The heavy beating of my heart. The blurring of my vision. My palm, sweating. My legs fighting every effort I make to stand up and face him, my attacker, no, my brother. Beads of sweat roll off my forehead and each drop hitting the wooden floor, I heard as clearly as a thundercrack in the mountains. I gripped my wakizashi and tried to defend myself, but before I could even get close, it was finished. A cut clean across my torso. My vision was splattered with red. I felt my body go limp, and fall, my vision blurring. As my sight faded, I see my brother flicking blood, my blood, off his katana. But as my sight began to blur the most, I saw him most clearly, a man doing his duty. But it was not just him, I saw with even more clarity, those surrounding us. Men in white robes, who despite the cleanness of their garments, were soiled as if dragged through mud. I sighed my last breath and my vision became dark.
I woke up with a gasp, almost leaping out of my bed. I looked around me. I was not in the Shimada hall, I was still in my own quarters. I reach to wipe the sweat off my forehead, and was met with the cool metal kiss of my arm. "Ah…" I thought to myself "It's been so long, yet this feeling is foreign everytime I feel it." I got up and sat on the edge of my bad, scratching the back of my hair. I gave a sigh and got up, my cybernetic feet making light thumping sounds as I crossed the room. I stopped in a spot I've stood in countless amount of times, and looked through the semi transparent blinds of my window. "But that recollection was always familiar every time I remember it." The day I was ousted from the clan. The day I was killed by my clan. The day I lost my my brother to the clan. I chuckled to myself slightly. The second one wasn't as true as the other two. They had tried to have me killed, and had my brother do it nonetheless, but fate as it seemed had other plans. As I gazed into the night, I recalled once again, as I have done many times, what happened when I awoke after the execution.
I gasped, breathing heavily. Above me, all I could see was a bright light and endless whiteness. I blinked a few times to gather my senses and comprehend what I was seeing. When I refocused my vision, I realized I wasn't just seeing light, I was looking at a light, in a room of some sorts. Trying to move my arm, I realized that it was weighted down by something. I raise my head, only to be met with a firm hand pushing it back down.
"No no no, stay down for now, you're in no condition to move anything in your current state." a voice that belonged to the hand, curtly said.
"Who, who are you?" I muttered, my voice dry and cracked. I saw the hand retreat, and a face take it's place above me. A woman's face, with draping golden locks, and an odd metal object in her hair resembling nothing less than a halo. Over one eye, she had a translucent blue eyepiece that adjusted its focus every so often, and with the other, she looked at me curiously, as if I were a surprising specimen that she had discovered.
"I am Dr. Angela Ziegler, but you can call me Mercy." She said over me, "I was the one responsible for saving your life after your, how to put it, more than mortal injury."
"What do you mean?" I asked, "Where am I?"
"You are in my hospital." She replied, "In my organization's headquarters to be exact."
"Organization?" I asked again, with slight concern in my voice. Countless groups out there were after the Shimada household, so I was wary about the term, fearing an enemy had captured me and kept me alive for information. She must have detected this in my voice because she cracked a slight smile.
"Yes, my organization, and quell your fears, I'm not here to hurt you. If I did, I would have left you for dead. And given the state you were in, it wouldn't have been far off." I was at a loss as to how to respond to that statement.
"You said more than mortal, what do you mean?" I asked.
"What do you think?" she asked me, curiously, "What do you remember about what happened?"
"I remember wounds, and a deep cut, but I don't know how bad it was." I closed my eyes and sighed, recalling the event. "How severe were the injuries? Doctor?"
"Why don't you take a look." Dr. Zieglar's head moved away. "Just as a warning, it's not what you expect." There was a mechanical whirring sound as the bed I was on rose up and tilted forward to where I was facing the wall my feet were just pointing at. Belts strapped across my torso and legs kept me from falling off. On the wall was a tall floor to ceiling mirror and I blinked a few times and gasped at my reflection. What stared back at me was no man I recognized. My face was covered with scars, some bandaged with the blood seeping through, others light but present. My once flawless complexion had now been marred by an innumerable amount of cuts and wounds. My right arm was held together by pins and it looked as though it were barely hanging there, if it was hanging there at all now. But my body, was the most terrifying sight to behold. A white plastoid shell was covering it, but there was a transparent panel over it that showed tubes connecting to the area around my chest, and the area around my hips. I gasped in shock to find that my heart was out beating in the open within its own chamber in the shell. It beat slowly and steadily in a chamber of bubbling liquid with tubes connecting to it so that my blood could still flow. I squinted my eyes and saw the worst of it all, that I wasn't just looking at a deep wound, but the fact that the top half of my torso was no longer connected to the bottom half. My brother's cut had severed me in half! A white covering covered the gap of flesh between the two sections of my body, but even though there was a lack of noticeable bleeding, the sight was a horror to behold. Looking down, I saw my legs, if they were still mine in a sense. One of them twisted at a horrible angle, the other one in a proto-cast, with the bone exposed. The doctor walked into my field of view again.
"As you can see, the cut was certainly deep as you predicted, but I do not believe you have anticipated the severity. Nor that of the rest of your injuries" I was at a loss of words.
"N-no, this has shocked me more than a sparrow who was just barely missed by a lightning bolt." The doctor gave a slight chuckle.
"Not going to pretend to understand where you came up with that metaphor. But you're right about it. The doctors here were surprised that we were even going to try to save you, but the higher ups commanded them to do so and so we did. Of course, I had to call in every skill and asset I have, but for now you are alive."
"As if one could call what I am now alive." I said, rolling my head to the side, "Even death would be preferable to this half existence."
"What if I said," The doctor began, "That we could return you to a full life?"
"Then I would first believe you are mocking me." I replied, turning to face the doctor, "But after seeing this and what you said you did, I am genuinely in believing of your offer."
"Then hear me out." The doctor said, as she unhooked a badge from the lab coat she had on and showed it to me, the silver and gold symbol shining under the white light. "I represent a group seeking to end chaos and bring order in the world, we deal primarily with the omnic attacks, but for a very long time, we have been also trying to keep tabs on your family's clan."
"They are family no more." I replied coldly,
"I can see obviously see why, but my point is," The doctor went on, "we've been trying to monitor the Shimada clan and try to stop their movement of illegal arms and trafficking. They've only contributed to hindering our fight with the rogue omnics, us being the global peacekeeping force and all. Anyway until now, we have been in the dark and had no way of penetrating the clan, nor tracking their movements and activities. Then of course, you happened."
"So what? You seek to use me for your own goals?"
"You can call it that," the doctor said, "Or you can call it being given an opportunity of exacting justice on those who tried to have you murdered." I stopped and pondered this fact and I become somewhat persuaded to agree to her deal.
"This is what you're offering me? In exchange for giving me back my ability to live again? You want me to betray my blood and kin."
"I thought you said they were family no more?" The doctor responded with a slight chuckle. Clever, I did say that. I leaned back my head and thought upon what I would do. True they had tried to kill me, but that does not change the fact that they are family. Then the thought of him cut through my mind. Following that thought was the memory of the white robed elders who had witnessed my execution with sadistic glee, "They did this." I thought. Then I remembered the final moments, "No they encouraged it, but in the end, it was he who raised his sword against me. It was he who struck the final blow. They called it an honor killing, but there was no honor then." At that moment, I had resolved myself on a decision. "There is justice I seek," I said to the doctor, "but it will not be for your gain that I seek it."
"That is fine." she said, "Other than having to respond to assignments to the fullest of diligence and ability, you have free reign to do whatever you wish." I closed my eyes and once again saw my brother, a blood soaked sword in his hand.
"Very well." I replied with finality. "I agree to your offer." The doctor smiled, "In exchange for life, you shall have my blade."
"Good." she said, "Then I'll get preparations right under way." She turned and began to walk out the door.
"Wait." I said before she walked out, "Before you go, to who do I now pledge allegiance to?" She turned her head over her shoulder and said one name,
"Overwatch."