Chapter Text
The reporter was, pretty, Jack supposed that was the word of her. It wasn't a compliment though. Pretty sounded the same as plastic. Not that he judged her for it, because yeah. He supposed he looked pretty too right now. The light glared to bright overhead illuminating everything in the same harshness as the green screen behind him. The whir of mechanics from cameras and speakers frying his nerves down the edge. He looked at himself in the reflection on the camera lens.
"So." She said. Bleached hair bouncing just a little with the words. Like it might forcefully inject more enthusiasm into them. "Tell me, what's the secret to Overwatch's success. Why is it that you managed to succeed where the rest of the world has failed?"
He looked into the camera and plastered the smile of a hero onto his face. It looked like sunshine.
By the time they got to the SEP Gabe had already seen combat. And maybe he even thought of himself as hard. But then he's halfway through what was quickly shaping up to be the some of the most painful weeks of his life and they dump him and Ana with this fucking rookie. This fucking blond haired blue eyed golden fucking rookie. A kid with a million dollar smile and no blood on his hands. Except that's not quite right. Because everyone has it backward. Even years later, the media, the brass, half of Overwatch. They've got it backward. Because Gabe was never the cold one.
But that's only part of the story. The bigger part of it is that after they ended the Omnic Crisis they didn't offer him the job as head of Overwatch. They offered it to Jack. But Jack being Jack laughed in their faces. Well, actually he smiled at them and very politely told them to go fuck themselves. From what Gabe understands basically bribes them into giving him the job.
The first thing Gabe had done was make Jack and Ana his lieutenants. Giving them as much power as he legally could. On paper, he was Strike Commander. But it was the three of them that lead Overwatch. Jack kept his temper in check. He kept Jack from losing touch with the people in front of him. And Ana kept them both level. There were no kings here. At least that had been the idea.
They started out with a good thing. Something simple. A goal to help those in need. They were fearless, invincible, maybe too much so. Riding off the high of victory over the Omnics. But it didn't last. It couldn't last. They started knocking down drug cartels. Wrecking the months of the mega-corporations and governments that funded them. In between that and the relief efforts in places they weren't technically supposed to be. Overwatch had made enemies fast. The difference was their enemies were stacking the deck, sandbagging them.
After Amelie it became clear. A thing like Overwatch couldn't exist on its own. They didn't have to capacity for action. There was too much red tape. Too many regulations. They couldn't stay a step ahead when all their action were public. Couldn't move when they always needed to ask permission. To fight monsters, sometimes you have to think like them.
So they built something else. Something that could move when Overwatch couldn't. It was barely legal. But the UN had signed off on it after being officially given the power to regulate Overwatch. Something they'd been forced to do more to take the heat off of them than anything. The founding of Blackwatch was just a bonus clause. And Gabe had read the report, all the paper work Jack and Ana set them. Jack had managed to make Blackwatch sound like something that would hardly be used. A benign "Information gathering program". He'd made it sound like something they could control. "The UN may file for Blackwatch operations to be completed."
Ana bless her heart had ensured that they couldn't control it. She'd gone through every detail, put loopholes into everything, made sure no one who cared could notice. Now what they had was something that existed with no names, no paper trail. And no accountability. They could play judge jury and executioner.
They were kings here.
But it was necessary. Wasn't it?
"You're sure about this?" Ana doesn't sound doubtful herself. She's just trying to be kind. To give him an out.
They're sitting a locked basement room of the Watchpoint in Grand Mesa. Athena had been muted. All the microphones and surveillance turned off. A cheap desk has been set in the middle of the room and along with a couple chairs and non-networked tablet that had all of its wireless hardware removed. The document pulled up on the front page already has two signatures. It just needs his.
But Gabe had been down this road before. He'd been sent to kill by people with no accountability. Been the one who made certain that very specific people died in very specific ways. He'd seen all the blood when it went wrong. And when it went right. As much as he trusted Ana and Jack they didn't understand the kind of creature they held. Despite seeing both their signatures on that page and both of them looking so sure, he couldn't stop the feeling that blood was already running down the drain in the floor.
Ana has always been the one who believed in doing good on the micro scale. The one who saw a universe saved with every person. But Jack, Jack was the true believer among them. Not that he was naive to the corruption and amorality of those above them. It was kind of hard to be after what had been done to them in the SEP. It was that he believed in the potential of the what they had. That in the right hands it could change things. They could win.
So it was no surprise that now it was Jack who took his free hand. Running his thumb across the back of it in calming patterns. "We have to try. What are we gonna do if we don't. Besides just imagine it. Missions with no paperwork. If it goes wrong we shut it down."
He forced a small smile onto his face. They were gonna change the world.
"Well," he says still beaming at the reporter. "We live by open values. Honesty, integrity, transparency. All our missions are public knowledge. By doing that we rely on the world to keep us in check. We ensure that what we do is for the betterment of it."
"Can you tell us why Overwatch has chosen to put itself under the protection of the UN."
"We hardly have the right to make those kinds of decisions. We've chosen to leave that to the people we serve."