Do I Know You, Captain?

I couldnt make a sound

Mark sat on his desk, slowly unzipping his engineer uniform. He slid the sleeves off, just focusing on the buzzing and humming of The Invincible around him.  He moved slowly and precisely, undressing. He lowered the top of his jumpsuit down to his hips, untied his boots and tossed them to the side. He flinched at the loud thuds.

"Something isn't right." He whispered to himself. His gut twisted and his head started to spin. Thoughts hit him like bombs and he flinched.

"This... is real." His words fell flat in the empty room.

"You think so?" A voice came from nearby. He spun to see a man in the doorway. He was in a white dress shirt and black slacks. His hair had once been gelled but now lay in a mess in front of one of his dark eyes. He looked like Mark himself woth just a few differences.

"I've... messed up the warp core again... or something." Mark stood up and started to pace.

"Or something." The second version of him said woth a grin,"Have I introduced myself?"

"Aren't you Markiplier that we pulled from the cryo tank?" Mark said in exasperation.

"Oh no. My name is Dark." He stepped into the room, grinning widely.

Mark instinctually took a step back, frowning as a scream threatened to crawl up his throat. He shuddered to force it down.

"How did you get on my ship?" Mark asked through his teeth, his lips tight.

"Captain opened a door. One of the bad choices they made in one of the universes that let me attach to you." Dark explained. He took another step.

"We fixed that. THEY fixed that." Mark insisted, backing up against the window.

"They fixed the paradox, sure, but mayhaps they didn't..." He tilted his head to the side and shrugged lightly, the grin never fading,"Cleanse the universe of ALL of their mistakes. Then again,  mayhaps it wasn't a mistake."

Mark gripped the windowsill to hide his fingers trembling. He tucked his chin to his chest but stared up through his eyelashes at Dark.

"Who uses the word 'mayhaps'? Pretentious much?" He chuckled mockingly.

Dark sighed hard and stooped over, grabbing one of the boots.

"Computer!" Dark said.

"Yes, head engineer?" The computer answered.

"Disable blast shields." Dark commanded, investigating the boot, turning it in his hand.

"Blast shield disabled." Computer stated. Mark's mouth opened to override, but the words were stuck in his throat. This guy had his voice.

Mark gasped, realizing he had held his breath, but just as the words started to form, Dark threw the boot through the window behind Mark. He heard it start to crack.

In a split moment of thinking, he jumped on Dark, who had started to laugh.

"You can't have them." Dark growled as the window was sucked out into space. Mark clawed at Dark, the floor, the window. Glass embedded in his skin as pressure squeezed all the air from his body. He couldn't believe this was happening again, after all he had gone through. He prayed death would be quick but everything was aching as space crushed him. He started to shiver as the heat was pulled from his body.

Everything went black for a moment then there was a familiar swirl of the worm hole spiraling around him. He fought to focus as words came into view.

Game Over

He started to cry as he felt the strap holding goggles to his head. It had been the game again. He pulled it off, sitting down on the ground with a hard thud. His head was spinning and he felt nauseous.

"Mark!" He heard Amy as she came rushing into the room, kneeling next to him,"Did you go into Vita Renascentia again!?"

He had never seen her angry before. He had seen her upset and he had seen her sad, he had even seen her frustrated, but she looked like she was about to throttle him.

He smiled crookedly through the pain.

"Yeah." He muttered, watching her beautiful features contort through different emotions.

"I've always thought you were the smartest man with the strongest whit. I've gone with you on adventures for projects and I've worked with you on them and I've suffered through you being workaholic, you never taking breaks. I've stayed quiet, but Mark, this is dangerous." She said, standing up and pacing.

Another idea occurred to Mark as he watched her pace. It wasn't just about the game hurting him, it was what he was chasing by going back to it at all costs. Not really what he was chasing but who he was chasing. The Captain.

"Amy, come here." He put his arms up for her, palms up. She came to him and slowly took both his hands. He tugged to get her to kneel in front of him as he held both of her hands,"I am so sorry. Genuinely. For all of it. I should have considered how this obsession would make you feel."

"I've never seen you obsess over a game like this before. You're good at games and you love some but you have never craved like this." She whispered.

"I think k there is something in the game, a virus or something." Mark muttered, his throat tight with emotion,"Its corrupting it."

"Wait." She got up again and went to his desk, pulling at wires and pressing buttons. She came back a moment later holding a camera and filming him,"Tell the camera so we can send it to the company to get it looked at."

"That... is such a good idea." Mark smiled crookedly again, his cheeks flushing as he stared at his love.