Interviewed: SCP-3988
Interviewer: Dr. Kumail Khan, Senior Researcher
Intake interview conducted remotely via corrosion-resistant loudspeakers within SCP-3988's enclosure.
Date: 11/26/2006
Note: SCP-3988's multitude of respiratory disorders results in its speech being broken by labored breathing, coughing, and gasping. To retain a measure of accuracy, these interruptions have been annotated, or otherwise represented with ellipses.
Dr. Khan: Hello, SCP-3988.
SCP-3988: Hello. It appears… I have yet another name.
Dr. Khan: An official designator. Some protocols must be observed. You have a preferred moniker?
SCP-3988: *coughing* Yes. Several. Most recently… Klaus.
Dr. Khan: No surname?
SCP-3988-01: *mixed coughing and laughter* Klaus… Verbrannt. Bit of a joke.
Dr. Khan: I see. What would the reason be for multiple names, Klaus?
SCP-3988: Breach of… courtesy, my friend. You have… my name. Shall I have yours?
Dr. Khan: Dr. Kumail Khan.
SCP-3988: A pleasure, doctor. Pakistani, I am guessing? *coughing* I am still a German through and through… only keep the accent for nostalgia's sake if I am to be honest … Perhaps you could… prescribe me some lozenges… for this rather nasty cough, yes? *coughing laughter*
Dr. Khan: Not that kind of doctor, unfortunately. Although if your symptoms are giving you discomfort, I could see what I could do about having a specialist look you over.
SCP-3988: *coughing* Don't bother yourself. *wheezing laughter* Nothing to be done, I'm afraid. Ich bin hoffnungslos. I'm hopeless! *laughter, coughing*
Dr. Khan: I'm afraid I don't know enough about your condition to be able to agree or disagree, Klaus. But I admit my curiosity.
SCP-3988: Of course you do. I certainly am… a curiosity. This is not the first time… I've been held captive and prodded, friend. I am quite familiar… with the way this goes.
Dr. Khan: We can talk about that in a moment. First, if you'd be willing to indulge me, can you tell me how exactly you ended up this way?
SCP-3988: *coughing laughter* I am… a knight, Herr Doktor. Does that word… mean anything to you?
Dr. Khan: I am familiar with the concept. Are you speaking literally or figuratively?
SCP-3988: Literally, to a point. I suppose I am… officially an 'ex-knight', as I betrayed my order, but I took the liberty… of calling myself such regardless. It is hard… to truly take the armor off, if you catch my meaning.
Dr. Khan: You betrayed your order? I must say, that doesn't seem like a terribly chivalrous thing to do.
SCP-3988: *wheezing laughter* Not at all. Allow me… to explain. You are no doubt familiar… with the Protestant Reformation?
Dr. Khan: I am.
SCP-3988: That powder keg went off… in my hometown. Wittenberg. I was a young man… barely a knight myself. Then that verdammt Martin Luther had to come along… this reflects poorly on me, Herr Doktor, I admit it. I am not… proud of the thoughts I harbored back then. I do not wish… to speak ill. But as a knight of the Church, I had what I will call… 'a pretty good gig', ja? And he wrecked it all up. I was a young… and privileged fool. Grew up poor. Was only dubbed… because I got lucky, and learned to love my status. But then… things became very nasty. Schrecklich. The Protestants, as far as I could see… they only wanted freedom, and their words… well. Where once I saw honor, I began to see tyranny.
Dr. Khan Herr Verbrannt, are you telling me that you are over five hundred years old?
SCP-3988: 507, by my reckoning. Surely impossible, ja? Though I truly don't feel a day over 80.*coughing laughter*
Dr. Khan: We are trained to treat the words of all our inductees with a degree of skepticism, but I will say that I've seen stranger things in my time. So you took part in the fighting, and ended up siding with the rebels instead?
SCP-3988: Genau richtig. Precisely. They taught me to fight… always for gerechtigkeit. For justice. And so when the Church… no longer stood with it, I followed it where it went. I was excommunicated of course, but… worse things have happened.
Dr. Khan: So. How does this end up with you as you are now?
SCP-3988: Well. I fought for a while… the revolts stopped. Began to wander… a 'black knight-errant', if you will, despite the unfortunate connotations. No master… excommunicated. But justice was still out there, and I… would find her. I drifted… my armor, my blade, my horse, and little else… you've read the stories, I'm sure. Righting wrongs. Beating up the bad guys, ja? Was all I could do with myself. I knew… no trade. Had no family… I never settled. Was never my destiny to put down roots… But I started to get old. A village I passed through… had some bandit problems. I volunteered… but bit off more than I could chew. They got me… but didn't kill me. Just broke my back. Couldn't move my legs. *coughing* … I was stopped, Herr Doktor. I was still. It was agony. Those poor people were so nice… so kind to me, as I rotted. I just couldn't bear it…
(SCP-3988 pauses, and puts its head in its hands for a short time before wiping away a noticeably increased flow of SCP-3988-1 issuing from its tear ducts. It then stands, after steadying itself on a nearby wall.)
SCP-3988: I apologize, Herr Doktor. I have not thought of those days… in quite some time. Painful memories… pathetic, perhaps, no sense crying over the events of centuries past… yet I can still remember how it felt, to be so helpless… and unable to help anyone at all.
Dr. Khan: I quite understand, Klaus. If you would like to continue this at a later date, I would be more than willing to oblige…
SCP-3988: Nein. I am just being a big baby… Where was I… Ah. Yes. Well, I killed myself. Possibly the worst decision of my life… but in a way, perhaps the best. Pushed my sword into my chest… could still use my arms, at least, and I did. There was quiet, for a time… But then there was a voice, and a light in the dark. At first I thought… I had been wrong. That there was a God… but the light was not white and pure, as the paintings and sermons… had led me to imagine God as being. The light was hot… and smoky. Dim. Like a torch in a cavern. *coughing* Its voice… it shook my bones. Each word was an earthquake… every syllable an explosion. I will summarize… It said… that it admired me. That there was… something about me… worth keeping. Asked if I would take advantage… of a second chance. To be strong again… to be moving again. I said yes… *coughing* That I would do anything. It said it would have to make… a monster of me. That it was unlikely… that I would know love… or indeed a normal life, ever again. I said… that as long as I could continue… chasing justice… that as long as I would never be stopped again… I would sacrifice anything.
And I became unstoppable, Herr Doktor.
Dr. Khan: Please explain, Klaus.
SCP-3988: I woke up in a field… leaking poison… barely able to breathe… but before me was a suit… of armor. Enormous. Majestic. Mechanical… a work of art, a miracle of engineering… and I crawled like a worm toward it. My body… hated the act… there was so much pain. But… I had to know. I had to see… and the armor opened to me. I entered it… it bit into me. And my blood became its fire.
So I embraced it in turn. I could… not die. I never tried… and it never came. I fought. Fought and built. You know the legend of Siegfried, the… dragonslayer? The legend existed… before my time, but my exploits… against the Church after I was reborn… long story short, a cheeky swordsman got behind me… nicked one of my hoses… had to retreat, and suddenly he is hailed… as "dragonslayer"! *coughing laughter* Got a good laugh out of that one… The golem of Prague? Also me… handling the men who only wished to vindicate their hatred of those poor Jews… *coughing laughter* And don't get me started… on that arschloch Hitler… I never got around to teaching that one a lesson, my… attentions were regrettably elsewhere at the time…
Ach, Herr Doktor… once, I was destruction itself. I towered above… the frail form of human malice. I pushed back the… tide, with fire and steel. I was… the liberating inferno… and the hammer of salvation. Herr Feuerherz, they called me… And then you found me… while I was trying to find a patch for a leaking fuel line! Very tricky! I had heard… you Foundation devils were clever… must have had me… under observation for quite a while… to know I needed periodic maintenance.
Dr. Khan: We do what we feel we must, Herr Verbrannt. As I am sure you understand.
SCP-3988: We all have our duty, Herr Doktor… I am not… saddened, by my captivity. I have been given… a chance, to make something of myself… and I have. Perhaps this will give me time… to do some thinking. I am content. It has been… centuries, of fighting… perhaps I have justified my mysterious patron's… decision to remake me… and retirement may give me… time to reflect upon that. I am very tired… as it happens… and I find this cell… is more comfortable than I expected it would be. Incidentally… Wilhelm is… my given name. Wilhelm… Feuerherz.
Dr. Khan: The best way for you to help us would be for you to keep up your cooperative attitude, Herr Feuerherz, and to continue sharing whatever information you have. I shall leave you be, for now, but I will return soon, and perhaps we can have another productive conversation.
SCP-3988: *laughter* Auf Wiedersehen Herr Doktor, and bring… beer next time!