What Did You Do, Captain?

Cruel or Stupid

Mark slowly got up from the floor. He had gone so quiet and his moments seemed so purposeful. He had gone from shaking to trembling. The shaking had been grief but the trembling was anger.

The Captain took a step back from Mark, their arm brushing the warp core as they did. He met their eyes and his lip curled up in a slight snarl.

"I know you wanted to destroy everything at some point, but I thought you said that changed!" He shouted, his voice breaking as he took another step. The Captain put their hands up, tears burning their eyes.

"I thought..thought... that changed when we... because we..." He was growing angrier and fumbling his words.

The Captain opened their mouth and Mark hissed.

"All this time without your voice, was it to manipulate me? To, to save it for lies so, so, so the lies are more believable?" He asked, stuttering and waving his hands.

The Captain tried to breath evenly as his anger turned to disgust.

"Tears? You're crying? You did this! What could you be crying about? It's over! Your pain, our love, everything!" His voice pitched and cracked as he screamed in fury.

The Captain tried to speak but Mark was progressing too fast, closing the gap between them.

"You've destroyed us, you've destroyed everything! This was our last chance and it's gone!" Mark shouted through his teeth. The Captain tripped on the steps.

"I spent an eternity in hell rebuilding this machine and you THREW IT ALL AWAY!" He jabbed his finger at the Captain as the tears burned their cheeks. They made a small noise of shock as he shouted. Many times they had heard his voice raise, but never had they heard such pain and such fury in Marks words.

"I don't know if you're evil or just stupid, but if I'm not back there to fix it..." Mark paused and looked at the warp core,"If I'm not back... then..." He moved slowly now, seeming to forget the Captain for now,"If I'm not back there then the warp core's not back..." He whispered to himself.

"I assumed I rebuilt it because you destroyed it." His voice broke in almost a sob,"Unless, I built the warp core? I sent it back?"

He laughed lightly in disbelief, stepping towards the Captain again,"I built it? I built it." Mark started to sob and the Captain put put their hands as if to catch him,"It was my fault?"

"Not entirely!" The Captain tried to sooth,"Maybe at the start... but I made stupid choices for selfish reasons..."

Marks broken sob jarred the Captain as his legs seemed to give. He sat down hard, crying to himself as they knelt next to him.

"I'm... Captain, I'm tired." He managed through hyperventilating gasps,"I don't know when the last time I slept was." His voice shook,"
I don't know if I've slept at all."

The Captain jumped slightly as he looked at them suddenly,"Have you?"

The Captain slowly put a hand on Marks shoulder as Mark continued,"I'm sorry Captain. I thought the only way to stop it was to stop you... the pain it must have caused, making you go through those painful things that you weren't able to change in any universe..."

He averted his eyes but the Captain reached up and touched his chin softly.

"All those mistakes, all those lifetimes, all those people. I guess I lost hope. I tried to push you away, used Cici to do it too... but you didnt."

Dust started to fall and sparks started to fly as everything started to collapse.

"You never did." He smiled sadly as the lights started to flicker, the familiar whirring of the wormhole started up, and vision all started to blur.

There was an explosion, smoke billowing through space and time and all of the universe...

[[I plan on one or maybe two more chapters in this, but would you guys like a sequel? I already have an idea for one but I just want to know how interested anyone would be in it. Let me know!]]