Vomiting, unsafe decisions around heights, mild gore


Tracer apologizes for almost shooting Widowmaker saying that she didn't sleep too well and is a mite bit jumpy. She also gives her a lecture about how startling people, especially trained combatants, isn't a good idea or funny. Widowmaker almost laughs in her face and gives Tracer her own lecture on irony, in French.

They leave the safe house and split up. Tracer darts out into the crowding streets in her civilian disguise. Widowmaker takes up her position on the roofs ready to strike at a moment's notice.

"Eyes on the prize. Everything looks clear on my end. Moving in," Tracer says over the line.

"I copy. You're clear to proceed," Widowmaker says seeing the plaza is clear of hostiles.

Tracer greets the Informant warmly. Tanaka wastes no time leading Tracer into an adjacent building. Widowmaker switches her visor on and watches the two heat signatures make their way up the apartment complex. When they appear on the rooftop Widowmaker grapples away. She makes sure to keep enough distance between them so she can see any approaching enemies or complications.

Widowmaker crouches on top of their hotel building for the third time this mission. She watches the blue blur of Tracer and the Informant zigzag across rooftops drawing closer. Tanaka requested that Tracer use her abilities for the last leg of the trip. Widowmaker understands his reasons for being a little paranoid but wonders if he fully understands the side effects of Tracer's 'jumps.'

"Do you think you could get the door for me?" Tracer pants over the comms, "I've kinda got my hands full."

Widowmaker gives the area one last sweep, not forgetting to check behind and above. All clear.

"Of course."

Widowmaker grapples down and opens the double glass doors to the balcony. She steps inside the living room and out of the way as Tracer blinks through the doors. The sniper locks the door and closes the drapes behind her.

Tracer stands in the middle of the living room wheezing. Sweat drips off her face onto the Chronal Accelerator. The orange goggles cause a pang of nostalgia. Her legs are trembling from the toll of running while carrying a full-grown man. The Informant's legs are wrapped around her midsection, and his arms are tight across the Accelerator. His face is pale, and he wears a blank yet horrified expression.

Tracer drops to her hands and knees. Tanaka dismounts and collapses on the floor.

"Haven't done a weighted run in a while," Tracer gasps out, "Shoulda done more squats and less sassing 76."

Tanaka lifts himself off the floor and vomits.

"Whoops, forgotta warn ya about that. Side effects of bending space-time may include: itching, watery eyes, sneezing, nausea, vomiting, tingling sensations, numbness, ah, and much, much more," Tracer peters out and returns to gasping for air.

Tanaka coughs and throws up again. After a moment Tracer uses the couch to pull herself up to a standing position.

"I'll get you a bucket," Tracer says stumbling into the kitchen. "And don't worry about the carpet. Ya can't make it any uglier."

Widowmaker walks back into the room rolling her eyes.

"I've got it. Imbécile." She places a metal trashcan in front of Tanaka. "And get yourself a water or something. I don't need you passing out due to heat exhaustion."

"Brilliant," Tracer exclaims then drops her head into the kitchen sink and turns on the water on her face.

Widowmaker lets out a sigh and turns her attention to the Informant.

Tanaka sits on his heels hugging the trashcan to his chest. He spits a few times and takes ragged breaths. The man's sunglasses are skewed at an awkward angle across his hairline. He has dressed as a tourist again; kaki shorts and a neutral t-shirt. Widowmaker spies the outline of a bulletproof vest under the shirt. Smart man.

"Here," Widowmaker holds out a gun cloth, "Your face is disgusting."

"Thank you," Tanaka says taking the rag.

Tanaka wipes his face and blows his nose. He throws the cloth into the trashcan. He clears his throat and raises his head.

"So..." The question dies on his lips as he looks at her.

His eyes dart from her blue skin to her unnaturally yellow eyes to the stylized W on her suit and finally rest on the Widow's Kiss. Recognition is swallowed by fear, pure primal terror. So, he knows who she is.

"Oh god," he breathes.

Widowmaker has seen that look of terror before. It is the expression of a man who knows he is marked for death. Apparently, Tanaka believes Widowmaker is going to kill him. He might actually be selling out Talon. Interesting. Tanaka bolts from the floor. He slams his body into the double doors, unaware they had been locked. Metal and glass shake as he roughly opens the lock and Widowmaker suddenly understands what he means to do. Rather than deal with the outcome of being confronted by a Talon assassin he's going to throw himself off the building. Naturally.

Tracer shouts a curse and sprints across the room. She lets out another profanity as Tanaka throws open the doors. The Chronal Accelerator is dark, all its charge used up earlier. Widowmaker does not move from her spot. Chasing after Tanaka would only fuel his fear. Casually she releases the grappling hook from its mount on her arm.

Tanaka rushes the balcony. He pauses for a split second before putting a foot on the railing. Widowmaker's grappling line zips out and wraps around his chest. Tracer reaches the balcony seconds after him. She grabs a side railing perpendicular to the building and swings her body over it. White running shoes hook into the section Tanaka is climbing onto, and Tracer moves directly in front of him.

"Whoa there! The emergency exit is a one-way trip only! Where's the fire?" Tracer quips.

Tanaka sputters out something in Japanese. Widowmaker catches the word Overwatch. Tracer pushes his foot off the rail.

"Overwatch doesn't exist anymore, wink-wink-nudge-nudge, but lots of us are still fighting the good fight! Myself included! Now, why don't we go back inside and I'm sure we can fix whatever is bothering ya," Tracer says climbing over the railing forcing Tanaka back inside.

Widowmaker keeps the line taut as Tracer relocks the doors. The Informant's glances from Tracer to Widowmaker to the safe house's front door to Widowmaker again. Tanaka swallows hard and dissolves into rambling in Japanese, English, and Italian.

Tracer tries to comfort the man while pulling off Widowmaker's grappling hook. Between his blubbering Widowmaker can pick out Tanaka pleading for a quick death, confessing sins, and cursing members of Talon to be eaten by birds and have their remains crapped back onto their cars. (She'll have to remember that one.)

Tracer looks from Tanaka to Widowmaker and back again. Realization dawns on her face.

"Widow, luv, why don't you go take a walk while our guest calms down?" Tracer says.

Widowmaker turns towards the door. She wasn't going to be much help here anyways. She never knew what to do in these situations; too many feelings and snot.

"And leave your rifle here, yeah?" Tracer adds.

Despite Tracer's light tone, this is a command. She's showing Tanaka her authority over her. Tactically it's very clever. She's taking control of the situation, removing Widowmaker, and calming down Tanaka all at once. Perhaps there is a brain underneath all that hair gel.

An image flashes through Widowmaker's mind overwhelming but already fading; like the afterburn of a camera flash. Tracer in a dark uniform sprawled on the floor, dead. A bullet wound between her eyes, brain and blood splatter the wall behind her body.

Widowmaker's heart rate stutters and then returns to normal. She slides her rifle off her shoulders, showing no signs of distress. Gently she places Widow's Kiss on the island. She grabs her overcoat and then leaves the safe room. Behind her Tracer promises Tanaka that no one is going to kill him.

C'est quoi ce bordel?

Where had that come from? She doesn't want to kill Tracer. Besides being her only safe transport out of Rome, the reaction form Overwatch would make a Talon's manhunt look like a child's game of hide-and-seek. She clearly remembers the effects of the Slipstream disaster had on the original Overwatch and Gérard's health. Emotions and tensions ran high on both low and high ends of the ranks.

The accident was a bad publicity bomb waiting to go off, Overwatch's relationship to RAF took a solid hit, and organizations around the world began quietly withdrawing their own volunteers. It was essentially a nightmare for the UN. A cloud of depression settled over the base after Oxton's 'death' and certain people with unhealthy coping mechanism reacted poorly. Gérard had to deal with fights between test pilots and Slipstream scientists, and sometimes groups that hadn't even known Oxton directly. The girl was so likable she even got strangers to try and avenge her death.

Considering "Overwatch" now consists of a tight-knit group of experienced military personnel who did all know Tracer personally. Well, she might as well pick out her own burial plot.

Widowmaker frowns and re-examines her thought process. She picks out one sentence and replays it in her mind.

She doesn't want to kill Tracer.

She takes the phrase, examining it from different angles, stressing different syllables, pulling it apart and stitching it back together.

She is a sniper, an assassin. She lives for the thrill of the kill, the charge that surges through her body when she snips her target's lifeline short. It is her purpose.

But there is a short list of people who she'd rather not execute.

Lena "Tracer" Oxton has been a thorn in her side from the beginning. The speedster's one-liners and interference made her job that much more difficult and the thrill that much more thrilling. Tracer had never been an official target of Talon. The speedster wasn't powerful or organized enough to be a true threat, so Widowmaker was never forced to consider her thoughts on the topic. Months ago, if she had been given the order she wouldn't have so much as blinked. Sure the loss of such a skilled opponent would have caused some emotion to ripple through her sea of apathy; she isn't sure which one. But now...

But now Tracer has apparently clawed her way onto one of the most exclusive lists of the century. Damned feelings. She's getting soft.


"Mr. Tanaka, sir. Can I call you Tanaka? No one is going to hurt you. Honest," Lena says to the man in shock on the couch.

The poor man had been teleported halfway across the city, puked his guts out, and scared to death by Widowmaker all in the past half hour. That was a rough morning by anyone's standards. Tanaka now sits trembling with his head in his hands muttering about poor life choices.

"I don't know what you thought earlier, but Widowmaker doesn't work for Talon anymore. She's an affiliate of Overwatch now!" Lena chirps jumping into a pose; chest out, hands on her hips.

Tanaka doesn't respond. Lena drops her arms and tries again.

"I understand she looks pretty terrifying with the dead eyes and the terrible CGI skin and all, but she's on our side. I promise."

At this Tanaka snaps back to reality.

"On your side? On your side? She doesn't take sides. I thought you were Overwatch! Not, not, whatever this is! Do you even know who she is? What she did?" he asks.

"She was a Talon sniper. Now she's reformed... mostly."

"Mostly?" Tanaka cries.

Lena winces at her mistake. She softens her stance and her voice.

"Look, I know Widowmaker isn't going to win any awards for her bedside manner, but you're her mission. She'll die before the mission fails. So she's not going to hurt you. And I'm her boss, and I'm not going to let her hurt you either."

Tanaka glares at her. He's still angry, but he believes her.

"This is not what I requested," he says his voice low and his eyes closed in frustration.

"I know, I know, and I'm really sorry but we need to move. The longer it takes us to get you out of Rome the longer you'll be in danger."

Tanaka lets out a defeated sigh.

"Could you give me a few minutes to collect myself?" her ask.

"Of course luv."


Translations

C'est quoi ce borde? - What the fuck?

/Tracer it totally the person to keep talking even if she physically shouldn't.

Tracer can swear in both Korean and Japanese thanks to her friendship with Hana and Genji. She considers this an important life skill.

I imagine Lena was generally well like at the original OW. She strikes me as the type of person who would make an effort to know people's names and be friendly to them, or at least avoid being rude.

People like to look for someone to blame for a senseless death, Widowmaker is not going to be that someone.

Also Overwatch would rally and avenge the death of any of its members.

If someone is on the List that doesn't mean Widowmaker likes them it just means she wants them alive for various reasons. /

The List for those who are interested in no particular order

The Talon Board Member who Widowmaker is under

Reaper

Sombra*

Her Handlers

Gérard

Tracer

Hanzo

Mercy

The Widowmaker Division Physicians/Doctors

*Sombra's name is more subconscious as Widowmaker hasn't ever directly thought about how she would feel about killing her