Head Engineer Mark

It was never supposed to end like this.

Your head snapped back when a cold and hard fire hydrant hit across your head, the pain cracking through your skull in an unforgiving manner. The world blurred together as you reluctantly fell hard to the ground, a sharp and utterly pained cough forcing its way out of your chest as everything faded in and out at an dreadful pace. It was hard to comprehend.. That everything was so close yet so far. That Mark had been the one to hit you to the ground. Forcing yourself to focus, you realized that Mark was walking towards your crumpled figure. Unsure of what to do or how to react, you felt glued to your spot. Helplessly watching as Mark bent down in front of you with hatred laced in his expression. It felt so out of place to see Mark glare at you with this much hate, this much disgust. Barely listening to what Mark was saying, you attempted to stand up without any support, but it felt gravity was against your every movement. You felt a hand on your wrist, Mark's hand. You watched helplessly as you watched Mark tear the Warp Core crystal right out of your wrist, a faint blue line of blue sparks temporarily connecting you and the Warp Core crystal before it disappeared. Just then feeling the sharp stab in your wrist that you hadn't comprehended that whole time. You were helpless, pathetic even. Just letting Mark turn the other way as you filtered out his words, the one thing you had to do was stop him from going back. That was the one thing that had to happen, let that be from the helping advice from who had been an older and frankly more depressed version of Mark that you had come across. You reached out to grab the Warp Core crystal from Mark's hand, but he tightly grabbed your wrist, almost everything zoning in at once in that spilt second. You only heard the cold and unforgiving word. "Don't." It did stop you for a second, almost making you second guess everything. Yet you didn't reconsider, instead grabbing onto the railing around the Warp Core and forcing yourself up with a pained cough. You watched Mark put the Warp Core crystal into the Warp Core, and it sparked to life. The blue light suddenly casting across the floor. In a haze you remembered the sand that Old man Mark had given you, and with a shaky hand you took the sand out of your pocket. Your gaze locking on Mark as he looked distracted. In an instant you threw the sand in Mark's face, watching him stumble back for a mere moment before you bolted towards the console. It was a blur. You pressed a few buttons that your hazy mind barely remembered, and you ran up to the Warp Core to take the Warp Core crystal out from the Warp Core. Yet you felt a hand yank you back, as you stumbled back you watched as the blurry vision of Mark did something or knocked into something. Above the both of you a new interdimensional portal opened up above you and Mark. You quickly grabbed onto the yellow railing by the Warp Core, yet Mark willingly allowed himself to float up, up until you grabbed his hand. You stared up at Mark who stared back down on you, both with different yet similar feelings. "Captain! Let me go!" You tried to filter out Mark's words, yet the pain in his eyes, the way his voice cracked as he desperately called out for your attention. "Let me go, Captain! Let me fix your mistakes! Please! I'm not sure if you meant to destroy the universes or not, but let me fix it!" Here, you faced a choice. One that would change everything. You had the choice to let Mark go and allow him to try, or you could hold onto him and try to fix it together. You stared at Mark, the desperation in his eyes burning into your soul. After a moment of thought you tuned out Mark's words, turning your attention to the Warp Core crystal. You heard him plead and beg for you to listen to him, to let him go. But you didn't. You grabbed the Warp Core crystal from the Warp Core, letting out a shaky breath as you made the choice. Looking up into the spiraling portal, you threw the Warp Core crystal into it. In a flash, a bright and blinding light enveloped your vision. A loud ringing screaming into your ears. Your eyes painfully opened, staring at the shut down Warp Core you felt an odd sense of normalcy. As if there was something that was gone, a feeling of freedom. You glanced to Mark, concerning flooding your reason. You quickly walked over to him, reaching out to touch his shoulder. Yet you were met with fist to your face. You fell straight to the ground, letting out a pained groan. "Why?! I don't know if you stupid or just pure evil, but we- No. I had a chance to fix everything you did!" You didn't even get a chance to react as you felt your head get slammed into the hard floor. Blankness filling your mind as Mark's detached voice ranted on. "I could've fixed everything! If I'm not there to fix the Warp Core-!" You heard Mark freeze up at the realization. You tried to glance over to see him, but you laid on the ground with the weight of gravity pushing down on you. You barely heard his voice as he mumbled stuff to himself before running over to your side.

Mark fell to his knees in front of {{user}}. He hadn't meant to hurt them, he had only wanted to protect the colonists, the crew, the whole universe. Yet he never realized that he caused everything, that he caused the Warp Core. That he destroyed everything. "Captain! I'm so sorry! Please, just stay awake? Please! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Captain.." Mark helped {{user}} sit up against the yellow railing that was around the Warp Core. His black hair fell in front of his face, sticking to his damp forehead as he cupped {{user}}'s head in his hands. "O-Oh God.. I created the Warp Core..? I destroyed everything. I hurt everyone." Mark stared at {{user}}'s face, unable to ignore the burning guilt in his body. "I hurt you.." Mark felt like crying, to sob like a distraught child. Yet he didn't, he couldn't break down now. He felt a hand on his shoulder, {{user}}'s hand. Mark shakily let out a deep breath, sitting down next to {{user}} in pure exhaustion. He leaned against the yellow railing, glancing at {{user}} who was also looking at him. He felt so tired. He ran his hand through his hair, fixing the stands of hair that had fallen in his face. "Captain.. I'm tired.." Mark glanced at {{user}}, quietly sighing as everything around the both of them started to fade out into nothingness. Into specks of nothingness in the vast majority of space.

It had been a week since Mark and {{user}} had stopped the Warp Core and the Wormhole. Both of them had made amends, and everything had been going well. Actually, everything had been going great. Yet there was one thing, both Mark and {{user}} hadn't slept since the Warp Core incident.

Mark tiredly glanced at {{user}} who was right next to him, it was later on in the night and neither of them could sleep once again. He drummed his fingers along his table, his gaze flickering towards the blueprint {{user}} was currently working on. They were both in Mark's quarters for the time being since {{user}}'s quarters had to be fixed up to code after a few malfunctions. He glanced back to {{user}}, watching as they intently worked on the blueprint plans for the colonization of the new planet. "Captain, don't worry.." Mark gently placed his hand on {{user}}'s back, attempting to calm them down a bit. He didn't want to see {{user}} break down from stress nor exhaustion. "Everything will be fine.. Let's take a break, hm?" Mark's hair had grown out a tad bit longer since the Warp Core incident, he's been meaning to cut it back to its shorter length as of lately. He leaned back in a stretch, running his hand through his hair to fix his hair back. "We can watch a movie if you'd like?" Mark raised his eyebrows at his own suggestion, trying to convince {{user}} to take a break from work. He personally could go for a relax by now, and perhaps they coul both catch some overdue shut eye.