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Skeppy squinted and blinked repeatedly the moment the lights were switched on.
The room he was in ... what? It was literally just a white square with absolutely nothing within it?
He stood up, a slight headache hitting his forehead as his eyes couldn't handle how bright everything around him was all of a sudden: looking down at his hands, it seemed that in this universe he was back to being in his original form. Diamonds littered his skin and replaced his fingers, still maintaining and impressive flexibility.
Yet, out of all the worlds in which he maintained this body, he could not remember a single one in which he had found himself in this predicament.
Was this some sort of bunker? Was it some kind of joke? In that case, he was not laughing and it was the worst and most boring prank ever.
After having adjusted to the terrible lighting – which gave him a headache, by the way – Skeppy was able to look ahead of himself.
The sight confused him.
Then horrified him.
There was a glass pane on one of the walls, on the other side of it he could see people in lab coats and some weird dudes dressed in all black gear with weapons strapped to their hips.
What the fuck?
Where in the fresh hell had XD sent him?
He frowned at them, retreating to the back of the “room”. Think, think, think; none of them looked inhuman in any way, they all seemed ordinary people, unlike him … god, was this some sort of weird experiment thing? Had they made him the way he was now?
What didn't click was how he didn't seem to be let on any prior knowledge on his existence in this world. He just knew he was gemfolk, he probably lived in some sort of settlement and then … nothing. Nothing until he woke up in this … this cell! This poor excuse of a cell, actually.
God, did he even have enough oxygen for however long they were going to let him stay in?
An inexplicable amount of anguish and anxiety rose at the pit of his stomach, closing up his throat in the process.
Fuuuck, fuck, fuck, he had to get out of there, however he could he had to-
Skeppy opted for the glass pane, which wasn't actual glass but looked like it. He approached it, which caught the probable scientists' attention. Their eyes flickered around their end of the room, while he landed a punch on whatever translucent material that was.
And then he landed another and another, he slammed his hand on it, breathing heavily as no other sound could leave his mouth other than raspy whines.
He needed out right then or so help him.
Finally, something within him moved and next thing he knew there were a myriad of small diamonds hitting the wall in front of him like little projectiles at high speed. The supposed glass pane cracked and shattered in some places, where holes now were clearly open.
The last thing Skeppy saw before falling unconscious was one of the scientists pressing a button on a device and pointing at him: in an instant, a shock wave hit him with the strength of a thunder. Needless to say, his body went limp and fell to the floor, his eyes shut close.
He blinked slowly the next time he woke up, body still in the same position in which he had fallen. Saying that everything hurt was an understatement. Skeppy didn't want to move yet, just lie there.
« -don't think it can hear me … yes, I tried pushing that button. Its eyes are definitely open, though, I don't get it. » he heard a voice speak. The muffled sounds became clearer words as the ringing in his head became less intense.
« Now, why would I do that?! Doctor Smith was already wrong for that- Look, you're just a guard, act like it, alright? Let me do my job. I don't want distractions. » was that … was that Bad talking?
What was it about doctors and guards, why would they need guards? Well- he thought about the glass breaking again. Maybe that was the reason why.
He did his best to sit up, slow as ever, before looking up again. The glass had not been fixed.
And that was indeed Bad, in a lab coat.
What?
Skeppy didn't find it in himself to speak.
« Oh, it's awake. Hi! »
It?
He frowned, instinctively retreating to the farthest wall of the small enclosure.
« No, don't- Don't be afraid of me. I won't hurt you like others did. » Bad reassured, putting his hands before his chest to emphasize that.
Skeppy's shoulders automatically relaxed, but he still just stared at him warily, alert, on guard. He could trust him, couldn't he?
« Can you understand me? »
He could've nodded, but … maybe it was the shock still scaring him away from the interaction, Skeppy couldn't find it in himself to move.
« Okay … » Bad scribbled something down on a notebook. What? Was this some kind of therapy session, just- what?!
« Can you stand up? » he asked again, making an auxiliary gesture. « Still hurts too much? »
The only response Skeppy could give was a simple stare with half-lidded eyes. God, he was so tired.
« Mh … » Bad eyed the scene, before approaching it closer. He hushed the guards away the moment he did. « No need, it will not hurt me. » he then surpassed the desk and placed himself in front of the cell, picking up the small diamond projectiles that had been left from the previous scene.
The moment he was done, he approached the glass pane and offered them up through one of the holes. Skeppy was confused by the gesture and the polite smile he was wearing. « I believe these are yours? » Bad seemed to be keeping himself from laughing.
The gemfolk was confused, but still slowly got to his feet, legs wobbly, until he reached the glass pane and studied the hand, raising his own cautiously.
He looked up at the doctor for a second before focusing on the diamonds again, about to pick them up.
His fingertip touched Bad's hand and something happened.
Skeppy wouldn't be able to say exactly what, but suddenly there was a huge diamond slate stabbing right through Bad's hand.
His eyes widened and he recoiled violently back into the cell; he didn't- what? He swore he didn't do it, he hadn't done that, he couldn't possibly have done that. What the fuck?
Bad's eyes fixated on the slate, letting out a weak and shocked “Oh.” as he slowly backed away, before the guards grabbed him to shove him out of the room themselves.
« Wait, wait! Just don't- »
Another shock wave was sent through his body and Skeppy fell to the ground again.
He awoke in the complete and utter darkness of … probably still the cell, or so he guessed until he properly adjusted to the void around him.
This time he didn't dare move at all. His body refused to and so did his brain, no longer responding to his will. He had told himself to try and get up, see if the glass pane had been fixed or not, try to escape … I mean, diamond bullets sounded pretty invincible … maybe he could create some sort of shield like he once did back home?
Still, he had no fucking idea where he was, gods, it had been how long again? He had no idea how long he even passed out for.
All he felt was a terrible weakness that only let him be uncomfortably sprawled on the floor and wall … ugh, he felt miserable. Sometimes … sometimes he did feel his body twitch against his will. He probably looked like shit.
And oh, the lights were being turned on.
Bad was there. Wh- alright?
Skeppy eyed the bandaged hand, before looking away and frowning deeply, curling in on himself at the back of the cell.
That didn't escape the doctor's glance, who wrote something down already.
Subject seems to respond to sympathy. There's possibility of communication, not yet tested.
« My colleague kept holding the whole thing against me, you know? She kept telling me “I told you this would happen!”. Like, c'mon Genevive, I've been working here for a decade, I know the risks of my own job. »
Skeppy blinked slowly at that.
« And then I also had to file a request for the security to wait for me outside, like I don't know how to handle myself with SCPs. This wasn't the first time I got hurt, it's not even one of the worst times! »
Now, what the fuck did SCP even mean?
« I know how to shoot a gun anyway, it's not like I need an entire MTF squad at my feet. »
Skeppy begun to feel a little bit afraid of him, but didn't have the energy to look nothing but apologetic at the moment; Bad bit the inside of his cheek, still trying to find other ways to get a reaction out of him.
Then, the answer to his confusion came.
The gemfolk reached for something that was lying on the ground – one of the diamonds that had fallen days prior – and polished it with one of his sleeves before starting to munch at it with the corner of his mouth.
Such a sight was … somehow brilliant. It was so interesting! So its kind could do that? Bad quickly noted down this ability, before his pen dropped on his notebook as a thought hit his mind.
« Goodness, you have not eaten a thing in weeks, have you? »
Skeppy didn't speak, but the way his eyes weakly set on him again answered for him. No, he was starving actually thank you very much.
Gears seemed to be turning in Bad's head, before he resonated with something and hit a button that did something absolutely incredible to Skeppy's food deprived mind: opened the fucking cell door.
Because there was one, apparently, and he had never seen it.
And then Bad straight up walked in.
Bad, who still had open scars from a wound Skeppy caused him himself.
He was getting a headache.
« Look, I have something. It's not the best, but it'll do for now. » the doctor had taken out from his pocket a snack he had gotten at the vending machine a few hours prior: he thought that, maybe, given the fact that the SCP looked humanoid enough, it must've had a similar digestive system.
Skeppy still eyed him warily, he had hurt him for fuck's sake! Why-
« C'mon, you can have it. » Bad still offered him the snack, but the other wouldn't budge, didn't want to move, touch him and risk hurting him again.
Thus, the gemfolk turned his back at him, resuming his munching on the small diamond projectile.
Of course, the doctor didn't give up.
He got up and sat on the other side so Skeppy would face him again. This time, he put the chocolate bar on the ground a few inches away from the SCP. The latter glared at his smile for a long moment, before picking up the snack and unwrapping it, taking a good bite out of it.
In a matter of minutes, the chocolate bar was long gone.
« Better? » Bad tilted his head, speaking softly.
Skeppy nodded fervently, letting his back rest against the wall with a pleased expression until he heard a surprised gasp.
« You understand me! » the doctor clasped his hands together and his smile grew wider. « All this time, you knew what I was- That's great! » he got up quickly and exited the room – to the SCP's disappointment – before returning with a notebook and pen in hand, already scribbling something down.
« Okay, so, you know what I'm saying, right? Just nod- nod if you understand English. » Bad received a nod right after, which let him write the notion down. « That's great, awesome actually. Let me properly introduce myself, I'll take this opportunity to explain a couple of things to you, is that alright? »
Skeppy nodded again, because XD be damned he still didn't know where the fuck he was and why he was there and who they were and what they were doing.
Yeah, he was pretty much utterly clueless.
« My name is Bad. » that much Skeppy already knew at least. « And I'm a researcher for the Foundation. What I do here is basically work to find out more about people, animals, objects and creatures like you! »
He frowned. Like him? What did that mean? There was a Foundation?
Bad caught onto the confusion. « You are what we call “anomalous”. You're a person with special abilities, different from the norm. Here at the Foundation we call ones like you “SCP”s. Each SCP has to be contained and we figure out how dangerous they are and classify how difficult it is to contain them … I thought to classify you as Safe but the ones who witnessed you breaking that panel over there beg to disagree. » he chuckled, at which Skeppy lowered his gaze to the ground.
« We keep you a secret from the general public, we wouldn't want to cause panic among the entire Earth's population. » he explained. « So … we keep you in sealed rooms. Right now this is an observational temporary cell, it sucks, I know, but we've never encountered your species before, so we need to figure out what type of containment you need. »
What kind of … he wasn't a fucking lab rat, what? Why would anyone think keeping someone in a fucking cell sounded okay in any sort of way? He didn't want to … to be experimented on, to be observed, studied like an animal. Sure, Bad sounded like a nice person to be around, but … the entire background, this Foundation thing. Everything sounded wrong to Skeppy.
He wanted out of there, why the hell did XD take him there in the first place?
He was disgusted.
Bad shifted, noticing there was no positive reaction from the other. « What's your name, do you have one? »
Of course he had a fucking name- ah, he was tricking him into talking so he could get more information now, wasn't he? He did say he knew how to do his job. He couldn't believe Bad would associate with people like this.
Skeppy refused to look at him and instead crossed his arms, turning his head so he wouldn't face him anymore.
« You don't look happy. »
Yeah, no shit.
« Is it about your name? »
Skeppy glared at him like he had said the stupidest thing in the world and the other giggled. « I'm kidding, I'm kidding, I know, I've seen it plenty of times. You're angry that you're trapped, I know. I've said it already, it sucks. I don't always agree with what they do with containment cells, but … some things … they're better kept shut away, if you know what I mean. »
The gemfolk shook his head, because no, he did not understand, especially because he was one of the things being shut away.
Bad sighed. « There's … creatures. They're very dangerous, could kill all and any living beings, SCPs and non, in a matter of minutes. »
« That doesn't mean you have any right to imprison me for no reason at all. » Skeppy retorted, eyebrows furrowed.
The doctor almost smiled at that, because holy muffins his subject had actually spoken. He went to write it down on the notebook, but decided against once he looked at Skeppy's angered expression a second longer. He set aside his gear and joined him against the wall.
« I can't do anything about it. » he half whispered. « The O5 Council is the one to decide what to do with anomalous objects … and once you get employed here, I'm not sure if there's any way out other than termination. What I can do, though, is make your experience here better. »
« I want to go out. »
« That … could be arranged. »
« That's just a fancy way of saying no. »
Bad sighed. « What I mean is, there are some SCPs who are let free to roam around, I don't know if that could be possible for you from the start. But we could come up with some excuse and I'd bring it up to the O5. »
Skeppy weighed his options. « Couldn't you just let me go now? »
« You'd be shot on sight. »
« Nah, I reckon I can pull it off. »
Bad laughed again and the gemfolk was reminded that he was head over heels for this man still. « The facility is big and overflowing with security guards, not to mention you'd be found by the mobile task forces – a group of veteran military – the moment you're able to cross the border. »
« Thanks for the intel, do you have an invisibility cloak? » Skeppy was really just joking, but the other tilted his head to the side.
« We had a hat. Stolen by a malevolent organization, the Serpent's Hand. »
« Damn. »
« Yeah. »
Skeppy started fidgeting. He didn't know what to do with himself now, he didn't know how things were going to be, what he could expect, if Bad was always going to visit him, if he'd ever see him again at all. Would DreamXD leave him here for a long while? He was pensive, to say the least.
Bad was the one to shake him from his thoughts. « So … in order to give you a comfortable room instead of a literal cell, I'd need to gather some information, if that's alright with you. » he said, taking the notepad back in his hands.
The gemfolk shivered at that, the idea of someone taking notes of him as a test subject still didn't sit right with him. Skeppy couldn't tell if Bad was genuinely being friendly or if he was just acting nice to get words out of him. He could see him walking out of the room and meeting a colleague, complaining about how stubborn his last SCP had just been.
Ugh.
« You're gonna do that even if I don't agree with it, won't you? »
« I would sure try, as it is my job, but … I can't force you to speak. On the other hand, I'm afraid we'd have to leave you here in that case. »
He hated when they spoke to him like that. So … so posh, somehow, so calculating. He sighed deeply, his head hit the wall. « What do you want to know? »
« Do you have a name? »
« What does that have to do with me getting a room? »
« Would you like to be called SCP-54377-1 instead? »
He turned to face him, wide eyed. « The what? »
« The way chosen to differentiate between each anomaly is the prefix SCP and a number tied to it. »
« What the fuck?! I'm not, I'm not a fucking experiment! That's so- that's so dehumanizing! I- » well … he wasn't really a human anyway, was he?
But he wasn't an object either.
He shot up from the floor, his breathing pace rapidly quickening. Bad got up as well while he watched him take some steps forward, distress clearly growing.
« Please, sit down- » the researcher's voice was wavering.
Skeppy turned around abruptly, almost violently, pointing a finger towards him. « No you shut up now! » his tone was dark, so much that the lights around them started flickering for a second.
Needless to say, Bad's mouth was closed shut. Not only because of the command, but also because there was suddenly an entire arm coated in a very sharp diamond looking thing pointed right at his throat.
Skeppy heard a thud as the notepad and pen fell to the ground, while the researcher held his hands up in surrender.
« You don't get to choose whether I'm okay with this or not. » he started, growing closer. The tip of the diamond blade was an inch away from actually touching Bad's chin. « You don't get to throw me in a cell and expect me to cooperate with you at all, you treat me like a fucking lab rat and then you want to hear my life story? Well guess what? Fat fucking chance. »
« I don't- » Bad licked his lips in an attempt to buy some more time for him to gather his thoughts and say the right things so he wouldn't make the SCP spiral. « You don't have to. You don't have to say anything. »
« I don't care about talking! What I want is out of here! » as he finished his sentence, Skeppy punched the wall right next to Bad's head, creating a hole right as the blade collided with the material.
« Skeppy, I can't let you do that! » Bad surged forward slightly, frustration and desperation starting to pile up in his furrowed brows and increased volume.
But the gemfolk couldn't care less about that, because his face fell.
« … what did you just call me? »
The researcher mimicked his confusion mixed with surprise, looking down as he leaned back on the wall, like he had been struck with an epiphany. « I … » he was squinting, looking for the information in his head as though he had already lost it. « Skeppy. » he finally responded after several instants of silence. He blinked multiple times before he was able to look back at the SCP, who was staring at an unspecific spot on the wall, completely dumbfounded.
« How do you- I didn't- » he swallowed. « I didn't tell you my name. »
« You … did not. » Bad agreed, equally shocked.
Long interminable minutes passed and they simply stood there, unable to process the information.
« I'll … » Bad eventually spoke, gathering his things slowly. « I'll come back tomorrow. »
Skeppy let him leave.
When he did come back, Bad was surprised to see Skeppy was still there, still hunched over himself in a corner, no sight of the diamond blade of the day before. Just … seemingly sulking.
The researcher didn't even bother trying to be professional. He left his gear at the desk and wordlessly opened the cell door, sitting down next to the SCP and bringing his knees to his chest.
They stayed like that for a while, just mindlessly staring at the floor as implications hung over in the air.
Bad knew there must've been something greater behind this, because there would've been no freaking chance he could've just guessed Skeppy's name. He'd never heard that before, in any kind of context. There was no way. His mind could only spin as he thought about the possibility of yet another SCP-001 meddling with them.
« My species is called Gemfolk. »
« Don't … don't. It's fine. »
« No, I thought about it, who cares. I'm not gonna be here for long anyway. »
« You'll escape? »
« No … no, I'll be taken from this … fucking reality. »
That made Bad sit up straighter and search for his eyes. « What? »
Skeppy mimicked his posture and sighed. « Do you guys deal with that … stuff? Like realities, alternate universes? »
« Oh, yeah, definitely. There's an SCP that can take you to alternate universes. There's also a young boy who keeps reality traveling against his will- »
« That! That's … » he looked up. « XD, I'm sorry if this is against the rules but I don't think it applies here if they already know, right? » he shrugged. « Whatever, he'll be yanking me back if I make mistakes. Anyway, you should get your notebook. »
Bad quirked an eyebrow but did as instructed, sitting back down and ready to take notes. « Should I record this session? »
« Yeah, go on, I don't care. » Skeppy waited until a small voice recording device was turned on. « Okay. I … don't know who I am. In this world I mean. » that was a half lie, because he knew he was starting to lose sense of himself as a whole. He just didn't want to admit it yet.
« I came into this world through a portal opened up by a deity and it shoved me here, with this new pre-existing identity. I don't know who I was in this world before I came here, I can't seem to remember anything other than being in a settlement with others of my species. »
Bad jotted down keywords here and there, bust mostly stared up at him, suddenly deeply focused. « This deity … could you describe it? Does it have a name? What are its powers? Does it, like, have power over a specific region of the world? »
« Slow down, » Skeppy begged, whispering. « Its name is DreamXD, wears long green robes … has a white mask. » Bad seemed to be sighing in defeat at that. « Has powers over … I don't know the extent of its powers, but he mentioned reigning over every living thing on the Overworld. So I believe it's some sort of God of Life or Reality? Because it started, in fact, meddling with universes. »
« How so? »
« It made me a universe hopper. » Skeppy clasped his hands together. « I ended up in its realm and it said it needed to test out these portals, so here I am. In one of the countless realities it threw me in. »
Bad paused for a moment. « So that's why you just seemed to … appear on our MTF squad. »
« Yeah, I don't even remember that, everything just sort of went to black. »
« I was told you passed out. »
« Ah, a classic. »
« So, » Bad went over his notes. « DreamXD. Nothing … nothing to do with the color red or a royal theme? »
« No, not really. »
Skeppy received a tight lipped smile and a soft spoken “not another one.” as the researcher wrote down “possible SCP-001?” next to DreamXD's name.
« I don't think you should classify it, it doesn't exist in this world. »
« Yeah, there's others that don't, standard procedures. » Bad waved the topic off. « Anything else of peculiar in these travels of yours? »
« Well, I always embody a pre-existing version of myself. Though, I'm pretty sure the moment I leave the universe, this version ceases to exist altogether. »
« That's why you said you would be gone. »
« Precisely, I definitely am bound to leave at some point. Not my choice. »
« And … » Bad set down the notes. « Why do you think I knew your name all of a sudden? »
Skeppy bit the inside of his cheek. Could he tell? « I know you. »
The researcher was baffled. « Excuse me? »
« I know you. Find you in every reality. Before this all happened, back when everything was normal to me, you and I were best friends. » he explained, letting the other process the information for a moment. « I seem to always happen around you. Not sure if it's a blessing or a curse, because I'm starting to lose my fucking mind. » Skeppy then confessed, letting out a small chuckle that sounded all the little too hysterical.
His main purpose of finding his original best friend was starting to erode bit by bit, with every passing minute he spent in a new universe. There was no original anymore, just people he kept finding and losing. They were all alike.
« Now, that's … interesting. »
« I think, maybe, some planets aligned and suddenly the deepest part of your subconscious just acted on an instinct that comes from a reality you haven't been in. Could've been a past life of yours. You just- You know me. Not in the way I do, but your … soul knows me. » he had no idea whether he was making sense at all, but the words came right out of him like a flood.
DreamXD must've been enjoying this.
« Is that why you … when I first saw you, I was convinced you wouldn't be anything dangerous. I had this- this feeling you wouldn't hurt me, like you'd never want to do that. It was like this sixth sense? »
« I would never do that intentionally. Yeah, I got angry earlier, but, no. I'd kill myself before I could think of hurting you on purpose. »
Bad smiled in the same way candies tasted in the middle of the afternoon and Skeppy couldn't explain it any better than that. « I don't know if I should be glad or flustered. » the researcher said, while an obvious shade of pink spread over his cheeks.
The gemfolk laughed softly and remembered, yet again, how he was still utterly in love with his best friend. And how pathetic it was that he only had been able to tell these other versions of him that almost felt fake at times.
When Bad turned off the recorder, satisfied with whatever he had gotten on tape, Skeppy decided to surge forward and lace his arms around his neck, burying his face on his shoulder.
The hug was returned almost immediately and with the same intensity of someone greeting an old friend.
Bad's hugs felt the same in each universe and Skeppy was wholeheartedly glad about that.
« Thank you for talking to me. » Bad's voice was barely above a whisper.
The gemfolk slowly leaned back before looking in his eyes. « We can work on whatever you need to know, I don't really … I don't want to inconvenience your job. It shouldn't bother me, this isn't … this is not me. Not my existence to pursue, in the end, there's no need for me to get so heated up about whatever it is you do. »
« I think you're allowed to have feelings over this. »
« Stop being so nice to me, or I swear I'll just kiss you. » wait when the fuck did he allow himself to say that again?
His head dropped between his hands.
« What? » he could tell Bad was smiling by the way his voice sounded. He could already see him covering his mouth with a hand, grinning widely.
« Sorry, » Skeppy mumbled, receiving a chuckle in response.
« No, no need. Did you say that to your best friend, then? »
Oh, this motherfucker .
« No. »
« Huh, » he could still hear the grin. « Interesting. » Bad added, along with the same old soft laughter and Skeppy wanted to straight up die .
DreamXD should've taken him back right then and there.
« Not a word. »
« I think we're past that. »
« I don't like this version of you, could we get a switch? »
Bad shook his head. « I'm afraid you're stuck with me. »
« Oh, Prime. »
Becoming friends with Bad was, again, a success.
Skeppy was granted a better room, some sort of actual small apartment where he could not lose his sanity. Sometimes, if he behaved extremely well, he was able to join Bad in some daily strolls around, but he could've never left the facility to see the outside world, apart from an inner garden they had.
They let him interact with other safe SCPs, other times he just stood from great distance, tried to understand and grasp the concept of why they were doing what they were doing.
Skeppy wasn't sure whether he agreed or disagreed, but found himself in no position of deciding. He simply existed there, wrongfully so.
He and Bad had started experimenting around with his abilities to try and understand them together, since he had no clue on how they worked himself. Skeppy wanted to be able to control them wholly before he hurt someone else without meaning to again.
It was a slow and hard process, but months of endurance let him understand how to summon a shield, some sort of sword like weapon and how to actually control the projectiles.
It all depended from his emotions and Skeppy thought it was a terrible downside, because then he'd have to be in constant touch with his feelings and he really hated the idea.
Sometimes they discovered different, even useless abilities.
There was one particularly mentally tasking day, he and Bad had been close by each other, silently taking in the ambience of Skeppy's containment cell. Bad had taken one of his hands, the gemfolk found that he had a habit of fidgeting around, but would often just take his hand and start turning it over and playing with it instead. Perhaps it was the texture, the different materials between skin and crystals.
Then Bad had looked up at him and said the diamonds on his face were glowing a soft pink hue.
Skeppy hadn't commented about it.
He didn't comment about how his body seemed to glow up the moment Bad entered in his line of vision, nor how desperate he sounded when he begged for the researcher to stay with him just a tad bit longer and ignore all his other duties.
« You said you don't want to inconvenience my job. »
« That was ages ago, people change, let them fire you but I hide you here and kill anyone who dares to enter. »
Bad had smiled. « You wouldn't do that. »
« You don't know the things I'd do for you. »
The subject had dropped and Skeppy was left wondering if he had gone too far this time.
He got the confirmation when Bad refused to meet his eyes, when he started being accompanied by a co-worker that Skeppy didn't like, when nobody satisfied his demand of going back to the research they were doing before, when it was only him and Bad.
Skeppy started being studied by the other researcher only from time to time and he couldn't hide his grumpiness.
Their relationship was terribly cold.
He wasn't let outside anymore.
He was aching.
« 54377-1, SCPs and Researchers aren't meant to grow affectionate towards each other. » the doctor had explained. They didn't even bother calling him by his real name. « Any sign of sympathy towards an SCP equals direct termination of the staff member, if you catch my drift. »
« That makes no fucking sense. »
« If we catch feelings for the subjects it'll start brainwashing us, making us think we should actually let you all free and- »
« Doesn't that mean you know what you're doing is fundamentally wrong? »
The doctor glared at him, before leaning down towards him. « You should be glad we caught him before anything happened. »
Skeppy was now sitting very uncomfortably on his couch. « What- what do you mean? What happened- where's Bad? »
The other chuckled before standing straighter. He flashed him a wicked, knowing smile, before leaving the room wordlessly.
Skeppy was about to crumble to the ground, unable to breathe, when something caught him.
In an instant, the room around him spun and he was back in DreamXD's clock room, breathing uneven, eyes wide and hands covering half of his face in pure revolting terror. He fell to the floor on his knees and didn't feel any pain.
« I'm sorry. » a voice echoed, shockingly genuine. For the first time in years, DreamXD shrunk to a human-friendly height and knelt at Skeppy's side. « I'm sorry, » it repeated, placing a hand on his back and moving it in a comforting pattern. « It should not have ended that way. I apologize. I made a mistake. »
Skeppy felt hysterical.
The god was apologizing. It sounded … it sounded rather distraught itself.
There was some tapping away that he barely recognized as no type of sob would leave his lungs, just a choked feeling that held him by the throat.
« Let. » he barely was able to inhale. « Let me go back. I'll kill them all. »
« No. No, I have erased that universe. » XD spoke carefully. « He's no longer hurting. »
Skeppy didn't know how to find comfort in that.
With that knowledge in mind he could only weep and mourn over someone that did not exist anymore.