Date: January 14th, 2024, 03:02
Location: Unknown Bunker; Executive Sector, Earth-1

POV: Y/N Stark,

"The experiment logs are not here." I look at the side of the box. In handwritten black lettering, it says, CCU-001. The box should have all the files. "Someone must have taken it"

I look over to Wanda who is going through more of the files that are on the table. "All of this is incredibly vague," she says, "Not even The Clave has their files redacted this much," she puts away the file in her hands and clears out the rest of the table, putting the files back in the box.

"Well, let's be fair, The Clave wouldn't even share those files with us," I move next to her, "Especially not while the Seelie Queen is challenging them to start a war"

"True. Are you worried about that?"
"What do you mean?" I look at Wanda's face, observing her expression.

"I'm talking about the war that's on the verge of becoming a reality. If the Seelie Queen holds true to her word, the downworld will rebel against the Shadowhunters. Where will that leave you," I grab her by her shoulders, forcing her to look at my face.

"I trust Alex and Izzy. I have full faith that when all hell breaks loose, they will have my back,"

"Y/N, you can't just trust the Clave. You have to know that by now. They will turn their back on you the moment they fear you again," concern growing on her face.

Of course, it's stupid to trust The Clave. They are nothing but lousy bureaucrats who are so full of themselves that they are willing to kill anyone in their path, just to stay on their high pedestal. "I know— "

"No, you don't seem to know Y/N. I can't lose you alright. I just — can't"

Suddenly, a bright red light starts to flash above the door we entered through. A loud, stressing alarm tears through the silence. A monotone, electronic voice echoes through the facility, "Warning, Containment Breach in Sector 5. Quarantine protocols activated. All surviving personnel do not attempt to reach the exits. Either find a safe area or go into one of the many evacuation shelters inside the facility"

What the hell is happening. I run over to the door of the file room and try to open it up. Locked. Fuck.

"The site is experiencing multiple Keter and Euclid level containment breaches. Full site lockdown initiated,"

Wanda comes over to the door as well and tries to use the yellow key card to open it. The scanner next to the door lights up red. We're locked inside.

"Can you blast the door open?" I ask the redhead beside me.
"Do we want to? I don't know what a Keter or Euclid level containment breach is, but it doesn't sound good"

"Well, at least it's better than staying inside a file room that for sure provides no protection against anything biological. The file about the tesseract earlier stated that there was some kind of freak accident in the containment building and everyone in contact with the item was found dead — I don't want to be trapped inside this room when whatever that thing is comes to kill us"

"Solid point. Step back," I move over to the other side of the file room to give Wanda some space. She generates the red orbs in her hands and blasts the file room door open, the door flying off the hinges completely.

"Nice! Alright let's go," I call out as I walk past her out of the door, flashlight raised in the direction of the door we initially entered the administration office with. The red light is also flashing in this room, and the containment breach alarm is even louder than before.

"Where are we going?" Wanda asks, following me into the room.
"Well, we have two options. First, we don't give a fuck about the alarm and go to investigate what went wrong. Hopefully, we find out what the hell this bunker is on the way. Our second option is to leave and wait for backup and possibly never find out who killed Edon. You know which one I vote for"

"You're such an idiot"
"But you love me for it"
".. Yes, I do. Let's explore the Executive Sector a bit more, perhaps we can find more information somewhere"

Both of us creep towards the door that leads to the hallway. I step ahead of Wanda, opening the door, and take a glimpse into the corridor. The red alarm light illuminates the hallway enough for me to see that it's completely empty, in the same state we left it in earlier. Well except for the flashing red alarm light and the constant stressing noise, that's coming from a speaker that's hidden somewhere.

I step outside of the administration room into the hallway and hug against the wall directly next to me. Wanda follows suit immediately and copies my actions, closing the door behind her quietly. With my flashlight in hand, I creep along the wall until the next corner. I peek around it, only to reveal another empty hallway leading towards some kind of big room.

I turn the corner and make my way deeper into the corridor. I notice the hallway opening up into a large room. It looks nothing like the rest of the bunker. Instead of the barren concrete and dirt, the floor is covered in a red carpet-like material which is contrasted by the white marble walls mixed with wooden accents. The room just like the rest of the facility we've seen so far is completely dark, except for the red flashing alarm light. The alarm sound no longer as prominent as earlier is still faintly hearable.

We sneak further into the room, only to be met with marble steps leading downwards towards a large open area. In the middle of it, more steps leading towards a lower platform, with some kind of logo on top of it. With chalk, a demonic summoning circle used for satanic rituals is drawn over the logo, or at least that's what it looks like. Alright most likely it's not that, but in my defense, I'm more of a science type of person. Wanda knows more about this stuff.

Surrounding it are several tripods with dish antennas on top of it, which point upwards to what looks like an inverted black pyramid. I notice that all the antennae are connected to a single laptop that is raised using a folding table.

On our right is a large door, above it the text; "Board Room". On our left is another hallway leading towards what looks like a luxurious elevator.

Curious about the contraption I sneak towards it. Before I can step down, Wanda grabs my arm and pulls me back, "It looks like a rune. Watch out"

"Aren't you supposed to be Magnus' apprentice? Come, let's check it out." I step down and instantly move towards the laptop, opening it up. Wanda goes over to the chalk circle and walks around it, trying to read the runes that are inside it.

The laptop screen lights up, the device opens a welcome screen; a logo of the Federal Bureau of Control pops up. Never heard of a federal organization like that. I press enter; Password required. Darnit, I knew it was too good to be true. I look over to the antennae, then over to the 'inverted pyramid', not sure what to call it. It looks like it's made of some black stone-y material. Basalt maybe?

Now that I actually fully look up, I notice... people? Floating? Out of reaction, I take a step back from the computer. What the —

Several lifeless blood-soaked bodies are floating up in the air. Blood dripping down onto the floor. I look over to Wanda who doesn't seem to have noticed them yet.

"Uhm— Wands," I call out, fear evident in my voice. I hear her heart rate spiking as she looks at me in confusion, "What's wrong?" She hurries over to me to check if I'm okay, unable to answer I just point up towards one of the corpses.

She looks up and I notice a shimmer of fear in her eyes as they light up red. She readies her hands and I see a beam of her red energy move towards one of the corpses, enveloping it completely, bringing it down towards the floor. We both run off to the body. I check for a pulse but can hear none. I look at the blood that covers the body and I feel my body growing a need for it. My eyes becoming darker by the second.

It's been a while since I've fed.

Bum, bum. Bum, bum.

You were suddenly brought from your focus on the body by the sound of a heartbeat; Wanda's heartbeat. The sound of her blood running in her veins. I can feel my fangs start to poke out of my gums.

Luckily, Wanda notices and pulls me away from the body. Holding me back with her magic for me to calm down for a second. I purse my lips together and close my eyes for a moment to take a breath and calm my senses.

Wanda goes over the body to check their injuries. I attempt to look over her shoulder while she does so, but she's blocking my vision. She stops for a second, then cleans up her hands and walks over to me.

I'm still half in a trance, but my eyes are starting to return to their normal eye color. Wanda goes into my jacket pocket and pulls out my flask and brings it over to my lips. I take a sip, and feel the fuzziness in my mind fade, "—Thank you"

She nods at me, trying to convince me not to worry about it.
"There is no injury... He shouldn't be dead, nor should his or any blood be on his body in these amounts," she speaks up.

"No injuries? Then why — how?"
"I don't know. I don't sense any magic around here, so it wasn't magic that held him float up into the air." She shuffles nervously on her feet.

Suddenly, the body on the floor shakes. Its mouth opens; a cold, warped, almost demonic voice echoes through the room,

"You are a worm through time. The thunder song distorts you. Happiness comes. White pearls, but yellow and red in the eye,"

That sentence simply makes no sense... God, I should have paid more attention in English classes, instead of playing on my phone.

I notice all the bodies floating in the air move, not shaking, but their limbs physically deforming. The bone-screeching chanting escapes from their mouths, perfectly in resonance, piercing through my skull.

"Through a mirror, the inverted is made right. Leave your insides by the door. Push your fingers through the surface into the wet"

An agonizing pain erupts in my eardrums and I drop to my knees. My head becoming clouded from the echoes of the chanting, resonating through the room. I place my hands on my ears in a feeble attempt to stop the earsplitting pain.

I look up at Wanda, whose attention is still on the shaking bodies in the air. In a reflection I notice that her eyes are bright red; her magic is shielding her from the influence. She looks behind her and notices me.

"You've always been the new you. YOU want this to be true. We stand around you while you dream,"

I feel the pressure on my head subside and only now notice that Wanda is right in front of me. Her hands on my temples. I see her mouth moving but hear nothing

She lays me down on the soft carpet and continues to hold her right hand on my temple, soothing the ringing pain with her magic. "Come on — ... Baby... Sta- ... Please"

Suddenly I hear a crashing sound behind her and try to look up, only to be met with Wanda's hand on my chest holding me down on the ground, "I'll be right back alright, stay here. Don't move"

Of course, me being the Stark that I am, shortly after she stood up, I look over.

I notice the blood-soaked bodies that were once floating lifelessly, are now all crashed on the ground. The one body that we forcefully brought back to the ground, standing up. Its limbs distorting while trying to regain its balance. The rest of the bodies follow and also attempt to stand up.

"You can almost hear our words, but you FORGET. This happens more and more now. You GAVE us the permission in your regulations. We wait in the stains. The word that describes this is REDACTED. Repeat. The. Word. The name of the sound. It resonates in your house."

I see Wanda readying herself for an attack, creating red spheres in her hand.

The closest body rushes towards her, and she blasts them across the room. The body crashes through one of the wooden panels, only to stand up again and charge her once more.

"After the song, time for applause. We build you till nothing remains. The egg cracks and the truth will emerge out of you. You are home. You remind us of home. You've taken your boss with your boss with you. All hair must be eaten. Under the conceptual reality behind this reality, you must want these waves to drag you away. After the song, time for applause."

The rest of the bodies follow suit and rush towards both of us. The chanting demonic hiss pierces through my skull once more. The feeling of my skull about to burst open intensifies. I go to cover my ears again, trying to stop the hiss from hurting me, to no avail.

I feel a trail of warm liquid leak over my hands as I screech out of pain. Wanda hears it and spins around.

"This cliché is death out of time, breaking the first, the second, the third, the fourth wall, the fifth wall, floor; no floor: you fall! How do you say 'insane'? Hurts to be happy."

In her distraction, multiple bodies go for an attack, diverting Wanda's attention from me again. I hear more crashing sounds around me, but I am unable to focus on anything besides the excruciating pain radiating through my entire body.

"An earworm is a tune you can't stop humming in a dream: "Baby, baby, baby, yeah." Just plastic. So safe and nothing to worry about. Ha ha, funny. The last egg breaks now. The hole in your room is a hole in you. You came, and we let you in through the hole in you. You have always been here, the only child."

Wanda blasts the bodies away from us again, and I see the red wisps forming some kind of force field around us. She kneels down next to me and removes my hands from my ears. She places her hands on my temples again and uses her magic to soothe the pain enough for me to be able to open my eyes again.

"A copy of a copy of a copy. Orange peel. The picture is you holding the picture. When you hear this, you will know you're in new you. You want to listen. You want to dream. You want to smile. You want to hurt. You don't want to be."

I look at Wanda's hands. They're completely covered in blood. My blood. Wait, how is that possible. I look at my own hands and notice the same. I attempt to stand up but am nowhere close when I feel my body collapsing again. Wanda catches me before I hit the ground and carries me in her arms.

"We have to get out of here baby, I can't take them out," Wanda whispers into my ear, just loud enough to go over the chanting but soft enough to not hurt my ears right now. She is no longer using her magic to stop the hissing chants, but they no longer seem to affect me as much.

I feel her running, but I can't seem to make out where to. My mind is still fuzzy from the pain earlier.

All of a sudden, I feel my consciousness slip. Some force takes over and I cannot stop what comes out of my mouth;

"You are a worm through time. The thunder song distorts you. Happiness comes. White pearls, but yellow and red in the eye. — Through a mirror, the inverted is made right. Leave your insides by the door. Push your fingers through the surface into the wet. You've always been the new you. YOU want this to be true. We stand around you while you dream,