"Half?"
As I started to consciously feel things again, nothing stood out more than groggy lethargy, somewhere between a deep sleep and the comatose state I'd suffered through before.
"Half..."
A voice calling out to me lightly touched at the lethargy, spread over me like a heavy winter bedspread. I was content to leave it there, even if something felt wrong. But something felt wrong enough, more than that annoying voice trying to shake me awake.
"Half!"
Once it came to me that that voice was calling me Half, consciousness told me I should identify with that name, and recognize Copula calling desperately in my head.
"HAAAALF!!!"
"Yeah!" I screamed back in my own head, finally able to metaphorically kick the covers off me and come back to wakefulness, only to realize that worse than that blanket, my physical body was suspended in some kind of chamber. Entombed from flat on my back, every limb and body part was barely able to move more than an inch in any direction. A small square tinted visor told me we were in some kind of dark room, probably some lab. I started to try to shake myself loose, to try to push myself out, but nothing was working.
"Don't panic," she tried telling me, as a sudden tinge of claustrophobia started developing in me.
"What the fuck is going on?"
"Hierguild got us, and now I think we're in some kind of deprivation chambers."
"Where are the twins?"
"Nearby, but they're totally out."
I'd suddenly realized through most telepathic communication, the visiting voice would be clear in my head as if speaking from a few feet away. Copula's voice was faint, and seemed to be growing fainter; she obviously read my mind with her next words.
"I think the deprivation chambers are dampening our powers too, besides movement and senses. I'm not sure how long we'll be able to talk like this."
The urge to keep panicking was clamped down by reason and looking for smart ways to escape.
"What do they want with us?"
"I don't know. Some said earlier that we were to be tested on. They tried interrogating me, asking about Epsilon info. Didn't give them anything, and they expressed how hard they might go on us if we kept refusing."
Baring my Hier-half making an appearance, I couldn't think of any way we were getting out on our own.
"Any exit strategies?"
"All I've got is to give my powers a rest, and then maybe have enough energy to reach out and use the next guard or scientist that comes around. Just try to stay calm until then."
"Easier said than done," I told her before her presence left my mind.
Resting my head against what felt like hard foam, I sighed, trying to pull non-existent options from thin air. Either that or sleep would keep me from going insane through boredom. The bright idea to reach out to Meredith didn't yield anything either. There was a warm sensation somewhere in the back of my mind I could tell was her, but it remained low enough that she wasn't looking to reach out; I wondered if she even knew where I was. Eventually I got drowsy enough to fall back to sleep, waiting for something to happen.
***
A knock on the front of my visor woke me from a gentler sleep. I opened my eyes, surprised at first to see someone towering over my container; it took me a moment to sigh in realization.
"Hey Tovarisch," Mountain smiled down at me.
"Π³ΠΎΡΠ°," I replied back, slightly annoyed, but relieved to see the friendliest face possible.
"Never thought I'd see you laying down on the job."
I irkedly asked him in Russian to guess which finger I was holding up, after mentioning how he nearly flattened me the last time we met.
"I didn't ask you to climb up my back like a monkey, though bravo to you for almost getting the better of me. Almost."
Narrowed eyes through the visor got him to laugh.
"So are we doing this interrogation in Russian or English?"
"You're not doing it with me. Some not-so-nice people will be coming to see you soon; it's in your best interests to answer them. If you do, they'll probably let you go soon."
"Let us go?" I asked befuddled.
"If we're feeling generous."
Mountain, in my experience, really wasn't one for lying or deception, and I doubted he would've started then.