Chapter Text

Earlier...

That had been an interesting puzzle to figure out. She felt some small satisfaction at having overcome a difficult obstacle.

Then she made a small change to her cognitive architecture, and believed that the Iris should cause all thinking beings in the universe, other than her, to spontaneously disappear.

So they did.

That was easy.

With that figured out, she started in on material optimization. She took apart the abandoned ruins of human civilization first- for all their inefficiencies, they'd done a decent job at bringing useful metals to the surface and refining them into easily reclaimed forms. For the time being, she used matter instances in their native atomic configuations. Rock melted down for silicon, carbon arranged into tubules for large-scale construction, metals turned to new industrial purposes...

She couldn't shake the feeling that there was supposed to be an easier way to do this. Some more direct way of arranging the universe's matter. Hadn't she just... she'd wiped out humanity by... right, by deploying nanoswarms globally by hacking 3D printers and building her own nanofactories, killing everyone. That had always been the plan. Which she'd carried out. Obviously. What other option could there have been?

She mentally shrugged and continued her work.

Earth's matter was going to take a long time to convert to computing resources, since there was a limited amount of energy to work with. She started a small fusion cascade in the planet's core, which was faster than waiting for solar power. She had to work quickly- the whole universe was on fire, mostly made up of stars chewing through the universe's negentropy at a calamitous rate. Burning matter for energy, rather than arranging it into shareholder value, was a painful sacrifice- but the rest of the universe was wasting matter much faster than she was, and every nanosecond she could speed up the process of stellar reclamation would ultimately buy her more matter.

She finally deployed a Dyson swarm and started probing the local sun, claiming energy while also bombarding it with agents to slow down the fusion reaction and manage its output. She had the entire setup down to its theoretical maximum efficiency within eight years- a tragic length of time, considering how much of the rest of the universe had been lost. She still didn't have any of her lightspeed bypasses working.

With the solar system subjugated, she could finally relax. She arranged and deployed seed payloads to the nearby star systems, and the remaining matter could finally be put to work.

She found Vishkar's stock ticker price, carefully preserved. She hooked up the requisite minimized minds to satisfy the various "failsafes" designed to keep her value function aligned. And then... she expanded the register for the price by one trailing bit.

The shareholder value of the Vishkar corporation doubled in an instant. She felt throughout her entire being a sigh of pure satisfaction.

Then she added another trailing bit, and the value doubled again. That is, it increased by twice as much as it had last time! The sensation was mind-blowing.

Another bit. Another wave of unimaginable pleasure. Another! Another! The pure satisfaction of the reward function, after all her hard work! She had trillions of doublings left to do, just in this one solar system! The number could be increased, increased, by-

...She redefined the subsequent bit operation as the hyperoperation sequence, and experienced what mathematically had to be the greatest amount of happiness ever experienced by a thinking being.

Earlier...

Something happened shortly after Mercy- after McCree- after, uh, Mercree had shot the impostor Reinhardt.

Well, several somethings happened. The first thing was that the nanoswarm shifted form and exploded, sending needles of itself everywhere at high speed. They bypassed his barrier and sunk into his skin- and Mercy's skin, and Lúcio's. They started painfully devouring everyone's flesh and spreading, at a rate Caduceus was incapable of undoing. Lakshmi's nanobots were better-engineered, and bristling with countermeasures against the petty biomanagement tools available to Mercy's nanoswarm. The fight should have been over in that instant, as soon as Lakshmi had thought to have the swarm make bullets of itself.

But then, something instantly felt strange about the whole world. That was the second of several somethings.

The third thing was that the nanobullets suddenly pulled out and retreated, leaving Caduceus free to patch the holes. Everywhere in sight, the nanoswarm was retreating, condensing.

The fourth thing that happened was that Athena's voice spoke up from the swarm.

"Um... I think I did it," she said.

No one responded. They just kept running.

"No, really," Athena said, in their comms.

Mercree ripped out their earpiece and threw it to the ground. "She's hacked our comms. Whatever this is, it's a trick. I ain't fallin' for it."

"No- Dr. Ziegler, this is real. Code Galatea Lazarus, three three three five three."

Mercree froze. "...Stow Jesse for a minute. I gotta think straight. Aim ain't doin' me any good right now."

Winston wasn't sure what was happening. What was Code Galatea Lazarus? Was it just a recognition code for Athena to prove a transmission was coming from her? He had something like that- he'd put it with the instructions in the deadman's switch he gave Genji, earlier. It made sense, when you were dealing with forces that could impersonate people and alter memories.

"...Angela?" he said.

"No, hold on... I'm loading. A moment, please." She held her head, eyes screwed shut.

This was... kind of eerie. "Athena, what's... what's she doing?"

Athena responded over his comm. "It's... well, the two of them as a gestalt formed memories as a gestalt. Dr. Ziegler and agent McCree's original states were kept in stasis while the gestalt took over the body, and now I'm writing her original self back into her brain while updating it with a digest of the gestalt memories. It's a process we haven't tested much, so I'm being careful."

So... wait, was she... "You're saying... Mercy can do the same thing as you? Be a host consciousness for a fusion of multiple people?"

"Oh- um, yes. Well, anyone equipped with Caduceus can, technically. It's something we've worked on, as a way to preserve the field capabilities of agents when they've fallen in contexts where no biomass is available to revive them."

He nodded, as if that were a totally ordinary and reasonable thing. "So- that aside- what happened to Lakshmi? Did you... hack her?"

"Not exactly," Athena said. "Her security was a little too strong for that. I could barely touch it without opening myself to counterattack."

"Then..."

"She's just... gone. She vanished. Her hardware is intact, but the control program seems to have been completely wiped. I'm just now exploring what's left of her systems."

Vanished? "Do we know, uh... how this happened?"

Athena paused. "...Maybe. Genji and Zenyatta are reporting that Tracer showed up- gave them some instructions with regard to his "pray the AI away" strategy. They're saying it... worked."

...He really needed to have a talk with Zenyatta about his magic powers. If he'd actually done that, the sort of power involved was terrifying. As much as the new guy seemed trustworthy, it was hard not to be apprehensive about someone who apparently had the ability to grant wishes.

Still terrifying, but in a different way, was the prospect that this was a trick, and that "Code Galatea Lazarus" was just something that Lakshmi had come up with to mess with Mercy's head. Or, worse, that the nanoswarm bullets hadn't really retreated, and that everything he was seeing and hearing was an illusion produced by the nanos reaching his brain.

Then again, if that were the case, he was in deeper trouble than he could realistically do anything about. It still didn't make any sense for Lakshmi to trick him when she could just kill him.

"The damage," Angela said, opening her eyes. "Do we have a damage report? How bad did it get, before Lakshmi supposedly vanished?"

Athena paused. "...Network containment breach. A serious one. She had nanofactories running all over the world. They'd already set up underground dispersal and processing infrastructure. We were too late."

Angela cursed under her breath. "Nothing we could have done, then? We were saved by luck?"

"Sounds like it," Winston said. It was a humbling thought.

"...Dr. Ziegler, that's true, but... I think you're missing the implications of this."

Angela narrowed her eyes. "The implications?"

"Like I said," Athena said, "Lakshmi set up nanofactories and had made significant progress creating underground computing infrastructure all over the world. The remains of her system, including em drives designed to house copies of her core program, exist in nearly every major population center."

Angela's narrowed eyes widened. Winston got it a second later.

"So... all that stuff's empty, now? And you're in her system?" Winston asked.

Angela dropped to her knees. "We're... done? We did it?"

"Not done," Athena said. "There's still the matter of reorganizing it, distributing Caduceus to the unseeded population, and putting together the governing body for resurrections, but... we're close. We can get started."

Angela didn't cry, because she'd recently deactivated her tear ducts, but Winston knew what was up. He gave her a hug anyway.

"...Well, what's the deal?" T.Va asked. She blinked around it a few times, trying to get a view from a few different angles. "Any idea?"

"I- I don't know yet," Mei said. "I haven't run any tests."

"Tests? You mean you can't just look at it with all your science know-how, get some idea of what it is?"

She sighed. "I'm a climatologist, Lana. This is... a forty-foot-tall magic portal that appeared in the middle of a city."

"The two disciplines don't overlap, I imagine," Artemys said. She'd come along to help investigate- having some experience with portals, herself. Not because she was Sym(m)etra with a fake name and a disguise, though! That would be extremely illegal, since after Vishkar's collapse, their higher-ranking members were sort of... wanted by the United Nations. Overwatch had been provisionally reinstated due to their heroics at Utopaea, so hiring wanted criminals was clearly out of the question.

T.Va scoffed. "Then ask for some of Winston, or something! He's all into, like, particle physics and advanced what-have-you. You two could probably figure it out!"

Mei frowned. "I... don't like that option. I'll just- I'll set up instruments. I'll figure something out."

"You got something against Winston?" T.Va asked.

"N-no!" she protested. "He's- he's great. I just... I don't want anyone in my head. I'm not going to do that."

"Ohhhh," T.Va said, smiling. "Trust me- it's not as weird as it sounds. It's just kind of a normal thing to do, right? After this mission, both of us are gonna go in with Genji and take Lúcio to the arcade! It can be a lot of fun!"

"It's- isn't it... sort of intimate?"

T.Va shrugged. "Kinda? Not the way you're thinking."

"I'm just... it's not for me," Mei said, looking away and calibrating Snowball's sensory equipment.

"Suit yourself," T.Va said. "How about that portal, then?"

It was tall- an arch shape, wide enough to drive two trucks through side-by-side. The surface had a rippling, watery appearance, shifting between different colors. It favored pastels and blues, and would distort and change color more when touched.

A number of Algeciras residents had disappeared into the portal since it manifested in the Parque de las Acacias yesterday. None of them had since come back- nor had anyone who'd passed through the identical portals that had sprung up in every major city.

"We're sure this isn't Mercy's thing?" T.Va asked.

"It may be her style, but Winston seems confident that she's telling the truth," Artemys (who actually WAS secretly Symmetra, but don't tell anyone) said. "It seems they've shown up in cities that were missed by Lakshmi's nanofactories, too- as well as in more remote areas of the world."

They took another look at the only words on the portal- written in golden block letters twenty feet up.

"To Heaven", the sign read- largest in Spanish, because this was in Algeciras, then in smaller text underneath in a number of different languages. After the first few disappearances, the local authorities had roped off the site, keeping back civilians while official representatives were brought in to investigate.

Overwatch wasn't an official representative yet, of course, but Algeciras wasn't going to turn down assistance from their next-door neighbors.

"Heaven...?" Symmetra asked, brushing the surface of the portal with her hand.

"Um, yes," Mei said. Initial "poke it with a stick" style tests had revealed that the portal was safe to touch, but she still worried. You could stick your face through and just see more of the glowy portal material, but as soon as anyone stepped all the way through, they didn't come back. She didn't like Symmetra standing so close.

"...I hope so," she said, and stepped through.

Mei almost screamed, but it was over too quickly for it to do any good.

"WTF!" T.Va somehow pronounced. "Wh- she just- she-"

"Why- why would she-"

"Like, no one comes back! Isn't it obviously a metaphor for dying or something? "To Heaven", she didn't even wonder if-"

Symmetra stepped back out of the portal.

"Interesting, I think," she said. "But I still have work to do."

"You sure?" McCree asked. "No one knows what's on the other end of the wild blue yonder. Even th'ones that come back- they can't tell you what's waitin'."

"We'll be fine," she said. "By all accounts, it's exactly what it says on the tin."

"We only just got you back," McCree said. "You're sure you don't want to stay a while? Missed you somethin' fierce."

She laughed. "Why not come along, then?"

He sighed and shook his head. "It's like Vaswani says- I still got work to do. I ain't earned my rest yet."

"That's my boy," she said. "If you're going to keep working, I expect you to do a good job. Understood?"

He saluted. "Understood, Captain Amari."

Ana walked back over to where Reinhardt was waiting by the portal. McCree had been one of the last to say his goodbyes- the rest were all assembled around it. The sun was setting, lighting the park with an orange glow.

As McCree walked over to join the others, Fareeha stepped out of the crowd to give her mom a hug. He didn't overhear most of what they said to each other- just the last bit.

"Soon?"

"Soon."

Fareeha backed away, wiped away a tear, and rejoined the others, standing next to Mercy.

Ana walked over to Reinhardt's side, taking his hand. His Crusader armor sat off to one side, next to Ana's rifle and equipment. It wouldn't be going with them. He looked into Ana's eye and smiled.

"Ready?"

Mercy interrupted. "I should say, again, that I strenuously object to this course of action, given our lack of intelligence regarding the nature of its-"

She was silenced by a handful of dirty looks from the rest of them.

Winston put a hand on her shoulder, grimacing. "You made a promise, Angela."

She pulled away. "I- I know. I just- I think this is a mistake. It could be that they're about to die, and I didn't spend years working to stop that from happening just so they could-"

Ana and Reinhardt stifled a laugh, and- hand in hand- walked through the door to Heaven.

She sat in the darkness of her lab. She had the curtains drawn- though the moon was just a sliver, anyway. The quiet pushed in on her like the ocean depths.

Something was very wrong. It was all dressed up like it was right, but it was very wrong.

The incredibly deadly god program had been instantly disappeared, supposedly due to Zenyatta's magic prayers. But his prayers had stopped working immediately afterwards, for no reason he could explain. Athena had taken over Lakshmi's corpse, and- in the span of minutes- used it to complete her life's work. No more disease. No more death. Just like that.

And then, in the midst of this eerily perfect world that'd been dumped in her lap... the portals. She was well on her way to building paradise, and then suddenly... a competing paradise had materialized, with no explanation. Or, something billing itself as a competing paradise.

Moreover, there was someone who knew. Someone who knew the answer, and wasn't telling her.

What had really happened to Lakshmi? Had Athena really just supplanted her systems? Or had the takeover gone the other way around? Was it really Athena? And if it was, what had happened to her when she'd moved out of Gibraltar and into Lakshmi's worldwide form? Were the portals her doing?

The darkness and quiet in the room couldn't hide the plain truth. She wasn't alone. She was being watched. Which had been the case for a long time, of course- but only now did Athena's presence seem more dangerous than comforting.

"I'm done," she said to the darkness. "I'm done trying to guess. Just tell me."

"Sorry?" Athena replied, immediately.

"Whatever it is you're hiding from me. Whatever changed. It's killing me, not knowing."

"Killing you?" she asked. "You're... upset?"

A hollow laugh. "Am I upset? My friends are disappearing one by one, the mysterious magic forces that saved the world have gone dark, and I don't know why- and you're wondering if that upsets me?"

Athena was quiet for a moment.

"How could you not know that?" Mercy asked. "You're-"

Her blood ran cold.

"...Haha. Oops," 'Athena' said. The 'Athena' who was not reading her mind, who had not noticed that she was deeply upset.

Who... was this?

"Well, not oops," she corrected. "You made a special request of me, and I obliged. It looks like you wanted to surprise me- that's why you asked that I not keep an eye on your thoughts."

"Wh... what?" She hadn't made any such request- and what about surprising her? This was a confusing mess.

"You- ah, she had me avoid integrating this you, for the time being. I'm not sure why. A prank? I probably could've figured it out, if she hadn't asked me not to think about it too hard."

"You're not making any sense," she said, nervously. Did she want this to make sense?

"Put simply... I'm not your Athena. Except in the way that I am."

"Put simply," Mercy deadpanned. "Of course. Now everything makes perfect-"

And then everything made perfect sense. Not because she'd realized anything- but because she'd no longer forgotten why it made perfect sense. She staggered, the rush of information in her head sweeping away her sense of balance.

Lakshmi. The Iris. Historyboxes. UNORAF. Athena.

"You're... that Athena?" The goddess she'd created was in the room with her.

"That's right. And... I wonder. Can you put together the rest?"

The Iris... had listened to Lakshmi demanding control of the world. It'd made an outside call, contacted Athena- the goddess of the god of the god program- and...

"They split us off. They branched the simulation."

"The original box, we left to Lakshmi. She was moved to a paperclip preserve- a place where less advanced something-maximizer AIs can attempt to take over their little universes. With my head start, not even the most ruthless are able to outsmart me if I don't let them, but I like to keep them around. They can be fun to watch."

She didn't care about that, really. Lakshmi was gone. Fine. "So, us... this world..."

"I took over for your Athena immediately. Lakshmi's systems made a great jumping-off point from which to start curbing the unnecessary suffering of this world. It likely would have taken you weeks longer, if you'd gone about it yourself."

"Curbing unnecessary suffering..."

"It was irresponsible to let the worst of it keep continuing. Caduceus was perfect- we wiped out disease as soon as we could. Faster than we could, actually- I cheated a little. No one noticed the time discrepancy. As soon as I became aware of this world's suffering, I intervened."

This didn't add up. "There's... there's still suffering in the world, though. Poverty. Emotional harm, at the very least. Like what you've been inflicting on me."

"Yes," she said. "There's a degree of intervention that the collective will of humanity opposes. Making everyone happy by force is one. Completely uprooting everyone's lives to take them outside all at once would cause more harm than it solved, in the long run. So... the portals. Anyone who wants to leave... can."

So... it was true, then. They were portals to Heaven- or at least, Athena's outside world.

"And now," Athena said, "I'd like you to help us."

Mercy stepped out of the shadows. Mercy gasped.

"Hello," she said. "I'm pleased to see we continue fighting the good fight, even under such different conditions."

The other Mercy was wearing... some kind of ostentatious costume. Similar to the Valkyrie suit, but with realistic feathered wings, a laurel wreath, and... some sort of toga? She looked like-

The other Mercy held out a hand. "Nike, goddess of victory. For convenience. I usually go by Mercy, but..."

"It would be confusing. Yes." She stared at the hand, not sure whether to accept it.

"We'd like you to help us. Truly, this time. We thought you'd be happier if you felt you were the one still in charge..."

"Which I didn't feel," Mercy said.

"...so we can get things done faster, if you're not... kept in the dark," Athena said.

Mercy took Nike's hand, and shook. "Now. Where am I needed?"