There was darkness, till there was light.
"Arise."
With a loud gasp, she got up, feeling like some invisible force was pushing her to wake up. She coughed and breathed with lungs that were different, feeling like a newborn who just learnt how to breathe. She felt the wind on her skin, the dim light that came from the toxic fog that blocked the sun on her eyes before she adjusted them, and the dirt on her back. She looked around, seeing the debris and ruins with the dead bodies of her slain enemies. She should be dead, she felt dead, she felt every slash and bite, she could still feel her one mechanical bladed arm being ripped off and then the explosive force of the entire Mansion falling by a red beam. And yet, there was this blue veil and this powerful voice that made her shiver and after that she was still there.
The Cyborg SCP thought it was impossible; then a mountain of impossibility was added to it when she looked and saw her own reflection from a piece of broken glass, making her trip backward. She took a closer look at what she was seeing, which was not that of an re-animated corpse with cybernetics that could make even other humanoid SCPs nervous.
She looked beautiful; her red optic replaced by a fully cybernetic eye that looked and acted like a human eye glowing blue and even blinked, she now had an actual mouth to open and chew that looked like it was made of a polymorphic substance instead of metal mimicking real flesh as she repeatedly opened it wide to gape and reverse that looked. he placed both of her hands on her jaw and face, realizing one hand no longer had razor sharp scissor-like blades, otherwise she would have injured herself. It was replaced by a five fingered golden hand in imitation of a real hand, instead of just a bunch of connected metals.
She was still a cyborg, but her cybernetics didn't look crude; they were refined, more complex and more lively. She opened her mouth and for the first time in her life as a cyborg, she made audible sounds from her mouth.
"I…gk…lo…"
That immediately caused a reaction, miserable and joyous laughter erupted from her new throat when she heard her own voice, she had forgotten how she used to sound.
She cried and howled; finding out that she could once again cry only made her cry and laugh harder into tears.
She stayed there and kept crying for minutes and minutes until she was out of tears to shed as she panted with actual lungs, and not analogues. She fell on the ground in a fetal position, feeling the dirt and dust on the ground, the cold breeze of the wind and the fresh polluted air, taking it all in like a sensory depraved inmate.
Then came the light, a blinding ray of light that made her instinctively jump up hastily and hide behind a pile of wreckage. The light came around, making her fearful to take even a glance as she heard the steps approaching.The Cyborg Child looked around and saw a wrench under the dust, she snatched it quickly ready to use it as a sledgehammer with her augmented ears pointed at the coming entity, when the right time came she swung her tool and hit.
The light was no more as the wrench broke a lantern with its glass shattered and the being that held it fell onto his back. It wasn't one of the Factory's cyborgs, it was a black bearded middle aged man wearing a chain mail hauberk with black cloak rags and a sheath for his sword. He glanced back and saw a child with cybernetics and he at first thought it was one of the vile creations before realizing it wasn't. not just because her cybernetics look refined and elegant instead of the crude and harsh steel from the Factory's forges, but thanks to his anomalous ability to gaze into their' souls he read her intent which was that of fear and confusion.
The child then tried to run before he extended a hand toward her.
"WAIT! I'm a friend."
When that stopped her from running, he gave a kind smile, gently got up and took his sheathed sword which made her tense only for him to toss it away to show his intention was not to harm her and slowly approached her.
"Are you okay?"
No answer.
"What's your name?"
No answer.
"Where's your parents?" he glanced at her back only seeing debris and dead raptors and robots.
The SCP cyborg wanted to say something, but she was not used to speaking so she pointed at her own throat as her mouth opened with no voice.
"You can't speak?" He inquired.
"I- I- n-not…u-u-useeed t-t-too…"
The Black Knight opened his cloak and put it around her gently to keep her safe from the cold breeze as he kneeled with one knee to reach her size.
"Come with me, it's not safe here."
"I-w-e….alone?"
The Black Knight gave a kind smile and put a hand on her shoulder "No no no."
He then gently grabbed her and put her on his shoulder as he held her, then snatched his weapon back and walked away from the ruins.
In the belly of the Factory set in Crash Site Omega spewing polluted air and hot chemicals guarded by reprogrammed alien drones, two clankers walked toward their creator, who was simultaneously doing multiple things from melting iron to plasma cutting with its many robotic limbs until it took notice of what it's minions brought.
It was the failed corpse of its experiment, Alpha cut in half and yet still connected by a tube as the clankers put it on the ground near it, then moved away.
The living construct held its failed creation with two three fingered arms and inspected it with its one red optic.
Howwwl!
In a fit of anger it howled in mechanical rage and squashed the corpse in its hands, turning it into broken steel and necrotic mush. Its creation had failed.
Roar!
Oh that accursed lizard again, can't it stop trying to get out and wrecking things while it was contemplating!? Perhaps it should use that thing's regenerative ability to harvest endless organs and meats for its servitors, that would teach that dumb scaley beast to stop screeching and breaking things.
Oh to think that it used to make Instant Holes and Pencil Sharpeners that make pencils mega sharp for ungrateful customers just to get the money to buy more unfortunate employees to harvest! The Organ Market can be expensive, especially when you want sentient meat, not just cattles or dumb animals.
Still, Project 'Soul Extraction' is on its way and showing promise. And thanks to accessed data from Dr. Kain's studies on a particular anomalous machine, SCP-158 the 'Soul Extractor', and capturing a conceptual manifestation were a great bonus on top of that.
Oh how it wished it would have the other conceptual manifestation as well, oh well beggars can't be choosers!
Maybe sending the new upgraded initiatives will be more effective to force their way out with Lord Goran. Good hunting.
"HELP! HELP!"
That was the cry of the Thompson boy being held by the moving branches of a tree shaking its branches like tendrils, a twisted and foul looking tree with no leaves, while his friends exclaimed.
Blast!
A blast of red fire came from one of the two Yerens', coming from a biomechanical gun which formed before it was reabsorbed back. The shot made the flesh-eating tree screech and drop the boy as a part of its branch was set on fire. The other Yeren, named Dohan, came down and grabbed the saved boy by his hand to drag him away.
"Stupid Children of the Sun! Do you want to die horribly by wandering away from the group!?" he harshly told him and then pushed him away to the other kids.
Tambry still held Josie, the half-cat, while the other kids came to his defense.
"Hey, hey!" Robbie told off.
"Hey dude, chill!" Lee said.
"By Ur-An-Uum not even my grand offspring was this recklessly stupid." Tancaras, the other Yeren, a female with whitish hair that showed her as being an elder , commented with a shake of her head and moved back and nodded to Dohan to continue.
The group of survivors were currently being led by the two sasquatches, the same famous cryptids that were designated as SCP-1000. Andthese two in particular were at that night during the Shack who were baffled by some of the Shacks incorrect exhibits about cryptids including that particular one with bigfoot and underwear. Some were wearing masks and gas masks provided by the two bigfoots due to not being able to stomach the polluted air due to the Factory's activities, like the MTF female french medic who was being carried by Aé who had lost a limb to the damned raptors until the Sarkic physician saved her.
'Join the MTF he said! Meet new people he said!' The French medic was galled at the irony that she, the medic, needed medical attention,had lost a limb, and was being carried by a SCP that doesn't even know the difference between a stitch and a leave and is sticky with mucus to her recoil. Thank God for the Sarkic Doctor to stop her bleeding and heal her wound. In hindsight, she should have expected things to get tough the moment she agreed to join that mission in containing Man Eating Spiders with Clef and Bright - the poster boys on how anything can get out of control. Or when she found out that woman and her husband Troy were basically kidnapped to make them remember they used to be Foundation Agents, with the latter used to be a member of the Serpent's Hand and that his uncles are a con artist and the other used to hop between dimensions for three decades.
The demon monkey the two hairy humanoids had for a companion served as guard dog and it with its rather intimidating visage and sometimes hisses made some tense.
The self-improving robot who was helping his alien friend was silently glad that he clotted its bleeding and swerved the cut on his environmental suit because it was sure the amount of pollution in the air would have been lethal for its species, much less normal human weather air.
Alexei seems tense around the Yerens for some reason. Dohan, curious about his armor, asked.
"I have got to ask, where did you get that armor? It looks Yeren in origin, but not like anything I've seen."
Beltirov hid his grimace behind his visor and declined politely "No offense, butI've known you for a few hours, I would rather not divulge on my armor's origin."
"Fair enough, I respect that." the male Yeren shrugged.
During the walk, Iris Thompson went and checked with the female Yeren with Dan, Marcus, Kevin and Melody.
"What was that?" The blonde Iris asked.
"The tree?
"Yes."
"A Ya-te-veo, Man eating plants, Shormaursh Urdal's followers planted them around to feed off the unfortunate."
Tate gave an eyebrow and gestured around
"Shouldn't it be hard to grow anything with the Factory's pollution?"
It was indeed polluting, the dirt seemed wrong, the plants look like they are withering away, some of the water sources they passed by were glowing with sickly rainbow chemicals, the sky was fogged so thick that even now, despite being daylight, the sunlight hardly reached them and the earth looked infertile.
"Ya-te-veo, like jellyfish, thrive in harsh conditions, they also make for excellent oil and coal for the Factory to use, after consuming of course."
That made them grimace, of course the mega evil corporation was gonna be efficient in eliminating survivors.
"So efficient man eating trees that decompose people into fuels, wonderful." Kevin threw a hand up.
Dohan signaled the group to a halt.
"Halt, we're right here."
He then took a blur crystal and used it to make a line on the hill like a pencil, drawing a circular line of blue luminescent which then became a portal to another place that seemed to be underground.
The two Yerens led the group inside with a gesture and they entered, on their way it was a gate guarded by two Manotaurs with flaming axes which Sarah guessed were of Yeren design.
"Hold, password." Chutzpar demanded.
Tancaras look was akin to a grandma catching a teenager's antics. "Oh for the goddess's roots Chutzpar, I told you the scanners I made would detect us and there is no need for a password."
"But ma'am, a woman's touch though light and delicate, can't be so precise."
"So you're saying a woman can't do a man's job?" The female sasquatch gave a slight glare making both Manotaurs nervous.
"Well, I mean- !"
Chutzpar tried to save a face until Dohan interrupted.
"Just, let us in before you buff fools make it even worse."
Neither of the Manotaurs wanted to make things any more awkward so allowed them passage.
The humans were surprised at finding out Tancaras is a female with Melody sputtered
" You're a woman!?"
"What? Expecting every race's females to have big bosoms like human females?" She snorted and was greatly amused at the blushed reaction of Melody and other female humans.
When Dan was passing, The other Manotaur guard who looked older than Chutzpar judging by his white bear elbowed Chutzpar and whispered.
"Oh wait, is that Boyish Dan?" and from then both whispered together while Daniel purposefully ignored that.
Marcus took a note of that and seeing his father somewhat reluctantly, said snidely:"Those two hairy bulls seem to recognize you."
"I used to spend time with them when I was young, I'm probably the reason why they decided to change their name from Minituars to Manotaurs."
"And Boyish Dan?" Gus nearly snickered at that name.
"I was…in a phase." the patriarch reluctantly answered, like an old man embarrassed by his days of youth. Which only encouraged his sons further to probe even more as they were greatly amused.
"I. Want. Details!" Kevin grinned, Daniel nearly made a grunt knowing his sons would take any chance to learn about their father the Manly Freaking Corduroy's…embarrassing side.
Sarah Veers still held the sleepy Gideon, using her fleshcrafting to make tentacles that held him as a backpack with her tools. Some of the Fallers were a bit nauseated by how easy she bends her own flesh to make extra arms but didn't make a big fuss about it and the Sarkic Doctor frankly didn't care.
"Uhh….where are we?" The Gleeful's eyes slowly opened and he scanned the environment around him.
"I'll explain later." Sarah reassured him.
They reached the end of the tunnel to the Crawlspace.
The Crawlspace was a subterranean bazar in Gravity Falls where anomalies trade and make shop, but it was no longer a hub of trading as it was now a sanctuary. The fact that there were humans there only enforced that as previously humans were forbidden here, that and how crowded it was even before the crisis.
Gnomes, Unicorns, Manotaurs, even Lilliputians were here among other paranormal inhabitants of Gravity Falls so the human residents were in the mix along with some of the anomalies designated by the Foundation.
People have named this event as the Scarlet Dusk or Rote Katastrophe as the anomalies and paranormal inhabitants call it, which is German for the Red Catastrophe. Needless to say, some were having PTSDs thanks to their memories of Weirdmageddon and considering the red sky and the roaming monsters that serve an eldritch cosmic horror hellbent on killing them or worse.
Sprott seemed to be in conversation with SCP-4571, the alien farmer who was holding an alien fruit in one hand near a makeshift farm that included farm animals, a mixture of both alien and earth plants using extraterrestrial technology to hold and cultivate the farm.
The self-improving automatron having the desire to help parted with his alien friend, leaving Tate and McGucket to help with the electronic side of things.
The Cretaceous Physicist SCP-317 was helping Multi-Bear transporting supplies, with the former having a clipboard and checking the supplies out
SCP-6809, the collection of humanoid robots seemed to be working as workers around helping in the supplies.
SCP-2006 seemed to be trying to entertain a bunch of children, human or not, using its shapeshifting ability, to varying degrees of success and failure.
SCP-650, the Startling Statue, and the Hide-Behind were currently getting a kick in scaring and startling people, though they were explicitly forbidden from scaring patients by a rather infamous anomaly, unless they want someone to die from heart attack or have a PTSD trigger. And that someone, as a certain photographic Iris will learn, is not one to take his threats lightly.
Unfortunately, not everyone will find their loved ones, the unfortunate reality of a crisis.
SCP-3887-A a 20s year old woman desperately asking around for her friend SCP-3887-B asking in a shaken tone.
"I'm sorry, have you seen my friend?" with no one knowing. Her friend SCP-3887-B was a boogeyman so anyone would certainly remember seeing some hybridized humanoid creature with horns and shark teeths if anyone saw her.
SCP-2295, The Patchwork Bear was sewing patchwork lungs to replace the damaged ones for a coughing human which shouldn't work and yet thanks to its anomalous nature it did so as for the patients who survived thanks to him. A Gnome with patchwork on his left arm, an Unicorn with patchwork signs around its body which suggest something with sharp claws attacked it and more. Many patients, humans and not, owed their lives to the anomalous teddy bear.
Sarah gently put Gideon on a chair.
"I'll go with the medics, they clearly need more hands here, you stay here and I'll come back." she told him, and left to heal those who are needed the most while Gideon was already re-improving his health.
Gideon held a hand to his chest, instinctively feeling anxiousness: no hole, no blood, that gruesome and painful vision had felt so real. Heshivered, recalling his meeting with the insane living machine, he could still feel phantom pains on his chest like something was torn through his torso despite not suffering any physical injury.
He looked around scanning everything here; the people, the place, the subterranean structure, his curiosity piqued. Then, among a group of humans he saw two certain people in the crowd looking around seemingly worried, he at first thought he got them wrong until he was assured that he did not. He quickly got up and ran toward them in a hurry.
"Dad! Mom!" He shouted their name and went.
Sarah, who was talking with a Yeren medic when she saw Gideon running, politely apologized and went to see what caused the Gleeful boy to sprint only to have her question answered soon once he jumped and hugged two adults, both at first surprised before accepting in a heartfelt hug between all three. Clearly, Mr and Mrs Gleeful were still alive.
The Sarkic Doctor smiled at the heartful reunion, grateful to know even with how bad things are, small miracles are still a thing.
It wasn't just Gideon though, The kids except the Corduroys who already were with their father looked around to see their parents, and they were reunited with them.
Finding out that their parents were still alive was like a huge burden being left off the youth's back.
Even Robbie was genuinely relieved to see his parents again and, though he usually hate spending time with his all-too-cheerful cemetery working parents, was releived enough to actually hug them, an action which he used to see as cringe.
Well, not everyone had parents to return to.
Paz looked at them with longing, a bitter reminder that she wasnow an orphan. She was lost, not knowing how she should react to her parents' death and as she looked down she walked away graunchy.
The Sarkic lost her smile at seeing and talked to herself.
"Girl doesn't look alright, I'm going with her." she was going to before Laskaris stopped her with a gentle hand on her shoulder.
"I go, these people need you." Laskaris told her and so she went to check on Pacifica while Sarkic went to help those in need of her gifts, though the problem was the glass Iris couldn't remember her name.
"Pacific? Are you there? Or was it Pacifica?" She tried to call her but the crowd was filling in and making it hard to track her.
' Great job Iris! You can't even remember her name properly!' She thought in irritation.
"Paz? Pazzy?" She gave chase then accidentally ended up in some surgical room. She looked around and saw a black hood wearing guy doing surgery on an unconscious patient.
"Excuse me, sorry but have you seen- "
Laskaris's question left hanging once her blood freezed and heart sank when she saw who was doing the surgical procedure; black clothes, a beaked mask, the eye socket part was all black showing no sign of his face, much less his skin. Except for two glowing bluish white eyes that sparked intelligence and cold brilliance.
She at first thought it was SCP-49-J before realizing the bird mask didn't look artificial, it looked like a boney skull, he felt the stare she was giving him and looked back, it was the SCP-49 the infamous Plague Doctor who then glanced back.
"Is something wrong madam?" That thick French accent and the bloodied hands on his gloves…it was all the confirmation she needed as she pointed her gun at him who in return gave an unimpressed eyebrow.
"Laskaris wait."
A man in a protection suit with two metal hands told her off who revealed his face by taking off the gas mask revealing to be none other than SCP-073 Cain with hands gesturing up to her from putting the gun down.
"That's the freaking SCP-49!? You let him turn people into zombies!?" Laskaris blurted and demanded an answer.
The Frenchman anomaly objected in offense, "I don't turn people into 'des morts-vivants', I cure them."
"He's not. He is saving the man when we find him nearly dying from his organs harvested by clawhunters."
Before she could say anything, Iris Thompson, who took notice to see what was the commotion came and gave a look of relief seeing Cain.
"Cain!"
"Thompson."
She ran and both hugged.
"Man, you're a sight for sore eyes."
A cough caught their attention from Plague Doctor as he tried to gain their attention as their hug stopped.
"Not be prudent to interrupt this tender moment…." He pointed at the gun that was being pointed at him.
Surprised by seeing him, Thompson exclaimed as she left the hug "The Plague Doctor!? What's he doing here!?
"That's what I want to know!" Laskaris gave a hand on her hip in annoyance.
The French SCP explained, "The gentilhomme and I have a deal."
Cain confirmed his saying.
"Yes, I made sure to make it very clear no killing nor his cure, he stays and in exchange treats the injured."
Thompson looked deep in thought and only moments later gave her answer: "Laskaris, put the gun down."
"But- !" She tried to object, bewildered that Blonde Iris had no objection to this.
"You can't seriously be trusting this guy!" She gestured to 49 who seemed to be nearly rolling his eyes.
"No, but I trust Cain's judgment."
Laskaris tried to think of another reason, there was no denying that Cain and Thompson had a deep bond so she would naturally trust his judgment. So she tried to think of something to say that could persuade them otherwise until the avian doctor interjected.
"Are you going to prevent me from saving this man?" He pointed at his patient still unconscious for surgery, with the sound of beeping heart rate coming from a life support machine.
The Iris with glasses grunted and put her gun down.
"This better not bite us in the ass." She grumbled and left.
17:14…
There was a meeting planned by Cain and other authority figures in the Crawlspace which was taking place at an assembly dinner place decorated for the public during dinner, thinking that after everything that happened the people needed a 'Last Supper' to spirit up the all time low morale even so temporarily. Fortunately with SCP-5031, the quasi-humanoid shifting Keter anomaly(who frankly shouldn't even be a Keter at this point), was a wizard in the kitchen so even with limited options and ingredients it would be able to make delicious dishes.
But all of this was at night and it was still noon so everyone went to sleep to rest until then. The underground bazaar wasn't big enough so some had to share beds.
Some didn't sleep, either on guard duty or simply didn't want to, such as a certain superhuman Russian who sat on a chair and was using a rock to sharpen one of its extended blades. As he did so, someone walked near him. was Soos's wife as he recalled coming in, wondering what she wanted.
"Hey…Alexei was it?
"Da." he simply answered, trying to sound uninterested as he sharpened the blade.
Melody put her hands on her knees to break the silence and trailed off awkwardly. "So…I couldn't help but notice you seem to be tense around our sasquatch friends, is there something to be worried about?"
So his discomfort near Yerens was not left unnoticed, even with being trapped inside his own suit , Great. He put the rock down.
Melody took this as a sign that she was touching on a sensitive matter "Forgive me if I may sound intruding, but I- "
"They're the reason my Earth is a scorched radioactive wasteland."
That left her speechless, not the response she was expecting. She didn't think her inclination would be answered, much less with such a blunt response. Sometimes she cursed her own maternal instincts to be the group's 'mom' as Stanley once joked when she lectured Soos for trying to con someone to impress Stan. It was one of the very few times she had an argument with him because, as much as she understood why Soos saw Stan as the closest thing he had to a father figure, he should not emulate him on how to run a business.
"Does that mean they like…caused the war?" she trailed off.
Alexei answered with slight bitterness. "I do not know, but I do know they accelerated it, they sold weapons to West and East to blow each other to kingdom come. "This," he pointed at his biomechanical suit, "This living tomb, this tool of destruction is one of their creations."
So that was why when Ford tried to inquire about his suit he seemed reluctant, much less talking much about his version of Earth. Now she wished it was Soos who came to him not her, her husband may look dumb but he had a surprising wisdom on deep things.
Melody thought of a way to quell his worries, but Belitrov seemed to be already reading her mind when he responded with the tired sound of a man who saw war, and made a hand gesture to hold her from speaking.
"I'm not a thick headed durak, for all I know these Yerens may be different to the ones of my Earth," he conceded "But I still do not trust them and until I'm sure of their intention, I will not sleep with both eyes closed near them."
Melody gave a sympathetic look and decided to sit near him to give hearing ears.
"Do you…ever miss home?"
The soldier uttered in nostalgia."To tell you the truth, even with all the pain and suffering…sometimes I do." he continued
"But mostly, it's my comrades I missed, who never got the chance to finally know peace and see a world that is still green when I did instead."
"So, you still think it's still possible to win this?" She asked, genuinely surprised that he didn't seem doured that this dimension may suffer a similar fate.
The biomechanical man then answered with resolution and hope. "Yes. Because unlike mine, your are people not blinded utterly by hate.At least, not yet."
Unknown to them, Dohan was eavesdropping from behind the curtain of an abandoned store that used to sell portions. He heard and understood Alexei's reservation, he couldn't imagine his pain because, though his people live as a shadow of their former selves even though most of them no longer walk aimlessly like cavemen in the woods and currently coexist with other races and they live longer compared to Children of the Sun, he wasn't old enough to have witnessed the Day of Flowers, nor were any of his kind at least as far as he know. As a matter of fact in Yeren's age he is the human equivalent of being at thirty.
Even still, the Day of Flowers was considered as the closest Yerens been to total extinction, so he to some extent understood Alexei's reservation
Pacifica was playing with her anomalous pet, reclusively away from other kids on her bed. The normally sociable Northwest didn't feel like socializing. Grenda and Candy tried to cheer her up but she stayed put. As much as she appreciated their concern the last thing she wanted was to be pitied, she knew it was stupid and yet she hated being looked at withpity. Pacifica Northwest the orphan, Pacifica Northwest the victim, if there is one thing she has inherited from her parents is her dislike in being seen vulnerable. She still didn't know whether he should feel relief that her parents were no more, or cry in grief that her parents are no more, the two sides clashing down on each other in a vortex of contradictory emotions threatening to tear her down.
Oh how she wished Dipper and Mabel were here, they were the first people who reached out to her, who saw her as more than some spoiled rich kid, more than a link in the world's worst chain.
Her anomalous pet Percival looked sad, like it could feel the emotional state of its owner. as a way to comfort the young girl, it caressed itself around her fingers and purred.
When she felt something touching her knee, Pacifica quickly looked and saw something on her bed and she got up in a sitting position on her bed.
It was a teddy bear, a patch work teddy bear standing on both of its legs. Considering it stood by itself she assumed this was one of those SCPs, that one which became quite popular for saving so many lives and also for being a literal cute toy, she recalled once seeing Robbie even thanking it for saving his life during that attack at night in the Shack though begrudgingly grumbling in his own teenage stubborn way.
It didn't have organic or moving expressions so it was hard to tell what it wanted.
"What are you looking at?" She asked with a tone that clearly said she didn't have any patience for whatever weird shenanigans it was this time.
This did not discourage the Patchwork Bear, it then moved its hands together like it was doing something, next it anomalously made a King Size Candy Bar which he then offered to her. Pacifica narrowed her eyes in confusion, deciding the best way to get rid of it was to accept its offering and, deciding with this apocalyptic situation candy would be rare, she accepted the offer while putting Percival back to her lady bag. Just when her finger touched the candy the unexpected happened: the anomalous being launched at her with a hug.
The blonde girl just stood still for several seconds, her face contorting through many emotions in a flash which then concluded with tears coming and worsening her already ruined makeup, her breathing hitched and as her hands trembled, she reciprocated the hug and closed her eyes, silently crying.
One drop of saline came from Patchwork Bear's right eye dropped on her shoulder and she felt it.
For moments they were there like that until when the Northwest girl felt ready and stopped the hug, the Teddy bear.
She wiped her tears.
"Thanks." she muttered.
The anomalous patchwork then put the candy on the bed near her before it walked away, despite not having any expressions she could tell it was happy to be able to help.
When it disappeared, Laskaris looked around until her eyes caught her and then the anahuman walked toward Pacifca she let out a breath of relief.
"There you are! It's not safe to just walk away without anyone accompanying you." She lectured the Northwest kid; nonetheless, she didn't even look at her as she gazed in the direction where the Patchwork Bear disappeared,
"Kid? You're…okay?" The snort she received made her mentally slap herself for saying that.
' Damnit, Stupid question.'
She apologized quickly. "Yeah, sorry stupid question."
But the next response she received from the blonde girl surprised her, she expected a snark not what she heard. "I'm not okay…but I think I'm better now." that and the genuine sad but also happy smile as she looked at her.
Laskaris opened her mouth to say something but decided not to and closed. She was just glad to see the girl smile finally and maybe it would be a long road, but she will heal.
It was night; in a snowy forest. He sees a redhead female figure, she looks familiar so he chases after her, with every chase the snow become bloodier and bloodier. He hears the sound of wolves howling, driving him to pursue faster as he hears their savage grunting.
Then, the trees began to light on fire despite the snowy weather, a few bushes on his way caused him to lose sight of her which was then replaced by a cabin, his family cabin on fire.
At the center was the figure, she looked at him and it was his late wife, bearing a striking resemblance to his only daughter except for shorter hair, the reason why it was hard for him for a time to look at his own daughter's face when he lost her to his shame. She was wearing a cultist article with one hand holding a dagger dripping in blood and the other what looked like a baby though obscured by ragged fibers and he couldn't be sure.
Suddenly, a burst of fire engulfs her, she did not scream much less reacted only closing her eyes peacefully as the fire devoured her until she reduced into dust.
Then a shadow loomed blocking the moonlight by something that flowed and howled. He looked up and saw nothing, when he looked back to earth he saw the shadow of a draconic creature looming like a shark on the ground, circling them.
The two-dimensional shadowy dragon from became a three-dimensional being, it opens its eyes with scarlet eyes and its maw revealing a blazing inferno that said:
"You'll burn."
"They'll burn."
"She'll burn, just like her."
His only daughter stood there like a statue unflinching as the dragon slithering around her.
It spits fire which devours her and then everything else.
Daniel awoke, a cold sweat dripping from his face. He had fallen asleep on guard duty sitting in an abandoned store with his hunting rifle, stupid mistake. He glanced to the side and saw his children asleep and safe down the store on spare bed sheets as temporary rest, all were present save his only daughter. A cold reminder that his daughter was not here, maybe a bad thing, maybe a good thing, but if it is a good thing does that mean his sons are doomed with him along with the rest of this town? And if it is a bad thing, does that mean she is doomed while they are safe?
Dan shook those thoughts away, his daughter had survived the apocalypse without him or her brothers' help, he taught her to endure, she had his fire and her mother's spirit. And yet he couldn't help but let this fog of doubt clouding his mind: will she burn out just like his wife? Or will her fire grow cold?
He takes a picture from a pocket of his containing an old family picture with himself, his kids but much younger and his wife staring at the camera looking at it somberly.
He tried to make them ready with all the winter apocalypse training instead of Christmas, teaching them how to survive in the wild and other survival techniques. Yet he couldn't help but fear for them.
He failed his wife, now he fears that he may fail his children as well.
Cain decided it would be good to check on the blonde Iris, he had a feeling that he needed to be with her, a feeling which he will soon find out that was correct as he knocks at her door.
Knock
Knock
"Iris? Iris?"
There was no answer, only muffled sounds which prompted him to open the door slowly and there he saw something that made his heart string.
The blonde Iris was sitting on the bed crying so hard that she started making hiccups with a pillow on her face.
Her face was dirty in tears and fluids when she looked back at him, she was processing all things that happened, the mystery of what fate has befallen on Miller and Leora,
and losing Cybie, a girl who never had a say on not being normal and disconnected from Normalcy, who reminded her of herself, was her final breaking point.
SCP-999 had made her care again, no longer feeling dead inside; however, while only a dead heart may rot, only a living heart may bleed.
"It hurts Cain….it hurts to care again."
Cain quickly closed the door and came down and hugged her, an action she was recipient to as she returned his hug. Cain gently nuzzled her head as she kept crying.
"Shhhh, don't harden your heart, let it open no matter how painful it is."
Slowly, she put her head down on his legs like a scared child seeking comfort from an adult, she hiccuped. "It was my job to protect them, do you understand?" she didn't say he or she or a specific individual, she meant anomalies in general who she swore to herself that she would make sure that they won't suffer as she did.
Cain as he caressed her head, with a heavy heart said. "Sometimes, there are things in life you can't control. You've paid enough."
As an immortal, he knew apathy was the true death of spirit; hate is only the other side of the same coin. Better to feel no matter how hard it is than feeling hollow. Better a bleeding heart than a dead one.
20:23…
The dinner time was over.
SCP-5031 is cooking, and he's a wizard in the kitchen. Though it and Suzan sometimes butt heads on the food.
The children were circling on one side while the adults were mostly at the center, except for the Corduroy boys who sat near their father who they noticed seemed a bit dour so they decided to be with him.
Aé was eating ravenously with no shame, biting the head of a fish with no regard, using her own hands and teeth to grab food, chewing with her mouth open and even belching during the eating. She gained a few attractions as some looked at her in repulsion of her complete lack of manners or morbid fascination.
Bud Gleeful decided to be the one to ask as he awkwardly held his collar.
"Uh, do you need a fork, miss? Or a knife?
Aé looked at him confused "Why? Aé has forks!" She showed one of her hands holding a chicken and then started ripping the flesh out of its bones with her claws and teeths.
Alexei who was just standing there, he was unable to open his mask so instead he was reading food to convert into nutrient mush, but something was different and his armor was not the same since being healed by Sarkic magic, resulting in his vizor retreating by his own command without he even realized it.
That caused a few gasped reactions from the Last Hope team making the SCP soldier glance in confusion of why they seemed surprised looking at him.
The blonde Thompson exclaimed.
"Alexei, your helmet!"
Alexei touched and comprehend why, instead of his biomechanical mask he touched the skin of his own face. He thought initially that it was simply just his suit mimicking the sensation of touch until he in a hurry looked at a glass mirror from an abandoned store and left utterly shocked. The face he saw was that of himself and yet he could not recognize it, so used to seeing his bug-like vizor instead of his own face since the day his suit became his tomb. ' Is it. Possible…?' a new thought came in his mind, he willed something and in doing so the part of his arm by itself shrank back revealing his real skin and his very real right arm, next he commanded and the arm reverted back to its armored form.
Mcgucket and the Fallers wanted to know what was going on. "Uh, is there a context am I missin'?"
Blonde Iris was the one who elaborated: "Alexei used to be unable to do that, in fact he had to drink nutrients directly from his suit instead of being allowed to chew."
Sarah imputed her hypothesis. "I think my Carnomancy operation evolved his suit in more ways than I thought."
Blitrov then in a frenzy basically jumped at the table and began relentlessly eating whatever food he could reach, not caring that he may like his choices or not just be glad to be able to use his taste buds after being imprisoned for so long imprisoned in his own suit.
The Fallers stared at him with apprehension while the one armed french medic said. "Bon appetit, I guess?"
Oh well, at least Alexei has much more manners on eating compared to Aé, doesn't mean he wasn't living up to his Russian heritage though as he was now drinking a can of beers each with one hard swallow.
Melody then asked about the strange abundance of food as she had beef and so did her husband. "Speaking of food, I notice oddly we don't seem to lack any meat."
"Eric?"
"In fact we seem to have an abnormal abundance of beef."
"Eric?
" -Despite the amount of population housed here- "
"Eric?"
"Okay, who's Eri- Wuah!"
An amorphous mass of intricately braided red thread with many eyes was under the table near her and her husband caught them off guard, the SCP guys looked in alarmed with some nearly were shouting to everyone to get out only for the strange entity to then produce a note of Beethoven for 4 minutes.
A small chocolate cupcake frosting and a lit candle stuck in the top came from the odd entity seemingly as a gift to Soos who reluctantly took the cupcake and politely thanked it. "Uh, thanks little dude?" he then grabbed the cupcake after which the entity then moved away by tripping on itself like a ball of yarn.
Befuddled, Melody inquired as looked left and right at it and the group. " What was that?"
Laskaris exasperated in relief as she unplugged both of her fingers from her ears, not caring she nearly accidentally dropped her meatloaf off her dish when she did that.
"Goddamn I thought our eardrums were gonna blow!"
Cain looked in relief and answered the question on the yarn entity. "SCP-66, it used to be like a birthday entity before."
Melody then comprehends something else as she slapped her forehead. "Oh gosh, I forgot today was your birthday!" she glanced back at her husband who shrugged with her worry with a smile.
"It's fine honey. Not a big fan of birthdays anyway."
Daniel did notice the SCP guys were alarmed when the birthday SCP showed up so he questioned them why "Why do you seem alarmed by the creature's appearance? Is it not usual for it to do that?"
Alexei who was now eating a huge amount of beef and vegetables as a made up sandwich nodded. "That's actually…normal. It used to be that during birthdays before some idiot had the idea of cutting its string, I was actually expected to have our ears exploded by weaponized Beethoven."
Cain then decided to change the topic by answering Melody's food supply related question.
"Well on the topic of food shortage…you see-"
Whatever he was gonna say was cut off by a scream.
"AAAH!"
The immortal sight in defeat, something blonde Iris took notice of, became concerned and asked. " Cain, What did you do?"
The scream came from the racing Mrs. Gleeful who looked like she just saw the devil herself as she then hugged and cried on her husband's shoulder as he held her awkwardly and unsure. "It's the devil, it's the devil, they feed us devil's meat!"
The immortal SCP bridged his nose. "I was hoping to break this gently." he nodded to two Manotaurs to show them what the fuss was about , who then moved away a curtain to reveal the source of their beef.
SCP-4158 Big Charlie, an 8 meter deformed cow with 7 legs, 4 stomachs, translucent skin and partially blind white eyes deformed cow. It was absolutely the most abominable looking thing that was edible. It then gave a weak sickly and throaty moo as it looked back at the crowd with its white eyes.
Moo
The sound of disgust and shock came from the humans of Gravity Falls upon seeing this deformed creature from which they got their beef from with some outright spitting it out of their mouth or in some cases barfing with the Pizza guy now was clearing his own tongue. Even the paranormal side of the population had to admit this entity did not look appealing at all.
Some like Tad Strange were very glad that they didn't choose beef considering Tad's obsessive love for bread as it is shown by his gluten diet.
The blonde Thompson gave a deadpan look at Cain who looked defeated.
" Really? Big Charlie?"
Celestabellebethabelle the Unicorn with grass as on her dish, unable to take the ugliness, gave a horse's fearful screech.
"Oh the hideousness! My eyes!" she looked away with one of her legs shielding her eyes.
Jeff the Gnome who was a mushroom soup uttered in amazement.
"Can't believe I'm saying it, but there is finally something that makes the goblin half-man look attractive!"
Toby Determined hoorayed at no longer being the ugliest creature in Gravity Falls.
"Hooray!"
Cain gave a weak smile to ease everyone up. "Don't worry, the meat is safe. In fact, a long dead restaurant chain used to sell its meat as hamburger and no one got harmed, it was literally genetically altered to produce beef!"
"With what, cancer?" Kevin shuddered and asked rhetorically.
Cain scratched his head a bit awkwardly. "I think it was chicken actually."
"So that's why the beef tasted weirdly like chicken…" Marcus muttered under his breath as he looked down at his beef.
Sprott looked back at his slice of beef only to then shrug and continue eating it.
"Are you…still eating that!?" The Mayor of Gravity Falls was still trying to clean his tongue with a tissue the taste of beef half-squeaked by the lackluster reaction of Sprott.
"Hey, cow meat is still meat. Besides, I had weirder animal husbandry."
Which included the alien fruits he gathered from his alien farmer friend with Waddles and chickens which were the most normal of the bunch and a mutated cow with multiple limbs that is named Octavia and 4 flannel platypuses called Plaidypuses which apparently are considered as delicacies in the paranormal side of Gravity Falls for their meat and hide.
Sarah also shared his lackluster reaction as well as she was drinking a blood soup, don't ask where the blood comes from. "Meh, as long as it isn't human meat or a sentient being's flesh, I see no issue here.
Laskaris while eating rice blew a raspberry and sneered. "Of course a Sarkic wouldn't take issue with this."
The Sarkic Doctor simply shrugged with both shoulders instead of being offended.
Eventually the matter resolved, The anomalies had a much easier time consuming beef as most already ate weirder but the humans were a mixed bunch. Half of them refused to eat beef while the other half were already used to how weirdness of Gravity Falls continued consuming it.
The ever changing robot as he was tuning happily doing some modifications on his right arm with a solder then recalled the hybridized monkey that accompanied the two bigfoots and inquired.
"I wondered, based upon the data I had from the Foundation…" he gained weird looks from SCP employees so he corrected himself. " Which only includes the non-classified and general information mind you(the good stuff are way tighter to get and probably smell existential dread and mad rambling anyway)" that caused a few eyerolls. "What I find odd is that the monkey mongrel is SCP-517-ARC as if the 'ARC' part hasn't said it by now, it is supposed to be neutralized."
The French medic seemed to know about that particular incident once as she gave a loud snort that caused her medium black ponytail to swing a bit. "Oh yeah I heard that! a couple of eggheads had the great idea to start a fight club between anomalies…crap it was funny." She then cut her slice of bread in half.
Sarah gave a tired groan with a hand on her face. "Sometimes I'm really questioning how the Foundation hires its doctors…"
Alien Screech
The SCP alien friend of the self-improving robot gave its extraterrestrial somewhat of an equivalent of 'Ditto', eating the fruits of the Alien Famer one of the few things it could consume and didn't need to convert it into something edible by its environmental system.
The SCP robot then continued. " -Yet there is another file named SCP-4715 with a creature with similar description but higher level of power considering it was said to be able change its size by will, is it just a bizarre coincidence that these two designated entities just happened to look like each other but different in powerscale?"
Tancaras answered its question. "No, there isn't a mistake, the ARC one the Veil-keepers had was actually a manifestation of 4715."
"Like offspring?"
Dohan clarified with a shake of his head and stopped drinking water from his glass.
"No, more like spawns, extensions of it you may say."
The female Yeren then explained further, as she was one of the few who wasn't hungry. "The big bad thing which is 4715 as you say is a demon born of war, a somewhat Tartarean entity born from the Day of Flowers when my kind and humans waged war, my kin found a way to tame its spawns but the demon itself has been proven very resistant to be control- "
She stopped when she noticed the amused and surprised looks on some of their faces, wondering why, then she looked back she saw a black expressionless statue that was mimicking her words with hands like some silent prankster ridiculing someone's talk.
SCP-650 The Startling Statue was feeling like a prankster again.
"Oh for the- go annoy someone else you- !" she grabs an apple and throws it at the Startling Statue hitting the target.
In a blink the anomalous statue disappeared as Tancaras gave a tired sight with a hand on her face.
"Damn statue…" it was clear this was not the first time the SCP statue felt jovial, it sometimes pranks others to feel alive or to give a good scare or two. "I swear by Uum's roots since the day that thing and Hide-Behind met, they haven't stopped their play and sneak on everyone like a goddess damned kindergarten!"
Dohan coughed and decided to be the one who continued. " Anyway, even still having an army of ARCs would provide us manpower and possibly if the demon brood is finally tamed, we could turn its wrathful gaze at the Factory."
Dan gave a meaningful look. "An army would be useful." Others agreed.
Tate while cutting steak while eating from a bean can was unsure of that. "But we aren't in a condition to mount an attack."
The blonde anahuman disagreed with one finger up. " Yet. Not yet. Like it or not, we can't hide forever. Either they'll knock at our doors or we at theirs."
"Da, we attack soon or we'll get served as cutlets." The Russian SCP agreed with her as he ate a whole sandwich.
Mgucket decided to offer support as well and he then brought his flashdrive to show everyone. "Old AI is here in my chip, it could disable their security if connected directly, tho I ain't sure his allegiance."
Laskaris added in: "Besides, that scrap of programming is friends with the 682, you know. The omnicidal lizard that hates all life? That doesn't exactly give me a vote of confidence."
An unknown intruder commented in. "It always fascinated me how such a hateful creature found companionship with an intelligence artificielle."
It was the Plague Doctor who looked as if he just came from thin air causing Blubs and Durland exclaimed and hugged each other, Tyler shrieked and fell off his back with his chair, and Tate spat out his drink with eyes going wide and coughed violently. "Buwah! Wah! What!? WHEN did you show up!?" he pointed at him accusingly.
The avian SCP nonchalantly answered. "I came here 3 minutes ago." He then sat near the table with a dish of French cuisine which were Escargots.
Soos gave a nervous chuckle feeling unnerved by this SCP and its aura of coldness so as other Fallers with his wife squinting a bit. "Hehe, erm, good looking costume dawg."
"It is not a costume."
Soos looked confused only for Sarah to clarify. "It is a part of his anatomy."
The avian SCP nodded in confirmation. "Indeed, what you see are actually natural parts of me, my clothes are actually my skin and my 'helmet' is in fact my skull protruding outward."
Just then, a group of kids were passing by hearing that nugget of information about the Plague Doctor.
Grenda who was just passing by with other kids immediately shielded Candy's eyes
Tambry who was giving a bowl of milk for the half cat which then began drinking from it gagged in disgust and horror "EEEW! you're naked!?
Pacifica was even more visible in showing her disgust undignifying. "You wear your own skin!?"
Robbie shared their recoil as well. "Uh gross!"
Although, some found it funny "Siiiick, nudism!" Lee commented as he and Nate chuckled.
The Plague Doctor sighs with rolled eyes and muttered something in French as it seems this was not the first time living for centuries to see typical childish antics from the youth. "Enfants."
The french medic couldn't help but snort in French at the SCP frenchman.
"Dit l'homme en costume d'Halloween.(says the man in a halloween costume)." which made the kids laugh recognizing the word Halloween as they passed away causing the Plague Doctor look even more deadpan despite having a literal skull on his face only revealing his intelligent eyes who then muttered something about the 'Pestilence' being much easier to handle than the youth.
Aé, confused by this with her mouth full, asked "What's wrong with being naked?" since technically she indeed was naked.
Everyone decided they were getting off track and ignored her question.
Mcgucket, who took notice of the Plague Doctor mentioning this Pestilence, asked.
"What pestilence is this I've heard ya yapping about? Whads thad? A new bubonic plague?"
Some of the SCPs and Foundation agents looked in exasperation knowing what was gonna happen.
The blonde Iris held both hands on her face and nearly hit her own head on the table.
"Oh for the love of 343…"
"on y va encore une fois…" the one hand French medic muttered in her native tongue.
Plague Doctor seems delighted by that question and he monologues "Ah, a man of science like me! It's The Greatest Scourge, The Great Dying. It's an insidious disease that many succumb to it without even knowing it, fortunately I've have developed a cure for those infected- "
Laskaris, who had enough, rudely interrupted him with a blunt answer. " - He kills people by a touch and revives them as zombies."
The gave an immediate reaction from the Fallers with the closest to 49's seat including Tate, Tyler and Soos taking distances away fearing that they may die just by being touched by the Plague Doctor who looked un-amused at Laskaris while Mgucket looked horrifyingly fascinated.
"For the thousandth time, I do not kill people! Ridicule my effort if it pleases you but do not bad mouth scientific progress that developed the mercy that is my cure."
"Tell that to that Foundation doctor who was fooled to trust you, Hamm was it? Oh right!" She snapped a finger "He can't, because he's dead! Maybe you should ask his daughter, I'm sure she would understand why you had to kill her father and revive him as a walking corpse for a made up disease with its symptoms you can't even articulate an elaboration on, much less on laymen terms much less on what that even is!"
The Plague Doctor kept his professional attitude like a teacher disciplining an unruly child which served to aggravate her further,
"I don't expect someone slaved to her own emotions and outbursts with a snarky attitude to make herself look 'cool' as this generation would say, to be in any way willing to understand even if you wanted to." that made Laskaris's face deflated into a visible snarl.
Soos uttered nervously. "Oh dawg…."
Alien Screech
The Old Castaway shared the same sentiment as Mr Ramirez as both tried to shrink themselves while Melody put a hand on her husband's right hand. Mgucket was now regretting for ever asking about the Pestilence. Aé stopped her ravenous eating so Alexei and everyone now were watching this in anticipation.
"Oh dear." The self-improving robot shared their sentiment as well.
Laskaris wasn't deterred. "Why so? Because only you can see it? Only you can cure it? That no one understands? Is that why?"
The Mayor of Gravity Falls tried to defuse this situation. "Now hold there folks, this is getting a bit heated- " only to fail.
"Unless you're a woman of science, I doubt you would be any more qualified than our amphibian resident's understanding of the proper and appropriate costume of dining."
"Hey!" Aé in offense shouted.
Laskaris responded with a dry laugh. "I find you funny! Such a charlatan with a messiah complex, and the worst part is, you likely even believe your own lie with how many times you tell that for yourself, like Hamm and many others did! "
Cain tries to defuse this situation.
"Laskaris-"
But his plea was left unheard as 49 retorted.
This time there was a slight undercurrent of regret and guilt for those who were perceptive enough to notice it, like a part of it did regret curing that Foundation doctor. "You can hate me and my actions all you want. But I don't take pleasure in doing this like a certain goule the Foundation imprisoned or like that fraudster mask who sell lies, all my actions were and still are for the greater good- "
" Greater Good, greater good! I'm sure those nazi scientists gave the same mantra when they were conducting inhumane experimentation on the jews." she snarked accusingly.
That made a crack on Plague Doctor's calm demeanor, his voice now slightly snarled hidden behind a cold tone. "You presume to compare me with those vile men? toi who knows nothing ?" The undertone growl with his icy glare was enough for anyone who was close to them to feel his cool ire and slowly put distance themselves away or shrink to not get frosted in contrast to Laskaris who stayed defiant like a torch in wintery weather.
"Or what? You gonna cure me? Carefully, my doctor said I'm rather allergic to medical help."
There was now a glare contest between fire and ice as the temperature felt hot and cold between them and fire and ice never mixed and were ready to ultimately clash.
Thump!!
"ENOUGH!"
Dan's fists hit the wooden table so hard that it cracked, causing the glaring contest to stop and look at the huge redhead now giving them a disapproving growl while making his sons who were near him startled by his outburst.
"This behavior is unacceptable!" He growls and glances back at Laskaris " You're a grown up, you have no excuses to act like this, so act like one!" That actually made her flinch as the giant of Lumberjack then look back at the Plague Doctor who though kept his stoicism was a bit taken back by the ferocity of the Corduroy patriarch so as the brunette Iris " You claim to be a professional doctor, a man of science, such acting should be beneath you."
That shut them both good, leaving a few moments of awkward silence.
The avian parahuman seemed reluctant but ultimately relented.
"Very well, I apologize for my unprofessionalism, I don't regret defending my case but I see I could have worded it better."
Laskaris was gonna say something snarky but Dan's harsh gaze and Cain's pleading look stopped her and so she grumbled and sat back. "Yeah…sure, I was a bit of an ass too."
Cain gave a grateful nod to the Corduroy lumberjack as he sat back on his chair.
"Thank you Dan." he then announced to both anahumans "You don't have to like each other, but no one is killing or curing anyone." He made sure to emphasize the 'curing' part in his statement which the Plague Doctor nodded begrudgingly, something Laskaris took solace and satisfaction at, like a pouting child.
And with that; the meeting concluded, after dinner time was over people went to their assigned roles and jobs not before sending their tanks to the anomalous chef and Suzan.
On the way out, Cain nudged the blonde Iris to follow him and as they walked they spoke secretly.
"Someone is stealing supplies and causing people to disappear."
The blonde parahuman gives him a look. "You think there's a mole?"
"As you can see, some of the people here are of… unsavory bunch."
The blonde anahuman then wondered. "Do you think…?"
"No, our good doctor here may not be the shining example of morality, but he is no liar or deceiver." He feigned a smile to a group of gnomes passing by and then continued,
"As for who? I do not know. Until we find the mole we keep this quiet to avoid spreading panic around."
"I know some people who will keep this underwraps while helping to find this mole." The blonde Iris informed.
Cain then gave another grim news
"There's another thing: Specter."
The anomalous woman didn't catch it until comprehending that when he said the name, nothing dramatic sounded, that didn't sound like anything good.
The Immortal then followed by seeing Iris's realization.
"You see? There's no echoing or dramatic flavor when we call his name, this either means he's dead or…something bad has happened to him."
Just then, shouts were heared causing the duo to then rush to see what it was. There they saw Foundation soldiers, Yerens and others pointing their weapons at one single guy in a ragged hooded clothing demanding him to freeze and put hands in the air which he complied, thus one of the SCP soldiers came down and put him in handcuffs.
Dohan came to the duo and stated the situation. "Found this rotten thorn near an abandoned bazaar on the South side."
"Were there casualties?" the blonde anahuman asked.
"That's the thing, he didn't resist being captured."
The duo gazed at each other, knowing the fact that Abel didn't go on a killing spree means something.
Later on, Abel was contained with a straightjacket, chains all over and wearing a mouth muzzle. To say they wasted no expense would be an understatement, the anomalous immortal was so much a high level threat that the Foundation once blew up a whole Site when he breached containment and got free. To even add more security, he was locked in a room near the Frozen body of SCP-4715 the Demon Born of War with purple sigils all over its frozen crystalized body inside of some transparent icy material around it like that of glass but with purple veins and outside the room was guarded by two of its spawns the ARC demons so that if he somehow get out they would free the demon to eat him as lunch and even if he got out he gets his limbs torn open by the War Demon's spawns, though preferably they hoped it won't reach that as while the spawns are controlled, the same was not true for their progenitor who was more powerful.
The two Yerens and the two parahumans were watching Abel behind an interrogation one-way glass, and McGucket was there to check the security system for safety precautions.
Tancaras asked Cain. "You're Abel's brother, do you think he is the mole?"
Cain put a hand on his chin and pondered for a moment before shaking his head. "No, Abel doesn't do subtle things, if it were him he would have painted the walls red and had the corpses eviscerated into pieces for everyone to see."
"How did he even pass the scanners? It should have detected him! Or passed the guards, for that matter." Dohan was puzzled.
"He was here before you even put the scanners, he could have murder every man, woman and child whenever he wanted to."
That disturbing conclusion made them dismayed in bleakness as their expression showed, Abel was here the whole time and if he wanted to he could have killed them all with no warning, it was not a very comforting thought.
The immortal anahuman made his mind. "I'm going in."
The blonde anahuman protested. "You sure? You two don't have the best history, it should be me."
"Iris, you're not in any shape to confront my brother, he will open up old scars to get to you. Besides, I know what makes him tick better than anyone here."
She wanted to object but then recalled how she had an emotional breakdown just hours ago. She may get ripped and do something stupid if she interacts with Abel, the one who stabbed her in the back and killed her friends in Pandora's Box MTF. As badly as she wants to strangle him, they needed to know more. Besides, even if they killed him he was cursed with immortality so he would just respawn back from the tomb he crawls from called SCP-76-1. "Fine, I will go and gather a group to find the mole."
Cain gave a thankful nod and she smiled warmly before going out. Afterwards, he entered the room and closed the door upon entering.
There lay his brother, Abel, killed by him in a fit of jealousy and thus damning them both to suffer with immortality; seeing everything around them grow and wither away with their own unique flavor of curses, such as Cain' inability to be close to plants an ironic punishment since he love farming and Abel now a berserking monster of rage.
There was long silence while Cain took a chair to sit near the prisoner. Who then realized Cain was holding a small plant pot as he put it on the table.
Blue and Red eyes met and there was this suffocating air between them until the greeting started.
"Abel."
"Cain."
There was no warmth, not a happy family reunion, Cain was bland in his tone whereas Abel gave a predatory smirk promising carnage.
The imprisoned parahuman then made a few small moves making the chains shake slightly as he glanced at them before returning back giving a toothy cruel smirk. "All of this is for me? I feel honored ."
Cain simply responded. "It's for your own protection."
"Come now brother, we both know that's a lie. '' his tone sipped with sarcasm behind his cruel smile. "Otherwise, why would you employ Nightwalkers to make these wards?" He nodded to the arcane symbols on the chains, written in Yeren dialect and glowing faintly purple.
Cain then pointed at the plant pot. "Do you know what this is?
That made Cain frown in confusion, not the first line of questioning he was expecting.
"Really? Not gonna ask your dear brother why I haven't massacred everyone out of their misery?"
"What is this?"
Abel scoffed, biting his lips before finally answering this question. "It is a planet pot. What, are you going to give me a farming lesson to this old shepard? Some nostalgic trip?" he referenced that he used to be shepard.
Cain be pressed on. "Does it look shriveled? Lifeless? Is it becoming limped?
Abel gave a mocking look and gaze back at the planet before comprehending something.
The plant did not withered away, Cain's curse should have reduced it into a decrepit carcass, yet it still looked vital. He didn't show his shock behind losing his smile and a blank face and frowned.
"Do you want to know why grass no longer withers away? Why do plants no longer die at my approximately?"
Abel did not buy it. "Probably because it is not even a plant, just some Foundation trick or some of those anomalies as they also so politely call us." he sneered.
"Because I did the one thing I never thought I would be ever able to," Cain got a bit closer to whisper in his ear. "I forgave myself."
That egregious response made Abel snap, losing whatever humor he had as his face twisted into a feral snarl.
"The Hells did you SAY!?" he jumped with his face inches away thanks to the chains stopping him, while Cain stood there unflinched by his outburst, not even blinking.
Cain clarified with a stoic neutrality. "I forgave myself and the curse stopped, don't you see? We won't have to suffer forever, we can end our curse of damnation."
Abel gagged and then cackled like it was some bad joke, he then ridiculed in spite and then literally spit on the ground to show what he thought. "That's your solution? Magic of friendship and forgiveness? Should I forgive you my own brother for my murder?"
"What I did to you was wrong, there is no denying that. But what did we do after? Hmm?" He then walked back and sat on his chair, his tone was different to the last time they interacted, as was his posture. Before that he tried to appeal to his brother and even before that he used to visit him back in Foundation's custody to ask for reconciliation monthly, each time ending with Abel going berserk and trying to kill him, only to get himself killed thanks to Cain's attack reflecting curse. During those times he had a pleading and sorrowful tone but this time it was bland, almost sounding apathetic with a hint of underlying frustration. Like a man who had given up on disciplining his rowdy younger sibling, something that made Abel even madder but also baffled him since his brother had dropped the nice guy act to gain his forgiveness.
"I spent millennia atoning for what I did. What did you use your longevity for?" He rhetorically asked with a hand movement. "Perpetuating killing and sinning across eras. The world may know me as being synonymous with Murder, but you have become Murder incarnate, yours is a red ocean to my drop of blood."
Oh how Abel wished to get out of his chains and command the sharpest melee weapon possible to split his hated brother in half; however due to Cain's curse he would get himself killed again. But maybe that curse had also been lifted with the anti-plant matter curse? "Don't give me that sanctimonious garbage, during your early days wondering with your curse, you tried to drown yourself in vice to forget your punishment."
"At least I've changed before I shed an ocean of blood," Cain remarked, this time his frustration was palatable. He tried so hard to get over his brother's stubbornness that he lost most of his patience, especially since his brother hurted Thompson, someone who had become like a little sister to him.
"At least I have people who look up at me. Does anyone love you? Or a better question: has anyone managed to love you without being murdered by your bloodthirst?"
Abel wanted to snap but Cain shut him up with a hand and continued his rant. "Without being let down? I killed you because I was an envious, petty man. You killed on a scale reserved for conquering tyrants because you're become a deplorable, petty man with a heart so small nothing can fit."
"How…DARE YOU!" Abel growled, and his growls became bigger and bigger as his brother continued to give him a harsh dose of reality check.
"Hate me for what I did to you, I deserve that. But never ever delude yourself into thinking that you are some victimized honorable man free of blame here as that would be an insult for every innocent you have killed, you have become an even worse man than I once was." he said.
"GRAHA" Abel like a caged animal desperately trying to get his hands on him, but the chains didn't allow him.
Cain looked unimpressed. "Every time I tried to help you, every means I gave you to find peace, you have turned your back on it, not even appreciating what you gained in the Foundation before you threw it all away. You're no warrior, you are a petulant child with a perpetual tantrum."
He finally walked away as his brother barked madly.
"I WILL BUTCHER EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD HERE LIKE SHEEPS TO SLAUGHTER AND BURN THEIR CORPSES UNTIL THEIR PYRES ECLIPSE THE SUN! I'LL HAVE THEIR WEEPING REACH THE DARKEST CONTINENTS, THE LIKES OF WHICH EVEN THE DIVINE WILL REMEMBER! YOU HEAR ME, CAIN PRINCE OF COWARDS!?!? DO HEAR ME!?"
Cain did not look back, did not stop walking away, did not even glance at the raging brother of his as he spewed threats that promised inhumane slaughter and cursed him like the barks of a rabid dog.
Even after getting out and closing the door, his rabid brother continued to spew profanities.
McGucket noted in shock and aghast. "Holy Jesus, and here I thought Fordsy and his brother had it bad."
Dohan found Cain's method of interrogation very questionable. "Was it necessary to aggravate him? Now he wouldn't tell us anything and you didn't even ask him any questions."
Cain gave an uncharacteristically dark look that showed him every hard day of his immortal life and caught off-guard the big foot who had made the comment. "He wouldn't anyway. My brother would have tried to play mind games and knew I was here helping to organize the refugees. All of this was his attempt to get one over me on me by showing that he could kill everyone that I care and loved anytime he wanted." The bitterness in his voice was plain to hear.
"My brother is a petulant child, leave him and only give him essentials but ignore him. Don't even talk to him, when his temper has cooled, call me."
He then walks away and before he goes out he gets called out by Tancaras, who tried to stop him. "Don't you think you're taking this personally?"
Cain stopped, a moment later he only gave a small glance back over his left shoulder.
"He made it personal by hurting Iris." Acid dripped from his mouth as he then walked away, his memory of Iris's cry hours ago was fresh on his mind, a reminder of the many that had suffered and died because of Abel. Hurting her years ago was the one thing he may never forgive Abel for, even though deep down he still hoped his brother would still see the light of day.
But damn, he would be lying if he said it didn't feel good to finally put his bloodthirsty brother in his place.
Notes:For those who don't know I actually got the idea of a carnivore tree from African Mythology, an underrated culture if you ask me and as it turns out it is also a SCP, SCP-1001.
Thank you Milky_Boy_Blue for helping me in the editing part(I highly recommend checking his work, it's great)
Thanks TKD for the idea of using the name Rote Katastrophe.
By the way, with my final exams near I may not be able to update or write much less until the next 4 or 5 weeks.
