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saria-the-phoenix · 2 months ago

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Not So Invincible: ISWM Fanfic

Chapter 1 and 2

This is the first time I'm posting my writing, so please comment and like! Feel free to send me questions! ❤️

Chapter 1: Solid Ground

The multiverse is littered with the corpses of your failures.

She had been right about that. As much as she tried to forget the awful string of events that happened just to get them on this planet, every time she closed her eyes, the fear of finding herself in that damn cyro pod kept her from properly falling asleep.

In fact at this point she had been working until she could no longer physically keep her eyes open. While it helped her fall asleep, it didn't help with the nightmares. Even now her thoughts seemed to be pulled towards the memories of something that no one else on this planet even knew happened.

Well, everyone but Mark.

They had decided to keep the truth of what happened from the crew as there was no real reason to potentially stir up memories that they themselves may have. It wouldn't be fair to them.

They deserved to live in blissful ignorance of that nightmare.

"Cap? You hear a word I said?" A male voice pulled her from her thoughts, just as a gloved hand waved in front of the visor of the helmet she had yet to take off.

"Hm? Oh, sorry Gunther, got lost in thought. What was it that you were saying?" She turned her attention fully towards the gun man, shaking her head some to clear it of the clutter of thoughts that seemed to have settled within her mind.

Gunther mearly smirked "Damn Cap, here you go on about making sure we all get our rest and here you are, sleeping on the job." He teased lightly, she mearly shot him a look, though she wasn't sure how well it came across with the helmet hiding most of her features.

"What I was saying, is that the ADS is all set and ready to go. Gave it a few upgrades just in case any alien lifeforms rear their ugly heads, so base should be safe."

As much as she liked Gunther, the man still made her rather nervous, what with his outlook on extra terrestrials. She herself was one after all, not that anyone on the ship knew, which was why she hid herself behind her helmet and jacket, keeping any and all hints of her inhuman nature safely covered.

A small sigh escaped her and she mearly shook her head "Just make sure it doesn't shoot at every little thing that moves. Last thing we want to do is kill off a bunch of harmless animals."

She paused a moment, seeing the man pout at the extremely light scolding he had gotten "But good work. I suggest that we still keep guards posted however, just to be safe."

That seemed to be enough to keep him from getting into one of his foul moods in which he would grumble for the rest of the day "Sure thing Cap, I'll set it up."

She mearly nodded. "Right, well, I should probably go and see if anyone needs help around here. Can't have people thinking that I'm little to no help now that we're on solid ground. I'll see you around Gunther." She gave the man a small wave to which she got one in return before she headed off in search of something to do.

Each step away from the head of security had her tense muscles relaxing until she was finally a safe distance away to release the breath she hadn't realized she had been holding.

Okay, maybe it was a bit ridiculous to be nervous about her own crew, but after the shit she had gone through, could anyone really blame her?

She took a moment to look at her surroundings from where she had stopped, finding everyone hard at work.

Hell, even Danny and Brian weren't goofing off. Everyone was pulling their weight around here and they had been since they had landed, every crew mate more than excited to finally start settling in on the new planet.

They still had quite a ways to go before they could slowly start to wake the civilians. Last thing anyone wanted was fighting over lodgings. It had been her call to wait until there were at least some buildings avaliable.

Another thing she had decided on was limiting the amount of buildings that were built. Humans had a way of....overdoing things when it came to infrastructure. They built and built until there was nothing left. Until all the forests and jungles were destroyed. Until their very planet started to wither and die fron their own actions.

She had made a promise to herself to do what she could to limit such actions here on this new planet. The last hope for the humans as it was only a matter of tine before that one's that remained on Earth had died off.

The thought was a sad one, but the damage done to their planet had been too much to be reversed. She was just glad she was able to be a part of the mission to save some of them.

Again she had to shake her head to clear it, mentally scolding herself for getting lost in thought again, as she was apt to do.

She needed to focus, there would be time later to get lost in thought. After all, it wasn't as though she slept all that much anymore.

As she had told Gunther, she threw herself into any work that needed to be done. If a crew mate needed help, she was there to lend a had, even if a lot of the time it seemed like the person she was helping didn't even really need help at all, but mearly wanted to show off around her.

Humans were strange.

The day passed by rather quickly however, and before she even knew it, everyone was meeting up for dinner, sitting around and talking to one another, laughing joyfully. She joined in now and then, though she mainly stuck to listening as she scanned over her crew.

Everyone was there, unwinding and simply enjoying themselves, everyone but the Head Engineer. She noticed Mark sitting a little ways away on his own, picking at his meal, half listening to the conversations going on around him.

The sight was heartbreaking.

The few weeks she had known him before the Invincible ll set off, he always seemed to be one of the ones joking and laughing. Now he just seemed....

Tired

Could she really blame him? He had been through hell and back. They both had been.

She was about to excuse herself to go and speak with him, when he had gotten up, passing the rest of his food off to another crewmate before ghosting off to his apartment.

It had been a few days since she had been able to speak with him. If she were being completely honest with herself, she would say he was avoiding her for some reason. That was something she wouldn't allow. She was the captain for God's sake. He couldn't just avoid her.

Though she didn't want to come off as pushy. Insist that he speak with her. As far as she knew, he was just having a bad few days.

She decided then and there that she would approach him tomorrow. Just as a check in.

For now, she wouldn't bother him. Hopefully he would be in a better mood by then. Still, she hated the fact that he might be suffering.

After dinner, she bid the rest of the crew goodnight, wanting nothing more than to turn in early and at least try and get some form of rest, even if she knew it was highly unlikely that she would be able to. If anything, she would at least be able to take the suit off and relax a bit.

She trudged her way up to her apartment, finding herself more and more tired with each step, though she knew all that exhaustion would be gone the moment she tried to lay down and sleep.

With a small sigh, she placed her hand on the scanner to open her door, quickly slipping into her room before shutting it again, being sure that it locked before pulling her helmet from her head.

She was quickly coming to hate the uniform she wore, constantly having to use it to hide her less than human features. The only real time she was able to just...be her self was when she was in the comfort of her own lodgings. But again, she knew it was for the best.

She tossed aside her jacket and gloves as well, moving through the apartment, towards the bathroom.

A quick shower to wash the day away, the prepare for bed. Hopefully she would be able to get at least a few hours tonight, before she was woken up by those nightmares.

Once in the room, she turned the shower on, cranking it up to nearly scalding, looking at herself in the mirror as she waited for the water to heat.

She was paler than she remembered being, making the intricate lines that made up her markings, seem darker.... More noticable.

Her red hair was pulled up into a tight bun to keep it out of the way while wearing the helmet, though this only revealed her pointed ears. Hell, she couldn't even smile properly thanks to her unnaturally sharp canines.

These were all little quirks that no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't seem to hide them while she took this form.

Oh, how much easier things would be if she could.

She stared at herself a moment longer, taking in the dark circles under her deep green eyes. Even before the events of the wormhole, she hadn't been someone that slept all that well.

She had seen more than enough shit in her lifetime.

With a small huff, she pushed herself away from the sink and the fogging mirror, moving back to the shower to make sure the temperature was good enough before she finished undressing and stepped in.

Her quick shower became a rather long one, as she stood there, lost in the many different thoughts drifting through her head, her right hand coming up to rub at the scar left on her palm from the warp crystal.

The area still ached from time to time, though that was to be expected, after all, the power from that crystal had been strong enough to drag her through countless of realities. She was lucky the only side effect was it aching now and then, and the color of her markings on that arm having been changed to that same blue color.

Dragging herself from her drifting thoughts, she finished up her shower only when all the hot water was all but gone, quickly stepping out onto the mat and grabbing a towel to dry herself off before changing into a pair of sleep clothes and finishing up with getting ready for bed.

She eyed the piece of furniture as she stepped out of the bathroom, a part of her finding it rather amusing how something that should bring comfort only brought a lingering sense of dread.

She hated not knowing what memory she would be thrown into the moment she drifted off, but she knew....

She needed to sleep.

Chapter 2: Not so Sweet Dreams

Confusion, panic, fear. A sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach tugged at her as she awoke back in the cyro-pod she had just stepped into what felt like seconds ago.

"Good morning Captain, we are currently ERROR years into our journey;" The computer chirped happily, quickly snapping her out of the haze she had been in.

"Computer, clarify...." she ordered, though her request was ignored as it continued to speak.

"Coffee is on route, current ship status is.... Absolutely Catastrophic." The normal calm, blue glow of the computer became red as sirens started to blare. Panic set in once again as she tried to look for a way out of the pod "I-I-Initalizing Wakey-Wakey Protocol." The computer began to glitch.

She knew asking for clarification would do nothing for her, so she braced herself as the door to the pod opened and she was more or less shot out of it.

She managed to catch herself before slamming face first into the ground, but just barely. She didn't even have time to notice the pain shooting up from her wrist as she quickly scrambled to her feet over to the main controls. The whole system was glitching out as she desperately tried to set things right.

"Reviving Head Engineer." She heard the computer speak again, though just barely as a loud explosion racked the ship.

Thank God. Maybe Mark knew how to fix this. He built the ship after all, and all her override codes were doing absolutely nothing. She looked to her right as she heard his cyro-pod hiss open, though the force in which he was flung out was a bit too strong, having him crash into the main window.

She flinched, though he seemed relatively okay, other than a bloody nose.

He swayed a bit on his feet, looking just as confused as she was sure she did. "Captain, what the hell is-"

"They system is shot to hell, everything is glitching and as of right now, every code I've put in has come back with an error. I'm completely locked out." She answered quickly, just as another explosion racked the ship.

"On it, Captain!" Mark quickly started to move towards the controls when he paused, hearing the creaking of cracked glass starting to spread. She heard it to, noticing the damage to the main window just a second too late as she lunged for her Head Engineer "Mark!"

Just a half an inch too far. She couldn't grab ahold of him. She had been too slow and now watched as her friend was ripped away from her, into the unforgiving darkness of space.

"Hall breach detected, sealing bulkhead." She could hardly hear the computer now as a large metal shield blocked her view of her friend's corpse, floating away from the ship.

"No!" She ran towards the thick metal, pounding a fist on it, tears leaking from her eyes. She had gotten rather close to the Head Engineer. He had been the first to welcome her, the first to actually offer friendship rather than just loyalty as crewmates should have to their Captain, and now....

This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening. This had to be a dream. That's it. A nightmare of some kind.

She whipped her head around when she felt heat on her back, the control panel erupting in flames

"Fire on the bridge." Did that damn computer ever have any good news? In the event of this not just being some horrible nightmare she wasn't going to just let this place burn. There were lives at stake.

Quickly she rushed over towards the fire extinguisher, pausing just in reach of it when the computer spoke again.

"Error, life support systems failing"

She didn't know what to do. Surely putting the fire out first was the best choice. If it was left unchecked, it would spread. There had to be enough oxygen left for her to be able to get to life support after handling the flames, right?

She gripped the extinguisher and pointed it towards the fire, being sure that the flames were completely out before rushing off towards the door.

Something wasn't right. The walls were warping around her, it was getting increasingly hard to breathe. But why? There should be more than enough oxygen left. There had to be. She could hold her breath longer than a human anyway, so why was she struggling?

She pushed forward, stumbling towards the door to life support, reaching for it as little black dots began to dance in her vision "N-No...." She muttered, falling to her hands and knees in front of the door.

"No...."

No, things couldn't end like this. She couldn't fail again, she couldn't let all these people down.

She collapsed onto her side as she took in the last few breaths she could. The blaring of the alarm starting to sound so distant....distorted as though it were underwater. Darkness encroached on her vision even more before it was fully taken over by black then....

Nothing.

She was so sure that was the end, that she had failed another race of people and lost her own life in the process.

That was until swirls of blue surrounded her, followed by a sensation of being pulled by something. She could hear several overlapping voices, all familiar to her, though she was unable to make out what was being said.

Then everything went dark again.

"Don't give up...."

That was the single voice she heard before she once again awoke within the cyro-pod, gasping for air and frantically looking around her.

She was alive? So it had been a dream? Nothing had actually happened. She was safe, so was Mark and the others on the ship.

"Good morning Captain, we are currently ERROR years into our journey;"

Everything came to a screeching hault then, a sense of dread washing over her, making her stomach drop like a stone in water.

This couldn't be happening....could it?

She ignored the computer for the most part, trying to calm her breathing and focus on what the hell was going on. Maybe this was just a sense of

Déjà vu. That had to be it, right? As far as she knew, her people couldn't see into the future.

"I-I-Initalizing Wakey-Wakey Protocol."

Again she caught herself as she was ejected from the cyro-pod, though this time she was able to land without hurting her wrist.

So far, everything seemed to be the same. She attempted to type in the codes again, with the same results. She was completely locked out of the system.

"Reviving Head Engineer."

Panic. She couldn't watch Mark be ripped from her again. She wouldn't.

If her mind wasn't running a thousand miles a minute, she would have noticed that even Mark had managed to hit differently when he was thrown out. His nose wasn't bloody like last time, though he was rubbing at his shoulder

"Captain what-"

She didn't give him a chance to say anything, lunging at him and grabbing ahold of his hand tightly just as she heard the glass cracking. She gripped tightly onto the control panel with her free hand, anchoring the both of them as the window finally shattered.

The force that was pulling on him was almost enough to make her lose her grip, but she refused to let go. She wouldn't lose him. Wouldn't fail him.

"Hall breach detected, sealing bulkhead."

Mark hit the floor and she stumbled backwards as the metal shield was lowered.

"Thank you...? Captain, what the hell is going on?" Mark asked as he forced himself to his feet. She mearly shook her head at the question.

"Don't know. Go and check on life support, quickly!" She moved towards the fire extinguisher, grabbing and aiming it at the control panel.

"But-" He started.

"Go!"

Mark jumped into action just as the control panel erupted into flames.

"Fire on the bridge. Error, life support systems failing."

She unloaded the extinguisher onto the fire, dropping the canister only when the flames were finally out.

It was then a voice that had the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, spoke out.

"Captain...."

It sounded like Mark, but when she spun around to see what was wrong, the ship seemed to warp and change.

The alarms were gone, the flashing red lights.... In fact, all the lights were gone other than a dim glow coming from her cyro-pod. The ship itself seemed to be in complete disrepair, scribbles and drawings plastered to it's walls.

'Don't wake the captain'

'Sleepy head'

'My air'

She found herself slowly approaching the pod as the glow grew brighter. Something began to move within it, turning to face her as two glowing eyes looked back at her and a hand slammed against the wall.

Her head throbbed, it was hard to make sense of things. The ship warping around her again. She closed her eyes tightly, trying to will away the nausea.

When she opened them again, it was back to normal.

"Captain! There you are!"

Mark

She looked towards him, a part of her unsure if he was even there at this point.

"I got life support back on line and I still don't know what the hell is happening, but we seem to have this situation all under control." He grinned, giving her a thumbs up.

"Good, we'll need to get to work looking into how all this happened, and why I'm locked out of the system. We don't need something like this happening agai-"

The ship rocked with another explosion, making her stumble into Mark, who quickly caught her. Those damn red lights and alarms going off again.

"Impact detection."

"Computer, activate the Astroid Defense System!" She shouted, steadying herself on her feet.

"Analizing.... No."

She blinked, opening her mouth to ask it to clarify, though Mark beat her to it "What do you mean no?!"

Another blast shook them "Computer, what's wrong with the ADS?" The engineer asked

"ADS Offline"

"Why?!"

"Offline"

A rather irritated look crossed Mark's features "Computer, what is wrong with the-"

"Offline"

He glared up towards the speaker the computer spoke through.

"Forget it, come on, we still have the guns, we can do it manually." She grabbed Mark's arm, rushing off towards ADS.

"It doesn't make any sense. Astroids are hitting the ship but our guns aren't shooting them down."

She reached out towards the scanner once they reached ADS "Well, at least we still have guns, it can't be too hard to just point and shoot.... Get down!"

She quickly pulled Mark down to the ground as the drones started to shoot towards them. The rapid fire continued until the door slid shut again.

"That's new.... Somethings gone wrong with the computer." Mark spoke as he got back up to his feet, holding a hand out to pull her up with him.

"Oh, you think?" She shook her head, looking towards the door "We need to get in there, and quick. I'm not sure how many more hits we can take." She looked down at the tablet on her wrist, pulling up names of the crew. "Gunther should be able to handle it. It's his area after all."

She typed in a few things, waking Gunther from cyro, relieved that she was at least still able to do that.

"Should be here in a few-" She started

"Got a problem Cap?" She turned to see the head of security, giving a small nod towards him. "I hear you've got a bit of a problem on your hands. Well don't you worry, I've been through hundreds of battles, fought through hundreds of traps. A few rogue drones ain't gonna get the best of me." He spoke as he waltzed towards them.

"That's great, now I need you to get in there and fix-" The ship around them began to shift and warp again, and in a blink of an eye, Gunter was no longer there.

In his place was an old woman, who honestly didn't seen to surprised to be there, holding a plate of cookies. "Ms.Whitacre?" Last person she expected to show up was the woman that took her in and helped her get this position on the Invincible ll in the first place.

"Not my first choice, but we need you to go in there and-" Mark started as though Gunther hadn't just been there and was replaced with the woman.

"Hold on a second, we're not sending her in, she isn't even qualified! What-" Another hit to the ship.

"It's alright dearie, there is nothing a plate of cookies can't solve." The old woman spoke, tapping on the hand scanner to open the door.

"Wait, what? No, they're drones they can't-" She started, staring at the door as it slid closed.

"Hello darlings!" She heard Ms.Whitacre spoke cheerfully from the other side of the door.

The drones, of course started firing, followed by a 'thump' of the old woman's body hitting the door, that blood was now seeping out from under.

Both her and Mark stared at the blood for a long moment, she could feel Mark turn his gaze to her as she continued to stare, mouth agape as she tried to process what had happened. "No, this....this doesn't make sense. Gunther was here and...."

"Captain...."

She looked over towards Mark about to say something when the computer spoke up again.

"Warning. Large object on collision course with the ship."

"Fuck."

A large explosion rocked the ship, followed by an overwhelming sense of heat, burning her skin, then again....nothing.

#markiplier #Not So Invincible #iswm #iswm captain #head engineer mark #engineer mark #captaineer #in space with markiplier

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ironwoman359 · 2 years ago

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The Secret History of the Invincible II

Chapter 1: Seams Pull Apart

Summary: “How much do you remember?” he asked suddenly. “About…you know.”

“About the wormhole,” you said, because one of you had to say it, and it may as well be you.

It's been months since the Invincible safely landed on a new planet to build humanity's first colony among the stars, and the Captain has been working very hard to ensure that the colony has everything it needs. But now that everyone's getting settled, it's time to sit down with the colony's official historian and give a report to send back to earth about the Invincible's voyage...and the Captain must choose how much to reveal about what really happened

Ships: Platonic the Captain and everyone, with an emphasis on the Captain & Mark.

Content Warnings: Just a lot of discussion of everything that went on in ISWM itself, and hurt/comfort as the characters try to process that and work through it. And guilt. SOOOOO much guilt. Fun!

Word Count: 2,857

A/N: I've had this idea in my head for a long time, of how the Captain and Mark would move on with their lives after everything they went through in the wormhole, and I'm excited to finally start posting it. Enjoy!

*If you like to read on AO3, check the notes for a link!

--- --- ---

With a sucking whoosh and a swirl of blue energy, you suddenly found yourself back in your cryopod. You looked around, heart sinking as the pod’s interface whirred to life in a painstakingly familiar sequence.

*Software update complete*

“Good morning, Captain! We are currently *error* years into our journey. Coffee is en route. Current ship status is absolutely catastrophic. In-in-initializing emergency wakey-wakey protocol.”

The cryopod spat you out and you crumpled your hands and knees on the deck of the bridge. The alarm lights flashed an incessant red and the ship’s emergency klaxons blared in your ears, but you couldn’t bring yourself to care. You couldn’t even bring yourself to stand up. It wasn’t over. It would never be over. You’d thought that maybe this time, you’d actually done it, but who were you kidding? This would go on forever.

“Reviving head engineer.”

“Captain?”

You looked up at Mark, who was stepping out of his pod with a frown on his face.

“Does this feel-”

The air warped around him and his form glitched between different versions of himself, settling briefly on one with a tattered uniform, skin marred by burns and his neck twisted at an unnatural angle.

“You let us die, Captain,” he said, his voice low and distorted, before he glitched back into his normal self.

“-familiar to you?”

“Mark-” you staggered to your feet, but before you could speak, he glitched again, and Celci stood in his place.

“It never ends, Captain,” she said, her face covered in frost and her goggles glowing blue. “No matter what you try, nothing can save us from this nightmare, and it’s your fault.”

“Celci-”

Her body warped and it was Burt now, digital rain running down his face.

“I'll tell you what I know,” he said. “Storm clouds are gathering... the wind is gonna blow... the race of man is suffering .”

“This is why we shouldn’t have trusted you,” Gunther’s voice said from behind, but when you turned, it was the alien from the Universal Stability Agency standing there, her clothes torn and blood pouring from her mangled eye socket.

“It all comes down to bad leadership ,” the alien said in Gunther’s voice, then they continued in their own. “All those worlds...all those people...gone. Because of you.”

“Seeing things, Captain?”

The voice was low in your ear and you whirled around, just in time for the bridge’s main control console to burst into flames.

“Fire on the bridge! *Error* Life support systems failing. *Error* Automatic fire suppression system offline. *Error* Failsafes offline.”

Instinctively, you turned towards the fire extinguisher, but found yourself stuck to the floor and unable to move, ice slowly creeping up your legs.

“*Error* Captain offline.”

A wall of fire and shrapnel barreled towards you as the console exploded, engulfing the bridge in flames. As the heat swarmed around you, you felt a deep despair settle in your heart, like a physical weight. It didn’t matter that the explosion would kill you. Nothing mattered anymore.

Not even death could save you from your fate.

--- --- ---

Your eyes flew open and you gasped, lurching upright to find yourself in your bedroom, safe and sound. Cool night air filled your lungs, a stark contrast to the blazing fumes from your dream.

Dream? Or memory?

You pushed the thought away and swung your legs over the side of the bed. You knew from an unfortunate amount of experience that there was no point in trying to get back to sleep after one of these dreams. You slid your feet into your slippers and made your way into the kitchen, overriding your coffee machine’s programmed start time to brew a pot right away.

“Coffee always helps,” you muttered to yourself as you grabbed a mug from your cupboard.

And it really did.

True, coffee couldn’t keep the nightmares (or the memories) from rising up and plaguing your mind, but the strong scent and bitter taste was grounding, as was the gentle *drip drip drip* of the machine in the quiet hours of the morning. The caffeine boost didn’t hurt either, and throwing yourself into the next day’s work was typically enough to silence any lingering thoughts floating inside your head.

Tonight, however, was anything but typical.

Normally, you’d instruct your computer to read out tomorrow’s schedule for you, but there was no need; you already knew what it would say.

*Senior Crew Meeting with Colony Historian – All Day*

You cupped your mug in your hands, letting the warmth seep into your palms as you leaned against the counter.

The historian had been nothing but cordial, assuring you that while they’d blocked out the full day for the interviews, it would most likely only take a few hours out of the morning, if that. You hadn’t argued the point, unsure of how to even explain why it might take longer to chronicle the Invincible’s journey than the historian expected. That was if you even decided to give the full, true account of what had happened.

If, indeed, it had even happened at all.

You shook yourself and rubbed your eyes. Suddenly, stuck within the confines of your apartment walls was the last place you wanted to be while you waited until it was socially acceptable to be out and about. Still holding your coffee in one hand, you grabbed a jacket from where you’d draped it over the back of a chair the day before and slipped out your front door.

Your apartment building was one of the first permanent residences that had been built after the initial groundwork of the colony was laid. It stood near the center of the settlement and housed most of the Invincible’s crew, including her entire senior staff. As Captain, you’d been given a large unit on the top floor, which conveniently meant that you were only one flight of stairs away from the roof.

The rooftop was little more than a barren expanse of concrete and loose gravel, though eventually there were plans to plant a garden, and you could see why. You’d only come here once or twice before, but the view of the colony below and the sweeping landscape of your new planet stretching out beyond it made it the perfect spot to create a cozy little gathering space. For now, though, it would be a decent enough place to wait out the rest of the night alone.

Or at least, alone in theory.

Illuminated by the dim glow of the streetlights below, a single figure sat on the edge of the rooftop, their legs dangling over the edge of the building.

“Mark?”

He turned, surprise written on his face.

“Captain? What are you doing up here?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” you said as you approached. “It’s nearly four in the morning.”

“Is it?” He asked, and you nodded. “Huh. Didn’t realize it’d gotten that late. Or, early, I guess.”

“How long have you been out here?”

“Oh...who’s to say? It’s easy to lose track of time with a view like this.” He gestured, but not down at the colony or the dense woods surrounding it. His eyes were fixed upward, and when you followed his gaze it was easy to see why.

Thousands upon thousands of stars dotted the night sky, with nary a cloud in sight to obstruct them from view. The largest of the planet’s three moons was also fully visible, and one of its smaller sisters was just beginning to poke over the horizon.

“Wow,” you whispered. “They’re so much brighter here than on Earth.”

“No major cities here yet,” Mark responded. “No light pollution to obstruct our view. And it’s gonna stay that way, if I have anything to say about it. What’s the point of a new planet if we treat it just like the old one?”

You hummed in agreement, before folding your legs beneath you and sitting beside him.

“Yeah...it would be a shame to waste this second chance,” you said quietly.

Mark glanced over at you for a moment, something unreadable flashing in his eyes before he looked away again.

“You never did say what you were doing here, Captain.”

“You didn’t either,” you countered, and he pressed his lips together in a firm line.

You were both quiet for a moment, one beat of silence that threatened to stretch on into infinity with barely an acknowledgement before Mark sighed, running a hand through his hair.

“Couldn’t sleep,” he said with a shrug. “That’s all.” He looked over at you again, and this time he let his gaze linger. “...could you?”

“Not really,” you admitted. “Too many…thoughts in my head, I suppose.”

“Yeah, I know the feeling,” he said with a nod. “Have you…” he hesitated, then seemed to steel himself. “Have you been having that problem often, since we…since our voyage?”

The unspoken question hung heavy in the air between you, and you swallowed down your nerves.

“Fairly often,” you said quietly. “You?”

“Yeah,” Mark said, sighing again. “Same here.”

You fidgeted beside him, unsure of how to proceed. It wasn’t like the two of you had been avoiding each other since you landed, you worked together nearly every day of course. But aside from Mark’s quiet “ thank you” when you’d first arrived here months ago, neither of you had even remotely acknowledged what had happened between you in the warp core. You weren’t even sure how much he remembered, and aside from that brief moment on the bridge, Mark had seemed completely fine, throwing himself fully into building the colony without a single sign of discomfort.

Though maybe , you thought now as you took in the tension in his shoulders and the tightness at the corners of his eyes, he was just very good at hiding it.

You knew you should say something, you needed to say something; not only were you Mark’s captain and therefore responsible for his well-being as a member of your crew, but you were his friend. Or at least, you hoped that after everything, you were still friends.

“Mark, I-”

“How much do you remember?” he asked suddenly. “About…you know.”

“About the wormhole,” you said, because one of you had to say it, and it may as well be you. Mark winced, and you took that as a sign to continue. “Everything.”

“ Everything everything?” Mark asked, and you nodded. “So…you remember what I did then,” he said, pulling his legs up and leaning his arms on his knees.

“What you did?” you repeated, and he rolled his eyes.

“If you’re trying to spare my feelings then I appreciate it, but you don’t have to bother. We both know that I...I caused all of it.”

"Mark, it wasn't-"

"Don't you dare say that it wasn't my fault," he interrupted, shooting you a glare. " I went back in time, I sabotaged both ships, I built the warp core. It was my fault." He laughed, hollow and empty, and for a moment you were back on the Invincible II , watching him fall apart in front of you all over again.

"You were just doing what you thought was right," you said slowly. "That's all any of us were doing. You had no way of knowing-"

"I did though," he insisted. "You told me, remember? You told me not to use the warp core, not to go back. But did I listen? No. I lost faith in you, trusted the word of that alien lady over yours, and I nearly destroyed everything."

It’s not like I gave you a good reason to have faith in me in the first place, you wanted to say, but you thought better of it. As much as you wanted to stew in your own guilt, trying to shift the blame onto yourself wouldn’t help Mark feel any better about his part in it all.

"Do you know why I told you not to go back?" you asked instead. "How I knew that you would even try? You told me not to let you. You said that you lost hope, but you never stopped trying to fix your mistakes, right up until the very end."

Mark opened his mouth to speak, but he froze, confusion written across his face.

"I...I told you?" he looked down at his hands and nodded carefully. "I…I did tell you."

"Mark…” You frowned. “How much do you remember?"

“Um…everything,” he said slowly. “Or at least, I assume it’s everything. It’s strange…sometimes I can’t pin the memories down quite right. Almost like I’m trying to remember a dream.”

“I almost thought it was a dream,” you said, leaning back to look up at the sky. “When no one acknowledged it when we landed, I thought maybe it was some side effect of the cryosleep. I asked Celci though, and she said that the brain doesn’t enter REM in cryo. So I just figured I was the only one who remembered.”

“That’s what I thought too,” Mark admitted. “And it’s not like I could tell someone about it without them thinking I was crazy.”

“It’s not the easiest thing to explain,” you agreed.

“ Right? ” he said, so loudly and suddenly that you jumped a little. “How would you even do that, like, ‘oh, guess what, I was transported through a wormhole across space and time and can remember living and dying over and over and have the memories from a dozen different universes all jacked up in my brain! Take me to the looney bin!’”

He grew more and more animated as he spoke, arms waving around before he finally let them fall back to his sides with a huff, and you swallowed.

“Mark…you’re not crazy. You know that, right?”

He hesitated, for just a bit too long for your liking before he answered.

“I know. It just…it feels crazy. I don’t even know how to begin sorting through everything in my head.”

“I understand,” you said quietly. “Believe me, I do. I’ve been trying not to think about it, but lately I can’t help but wonder…” you trailed off, your gaze slipping from Mark’s face down to the mug of coffee cooling in your hands.

“Yes?” he prompted, and you sighed.

“The historian interviews are tomorrow,” you said bluntly. “And I’m not sure whether to tell them the truth.”

Mark let out a breath, and you glanced over at him just in time to see him rest his chin on his fist.

“I’ve been wondering the same thing,” he admitted. “Until tonight, I wasn’t sure that it was worth the risk. I didn’t want to lose everything I’d worked so hard to build…not again.”

You opened your mouth to reassure him that he wouldn’t, but you couldn’t quite make the words come out. After all, how many times had the two of you lost the ship, the crew, the colony? How many times had you lost each other?

“But you know what I think now?” Mark continued, looking over at you. “I think that that’s exactly why we need to tell them what really happened. To try and stop it from happening again, to somebody else.”

“To somebody else?” you asked.

“As far as command back on Earth is concerned, this mission has been one hundred percent successful,” he explained. “I mean, it sure looks like it on the outside. Everyone is alive and healthy, the ship made it here safely, the colony is thriving. And the Invincible herself was a prototype...if she was successful then there were plans to fully reverse engineer the warp core for other ships, other missions…” he trailed off as your eyes widened, the full impact of his words settling over your shoulders.

“We can’t let that happen,” you whispered, and he nodded.

“We have to tell them. We can’t…. I can’t let my mistakes be repeated. No matter the consequences.”

He wrapped his arms around his legs, shrinking in on himself, and you swallowed. Slowly, you reached out a hand and placed it on his shoulder.

“Our mistakes,” you corrected quietly. Mark shot you a small smile, and you returned it as best as you could. “I’ll be there to back you up, one hundred percent,” you continued. “And…”

You paused, unsure if you should complete your thought, but Mark made the choice for you, reaching out to return your gesture, taking your arm in a steady grip.

“And I’ll do the same for you,” he said. “I’m behind you all the way, Captain.”

You looked at him, his face illuminated by starlight, and for a moment all you could think of was all the times you’d failed him, all the times he’d suffered because of you. But his gaze held none of that anger, that resentment that you’d seen from him before. And if you could trust him, after everything, was it really so inconceivable that he could still have faith in you?

“We got into this mess together,” you finally said, squeezing his arm. “And we’re going to get through it the same way.”

Mark nodded as the first rays of sunlight began to peek over the planet’s new horizon.

“Together.”

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Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed, please consider reblogging, it means a lot to me <3

#in space with markiplier #iswm #iswm fic #iswm fanfic #markiplier fic #markiplier fanfic #engineer mark #iswm captain #iswm mark #iswm head engineer #iswm y/n #my writing

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