Part 9 - All Things Must Die

Chapter 142 - Old Friendships Made New

A week went by after Max's sudden visit. The God was still staying with his parents, terrified to close his eyes out of fear of what he would see. Miles and Gwen visited as many dimensions as they could, trying to find people to fight beside them. Almost everyone found the thought of a red multi-dimensional monster destroying everything absolutely ridiculous. That was until they came to dimension 9559. Max had told them to ask for an 'Edward Melbourne' when they got there. They warped in in front of a skyscraper that rose high into the sky in the middle of a city with nothing else of any notable height. At the top was a glass insignia: a central point with two dots coming out of each corner to form an X shape. Below it was written the letters SGC.

"Looks like someone with something to show." Miles mused.

"Just a little." Gwen replied in a monotone voice.

"You good?"

"I feel a bit sick."

"Probably all the dimension hopping. I'm feeling a little queasy."

"Yeah."

They walked through the revolving door of the skyscraper and up to the reception desk. The receptionist smiled kindly.

"How can I help you today?"

"We're looking for someone called Edward Melbourne. Do you know him?" Miles replied.

"The Grand Admiral? Of course. I mean, not personally, but he says good morning when he comes to work. Unfortunately an audience with him is by appointment only."

"Tell him Dei Volente has a message for him."

"The High Elder God? You're not him, are you?"

"No, but our son is."

"Oh…well…I'll call up and see if he can speak to you."

The receptionist pressed their finger to their ear and tapped a number into a holographic keypad. After a quick conversation, she smiled up at the spiders.

"Admiral Melbourne will see you. Take the lift to floor one-six-five and he'll meet you there."

"Thanks!"

The elevator ride took only a few seconds, but was the smoothest ride in one Miles could recall. Gwen didn't seem to care, however. She looked slightly pale and had her hand on her stomach. Before Miles could check his wife was OK again, there was a ping and the elevator doors slid open. A man stood in an extremely smart uniform. Gold stripes decorated the shoulders indicating he had some high rank. As the spiders stepped out the elevator, he offered his hand.

"Grand Admiral Melbourne. Or Edward, since I've been told the three of us were friends at a time."

Miles shook it.

"I'm Miles. And yeah…I think I know your face."

"Dei Volente gave you your memories back as well, eh?"

"He's mine and Gwen's son."

"So I've been told. You certainly match the description." The admiral glanced at Gwen. "Are you OK? You look a bit pale."

She nodded.

"Too much dimensional warping."

"Right. I'm getting the feeling that's not it all but I won't pry since we've only just met. Or…are we starting all this over or should we go from where we left off?"

"Where did we leave off?" Asked Miles.

"I believe somewhere in Bastria. I had the Venom symbiote and we were all dead. Then your son reset everything and he visited me to give me my memories back. Come on through to my office and we'll talk. I have a feeling this isn't a purely social visit."

Edward's office was a decent size, although most of the walls were covered with drawers, shelves and cupboards. A single glass cabinet displayed a number of models of what could have been space ships. Each was labelled with a plaque.

"Can I get either of you anything?" The admiral asked as he sat down.

"Got any hot chocolate?" Asked Miles.

"I'd be a traitor to humanity if I didn't. What about you, Gwen?"

"Can I just have some hot water?"

"Of course. Computer, two hot chocolates and one hot water."

The drinks appeared out of thin air on the desk. The admiral took a sip then recoiled as he burnt his tongue, but it didn't stop him getting down to business.

"So, what brings you to my corner of the omniverse, Senior Director and Ghost-Spider?"

Miles frowned, then remembered.

"The Ethereal Legion…good on paper…"

"But a tragedy in practice. Anyway, go."

"The Scarlet King…I think we called him 'Tufty' or something for a bit."

"'Tufto', yes."

"He's back in some form, or so Max says. We need allies, or we're screwed."

"If Khahrahk is back, we're certainly screwed. Allies or no allies."

"But with a space fleet we'll be fine, right?"

"Not at all. SCP-058, the Heart of Darkness, tore through a fleet of tens of thousands in the space of half-an-hour. It's one of the King's children and if he's back, it will be too."

"We can beat it, though."

"You really have no memory of the Final Battle, do you?"

"Not really. I remember loads of dead people."

"That about sums it up. In dimension 6029 they called it the Holy Meat Grinder. Khahrahk marched on the Tree in Zaltoxir. The combined forces of millions almost lost. If Max hadn't become Dei Volente, the Scarlet King's reign would still be eternal. Anyway, point is a fleet of star ships will be a fat lot of good."

"Anything will help."

"That I agree with, but numbers aren't all that win wars. Remember that. Another thing to remember is the problem at hand might not be the full picture. So if you're fighting a really big and powerful crocodile, it's not the Scarlet King."

"682, right?"

"So you do remember. Well, Max has Sol Galactic Command's forces. I'll inform the admirals."

The place where the first gathering of the small collection of allies took place was not what anybody had imagined. Instead of a nice conference hall, or a multi-million dollar penthouse, they were in a field. Max arrived to find only eight spider people, none of which were his parents.

"Did nobody agree to come?" He asked.

"9578 is on its way, and Miles and Gwen aren't here so I would assume they've found someone." Miguel answered.

The God sat down in the grass and looked around.

"If it were better circumstances that brought us here, I'd have brought a picnic." He commented.

The spiders sat down as well.

"I hope there's no bacon sandwiches." Said Spiderham.

Max shrugged.

"Why not? You can bring some human sandwiches if you want."

The spiders looked at Spiderham.

"You're probably too gristly to make a good stew from."

"I think everyone here is a bit too spidery." Max replied.

"You might taste alright. Nice crispy God with a side of baked beans."

Max didn't get a chance to respond as an aircraft burst out of temporal warp. It touched down and a woman stepped out. She looked about his age and was wearing a bare metal suit.

"Some place for forming an alliance. I should have brought a rug and some sausage rolls." She said.

Max stood up.

"We were just talking about that, Teresa."

"How nice. Where's everyone else?"

"No idea. Hopefully not long out."

Perfectly on cue, a small fleet of star ships burst out of temporal warp. Max narrowed his eyes as he recognised one of the designs. A number of beams of energy signalled the arrival of the envoy, including Miles and Gwen. Gwen looked like she was about be sick, but Max was distracted by the alien there with them. The High Aether of the Quintari and High Elder God glared at each other. The former bowed his head out of respect.

"What's he doing here?" Max asked Edward.

"This is a matter of temporal security. The Quintari have just as much right to be here as anyone else."

"Of course. But you could have chosen any Quintari other than the High Aether I told to 'piss off' a while back."

The High Aether let out a quiet hum, then said:

"Our race has learnt from its past. There will be no more secrets."

"Of course not. Your race is devoted to serving the High Elder Gods, and I am one."

"Can we get on with this?" Asked Teresa.

Max decided to set aside his dislike of the High Aether for now. With Khahrahk back, he'd need their help.

For several hours the small group discussed all sorts of issues including battle strategies, terms of the alliance and anything else that was relevant. The gathering was just about to finish up when there was a bang. Everyone looked to see a dragon soar down from the sky. It landed clumsily, skidding along the ground a little before coming to a rest at Max's feet. It picked itself up and spoke in a voice with a hint of panic:

"Unslaad krosis, Dei Volente. Rok los til. [Innumerable pardons, Dei Volente. He is here.] One of his leviathans has followed me."

"We'll deal with it. How much time do we have?"

The dovah didn't even have time to respond before the question was answered. An ear-splitting crack signalled the opening of a red split in the fabric of reality. From it emerged what looked like a floating pile of mud with ice cream piled on top.

"What the hell is that?" Asked Teresa, glancing around to see how other people were reacting.

Reacting to what? She looked where they were looking and spotted what looked like a floating pile of mud with ice cream piled on top.

"What is it?" She asked.

Max sighed as SCP-055 just floated there. Miles turned to Gwen to see if she was OK. She looked at him with fear in her eyes, but it faded and she gave a half smile before turning to see what everyone was looking at.

"Where'd that come from?" Miles asked before she could.

"Out a red crack in the sky. Wait…what am I talking about?" Edward replied, glancing at Miles as he replied.

"That pile of mud."

"Which pile of mud? Oh, that one."

The High Aether looked to Max.

"Are you simply going to stand there and allow them to be fooled by ancient magic?"

The God shrugged.

"It's kinda funny. Anyway, it looks like the King's strategy this time is to send in his weakest players first."

He drew his sword, attracting the attention of the people that had looked away and forgotten. 055 shape-shifted into a shadow on the ground, dodging Max's strike, before reappearing behind him and floating straight towards Gwen who looked to see what had moved in the corner of her eye. Miles stepped between his wife and the muddy ice cream, charging a venom strike which he punched it with sending it spinning back towards Max. The God drove the sword down this time instead of slicing with it. That way, as 055 shifted back into a shadow, it was still hit by the blade. It started to glitch uncontrollably, changing into all sorts of shapes before being finished off with another strike from Furore Mortale.

"What just happened?" Asked Peter B Parker.

"We were attacked by something not round." Max replied, sheathing his sword and walking back to the dragon to speak with it.

Crossovers in this Chapter

- SCP Foundation
- Skyrim

Something I forgot to mention in the last chapter's note is I'm going to start putting the translations of other languages in square brackets. (E.G. "Unslaad krosis [Innumerable pardons].") You can put Google Translate away now, not that it'll help you with Dovahzul...