"Hello, Wor- or- or- or- or- or- or- or- or- or- or- or- or—"

Winston let out a long sigh of frustration as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Nothing he tried worked, and at this point he was getting more frustrated with each failed attempt at fixing the AI. He knew that the task would likely lead to nothing in the end, but that didn't stop him from trying. The Commander deserved at least that much effort.

"Perhaps we should leave it there for today," came the voice of the Watchpoint: Gibraltar's and Winston's own personal AI, Athena. "Your stress levels are alarmingly high, Winston. You should not push yourself so hard. I would recommend some exercise followed by a hearty meal. You have been binge eating too many bananas and peanut butter for your own good. You must watch your intake, Winston. A healthy diet will go a long way in keeping you calm. There is a variety of fruits and vegetables in storage—"

The scientist snorted. A good meal and some rest sounded great, but it would feel like wasted time to him; time he'd much rather be using to do something more important. Winston was able to convince the UN that Overwatch bases needed some personnel in them to keep them from going into disrepair. They agreed, but only until Overwatch was disbanded, at which point all personnel would be forced to leave. This meant that Winston was working against the clock. Ever since the Petras Act went into effect, the motions for Overwatch disbandment had been pushed through at lightning speed. By Winston's own calculations, there would be nothing left of Overwatch except for empty buildings in two months time, tops. He had to take full advantage of the facilities while he could still legally use them.

Suddenly, the device and tools he'd been holding on his hands were snatched away from him by small, robotic arms coming from the table. Winston glared at one of the many screens around him. "I need to do this, Athena. If I can get it working, we might know what exactly happened in Switzerland. We might even be able to pinpoint the location of Morrison's body. Maybe then people can visit a grave that has a casket that isn't empty… It would also help Mr. and Mrs. Morrison find some closure."

"We never recovered the body of Ana Amari, and yet, Commander Morrison visited her grave every month without fail," Athena reminded him. The subject of the Sub-Commander was a sore one for everyone in Overwatch, especially the Commander, which was why not many people discussed the event that lead up to it, but instead remembered Ana with fonder memories. Still, it was no secret that the Commander would take a day off every month to visit her grave. Everyone knew about it to the point that not even the higher ups in the UN would try to schedule anything with him during that time. "I doubt the Commander would care whether his body was collected or not. I must remind you that there are still high levels of radiation in the rubble of the headquarters too. He would not want others to risk their lives to recover his remains."

""No one gets left behind", he used to say…" Those words had always been spoken by the Commander. It was odd that now that the man was gone, they didn't mean as much as they used to.

Athena remained silent, the small arms she controlled still holding their position with Winston's tools. To Winston's surprise, Athena set everything back down on the table. When he was stubborn in the past, she would store everything away until he agreed to do what she wanted. "You are being too stubborn, Winston. I see I won't be able to convince you to do otherwise… I will prepare a meal for you. I expect you to eat it without complaints. In the meantime, you can continue tinkering with Cayde."

Winston had made a list of possible solutions that would bring the AI back to life. Every time one of them failed, he would cross it off the list, which should have made it shorter. But where one door closes—not another—many more open. The list itself kept on getting longer. Some of his proposed solutions were from difficult to rightout impossible to do, especially because of the Petras Act. Besides, where would he get the budget for a whole new super-computer? There would be some at other Overwatch stations, but those already had AIs installed in them, making it more of an ethical decision whether sacrificing one of those for the sake of knowing what happened in the Swiss base was worth it, especially after bureaucrats were so fast to put out answers for the public.

"How are things going, my friend?" The booming voice of one Reinhardt Wilhelm broke Winston out of his thoughts. The towering man came to stand at the other side of the workbench Winston was using. To the Crusader's side, young Bridgette stood, looking equally as curious as her elder. How Reinhardt was able to convince the girl to travel with him and even fix his armor was beyond the scientist. Torbjorn was always one to recruit interesting assistants, even if they ended up taking a better liking to others more often than not. "Any progress?"

"Ah, yes, well," Winston fidgeted with his hands, feeling a little embarrassed that he hadn't made much progress at all. Reinhardt and Brigitte brought the core to him days ago, hoping he would be able to get something out of it. Pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, Winston signaled towards the core. "I was able to get it talking for a bit."

"Oh! That is great work!" Reinhardt roared, looking very pleased. It was a shame he was likely overestimating Winston's work. "The Commander would be proud! Does this mean we can ask it a few questions?"

"Not… exactly…" Winston clicked the execute command on his console, activating the damaged core.

"Hello, Wor- or- or- or- or- or- or- or- or- or- or- or- or—" and shut it down.

After a moment of silence where the three of them stared at the core's dimming light, Brigitte raised an eyebrow. "What's it trying to say?"

"Hello, World!" responded Athena with some misplaced excitement. Brigitte seemed to understand the meaning behind her words, but Reinhardt looked equal parts puzzled and confused.

"Hello, Athena! Good to hear you are still here," said a cheerful Reinhardt.

"Oh, no, no. She was explaining what Cayde was trying to say. It is a common phrase programmers use during testing phase of their code," Winston explained. "Even to this day, it is amongst the first lines of code implemented to all existing AI, though it is usually commented out so that it doesn't execute. But since Cayde is damaged, he may have changed his own code in an attempt of self-preservation when power went out."

"So the problem is in its code, then?" Bridgitt asked.

"Yes and no. You see, Cayde was coded to keep track of all of the HQ as well as the outposts by itself, which would require a network we don't have here, as well as routing an immense amount of power that we can't supply him with without raising suspicion on ourselves. That means we need to give him a few downgrades for him to even turn on. If the hardware was there, the software wouldn't need any tinkering. But because the software is more advanced than anything here can handle, it's faster to dumb him down instead."

"Cayde could very well use being dumbed down," said Athena. "He became quite obnoxious after Agent McCree left Overwatch. He called it a parting present for the Commander, but I cannot fathom why that would be or why the Commander never reverted the change after so many years."

Ignoring Reinhardt's louder-than-belows laugh that echoed in the room, Brigitte turned to look at Winston. "What about installing the core on one of the omnic bodies that are in storage here? Torbjorn used to say that Gibraltar was full of them, so he liked to keep away. I remember him complaining about it constantly saying that he rather have them thrown to sea than keeping them deactivated for no good reason."

"Ah, yes!" Suddenly, Reinhardt looked like he'd just remembered something. "Most of our own omnic agents came from here! I'm sure we could find something we can fit him to."

"That would go against the Petras Act," Winston was quick to remind them, not that he hadn't thought about it first. In his case, it was Athena who'd stopped him from trying anything that could endanger him and the fragile state of Overwatch.

"Does it matter at this point, though?" Brigitte asked. "Keeping Cayde hidden away here without the UN knowing is against the Petras Act already. Besides, if he has something in there that explains exactly what happened in Switzerland, we could still save Overwatch from collapsing."

The idea of keeping Overwatch alive was tantalizing. Winston wouldn't be the only one happy if they could all keep working together as they used to, even if there were a few shoes that could never be filled by anyone else. But it was one thing to be wistful and another to act. They were treading in dangerous territory that could land them all in jail… maybe a zoo, in Winston's case. He briefly snarled.

"Athena, are there any available units that could hold this type of core?" Winston asked.

"According to my archive, there are none in site." Brigitte, Reinhardt, and Winston sighed in disappointment. "However, it could be possible to transfer most of the data still left intact inside the core onto OX3; an experimental omnic designed by our best omnic-experts, sans Doctor Lin."

"If that one is the third one, what happened to the other two?"

"They exploded on initiation."

"So much for being the best," said Brigitte under her breath. "But do we have any other real choice? The core could get more damaged if we keep messing with it so much. At least this way there is a chance of finding out something."

"You are right, but it's still risky," Winston said, approaching the core. "If the transfer fails, all the data will be corrupted, meaning all our effort will be for nothing. We could lose our only chance to find some answers."

"But Winston, wouldn't we lose the data anyway if something went wrong while trying to fix it?" the crusader put in. It seemed that, by majority, the argument was settled. They would try the transfer, be it for the best or the worst. Winston only wished that it turned out better than his attempts at fixing the core had, because if all the omnic did after it woke was walk around repeating "Hello, World!", then he saw a lot of headaches heading his way in the future.

Finding the omnic body wasn't a problem thanks to Athena's guidance. Despite the base not being one of Overwatch biggest, it would still take weeks to find anything that was in deep-storage manually. The box the body was in did not stand-out from the hundreds of others around it. It was by a miracle that it hadn't been moved elsewhere, as it did not contain any marking or codes that would make it easy to track. And something told Winston that it wasn't by accident.

They took the box into the workshop, laying out the body on the table. Reinhardt and Brigitte stood to a side as Winston and Athena went through the process of establishing the connections between the core and the omnic for transfer. It was a tedious job, one that required someone with more finesse than the Crusader, the mechanic, or the scientist had, but they had to make do.

OX3 itself was a marvel of modern technology. Compared to standard omnics, or even all other Overwatch units, it had human optics, a mouth, and even was even more proportionate to a human body. In a way, it would go under the uncanny valley if it wasn't for the obvious lack of a nose, ears, and skin. But it did make you wonder, why would an omnic need two-eye-optics and a mouth?

Pushing the thought aside, Winston continued with the task at hand, meticulously double and even triple checking every single connection. When he was satisfied, he turned to look at his two spectators, who gave him thumbs up in return.

"Well, it's now or never," Winston said. The input on the holoscreen were filled one by one. Eventually, there was nothing more to do than to execute the program. It was only one click, but to Winston it sounded like someone hit a hammer besides his ear. It his ears ringing and his heart thumping. A message on the screen popped up, showing an estimated time of four days before the transfer was complete. Winston let out a sigh, rubbing his tired eyes. "Nothing to do now but to wait."

"Just in time," said Athena. "Dinner has been served. Please proceed to the mess hall. I've prepared something adequate for you two as well, Reinhardt and Brigitte."

"Danke," the two responded.

The three of them sat at the table. Athena had already brought out their meal, which sat, steaming, in front of each one of them. It seemed that the AI had made each one of them a meal that went accordingly to their tastes and needs. Brigitte's and Reinhardt's were very similar, protein-heavy meals, the only difference being the portions and a side-dish. Winston's on the other hand consisted mainly of steamed vegetables, rice, vegetables, oh, and did he mention vegetables? He could take a hint. Bananas and peanut butter were delicious, giving him all the calcium and protein he would ever need, but they were hardly what anyone would call a balanced meal.

They were halfway through their meal when Athena notified them that Tracer was calling. For almost a year, the girl had been unreachable. Lena had been one of the main focuses in the case against Overwatch, as the Slipstream Incident was made to be a case against keeping Overwatch around. Her along with Angela and Torbjorn were the most scrutinized of their agents by the UN, being forced to show up at least twice a week to sessions. Because of that, hearing that any of those three were trying to call was reason enough to celebrate, though it did put Winston on edge, as they would be calling for a good reason.

"Put her through, Athena," Winston called out. A holoscreen came down from the roof, positioned so that it looked like another person had joined the table. The image on the screen appeared, showing Lena in her formal suit sitting down in a dark room, the glow of the screen and of her chronal accelerator being the only sources of light in the whole room. She was a far cry from the usual cheerful self, a small smile being the only thing she could muster to give once she noticed she had connected. "Good to see you, Lena."

Reinhardt, always cheerful, greeted her too while Brigitte had to settle for a wave, as she was mid-bite when the call connected."

"Heya, guys," Lena said, her smile growing a little more with each greeting. "Having a get together and not inviting me? And I thought we were friends, Winston."

Seeing her trying to joke made Winston feel a little better. The Lena he knew was still in there. It must have been a particularly hard day she had for her to be acting so...off. "It's been awhile since we last had a chance to talk. How are you doing?"

"Good! Good…" When no one else said anything, staring at the screen, she turned her eyes to the ground. They all knew her well enough to know—maybe with the exception of Brigitte— that she wasn't doing that well. They were all family before and they still were. They'd gone through so much together. It would be impossible for her to hide something that was bothering her from them. "Actually, not so good… I keep getting asked trick questions that make the Commander look bad. No matter what I do, they twist my words around and use them against me. It's...stressful. Not even going for a run clears my mind anymore."

"They are using all of us to justify shutting down Overwatch," Reinhardt said, looking less than pleased, his hand clenched so hard that Winston thought the fork would be destroyed. "They don't care about the good we've done or finding out exactly what happened in Switzerland. They want to wash their hands of it all by shifting the blame."

"It's not right," said Lena with a nod, jumping a little on her seat before slouching back down. "They keep us here instead of sending us there to find out what happened! It's ridiculous! And now a whole year has almost gone by and we aren't any closer to finding out what really happened. I think I speak for all of our agents when I say that the suits don't know what they are doing. It's almost like they are stalling or something. It's depressing..."

"And here I thought that I would never see the day that I would hear the word "depressing" come out of your lips, Agent Oxton." Those sitting at the table turned to look at the approaching figure coming into the room. Even the screen Lena was being shown on angled slightly so that she could see. With heavy steps, the omnic came to a halt close to the table, propping both hands on it and leaning forward. "I was almost right."

"Um… I'm sorry, but… Who are you?" Lena looked as confused as she could be, one of her eyebrows reaching for the sky as she leaned forward to take a better look at her own screen. All everyone else could see were her eyes and a whole bunch of forehead. "Winston, love, you didn't tell me there was someone else there!"

"Ouch," the omnic moved a hand towards where a human heart would sit, its eyes narrowing a bit. "I thought you would recognize me for sure. I don't blame you. Kinda look a bit different now. Or, should I say, you can actually see me now."

Winston stood up from the table, moving closer to the omnic as he adjusted his glasses. "Athena, why didn't you tell us that he'd woken up?"

"Oh? Athena is here?" The omnic looked up at the ceiling, one of his hands moving to his hip while the other pointed accusingly at the spot he was looking at. "You little minx. You made me look like an idiot when I was learning to walk! What's with the cold shoulder to your old pal?"

"That is why I did not, Winston" Athena responded. If the AI could scoff, Winston would be shocked to hear her do it right then. He could almost picture a virtual head shaking from side to side, eyes looking on in disappointment. "Please do not refer to me as "minx" or any other "pet names" from now on, Cayde."

"You're just jealous I have a body now and you don't!"

"Wait, wait, wait!" The omnic lowered his finger, turning to look at the screen showing a Tracer that seemed to regain the glow in her eyes. "You mean Cayde as in the Swiss Cayde?!"

"The one and only! Well, mostly. Still no sexy Swiss accent, though." While Cayde talked, Winston was already examining his every movement closely. The level of expression that was always lacking in other omnics was there. If it wasn't for the metallic exoskeleton and the too robotic looking face—even with more human optics and mouth—he would pass for a human. To think Overwatch had been working on such an exemplary omnic!

"This is good news!" Reinhardt hit the table with his fist, having set down his fork at some point during Lena's and Cayde's exchange. He looked ready to jump over the table to crush the omnic in one of his infamous hugs. Only Brigitte's hand on his arm stopped him from doing it. "Ahem. Well, with this we can have access to the HQ files, yes?"

"Oh, sure, sure," Cayde waved a hand in front of him as if it was nothing. "What's left of them, at least. I had to shut down and delete sensitive data in case someone tried to get their hands on it, but I kept an encrypted backup on me. Just need the Commander to input his password."

There is an eerie silence in the room. All the smiles that had spread between them suddenly fell. Cayde looked between all of them, even turning to the screen for a second, but no one said anything. Without warning, he stepped closer to Lena's screen and reached out to it. Windows popped open one by one, quickly covering the whole screen. Winston could see that as the seconds went by, Cayde's eyes fell more and more to the floor, his mechanical brow furrowing and his mouth closing into a thin line. It took the omnic only seconds to process the data, closing the windows on the screen so that Tracer's face was once again visible.

"Command Protocol is now in effect." Raising a hand, a hologram projected out of Cayde's hand, depicting the Overwatch logo surrounded by strings that connected to photos of six agents. Three of these were marked as KIA: Sub-Commander Ana Amari, Blackwatch Commander Gabriel Reyes, and Strike-Commander Jack Morrison. One of the pictures was marked as MIA: Doctor Liao Lin. And finally, the last two were of Reinhardt and Torbjorn. "With the chain of command broken, a new Strike-Commander has to be appointed by two of the three Firsts that remain. And given that Agent Lin has been missing for close to two decades, that only leaves two real choices."

"Wait a minute, loves. We can't do that," Lena said, though she looked conflicted by her own words. "We would be going against the Petras Act if we appoint a new Strike-Commander. Besides, wouldn't the UN have the power to overwrite that order and have you hand everything over to them, including Cayde?"

"Negative. I was programmed to follow instructions given by Overwatch only as a failsafe in case someone took control of my core or tried to identify themselves as a United Nations representative. Without a Strike-Commander, access to sensitive files is restricted."

"What can you tell us?" asked Brigitte, her frustration showing in her brow.

"Well, I can tell you that the official statement the UN put out about what happened in Switzerland is bullshit."

"What do you mean?" Winston asked, his interest piquing.

"They state that that the battle that broke out between Commanders Morrison and Reyes lead to the explosion of the base, taking with it the lives of both of them as well as twenty-six more agents; the explosion caused by one of the nuclear-cores that powered the base overheating from damage caused during the fight. However, all cores were in pristine condition before the explosion took place. I even set them offline just in case." As to prove his point, the hologram switched to stats on the different cores in the base, showing them working on optimal levels all the way until they were shut down.

"The explosion came from a warhead rigged to blow at the lowest underground level of the base in order for it to compromise the structural integrity of the building. This was carried out by Blackwatch agents lead by Commander Gabriel Reyes."

The revelation made Winston's blood run cold. It was one thing to think that Reyes and the Commander's fight would lead to an incident that cost many lives. But he'd always thought it was just that. An accident. But now Cayde was telling them that Reyes had deliberately caused the explosion, knowing full well that if it hadn't been found out, it would've killed hundreds of Overwatch agents and thousands of civilians because of nuclear fallout. Their friend tried to kill them all without anyone but the Commander knowing.

"Commander Morrison initiated the evacuation procedure, but went to confront Commander Reyes. There, Reyes and his Blackwatch lackys opened fire on the Commander and all other Overwatch agents that came across them. The body count of the event, including those that died during the explosion, is fifty-two."

There was a cracking sound. Reinhardt had somehow broken off a sizable piece of the table. The once jolly man looked ready to kill whoever crossed him, and by the looks, he wasn't the only one. Tracer was gritting her teeth hard, even as all color had left her face. Even Brigitte had the eyes of a killer as she sat with her arms crossed over her chest.

"That's enough, Cayde," said Athena, the only one that still sounded calm through it all. "It would be best to listen to this in a more—"

"Go on, Cayde," Winston interrupted, his eyes connecting with those of the omnic, who nodded in return.

"Well, there is only one more big thing to mention," Cayde began. "The report remarks that the explosion killed both of the Commanders, but that is not true." There was a moment of hope. Winston could see it in all of them as their jaws slung down a couple of inches. They'd been like deers frozen by the light of an incoming truck. "I couldn't talk to him directly because of the damage to my systems, but I could still monitor Commander Morrison's vitals."

A small graphic appeared in front of them, showing a timeline with all of the Commander's vitals, starting an hour before the explosion.

"He was still alive…" Tracer put everyone's thoughts into words as the graph moved from day to day, showing that, despite some peaks and lows, Jack Morrison lived through the explosion. Unfortunately, the graph stopped three weeks after the event. Cayde explained that by then, he was forced to go into sleep mode and cut off all nonessential systems. "The Commander was alive for at least three weeks under there… But the search was called off after only two weeks."

"Radiation would have forced it all to stop," Winston proposed, a bad taste still lingering in his mouth. "There were never reports on that, but I assume that if a warhead went off, there would be enough radiation there that it would keep machinery from operating for more than a few days, not to mention the number of personnel that would suffer from poisoning."

Reinhardt leaned over the table, his hands clasped on his head. His voice, full of pain, was barely audible. "He was waiting for us to come for him… For three weeks he survived, but we just left him there… We failed Jack."