Chapter Text

Winston and Zenyatta entered the holding cell.

She was awake, which was something of a surprise. Angela had put her to sleep with Caduceus nanos, which shouldn't have been able to just... wear off. But... it was Athena who managed the details. When she shut down, had the nanos keeping Symmetra unconscious deactivated themselves? Why wouldn't they just keep performing their sedative task until Athena told them to stop? It seemed like an obvious oversight in their security- he'd have to talk to Angela about it.

It seemed like she'd also been crying. Human eyes went sort of red when that happened, and her facepaint was streaked below her eyes- from tears, probably.

"Good morning, Symmetra," Zenyatta said. "How are you feeling?"

How was she feeling? It seemed pretty obvious to him- she'd been crying, so she was sad about something. Probably about getting captured- or about what he and Sombra had said about Vishkar and Lakshmi.

Zenyatta had to know that. Was he just asking to be polite? Probably.

"I am feeling- unlawfully imprisoned," she responded, her voice hitching.

Winston shrugged. "We can switch to lawfully imprisoned, if you want. Your attack was, uh, not... super legal. I'd... prefer we not take things in that direction, though."

She scowled. "Hardly. You yourselves are fugitives from international law. You don't have the standing to bring charges against me."

He looked at her funny. "We can have a third party make the case. It'd be tricky, but... I mean, it doesn't matter. I don't want to let things get to that point."

Her scowl didn't change. "What point do you want things to get to, then?"

"...Well. We need your help."

"We may need your help," Zenyatta said, before Symmetra could finish her dismissive noise.

"Wait, what?" Winston asked. Zenyatta had offered to come along to deal with her- since he was the closest thing to a psychiatry professional they had, and she'd been having a panic attack last time they'd talked. Did he have some hidden intention?

"Pardon us for a moment," Zenyatta said to Symmetra. "I must clarify some things with my colleague."

"What- what are we clarifying?" Winston asked, slightly more panicked than annoyed. "Why didn't we clarify earlier? Before we- came in here?"

"During your strategic discussions, I raised the question of whether our intelligence on the subject of Lakshmi was sound. The discussion was interrupted by Tracer, who appeared to remove all doubt... and we failed to truly address the state of our knowledge."

"Well- yeah. We... I mean, she came from the future and said we needed to save the world from Lakshmi. I think that's... pretty conclusive, right?"

Zenyatta shook his head. "There are many reasons why such a conclusion is premature. Tracer may have been compelled to lie to us, for instance. Perhaps she was somehow fooled. Or perhaps Lakshmi is a true danger, but is not in the hands of the Vishkar corporation. Did you ponder these possibilities at all, while discussing military strategy with your team?"

This was ridiculous. "You- I mean, maybe, but the obvious... Occam's Razor... it all points to Vishkar! If there's something else going on, we... I mean, we're gathering intel. We'll figure it out as we go."

"And what of potential traps?" Zenyatta said, making a tongue-clucking sound with his lack of tongue. "Why assume that the mission you've planned is safe, simply because you intend to be covert? If Vishkar is innocent-"

"They...!" Symmetra interrupted.

They both turned their heads to her. "Hm?"

"...They are! Innocent!" she said. Her eyes were closed and her face was screwed tight, as if saying that had taken a monumental effort.

"Ah," Zenyatta said. "You believe Winston here has been deceived? That Vishkar does not harbor Lakshmi?"

She took a deep breath to steady herself. "I... don't need to believe they are innocent. They simply are."

"Excellent!" Zenyatta said. "Perhaps you can explain to my friend why he is mistaken, then."

Winston shot him a look. "What are you doing?"

"Doing? I don't know what you mean. Why would I be doing?" There was no change in Zenyatta's static faceplate, but somehow he could tell the omnic was holding back laughter. Somehow, he was being played, and he had no idea what to do about it.

"I... he..." Symmetra stammered, unable to form a solid thought.

"Allow me to suggest a mental exercise," Zenyatta said. "The two of you swap positions on the subject."

"What?"

"Winston tries to speak for you, explaining why you think Vishkar is innocent. You try to speak for him, explaining why he thinks Vishkar is guilty. Surely in this manner, you will each learn how best to approach the other's argument."

Winston floundered. That was... crazy talk. He didn't even know her argument. It wasn't an argument so much as a series of denials, even.

"...Very well," Symmetra said, surprising him. She was cooperating with Zenyatta's idea?

"Excellent," Zenyatta said. "Tell us, then, why Winston thinks your company is hiding this Lakshmi."

"My own foolishness was to blame. Your Mercy argued that it was impossible for us to have Lakshmi, as it had not yet devoured the world. Sombra countered, suggesting that it may have had its time rationed, only being run for seconds at a time. I... noticed immediate similarities to the structure of our... corporate think tank, and I attempted to contradict any attempts to link the two."

"But I didn't know anything about that think tank," Winston said. "I wouldn't have brought it up. Since you brought it up, it seemed like pretty strong evidence that it was Lakshmi, especially since you didn't have much proof otherwise."

He winced as a small but sharp pain hit him on the ear. Zenyatta had flicked him? "None of that, if you would. Have you forgotten the purpose of this exercise? Argue only her points, please."

"You- don't do that!"

"Do what?"

"You- you flicked me!"

"Did I? My apologies. I can never tell when an errant finger might choose to scold someone."

"What- I'm- you can't just- I'm your boss!" he said, immediately feeling childish for saying it.

"That still isn't official, I'm afraid. If you'd like me to abide by your strict anti-flicking regulations, you'll need to finalize that paperwork."

He sighed. This wasn't helping the stereotype that omnics were prone to rising up against organic life.

"Fine." Convincing the new guy to exercise some basic professionalism could wait. Symmetra was giving the both of them an unimpressed look. "So, I need to... come up with a reason I'm wrong?"

"You're a man of science, are you not? The scientific method relies on finding reasons a hypothesis might not be true, and testing those reasons by experiment. You of all people should be equipped to resist simple confirmation bias!"

Sigh number two. He was right, which didn't help his point about... insubordination, or whatever. The monk's wise-sage schtick was getting annoying, but he'd feel guilty about being annoyed as long as Zenyatta kept not being wrong.

Maybe that was why he was so quiet most of the time. Maybe he only spoke up when he knew he had the upper hand! That had to be it. No one was that good at deeply wise advice. He'd...

He abandoned that line of thought. He didn't need to be overthinking how to one-up the cocky new recruit. It was petty, and a waste of concentration. The issue at hand- was the evidence of Symmetra's testimony as strong as he thought it was? Was there anything that would explain how well it matched Sombra's theory, besides it being true?

...Well, putting it that way made it obvious. "Just because your, uh... planning thingy, or whatever, matches Sombra's theory? It doesn't mean it matches Lakshmi being there for real. It just means that it matches something Sombra said about Lakshmi."

"Oh?" Zenyatta asked, in a way that made it clear that he'd already known exactly what he was thinking. Stupid lousy wise and insightful colleague.

"Symmetra, do you know anything about Vishkar's data security? Is it possible that Sombra knew how the, uh, thingy, was organized ahead of time?" he asked.

"The planning center," she said, "and no. She- she told me she had enough dirt to put Vishkar in the ground, but that couldn't be what it was. It's potentially our most closely-kept secret, next to the proprietary schematics for our hard-light generators."

"...Hm. I, uh..."

"But for the sake of this exercise," she said, slowly, "let us assume that she did somehow acquire this information. Why do you ask?"

He counted each step of his chain of logic on his fingers. "If she knew how the planning center operated, she could come up with a story about how Lakshmi would work the same way. If it had worked some other way, she could've come up with a story about how Lakshmi matched that way. We can only trust the theory as far as we can trust Sombra, and I trust her as far as..."

Well, that expression didn't work. He could throw people pretty far. "...I don't trust her very much," he finished.

Symmetra's breathing became noticeable. He tried to read her expression, but couldn't nail it down. She looked... relieved? Panicked? Both at once? That didn't make sense.

"Now I must argue that Sombra could not have come up with such a plan? I don't believe I can think of any reason why not- which puts an end to this charade, I think," she said.

"Ah. How disappointing," Zenyatta said.

Winston's eyes narrowed. "Hold on. You just explained why not. You said she couldn't have known about the planning center ahead of time, and the idea that she did was just a hypothetical."

She was visibly agitated by that. "...She could have. Perhaps not through hacking, but by social engineering. If she or her organization were to kidnap one of our operatives, extract information, blackmail them into silence..."

"She hasn't," a voice from the ceiling said. Winston almost jumped.

"Athena? Are you alright? What- where were you?"

"That's personal," she said. Personal? "Regardless, I have been active for the past twenty-eight minutes, and have just completed a cursory analysis of Sombra's mental associations with the Lakshmi hypothesis."

Winston frowned. Mei had specifically asked they not do that- and while he wasn't ruling it out, he'd expected to talk to Athena about it when she was reactivated. That she'd gone and done it without telling him...

"...Athena, why didn't you tell me you were online until now?"

"Several factors. A distracting emergency outside, primarily. Dr. Ziegler has it well in hand, however, and we both decided your focus was best spent on this negotiation."

"Wh- an emergency? What emergency?"

"One that doesn't require your immediate attention," she answered. "Please continue speaking with the Vishkar agent- I simply spoke up to inform you that my analysis shows, with near certainty, that Sombra's theory regarding Lakshmi is genuinely believed and has no connection to any Talon schemes."

Symmetra was shaking, for some reason. "How do you know that? What is "near" certainty?"

"Less than one percent of the probability mass accounts for ungrounded hypotheticals pertaining to subconscious behavioral modification or memory tampering," Athena said. "Or, more informally: maybe someone messed with her head, but probably not."

Symmetra's hands balled into fists. "Sombra was right. I was right. She's Lakshmi, the god program. She's working with Sombra to cover up her trick. Or she modified Sombra's memories. Something!"

Winston raised an eyebrow. "Wait, so she's working together with Sombra... and Sombra tried to convince us she was a god program? How's that work?"

She threw her hands up. "Reverse psychology! A trick! She... knew you wouldn't believe her! She meant to... inoculate you, for when I told you the same!"

"So let me get this straight," he said. "Vishkar sent you out here to kill Athena, by using Sombra, who was in league with Athena... who's in league with Vishkar, who sent you out here, to kill her, so that you'd fail, and get captured, and try to convince us that Athena was Lakshmi? But then you'd fail at that too, and we'd think Vishkar had Lakshmi, and attack... them? Who're in league with...?"

"It's quite simple," Zenyatta said. "An all-powerful superintelligence has manipulated itself into trying to kill itself. It all makes perfect sense, when you think about it."

Symmetra was shaking again. She didn't have anything else to say.

Winston approached her. "This is why we need your help," he said. It was as good a moment as any to get back on topic.

"Why?" she asked- but not pointedly. She almost whispered it, and she wasn't looking at him. She was grabbing at her fingers and twisting her hands, seemingly by reflex. "Why?"

He decided to ignore whatever was going on with her. "Because it's confusing. Because we still aren't sure. Sombra could still be wrong, and if it turns out Vishkar is innocent, we don't want to make any moves that could cause trouble. We're planning a mission to gather information, and we want your help making sure it doesn't turn into a battle."

"Well said, Winston," Zenyatta said. "When you put it that way, it almost seems as if you aren't asking her to help you commit corporate espionage."

He wheeled around on Zenyatta. "Wh- yeah! That was the point! Why would you go and... reframe it like that?!"

"Why, indeed?"

"Yes, why indeed! Why are you even- did you just come along to sabotage us?"

"Ah, the power of reframing," Zenyatta said. "Indeed, I came along merely to prevent you from exploiting someone's temporary confusion and distress in order to manipulate them into agreeing with you."

"Distress? She- she tried to kill us! We imprisoned her and put her in distress because she tried to kill us all!"

"And you think this justifies-"

"Shut up," Symmetra said, dropping to her knees and covering her face. "Shut up. Silence. The omnic is right. I will not help attack my own people."

"I'm not asking you to help attack them!" Winston said, clearly impatient. "We're not planning to attack! It's just... an investigation!"

"I will not help spy on my own people. What makes you think I would do this?"

Winston took a deep breath. "You know what the stakes are. If we're right, your people are being controlled by a god program- and the entire world is at risk. That's what makes me think you would help us."

"There is no risk!" she said, fighting to get the words out. "There is no Lakshmi! I have no reason to help you!"

He sighed. "You don't believe that."

She didn't answer him.

"You don't believe there's no risk," he continued, slowly. "You want to believe there's no risk, but you're too smart to really fool yourself."

"Shut up," she said, weakly.

"Is now the time to push, Winston?" Zenyatta asked.

...It probably was. He was getting through to her. "She knows what she should do, Zenyatta."

"Perhaps," he said, "but asking her to do what she should do is asking her to do something far more difficult than what she needs to do."

"Huh?"

"Symmetra," Zenyatta said, turning to her, "there is no need for you to come to a decision right now. You do not need to decide that Winston is right, or that he is wrong. Do you not have the same course of action ahead of you, regardless?"

Oh! That was a pretty good angle to take it from. "Right! If Lakshmi is really in control of Vishkar, you want to help us expose it and save them!"

"Conversely," Zenyatta said, "if Lakshmi is a fiction..."

She seemed to realize where he was going. "Then I must prove you wrong," she said.

"Uh, right," Winston said, scratching his head. "And the best way to do that is to, uh, help us find proof that it's not real. So..."

She stood up. "Fine. You will have your proof. What do you intend to do?"

They left the cell, having hashed out some of the details. Symmetra would report back to Vishkar, claiming that she'd completed the mission and that Overwatch had been eliminated- albeit at the cost of the lives of the two mercenaries she'd been assigned. From there, she'd cooperate with Overwatch personnel in Utopaea to create a diversion which would necessitate Vishkar's administrators to call an emergency planning center session, and use her own clearance to sneak into the planning center itself. If she found Lakshmi, she'd acquire evidence and transfer it to an Overwatch contact- and if not, she'd acquire whatever evidence was necessary to prove its absence without jeopardizing trade secrets.

There seemed to be something she hadn't said, though. She'd started saying something about the attack, but then tried to dismiss it, changing the subject back to the concrete details of the plan. Some kind of secret she'd been keeping? Something she didn't want to point out? He'd need to see if he could coax it from her later, once they were ready to let her out of her cell.

Still. "That went well," Winston said to Zenyatta.

"Indeed. I suppose you no longer regret bringing me along?"

He flinched. "I- regret? No, I..."

"My behavior was unexpectedly vexing. I understand," Zenyatta said, chuckling. "But I... 'proved my worth', did I not?"

Winston squirmed. "I mean, I had it under control," he said. "I think it would've gone fine if I'd just pushed her to see the truth."

"Certainly! I don't doubt you would have secured her agreement to cooperate."

"Then...?"

"What I worried about was whether you would secure her cooperation," he said.

He'd... just said the same thing twice. "What are you, uh, getting at, exactly?"

"Her agreement could have been easily acquired by convincing her that you were right," he said, "but it would later be lost just as easily, if a flight of emotion or a silver-tongued foe were to make her believe what she so desperately wants to believe."

"That's..."

"It would not have served to have her agree only to the most appealing possible version of our agreement, would it? Far better to put all our cards on the table, and have her cooperation even in the scenario where her faith in us falters."

Winston stopped walking and looked Zenyatta in the eye. Or, uh... the two divots on his face that looked kind of like eyes. "That's... pretty conniving of you, actually."

"Oh, stop," Zenyatta said, feigning bashfulness. "Your flattery is undeserved."