Hey guys, TheDoctor1998 here with another chapter. This time, we're gonna do the Spiral Path and its accompanying document.

Now, on with the show!

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Doctor Nori appeared on the screen. "Good afternoon everyone, my name is Doctor Nori, and today we're going to be studying one of the SCP-001 proposals. Specifically, Dr. Mann's proposal, AKA the Spiral Path."

Amity sighed. "Lets just hope it isn't a cursed path with an infinite loop or something."

"That can happen?" Camila asked, already starting to get used to the horrors of the Boiling Isles in her brief exposure.

Eda only shrugged. "I mean, there are rumors and fairy tales about that kinda thing, but nothing concrete like the time pools turned out to be."

Item #: SCP-001

Containment Class: Esoteric

Secondary Class: Embla

Disruption Class: Dark

Risk Class: Notice

Lilith stopped scribbling for a moment. "Embla Class? What in the worlds is an Embla Class?"

Yahweh gave a shrug. "It's an anomaly that the Foundation uses to create other anomalies."

"Great." Vee groaned. "At least this thing, whatever it is, isn't dangerous when left alone."

Containment Procedures: SCP-001 is contained on the grounds of Site 0, in upstate [REDACTED]. A fence has been constructed around the perimeter of SCP-001's observed effects. In addition to Site 0's security, no fewer than five armed guards are to be present at all times to prevent unauthorized entry. The adjoining physics laboratory will be manned at all hours, studying any anomalies.

A small metal plaque bearing an inscription will be maintained in good condition. Any damage is to be immediately reported to maintenance.

Ed blinked. "That's it? That's all that you've gotta do to hold it?"

Em elbowed him. "It's a path, you just have to keep people away from it."

Description: SCP-001 is a circular gravel path in a wooded area. When traveled in a counter-clockwise direction, the trail is continuously uphill, even after reaching the original point. When traveled in a clockwise direction, the trail shows the same amount of uphill and downhill travel, as expected.

Level 5 clearance is required to access SCP-001's experiment log.

New members of Overseer Council are required to read Document 001-O5.

Skara couldn't help but frown in confusion. "Wait, that's all there is to that path? Seems a bit lame after those other things if you ask me."

Raine couldn't help but pipe up. "I'm guessing that it may be the first thing they found, like that Prototype thing. Assuming one of them is false or put in to throw us off, that is."

Doctor Nori appeared on the screen. "So, SCP-001. A relatively simple anomaly, and as far as I know one of the first to be discovered. And though I am curious about Document 001-O5, I'm both unable and unwilling to read it without the approval of the O5's."

Viney and the rest of the Detention Trackers frowned. They've gone against authority for long enough in their short lives to know that this document would explain a lot about why this simple thing would be a 001.

The screen glitched out, replacing Doctor Nori's image with the text Document 001-O5.

"Ohh, mama's smelling some dirty secrets." Eda grinned while rubbing her hands. Or, at least, that's what she tried to do before remembering the fact she needed a replacement arm. "Hey, Goggles, you think you can hook me up with a new arm?"

Alador sighed, not having missed that particular nickname. "Given enough time, I think I could make one that you'd like, Edalyn."

Eda merely gave him a thumbs up, explicitly ignoring Alador's annoyance.

If you're reading this, then congratulations. One of us has died. Something killed one of us. A monster, perhaps, or a rival from the GOC. Or maybe we got just a little close to the flame, like Aaron. Not old age, of course. We took care of that, didn't we? Anyway, one of the old guard is gone. Maybe Jason. Maybe Agnes. Maybe me. Hell, I'd be surprised if I wasn't the next one to die. I always was the most expendable.

"Wait a minute." Luz said slowly. "Did that guy just admit that they've found the cure to old age?"

"We don't have to be alone in a million years!" King exclaimed happily.

Luz blinked for a moment. "King, what are you talking about?"

King shuffled a bit awkwardly at his sister's question. "Well, you know how my dad was really old, right? And how both of us are titans too?"

The half titan slumped at that. "Titan, I didn't even think of that."

"Yeah, welcome to my world. Population, you, me, and the Collector."

I'm going to write this to you as though you were a human being. It will be the last time anyone extends you the courtesy, so I hope you appreciate it.

Hunter winced. He knew exactly what it was like to not be treated like a person.

Whoever you are, whatever you did before, you must have been high-ranking when you were pulled into this. You must have noticed the discrepancies, the inconsistencies. I don't know how much you've been told already, or how much you've pieced together. The crux of the matter is this: The retrievals and recoveries of SCP objects are staged, or made up whole cloth. We have never "discovered" an SCP in the entire history of the Foundation.

"Wait, what?" Nobody knew who said that, but all shared the sentiment.

I should start from the beginning. Let me tell you a story.

Aaron Siegel was a physicist studying at Cornell in 1891. He was a truly gifted individual, and had his life taken a different path, I believe that his name would be there with Edison, Einstein, and Hawking. I knew him very well. He was, and may still be, my brother.

"Who are those?" Alador asked, slightly intrigued.

"Some of the most famous scientists humanity's ever produced." Luz said with a smile.

"Yeah." Vee agreed with her sister. "While Edison was a businessman that used the inventions of his personnel, Einstein and Hawking are well known for their work in theoretical physics. Hell, Einstein predicted black holes before people even discovered a shred of their evidence!"

To say Alador's attention was caught was like saying his ex-wife is a horrible monster, clear as day to any that sees them. He just had to know about humanity's inventions.

He was also an avid amateur naturalist, and enjoyed hiking through the woods. One day, while visiting our family home in Essex county, he came across a gravel path. He decided to follow it for a time, and noticed that it kept climbing uphill far longer than it should have. It should have taken him above the nearby hills. Instead, he found himself back where he'd started, without a foot of downwards travel.

Another man would have assumed his senses were faulty and left. Aaron, however, was a stubborn man. He investigated further. He found the path did not conform to the pure geometry of Euclid. Like Saccheri before him, he had found something abhorrent to the nature of straight lines.

"Saccheri?" Amity asked her girlfriend.

Luz simply shrugged. "I don't know everything about human history and culture, but I'm guessing they're a scientist or artist or something."

He studied it. The equations he derived are part of the file you've received. You'll learn them by heart eventually. He built a small shack nearby which served as a makeshift laboratory. His first experiments produced a key capable of opening any lock, now contained as SCP-005.

Lilith looked back on her notes on the Skeleton Key she made earlier that day. "Could've sworn it'd be a key made of bones."

"It's just slang." Masha shrugged. "Humans use the term for keys designed to open any lock of some type."

He brought in others. As his brother, I was one of the first he contacted. I was a medical student at Harvard at the time. I initially thought he was mad, but when he showed me the path, the key, I had to learn more. There were others with us, other friends and colleagues. Most of them are gone now, but… We were the core. We created the Foundation from around ourselves.

In the beginning, it was just about discovery, about finding the things we could do. We had such high hopes, such plans. We were going to change the world. We were going to save it from itself. We could feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, heal the sick and dying.

"I'm guessing that didn't work out." Camila said warily, thinking of the Prototype and the Factory.

Thomas Carter found us money. We were none of us poor, but we ran through our fortunes quickly. Thomas used his connections on Wall Street and in Washington to fund us. He showed them the least of what we could do, and promised heaven against the threat of hell.

Agnes Peterson, my brother's fiancée, was the administrator. We knew nothing of how to run an organization. We were a herd of cats, running to and fro, and she turned us into a foundation, putting us dreamers and madmen to the same yoke.

We soon had a facility built. But we were still so secretive. As much as we wanted to shout from the rooftops what we had found, we were frightened, too, that it would be taken from us. We told ourselves it was just for the interim, until we were sure of our footing. We'd show them, eventually. We'd show them all.

"That's not ominous at all." Em muttered, Ed nodding next to her. He may not be as smart as his sisters at times, but he does notice things.

We were careful, at first. We made small, inoffensive, or even helpful items. The fountain of youth. The bouncing ball. The Civil War statue. We grew more confident, and we started working on humans. The concrete man. He volunteered. Or the man with the abdominal planet. Just a drifter, but we made him something special, didn't we?

"So the fountain of youth is real." Luz breathed.

"Fountain of youth?" Eda asked her daughter, a bit intrigued.

"It's an old human legend." Luz started explaining. "Basically, it's an ancient magical fountain with water that reverses the aging process when touched or drunk, depending on the version." The half titan glanced at the screen again. "Guess they made it themselves with this Spiral Path."

It was all so easy. Perhaps it seems absurd to get so many things from that one little break in reality, but it all flowed, one discovery to the next. It almost seemed like something was helping us along.

But then, things started going a bit wrong. While he was playing with his equations, Aaron accidentally derived the missing number. In my laboratory, I found I'd made the zombie plague. But we were too invested in our projects, so we pushed ahead. Then came the pipe nightmare, and the stairwell. We knew we'd need more help.

"They made a zombie plague?!" Camila screamed, already fearing an invasion of the undead.

"What's a zombie?" Hunter asked the humans among them.

Luz winced. "Long story short, it's a human myth about the dead coming to life as living corpses to consume the living."

All the witches and demons in the audience frowned or growled. There are some forms of magic that go far too far, and necromancy is one of the highest taboos on the Isles.

Thomas showed what we'd done to the military. Told them we'd "found" these things, discovered them. We made up names like "Prometheus Labs," and "the Chaos Insurgency." They gave us funding, personnel. We built up, and expanded outward. We repeated the sell in other countries. Some listened, some didn't. Enough did. We became an international organization. We brought in more researchers, though very few ever suspected we were the source of these items they studied. Sometimes we would arrange for an object to be "found" by a field team, sometimes we would simply write the reports. We generated the paperwork, and we were the oversight. If we said a thing was, it was. It still is.

There were still problems, of course. Jeremy and Thomas took one of our experiments and ran off with it, creating their ridiculous club. One of our researchers grew mad and started worshipping machines, escaping with enough knowledge to be dangerous. We still deal with the fallout of these splinter groups.

So we contained them. We handled them. We couldn't stop, surely you can see that? Rather than more cautious, we grew bolder. I cut a little boy up and turned him into the Flesh That Hates.

"They did what?" Eda started growling, feeling the Owl Beast's rage alongside her own. Selfish and chaotic she may be, but she's always had a weak spot for kids. She didn't even want to imagine what they'd do to the witch and demon kids of the Isles. She didn't want to imagine what they'd do to Luz or King.

There were reasons. There were always reasons. Two thirty-one. We created her, and her sisters. We took them from orphanages, and arranged for what followed. And it was no accident. We knew what we were doing. There was a reason for it once, but I'll be damned if I can remember it now. None of us do, except maybe my brother, wherever, whatever he is now.

Darius scoffed, hiding how disturbed he was by what these humans were doing. "There's always a reason these madmen do what they do, isn't there."

We keep moving forward. Even after Abel, after the blood pond, after that damnable reptile, we still move forward with our work. What else can we do? Our only hope to survive the events we've set in motion is to understand better, to learn more. We're on the back of a terrible beast, and if we try to jump off now, we'll be crushed beneath. But that's not what frightens me, and it isn't what should frighten you. We've maintained our foothold for over a hundred years.

"Okay, they definitely know how to cure old age." Lilith muttered, scribbling down the various entities that they mentioned.

The things I really worry about are the anomalies we didn't create. No, I was telling the truth the first time. We didn't discover any of them. But some of them, they aren't our work. They just… were, one day. They were in containment, and they'd always been in containment. Don't you see? We're not in control anymore. We never were.

"Fuck." Skara said simply, showing how afraid she was.

The screen glitched again, showing Doctor Nori walking on a wooded path next to an orange haired man with a thick mustache and beard. "It's a nice day today, isn't it Nori?" The man said to her.

"I suppose so." Doctor Nori said. "Weird that the O5's just let us walk on this thing, Mann."

Dr. Mann simply shrugged. "001 isn't really that dangerous on its own. Messing with this little glitch in reality too much will cause some nasty things to happen, but other than that it's perfectly safe."

Doctor Nori simply glanced down at her mechanical arm, before shaking her head and continuing to walk.

Once the video ended, God talked again. "Well, this was our last entry for the day. I suggest you start with dinner and some downtime before heading to bed." And before anyone could ask him something, Yahweh vanished from the spot.

A moment of silence passed. "Hey, Eda." The half titan asked her adoptive mother.

"Yeah Kiddo?" The Owl Lady replied, still somewhat in shock.

"Can you teach me how to fly?" Luz asked, spreading her new wings for emphasis.

Eda grinned, recognizing that this was Luz's way to distract everyone from what they've learned about the Human Realm today. "Sure thing. But first, let's eat. Mama's worked up an appetite, and she's ready to eat a slitherbeast!"

And with that, the entire audience slowly started trickling out of the room. Some were wondering which of the 001's, if any, were real, and which ones were fake. Regardless, they'd try to move as best they can when they'd return home, with those that regularly go to Gravesfield vowing to themselves to be extra careful in the Human Realm, knowing that exposure to the Foundation could potentially bring disaster to them all.

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And that's a wrap. Next time there'll be an intermission before we start again with SCP-002. TheDoctor1998 here, signing out!