"Genji! Open your eyes!"

His eyes shot open, more out of shock and confusion than the fact the voice told him to. His breath started coming out in short, rapid intervals, eyes darting around the bright white room as he tried to register all that was going on. Strange faces appeared above him, and Genji began to struggle, fight or flight instincts kicking in. He reached up to grab one of the strange people, but froze. The arm he raised wasn't his own...

Someone took his hand in both of theirs, calming him in a soothing tone.

"Shh... Relax. Everything's alright, you're alright. Take deep breaths." It was the same voice that called him from his sleep. He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply to try and focus like his instructor would make him do before training, but closing his eyes flooded his mind with the memory of agony, the clash of blades, words thrown like daggers... Genji gasped, his back arching on the table as pain flashed through him.

"Hanzo..." He croaked, eyes wide and glazed with confusion and fear as memories became difficult to discern from the present. The woman from before put a hand on his forehead, still hushing him softly.

"He's not here, you're alright. You're safe. Genji, look at me. Look into my eyes." The voice told him, her gentle hand tilting his head to the side so his eyes met hers. They were calm, steady, strong... She stared at him with passive intensity, one hand still wrapped around his, the other gently pressed against his chest, trying to keep him from moving.

"Tell me what hurts." She instructed, her voice soft. Genji clenched his teeth together, squeezing his eyes closed for a split second before they opened once more, afraid that if they were shut her any longer, his nightmares would resurface.

"Everything." He breathed through his gritted teeth, his heart still racing as he tried to figure out what felt so wrong. The woman pursed her lips, looking at the other doctors and scientists in the room. She took her hand off Genji's chest and held it out. As if the others had been anticipating her move, one of them placed a syringe in her open palm. She turned back to her patient.

"This is going to hurt a bit, but it'll help with the pain." She warned as she lined the syringe up near his neck. Genji said nothing. He had a feeling that, next to the pain throughout the rest of his body, the syringe would feel like nothing.

And he was mostly right. He felt a slight twinge, but compared to the excruciating experience that had been dealt by his brother's blade, it was almost comforting.

The painkiller started to kick in and Genji let out a small sigh, his tensed form relaxing a bit. The doctor let go of his hand and he let it fall to the table, the relief from the agony causing a sense of calm to wash over him, like the eye of the storm. He didn't close his eyes, despite how much he wanted to, for he was afraid of what he might see in his mind...

"Is that better?" The doctor inquired with a small smile. Genji didn't return the smile or say anything in response, but the look of gratitude in his eyes was enough to know the answer.

After a few seconds more of silence, Genji began to move. Or at least, he tried to. The minute he started trying to sit up, Dr. Ziegler put her hands on his shoulders and carefully made him lie down again.

"You need to lay down, Genji." She told him. He resisted initially, but he hadn't seen any reason not to trust these people, yet, so he let her push him back down. Something was bothering him, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"Half..." Genji muttered almost incoherently. He tried to raise his head and look at himself, but the doctor got in the way.

"What did you say?" She wondered as Genji dropped his head again, his breathing beginning to quicken once more as things started to clear in his still shaken mind.

"He cut me in half..." He realized, panic crashing down on him once more, shattering the calm that hadn't lasted for long.

"Doctor, his vitals are spiking again!"

"He slashed my face, he stabbed me... He cut me in half... I should be dead. Why aren't I dead?" Genji pushed the doctor away as he struggled to sit up. Arms grabbed him, trying to pull him back onto the operating table, small alarms on the equipment were going off as the wires that monitored his vital signs were yanked off by the patient's panicked ascent.

"What did you do..." Genji said under his breath, his body almost moving on its own as he shoved the doctors and scientists off of him, getting to his feet. He stumbled across the room. He couldn't really feel his legs, and his head felt like it was going to split in two. He felt nauseous, confused, he didn't understand who these people were or what had happened to him. He thought he was dead. When he blacked out from pain and blood loss, he hadn't thought he was going to wake up.

"Genji..." Dr. Ziegler warned as he neared the mirror on the other side of the room. There was no way he was still alive... This was all a dream, a last nightmare before he finally passed on into whatever was next. He'd look in the mirror and see his own mangled and bloody body, then he'd wake from this strange dream and die...

Genji reached the mirror. The first thing he saw was his own face, a long scratch, deep and dark red, stretching from one side to the other. His hair was a mess, flattened at odd angles, still stained in blood like some of his face was. His skin was pale, undoubtedly from loss of blood. Then he saw his arms... his chest... his legs... He wanted to puke. He swayed on the spot, his vision swimming. The doctor came over and steadied him without a word, watching him in the mirror.

Almost as if to prove it to himself that this was just some horrible apparition, Genji raised a hand, testing to see if the monster in the mirror would as well. Robotic hand followed robotic hand and once again Genji felt like retching. He was covered in wire and gears and computer chip-like textures, his pale, almost lifeless skin barely visible in a few spots on his arms and his hands. From the waist down, however, there was no skin visible... Genji bent his knee, watching in the mirror as the gears moved smoothly together, the wires working like muscles, pulling on the metal that served as his bones.

Genji looked away.

"We haven't finished the outer layer yet. We wanted to try and get you comfortable with little bits at a time." She explained, her hand still on his back. "Are you going to be alright?" She asked, sounding genuinely concerned. Genji took a shuddering breath, and an unwelcome thought came to mind.

"H-How...how much of me... Is still human?" He managed to say, refusing to move so he wouldn't have to hear, wouldn't have to feel himself move. Dr. Ziegler gave him a look of pity.

"We saved as much or your body as we could, but..." Genji cut her off, squeezing his eyes closed against the reality.

"How much of me is missing..." He hissed. The doctor sighed.

"From the waist down was completely removed by your brother's sword. The flow of blood was disrupted by the laceration of multiple arteries and are now being supported or were replaced. The wires in your arms are to help with blood flow and movement, since your muscles are experiencing immobility, again due to the removal of your lower half and the multiple stab wounds to the pectoral area. The most damaged of your inner organs were replaced with biocompatible electronic substitutes. The others, including your heart, are relying heavily on the programming of biocompatible implants. All in all... 35% of your body is human. However..." She paused looking him dead in the eye.

"You are not a machine, Genji. Your body still reacts to you, just like any normal human's would. You still breathe, your heart still beats, you still think. It's just... your body needs a bit more robotic help now. Your mind, you soul is still 100% you." She tried to reason with him, but Genji just kept shaking his head, his already pale skin growing a sickly yellow color as he couldn't help but look at himself in the mirror.

He flinched, leaning heavily on the doctor, feeling sick to his stomach, his whole being still trembling slightly. Despite her words, he couldn't feel at ease. 65% of his body...wasn't him. He wasn't himself, but... There wasn't anything he could do about it. These people saved his life, which was more than he deserved. He took a deep breath, ignoring the thought of what was going on inside him at that simple action.

"I need to sit down..." He admitted, the word around him seeming to sway. Dr. Ziegler obliged, bringing him back over to the padded operating table. He sat down, putting his head in his hands to try and stop the headache, again trying ignore the strange feeling of the metal and wires. After a few moments, he raised his head again. He still felt disoriented and a bit lightheaded, but he needed to know more about what was happening.

"Who are you? Where am I?" He inquired, his eyes searching hers in question.

"I am Dr. Ziegler, known here at Overwatch as Mercy." She answered him honestly. Genji's eyes widened slightly. Overwatch...? But the Shimada Clan was an enemy of Overwatch! Why would they save him, of all people? The little brother, the disgrace... What did he mean to them?

"We could use someone like you, Genji... Overwatch would be honored to take you in as a member of our team." She offered, giving him a small smile. Genji chewed the inside of his cheek, before looking down at his hands. It wasn't like he could really say no... Even so, they saved his life. They were trying to help him... Besides, Genji didn't feel as if he had much else to live for, at this point. The clan renounced him, his brother tried to kill him, and no he was more machine than man... Why not tie it all together by becoming a living weapon?

"I will fight for Overwatch, no matter the cost, no matter who it's against, no matter what the personal damage... My allegiance I swear." He naturally saluted like he used to in training bringing his hands together with his index and middle finger up, the rest of them crossed over each other, his hands brought up closer to his bowed head. Mercy smiled at him kindly, overjoyed that he had so willingly joined their cause. She put a hand on his shoulder and he dropped the salute. The look in his eyes told her that he was trying to focus on anything other that his current state, but despite it, ran a wire covered hand through his disheveled hair, seeming to at least try and retain qualities of how he was before...the incident.

The smirk he put on was half-hearted and pitiful looking on his serrated-like face, the sickly color of his skin accented by the smudges and smears of blood. The painkiller was starting to wear off again, but Genji bit back a complaint.

"If it's alright with you, Doctor, I'd like to wash up what is left of me. Then I'd like to see what this outer layer of mine is going to look like."