You woke up to the alarm from your digital clock on the nightstand and reached over to press the snooze button on it. The alarm went silent and you fell back asleep. At least, you almost did until the backup alarm you set up on your phone went off five minutes later. Except it wasn't playing a normal alarm to wake you up, instead what came blaring out was Eruption by Van Halen and you lept out of bed to turn it off.
"Okay! I'm up! I'm up!" You turned off the alarm and went into the bathroom to get ready for today. After you showered, fixed your hair and brushed your teeth, you put on your lab coat over your clothes, attached your Overwatch ID badge to your coat, grabbed your notes and headed to the mess hall for breakfast.It was 7:10 in the morning when you got to the mess hall and just in time too before what looked like the whole base come in behind you. You got yourself some eggs, bacon, hash browns , a waffle and some orange juice and went to look for a place to sit down.
(A/U Note: Or you got pancakes if that's your preference. Not trying to start a war here. )
It didn't take long to find a spot, when you heard someone call your name.
"(Y/N)! Over here! Sit with us!" Angela said as she waved to you. You went to the table to see she was sitting with Winston.
"Good morning (Y/N). Sleep well?" Winston asked.
"I did. Thanks for asking." You said as you sat down.
"Are you looking forward to getting to work?" Angela asked.
"Oh you have no idea how excited I am for this. How's Lena doing? Any changes?"
"Nein. She's still disappearing from time to time."
Hopefully you could change that and help Tracer get back to living a normal life. While you were eating your breakfast, you saw what looked to be an omnic walking towards one of the tables. You looked closer and saw that it wasn't an omnic. It was a man. Most of the body was covered in what looked to be cybernetic components. All that appeared to be human was his head, the left side of his abdomen and his left arm, which were all covered in scars. Everything else was machine. As he was walking, he passed by a table that had some guys dressed in black. You only knew one person that was sitting there and that was Commander Reyes. There were a few others and one seemed to be wearing a cowboy hat. As the cyborg walked pass them, the one wearing the cowboy hat called out to him.
"Hey Genji. Do that knife trick of yours again!" the cowboy asked. The cyborg turned around ,stood there and stared at him with his red eyes. "Come on! Just one time that's it!" He said as he held a knife that he got from his boot. Genji stared at him for a couple of seconds more and he grasped the knife from him and flipped it over his hand a few times to get a feel for it. "Alright! Watch this guys. It's pretty amazin' how he does this." He said as the cyborg put his hand on the table. Just then Commander Reyes got up and went behind the cowboy to put him in a headlock with his elbo, grabbed the cowboy's left hand and put it on the table next to Genji's.
"Hey boss, what are you doing?"
"Don't move." Reyes said
"Quit messin' around and let me go boss! Come on."
"Mccree shut up."
"Someone lend me a hand here? Genji?" the cowboy said with a bit of laugh. But he wasn't laughing much when the cyborg put his hand over the cowboy's.
"Do it Genji." Reyes said with a smile.
"Hey not me boss!"
"Yeah you. You asked for it." Reyes said as Genji moved the knife between their fingers to warm up.
"Quit messin' around! Come on!"Mccree said as he struggled to get free.
Before the cyborg started to move the knife, he looked at Mccree and said "Hold still." He started to move the blade in between their fingers at a slow pace before he started to build up the speed of his arm. The sound of the knife hitting the table kept getting louder and faster as Mccree started to scream as he was going faster with the blade. You couldn't believe how fast he was going. His hand was moving like a blur as Mccree kept staring at the cyborg's hand and screaming at the same time as the blade moved across his hand multiple times in a matter of seconds. The cyborg stopped the blade just a half inch away from his thumb , Reyes let Mccree go and everyone at their table was clapping and laughing. Genji handed the knife back to Mccree and said "Arigato yo." and walked away.
Reyes patted Mccree on the back and said "That was too good."
"That wasn't funny . I could'a lost a hand." *
You went back to eating as Winston started to speak to you"The one with the knife is Genji Shimada and the one that was screaming is Jesse Mccree."
"What happened to him? The cyborg?" you asked the scientists.
"He was on the verge of death when we found him. Considering all of his injuries, I was surprised he was still alive." Angela replied. "His body sustained heavy damage from a fight he had with his brother. Unfortunately, all we could save was whatever isn't covered in metal."
"A fight? Looks more like a slaughter to me. Whoever his brother is, he did a real number on him." You went back to your breakfast and then another question popped into your head. "Wait a minute. If he's a cyborg, doesn't that mean he has no need to eat? Why's he in the mess hall?"
"Well, he does still have parts of him that are human, so he does need nutrients. He can eat, but it's very little and from what's he's told us, he can't taste whatever he's eating." Angela said.
You took that in and another question came to mind. "So if he eats, how does he...? You know..?Go?"
Winston lifted his finger to start explaining until you cut him off. "Okay on second thought, don't answer that. I'm eating ,so I don't want know." Angela smiled at that as Winston put his finger down. The three of you finished your breakfast, got up, threw away your trash and headed to the lab.
You entered the lab to see that Lena wasn't there in her room. "When did you guys see her last?" you asked.
"She disappeared about half an hour before we left to get some rest last night. Well, technically early this morning since we left here about midnight. Hopefully when she gets back we can run the next test and see if we can get her to stay this time." Winston said.
"What have we got planned?" you asked them. Mercy went on to answer you as Winston pressed some buttons and turned a few dials on the control panel.
" Do you see that silver sphere in the room? When Tracer gets back, we're going to have her place her hand on it and see if the electricity we run through the nodes ,that are connected to it in the room,can fix her molecules."
You ran the procedure in your head to get a better idea of it. "So she's basically going to be a living Tesla coil."
"In a way, yes." Mercy replied.
"Will it hurt her? I mean we are going to be running electricity through her."
"No, we're only using a low-voltage setting." Winston said.
"Oh Ok, just making sure." You leaned in and placed your hands on the window to see what they had set up in the room. "So all we gotta do is play the waiting game. Could be a couple of hours until- AH!"you shouted as tracer phased in right in front of you which made you fall back onto the floor.
You looked up and blinked your eyes to see her standing there ,looking at you through the window. "Hiya" she said softly, with a wave and a smile.
"Welcome back Tracer. Ready for the next test?" Angela asked her.
"Ready doc." Tracer looked at you as you got yourself up from the floor. "(Y/N)? You alright love?"
"Yup." You placed your hands on your back to pop your spine. "I'm good."
"Sorry for scaring you. Again."
"Me? Scared? Pfff!No! Never! Don't worry about it." you liar she totally scared you.
"So what are we trying this time?" Lena asked.
"Well based on what Angela and Winston have told me, we're going to have you place your hand on that metal sphere there and see if good ol' electricity can do the trick."
"You're gonna shock me?!"she asked and she didn't look happy. Way to go moron.
"What? Oh, no. No, not at all it's uh... um."You stumbled to find the right words to calm her down a bit until Winston interjected to save you from embarrassment .
"It's only a low voltage Tracer. You won't feel a thing." he said.
"Yeah. The electricity will flow through you, just like your blood flows through your body. You'll hardly notice it." she seemed a bit calmed down but you wanted to give her more reassurance. Make her laugh idiot. "If anything, your hair will just poof up. Ever been to a science museum and placed your hand on those purple, globe thingies that have the static electricity running on the outside of it? It'll be like that." She smiled at that, as if she wanted to giggle a bit. OK now the final touch to make her more comfortable. You looked into her eyes and said "It won't hurt Lena. I promise. The last thing we want is to put you through more pain."
Tracer P.O.V.
(Y/N) looked as though he really meant it. I mean I had no choice but to trust them on this thing. And you know what? Even if I had more than one choice in this, I still would. I nodded towards (Y/N) "Alright then , let's do this. Ready when you are." I told them with confidence.
"Good to hear Tracer. Just give the nodes in the room a moment to power up." Winston said. There was a low humming in the room coming from the panels on the ceiling as I stood there and waited for the next step.
"Okay, Tracer. Go ahead and place your hand on the sphere." Dr. Ziegler said.
I lifted up my right hand and took a breath "Here goes nothing". I placed my hand on it and they were right. I could hardly feel anything but the static go through my hand. "HaHa! It tickles! " I looked through the window to see (Y/N) covering his mouth, trying to keep himself from laughing. What he was laughing about? I remember he said that my hair would poof up with all this static electricity, so I used my free hand to check and sure enough my hair was going crazy with it. "Oi! Stop laughing over there! I can see you trying not to!" I said to (Y/N), while trying to keep myself from laughing too. A couple of minutes passed and I asked them "So how much longer do I have to keep my hand on this thing"?
"Well based on what's on the monitors, looks like your molecules are staying in place. They're not zooming all around the place like gas molecules. Let's give it a couple more minutes to be sure. " (Y/N) said. Ok, a few more minutes. I can do this. Luckily time flies by and Winston starts pushing some buttons on the panel.
"Alright. Powering down the sphere. Voltage levels are dropping. Molecules are holding so far." Winston says. "Ok. There. You can remove your hand from the sphere now Tracer."
I let go of the sphere and rubbed my hand to wake it up. The feeling in my hand made me giggle a bit and (Y/N) noticed.
"What ?" (Y/N) asked, smiling.
"My hand fell asleep." I said, giggling . After that was over, I walked around the room and kept feeling my arms and my hands to see that I was still here.
"How are you feeling Tracer?" Dr. Ziegler asked.
"Alright so far, doc!" I replied. I kept going around the room to see if this time it really worked. I haven't phased out yet. Did it work? Could it be that I was back to normal? Did it really--.
Your P.O.V.
She phased out. You looked at the monitor to see that her molecules had dispersed from the solid structure they were holding in an instant. She was gone before you could warn anyone. You looked at Winston to see him take his glasses of off and pinch the bridge of his nose.
"It didn't work." he said with disappointment.
"Hey. At least we tried it and saw that this wasn't the solution. This wasn't a bad idea Winston. It was just another experiment that didn't have a results that held. So let's follow the scientific method and go back to see where we went wrong." You said to ease him.
He put his glasses back on and smiled at you. "You're right. So what shall we try next?" he asked.
"I thought you'd have something." you told him.
"I do. But I want to see if you have anything. After all, you are apart of this as well."
"Oh, right. Well, I do have a few ideas that could help Tracer. Here, I have them in my journal."You picked up your journal and flipped through the pages to find your ideas. "Ok, here's one I'd like to try." Winston and Angela looked at your notes, then looked at each other and nodded heads.
(AU note- this basically what you're doing. Energy shielding thing from Halo.)
"This could work. I'll have the engineers get started on this right away." Angela said.
"Tell them to work fast. I think we're on more than one clock here." You told her.
"What do you mean?" She asked.
You took a breath to explain. "Yesterday, while I was looking at all the papers you guys gave me, I noticed a pattern with Lena's disappearances. You see throughout the day, she'll phase out for a second or more and she comes back. But, this all adds up to a longer period of time that she's gone and they just keep lasting longer each time. If I'm right and I usually am, in about three weeks, maybe four, she could be gone for almost six months. Six months until the next test we try. After that she could be gone longer or worst case scenario.."
"Complete molecular eradication. She'll cease to exist." Winston said.
"Yeah. That."
"Mein gott. Alright, then. You two get back to it and I'll head to engineering." Angela said and left the room. Just then Lena phased back in, still looking at her hands. "It didn't work." she said soft and weak.
"No. I'm sorry Tracer." Winston said.
"You don't have to be sorry Winston. It wasn't your fault. Or yours (Y/N)."
"Don't worry Lena. We're already working on the next thing." you said . Tracer went and sat by one of the windows, held up her head with her hand and looked outside, while her finger tapped her cheek. She sat there, waiting for the next gleam of hope that would come her way.
Just seeing her sit there, with that melancholy expression on her face, made you sad as well. Lena looked like a person who was always happy and lived life to the fullest and it's moments like these, where people like her, who spend their time being and making others happy, needed someone to make them happy again . You thought to yourself; what could make her happy? You could tell her she looks nice today. No, too simple. Compliment her hair? Maybe. Wait. Tell her that you liked her flying skills. She was really good in that video Angela sent you. Okay, so compliment her hair and then her piloting skills. Yeah, that could work.
You moved your hand towards the microphone and as you grabbed it, a little bit of interference ran through it and it echoed into both rooms, which brought her attention to you. "Oh, um sorry." you said with a smile. She smiled back. Ok here goes nothing.
"I like your hair by the way. Looks really nice."
"Aw thanks, love. I like yours too. It's all wild and messy."(Remember you have David Tennant's spiky hair)
"Not as wild as yours. Were you born like that or what?"
She laughed a bit. "No, were you?"
"Oh yeah. As soon as I came out ,the doctor held me and looked at my parents and said 'congratulations Mr. and Mrs. (L/N), you are now the proud parents of a healthy looking paint brush." You both laughed at that and so did Winston. After your laughter died down a bit, you went on to her flight skills.
"You know I saw some flight footage of yours. You're one hell of a pilot."
She gave you the wink and the gun(made her hand into the shape of a gun, pointed at you, clicked her tongue and winked at you at the same time, for those who don't know.). "Thanks. Want my autograph?" She said jokingly. After that she went back to looking outside except she had a smile on her face this time, and you looked back at the control panel. About twenty minutes passed and you looked at Tracer. Now she just looked bored. It was quiet in both rooms. Too quiet. Maybe some music could help pass the time. You got your phone out and used a special app on it you got from a friend of Chases's, that allowed you to connect to any speaker system and let you control what came out of it. You connected your phone to the speakers in both rooms and scrolled through your music library. Asking Lena what she wanted to hear would have been nice, but you'd rather surprise her. So you guessed what she would have liked and you find the right song to play for her. She seemed like someone who probably wakes up to this song, plus it's a classic. You press play and let the music do the rest.
Tracer P.O.V.
It was nice of (Y/N) to cheer me up. I'll admit it did work, I was feeling a bit better, but now I'm just bored out of my mind. I hear something over the speakers, must have been interference from the microphone again. But wait, it sounds more like radio waves and then I heard a piano. Am I hearing things now? Then a voice came on the speakers.
Morning! Today's forecast calls for Blue Skies!
I gasped and it made (Y/N) look up and grab the microphone. "Tracer? What's wrong? Are you okay?"
"Oh my god! I love this song!" I got up from my spot and started dancing around the room, while at the same time singing the words to Mr. Blue Sky. This song always cheers me up. " Sun is shinin' in the sky, there ain't a cloud in sight. It's stopped rainin', everybody's in a play and don't you know it's a beautiful new day? Heeeyy!". I swayed a bit and then ran backwards like I was running down the avenue and it made (Y/N) smile. I looked at him and asked "How's there music playing?". He lifted up his phone "Ta-da! It's an app I have on my phone I got from a friend. Call it sneaktooth. Let's me connect to any speaker so I can play what I want to hear. Thought this would get you going."
"Well thanks for the tune". Then came the next words and looks like (Y/N) knew the words too because we both sang them.
(In Unison) " Mr. Blue Sky, please tell us why. You had to hide away for so long? So long? Where did we go wrong?(Repeat)
I looked at (Y/N) and Winston "Hey how come I'm the only one dancing? Come on this is a good song!".
(Y/N) laughed a bit "I'm not that much of a dancer."
"Aw come on. You don't have to be a ballerina. Just get up and move!"
(Y/N) sighed,"Alright you asked for it." (Y/N) started moving and Winston followed and it made be laugh.
"Haha. Oh my god you're terrible! Come on, you can do more than that!"
(For dance reference, just imagine Tracer dancing like Groot in Guardians 2 and you follow her lead or do your own little routine if you have one. Pause the music and read on or continue to shake what your momma gave you, wait for it to finish and continue to read.)
After the song finished, we all stood there, looked at each other while catching our breath and then we burst out laughing from watching each other dance. I wipe away a tear from my eye from laughing "Thanks (Y/N) . I needed that. You know, you're actually not that bad of a dancer. You too Winston."
"I'm more of listener than a dancer when it comes to jamming out." (Y/N) said.
"Really? What do you listen to?" Lena asked you.
"(Music Preference) is my kind of thing. But I do enjoy the classics, mainly because of my parents. You know like AC/DC, Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Journey, Queen, Led Zeppelin especially."
"Those bands are older than my granny. How old are your parents?"
"They're in their 40's and what can I say? Classics never die. "
Just then, Dr. Ziegler came through the doors and started talking to Winston and (Y/N).
Your P.O.V.
"Dr. Ziegler you're back." Winston said.
"Sorry if I took awhile to get back, I had to make a few rounds at the med-bay. But I do have some good news."
"Is it going to be followed by bad news?" you asked.
"No, no. The engineers said that they had a device which was very similar to what was in your journal (Y/N). They just need a day or two to make some adjustments to it."
"Oh, that's great. The sooner the better." Winston said.
As the day went on, you and Winston would be there talking about new ideas that could help Tracer, Lena would phase in and out from time to time and Dr. Ziegler would come and go, having to go back to the med-bay to check on her patients. Later that night, it was just you in the room and Lena still in her's, while Winston went out to get some air and Angela went to go turn in for the night. You sat there writing down alternative solutions you could go with if your current one didn't work, while 19th nervous breakdown by the Rolling Stones played on the speakers. You checked the time on your phone to see it was a quarter past eleven. You looked through the window to see Lena holding up her head, looking at the night sky. "How's it look out there?" you asked her.
"Hm?"
"The sky. How does it look? "
"Oh. It looks lovely tonight. All the stars are out and the moon's full too." she said. Just then the song finished and up next came Come a little bit closer by Jay & the Americans. You were about to change it until Tracer called out to you. "Wait! Leave it there. I like this song."
"How do you know this song? This isn't exactly a well-known classic."
"You have your parent's music, I have mine. My dad likes to dance to this song with my mom ."
"You must miss them a lot."
"I do and I'm worried about them, especially my dad. Can't imagine how he must have felt when heard what happened to me."
You remembered what Angela told you about how Overwatch hasn't gone public about finding Lena. They're probably waiting until she's cured of her Chronal Disassociation.
"Don't worry we'll have you fixed up in no time. You'll see them again."
"Thanks (Y/N). I appreciate it.". She looked back at the window to look at the starry night sky. You looked back at your notes and grabbed your pencil to get back to writing. As you were writing, you could hear Lena through the speakers. "Come a little bit closer you're my kind of man, so big and so strong. Come a little bit closer, I'm all alone and the night is so long." she sang softly. So just to mess with her you got up and said "Alright, dammit if you insist."
"Wait, what?!"
"You said I'm your kind of man and that you're all alone. Sooo..?"
She laughed "No, I'm just singing the song love!"
"I know. I know. I'm just messing with you.", good it didn't get weird. After the song ended, it was quiet again. Lena sat there with her legs curled up, with her head resting on her knees. It was late and you knew that you were going to have to turn in soon. So before Winston could come back and say it was time to go, you spoke into the microphone.
"Tracer, I just want to let you know that no matter what, me and Winston...we're going to fix you. I promise."
"Pinky promise?" she said as she lifted up her hand with her pinky out with a smile.
You picked yours up and curled it, "Pinky promise."
One week later (Third person P.O.V.)
It was a beautiful day at Overwatch headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland with the sun shining bright in the sky. It was looking like another good day for everyone, except (Y/N), who was sitting at a table ,outside, under a red umbrella, with his head on the table facing down, while Captain Amari sat across from him, taking a sip of her tea.
"It's nice view, isn't it (Y/N)?" Ana asked. No response. "(Y/N)?" she asked as she looked at the young scientist and gave him a nudge on the shoulder. She then heard him snore as his head laid face down with his lunch to the right of him. Before she could wake him up, Ana could see what looked to be Dr. Ziegler walking around as if she was looking for something.
"(Y/N)? (Y/N)? Where is he? Ah! There you are! I've been looking for you." The doctor said as she approached the table.
"Hello Angela. Care to join us for a moment?"
"I suppose I can spare a few minutes. I could use some fresh air." She grabbed and sat in one of the chairs and looked at (Y/N). "Is (Y/N) okay?"
"I thought I'd get him out of the lab for lunch and tea. Seems as though what he really needed was sleep." The captain said.
Angela proceeded to shake (Y/N).
*Snort* "The cake is a lie.* Wha...? What's goin on?" (Y/N) said getting up, he didn't know that his napkin was on his forehead. Both Ana and Dr. Ziegler were restraining from laughing.
"(Y/N), you have something here." Captain Amari said pointing towards her forehead. (Y/N) removed the napkin and shook his head.
"Sorry for falling asleep on you. I'm still recovering from last night."
"What happened last night?" Dr. Ziegler asked.
Flashback (Still third person)
"Gotta stay up. Gotta stay up. Gotta stay up." (Y/N) said as he shook his head and rubbed his hands on his face. It was nearly midnight.
"You know (Y/N), if you're tired you can go to your room to get some sleep. I'd rather that you be well-rested on this project, rather than be too tired to notice if you make a miscalculation." Winston said.
"Yeah, (Y/N). You look like you could use some shuteye. Don't worry about me, I'll still be here." Lena said.
"No. I'm good, really." He said as his head went down for a minute. "Power nap! See. I'm good." They didn't seem to buy it. "Wait! I know what to do. We still have coffee right?"
"Yes and it's still warm. You made it after dinner." Winston said.
"Okay, great. Let me get something from my bag. Where is it?" (Y/N) said as he searched his backpack. "Found it!" he said as he held a green bottle.
"What's that?" Lena asked.
"I haven't done this since I was double majoring back at M.I.T. and boy the finals there were the only thing I could call a challenge." (Y/N) said as he poured coffee into a mug. "I'm going to mix Mountain Dew with my coffee."
"Wait, (Y/N) I don't think that's a..." Tracer tried to warn him, but it was too late because he already took a sip, "...good idea."(Y/N) puckered his lips as he finished his sip. All of a sudden his face went blank with expression and the pupils in his eyes shrank to the size of a gnat, followed by a twitch.
"(Y/N)? You alright love?" Tracer asked him.
"..Now I remember why I haven't done this again....I can hear my own blood."
Back to present day (Your P.O.V.)
"I'm never doing that again." Even though that's what you said last time. "It's just this whole time thing is messing with my brain. I have never been this stressed about anything. I didn't even think this could happen to somebody. I mean the thought of somebody getting lost in time was something i thought that could only happen on cheap sci-fi TV shows."
"(Y/N) you're doing fine. Time isn't exactly a well known thing, especially with what we're dealing with. Who knows? Maybe the answer to this is right in front of you or you're just thinking the wrong way about this. Just take a break from it and enjoy the view." Dr. Ziegler said.
"Angela's right (Y/N). Enjoy this little break from all the work. Just eat your lunch and enjoy the view." Ana said. You took their advice, put your brain in rest mode and kicked back. You looked out to see the town of Zurich. You could see the shops, the cars , the people going about their day and the lake that had ships docked at the piers.
"It is a nice view, I'll admit. Just seeing the boats come in to port and throw down their anchors so they don't sail away. Ha, you know my dad told me this anchor joke awhile back. You see there was..." wait a minute. Anchors. Hold on gears are turning here. You put your hand under your chin as your mind started to put the pieces together. Unknown to you, a bald man with a goatee came towards the table.
"Ah. Director Petras. What brings you here?" Ana said to the man.
"Oh. Hello Director." Angela said.
(AU note- Presenting Sir Patrick Stewart as Director Petras, if you need a voice and a face to go with his lines. Just picture him with a goatee.)
"Captain Amari. Doctor Ziegler. And who is that?" Director Petras said pointing to you, but you were to busy thinking to notice him.
"That's (F/N) (L/N). You met him last week when you checked on Tracer's progress?"
"Ah, yes of course. Well that is why I'm here. I was wondering on where you are on that."
"Well no solution yet, I'm afraid. But I'm sure (Y/N) and Winston are very close."
"Define close." Petras asked.
"Well being that time is something-"
"No. Dr. Ziegler do not give me a lecture on why you haven't found a solution. Just how long will it take?"
"We don't understand the science of this completely."
"What? Excuse me, but I thought I had the brightest minds working on this. And you mean to tell me you don't know?"
"Director Petras, please understand. This is not a simple science. It will take time."
"I have been holding the press back on why we haven't called off the search or why that Oxton girl hasn't been declared dead yet. Time is something I do not have, Dr. Ziegler. I need an answer."
"Dr. Ziegler is right, Director. It will take time and I advise that you let them handle it." Ana said, backing up Angela on her argument.
"Stay out of this Captain. Now you listen to me-"
"SHUT UP EVERYBODY! SHUT UP! DON'T MOVE! DON'T SPEAK ! DON'T BREATHE! I'm trying to think! Director Petras face the other way you're putting me off!"*
"What? How dare you!"
"Director please." Angela said to him and he turned around. You ran your hands through your hair as it finally hit you on what you had to do to fix Lena!
"Oh my god. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid (Y/N). How did I not see this? Oh that is brilliant. Just brilliant!"
"What, (Y/N) what? What is it?" Angela asked. You grabbed her shoulders and looked at her with a smile.
"I know how to fix Lena! Come on!" You motion her to follow you.
"What? How?"
"I'll tell you when we get to lab. Thanks for lunch Ana! I owe you!" you said as you and Angela ran to the lab.
"Can I turn around now?" Director Petras asked.
You ran into the lab and pointed to Winston. "Winston! Stop what you're doing. I have an Idea! Where's the white board?" you find it against the wall and placed it in front of both of the scientist as they sat in the roller chairs. You took the cap off the marker and began with your idea.
"I know how to fix Tracer."
"Okay. How?" the gorilla asked.
"Okay, so obviously our previous attempts haven't worked. To be honest, her condition could take time to cure and it may be time that we don't have. But that doesn't mean we can't at least stop it where it is right now. Dr. Ziegler, before you operate on a patient, what do you do?" you asked and her eyes widened when it came to her.
"You stabilize them. "
"Right. That's what we need to do with Tracer. Because we've been skipping a step, we've gone ahead and tried to completely reverse her sickness to remove it. So her molecules are out of sync, right? There are some that are slowed down and some that are going faster than others. That's what we need to do, make them all move at a steady pace." Winston then had it hit him too.
"They need to be accelerated. Because the physics definition of acceleration is...
(In unison with Winston and you) the rate of change of velocity."
"Yes. Now her molecules are changing speeds constantly. So she needs something that will get them all on the same pace and it'll adjust to any that slow down or go faster."
"How'd you come up with it?" Winston asked.
" I saw the ships in the lake and I thought about the anchors they have. Now when a ship drops it's anchor, the anchor's role is to keep the ship from sailing away. To keep it down when it's going against the flow of the water from the lake. That's what Lena is right now. She's a ship that keeps sailing away in the flow of time. When the anchor goes down, the ship will sway back and forth, but it remains in the same spot. That's what Lena needs. An anchor. Not literally though."
Winston got up and grabbed a marker and started writing something on the board. It looked like equations and plans for some device. " I think this is what we're looking for." Winston said.
You looked at the board and just couldn't believe it. There it was. The solution to your problem. "Yeah. Yeah that'll work."
" Here. I'll make a list of parts that we'll need to make this." he said as he grabbed a pen and paper.
"Wait we're going to build this?"
"Yes. I'd leave it to engineering but I don't trust Torbjorn with this."
"Good point. You hear that Lena? I think we just found-" you looked to see that she was gone again. It didn't matter though because you knew that it'll stop soon. Lena was going to be cured.
Five days later
You looked at the special wristband you made to see that Lena was still here. It was a device that would tell you when she was here, when she would leave and when she'd come back. You gave her a sort of tracking device that connected to yours to tell you when she would phase in and out.
"Don't worry about it (Y/N). If we finish this today and she's gone for a few hours, we still have a week and a half before her big disappearance you talked about." Winston said to you.
"I know it's just that.. I want this to end for her. I mean... what did she do to deserve this hell she's going through every time she disappears? She's gotta be the nicest person I've met. Not a bad bone in her body. This life I tell ya, it's strange. " you said as you and Winston we're putting on the final pieces of the device that would save Lena. You were in a tech lab that was on the floor above the lab. You and Winston would take turns on who'd watch Lena and take any notes, while the other assembled the device. Except today you needed each other to put in the final pieces and hopefully finish building it.
"Here, let's take five. I could use a quick drink. Want anything?" you asked him.
"No. I'm fine."
"Alright. Oh by the way I forgot to ask you. What's this thing suppose to run on anyway?"
" Grade A plutonium." he said as you headed towards the door.
"Oh, ok that sounds- wait WHAT!?" You said as you grabbed the door frame before you left. You went up to Winston and asked him more about it's fuel source.
"Winston, my dear primate friend, this device that we are making for someone who needs it and is possibly going to have to wear this ,not to mention the couple of times it's caught fire and we almost burned the base down, is going to need a fuel source. You said Plutonium right?"
"Correct." He said smiling.
You grabbed the scientist by the shoulder and pointed towards the device saying, "So you're telling me this sucker is nuclear?!"*
"It may sound terrible when you put it that way. But it is all possible thanks to the work of Luke Madue."
"Who the hell is that? More importantly, what kind of name is that ? Is that first name, last name or last name, first name? Luke Madue? Madue Luke? Oooh, it's a joke. "
(AU note- It sounds like made you look when it's last name followed by first name.)
"Yes, yes. Don't worry it runs only runs on a plasma battery."
"Ok, that sounds better. Good one." a gorilla scientist with a sense of humor. Great. After your little break, you came back and you two were ready to finally power up the device.
"Ready (Y/N)?"
"Ready."
"Alright. Here we go."
You crossed both your fingers,"Hopefully this one doesn't try to burn down the whole base."
Winston placed his hand on the device and activated it. You looked at it as it made a low-humming sound. "Come on. Come on baby, work for us. Please." you said. Just then, two blue rings came out from both sides of it and hovered above it's core.
"It's working. We did it!" you said.
"Hold on we still have to test it on Tracer to see if it'll work."
"It will Winston. It has to. But come on you gotta admit," you raised your hand up to him to initiate a high five, "we are such geniuses."
"Yes we are." he said as he high-fived your hand.
"Sooo what do we call this thing anyway?" you asked him.
"How about you name it? It was your anchor idea that made it possible."
"No, you name it. After all, you built most of it and designed the blueprints for it. It's your invention."
"How about we both name it?" Winston suggested.
"Okay sounds fair. How about a time anchor?"
" Hm, what about a time harness?
"Or the Tracer backpack. Ok no forget that, that sounds ridiculous."
" Well her condition is called chronal disassociation, so what about the chronal trap?"
"No too frankenstein sounding. Hm. It does accelerate the molecules in her body."
You and Winston looked at each other as it came to both of you.
(Unison) "A chronal accelerator!"
"Now that sounds pretty cool!" Winston said.
"Yeah, like us. I like it. Well, better tell Angela about this. I'll get this to the lab so we can start testing it."
"Careful. Don't drop it." Winston called out to you.
"Hey it's me! I'm always careful." You walked out of the lab with the device in hand. It wasn't that heavy and you looked for the switch for it. "How do you turn this thing off?"
Just then you looked at your wristband to see that it was blinking from green to orange. Not good. That means she's getting ready to fade out for long period of time. "Oh crap." You decided to leave the chronal accelerator on as you made your way quickly downstairs to the lab because you didn't have much time.
"Make a hole! Gangway!" you said as you passed a couple of people on the stairs. You got to the first floor and ran down the hall, while holding the accelerator with both hands as you stopped yourself in front of the doors to the lab. You went through the doors and went into the disinfectant chamber cause there was no way around it. "Come on! Come on!" you looked at your wristband to see that it was blinking faster. No she's not disappearing this time. She's never going through this again. You're gonna keep your promise you made to her. She's not disappearing on you this time.
Tracer P.O.V.
It's happening again. I looked at my hand to see that it was starting to fade in and out real quick. That meant I was going to be gone for awhile. How long will it be this time? Hours? Days? Weeks? I didn't know. I don't even know where I go when it happens. Because all I see is the dark. There's just nothing. To be honest, I get more scared each time I go. Because I don't know if I'll come back. I..I.. oh great.. now I'm crying. "I'll come back. It'll be okay. I know it." I said ,holding back my tears. I looked at my hand to see that it was still phasing in and out, except it was going faster this time. Here I go, but the thing is...
"I don't wanna go."*
Your P.O.V.
You came in through the doors to see that Lena was still there and that you still had time, but not alot of it. She was starting to phase in and out and you ran to the door that led into the chamber. You could hear her through the speakers to hear that she was crying. She was scared. After you went past the first door and it closed, you waited for the next door to open. "Come on! Open Dammit!" you said as you waited in the small corridor to get to Lena. Just before the door opened you heard the speakers pick up Lena's voice again.
"I don't wanna go."* she said, sniffling, trying to hold back her tears.
Just then the door opened and you ran through the opening as you ran to her.
"Lenaaaaa!" you shouted as you ran to save her from leaving. She turned her head to you and you tackled her. You rolled a few times and she wound up on top of you as you tried to place the accelerator over her head and her hair wasn't helping.
"(Y/N)?! What are you-- ?!"
"Hold still Lena!" you said as you got the other side of the accelerator over her head. "Got it!"
You laid there, with Lena still on top of you and waited in silence as she looked at the device that was on her chest. You grabbed her hand and looked at it as you continued to feel that she was in a solid state.
"You're still here."
"I'm not fading away anymore." she said as she grabbed and looked at both of her hands. You both looked at each other and smiled, with Lena now crying with tears of joy and relief.
"You're still here!" you said again as you both hugged each other. "Ow you're knee is on my gut!"
"Oh! Um..sorry!" she said as she helped you up. You looked at the accelerator and then back at Lena.
"It works!" you shouted as you hugged and lifted tracer up as you spun around the room. She laughed with joy while you two spun around and you put her down as she smiled at you. She hugged you. Tight.
"Thank you."
It was over. It was finally over. You kept your promise.
Refrences (In order of Appearance)
1. Recreation of Bishop's knife scene in Aliens. RIP Bill Paxton A.K.A. "The Ultimate Badass!"
2. Portal
3. Sherlock "A Study in Pink". Me when I'm trying to talk and people keep interrupting.
4. Back to the future part I
5. Doctor Who "The End of Time Part 2". Gives me the feels every time.
Author's note- Tracer is cured! Wooo! Sorry it took a while to update the story, I was in Boston/ Cape Cod for a week on vacation, so I couldn't get a good connection to write out the chapter. Also...what do you guys think of Lunar Colony? Pretty good, right? Another reason this got delayed a bit was because I got the Orange Box recently for Backwards Compatibility and now I understand why everyone wants Half-Life 3 (haven't finished Half-Life 2 yet, so no spoilers please!). It's a really good game! By the way if you noticed when you drank something that I think you shouldn't drink, unless you want to be the first human to break the sound barrier on foot, You double majored at M.I.T. yet you just graduated from Ithaca. Don't worry I shall explain it in the first part of the next chapter. It's not a flashback, don't worry. Hope you like the chapter.
Oh! Before I forget, thank you all so much for reading my story! 300 reads! Holy Crap! I didn't think I'd get that many. Thank you all so much! I also see that we have readers from Canada, United Kingdom, Sweden, New Zealand and the Philipines. Greetings! Hope you are enjoying the story! I'd also like to give a shoutout to my new followers:
Michael Wright
jagvilldo24
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Special Snowflake
Thanks! Hope you enjoy the chapter! Be ready for the next one though. Remember...
We're only getting started!
Later!