"Hi there, Jason!" I greeted the man wearing the clothing befitting of an office worker.
Jason looked up from his monitor with his dead tired eyes and asked, "What do you want, Curina?"
I could feel reality trying to twist around me, trying to rewrite my memories, trying to transform me into something I'm not. It was trying to birth an entirely new identity that would slot in perfectly with SCP-1915's fantasy.
Wyldscape Defense halted that transformation right in its tracks.
"Well, Claire tasked me to grab her a very specific coffee but it's through a really shady neighborhood and I don't feel comfortable going through it alone. Could you please follow me?" I looked meek as I said that.
"You sure Claire asked you to do this?"
"I am her personal assistant, am I not?"
"..." SCP-1915 paused for a bit, "... Yes, yes I guess you are."
I suppose that was how Jason, or SCP-1915, dealt with anomalies in his fantasy.
After returning from that chat with SCP-239, I dealt with the hostility between Ralph and the rest of the Foundation staff by pointing out how this was no time to fight, especially given how there was a greater threat in the form of SCP-343 right outside of SCP-1915's cell. This finally caused a temporary cessation of hostility as a truce formed.
Enforced by SCP-239, the truce was unbreakable.
Ralph projected a hologram of the entire facility. Nothing was amiss, since it even depicted both the on-site Alpha and Omega nuclear warheads used to bury the facility, and to destroy the facility respectively.
Chen was visibly put off by the warheads, knowing he could die or at the very least get buried at any moment should a containment breach become too widespread.
I think this is the fate that awaited a lot of the facilities that were overrun by those things of fused human flesh.
Given how SCP-343 would've undoubtedly changed the facility into an unrecognizable and inescapable maze, it was decided to use SCP-1915 as a type of 'lantern in a dark forest', shining the path forward.
Though SCP-1915's reality-warping would certainly counteract any changes done by SCP-343, there comes the danger of SCP-1915 replacing everything with his own reality.
Not even a debate, it was decided by the group that given my immunity to reality warping, I would lead him toward the submarine with everyone else following behind me just out of sight.
But this was delayed by SCP-191 waking up and clinging to me, making all kinds of noises but not words with her newly regained voice box. The poor girl was probably very excited by having her motor function and voice box back.
It took Ralph injecting a knock-out serum given to him by his liaison at the Chaos Insurgency into SCP-191 before I could finally get to work, and after grabbing a set of clothing from a locked locker, it led to my current situation.
Opening the door to the greater facility beyond SCP-1915's containment cell, I found the corridor leading to this place turned into one of those alleyways behind a building. Those guns and sandbags turned into vans and other vehicles while those armed men— extensions of SCP-343— transformed into workers loading and unloading stuff onto those trucks.
Wow, SCP-1915 is powerful.
We walked past those men. With my hearing, I could hear the movements of those researchers, SCPs, and security guards who were following closely behind me just out of sight. I could also hear the wet sounds of sludging and slobbering and slithering just at the edge of SCP-1915's reality.
SCP-343 is trying to get out of SCP-1915's way, not even bothering to fight against him.
We continued to travel. Moving out of this alleyway, I found myself in the middle of a street with tall skyscrapers flanking the sides of the road.
There were people walking on the sidewalks, with cars driving up and down this road.
It was as though I had been transported into New York before Day Break.
Holy shit.
I was momentarily stunned. I stopped to fully take in this scene, this impossibly normal scene that's happening right in front of me.
SCP-1915 called out and broke me out of my trance, "Hey, so where's your car?"
I blinked once, twice, before my mind finally broke out of that stunned spell and answered SCP-1915.
"It's away from here, in a parking lot." I turned away from SCP-1915 and activated the USB, making it so that only I could see the hologram of Site-17.
"You know how it is," I continued as I determined pathways that'll lead right to any submarines that may be still active, "I don't want it to be dented by any passerby. Claire will be on my ass for that since it's a gift for staying loyal for five years."
I'm hoping SCP-1915 will turn those submarines into 'cars' that can be driven out of here.
"Hmm, well that's true…" SCP-1915 was skeptical of what I said, and the reality around us flickered like a light bulb in a heavy storm.
Shit. I see if my story is too far out of bounds it'll break SCP-1915's immersion.
We continued to travel down the street. I couldn't say a word as I stared at how the people carelessly walked down the street, walked through rays of sunshine, and bathed in the light from above without having most of their bodies covered.
It was haunting.
Based on my previous experience, seeing these people stay unchanged under the warm glow of the sun caused me serious mental whiplash.
For a week, the fact of the sun being a danger to all life was true. But now, under the influence of SCP-1915's reality, I was confronted by that fact becoming fiction.
"Hey, you alright?"
No, I'm not. I'm like a person of faith who suddenly found himself devoid of any faith. I'm having a meltdown.
I found myself swaying like a reed in the wind. I felt dizzy. I felt an urge to puke.
I palmed my forehead as I leaned on a wall nearby to steady myself. It was seriously off-putting seeing all those people walking in the sun without a single care in the world of the dangers inherent in such an act.
Looking at this scene, I couldn't help but imagine these people all melting.
It's so easy to imagine these people starting to melt every second. It's so easy to imagine the sky bleeding red to cover the blue. It's so easy to imagine that couple's scream turning into silence as they became a puddle.
I can hear everyone screaming. I can hear them moaning. I can hear them—
"Hey! You alright?" SCP-1915 brought me back into the present.
"...Yeah," I answered hesitantly. The people around me are getting weirded out by my stares, "Yeah, sorry, didn't get much sleep last night."
I pretended to yawn.
SCP-1915 was sympathetic, "Too much work?"
"Yeah, Claire is a hard boss."
"That she is."
We started moving again. It took all my willpower to not stare at those people walking through sunlight and still retain their sense of bodily, mental, and spiritual individuality.
Conflicted feelings became a vortex inside my mind. I found myself unused to such things as right now.
Is this how soldiers returning home after a deployment felt?
This feeling of being out of touch?
"In here, through this alleyway."
I said as I turned off the USB hologram projector. Inside SCP-1915's reality, the main cafeteria of Site-17 was a broken-down alleyway of the city. I could spot multiple homeless people sitting down or lying off to the side of the alleyway. Some lay on newspapers. Some sat down on crates. Some even lay inside makeshift tents.
It was like I was taking a stroll down San Francisco's poorest neighborhoods.
"Damn, I can see why you'd want company." SCP-1915 nodded his head as he looked down at the scene before turning back to me.
Appearance-wise, I just looked like a harmless attractive office assistant whose worst bite is a pepper spray bottle inside her purse.
"Let's just go."
We hurried down this street. Based on the holographic map, we should be halfway there to the submarines.
Appearing out on the other side, I found the road leading upward over a hill. So this was how SCP-1915 saw going up or down an elevator.
But wait… doesn't that road have too large of an incline?
My mouth gaped.
Gravity itself seems to have disappeared as the buildings and structures in the distance rose up like they were being carried by a titanic tsunami of dirt and rocks. The very ground rose up before folding inward as though god was flipping the pages of a book.
I could see how many buildings bent and folded over at absurd angles, grinding away at each other as they collided. Everything not nailed to the ground on the folded city above us fell to the lower section once the angle increased beyond 80 degrees. Cars flattened themselves as when they crashed into the streets below them, becoming fountains of glass shards and metal pieces while the people themselves turned into spots of red paste.
This whole section of the city folded in on itself, the ground acting like a tidal wave that carried buildings alongside them.
How is this happening? I screamed in my mind as I looked upon this scene.
Wasn't SCP-1915 strong enough to refuse SCP-343?
"Oh my god, am I in a dream?"
SCP-1915 suddenly uttered before looking at me, his eyes wide and unconcentrated, "Are you one of them? Trying to steal secrets from me through a dream?"
Stealing secrets through a dream—
Wait a fucking minute.
I realized what SCP-343 was trying to do.
SCP-1915 before being contained by the SCP Foundation must've seen the movie Inception and saw this scene. There, he must've internalized it because it was one of the most iconic scenes in all of Inception as a whole.
Now, SCP-343 is using the iconic city folding scene of Inception to make SCP-1915 doubt his reality, thinking it to be a dream and thus weakening Jason's hold upon the local reality. There, SCP-343 can start his invasion.
"This is a dream…" SCP-1915 muttered.
Everything flickered.
"This is all a dream. I'm dreaming."
Everything glitched, revealing the Foundation facility for a fraction of a second.
"I'm still sleeping. No one else here other than me or you is real, they're all a projection…"
"No!" I screamed out as SCP-1915 started floating as though gravity no longer existed.
"None of this is real…"
This is bad… SCP-1915 is fracturing his fantasy, our only defense against SCP-343.
Cracks began occurring everywhere. Cracks upon the very reality itself. Cracks upon the fantasy SCP-1915 conjured up for himself. They appeared like cracks on a glass panel.
Very quickly, those cracks began to widen and turn into gaps that reveal the truth of Site-17.
"Jason, stop!" I flew up and reached out to SCP-1915.
The guy kicked my hand away.
"No! You're flying. You're one of them. You thieves won't ever steal any corporate secrets from me! I want to see the truth! I want to wake up!"
Tentacles of molten, waxy flesh crept out of those gaps. Some were as thin as a pencil while there were some that could fit whole SUVs inside them. These things encroached upon this reality like viruses.
Instead of fearing them, SCP-1915 laughed, "Haha! Take me! Take me to reality! Show me the truth!"
Seeing SCP-1915 as lost, I flew back to the group.
"Kukulkan, what is happening?" Chen asked as everyone hid inside a Starbucks away from any falling cars and people.
"Ever seen Inception? The one featuring DiCaprio?"
"Yeah."
I nodded, good, I don't need to explain the movie then. "Well so has SCP-1915. SCP-343 is recreating a scene from Inception to convince SCP-1915 that he's in a dream."
"Oh my god… that would weaken SCP-1915's powers to enforce his status quo…" Ana muttered.
"There goes our fortress," Cain stated the obvious.
The reality around us was rapidly deteriorating. More and more fractures, cracks, and gaps appeared over everything from the smallest coffee cup to the largest of skyscrapers. SCP-1915's fantasy was quickly disintegrating around the seams as the man wanted to see what was real.
Fuck, the darkness was falling upon us as the lantern grew dimmer and dimmer. In only a few seconds, it'll completely go out.
"Zvezdnyy, is there anything—"
I saw how SCP-239 was staring blankly at the city above us. Damn, she's probably never used her powers on such a vast scale before, only perhaps for minor stuff like stopping people from fighting or teleporting. So she's shocked in stillness at what's happening as an average person might when they gaze upon the majesty of a mountain from the air for the first time.
I bit on my lips. Peeking out, I saw the giant head of SCP-343 looking through the largest of those gaps. His tentacles have now fully wrapped around SCP-1915.
There, with a single swift motion like slashing through a bamboo stalk using a katana—
*Rip*
SCP-343 tore SCP-1915 apart into six pieces: one for his left arm, one for his right arm, one for his head, one for his body, one for his right leg, and one for his left leg.
Instantly, reality around us roared as everything conjured up by SCP-1915 was destroyed alongside the man. Cracks and fractures covered everything before the fantasy evaporated away into nothingness like the steam from a pot of boiling water.
We were deposited back into a hallway of Site-17. One that's filled with molten flesh on one end.
At the end of the hallway filled with slobbering meat, I spotted the head of SCP-343, this time even more subsumed by the sun. I could barely make out the old man's facial features anymore as much of his head was a mass of writhing tentacles.
"You… will… tell… me… the… secr…ets…" SCP-343 moaned out.
I gulped. Turning around, I looked at SCP-239 who hid behind me and away from SCP-343.
She was afraid.
(AN: Play: TruE)
"Hey," I said as I tapped on Zvezdnyy Rebenok's shoulder. Squatting down next to her, I let out a calming smile and blocked the horrific sight of SCP-343 from the girl's eyes with my body, "You're going to have to live up to your title of the Witch who will defend all of Humanity sooner than you think, you know?"
"Wha… what do you mean, my Polkovodets?"
"I'm going to do the impossible. That's what I mean." I handed Zvezdnyy the USB containing the hologram, "Get everyone to the submarines. SCP-343 wants me, so I'll hold him off as long as I can while you guys head to safety. Remember, once you do reach the surface, stay out of the light of the sun."
The Zvezdnyy Rebenok was uncertain, but she was obviously trying to pull herself together for my sake. That's cute. It's adorable how much Zvezdnyy was trying to keep herself from falling apart.
Guess she's still afraid of her Arka Nemezida.
After a few more moments, the girl nodded firmly, before proudly declaring, "I shall. This shall be a first trial run for the Zvezdnyy Rebenok, the Witch who will bring hope back for all of Humanity!"
Zvezdnyy did a grand pose that radiated confidence. I felt my eyes go soft.
"Then go, show the world hope."
With that, the group left through the other side of the hallway, leaving me alone with SCP-343.
I stood up and turned to face the thing that used to be Cain's older brother. He was a hero who gave his everything upon the altar of humanity.
His past. His future. His family. Everything is for the sake of saving humanity.
He was someone worth admiring for willingly going down the path of a martyr. A thankless path of thorns.
"You… will… tell… me… your… secr…ets…"
I recoiled as though I had smelled something foul. But now he's been corrupted by the sun. One of humanity's greatest heroes, fallen.
"Are there enough of the old hero left or are you fully subsumed by the sun?"
"You… will… tell… me… all of… your secrets…"
"Guess your mind's almost gone, huh?"
I cracked my neck and my knuckles. Despite the fear I'm feeling, I can't help but feel a bit excited as my heart pumps.
"I… declare… the rules… and I declare… you… wil…l tell… me your… immun… ity…"
A savage smile appeared on my lips. It was a smile full of teeth. It was the smile of someone facing death head-on with a sword in their hands. It was the smile of a warrior welcoming a good fight.
I got down on one knee and readied myself like an Olympic runner about to do the run of their life.
Everything has been building up to this moment.
"Well, you'll find that rules—"
My eyes glowed with power. My body glowed with power. The air around me started heating up. There's no need to pull my punches. I can go as much as I want.
I am freed.
I moved. My legs launched myself as I moved like I'd never had before. Faster, faster than anything and everything save for light.
"— are made to be broken."
_____
AN: Did I just do an Inception and Star Rail reference in one chapter? Hell yeah.