1 week after Lance's Arrival
"Sooo have you talked to her?"
"You think I haven't tried? She keeps avoiding me like the plague ever since the results came out" Hearing Tracer sigh in response frustrated him as well. Over the past week they had become buddies in a weird way.
She came to him whenever she was bored and He had someone to talk to who wasn't Winston. It helped that she could talk to him about her condition because he was pretty familiar with Time Travel, apparently he and future Mercy had done a breakthrough in Time Dilation which facilitated the whole journey.
"Ay how about this, I go talk to Angie into leading a routine mission with me, their have been talks of illegal arms being distributed between Omnic fanatics and you can come with us! Come on we'll make a day out of it!"
He considered the opportunity of both spending time with his mom and working with Overwatch in their prime too appealing to pass up,
"Can you really do that? It is a very exciting idea but I'm sure she will refuse, she'll seeing it coming from a mile away..."
"OH you dont know how persuasive I can be hehe" she exited his quarters giggling and hopping in her signature way just before giving an announcement,
"I almost forgot! Winston called you in his office, he has made some pretty cool devices that will enhance your abilities."
"Enhance? What does that mean?" he asked perplexed.
"You won't hear anything more from me! Go to him if you wanna know more!"
Realising he wasn't going to get more info out of her, he lifted his arms in defeat and followed after Lena to make his way towards Winston.
Winston's office
"Hey big guy, heard you had something for me"
"Oh Lance nice to see you today, let me just get down". The Gorilla jumped from the railing to a wheel held by a chain and finally to the ground.
"Eh care to elaborate whats that all about?" the young man enquired pointing at the orange substance on his mouth and an unsual scent coming from his body.
"Let me make a guess, Peanut butter am I right?" he teased
"Of course what else would it be" Winston retorted chuckling
"Ooh I dunno the winston I know is a little self concious about his hyigene, he even went on a diet once but he couldn't resist his eternal love for peanut butter for long."
"heh sounds about right, I mean me on a diet? Are you sure we are talking about me?" they had a good laugh before Lance decided to get on the subject.
"So why'd you call me here? Lena told me you had made some stuff that could, well, enhance m-"
"Correction, its singular. I made one device that if you approved of, then I can expand it into a range of- well let me just show you."
He pulled out a briefcase under a nearby desk and handed him a peculiar looking gun. It had a large handle with a white glass-like material on the back and had no way of inserting ammunition. It also had an unusually flexible muzzle.
"Don't worry about the size and shape of the muzzle, it expands or contracts depending on the type of blast you want to shoot."
"Blast? Wait what do you mean? How can we shoot more than one size of bullets from the muzzle?"
"They're not bullets um, let me explain it like this. The handle absorbes whatever energy you produce onto it and focuses it down to shoot fast bullet-like energy blasts, but they are not using any bullets, they are using your own energy."
"Soo it's a ray gun like the E-11 Blaster from Star Wars?" Wisnton looked back at him perplexed at his analogy
"What? we have Star wars in our timeline too." Finally realisation setting in, the young Zeigler gasped
"You..you haven't watched Star wars?" he asked in a surprised tone at which Winston only pretended to scoff as best as he could
"What? pfff everyone has watched Star wars what kind of boring workaholic do you think I am? Yeah I've totally seen it of course. Yeah yeah it's like um *ahem* yeah like a Blaster but it uses your energy."
"Nice, thanks Winston I'll take this out for a spin right now if you do-" he stopped when he saw Angela walk in behind Winston waiting at the doorway trying to look everywhere but at him.
"No need to stop M..Mr. Zeigler, I just wanted to have a word with you but I'll wait you can finish your work with Winston" she tried to sound nice as much as she could while putting on her usual practiced smile that everyone had grown to expect from her.
Winston realising this was his cue to get out of this awkward situation,
"OH oh no Lance and I here were done anyways soo I'll just let you two get to your...business. Yeah nice seeing you Angela, make sure you take care of that Lance and give it a name! See ya around!"
He lept out of his own room leaving the two in pin drop silence. The stare between them so intense and awkward at the same time, Lance decided to break the ice,
"Is it just me or you can just feel the awkwardness in this room." He earned a reward for his efforts as he saw her give a hint of a smile and a chuckle.
"So what did you want to talk to me about about?"
"Ms Oxton came to me with a mission but she seemed more keen on making me come work with you than catching goons."
He started scratching the back of his neck and smiled nervously not sure where this was heading but she continued,
"Even I'm not able to say 'no' to Lena so I had to agree. I just came to clear the air before the mission, you know to prevent any distractions in the Battlefield."
She heard a sigh from the man next to her making her tense up herself.
"I..I don't know how to..for the longest time in the past week I kept thinking about what I would say to you when this moment arrived but now it's just all, blank."
"I guess you should start with what your hearts desires to say."
He took a deep breath and collected his thoughts. After a moment he stared back in her eyes and began.
"In 2096 there was a major humanitarian crisis in Russia, it was the first known sighting of Black. Back then he was nothing but a ghost.
There were never any victims left to verify but what little evidence we could gather suggested it was all the doing of a man from the sky. I ,naturally, was a major public figure due to my abilities and post as Strike Commander so all the suspicions found there way onto me-"
Morrison interrupted their conversation barging in,
"Hey Ang, there's an omnic here for you, says he's travelled a long distance."
"Uh.. Jack you picked the worst time can you wait for a bi-"
"Oh no no there was not much left to tell! I can just explain on the way there! Really it's no problem Mom! um I MEAN Angela oh um I mean Dr. Zeigler ahm...uh..hehe"
This time the Swiss couldn't help but chuckle which helped to lighten the mood.
"Haha I suppose we can continue this later afterall. I needed some time to think this out, and since the situation calls for it I don't want it to be wierd between us so you can call me Mom" she finished purposefully eyeing Jack who slipped in while holding a chuckle,
"Yeah sure I mean everyone else here already sees you as one so let's make it official.."
"What was that?"
"N-Nothing! Just follow me!" he retorted while covering the grin of his face and signalling them to come."
On the way to the waiting room Lance felt a nudge on his shoulder by Mercy.
"So you planning on continuing the story?"
"Oh yeah so, with growing tensions between the vocal public and Overwatch I decided to lure this creature out myself. But one day he just showed up at our HQ in Gibraltar. That was when I realised he was Regal! It was my first real fight. I had never met my match before but when it happened I didn't had the necessary power to stop him.
And that cost my timeline everything , you, Reinhardt, Lena...everyone.." he finished with a heavy tone and felt a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"You're safe now Lance, and that's all that should matter. I should also apologise for my earlier behaviour this past week, I was just so focused on how this affected me it never occurred to me how difficult this must be for you. For now let's go see our visitor."
"Yeah, thanks for understanding.. Mom, oh I forgot I'm gonna bring that new prototype Winston's built for me, you guys keep going I'll catch up"
"Alright don't be too long." She said watching him run at the opposite end of the site.
"Mom, hehe*Cough*Cough*"
"Shut it Jack"
"Alright alright here he is, if he starts making trouble let me know." Jack left leaving in the waiting hallway with a floating omnic on the far end facing the wall.
She quietly walked up to him and nudged him on the shoulder,
"uh Sir, I heard you came a long distance looking for me"
The omnic turned around, his eyes lit up like Christmas lights seeing them She suddenly realised,
"Oh I know you! You're Tekhartha Zenyatta! Genji talks so much about you! it's a pleasure"
"The feeling is mutual. He also talks about you with fond feelings. I also brought one of my new students with me."
"Hey Doc!" Came the familiar voice of Regal standing behind them his view completely hidden with piles of luggage in his hands.
"You know, when you picture travelling with a monk around the world, so much luggage doesn't normally come to mind huh" he said putting the bags carefully on the chairs.
"uh Regal..I-I didn't expect you to come here. I would've come to recieve you personally if you informed me you were coming today" she finished trying to hide her worried tone knowing what this man was capable of.
"Ah you already have such a busy schedule didn't want to trouble you, plus since my arrest and release happened secretly I guess these people haven't seen me before so they let me in."
"By the way master, has that medication kicked in? I'm really drained."
"Yes, you can remove your mask"
"Oh finally"
He pulled open a small hatch on the back of his neck and pushed the button underneath which made the flaps of the mask come off making a hissing sound.
The first time she saw his face she felt...surprisingly calm. There were no scars or burns neither any abnormal features in his look which contradicted with her own stereotypical idea of how men like him look under a mask. The calm and collected look expressed in his eyes distracted her from her sudden anxiety over his arrival.
If she was being honest, he was surprisingly handsome even, ignoring the poor state of his Reddish brown hair with a tint of no doubt because of his heavy cover, he had a soft Jawline and sharp eyes. As soon as they were free his upper hair stood a bit upwards with two bangs sticking out making a downward V-shape.
"Doc can you help me with this?"
She was snapped back to find his mask in her grasp. It was surprisingly cold and heavy.
"It gets really hot in there, plus it releases some lubricant on my face, ugh.." He just finished cleaning half of his face when Lance barged in.
"Sorry for the delay I'm b-"
Regal didn't bother looking behind too busy with the mess his equipment made, not noticing the grim expression wore by the man behind him.
"Finally, it's the day you take your last breath, Human."
"LANCE RUN!"
"Don't do this...please.. please dad.."
"He's not your father anymore now RUN!"
"Look at her, she's accepted her fate, you should too boy"
"Mom no..NO!"
*Twists Neck*
"no...No...NOO!"
"No wha-" He lunged forward and slammed Regal at the back of his head as hard as he could. He did'nt stop there, he picked him up and slammed him through the wall right outside the training grounds.
Before Regal could even register what was happening, he was taken hold off by his hair and slammed right into the floor again and again and again until blood started flowing from his mouth.
"LANCE WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING YOU'LL KILL HIM!" roared Angela coming in trying to pull him back but he threw her aside, the force throwing her all the way to the other side of the ground.
With Bloodshot eyes and overwhelming rage he fired a round of Lightening energy in his hands and fired it upon his head which caused the side of his head still covered in lubricant to catch fire and start to melt his flesh.
"What do you have to say now you bastard?! FIGHT BACK!". He barked at him to respond but only got desperate screams and squirms in return from his victim who was trying to extinguish the fire without success and eventually laid still unconcious from the pain.
Not satisfied with the fight he raised his fist to charge again but was kicked onto the ground with a blade on his throat.
" Move a muscle and you will regret ever coming back here" said the calm but still intimidating voice coming from the cybernetic man.
"Lance!" He snapped back into reality and saw his mother walk up to him staggering cause of her broken foot which he caused, to his dismay.
He looked around to realise the damage he did, both to the building and his father who was being taken in to E.R by personnel.
Angela stopped them to have a look at the victim and had to cover eyes to save herself from what was left. She motioned them to come with her to prep for the surgery.
"Mom please don't work in that condition, I-I dont know it happened so suddenly I didn't mean to-" She motioned him to shut up.
"I..Don't call me mom..you need to reflect on what you truly are, because today, it looked like you were the monster. Not him. Now excuse me I need to get ready."
"Mo..I'm sorry..."
He silently walked way ignoring the stares he was getting by the whole base right when Jack came sprinting in.
"The whole building was shaking what the hell are you all doing? Genji status report."
"You really have gotten old Commander"
This is no time for jokes tell me what happened.
"It was a bit pathetic though, that video of him crushing those people in the bank may not be true."
"What do you mean?" Asked the Commander perplexed.
"He did'nt fight back at all. It was over in an instant."
"I'm dissapointed that you have'net been refining your observational skills my student." Said the omnic monk floating out the building.
"Master! I didn't knew you had come too!" The Young Shimada bowed to his teacher who responded to his greeting and continued,
"If what little time I've spent with Regal is any indication, I'm afraid this is far from over."