102067-rocios-story-geist

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Previous Chapter: https://forums.wildstar-online.com/forums/index.php?/topic/99262-rocios-story-a-mothers-faith/
 
Rocio graduates!  As always read and review!
 
Chapter 12: Geist
 
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In his hospital room, Rocio pulled his knees to his chest and rested his head on them. 
 
He took a deep breath and let it out.  Several days had passed since he had awoken. He wasn’t sure how many.  He could read the minds of those around him much more easily now, but even then he couldn’t always tell what day it was.
 
He was able to learn that, at some point, he had been moved from Whitevale back to Thayd probably while he was still in his coma.  The last thing he remembered was walking away from Thresh in Whitevale. He had no recollection of the operation at all.  He learned from a student’s idle thought that there was someone who died, and that he killed him. Rocio felt terrible about this and tried to apologize to Lucy Lazarin when she came to check on him. She assured him that it was just an accident and that no one blamed him for it.  But as he began hearing more from the people’s minds around him, he realized that wasn’t all he had done.
 
Someone was walking toward his room. He heard them talking.  One shushed the other and they seemed to tiptoe past the door. He felt their nervous tension. Their minds were on him.  After they had exited the corridor, he felt their burst of relief, heard their forced laughter.  He could not fault them for their fear. The images that were coming from the laboratory staff were horrific.
 
For the first week after he woke up from his long sleep, he was confused, in terrible pain and in a very bad mood. While they tried to make his room a calming environment, he hated anyone talking in his room or touching him. He would moan in agony if anyone came near him. If a doctor came to draw blood or give him medicine, Rocio would freeze him at the sight of a needle; Rocio’s mind completely paralyzed the poor lab staffer's body.  It usually took Lucy’s coaxing for him to let him go.  They tried to restrain him to give him treatment; the resulting injuries and property damage let them know how Rocio felt about that.
 
Fear and fury see-sawed his moods. He would go from resisting treatment to trying to escape, from being annoying and difficult to begging for attention. He got very little sleep and was not happy at being awakened. He made that terrifyingly clear, when a simple spoken word -- “No.” -- provoked his mind into unconsciously conjuring a sword the size of a man and using it to pin the unfortunate nurse who had disturbed him to the wall by his shirt sleeve.  The nurse had left the room, pale with fear, and never returned.  
 
He would force the door closed so that no one could open it.  He would snatch datachrons or make them malfunction. He would take their styluses and embed them in the ceiling. Many researchers quit or took leave, sending Lazarin reports filled with dire warnings of a catastrophe should this “demon child” ever get lose. Rocio caught on to the fact that the doctors and researchers did not think him to be worth keeping conscious despite his great progress in controlling the nanites. They claimed that he could knock out everyone within a city block of laboratory over an outburst of temper.
 
Eventually, only Lucy was permitted to do anything with him. The other researchers would observe from another room. 
 
After the initial week, he began to calm down, to remember things, to go back to his older, calmer personality but the first impression stuck. All of the laboratory staff were on the lookout for strange behaviors.  An array of hidden cameras tracked his every move to make sure he never got away. Food was served through a slot in the door. There was nothing in the room that was not bolted to the concrete floor or the steel beams in the wall.  The walls themselves were thick and reinforced.  There was no glass permitted in the room, no sharp objects, nothing that could be used as a weapon. Any maintenance to the room or equipment was only done when he was moved to another ward.
 
The only time he was allowed to leave the lab was when he was ushered into a windowless van and escorted to an outside holograph facility that had Eldan Tech he could work.  For company, there was Lucy and there was the Green Caretaker and voices in his head.
 
He took another breath. The action just released another shot of adrenaline into his system.  He lay back and put one arm over his eyes.
 
“Rocio!” 
 
He sat up, alarmed at the voice.  He stared at the foot of his bed.  Was he dreaming? He was seeing a reflection of himself but with both his eyes. Rocio felt a shot of terror at the sight. His pulse quickened. Its gaze was friendly, but devoid of living sparkle. It wore a long dark tunic and a bright red scarf wrapped about its neck. “How did you get in here?” He asked of it.
 
“No! Don’t be afraid!” The phantom pleaded. “I’m not going to hurt you!  I’ve wanted to talk to you for a very long time.”
 
“Who are you?”
 
“I’m you…”  The phantom’s gaze turned wistful. “We’ve been separated for so long.”
 
“Separated?”
 
“Yes. I was cut off from you because they were afraid of me. They said I was a curse. But I want to help you. I want to protect you. All this time I could not help you. If only I could have. So much could have been avoided.”
 
“They said you were a curse…?” Rocio’s eyes widened. “You mean my family?”  His mother had never told him anything about a strange ghost. He scooted back against the headboard as the phantom climbed onto the bed and crawled toward him. “G-go away!”
 
“Of course you don’t remember. You were young then. They locked me away. But I’m free from my prison now.” It took Rocio’s hand and brought it to his mouth.  It bit down one finger.
 
“Ouch!” Rocio pulled his hand away. A small bead of blood grew on one knuckle.
 
“You see? I’m real. And I’m you.”  The phantom held out one hand showing that the wound was appeared on it as well.
 
There was a loud knock on the door. “Rocio?” The door opened. “You need to get ready for testing at the Sim Core.”
 
The phantom rolled over to his back and lay next to him on the bed with a bemused smile. Rocio glanced at him but the phantom just pointed at the nurse.
 
“Uh… uh right! Right! I’ll get ready now.”
 
The nurse paused. “Is everything okay? Should I call Dr. Lazarin?” 
 
Rocio did not think that telling the nurses that he was suddenly talking to a vision that claimed to be him was the best way to stay in the land of the living. Instead, he did his best to tamp down his terror and look natural. “Yes, everything’s fine.” He slid off the bed and waved her away.
 
She looked at him suspiciously and then closed the door. He heard her making notes that the subject seemed agitated this morning.
 
“Please allow me to help you today.” The phantom said, as he lay there staring at the ceiling.
 
“No. I don’t know what you are.  My family locked you away for a reason.”
 
It frowned. “They were afraid because they did not understand. The way you do not understand.”
 
Rocio pulled off his shirt and pants and put on a bodysuit that was given to him by the techonologists at the Sim Core lab.   He struggled to find the back zipper.  “You… you can’t just show up here and then bite me and say you’re good.”
 
The phantom reappeared behind him and zipped the suit up to the back of his neck. “I realize that but… perhaps you can learn to trust me.” It gave him the special “crown” that was supposed to measure his telekinetic strength.
 
“If you want to help me then you’ll leave me alone!” Rocio snapped. The door rattled, his outburst sending out a mental ripple into the room. Rocio took a deep breath and let it out.  He continued more calmly. “They already think I’m dangerous. If they think I’m crazy we’re going to get killed.”
 
He pointed to the floor. “You stay here. We’ll talk when I get back.”  He put the crown on his head. It beeped as it connected to the outside observation room.
 
The next person to enter was Lucy and the nurse from before. “Rocio?”
 
Rocio smiled. “Careful there. One of these days you’re going to walk in on me naked.”
 
Lucy scowled. “Is everything alright?”
 
“Yeah, why? We should probably get going.” He walked passed her, away from the Phantom who just stared emotionlessly at the wall.
 
“I am Geist.”  It said.
 
 
Nearby Thayd there was a lab that had served as training or testing grounds for soldiers to meet the Dominion on the Battlefield.  The Caretaker AI was capable of making holographic simulations called Sim Cores.  Rocio’s abilities were being put to the test there using specialized Sim Cores from an abandoned Eldan test lab.  Lucy drove him and two researchers in a transport truck when the all clear signal was given. Helicopters flew low over head and in the distance, machine gun fire reminded them that they were still in a war zone.
 
One of the researchers looked at him with concern. “You’re awful quiet for an Aurin.”
 
Rocio didn’t answer; he just stared out the window in the back. It was the first glimpse of the outside in three days.
 
Lucy spoke up. “He’s not trained for conversation.”
 
The researcher looked back at Rocio nervously. The boy seemed fixated on something.  Rocio could see a flying Hoogle following the truck.  But there were no hoogles on Nexus.
 
They descended by teleporter to where several other Mordesh scientists were waiting.  He winced a little as Lucy injected him with that same dye she always used to make the nanites show up on all the differing equipment. His body suit also provided realtime data from everything from vital signs to blood count. After a few minutes to allow the dye to spread, he walked into the room.  It was completely dark. The Caretaker’s voice came over a speaker.
 
“We will commence testing your ability to use the nanites to detect environmental hazards.  There are nanites embedded in the floors and walls. If you run into a wall or step on an activated tile, then you will get audible feedback.
 
The Caretaker demonstrated with a loud blaring noise that gave Rocio a jolt.
 
“I’m sorry if that startled you but you get the general idea. Please begin.”
 
The entire lab was black and quiet, but Rocio reached out with his mind and began to avoid the blinking tiles. The tiles shifted. Sometimes he had to wait for them to stop blinking to continue. The walls also moved.  It was like a maze. Sometimes watching a wall would make him almost hit a trigger tile. Finally, he found himself in a lit room. In the middle of the room was a table with water and an energy bar. It had taken him the better part of two hours to complete the maze all without one mistake. He was happy about that and eager to eat but as soon as he made a step toward the table a deafening buzz broke his elation.
 
“Hey! That’s not fair!” Rocio looked around for a camera.
 
“The maze was not over.”
 
“The light was ON.”
 
“That should not have made a difference in your perception of the Eldan technology. If it did then it appears that you cannot hold the attention of the nanites when exposed to strong stimuli such as light and food.”
 
“Whatever!” Rocio made a leap and jumped all the way to the table.  After making short work of the energy bar, he looked up and jumped again, sinking his claws into the soft ceiling tiles and using his mind to keep him adhered.  “Since you want to play games…” He snarled.
 
Lucy came over the intercom. “Rocio, you must-”
 
“‘Avoid the tiles and walls. I’m avoiding them.”  He skittered on the ceiling making a beeline for the end of the puzzle.  “All done! Next test please.”
 
Lucy made a note of her observations.  While Rocio had become much stronger, more clever and faster, he was also becoming more quick-tempered. While his aggression was usually passive, she wanted to mitigate that as much as possible. She punched in a few numbers and the testing chamber morphed into a more Aurin-friendly habitat of trees and flowers and birds. Rocio just climbed a tree and sat brooding on a branch.  What he couldn’t see and what was readily apparent to Lucy was the fact that using the nanites raised his heartrate and blood pressure significantly.  The higher sensory acuteness lowered his reaction times but also heightened his sensitivity to stress. It was important that he be completely calm between each session.
 
Rocio tried to get himself to relax.  Across from him on another branch on the same tree was the hoogle.  Except it wasn’t a hoogle. It was Geist. He tried to ignore it, but Lucy noticed a change.
 
“Rocio, I’m seeing an anomaly in your readings.”
 
“Oh yeah?”  He looked over, the Hoogle had now taken its Aurin form was staring at him with a sad expression. Rocio mouthed the words. “Go away.”
 
“Your heartrate has increased despite our efforts to calm you. What’s going on?”
 
“Nothing. I’m just annoyed at the Caretaker.”
 
“The Caretaker has not spoken for over 10 minutes.”
 
Rocio climbed down the tree. Geist was already on the ground and reached out to him. Rocio turned away and began to pace.
 
“Until you relax we cannot continue.”
 
“I know!  I know…  I’m sorry. I-I haven’t been myself.”  The words left his mouth and hit his ears like a death knell. He stopped pacing.  He had just echoed the words of Professor Digstone as he died.  The memories of that madman in the lab now seemed more prophetic than before.  Even without the nanite’s interference, his own abilities were overwhelming him. He could hear his own heartbeat, the comments of the researchers in their own minds. People were in pain. They were bored, they were hungry, aroused, sad, happy, excited, tired.  He was going to go crazy and they were going to give him a shot and he would fall asleep and never wake up.
 
Geist put one hand on his cheek.  “You’ll be alright.  Just trust me.” He spoke to him in his mind with a soothing tone. “I am your strength. It is too much for you to face alone. You cannot carry this burden.”
 
“How can I trust you?”
 
Geist sighed and smiled. “I AM you. But I need you to let me commune with you.”
 
Lucy watched him.  He was much calmer now, but he was acting strangely, staring into space.  The telekinetic reader was becoming less spiky, even as the strength of his mind flexed and relaxed like a stretching muscle.  She remembered her father’s comment about Rocio’s initial outburst being the frantic struggling of a captive bird, fleeing its cage for the first time.  Victor Lazarin was nonplussed when researchers quit initially, over a result that was, in his eyes, both expected and desirable. Rocio was not insane or sick. For the first time, he was working as his genes intended.
 
The two researchers with her, both of them Espers, were watching the machine with fascination while being careful not to contaminate the readings by trying to see what was going on with their own abilities.  “What are your observations?” she asked them.
 
One looked at the other. “He’s adapting,” one said after a small pause.  The other nodded for him to continue. “I know you are familiar with the concept of people losing their hearing after being exposed to loud noises.  This is actually the result of an injury to their ears. From Rocio’s file, he has never been able to hear so much before, so his brain would have to create the ability to process the information quite quickly or risk injury. It’s must been terrible for him but from what I see he seems to be… improving at a phenomenal rate. Is it the augmentation?”
 
Lucy shrugged. “We do not have enough data.” Rocio’s vital signs seemed normal again. She pressed her finger to the intercom and spoke over the address system. “If you’re ready for the next test…”
 
“I am.”
 
A deeper mechanical voice purred behind Lucy. “Oh he is… is he?”
 
She turned around.  Her eyes widened. “What are YOU doing here?”
 
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The friendly forest surroundings disappeared.  The room turned sparse then filled with green light as the next holograph began.  Rocio watched the landscape take shape into a vision of an Exo-Lab.  Rocio looked up toward the camera.  How could she?  Why was Lucy being so cruel to him? She knows he hated this simulation! She wanted to push him? Why?
 
Geist placed one hand on his arm and leaned in.  “Shhh…”
 
Rocio’s eyes dropped back to the room as it finished taking shape. He was still hurt but no longer distraught. Geist didn’t seem to take away his feelings, but he lowered their intensity the minute he touched him. Rocio looked at him in wonder. “How did you do that?”
 
Geist nodded approvingly and conjured a long blue sword and handed it to him. Rocio took it, his other hand tightening into a fist as he heard that familiar whine of an Augmenting machine behind him. It was just a hologram, he knew, but that sound reminded him of all his pain, all his isolation, everything that was so unfair. 
 
In one fluid motion he turned and raised his blade, slicing in a powerful downstroke that severed three of the machine’s arms. It reached out to grab him but Rocio dodged to one side and prepared to pierce it through the middle, but then he saw another blade, similar to his own, had already done the job. Geist removed his blade from the machine’s middle and it clattered to the ground.
 
Rocio stared at his aetherial twin. It had two swords, one blue, the other green, like the omniplasm in his eye.  He could sense it sharing his rage, his fury.
 
“Behind you.” It vanished and there was a loud crash as Geist’s blades connected with the metal arms of an Exo-Lab Guardian. It struggled against the apparition’s attack, but Geist won out, pushing the machine away with one stroke and severing one arm with the other stroke. The machine tottered for a moment regained its footing and shot a burst of laser fire, Geist knocked Rocio out of the way and sent out a telekinetic shock wave that shook the machine off its already precarious balance. It smashed to the ground.
 
Rocio’s mouth hung open. Geist said that he was him but, Geist seemed stronger than he was.  Three more machines appeared. The floating Watchers.
 
“Are you really going to let me do all the work?” Geist said, his voice tinged with amusement.
 
Rocio got to his feet.  Two images of his psyblade floated in front of him and at a touch of his finger began to spin with an ominous whir.  Geist ran forward to draw the Watcher’s fire while Rocio took aim at them. When the blades reached maximum velocity, he released them, steering them into each watcher, slicing them clean in half.
 
The large guardian staggered to its feet but it was already beginning to spark and smoke.  Rocio’s mind had built up enough energy to evoke that great bird of prey and he loosed it on the machine, but now something else accompanied it.  Geist had brought his own little pet. A Hoogle.
 
They both struck at once. The last robot shattered, sending shrapnel flying in all directions.
 
The intercom beeped.  The simulation was suspended.
 
“Amazing job there.” The voice was tinged with an all too familiar sneer.  “I had no idea all this time and research was being spent on a Fancy Augmented Trash Compactor.” Sogen sighed. “You’re supposed to be on my team… eventually.   But at this rate you’ll never make it.”
 
Lucy looked over at the monitor.  Rocio had been agitated by a slight tease from the Caretaker yet Sogen obvious jabs weren’t having an effect at all.  The last time they had attempted a simulation of an augmentation exo-lab, Rocio had retreated to a corner and refused to move.  Now he defeated the machines without even breaking a sweat and was standing calmly in what amounted to a torture chamber for him.
 
“Where’s Lucy?” Rocio asked.
 
“That’s no way to talk to your future lead.” Sogen scowled. “Hmph, but since you’re so busy… I’ll get to the point. Thresh’s application for your recruitment was approved this morning.”
 
Lucy gasped. “What? We have not released him! Who approved this?”
 
Sogen gave her a long cold stare. “There’s been enough dancing around the truth of things.”
 
“He is unstable. You can’t just take him out of treatment!” She hissed.
 
“He’s unstable? Then what does that say about me?” Sogen’s smile frightened her more than his stare.  “He’s needed in Farside.  And he looks plenty ready to fight.”
 
Rocio exited the experimentation room.  Sogen looked down at him, his Amber eyes boring into his greys.  Rocio broke his gaze a moment, shifting to his right.
 
When he looked up again, Sogen was holding out a small envelope. Rocio took it and opened it. It was an ID card. His face was not on it, until it registered his thumbprint.
 
“Codename: The Jabbit.” He read outloud.  “Really…”
 
“'The Aurin Chick' was too long.”
 
 
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Next Chapter: https://forums.wildstar-online.com/forums/index.php?/topic/103634-rocios-story-to-farside/	
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