Doctor Lyn Marness: Excuse me gentlemen.Doctor Marness puts his hands on the shoulder of one man from behind. I couldn't help but admire the workmanship that went into your uniforms. Tell me, is there a reenactment of a battle going on nearby?

Man 1, later named 'Absko':Man 1 noticeably jumps and looks startled. How is it that you are able to see? Does your heart, too, burn with justice, for the desire to make things right, to right the endless wrongs committed, and will be committed by the wicked?

Man 2, later named 'Thabiti': Absko, he must be. The Knights oft regale us of tales of how our founder, the just flame in whose heart to that of ours was as the sun is to a candle, first found the Citadel and laid claim to it, so that the righteous everywhere and everywhen may heed the clarion call and congregate.

Man 1 (Absko): Tell me friend. Does what we described ring true for you? Indeed, we go to fight in the good battle, but not for amusement; we put our lives on the line to correct a terrible wrong.

Doctor Lyn Marness: My life's work is that of protecting the helpless and the unaware.

Man 2 (Thabiti): Then you are worthy of seeing the Great Citadel. Tell me brother, are you able to come with us at this moment?

Doctor Lyn Marness: I have other duties to attend to at this moment. They are of paramount importance for completing my mission of protecting the innocent from a lurking threat that cannot be seen.

Man 1 (Absko): Then go, brother, and protect the helpless. Give us a time and a place brother, and Thabiti and I shall endeavor to meet with you.

Closing Statement: Dr. Marness made an appointment to meet the pair a week later. Upon returning to Site, Dr. Marness reported to the site director what had transpired. After deliberation, Dr. Marness was given approval to follow the men and find out more about The Silent Crusade (thereupon assigned GoI-4403), should he volunteer to do so. Dr. Marness agreed to the assignment, and entered SCP-4403 accompanied by Absko and Thabiti a week after. Upon his return, he had procured vital intelligence regarding SCP-4403 and the Silent Crusade.

Documents/Information Recovered from SCP-4403 (colloquially referred to as 'The Citadel' by members of The Silent Crusade):

Aren't you curious as to what happened during WWII had the Silent Crusade not intervened?

Whoever you are, I know that you might be surprised to find data that was supposedly expunged by the O5 Council stapled behind the actual containment papers. You see, the one downside of Protocol Iron Sheaf is the fact that if someone with clearance decides to make… modifications to the documents, those will stay there until someone with the same clearance decides to do a parity check and decides to undo those changes.

But first, don't you think it's strange how despite the fact that you are one of the trusted few allowed access to this document, pieces of information are still expunged by 'The order of the O5 Council'?

Let me make this clear. Because of Protocol Iron Sheaf, No other versions of this Containment Procedure exist. As powerful as the Overseer Council may be, they are still subject to this protocol - meaning that they can't just enter some level 5 credential in a terminal somewhere and gain access to the expunged information.

Funny considering one of the pieces of information is literally just what would have happened during WWII if the Silent Crusade had not intervened. We know it's not memetic or cognitohazardous, since if it was, they would have just said that it was, and would have circumvented it using one of the multitudes of methods available to the Foundation.

So why do they not want you to know?

I'll show you the redacted information, and hopefully the reason why this information was redacted becomes clear.

Prior to GoI-4403 Intervention: Competent German Leadership under █████ █████████ results in the Germans securing the Middle-Eastern oil fields right after taking over Continental Europe. This allowed them to supply both themselves and their Japanese allies. Furthermore, since theMolotov-Ribbentrop Pact was not violated, the Germans were able to focus their efforts on the Western Front.

German Scientists in conjunction with Unit 731 of Imperial Japan devise a blight that was covertly released into the Soviet Union, causing massive starvation which destabilized the country and forced the nation to agree to export oil to Axis Forces in exchange for desperately needed grain. Despite Aid from America, Axis forces do not declare war on America due to Germany greatly discouraging Japan from invading the U.S.-Held territory of the Philippines.

German Intelligence agencies covertly fund certain interest groups during the 1940 presidential election, leading to Franklin Delano Roosevelt losing against Charles Lindbergh, who ran on an Anti-War, 'America First' platform. A covert treaty is held between Nazi Germany and the U.S., guaranteeing America from not becoming an active belligerent given 1) American Overseas territories will be untouched by axis forces 2) Human rights violations will not be committed against British Civilians and POWs should Britain be defeated and 3) Axis forces will not engage in hostilities against the American Merchant Navy Crew.

Britain falls to Nazi Germany in 1952 after an intense bombing campaign carried out by warplanes utilizing newly developed jet engines, despite U.S. material aid. Joint invasion of Russia by Japanese and German forces take place during Spring of 1957. The Soviet Union falls in 7 months due to advances in vehicle technology that allows Axis forces to operate in cold temperatures and years of blight and social unrest plaguing the nation.

Imperial Japan, taking inspiration from Nazi Germany's master race theory and the Final Solution, takes part in similar policies based under the Yamato Race Theory to 'purge' Korea, Manchuria, and other Southeast Asian nations of the 'lesser races' to populate the land with Japanese Colonists. In 1955, Imperial Japan begins to ransack and massacre major cities in foreign territories with methodologies analogous to events inNanjing Massacre (1937). Nazi Germany lays claim to most of French and British held overseas territories by 1962.

Silent Crusade Historians confirm that no statistically significant Jewish Populations remained in Continental Europe, Middle East, Asia, and Africa by 1970. It is estimated nearly 17 million people of Jewish descent perished during the years 1939 ~ 1970. Furthermore, estimates state that anywhere between 350 and 423 million Chinese and 4 to 7 million Koreans perished at the hands of the imperial Japanese, with more than 40 million women from conquered territories experiencing rape and/or sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese by the end of the war.

As influential the Silent Crusade was in influencing historical events, the resources available to them paled in comparison to what the Foundation had to offer. After SCP-4403-1 was recovered, there was a great fracas among the upper echelon of the Foundation on what the best course of action was.
There was much talk of using SCP-4403 in conjunction with the other resources that the Foundation had at its disposal - both mundane and anomalous - to basically carry on what the Silent Crusade was doing, albeit under careful scrutiny of our organization. If a tiny organization could limit the damage done to the world in a major global conflict such as WWII by such an immense amount, imagine what the Foundation could do - or so the argument went.

Of course, the old guard, like O5-1, wanted to lock SCP-4403-1 up and forget about it just like the other hundreds of safe class objects we had.

What they didn't count on was that between the time that they had first came to power and now, how most people thought the way the Foundation ought to be run hadChanged. Dramatically. You see, to a substantial number of us, working for the Foundation was more than just taking anomalies and sticking them inside boxes, oh no. As cheesy and idealistic as this may sound, for some, to work for the Foundation was to make a positive difference in this world. To these new faces, SCP-4403 presented an unprecedented opportunity. For others, SCP-4403 presented a chance to atone for horrible deeds that they had committed in the name of thegreater good.

The resulting furor over the difference was nothing like the Foundation had ever seen before.

[DATA EXPUNGED BY THE ORDER OF THE O5 COUNCIL]

Subject: "On nature of Spatiotemporal Dimensions" by Dr. Advaitha Singh, head of Extradimensional Paratech Application Team at Site 199.

As of currently, there are two major arguments on why SCP-4403 ought to be rendered inert instead of being actively utilized by The Foundation. The first is the age-old platitude that the Foundation's mission is to only interfere in the realm of the anomalous. This argument is disingenuous because it blithely assumes that the realm of the anomalous and the realm of the mundane are discrete from one another, when in reality, they share the world that we live in. It is because that these two realms overlap, present dangers to normalcy caused by the anomalous are able to exist, and it is our duty to preserve that normalcy as members of the SCP Foundation.

But then the question inevitably arises: what is the fundamental difference between disruption to normalcy caused by, lets say, an omnicidal lizard and a genocidal regime? The answer is, there is none. Therefore, if we have a moral duty to prevent wanton loss of life and unnecessary destruction at the hands of the anomalous, then we cannot shirk at giving the same treatment to disasters caused by more worldly causes.

The other, more substantial argument is the prudent concern that meddling with the past can create unforeseen negative consequences. However, this unfair misconception is grounded in a mistaken belief that there is a fundamental difference between space and time. Let me make this clear. There is no intrinsic difference between the dimension of 'space' and the dimension of 'time'. It is the law of this particular universe that while movement in the 3 dimensions we have designated 'spatial' be a simple undertaking, movement along the 4th dimension that has been designated as 'temporal' be limited to that of a constant, unidirectional one. As far as the universe is concerned, causal events that propagate due to changes made in different spaces and different times are exactly identical.

For example, let us say I was to travel backwards along the axis of time and - lets say - shoot someone. To a being that can freely move along dimension axes we have designated 'spatial' and 'temporal', the causal structure generated from that change is indistinguishable to the causal structure generated by a change effected along an axis of 'space'. To us, the only difference between changes along 'time' and 'space' are how difficult to rectify the unforeseen consequences of such changes. SCP-4403 removes that difficulty for the former.

I'll be blunt. The Foundation has extensive knowledge on nature of causality, thanks to research done on severalanomalies we have at hand. Using our knowledge, we can prevent some of humanity's greatest tragedies it has inflicted on itself. Our methodology will be much more refined than the Silent Crusade - I daresay it will be akin to comparing a surgeon's scalpel to a sharpened rock club.

I implore the Overseer Council to take into consideration the latest developments and findings in this field and make a decision that isn't based on past prejudices and fears, but rather one based on rationality and what is best for humanity.

Motions suggested to the O5 Council at the meeting prior to SCP-4403-1's containment:

[DATA EXPUNGED BY THE ORDER OF THE O5 COUNCIL]

Motion: Establish official contact with The Silent Crusade (GoI-4403) for sharing of data, mutual collaboration, and prevention of unnecessary bloodshed.

Motioned By: Sargent Barry Choi, Mu-32 Member, 197 others.##

Result of O5 vote:5 Yea8 Nay

Motions suggested to the O5 Council at the meeting after SCP-4403-1's containment:

[DATA EXPUNGED BY THE ORDER OF THE O5 COUNCIL]

Motion: Utilize SCP-4403 in order to continue to prevent past humanitarian disasters in recent history.

Motioned By: RAISA Director Cade Whittaker, Research Head Dr. Advaitha Singh, 19 others.

Result of O5 vote:4 Yea9 Nay

[DATA EXPUNGED BY THE ORDER OF THE O5 COUNCIL]

Motion: Utilize SCP-4403 in conjunction with Foundation resources and knowledge in order to completely prevent the rise of Nazi Germany and the subsequent global conflict of World War II.

Motioned By: Ethics Committee Chair David Wiesenthal, 33 others.

Result of O5 vote:5 Yea8 Nay

[DATA EXPUNGED BY THE ORDER OF THE O5 COUNCIL]

Motion: Utilize SCP-4403 to prevent the containment breach event of SCP-████ on ██/██/1999, causing destruction to 80% of Site-177 and loss of ████ personnel. Upon further investigation, cuts to Site-117's budget had delayed construction of a tertiary failsafe for SCP-████'s containment. Investigation shows that had the failsafe been in place, the damages done on ██/██/1999 would have been greatly mitigated.

Motioned By: MTF Iota-10 Head Olga Dostov, Site 117 Director Chenyan Shang, 323 others.

Result of O5 vote:11 Yea2 Nay

OVERRIDDEN BY VETO FROM O5-1

"As tempting as it may be, I will not set such a dangerous precedent" -O5-1

[DATA EXPUNGED BY THE ORDER OF THE O5 COUNCIL]

Motion: Acquire an answer from that 'stubborn old fart O5-1' on what they have to gain from stubbornly clinging on to nonsensical tradition that flies in the face of good sense and recent scientific findings.

Motioned By: O5-9, O5-13, MTF Iota-10 Head Olga Dostov, Ethics Committee Chair David Wiesenthal, Site 117 Director Chenyan Shang, Research Head Dr. Advaitha Singh, 391 others.

Result of O5 vote:3 Yea10 Nay

Result: O5-9 and O5-13 censured. MTF Iota-10 Head Olga Dostov reassigned as member of Foundation Intelligence Council. Ethics Committee Chair David Wiesenthal and Director Chenyan Shang censured and given a pay cut. Dr. Advaitha Singh demoted to Level 3 [Researcher].

'Any further discussion of what to do with SCP-4403-1 is over. The current containment procedures will remain in place'. - Official Statement from the O5 Council.

While you may have chuckled at the idea of several prominent members of the Foundation calling O5-1 a 'stubborn old fart', to the aforementioned old guard, the fact that so many under their chain of command had such incompatible views on what to do with these anomalies was a wake up call. In response, they not only expunged what had happened during that meeting, but even the fact that there was something to be expunged. To the untrained eye, there is nothing unusual here. The Foundation is exactly the same as it was 25, 50 years ago.

Herein lies the problem. Most Foundation Personnel were recruited for being brilliant thinkers and innovators in their field. Forming a gathering of such thinkers, and then telling them to not think and obey blindly, in hindsight, was foolish.

And the funny thing is, prior to the debacle that was the last motion of the meeting, those that did voice dissent still followed protocol and followed their orders to the letter. Doling out punishments for violating orders and protocol is one thing. Actually doling out harsh punishments for daring to question authority was something that was never done before in the history of the Foundation. Ironically, O5-1 did set a dangerous precedent.

I'll be blunt, SCP-4403-1 is no longer in the Foundation's possession. Take a couple hundred people who had spent decades working for our organization. All this time, they've been told that despite knowingly sending people to die at hands of horrors untold, despite seeing their friends and comrades be devoured by the same horrors, and in some cases, committing what would normally be a crime against humanity, their actions were just because the Foundation was just.

We were content to send others to die in the dark, and die in the dark ourselves - because the world would live on in the light because of it.

There weren't any 'active espionage attempts' or 'threats of invasion' from The Silent Crusade. Why would they need to use force and deception when the very people that are supposed to stand in opposition to them believed in what their mission?

It just took one disillusioned person to defect to The Silent Crusade with SCP-4403-1.

What happened with SCP-4403 was a huge wake up call for these people. They now had doubts. They weren't working for an organization that sought to do the most good, but instead for an organization who cared about maintaining control. The fact that the Foundation spent millions in funding and dwindling human resources to keep up the farce of containing an anomalous item that no longer existed in their possession was the final nail in the coffin for those that knew the truth.

If you don't believe me, when the word inevitably comes out, The Foundation will blame their loss on 'Protocol Sleeping Nephilim' and the need to 'prevent panic and demoralization' or some other platitude along those lines.

What is Protocol Sleeping Nephilim anyways?

In short, The Silent Crusade sent its soldiers far ahead in time to acquire armaments so technologically advanced, any armed conflict between them any non-anomalous contemporary fighting force would result in a rout for the latter.

These 'super soldiers' were put in stasis at a secure location, and every month, a member of the Silent Crusade would open a gateway to that safe location in order to prolong the stasis for another month.

Should the Silent Crusade be unable to follow through because SCP-4403-1 was taken by force from an external enemy, the soldiers would awaken and, using quantum resonance tracking, relentlessly try to retrieve SCP-4403-1.

You'd be surprised to learn that Protocol Sleeping Nephilim was never needed for the Silent Crusade to recover SCP-4403-1. Why win us over with bolts of plasma and motion projectors when they've already won over many of our hearts and minds?

I tacked these pages onto the back of this document sheaf on 08/21/1983. On average, I wager a unique person with the clearance to view this document visits this particular location once every 50 days or so. The fact that this is still around for you to read should be proof enough of the wavering loyalty of many among our ranks to the Foundation.

But know this, while I may have betrayed the Foundation by writing this, I still serve the idea the Foundation stood for, and hopefully will stand for in the future.

So. With this knowledge, what will you do?

Will you rip these unsanctioned addenda off the back of the containment file and report a major security breach as protocol demands?

Will you decide that whoever comes after you has the right to know what happened to SCP-4403-1 and just leave this here?

Will you leave the Foundation and look for other ways to serve humanity?

It honestly does not matter to me which you choose. I chose what I thought would be the best for the world moving forward, and I made that choice by weighing the facts and coming to my own conclusions, instead of blindly following orders from a bureaucrat who, to me, was clearly out of touch.

Many of my colleagues chose to stay, believing that as years pass and people die, there will come a time when those with their hearts in the right place will rise to positions of authority in the organization. Just as many chose to defect.

Regardless, we shall die in the darkness so that the world can live in light. The battlefields in which we fight and die may differ, but our goals remain the same.

I see one now. A dilapidated tram car, just like the one I used to ride in Mumbai with my mother before she passed away from tuberculosis. Right in the middle of the park 300 meters away from our building.

Funny though, I don't remember taking any Mnestics.

- Former Level 3 Researcher Advaitha Singh