Gabriel lost his mother shortly before the Swiss base incident. Since his mother was one big part of his life, he accepted that his actions at the base would be the death of him; he accepted death that day. He knew his father and his two younger sisters would miss him dearly. God, he loathed himself even more after his actions as he lay there in his own blood, slowly dying.
He wanted a second chance to see his two adorable sisters, he needed to be there, he needed to be a big brother to them. It was too late. His life, the light in his eyes and skin faded from existence. He didn’t want to see their crying faces, their screams of unbelievable anguish over the news of his death.
He got his second chance. Gabriel took this chance to watch over his sisters from afar. Years had passed, those two girls grew into women; such beautiful women. He was so glad they were his sisters, their big brother that’ll protect and love them forever.
Hell, he did just that. His youngest sister was being assaulted, he stepped in and cursed the pendejo out and once the attacker left, he vanished without another word. He kept a closer eye on his siblings from then on out even while still doing missions. Several more years passed and Gabriel got the news he never knew he’d get.
His family was dead, everyone - his sisters, his father, everyone he grew up with in that childhood home was gone. He knew not of who did it, but it made him hate the world. He grew bitter and hated everyone. That was the birth of The Reaper.
Gabriel’s clueless as to who killed them, his family --- it was Talon, his old work place. Someone from Talon or someone that learns this information tells Gabriel...and he just loses it. He just goes on a Talon murder spree, killing “retired” Talon agents and even coming so close to killing a child or elderly person; yet at the very last second he catches himself.
That small incident makes him afraid of himself, scared of what he could possibly do. Yet, when he was murdering those retired Talon agents...Gabriel didn’t notice the changes that were happening to him. They weren’t physically visible but they were mentally and emotionally - if anyone cared to “examine” him. But, as the weeks go on and he’s slowly realizing he needs to avenge his family - his younger sisters, one was just engaged...he needs to for her. That was his motive when he began his infiltration mission to Talons HQ. ‘Do it for her’, ‘Avenge her, she’d want that’.
Since this man stepped into a place that he held so much hate for, his body began to change - to fully show these changes. Teeth showing from where his cheeks would be but no longer - much like Mileena from Mortal Kombat, his eyes now blood red instead of a lighter shade of red - fully showing his growing anger and madness, smoke rising from his skin - particularly from his opened cheeks, his mouth and a few scars upon his face. His voice sounds more wispy, more ghost like and less human. Talon is no more after that single visit (at least he thought as much).
Gabriel still doesn’t understand how he did it nor how he survived...if anything he’d call it sheer luck....but deep down? He knows it to be a lie, he knows it’s his new abilities that have mutated, if you will. His PTSD has worsened now. Why? Because every time he looks into a mirror he’s reminded that he was the monster all along, he caused so many people’s deaths....he was always the villain. But, every time he’s reminded of this he goes into a fit of rage -- much like Bruce does when he’s Hulk...but....on a more deadlier level. Once he “comes down” from this blood frenzy, he’s normal Gabriel again...or as normal as he ever could be with his new ghostly powers/abilities.
As Gabriel slowly tries to leave behind all the damage he’s caused as Reaper by joining Overwatch in hopes to undo what he’s done. He slowly reconnects with his old friends; Angela, Jack, and McCree. He’s slower with the other members of Overwatch for he doesn’t wish them to see him as “He’s tricking you, don’t trust him”. Gabe wants everyone to come to terms with the fact that he truly does feel bad about what he’s done.
He speaks of his “curse” which he’s referring to his constant dying and regenerating state he’s been in for several years now. Gabriel says this ‘form’ of his will be one of the ways he ‘atones for his sins’ while the others will be actually showing the world that he’s a changed man; this time it’s for the better.
From afar he watches his family, mostly just his two sisters. Both of which have grown into such beautiful young women.
One night his youngest, Isabella, was getting attacked by several men. He, of course, came to save her by scaring away her attackers. She, by some magical force, recognized him. Gabriel quickly took her home and requested that she keep the news that he’s alive secret.
Several months later, he still watched over them from time to time but he had gotten busy over those few months and he got news. His sisters and father were killed. His reasoning for it was that they were related to him and they were most likely killed by Talon seeing as he left them to rejoin Overwatch.
He was hurt, no - he was devastated by the news. His younger sisters were killed just for being related to him. How cold of a world does he now live alone in? His entire family, gone to the wind like leaves. He’s lost everything.
He’s really depressed because of that but only shows it to Jack, McCree and Angela because Jack and Angela are long time best friends of his and McCree is kind of a son to him. But with him being “Reaper” now he’s reluctant to be around Jesse in fear the man will look down upon him, or hate him – or both.
He does not act differently around the others, though. He’s still cold towards everyone else because he doesn’t wish to make them feel like he’s tricking them - he truly does feel bad about everything he did.
He will give everyone all the time in the world (not only because he’s unable to die so he’ll practically live forever) because he wishes to atone for his mistakes - his forever dying and forever living is what he calls atoning, always reliving his mistake(s) because he ruined Jack’s life, he made Angela feel guilty for turning him into this - he doesn’t blame either one of them. He blames himself and himself alone.
He’s actually tried to kill himself the first few weeks of being turned into “Reaper”, but found it almost impossible because he’ll come back minutes later.
He does not hope to be forgiven nor does he wish for his curse to be lifted. He wants to die, but he has taken it upon himself that this is his punishment for his crime of jealousy. His crime of splitting Overwatch in two, destroying the world (mass property damage), ruining lives.
This man, this deadly creature single-handedly took down Overwatch. It took a few years after his little “incident” but he did it. Every member of Overwatch was finally off his list, finally down for the count. Most of the members weren’t easy to track while others were like child’s play.
Talon had to hand it to him, they didn’t think he’d achieve this goal but who were they to complain when their rival was finally just a memory? They had a sick idea to enhance Reaper’s abilities further, in the end, it was just an excuse to experiment on him - he had grown so used to it by now.
After everything that’s happened to him, Reaper only slipped farther and farther into his darkness. No thanks to Talon – actually, scratch that, because it was all thanks to Talon he sunk deeper and deeper into madness. His skin showed such transactions. He no longer looked like a dead Gabriel Reyes but a horrible looking monster.
Teeth showing from where his cheeks would be but no longer - much like Mileena from Mortal Kombat, his eyes now blood red instead of a lighter shade of red - fully showing his growing anger and madness, smoke rising from his skin - particularly from his opened cheeks, his mouth and a few scars upon his face. His voice sounds wispier, more ghost like and less human. Most people would ask what he’s said but are too afraid to for he could kill with just them opening their mouth.
It’s been years since Talon’s experiments on him – when it fact it was only several months. This nightmarish creature no longer wanted to be the subject to madness. Reaper knew of the guard's rotations in his short span of being a test subject, he studied them closely, remembered the exact time someone showed and when someone left. Knowing these facts, he used them against his former allies. When someone left he was that much closer to escaping, waiting for the right person to enter and exit.
Once that person did, he struck – oh, but he didn’t aim to just knock this person out…no, he ripped them limb from limb and rather easily too thanks to his new found abilities. Now he only went room to room killing his former bosses and comrades. If you’ve ever played Outlast, that’s most certainly how the Talon base ended up looking. People running for their lives, blood everywhere, people losing their minds, people killing themselves so that Reaper couldn’t that the satisfaction of watching their souls leave their bodies. It was a true nightmare, one Talon never expected would happen within their very walls.
Now that both Talon and Overwatch have destroyed this man – no – creature was finally free. It was free to walk this earth however it pleased. But at what cost?
Note: He no longer works with Talon. In fact, he destroyed Talon - yes, even my Gabriel muse. Reaper is a free spirit walking the earth to do as he pleases.
I kind of have a headcanon thing I made for Reaps that…kind of delves more into what else he can do since he’s fully embraced the darkness now.
It’s…like he can find the host of a person. Like, if this person has had an item for an extremely long time (stuffed toy, necklace, ring, book, etc etc). That item has part of the owner’s soul attached to it. And if the person’s lost it and Reaper finds it… he can “consume” the small bit of soul from the item and see what the owner’s last actions/words were. Like, he sees what they were doing and all the moments before they lost the item. He doesn’t know what to expect whenever he does this. It’s a new vision every time. Most of them aren’t very surprising but some are. He can use this ability to help track down the owner of the item. He uses this many many times when hunting down his enemies… but they’re not out to kill him, his enemies… he needs to continue to eat/consume souls or else his physical body will be no more; he’d be only smoke…or nanites yet he’d still be there in the world…just sort of unseeable only a faint “black wisp” when he moves can you tell he’s there and if you pay attention to those dark corners.
“Would he still be able to consume souls while in his Nanite/smoke form?”
He would be able to, yes. It’s just much harder to do considering he’s unable to wield his guns with that type of form to enable him to easily retrieve said soul - shotguns are powerful up close. He can, however, use his ‘new’ form to attack, they are deadly attacks. But, he refuses to just outright kill his current victim(s) – at least sometimes. Considering that his smoke is more of a ‘his skin is dissipating into the air’ if he’s smokey/misty looking…he’s completely harmless. But his nanite-form is deadly. There’s only a 10% chance of his latter ‘form’ to appear because it’s harder to maintain a semi-physical form for more than a minute or two. That’s where he’d have to plan his attacks wisely, only able to form sort of nanite-blades or tentacles if you’d prefer since that’s easier to picture. Since nanites are so small he doesn’t have to put too much effort into killing or harming his victims. They can cut through skin easily or so he thinks. But, in fact, he can wound his victims so quickly and easily because the nanites are continuously moving. Always moving. So because of this movement they’re constantly in, it disrupts the skin - acting very similar to a saw cutting through wood.
“Wait, so say he hasn’t consumed a soul in a while, would consuming a piece from an object help him sustain his form?”
It would, in a way, yes… but it would only be for an extremely short amount of time - a few minutes at most unless the soul was more than a fragment of its owner.
“What if someone’s entire soul went to that item? Oh, would he be able to smell it too?”
In rare cases, he has indeed found some items that had an entire person’s soul to it. Sometimes it’s not even a living person anymore as if the true owner died and it’s soul attached to said item and the item was handed to a new owner; family, friend or a random stranger.
Yes, he can indeed smell souls…or rather the taste since they are no longer part of their host’s body. It’s this particular reason he continues to kill and kill for souls rather than to maintain his physical form - although consuming the souls does, in fact, assist that, too, but he prefers to just taste the souls. The taste of souls is addicting to him, especially those sweet tasting ones that most naïve teenagers carry. Because of this, he doesn’t consume the entire soul sometimes, only taking part and placing the rest inside a safe place - usually a bottle or container of some sort that’s pocketable.
“So, if an entire soul was attached to an item would he be able to see more memories?”
If it’s of a deceased person, yes. He’d be able to see most if not all of that person’s memories. If you’ve seen black butler he’s practically a shinigami and these souls are their ‘life flashing before their eyes’. He carries a very heavy burden. He remembers and knows everything about all these people yet he’s stable…well, he’s not. He’s not in Talon and he’s killing whenever he needs to or whenever he feels like it. My Gabi is the same, that’s why he turned towards the good side again.
“Has he encountered memories that have nothing to do with his current task/mission but takes the time to do something for them? Like returning an item? Has he ever helped a victim from their captor if they were kidnapped?”
He has, surprisingly, returned a few things. Mostly to children because adults need to take better care of losing their items. Reaper has only helped two kidnapped victims, one a kid and the other a woman - he saved the kid because they reminded him of Jesse, he saved the woman because she reminded him of Angela…but he’ll never admit it to anyone. It’s his little secret.