After V.I.L.E. had fallen, Jean-Paul and Antonio had taken the opportunity to settle down and start a food truck in Argentina. Antonio had decided where they would live and work, while Jean-Paul had decided the food they would sell. It came as quite the shock to Antonio that Jean-Paul had decided on a taco truck.
The first six months of operation after The Fall were smooth, and they had been well received. They were making quite a bit of money, enough to buy a home. They enjoyed their new life, away from crime, away from V.I.L.E. Sometimes, though, their minds wandered to where their former colleagues were and what they could be doing. They didn't know who was arrested and who was free, but they hoped to never find out.
A year after the fall, they were happier than they had been when plotting capers in V.I.L.E. They assumed that the entire Faculty had been caught. One particularly slow business day, Antonio and Jean-Paul saw a certain superthief clad in red.
"Antonio, is that…? Could it really be?" Jean-Paul asked, his tone nervous.
"I think… it is. Perhaps we should see what she wants, and make a break for it if she tries anything?" Antonio suggested, keeping his eyes locked on the woman in a red sweatshirt.
Jean-Paul nodded in return and waited for the woman to come towards the truck. She was looking down, her hood pulled over her head, blocking her view towards the two owners of the truck. Even when she stopped in front of the window to order, she did not look up.
"¿Me podría dar un burrito y una horchata por favor?" she asked, not looking up. Her tone was somewhat sad, and though she could not see them, they could see her downcast eyes.
"Son cinco dólares estadounidenses," Antonio replied, and Jean-Paul started working on her order. She looked up.
"Antonio?" Carmen looked up, her hood falling off of her head at how fast she did. Her eyes looked defensive in a way, guarded. She looked afraid.
"Are you here on V.I.L.E business?" Antonio asked, just to be sure. He wasn't certain whether she was still working for them or not.
She snarled, "No way in hell would I work for them willingly. I'm just going to assume that this isn't a front for some operation then?"
"No, señorita. We have much to discuss. Your food is on the house."
"Heads up. I'm tipping way more generously than I would have if you hadn't said that. And I will force you to take my money," she insisted, the determination shining in her eyes.
Antonio chuckled. Jean-Paul left the truck and brought Carmen's order out to a picnic table and both Antonio and Carmen followed. Carmen sat on one side, while Antonio and Jean-Paul sat at the other.
"So, what did you want to ask me?" Carmen asked, sipping on the horchata.
"You seem… different from when we last saw you," Jean-Paul said. "Why were you even with V.I.L.E.?"
Carmen's eyes went down and stared at the table for a few seconds. "They… took my recent memories. Altered them. Made me think that I never left the island, and Shadowsan was the one who did. They also took my empathy. I'm certain you could tell."
Both Antonio and Jean-Paul's eyes were wide in horror. They noticed a change in the young woman's personality when she rejoined the organization, but they didn't know the reason why. The Faculty had told them topics to avoid like the plague, but they had no idea they resorted to something like that.
"I wouldn't have wished that on anyone. Including yourself, even when we were enemies. That is crossing many lines," Jean-Paul fumed.
Carmen looked up, the expression in her eyes unreadable. "During the final V.I.L.E. caper, I was more focused on… eliminating Shadowsan. I was a few seconds away from… killing him, but he took something out of his coat. It was what brought me back. I keep thinking, what if he hadn't taken it out of his coat? We certainly wouldn't be here right now, that's for sure."
"Are you ok?" Antonio asked.
"I…I'm decent. Could be better. But, I'm getting better, that's for sure. I met my real mother for the first time. She runs an orphanage nearby."
"How is that? You help out, right?"
"Yeah, I do. It's nice, but… I'm anxious. I had been having nightmares before the entire…" Carmen paused for a few seconds, as if choosing her words. "...fiasco, but they've gotten worse. They're mostly memories of things I've done to people close to me." she put her head in her hands, a guilty look in her eyes.
"Carmen, you seem like you need a distraction. A big one. And also therapy. Definitely therapy," Jean-Paul suggested, on his phone looking for a good therapist. "Do you care where you have to go to see them?"
Carmen looked up, her eyes showing uncertainty and shock. "Why? Why are you doing all of this… just for me?" She had forgotten about the burrito she ordered, more focused on the conversation.
"Because, Carmen. You're our friend. We care about you. No matter how much it didn't seem so during our time as operatives, we missed the academy days. Not because of the content, because of you, Sheena, and Graham," Jean-Paul revealed, looking up from his phone with an honest look in his eyes. "Now, do you care where you have to go to see the therapist? Or should I find a local one?"
"I'd rather not have one all together, but I don't really care where… if you're really insisting on this."
"It's the least we can do. There's another thing I have to ask you, though," Antonio chimed in. "Would you be my best man at our wedding?"
Carmen's eyes went wide in shock again, her mouth slightly agape as she tried to figure out what to say. "Of course I will! Here's my number, we can plan this out in a few days." Carmen had pickpocketed Antonio's phone and put her number in it before giving it back. "This has been… interesting."
"It has," Antonio agreed. "Mi amor, what do you say to closing up shop early?" Antonio asked Jean-Paul.
"Fine with me," Jean-Paul agreed. "I assume you want the three of us to go out somewhere? Make up for lost time?"
"I do, if that's ok with you, Carmen?" Antonio asked, turning towards Carmen.
Carmen looked lost in thought for a few seconds, and then nodded. "Sounds like a plan. What should we do?"
Antonio unlocks his phone and looks up things to do in Buenos Aires. Though they had been living here for almost a year, they hadn't been all for sightseeing. Two things had interested him. Jardin Japones, a garden with trees that survived from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, a museum with hundreds of works of art.
They spent the afternoon catching up and speaking about anything but their previous occupations. Carmen talked about all of the places she saw, and Jean-Paul and Antonio talked about how they set up their business.
"Well, it was nice seeing you two again. I'll-" Carmen suddenly stopped talking and gripped her head, her eyebrows were furrowed in confusion, and her pupils were dilated. She closed her eyes and collapsed onto the ground, unconscious.
The couple stared at her unconscious form in shock and confusion.
"What… just happened to her?" Antonio questioned.
"I don't know…" Jean-Paul replied. Antonio crouched next to the woman, checking whether she was still breathing. He didn't hear when his boyfriend collapsed onto the ground behind him. Shortly after Jean-Paul fell unconscious, Antonio did as well.
Carmen awoke in an unfamiliar bed. The room was unfamiliar as well. Instead of the sweet rosewater scent of her bedroom, she smelled citrus instead. The room was different. It looked like a master bedroom, which was not her room at home. On top of that, she found herself in different clothes.
Carmen threw the maroon comforter off of her, and got out of the bed to investigate the area. She saw different clothes that she would wear in her drawers, and in her closet she found her signature outfit. She examined the pockets to find that the gadgets were still there. "Strange… This couldn't be V.I.L.E.'s doing. They wouldn't give me this nice of a room, let alone my clothes and gadgets."
She walked into the bathroom, it was large, had two sinks, and had both a shower and a bathtub. They looked very expensive, and very high quality. She opened the drawers, and saw many hygenial products. Some of them were for hair, some of them were feminine, some of them were oral. There were all kinds, as if they were planning for her to be here for a while. After examining some of the labels, she recognized them as high-quality products that were extremely expensive.
She left the master bedroom, and found that she was in some sort of apartment. She looked in each room. The first, a bathroom with similar quality products and appliances as the one in the bedroom she awoke in. The second, another bedroom. She heard soft breathing coming from the bed, and walked towards it. The person laying in it had black hair. She slowly pulled the covers up to see the face of said person, and when she did, she found that it was none other than Player.
"Player," she called. "Player!"
At Carmen's second call, he woke up. "Woah, Red, why are you here?"
"Take a look around, this look like your room?" Carmen asked, gesturing to the bedroom that had no computer.
Player's eyes scanned the room, noting that his bed was larger than the full-sized one he had at his home, and that there was no computer. The wall was not to his left on the bed, and he had nightstands.
"This is… strange," Player observed.
"You're telling me. I checked out most of this… apartment would be the best word. There's a lot of expensive stuff in here. And they left the gadgets in my coat."
"That's really weird. We should probably check out the rest of the apartment, right?"
"Yeah. Wonder what kind of groceries there might be in the kitchen…" Carmen wondered.
The two walked into the dining room, with a clear view into both the kitchen and living room where someone strange was sitting.
"Hey," the stranger greeted. Their voice was low, and they wore a plain black tank top with grey sweatpants. Their hair was in a short maroon pixie cut. "You've got questions, right?"
Carmen narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "Who are you? Why did you bring us here? Where are we? Why did you leave my gadgets in my coat?"
"Woah, slow down just a bit. You're overwhelming me. First, you can call me Charon," they introduced.
"Like the ferryman of Hades?" Player asked.
"You really know your Greek Mythology." Charon rested their hand on their head. "You'll find out why you're here. There's more than just this complex on this island. You should explore it. And about the gadgets… well… it's not really like you can leave here."
"What do you mean by that," Carmen demanded, walking closer to Charon in their chair.
"Believe me or don't, I don't really care. But, this island, and why you and all of the other people I've brought here are here is because of magic. I can't really explain it."
"You're strange."
"Thank you."
"Not a compliment."
"Anyway, you two should get dressed for the day. Be at the theater at noon. It's six in the morning right now. You can do whatever you want until then. Explore, sleep, eat, cook, whatever. I'll see you then," Charon waved, and disappeared.
"Do we trust them?" Player asked, turning to Carmen, who was rubbing her temples.
"Do we really have a choice?" Carmen exhaled, walking into the kitchen and opening the fridge. "We might as well. We have so much freedom, so I would assume that they would be telling most of the truth." She took out an egg carton and brought out a bowl. She took a few eggs out, and cracked them into the bowl. She grabbed a whisk and started beating them.
Carmen set the bowl and whisk down for a few seconds and grabbed a pan. She set the pan on the stove and brushed it with olive oil before turning the stove to medium. She waited a minute before pouring the eggs in and letting it cook for a few seconds before pulling a rubber spatula across the bottom of the pan.
She kept cooking it and stirred the eggs every few seconds and stopped when there was a bit of liquid egg left. She took the pan off of the heat and turned the stove off before transferring the eggs into another bowl.
Player had been sitting on the couch wordlessly, turning on the television to a random channel. Coincidentally, he had turned it to a channel that was showing Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Carmen could hear his laughs from the kitchen.
She grabbed another pan and took out a pack of turkey bacon. She laid it on the pan and turned on the stove again. She listened to the bacon crackling and watched it carefully. She flipped the bacon and waited for the other side to cook before placing it on a plate. She set the dinner table with two plates, two forks, salt, and pepper. She grabbed the bowl with the eggs and the plate with the bacon and placed it on the table. Right as she was about to call Player, she realized that she forgot about drinks.
She strode to the fridge and examined the choices of juices. She settled on a strawberry-pineapple drink and grabbed two glasses along with the pitcher and placed both on the table.
"Player, breakfast is ready," she called.
"Wow, Red," Player said, walking towards the dining table. "Never knew you could cook. Actually, I figured you couldn't." He pulled out his chair and sat, starting to serve himself.
"Wow, much offense taken," she replied sarcastically. "Out of curiosity, though, why would you think that?" Carmen also started serving herself, and started eating.
"Just assumed someone with such a sheltered childhood would have never learned to make food," Player shoveled a forkful of scrambled eggs in his mouth.
"Shadowsan was the one who planted the thought in my mind to learn to cook back on the Isle. I thought it sounded fun, and at first the Faculty was skeptical, they found that I was a pretty good cook and baker. They started looking forward to the days where I would try a new pastry recipe or a new meal," Carmen thought about the good days where the Faculty acted like novice parents to her. Although it wasn't the best place to grow up, they did try their hardest to isolate her from their actions.
"The more you know."
Carmen and Player had explored the island for around an hour. They found the theater that they were supposed to go to and they found some other recreational areas. They didn't see anyone else, though. In the end, they decided to wait in the theater for a few hours.
At noon, Carmen heard other people entering the theater. She didn't see their faces, which she found strange. She and Player were sitting in the top row of the cinema room. At around 12:30, it seemed like no one else was coming in. There was a low chatter in the room, but she couldn't make out anyone's voices. At 12:45 Charon appeared by the screen with a microphone.
"Welcome to the theater everyone. It's nice to see that you're all here. I know you're wondering what you're doing here. You're here to watch a show. And you're wondering why exactly now, aren't you? Don't ask me. I have no idea. I'm just the messenger," Charon declared.
Someone with a familiar voice inquired, "What show will we be watching? Is it one we are all familiar with?" Carmen realized who the owner of that voice was.
"Jules?" she muttered. "Player, do you think that the people in this room are people we know?" she whispered.
"Probably."
Charon grinned. "A retelling of someone in this room's story." They looked up to the top row, staring at Carmen. "Now, shall we begin?" Charon stepped aside, and the lights of the theater dimmed, and the screen started playing a show.
