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“Mysterious mercenary “Reaper” strikes Overwatch base, taking no casualties despite heavy property damage. Talon involvement suspected-”
Jack sighed and turned the radio broadcast off, a grimace across his face. He was tired of listening to it, tired of hearing about everything the Reaper was up to these days.
“What’s wrong, Jack?”
The voice drew him out of his angry musings, and he tried to school his expression into something calmer, something that wouldn’t worry his partner. All he could manage was a smile that failed to touch blind eyes.
“Nothing. I’ve just heard that same report three times today. Gets exhausting.”
A little sigh came in reply, and it didn’t matter that Jack’s visor was across the room- he could tell Ana was moving to sit next to him. She patted his shoulder, humming and clicking her tongue- softly judging, he could guess.
“It’s because of the name, isn’t it? Reaper. Used to be Gabriel’s, didn’t it?”
Jack clenched his fist, teeth grinding together in his mouth. Ana was never one to beat around the bush- that was why she’d made such a good second in command all those years ago. She could always see right to the heart of the issue, and wasn’t afraid to call him out on it.
It took him a moment to respond, and when he did, his voice was quiet, getting louder as he went on, “Yeah. It bothers me. Gabe… Gabe took that title, took that mantle because he had to. Because the UN was stopping him from doing his job and saving lives. He became a vigilante in his free time just to get the job done. And now this asshole thinks he can run around and use it? He’s working for Talon for god’s sakes! The organization Gabe gave his life trying to stop! So yeah. It fuckin’ bothers me.”
Jack could practically feel the sigh that escaped Ana before she wrapped an arm around his shoulders, rubbing his back, “I’m sorry, Jack. I’m sure whoever ‘Reaper’ is, they’re just using the title for publicity. Old names make for great headlines.”
“Or they want to drag Gabe through the mud again. When he’s dead and can’t even speak up to defend himself.”
“Hey now. Yelling about it’s not gonna solve anything. Finding Talon means finding Reaper- you can take your frustration out and get your answers then. But until then, we have to keep our heads. If you rush in, you’ll get yourself killed.”
Slowly, all of the heat and energy slid out of Jack, muscles forcibly relaxing as he leant into Ana’s shoulder, “I know. I know. Sorry. You’re right, Ana. We’ll get him. We’ll make this right.”
“I’m always right, Jack. Sometimes it just takes beating you over the head for you to realize it.”
Ana laughed, and slowly Jack joined in, glad for the moment of friendship.
“I’ve got Reaper’s heat signature locked- I’m going in after him before Talon sends an extraction team!”
“Jack, wait, don’t go in alone, you don’t know what he’ll do!”
But Ana’s words fell on deaf ears, the soldier already running after the mercenary. Reaper wasn’t as fast as you’d think, but the smoke was hard to track. Jack had to wait for him to reassemble and change direction as needed.
“Jack! Jack! Morrison! Soldier 76! Damnit Jack, pull back!”
“Sorry Ana. This might be our only chance.”
With that, Jack turned the comm channel off- he couldn’t afford to focus any of his attention elsewhere. Reaper was slippery and who knew when Talon would next send the mercenary out without his usual team.
Jack ran out of the streets into the open plaza, looking around with confusion. Reaper had just been here- the heat signature hadn’t reappeared anywhere else yet, which meant he still had to be close.
“Damnit. Where the fuck did he go?”
“Right here, Jack.”
The voice came from right beside his ear, a chill sliding its way down his spine. There was something horrifically familiar to that voice, and the tone it took.
But before he could turn, before his brain could even begin trying to put the pieces together, a shot rang out and pain erupted from his lower back. The shotgun shells shattered against the metal column of his spine, dropping him to the floor. It wouldn’t paralyze him- the cybernetics were stronger than that- but it did cause a series of shocks up and down his spine as the hardware tried to reconnect after the blast.
Jack reached for the pistol at his side- he couldn’t reach the pulse rifle now if he tried. Still shaking and twitching, he turned, pointing the gun up at Reaper.
“Who the. Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?”
“Oh, sorry. Soldier 76. That’s what you’re going by, right? My memory’s a little fuzzy.”
Pulling himself up into something more of a crouched sitting position, more chance to run once his legs started reacting better again, Jack leveled the gun at Reaper’s mask, mouth grimacing under the visor.
“Well. Since you seem to think you know my name, why don’t you give me yours? Even the playing field.”
A chilling laugh escaped the man standing above him, and the knot in Jack’s stomach tightened. Too much was resonating with him, too much he didn’t want to think about.
“Not a chance, Soldier. But I’ll prove my own self right.”
Another shot, this time directly at his face. Jack recoiled backwards with a grunt of shock as the visor cracked, visual display giving out and leaving him blind. Ripping the sparking metal and glass away from his face, Jack tossed it to the ground and glared up at Reaper with blind eyes, gun still leveled towards where he could hear the laughter.
“Oh, time has not been kind to you, Jackie. Tsk tsk.”
Reflexively, Jack’s finger pulled back the trigger, firing a bullet that, by the sound of it, ricocheted off Reaper’s mask. A growl came in response and Jack hissed when a steel-toed boot connected with his side, knocking him back onto the cobblestones.
“Don’t call me that.”
“Hmm. Don’t think I take orders from you, Soldier. Nope. You’re not paying me.”
Jack could hear Reaper walking around him, pacing back and forth in some sort of half circle- a predator hunting, teasing, waiting for the perfect opportunity. Or maybe waiting for Talon to come and collect him- Jack was certain there was a high bounty on his head, and Reaper would be happy to collect.
“Nothin’ but a filthy gun for hire. You really don’t do your namesake justice, Reaper.”
The laugh that escaped Reaper this time was absolutely horrifying, something that left Jack feeling as if all of the blood in his body had been replaced with ice water. It was incredulous, mocking, dark. Wrong.
“Really, Jack? Really? Namesake? I know you’re blind, but did you go deaf too? Put two and two together, Commander. Or do you need someone to do it for you? Like always?”
Denial and anger warred in his chest as he shook his head, pulling himself away from Reaper with a snarl, “No. You’re lying. You’re lying. Shut up. You’re just using his name! Just want the image! Gabriel would never do what you’re doing.”
“Still as naive as ever. You’d think dying would have taught you something.”
A shot rang out, but this time, Jack didn’t feel an ounce of pain. He heard the gun, and then the ungodly cracking of metal, falling to the floor. From behind him, a shocked gasp gave away Ana’s position.
“Gabriel? What… What happened to you?”
“Don’t act like you give a shit, Ana! You abandoned me! He abandoned me! You all abandoned me! You all did this to me!”
Jack couldn’t see Reaper’s face, couldn’t see what Ana was looking at, but without the mask to muffle the audio, there was no denying whose voice he was hearing. It was raspy, scratched, damaged, but it was Gabe’s.
“Gabriel….? Gabe… why?”
“Because I did everything for Overwatch and Overwatch left me to rot. You left me to rot, Morrison. And I realized this world really is every man for himself.”
A pinprick of pain in his neck and a hand on his arm told Jack that Ana was crouched next to him, giving him a regenerative shot, mostly likely, and checking his vitals. So Reaper- Gabriel- hadn’t shot her, at least.
“You’re wrong. Gabriel, we didn’t abandon you… What are you talking about?”
“Shut up, traitor. You can’t lie to me, can’t make any excuses. I remember exactly what happened.”
Before Jack could reply, he heard Gabriel’s boots clinking farther away, voice shifted back lower, “Reaper here. Yeah, yeah. Callate, Sombra. Si, claro. I’m on my way.” There was the cordite-and-metal smell that Jack was already beginning to associate with Reaper’s smoke, and then Gabriel’s voice sounded beside his ear, even though he was clearly not entirely physical, “Stay out of my way, Soldier. For your own sake.”
And then he was gone, the smoke sliding away and taking the smell and sound with it. Jack let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, quickly going from held breath to hyperventilation as the whole situation caught up with him.
“Oh my god. No. No. That can’t be. That was. That was Gabriel but. It can’t be. Why would he? It can’t be. It can’t be.”
“It was. I saw his face, Jack. It was Gabriel.”
“But Gabriel’s dead, Ana!”
“No one stays dead these days. For better or for worse.” Ana’s voice was cool, a sharp contrast to Jack’s panic, but it was what he needed. She was grounded, and he collapsed back against her, shaking and half-sobbing.
In his chest, there was an empty aching, a pain that felt like being stabbed over and over with a knife made of ice. The agony carved a hole out in his chest and in his head, and to fill the space, Gabriel’s words repeated, over and over.
You abandoned me.
You left me to rot.
You did this to me.
“No…. No. I didn’t….. I didn’t…. I would never….”
The mutterings, all spoken to himself, faded out as Ana checked his wounds over and set up the teleporter to get them out of the city.