In my unconscious state I saw the same pillar of green flame I had done the first time when my body fought against the SCP-610 infection. The pillar shot up into the infinity of the void, and down into the abyss.
The floor I was standing on rumbled, and the pillar disappeared with a flash of green flame, instantly dropping the area around me into complete darkness. All safe for one light source, the figure standing where the pillar had been.
It was a completely black humanoid, with green eyes and he was burning with a neon-green flame, similar to the pillar that was before him.
He was far, far away from me in a moment, and in the next he was standing no more than a meter from me.
“So, you finally did it.” The fiery man spoke. He had no mouth, but spoke regardless. His voice came from all around me, everywhere at once.
“You finally unleashed it. You became so overwhelmed by grief I got a firm grip on reality, pulling our latent power to the surface with me.”
I was unable to move or speak, and only stared at the burning figure before me.
“You can learn to control our power. Now that you’ve had a taste of it, I know you won’t be able to stop yourself from seeking it out. You’re me, after all.”
The fiery man suddenly appeared right in front of me, in a mirror frame. I was able to move my limbs again, and as I did the figure in the mirror followed me.
“About cherry and the other 939...” He spoke. “Go back to their graves. I think you will be impressed by the results.”
One of my eyes twitched, and the mirror cracked, shooting shards toward me.
“Don’t forget. We’re capable of so much more than you think...”
I awoke again, lying face down on the Martian surface. I pushed my palms into the red sand, lifting myself off the red sand. There was something strange about the situation though. How come I can breathe just fine?
I took a deep breath and found myself breathing in what felt like normal oxygen.
That’s strange. I looked down at my body and found I was wearing nothing at all.
I covered myself and started half-running toward the main facility again. How many times am I going to wake up nude...
After getting dressed again I remembered what my subconscious had told me. Go back to their graves, huh? Well, it couldn’t hurt I suppose...
I looked down into the elevator shaft, spotting the elevator cage that was stopped at sublevel 7. Yeah, that elevator is not going to move again. I put a hand on my chin, thinking about how I might get down there. I looked into the elevator shaft again, noticing the metal wires going down to the elevator cage. I could definitely climb down those, I guess.
I took a hold of the wire, tugging it to test its strength. It didn’t move much, so I tried to take a hold of it with both hands and wrapped my legs around it. It held me okay, so I began slowly climbing down the metal rope.
Eventually I made it to the elevator cage again, jumping down onto the roof of it. The roof looked like it had been blown out with a grenade from the inside... And I did that.
Scary.
I jumped down into the elevator cage, landing on the floor of it. The elevator dipped a little at my weight, but quickly bounced back to its correct position. I stepped out onto the catwalk and was immediately hit by the smell of death. Iron was in the air, and I had to stop myself from looking down at the cells below.
Okay, I'm here. Now what.
Nothing happened and I started to suspect I had to stand next to the corpses in order for it to work. I sighed and began to make my way down the stairs, slowly.
The air was filled with regret and death... It was as if I could feel the souls of the 939’s all around me. The feeling creeped me out and I eventually made my way to the ground floor.
I looked away from the mangled corpses of the 939’s... but there was a weird feeling emanating from them. It was as if there was something pulling me toward them, and I bent down to touch one of the many corpses lying around.
The body was emanating some warmth, and I closed my eyes.
I could see the body of the 939 from the inside... and see that there was a big spot in the middle of the body which looked empty.
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I scrunch my eyes, keeping them closed. “So... you’re missing something. Maybe I'm supposed to find it?”
I let go of the body, keeping my hand outstretched. I found that I was able to see a rough outline of my surroundings even with my eyes closed, and eventually I found something out of the ordinary. In the middle of the air there was a sphere of light, about the size of the spot missing in the 939’s body.
Maybe I... take that over to its body?
I grabbed a hold of the mysterious sphere and found I could move it around. The sphere was speaking to me in muffled voices... The memories of the SCP-939.
Is this their soul?
I carefully brought the light sphere over to the 939, holding it above the empty spot in its body. I carefully lowered the sphere into its position, and it was absorbed into the body as if nothing had happened.
I opened my eyes again and to my surprise, the corpse of the 939 was fully healed again!
I put two fingers on its throat, feeling for a pulse. It was there, the SCP-939 was just unconscious.
This is what my subconscious must have been doing with my soul every time I died... And now I could do it to other creatures as well.
A smile formed on my face and I rubbed the skull of the 939 affectionately. “Cherry... you’re not going to die just yet.”
Eventually after putting the souls of the other 939’s back inside their bodies, I had come to cherry’s corpse. Her kids were all lying around her, mourning her loss. Seeing them like this broke my heart so I decided to find her soul as fast as possible.
I looked around the room... but nothing was there. I couldn’t find the sphere!
Then I noticed that my own chest was glowing with the white light. Do I have her soul... within me?
I tried to take a hold of the sphere of light, and it worked! I could see Cherry’s memories, all our walks... all her time with Tomato... The love for her children, her love for me...
I shed a small tear. “You’ll have plenty of time to make more memories. Just you wait, Bacon’s going to fix you right up...”
I carefully pulled the sphere of light from my chest and held it above Cherry. I lowered it into position... and opened my eyes.
Her body was fully healed again, and she was unconscious like the other 939’s in the room. I smiled, looking at the little SCP-939 children who were all ecstatic to feel their mother’s heartbeat again.
“I promised you... I'd never leave you again, and I always keep my promises.”
I carefully lifted Cherry’s unconscious body toward mine, giving her a warm hug. “Please wake up soon.”
I had sat down on the floor inside Tomato’s cell, and the 939 kids were busy using me as a climbing apparatus. I didn’t mind one bit, and kept my gaze firmly locked onto Cherry’s body.
Eventually, I heard a small huff coming from somewhere outside the cell. I immediately perked up, and placed the kids carefully back down to the floor. “I’ll be right back, guys.”
I poked my head out to the outside of the cell, and I spotted the first 939 I revived. He was conscious again!
A broad smile formed on my face as one after another the 939’s woke from their slumber. They all seemed to want to stay close to me, and before long I had the entire pack around me, like they all regarded me as their master.
All of course, except for Cherry.
I looked back at Tomato’s cell, and saw her body still lying on the ground, unmoving. I let out a small sigh. “Please come back to us, Cherry...”
Every 939 sitting around me began muttering the sentence over and over. “Please come back to us, Cherry...”
It quickly got annoying and after some time I held up my hand signaling them to quiet down. “Okay, that got old real fast.”
I looked back to Cherry’s body... And she was standing!
“Human friend.”
A tear of happiness escaped my eye as I bent down to catch Cherry, which was running straight at me. I picked her up, hugging her. “Cherry! I thought I'd lost you...”
Cherry reciprocated the hug, purring slightly like a cat. “Thank you.”
I wiped away the tears from my eyes, letting go of Cherry again. She softly hit the floor with a little thud, smiling at me. “You’re very welcome, girl.”
I looked at the pack of 939 all around me and laughed a little. “So, who wants to go on a walk?”
There was a secret backdoor out of the 939-containment area, but it was closed with access only permitted in emergency situations. The keycard lock was normally only unlockable by a level-5 or emergency card only, but that didn’t matter much when I shot the hinges off the door with my KSG.
Oh, you thought I had lost that gun, didn't you? No, the sling holding it to my body was burned off when I turned into the fire form for the first time, and the gun had been lying in Tomato’s cell since.
The sound-sensitive 939’s all cowered a little at the sound of the gun going off, but quickly calmed down when the door fell down into the emergency staircase. I stepped over the collapsed door and turned on the light in the stairwell. It led more or less straight upward, as it was a spiral staircase.
“We’re probably the first living beings to step foot here since the site went bad...”
The 939 all walked up the stairs behind me, in one neat line. We ascended relatively quickly, but there were a lot of steps that needed to be walked before we reached the top.
A lot of stairs.
Eventually we made it though, and I shot the hinges off the top door as well. The 939’s weren’t as scared this time around though, and eventually they all made it up the stairs stepping out into the Keter containment wing alongside me.
“We made it guys. Now, we should probably get you back to the MTF base, don’t you think?”
Cherry, now acting as the alpha of the pack walked over to me and nodded. I pet Cherry’s head before looking back at the main airlock again.
Cherry’s kids were all too small to walk the same speed as the other 939’s, so the other pack members had offered their backs for them to ride upon. We all stepped out of the airlock and met a soft breeze in the air which blew my lab coat to the side. I pointed toward the MTF camp, before speaking. “There’s your new home. You’ll be safe from threats there... Unlike in the main facility.”
Thinking of Hatchet again made me flare up with rage, and I briefly felt the fiery power resurface. I didn’t let it take control of me, however, and I calmly walked alongside my 939 companions toward the MTF camp.
“Let’s go.”