Part 2 - 'Til Death do us Part

Chapter 46 - Containment

Miles had managed to persuade the doctor not to confine him to his bed again, but he was still spending most of his time in the medical room keeping an eye on Gwen. She would heal quickly, so long as she was kept unconscious. She had an extensive list of broken bones, many of which Miles had never even heard of. The ones he did know, he remembered: she had a broken spine, a minor fracture in her skull and both her legs were broken. The doctor entered.

"Mr Morales, we need to talk."

"Ab...bout me?"

"Yes."

"Wh...what?"

"I can fix your stutter. It will involve an injection every two weeks that should build up over twenty to heal it fully. After each injection you'll be able to talk normally until the next, unless you don't turn up on time."

"G...great. At l...least th...there's som...meth...thing g...good."

"Yes. Then there's the matter of your reaction to...well...her name. I don't know how the neurotoxin caused it, so I have no cure."

Miles sighed.

"We c...can sort th...that lat...ter."

"We can. I have the first injection here if you want to start now? Or do you need another few days with her first?"

"N...no. J...just h...hit m...me."

"This might nip."

The doctor removed a syringe from the tray he was holding and gently pushed Miles head onto the side before stabbing the needle into his neck; he hardly reacted to it. After a few seconds, it was done. The doctor noted down a time on his watch.

"All done. It might take a few minutes to take effect. Be glad you're in the hands of a twenty-third century medic. In your time, you'd be given a set of headphones and a metronome."

"Th...thanks doc."

"Thank me later. And some advice: give up sitting there. She won't be waking up until I've decided she's ready."

Two weeks passed from Miles' first injection, and he was almost looking forward to the second since he'd began to stutter a little the day before. After it was delivered, he was given orders to report to the briefing room. Gwen had woken up feeling stiff and in pain just a few days earlier. She still felt pain, but not as much. The doctor had been shocked at just how fast her powers could heal something as serious as a broken spine.

When Miles entered the briefing room, he sat down next to her and squeezed her hand. She squeezed it back and grinned, but put her serious face back on as Lucille marched in.

"Helltreader is glitching again: dimension 9001. You are being deployed in twenty minutes, a little more advanced warning this time so you can plan how not to get lost and have every bone in your body broken. Also, because you will be taken in a helicopter."

Teresa frowned.

"A helicopter? They're ancient. Why not use a Phantom?"

"A Phantom is too big for the cargo hold of the Arachnid. In addition, 9001 is still in the early twenty-first century. They're an extremely paranoid culture: try to fit in. There's been a bit of an upgrade to your co-ordinate devices. They will now point you towards the glitch instead of the last known co-ordinates; thank R&D later. Any questions?"

"Is there anything that makes 9001 special?" Asked Gwen, wondering if this time it would be a world of hexagons or something.

"Next to nothing. It's normal as far as our agent could tell. That's another thing: you will be staying with the agent. The co-ords are loaded. Anything else?"

Nobody spoke.

"Good. Be on the ramp in twenty minutes."

Lucille strode out, back to the bridge. Teresa, Peter and Gwen turned to Darian.

"Know anything else?" Asked Peter.

"Maybe. Maybe not. Sometimes it's best not to know everything about a dimension."

Teresa narrowed her eyes.

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying I know some stuff but it would be better not shared or it could result in the mission's failure."

The 'Mystery Man' stood up and walked away. Teresa glanced at Gwen who sighed.

"Well then, see you all in twenty minutes."

Nineteen minutes later, the team were gathered on the ramp, except for Darian. It worried Gwen and Miles since they were technically in command of Flux Force. Why would someone, seemingly with the power to kill by just shouting, be scared of a dimension that sounded not too dissimilar from their own? Lucille stormed in, her face filled with fury.

"You're a member down, again. This time it's Darian. He threw up and the doctor won't let him go."

She signalled to a couple of officers who were standing next to a military helicopter which had been folded up to take up less space. The ship shook for a few seconds, then there was a thump and the ramp opened. Almost immediately, the helicopter began to slide down.

"Hurry up." Lucille snapped at the team before storming away.

Miles took the lead. The officers had unfolded the helicopter by the time they reached the ground. As soon as they were clear, the Arachnid closed its only entrance and took-off, disappearing through a dimensional warp. Miles glanced at his co-ordinate device.

"Three hundred miles away...I hope this thing is fast." He said to one of the officers.

"It's hardly a normal chopper. All of you get in. The sooner this is done the better."

The helicopter touched down in a field outside a strange facility. It was enormous and surrounded by massive fences. Miles and and Gwen led the way to a gate.

"It looks abandoned." Muttered Peter.

"I don't like it." Miles whispered back.

"Scared it's haunted?"

"No, it just reminds me of something."

As they got closer, they suddenly realised it was far from abandoned.

"You guys go ahead, I'll cover from behind." Whispered Teresa, falling back from the group and drawing her pistol.

The spiders approached a gate designed for letting in vehicles. Two security guards spotted them and had their weapons trained in an instant.

"Any closer and we'll shoot!" Barked one.

"Western gate to ops, we've got four bogeys. Requesting support." Said the other into a radio.

Suddenly, two shots rang out and the guards collapsed. Teresa caught up.

"Told you."

Gwen glared at her,

"Don't shoot people like that!"

"It was you or them. I chose them."

"The thing says Helltreader is in there somewhere. We could have explained and they might have let us in."

"Forget it. I'll let them arrest us next time. Let's move before those reinforcements arrive."

Gwen slashed a sword through the mesh and clambered through, followed by Miles and the other two.

"Is it just me or is anyone else's spidey sense tingling?" Asked Peter.

"Mine is going berserk too. I really don't like this. You sure it's here, G?" Replied Miles.

Gwen glanced at the co-ordinate device and nodded.

"He's here somewhere."

They wandered throughout the facility for nearly half a minute, wondering why all these buildings looked so heavily constructed, as if they were built to withstand the end of the world. Miles glanced at Gwen.

"Somehow I get the feeling these weren't built to protect the inside from the out, but rather the outside from the in." He whispered.

"I have the same feeling."

She moved a little closer to him for comfort. Suddenly, there was a squeak as a couple of trucks pulling up, and they were surrounded by soldiers, all aiming their weapons at the team. A sergeant stepped forward.

"Put your hands in the fucking air or you're all dead!"

They did as they were told. Gwen glanced at Teresa to make sure the commander hadn't pulled her gun on them. One of the soldiers pulled the weapon from its holster and pocketed it.

"Cuff them, take them to block A."

Some of the soldiers moved in, removing handcuffs from their belts. Gwen lowered her hands, the soldiers' rifles shot up.

"Don't touch me. It won't help anyone. We don't want any trouble."

"Hands up!" Barked the sergeant.

Gwen double tapped the side of her head to reveal her face then put them up again. She hoped that by revealing herself it might seem less suspicious, and someone might be more willing to co-operate. Then again, someone was about to die because of their arrogance so that might not be so good. She felt a hand briefly touch her, a bolt of Ethereal energy, then a sharp stabbing in her neck. Well...that didn't end how she thought. Miles watched as she collapsed.

"Gw..."

He froze up for a second, then felt a tranquiliser dart hit his own neck. Peter and Teresa didn't attempt to resist, but Teresa had a strong urge to say 'I told you so' to Gwen's unconscious body.

Gwen didn't know how much time had passed when she woke up. All she knew what that she was in chains with her face on a metal desk as a needle was withdrawn from her arm. She took a deep breath and sat up. An interrogation room...never a good sign. This one was made from solid concrete, and she couldn't tell which walls were walls, and which had a window in them. But her spider sense told her she was being watched. A door swung open and in walked a woman in a lab coat. She took a seat on the other side of the table and raised a clipboard.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, 9519. I must say you are one of the strangest objects I have ever observed. DNA of a spider and human merged together, it's a wonder you haven't sprouted another four legs and crawled away."

Gwen frowned.

"I was unconscious. How long was I out for?"

"None of your concern. All you need to know is that we've run a few tests. Now I have some questions. First: what were you doing breaking in to the highest security facility in the world?"

"This is a pretty weird White House."

"This isn't the White House."

A voice came over an intercom:

"Keep it cool. We don't know what she's capable of."

"I know. Sometimes playing along keeps the subject calm. Now, 9519, will you answer?"

"Me and my team were looking for something, or someone I guess. His name is Helltreader. Tall guy, black hair like soot, would be glitching like crazy. Have you seen him?"

"That is of no concern of yours. Question two: what do you know about us?"

"Who's 'us'?"

The woman narrowed her eyes.

"Don't get smart with me, 9519. The Foundation."

"Foundation? I'm not from this dimension, I've no clue what you're talking about. You know...you look so familiar, though."

The woman took some notes.

"Familiar? Where do you recognise me from?"

"I'm not...oh! I've got it. Back in Miles' home dimension you were his physics teacher a few years back. It's a small multiverse, I guess."

"Who is this Miles you refer to? Would that be 9520?"

"I don't know. What's with the numbers?"

The other-worldly version of Miles' physics teacher sucked in breath between her teeth.

"You really have no idea who we are, do you?"

"No."

"We are the SCP Foundation, an organisation created to Secure, Contain and Protect anomalous life forms and objects. You have been designated SCP-9519, a Euclid Class object, for the simple fact that you are abnormal being part spider, and your ability to kill anyone or anything that touches you in an instant."

Gwen frowned.

"That's not a choice thing...you haven't killed anyone else with me, have you?"

"A couple of Class Ds, which can hardly be called somebodies. A few spiders of varying breeds, a couple of rodents, some birds, and a lion which revealed your ability to heal extremely quickly."

She hung her head in shame.

"I don't want to kill people."

"Moving on. Where did you get your powers from?"

"I was bitten by a radioactive spider at the age of thirteen."

"And your ability to kill people with just a touch? There aren't any spiders that can do that. At least that I'm aware of."

"That's different. It's this thing in my..."

The intercom crackled to life again.

"Message from HQ. They want us to skip the niceties and go further down the list of tests."

"How far?" Replied the woman, putting her clipboard down and looking at a wall which Gwen guessed had the window in it.

"Right to the bottom. In fact...it's the last item on the list."

"You don't mean..."

"682. Yeah. I know. But orders are orders, I guess. They're ready over there."

Gwen didn't know how much time passed between her interview and current predicament. She knew she had had to wait a short while then had been unchained by a robotic arm and escorted into a steel box somewhere down a corridor. They had closed the box and it had been lowered into some sort of enclosure. She felt like the goat being fed to the T-Rex in Jurassic Park. All the way down, her spider sense had been screaming at her. She had tried to escape at first but realised it was a bit pointless since she would most likely be let out. And let out she was...right to where she was now: staring at the largest and ugliest crocodile she had ever seen. It watched back with glowing yellow eyes.

"How have they contained you?" She muttered to herself.

682 got to its feet and began to talk slowly, and in a voice so deep it rattled Gwen's bones.

"Captured, yes. Contained, no. I could escape with little more than a lunge."

Gwen looked back to see if her metal box was still around, but it wasn't. She backed away from the beast which watched her, seemingly amused by her obvious fear.

"Err...hi?"

Really...her possibly last words were saying 'hi' to a monster? She desperately tried to distract herself. Her thoughts strayed to Miles. She prayed silently, to no god in particular, that he was OK and would be when she was dead. Her back hit the wall. She turned and began to climb as fast as she could as 682 let out a roar and began to thunder towards her. As it made to snap her up, she fired a web and swung past it, up onto the roof where she watched in fear as the monster sat below her with its mouth slightly open, waiting for her to fall. Suddenly, she had an idea. There was a small chance it wouldn't work, should the Plates decide 682 was worthy, but what was there to lose? The only people capable of wielding it were locked up neighbouring a crocodile the size of a jet plane. Gwen reached for her chest and pulled the Void Plate free. She took a deep breath and dropped it. A few seconds later, the room was filled with bolts of black energy. She watched as 682 writhed in pain, desperately trying to pull the Plate out of its position wedged between some of its scales. After nearly a minute, it went still. It wasn't dead, or there wouldn't be Ethereal energy still blasting it, but it was incapacitated and that was all the spider needed. She dropped down onto its neck area and walked over its head onto its snout where the Plate was embedded. Gwen pulled it out, but it was a mistake. A split second later, 682 reared up, hurling her across the room and against the wall. However, instead of moving in for the kill; it backed away into a corner: it was scared of the plate's power. Gwen held it high and approached the monster as her box began to descend from the roof. 682 spoke as she moved to hop inside before it had even touched the ground.

"You do not deserve such power. It should be held by greater beings than you."

Gwen shrugged, feeling quite proud she had bested something which she had a feeling nothing had ever done before.

"If you mean greater beings like you, I would hardly call yourself 'greater'. Bigger, maybe. Not greater."

The steel doors of her box slammed shut and she collapsed against the wall, taking deep breaths to calm her racing heart.

Miles had undergone a number of tests as well, but hadn't been forced to fight any other SCPs. The scientist working with him was quite a nice person, in fact, which surprised him given some of the stuff he had heard was kept here. The latest news was that someone had almost defeated SCP-682, which from what he had heard, was almost impossible. He was sitting on a bed in his containment cell. The cell wasn't large but it contained all he needed, at least in terms of entertainment. All he wanted was to see Gwen and make sure she was safe as well, even though they were both declared Euclid, whatever that meant. All he knew was that it was a step up from safe in the Foundation's eyes. He was lying on his bed reading a book when the door to his cell opened. The scientist walked in and smiled.

"Guess what."

"What?"

"Apparently, it was 9519 that nearly killed 682."

Miles sat up, putting his book down.

"How'd she do it?"

"Apparently she dropped that thing in her chest on it. Anyway, the details don't really matter. She's alive and well is what's important. I've managed to persuade my superiors to let you two meet for a short while. Monitored, of course, or we'd be up against the firing squad for negligence of duty."

"Really? Thank you."

"No problem. It's happening in ten minutes, sorry for the short notice. I just need to inject you with this."

Miles was quite used to having needles stuck in his arm at this point. He had been injected relentlessly all his time here. He had got to the point where he'd given up asking what they were; probably just another classified project. After the injection, he was escorted down the corridor by the scientist and two guards. He had to have his hands bound, although the scientist agreed it was pretty pointless. They stopped in front of a heavy steel door. There were already a number of security guards there, and another scientist who reminded Miles of his old physics teacher. The two scientists spoke for a few seconds, then the door was opened and he was directed through a room which looked into an empty chamber. He stopped in front of another door where his bindings were removed before the guards withdrew and another door sealed him in the tiny room. Then the door in front opened and he walked into the main chamber, glancing in the direction of the window. A second later, Gwen emerged from the other side of the room.

"Miles!"

They threw their arms around each other and didn't let go. Miles pulled back a little and looked her over. She didn't look too badly hurt, other than some bruises along her arms. He kissed her, not sure what to say. She spoke first:

"They told me it was another experiment. I figured they'd be throwing me in with another SCP."

"They are. 9521."

She smiled.

"That must mean Peter is 9520, which makes Teresa either 9522 or 9518. What do you think?"

"I think it doesn't matter. How are you doing?"

"I'm alive. That's one thing."

"I heard you almost killed 682."

"Not really. I threw the Plate at it. Now I'm not allowed to take the thing out."

Miles looked down at the diamond shape, its dark light seeming to dance around it. He put his hand to it and pulled it out.

"They never said I couldn't take it out." He said, throwing the object to the side.

Gwen took a deep breath. Clearly it was a burden, carrying it for such a long time. While Miles had wielded Plates before, it hadn't been for any lengthy amount of time. He hugged her again.

"I'm trying to decide what's worse. Auschwitz or this." She muttered.

"Auschwitz. Definitely. They bring you anything you want, here."

"You're lucky. They think I have control over who I kill when they touch me, which clearly I don't since I apparently killed a lion while I was unconscious. So naturally, if I make their lives hard, they make mine hard. All I have is a bed and concrete walls. Anyway, I don't remember much of Auschwitz. I had that infection, remember?"

"I'd rather not, but yeah. Well, you get to see all sorts of weird creatures, I'm guessing. What's 682 like?"

"A lot of scales, teeth and bad attitude. Basically a big crocodile, although there's some fur on it in places. It said something that made me think it knew about the Plates, but oh well. Honestly, though, where do you even get a thing like that from? It worries me what else they'll throw me against. Something about SCP-096 was the last I heard."

Miles groaned. She looked at him, worriedly.

"Do you know something?"

"Vaguely. I know that if you see its face, it'll kill you. Even in a picture, it'll bust out its cell and snap your neck."

"Maybe it was better not knowing."

"I really hope the Plates don't decide the thing is worthy."

"Me too, thanks."

They stood, staring into each other's eyes, knowing it could be the last time they saw each other.

"I'll try and be there. But obviously...no guarantees." Miles whispered.

"You sure you want to see my neck getting snapped?"

"I don't want to see that, I just want to see you one last time."

A voice crackled over the intercom.

"You have thirty seconds. Return to your assigned exits."

Gwen kissed Miles again.

"I love you."

"I love you more."

"Impossible."

She picked up the Plate and put it back in its slot before returning to the doorway she had entered through. With a last look at each other, the steel doors slammed shut.

Crossovers in this Chapter

- SCP Foundation