"ETA is three hours. Everyone doing good back there?" Captain Chase called out into the Orca's intercom from where she sat in the co-pilot seat. The entire team was doing some last minute checks, with Archer and, surprisingly, Reinhardt having a conversation on the dropship's specifications.

Lena wouldn't have guessed that the older man studied engineering before joining the armed forces, though she should have, considering he was the one that took care of the horrendously complex armor that he wore.

Still, it was nice to see Archer having a conversation that wasn't about magic, or conspiracies, or some crime he committed earlier.

"I heard that." The red-clad Spirit narrowed his eyes as he spotted her looking at their direction.

'They grow up so fast.' She mimed wiping away tears, a grin on her face. Archer rolled his eyes, his conversation with Reinhardt going uninterrupted.

"No problems here, Captain!" Lena shouted back to the cockpit, stretching her arms as she did so. She had to admit, she was jealous that Captain Amari was the one piloting the ship. She hadn't actually piloted an Orca, not even back in the RAF, and it had been a childhood dream of hers to do so.

Well, there was always next time.

That, and she wasn't sure she wanted to pilot a ship with all of them right now, not when Archer's words still lingered in her head.

A hacker that could potentially take over their ship was not ideal, and would just worry her too much that it would distract her from the actual piloting. The captains must've known about it, and Lena was amazed that they could take that risk regardless.

Then again, they might not have had a choice in the matter.

As Archer explained to her earlier, Captain Chase had been very adamant in keeping their planning short and concise. Too short and concise. The details were there, but looking closely, it was way too vague. The others must've noticed it too. Especially Reinhardt, the older man having worked with them the longest, and yet, there were no protests aside from Archer.

Ergo, as the white-haired man told her, they were trying to let him know that he needed to take things somewhat into his own hands. The command chain knew that Archer was capable of breaking into their system by virtue of being a ghost. There was no way to actually get around that, bar making everything they could verbally.

Instead, they used that security flaw to their advantage.

And Archer was going to do what he did best. His words, not her own.

Lena couldn't help but feel dread as Archer had said that as calmly as he could.

"Chase, what's our current position?" Her dread turned to alarm as said man stood up.

"We're just above Veracruz, Mexico."

"Hm. Alright then. Shouldn't take that long." He reached up to press a button, much to Reinhardt's alarm, if his shout was anything to go by.

The ship's doors suddenly burst open. Wind whipped up the entire inside of the Orca as Lena shouted in alarm, her position having been right next to said door. Thankfully, the harnesses they had on allowed them to not get sucked out into the night air.

That did nothing to stop her from getting a faceful of freezing wind though.

The strike team were very much in the same position as her, shouts of alarm and panic, with Genji and Angela pressing themselves into the back of their chairs, and Winston pulling on several more belt straps. Reinhardt was more composed, though his grip on the seats was noticeably tighter.

A tap from Archer on her shoulder. Lena turned to him, but had to pull away due to the winds. The bastard was standing right in front of the open door without a care in the world.

Another tap, and this time, she felt a rush of energy.

"Tell them I'll get to Havana as soon as I can, alright?!" He had to shout to let himself be heard, and even then, she could barely make out the words. At the same time, she heard him in her head.

"I've Reinforced your accelerator to be a bit more efficient. It won't last forever, maybe a week at most if you're conservative with using your abilities, though it shouldn't take me more than a day to deal with the hacker."

Without even waiting for an acknowledgement, the madman jumped out.

Without a parachute.

The door closed as soon as he left.

Catching her breath, she wildly turned to the captains, "Captain! Arc-"

"Orca-12 to air control," Captain Chase's voice thundered over Lena's completely cutting her off, "We had a minor issue with our communication array and had to restart it. Please repeat last communications for clarification."

As the Mexican air control apparently replied to them, Chase gave everyone else a stern look.

Lena slumped in her seat.

Right. 'Archer's best' is code for 'make Lena think he's a bloody lunatic'.

They arrived three hours later in Havana, with neither Captain Amari nor Captain Chase giving a single indication that Archer had ever existed. There was a general air of confusion among them all, though the silent message of 'don't talk about it' was prevalent.

And so they didn't.

Lena, by virtue of Archer telling her, at least had a rough idea of why he did what he did.

As important as getting Lacroix out and capturing Maximilien was, the idea that anything that they did was being watched was a more pressing issue. Any plan that they made was likely to be leaked. Any discussion they had would never be private.

The safety of a single person couldn't be understated. The security of the entirety of Overwatch's operations was even more important, as horrible as that sounded.

It was simple objectivity. The lives of the many versus the life of a single person. As bitter on her tongue as it was, she understood why Archer needed to take care of the hacker, regardless of if they needed his help or not.

Hell, she'd already survived the London Uprising. At this point, an extraction mission would definitely be a lot easier than that.

…

Lena's thoughts were interrupted as the Orca's landing gear engaged, and the dropship touched down with a slight jolt. The hatch hissed open, and she was greeted by the humid, tropical air of Havana. She quickly unclipped her harness, stretching her legs as she stood up.

The team disembarked in an orderly fashion, with Captain Amari and Captain Chase leading the way. Lena brought up the rear, her eyes scanning the surroundings for any signs of trouble. The landing zone was secure, but Lena knew better than to let her guard down.

Without any more delays, they moved, following the plan that had been laid out back in London, if missing one person.

Surprisingly, or maybe unsurprisingly, they hadn't been noticed by the locals. It was in the early hours of the morning, after all, and barely anyone, aside from a few drunks, would have paid attention to a car driving its way down the main road.

Soon enough, they arrived near the distillery, the silence between the four of them just starting to become uncomfortable. Genji and Angela were more confused than anything, and Lena had the two of them silently motion to Captain Chase to ask what had happened in the dropship.

Lena had passed the look onto Angela, who passed it onto Genji. Repeat for the next ten minutes, and nothing had happened other than an awkward silence.

So the moment they'd stopped, the three of them gave a collective sigh of relief as the mission came underway.

"This is Chase, confirming the start of operations. Accompanied by Oxton, Shimada, Ziegler and Archer. Going radio silent." Lena narrowed her eyes at the end. Was…was she pretending that Archer was still here?

"Copy that, Captain, good luck."

"Switching to short range frequencies."

As one, they all switched their communicators. And just as they did that, Chase gave a sigh as her shoulders relaxed. Looking over at them, she gave a wry smirk.

"I'm amazed all of you managed to keep your mouths shut in the car." Her earlier overly silent disposition was gone in an instant as she led them through the alleyways.

"Ma'am?" Angela furrowed her eyebrows as they followed, though the suit that the medic wore made things a bit more conspicuous.

"What, did you think I didn't notice all of that?" With a snort, they made their way onto a rooftop overlooking the distillery. Lena could spot guards all over the entrance, nothing all too uncommon. What was uncommon was just how heavily armed they were.

"Well, let me clear things up, you all deserve that much." Climbing down was easier said than done. There were fewer guards on the west side, but the height of the drop was much more annoying. Unlike literally everyone else who had a way to prevent the fall from hurting them, Lena had to embarrassingly ask Angela to carry her down.

Archer would never let her live this down, should he ever hear of this.

"First thing's first, opsec in Overwatch got screwed over. Some hacker managed to get in the systems, deep enough that we couldn't root them out."

Lena nodded, a face of concern to hide the fact that she already knew this. Genji and Angela were genuine in their concern, which only grew as they stealthily made their way into the distillery proper. Lena listened closely to the captain's words, all of which lined up to what Archer had said.

"So why Archer?" During a lull in which they were sneaking towards the cameras and detonating the EMP charges, Lena couldn't help but ask quietly.

"For some reason, any form of recording just doesn't work on him." Chase replied with a shrug, "Everything he manipulates can be seen, but he himself just doesn't appear."

"That…doesn't make sense?" Lena furrowed her eyebrows, "He makes phone calls, right? How'd that work if it can't pick him up?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. Probably some more magic bullshit." The last charge onto the last camera detonated, Chase motioned for Genji to climb onto the ceiling. In short order, Genji had done so, with Chase guiding him to take down two unaware guards.

They went down easily, the cyborg dragging them into a secluded area. When he returned, he came back with two radios and a keycard. Pocketing the keycard and hanging the radios on a belt loop, they made their way onto the ground floor.

It was a thrill, if Lena was honest. Just like those old spy thrillers, they weaved across the few guards still patrolling the distillery. It was strange. Wouldn't Lacroix, if she was that important, be more heavily guarded? Lena shook her head. It's probably nothing. Or, even more likely, that most of the guards were assigned to Maximilien.

"So, to put it bluntly, Archer is the only person we have that wouldn't be vulnerable to technology at any level. With that in mind, we took the bait to let him deal with the hacker."

"The bait?"

It was a veritable maze, though they did eventually manage to find the door to the basement. A basement that was locked behind some very hefty security doors. No guards were posted, which completely tripped off Lena's sense of danger.

They entered through the door, the keycard working without a hitch. There was a bit of a scare when the radios on Chase's waist fired up, though the captain quickly placated them with a sudden influx of Spanish, courtesy of a voice changer implant that she apparently had.

"Don't you think that this was all too convenient? That we'd managed to get information that Lacroix was going to be here with Maximilien? Well, turns out, Talon itself was the one that leaked the data. They wanted us to find out about all of this."

"Wait, doesn't that mean we're walking into a trap?!" In a panic, Lena had raised her voice. Was this their plan all along? Was Captain Amari aware of this? Was Captain Chase a sleeper agent and led them all into the hands of the paramilitary organization?!

"More than likely, yes. But then again, Lacroix isn't their goal. That hacker is. This entire 'leak' from Talon is their way of getting us out of the way so that they can get to that hacker."

Slowly, Lena pulled out her pulse pistols. Beside her, she could spot Genji do the same with the shorter blade of his, and Angela with her pistol. Chase rolled her eyes.

"Calm down, will you? I'm not Talon, if you're wondering. This was just the best way to ensure that Archer could get to the hacker first without tipping Talon off that we knew about it all."

"Why did you not tell us before, then?" Genji spoke up, having been silent for a while, hand still ready to draw his sword. Had he been wearing his old red-and-black ensemble, Lena was certain she would have seen his eyes narrow.

"Like I said, opsec was screwed. There was literally no way to tell you all without also being recorded by anything."

…That was true, wasn't it? Archer only found out through his being a damn nosy asshat, and through reading through the lines that Chase didn't say.

"Tch." The cyborg ninja took his hand off the blade, though didn't take his eyes off of the captain, "I'm watching you."

"Do what you want, I'm just telling you how it is." Chase shrugged once more, before continuing to walk. The basement was really just a long hallway, into another door. They checked for any cameras, of which they'd found none.

Again, strange, and set off more and more alarms.

The final door at the end was a simple one, not even locked.

"This was our best chance at eliminating a threat before they become too much of one. We just need…to…"

There was a single person in the room, strapped to a chair. The four of them stared in abject horror. Cybernetic implants are common nowadays. They needed to be, since manpower shortages following the Omnic Crisis were difficult to fix with all of the sudden war veterans being crippled in one way or another.

It was why, despite some pushback, cybernetics were just another facet of life. Same as glasses, or wheelchairs.

They had never before seen a person that was bloody purple.

…

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

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