The SCP Foundation is no stranger to containing
dangerous entities capable of taking lives without discretion. But some of those entities aren’t just mindless
monsters, they’re people, with feelings and desires, stuck in an unfortunate circumstance,
granted unnatural abilities by fate or chance. For a lot of human anomalies contained by
the Foundation, it’s not a stretch to say that they most likely wish they were ordinary,
like anyone else. That they didn’t have to be locked up in
a containment cell for the rest of their lives. As the years have gone by, the Foundation,
much like any organization, has changed a lot. More facilities have pushed for ethical and
humane treatment of anomalies, some going so far as to integrate safe anomalies into
the command structure of the organization itself. With groups such as the Ethics Committee keeping
the Foundation’s most hardline normalcy supremacists from mistreating or mishandling
the objects they’re supposed to contain, it’s hard to imagine that anything would
slip by the ever-watchful eye of the Foundation’s surveillance network, but in an organization
this large, incidents are still bound to happen. While anomalies can be dangerous, the Foundation
as a whole backs the ideal that they should be given ethical treatment, at least as much
as they can afford. For safer, less dangerous anomalies, this
is a lot easier to enforce. To suggest rehabilitation efforts and recreational
privileges to be given to an anomaly capable of ending human life at a moment’s notice
raises a lot more eyebrows, even in the most progressive sects of the Foundation. That line becomes blurred when dealing with
intelligent entities. What defines intelligence? Sapience? What distinguishes SCP-682, the indestructible
lizard with a massive disgust for all life from SCP-239, an ultimately innocent little
girl with world-breaking reality-bending powers? This is the sort of argument that divides
the upper ranks of the Foundation. Is the integration of these anomalies the
answer, or should they be sealed away forever? Should they be uniformly treated as monsters
and freaks, unfit to ever leave their cells aside from being used in testing? Fortunately for the anomaly rights activists
in the crowd, the modern Foundation is much more lenient than it had been in decades past,
as research has proven that even dangerous anomalies, when given friendly treatment and
basic rights, are more compliant, happy, and feel less strife about their situation. They can even be useful in some situations. Take SCP-5595, a sentient, sarcastic Gumball
machine located at Site-322 whose affinity for mathematics and harmless nature earned
it a position at the site’s accounting department, as part of a larger Foundation initiative
called the Integration Program, which focused on integrating harmless anomalies into the
Site itself. In fact, SCP-5595’s accounting skills were
so great that it reduced Site-322’s spending costs overall and opened the higher-ups to
the idea of integrating more anomalies across the organization. If you need another example, SCP-999, the
adorable orange blob lovingly nicknamed the “Tickle Monster”, has been used as a therapy
object at Site-19 for years! But there is one side of the debate that spurs
more controversy than any other. Using anomalies as living weapons. The Foundation has long abided by the directive
that its objects are to be contained and studied instead of used in the field, as an uncontrollable
object is more dangerous outside of a cell than in. But that directive has changed, especially
in recent times. The Chaos Insurgency, one of the Foundation’s
greatest foes, utilizes anomalies as weapons to achieve their goals, as do many other groups
of interest. When trained human soldiers just aren’t
enough to contend with all of the enemies the Foundation deals with, it's no wonder
they began to explore other options. And that brings us to the subject of today’s
video. The tale of SCP-4793, an anomaly trained as
a brutalizing soldier who never really wanted to fight. This is the story of Androcles, a warrior
with a blazing, savage fury in his body, but with a gentle, tender longing in his heart. It all started during a Foundation raid on
a Chaos Insurgency operation located in a mountain cave in the southern region of Greece. The deadly insurgency, always on the prowl
for more anomalous weapons to use in its unending battle against the Foundation, had hired a
team of mercenaries to scour the region for potential anomalous activity. They came across something buried in the mountains
they were certain was anomalous, and after communicating with their superiors, decided
to dig it up and see what it was about. Naturally, word of such a discovery travels
fast, and with how many undercover operatives the Foundation keeps embedded inside the Insurgency
in order to keep tabs on what their enemies are doing, it's no surprise that the Foundation
mobilized its forces to get the drop on whatever this anomalous excavation site was. The mission was simple enough. MTF Upsilon-11, nicknamed “Avalon’s Wake”,
a team of combat specialists led by the skilled Captain Holly Shore, would infiltrate their
camp and seize any anomalous objects in the mercenaries' possession. Getting past the relatively unguarded entrance
was a cake walk, as the task force took out a single guard and were able to slip deeper
into the cave undetected. Inside, they found a massive pit, surrounded
by colorful stalagmites and flowing waterfalls. At the center of the pit, next to a smattering
of camping supplies and bright floodlights, was a large stone stele, a type of pillar
most often used in ancient times that would be carved with important messages or stories. The details were grainy from a distance, but
the team could make out an engraved image of a Spartan Hoplite soldier on the pillar. Surrounding the stele were five mercenaries,
armed and in the process of digging out the pillar from beneath the rock. Captain Shore knew that this was most likely
the big object the Chaos Insurgency were after. She and her team took cover, waiting for the
opportune moment to strike, but their wait wasn’t long. One of the mercenaries shoveling the ground
near the stele let out a scream. They had cut themselves, splattering a small
amount of blood on the stone monument. The mercenaries panicked, readying their arms. They weren’t sure what was going to happen
next, but with enough experience in the field, they knew that introducing an anomaly to human
blood often had severe consequences. And their suspicions were proven correct. A flash of light surrounded the cave, and
from the stele emerged a warrior, clad in the same armor as the Spartan soldier engraved
on the monument’s carving. The entity was clearly confused, and asked,
in English, if the mercenaries spoke greek. Instead, they thrust their guns forward, screaming
at the soldier to not move. The soldier was compliant, but one of the
mercenaries, feeling it to be a cruel way to establish dominance over their new anomalous
toy, shot at the soldier’s exposed leg. What happened next was a whirlwind of swearing,
blood, and combat. The mercenaries opened fire on the soldier,
who retaliated back by using powerful hand-to-hand combat. For whatever reason, bullets just couldn’t
seem to harm the soldier. He tanked dozens of open shots across his
body, the rounds deflecting off of his armor. As the soldier picked up a mercenary by the
throat, the kevlar vest he was wearing suddenly flung itself from the man’s body and integrated
itself onto the soldier’s armor. The mercenary immediately recognized this
as one of the soldier’s anomalous abilities but was powerless to stop it as he was slammed
against the stone wall, falling to the ground. The Foundation task force watched in awe as
the soldier took out each of the mercenaries, one by one. Captain Shore, seeing that the soldier was
continually begging the mercenaries to stop shooting at it the entire time, sensed that
there was a peaceful, humane side to the entity, a stark contrast to the acts of brutality
it used to dispatch the mercenaries. Shore told her men to move forward, but with
their weapons lowered. The soldier, holding onto a knife it grabbed
earlier, stood on guard, but surrendered without question when he realized the Foundation operatives
were not there to fight him. Captain Shore introduced herself and her men
as a part of the Foundation, and the soldier, clearly upset and distraught over the carnage
he caused, introduced himself as Androcles. The team promised Androcles they would take
him somewhere safe, and he complied. Little would he know that his journey with
the Foundation was just beginning. Androcles was given the designation SCP-4793,
and initial assessment found him to be anomalously strong, with the ability to integrate any
solid material into a weapon, either as a piece of armor, like it did with the mercenaries’
kevlar vest, or as a weapon itself, such as turning the steel leg of a chair into a sharpened
sword. Though this ability did have its limits, as
Androcles had difficulty incorporating firearms and complex electronics as weapons or armor. On top of that, SCP-4793 was extremely durable
and able to heal any wounds on its body almost instantaneously. Coupled with his highly trained fighting skills
and raging fury, Androcles was a true warrior, capable of great power and might. But his wild side seemed to disappear when
the heat of battle died down. One of Site-20’s senior researchers, Dr.
Fitz-Patrick was tasked with interviewing SCP-4793 weekly, and she discovered that SCP-4793
had a completely different element to his personality. He was intelligent, kind, gentle, and hated
fighting. He couldn’t remember much of his life from
thousands of years ago, but he knew that he was a great warrior who caused mass destruction
with his power alone. Androcles didn’t want to be someone like
that. He had an interest in history, in books, and
learning why he woke up, what the world was like now, and why it had changed. Androcles wanted to know why there were metal
birds in the sky and horseless chariots on the ground. Dr. Fitz-Patrick found him to be a remarkable
person and commended SCP-4793’s behavior with access to various literature and history
books so he could learn about the things he desperately wanted to know. But most of all, she was taken back by how
averse he was to becoming his past self, a heartless warrior who killed indiscriminately. It seemed as if Androcles was so traumatized
by his past actions that he sealed away those memories to forget about them as best he could. But Site-20’s director, Jack Hargraves,
saw Androcles as a mere tool. Something he could use to achieve a nefarious
goal he had been planning for a long, long time. Hargraves wanted to use SCP-4793’s raw power
to benefit the Foundation. From his office, he sat back, imagining the
unstoppable force that a trained Androcles would be. If he could force him to fight, and he knew
he could, then the Foundation would have a deadly weapon in their hands. Something that would surely even the odds
between the Chaos Insurgency and those other pesky groups of interest. Director Hargraves forced SCP-4793 to train
his combat abilities in a variety of sparring sessions with Captain Shore, the task force
captain who discovered him in the mountains. Hargraves’ regimen was brutal, and he often
threatened to blow up the explosive collars on SCP-4793’s neck and wrists if he held
back against Shore or disobeyed his orders. Androcles could take the explosion, but Shore
would surely be caught in the blast, killing her. Androcles hated Hargraves, but cared about
Shore, who showed him kindness and understood his difficult position. Over the next two years, Androcles would train
weekly with Shore, sparring with each other using a variety of weapons, from swords to
firearms. SCP-4793 still held back, not wanting to fight,
and wanting even less to accidentally injure Holly Shore, who he was growing to see as
a friend. In the meantime, Dr. Fitz-Patrick continued
to interview SCP-4793 weekly, also growing a friendship with the entity. But for as much as she cared about Androcles,
she couldn’t help him the way she wanted to. Hargraves was set on making SCP-4793 a functional
weapon on the field, and he was growing impatient waiting for results. Hargraves was pushing Androcles beyond his
comfort zone, switching up his sparring partners from Shore, who he trusted deeply, to other
individuals, or changing what weapons he had to use. Androcles hated this, not because he was scared
to fight, but because he was anxious about what he could become if he let loose. He never wanted to be the monster that he
knew he was capable of being. He never wanted to hurt someone. In the meantime, Hargraves began to have doubts
about Androcles. His humanity and reluctance would slow him
down in the field, keep him from being the perfect super-soldier Hargraves wanted him
to be. So he began development on another project,
codenamed X06. This mysterious weapons program was kept under
wraps, limited in knowledge to only Hargraves and his most trusted men. If he couldn’t have Androcles, he would
simply have to do better. And he knew he would. While Hargraves worked in the shadows, the
SCP-4793 research team uncovered a section of Androcles’ past that he had forgotten. The stele he was trapped inside had an inscription
on its front, written in ancient greek. When it was translated and sent to Dr. Fitz-Patrick,
this is what it read. Gather around me, children, I will tell you
the story of sweet Androcles. Fierce as a pride of lions and as cunning
as a pack of wolves, he lived for nothing but battle. He was beloved by his countrymen and feared
by his enemies, so much so that Ares Himself strode down from Olympus to challenge him
to single combat. For ten days they fought a terrible Duel,
their blades cutting earth into islands and the sparks turning mountains into forges for
Hephaestus. Impressed, he granted Androcles a boon: So
long as he fought, he would never know defeat or age and by mixing his Ichor with Androcles'
blood, Ares declared him kin to the Gods themselves. As he came to bear on the world, he met his
match in a woman from a distant land. With skin of whitest sand, covered in blues
from the ocean, she blazed in his eyes like Helios' chariot. Together, the mountains bowed before them. But even as Eros' arrow brought them together,
an arrow split them apart, for Jealous Ares saw his favored love something other than
Himself. With his guiding star gone, Androcles tore
the bones of the Earth itself. With his rage and lust for battle extinguished,
he turned the battlefield into Twin mountains. With his purpose lost, he entombed them forevermore. Androcles was shaken by the revelations of
his warrior past. And in the present, he couldn’t shake the
feeling that Captain Shore reminded him of his past lover. The feeling was so strong, that during a sparring
session, Androcles passed out, overwhelmed by how much she reminded him of her, the woman
who he remembered to be his wife, Arabel. Androcles continued to confide in Dr. Fitz-Patrick
about his feelings about Captain Shore, and especially about fighting for the Foundation. He didn’t understand this strange, new world,
or what exactly he would be fighting for. And the stories he heard about previous attempts
to utilize anomalous soldiers in battle terrified him. The story of SCP-076, Able, killing his entire
Task Force team after losing control haunted him at night. He never wanted to become that. But Hargraves’ secret project reached its
completion before Androcles could be molded into the perfect warrior. To celebrate the creation of what he told
Dr. Fitz-Patrick was the perfect warrior, he invited her to be assigned to Project-X09.
Little did Hargraves know, however, that Fitz-Patrick was keeping tabs on all of his shady behavior,
in hopes of one day exposing him for the monster that he was to the Ethics Committee, or maybe
even the Overseer Council. Still, she took the job, wanting to see what
monstrosity Hargraves had created as a result of his experiments. Fitz-Patrick was shocked to see it. Hargraves’ secret experiment was a black,
winged, clawed creature with way too many teeth. From behind its containment cylinder, it grinned
and chuckled an inhuman laugh. Hargraves was truly creating monsters. As Hargraves explained, the creature had near-human
intelligence and could reproduce asexually, meaning all it took was one of them for it
to multiply. With this new anomaly, he could revolutionize
the Foundation’s ways of waging war. A perfect soldier, one that wouldn’t be
held back by human emotion. Fitz-Patrick voiced her concern but was cut
short by Hargraves suddenly panicking. He noticed that there was only one X06 entity
in the cylinder, when he was sure there were two. And suddenly, from the ceiling, one of the
entities fell to the ground, flapping its wings and screaming in the researcher's faces. The worst had happened. The X06 entities had broken free, and if they
weren’t stopped soon, they would run rampant over Site-20. The two fled for safety, but the horrifying
creature chased after them. Androcles and Captain Shore soon learned of
the containment breach as well, after their sparring session was cut short by a creature
breaking into the room. Androcles made short work of it, but it was
too late. Site-20 was overrun with Hargraves’ beasts. There were hundreds of them, and those numbers
would continue to grow. They infiltrated the entire facility, leaving
Androcles and Captain Shore with one option: to fight. Androcles didn’t want to do it, but this
was different. He needed to be a hero and save the people
still trapped in Site-20’s facilities. He would have to use force, but if he was
helping others, then it was justified, he reluctantly told himself. Still, he hated it. And as Captain Shore and her task force, as
well as SCP-4793, moved through Site-20, taking out one entity after another, Androcles realized
how hopeless the situation was looking. There were simply too many of them. They needed to focus their efforts on getting
people out of the site rather than hoping to fight back. While most personnel were slaughtered in the
carnage, at the Site’s D-Class block, the team found a holdout of guards and D-class,
who were conveniently relocated to an above-ground elevator that could escort them safely out
of the site. Androcles made the decision there, to let
Captain Shore and her men, as well as the survivors, get to the surface, while he would
stay below and fight. He didn’t want to do it, but Androcles had
a plan. Shore didn’t want to leave him behind, but
she had no choice. After parting in the heat of an X06 ambush
on the block, Androcles was alone, while the survivors were on the surface. Fighting without holding back, Androcles tore
through hundreds of X06 entities, going deeper and deeper into the site. His plan was dangerous, but it would save
everyone, at the expense of his own life. Androcles knew how dangerous those X06 entities
could be if they were let loose into the world, and that was why he decided he would blow
up Site-20’s reactor, destroying both himself, the site, and every single creature. As he was about to do just that, Androcles
found Director Hargraves’ in the rubble of the reactor room. Hargrave was heavily wounded, and Androcles
felt such rage and anger towards the man, especially when he revealed that the X06 creatures
were genetically engineered from Androcles’ own blood. But he didn’t hurt him. He was better than the monster Hargrave saw
him as. Instead, Androcles sent Hargraves up on the
elevator to the surface, knowing that the Overseer Council would serve a far worse punishment
than he ever could. Before blowing up the reactor, Androcles recorded
one last message, using equipment that was attached to his task force helmet. He addressed it to Holly Shore, the captain
who had shown him so much kindness. “I was born to a farmer and grew into a
warrior. I battled Ares to a standstill. I won wars singlehandedly. Then I met my wife. We were set to claim the world, two immortals
who wanted to bring a chaotic world some semblance of peace. And then Ares killed her. And I lost everything. And now I'm here. Alone. Adrift. A stranger surrounded by even stranger things. But within you, I see the spark I saw in her. A burning desire to make the world better. It makes me want to be better. And I don't know if you feel the same, or
whether I'll get out of here… But I will fight for you. Die if I have to. I love you.” And with that, Androcles, one of the greatest
warriors the Foundation had ever known, sacrificed his life to blow up Site-20’s nuclear reactor,
destroying the facility and saving the world from Hargrave’s deadly creatures. To those who knew him, especially Captain
Shore, he will never be forgotten - Because true heroes never really die. Now go check out “What Actually Happened
to Major Alexei Belitrov? SCP-2273 - Tale” and “SCP-507 - Reluctant
Dimension Hopper” for more journeys into the lives and minds of the Foundation’s
more sympathetic prisoners!
