The screen flickered to life with the sound of orchestrated calm. Soft blue gradients flowed across the background. Vishkar's emblem spun gently, flanked by the words:
"Unity. Order. Ascension."
Amrita Nadari stepped into frame. Perfectly dressed. Poised. Controlled. She looked like peace incarnate, untouched by the fires that had scorched the city days ago. The camera didn't see the bruises beneath her sleeves, or the lingering burn near her temple. It saw only what it was meant to.
"A few days ago," she began, "our city was shaken by a violent insurrection led by radicalized extremists and compromised operatives."
Footage played behind her, edited carefully. Kastur's rebels charging the perimeter. Flashes of hard light destabilizing security drones.
The video cuts to an over-the-shoulder shot of Shawn Rose, stepping into the vault. Energy surrounds him. Light bends to his hand. The rest is shadows.
Amrita's voice lowered, perfectly modulated.
"What you are about to see is sensitive. But transparency demands it."
The video shifted. No sound. Just visual.
A version of the vault battle but cropped, distorted, controlled. Malek isn't shown. Neither is the storm of light going rogue.
Instead, it shows Shawn reaching out. Hard light curling around him and obeying. Then the end where the failsafe powering down at his touch.
Then silence.
The feed broadcast across the city, into every slum, tower, refugee shelter, and street hub.
The reactions were immediate.
"He shut it down…"
"No tech. No tool. Just his hand…"
"They're calling him dangerous?"
"No. He saved them."
Rose's Quarters
Shawn stood stiffly, arms folded as the broadcast finished playing. The final line still echoed in his mind.
"While Vishkar defused the threat, questions remain about Overwatch's growing independence. Let it be known that no individual stands above global accountability. Not even heroes."
S3bastian hovered beside him. "She didn't just twist the knife. She dipped it in sugar first."
"She's painting me as the unknown," Shawn muttered. "Not guilty. Not innocent. Just… uncertain. The kind of uncertainty people fear."
"She wants plausible deniability," Virginia said, stepping into the room with the rest of the Thorns behind her. "If the world buys her version, she stays in power. If it backfires, she claims ignorance."
Spencer scowled. "She left out Kastur. She left out everything."
"No," Shawn said. "She left just enough to sell a new story."
Vishkar Tower – Executive Hall
Amrita stood at the end of the corridor, watching citywide reaction streams roll across her glass tablet. Her advisors stood behind her, hesitant.
"This won't stick forever," one of them said. "People have already seen raw footage. It's spreading on darknet forums. Your version isn't the only version."
"It's the first one," she replied. "And in politics, the first one always echoes the longest."
"But the people… they're starting to look at him like..."
"Like a messiah," she finished, voice neutral.
She turned to them, eyes cold.
"Good. Let them."
They exchanged glances.
Amrita continued, "If they worship him, they won't follow him. If they elevate him high enough, they'll expect miracles. And when he inevitably fails to be perfect, I'll be there to catch what falls."
Mumbai – Undercity District 3
A ragged man watched the stream replay in a dusty corner shop surrounded by hanging batteries and salvaged drones.
He pointed to the moment the light curled around Shawn.
"That wasn't technology," he said to the small crowd around him. "That was faith. The machines bent to him. Not Vishkar. Not the Church. Him."
A girl whispered, "Do you think he knows?"
Another man nodded. "He has to."
Shawn's Quarters – Midnight
He sat alone now, looking out the window as the city pulsing silently beyond the glass. Even though he didn't require it like that anymore, he hadn't slept. He'd barely spoken since he watched the video, his thoughts on Amrita's actions. The deal they made.
This was her first steps into resecuring her power. His days here, seeing the treatment of the people, and dealing with Amrita, it was starting to wear him down. He wanted nothing more than to leave this place as soon as possible. Therefore, the preferred choice was to play along as Amrita's pawn.
But what she did weighed heavy on his mind. His thoughts drifted to matters that he didn't want to think about. On his place in the world.
That video revealing him using the hard-light would change peoples perspectives of him. He knew that they wouldn't only see him just as a healer or just as a soldier.
But as something more.
And that was what terrified him most.