Chapter 36: What's Lost Is Found

Tracer glowered unhappily as she watched the pink haired young woman chattering away next to Widowmaker. At Lena's suggestion she had gone to a different world to pick up another Tracer six days ago, one that Lena had evidently met and stayed with not too long ago. Having three different Lena Oxton's around was complicated and the possibility of adding a fourth if they found the one who was missing in the void would only make that worse. So they had started calling her Rose to help keep things simpler. It was a nickname that had evidently been acquired after getting pink hair and the pink and black rose tattoo running along her right arm.

Rose had been all too happy to help out once Tracer arrived and explained what was going on. She had been happier still for the chance to see Lena again. Lena explained that she had stayed with Rose for a while before jumping to the world Tracer had found her in. Apparently Rose had never really been away from her home world before and as a result was endlessly fascinated by all of the differences here. The biggest of which being that there were no Ominc security patrols flying around everywhere.

Lena for her part had actually been cleared to leave two days ago by Angela but she was waiting to try and see if their missing woman could be found and brought back to safety first. After all they had promised to try and find the missing Lena Oxton stuck between time and space and get her back home.

Currently Rose was wearing a black shirt with long pink and black striped sleeves. On the front was a cute cartoon version of a Kraken smashing toy boats together. Her black metal studded pants had a handmade Overwatch title going down the left leg. Only the font style she had chosen made it look more like the name of a metal band than a peace keeping organization. Still after just a few hours it was impossible not to like her. Even Emily had ditched her usual brightly colored nail polish for black and pink with flower stickers on them at Rose's suggestion.

"I don't get it. Widowmaker barely tolerates me but Rose shows up and its like they click right away! I didn't even think Widowmaker was capable of liking anyone other then her Lena," Tracer muttered to herself as she watched Rose, Widowmaker, and Lena talking across the dining hall. "Excited" wasn't exactly Widowmaker's thing but she was listening and occasionally contributing to the conversation instead of simply scowling and brushing Rose off. For her that was practically a glowing recommendation.

"I'm sure the fact that Rose isn't involved with anyone and has already admitted to having a crush on the, single and available, Amélie in her world has nothing to do with that whatsoever," Emily quipped.

"Widowmaker pummels me to within an inch of my life when we're training but then comes back and just chills out with Rose? This is so unfair," Tracer complained.

"Well you can't blame her for being uncomfortable when her relationship with Lena is obviously still pretty new. I don't think anything of it now because you and I have been married for a few years. But if we had just started dating and I met another Lena who was with someone else? I would have been incredibly self-conscious. Its basically a giant reminder that the person your with could have found someone else," Emily pointed out.

"I guess that's fair enough," Tracer agreed although she leaned over to give Emily a kiss on the cheek all the same.

"So how's the training going?" Emily asked curiously.

"Really well. I expected Widowmaker to just pummel me until I learned to fight better but she's actually been giving me some really good tips on how to improve," Tracer admitted. "She really wants to help the Amélie in this world or make sure that we have the ability to do so at least. Its the only thing she seems to care about or have any interest in. Well aside from Lena at least," she added.

Widowmaker caught Tracer watching them and, without breaking eye contact, leaned over to whisper something to Lena that made her laugh. Tracer scowled which only made Widowmaker smirk at her in return. Emily's gaze flicked between the two of them before she sighed and shook her head.

"I swear you two mix like oil and water," Emily said. Tracer couldn't disagree with that although she probably would have added fire to the mix as well.

"Widowmaker has been trying to teach me to be more patient both in my words and actions. I'll never be able to outlast Amélie but I'd also rather not ruin our chances of helping her because I couldn't keep my mouth shut at the right time. That aspect of training hasn't been going nearly as well," Tracer grudgingly admitted.

"You'll make it there sweetie. We'll get our Amélie back. Its just going to take time," Emily assured her. "I know how much you miss her," she added gently. Tracer swallowed hard with emotion as Emily put an arm around her comfortingly.

"I hate Talon so much for what they did to her. I hate that she's never going to be the same again. I hate that the best I can do is hope that maybe there will be a way to reach her. I hate wondering if she even remembers us anymore and if there's a part of her left that hasn't been corrupted by what Talon did," Tracer managed to get out.

"But seeing Widowmaker here, seeing the one in the world before, hearing Rose talk about Amélie and knowing she was never hurt or kidnapped by Talon like ours was... there has to be a way to help, to get through to our Amélie. Reaching her isn't going to be easy and Talon isn't going to let her go without a fight but there has to be a way," Tracer said firmly.

Lena had gotten through to her Widowmaker somehow and Tracer knew that she could do the same with Amélie here. She wasn't going to give up on her again, not this time. Not until Amélie was free from Talon or proved that there was really no going back.

Rose had been asking questions and talking almost nonstop since arriving here. At first Widowmaker had simply ignored her before realizing that Rose wasn't suspicious or looking for a reason to distrust her like the Tracer here was.

In fact after hearing that Widowmaker was a former Talon assassin Rose admitted that she had never heard of them back home. That statement alone offered a surprising amount of relief to Widowmaker knowing that another Amélie was safe. After learning who they were and that they were responsible for how Widowmaker was now Rose had merely thought for a moment, declared that it was awesome she had friends now who would help punch their faces in for doing that, and then asked who did her tattoos.

That was it.

No judgement. No suspicious looks. No worried glances whenever she was close to Lena. No hesitation or subtle flinching like Tracer tried her best to hide when Widowmaker got too close. Just a smile, a commendation, and then a compliment about how awesome her tattoos were and would Widowmaker consider letting her do one if she made it really cool looking?

If nothing else it was providing plenty of opportunities for Widowmaker to tease Lena. Making her squirm was a small but very satisfying source of amusement.

"So how long has Lena been your girlfriend? I mean I'm sure there have been a lot more bullets involved at first then there was in my friendship with Amélie but you two still look so cute together!" Rose said happily.

"I.. um... I mean we're..." Lena stuttered out. Her eyes darted from her pink haired counterpart over to Widowmaker who merely lifted her eyebrows curiously. She had some extremely complicated feelings when it came to their relationship but if it meant a chance to tease Lena then she would easily let it slide.

Instead of commenting Widowmaker remained silent, choosing instead to smirk and leave Lena fumbling around for an answer by herself. The word "traitor" burned in Lena's eyes as she glared back at her entirely unhelpful response.

"Oh! Sorry I didn't mean to make assumptions if you two aren't... you know... together," Rose said quickly. Lena stuttered some more and tried once again to silently beg Widowmaker for help, any help, some type of hint on how to answer in the very least.

"Don't be shy Lena, answer the girl," Widowmaker drawled out. Lena narrowed her eyes at her, silently promising revenge later on for being left out in the cold like this.

"We're together its just... um... its all really new," Lena finally managed to reply.

"Really? Well they say opposites attract and all of that. At least you two are trying to figure things out. Not long after you left Amélie actually invited me to go on tour with her to South America. Tracer here came to get me before I could answer her and I can't stop thinking about it. At first I thought she was just being nice but now I think it was more of an 'I like you and you're taking too long to realize it' invitation," Rose admitted in a rush. Her confession that she had a crush on the Amélie in her world was admittedly a large part of the reason why Widowmaker found it so easy to be around Rose.

Lena once again gave her a pleading look and Widowmaker finally sighed and offered some help.

"Buy her favorite bottle of wine and get some French pastries. Then ask her out. Let her decide the place," Widowmaker offered.

"Really? I'll totally do that when I get back," Rose said excitedly. She looked up as Angela called her name from the other end of the dining hall and excused herself to go see what it was. The second she was out of earshot Lena turned and glowered at her. Widowmaker merely poured some more tea into Lena's cup and pushed it back over to her.

"I hate you so much right now," Lena complained as she grudgingly accepted the tea.

Ignoring her, Widowmaker refused to let up and instead offered up a simple, "I didn't realize we were together." As expected Lena immediately started blushing and became extremely interested in her tea to try and hide it. Widowmaker was discovering that she really liked seeing her blush like that.

"You just like seeing me suffer don't you?" Lena grumbled.

"I do hope you aren't just now figuring that out," Widowmaker told her. She still hadn't disputed the claim that they were together and the way Lena was looking at her over the rim of her cup said she had picked up on that as well.

"How are you doing? Aside from the mood swings I mean? Are you okay?" Lena asked changing the subject. It wasn't enough cover the smile Lena was trying her best to hide but Widowmaker let it go.

"My emotions have been dampened for most of my existence. The few times I have felt something more its always been muted. There were always restraints or conditioning in place to keep me from feeling or showing too much emotion. Every time I feel something now my first reaction is to bury it or push it away. I have to force myself to stop and remember that, for now at least, nothing bad is going to happen if I allow myself to feel like I always should have been able too before," Widowmaker admitted.

"I'm not used to having so many feelings all at once and its so hard sometimes to figure out what they all are," Widowmaker added looking away. She took a deep breath and forced herself to continue before she thought better of it. "I hate feeling that way. Like I'm... less then everyone else somehow. Like I'm struggling and failing to catch up on things everyone else takes for granted."

"Depression over missing Amélie I understand. Constant anger at everything around me I understand. Sarcasm I understand. Its everything else in between that I'm having trouble with," Widowmaker said with a scowl. It only took a few seconds before a guilty look started to creep over Lena's face. She had been doing this ever since she got here but especially so over the past few days.

"Don't."

Lena looked up in surprise but Widowmaker cut her off before she could object.

"You have that guilty look on your face again. I already agreed to stay a few days longer then necessary so you could see if the missing Tracer gets back safely," Widowmaker reminded her. Lena looked down and quietly stirred her tea around with a spoon.

"I know, I know I just..." Lena shook her head and fell silent. In all of their conversations so far Lena hadn't pushed her to talk and Widowmaker would give her the same patience and respect. Lena glanced up at her a few times before sighing and trying again.

"You already ended up here because of me even if it wasn't entirely my fault that it happened," Lena said. That admission alone was progress from the constant blame she had been weighing herself down with. "So asking you to stay here even longer makes me feel like I'm being... demanding I guess?" she paused and worriedly chewed on her bottom lip for a moment.

"I wouldn't have said no if you wanted to leave. I still wouldn't. I know how much you miss Amélie and I've seen how badly she wants you back," Lena quietly confessed. Widowmaker pressed her lips together at that but when Lena kept giving her that same worried, nervous look she growled and looked away.

"You're..." Widowmaker gritted her teeth and forced the words out, "You're important to me now and I don't like seeing you hurt. But I can't figure out how to say this without being... harsh," she grimaced at how badly that had come out.

"I've only ever tried to be nice with Amélie and I'm not sure how good I am at that. Being rude to you isn't my intention but I don't know how to put this any other way besides being blunt. Being considerate of others feelings isn't something I've ever really had to think about before," Widowmaker admitted honestly.

"Just try your best. I mean sure I can't promise I won't be hurt by it but if something is on your mind then I want you to be able to share it with me. Even if its not what I want to hear," Lena gently prodded her.

"Fine but don't say I didn't warn you," Widowmaker pointed out. She played with her ponytail for a moment before saying it. "You're weak," she said bluntly and Lena blinked in surprise, "You're weak and guilty and eager to do whatever it takes to try and make up for sending me here. You've worked so hard to get me to trust you and you know you won't get any other chances. So you're afraid of ruining all of that and pushing me away."

"Right now you're... pliable. Impressionable. I know you wouldn't have refused me if I told you I wanted to leave immediately instead of staying. I also know that right now I could very easily manipulate you into doing whatever I wanted because you wouldn't have the strength to tell me no,' Widowmaker closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to see Lena staring at her.

"I hate that it was the first thing that came to mind when you told me you wanted to stay. I hate that it came to mind at all. I hate that it reminds me of them," Widowmaker spat out. Suddenly she couldn't stand being there, sitting there, knowing Lena was watching her, judging her. Violently pushing back from the table she stepped away, crossing her arms over her chest to guard herself.

"Talon did the same thing. They knew how impressionable I was so they manipulated me into doing whatever they wanted. The very people who had hurt Amélie so badly," Widowmaker snarled. She rubbed her arms and kept her eyes down, her stomach turning with disgust and hatred.

"That's why you agreed to stay? Because you felt like you would be manipulating me if you asked to leave? Even if it was unintentional?" Lena asked in a soft voice. Widowmaker just nodded, her gaze still turned away. There was the sharp sound of a chair scraping across the floor and Widowmaker could feel Lena coming to stand next to her.

"I'm not like that. I can't be like that. I can't be like them," Widowmaker said quietly. She finally looked up to meet Lena's worried gaze.

"Hey, I'm not upset. I mean I am kind of because hearing someone describe you like that isn't exactly pleasant but I'm glad you told me. There's only so much I can figure out on my own and yes I am scared of pushing you away. That's why we need to talk about stuff like this. So it doesn't poison what we have before we even figure out what it is," Lena told her.

When Widowmaker didn't answer Lena frowned at her.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I'm irritated that you're trying to comfort me instead of just getting angry. And yes I realize how ridiculous that is thank you," Widowmaker snapped at her.

"For the record I don't like seeing you upset either," Lena added with a grin. Widowmaker scowled in return.

"All right, enough already. I'm going to develop cavities if this gets any sweeter," she complained. Lena laughed and after much coaxing and the liberal use of puppy dog eyes Widowmaker relented and let Lena hug her.

Widowmaker knew it couldn't be all that comfortable. She still couldn't stop her body from stiffening up and she had to fight consciously to keep from burying her emotions again like she was always used to doing. But Lena didn't complain or comment on how tense she was, she just stayed until Widowmaker was finally able to make her body relax. Until she could wrap her arms around Lena in return and let her head drop down until her chin pressed against Lena's hair.

"I hope your Overwatch friends back home have a collective heart attack when they find out about this," Widowmaker said abruptly. Lena let out a sound of frustration that was partially muffled by her shoulder.

"You're terrible you know that?" Lena told her.

"Don't complain, you knew what you were getting yourself into," Widowmaker shot back.

"Umm I hate to interrupt..." a voice suddenly interrupted.

Widowmaker jerked in alarm but to her surprise Lena didn't immediately pull away from her or jump back in surprise like nothing happened. Granted Lena had said before that she didn't care what others thought about them being together but still this was... this was. Honestly Widowmaker wasn't sure what it was. Only that it was quietly satisfying to know that Lena had actually meant what she said before about not being ashamed of her.

She peered over Lena's head to see Rose standing there. She looked sorry for interrupting but at the same time had a sappy look on her face like they were the sweetest thing she had ever seen. Widowmaker glared in warning and Rose quickly cleared her throat and wiped the mushy look off her face.

"Aww come on Rose can't you give us a minute? I finally wore her down with my puppy dog eyes!" Lena said as Widowmaker squirmed under the added attention. The grin Lena flashed up at her said clearly said that she was not letting this opportunity pass by.

"Ok that's it get off me," Widowmaker growled but she didn't actually shove Lena way. Not yet at least although the urge was very strong indeed. She grudgingly admitted that Lena had earned her brief moment of revenge.

"Hey did you know that your face is all..." Rose began.

"Finish that sentence and I will make sure you never see home again," Widowmaker snarled at her. She could feel the heat on her cheeks and did not need anyone else pointing out her growing embarrassment.

"Fine be that way," Rose said with a roll of her eyes. "Tracer and I are going to get started on another search in a few minutes. Thought I would give you time to finish up... uh... whatever it is you're doing if you wanted to come and watch like before," she explained.

"Thanks Rose we'll be there in a second," Lena told her. It wasn't until Rose left that Lena finally pulled away with amusement shining in her eyes.

"Are you having fun with your revenge?" Widowmaker demanded.

"Very," Lena said with obvious satisfaction. "Look... lets give it one more day. If they don't find the missing Tracer by tomorrow we'll leave the day after and just have Tracer or Rose update us later on what happened," she offered. Widowmaker relaxed at that compromise. She could work with that.

"Fine. There's not much I else I can teach the Tracer here anyway. Everything else she'll need to put into use. The practice we've had over the past few days will help but she'll have to face off against the Widowmaker in this world again sooner or later. My advice will only go so far if she can't apply it in a real battle," Widowmaker agreed.

She could still see the concern in Lena's eyes though and understood how that felt. Lena didn't want to leave without knowing the missing Tracer was back safely where she belonged. The possibility of leaving without knowing if the Amélie here could be helped didn't appeal to Widowmaker either. But they had their own home and their own problems to get back to.

Xiulan would still be waiting when they got back and she wasn't going to wait for a convenient time to come after them again.

Tracer tried not to worry but searching through endless darkness and cold was wearing on her mind even if it was for a good cause. Neither her nor Rose had done anything like this before so there was no real method to their searching. It was like trying to look for a needle in the ocean without even knowing how to get started. At least Winston had figured out what went wrong and taught them how to balance out their power so it wouldn't drain them like when Tracer had brought Lena here.

Taking a deep breath Tracer let it out slowly carefully releasing her power and letting Rose take over. The stasis field around them remained stable and they continued searching. They lost awareness of everything else but each other while they were doing this. The first time it was a terrifying experience and Tracer had been tempted to call the whole thing off it had left her so shaken up. But ultimately she and Rose had tried again. They had to. Tracer was silently grateful to Widowmaker for stopping Lena from participating. There's no way she should be doing this in her current mental condition.

Wait

It wasn't a word but a feeling and urge from Rose. She'd felt something. There was no sense of time here so Tracer didn't know if it was a few seconds or a few hours before she felt it as well. Something was different here. Something that shouldn't exist in this space was pulling at their attention. It was different from the usual endless cold and emptiness of the void between time and space but where was it?

Carefully they moved, searched, back and forth, with painstaking care trying to find it. It felt like an eternity before the feeling of distortion and wrongness grew until it was like a beacon pointing right at them.

GET ME OUT GET ME OUT GET ME OUT GET ME OUT GET ME OUT GET ME

Tracer shuddered mentally as an assault of feelings slammed into her screaming voicelessly in her head. She felt her grip on Rose slip and desperately hung on. They had found the missing Lena Oxtion but if they missed their chance now there was no telling how long it would take to find her again. They had to hold on to each other. They couldn't lose themselves in here like she had.

WHY DID I JUMP WHY DID I JUMP WHY DID I JUMP WHY DID I JUMP WHY DID I

Now was the part Rose and Tracer had discussed before. Letting their powers combine and forcing the chronal field around them to swell as far as as they could push it before slamming it back down into nothing collapsing the void space they were searching in and forcibly dragging the missing Lena out of it.

Right now both her and Rose were still physically back in Gibraltar while they searched, but if they weren't careful a mistake could cause them to get pulled over and be trapped here as well. Tracer couldn't begin to imagine how violent and traumatizing it would be for this trapped Lena to experience but anything else risked Tracer and Rose both being lost just like she was.

A faint whisper of fear grew into a storm that made Tracer shuddered from the force of it and she could tell Rose was having trouble holding on as well.

WHO IS THAT WHO'S THERE

Now Rose! Do it now!

PLEASE NO PLEASE NO PLEASE NO PLEASE NO PLEASE NO PLEASENOPLEASENOPLEASENOPLEASENO

Everything collapsed around them and Tracer jerked violently as she became aware of her body once again. The sunlight coming in through the windows burned her eyes and it took a second to realize she had been thrown back against a wall that was supposed to be a few meters away. Both of her legs had fallen asleep and screamed painfully as she moved them.

Emily was leaning over her asking something but Tracer couldn't hear past the ringing in her ears. She tried to get up but Emily gently pushed her back down. Relaxing against the floor Tracer groaned and stayed there until her hearing started to come back. Even then it took nearly a minute before she realized someone was screaming violently.

Now Tracer struggled back up with Emily's help and looked over to see Angela hurrying to help as Widowmaker assisted her. Lena was next to Rose across the far wall helping her sit up. The formerly missing Tracer was shaking and covered in a thin layer frost all over her body. Tears were streaming down her face as she screamed and she was rocking back and forth. There was no way she knew where she was at or what was going on.

Widowmaker was wrapping her in a portable electric warming blanket as Angela prepared a sedative and gently stuck it into the young woman's arm. It didn't take long for her screaming to settle into scared whimpering as the sedative took effect.

"Please no, please no, please no," she begged still crying as Angela carefully examined her. Checking her temperature and pulse first.

"Grab another blanket and keep both of them up over her head. Make sure the setting is no higher then seven. We have to get her warm as fast as we can or her body is going to overcompensate and make her temperature rise dangerously high. The sedative will keep her calm. I doubt she'll remember anything but she can still hear us," Angela ordered. Widowmaker complied, grabbing a second blanket and adjusting them so they covered her head.

"You're safe now Lena. We're all here to help you," Angela said gently. Her whimpering softened a bit but she didn't, or more likely couldn't reply. Widowmaker's face was troubled but she followed Angela's instructions setting up IV lines and fluids to get her hydrated again.

"We did it. We really did it," Tracer whispered. She closed her eyes and leaned back against Emily who had wrapped her arms around her. Tracer realized now that she was shaking as well. More from emotion then the cold still lingering in the air. Across the room Rose was grinning from ear to ear and gave Lena a high five.

Tracer couldn't help but laugh as relief weighed down on her. They had done it. They actually got her back. There was no telling what mental state she was in after spending years in that place but she was out. Tears welled up in Tracer's eyes and she choked back a sob as emotion overwhelmed her.

The horror of trying to jump away to safety with a broken accelerator only to realize what you had done as permanent inescapable darkness and cold flooded in around you was something Tracer only had nightmares about. But to actually go through it? To be stuck for years in that state? It was too terrible to think about. But they had all survived their initial accidents. They had all gotten back to their timelines thanks to Winston's help and this new Tracer could get better too.

"That's it. Is that warmer now? Everything is going to be ok," Angela murmured as she helped the young woman sit up. Her eyes were unfocused and she clearly didn't know where she was but the sound of Angela's voice was definitely helping to comfort and calm her. Angela wrapped her arms around her and let her cry as Widowmaker crouched by keeping the IV lines running smoothly.

"You know I'm glad I could help but I would really love it if I never had to do that again," Rose said with a groan. Lena was still there helping to massage Rose's stiff leg muscles. But Tracer could tell by the look in her eyes that this experience had left her badly shaken as well.

Tracer relaxed as Emily whispered soft reassurances she kissed along her cheek and forehead. Even Widowmaker's usually stoic mask had cracked, her discomfort obvious as she stared down at the fragile and terrified young woman in Angela's arms.

They were all going to need some extra help and counseling after this experience. But they found her. They actually found her. Tracer could only agree with Rose and hope that they would never have to repeat this experience again.