Curse me to the stars, but know this: I will not be tamed.
The gumiho leapt back and snarled at Daji.
Undaunted, she walked towards the fox demon, her footsteps echoing in the massive room.
The whir of the Foundation's SRAs dimmed. Daji felt the Once-Was stir within her as her power began to return. The gumiho, too, would become empowered now that it was no longer hindered. But it wasn't enough.
What could a shadow hope to do against the master it originates from?
"Hello, little fox," said Daji. "It has been so, so long."
The gumiho said nothing, her eyes narrowing.
"You have killed so many, sullied my name, invoked the death of our kind. Huīzōng, the Quǎnróng and Shēnhóu, Konoe, Rùnzhī — and now the Jailors themselves. The Foundation, they call themselves. We húlijīngfox spirit are a dead breed. All because of you. You, a product of my hate and none of my restraint, who forgot everything we worked towards. Who turned her fangs away from Heaven and towards the humans."
The gumiho — the Foundation called her SCP-953 — bared her fangs. Daji laughed and returned the gesture.
"Live by the fang, die by the fang. Come then, little fox. Show me whether the master or the shadow has more hate in their heart."
"Good morning, miss. A pleasure to meet you at last."
Behind the friendly smile of the Jailor was a small host of guards, their guns at the ready. A steady hum filled the air, the machines of the Jailors that suppressed her strength and forced the Once-Was into silence. Between that and the dimly lit room, it was no wonder that they were called Jailors.
"At last, you have lured the fox out of its home," Daji said. She put a letter down on the table between them and crossed her arms. "Though I have to say, Jailor, twelve executioners for an animal? Seems excessive to me."
The Jailor's smile turned apologetic. "While I would love to give you a more comfortable reception, I hope you understand our caution. If you truly are who we suspect you are."
Daji raised an eyebrow. "Have I met your expectations?"
A nod. "Truthfully, that you can maintain your human skin and converse normally in the presence of our SRAs is impressive enough. Even we at the Foundation cannot stomach them, regardless of their strength level, without adequate training. And here you are, sitting before four. Even if they're all on the lowest settings currently, most entities would find it difficult to think."
"Flattery will get you nowhere. Now, is the gumiho truly here?"
"SCP-953, correct? She — well, it — is. I must confess, when we learned about your… interest in the entity, we were confused by your desire to consume it."
Daji cocked her head. The man nodded in understanding.
"Please brace yourself, miss."
An uneasy feeling washed over Daji as the hum of the Foundation's SRAs grew in intensity. Daji growled but said nothing, reserving her strength. She muttered a quiet incantation, imparting a little of her power to keep the Once-Was from scattering.
"Hmm," said the Jailor. "Perhaps we should have called in more guards."
Daji opened her mouth but found the words difficult to get out. She glared at the man and licked her teeth.
"My apologies, miss. But we needed to prevent eavesdropping from your… mythological kind."
A guard handed the man a laptop. He entered a password and turned it around to show Daji a video.
Daji's blood turned cold at the first frame, before boiling in fury at recognizing who it was.
"Before Eria established contact with you, we received a visit from someone from your pantheon."
"In your tongue, I am called the Queen Mother of the West."
Sprind glanced up from scribbling his notes to meet the look of the woman sitting before him. In any other occupation, he would see her as nothing more than a middle-aged Asian woman.
No ordinary Asian woman teleports in with a cadre of servants. Servants who downed the site's guards and suppressed its alarms, and were standing unfazed by the site's defenses while dressed in what he could only guess were silk robes.
The bloodstained walls were a sign that he had long lost the right to underestimate her.
"Thank you very much… er, sorry. Is there a shorter name I may refer to you as?"
The Queen Mother of the West smiled. "To some, they know me as Xīwángmǔ. Though…" The woman pursed her lips before continuing.
"No, never mind."
Sprind nodded. "Thank you, your… majesty. My name is Sprind, the current director of this site, however small it may be."
"Sprind," echoed Xīwángmǔ. "So be it. I have business with something your Foundation contains. A fox without a leash. A shadow without a mind. A gumiho."
Sprind frowned, typing into his laptop. "One moment, madam. I think it is… ah."
His eyes skimmed the results page. "Yes, we do have one, under the classification of SCP-953."
"A cold name. Fitting to shackle an untamed beast with a name born of logic. You humans always loved to scrutinize the unknown."
Sprind opened his mouth, but Xīwángmǔ stayed his voice with a hand. "I will not take up much of your time, Director Sprind. I would like to propose a bargain."
One of her servants walked forward and presented a large box inlaid with gemstones that Sprind wasn't sure he could ever afford
"I have two things to offer, in exchange for two acts of cooperation from you. The first is this, a container of the last remnants of Sì Bú Xiàng."
The servant opened the box, revealing torched bones of what Sprind could only assume was a horse. The servant closed the lid after a few seconds, as if taunting him, that he could only afford to look at them for mere seconds with his pay.
"The fabled steed of our ancient hero Jiāng Zǐyá," she continued. "I offer it here as a… sign of good faith, if you will. I imagine your Foundation could find its lingering magic useful."
Sprind could only nod.
"The second is already in your possession. The corpse of Áo Rùn. While we would have smited you and your researchers for the desecration of a Dragon King's body, we are merciful gods who would like to formally gift it to you as a gesture of our contract."
A smile twitched on the director's face.
"And in return?"
"Compliance. Find a way to have the gumiho — SCP-953, was it? Have it moved to this location. It will serve as bait."
"Bait for-"
"Her, yes." Xīwángmǔ's tone grew cold. "The fox that you must have felt, as did we all, who you have been investigating lately. It is one of several reasons I have picked you specifically to handle this. Lure the JiǔwěihúNine-Tailed Fox with the gumiho. By your signal, I will have the fox demon arrested and properly tried by Heaven."
Sprind pursed his lips. "I'm flattered, really, that you would pick me and this site for your plans, but there's only so much reach I have. And 953, being as infamous as she is, is incredibly difficult to have transferred from Site-17."
"Then have it done anyway," ordered Xīwángmǔ. Any pretense of friendliness was gone. "I care not the means nor methods that you must take, only that you achieve the desired results."
She waved a finger. One of her servants brought forward an item - something that Sprind recognized as a reality anchor.
"That's a reality anchor, Miss-"
"Turn it on all the way."
The servant complied. Sprind heard the familiar hum of the SRA, practically drumming the air as it was on full blast.
Yet… nothing. No screams, no writhing, no lessening of the pressure he faced. Not even the other anomalies in the site showed any audible sign of discomfort.
"This… trinket," sighed Xīwángmǔ. "I cannot deny how impressive it is that mankind has learned how to tame the mystical, when you have once been lorded by it. You have misled an entire world, turning all of human consciousness and will into a cage founded by common belief. That will is what enables this suppressor."
She whirled a finger, and the servant crushed it with one hand. "But that is all it is. Imposition of human will. And as impressive as it is, remember this human: there is always a larger predator in the forest. And while your willpower can bind us like a constrictor, enough monkeys can tear a single snake alone."
"Xīwángmǔ-"
"The bridge between Heaven and Earth was shattered," continued Xīwángmǔ, as though she couldn't hear him. "It is difficult for the xiānimmortals without protection to descend to Earth, to say nothing of us gods. Your trinkets can dampen the magical, I cannot deny it. But we, in return, can govern the mundane."
She pointed a finger at Sprind. "Heed my command, Sprind of mankind. You will follow my command and bring the fox demon to justice, or I will send thousands upon thousands of the Heavenly Host to die entering this world, and their blood will create a new bridge to Heaven that not even your Foundation will be able to stop."
"After I reported this to my superiors, the Foundation sent in a proper negotiator to discuss the terms with Xīwángmǔ. My bargaining performance was, in their eyes, relatively poor."
Daji glared at him.
"To summarize, we only need to deliver you to the Heavenly Host, and nothing else. In exchange, they promise to leave our world alone and let us keep their gifts. Including…"
She already knew what he was going to say, and her eyes went to the casket of Sì Bú Xiàng.
"The creation of the xiān."
Daji opened her mouth, but Sprind stopped her with a hand.
"Of course, I don't think I need to explain to you that we have our suspicions. Given how little impact our existing reality anchors have on her and her guards, they are in a wholly superior position. They have no reason to honor their end of the deal."
He looked at a photo on his desk. Daji could see it was him, as well as many, many other people in white coats. Coworkers, perhaps. Or maybe a lover or two.
"As for her threat, those in high places who specialize in theology have found that it is not… implausible. If enough people die at the same time who aren't- well, the term I use is standard Hume level, but yeah. If enough of them die, all at once, the shock would be such our SRAs would be unable to-"
He stopped seeing Daji's expression. "Ah, sorry, I suppose I have been rambling on for a bit. Are you still able to speak?"
The foxqueen took a deep breath and forced out a word, less speech and more growl. "Yes."
"Hmm."
Daji noticed his hand go towards the reality anchor, and instinct screamed at her, pouring even more of her focus into grounding both herself and the Once-Was.
A wave of nausea hit Daji and she grit her teeth. The force of the SRA shredded her mortal shell, forcing her back into her fox form.
"After Xīwángmǔ trashed this facility, we did our best to make the walls of this room work specifically with reality anchors in mind. Hopefully, now that not even you can maintain a human body, it should keep their eyes away."
He pressed a few buttons on his laptop and showed her a layout of the site. "We're anticipating that Xīwángmǔ will likely betray us, given what our investigators have learned from your encounters with other xiān. As such, I have been given orders to work with you, a living myth, to at least find a way to stave off this threat. If we were to fail, the Foundation is likely to take more drastic actions, all of which I would prefer not to be responsible for."
Sprind pointed to a huge space. "As far as Xīwángmǔ and the Heavenly Host are concerned, we have imported troops and weapons to entrap you. SCP-953 is currently held in an area that we will pretend to lure you into. We intend to temporarily raise the Hume level around this facility to one that the xiān can more easily survive in, so the shock of entry doesn't kill them and tear a hole in reality. Assuming we can space out their deaths, the reality anchors will handle the rest. With any luck, you can distract Xīwángmǔ long enough for us to contain her. If you can beat her, even better."
He closed the laptop. "Of course, all this relies on you willingly helping us. All we can offer you is our guarantee that if we succeed, we will no longer go after you. It's not a fair trade, I know, but-"
Daji picked up a pen with a tail. She wrote, somewhat crudely, her terms on a piece of paper and handed it over to Sprind. After reading it, he laughed.
"Alright, I'll order you a pizza from this place. Any preference?"
"You fought well, little fox. But a shadow cannot hope to supplant its owner."
SCP-953 growled weakly at Daji, signs of exhaustion and wear all across her body. The bout had certainly gone in Daji's favor.
The foxqueen, though, was not much better. Pride made her stand tall, but anyone could tell she was breathing more heavily and was bleeding out herself.
The doors to the massive room opened up, and Sprind walked in, surrounded by guards.
Daji snarled. "So you humans really did set a trap for me."
Sprind shrugged. "The sooner we get Xīwángmǔ out of our hair, the better. No hard feelings."
As if on cue, the Queen Mother of the West and her retinue entered from the same doors. She stared at all parties before turning to Sprind with a cold expression.
"As agreed, we have delivered the fox demon to you."
"Do you think I am so easily fooled?"
A gust of wind, and the illusions of the foxes were broken, revealing Daji and SCP-953 to be completely unharmed.
"I have been alive for millennia. From the very dawn of your species, when you humans prayed to me for safety against the wild, I have been watching. Do you think I not notice a moment of blindness? Do you think I would fall for such a trap?"
A portal opened up behind her, and hundreds, if not thousands, of xiān began pouring out. But as predicted, they did not die immediately.
A look of surprise graced the Queen Mother's face, and the two foxes capitalized on it, racing towards her. More doors opened, Foundation guards and MTF flooded the room, gunfire shooting down the weakened immortals.
Xīwángmǔ's elite retinue, though, were no mere xiān, and responded appropriately to both Daji and SCP-953. Fangs and claws clashed against fans and blades, and the Queen Mother herself charged forward with hate in her eyes.
"Wicked beast," she snarled. "I should have never let Nüwa take you away from my domain!"
Daji's tails fanned out, and she spun around, crushing one of the servants against a wall. She caught Xīwángmǔ's sword with her mouth and cackled as she watched SCP-953 gore a servant in the form of an elephant.
Bodies upon bodies of the xiān littered the floor as the firepower of humans gunned down the weakened immortals. Some got through the storm of bullets and hacked away at the humans or stayed a safe distance and used arrows, but they too could not stand to the raw amount of bullets that littered their bodies.
Daji thrust a palm at Xīwángmǔ, ejecting a column of fire. The goddess dodged it easily, but the servant behind her wasn't so lucky, screaming as the mystical fire ripped her soul apart.
She blocked a kick from a servant and shoved her to SCP-953, who turned back into a fox and ripped the servant's throat open. Daji tossed a knife at them, striking a xiān that attempted to pin down the gumiho.
"Enough!" snarled Xīwángmǔ. The portal closed, and a shockwave of power knocked down xiān and humans alike. "Begone."
All the xiān and her servants screamed, clutching at their throats as their bodies were torn apart into blood splatters. Daji could hear the researchers cursing behind her, attempting to manipulate the reality anchors to account for the sudden surge of magic.
SCP-953 raced forward as a cheetah, attempting to stop Xīwángmǔ, but the goddess glared at her, a face so hateful that it blasted the gumiho out of her transformation and left her screaming on the floor.
Daji gritted her teeth, preparing to attack the goddess herself, but faltered at seeing the gumiho writhing on the floor.
"Few of your kind are alive. Is killing one more worth what you gain yourself?"
The words of the Once-Was echoed through her conscience. With a groan, she helped SCP-953 back up, using a bit of her power to dispel the spell.
"Hang on, little fox," she murmured. "The worst has yet to come."
She looked back at Xīwángmǔ. The goddess was drenched in the blood of the xiān, and she was hunched over, clutching her head and tearing at her clothes.
When she looked back at Daji, the foxqueen's blood chilled at seeing a face that she had not in millennia.
"Allow me to reintroduce myself. In your tongue, I am the Queen Mother of the West, Tiger of the Stars and Death."
Baleful eyes scowled down, her gaze sweeping across her many enemies before landing on Daji and SCP-953.
"You wretched animal. How dare you break my composure in front of humans?!"
Daji's tails flared up, and she leapt into the air, turning back into a giant fox. With her body, she threw herself between the humans and Xīwángmǔ, just as the goddess hurled a massive chunk of steel and concrete at them.
The foxqueen grunted at the impact, but her body did the job, diverting the mass away.
"Go! The gumiho and I will stay behind!"
Without looking back at the retreating humans, Daji flew up, SCP-953 at her side as a crane.
"Come, then," roared Xīwángmǔ. "Two foxes against a tiger. Come!"
She swiped at Daji, who was forced to block with all her tails. Xīwángmǔ's slender frame belied her monstrous power, and Daji was sent flying back.
SCP-953, however, had gotten through the goddess's guard, and bit her left hand, ripping out a finger. Before the goddess could hit her, she jumped back, giggling as she became a sparrow.
"Fires of Samadhi, clear my way!"
"Blizzard of the Jade Mountain!"
Daji's flames were snuffed out as the Queen Mother summoned a storm of snow, completely enveloping the wrecked battlefield in white.
Xīwángmǔ lunged at Daji, who was forced to parry away a punch. Daji retaliated with a kick, but the Queen Mother completely ignored it, choosing instead to headbutt the foxqueen.
What she could not ignore, however, was SCP-953 dropping on her head as an elephant.
Xīwángmǔ screamed, throwing the gumiho off her and glaring at the two foxes.
"You insignificant wretches. Forget the stars, I'll make peach stew with your blood! I'll have-"
Whatever she was about to say next was interrupted by something crashing down from the sky, landing on the snow-covered floor with a thud.
The figure coughed as he brushed snow and dust off himself, before looking around. He looked at Xīwángmǔ, sneered, and turned his gaze to Daji.
"Somebody order ginger pizza?"
"Son of the Devaraja's whore," spat Xīwángmǔ. "Are you here to redeem yourself?"
"Fuck no," said Nézhā. "As far as I'm concerned, I hate both you and the fox demon. But right now, she's my customer and I need my five stars rating."
He reached into his bag, shoved his arm in far more than the bag looked like it could fit, and pulled out a staff. Daji's eyes widened at the sight of it, and even SCP-953 screeched a little.
The Staff of Léizhènzǐ.
"I hate you, Xīwángmǔ. I hate what you and your pretty little Heaven did to Jiāng Zǐyá, how you led my brothers astray. I hate you for humiliating my father, after all he's done for you. I hate you for forcing me to fight the Victorious Fighting Buddha after he redeemed himself."
He slammed the staff down, its etchings glowing with power. "But most of all, I hate you for killing my sworn brother Léizhènzǐ after blackmailing him."
The glow of the etchings went supernova, forcing Daji to look away. When the light subsided, her stomach lurched at the sight of a figure she thought she'd never see again.
The Thunderbolt. Translucent and certainly not as solid as before, but the mighty warrior, arguably the mightiest of the Zhōu army, was here.
The winged warrior gave a nod to Nézhā and took the staff from him. He held the weapon in his hands, almost reverently, before turning to look at Daji.
"m-qˤəәn-s s<r>at naʔ,"1 said the Thunderbolt. "kʰraŋ-s kˤen-s naʔ."2
Daji bared her teeth. "In another timeline, winged one, we could have been allies, cultivating together."
The Thunderbolt nodded. He swung his staff once before turning his gaze to Xīwángmǔ.
"sijʔ, ʔˤuʔ."3
"So," sneered Xīwángmǔ. "The ghost of a bird, a demon child, an overgrown fox, and a little gumiho. This is the army that plans to stop me?"
"Who cares how few of us are there?" demanded Nézhā. "If the wall is too big for all of us to break through, I'll just carve a new path!"
He flew up at the tiger-goddess and met a punch with all six of his arms. Xīwángmǔ hissed, trying to go for another one before realizing he was grappling her. She kicked him off only to deal with SCP-953, who had turned into a jaguar and bit down on her leg so hard that Daji could hear the goddess's bone crack.
Xīwángmǔ's scream was cut short by Léizhènzǐ, who tackled her to the ground. The warrior's body might have been translucent, but his monstrous strength was still there, smashing her into the ground again and again. The goddess tried to flee, but Nézhā grabbed SCP-953 and flung her towards Xīwángmǔ. The gumiho, cacking, sped towards her as a hawk, before smashing into her as a hippo.
As the goddess tried to pull herself up, she felt SCP-953's weight disappear. She looked up, only to see the murderous glare of Daji, wielding the staff of Léizhènzǐ.
"You-"
"This is for Wáng Guìrén." A thrust snapped the goddess's other leg.
"This is for Hú Xǐmèi." A swing cracked Xīwángmǔ's ribs.
The goddess coughed before laughing weakly. "Know this, jiǔwěi. You will know no safety from now on. All of Heaven understands your threat. Do you believe that killing me will stem the tide? No. More will come to stop you. The Jade Emperor. Yuánshǐ Tīanzūn. Dàodé Zhìzūn. Hóngjūn Lǎozǔ himself. There is no Pure One to defend you now."
Daji cocked her head. "Once-Was. Your verdict."
"At last," laughed the spirit of Su Dájǐ. "So you can listen to advice, my lady."
"Yeah, yeah, hurry it up."
"Very well, my lady. My verdict… is execution."
Daji nodded before slamming the staff down on Xīwángmǔ's head. The goddess screamed, before her body dissipated into smoke, Heaven having reclaimed her essence.
The foxqueen stared at the outline of Xīwángmǔ's body for a moment. None of the spectators, not the mythical warriors, not the humans who hadn't retreated, disturbed her.
She took the staff, coated in the goddess's blood, and pointed it at SCP-953.
"Here, little fox. Your reward."
The gumiho giggled, lapping the blood off the staff greedily. Daji could not suppress a smile and ruffled her head.
"Thank you for playing along, little fox. A shame there are no xiān left for you to eat."
Sprind cleared his voice and came forward with the box of the Sì Bú Xiàng.
"Well, thank you very much for handling that problem. Though, can we expect them to leave us alone?"
Daji nodded. "I dealt the final blow, and it was only we who dared to fight her directly. Though she isn't dead, the gods would rather die than admit that humans got the best of them. I will be her target, and that of Heaven, going forward."
"Then, as promised, the box. Though, may I ask what you intend to do with it? Nothing major, just a researcher's curiosity, that's all."
Daji nodded, taking the box and slipping it between her tails. "I will give the steed the burial it deserves. Not this… desecration."
"And the body of the dragon?"
"I don't care. You can eat it if you want." She glanced at Léizhènzǐ and Nézhā laughing together. "The Sì Bú Xiàng was the steed of the most noble man I ever fought. It deserves veneration. I don't give a shit about Áo Rùn."
Daji then turned to SCP-953, who was playing in the snow. "As for the gumiho, I've decided I don't want to eat her. She's now more than my shadow, as a result of the veneration your Foundation has given her. Between that and the wishes of the Once-Was, she deserves a life of her own, away from me."
Sprind nodded. "Don't worry, she's in good hands."
She turned away from the researcher and walked up to the two warriors. "Nézhā."
"Aye, old fox."
"Don't you have to go back to work?"
The god blinked before cursing. "Ah piss, you're right. Keep the staff, I'll pick it up from you another day!"
Without giving her a chance to respond, Nézhā dashed off on his wheels.
"Such a child," she sighed. Daji looked at the Thunderbolt, who was fading into smoke.
"Thank you for your help."
He nodded, but said nothing. But Daji wasn't a fool.
She could see the pain and regret in his eyes.
"You did Jiāng Zǐyá proud, Léizhènzǐ." She laid a hand on his cheek. "You can rest now."
From behind his mask, Daji could see tears well up. He touched her hand with his own.
The two stayed like that, quiet, until his body completely faded away.
Daji walked out of the remains of the facility unaccosted. Guards and researchers alike cleared a wide area around her, having seen firsthand what the foxqueen could do. They were only too glad to follow orders not to bother her.
"What now, my lady?" asked the Once-Was, once they returned home. "Now that we will not eat the gumiho?"
"What else? We hunt something else."
