Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

At first, it was just a giggle.

That was all. Just a giggle.

It’d be nothing, really, if it weren’t for whom it had come from.

The plague doctor was a serious person, a medical professional must be in their line of work. They weren’t one for frivolity, keeping their focus on their work without pause. They’d been at it for as long as they could remember, searching for the cure to end all cures. That left little room for fun and games.

But now, they’d been without anything for what felt like eternity. The plague doctor was stuck in stalemate with the Foundation and their research had ground to a halt without any patients to work with.

They had stretched every bit of their previous test, but that had only so much to offer. They had begun flipping through their journal over and over again, trying to find a lead they could follow without a patient, only to come up empty. They had tried to reason with the researchers, pestered them, and, finally, pleaded with them to just give them a patient, any patient. But their requests fell on deaf ears and they were left unanswered.

Eventually, they stopped trying. That was when they grew quiet.

The pestering had grated the nerves of the assigned researchers, who couldn’t even tell 049 to shut up without breaking protocol. But the quiet was worse.

It wasn’t the calm quiet of before, when the plague doctor had done surgeries or was writing in their book. No, this was a deathly stillness. The kind that you can feel suffocating you, like the silence is filling your throat. It was as cold and unsettling as a basement at night, filling the air with the chill of fear. The researchers could hardly stand it, and anyone unlucky enough to be on monitoring duty had a front seat to the most unsettling part, the plague doctor themself.

SCP-049 sat perfectly still upon their bed, staring down at their intertwined fingers. They seemed lost in thought, but thoughts of what? The unsettling aura led the minds of those observing to tread dark paths, letting fear nestle into their hearts. The possibilities filled the mind until it was almost unbearable. But the researchers had to watch for only so long before they were allowed to stop, and the breaks were always taken.

049, however, must not have been so lucky.

After they had sat like that for weeks, pondering over their thoughts, something happened.

It started with a giggle, just a giggle.

And it came from the doctor.

Chapter Text

The giggle resonated around the white room, the first sound to fill the room in what had felt like millennia. It was echoey, almost tinny, as it exited from the plague doctor’s mask.

It was short, fading quickly into silence, but was soon followed by another giggle.

The plague doctor untwined their fingers as their giggles turned to chuckles. They put their hands on their face, over their eyes, as their chuckles grew in volume.

The laughter grew, but there was no joy in it. It was harsh and chilling, a grating sound from a throat that hadn’t spoken in weeks. Madness, insanity, it filled the hysterical laughter. It was wild, maddening, and grew louder, louder, louder still.

It filled the room with its cackling sound as the plague doctor’s hands slid from their face.

They were nearly doubled over with laughter, they sounded almost in tears. They laughed and laughed until it was a shrieking laugh. The shrieking laughter was enough to instil fear into the hearts of every researcher present, but it only got worse as the shrieks of laughter became shrieks of rage.

049 stood up suddenly and sent their bed toppling, moving so quickly the researchers barely had time to process it. They turned to the counter in their room and swept their arm across the counter’s surface, knocking everything to the ground. With a crash, the tools fell to the ground, beakers shattered, delicate devices snapped in two, scalpels scraped along the floor. They threw trays and books onto the ground with a enraged cry. Everything they had been so careful with before lay broken on the floor, but they didn’t seem to care.

The doctor whipped around to face the one way window, eyes wide with pupils the size of pinpricks. They knew what was behind that glass and stared at it. The researchers stared back, they could feel the cold hands of fear clawing at their hearts. None of them could move, it was like the plague doctor had frozen them in place. The two parties sat in silence, staring at each other, as the seconds dragged on.

Then, in a flash, 049 rushed at the window, slamming against the bulletproof glass with their shoulder. Cracks bloomed from the impact as the mirror audibly fractured. Broken from their trance, the researchers jumped back from the window. A researcher immediately entered the sequence to release the lavender into 049’s room.

To everyone’s dismay, even as the lavender filled the containment chamber, 049 seemed unaffected, continuing to scream in rage as they smacked the glass. Everyone went into a panic as the cracks grew larger under the abuse. One of the researchers rushed to the emergency call button while others tried to open the door, in desperate hopes of escaping the room.

Assistant Researcher Jefferson slammed the red button down and began to speak into the microphone as the alarms came on in a flash of red light.

“SCP-049 is attempting to breach containment! It’s trying to break the glass!” Jefferson yelled into the mic over the screaming sirens and SCP, “The glass is cracked already and it won’t hold for long!
“049 is attempting to breach containment! I repeat, 049 is attempting to breach-“

The assistant researcher was cut off by a loud crash as the window behind her shattered. She wheeled around and saw SCP-049 through the hole in the broken window. Jefferson turned to the door, only to see everyone else crowded around it, still trying to get it open. She looked up at the flashing red light above it and she realized, the door had been put into lockdown.

Jefferson’s heart dropped into her stomach. She couldn’t get out, none of them could. They were gonna die in here. Her mind knew the reason, but it couldn’t stop the rush of bitterness from filling her mouth. The lockdown was to prevent a mass containment breach, it was the highest priority that the entity didn’t get out and wreak havoc. It was one life for the safety of the world. But it had never occurred to her that that one life may be hers.

Her coworkers slapped desperately at the metal door, she could hear some of them crying for help. Others just simply cried. They, too, had never thought this would happen.

She glanced over her shoulder to see the plague doctor coming in through the window just behind her, broken shards piercing their hide gloves but they didn’t bat an eye. Her survival instinct kicked in as she quickly backed away from the doctor, until her back pressed against one of the cold, concrete walls. Broken glass crunched under her boots, somehow drawing the creature’s attention to her, despite the cacophony of other noises.

Her blood ran cold as the creature’s gaze turned towards her. Her breaths shook in her chest as she pressed back against the wall. Her heart pounded as blood rushed in her ears, drowning everything else out, as she stared into the piercing eyes of the plague doctor.

After what felt like eons, the doctor spoke in their raspy voice.

“You... are infected.”

Jefferson barely had time to scream before her life was snuffed out.

Chapter Text

The doctor was surrounded by bodies. The corpses were unharmed, but unmoving and pale. They stood in the centre of the room, their wide eyes stared into nothing as their heavy breathing echoed within their mask. The blaring alarm was the only other sound in the room, as it buzzed its warning cry in time with the red flash of the light.

049 stood there, surrounded by those they’d felled, shuddering with their breaths. Then they began to laugh once more. Alone in that corpse filled room, they laughed.

They screamed in laughter, their maddened hysteria filled with hiccups and shrieks. They held their sides as their breaking voice shrieked with laughter. The doctor then suddenly turned their face up to the ceiling and clutched their head as they laughed. Tears poured from their eyes as their shrieking laughter rang out.

They laughed until their voice was cracking. Slowly, their shrieking laughs morphed into shuddering sobs. The tears poured faster down their face as their fingers splayed, holding on tightly.

049 shook on their feet as the sobs filled their body. They dropped to their knees and turned their head down, covering their eyes. They sobbed and hiccuped as they fell further to the floor. They curled in on themself and wept. They wept loudly, screams of anguish ripped from them when they became too much to bear. But the crying rapidly petered out, until they were perfectly silent.

The lavender had set in and the doctor succumbed to its sedating embrace. They let it send them to sleep, just trying to get away from their own mind.

Chapter Text

035 was very confused.

They had seen the red light and heard the blaring alarm that meant there was a containment breach. Good, they had thought, maybe I’ll get out this time. Even if not, at least some scientists will be dead. Maybe even all of them!

What could they say? They were an optimist.

They, however, did not get out in that containment breach. No one even entered their room in the chaos, not a soul. So, they had just had to sit and wait as the alarm blared in their non-existent ears.

The mask had tuned out the sound, letting it fade into white noise as they had done many times before. They returned to their thoughts, replaying a scene from a Shakespeare play they’d seen a couple hundred years ago. Eventually, the sound of the alarm had ceased.

But then, they were suddenly placed onto a mannequin and being brought to who-knows-where without explanation. Honestly, did these scientists have a death wish or something? Like, there was just a breach and now they’re carting a Keter class SCP openly down the halls of the facility. Hell, if they wanted to, 035 could just kill all the people here and escape out the front door. But, alas, their curiosity got the better of them.

They were intrigued by this turn of events. It was a new thing in the endless routine of boredom that they’d been subjected to in the past years, of course they wanted to see how it played out. They could always escape another time, but this? This was a one time thing.

So, they stayed quiet, almost complaisant, as they were led through the winding grey halls of the site. They tried to find the reason for this little trip in the minds of the personnel, but found nothing of use in the guards and the other staff were too panicked or caught up in work to yield results. However, the panic felt by the researchers did add something to the mask’s puzzling.

This is probably connected to the breach, the mask thought to themself as the group rounded another corner. But why would taking me out of containment be of use?

Unless...

“Hey, buddy,” 035 said, smoothly, as they leaned forward, towards the researcher leading the group, “What exactly am I being led to?”

Their voice was as sweet as honeysuckle, attempting to coax the scientist into trusting them. It was a method that had always worked in their favour before, but the panic in the man’s heart was skewing the mask’s hold on him.

“You’ll see, you’ll see,” the young scientist murmured as he picked up pace, not even glancing behind him.

The mask snorted indignantly, having half a mind to skewer this guy right then. And they would have, if the group hadn’t reached their destination at that moment.

The mask’s attention was drawn away from the young scientist by where they had arrived. It was a metal door, looking of solid construction, labeled with a bright red danger symbol. They could hear banging through the door and the screams that faintly came through the tiny gaps in the metal.

“Yeesh,” 035 hissed, they turned their head to look at the researcher from before, “You’re not trying to kill me, right? ‘Cause I can’t really die.”

“W-what?” The researcher stuttered, looking up from the keypad he was typing into, “Oh, no, no, no. Not at all.”

If 035 had eyebrows, they would have raised one.

“Are you sure, bud?” The mask asked, “‘Cause it sounds like a cyclops is in there, ready to smash my non-existent brains in.” They said this while jabbing a thumb at the door.

“No, no,” the researcher said, sounding like he’s trying to reassure a friend, “You’re going to be just fine, 035.”

Before the mask could say another word, the doors slid open, revealing an empty metal room.

“What is this? Some kind of invisible-“

Before they could finish their sentence, they’re shoved through the open doors into the empty room.

“Hey! What’s the big i-” They wheeled around to see the doors behind them slam shut, “-dea...”

They stared at the closed doors.

...

Well, sh*t.

They heard a beep and looked down. Their manacles fell from their wrists with a clatter as they unlocked themselves.

I’m probably gonna need to protect myself...

...

Well, double sh*t.

Behind them, they heard the doors begin to slide open, the shrieking growing louder as the doors parted.

Oh, f*ck me.

Chapter Text

The metal doors slid open slowly, the faint hiss of machinery barely audible under the screams that came from behind the opening doors.

SCP-035 stood apprehensively, staring at the opening doors, waiting. To their surprise, nothing immediately rushed out to attack them as the doors stopped with a clunk. They couldn’t see anything within from where they stood, but that just made them warier. Their eyes scanned the room as they took a tentative step inside.

They jumped and pulled their leg forward suddenly as the heavy doors slammed shut, right where their back leg had been a moment before. The plastic of the mannequin leg seemed unharmed when the mask inspected it, giving them some relief. At least they wouldn’t be stuck with only one leg.

As the mask turned their head back up again, they heard a bang on their left. Subconsciously taking a step away, the mask whipped around to face the source of the sound.

A figure in all black was leaned against the wall, its balled fists slamming against the metal. A long, white beak poked out from within the hood of the dark garb, facing up at the ceiling. The figure beat at the metal while it screamed in a hoarse voice. It must have been at it for a while now as a large dent in the metal was already forming in the wall. It was only a matter of time before it broke through if it kept going like this.

But as the mask watched, the figure slammed its hands against the wall with a final shriek, before it turned its head down and placed its forehead against the metal. The robed person’s hands slowly uncurled and slid down the wall as they went quiet. The silence lasted for but a moment before the person took a shuddering breath and began to sob. They slid to their knees, forehead still pressed against the wall, as they cried.

The sobs echoed through the room as the mask stood still, watching the figure carefully. This was not a situation they had been prepared for. They had come expecting a fight and now they were confronted with a person crying. While they were many things, they weren’t the consoling type. Hell, their first instinct was ‘is this a trap?’ rather than ‘oh no someone’s crying.’

So, they stared at the figure, frozen in place. In their misery, the crying person hadn’t even noticed the mask had entered the room. As the mask looked them over, a memory suddenly popped up in their mind.

They knew this person. The two had met before, years and years ago. They had even been, as strange as it was for the mask, friends. They had even seen each other during breaches and had talked of what had happened since they’d parted. But something had changed about the plague doctor. Something that had made the mask barely recognize them.

Physically they were the same, maybe a little thinner than before. But the mask could feel it, that something had happened to the doctor. They could hear it in their cries, see it in their movement, and knew it all when a wave of thoughts hit them. The mind of the doctor was loud and disorganized, its chaos filled the air like smoke. The mask didn’t even have to try to listen to the doctor’s mind. It screamed openly in their ears, almost trying to push into their own thoughts. The mask had to block their own mind, just to keep their thoughts straight. It was the very opposite of the calm and collected mind of the plague doctor, a mind so fortified that even the mask had difficulty getting in.

Yet, this was the plague doctor, sobbing their eyes out in a metal cell.

The mask unknowingly switched to tragedy as they looked upon the broken sight of the plague doctor. Their defensive stance dropped as they watched their sobbing friend. They felt like something was constricting in their chest, and they had to fight the urge to run forward. It surprised them that they felt the need to, they didn’t understand why it was there at all.

The doctor curled up into themself, their forehead coming to rest on the floor as they held their head in their hands. Their sobs and hiccups continued to shudder through them. They looked so fragile and helpless that, against their better judgment, 035 carefully began to approach 049’s shaking form.

The plastic feet of the mask’s host tapped quietly against the metal floor as they drew nearer to the doctor’s crying form. Though the mask knew the doctor would never harm them normally, these weren’t normal circumstances, and they had to be careful. One wrong move could send the broken doctor into a blinding rage.

But the doctor didn’t even notice the mask’s approach, even when they were right beside them. Slowly, the mask dropped into a crouch beside the plague doctor and, hesitantly, placed a hand onto their shoulder.

The plague doctor shot up, turning their head to face the mask. They stared at the mask, their eyes wide. They scanned across the face of the mask, their eyes jumping from place to place. They reached a hand up and placed it on top of the mask’s, like they were confirming that they weren’t imagining them.

“Kolakeia?” 049 whispered tentatively, their voice hoarse from tears and disuse.

“Hey, doc,” 035 said softly, a gentle smile in their voice.

Chapter Text

In an instant, the plague doctor’s arms were around 035’s neck. Their face pressing into the mask’s shoulder as they cried, hiccuping quietly. The mask fell back as the doctor threw themself at them and sat stunned in place, before slowly wrapping their own arms around the plague doctor.

“You’re okay, you’re okay,” the plague doctor repeated between sobs, “you’re here, you’re okay, you’re okay, you’re not infected, you’re okay.”

The mask rubbed the doctor’s back slowly. Silence was the only answer the mask could give, for once they didn’t know what to say. What could you say? In a situation like this, what do you say? They didn’t know, so they remained silent, just letting the doctor cry.

What even happened to them? The mask thought, listening to their friend’s cries. What could have done this to them?

That was what worried them the most. What could have done this? What could break this monument of professionalism? They had known the doctor as an unflinching and unwavering practitioner of medicine, steadfast in their search for a cure to a great scourge. They had never even seen the plague doctor truly cry before. Yet here they were, the sobbing doctor clinging to them as they held them in their arms.

The doctor sobbed for what could have been hours or just minutes, slowly quieting to hiccups. As their sobs became less and less prominent, 049’s whispered phrases began to be audible.

“You’re okay, Kola. You’re not infected, you’re okay, you’re safe. I don’t- I don’t have to- you’re okay, you’re okay.” 049 held on tightly and 035 could feel the tears on their shoulder.

“Kola. Kola, I’m sorry,” the doctor said through tears, “Everything, everything, everything is- it’s everywhere, it’s everywhere Kola, everything can- it’s- it can-“

The doctor suddenly squeezed tighter as a heart-wrenching sob shuddered through them. 035 tried their best to comfort them, rubbing their back and letting them sob into their shoulder. The drips from both of the entities eyes fell quietly to the floor as the seconds passed.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” the doctor said, weeping, “Kola, Kola, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I had to- I’m sorry, I have to. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry, I have to, I’m sorry, Dr. Hamm, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

049 hiccuped and sobbed, their arms loosening around the mask’s neck as they pressed themself into the plastic chest of the mask’s host. The mask adjusted their arms to hold the curled form of the doctor.

“I thought it was safe, safe, not safe here,” the doctor said into the mask’s chest, “everything, everywhere can have it, everywhere has it, every, every, everyone can, everyone, everywhere, it’s everywhere, everywhere.”

The doctor bunched the soft material of the mask’s shirt in their fist, holding desperately onto whatever semblance of safety they had. They looked up at the mask’s face, tears flowing freely from their eyes.

“But, you’re okay, you aren’t- you don’t have it, you’re okay, you can’t- you’re okay, you can’t get it, you’re safe, you’re safe, you’re safe from it.’

The doctor’s babbling gained a hopeful tone for a moment before sinking back into despair.

“No one else, no one, no one, I’m sorry, I can’t- I have to save them, they could all, I need to- I have to- they’re all- I need to get out, out, out, I need out, they’re all sick, I have to, I have to,” 049 stuttered desperately.

They tried to pull themself from 035’s grip, leaning towards the dented wall in desperation, their arm outstretched. But the mask’s grip was firm and the doctor was unable to escape its clutches. They pushed against the hold, but couldn’t get out.

“Please! Please! I have to save them, I have to! I need out, let me out, I need to get out, out, out! Let me out! Please! I have to- I can’t let them- I have to save them! Please!” The doctor cried, tears pouring hot down their face.

They struggled against the mask’s grip, screaming desperately, until the fight suddenly left them and they went limp, still leaned out of 035’s grasp. They rested their outstretched hand on the floor as they began to weep.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” 049 whispered through their tears.

The mask gently pulled the doctor back into their chest, letting them press their crying face into them. Gloved hands gripped at the mask’s shirt.

“I didn’t- I don’t- I didn’t mean to,” the doctor wheezed, “It’s my fault, I have to, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m- I can’t- I’m sor-“ They’re cut off by their own wheezing sob. They cried into the mask, their whole body shuddering with their hysterical sobbing.

“It- it’ll be okay,” the mask said tentatively, their first attempt at verbal comfort, “It’ll be okay.”

“No!” 049 croaked in between sobs, “No, it won’t! It’s everywhere, everywhere, everywhere! Everyone! Everyone is- everyone can get it! Everyone has it! Everyone! All of them! All of us! All-“

They suddenly cut themself off, their sobs ceased for a moment.

“All... all of us...” they whispered, “I- I- I-“

Their sobs came back in full force. They shook as their attempts to stifle their wails failed.

“All of us, all of us, all of us,” they cried, “I have it! I have to! How did I miss it, how, how how how? Why must this happen? Why why why? I have it, it’s on me! It’s on me!”

The doctor screamed as they ripped themself out of 035’s hold, “It’s my fault, my fault, my fault! I have to get it off! Where is it? Where? My mask, it must be in my mask, my mask, my mask, get it off! Off, off, off!”

Chapter Text

049 reached up to their face, their fingers clawing at their skin. They grabbed at the edges of their mask and began to scratch at the skin desperately. They screamed and cried as, in their madness, they tried to tear their own face off.

035 lunged forward, grabbing 049’s hands and yanking them away from their face.

“Lavande! No!” The mask yelled, their voice frantic.

“Kolakeia, please!” 049 cried, blood poured from their face, “You don’t understand! I have to get it off! It hurts, it hurts!”

“That ‘cause you’re tearing your own face off, Lavande!” 035 shouted as a purple glow began to form in the mask’s eye cavities.

“I have to, Kola! Please! I beg of you! Please!” Lavande cried, “I have to! Kola, I have to!”

“No, you don’t!” Kolakeia roared, a flare of purple shooting from their eyes, “You can’t do this to yourself, Lav! You can’t take it off! You hear me? You can’t take it off!”

The intensity in the mask’s voice stopped the doctor in their tracks, their desperate attempts to escape the mask’s grip coming to a screeching halt. They sat stalk still, staring into Kolakeia’s glowing purple eyes, as Kolakeia stared back, right into their wide blue eyes.

“You can’t do that to yourself, Lav,” the mask said, their voice growing softer, “I can’t let you do that to yourself.”

The mask and the doctor stared at each other. The doctor’s eyes were wide, staring at the mask like they were seeing them for the first. The mask’s eyes pleaded with the doctor to understand, to understand why they couldn’t and why the mask couldn’t let them. They both seemed near to tears as they looked at each other.

Lavande’s wide eyes stared at the mask’s face. Their breath slowly shuddering back into them as realization filled the icy blue, their pupils contracting. Their lungs suddenly gasped for air, the exhale a sob, and they pressed their head into the mask’s chest.

Kola let go of Lavande’s wrists, confident that the doctor wouldn’t try that stunt again, and wrapped their arms around them once more.

Lavande clutched onto the mask’s arms, crying into the mask with a new power behind the tears. Their sobs and hiccups shook through their thin form. They keened and coughed as their breath caught in their throat. The words they tried to speak, if any, were barely a syllable before their heaving sobs cut their sentence to a halt.

Kolakeia held them close, rocking gently with the doctor in their lap. The hood had fallen from the doctor’s head, revealing the layers of feathers intermixed with pure black hair, and the mask gently ran their plastic hand through the down. Their voice was soothing, gentle, as they whispered quiet words of comfort into their friend’s ear.

“Shhh...” the mask murmured, “I’m here, doc, I’m here.”

They hated to admit it, but they tried to pull the trick that had always worked on others. The one to get what they wanted out of people. But their mind reaching out from the fortified recesses of their consciousness, opened the floodgates and the cascade of broken thoughts descended upon them like a murder of crows.

The shattered pieces of thought cut and stabbed the mask’s mind like shards of glass. Images and distorted voices that even the mask found horrifying, flashed in their mind with every connection. They yanked their mind back into the safety that they’d built within their skull.

For the first time in maybe a century, they felt shaken. They had only seen flashes, but their mind looped the little clips of thought in perfect detail.

This is what’s going on in their head? They thought, a shiver running through them. It was painful to watch the broken thoughts of their friend, but they couldn’t stop their mind from looping them over and over, and over again. They knew it was bad, but they didn’t know it was this bad.

No. They pushed the thoughts aside, shoving the horrid things away, into a deeper part of their mind. This was not the time to mull over it, they had a friend to help.

As they brought themself out of their own head, the real world faded back into full observation. The doctor in their arms was still crying into them, though their energy was draining away. Their wails had been replaced by whimpers as they cried quietly into the mask’s shirt.

The mask gently ran their hand through the plague doctor’s feathery hair as the bird-like doctor held on to them tightly. Lavande’s tears were still being shed, but they were slowing now. The circles the mask rubbed on their back helped slow their racing heart. The gentle rocking lulled their mind into a soft, dreamy state. The two sat like that for who knows how long, the mask’s calming embrace soothed the doctor’s fractured mind, allowing them to doze in Kolakeia’s arms. A rare moment of peace in the broken mind of a doctor driven mad.