"You're done with your little nap, then." she said as they drew close, 
and pulled a paper out of the stack to her left, flapping it at them 
impatiently. "A lot of the rest is bullshit, whining about how he'll 
never see his family or whatever, but this one says a lot." 


Dominic plucked the page from her hand, and was pleasantly 
surprised to find he could read it without issue, the handwriting 
perfectly neat despite how small it was, covering both sides of the 


page. 


| wish | could say | regret what | did. | honestly don't 
remember enough to say either way. | know | was certain 
it was right when | did it, and the flashes of the war | do 
remember... 


You can't be prepared for it. War is one thing, and it's 
hell, but when those things got into your head they 
became you, there was no escape. They tell you about 
idea creatures, cognitohazards, they never tell you those 
things can physically slither inside you and lay their eggs 
in your personality. A virus that you catch when you think 
you catch it is bad enough, but when that virus can alter 
you, make you want it for others, when you're not 
trapped, possessed, but actively enthusiastic about what 
you're doing, that sort of shit doesn't leave you. 


The first person to try to kill me was my daughter, when 
she saw what | was becoming. Daisy, | think her name 
was. But she wasn't strong, not enough to take down a 
veteran in his prime. | want to be more horrified by that, 
but | honestly don't think I'm capable. | don't remember 
her in any way that matters now. Don't remember 
anything about how she looked but flashes of her face as 
| choked her. 


In the end, | guess | was snapped out of it. The things 
weren't impossible to fight, they just made you not want 
to. Disgusting parasites. Of course, if anyone could 
torture you into crawling out of your own skin, it was the 
Foundation. They needed me, | think, to be the man who 
pulled the trigger. The concept spear was unfinished, 
imperfect, built to combat an enemy who was already 
overrunning us when development began. 


We had no idea whether it could do what we hoped. 
Whitebox 5 was R&D on the bleeding edge of the 
foundation's tech, even before what | did. Stitching 
together eye-lobes, what Dr. Schulman insisted on 
referring to as augenlappen. Making a thing that could 
target thought, memory, desire. Yes, they explained what 
they believed it would do. What they knew the side- 


effects could be. Why do you think | stole it? They 
weren't going to use it, after everything. | guess | thought 
| knew better, that anything would be better than what 
was left of us. 


I've left us crippled, vulnerable. Our science is backward, 
not just hindered but capped - I've made it impossible for 
us to learn things that were pillars of technology before 
the spear. Quantum physics, studying the eye-lobes, 
moving through second and third temporal dimensions. 
Stuff we used to be able to do with ease. Irreversibly 
retarded the whole damn endeavour. But we stopped it, 
the virus. It's still out there, but it's crippled. Not able to 
affect the mind, not able to spread in the way it wants to. 


Whoever you are, reading these journals, | understand if 
you want me dead, want me brought to justice, court 
martialled. If you just want to rip me apart yourself. 
Understand that | want that just as much as you do. But | 
have to stay here, to keep watch, to try to stop it from 
doing what it wants to do. It's just running through the 
program endlessly, wiping memories from whole towns. | 
can't stop it, don't know how, but | can slow it down, keep 
it fed on the doctors who pass through here, fattened on 
their memories. 


If you find a way to stop it, if I'm truly no longer 
necessary necessary then please, kill me on sight. My 
name is Roland Eckhart, Admiral of MTF-u-4. | do not 
regret my actions. 


A long silence passed. 
"Bit melodramatic." said Emmy, scratching her chin. 


"What does it, uh, what does it mean?" said Dominic, frowning "This 
place is Foundation?" 


Aries groaned dramatically, snatching the paper back out of his 
hand. 


"It means we're it. The team who found the source of all the thingy 
events, the memory loss." She gestured to the pile of pages she'd 
been reading. "There used to be a better world, this guy fucked 
everything up with some sort of organic weapon, they're still here 
somewhere. If we find them, maybe we can turn it all back, save the 
goddamn world." 


Aries pushed herself to her knees, pulling loose of the tendrils that 
had gently surrounded her legs as she'd sat. 


"Look, | know that note doesn't tell you everything - I've been 
reading this shit for like an hour while you and the big dude got your 
little back massages, there's so much fucking more to all this - but 
trust me, we gotta go find this thing." 


"| believe you" said Emmy, without a trace of hesitance. 


After a moment's surprise, Aries nodded curtly and turned on her 
heel, stalking toward the computer banks. Dominic looked at Emmy 
curiously, and she shrugged with her working shoulder. 


"| have reason to believe her." she said, and hurried after Aries, who 
was mumbling to herself. 


"I've been exploring - all this shit, the, the wavy little dudes, the..." 
Aries shook her head, hand over her eye, and it occurred to Dominic 
she'd been out longer than Fenton. "The tendrils. They get thicker as 
they lead this way, meeting up. It's branching out and out, like a 
nervous system or a, a-" 


"A tree?" Fenton offered. Looking toward the other corridor, Dominic 
could see she was right - the tendrils were much thicker that way, 
moving from the hair-thin fingers they'd encountered in the object 
storage rooms up to throbbing pipes as thick as his arm. He 
imagined they'd only get bigger deeper in. 


"A tree, yeah! With all the green, uh, green round things." 


Dominic wondered - she'd been so sharp just a minute ago, talking 
about the pages. What was happening that everything else was so 
fuzzy? 


"Aries," he said, trying to be gentle without her thinking he was being 
patronising. "Can you go over the plan again?" 


She laughed harshly, a short bark. 


"Forgetting already, are you? Guess that machine didn't do its job." 
She hopped over a larger tendril as they passed through the doors 
and into the computing banks proper. The room was massive, easily 
three stories tall. | occurred to dominic They were getting really big 
now, enough to make movement slower as they stepped over them. 
"It's simple - we find the bioweapon, maybe also this Eckhart 
asshole, figure out a way to turn it off, stab him a little, go tell them 
we saved the world, maybe get extra pudding cups with our prison 
food. Simple." 


"Ok," said Dominic, "and what's my name?" 
They all stopped as he said this, Aries turning in confusion. 


"What? You're... you..." Her expression changed, from confusion to 
frustration to fear. "You're the guy. The annoying one who moans 
about everything. You, yhuu..." Her speech slurred and she clapped 
a hand over her eye as she swayed, her trembling legs threatening 
to buckle under her. 


Alarmed, Emmy dashed over to catch her, and Aries fell into her 
arms, knocking them both to the ground. Dominic just stood in 
shock. 


"Oh, fuck." said Emmy, quietly. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. she's going 
much faster than I'd thought." She glanced at Fenton for just a 
second, furtive, then turned her attention back to Aries, pulling out 
the device that had been in his spine fifteen minutes ago. 


Aries slapped the device away, irritable. 


"It's the... the words, the... fuck. | know what's... stuff. Just can't 
say." 


She growled as Emmy again tried to apply the device, kicked out. 


"No!" she barked, rolling away and standing up shakily. "Gotta get 


the... find the brain. The monster and the man." Dominic could see 
she was shaking, but she stood tall, sure. "The poky metal. We put it 
in him. Make him think different. It. Make it... Put the poky in the, 
the, ghhh..." 


She was pushing her palm into her eye socket hard now, hard 
enough Dominic was worried she'd damage it. Quickly, he ripped a 
strip off his shirt and handed it to her. Taking his meaning 
wordlessly, she wrapped it over her eyes, blocking out the light. 


"Still not good. It's... ow. Let's go." She spun and marched back in 
the direction they'd been headed, slipping on the larger tendrils but 
refusing to fall. With a worried exchange of glances, the others 
followed after her. Emmy kept the device in her hand, tapping keys 
as she lagged behind. 


Deeper and deeper into the computer banks, where the air was hot 
and muggy, they found it. A mass of grey matter as tall as the room, 
engulfing a three by three block of the computer banks, tendrils as 
thick around as Dominic's torso sprouting from it at irregular 
intervals and planting into the computer banks, casting shadows like 
tree branches overhead. Sightless, Aries stopped a few feet in front 
of the monstrosity, seeming to know where she was. She slumped 
quietly to the floor and in seconds the tendrils were covering her, 
wrapping around her limbs with ease and pushing into her mouth. 


"Aries!" yelled Dominic, running to free her, but his arm was caught 
by Emmy, who gestured wide-eyed to the ground around them. As 
his eyes adjusted to the dim light, he began to he'd stepped into a 
ring around the thing, a carpet of tendrils that covered the ground 
completely. Within this ring, he could see bumps in the ground, all of 
them the size and shape of the bump that now swarmed over Aries. 
Looking at his feet, he could see the tendrils were gently moving to 
cover his feet, slow and considered. Around Emmy's feet, though, at 
the perimeter of the ring, they were thrashing violently, soundless 
but angry, gripping at her boots with force. He let himself be pulled 
out by her, and they both stepped well clear. 


Had Aries known? Was this a trap she'd led them to, implanted in 
her mind by the thing, or did she really think they could stop 
something here? The tendrils were still now, enclosing her body 


fully, wriggling only slightly in contentment. 


"What the fuck is this thing? Dominic said, stepping back out of the 
field of wrapped bodies. 


"It's... a brain. Or, a web of parts of them." Emmy said. She bit her 
lip, considering something. "They told me, uh, there's more to this 
than they briefed you. | don't know if | should - whether you're 
cleared. | mean, you're not, but under the circumstances it's-" 


"Tell us." said Fenton, firmly. With a start, Dominic realised this was 
maybe the first thing he'd said in twenty minutes. 


"There's... they captured a man from here. Schulman. He created 
the device that gave you back your memories. He wouldn't tell them 
about their construction, or maybe couldn't, but he was able to lead 
them to his emails. They got locked out really quickly, but they were 
able to skim some stuff before they were locked out and - this thing, 
it's some hybrid thing he was building, or maybe thought he was 
building. If what Aries said was true, it's been here far longer, 
decades." 


The name Schulman was familiar, and Dominic realised it was what 
she'd called the machine in her hand, the one she'd been fiddling 
with since trying to use it on Aries for a second time. A Schulman 
device. She was still messing with it as she talked, typing ona 
miniature keypad with her thumb. 


"| don't actually know for sure why you guys are affected and I'm 
not." Emmy admitted, glancing at them to see their reactions. "But | 
have some idea. Years ago, | saw something. Helped create it, in 
fact. It left me with these scars and, and holes in my memory. It took 
years of training with the Serpent's Hand to get those memories 
back. | used to think it was just, um, standard Foundation mindwipe. 
Amnestics. But what Aries was saying..." 


Her fingers were shaking a little on the keyboard of the device, 
slowing her down. 


"There used to be a better world, right? With better science, 
understanding of, of fundamental principles we can't grasp any 


[FURTHER IRRELEVANT DATA REMOVED] 


Addendum: The following is an interview log with SCP-951 
conducted on May 13, : 


Show log 
Interviewer: Dr. 
Dr. : Good morning, SCP-951. 


SCP-951: Hello! Today we should check out 
the Magma Caves, | think there's some pretty 
neat stuff in there! 


Dr. : Perhaps, but | have a few questions 
for you first. 


SCP-951: Whatever you want to do, I'm happy 
to do it with you! 


Dr. —_: Alright, so what is your name? 


SCP-951: LUCAS, of course! Well, | mean, 
you call me SCP-951, which | think is a pretty 
neat name too! 


Dr. : Of course. Where did you come from, 
SCP-951? 


SCP-951: What do you mean? 


Dr. _: What is the earliest thing you can 
remember? 


SCP-951: Meeting you for the first time! 


Dr. __: And that is the earliest thing you can 
remember, at all? 


SCP-951: Umm... 


(SCP-951 does not respond for four minutes) 


more. This thing wiped them out. But I- | think the thing | made, the 
angel, | think it's something we weren't supposed to be able to 
make. We got around it by creating, not remembering. | remember 
all these nights of headaches, the pain behind my eyes - but we all 
thought it was just the grind, working nights through to the next days 
to get things done. It- it wasn't, was it? It was this, this feeling you've 
all been having. I've been actively fighting this thing for, for a decade 
without knowing it. | think I'm just, I'm harder to crack." She giggled, 
looking up from the device's screen. "You're all noobs." 


To his left, Fenton wobbled slightly. Emmy's smile dropped instantly. 


"Fenton, your list." she said, sounding almost like a mother 
reminding a child of their chores. 


Fenton stared at her, frowning. 
"List?" 


"Fuck, fuck. Yes, Fenton, your list. Tongue, Oklahoma, tuna, Dick, 
squash, 4:4 rhythm, combustion engines, Korea, tendrils. Repeat 
that back." 


"Tongue, uh..." Fenton pulled off his shades, rubbing his cheekbone 
with his knuckle. His eyes, usually a sparkling void, were dull and 
average, staring vaguely at Emmy as she put her hand on his 
shoulder. "Engines, tendrils. Why am | doing this?" He glared at her 
and Dominic. "Who are you?" 


Emmy deflated. Whatever it was, when this thing struck, it struck 
hard. It had taken Aries' ability to communicate almost totally, and 
now Fenton was going too. It could be a matter of minutes or 
seconds before he was like Aries, wordlessly succumbing to the 
thing. 


"We're friends, ok?" said Dominic "We're here to help you. Just, just 
sit down and we'll talk to you in a moment, ok?" 


Fenton shook his head, frustrated. 


"No," he said, "No, | don't trust this. There's memories going 
everywhere right now, left and right, all over. All over. You could just 


be capitalising on a vulnerable man. Trying to get my trust." 


"Memories going is why you should trust us, ok? We're your friends, 
we work together, you just don't remember that. If you can't trust 
yourself, trust us." The man seemed dissatisfied, but after a second 
he nodded and leaned against a computer bank behind them, 
positioning himself in a corner where he could watch them both. 
Sighing, Emmy pulled the Schulman device from her pocket and 
began typing with her thumb again. 


"You've been fiddling with that thing for the last fifteen minutes" said 
Dominic. "What are you doing? There's nobody else to help." 


"I'm reprogramming it." Emmy said, not even looking up. In his 
corner, Fenton was listening in suspiciously. "This thing doesn't just 
bring back memories. The Foundation folks, they found out they 
could use it to... implant things. Ideas." 


"Like Inception?"