When Lena went to the Overwatch base early in the morning, prepared to do whatever she needed to do, she certainly didn't expect there to be a huge crowd waiting outside. Nor did she expect the mayor of London herself to come with an entire entourage of reporters.
She most certainly didn't expect to be dragged up with everyone else as they waited for their turn. If she did, she'd have put on something other than her work clothes!
Thankfully, she wasn't alone in this regard, as most of everyone else were distinctly wearing their uniforms, and in Angela's case, her doctor's ensemble. Not to mention, she could see the woman shift on her feet on occasion, even as she looked towards the crowd with a smile.
"Finally, for going above and beyond what was expected of them, we would like to award Dr. Angela Ziegler, Dr. Winston of Horizon Lunar Colony, and Miss Lena Oxton, the highest honors that the city of London can give."
The crowd burst into cheers as the three of them stepped forward.
'Alright, deep breaths. Nothing you can't handle.'
She took her own advice and breathed deeply, opening her eyes and plastering a smile on her face. Despite having her hands shake, her feet wanting to take her literally anywhere but here, she stood firm.
The same could not be said for Winston. The scientist was looking like a fish out of water, frantically looking around in nervousness. She could see him wring his wrists together, and turn around, obviously with the intent to leave the stage.
Lena stopped him as she grabbed him by the shoulder. It must have looked like quite the sight, having a woman of her height stop a fully grown gorilla.
"C'mon big guy, where're you headed?"
"I shouldn't be here, Lena." He shook his head as he started to fully turn, "I don't deserve any of this - you and Dr. Ziegler did all the work."
"Nonsense!" She scoffed, as she smiled a bit more easily. She knew what he was feeling. The feeling of inadequacy, of not deserving credit. Yet Winston, in the admittedly short time they'd known each other for, was anything but.
"Who knows what could've happened if you didn't come get us when you did!" She tried to project as much sincerity as she could in her voice. Easy enough, seeing as she meant every word, "You deserve to be up here as much as anyone else. So c'mon, wave! The crowd's waiting!"
He still looked unconvinced. Lena opened her mouth, words already ready to try and convince the gorilla that had become a friend, when the other person next to them spoke.
"She's right, Winston." Angela turned and gave them both a smile. She nodded to Lena's direction, "We would not be here today if it wasn't for you. My patients owe you as much as me or Lena here."
"Dr. Ziegler…"
"And none of that Dr. Ziegler business! We've been through enough that we can call each other by our names, ja?"
Finally, that seemed to pierce through whatever cloud was hanging around the gorilla. He returned the smiles that the two of them gave him, "Alright." He made his way to the front of the stage, where the crowd had been anxiously curious as to what was being said among them.
"Thank you, Dr. Z-" A raised eyebrow from the doctor, "Angela. Lena. Thank you." He waved to the crowd, a nervous smile on his features. The crowd cheered in appreciation, growing louder as both Lena and Angela joined him. The three of them waved to the crowd before a photographer raised a hand toward them.
Lena quickly wrapped her arms around the two's shoulders, though for Winston, that barely came halfway. She raised her hand in a peace symbol as her face was split with a wide grin on her face. Beside her, the two gave their own, less wide smiles but no less genuine smiles.
The photo was taken shortly after.
Later on, a copy of the photo would find its permanent home in Lena's wallet.
'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-'
"Oxton, for God's sake, calm down."
'Easy for you to say, mister! You didn't need to stand in front of so many people!'
As soon as the crowd dispersed, and a conversation with the mayor where she once again thanked the three of them, it was back to business with Overwatch. They all made their way inside the building, where after Winston and Angela went to their respective offices, Lena promptly collapsed on the first bench she found.
'Oh fuck, Archer, was my hair this messed up the entire time?! Fuckfuckfuck, what would they think, me not even combing my bloody hair on TV? They'd think I'm some sort of slob! God, mom's gonna kill me, an-'
"No, it wasn't like that." She could see the man roll his eyes in her mind, "Remember, Emily did your hair when you left. You've just been pulling your hair for the past three minutes now. And no, I don't think your parents would be disappointed. If anything, they'd be proud of you."
Lena tried to calm down her still rapidly beating heart as she listened to the annoyed drone of Archer's voice. Taking a few more deep breaths, she almost missed someone walking towards her. Thankfully, she didn't, and as soon as she saw who it was, she immediately stood up, previous worries shoved down to the backburner.
"Commander Morrison, sir!" She fought the instinct to salute. Overwatch was not the military, despite what others may say.
"At ease," the grizzled commander chuckled, "Rough day out there?"
"A bit, sir." She admitted.
"Ah, press conferences, gotta love 'em." Commander Morrison continued to laugh, "I still remember my first one, was so nervous, I threw up right after. Good times." Lena certainly didn't think it were good times, considering she could now feel the urge to throw up herself.
"Anyway, that wasn't what I wanted to talk to you about." He nodded once at her, and Morrison's friendly disposition turned just a hint more serious, "Go on down to inventory, they're gonna need a couple more hands with all the supplies."
"Sir!" This time, she really did salute.
Lena watched as Morrison left to go talk to another agent, before she made her way towards where she could be of help. At least it'll be some distraction from all the worries that the awards ceremony gave her.
During her walk, she could spot the telltale signs of battle - it hadn't been obvious outside, since the mayor's people had probably cleaned it up in preparation for the press conference, but inside of the base was another matter entirely.
Cracked floor tiles, lights flickering on and off, and in one instance, a hole in the ceiling the size of Lena's torso. It was a miracle that this was the extent of the damages considering Null Sector had been targeting the building.
Finally reaching her destination, she was greeted by the sight of more than twenty people carting around large boxes, with some more with tablets inspecting each one.
"Lena Oxton?"
One of the men spotted her and waved for her to come over, "Sir?"
"No need for that, my friend!" The man, a giant of a man if she'd ever seen one, laughed heartily, "We're all working the same job, no need to make it stuffy with all those formalities. Ah! Where are my manners? Reinhardt Wilhelm, at your service!"
Reinhardt Wilhelm towered over her, to put it mildly. Sporting a head of white hair and a scar on one eye, the man was probably old enough to be her grandfather. Yet, he wore a blue-themed set of armor as if it weighed nothing, while also carrying a box almost the size of Lena herself in one hand.
"Now, come. Commander Morrison told me you'd be helping us, but I don't think you'd be up to carrying boxes around!"
He led her towards a table where a few tablets were piled up. He was still carrying the box under his arm.
"Here," Reinhardt grabbed one of them and gave it to Lena. She scrolled through, and just from the start, she could tell that this was going to be a long day, "I'll help you through the first few." He opened the box and pulled out what looked to be MREs.
"There should be…"
All in all, the job she was tasked with was monotonous. Count how many of each item are in each box, stamp them with the relevant details, then call over one of the others to move it to the delivery trucks. An easy job, but the repetitive nature of such a thing really wore her down.
The only saving grace was Reinhardt's antics of trying to liven things up. He'd start telling stories of old battles during the Omnic Crisis, of random anecdotes that would cause more than a few people to spit out their drinks laughing. The work was boring, yes, but Reinhardt at least made it bearable.
Speaking of the older man, the Crusader was pretty much well-liked by everyone. Even Lena, who'd only known him for around three hours, couldn't help but like him. Despite being outwardly terrifying with his size, the man didn't feel like he had a mean bone in his body.
"Alright everyone! Lunch! It's on me today!" A collective cheer went around the room as everyone finished what they were doing, Lena included.
A few more minutes later, and everyone was off, Reinhardt excitedly talking about the restaurant he was taking them to. She contentedly followed at the back, still somewhat nervous about walking with everyone. The people here were nice, yes, but she'd still only known them for a couple of hours.
Speaking of which…
'Oi, Archer, you there?'
"Of course, your majesty." The sarcasm was so thick that Lena had to stifle a grin.
'You still serious about that whole breaking into the databanks thing?'
"Hm? Oh, right. I'm already done."
That brought her to a halt in the middle of the hallway.
'You…you already did it?'
"Yes. Why do you think I was telling you to calm down earlier? It's really difficult to memorize a password when someone is screaming in your head, you know."
She really didn't know what to say to that.
"Regardless, it turned out to be a dead end. Nothing on there was what I was looking for, which leads me to believe that they either don't have it, or they're on some offshore system unconnected with this branch."
'What, you didn't find anything at all?'
That was surprising. Overwatch had fought during the Omnic Crisis, so it would be reasonable to assume they'd have some info on hand in case something like that happens again. Or, again again, considering the recent events.
'Not necessarily. Found floor plans of the omniums, some persons of interest, and whatnot, but all of it dates to after the first omnium was built. There wasn't anything before that. At any rate," he sighed, "It's a dead end until I can find some other lead. For now - pole in two inches."
She stopped immediately, blinking to see that her nose was just about to touch a telephone pole. She embarrassedly rubbed the back of her head as several people looked at her in confusion. She quickly backtracked and found where Reinhardt and the others were. She slipped in behind them once more, none of them noticing her temporary disappearance.
"Rrrright. First off, you need to learn how to multitask. Walk and talk, but keep paying attention to where you're going."
'Yeah, yeah, I got it.'
"Really? That wall almost got you."
'Oh shut up, Archer. Tell me what you were going to say already!'
"Fine, fine. I was about to discuss just what exactly the nature of our contract is. I never did explain it, after all."
'Oh, right. Just give me a minute.'
They had been walking for around ten minutes now, and they had seemingly arrived at their destination. A steakhouse that had been miraculously spared any damage from the attacks. One that the crusader apparently frequented from how the guard was laughing with him. They were quickly ushered into the restaurant and onto their table.
Since he was paying, Lena went ahead and told Reinhardt to order for her, which gave her the perfect cover to talk with Archer.
'Okay, we're good.'
"You better get comfortable then." He warned, "This isn't exactly easy material to explain with no context." Archer cleared his throat, which Lena found made absolutely zero sense. How do you clear your throat in your own mind?
"I already told you I was dead, and that I am a Heroic Spirit. While true, it does miss some important facts. For one, what exactly is a Heroic Spirit? In simple terms, it's someone who's made a mark in history that they ascended into the Throne of Heroes." She nodded her imaginary head.
"Now, when a Heroic Spirit is summoned, they can't be fully there. They're already dead, after all, and to bring back the full souls would take a tremendous amount of power. Instead, they're pushed into containers that they're compatible with their actions in life. They become Servants. Saber, Archer, Lancer, Rider, Caster, Assassin, Berserker. These seven are the standard classes. As you can guess, I'm an Archer.
"The role of the Servant is to protect their Master, their summoner, from harm, while the Master provides them with magical energy, mana, to keep existing. If the Master dies, then the Servant usually follows quickly after."
'Really?' She tried to keep the incredulity of her mind, but there was no helping it after that last part.
"You don't believe me." Archer spoke calmly, but Lena felt as if she was facing her disappointed father as a kid all over again.
'It's just, I don't know, Archer. Masters and Servants? Magical energy? You sound like you're pulling my leg here!'
"I know, I know." Lena could hear the exasperation in his voice, "I can prove it to you later, but there's still more that you need to know before that, and it's likely that you're going to be even more skeptical about this. But please, for now, you have to listen to me."
'...Alright, I'm listening. But if it sounds like you're just fucking with me, I'm ignoring you.'
"Thank you. Yes, magical energy is real. That also does mean that magi, magecraft, and Magic all exist as well. You just never hear of it due to the policies of the Mage's Association, which is a topic I won't get into for now. I subsist on magical energy to exist. By all metrics, I am a Servant, and you are my Master.
"But you're not a magus. I have not received a single drop of magical energy from you. In fact, and I'm taking a guess here, you don't even have any Magical Circuits! So, the question is, how and why am I still here?"
A plate was laid down in front of her, and Lena smiled at the waiter even as she listened to Archer.
"The answer is simple. You didn't summon me, Oxton. You somehow pulled my entire being with you when we made that contract. Granted," Where before, Archer sounded almost excited at what he was saying, he quickly turned melancholic, "I suspect it's only temporary. My existence still has to be fueled by something, likely my previous contractor, but for now, I am free.
"That's why I wanted to tell you, thank you, Oxton. You have no idea what you've done for me."
The taste of the steak in front of her tasted just a bit better as she smiled at the sincere tone that Archer had. For all his snarkiness, she could tell he really was grateful to her.
"That's why, even if you don't truly believe it until I can prove it, I'm going to prepare you for whatever the Moonlit World can throw at you."
It was an hour later when they finally all left the restaurant. While most of them who'd eaten had satisfied looks on their faces, Lena was not one of them.
'Fuck me, Archer! You're a bloody sadist!'
In the span of an hour, after his heartfelt thanks, he had done nothing but lecture her on the intricacies of the Moonlit World, as he'd called it. While some might appreciate it, for Lena, it only brought tears of boredom as he told everything in the driest way possible.
Somehow, Archer had made telling stories about magic be the most mind numbing experience she'd had since college.
"Trust me, you'll appreciate it someday."
'Appreciate my bloody arse!'
"Emily might get the wrong idea if you cont- Look out!"
Lena was crossing the street, when a large hover-truck came barreling through a red light. Idly, as she stared at the honking truck, frozen in disbelief, two thoughts were going through her head:
'So after all that, this is how I die?'
And:
'Aren't trucks banned on this road on Thursdays?'
The truck was getting closer, and from the corner of her eye, she could see a glimmer of golden dust shimmer towards her. In the back, she could distantly hear panicked cries, with Reinhardt being the loudest of them all.
Then, everything stopped.
The world turned blue.
Lena blinked as everything around her was seemingly frozen. Even the truck had stopped moving - no, wait it was moving ever so slightly forward. She herself could move normally, unaffected by what was happening.
She turned her head to where she thought Archer was, and right there, she could see the top half of his head and one of his arms already materialized, his eyes filled with worry as he reached towards her. She raised her hand to his face and waved it. No reaction.
She turned around and saw her fellow Overwatch agents were looking at her in horror, while the crusader was in the act of pushing people aside to make his way forward. She made her way towards them, none of them moving in the slightest.
"What the fuck?"
There was a small beep on her chest.
The chronal accelerator was pulsing a soft blue, and the beeping repeated, this time followed by a series of even faster beeps.
The blue faded.
The truck hit nothing but air.
"Le-! Schiesse! Lena, are you alright?!"
"Oxton, what the fuck was that?!"
Sometime in the future, Lena would look back and think that the first three days she'd been back were the most eventful of her life. She just didn't know if that was a good or bad thing.
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: Nite (again).