Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

To say Jack Morrison was surprised and unnerved was an understatement.

He stood slowly, bones aching even with his SEP enhancements, and shivered once he realized his 76 outfit was torn to shreds. A cold breeze continued to whip through as he hid in a small, semi damaged trailer.

Soft curses flowed from his lips as he noticed the large gashes across his shoulders, arms, and the tops of his hands. blood flowed freely as he slowly searched for anything to stop it. He continued to curse Winston for his latest approval of a new testing of a teleportation device for the newly rebanded Overwatch. Jack muttered to himself in disapproval for accepting to test it himself.

Morrison glanced out the glass less window to the metal circle on the ground. 111 was still crudely painted in the center and, by the looks of the Vault-Tec memorabilia and files surrounding the damaged computer beneath his fingers, he seemed to put two and two together.

Along with the fact he wasn't in the same reality. his reality. his world, anymore.

He coughed as his body adjusted to the amount of radiation still left in the Commonwealth air. He could tell his body was already trying to fight off whatever illnesses he was coming in contact with. A small pocket guide to nuclear war and info on Vault-Tec stood out on a rotting clip board.

He skimmed through it, trying to gather as much intel as he could before setting out. Jack grabbed the clip board, ceramic coffee mug, and pencil that were still on the table before he stuffed the pamphlet in his semi torn pocket.
-

When he made it down the hill, he was not expecting to be greeted with a twenty foot wooden wall. He groaned inwardly and hoped that the occupants were friendly enough. He'd been forced to tear the rest of his undershirt off and left his tattered jacket on for protection from the noonday sun.

"Stop right there." Jack groaned as his footing slid in the crumbling earth but did as he was told. "Who are you?"

"Jack." He held out his hand and the blood red haired man stared at it blankly. "I'll be brief. I don't know where I am or what's going on." he lowered his hand and stared into the eyes that, in their better days, had been pale blue.  Jack could tell there was some sort of drug use going on by their distorted coloring. He sympathized with the amount of scars on the man's face all to well.

"Mangus, leader of this settlement." He gently rested his hand on Jack's shoulder and motioned over the hill. "I was cryo frozen up there. where you?"

Jack said nothing as the man led him around the walls towards the main gate. "It's alright, mate. I understand. Even if you were frozen in there, i'd know." Mangus stopped short at the gate and motioned for the guard to open it. "I'll take you to Mama, she'll know the truth."

Chapter Text

Without the remnants of his visor, Jack was blind.  It was a fact he liked to keep to himself so it wouldn't be exploited in battle.  

He could hear Sturgis, Mangus, and a robotic voice muttering all at once over the few pieces left of what had kept his identity secret since the explosion.

“I'll be your eyes for now.” Mama wheezed as her frail hand gently gripped his bandaged ones. “ It's hard to accept help when you need it.”

She hacked and spit from her cushioned chair.   He believed in her abilities more than most of the settlement, her tiny frame shook and her hoarse voice had uttered the names of his parents and his hometown before he even sat down next to her.

“He's here.” She whispered as she gently traced the top of his hand.  

His breath hitched. Mama hadn't said his name but it burned deep within his chest.  

Gabriel

A part of him wondered how. Had Talon experimented with time travel like the new Overwatch? Or had it been from Moria's experiments before the Fall?

He winced as Mama cleaned his wounds and used a stimpack to speed up the healing. Her presence hadn't left his mind or his side.

Jack still felt awful, no matter how much Mama tried to comfort him.  Gabriel had been his rock for so long and he hadn't noticed what the goddamn Blackwatch scientist had done to him.   

He couldn't reconcile the death warmed and peeled skin that replaced Gabriel’s once vibrant and determined face. Couldn't imagine the red eyes that haunted Jack's gut when he'd broken the top half of Reaper's mask.   It wasn't the face of the man who had helped him through SEP, nor the face of the first man he'd kissed.

Or the face of the man he'd married.

Mama's wrinkled fingers gently wiped away the tears that had managed to escape without him noticing.

She continued to soothe him as more affirmed grunts and whispers over his visor pieces gave him hope.  From what he could gather from his other senses, he would need all the vision he could get.

He had to find Gabriel. It seems to overshadow his need to get of whatever timeline they were both stuck in.

“Hey Jack” Sturgis gently rested a hand over Mama Murphy's  “We have a tentative prototype for you.”.

Jack nodded and allowed Sturgis to guide his hands to a set of frames.  Confusion must've shown on his face as he slowly slid the glasses on.

“ We can try to make a version closer to what you had, we just need more time and some more materials…”

Sturgis stopped as Jack's eyes widened. Mama smiled and pat Jack's thigh as he slowly stood.

His vision had never been crystal clear with the orange tint from the glass of his visor. It kept a hue over everything that came into sight.  

“Thank you.” He shook Sturgis hand and walked over to the workbench where Mangus still stood.

“ Here, take a look.”  He held up a fragment of a mirror and took in Jack's long pause.

“I..” words failed him as his strike commander era face stared back at him.  His scars were gone and the injuries that had taken longer to heal were gone.   

Will Gabriel looks like like this?

“You've been through a lot, Jack” Mangus rested a hand on his shoulders as he steered jack towards one of the few finished houses in sanctuary. “I'm not going to hold it against you if you take some time to rest. Don't think anyone else would too.”

Chapter Text

Pain and surprise pulsed through his being.  He cursed Moira for what seemed like the billionth time since he'd brought her into Blackwatch.

Gabriel had acclimated to life with her experimentation until something finally "worked".  His hand stopped dragging down his face in mid motion. 

He hadn't felt pain like this since Switzerland. 

He sat up slowly, listening to the sounds of the other raiders stirring around him.  The more he roused himself from sleep, the more confusion and panic started to seep in. 

His body had stopped dematerializing itself. His slightly marred hands from his time before Overwatch stared back at him. No missing chunks or mismatched grey skin littered the tops of his hands and arms. 

Rose, the raider who had found him by the ruins of CIT, paused when she pulled his cloth doorway to the side. 

She was the only one who knew what he looked like. Gabriel had worn  mismatched armor and  his mask to hide his appearance just in case Talon had somehow found out where he was.  

"You look different." Her voice was level but her medx hazed eyes held concern. "It's not the drugs?" 

Gabriel shook his head. "No.." 

She nodded once and dug around in her ammo bag until she pulled out a cracked compact mirror. 

- —

Jack got to work as soon as he adjusted to his new glasses.  His strength had come in handy for repairing the surrounding walls and assembling new armor for new recruits for the Minutemen.   It was a group he could stay behind if they let him. 

He'd met Preston Garvey shortly after he'd gotten his glasses. Jack could tell the man needed a break or at least some help with organization.  

"Where did you learn all of this?" 

Jack nodded his head as he leaned over a map of the Commonwealth.  

"Something similar to your General." Jack cracked his neck as he connected several supply routes he'd shifted. "Now this will save you men and supplies. And you can rest in between points at a larger settlement."

Preston glanced over the map and wrote down the changes to tell their limited suppliers. "From a vault?" 

Jack shook his head. "I'm not sure how I got here," his hands ran over the dark, lead lined coat several of Sanctuary's settlers had made at Mama's request. "But I think I know where to start looking for answers."

—-

No matter how many times he blinked, Gabriel still had no idea how he'd come to look like he did in the glory days of Overwatch.  All he'd done the night before was go to bed early. 

"This is what you meant when I found you?" 

For as dumb as she acted around the other raiders, Gabriel knew Rose had to have a brain to stay alive this long. 

"Yes."   The wisp factor of his post Switzerland form had left him. He felt solid, his muscles and bones felt like they wouldn't disintegrate on contact.  He couldn't believe it. 

"I wasn't always a raider." Rose gently scrubbed the dirt off of his face. " 'bout 10 or so years ago, I used to live in the Capital Wasteland. " Her hands soothed the skin where she'd roughly scrubbed some flecks of dried blood off. " My father built water purifiers for the area but.." 

Rose inhaled as she ran her hand over her face. "My husband…" she shakily sighed, " My husband Butch was killed by super mutants and the Brotherhood  fell apart soon after." 

Gabriel took one of Rose's hands and rubbed the calloused skin. Every time he'd waited for Jack to come back from a mission flooded through him.  The anxiety and the fear that was followed by relief when he came back.   

"I left someone behind that I shouldn't have." Rose scoffed as she took her hand away to wipe her tears. " A little twerp named Arthur. He'd be twenty by now.". The 'if he made it' hung heavily in the air. 

Gabriel stood and scrounged through the limited clothes he had. He tossed a jacket over Rose's shoulders and shucked on his Reaper outfit.  

Rose stared blankly at Gabriel until his mask popped over his face. "We're leaving.". She started to speak but Gabriel shook his head, "Just the two of us."