Everything was black; it was like drowning but not suffocating, the Cyborg Child was no longer a cyborg looking identical to a normal human child as she looked at the hand that was supposedly cybernetic in awe.
Suddenly, everything changed; images violently were passing frame by frame of death, removal of freedom, destruction of iron and blood, and an army of slaves serving a mechanical abomination, there were screaming souls trapped in flesh and metal in agony crying out for a release and then there was darkness again.
Only this time she heard the sound of gears moving and when she looked she saw a leviathan of metal rising in front of her: a giant mechanical humanoid larger than comprehension holding a scepter, two angelic wings of steel, multiple arms, and two blue fires as eyes staring at her.
Its presence was familiar like she had seen it before. A nagging suspicion came as she realized who or what was the cause of her rebirth.
"What do you want from me?" it was all she could ask and a titanic voice bellowed out in reply in gentle comfort.
"Bring Them Peace."
Next more violent images were flashing of a singular, red-eyed, hateful machine, a horned scarlet giant shrouded by mist seen between the mountains and of an all-out war.
"Hey kid- "
The sound of the man stopped the moment scissor-like knife claws extended from the frightful Cyborg Child getting up from her makeshift bed with a cold sweat, an action which also surprised her as until today she did not know she could retract sharp claws reminiscent of when her robotic arm had scissor fingers claws instead of fingers from her hands. She looked and saw it was Ghost-Eyes, one of the other survivors the Black Knight found awkwardly standing still due to the bladed claws near him so she slowly retracted them back.
Afterwards, he said the reason why he came to her.
"Uh, I was gonna say breakfast is ready."
Cybie sighed "S-sorry." She stutters a bit, still not used to being able to talk.
"It's fine, The key to carrying knives is maturity and responsibility as Plato once said." He shrugged and then he moved and Cybie followed suit, for a criminal who used to be in prison Ghost-Eyes was surprisingly philosophical as Cybie was amused.
They were in an abandoned convenience store with a small group of survivors, Some of the noticeable survivors included Ghost-Eyes, Witch Hand, SCP-347 the Invisible Woman aka Claudia, Shmebulock, and of course, the Black Knight who wasn't always there.
The Black Knight sometimes goes out in search of other survivors and brings them here, though it was for supplies as well as the more people he would bring the more mouths were needed to be fed despite the abandoned store's supplies having been not aged a day thanks the ghosts of its owner who only appeared sometimes and now was one of those times.
The abandoned Convenience Store still had power thanks to its inhabited ghosts; however, it was decided to not turn on the lights or else they wanted to attract the wrong attention thus they also covered the glassed walls with blackout curtains, the automatic entrance was replaced by a garage door, and a few fences and sharpened woods were around the place as defense.
Despite the store still stocked with foods that should have expired a long time ago and yet did not thanks to its resident ghosts Pa and Ma Duskerton, due to the limitations of the ever-growing sheltered survivors it was decided to rationalize everything and fortunately or unfortunately depending on the point of view the Witch Hand was good at making meals at minimal.
"Can't we…just add a bit of sauce on it?" Ghost-Eyes questioned looking at his meal being the first person to get his meal, The soup…didn't exactly look palpable, it was green, slimy looking and there was a bubble coming out of it and he was sure it would give any world-renowned chef a heart attack by just looking at it.
The Witchling did not appreciate criticism about her cooking so while she was dissolving her cauldron where she cooked with a big spoon with a disembodied hand and then smacked Ghost-Eyes on his head.
"Ow!"
"Sauce? SAUCE!? What kind of witch did you take me for!? The type who spews candies and sweets whenever you whine about the food not looking appetizing from thin air!?" The Witch ranted like an old woman ranting about what the next generation considers as cool, Ghost-Eyes seeing he was not gonna win any argument decided to move away for the next person.
"Sauce! Ungrateful…" She shook her head as she muttered, while giving soup to the next person, Shmebulock , the old gnome who was near her on the counter decided to object.
"Shmebulock!"
"Oh you think you can do better with your tiny hands?" the Witch Hand retorted sarcastically at the old gnome as she then poured to the next person who was Claudia.
The Invisible Woman who was now wearing a light green jean and light blue with a light brown shirt and an open light blue blouse managed to hide her repulsion thanks to her body being invisible with a worried tone.
"Just to be clear, is not…you know made of hands right?"
The witch huffed in offense at that.
"I'm offended that you even think that, Not every witch is a cannibal that uses human body parts to cook, you know, that's a stereotype against witches!"
That was when Ma, one of the ghosts who haunted the abandoned store, materialized and tried to reason with the Witch.
"Woah miss, I get it all pissy about ya cooking and all and I do share your frustration with the current generation, but don't ya think your cooking doesn't need a bit working on?" She glanced at the soup and for once was glad she didn't need or much less could eat or consume it because she was sure she would have lost her appetite just from seeing the sickly green ooze. "I mean, sheesh!"
The Witch gave an eye roll "I'm not being criticized by a dead person who can't even eat and died just because of a bunch of teens playing music."
"I BEG YOUR PARDON!?" The female ghost slightly agitated from blue turned red and slightly demonic which did not intimidate the old witch at all.
And here it was again; the Witch Hand and Mrs. Dunkerton like all old ladies, grumbled at each other, thankfully it was never reached beyond verbal because having a witch and a ghost fighting each other as entertaining as it sounds was not something everyone would want here because finding a convenient store that wasn't scrapped by Factory and away from the invaders was not exactly easy to find and outside never been so utterly unsafe since Weirdmageddon.
Ignoring the Factory and the Cultists Gravity Falls has become an environmental death zone housing all matter of dangerous anomalous creatures from raptors with headlights to carnivorous plants and red-eyeless ugly red dogs that mimic the sound of others to trick the survivors like anglerfish attracting their prey into a trap to sink their teeth in.
"Ageist specter!" Witch Hand sneered.
"Witchling hag!" Ma snarked.
"Decrepit phantasm!"
"Antichrist worshiper!"
"Choir Girl!"
While all this was happening, Cybie was looking at this reminding her of all the inane back-and-forth retorts that happened during her time in the Foundation especially whenever it was some of the eccentric Foundation doctors involved like Bright, making her nostalgic. However, she wasn't the only one as Claudia did share the same sentiment and also because it was a brief distraction for the Cyborg Child from the existential crisis she was internally having that she just found out she got revived and changed by an elder god.
Pa decided to intervene to put a stop to this as he materialized between them.
"Alright ladies, I know this is not an ideal situation and we all are under stress and all, but nothing is gained in being at each other's throat like cats and dogs and I know it is the stress that is talking that does not really mean what you say."
The Witch Hand sight as she remembered something and chose to be the one to extend the olive branch as she rubbed her eyes "Fine, sorry for my short temper, I missed my partner," she elaborated further "Though at least he was out of this country hiking somewhere else when this whole thing started."
"I understand." Ma accepted the apology and nodded "And I'm sorry too."
Claudia chimed in.
"Yeah, I get it, I used to have a boyfriend too." she with one free hand articulated "Let's just say we are on a break over… complicated things." She started a bit hesitant and walked to the left, that was when Witch Hand realized something, the disembodied hand that was helping her with the soup was not in its place anymore and she immediately knew who.
"HEY! STOP STEALING MY HANDS!" indeed the Invisible Woman was secretly holding the struggling hand and decided to drop it and run away as the Witch Hand cursed her and threw the spoon at her as the Invisible SCP ran away, it wasn't the first time Claudia's kleptomania caused her to steal her hands. Before things escalated again, the door outside was opened, and from there came SCP-5151 the Black Knight dragging something: It was a killed Headlight Raptor he was dragging which he then dropped on the floor.
"So..who's hungry?" the immortal Knight chirped in.
Claudia saw that left the hand which she stole which then walked on its fingers toward its original owner and put the soup she had on a shelf.
"I'll take that anything over the magic soup."
"Shmebulock." the gnome agreed.
Soon everyone but the Witch Hand and the ghosts came near the fresh meat and now were planning to skin it and cook it. Witch Hand rolled her eyes seeing everyone quickly put her cooking away and she murmured "Thankless wretches."
Cybie, unlike others, didn't feel particularly hungry, not after the strange dream she had. She came near the Knight and tucked his cloak to get his attention as she asked. "C-c-can y-y-y-you show me how-w-w to fight?" The SCP Knight looked at her curiously.
"Something has been troubling you youngling?" He inquired, being able to read people's souls he could tell something was troubling her.
"You-y-ou c-could say that." She made her point clear then extended his bladed fingers from both her hands this time slowly.
The anomalous knight, a bit surprised by her ability, then smiled and agreed to teach her a few things.
"Then of course."
The underground….
The survivors were now camping albeit temporarily spending hours navigating the interconnected underground system of Gravity Falls, if it weren't for the supernatural inhabitants of the Falls they would have been lost in this mind-scratching subterranean maze.
Iris Laskaris walked past a few survivors coming toward Iris Thompson who was on the lookout with some and expressed her concern.
"I don't like having Pacifica around the Plague Fellow." the blonde Iris gave an eyebrow which prompted her to elaborate further.
"She's been following the bird creep like a lost puppy, I don't want her to end up believing his delusions on 'pestilence'." she quotes him in the air with sarcasm.
Thompson gave a slight sardonic smirk.
"A little too late for that don't you think? Because I just saw him with her and a bunch of kids giving them his 'wisdom'."
"He's WHAT- !?" Laskaris's squawked reaction caused Thompson to give a barely contained snort, as much as Thompson never would admit it Alto and Jack's pension to catch people flatfooted for their enjoyment has rubbed on her a bit.
Indeed the Plague Doctor was with the young to share his 'wisdom' across centuries upon them and one they will not forget anytime soon as they sat across a made-up bonfire.
That included philosophical ponderings on the human condition using the Dark Age's Witch hunting, the Black Death, and France's most violent revolutions as examples, all of them describing in every graphic detail including the latter topic from the plague that came after due to so many corpses rotting and death by guillotines.
"Death by guillotines was not as quick as they used to think back then," He continued to expertly scientifically explain to the apprehensive kids why death by it is not a quick way to die "Unconsciousness occurs after 10 seconds, and even after that it takes 6-10 minutes until the cells of the brain decompose due to the lack of oxygen- "
Pacifica decided to be the one interrupting him from going to every nitty bitty detail by half-shouting "THANK YOU, doctor, for that very ASTUTE analysis of death by losing your head in every gory detail!"
"Anyone hungry?" the Swamp Woman sitting on a rock while eating a cooked chicken asked innocently as he showed around a chicken wing for everyone oblivious to the situation, making Thompson run fast and puke somewhere. The amphibian SCP may be the oldest and technically not a minor, but she still had the mind of a child.
Tambry wryly stated "Gross." over all of this she had Josie the Half-Cat on her lap.
The Plague Doctor gave an unamused look and reminded himself that he was talking about scientific subjects with children, not scientists, he was even missing his time contained by the Foundation because at least there were doctors to appreciate his centuries of gathered knowledge.
"Goodbye childhood." Candy with a haunted look simply said.
"This is making my pale skin crawl like the deepest of my black heart…" Robbie wrinkled his nose and went emo.
Gideon became slightly green.
Lee decided to change the subject by evading Plague Doctor's scientific harrowing facts as he was eating a beef that came from Big Charlie "Not to sound ungrateful professor, but this isn't a class, can't you tell a story instead?"
"Yeah…can you tell us about the Hanged King? You and the mask freak mentioned him before." Gideon recalled the spat battle between Plague Doctor and the Possessive Mask and pondered something Pacifica was also interested in.
The avian humanoid hummed and decided to do a story time "Have you ever heard the Tragedy of The Hanged King? Of course not, is not a story that is said lightly or to children much less," Tambry who took notice with an eyebrow as the Half Cat sleeps on her knees. Lee would soon regret offering this suggestion to the anomalous doctor, so as Gideon.
The Doctor calmly continued his story.
"There was once a city Alagadda, it was ruled by ruled by a corrupt tyrant who indulged himself in forbidden pleasures and practiced unholy arts, none of his people held any love for their tyrannical ruler," Pacifica already did not like where this was going as she was the descendant of a line of lying blue bloods with insane ideas on belittling the common folk.
Just then Thompson returned "Sorry guys, what did I miss?"
"One day, the people rebelled against their tyrant, some say it was because of years of mistreatment boiling up, others say the foolish King tried to play a game with Death or the Demiurge and lost. What mattered was, that the vengeful populace set his palace on fire and killed all who were loyal to him including his Court Jester," Pacifica and Gideon shivered a bit getting a dreaded idea of who the Hanged King's Court Jester was and he nearly convinced the Northwest into putting that damnable Mask on herself. Grenda noticing their reaction slightly bent the can in her hand, hating the anomalous Mask for nearly possessing her blonde friend, and the amphibian humanoid gave a low growl sharing Grenda's contempt as well.
"Oh…" Thompson muttered now wishing he was missing this.
The Plague Doctor was calm and well-disposed, but he was just as calm when he 'cured' Dr. Hamm. The Plague Doctor is always composed and can be reasoned with, which only makes him dangerous and there was an edge in his unnerving calmness the youths could feel as he told the story.
"The King himself was captured, his crown and robes were replaced by rags and chains, and forced to crawl through the streets as he was mocked, kicked, and cheered for his demise. Even during all that even with his jaw broken he mumbled unholy words until he was silenced as he was hanged in the city hall and he continued to mumble until he died and then buried in a shallow grave." Robbie hunched in morbid interest while the Thompson boy started to feel scared.
"What litanies of abhorrence did he say? No one knows, but it has left him so foul that not even maggots and crows dared to feast upon his corpse. Days after terrible curses came down Alagadda, those who raided the Kings' treasury suffered the most; illness, suicide, and such madness that made even most of the animals fleed the accursed town," Nate was loudly crunching on chips and Lee decided he was not hungry anymore put the beef on the dish aside.
"The same day, the King refused to die and rose from his grave sitting on a throne of rusted spikes that pierced his body in agony as payment for his foul incantations, and yet despite that the King took his revenge on his people by having crows pecking anyone who dared to set foot on his palace pecked to death while rivers of blood came up like tides of a sea storm." Grenda and Candy were now holding hands being disturbed while the Swamp Woman stopped munching on the chicken leg and slowly put it down Gideon was morbidly curious about what sort of dark magic could do this as he recalled a page from Stanford's journals that talked about a spell to bring the dead albeit as mindless zombies whereas this one seems much more devious and advance.
"He wasn't the only one coming back as a wraith, not just his subjects such as his Court Jester but soon the city became the city of the twisted raised dead as the King helplessly saw his city becoming a grotesque parody, a carnival of sin and vice so foul that even the tyrant was horrified. The city was banished to the outside world, unable to do anything as he sat on his throne of agony, weeping in silence as the gods laughed at the man who thought himself as one becoming the Hanged King."
The youth were silent; taking time to process what probably was the bleakest story they ever heard with only the sound of the wood being burned by the fire audible.
Gideon scratched the back of his head awkwardly and said his opinion.
"That's uhm, a rather…grime story."
"Most hardcore story I ever heard." Robbie speechless muttered.
Candy who was holding a hand with Grenda tried to comfort her and then asked as she comprehended something.
"Question: no one tried to…you know, leave?"
"And if this guy is stuck as a glorified mummy, how come he can do anything at all?" the Northwest then followed by.
The avian humanoid responded.
"The Hanged King has the Ambassador of Alagadda to do his bedding, though rumors say the King is in actuality being used by his purported servant." he then gave a glance to Paz "As for your question Ms Northwest-"
The blonde girl stopped her from calling her that.
"Just Pacifica, makes me feel old being called that."
"Very well. As I was saying; some did end up away from the city such as the Court Jester making fools out of monarchs and curious men for centuries, there was once the son of an influential aristocrat, the said aristocrat tried to overthrow the Hanged King only to be betrayed by her son and because of the son's stupidity he lost everything; his family, his fortune, his legacy and was cast down away."
"What…happened to the son?" Gideon reluctantly asked.
The Plague Doctor shrugged with both shoulders.
"Qui sait, some say he travels the Earth directionless," he then continued this time with an unnerving calmness "Some say he became a sociopath deluding himself into thinking he is on a great mission and others say he tried becoming a healer starting a family only to lose them to a plague and is on a crusade to stop the plague once and for all for centuries no matter what it takes."
They were getting a nagging suspicion that the Plague Doctor and this wandering son were the same but did not dare to ask for confirmation as they felt intimidated by the look the Plague Doctor was giving his eyes glinting with unnerving coldness as he described this 'son' character.
The Northwest girl then asked in apprehension.
"What are you getting at? Why… all of this?"
The avian SCP responded neutrally.
"That remains for you all on what wisdom you'll gain from this tale of tragedy and horror." he then got from where he sat and walked away not before giving a polite nod in the form of goodbye. The atmosphere around the group was now cold as they contemplated the story of the Tragedy of the Hanged King.
They now preferred the morbid scientific and sociological intrigues of the pre-industrial era that the Plague Doctor kept babbling about over this tale of tragic horror.
Just then Laskaris showed up but seeing the state she knew she was too late thanks to the avian SCP so she awkwardly tried to think of something to cheer them up as she scratched the back of her head "So...anyone want to hear about that time Bright and Clef played poker?"
"This sucks," Robbie said with a hunched form, the whole atmosphere got sucked out by the tale of the Hanged King.
Lord Goran the Breaker of Kingdoms got up; one clawed hand got out of the earth thanks to hours of digging through to reach the surface and with force the earth opened and a giant of blackish-red armor rose. He saw far worse situations than being buried alive.
He started walking half hunch exhausted from digging through kilometers of dirt to reach the surface with his ax dragged on the ground with his right hand.
He hoped the collapse would take the Anahuman brothers away, but he doubts that they died.
After eons of servitude to his King facing the most hazardous of dimensions and mighty beasts and warriors since and before his exile from the Servants of Mekhane, Archons of Yaldabaoth, the Scholars of Nahash, Titans, Deities, Demons, Angels, Temporal Enforcers, surviving the Nightmare Realm away from the Dream Demon's gaze and facing the Neverwere he was not gonna die on some dirtball dying ingloriously under the Earth and letting that smug warlock and that fiendish changeling to get their laughs at him.
One time he remembers the haughty canine witch while purring asking him why he speaks, Lord Goran said to never speak and yet he does so why? He did not answer because he refused to give her the satisfaction or else he have killed her and as much it displeased him he still needed her and the Warlock's help, but he was not naive to know they would betray him if it was convenient for them unlike his relationship with the Fabricator Machine which was based on mutual business and it would be bad for business if you betray the sponsor of your executive now would it?
He didn't speak before his exile because it was a vow of silence he took in his service to the King in a show of loyalty.
He had tarnished his honor and for that, he was exiled.
Let them have their laughs, his dishonor will not be forever as he will regain his honor back at the King's side and once his honor and full power are restored they will see why he was known as the Breaker of Kingdoms.
—--END—--