Moments ago in Luke's room.
"Who are you?!" Luke asked, his voice shaky.
Milena rose to her feet, her expression one of worry.
This should have made anyone let their guard down, yet to Luke it was even more suspicious.
His mother wearing a look of worry.
Her range of expressions has always been gray.
You couldn't tell whether she was happy or sad, angry or joking.
Her expression had always been one: cold and unfeeling.
Yet the woman before him had just shown a range of emotions.
"Get away from me..." Luke slowly moved toward the door, still facing Milena, afraid the imposter might suddenly attack.
"Why are you behaving like this, Light? Don't you remember your own mother?" Milena stood to her feet, her arms opened for a hug.
"ASYA!!" Luke screamed at the top of his voice, calling to his sister.
To him, he was in his house, so maybe his sister would be around.
For the first time in a while he looked really scared.
"It should be working, so why is he behaving like this?" Sophia thought to herself.
She had disguised herself as Milena using her psionic abilities.
Not that she knew Milena firsthand, but from the memories she got from Luke, this should be how she looked and behaved.
She was sure the 'look' was right, as she could tell from Luke's reaction that the appearance he saw was his mother, but the problem seemed to be something else.
"Is it the way I am behaving?" she thought to herself, unsure how she should behave.
Wasn't this how any mother would act?
"Wait, let's try this again..." she said out loud, Luke's back now touching the door.
His hands already reaching for the knob.
Before he could twist the doorknob, the entirety of his being froze.
He couldn't feel anything nor see or hear, though his eyes were open and his ears perked.
His mind went blank.
A feeling of nothingness, as if he were in a dreamless dream, complete nothingness.
Sophia walked toward him, her illusion fading, shifting from Milena Smirnov to herself, from long black hair to her pink short hair, height falling from 5'10" to her petite 5'3", emerald eyes turning hazel.
She morphed from a cold beauty to a petite charm.
The illusion broken.
"What's going on?" She leaned closer, her eyes locked on Luke's open, unfocused eyes.
Her cheeks flushed slightly as she pulled back.
She was taken aback by his good looks.
She slapped her cheeks softly. "This isn't the time for that..."
Her professional demeanor reinstalled.
They were being watched, this wasn't the time to let her personal feelings or agendas rile.
She pulled closer once again.
Her hazel eyes glowed pink as she browsed through Luke's subconscious, trying to find out what was wrong.
Memories, Luke's memories, flowed into her, memories of her parents and elder sister.
"What's going on..." Her brows furrowed.
She was unable to perceive them smoothly.
It felt as if she was watching a movie from a broken and scratched compact disk.
It would freeze, glitch, and sometimes even skip whole years.
It made it difficult to find what she was looking for.
"It wasn't like this earlier," she thought to herself, teeth gritted as she dived deeper, but each time the glitches continued. Even the memories she had already seen were no longer accessible.
"What's this..."
"I need to check it well..." She moved closer.
The smell of mint wafted from Luke, making her pause.
She took a deliberate breath, inhaling it more.
"He smells nice." At these thoughts, a blush crept on her cheeks.
"No... no... I can't be thinking of this now." She shook her head in embarrassment, trying to regain her professional composure, yet failing miserably.
Now she was conscious of him, of the boy who had saved her.
She stepped even closer, heels raised as she stood on her tiptoes, trying to bridge the height difference, her heart beating wildly in her chest.
"I am just checking what's wrong..." she said to herself, trying to convince herself that was the only reason, but her flushed face said otherwise.
She then cupped his face in her hands, physical contact needed to intensify her abilities.
"Sophia, move on to the next test, would you?" a voice rang in her ears, startling her as she almost stumbled on thin air.
Managing to catch herself by a grace of luck, her face bright red.
She found herself in a comical posture.
Left leg raised, left arm poised as if she was blocking a strike, right arm pushed back, while right leg was anchored firmly to the ground.
Her face twisted in a comical grimace.
Her embarrassment through the roof.
And at that moment, Luke regained his consciousness.
His hazel eyes cleared, to him time resuming as if nothing had happened.
"Sophia?" Luke called out confusedly.
To him, Sophia had appeared in a split second after his mother disappeared, a strange feeling.
"Sh*t." Sophia quickly regained her composure, her eyes glowing pink.
Luke once again frozen in place, all senses lost.
"Sqiiii." She let out a squeal, her face flushed red in embarrassment.
Luke had just seen her in an comical position.
She curled on the ground, breathing rhythmically to calm her nerves.
A couple of seconds later she rose to her feet.
"I need to delete that memory." She cupped Luke's face in her hands. This time she was not embarrassed, her expression serious.
"Where is it..." Though the incident happened seconds ago, she couldn't locate the memory. No, more like it felt like there was a wall, something blocking her.
"This isn't good..." She panicked, smudging Luke's face, trying to look through his memories, but now they didn't even show. She couldn't breach it.
For the first time in three months she felt as if she was a normal person, unable to read someone's mind.
Something that had become second nature to her.
"Have I lost my power?" she thought, but quickly shook those thoughts out of her head.
Luke still frozen in place was evidence her power was still in effect.
She tried again and again, her head ringing as she strained herself trying to locate the memory, yet it was for naught. The more she tried, the stronger the invisible wall was.
"I can't do it..." She finally gave up, her eyes cloudy with tears.
She hadn't seen him after their first encounter.
Their second encounter couldn't be such an embarrassing scene.
"I have to get the commander's help..." she decided.
The military had the equipment that could amplify her power.
As long as she was authorized by Boris she could use them on Luke.
But there was no way she could outright say she wanted to erase an embarrassing memory.
She thought of her plan, then softly pressed the earpiece in her ear.
"Sir, please... it seems examinee 004 is responding strangely..."