Do I really want to know? {Ana}

Ana knew the time would come when Fareeha would want more answers. Her son was more the sort to let the past be the past, and to move forward from there, but Fareeha was the sort that wanted to know things, that wanted answers, to know how all the pieces connected, and why they connected. She would not be content with the simple knowledge that Ana was now back...and while she knew this conversation needed to happen, she also found herself somewhat dreading it. She had made mistakes, and now she would have to own up to those, and it would not be easy or pleasant for either of them.

She had been a little surprised at the arrangement, but it made sense, this was not a conversation to be had in the public eye, and even the base at Gary wasn't as secure as they had thought it to be. It felt odd...but talking in a rental car parked at the back end of a lot somewhere...might be the safest place to have these sorts of discussions.

She showed up promptly on time, rapping her knuckles lightly against the window to let her daughter know she was there, before climbing into the front seat as soon as the door was opened for her.

"Hello Fareeha." She smiled at her, but a hint of her own nervousness showed behind that smile.

In a way she was glad for the lack of eye contact, she wasn't sure she could do this like that either...she had made mistakes, terrible mistakes, and even now she felt shame for them, talking about and admitting to them was needed...but that did not make it any less difficult.

She settled into the seat, looking ahead as she drew in a slow breath, then let it back out again. "I made a mistake." A pause. "Many mistakes...I suppose. And in a critical moment...I hesitated. I thought...I saw someone that I knew on the other side of my scope and...I hesitated. Everything after that...was because of that moment."

It was only the start of an explanation, she realized, vague, hinting at things not yet described. But she had to start somewhere, and it felt easier to ease into it that way. "I was left gravely injured...and with everything else falling apart...I didn't feel it would be right to come back...not like that..."

She smiled a little, turning her hand to interlock her fingers with her daughter's, giving her hand a slight squeeze. "I know. I know that now...it did not seem fair to you then...but."

She fell silent for a long moment, lost in the depths of her own thoughts somewhere, before the last question, four simple words and yet so much story, so much history and complexity and an answer that was so much not nearly as simple as the question. It had been a moment that stretched on forever, but also seemed to pass in a blink, the single, fateful moment that changed everything, that was the start of the end.

She took a breath. "I saw someone..." She paused, then backed up the story a little, to a part that made more sense. "We were under fire, a sniper and a damned good one too. I said I had it, I could take care of...Jack was telling me it was too hot, to let it be and get out...but no...I knew so much better." Her voice was laced with the regret of hindsight in those words.

"I found them, sighted on them...and...it was someone I knew. Someone I had trained, even. One of my finer students, she'd had so much promise...and then...we thought she had been killed, and that was the end of it. Only she hadn't been...instead, she turned on us, was fighting against us. She was there to kill us...to kill me. And because in that moment I hesitated...I didn't do my damned job...she very nearly did. And that was the start of the end of everything..."

Ana looked over at her, weighing her next words carefully as one of her daughter's statements caught her attention. She wasn't sure if she should even say it...but she'd promised truth. She'd promised no more secrets.

"Jack...he's still alive." She finally said after a long pause. "I didn't even know myself, not until very recently...he went to ground as well. But he found me in Egypt, a few months ago..." She let the thought trail off, unsure of the reaction it would garner.

Another long pause, another internal debate, more hesitation and reluctance to answer things that she knew were awkward and painful...but it all needed to come out. No more secrets.

"Yes. It was Amelie." She answered, looking out the car window. "I...do not know where she is now. After what happened...I was injured, I did not see how it ended." She forced herself to look over at her daughter this time.

"He is here in Gary." Ana held up a cautioning hand. "Of course you can go see him if you would like...but he is...he is different now. He has...aged." She wasn't quite sure how else to put it, what her friend had been through. He had aged, not just physically, but everything about him. Everything inside of him that had made him happy, the charming and charismatic face of Overwatch in years past had been broken and stripped away, and she didn't want her daughter to be shocked by how drastically different he was from the man she'd once known.

"She may well still be out there." Ana agreed. "It would be worth looking into, especially in light of everything that has been happening lately. But...I don't believe that hunting only her would be the best use of our incredibly limited time and resources right now." She looked over at Fareeha seriously. "We are not the Overwatch we once were, we do not have the support, the backing, the resources we once did. Technically everything we do now is highly illegal, borderline treasonous by some's accounts...we are all having to relearn how to do things, how to fight like this, how to protect ourselves, by ourselves, and still hope to do some good."

She let that sink in for a few moments. "We are being attacked on all fronts here...Talon...people that are hacking into our computers, trying to strip everything away, this group with the mysterious eye icon..." She shook her head slightly. "So much to understand and defend ourselves against and...I'll be honest, up to this point it has not been going well. We've been run out of Gibraltar, lost several of our members, either to our enemies or to them realizing this was not a life they could lead...Jack was nearly killed...I've been taken in for...questioning..."

She let out a long breath through her nose. "I am sorry, I have gotten off the topic. But as you can see...Aimee on her own...it's something that would be nice to resolve, but chasing revenge for revenge's sake won't help us right now." She looked seriously at her daughter, not fully believing she was even about to say what she was going to say. "But if this is the life you want, if you really want to become a part of and help this new Overwatch...I need you here. With us, with me. We could use someone like you." A pause, a bit of a smile. "I am proud of you."

Her smile softened and warmed. "Of course I am proud of you. I always have been. My worries and concerns over your choosing this life never had anything to do with my doubting your abilities...but this is a difficult and dangerous life. I always wanted better for you, you always deserved better."

She took a breath, her voice going a little more firm, back to business. "There have been no missions, because we ourselves don't have enough information on the current lay of the land to actually do anything that might end in any sort of success. Anything we have tried up until this point has been anticipated, and has ended catastrophically. People know that we have returned...but as you say, we need to act in a way that is low=key. Not call attention to what we are doing, until after it is done. But...if we are going to start doing things, I believe we will need to start doing them soon, or we risk losing any window of opportunity we might have..."

She frowned as the conversation changed to Mido. "Unfortunately, we have very little information there either. We know that he went to one of his art exhibits in London. He took Jessica with him. One night he apparently went out for a walk, she stayed behind because she was feeling ill. He remembers next to nothing about what happened after he left his hotel in London, and the time he came into my office in Gary with a message for Overwatch to cease activities. We have been trying to determine waht this eye means, but it is nothing but dead ends, even on our covert information gathering...no one seems to know anything, all we can gather so far is that they do not seem to be on our side."