Tracer
The battle was unlike any Lena had ever fought before. Hellfire shotguns were raining their namesake on everyone's heads, bullets falling like raindrops as Widowmaker switched between scope and non-scope attacks. The metal corridors were now full of dents and bends where Reinhardt had smashed into them and a pulse bomb had gone off. Genji was roaring in Japanese, Mercy was dashing everywhere attempting to keep everyone alive and McCree was snarling as he sent round after round in the direction of the door.
The massive metal doors led into the armory. Definitely not the ideal place to have your enemy holed up, but at least they were cut off from any exit. There was no sign of Sombra, but halfway through the battle, Lena had noticed the cameras all going offline and managed a grin - she must have picked a hell of a day to betray Talon.
"Winston! Barrier!" Lena yelled, Blinking from her position of cover behind a pillar. He slammed down a barrier just in time, and Lena landed inside, firing rapidly. Instantly, Reaper and Widow focused their fire on it and it was down quickly, but Tracer pinned them down and heard a hiss of pain as she hit Widow hard.
"Gotcha," Lena grinned and Blinked back behind cover.
"Le ha!" Reinhardt roared, firing up his engine and rushing to slam Widow against the wall. She grappled out of the way, out into the open, and quickly ducked into an upper-level room as she was bombarded with fire.
They were in an area with all three storeys of the building exposed. There was a network of bridges connecting the corridors on either side, and Overwatch members posted all over it. Lena, Winston and Reinhardt were on the lowest level. McCree, Genji and Mei were on the second-level bridges, firing rapidly while Snowball tried his best not to get hit. Torbjorn had set up a turret on the topmost level while Mercy swooped around all three levels, healing whomever needed it.
Blink Blink Blink fire reload fire reload recall fire fire Blink fire reload Blink
Lena chanced a glance behind her into the corridor leading into the open space, watching their back.
That was the only reason she survived as she Blinked right before an orb of black hit her.
"The hell?" she yelled, before shouting, "There's another one!"
Everyone quickly turned to look.
Another one indeed.
Half of her face was masked in something Lena didn't want to know the contents of. Her orange hair flared as she stepped into the light, shining unnaturally. Her chest and back was dominated by a massive contraption of pipes filled with sludgy, purple-black liquid which she summoned into her delicate scientist's hands. She smiled the most devilish, evil smile Lena had ever witnessed - a smile that brought the promise of things worse than death.
There was no collar around her neck.
Meaning that this was another member of Talon.
Lena's mouth went dry as she recognized her.
Moira.
"It's Moira," she swallowed, before Blinking up to the third level and hollering down, "It's Moira!"
Moira waved sweetly and blew a kiss to Lena.
And then she started firing.
She was unlike anything Lena had ever seen. She was quick, firing golden-yellow orbs at her teammates. In seconds, Widowmaker was standing with her gun shouldered, as if Lena's bullets had had no effect whatsoever. Reaper, who had electricity burns across his shoulder courtesy of Winston, showed no sign of damage and Lena had the unsettling feeling that underneath his mask, he was grinning. A black orb then descended on McCree, and he roared in pain as it jetted shadowy black into his shoulder. He scrambled to get out of its trajectory, but it didn't just keep going past - it followed him.
"Jesse!" Angela shrieked and soared towards him, Caduceus staff in hand. She knelt beside him as he shivered, and she stared at Moira like she was a ghost. "You."
"Me," Moira smiled sweetly, and raised both hands, the contraption of pipes glowing in response. "I am going to enjoy this."
They were taken completely by surprise. The strange science that Moira wielded, they had no defense against it. It penetrated armor as easily as it did flesh.
Lena desperately Blinked, Recalled and shot. Again and again and again. Every time her plasmic bullets found their mark, Moira knew - and every time, she effortlessly healed them. Angela was doing the same for them, but their numbers had become a disadvantage. She couldn't get to all of them in time.
Blink, Blink, fire fire reload-- recall!-- fire fire reload Blink fire Blink fire reload fire recall--
Not fast enough, not fast enough, not fast enough--
Never, never in her life, had Lena not been fast enough.
Never.
And now...
She wasn't fast enough to save her friends.
Moira. The geneticist whose experiments were too wild, to controversial, to continue. Who dared to go where nobody had gone before. The geneticist who Blackwatch had pulled from the rubble of her career and secretly employed her for her genius - but she was shut down again for how radical her experiments were. Rumor had it that she'd been inducted into the City of Scientists, but there was no proof. She just went off the radar.
It made sense now. It all made sense. Reaper's teleportation, his wraith form, it was nothing that they'd ever seen before. Radical and strange, results impossible to replicate. Widowmaker's reconditioning, her decreased heart rate without death, it was impossible - it shouldn't be real. But someone had done it. Even Sombra's technological manipulation implants... all of it. It was all her.
It was all Moira.
If this was what she did to her friends...
What would she do to Overwatch?
Lena couldn't keep up. Not anymore. Her mind was racing faster than her Chronal Accelerator, but it still wasn't fast enough.
It never would be.
Lena sucked in a breath as a bullet whizzed so close to her head that it tipped her ear. She Blinked before Widow could shoot again. She wouldn't miss this time.
Wait, something was wrong--
It was quiet. Quieter than before.
Moira wasn't firing anymore.
She was grinning. The most evil, devilish grin that Lena had ever seen.
A grin that promised things worse than death.
Her pipes flared as she drew both hands across her chest, flexing her fingers, and two massive orbs began to grow in her hands.
Oh God.
She had an Ultimate.
"Get to cover!" Lena screamed, Blinking up to Jesse, who had bullet wounds in his left arm. She yanked his good arm over her shoulder, desperately trying to get to the room on the other end of the bridge.
Moira laughed. She raised her arms above her head, the twin orbs shuddering as they grew and got closer, until they were the size of car engines.
Not again.
"Moira, stop!" Lena screamed, hauling McCree, tears beading in her eyes.
Once, she had lost her friends. Blinked out of existence for months on end. She had lost everything until Winston created her Chronal Accelerator.
And now...
Moira laughed again, looking down at her.
She couldn't lose them again.
"Please!" Lena begged.
"It's far too late for that now, Lena," Moira smiled sweetly.
And she smashed the orbs together with all her strength.
With a roar like thunder, the orbs collided, and from her hands barreled a beam of black and gold. The colors twisted around each other, together yet apart, and she aimed with her hands, dragging the beam across the room. Widowmaker shouldered her gun as the terrifying beam landed on her, and she was completely healed as it pulled away. Reaper threw away his guns as it landed on him and reveled in the golden light as his wounds sealed.
And then she aimed it at Lena.
The black was so whole. So terrifying. It engulfed her in darkness, pulled her from reality, and she felt herself falling. Not again-- blinking out of existence-- begging to go back--
She couldn't move, her muscles locked up, she couldn't run, she couldn't breathe--
The black was like acid on her skin, burning and burning and burning--
Lena knew she was barely alive when Winston caught her before she hit the concrete. Her vision swam. She couldn't see straight. She knew her Chronal Accelerator wouldn't be recharged in time to Recall her back to before the beam hit her.
Maybe it was a sweet mercy that she couldn't see as Moira turned her attention to the rest of Overwatch.
She heard Winston going Primal, his skin turning red and yellow lightening arcing around him, in his rage, in vengeance for what had been done to her.
She heard McCree roaring "It's high noon, fucker!"
Everyone was using their Ultimates, all at once.
But with Moira's still in play, it wasn't good enough.
She healed and burned at the same time, and one by one, they fell.
Mei reached for Lena's hand, saying something to her. Begging her to get up.
The Widow's Kiss was rammed into Mei's head, and she didn't move again with the barrel pressed against her cheek. She just stared at Lena, broken and defeated.
As Tobjorn fell, Angela swooped for him, desperately trying to catch him.
Moira spotted her.
When they landed, Angela's wings broke with a sickening crunch.
So this was it, Lena thought vaguely. This was the end of Overwatch.
She prayed that Lucio, Isabell and Jamie got out in time. Got out before Talon could find them.
"I hope you packed your bags," Widowmaker hissed softly into her ear. "Because your stay has just been extended."
And then blackness consumed her vision.
And the world went dark.