Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Silas had curled up on the floor of the submarine, letting the minutes tick by until he was “dropped off” at the Blacksite. 

Earlier in the trip, the kid had poked at the little red console built into the wall of the submarine. A condescending, feminine voice rang out, saying something about an internal defense system. Silas jolted backwards, glaring at it and considering punching it. But the words “internal defense system” had rubbed him wrong, so he sat back down and drifted back into his mind.

He already knew he was going to die at the Blacksite; after all, it was the only reason he was being sent there. Silas was dreading his arrival, scared of the horrors he knew he'd meet, but also somewhat comforted by the idea of knowing the end result of the trip.

It'll be over before I know it, he thought, burying his head in his hands.

He hadn’t been told how long the trip would take; not that it would matter, considering the lack of any objects able to tell time. The submarine was too empty, with nothing to distract Silas from his thoughts, but he knew that leaving it and entering the Blacksite when the time came would feel so much worse. All he’d gathered from the conversations of the lab staff was that the site was dangerous, with many creatures that had been let out during a containment breach over a decade ago. Silas couldn’t stop himself from imagining the horrific monsters he might meet, and he began to wonder which one would be responsible for his demise. Part of him wanted to get it over with, and the other part wanted to prolong it for as long as possible. 

Silas groaned and fidgeted with the collar of the jacket he was given. Could his thoughts shut up and stop bouncing around up there like a pinball in a pinball machine? But then again, there was nothing else to do. The submarine itself wasn’t very interesting, and not much could be seen through the windows. And worst of all, he hadn’t been allowed to take anything. Silas didn’t have any belongings, but he’d have at least taken a notebook and pencil if given the chance. But, of course, those bastards wouldn’t have let him. Everyone working for that place just wanted money. 

If only I’d done more to piss them off while I still had the chance.

Silas shook that thought away before he could go down the rabbit hole, opting instead to focus on a tune that’d been sitting in the back of his mind. He couldn’t remember the name. He tapped his fingers against the floor of the submarine, listening to the soothing clinks of the metal as he stared at the bleak, gray ceiling of the submarine. 

Then the voice rang through the submarine again, making the kid jump, and the door began to unfold.

“Submarine has arrived. Please stand a minimum of 5 studs away from the hatch until it’s fully opened.”

Silas sat up, cautiously looking out the open submarine door. It seemed arguably less run down than he thought it would be. Silas surveyed the room as he ducked through the exit; there were gray crates, gray tables, gray lockers, gray-blue walls: nothing new. Surprisingly, the lights were on, but it didn’t make Silas’s situation feel any brighter. No eldritch horrors were visible yet, so he took a deep breath and walked up to the first door.

Aaaand it required a keycard. 

Silas looked around. After a bit of looking and some crawling over some boxes, the keycard had been obtained, as well as a notebook and pen. He took another deep breath and swiped the card through the reader, ignoring the growing doubts in the back of his mind. The thought of sitting down and rotting with his thoughts in the corner of a submarine dock sounded far too depressing for him to accept. So, Silas started into the halls of the Blacksite, making sure to constantly look over his shoulder.

Silas jumped at every noise he heard that wasn’t his own breathing or the sound of his tail brushing up against the ground. Sometimes the noises he heard would be comparable only to the wails of the damned wafting up from hell–far away, high-pitched shrieking–and other times they sounded like things Silas used to hear in Minecraft’s caves when he was younger. But instead of evoking nostalgia, it only made things creepier. He remembered his character walking through the dark caves and remembered being afraid of seeing Herobrine, only to be jumpscared by a mob rounding a corner. The Blacksite instilled within him a similar, yet much deeper sense of dread. However, this time, there was no way of knowing what might come at you from the dark. 

A few bleak, anticipation-filled turns and halls later, something caught Silas’ eye. There was a strange object, containing actual colors, perched on one of the racks. He slithered up to it, looked around, and carefully picked it up. It was a glass vial with a bicolored liquid in it, purple on one side and light blue on the other. The vial felt out of place, for a reason Silas couldn’t put into words. He tapped on it, smiling as it made a little clinking sound, and continued after looking over his shoulder again. 

Before opening the next door, the kid looked at the screen next to the door he was about to open. It had only just occurred to him that they might have a purpose. He sat down by it, curiously tapping at the glass, thinking that it might be a touchscreen. 

Nothing happened. It was just a blank screen. Maybe it stopped working when the breach happened? Silas tapped at it again, noticing his reflection in it and smiling. Except, his reflection didn’t look quite right. Urbanshade’s logo was smack dab on the front of his jacket, so small yet so big. Taking the jacket off wasn't an option, it made him feel too vulnerable. Cutting out that patch would create a hole, though… was it worth it? Silas shook his head, looking around. Why was he thinking about this? He stood up and opened the next door, his fear slowly giving way into curiosity.

In the newest hallway, the only thing that stood out to Silas was a door off to the side. Upon opening the door, he was met with a surprisingly cozy office space. The lighting was warm and inviting, there were desks and office chairs with computers on top, and a couple potted plants were even in there. Silas hadn't gotten very far into the labs yet, but he knew he needed a place to rest and there was no knowing when he'd come across another room like this. Before resting, though, he tried to force the door shut. About halfway through, it occurred to him that forcing the door shut could end in him being locked in this room.

Oh well. Better than getting torn apart limb by limb, right? Might as well go out comfortable.

After failing to force the door shut, Silas sighed and coiled up behind one of the desks. He looked back up at the door, to make sure there was nobody there- only to notice a camera in the upper corner of the room. 

I wonder how long it's been since anyone’s used-

Hold up. What was that noise? It sounded like faint screaming, but… it wasn't fading away, it was just getting closer. Silas’ sense of danger flared up again, and he almost instinctively lowered his head. The lights outside of the room flickered as the noise grew closer. Silas tensed up and held his breath. He would have moved to cover his ears, but he wasn't going to risk increasing his chance of getting found in case whatever was out there could sense movement. 

As it got closer, Silas tensed up more. The thing passed through, with a mind-shattering screech that immediately left Silas disoriented. All he could tell was that he probably wasn't dead. Eventually, he lifted his head a bit and blinked a few times. The lights outside were shattered, leaving the hallway dark. Silas shuddered, feeling prickly all over after whatever just happened. He debated leaving, but couldn't build up the courage to get up and venture into the dark hallway where anything could be waiting. But at that moment, he didn't care enough to get up. If something was going to find him, there was nothing he could do. He’d gotten pretty used to that feeling by now. So why try?

Chapter Text

That day, for Sebastian, had been one of the bad ones. The type that you get accustomed to after a while, but that never gets any easier. Having to drag yourself out of bed, forcing yourself to get ready for the day, trying to push through, and just barely making it home at the end. Well, in Sebastian’s case, the closest thing he had to it at the time. 

At the end of his day, Sebastian packed up his shop and brought the day’s “earnings” to his main hideout–picking up some useful-looking items along the way for tomorrow–and made his way to his makeshift bedroom, setting the SCRAMBLER down and powering it down after he ducked through the doorway. Sebastian had already crushed all the cameras, and with the risk of any human intruders eliminated, the SCRAMBLER being powered on didn't do much except potentially give away his location. He turned the light on and immediately moved to curl up on the mattress in the corner, the one he’d stolen from a bed in the staff’s living quarters. As per usual, there was a small stack of unread files off to the side. They were usually long and dry enough to keep his mind occupied until he drifted off into sleep, when his mind would allow it. Sebastian couldn’t exactly relax, but damn was it satisfying to be free of the expendables and having to smile at them and call all the half-decent ones “friend.”

I’m never working in customer service if I get out of this godforsaken place, he thought, trying not to venture any further down into the mental cavern of what-ifs. That’d never helped before. So, Sebastian closed his eyes, trying not to think of if he’d ever get out.

“Heey, Sebastian!” p.AI.nter chimed over the walkie talkie. Sebastian slowly opened his eyes and sat up. Trying to relax hadn’t worked anyway. 

Even if his already-limited social battery was dead at the end of most days, chatting with his only friend p.AI.nter rarely seemed to drain that battery. 

“Seebb??? Helllooo?” p.AI.nt repeated, so Sebastian took the little black device out of his belt and pressed on the button on the side. 

“Hey, p.AI.nt.”

“Hooow’s it goin’?” It chirped from its secluded spot in heavy containment.

“Oh, I’m tired as always. You?” Sebastian asked as he shifted to sit up against a wall.

“Damn, sorry Seb. If it makes you feel any better, I actually counted today, and I knocked out more idiots than I usually do! Mostly with the turrets, of course!”

Sebastian heard p.AI.nter laugh from the other side of the device, and he couldn’t help but smile a bit as he imagined the silly turret drawing his friend had made on the other side.

“And what was that number?”

“24! I think usually it’s closer to 17. I can’t tell if they’re all getting stupider, or if I’m getting better at this.”

“Well, the stupidity of expendables knows no bounds. But keep up the good work, yeah? I’ll make sure to come visit you tomorrow if I’m feeling better.”

“You’ve got it!”

“Oh- yeah, I almost forgot to mention it! Something really odd happened today with one of the cameras, I’ve gotta tell you!” it added.

“What happened?” Sebastian inquired, not able to tell if the AI was just eager to share a funny sighting or if it could be something of significance.

“So I think one of the cameras glitched out or replayed a clip of you from a while ago, cause I’m pretty sure I saw you on one of the cameras. But you were wearing an Urbanshade outfit in the feed, so it definitely wasn’t current you.”

Sebastian paused. He’d never heard p.AI.nter talking about the cameras replaying clips before. Why would they start now?

“Have the cameras ever done anything like this before?”

“No. That's why it's so strange!”

“And how long ago was this?

“Oh, it was maybe an hour ago. It was a little deeper into the labs, not where the expendables usually go through.”

Sebastian was now leaning forward a bit, glaring down at the walkie talkie. Something about this situation didn’t feel right to him. Why would the blacksite’s cameras suddenly be playing clips from over a decade ago?

“Did you see him on more than one camera, or was it just that one? What was he doing?”

“He was just walking around, and yeah, I watched him for a little while.”

“Can you go back and look at those cameras again? See if it’s… replaying any of those clips, perhaps, or if you can still see ‘me’ anywhere?”

“Oh, yeah, sure, of course! Anything. Just hold on a sec.”

The line went silent as p.AI.nter went back to looking through the camera feeds. Sebastian stayed hunched over the walkie talkie for a few moments, waiting for the results. But when he realized his back was starting to hurt, he sighed and sat back up.

“Damn it, I’m getting old…”

After another minute of waiting, with questions running through Sebastian’s mind…

“Alright! Yeah, I can see you still.”

p.AI.nter laughed. “This is so funny. What do you think you were doing back then?”

“Well I can’t tell you if I don’t know what’s going on. You’ve gotta tell me what you see, ya bucket of bolts,” Sebastian said, smiling as he stood up. “Just out of curiosity, how far would you say that this ‘past me’s’ current location is from my hideout?”

“It’s a few sections down. I’m an artist, not a GPS, so you’re gonna have to make your own estimate.”

“Yeah, artist, not a GPS, got it. I’m going down there to ensure that Urbanshade isn’t up to anything.”
Sebastian didn’t sound very happy with the idea of doing anything else today, but he knew that he needed to get to the bottom of this. Anyone in the Blacksite who was associated with Urbanshade was a huge risk to keep around unsupervised.