*Gibraltar: Overwatch (Night)*

Brigitte searched all over the base and couldn't find Reinhardt. none of the passersby she asked could give her a clear answer either, some said they saw him training in the Engineering Room while others said he was telling one of his stories in the Mess Hall, but he was nowhere to be found, which was strange. Normally he would be a lot easier to find, his almost unquenchable need to 'keep the morale high' being his key routine outside of fights.

Looking out the window, she was surprised to see how dark it was. The past few hours in the meeting room was one of the most challenging parts of being stationed in the base and she was proud that this time she remained focused throughout the whole thing, even if it has nothing to do with her.

Thinking that he must be taking a nap or something, she decided to go onto the deck to enjoy the night breeze to blow away all the stagnation of the meeting. To her confusion, there was a larger crowd than usual looking at something down in the ocean, all chanting the same name.

"Reinhardt! Reinhardt! Reinhardt!"

"What's going on?" she asked the closest engineer.

"Reinhardt just challenged the best swimmer to a race"

"He what?!"

Forcing herself through and up the flight of stairs that leads up to the roof (and also overlooks the ocean), she looked down and saw two men swimming against the tide towards the closest buoy where another group of men were guiding them with lights. Even from here she could see the one in the lead is Reinhardt, his white mane reflecting off the lights in the dark waters. Looking around, she strained her neck until she saw the ringleader.

"20 Euro against Reinhardt!" she yelled, handing over the money.

*30 minutes later*

"Better luck next time!"

"Yeah it's hard to beat the best!"

"Don't listen to them, you did great" Brigitte said, passing a towel to Reinhardt who was leaning on the wall, gasping to catch his breath.

"The tide is stronger... On my side... He had no current to fight against" he panted.

"Yup, I suppose it was" she lied, remembering the exact opposite of what he said and made sure the money is well hidden in her pocket.

Groaning, Reinhardt sat down on a crate and hid a sigh when he looked down at his body. Before he would proudly walk around the hangar without his shirt on, showing off his body to whoever would be interested as he gets a tan. Now… Though he was still more muscular than most bodybuilders, he has recently, and grudgingly, began to accept that he is getting old.

His bones are sore and his muscles ache endlessly. He had noticed that in fights, he would be the first few to tire quickly and in situations where he would normally thrive in, he found himself throwing in an un-ignorable amount of effort to get himself out. Worst still was that he used to attack while holding back to conserve energy throughout battles, now he is giving it his all only to maintain the same amount of damage that he normally dishes out.

What he would not give to experience another Nano Boost…

"So… Do you want to know what they talked about in the meeting?" Brigitte asked.

"No, since it will only concern the eggheads"

"How would you know?"

"Experience" he laughed and patted Brigitte in the back, making her stumble slightly.

Annoyed that she had to sit through the meeting, she kept quiet, listening to the waves below them until he caught back his breath before trying again.

"Ya know, it wouldn't hurt to know about it a little bit"

"Fine… Let's hear it"

As he expected, there was nothing that the Crusaders can contribute as everything is study, study, and more study. The only thing he did not know was that Overwatch was tasked to act as some security for some worldwide peace event that the Sambali Omnics are holding again to 'mend wounds', which was a puzzling thing that Jack would even agree to be involved with this, then he remembered that they are part of the UN now, and they're calling the shots.

"They should order us to bring the ink too since this only involves a pen" he laughed.

"The UN don't want another King's Row incident... And something about 'having heroes in the picture symbolizes peace'" Brigitte summarized.

"Why the Shambali again? Why won't the Omnics make peace with another group?"

"Because the Shambali were the closest one to achieve peace last time" she replied and thought for a moment before continuing "And by the sound of it, the UN is too busy to do the heavy lifting so they chose to use an old template"

Her words made Reinhardt laugh.

"But I don't like that they're going to have it in King's Row... I mean... It's too soon for that right? If anything goes wrong, it'll be bad... I mean really bad" she continued, finally able to speak out her mind since the meeting "Mondatta's death... The Uprising... Why do they want to do it there again? Do they really think it'll work to declare peace in the most sensitive part of the city? If it fails people are going to get hurt..."

"And this is why the Crusader Order exists! We give our lives to protect the innocent and the peace!" he shouted, standing up so suddenly that it made a couple of Engineers jump as they were walking by.

"Don't you ever shut up ya big oaf?" Torbjorn shouted back as he walked towards them.

"For someone so small you got a big mouth!"

"Papa? What are you doing here?"

"They brought some of the pieces from France, we are needed in one of the labs"

"Oh… Can't one of the other staff members do it?"

"Ya kidding? None of them are touching my stuff!"

"But papa-"

"Just go Brigitte, remember, we live with honor!" Reinhardt interjected, giving her a slight push.

"Yeah yeah…" she sighed.

When she was out of earshot, Reinhardt sat back down, his knees still wobbling from the swim, an wobbles that Torbjorn noticed.

"You should take a vacation. A long one" he said.

"What are you talking about? It's just been a long time since I last swam, that's all"

Torbjorn said nothing and merely looked up at Reinhardt, secretly annoyed that even when seated, Reinhardt was still, at least, a head taller than him. It has been a while since he looked at his friend carefully and was surprised to see all the wrinkles that he hid behind his beard, how his blonde hair is now pearly white.

"You expecting a kiss?" Reinhardt asked, annoyed at Torbjorn's uncharacteristic staring.

"You're old" Torbjorn blurted out before he could stop himself.

"And you're creepy, go!" Reinhardt laughed, slapping him on the back so hard that he almost fell "Didn't you say the lab needs you?"

Before Torbjorn could reply, a squad of soldiers ran into the area and each have their eyes up at the sky. Both of them watched them and guessed it was a drill or something when one of them pointed at three glowing lights in the night sky coming at them. Curious, Reinhardt walked to the closest one and grabbed the binoculars away from her, who had to hold her tongue when she saw who it was.

Even though Reinhardt has little to no knowledge of what goes on in the hangar, he was still one of Overwatch's regular agents and he had memorized not only theirs, but the common transportations of other countries as well, making the sight mildly interesting.

"Whaddaya see?" Torbjorn asked.

"Two of our drones and a big plane that I've never seen before..."

"Let me see!"

"Find your own pair"

"What's going on?" Torbjorn asked the soldier.

"An unidentified aircraft came into our airspace, we are escorting it to land here" she said.

"Any response?"

"Only that it dipped its wings"

"And we are bringing them here? That shuttle looks a bit big" Reinhardt commented.

"We can handle them" she said confidently.

He doubted her words and from the look that Torbjorn is giving, it was obvious that he is in the same mind: these soldiers are greenhorns and their positioning screamed it out. If that shuttle carries something dangerous, it'll take more than just 12 of them to contain the situation.

However, he shrugged it off as an unnecessary caution, they are Overwatch! Even if they were still at war, no one would send a single shuttle to attack them. Heck, even the Null Sector wouldn't waste resources like that. At most this was some ambitious smuggler caught in the act, which were fairly common since the black market was said to be thriving now in peacetime mainly due to the collection of Null Sector parts.

Both of them were about to leave it to the soldiers when the lights in the hangar were turned off suddenly, throwing the whole area into darkness. Everyone's eyes were still adjusting to the sudden darkness when their surroundings were illuminated again by the drones crashing into the sea, the explosions prompting them into action.

"Everyone prepare yourselves! We're under attack!" one of the soldiers shouted when he saw that the shuttle the drones were escorting was still flying towards them.

"EMP" Torbjorn said, pulling out his Rivet Gun.

"Oh really? Sorry I wouldn't have guessed" Reinhardt said sarcastically.

"Just go grab your stuff, we'll hold them off here"

After Reinhardt ran into the base, Torbjorn shouted at some soldiers to relocate their positions as the shuttle landed, hoping to keep them alive as long as possible until reinforcements arrives. The EMP has knocked out all the automatic turrets in the area so they're on their own. Whatever or whoever is inside, it contains military hardware that obviously is above the paychecks of the soldiers around him.

"Alright, we have you sur-" a soldier shouted, stopping when Torbjorn knocked his head with a hammer.

"Expose us again, Imma kill ya myself" he growled.

"We have you surrounded! Come out with your hands up!" another shouted from the other side of the hangar.

"Are you all idiots?!" Torbjorn roared, unable to contain his fiery temper.

Before anyone could answer, the whole place lit up as the gunmen inside the shuttle opened fire, shredding and tearing its way through even reinforced walls.

"Armor piercing! Get down!"

But the warning was too late as bodies fell from their positions as rounds tore through them. Torbjorn peeked around the corner and saw that any attempts to counter attack was ineffective, as their bullets merely bounced off the hull of the shuttle and flashbangs were not working. He wanted to shout out a retreat but everyone was pinned down. He watched in horror as one tried to run but was mercilessly gunned down, their only hope to escape now is to force in an effective attack.

Using his height to his advantage, he sprinted through some crates unseen, using his hammer to break them open and throwing as much scrap as he could throw into his claw. From the sound of the shouting and gunfire, he could discern that only half the squad is left.

Thankfully his claw is proudly Torbjorn made and it came alive instantly, glowing hot and red. Flanking around, he pointed his claw at the shuttle and hoped that there were no humans inside.

Molten Core!

Streams of lava spewed onto the shuttle and seeped into the slits, stopping the attack immediately as the guns withdrew themselves back in. He kept up the attack until he was right in front of it, making sure that he covered as much area as possible until his claw could only spit out droplets.

"That should hold 'em" he said and was about to turn back to find survivors when the doors threw themselves open in a loud bang behind him.

Before he could even turn around, he was sent flying into crates and disappeared into a billow of dust.

"Master Engineer!" one of the soldiers shouted as she made a move to run to him but was gunned down by the renewed gunfire.

Rolling on threads and with twin guns on each side of its body, droids rolled out of the shuttle, followed closely by a handful humans who were using it as cover. Within the minute, the hangar is cleared.

"Their reinforcements are on the way" one said hastily, setting up defensive positions. They had already lost four droids from the lava, now it's only five of them plus two more droids up against the entire force of Overwatch, which would mean they could only buy so much time.

"I will proceed to the objective" another said.

"Very well. Go in peace brother. For the Iris"

"For the Iris" they echoed as the sound of thundering footsteps grew louder.

*HLC: Unknown*

"They have successfully secured a beachhead in the hangar"

They cheered in a series of whoops and hoots, cheering on as their cultists began setting up their position, some voicing out in anger that only two of the droids they supplied survived the initial landing. However, for the rest, it did not matter as the main human has already infiltrated the base and is sprinting towards the objective.

"Here comes the reinforcements"

They watched as a large man carrying a blue shield appeared and led the charge, followed closely by a crowd of soldiers that used him as cover or breaking off to flank. What was most surprising to them was when the barrier broke, a bright light pierce through the darkness and golden beams connected themselves to various targets as a woman flew across the skies.

"Those humans are definitely above the average statistics, I can see now how Talon was defeated by them" one observed, flicking through his papers.

"How far is the runner to the server room?"

"He has already left"

"And the virus?"

"It failed to penetrate their systems, the so called 'Athena' is more formidable than we thought"

The room was filled with groans until the largest one threw a fist into the air, silencing them.

"Mother has already suspected this would happen, you only need to focus on the primary objective"

Some grumbled in silence at the favorite son of Mother, but in this hierarchy, they have little to no say. They only hope that as they continue to excel where they are assigned, they will earn the same recognition with Mother as she had with this doofus.

Impatiently, they watched as the infiltrator penetrated deeper into the mountain, his signal became three to five second delays, an eternity from what they were used to. What they also did not anticipate was how complicated the infrastructure of the base is, having been assured by their network that it was a simple construct that only covers the surface of the mountain. Having so many layers in merely a few months is both impressive and concerning.

Despite these challenges, their investment is bringing in dividends as he expertly made his way closer to the target. His colleagues in the hangar was also buying more time than anticipated, that is until the so called Super Soldier Jack Morrison entered the fray.

"He must be the one Mother talked about" one of them commented, trying not to be sound too impressed by the Soldier's quick reflexes and accurate shots.

"H-How did he do that? He is so small!" another wondered, watching with her mouth agape when he used his own Helix Rockets to jump over something particularly high.

"Quiet!" the favorite son shouted, silencing the room.

*Overwatch: Gibraltar*

"These are above military standards, who sent you?" Morrison said, standing over the last surviving, fatally injured invader, who had been impaled by a piece of the drone when it exploded.

"The Iris watches and we will be one within the Iris…" the man prayed until a sharp pain rocked through his person.

"The man asked you a question" Reinhardt snarled, using his hammer to tap the metal.

"Reinhardt, stand down" Morrison ordered firmly, glancing around to check if anyone is watching.

"Why? He attacked us! Torbjorn's almost dead because of them!"

"Keep your voice down! We are UN now, we have to be more deliberate with our actions"

"What then? Do we ask him nicely?" Reinhardt countered sarcastically.

"We are not fighting Talon or the Null Sector anymore, there are rules now"

"Then how do we get information out of him?" Reinhardt asked, looking down at the man who resumed his prayers and his features weakening with every second.

"I've already called the medic"

The words barely left his mouth when the medic team jumped in and tried to administer stabilizers, but it was too late as the man gasped his last breath.

"Great, what do we do now?"

"Commander! One of them has infiltrated the base!" Athena shouted.

"Deploy some men after him, we have to stay here'

"But-"

"Hurry, the second wave is coming" Morrison said, preparing his weapon and rallied the men when another shuttle loomed into view.

*India: Safehouse*

The door flung open and Baptiste threw the barely conscious Sombra onto the bed, blood still leaking out of where her fingers used to be. Pulling his luggage over, he opened the lid and dug out multiple Biotic Grenades and exploded them next to the bed, ensuring that she would consume as much healing as possible. Placing the Immortality Field on the table in case he needs it, he busied himself to stop the bleeding after a quick sedation, trying not to be too distracted by the fact that despite her fingers showed signs of having been torn off, it was scarily even as nothing below the knuckle was missing.

Once that was done, he proceeded to clean and check it for any infection, causing her to groan in pain. Finally, he began stitching while ignoring the hate that he will now take part to further ruin this once beautiful hand. Plenty a time she asked for more drugs to numb the pain, but all he could offer her was strong alcohol, fearing that her body would go into shock.

After a few hours, he had done all he could and he flopped down on a nearby chair. They are not out of the woods yet, her injuries can still be fatal and requires careful monitoring until her own body can handle this injury.

"Bap?" she croaked.

"Right here" he said, hiding his exhaustion and smiling.

"Did you save them?"

"Ahh… I'm so sorry Sombra... I tried to take them but I can't get them off the statue"

"The girl" she clarified, trying to sit up but was too weak "Did you save the girl?"

"Oh! Yes, they chased us until we were out of the temple and I lost them in the crowd, so she should be fine"

"That's good… That's good… You and your stupid heroics…" she mumbled, lying back down.

"Rest" he said, hoping to keep her mind off the injuries for now.

"This is all your fault… You know that right?" she groaned.

He allowed that comment and kept his silence, knowing that drugged out patients will usually say anything and everything that comes into their mind. For now he must ensure that she survives long enough for him to be mad about her words later.

By his estimations, she should be like this for a week due to the amount of blood she lost. Normally he would go and break into a hospital or something and grab a few bags, but in a city where all the walls are made of Hard Light, he highly doubts that he would succeed. It was in these times that he hated that his blood type is AB-, forcing him to feel helpless when someone desperately needed blood.

Lights from a car passing pierced through the small cracks in the curtain pulled him out of his brief daydream. Peeking out, he saw the car was occupied by a family, and he placed his rifle back down. Even if the walls and doors are Hard Light, he is not going to take any chances. From how they fought, those guys were experienced and deadly, which means they would know how to enter these sorts of constructs if they attacked them here.

As was his habit and to counter this, he began putting up extremely old fashion defensive measures.

Their safehouse is an old hotel in a quiet town next Utopaea, boasting that it kept an 'older style' of living despite the upgrades. Thankfully Sombra had booked the room for an entire month so he does not have to deal with that. Naturally this place would have modern security alarms and cameras, but over the years, Baptiste had found out a better way of defending himself.

Glasses of cold water on the doors, tacks and homemade mouse traps under the window, and finally the fridge against the main door. Though childish, it had worked surprisingly well against more mature veterans, who would never dream that someone would use ancient, almost forgotten practical jokes as the first line of defense.

Satisfied, he sat back down on the sofa again, exhausted.

Though he wanted to sleep, he found himself tossing and turning endlessly on it, unable to keep his mind at rest. Cursing, he retrieved Sombra's Multi Purpose Device from the bag, a fantastic little device that she created to keep track of every piece of media in the world, summarizing it to an easy to read piece with probabilities of its impact to the world, amongst other things.

Flipping through the pages, he saw that it is already updated with the EMP attack at the Community Centre and the Shambali Temple just hours ago, some Peace Treaty event next month, the UN rebuilding its peacekeeping efforts, Katya Volskaya demilitarizing its products, some things happening in China regarding the world economy, a video of a smoking ruin with the words 'Chateau Guillard' on it, and finally…

"What?" he said out loud in surprise, sitting up.

He blinked again and refreshed the page again, checking if it was some kind of glitch in the system, but no matter what he does, the summary is clear as day.

"If you don't read it out, I'm going to have to stand up" Sombra said weakly, looking at him.

Knowing that she is serious, he turned the screen towards her.

"Unknown attacked Overwatch" he read.

"No… That's too soon..." she said, trying to sit up, but couldn't.

"Hey hey calm down"

"This means they planned this months before today… They're 20 steps ahead of me now…"

"Stay down, you can't move now" he said, pushing her firmly back onto the bed.

"There's no time! The Conspiracy is already-ARGH!"

She recoiled when she tried to push his arm away with her bandaged hand, which he quickly tied down on the side of the bed to keep it safe from harm.

"Stop moving" he ordered "You're in no position to go anywhere"

Either it was his words or another wave of exhaustion, Sombra calmed down. Breathing hard, she formulated her thoughts before speaking again.

"We don't have much time, how soon can you get me moving?"

"In my professional opinion… Seven days"

"And in the opinion of a rogue criminal?"

He sighed heavily before answering.

"At least 3 days"

"No good, we need to get to the airport tomorrow, we-"

She paused when she looked down at her bandaged hand, realization slowly began to sink into her soul. Throughout her life, she prided herself to be able to escape many situations and keeping her body wholly intact whilst others lost limbs. She had fought and survived against some of the most dangerous foes the world has to offer and beaten them all whole.

Until now.

Within just a few seconds of meeting with The Conspiracy face to face, it had not only insulted her by hacking past and deep into her hardware, but it had damaged her of her most precious weapon…

"Sombra?"

"You're right… We should lay low for now" she said.

"Excuse me? Did you just say I'm right?" he asked, but she has fallen back to sleep.

After checking her bandages once more, he continued reading the reports of the News Tracker, oblivious to the fact that Sombra is fighting back tears as she massaged her now fingerless hand.

*Gibraltar: Overwatch*

He must admit, he had fantasized what would it be like for him to return. He thought that because of his efforts, he would be welcomed as the secret hero who saved Venice that only Overwatch would be privy to, since he was the one who stopped Sigma's rampage. Perhaps even a hidden ceremony where Morrison would give him a medal which he could boast about to Amelie. Heck, maybe he could even earn a tiny spot in the Hall of Heroes, nothing fancy, just a small space to immortalize his name that his family would be proud of, wherever they are.

What he never would've expected, was to see fire on the hangar and the terrible smell of gunpowder. He thought to charge out and assist in whatever battle that could still be going on, but the sight of Reinhardt's barrier and Angela's blue beam were clear signs that the battle was over, but must not be too long ago.

"Alright, I'm coming out now alright?" Quillion said, peeking his head slowly out of the door and at the many guns pointed at them.

"Why have you come back?" Morrison's voice sounded from behind the barrier.

"We're all looking for answers. And we need to get Lena to the Medical Bay!"

Morrison looked at the shuttle and studied the burn marks at the rear. He had just skimmed through Athena's report and everything checked out, however, it seems too convenient that they came right after an attack. From his previous experience with Quillion, the thought that he is an accomplice is highly unlikely, but he had been wrong before and today is not the day for chance.

"Commander?"

"You stay in there until we get you"

"But Lena needs medical attention now!"

"Nobody moves until we catch the infiltrator!" Morrison shouted.

Deep within the mountain, the said infiltrator has finally found clear signs to his objective. Stealing a lab coat and a pair of spectacles, he was able to follow a team of scientists who were just cleared to return to their workstations. Normally this tactic would be near impossible to pull off, but since everyone here is new, it was easy to blend in. Keeping his head down away from the cameras, he stayed close to them and looked into as many rooms as he could.

It was not long before he found what he was looking for, thanks to the fact that all of Overwatch's most famous scientists were studying it. Problem was, all of Overwatch's most famous scientists were either battle hardened veterans or recognized heroes. Winston, Brigitte and Mei were huddled around the table and are already poking at the pieces of rocks in a tray.

He must act quickly before they discover its secrets. Reciting a prayer, he took a deep breath and entered the room, which barely caught the attention of anyone in there. Fingering the chemicals he hid in his jacket, he needs to make sure that at least more than half of the content is poured into the tray to ensure their destruction.

However, the Iris has provided as there is a Bunsen Burner at the corner of the room, a box of matches next to it.

"Alright, we are ready for the first trial, ready?" Winston asked.

"Yes" Mei and Brigitte said in unison, holding on to their tools.

"Remember, we don't have much samples so we need to be careful"

"FIRE! HELP FIRE!"

The room scattered when one of the scientists threw herself at them, her arms waving wildly in attempts to put out the fire that is burning up her jacket. Mei quickly pulled out her weapon and sprayed a mist of cold ice to put it out while the other two checked if anyone else was injured, none of them saw the one scientist running over to the table and pouring strange liquid all over the rocks.

"Winston! He is the infiltrator!" Athena shouted through the speaker.

In a flash, Winston grabbed the man by the scruff of his coat and threw him across the room while Brigitte ran over to the tray to check on the rocks, only to step back in shock. The chemical had not only melted all the rocks, but it ate through the metal tray and table beneath it.

"What is this?" she gasped.

"Who sent you?" Winston growled.

The man merely smiled before convulsing, his heart stopping when he swallowed the poison hidden in his teeth.