The only three that knew how it happened were the living ghosts. One was there when it happened, one was dead, and one could've cared less. Nowadays almost no one wondered about Jesse McCree's arm, it just another prosthetic Doctor Ziegler had to check up on monthy in Overwatch. By now, it was a decrepit piece of machinery. It was a relic compared to the new prosthetics on the market, but McCree was stuck in his ways, and refused to swap it out.

"It's a part of me now, k'now?" Jesse once drawled under anaesthetics while Angela reconnected and updated the nervous system, "Can't just… give it up. It's me."

However, it annoyed him on a daily basis. He was never content by the slower reaction time compared to his flesh-and-bone arm. When he was in Blackwatch, back when he had both of his arms, he remembered bullets flying off left and right, the majority spewing from him. He was able to rattle off rounds, sending lead flying into enemies. He still had the same deadly potential as before, but it would never be the same.

"So… how'd you lose yours?" McCree snapped awake from his daydream as Lucio innocently asked the question from across the break area. A group of them were lounging after a mission and talking about whatever came to mind first, and coincidentally almost everyone in the room had prosthetics.

"Oh! Um…" McCree wasn't a very good improviser, "Coyote, big one, ripped it right off."

"That…" Symmetra processed, "doesn't seem right."

"Yeah," Lucio said skeptically, "Come on, how'd you really lose it?"

McCree chuckled, "Like hell I'm tellin any of you. Maybe y'all are better off not knowing."

Lucio groaned 'not fair' while Symmetra still sat confused. McCree laughed heartily, slapping his knee like a true caricature, then stood up. He said goodbye and exited the glorified living room. Out on one of the many terraces Gibraltar had, McCree lit one of his cigarillos, and took a long drag. He didn't notice the curious eyes that followed him from the break room, when he let his cheerful display go and let stress and tiredness take over his face.


Hanzo had a lot of mysteries he needed to solve. He needed to know why the Shimada Clan ordered him to kill his brother, why his sake kept going missing from his drawer, and why Genji still poured a cup of coffee every morning even though he couldn't consume it. However this mystery was the most intriguing of all.

After Lucio had just explained how he had gotten his prosthetics, protest gone wrong or something, he asked McCree about his. His reaction was very strange, and then left soon after. Hanzo decided to follow after him and found him on the deck outside the building. He was smoking, as usual, but he looked different. His eyes were hollow, and his head hung heavy.

At breakfast, Hanzo couldn't keep his eyes off of McCree. He was eating a bowl of cereal, something with enough sugar to completely destroy a person's physique, and glancing at his phone. Genji was sitting across from Hanzo, and he noticed his brother's wandering eyes.

"What's up with you?" Genji asked, stirring sugar into his coffee.

"What?" Hanzo was caught off guard, "Oh, nothing, just… thinking."

Genji tapped the spoon on the edge of the mug and sat it down, "I see you staring at him. Got a little crush?"

Hanzo's eyes widened and he developed a bit of a blush, "What? No, I was just thinking… Genji do you know anything about McCree's prosthetic?"

"No, why do you ask?"

"I'm just… curious. You were in Blackwatch with him, no? Did he have it then?"

Genji leaned back in his chair, "He didn't when I was just recovering from the installment of my body, and then when I started training, he was admitted to the medical ward without an arm. I think it was after a mission, but no one would tell us anything."

"Hmm…" Hanzo curiously gazed back to the 'Cowboy', "who would know how it happened? Do you know where the information could be?"

"Aniki why are you so held up on this," Genji lifted the cup to his face plate and made a siping noise.

"I know you cannot drink that, you are fooling no one."

"Aniki you're dodging the question."

"I am not! I'm just pointing out that you are acting ridiculous. Why are you pretending to drink-"

"Answer. The. Question."

Hanzo groaned, "Lució asked, and well, he looked really depressed after that. No one should have to feel that much anguish after something so horrible like losing a limb."

"What about losing approximately 60-70% of all living tissue."

, who had been eavesdropping from the table over spat out her orange juice.

"I… um…. no. Not even then should someone suffer that greatly."

"Then you have never experienced the pain of losing a limb."

"Genji," Hanzo pinched the bridge of his nose, and gestured to his legs, which were currently sporting more casual prosthetics than his battle pair.

"Yeah sure but you've always had them. We've just recently lost ours in the last, what, 15 years? Let him be sad, and respect his request for keeping that info private."

"I can do that, but I cannot let him mope. You do understand that his aiming has decreased by 20% this month alone?"

"The great Jesse McCree lost that much in one month? Wow I've never seen that happen before!" Genji said sarcastically, "Aniki, look, I'll even list off the times that's happened before. When Reyes kicked Jesse of the main squad for a week, when Reyes ate the last ice cream sandwich and we weren't getting resupplied for a couple more days, when the wifi went out that one month, when his gun somehow got a french fry lodged into it and he had to use his spare during training, when Reyes called him a 'wannna-be'-"

"Ok ok that's enough," Hanzo cut his brother off, "I get it. But when does he snap out of it?"

"Usually when the issue is resolved. French fry out, wifi on, and ice cream sandwiches aplenty."

"Then there you go. I'll resolve it."

"And how, praytell, are you going to magically bring back McCree's arm?"

Hanzo sighed, "I'm not going to bring back his arm. I'm just going to figure out how he lost it and help him cope."

"What did I just tell you about letting him have privacy? Maybe he just wants time alone."

"And how did that work out with you?" Hanzo asked harshly, " you ran off to go find inner peace, and you coped by studying with you master."

"You want to be like Zenyatta," Genji procured.

"No, I just simply want to be there for him."

"But WHY," Genji insisted.

"Simply," Hanzo said softly, looking to where McCree was once sitting but where he had moved from, "he has a mystery that I wish to solve."

"That's kind of an asshole move though-" Genji was too late, as his brother was already running out of the cafeteria to find the cowboy.