Chapter 3: Chapter 3 – A Lonely Struggle

For the next 30 minutes Alex panicked as Tracer continued to twist and roll on the ground while screaming loudly. They, thankfully, ended up in an abandoned area and nobody had come rushing over to find the source of the screaming, but Alex wasn't sure how long that would last. He could only silently pray in his mind for Tracer to get better. After what felt like an eternity but was really only 5 more minutes Tracer stopped convulsing and laid panting on the ground. Only for her to start bawling her eyes out, Alex could only watch as Tracer wept in pain over the loss of her family. Alex doesn't know how long he levitated there watching Tracer cry but eventually she managed to collect herself and stood up before making her way into the city covered in a cloak, she pulled from a pile of bear cans. Looking up ahead Alex saw that her destination was a 4-story building with the Overwatch symbol at the top near the heart of the city.

When the Overwatch base came fully into view Alex heard a sigh of relief from beside him and turned towards Tracer who whispered to herself "It worked I'm back to before the catastrophe. Winston everyone this time I will make sure to stop them." Tracer gathered her courage and prepared to confront the members of Overwatch with her knowledge of the future.

On the contrary to Tracers courageous mindset. Alex's mind was still trying to comprehend what had just been said. 'Time travel! Are you joking? What kind of bullshit is that? Not a personal recall but full-on time travel. Just where did I end up?' Alex suddenly found himself doubting whether he was even in the Overwatch universe and instead was in the Naruto world under the infinite Tsukuyomi or some other heaven defying type of illusion. Hearing the ring of the bell signifying the opening of a door, Alex came back to reality just in time to see Naruto and Sasuke fighti...COUGH to follow Tracer into the building. 

Over the next few hours Alex watched as the members of Overwatch responded to the emergency message Tracer had sent out. Their response speed was surprising considering that the message Tracer sent out looked like nothing but random garbage to him but based on the reactions the Heroes had upon their arrivals as if Tracer were about to drop dead if they arrived a second later. Alex could guess it must be a secret code used among the team.

After a total of 4 hours all the active members of Overwatch had shown up and Tracer immediately led them into a meeting room where she started to explain to them the events of the future.

Meanwhile Alex was observing the members who showed up and came to his own conclusion of when he was in the Overwatch timeline. 'Based on who is here and their current appearances this should only be at most a couple of months after Zero Hour.'

(An: The official trailer for Overwatch 2) 

After reaching that conclusion he focused back onto the discussion among the team members which had just been taken over by Winston after Tracer had given a general description of what would happen in the future. Which as one can imagine caused quite the major reaction among the other members.

"So, what you're saying Tracer is that in 5 years for reasons you don't know a Swarm of monsters that consume everything and multiply rapidly will appear and will destroy the world. And that if we don't prepare now, we, as in the future us, will all die. Also, we need to start cooperating with the members of the most dangerous terrorist group in the world?" Winston asked Tracer to try and confirm the general situation first before going any further into the problem.

"Oh, come on old friend you're not telling me you really believe all this future doomsday Bolshevik" Reinhardt said after hearing Winston's serious tone it was obvious that he thought of Tracers story as something akin to a child's prank.

"So, what if I do. Reinhardt? Is it wrong of me to put my trust in a comrade?" Winston questioned Reinhardt "Of course there's nothing wrong with that! But are you tellin me you seriously believe a day will come when Overwatch fights together with those scum of Talon" Reinhardt stated with obvious displeasure clear on his face.

"Reinhardt the future is an unpredictable thing. Do you really think that if it came down to the survival of humanity you wouldn't be able to set aside your differences and fight with Talon?" Winston countered back.

In response Reinhardt only snorted while turning his head away "I can't ever imagine a time when I would need those cowards to help me fight." 

With Reinhardt quieting down. The meeting turned into a Q and A as the other members asked continuous questions further validating Tracer's time traveling story. After another hour of back and forth the others finally seemed to calm down and accept the reality that was before them. Afterwards, the group started brainstorming ideas about how to assemble the full team and what other efforts to take to ensure their success. Attention was also drawn to the technology used by Tracer after she mentioned the soul-rending pain she experienced once it was used. 

Just like that, years passed by as the members of Overwatch and later the members of Talon came together to combine their might to face the Swarm. Convincing Talon had been a particularly long snag in the plan Overwatch developed. As convincing Doomfist took much more time than they expected. In the end Winston and Mercy alongside Mei developed a neural link that connected Tracer and Doomfists mind to allow Tracer to show Doomfist her memories. The process of making the link had taken over a year and a half progressing along with each of their side projects. Then it took another 6 months to convince Doomfist to meet, select a location, and test Tracer for brainwashing and memory transplants before he agreed to the exchange. After the exchange, however, Doomfist while not fully convinced, was at least willing to cease hostility and be more open with some of the less secret technology both sides had developed. 

So just like that another 3 years passed and the invasion started once again. Yes, invasion after learning that the Swarm's origin was unknown both Talon and Overwatch scientists agreed to come together to create a scanner capable of finding the Swarm. Deep space scans had found the Swarm coming to earth on meteorites that passed by in the Milky Way system. The heroes fought once more without the clunkiness and hostility they had the first time. However, in the end they still began to rapidly lose ground against the Swarm. And before long, they once again ended up in Rio with the only difference being the level of defense and technology possessed by the team. However, even that huge leap in technology could not last against the never-ending numbers of the Swarm and Tracer once again had to go back in time. This time with a few more advantages. The device sending her back was not some last-minute trump card, but a carefully crafted piece of technology meant to activate Tracers powers as quickly and safely as possible. The other advantage? She was carrying a memory chip holding all the key technology developed by the team. 

Unfortunately, the team was unable to figure out how to send someone who is not connected to the chronal accelerator like Tracer is back in time. Winston had recreated the technology but no one else could connect with it like Tracer and there had not been much success in variant versions of the tech either.

So just like that Tracer and Alex returned once again to 5 years in the past.

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The 3rd attempt. Overwatch had managed to use the memory chip, to develop all the prior technology and improve it while also making new weapons designed to counter the Swarm. Giving Doomfist the chip for inspection had also quickly gained Talon's support. 5 years later the Swarm evolved, and their weapons became ineffective so armed with new knowledge Tracer traveled through time again.

The 10th attempt. By the tenth turn Alex had expected Tracer to start becoming depressed by her constant failures. But despite his thoughts Tracer still seemed incredibly optimistic about the situation and he could not help but admire her strong character. After so many failures she still held on. The team as well remained undaunted by their continuous failures, constantly striving to fix mistakes in gear and make new technology to battle the swarm with.

The 30th attempt. Tracer had started to show signs of depression. Losing most of her cheery outgoing personality instead becoming cold and focused. Immediately after coming back, she used all her time available, cutting her sleep and taking no breaks at all to prepare for the arrival of the Swarm. She had to put on an act when in front of her teammates to try and alleviate their worry. However, Alex could see that even Tracer's love for her comrades was waning when compared to her desire to stop the Swarm.

The 60th attempt. Tracer had given up on the idea of staying on the Earth and forced the team to take 10 million people with them and leave the Earth. After, finally managing to convince the team using her memories showing their repeated failures and revealing how pointless their struggle on Earth seemed. She convinced them that they only needed more time to grow before they could wipe out the Swarm and reclaim the Earth. They left the Milky Way and moved to another galaxy where a probe had identified an inhabitable planet. Not a year later the Swarm, after devouring Earth, devoured their new home as well. 

The 100th attempt. Alex could visibly feel the depression now coming off Tracer. Her body was still in top condition, but her mind had started to fail her after so many traumatizing failures. Alex could feel that this would be Tracers final attempt one way or another. She no longer had it in her to continue this journey and till now no one else had been able to successfully time travel. Tracer started moving and this time ignored all risks in search of results. She abandoned her humanity and was labeled a terrorist by the world, but she continued fighting. She killed Doomfist and took over Talon brutally. Claiming all their technology and resources and dispatching of any rebel cells in the organization. She fought and fought until she was once again in the city of Rio before a never-ending Swarm of monsters.

"Why? Why does nothing ever change?" Tracer began to question the situation. Alex, hearing her, also started to think about how it was possible for Tracer to continue to fail when every time she goes back, she has a new weapon to destroy the Swarm, a new weakness to exploit and yet nothing ever changes. Just thinking about the number of weapons they could have had available if it were possible for Tracers body to go back further gave him chills. However, while it is true that before the chronal accelerator Tracer could jump time on a much greater scale, without the chronal accelerator she was not actually able to stabilize in that time and thus be considered as part of that time. For example, without the chronal accelerator no matter what Tracer does in the past it will not affect the future because the future will already have those events recorded as history, but the major events stay the same, just the person will be different. Therefore, while Tracer was travelling through time, she did not really possess the means to alter it. But with the accelerator Tracer could stabilize herself and go back in time and create changes. Like how in the Overwatch game, she reverses her time by 3 seconds and alters the result of the present time through this time reversal. But the cost of stabilizing is a much greater impact on Tracers body which is why not accounting for this during the first jump Tracer went through so much pain after arriving. After, numerous tests Winston confirmed that going any further then 5 years back would immediately kill Tracer.

As Alex pondered these things, he suddenly had a crazy thought that connected well with another theory of his 'Wait. If there is a controller behind this Swarm. Then the only way for Overwatch to be continuously losing would be...if the leader were going back in time too. Or she was at least consciously aware of the fact that time had been reset and had memories of the past futures.' Finishing his thoughts Alex became even more assured of his thoughts when he thought back to the 60th attempt. 'Before the idea to leave Earth it used to take 2 years for the Swarm to swallow the whole Milky Way, but the one-time Overwatch evacuated the process speed up exponentially. Then they immediately hunted down the survivors on their new planet at the same speed they had devoured Earth at.' Now Alex felt assured of his judgement that there must be a leader behind the Swarm in front of him.

Suddenly the Swarm approaching Tracer stopped outside surrounding the final barrier covering Tracer and the remaining Rio citizens. The Swarm then split in two at the middle as if to make a path for someone. At the end of this path an insectoid woman was slowly making her way in front of Tracer completely ignoring the barrier in front of her (AN: imagine Querehsha from Solo Leveling). "Are we finally done with this time traveling game of ours?" she asked looking at the non-responsive Tracer "That's to bad. It was finally starting to get interesting." She spoke in a bored tone as if to emphasize her belittlement of Tracer. "I was looking forward to what you would try next time"

Suddenly Tracer looked up with a smile on her face. Completely opposed to her earlier empty expression. Smiling brightly Tracer spoke to 'Her' "Me too I thought it would take another run before you finally showed up and honestly, I didn't know if I would make it that long" Tracer said relieved. 

"Ah. Trying to act tough before you die a commendable action but still it does not change anything" 'She' spoke after hiding the shock at Tracers complete 180 in attitude before she regained her air of superiority. 

"Haha" Tracer suddenly started laughing aloud. When the laughter did not die down even after 5 minutes, 'She' finally could not hold in her impatience and said "Will you be quiet. What is so funny about dying and knowing you accomplished nothing?" 

"I don't know. Why are you here if I accomplished nothing?" Tracer responded back. Caught off guard by the response 'She' couldn't reply before Tracer spoke once again "Did you think I didn't notice? That I couldn't see the number of your monsters decreasing every time I went back? I know exactly why you showed yourself now. It's because if you didn't you would've lost this whole Swarm of yours." 

"Shut up!" 'She' spoke while backhanding Tracer launching her into the barrier which upon impact shattered before quickly repairing itself as Tracer slammed into one of the buildings outside of the barrier.

"You're a clever one aren't you figuring that out all on your own. But it doesn't matter anymore, I've figured out how that little device of yours works and put up a barrier around the planet to prevent it from working. This was your last chance." 'She' spoke with unconcealed glee watching Tracer's face hoping to see the despair that would appear after her revelation. But all she got was another chuckle from Tracer as she stood up and removed a cube from her back pocket. However, instead of a blue cube she was holding a red cube in her hand. 

"Well then how about this one then" As Tracer spoke, she attached the cube to the accelerator. The accelerator started glowing in a bright red light as 'She' suddenly screamed "What? Are you self-destructing?" Looking around 'She' observed that the surrounding space and time was beginning to shatter. 

"Do you like it? This is what happens when you blow up and happen to be a part of the laws of time and space" Tracer said with a huge grin on her face. "So, I guess I did accomplish something in the end. EH, BUG!" 

"You! You dare" 'She' roared before launching herself at Tracer. But before she reached her the accelerator exploded and everything in Alex's vision went white. 

While his vision was covered Alex suddenly felt a weird sensation as if he were being connected to a bunch of different private networks that he shouldn't have access to. Looking up, he saw what seemed to be dozens of golden balls threading together with a plain white ball in its center. But before he could study it the feeling disappeared, and Alex found his vision once again plunged into darkness.

When Alex regained his sight the first thing, he felt was the assault of information. The next was shock as he realized he had a real body once again. Finally, was relief as he instinctually understood he was somewhere safe. Before he could sort out any of this information, he was struck by an intense headache causing him to pass out.

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