"Oh my god! Is it true Winston's from the moon?" Evan scrolled through the Overwatch wiki page, amazed by the detailed information they had on various characters. He looked out the window at the mid-evening sun as it peeked over the skyline of Boston. They were nearly at their final stop. He had woken up when they switched trains nearly two hours ago, deciding to stay up and read up on the Overwatch universe. While he was asleep, Lena seemed to have accepted their previous talk, and she was back to her cheery self. He even dared to sit next to her through their last train ride.

Giggling, Lena took a bite of the yogurt she had in front of her. "Yes love, it's true. He was part of a colony there," she said, reminiscing about the stories Winston had told her about the moon base. She glanced over at Jake, who had decided the last train ride was the perfect opportunity for a power nap. He snoozed lightly across from Lena and Evan, his sweatshirt hood pulled up over his frizzled red hair. He had been writing in a notebook, which was sitting closed in front of him.

Evan continued reading Winston's information on Jake's smartphone. He had gotten rid of his soon after they left the old mill. He had seen enough spy movies and read enough about privacy breaches in the news to know that the government would definitely attempt to track him through his own phone.

"I think Jake and Winston would get along well," Evan said thoughtfully, "they both seem to be geniuses."

"Wha-sthat?" Jake yawned, stretching. Apparently Evan had woken him, "are we there yet?"

Evan shook his head, "We will be soon. In the meantime, you should read up on this Winston guy, Jake. I'm impressed by what he's done."

"Winston? Isn't that like, the monkey?"

"Yeah, the monkey."

Between bitefuls of yogurt, Lena interjected, "He's technically a gorilla."

Evan smirked at her comment, "Yeah, a really smart gorilla. He's the one who made the chronal accelerator."

Lena held her yogurt defensively as Jake reached across the table for his phone. Grabbing it out of Evan's hands, he started reading the article that Evan had pulled up on Winston. Evan puffed in irritation, deciding to look back out of the window at the setting sun.

Satisfied her yogurt was safe, Lena followed Evan's gaze out the window. "It's quite beautiful," she said.

"It is," Evan glanced back at Lena, "I always loved being in the city. Everything from the people to the amazing architecture that's everywhere you look…" he trailed off, returning to the window.

"You'd get a kick out of the cities where I come from…" Lena thought back to the towering silver skyscrapers and the rolling meadows surrounding the major cities. Her world was similar to this one, but it could never be replaced.

"Did you guys know Winston is from the fucking moon?"

Evan laughed, being taken away from the window. "I know, right?"

They all chuckled to themselves as Jake painted a picture of the giant gorilla prancing around on the moon in an Apollo astronaut suit. The overhead speaker blared to life, interrupting their conversation.

"We will be arriving at Back Bay Station in five minutes. Please take all of your luggage with you when you depart the train. Thank you for riding with Grayline."

Evan looked around at their booth they had taken up residence in. They didn't bring much with them; Evan had a travel backpack, Jake had a small carry-on he kept in the trunk of his car for emergencies, and Lena had the grocery bag which had remained in his own car since they were at the department store. In the case of Evan and Lena, it seemed the few things they had with them was all they had to their name.

After spending a few minutes cleaning up and waiting near the train door, they stepped onto the station platform, quickly being enveloped by people entering and exiting the train. Lena stuck right by Evan with Jake trailing behind, looking at the people struggling in the station terminals. The group made their way across the smooth white tiles and through the metal detectors, eventually walking out of the large front doors. Evan led them down a path near the exit that seemed to go down towards the waterfront, taking in the outdoors for the first time in hours. Everything was basked in an orange hue from the setting sun.

"You've been to Boston before, right Evan?" Jake looked over at his friend.

"Yeah, my dad did a lot of work up here for the university."

They continued down the stone path, eventually reaching a waterfront. A few walkers and runners passed them while they leaned up against the railing, looking out onto the Boston Harbor. Beautiful bridges lit up with lights towered over the bay, while a myriad of boats and ships travelled about on the smooth water below. The setting sun shined down on the scene, filling the harbor with glorious orange light as it reflected off of every surface it touched. Evan could have stayed there forever, watching the sun's rays play with the slow rolling waves.

"Talk about a beautiful view," Jake said, nearly at a loss for words.

"Yeah, it's gorgeous." Lena whispered, reaching down and taking Evan's hand. Much to her pleasure, he was too busy taking in the scenery to do anything about the movement she had made.

"This is a new city, guys. It's a new chance." Evan smiled at his friends, who smiled back.

After spending a few minutes leaning against the railing, they started down the flagstone waterfront walkway. Evan and Lena continued holding hands while Jake walked alongside them, dragging his carry-on behind with one hand.

"What's next, then?" Lena asked, looking towards Evan.

"We find a place to stay, I guess." Evan pulled up a map on Jake's smartphone, which he had skillfully pickpocketed while Jake ogled the Boston Harbor with the rest of them. They didn't know how long they were going to be in Boston, but purchasing a room for them to share at a motel would be the best option available. After looking over a map of the city, Evan spotted a decently priced motel not far from them. It was a small ride to the Harvard campus, and a short walk from where they currently were.

In order to get to the motel, they walked across the bay via a pedestrian bridge. Lena glanced down nervously at the water, not paying attention to the conversation Evan and Jake were having. Occasionally, a vibration would shoot through the concrete beneath her feet, causing her heart to skip a beat and her hand to tighten around Evan's.

"You alright, Lena?" Evan looked at her quizzically.

"Just a tad scared of bridges," she said, trying her best not to look down. She felt Evan's thumb running over her hand, trying to comfort her. She smiled up at him.

"Oh, shit." Jake spoke up, holding his phone in in front of him.

"How did you—" Evan was patting his back pocket, trying to figure out how Jake stole his phone back.

"Oh, while you and lover girl were staring into each other's eyes I took it back." before either Lena or Evan could contest, he put his phone in front of their faces. On the screen he had the front page of NY Daily, New York's local newspaper, pulled up. Above the main article, Lena and Evan's face were plastered to wanted posters, detailing their personal features and Evan's car. The article below detailed how there were two terrorists believed to be operating in the Manhattan area.

"Well, good thing we're in Boston." Evan joked as he looked at their wanted posters.

Lena took the phone from Jake, zooming in on their faces. "How in the hell did they get our faces? And why?"

"It could be because of your accelerator," Jake pulled his notebook out of his carry-on, which from what Lena could see was filled with writing and occasional drawings. "Something like that is bound to have some sort of signature that defense systems might pick up on." he glanced at his notes, "It also could have been a type of explosion when you travelled here, you know?"

"There wasn't an explosion, or else I wouldn't be here," Lena said.

"Yes, it probably wouldn't be a literal explosion," Jake continued, "It could have been what one could call an extradimensional explosion. One you can't see, but is still there. It's effects are felt in a way we don't interact with. I hypothesized once I heard your story that in order to transport you across universes, it would have taken a gigantic amount of energy. Picture it this way: that energy came from an extradimensional force, one you can't see with the naked eye. Since the energy is extradimensional, the energy output would also be extradimensional, thus invisible to us. You and your universe leaping are more of a byproduct of that energy transfer." he concluded.

"I think I get it," Lena scratched the back of her head, processing what Jake had said.

"There are rumored to be other byproducts of 'extradimensional energy transference,' which is what Jake is talking about," Evan cut in, "often things we can't explain. Spontaneous combustion, paranormal phenomena, and more."

Lena stared at Evan, "What, are you a genius, too?"

"Not really, I just listen to him all day," Evan gestured at Jake, who snickered.

"He's a different kind of genius," Jake said, punching Evan in the shoulder. Lena looked between the two of them, missing the obvious inside joke.

"What does that mean?"

"Oh, nothing. Look, there's the motel!" by the time Evan had seen the motel, they had crossed the bridge. The small, dingy-looking building sat a few blocks back from the waterfront with a large, blue neon sign that read "Sleep-Well" near the road. The motel was in desperate need of a paint job; the blue and white stripes were peeling all over the exterior of the building. It was the best they could do.

"So, what are we going to do about your guys' wanted status?" Jake asked, directed towards Evan.

"We'll just keep a low profile, I guess." Evan shrugged, "I'm still not really sure what to think about that. I guess that explains why my card didn't work at that department store, though." Evan led the way across the parking lot of the motel, looking for the main office so they could check in.

His lab was quiet. If one stayed completely silent, all they would hear is the low humming of electronic equipment running for experiments and lab tasks. He found himself with the lights off and eyes closed, listening to that very humming. When everything was completely operational, the room held a certain tune when all of the sounds combined into one. If something went offline or updated, the pitch or makeup of the tune would change. He could always pick out what had caused the change, and would get up from his large tire seat to fix what had broken.

That is what he was doing at the moment, sitting and listening. Some might even call it meditating. He heard the tune change as the fan stopped spinning. That was normal. Then, he heard a low bass-like hum suddenly switch off. Nearly sliding and falling on his ass over a peanut butter lid, he scrambled off of his seat towards whatever had switched off.

In the far corner of the room sat a small screen built into the wall, containing information being fed directly from Tracer's chronal accelerator. It provided updates on where the accelerator was located in spacetime, and would alert him if the accelerator made any sudden jumps, hinting that Tracer's condition might be returning despite the device. He had set it up recently, the last time Tracer had been at the lab. They both thought it'd be good to collect information from the device and keep Winston in the loop on the device's operating status.

Winston squinted at the small screen in the dim light, pushing his glasses up his nose. He watched the data feed, not believing what he was seeing. It appeared Lena's chronal accelerator no longer existed. Kind of. The signal for the accelerator couldn't be required anywhere on Earth. Despite this, coordinates were still coming in.

"What happened?" he asked himself quizzically.

Winston made his way back to his main computer, sitting down on his tire and turning towards the monitor. "Athena, pull up the accelerator monitoring software for Lena Oxton."

"Sure thing, Winston."

Various windows popped up, along with a picture of Tracer. First, Winston attempted to triangulate the accelerator's signal manually using the coordinates. Nothing. As he looked closer to the coordinates, he noticed something strange. There was usually a slight delay in the accelerator's updates, but this delay was different. It was huge. According to the readings on the screen, he was receiving updates from over 400 billion years in the past. The entire spacetime coordinate set was different.

Winston leaned back in his chair. Either he chronal accelerator had time travelled back to before the universe existed, or something bad extremely threw off the system. Or perhaps a combination of both. Winston tapped quickly on his keyboard.

He set the coordinates to new parameters, expanding the search to the solar system. It's possible she could be somewhere in space, or perhaps on a colony…

Winston grumbled as the accelerator software couldn't locate her.

"What a mess…"

Winston put the coordinates through everything he could in a feeble attempt to find Lena, or whatever was left of the accelerator. He found literally nothing. Anywhere. Anytime. Nevertheless, the coordinates still continued to flow into the system, being dated back billions of years. That was probably the strangest thing; the time. Assuming the hardware and software wasn't malfunctioning, how come he was receiving such old yet new information? If the coordinates were from 400 billion years ago, then how come he was just receiving them?

Suddenly, a thought popped into his head.

"400 billion years…"

Winston pulled up a map of what they had charted of the universe. The farthest they had managed to chart is roughly 91 billion light-years across. Assuming that the universe was roughly that large, that meant it would take that many years to transmit information via light across it. Earth was located in the relative center of the universe, from what Winston could tell. If the signal was 400 billion years old, it could be that it was sent from outside of their universe. The universe is strange, though. The observable universe is what someone could see from one point in space. Light can only travel so far so fast.

Memories of his human compatriots teaching him about the bubble theory flashed through his head. He had spent a lot of time learning on the lunar base, and he had taken a large interest into subjects regarding the universe. He found it fascinating. Could it be that Lena had somehow travelled to another universe, or at the very least beyond their own?

Winston shook his head. Theoretically, it was possible. But it wouldn't be done like that. Again, light can only travel as fast as light can travel. Winston's lessons on quantum theory came back to him, information swimming through his head. He grabbed a jar of peanut butter, taking scoops while lost in thought. There was a lot of work to do. He had to hypothesize what could have happened, test all possible scenarios, figure out which is correct, find out how to get her back, and then execute a plan.

Perhaps it was his care for her, or simply his fascination with what was happening, but he vowed he would put his full attention into finding Lena and getting her back. He scratched the back of his neck thoughtfully, getting to work as he finished up the peanut butter and threw it to the side.

Evan trotted up the large stone stairs towards the science department's doors, tugging nervously on the V neck he had switched into. Lena had said it made him more attractive and more like a college student. He sighed. He already was a college student, but whatever.

He adjusted his backpack one last time before entering the doors, thinking back to their plan they had made last night at the motel. He had only one name in his head: Dr. David Hergen. The guy was supposedly running the dimensional project Jake had heard about in Harvard's labs. Personally, Evan was confused as to why this guy would run a research lab at Harvard, even though he was funded through the company Graystone.

He entered a large lobby with towering white pillars and a mostly glass ceiling. The place had a very modern feel to it, which Evan liked. He approached a blonde-haired woman, probably a student of the university, sitting at the main desk. She was looking down at some paperwork, so he cleared his throat to get her attention. She looked up, shooting him a smile.

"Hello, welcome to the science department. Can I help you?" she asked. Evan noticed her desk was fairly clean. She had a cup of tea sitting next to an orange card, most likely a building keycard.

"Uh, yes. I'm looking for Dr. Hergen's lab, I'm supposed to start there today."

She raised her eyebrow at him, causing Evan's heart to skip a beat. Was she suspicious?

"Sure, let me look where his lab is," she momentarily tapped away at her keyboard, biting her lower lip and occasionally glancing up at Evan. "Are you new to the campus?"

"Er, yeah. I transferred."

"Again, welcome," she paused as a small slip of paper slowly printed from her copier, "Maybe I could show you around sometime, here is Hergen's room number…" she paused, writing something on the paper before handing it to him, "and my number's on the back. The name's Kailey, by the way. Like I said, any time you need a tour..." she shot him another smile.

Evan blushed, taking the slip quickly and mumbling something that could have been taken as a 'thanks' before quickly walking down the hallway to the left. He glanced down at the slip, swearing. He needed to go down a different hallway. Evan again jogged past the main desk, avoiding eye contact as he made his way down the correct hall. Maybe V necks actually suited him well.

He shuddered as the thought passed through his head.

After walking for awhile, he saw the door that led to Hergen's lab. Most of the doors were locked with a device you needed a keycard to swipe with, Hergen's included. Nonetheless, this wouldn't be a challenge; they had prepared for every possible scenario, keycard lock included. He took a seat in the hallway as a security guard walked past. Evan could see an orange security keycard, matching the one the blonde woman had, in the guard's breast pocket. A plan started forming in his head.

Evan flipped open a disposable phone he had purchased, dialing Jake's number. After one ring, someone picked up.

"Hello, love! How's it going?"

"Good," Evan glanced at the security guard as he turned down the hall, "They have keycard locks. The security guards seem to have them, as well as the front desk."

"You got a plan, then?"

Evan explained his plan to Lena, who acknowledged what to do and hung up. Evan stood, stretching as he did so. He nonchalantly made his way back to the main lobby, standing at the edge of the hallway he was currently in.

A few moments later, Lena walked in holding a large cup of coffee, skipping and whistling. As she entered the door, Evan started towards the front desk, pacing himself so they would both get there at the same time.

They both reached the desk in the same instant, causing the blonde woman, apparently named Kailey, to look up. She smiled at Evan, then looked over at Lena. "Can I help you two?"

"Oh, you can go first, love." Lena said, looking at Evan.

"Oh, no, I insist you go first, ma'am." Evan held back laughing, smiling at her, "I'm just here to talk with Kailey," he winked in the blonde's direction, who blushed. A small voice in the back of his head bragged to himself about his apparent sway with woman, but he quickly stomped it out.

Lena looked between Evan and the woman as he flirted with her. She gritted her teeth, forcing the venom to leave her voice, "Well, alright then. I—" Lena turned towards Kailey, being cut short as she faked a trip and spilt her gigantic coffee all over Kailey.

The original plan was for Lena to simply drop it on her computer. Evan figured that she must have missed somehow.

Shrieking, Kailey jumped up from her chair. "Oh my god, it burns!" she jumped up and down in place, grabbing napkins from under her desk trying to clean herself off.

Lena did her best to look appalled as she ran around the desk, grabbing more napkins. Evan could see a glint in her eyes as though she was laughing at Kailey. Amongst the confusion of Lena apologizing over and over to Kailey while she helped dry her off, Evan quickly grabbed the keycard off of her desk.

"I think I'll come back later," he said. He went unheard as he slipped off towards Hergen's room.

He soon found himself standing in front of the door, sliding the keycard through the lock. A light switched from red to green as he heard the lock click. He pushed the door open, looking around the lab.

Overall, Evan was unimpressed. It seemed somebody had packed up most of the lab equipment. There were a few boxes of papers, and small glass containers with what appeared to be a substance similar to sand inside. He looked through the boxes, finding various documents and reports on what they had worked on in the lab. The first report he found was rather old; Hergen described the existence of a substance that had the ability to disrupt spacetime. Sand-like in appearance, Hergen understood very little about it.

Evan continued searching for the boxes, hoping to find something newer. He found a smaller box, labelled 'October 2016,' which was the current month. It had few documents in it, but one report caught his eye. It was relatively recent, and was hand-written by Hergen:

October 17th, 2016

The increase in funding from Graystone was exactly what the lab needed to complete the project! Without my presentation on unilite, the substance which the machine operates on, we surely would have gone under. Nevertheless— that is the past now!

I am excited to say that we are moving our base of operations to a more secure location. The research we have is too valuable to take place in a school such as this one. We need proper security. If this fell into the wrong hands… Who knows how bad it could get.

Anyways! About the machine… Serious progress has been made. For now, the portal is being stored in my bank box at Boston Private. It seems unilite has more properties that can be controlled when it comes to manipulation of spacetime. The applications we have produced in lab trials are marvelous: teleportation, anti-aging, limited time travel, and more! There is much more to discover, of course.

Despite all of this, the main goal of the project has not been fulfilled. Originally, Graystone funded this research in the hopes we would be able to reproduce resources in massive numbers. Their impression was that unilite had the ability to "copy" matter and "paste" new matter into existence. This is, as far as we know, not possible.

However, I propose an alternate solution. We believe that unilite may provide access to other universes, mirror universes if you will. Based on how unilite works with matter in our own universe, we believe it'd be possible for unilite to create a portal that could be used to transport matter from our universe to a mirror universe, and vice versa. If you are interested in the details, please visit the correct document. This is merely a summarization of our research in layman's terms.

Simply put, in order to open this portal, we would need matter from the other universe to come in contact with the unilite in our own universe. It could come in any form; we even hypothesize antimatter may work as well. Any single "piece" of matter has a unique signature which correlates directly with the universe that it's from. This, of course, proves to be the challenge. Somehow, we must collect matter from our sister universe in order to open the portal. Thus ensues a perfect catch twenty-two situation: We cannot retrieve what we need without the thing in which we need.

There may still be hope. In various lab tests we have been able—

Evan looked up from the report, hearing noise outside of the door to the lab. He quickly emptied the October 2016 box into his backpack, zipping it up quickly. He spotted a small, empty vial sitting on top of an open box filled with lab equipment. He removed the stopper, scooping up a small amount of what he believed to be this 'unilite,' placing it in his bag. No doubt Jake would want to see it.

He slung his bag over his shoulder, creeping towards the door slowly. He listened for voices, hearing none. Peeking out of the small window, the hallway seemed to be clear. By some stroke of luck, he made it out of the building without seeing another soul. He passed the front desk, which was empty. Apparently, Kailey decided to go to the bathroom to handle her coffee problem. Evan slipped the keycard back next to her undisturbed tea, jogging out of the front doors into the mid-morning sun.