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|| The end of the beginning. ||

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You didn't go right next time.

Learning from your mistakes was how you'd survive, you figured. That or an infinite death loop. From what you had seen from your... anomaly, logically, it was possible for you to be trapped in a time loop, forever entrapped in the grasps of death yet never fully enclosed. There were some situations where it would be possible for it to happen like in a fight you couldn't escape. You just hoped it wouldn't come to that.

You continued on your way, opening door after door. In the corner of a room, you found-

You blinked. What were you doing? You glanced left, then right. This wasn't the room you were just in. Racking through your memories, you tried to think. You had been going through the rooms as usual and then... nothing. Whatever transpired had left your mind. There was something, you knew it wasn't round. Round... Not round...

"Huh..." you hummed, stopping for a moment to actually take in the room you were in.

The walls looked the same as the rest of Heavy Containment, a door behind and in front of you, oh wait. Your eyes focussed on the poster beside the door in front of you. It was red with the words "SCP-055" and "Object Class: Keter" below it. There was a symbol with "Anti-Memetic" and a large question mark beside it. Oh. That explained a lot actually.

SCP 055, an anti-memetic SCP. If you were outside this room and didn't remember the last few minutes then presumably, you had contained 055, somehow. Whatever you had done, you didn't remember it. Well, there was no use going back into that room, you wouldn't remember what happened when you came back out anyways, that was if you came out at all. Such was the nature of this particular SCP after all.

Leaving the room, you tucked the experience into the corner of your mind. Anti-memetics tended to be strange. You might as well just continue onward to your original goal, getting to the checkpoint. Sooner than later, you arrived.

The checkpoint looked the same as ever, unsurprisingly. Some things never changed you supposed though architecture didn't usually change on a whim. Usually. You felt as though your standard of "normal" had been vastly altered in your time at the foundation site. Then again, normal people don't die and live again. Normal people don't experience time loops. Normal people don't get dropped into a fictional universe.

You paused in your steps.

"You guys don't have to stick around you know," you said to the 408s. "I'm probably... I know I'm not making it out."

You stared up at the bland white ceiling and closed your eyes. A bad idea, certainly, but you were always a fool. 408 could spell but there weren't enough butterflies here to spell out words. You were pretty sure Kondraki taught them how to spell sometime in the past. You reopened your eyes as something tickled your nose. A butterfly had landed on your nose and seemed to be intently staring at you. Wrinkling your nose, stared right back, or tried to. You went crossed-eyed.

"Well, if you're insistent on staying..." A smile graced your face. "I'm glad to have you guys along."

The electrical centre was exactly where it was last time, unsurprisingly. As you slid the keycard and the door opened up, you wondered if the foundation was going to change the layout of the site anytime soon after the breach. They would probably have to move out some of the SCPs contained in the site before construction or a lot but it would probably be better in the long run. Why was Site-19 such a disaster? Too many dangerous SCPs contained in one place, terrible layout of the site, who was the manager here?

You pushed those thoughts away for later as you ascended the stairs into the electrical centre. Without wasting much time, you went to the area in the back with the switches. Three switches, exactly where you had left them last time. Without hesitation, you pulled down the remote door control switch from "Off" to "On". A bleep came over the intercom.

"The doors to Gate B are now open."

You grinned. Despite 079's offer being only Gate B, he also opened Gate A which was the ending you were going after. You went down the stairs, excitement flooding your mind. Soon... soon, this game would come to an end. Perhaps not the end you would want, but some sort of close. You stepped out of the electrical centre and paused to stare at the crack in the ground. Was that there before?

You squinted. You were pretty sure it was but just didn't remember. The 408s looked at you like you were an idiot which was pretty weird since they were butterflies.

"Hey!" you whisper-shouted.

They continued to stare at you. You stared right back.

"Whatever," you grumbled.

After getting sufficiently sidetracked, you went straight ahead from where you exited the electrical centre. Ah, whoops, a dead end. This room was the elevator lounge with a pristine white couch (you wondered how it stayed so clean), as well as a pair of elevators, both of which were out of order. You turned around and went back the way you came.

You passed by SCP 066 who was rolling on the floor as usual. You went through the cafeteria again and when you leaned over to one side to see through the glass, you found the other 408s were still gathered around the cup of sugar water. They must have seen you somehow since a majority of them left the cup and fluttered up to the higher level you were on.

Seeing as now the rest of the group of butterflies rejoined the four of five that had followed you, you no longer knew how many were gathered around you now. That was fine. Yup. Definitely. Unsurprisingly, a few of them decided to land on your head. You silently wondered how this would look on security cameras after the breach. A random person appearing in a (maybe) highly secure facility of anomalous beings and objects, navigating the place and attracting a swarm of anomalous butterflies.

Yup. Perfectly normal.

Before you went down another path of self-contemplation and existential crises, you went through the door. A perfectly non-descriptive four-way hallway was on the other side. The right door was open and from the red light that shone, you could tell it was 096's lockdown room. Definitely not going through that side then. The S-Nav, being basically your best friend now, displayed the path you had to take and it was through the door straight ahead.

You really hated the way this facility was laid out. From time to time, you'd hear the footsteps of the MTF through the walls. You avoided them mostly but it was rather annoying since oftentimes, they were through the area you had to go through. You supposed it wasn't exactly their fault but that didn't prevent you from being salty about it. Due to avoiding them, you ended up just a little bit lost.

"They should remodel this facility," you told the 408s even though they couldn't respond.

You found yourself in a different office. It was normal from what you could tell. There were a couple of papers scattered on the ground which was common at this point. You leaned down and picked up the closest paper. A file on SCP 166. You hummed a little. How strange of that to be here of all places. You skimmed over the contents but your eyes were drawn to the bottom of the page.

A hand-signed alto clef in blue pen.

So, Dr. Alto Clef was alive in this universe, maybe? You weren't sure how long ago this paper was signed but as far as you were aware, that liar of a doctor was the only one who signed things like this according to his personnel file. Abruptly, the door slid open and a shout of "Stop right there!" dragged your attention back to reality. Quickly, you scrambled up to your feet, rushing to the door you were closest to.

The MTF on the other side of the door wore what you expected from being a security unit. A gun in their right hand, and a communicator in the other. They shouted something about you that you weren't quite paying attention to. You could hear more footsteps close behind them and decided now was a good time to get running. Sprinting through the door and trusting the 408s to keep up, you began to try to lose the armed forces.

You were lucky they hadn't decided to start shooting immediately like last time. You could hear the calls of the MTF while they tried to find you. Yeah, like you were going to answer. You weren't trying to die again. As you passed through rooms, you did your best to close the doors behind you. Occasionally, the doors closed on their own behind you or opened up in front of you. Too caught up in running, you didn't think of the implications of the doors.

You breathed out shakily as you leaned against a wall. You sprinted pretty fricking far from where you originally were. God, where the hell was Gate B. Wait. Gate A. You meant gate A. Right, you were kind of out of it. Pushing yourself from the wall, you swayed unsteadily. No time to breathe, you had to go before the mobile task force found you again. You pressed the button to the door and looked up.

In big white letters were the words "GATE A" beside the SCP foundation's logo.

A strange feeling washed over you. Finally, actually finally this time. Red light illuminated the room, seemingly brighter than you expected. Approaching the keycard slot on the right side of the gate, you inserted the level 5 keycard. The blast doors opened up to an empty room with a secondary blast door and an elevator that would take you up to the surface. You stumbled into the elevator, waiting for the 408s to come in as well.

You pushed the button in the elevator before going to a wall and pressing your back against the rails. The elevator rumbled as it took you up to the surface. Your eyes threatened to close as your head tilted back. You were tired. So, so, tired. Then, the elevator doors opened and sunlight blinded you. Exhaling, you stepped out of the elevator.

The faint whirring of a helicopter above you was the first thing that caught your attention. Next, the bright blue sky and white walls. A breeze tousled your hair as you walked closer to the end. The gate looked just about what you expected, practically a carbon copy of the game, with the dome above and an open gate to the right of you.

As you approached the gate, the anomalous butterflies fluttered around you. On the other side of the small hallway after the gate, you could see 2 members of the MTF, patrolling. It would be useless to try and get away now. Wearily accepting your fate, you went through the gate and to the end of the corridor.

"Stop right there," the MTF said as they kept their gun pointed at you.

You blinked slowly while your vision blurred around the edges. Breathing shakily, the ground shifted below you while the MTF's voice faded into the background. Maybe they were still saying something, you couldn't really tell. Finally, your legs gave out and the world tilted on its axis.

You fainted before you could tell what was going on.

X.x.X

An audio log began in an empty office.

"Testing log [----]. Subject [----]-[-------]. Subject demonstrates extraordinary luck and complete mastery of even the most fatal of circumstances and an uncanny ability to predict even the most unpredictable of hazards, almost as if it has performed these impossible tasks several times before."

A pause.

"Subject first appeared outside SCP 173's containment chamber, it is unknown how they entered the facility. Security footage is still being reviewed at the time of this recording. The subject has not awakened since exiting Gate A. Currently, they are being held in a standard humanoid containment cell."

The shuffling of papers and a sigh was heard soon after.

"Further testing is required to determine whether the subject should receive SCP classification."

With a click, the recording ended.

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SCP 055

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Published: May 31, 2021

Word count: 2,088

Death Counter: 5

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And arc 1 comes to a close. A portion of the audio log was pulled from the one at the end of the game. Thanks for reading!