"This is it," Gabriel thought to himself bitterly.
After more than half a decade spent locked away, cut off from the outside world, today's the day that Akande Ogundimu, known primarily as Doomfist and the "glorious" leader of Talon, had returned from imprisonment. The former mixed martial artist had bided his time in the maximum security facility Helix had imprisoned him in, waiting for the right time for Talon to spring him from his bondage and resume his "great crusade" in the name of evolution. The man fancied himself an extremist Darwinist and/or philanthropist, and he had rather proudly taken to the international title of "global terrorist" as much as he did a martial artist during his younger years…
And Gabriel hated him. The man constantly went on about how conflict leads to strength, and how Talon's duty was ultimately, to help the human race evolve. Gabriel didn't know how many Talon members actually bought that load of bullshit, not that he cared, but Gabriel himself knew it for what it was, bullshit. The man had lost an arm during The Omnic crisis, and been imprisoned by Overwatch but aside from that, what hardships had he gone through that made him worthy of leading Talon? Akande has never truly suffered in life; While The Almighty Doomfist was cultivating his reputation as a skilled martial artists in global competitions, Gabriel was a Marine facing down the Omnic menace during The Crisis. Where Akande had grown up surrounded by wealth, his every desire met at the whim of his parents, Gabriel had spent his childhood in the squalor of East Los Angeles' crime ridden streets, his friends, as well as his parents, swallowed up by the abyss of gang violence and drugs. The military was an escape for him, a culture built around order, strength of character and honor, admittedly, it was attractive to a young man who had spent his whole youth under the threat of his family's eviction from their small apartment and dying in a turf war between gangs. Everything Gabriel had accomplished, he fought for tooth and nail. He bled, he suffered, and in spite of all the odds being stacked against him, the nobody kid from some nowhere L.A. ghetto became one of Overwatch's top field agents, Commander of Blackwatch, and hero of The Omnic Crisis. The man, Gabriel Reyes, now reduced to a half-dead mercenary. First he had been passed over for promotion to Strike Commander, now he was forced to follow orders from a pompous kickboxer with a messiah complex.
"Always. Second. Best." Gabriel whispered to himself bitterly.
Blackwatch had been the world's premier military unit. A fighting force consisting of the best assassins, operatives and agents from around the world. Easily on par with the likes of its sister organization, Overwatch. But Blackwatch had to operate in the shadows. It dealt in operations deemed too risky to operate within the public eye. To join Blackwatch, meant getting your hands dirty in more ways than one. Not that most of its members weren't already experienced in such actions. Gabriel thought back to his two best agents, Shimada and Jesse. An unlikely pair at first glance, two modern equivalents to a samurai and an old west gunslinger respectively, but they were Gabriel's most consistently reliable agents for a time; efficient and deadly. These disposable Talon foot soldiers he's often deployed with pale in comparison to his old teammates. Part of Gabriel missed the brotherhood he had formed with the two of them, and wondered where they are now. These thoughts were quickly shut down by the memory of how both of them had abandoned Blackwatch, and when Gabriel needed them most. Unlike its sister organization, Blackwatch was sometimes forced to dabble in the very things it sought to rid the world of. It would sell arms to a rebel group to help wipe out another or to stage a coup on a government that needed to be silenced. Or assassinate politicians whose goals would hinder the efforts of Overwatch. Shimada had been deployed in his fair share of sting operations, he enjoyed them, but he was only able to take part in weapons and drug smuggling for so long before he became fed up with the organization. He suffered a crisis of conscience, something to do with his family, and left Blackwatch abruptly. Jesse was different, it was worse. The boy had been like a son to Gabriel, and he was no stranger to getting his hands dirty as a former member of The Deadlock Rebels, but as tensions began to rise between Overwatch and Blackwatch, Jesse made it clear where his allegiances lay. With no one. He left Blackwatch, not wanting to take part in the conflict and left Gabriel alone.
And alone Gabriel has remained. He checked the clock in his spartan quarters at Talon HQ, 10 minutes until the council meeting. With Doomfist's return, the Talon council had "important"matters to discuss. Gabriel donned his mask, and he was no longer Gabriel. Gabriel died in the rubble of The Swiss HQ. Only Reaper remained. He would bide his time, use Talon as a means to an end. Only when what remains of Overwatch is completely destroyed, and The Reaper's search for vengeance is satisfied, will there finally be peace in the life of the man that used to be known as Gabriel Reyes.
Until then, he would wait.