Jude? Jude, wake up! Wake up, PLEASE!

"He's not waking up!"

"BZZZZRT BZZZZRT BZZZZRT!"

"Jude, please, you need to wake up, NOW!"

…Jude?

Wake up.

Wake up!

WAKE UP!

Jude's eyes snapped open, his body jerked as he threw his body upwards just to be pulled straight back down. He grimaced, his head feeling cloudy and his vision a haze. His body felt heavy, as if held down by weights.

Vacantly, he tried to lift his arm. That wouldn't budge. Frowning, Jude twisted and turned, finding himself immobile. Trapped. Strapped to a table.

"W-wha-?" Jude gasped, struggling to snap back to his senses. Vaguely, he registered he needed to focus. But his mind and his body refused to cooperate. He was so tired, his body heavy….

He let his eyes flutter shut.

No, Jude. Wake up.

Jude twisted his head, fighting to ignore it….

"Jude, please!"

"That's it, I'LL wake him up!"

"Celsius, No-"

"ICE RAIN!"

Suddenly, he was bombarded by cold, smashing him in the face and revitalizing his numb body. Jude's body jerked, still held in place but now annoyingly cold. His skin stung as the ice pelted into his body, reddening. He shook his head to rid his bangs of the snow that stuck to it, then blinked madly to get the ice out of his eyes.

"G'morning." Celsius said smugly.

"Celsius…." Aska sighed "Jude, are you all right?"

"That's a stupid question!" Celsius snapped "Does he LOOK 'all-right'? He's strapped to a table!"

"Please be quiet!" Jude said in a hushed voice. They listened to him, dwindling off into an uneasy silence. Blinking the sleep from his eyes, he turned his attention to looking around his surroundings.

It was a dimly lit room, not quite dark, but still reaching those lines. The walls were made of darkened metal, rusty in several places and straining against the bolts that held them together. The floor was a simple arrangement of bricks, the ceiling submerged in darkness.

His situation wasn't much better.

Another tug of his wrists assured him of that. Several leather straps fasted him to a cold steel table, lapping over his body and buckling to one side. The snow that Celsius had brought was melting, the water soaking into his undershirt and pants and making them heavy and wet.

He frowned, dropping his head down and looking around some more. The far wall homed a large, thick-looking, steel door. A keypad was bolted underneath the handle although it looked like it hadn't been used for quite a long time….

Jude sighed "I….what is happening?" he asked.

"No idea." Celsius muttered.

"I….have a suspicion." Aska sighed "Not one I expect you to like"

"Let's wait for that…" Jude said, tugging some more at his restraints "It think we should focus on getting out of here, first…."

"I'll help." Shadow said in his hushed voice. Jude felt a bit of a twinge, a bit of a knot in his stomach, when suddenly his shadow swam out from under him, a formless thing that wrapped around the buckles and ripped them off. It disappeared just as quickly as it appeared, leaving Jude feeling the tiniest bit dazed.

"You okay, Jude?" Celsius asked.

"Y-yeah…" Jude stammered, swinging his body over the edge of the table. He shook his head a moment, then unsteadily stumbled to his bare feet. "Shadow, how long could you do that?"

"While." Was the only response he had to give. Jude sighed, massaging the space between his eyes with two fingers.

"Okay, okay." He rolled his shoulders, waltzing over to the thick iron door and giving it an experimental tug, then push. He tried the handle, finding it refusing to move. "Locked…."

"Makes sense." Celsius said "They DID strap you to a table. So I guess they don't want you getting out."

"But…" Jude shook his head, "Well, yeah, you're right. …Aska, you said you had an idea why I'm here?"

"Yes…." He said, his voice low "I belive….Derrick may have had something to do with this."

"What, Dad!?" Jude exclaimed, stumbling backwards as if recoiling from a blow. He winced "W-why would-"

"I don't know." Aska sighed "But, Jude, he was acting uncharacteristically kind, wasn't he?" Jude could only nod, as he was already putting the pieces together himself. Aska continued anyway "And he offered to make dinner, something he never did. If he had a gradual change of heart, or if Leia hadn't been so confused, I may have dismissed it, but too many things add up to…"

"He drugged me." Jude concluded, dropping down onto the table, putting his head in his hands "So someone could bring me here?"

…