Jerry and his newfound comrades infiltrate a Foundation facility hoping to find information that will lead them to Evan, but the operation doesn't go as planned.
Present Day
“In order to understand our cause, you need to truly understand the Jailors.” Sean speaks to me as he leads me through an out-of-the-way isle in the Library. The shelves here are lined with hundreds of file folders, containing written accounts of strange happenings. Many of them are frightening. A person who didn’t look very long might walk away believing all of them are frightening, but that would be a mistake. Mixed in amongst them are the wondrous, the humorous, the baffling, and even the joyful and wholesome. “We live in an infinite multiverse,” Sean continues. “Our reality contains everything. Every planet, every society, every creature. Every man and monster, hero and villain, every person, place, or thing you can possibly imagine, they all exist, and they’re all documented by the Library.” Sean reaches out with his ungloved hand to grab a small black tome off the shelf.
“What is this?” I ask.
“I have absolutely no idea,” Sean says. “You’re to read it cover to cover.”
I nod.
“Now, here’s the deal with the Jailors and the Bookburners. They look at all that wonder, all the infinite majesty and glory of the multiverse, and they quake in fear. They gaze into infinite everything and see only horror. No wonder. No beauty. Nothing worth understanding or safeguarding. Only threats and anomalies that need to be contained or destroyed. They’re too terrified of everything they don’t understand to be able to tell the difference between a threatening ‘anomaly’ and a harmless one. To them, a neck-snapping murder monster is exactly as much of a problem as a person whose left pinky glows. They fear that the lifting of the veil will drag humanity into a new dark age, but they are the ones keeping humanity in the dark.”
“I understand,” I say.
“Sorry. I ramble when I get passionate.”
“No. It’s fine. I saw what they did to my brother. To my family.” I clench my fist. “My brother was a hero. He went to the Galaxy Plaza to save people. He did save people, and because he did, they locked him in a cage forever.”
“It’s perverse,” Sean says. “To them, nothing he does can ever cancel out what he is.”
I think Sean is under the impression that he needs to radicalize me into the Serpent’s Hand, and against the Jailors. He’s wrong. I’ve hated them since before I knew who they were. Since the day they took my brother. “I want to hurt them,” I say.
“Fortunately, we hurt them just by existing.”
I nod. “By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask, what’s your anomaly? You’ve mentioned having one, but I don’t think you’ve ever said what it is.”
“I wasn’t joking a second ago,” Sean says. He grabs the glove that always covers his left hand and pulls it off. Sure enough, his left pinky glows. It’s bright. Painfully so, like staring directly into the sun. I look away. Sean puts the glove back on. “It’s bright enough to hurt people,” he says. “I know that. That’s why I wear the glove. Still, that’s all that’s ‘anomalous’ about me. A single piece of clothing renders me completely harmless, but it was still enough reason for the Jailors to lock me away for years.”
“You got caught by them?” I ask.
“Yes,” Sean says. “I did.”
“What’s it like?” I ask. As soon as I do, I wonder if I should have. It might be a very personal question. One with lots of bad memories attached. But I can’t resist information on how Evan might have been doing these past six years. I need to know if it’s as bad as I’ve been imagining. If it’s somehow worse.
“It’s a prison,” Sean says. “Not that different from any other. You spend most of your time alone in a cell. Depending on how dangerous they think you are, and how well you behave, you might be allowed a bit of time out to commune with other prisoners. You might even be allowed into the yard, if they’re confident you can’t get over the fence.
“The boredom was intolerable. You can get access to entertainment, if you behave, but you can’t do anything that matters. Nothing you make can ever leave the site. There’s nothing you can do to help anyone. To make any kind of difference in anything. Every second, you can feel your life being wasted. The knowledge that you don’t matter, that you’re being kept from mattering, erodes your soul.”
“I’m so sorry you had to go through that,” I say.
“Thank you,” he says. “That’s why the Hand exists. That’s why we won’t rest until everyone they’ve imprisoned is free.”
I look down. “Evan is probably miserable in there in there,” I say. “He was always someone who wanted to make a difference. Who liked to help other people.”
I feel a hand on my shoulder. I look back over at Sean. “Don’t worry,” he says. “I’m out, now. The Serpent’s Hand broke into my site and freed me. Soon, we’re going to do the same for your brother.”
I nod.
“If he’s like you—” Sean begins.
“Better,” I say. “He has my powers, and he’s better at magic than I’ll ever be.”
Sean smiles. “I’m sure we’ll do great work together, if he’s interested in joining the Hand.”
“I’m sure he’ll want to join. He’s already a hero.”
“Are you sure you’re ready?” Sean asks.
“Yes,” I say. I’m as ready as anyone can be for a mission like this. The Serpent’s Hand have spent months preparing me for the role I’ll play.
“Good.”
This isn’t the mission to rescue Evan. We still need to figure out what site he’s being kept at. This mission is about stealing that information. Sean is going to break into Site-272. I’ll be part of the team monitoring him remotely, and my advice will help guide him toward information relevant to my brother.
It’s quite a handy little artifact that he’s using to infiltrate the base. It’s this old-style hat that makes you functionally invisible to the people around you. Unfortunately for me, it doesn’t make you literally invisible, but, rather, generates a mental effect that forces everyone to ignore you. My presence negates mental effects, so I can’t be the one to wear it and sneak inside. That’s why Sean’s going. My job will be to stand by with the other agents, advise him on finding information relevant to my brother, and be nearby in case he calls for backup.
“Before we go,” I say. “I just want to say thanks, for all of this. You’ve done a lot for me.”
“It’s what we do,” Sean says.
I nod. I’ve already started to work on making it up to them. My ability to undo amnestics is very useful, both because of the intelligence it can gather, and because it allows me to free people from their Jailor-imposed ignorance.
“We need to remember not to underestimate the Jailors,” Sean says “The hat is powerful, but it is something they’ve encountered before. Even with its help, there’s no guarantee I’ll remain undetected.”
“Understood.”
“Alright. Time to head out.”
We’re waiting in a small van. Besides me and Sean, there’s Mike, who isn’t anomalous, and Jack, whose bright blue skin makes him the most visibly strange out of our group. We’re as close as we can get to Site-272 without raising any suspicion, which means we’re over a mile away. If Sean calls for backup, we’ll have a lot of distance to cover.
Sean’s wearing a camera. The three of us are gathered in front of a live feed. “Preparations are complete,” Sean says. He’s dressed like a Jailor researcher, with a fake Foundation ID card. In the event something goes wrong with the hat, we’re hoping it will still seem like he’s supposed to be there. “Everything’s a-go.”
The rest of us express our assent. Sean starts walking toward the facility.
Sean already used the hat to case the outside of Site-272. Using the intelligence gathered from that trip, he’s able to take advantage of a small gap in the security camera’s coverage. He casts a spell that allows him to phase through the site’s fence, then uses his ID card on a side entrance to get inside the building.
I study the facility as Sean walks through it. It’s a sterile, white place, bathed in bright florescent light. Sean has walked into a ‘Light Containment Wing.’ Iron doors line the corridor, guarded by security officers wearing the same uniforms as the ones who took Evan.
Sean walks by them, unnoticed. Helpful signs direct him around the facility, and soon enough, he finds a computer room. Unsurprisingly, it’s full of computers, lining all four walls and covering a large island in its center. Most of the computers are being used by researchers, but a few of them are open. Sean takes a seat in one of them.
I can see the screen clearly through his camera. The camera is recording, so we’ll have the information we need as soon as he pulls it up.
Sean starts accessing information. “There’s intake data going back years,” he says.
“You’re looking for February 2017,” I say, as quietly as I can while still ensuring my mic will pick it up. We don’t know if the sound of my voice over the microphone will be enough to break the hat’s effect.
Sean opens the appropriate intake records. Apparently, six SCPs were brought to this facility that month. “Late in the month,” I whisper. Sean attempts to access the last file.
A loud buzz sounds. “Unauthorized access detected.” Immediately, several researchers inside the room begin looking around. None of them notice Sean. He starts working at the computer in earnest, trying to pull up the files.
“Are you sure you shouldn’t get out of there?” I ask Sean.
“We have a bit of time,” Sean whispers.
He turns out to have about thirty seconds before four guards barge into the room. “Researchers, clear out,” one of them says, while the others head directly to Sean’s terminal. Sean steps back. Thanks to the hat, no one in the room notices him. The researchers obey and leave the room. One of the four guards follows them out. The others stay inside, as does Sean. He positions himself so that his camera has a clear view of the monitor he’d been at.
“This is the one that triggered the alarm?” one of the Jailors asks.
Another sits in front of the computer. “The seat is warm,” she says. “Someone was just here.”
“Lock the door,” a Jailor says. The door shuts, and, presumably, locks. Sean is trapped in there.
“What files were they accessing?” another Jailor asks.
“Intake records from 2017,” says the one at the computer.
“Any idea what someone would want with those?”
“No. There are six files open in this folder. Should I take a look at them?”
“Affirmative.”
And with that, they proceed to finish our work for us. One at a time, they open each of the files and scroll through them, so every word of all six files is captured on Sean’s camera for us to study later.
The security guard who stepped out of the room a moment ago steps back in. “I’ve talked to the researchers. All of them recall someone being here but can’t recall anything about them.”
“We know which SCiP does that,” another guard says.
“Think they’re still somewhere in here?” one of the guards says.
“They might be. Keep the room locked. Start searching.”
With that, the guards start systematically searching the room, arms outstretched. Sean is quickly forced away from the door by the need to dodge them, and, from there, he engages in some remarkable acrobatics to avoid their touch. The Jailors look ridiculous, slowly walking around the room with their arms outstretched, but I can see how this would be the logical way to search for an invisible enemy.
“What happens if one of them manages to touch him?” I ask.
“Interaction eliminates the hat’s effects,” Jack says. “If they touch him, they can see him.”
The guards search the room efficiently. They check the space underneath and above the terminals, ensuring Sean doesn’t have anywhere to hide. One of them is standing directly in front of the locked door. Sean spends most of his time on top of the terminals, using a spell to make himself supernaturally dexterous.
“Can he phase out the door?” I ask.
“No,” Mike says.
“Not even with the spell he used earlier?”
“He phased through a mesh fence. That solid iron door has a hundred times more material.”
After several minutes, an electronic voice comes from the loudspeaker. “Facility on lockdown,” it says.
Sean’s fucked. There’s no way he can get out of that room with this many guards in it. He can evade them for a while, but it’ll only take one slip-up to reveal him to everyone there. I watch the screen for several agonizing minutes, hoping that somehow, something will go his way, and he’ll be able to get out.
He mistimes a leap, and bumps into one of the guards.
The Jailor’s attention snaps toward him, and he looks him right in the eye. Sean jumps back, to the other side of the island. “He’s there!” the Jailor shouts. The other guards surround the spot he indicated. The guard who saw Sean approaches him. He’s too boxed in to have any hope of escaping. He grabs the hat and yanks it off Sean’s head. All the guards draw their weapons and point them at Sean. “Stand still,” one of them barks.
Sean does.
He’s been caught. He was caught while he was trying to help me.
One of the guards approaches him from behind and pulls his hands behind his back to cuff them. As he does this, the Jailor notices the glove on Sean’s hand. “What’s this?” he asks. Sean says nothing. I keep waiting for him to utter the code phrase that he’s supposed to use to call for help, but he doesn’t.
“Mind if I take this off?” the guard asks. Sean doesn’t answer. The guard grabs Sean’s hand and rips off the thick leather glove. Two of the guards flinch and shield their eyes from the sudden light exploding from Sean’s finger. Sean tries to take advantage of this to climb back over the island, but the guards recover and drag him to the ground. The Jailor who’d removed the glove places it back on his hand. “I guess we’ll be leaving that there for now,” he says.
“Should have guessed he was a freak,” another Jailor says. “They’re the ones who have that stupid hat.”
“Not anymore,” says the guard who snatched it, smirking.
One of the guards approaches Sean from the other side, and makes eye contact with the camera. “Is someone watching us?” he asks.
Sean doesn’t say anything. The guard continues to approach the camera. “Think we can trace it?” another Jailor asks.
“Oh, we definitely can.” He walks up to the camera. Before he can touch it, Sean suddenly jerks forward. The motion is too fast for me to tell what he’s doing, but right after it, there’s a loud sound, and the camera feed suddenly ends.
“We have to go in,” I say. “He needs backup.”
“He didn’t ask us to come in,” Mike says.
“Obviously, he didn’t want to alert them that we’d be coming.”
“No,” Jack says. “That’s what the code phrase is for. He didn’t want us to come after him.”
“We can’t leave him!” I say. “We can’t just let them lock him away forever.”
“Not forever,” Jack says. “Rescuing him while the facility is on lockdown is hopeless. We’re better off coming back for him later, with a plan.”
“He might not even be here by then!”
“He’ll be somewhere,” Mike says, “and hopefully that place won’t be on full lockdown.”
“We can’t leave someone behind.”
“He chose to risk this for our cause. That’s the same choice you’re making.”
“I don’t want to trade another captive for my brother.”
“Your brother isn’t just one captive,” Jack says. “Just like you, he has the power to recover enormous amounts of information the Jailors have erased with amnestics.”
“Imagine if you were in his position,” Mike says. “Would you want three more people to get themselves captured charging in after you?”
No. I wouldn’t.
I don’t want to accept this. I don’t want my brother’s rescue to have a cost. I want my mission to be about saving someone from the Jailors, not trading one prisoner for another. The others are right, though. Going in while the facility’s on lockdown is foolish. “How long?” I ask. “How long will he have to wait before we go back for him?”
“Hopefully just a few weeks,” Mike says.
“I’ve been ‘contained’ by them before,” says Jack. “So has Sean. He’s strong. He’ll survive, and we’ll come back for him. The Hand takes care of its own.”
He says that just before driving away, abandoning Sean to the Jailors’ mercy.
As soon as we’re back in the Library, Mike, Jack and I hurry to look over the footage Sean captured. Sure enough, one of the six files those Jailors scrolled through seems to be about Evan.
The file is heavily redacted, even by Jailor standards. According to my comrades, that suggests that Evan is involved with something the Jailors consider very secret. Still, the file leaves us with more information than I’ve had for years, and my eyes greedily soak in every detail.
Item #: SCP-7851
Object Class: Thaumiel
This isn’t the first Jailor document I’ve seen, but I don’t think I’ve seen that object class before. “What does ‘Thaumiel’ mean?” I ask.
“It means they consider him useful,” Mike says.
“Useful?”
“They’re probably forcing him to use his abilities for their benefit,” Jack says.
That makes me want to gag.
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-7851 is held in [REDACTED] at Site-17.
Theo’s first guess was right. He really is at Site-17. Unfortunately, the rest of the containment procedures simply read,
“[DATA EXPUNGED] Individuals subject to desirable mind-affecting effects should not be placed in contact with SCP-7851 unless SCP-7851 is first briefed on the nature of said effects. [DATA EXPUNGED]”
“That’s unusual,” Jack notes.
“I thought you said they redact a lot?”
“Not the containment procedures, though,” Mike says. “Containment procedures are instructions. Instructions aren’t any use if you can’t read them. Whoever’s in charge of containing him must have access to an unredacted version, but it seems like they’ve chosen not to share some of that information with other sites.”
We continue reading.
Description: SCP-7851 appears to be a twenty-two year old human male. [DATA EXPUNGED] SCP-7851 possesses an extreme resistance to cognitohazardous, infohazardous, and other mind-affecting anomalies. SCP-7851’s Cognitive Resistance Score has been measured to be 358.9, the highest ever recorded.
In addition, interactions with SCP-7851 raise the cognitive resistance of individuals around it.
It. They call my brother it.
Individuals interacting with SCP-7851 behave as if not under the effect of any mind-affecting anomalies, regardless of whether they were previously subject to such an effect. Such contact usually permanently nullifies such anomalies, though some anomalies reassert themselves after SCP-7851 leaves the victim’s proximity (see cross-testing log).
Conversations with SCP-7851 regarding memories lost via amnestic treatment allow subjects to recover lost memories. Conversations in which SCP-7851 questions the compelled behavior exhibited by victims of thaumaturgic mind control will negate its compulsive effects.
Because any interaction with SCP-7851 can dispel a mind-affecting affect, an individual in the presence of SCP-7851 usually cannot be affected by any mind-affecting anomalies. SCP-7851 can attempt to withhold this protection by avoiding interaction with an individual, but this has proven unreliable.
Because of the immense value of SCP-7851’s ability to counteract and protect against a wide variety of cognitohazardous anomalies, [REDACTED]
That’s all that’s left of the description.
“They really have put him to work,” the agent next to me says.
“Yeah,” I seethe.
We move on to the next portion of the article.
Addendum 1: Cross-Testing Log Over the course of [REDACTED], SCP-7851 has come into contact with numerous mind-affecting anomalies. The results of some of these interactions are recorded below.
| Object | Result of Interaction |
|---|---|
| SCP-035 | SCP-7851 is fully immune to the effects of SCP-035 and feels no compulsion to don it. SCP-7851 is able to persuade others to resist SCP-035’s compulsive effects, both before they don it and while they are wearing it. During [REDACTED] was successfully persuaded to remove SCP-035. |
| SCP-140 | SCP-7851 is fully immune to the psychological effects of SCP-140. It feels no compulsion to read the volume and can persuade others to lose interest in doing so. |
| SCP-701 | SCP-7851 has viewed SCP-701 on multiple occasions and has never been affected by its cognitohazardous properties. SCP-7851 has successfully disrupted an SCP-701 event by conversing with the play’s cast and crew during the early phases of the anomaly. Though the anomaly’s effects sporadically reasserted themselves when SCP-7851 was no longer present, the disruption was sufficient to prevent the staging of SCP-701, after which, no further anomalies occurred. |
| SCP-999 | Though SCP-7851 responded positively to its interaction with SCP-999, its reaction was notably muted compared to SCP-999’s typical effects. |
| SCP-1168 | SCP-7851 was exposed to SCP-1168 in 2017, at which time it fit Profile Beta-1168. It was accompanied by D-87185, who fit Profile Alpha-1168. During the resulting activation event, SCP-7851 did not vocalize, though the other effects of SCP-1168 occurred as normal. |
| SCP-1425 | SCP-7851 is immune to all memetic triggers present in SCP-1425, and interactions with SCP-7851 remove the book’s effects on other subjects. |
| SCP-1617 | SCP-7851 experiences no visual or auditory hallucinations when viewing an instance of SCP-1617. |
| SCP-2001 | Interaction with SCP-7851 can fully cure all three variants of SCP-2001. |
| SCP-2316 | SCP-7851 is immune to the effects of SCP-2316, as would be expected of an individual of its cognitive resistance level. Interactions with SCP-7851 negate the cognitohazardous effects of SCP-2316, allowing it to persuade victims that they do not [REDACTED]. |
| SCP-2602 | SCP-7851 is immune to the effects of SCP-2602. Assistance from SCP-7851 has allowed the Foundation to eliminate SCP-2602’s effects from relevant documentation. Exploration of SCP-2602 assisted by SCP-7851 has shed light on its recent history, including its use as [REDACTED]. |
| SCP-2662 | Interactions with SCP-7851 can fully cure the effects of SCP-2662, persuading victims to submit to amnestic treatment and resume their former lives. |
| SCP-2774 | While interacting with SCP-7851, victims of SCP-2774 behave as if not affected by the anomaly. Upon SCP-7851 leaving a victim’s vicinity, the anomaly’s effects resume. |
| SCP-2852 | SCP-7851 has successfully disrupted the anomalous rituals associated with all three levels of SCP-2852 event. However, an event being disrupted by SCP-7851 does not negate SCP-2852’s long-term effects on those present. Said long-term effects can be mitigated by extended interaction with SCP-7851 in the years following an SCP-2852 event, but affected individuals still display elevated risk of [REDACTED]. |
| SCP-3209 | SCP-7851 is immune to the effects of SCP-3209, and interactions between SCP-7851 and past victims have been observed to cure SCP-3209’s effects. |
| SCP-3512 | Interaction with SCP-7851 permanently cures SCP-3512. |
| SCP-4319 | Interaction with SCP-7851 can fully reverse the psychological effects of exposure to SCP-4319 and related anomalies. Other effects of the anomaly, such as the alteration of the victim’s clothing and surroundings, are not reversed. |
| SCP-4494 | SCP-7851’s verbal references to SCP-4494 are unaffected by SCP-4494’s usual effects. |
| SCP-4511 | SCP-7851 has successfully persuaded containment personnel to disregard instructions issued by SCP-4511. As a result, [REDACTED] periodically to prevent [REDACTED]. |
| SCP-6096 | Despite several attempts, no Foundation personnel has succeeded in briefing SCP-7851 on SCP-6096 or bringing the two anomalies into contact. |
| SCP-7303 | Interaction with SCP-7851 by affected physicians temporarily eliminates the effects of SCP-7303. However, the effects of SCP-7303 eventually reassert themselves, and the Foundation has yet to succeed in using SCP-7851 to permanently disrupt an instance of SCP-7303. |
That’s only some of the entries. For every one with readable information, there are three which have been redacted completely.
I don’t know anything about most of those anomalies, but the Jailors have obviously been putting Evan’s powers to a lot of use.
Fuck them. He’s not a fucking tool for them to exploit. He’s a person. He’s my brother. He doesn’t belong to them.
The next section of the document records Evan’s “discovery.” It’s just the events I already know took place, told from the Jailors’ perspective.
There is one new piece of information. The document makes it clear that the Foundation was already aware of Aster Sterling and was already making its own plans to disrupt whatever he was attempting to do in Galaxy Plaza. However, even they seem to realize Evan’s intervention saved more lives than they could have.
Knowing that, they still chose to punish him with a life of imprisonment.
“It looks like we have the information we need,” Jack says.
“Yeah,” I say.
“I guess it’s time we go in and rescue your brother, then.”
“Yeah, I guess it is.”