Lena was only experiencing half of the world.

Half of the present, at least. For in fact, while sounds were muffled and low and colors were desaturated and dull, and although she could not taste or feel or smell and edges were fuzzy and blurred despite her having never needed glasses, it seemed to her that memory and reality were indistinguishable.

She closed her eyes and listened to her heartbeat, which seemed unsteady, out of sync. Like it was following a tune, a melody, rather than the steady tick of a clock, pounding with an imagined chorus and fluttering with a verse.

Opening her eyes again, she looked around the lab. Scientists—or were they doctors? They had white lab coats on, regardless—bustled about. She watched them absently, envious of their assuredness, lost in her own confusion.

She eyed a clock on the wall. It made her stomach turn, filled her with a sense of wrongness. She watched it carefully, followed the second hand with her eyes. Then she blinked.

-x-

"Dr. Winston, it's like she's got some sort of…" Angela searched for the word, "Well, some sort of dementia. But she's like a ghost. I can't get her in for medical tests, brain scans…"

"It could be temporary," said Winston, "The confusion, I mean. Trauma, stress, or a physiological effect of—"

"—of what happened to her. You well know, Dr. Winston, neurology, psychotherapy—none of it is my expertise. I am not sure how much I can help her in this state."

"Overwatch has afforded us more time, given this miracle. Perhaps I can convince Morrison to afford us some more doctors as well." Winston grunted, "I will work on boosting the chamber's power—certainly with enough, she might be able to maintain a semi-solid form, at least temporarily."

"In the meantime," said Angela, "I will continue to speak with her. See what is happening in her head. She's so young, poor girl. I just wish—." She signed, and glanced up at the monitor that showed the chamber in the other wing of the lab, "Where's Lena?"

In fact, the girl was nowhere to be seen. The duo rushed into the room, Mercy bursting into the chamber looking for any trace of the pilot.

"Dr. Winston," said Mercy, exasperated anguish permeating her voice, "We lost her. Oh my god, we lost her."

-x-

Immediately did Winston begin working on a new way to find Lena, when his temporal anomaly drone came up unhelpful. And it was four days after she'd disappeared that Lena was suddenly back in the chamber, as though she'd never left.

"She's back!" Winston declared into his comms at 3AM when he blinked to find the girl back in the lab. Mercy entered the room faster than Winston could even stand, and flew into the chamber without hesitation.

"Lena!" said Angela, "Lena, what happened?

Tracer turned away from the clock and looked curiously at Angela, "What happened when?"

"Lena, you disappeared. You've been missing for four days."

She heard the words, of course, but Lena found them hard to believe. She felt panic rise in her chest, "Really?"

Mercy nodded, "Miss Oxton, how are you feeling? What do you remember?"

Lena glanced at her, dumbfounded, "Remember from when?"

"From when you disappeared."

"Which time?"

Mercy help back a frustrated grunt, "Lena, tell me the last thing you remember."

Tracer thought for a moment, but didn't answer.

"Look," said Mercy, "Lena, I'm trying to help you. I know it's hard. I know you're confused."

"I don't feel like I was gone for four days," Lena said slowly in a brief moment of lucidity, "I feel like I blinked."