Chapter Text
The darkness came quickly to Simon. His broken, beaten body could only hold out for so long under the pressure of the waves of blood that crash into the SM-13, the pressure of a high ocean imploding in on the tiny sub wiping out anything inside long before the THING outside could finish off Simon for itself. As Simon’s fleeting mind wondered through his quickly dying brain, only one thought could flicker through it.
“Please be worth it…”
Miles above him floated the tiny black box, tied up in his beaten old clothes and that almost useless life jacket. If Ava ever found it, Simon could only hope she could find what she was looking for…whatever it was.
Whatever was looking for Simon now was far away, far in the abyss that he now swam in. not pain, no noise. Only the forever drone of nothing…
And then light…
It was nothing more than a pin prick in the void, a toothpick poke in the dark. But it was still there, and it was looking at Simon.
It started off as a flicker, perhaps the last bit of Simon’s mind still holding on. Then it grew, climbing like tendrils around the walls of black, curling around Simon's mind. A blinding star, a glow of a god that had pulled him into its beautiful embrace.
Sound returned to his blood clotted ears, sounds of wind, sounds of voices.
Yelling
Screaming
Cheering
Whispers
Questions
Answers
A galaxy of people calling out to the stars, life and death itself returning and swimming past Simon's ears as the world twisted around him. Imploding on itself only to spread back out like a blooming flower.
The stars once thought gone now danced around his floating body, dancing like angels in an ever expanding pool of light. And the sun, God, he had almost forgotten what it looked like. Its rays curled around his body like a shiny cloak, making the deep red blood on him almost look ruby like, his exposed forearm bone glowed like marble in the light, blood floating upward into the air like bubbles.
As Simon floated, he felt the warmth of tears cut through the iron on his face. Not tears of pain of fear, not of pain.
Tears of relief.
If this was dying…it wasn’t so bad.
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“Mark? I think he’s stable, could you hand me that pack please?”
“Yes Captain, I think we got rid of most of the…well fishness from what I could see”
“Right, well given how we found him it could have been a lot worse, poor guy, looks like he’s been through the ringer”
Cold, warm, something sharp in his arm, something covering his face. Simon was somewhere new. The dullness of painkillers ran through his body numbing his nerves and making his head swim. Even the solid bedframe he was lying on seemed to move. Was he back on the ship? Was this Ava? No I couldn’t be…he was dead…but why did someone say captain?
“Huh? I think he’s stirring Captain”
I soft but deep voice muttered from the right of him. It took him a second to figure out why the voice struck him as so strange. Then he realised it was similar to his…but kinder. What was the voice's name? Mark?
“Hey, Hey it's okay. You’re safe now.”
An almost alien voice came from his left, the mix of robot static and echo of someone talking through a radio came out. As if someone had gotten their voice stuck between two people, not high pitch but also not low. It fluctuated between tones so quickly Simon even wondered if it was human.
Not human…
Simon's eyes shot open to the shock of a bright blue light of an overhanging light dangling over him as he lay down in what seemed to be a hospital bed…a very nice hospital bed, which sat in an even nicer Medical bay. Shiny metal walls curved around hexagonical windows that showed the stars outside. Bright blue lights lined the walkways and shelves of medical supplies.
Not even COI had this amount of supplies and gear. Whoever had picked him up was clearly living in a much kinder world. With that thought, Simon tried to focus his eyes on the two figures that stood above him.
The first was a man, maybe a few years younger than him. His curly black hair cut neatly around his round and handsome face. A white turtle neck recessed just below his well maintained facial hair and soft smile. A neat and colorful jumpsuit covered his body, making him look like a space cadet if they became a plumber. Simon couldn’t figure out why…but the word “Puppy eyes” came to mind as he looked into Mark's expectant face.
“Hi there, you’re lucky the Captain and I spotted you outside that wormhole otherwise you’d be toast!” Mark smiled and looked back towards what Simon guessed was the Captain, which he proceeded to do as well, only to feel himself jump and the strange sight that stood in front of him.
They were tall, clad in well lined leather that were fitting of a Captain, long heavy duty gloves covered their hands, small beeps coming from their wrist monitor every few moments. What really struck Simon as odd, was their face.
Moreover, they didn’t have one.
Covering their whole head they wore a slimmed astronaut helmet. Their matching turtle neck tied close to their neck so no skin could be shown to even give an indication of what they looked like under the mask. The one facial feature that could be made out on their pitch black visor were two pin pricks of blue light acting as eyeballs, which spun around to look down at Simon.
A small crackle came out from the Captain as they began to speak.
“Hello there, could you tell me your name?”
The same strange two toned voices echoed out from their helmet. Simon lay shocked for a second before trying his best to croak out something. A cough of blood sprayed out of his mouth, no dought his lungs trying to push whatever was stuck in them out. He felt the Captain’s hand pat his shoulder as he tried to splutter out a word.
“Its…its Simon” his voice was raw, it came out more of a whimper than a word.
“Hello Simon…welcome to the Invincible 2”