The rain continued to pour. Mercy hid the car a few blocks down in a bush and walked the rest of the way, carrying her adopted brother, Junior, on her shoulder. The rest of the trip was quiet. Junior had fallen into much-needed sleep and Mercy had her thoughts racing inside her mind. She stared blankly at their destination.
In front of them was a modest church. It had one steeple and a few stained glass windows surrounding it. To the side of the church was a small and intimate playground for little kids—though empty in this downpour. Behind the church was a small graveyard of some members of the community; Mercy’s parents were buried there.
Mercy opened the door to the church and waded in. No one had been here in a while. The pews were tossed around and faced every which way. The ground had leaves, scuff marks...and water! A hole in the middle of the roof had formed, causing the rain to invade this sacred space. A puddle formed on the ground. Yet none of it bothered Mercy. She set Junior down on one of the pews up front and sat down next to him, leaning on the pulpit. She tossed her staff and pistol beside her friend. The everlasting smile Mercy tried desperately to maintain even in the worst of situations was gone. In its place, scorn.
Her mind berated herself to the point of exhaustion. It was unceasing. Everywhere she looked while driving sent a reminder that she had done nothing to help this place. How long did she have to go back for the security footage? Weeks. Several. Weeks!
She never remembered receiving Faith’s message either. She said she was going to deliver it straight to Mercy, so why didn’t she receive it? Maybe Faith told Overwatch and it slipped by? Maybe she told Moira, who forgot to mention?
Or maybe she did tell Mercy...and she just forgot...
Too busy helping more important people, perhaps...
Mercy laid her head in her hands. She felt contempt. Contempt for herself, for Overwatch, and for her dreams of living up to her family’s name. Her father had been an amazing doctor to the people of Zurich. And what did she do? She spat at his legacy and deserted those he cared and respected for.
Her hands inched upward into her wet hair. Her fingers jumped back after feeling some unexpected cold metal. She grabbed her circlet and brought it in front of her.
The halo beamed in the rain. She twisted it around in her hands. She couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle.
“What a joke...” she croaked.
She pretended to be an angel of heaven. She’d by lying if she didn’t admit she enjoyed the attention and the awe spurred by such an image. And even though the world still saw her as a healer and a celestial servant, those closest to her now knew the truth.
Angela was no such thing...
Heaven wouldn’t accept such a fraud to represent it, to bring about peace on Earth.
To fix this awful mess...
Mercy had trouble breathing suddenly. It felt like her lungs were drowning in regret. She closed her eyes and threw the halo viciously toward the ground. It ricocheted off the floor and rolled harmlessly into the puddle in the center of the room.
Mercy’s chest started convulsing as tears began to form in her eyes. She closed them again and brought her feet to her body as she curled up in a ball.
Through pained voice, she sang aloud:
“Lead kindly light, amidst the grey and gloom;
The night is long and I am far from home.
Here in the dark, I do not ask to see;
The path ahead, one step enough for me.
Lead on, lead on kindly light!”
A few tears escaped Angela’s closed eyes. Though she felt completely alone, singing felt good. She continued to cry out.
“I was not ever willing to be led;
I could have stayed, but I ran instead.
In spite of fear, I followed my pride;
My eyes could see, but my heart was blind.
Lead on, lead on kindly light!”
Despite the rain, the situation, the horrors surrounding her, a peace began to comfort her. As she continued, she felt like she heard actual heavenly voices join in her prayer.
“And in the night, when I was afraid;
Your feet beside my own on the way.
Each stumbling step where other men have trod...”
Mercy stopped singing for a second. She realized that the voices weren’t in her head. She snapped her eyes open and looked around. The church was exactly as she left it; then the voice of Junior continued.
“Shortens the road leading home t--oh sorry, Angela,” Junior interrupted himself. “I was a little flat, wasn’t I?”
Mercy sat paralyzed by shock and slight embarassment. “S-sorry. Did I wake you?”
“The singing? No, that didn’t wake me up.” Junior raised his hand and pointed to the drowned halo circlet in the puddle. “THAT woke me up.”
Mercy’s cheeks turned red. “Oh...Sorry.”
“It doesn’t matter. I need to talk with you, anyway.”
Mercy reluctantly got up and sat by her adopted brother. Regret continued to swirl in her soul as she looked at the poorly stitched face of her old friend.
“I can feel...Marcion...in my head,” Junior stated. “He’s trying to take control again. You can still save Zurich. He doesn’t have many Omnics left. His main weapons are...well...”
“Do you know where the source is? I can try and take it out...”
“There’s no time,” Junior lamented. “For the sake of the city, we need a swifter approach.”
With that, Junior reached out and grabbed the Caduceus Pistol. He stretched out and offered it to Mercy, who stood dumbstruck.
“N-no...No...please...” Mercy whispered.
“I’m not afraid...to meet my M--.” Junior’s eyes fell back into his skull. A blackness colored the sclera in his eyes as his body convulsed violently. His chest raised upward as his arms and shoulders pushed downward. The metallic shrill returned to his groaning.
“You’ve been...hard...to track,” Junior took a hard look at Mercy, who still held the pistol in her hands.
“Marcion.” Mercy acknowledged.
“In...the flesh.” An evil grin emerged on Junior’s face.
Mercy continued. “Your business is with me. I will come to you if you let the sons of Sceva go.” As she talked, she noticed a couple of faint, red lights inside Junior’s forehead. She didn’t notice them before, but now that she was up close, she could see the lights of a chip of some kind on the frontal lobe of the brain.
Now it made sense. Junior’s face was all stitched up because the control chip was attached to the brain!
“False...My business is not...with you...You’re simply biggest...obstacle...to experimentation.” Junior stated.
“And I will continue to be, unless we settle this now.” Mercy’s confidence was still shaken, but she refused to let this Omnic see it. In the meantime, she planned out how she could save Junior without resorting to euthanasia.
The easiest and quickest way would be to perform a lobotomy. Essentially, she could stab the chip and make it unable to function. However, she was not a fan of the practice, since it severed the connection to the prefrontal cortex, which had a chance to impair emotion and personality.
“You claim...to be the embodiment...of Mercy...not Justice...What can...you...do to me?” Junior scoffed.
Mercy immediately countered simply with, “Enough.”
“Yet...you’ve wasted...enough time...allowing me to...deduce...your location...” Junior gave a small chuckle. “I'm...coming...for you.”
But Marcion just admitted that Mercy had some time before everyone arrived! That’s all she wanted: time. Now that she had some, she wanted to try and perform a Craniotomy, which would allow her to enter through the skull and remove the chip directly from Junior’s brain. It was risky—especially in such an un-sterile area—but she was determined to save her friend.
Though this posed more danger to her, it was safer for him. And that’s all that mattered to her now.
She took her gun and pointed it upward. Just below the muzzle was a circular cap, which she took off, revealing a small needle. She stuck this in Junior’s arm and waited a second before removing it. She put her hand on the hole and provided pressure. Marcion’s Junior was confused and tried to break free, but slowly fell back in a daze. His eyes closed as he surrendered to the anesthesia. He would be out cold for far longer than she needed.
Mercy took a big breath and lunged for her staff. She tried to open the back of it, where all of her surgical supplies from the hospital were located. She struggled briefly to get it open, and once she did, she was greeted with broken scissors, bent scalpels, and crushed forceps. She remembered Trey stomping this side of the staff with his foot, making her uncharacteristically curse under her breath.
She couldn’t use the scissors, but everything else was at least partially viable. To replace the scissors, she ran and jabbed one of the stained-glass windows with her staff. A few pieces fell on the floor and outside. She selected one of the pieces and used her blaster to sterilize the end. A few shots made the tip glow gold, satisfying Mercy’s needs. She walked back to Junior and began making incisions with the piece of stained glass, while simultaneously removing any of the shoddy stitches holding Junior’s face together.
She controlled her breath and focused entirely on her work. Her cheeks stained with tear marks, yet she refused to wipe them away. Her hands remained calm and steady. One wrong move would damage Junior’s brain, or worse, mortally wound him.
Mercy’s focus was interrupted slightly as the door to the church was slammed by something. Mercy blinked a few times and continued to work. The door slammed again, but held firm. The sound of Omnic footsteps through puddles could be heard on the sides of the church.
Mercy’s eyes grew wide. The windows!
The window closest to the door shattered as the OR-14 model stabbed through it with its blade. Carefully, Mercy set down her equipment and grabbed the gun and staff. She then soared to the place of the breach.
Before the Omnic could stick its head in the church, Mercy whacked the sword arm down with her staff; she then pointed the pistol and shot through the window at several heads poking through. A few of the smaller Omnics crumpled to the ground, but the OR-14 stood firm. It pointed its machine gun at Mercy and fired a few shots.
Mercy jumped up in the air and spread her wings. Her right wing sputtered a bit but reluctantly agreed to Mercy’s commands. She flew above the window and dropped down on the Omnic. She took her staff and stabbed right through the forearm wielding the sword. As she hit the ground, she rotated her staff and snapped the arm right off its assailant. The sword fell harmlessly to the floor. The Omnic jumped back in shock.
Mercy immediately grabbed the sword with both hands and thrusted it through the open window. The blade pierced the head of the OR-14, sending sparks everywhere as the robot malfunctioned. Mercy twisted the blade and yanked it back to her. She took a step back and made sure the body of the OR-14 barricaded most of the window.
“Good enough,” she concluded.
Her right wing refused to cooperate as she tried to fly back to her patient, so she sprinted instead.
Another window on the opposite side of the church shattered. Luckily, only Null troopers stepped through the breach. Mercy raised her pistol and quickly shot down the troopers on her way back to her patient.
Once she arrived, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm her heart and her hands.
Inhale.
She stuck her hands out above Junior.
Exhale.
She opened her eyes and watched as her hands remained steady and calm. She swiftly picked up her surgical tools and got back to work. The door to the place slammed again. This time, a robotic hand protruded from a small hole in the door. The frame was giving way! the arm tried to retract, but was partially stuck for a moment.
Mercy took a quick glance and recognized the fist immediately: the bastion unit. She was almost there! She could see the chip attached to Junior’s brain. She just needed more time to remove it!
Another window broke as a couple more Null troopers poured through. One hand continued to make incisions while the other carefully raised the pistol and fired a few shots through the intruders’ heads.
With her steady hands, she once again put down her instruments and grabbed her staff. She stretched her right hand and pointed at the door, trying to perform measurements in her head. She then arced her left arm, staff in hand, and assumed the posture of a javelin thrower. She had the butt of the staff in front of her. Because of Trey stepping on it earlier, it actually was flattened a bit more like a spear. Not to mention that she still had use of the beams, so she wanted to keep the head of it intact as much as possible. She ignited the indigo beam on herself to enhance the toss.
The hand of the Bastion finally retreated from the doorframe and was replaced with its lightbulb head as it peered into the church.
Perfect.
Mercy let her staff loose. Its trajectory was smooth as it soared and spiraled toward its destination. The Bastion unit didn’t have time to react. The staff pierced its head as it crumbled back awkwardly. The staff remained halfway through the door.
Mercy returned to her important work. She carefully removed the clamps of the chip and patiently extracted the small computer from Junior’s cranium. She tossed it into the puddle, where her halo circlet remained. The chip quickly short-circuited and became obsolete.
As she began to patch Junior back up, she realized her staff could heal her friend much quicker and better, since it applied Nano Biology.
She ignited her wings and tried to soar to the door. Once again, her wing shut down prematurely. She gave a deep sigh and sprinted once again. She would never get used to this...
With deft hands, she retracted her staff forcibly from the frame of the Omnic through the hole in the door and ran back.
The healing beam was activated while Mercy was still a few meters away from Junior. Yet she maintained it as she kept the staff in one hand and worked with some forceps in the other. She gently mended Junior forehead. With her staff, she didn’t need stitches; the Nano Biology would mesh the skull and skin as if they were never cut into. As her staff did the majority of the work, Mercy incessantly guided and observed that the Nanomachines returned Junior back to his old state.
After a few minutes, the staff’s healing had finished and Junior was rid of the demon living inside of him! Mercy collapsed to her knees beside him and gave a sigh of relief. At least, she was able to save her friend.
She was too busy fighting and performing surgery to see that the rain had mysteriously stopped from the roof of the building—despite it still precipitating outside the church.
Before she could react, a mysterious figure popped from the hole in the roof and wrapped its arms—and wings—around Mercy, who struggled to break free from the strange metal grasp.
Suddenly, she was whisked away to the heavens.
In front of them was a modest church. It had one steeple and a few stained glass windows surrounding it. To the side of the church was a small and intimate playground for little kids—though empty in this downpour. Behind the church was a small graveyard of some members of the community; Mercy’s parents were buried there.
Mercy opened the door to the church and waded in. No one had been here in a while. The pews were tossed around and faced every which way. The ground had leaves, scuff marks...and water! A hole in the middle of the roof had formed, causing the rain to invade this sacred space. A puddle formed on the ground. Yet none of it bothered Mercy. She set Junior down on one of the pews up front and sat down next to him, leaning on the pulpit. She tossed her staff and pistol beside her friend. The everlasting smile Mercy tried desperately to maintain even in the worst of situations was gone. In its place, scorn.
Her mind berated herself to the point of exhaustion. It was unceasing. Everywhere she looked while driving sent a reminder that she had done nothing to help this place. How long did she have to go back for the security footage? Weeks. Several. Weeks!
She never remembered receiving Faith’s message either. She said she was going to deliver it straight to Mercy, so why didn’t she receive it? Maybe Faith told Overwatch and it slipped by? Maybe she told Moira, who forgot to mention?
Or maybe she did tell Mercy...and she just forgot...
Too busy helping more important people, perhaps...
Mercy laid her head in her hands. She felt contempt. Contempt for herself, for Overwatch, and for her dreams of living up to her family’s name. Her father had been an amazing doctor to the people of Zurich. And what did she do? She spat at his legacy and deserted those he cared and respected for.
Her hands inched upward into her wet hair. Her fingers jumped back after feeling some unexpected cold metal. She grabbed her circlet and brought it in front of her.
The halo beamed in the rain. She twisted it around in her hands. She couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle.
“What a joke...” she croaked.
She pretended to be an angel of heaven. She’d by lying if she didn’t admit she enjoyed the attention and the awe spurred by such an image. And even though the world still saw her as a healer and a celestial servant, those closest to her now knew the truth.
Angela was no such thing...
Heaven wouldn’t accept such a fraud to represent it, to bring about peace on Earth.
To fix this awful mess...
Mercy had trouble breathing suddenly. It felt like her lungs were drowning in regret. She closed her eyes and threw the halo viciously toward the ground. It ricocheted off the floor and rolled harmlessly into the puddle in the center of the room.
Mercy’s chest started convulsing as tears began to form in her eyes. She closed them again and brought her feet to her body as she curled up in a ball.
Through pained voice, she sang aloud:
“Lead kindly light, amidst the grey and gloom;
The night is long and I am far from home.
Here in the dark, I do not ask to see;
The path ahead, one step enough for me.
Lead on, lead on kindly light!”
A few tears escaped Angela’s closed eyes. Though she felt completely alone, singing felt good. She continued to cry out.
“I was not ever willing to be led;
I could have stayed, but I ran instead.
In spite of fear, I followed my pride;
My eyes could see, but my heart was blind.
Lead on, lead on kindly light!”
Despite the rain, the situation, the horrors surrounding her, a peace began to comfort her. As she continued, she felt like she heard actual heavenly voices join in her prayer.
“And in the night, when I was afraid;
Your feet beside my own on the way.
Each stumbling step where other men have trod...”
Mercy stopped singing for a second. She realized that the voices weren’t in her head. She snapped her eyes open and looked around. The church was exactly as she left it; then the voice of Junior continued.
“Shortens the road leading home t--oh sorry, Angela,” Junior interrupted himself. “I was a little flat, wasn’t I?”
Mercy sat paralyzed by shock and slight embarassment. “S-sorry. Did I wake you?”
“The singing? No, that didn’t wake me up.” Junior raised his hand and pointed to the drowned halo circlet in the puddle. “THAT woke me up.”
Mercy’s cheeks turned red. “Oh...Sorry.”
“It doesn’t matter. I need to talk with you, anyway.”
Mercy reluctantly got up and sat by her adopted brother. Regret continued to swirl in her soul as she looked at the poorly stitched face of her old friend.
“I can feel...Marcion...in my head,” Junior stated. “He’s trying to take control again. You can still save Zurich. He doesn’t have many Omnics left. His main weapons are...well...”
“Do you know where the source is? I can try and take it out...”
“There’s no time,” Junior lamented. “For the sake of the city, we need a swifter approach.”
With that, Junior reached out and grabbed the Caduceus Pistol. He stretched out and offered it to Mercy, who stood dumbstruck.
“N-no...No...please...” Mercy whispered.
“I’m not afraid...to meet my M--.” Junior’s eyes fell back into his skull. A blackness colored the sclera in his eyes as his body convulsed violently. His chest raised upward as his arms and shoulders pushed downward. The metallic shrill returned to his groaning.
“You’ve been...hard...to track,” Junior took a hard look at Mercy, who still held the pistol in her hands.
“Marcion.” Mercy acknowledged.
“In...the flesh.” An evil grin emerged on Junior’s face.
Mercy continued. “Your business is with me. I will come to you if you let the sons of Sceva go.” As she talked, she noticed a couple of faint, red lights inside Junior’s forehead. She didn’t notice them before, but now that she was up close, she could see the lights of a chip of some kind on the frontal lobe of the brain.
Now it made sense. Junior’s face was all stitched up because the control chip was attached to the brain!
“False...My business is not...with you...You’re simply biggest...obstacle...to experimentation.” Junior stated.
“And I will continue to be, unless we settle this now.” Mercy’s confidence was still shaken, but she refused to let this Omnic see it. In the meantime, she planned out how she could save Junior without resorting to euthanasia.
The easiest and quickest way would be to perform a lobotomy. Essentially, she could stab the chip and make it unable to function. However, she was not a fan of the practice, since it severed the connection to the prefrontal cortex, which had a chance to impair emotion and personality.
“You claim...to be the embodiment...of Mercy...not Justice...What can...you...do to me?” Junior scoffed.
Mercy immediately countered simply with, “Enough.”
“Yet...you’ve wasted...enough time...allowing me to...deduce...your location...” Junior gave a small chuckle. “I'm...coming...for you.”
But Marcion just admitted that Mercy had some time before everyone arrived! That’s all she wanted: time. Now that she had some, she wanted to try and perform a Craniotomy, which would allow her to enter through the skull and remove the chip directly from Junior’s brain. It was risky—especially in such an un-sterile area—but she was determined to save her friend.
Though this posed more danger to her, it was safer for him. And that’s all that mattered to her now.
She took her gun and pointed it upward. Just below the muzzle was a circular cap, which she took off, revealing a small needle. She stuck this in Junior’s arm and waited a second before removing it. She put her hand on the hole and provided pressure. Marcion’s Junior was confused and tried to break free, but slowly fell back in a daze. His eyes closed as he surrendered to the anesthesia. He would be out cold for far longer than she needed.
Mercy took a big breath and lunged for her staff. She tried to open the back of it, where all of her surgical supplies from the hospital were located. She struggled briefly to get it open, and once she did, she was greeted with broken scissors, bent scalpels, and crushed forceps. She remembered Trey stomping this side of the staff with his foot, making her uncharacteristically curse under her breath.
She couldn’t use the scissors, but everything else was at least partially viable. To replace the scissors, she ran and jabbed one of the stained-glass windows with her staff. A few pieces fell on the floor and outside. She selected one of the pieces and used her blaster to sterilize the end. A few shots made the tip glow gold, satisfying Mercy’s needs. She walked back to Junior and began making incisions with the piece of stained glass, while simultaneously removing any of the shoddy stitches holding Junior’s face together.
She controlled her breath and focused entirely on her work. Her cheeks stained with tear marks, yet she refused to wipe them away. Her hands remained calm and steady. One wrong move would damage Junior’s brain, or worse, mortally wound him.
Mercy’s focus was interrupted slightly as the door to the church was slammed by something. Mercy blinked a few times and continued to work. The door slammed again, but held firm. The sound of Omnic footsteps through puddles could be heard on the sides of the church.
Mercy’s eyes grew wide. The windows!
The window closest to the door shattered as the OR-14 model stabbed through it with its blade. Carefully, Mercy set down her equipment and grabbed the gun and staff. She then soared to the place of the breach.
Before the Omnic could stick its head in the church, Mercy whacked the sword arm down with her staff; she then pointed the pistol and shot through the window at several heads poking through. A few of the smaller Omnics crumpled to the ground, but the OR-14 stood firm. It pointed its machine gun at Mercy and fired a few shots.
Mercy jumped up in the air and spread her wings. Her right wing sputtered a bit but reluctantly agreed to Mercy’s commands. She flew above the window and dropped down on the Omnic. She took her staff and stabbed right through the forearm wielding the sword. As she hit the ground, she rotated her staff and snapped the arm right off its assailant. The sword fell harmlessly to the floor. The Omnic jumped back in shock.
Mercy immediately grabbed the sword with both hands and thrusted it through the open window. The blade pierced the head of the OR-14, sending sparks everywhere as the robot malfunctioned. Mercy twisted the blade and yanked it back to her. She took a step back and made sure the body of the OR-14 barricaded most of the window.
“Good enough,” she concluded.
Her right wing refused to cooperate as she tried to fly back to her patient, so she sprinted instead.
Another window on the opposite side of the church shattered. Luckily, only Null troopers stepped through the breach. Mercy raised her pistol and quickly shot down the troopers on her way back to her patient.
Once she arrived, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm her heart and her hands.
Inhale.
She stuck her hands out above Junior.
Exhale.
She opened her eyes and watched as her hands remained steady and calm. She swiftly picked up her surgical tools and got back to work. The door to the place slammed again. This time, a robotic hand protruded from a small hole in the door. The frame was giving way! the arm tried to retract, but was partially stuck for a moment.
Mercy took a quick glance and recognized the fist immediately: the bastion unit. She was almost there! She could see the chip attached to Junior’s brain. She just needed more time to remove it!
Another window broke as a couple more Null troopers poured through. One hand continued to make incisions while the other carefully raised the pistol and fired a few shots through the intruders’ heads.
With her steady hands, she once again put down her instruments and grabbed her staff. She stretched her right hand and pointed at the door, trying to perform measurements in her head. She then arced her left arm, staff in hand, and assumed the posture of a javelin thrower. She had the butt of the staff in front of her. Because of Trey stepping on it earlier, it actually was flattened a bit more like a spear. Not to mention that she still had use of the beams, so she wanted to keep the head of it intact as much as possible. She ignited the indigo beam on herself to enhance the toss.
The hand of the Bastion finally retreated from the doorframe and was replaced with its lightbulb head as it peered into the church.
Perfect.
Mercy let her staff loose. Its trajectory was smooth as it soared and spiraled toward its destination. The Bastion unit didn’t have time to react. The staff pierced its head as it crumbled back awkwardly. The staff remained halfway through the door.
Mercy returned to her important work. She carefully removed the clamps of the chip and patiently extracted the small computer from Junior’s cranium. She tossed it into the puddle, where her halo circlet remained. The chip quickly short-circuited and became obsolete.
As she began to patch Junior back up, she realized her staff could heal her friend much quicker and better, since it applied Nano Biology.
She ignited her wings and tried to soar to the door. Once again, her wing shut down prematurely. She gave a deep sigh and sprinted once again. She would never get used to this...
With deft hands, she retracted her staff forcibly from the frame of the Omnic through the hole in the door and ran back.
The healing beam was activated while Mercy was still a few meters away from Junior. Yet she maintained it as she kept the staff in one hand and worked with some forceps in the other. She gently mended Junior forehead. With her staff, she didn’t need stitches; the Nano Biology would mesh the skull and skin as if they were never cut into. As her staff did the majority of the work, Mercy incessantly guided and observed that the Nanomachines returned Junior back to his old state.
After a few minutes, the staff’s healing had finished and Junior was rid of the demon living inside of him! Mercy collapsed to her knees beside him and gave a sigh of relief. At least, she was able to save her friend.
She was too busy fighting and performing surgery to see that the rain had mysteriously stopped from the roof of the building—despite it still precipitating outside the church.
Before she could react, a mysterious figure popped from the hole in the roof and wrapped its arms—and wings—around Mercy, who struggled to break free from the strange metal grasp.
Suddenly, she was whisked away to the heavens.