"Like some kind of shared dream." Bertholdt settles on describing the simulation as thus because it makes the most sense. It's not real, but things are happening and they're experiencing them and might even remember them when they wake up. It'd sound like nonsense, except Bertholdt was very much dead and now he isn't.

Maybe it's a dying fantasy.

"He told me about it," he admits. Where she won't look at his eyes, he's desperately trying to catch hers. He wants to hug her, to assure himself that she's whole and safe. He knows if he tried she'd put him on his ass in less than a second, so he has to settle on scattering his gaze over her. She doesn't look like she's been tortured - but would she? She'd heal any damage away with enough time and energy.

"... He didn't mention the really good food, though," Bertholdt says, and there's a small smile in the corner of his lips despite himself. "Annie, I'm - you're really okay? They said - Armin said they were torturing you."

He never found out any differently.