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Amélie's hands do not often shake but tonight is different. Her keys are clutched tightly in her hand and her small handgun is at her hip. Even if she thought there was any chance of her successfully defending herself, she's not sure if she would have the strength to try.
"Don't you remember who you are, Lena?" She whispers out into the darkness, too hopeful to not try it just once.
"Uh-uh-uh" comes the voice, eerily bright sounding, like a child possessed. It seems as though it's coming from nowhere and everywhere all at once. "Let's not go down that road, luv. You don't want to know what happened to the last person who tried to catch me with that name."
Emily. Amélie feels sick to her stomach, unable to stop herself from picturing her girlfriend’s bloodied face. She never actually saw her before they took the body away, but the image of what her subconscious thinks Emily might have looked like in death haunts her dreams.
The monster Lena had become may not be redeemable. That does not mean that Amélie will stop trying. She speaks again, voice shaking audibly.
"You don't miss her, Lena?"
There is something like a clap of thunder and suddenly the woman's face is inches from her own. Amélie's heart nearly stops and her breath catches in her throat as she stares wide eyed into the crazed grinning expression. The person in front of her is too cold to have such laugh lines, she thinks.
There is a sharp nail under her chin and a pistol in her side. Tracer cackles loudly and Amélie flinches, tries to turn away, it's so close. "You really think that's gonna work? Bringing her into this? You underestimate me, poppet."
The grin does not fade as Tracer's eyes lower and she comes even closer, breath terrifyingly cool against Amélie's cheek. "I don't love anyone anymore."
There are hot tears running down Amélie's face now as she tries in vain to wriggle away but she is trapped by the other woman's body. The hand on her chin roughly pulls her face forward, forcing her to look into eyes that used to be brown but are now a sickly yellow. Tracer leans in for the kill, capturing Amélie's lower lip between her teeth, drawing blood. Then she kisses roughly, licking clean the mess she made. Amélie cries harder as she presses back against the wall but can't bring herself to struggle. It doesn't feel like Lena anymore but it is her, isn't it? Amélie is weak in her emotion, spent so much time mourning and missing her only to have the image of her here in the flesh. Part of her wants to just give in.
Then she thinks again of Emily, what Lena--what Tracer did, how whatever had been done to her took so much of her old self away. So much of her was gone now, that she could take the life of one of the women she loved. She could easily take the life of the other. Amélie knows that the kiss is only to hurt her, to make her feel helpless. It takes everything in her but she turns her head sharply and pushes hard with both hands. Tracer pulls back, her smile like a wolf, blood on her teeth.
"Missed me."
"Yes, I--fuck, I miss you so much," Amélie sobs. She reaches out, not even sure for what. Tracer catches her hand quick as lightning before it can cross the space between them, her grip uncomfortably tight. The pistol suddenly presses painfully into Amélie's side and she feels skin break under the sharp end.
"I wonder if anyone will miss you, chérie,” comes the mocking voice. Amélie squeezes her eyes shut, prepared for the worst.
Suddenly there is a rush of air and a thud, Tracer's hand is wrenched away and the gun is gone. Amélie's eyes fly open; there is no one in front of her any longer. She looks wildly around the alley. There is a flash of blue and then Tracer appears out of the air a few feet away, looking around just as wildly. Amélie feels a shiver run through her when she sees that the grin still hasn't faded for anger or confusion.
"Come out come out wherever you are," Tracer sing-songs, blinking to the top of a fire escape and then back. "You can't hide from me for long, luv."
The figure drops silently, seemingly out of nowhere and lands liked a cat on the ground in front of Tracer. Amélie jumps a little, surprised. Her assumed savior is clad in green and black, a hood over their head. It's a feminine figure--tall and slender, she observes as the person stands to face Tracer. Amélie feels suddenly terrified for this person but doesn't know what to say in warning.
She doesn't even have the time to try because the two women launch themselves at each other. The new person is very quick. Not as fast as Tracer but still almost inhumanly so, lithely bouncing off the walls and keeping out of the way of the rapid fire easily. Tracer seems to be having the time of her life, cackling wildly as she gives chase. Amélie cowers against the wall, afraid of being caught in the crossfire but it's over almost as soon as it's started. The woman in black throws something at the ground that sends out a circle of bright green light that seems to go through the walls around them and out towards the city. As soon as it hits Tracer the blue glow on her chest flickers and dies.
The last thing Amélie sees before the woman blinks out of view completely is the grin on her face finally dropping, replaced with a look of horror.
There's no feeling of relief when it's finally silent, only an overwhelming sadness that starts in Amélie's gut and tightens her throat. She wants to cry some more but doesn't know if she has any tears left. As she sniffs and lets her legs give out, her shirt catches on the rough brick on her way to the ground. The figure walks to her and she looks up, unafraid but confused. There's a mask covering the face of the...person? It’s bone white with delicate features painted on in scarlet, two red spots high on the cheeks. The space behind the eyes is pitch black in the dim light. They must be a human. The face doesn’t look like that of any omnic Amélie has ever seen, even if that would explain the superhuman agility and speed.
Instead of helping her up, the figure kneels in front of her. "Are you alright?" the distinctly feminine voice says. There is distortion, a kind of static overlay. It still sounds human. Amélie nods, realizing that she is still gripping her keys so tightly that she has broken the skin of her palm. She lets them fall to the ground.
"Who are you? Why did you save me?"
The masked woman hesitates before answering cryptically. “I’m... a friend. Just know that you’re not alone. I’ll make sure she doesn’t harm you ever again.”
Now even more confused, Amélie reaches for the mask instinctively and the woman draws back, startled. Then after a beat she leans forward and rests the metal of her cheek against Amélie’s palm. It is not cool to the touch but warm, as if it were skin. The hood falls back and there is a shock of orange hair, cut short and choppy but still so familiar. Amélie’s heart jumps to her throat and somehow more tears gather in her eyes. It takes no convincing for her to believe that who she is seeing is, despite all the odds, the one she thought she had lost.
“Emily?” she breathes out and the woman nods minutely, the mask hiding any emotion. “What have you...how, what…”
“What am I?” The voice is choked with tears, and this makes the static sound worse, like a radio tuned slightly off. “I don’t know anymore.”
Amélie reaches around the mask, searching, and finds what she is looking for. She brings her other hand up and undoes the clasps of the mask. Emily doesn’t make any move to stop her and it comes off with a hiss.
The skin underneath is covered in white scar tissue but still freckled; brown eyes look into hers, rimmed red with tears.
Not knowing what else to do in the moment, Amélie stares. She didn’t know she could feel anything more tonight but she was wrong, she feels so much all at once and it’s rendered her speechless. Emily’s face crumbles at the silence and she lets out a quiet sob, turning her head and going for the mask. “I’m not what you want anymore.”
Amélie is jolted back into reality and pulls the mask away, reaching out again and taking Emily’s flesh cheek into her hand now. “Non, chérie. All I wanted was for you to still be here and now you are, what more could there be? I do not care what form you take. You are still you.”
Finally, gloriously, Emily collapses into Amélie’s arms. They sit there for minutes just holding each other.
Then shakily into Amélie’s shoulder Emily whispers. “But Lena is not Lena anymore.”
This strikes Amélie with something she had not considered in her state of shock. “Where did you send her? She is not--”
“No, she isn’t dead. I simply put her out of time for a while. She should be able to gather herself within a few days when the chronal accelerator starts back up. Then I’ll have to find her again.”
Amélie contemplates the situation, trying not to think too hard about too much at once so as to not overwhelm herself further. Her mind is running wild but she chooses her words carefully. “Where have you been? How did you know she would be here?”
“I have been tracking her for months. It was only when I realized I should also be keeping an eye on you that we met by coincidence, here. I have spent a lot of time trying to discover what made her...into what she is now. I have made a little progress but I don’t know how to bring her back, not yet.”
“We will just have to keep trying.” Amélie says, pushing Emily up so she can look her in the eye. “We will. Not just you. How could you keep the fact that you were alive away from me like this?”
Wincing, Emily turns her face away once again. “I was ashamed. I didn’t think you would want me anymore, you always were closer to Lena than to me and I--”
With no reservations whatsoever Amélie cuts her off with a kiss to end all kisses, trying to channel everything she’s feeling into the action. After pulling back she just looks , drinking in the sight of her lovers face, the feeling of Emily solid in her arms. Amélie feels for a moment that everything could possibly be right in the world again. If one miracle could take place, surely there could be more.
“Don’t ever think that you are not worthy of love. I will spend forever trying to prove this to you if I must. But now we have a soul to save...someone else to convince of love again. Come home with me?”
“Please.”