"Alright, Briallen, remember what we briefed you on," Jack said, handing you a bottle of water -sugar water, by the taste of it. He was wearing his visor and mask, so you couldn't see much of his face, but you could hear the slight smile in his voice. "No-"

"No talking about anything pertaining to Overwatch protocols, nothing about my past care in Talon or Organic Omnics, nothing I'm uncomfortable with, and definitely nothing about how I got my mutations. Yeah, I got it, thanks dad," you said sarcastically, rolling your eyes as you took a small sip of the water through a slight smile. As much as you teased him about it, it was kind of nice having someone looking out for you like he did. This was as close as you would get to having a father figure, and it was sweet in its own way that he voluntarily put himself in the position to become that for you, even if he wasn't doing it consciously.

Jack chuckled, shaking his head. "Don't you start giving me sass, young lady. You're too old for that." He reached forward, setting a gentle hand on your shoulder. "Remember to relax, these people can sense fear and discomfort and will use that against you. If you need it, Athena is here as well, occupying an omnic mainframe, so you can communicate silently with her. We are both here for you, Briallen."

You reached up and patted his hand. "Thanks, Jack," you murmured, smiling up at him. "I appreciate it."

"Up next, we have a very special guest today that is sure to leave you abuzz with excitement. She's the newest face on the Overwatch scene, bringing a new meaning to stinging like a bee, it's our darling Queen Bee, Monarch!"

"That's your cue, Bri. Good luck," Jack said, giving you a gentle push towards the stage.

You took a big gulp of the sugar water he'd handed you, trying to steel your sudden nerves as you were waved onto the stage by the grinning newscaster. A roar of applause deafened you as you stepped into the camera's view, and you fought to keep a smile as you were assaulted by the noise and the blinding lights that shone down on you. 'You can do this, Briallen. Just smile and nod and remember what Jack told you.' "Athena?"

"I'm here, Briallen, don't worry," she replied, her voice soothing some of your nerves. "Remember to breathe."

Your smile was fixed in place as you took a seat in the rather comfortable armchair that sat across from the woman already on the stage, wings pressed tightly against your back for comfort. Curiously, you noted you were positioned so your scars were prominently displayed to the audience and the camera. Suddenly self-conscious, you pressed your hand over the scars on your arm, even though they were hidden beneath the fabric of your suit. You had wanted to cover up some of the scarring on your face with makeup, but production wouldn't let you, and now you knew why. You were a spectacle now, and every bit of you had to be on show.

"Thank you so much for having me, Harmony," you said, blinking away the thoughts of running back off the stage and escaping. They weren't equipped to catch you if you flew, you could easily avoid their grasping hands, and you could take any guards by the door. But then, Jack would be disappointed.

Harmony practically beamed back at you, shuffling some papers in her lap. "Oh, no, it's our honour! When we heard the Monarch wanted to do an interview, well, we were stunned to say the least! Tell me, you've been so adamant about not doing any one-on-one interviews, what made you change your mind?"

'A hard-ass commander who wants to put me through hell.' "Well, to be honest, I was just trying to give myself some time to really settle into my position before I made myself a public figure like this. Job security is very important in my line of work," you said, faking a chuckle as you dropped your hand into the other, twisting your fingers in your lap. Already this was beginning to make you feel uncomfortable.

Harmony laughed heartily. "That it is, though I think they would be a little hard-pressed to find anyone who could easily take up your position! I mean, you've got super strength, you can fly, and you're medically trained? What more could they ask for?"

You shifted your legs, trying to find a more comfortable position that made you look more relaxed than you were. "Oh, plenty. They could easily replace me. I'd be the one hard-pressed to find a job afterward, I mean how many mutants out there do you see flipping burgers or working in office buildings?" Your smile faded just a slight bit, but you managed to hide it behind an uneasy chuckle. "I'm really very lucky that Overwach decided to take me in at all."

"I suppose we can all count ourselves lucky that they did," Harmony mused, leaning back in her seat. "After all, you have already saved so many lives in the few months you've been on the scene. We are all so thankful for your service, Monarch." She started clapping a little and soon the entire audience had joined in.

After a slightly awkward amount of time, the noise finally died down, and she smiled over at you, picking up her papers again. "So, I'm sure you know the public has so many questions for you, and we only have a half an hour to fill, so why don't we get started? First off, I think the biggest question right now is about you in general, Monarch. It almost seems like you suddenly appeared out of nowhere, no one has any records of you anywhere. Where did you come from?"

You froze for a second, having expected this question, but still having wanted to avoid it entirely. "I, um, well I don't know, exactly," you lied, trying to relax your body. "Almost ten years ago, I woke up in a hospital with no memory of who I was. The nurses were able to tell me that I was from Ireland based on my, at the time, prominent accent, and that I had been involved in a bad crash, but that was all they knew. I joined Overwatch a few years later when Winston put out an advertisement for an assistant."

Harmony nodded, her face a perfect depiction of sympathy, but you could see her eyes lacked any semblance of the emotion. "Did your mutations affect how you were treated at the hospital?"

"Briallen, tread carefully," Athena warned. "Mentioning your lack of mutations at that time could lead to a line of questioning we do not want to proceed with."

"Do you want me to lie?" you asked, glancing out to the crowd to see a slim Omnic staring directly at you. She nodded her head ever so slightly, lilac metal glinting in the stage lights, and folded her hands in her lap.

Taking a breath, you looked back at Harmony, trying to cover up your momentary falter. "Yes, it did, unfortunately. The nurses, of course, were confused by my genetic mutations, which made it difficult for them to determine how to help me. They also had me placed in a room away from most of the other patients. Only specific nurses came to check on me, too, I suspect they were the ones who felt the least discomforted by my presence."

The crowd sighed sadly, and Harmony nodded, reaching forward to lay her hand sympathetically over yours. "I bet it was tough being treated like that."

You nodded a bit, offering a weak smile.

"And your scars, did they come from the accident?" she asked, sitting back in her seat and gesturing to your face.

You winced instinctively, reaching up to brush your fingers against them. This, you refused to lie about. "No," you said, letting your hand drop. "No, these didn't come from that accident. I got these on my first mission, before I was ever Monarch. One of my friends had been kidnapped by Arachnid, and I did my best to save him, but I failed." You took a deep breath, making sure you retained a smile, however small. "I got these scars while he was… I was cocky and overestimated myself, I thought I could take on the world, but the truth was I wasn't ready, and a good friend of mine paid dearly for that. These scars serve as a reminder for me, they remind me to always put my best effort into saving the lives of others and to never let a life go for granted." Your smile turned soft as you looked down at your lap. "It's because of Gibson that I'm a hero today. He pushed me to be better, helped me to get back on my feet when I arrived in England, and he believed in me. I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for him."

"Do you think Gibson would be proud of you?"

You chuckled, feeling a few tears pricking your eyes. Despite his death having been months ago, it still hurt to think about. "Yes, I think he would," you said, nodding. "Though, I think he would be disappointed that I wear kevlar and not spandex."

Harmony chuckled a bit, the first semi-honest emotion you'd seen from her all evening. Her smile was a bit softer, more human. "I'm sure it must have been hard to lose him. It's always hard to lose a lover."

You nearly choked on your breath, your brows pulling together in confusion as you shook your head. "N-No, I mean, of course it hurt to lose him, he was my best friend, but we weren't lovers. We were just friends."

She eyed you for a second before she nodded. "I see. Well, I'm sure that made plenty of the boys on base happy."

She was probing into your love life, of course she was. You'd seen old interviews for both male and female agents and noticed the questions offered to each of them varied wildly. The men were always asked actual questions about their job whereas the women were always asked about costumes, love lives, how they stay so skinny and small. You'd hoped after a few years, this would change, but that didn't seem to be the case.

Clearing your throat, you tried to reign in your emotions, still reeling from the whiplash of being questioned about Gibson's death to this. You were probably in for a cry session after all this was done.

"Briallen, this is a dangerous line of questioning for you. I know how you wanted to keep your love life out of the spotlight. Be careful how you tread," Athena warned, sending you an image of a person frowning.

"I'm very happy with my relationships with my teammates," you said dismissively, attempting a serene smile. You weren't going to budge on this, not a single inch. "They're all very sweet to me and they always have my back. I couldn't ask for better."

"Lovers?" Harmony prompted, trying to pry the answer out of you.

"My friends are my teammates, actually! Or should I say my teammates are my friends, I am very lucky to work with such amazing people, and even luckier that they like me as much as I adore them. Over time, we became a rather close-knit group, we karaoke, go to lunch, and do all sorts of stuff together. It really helps build a bond that helps when on the field."

"Er, right. I'm sure, though, in such close quarters with some of those rather handsome young men, some bonds have become stronger than others?" Harmony was floundering now, really fishing for an answer. Too bad she wasn't going to get it.

"Oh, of course! Some people just get along better than others! For instance, Lucio and I hit it right off the bat when I first met him, but it took me some time to warm up to some of the other members." You fixed her with a look. "If we're done trying to probe into my love life, I'd like to move on."

She hesitated, her smile faltering. "Y-Yes, of course. So, you mentioned your costume was made of kevlar instead of spandex, what was the reason for that?"

"Ugh, that snake!" you groaned, flexing your wings behind you to stretch the muscles. It wasn't good to have them locked in place for so long and you'd been on that stage for nearly , your muscles locked tightly in place to keep them steady. "This is why I didn't want to do this, Jack!" You pointed an accusatory finger at him, glaring.

Jack chuckled, reaching out to push your finger out of his face. "But you did such a great job, Briallen! You stood up for yourself without making an ass of yourself." He ruffled your hair, laughing when you swatted his hand away. "I'm proud of you."

"You should be more proud I didn't leap at her," you grumbled, reaching for the bottle of sugar water resting on your vanity backstage.

He chuckled again. "Well, then I'm proud of you for that too. You did a great job, Briallen, I mean it."

Your scowl melted into a satisfied smile as you took a drink, looking at him through the mirror. "Yeah, maybe I did."

He came up behind you, laying a hand on your shoulder. "Now the public has seen you in another light, they know more about you, and they'll feel more comfortable with you. You've got to present yourself as just another person for them to really, truly, accept you as a hero."

"Like I'll need that while I'm in Gibraltar, I won't see the light of day! Winston's already asked me to help go through the massive paper database he's got stored there. I think he trusts me more than the grunts because I used to be his assistant. Not that I'll get it done faster than the next person," you chuckled, looking down at the vanity counter to set your bottle back down. When you looked back up, your gaze fell on a pair of emerald eyes gazing at you through the vent near the ceiling.

"Hey!" You whirled around, lunging for the vent. The metal bent under your grasp and clattered to the floor when you ripped it away. The only thing you could catch a glimpse of was the tip of a retreating tail, the sounds of claws scraping against the metal echoed through the room.

'Mutant!'

A wave of smell washed over you, similar to that of the mutants from before, but much stronger, and you ached to chase it. You were small enough to fit in the vent, but your eyes weren't meant for groping around in the dark. Dropping to the ground, you rushed out of the room, ignoring Jack behind you. You rounded on the security guard outside of your room, wings buzzing anxiously behind you. "Where does that vent lead?"

The guard looked down at you in surprise, hand hovering over his gun. "What?"

"You heard me. The vent in my dressing room, where. Does. It. Lead?" you asked again, hovering in the air to meet his gaze at eye level.

"Uh, it leads to the main vent system. Why? What's going on?"

You dropped back down to the ground, already rushing for the fire alarm. "There's a mutant in your building, and a dangerous one by the smell of it. We need to evacuate the building."

Before you could reach the fire alarm, a scream rang out from the main stage, which quickly set off a chain reaction in the audience.

"Athena, what's going on?" you asked, already racing towards the set you just escaped.

'Something's just dropped from the ventilation system, right on top of the newest guest. It's some kind of mutant, a cat-hybrid-thing! Oh, oh no, I do not think the guest is moving,' Athena sounded sick to her stomach, if an omnipresent AI could even be that, and her voice wavered in your head.

"Start evacuating the audience as best as you can, flash your credentials, do whatever you need to, but get them out of there!" You took off into the air, wings carrying you further and faster than your feet could have, and rounded the corner onto the stage. Below you, a black feline-esque humanoid stood hunched over, hands soaked in blood as it slowly stalked towards Harmony. In the chair you'd been sitting in no less than ten minutes before sat a crumpled body, covered in scarlet. You didn't look at it too long.

Harmony's eyes lit up when she saw you, though, in her fear and shock, she said nothing, only whimpered and took another step back as the creature took a step forward.

"Hey! Buzz off!" you called, hurtling yourself towards the mutant. You almost paused to smack yourself for the awful pun, but you didn't have time as your tiny body crashed into the mutant, sending you both careening towards the edge of the set. "Who are you? Where did you come from?"

The mutant laughed, easily rolling over and pinning you to the ground, clawed fingers digging into your wrists.. "Oh, how fun it is to play with you again, little bug," he purred, leaning down to sniff at your face. Fur brushed against your nose, tickling it and almost making you sneeze. "You smell different, less fun, more like them."

"And you smell like a dumpster," you grunted, reeling back and smacking your forehead into the mutant's nose.

He howled in pain, letting go of you to grasp at his muzzle, allowing you enough time to wriggle your way out and fly up, out of his reach. "That was a nasty trick, little bug," he growled, what was a twisted smile now replaced with a dangerous snarl. "You will pay for that."

Without a gun at your side, you would have to keep him busy until backup could get here. Your mind raced, trying to come up with ways to keep him distracted. On your left, Athena worked alongside security to escort the audience out, having to grab a few by their arms as they'd stopped to try to film the event. Behind you, Harmony cowered behind her desk and you could smell her fear clearly, evidently that deodorant wasn't powerful enough to withstand a mutant attack.

"I'd like to see you try to catch me," you taunted, shifting in the air to divert the mutant's attention away from the escaping crowd. 'Keep his attention, keep his attention, keep his attention!' You continued to dart around in front of him, keeping his eyes on you.

"Don't tempt me, little bug. I may not be allowed to kill, but they can't stop me from maiming as long as I bring you in!" he growled, crouching down, the muscles of his haunches coiling up. His tail thrashed back and forth as his ears pulled back. Then, he pounced.

Claws barely scraped your cheek as you darted out of the way, those green eyes locking on yours as his head twisted to snarl at you. Before he could sail too much past you, you reached out and grabbed him by the scruff, using his momentum to send him flying into the set wall. The plaster cracked upon impact and he fell to the ground, dazed.

In the corner of your eye, you spotted Jack and the small group of agents that had accompanied you both, each of them fully equipped with their weapons and equipment. They hurried on to the set and surrounded the mutant, guns pointed at him to keep him in place.

"Stand down!" one of the agents said, priming the blaster as the mutant groaned and moved to stand. Another agent came up behind with a pair of cuffs, yanking the mutant's hands behind its back.

"Monarch, we've got this," Jack said, nodding to you and then gesturing to Harmony's hiding spot with his shoulder.

Taking the hint, you floated down and made your way over, moving slowly so as not to startle her. "Harmony, are you alright?" you asked quietly, gently reaching forward to help her up.

She clung to you, her eyes wide with fear and her heart beating erratically as she tried to steady her breathing. "Y-Yes, yes I'm fine, all thanks to you." She turned big doe eyes on you and immediately burst into tears, enveloping you in a crushing hug as she sobbed. "Thank you so much."

You awkwardly pat her back, unable to tear your gaze away from the mutant as he was hauled up and taken behind the set. 'What did he mean by bring me in? Is Aderyn hunting for me?' You shared a worried look with Jack, who just sighed and nodded slightly at you before turning to keep an eye on the situation.