Part 9 - All Things Must Die

Chapter 147 - The Darkness Within

Max rubbed his toe. He'd just stubbed it on a particularly solid rock. Being a God, he wasn't used to feeling much physical pain anymore, so he was wondering if he'd broken it and would have to destroy his current physical form and rebuild it. As he let the pain die down, he thought over what he'd figured out: it wasn't just the Scarlet King that had been brought back. It seemed loads of things had returned, albeit some of them quite briefly. A few were flickering in and out of reality like a weird child was playing with some temporal light switch. Another thing Max had figured out was everything originated from the old Premis. That made sense since the TVA were involved, but he still didn't know why they were. When the incident with the time bomb had happened, the squad captain had mentioned an anonymous tip-off. Across every timeline he could see, nobody had contacted the TVA. There were a number of conclusions he could draw from it, but something told him things were just getting started. For now, however, the Scarlet King had to be stopped again. His children were easy, but Max questioned his ability to triumph over him. There was no Tree to burn this time, just a simple battle that would ultimately end in the destruction of one or the other. With his toe a little better, Max stood up and turned to the dragon waiting for him. He had made Odahviing its battle armour after the dovah had sworn loyalty to him. Most of the the other dov had done the same except a few who's loyalties still lay with the long-dead Alduin. What made Odahviing different was that unlike most of his kind, he was still strong. That was why he had become Max's right hand and earned his armour.

"Drem. [Peace.]" The dragon said.

"It's time to go see what's happening with the alliance. Dimension 9559; Edward's not been doing much and I don't know why."

Grand Admiral Edward Melbourne was standing on the bridge of the newest and toughest ship in the Sol Galactic Command fleet: SGC Nighthawk. It was purpose built for interdimensional battles. Right now, however, it was facing off with a ship that should have belonged on the pages of fiction. Yet here it was: the USS Enterprise-E, glitching like crazy. For unknown reasons they'd been unable to make contact with the misplaced Starfleet vessel and it had made a number of threatening moves. The Nighthawk had its enormous battleship cannons trained full broadside. A single salvo would likely blow the Enterprise to pieces.

"Any luck with coms?" Edward asked his Ops officer.

"None, sir."

"Keep trying."

"I've been keeping trying for ten minutes now. They've either lost all communications, the ship's been taken over, or they're just not listening."

"Have you tried Morse code?"

"That and a sequence of prime numbers. Nothing."

Edward tapped his fingers on the arm of his chair.

"Anything new, Tactical?"

"Their weapons just switched to aim at our power core."

"This might sound reckless, but fire a warning shot with point defence lasers."

"Aye sir."

Across the hull of the Nighthawk, small spheres started spinning rapidly. From one fired a beam that would usually be used for shooting down missiles. It went straight between the warp nacelles of Enterprise. The Starfleet vessel clearly wasn't a fan of being shot at as it returned the shot with phasers. A number of the beams struck different points on the Nighthawk doing next to nothing. With an order from Edward, the battle started. A volley of rockets was launched from points across its hull; the projectiles exploded around the Enterprise weakening its shields significantly. Both ships began to twist and turn, exchanging lasers and phasers. Finally, the Nighthawk lined up a good shot with its foremost battleship turret and fired a single shot of blazing energy. It went straight through Enterprise's shields and smashed into its saucer section, blasting a gaping hole. A second shot struck the strut holding its right nacelle and blew it clean off so that warp plasma started leaking. The shot continued with less power and obliterated the shuttle bay.

"Target has been disabled. They're drifting." Ops reported to Edward.

"Get a tractor beam on it and set course for Earth."

"Aye."

The admiral had just transferred to Sol Galactic Command's orbital headquarters when he was met by an unhappy face. Max had his arms crossed.

"Am I about to be smote for something?"

"I'm not Old Testament God."

"That's good. What brings you here?"

"Other than the parking ticket I got for where I parked my dragon, that being a hefty few thousand dollars and a couple of insurance claims for damaged cars, I was wondering why you haven't been helping the alliance."

"I have. We captured something I thought might be of interest. It was found scurrying around like a demonic scorpion aboard the SGC Tripoli. The ship was almost destroyed until it brought a steel beam crashing down on its head and couldn't escape."

"You found 058?"

"We think so."

"Do the rest of the alliance know? They'll be on the lookout."

"They do. Your sister is a bit of a maniac. She's threatened your mother seven times in three days."

"She might have a heart of darkness, if you'll excuse the pun, but she's mostly talk. Unless Mum tries to hurt her, she won't touch her."

"I hope you're right. Which do you want to see first: 058 or them?"

"058. He might drive me nuts but I trust Dad can keep things in one piece."

"Again, I hope you're right."

The Heart of Darkness was exactly where it had been since it crushed itself. The steal beam was still there, but 058 was talking quietly as if nothing was wrong.

"I dream of a world far ahead but far behind who bow to the king they do not recognise."

Max knelt down in front of it and poked it. It started scrabbling around, trying to get free, but couldn't.

"I fight for the world beneath the black raven which plucks at the flesh of those I see in visions long lost to the tides of time."

"Yes you can."

Max went to poke it again, but it managed to grab his finger with its mouth and bit into it. The God glared at it, not caring much that it was still trying to pull his hand off.

"I'll let you go free if you say something that makes some sort of sense and isn't a possibility for three googolplex years into the future."

"I wince at the pain of the dying world."

"Sounds like glitching. Well done."

Edward took a step back.

"You aren't really going to let it go, are you?"

"I was thinking I could house train it as some sort of demonic puppy."

"Sometimes I can't tell if you're joking, and it worries me."

Max shrugged and grabbed SCP-058's body before hauling it free from the rubble, getting a lot of raised guns from Sol security officers. But the creature didn't fight in Max's hands, or just hand singular as he wiped the blood off his finger.

"You're one weird thing to be the beloved baby of a Lovecraftian reality-ending god. Come on, Edward. I'm gonna take this thing to a fifty-million dollar penthouse and you're coming with me."

Miles had his headphone on, listening to Sunflower for a little nostalgia. He'd been doing this a lot recently as Gwen and Charlotte seemed to fight almost non-stop. He just glanced up every now and again to make sure the latter hadn't gone through with any of her threats. He was flicking through a magazine of conspiracy theories he'd picked up for laughs a couple of days ago. One theorised the entire world had been destroyed a few years ago and rebuilt so that nobody remembered. If only this poor person knew how right they were. Suddenly, there was a pop and Gwen and Charlotte went quiet. Miles looked up to see what was happening then threw his headphones and magazine down as he saw who had just arrived and what they had with them.

"You brought 058 to our house?" He asked Max as if the God was crazy.

"I'll be honest and tell you it's not as ridiculous as getting a parking ticket on your dragon."

Edward sighed.

"What do you want it here for? It was fine trapped on the Tripoli."

Max reached out a hand to Charlotte who frowned for a second before handing him Furore Mortale. The God dropped 058 on the floor and split it in half with the sword. The endless babble of nonsense stopped and he sheathed his sword.

"Get it now?"

When the admiral didn't reply, Max turned to his sister and mother.

"Alright, Charlo. I get you hate Mum but you don't need to remind her of that with death threats and stuff. She's pregnant and doesn't need that kind of stress in her life. And Mum, stop trying to cuddle up with Charlo. She hates you, and nothing's gonna change that. Everyone get it? Yes? Good. And Dad, go get a good night's sleep now."

Miles grinned

"Gladly. Probably be the last one I get before this kid is born."

"It's literally been a month."

"Still. I'll probably die and come back to life again just after it's born."

"I believe it has to die and come back to be officially named a Morales. Anyway, anyone got anything else to say to me or each other? No? Good, cos the Scarlet King's on his way and he's pissed I just killed his baby."

Crossovers in this Chapter

- SCP Foundation
- Star Trek