Chapter Text
You didn’t think you would find yourself combing the hallways with a look of fear and anguish. Then again, you didn’t think he would just storm out all of a sudden when you went to ask him about his day. Never say a word to your face… No: “Hey, sure!”, no: “I'm glad you asked!”, not even a simple: “Hey, I’m not up for talking about it.”. Where had he gone in such a huff? What was going on? You just wanted the truth. You wanted peace.
“Y/n? What’s wrong?” a hand latched onto your wrist and you wanted so badly to pull it away and keep running, but who had done so made you stop. It was Lena… “You’re running around faster than I possibly can, what’s the matter?” her hazel eyes filled with concern at your stern expression and frazzled exterior.
“Nothing. Nothing is wrong.” You pulled your hand away and Lena couldn’t hold on, but she refused to drop this.
“Maybe you should go to Angela. Y/n, you don’t look good at all! Why haven’t you been to training? Not even coming to eat lunch with Angela and me? I just don’t understand, love…” Lena egged on and you took a step back. You didn’t have time to argue this! You had to find Gabriel.
“Look, I need to go.” You insisted and Lena went to speak up but you already began to take off down the hallway. She could only assume that she would see you later and hopefully, you could talk things over. She worried about you… Neither knew that it would be the last time you would see one another. At least for another five years…
You refused to give up searching, even as your legs grew tired and your breathing was far from stable. I ran around until you came to the training room usually empty around this time of day, but just your luck there was one body in the room. That body being the one you were searching for. Gabriel took whatever anger and sadness he had pent up out on a punching bag within the room. You pushed the double doors to the room open and hissed,
“Gabe, what the fuck!” You could hear the man mumble a personal curse under his breath while he gripped the punching bag. Most would fear him, but as you stormed into the room… You didn’t. You couldn’t. Not after all you had both been through.
“Y/n. I said I didn’t want to talk.” He had the audacity to grumble with stern eyes and you knew that talking to him wouldn’t do anything, but your anger was just as present if not stronger than his at this moment.
“No, this isn’t about talking. Gabriel, this is about you just up and storming away…” You hissed. This caused the man to roll his eyes and your anger only boiled more as he turned back to the punching bag.
“Look, fine. Sorry.”
“Do you take me for an idiot? This isn’t the first time you’ve dodged my questions! You have been practically avoiding me!” You argued. You knew better than to accept his petty excuse for a real one. Apologies or not, you just wanted answers now.
“What do you want from me!” Gabe barked back and while his voice turned razor-sharp, you refused to back away now.
“The truth, Gabe. I want the fucking truth. Why have you been avoiding me, what has been putting you on edge like this… What have you been doing behind my back?” You stepped forward and Gabe then wasted no time picking up his few items to start walking away, “You can’t just keep running from me!”
“Watch me.” That hurt, another bullet in your heart which was stitched beyond belief. That didn’t matter now… It could be mended later. Right?
“Gabe! Why can’t you tell me? What is so important that you have to hide it from even me? Last I checked, you didn’t care about confidentiality when it came to shit like this! What is so important now?” You insisted and the man only gave you a half glance over his shoulder. His eyes were still cold, his face stern, and his overall form becoming more and more unknown to you. It was like he was changing right before your eyes… His skin was slightly paler. His eyes were always a little less kind, comparing to the summertime to the middle of winter, it was as if he was dying.
He couldn’t have been that distraught over Ana Amari’s death… and while Overwatch was falling, it had been for over half a year. Why would he care now? You did know he was avoiding you more and something was fishy around here. He was up to something and God forbid would you let him keep something important hidden from you if it was impacting your relationship this much.
“I just can’t tell you. You forget who’s in charge here, Y/n.” His voice held an edge that warned you to not press forward. Though you were young, foolish, and you were your own type of hot-headed.
“Yeah. Last I checked, it isn’t you.” You struck back and you instantly felt the tension your words brought. Like a whip cracking mid-air, all parts of the conversation drew to a halt. Your works struck Gabe hard. That was the point, but was it worth it? His jaw was set clenched and his hands balled into fists. You wished he would try to hit you, just so it gave you a reason to leave now and never look back. Though would you really?
How could you walk away now? How could you walk away from all you knew? How could you walk away from all that you loved? Even Gabriel…
Speaking of Gabriel, he never fully turned to look at you. Instead, he did the opposite and just walked away. He never gave you the satisfaction of a response… And part of you saw that what you said was going to be hard to come back from. He already had issues with not being the one in charge of Overwatch, and Morrison being the Strike Commander instead. You preyed upon that and was it worth it, truly?
You decided to let him go. Tears rising to the surface, waiting for the door to shut fully before you sobbed and collapsed to the floor in a piled mess.
****
The world was suddenly a haze. A mess. Maybe your brain had issues pinpointing it all because you had already cried so much to mess up your perception. Or maybe your brain was doing its best to protect you from the trauma by recalling as little as possible. It amazed you how you didn't gain any sort of PTSD as you would think about it later on.
It started with a fire alarm. Never had you heard the fire alarm within the base without a warning first of a drill. You had moved yourself to a different room, unable to remember which one for some reason. Maybe a rec room? Maybe just a random room you decided to hide within from the pain you were feeling. Though your thoughts and feelings would be halted at the sound of the fire alarm. Stepping out into the hallway showed you the chaos that was ensuing around you. Other agents running around, it was madness at its finest. What was causing this? What had happened? All of this flooded your consciousness before you finally thought: ‘I need to find Gabriel’.
The hallways within your memory seemed foggy, swirled, distorted… Almost unkind as they had once been for you all those years prior. How could a place such as Overwatch become so foreign to you in a matter of moments? So many different pieces to the story and while people ran away, you ran looking for him. You would be damned if your last conversation with one another would be what it was. An argument, with hate and malice that you didn’t mean. You would beg for forgiveness before dying if this was the case… As more time passed, that did indeed seem to be the outcome.
Smoke clouded the corridors and caused your eyes to sting and your lungs to feel as if they were on fire, even as you were forced to hug the floor to keep from suffocating. People became scarce and you began to doubt your decisions… What if he just left? He could have easily left the building and here you were, risking your life for nothing and no one. That was until you heard shouting and gunfire.
“Gabriel?” You strained to hear which direction the shouts came from but you prayed that whoever was in a gunfight was and was not Gabriel Reyes. If it was, at least you knew this pilgrimage was not for nothing but a part of you didn’t want him to be here when the building was mostly smoke and ash around you. You had nothing else to do but follow the sound of shouting and gunfire. The voices would get louder and clearer… One you could hear clear as day as Commander Jack Morrison as well as the second being Gabe’s.
“This ends now Reyes! All of this!” Morrison called out as you did your best to narrow down where they were. Their commotion led you to a larger open room. One used for general commands and consol hubs.
“Over my fucking dead body Jack!” Gabe shouted and hearing his voice as coarse and harsh as it was at this moment made your stomach lurch and your inner being hurt. “If you wanted to be Captain so bad, then go down with your ship like one.”
“Is this what this is all about? Some petty bullshit? Just because I have a different title than you?” Jack argued back as another shot rang out and you flinched.
“It isn’t just the title! It was this, all of it. The leadership, the power, the success! You know for damn sure you weren’t meant to get all of this, but just because you could talk your way out of shit you got this position! The title was mine from day one. Instead, I got shoved into the shadows… Literally!”
“This is truly the stupidest thing you have ever fought with me over!”
“If you were in my position, you would be as angry as I am!” Gabe grunted as the two broke into a gunfight once more. You did your best to move in without getting shot but you knew you had to stop this fight before someone ended up dead. Sacrificing the health of your lungs you pulled yourself up on a railing to stand and look over at what you had been heading. While you were on a slightly elevated level, Gabriel and Jack had their confrontation on the ground using hubs to hide behind and shield themselves from the other’s attack. Many of the computers were destroyed and it could be seen that electrical fires had sparked here and could be what caused the fires elsewhere…
Neither of them noticed you watching with your knuckled pure white while you gripped the railing and tried to make sense of what was happening before you. You couldn’t move as your mind fought with itself. Do you run and get help? Do you intervene? Do you make it out while you still have a slight possible chance? You just stood there.
“Stop while you still can, Gabe! This won’t get you anywhere! All you are doing is throwing more dirt onto your name!”
“My name is already dead! I’m seeing this through! I will die here, and you are going down with me Morrison! I have men on my side to assure it!” Gabe argued back as he gripped one of his shotgun-like weapons and peered around the hub to where he heard Morrison’s voice. His usually warm eyes were now full of hate and a desire for blood to be spilled. How did this man you loved for months turn into a monster before your very eyes… Why didn’t you see this in the making? Why didn’t you look closer to stop it? Why… Why?
“What? What have you done?” Morrison shouted back as you caught sight of the Strike Commander hiding not too far behind another hub gripping his pulse rifle awaiting what was to come. You never thought you would see that man express true fear, but from the look on his face, that thought was a lie. You were not the only one in the room who wasn’t full of quaking fear and dread, Gabriel seemed as if he was the only one who didn’t seem fazed by this.
All you knew was that you had to get away, you couldn’t step between them… Not when time was running out and you weren’t sure what the outcome would bring. Maybe you could run outside and inform someone of Gabriel and Commander Morrison. You took a hesitant step back with that possible plan in mind when Gabe responded to Commander Morrison’s question.
“I had this planned for a while. This entire organization was a mistake, its intentions were flawed and those who have run it have failed those they wished to protect. This is simply where it ends Jack.” Before he fired at the hidden commander’s location, Morrison was forced to move lower to the ground in an attempt to not get shot. You bit your tongue to keep yourself silent before you forced yourself to leave. You weren’t sure what would happen to Gabriel if he and Commander Morrison made it out of this after you informed others… Though that wasn’t what was exactly running through your head at the moment. You were more focused on making it out alive. The smoke and heat from the surrounding fires were still an obstacle, and parts of the building were starting to fail.
Some hallways were now blocked off, and from what you could see, most people were gone… Those that remained were most likely not very much alive either. This was yet another part of memory that grew fuzzy. You ran, and ran, your lungs ached, your muscles burned, and you weren’t sure where the exit even was anymore. That was until a deep rumble happened, it felt like a strong force was fast approaching which brought down more parts of the building above you. Ceiling and beams came crashing you down and the last thing you could let out was a shriek before the world went black.
****
You woke from your sleep with a horrible start so much that Sombra actually had rolled over to see your trouble. Her eyes express that she was far from completely coherent at the moment, but she could understand that you were not in the best place at this time.
“Querida amiga… ¿Qué pasa?” She croaked as she sat up and rubbed her face. The faint purple glow from some of her electronics left on in the dark room gave off a sense of comfort that the world for you was no longer pitch black.
“I had a bad dream…” You assumed that this was what she wanted to know as she had reverted to her native tongue in her drowsy state. The Latina woman hummed and looked at you from her side of the room with her hand holding up her head.
“A bad dream? Want to talk about it? You don’t seem like the type of girl to usually get upset so easily over a dream… Was it about Talon? If so, then I hate to say you’re screwed but…”
“It wasn’t about Talon. It was about Overwatch. Overwatch falling. I don’t get those dreams often anymore. Though I feel as of lately I have been testing myself once again, and he just keeps coming back to mind.”
“He?... Oh, Gabriel Reyes. RIght?” Sombra began to wake up as she had even stood up to stretch as she moved through the darkness to her mini-fridge and pulled out two bottles of water. Handing one to you as she took it upon herself to sit at the foot of your bed and actually talk with you. It made your shoulders unwind and your senses relax as you knew you had Sombra here to help you. For once you had a friend to lean on… It was a luxury you hadn't had in a long time.
“Yeah. It was… I thought I knew that man like the back of my hand. As weird as it would sound, I honestly thought I had met my soulmate in the oddest location. We understood one another. Sure, we were decades apart in age, but… That didn’t matter to me. I didn’t have anyone else. He was all I had.”
“You lost your family too Y/n?” Sombra wondered as she drank her water and let you drop the heavy baggage you had weighted onto you.
“Yeah… I lost my family after a bad earthquake hit the West Coast of the US back when I was a teenager. I always used to say “They’re not dead, they’re just displaced. No one ever found the bodies!” No one ever found my body either and they claimed I was dead. That puts a lot into perspective for me now. Though I had lost them all and connecting with Gabriel I felt as if we understood one another. How he had lost everything as well, especially between his ex-wife after he joined Overwatch. I thought Gabriel and I meeting one another was pure luck and was possibly even fate. I thought the world had finally stopped being cruel, and I had found the man of my dreams and hopes in a place I would have been spending the rest of my life in anyway.
“I thought… I thought Overwatch would be forever. I simply just didn’t see that Gabe was upset. He was hurting more than I could even comprehend. A part of me even believes the months we spent together were just his attempts to try and make himself happy, and when nothing was working… He just threw it all in and gave up. He tried bringing everyone down with him. He destroyed many lives. He killed Commander Morrison, so many other Overwatch members, and even himself. He almost killed me. He basically did!” You rubbed your cheek and felt how clammy your skin was. You were distressed over relieving those memories. “Gabriel destroyed everything, and destroyed what we had planned for ourselves… He destroyed himself. I-... I wish our last words to one another just wasn’t some petty argument.” You felt your throat close with emotions and Sombra heard how your voice cracked ever so slightly and she scooted closer to bring you comfort.
“Aw… Mamacita, none of that was ever your fault. He was probably not in the right mind. You didn’t deserve what happened to you there, and I’m sure one day, maybe you’ll get closure.” Sombra picked and chose her words wisely as she knew more than meets the eye. She knew that the man who now haunted your dreams was the man you had only talked to hours before on the roof. When you came back to Sombra after the event, nervous and anxious about what had happened between you and Reaper, she was silently panicking over what he was thinking of doing. She wasn’t sure if Reaper was planning on keeping up his tough act as a chair member of the council, or if he was trying to reclaim his name as Gabriel Reyes. She would talk to him herself about this, and as she saw it… You were her biggest concern over whatever he planned to do.
“Maybe… I think seeing Lena didn’t help. I just hope whatever demons I’m fighting decide to settle themselves in two weeks. Especially with who we will be facing.” You mumbled as you looked down at your hands. You felt a gentle hand caress your back, Sombra’s hand, as she attempted to keep you calm.
“You’ll be fine, Y/n. I’ll be with you on the mission. I’m sure others will be as well. You probably won’t be facing them either. Everything will be fine.” Sombra assured with her usual light and carefree tone. The same tone she first greeted you with, you began to feel true comfort in.
“Thank you, Olivia.” You spoke sincerely and the Latina woman rolled her eyes.
“Pulling out my real name? I’m honored amiga… You owe me for the therapy session though,” She started as she got up and checked the clock. “You took up the last thirty minutes of our precious beauty sleep.”
“Ah, sorry there. How about lunch on me next time we get time to eat out?”
“Sounds like a wonderful deal to me!” Sombra agreed as she turned on the lights and the two of you began to get ready for the day.