The walls of Vulturis hummed faintly with recycled air and fluorescent hum. Dr. Koren sat in the chair, shivering under the light. His voice trembled, not from cold, but memory.
I didn't have to raise a hand against him. The fear of the scalpel had already done my work for me.
"You said you wanted to help yourself," I told him. "Then start."
He nodded rapidly, clutching his trembling hands together. "You have to understand, Meret wasn't trying to make monsters. She was trying to make survivors."
I leaned against the table. "You're not going to be selling me a sob story. You're going to be giving me facts."
Koren swallowed hard. "The serum, Meret's formula, it forces adaptation. Cellular acceleration. DNA that reacts to threat, pain, temperature, even emotional stress. The subject evolves in real time."
I said nothing. The words already painted their own horror.
"It was supposed to save lives," he continued, desperate now. "But evolution isn't morality. It doesn't stop. It doesn't know when enough is enough."
"What happens to the subjects?"
"They survive everything," he whispered, "until survival kills them."
I stared at him for a long moment. "And the data?"
He pointed to the datapad on the table. "Everything's there. Her algorithm, the unfinished genome maps, and… the autopsy reports. We stopped counting after the twelfth subject."
I reached for the pad and secured it into a sealed case. "Project Meret," I said quietly. "Reactivated."
The door opened behind me. Cain stepped in, his boots clicking like clockwork. "Well done, Dagger. Talon will be most pleased."
I handed him the case. "I assume you'll oversee the reconstruction?"
"Indeed. Dr. Koren will be... helpful." Cain smiled, that calm predator's grin. "You've proven yourself indispensable again." I inclined my head slightly. "Always happy to help."
Inside, I felt the weight of it—another brick in a wall I was building out of blood and lies.
That night, while the hum of the base drowned everything else, my wrist communicator vibrated twice. A private channel that was heavy with encryption.
Adawe.
> DROP EVERYTHING. RETURN TO GENEVA. IMMEDIATELY.
No explanation. No tone. Just order.
I didn't ask questions. When the message came from Adawe herself, there wasn't room for delay.
I left Koren to Cain's custody and disappeared into the night, a ghost leaving a den of wolves.
Geneva was soaked in sleet when I arrived. The old command building loomed under gray light, walls patched from the war and reinforced since. Inside, the council chamber felt smaller than I remembered, cramped with tension, filled with faces that used to feel like home.
Gabriel stood near the window, coat still dripping from rain. Jack paced like a caged animal.
Adawe sat behind the table, composed but cold. And beside them, member of my team.
Virginia, Spencer, and Marco. Bruised and bandaged.
Every one of them looking at me with a mixture of exhaustion and disbelief.
"Welcome Rose, this is the latest intel on a Talon member that your team encountered yesterday."
A holo-projector flickered in the center of the table, replaying footage captured from Hollowpoint.
Snow and static. Then me, Dagger, emerging through the storm, mask gleaming under the fractured light.
I watched myself attack. The footage played every movement: the flashbang, the strikes, the precision. How I dropped each of them one by one. No hesitation. No mercy.
The silence afterward was suffocating.
"Whoever this was," Jack said, his jaw tight, "wasn't ordinary. He disabled four trained operatives in under fifteen seconds."
Gabriel folded his arms. "He's clearly experienced. Every attack was planned and hit with precision. Every blind spot exploited. I would wager that they're an assassin."
Adawe's eyes never left the screen. "Corporal Elias Varn and them confirm his name is Dagger. Anything to add Rose? Do you recognize his fighting technique?"
I took a long breath. "Yeah," I said quietly. "Tell them to leave the room."
Virginia frowned. "What?"
"This isn't for you," I said, tone steady. "Please. Just do it."
Adawe hesitated, then gave a small nod. "Go," she told them.
They filed out slowly with confusion and reluctance, but left nonetheless. When the door shut, the only sound left was the rain against the glass.
I looked up at the three of them. Gabriel's eyes burned with suspicion. Jack maintained his stare in anticipation. Adawe's eyes closed, with acceptance mingled with grief almost as if she knew what I was about to say.
"The Talon operative," I said. "The one from Hollowpoint." I paused. "That was me."
The silence hit harder than any gunfire. Jack froze mid-step, eyes narrowing. "What the hell did you just say?"
"I infiltrated Talon. Under an alias, Dagger."
Adawe's voice was sharp as glass. "Without authorization. Without oversight."
"If I'd asked for it, it never would've worked," I said. "They trust no one. I had to play it clean."
Gabriel took a step closer. "You fought your own team."
"I had no choice," I said flatly. "They were about to extract the scientist. If I hesitated, Talon would've killed them and buried the lead."
Jack's voice cracked through the room. "You attacked Overwatch operatives!"
"And I kept them alive," I countered. "Every strike was controlled. They're breathing because I made sure of it."
Adawe's hand hit the table. "You compromised every protocol we have. Do you understand the risk...?"
"Of course I do." I snapped. "And it's a good thing I did this because even I had no idea the scale at how deep in shadows they are."
They all looked at me, but none spoke. So I said it.
"Talon's base that I operate from," I said slowly. "It's not in the Alps. It's not in South America. It's under Geneva. Directly beneath this city."
For a moment, no one moved. Then Gabriel's eyes widened. Jack's pacing stopped. Adawe's composure cracked like thin ice.
"Under us," Gabriel said. "How far down?"
"Deep enough that every signal gets eaten by interference. They built their core facility in the old metro tunnels, using war-era infrastructure. We've been living above them for years."
Jack cursed under his breath. "God damn it."
Adawe leaned back in her chair, hands steepled under her chin. "So we've been sitting on the serpent's nest."
"And if they find out I told you," I said, "we'll be sitting inside it."
Jack turned on me. "You think this confession clears you? You've endangered your team, compromised intel, and violated every regulation in the book."
"I'm not naive like I used to be. I understand the consequences of my actions," I said. "But I'm in contact with one of the members of their higher circle. We'd never reach a moment like this ever. We know too little about them. We're always not even a pawn in their game of chess."
Adawe's eyes were cold. "And now I have to decide whether that makes you an asset or a criminal."
The tension was a drawn blade. Then Gabriel spoke up.
"Maybe he's both."
We turned toward him.
Gabriel crossed his arms, voice low but firm. "We've been fighting shadows with policy. That ends now. If Talon hides under our feet, we need something that can hunt them where light doesn't reach. Fight shadows as shadows."
Adawe frowned. "You're suggesting an off-the-books unit."
"Unofficial," he corrected. "Covert. Operatives who can do what the rest of Overwatch can't or won't. You want accountability? Fine. Give it to me. I'll lead it."
Jack stared. "You can't be serious."
"I'm dead serious," Gabriel said. "We call it Blackwatch."
Adawe studied him, eyes narrowing. "You'd use Rose for that?"
"He's already in the dark," Gabriel said. "Might as well let him fight there."
I met his gaze. "He's right. Talon's infected everything. I've seen their reach. They've got sleeper agents even inside Overwatch. If we don't move soon, you'll wake up and find they've already rewritten your command structure."
Adawe said nothing for a long time. Finally, she exhaled, the weight of leadership heavy in her voice.
"Tell me, Sergeant," she said. "What happened at Hollowpoint? What was the assistant's purpose?"
I didn't lie. I told them everything, Meret's serum, the forced adaptation, the soldiers who mutated to survive, the data Cain recovered, and the fact that the project was already being rebuilt.
When I finished, silence reigned again. Even Gabriel's steady composure faltered.
Jack's voice was low. "Stuff like this is everywhere, you're saying."
"Everywhere," I confirmed. "And if Talon perfects it, they won't need soldiers. They'll have evolution itself on a leash."
Adawe's gaze drifted to the rain-streaked window. "I'll… consider your proposal, Commander Reyes," she said finally.
Gabriel nodded once. "That's all I ask."
Jack looked between us, still fuming, but he didn't argue. Not this time.
As I turned to leave, Adawe's voice stopped me.
"Sergeant Rose," she said. "One more thing."
I turned.
"If you ever go undercover again," she said softly, "you'll tell me first."
I gave a faint, humorless smile. "Next time, I hope I won't have to."
Outside, the storm hadn't stopped. Lightning crawled across the Geneva skyline, washing the glass towers in ghostlight. Somewhere below, beneath streets and steel, Talon moved unseen.
And somewhere above, in rooms filled with light, Overwatch prepared to follow. The idea for Blackwatch had just been born.