(Chapter Warnings: This is one of the darker chapters. Psychological and physical abuse, blood and violence, and attempted suicide.)
It was a new technique, and Rêverie could almost feel herself starting to break down as the hours wore on. Sometimes, there'd be the feeling inside her head, like metal scraping on bone, and other times it was grinding glass as they struggled to wear her down. Talon wanted information, before they broke her and reformatted her mind. That much was obvious from the questions they'd asked.
How much had she learned of Overwatch's organization, the woman asked her, over and over.
Nothing, she'd reply, and the pain would start again. It wasn't as though she actually cared about Overwatch, or its members (with the obvious exception that she kept locked away in a box in the farthest reaches of her mind). It was simply the honest truth.
"There are five lights," the voice reminded her. She squinted. There were four, were there not?
"Don't listen to that tosser."
Rêverie turned her head. Lena was standing next to her, hands on her hips. Her undercut was gone, replaced by the mop of a haircut she'd had a few weeks ago. "...Pardon?"
"There's four lights, and ya know it!" Lena giggled, and leaned against the table that Rêverie was strapped to.
"I've lost my mind again." Rêverie turned her head back, staring at the ceiling, and those damnable lights.
"That's assuming ya had it from the beginning."
She didn't dare smile, but she wanted to. Her eyes moved back to where Lena was supposedly standing. Last time, she'd held onto the thought of Gerard, and they'd turned that against her. This time, she would have to be on her own. Lena started to go out of focus as she tried to her out of her mind.
"Nope." Lena poked her nose, and Rêverie focused on her again. "You're stuck with me, whether I'm real or not. We both know I'm comin' for ya. Talon has to know it too." She laughed again, that endearing, annoying laugh of her.
"I am not worth it," Rêverie whispered. Faces floated up from the depths of her memories. Ghosts. For so many years they had meant nothing to her, save the buzz of the moment.
"That don't sound like ya." Lena brushed some hair from Rêverie's face. "Where's that fighting spirit? Ya just gonna give up? Gonna let Talon use you again and again. They're gonna strip ya down until there's nothing left."
Rêverie scoffed, staring at the lights. Four lights. Not eight. Not five. Four. She could let her eyes go out of focus. It would be easy. It was easy. And even though Lena wasn't actually here and she may never see her again. Her rival, her lover, she still had a question for her. "And just how well do you really know me, cheri?"
Pain lanced through her body, and she bit her nails into her palms, warm blood pooling beneath her fingers. Voices spoke at the edge of her consciousness, a familiar droning that returned her to a time when she'd been someone else, to a time when they'd made her someone new. That first time, that second and third time and how many times had it been? How many times had Widowmaker been taken apart, memory and feeling and emotion stripped from her until all that remained was the killer, the hunter, a murderer who took great joy in the death of others.
How many times had she and Lena Oxton danced their ballet of violence?
The light flashed in front of her. Four times. Four lights.
"There are five lights," that voice declared again.
Rêverie had to focus. Had to fight the Widowmaker. She had to fight what remained of Amelie, for that matter. She liked who she was becoming, the new person put together from the fragments of two personalities and the promise of a third.
A thousand kilometers away and flying at Mach 6, Lena was gripping the controls of their aircraft tightly, her knuckles white. It was the only outward sign of the tension she felt. Behind the stick, she was a professional. She hadn't gone this fast in years, but not even Winston could have stopped her from taking the controls. She flicked on the intercom. "Seven minutes to target. Get ready."
Setting autopilot, she got up, and descended the stairs to her waiting friends. It was just four of them right now. Herself, Winston, Angela and Genji Shimada. They'd been unable to reach Reinhardt or Torbjorn in time and McCree had been incommunicado. Mercy and Genji had tried to contact a few others, but they'd all been too busy fighting their own battles for the time being.
"This feels kinda sad, don't it. There should be more of us."
"Our friends have their own battles," Genji said. He had been sitting cross legged and motionless, and he stood as he spoke. "I fear they will need help before long."
Winston pushed his glasses up his nose. "Are you sure about this, Lena? This is Widowmaker we're talking about. You know what she's done."
"I'm positive." Hand on Winston's arm, Lena continued, "You haven't seen the change in her. I mean she's not gonna be Amelie ever again, but what Talon's done to her, it ain't right."
"We have to do something," Angela spoke up. "We failed her once before. I don't want to give up, and she's going to need people in her corner to help her fight for this."
Winston puffed up his chest, before letting the air deflate from his lungs in a heavy sigh. "I trust you. And maybe we can deal Talon a blow while we're at."
"Now you're talking!"
"Two minutes to target." Athena's voice brought them back to the task ahead of them. Lena popped her guns out of her gauntlets for another check.
"Will this plan work?" Genji asked.
Winston glanced at the holographic display of the Talon base. "It all depends on how accurate our intel is."
Genji nodded. "I will escort Tracer into the base, before splitting away to draw their attention."
"Winston and I will take another route in, sowing chaos in our wake," Angela added. "Reinhardt is going to be put out that he missed this."
"Take these." Winston had four wafers, each a centimeter thick and about ten centimeters in length. "If you get a chance, slot them into Talon's computer systems." He huffed. "Payback for trying to take our data and nearly killing Athena."
"One minute. We have preliminary information on Talon air defenses. It is going to be a bumpy ride, Winston."
"As soon as we're off, Athena, take the jet out of range of their weapons until we're ready for extraction."
"Understood. Be careful."
"Careful." Lena gave one of the computer monitors a cocky grin. "Don't know the meaning of the word!"
Angela grabbed Lena's shoulder. "We still don't know what happened with your injury. Please try to not get carried away?"
"Sure thing, Mum." Tracer backed towards the door.
"Optical camouflage disengaged." The jet slowed rapidly, heavy guns rotating into position and opening fire on the Talon base. The door dropped open and Lena tossed a salute as she leapt backwards out of it.
It always made Mercy just a little nervous when she pulled stunts like that. It didn't help that the others were just as prone to feats of recklessness.
"Just like old times." Genji said, as he leapt after her.
Something like excitement bubbled through Winston's veins as he charged out after them. He was actually looking forward to this. "As McCree would say, Yee Haw!."
"So much for all that peace and quiet." Angela sighed, before jumping out as well. She floated down almost peacefully in a stark contrast to the violence around her. The fire from the ground was heavy, flak exploding around them and the transport, missiles blasting in only to divert and chase after flares. The heavier cannonfire faded as the transport shot away.
Angela hit the ground running, firing off a shot at a Talon soldier, his lifeless body hitting the ground seconds later. "I've always hated this part."
Where are you where are you where are you. The words ran through Lena's head over and over as she darted through corridor after corridor. The Talon facility was large, and there were numerous dead ends. She had the sense to attach Winston's device to a computer and mark the corridor so she could find it later, but most of her focus was on finding Rêverie.
She took a step down towards a set of large doors. The sound of a trigger depressing reached her ears and she sped back through time, a bullet passing through where her head had been.
Lena sprinted forward, jumping up high and pointing her guns towards the gunman. She didn't fire. She landed, skidding and slamming into the wall, too stunned to care.
Rêverie stood at the end of the hallway, holding a rifle. Her eyes looked as though they were sunk into her head, and her skin had become a pallid shade of purple-pink. Blood dribbled down her nose, and a dozen thin needles stuck up from her forehead like a macabre tiara and her hair had been dyed back to navy blue, though it remained shoulder length. She'd been dressed in her standard catsuit, as if Talon were making a point of telling Lena that Widowmaker was theirs.
Lena felt a pain in her chest. She barely got moving in time as Widowmaker sighted her in her scope. It would be easy to give up. Part of her wanted to, so heartbroken at seeing Rêverie like this. After everything, after how much progress she'd made….
"No. I'm not gonna give up on ya!"
Firing at Widowmaker's feet, Lena blinked in, and then out of range again. Widowmaker spun around on one foot like a twisted pirouette, but she wasn't tracking Lena as well as she could. Her shots remained centimeters behind Tracer, and for Tracer, a centimeter might as well be missing by a meter.
"Mouche," Widowmaker whispered. She lowered her rifle, firing her grapple to chase after Tracer. Her head pounded, and it felt as though she were trying to push through a thick soup but the longer they danced macabre the more her muscles remembered the score.
"I know you're in there!" Lena called out. "Ya pushed so hard, ya can't give up now! Are ya gonna let them win? I thought you hated them."
And then, that annoying little giggle. Widowmaker's eye twitched, and she didn't give Tracer the courtesy of cursing her out in English.
Lena blinked back into the hallway, and held up her hands. Her guns were visible in her gauntlets, but she was effectively unarmed. "Talk to me, Rêverie. That's your name, innit? The one ya chose for yourself? You're not Widowmaker. You're Rêverie."
Widowmaker had her gun aimed at Tracer's throat. Finally. After so long, it could be over. The barrel was trembling. Sweat beaded down the back of her neck and her hands were clammy.
"I told ya I'd come for ya." The Lena in her ear wasn't the one at the end of her rifle. She kept her eyes on the latter, and tried to still the shaking of her rifle. The Lena in her head stepped into her field of vision, and seemed to merge with the other Lena. The real Lena.
Rêverie lowered her gun, tears streaking down her cheeks. Voice wavering, she said, "They told me there were five lights, Lena."
Lena lowered her hands, keeping them palm up towards Rêverie. She was almost close enough now. Just another meter. "How many lights were there really, luv?"
"They told me there were five lights. They wanted information I did not have, and when they could not get that information they just wanted the Widowmaker back. Five lights, they told me. Five lights. I do not know what else they might have done. What they might make me do to you. Make me do the same as done to Gerard. But I do know one thing!"
The rifle clattered to the floor. Rêverie drew a sidearm and pointed it at her own head. There are five lights, her memory tried to tell her. Rêverie ground her teeth together and defiant, she spat out. "There are four fucking lights!"
She pulled the trigger. The gun shot rattled through her head and as everything went dim, a blue glow enveloped her.
When she opened her eyes, she lay in Lena's lap. Blood had splattered Lena's face and her Chronal Accelerator had been cracked open. It smelled like melted circuits. Rêverie touched her own chin, all traces of the bullet gone.
Lena was shaking, dirty face streaked with tears and a near constant whimper at the back of her throat. She flickered, just slightly, and the edges of her body went blurry before returning to normal.
"Qu'est ce que?" Rêverie lifted a hand to Lena's damaged harness. Just above it, she could see blood, and the faintest trace of the wound she'd left in Lena on the day all of this had started. Before her eyes, the wound started to open, only to fade away. "What did you do?"
"I couldn't let..I watched ya...it was so horrible." Lena hiccuped, her grip on Rêverie tightening. "I wasn't fast enough so I did the only thing I could think of. I overclocked my Chronal Accelerator."
You should have let me die. Rêverie held her tongue. Part of her was terrified that she would turn on Lena. Part of her was angry that her lover had taken away her choice. And part of her was grateful and deeply touched at the risk that Lena had taken. "Never do that again."
"The same goes for you." Lena smiled through her tears, and wiped at some of the blood on her face. She cupped Rêverie's cheek. "Promise me, you'll fight it. And talk to Mercy about it? I know I'm not going to be enough and I really shouldn't be anyway but if ya just kill yourself they'll win and do ya want Talon to win?"
"I am afraid for you," Rêverie whispered. "You have burrowed your way into my heart like a worm and I cannot remove you without dying myself."
Lena just smiled, and started to carefully remove the needles in Rêverie's forehead,her sunny disposition back in place. Rêverie let her, and it was more of a relief than pulling that trigger had been. Rêverie sighed. "Let us find your people before you disappear on me."