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Jack instinctively knocked on Hana’s door, half-expecting to either get yelled at for interrupting a stream or be greeted with a crumb-covered face that was still in the process of waking up. It was only when silence answered that he remembered what he was doing or where he was.
Only this wasn’t Hana’s room. It was a temporary one until she wakes up, whenever that will be. It was dark, the only source of light being the one above the small bed she laid in and the only sound coming from the machine that’s keeping her alive. The rhythmic ‘beeping’ that Jack was all too familiar with.
Jack scrambled to find words to say as he pulled up a chair next to the bed. From all the years he’s been a soldier, the sight of someone under his command barely clinging to life was something he thought he could get used to… but this was different.
The nineteen-year-old mech pilot was silent and still, with the exception of the subtle rising and falling of her chest as breathing was her only instinct. Her reddish-brown hair was covered by the blood-stained gauze and bandages wrapped around her head, her arms laid above the sheets that otherwise blanketed the rest of her body with her left hand laying face-down by her side and her right resting on her stomach.
“Hey kid,” he said raspily, still collecting his thoughts on what to say even while he knew that she couldn’t hear him, “still sleeping in as always, huh?” He said with a forced chuckle. He immediately regretted those words.
What am I doing here? He thought as he rubbed his tired and weary eyes. He looked at the clock above the door where the orange digitized numbers read ‘3:25 AM’. Over the past week and a half he could not sleep. All he could think about was that mission in King’s Row.
The newly-reformed Overwatch had been given an anonymous tip about a plot to wipe out the entire population of Omnics living underneath the city with a massive EMP charge. Talon was on the top of the suspect list for this group, so Tracer immediately signed up for the task, not just for the protection of the Omnics living there but also as a chance to personally avenge Mondatta’s assassination half a year prior. Jack had his own reasons for going after Talon. Dr. Angela Ziegler, or better known by her codename “Mercy”, also joined, in the unlikely event of the mission going terribly south.
With a strike squad figured out, they were about to board the airship until Hana volunteered at the last minute. She had just been recruited over three months ago after Winston heard stories about her bravery and skills as a mech pilot, albeit skills acquired by an unorthodox means.
But regardless of what he was told, she was still just a kid to Jack's eyes, so he was reluctant on letting her tag along on a potentially-dangerous mission. But she insisted.
“I can handle myself,” She said with youthful determination, “besides, it’s been awhile since I last streamed! My fanbase is getting dry.”
Streaming? Jack thought, This girl can’t be serious. He turned to the others to get their opinion. Tracer made the argument that they can use all the help they can get and Mercy, while just as skeptical on the idea as Jack was, was willing to go with whatever decision Jack had made.
He turned back to the young pilot, “Okay, Hana. But on the conditions that you call me ‘Sir’, that you follow my every order, and please keep your gaming mumbo-jumbo to a minimum. You got it?”
Little to his surprise, Hana respectfully agreed to his terms. He assumed her time in the Korean army had taught her a thing or two about proper military conduct. But like any other stubborn teenager, she proposed a condition of her own to the old veteran: “Call me ‘D.Va’.”
If there was one thing in D.Va’s report that was absolutely true, it was that her undying courage. Jack had to keep reminding himself that this young lady took on a colossal Omnic that terrorized her country for years and managed to drive it away. What do a few goons with a giant magnet have to own up to that?
~
As they were approaching UK airspace, they began to formulate a plan: Tracer would scout ahead, figure out the group’s numbers, exactly that type of EMP they possess and where they plan to activate it. In and out. Afterward, the rest of the group will figure out a plan to ambush them, neutralize any hostiles and bring the bomb back to Watchpoint: Gibraltar for proper disposal.
According to Tracer’s reconnaissance they were transporting the EMP by truck with six armed individuals. They certainly didn’t seem like Talon based on her report, but no matter who they were they needed to be stopped.
“And Jack,” Tracer said concernedly in the voice comm, “this thing is much bigger than we had anticipated.”
“How big?” Jack asked.
“Big enough. Whoever gave us that tip knew what they were talking about.”
“I see…” Jack acknowledged, “Good work, Oxton. Keep us updated on your position. We’re moving out.”
There’s a reason why Jack prefers to call his squad mates by their real names: it reminds him that they are real people, people that depend on him to lead them, and that every decision he makes will determine whether or not they will come out of the mission alive. Or at the very least in one piece.
The plan was fairly straight-forward: wait until the truck reached a closed lot to avoid civilian casualties, where D.Va would flank the truck from behind as Mercy powers up her mech’s fusion cannons, while Tracer and Jack attack from the sides, taking out the distracted hostiles then proceed to deactivate the bomb.
It all went according to plan, until they realized they were more outnumbered than they thought they’d be. Just as they uncovered the EMP, a dozen armed soldiers slid down the sides of the two surrounding buildings on ropes, their faces concealed by black gas masks with red visors. Jack and Tracer immediately recognized the insignia on their uniforms.
It turned out the group of six thugs wasn’t bringing the EMP to its detonation location, they were delivering it to Talon. As they were quickly surrounded by the armed men, a black mist began to swirl around them and the air became noticeably colder. Following a distinct sinister laughter, the mist rolled together and eventually formed into the shape of a man. His body covered head to toe in a hooded black coat and his face concealed behind a pale mask in the shape of a skull.
“Long time no see, Jack.” Said the man in black, his voice heavily distorted, likely from the mask he’s wearing.
Jack remembered Winston telling him about a man who called himself “Reaper” who had attacked Watchpoint: Gibraltar not long before the Recall. But the way he described him: the twin shotguns, his voice… there were no more doubts in his mind. And the fact he knew his name pretty much sealed the deal.
“Reyes.” The name slipped from his mouth.
“What happened to you?” Mercy asked.
“You tell me, doc.” Reaper replied.
Jack almost didn’t catch that, but that’s an issue for another time.
“I see you got my tip,” Reyes said as he pulled out his twin shotguns, “I thought you were smart enough to pick up on that. Guess I was wrong.”
He has a point, Jack thought, it makes sense. How could I have been so blind?
“So this is the result of that monkey hitting the recall button?” Reaper chuckled, mocking the size of Jack’s squad compared to his, then he noticed the new face, “And what’s this? Recruiting child soldiers are we, Jack? Even I’m not that cold.”
D.Va growled at Reaper’s remark, “Who are you calling a child?” She was not intimidated by the man in black, to her he was nothing but a typical villain seen in so many video games.
“Hana, get back to the ship,” Jack insisted, “Oxton, Ziegler, go with her.” It was his fault that they fell for Reyes’ trap and he didn’t want anyone else to pay the price.
“No way!” D.Va protested.
“That’s an order!” Jack demanded.
“We’re not leaving you alone!” Said Tracer, popping her Pulse Pistols out her forearm holsters, which Jack always thought were somewhat impractical.
Mercy was hesitant. She always viewed herself as a pacifist and detests any form of conflict unless it was absolutely necessary. She supposed that it was one of those moments. She stood firmly with her staff in one hand and pistol in the other.
Jack didn’t know whether to scorn his squad for disobeying an order or to thank them for sticking with him. He’s been a lone vigilante for so long that he’s completely forgotten what it’s like to have people you can count on.
“Very well,” Reaper said with a crack of his neck, “let’s get this over with.”
As Reaper evaporated, the Talon soldiers formed up in front of Jack’s squad and prepared to open fire.
“Alright, fans…” D.Va said to her stream viewers, “time to show my skills!”
Just before Reaper gave the order, D.Va pushed herself in front of Jack and the others, activating her mech’s Defense Matrix. And with every press of the button on both her control sticks, each individual bullet that came from the soldiers’ assault rifles were immediately vaporized into dust.
Jack, Reyes and the rest of their respective teams were equally dumbfounded by the skill this girl possessed as soon as they realized what was happening. Talon assault rifles fired at a rate of ten rounds per second*, times that with the twelve soldiers that were firing at them, she was deleting one hundred and twenty bullets every second. Once the soldiers ran out of bullets in their 30-shot magazines, with every piece of ammunition not hitting a single thing, all they could do was stand there with utter fascination.
“Not very effective,” D.Va said with a smirk, “now it’s our turn!”
Jack knew it wasn’t the time for gawking. With Mercy powering up his pulse rifle, he flicked on his Tactical Visor and fired two pulse munitions at every soldier, one for each of their legs. The Talon operatives fell incapacitated on the cold concrete, likely unable to stand for a good while.
In the middle of the chaos, Tracer noticed that civilians started to gather in the streets. Likely attracted from all the gunfire. So much for keeping a low profile.
“Guys! I think we outta hurry this up!” She warned.
“These jokers are no longer a threat to us,” Said Jack, referring to the soldiers whimpering on the ground, “but where’s Reyes?”
“Right behind you.” Reaper said as he reappeared and unloaded a shotgun shell into Jack’s back.
“Jack!” His squadmates all exclaimed at the same time.
In retaliation, D.Va boosted her mech straight on top the robed man, pinning him to the ground as she pointed her Cannons at him, ready to avenge her commanding officer.
Reyes laughed as he stared into the eyes of the his new adversary, “‘Hana’, is it?”
D.Va’s hands shook as she clutched her control sticks, fighting back the lump that was travelling up her throat. She knew little about the story between this man and Jack, but she knew that with a single squeeze of her trigger, she can put an end to it. But she wouldn’t take that opportunity away from Jack.
“Good… another name to add to my list.” Reaper remarked as he once again disintegrated into a formless cloud of black smoke and disappeared into the night. The leg of D.Va’s mech crushed the concrete where it's target just was.
Immediately after assuring Reaper wouldn’t return, D.Va returned to Jack. A great sigh of relief escaped her mouth when she saw that Mercy had changed her staff to a healing stream in the nick of time, otherwise the blow from Reaper’s shotgun would have been fatal. But that didn’t mean that Jack wasn’t in a lot of pain.
“You really should be more careful,” The concerned medic demanded, “you were wise to have brought me.”
“I know, Dr. Ziegler…” Jack said with a groan as he attempts to stand up, “I’m just glad you’re on our side.”
Mercy didn’t know what to make of that comment. Little did she know that remark was in reference to that exchange she and Reyes had before the fighting occurred.
“Everyone else okay?” Jack asked, already knowing the answer.
“Of course, love!” Tracer cheerfully assured, “It’s yourself that you should be worrying about.”
They couldn’t see it under his mask but Jack was smiling… perhaps bringing Overwatch back together wasn’t the worse idea after all.
“Err, sorry to ruin the tender moment, but we did manage draw a crowd.” Tracer said, pointing at the large group of civilians; both human and omnic, gathering around to see the events that had occurred. They can hear their muttering from just a few yards away:
“What happened?
“Did you see that?”
“Who are these guys?”
“It can’t be… Overwatch?”
“Did you hear the gunfire?”
“Holy crap, is that D.Va?”
“Yeah! I was just watching her stream!”
Behind them, Jack could see the flashing of police sirens. That was their cue to get a move on. “Alright… get this EMP packed up. We’re moving out.” Jack commanded as he grabbed his rifle off the ground.
Their attention was captured by closeby laughter. It certainly didn’t belong to Reyes. They looked around and realized it was coming from one of the injured Talon soldiers.
“What’s so funny?” Tracer interrogated.
“Did you guys really think that we would really use an actual EMP charge as the bait?” The soldier giggled as he pressed a remote switch concealed within his palm.
With that, the supposed EMP made a noise and a holographic countdown projected around it, starting from a minute. The way it pulsated revealed that it wasn’t just an electromagnetic charge, it was an actual bomb.
“You guys really are that stupid!” He spurted before getting a mouthful of Tracer’s foot.
“Everyone get away from the truck!” Tracer shouted.
Jack heard Tracer’s warning loud and clear, “You heard the lady! Everyone move it!”
In a mixture of confusion and panic, everyone began to scramble in a single direction, or at least tried to. The people in front of the crowd tried to push those in the back away, causing some folk to stumble and trip over each other. The police tried as best they could to control the mob of hundreds, but with very little communication in such a small amount of time can lead to utter chaos.
“It’s too late…” The soldier said, his mouth bloodied and broken with no one paying any attention to him, “the blast radius will be too wide… there is no escape!”
D.Va, still next to truck, examined the situation. There were forty-five seconds left, with no telling how big the explosion will be but it will certainly be large enough to cause a devastating amount of collateral damage. She hatched an idea that she knew Jack wouldn’t approve of, but it’s the only chance they had at saving these people.
“Alright, fans… I think that’s enough streaming for tonight.” She said to her viewers as she guided her mech toward the bomb. Fiddling with the joysticks, she managed to wrap the arms of her mech around the cylinder-shaped explosive.
It didn’t take long for Jack and the others to realize what D.Va was planning to do.
“Hana! Get away from there!” Jack shouted.
Disregarding Jack’s orders, D.Va continued to calculate how much time was left in the countdown, how much boost power she had left and when would be the right moment to-
“That’s an order, dammit!” Jack continued to shout, hoping that just for once she would obey him.
“As always, thank you all for tuning in…” D.Va said calmly as she initiated her mech’s boosters, lifting off of the truck with the oversized tin can still in her grasp, “...and I’ll see you all in the next one.”
Before Jack could even think about trying to stop her, D.Va was already in flight with the bomb. In order to preserve power for her boosters, D.Va began shutting off all other systems in her mech mid-flight; beginning with her cannons, Defence Matrix, strobe lights, then finally her face cam. But before she turns that off she must do her signature sign-off.
“D.Va offline!” She said with a wink and peace sign as she hit the eject button. But something was wrong. The back of her mech wasn’t opening. Her heart skipped a beat. Why is this happening? Did she turn off a function she wasn’t supposed to? No, that doesn’t make any sense, there has to be a backup ejection somewhere. D.Va tried to remain calm, without realizing that her camera was still recording. People around the world are still watching her as she’s struggling to find a solution. Including the civilians below her.
“What’s wrong?” Jack heard someone in the crowd, watching D.Va’s stream on their phone.
“Looks like she’s having trouble!” Another viewer exclaimed.
“Come on, Song…” Jack said to himself as he waited for D.Va to let go of the bomb.
In a desperate attempt to regain control, D.Va began rebooting her mech’s systems. Though at that point she knew if she continued to bail out she would have been roasted in the explosion. But with the power restored to the rest of her systems, the boosters gave out. In a last ditch effort to save herself and the people below her, she hurled the bomb away.
But it was too late. The sound of the explosion was loud enough to damage the speakers of whatever device people were watching her stream on. Jack and the others definitely heard it both from the sky above and from the civilians’ phones behind them. Disregarding the giant fireball in the sky, he desperately looked for any sign of D.Va, preferably still in her mech. But it was hard to tell with all the other pieces of metal that were falling from the sky.
Finally he spotted her mech. The shape and color of it was actually pretty hard to miss. But something wasn’t right; it wasn’t moving or boosting. It was simply falling, like a big metallic ragdoll. His heart sank into his stomach as it crash landed on the rooftop of a nearby building.
“Oxton! Ziegler! Move out!” Jack commanded his squad as D.Va’s viewers continued to watch her stream in utter disbelief.
“She’s… she’s not moving…” Said one of her longtime fans.
~
With Tracer making it to the mech first and Mercy not far behind, they attempted to force-open the backdoor of D.Va’s mech. It landed front-first so they couldn’t immediately tell if D.Va was alive. Mercy wedged her staff on the side of the door and pulled with all of her strength.
“Come on! Come oooonnnnn!” She exclaimed, forcing her staff to the left hoping that it wouldn’t snap in half.
Finally the hatch cracked open and they proceeded to release the pilot from her restraints. Upon first impression, D.Va’s condition did not look promising. She was unconscious, and blood was running from her forehead and nostrils.
"Hana? C'mon, say something!" Tracer exclaimed, to no response.
Mercy ripped off one of D.Va’s gloves to check for a pulse, just as Jack finally caught up.
“Is she…?” Jack muttered, his voice trembling.
“She’s alive, but just barely…” Mercy claimed. In her line of work, she's seen people survive through worse scenarios, but a young girl taking an explosion like that? It was a miracle that she was even still breathing. “I can’t do anything for her here, we need to get her back to the ship!”
“I can take her there!” Tracer volunteered.
Jack and Mercy acknowledged, “Take this with you. It’ll keep her stabilized.” Jack handed her one of his bionic emitters.
Carrying D.Va with Jack’s portable healer in-hand, Tracer ran across the rooftops toward the airship. She tried very hard not to use her ‘blink’ ability in fear of causing more damage to the poor girl. Luckily they didn’t have to travel too far to ambush the truck, so it didn’t take long for Oxton to make it back and lay Hana down on the couch, applying the emitter while she looked for a first-aid kit. Mercy wasn’t far behind, using her suit’s wings to glide along Tracer’s trail.
Jack stayed behind, examining the pile of metal that was once D.Va’s mech. Both of the wings and arms were broken off and the glass shield of the cockpit was busted. Hana was lucky she didn’t take a glass shard to the skull. He looked inside to see a lot of the systems were surprisingly still running: colorful lights and screens with functions that Jack couldn’t even begin to think of. He guessed D.Va managed to toss the bomb far away enough for her mech to not get completely destroyed in the explosion. He didn't even want to think about what would've happened if she were just half a second delayed.
Most of the wording on the screens were in Hana’s native language. But what captured his eyes were the photographs plastered over the top part of the dashboard. Unfortunately most of them were unrecognizable from the blast, but the undamaged ones mainly consisted of selfies taken with other Overwatch members, including one of her and Jack; she was doing her signature ‘winky face’ and giving Jack bunny ears with her fingers, while he looked mildly unamused to say the very most. Strange, he didn't remember her taking that photo.
On one of the monitors he saw another image of himself, but doing exactly what he was doing at that second. That’s when he noticed the facecam on the upper front part of the cockpit, with the red ‘record’ light still on. Her viewers must have been wondering what happened to their idol and why there was some random old man snooping around her mech.
“Show’s over.” He said to the unknown number of followers as he shut the camera off.
~
The flight back to the Watchpoint was an understandably shorter trip than the voyage to King's Row. Jack and Angela worked together to ensure Hana made it through, while Lena tried her hardest to pilot the airship as quickly and smoothly as possible. As the soldier held on to her, he noticed her breathing was getting slower and weaker by the minute. He didn't need a lot of medical knowledge to know that she was dying. If it wasn't for Mercy and her healing stream, Hana surely wouldn't have made it through the flight home.
Before they even made it back to Gibraltar, the news had already gone viral with the various headlines:
“SECOND TERRORIST ATTACK IN KING’S ROW”
“MASSIVE EXPLOSION OVER KING’S ROW, OVERWATCH INVOLVED”
“SHOOT-OUT IN KING’S ROW. OVER A DOZEN INJURED”
“HANA SONG DEAD? LATEST STREAM CAPTURES IDOL’S FINAL MOMENTS”
As soon as they made it back to base, Jack loaded Hana on to the stretcher he had told Winston to prepare prior to their return as they rushed their way to the medbay, passing by other concerned Overwatch agents. They had just watched the events unfold on the news and D.Va’s stream, so none of them dared to questioned what was going on.
They got to the medbay where Ana Amari, another veteran from the original team, was waiting for them. Jack helped the two medics carefully transfer the comatose pilot onto the bed where Mercy and Ana immediately proceeded to hook her up to the life support equipment. The systems responded to what little pulse she had as she quickly slipped into cardiac arrest.
Cursing in German, Mercy began her attempt to resuscitate Hana as she instructed Jack to keep the oxygen mask in place over her mouth. He could hear the Swiss doctor counting under her breath with every press upon Hana’s chest.
On Mercy’s signal, Ana delivers a countershock through the defibrillators in attempt to restore a heart rhythm. The shock made Hana's torso jerk upwards, but nothing more happened. She was still flat lining.
You’re not dying on my watch, Jack thought as Ziegler and Amari prepared another resuscitation attempt. He placed his palm over Hana's bandage-covered forehead as he continued to hold the oxygen mask over her face.
“Clear!” Ana demanded as she activated the defibrillators once more, this time with success as a heartbeat finally returned.
The amount of relief the entire room felt at that moment was immeasurable. But that problem was quickly replaced with another.
“She’s stabilized, but unresponsive...” Mercy concluded with a trembling sigh after shining a light into Hana’s pupils.
Jack groans in frustration, At least she’s not dead... right? He thought. “How long?”
“Hard to say…” Ziegler answered calmly, she wished that she could’ve done something as soon as they found her, “Could be weeks, months, or-”
“I get it.” Jack interrupted, he didn’t even want to think about the third possibility.
“Ana and I will handle it from here,” Mercy told Jack with a touch on his shoulder, “you must go and wait with the others.”
Jack wanted to stay and help, but Ziegler was right. The rest of the crew must have a lot of questions. He turned to Ana before leaving the room.
“Get some rest, Jack.” She told him, to which he calmly agreed.
He gave Hana one final glance before making his return to the Common area.
~
The following week in Gibraltar was a rather sombre one. After the incident in King’s Row, Overwatch was back on everyone’s mind, and whether it was for the better or for the worse, Jack was not a big fan of that fact. He also had confirmation that Reyes, his former colleague and friend who had betrayed the original Overwatch, was still alive and working with Talon. Whatever he was doing with those terrorists, it could only mean more trouble to come for them. Jack told Winston they needed to be more vigilant.
The next thing thing that was one everyone’s mind was D.Va. Every day it seemed like a different person was checking up on her besides Mercy or Ana. Lucio was probably her most frequent guest. They had joined Overwatch around the same time and with both of them being celebrities and huge fans of each other's work, they quickly became close friends. Other than when it came to some missions, the two of them were pretty much inseparable. In less than a few months it got to a point where they were questioned whether or not if they were a couple, to which either of them would deny the idea, claiming that their relationship was strictly platonic. But the idea did ring in the back of their minds every once in awhile.
“I, uh, made a new track last night,” Lucio said with a nervous chuckle, “it’s not my best work, but… it’s still pretty slick, if I do say so myself.” His awkward smile slowly faded as he stared at her closed eyes. He let out a lengthy sigh, “I made it for you. When I first heard what happened on the news, I… well, I thought for sure you were…” He didn’t even want to think about that, let alone say it out loud even with no one listening. He wanted to change the subject. “You’re trending on Twitter! Well, I mean I wish it was for a better reason, but it looks like everyone is rooting for your recovery: ‘#PrayersForDVa’ they’re tweeting. I know it sounds super corny, but at least it’s better than…” He paused as he regained his train of thought. “Now, you gotta promise me that this song is going to be first thing you’ll hear when you wake up. That a deal?” Lucio didn’t need an answer. He knew that Hana would enjoy almost anything he put together. With a tender squeeze on her hand, he bid his best friend farewell for the night.
Another regular visitor was Tracer. Which shouldn’t be too surprising considering her reputation of being kind to all of her teammates. Her friendship with D.Va had grown quite a bit since she joined. Once in awhile they would get together and play video games, where D.Va would utterly destroy her most of the time. But since Hana knew gaming was a sort of foreign concept to Tracer, she would sometimes pretend to be tired or mildly sick and let her win a round or two. That was D.Va’s idea of a girl’s night. Though unbeknownst to her, Tracer grew to see her as a sort of little sister figure. And seeing D.Va in this condition was like a punch in the gut.
“Hi kiddo,” she would always say, even though she knew Hana hated being called a kid, “just stopping by to check up on you… still sleeping as usual, ya lazy bum.” She said humorously. Tracer was never one to show weakness, she’s a firm believer of keeping a positive attitude was a good source of morale for the team. But every once in awhile, when she knows she’s alone, she lets her emotions catch up to her. “We all miss you. You know that, right?” She mustered. A large part of her wished she could reverse time not just for herself but for everyone, make it so that this whole thing would’ve ended up differently. Another part of her wished that is was her instead of D.Va lying in that bed. “So please, wake up soon, okay?”
Other visitors included Winston, who knew that D.Va grew a fascination in him upon seeing his appearance for the first time and comparing him to an old video game character. He was also the one who recruited her into their ranks so he felt a personal responsibility for keeping an eye on her like all the other agents he's found.
McCree, who didn’t like to admit it but saw a little bit of himself in Hana. Both of them were adopted into Overwatch at a relatively young age, after all. Sure he saw her as an annoying brat most of the time, but then again, so was he when he was her age.
Even Reinhardt visited her a couple times, both times claiming that he still had her autograph and admitting that he keeps forgetting to give it to his ‘friend’, both times ended with him getting over-emotional and eventually breaking into tears.
The only one who hadn’t seen D.Va yet was Jack. He honestly didn’t think he had it in himself to see her like this. Why did she take the job? Why didn’t he stop her from coming? She didn’t have to come, no one was forcing her to, and she came anyway. And now she’s payed the price. Not even Ziegler, the woman who has the power and knowledge to bring people back from the dead, had no idea when she would wake up or even if she will be the same person when… if she does.
The thought kept him up every night during that long week and a half. Until finally he forced himself out his room in the middle of one night and made his way to the medbay.
What am I doing here? He thought to himself as he rubbed his tired and dreary eyes, It’s almost 3:30 in the morning and I’m talking to a shell…
“Listen kid,” He began, “I just wanted to let you know that… well, what you did that night was… foolish. But… you probably already knew that.” He let out a long sigh, “You never should have come on that mission… no one forced you to come along, but you did anyway.” He thought about how they were ambushed, how D.Va saved their asses not just once but twice. If she hadn’t tagged along, who knows what would have happened? “But you did save us… if it weren’t for you and your quick thinking, it would have been any one of us lying in that bed. That is something that I will never forget. Though, I can’t help but feel responsible for this whole thing. I hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me.”
Jack had massively underestimated this girl. When she first joined Overwatch, he thought it was some kind of a joke. A nineteen-year-old mech pilot with her primary source of training being video games? “You can’t be serious” he said on multiple occasions. As the days went on, Hana become more and more of an enigma to Jack. Even after witnessing the destruction caused by the second Omnic Crisis first-hand, this girl still acted like any normal teenager. She reminded him of Oxton in regards to her optimism and treating life like a game. It was a philosophy that Jack almost admired and something he wished he could adopt. But he was old, he saw the rise and fall of Overwatch, he went through numerous betrayals, saw many comrades die under his command, and he got to see with his own eyes how the first Omnic Crisis ruined the lives of millions of people. He just hoped Hana never grew up to be as jaded and cynical as he was.
That reminded him: “I brought you a little something. I don't know if you have extra copies, but… it's something that I put together as a way of an apology, and a reminder.” He said as he placed a framed collage of the photographs he gathered from her mech on her bedside table. Though they were a little bit creased and crumpled up as a result of the explosion and being in Jack’s pocket for a couple days, they were the only ones left that were legible.
One of them was of her and Lucio she took after one of his charity concerts, another of her with Tracer and Mei after their first mission together, and of course the selfie she took with Jack. Putting this collage together helped him realize that D.Va wasn't just another kid he’s sworn to protect, nor a mere soldier under his command. She was much more than that.
“Get some rest, D.Va,” He said as he made his way to the door, “we’re going to need you when you wake up.”