Her breathing had become ragged, shortened in shaky breaths as if it pained her, her eyes squeezed shut as she tried to stave off the impending onslaught of Talon's poison. Angela was on her knees, nails carving half moons into the palm of her hands as she struggled to keep the haze at bay, a thin sheen of sweat moistening her hair to her face. Pharah had gone off in search of Soldier 76, the man not answering to her calls on the communications device. And despite the crazed, animalistic glares she was getting from the medic, she knew it would be better to do as was asked.

Mercy didn't want to feel this way, as if fire were coursing through her veins, only to be followed by rivets of icy cold that caused her body to shiver; spasms of pain wracked her body as nausea swept through her, teasing and hinting at a violent expulsion. Tears formed in the corner of her tightly closed eyes, not wanting anyone to see the purple hue that that inched its way back into her irises. This was not who she was, this was not who she wanted to be, and the only person who could help her, the only person who knew who she really was, was Jack. She needed Jack. Where was that damned soldier?

Seeing only red and fueled by rage, 76 had gone off in search of Reaper. He could hear the commands from Pharah in his ear piece, but he ignored them, running hard to the other side of the temple where the wraith had disappeared. This was the last time that monster would hurt Angela.

"76, come in! For god's sake, it's Mercy! She needs you," Pharah yelled at him through the comm once more, making the man stop in his tracks. Just on the other side of the stairs in a small alcove, he could see Reaper watching him, shoulders squared and head angled down as if taunting him. Behind him, he could hear the woman's jets as she hovered on the other side of the room. "I'll finish him. Justice will be swift. Go!"

Reaper's shoulders moved as if he were chuckling, raising a hand towards the soldier and beckoning him forward, completely ignoring Pharah. "Come on, boy scout, avenge your love," he called to him with a wicked laugh.

Suddenly, a rocket from above hit just inside the alcove, Reaper's cries of pain reaching 76's ears as he looked up to see Pharah getting closer. "I said move it, Soldier!" she yelled, chasing after Reaper down the corridor.

76 growled and shook his head, heading back to Mercy and putting his revenge on hold.

Meanwhile, Angela had managed to pull herself up into a sitting position, leaning against the wall with her head tilted back and gasping for air. This was worse than last time, the poison trying to be expelled by the healing in her suit only amplified the pain as it fought against her. What a vicious and twisted toxin this was.

"Ah, Dr. Ziegler, we meet again," came a voice from the hall next to the woman, a red haired woman stepping into view.

"Moira," Angela huffed out, panic seeping into her core. She shook her head and craned her head. "Stay away from me."

The Irish woman clucked her tongue as she kneeled down in front of the other, raising a slender brow and tilting her head. "Is that any way to greet an old friend?" she asked, an amused grin on her face.

"You are no friend of mine," came the quick retort as Mercy tried to shuffle away from her.

But Moira was quick to snatch her chin in her hand, her long claw-like fingernails digging into the pale flesh. "So quick to begrudge," she chided, twisting her wrist so that their eyes were forced to meet. "How do you like my concoction? Intoxicating, isn't it?" She lifted her right hand to show the purple haze that engulfed it, a small orb forming in her palm as she brought it closer to Mercy's face.

"No, please…" the blonde whined, trying to pull away but the grip on her chin was too strong against her weakened state.

"Ah, you remember," she said, the grin turning into something wicked and cruel. As the ball in her hand grew bigger, a tendril reached out to the blonde and began to pull at her essence, a white mist coming from her body. "Tell me how this feels. Be specific, doctor."

Angela could feel the rest of her strength leave her body, her energy being siphoned and her will to live dwindled. Cold began to wrack her body as exhaustion swept through her. Perhaps it is better this way, she thought, eyes closing as she waited for the cold embrace of death. But it never came, the pull ceased and Moira had disappeared. Blue eyes opened to see she was alone, heavy boots running towards her finally reached her ears and she looked up to see Soldier 76 rounding the corner to look down at her.

"You look like shit," he said, kneeling down to rest his rifle against the wall beside her and pull his healing contraption from his belt.

"Moira…" she whispered, furrowing her brow as she struggled to point out the evil doctor.

"What?" he inquired, just as a tendril attached to his back. He fell forward onto his hands, grunting hard as it pulled his strength from him.

"Your body decays. Your strength ebbs. And when there is nothing left, your power will be mine," Moira said, coming from behind the corner as she approached the weakened duo. When the man was drained to her satisfaction, she pulled forth the purple orb once more and readied to cast it towards them.

"Fire in the hole!"

The redhead looked up from the Overwatch members towards the hall, to see the contraption of an explosive tire heading towards them. She grinned and took a step away from them, the orb disappearing as she closed her hand. "It seems our time together has come to a close. Thank you for your contributions," she said, her face paling as the rip-tire continued its mad trek towards her. "No! What are you doing, imbecile?" Moira disappeared, making a dash towards the other side of the temple but still the tire followed her until she was backed into a corner. The explosion that followed left nothing behind.

Soldier 76 pushed himself up onto his knees, holding the nearby wall for support as he pulled out his biotic field and slammed it on the ground. He could feel its healing begin to work immediately, engulfing him and the doctor to undo Moira's damage. "Angela, talk to me," he said, shuffling closer to her and resting a hand on her shoulder.

The blonde looked up at him and raised a weary hand to his face, resting it on his mask as she gave him a tired smile. "Thank you," she said, feeling life bloom back into her body.

He let out a relieved sigh, leaning into her touch as he nodded. "Never leave a teammate behind," he replied.

Her smile faded as she looked down to her other hand, the half-full syringe resting in her palm. "I'm sorry," she said, lunging at the other side of his neck and holding him steady with her hand. The needle punctured his skin as he threw himself forward, pushing Mercy back against the stone and knocking the syringe from her hand and out of his neck. "No, I must...complete the mission!"

76 said nothing, keeping her wrists pinned by her head and her hips down by his own. If he wanted to cure her, they just had to ride it out.

"Oi, sorry 'bout the mess you two, I uh...what's goin' on here?" came Junkrat's amused voice by the door, Roadhog behind him breathing heavily. "Oh, I see! Ya think you can have some alone time while the gang's out fightin' for a cause. Nice one!"

The soldier shook his head and grunted, not moving from the pinned woman beneath him. "You two all right?" he asked, keeping his gaze down on the flushed and flustered blonde.

"Fit as a fiddle! Let's get a move on, we don't have all day," Junkrat said, hobbling past them as his peg leg clicked on the stone. Roadhog followed, not giving them another look.

"Soldier 76, come in," came Winston's voice from the comm device in their ears.

The older man raised Angela's hand to his ear, hovering by the device. "Press it," he ordered, and she did as she was told. "Here."

"Did you get to Mercy?"

"Yes," he said, lowering her wrist gently back down to the ground once the device had an open connection.

A relieved breath came through before the scientist spoke again, "That's great! Talon has fled, we're heading to you."

Jack sat up on his knees, pulling Angela with him but not releasing her wrists. "Don't make me cuff you, Angela," he said, finally letting go of one wrist to reach past her for the syringe. He held it up for them to see, the creases in his forehead showing his disapproval. "We get back, we're going to find a cure and get you out of this mess. No more bullshit, Ange. Let's go." He stood and pulled her with him, clasping her wrist tight as he pocketed the toxin and dragged her towards the entrance. So far, the mission was a success.

It wasn't until they had reached headquarters that he started to feel the impact of the toxin, battling against his regenerative powers. There shouldn't have been enough injected to cause this much pain, but he began to sweat profusely, tearing off his leather jacket and flinging it to the floor. Jack began to pace, throwing his visor onto the bed as he tried to focus, steele himself against the pain that began to wrack his body. He understood a little now about what Mercy was going through, but hers was perhaps ten-fold as she had now been injected with an entire syringe. One and a half really…

As he paced, his mind was assaulted with visions of his past, but with no one to guide the hate and fear, it grew wild and rampant. Memories of fights, battles, bloodshed, war. Love found, love lost. Angela. Gabriel. Death. Standing over his own headstone and remembering the eerie sensation wash over him as he read his name on that stone slab, Commander. No heartfelt sentiment followed, no praise of his glory in life, simple and direct.

A flash of Angela, so young, by his hospital bed with Gabriel behind her, watching with hungry eyes as she moved past him. Jack wasn't supposed to be awake then, but he had begun to regain consciousness.

"How's he doing, Doc?" Gabriel asked, turning away from the wounded soldier to watch her remove her lab coat and drape it over a chair.

She sighed in reply, hands gripping her coat before looking up past the Blackwatch Commander to her patient lying comatose. "He will be okay," came her response, unclenching her jacket long enough to pick up a clipboard and write before setting it on her desk.

"Will you?"

She finally brought her blue eyes up to the man who addressed her, biting her lip to ward off the coming tears. It was so hard to see Jack like this, to have seen him covered in blood and to pull out six bullets from his body herself, stitch him up and wrap him in gauze. Up until now, she hadn't shed a single tear, hadn't uttered a single word of remorse or regret, not even a sniffle, and it felt like she was going to explode. "I don't know," she replied, gripping her hands together tight in front of her, her voice wavering from strain.

It took three steps for Gabriel to close the distance between them, pulling her into a hug and putting a hand upon her head to rest it against his shoulder. Still, she didn't cry, but he comforted her anyways, placing a gentle kiss upon the crown of her head. "You will be, I've got you," he said, looking over his shoulder at the sleeping Overwatch Commander. One way or another, he would finally have her all to himself.

Soldier 76 growled hard in frustration, looking up to see he had planted his fist in the wall, a huge indentation around his hand. There was no pain as he watched the few dribbles of blood fall from his hand to the floor, no pain except when he thought of her. Was this what she experienced when they first came across each other? That horrendous scream she emitted when she escaped into the bathroom, clutching her head and curling up on the floor? She was thinking of him. Angela was remembering Jack, but it hurt her so much that she tried to push it from her mind, tried to forget because it was too painful.

Pushing off the wall, he stomped to his visor and put it on before leaving his room, a destination clearly in mind as he walked the halls. No one was around, all having retired to their own quarters for rest after the mission. They would say it was a success, but 76 saw it as otherwise, as now Mercy was more messed up than before. And having a glimpse into what she was experiencing, he had to make sure she was okay.

His feet brought him to her door, hand hovering over the keypad to get in when he stilled, ears perking at the sound on the other side. Crying. Not heavy sobbing, but weak and pitiful like she was trying to hide. Heart breaking at the sound and a slight twinge in his head, he pressed the numbers on the pad to open the door to a dark and destroyed room. The bed had been ripped apart, the only lamp had been flung against a wall and the nightstand was on the clothes littered floor, the desk on the other end had been toppled with papers strewn around it. She had completely demolished her room. Why? "Angela?" he called to her, stepping in just as the door closed and locked behind them.

Sniffles in the far corner told him where she was, so he removed his visor to toss it to the ground, making his way to that corner as his eyes adjusted. There she was, huddled between the walls with her head in her hands, and trying to soothe her tears by rocking gently. She looked up at the sound of his voice, the threat of harder sobbing becoming apparent by the choked sound she made and turned away from him. "Get out," she whispered, biting her bottom lip.

He said nothing and stood before her, debating on how to address this situation. A part of him wanted to grab her and shake some sense into that blonde head of hers, but the other part wanted to kneel down and hold her, tell her everything would be okay. But he didn't know if that was the truth, and he didn't want to lie to her. So he opted for plan C; bending his knees to balance on the balls of his feet, he grabbed her shoulder and turned her towards him, the pain from the toxin now a dull tingle in the back of his head. His regenerative powers were working against it to filter it out, and he'd be good as new in no time.

She snarled at him like a caged beast, pulling roughly from his grasp to lean as far as she could into the wall, just trying to get away from him. "I don't want to hurt you," she said through clenched teeth, hugging her knees tighter to her chest and gripping her arms tight to keep them from lashing out at him.

Jack snorted with mild amusement, grabbing her wrists and pulling towards him as he sat back, forcing her to re-position to her knees so they could finally look at each other. His plan was now in motion, the plan to get his Angela back, and Genji be damned. Torture didn't work, throwing her back into battle didn't work, he had only one option left. Moving slowly so as not to startle her, he leaned forward and stopped mere inches from her lips, looking down at them before flicking back up to her eyes. She was scared. Letting go of one wrist, he rested his hand upon her cheek and used his thumb to wipe away the tear stains, keeping his eyes on hers should she try to attack or, at the very least, break through Talon's hold.

Angela's bottom lip quivered at his touch, holding back the tears at his action, her free hand gripping his knee to keep herself from attacking. It was a tender moment, one she hadn't had in so long, when a memory flashed in her mind.

She pulled away from Gabriel's embrace, smiling up at him weakly before glancing over at the unconscious Overwatch Commander in the hospital bed. Six bullets she had pulled out, six wounds she had sutured, and more had she covered with gauze. He was a real mess. "Thank you," she said quietly, looking back up to the man who still rested his arms on her shoulders. "You may leave now. I have other patients to tend to."

Gabriel nodded and removed his arms, not moving from his spot in front of her. She could tell there was something on his mind, but he said nothing, instead nodding once more and leaving. Angela let out a heavy sigh before walking over to the monitor next to her lover's bed, ensuring everything was in place before intending to leave. Suddenly, she gasped as a hand clasped her wrist. Looking down, she saw it was Jack's, and a wave of relief washed over her. Tears began to brim in her blue eyes as she waited for him to open his, but they didn't. "Jack?" she called out softly, leaning forward to press a kiss to his forehead, closing her eyes in the process. "Please wake up."

The grip on her wrist tightened, and his other hand was in her hair, pulling her down to his lips in a chaste and possessive kiss. It was only a second before she realized something was wrong, those weren't Jack's lips. Pulling hard, Angela managed to free herself from his grasp to look down and see Gabriel. Or whatever was left of him. "You can't escape me, carino," he hissed, his voice deep and guttural. Flakes of his skin were peeling off as she looked at him, sunken cheeks lead to dead, red eyes, and his lips curled into a fanged grin.

"No!"

"No! Leave me alone!" she screamed, pulling away from him and hurling herself into the corner. Angela hadn't managed to reach the wall before a pair of strong arms encircled her, pressing her head to a broad chest and a hand was running through her hair. She couldn't hear the words being whispered to her for a high pitched whine began to rupture inside her head. Tears forced their way out of her ducts as she clutched his shirt like a lifeline, sobbing against the pain that continued to radiate within her. "Just leave me alone!"