"What in the actual fuck…" Lena looked out over the burning, ever-growing desolate landscape of Hellhole, Australia.

In the distance, strangely catchy music faintly played from a black dot in the forefront of a large dust cloud. A very large dust cloud.

Her pace slowed as the vehicle ghosted over the hardpan, caked earth, spraying up a flare of red dust in its wake. She frowned, wishing that she'd been smart enough to make a face cover or buy one. She hated having one because of how it seemed to obstruct her breathing, but with this much dust and dirt and hellscape, she definitely needed to protect her lungs.

But fuck she wanted a cigarette.

The black spot seemed to be drawing closer at an alarming rate, and she glanced down to check her chronal accelerator for a full charge in case she needed to flee.

Her uncertainty, in this place, was gone, replaced instead by an old, familiar curiosity and passion that she might have forgotten upon further stagnation. Her heart beat strongly and her limbs shook with mild fatigue. The sweat running between her breasts and down her back felt more than natural in this place with this calm excitement stirring her soul.

It was so hot, though.

She could deal without the heat.

She lifted her goggles from her eyes to the top of her head, pushing back the hair that clung to her forehead in sweaty lumps, and her hand went to the pouch on her backpack that held her water bottle. She needed to ration her water supply because of the long journey, but she'd been running for well over an hour and needed a quick rest.

She glanced around with that same curiosity only compounding as the craft drew nearer, truly looking for some sparse shade, but none could be found - not even on the seemingly endless horizon. The city was a mere speck behind her and a three day journey on foot waited ahead.

It wasn't safe for her to wander into a city and be noticed, at this point in her life, even though only a few years before she would have never thought twice about it. Making it through the airport without the mysterious woman was hard enough, even though there was little security.

The music from the rather large vehicle grew even louder over the roar of the car's engine. She, against her better judgment, waved it down.

The car sped along a little more, shifting its course to come directly toward her, and her heart thudded. The anxiety, the creeping vines of nervousness, began climbing down her throat. She placed a placating hand on her chronal accelerator and readied herself to run, pulling on her backpack straps with her free hand. She didn't want to pull a gun on these people unless she had to.

The truck was even bigger than she'd anticipated as it wheeled up by her, skidding to a stop only a few feet from her toes. The music seemed to shake the earth beneath her and to want to deafen her, but she held fast, raising up a sweaty arm in greeting.

The music cut.

Thank god.

And yet, the chorus rang in her head. It was going to take weeks for it to work its way out.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?"

Lena furrowed her brow, trying to decipher the strange accent. Hell, it wasn't even like the people she'd talked to briefly in the airport or heard on the street. This sounded…

Bad.

Rural.

Terrible.

Unintelligible.

A gangly young man swung out of the truck, and the strong stench of singed hair and soot reached Lena's crying nostrils. She puffed out her cheeks and fought the urge to pinch her nose in disgust. Maybe it would have been better to take off while she still could. She swallowed her pride and tried to smile.

She'd never been particularly fond of Australians.

She leaned forward with her hand out in greeting, not wanting the man to get any closer, but he slapped her hand in a strange high-five and said in his boorish accent, "You look a little lost, mate. Need help gettin' back to the city?"

A great rumbling thunder came from the car, and for a moment, Lena thought that the engine had roared back to life of its own accord, but that's when she noticed an incredibly large, hulking man wearing a mask sitting in the driver's seat. How she missed him before escaped her like the small squeal she was want to deny. In the great rumbling of the giant's voice, she thought she deciphered, "no time."

She shook her head all the same. "No, lads, I'm heading off that way." She pointed into the desolate hellscape to the northwest.

The stooped, burning man tilted his head and wild hair to the side. "Don't make a lot of sense."

"junkrat," the great voice from the car called in deep irritation.

"Wait, wait, wait," the stooped man chattered, to himself or to the massive man in the car Lena could not decide.

That nervousness started creeping up on her again. "I should… go."

Her last word was almost inaudible as the great man behind the wheel disembarked from the equally large truck, the whole of the thing jerking up what seemed about a meter. Lena knew that couldn't possibly be accurate, but the whole scene was nearly cartoonish. If she hadn't started to get scared, she might have laughed.

The man - the beast - towered over the two of them, eclipsing the sun entirely. He looked down at her and grunted in a deep rumble that could only be compared to a summer thunderstorm looming on the horizon.

She blinked up at him, fighting the urge to squeak like the mousy thing she was, and quipped, "Well you're a big'n ain't ya?"

The great man's chest heaved, his giant belly doing much the same - tattoos shaking in an earthquake. A great, surprisingly pleasant booming came from the man, and the closest thing Lena could relate it to was a laugh.

"What do y'think, Roadie?"

The beast-man called Roadie laughed some more, resting his hamhock hands on his great stomach before grunting in response.

"We have a mission, Roadie!"

Lena watched this tennis match with increasing nervousness, slightly abated by the man's laughing and still stoked all the same.

Roadie grunted.

"Aw, alright, alright, alright." The spindly, sinewy burning man shook his head. "You know I've got a soft spot for pretty things."

Roadie's grunt sounded more like a growl.

Junkrat, Lena assumed that was a nickname despite the description being so apt, turned to Lena and bumped her with his artfully crafted, mechanical hand. "Ain't I seen you before?"

Sweat prickled under Lena's arm as the sun beat down on them. "N-no? I'm not from around here."

"What's your name? I swear I've been you before."

Again, like a stupid, Lena blurted, "Tracy."

The gangly man frowned, putting his fleshy hand to his pointy chin. "Hmm…" He snapped his fingers in a sharp pop. "I know! You look like that little thing from that Overwatch organization!"

The large man grunted. "tracer."

Junkrat stamped his peg leg, and Lena couldn't help but think that Angela could have done so much better on it. He then scratched his sooty hair and frowned again. "That's a coincidence."

Roadie growled again.

"Alright, alright. I know we gotta go take care of this prick." He looked over Lena again, making her even more uncomfortable, and just as she was about to take her leave of the two strange beings in this strange land, Junkrat hunkered like an excited child. "We can't just leave her here! All we know is that she's runnin' around out here by herself!"

"jameson."

The jittery, singed one put his hands on his hips and thrust out his pigeon chest, his voice lowering comedically in mocking. "Mako."

Lena put up her hands in placation as the big man growled in his towering prowess. "Lads, it's been a pleasure, but I gotta hop on over to Alice Springs as fast as I can."

"Alice Springs?" The lanky man - Jameson/Junkrat - squealed incredulously.

Roadie/Mako shook his head and started back to the car, slumping a little. "get in."

Jameson/Junkrat balled up his fists and jumped excitedly. "We gotta take care of this guy for a job, but then we can take you that far. No one should have to walk to Oodnadatta Track. Dangerous, dangerous."

Against her better judgment, feeling a little bit adventurous, she followed these two strange people.

She had to take the gangly man's blackened hands to climb up in the car and was amazed at the duo's dexterity. Roadie cranked the vehicle - not really a car and not really a truck, sort of an amalgamation of the two mixed with a lot of plates and spikes, and the music started blaring.

But, this time, her heart felt light. Her worry about the road ahead felt distant, maybe drowned out entirely by the insidious tunes.

I get knocked down

But I get up again

I said you're never gonna keep me down.

Going down the road at such high speeds, wind in her hair, goggles over her eyes, her heart felt… elated for the first time in a very, very long time.

She stood, looking over the windshield and howled a laugh as they approached Melbourne. Cars swerved. People yelled at the car going well over the speed limit.

She didn't know where they were going or what they were doing, but she didn't really care. She could let them do whatever they wanted, and she would wait in the car while they worked. She didn't rightly know if she trusted these two. They looked more like criminals than anything, and some faint memory tickled her mind, but it was so buried underneath the haze of that time's sedative. The drug of this elation though… she could forget that strange tickle for at least a time.

Hell, she thought she might even call home. It'd been too long. She spent extra time in Melbourne to try to get oriented and figure out what she was going up against, but trying to do all of this on her own was entirely too difficult. She was going in mostly blind despite trying to dig around for the better part of two weeks.

She'd put more permanent dye in her hair and prepped for the time. She'd also rested in hotels and ate well - something she'd been unable to do before her unanticipated plane ride. In a way, she supposed she could thank Sombra.

A cloud rolled over her, remembering the woman's dark words. "I meant nothing by it."

Then why would she say it?

She said a test… Lena sat down, no longer enjoying the wind and the roar of tumping music and pulled her knees to her chest in the passenger seat next to Jameson/Junkrat.

He jiggled his legs and his eyes were wide, ever more looking more like a child. She wondered how old he was. The harshness of hsi surroundings might have made him look older, but there was something in his eyes that made Lena wonder if he could be as young as Hana.

She jerked herself out of her thoughts, trying desperately not to slip back into that contemplative state that nearly destroyed her only a few weeks before. She yelled over the music, her voice straining a little. "What are you going to do?"

Junkrat smiled with what looked like too many shiny, white teeth. His eyes glittered, and she saw the hairs on his arms stand up. "We're going to blow up a suit's building."

Her heart skidded, shuddered, and thumped erratically. "What?"

The skinny man couldn't have heard her but read her lips. "He set us up to fail and get arrested when we were just trying to do some honest work, but we aren't about that life. We're the Junkers, and we won't work for no suits anymore. We went and made that mistake two too many times!"

Lena swallowed. She didn't know if this would be good for her image, so she decided that she'd remain unseen for the time.

The dirty, little man's eyes gleamed in the roasting sunlight. "Ever seen a building go up? Kaboom. It's gorgeous."

Lena frowned. "What about the people inside?"

Junkrat made loud fart sounds with his mouth. "What? Blow up the building with people inside? What are we? Barbarians?" He shook his head and shuffled around as the music cut off suddenly. He rummaged between the seats and pulled out a plastic rectangle with two holes equally spaced with plastic teeth. A flimsy brown tape seemed to run over the top. Junkrat rammed his pinky finger in one of the holes and twisted, the tape running thin on one side of the device and growing in a large circle on the other side. He shoved it in a strange slot on the car's dash. Loud music started up again. "Nah, mate, it's closed today. Company holiday."

Lena frowned, unsure of what the purpose of doing this would be. "Then why-"

Jameson/Junkrat smiled his toothy, wild-eyed fox smile. "We're sendin' a message."

Lena ran her hand through her hair, which was already beginning to feel slick with body oils and gritty from the desert trying to make her head a new biome. She supposed that she could be okay with some minor building demolition, especially if no one was going to get hurt.

Besides, it wasn't any of her business.

"Hey, you know you're kinda cute."

Lena squinted at the scrawny, ragged puppy of a man. "No thanks. I'm gay."

Jameson/Junkrat blinked a few times. "Is it contagious?"

Roadie/Mako laughed his deep, bellowing laugh but said nothing. Even in this short time, Lena picked up that he probably didn't talk much.

She didn't answer the scrawny man's question, thinking it might be best if he was a little bit afraid of her.

The car began rolling to a stop in front of a monolith of a building gleaming in the sunlight, all glass and steel. Lena suddenly grew nervous about the strange men's intent. Even if there weren't people in the building, blowing up such a massive structure with so much deadly material would hurt almost everyone around the place.

"demolition style."

Lena looked up at the masked man, just now noticing that his mask looked eerily like some post apocalyptic pig mask. It kinda gave her the heebee jeebees now that she was looking at it closely. The leather around the constructed snout was scarred and faded like a face that had seen the sun too much and had seen too many bar fights.

The man's greying hair bounced as he cut off the car and barreled out with strange grace. Lena felt her ass disconnect from the seat when he left the vehicle, which jumped up with almost tangible excitement at being free from this large man. Junkrat started clicking a few capsules on his sparse vest - they were like modified gun belts - and lept from the car, clear over Lena.

He waved, trotting off after Mako/Roadie and yelled, "Be back soon. Keep the car running."

She nodded and gave a little wave, watching them go down the street.

Sitting there for another second, watching this squirmy, lanky boy of a man trotting next to a massive beast. For the first time in a while, watching the two men go, her phone felt heavy in her pocket.

She wriggled around and pulled it free, her sweat making pulling out the small thing a little harder than usual, but she managed well enough without flinging her phone to the far end of the coast. She clicked it open, narrowing her eyes at the holographic screen and frowning. She had a missed call from… Hana…

Her heart sank.

As much as she didn't want to admit it, she'd been enjoying herself away from all the others and the sense of impending doom. Something about them all had changed, she thought. But then again, maybe she'd been the one that changed, closing herself off and refusing to tell anyone her thoughts or plans.

Fareeha had been right all those months ago - she was selfish. She didn't want to rely on others, and she wanted to do everything on her own. She wanted to be strong enough to handle everything and protect everyone.

She felt a sad smile settle on her cracked lips. That's exactly what Angela wanted.

But it was hurting Hana.

Biting her lip, she thought over her options.

Without thinking, though, she asked, "Hey, Athena, can you give me any details on what's up at home?"

Home.

Her phone's slightly blue tinted screen wavered into Athena's logo. "Is that a command?" Athena's voice was cold, distant, and flat.

Lena winced. This wasn't the first time she'd tried to talk to Athena, but she didn't know how to fix it. "No, it isn't…" She sighed. "Sorry for botherin' you."

Athena's logo remained for another long second before she asked, "Do you desire me to take my leave?"

Lena shrugged. "You can do whatever you want. I won't make you do anything you don't want to do." She looked back over at the great building only a block away. "I do have another question, though, if you're willing to help me out?"

Athena remained silent but didn't come back with venomous chill. That was a good sign, at least. Right?

"Why do those two seem so familiar?"

The smallest tint of humor colored Athena's voice. "Mako Rutledge and Jameson Fawkes, also known as Roadhog and Junkrat." She paused for a long moment, and Lena could almost hear the smirk in Athena's voice. "Lena, they're Australia's most wanted and are wanted in twenty countries."

And then a deafening roar and groaning metal rang out, a cacophony of shattering glass and crumbling concrete.

Two figures were running, the gangly jangle of Jameson Fawkes contrasting so entirely with the lumbering Mako Rutledge.

"THE CAR."

Lena fumbled her phone and launched herself over the bench seat, twisting the key hard enough to break it off in the ignition, but it didn't shatter like she thought. The car rumbled to life and belched smoke out the tailpipe. Junkrat vaulted over the side of the car again with agile speed even with his mechanical leg, and Roadhog saddled in on the other side, Lena caught between them both.

They sped away, and Lena realized that Athena was still up.

"What did I get myself into, A?"

"An adventure, it seems." The humor so thick in her voice that Lena didn't know how she stuffed down her laughter bubbling just under the surface.

Athena clicked off.

Lena rolled her eyes, smiling, and looked at the men next to her.

Maybe she could deal with a little bit of crime in her life.

About two and a half hours later with the sun beginning to dip down behind some furtive clouds near the horizon, Lena and the two men, who she decided to call Roadie and Jameson, arrived around Stawell. She'd planned to drift through the place on her own, but it would have taken still a few days to get there - not three hours.

Somehow, Lena convinced Jameson to turn off his blaring music and let them ride in silence, no matter how fidgety. She managed to deter the incessant questions with turning them around. With that, she learned that the two of them came back to their motherland to finish business with a few people and places before going back out into the international world to continue their spree.

"Why do you do what you do?" She asked, genuinely interested.

There was something deep within her that felt unsettled with the two of them - suspicious and traitorous, even. These were the type of people that she wanted to fight and protect people from, but they were still sitting there listening to bad music on weird tapes and talking about the finer points of plushies.

These guys…

These guys were what she wished crime really looked like. All things considered, they weren't even doing anything particularly bad - taking out big shots stealing from the people around and siphoning off of the weak. Disenfranchising the unfortunate. Killing the people slowly and insidiously.

But then again…

Maybe she was just trying to present major powers the way Sombra was.

Maybe Sombra had gotten too far in her head.

"Tracy, hello."

She blinked a few times, leaning into Roadie by accident. He grunted and she pulled away sheepishly. "What?"

"Why y'got that thing on your chest?"

Lena frowned, unsure how to respond. "Aesthetic."

Roadie laughed again, and with every laugh, he was becoming less fearsome.

James frowned. "What's that mean?"

Lena rolled her eyes and thought she felt Roadie's eyes on her, but she couldn't tell .

They didn't sleep in any civilized portion of the sparsely populated town but instead stayed the night in a windowless warehouse with the cooling night air drifting in as surely as mist. Lena was almost grateful, but the hard floors made her frown. She had no bed roll nor anywhere to procure one. She declined Jameson's and decided to go for a walk around the town. She'd come back and hole up somewhere… probably on a ledge far enough away from the two to not be immediately afraid of them getting to her. Quite frankly, she would have been more comfortable sleeping in a hotel with locks on the door, but if she was going to be in this long haul, she might as well bestow a little trust on them.

She snorted to herself as she slipped out the door of the abandoned warehouse.

She could trust two men that she'd just met that were wanted criminals, but she had trouble trusting the people that should have been closest to her. Somehow. That just seemed more par for the course than anything about this trip.

Lena trotted down London Road and smiled to herself, a twisting pang striking her heart as the thought about roving around the seedy underbelly of the London night. Beating up punks and delinquents and getting in trouble with her flight master. Getting accosted by people bigger than she could really manage and still fight on.

She took the slight left onto Patrick Street and kept going. She should hit something around Main, but she was only vaguely aware of the ambiguous directions Jameson had given her. She paused at an intersection, noting the few cars rumbling down the road, and pulled out her phone while loitering on this street corner.

"Hey, Athena, you there?"

Her phone did not immediately blink to Athena's logo, making Lena bite her lip. She supposed she deserved this treatment from her once-beloved AI. She'd been a bit of a-

"Yes?"

Lena jumped and nearly dropped her phone. "Oh, uh."

Silence.

The question had temporarily been startled out of her, but it clicked back into place like a flat Lego. "Can I ask for some advice?"

There was a long pause before Athena's voice, which had been so coldly monotone, came in wavering uncertainty. "As a friend or as a device?"

Lena fell silent, unsure of how to even answer. That clammy, sweaty hand of guilt slapped her across the face, remembering clearly - in vivid detail - the wind that nipped at her face as she turned, stinging her eyes just as much as the tears that fell after her confrontation with Athena.

"I've… never wanted anything other than friendship with you, A." Lena looked away, knowing that Athena could probably see her. "What I did… What I did was…"

Some punk yelled at her from a topless car and threw something at her feet.

Athena hissed in disapproval but not at Lena. Other than that, though, she didn't respond to Lena - not about her first question about a question or about her half-assed, whole-hearted apology. Things would take time to mend the rift between them, if it could be fixed at all, and being on the outs with Athena for a little over three weeks had its problems. Most of all, though, Lena missed her friend. Her friend that she'd ignored and treated poorly since Florence.

Since Amélie returned to her life.

Amélie had distracted Lena from a lot of important things, including fostering her relationships with her loved ones, but they understood… Right?

She sighed in Athena's silence. Clearly not.

"What do you request?"

Lena shook her head, trying to clear it in some futile and symbolic effort.

I need to talk to that woman again. I need to know who I can trust, whispered part of her.

The other part of her, though, cried out like it had had its arm twisted to the point of dislocation. CALL HOME, it cried, and tears started up.

"I-" Lena sighed, accepting this split. This burden of this journey. She'd have to make a choice, and it looked like only one would be wise.

She obviously couldn't trust Sombra, even though Sombra seemed to be the only person in the entire world with at least a single clue as to what the fuck was going on, but Lena didn't want to be completely dependent on this shady figure.

She decided to call home instead.

"Do you think you could get me in touch with home?"

"What?" Athena asked a little too quickly to convey disinterest. She abandoned the cold shoulder ship then. "Are you coming home?"

Lena shook her head. "No, no, I don't think I'm up for it. Still gotta bust this Talon base and ransack it. Gotta keep the boys in check. Gotta lay low. Too much moving in high surveillance areas would be bye-bye-free-world."

Lena could feel the disappointment emanating from her phone, and she walked onward, hoping desperately for a pub and a quiet place to sit for a while. She'd have to go back to the warehouse at some point, but she wanted to put it off for a while longer.

"Before you do, A, I have another question. Feel free not to answer."

Athena remained silent in response, and Lena rolled her eyes with a small smile. At least some feedback was slipping through the cracks even if it wasn't completely consistent or even willing at times.

"What do you think of Sombra?"

Athena was silent for another moment, as if thinking. "I think that she would hear me say what I wish to say, and therefore, I do not wish to answer."

Lena couldn't help the lopsided smirk spreading on her lips. "You think she's a snarky weasel, too, don't you?"

With the thickest amusement Lena had heard in over three weeks, Athena replied, "Those are your words, Lena, not my own."

That cold, clammy feeling abated by the heat even in the night air dissipated almost entirely as she barked a laugh. "I had a similar feelin', ya know. I'm not complete garbage when it comes to reading people." She paused. "At least, not all the time, even though I do a piss poor job most of the time."

Athena didn't respond, but it didn't feel like icy-taloned uncertainty, fear, and loathing anymore. Sure, the undercurrent of mistrust still ran thick, but there was something a little easier about this silence.

"Would you still like me to call home for you?" Athena asked without the slightest malice.

Lena shook her head. "No… Not yet… Maybe in a little bit. Just don't let me forget."

"I wouldn't dream of it."