It was morning when Gabriel returned back to HQ as he had spent the night off base with Kallista, it was a change in a more pleasant environment than the shoddy safe house or that paltry gray color of his walls in his room back on base.
He enjoyed it more than he thought he would and spending time with Kallista calmed him down from the near week-long mission he and his team had to endure.
He ran a hand through his thick hair and grimaced slightly, it was a sign of how much time has passed. Normally he would have already cut his hair before the autumn season had arrived but it was literally around the corner. More than half of the year had gone by, slipped through his fingers as Blackwatch and Overwatch began to degrade faster than he was able to control.
Everything was degrading, crumbling around him, and knew that his team barely had their heads above the water. Blackwatch would be the first to go down, there was a slew of missions that consistently resulted in lives being lost and half-assed reports that followed.
It was just a matter of time.
He opened the door to his office, the lights immediately turned on and dimmed to the last setting he had before he departed on his mission. His previous mission was supposed to be a day on the field but turned into nearly a week-long venture, the faint scent of tobacco and a sweet but muted scent of roses lingered in the air.
A small smile spread across his lips as he closed the door and made his way to his desk. Immediately his attention focused on the small envelope, badge, and a crimson pistol. Without a second glance, he picked up the envelope, opened it and skimmed over the handwritten message. It wasn't hard to guess who the letter was from as the unique Crimson pistol was one of its kind and belonged to their fiery natured comrade, Natalie.
"So you finally decided," Gabriel muttered as he read the later.
Without warning the door to Gabriel's office opened, annoyed at the sudden intrusion Gabriel glared at the individual quickly entering his office.
"It's fucking 7 AM what—Hayden?" Gabriel began
"Reyes we gotta talk," Hayden said as they looked seriously at the older man. Gabriel looked Hayden from head to toe and sighed softly.
"Sure," Gabriel replied as he sat down in his chair, it had been some time since he had spoken to them and the look on their face was enough to know that something was wrong. Gabriel motioned to the chair in front of the desk for them to sit.
"Right," Hayden nodded and sat down. He watched as they took a deep breath and exhaled.
"Remember what I told you about my father and how I didn't know them?" Hayden began, Gabriel nodded.
"It was a lie,"
Secrecy was normal within the division, everyone in Overwatch and Blackwatch had their secrets including himself.
"Continue," Gabriel nodded.
"He…Maui…he's alive and…" Hayden trailed off. Gabriel saw the hesitation in them as they looked away from him.
"Go on," Gabriel placed Natalie's resignation letter onto his desk as he gave them his full attention.
"On the mission to New Zealand those Talon forces that ambushed both teams? He was with them. He was the Talon force that attacked us," Hayden continued. "Maui was with them and I don't understand why,"
"Your father, Maui, was with Talon in New Zealand? Willingly?" Gabriel asked just to confirm the information he was being told.
"I-I don't know he attacked me as if he didn't even know who I was," Hayden replied "I…"
Gabriel watched as their once confident demeanor quickly fell and their true emotions were revealed, their eyes fell to their trembling hands.
"Reyes…I…" Hayden began again as they clenched their hands into a fist.
"If he attacked you and if he didn't recognize you…," Gabriel trailed off. "There could be a couple of reasons for that,"
"I don't want to believe that but…" Hayden began, their words getting caught in their throat.
"I know what you're thinking…" Gabriel began. "If he is working with Talon under their influence or not you'll have to face him again,"
"That's what I'm scared of. I don't want to see him again…I do but not like this," Hayden shook their head.
"Would you rather for someone else to do it instead—" Gabriel started.
"No! I mean …no, "Hayden signed and leaned back in their chair. Hayden chuckled softly as they ran a hand over their face and through their hair.
"I was approached by Finley to quit…again and now Maui shows up …we can't catch a break can we?" Hayden smiled tiredly.
"Break? Never heard of it," Gabriel replied nonchalantly.
"Fair enough," Hayden replied.
"As hard as this is going to be for your…I believe it's best for you to handle Maui and if you still feel the need to resign…" Gabriel trailed off as he glanced down at the letter that Natalie had left for him, her registration letter.
"I'll accept it without hesitation,"
Hayden stared at the man for a moment wringing their hands together, their eyes dropping to his hands.
"Are you kidding me? There's no way I'm quitting, you'd be lost without me," Hayden had a half-cocked smirk on their lips. "What are you going to do?" Hayden asked.
"If that's the case then I think you already know," Gabriel chuckled at their attempt to regain their cool.
Hayden nodded quietly as their eyes fell to their hands again and to the small scars that littered them.
"It's too soon to call but I'll try to reach out to the other agents in New Zealand, our agents around the world are not the greatest at the moment," Gabriel said as he tapped his desk pulling up the holographic keyboard.
He glanced at Hayden across from him, he knew this was difficult for them to come to him about this. He didn't know the full story as it wasn't important to their recruitment but for Hayden to see their lost parental figure and respond in such a way was telling.
"We'll need to move quickly on this. I need you to tell me everything you remember about him from your past and also from that mission," Gabriel began. "I've already read the mission reports but I want to go over everything again,"
Hayden nodded quietly, Gabriel quickly pulled up the report of the operation in New Zealand as he glanced at the report he made note to connect with Genji again as he was part of Hayden's team at the time.
"Th…" Hayden whispered.
"Hm?" Gabriel glanced at Hayden
"Thanks, Reyes," Hayden murmured.
"You're wel—"
Just as he began to speak a cough followed by a series of deep and wet coughs interrupted his words. Hayden watched as the man quickly covered his mouth and turned away from Hayden, quickly Hayden looked around the man's office for something to help.
"N-No!"
Gabriel forced through his coughs as he grabbed a tissue from his desk and soon calmed himself and took a moment to wipe his mouth and the dark-colored sputter. Gabriel leaned back in his seat as his breathing calmed and focused on the highly concerned person in front of him.
"Reyes…" Hayden began cautiously.
"Don't," Gabriel replied
"How can you tell me don't? Are you ok?" Hayden began. "Don't lie to me,"
Gabriel sighed and frowned at Hayden.
"Reyes…what's going on? McCree was talking about this…and now I see,"
Kallista winced as she stood, searing hot pain spread through her body as she stood motionless. The simplest things caused her pain, standing, walking, eating, breathing all caused her pain and yet she couldn't sit still.
When she awoke this morning she caught a glimpse of Gabriel before he headed back to HQ, she was thankful that he had stayed with her and helped her to settle into the room. Silently, she wished that he could have stayed longer but knew that he had work to do as she thought back to how disheveled he looked when she, Idoya, and Maxime met up with him at the hotel. He had rushed to the hotel to meet them despite just getting back from his near week-long mission.
"This fucking sucks," Kallista murmured as she slowly walked over towards the high counter in the hotel room. Gabriel had placed her laptop there for her, another gesture she appreciated him for. Carefully she reached for the bag on the counter and took out the device she recovered from the arm socket of Carmelo Mendoza. She gingerly touched her ribs as she remembered the fight with the virus-infected man.
Though she wasn't able to fully examine him she was quickly able to determine that the sentient AI, the Cheshire Cat had infected the man's circuitry, the device was a combination of an extraction and isolating program created specifically for this AI by the members of the God Brigade. She hoped that the device had been able to extract and isolate the AI from the man in a moment she would find out.
"Let's see what you actually are, faker," Kallista murmured as an orange holographic keyboard appeared in front of her, uncharacteristically her fingers stumbled over the keyboard as she entered her code as Director of Blackwatch Intel. A holographic screen populated next to her, immediately she inputted an additional code and several smaller holographic screens surrounded her.
"Hermes…I need your assistance," Kallista began
{It is good to hear you FM, I am here to assist}
*FM is pronounced as Femm*
"I am going to insert this device that has a sentient AI named Cheshire Cat..." Kallista trailed off. "I need you to isolate this device from the Overwatch database, isolate the AI from the web until we are able to really dissect it,"
{Understood. I am at 75 percent efficient working capacity as my systems need maintenance}
"I know…I know. I can't give you maintenance quite yet. Please do you best," Kallista replied and sighed.
{Of course, FM}
"I'm starting," Kallista said as she inserted the device, Kallista sighed softly as she thought back to her apartment tucked away in Dorado, Mexico.
It had been six years since she had been to Dorado, to her apartment. She was thankful that she was able to convince Diana to restart the power to her loft to access Hermes, her hidden terminal that she disabled before she fled from Blackwatch.
She needed an additional source from Overwatch's systems to safely decipher the AI on the device just in case it would attempt to slip away and into the networks of Overwatch but with Hermes it would be diverted to one of its separate servers. If anything were to happen to Hermes she had a backup tucked away in Bristol.
{Beginning extraction…deciphering…ten percent…forty percent…fifty-seven…}
"Are you able to determine what it is?" Kallista asked as codes began to flood the screens around her. She was able to catch glimpses of code she recognized but the majority of it was foreign to her.
{…}
"Hermes?" Kallista asked as she turned to the smaller holographic screen that showed the status of the system, she saw large influxes.
"Hermes, respond,"
{Eighty-eight percent. There was a momentary intrusion to my systems. I have managed to isolate it for the time being}
"Good…so the AI is active,"
{FM the origin of the code is similar to that of LOKI but the definite origin of this specific code is not of modern times}
"Explain modern," Kallista asked.
{The origin of this code dates back to 2020 before the start of the Omnic Crisis}
Kallista stood silently in thought and gingerly touched her ribs as searing burning pain spread throughout her chest and abdomen.
"Hermes—"
{One moment FM...}
"Increasing security measures. Activating the Juno Protocol," Kallista began and quickly entered another code. Once the final string of code was entered the holographic screens around her flashed, dimmed, and turned a purplish color.
{Juno Protocol Integration success. Intrusive attacks contained. Diagnostics complete.}
"Results?" Kallista glanced at the new holographic screen that appeared next to her.
{This code is before your time, FM. However, you should be familiar with-}
"This is code from the Ominium," Kallista began.
{Correct, FM}
"This…" Kallista trailed off and clutched her abdomen as another blistering wave of searing heat and pain washed through her.
"Hermes…please seal this off in the obsidian chamber 97620," Kallista panted.
{Yes FM. Should I keep the Juno Protocol active?}
"Yes please, I will activate Hecate and Hephaestus to start dismantling it," Kallista replied as she panted nearly gasping for breath as the pain was becoming unbearable.
{This will decrease my efficiency by twenty percent thus reducing my ability to assist to sixty-five percent}
"Thank you. Hermes. I will try to get to Dorado to give you maintenance…" Kallista trailed off.
{You have my appreciation FM}
"Disconnecting," Kallista said quietly
The holographic screens around her faded as the connection between her and her personal terminal vanished and reconnected with a basic connection to Athena back at Overwatch HQ.
{Director Kaines, Commander Reyes has been attempting to connect with you since you lost connection twenty minutes ago.}
"S-Sure patch him through," Kallista replied.
[What took you so long?]
"I'm injured, what did you expect?" Kallista panted though she wore a small grin her brows were furrowed as she looked at the image of the man on the screen. The man's stern look softened as he stared back at her.
[How are you feeling?]
"A lot of pain, everything hurts, come and put me out of my bloody misery," Kallista replied.
[Stop being so dramatic]
"What if I was being serious?" Kallista asked as she reached for the EZ syringe and placed it to her neck.
[You're not, again stop being so dramatic]
"You know me so well Commander Reyes—" Kallista gasped softly as she felt the needle pierce her skin to inject her with a medicinal concoction created for her to help alleviate the pain. The sudden wave of drugs entering her system nearly took her from her feet.
[Steady yourself. Go lay down]
"Gabriel," Kallista began quietly. The man was silent as he stared at her sternly but through the holographic screen, she could see his brows furrowed with worry.
"Thank you…you went against the Overwatch fraternization protocols and now all you do is worry about me," Kallista said as she slowly sat down in a cradle-like chair.
[Why are you bringing this up now?]
"Oh you know…just thinking about how much of a burden I am for you," Kallista sighed as the serum began to flood all of her senses. Gabriel was silent as she relaxed into the chair.
"I love you, Gabriel Reyes…" Kallista sighed. "You know…I never thought…about marriage but if you asked…I would say yes…"
[Get some rest…I'll be there later tonight]
"Alright…" Kallista murmured.
[I love you too]
"The communication signals have been degrading significantly over the past month," Elias commented.
"I know…it's troublesome…all these reports I need to review," Aleks sighed
"Is the Director not back yet?" Linda asked.
"I think she's in the country but I'm not sure where," Aleks replied. "Honestly I don't know what's going on with her. Only Commander Reyes and Strike Commander Morrison are privy to that information," Aleks replied with a dramatic sigh.
"It's that serious huh? It's like she's a most-wanted villain or something," Magnus scoffed.
"As far as I know the origins of some people aren't as innocent as you believe them to be…or so I've heard," Elias commented.
"Blackwatch is the clandestine service for a reason," Aleks commented. "Let's leave it at that and try to establish communication links with Van Gogh and Apollo,"
The small team turned back to their monitors and continued to work, Aleks sighed heavily as he too turned back to his monitor. As he focused on the pending reports in front of him, the red notifications on each of the reports were notifications of casualties of agents. He never assumed when it came to mission reports but with this many consistent deaths there was something happening, and it was bad for both Overwatch and Blackwatch.
"Oh, shit I almost forgot about the meeting with Lyudmila! I'll be back!" Aleks said as he stood and gathered his datapad and locked his terminal before he ran out of the office.
"Good luck!" Magnus called out after him
"The signal is weak but…Apollo…can you hear me?" Elias said as he attempted to locate the agent known as Apollo.
[Sig…weak…Van Gogh…]
"What about Van Gogh?" Elias asked.
[Van…Talon…weak…bush]
"This signal is trash, how is there interference on a private communication server?" Elias scoffed.
"I wonder what's going on, I'm not having any issues communicating with others via normal communication lines," Linda commented.
"It's so frustrating. I can't even—"
[Apollo checking in, can you fucking hear me now?]
"Apollo what—"
[We were fucking ambushed. Van Gogh, he-]
"Hold on. Wait. What do you mean ambushed? What happened to Van Gogh?" Elias replied as he attempted to pull up the location of the agent.
"Ambushed?" Magnus repeated as he looked to Linda, who looked at him shocked.
"Shit Aleks nor the Director are here," Magnus scoffed as he stood and quickly ran out of the office in search of Aleks.
"Explain. Are you safe?" Elias began.
[We-]
Elias suddenly ripped his headphones from his ear as the location marker of the man went red and the words signal lost flashed on his screen.
"W-What happened?" Linda looked at the man worried. Elias looked at Linda and without a word, the man stood up and quickly exited the room. Linda stood up from her desk and went over to the man's desk glancing at the screen.
SIGNAL LOST
With a soft sigh, she clenched her fists as she turned away from the monitor.
"It's too late…"
{Dr. O'Deorain speaking}
"Dr. Moira O'Deorain, correct?" Gabriel asked softly.
{Yes this is she, who is this?}
"You may not have heard of me but I am from Overwatch's clan—" Gabriel began.
{I have nothing more to do with Overwatch-}
"Listen, please," Gabriel stopped the woman before she would hang up. He was sure that she had received many calls after being publicly shamed and denied due to her research.
"I am reaching out to you for your assistance," Gabriel replied gruffly. "I am asking you not for Overwatch but for myself for personal reasons,"
There was a pause on the other side of the phone when a soft sigh was heard.
{Just who are you? How did you get this number?}
"Gabriel Reyes and being the Commander of Blackwatch has its perks,"
{Oh? Blackwatch…Intriguing. What services do you believe I can offer to you Mr. Reyes}
"I'm sorry…Citlali…" Morrison replied quietly.
"N-No you're lying! This is some sick joke isn't it?" Tali began. Morrison remained silent as he looked down at the petite woman.
"No," Morrison replied
"What do you mean No?! We were just married! It was an escort mission! What do you mean he's dead?!" Tali shrieked as she grabbed Morrison's blue trench coat. "Don't fucking lie to me Morrison! What happened to my husband?!"
"Citlali…I'm…" Morrison began.
Although it was rare there were occasions where there would be casualties in Overwatch despite the foundation being a peacekeeping organization, it happened. The targets this time were the escort of new technology and weapon prototypes for Hungary and their attempts to quell the rise in anti-omnic riots and terrorism within its borders.
But now they were lost along with the innocent lives that travel with them.
"You have to be fucking kidding me," Lyudmila cursed followed by a quick sting of Russian.
"No, all of this just happened," Elias replied.
"We need to get those comms working NOW. Too many people have-"
"Hey, Lyuda have you seen Reyes?" Jesse popped his head into the woman's office as he passed by but quickly stopped as he saw Magnus, Aleks, and Elias in the woman's office.
"Last time I saw him he was in his office," Lyudmila replied, her Russian accent heavy as she sighed. Jesse quickly looked between the men before he spoke.
"What happened?" Jesse asked cautiously.
"Casualties...lots of them," Magnus replied.
"Oh…" Jesse trailed off as he took off his hat and ran a hand through his hair.
"If you don't have anything else to add McCree I suggest you go find Reyes," Lyudmila began. Jesse stiffened as he heard the woman call him by his surname, he was only called that if he was on thin ice.
"It's not exactly Blackwatch related but it affects the members in Blackwatch. That escort to Hungary was ambushed. No survivors," Jesse replied.
"You're kidding!" Magnus exclaimed. Jesse watched as the news affected everyone in the room.
"Oh god...Tali-" Aleks began as he realized that there were two members who worked closely with Blackwatch were on that escort, most importantly Tali's new husband.
Lyudmila leaned back in her seat sighing heavily, a heavy silence fell between them as the news of so many deaths was shared between them.
"Does Reyes know about this yet?" Lyudmila asked.
"I'm not sure but I'm gonna tell em," Jesse replied.
"What the fuck is going on today?" Elias cursed.
"Imma go to Reyes' office an' give him a holler," Jesse sighed. "I guess Aleks or Elias...if y'all wanna come,"
"Y-Yeah, I'll come," Aleks said
Death happens especially in this line of work, some hit harder than others especially innocent lives that strived for peace and happiness
"Yes I am aware, yes sir. I will be looking into the matter shortly. Yes sir. No...thank you,"
Gabriel ended the phone call, tossing his phone on to his desk, anger flooded his senses as the information of the escort being ambushed in addition to him learning about the small recon team being slaughtered in Iceland.
"Fuck-" Gabriel's chest heaved as he began a coughing fit, he brought a hand to his mouth as he coughed catching the deep crimson color liquid that spewed from his lips. He quickly dug into his desk for a tissue as he attempted to quell his coughs and steady his breaths.
After a moment the coughing stopped his breathing stable. He quickly wiped his mouth and tossed the tissue into the trash.
"Yo Reyes-" Jesse said as he opened the door to the man's office followed by Aleks.
"Commander Reyes," Aleks nodded to the man.
"If it's about what happened in Iceland I'm aware of it," Gabriel said as he cleared his throat and before the two men could speak.
"Ok but what about the shitstorm that's happening in Hungary?" Jesse asked. Gabriel sighed heavily at how quickly this information was known to others besides him and those who needed to know.
"The escort mission was ambushed, Hungarian forces are reporting that there are no survivors," Jesse replied.
Jesse watched as the man said nothing but sigh. There was a pang of regret of bringing this to his attention but he knew that it was important, that he needed to know despite how exhausted he looked. Jesse knew that the man was working himself into exhaustion, working himself into sickness, and refused to admit it.
"Reyes-"
"Shit starts falling apart as soon as I get back, huh,"
"Kallista," Gabriel began, confused by the woman's sudden appearance.
"Kalli?"
"Director Kaines?!"
"What are you doing here? You need to be resting," Gabriel frowned.
"Resting?" Aleks repeatedly confused.
"How can I when the shitstorm has finally arrived? Athena, please turn on the television,"
The mounted television in the man's office turned on to reveal the local news reporting on the events in Hungary.
"Not to mention Iceland," Kallista winced as she braced herself against the nearest wall.
"McCree," Gabriel motioned to Kallista. Jesse held out a hand for Kallista to take, gingerly she took his hand as he helped her to the sofa.
"Thanks," Kallista winced as she sat down.
Jesse could see that the woman was in pain but decided not to press the issue, he figured that he would learn about it in the future.
"What the hell is going on here?" Aleks said as he placed his datapad on Reyes' desk.
"Hold on, Kallista how did you figure out about Iceland?" Gabriel asked.
"Elias...called me," Kallista replied as she carefully reclined on the sofa.
"Got ya on speed dial does he?" Jesse grinned as he looked at Gabriel, who had his attention solely on Kallista as if he and Aleks' didn't exist in the room.
"We all do McCree," Aleks commented.
"Is it them?" Gabriel asked.
"Yes," Kallista replied. "They were silent for the past two to three years and with the downfall of the Cheshire Cat…"
A tense silence settled in the room as Jesse and Aleks stood confused as they listened to Gabriel and Kallista.
"So be it,"
