Distortion

The glints of sunlight lazily rolled across the cold waves, lulling the mind into a trance. The damp wind, salty, almost thick, carried the smell of seaweed and icy fish scales ashore, but in this place, it didn’t seem unpleasant. She might have called this feeling 'balance.' The shouts of fishermen somewhere in the distance, the screeching of seagulls, the splash of water, and the setting sun a red dot in the sky—it was all so harmonious it forced the mind to calm. “Coming?” The voice nearby pulled Lauren from her thoughts. She looked up thoughtfully, displeased at being disturbed. James was offering her a hand. “Yes,” she said, taking his palm and rising from the pier. They headed toward the simple, board-built house they’d managed to rent. Lauren looked at her bandaged wrist—a symbol of freedom. Her whole body had to be scanned to find the microchip tracking her geolocation. “How are you holding up?” Yelena jerked her chin, unpacking the contents of her backpack onto the dining table. “I have this feeling I’ve forgotten something, but I just can’t remember what,” Lauren sank into a chair, wrapping herself in a man’s jacket. Even in this, she tried to look 'presentable, ' as she herself would call it. Circumstances wouldn’t allow her to look bad. “Your words only confirmed it, but I need time to process everything.” “Valentina won’t stop,” Barnes cut in, sitting opposite Yelena. “We need to move faster than she does.” “What can we do?” Lauren turned her head to the window, seeming familiar to him again. Just as melancholic, cold, as in their first meeting. Their 'real' first meeting. “I managed to find out that the base, somewhere in Indonesia,” the agent turned her laptop screen so everyone could see, “oversaw Project Phoenix. The reason for its closure is unknown, but it’s clear this thing erases memory and can implant new settings. Valentina got her hands on it for her lab by bribing one of the former professors.” “I know where that is,” James nodded, throwing a glance at Lauren. *Does she remember? * “But I can’t handle it alone.” “I can handle it,” Winter spoke up, catching their gazes. She stood up, pointing a sharp fingernail at the mechanism schematics on the screen. “If everything you’re saying is true, then I can explain my knowledge through memories. Observations of others' actions.” “Do you have someone in mind?” Bucky whispered to Yelena. “She’s starting to scare me.” “You started this cataclysm yourself,” Lauren shrugged, sitting at the table next to them. “Judging by everything, she did it so many times that I can repeat it all.” “Can you restore your own identity?” Yelena looked at the girl with pity in her eyes, but she answered with a cold smile. “If it all started at that base, there must be some information about me there,” Lauren thought for a moment, lowering her gaze. “Maybe the settings of my past self.” “Most likely, you were a child.” “Maybe then we shouldn’t change anything?” She looked them over, thinking about something. “I don’t belong to this world. I exist in a vacuum. I live as long as someone believes in me.” “Alright, we get it,” Barnes unconsciously touched Lauren’s hand, wanting to stop the flow of her thoughts. “I think we can find something.” “We’ll improvise, as usual,” Yelena shrugged, but suddenly her eyes widened with a striking memory. She hesitated, unsure if she should speak. “That time… Valentina had a remote, which she…” “Turned Lauren into an empty shell, yes,” James’s hoarse voice grated on their ears. “Why didn’t she do it right away?” “Maybe the control was in the chip?” Lauren rotated her wrist, feeling the ligaments move under her skin. “Not too eager to test how much patience she has.” “I should go,” Yelena stood up, putting her laptop in her bag. They saw her off in silence, but as soon as the door clicked shut, the refrigerator door opened with a slight creak. Lauren watched intently, head slightly tilted like a cat, as Barnes took out a bottle of beer. Catching her gaze, he took out a second bottle. “Thanks,” Lauren reached for the bottle as its cap clicked open in the man’s hand. “You’re even colder than usual,” he turned on the dim ceiling light, quickly losing ground to the sea evening. “The more emotions I feel, the deeper I hide them,” she leaned back in her chair, hesitating before taking a sip. “You at least remembered who you were. I have nothing to even push off from.” “Maybe this *is* you?” He placed his bionic hand on the table. “In all of this?” Lauren raised an eyebrow, not understanding his words. “Everything that was fabricated—those are memories, but not your skills or behavior,” James wanted to touch her again, but his bionic fingers trembled slightly, and he hid his hand under the table. He shrugged, searching for words. “I knew a different you, but the only thing that changed is that you don’t remember me.” “Maybe so,” she took a sip, looking out the window again. Outside, the sea shimmered with cold light, and it seemed to her that somewhere in the depths of that light was a reflection of who she had been. Or who she could become.