Work Text:
they didn’t know it at the time, but in a military base hidden in rural america, the paranormal extraterrestrial interdimensional phenomena branch of the U.S. military was about to change the world.
(read: they were gonna fuck shit up.)
it was the night of august 25th, 2007. a cold breeze flowed through the base, field agents rushed to their stations, and a suffocatingly uneasy energy filled the room. out of the six point five billion people on earth, only the thirteen who had been assigned to this project felt the shift in the air. it was unnatural, it was otherworldly.
it was terrifying.
of course, they all tried to pretend they weren’t scared out of their fucking minds. and, yeah, it worked a little bit. they ignored the tension, the palpable fear that lingered between them. but later, much later, when this particular trial of project tesseract was only a horrible memory, the people who had witnessed the outcome would all agree:
they had been right to be scared.
-
clay stood alone in the portal room. this was it. “alright, the portal looks stable. any anomalies on the charts?”
“nothing new on the readings, sir.”
“don’t start with this again, sapnap. i literally just got you to stop calling me that.”
sapnap’s laugh crackled through the comms. “you’re so easy to wind up. what’re you gonna do about it, sir —”
“knock it off, sap,” a new voice commanded. “could you please not give clay any more bullshit to put up with tonight? we’re literally sending him to his potential death.”
“come on, george,” sapnap said, turning to face the person who had just entered the control room. “he isn’t going to die, the three hundred tests you forced us to do prove that. i’m just having a bit of fun to ease the tension. besides, on the slim chance that he does die, i want his last memory of me to be funny.”
clay’s exasperation could be heard through the sigh that came over the speaker. “stop talking as if i’m already dead, agent.”
sapnap whirled back around to glare at his superior. “i am not . but if you want me to, i can make that happen.” he stood up from his chair, before dramatically pretending to faint, forcing an unimpressed george to catch him.
“oh, clay, why did you leave me? i can’t live without you!” sapnap whined in a high-pitched voice, his hand resting against his forehead like he was a soap opera star. “your voice echoes in my ears, my heart aches for your presence! when i close my eyes, all i can see is your sexy— FUCK! ”
there was a thud, followed by a string of muttered profanity.
“shit, george, did you just drop him?” clay laughed. his voice came out in a distinctive wheeze.
george hummed, dusting off his hands before turning to the window. “yeah, you’re welcome for that. how does the portal look?”
“looks pretty good,” clay replied, gazing at the swirling beam of light. his life’s work . “everything is in place, preparations are nearly complete. just need to wait for the final scan.”
at that, sapnap scrambled up from the floor and dashed back to his station, almost sending himself flying across the room as he slid into his chair. his fingers danced across his keyboard, and his eyes scanned the screen.
“portal frame is stable,” he confirmed. “temperature levels look fine, nothing the suit can’t handle. still no visuals, but no signs of danger according to the charts. everything’s ready, colonel.”
clay nodded, glancing up at his friends. he raised his hand, holding it up aimlessly for a moment as if contemplating the best way to so goodbye, before settling on a weak thumbs up. through the window, he could see sapnap giving him a playful salute. george sent him a soft, reassuring smile.
clay turned back to the portal, his eyes burning from staring at the rippling light.
this was it.
“august 25th, 2007. 23:51. this is the culmination of project tesseract, the world’s first attempt at interdimensional travel and communication.
“we don’t know what’s on the other side of this portal. we don’t know if this will be a success or a failure. we do know this: whatever the outcome, we are making history. the world is changing, and we are part of that change.”
clay took a deep breath, and stepped into the light.
-
darkness.
“there’s nothing here,” clay muttered. he glanced over his shoulder at the portal. instead of a beam of blinding light, there was only a column of white smoke, and he had to squint in order to see it. he turned back around, faced once again with the black void. there was nothing but darkness in every direction.
clay cursed. this wasn’t going to plan. it was supposed to be a big moment, where he’d step through the portal and be greeted with something extraordinary, something ethereal, something that can’t be described with words.
this wasn’t any of those things, not in the way he’d expected. it was just darkness, in every direction.
it was horrible and empty and nightmarish in every way, but he was mesmerized . he had only been there for a few minutes, but clay already despised it. he despised the way the darkness drew him in, hypnotized him, the way he couldn’t help but get lost in it, despite the fact that there was truly nothing remarkable about it. he shouldn’t have been so captivated by this empty void, but he was .
and that’s what scared him the most.
“george?” he called, hoping the comms signal wasn’t fucked up. “i think we need to reconvene. it’s not what we expected.”
silence.
“shit. george, do you copy?” clay spoke louder this time. he heard nothing but white noise. a dull ache was forming at the back of his head, and his chest tightened. he turned back to the portal, beginning to walk towards the smoke. “george, i’m heading back through. something about this place is seriously fucked up, i don’t think i can stay here much longer without going insane—“
“ you think you still have sanity left ?”
clay froze.
“...who are you?”
“ hehehehe. hehehehe. hehehehe. don’t be so naive, clay. of all the people from your little world, i expected you to be smarter than that. you know exactly what i am. ”
clay whipped his head around, glancing frantically around him, but there was nothing. just the darkness.
“ yes, the darkness. rather nice, isn’t it? ”
of fucking course the ominous disembodied voice can read minds.
“ you still don’t understand, do you? this is my domain, clay. everything in this realm is mine to control. ”
“what the fuck are you?” clay yelled. his pulse quickened. the air around him shifted, and even though he was rooted to the spot, he felt like he was floating in an abyss.
“ you know the answer to that, clay. hehehehe. hehehehe. hehehehe. ”
god, that laughter . it grated against clay’s eardrums like nails on a blackboard, a sickening rasp that echoed inside his mind like a virus.
clay shook his head, glaring into the darkness at his invisible adversary and willing his voice not to waver. “i’m not going to ask again, buddy. what the hell are you, and what do you want from me?”
and then the world shifted. clay yelped as he felt an unseen force take hold of his body and drag him across the ground, away from the portal (or was he stationary, with the ground moving beneath his feet?). he flung out his hands in a panic, grasping at the void, searching for something, anything to ground himself. his head was pounding, his lungs were exploding, he could feel his pulse beating. the portal was now hundreds of feet away, and the column of smoke was now nothing but a transparent mist.
the darkness seemed to get... darker . which didn’t really make sense, since it was already pitch black. but clay could feel the air getting colder , thinner , and the already infinite void seemed to grow . at this point, he was so disoriented, he couldn’t tell whether or not his eyes were open.
almost as suddenly as he had accelerated, clay felt everything stop. the sudden loss of movement caused him to stumble forward, and he crashed into the ground. gasping for air, he pushed himself up onto his elbows, and looked up.
and there it was.
a large, round white face was floating in the air about a hundred feet above the ground. it was surrounded by a vibrant green fog that was so thick, clay couldn’t tell if the face had a body. he shivered at its blank smile and piercing tenebrous gaze.
it was such a simple thing, too, something that could’ve been taken straight out of a picture book. and yet, here it was, a giant face hovering over clay and staring into the depths of his soul.
its expression was static, but clay knew that this was the source of the ominous voice.
as if it had been reading his thoughts, the face spoke, its smile never faltering.
“ hello, clay. ”
and then, at that moment, the answer came to him.
“it’s...it’s you ,” clay spoke, realization dawning on him. “you’re project tesseract.”
“ i am what you call project tesseract, ” the monster confirmed. “ but that is not what i truly am. ”
and clay’s head fucking exploded.
not literally, of course. but the migraine that came upon him was worse than anything he’d ever experienced, and a part of him wished that his head did literally explode, because that would’ve been better than enduring this torture.
“ i am project tesseract. i am the black and white. i am the culmination of your career, your efforts, your life. i am something bigger than your tiny mortal brain can comprehend. ”
there was a pause, and then the monster spoke again, this time with a thoughtful lilt to its voice.
“ perhaps this will help you understand. ”
clay nearly cried out in relief as the splitting pain in his head eased into a dull ache. finally, this nightmare is almost fucking over —
but his relief was short-lived. almost immediately, his mind was overcome with a new kind of pain. a worse kind of pain.
clay’s senses were overwhelmed with...with it .
visions. countless worlds, overtaken by death and destruction. chaos and bloodshed, a discordant symphony. a universe thrown out of balance, forced into an endless cycle of fear and obsession. a cult of innocent citizens, brainwashed into worshipping a monster.
at the center of it all, a tall man with blond hair, face covered with a porcelain mask, arm outstretched, gripping a smiling white doll soaked red with blood.
“ i am your worst nightmare. ”
a choked gasp rang throughout the dark abyss, as clay realized the meaning of the visions.
“ and you are the key to it all. ”
clay screamed as the monster tore into his mind.
“ i go by many names, clay.
but your world will know me as dreamy. ”