A/N: Hi guys! So, as said in the description, this fic explores an AU where Mercy wasn't in Overwatch yet when Genji "died", and the cybernetics/medical department isn't quite as advanced and/or good. It will end in Gency, but it'll take a while since this is my first actual attempt at really writing romance, and they're only gonna meet in a while. I'll try to introduce them to each other as quickly as possible, but it's still gonna take a while. I've also pit a little joke in the title, whoever figures it out gets a... umm... cameo? Or to have an OC of their choice inserted? I dunno…Yet
Please enjoy, and follow/favourite if you do so! Constructive criticism will be very much appreciated, but I ain't editing this chapter anymore, I've done hours of work on this.
DISCLAIMER:I own nothing but my OCs and the plot-line! (Though I probably don't even own that. It's not that an original idea.)
Hanamura fortress
Overwatch Captain Ana Amari was leading a squad to Japan for an infiltration mission. The task was to smuggle an agent into the Hanamura fortress to collect intel on the infamous Shimada clan. The ancient criminal empire had been inflicting terror throughout Japan for decades. As the youngest squad member, Cadet Joanne May* snuck through the dim moon-lit courtyard, she spotted a near-human shape lying on the ground near the east-side wall. Curious, young Joanne moved towards it. Getting closer, she soon came to find that the shimmering puddles splattered around the ominous shape, leading towards one of the entrances, weren't water. They were blood.
Joanne touched her index finger to her earpiece.
"Captain? I think I've found somebody who's been attacked by the Shimadas"
Ana's calm voice answered shortly: "You think?"
Joanne carefully edged closer to the shape. It was a young man, not much older than 24 perhaps, and he was in a dreadful state. He was oozing blood from almost any place imaginable. His face was filled with cuts and scratches, his right arm seemed to have been stabbed in the most horrendous way, and a nasty wound dented his right upper leg. A silvery katana with a glowing green edge was lying on the ground a few feet away.
"Yes, I think. From what I can see a 24-year-old male, some kind of Asian. Probably Japanese, but I'm not gonna make any assumptions. If he's not dead yet, he's soon going to be"
The earpiece crackled. A few seconds of silence. Then, Ana responded.
"I'm tracking your location right now. I'm coming over with Dr Moon**. Try to see if he's alive"
Ana's hovercraft, 657m above sea level, 3 miles west
Captain Ana Amari turned to the remaining squad members. Torbjörn Lindholm, a dwarf-like brilliant Swedish engineer and one of the founding members of Overwatch, the middle-aged wiry Private Clara Milde***, and Dr Alicia Moon, the squad's field medic.
"Well, you heard Cadet May. Private, bring us in," she ordered the woman steering the hovercraft.
The communicator crackled, and the cadet shakily spoke again.
"C-c-capt'n? H-h-he's alive. Barely."
Ana nodded towards Private Milde, who so as to hear the conversation better had started hovering the ship on the spot.
"Go on, private. Don't stare like a surprised deer. We have a life on our hands. Any enemy of the Shimada clan is an ally of ours," she sharply commanded the woman. The startled German pulled a lever and got the hovercraft moving again.
A short time later, back with Joanne
Joanne heaved a grateful sigh when she saw the flashing lights of the hovercraft above.
"Joanne? I'm coming in," Dr Moon called through the communicator.
Cadet May looked at the poor man besides her. During the two minutes he had been conscious before passing out again from all the blood loss, she had managed to exchange first names with him, and discovered he seemingly didn't want to give up his katana.
A few seconds later, the Hovercraft let down a ramp, and Dr Moon stepped out, a large bag full of bandage sin hand, with Torbjörn helping her carry stretcher with her. At the sight of the man's badly damaged body, Dr Moon gasped loudly, and Torb looked as if he was about to faint.
The doctor hurried over. After binding up almost the entire body of the man, she finally turned to Joanne.
"Have you found out anything about him yet? Age? Name? Who did this to him?"
"Well, I said before, he looks about 24, and somebody from the Shimada clan must've done this to him. Why else would he be lying here and why else would it be that we've only found blood here? As for a name, his first name's Genji,"
Half in hope of him witnessing it, half in humour she added,
"Genji, Dr Moon. Dr Moon, Genji," gesturing to each as she said their names. Dr Moon gave a grim smile and then barked at Joanne to "help her get the poor soul onto the stretcher since Torb was gonna pass out".
3 hours later, somewhere over Arabia
Ana walked over to Dr Moon.
"How is he?"
The Korean gave a wry smile.
"He's not oozing blood everywhere anymore, which is a good sign, but I had to amputate his right leg. There was no saving it."
Ana sighed. Amputations without active permission always were risky, and it wasn't a move she would have made herself. But Dr Moon wasn't a field medic for taking years with her decisions, it was for her quick thinking and decisiveness.
Upon seeing her face, which must've shown how much she disagreed with the doctor's rash decision, Alicia added,
"I got his permission the last time he was awake, about 79 minutes ago. Cadet May has been a great help, I guess she feels it's her duty to help him, having found him after all"
Ana gave a sigh of relief.
"Thank God. At least we won't have that situation to deal with. Anything else to report?"
Dr Moon nodded.
"He seems to be oddly attached to his katana. Cadet May said he wouldn't let her check on him if she didn't swear to take it with her. Do you wish to observe it?"
"Yes. Perhaps it has some kind of technical enhancement that could be of use to us."
Ana picked up the weapon. Part of it seemed to be glowing in a mysterious green. No technical enhancements or information on the man. Just plain, strong steel ****.
3 hrs later, 5.3 miles from the Swiss HQ, above the Swiss Alps
"Jack? I'm about to fly in. Be sure to have a med team at the ready," Ana called in to the Overwatch Strike Commander, Jack Morrison.
A gravelly laugh was heard from the other side of the line as the ship docked in.
"Gee, thanks Amari! Do I hang out with Morrison so much that I am the Boy Scout now?"
Ana smiled briefly.
"No, I just wasn't expecting you to be on duty here, Gabriel. I thought Blackwatch normally hangs around in Gibraltar?"
Silence.
"Well, I'm still a commander, I've gotta visit the HQ now and then. Jack said the guy you picked up may be of use to us. Something about the Shimada clan?"
"I'll tell you later"
The door opened and the squad exited, Joanne and Dr Moon carrying the stretcher. A medical tram was at the ready, and immediately took the stretcher from the cadet and the doctor, and then ushered them into the medical bay.
"This is exactly the type of situation we'd need Dr Ziegler for," a familiar voice came from beside her. Jack.
Ana turned to face the Strike Commander. She smiled a half-smile.
"Don't do what I think you're going to do. Don't use that poor man to try and convince Dr Ziegler to join. Not like this. We can't force anyone to join our cause. Not for Overwatch. Blackwatch is an entirely different matter. Now, I must go see Fareeha"
She swiftly turned and exited, Jack gazing after her as Torbjörn lumbered out, muttering something about "damn excitable kids worse than Reinhardt" and "blood, too much blood".
Medical Room No. 095, Medical Bay, 5th floor, Swiss Overwatch HQ
Dr Sean Dee*****, head of the Overwatch medical department wished, for the only time in his life, that Dr Angela Ziegler had his job. Normally he was all against the Strike Commander's attempts of recruiting the Swiss doctor, seeing as he would lose his position and a good amount of money in his regular pay, but seeing as she was the leading head in the field of nanobiology, and probably - not that he openly admitted this of course - much more capable in this situation than he was.
The patient file looked the following:
Name: Genji Shimada
Age: 26 years
Gender: male
Height: 5'7"/ 1.73 m
Weight: 64. 831 kg/142.9 lbs
Ailment: major blood loss, loss of right leg from mid-thigh downwards, stab and slash wounds throughout left leg, face and torso, right arm dislocated and permanently paralyzed, lower jaw smashed
Treatment:
Dr Dee stared at the small, printed letters in front of him. The only possible treatment, naturally, would be a cyborization, and whilst he himself was a brilliant mind, Dr Ziegler probably would have been able to create a full-functioning, perfectly in-sync, perfectly life-like-movable new body for his patient. The jealousy inside of him subsided as he remembered that he was supposed to treat an almost-dead man, not gloat about his rivalry with Angela Ziegler. He would use that jealousy and anger as a fuel to create the best cyborg body known to man.
Strike Commander Jack Morrison's office, 4th floor, Swiss Overwatch HQ
"Cadet May, Dr Moon, please give me a full mission report. Normally that would be Captain Amari's job, but she decided she needed to see her daughter first. Commander Reyes decided he wanted to hear what you had to say about Shimada, so that's why he's here"
Jack gestured to the bulky man standing eerily in the shadowy corner with his arms crossed.
The cadet threw an awkward glance to the Blackwatch Commander, before beginning, "I was at the fortress, about to infiltrate, when I spotted him laying around there in a courtyard, looking terrible. So I called in to the Capt'n and when I knew he was alive they came and picked 'im up," she ended. Dr Moon took over.
"About an hour into the flight he woke up and gave me his name. Shortly after, he blacked out again. I had to amputate his right leg, otherwise the infection would have spread," she told the commanders. Jack was throwing a weird look at Gabe. Seeing Gabriel's look she added," With permission of course"
Jack heaved a mighty sigh of relief and glanced over to Gabe again.
"So, as you may know, we've decided to let Shimada into Blackwatch and let him take down the people that killed him with us. It should have been a Blackwatch mission from the beginning. I do not know why we ever decided to send you guys in."
Gabe laughed hoarsely.
"Because Jesse won't stop dressing like a fucking cowboy. It's hard to believe we're the covert ops if we have a cowboy and a woman with the worst fashion taste ever running around. I swear, I'm the only one in this team who can actually dress. So adding a cyborg ninja won't make us much less invisible. I swear, the magic is that we stand out, not blend in"
He snorted. Cadet May laughed nervously and stared at him. He was being incredibly light-hearted about the risks that the covert ops group was in by not being very...Covert. Somebody should really tell Jesse that dressing as a cowboy and constantly smoking cigars was not the normal way for people to behave.
"So, what's your plan for him now then, Jack? " Dr Moon asked.
The Strike Commander frowned.
"That's up to Commander Reyes in the end. But the first thing is, I want his useless body parts fully cyborized and weaponized. Athena, tell Doctor Dee I want a slot for shurriken and a storage unit in the lower arm. No questions asked", he finished, adressing the A.I.
"Understood, Commander. Shall I tell him anything else?"
"Tell him to be nice and not his usual douchy self," Gabriel commented, smirking, which earned him a hard glare from Jack.
He shrugged.
"What?! He is a douche. Why did you even hire him?"
"Because Angela Ziegler doesn't believe in violence. Not even Torb can convince her. And he's almost a second father to her!"
Athena would have probably laughed if she could, but instead just replied with a simple, "Very well, Commander Reyes. I will tell him to be friendly and not to overdo it with the ambition"
"Thanks, Athena"
Office 501, Overwatch Swiss HQ, 5th floor
"Doctor Dee, Commander Reyes would also like me to tell you that you should be nice to your patient and not overdo it with your ambition," Athena's cold robotic voice called through the sound system in the New Zealander's office.
The very tall, very thin man grumbled. He hated it when the commanders thought he wasn't acting appropriately. He worked through his files, and decided on one option. It'd leave his patient practically immobilized and in a wheelchair for any time outside missions, but he would be quicker, stealthier and stronger than before when on missions. So, in the doctor's eyes, everything was well. Overwatch had wanted a weapon, he'd be giving it to them. He went to the room his patient was in, lying motionless on his bed, and moved the hospital bed to the surgery room. He called his surgical team and proceeded to operate.
NOTES:
*Cadet Joanne May is a half-white, half-black recruit form South Africa.
**Dr Moon is an American-Korean doctor who mainly works as a field medic. She won't be the one to fully save Genji's butt. She'll just sustain him for a while
****Private Clara Milde is a former German navy soldier recruited by Overwatch for her amazing pain durability
****I randomly went with steel for the material of Genji's sword
*****Sean Dee is a New Zealandic doctor and Overwatch's head of the medical department before Angela joins, he has a massive complex against her