7 years ago...
Reyes took a deep breath. Everything was under control. Everything was fine.
He was aboard a drop ship headed for Boston, his squad ready to deploy to the ground. Some kind of uprising from a group call themselves the Order had just gone down. Reyes knew the score. Typical punks with guns looking to make a lot of noise now that the crisis was over. Probably some of the damn tin cans leading it.
Reyes looked down at his bracers. They were newly designed off of some kind of teleportation device. They teleported bullets into his gun rather than reloading. They also made it impossible for him to ever really lose his guns. Every time he dropped them they reappeared in his hands. It was useful, especially for someone like Reyes, who wasn't patient enough to reload his weapons that often in fire fights.
Reyes looked up to see his squad. A good bunch of men. Soldiers. They knew what it took to get the job done, no matter what it took, an ideology that had caused a falling out between him and Morrison. Morrison. God if he could just see the possible disaster his "leave no man behind" approach could cause.
Reyes' focus broke as the drop ship took a sudden turn.
"What the hell was that?" Reyes roared as he got up from his seat, storming to the pilot's cabin.
"Distress signal towards the center of the fire fight, sir. We're moving in to respond."
"Was that part of the mission, pilot!" Reyes towered over the man piloting the ship.
"N- n- no sir," the pilot studdered.
"Everyone needs help whenever there's a situation like this. We have our job, they'll just have to theirs."
Reyes knew he sounded cold, but he had a mission, and the sooner he succeeded the less lives that would be lost.
"S- sir?"
"What?"
"The distress signal, it captain Amari."
Reyes froze. Ana? What the hell was Ana doing here?
Reyes switched his communicator to the channel of Ana's signal.
"Ana? What's wrong? Ana?"
Jets soared by next to the ship shaking the entirety of its passengers, knocking Reyes' communicator out of reach. He frantically grabbed it, off the floor of the transport only to hear the frantic words of his close friend.
"Oh my god, Jack the transport it's carrying-"
A massive wave of force from an explosion hit Reyes' ship. He sprang to the window to see Ana's last location. A massive explosion at its core.
He rammed his fist against the glass. Rage, grief, and regret filled him all at once as Gabriel Reyes watched one of the few people he cared about die.
"Ana!"
Present Day...
Gabriel Reyes stood at his locker, staring at an old photograph. His face, accompanied by the closest thing to a family stared. The trio of Ana, Jack, and Gabriel at the beginning of Overwatch. Before everything changed. Before Reyes lost another piece of what was left of his soul. He placed the photo back in his locker. Taking out his bracers. Morrison would be here soon. After all Morrison and him understood each other now.
The mission saves lives. And the only way to save the most lives is to finish the mission, as soon as possible.
Jack entered the room. He looked tired. Gabriel examined the wrinkles on his ageing face, and turned to the mirror in his locker. The same signs of age could be seen in him. They were getting older. They had joined Overwatch to make the world a better place, but each passing day the world made it more and more apparent it didn't want that.
"You been briefed?" Reyes asked, turning to Jack, who was staring into his locker.
Jack grabbed his pulse rifle and tactical visor from the locker.
"Yeah. First time a Shimada has been spotted in years," Jack grumbled as he closed his locker. "Funny. Thought the younger one was supposed to be in hiding after what they did to his brother."
"We'll ask him ourselves why he came back I suppose," commented Reyes as he activated his bracers, causing his shot guns to appear in his hands.
Jack jumped. "Seventeen years soldiering, and the only thing to ever make me jump are those damn guns!"
Reyes smiled. He's lost so much. And yet he still had a few friends left in this world.
"Let's go catch ourselves a Shimada."