He didn't remember walking back.
Only the cold weight of Dario's fur pressed to his side, the distant crunch of gravel under his steps, and the feeling that his bones weren't in the right place anymore.
When he finally stepped out of the orchard's shadow and back into the path beyond, Dani and Kenton were waiting.
Dani turned, grenade launcher in hand like always. Her eyes swept him in one clean, clinical pass.
"You're late," she said.
Lance didn't respond.
Not yet.
Kenton stepped forward, hands twitching at the strap of his bag, eyes moving across Lance's form like he was scanning for data points.
"Where did you go?" Kenton asked, voice soft but tight. "You were gone for thirty-seven minutes."
Lance blinked.
Something in his vision twitched.
The edges of Kenton's face momentarily doubled. As if a backup face tried to reassert itself behind the real one, like a loading glitch.
He didn't mention it.
Didn't mention the subtle hiss in his ears, either. Like milk bubbling under heat. Like bones boiling.
Dario nuzzled his leg again. Grounding him.
"I didn't open the door," Lance said. "I blinked and I was inside."
"Inside what?" Dani asked.
"My old apartment. Except not." He paused. "There were things in there. Things wearing my voice. My face. It talked like it knew me. And then it turned into—" His mouth dried out mid-sentence. "It was me. But stretched. Unmade."
Dani's expression stayed still.
Kenton looked like he was chewing on glass. "The orchard's nodes... they're selective. You likely triggered a memory-nest or a personality echo. Could be a mirroring trap, or a resonance bleed from—"
"Stop," Lance rasped. "Just—stop."
His hands trembled as he held them up.
And that's when Dani and Kenton both paused.
Because his fingers didn't look right.
They weren't misshapen. Not broken. But they were...
Translucent.
Not fully. Just faintly. At the edges. Like wax held against a light. You could almost see the outlines of nerves inside. Not red—white. Veins branching like spilled cream in hot tea.
"I didn't do this," Lance whispered.
Dani stepped forward. Not cautiously. But not casually, either.
"You're not leaking," she muttered. "Not metaphysically. Not—yet."
Kenton shook his head. "But his body's adapting. Or failing to adapt. Or mimicking an adaptive process it doesn't understand."
"English, Kenton."
"His cells think they're supposed to be something else."
Lance stumbled back a step.
"It's turning into me by the second.." he mumbled.
Dani didn't respond. Her jaw clenched just slightly.
Kenton fidgeted. "You came back with your identity intact. That's... good. Usually, these echoes rewrite more than memory. You still recognize us."
"I do," Lance muttered.
Then quieter: "I just don't feel like me."
He lifted his sleeve.
The skin beneath was starting to ripple.
Not constantly. Not like a movie effect.
But like... occasionally, the memory of motion was trying to play through him. Veins flickered. Patterns bloomed under his flesh like faint milk-stained bruises, vanishing when touched.
Dani looked down at Dario, who sat quietly at Lance's side, still alert but not afraid.
"That dog's still with you," she said.
Lance nodded.
"It's the only part that feels real."
A long silence.
Dani holstered the launcher. "Orchard's twisting. We stay too long, we're gonna end up laminated between realities. Walk."
Lance didn't move.
He just looked at her.
"You've got weapons that makes this place look like a playground. And you keep pulling them out like they're Tic Tacs."
Dani raised an eyebrow. "And?"
"Who the hell are you?"
That got her.
Not much. But Kenton flinched. Dani shot him a look—one that said don't.
"You don't get to know everything," she said.
Lance looked down at his hand again. Still his. Just... worn. Like something else had worn it too long.
"Yeah," he muttered. "I'm starting to get that."
And then:
A weak smile.
Not for her. Not for Kenton.
But for Dario, who licked at his translucent fingers, tongue leaving faint milk-trails behind.
Lance looked up.
Voice brittle, but still carrying a trace of the person he was.
"Sure. Let's keep walking. What could possibly go wrong in a cursed orchard with my soul melting out my skin?"
Kenton looked horrified.
Dani almost smiled.