Chapter Text
I have finally gotten back to the diner where the old version of Mark was. But this time it was bare. There wasn't a single sign of life at all. It is like that it never had anyone here. But that isn't true. I know that. As I walk I see him. I take a deep breath as I sit in front of the mark. I didn't say anything as I couldn't think of anything to say. But he knows just what to say. He always did. I wish I had the same mortality as him sometime. But I have to deal with my failures. As I have heard, the multiverse is littered with the corpses of MY failures. Not Mark's failures. Mine.
"Captain?" He states when he saw me. I nod as I walk towards him. He deserved so much more than me as a captain. But I am his captain, no matter how much I now wish I wasn't. "I was hoping you'd be back" He continues as I get closer to sitting down. I still don't know what to say so I don't. Not yet. He wasn't the one I needed to talk to. Not yet at least.
"It's gotten real dark out there. I imagine that this is probably the end." He continues as I sit down in front of him. I still remember the first time I saw him. But it wasn't the time to remember any of that. I am here now. But I still wish I never agreed to be the captain for the Invincible II. But I can't take back what has already happened now. Even with all of this time traveling I did.
"Don't worry about stopping me sooner. I'm starting to realize that even though we have infinite choices every single second of our lives,there's only a handful that really, really matter." He takes a small breath before he continues to talk. I still haven't said a word. "You know what's funny?" He asks me. I tilt my head to question him. "I don't know why, but I'm.... I'm happy. I, uh, don't know any other way to explain it." He chuckles a bit at himself for some reason. I was confused but I still don't say anything.
"I'm content with everything. Being this close to an end, finally an end, and seeing you again just.... I don't know." He takes another deep breath. "It's good. It's good. For while there, I felt like I was right back there again living every single life again and again, never stopping, always moving forward, and... ... but now, it's calm. It's calm." I look at him with a small smile on my face. It is calm. Even if it is just a little bit. He is right. It is calm.
"Everything has to end, Captain. It has to." He starts to take something out of his pocket as he talks. I follow his hand as he grabs the thing. "It doesn't matter how tightly you hold onto things, they'll still just slip right through your fingers." Sand starts to fall through his fingers as he talks. "You'll always make mistakes. You have to. and that's okay. I just wish I learned that sooner. For what it's worth, I'm glad I got to share this adventure with you." He finishes as I turn toward a door with a glowing light under it.
But when I turn back to him. He is gone. All that was left was the sand and mug. I take a deep breath and grab some of the sand. I know I am going to need it. I get up and start my way to the door. Once I got there, I paused for a moment. I turn to the once bustling diner. I think about all the lives who must've passed through here. It was kinda hard to imagine it was full to begin with. But it was once. and that was all that mattered.
I take one last deep breath as I open the door to see Mark. He looked like he was stuck in the warp core. But the actual warp core wasn't there. Not yet at least. The whole time I hear an echoing of Mark's voice saying different things as different Marks go around the room slowly building the warp core.
After I watch the different Marks build the warp core. They all look at me. I felt like I had to look behind me so I did. And I was greeted with Mark. But he didn't look happy and he had an fire extinguisher in his hand ready to hit. "Hi, Captain." He says right before he hits me. I fall to the ground, my vision going out a bit. Once it comes back, I sit up to see Mark dropping the fire extinguisher and come up to me. "Sorry about that. Couldn't afford to let you make another mistake." He says as he takes the crystal from my palm. It hurt for a bit.
"Yeah. Funny thing to say after an eternity of nothing but second chances." He says while looking at the crystal. I reach for it out of instinct but he grabs my arm in a tight grip. "Don't." He lightly throws my arm again as he gets up. "You don't have to keep trying anymore. There's no time anyway. Another thing I never thought I'd say again." He sighs as he points at me. "But I'm gonna fix the damage you caused." Those words repeat over and over in my head. The damage I caused. Yeah, I did all of this. And I hate myself for it.
"I have a long time to spend rebuilding this machine you broke. A long time over too many lives." He was now at the warp core. He sighs as he looks from me to it. "But I know now that this thing does more than make wormholes." He pauses as he places the crystal in the warp core. "Distance and time are the same thing from different perspectives. That's all these universes are, just different points of view." He gets up and walks over to the control panel and looks over at me. He still didn't look happy. "And this machine didn't just bridge a tunnel through our universe. I was bridging all of them. And you destroyed it."
I sigh as I get up and walk towards the warp core but don't do anything with it. My attendance was on Mark and only on Mark. He was right though. I did all of this. He isn't the only one who thinks that too. The lady from the U S A thinks so too. I guess I really am a monster. "I can't undo what you've done." Mark started again. "Not here anyways. Or at least not now." He sighs as the computer goes...
"Warp core engaged." I move so I wasn't as close to the warp core now. I was trying to think of something to say to Mark. But I couldn't really think of anything to say. But I wanted to say how sorry I am about all of this. "If I could go back, if I could try again, if I could stop you before any of this even started, maybe I could save everyone." He says to me as he walks to me. He doesn't look happy at all. But I don't blame him. If I was him. I would be the exact same. I sigh as we both hear the computer talk again.
"Warning. Paradox detected." That seemed to confuse Mark. "What? What the hell does that mean?" He turns to me as I throw the sand I got into his eyes. I mumble an apologize as I run to the control panel. I hear him groan at what I did. But I was more forces on the panel. "Temporal lock unstable" the computer says as I get to the panel. "What the hell was that? Is that sand? Who throws sand?" I hear Mark confused.
"Paradox detected" The computer says at the same time as mark says, "Captain, No!" But I don't listen. I went to try and get the crystal out of the warp core But Mark didn't let me. "You'll destroy everything! Again!" He yells at me over the computer. "Target arrival date not guaranteed." It says again. A blast blasts me back as the gate opens. It starts to pull Mark in but I was fast enough to grab him. "Captain, Captain! Don't Let Go! Don't Let go!" He says as first but changes his mind. "Wait. Let me go. Captain, please. I can fix it." He tries to get me to let go but I have a firm grip on his hand. I wasn't going to let go.
"Look, I don't know what you did, and maybe you didn't mean to, but I have to stop you. I have to! God, I wish I had thought of a fake hand or something." He groans a bit and continues to try to get me to let go but I won't. "Please! This is it! This is the end of everything! Everyone that ever existed is gonna get wiped out unless you let me go!" He begs me. But I wasn't going to lose him again. I lost him once but not again. I am not losing Mark again.
"Captain! Please I have to keep trying. I have to!" He tries more But I don't listen to him. I look at him then at where the crystal is. I look at Mark again then go to grab the crystal now that Mark can't stop me. He yells at me to not do it but I grab the crystal and throw it into the gate. Which closes it with the computer saying "Alert Paradox resolved." It says that two more times but slower. I turn to Mark. He wasn't happy at all.
"What have you done? You destroyed us." He walks toward the warp core. I sighs as I look at the warp core then Mark. "I'm sorry... Mark." I finally said. He looks at me then takes a deep breath to calm himself down. "Sorry? You're sorry? You destroyed everything! This was our last chance to fix things and it's gone and you are sorry!" He clinched his fits.
"I spent an eternity in hell rebuilding this stupid machine, and you throw it all away and all you have to say is you're sorry!" Mark yells. I wish it wasn't like this...