She pressed the tip of her pistol against the Captains temple, singeing her skin with the heat of the barrel that had, only moments ago, sent hundreds of rounds tearing through Overwatch agents.
As per her mission, she was to eliminate Lacroix- and she would, but first...
"You left me there... you left me there, to die. I needed you, and NOBODY. CAME."
Her voice raised as tears began to well in her eyes. She swallowed, hard, and tried to regain her composure.
"Why?"
There was a pause as Amélie regained her senses. She'd just been sent crashing through her own desk, and was now lying pinned in a surprise attack by Operative Oxton.
As she got her bearings, she stared at the woman above her, managing only a confused "What...?"
Lena barred her teeth, frustrated, and asked again.
"I said. Why. Why?! Tell me! Tell me why I wasn't worth it! Tell me why nobody cared enough! TELL ME WHY IT WAS TOO HARD TO SAVE ME!"
She screamed her words as she raised her gun into the air, firing it wildly into the ceiling lights. She scrambled up off the floor, her breathing ragged. The only remaining light in the room now her chronal accelerator glowing a deep, burning red.
She turned back to the Captain, after wiping at her eyes, and leveled her aim.
"...Tell me why you abandoned me."
Lacroix rose slowly from where she'd been pinned, wounded badly in the previous firefight, but not so much she couldn't stand to face Lena.
"Lena... We did not abandon you, Cherie... We mourned you. When Professor Kuiper told us there was nothing to be done... It destroyed us all." Amélie attempted to stand straighter, but winced as she felt the muscles in her back scream in pain.
"We cared, Lena... We tried. We-"
"You failed." Lena finished.
Operative Oxton closed her eyes for a moment, and pressed a hand to her forehead, before they opened again with a laugh.
"You fucking failed! The great Overwatch! Couldn't even save one of their own. Well, you know what? Thats fine. Just fine. Because guess what? I made it back. I did it without you. I did it with a group that values me. What I can do. So I think, all things considered?" The uncertainty in her voice, present for the entire conversation to this point- vanished.
"You can mark the Slipstream program a success."
Her finger squeezed the trigger.
~~~~~~
"Guh! What?!-"
Lena awoke with a panic, her heart racing as she placed a hand to her chest.
She looked around, calming herself. She was In her room at Watchpoint Gibraltar.
She sighed, checked her phone, and huddled on her bed, hugging her own legs.
"Another nightmare..." she sighed, "Maybe I should talk to Angela..." Her eyes quickly glanced over at her chronal accelerator, which, for a split second- she could swear turned an unfamiliar, unsettling shade of red.
"...or maybe I should talk to Winston."