A/N: Welcome again to my fic better angels! I'm restarting the story as the new hero gave me motivation to write again! and I'm changing chapters of this story, so sorry for those that read this before, but essentially this fic is being reworked chapter by chapter and will shift the focus on more agents than my previous fic did as I want the plot to go in my own direction this time, anyway thanks for reading this and onto chapter 1!
Pain.
That single thing shot through the broken and burnt body of Genji Shimada, making his every breath a laboured, ragged excuse of life, his brother's arrows were impaled throughout his body, nestling themselves deep in his veins, arteries and muscles, creating tears in his scarred skin where blood drooled out slowly and tortuously, before it seeped into the grass below him, saturating the soil below him with more than just the rain that was currently pelting relentlessly at the paralyzed ninja. Above him he could only make out the tops of the tree's that swayed dangerously in the current thunderstorm, the grey sky offered him nothing but misery, if he craned his neck very slightly to the right he could see the imposing and confining temples of the Shimada clan, where he had lived in comfort, but also where he had now meant his premature end, through the hands of his own flesh and blood.
He shuddered as the freezing pellets of water continued to land on his face, making him scrunch his eyes shut as the salty water from the skies only added to his suffering. Droplets of water were sliding down the arrows still lodged in Genji's stomach and shoulders, upon mixing with the blood oozing from his ragged body Genji would have that all too familiar sensation of a painful twinge emitting from that area, these areas were now dotted all over his body, so much so that the agony was overwhelming causing him to cry openly but admist the rain and the blood he hardly felt his own tears, nor his voiceless cries for help as he squeaked out to a cruel world for help that would never come. He could see his arms lay sprawled out beside him, chunks of skin ripped out or burnt to a veiny, scorched mess, the damming line of blood decorated the high stone walls of Hanamura from where the young man had been thrown off by his own brother. While the fire had burnt away most of his skin and clothes, it had been extinguished by the rain, but that wasn't going to save him from certain death here.
Almost naked, freezing, in agony and crying like a little girl, why hadn't his father taught him like his brother? Maybe Genji lying here and dying because of this act of sheer brutality and betrayal was a fitting end for him. A useless playboy who did nothing for the clan he was raised within, his shelter becoming his prison, his carefree lifestyle leading to his careless death, he should have seen this coming. He should have acted sooner, but every time he closed his eyes the murderous black glare of his older brother burnt itself into his vision. The first arrow was shot without honour, straight into the shoulder while Genji had his back turned, Genji felt the rough blow of the arrow sliding through the muscles near his collarbone, he felt like the wind had been knocked out of him, as the pain started to ebb into his being he turned his head around, his shocked gaze finding Hanzo's whose hands were shaking as he placed his next arrow on his quiver.
"Brother... please..."
There was a twang and another dull thump of an sharp arrow hitting flesh, Genji had fought after that but it was a lost battle from the second the first arrow had been shot, Hanzo had resigned himself to do this and now Genji was resigning himself for death. His breath was still hot as he wheezed out oxygen from his damaged lungs, the pain growing more and more intense by the minute as the numb cold of the merciless rain took away the last feelings Genji ever felt in the tips of his fingers, that being the damp grass below him. He could scarcely hear anything but white noise from his ruined ears and only a very faint scent of damp vegetation and his own coppery like blood, wafted up his destroyed nostrils, his dyed green hairs dampened and burnt away to near nothing, he looked nothing more like a newborn, blood coated fetus lying there in the rain, as he looked up again.
It was like a dream, a glowing light was approaching him, he tried scrunching his eyes further shut to peer through the blinding light...
and there she was.
An angel, the most beautiful, glowing woman Genji had ever seen, he felt his eyes widen slightly as she spread her wings and slowly descended towards him, her light blotted out the rain, the cold, the misery as every sense in his body seemed to stop and divert itself towards her, the strands of bright yellow emitting from the strands on her wings, the golden tint of the halo on her head, the deep and hypnotizing blue of her eyes as they locked with his own. He gawped openly like a dying fish, his heart hammering more fiercely against his broken ribcage as he tried to lift his arms to no avail, all he knew in those moments is that he wanted to reach her, to touch her to feel her warmth against his own cold, destroyed and broken form.
He couldn't reach her up there.
But she came down to him.
A warm feeling spread throughout his gut as she cupped a slender arm under his neck and lifted his head slightly towards her chest, she leant over the young man, her body blocking out the rain, so he could openly gaze at her without the perception stinging at his vision. The body warmth emitting from this angel gave him comfort and some senses and feelings ran through his wrecked nerve endings, he tried opening his mouth again as the woman reached a hand down to his scarred face and wiped away something wet from his cheeks.
She said something, Genji didn't hear it, he didn't need too because he knew it was comforting. For seconds that contained an entirety his sunken pits of eyes remained transfixed on the angel at his side, drinking in every detail of her, every strand of platinum blonde hair, where droplets of rain would soak through and drip off, every lash on her eyelashes, the curve of her smile as she spoke on, the warmth of her eyes, the faint feeling of her small hand brushing away the tears on his face, Genji didn't know when the tears of agony and pain had become tears of happiness, but they had done, the angel was shouting now, to someone else. A black silhouette appeared in the corner of Genji's eye, Genji didn't want his angel to leave him, look away from him, all he knew is that he wanted her here with him as she comforted him.
Despite everything, he felt one of his arms move upwards by it's own accord and roughly reach her face, for a few brief seconds the flesh of his damaged fingers slid across the perfect skin of an angel, surprised she turned back to him and looked down, just as his arm fell limply at his side once again. His bloodied handprint imprinted onto the skin off her left cheek, she was speaking again as Genji felt himself smile, becoming lost in the faint sterile scent of this woman he felt his eyes close of their own accord, comfortable and ready to sleep in the arms of an angel.
The sterile scent was back and stronger than ever, Genji couldn't hear much other than rapid beeping, he was somewhere warm, his eyes were trying to adjust to a harsh white light above him, his body was still stinging, some sort of fabric had been placed over him, his head was propped onto a pillow, he was looking for his angel in the harsh white light of this place, as the warm, moist air of the place caused his wounds to start to sting and throb in agony once again.
"Here's the deal" came a sudden and rough voice, emitting from a dark, shapeless silhouette coming from the corner of his eye, he didn't really hear the voice as he was still too preoccupied trying to find his angel, amid the new pain he was in and the harsh white light that burnt down at him.
"We'll save your life, if you agree to help us hunt down your clan"
Now Genji's ruined ears were able to hear this, he could feel the hot breath of the man on his ear, he could see some dark eyes peering at him, they reminded him of Hanzo... in those moments, he connected what his clan had done to him. What his brother had done to him, what the man had just said and the chance to live again, the chance to see that angel, his own angel and escape this world of agony, pain and misery.
He opened his mouth, but no sound came out other than a painful wheeze.
"Well?" the man enquired.
Genji turned away from the light, as his vision slowly focused in on the man who had spoken, dressed within dark colours, with a darker skin tone, his gaze was ferocious and his voice was lacking any patience or warmth.
The young ninja slowly managed to nod.
"Very well" the man said "He's all yours doc"
Genji watched the shadow of the man vanish as a mixture of blonde and white grew in his vision, she didn't have her wings but her face was unmistakable, it was his angel again, as beautiful as she had been, she was speaking again but she was too distant for him to hear her, the only thing Genji could see was her face, he was aware of the beeping in the distance increasing in frequency, as she carried on speaking, it was as if she was trying to explain something to him, yet he couldn't hear her, before he knew what was going to happen to him, something was planted around his mouth and once again he fell into a peaceful slumber, gazing at her face and hoping she'd be by his side once again when he awoke.
The sterile scent was still there.
This time when Genji awoke the pain was gone, instead a strange feeling had taken over his body, he felt heavier somewhat and colder, he lifted his hands to find he was no longer looking at his own hands, but a series of metallic strips that were meant to resemble fingers and a pair of cogged bolts that were meant to resemble hands, he quickly craned his neck to see that his arms had become sliver clumps of machinery, panicking now he looked down at his body and legs to a cobweb of machine parts that were made to look very much the human anatomy of a male, but there was nothing about the way the rubbery dark coloured wires or padding across where his ribs once were, could be remotely human. The circular bolts running down his torso with the green tinge to them certainly weren't human, these things were dotted across his biceps which were now something like armour padding rather than actual muscle, certainly weren't human. More so were the wire like devices that stretched up his neck and too his head replacing his jugular vein, he was still lying on a bed and as he brushed his metallic hands against his alien body the more panicked he became, what the hell had he agreed too!?
Then he realised his face, his vision was perfect but it was like he was looking through a silt and no face felt like a helmet, he ran his hands across his arrow shaped and cold feeling visor. His fingers trailing over two cat like ears protruding from his head, he felt himself breathe into something as he took his first breath as a cybernetic being, he felt his lungs (from somewhere deep inside of him) move his metallic body upwards and downwards, he was wearing some sort of helmet but he could still taste the sterile tang of a hospital in the air, he moved his limbs without any idea of how he was doing it.
Worrying out of his mind and quickly glancing at his surroundings (Genji made out a hospital room for surgeries) he rose from his bed and proceeded instantly to the nearest door. To do what, he didn't know, but he had to find someone, the door grew larger in his vision as he clamped his new left hand against the knob of the door...
It flung open on the other side, withdrawing his hand instantly as he caught a quick glimpse of white hospital robes before he came face to face with his blonde angel once again.
For a moment that seemed to last a lifetime, Genji once again surveyed her face and noticed how the black bags under her eyes appeared to be a new addition, she was gazing directly back at him, her deep blue pits of eyes surveying everything she had helped to create.
"Oh... you're awake" she said, as a small smile broke out across her face.
Genji didn't know what to say, or if he even could speak, he wanted to say his first words to his angel but what could he say to someone this perfect? Someone who had come to him, someone who had answered his helpless pleas, someone who had saved his life?
"Yes. I feel strange" he said at last.
Angela Ziegler also known as Mercy to the general public, showed Genji Shimada around the Swiss Headquarters of Overwatch, the long winded corridors of the place and the silver tang to everything made Genji uncomfortable, yet on their first walk together Genji tried to ignore these new and (in his own opinion) claustrophobic and narrow corridors, keeping his helmet head turned constantly towards Angela Ziegler, as he repeated the name in his head, as she explained the basics of where they were and who she was and what had happened to him. Genji was processing all this data like the machine he now felt like he was, before the pair of them reached a large window that offered the exhilarating freedom that the past corridors lacked.
"The view is also fantastic here Genji" Mercy explained to him.
The pair of them stood by these panes of glass for a while, Angela was still explaining Overwatch to a learning Genji but before long she had fallen silent and simply admired the sheer rock faces of the swiss mountains in front of her.
These headquarters were her home and being nestled in the comfort of these mountains, topped with shades of soothing green for the farmlands and for goats to graze, while the peaks of these giants were sprinkled with a dusting of glistening white snow, the almost blue hum of the peaks was also a pleasure for Angela's eyes, as Genji became lost in the freedom of it all after the confines of Hanamura's temple and the grey jungle of the city beyond its high walls. This landscape was completely different, it was wild, rough, a pallet of different colours assaulted his visored sight, as the white brushes of the clouds above drifted lazily by a exhilarating blue sky, this freedom made Genji forget for just a few moments that he was now a cyborg, or the pain that he had been through.
He also learnt (from Angela, when she broke her silence) that he could lift his helmet as most of his face was still intact, doing so gave Genji's scarred face another leap of freedom, smiling to himself he breathed on the glass of the window and saw condensation form there. Propelled by a childish instinct, he felt a need to draw something, but suddenly and rather painfully the memory of his brother's arrow piercing his flesh came to mind and his metal fingers had already inscribed a dull arrow on the surface of the glass.
Mercy gazed at it, then at the frown on Genji's face as the fresh memory replayed in his mind.
He was broken out of his horror highlight reel, by more squeaking on the glass, he looked up to see his arrow was now in the confines of a very stereotypical heart. Mercy's finger trailed off the window and turned to face Genji once again, she offered him another small smile, as Genji looked back at the new drawing the pair of them had produced.
He felt himself smile too.
Meeting the other agents was something of a blur to Genji, he had heard of the heroes who had disbanded the Omnic crisis through passing, but he never paid much attention to pressing world issues. Nor the fact Overwatch were clearly onto his family's empire because meeting Gabriel Reyes first he was reminded of this fact every five seconds. As the man with dark clothing and an even darker sense of humour, briefly introduced himself before diving into a tirade against the Shimada clan before turning to Genji and enquiring him on everything Genji knew about them.
"Where they were now?"
"The temple, where they've always been"
"Who was with them?"
"Everyone and... and my brother..."
"What were they doing?"
"Trafficking, weapon hoarding, I don't know, I never bothered learning the in's and out's of the family business"
"You're the second son of Sojiro Shamida!" Gabriel snapped at him "How can you not know the family business!"
"My father... left that to my older brother Hanzo" Genji explained "and they must have decided I was useless because..."
"They did that too you" Mercy spoke up over Genji's explanation offering him a sympathetic look which he appreciated.
"My brother was sent to kill me" Genji muttered "and he would have succeeded had you not turned up Angela"
"I'm just doing my job" Mercy mused.
"What did you do then Genji!?" Gabriel snapped, cutting through the warm, brewing dialogue between the doctor and ninja "You must have done something worthwhile for them, what was it!?"
Genji seemed to lose his voice in those moments, never (for as long as he could remember) done anything beneficial for his clan, he'd never worked a day in his life and this sudden truth dawned on him, as he gazed at Gabriel and then back at Angela, eventually when the silence grew too loud, Gabriel broke it for him.
"Well?" he leered.
Genji sighed.
"Nothing" he admitted, ashamed of himself in those moments.
Both Angela and Gabriel blinked in mild disbelief.
"Nothing?" Gabriel echoed.
"I erm... I trained to become an impressive ninja dude, I spent my money in arcades and had a good time with numerous lovely ladies..." Genji explained trying to come off as humorous.
"So a freeloader then? Too much money and not enough brains" Gabriel said cutting through the waffle.
Genji sighed, all humour extinguished at this point.
"Yes" he muttered.
"Well then can you at least name, some of the members of the clan, so we can do some background research? How many did you know? Were they ever around you? Where were they stationed usually?"
The endless questions made his head spin and he didn't feel like answering them not so soon after he had been woken up. He was still trying to get his head around what had happened to him and trying to make sense of everything, so he didn't need to be reminded of the clan he was trying to forget in these moments.
Thankfully Angela seemed to read him just by looking at his face.
"Gabriel, please the man's just woken up" Mercy muttered "He doesn't need all this, not right now. Let him rest and think things over".
"I wouldn't call him much of a man anymore after your little experiment doc" Gabriel replied.
"It was life saving surgery and it was successful" Mercy retorted sharply "and as he is officially my patient at the time being,I'm advising that he needs rest. You of all people should know what happens when someone messes with my patients".
Gabriel sighed, before he emitted a small chuckle.
"Yes Doc, I am aware" Gabriel said, before he stood up "Very well, we'll continue this later Mr. Shimada"
After the intense questioning, they were free to leave with one of his rare white toothed smiles and one of his dark joke's that made both Genji and Angela laugh on the way out of the door.
That black shadow in the corner of his eye? He was actually a good guy to Genji, back then at least.
The black shadow that was Gabriel Reyes was soon outshone by a host of more colorful heroes, with bigger and bolder personalities than Genji could have imagined.
Jack Morrison however was not one of them.
The Overwatch leader was stapled onto every magazine cover or news broadcast around the world in some way and he was just as photogenic in real life than he was on still or recorded images, adorned in blue coat of Overwatch, his crown of blonde hairs and strong blue orbs of eyes, along with square jaw made him a handsome figure to many. Underneath the exterior of the legendary and poster boy image of Overwatch's leader, he had the personality that Genji was expecting, softly spoken but with a sternness that made no one question his authority.
Jack Morrison (as Overwatch's strike commander) was much more patient and polite than Gabriel had been, during their first meeting Genji found it difficult to keep up conversation with him. Without Angela sitting next to him, maybe he felt uncomfortable but he couldn't shake off the feeling that Jack seemed a bit bland the more he spoke to him, he asked the same questions that Gabriel did, just without the conviction in his voice, nor the solid determination to gain more information from the former clan member.
"Nothing you can remember thoroughly then, Mr. Shimada?" Jack asked.
Genji shook his head.
Jack didn't further his inquiry and tried to switch the topic, he certainly wasn't someone Genji wanted to cross, but he'd rather end up crossing Jack Morrison on a bad day than Gabriel Reyes on a good one.
There were periods in the conversations where silence would endure, where Jack would scratch the back of his ears and where Genji wondered if the all american hero, was more shy than he let on. If there was a hidden personality underneath the perfection that he had acquired for himself, yet hearing about his past deeds and knowing who he was, crushed all of Genji's first assumptions and Genji left his office feeling welcomed to Overwatch once and for all.
Although Jack Morrison wasn't a massive improvement on Gabriel Reyes, the next set of heroes were bigger characters than Genji could have foreseen, with Angela by his side to help him through the craziness that meeting Ana Amari and Reinhardt Wilhelm would bring. Ana Amari one of the best snipers in the world that could heal people with her bullets, alongside her instant motherly nature made Genji take a liking to her instantly.
While the eccentric ramblings of Reinhardt were enough to make Genji smile, almost as much as Reinhardt's joy at having a new team member nearly crushed Genji's new spine when Reinhardt "patted" him on the back with a large hand. Having Ana's 12 year old daughter Fareeha rush in the room and tug his leg and gawk at how him being a robot was so cool, Ana told her off for being rude, chaos erupted as Genji and Angela escaped to a quieter room. The pair of them laughing all the way there.
Those were the good old days of Overwatch.
Angela was explaining which parts of Genji were human and which had been turned into a machine, while also explaining how his new weapons would work. Genji was only half listening as he began to absently mindedly play with a bag of liquid, it looked like blood was inside but Genji (for reasons he couldn't remember) kept on messing with it as Angela spoke on, maybe he liked the feel of it against his fingers, as he tried to get used to his new sense of touch. Angela was finishing her sentence and either didn't notice what Genji was doing, or too absorbed in what she was saying to care about it, but when the bag suddenly burst in Genji's hand, showering the pair of them with blood, both jumped back in surprise, Angela yelping and sliding on the blood on the ground with a painful "Hmph!" as she collided with the hard ground.
A red faced and panicking Genji, his cheeks as red as his face was apologising profusely as his cold fingers intertwined with Angela's smaller and warmer one's, as he helped the doctor back to her feet. She convinced him that it was fine, that they'd clean it up, Genji didn't realise that was the first time they held hands, nor the first time Angela calmed him down by using her left hand (that was coated in blood) to leave a bloodied handprint on the left cheek on his exposed face. Remembering the memory of their first meeting, Genji and Angela smiled in unison as he returned the favour to a giggling Angela, the pair of them acting like giddy children for just a few moments. That was before Ana burst in,
"I heard something in here!" she announced, before her eyes locked on the blood that had spilt everywhere.
Suffice to say, she complained massively about the mess, even more so when little Fareeha scooted past her legs and proceeded to slide across the bloodied ground on her stomach, amidst laughter from Reinhardt.
"Get up off that immediately Fareeha!" Ana thundered.
"BUT THIS IS AWESOME!" Fareeha protested, sliding herself all over the floor, propelled on Reinhardt's guffaws at the situation, Angela and Genji had to join in.
"and I don't know what you three are laughing at, you'll be cleaning this up..." Ana began, with this Genji experienced his first telling off from the designated group mum.
Safe enough to say, that made him feel even more like a giddy child and feel even more like one of the family.
Tracer, or Lena Oxton to others, the merry time skipping british agent and Winston the awkward yet smart Gorilla who looked out for everyone, Jesse McCree the laid back and stereotypical cowboy, Gerard LaCroix, a reasonable french man and his petite and polite wife Amelie and finally Torbjorn Lindholm, the first and only agent Genji sensed didn't particularly like him despite his welcoming words.
"So you're the new recruit, are ya?" Torbjorn inquired, the short swedish engineer casting a nasty look over Genji's robotic body.
"Yes, Genji nice too..." Genji began reaching down his hand so the engineer could take it, never the less Torbjorn recoiled and looked openly at his robotic fingers.
"You've really let yourself go on this one, haven't you doc?" he asked of Mercy who was lingering behind Overwatch's newest member (she had done for most part and with most of the agents' introductions).
"It was a life saving surgery Torbjorn" Mercy began, her voice lacking it's usual warmth "and Genji here isn't what you think..."
"I see a damn machine in front of me Angela!" Torbjorn thundered, "Cyborg... Omnic it's all the same, one day Angela you might regret what you've made here..."
"It was a surgery Torbjorn" Mercy repeated even more coldly "I didn't make him, he was born, like you and me".
"Sure he was" was all Torbjorn had to say before he was gone, leaving Genji feeling uneasy, as he turned to Mercy herself for an explanation.
Angela explained Torbjorn's prejudices towards Omnics, but despite his reassurances to her that he was fine and how he wasn't an Omnic, but still a man, it was the first time he felt at odds with himself and his new body and wondering whether or not it was a good or bad thing after all.
Regardless these new faces would be his family for the next couple of years and he was glad to have them all at his side, as he returned to place where this had all started.
He had soon learned the day Mercy had rescued him had been the day Overwatch were operating a sting attack on the Shimada clan, Genji came to the realisation that the clan leaders must have ordered his brother to kill him on that day to secure the future of the clan, but too also make sure that this thing didn't happen. That Genji would somehow be abducted by Overwatch and tortured to give information or intel on what they were doing and some inside information, their worst fears had happened indeed and because his brother had tried (and failed) to kill him, Overwatch had saved him and offered him his life in exchange for bringing down the clan and Genji felt naturally complied to agree.
He had been with Overwatch for a few weeks now and they already felt like the new and caring family he never had. His father had treated him well and sheltered Genji but Sojiro Shimada was always distant to his second son, his mother had died young and Hanzo had always tried to follow his father by being cold and distant, but Hanzo was still a child and himself and his younger brother shared a whole childhood together.
Thinking back to the times Genji had ran to Hanzo for comfort, or when they had played childish games together across the grounds of the temple, before the clan had prepared Hanzo for his grim life in crime made Genji uncomfortable about facing him again.
The night before the attack, Genji sat awake in his newly assigned room, wondering if he would have to kill his older brother, despite everything he had been through and despite the betrayal his brother had committed. Deep down, past his metal exterior Genji knew he still loved Hanzo and couldn't bear the thought of killing him, when the burden grew too heavy and the weight of this rested on his shoulders and he wondered if he'd be forced to kill Hanzo, he ran to where he knew Angela would be, in the lower floors of the headquarters attending to some injured agents.
Genji didn't want to disturb her, but she always said she'd have five minutes for him, besides her patients were sleeping and she was merely watching over them.
Speaking there and then Genji confessed it all, his fears, his doubts, what returning to Hanamura would be like for him and if he had to face Hanzo himself.
Angela understood it all, in that dark room, where the moon cast white light upon the pair of them she gave him comfort and advice, that Overwatch was here to help him in how they had helped them. Tomorrow they were going to help him pull through on his first and most difficult mission for the heroic organisation.
She placed her hand to his exposed cheek again, she reminded him that she'd always be there for him if she needed him, the same applied to the mission tomorrow.
Genji felt shivers shoot up his metallic spine at her touch.
"I don't know if I can kill them Anglea, Hanzo in particular" Genji explained "But I don't want to let yo... Overwatch down".
"You won't Genji" Angela told him warmly "You don't feel happy at the thought of killing... that's perfectly understandable, admirable even"
Genji felt his cheeks warm in those moments, thankfully it was dark enough so Mercy didn't see.
Overwatch's last mission against the Shimada Clan had failed due to them rushing in without much of a plan or information, Genji overheard this on the airship as they speeded towards Tokyo from Switzerland. Mostly from Gabriel Reyes complaining about it too a bored looking Jesse McCree who seemed more invested about his boots than what his mentor was saying to him. Most of the blame from the last mission fell on the shoulders of Jack Morrison who deflected the failure with a causal apology but a fierce assurance never to make the same mistakes again and with the knowledge of their new team member Genji, this clan was going down once and for all.
Gerard being the strategist he was, had set up a route and an action plan for the heroes to follow. Genji with his new abilities and agility was going forward with a flanking Tracer to deal with the first agents, while Reyes, Morrison and McCree would give suppressing fire from behind Reinhardt's shield. Ana would be close to the conflict providing support where she could with her biotic weapons. While Winston would dive in and out of contact, causing chaos with his Tesla cannon before leaping back to wherever Mercy or Ana would be waiting with the tools to support him and keep him healed. Torbjorn would set up a turret to offer support fire, while Mercy was near the back of the squad acting as additional support in case Ana became overwhelmed.
It was during this first mission Genji learnt more about Angela Ziegler than he had learnt so far, she didn't approve of the violent methods Reyes and Morrison suggested, the look on her face suggested that, but she kept her mouth shut in a defiant line, she didn't seem to approve of Torbjorn nor Ana's weapons either. She herself had entered the conflict without any sort of weapon what-so-ever, merely a staff to keep people healed and adorning the angelic suit Genji had first seen her in, it gave her the agility to fly to a team-mate should she experience any trouble or flankers. Learning this about her, Genji wondered whether he should have been violent to his old clan members or even his brother, a part of him raged at him that he'd slaughter them all for doing this too him. For causing these injuries and turning him into the machine he now was, it was true at training sessions he had recently, his body felt lighter and he was able to jump much higher and run much faster, but he had been athletic beforehand and neither the addition of his sword nor the addition of his shurikens, could get over the fact that deep down, he missed being a man, with full flesh and a full body.
Maybe, he was going to make them pay, but anxiety wrecked his body as Jack Morrison bellowed that they were five minutes from the location.
Mercy was looking over at him, she noticed him gazing at the ground and the way he nervously tapped his foot against the floor, Genji offered her a thumbs up when he spotted her, whatever happened today, she was there for him, that's all he had to remember.
It passed like a blur to Genji.
His home, his temple, he seemingly swam over the small patch of land as if he were flying over the ocean, his hands and legs seemingly glided over the old wooden structures, bellows in Japanese and arrows and swords were aimed in his direction the violent reaction of the clan had been what he was expecting, but propelled out of anxiety, fear and mostly hate for them, he fired his shurikens back at the people had tried to kill him. The criminals, the scum... his sword sliced through them, his projectiles cut through them all while he discovered his body was much more tough than his old one, he could withstand a few loose arrows now, tearing them from his metallic body, he showered the shocked clan with his own brand of justice. Watching them die, Genji didn't feel much, it was merely a mission that had to be completed, they would kill him if he wasn't firing away madly like Tracer was too his side, who was zipping around the place, in a haze of blue light and pit pattering of bullets and like that, the mission was over and Genji hadn't said a word during the whole thing, he had merely panted and now dropped his aching arm and let his sore body rest on the ground of the temple as the agents of Overwatch regrouped.
Tracer said he'd done a good job, Gabriel complimented him on his skills and insisted he had done the right thing, he looked over at Angela expecting some criticism for what he had done.
Instead he got the comforting news his brother wasn't with this clan and from what herself and rest of the team had managed to gather he had left the clan days after "killing" his brother. Genji breathed a sigh of relief, it wasn't his duty to kill his brother and he could only hope Hanzo had found a better cause in the world.
Angela found Genji later sitting underneath the tree where they had first met, she told him the rest of the group were celebrating and he was welcome to join in with them, Genji told her he needed a minute to reflect on what had happened today. His first and most important mission for Overwatch and it felt so short and anticlimactic, it was over before it had even started, he had known the clan leaders since he was a little boy and felt nothing about killing them. He should have felt more, this should have been more dramatic than it had turned out to be, weren't the heroes of Overwatch always going on exciting missions? Barely escaping the impossible? What was this? This is how he joined... why did he feel so, dissatisfied? He had killed the people who had wronged him and the world, didn't he feel a sense of pride? Or happiness for what he had done, why couldn't he come to an answer?
All he knew then is that he had to remember this spot, so he had etched into the tree the last thing he had remembered from the site.
An arrow.
Soon Angela had etched a heart around the arrow.
She smiled at Genji.
"I draw hearts around the things I love" Mercy explained to him, as he looked on "Most of the time, that's my home country of Switzerland as it's such a beautiful place, but that heart usually fades in a short space of time, but if I leave this here, it won't fade. It will remind you that despite the bad memories here, you've seen something you've loved and maybe seeing it falling once and for all doesn't bring you the happiness you thought it would".
Genji was stunned by her words, as he looked back at her and then back at the tree.
"Me and Hanzo used to climb this tree when we were boys" Genji began to explain to her, becoming lost in his memories, he could almost see it now, a younger Hanzo at the foot of the tree, trying to coax the younger version of himself down "I always used to climb like a little ninja, and he'd try and pull me down, it's strange to think that this was the tree I almost lost my life at".
"Don't remember the bad things Genji, remember the good things about this place" Mercy told him "Your brother's still out there, maybe one day he can be saved, but for now, remember the happier things about your home".
She wanted him to remember all the good things about the place.
That's why her heart surrounded the arrow that symbolised all of Genji's pain.
That's why it always would.
Weeks passed.
He had done Overwatch a favour by helping them rid of the massive pest that were his family's clan, thanks to this he had been allowed to stay on with them despite his initial purpose being over and done with and he soon slid into Overwatch as if they were his real family. Ana always the mother, Reinhardt the eccentric older figure of the group, Torbjorn the grouchy dwarf and the only one that held a continued resent against Genji, yet Genji hardly let that bother him and rarely interacted with short swedish man alone, however from the fun-loving Tracer, the no awkward small talk of Winston, the leadership of Morrison, Reyes dark humour, McCree's laid back nature, Gerard's easy going attitude and the sweetness of Amelie, it was hard not to learn to love them all. But Angela, Angela was always special and judging from the opinion of others it seemed she had grown very attached to him as well, which made the young cyborg's chest elate in excitement as he simply loved passing the days sitting next to Angela at mission briefings.
His past life as a Sparrow caught up to him however, scandalous allegations about his former playboy lifestyle had come to light and were plastered over magazines and TV broadcasts, yet the "scandalous past life of the new Overwatch agent" hardly bothered him as much as he thought it would. Such allegations were mostly so outlandish and false that Genji (childish personality always on point) had snuck into mission meetings and almost always choosing to sit next to Angela, the pair of them would laugh under their breath at some of the things published in these magazines about him. Angela informed him every Overwatch agent had to deal with it and showed him some of the apparently "scandalous" things she had done. From office politics to get into her high ranking position, to her stealing her advanced technology from others, it was all printed, untrue and always guaranteed to make the pair laugh as they sneaked a look at the false information, plastered onto a glossy magazine hidden under the desk as Jack and Gerard droned on about mission tactics.
In all seriousness the two did learn more about each other, Angela was quite new to Overwatch herself and only 2 years older than Genji himself, their young ages, inexperience in missions and generally their shared childish personalities coming to light around each other made them an inseparable pair most of the time. However any possibility of a love life, or any outside interaction was rarely available as Overwatch had to deal with mission after mission, deal with people there, restore peace there, fight the terrorist group Talon somewhere else, a professional standard was expected by everyone, yet Genji could see how being cooped up with each other constantly could lead to arguments or people getting sick of one another. Jack and Gabriel bickered, Mercy disapproved of violence quite openly against her superiors, McCree once tried to convince her to take a least a small pistol with her on a mission for protection in which she refused, Genji didn't know if it was foolish or honourable of her.
However during a mission in Mexico against a criminal gang, it had turned out for the worse.
if Genji hadn't trailed back to check on her, she probably would have died. As one of the gang members had flanked behind the main group and had just shot the medic three times, Genji felt his blood turn to ice upon seeing her fall to the ground, as she dropped her staff, he rushed in and slaughtered the man before he could even draw another breath. He had picked up Mercy's form, fury and fear causing him to shake uncontrollably, everyone else was far ahead, picking off other members of the gang. He looked down at her injured form, as he felt her lift a shaky, bloodied hand to his metallic cheek.
She murmured his name...
"Genji... you... you... came back..."
Before her unfocused eyes rolled backwards and she lost conscious.
"ANGELA!"
Genji didn't leave her bedside, he didn't believe Jack when he told Genji that she was going to make it through these injuries, he had to see it himself. Yes, sometimes Overwatch agents died, but none of the immediate circle of Genji's close friends had died and Genji was adamant Mercy was not going to be the first to suffer such a fate. He'd only be exhausting himself if he stayed up and Mercy wouldn't want that, is what Ana told him, he ignored her advice and all common sense as he stayed seated at her bedside in the Swiss Headquarters and waited for her to open her eyes again, his angel looked so broken and small as she lay in her bed, she who had tended to hundreds, who could bring people back from the impossible was now injured herself.
After everyone she had watched over for hours at a time, she had received little to no thanks, usually overshadowed by the more skilled and longer known healer who was Ana Amari, but Genji knew what Mercy had done for them all, she was young and inexperienced, but she watched over them all.
So he made sure, someone was going to be there to watch over her.
Angela recovered the next day and awoke surprised to see a nearly dozing Genji at her bedside, due to her injuries the pair of them had been allowed a few days off to recover, despite the fact Genji was uninjured, he guessed Jack wanted to keep him at her side for company or maybe their leader saw something more before they themselves saw it. Regardless this gave the pair of them a rare chance to explore the open fields of the Swiss landscape beyond the headquarters themselves.
"You both need time to recover" was the only explanation a surprised Genji received from Jack.
Trailing through the green grass and stopping for a short picnic Ana had packed for them beforehand (always the mother) while the rest of Overwatch was out on missions or sitting through briefings. Genji and Angela took a rare moment to stop an reflect on all the missions they had gone on, it had been roughly a year and a half since Genji had joined the organisation and he thought he knew everything about Angela, but when they stopped to eat and admired the landscape, Genji noticed a nearby bird chirping in a nearby tree, as he and the doctor lay back on the grass, admiring the deep blue sky, the feel of the warm sun against their skin, the comforting hum of the calm, summer breeze. Genji could have lay like that forever, listening to that bird while helping Angela take her mind off everything by thinking of stupid things that the clouds above them looked like.
Genji noticed it first, the bird that was in the tree it was a sparrow, like him. He pointed it to Angela who smiled at him.
"I lost my parents when I was 8"
Genji blinked, he sat up slightly to see Mercy wasn't even looking at him, but at the sky above her.
"I can't carry a gun Genji" she continued to explain, still keeping her eyes away from him, as if she was ashamed to admit this, but for whatever reason, she had decided to confide in him.
"I know it's stupid, not carrying one!" she exclaimed, finally turning to face him, with his helmet off, the pair met eye to eye and Genj was startled to see her eyes were filling with tears.
"I just can't, my parents were slaughtered by Omnics and humans carrying the damn things!" she sobbed "But because of that, you had to come back and save me. Because of that I'm injured and now were stuck here doing nothing, while we could be helping people! You could be out on a mission and I could be saving people in the medical wing, I just... ever since I lost my parents. I never wanted to lose anyone else, I just wanted to save as many people as I could!"
Genji didn't know what to say for a few seconds, but he hugged her for the first time.
"You're not wasting my time" he mumbled onto her shoulder, "This is what I want to do with my time, missions aren't the thrill I thought they'd be, I just want to enjoy every moment with you... and everyone else" he added quickly.
He allowed Angela a few more minutes to sob onto his own shoulder, before she found her croaky voice.
"You mean that?" she uttered.
"Of course I do" Genji said "Take it from me Angela, I've done nothing but slack my whole life before I came to this organization, you've had it so much worse than me, if anyone rightfully deserves a break, it's you. Enjoy it. You've earned it".
Mercy smiled, before she leant off Genji's shoulder and flashed her heartwarming smile at him again, as the sparrow continued to chirp from above him.
That's when he realised it.
He loved her.
The insane schedule continued, as more and more years flew by with every passing mission Genji would always check on Angela to ensure no one ever flanked her again, thankfully nothing ever did but that never stopped Genji from checking. Even if it went against Jack's orders and landed him in hot water sometimes.
During mission briefings, Angela and Genji would automatically sit next to one another, while Angela kept her notes complied and neat, Genji's were usually a mess. Yet his desk always had a flavour of character to it, their shared symbol of the arrow in the heart was etched under Genji's mess of papers. Angela had given Genji a model of a sparrow as a gift (along with some Swiss chocolate) during the christmas season. In which he returned with his own offerings of food and sweaters that he loved buying for her, or sometimes even just a card as Angela didn't really desire much, but tended to keep everyone else happy, but Genji knew a few things she loved and she made of habit of treasuring his gifts in her drawer, in the same way Genji would keep the wrappers of his swiss chocolate under his desk, a weird sort of collection but one he took pride in. He had even put his first gift of a model sparrow up on his desk at mission briefings, so he guessed that everyone soon started to refer to him as "Sparrow" as a nickname in light of that. Mercy always noticed the sparrow and how Genji would sometimes sit crossed legged on a raised chair as if he were meditating, he'd say it was more comfortable much to Mercy's amusement while she also noticed how he always left his chair at the same angle, every single time he'd left a meeting.
With the years flying by Genji didn't get much time to think about his potential relationship possibilities with Angela, but as more time flew by and the closer they continued to grow, the more inevitable it had seemed to Genji. He had loved her for a long time, but work commitments and being constantly in a professional environment kept the relationship at a stand-still for a long time. But soon Genji came to realise the environment he had worked in hadn't stopped Ana, as Fareeha couldn't have appeared from thin air, news stories regarding the love lives of some agents actually had some proof behind them and Gerard and Amelie were a prime example of a marriage working in Overwatch. If they could do it, why couldn't he? The missions didn't take up all of his time either, they were small moments he could have caught Angela and confess his feelings to her, he soon came to realise his excuses were wearing thin, especially as he found himself shrugging off more sly remarks from McCree and all too obvious winks from Tracer whenever Mercy passed by.
The truth Genji was trying to hide, is that he despised himself, more and more as he came to realise he had been built and agreed to become a living weapon. His old body was gone, he wasn't built for romance, he wasn't the playboy he had once been. He couldn't give Mercy what she wanted with his cold body, he was scarcely a human anymore and the more he realised what he wanted the more he came to hate himself for it, the more he hated his cybernetic body, the more he realised that even if they somehow got into a relationship, how could he be with her? With his cold, cybernetic body, with scars lining most of it?
The more he fell in love with Angela Ziegler the more he came to realise he hated what he had become.
Missions were now dull, he realised now why he hadn't felt satisfaction back on his first mission, he had fulfilled his mission and gained his vengeance but he hadn't gained what he wanted. His old body back and he knew from what Mercy told him he would never be able to regain a full human body once again.
He wasn't a man, he wasn't an Omnic, yet he was aware of the prejudices flung his way and Torbjorn's remarks cut deeper the longer in Overwatch Genji stayed and it wasn't just Torbjorn, some agents also carried that prejudice of Omnics with them and made sure to fling nasty remarks in Genji's direction.
It was driving him mad.
He wanted to avoid it, but he couldn't any longer because a surprise Valentine's day visit and day off for the Overwatch heroes, to engage in a formal party by the French Government was the perfect opportunity for Genji to dress in a new suit, buy some chocolates and some flowers and finally confess to Angela how he truly felt. He couldn't hide it anymore and regardless of what happened to him next he had to get these feelings off his chest, he hoped that Angela had always felt the same, he suspected strongly that she had and if she rejected him? Well Genji couldn't blame her, he was of course a machine, despite Omnic and human relationships being a thing, he knew Mercy wanted a man and a family in the long run, he couldn't provide that for her, but he just wanted to let her know, he'd always be there, whatever happened.
Amelie and Gerard were particularly at home and loved up in the city of Paris, the party was held on one of the observation decks of the Eiffel tower, as well as giving the Overwatch heroes a grand view of the city, waiters passed around food as herds of people laughed to themselves, the Government officials holding Overwatch in high regard due to them helping to save the city a few times, one of these times being very recently, hence the celebration party.
Genji himself kept out of the way most of the time and watched as Angela interacted with people at the party, in her white dress she looked... like an angel. Genji had to wait until she was alone before he could tell her, he felt his heart rate increase once again, the chocolates and roses he had behind his back, he was waiting to give them too her, he was waiting for his moment. He saw Amelie and Gerard inside and felt a pang of jealously that his relationship would never end up being like that, no matter how it went. But he kept his head held high and watched silently, the gales of the winds passing him as he stood on the observation deck, waiting for the crowd surrounding Angela to leave, he was close to getting his chance.
Close indeed, the crowd were beginning to thin, Angela liked the peace and quiet, Genji knew that and that's where he'd find her and she would say she always had five minutes for him and that's where he'd say it all.
He was so close.
If it wasn't for Torbjorn Lindholm following Genji's gaze and knowing exactly how the young man felt about Angela, Angela was a good friend to the small man and he wanted her to be happy, if she ended up with him...
She'd never be.
"It's for the best, for the pair of you" he thought to himself, as he stepped towards the lovestruck japanese man.
Genji watched Angela, by herself as she looked over the city of Paris like the angel she was, Torbjorn was walking away from Genji as he felt the grip on the roses he had slide out of his hand and fall miles into the city below, he dropped the box of chocolate at his feet and slowly stumbled away from Angela, he wanted to look at her he wanted to go up there and touch her, it's all he wanted.
But he now knew, he could never have her without hurting both of them.
Torbjorn was right, what he had just said, had dashed all of his hopes and left him feeling hollow.
It was best if he just left, for the pair of them.
A few days later Angela Ziegler wept openly for the first time in years, sat in her office sniffing into her hand as tears cascaded down her cheeks, re-reading the letter Genji had sent her over and over again in complete disbelief that he was gone, that he had left her after the bond they had developed in the years they had been working together, the contents of what was written on the letter didn't help stop her tears, their familiar logo of the arrow in the heart was scrawled on the back of the red envelope.
Inside, a sparrow's feather.
and a box of swiss chocolates, Genji knew she loved those chocolates the most.
But now he truly was gone and he wasn't coming back, leaving Angela Ziegler feeling alone for the first time in many years.
"What am I going to do now?" she wept to herself.