Part 5 - Blood of the King

Chapter 80 - Demons of the Past

The school corridors were bustling as Max and his friends sat on the steps in the entrance hall, eating their lunch. Max suddenly stopped; he thought he had heard something. He may not have inherited a spider sense like his sister, but his regular human senses were far more acute than a normal human's. He heard the sound again, like someone crying.

"Gimme a minute." He said to his friends.

"Don't get resurrected!" Joked one of them.

It was the joke of the day after he had told them his mother was alive. Max quickly forgot all about it as he walked into a deserted corridor. He could hear a whimpering sound; maybe a fellow student was upset, or even a teacher. Either way, he had a way of cheering people up. He tracked down the source to a classroom. He knocked quietly on the door, but the whimpering continued. He pushed it open; the whimpering quickly turned into angry screams. Max didn't need a spider sense to know that running from whatever this was was a good idea. It had extremely long limbs and fingers and looked like it hadn't eaten in decades. He had barely run a few steps before he was swatted into the floor. He yelled as loud as he could as the creature bore down on him, clearly intending to snap his neck.

Charlotte wasn't the only person who heard the cry. Her spider sense was going crazy, but she knew she had to investigate. She sprinted up the steps as Max burst through a set of doors at the top. His arms and face were covered in blood.

"Everybody out!" He yelled, still running, but tripping and landing face first.

He had just started to get up again when the beast exploded through the door. With so many people seeing its face, its screams turned into roars. Students and teachers began to run for their lives as it tore forwards, ripping someone in half.

Gwen was patrolling the streets of New York, 7610. It was Miles' home dimension, but it seemed the Children of the Scarlet King were everywhere. Technically, nobody had told her stop killing them, and she was dealing with some crime while she was hunting. As she was swinging a few blocks down from Visions Academy, she saw people running. Something was up, and putting those somethings up down was her speciality. She swung down.

"Hey! What's happening?" She asked a student as they ran past.

"It's gonna kill us all!"

"What?"

The student was already out of earshot. Was this another school shooter? She had been told the story, as well as a few others. No, the person had said 'it', not 'he' or 'she'. Gwen ran against the flow, finally reaching the building as a window exploded and Charlotte smashed into the pavement in front of her. She groaned, curling up into an exhausted ball. Gwen knelt down and shook her.

"Charlotte! Charlotte! What's happening?"

"Help...Max. The...Legion..." She passed out.

Gwen wasn't sure whether to help her or go inside. If she went inside she might be able to save her son, but her daughter might die from blood loss or whatever other injuries she had sustained. She tried to get the attention of someone fleeing, but they ran past. Gwen made her decision: if she did nothing about what was happening, more civilians would be injured or killed. She pulled one of her katanas from her back and sprinted into the entrance hall. What she saw made her blood run cold. Max was desperately trying to beat off a creature that resembled SCP-096 far too closely. The ground was littered with dead bodies, and parts of dead bodies. Gwen swung up, webbed a smashed door and slammed it into 096. The creature was hurled aside briefly. Gwen dropped down as Max sank to his knees, gasping for breath and drenched in blood. She made to help him, but 096 came hurtling towards her. She jumped over, slicing her katana down its spine. This was not good at all. Even with an Ethereal Plate, she had been unable to kill the original. It had taken Venom, Miles, SCP-682 and a pool of hydrochloric acid to seemingly kill it before. Now, she just hoped the military or someone would come to her aid before it was too late. She began stabbing and slicing with her twin blades, doing significant damage to 096's completely unnecessary flesh and skin. Max dragged himself to his feet. Between slashes, Gwen managed to give him an instruction:

"Get out, call Miles and..." She ducked a swipe. "And help your sister!"

He stumbled out, lightheaded from blood loss. He saw his sister's unconscious body and collapsed next to it, pulling out his phone and dialling Miles with ever blurrier and darker vision. Miles picked up, thank goodness.

"Hey. Is everything OK?"

"Send...h..."

Max passed out as 096 barrelled through the wall holding Gwen by the throat.

"Max? Max!"

His son didn't answer after the clatter of his phone hitting the floor. Miles slammed his mobile down.

"ELIS, scramble Squadron 7610-6 'Hamilton'. Deploy to Visions Academy. Code red, not a drill. Have an amnestics team on standby."

"Scramble order sent. Ethereal Legion placed on high alert."

A continuous alarm blared throughout headquarters as Miles threw open a drawer on his desk and pulled out the programmable matter ball that was his spider suit.

Gwen hurled a car down on 096's head and landed, struggling to catch her breath. 096 didn't emerge from the car wreckage for a few seconds, but when it did it was somehow even more furious than before. Gwen dodged the crumpled door that came her way, ducking under the creature's arms and driving her left katana up into its chin. 096 grabbed her by the head and hurled her away taking her hood and mask off with it. She picked herself up just as there was a roaring overhead and the deafening sound of an anti-tank machine gun firing. She looked up as an Ares shot overhead wearing Ethereal Legion markings. Another three performed a strafing run before perhaps as many as thirty surrounded the scene. Tranquiliser darts pelted 096 and the monster collapsed. Gwen dropped her remaining katana and sprinted to Charlotte and Max. She put two fingers to Max's neck: he had a pulse. Then she checked Charlotte...her blood ran cold.

"No...no, no, no, no, no. Not again."

Two trucks rolled up, both sporting Legion markings and a red cross. The soldiers ran over to help her, but she made them take Max and Charlotte instead of checking her injuries. Why did everyone she love get hurt? What demonic force ruled her life?

Robert Montauk sat down in front of a ninety-year old man and opened his briefcase. They were in the office of a care home. He took out a small cube and his iPad, pressing a button on the former.

"This is Robert Montauk beginning interview TELO-14-1. I am joined by former police captain George Stacy, adopted father of TELO-14, aka Gwendolyn Maxine Stacy-Morales. Hello, Mr Stacy. How are you doing?"

"I'm well, but what is going on?"

"I'm afraid I can't share all of the details with you at the moment. Legion secrets and all that."

"If you mustn't."

"Mr Stacy, I need to ask you a few questions concerning the mother of your adopted daughter Gwendolyn."

"If you are Legion, I doubt I have any say."

"It's for the best. I promise. Do you know the name of Gwendolyn's biological mother?"

"We couldn't get a clear result from the DNA tests."

"DNA tests? Can you elaborate?"

"We had just performed a raid on a hideout owned by cultists; called themselves the Children of the Scarlet King. We found seven dead bodies, all female. All had given birth within the past month. We discovered the children in a room painted like some sort of volcanic hell scape."

"Can you describe this 'hell scape' any better?"

"It was a long time ago...the details are fuzzy. My memory isn't what it used to be."

"Of course. Please continue."

"The bodies of the women had autopsies performed. All had died during child birth, but the DNA tests were mangled. We never identified the bodies."

"How did you come to be Gwendolyn's adopted father?"

"The seven children were put up for adoption. My wife, Helen, and I had always wanted children but were never successful. She had died just a year earlier, and I decided she would like nothing more than for me to take one of those poor children in. I adopted the daughter of the seventh woman and named her Gwendolyn Maxine Stacy."

"Did you notice anything strange about her as she was growing up?"

"Very little, although a lot of bad things seemed to happen to her. Then, when she was thirteen, she was bitten by a spider. I wasn't there, and didn't know until I almost shot her as Spiderwoman a year later. She was wanted for the murder of Peter Parker, you see."

"Thank you, Mr Stacy. I believe that is all I need. This is Robert Montauk, signing off interview TELO-14-1."

Gwen was sitting beside Max's unconscious form in a medical ward at the Legion headquarters. His sister had been pronounced dead a couple of hours earlier, killed by a combination of broken bones, punctured lungs and blood loss. Gwen was crying as Max began to stir. He groaned and tried to sit up but couldn't, so just turned his head.

"Mum? Am I...dead?"

"No, you're alive."

"So, it wasn't all a bad dream...what was that?"

"A monster from the past."

There was a pause before Max asked:

"How many died?"

"Twenty-four. Twenty-one students, a teacher, a security officer and...oh god."

She broke down into another wave of tears. Max closed his eyes.

"Charlotte's dead, isn't she..."

"Yeah."

"This was my fault. If I had gone the other way, led it out the fire escape or something not into the hall, she'd be alive and so would those twenty-three other people."

"None of this was your fault, Max. If you had done that it would have been out in the streets and it would have been a different twenty-four people."

"What was it doing in school? How did it get there?"

"I don't know, nor does anyone at the Legion or the security cameras or anything. I just know this: your dad and Edward killed it twenty-five years ago."

"Then how is it alive? Unless there's more than one?"

"Impossible. It was contained by the SCP Foundation years ago. They would have found any more before that."

"SCP Foundation?"

"Oh. Is that another Legion secret. Whatever."

There was another pause.

"Mum, what's happening? Is someone trying to kill us?"

"I don't know. I don't know any more than you."

At that moment, the ward door slid open. Miles entered, tear stains on his cheeks. Gwen sat up straight, trying to look smart, as the High Aether of the Quintari entered behind him. Miles pulled a chair up for them both and gave Gwen a weak smile before turning to his son.

"How do you feel?"

"Like an idiot. Could I have saved them?"

"No. Nobody could singlehandedly. You saved lives, Max."

The High Aether let out a low hum.

"I understand that this is a painful moment for all of you, but there is something we must discuss."

Miles helped Max sit up and the High Aether began to speak, leaning on his stick.

"You will be wondering where the beast that killed Charlotte came from, what it is, and why it was there."

"It was some version of SCP-096."

"Indeed it was, Miles. But you will remember that you and Edward were the masterminds of its destruction. There is, and always was, only one 096."

"You mean it didn't die?" Asked Gwen.

"It did die, in this multiverse."

Gwen and Max frowned. Miles bit his lip.

"I knew the omniverse would come for us some day." He muttered.

"SCP-096 is a child of the Scarlet King, in the same way that SCP-682 is. What appeared to you today is the original SCP-096. The object you fought twenty-five years ago is what is known as a pattern screamer: an echo from another multiverse."

"Is the 682 we have contained a pattern screamer?" Asked Miles.

"It is not. Your 682 is the original brought here to Premis by its father. The 096 from today was brought here just the same. It cannot be killed in the same way as the pattern screamer."

"It certainly lives up to the name of 'screamer'." Muttered Max.

The High Aether cracked a small smile before returning to business.

"The Scarlet King has proven his intention of destroying this family for whatever reason, be it his fear of the Legion or a grudge. I believe, but cannot confirm, that he may have sent the assassin, but they failed so he decided to try again by bringing back you, Gwendolyn. But you are special, as Director Montauk discovered just as your daughter took her final breath."

"Can we take a step back? There's an omniverse? Like a multi-multiverse?" Asked Max.

"Yes there is, made from seven multiverses."

"You confirmed the seventh?" Miles enquired.

"Indeed. It is named Vaxar and little is known of it. Following Vaxar is Noladis, the first true multiverse per-say. Teresa Chelsea believed your mother was Helen Stacy, Gwendolyn. Noladis is the true basis of 9633's 'Marvel'. After Noladis, there was Bastria: the Bastion of the Dead. If you have travelled to an afterlife, you have been there. It was Lucifer's home, as well as the deity known simply as 'God'. Following Bastria came Premis, where we are now. It is the creation of the Quintari, and the greatest multiverse in the opinion of many, although my view may be tainted with patriotism for my people. With Premis came Zaltoxir, a mystery no being has yet been able to unravel. Its name translates into all manner of things depending on the language. In English it means 'The Garden'. In Liblian it means 'Battlefield'. In Ancient Latin, it means 'Revelation'."

"Is it the Garden of Eden? I've been there."

"That is a matter of debate. After Zaltoxir comes Secadis, the multiverse from which the Subtle Knife originates. Next comes Teladis, the place from which the Scarlet King brought his children. It is a dangerous place, rife with anomalous instances with a thirst for the blood of any living being. It was the last multiverse created, and may be the death of us all."

"Is that where the Scarlet King comes from?" Asked Miles.

"It is not. The Scarlet King has much influence there, but he has influence in all others equally. He first came to Premis a thousand years ago, killed twice by your friend Conall before the madman gave up on trying to kill what was not his creation."

"Who's creation is the Scarlet King?" Miles pressed, suddenly aware the High Aether had the answer to so many questions.

"That we do not know. Whatever he is, he is the last. I will tell you someone who would know more: Conall. Having fought the King for over two-hundred years, he is your greatest chance."

"Conall is dead. We might have the Animator, but he's useless without his Plate." Said Miles.

"Then it is a good thing I have convinced an old friend to return. A time is coming through which I cannot see to the other side. You must unite the multiverse under one cause if you have any hope of defeating the Scarlet King. His thirst for destruction grows ever greater. The Sun is setting: only you can bring about the dawn."

Without another word, the High Aether left. Max glanced between his parents.

"Am I the only one really confused?"

"No." Said Gwen.

"What does he want us to do?"

"He wants us to win. And to do that we need Conall." Replied Miles.

"Who's Conall?"

"Do they teach you nothing in history?" Asked Gwen.

"I dropped it."

"Miles, we have to go back to the past."

"I know." Miles replied.

"When? Where?"

"We have to avoid damaging the timeline as much as possible, which means we have to go back to that fight at Alchemax where the TARDIS was destroyed."

"We stole Conall from that time once. What makes you so sure it will work?"

"A hunch."

Crossovers in this Chapter

- SCP Foundation
- His Dark Materials