It was a mere second from when Terra’s vision had seen the leering face of the man who had bested her and when it flickered back to a new face entirely. To the rest of the world, it had been two days.

The man in front of her was even older than Indo, ranging in age between his late fifties and early forties, but his expression was soft and inquisitive. He wore a grey lab coat that fell mid-thigh and had his hair cropped neatly on top of his head. Sporting large spectacles, the man’s eyes seemed larger than they should be while his face wore years of experience that revealed themselves in his leathery skin.

Others wearing grey lab coats were focusing on their own assignments in the vast room he was in, but Terra was too far away to see what they were working on. Considering just how many limbs composed of metal and wires were scattered on tables and attached to partially-made robots, she assumed she was in the Robotics Research Lab.

“Are you working?” The elderly man asked carefully, his large green eyes shining with excitement.

Terra ignored him, letting her brain catch up with her current situation. The last thing she had seen was Petri and Indo being carted away, and then getting electrocuted and everything going dark. She was getting fed up with only being given an instant to gain awareness in this body because it seemed like whenever her body was put out of commission, her mind was too, meaning she would immediately wake up in another area the second her body was functional again and deal with whatever was going on. What a pain in the ass.

“Did I hook up the wires properly?”

The man grabbed Terra’s head and lifted it up and flipped it around. Terra was shocked to see that she had no body; she was just a head.

“Where’s my body?” She practically screamed in surprise.

The man nearly dropped her but managed to gently set her down on the metal surface he was working on.

“Right over there.” The man pointed, turning Terra to face the direction he was pointing.

Suspended on the right wall was her body, although it was missing an arm and a leg. To her astonishment, it still had its head, but its face was a tangle of exposed wires and circuits.

“We’ve been working around the clock to find out what makes you so unique, but even our team of top mechanics can’t seem to figure you out. I came to the conclusion that it was the mask that held your conscience since the Efficiency model returned to its factory settings as soon as we removed the mask. I don’t suppose you could explain this whole thing to me?”

The man beamed his best smile at her in the hopes of getting a clear and concise answer to the question Terra had been wondering since she arrived. Although she was glad to have been right about the mask somehow storing her mind, she really disliked being just a head. It was difficult enough not being able to feel her limbs, but at least she could move something other than her mouth. Now she was absolutely helpless.

“Fuck off.” She hissed at the scientist.

“That escalated quickly. Mind telling me why you're peeved off at me? I don’t recall doing anything to warrant that language.” The man looked slightly amused as if Terra had said a joke that didn’t quite land.

“The two people I’ve been with for longer than anyone are in custody, and I don’t even know if they’re alive. Why the fuck should I tell you anything?”

“Oh, are you talking about Indo and Petri? Petri received medical attention and is still recuperating. Indo is being held in a cell and is constantly being interrogated by the higher Patrollers. I still don’t recall my involvement in this.”

Terra was thrown off by his transparency but still pissed off that she had no body, although the news that Petri was okay lifted a burden off her shoulders. It felt as if it had only been minutes ago since she saw him being shot, and she didn’t want to see another person die in front of her.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Were you the one that took away my mobility?” She asked sourly.

“I admit, I am. That old body you were using had short-circuited because of that brute Patroller electrocuting you. When I get my hands on him I’m going to wring his filthy neck.” A shadow passed over his eyes, but the shine was back within a second. “So I gave you the head of a prototype that we’ve been working on. I’m also holding off giving you a body to first make sure you won’t murder every last one of us when you get one. The faster you cooperate, the faster you get a brand new body!”

The man’s smile grew even wider and Terra was starting to believe this man was either insane or loved robots too much, or maybe both. He had been very straightforward with her and was even offering her a body if she didn’t fight him. She was still wary of him since, in her mind, she had just been strapped to a board and shot with ten thousand volts.

“If I answer your questions, you’ll give me a body?”

“Of course, as long as you promise not to hurt me or my assistants. I saw what you did to those Combatants and hate to see that happen with us.”

“Fine. What are they?”

The man looked overjoyed and practically leaped into the air when she agreed. Terra grimaced and hoped she would stay true to his word, especially since she was on the hunt for answers as well, and if she could find out more information about the world she was living in by striking up conversations she would be the overall winner of this deal.

“How does that mask work? How does it hold your spirit? What is it made out of? When did you come into existence? Can you only transfer to non-living things like robots?”

Terra waited patiently for him to finish asking his barrage of questions, only catching a handful of them as he kept rattling them off. She really wanted to hold up her hand to stop him, but she had no arms to do so. She heard an assistant yelp in surprise to her right, but she couldn’t see what had happened.

“That arm just moved! It just moved, I swear!” A scared female’s voice yelled out.

A few others went to her aid, disappearing out of her field of vision, but she suspected they were examining whatever that girl was talking about. Unless…

The elderly man was still spouting out questions and paid no attention to the commotion. Terra tested out her theory and tried moving her fingers around, raising a few shouts of surprise from her right. She wished she could see exactly how her body was responding to her mental commands but decided against experimenting more since the elderly man would try to put a stop to it. When the scientists cleared out she would practice trying to control her body remotely.

“So, any responses?” The man looked expectantly at Terra, who had been more focused on her recent discovery that she had tuned out his lengthy string of questions.

“How much time do you have?”

“All the time in the world my dear, I’m in no rush to go anywhere.”

Terra decided against her better judgment and told him everything. After all, what could this harmless old man do to her that would put her in a worse situation than she already was? By the time she had reached the present, the man was sitting in a chair with his elbows propped up on his knees and leaning forward to make sure he didn’t miss a single word. He hadn’t interrupted her once during her tale and seemed to absorb everything.

“I don’t know what to say. The scientist in me needs solid proof of dimensional travel, but the fact that you exist is a marvel enough that I’m beginning to believe it. It does explain a few things…” The man trailed off and looked to be lost in thought. “Maybe...No...But maybe…”

He stood up abruptly and walked to a desk on the left wall, shuffling through papers. He seemed to have completely forgotten about Terra’s existence since he rolled his chair to the desk and sat there without saying a word while searching for something on the computer.

“Hello? I answered your questions, can I get my body back now?”

The man jolted in his chair as if surprised to hear from the talking robot head sitting a few feet away.

“Oh of course, but later. I’m going to need more time to finish the body anyways since its still under construction.”

The man gave her a smile and walked over to Terra, but there was something sinister behind his eyes. He lifted her head up and twisted her around.

“Hey, what are you doing! Put me down!” Terra insisted, but she was powerless without limbs.

“I’m sorry, but I need to put you to sleep while I work. Just playing it safe until I find some answers, and then I promise I’ll get you your body.”

Terra could almost feel his fingers playing with the wires connected to her head and hated her naivete to believe anyone on the side of those who had taken her captive would stay true to their word. What she hated most was that she wouldn’t know if she’d still be in this room when she was rebooted or if she’d be in a completely different location. And now she couldn’t even practice remotely accessing her body’s functions while the scientists were away.

The next time she woke up she would keep her mouth shut no matter what that nameless old bastard scientist said.