They kept climbing the stairwell, the distant sirens fading and swelling in uneven waves as deeper systems of the facility began to wake up.
The structure of the SCP Foundation groaned around them like a living thing shifting in its sleep.
She finally broke the silence.
"My name's Lira," she said.
Devin glanced at her briefly. "Lira."
She nodded once, then exhaled. Her earlier nervous energy had started to settle into something more grounded now that they were moving.
"…And I didn't end up here the way you think."
He didn't interrupt. Just kept walking beside her, step steady, listening.
Lira looked down at her hands as they climbed.
"I wasn't always like this," she continued. "Telekinesis, telepathy… that came later. It wasn't something I trained for or inherited. It just… happened one day."
A faint flicker of light rippled around her fingers unconsciously, then faded as she tightened her grip on herself.
"I stopped a bank robbery," she said quietly. "I didn't even understand how. Things moved because I panicked. Guns bent. People got thrown across the room without me touching them."
Devin's expression didn't change much, but his attention sharpened.
Lira continued.
"I thought I'd saved everyone."
A pause.
Then her voice dropped slightly.
"That night… soldiers came. Not police. Not anyone I could talk to. Just… black armor. No faces. No negotiation."
Her jaw tightened as they climbed another flight.
"I fought back. I didn't know how to control it yet, so everything just… exploded outward. Walls, furniture, parts of the street outside. I was screaming the whole time."
The stairwell lights flickered as they passed a junction.
"And then they used something on me. A collar. Like yours."
She glanced at Devin's neck briefly, then away.
"I woke up in a transport cell six months ago."
Devin's eyes narrowed slightly. "They killed your family."
It wasn't a question.
Lira went quiet for a second too long.
"…Yeah," she said finally. "Collateral damage. Or 'containment efficiency,' depending on how they wrote the report."
Her voice had gone flat, but there was something sharp underneath it.
"I wasn't important enough to keep them alive."
They climbed in silence for a few steps.
Devin spoke first, quietly.
"They didn't give you a choice."
Lira let out a short, humorless laugh. "No. They really didn't."
Another flight passed beneath them.
The sirens above grew closer now — containment forces reorganizing, shifting, preparing higher-tier response measures.
She looked sideways at him.
"What about you?" she asked. "You always like this?"
Devin thought for a moment.
"No," he said. "I was… worse."
That made her glance at him more carefully.
He continued walking, voice lower.
"Didn't know when to stop. Didn't care who was in the way."
A pause.
"But now…" he glanced upward toward the stairs, toward the pressure of the facility above them. "It's quieter."
Lira studied him for a moment, then nodded slightly.
"Good," she said. "Because I don't think either of us survives this place if it isn't."
Above them, heavy doors began locking into place at higher levels.
The escape route was narrowing.
And somewhere deeper in the facility, the system classified them both as active breach-level anomalies under full response escalation.
After walking a bit...
They reached the next landing.
The stairwell doors above them slammed open.
Armored figures flooded in, black tactical gear, heavy plating, disciplined formation. The first full interception unit. Weapons raised, lights cutting through the stairwell gloom.
"STOP! DO NOT MOVE!"
The response team of the SCP Foundation formed a tight choke-point line, shields locking together.
Behind them, heavy assault operators readied restraint launchers and high-voltage suppression nets.
Lira stiffened. "That's… a lot."
Devin didn't answer.
His eyes flicked to the collar still around her neck and cuffs.
Then to his own.
"…Hold still," he said as his eyes glowed red.
Before she could ask why, he grabbed the device at her throat.
Metal shrieked.
The suppression collar tore apart in his hands, wiring snapping as sparks cascaded.
The moment it broke, Lira gasped sharply... like someone finally taking a full breath after months underwater.
Her telekinetic field surged outward instinctively, loose debris lifting around them.
Devin crushed the broken collar in his hand, then reached up and ripped his own off as well.
The device fought back with a last electric pulse, but he tore it free and tossed it aside.
The MTF commander shouted, "NOW!"
Non-lethal rounds fired.
Devin moved first.
He lunged forward into the heavy assault line, targeting the largest operators.
His shoulder slammed into a shield, shattering its locking mechanism.
He grabbed one armored soldier and shoved him into another, both crashing into the wall.
Behind him, Lira extended her hands.
Everything loose in the stairwell lifted... broken metal, shattered collar fragments, dropped equipment, chunks of concrete.
She thrust forward.
The objects shot down the stairs like a storm of shrapnel... controlled enough to avoid lethal impact, but powerful enough to knock several operators off balance.
"Left!" she shouted.
Devin pivoted, catching a heavy assault member trying to flank.
He grabbed the man's armored vest and swung him aside, clearing the path.
Another attempted to deploy a capture net.. Devin tore the launcher from his hands and crushed it.
Lira stepped forward, her telekinesis now precise.
She yanked rifles from hands, slammed shields sideways, forced the formation open.
"Go! Go!" she called.
The tight MTF line broke.
Within seconds, the stairwell became chaos.. fallen operators, scattered gear, alarms echoing.
Devin stepped back beside her, breathing steady.
"You good?" he asked.
She nodded, adrenaline high. "Yeah… wow. That felt… really good."
He gave a small nod.
Above them, another set of blast doors began sealing.
They didn't wait.
Together, they pushed upward again... leaving the first response team behind as the facility escalated to the next containment tier.
The final stairwell door burst open.
Cold night air rushed in.
They stepped onto the ground level of the facility... a wide reinforced corridor leading to the outer blast gates. Beyond it, faint moonlight spilled through partially opened security shutters.
Freedom… just ahead.
Lira slowed slightly, eyes widening. "That's it… that's the exit."
Devin didn't answer.
He had already stopped moving.
The air shifted.
Heavy.
Wrong.
Footsteps echoed from the far end of the corridor — not rushed, not chaotic like the previous units.
Measured.
Precise.
Lira felt it immediately too. Her telekinesis flickered instinctively, tightening around her like a shield.
"…No," she muttered under her breath.
The shadows parted.
A small unit stepped forward in perfect synchronization.
No wasted motion. No shouting.
Just silent presence.
The insignia on their armor marked them instantly.
MTF Samsara
Lira exhaled sharply. "You've got to be kidding me…"
Devin's posture changed.
Subtle but clear.
Not relaxed anymore.
Focused.
The lead operative tilted their head slightly, observing both of them.
"Anomalies 6700-L and 6712," the modulated voice said calmly. "Containment breach has escalated to critical."
Behind them, the outer blast doors began closing again.
Sealing them in.
Lira glanced back, then forward again. "We're not making it out without going through them."
Devin stepped slightly ahead of her.
"Stay behind me."
She smirked faintly despite the tension. "I thought we were a team."
"You are," he said calmly. "But they're different."
The Samsara unit spread out slightly, forming a loose but controlled formation. Each member adjusted stance in perfect timing with the others.
One activated a compact device, the air shimmered faintly.
Lira felt it immediately.
"…They're already adapting to us," she whispered.
The leader spoke again.
"Last warning. Stand down and return to containment scp 6700-L and you too 6712.. That's an order.. ."
Devin's red eyes glowed faintly in the dim light.
"No.. We feel like leaving, you know.... A small vacation ."he grinned..
Silence.
Then
The Samsara unit moved.
One operative shifted left as another advanced right, creating overlapping pressure angles. A third deployed a containment emitter that hummed with unnatural precision.
Devin reacted instantly, stepping forward to intercept
But one of them was already behind him.
He twisted, barely blocking a strike that wasn't meant to injure.. but to disrupt his balance. Another operative slid in low, targeting his groin... .
Lira raised her hands, telekinesis flaring..
The field distorted.
Not blocked.
Redirected.
Her thrown debris curved mid-air, missing its targets.
"…They're countering me already... ," she said, shocked.
Devin pushed forward anyway, forcing space, but each movement met calculated resistance.
Not overpowering.
Controlling.
The exit was still there.
So close.
But now…
Guarded by something that wasn't just strong...
It was prepared.
And for the first time since breaking out…
They were being pushed back again.