"I've said it once, and I'll say it again," Archer mused, "But I don't think I've ever met someone as uniquely cruel as Reyes."
"I SAID PULL HARDER!"
'Gee, ya think?!'
Lena, along with her fellow trainees, were back to their regular training. A little over a month had passed since she had first started, and they had graduated from doing laps, to whatever it was they were doing. Lena couldn't remember - her arms were in too much pain to remember.
"Strength training." Archer supplied, "Reyes said that you were strength training. Though, I have to wonder, how on earth did he come up with this?"
Right, Lena shook her head free of cobwebs. After their 'endurance training', Reyes said that they had to work on their other aspects. This time, they had been working on their strength, which for some reason, involved literally pulling a wooden palette around, where an assortment of bags were placed on.
Each one of the trainees had their own palette, and Lena took comfort in the fact that she wasn't alone in her suffering.
'Why the hell do we even need to do this? This is ridiculous!'
"Shush, you," Archer scolded her like a child. Lena could feel her eye twitch, "You never know when a bit of extra muscle is going to come in handy."
'I know, I know. But still, who the hell does this?!' Lena grunted as her palette scraped against an uneven surface, 'At least just let us lift weights or something!'
"I don't know." She swore the bastard was laughing, "This does add some character compared to weightlifting."
Lena pulled on her palette to the side, a 90-degree turn that grated the wood noisily in her ears. She'd gotten better at this. Multitasking while talking to Archer, over the month. Memories of almost running into walls felt like an eternity ago. Of Archer patiently waiting till she wasn't busy to talk to her.
Nowadays, she could do whatever she wanted while keeping up with a fast paced conversation while simultaneously keeping up with everything else.
With one last heave, she finally made it through the finish line, and promptly collapsed, breaths coming in deeply. Her entire body was caked in sweat, and around her, she could see everyone else who crossed the finish line was the same.
Tired, lost a lot of liquids through sweating, but proud that they'd managed to do it..
It was a blissful three minutes of waiting, talking to Archer, and greedily drinking from her water bottle before Reyes decided that it was enough.
"Alright people," He motioned for everyone to come closer, and while there were some groans of fatigue, none dared to argue. The one time someone dared to talk back to Reyes was the last time for a reason, "Got some announcements before I let you all go."
Lena stood up straight as she gave a sidelong glance at everyone there. It made her giddy, knowing that they'd made it so far. A month ago, half of the people here, her included, wouldn't have been able to move after all of the physical activity they did.
Now? All of them stood to attention, breathing heavily, but confident.
"Everyone here?" Reyes didn't bother to yell out, instead directing his gaze to Lena herself. Apparently, the man had decided that she was to be the spokesperson out of their entire group.
"Sir, yes, sir!"
"Good." The man nodded, "Now listen closely. Captain Chase over in Canada has been requesting some backup since Null Sector's been spotted moving around there. Don't worry, none of you'll be moving there anytime soon." Reyes was quick to placate the worry that had suddenly sprouted up.
"Instead, myself and a few others will be going. Which means, I won't be around to educate your sorry asses."
This time, another, more hopeful feeling swarmed the crowd. Lena couldn't help but feel the same. After a month of being under Reyes, literally anyone else would be a better alternative.
"That's why, good ol' Jack here'll take over while I'm gone." It took a moment for everyone to realize that Reyes was nodding towards someone in the back. Another for everyone to turn and look.
"Afternoon, everyone."
Commander Morrison walked up to the front. How they didn't notice him beforehand was a miracle - he was wearing a bright blue coat, after all. A silent cheer went around as Reyes stepped aside and let the Commander take his place.
"Welp, looks like you've got this covered." Reyes gave one last smirk, before turning around with a wave, "I'll leave you to it. Kids, be nice to your babysitter! And Cadet Oxton, keep up the good work, will you?"
Morrison gave a snort as Reyes left, an amused smile playing on his lips, before he addressed Lena and the others, "Before we continue, I want to know just what you've been doing since you started. Cadet Oxton?"
"Sir!" She saluted, and started recounting everything that they had done for the month.
She recounted the laps, the parkour, the full 20-minute sprint, and many more. Laying it all out, Lena realized that they had done a lot in that time, finally finishing with today's strength exercises..
It was jarring just how much had changed. When before, as a pilot, she wouldn't have dared to take on all of the challenges that Reyes put them through. A feeling of pride and accomplishment warmed her up as she waited for Morrison's response.
"...You're serious? You did all that in the past month?"
'I don't like where this is going.'
Archer snorted, and she could hear him stifling a full blown laugh. And she knew for a fact that he was purposely doing it.
"Sir, everything I've listed down can be confirmed by my peers." What was left of them, anyway. A good half of the entire unit had either been forced to leave due to medical issues, or left when they couldn't handle it.
Lena couldn't blame them. She had, on more than one occasion, been tempted to leave. But she didn't, and here she was now.
"I am going to kill Reyes." Morrison breathed out a sigh as he rubbed the bridge of his nose in annoyance.
"Cadet Oxton, and this goes for the rest of you as well, what you just went through for the past month isn't the norm." He cast a serious look at everyone, and the pilot could feel her knees buckle in nervousness, "What you were put through was Reyes' personal regiment. It wasn't meant for any of you."
It took a moment to process that information, during which she could hear Archer slowly laugh more and more. The moment it did, her jaw openly dropped.
'You knew about that, you bastard?!' Lena internally screamed, as Archer couldn't contain it anymore and started laughing at her distress.
"The entire month." He got out in between laughs.
'The entire bloody month. The entire bloody MONTH.' Everything she and everyone else had done for the month, all the blood, sweat and tears that they'd put in was all for something that they weren't even supposed to do.
A collective groan as the information that Morrison put forth sunk in, and more than one muttered curses later, the Commander was rubbing his head in frustration.
"Look, I know the day isn't over, but all of you are on leave, effective immediately. You're not to strain yourselves too much, and are to report to the clinic if you have any issues. Am I clear?" A chorus of disheartened affirmatives.
"Good. One last thing - if you see Reyes, tell him I want to talk to him. Dismissed."
"Hah. Sorry, you should have seen the look on your face."
'ARCHER, WHY?!'
Lena mindlessly let her tired feet walk her out the range they were using, eyes listlessly looking at the despondent group of cadets. A month of suffering through the hell that was Reyes' tender mercies, and it wasn't even meant to be.
"Oh stop being so overdramatic."
'Easy for you to say, you're not the one that had to do all that!' Yes, Lena could admit to herself that maybe she was dramatizing it a bit too much, but every muscle that she knew of, and some that she didn't, hurt too much for her to care.
"That may be so, but Reyes putting you through all that was a good thing, considering the circumstances."
'Archer, Reyes is a bloody super soldier.' She told him as if it answered everything. And in her eyes, it did. The gauntlet they were put through was training that was specifically Reyes'. Ergo, it was training that was specifically tailored to a super soldier.
Super soldiers, more officially known as enhanced soldiers, were above and beyond regular humans. While the governments of the world denied it, the soldier enhancement program was an open secret to the public.
Genetically modified by the greatest minds that humanity had, super soldiers were part of the main driving force against the omnics during the Crisis. While the details were scarce, the two most prominent enhanced soldiers had stood head and shoulders above anyone else.
Those very same soldiers stood in front of her not a few minutes ago.
That one of them was them in a way that had the other raise his eyebrows was conducive to the latter thoughts.
That they weren't meant to even try any of what they did, because simply put, they weren't built for that. Super soldiers, by definition, were stronger, faster, had more endurance, and were by and large, everything a normal human can ever be, and then some.
Normal, or as normal as Lena could be with time altering powers, people couldn't keep up with them, to say nothing of the training they were put through.
'How the hell could any of that be a good thing?' Lena was more than a little bitter at Reyes.
"Oxton, had you not been put through that training, it would have taken you six months to get where you are now." Archer had stopped laughing at this point, "Reyes trained you how he did because he could see the writing on the wall. There will be a war, and it's going to be bigger than anything before it."
'What, by Null Sector?' The omnic terrorist group had been ramping up operations recently, but there were no signs that it would lead to a war.
"Trust me, Oxton. It will. I don't know when, but it will." Archer was solemn, and it was with a sudden realization that she had been seeing this side of him more and more recently. Had he known about that since the beginning?
'Well, if that's the case, why'd Commander Morrison look like he was about to hand Reyes his ass?' That was the one thing that hung on Lena's mind. As much as it did make a modicum of sense that Reyes was preparing them, albeit in less than strictly normal methods, Morrison's reaction was strange.
If Reyes could see something happening in the future, then why did Morrison take offense to their training like that?
"I suspect it's because of," Here, the Spirit gave a sigh of annoyance, "Politics. Overwatch can't be seen building up a military force without just cause, else the UN will get involved. Unfortunately, gut feelings don't really pass."
'So, what, Commander Morrison is trying to keep things from going too far?'
"That, and likely because Reyes himself has been running his own little black ops unit that he's thinking of recruiting you for."
That stopped Lena's train of thought immediately, 'Archer, what the hell are you talking about?'
She had never heard of any secret troops that Overwatch could've had. There was no need, in her and everyone else's opinions. They were already doing the dirty work that a lot of people didn't want to do, having a black ops unit would only further complicate things.
"They call themselves Blackwatch, as ironic as that name may be." She could practically see him shrug his shoulders at the name, "Overwatch does a lot of things, but Blackwatch does the things that even Overwatch would never admit to. Assassinations, kidnappings, instigating civil conflicts, the like."
The way that Archer talked about it, like he was talking about the weather, was at odds with the inner turmoil that Lena felt, 'That can't be true. People would've found out eventually, and even if they didn't, there would still be rumors.'
"Not unless they run a really tight ship." The Spirit countered, "From what I can tell, most Blackwatch operatives don't even know they're working for them. The only ones that would know anything are the top brass themselves, and they sure as hell aren't talking."
'But-There's just no way to know though! For all I know, you could just be pulling this out of your ass!' It was one of the few times that Lena doubted Archer's words. To be fair, it was the first time that Lena ever felt like the spotless record of Overwatch was tarnished in some inexplicable way.
Overwatch was supposed to be a bastion of heroism, a guiding light during the toughest of times. For someone to even imply that that was a lie, that Overwatch was no better than the governments of countries in their espionage, she'd fight them on that any day of the week.
Even if it was someone like Archer that did so.
"Oxton, I am essentially a ghost that can go anywhere I want, and have had more free time to do anything in the past month than any other time I've ever had."
'Well, haven't you been doing that investigation thing? When would you have had time to look into Overwatch if you were busy with that?' Lena was aware she was grasping straws by changing the subject, trying to keep the image of Overwatch untainted in her own mind. Regardless, a small part of her gnawed at her, asking the question of 'what if he was telling the truth?'.
She didn't like it.
"I hit a dead end two weeks ago, unfortunately." Archer sounded a lot more frustrated at that than anything else. She didn't even know what he was investigating, only that it was important enough that he went wherever it was alone, "Unless the answer falls out of the sky, I'll need to wait for something to happen."
'And, you're sure something will happen?'
"Knowing my luck? It's a miracle nothing has." The astralized man could somehow project more exasperation than her mother could when Lena was younger, "Oxton. I know what you're doing, so let me stop you right there. Don't overthink things. Overwatch and Blackwatch, though part of the same organization, are two different things. Don't let the idea of Blackwatch ruin your views of the men and women you're working with."
'But…'
"But nothing. Remember, the world could always use more heroes." Lena couldn't help but hear the tinge of regret in Archer's voice as he spoke those words. She didn't comment on it. Archer was entitled to his own secrets, even if he was a voyeurist that enjoyed watching her for every waking moment.
"I heard that."
'Good.' While she had now calmed down with his words, she still couldn't help but feel annoyed as she walked to the mess hall. He was right, the smug bastard. Blackwatch, technically criminal as they were, were different from Overwatch itself. It wouldn't do her good to dwell on it, though one last question remained.
'You said Reyes was trying to recruit me?'
"Are-are you serious?" The man sounded shocked, "Oxton, the man had been dropping hints any time he can. Are you seriously telling me you haven't noticed?"
'He has?'
"I realize now why O'Hara calls you dense, because holy shit, I think you're the second densest person I've ever seen."
'Hey! I resent that!' Lena's curiosity was stifled by the indignation she felt, even as she realized that Archer was doing this on purpose, '...Thanks, Archer.'
"Any time, Oxton, any time."
'You're still making us dinner tonight as punishment though.'
The laughter of the Spirit echoed in her mind, even as Lena piled on food onto her plate, thoughts of dinner already floating around.
A/N: If you like what I do and want to support me, check out my P-atreon at P-atreon•com(slash)Almistyor.
And a special thanks to: Oliver vazquez, brutalcrab and Tassimo.