Author Notes

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has supported this story via reviews, favourites, follows and by contacting me in PMs. I never expected such a positive reception especially for my first story starting with a prologue! Here is to many future Chapters!

I apologise if I butcher the French in the below chapter, I'm afraid I don't know any French and I'm reliant on translation sites. Also not every chapter will be this macabre/angst filled, but given the seriousness of the situation within the story at this point I thought to not do it would be to not do either of the characters or the story any justice. In addition, we will see more interactions from the other Overwatch characters mentioned in the future, at this point it just felt like it would be filler that would add nothing to the story so I made it more of an exposition.

I'd also like to wish everyone a Happy New Year, and hope that everything turns out for the best for you all in 2017, and as always constructive feedback is always welcome (especially if I've mucked something up somewhere!) :)

:EDIT: just made some corrections, and made some amendments to last few lines - when I re-read them just now I wasn't happy with them.

:EDIT 2: Fixed some grammar errors I've noticed in further re-reads. Hopefully some of it will read better now. If I have to do a 3rd edit, somebody please shoot me!

Chapter 1

Who was she? That was even more lost upon her. She slowly opened her eyes, but then realised that nothing changed. A sudden onset of panic anchored itself within her very soul. Everything was changing and in flux around her and it all seemed disjointed, nothing made sense. Sensations rushed through her mind in an onslaught; past, present, future, smells, sounds, taste, touch, and sight all simultaneously assaulted her mind and beyond her ability to comprehend. She felt small and crushed, on the verge of suffocation while at the same time feeling like she was an omnipotent giant and everything was insignificant and below her notice.

Her mind desperately tried to find purchase in what she could only consider was a realm of madness, and it was slowly eroding away at her. It was then, that she saw a light, but did she see it? She couldn't be certain, but forced her mind towards it. Things began to take form and came into focus around her, slowly at first but quickly gaining speed as her mind latched onto the normality of it. Walls, doors, a king size bed with bedside lockers, wardrobes with mirrors built into a wall, a dresser, and windows looking out to a city below with the Eiffel Tower shining bright in the night sky. This was an apartment, her apartment.

She was under the covers of the bed on her side staring out of the windows, and she could sense the presence of another behind her. She rolled over and looked upon a man with short dark hair, he was asleep. She was about to wake him when she heard a vibration from behind her, and she rolled back over and reached out a slender pale hand an arm to pick up her phone on her bedside locker. Who was calling her at this time of night? It was a withheld caller ID, and she was about to deny it but something within her made her accept it and put the phone to her ear.

"Bonjour? {Hello?}" she answered in a soft tired voice, pushing the covers of the bed back before standing and walking gracefully over to the windows looking out at a city she adored. She could see her partial reflection in the glass, she was wearing silky black night clothes, which matched her long flowing black hair, with brown eyes full of life.

"It's time to begin..." a distorted voice came from the phone speaker in English, with a distorted pattern of noise playing in the background.

She frowned slightly at the voice and was about to end the call when she felt something in her mind snap and consume her. She saw the eyes full of life in the window reflection go blank for a moment before turning into a piercing glare of nothing, a glare of being dead inside.

"Je comprends {I understand}." she replied in a harsh monotone and hung up the call.

She turned round facing the bed, her eyes fixed on the man who was sleeping soundly. She slowly approached and climbed onto the bed before straddling the man's chest. She sat there for a moment before he groaned and opened his eyes looking up into her dead eyes.

"Amelie?" he asked in a groggy, but concerned voice.

"Non Gerard, mon nom est Widowmaker... {No Gerard, my name is Widowmaker...}" she replied as a dark predatory grin itched across her face, and with a flash of movement she wrapped hands tightly around Gerard's throat and pinned his arms with her knees to restrict his ability to fight back. Gerard thrashed below her in futile resistance, unable to break her grip or dislodge her from above him; despite her lithe form she was exceptionally strong.

She smiled as Gerard's struggles became slower and his eyes began to flutter, and she leaned closer brushed her head slightly against his so her mouth was close enough to whisper into the Gerard's ear "... Talon et envoient leurs salutations {and Talon send their regards}."

Gerard let out a half sob-half groan in response to her and she squeezed her hands tighter around his throat. It didn't take long to finish the job, and she felt him fall unconscious with his tense muscles loosening beneath till he finally stopped breathing and she slowly unwrapped her hands from his throat and left the bed and returning to the windows, the buzz of the kill rushing threw her body for the first time. When she looked back at her reflection, she was no longer dressed in her night clothes but a purple body suit and her skin and hair were blue, her eyes now the a golden colour. She held up her hands in front of her face to find them covered in blood and began to look around, panic setting in again as the walls began to bleed and she suddenly found herself drowning in blood and unable to swim, banging her fists against the glass.

It was then, when she thought she was about to die, that she woke up with her eyes darting open as she bolted upright with her hand grasping at her chest where she felt her heart pounding within. Her face was covered in sweat and she frowned slightly in confusion, did she just have a nightmare? She looked down at herself, hand still on her hammering chest. She was wearing plain loose fitting trousers and V-neck shirt that resembled hospital clothing, her bodysuit, weapons and equipment were all missing. It was then that she realised her heart was not the only thing hammering as her head suddenly felt like someone had taken a sledge hammer to it.

She grimaced at the pain for a moment as her hands reached up to partially cradle her forehead before she mentally pushed the pain aside and her face took a more neutral expression, she began to look around and saw that she was sat up on a bed in a room that was square shaped, roughly 100 square foot with a door leading into what looked like an on-suite bathroom and another door which looked like a mirror. The walls were all metallic with no windows and reflected the strange bright blue lights that surrounded the edges of the ceiling, she also noticed the security cameras which looked like they had been recently installed. The room was plainly furnished with the bed she was sat on, a small desk and chair and wardrobe. She quickly got off the bed and checked the mirror door but it seemed to be magnetically sealed with no way to open it from her side; so it was a cell she concluded.

She moved back into the room and checked the wardrobe which had more clean clothing identical to what she was already wearing as well as towels, before moving over to the desk and chair to see if there was anything she could use there, which there wasn't. Her frown returned as she moved into the on suite room that was similarly decorated as the main room, but contained a shower, toilet and sink with a bar of soap and tiled mirror . She decided she would be needing a shower soon, she was fastidious when it came to her hygiene prisoner or not. She returned to the main room and began to prepare for her shower when she heard the magnetic seal on the mirror door hiss as the door opened behind her and she heard someone walk in.

"Alright love" chirped the eternally happy Tracer "... thought I'd come pay ya a visit, since you're finally awake n' all."

Widowmaker turned round to face Tracer, adopting a neutral posture with her body although her eyes pierced and assessed the Brit before her. She took note of the fact that Tracer was unarmed except for her Chronal Accelerator, "foolish girl" she thought. Widowmaker then turned her back on Tracer and continued on with her preparations for her shower. She had nothing to say to Tracer, even if she was curious as to why she had saved her.

"Jeez, talk about givin' someone a cold shoulder..." she heard Tracer quip behind her and walk over to Widowmaker's bed and sit down on it, where she watched Widowmaker for a moment in silence.

Tracer suddenly sighed, it was a sad sigh, a sigh laden with guilt. It was such a contradiction of what Widowmaker knew about Tracer that it made her look over her shoulder at the woman. Tracer's usual smile was gone and she was looking up at Widowmaker with a look of guilt and pity. While Widowmaker didn't feel much of anything anymore, she could still assess other's moods and emotions, it was after all a skill useful for an assassin in order to find weaknesses that could be exploited.

"We need to talk love." Tracer spoke, her voice as equally sombre as her facial expression.

Widowmaker turned entirely and raised an eyebrow at Tracer as if telling her to get on with it.

"You might want to sit down for this love..." Tracer spoke again, gesturing towards the chair.

Widowmaker simply crossed her arms in response, remaining silent.

Tracer simply shrugged at Widowmaker before looking away and swallowing out of dread, before returning her gaze to Widowmaker.

"When I saved you from the fall... back in London." Tracer began nervously "... I er... had to do something... I couldn't let you die, but I think what I did to you was much worse than death in the end..." A single tear rolled down Tracer's cheek "... I'm sorry love... I didn't know what else to do."

Dismay settled into Widowmaker's stomach, what was so bad that Tracer had done that was causing her to fumble her way around telling her. Outwardly she remained composed however.

"I used my recall ability... after I grabbed onto you..." Tracer finally said gingerly after a moments silence "... it might have caused you, some problems..."

Widowmaker held her hand up at that in order to stop Tracer from continuing, she had read Talon's files on Tracer in depth and she knew about the Slipstream incident that had caused Tracer to suffer from Chronal Disassociation which also granted her the unique ability of being able to control her own time when combined with her Chronal Accelerator. Dread and panic filled Widowmaker at the implications of what Tracer was saying, but she knew she shouldn't be feeling anything at all right now, something was clearly wrong with her and that just made the panic within her all the worse.

"I think you should leave." Widowmaker carefully and slowly spoke each word to Tracer in a very thick French accent, which only came to the fore like this when she was stressed.

Tracer seemed to deflate before Widowmaker, she simply nodded and stood and made to leave, upon reaching the mirror door she stopped and turned her head and spoke with her voice slowly trailing off towards the end "For the mean time, you will be kept here. If you leave this room... well... you know what will happen..."

A memory flashed in Widowmaker's mind of the chaotic realm she had been in. She originally thought it part of her nightmare, but now she knew it was much more than that, and that confirmation made her heart sink - this room was more than just a prison cell, it was the only thing keeping her from going back to that place. She simply nodded in response to Tracer, whom then left the room without saying another word with the mirror door sealing closed behind her with a hiss of air.

Widowmaker suddenly felt like a shower wasn't so important at the moment and returned to her bed where she curled up, hugging her knees to her chest and tried to wrestle with her emotions which were growing increasingly unruly, she knew things would never be the same again and that her future was no longer certain. She grimaced again as her pounding headache returned.

Tracer meanwhile thought back on the events leading up to that moment, and she felt ill. She'd never wish this fate, her fate, on anyone, not even her worst enemies. She was going to need a strong drink tonight she absently thought to herself in her glumness as she ran through the events of the past few days.

Lena's Flashback

=3 days prior, London, UK=

"Oh god..." Lena's panicked voice echoed through the office.

She had just jumped out of the Window, blinking forward and grabbing hold of an unconscious Widowmaker mid-fall in the air after being blown through the windows by Lena's bomb and had recalled to bring them back to the safety of the office, and within seconds of the recall Widowmaker had begun to fade and then disappeared. Winston had always warned her about using her abilities when she was holding onto someone, he had tried to explain the science about it but she hadn't paid that much attention. She only remembered him stressing it was a very bad idea, and she now knew why.

She had to think, she couldn't let Widowmaker suffer that fate and be left in that place. She shuddered at the thought, she was responsible.

She quickly grabbed her phone from a sealed pocket in her iconic trousers and dialled Winston, "he could help, he would help, right?" she thought.

"Lena" Winston's voice answered in his deep voice over the phone "I thought you were on an assignment, is everything ok?"

"Oh god Winston..." Lena's voice echoing its previous panic "... I need your help love... I think I just did something stupid."

"Ok Lena, I need you to calm down and explain what's happened."

Lena quickly explained to Winston the fight she had just had with Widowmaker and her (what she considered) botched rescue attempt.

"Ah, I see" sighed Winston, he understood now "...you weren't listening when I warned you about the potential side effects of the Chronal Accelerator?"

"Not now Winston!" Lena snapped, she instantly regretted it and groaned "... Look, I'm sorry big guy, but I can't live with myself if I don't do something to help her... it's my fault, please help me, you're the only one who can."

There was a tense moment of silence for Lena as Winston considered the options "You know I can't make this decision by myself..." was his initial response "... but we still have the room where you originally stayed before I finished the Chronal Accelerator. It's still operational, I kept it in working order just in case of an emergency."

"Thank you love, I knew I could count on ya love!" beamed Lena

"Don't thank me just yet, we will all need to discuss this and come to a consensus before moving forward... return to the Watchpoint, I'll alert the local authorities in London, they should be able to handle clean up of the office." Winston replied

"Alright love, I'll see you soon, thank you... really..." Lena spoke softly

Winston gave a friendly grunt of acceptance that spoke a thousand words to Lena before the line went dead. She sighed and put the phone away and made her way to an extraction point.

=Previous day, Watchpoint Gibraltar=

Waiting for everyone to get back from their assignments had been a new kind of torment for Lena, she worried incessantly over Widowmaker being stuck in the timeless void. She only had vague memories of it herself, the incomprehensible nature of it. It was still enough to give her occasional nightmares, despite years of counselling and medications to help her sleep and keep her calm. She has, since then, come to terms with it for the most part, but like any deep scar it had left it's mark on her and today's discussions brought back some very unpleasant memories.

They had quickly gathered to discuss the events of Lena and Widowmaker in London. Everyone was concerned about the intelligence they had received that had obviously now been proven false and used to lay a trap for Tracer to be assassinated by Widowmaker, and they were equally as concerned about Widowmaker's uncharacteristic approach to her attempt to kill Lena face to face. Those thing's however had only been a footnote in comparison to the debate raging about what to do about Widowmaker being stuck in the timeless void in much a similar fashion as Lena had been after the Slipstream incident.

They had been debating for at least an hour in a large room of the Watchpoint that had once been used for mission debriefings during Overwatch's heydays. Lena and Winston had been the first to arrive, and had been joined by Angela Ziegler, Jesse McCree and Genji Shimada. Genji had kept silent throughout the entirety of this particular debate, while Lena and Jesse had argued until their faces were red. McCree was very much in favour or leaving Widowmaker in the void where she couldn't harm anyone else ever again, and what he considered a just fate. Given Lena's personal experiences she had taken his statement about it very personally, and the debate had quickly devolved into a heated argument that both Winston and Angela couldn't get back under control.

Angela had soon backed out of the argument entirely after feeling her own anger beginning to boil after a particularly stinging remark from McCree about her objectivity where Widowmaker was concerned given her past history with her when she had been Amelie Lacroix. This was made worse given the fact that McCree had been friends with Amelie's husband Gerard whom she'd murdered, and that McCree couldn't see the hypocrisy in his own statement.

It had taken Genji finally speaking out to silence everyone "I believe that everyone deserves a second chance..." Genji had said in a calm soft voice "... even Widowmaker."

"So, are we finally agreed in saving Widowmaker from the time void?" Winston asked in exasperation, pushing his glasses back onto his nose.

No one dissented this time, and so they finally moved on; apologies could be made later when cooler heads prevailed. They quickly discussed how best to contain Widowmaker, as everyone could agree that she couldn't be trusted given her history both recent and distant, and that giving Widowmaker the spare Chronal Accelerator that Winston had built as a backup for Lena's current one was an entirely bad idea. As such, the decision was made that Widowmaker would instead be restricted to the room that had been built for Lena originally before her Chronal Accelerator, although the room would need some modifications to make it more secure. Angela briefly mentioned that Widowmaker would require a full medical workup as well although she wouldn't go into that room alone with her. Once the finer details had been hammered out and Lena had volunteered to be the first to speak with Widowmaker to 'break the news', they began making their preparations and those hours had been some of the longest Lena could remember.

End Flashback

=Secret Underground Talon Facility, Sahara Desert - Early Morning of the next Day=

Reaper growled at the faceless holographic projections of two of Talon's Council before him, he was stood in the middle of a pitch black room with 8 such projectors surrounding him, but only two were active, the rest of the council had decided this issue was to beneath them to notice. The two who had bothered to show, were not impressed with recent events concerning Widowmaker.

The council were all so afraid of loosing their secrets that they kept even their identities well concealed. While he too wore a mask, most people who worked with him long enough knew who and what he truly was and so he couldn't help but feel condemnation to the pathetic excuses of human detritus that lead Talon. He doubted he'd ever meet them in person, hidden away as they were. No one knew where they were at any time, that way no one could compromise Talon in it's entirety as no one except them had all the pieces to that particular jigsaw puzzle.

"This is not an acceptable outcome." said one of the faceless holograms, the voice distorted but obviously belonging to a man.

"I concur, Widowmaker has never failed an assignment before. We expect a full report as to what caused her to stray from protocol." said the other, this time a woman's distorted voice

"Of course..." Reaper responded in a half growl, although he had better things to be doing than appeasing pencil pushers.

"Is there any ETA for her return?" the man asked

"Given that the local authorities in London are involved, she may be another week in hiding before she makes contact." Reaper replied in disdain "... and if she doesn't make contact by that time, we have other plans in place to deal with her."

"Very well then... we expect you to keep us up to date on any developments regarding Widowmaker. If we need to plan for a replacement then we need to put those plans into motion sooner rather than later." the woman stated

"Naturally..." Reaper answered condescendingly, part of him wanted to shoot the holoprojections.

The holoprojections then flickered off leaving Reaper alone in the projection room, and he chuckled darkly to himself before turning and leaving the room.

His gamble with tampering with Widowmaker's last maintenance cycle had paid off, and that she had been captured by Overwatch was a bonus. Not that he had told the council any of that for he was using them and Talon for his own ends after all as their end goals didn't really align with his and that sort of attention this early on would see his plans delayed, but so far everything was going just as planned. Now all he had to do was to clean up house with some of the scientists in the Widowmaker Project to ensure that his duplicity wouldn't get back to the council via other means.

He walked through the base's corridors with purpose with anyone unfortunate enough to be near him doing their best to avoid his baleful gaze, until he reached a room where his co-conspirators from the Widowmaker Project were being kept for 'their safety'. He quickly checked no one was watching before he turned into black mist and oozed under the door and into the awaiting room beyond.