A/N: Felt inspired and wrote this out in about half an hour this morning. Congrats to Mexes15 on the Discord for cracking the password to it.
C-DEA Damocles' Final Words - Interrogation Excerpt
The following document is an excerpt from the final message sent from the C-DEA instance of SCPH 06-Damocles to his counterpart in timeline C-JC, sent by automated and clandestine means. The message has been archived by timeline C-JC's SCPH 06-Damocles for the purposes of remembrance, and will be declassified at a future point in time once such information is no longer sensitive.
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The room is dark. A man with long brown hair bound in a ponytail, grey eyes, and appearing of Italian descent with pale skin sits in a chair bolted to the floor, hands clasped in front of him, under the sole light in the room, an ankle cuffed to a chair leg. He was clad in a black coat, pants, and a shirt, with equally colored shoes, and wore a melancholic grin, that of a man about to die who knew he still won the long game. The door opens and a holographic projection of a man in a suit wearing gloves walks in. His head is replaced with an animated image of a black hole with a glowing red accretion disk.
"Council Member 06-Damocles, you know why you're here, correct?" The figure questioned the man in the chair.
"Cut your shit, Administrator, we both know I won't regret what I did," the man in the chair replied.
"Very well," the Administrator replied. "You stand accused of illegally using society resources to tamper with the connection between our own timeline, C-DEA, and timeline variant C-JC. We have evidence of this, but we will follow due legal process. How do you plea?"
"I know what I did, Administrator. You can cut the bullshit."
The hologram sighed. "Why? You know what the consequences for doing this on the eve of the last hurdle are. We could have used what you took."
Damocles was silent for a few seconds. "...I detected an Anomaly impacting that timeline variant, in my efforts to observe variants from our Central Timeline to see if there was anything that could give us a leg-up against [NULL]. I will not disclose to you the nature of what I found, for fear that if we lose, [NULL] could obtain that knowledge and use it against their timeline. But I firmly believe that Anomaly could turn the tide in at least their timeline. I contacted my counterpart in that timeline and informed him that the Anomaly exists, and that I took efforts to inoculate C-JC from C-DEA in such a manner that a cascading Temporal Collapse from our timeline would sever theirs from ours rather than drag it down with us. I've means in place such that this very conversation gets sent to him as well, and due to my efforts, that will be the final message ever sent from us to them. You won't be able to tamper with them or undo what I've done."
"We have means to extract the memories from your mind, former councilor."
Damocles grinned. "Not if I've wiped my memories on the quantum level prior to this. And the means by which that last message are to be sent have already been rigged to go up in a Splice Fissure once we're done here."
"Why?" The Administrator sounded genuinely disappointed despite the voice distortions to hide his identity.
"I took an oath when I joined the Society for the Conservation and Preservation of Humanity, Administrator. To Conserve and Preserve humanity. That oath did not include what timeline I had to do it in. I saw a better chance to succeed in one timeline than ours, and took steps to ensure that if we failed here, humanity would survive in one timeline rather than none."
The Administrator started at Damocles for a few long seconds. "What are you willing to tell us that you still remember, then?"
Damocles looked at the center of the holographic singularity and sighed "I told my counterpart in C-JC to watch for the Anomaly I found. That I believed it could save their timeline. That one single variable of its entry and presence could tip the scales in their favor. That I protected their timeline in case we fail here. Such that the collapse of our multiversal cluster due to [NULL] wouldn't take them with us. I told that version of myself to argue in the Anomaly's favor when and where possible, and that he'd know when he'd meet the Anomaly. And… I asked him for one more, personal favor, should the observers beyond the Wall not make a specific choice when given a number of decisions to make in the future."
"And that favor was?" the Administrator prompted.
"A simple interview for a soul that was lost before her time. Not even the Anomaly's arrival to C-JC altered her fate, even when the ripples of his impact saved a few others," Damocles said, wistfully. "I'd rather that her final message still get sent to the rest in that timeline too, if possible."
"You've told me why that timeline specifically," the Administrator said, "But why betray us to begin with?"
"I betrayed no-one. I fulfilled my oath," Damocles asserted. "And you already know why, but I'll play your game and entertain you one last time." He began to glare as he spoke, his anger getting more intense as he went along. "You damn well know that the second I joined the SCPH and gained access to all the files that I never trusted the Director. You know I voted against OPENDOOR at every opportunity. If she gets to go through with her plans, we're all going to die, and it took her having a full-blown mental break for the rest of you to see that and finally agree to burn the rest of her vetoes so we could remove her from her position." His voice finally started to raise. "Too damn little, too damn late. We can barely change anything at this point, and we're relying on two Pragmaticotic Anchors in a timeline whose remaining lifespan at the current rate of destabilization can be measured in days. Josephine has done nothing but foment dissent within her own ranks, to the point where Theodore had to isolate her from every other team for the planned assault on Earth because every one of them wouldn't trust her not to stab them in the back. We're one disaster from extinction and two from a Temporal Collapse that will take the rest of the local multiverse cluster with us because you all insisted on using OPENDOOR and following her lead, and you only got cold feet when she finally showed the cracks I've been pointing out since the beginning of my tenure here!"
Damocles sat back and took a breath, sighing. "But none of that matters anymore. The attack on Earth and the Solver is due to begin in less than twelve hours. You don't have the time nor the resources to spare trying to undo what I've done, and by the time you do, if you all survive that long, C-CJ will be out of your reach, and their Destinies will no longer be beholden to our Designs," he said, more calm. Both he and the Administrator ignored the crackling of red static that erupted all around the room, but they waited until it died down.
The former Council member spoke up again, before the Administrator could. "Maybe with the Director unseated in our own timeline, we may actually stop [NULL]. But it may also be too late. I took an oath to Preserve and Conserve Humanity. I saw a chance to save one timeline in case we fail today, and I took that chance. I am confident that there will be a humanity preserved because of my actions today. So I am prepared to die having fulfilled my oath, Administrator. Are you?"
The Administrator's projection appeared to stare at Damocles in silence for a long few seconds, and then glanced away, appearing to shake its head in some combination of disappointment and disgust. "Do you have any final words before we carry out your execution, 06?"
Damocles' gaze bore right into the heart of the false singularity atop the Administrator's shoulders. "Tell 04-M that I'm trusting the last hurdle to him, that I wish him the best of luck, and that I'm sorry for leaving him," he settled on, in a resigned, but confident tone. "And tell 02-X I've enjoyed our many debates." The Administrator hummed an acknowledgement, and his projection went to turn to leave the room, but before he could, SCPH-06 Damocles spoke up one last time. "And Administrator?"
The image of a human body with a black hole in the place of a head seemed to focus directly on Damocles. His final words were spoken with a burning spite, against not just [NULL], but fate itself, and especially against the projection of the man in front of him, determined to make his defiance felt one last time.
"I'll save a spot next to me in hell for you."
The recording ended a moment later.