Sebastian POV:

The explosion was... horrifying. And bacon was lying right next to that...

The clouds in the almost nonexistent atmosphere of mars parted as the shockwave had finally reached it.

Even up here in the spaceship I felt unsafe... yet we were thousands of kilometers away from the surface.

“It was the only way. You made the right decision.” Jade had put a hand on my shoulder.

My gaze was fixed on the epicenter of the explosion. The mushroom cloud reached all the way up to the thin atmosphere of the planet... but the blast wave had stopped.

Good thing we decided to detonate the bomb far away from site-113.

“Bring the ship around. We need to investigate the crash site.”

I wiped away a stray tear which had formed on my face. “Please be alive...”

Bacon POV:

So, this is it, I guess. I finally bit the big one.

Every little shred of me is completely and utterly destroyed.

I guess not even my anomaly could save me from that...

“Don’t you worry. I’ll keep us safe.”

A voice was heard coming from behind me somewhere. I tried to turn my head... and found myself able to do so.

“Who are you? Where is this?” I asked into the darkness.

The mysterious voice chuckled. “This is nowhere. This is your subconscious. As for who I am? I am you. Your alter ego. I am the same as this place, I am your subconscious.”

The voice took a long pause. “I cannot speak on my own, I can only answer your questions if you have any. You are the consciousness, after all.”

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I was completely bewildered, and it took me some time to come up with a question. “So, you were the vision I saw when the 610 was infecting me. How come I haven’t seen you before?”

The voice took a small pause. “Being infected by that disease was the only sufficiently grave death you’ve had. I was almost able to reach you, but not quite.”

The gears turned in my head. “So, what you’re saying is that you, my subconscious, are the source of my immortality? And another thing, how come I'm not... dead now?”

The voice answered. “Yes, the anomaly is a part of ourselves. Yes, you are dead.”

I was speechless. “You’re not really helping. Could you at least tell me if I'm going to be stuck like this or not?”

There was a pause. “We will be back.”

I sighed. “Could you be any less vague?”

The voice didn’t answer that.

“You should make yourself comfortable. Now that you’ve had your first “real” death, you can connect to me more easily moving forward. Think of it as opening a door when you’re asleep. You’ll end up here when you go through.”

I smiled. “Cool. I think we’ll be good friends.”

“I am you, of course we’ll be.”

I woke up.

Nothing grandiose or anything. I just awoke lying in a cell.

Wait. Isn’t this... SCP-049's cell?

I sat up, looking around the room. Sure enough, it was SCP-049's cell, but he wasn’t there. Strange. Maybe Jade was taking him on a date or something?

I looked down at my body, realizing I was completely nude. Well, it’s a good thing 049 isn’t here right now...

I looked around the cell for any spare clothes, and I did find a single discarded lab coat, and I wore it. It was a little small for me, but it will do for now.

I opened the door to 049’s cell, and realized nobody was around. What happened?

I should get back to my cell. I have a spare wrist device there, maybe it can tell me something.

I opened the door to my containment cell. Considering it’s been an entire year I'm surprised they didn’t refurbish it.

After getting properly dressed and confirming I was all right in front of a mirror, I pressed some buttons on the spare wrist display I had on my desk. I was greeted by a ton of messages from pretty much everyone...

I opened Sebastian’s chat. The most recent message was a final goodbye he had sent me, about 7 months ago.

It broke my heart to see him thinking I had passed on. But what happened here?

There was a message from SYSTEM.

SYSTEM: Attention all personnel. Site-113 is compromised. Make your way to the escape spacecrafts as soon as possible. Secure. Contain. Protect.

I clicked off the message in horror. So, the site is... gone? No wonder nobody’s around I suppose.

But... What happened? Are there any survivors?

I need to figure this out. I can’t leave regardless, so I might as well get to the bottom of this.

Sebastian... Jade... Please be alive and well, friends.