Amélie, the famed Widowmaker, was in a rundown apartment, trying to reach the balcony, situated across the hall. She had just reached for the doorknob, when the door exploded. The handle was ripped straight from the door, leaving a gouge in the wall. The door smashed into her hard enough to almost fracture her skull, before she was slammed into the wall behind her, sending her into the darkness, but, before she passed out, she was able to distinguish the two numbers on the back of the man's jacket: 76.
Soldier 76 was oblivious of Widowmaker, as he entered the small room, nearly tearing the door from its hinges. He was also more occupied by Reaper, standing across the room from 76, as Reaper turned and started firing his shotguns at 76.
Sometime later, Widowmaker awoke and groaned as she clutched her head. It felt like someone had split her skull. Just then someone swung the door shut, and pointed a gun in her face, before quickly snatching her rifle and ordering her to drop her venom mines. Barely conscious, she pawed at the device before the mines dropped to the ground. They were quickly kicked away before someone pulled her grappling hook off her wrist. Widow suddenly noticed that she felt something…weird, she couldn't quite name it, but it almost seemed familiar. She saw a golden glow, which helped take away her pain, before someone grabbed her arm to help her stand. It was Mercy. She did what she would normally do, which happened to be punching her in the face before swan diving out the nearest window.
Thankfully, they were on the third floor, but there was a first-story wing under the window. Widow hit the ground, hard. She was able to get up and keep running, despite the landing, and she quickly flicked her comms on before yelling into them, "Reaper…Where is the drop ship?!" as she started running.
"500 yards north of the apartment, but what the hell happened?" Reaper yelled back. Widow could hear the dropship firing up and a flurry of curse words from Reaper as she sprinted. She turned around a corner to see the dropship firing up and hovering a few feet off the ground. The door was closing and there was only about eight feet of room left. She launched herself in the dropship doors at the last second before the doors shut. They then started heading back to base. Widow was just asked something, but she couldn't quite tell what she was asked as she slipped into unconsciousness and fell to the floor of the dropship.
She saw fragments of memories she shouldn't know, and didn't want to know. The first was of her and Gerald dancing at their wedding. She was leaning against her chest as the music played softly in the background. Next, she was at a party with the Overwatch members, as Gerald escorted her around the party, with their arms linked, the last memory was of her in a ballet class. The instructor carefully guiding her through a pirouette, leading her into the finale of the dance. Suddenly, she regained consciousness, and sat up, nearly head-butting Reaper as she did.
"We need to see Sombra," Reaper said, as he noticed the look on her face.
Once back at base, Reaper dragged Widow to Sombra's room, where he threw open the door and stormed in with Widow in tow. Sombra was wearing a t-shirt, headband, and volleyball shorts, looking like she had just completed a workout. Sombra nearly yelped in surprise as they busted into her room, before Reaper growled, "Pull up the file on emergency 272 alpha," before slamming the door behind them.
Sombra responded by furiously tapping at her keyboard before a video popped up on the screen which showed Widow passing out on a dropship. When she woke up, she casually picked up her gun, and killed the other eight Talon agents on board, excluding the pilots.
"Look familiar?" Reaper said to Widowmaker, as she silently watched the video, "Sombra, you need to take Widow to one of your secure safehouses. You know what this means."
Sombra was very discreet as she pulled Widow out of the base, who was told to be silent. When the dropship they were in Sombra turned to Widowmaker and explained, "when I was hired by Talon, I hacked their files. Emergency 272 alpha description was, 'Widowmaker's programing broke down, causing her to kill over seventy Talon officers before being subdued.' Reaper probably thinks your programing is breaking down again."
"So what happens now?" Widow asked.
"Well, we need you to see a doctor, and lay low at one of my safehouses."
They landed in Italy, somewhere Northern, close to the border. They walked into the safehouse, which was a three-story manor arranged in a U. Widow found her room to be rather spacious, with a bathroom larger than the king-sized bed in the bedroom. The room was the size of a theatre, with a couch, loveseat, recliner, TV, computer terminal, bed, nightstand, dresser, armoire, and balcony. After settling in, along with exploring the closet, dresser, and armoire, Widow decided to change into jeans and a long-sleeved black blouse. Widow headed downstairs where Sombra was waiting on one of the couches. She looked up and spoke, "I called the local hospital, and they said they would send someone." Sombra said happily as she started walking back to her room, after "booping" Widow.
About half an hour later, there was a ring at the gate. Widow walked over to the panel, and asked, "Why are you here?"
A woman responded, with a slight Swiss accent, "You asked for a doctor." Widow unlocked the gate.
Widowmaker waited as the woman walked inside, duffel bag in hand, and then was frozen to her seat in shock. The woman was Mercy.
Mercy walked over to the couch where Widow was, and slapped her as hard as possible, causing Widow's head to turn. Widow sat there and whispered,
"I probably deserved that," before Mercy turned around and walked back towards the door. Mercy just reached for the door handle when someone else grabbed her wrist. Mercy looked up to see a pouting Sombra who asked,
"Please? Can you please stay? We think her conditioning is breaking down."
Mercy's eyes narrowed, "Who's we?"
Sombra looked at the ground as she said "Me and Gabe," but quickly added, "Gabe isn't here though!" Before looking hopefully at Mercy.
Mercy sighed, and walked back across the room as Sombra silently congratulated herself. Mercy looked at Widow, who was still rubbing her cheek, and as Widow looked up, Mercy slapped her again. She then dropped her duffle bag in the center of the floor, and sat on the couch opposite to Widow as Sombra took the seat beside Widow. Widow's eyes drifted to Mercy's bag, and as she inspected it, she could make out several different objects. Mainly, Mercy's caduceus staff, healing packs, biotic field generators, assorted syringes, and needles. As her eyes landed on the needles, she passed out in a flashback.
She was naked, and chained spread-eagled, as she watched as a man entered holding a bucket full of needles. The men had injected her with auto-healing nanobots, to heal any wounds they caused while torturing her. She watched as the man set the bucket down, before pulling out a handful of eighteen-inch needles. He walked over to Widow, who was now thrashing in her restraints, before selecting one and slowly pushed it through her abdomen, until it poked out the other side. To Amélie, this was as if someone had sliced open her entire stomach, and poured burning gasoline inside of her. She screamed, as loud as she could, but the man's only reaction was taking another needle and repeating the process. Soon, her entire abdomen was filled with needles. The man walked back to his bucket, selected more needles, and walked back towards Amélie, before she closed her eyes and turned away. The man roughly grabbed her face with one hand and, with two fingers, pinned her eyes closed, as the man took a single needle and slowly, ever so slowly, pushed it through her eyelid and into her eye, before repeating the process. The pain was indescribable for Amélie as bloody tears ran down her body, and caused her pain to increase, as the salt mixed with her wounds. Soon enough, both of Amélie's eye sockets were filled with needles as the man whispered in her ear, "I am going to take away everything you have, your smell, speech, touch, and I will break your mind."
Amélie whimpered, and the man took one of his needles, and slowly pushed it into her ear, popping her eardrum, and causing her to scream. The man only stopped as he reached her inner ear bones. The man did this again, but on her other ear. This time, when he popped her eardrum, the entire world went silent to her and she was immersed in pain. Now the man slowly pushed a needle through her wind pipe, and pinned her vocal chords to her own throat, as she almost passed out from pain. The man repeated this a few times, and Amélie almost passed out, but was awoken when the man thrust two needles through her nose bridge and through her nasal cavities. The blood running through her nose stopped any sense of smell. The man then took one of her hands, and slowly inserted needles underneath the skin, causing her to lose all sense of touch. When he was complete, he stepped back and admired his work. It was then that Amélie's mind broke, shattering her into a million pieces.
Meanwhile, Mercy rushed to Widow's side as he passed out. Mercy was just about to touch her, when Sombra yelled, "Stop! This is when she remembers stuff, she'll wake up."
Mercy and Sombra sat nervously, Sombra biting her finger, and Mercy laying out her medical gear on the coffee table. Suddenly, Widowmaker sat bolt upright, eyes wide open, before calming down, she didn't remember what happened or what she saw, because the memories were hidden in the fragments of Amélie's memories.
Mercy spun around as Widowmaker awoke, and saw something in her eyes. For a split second, her eyes were pure animal, before the cold demeanor of Widowmaker took over. "Mon Dieu," she groaned, "I feel like I have the worst hangover ever," she said as a splitting headache overtook her.
Mercy snorted, "Serves you right."
"Okay, what happened between you two that made you two like…" Sombra said before trailing off.
Widow sighed, "I got knocked out, by 76 and when I woke up, Mercy disarmed me before healing me. Afterwards, I punched her in the face, and jumped out the nearest window."
"I should've let Jack handle you," Mercy said.
"I'm starting to think that wouldn't have been too bad," Widow retorted.
Sombra laughed, before both Widow and Mercy turned and looked at her with daggers in their eyes. "You two better get to like each other, because you're gonna be spending a lot more time together," Sombra said with glee.
Mercy opened her mouth to respond, but was cut short by Widowmaker, "she's right, I can't go back to Talon, it's my only choice."
"No. Absolutely not. There's no way I could do that if I wanted." Mercy said.
Yet three days later, she was doing just that. She was sweating as she nervously picked up the phone, and dialed their headquarters. Not knowing what to say, she laid out the situation to Jack, saying, "I've got a semi-illegal very hazardous problem that may or may not end with one of us killed."
"Shoot," Jack responded gruffly.
"Widow-"
"No, Hell no." he barked into the phone.
"Her conditioning is breaking down, she remembers Gerald."
"You know what she did, and I am not letting her remotely near the base."
Knowing Jack's uncompromising will, Mercy decided to change tactics, "You caused it."
"When?"
"That door you kicked in in Cairo? She was behind the door. She was knocked unconscious."
He sighed, "I need to talk to her. Now," with the same gravel in his voice.
"I don't know if I can let her do that as her doctor. She's pretty delicate."
"Why not? What's happening to her?"
"As far as I can tell, she's going through some sort of reverse-amnesia as her programing is falling apart. She's still figuring out her emotions."
"Fine, but if she does anything I don't like she's done. I'll kill her myself. I still need to see her as soon as she gets here though." Jack said, finally relenting.
"Deal. As long as she gets a chance."
"A dropship should be there in thirty, and…goodbye Angela."
"Bye Jack."
Mercy hung up the phone before dropping her head in her hands. What have I just done? She thought as Widow silently opened the door. She walked in before asking, "Is everything alright?" even though she had heard the entire conversation. Widow saw a psychiatric test on Mercy's desk, with Unfit: Permanently written on top, and she filed it away in her memory.
"No," she responded, taking Widow's focus away from the file, "When we get there you'll need to talk to Jack, besides… our ride gets here in thirty." Before turning and walking out of the room to pack her few belongings. Widow soon walked out of the room to do the same, exiting just in time for Sombra to "boop" her nose. She expected Mercy got the same treatment.
Jack sat at the Overwatch base in Gibraltar, wondering what Angela and himself had gotten into. He knew as soon as Widow and Angela arrived, he would need to talk to Widow, and he would need to force her to show real emotion, just to make sure her programing wasn't breaking down. Hell, he thought, how am I going to explain this to the others?he thought, How am I going to explain this to the others?
She walked to her room and started packing, sweeping each room from a corner, until she accidentally knocked a box down from the closet. She stooped over to pick it up, but she saw a picture. It was of a man, but it seemed…familiar, as if it was from another life or something. Then it hit her. It felt like a freight train.
Widow collapsed to the ground, silently crying, weeping, as her own tears cascaded down her face. She remembered who it was. It was Gerald. She had killed the only person she had ever loved. She packed the picture. When she finished packing, she was still sniffling and she had purple rings around her eyes. It was the one memory that Talon didn't want her to have, and she hated herself for having it. Hated herself even more for not wishing she never knew him. And hated herself the worst for not being strong enough to stop them.
Jack found himself standing in the meeting room, with all of the Overwatch agents present, excluding Mercy. Might as well start, he thought.
"None of you want to hear this, but Mercy believes that Widow's programing is breaking down. She'll be at the base soon."
That single statement seemed to suck the life out of the room, causing all banter and talking to cease.
One voice broke through the crowd, it was McCree, "Why would we trust her? She killed her own husband!"
Someone yelled back, "Mercy has saved all of our lives more times than we can count. If she trusts Widow, so do I!" soon the entire crowd was a chorus of yelling and arguing, before Jack finally stopped them.
"Enough!" Jack yelled with enough poison in his voice to stop an elephant cold, "She's coming, and that's final."
Widow was soon done with packing, and found herself sitting on the dropship, waiting for them to land. If Mercy noticed the rings around Widow's eyes, she didn't say anything. When they landed, the doors opened and she saw most of the Overwatch agents standing there waiting for their arrival. Mercy started to exit the dropship, before turning around to Widow and pulling lightly on her hand, whispering, "Trust me." With a smile.
Widow slowly walked out, analyzing the Overwatch agents, watching for anything. The last thing she expected was a sniper. The next last thing she expected was for the sniper to aim for McCree's gun, as he slowly started pulling it from his holster. When the shot rang out, everyone froze, except Widow. She dove behind a nearby pile of rocks, and let out a string of curses in French. Everyone, including Widow, who peeked over the pile of rocks, turned to see Soldier 76 standing on a nearby ridge with a sniper rifle. McCree flipped him the bird before walking back inside. Widow slowly slid from the pile of rocks while still keeping an eye on 76, and slipped inside with Mercy. As they walked, everyone gave Widow a wide birth, knowing she was far more lethal than she looked.
When inside, Mercy led Widow to Morrison's office. As they entered, Widow realised the sparseness of the interior. The floor, desk and door were made of wood, while the walls were white. The desk held a single picture, computer, and there was a single chair sitting behind the desk. The rest of the room was bare. Jack was standing on the far side of the room from the door, waiting with his hands behind his back. Widow stood in front of Jack, while Mercy stood slightly behind and to the side of Widow. Jack spoke first, his voice gruff.
"Who are you?"
"Widowmaker. Talon's top and foremost sniper, with more logged kills than any other sniper in the organization." She said impassively.
"What happened to Amélie?" he asked, the question seeming to suck the air out of the room.
"She died, helpless, naked, alone, and without a damn soul to care." Widow said fiercely.
"I doubt that. Highly. It takes more than that to make someone kill the person they love, or, at least, who everyone thinks they love."
"She died, in such a way that would scar an old soldier like you. She was weak! I took over, did the job I was meant to do! Love was not part of that." Her voice raised to a yell before coming to a growl, making Jack consider his next words.
"How did she die?" he asked with steel in his voice, bringing the clouded memory to the forefront of her mind.
She whispered, "have you ever had a needle put through you eye?" Her voice hitched as she lowered her head, "or though you stomach, nose throat, and every inch of skin on your hands?" she looked, up her eyes clouded with tears, as her voice steadily grew to a yell, "you don't know a damn thing about me. Don't ever pretend that you do, and don't ever, ever doubt me loving Gerald!" she yelled before storming out the door, and found herself sitting in the hallway as tears streamed down her face. Jack though, Well that's certainly emotion, before Mercy started yelling at him.
Widow watched the people as they walked by, or more specifically, their eyes. You can tell a lot about someone from their eyes, but, mostly, what they think about you. She saw the same thing she always saw in others eyes. Contempt from most people, pity from a few. She could still hear muffled voices as Mercy and Jack undoubtedly argued, before Mercy came out seething anger, but quickly calmed down when she saw Widow.
Mercy opened her mouth to talk, but was cut short by Widow, "Can you take me to my room? I need to sleep."
Mercy helped Widow up, before guiding her down a hallway to a discreet wooden door, with a brass doorknob. Mercy opened up the room and saw it was slightly small. The bed took up most of the first half of the room, but the next half was mostly empty save for a dresser, TV, and bathroom door. Her suitcase was laying closed on the immaculate bed, seemingly untampered. She opened the case to check for any missing objects, and, finding none, looked at the clock on the wall to see it was 20:30. She decided to retire for the night.
That night she was plagued by her own memories. Memories of loving Gerald, Talon's torture, and of all the people she had killed. She remembered one time her commanding officer, who was unimpressed with her recent actions, had locked her in Talon's industrial freezer for six hours. She couldn't die from the cold, but it was bad enough she had to see Moria about her eyes which had frozen. When she had climbed out of the freezer, the worst thing was that the three guards had raped her. Unable to see or move, the guards did whatever they wanted while Widowmaker couldn't even whisper, because her vocal chords were frozen. They abused her. If it hadn't have been for her memory wipe, and psychological reconditioning, she most likely would've committed suicide.
She woke with a start, at 2:00 like normally. She quickly got up, got dressed, and headed out to see what she could do today. She walked around helping her get a feel for the base's layout, eventually learning where everything was. By then, it was about time to head for breakfast. As she was strolling across the cafeteria floor, she was stopped by McCree. He shoved her against a wall and held her there as he asked, "Why are you here? So you can kill all of us in our sleep like your husband?"
"You don't want to do this McCree," she said fearing for his safety more than her own.
He pressed closer asking, "Oh and why isn't that sweetheart, afraid you're going to blow your cover?"
"Please Mecree, don't do this," fear apparent in her voice.
He pressed even closer triggering Widow's survival instincts, and McCree was interrupted when she punched him in the gut. She followed that be kicking McCree in the groin, before jumping and wrapping him in a leg choke, taking him to the ground. Everyone watched, stunned, as Widow choked McCree before Jack yelled across the cafeteria, "Widow!"
She dropped McCree before pressing against the wall like she wanted to meld to it. Everyone was watching the gasping and sputtering McCree as he got up, but when they looked up, she was gone.
She ran back to her room as quickly as possible, and, once there, shut the door and sat behind it, cradling her head as her mind raced through more of her memories, bring tears to her eyes. Soon after, she heard a knock and someone quietly ask, "Widow?"
It was Mercy. Once Widow let her in she sat on her bed, while Mercy walked over and sat beside her, before asking, "That was just McCree not trusting you, you know that, right?"
"No," Widow responded, "he has a right to believe that. If I was in any of your shoes, I would've believed what he was saying."
"I think if you really wanted to hurt any of us, you would've done it by now."
"Maybe."
"Anyways, do you want me to bring you a tray? You should eat."
"I'm good, I'm not hungry anyways." Widow lied.
"Okay then, but you should really try to do something today." Mercy said before leaving.
It took some time, but Widow knew what she would go do. He walked down to the armory, and checked out her Widow's Kiss, before heading to their indoors shooting range. Inside, someone had left their handgun on the shooting rest, so she picked it up examining it realizing its age, she thought about turning it in, but decided against it after remembering Mercy's and Soldier 76's conversation over the phone. She instead decided to keep the handgun, and knowing its age, knew no one would know it's missing.
She then walked into the range booth and aimed down its sights, feeling every inch of the rife knowing it was made for her. The custom grips, highly specialized scope, and high definition thermal visor, all made to precise specs that perfectly fit her style. She aimed down the sights, pulled the trigger, and bam! She sent the target spinning, before shooting it again. With every hot she shot away her self-hate, self-pity, and grief from the death of her husband. But it still remained, like a blight, hiding but still there.
Three days later, Widow's condition only worsened, as she had become a recluse within the base. Hardly showing up for meals, hardly speaking to even Mercy, and never attending any of the team's activities, such as movie nights, meetings, or parties. The reason for her a-social activities was due to how everyone else looked at her. Everyone looked at her with either contempt, only fueling her self-hatred, or with pity, fueling her self-pity which in turn made her hate herself even more, which then made her pity herself for hating herself. It was a never ending cycle, which she knew would never end. That day, during lunch, Mercy visited Widow, and was shocked by how much Widow was talking.
Mercy entered, "Hey, I brought lunch."
"Merci. Do you think they'll ever stop looking at me…" as Widow trailed off.
"Differently? Not exactly, they'll never look at you like they do, say, Tracer, because you're not her." Mercy responded.
"Non, I mean with pity or contempt."
"Well, to do that, you would have to earn their trust, most likely through fighting alongside them, but tha-" Mercy said as she sat on the bed before being interrupted.
"That would require for me to pass your psychological tests, which I already failed."
"But that can be rewritten, retested, and redone. Where's the last tray?" Mercy said trying to switch the topic.
"Over there I believe," Widow said pointing to the far side of the room.
While Mercy was searching for the tray, Widow asked, "Do you think I feel?"
"If you mean emotions, yes. I do think you're capable of feeling all of the emotions that make us human."
"Do you think the others do?"
"Most, yes, but there are some, such as McCree, Rinehart, and a few others who don't believe so."
"Oui, I guess so, but do you think they'll ever…stop hating me?"
"What do you mean, hating you? I don't think some of them do, like Rinehart, but most of them would come around with time."
"I suppose so." The conversation paused before Widow started, "Mercy?"
"Yes?"
"Thank you." Widow said, before Mercy turned as she heard a click, just in time to see Widow raise the gun to her head, and, as Mercy dove for the gun, a single shot rang out.
All of the Overwatch agents came running as they heard the crack of a gunshot. They found Mercy stumbling out of Widow's room, covered in blood, bits of bone, and spinal fluid. Everyone was silent, before Mercy said in barely a whisper, "single gunshot wound, right temple, suicide, recovery: impossible." Jack quickly wrapped his arm around her shoulder and led her away.
Everyone except Jack and Mercy crowded around the door to see inside. There were mixed emotions and reactions from everyone. turned around and vomited whatever food she had in her stomach, while Rinehart shook his head while slowly walking away. McCree held his hat over his chest with a solemn look on his face. Most faces had looks of horror and disgust, with a few exceptions. The room was nothing like it had been. While still clean, the sheets and most of the bed were covered in blood, along with the right-hand wall. There was a small hole in the wall, along with most furniture and other objects being splattered in blood or spinal fluid. After the crowd had mostly dispersed, there was one remaining: Genji. Sitting cross legged, his hands rested on his sword, balanced on the ground he meditated.
Sombra gasp as she read the file, before sending it to Mercy, as quickly as possible. She skipped over the new message she had gotten, missing the title, My Condolences. She knew it would be crucial to Widowmaker's programing breaking down. When Mercy got the email, it was titled: READ THIS NOW.
She opened the file before gasping out loud, before nearly crying. The file read:
Program BLACK SPIDER has found an anomaly within testing parameters. The only subject Amélie [REDACTED] had been broken and personality sniper X52 had been implemented at current time. Psychological breakdown occurred when sniper X52 started merging with Amélie [REDACTED] and caused depression, mood swings, suicidal tendencies, and resentment to further testing. Talon Psychologist Lt. Moria [REDACTED] explained this condition as 'dead fragments of Amélie [REDACTED] merging with sniper X52 causing a new personality to form.' Talon Psychologists resolved problem on [REDACTED] at a time stamp of [REDACTED], by suppressing Amélie [REDACTED] personality by removing previous memories. This made sniper X52 the dominant personality. It was also found that suppressing emotions stopped the possibility of lapses reoccurrences, and therefore both memories and emotions have been suppressed.
DATE [REDACTED]
AUTHOR [REDACTED]
This made everything more clear to Mercy. She quickly called up Jack, and explained the situation to him. The first question he asked was,
"How do you know this?"
Typical, Angela thought before answering, "Sombra sent a classified file detailing the problems they faced when creating Widowmaker."
"YOU'RE IN CONTACT WITH SOMBRA?!" he roared through the phone.
"No. This is the only time she has made any direct contact with myself."
"It better be." He growled before hanging up. Bastard, Mercy thought, as she submitted her final report to the Overwatch data base, describing how Widowmaker's personalities and the fragments of Amélie had merged and led to her suicide.