"These are the members of my army."
The place where SCP-239 stationed her army was a large storage room full of office supplies like paper, boxes, and multiple rows upon rows of metal shelves.
Though… calling it an army is very much a stretch.
Beyond the three researchers and five Foundation security guards, I spotted a woman with nine tails wearing traditional East Asian clothing in a far corner of the storage room sitting on the shelf and eating a jerky.
There was another young woman in her late teens who wore a simple white shirt and pants and sat by the wall. She had blonde hair and blue eyes, and inside the teen's hands was a series of paper folded into all kinds of animals.
More than those few, I spotted a caucasian man in his mid-30s working on a computer as though he were a surgeon and the computer a patient, with all the scalpels involved.
"Is this… all those who were unaffected by SCP-343?"
SCP-239 flicked her hair, "Yes. Though we also had a robot. It was turned into a toy by our fortress when it went out to collect parts for self-assembly."
One of the researchers, an elderly Asian man, stepped in and elaborated on what SCP-239 meant.
"The loss of SCP-2785 was regrettable, but it went out before any of us could stop them." He then extended a hand, "Doctor Chen, Senior Researcher at Site-17. So I was told you are a very powerful reality sink who's completely immune to the powers of SCP-343?"
I returned the handshake with a slight nod, "I am Kukulkan. Goddess. I was originally part of Mobile Task Force Tau-5 and was sent to investigate what happened to Site-17 before well… SCP-343 happened and Commander Hughes turned on me."
"Tau-5?" One of the security guards exclaimed.
"Yes."
I replied before turning to Doctor Chen, "So you mind giving me an overview of all our survivors?"
Doctor Chen introduced the other two researchers, both of whom had very forced smiles on their faces as they greeted me.
"Researcher Saalim al-Sham." Chen placed a hand on the back of the male of Arabic descent, before gesturing at the other female of Southeast Asian descent, "And Assistant Researcher Ana Kaitlyn Lao-lao Alba."
Then, Chen placed a hand on the shoulder of a rather short caucasian with black hair and brown eyes, "Sergeant Daniel Hill."
"Corporal Jeremias Sokolov." Another caucasian man of a bit taller than me with brown hair and equally brown eyes.
"Lieutenant Ralph Riddle, the highest ranking security staff inside here," Ralph was the tallest one here, a bit taller than even Cain. He was white, with green eyes though I couldn't tell what hair color he had since he was wearing a helmet.
"Second Lieutenant Wayne Collins," Wayne waved at me. He looked no older than 25 but his glasses and curls of hair made him look much younger.
"Specialist Kathleen Chandler."
"Call me Kat." The red-eyed woman said. She had her snow-white hair cut short to reach no deeper than the base of her neck.
"And the SCPs?"
Chen clapped his hands, before gesturing to the fox woman who was approaching me, "SCP-953. Extremely dangerous. Possessing polymorphic and moderate psionic abilities. She's much tamer now after losing her hand to SCP-073."
"Do you really have to start with that, you old ass?" The fox woman asked before looking up and down my body.
Chen ignored SCP-953 and continued, "She prefers the term Kumiho and not Kitsune."
SCP-953 grimaced at the mention of the word 'kitsune'. Strange. Possibly had some bad run-ins with them? Do the SCPverse even have kitsunes?
I noticed how after finishing the jerky, the fox lady was scratching the bandaged-up stump of her right arm, her hand nowhere to be seen…
"I'm sure you've already met with SCP-073 and SCP-239."
I nodded, and my attention moved on from SCP-953 and back to Chen, upon which the man gestured at the SCP working on the computer.
"SCP-890, unofficially we call him the Mechanical Surgeon. He can operate on machines as though they were composed of living flesh."
SCP-890 didn't respond and instead was intensely focused on the computer in front of him. Focusing on the computer underneath SCP-890's gaze, I noticed the distinct appearance of flesh, blood, and bones within the areas opened by SCP-890.
"..."
I recoiled. It was disturbing to see flesh and blood inside a computer like it was alive.
"Yeah, doesn't make much sense either. All we know is that he can transmute machines into living tissue. DNA testing reveals that these are his own tissues."
Then, Doctor Chen introduced me to the other woman. She was quiet, and meek, and didn't focus on anything other than folding more paper animals. Physically, the woman has blonde hair and the palest of blue eyes. Her height was much shorter than mine, by almost a full head.
Oddly enough, seeing her made me think of Rick.
"SCP-105. She can manipulate photographs and whatever changes she causes to that photograph manifests into reality. Because of the destruction of SCP-105-B by SCP-343, her main camera, we're having a debate on whether or not to release her after this all blows over."
SCP-105 was similar to SCP-890 and didn't respond. It was as though she was lost in her own world as she focused on the paper animals in front of her.
"SCP-105 has been hit rather hard by the destruction of SCP-105-B."
I nodded.
"Oh, and there's one more SCP—"
SCP-239, who was pouting this entire time as Chen introduced everyone, finally decided to speak up, "Enough, Diktor, I, the amazing Zvezdnyy Rebenok, shall introduce this last one. After all, special care is required for my Igrushka."
The witch took my hand and started guiding me deeper into this storage room, passing by several rolls of tall shelves before stopping by the last aisle.
There, at the end of this aisle, was someone with long hair curled up in a fetal position. They were small, so probably a child, and because of the long hair veiling much of their body, I couldn't tell what gender they were.
SCP-239 slowly approached the child in a fetal position.
At about a meter away, SCP-239 then "Boo!" And jumped forward, narrowly missing the child and seemingly scaring them with how they cowed away from SCP-239.
"Ha! Scared you!"
"..."
I stared at the scene stunned. My mouth was agape as I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
"What are you doing?"
SCP-239 stood up and turned around. When she saw that I had an angry expression on my face, the girl became confused.
Tilting her head to the side, SCP-239 approached me and asked, "Why do you look so angry, my Polkovodets? Like I said to Cain, if my Igrushka didn't like it wouldn't she say it?"
I bit my lips at this scene of cruelty.
There, I strode forward and sidestepped SCP-239 before squatting right next to the kid in a fetal position.
She can't be any older than SCP-239.
Being up so close, I could spot how she wore a sleeveless garment, and how her arms all the way up to the shoulders were all bandaged up.
Why?
My eyes trailed up from her clothing to her hair. There, I noticed how her long hair covered a lot of the metal that comprised the left side of her face turning to me. Her glowing eyes pierced through the veil made by her hair as she turned slightly to look at me.
Wait a minute… is this SCP-191?
I used the Pan-Human History version of me's Authority over the water and gained an in-depth view of this girl's biology. What saw astounded me.
She was more machine than human. More of her body was artificial instead of natural. For one, almost all of her organs were replaced by machine analogs. More than that, I could see how there was significant scar tissue around what remaining meat SCP-191 had left.
Whoever did this cared very little for the well-being of this girl. They did a rushed job and didn't care about how their patients would continue to live.
My lips thinned. I want to punch whoever did this.
To a child no less…
I took in a deep breath and let out a long sigh. Brushing my right hand through my clothing, I decided that right then and there, I was going to help this girl.
I know she didn't consent to it. I know how I could very easily permanently alter the gene pool of humanity, but fuck that.
She deserved better.
SCP-191 deserved better.
I'm going to make When Day Break just a little better. Even if it's insignificant in the grand stage of things, I couldn't find it in myself to give a shit.
Right then, right now, I made the decision that I was going to save SCP-191. I'm going to give her a better life.
"Alright," I said, catching SCP-191's attention in full as she turned her head to fully face me. I was then given a full view of how SCP-191's head was mostly metal, "I'm going to put you down under. I will heal you."
I placed a comforting hand on SCP-191's shoulder, and I started manipulating life through the Authority of the sea.
I first looked over and cataloged every artificial thing in SCP-191's body. While one may just increase SCP-191's rate of regeneration to get the body to eject everything that's not natural, that wouldn't really work since if the body ejects like say an important piece connected to the brain that could very easily cause an immediate cessation of life.
I have to be careful about this.
Thus, first I killed any unwanted bacteria and viruses inside SCP-191's body.
"Woah," SCP-239 was watching me.
SCP-191 began to tremble as blood-soaked metal pieces fell out of her legs and arms. They were being replaced by newly regenerated flesh, with the holes they left behind on the surface of SCP-191's body closing.
I decided to go with the low-hanging fruits first. Those augmentations done to SCP-191's limbs were very easily replaced by newly grown tissue. Then I paid some special attention to SCP-191's missing reproductive organs.
The scar tissue was especially pronounced around there, as though whoever had cut them out hated the reproductive organ.
However, as I focused on repairing SCP-191's reproductive organ, I found something a bit weird about my healing. At the rate of cellular division that I was going at, I'd figure SCP-191 should at the very least begin to feel warm from the waste heat. But there was none of that. Based on SCP-191's infrared emission signature, her internal body temperature remained the same at a warm 36 degrees Celsius.
After all the metal pieces were ejected from her body, I looked over her newly grown tissues and corrected hundreds of millions of mistakes in each cell's DNA, resulting from extremely numerous cellular divisions.
Doing this would prevent any cancerous growth from popping up.
I decided to grow entire organs from what remaining Totipotent stem cell was in her body. Since these organs are right next to mechanical ones, SCP-191's body became bloated like she was a balloon.
Oh goodness, it is uncannily creepy.
I push on. Those mechanical organs fell out of SCP-191's bloated body through special holes I made. After the last of those mechanical organs were no more, I closed those holes.
My focus then moved to SCP-191's head. I didn't bother with the brain and instead returned SCP-191 her eyes, face, and throat.
"Ow."
My legs twitched as the cramp coming from using We Are The Winged Serpent beyond the time limit started to tear through my body.
The cramps bulldozed away my ability to concentrate, and so I stopped just as I returned SCP-191's vocal cord to her.
Dropping all temporary Authorities, I let out another sigh as I looked at my work.
SCP-191 lay on the floor in front of me. Her clothing was dyed a wet red, just like her surroundings. All around her legs and arms freed of any bandages were pieces of blood-soaked metal. Piles of metal cybernetic organs were tumbling out of her garment as they were ejected out of her body.
Overall, SCP-191 now looked no different from your typical girl in her first grade. If one ignores how she's unconscious and the blood around her body.
The only mechanical parts that remained were those inside SCP-191's brain.
I'll get to them later.
"Woah, so you're a Tselitel as well?"
I faced SCP-239, "Can you clean this up?"
"Huh? You would ask me, the Zvezdnyy Rebenok, to clean stuff up? That's so below me! Hey, Cain, clean this stuff up for me—"
"No, you do it."
"Eeeeeh? But why?"
"You were bullying her."
"So? If my Igrushka didn't like it she could just say it!" SCP-239 shrugged.
"Aren't you supposed to protect humanity?"
"She's not human. She's half machine."
"..."
SCP-239 uttered that last phrase without any changes in her tone. Her heart rate was even. Her breathing was a rhythmic motion.
Igrushka meant 'toy' in Russian. SCP-239 didn't see anything wrong with playing with SCP-191 since the Witch didn't see SCP-191 as an actual human.
That's… so innocent in a morbid way.
How did SCP-239 develop this behavior? I get that children can be cruel, my own childhood is more than proof of that, but how did SCP-239 develop this propensity to bully the disabled?
Did the SCP Foundation somehow fail to miss this?
"How is she not human?"
"She's half machine."
"What do you see as 'human'?"
"Well, a human is someone who is made from meat, has four limbs, two eyes, a nose, a mouth, two ears, five fingers, and five toes, a long muscle between the legs if male, extra fat around the chest, and an extra hole between the legs if female."
"...And if they have three limbs?"
"They're not human."
"..."
I had no words. My eyes glanced up beyond SCP-239 and spotted Doctor Chen peeking over one of the metal shelves and seeing what was happening.
I then reminded myself of how SCP-239 was never properly raised. Her very birth caused the complete destruction of the hospital through an explosion. Her parents were incinerated by that blast, and Foundation agents probably raised her up. Or perhaps SCP-343 had a hand in raising her up and sought to enforce the parameters required to make an 'ideal human'.
She was never properly taught morality. Not in the way that I did.
I shut my eyes as I thumbed the bridge of my nose.
Right and wrong…
"You can't just think they aren't human because they have different capacities…" I gestured with my arms.
"Why not? If they can't perform the same as a human, why do you treat them as such?"
"Because they are fundamentally the same. They're all born from the same human mother and father."
SCP-239 tilted her head as though what I said was an alien concept.
"So why do you discard bullets after you use them?"
"That's…" Of course, someone who's seen guns in the hands of Foundation security guards would think to use bullets as an example, "Because they aren't alive."
"But what is life?"
"Life is…" I was caught off guard by the questions SCP-239 was asking me. "Life is life. I am alive, you are alive. All life has value."
"So why do people eat meat? Clearly, there must be a hierarchy then."
"Well, animals aren't sapient."
"So why do we still keep vegetables and coma patients alive then? They aren't self-aware are they?"
"How do you know this stuff?"
"I asked Cain."
My eyes turned to Cain and gave him a stink eye. Cain didn't look too bothered. In fact, he looked almost joyful at how he didn't have to deal with SCP-239 anymore.
Then my attention returned to SCP-239.
I took a deep breath. I'm going to have to read several books about this stuff. I'm nowhere near qualified to have this debate with SCP-239. Perhaps I might've been able to come up with something had I bought Communication Talent but at this rate, SCP-239 would win.
Was this how I was when I was little? No wonder why my parents used force to teach me some lessons.
In one swift motion, I carried SCP-239 under my arms like she was a rubber tire.
"Um… my Polkovodets, what are you doing?"
I didn't reply and started walking out of the storage room. No one stopped me.
Stepping into this office building conjured up by SCP-1915, I made sure to close the door behind me.
Then, I used my hearing and pinpointed where exactly SCP-1915 was.
He was a floor above me. Good.
I walked towards it, grabbing one of those office chairs with wheels as I did.
Stopping right underneath where SCP-1915 is, I placed SCP-239, stomach facing down, over my lap.
"Polkovodet, what are you doing?"
"You are a child. If I am to be your second-in-command I will need to correct you whenever you make a stupid mistake. You just made a stupid mistake."
My parents stopped being so physical as I grew up. I won't hit very hard. Just enough to get the point across.
I raised a hand and hit SCP-239's bum.
"Ow! Wha— Polkovodets!"
SCP-239 immediately tried to teleport away. However, I held her down and stopped her attempt at warping reality.
This was what I noticed about SCP-239. It appears contact with me causes the girl's reality-bending power to decrease drastically in its potency.
I think it's because SCP-239's reality-bending power exists as a 'field' that surrounds SCP-239's body. Given how the original article said that she emits an unknown type of radiation, I think Wyldscape Defense is shunting any of that unknown radiation directed at me away.
I wasn't completely sure about any of that, so that's why I chose right underneath SCP-1915's desk on the floor above. Jason's passive reality warping will definitely overpower any vast changes done by SCP-239 in case I was wrong.
"Ow!"
"Stop acting so dramatic, this would barely leave the skin red on a normal human."
"It hurts! I've never been hurt before! Ow! No one has ever hurt Zevzdnyy Rebenok like this!"
"You think I like it? If I'm going to be your Polkovodets I'm going to take over as your guardian, and as your guardian, it's my role to discipline you when you step out of line. Since clearly Cain isn't going to."
I'm not her mother. I'm way too young to be her mother, so instead I'm going to become an older sister figure who instructs her younger sister in the ways of life.
"Owwww!"