Overwatch: Lost in Time

by Raven the Dragon

Before she was the face of Overwatch, Tracer was Lena Oxton, the pilot with Chronal Disassociation. With her accelerator gone, Lena must face what she fears the most: Herself. Demons come back to haunt her that McCree and Genji thought were long gone, and struggles hidden under a smile finally come to light. But it's too late. Lena Oxton might be gone forever.

31. Chapter 31- Trapped

Hi people! Another chapter yaaaaaaay. This one actually came a lot easier to me than the past few. Partly because I sped things up by like, four chapters so stuff will actually happen sooner! As for why this chapter came only after soooo long... I'm slow and I've been busy and I'm super sorry. But anyway, here's another chapter! I hope you guys enjoy this one. I had a lot of fun writing it.

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Lost in Time Chapter 31

Trapped

…

"Are ya sure ya can't recall?" McCree asked, handing Hana a water bottle as she flopped half-heartedly onto the bench in the training field he was sitting on. McCree had been sparring with her for an hour now. Both soldiers were coated in a sheen of sweat as they took a short break. Instead of their combat outfits, they were both in the old training uniforms issued to agents back in the glory days of Overwatch, which consisted of unflattering grey shorts and an orange shirt with the Overwatch logo on the back. McCree lit a cigar as Hana anxiously picked at the bandages on her arm from Slipstream's gun.

"I've tried, believe me. Blinking comes naturally, like your level one skills. It's just a matter of mastering the use of it."

Jesse nodded. "Lena described somethin' similar back in the day." He waited for her to continue, puffing a cloud of smoke into the air. Hana wrinkled her nose at the sharp odour.

"But no matter how much I try, I can't get it to take me backwards. It doesn't seem possible. Slipstream has forced me into a recall twice, but she activated it both times. It felt like being flung backwards. But I can't replicate that feeling myself."

"Do ya think you're not experienced enough? Maybe some more practice or time to get the hang of that harness of yours will do the trick?" McCree snuffed out the cigarette in an ashtray he had previously brought to the training field.

"You said Tracer got the hang of it in no time, right?" Hana furrowed her brow in frustration. "Natural skill for her. But I don't feel like I can do it at all, no matter how much I practice. It doesn't feel like I'm… failing, per se, more like there's no way to succeed. Whenever I try to 'rewind,' it's like hitting a brick wall." She sighed, lifting her new goggles up to let some more air reach her face. "I don't know what's wrong with me."

"Well… the sample size ain't big. You and Lena are the only two people in history to have chronal disassociation. Maybe Lena was the exception? Recallin' coulda been a completely lucky ability to get."

D,va hummed, interested. "That, or Talon's technology is different. Lena got her powers from a freak accident, right? I got mine from a machine designed to give me that condition."

"No way to know for sure. Though you and Lena have had small differences in your condition. Nothin' major, but ya looked a bit different than Lena when she would be fadin' in and out."

"Really? How so?" Hana sat up and watched the soft pink gear in her accelerator spin.

"Well, Lena always had this bluish hue to her in regards to her powers. When she'd blink, she'd glow blue. Recalls? Yup. Her pistols, which used discharged energy from the harness, also were blue. You'd better believe she was blue when hangin' out in the stabilizin' chamber. The gear on her harness was naturally blue too before Talon messed with it."

Hana winced as McCree lowered his voice at the end of his sentence. He looked away and flexed his fingers to calm himself down.

"I see what you mean… pink has always been my color," Hana admitted. "So, either it's a person-to-person difference or a result of the technology differences."

"Maybe… but until someone who knows more science stuff than I do figures out what's goin' on with ya, let's just continue with the sparrin'. Your up-close-n'-personal fightin' could use some work."

Hana sighed, forcing herself to her feet. "I never had to learn much more than basic self-defence, and that didn't even have anything to do with MEKA's training."

"Hmm? Whaddya mean by that?" The cowboy held up his fists in a defensive stance, inviting Hana to fight him.

"MEKA is all about fighting in the mech suits. It was mostly physical fitness training to prepare to use those things, along with teaching us how to use a gun and other basics like that." The gamer activated her blink ability and charged towards McCree. Remembering what Slipstream mentioned, she planted her foot on the ground and flung herself to the right, throwing a fist at his head. He managed to whip around in time to catch the swing, though his stance suffered from the sudden force he caught in his hands.

"Then where'd you pick up self-defence?" McCree asked, as though they weren't fighting. He quickly righted his stance and threatened to retaliate with a jab of his own, which forced Hana to take a haphazard blink back as she struggled to maintain balance from moving in such an awkward direction.

"I picked it up in my own time, just when my career as a gamer was kicking off. There are some fans that are way too passionate." She moved in towards McCree, ducking as he threw another punch. He wrinkled his nose, blocking more attacks from Hana.

"Yuck. I'll take people tryin' ta kill me over that any day."

"Yuck is right. Though I only had to dropkick one or two guys over the years, thankfully."

"You can do a dropkick?" McCree asked, almost impressed.

"Adrenaline is one hell of a drug." D,va grinned,

He laughed. The two continued trading attacks, though neither sustained any injuries save a couple bruises in the next ten minutes.

"Alright, break time," McCree called, much to Hana's relief.
"I could drink a lake," she admitted. "Water, gimme now."

Jesse chuckled and obliged, tossing her a water bottle, which she caught with some struggle as she sat back down next to him.

There was a comfortable silence between the two of them for a few minutes as they sipped water. McCree had lit another cigar when Hana finally spoke up.

"Are you… doing alright?"

Jesse seemed surprised. "Don't give yourself too much credit, I ain't bruised up that badly." He joked, nudging her with his elbow.

"That's not what I mean," D,va sighed. McCree winced.

"Ya mean Lena? Eh… I could be better. How's the public takin' this all?"

"I've been avoiding checking. Though Lú mentioned he and Efi were going to go through all the blogs and such to figure out what's what. Lúcio also said he was setting up a poll on how many people are upset with Tracer before we try to intervene."

McCree hummed, though anxiety was seeping through his voice. "Well, Overwatch should be able to avoid legal repercussions by saying that everything went downhill before we were officially cobbled back together. I think she ran off right after the fact, but there was a whole mess of events leadin' up to that."

"But what about their reputation? What do you think will happen to that?"

Jesse frowned. "That's a whole different can 'o worms. Even if Overwatch can get away from prosecution for Lena's actions, the public ain't gonna be too happy." He blew a puff of smoke into the air.

"That's so stupid!" Hana growled, squeezing the water bottle in her hand. "The whole world saw the video Talon sent out. They should know it's not her fault."

"Ain't ever that easy," McCree turned to Hana, knowing she knew exactly what he meant.

"Yeah… That video wasn't as real for the public, I guess. Media makes people believe that things like torture and the likes can be overcome with sheer force of will and the magic of friendship and whatnot."

"Romanticised, you mean." The cowboy pulled the cigar out of his mouth and absently watched the ember on the end.

"I guess they will blame Lena for not 'toughing it out and pushing through.' It's a teeny tiny lens they're looking through. A three-minute video capturing a full five days…" Hana groaned, rubbing her temples. "This is a headache and a half."

McCree hesitated. "I know this prolly isn't the best time, but can I ask a favour?"

"What's up?" she responded robotically, not looking up.

"Can you and hopefully the DJ try to help with Overwatch's reputation? Lena's too. When we get her back, her image with the public will be slightly more than bruised without some outside help."

D,va looked up and cracked her knuckles out of habit. "You know, I think I could. I'm sure Lúcio will want to help too. I think a couple short streams with a PSA at the end could work." She turned to her sparring partner. "It won't be able to fix every problem, though. Dissenters will still be everywhere. Lú and I only have our niche audience…"

"Of several million," McCree interrupted.

"-Whereas the rest of the world might not be so quick to forgive."

"I think Overwatch'll take what it can get," McCree said with a chuckle.

Athena's voice echoed overhead. "Agent Song, Dr Ziegler is requesting to speak with you."

McCree huffed. "Whelp, so much for that plan. What's the doc want ya for?"

"Maybe my arm? I don't know. I feel like I just got called into the principal's office, though."

"Things like that are what make me glad I never went to school."

…

"Dr Zielger? You wanted to see me?" Hana asked as she stepped into the angel's pristine lab. The doctor, who had been checking her stock of medicinal supplies, gave Hana a warm smile.

"Hello, Hana. Come on in, please, take a seat," she said, gesturing for Hana to follow her to a different room. She obliged and was led into the polar opposite of the modern and technologically advanced lab. It seemed like a room you might find in an urban house, with comfortable armchairs, painted walls, even curtains and the likes.

"Take a seat." Hana eased her way into the criminally comfortable seat, opposite to the doctor in a similar chair.

"I feel like I'm in trouble," D,va chuckled nervously, shifting in the seat, trying to find a good position to sit in with the bulky accelerator pinned to her back.

"No, of course not. I just need to speak with you."

"Abouuuut?"

"Your condition."

Hana sighed. "I had kinda hoped you forgot wanting to talk about it."

Mercy shook her head. "I was hoping you would seek me out on your own. But regardless, we need to talk about it. You have some grievances with using your newfound gifts?"

D,va focused her gaze on the curtains in the room, watching them sway ever so slightly. "Kinda… It's just… I'm not very good at using these abilities yet, which isn't a problem in and of itself, but you guys want me to keep using them to counter Slipstream, right?"

"Does that plan not sit well with you?"

"Not really. I've been able to blink for less than a week. Slipstream has had her powers for eight years. I feel like I'd be better off fighting in my mech. Efi has been working on a better firewall for Sombra's hacks, so I'm sure I could be useful like that."

Mercy seemed to consider the idea. "What about your chronal accelerator?"

Hana shifted in her seat, running her finger along the ring of the device. "What about it?"

"Would it fit in your mech comfortably?"

"I… Probably. I could set it on top of me or something like that."

"But how would that affect your efficiency? If you needed to eject from your mech, then you would also have to grab the harness. Not to mention, the chronal accelerator can interfere with technology when activated. Things like communicators are easy enough to make more durable, but a piece of technology as complex as your mech would be much more difficult. If something were to happen and you panicked, you could activate one of your abilities accidentally, and cause your mech to malfunction." Mercy explained, crossing her legs.

D,va frowned. "So, you're saying I can never use my mech again."

"I am not saying that in any way. I'm saying that with your condition comes strengths and weaknesses, and deciding what to do about them something you must consider carefully." She paused. "That is, if efficacy is the only thing you value."

"What do you mean?" Hana asked, flexing her fingers to release some of her tension.

"You mentioned a dislike for 'being an off-brand Tracer,' if memory serves. Please, go into more detail about that if you don't mind."

"It's not something to worry about. Efficiency should be the most important thing here. I'll do whatever you think will make me the most useful," she quickly tried to derail the subject.

"Hana, please. Overwatch does value that, but we also care immensely about the needs, both physical and mental, of everyone member. If something is troubling you, please, allow me to try and ease your mind."

The gamer hesitated. "Nothing I say leaves this room, right?"

Mercy nodded. "Nothing you say will leave this room without your explicit permission."

"It's just… I feel like I'm almost impersonating Tracer. Like I'm trying to pretend she never left. I feel like I'm doing a disservice her name."

"Why is that?" Angela pressed.

"Because I'm not Tracer. I haven't gone through what she has, had the experiences she had, things like that."

"And why is that an issue?"

D,va paused to gather her thoughts. "I think… it's kind of hard to explain, but Tracer is someone Lena Oxton made. Tracer is the mask Lena puts on to show the world her best self."

"You mean like a second personality?" Mercy asked, letting Hana explain with her hands folded over her lap.

"No, not like that. Tracer is more of… an idealised Lena, I think, if she does things similarly to how I do. My IGN, D,va, is kinda like someone I made, at first, for when I played online. She's almost an exaggeration. I amp up the sarcasm, joke and laugh a lot more, and also act borderline overconfident."

"Why do you do that?"

"When you've got a lot of people listening and talking with you, usually they don't want to see the ugly side of you. So, you hide it. As time went on and I joined MEKA, I began to rely on D,va more than Hana, as it were. Not just for myself, but for everyone around me. The squads don't want to see a terrified little girl quaking in her boots. They want a champion that isn't scared of anything." D,va took a deep breath, not realising how fast she was beginning to talk. "D,va covers up my insecurities and weaknesses. She's an extension of me and me alone. If some random person I'd barely ever spoken to suddenly came up and suddenly stole my image and acted like me, it wouldn't be real. They'd be doing just that. Acting. It wouldn't be them. It would be them pretending to be me. D,va is made in my image, just like Tracer is an extension of Lena. I don't understand any of what Lena went through, so I have no right to go in and pretend to be her mask." Hana practically gasped for air as the doctor took her cascade of words into consideration. "Did that make any sense at all…?"

The doctor stared at the ceiling pensively for several prolonged seconds. "I think the fact that you are aware of this fact, in and of itself, proves that you aren't 'stealing her image,' or anything like it. And still, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you have more insight on her struggles than anyone else in the world, do you not?" She gestured to the spinning pink gear on Hana's chest.

D,va shook her head. "No, not at all. Same condition, sure, but completely different circumstances, you know? I mean, at the end of the day, I chose to take that trinket off my neck and give myself chronal disassociation. Maybe I didn't get the results I was hoping for with it all, but I chose this, and that's that. I have nobody to be mad at."

The doctor seemed to know what Hana meant as she gestured for her to continue.

"But Lena was in a freak accident and developed a condition nobody knew anything about. That's way different."

"You feel as though Lena was dealt a worse punishment, then? That she suffered more with her past?" Mercy asked curiously.

Hana shrugged. "That's up to you. Doesn't change the fact that I have no right to try and be a character created by and for somebody else."

"I see. If that's how you feel, then would you like me to ask Miss Oladele to modify your mech to be more fitting for your harness? If you really feel uncomfortable with using your new gifts, then by no means am I going to force you to do so."

"I just feel bad," Hana admitted. "You guys put all this work towards making me this OP new piece of gear and I don't wanna use it."

"Hana, listen to me." Mercy's stern yet caring voice was impossible to not heed. "That harness' sole purpose is to keep you anchored. If you wish to use it to fight, that is your choice and yours alone to make. If anyone asks you to use your power, you always, let me repeat, always have the right to decline. And if they have a problem with that, you can tell them to take it up with me. Have I made myself clear?"

Hana blinked in surprise, nodding before she even realized it. She didn't say anything for several seconds. She took a deep breath.

"Emotions aside, tell me honestly. Do you think I'd be more useful using this harness to fight Slipstream?"

Mercy thought for a moment, choosing her words carefully. "Most likely, at least until we find a safe way to allow you to wear the harness in your mech."

Hana sighed. "I'll just use it until we get Slipstream back, then."

Mercy shook her head. "Do not feel pressured to use powers that make you uncomfortable just because you'd be 'better.' I'm sure Efi could begin modifications on your mech soon."

"But I know how much everybody wants to save Lena. If I can help get her back, I will."

"I cannot force you to go either way. It is your decision to make. I think the fact that you are aware of the resemblance the Tracer speaks volumes, and as long as you remain conscientious about it, then you can take the steps you feel necessary to avoid leaving that impression."

"Any suggestions on how I could do that?" D,va leaned backwards, letting her back arch over the harness awkwardly.

Mercy hummed for a moment, considering the question. "That is not an easy question for me to answer. Tracer and D,va can appear very similar from the viewpoint of a bystander. From the banter to the need to simply help others. And there is no need to change anything about how you act, save perhaps highlighting that you wish to save Lena, and that is your reason for using your powers."

Hana put her hands behind her head. "Guess that is the best way of doing things, huh? I guess I'll try that. I think I can handle using blinks until we capture Slipstream."

…

"Winston, Miss Oladele is at the door to your lab." Athena's monotone voice startled Winston as he had been distracting himself with HoloVid files that needed sorting out about each of the members of Overwatch.

"Uh, let her in," the gorilla stuttered as the door slid open and the child greeted him in young, melodious voice.

"Hello Dr Winston!"

"Ah, Efi! Hello! I- I'm sorry about the mess, I, uh, have been a bit preoccupied lately." He scrambled to get some of his lab desk sorted out by the time the girl reached the top of the staircase to his office room overlooking the cliff-side.

"Oh, don't worry about it. My lab was way worse before Orisa volunteered to clean it." She gave Winston a toothy grin. "Anyway, I checked around and got watcha wanted from me."

Winston took a deep breath. "How bad is it?"

Efi hummed, jumping up to sit on Winston's desk as she kicked her legs while he watched nervously. "The public's reactions are… mixed. A bit better than I was expecting, really, but still mostly against Tracer… but again, not totally against her so there's that!" she grasped at straws, trying to take a positive spin on things.

"I… I see. Not much sympathy then?"

"Umm… it's kinda weird. The news outlets and such are all painting it to be more negative, since the video is too graphic, so it's just kinda going like 'Tracer from Overwatch joins Talon shortly after video released by Talon' without explaining the Talon video, so Tracer comes out looking worse for it and it's just super stupid," she rambled, trying to get her thoughts together. She rubbed her head in frustration when she realised how jumbled her words were.

"Slow down, you don't need to tell me in one breath," Winston offered gently.

Efi sucked in a deep breath of air, thinking as she exhaled and repeated what she said. "So… the news just mentions the video of Reaper hurting Tracer in passing, you know? Since they can't show it. Because of that, everyone that watches the news is mostly seeing the evil Tracer. That video from ages ago is closer to a blurry memory. So, all the older people, the ones that rely on the news, are mad at Tracer since they're just seeing her be bad. But most of the online forums and chats say she's the victim, and that she didn't have a choice, since they can be more open about the video, linking it to each other and stuff and using it in arguments. Supposedly, it's a pretty hot topic right now."

"I- I see. Thank you, Efi," Winston stammered, turning back to his computer as he idly checked his e-mail.

The girl paused. "Um… Winston? I'm just wondering… why did you have me look into all this? I mean, no offense or anything! I'm happy to do whatever you need, but it just seems like you could have had Athena do that for you too… Are you… doing okay?"

Winston nodded in a hurry. "Ah, yeah! Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. As for why I didn't want Athena to research it… I- uh… figured having you look at it would be better since you could ask Lúcio and his fans and things like that!"

Efi crossed her arms. "You're a bad liar," she said to Winston, frowning.

He sighed, laughing humorously. "Heh… So, I've been told. But really, I didn't want to have to read up on all this before I had the politics of this sorted out. We needed a game plan."

"A game plan? For what? Beating Slipstream?"

"More like a game plan for beating the UK," Efi blinked in confusion, waiting for Winston to explain. "Tracer is an iconic member of Overwatch, and she was sighted in Numbani when we had to go save Lúcio. So naturally, everybody knows she was with us when Overwatch was properly legalised."

"Oh… so Overwatch is going to get in trouble for what Slipstream did?"

"That's what I'm trying to avoid. We can avoid the liability by saying she was sabotaged, but without any evidence, it'll be difficult to prove."

"Oh…" Efi shrunk back. "That's… not good. Maybe if we capture Slipstream, we can look at her harness and use that to prove Talon hacked her harness before Overwatch was officially back together."

Winston nodded. "That's my plan." He sighed. "I just hope we manage to get her back soon."

"You hate seeing her evil, huh?" Efi slid next to him, sitting on the edge of the tire seat Winston had flopped into.

"Of course, I do. I've known her for years. We've both gone through a lot together. She was there to comfort me when I first arrived at Overwatch. She was the shoulder I could cry on in my grief. Later, I was able to make the chronal accelerator for her. Since then, we've had each other backs. I can't help but feel responsible for all this," he admitted, straining to keep his voice level.

"But you didn't know that Talon tampered with the harness!" Efi tried to comfort, looking up at the gentle giant with her big brown eyes. Winston shook his head.

"Honestly, I should have been able to tell. I know Lena well enough to know when somethings wrong. There's no way all that strange behaviour was just from the stress of having had her harness stolen." Winston took a deep breath as Efi watched him force himself to stay calm.

"But we can get her back! I heard Dr Ziegler mention we'll be bringing some of Captain Amari's sleep darts. D,va is practicing with her powers! We can totally beat Slipstream!"

Much to Efi's surprise, Winston nodded, his voice soft. "I know. I'm counting on it. I have to. I need to help her as soon as possible. Before she can do anything else she'll regret when we fix her emotions."

…

Sombra flipped off of Athena's cameras, scribbling down some useless notes about a few of the agents' activities that Reaper would have no use for. Winston was organizing files. Song and McCree were training. Vaswani was in her lab and dos Santos was on his computer. Ziegler was doing paperwork. It was a little barebones but Sombra would just say Athena's cameras were useless in accessing this crap. Hopefully, that'd pacify Reaper. She'd mark down a few more specific details about Efi and how she was trying to plan a way to help public opinion, just in case.

She hummed, quickly flipping over to some official health and concerns files on Slipstream, reading the annoyingly long laundry list of health and safety concerns. There were normal things such as "requires food," and "allowed kitchen access" since some members, mostly Omnics, didn't require sustenance. Then there were more specific items such as "lacks some emotions," "on heavy medication due to health issues," and "tendency to be unintentionally self-destructive" littering the list that was usually only used by the doctors and scientists. Sombra made a point to regularly check and save files onto a thumb stick along any major files she felt were important, just in case.

The more specific items on Slipstream's document, such as the ones mentioning her weaker heart, list of injuries, list of cybernetic modification, and medication she was on also were saved. Sombra made a point to have a few copies of this file on her person at all times.

Just in case.

She needed to stay on her toes. Reaper was growing more suspicious of her behaviour. She wasn't sure how much longer she could outsmart him. With all the little rules she's been breaking, even ones she's broken plenty of times in the past, he might be beginning to doubt her loyalty. Even though Sombra wasn't totally convinced he ever totally believed in her loyalty. He wasn't dumb, much to her dismay. That would make things way too easy.

Sombra perked her head up from her blindingly bright monitors at the distinct sound of Slipstream blinking outside her room. There was the muffled hum of her door across the hall. She assumed Slipstream went into her room.

Now that she thought about it, Sombra hadn't seen much of Slipstream that day. When she checked the agent's room in the morning, she had been gone, leading Sombra to assume she finally went and got herself some food.

Maybe she should check on Slipstream.

Sombra stood up, groaning as she straightened her back after being hunched in front of her computer for hours. Quickly throwing on her cloak, Sombra left her room and knocked on Lena's door.

"Lena? Are you in there?"

"Uh… um... yeah I am come on in!"

Alarms immediately rang in Sombra's head. Lena's voice wasn't the usual, boundless cheer it had been since she joined. But it wasn't upset either.

When she walked in, instead of the usual scene of Slipstream being in-uniform and ready for action, Lena was in a grey T-shirt with the Talon logo and a pair of sweats. Her chronal accelerator had been haphazardly stuck to the wall mount, crooked but still spreading its stabilizing throughout her room. She was pacing, her shining pink eyes focused on the ground in front of her. She had her hands clasped firmly together as she rubbed her thumbs together restlessly. Her brow was wrinkled in something akin to frustration, an emotion Sombra thought Slipstream was incapable of.

"D-do you nee-need something?" Lena seemed to pause for a moment, turning to Sombra as though expecting orders. She was stammering, not like she was emotional, but rather she was too jumpy to properly form the words she needed to.

"I was just wondering where you've been all day. And why are you acting like that? Is the sympathiser working? You look frustrated."

Slipstream hesitated, her hands twitching. "Uh Reaper was no-not happy with me for focusing more on Hana than the civi-civilian on the last mission."

Sombra could already see where this was going. She let herself into the room proper and sat down on Slipstream's bed. "Did he turn off the sympathiser as punishment? But that can't be right… your eyes are still glowing."

Lena resumed her pacing. "He-he said he tu-turned it down as punish-punishment. To remind me to focus on my job over fu-fun so he turned it down, it's just down. Like two or was it three percent do-down? I don't know but it's supposed to be just enough to ma-make me uncomfortable," she rambled. Her words were stressed and enunciated, like it took concentration to form them.

Sombra grit her teeth, taking a deep breath. "How long will it be down?"

"Dunno. Dunno. He ca-called me down this morning. He ta-ta-talked to me and said this was a less-lesson so I could easier remember to fo-follow orders. Then I had to go to see Moira for a check-up on the Sympathiser and my leg, then she told me I was overdue for a visit to the doctors since I'm apparently on a lo-lot of medicine, which I didn't know actu-actually. I kinda just thought the medicine was because my trea-trea-treatment with the bo-bo-boss might've been a problem but apparently I'm going to need help for a long time, so anyway I went to the doctors and they ran their tests and it was still o-o-off when they were done injecting my meds and they told me I could go back to my room so I did and here I am."

Her voice stuttered and shook, and anyone listening to her would think she had a speech impediment. Still, even with the long and unfocused rambling, she still seemed in control of her emotions, even if she was now filled with restlessness.

The hacker frowned. So, her eyes were still lit because the sympathiser had barely been turned down. Perhaps they were slightly dimmer, but two or three increments wasn't nearly enough to be noticeable. If it was down as little of an amount as Slipstream said, then Sombra could only wonder what Lena would be like if she turned it off.

"So… do you feel pain right now?" Sombra asked vaguely, trying to get a grasp on the girl's emotional state as she leaned forward in the bed, putting her hands in her lap.

"I don't kn-know, I can't te-tell. But it's ha-hard to think right and everything st-startles me and I just want to curl up in a ba-ball and wait for it to go back on why can't it go back on Sombra please can you make the sympathiser go back on?"

Sombra wished for nothing more but to oblige for the pleading girl and to turn the sympathiser back on. Sombra wished for nothing more, in that moment, than to help Lena in any way possible. But she wasn't sure what she could do. If she turned the sympathiser on, that could make Reaper even more suspicious.

"Sorry, Slipstream. But I can't turn it down without Reaper's permission."

Instead of pressing the point, Lena's mind fixated on a different part of the sentence. "Slipstream… Slipstream… tha-that's me… I'm Sli-slipstream…" she muttered to herself, her pacing speeding up. "I'm her. I'm her. I'm her… but… but…"

Sombra hesitated. "But what?"

Lena paused, realization dawning on her features. Not horror, not glee, not even something in the middle. More like everything just clicked and she didn't know how to process the information.

"I don't want to be Slipstream. But I do. How… How is that possible? I don't… I don't understand. I don't understand… I don't understand."

The hacker jumped to her feet, rushing over to Lena before she could fall, like she simply forgot to support herself with her legs. Quickly, Sombra eased the girl onto the bed, where she ran her fingers through her messy and spiky hair. Her brow was knit in sheer confusion and inability to understand.

"I don't like feeling this way and I want it to stop and I want to go back to Slipstream but wanting to go back to Slipstream makes me feel more weird and bad and I don't understand why I feel like this!"

It was peculiar seeing Slipstream so conflicted. She was caught having a mere taste of a complete set of human emotions, but that seemed to be causing confliction with the almost foreign sensation of mental discomfort. She didn't know how to process the tiniest bit of pain and it left her utterly confused.

"Amiga, you know about Tracer. You know what kind of a person she was. I think you're almost feeling bad for not being Tracer."

"But I'm Slipstream… I'm Slipstream. I want to be Slipstream since it's easier and more fun but I want to be Tracer but I don't and I can't but I want and don't want and…" Sombra cut Lena off from her looping thoughts.

"Shh, listen. Before this, your mind operated solely on orders and fun. You were all but a purely logical being. Having this new taste of emotion is messing with your head. It'll pass, don't overthink it."

Much to Sombra's surprise, Slipstream seemed to take her advice, taking a deep breath. "I don't… I can't…" She paused, trying to match her thoughts with words. "I can't go back to being Tracer if I wanted to, huh?" her voice was quiet. Not sad, but perhaps tired. "As Slipstream, I think I can always go back to Overwatch if I felt like it. They can kill me if they want. It's fine. But this little bit of Tracer is saying… I'm trapped."

"Why do you think that?" Sombra asked carefully, setting her hand on Lena's prosthetic knee in a vain attempt to calm her further.

"I don't… want this… this discomfort? To get worse. But if I make the boss mad, it will… He'll make me take my emotions back. But I don't… don't want them back. I'll do anything he says anyway, but even more if it means not having them."

"So, you feel like you're being blackmailed?" Sombra chewed her lip, fighting to keep her face neutral.

"I mean I don't want to feel this way and if he turns it down more… I've… I've done things that… aren't good, right? Things that would make the normal 'me' really upset?" She sounded unsure, like she was having a hard time placing her recent actions as bad. Trying to kill civilians, actually killing that one man back in Numbani… all actions that Overwatch's champion of justice, Lena "Tracer" Oxton would loathe.

"Probably… I don't think you'd be happy with yourself as you are now. So… what are you going to do?"

Lena didn't even hesitate. "I can't leave… I'm trapped. I have to stay. Everything I've done has trapped me.

Everything's fine when I'm Slipstream. I've got nothing to regret as Slipstream. I just want this uncomfortable nagging in my gut to go away! Hopefully the boss will… let me go back…"

"Didn't you say you felt bad going back though?"

"Yeah… but I can't feel bad once I'm back to normal. I just want to feel fine. I've got no reason to go back to Tracer. I doubt I could if I wanted to." Slipstream seemed calmer than before, like the promise of the sympathiser being turned back on didn't leave her with a choice, but she also had no reason to fight back against the choice.

Sombra wondered if there was a way to get Tracer to fight back against Reaper. Right now, she was picking the easy way out. To not face more pain. Sombra would've thought her weak.

If she wasn't doing the same thing herself.

Olivia would have encouraged her to fight back.

Olivia wouldn't have let such a good person be twisted like this.

Olivia would have told Lena about the Chronal Bombs that Reaper forbade her to mention.

Olivia would have told her all these things.

But that would paint a target on her back and send Reaper after her. So instead of facing death, Sombra exchanged goodbyes with Lena, who lied down on her bed, exhausted. Sombra went back to her own room and pawned the job off to Overwatch.

…

Chat Channel Created

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Sombra entered the channel

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Lúcio was added to the channel

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[Lúcio]: Uh.

[Lúcio]: The hell?

[Sombra]: hiya lu! i promised id keep in touch so here we are o/

[Lúcio]: Sombra? How in the world did you get my chat ID?

[Sombra]: gee. i wonder. how could the worlds best hacker find the chat id of a famous celebritys chat id on a site that everyone uses ^_^

[Lúcio]: … So, what do you want?

[Sombra]: more like what do you want given i am chock full of info about the next big mission

[Sombra]: its a fun one

[Sombra]: MEKA themed this time 'round

[Lúcio]: Hang on, are you sure a chat client in the public domain is the best place to talk about this?

[Sombra]: tsk tsk, what do you think i am? an amateur? Naw i secured this server so its just you and me friend

[Sombra]: also this channel is gonna delete when were done

[Sombra]: but getting back on track, i have a file you might want to read

[Lúcio]: Alright, send it over.

[Sombra]: mk one sec

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Sombra sent superbigbadvillainplan,txt

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[Lúcio]: … The punctuation in this is horrendous. You wrote this yourself, huh?

[Sombra]: the actual files were long and annoyingly wordy and i didnt want to wait on you any longer than i gotta since im dead if reaper finds me doing this

[Lúcio]: Alright, whatever. Give me two minutes to read this.

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[Lúcio]: Oh damn.

[Sombra]: finally done, huh?

[Sombra]: kinda slow reading, i timed ya and you went thirty seconds over two mins but anyway yep theres the info

[Lúcio]: So, lemme get this straight

[Sombra]: i mean im sure you already got the gist but sure whatever -_-

[Lúcio]: In a few days, Talon is going to rob MEKA while the pilots are on a mission

[Sombra]: yup

[Lúcio]: and MEKA knows you're coming

[Sombra]: sí

[Lúcio]: But they're not doing anything about it? Why?

[Sombra]: those kiddos are fighting a giant friggen robot that can grow and evolve to counter them

[Sombra]: theyll take all the free tech they can get from us to help and in exchange theyre letting us get what we want :D

[Lúcio]: Which is?

[Sombra]: one of the mechs recovered from dead pilots

[Sombra]: a little morbid i know but the boss demands it so XD

[Lúcio]: …and what do you plan on doing with this technology?

[Sombra]: oh come on im sure you can figure it out now since so far, weve taken

[Sombra]: or15 parts from numbani, tech theyre famous for

[Sombra]: the junkers shitty bombs, which are suuuuper sketchy

[Sombra]: we had that raptora suit from amaris kid for a while

[Sombra]: we wanted null sector tech and we also hit up a couple other spots can ya see where im going with this now?

[Lúcio]: Wait.

[Lúcio]: You guys killed Mondatta.

[Sombra]: uhhh yeaaaaahh? isnt that common knowledge ^_-

[Lúcio]: Which has human and Omnic tensions higher than ever.

[Sombra]: thank widowmaker for that job well done :/

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[Sombra]: …

[Sombra]: hellooooo?

[Sombra]: ok i dont have all day can you have your epiphany already pls

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[Sombra]: -_- getting kinda bored over here

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[Lúcio]: Holy shit.

[Sombra]: finally! took ya long enough

[Sombra]: so did ya finally unveil talon's grandmaster plan

[Sombra]: woulda kept it hidden longer and left ya spinning your wheels but eh i got bored of waiting

[Lúcio]: You guys plan on starting another huge war.

[Sombra]: talon would prefer one of the "world" variety

[Sombra]: hence the thirty billion kinds of super outdated tech

[Lúcio]: But why?! Why would you support that?

[Sombra]: never said i did but you know i guess I'm guilty by association

[Lúcio]: Oh God, this is super bad…

[Sombra]: ok as much as i would love to read you freaking out ive got places to be so if we could get back on topic

[Lúcio]: Okay. Then Overwatch will have to go there.

[Sombra]: ah ah ah remember the deal? id rather not get caught red handed

[Lúcio]: Oh, good point. There's not really a reason for Overwatch to be there without it being blatantly obvious that info was leaked

[Sombra]: eyup and that means no more help from your new friend

[Lúcio]: …

[Lúcio]: How about this then?

[Lúcio]: Overwatch may not be able to go there, but Hana is still associated with MEKA. We can plan a livestream there a couple days in advance so it's obvious to Talon we're already there.

[Sombra]: ahhh i gotcha you wanna make it look like our dates just happen to line up and since its announced in advance

[Lúcio]: Yeah, Talon will know the "reason" we're there and make a mole on their side less obvious.

[Sombra]: hmm still sketchy but it could work although if overwatch were to show up in its entirety after the fact reaper would totally catch me

[Lúcio]: Then we'll just have to send people for the stream and hope they're enough. Me, Hana, Orisa, and Genji have all shown up on livestream. We could say we're doing a huge MEKA and Overwatch fundraiser or something.

[Sombra]: uhhhh not to doubt overwatch even though that's totally what im doing but do you think a newbie robot, a defective tracer knockoff, and a dj, even with the sparrow robot, can stand up against us even if i throw the match

[Lúcio]: We've done crazier. Do you have a better idea?

[Sombra]: … point

[Sombra]: well whatever its your funeral if you all get killed but yeah that plan should work

[Sombra]: but remember imma have to do my job and take that tech if you dont give me an excuse not to

[Lúcio]: Alright. And someone over here will probably kill you if you stab us in the back.

[Sombra]: please. ive had a lot of people want to kill me

[Sombra]: youll need to get in line

[Sombra]: other than that, its a

[Sombra]: anyways SS prolly forgot to eat again so imma go make her some food so byyyyyeee

[Lúcio]: Hang on. So just to confirm, you plan on using the tech you recover to frame other nations.

[Sombra]: uhhhh yeah do i really gotta spell it out for you

[Lúcio]: No, I've think I got the picture. But you didn't mention one other organizations tech

[Lúcio]: So please tell me.

[Lúcio]: What do you plan on doing with Tracer's technology? The technology you've been tampering with.

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[Lúcio]: I know you're still there.

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[Lúcio]: So, answer my question.

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[Lúcio]: Sombra. What are you doing with the chronal accelerator?

[Sombra]: I gotta go.

[Lúcio]: Bullshit. Answer my question.

[Sombra]: Sorry boss is coming. Talk to ya later.

[Lúcio]: Why is it I get the feeling you're dodging the question?

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Sombra disconnected from the channel.

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[Lúcio]: Hey! Wait!

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Lúcio lost connection to channel.

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Channel deleted.