10 The Ghost in the Machine
The "shelter" was less a campsite and more a tactical position. Aris had them tucked into a natural alcove formed by the giant, twisted roots of a tree that looked like it had been grown from nightmares. He'd cleared the immediate area of anything that could move, from the sizzling-thorned vines to a nest of scuttling, crab-like things he'd efficiently crushed underfoot.
He didn't sit. He stood at the edge of their little hidey-hole, his back to them, a silent, ichor-stained sentinel staring into the oppressive green. The silence was heavier than the humid air.
Kai finally broke it, his voice a ragged whisper. "So. Project Chimera. Mana-less weapon. Murder-spree. You wanna… I don't know, elaborate on any of that? Maybe start with why the fuck we're in a jungle on a different goddamn continent?"
Aris didn't turn. "The archway was a transference gate. Primitive, unstable. Its energy signature is consistent with early, discarded Chimera research into non-mana-based teleportation. It was likely a test platform. We were the test."
"A test for what?" Athena asked, her voice steadier now, the scholar overriding the terrified girl.
"For dumping failures into a disposal dimension," Aris said flatly. "This place reeks of it. The chaotic mana, the mutated flora and fauna. It's a dumping ground. A landfill for magical mistakes."
Kai let out a shaky laugh. "Oh, fantastic. So we're not just lost, we're literal trash. That's just great."
"But we're here," Athena pressed. "And you're… you. How did you survive the… the 'extermination'?"
For a long moment, Aris was silent. The only sound was the drip of water and the distant, alien calls of the jungle.
"They miscalculated," he said, his voice so low they had to lean in to hear. "They thought by stripping me of mana, by making my very body a void that negated magic, they had created a tool. A scalpel to use against rogue mages, against demons, against any threat that relied on the arcane. They were right. But a scalpel has no loyalty to the hand that wields it."
He turned his head slightly, just enough for them to see the cold profile of his face. "They tried to install a control mechanism. A psychic leash. They called it 'Conditioning'. It was… pain. Endless, exquisite pain. Until obedience was the only path to its cessation."
Rimo, trapped in the dark, felt a phantom ache in his bones, a memory of screams that weren't his own.
"One day," Aris continued, his tone still dispassionate, "the Conditioning failed. Perhaps I broke it. Perhaps it was flawed. The pain stopped. And the first thing I saw was Dr. Valerius, smiling, asking me if I was ready to be a 'good weapon'. I showed him what his good weapon could do."
He turned fully to face them now, and the look in his golden eyes was so empty it was more terrifying than any amount of rage.
"I started with him. I used the scalpel he'd left on the instrument tray. I was… thorough. Then I moved to the guards. Then the other scientists. They tried to use magic to stop me. Shields, fire, lightning. It was like throwing water on a stone. Useless. I walked through it all. I remember the look in their eyes. The confusion. The betrayal. They had built a god, and forgotten to teach it worship."
Kai felt sick. Athena was scribbling notes on a piece of bark with a charred stick, her hand trembling.
"When it was over, and the alarms were just meaningless noise, I walked out. I didn't know where to go. The world was… loud. Bright. I made it to the forest. And then… I was just so… tired. Of the noise. Of the blood on my hands. Of the memory of the pain. So I dug a hole in my own mind. I buried every memory, every skill, every moment of that existence. I created a blank space. A boy who knew nothing. A boy who could start over. I named him Rimo."
The confession was worse than the violence. It was the bleak, horrifying logic of a soul in so much pain it had chosen to shatter itself.
"So Rimo… he's not real?" Kai asked, his heart breaking.
"He is real," Aris said, a flicker of something—annoyance?—crossing his features. "He is me. The part of me that was never put in a white room. The part that could still feel sunlight without calculating its tactical disadvantages. He is… necessary. Or he was. Until your incompetence dragged us here."
"Our incompetence?" Kai shot back, anger flaring. "You're the one who led us to that archway with your creepy, 'I feel something familiar' shit!"
"I led you to a potential intelligence source. You were the one who triggered it by touching the runes," Aris countered, his gaze snapping to Athena.
She didn't flinch. "A calculated risk. One that has now provided us with invaluable data. You."
The two of them stared each other down, the magician and the weapon, the scholar and the killer.
"We need to find a way back," Kai said, cutting the tension. "There has to be another gate. A working one."
"There is," Aris said, turning back to the jungle. "The energy signature is faint, but it's there. To the north. It's inside a structure. A Chimera research outpost."
"Another one?" Kai groaned. "Are you kidding me?"
"It is the only logical source of a stable gate in this environment," Aris stated. "The answers to getting home, and the full history of what I am, are in that facility."
"And you want to go there?" Athena asked, incredulous. "After what they did to you?"
Aris finally showed a real emotion. A slow, cold smile that didn't reach his eyes. "I am not the frightened child they tortured anymore. I am the consequence of their ambition. I would very much like to see if any of them are left to meet me."
The smile vanished as quickly as it came. His body tensed. "Quiet."
Kai and Athena froze. They couldn't hear anything but the jungle.
Aris's head was cocked. "Large predator. Quadrupedal. Heavy. Approximately three hundred meters and closing. Its scent is… aggressive."
"Oh, you have got to be shitting me," Kai muttered, his hands coming up, a weak flame sputtering to life.
"Conserve your mana," Aris ordered, not looking at him. "It will be useless. This one's hide is thick, and it has a mana-dampening field. A natural version of what was done to me."
"So what do we do?" Athena asked, her voice tight.
Aris looked back at them, and for a single, heart-stopping second, his expression shifted. The cold certainty fractured, replaced by a flash of Rimo's wide-eyed fear. His voice, when he spoke, was strained, a bizarre hybrid of Aris's flat tone and Rimo's higher pitch.
"We… I… can't… it's too strong…"
His body convulsed. He grabbed his head, his knuckles white. "He's fighting me. The little fool will get us all killed!"
The cold mask slammed back into place. Aris was back, his breathing slightly ragged. "The Rimo construct is attempting to reassert control. It is… disruptive."
A deep, ground-shaking roar echoed through the trees, much closer now. They could hear the sound of large trees snapping.
"The emotional distress of the construct is creating a feedback loop," Aris snarled, his composure cracking for the first time. "I cannot focus!"
The roaring was getting closer. A massive, shadowy form began to take shape in the dense foliage, shaking the ground with every step.
Kai looked at Aris, who was now visibly struggling, his body twitching as if fighting an invisible foe. He looked at Athena, who was pale but had a rock in each hand, ready to go down fighting.
He made a decision.
"RIMO!" Kai screamed, not at Aris, but at the boy trapped inside. "WE NEED YOU! BOTH OF YOU! STOP FIGHTING AND HELP US!"
Aris's head snapped up. His eyes were wide, golden pools of chaos. The world was dissolving into a roar of sound and fear, and in the center of it all, two souls were tearing their shared body apart.
Then, from Aris's mouth, in a ragged, desperate gasp that was entirely Rimo's, came a single, broken word.
"Kai… help me…"