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“Hey-”
Engie jumped and spun around, fists raised and ready to punch whoever snuck up on him at this hour.
“Woah, sorry!” It was the night guard. Apparently the guy wasn’t much older than he was. “Sorry about that, didn’t mean to startle you.”
Engie sighed in relief, trying to calm his racing heart while grabbing out a mug. They wouldn’t need the coffee now, but they were still going to drink it anyway. “You’re fine, don’t worry about it man.”
There was silence while he pours himself a mug.
“…What are you doing out here at this time anyway?” The night guard asked. Engie shrugged.
“Couldn’t sleep. What’s it to you anyway…?”
“Dave. Dave Torres.”
Engie raised an eyebrow at the full name. “You’re not one of the egos then?”
Dave looked away, shrugging slightly.
“What’s that like?” Engie asked, shifting to the side to let Dave grab his own cup of coffee.
Dave hums, looking down into his mug like the dark liquid held the words he needed. “Strange.” He decides on.
Engie raised an eyebrow.
“I miss my friends. Matteo, Linda… Katie.” Dave sighed, suddenly exhausted. “I had a whole life before this, and I still can’t figure out if this place is a dream, or a nightmare.”
Engie nodded along. Sometimes he wasn’t sure if it was real either, dreading the day they might wake up in their cryo-chamber again, waiting for that telltale blue glow and the Captain’s unpredictable presence.
Dave snorted to himself quietly. “And the dreams!”
“Dreams?” Engie tilted their head, sipping his coffee.
Dave nodded with a quiet grumbling. “They’re so bizarre. Things like running through forests, sailing oceans, poker games, empty voids. It sounds crazy, but I get the feeling, while I’m dreaming them, that they’re not my dreams. And I remember them so much easier than I used to before this.”
“Huh, what was the last one you remember?” Engie asked, curious now.
Dave stared at him a second, before shrugging. “I was in a diner, and outside the window, all I could see was stars. Like looking through a telescope. The stars kept winking out though.”
The Engineer froze. Images flashed before his eyes of- “The Diner at the End of the Multiverse.”
Dave’s brows furrowed. “Sorry, what?”
Engie turned back to him. “The diner. The stars are dying because-” He cut himself off, not wanting to think about the Warp Core and the revelations he had in that room. “I dreamed that.” He said instead. “Last night, I dreamed that.”
Dave’s eyes widened. “You dreamed that?”
Engie nodded. “Yeah I- Yeah. Dave, you were in my dream!”
Dave stepped back, hand not holding his coffee mug raised in a surrendering gesture. “I’m sorry, I didn’t- I wasn’t-”
Engie shook his head, laughing a little bit. It was definitely weird, but they didn’t mind too much. Everything in this giant, shifting Manor was weird. “It’s fine, I don’t really mind. It just means you have a power! Dam- Dark said sometimes that happens!”
Dave shifted uncomfortably, not sure he liked this new development. “Do you have powers?”
Engie deflated slightly and shrugged. “Ahh, no. I don’t. But it’s cool. You can see people’s dreams, Dave!”
Dave grimaced. If he’d been seeing other peoples dreams, he felt sorry for whoever was trapped in that empty void while they slept. “I guess?”
Engie picked up on his lack of enthusiasm and toned it down a little. “You should probably tell Dark about this in the morning.”
Dave nodded, sighing and leaned back against the counter, hand rubbing down his face tiredly. “Yeah, I will.”
They both just stood there for a while, sipping at their respective coffee mugs.
“You wanna watch a movie?” Engie finally asked, thinking of the large screen in the home theatre.
Dave startled slightly, obviously having been lost in thought, before nodding. “Sure, why not?”
Engie smiled. “Great! I’ll make some popcorn, and you can go pick out the movie!”
Dave nodded, smiling tiredly as he left the kitchen to do just that, leaving Engie alone.
The Engineer hummed softly, thinking of that lonely Diner as he made a giant bowl of popcorn.
“There were billions, and billions of stories…”
Darkiplier looked down into the courtyard from his balcony, at the figure there.
“Infinite, infinite stars.” Dark murmured absentmindedly to himself, red and blue aura rising around him at the trail of red the figure left. The sickening iron scent filled the air as Dark slipped downstairs.