Wraith Main Verse
Gabriel Secondary Verse
After the incidents at the Swiss base that left Gabriel Reyes in rather poor shape, he was placed under Angela Ziegler’s care. She tried everything she knew in order to save the man. Gabriel was stable, but was not waking up. He was in a coma-like state since day one.
The doctor cleaned and bandaged the burn marks that littered his scarred body - everyday she did this. Everyday she’d work herself until exhausted trying to think up ways to wake him. She’d ask Ana every night for a nano-boost to allow her to remain awake for that much longer. The sniper, of course, started to deny Angela anymore until she got some rest.
Months have passed since Gabriel was placed under Angela’s care. Still, he did not wake. Within his mind, however, he was very much awake. He was living a life that he didn’t know, living within a body he didn’t know. It looked oddly like himself, only scarred and...monstrous looking. What happened to him? Gabriel’s memory was blurry, he couldn’t remember what happened.
This life went on for what seemed like forever.
He’s been ordered to shut down Overwatch, an organization he doesn’t even know. Though, once he did this - after killing several people whose faces he felt were familiar to him yet he didn’t know their names - the people he worked for turned against him.
Gabriel was taken to an underground laboratory where he was strapped to a metal table - something he felt was familiar yet still couldn’t remember why.
He was like that for several days, having needles shoved into his arms and legs that pumped his veins full of unknown substances - another thing that felt familiar.
The next few days, or months or maybe it was years, were all just a blur to him. So much happened. He felt so much pain. It didn’t last long, however. His body seemed to have a mind of it’s own, not following any commands his mind had given it. Gabriel didn’t want to remember the rest of what happened even though it played in his head every time he tried to sleep. The blood, the screams, the horrified faces of those he killed. The man, or creature, stopped sleeping, stopped eating - although it seemed like he didn’t even need to eat. Monsters don’t eat, right? So he thought.
Just one more time before I go
I’ll let you know
That all this time I’ve been afraid
Wouldn’t let it show
Nobody can save me now, no
Nobody can save me now
Every time Gabriel refused to eat his body had other plans, taking on a mind of it’s own - just like that day. Every time this happened, he knew something was wrong. ‘This isn’t me, this couldn’t be my body.’ The man repeated these thoughts inside his mind every time he saw blood of innocents being spilled by his own hands.
Stars are only visible in darkness
Fear is ever-changing and evolving
And I have been poisoned inside
But I, I feel so alive
It’s been over a year since Gabriel entered this coma. Everyone he knew - or once knew - came to the final decision that it was time to pull the plug. They couldn’t even think of doing it yet they knew it had to be done. There was some closure in that thought - or at least some of them thought that.
Nobody can save me now
The king is crowned
It’s do or die
When the day came…
Just one more time before I go
I’ll let you know
That all this time I’ve been afraid
Wouldn’t let it show
Nobody can save me now, no
Nobody can save me now
...They all gathered around him to say their final farewells. It was hard for most of them since some knew him longer than most. This decision hit Angela, Jesse, Ana and Fareeha the most. After everyone said what they wished to, Angela took Gabriel off life support.
Gabriel and Wraith co-existed for some time in Blackwatch (after Moira was recruited), they created this relationship that’s similar to Eddie and Venom. Reyes was the only one who knew Wraith had intelligence (can speak, comprehend and understand, etc etc - not the ‘smart’/IQ kind of intelligence).
Wraith was simultaneously keeping Reyes alive (in the sense of healing his wounds) and killing him. Wraith didn’t know it was also killing Reyes by helping Reyes survive deadly wounds. How was Reyes dying though?? You cannot give something without taking something. It’s Yin and Yang, a balance. Any deadly wound Reyes received, Wraith would heal but in doing so Reyes was giving a small piece of his soul to Wraith.
This is how Wraith got addicted to souls. It doesn’t actually need souls to survive, it thinks it does from it’s time with Reyes and indirectly and unknowingly taking a piece of his soul. It is literally addicted to souls like a drug addict. Not healthy. That’s why it’s so aggressive when it doesn’t have souls for a while. Wraith can handle withdrawal symptoms for quite some time before needing to get their claws on a soul. But they’re a complete glutton when they’re at the point of “I NEED a soul”. It’ll kill and consume a lot of souls to get back to ‘normal’.
If someone were to tell Wraith that they were actually the cause of Reyes’ death...it’ll break. They had such a close and understanding relationship with one another. So, being told “hey, you slowly killed Reyes over the course of 8 or so years by consuming bits and pieces of his soul.” Wraith wouldn’t forgive themself. They did it? They always assumed they had a hand in it but to know they actually did? Wraith would hate itself and want to be taken out, thinking that’ll somehow make Reyes come back.
Wraith having consumed Reyes soul is how they’re able to see the man's memories. Now, when Wraith consumes souls, it’ll see the memories of whoever the soul belonged to. However, at the start, with Reyes...they never saw the man's memories as it slowly consumed the pieces. They’re only coming to it now. Why? It doesn’t know. Maybe it’s Reyes helping it along in it’s life. Showing them memories to broaden their spectrum of emotions - which is working, it’s starting to understand things other than rage, hunger and guilt. If there’s others around them that’s also trying to help it, they’re helping as well even if they don’t think they are. Y’all are helping it FEEL. Outside of rage, hunger and guilt. CONTINUE TO SPOIL THIS CREATURE WITH EMOTIONS, Y’ALL. Eventually it’ll forgive itself for ending Reyes’ life unknowingly.
Wraith is a being made to kill.
They have all of Gabriel’s past memories so he knows Overwatch AND Talon. In a verse, they kill both Overwatch and Talon members (just like Reaper does in canon, albeit only Overwatch members are killed off in canon).
Wraith survives on the souls of those they kill or of the souls they find lingering in the world.
No moral compass. Well, not entirely zero. Wraith knows what is good and what is bad/evil. They just don’t care.
The verse you mentioned (It’s Only A Nightmare) is kind of canon for my Gabriel. Or at least I want it to be. I do wish to actually roleplay that verse with someone.
I want that verse to be the end of Gabriel Reyes. I hate to say that but I want my Gabriel Reyes muse to be living his own life in a coma (which explains why he can be in a relationship with any of the OW characters, Talon ones or any character; they aren’t real but they feel real for him. Anytime he hears the voice of someone speaking to Wraith, Gabriel hears them and is like “!!!” but he doesn’t really know who they are but they feel so familiar to talk to).
It’s been Wraith piloting Gabriel’s body while Reyes is having whatever dreams he wants. But every so often he’ll see glimpses of what Wraith actually does. Then it gets to the point where he’s conscious at all times for whatever Wraith does. He’s TERRIFIED. His body isn’t responding to him and it’s KILLING people?? And…eating their souls? He’s living in a nightmare. He has to be.
The end that Gabriel doesn’t see but I have written (his death because he’s just been in a coma)? Fake. Wraith creates it so Gabriel becomes complacent again. And in a sense Reyes does actually die because of this. He goes back into his “dreams” because he thinks its his afterlife.
Wraith is now masquerading as Gabriel Reyes when they’re not killing. Those being hunted know though. Oh they all know and it’s far too late to save Reyes.
Did you call for angst?
In this verse, their ‘official’ separation never happens so Wraith has to get a little creative. It’s kind of like a Venom/Eddie situation. Wraith can make himself a separate entity from Gabriel for a period of time before needing to return to Gabriel.
Their minds and thoughts are separate (meaning they both think for themselves and not for each other) but they can still use all the senses of the other. Which is what happens with Gabriel every time he’s close to ‘waking up’ or becoming conscious outside of a deep sleep, he catches glimpses of what Wraith is doing off wherever.
And that shit terrifies this man because he was just having a nice dream about the good times with Jack, Ana, Angela, and the rest? Or at least he thinks those are their names and faces, he’s seen those faces a few times from Wraith’s PoV. Right? I mean, he doesn’t have any memory of them that he can recall.
The more Wraith keeps Gabriel in the ‘coma’, the more memories it steals to make the façade of being Reyes more believable. And truthfully, that wasn’t it’s original plan. It was using Gabriel as a host to both survive off of and to silently kill others. Who’s going to believe someone who speaks of “a smoke monster with millions of eyes” coming to kill someone?? Hardly anyone. The police think they’re psychotic. Doctors can’t believe what’s being said either.
When Gabriel eventually passes, Wraith just takes over the body. He’s already housed in it so it’s not like it’ll start to decompose or anything, only one of the two people sharing it is dead. Angela and the rest of the Overwatch crew are baffled as to how Gabriel just wakes up after everyone’s left the room. Just gets up and walks away. They literally took him off life support, he should be dead.
Moira and several other high ranking Talon agents aren’t surprised. They know. They created that monstrosity and they pay for it. One by one, members of Talon go missing. If those missing are found…they’re not in good shape. Several are dismembered and the others are just drained of their life, looking like drained up husks.
Overwatch members eventually get together to actually investigate Gabriel’s sudden resurrection because Angela certainly didn’t do it. Old Blackwatch members, likely including Genji because he’s quiet, are sent to track and spy on him. Follow him around to figure out what the fuck is going on. They’re surprised when they find out exactly what is controlling Reyes.
The scenes mentioned in the original verse of where he is tasked with killing Overwatch? That was Wraith’s original purpose for being created. Kill Overwatch from within as one of their own. Gabriel gets a brief peek at that before he passes, a final nail in the coffin from Wraith because there is absolutely nothing Reyes can do to stop Wraith anymore. He wasn’t strong enough to fight it, to wake up.
It used everything it knew about Gabriel to make him weak, make him subservient and complacent. Wraith is made of nanites that can be used to alter someone’s memories and it did that to Reyes. At first, it was small things like making him forget someone’s birthday. It slowly ramped up to bigger things. Which is how he entered Angela’s care in the first place. He was forgetting things, he was no longer fit to be an agent of Overwatch or Blackwatch or anything. Eventually, he just passed out after one of his weekly visits with Angela which then turned into a coma. Which is how we got to what I’ve stated above and previously.
If Wraith is still out killing people, are there specific characters we know within either organization that would be killed or attacked? Any that would be spared or is everyone fair game?
You said Wraith is basically stealing Gabe's memories to be able to mimic him for a time, would those have any emotional effect or influence on Wraith or nah? Would Wraith ever look for a new 'host' or is Gabe's body working just fine, home-sweet-home and all that?
Specific characters?
Definitely.
Wraith was tasked with dismantling Overwatch from the inside. Those times they were off killing while Gabi was in the coma? Lower rank Overwatch agents that barely made a name for themselves or even mattered much to the cause.
However, after Reyes passes and Wraith has full control of the body? He’ll use Reyes' previous relationships with the higher rank members to get close and kill them. And if anyone asks where so-and-so has been? Their memory gets altered so there’s no trace of that person to them. Slowly but surely Wraith erases members.
Whether Wraith is stopped by Overwatch before too many of them are killed or not really doesn’t matter. Because regardless of that outcome, it’s going after Talon. More specifically Moira and her team will be targeted first. She knows this though so she likely already made plans to escape or run. That just means the other members of Talon are killed first. It knows Moira is running to buy enough time to find a potential way to stop The Wraith. And there are ways but Wraith is also a great manipulator based just on what it can do with it’s nanites.
Might spare lower ranking agents in Talon simply because they wouldn’t be able to rebuild Talon afterwards. Doesn’t have to worry about them coming back to experiment on them again. However, if they get in the way of Wraith…well, early grave for them it is. If they know what’s good for them and run for the fucking hills at seeing this monstrosity? It won't waste it’s time chasing them.
After those targets are all dead? Who knows. Maybe The Wraith will become docile and just feast on the recently deceased. Maybe it’ll just kill until there’s no one and nothing left but it.
Emotional Wraith?
Potentially.
There’s definitely moments Wraith uses Reyes’ memories to put on a show. Say we’re at the point the OW crew figures it all out and they’re gathered to kill Wraith off once and for all. It’d use Gabriel’s history with them to pull at their heartstrings, make them weak. This might work for Jesse, Jack and/or Angela but there’s really no telling because they know what it actually is now.
In terms of those memories actually having emotional effects upon Wraith? Possible. It’s only known rage and hunger so if something triggered one of Reyes’ memories that didn’t have rage or hunger in it…Wraith might falter because those are emotions it’s never felt before.
There’s potential here for a redemption arc. It’s going to have to take literally every single person Reyes once knew in Overwatch and maybe even Talon to do so. Unlikely Talon would want it to be redeemed because it’s their killing machine. Overwatch might want a spoopy smoke nanite monster that can do missions on it’s own because…once again; who would believe someone rambling about a black smoke monster thing showing up to steal this or that or whatever it was tasked to do? That’s if the people who saw Wraith aren’t Talon or any organization that might know it’s existence.
New host or nah?
Unlikely.
This is kind of like a Supernatural Lucifer and his true vessel type of instance. Wraith was made from Reyes’ DNA so it’d be more at home and at it’s strongest inside of Reyes.
It’s possible for Reyes’ body to be destroyed, sure. Wraith would still survive and wouldn’t necessarily need a body to kill. A nanite smoke monster is what it is outside of Reyes. It’ll just infect somebody else, making them go insane or even kill them from the inside out. It’s far deadlier in that form than when as Reyes. As Reyes it still has the problems of having a body; it’s solid and damageable. Wraith is tiny ass nanites that can’t really be harmed with bullets or anything. However, nanite technology is Angela’s specialty so she - maybe with the help of Moira - can find a way to kill the Wraith for good.