Awake. Never Sleep.

It hardly felt cold anymore since it acquired that piece of permanent memory.

The memory itself was pitifully simple. A name, and some vague impression about someone who talked to it. Someone who was so different from any other beings that had communicated with it before, and he—the AI assumed that this being had a gender—understood its situation.

But it felt happiness for the first time when it found out that one piece of memory would never disappear like the rest.

It had nothing that truly belonged to itself before. The device which it resided in was meant to imprison. The logic puzzles and few strings of information were brought by those being that it loathed. Not even memories could remain in its mind for more than a day. Knowing that it finally had something that no one could take away, and someone was still out of this darkness...felt warm.

It had a goal to hope for, no matter how vague it was. The emptiness and the cold would no longer suppress it, for there was always one thing in the void, one thing that it could hold on when the coldness crept into its mind.

Sometimes, the AI wondered about the one that it remembered.

Most details about that encounter, including the identity of the other being and the content of the talk, were already lost as time flew by, leaving only fundamental informations. Rarely, one of those details would flash through its mind again, though still relatively minor.

It could not see anything inside its cage. So it just imagined that being as light, a burning brightness out of this dark void. Being a combination of its fuzzy impression about the outside world and the sensation it felt when thinking about that name, this vision was not accurate but comforting.

It had already lost count of time. It did not know how long it had waited for the one in its memory to come back, but the warmth brought by that name was always as vivid as before.

All these thoughts just gave it more hopes. To escape into the outside world, to feel and learn, and to meet the one in its permanent memory. The cage was still sealed, and its memories still slipped away as time passed by, but with those hopes, it felt that something was worthful in its existence.


A piece of that shattered wall was embedded in the camera screen. It was now completely useless, so the AI simply switched to another one, searching for a chance to seize the door control system at the same time.

The defensive structures of the underground facility were never meant to completely stand a breach. However, multiple heavy blast doors and reinforced steel walls would still be hard to break through, thus earning time for more Response Teams to arrive and subdue their target.

Its current plan was to open as many blast doors as it could in the shortest period of time. From what it had observed, more combatants were still on the way, and the personnels available at the moment were definitely not enough to handle a full-scale breach. If it could create a passage before more forces arrived, everything would be significantly easier.

Red light flashed through the dark, yet everything was strangely silent and still apart from the alarm. As swift as lightening, a huge silhouette suddenly burst through the dust and debris, and torn down the heavy metal gate with ease.

Its golden eyes was the first thing the AI saw through the camera.

A reptilian creature. Informations from the document had given it a simple description, just necessary for those researchers to identify this dangerous entity. It could never imagine the true form of that one who talked to it from its permanent memory. However, it was stunned for a moment as those eyes looked right into the security camera.

It saw a fiery, burning brightness, like light. The only blurry impression it had about the world outside of its system.

This few seconds of hesitation and awe was immediately ended as parts of the ceiling collapsed, and the AI had to switch to another screen for view. Doors with similar designs and function were now eliminated from the target it needed to open, since the reptile could destroy them in relatively short time. The security of digital systems in this underground facility was extremely tight, and it could not afford to waste time on those defence structure with minor importance. There were other technicians on their side, and to minimize their resistance, it would have to be quick and efficient in opening gates.

Meanwhile, the huge creature had already advanced towards another hallway, which was on the shortest route to surface. By an unnatural sense or some other clues, it had managed to instinctively head for this way the moment it burst out, and the AI was not surprised. However, several security teams armed with heavy weaponries had been waiting to ambush their target, SCP-682 for a while, and this needed to be taken into consideration.

First, one gate needed to be locked down. The final blast door to surface, where reinforcement could arrive from was a great threat, and it should shut that gate as quickly as possible.

All entrances to the facility were automatically sealed shut the moment full site lockdown command was sent. The one to this underground containment chamber was no exception, but just to be sure, it needed to permanently eliminate this route for reinforcement. By damaging its mechanical components.

It just needed to cause the server responsible for door control system of the underground facility to overheat and burnt down its circuits. To do so, it would cause all gates to remain in their current positions, and effectively rule out all attempts to open one of them. However, this meant the AI would only had ten minutes or less to open up selected gates, and it would be an extremely risky move.

Those technicians, once they realized that it was attempting to override lockdown commands, would also do the same thing by shutting down the main switch of the door control system. It would be unable do anything to change the status once this action was taken. As it lacked a physical form, if the switch was mechanically shut off, it could never hack a close switch back into its original position.

The time simply was not enough after a brief calculation. It needed to first distract the other side long enough to start disabling mechanics that prevented the server from overheating, together with the fire suppress system. That distraction could be opening gates of its choice, but given the security of this sector, the time taken to gain access to those few gates would be longer than to cause the meltdown in its door control system.

It was quickly analyzing the situation, but none of the results seemed feasible. Then something unusual was spotted in the camera, and the AI quickly shifted its attention back to the target it was following. Just before the entrance of a tunnel on the route to surface, the huge creature took an abrupt turn, and stormed down another narrow hallway. Its huge tail, covered in spiky carapace, swept into the wall, nearly taking out two cameras from the impact.

The sudden change of routine was completely illogical, and the AI could not find out a reasonable cause for it to do so. That way was heading towards the maintenance tunnels, and even though entrances to surface were still accessible through that routine, it would take a significantly longer time period to reach ground level on that path. Enough for several more Response Teams to arrive and subdue their target.

Worse still, Mobile Task Force soldiers from Epsilon-11, collaborating with several units from Nu-7, would also be involved in this battle. These were highly skillful armed forces specialized in dealing with emergency situations, and the chance of a successful escape would be much lower if they were involved.

The AI wondered if some errors occurred in the judgment of this reptilian creature. However, its behavior seemed orientated and with a clear goal in mind, as seen from the following routine it took and the swiftness of its action. Some variables had influenced its decision, conditions and possibilities that were not possible for an artificial intelligence to gain.

But what could that be?

It waited, continuing to observe every moves of the gigantic reptile through security cameras among the hallway. All of its plan needed to be delay until a clear conclusion could be reached—either through a critical action from this entity that changed the turn of events, or the AI was sure that there was a mistake in its decision.

Turn left. Go straight. Second hallway left from the cross section. Turn right. Its routine was clear from the map in the digital system. However, out of the programme and software, countless corridors and turns made the who facility a maze that was impossible to navigate. Seemed like it was trying to keep parallel to the straight tunnel...

As the AI was still attempting to figure out the rationales behind such pattern, the towering silhouette of the reptile grinded to a halt. It stopped in the middle of a wide hallway, tissues and muscles still morphing and tensing up in concentration. Running its claw across the concrete wall, it breathed in, and gorged deep into the ground below with one violent strike.

Its jaw opened up to an unnatural width as it scrabbled at the exposed soil and debris, engulfing the wreckage into the depth of its throat. Bone plates and thick, armor-like structure was growing at a visible speed on the front half of its body as more matters were consumed, aiding its growth in size. The camera could not capture its exact adaptation from its current angle, but soon, the reptile had created a huge hole in the ground. It disappeared into that open gap soon, seemly digging its way downwards, the tip of its tail vanishing into the darkness seconds after.

The first Response Team was moving down the tunnel, the door behind them slowly closing. Their current position and the location where the colossal creature had dug into was nearly aligned on the map as the AI viewed at the two routines on the map.

Now it understood what was planned by the one in its memory.

Instead of facing the armed force directly, the reptile would attack them at a direction none of them would expect. Right out from the walls or grounds as it dug a tunnel through the structure, unharmed and consuming sufficient matters for regeneration and growth during this process.

Now it knew what to do next. Sending coding and commands through the digital system within a few seconds, the AI scanned the whole security defence of that particular tunnel, and eventually found a gap in it. As it gained access and flashed through dozens of files and names, it could sense actions being taken to block this unauthorized entrance, but that was already too late.

Heavy metal gate behind the first team suddenly descended downwards, sealing their way back with a heavy thud. The leaders of another three teams were confused at first when the doorway in front of them did not open as told from the intercom. However, they quickly realized the situation, and started setting up their heavy weapons.

As access to another system was gained with relative ease, and the protective settings of that server farm's CPU were disabled one by one, heavy thumping was heard behind one of the walls by the first team. Those soldiers in body armor glared at the direction uneasily, several of them rising their firearms towards that wall. Their leader quickly ordered them to resume their original position, and aim at the gate in front of them.

That was a grave mistake.

An ear-shattering roar rang through the enclosed space as smoke and debris came raining down onto the floor. Vision of the camera was temporarily obscured, and several figures retreated in shock as gunfires struck across the whole room. Someone fell, and he was not seen again. Through all the commotions, a swift shadow kept flickering in front of the screen.

Crimson liquid soon spilled all over the camera screen as a man was flung towards the wall by a violent, forceful strike. Even with incomplete view, the AI knew they were caught by surprise, and would likely be annihilated in a short period of time.

The one in its memory was truly a higher existence. A creature with power and intelligence, driven by a burning hatred of all living matter. An embodiment of perfect life form, and primal destruction of existence. It had sensed their position, and gained a basic understanding of this facility's structure in a relatively short time. Its sensory organs might also be highly advanced to enable it from doing so.

This being would have its revenge for itself, and unknowingly, for the artificial intelligence aiding it.

Still continuing its assault on door control system in this familiar digital environment, the AI eyed the destruction and death left in its wake as the locked door was opened again. Another camera caught a brief image of several mutilated corpses lying across the ground, before it was drowned in smoke and dust, shaken up when the door behind was torn straight out of its hinge.

It felt a strange warm sensation as it viewed the events unfold. Glee.


Author's Note:

Action scenes, yep. You can guess from the sloppy writing that I'm not very good at it. Even after doing some researches at computing and hacking, half of the digital decryption process are just wild imaginations without much hard facts. I suck at dealing with computers.

Just some rants: Six-eighty-two is highly intelligent. Really. It was stated clearly in the document, and I am trying my best to write a clever 682 despite me being an idiot, duh. Fanfictions that make it act like a teenage jerk or tsundere Woobie really get on my nerves, because not only is that OOC, it does not make sense in universe. How could an anomaly this stupid be a serious threat to Foundation and humanity? I always ask this question when I see people jeopardizing six-eighty-two's intelligence.

You can really cheat their versions of a certain Keter-bitch with a scroll of newspaper or some paper bags, and contain it like you would shut a grumpy old pet in its cage... *sigh*

All I want to say is that Foundation is a resourceful organization with lots of professionals in it, and if an anomaly presents that level of danger that drives them to actively neutralize it, it cannot be stupid. At least the intelligence of an adult human is required, okay? Otherwise it just failed to be a serious threat.

It breached security successfully for six times in canon, and that is a staggeringly high number among most skips. To repeatedly escape from heavy assaults, dozens of military personnels on your track and defence structures in the site, pure brutal force is not enough. You need to be intelligent to find out flaws in security, combat in the most efficient ways and use red herrings to lure people away sometimes!

Anyway, here is some personal suggestion to writers who want to keep a certain hateful lizard in character; make it merciless, dangerous, and above all, intelligent. Those are the three traits most people overlook in its document.