(AN: Finally done school so I'll be back to weekly updates unless something unexpected happens. Also within the next twoish weeks all post my Darth Vader story separately and start updating it every week as well. I might start a third story just for fun that won't have as consistent updates but first I want to see how bad working full time will actually be.)

3rd POV

Makenzie stared in shock as a 5’7 Cyborg soundlessly stepped out of the shadows in the room. Managing to blend in and remain unnoticed for so long speaks of decades of practised movements and experience ‘This’ Genji shouldn’t have.

Pushing away the unease that has been growing in him since the conversation started Makenzie turned back to Mercy and spoke quietly “ Is this your plan Mercy? Force me to sit here and listen.”

“Yes.” Mercy nodded her head keeping her face impassive as Genji stepped up beside her. 

“Everytime I try to confront you, you make excuses to leave and I’ve let myself naively believe that eventually if I kept persisting you’d listen to me. Not anymore I’m done waiting for you to be ready. You're not leaving until you hear everything I have to say.”

A sigh of annoyance left Makenzie’s mouth as he leaned back into his chair, muscles still tense even as his body screamed protests. “Fine, let's hear it, but this better be important. Every minute you talk is a minute I could be using to prepare. And this is a one time deal only got it? I won’t let you hinder my work.”

Finished with his piece Makenzie went quiet and waited for Mercy to collect her thoughts, he passed the time by running through different ideas on how to uproot HYDRA. All the different who’s, what’s, how’s, and where’s every inconsequential detail. He briefly wondered if he should launch an all out war before the invasion of New York. As it stands he can’t safely keep the space stone with him meaning no matter who has it Loki will take the stone all the same.

Still as he went over his options he wondered if having it near him would be better. Loki in the films was arrogant and flamboyant making a point of getting people's attention. But if this Loki chose to be quieter then it’s possible he could miss him. At the end of the day he’s only one person and he can’t give the stone his attention 24/7. Concluding that it would be best if SHIELD kept the space stone Makenzie was about to refocus on when to start his assault when Mercy finally spoke up.

“I knew Reaper was going to kill himself.” 

To say Makenzie froze would be almost inadequate as a description, His thoughts ceased, his breath caught in his throat, and his heart stilled before abruptly his body restarted and he launched upwards out of his chair.

“YOU KNEW AND YOU DIDN’T TELL ME!!” Mackenzie’s shout echoed throughout the room as he stood panting slightly from his outburst. Desperately trying to keep his temper under control. Makenzie forced himself to relax, inhaling and exhaling each breath he took slowly while counting backwards from 10 to get himself back under control. 

‘If you knew he planned to die, why didn’t you tell me? I could’ve done something! I could have SAVED HIM!”

“Reaper made his choice. He sacrificed his life so that when we had this conversation you would listen to what I have to say.” Mercy spoke softly, maintaining her voice at a neutral tone to avoid provoking Makenzie into any rash actions now that his suppressed emotions were beginning to surface.

“Fuck whatever conversation you needed to have with me. Saving Reaper should have been your priority, nothing you have to say could possibly be worth Reaper’s life.”

“It was his choice to die, not mine. If he thought this was the only way to reach you then I wasn’t going to stop him from following his beliefs.” 

“That isn’t your decision to make! You should have told me about his plans. I could have found a solution, a work around so he didn't need to die.” Makenzie started to pace back and forth as his body was slowly worked up into a frenzy as adrenaline flooded through his system.

“Are you not the one who gave us free will, Creator? If you wished to avoid us making decisions you disagreed with you shouldn’t have given us wills of our own.” Mercy’s voice was frosty as she spoke; Her anger began to rise as Makenzie continued to accuse her.

Her response caught Makenzie off guard and he sputtered briefly trying and failing to come up with a rebuttal to her statement. He’d given them their own free will yes but that was so they could live their lives free and happy not die early to save him from his own mistakes. 

‘If Reaper sacrificed himself trying to save me he should have just left me to die’ Filled with guilt, anger, and regret, Makenzie without anyone else to blame started to mentally berate himself for being so arrogant in his plans. ‘If I had been more careful and looked through all the data another time I could have stopped this. I could have saved him.’

Even within his mind Makenzie could feel the lack of truth in his words. There was nothing he could have done differently. ‘The secondary task force had been completely off the record and no one amongst the team had known about it. Reaper would have discovered them on his way to the restaurant as they tracked him. There was nothing I could have done that wouldn’t nullify all the work I’ve done so far.’

A sense of defeat overwhelmed Makenzie as he realised that Reaper's death had been inevitable. Sinking back down into his chair curling his body into itself Makenzie forced himself to focus on Mercy. 

“Why?” He croaked out “Why would he do it? Why couldn’t there have been another option? Why wasn’t I good enough to give him another option?” Mercy lost her calm bearing as Makenzie began to break down. She started to rush forward to help him when Genji, who hadn’t spoken since the start of their argument, stepped forward and placed a hand on her shoulder. Giving Mercy a reassuring nod Genji stepped past her and silently made his way beside Makenzie before sitting down.  

“I know what it is like to lose a brother.” Genji spoke in a soft voice underlined with a metallic hum, a neverending reminder of his greatest regret.

Involuntarily Makenzie’s head raised at Genji’s words. “N-No!” Mackenzie forced his voice to come out steady, desperate to ground himself, refusing to accept that he could be wrong about his own power.

“No, you don’t understand it. You don’t retain your memories when I summon you.” Mackenzie tried to keep his voice strong but doubt began to creep into his voice as he continued talking. 

It was Mercy who spoke up to answer his doubts. “Yes, you’re correct master, when you summon us we don’t keep our former memories. However, you didn’t summon Genji. I did.” Her revelation startled Makenzie enough to get him hitting up straight once again, eyes wide staring at Mercy as if she grew a second head.

“What!!? You summoned him? Impossible I already confirmed when I got you whether or not others could summon you. Your energies don’t respond when called on by other people. It’s most likely a soul imprint of some kind since your statutes are formed by my power. How could you summon him?” Makenzie rattled off quickly having made a point to memorise the results of his experiments, not trusting any official documents to not get leaked somehow. 

“I believe it has something to do with my being your own creation. Making our energies markedly similar. It’s also possible I carry some kind of mark that recognizes you as my origin. Either way Through our connection I was able to summon Genji and I also found out why Reaper and I didn’t keep them during our own summonings. To put it simply, Master. You didn’t want us to remember and so we didn’t.”

Mercy’s reveal completely floored Makenzie the idea that Mercy and his summons might be ‘branded’ by his power left him sick to his stomach but all his attention was focused on her last words. ‘You didn’t want us to remember so we didn’t’ 

Makenzie felt like he was supposed to ask Mercy for clarification, to start yelling and screaming and storming about; but he couldn’t gather the energy to move and his body protested at the thought of over exercising his vocal cords. But worst of all was the understanding, the epiphany in his own mind that occurred at her words. A sudden understanding of something he had thought unimportant until now.

Whenever he’s summoned anyone in the past he’s always imagined the process as pushing open a door from this world to the OW world and making a copy of his chosen hero before dragging it back through the door. A simple if strenuous task but Makenzie has always felt that it wasn’t a sufficient metaphor, always felt there was more to the process then what he imagined but he hadn’t thought it important and had never bothered to look into it.

But now he understood he wasn’t opening a door, his power crafted the body and then his mind created a character page for him leaving it to him what to let them keep and what to take away. But with his uncaring attitude Makenzie had rushed the process bulldozing through the character screen leaving it to the default settings which his powers generated from his subconsciousness. 

Meaning that his goal/dream of giving the Overwatch characters he summoned a peaceful life was unknowingly the cause of Reaper's death. “I killed Reaper.” Makenzie spoke out loud once he reached his conclusion, not bothering with excuses or arguments anymore. His neglect had been the cause of all this not questioning things more thoroughly, rushing ahead to start his heroics. 

At the moment Makenzie was questioning why he thought he’d be able to become a hero in the first place. Was it delusion fed to him in his first world through the media? Was it seeing the unending bravery and courage of the OW characters and believing he could be the same way? Or was it his ‘heroic’ backstory that he used to somehow convince himself he was a main character? 

Shaking his head Makenzie focused his mind elsewhere whatever caused him to start on this path was no longer important. What matters is that he chose to start and with his foreknowledge he would be damned if he stopped himself from doing whatever good he could. That said he needed to reassess his priorities and take time to collect himself. It feels like his body and mind are being held together by stitches Mercy’s torn continuously over the course of their conversation. 

Makenzie opened his mouth to respond to Mercy when a brief image flashed through his mind. A lone girl standing against an unending army travelling back in time fighting for centuries tiring but never stopping. Before he even knew what he was saying Makenzie forcefully pulled his stitches together and spoke.

“I can’t stop just because of this. I have to keep going, I don't have the time to wait around and hope I get better when people are suffering right now. How can I look them in the eyes if I leave them in their time of need to focus on my issues? How can I ever face her if I let someone die for my own selfish reasons?!” 

Ignoring his body's scream of protest Makenzie forced himself to stand as he spoke loudly about his responsibility trying to make Genji and Mercy understand that his life wasn’t important here. All that mattered was saving as many people as possible. If he stopped to rest he’d be tarnishing the image of the hero he’d sworn to embody as the only person who would ever remember the extent of her sacrifice. 

He wouldn’t allow himself a moment of weakness; he didn't deserve it. He’d been fighting for what not even a year and yet he was breaking down and complaining like a toddler. He was given this power to make change, not sit by and cry himself to sleep as half the universe died. Forcing his body to remain standing Makenzie was about to force his way past Mercy when she shoved him strongly backwards into his chair.

Collapsing back into a pathetic heap all the power Makenzie had felt flood his system vanished. Makenzie shouldn’t be as surprised as he is that Mercy made good on her threat to keep him there by force but he on some fundamental level must have really begun to consider himself a God when amongst his summons. He’d have to work on that they don’t deserve to have their lives ruined by a dictator.

Thoroughly finished with this conversation Makenzie tried to transform only for every muscle in his body to clench and his mouth to desperately shut as he tried to stop a shout of pain from leaving his body. So much physical activity in his regular body has pushed him to his limits. He won’t be able to transform without his pain killers to dull the pain and looking up at Mercy’s stern expression Makenzie knows he won’t get the chance. So resigning himself Makenzie waited for Mercy’s next assault.

1st POV (Mercy)

‘So this is the real curse then.’ I had thought I’d dragged it up earlier but looking at my Masters broken body heaving from the exertion he’s putting it through even while being in no state to be moving with a firm almost fanatical look in his eyes I realise that his curse is entrenched much deeper then even Reaper probably realised.

If I hadn’t resolved myself to break my Creator down to nothing but his DNA in this meeting if that’s what it took I doubt I’d be able to break it. Briefly glancing at Genji for assurance that he’d support me no matter what I gave him a light smile at his affirmative nod.  

Looking back down at my Master I decided that the easiest way to go about this was also the cruellest but as much as it hurts to say my creator responds better to pain then emotion. “You’ll fail. You can’t accomplish your goal.” 

The effect is immediate my Creator's shoulders slump and the light behind his eyes dims even as the curse continues to smoulder behind his gaze. Oh how I wish I could reach into his eyes and smother it with my hands but alas problems of the mind aren’t so easily solved. 

My Creator values all his creations immensely more so then even himself. He goes out of his way to cater towards our needs ensuring our happiness at all times. Being told that he can’t accomplish his goals by me while also on some level thinking the same in his head has wrecked whatever self-confidence he has surrounding his curse for good. Onto the next step.

“In the first place, what even is your goal? Is it to make a peaceful world for your creations to live or is it to be a hero and save as many people as possible. If you haven’t realised it yet we as summons can’t truly be apart from your life meaning you can’t accomplish both of your goals.” I keep my tone neutral and even slightly viscous as I continue my attack, not giving Master a moment to form a response to my onslaught.

“Have you looked at yourself lately, you're a mess. You won’t accomplish anything as you are now. You're not strong enough and at the rate you're going you’ll die before you’ll ever be.” There I systematically destroyed everything that holds his ideology together. Master prides himself on being rational by now even though he must have begun to realise that he needs to change but my Master is still human and his emotions are still very much a part of him.

“None of that matters. I have to do this. To prove myself capable of being the hero I swore I would be. I’m the only one who knows how hard she fought. It's my responsibility to bring that here to this world.”

 Hmmm. So Genji was right. We’d discussed it on the way over here but it seems my Master is feeling some kind of survivor's guilt. I’m aware that he spent centuries watching a planet die but for him to have such a personal connection and the constant “She” he mentions suggests his experience was more than he let on.

Genji speaks up taking me by surprise “You shouldn’t role model yourself after Tracer. You're not to blame for the actions she chose. Nor is it your fault for not being affected by it.” 

The second he finishes speaking it all connects in my head. Tracer can travel through time. My master wasn’t watching a planet die for centuries, he was watching a loop of Tracer going back in time trying to prevent the disaster and failing for centuries.

My Master feels guilty at being only able to bear witness to her suffering and not being able to do anything to alleviate her pain. His recklessness in this life and stubborn will to remain unchanging finally makes sense. He’s taking the same series of actions as Tracer did because he knows the apocalyptic future of this world and knows that time travel is possible as well. He’s mimicking Tracer as a form of admiration and as a reminder of her sacrifice. 

“Shut up. You don’t know anything of the sacrifices she made to save your world. None of you get to talk to me about heroics, not when you tried to stop her from saving everyone.”

 Makenzie’s voice as he responds to Genji is venomous and if he wasn’t incapable of movement he probably would have struck at Genji. We're definitely on the right track.

“Stop her? We were trying to help her. She lost herself and she needed saving just as badly as we did. And saving everyone! She killed people out of cold blood that had nothing to do with saving the planet.” Genji’s breath heaved slightly as the sensitive topic was brought fully into the light before he took a deep breath and spoke once more in his calm tone.

 “We could debate Tracer's actions as heroic or not all day and never reach an answer because nobody, not even you can claim to truly understand what she went through. But I have some idea of what you're feeling. You hate weakness, find your work ethic to always be too little, ignore the pleasures of life because you know someone else can’t enjoy them so you feel undeserving, and you hate the way your living but you won’t change it not because you don’t want to but because you’ve convinced yourself that your doing it for her that it isn’t your choice to remain on the path you’ve stepped on.” 

Genji’s smooth voice carried around the room even as he slowly rose to his feet and grabbed Makenzie's shoulder with his mechanical hand. “My brother felt similar to you when he betrayed me for our clan denying himself the things that fundamentally make us human as if it would appease my spirit to see him suffer. It didn't hurt to watch him do that to himself in my name. It hurt knowing I was the cause of his suffering. Do you honestly believe this is the life Tracer would want you to live? Do you really believe that Tracer would push her struggles onto anyone else even if she had been able to?”

Master doesn’t answer, instead he tilts his head back and closes his eyes. For a moment I grew worried that he had shelled himself inside his mind to stop us from freeing him but not a moment later silent tears begin to leak from his closed eyes and I allowed myself a smile even as my own tears threatened to spill as my Master finally stepped onto a proper path that didn't end in his death.

He wasn’t healed not by a long shot and Tracer's life and death would never stop influencing him but as long as I draw breath I will fight to ensure my Creator stays his own person no matter what this Universe throws at us.

AN:

Okay there you have it, the big change in Makenzie’s character I've been putting off. Honestly I didn't know how to write this scene so it seemed realistic and I’m not completely satisfied with this chapter so I might make some changes to this chapter before I post the next one.

Let me know what you think but the basis of it is that Makenzie feels guilt for helplessly following Tracer's struggle not being able to actually do anything. To appease his own guilt he made his own heroic identity and actions based on Tracers but his idea of Tracer was skewed and resulted in him being self destructive and losing sight of what he really wanted to accomplish.

This conversation is meant to act as an acknowledgement of his problems and proving beyond any doubt that Makenzie couldn’t stay the way he was. He still needs to decide who he will be but that's for father in the future.

Again let me know if there’s anything you think could have been better or needs to be changed.