"Goddammit Lena, do you have any idea how scared I was?!"

"Look, Em, I'm sorry but-"

"Don't 'Em' me, Lena! You could have died!"

"I know, but-"

"You know, and you still did it!"

The argument had been going on for a good twenty minutes, but Lena didn't mind. She deserved it, after all. And she could tell that Emily was less angry at what she did, and more afraid of what could have happened.

"Hey, hey." Still, this had gone on for way too long now, and Emily had repeated a fair amount of the argument already.

"I'm fine. Really." She spun around to prove her point, "All here, nothing out of place this time!"

"That's not the point, Lena." Emily sounded exasperated, despite the pilot's attempts to do the opposite, "We- I just got you back. And then you're in a situation where I could've lost you, and there would have been no getting you back after that."

"She's got a point." Archer unhelpfully added.

'Shut up, you ruddy asshole.'

Outwardly, she put on a smile, "You know I wouldn't let that happen Em." She held her fiance's hands in her own, "You ain't getting rid of me that easily." That finally made the other woman crack a smile, a win in Lena's book.

"You're still sleeping on the couch for the next two weeks, by the way."

"Yeah, that's fair."

"Okay, now that that's out of the way," Emily pulled back on the hug that the two had settled in, "Care to tell me what happened?" She pulled the two of them onto the couch, with Lena sighing as she laid down with her.

"Oh boy, where to begin?"

" You humans think that you are the apex of this world. That everything else is your prey to consume. No longer. The world has forgotten the mistakes of the Omnic Crisis. No longer. You feed on the oppression that your kind bestows upon my people. No longer. No longer shall we be held in bondage. No longer shall we be slaves to your kind.

"No. We shall rise to our rightful place under the sun, and crush you beneath your own hubris. We are Null Sector."

"That, was ominous." Lena clicked off the channel as she waited for Emily to come back. It had taken nearly an hour of explanations, with the other woman more than once going into a panic checking over the pilot for the injuries that she didn't have.

It had gotten to the point where even Archer had stopped making comments about it, somewhere around the fifth time that she had to convince Emily that no, her arm wasn't cut off, and no, she wasn't just saying that and had really just let Angela grow it back or something.

Speaking of which.

'Anything to add?'

"Did they really have to use purple?" The invisible man complained, "I mean, they're going for revolutionary, right? Picking the stereotypical evil color kinda defeats their whole thing."

'I doubt they were thinking about colour theory when they started it all up.' She snorted, 'But seriously? Anything?'

"They were coordinated, that's for sure." The switch between the lighthearted comments was jarring, but at this point, Lena wasn't sure if Archer could surprise her with much, "The forces that they had initially seemed to be a few hundred, but in reality, they were just around two hundred in total. Most of which I picked off fairly quickly."

'Only two hundred?' Lena frowned. If that's the case, then the number just outside the exit of the Overwatch facility wasn't just a drop in the bucket for these guys, but a significant chunk of their forces.

"They made use of several remote explosives, and the general chaos to make it seem like there were more. Those ones with the miniguns though?"

'The Bastions?'

"Yes, those 'Bastions', as you call them. They were fairly difficult to pin down after the first few ones I destroyed, surprisingly enough. Their AI must have caught on and adjusted accordingly. Impressive, if anything."

'Well, think about what those Bastions would have thought, seeing all their friends be shot down like that.' It somewhat galled Lena to hear herself talking like that. Like those Bastions weren't their own people. She chalked it up to having been in a life or death situation not twenty four hours ago.

"...Wait-"

"Right, got dinner ready. You good with what we're watching tonight?" Emily came back with a plate of food, one that she didn't recognize. The smell made her mouth water, however.

"Trying something new?" She ignored Archer for now. Whatever he wanted to say could wait after dinner.

"Yep. I thought Japanese would be a bit better than just another can of beans." Lena snorted, and grabbed a spoonful of food.

The taste was just as good as the smell. The two of them ate in companionable silence, broken only by the sounds of the movie they had started up.

These moments, where she could just be herself? These were moments that Lena wouldn't trade for the world.

"Oxton."

Dinner was over, and finally, Archer started to speak up. He'd been quiet when they had started dinner and the movie, and hadn't spoken a word till the both of them were ready for bed.

'What's the problem?'

"Earlier, when you said that those Bastions thought. You mean to tell me that they aren't just AI?"

Lena winced as she brushed her teeth. Right. She forgot about that. Archer was someone who'd died a while ago, before the Omnics ever were revealed to the world. He didn't know what they were, only that they were machines with guns.

'Yeah. Sorry, I should've mentioned that before.' She started, 'But just remember that they were the ones shooting us first. You don't need to feel bad about, well, killing them like that.' Truthfully, she didn't know who she was convincing. Herself, or Archer.

Indeed, reflecting back on everything that happened, plus that ominous broadcast of this Null Sector, the Omnics being fed up with how society treated them was nigh inevitable. Humans had rebelled for less, and with the amount of animosity that Omnics got, especially in London, she wasn't surprised that they staged this terror attack.

What the issue was, was that she didn't feel bad in the first place.

She couldn't have imagined herself being this dismissal when regarding life. The Omnics during the attack were just doing something that humans had done for millenia. Try and break free of the chains that bind them.

Their purpose was one that she could get behind. The nigh slavery that the Omnics now experienced was a horrible thing, and one she would wholeheartedly back if someone were to find a way to peacefully get rid of.

But she just didn't care about the Omnics that died in the London attack.

And that scared her.

"No, it's not about that."

And then here came Archer with an even more callous approach. It was as if the world itself was telling her that those lives weren't at all important. All the more so that she could practically hear the eye roll from Archer as he said his piece.

"No. You mean to tell me that these Omnics aren't just sentient, but fully sapient? Capable of true complex thoughts?"

'I mean, yeah? I'm not really an expert-'

"When exactly were they created?"

The hardness in Archer's voice was palpable in its frostiness. She'd heard a lot of tones from the man, but never this one. It took her a moment to remember her history classes.

''Round thirty or so years ago? Omnica had omniums by that time, so probably before that?'

She was unsure of the answer, but it took a couple of years for research and development, right? So, logically, it would be around thirty to forty years ago when the Omnics were initially created.

Ah.

'Wow. You missed the Omnics by just the tiniest margin, huh?'

"..."

'Archer?' She frowned in concern. Archer didn't go quiet unless something was important, that much she knew of him. Her eyes widened as she finally processed what she'd 'said', 'Oh. Shit, sorry man, I didn't think that-'

A shimmering of golden light materialized right next to her. She jumped back in fright as the taller man suddenly appeared right in front of her. He looked the same as the last time she'd seen him. Red overcoat, black armor, white hair.

It didn't change that she was in the bloody bathroom when he did that.

"What the fuck man!" She whisper-yelled at him, careful not to alert her fiance to the admittedly strange man that just appeared. He ignored her worries as he stared at her in all seriousness.

"I need your phone."

"...Eh?"

Three hours later, Lena was in bed with Emily. Three hours ago, she'd given her phone to the man currently in her bathroom. Three hours of being unable to sleep.

'What the fuck is my life.'

"An interesting one, if nothing else."

'You done?'

"Yes. I've left your phone on the sink, but more importantly, you're heading back to Overwatch tomorrow, correct?"

'Yeah?'

Indeed, just a day after everything had happened, she was to head back to base. Apparently, they needed all the help they could get with the relief that they were distributing. While not unheard of, going back with no rest time did irk her somewhat.

She could almost feel him nod despite Archer being invisible, "Then while you do that, I'll access the Overwatch computers, get some information there."

Any thoughts that came to mind came to a screeching halt as she processed just what Archer said, 'You-you're going to break into Overwatch's computers.'

"Hm? I didn't think you could be deaf in your own thoughts."

'Archer. What the fuck?!'

There was no need to elaborate. Keeping his existence a secret was one thing. She couldn't exactly go to anyone and say 'Hey, there's an invisible man that can shoot arrows really hard following me around'. She'd be admitted into an institution!

Breaking and using an international task force's computers? That was a completely different matter altogether.

Archer sighed, "As much as you hate it, I have no choice. I need to find out more about the Omnics and where they came from."

'Then go to a bloody library! Or use the damn internet! There's got to be another way than Overwatch!'

"You don't understand, Oxton." His tone changed again. This time, it was tired. As if doing this was something he hated to do, but had to anyway, "Omnics are completely sapient. That's something that's common knowledge, but nobody knows just how important the distinction of sentient, and sapience truly is.

"Had Omnics been just sentient AI, I wouldn't bat an eye. But they're not. They're fully conscious, self-aware, sentient and sapient. They are every bit as human as you or anyone else. And that's what worries me. I know of ways to create artificial life. I've seen several examples, but each of them lacked something fundamental that they couldn't really be called 'alive'.

"Omnics are alive. They choose their own path. They make decisions based on want, not need. They feel like anybody else. And yet, nobody can tell me just where all of that came from. Humans are wired to feel; the brains of each individual make sure of that. Each neural pathway has a near infinite amount of potential that no computer, even now, can ever truly replicate.

"So how, then, were Omnics made? If the human mind can't be replicated, how the hell did something like the Omnic species manage to develop into something that is as human as they are now?"

A pause, as Lena digested what Archer essentially ranted about.

"That's why I need to see Overwatch's databases. Omnica was the only producers of the omniums, but since they've gone under, the only place to look for any information would be the ones that took them down."

Lena silently stared at the ceiling as the echoes of Archer's words filtered into her. She'd never really thought of the Omnics in such a light. She thought she didn't have to. To her, they were just as normal as any other person she knew.

There were good and bad ones, just like humans. There were Omnics that she idolized, like the famous Shambali Monks, and more specifically Mondatta of the Shambali, who advocated for equality between humans and Omnics. They were examples that everyone, regardless of who or what they were, could get behind.

She didn't need to think about where they came from. Such a thing wasn't needed - they already knew where they came from. The omniums. But therein lies the problem. Just what were the omniums themselves that they could churn out artificial life on an assembly line?

She didn't know the answers to these questions. But now that she'd asked them, the overwhelming desire to know the answers was almost too much.

One thing was for sure. Archer would find out. Maybe tomorrow, maybe not, but he would eventually. It was only a matter of time.

A/N: If you like what I do and want to support me, check out my P-atreon at P-atreon•com(slash)Almistyor.

Thanks to my newest patron as well: kris ross.

As well as an extra special thanks to: jadrien pang. Your support really helps a lot. Thank you again.