Chapter Text

"...it simply worries me that you see trust as a resource- one that you have accumulated that it might be spent."

"I can't believe I'm hearin' this. You're a machine! I'm bein' lectured about trust by a machine!"

"Bweep bwoo."

"You butt out of this! It's none of your business!"

"But it is his business," Zenyatta said to Torbjörn. "Should he not be worried about this? You had him believe that he was not meant to be a secret- that everyone here was at peace with his presence. And now, he finds that this was a lie- that you expected your friends to fear him, and that revealing his presence would cost you in the trust of your teammates. You don't believe that you've wronged him?"

"Bweeoo."

"I- pah. This is too much. He ought to be grateful I saved his sorry metal rear from bein' scrapped back home!"

"Beep-bweep-bwoop. Bwoo-weeeeee?"

"He wishes to reiterate that he is grateful, but that-"

"I know OCSIL well enough, y'sanctimonious tin can!"

Genji gave a snort of laughter from under a tree.

"Genji, please," Zenyatta said. "You would truly laugh at me when I am verbally assailed?"

"Absolutely, master. Make no mistake. But I am simply laughing at Torbjörn's choice of words."

"Gah," Torbjörn groaned. "You're not going to get all politically correct on me again, are you?"

Genji laughed. "You don't think it is funny, master? This old relic is throwing around the old tin-can slur, but he is the one who kept a Bastion unit a secret for a month- because he felt sorry for him! He cannot even be racist properly!"

Torbjörn let out a low growl. "You are. You are gonna complain I'm not bein' PC again."

"I was told you favored Linux," Zenyatta mused. Genji attempted to hide his laughter.

Torbjörn's mouth hung open, his throat working as it failed to decide which furious retort to go with.

"But for seriously, Torbjörn," Genji said, standing up. "I doubt there is even one of us who has not repudiated your hostility towards omnics. You cannot have seriously believed anyone here would have objected if you had told them about this Bastion. You are the only one I would imagine would have a problem with it."

Torbjörn scowled. "What about Reinhardt, eh? You don't think he would've flinched if I told him I was bringing a Bastion here? After those things slaughtered his comrades-in-arms at Eichenwalde?"

"You saw it yourself!" Genji said, incredulously. "Yes! He flinched! And that is all he did, before thanking him for saving us like everyone else! Because he has an ounce of common decency!"

"Bweeee-oo-wee," Bastion said.

"So what if he shook your hand?!" Torbjörn exploded. "You can't seriously expect me to tell a bunch of people whose job was to kill the blasted things that I'm bringing one home as a pet!"

"Bwee..."

"Wh- no, you're not a pet! I didn't mean- that was just a joke!"

Genji shook his head. "I think I could have expected it. I think you knew we would be fine with it. I just cannot fathom why you would hide this anyway."

Torbjörn scowled, breaking eye contact.

Zenyatta put a hand on Genji's shoulder. "My pupil, you are doing your fathoming capabilities a disservice. I believe you have precisely identified the reason behind his actions."

"Master, I am not so confident that-"

"No, no. You wound my pride as a teacher, in pretending you have not learned well enough."

"Master! You said yourself that it is hubris to say "I am finished learning, there is no more to teach"! What are you talking about?"

"There is a difference between being accomplished and being finished, my pupil. To shrink from putting into practice what you have learned, merely because you have not yet mastered it, will only stunt your growth."

"What are you two on about?" Torbjörn finally spat out.

"My apologies," Zenyatta said, turning to Torbjörn. "What my pupil has inferred- but wishes not to say, for fear of offending your pride- is that you kept this Bastion hidden because you feared you would be mocked for your seeming hypocrisy."

"Which he would have," Genji said. "Deservedly."

Torbjörn threw his hands up. "You arrogant pair of- I've said a thousand times, I don't hate- I don't... I don't have to put up with this!" he shouted, turning to storm off. "I've got work to do!"

"Bwoo-wee beep beep wee?" Bastion asked.

He didn't turn around. "Fine! Why not? You're not my problem, anymore! Those two chuckleheads can go ahead and indoctrinate you, for all I care!"

"Bwee..."

They watched him stomp his way down the cliffside trail, grumbling to himself.

"I told you, Master. This is what he is like. Most of the way to being convinced, but too proud to ever admit he was wrong in the first place."

"Mm. Perhaps. I shall certainly need to spend more time with him."

The three of them sat mostly in silence, watching the sea lap against the cliffs below. The Bastion kept turning to check on the yellow bird, which was busily assembling a nest in the nearest tree. Occasionally Bastion would beep a question, Zenyatta would answer it, and Genji would ask what the question had been and receive a translation.

Time passed, as the interrogations and recuperations proceeded in the facility below. The sky went from gold to purple to a deep, starry blue.

Bastion pointed up at one of the stars.

"Bwip-bweeee?"

"...I confess I do not recognize that one," Zenyatta said. "Perhaps a plane?"

Genji perked up. "Ah! No, that would be Hana."

"Hana Song? I was told she had returned to South Korea."

"Yes, but... as soon as she arrived back home, she called Winston and heard about the attack. We are expecting her around now- from what I have heard, she badgered her superiors into letting her return here. I suspect she is disappointed to have missed the action."

They watched the D.Va's MEKA grow from a pinprick of light to a flying mech suit, which flew under a cloud and over to the landing pad on the edge of the base.

...and then past the landing pad, and directly towards them. At full speed.

"Genji, would you care to speculate as to why she-"

Genji was already on his feet, standing in front of Bastion and waving his arms. D.Va was headed straight for him, her mech projecting a wide holofield for identifying incoming projectiles. Her hands were on the triggers, ready to fire.

"D.VA! STOP!" Genji shouted. It was a direct approach, but it seemed to work- rather than barrel past, she engaged the legs and landed squarely in front of him.

"Genji, omg! Look out! There's a Bastion unit behind you! Cloaked or something! Can't you see it?" D.Va shouted through the windshield of her MEKA.

Genji shook his head. "No, Hana, I know. It is cool. He is with us." She deactivated the defense matrix, looking in confusion at Bastion- who had pressed himself up against the tree, shaking with fear. Zenyatta moved to put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"We have our own Bastion now? How'd that happen?"

Genji laughed. "He does not belong to us. And as for how it happened... I will tell you, but you will not believe me."

"Genji!" she gasped in mock surprise. "Of course I'd believe you! We're friends, aren't we?"

"Yes," Genji said, "but when I tell you it was Torbjörn's idea, you are going to believe I have gone completely mad."

D.Va blinked. "Oh. I see what you mean."

"See?! It is as if my entire world has been flipped upside-down."

"I'm surprised you can tell whether stuff's upside-down, since you're doing those ninja flips all the-" D.Va started, and then frowned, pressing a button on her earpiece.

"Is something wrong?" Genji asked.

D.Va held up a finger and ignored him. "Uh-huh? No, yeah, it's fine. I just saw Genji and the new guy up on the cliffs, and... no, yeah. Yeah, it's fine. The- yeah. I'll park her. Don't worry about it."

"Ah," Genji said, turning to Zenyatta. "Athena. Probably wondering why she did not land on the landing pad."

"...Okay, yeah. I'll tell 'em. You could just tell them yourself, y'know," D.Va said into her communicator.

"What? Tell us what?" Genji asked.

D.Va kept holding up the finger to her mouth. "...No, yeah, I get it. Okay! Seeya, 'thena!"

She hung up, then prepared her MEKA to take off again. "Athena wants us all in the rec room for something. Some kind of group announcement? Means you guys gotta get your metal butts off this cliff and back to the Watchpoint."

Genji nodded. "Understood. It will take us an extra minute or two, as our new companion is less agile than Zenyatta and I."

"O.K.! I'll let them know. You-"

D.Va was cut off by a sudden blue flicker in the air between them. It resolved, briefly, into Tracer, standing there with a panicked look on her face.

"-fect! Hana! Genji! You have to tell Winston-" she said, gesticulating wildly, before fizzling out again.

"Wh- what was that?" D.Va asked.

"Oh, ah... Lena's time machine was destroyed in the fight with-"

Genji flinched back as Tracer blinked back into existence to deliver a brief "-ollocks!", before noticing she was back, and then immediately disintegrating again.

"Omg. Doesn't she have backups?"

"In Winston's lab, yes," Genji answered. "Which was also destroyed by the Junkers. He is going to need a week or two to figure out how to build a new one, because all of the old blueprints were also in his lab."

"Jeez! Is she gonna be okay?"

"She was stuck like that for years, once. I am sure she will be fine."

"Do "years", as a measure, have any meaning when one is unstuck in time?" Zenyatta asked.

"Yeah, we should ask her what that was like, when she's back," D.Va said, looking at Zenyatta- and seeing Bastion, still trembling by the tree. "Oh- sorry! You okay over there, uh...?"

"Bweeooo," Bastion said, nervously.

"He has not yet chosen a name," Zenyatta translated. "So far, we have simply been referring to him by his make."

"...But it's a he?" D.Va asked.

Genji shrugged. "That is what Torbjörn was calling him. We have not talked about gender or anything."

"I still don't believe that, dude. This whole Bastion thing was Torbjörn's idea? I'm gonna need to have him tell me himself."

"Bwirr?" Bastion asked, looking at Genji.

"Ah," Zenyatta said, thinking. "Gender is... hm. Genji, you would know better than I."

Genji threw up his hands in mock surrender. "No way. Do not ask me to explain gender to another omnic. I barely understand it myself. It is a nightmare. I have had it up to here with gender."

D.Va tilted her head. "Uh, guys? Athena's bugging me again. Says people are waiting."

Zenyatta nodded, gesturing for Bastion to follow him. "Come, then. We will hear this announcement."