I left the council chamber with the weight of our decisions still echoing behind my eyes. Plans for World War I, the real beginning of our long-term timeline manipulation, were already spiraling into motion—D-Class acquisition streams, political influence routes, early-stage economic infiltration, Chaos Insurgency shadow deployments. Everything was aligning.
But even with all of that… Site-9999 needed something far more important.Not more soldiers.Not more researchers.Not more anomalies.
It needed minds.Brilliant minds.
And those could not be bought. They had to be made.
The Birth of a New Project
The idea hit me as soon as I stepped into my private office. War was coming. World War I would tear families apart across Europe. Orphans would flood the streets. Children with no futures. No stability. No guidance.
Unless I created that future for them.
A school.No—an institute.A forge for genius.
Site-9999 already had the highest budget of any facility in the Foundation, ranging from several hundred billion to nearly a trillion depending on yearly projects. Even with my X-Gene division temporarily off my plate and in Orochimaru's disturbingly capable hands, I still needed to build something that would benefit the long-term plans of all five O5 founders.
So I opened the system interface and allocated $100 million without hesitation.
A drop in the ocean for us.A revolution for the world.
This project would shape the minds we'd rely on decades, even centuries later.
Project Genius.Project Second Chance.Project Guiding Light.Project Orphan Integration.
None of the names felt right.
I sighed, leaning back."Damn it… naming things is harder than rewriting DNA."
Designing the Blueprint
The project would operate under a simple structure:
1. We gather war orphans—European, Asian, African, anyone displaced by the chaos of WWI.
Not forcibly. But with the promise of shelter, food, stability, and an education far beyond anything available in 1914.
Children would come willingly.
They always do.
2. They would be tested—psychologically, cognitively, physically.
Not everyone was destined to be a genius.But everyone had something they excelled at.
Some would shine in mathematics.Some in engineering.Some in languages, espionage, social manipulation.A few might even show combat aptitude.
3. The exceptional ones would receive full sponsorship.
Brain-training programs.Advanced curricula far beyond anything available in this century.SCP-derived education tools—only the safe ones.Memory-enhancement technologies.Cognitive enhancers synthesized from harmless anomalies.
They would become the scientific prodigies of the future Foundation.
4. The average ones would be trained into useful specialists.
Logistics.Administration.Maintenance.Support research.Mid-level combat units.
Not geniuses—but valuable.
5. The failures…
Well.
The Foundation always needed D-Class personnel.And if they weren't useful even for that, we had memory wipes and civilian reintegration.
No loose ends.
The Inner Circle Reacts
Later that day, I met again with the original five—the true heart of the O5 Council, the reincarnated friends who carried multiversal knowledge and unmatched intelligence.
We were alone.No guards.No assistants.No observers.
Just the five reincarnates who built the SCP Foundation from the ground up.
Julius leaned back in his chair, smirking."A school? You're going soft."
"Hardly," I replied. "I'm building weapons. Human ones."
Cleopatra swirled her wine."Children make excellent investments," she said with a dangerous smile. "Easy to shape. Easy to teach. Easy to control."
Sun Tzu nodded in approval."An army grows fastest when its roots are planted early. This project aligns with long-term war preparation."
Darius raised a brow."Will they know who we are? What we are?"
"No," I said immediately. "We will brainwash every recruit. Loyalty conditioning. Psychological imprinting. Subliminal reinforcement. These children will be ours from the moment they enter."
Julius laughed."There's the cold-blooded bastard I know."
The Facility Begins Construction
Within 48 hours, foundation drones and engineering teams began assembling the physical layout.
A massive campus.Half university.Half military academy.Half psychological conditioning center.Half advanced research lab.
(Yes, that's four halves. We don't follow math when we can warp space.)
The buildings would include:
A genius-level scientific curriculum system designed by me.
A combat training hall modeled after elite Uchiha and Spartacus techniques.
Psychological development chambers originally designed for SCP child-anomaly integration.
Reality-warping detection rooms, just in case one of the kids manifested early powers.
Dormitories, comfortable and modern, built with minor anomalous architecture for safety.
Every hallway monitored.Every room recorded.Every child tracked.
Not for cruelty—But because we couldn't risk a single genius slipping through our fingers.
Not in a world where SCPs existed.
A Vision of the Future
I walked through the construction zone personally, imagining the decades ahead:
Children growing into brilliant researchers.Teenagers mastering combat and strategy.Young adults designing technologies modern science couldn't comprehend.
They would become the new backbone of the Foundation.
My successors.My protégés.My future competitors—and loyal assets.
But above all…
My creations.
A Name, Finally
As I stood in the half-constructed atrium, watching workers assemble walls that would one day house some of the smartest individuals alive, the right name finally struck me.
A project that creates the future.A project that reshapes destiny.A project that sculpts children into the architects of tomorrow.
I smiled.
"Project Ascendant."
Because that's exactly what they would become:
The generation that rises above humanity—Guided by us.
Forged by me.
And loyal to the Foundation until death.