Work Text:
Jack Morrison was possibly one of the most irritating people Gabriel Reyes had ever met. Thick headed and blind to the world, smiles and cheer, even when the entire world was going to shit. Maybe it was some innate envy in Reyes that created this animosity towards these features, but everyone has something they dislike about someone they care about, even if that care had been getting. . . strained over the years.
Yeah, strained was one word for it. It was undeniable that Reyes cared for Jack, but after Overwatch was formally created, as the years slowly progressed and the Blackwatch jobs got darker and darker, the Strike-Commander and the leader of the covert ops drifted further and further apart, and Morrison didn't even seem to notice. But this is all besides the point, really. The point here was the mission Reyes' team had been sent.
Whoever the hell had sent it wasn't their usual supplier for this sort of protocol, but Blackwatch had degraded to such a state that honestly, Reyes lacked the ability to care; his branch of Overwatch had been falling apart after he lost half of the members of his team to a God program. They were just kids; barely past twenty and goddamn delinquents that would only listen to him. So when Jack told them to - no, no he wouldn't go into this now, goddamnit. The dead were death, and they were buried in unnmarked graves and their parents didn't know, if they had them. Because that'd just how Blackwatch worked.
So when the mission details had been sent, Gabriel had just stopped caring; he had lost so much, so many team members, so many friends there just wasn't any point to questioning the bizarre orders he was given. Just as the kids that followed him wouldn't question him. Well. . . except McCree, but he was long gone, stupid cowboy.
Clever man.
Felix - the mute German who got kicked out of college for stabbing some kid - had gone to the upper portion of the base with Ico, which probably wasn't their name, where they were to clear the entire floor possible so an unknown agent from their source could infiltrate and set. . . something up. Whatever the something is, Reyes doesn't know, nor does he care. To the lower levels and west side of the base would go Léonide and Aria, the newest members of the group to escort some prisoner to be tortured, a diversion, something that seemed to fit with Blackwatch's lack of morals, something that would probably gain the attention of plenty of people. Some screaming prisoner was bound to draw everyone from that section to them. It had in the past, at least. . .
Regardless - Reyes' job was a little easier to do. Bring Jack into the central command room. The initial briefing included Ana, but their information may have been outdated or simply sent ahead of time for when all members were meant to be stationed in the Swiss HQ at the right time. But just Jack would be easier; it was fairly late evening so the room would be empty, and the pair were known to need some, ah, alone time every now and then, and their rooms were hardly very well, ahem, sound proofed.
So that was exactly as Reyes had done, sent a text to Jack asking him to meet him in the command room, he wanted to talk, maybe go off and grab something to eat that wasn't garbage cafeteria rations. And, well, the only reason Gabriel did this was because, well, he was told that this mission would be safe, completely safe, just some data mining or something, a recon. He didn't care.
Gabriel doesn't remember why he was so naive.
"Gabriel, we need to talk." Jack's voice was cold, stoic, and Gabriel scowled.
"Yeah, that's why I called you here, Jackass." The reply was snarled; their relationship had been more than a little rocky at this point.
"No, listen to me," Jack half-snapped, his perfect blond-hair-blue-eyes frown was irritated, no, angry. Something had seriously ticked him off, that was for sure. "Your people are getting out of hand. You were given your team because you could handle it. But look what's happening! Are you blind? This is outright murder!"
Ah, so that's what it was. A mission involving the placement of a bomb; civilians died, their target, who was apparently innocent, dead as well. Reyes hissed. "Oh, so I'm the blind one? I'm the one that's been killing innocents? What about you? You're the ones that effective sent Tali's group to their deaths!"
"They were criminals, and I didn't tell them t--"
Jack's matter of frank way of speaking made Reyes freeze. Anger bubbled from his chest and to his throat. "They were children!" Sure, he may be an ass, but he still cared about the people in his command. He wouldn't let any of them die if he had a choice, and, urgh. Jack didn't seem to care about that, nno. "You've been hiring children and dumping them on me, boss, making me train them into soldiers, assassins. That Japanese kid with the green hair? He cried on his first mission. You're making me turn people into monsters and you don't even notice."
Jack was shocked, for a moment, and he opened his mouth to reply. But. . .
That was when the room shuddered.
Both commanders looked up at the same time; an unspoken question on Jack's lips as Reyes' eyes flared in understanding. Another tremor took the room and cracks, broad and expansive, spread, right above where the pair stood.
"¡Joder!" A final tremor came filled with a shower of dust; plaster from the ceiling. Reyes moved fast, pushing Jack with enough force to throw him back against the far wall as the ceiling fell in, debris showering in small clumps, then rubble; rocks showered on Reyes' shoulders concrete raining from above and pinning fragility underneath it, there was another detonation. This one closer, the same room?
Whenever that goddamn bomb was placed, it was too close. Far too close. The light from the flare was blinding, and Gabriel let out a choked exclamation just as he felt his legs shattered under the weight of the fallen concrete. Jack's cry was loud and startled.
"What did you do?!"
Blaming him, of course, but Gabriel couldn't reply, a hand reaching forward, his breath a wheeze as lungs tried to work against crushed ribs, blood filling his organs as he coughed, trying to force it out, trying to breath.
Words pushed from his heart, crawling up broken ribs and up a flooded throat, pushing against teeth, but they only thing he could manage was a plaintive whimper; everything hurt. Ears were ringing from the blast, , dark eyes going blurry before he closed them. A single stone, rolled, dropped from the hole torn in the floor above, the blast had weakened the floor above too, it seemed. Because that stone was followed by a cascade of more debris.
"!!" The gasp was a silent cry of pain; followed by nothingness, silence, he couldn't see Jack anymore. Reyes could acutely feel his arms outstretched, the only thing touching the air were broken, twitching fingertips, struggling as a growing plant would, reaching for light. Reaching for life. But it was futile.
Gabriel gave up.
And who are you, the proud lord said, that I must bow so low?
Clad in black and a mask of stark bone, Reaper stood before the statue of the fallen hero. Apparently he had died to th explosion, too.
Only a cat of a different coat, that's all the truth I know.
A breath escaped marred lips, black smoke filtering from beneath the owlish features.
In a coat of gold or a coat of red, a lion still has claws.
He turned, stepping away from the statue and moving deeper into the graveyard. In the back; the headstones of those he had buried with his own hands.
And mine are long and sharp my lord, as long and sharp as yours.
Tali. Natasha. Seto. Jenova. Aiden. Jet.
And so he spoke, and so he spoke, that lord of Castamere.
Their graves were unnamed, but he knew where each member lay, and so many more. Children, children and nothing else. Dead at the will of Overwatch.
But now the rain weep o'er his hall, with no one there to hear.
It was here he swore revenge. Overwatch would suffer for this. And Reaper would be the one to pick them all off. But for the moment, something else had his attention.
Yes now the rain weep o'er his hall, and not a soul to hear.
Another grave, one he doesn't know. New, from the looks of it. 'Unknown Soldier. Unknows-20XX'. The day Gabriel Reyes died.