thelegion | video/open + Action

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video/open + Action

[The video feed opens on a tattooed face with a serious expression. Fareeha is here for business; it hadn't taken her long to agree to the Legionnaire's Oath, given the dire situation and her own desire to help where she could.]

Fareeha Amari reporting in. I would appreciate an internal summary from the front lines, if anyone is willing and able. As well if anyone has any questions about my training or previous experience, please do not hesitate to ask.

Action - later

After hearing from America that Reinhardt was here and in the medical wing, she makes it a priority to go check in on him and announce her own arrival. Sadly, when she arrives, she'll not find him there - or likely to be anywhere.

Feel free to catch her anywhere between the living quarters and medical.

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Her voice (familiar, sort of like her mother's) jars him from his thoughts, and it takes him a moment to register her as Fareeha. She looks so much like Ana that it jars him too, to the point where he forgets for a moment that he's wearing his mask and visor.

He breathes deep, acutely aware of the exhale against the inside of his muzzle.

"We might be."

They are, he knows that already. Jack has no reason to hide his identity, not when everyone else knows, and better for her to hear it from him than someone else. The hard part is ripping off the band-aid.

"If you're asking after Reinhardt Wilhelm, then we are."

She's still for a moment as she considers her options and what to say. She knew very little about this man outside of the news reports and grainy video attached, and wanted to treat the sitution with due caution.

However; Reinhardt was her friend, her idol, and currently unwell; her first priority is his safety however she may manage it. Perhaps this man is a concern, perhaps not, but she didn't feel right dismissing him without at least trying to find out more.

"Begs the question, then what does a vigilante want with an old Crusader?"

"I'm an old friend."

Which is both an understatement, and perhaps unexpected. His voice is a little less rough when he says it, as if he hopes that she'll find something familiar in it and save him from having to fully confess. If she guesses, he saves himself the difficulty.

"It's been a while, Fareeha."

She tilts her head, frowning slightly, when he uses her name. She wonders if he caught her network post earlier, but there's something distantly familiar about that voice that - in conjunction with her name - sends a shiver up her spine. It's a slow realization, in which Jack comes to mind but is immediately dismissed because he died,

but then she remembers the letter she had received from Ana. She has to admit to herself -- as crazy as it may seem -- this could be Jack. There's still a hefty amount of doubt and a certain amount of denial, but something shifts on her face as she studies him (or at least what she can see of him).

"No ..." It's less a spoken word and more breathed out on a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

Granted, Jack isn't entirely sure what kind of reaction he expected, though there is a part of him that hopes it's anger. Anger is what he deserves, after all, and no one here has really been able to give him that. Of course they're glad he's alive, and they're quick to chastise him for the disappearing act, but forgiveness comes so easily to his people it shouldn't be a surprise.

Taking off the mask is still difficult, and it's clear he's fumbling just as much. But she knows--he can tell that, at least.

"Sorry about Grand Mesa."

He'd tangled with Helix there, even if Fareeha isn't stationed in the states.

"Not sure if those were your people."

Her doubts are immediately washed away, seeing him there in full view without the mask. There's a hesitant smile, but inwardly she's at odds; while it is such a relief and a joy to know he's alive, it's tarnished by the knowledge that it means he's been that way for a few years. He'd left them all to deal with the fallout of the dissolution of Overwatch. She'd lost her childhood, and worse yet; at the time she hadn't had anyone to confide in who really understood what that loss meant to her.

At his mention of Grand Mesa her expression tightens for a moment, thinking back on the reports, and pursing her lips. Quietly,

"Not my team, but... you caused quite a bit of trouble for them." She looks at him carefully, her expression still bearing some caution. "What were you after?"

He lets the mask drop to his side, but he doesn't make any efforts to get near her--if she wants to close the distance, she will. For now, he won't be so forward.

"Wanted my gun back."

Granted, it's not his--not the one he was famous for, but it's an upgraded model of what he used to use. Of course, the heavy pulse rifles were designed for SEP graduates, too heavy for normal humans to wield, so it begged to question just what they were doing building a new prototype. Jack can't be sure it doesn't mean anything, so that had brought him to Grand Mesa just as much as the promise of having a weapon tailor-made to him back in his hands.

"They weren't doing anything with it."

She has to keep her distance for her own sanity; if she got too close - she'd lose herself in the good fortune that he was alive, that he was back. Standing back, however, afforded her the chance to see the wear in his face and his frame, to hear him talk about things she knew a younger Jack might never have considered.

He may be back, but he certainly wasn't the same person. She felt like she had to get to know him, in a sense, all over again, and after the life she's lead she's wary about letting herself trust too deeply.

"Maybe, maybe not." She didn't claim to know the agenda of Helix altogether; she was simply one part of an elite strike team; it was never her place to question the larger picture. As long as she was working towards a better world, she felt she was in the right place. She'd gotten that righteousness and sense of judgement from Jack, and Overwatch, and it was disheartening to hear he was, in some sense, working against her.

"Why didn't you tell me?" She's not about to let the elephant go any longer without mentioning. She'd at least gotten a letter from her mother.

"I didn't tell anyone."

Obviously--even Ana figured it out for herself, not that Jack knew he should have been looking for her. Fareeha can take this personally if she wants to, but the simple fact of the matter is that it's not at all the case.

"I'm after the people who brought Overwatch down. It's safer for me to be dead."

It puts him in the perfect position to dig, if nothing else.

She watches him carefully, furrowed brow mixed with concern and sadness that this was anything he had to do in the first place.

But she's been out of Overwatch's loop for a long time. She might have had a front row seat when she was growing up, as she worked hard and positioned herself to be recruited, but when her mother had forbade it she'd been forced to refocus her attentions elsewhere. She kept up with people as she could, but no one had really let on how things had become on the inside.

"What do you mean, brought down? Jack -- what happened?" She knew there were theories - but there would always be theories and she hadn't had the luxury or the stomach to put much weight in them. Now, however, she's worried that she's turned her back on people who might have needed it most. There's an urgency in her voice, a regret that she wasn't there.

"It was an inside job."

And Jack knows full well that this particular line of discussion will make him sound like a crazy conspiracy theorist, but he's dug up enough to be reasonably sure that he and Reyes were thoroughly screwed by some third party.

He seems to pick up on the concern in her voice, like she's thinking of all the ways she could have prevented it. Jack shakes his head.

"Nothing you could've done. Don't think there was anything that could've been done. We were set up to fail from the start."

Her head and shoulders slump at his accurate assumption. It was a blow - thinking that the organization she had put so much hope and faith in had been corrupted from early on.

"Who would do that?" She shakes her head, trying to process it all, then looks at Jack again. "My mother ... is that ... ?"

She knew her mother was alive, now, but there had still been the incident that prompted her disappearance and absence. Fareeha hadn't asked a lot of questions, but maybe she should have.

"I have reason to believe that what happened to your mother was part of the larger conspiracy to take Overwatch down."

Not something that's easy to hear, but to have Ana's final mission happen so close to the explosion at HQ, well. They weren't going to get to Jack without taking Ana out, first. He sounds fairly confident in his assertion.

"Someone wanted us gone. Reyes gave them the excuse to pull the trigger."

Edited 2017-03-08 23:57 (UTC)

Her lips pull into a thin line. As much as things still weren't smoothed out between her and her mother, there seethed a low burning, sustained anger at whoever had tried to take her out.

And then Reyes. She hadn't heard nor thought about him in years - not since Blackwatch had come to light and the subsequent explosion at Overwatch's HQ. She'd spent her energies mourning over Jack and Ana. It makes her wonder, though ... with the letter form Ana, and with Jack standing here in front of her ... she looks at him and frowns, cautiously curious and yet somewhat afraid about what she might hear.

"Is he ... did he really die, or is he like you and my mother? Biding his time, digging somewhere else?" Do I need to be on my guard is half what she's asking.

This is arguably the hard part, and Jack takes a moment to prepare himself for this discussion, sighing a little and dragging his hand across his face, scrubbing at his chin.

“Reyes is alive.”

Sort of. From what Jack understands, he is functionally dead, but was somehow reanimated into his current state. He doesn’t expect to ever get a straight answer about it, and he can already see Fareeha getting angry. It’s a simple explanation to accept—that Reyes was directly responsible for the fall of Overwatch, but it all goes much deeper than that.

“But I don’t think he intended to blow himself up, too.”

She crosses her arms, closes her eyes, and bows her head, taking a deep breath and letting it out in a controlled sigh. This was a lot of information to take in all at once, and she's doing her best to process it. It was so -- disheartening -- to find out Reyes had any part of it, and when she looks back at Jack there's a real mixture of sadness and anger. She smiles through it, though, finally moving close enough set a hand on his arm.

"It's good to have you back. I've missed you." The pain comes through - it'd been so hard on her losing so many close people in such a short amount of time, and she hadn't really given herself much time to grieve.

Jack's expression softens--it's all too easy for him to get wrapped up in his conspiracy and go off about what may or may not have happened to Overwatch, ignoring the very human consequences of his actions standing right in front of them. He's been looking at the bigger picture for so long that he's perhaps lost sight of what's most important.

He's always valued his people. He needs to remember that.

"I'm sorry to put you through this, Fareeha."

She settles back and crosses her arms, closing off a little but looking more pained than angry. There's no way for her to easily brush this off, especially having it come after losing her mother, and with losing Overwatch, but she is glad to have him back.

"It was really hard, losing everyone like that, like a chapter on my life had officially closed. I had my Helix family, but no one really understood just how much Overwatch had meant, how much ... you had meant, to me." It was, in every sense of the word, like losing family. It didn't hurt any less - different, certainly - than losing Ana. "You really didn't feel you could tell me, after?"

"Would have if I could."

He can't be sure how much of this is just him chasing ghosts, but if there's even the possibility of anyone using his people to get to him, then he's staying dead and doesn't regret his decision. It puts him in the unfortunate but perfect position to dig up the truth about what happened, and he owes it to all of them to clear Overwatch's name in the history books.

"Too dangerous."

She gives him a look. Not being able to tell her, okay, she could understand that, but too dangerous?

"I'm not a child anymore, Jack; my career is in 'dangerous'." She's military trained, professional and tough. They've been out of contact for a while and maybe he just needs a little reminder.

"That ain't the kind of dangerous I'm talking about."

It goes deeper than any of them realize, and he won't throw any of his people in the line of fire. Even if Fareeha had never been a member of Overwatch, she's close enough to the organization that he doesn't want to risk it.

"We're talking global conspiracy. I'm keeping you and the rest of them out of it."

"Who's got your back?"

Because if it's as dangerous as he says, it shouldn't be a one-man war.

He laughs a little--it's exasperated, but there's a fondness in it, almost wistful. Jack knows about the letter by now, so hopefully it's not too much of a shock, but--

"Your mom."

Jack imagines Fareeha might be hurt by that, but he isn't going to keep lying to her.

"Before all this, anyway."

An intake a breath, a careful release, yes - it stings. She's gotten the letter and, overall, she's happy, but it doesn't erase the lingering feeling of betrayal and hurt. Wrestling with grief for years to find out Ana was still alive, and now Jack, and now - they're working together. Fareeha can't help but feel she's not exactly a priority, outside of 'protect'.

It felt a little stifling to think about, really. All she wanted was for them to recognize her for who she'd become; on her own, by her own power.

"I guess I shouldn't be too surprised."

"Sorry."

He knows that this isn't what she wants to hear, and the hurt is evident in the way she answers him. Unfortunately, Jack can't really offer her much in this department--especially when Ana isn't here. It's all moot.

"We had work to do."

The kind they simply couldn't let the others in on--and that's just an objective fact, as far as he's concerned.

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