(Courier's pov)

Tracer and I walk over to the dropship, parts missing in some areas. Some exposed on the floors and work bench for what I assumed for latter repairs. I also see schematics to the ship, each for different things like the engine, cockpit, and other areas of the ship I have yet to understand. Perhaps she can teach me a thing or two.

She stops guiding me and motions for me to look where she was working. "So, do you know anything about air crafts?"

I look closer at the exposed components and disconnected parts. "Yeah, I've seen and worked a little on aircrafts . Maybe not as much as you have, but i've done a little here and there. "

She cocks her head a little and smiles. "What kind of aircrafts?"

I roll my shoulders a bit, getting the strain out a little. I've worked with VTOLs or in other words vertibirds, other than that there's nothing much.

She kneels and picks a few of the schematics, spreading them out so they are less obscured. "Come here, I want to show you something."

I kneel next to her. "Are these the schematics to the dropship ?"

She rolls her eyes. "Yeah, how did you know because I would have never figured it out."

I look at her with a poker face. "Quit the sarcasm while you're ahead because it won't get you anywhere."

She shakes her head and chuckles a little. "What makes you say that ?"

I deepen my poker face a little. "I get enough of that shit from the wasteland, so just stop before I kill something."

She cracks her trademark grin. "Sounds like my kind of people."

I start to smile a little. "So you're kind of people are murderers, drug addicts and thieves. That's cool to know, guess I should stay away then."

She hits my arm, not hard enough to hurt but enough to feel it. "Hey, you know what I meant and I thought you were all sarcasmed out ?"

I smile a little more. "Yeah I'm sarcasmed out when other people do it but not when I do it. Though I could make an exception for you."

She put a hand on her chronal accelerator and made a mock gasp. "You made an exception for me, oh I feel more special."

I was now the one rolling their eyes. "Yeah but dony push it, I don't want to retract my already great generosity."

She puts her hand on the bridge of her nose and starts to chuckle again. "Well as funny as this was, were getting off track so let's get back to it then yeah ?"

I nod and look at the floor, read the designs for the dropship. The design and ideas for the ship were genius, but I could see a few parts here and there that could use a few changes or modifications. I decided to voice my thoughts. "Tracer, these designs are genius. My word would have probably never came up with it if the world didn't go to hell, I mean the energy this thing uses is off the charts from the look of these schematics. What the hell does this thing run off of ?"

She picks up a few tools and scoots over to the ship. "It runs off of fusion energy."

My heart stopped for a second. "Wait, Fusion energy ? Are you saying this thing has a FUCKING fusion reactor in it ! I mean, do you even know what happens when that energy has nowhere to go. I mean we're talking about a 800 kiloton explosion, possibly even bigger it the reactor melts down."

She puts down the tool she was just working with. "Hey, hey, hey, calm down alright. The reactor won't melt down because it is self sustained. We also have special equipment to deal with it if it does become a problem."

I calm down a little but I did not savor the fact that there was a reactor that could melt down and take Gibraltar, part of Spain and Morocco with us.

Tracer went back to her work again and I went back to reading the paper and I've finally go a grasp on how some of the ship works, particularly the part Tracer is working on. I put the paper schematics down and walk over to tracer with a tool in hand.

I stand next to her and began to work on the side of the ship close to the dropship door. I start to see the problem and began to rectify it. While I was working, Tracer glanced at me. A bemused look on her face. "You read it that fast ? Wow, It took me weeks to get the hang of this but you got it in minutes. Im very impressed and a little jealous at the same time."

I continued working on removing some of the scrap and burnt pieces embedded within the armour plates and interior mechanisms while also repairing it. But, I did not stop our conversation. "Well, I'm a quick study and adapter. I've been tested to my limits and hardened against the worst of the worst, so I yeah. I believe I've got the hang of this."

After my reply, we kept working on our parts of the ship. Fixing it bit by bit but all things must come to an end, even this dreadful silence.

"Courier ?"

I pull a piece of scrap out and drop it to the floor like the rest. "Yeah?"

She stops for a moment and turns to me. "Why do you always call me Tracer and not Lena?"

I stopped working and stand there for a second. (sigh) "I believed I haven't earned it yet, I also don't know if you even wanted me to call you Lena because I didn't want to make you feel uncomfortable."

She still looked at me through my amber eyes and me through her light brown hazel ones. "You have earned it, I've listened to the stories you've told me and I've watched how you act. I know when somebody is good and I know when somebody is bad. I think you are a good guy, your just misunderstood. Just viewed as something other than what you wanted to be, trust me when I say I have been where you have been before."

I feel like I still haven't earned it, not yet. Possibly in the near future, I will tell her about my greatest mistake. What I did to the Divide.

She put down her tools, finisher with what she started when I came in. "Courier, I understand that you feel guilty about something. But sometimes we don't deserve things but we get them anyway. (sigh) Look, when I killed my first person I felt guilty, I felt sad, I felt I did the one thing I never wanted to do. I was called a hero, it put me where I am now. I still regret it but it helped the world become a better place because if I don't do it, somebody else will and I refuse to put this burden on anyone else. Nobody deserves this life. Nobody."

I felt her presence grow closer, eventually I felt her leaning her head on my shoulder and her arms around my waist. Hugs were uncommon for me, uncommon but not unwelcome.

I look down and grab her arms, making her let go of me. I look up at her with a sorrowful face, trying to bleak out all the faces of the ones I've killed and the ones who didn't deserve to die. Be it by my hands or anothers. "You have no idea how good you have it Lena, you have truly no idea what I've been through and what I've done. You have to kill ever rarely while I have to kill every day out in the wastes, just to survive in a world viewed as a savior when I just wanted to be a man. Where I just wanted to be me, to be viewed as another human being and not some higher being better than the common man. That is all I want in life, that is all I want."

I let go go of her arms, letting my arms fall limp at my sides. As my hand fell, I felt her grab it and hold it gently in a soft grip. She looked up at me. "Courier, if you stay with us. You just maybe, Maybe have a life you can really call your own. A life you can appreciate and not despise and question your actions just because it was necessary. When we defeat Talon and save the world from the omnic crisis, we can all stop fighting. We can all live our lives the way we want it, but that won't happen unless you help us…... Unless you help me, Ok?"

I grin a little in this dramatic moment. "You say it as if I was going to leave. Why, you getting tired of me already?"

I saw her smile now. "Why of course not, besides. You can fix things, cook, tells stories and kick ass. Why would anyone turn that down?"

I chuckle a little at that. "Well, you're not wrong about that and sorry for dumping some of my melodramatic emotions on you. I guess spending time with you is starting to open me up more."

I see her smile turn into a mischievous grin. "Guess that means we should spend more time together then."

Now I feel my grief and regret fade away by looking at her smile. "Well I for one, do not oppose that idea."

She noded. "Good because I like hanging with ya."

I turned around and went back to working on the dropship. "So I've told you a bit about myself and my world, could you tell me about yourself because I don't want to be the only one who tells stories."

I feel the ecstatic energy radiating off her while I continue to make repairs. "What do you want to know?"

I pull out another shard of scrap. "Whatever you want to tell me, but the best place to start is where your from and how did you get here?"

She looked a bit sheepish talking about herself. "Well, I am from London England in the U.K. I am twenty six years old and my favorite color is orange."

I turn to her. "Fruit?"

She shook her head. "Sunset."

I nodded. "Well don't stop there, keep going."

She rubed her arms as if it were cold in here. "I signed up for the royal air force, I always had a fascination with flying. I spent months with them, learning and doing. I ran over dozens of combat assignments and missions, each one done with the utmost success. I was running up the ranks faster than anyone and one day, I became one of the best of the best when it came to flying. when I was up there I was untouchable, I was practically invincible."

She walked over and leaned against the ship. "How I got in overwatch is by getting hand picked for an experiment, to test a ship called the slipstream."

Slipstream? I continue to work but that didn't stop the question from rolling out my mouth. "The slipstream, what did it do?"

She looked blank, like she was reliving something she didn't want to remember. "The slipstream was a ship that was able to teleport forward, backwards, left, right and any direction you want it to. It could do this because it took energy from time stream and moved it through the present like how I do."

I listened intently. "So that teleporting thing you do is really you moving forward and backward in time?"

She looked a little down. "Yeah."

I finish up fixing my part of the ship and place the armor plating back on and secure it tightly how the schematics described. "So you got your powers through this 'slipstream' ship you flew. What happened to make you this way?"

She looked like she was having goosebumps all over while she spoke. "When I went to test it, it.. Malfunctioned. The ship disappeared and I went with it."

I pick up the tools, parts and schematics and put them on the workbench. "Where did you go? Because if you were dead, you obviously wouldn't be here."

She moves herself from the ship and starts to walk near the door. "I was sent through time, going forward and backwards. Because of that experiment, I was desynchronized from time and without the chronal accelerator, I would be all over the time line."

She stopped in the door. "You coming? The sun is setting and I wouldn't mind watching it with someone."

I follow her in tow to the edge of Watchpoint Gibraltar, where we could see a perfect view of the sunset. We sit down next to each other and watch it slowly start to disappear over the horizon. We continue to watch, but I felt something on my arm. I look at her, leaning up against me while watching. I look back and watch with her, for however long the sun light allows us to see it.

Hello everyone and thank you for reading this chapter. When I was writing, I felt I was treading on thin ice with my experimentation in this chapter. Sorry it took another day to do this but hey, I finished it ! That's all that matters to me right now. Well guys, have a good thanksgiving. -Paladin Leroy