Epoc slept for what felt like years but what ended up being a full twenty-eight hours. When she woke up, she was something on the other side of groggy, a brain waking up from a sleep so primordial she might as well have been pickled and served on a bed of lettuce. 

It was when she saw Winter that Epoc realized she wasn’t in her own bed. The bed she was in was large and soft and in the middle of the room (though thankfully the headboard was against the wall, so whoever this was, they weren’t a total sociopath) and covered in so much satin and silk you could deposit a small animal in there and not see it for days. 

The rest of the room was a stark white, with the Mako blue accents, as well as jet black furniture with gold finishing and beautiful paintings in golden frames. The whole thing looked not-quite-together, as if someone had been in a fight with an interior decorator and both parties had ended up not-quite-compromising enough. Black, white, gold and blue was just one color too many. 

All Epoc had eyes for, of course, was Antimony. The room had a desk, and at that desk sat the CEO of Mako Group, trying really hard to get some work done. She hadn’t noticed Epoc waking up yet, allowing the pilot to get her brain back in order. How long had she been out and, if it had been a significant amount of time… where had Antimony been sleeping?

That was answered a little disappointingly by a nearby couch having an unnecessary amount of blankets and pillows on it. Oh well. 

Yawning caused Winter to turn around and, as soon as she saw Epoc (who felt like freshly tumble-dried if also neatly folded laundry) smiled. 

“How are you feeling?”

“I think I’ve invented a new kind of tired.”

“I’m sorry to say,” Winter said with a chuckle, “you are not the first person to have been sleep deprived. I once pulled all-nighters for a week.”

“What?” Epoc said up straighter in disbelief. “Why? How? When?”

“You’re not going to believe this but I wasn’t the most responsible in my studying days. My mothers had some of the most respectable tutors teach me for most of my life, and at some points their tests got… elaborate. I also had a tendency to waste my time with uh… recreational combat simulations—“

“You can say video games.”

“—recreational combat simulations,” Winter said, turning up her nose playfully, “and so I would put off their course work and tests until the last possible moment and all of them came at me at once. So yeah, I’ve been there.” She smiled warmly. “Feeling better?”

“Much,” Epoc said. Yesterday was… a lot.”

“Two days ago, actually,” Winter said. “It’s three in the morning. You were out for a not insignificant amount of time. We had the doctor come by a few times to check your vitals, just to make sure you weren’t in a coma. But no. Just a very sleepy pilot.”

“Not technically speaking a pilot anymore, am I?” Epoc said as her mind caught up to the things her brain had stored from the conversation the day before. “Not Epoc Mako anymore, either. Just Epoc.”

“That’s right,” Antimony said. “But, should you want to be again, we’ll make sure you’re in the right place and space to actually sign that contract. Do you think you want to get some more rest?”

“This is going to sound a little insane, but I feel like I could turn over and catch just the teensiest bit more sleep,” Epoc said, yawning. 

“Good. Do that. When you wake up, let’s get started on putting your brain back together, shall we? It’s going to be a lot of work and I want you to be back in the saddle as quickly as possible.”

There was something bothering Epoc, in the back of her head, as she put it down on the pillow. “How did… how did things turn out with the other companies? What I did?”

“Don’t worry about that,” Winter said, cupping Epoc’s face in her hand. “Rest. I’ll be here. I’ll see you soon, Epoc.” With that, she got back up, sat down at the desk, and Epoc dozed back off. Dreams stayed delightfully absent.

When she woke up, Winter was asleep on the sofa. For some reason, Epoc had imagined her sleeping almost like a vampire in a casket, flat on her back with her hands by her side, but instead what she witnessed was a little human cocoon. The only reason she was sure Antimony was even in there was because there was a mass of hair sticking out of one side. 

Epoc sat upright. At least it was light out. Wait. The room had a window! Not many really did. Most windows, especially in buildings like this, were just screens. It’s not like there was often much to see besides the building on the other side. But the window here looked out over the edge of the city. 

Taking care not to wake Antimony up, Epoc wrapped the blanket around herself. She was very naked and it wasn’t very warm in the room. The cold of dawn had seeped in through the window. Quietly, Epoc went over to the window. Selachi City to the right. It wasn’t exactly a bustling metropolis, at only a few million inhabitants, but well-visited due to the proximity of the Orbital Lift. Sorely lacking inland defenses, though she suspected construction on those would begin after the Gecko attack. 

And speaking of which, on the left were the glowing hills where she took the beast down. At this height, she could make out the spot where the creature had been felled. Already the harvest and scavenging efforts were in full swing. 

“It’s a great view,” Antimony said. “Almost worth the five minute elevator ride up here.” 

Epoc turned around to see the CEO, still in her clothing, trying to wrangle her hair into a manageable shape. It was a strange thing, seeing her like this. She didn’t look vulnerable as such but she had her guard down. The sharpness wasn’t there. “It really is,” Epoc said. “This is your room?”

“CEO penthouse. It’s extravagant in a dozen ways. There’s a pool. Honestly, I barely come up here. But it’s a good place to stow an ex-company asset that’s been compromised.” She smiled at Epoc. “Or something like that.”

“Something like that,” Epoc replied. “What time is it?”

“Seven. How are you feeling?”

“Rested. Eager to get started on fixing myself, really.” She stood up and stretched, the blankets falling to the ground. Tits out. Cock on display. They both blushed as she dove down to pick them up. Antimony even turned around. Epoc laughed at herself. Why were they both being bashful about this? The things Winter had done to her, there was no reason for either of them to be ashamed of Epoc’s nudity. And yet, they were both acting like embarrassed schoolgirls. 

Antimony hurried over to the closet and put some clothes on the bed. “I’ll go make some coffee, and then meet you in the hall when you’re dressed. There’s a shower through that door.” She hurried out, leaving a slightly amused Epoc to take her time to get cleaned up and dressed. 

Washing off what felt like days of grime and dirt and sweat, the shower was a godsend. And this was one of those fancy ones, like standing in heavy rain. There were shampoo bottles! She took her time to properly clean herself for the first time in, she realized to her shame, almost five days. She must have reeked. No wonder Winter had slept on the sofa. 

Now washed and clothed in what she assumed were Winter’s workout clothes, she made her way to the hall, where Winter was reading a tablet by a small table, sipping from a mug that had several cutely-drawn animals on them. Only when Epoc got closer, she saw them for what they were. 

“Does your mug have cute megafauna on it?”

“What of it?” Antimony said. “If you don’t like it, I can get you a different one.” She produced a second mug, identical to the first, filled to the brim with lukewarm coffee. “I’m sure I have a plain cup around here somewhere.”

“No, this is fine,” Epoc said and took the mug, sipping it. It wasn’t very good coffee. She suspected Antimony didn’t make her own very often, or if she did it was usually by pressing a button on a dispenser. It was a different flavor of bad. The CEO looked at Epoc expectantly as they stepped into the elevator.

“How is it?”

“It’s perfect,” Epoc said with a big smile and telling the truth. 

And speaking of the truth, Antimony hadn’t lied. The elevator took forever to go down, but Epoc was happy to spend their time in relative quiet. It had taken Epoc a long time to figure out what made a silence awkward, and she had finally arrived at a theory when she was sitting across the table from an ex one morning, both of them eating their cereal. 

An awkward silence, Epoc realized, was the result of two people sharing a space where the other person prevented them from spending time with their own thoughts, while at the same time having nothing to say or not knowing what to say for fear of social stigma (in her experience, people rarely ran out of things to say). The trick to making a silence stop being awkward was to just do your own thing. Feel free to acknowledge the other person is there, of course, it was silly to pretend someone else didn’t exist, but being able to be alone with your own thoughts was at the core of it. 

And, in a way, Antimony seemed like the kind of person to always be a little alone with her own thoughts, to always be comfortable retreating into herself to focus on them. As CEO, she likely had a thousand and one plates spinning at any given time. As for Epoc, she was busy thinking about how good she was at avoiding awkward silences. So in a way, they were both winning. 

The coffee was empty by the time the elevator stopped. They were at the back of Antimony’s office. That was convenient! 

Winter opened the door to the panic room(s?) and led the way. “This,” she said as they walked, “isn’t going to be fun. At best, it will be difficult for both of us. But, according to Dr. Sheffield and her team, this will be the best way for us to work against your indoctrination.” The last door opened into a training room. It was covered in mats and, crucially, contained what appeared to be an operating table with straps, set to be upright. “Are you sure about this, Epoc?”

“I’m sure.”

“Good. Then let’s get you tied up.” Stepping into the restraints, Antimony fastened them. “We have to acknowledge this is experimental, because of your unique neural structure, but we believe we need to work our way from back to front.”

“What does that mean?” Epoc said, straining against the straps holding her wrists and ankles, making sure they were solidly in place. It wasn’t a very comfortable feeling, but she trusted Antimony. Her shoulders, upper thighs, and even her midriff were all strapped down. 

“Your brain processes a command in threes. Desire to obey an order. Carry out the order without question. After the order is completed, expect release and prepare for the next one. So, we’re going to break that cycle.” Antimony got a chair and put it down across from Epoc. “So what that means is that we’re going to stop you from carrying out orders before we can even get started on building up your chains and keys.”

“That sounds… unpleasant,” Epoc said. 

“It will be. Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

“Good. Kneel.”

The straps had to be redone after Epoc managed to dislocate both her shoulders. 

After setting them, Antimony continued. Command after command, including a single, careful, hesitant “kill” order, Epoc incapable of acting on them. When it came time to work on the ‘bark’ command, she was gagged, which wasn’t nearly as much fun as it could have been. 

Over and over again. For hours. 

“How are you feeling?” Antimony asked when she removed the ball from Epoc’s mouth. 

“Tired.”

“Good. Bark.”

Epoc wasn’t a Hound anymore. But if she was, she’d be a good Hound. She would bark when her Handler told her to. But she didn’t. She jammed her jaws shut. Pearls of sweat beading on her forehead. “Fuck!” She laughed. “Why is this so hard?”

“Because you have brain damage,” Winter said calmly. She didn’t seem to get why Epoc burst out laughing, but was happy to humor her. “Ready to keep going?”

“Yup. Put it in, coach.”

“I don’t know what that means,” Antimony said but put the ball gag back in Epoc’s mouth all the same. “Bark.”