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The first thing that tipped off that there was something wrong with Lena, was when the bubbly Brit failed to show up for dinner.
"Uh, Lena?" Winston pushed up the corners of his glasses with a knuckle, moving to knock the door again. The solid thump of skin on wood barely hid the occasional shout that came from the dining room. "Are you in there?"
"Yeah!" A shuffle, and with a muffled 'click', the lights inside the room switched on, casting a mild orange glow through the crack of the door. A few seconds later it opened, Lena greeting her friend with a slightly tired smile. "What's up, luv?"
"Oh, did I wake you?" The scientist sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "I didn't mean to, you weren't there for dinner and I got worried. Were you sleeping?"
"Oh, shoot!" She threw a look over her shoulder. "My alarm failed me! Sorry, luv, I'll be down in a sec!"
The door closed gently in his face and he waited patiently for a few minutes before she returned, not a trace of weariness in her freckled covered features. "Let's go!"
She didn't dare miss dinner once after that.
"Sorry, loves, I'm just tired." Lena explained to the group a week later, who's faces shone with a mixture of disappointment and sympathy. "I'll come by the next time, yeah?"
"If you say so, Lena." Hana mumbled, jabbing an accusing finger in her face. "But you better not miss on another gaming stream! We need you to liven it up!"
Suddenly, her smile seemed ever so slightly strained. "Sure thing! I'll see ya next time." Lena cheered, before quickly dismissed herself with a final wave.
She didn't appear until it was halfway through dinner.
Oxton showed up less and less, her appearance slowing in regularity as she dedicated more and more of her time to her room. Whenever she showed up, tired rings gathered under her eyes, barely hidden by her goggles.
Winston had approached her worriedly, Hana, Jesse, Angela, even Soldier and once, Hanzo. She'd always send them away with a forced smile, or a half hearted shout that grew more weighed down every time she did so. Sometimes, she wouldn't even answer the door.
Nobody wanted to admit the gut wrenching feeling of déjà vu that struck them randomly throughout the day.
Lena tried, she tried so hard, to smile and say that everything's ok, but it wasn't, and it won't be all thanks to her. It was all her fault, it was her fault, why couldn't she go back and erase it and fix it--
She blinked again, crashing into her wall with a grunt. Pictures and posters alike peeled from the plaster, fluttering to the floor as she let out a strangled sob, collapsing onto the bed. Her accelerator dimmed, fizzing slightly as it ran out of power yet again, overheated and battered from her attempts to rewind more and more just to go back to that day.
She craned her neck up to look at the clock.
20 seconds into the past.
Lena pounded against the frame of the bed in frustration, blue energy wafting off of her in waves. "Damn it!"
A knock on the door. "Lena! I heard something, are you alright?!"
She didn't reply, opting to keep silent as she tucked her knees closer to her, folding her arms across her face in attempt to shut everything out. The knocking became slightly more rapid. "Lena! Let me in!"
Go away, Winston. She wanted to say. I'm fine, luv! You don't need to worry about me.
The knocking eventually dulled when the lack of a reply made the large ape doubt his hearing, and he shuffled away, shooting a concerned glance over his shoulder as he did.
Lena listened for a few more precious seconds, before she buried her face in the crook of her arms, curling up in a defensive position. The cold metal of the machine dug into her skin, but she didn't care, staying in the dark, blue energy whisking around her shaking form.
"It should have been me..." The normally bubbly girl choked out through shuddering breaths. "I-It should have been me..."
: :
"Shh, shh! This might not even work!"
"Well, it has to work if she's not herself, right?"
Angela sighed at their bickering, a disapproving frown on her face. "This is not a good idea." She muttered, crossing her arms. "You can't just do that! It can do more harm than good."
"Oh, c'mon, doc!" Lucio threw his hands into the air. "Even a blind man can tell that there's something wrong with Speedy. We gotta see what's up with her, and this is the perfect way to do it."
"Yeah, GG." Hana laughed, sliding across a plate that held food that could barely pass for breakfast.
Once again, Angela sighed, leaning back into her seat. “Fine. But if she does not fall for it--”
“Here she comes!” The Korean girl cut off.
As if on cue, Lena walked in, shoulders slumped as usual, her orange hoodie tucked under the bulky frame of the Chronol Accelerator. “Hey.” She greeted with a weak grin, sliding into her chair. “How’s it going, love?”
“Pretty OK! We got’cha dinner.” Lucio quickly cut in, pushing the plate across the table. It was measly, a slice of cheese with a scone dumped on top, and a Dorito pierced through the cold pastry. Barbecue sauce was drizzled across the surface in a ‘fashionable’ way, in an attempt to make it look somewhat more presentable.
“Huh,” Absentmindedly, Lena chowed down the food, quick as a flash. “’s great, luv! Listen, I gotta go, I’ll see you ‘round!”
And with those words, Lena blinked away. Hana sighed and rested her cheek on her palm, leaning against the table.
“Bruh, it's not even real cheese…” She muttered in disdain.
“Wait,” Winston raised an eyebrow. “It’s not cheese? Then what is it?”
“You… don't really wanna know.”
: :
The steady tick of a clock accompanied the outdated audio, western slang and drawls being broadcasted on the movie with no one around to hear except for the sleeping form of the cowboy and the samurai. The duo slept, tucked away in the corner of the couch, with Hanzo’s head resting on Jesse’s shoulders and the old, worn out serape draped over the both of them.
With a barely audible creak, Lena sneaked into the living room, still in her casual clothes. Her weapons were confiscated by Winston, in fear of the girl doing something rash. So, instead, she set her eyes on Peacekeeper.
She carefully tiptoed over, a hand resting on the couch’s backrest as she leaned over ever so slightly, her other arm stretched out. Slowly, slowly…
The gun slipped out of Jesse’s holster with barely a jingle. Her breath hitched when Hanzo shifted, freezing in place, but when the danger of either of them waking passed she retreated slowly. Lena waited until she stepped out of the room, before she blinked away.
“... You should not have let her go, gunslinger.”
“Ya know she needs this, and I ain't gonna stop her. If not, poor girl’s gonna have a bee in ‘er bonnet for ages.”
“Winston would not approve of this course of action.”
“Eh, what’s he gonna know?”
“You are a fool, gunslinger.”
“But I’m your fool.” Jesse murmured back.
: :
Running. Was that all that foolish girl knew how to do? She blinked as fast as she could, headed towards some unknown building that she hadn't bothered to take a second glance at. Round and around and around, leaving a blue trail behind her, the rain stinging as they battered against her determined frame, bullets made of water hailing from the sky. Past every shop. Past those street lamps twice. Blink. Blink. Blink.
She didn't see that one golden eye trained onto her figure, drawn to her speedy frame like a moth to fire. Dangerous, lethal.
Her finger rested on the trigger, and yet she did not pull. Her curiosity was aroused.
The first thing the assassin noticed was her spark. Or rather, the lack thereof. Her normal bubbly attitude, gone, like someone had flicked a switch and made a 180 turn of her personality.
Lena’s teeth were gritted so hard her jaw felt sore, white crocs pounding into the pavement before she blinked yet again. Her foot caught onto something. With a startled cry, she stumbled forward and lost her balance. Her momentum sent her crashing onto the floor. Her legs burned, her lungs felt like they were on fire, and the pebbles grind into her skin painfully when she rolled. Her accelerator sparked dangerously bright. Groaning, she shifted herself onto all fours, ignoring the red that welled from the new wounds.
Widowmaker let a smile turn the corner of her lips upwards, emotionless and bitter, before she jumped off of the building she hid amongst to reveal herself, her scope moving out of her vision with an automatic hiss.
"Pathetic. You let the death of one omnic consume you."
No response, except for the twitch of her hand and the ever so slight turn of her head.
"What, out of quips?"
The British suddenly whipped around, bouncing to her feet as she pointed the barrel of Peacekeeper straight at Widowmaker. Her thumb flicked the safety off, and for a moment, the assassin' eyes widened with shock.
Lena pulled the trigger.
Widowmaker acted on instinct, ducking out of the way as she felt the bullet whiz past her face. Tracer bared her teeth and charged forward, elbows clashing against the armoured forearm that held Widowmaker's bomb contraption, creating bruises that were bound to last for days. Punches flew and Widowmaker dodged them effortlessly, lips pressed into a thin line, her surprise gone.
She has never seen this side of Lena before. Her angry side. The side that feeds on her rage, her desire to hurt, her bloodlust, sharpening her senses and turning the normally bubbly, witty Brit into a focused machine with the intent to kill.
“Stay! Still!” The brunette clenched her jaw, the rain soaking into her clothes, dampening her hair, making the blood run from her wounds and cooling her bruises. She doubled back with a yelp when Widowmaker faked a punch, only to snap her arm sideways and catching Lena in the neck.
She fell to the ground, gravel scraping against her skin, replaced with more blood that spiralled down the drain. Her eyes darted to the gun just within her reach and her arm shot out.
Purple fingers closed around the hilt of the pistol first.
Widowmaker took a step back when Lena scrambled up, before she shoved her up against a wall, the paint already peeling off. She holds Tracer at gunpoint, blood dripping past her closed eye under orange tinted plastic, her split lip, down her chin. Peacekeeper's spur dug into her cold skin as she looked over Lena.
Dead, hollow eyes, hidden behind goggles cracked down the side. Oxton bared her teeth at the gesture, before she smirked, dark and dangerous and filled with so much guilt and anger. The dark crimson wounds stung whenever water splashed against them, causing red streaks down her freckled covered cheeks.
"Go on then, love.” She rasped out, before a bitter grin took over. "Kill me, isn't that what you're programmed to do, Widowmaker?"
"..." She jammed the gun harder into her neck, drawing out a pained choke, before the gun was abruptly thrown out of the way. Lena collapsed onto the floor when the pressure suddenly disappeared, legs folding under her as she brought her hands forward to steady herself.
"Why can't you just kill me?!" Now it was a broken wail, her anger dissolving along with the rain, replaced by overwhelming self hate. “Pull the trigger, it's that easy! Why don't you kill me, like what you did with Mondatta?!”
Widowmaker glared at her through half lidded eyes, at how broken she looked. At how utterly shattered she was, by the death of an iconic figure who spread peace. Her chest ached with an unidentifiable emotion.
"Because I do not care for Mondatta."
And she was gone, leaving the bruised, bloodied, broken hero alone to mull over her words in the rain.