<Begin Log, 12:09:00 hours>
<Agent ████'s camera begins transmitting, revealing a night sky. ████ appears to be in a very large courtyard roughly the size of a football field. The ground is made of black metal, and buildings as described in Exploration I are visible encircling the courtyard.>
Agent ████: I'm here.
Dr. ████: Run equipment check.
<Agent ████ tests all equipment and verifies the integrity of their belongings. All devices are functioning normally, and no belongings have been misplaced.>
Agent ████: Good to go.
Dr. ████: See if you can find a way in.
<Agent ████ wordlessly begins searching, and eventually finds an airlock similar to the one in Exploration I. Seven minutes have elapsed.>
Dr. ████: Head inside. You've been cleared on what will happen, right?
Agent ████: I have.
<Agent ████ cycles the airlock, and briefly panics while the chamber floods, but regains composure as the transition completes. Agent ████ enters the chamber. Video feed shows a three-way corridor. Vision is limited due to the flooding of this area.>
Agent ████: Straight forwards okay with you?
Dr. ████: Go ahead.
<Agent ████ proceeds straight down the hallway. Eventually, they come to a bend and round it, revealing another airlock.>
Dr. ████: Head on through. Be ready for anything.
<Agent ████ cycles the airlock and begins breathing normal air again. The interior door swings open to reveal a large, high-ceilinged room shaped roughly like a T. Electric lights dotting the walls cast an orange-yellow light. Furnishings suggest some sort of lounge, with several couches and tables. At the end of the offshoot of the T-shape is a massive window facing into darkness, with two beanbag chairs and a table. A device closely resembling a tablet computer is visible on this table.>
Agent ████: I'm going to-
<Agent ████ turns. Camera feed reveals an unidentified subject facing away from them. The subject's appearance is similar to what D-73812 described - they are wearing a full-body black suit, with an egg-shaped helmet obscuring their face. An opaque visor made of blue-green, metallic material covers its front. Agent ████ draws their sidearm and aims it at the subject.>
Agent ████: Who are you?
<The subject does not appear to notice Agent ████'s presence. The subject briefly turns in the Agent's direction, but shows no reaction. After thirty seconds, Agent ████ holsters their sidearm.>
Agent ████: I don't think it can see me.
Dr. ████: There's something on the table by that window. Can you get there?
<Agent ████ proceeds to the designated area, warily watching the subject, who continues to show no reaction to their presence despite entering direct line of sight. The agent picks up the device, which superficially resembles a tablet computer. The screen is glowing a gentle blue, but displays no information.>
Dr. ████: I want to try something. Please put that in your backpack.
<Agent ████ deposits the tablet into their backpack. Site-side personnel are successfully able to retrieve it, confirming that the transfer of objects is not restricted to those initially held by the subject upon awakening.>
Dr. ████: Okay, we just got that. Head back into the hallway you came from.
Agent ████: Ten-four.
<Agent ████ turns around. The previous subject is standing directly behind them, approximately three inches away. Agent ████ shouts and draws their M9 sidearm, discharging three rounds, all three of which solidly impact the subject's helmet. None of the rounds make any visible damage, and ricochet off the helmet. Agent ████ rapidly backs up against the window.>
Agent ████: Hands up full name!
<The subject slightly tilts their head downwards, as if in prayer, before abruptly turning and returning to their previous location. They avoid visual contact with Agent ████, who keeps the M9 trained on them as they return to and exit through the airlock.>
Agent ████: …Jesus, they're not much for conversation, huh?
<The agent re-enters the corridor and turns left at the intersection. They pass through two more airlocks before entering a dry hallway with what appear to be elevator doors at the far end. A subject identical in appearance to the previous is waiting at these doors, and turns as it hears Agent ████'s approach. Agent ████ draws their firearm and aims it at the subject's chest.>
Agent ████: Don't move.
<The subject slowly puts its hands into the air and speaks in an unidentified language.>
Agent ████: Do you know English? Habla usted Inglés? Parlez-vous anglais? Parli ingli-
Subject: Yes.
Agent ████: Who are you?
Subject: None of us want to hurt you.
Agent ████: How can I trust you?
Subject: I am going to turn around so you see what I'm doing, and then turn off my helmet.
<The subject slowly turns, revealing their back, and presses down on part of their neck. There is a hydraulic hissing sound, and the blue visor of their helmet slides into the subject's suit. The subject then raises their hands again, and turns around, revealing a pale, aged Caucasian male with a visible scar across their chin.>
Subject: If you think I'm an enemy, then go ahead and shoot me.
<Agent ████ keeps aim of the M9 on the subject for a further ten seconds before lowering it.>
Subject: Thank you for trusting me.
<The doors on the far end of the hall silently open. Subject walks into them, and motions Agent ████ to follow. After a brief hesitation, they step into what seems to be an elevator. The entire wall to the right-hand side of the door is covered in unlabeled buttons; the subject presses one of these.>
Agent ████: Where are we?
Subject: Phoenix, like in Arizona.
Agent ████: Are you aware that me and other people like me have been entering this place in their sleep?
Subject: No, but I'm glad you are.
Agent ████: Are you gonna tell me what this is all about?
Subject: I will.
<Subject lapses into silence. The elevator moves for approximately four minutes before opening into a long hallway made of blue-glass walls.>
Subject: Come with me.
<The subject proceeds down the corridor. Agent ████ follows from several feet away.>
Subject: Could you tell me what year it is where you're from?
Agent ████: 201█.
Subject: That's reasonable.
<A brief pauses.>
Subject: Things went differently here than there.
Agent ████: What do you mean?
Subject: You know how it goes. I'm sure you have it there, too. Lots of damage done by people either too lazy or shortsighted to think it'll affect them in their lifetimes.
Agent ████: What?
Subject: Pollution. No way you don't know what that is. We died because of it.
Agent ████: Died?
Subject: In 1985, we found a hole in the atmosphere above the Arctic. In 1987, the nations of the world called a vote to ban the chemicals causing it. It didn't pass, and so we kept using them. By 20██, it was like a ragged blanket. Give it ██ more years, and that hole had covered the entire planet.
Agent ████: Wouldn't that boil the planet? How did you survive?
Subject: It was slower than that. It was like bleeding out, not getting shot dead. It was only when people started getting skin cancer from being outside for five minutes that they really started to panic, but by then we didn't have enough time to heal the planet.
Agent ████: But did you survive it?
Subject: We ran. Some countries who voted in 1987 knew this would happen, but they couldn't stop it. So, instead, they did the next best thing: they tried to make something to withstand it.
Agent ████: They built Phoenix?
Subject: Partially. They didn't have time to finish it. This place, it was meant as a sort of second chance, so everyone left could live on, and maybe rebuild. But in the end, they started too late. This place was supposed to be big enough for three billion people by the time it was supposed to be done, did you know that? By the time we had to use it, it had enough for maybe a million.
Agent ████: How many people are left alive here now?
Subject: [DATA EXPUNGED]
Agent ████: Jesus Christ.
Subject: Do you understand?
<The subject pauses, and points out of the window. Sprawling city is visible for around half a kilometer before it abruptly terminates in a large, black metal wall, spanning into the sky.>
Subject: This is humanity. All our millions of years evolving, and it ends like this.
<The subject and Agent ████ stare out of the window for several minutes. Dr. ████ attempts twice to contact Agent ████, who does not respond.>
Subject: Please, come this way.
<Subject continues down the hallway.>
Agent ████: Why is this entire place flooded? And how are you still alive after so many years?
Subject: The heat wasn't always tolerable. Standing outside was a death sentence, even here. The metal here is resistant to heat, but not immune, and we realized it would bake us alive. So, instead of air, we flooded it with a liquid we could breathe. It kept us cool long enough for the air to repair itself enough to keep people alive, but there's no real point in getting rid of it now. As for survival, like I said, technology never stopped. We cured aging. It's long-gone now, but those of us who are left won't die of age. We have an eternity of loneliness to look forward to, friend.
Agent ████: One of the people who were sent here woke up without a brain. Why?
Subject: That's what I'm about to show you.
<The subject and Agent ████ have arrived at a very large door.>
Subject: This room is the most treasured room on the planet to all of us left. Everything past this door is the only reason we keep living. I think you are a friend, but if you make any attempt to bring any harm to anything in this room, we will not hesitate to do everything in our power to protect it. All of us.
Dr. █████: Agent-
<Agent ████ silently removes the magazine from their M9 and places it into their belt.>
Subject: Thank you.
<Subject disengages several electronic locks on the door, which slides open. The video feed shows a dimly-lit room, cube-shaped and extending for at least a hundred feet in each direction. This area appears to serve as a biological archive. There are preserved flora and fauna samples inside of sealed glass containers; most of them are alien to Earth. At the far end of the room is a massive, metal black box.>
Subject: This is what we rescued. All we have to remember. Eggs, plants, animals, bones. We treasure it and protect it because it gives us purpose. If we didn't have this, our planet wouldn't be a husk - it would be a corpse. We would have all given up.
<The subject walks to the black box on the far side of the room. Agent ████'s camera captures thousands of samples of plants and animals, held in cases. Pictures and descriptions of these objects have been recorded, and may be requested from the Site Director.>
Subject: And in here is the most important thing we have, as a species, ever created.
<The subject speaks for five seconds in an unfamiliar language. A small panel on the box, and slides silently into the ground. Standing in a stone planter is SCP-XXXX.>
<Dr. ████ audibly gasps.>
Subject: These little flowers are our last hope for mankind. We had just enough time to make them, and by the time they were ready, we were able to throw thousands of them into space. This plant is what our entire species has culminated in. We made them, and we seeded them on every other version of Earth, every other reality, in every spot we could find. They are what keeps us real. It gives people dreams. Do you want to know why?
<The subject clasps his hands, and stands silently for several seconds.>
Subject: The dreams make us real. When people have an interesting dream, one they really remember, they share it. They tell people about it. Their friends, their family, their coworkers, they talk about this crazy dream they had! And we thought, if enough people had the exact same dreams, they might just start to believe them. We can't rebuild home like we are now. But if people came to help us, and brought new life with them, we could.
<The subject speaks again in an unfamiliar language for almost a full minute. When he finishes, the room trembles, and the front face of the metal box slides completely into the floor. Visible are hundreds of glass tanks filled with bluish liquid; suspended within them are brains, both human and animal. All of them have wires and electrodes hooked to them, but the final third of the tanks are empty. The subject proceeds to the tank just before these empty ones, and places a hand on it. A human brain is visible within>
Subject: We have no wheat, but we have the seeds to plant it. This brain is your friend's. Any time we find someone here, we read what they know. Through your friend and your planet, we know where we might get help from. It's barbaric, and the loss of life is tragic, but we've had enough loss. It's better to break a few eggs than let the rest of humanity die.
Dr. ████: Ask him if-
<The subject sharply inhales.>
Subject: When they built Phoenix, they named it after the myth. You know, the phoenix? The bird that is reborn after death…
<Silence. Agent ████'s body begins to stir.>
Subject: You don't have much time left here. You will be gone soon. You can come back, but it won't work unless you tell people. They have to know, do you understand? Tell everyone. Tell everyone about Phoenix. Please don't let our hope be in vain, friend.
<The subject's voice has become audibly distorted. Video feed cuts out as Agent ████ begins to wake up.>
Subject: Do not let us die. Do not forget us.
[DATA EXPUNGED]
[DATA EXPUNGED]