Chapter Text
"Oasis. You want me to protect Oasis."
"Just their representative, Angela. The conference is in Los Angeles." Dr. Angela Ziegler sat across from the genetically modified gorilla who was talking to her in-between sips of tea, and it had been decades since she'd found that strange. "Neither of us agree with the Ministries' methods, but if even half the intel we've found is true, this is the best move that Overwatch can make."
"I came here for lunch, and to catch up on old times, Winston." Angela put down her own cup, rested her forehead in her fingers. "I never agreed to come back to Overwatch."
"The best move you can make, then. To help people."
"And what does your intel say I'd be helping with?"
Winston reached over to the desk behind him, opening a drawer and pulling out a carefully prepared file folder. Neatly labeled with her name, she noticed. Presumptuous ape. "The International Convention for Experimental Medical Advancements is held once a year. You used to attend fairly regularly, didn't you?"
"Of course, I presented some of my best work there." Back when she'd actually been doing medical research, the kind that wasn't classified. Instead of running around in a high-tech angel costume trying to forget the sins of her past, but that was a whole other conversation to be avoided.
"This year, Oasis is sending a representative for the first time. They've been trying to clean up their international image, paint themselves as a benign technocracy, and who knows? Maybe they even mean it. Right now, it means they're volunteering to share cures to over two dozen rare disorders, tested and perfected in their city's hospitals. For free, to any medical institution who'll take them, at a gala on the last night of the conference."
Angela let herself look up again, promising herself she wasn't intrigued. "What's the problem, then?"
"The Vishkar Corporation has patented medications for eight of those disorders."
Money and medicine, with countless lives in the balance. Oh. "You think they'll try something?"
"Oh, they'll try something. There are billions of dollars on the line, that hires a lot of assassins. But Vishkar's still looking to embed themselves in Oasis, whatever they try is bound to be subtle. So we need someone who won't seem out of place. Someone to watch over them."
Angela's eyes narrowed, she'd known the gorilla long enough to tell when he was hiding something. "Watch over who, exactly?"
He hesitated. "They're sending about a half dozen leading experts. And... their Minister of Genetics."
It was a good thing she'd left the tea on the table, or she would have spilled it. "You want me to spend my weekend protecting Moira?!"
"Dr. O'Deorain is visiting the United States on a diplomatic visa, personally escorting the dossier of medical secrets that Oasis plans to distribute at the end of the conference."
"You do remember we broke up, right? Badly."
"You're both professionals, Angela."
"I'm a professional. Moira's a monster."
Winston pushed the file folder across the table towards her. They'd be pictures inside, no doubt, some media shot of her smug face and those cold, mismatched eyes. More history, more messes, more conversations best ignored. "Just, read through the file?" Winston pleaded, "for old times' sake?"
She hesitated for a long time, then slowly brought one hand down to rest on the paper, handling it like a live bomb. "I'll read it, Winston. But I'm not making any promises."