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Who: Soldier 76 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
personalwar), Gabriel Reyes (gravemistake), and Ana Amari (nanamari)
What: Ana and Jack sit Gabe down to have The Talk
When: Late October
Where: Wyver
Warning(s): None probably
[ Gabriel takes off for a while. That's not really unusual for him. He's like a cat; he comes and goes as he pleases, and instead of bringing home dead birds sometimes he'll just appear in the kitchen at 2am to make her grilled cheese. Despite her talk with Jack, she doesn't just send Gabriel a message and wait for him to come to her. With Gabriel, every possible advantage counts. She used to enjoy the way their conversations sometimes felt like a sparring match between friends, but now she's overly aware of the distance that's grown beyond their control, and the bruises they leave on each other these days. She hopes that this will work out the way they need it to.
It takes her a while, but she finds him eventually. If she had to guess, she'd say that he was on his way back anyway. She moves into the space beside him, matching his pace. ]
We've missed you at home. [ Every word she uses is deliberate. ] Either you're in trouble, or you're getting there. Which is it?
personalwar), Gabriel Reyes (gravemistake), and Ana Amari (nanamari)What: Ana and Jack sit Gabe down to have The Talk
When: Late October
Where: Wyver
Warning(s): None probably
[ Gabriel takes off for a while. That's not really unusual for him. He's like a cat; he comes and goes as he pleases, and instead of bringing home dead birds sometimes he'll just appear in the kitchen at 2am to make her grilled cheese. Despite her talk with Jack, she doesn't just send Gabriel a message and wait for him to come to her. With Gabriel, every possible advantage counts. She used to enjoy the way their conversations sometimes felt like a sparring match between friends, but now she's overly aware of the distance that's grown beyond their control, and the bruises they leave on each other these days. She hopes that this will work out the way they need it to.
It takes her a while, but she finds him eventually. If she had to guess, she'd say that he was on his way back anyway. She moves into the space beside him, matching his pace. ]
We've missed you at home. [ Every word she uses is deliberate. ] Either you're in trouble, or you're getting there. Which is it?
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What surprises him is that Ana is seeking him out, though he supposes it's to see whether or not he's been cohabitating with Moira instead. He can't really blame her, but the we, as if Jack misses him too, is the giveaway. There's an ulterior motive here.]
Oh, you miss me, huh?
[He's not hostile, falling into step alongside her, but he's clearly incredulous. Jack especially doesn't want him around, so that's where Ana's opener falls apart.]
Both of you?
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He has a good reason for being the way he is around you. [ She pauses. ] Come home. We need to talk.
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[Gabriel says that pointedly, though her reason for seeking him out is becoming increasingly clear. It's no surprise that the two of them might want to come clean now that O'Deorain is here, to try and cut her off at the pass. Whatever's going on, there will be two sides of the story either way.
He can't say that he likes the reason they're finally going to talk to him, but perhaps it's better than being left in the dark forever. He's got an idea of some of the things they're going to tell him, at least.]
What made you change your mind?
[He wants to hear her say it.]
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It's better if you hear it from us than from O'Deorain. [ He's right. Ana can give him that. ] She's forced our hand - the way you would have, eventually. But... it's not just that.
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[He says that sharply as well, not wanting to let her or Jack off the hook for this. Maybe they're going to tell him what happened, but it's not because they want to, and he won't be surprised if they're selective about what they do disclose.
Of course, all that means is that he'll be comparing Moira's version of the story to theirs to formulate his own logical version of the events, so if Jack and Ana think they'll be out of the woods, they've got another thing coming. The stare he levels her with says as much.]
You better hope your stories match.
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If Gabriel is actually worried about their stories matching, maybe she was right to think that he wouldn't believe them if they told him. Maybe he won't believe them now, but she can't imagine what he thinks their motivations for lying to him would be. ]
I know that you don't want to hear it, but keeping things from you for as long as possible seemed like the best way to protect you...Or at least give you the option of another kind of future.
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[Moira, for all the complications of their relationship, doesn't treat him like an enemy. He watches her on the phone but otherwise doesn't argue when they start walking again. This is appealing to the very basest part of him--the part that hates being left in the dark.
She seems to be hinting at the fact that he's supposed to be dead, and maybe they wanted to save him from that, but that potential sequence of events fell apart when Ana unknowingly confessed that she and Jack had been looking for him, back home.]
I don't need protecting, Ana.
[He never has.]
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Even you need protecting sometimes, Gabriel. Mostly from yourself.
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[But that seems to be the last word for him, and he's content enough to keep walking in silence until they get back to the apartment. Presumably, Jack is waiting for them, but he doesn't ready any kind of quip. This is their show now, and he's expectant.]
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They've already figured out how much they want to tell Reyes. They're as prepared as can be, and yet it's impossible not to pace the small living room of their apartment while Jack waits for Ana to return with their "stray" in tow.
He hears the keys and doesn't bother to take a seat even then. It would be obvious that he'd just placed himself somewhere innocuous for the sake of appearances. Instead he stays where he is, watching as both of them walk in.
There's no pretenses about why they're here. No doubt Ana's already explained that.
All the same, all Jack can do at first is nod in greeting. ] Hey.
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Hey.
[He looks Jack up and down, trying to preemptively gather what he can from his face and posture.]
Might as well get this over with.
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She makes brief eye contact with Jack as she passes him and settles cross-legged on the couch, leaving room. ]
We can start sometime after Rialto. [ She can take the lead on the first part of the story. It makes sense, since Jack will have to take over the rest. ] That was where it all really started to fall apart.
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Jack doesn't take a seat, even though Ana's left space for him. It doesn't feel right to be even a little bit comfortable right now, and so he remains leaned up against the wall, arms crossed tight over his chest. ]
You already know that part, though, don't you. Blackwatch getting exposed, put on the bench -- except you completely ignored that during the Null Sector incident.
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If I hadn't sent McCree you would've sat on your hands until Null Sector got bored and killed Nandah, but go on.
[Gabriel gestures for Jack to continue.]
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Either way, after ignoring the UN and going in, Overwatch was under even more of a microscope. I'm sure you already had an idea of where things were going, but it only got worse.
[ He pauses for a moment, memories of this part of his life never easy to revisit. He lets out a low breath, then continues. ]
Talon wasn't done with us, not even close. They took some Overwatch scientists hostage, and both Ana and I were on the ground on that op to get them back.
[ It's still up there as one of the worst days of his life, and he can't keep the weariness completely off his face as he turns to look at Ana. She has to take it from here. ]
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When Jack looks at her, she nods, and then turns to Gabriel. ]
We got the scientists clear of the building, but Talon had a sniper in their pocket. She started to pick off our people: Singh, Kimiko, Adams, Rivera...
[ Ana could continue. She remembers all of their names. ]
Jack ordered me to disengage. I refused. [ Though she's speaking to Gabriel, it's a reminder to Jack too. The choice was hers. ] I cut off our comms. I knew that I could take her, and if I let her go, she would take more of ours instead.
[ She doesn't think she needs to detail this part for Gabriel. Jack had done the sensible thing and left with the scientists; it was too hot for them to stay, and Ana had always been able to take care of herself. ]
I pursued her. When I took my shot, it broke her helmet, and I saw her face for the first time. It was Amélie Lacroix. [ She gives him a moment, to make all of the connections she did. It was Amélie who had killed her husband, and escaped after his death. ] Needless to say, I hesitated.
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This is a piece of the puzzle that he hasn't guessed at, and it throws him off. None of that shows on his face, of course, save for the increased furrow of his eyebrows. It's not difficult to piece together what happened--Ana is not exactly known for hesitating. What's equally as troubling is the reappearance of Gérard's wife.]
Sleeper agent.
[Talon must have gotten to her between her first disappearance and Overwatch's rescue, or maybe she'd been a plant the whole time. What's certain is that Amélie likely killed Gérard herself. Gabriel lets out a long breath. This is as much his failure as Ana's. As Jack's.]
I should've known.
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Watching Gabriel's reaction is equally interesting, and Jack's actually a little surprised that there isn't blame immediately thrown his way. That'll likely come with time. ]
None of us saw it coming.
[ So all of them were to blame in one way or another. Does that mean this will get glossed over? Probably not. Jack lets out a heavy breath and closes his eyes as he speaks. ]
I had no idea what happened to Ana after that. She was MIA, we never found a body, and Overwatch had so much heat coming its way at that point that we didn't have the resources to properly search, either.
[ He forces his eyes open then, to turn toward Gabriel with a calm steadiness. It feels necessary, to avoid this turning into yet another fight. They'd had too many, back then. ]
As you can probably guess, things just got worse and worse between us after that.
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It wouldn't have mattered. [ Ana adds. ] After she took out my eye, I was as good as dead, and the resources you had left were better spent where they were.
[ She falls silent after that; this part, she doesn't know about in any particular detail. Gabriel probably blamed Jack, and Jack probably blamed himself, but this is all on her. At least this time around, she's here to remind them of it. ]
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Or, perhaps, he's just surprised that it hurts.]
Guess Overwatch didn't hold together long after that.
[That much is obvious. Given how he'd been feeling about Jack at the time he was taken by the Orbiters, he can't imagine Ana's presumed death helped anything.]
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Like back at Swiss HQ. Jack had never heard Gabriel yell like he had during that confrontation. ]
Less than a year.
[ Jack exhales and lifts a hand to rub slowly at his eyes. This isn't going to get any easier, and he won't have Ana's help with filling in the blanks now. ]
Someone had it out for us. They wanted Overwatch put into the ground, once and for all -- and you and me with it. [ His hand drops and he stares across the apartment at nothing at all, rather than having to look at either of the other people in the room. ] It was a set-up, or that's my theory anyway. You and I, stuck in HQ when it was rigged to blow...
[ Probably Reyes can guess at the rest. ]
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Then we all let everyone think we were dead. I know that part.
[The problems is that it's all too simple. Ana's presumed death explains a neat, orderly sequence of events from his actions in Venice to the ultimate collapse of Overwatch. This is nothing he wouldn't have been able to figure out for himself, and it's not anything that particularly surprises him, either.
So theoretically, this is not the knowledge they thought he needed protecting from, and Gabriel isn't going to let them get away with this kind of answer.]
Doesn't explain why you act like I'm a threat.
[That's directed to Jack more than anything. Time to own up.]
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