he beckoned her over.

"Hana, this is Brigitte Lindholm. Brigitte, Hana Song. She transferred here today."

"Hiya! Brigitte, but you can call me Brig. I'm going into my fourth year. You?"

Hana was taken aback by the girl's outgoing and cheerful manner. "Uh, yeah, me too."

Gabriel cleared his throat. "Uh, actually, Brigitte, I was looking for you. Hana's actually going to be your roommate. Could you show her the dorms?"

"Really? That's great!" Brigitte clapped her hands. "Right, then. Hand me one of those bags and follow me."

"So, Hana." Brigitte pressed one of the buttons for the elevator. "Where you from?"

"Uh, Germany. I mean, I know I don't look like it but I'm adopted." A pause. "Um, what about you?"

"Sweden. But my dad actually works here so I've been living here for a while." The elevator door opened, and after walking in, Hana noticed instead of numbers on the buttons, they were labeled according to what was on that floor. Brigitte pressed the button titled "DORMS - YEAR 4" and the elevator began its ascent. "He and Mr. Reyes have been friends for a long time."

Hana wanted to ask if Brigitte was also a Mythical, but remembered Angela's words. Never reveal yourself to someone if you don't need to. Deciding against it, she nodded. "So… you've been here awhile?"

"Yeah, a bunch of us fourth years have known each other since our first year here." Noticing the look on Hana's face, she added, "But we're really friendly, you know. You'll get along great with us." The elevator chimed and the door opened. Before Hana could protest, her soon-to-be roommate grabbed both her bags and began the walk down the hallway. Passing by doors, she began to list off the people inside that she knew.

"Room 433. Lena Oxton and Emily O'Reilly. They're so gay for each other, it's actually really funny.

"Room 425, Aleksandra Zaryanova. We just call her Zarya. If you ever want to do some weightlifting at, like, five in the morning, just ask her.

"Room 423, Mei-Ling Zhou, or Mei for short. She's some kind of climate activist, the new Greta Thunberg, or something. Everyone's placing bets on whether she or Rat will ask the other out first."

"Rat?"

"Jamison Fawkes, his room is on the boys' side of the dorms. His nickname is Junkrat, but we shortened it to Rat, so I guess Rat is his… nick-nickname?" She giggled. "Anyway. Room 419. This is me, or us, I guess." She held the door open for Hana as she dragged her bags in.

The room was neat and sparsely furnished, with a bunk bed at the far end, near the window, and two desks against the wall across from it. A door off to the side led to a small bathroom. There were two closets built into the wall, and Brigitte opened one for Hana to place her luggage in. "I've been using the bottom bunk, so you'll be taking the top, unless you'd rather be on the bottom. There are coat hangers in the closet, pens and pencils in your desk drawer, and spare toiletries in the bathroom, although Reyes would prefer if we just used our own. Those are for emergencies." Frowning, she looked at the clock on the wall. "Almost 22:00. About time for lights out."

Hana nodded. "No, it's fine. I'll take the top bunk. Yeah, I'm feeling a bit tired as well. Can I, uh, use this?" She gestured to the bathroom.

"Yeah, duh. This is your room too, isn't it?" Brigitte smiled and climbed under the covers on the bottom bunk. I'm gonna turn in for the night, you get washed up, yeah? Must've been a long flight here."

Brigitte's infectious cheerful nature began to get to Hana, and she smiled back at the taller girl. "Uh, yeah, long flight. Well, I'll just go, I guess." A pause. "Oh, Brigitte?"

"Mmm… yeah?"

"Thanks." Hana closed the door to the bathroom behind her and let out a small huff of amusement. Long flight? If only she knew.