The SCP Foundation...it is a facility that houses the unknown, the frightening, and is housing a lot of the most dangerous anomalies in all of existence. It is a place of the most mysterious and the most inhuman objects and entities in all of creation, and are housed in this one place. It is a place that is mostly used and qualified by the most cold-hearted and most ruthless people that do not see the SCPs as people, that do not see the SCPs as equals, with only some exception, and at times, the cold-hearted nature can be returned from the anomalies that they had rejected. But sometimes, even the most cold-hearted doctors and anomalies have even a small chance of being able to warm up to the anomalies, with the anomalies having that same condition in return. Such as in the case of a certain blonde, yet very cold doctor.

They are involved in a type of experiment of sorts, which involves a cross test between SCP-054 and SCP-457. The test is performed by the doctor and her assistant. This would be none other than Doctor Amelia Buck, the cold hearted level 3 researcher, and her childish and idiotic assistant, Gustav.

"Alright, and...I think the experiment is ready to begin. It'll start when you signal it."

Gustav said, as Dr.Buck nodded her head at Gustav.

"Good. Experiment-457/054 can begin, now."

Gustav pressed the button, and SCP-457 looks at the wall that going up, and reveals it to be none other than SCP-054, who had been getting doused by the fire extinguisher from above in order to make sure that she does not evaporate. And once the wall had been risen...the 2 elemental SCPs than looked at each other.

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

Once that happened, the 2 entities looked at each other, and Gustav then spoke out.

"This isn't gonna end well...is it?"

Dr.Buck than sighed and pinched her nose, before she looks at Gustav with a cold glare, before she than spoke out.

"That is because you are thinking based on idiotic assumptions. Just look and observe and record on what they are doing."

Gustav than spoke out.

"Oh...right."

Gustav took out a note and pen, and began to look at SCP-457 and SC-054, as both of the entities stared at each other. But they both had a look of curiosity on their faces. Normally, SCP-054 would hate being in the presence of a man, but SCP-457...despite being gin the shape of a man, looked different. Gustav wrote this down, and than noticed that both of the anomalies began to get close to each other. They walked slowly...and it took about 4 minutes for the both of them to come close to each other. They both looked at each other, observing each other, before they both began to extend their hands to each other, in hopes that they can touch one another. But...the sort of obvious thing had to happen immediately.

SCP-457 immediately felt his hand become extinguished, as he than jumped backwards, The Burning Man feeling pain from the Water Nymph. SCP-054 felt shocked and worried for the Water Nymph, and SCP-457 jumped backwards, as it than began to speak, which it has not done since the interview.

"Stay...away...from...me."

SCP-054, now feeling worried for SCP-457, than tries to move towards him, but than, another wall between them was going down, as it than blocked the both of them from interacting with one another.

At the observation deck, Dr. Buck had pressed onto a button, and has looked at both of the anomalies, as she is not going to risk 2 anomalies killing each other accidentally. She may not like them, but she does not want them both to be dead. She than spoke out.

"Gustav,  have you been able to write down the notes of the behavior of these 2 SCPs?"

Gustav nodded, as he showed the notes, and spoke out.

"Yeah, I did. As much as I can."

Dr. Buck than grabbed the notes from Gustav's hand, and looks down at it, before she than spoke out.

"Well...it will do for now. But for the time being, security, can female soldiers be sent in to get SCP-054 out of the testing area and back into its containment room?"

Dr.Buck said, as she pressed on a radio on her desk, and she watched as the Female Security went inside of the containment chamber, and began to be able to extract SCP-054 in a non-violent manner, and is much more in a really friendly and more convincing manner. The SCP-054 specimen obeyed, as she than goes along with the security guards, in order to bring her back to her containment chamber. Dr.Buck sighed, as she puts her hand on the notepad, and spoke out.

"Okay...we'll...call it there. The results which much more interesting, but it is still not enough compared to the results from yesterday."

Gustav nodded, as he then spoke out.

"More the day before that, and before that and..."

Dr.Buck sighed, as she than spoke out in a rather snarky tone

"Yes, yes, thank you for the reminder, Gustav, of those results that I do not need a reminder on. For now, let's just activate the fuel inside of the containment chamber, so that SCP-457 does not even think of trying to escape.

She than twists the dial, and the gasoline starts to fill the room in a safe manner, so that SCP-457 does not accidentally turn bigger and much more complex in the power that it does. But as she does that, the door to the observation room opens up, which had caused both Gustav and Dr. Buck to turn around to see who it is that has entered the observation chamber, only to see that it is Director Zolgaman Jones.

Director Jones has a rather serious expression on his face, and he is holding a few layers of paper of an SCP File. Dr. Buck, in respect for the Director, spoke out to him.

"Director Jones, do what I owe you this pleasure?"

Director Jones did not smile, however, as he spoke out to Dr. Buck.

"Actually, Dr. Buck, I need you. Gustav can take over the rest involving watching over SCP-457 and making sure it is not going to try and attempt escaping."

This made Dr. Buck a little surprised and annoyed at that, but she does not dare question the director of the site that she works in, as she than spoke out.

"Oh, of course, sir."

Gustav smiled and waved, though Dr. Buck didn't wave back, as she than goes along with the Director, both walk out of the room and shut the door, as Gustav watches over the Burning Man. Dr. Buck than looks at the director, as she than spoke out.

"So, director, what is this about this time?"

Director Jones than spoke out to Dr. Buck.

"As of tomorrow, you'll no longer work on SCP-457."

This made Dr. Buck a little worried, thinking that she had messed up again, just like with SCP-178, as she than spoke out.

"What? Look Director Jones... With all due respect, I know that our tests with SCP-457 have proven fruitless, but if its results-"

Director Jones, however, stopped her form continuing, as he than spoke out to Dr. Buck again.

"It's not that, Dr. Buck. You didn't do poor on the SCP. It's just that I have something else for you to work on. You are reassigned to something else. Dr. Logan, he can take over the test that involves SCP-457."

Dr. Buck than looks interested at Director Jones, as she than spoke out.

"So where am I getting reassigned to, Director Jones."

Director Jones than looks at Dr. Buck, and spoke out to her.

"It is an SCP that we had captured, and it is actually 4 instances of such anomalies."

He handed her the papers involving the SCP itself, SCP-7131, and Dr. Buck, and she looked at the paper, and saw that there is an object class of Keter, but there is another class that has been redacted. She spoke out.

"This is...new. I have never heard of an SCP such as this."

Director Jones than spoke out.

"That is because we had recently contained it a month ago, and it had given us a lot of trouble capturing all of the instances, and we had even more trouble trying to keep one of them in containment."

Dr. Buck looks at Director Jones, and spoke out.

"What do you mean by that? Are you saying that one of the instances had gotten out on many occasions?"

Director Jones sighed, as he puts a hand over its head.

"More like we seem unable to actually contain it. SCP-7131-1 had been able to escape the containment chamber, everything we upgrade it. It is as though the SCP thinks of the way that we had contained it as a mere joke, and that is it. And that is very annoying."

Dr. Buck nodded her head, as she spoke out.

"And I assume that I am going to interview it?"

Director Jones than looks at Dr. Buck and spoke out.

"Not today. Tomorrow, after you review this recording...so you can see how much trouble SCP-7131-1 had given us, and why he should be taken with caution."

Director Jones handed her a DvD to Dr. Buck, and she took it from her superiors hand, as she looked down at it and nodded her head.

She than goes to her apt, sits down on the chair, and looks at the DvD in front of her, before she than slips in the DvD, and she began to watch the footage of the containment attempt.

Elsewhere...

Deep inside of the facility, there is a hallway made for a group of 4 certain anomalies, and it is of a group of 4 skeletons. 3 of them are glitching, but all of them have a little worried expression on each of their faces. But there is, however, one exception. Inside of a certain containment chamber, it the one that is titled SCP-7131-1. And the appearance of the SCP is that of a black skeleton with blue rectangular markings on its cheekbones, with yellow eye sockets, and red eye lights, with a pupil that is shaped like a plus-sign, and is wearing a hoodie over its head, its mouth is closed with a frown on its face, and it's eye sockets narrowed a little bit. A cold expression is present on its face, with a stylus in hand.

This entity is none other than Broken!Gradient. A version of Gradient that resides in the Alphaverse.

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

Like the original Gradient, who is still existing, he was born in the Omega Timeline, and was raised by Ink, and even was once similar to him, even if he is a little less shy compared to Gradient, and unlike the original Gradient, he does not have a split personality, and can use both his creative and destructive powers at the same time, along with the red strings. But all of that changed when Hollow!Ink was made, when he had taken the soul of an entity with incomprehensible power.

And while it was good at first, with Hollow!Ink teaching Gradient the enhanced form of creativity that he now possess, which Gradient was able to master, it soon became tragic when Gradient was nearly consumed by Hollow!Ink, and fled for his life. This made him utterly chaotic and nightmarish to be with, and Broken!Gradient had lost most of his innocence at that time. And it only became worse, when Error404 had found him, and with no one else being able to protect him from what was once his father, Gradient joined Error404, as he is too scared to go anywhere in the Multiverse, with Gradient being taught by Error404 with everything that he knows. He was taught how to use blue strings, and trained with the use of the red strings. He even manage to use his creativity to make himself 3 new pairs of strings, such as with the Yellow Strings, where he can inject a pathogenic version of his own code into an individual, overriding their minds in order to possess them, pink strings to show the targets a sort of hallucinations of what they fear the most, and Grey Strings, which act as a sedative to the target, which makes them fall asleep, though it can only effect those to at have a soul, or something similar to a soul. He also was taught to manipulate pixels in a similar manner to what Error404 does, though he still uses his own style of pixel manipulation, using his Stylus for a pixel whip, which is similar to the glitch whip, trained his blue magic harshly and increased its range, creating his own Novice God Ray called the Defect Ray, making his Gradient Blasters stronger than ever before, making his bone attacks much more damaging, and even was taught by Error404 in using Mind Manipulation, though he can only use this to hurt others by giving them bad headaches, and can use it for telepathy, though he almost never uses this power. He even trained physically with Error404 inside of a dimension that Error404 is connected to, and it was very harsh, but in time, he began to become more and more stronger.

And there used to be downside where Error, his own other father, refuses to have anything to do with Gradient.

But Error404 threatened Error to train him, and he was forced to oblige, which made Gradient happy. Error trained Gradient to control people with the blue strings, cause pain with the red strings, and since he has a pair of black strings that are similar to the pink strings, also trained him on that as well, not to mention being able to open portals, in which Gradient used his stylus to open glitchy portals.

But Gradient...he was forced to do terrible things. He had to take over as both the protector and the destroyer, and had to become a servant to the Creators, which is not what he had in mind. But since they needed his help in saving as much of the universes as he can, he does what he needs to do, as he than used his Stylus and opened small glitchy portals, and take the stacks of paper that Ink has now made inside of the Doodle Sphere, and puts them in a dimension that he has made called the Digital Sphere.

It is similar in design to the Doodle Sphere, except that this place is on a constant stage of Destruction and Recreation. He brought the universes, such as Underswap, Underfell, Outertale, Epictale, Horrortale, Dusttale, Swapfell, Fellswap, Storyshift, Altertale, and even the original Undertale. He brought them to the Digital Sphere, and turned the papers into Digital Art versions of the paper it once used to be, just to fit inside of the Digital Sphere. But...that is the only good part. The rest of the position that he is in, is bad, because he has to destroy universes, in order to maintain the balance of the Multiverse, and this includes with killing and destroying people. Which breaks his heart. He does bring other people to the Omega Timeline, in order to preserve the last remains of the Alternate Universes, but he is forced to destroy them and Error404 will visit the AUs that he is destroying, in order to take their code in order to rebuild the AU that he had lost. And with every universes that he has destroyed, with every life that he had taken, Gradient felt himself being torn apart from the inside, and he has even cried in a number of occasions, at the regret of what he had done, and what he is forced to do, all in an effort to try and preserve the Balance of the Multiverse on his end, which he is disgusted at himself for what he had to do immensely.

But than...the biggest blow on his mind is when he is facing off against one of the creatures that made Ink the way that he is, and he accidentally absorbed the Multiverse's code, to make himself a transformation that allowed him, along with Error404 in a transformation, to destroy the creature. But in the process, because of the fact that Gradient stayed in that form for way too long, and the fact that his body is not that strong enough, he had died from what had just happened. But the creature, seeing Gradient as a perfect vessel to hitch a ride on, used its remaining power to graft itself into the soul of Gradient, removing 50 percent of the damaged soul, and filled that removed damaged area with a piece of its own soul, by an equal amount. This made eyes appear on the left arm of Gradient, and gave him the power to fly and devour AUs in order to make himself much more stronger than ever before, but forever did it change him, as he now became an entirely different person.

Now a shadow of his former self, he has become cold and ruthless, stern and determined, as well as very loyal in his mentor/superior's goals, and is now far more willing to kill and destroy universes, and while remorseful, he does not show it on his face, and instead, he acts very indifferent towards it.

He no longer smiled in 2 years, though thanks to Error404, he is now able to act manipulative by changing the tone of his voices and trying to make an attempt to smile with no success at all, except when around the people that he cares about, though he still seals away his old self. Gradient had recruited Spilled Ink, his younger brother, into the Digital Sphere, and instructed him on what he needed help on, and explains the situation to him. And when Spilled Ink saw his father, he was utterly horrified at what he'd become. Though Gradient tries all that he can to prevent his Half-Brother, BlueScreen from getting involved in this situation. He even altered his clothes a little bit, as he replaced his lost left sleeve with a white sleeve with eyes that look the same as his, but in a more human-like shape, as well as having stitched the bottom part of his torn jacket with the same white merited that reaches down to his ankles with red strings. The rest of the clothing is still the same as it always has been, except that it is damaged, with the scarf around his waist appearing to be a bit more longer that it looks like, used to be as short as when he was similar to his original counterpart. But it was this protective behavior is what allowed an entity named Omnipotent Sans to I trust him with the Book of Eyes, as well as the fact that, on his own words 'you had some inner goddess within yourself.'

He even managed to gained a Palette Roller for himself. During a fight between Hollow!Ink, and a version of Dream Sans called Dead!Dream, their battle was so immense and great that the pieces of their magic and residue of their attacks combined to make a version of Palette Roller, which Gradient has named Dead!Palette Roller. Gradient was able to find Dead!Palette and had to escape with him before things could get out of hand. When Dead!Palette was first born, he took on the form of a similar height to that of the Original Palette Roller, though he is slightly taller, and is at the age of a 20 year old. But he has a crown similar to Dead!Dream, and has a purple captain hat, with a purple hooded jacket similar to Dead!Dream's, but his pants are different, as they are in the appearance of 2 layers, though it is actually just a single pair of pants that looks like that, with a zipper on each pair, and had eyes that are of the same appearance to Dead!Dream, being that of a purple star with 4 points, and that sort of star is also present as a large Ink Blot on the right side of his cheek, and has a purple scarf that reaches down in between the distance of both the knees and the ankles. But since he has not been taught anything, and having both parents finding out Dead!Palette would be a disaster that is just waiting to happen, Gradient decides to do what his father had done when he was his original self, and raised Dead!Palette, teaching him how to be creative, using his powers, and even was able to describe the powers that he had inherited from Dead!Dream. Dead!Palette Roller was curious about his parents, and asked if he knew about them, and Gradient admits that he does, but is not sure if he can handle the truth, that is until he had became mature mentally. And he did, and Gradient told him everything that he knew, in which it made Dead!Palette unhappy with what he had heard, but he still loved his older half-brother, and decides to use his powers to help him as much as he can. Because of this, he is one of Gradient's most reliable brothers, but tries to make sure Dead!Palette does not fight against his father, as it is the last thing that he needs, and is something that he is willing to do against Ink, though it pains him immensely, as even after all Ink had done, he still loved his father for having taken care of him when he had no one else to turn to.

But than...a battle happened in the Omega Timeline, where Gradient, Dead!Palette Roller, Spilled Ink, Error, and Error404 had to defend and protect it against Ink and Dead!Dream, as well as Dead!Nightmare, and during the battle, Error and Dead!Nightmare clashed struck against each other with all of Error's Strings and Nightmare's goop, which resulted in a new span being created, which Gradient named, Dead!Radier, due to the original existing in another multiverse, and he sent that spawn to Error404's dimension, where it'll be safe, though he did not have time to see what the spawn had looked like, and during the fight, Infected came out of nowhere, and fought against Error404, with Error and Gradient fighting against Ink, and Dead!Palette Roller fighting against Dread!Dream, which is the last thing he needed, and during the scuffle, Infected turned into his Black Being form, and Error404 turned into his B.U.T.T.E.R.F.L.Y form.

The Black Being and B.U.T.T.E.R.F.L.Y attacked each other with all of their might, and the power was so immense that Broken!Gradient, Dead!Palette Roller, Spilled Ink, and BlueScreen we're transported to the universe that they are in, which is different than the one that they had seen before...and this is where that they had gotten contained.

Gradient looks down at his tablet, as he than wrote in entry log.

"Log-89: The Foundation is now trying to get information out of me. But I am not giving them what they want. I have suspicions in what they will do with the information, should I even give it to them. No, this stays with me and me alone."

He sighed, as he pressed his finger against his head...before a screen before him was suddenly formed.

"Gradient."

Gradient than looks to see that it is none other than, his superior, Error404.

He is looking at him with a smile on his face, but Gradient could still be intimidated by this, if he had not suppressed that fear inside of his mind. He sat up, and spoke out.

"Sir, how are things going on your end?"

Gradient said, as Error404 than spoke back.

"It's not bad, as Error had to take back his job at destroying universes, while the Universes in your Digital Sphere are fine. Not so good is the fact that Ink is still trying to locate the Alternate Universes that you had taken from him, and is struggling to find the Doodle Sphere, which is not working."

Gradient nodded, as he than sat up and spoke out.

"And with Infected?"

Error404 shrugged, as he than spoke out.

"I'm still trying to find him, which is not easy, considering how persistent and unpredictable he is. But it is going all right. How are you and your brothers inside of this so-called SCP facility?"

Gradient spoke out.

"They're still in containment, but no harm is done to them. They are just nervous."

Error404 nodded, as he than spoke out.

"Well, keep watch over them. And I'll make sure that Ink does not find the universe that you are inside of. This universe must not get involved with the situation that you are in

Gradient nodded, as Error404 dematerialized the screen, and Gradient laid down on the bed that he is on top of. But as he did, he closed his eyes, and spoke out.

"This is gonna be an interesting time for all 4 of us, brothers."