Chapter 3

Lena sat with her back pressed up against a crumbling brick wall. Whatever the wall had been holding up was gone. Gone like so much of the neighborhood she was in. Harsh, jarring sounds filled the air. The clap of gunfire, the roar of incendiary rounds setting the nearby trees ablaze. A few bullets whizzed over Lena's head. The air around them had been molded by the spiral motion of the copper tipped slug. Lena always enjoyed the helix formation of the dust around the bullet.

In the corner of her ear, Lena heard a thump against the dirt on the other side of the wall. She had to move. As she dashed to her left, the grenade went off. Going this fast, Lena could see every detail of the explosion. The way the casing of the grenade cracked and sprayed everywhere like a dropped egg. The way the dirt jumped up in small flecks, as though dancing. The way the center of the explosion glowed like the sun, if only for a moment. But to Lena, a moment could last an eternity.

After she had satisfied herself with the grenade, Lena looked to see where it had been birthed. The soldier who had lobbed the payload was crouched a few yards away. His gloved fingers were plugging his ears. The shockwave of the blast was just now reaching him, gently brushing his short, brown hair back. Lena frowned at the man. He didn't seem like the kind of person to be taking place in an oppressive militia. And yet here he was.

There were always the exceptions to Lena's mental ideas of her enemies. Not every soldier was muscular. Not everyone fighting for their land was right. Not every prisoner wants to escape. She always had to slow down to contemplate what she was going to do with these exceptions. This time, she decided to carry out her mission as written.

Eliminate all militia members the report had said; among other things.

Lena emerged from her dash with the trademark blue energy she had grown accustomed to. The man looked up and saw that the brick wall where Lena had been was destroyed. He didn't look behind himself, where Lena currently was. The crater his grenade had left was the last thing the man would ever see. Lena wished the man could have seen the beauty inside of his final gift to the world.

Earlier in the morning, Lena was sitting at her table drinking a cup of tea. Wearing shorts and a tank top, she had yet to really get ready for the day ahead. It was only 9:20 after all. As she sat sipping her beverage, she heard a noise from the next room over. She recognized the noise immediately as the notification of another mission. Lena stood up and stretched her arms high over her head. She yawned. She didn't spill a drop. She entered the room and read the report.

Lena decided to take a quick shower before heading out to take care of her work for today. They weren't going to be able to pick up and move their whole base in the time it took for her to shower and dress. Lena walked to her room and quickly placed a record on the player before she entered the shower. A slow, simple song played from the speakers she had placed all over her apartment. Lena sang along as the beads of water began to fall across her skin.

"I know too well that I'm just wasting precious time…" she sang with a slight smirk on her face.

Showering was one of the things Lena had missed most in the time before she had her harness. And even then, she couldn't spend an extended period of time in water due to the complex circuitry in the harness. After a few months of work, though, Winston had managed to expand upon her harness technology and keep her rooted in the present in her home. There were small temporal anchors all throughout her apartment, constantly working to keep everything vigorously set in the current.

But Lena had gone where some might consider too far. She had discovered that, when altered slightly, she could set the anchors to a different time. After some experimentation and apprehension, Lena decided on a time. Just before the Omnic Crisis. Back when humanity was simpler and easier to deal with. Before people like her were immediately recognized and treated different. Sometimes better, sometimes worse. Usually worse.

Lena finished her shower and went to her wardrobe. Her usual uniform would do fine on this mission. Camouflage never suited her. She always wanted people to know she was on the battlefield. It didn't seem fair to sneak up on her targets. Orange was her color of choice. With her aviators jacket that she kept from when she was a pilot. She was a sentimental girl, or so her mother always told her.

After making sure her jacket was on snug and she had everything in its proper pocket, Lena put on her harness. A certain chill ran through Lena's chest. Like she had just drank a glass of ice water that didn't make it all the way to her stomach. She never could get used to the feeling. It wasn't awful or upsetting. Just uncomfortable. The feeling was worth it, however. Lena was a social butterfly, and longed to interact with the world. A slight shiver was a worthy trade.

Two hours later, Lena was sitting in the cargo hold of a small jet. The outside of it had been decorated to look like a small cargo plane, one known in the area. The façade of the plane would always be different on every mission Lena went on. Sometimes it was painted with the colors of Overwatch, announcing to the area that help was here. Sometimes it was sloppily painted with a pin up and shark teeth, like an old fighter plane. But that was only when it was going into a warzone with known aerial infantry. Sometimes it was painted as blue as the sky it swam through.

As they approached their destination, Lena slid on her goggles. They were perfectly formed to her face, and always stayed put. The hexagonal based glass that made up the lens was wirelessly connected to her harness. It displayed how much of a charge was in it, so she knew how much she could dash, as she had come to call it. It also showed how much ammo was in her dual pistols, so she always knew just how much she could fire before she needed to reload. They also matched her prescription. Once she knew that her transport was over the destination, Lena opened the door bolted to the side of the plane. As she felt the pull of the atmosphere, she giggled in excitement.

And then, Lena was falling. The air was blowing through her thick, brown hair. She loved the feeling that came after jumping out of her deployment jet. A pull in the pit of her stomach. A weightlessness that pushed her up from every limb. It felt like she was flying. It felt like freedom.

A few minutes later, Lena had dispatched most of the militia that had been terrorizing the local villages. As she approached the main building of their base, a small vibration in her pocket made her stop. In the inside left pocket of her jacket, Lena kept a phone. A phone that had been in that exact spot when its owner went through slipspace. A phone that, so it seemed, possessed the same time warping ability that its owner was so known for. Lena had hoped that, since her phone was also dancing through the flow of time, it could communicate across it. She smiled as her hypothesis was proven correct. On the screen was a short message from an unknown number.

Hey, Lena. It's Jeremy. The guy from Sunrise who

kept stumbling over his words. I just wanted

to give you my number. And also ask when I

was going to see you again. Hope to hear from

you soon, Jeremy.

Lena giggled. She remembered the awkward American from a time before hers. She talked with him about music for hours. She had almost ran out her time limit on him. She smiled as she reread the message he had sent. He said his name twice. He definitely did stumble over his words, but in a cute way, Lena thought. In a way that he had so much going on between words, it was hard to keep them organized. Like a river trying to flow in one straight line. Not possible, but an admirable effort.

Lena had a feeling that she had only scraped the surface of this young man. She also had the feeling that no one had ever bothered going farther than the surface when interacting with him. She smiled as she reread his question that wasn't formed like a question. On the subject of when he was going to see her again. Lena had planned on returning to his timeline in a few days. Both her time and his.

After typing out a quick message to him, Lena put her phone back in its pocket. She continued to smile as she walked towards the enemy establishment. She dashed up to the roof and thought about what they would do. Maybe go see a show, maybe just eat, maybe just talk. Ideas were racing through her head. Militia members were rushing around below her, desperately trying to set up a last line of defense. Lena was flush with excitement. Then, she broke through the window below her and began firing.