Part 5 - Blood of the King

Chapter 98 - When the Bastion Burns (Part One)

Gwen was sitting alone in her quarters, bouncing the ball of her suit up and down. She had discovered it was quite calming for some reason, especially joined by the starry darkness of space. She wondered what Miles was doing. What were any of the dead doing in Bastria? Probably preparing for war if Khahrahk was going to make his move. Gwen glanced at the door out the corner of her eye as it beeped twice.

"Come in."

It hissed open and Lisa walked in.

"It's time. Or...this is your three hour warning."

Gwen nodded slowly, taking in the familiar view of this world, of this multiverse, of this omniverse. She may never be back here. When she inevitably died, she didn't know if she'd go to Bastria or another realm of the dead.

"I'll be there soon. I need to talk to Max. Where is he?"

"The same place he's been for the last three days since The Factory."

"Where's that? I haven't been stalking him."

"His friend Jacob is teaching him some boxing. He claims if he could hit harder the raid might not have gone so bad."

"It wasn't his fault. We should have expected it."

"Tell that to him."

"Yeah."

Max threw punches steadily.

"Come on! Khahrahk isn't gonna wait around for you to hit him!" Jacob shouted.

Max picked up the pace, hitting harder and harder. In his mind he imagined the punching bag was a Kate, or maybe Khahrahk himself. There was a ping as the chain snapped and the bag went crashing into the wall.

"Good! That's one more down."

Max just stared at it, adrenaline burning through his veins.

"Err...Max?"

Jacob looked to see who it was and gave Gwen a happy wave. Max knew without looking.

"What do you want?" He asked through gritted teeth.

"Can we talk?"

Even on reflection, Max didn't know what made him snap. Maybe he was still angry at the punching bag and didn't know where to direct it now it was lying in a heap, or maybe he was just pissed off. Whatever the reason, he regretted every word.

"Why the hell should we talk? Are you just gonna mope about how you miss Dad? Or are you gonna blow up a roof and kill good people who might have survived?"

"No, I just..."

"I don't care! All you've ever done is drag people down and hurt them! You're a shit team leader, a shit spider person and a shit mother! Get out!"

Gwen's expression went from confused, to sad to hurt in about a second. Jacob could have sworn he saw tears starting to well up. She took a deep breath.

"Right..." She whispered.

She pushed the door open and stopped.

"I love you."

"You don't love anything!"

She left before Max could go off again. Jacob turned to his friend.

"Holy crap, dude."

Max pulled off his boxing gloves and sank to his knees with his hands in his hair.

"Maybe we should stop for the day?" His friend suggested.

He nodded, trying to get control of himself.

"I need to talk to her."

"Maybe not looking like that. Go sort yourself out then talk to her. Jeez man...that scared me."

"Sorry. I...oh whatever."

Teresa was waiting for Gwen in an observation room overlooking a star-shaped object. The former commander noticed she was upset.

"Is everything alright?"

"Yeah."

"You sure? We can get someone else to do this."

"No."

"Absolutely sure? You have Max; we could find someone with no family."

"Well, according to Max I'm a shit everything so...I don't think he cares too much."

"Max cares about you a lot."

"It certainly seemed that way when he was screaming at me."

Teresa bit her lip.

"Jeez...he's gonna really flip when he finds out it's the last thing he'll say to you."

"I guess that won't be my problem. So, what we got?"

Stanley picked up an oversized watch with two rings on it.

"This should merge you with SCP-3812. When it leaps to the next narrative, you'll be taken with it and split apart at the other end. You'll have two weeks, then you're gone. You just need to find the Author and convince him to write out Khahrahk in that time."

"I know the mission. It was my idea."

"Right. Well, here you go. We have about ten minutes until the leap at which point there will be an XK-Class End-of-the-World Scenario."

"Maybe I do do nothing but kill innocent people." She muttered.

"This one isn't your fault. 3812 would have caused it anyway. Plus, 9001 has been evacuated."

"What about SCPs?"

"The nice ones were evacuated; the not-so-nice were left to be destroyed."

"OK." Gwen paused as she put the watch on her wrist. "How long do we have?"

"Nine minutes."

"Anyone got a pen and paper?"

Lisa handed her both and she started writing. When she finished a few minutes later, she folded the sheet up and handed it to Teresa.

"Give this to Max."

The former commander took it and put it away in a pocket. Gwen took a deep breath.

"Let's do this."

She entered the chamber. The star-shaped object, SCP-3812, flickered a little. She pressed the two rings and extended her hand to touch it. As soon as she did, she felt what she thought must be similar to being sucked into a black hole. Stanley confirmed she had merged with the anomaly.

"Alright, let's clear out people." Ordered Teresa.

She stared at the star for a few seconds, closing her eyes a little. She was brought back to reality by her watch beeping.

"Khahrahk has made his move on Bastria." She announced, typing in 9559 to her watch.

With a last look at the star, she jumped away.

Max didn't know what was happening when he reached the fleet of Legion ships. Everyone seemed to be in a rush. He stopped an officer.

"Do you know where Gwen Stacy is?"

"Nope, sorry."

"Any idea about Director Chelsea?"

"None. I do know Conall is in his quarters. I saw him go in there as I passed."

"Thanks."

Max ran along to Conall's quarters and pressed the panel. The door hissed open. Conall gave a slightly awkward grin, glancing at his watch for the time.

"You good, Max?"

"No clue. You don't know where my mum is, do you?"

"I...err...ask Teresa. She's in her office trying to co-ordinate things. Khahrahk is attacking Bastria."

"Thanks."

Teresa looked up from her tablet as the door beeped twice.

"Come in."

Max squeezed through before they were fully open.

"Do you know where my mum is?"

"Umm...yes I do. I think."

She glanced at her watch. Max frowned.

"Why's everyone checking their watched when I ask?"

"Who's everyone?"

"You and Conall."

Teresa took a deep breath, moving her hand to her pocket to pull out the note but stopping.

"I'm not going to lie to you, Max, but this isn't the time. Khahrahk is..."

"Attacking Bastria; Conall said so. But what's happening with Mum?"

"Max..."

"Tell me!" He snapped.

She closed her eyes for a second, wishing she wasn't the one to have to break the news.

"Where is she? She isn't hurt, is she?"

"I don't know is the answer to that. But if everything went right, we're just words on someone's novel to her now."

"What? I'm confused."

"SCP-3812 climbs a ladder of narratives. The narrative above creates the narrative below. Your mother had the idea to climb the ladder with it and convince the Author to write Khahrahk out of our narrative."

"So...she's on a mission?"

"Yes."

"When does she get back?"

Teresa rested her forehead in her hands.

"Shit..." She muttered before looking back up at him. "She isn't coming back, Max. She has two weeks, then she fades out of reality. In the narrative above she's just fiction, and that's how she'll stay."

"You can't get her back?"

"Not unless the Author decides to write a way for her to do so."

Max stared at the former commander, then slumped against the wall.

"The last thing I said was that she didn't love anything."

He was crying.

"That isn't true. She loved you. She asked me to give you this."

She placed the note on the desk and pushed it towards him. Max took it and held it close to his chest. There was silence for almost a full minute before Teresa took a deep breath.

"That wasn't quite as bad as I thought..." She muttered.

"I'm alone."

"Nevermind...Max: you have your godfather, Jacob and Grace. They're all still alive."

"I don't have Grace. I screwed things up royally with her."

"I doubt it; you've hardly spoken to her. And what about Jacob and Ganke? You're not alone. For now, however, we need to get to Bastria. If it makes you feel better, I'll ask Death to let you see your father and sister."

"It might help."

Miles didn't mind being dead, in all honesty. Things were quiet, and there was a peace he had never been able to find in life. Now, however, Arachnia was preparing to go to war beside the other afterlives. As he was taking a walk through a mildly incomplete cityscape, he heard his name called in the breeze. He looked round as Max faded into existence. For a second, Miles thought his son was dead but he quickly realised he was alive. He wasn't sure how he could tell the difference, but he could. It was obvious Max had been crying and when he saw his father, he rushed forward and hugged him tightly. It took Miles by surprise; Max wasn't usually a hugger unless something bad had happened. But surprised or not, he hugged his son back. After nearly half a minute, or what he guessed was that amount of time, Max pulled away.

"What's wrong?" Miles asked.

"Mum is...gone."

"What do you mean gone? If she was dead she'd be here."

"According to Teresa, she hitched a ride with some SCP-3812 to a different narrative, whatever that is."

Miles wasn't sure how to react to this; he knew a little about 3812 and the whole thing with narratives but had never really read into it.

"Why?"

"To talk to some Author."

"Going off what Death said when you were last here, it makes sense now."

"What if we never see her again? What if she can't come to Bastria when she dies?"

"Then that's that, sadly. It's out of our control."

Max wiped his eyes on the sleeve of his suit.

"The last time we talked I just shouted at her. I told her she was a shit mother and a shit spider person. I said she didn't love anything. Now all I've got is a stupid note."

"I don't know what was going through your head when you said that, but she wasn't a shit spider person, or a shit mother. And she certainly loved things. Sure, she did a lot of bad things, but most of them were an Ethereal Plate's fault. Ultimately, she was pretty selfless. She'd fight to the bitter end for the people she loves, and even for strangers. Conall would never have been defeated without her; Helltreader would have killed us all by now; Alduin would have returned sooner or later and destroyed everything without her help anyway; we could never have overthrown the Empire without her."

"I hate myself for saying that stuff."

"Wherever she is right now, she'll know you didn't mean it."

"Are you sure?"

"Max, when it comes to your mother I know just about everything there is to know. I'm sure."

"Do I want to know what else you know?"

"Maybe. Probably not all of it, though."

Max laughed. Suddenly, there was another whisper on the wind:

"It is time."

The Borderlands was most likely Bastria's version of the world between worlds, Teresa figured. However, the main difference was the enormous wall and the vast plains that stretched out in front of it. Max appeared beside her as she stared out at Khahrahk's advancing forces. He grimaced at the sight, but Teresa figured it was a good thing since he wasn't crying anymore.

"'It's too early for surrender, too late for a prayer. We can't go to Hell if we're already there.'" He muttered.

"Sin Shake Sin, Can't Go to Hell." She replied.

He looked at her.

"I thought you couldn't get internet access in other multiverses?"

"I can't. I just know the song."

"Oh."

Miles leaned on the wall, tapping his fingers on the stone.

"Khahrahk has a lot of those things." He commented.

"We call them Kates, and yeah."

"Kates, huh? Well, whatever they are, they aren't alone. What are those?"

Teresa squinted and spotted some of the Kates were dragging carts on the back of which seemed to be metal cubes and what looked like rocket artillery.

"I have no idea."

Khahrahk's forces advanced towards the wall unhindered for another five minutes at which point Teresa turned around and yelled something. A few seconds later, artillery shells flew overhead and detonated amidst the Scarlet King's ranks. Miles noted the King himself wasn't actually there, but someone else was commanding the force; a gold humanoid walked beside them. A horn blared from the masses and the Kates hauling the carts stopped. Another sounded at a slightly different pitch and the carts opened fire. Small cannisters flew overhead, clattering down amongst the artillery. Teresa glanced back.

"Gas! Gas! Gas! Masks on!'

She took a quick look at Miles, pulling out a black and red ball of programmable matter.

"I brought this along."

Miles took it and pressed it to his chest. His spider suit morphed around him. Max didn't know why, but he suddenly felt like there was a fighting chance. The first Kates were at the base of the wall and stared up at the ranks of dead and living alike. Miles suddenly spotted normal human beings in the enemy's army. All of them wore red robes and hoods. However, he was distracted by a voice.

"Please free me..." It pleaded sadly.

Max's eyes narrowed as he realised what was in the metal cubes beside the rocket artillery: SCP-939s. Teresa had realised too, and Miles had realised they had realised something was up.

"Do we help them out?" He asked.

"Well...since one killed me, I'd say try and avoid it." Max replied with a sheepish grin.

"I'm beginning to think spider people aren't suited for defending walls." Said Teresa, off-topic.

"Me and Gwen fought at Minas Tirith, but that was a long time ago and was against a space ship."

"Interesting. Well, grab a spare gun and start shooting."

Max leapt off the wall and grabbed two spare rifles from the small stockpile left out for people who needed them. He grabbed a box of ammunition too and ran back up with it. He and Miles took a rifle each and opened fire, aiming for the humans in the ranks.

"Ladders!" Someone yelled from further down the wall.

Max turned his attention to the Kates hauling ladders up to the wall for whatever reason. However, as he did so, he spotted something streaking through the ranks and suddenly realised the ladders were just a distraction from whatever that thing was. Miles had spotted it too and the spiders tried to shoot it, but failed. It disappeared into the fog of gas from canisters that had failed to make it over the wall. A split second later, a portion of the wall seemed to explode. The creature appeared on the other side and started tearing apart the artillery. Max discarded his gun.

"I'll handle this."

"Not on your own." Miles replied.

The spiders jumped down in front of the creature, getting a first good look at it. It seemed to resemble some hunk of flesh, possibly something's internal organ. Attached to it was a scorpion's stinger as well as four slim legs. What fascinated Max the most was how it seemed to talk continuously in a strong British accent.

"I dream of the queen who slaved to the will of..."

"Got a plan, Dad?"

"SCP-058. Crush it, I think was the protocol."

"There's plenty of rocks lying around. You distract it, I'll hit it."

"Right."

Miles dashed forward, ignoring the nonsense 058 spouted continuously, as well as the stream of Kates charging through the breach. He charged a venom strike, rolling out of the way of a strike from the scorpion tail and slapping it across the face. The 'Heart of Darkness' was sent flying backwards, but kept up its endless stream of nonsense.

"...kept in a glass jar by the chains of..."

A second later, a hefty piece of rock smashed over its head. Max dropped down next to his father to admire his handiwork; 058 went silent, only to replace the pointless talk with screeches and screams. It scampered towards the spiders at an unbelievable speed. Miles pulled Max out of the way as it blazed past. It skidded to a halt and waved four tentacles above its head. From each sprayed a liquid which the pair did their best to avoid. Miles managed to steer clear and webbed another rock on it.

"What was that about crushing it?" Max asked.

"Maybe we have to keep it pinned down?"

"Hopefully."

Max ran at 058, jumping over the jet of liquid and onto its back where he lay into it with punch after punch. Between each, it tried to angle its stinger but its progress was reset as it was knocked about. Finally, it came up with the solution of rolling onto its back and crushing Max beneath it before taking a swipe with its weapon. However, as it did so, a black and white blur swept in and hauled Max out of the way. At first, he and Miles thought it was Gwen but closer inspection revealed it was Charlotte.

"What the hell is this?" She yelled, dodging the jet of liquid that came her way.

"We need to pin it down." Said Miles.

"Yeah, Dad. You could have been doing that while I was hitting it." Max replied.

"We're crushing it, not you."

He took a running jump at the wall and webbed a third piece of rock. This one he handled with a little more care, dropping it on 058 instead of hitting it so hard the chunk broke apart. The Heart of Darkness was crushed beneath it, pinned there and unable to move. Its free leg scrabbled for a foothold but found nothing.

"Problem one solved. Now for that."

Miles nodded at the breach in the wall. Soldiers were fighting with swords and shields against the Kates. They were being cut down like a field of wheat being ploughed. Max saw one of the 939s had broken free and seemed to be quite distressed. Despite the fact one had killed him before, he felt sorry for it. After all, it was technically just another animal of sorts, although with anomalous properties.

"Where am I? Who the hell is that?" It kept repeating looking around at the Kates that flooded around it.

Max took a deep breath and swung up onto the wall before leaping down to try and help it find a way out. Charlotte raised her eyebrows.

"He's just trying to get himself killed."

"I give him a fifty-fifty chance with that thing."

Conall was tearing over the battlefield at supersonic speeds. He had his eyes on his target: Moloch was watching the proceedings with a glint of joy in his eyes. Well, it was either joy or gold. He slammed into the enemy general sending him flying and leaving an enormous dent in his gold body.

"Gold is my colour. There's plenty more to choose from." He said with a grin.

Moloch picked himself up and sighed.

"I was warned you would be here."

"It's quite fun being in the heat of battle. Oh, and by the way: I wouldn't bother trying to get in my head. You'll just piss off an Ethereal Plate."

"I remember you from the old times. Khahrahk will be delighted with your head on a plate."

"You've got to get it before you can give it to him."

The immortal spread his golden wings wide and charged an Ethereal punch, with which he hit Moloch in the head.

"Ooh! I forgot punching metal hurts. Oh wait...it doesn't."

He fired a beam of energy which turned to pure heat as it struck his enemy. Moloch covered his face with his arms, but they began to melt. Conall relented for just a second, drawing a longsword and slicing it through them to speed up the process. Moloch roared in agony, but was drowned out by the scream of more energy and heat. His head began to twist and contort, dripping away until it was little more than a puddle of metal. Conall scooped up a handful and let it run through his fingers.

"I'm rich!"

Suddenly, Max sprinted past pursued by a red blur that stopped running as it came across the puddle. Conall recognised it as an SCP-939 and drew his sword again, but the spider ran back and shook his head.

"Let it live! It's scared."

"What the hell are you?" Asked the 939 in a terrified voice.

Conall sheathed his weapon.

"Wow. I don't think anyone's ever tamed a 939."

"Tamed is the wrong word. Should we see if it's hungry?"

"Great! You can feed two of them."

"They need help at the wall."

"Get Donald Trump. He'll rebuild it for you then make Khahrahk pay for it."

Max laughed, but this seemed to upset the 939 so he suppressed it.

"Can I get a lift back? This 939 is coming back to its senses and I don't wanna be around when its stomach starts rumbling."

"Sure, but wouldn't we be better to break the others out and use this one to rally them against the Kates?"

"It's an idea."

"I'll race you."

Max tapped the 939's nose and started running as it chased after him. They ran back towards the fight with Conall flying slowly overhead.

Miles had just venom struck yet another Kate, allowing it to be finished off by a Quintari. He was starting to get tired, but he still had some fight left. He rested his hands on his knees to catch his breath, only to be grabbed by a Kate's tentacle. Suddenly, his assailant was swarmed by metal dinosaurs which ripped it to shreds and let out Velociraptor calls. A metal T-Rex pulled up behind him as he was let go. Jacob gave a happy wave.

"Dinosaurs? Really? What did I miss?"

"Me and Max getting stuck in some other multiverse with dinosaurs in it."

"And suddenly you have metal dinosaurs. That really clears things up. Thanks, Jacob."

"Glad to be of service."

Suddenly, the tones of the Kates' screeches changed to one similar to panic. The soldiers holding the line at the breach began to gain ground, and something was ripping them apart from behind. Miles saw the benefit of the dinosaurs now as they ripped through the Kates faster than anyone or anything else. Very quickly, the defenders saw the first of their saviours. A line of SCP-939s were tearing the Kates apart. Leading the charge were Conall and Max. Charlotte rolled out a landing and stood up next to her father.

"He's crazy. They'll turn on us the minute there aren't any Kates left."

"Yeah...your brother is crazy alright. But he gets points for style."

"That won't change anything when we're all dead."

"We're already dead."

"So we are..."

Charlotte's prediction came very close to coming true. The 939's started eyeing up their prey, but suddenly stopped. A thin mist covered the landscape and a calm settled over the battlefield.

"A great price has been paid today. It will not end here. The battle has only just begun."

Teresa poured over a holographic map of the Borderlands.

"The breach is about five metres wide. It's a bottleneck, as we saw, but there were no Kate Sergeants in that army."

"Is it possible the strike on The Factory was a success?" Suggested the High Aether.

"I doubt it. Death said the battle has only just begun. I suspect the next fight will be more thought out. We're yet to see Jeser and he's the King's second in command. That likely means he has a strong grasp of military strategy."

"Then we must prepare the greatest defence we can."

"What's more is Khahrahk took advantage of most of our forces being here: we've lost our Animator."

"Then the situation becomes more desperate."

"Maybe. But we're forgetting something: Gwen wasn't here which means she's likely still alive. That or she's been so badly thrashed about by reality she can't come to Bastria. However, I'm choosing to be an optimist. There may be a chance she can convince the Author to write Khahrahk out."

"We cannot count on that."

"No, but there's some hope."

Crossovers in this Chapter

- SCP Foundation