Hi ho everyone! Welcome to another installment of my Mercy library, this time featuring: Soldier 76! I've used him quite a few times before, but never in a "guest star" role, and though I once thought he was a pretty cheap character in game (and let's face it, he is pretty good at almost everything), I grew to like him, mostly through his story, the things we know, and the things we still don't, or assume.

Anyways, with the Valentine's event debuting in the PTR very recently, it calls into question the canon-ness of this entry, but whatever, I like it well enough. So, I hope you enjoy, and that your games are good, and lag free, and altogether, as fun as always. Until next time, thanks very much for giving this a read, and be sure to let me have a review so I know what to attend to next time! :D

Never since the end of the Omnic Crisis had Mercy ever felt so close to death. The young, bleeding man beside her didn't need to know that though.

"Hang on," She told him, doing everything to keep herself upright in the back of the vehicle while stopping the bleeding.

"It's going to get worse!" Jack Morrison warned from the driver's seat, racing the flier down a hill as the Talon agents shot at them in waves from behind.

"Do we have an update on ETA?" Ana barked over the comm.

"Less than two!" Jack replied in as much a bark.

The Cairo lanes were rampant with high speed traffic, but much of it scattered away from the gunfire. The shining cube that was the Quad Pyramid Defense Structure was aflame, and would fall any minute. When it did, half the city and all the outlying area would be condemned to disaster, if not certain death.

It was a tragedy that was unavoidable, but it could be made up for if Ana managed to get what they came for.

The Overwatch Flier Model 4.2.1 lit up in smoke and nearly tailspun over the Cairo lanes and into the giant sinkholes that had developed over the years of Omnic activity in the city outskirts. They'd been hit, but Jack would push it farther than any engineer or tester would ever allow or dare themselves. What other choice did they really have?

"It hurts…" The young man bleeding beside her moaned, more focused on his personal battle than the communal one.

"I know, it will continue for a while, we're on our way out and the carrier is running an intercept route. I'll have you good as new in less than ten minutes," She promised.

The glistening cube drew closer, and the barrage of fire coming at and from it exploded around them, the Flier spinning once more around and fighting for chaos against Jack's control.

"Damnit!" Jack cursed, "turret is out of ammo."

The sound of continuously pumping fire on the back exterior had indeed stopped, and now it seemed the fire directed at them was coming in faster than before.

"Doctor...it stopped….I can't feel my chest anymore…"

"Sshhh," She consoled, knowing that ten minutes might not be enough anymore.

"Ana! Jump, now!" Jack ordered.

Ana Amari was many things, fearless was one nobody could doubt. A small figure staving off the fire of many others near the top of the flaming cube ceased resistance and ran full sprint towards the edge. It would be close, and the landing would have to be perfect, but it was doable.

She knew once the Egyptian and the objective were inside the vehicle things were only bound to get more hectic. Sure enough, she observed out of the corner of her eye while grabbing another tool from the kit beside her, some of the Talon agents had followed her into a free fall.

"Five...four…" Jack counted down, strafing the vehicle as concentrated fire zoned them towards the middle lane.

"I need you to look at me," Mercy told the soldier, distracting him from the very painful trick she was pulling with his innards, which he would not observe if she did not let him, "recite your records for me."

"Nnn...why?" He asked.

"Doctor's orders."

He closed his eyes and read off his statistics, and Jack's count reached one. The next thing she knew Jack had activated the vertical boost Torbjorn had completed not a month ago, and the vehicle shot upwards to catch their falling comrade. The field that activated with the boost did a lot to take away from the impact of stopping, but it still felt and sounded painful when Ana landed, one Talon agent's hand gripping her shoulder.

"Take a nap, first one is on me!" She told the Talon operative, sticking a dart in his arm, which instantly made him let go and spin out of the vehicle's range.

"Did you get it?" Jack asked immediately.

"Of course," Ana replied, snatching the pistol from his belt and leaning out to give them some relief.

"Hold on, this is going to get worse before it gets better!" He told them, aiming the Flier into a dive bomb as they gained momentum in the fall. Despite the deathly circumstances, everything seemed like it would end well enough, but as they entered the last seconds of their hasty descent, the terrible cracking and shuddering sounds were heard.

The Cube was coming down, on top of them.

The pyramidic pieces that comprised it tumbled together in the direction they were racing, but as the first of them hit the sand, the other three broke apart. The other pieces were flying overhead and the explosions continued to burst all around as well. Close to death they may have been, but if you asked her, Mercy might have said they were closer to hell.

They leveled out just above the speedway, the back smashing into the ground with another great plume of smoke and the sound of straining metal. With the damages they'd received, the Talon operatives were closing in, and Ana's defenses weren't enough.

The safest road was not the one further away from the collapsing super building, but the one under it.

"If it comes down to it, I want all three of you to bail out. Keep the objective close, Ana, and watch your backs."

"We won't abandon you," Mercy defied.

"You will if I give the order."

There seemed to be some regret in that, but it was not the time or place to start digging. Another blast ruptured on their flank and the back of the Flier began to tear away with a horrible screeching wail. Just as the Talon vehicles began to open fire, Jack steered them under a large piece of the falling structure.

"This is Carrier 113-B to Strike Commander Morrison, we are in view of the objective site, it's falling apart, over."

"We're aware," Ana answered now that her sight of the enemy had been temporarily cut. Jack was swerving between chunks of debris and smoldering ruin, any wrong turn could end all their lives.

"Then we'll be in extraction range at the objective perimeter."

"Negative, hover over the ruins, towards the end of the wreckage, we'll find you."

"Affirmative Captain Amari, Carrier 113-B out."

Suddenly they shot out into sunlight again, the carrier was far in the distance, almost above the final pyramid segment, which was collapsing into pieces several kilometers away. Still no sign of the Talon agents...yet.

"Doctor…" The young man spoke after a long silence between them, "Am I going to die today?"

"Heroes never die," She told him, as she had found herself saying to many young men and women over her career with Overwatch. Some of the time it was a nice way to mask the grim truth of the situation, but it was always an honor. In this case, it was too close to say if it was one of both.

"Heh...so that's a yes?"

"Keep silent and pray. Pray for yourself and for the rest of us, and an end to this bloody conflict," She told him.

They were back under debris, she realized, within the fiery corpse of the once proud symbol of human achievement, which had been repurposed as a source of Talon intelligence movement and gathering in the previous year. Despite the intensity of it, Jack was doing remarkably well, his reflexes second to none.

Soon they came upon a wall of solid debris, and a sharp turn to the left was made, and as they raced towards the edge of the marred roadway, the Talon operatives regained sight of them. They were hit a third time as Jack pushed them beyond the solid wall and Ana blasted the wreckage above it so that it became partially blocked off, destroying the vehicle closest to them.

Now, however, the back of the Flier was afire, and Mercy moved the young soldier closer to the front. Ana moved towards the back to help extinguish, or at least contain, the flames. It was a partial success, and with some tinkering they established a minimal safety barrier, making a spray which would deter the flames if they got too close.

But their problems were far from over, for as they felt the sun upon them again, Talon re-emerged, this time in the air. The enemy aircraft wasted no time in activating targeting missiles.

"Evacuation time, now!" Jack commanded.

The Overwatch carrier was also being engaged, but seemed to have seen them as it soared downwards and extended lines as it fought back against the Talon pair above it.

As the first of the missiles fired, Jack cursed again and did a sharp u-turn, evading the missile blast by inches. As they skidded towards the edge of the roadways, where the sinkholes were deep and wide, he repeated his orders.

"Help me get him up," Ana told Mercy, hoisting the injured man onto her shoulder and shooting a magnetic grapnel up to reach the line from the carrier; they snapped together with a firm clank, and the Captain and the Corporeal were lifted to safety.

As Mercy prepared her own line another missile struck, and the Flier rolled, each time it hit the road she hurt more and more. First a gash on the forehead, then a cut along the back of her leg, then a crushing force against her chest, and so it went until they spilled off the road entirely. Thankfully, they landed on a sinking wall or ceiling that was slowly being buried in the desert tombs of Cairo's outskirts.

How long they lay on the massive, charred segment she couldn't say, but when she crawled out from under the overturned Flier, Jack was kneeling against it, coughing and bleeding from a wound across his face. Her leg must've been broken, but she made her way to him quick enough. This one was going to be a scar, no doubt about it. A mere inch in either direction and he would've lost an eye.

"Don't speak, save your breath and energy," She advised amid forced breaths of her own.

The tired look he gave her said he was in no mood to talk just yet. The Caduceus staff unfolded from her side and beamed him in golden rays of autonomous, instant healing. Neither spoke, as the gunshots and weapons fire above them was forgotten, and they sank into the unknown dark.

After a moment, he was able to stand, and she turned the beams on herself, feeling the cuts close, the bruises heal, and the straining fatigue leave her, and it was glorious. They would both need some time in their beds to let time do what no medicine could, but they would be able to get out of another scrap if needed.

That said...they were still sinking, still falling so slowly but so deeply, that Mercy could no longer see the sun shining above them, only the only the slow decrescendo of their platform. He attempted to contact their allies over the comm, but it was down, either by lack of close range or abuse suffered in the crash.

She sat with her bad leg to the side, holding it tightly and gently massaging it as she gazed into the fine lined scar across his face, darkened by dried blood. He didn't say anything, only sat with his dusty and bloodied blonde hair over his eyes.

"What now?" She asked him, feeling the cold of the endless sand choking the light and life from them by the second.

"We wait, and hope someone finds us."

"I was afraid that was our only option."

"We can talk…"

All things considered, that was actually a fine idea.

"Yes. Let's."

"Tell me something…when did I stop being Jack Morrison?"

"What?"

"I'm different. This world, this war...it's changed me. I used to be the 'moral center', the voice of hope and reason and conscience...and now I'm just some damn hardass with a mission to keep me busy."

"What makes you say that?"

"Just look at me. The things I've done the past couple years, the people I've killed….the secrets I've kept, or thrown to Reyes. The way I push everyone so hard, like I have a right to. There's being a Commander, and then there's being what I am…"

"You do it for good, and for peace. You're a hero, that's what heroes do. They do terrible things for the sake of a world that doesn't need them."

He looked to her solemnly, "I don't think I like being a hero very much."

"It's a hard job."

"It is."

"Well, I think that just by feeling this way, you've proven you're still our moral center. Our symbol is one of hope, and we all hope for the same thing. You're no different than any of us, you just have to worry about keeping us all in line and on point."

"But even for heroes...there has to be a life beyond the job. It never ends, I can accept that, but why can't I let it go...just for a little while?"

"Well…"

"And what happens if it all falls apart? What if it does end, and I can't let it go? What happens to me if I can't be Strike Commander or Jack Morrison?"

There was a true horror in his eyes, like he was predicting his own death. He grabbed her hand, and she returned the favor by grasping his. She began to speak more than once, but was shushed into quiet by the lack of any real answers for his questions.

"You say heroes never die…" He said, voice just barely cracking, "but that's just being a good doctor. I see the reports, of all the heroes who die in Overwatch. What happens to me when I die, as a hero, and a person?"

"Jack...I…"

She hugged him tightly, and he returned it hesitantly, and there they sat, alone, in the dark, as the world they knew and loved and fought for disappeared above them. At the end of it all, she had no answers for these questions. She was qualified to be a psychiatrist if needed, but she wasn't a soul searcher; she didn't have answers only Jack Morrison could see. So she did what she knew how to do: She comforted him, and promised him it would be okay in the end, even though they were in the end, and everything had fallen apart.

"Can I ask you something, Jack?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you think I'm a hero?"

The piece of wreckage they'd found refuge on began on to sink faster, and they were fighting gravity twice as hard as before to stay upright.

"I hope to hell not...I wouldn't wish being a hero on anyone. Not Reyes, not Amari, not Wilhem, not you….good God, not you."

"What am I?"

"You're an angel. First and foremost."

"That's a lot to live up to."

The wreckage was racing in a downwards spiral now, and they were gripping onto it and each other tightly just to stay out of the giant pit of death called the desert.

"Yeah...I guess that's why I knew I could ask you. Being a hero can't be any easier than being an angel."

"Maybe we'll die today...and maybe we'll be called heroes, or angels, or anything else….but maybe we can call each other something else entirely….."

"I...I'd like that…."

The debris around them was falling off the sand and spiraling straight to the bottom of the pit, sucked into sure death, and they would soon follow it. It was truly the end of all things, like neither had known before.

"I love you."

Mercy wasn't sure if she said that, or he did. Maybe they both did. It was uttered so quietly that it may not have happened at all, but she cried as she mulled over those words. It was good to know that even if you were an angel, or a hero, at the end of your life, you could find refuge away from that in being a lover. She'd never wanted to be an angel...even as a girl...she wanted love.

"GOTCHA!"

Winston's great ape arms reached out from above the hellish pit they were using to enter eternity, and his large hands grabbed them from the overturning wreckage, and he pulled them up from death and from questions about heroism and angelics, and from love.

"Up! Pull us up!" Winston called through the comms, and the wire attached to his leg reeled them in with shocking speed.

Before she knew it, they were practically out of the world's largest sinkhole, and in Overwatch Carrier 113-B. Her legs turned to jelly as she touched the firmness of the aircraft, and she fell to her knees, crying all over again.

Jack Morrison kept one hand on the railing, the other over his face.

"We made it!" Winston cheered with a smile, "Heh heh, what a relief!"

"Nice to have you back, sir," Ana saluted.

"...Good to be back," He mirrored.

The rest of the trip was quiet, and altogether very quick, she must've dozed off three or four times. Almost in the blinking of an eye, she was sitting in her chair, at her desk, safe inside her office once more. It felt good.

There was only one patient that evening, Strike Commander Morrison.

She cleaned out his new scar and gave him a couple of pills for the aftermath of their adventure. He took them then and there, and found a seat across from her desk as the moon glimmered through the windows.

"Needless to say, Reyes and his men are going to be able to make some real progress in the campaign thanks to our efforts today."

"That's good."

"Maybe. We'll see."

They shared the sentiment of yearning for sleep, and stood at the same time; there was only one order of business now. Would they be sleeping together for the first time, or alone as always?

He leaned in at once, and she followed quickly, and their kiss was short, but good, and full of everything they said and felt and wanted to say that afternoon. And then Jack Morrison smiled faintly, and headed towards the door, and Mercy smiled after him, and walked to the back room of her office, to find her cot as empty as she'd left it the night before.

As her head hit the pillow, the tears started, and she wondered if Jack Morrison would be crying himself to sleep tonight. Life was back to normal, snatched right out of death's maw in the blink of an eye. She missed what that had granted her, and now worried that what he had confessed to her might be a possibility again, without her there to save him from being the hero he was. One day, she would save Jack Morrison, before he died, literally or figuratively. One day.