ɪɴ ꜱᴘᴀᴄᴇ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴍᴀʀᴋɪᴘʟɪᴇʀ (ᴘᴀʀᴛ 2)

ᴛɪᴍᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴇɴᴅ ᴛʜɪꜱ

The wormhole they went through this time didn't feel normal at all; its color was fading, the speed at which it traveled felt slower, they could hear faint rumbling and cracking all around them, as if the fabric of space and time itself was slowly crumbling away after so many trips around different universes. It looked like... their journey would be coming to an end soon.

The trip ended on the same sacks of jute it had begun on. Alise coughed as the impact with them lifted up a good layer of dust that had developed on them over time. "Gosh- how long has it been since I've been here?" they muttered, slowly getting back up and walking out of the room before they breathed in even more of that dusty air. However... as soon as they opened the door, they could tell that room wasn't the only one that had been left to collect dust.
The kitchen was deserted too and the appliances and cooking utensils had become a home for many spiders and cobwebs and that was the case for the rest of the diner as well... it had been abandoned, now a shadow of its former, bustling self.

Feeling a presence behind them, Alise turned around, only to see old Mark looking at them in a mixture of surprise and happiness, sitting down at a table, a small candle lighting up the area around him "Captain...?"

"M-Mark..." they stuttered, feeling almost ashamed of showing their face to him after failing terribly at what he'd asked them- begged them to do. "Listen I..."

"I was hoping you'd be back..." he interrupted them "It's getting real dark out here..."

Alise widened their eyes "What...? But- I... I failed you, Mark... I... I couldn't stop you..."

The old man chuckled "Don't worry about that now... we're nearing the end of it all anyway" he said, but there was no hint of sadness or disappointment in his voice. In fact... he almost sounded serene. "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 said, checking his mug and realizing it was empty, before sighing deeply and speaking up again "You know what's funny? I don't know why but I'm-- I'm happy"

The Captain raised an eyebrow "You're... happy? But- everything is... ending... how can you be happy...?"

He chuckled bashfully "I uh- I don't know any other way to explain it, I'm just content... with everything" he lowered his glance "Being this close to an end- finally an end... and seeing you again just-- I don't know... it's good"

Alise felt their breath get stuck in their throat and their eyes welling up with tears. After all that Mark had been through because of them... he was still happy to see them before an end... wait... an end for what? "W-what do you mean... an end?" they asked, looking outside the window, noticing all but one star remained in their field of view, flickering weakly before collapsing on itself.

"For a while... I felt like I was right back there again, living every single life, again and again... never stopping, always moving forward, and..." he shook his head and sighed "But now... it's calm... it's calm..."

They were slowly realizing what the head engineer was hinting at, but they weren't ready to believe it. They could've accepted anyone's end at that point, even theirs if it came to it, but not his... not when they were so close to fixing this- they needed him to be there too, it wouldn't be alright if he wasn't there too at the end "M-Mark... please don't tell me that-"

"Everything has to end, Captain... it has to" he interrupted them again, putting a hand in his pocket and pulling out a handful of sand from it "It doesn't matter how tightly you hold onto things... they'll still just slip right through your fingers..." he continued, letting the sand slowly fall out of his hand. "You'll always make mistakes, you have to- and that's okay... I just wish I'd learned that sooner..."