-Chapter 51: Bad News-
Location: The Dominance
"Some troubles are lying just beneath the surface."
"It's what?!" Wraith exclaimed, dumbstruck by the grave news Scipio had just delivered. The doctor slowly shook his head in confirmation.
"I... I'm afraid your cellular structure is becoming unstable, hence the reason why your wounds haven't healed." He replied, looking over the worrying findings once more.
"But... how? That's impossible!" Wraith spluttered.
"I know such notions seem beyond the realm of possibility, but these decay rates don't lie." Scipio replied, flipping around the datapad. "Look, this is what your body should be like." He said, gesturing to the wholesome cellular matrix displayed on it. Wraith nodded, it was your average biological chart of microbiotic pathways. "And this is what it currently looks like." Scipio continued, swiping down to reveal the degenerated cells. Wraith looked on with widened eyes, blanching as he studied the terrifying results.
"...so bizarre..." He muttered, eyes roaming the data. "The proteins... everything's low." He realized, seeing that the numbers displayed did not add up to his regular readings. "But why?" He wondered, looking to Scipio. The doctor shrug as he set the datapad aside.
"At the moment, I do not know. But what this does tell me is that such actions are as a result of a failing neurological cycle-"
"In Basic, Doc."
"Right, sorry. Um... the numbers suggest that your brain is seemingly unable to tell your body to heal, indicating that your brain is not properly communicating with your cells and telling them to begin regeneration. This indicates that your neurological pathways are breaking down, quite possibly even eroding over time." Scipio reiterated, putting forth his hypothesis.
"Eroding?!" Wraith exclaimed, not liking the sounds of that at all. "What the hell kind of blood-thinner neurotoxin does that?" Scipio did not reply and fell silent as he pondered the quandary before them. He did not speak for some time, leaving Wraith alone with his own troubled thoughts. When he did finally speak, his words were grave.
"I... do not think it is the neurotoxin's doing." He said at length. Wraith looked to him, urging him to continue. "There is only one possible means for your neurological pathways to erode in such a manner: and that is for them to be used and abused far too much than they are supposed to be." His suggestion was dark and even Scipio was reluctant to speak it. If it were true, then this was his own fault with no one else to blame. "My theory is that the constant hijacking of your mental pathways has started to unravel your brain and cause the rest of your bodily systems to come undone. I'm not certain if that's exact, but the evidence seems to point to the mental hijacking as the cause." He finished and Wraith slowly sat down in a nearby chair, trying to comprehend the idea that the very augments that made him who he was were now killing him.
"Can your findings confirm that?" He wondered, hoping that he might be wrong. But Doctor Scipio was adamant.
"Think, my boy. Think! What other chemical or compound do you have in your body that takes control of your mind like RGE-Seven and Protocol Four? It's the only logical conclusion." He stated. Wraith fell silent, not knowing what to think or what to do. "When was the last time you were enraged?" Scipio wondered.
"Celanon." Wraith answered, recalling the moment of Ahsoka's death and how he'd snapped accordingly. Maybe he needed to tell Scipio the truth. "But it wasn't like every other time." He added, causing Scipio to turn to him with a curious look on his face, "I saw these... nightmarish images flash through my mind. It's almost like I was manipulated somehow. I've... never felt more angry than in that moment." He revealed. The extremity of the moment gave Scipio pause and he quickly considered Wraith's emotional behavior and how it often swung between extremes... and there was, typically, one reason behind them.
"Did they involve Ahsoka Tano?" The Pau'an asked. Wraith was hesitant to reply, but finally nodded his head and replied with a quiet,
"Yes." Scipio nodded in understanding.
"Interesting." He mused, drawing a correlation between the two. "However, it does make sense as to why we're only figuring this out now. You used Protocol Four to escape from the Titan Conglomerate, after a most gruelling ordeal, and you reached unprecedented levels of rage on Celanon after extraneous circumstances." Scipio summed up, highlighting the pattern in such a way that even Wraith could see. "Perhaps the gross culmination finally revealed this problem to us. Maybe it has been simmering under the surface all this time." He summarized. "It would appear that the repeated uses of RGE-Seven and the Protocol Four compound have proven... detrimental to your health." They both sat in silence after that, dwelling on
"Those chemicals need to be flushed from your system. Immediately. I will not have these augmentations be the death of you." Scipio finally said in a determined voice. "It's my fault that you were injected with original, improperly tested versions. I should've done further testing beforehand." He lamented. Wraith's gaze snapped to him with a quizzical look.
"Improperly tes-" He started to say before cutting himself off, "Doc, I thought these versions were the finished product."
"They're not. They're the versions that finally worked." Scipio revealed. "All of our hypothetical experiments seemed to dictate nothing more than full functionality, despite the hijacking. It appears we were wrong." The Pau'an fell silent again as he performed a few mental calculations of how to possibly fix the problem. "Now that we understand this, I know what I must work on. But we must remove them both, there's no time to lose!"
"But... I can't afford to lose RGE-Seven!" Wraith protested. "Without it, I won't be able to... to, well... rage." His Feral Rage had become such a signature move of his that he questioned how he could possibly escape a tight situation without it. Hell, even Tyth's true potential was tied to his ability to snap.
"I know. And it will be up to me to develop a stable replacement. But until then, every time you rage with this current compound in your veins you run the risk of having your body fall apart." Scipio replied. "And your survival is paramount. We'll have to go back to basics for the time being."
"Well... what about Protocol Four? If you get rid of that... will it change my eyes?" Wraith then asked, sounding a little hopeful.
"The shape and color of your eyes is a result of our genetic additions, my boy. The latent genetic properties of the four specific predators merely lays dormant within you until the Protocol Four serum is activated by the trigger words. Only then do those genes come into effect." Scipio explained. It was a complicated two-part process that had taken years to develop. There had once been a suggestion to simply increase the number of visual cells in his eyes and avoid Protocol Four altogether. But the need for escape was greater than the ability to see far and so the idea was scrapped. Scipio had to wonder how more effective it might've been...
"So I'll be stuck with the visual reminder of what I can't use..." Wraith grumbled.
"Until I develop a suitable replacement." Scipio assured him, laying his hand on Wraith's shoulder. "I'm going to the medical wing, you're welcome to join me if you like." He invited. But Wraith shook his head.
"If it's all the same to you, Doc, I need to think about this." He responded. Scipio nodded.
"I understand."
Hours passed as Scipio worked meticulously to develop a solution to cure Wraith of his new ailment. After some time, he had one and set to work on the proper modifications. It took a combination of scientific knowhow and mechanical expertise in order to put it together and Scipio spared nothing in his quest to see Wraith made whole. All the while, said super-soldier sat by himself in the main wing of the lab, pondering the problems he now faced. How could he do what he did without such supplements like RGE-7? Part of his entire character was his ability to rage with such force that none could stand against him. Now he was being forced to reinvent who he was and how he acted... Scipio was right, he would have to get back to basics. Hopefully he could learn on the fly...
For a brief moment, he considered calling Ahsoka and informing her of this development. But he cast down that thought in favor of simply fixing the problem before it got too far out of hand. He would be alright, he needn't worry her any further. After all, the idea that she had cut herself believing she had failed him was a powerful concept for him to comprehend. If Ahsoka felt that strongly about him... who knew where this could lead?
"Alright, my boy, I think we're ready for this procedure," Scipio announced as he re-entered the lab. Wraith dutifully rose and followed him over to the medical wing and straight to the resident bacta tank. It turned out that Scipio had been busy re-designing the bacta tank in the center of the medical lab and had effectively modified it with the capabilities necessary to fix Wraith, "I'm going to use gas chromatography in order to separate the compounds from your blood." He stated, pointing to the new generator he'd installed at the base of the tank. "It'll take time, but it will properly filter out every foreign compound in your body." Gas chromatography was a process in which a series of special 'carrier gases' through a liquid mixture sample in order to separate the samples. In this case, Scipio would run a series of carrier gases on a circuit through Wraith's body in order to distill the RGE-7 and Protocol 4 serums coursing through his bloodstream. The chemical solutions would then be filtered out through a modified transfusion machine where they could be easily disposed of.
"Then I guess I should get ready, no point leaving this stuff in me if I can't use any of it." Wraith mused as he pulled off his shirt.
"Quite right." Scipio agreed. Stripping down to his boxers, Wraith left his clothes on the table and promptly ascended the small set of stairs leading to the top of the tank. There Scipio started hooking him up to a series of cords and tubes, the devices necessary for his restoration. They were all wired up to a central component mounted on the roof of the tank where more wires and cables fed the solutions down to the generator at the bottom. Climbing into the tank, Wraith soon found himself immersed in the blue, almost jelly-like liquid. It felt cool and even a little refreshing against his skin and Wraith was soon chest-deep in the stuff. Scipio handed him a medical oxygen mask.
"See you in a bit Doc." Wraith said before slipping it over his face.
"I'll be here when you wake up." The Pau'an assured him as Wraith dipped under the solution. Closing the top hatch, Scipio quickly descended down to the bottom and hurried over to a nearby terminal, where he keyed in the commands to initiate the start-up sequence. A rush of bubbles filled the tank as a white substance started coursing through the tubes connected to Wraith. Closing his eyes, the super-soldier drifted off as Scipio started the process and watched as the levels fluctuated across the screen. Wraith's body hung suspended in the bacta as things got under way, Scipio standing back as everything began to work as it should.
"And now we wait..." The Pau'an mused, folding his arms behind his back.
The Wraith would be ready for action... as soon as this was over...
