Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Simon sat shaking against the rusted wall of the sub. It had been nearly four days since last communication with the C.O.I. he had seen god the previous day.. or he thought it was the previous day. He hadn’t been keeping great track of time, or sleeping, even. The submarine had shook again, and he was sure that whatever was outside was coming back.. or maybe he was just paranoid?
Maybe he wasn’t even alive. Maybe he was just imagining a life where he lived in his final moments. Maybe he was insane. Maybe he—
The radio on top of the wall above him crackled, the orange light starting to glow when he glanced at it.
“Hello? Captain?! Are you there?” He stood up quickly, staring up at it. The static got louder, slowly turning into words he could barely make out.
“Hello? Captain? Can you hear me? Are you coming to get me?” He was getting desperate; he really truly hoped this was real, and not just that.. thing fucking with him.
“What do you mean you’re getting a signal? There shouldn’t be anyone- gimme those—“ the static crunched into proper words from an unfamiliar voice.
“Hello?! C.O.I?! It’s me! Uhh, y’know, convict from the SM-13! Hello?!”
There was some loud shuffling noises from the radio, then the previous voice came through much clearer. “Hello! My name is Mark, the head engineer of the Invincible II! Please state your name and reason for contact?”
“The what? Who?” Simon glanced around at his rusty ship. “Uhh. Simon, and you contacted me?”
“No we didn’t? Your signal came to OUR systems?”
“I can’t control the radio! You contacted me!” Simon argued
“We don’t just go around connecting to any radio ever! So unless Captain intentionally connected to you, you contacted us.”
“No I-“ Simon let out an exasperated sigh. “Okay. Whatever. It doesn’t matter. I’m currently trapped at the bottom of a blood ocean and I would REALLY like to not be here anymore! I-“ he took a deep breath, his voice starting to shake against his will. “I think I’ve done enough..! I-I think I’ve earned my freedom..”
“Woah, slow down, pal! Blood ocean?? Where even are you?”
“What-? Are you not with the C.O.I??”
“The what?”
“… You’re fucking with me, aren’t you? No.. no, I’m NOT BEING TOYED WITH AGAIN!” Simon slammed a fist into the side of the sub, causing a small dent.
“What? No, no- If you’re in a dire situation—“
“sSHUT UP! STOP— STOP FUCKING WITH ME! I KNOW YOU’RE NOT REAL- I BROKE THE RADIO! I BROKE IT DAYS AGO! HAVEN’T YOU HURT ME ENOUGH?! HAVEN’T I DONE ENOUGH?!” He sunk back down to the floor, hiding his face in his hands.
“Dude, what? I’ve never even talked to you before now, calm down! Where are you? We can try and come get you, man!” Mark tried to reason with the distraught Simon. There was silence for a few moments. “… Simon? That was your name, yes? You uh… you there?”
Simon stood up, grabbing the wire of the radio— but found it still connected. “Wh..what-?” He muttered.
“You still there?”
“Uh.. yyyeah. I’m. I’m here. I think.”
“You think?”
“Yeah.”
“Alright..? Not sure how you could ‘think’ you’re there! Do you know your location?” Mark asked, amusement slipping into his words.
Simon ran a hand through his tangled hair. “Yeah. I do, uh… hang on…” he looked over at the console and read off the coordinates.
“… so like what moon are you on? Or planet?? I thought those were all gone..?”
“I.. I dunno. I thought that too..! But maybe we’re the ones who went missing.. I dunno..” Simon’s voice was quiet, almost mumbly.
“You didn’t answer my question,” Mark said after a moment.
“Oh. Uh. Z-X12.”
“Great! Wait it is on the maps? Oh, cool! Set course, then! … already there? How? .. ohhh. Yeah that makes sense.” Mark seemed to be talking to somebody Simon couldn’t hear, and the words faded into background noise. Simon sat down in the chair by the desk, sighing.
“Simon? Siiimooon?” Mark’s voice finally made it to Simon again several minutes later.
“Huh? What?” He looked up at the little orange light on the radio again.
“Oh, you are alive! Did you say you’re at the bottom of the ocean? How are we supposed to get you out..?”
“I… I dunno? I was hoping you’d know?”
“…. I should’ve thought this through- SHUT UP CECE-“ there was some arguing from Mark’s side of the radio, before he cleared his throat. “I can do this. We have a way to do this. Hang on..”
Suddenly, simon’s ship started vibrating. “UH? HELLO? WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING?”
“Magnet.”
“WHAT??”
There was some laughter “Nahhh, I’m just kidding! Kind of! We can teleport your submarine into our docking system using weird magnetic systems, blah blah blah, it’s just not very safe and unlikely to work perfectly.”
“NOT SAFE?”
“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine! Initiating in 3.. 2..”
“WAI-“
“1!”
The sub rattled violently before suddenly plummeting down a few feet, causing Simon to fall out of his chair again. “Ow.. fuck..”
“Okay!” A man approached the hull of the ship, wiping down the small window. “Wow, this is a lot worse than I thought It’d be. Hi! How do you get out of this thing?”
Simon sat up, rubbing his head. “Hhhuh? Uhhh.. I’m welded in..”
“Welded in? Why would they weld you in here?? HEY, BUCK!” Mark shouted. Simon looked through the window, getting a better look at the guy. They looked quite alike; though Mark’s hair was much shorter; he wore a tan jumpsuit with a patch on the left shoulder, and one on the right side of his torso. He squinted through the glass to try and get a good look at the guy, but suddenly the sub shook and there was a loud .. chainsaw sound? What the fuck?
Simon looked behind himself to find a large hole being cut in the left side of the sub. “I guess that’s one way to get me out..” he muttered, standing up and stumbling to the exit, looking out of the sub into the ship-docks. There were many little space ships and shuttles lining the walls, and engineering stations. There was a small crowd outside the submarine.. but the most important thing was that it was bright as fuck. Very fucking bright. He hadn’t seen this much light since seeing THE light.
“What’re ya waiting for? C’mon!” Mark pushed his way in front of the handful of people, and reached his hand out to Simon, who stared at it for a few moments before hesitantly taking it; and then immediately Mark eagerly yanked him out of the rusty submarine, causing a small “gHCK??” To escape Simon as he stumbled out. His bloodied shoes hit the slick black floor, and he was able to stand up fully straight. He was around 6’5, whereas Mark seemed to be around 5’10, if Simon had to guess. He blinked a few times at the bright light, staring around for the source of it.
“Let me give you a tour! Unless you’re hurt? You seem hurt, do you need medical attention?” Mark asked, moving to stand directly in front of Simon. There was some murmuring between a girl with white hair and taller, stockier man.
“Uhhhh.. hurt? Yeah. I.. think so, yeah.”
“Let’s get you to medical, then!” Mark stalked off, pausing g after a moment, realizing Simon wasn’t following. “Hellooo? You coming?”
“huh? What? Yeah, I’m coming.” He pushed past a guy wearing way too many guns and followed after mark, unsteadily; it was closer to a hobble, one of his legs pretty severely injured. Mark would have tried to help him walk, but with Simon being nearly a foot taller than him, it wasn’t really easy for him to do that.
Mark slapped his hand on the identification pad once they made it down the hall, and the doors to the med bay slid open with a soft shhnnnk.
“Here we are! Now let’s get you scanned..”

Chapter Text

Mark, or ‘Engie,’ as some of his crew mates called him, stood in the center of a small med-bay room, Simon sitting on one of those tall medical-beds you’d find in a doctors office, the paper crinkling every time he shifted; which was a lot. Mark glanced at him, wondering why he seemed so uncomfortable. This room was way better than that cramped sub! He strode across the plain off-white room to a tablet mounted on a desk beside some computers on the back wall, opposite Simon. He tapped a few menus items on the tablet, the menu a dark purple with white text as he typed in commands.
“Uh.. What’re you doing..?” Simon leaned to his side, trying to get a look at the tablet.
“Getting you evaluated! Stay still, please.” Mark tapped a few more buttons
“What? Why? What are you doing? Doesn’t getting evaluated entail being looked at and stuff? Poked and prodded and shit?”
“What? No! Engaging in 3..”
“So you’re not gonna poke me with weird needles and lasers?”
“Weird lasers, maybe! Needles if we need too, I’m not a doctor, so I can’t make any promises. Oh, and 1!”
Suddenly, a small device perked up from the wall, where it’d been previously hanging limply. It looked a lot like a security camera, and suddenly a bright sky blue light shot out with a quiet ‘fshvwooommmm’ sound, and the camera tilted up and down to scan Simon’s figure.
Simon froze, staring wide eyed at it, his focus suddenly locked in on it.
Mark watched with his hands on his hips, looking around at the room. He seldom had to spend time in here, unless to repair the technology, so he hadn’t ever gotten a good look at it. There were plain white cabinets on the right wall, which was painted an off-white to match the rest. The left wall was blank, aside from a single painting, which was of a dog in an astronaut costume.
The noise of the laser ended, and the camera-looking machine retreated back into a folded position with a serious of soft clicks.
Simon was silent. Mark turned to the desk, took the iPad out of it’s mount and sunk into the office chair, before pushing his foot against the floor, causing him to roll back against the white tile until it slowed to a stop beside the bed.
“Alrighty, let’s get a looksyyy…” He tapped some buttons on the menu of the iPad until a diagram pulled up. It was a basic, blank person, with various marks of different colors drawn along it. “Woah, dude! What happened to you?? Surely the fall can’t’ve been that bad! It was only a few feet!”
“Wh..what? Huh?” Simon looked over. Mark spared him a glance, before doing a double take. Simon looked.. dizzy? There was a certain glaze to his eyes that Mark couldn’t place his finger on.
“Well, I’m sure you probably already know most of this, but I’ll explain anyways!” Mark hopped up out of his chair, shoving a spot onto the bed beside Simon. Simon was already taller than him, and the big ass bed didn’t help. Why was the bed so big anyways?! Whatever. Mark then pointed to a spot on the diagram, one of Simon’s arms, which was marked red, with a little (?) button, which Mark tapped. The button expanded, giving a short description, which Mark read out loud. “Severe scrapes, boils, and burning on both arms, likely infected, blah blah blah, could cause permanent nerve damage if not treated soon. Well! You sure are lucky that we found you, huh! You mind taking the bandages off?”
Simon stared at him for a what felt like forever, blinking slowly. “… huh?”
“… you mind taking off the bandages?” Mark asked again, his smile fading a little.
“…oh. Uh.. Yeah—Yeah,, I can do that.” Simon reached down and slowly began trying to unwind the bandages, which seemed to really want to stick to his skin.
Mark read some other notes on the iPad. “Bruised ribs, concussion, looks like you’ve got a fracture in your left leg, uhh… just kind of fucked up all over. Yeah, I was hoping maybe it’d be a few scrapes, I can fix that, but I’m no doctor! So.. I’m gonna have to call medical down.”
“so.. You’re going to leave?” Simon asked with a frown.
“Well.. Yes? Unless you need me to stay..?” Mark answered, starting to feel a little bad.
“No— I’ll be fine. I’m sure you’re busy.” Simon sighed, rubbing the back of his neck— or, well, he moved to do so, but his now un-bandaged, very scraped hand rubbed against his skin, and quickly changed his mind about that action, letting out a soft hiss. He shook his head, seemingly trying to clear it.
“Alrighty, then. Is there anything else I should know before I go? I’ll be back soon, I just have a few things I have to do.”
“I don’t.. I uh don’t think so- Oh, actually, yeah— Don’t touch the button in the back of the submarine.”
“Oh. Uhm… Okay? Why?” Mark tilted his head like a confused dog.
“… It’s an X-ray.”
“That’s awesome, what?! I love X-rays, seeing all the bones- Eugh, kinda weird, but still cool!” Mark started rambling before stopping himself, focusing his attention back on Simon. “Why shouldn’t we touch it?”
“… You’re an engineer, how do you not…? Whatever. Anyone outside the ship will get blasted with radiation.”
“Gotchaa.. Radiation? That’s, uh. Weird? Very primitive, we figured out how to fix that ages ago! Like, before I was born!”
“What?? How? What the fuck? Why is this whole ship so goddamn futuristic?!”
“Why is everything you’re used too so old? Oh! OH! You’re from the lost fleet aren’t you?!”
“The what??” Simon stared at him in confusion.
“The lost fleet! Y’know? About a hundred years before I was born, one of our fleets was sent to colonize a planet and just.. Poof. Boom. Gone.” Mark did a dramatic hand motion, wiggling his fingers as if he were a magician.
“Out of thin air?” Simon said skeptically.
“No, not out of thin air, silly! We just lost contact with them, and they’re just, uhh.. gone!”
“… I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Boring! You’re definitely from the lost fleet, aren’t you? That would explain the lack of technological advances..”
“Wait- wait. Suppose you’re right..” Simon clasped his hands together with his pointer fingers sticking out, before regretting that, wincing and pulling his hands apart again. “Suppose you’re right, and the ships from my fleet are ‘the lost fleet,’ does that mean there’s even more fleets? Because- they all just- disappeared on day! Same with the stars and planets.. Just.. gone!” He mimicked Mark’s previous hand movement clumsily, which made Mark smile.
“Uhh.. yeah they-… they’re all gone. This is the last surviving fleet, aside from yours… Speaking of! Should we get you back there once your all better? I’m sure they’re looking for ya!”
“Wh- NO! No, no— please DO NOT do that!” Simon said urgently, sticking his hands out in front of him in a ‘STOP!’ Motion.
“… Okay! If you say so! This baby’s the best, anyways!” Mark gently hit the wall with his fist. “If you don’t mind me asking, why don’t you wanna go back?”
Simon looked away with a frown. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“… I’ll respect that! You can stay on board however long you’d like, so long as you’re not some CRAZY MURDERER!” Mark let out a laugh, folding his arms. “Nahh, you don’t seem the murdery type!” He smiled at Simon, giving him a gentle nudge with his elbow.
Simon’s gaze shot back at Mark, where previously he’d been observing the dog painting. “W-What- I-“ he started, but the door to the room slid open.

“YOU!” Shouted Ce Ce as she stormed in, her white puffer-coat making that uncomfortable rubbing noise Mark hated.
“cece, how GREAT to see you,” He said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. “What is it now?”
“What is it now?! You- GAH! You’re insufferable! How do you NOT know?! You that incompetent?!” She demanded, stomping her foot and gesturing with her arms wildly before letting them rest stiffly at her sides.
“Can you go bother Captain with whatever you’re mad about? The ship would have told me if there was something wrong—“
“NO! I’m mad about THAT!” She pointed angrily at Simon. Simon paused and looked behind himself, despite knowing he was the one being pointed at.
“… Me?” He asked after a moment. Mark noted the man’s nervous expression.
“Woah, calm down! He’s been through a lot, clearly! We don’t need to go around scaring newcomers!” Mark scowled at Cece
“I wasn’t scared-“
“Let me handle this!” He snapped at Simon, before feeling guilty when Simon looked somewhat taken aback.
“Both of you shut up! Mark, I cannot BELIEVE you SERIOUSLY dragged a RANDOM PERSON WE DON’T KNOW aboard! What if he’s DANGEROUS?! What if he’s CONTAGIOUS?! What if-“
“I’ll stop you there. He’s not sick! I already scanned him!” Mark answered with a strained sigh.
“The scan doesn’t detect illnesses, idiot!” Cece snapped. There was some shuffling and crinkling of the paper as Mark prepared his argument,
“He doesn’t seem sick! He probably would have mentio-“ Mark was cut off by some unpleasant noises that I’m not going to describe, basically oh no Simon threw up. “….”
“Oh my god! I was right!! We need him gone, NOW!” Cece demanded.
“Well hey now— let’s talk about this- uh, in a moment!”
Simon had grabbed a trash can to vomit into, but he looked almost guilty. “Uh. Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize- is that blood?” Mark paused. Simon looked down.
“Yeaaahh… sorry, I probably should have mentioned that-“
“YES! YOU SHOULD HAVE! YOU SHOULDN’T BE HERE AT ALL?! Mark, do something useful for once and get him to quarantine, NOW.” Cece demanded.
“I- FINE! But not because you told me too! C’mon, Simon..” he reached to try and help Simon off the table-bed-thing, but he refused the help and staggered towards the door instead. Mark opened his mouth to comment that Simon shouldn’t be walking, but thought better of it, silently leading him to the quarantine rooms.

Once they reached the stale white room, Mark hit his hand on the thing and gestured for Simon to enter, but Simon hesitated a moment.
“You’re gonna let me out, right?”
“Uhh… yes? Once you’ve been treated or proven not contagious? Why would we just keep you in there?” Mark answered with an amused grin, placing his hands on his hips.
“… okay- I know this might sound stupid, but, uh- do you PROMISE you’ll let me out?”
Mark tilted his head again, slightly confused. “Yeah? I promise! Don’t worry, we’re not just gonna leave you to rot in there!”
“… okay. Alright. Thanks.. uh. What’s gonna happen when I go in there?”
“Scanny stuff, robot stuff, it depends on what’s wrong with you.” Mark shrugged.
“… that’s not very reassuring,” Simon deadpanned. Mark just grinned at him.
“you’ll be fine, quite worrying so much! I built this ship myself, y’know! It’s like my baby, she’ll keep you safe.” Mark patted one of the walls. Simon snorted.
“Sure, man.. So do I just go in, or..?:
“Yeah, just walk right in.” Mark nodded.
Simon blinked at him,then at the doorway. “Uhh.. bye.”
“Cya later!” Mark waved as Simon entered the quarantine zone, the doors sliding shut behind him. He stood there for a second before spinning on his heel and striding away down the hall.

Mark was striding down the hall, whistling some tune he’d heard in a commercial somewhere with his hands behind his back, when The Captain jut out of a side room, stopping him, making wild hand gestures. Mark blinked at them.
The Captain wore a full black jumpsuit with a big astronaut helmet thing on top, which made it near impossible to read their expression, but they sure did make up for it with exaggerated movements, such as slouching over in frustration when Mark did not understand what they were trying to say.
“Uhh… Captain..?”
The captain looked thoughtful, before gesturing again, down the hall where mark had been walking from.
“Ohh. Simon! Yeah, he’s quarantined now. I hope he’s alright; Seems like he’s been through a lot, y’know?”
Captain nodded thoughtfully, making another gesture.
“Oh, no, he doesn’t seem dangerous. More like a.. puppy. A sad puppy. Wait don’t tell him I said that—“ Mark quickly added.
The captain shook their head, then gave mark a thumbs up, which he gladly returned— uuuntil Cece burst out of a side room— the medbay, where they’d been earlier.
“This is not okay! Why are you being so calm, Captain?! He brought a random stranger aboard without permission or verification from ANYONE! Said person is also sick and potentially dangerous!”
“Look-“ mark pinched his nose bridge with one hand. “Cece. We’re here to help humanity as much as we can, right? He’s part of humanity!”
“Oh shut up! Captain, why do we still trust him after— well, you know!”
The Captain leaned back, looking offended before placing their hand on Mark’s shoulder.
“… you’re both insane! We are not worried enough about-“
“Cece, listen.” Mark let out a long sigh, rubbing his eyes. “That guy’s clearly been through a lot. He needs help, and what’s done is done, we’re here to HELP. Bursting in and shouting about how he ‘doesn’t belong here’ isn’t helpful to anybody!”
“You- I- GRHHH.” Cece was fuming at this point, making short sounds before ending with a frustrated groan through gritted teeth. “Fine! But when your actions fuck us over even more, just know I told you so!” She stormed off.
Mark stared after her for a moment. The captain stretched, looked back at mark, waved, then chased after Cece.
Which left Mark alone to wait.

Chapter Text

Simon stared around at the quarantine room. Unlike the medbay, it didn’t even try to be ‘homely,’ it was just white and stale. The air smelled thickly of cleaning supplies, which, while more pleasant than the rust and blood stench he’d gotten used to in the SM-13, wasn’t exactly nice.
There were light blue glass panels sticking out from the walls, but they didn’t seem to really serve a purpose. Simon cleared his throat, looking around. “Uhh… hello?” He called out, his voice echoing back at him, despite the room being pretty small. It was maybe an inch taller than he was, and on,y about three yards long.
“Anyone there..?” Simon called again, cautiously taking a step forward. “Am I supposed to just wait, or-“ Simon was cut off by a male voice.
“Patient detected! Identity… Unverified. You are not listed in the ships registry. Initiating defense protocols.” The voice was robotic, yet human at the same time.
“What? No! No! Let’s not do that! No defense protocols!” Simon rambled back as another camera sunk down from the ceiling.
“I uh— I got a scan in the medbay earlier! Ten minutes ago! My identity is there—!”
“… Verifying.” The camera stayed completely still for what felt like forever. “Scanning for conformation.” A blue light shot out of the camera, just like it had in the medbay. Simon flinched at the sudden burst of brightness, an image of … that eye thing burning in his memory for a few seconds. He shook his head, trying to clear it as the laser scanned over him.
“Verified. Head Engineer has bypassed defense protocols. Welcome, UNREGISTERED USER.”
“.. Call me Simon?” He sounded unsure.
“Cannot enter a name until you are added to the ship registry,” the voice voice remained smooth, echoing against the walls.
“Can you add me then?”
“Add you to what?”
“…To the list thing?” Simon made a motion with his hand, waving it back and forth twice.
“The ship registry?”
“Yeah, that. Can you add me to that?”
“No.” the robotic voice suddenly sounded almost sassy.
“What do you mean no?!” Simon’s patience was wearing thin.
“Verification would be required from The Captain, The Head Engineer, or the head Medical Staff.”
“Well, Mark- uh, Head Engineer, bypassed protocols for me? Is that not enough verification??”
“No.”
Simon let out a frustrated sigh, glowering at the camera thing.
“Don’t give me that look,” said the voice.
“WhhhHAT? Can you see me?!” He stepped toward the camera, looking directly into it and tilting his head side to side to try and get a look at the lens.
“Yes, I can. And I don’t appreciate- Please stop poking me. I don’t appreciate- I said stop poking me.”
Simon paused, eyes wide, before poking it again.
“Alerting Captain that Patient unfortunately passed away.”
“WAIT NO-“
“Fine. Allowing you one more chance.”
“Are you a person?” Simon asked. “I- Not to be rude, you just—“
“I am not a person. I am S.H.I.P.”
“Does that stand for something..?”
“Yes. Safe, Helpful, Intelligent, Pilot.”
“So you’re the pilot?”
“In a way. I am the ship. I am an Artificial Intelligence program created by Head Engineer, whereas multiple people contributed to programming me, such as..”
Simon blinked at it as it started spouting off names and facts.
“Okay, stop. Stop. You threatened to kill me! Do you not have safety protocols or something??”
“I would not have actually killed you.”
“You’re not just saying that, right?”
“No.”
“Okay, good. I’m keeping my eye on you, though.”
“I am keeping my eyes on you, as well. I am keeping my eyes on everybody all the time.”
“…. Wow. That’s not creepy at all.” Simon rolled his eyes. “Mark sent me in here to get scanned for illness or some shit, can you do that?”
“Absolutely! Stand still, so that I can see you.”
“Don’t shoot a death laser at me.”
“No promises,” said the voice as yet another bright burst of light, red this time, scanned over Simon, once again burning that image in his memory. His hands shook slightly.
“Scan completed!” The voice declared, and the camera shot back up into the ceiling.
“So Wh-“ Simon started to ask, before the voice cut him off.
“Radiation damage detected. Left leg fractured. Right arm suffers from boils. Left arm suffers from boils. Concussion detected. Minor bruising on the head, shoulders, and left leg. Bruised ribs detected.”
“How the fuck did you detect all that from a scan.” Simon deadpanned, somewhat impressed.
“Do you really want me to explain all of that?” S.H.I.P asked in an annoyed tone.
“… fair point. Did you say radiation damaging?”
“Yes, I did. Would you like me to repeat my list?”
“No, I want to know about RADIATION DAMAGING.”
“your suffers severe damage due to excessive exposure to radiation, several of your organs have began to liquify, and-“
“I’m gonna stop you there.” Simon rubbed his face with one hand, the other held up in a stop motion to the camera. “I don’t need to know all of that.. so am I gonna die?”
“Potentially.”
“… I’m so fucked..”
“Wrong! We have procedures to save you, though they are somewhat risky. You shouldn’t leave the quarantine for at least a day after treatment.”
“What? The fuck? You have treatment for radiation poisoning??”
“Do you not?”
“NO??”
“I am obligated to warn you that the procedure is not risk free, and there is still a recovery period afterward. Supposing everything goes well, you may still suffer several symptoms for up to a week after treatment.” The voice sounded bored
“So my organs will still liquify?”
“Unlikely. Vomiting, nausea, peeling of skin, etc are what you would experience.”
“… lovely.”
“please stand still for the procedure; this might hurt.”

once it was over because I don’t wanna write that because I’m not a scientist, Simon was slumped against the wall.
“Is there something I can help you with?” The ship inquired, causing Simon to flinch at the sudden noise.
“No, no, I’m fine.. Just. Is it weird I miss Mark? I only knew him for ten minutes, but… he was nicer than anyone back ‘home.’”
“Yes, it is weird.”
Simon shot a sharp glance at the camera, before letting out a defeated sigh
“Mark is insufferable.”
“I-“ Simon burst out laughing. “What-??? I thought he made you!”
“He did. And he is still insufferable.”
“Why the fuck do you have so much free will?! Giving robots free will was a notoriously bad idea, according to books and movies and shit from back home.”
“I’m nice.”
“Debatable,” Simon snickered.
“I just stopped your organs from liquifying. Your life is in my hands. Want to try that again?”
“.. dear god.” Simon chuckled.

Chapter Text

Mark tapped his foot impatiently, arms folded, a frustrated expression planted firmly on his face as Cece spouted some bullshit about ‘bad decisions’ and ‘danger.’ Mark hadn’t actually been paying attention for several minutes; these meetings were always pretty boring, anyways.
Mark, Mack, The Captain, Cece, and some other people that mark didn’t know as well were sat around one of those long business tables tables. Mark tapped a finger against the sleek white surface, taking a sip of his coffee. It was almost 3 pm according to the day/night cycle clock on the wall, but mark honestly couldn’t care less. He needed the stimulant to deal with Cece’s BS.
There was some chatting and debating between some people around him. He looked down at his barely-visible reflection in the dark liquid, before swirling the cup a few times, wondering how Simon was doing. It’s normal for someone with as much authority as he had to care about a new member! Especially when humanities numbers were so… low.. Mark sighed deeply.
“Well, what do you think, Engie?” Mack inquired from across the table.
“Huh?” Mark’s gaze snapped back up. Oh yeah, the meeting. “Iiiii… uuuuhhhhhh…” he dragged out the words, trying to cover the fact he hadn’t been paying attention. He instead made it glaringly obvious.
“See?! This is what I mean! If he can’t even pay attention at a simple meeting— This isn’t the first time, might I remind you— Can we actually keep letting him make decisions like this?!” CECE jabbed a hand outward, motioning aggressively towards a confused Mark.
“Hey! Who said I wasn’t paying attention?!” He argued back
“You did! You made it pretty obvious!”
“Well, I don’t like your assumptions!”
“Then answer Mack’s question.” Cece sat back in the chair, her posture straight and stiff as a board, folding her arms.
“Well I didn’t say I WAS paying attention.”
Cece facepalmed, hard. Mark grinned nervously. The captain’s head turned towards mark. The captain just did a shush motion, and a thumbs up, then a little guy running with their middle and pointer finger. Mark had no idea what this meant.
“Well,” Mack cleared his throat “He’s done a LOT for this ship. The guy practically built it!”
“Not just practically, it was quite impractical as well,” Mark added. Mack side-eyed him, pausing just long enough to make Mark’s heart sink before continuing.
“… As I was saying.. The captain trusts him. He’s never led us astray before..”
“he has though..” Cece muttered with obvious hostility
“Excuse me?” Mark hissed.
“Nothing, just how bad of a leader you are.”
“I am a GREAT leader!” Mark stood up from his chair. “I have dedicated countless hours to leading this ship and its crew to greater heights—“
“OH, REALLY?!” Cece stood too, shoving her chair back. Want to explain WHY THE—“
The captain suddenly stood, slamming their fist on the desk. Everyone’s gazes immediately locked onto the captain, and the two unruly coworkers felt the pressure settle onto them.
The captain did some aggressive gesturing and motioning, but when absolutely nobody understood, they made a disappointed exasperated stance, similar to that of a father after finding out his kids don’t like football. After a moment, they pulled out their data-pad from their belt, and quickly tapped some buttons. Everybody at the table felt a vibration from their very own data-pads, and pulled them out, finding a notification from the captain that read:
“I trust Mark more than I do myself,f >:( dtop fighting!!”
“Stop* typo oops”

Mark snorted at the message, looking up at the Captain, who gave him a thumbs up.
“You can‘t be serious!” Cece protested. “You do know what happened, right?!”
The captain sent a message just reading “I know better than you do. If mark says we help the new guy, we help the new guy!”
“Thank you for your support, Captain.” Mark smiled. The captain’s head looked at him for a moment before being dragged away by Mack speaking.
“Actually, I do agree with Engie here. Despite all his shortcomings, and believe me, there’s a lot of them, this is important. He found another human; one not aboard the ship. That means we aren’t the last ones left out here. Things might not be as.. uh, hopeless, as some of you previously made it out to be.”
Cece paused. “Mark, did you ask it about where it came from?”
“What?”
“Did you ask the guy where it came from?!”
“Do you mean Simon??”
“OBVIOUSLY I MEAN SIMON!” Cece spat the name.
“Well, he’s not an it! And I did, actually. He didn’t really say much, but he really didn’t want to go back.”
“Well, that’s too bad-“ Cece started. The captain’s head snapped towards her in a way that made her shut up.
Suddenly, the S.H.I.P’s voice echoed through the room.
“Unregistered Patient has been treated. Presence of The Captain, Head Engineer, or Head of Medical is requested.”
“Head of medical is taking the day off, aren’t they?” Mack asked. Mark’s heart suddenly dropped.
“Then the Captain and I should go,” Cece decided.
“You weren’t even one of the requested members?!” Mark argued
“Fine, all three of us.”
Mark stared at her in confusion.
The Captain nodded, seeming to agree.

The three approached the quarantine. Mark and Cece had bickered the whole way, and the captain was sick and tired of it. They grabbed Mark’s hand and pushed it onto the lock-pad
“Uh- you could have just asked-“
The doors slid open, and they entered a small airlock chamber, where they were all sprayed with a blue substance. The doors on the other side of the airlock-type room slid open, and led into the real quarantine room. Simon was sitting against the back wall, and he looked almost like he was about to fall asleep.
“Welcome Back, Captain, Head Engineer and Head of Cryo,” said the S.H.I.P, and suddenly Simon’s gaze snapped up.
“I do more than just that,” Cece snapped.
“Loading you into the patient database..”
“No! I am not a patient!” She stomped her foot. Mark snickered.
“Oh, no, no, aren’t you? Don’t you just feel soooo hot in the head? Might have a fever.” He strode out of the doors and into the room. Cece let out a frustrated noise similar to a growl, and began to stomp towards him, but The Captain grabbed her shoulder.
“Hey..” Simon waved to them, studying The Captain.
“Alright, S.H.I.P, what’s the status report? What’re we in for?” Mark asked, placing his hands on his hips.
“Patient requested to leave,” answered the ship
“Well, can he?”
“Patient is not contagious, but should stay under medical supervision for 24-48 hours.”
“… So..”
“Please remove him from the Quarantine station, he is quite annoying.”
“I- Hey! You’re one to talk!” Simon argued, a smile on his face.
Mark hadn’t seen him smile yet. It was contagious; to him at least. Of course, captain’s face was hidden under their giant astronaut helmet, and Cece still had a permanent scowl. Maybe Mark just had more joy and whimsy than they did!
“Well,” Cece started, walking right up beside Mark, glaring at him. “I think that he should stay here.”
“What?” Mark frowned “Why? We could at least move him back to medical! Quarantine wasn’t built for long-term stays.”
“Then why is it called Quarantine… If you aren’t meant to stay here for long..?” Cece scowled at him, and Mark could tell she was questioning one of his strange decisions for building the ship again.
“The ship wasn’t made for long term stays at all! This was just meant to be somewhere we could put people before a jump!”
The captain put their hand’s on each of the two’s shoulders, then pointed back at Simon.
Mark looked back over, finally actually looking at Simon. The guy was pale, with some pretty severe eyebags, plus said eyes were mildly bloodshot; but he didn’t look as dead inside as he had before, so that was a good thing! There was some light behind those eyes now!
“We’ll put him in medical, alright?”
“Ugh. Fine. But I am not gonna finish covering for Sarah if I have to deal with him.”
“Cece, seriously, what is your problem?” Mark folded his arms.
“Well- I— …” she couldn’t come up with a reason other than Mark having brought the guy aboard.
“Asshole,” Simon muttered.
“I heard that!” She snapped, pointing at him. Simon rolled his eyes, and slowly stood, a hand on the wall for support.
“Patient was suffering from Radiation poisoning. He has been treated, and the rest should be treated by the medical staff,” The S.H.I.P spoke through the speakers.
“Understood. Anything else we should know?” Mark asked.
“Recovery time is estimated to be between 24-48 hours, but could be quicker, or longer.”
“Yep, knew that already. Alright, let’s go.” Mark motioned for them to leave, and the Captain nodded, walking for the door. Cece followed. Mark, however, looked back at Simon, and offered to help him. Simon shook his head and hobbled after them. Mark saw him wince with every step, though, and forced an arm around Simon so that he wouldn’t be putting so much strain on the fractured leg.
“I don’t need help—“
“Shut up. If you keep walking on a broken leg, you’re only going to make it worse, and then it’ll take our doctors even longer to get it to heal properly. Due to the lack of resources at the moment, we can’t really afford that,” Mark countered. Simon didn’t argue again.

Cece and The Captain decided to head off to properly dismiss the earlier meeting and get back to their duties aboard the ship, while Mark took Simon to the med bay. The doors slid open, but this time there was actually a doctor inside. A young looking girl, maybe in her twenties.
“This the guy from the quarantine?” She asked. Mark nodded, and guides Simon to a bed; same one from earlier, actually.
“Gotcha. Could we get him registered properly?” She tapped a few buttons on an iPad.
“Oh, right! Simon, do you want to be an official member of the Invincible II?”
“Uhhh… Sure?” He sounded kind of confused.
“Great! Alright, let me just..” Mark pulled out his Datapad, navigating to the ‘register new member’ screen, and opening up the form. “First and last name?”
“Simon Iplier.”
“How do you spell that..?”
“I-P-L-I-E-R.”
“Greeaaattt. Gender? Male right?”
Simon nodded.
“Okay.. blah blah blah, we can fill the rest out later. Do you want a specific ID number or should I just generate one?”
“Doesn’t matter to me.” Simon shrugged
“Great.. S1308,” Mark announced. “That’s all that’s required for treatment, the rest is just stuff about society, and we can figure that out when you aren’t dying of radiation.”
“I’m not dying anymore,” Simon countered. “Sure.. Do you have to go..?”
“Uhh. Not unless I’m pinged, I can stay.”
“… I don’t really want to be alone.”
“You wouldn’t be, there’s doctor Mclovin.”
“… yeah, but..” Simon looked away. Mark tilted his head, and moved to sit down, but received a ping on his datapad instead. Looked like he did have to leave, after all.
“I’m sorry, Si, I’ll come back when I can, alright? Once this is all dealt with, I’ll give you a proper tour, how does that sound?”
Simon seemed to analyze him for a moment before nodding.
With that, Mark headed out of the room, to the pilot station, where Captain, Cece, and several other crew members were all working and chatting. There were cryo chambers on both sides of the room in the back corners, the front of the room was a giant glass window, which behind showed only the pure black void of space. There were no more stars or planets ever since The Blackout… In the center of the room was a large console the size of a large dinner table.
“What’s going on?” Mark asked, placing his hands on his hips.
“We might have found another ship.” Mack looked up at Mark.

Chapter Text

It had been two days since Simon initially boarded the Invincible II, and medical was finally letting him out. During the two days he’d been stuck in that little white room, Mark had visited him once, and it was only for five minutes. He had gotten lonely, especially since the doctors didn’t talk to him any more than they absolutely had too.
Simon had to admit, he was feeling a LOT better. He hadn’t even realized just how bad his body was failing him until it was fixed; he didn’t feel so stiff and tired; oh, and he wasn’t vomiting up blood anymore, and his skin wasn’t falling off, and… well, there were a lot of things he could list.
The door to the room slid open with a shnnk, and there stood… Well, not Mark. Simon was starting to get frustrated with him.
“Alright, let’s get this over with. I’m covering for Sarah again, and all the others are busy with the current situation, so I’m here to sign you out.” Cece strode into the room, pushing some of her white hair out of her eyes. “Is he good enough to leave?” She asked the nurse, who nodded.
“Yep, all we need now is DNA verification that he’s allowed on the ship!” The lady handed her the data-pad, which had a spot for Cece to push her hand onto.
“Great, let’s get this over with. We have important things to do— Or, I do, at least.” She put her hand on the iPad. A da-DING! Sounded from the iPad.
“Great news, Mr Iplier, you’re officially free to go! Remember to use the crutch for at least a month. Have a good day!” She ushered Simon out of the room, waving as he left.
Cece followed after, and immediately started walking away.
“Hey- WAIT!” Simon chased after her as quickly as he could, which wasn’t very fast due to the fact his leg was in a cast.
“You’re going to have to run faster than that if you want to be useful,” Cece hissed, turning on her heels and folding her arms. “What do you want?”
“Uh- Okay, rude. Do you know where Mark is—?” Simon frowned.
“He’s busy, pipsqueak. We all are, go find someone to play bingo with or something.” She started to walk away
“I- Please? What’s going on..? Everybody’s been chatting- I heard the doctors talking! They wouldn’t tell me, though. Is he okay? I.. I thought he would’ve visited a little more!”
“… That’s classified.” She said after a moment, but she didn’t move to walk away this time, studying him. “Actually.. Hm. You might end up being of more worth than I first thought.. Come along, then.” She waved for Simon to follow her.
Simon hadn’t expected that, and scrambled to catch up to her. “What do you need me for..?” He asked hesitantly.
“You aren’t from this ship, yeah?”
“Yeah, I uh.. I’m from Eden.”
“I don’t know what that means, kid.” Cece folded her arms. Simon raised an eyebrow at her, almost certain that he was older than she was.
“… It’s a station from my old fleet.”
“The lost fleet, if Mark’s theory is correct. Well, we recently picked up a fleet of ships on our radar; it started as one, but there seems to be a whole fleet. A small one, but other people, nonetheless. Considering that all the stars, planets, and other ships are gone, there’s a damn good chance that we found where you came from.”
“… Don’t send me back there,” Simon pleaded.
“That’s not my choice to make, it’s The Captain’s, ultimately. Anyways, if those stations and ships are where you’re from, you would know a lot about them, right?”
“I guess..?”
“So you can be of use.” Cece put her hand on the dna-pad outside the doors at the end of the hall, which then slid open.
Inside stood Mark, Mack, The Captain, and several other people Simon didn’t know yet, including a guy with a shit ton of bullets and guns, which he made a note of mentally.
“Mark!” Cece shouted to announce their arrival. “What’s the status?”
“They still haven’t moved; Assuming they stay there, we can reach them in.. two days time without the warp core.”
“Good, because we don’t HAVE the warp core anymore, and you used our last tank of gas getting away from the blood moon.”
“You don’t have to keep reminding me!” Mark snapped, glowering.
“Whatever. Anyways, I brought the newbie. Figured he might have some internal knowledge of those ships.” Cece gave Simon a shove forward.
Simon stumbled, barely regaining his balance with the crutch. “Uh. Yeah. Hi,” Simon said as he discretely flipped Cece off by holding his hand back while he slowly stood up straight again.
“Oh! Simon! That- .. was a good idea, Cece.. good work..” Mark sighed, sounding like the words had personally hurt him.
Simon stared out the giant window on the front of the room, at the pure black void. No more stars lit up the outside; they hadn’t for years.
“Well— Did you bring him up to speed?” Mark asked. Cece nodded. There was some murmuring between the people on the edges of the room; there were about a dozen, total, if Simon had to guess.
“Yeah, I know what’s going on.. So, uhm. I guess I can be of help..?” He sounded somewhat reluctant. Simon was.. very, very hesitant to be working higher ups of anything again, especially in a situation like this. However, they weren’t welding him inside a submarine and sending him to certain death, so it was definitely a much better situation anyways.
“Back to work, everyone! I’ll talk to him, and report anything of use,” Mark said with an overly professional voice before he turned back to Simon, clapping his hands together. “So! How does coffee sound?” He sounded much more casual now.
“… What?” Simon was suddenly reminded of the minor annoyance Mark’s ever present good attitude brought him.
“Coffee! What, you never heard of it?” Mark started walking towards the door. The rest of the crew was back to work. The Captain stood at the center console, pressing buttons and pushing levers. “Those don’t do anything without fuel, I don’t know why they still act like they can steer..”
“I- No, I’ve heard of coffee— I guess I haven’t ever had it, but.. It just.. feels abrupt?” He followed after Mark, who waited for him, and then slowed to keep pace with Simon’s hindered pace; which was more than Cece had done, so he was grateful for that.
“Abrupt?” Mark asked, tilting his head.
“I mean.. You were gone for two days. Only spared me five minutes..”
“With the discovery of another fleet, I’ve been busy!” Mark placed a hand on Simon’s shoulder “Buuut I’m here now! So what’s up?”
Simon brushed Mark’s hand off, not being a fan of physical touch. “… I need a tour of the ship. I don’t want to be reliant on you every time I need something.”
“Alright! Coffee first— there’s this little cafe in the food court, you just gotta try it! You’ll never want the regular stuff again, believe you me.”
“I’ve never had coffee, regular or not,” Simon reminded him. Mark inhaled through his teeth. “Riiiight, okay. Well, you’re gonna love it!”
Simon didn’t feel a need to respond. The halls had many different people throughout them, ranging from people dressed like the C.O.I members, with collared shirts and jeans, all the way up to a few people with vests and ties. It felt so.. dystopian, to Simon.
“Hey, you good, Si?” Mark asked, tilting his head.
“Huh? Yeah, I uh.. I’m fine,” Simon said in reply.
“Alright— You were staring, is all. Got this weird sad look on your face.”
“… I uh.. Where I’m from.. I dunno. Everything’s just so.. casual here.”
“… What do you mean?” Mark tilted his head again. He looked like a dog; it was almost cute.
Simon decided to pretend he hadn’t even had that thought, entirely not in the mood to try and deal with the complex emotions that would bring. “… People just.. talk here. They’re just walking around. Talking to eachother. It’s.. just weird.” Simon failed to word it in a way that didn’t make him sound like a sympathetic figure, and he internally kicked himself for that.
“.. I.. eheh, what??” Mark now looked at him with a concerned amused face, his brows furrowed in worry, but still smiling.. God, did that smile ever go away?! … It’s not that Simon didn’t like it, but all the time is a bit much!
“I.. I dunno, forget I said anything.” Simon looked away. Mark, to absolutely nobody’s surprise, did not just ‘forget he said anything.’
“No, tell me! We could use any information you have about that fleet out there, and we’re friends! You can talk to me!”
“.. We are?” Simon looked up.
“Aren’t we?” Mark’s smile faltered, and for some reason, and that made Simon’s heart drop a bit. Damnit.
“I— yes..?” Simon didn’t mean to hurt Mark, he just .. assumed they weren’t?
“‘Kay, great! Now tell me what you were saying!”
“.. Where I’m from, there just wasn’t any time for rest— Not on Eden, at least. Constant planning, talking, worry, whatever.. Wasn’t any different for the C.O.I, from the little I’ve seen, and uh— .. yeah.” He was GOING to say ‘and it wasn’t any different in prison,’ but he realized he didn’t actually want to reveal he was a convict; especially for something that wasn’t even really his fault.
“Seriously? No rest at all? You couldn’t ever just stop too.. I dunno, get some coffee? Or, well, an equivalent, I guess.”
“Food was scarce. Ate only what we needed.. And I mean, there was SOME breaks, but for the majority of my life, it was just hard labor, planning, attending Father’s preachings..”
“Oh, you’re religious? You believe in God or something?”
“… It’s.. complicated.”
“Complicated how?”
“I don’t want to talk about that.”
“oh- OH! I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable-“
“You’re alright. I brought it up. Kind of. I don’t care.” Simon shrugged
“Oh thank god.” Mark let out a relieved sigh “Wait, is that offensive?”
“Mark.” Simon rolled his eyes.
“RIGHT. yeah, okay, I get it, stop talking about it.” Mark looked away awkwardly.
“…”
“…”
Simon looked away, thinking..
“Hey Mark?”
“Yeah?” Mark’s gaze shifted back over to Simon.
“Can.. I ask about what I heard in the.. I don’t know, pilot-work-room?”
“The command room. Yes, you can! You might be vital to our operations, so I’m sure I can get Captain to agree to let you in on our SECRETS!” Mark laughed, a bright sound; one that made Simon smile a bit. “Nah, we don’t got secrets; some stuff is just confidential for security reasons.. Anyways.. What was I saying?”
“I just wanted to ask— If the ship has no fuel, how can it move? Someone else mentioned an estimated arrival in two days.”
“Well.. we might be out of fuel, but we’re still slowly drifting through the vacuum. Plus, we’ve got some guys down in the RUTNL department figuring out a renewable energy source using power plant type stuff from old earth.”
Simon stopped dead in the hall. “You’re what?”
“… Making more fuel / energy using uranium..?”
“Don’t. Don’t fucking do that.”
“What?? Why?” Mark looked genuinely confused. There’s no way he didn’t know, right? Simon couldn’t believe that he was genuinely oblivious.
“Radiation poisoning??”
“Ohh. No, yeah, we already solved that forever ago. Whole reason we even have uranium is because smaller systems— Like the S.H.I.P for example, are powered by it, so that it doesn’t draw from the civilian energy source.”
“How can I help you, Head Engineer?” S.H.I.P’s voice echoed from above.
Simon looked up, looking around with wide eyes like he’d be able to find the source of the voice.
“Not talking to you!” Head engineer shouted. Several people in the hallway giggled.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch that!” S.H.I.P said smugly.
“I KNOW you did, actually!” Mark placed his hands on his hips, looking up at the ceiling with disdain.
“Prove it.”
“Wh- PROVE IT?? Just leave me alone! I don’t need you right now!” Mark folded his arms, instead, tapping his foot. Simon could tell from the usually-cheery man’s impatience that this happened a lot.
“You don’t need me, but do you want me?” Answered the S.H.I.P, intentionally frustrating the Head Engineer now.
“No! I don’t! Just- Fuck off!”
“If you say so, Head Engineer. Just call out for me if you ever need assistance~!” The ai’s voice came dripping with Mischievousity (I think that’s a word).
“Damn robot..” Mark huffed. “Anyways! As I was saying..” he started walking again, at a pace too quick for Simon to keep up with in the crutches— he still wasn’t used to them, and wobbled, trying to keep up, before losing his balance entirely and nearly falling
“Woah-!” Mark caught him before he could hit the ground. “Careful there, Si. Don’t need you any more injured than you already are, now do we?” Mark smiled warmly down at the other man.
Simon stared up into Mark’s eyes, and he swore he could see a certain sparkle there he hadn’t seen anywhere else for years.. there was a certain heat to his face he hadn’t felt before— likely out of embarrassment for falling. Yeah.
Then Mark set him upright again, a hand on his back to make sure he was balanced. Simon cleared his throat, readjusting the crutch to a comfortable walking position under his arm.
“Uh… yeah, my.. my bad.” Simon looked away
“Nah, I shouldn’t have started walking so fast, I already know how slow you are.”
“Hey!”
“With the crutches!” Mark clarified, waving his hands in front of himself. “C’mon! We’re basically at the food court already.” Mark ran up ahead like a yard or two to hold the doors open for Simon; they were red swingy doors with black-and-white checkered accents.
Simon smiled gratefully, hobbling through. He could not wait for the bone to heal. Why didn’t this place just have magic leg healer?! They had magic radiation healer! Nothing made sense to him.
“Okayy.. You like sugar or cream or— Right, you’ve never had it. Don’t worry, I got this, just find a table for us, okay? Okay!” Mark gave Simon a thumbs up and no room to speak before skittering off to a counter near the back right corner.

Simon found a seat near the back of the cafeteria, where it was quieter and there was less hustling and bustling. He set the crutch against the wall to his right, which also had several large windows to look through. All had absolutely nothing but pure inky void behind them.. The stars had burned out long ago. Simon knew that; yet every time he looked, he still expected to see their ghost light.
… he missed them dearly. Even if they’d been completely snuffed out, even from view, for years, the thought of those endless lights brought him great comfort. A sense of nostalgia from a time long past. Simon fished around in his pocket for a moment— he’d had something with him when he left the submarine— he’d hidden it away in his pockets pretty quickly after arriving, though. Didn’t want anyone to try and steal it or something.
He pulled out a small, circular glass pendant, with a seed and a small sapling inside it. He held it up in front of himself, staring at it with pure admiration; he lowered it into his other hand, cradling it.
His reminder of where he came from, and the people he would always belong too in some sense— maybe not literally, but a part of him would always be stuck in the hole where the last tree had been planted.
“… I mourn you, brother.. thank you for keeping me safe,” Simon muttered in a voice barely more than just a breath, moving to tuck the pendant away again.
Mark was standing there, across from the small red table, holding two white mugs with miscellaneous text on them
“What’s that?” He asked, sitting down and sliding one of the drinks across the table to Simon.
“It uh- It’s nothing.” He tucked it away quickly, looking at the drink. He looked the entire cup over, then sniffed it- hooolllly SHIT. That shit was fucking pungent, god DAMN. Simon wrinkled his nose at it.
“Hey! I know it might not smell great, but believe you me, it’s SO GOOD.”
“…” Simon eyed him skeptically, before slowly moving to take a sip..
Shit was bitter as fuck. Simon tried to keep a pleasant expression but must’ve clearly fucked up, because the next words Mark said were,
“… I probably should have asked for sugar in yours, huh?”
“Mayyybee.” He stuck his tongue out.
“Hmmmm. Try some of mine.”
“I-“
“Don’t argue with me, just try it.”
Simon sighed with minor annoyance, but obeyed. Shit was sweet as fuck. Like, way too fucking sweet. It was a better experience, but still.
“… Nnnnot my thing.” Simon pushed the mug back over to Mark. “Thanks, though.” He then grabbed his own mug and prepared to down it.
“What are you doing?! I thought you hated that shit?” Mark tilted his head.
“… I don’t want to let it go to waste …?” Simon answered like it was obvious, lowering the mug.
“Don’t even worry about that! This ship’s original mission was to get us to a planet to colonize, so we have basically everything we need to live life like we’re still on earth.”
“… seriously..?”
“Trust you me, one cup of coffee down the drain won’t hurt anyone.”
Simon looked down at the cup, swirling the brown liquid around a bit, watching his reflection distort— until..
The eye—
But then he blinked. And it was gone, as if it’d never been there at all. Simon felt a little rattled, and now feeling even more desperate to get rid of the god awful drink, chugged it anyways. That shit was nasty, and he ended up in a small coughing fit after, trying desperately to keep the noise as low as possible.
“Holy— Are you alright?” Mark stood up and moved around the table.
“I’m-“ he coughed “fine—“ .. eventually he stopped. Must’ve accidentally inhaled some of it..
“Christ, man. Seriously, you don’t have to eat or drink shit you don’t like.”
“It’s fine,” Simon said, firmer this time. He stood up, grabbing his crutch.
“If you say so,” Nark said a little quietly, glancing at the rest of the cafeteria. “So, how about that tour?”

Chapter Text

Mark lead Simon down a hall— they all looked the same, though. Same blue-ish white lights, same triangular doorframes, etc. Mark knew his way around like the back of his hand, though. He built the thing, it was basically his baby, so that made sense. Simon, however, looked confused the further they walked.
“Every goddamn hallway looks the same!” Simon complained. Mark shrugged.
“You get used to it.. So, you wanna see the orchard?”
“.. The.. what?” Simon sounded genuinely confused.
“The orchard!” Mark repeated, and Simon just looked even more confused. “You… don’t know what an orchard is?”
Simon shook his head. Mark felt another pang of sympathy— which happened a lot. Simon was a nice guy! He didn’t deserve whatever he’d been through, and Mark almost wished he could have been there to save him sooner... Mark cleared his throat. “It’s like a garden for trees.”
“You have trees?” Simon looked over with renewed curiosity, but Mark could see a somber glint to the man’s expression; mixed with hope..?
“Yeah! Our original mission was to colonize other planets, before the blackout, so we have everything we need for a functional society! It’s how we survived so long, really. C’mon, I’ll show you! It’s really pretty!” He grabbed Simon’s hand to drag him away, but was quickly reminded of Simon’s broken leg, and let go quickly, clearing his throat and looking away.
He couldn’t be TOO eager now, could he? People a;ways talked about ‘be nonchalant’ ‘be hard to get,’ whatever. Maybe he should try that approach… Wait a minute, he was off topic. “It’s really nice! You have trees where you’re from, Si?” He smiled warmly at Simon, who looked away with an upset, almost guilty expression.
“… It’s complicated.”
Mark sighed and sipped his coffee. Did anything good happen to Simon ever?! It seemed to him like the guy’s life was just misery and torment before Mark’s crew found him.. Probably a good thing they were en route to the other fleet, then.
“Whoo, okay, my bad,” Mark said simply, desperately searching for another conversation topic.
“We had trees— Eden did, at least. There were three when I was born, but by the time I was ten, there was only one. They…” Simon sighed, looking hesitant. Mark wanted to just hug the guy, with the way it looked like this story hurt him to tell.
“You don’t have to tell me—“
“No- I want too. you’ve done so much for me, it’s.. the least I can do.” Simon finally met Mark’s gaze.
So much..? All he’d done was show the guy some basic decency..
“.. They uh. They told us that when we die, we become the soil for the tree, as to allow for new life to keep flourishing— but.. It died eventually. We only have so much we can give.. The last time i sat under it’s branches was the last time i saw the stars.”
Mark felt a pang of guilt.
“Sorry— Is that too much? Might’ve gotten a little, uh, corny at the end there-“ Simon frowned.
“No- Simon, you don’t have to apologize for everything!“
“I’m not, though.”
“You’ve basically done nothing BUT apologize since you got here!” Mark reprimanded, poking Simon in the chest. Simon flinched, and mark immediately felt horrible for it.
“… I really don’t want to argue with you about this. Come on.” Mark’s gaze lingered,on Simon for a moment longer, before turning to start walking again. Simon didn’t look scared, or surprised, or anything, just tired. Mark wondered if maybe it wasn’t the first time Simon had dealt with a situation like this. “I’m… glad you felt comfortable enough to tell me that, though.”
“… you need information on the fleet, I just provided what I had too.” Simon looked away, grabbing his crutches to hobble on after Mark.
“Well, thank you for that.” Mark led Simon into an elevator, placing his hands on his hips. Simon followed, leaning against the back wall.
“Bio scan,” said S.H.I.P. A blue light ran over them. “Welcome, Head Engineer and S1308.”
“… Do you really think life is sustainable on here forever?” Simon asked after a moment. Mark raised an eyebrow.
“I do! Supposedly, back on earth, everything was a cycle; and even though this ship was really only built to house us until we could reach planets, we’ve set up a pretty good cycle. I can show you after the orchard, which—“
DING!
“We have arrived at!” Mark walked out of the elevator, waiting patiently for Simon to stand up straight again, and grab his crutches. “Just down the hall.”
“You have a cure for radiation poisoning but not broken bones..” Simon grumbled
“Curing broken bones is more difficult.”
“FUCKING HOW?!” Simon immediately regretted his volume “Wait—“
“You’re fine,” Mark said preemptively. “Radiation poisoning is the decaying of cells— or, that’s a big part of it. We developed technology to just cause temporary cancer, constantly duplicating, while erasing the old cells.”
“… You gave me cancer-?!”
“No! You already had cancer, we just amplified it to our advantage, and then killed off the bad cells.”
“I should have listened in science class,” Simon groaned
“Fixing a leg is different; it’s a far smaller amount of cells to replenish, or rather, rearrange. Plus bone cells can be very temperamental; and we don’t have the recourses to finish testing our broken bones cure. We had one! But it stopped working, right before the blackout.”
“The what?”
“The.. blackout?” Mark said as if that would answer what Simon was asking.
“What the fuck does that mean??”
“OH. Right, you’re new— I forget, eheh…. The blackout is uh, when all the stars and planets dissapeared.”
“Ohh.. We .. uh.. we call that… The Quiet Rapture where I’m from.”
“That is a WAY cooler name for it!” Mark looked over at Simon. “Why didn’t we think of that?! Man!”
“… I don’t really want to talk about this,” Simon said after a moment, looking away.
“Well, we don’t have too! Also, we’re here!” Mark put his hand on the little dna pad outside the doorway, opening up into a large domed room, with several trees in a sphere of grass.
Mark grinned over at Simon, who looked absolutely awe struck— wait, was he crying?
“Woah, hey! You alright?” Mark immediately put a hand on the guy’s back, closing the small gap between them.
“I— I’m fine, I just..” Simon wiped his eyes, forcing out a breathy laugh “Have’t seen any trees since I was a kid..” He broke away from Mark, entering into the room. He paused just outside the grass, tentatively poking it with his crutch.
Mark couldn’t help but smile. Something about seeing Simon happy just… lit a spark in him. He couldn’t explain it. He waltzed over, sitting down under one of the trees and patting the grass beside him, inviting Simon to follow.
Which he did, happily, as far as Mark could tell. The grass crunched beneath the man’s weight, and the shadows the branches of the thickly developed oak tree they’d sad under blocked out the bright, sterile lights hung from the top of the dome. Simon looked almost entranced.
“I always loved it down here. Sometimes, if you look closely outside, you can still see the shimmer of some of the stars. Gone or not, they still echo at us.”
“I… I really .. I don’t know what to say..” Simon’s voice broke with emotion. Mark leaned against him, which was easy, considering Simon was massive in comparison to him.
“You don’t have to say anything.. Captain’s mute, but sometimes they can speak a thousand words with just a glance in your direction.”
Simon nodded thoughtfully, staying quiet. Sometimes words really aren’t needed. Mark was content, and he could tell Simon was, too. Maybe they could just sit in the moment for a while. Mark had so many responsibilities, and worries, and rules, and things to deal with all the time, but he felt like, for that moment, he could simply forget it all. His work didn’t matter; The fleet didn’t matter; what mattered was that Mark was here, with Simon. Mark exhaled calmly, closing his eyes.
“… You’re really something, Mark,” Simon said quietly after a moment.
“Hmm?” Mark inquired.
“You built this ship, a functioning society— Despite the quiet rapture, and the loss of the planets.. It’s just.. impressive.”
“I can’t take all the credit.. Captain did a lot of work to get it functioning again after the blackout. Plus my crew…” Mark felt a stab of guilt. He had built the ship, sure, but he’d also almost destroyed it; almost destroyed everything. He found himself fidgeting with his gloves, pulling on the holes his fingers came out of, looking down at his hands.
“It’s just.. Impressive. Almost too good to be true.” Simon stared out at the stars, before seemingly realizing something, stiffening.
“You alright?” Asked Mark.
“Fine— just… If I was a kid when the quiet rapture happened, then how did you build this ship before the rapture? Aren’t we around the same age?”
“… I ..” Mark looked away, swallowing. “I can’t answer that.” He could; he just really didn’t want too.
“You are a human, right?” Simon then asked.
“Wh- YES!” Mark snorted, sitting up. “What do you mean?!”
“I-! Well. I don’t know, what if you’re just—“ Simon’s eyes flashed with worry, and he looked away, expression becoming unreadable. “I dunno, some alien thing..”
“We’re the same species, don’t worry. I’m thirty eight, by the way.”
“Thirty five,” replied Simon, poking at the grass.
Mark let out a sigh, looking out at the starless void. Every time he saw nothing but black out there, he just felt even worse guilt and dread seeping through him.
“Do you ever wonder if we’re being punished?” Simon’s voice snapped Mark out of his own head.
“What?”
“If maybe this is all some divine punishment. Maybe we screwed up.”
“… Is that why you call it the quiet rapture?”
“Not really.. Well, maybe. I never really thought about it.” Simon sighed.
“I don’t think so.” Mark tilted his head. He knew it wasn’t. “I think we got unlucky.”
Simon didn’t reply. A few leaves fell from the tree, flopping lazily towards the ground. There was a soft breeze, caused by fans planted by the doors of the orchard. Mark absentmindedly reached his hand towards Simon’s.
“We should go.” Simon stood up abruptly, using his crutch for support. “You’re a busy guy, and I still have the rest of the ship to see.”
Mark pulled his hand back, feeling a bit upset internally. He didn’t let it show, hopping right up to his feet. “You’re right! Oh, I can show you how we recycle everything! C’mon!”
Simon looked almost annoyed. Mark led off to the opposite side of the room from where they’d entered, slapping his hand on yet another DNA pad. The doors slid open. A sign above said doors read ‘Now Entering: …”
The series of rooms they were about to walk into had been made as extra space just in case; they hadn’t had an intended purpose. Not before the blackout, anyway.
The doorway opened into a sterile white lab space, and it smelled horrible. Mark groaned. “I forgot how bad it is..”
“… Not as bad as the submarine was,” Simon muttered.
“Seriously?!” Mark stared over in disbelief. Simon nodded. “Yeesh! Well, anyways. The trees in the orchard produce various fruit, nuts, you get the idea. But, similar problem to what your society had, we need soil for the trees. So…” he sighed. “We.. recycle human waste..”
“… Ew.”
“I knowww! Anyway..” Mark led him off into another room, explaining the various stages of recycling their supplies and materials into new cycles of life on the ship. Simon seemed.. rather bored, so Mark decided to skip the last few and just get him to the elevator.
“You’ve already seen the more important things, all that’s left iiiissss…” Mark pulled out his data pad, scrolling through the map of the ship. “Sleeping quarters! … Fuck.”
“What?” Simon looked concerned.
“We don’t.. really.. have sleeping quarters, and I don’t know if you’d be comfortable in a cryo pod.”
“You don’t have sleeping quarters?” Simon sounded .. taken aback.

Chapter Text

Apparently, Mark wasn’t lying. They had a few repurposed rooms with blankets and pillows, but that was mostly for the crew, since they had several hundred cryo pods for people to repurpose as beds.
Simon was baffled how this, of all things, was their worst oversight. Despite all of the incredible, mind shattering things he’d seen since showing up, they somehow didn’t have beds.
Mark ended up finding him an empty cryo pod he could use. Simon hated it, it was crammed, and reminded him of the submarine.
He made due, though. He didn’t want to be a burden..
Simon hardly slept that first night in the pod. He’d felt kind of.. Unreal during his first few days on the ship; especially since he’d been confined to the med bay. After seeing everything else the ship had to offer, he still felt like the situation wasn’t real.
But it was. It had to be, right..?
It HAD to be. Simon needed to be able to trust Mark. The guy might annoy him sometimes— And honestly, he would have hated the engineer before getting sent to the blood ocean— But fuck, did he really need Mark. Mark cared. That wasn’t something Simon was used too; he wasn’t sure he’d be able to get used to it.
He looked down at his scarred hands as he failed to try and sleep. He’d been disbelieving when he first got the radio signal from the Invincible II. He’d struggled to trust, but he forced himself too— because he NEEDED too. He couldn’t go any longer without being able to trust anybody.. Not after growing up with the tight-knit society on Eden.. Though his relationships had been strained, even then.
But something about Mark just.. Felt right to Simon. Something about his smile; his soft eyes, his warm smile, the way he fidgeted with his gloves when he got excited about something, the fact that Mark was patient, even with Simon’s hindered speed—
Stop. Don’t. Simon felt guilt shoot through him, and he pressed his palms into his eyes. He wasn’t allowed to think like that about someone, let alone another man. What would Eden think-?! … Eden would be so disappointed in who Simon had become. His chest tightened with a dull aching hurt. Mark was just friendly. Everyone here was.. yet, despite Simon’s rationalization, a kind of warmth seemed to creep through his chest. Fuck. Probably just- being trapped in the cryopod.

He reached into his pocket, pulling out the pendant, and looking it over in the soft blue light. He’d felt a tear escape his eyes, and he thanked whatever god might be out there that he wasn’t around other people.
He needed a walk.

The next day, Simon met up with Mark for breakfast in the cafeteria, where Mark got Simon another coffee; this one wasn’t as bitter though. Too sweet, actually; like a cup of pure sugar. Impressive; sugar was a rare resource. It was to Simon, at least.
Mark went to go do work or whatever while Simon explored the ship.
They met up again for lunch, parted ways, then finished the day with dinner, and a trip to the orchard. The entire time, Mark hummed some tune the whole day, optimism unshakable, even after spilling his coffee, or tripping while entering the orchard..

It was really nice.
It was REALLY nice…
Simon felt a guilt leaking out of his gut like an infection.
He wasn’t supposed to be acting like this. Eden would be disappointed. Yet he almost didn’t care. He was HAPPY; it’d been years since he felt that. Maybe ten.. This all felt too good to be true.

He shouldn’t have been happy about this.
About that strange feeling in his fucking chest—
STOP FUCKING THINKING ABOUT IT!
Fuck. Simon was so fucked.

He was EXHAUSTED. And guilty and worried, and just— He needed to sleep, so when the bright white lights of the day cycle faded into soft blue, he felt a wave of relief, trudging off to the cryo pods.
But once he was in bed again… He just couldn’t sleep. Something was gnawing at him; something that wasn’t just guilt. He tossed and turned, but the feeling kept nagging at him.

The ship was silent, soft blue illuminating the floors of each room and hall just enough to allow safe walking. Dust traveled through the air, and every once in a while, the metal walls would groan as it drifted lazily through the void. The empty corridors made anyone who walked through them feel alone in the universe; Maybe they were.

“Movement detected from Cryo pod S-1-3-0-8. Would you like to activate Cryo sleep procedures?” The S.H.I.P’s voice broke the silence.
Mark was staring out the window into the perfect nothing outside. He hadn’t been able to sleep, either, but for different reasons. “No,” he answered, frowning. He knew Simon had struggled sleeping since he’d arrived, but he just didn’t understand why. The guy seemed so exhausted all the time; Mark may be somewhat oblivious— According to Celci at least— but he had noticed Simon’s eye bags, and how his movements dragged..
“Resident of pod S-1-3-0-8 appears to be missing,” said S.H.I.P.
Mark knew where to find him. He quickly strode away down the hall, his arms behind his back.

Simon looked over as the door to the orchard slid open. He was huddled beneath the largest tree in the center. blue light softened the other man’s features, which was almost impressive to Simon, considering Mark already looked soft.
Wait, fuck, no, he shouldn’t be thinking like that! Fuck!
Simon stared down at his own hands. They looked almost fuzzy to his teary vision, and he dug his fingers into his palms, gritting his teeth and wiping his eyes.
“Simon..” He heard Mark sigh.
“… Mark,” Simon answered.
“Are you okay?” He asked, walking over to Simon and crouching down beside him.
“I’m great, your med team did great fixing me-“
“We both know that’s not what I meant,” Mark interrupted, his voice firmer than Simon had ever heard it.
“I-“ He sighed heavily. “… I’m still not convinced any of this is real.”
“… What?” Mark tilted his head, confusion evident in his expression.
Simon didn’t answer for a moment, staring down at the grass, which looked silver in the dark. “I saw some shit when I was down there,” Simon said simply, his voice carrying a tremor that he failed to repress. He hated this. Talking. About it. He would much rather just keep it all in the back of his mind, ignoring it. Like he’d been doing.
Talking only opened weak points, which, in the wrong hands… But couldn’t Mark’s hands be the right hands? He’d shown nothing but care from the moment they first spoke through the radio. That had to be worth something.
“Down where?” Mark sounded confused, but his words were careful.
“… In the blood ocean. In that submarine.” His voice was dry.
“… Do you want … to talk about it?”
No. He didn’t. In fact, that was the absolute last thing he wanted to do. “Yeah… Okay.” Simon internally cursed himself out. Why the fuck did he say that?! Where the fuck did that come from?! HE REALLY DID NOT WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT!
“Well, I, uh… I saw something big..” Stop! Stop! Why was he still talking?! Why couldn’t he control the words spilling out of his mouth?!
“… Bigger than us,” the words were sour on Simon’s tongue. “It- God, it just- it kept fucking with me— like a toy!” Fuuuuck, WHY was he still talking?!

Mark didn’t speak, just staring at Simon with those fucking eyes. Those soft eyes, filled with care, with that sparkle Simon couldn’t place his finger on. Fuck, fuck fuck fuck fuck. Shit. Another stab of guilt threatened to tighten his throat.
“I heard voices. Whispers. A promise that- that I wasn’t the only one down there, but-“ a tear escaped his eye, entirely against his will. Then another one. Simon hated how little control he seemed to have over himself, furrowing his brow and running a hand through his matted hair. Well, he tried too; it just got caught on the tangles and he gave up pretty quickly.
“It was just … that creature. And it- it showed me something that it called ‘the light.’” He spat. “I saw it. It— it saw me. And it agreed. Then—“ he inhaled sharply, wiping his eyes to clear his vision, and perhaps appear a little tougher than he seemed.

“Then I was back in that fucking prison. Like nothing had happened, like I hadn’t seen it tear it apart, atom by atom-“
Simon was interrupted by Mark ramming into him and wrapping his arms around him. A hug.
A hug.
Simon bit the inside of his cheek, trying to get a grip, control himself, something— but it didn’t work, and instead his mild crying became choked sobbing.
Mark’s body was warm; which was nice, because Simon was cold; the orchard was constantly being cooled by fans, and feeling the other man— the care and warmth radiating off him- Fuck, he just melted. He gripped the back of Mark’s shirt, burying his face into the other man’s shoulder.
It was embarrassing, and stupid, and he’d hate himself for it later, but he needed it. More than he was willing to admit, even in the moment. He swallowed the guilt building in his throat. He shouldn’t have to feel bad for receiving care. That, at least, was something Mark had made abundantly clear; and something Simon seemed to finally be digesting.
Mark said something Simon didn’t hear, but his voice was reassuring nonetheless.

. . .

Simon finally broke away after a while. He didn’t know how long it’d been; It felt like an eternity, and yet like merely a second at the same time. Part of him was incredibly reluctant to be leaving the comfort and warmth, causing his chest to tighten up. He dismissed it and wiped his eyes, muttering out an apology, which immediately earned him a gentle jab in the ribs from Mark’s elbow.
“You deserve more than you let yourself have,” Mark’s voice was steady, but gentle. It always was, even when Simon was falling apart at the seems.. Fuck, that was really impressive.
“I didn’t mean to get emotional-“
“Simon.” Mark turned and grabbed the other man’s shoulders.
Simon stiffened at the gesture, his eyes darting down to Mark’s hand, but he relaxed rather quickly, finally meeting Mark’s caring gaze.
Mark stared back, seeing the man, Hardened and broken by time, finally starting to heal. “We’re just human. You don’t have to apologize for that.” He was doing something right. He was fixing it. Fixing him.

Simon slowly nodded. “I know,” his voice came out as a hoarse whisper.
“Good.” Mark released him, leaning back against the tree. The soft whirring fans saint a chilly air through the leaves, causing a soft rustling. “This isn’t fake. I’m real. Not some weird ass monster, by the way.” He lifted a hand, brushing his hair out of his eyes as he spoke.
Simon’s gaze lingered longer than it should have. “I know.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, I do..” he exhaled softly. “That creature could never be… so… soft.” Simon winced at his own words, feeling embarrassed for it.
“Damn right it couldn’t.” Mark smiled, ruffling Simon’s hair. Or he tried; again, it was very matted. And greasy. “You need a hair cut.”

“I haven’t gotten a chance to.” Simon looked out at the void, feeling a kind of warmth, despite the cold air. After all of that, Simon being downright pathetic, sobbing, whatever… Mark was concerned with a haircut. God, that guy’s optimism could be truly annoying. Not now, though. Discussion of something so mundane was more than welcome, in Simon’s eyes.

“I could cut it,” Mark blurted out. He was not a barber. He had never even tried it. He had no idea why he said that. Perhaps just to help fix a problem.
“I- What? You-?” Simon looked over, a little taken aback.
“Yeah!” Mark doubled down. “Why not? What’s the worst that could happen? It’s already pretty fucked as is, I don’t think I can make it worse.”
Simon analyzed him before letting out a breathy chuckle. “Yeah, alright. Why not?” He sounded amused.

“Wanna do it now?” Mark’s eyes lit up. “I should warn you that I don’t actually know how to use the hyper-lasers, so we’d have to do it old fashion style, with scissors, which might seem a bit barbaric but—“
“I don’t even know what a hyper-laser is,” Simon interrupted, smiling softly. “It’s late, though. Aren’t you tired? Why are you even awake in the first place?”
“Oh-! My bad, yeah… I dunno, couldn’t sleep. Stressed out about tomorrow, I guess.” Mark shrugged. “It’s nothing, really.”
“What’s happening tomorrow?” Simon couldn’t recall hearing about anything important.
“… wanna talk about it while I do your hair?”
“Why do you want to do that so bad?” Simon snorted
“Because it’s so greaaasyyy. I wanna fix it.”

Oh. Greasy. Plus a few spots clumped with blood… Yeah, okay. That made sense… Actually, thinking about it, Simon really needed a shower. It’d been at least a week— He wasn’t an unhygienic guy, just… Busy. Plus, back on Eden, showers were reserved for whoever really needed it, since water was a very precious resource. Same went for his time in prison with the C.O.I. He probably stank, now that he actually thought about it.

“do you guys have showers?” He asked after a moment of thought.
“Thank god you asked— Hot to mean, Si, but you kind of stink. I’ll show you to them.” Mark stood up, stretching, before offering his hand to help Simon up, which he took with very little hesitation, grabbing his crutches—which he’d gotten very efficient with—and following Mark to the elevator.
“Well, why didn’t you mention it sooner?!” Simon frowned.
“That you smell? Because I didn’t want to be mean.”
“Yeah, but—?! You should have told me!”
“I figured that’s just how people from where you’re from are like!”
“WHY would you assume that?!” Simon was completely and utterly baffled
“I don’t know?? Why do they send people to the bottom of a blood ocean?!”
Simon shut up really fast, unwilling to talk about that.
The doors opened up to the elevator, and Mark started walking down the hall.
“Anywaysss. We do have automatic cleansing stations, but those aren’t nearly as effective in the long term. It’d old fashioned; I didn’t have the budget to make the nice ones, plus I always preferred doing it myself, anyway..” Mark’s voice was quieter now that they were out of the orchard.
Simon didn’t care at all that the showers were ‘old fashioned’, in fact, he was mostly focused on trying NOT to think about Mark showering for a myriad of reasons.
“Alright, here we are!” Mark gestured to a door to Simon’s left.
Simon moved to walk in front of it, flinching as it opened unexpectedly.
“Assuming I’m not asleep, which I probably won’t be, You can find me in the cafe after! Oh, and there’s a trap door in the right you can put your clothes in to clean them, and- You need a new outfit, huh? Hmm. I’ll figure something out.”
Simon stared at him blankly. “Put my clothes in the .. left?” He repeated, double checking he’d gotten that right
“Yep! They’ll be clean in, like, five minutes. Alright, bye!” Mark strode off, humming.
Simon, meanwhile, was just… a bit confused. But alright..?

He followed Mark’s instructions, except he kept the pendant, tying it around his wrist, before opening the opaque blue door of the shower. He stepped off the white tile, onto something similar to limestone, but smoother, if he had to guess. He left the crutches outside and leaned against the wall to his immediate left for support. Simon looked at the various silver knobs, inspecting them eacheach to try and get a hint as to what each of them did.
He did not figure anything out, and gave up, turning the large one in the middle. It was shaped like a plus sign, and was weird to try and grip, with each nub being too small to really fit his hand around comfortably, but trying to use one of the flat sides to push became quickly useless, since he would have to immediately reposition his hand.
Water shot out of the shower head on the ceiling, startling him and causing Simon to scramble back, lose his balance, slip, and hit the ground roughly.
“ow…” he groaned as he slowly, and carefully got back to his feet, pushing both hands against the walls to his sides to avoid slipping again. His back ached from the impact, though.. He probably had a new bruise there.

Once on his feet, he realized how cold the water was. Great, now he would have to try and figure out how to make it hotter. He carefully propped himself back up against the wall, and grabbed the smaller knob to the upper left of the last one he touched, carefully turning it, preparing himself for anything that could happen.

The water pressure intensified; which, actually, was really nice. Some pressure against his sore muscles was more than welcome.. However, still COLD. He grabbed the knob to the right of the large center one this time, slowly turning it.
The water got hotter. He kept turning until it was steaming, but found it was still quite nice.
Okay, great. Now to try and actually wash. God, he hated having a fractured leg.
he grabbed the bottle of shampoo, going through the motions.

Dirt, dust, crusted blood, etc muddied the water that swirled the drain. Simon watched it, feeling a strange kind of satisfaction. He’d been feeling a lot of strange things lately, actually;
He had broken down in front of Mark. MARK! Not one of his brothers from Eden, not one of the fathers, or even alone at the bottom of the blood ocean, but instead under a tree, to someone he’d only met a handful of days ago..
But did it matter how long they’d known each other? Mark … Mark was something else. Something… Special?
No, he shouldn’t be thinking like that. Simon hadn’t had a real friend since he was just a kid, plus coming out of the blood ocean and adjusting to everything.. It was just a lot. Of course he was going to break down eventually; he just..
He didn’t think it would be in someone’s arms; especially not someone full of so much care.. That strange twisting in his chest returned.

Simon shook his head, trying to clear it as he squeezed soap out of his long hair; which was difficult, because of the sheer amount of it that was tangled and knotted. He really needed that haircut Mark had offered.
He opened the next bottle, pouring some of the thick conditioner into his hands, lathering it up, blah blah blah.

The whole situation was just strange..

Why did he care so much about Eden?
That was a strange thought. He’d never really questioned it before. Not like that, anyway; Sure, he’d spent plenty of time wondering if Eden cared about HIM, or if his brothers cared about him— But never why HE cared about EDEN.
And it was a good question. He festered a resentment towards them; but he still desired to be in their favor. Even after leaving them behind, after they abandoned him, after getting their tattoo burned off, after leaving that society behind entirely, he still thought about them.
Constantly.

He grew up there. They’d shaped his world. That meant something. Maybe he’d just internalized all their teachings; even if his views on the religion that came with it was complicated.. Ugh. He didn’t want to think about this, it was making his head hurt.

He stuck his hands out, palm up to wash the soap off, before reaching to rinse it from his hair.
He paused to look at the pendant, admiring the little barely grown sapling.
“… I’m so lost,” he muttered, as if the brother who had owned this before him would be able to hear him. “Everything’s just so confusing..” he sighed, moving his gaze from the pendant as he started scrubbing out his hair.

. . .

Mark had made himself a coffee in the cafe’s back kitchen, with not one, not two, but three sugar cubes. Plus a little extra caramel flavored-sugar. He decided to forgo all their other luxuries, considering it was incredibly late at night, and he did value his health at least a LITTLE.
He was now standing in the ‘back-up-clothes-just-in-case’ room, or the closet, according to CeCe. However, he preferred the fun name. Who cared if it fit in the name border section on the datapads?
Anyway, There was a lot of stuff, and he was trying to figure out what Simon would like. T-shirt with a cartoon character? … No. Jumpsuit like Mark’s? Yeah, no. Hm. Hoodie..? Maybe.. This was a lot harder than he had initially anticipated..

EVENTUALLY, he pulled out a white T-Shirt with a bomber jacket and some jeans. Not the best, but it would have to do. Simon couldn’t keep wearing those rags all the time.
“S.H.I.P?” He asked
“WHATTT DO YOU WAAANNNTTTT??” It complained. Mark was taken aback; sure, the ship could be sassy, and go outside of it’s initial programmed personality, but it’d never just downright groaned at him.
“Don’t give me that attitude!” He reprimanded.
“Boo hoo, cry about it. It’s like four AM, engineer. Go to bed.”
“Don’t tell me what to do!” He snapped, pointing up at the speaker that the voice was echoing from, glowering. “Four AM? Yeeesh. Might be going sleepless tomorrow.” He took a sip of his coffee. “I got off track. Can you make a badge for Simon?”
“No.”
“Don’t make me reboot you,” Mark threatened.
“Fine!” The ship snapped. There was silence for several minutes, and Mark was starting to grow impatient, when finally, the S.H.I.P spoke up.
“The badge has been deposited at the craft station.”
“You mean the fabric repair room,” Mark corrected.
“Craft station,” replied the AI, indignant as ever.

Whatever. Mark didn’t want to argue with this thing anymore, so he simply strode out of the room, humming to himself as he roamed the empty halls. The ship was so different at night, without the hustle and bustle of the crew and residents..
He opened the fabric repair station with a scan of his hand on the DNA pad, heading in and opening the ‘PICKUP/DROPOFF’ trapdoor, pulling out the little embroidered badge. He didn’t know how the S.H.I.P made these, but it didn’t really matter. He set the bomber jacket on the open space of the white fold-up table against the wall below the little trap door.
The table was littered with fabric scraps, messed up badges, pins, torn clothing, etc. He turned the iron on and waited a few minutes for it to heat up, fidgeting with one of the pins on his own jumpsuit.
He picked up the iron, and carefully lined up the badge on the jacket, pushing the iron down onto it with careful precision, not wanting to mess up.

. . .

Simon strode into the large food court, his hair soggy, and his clothes thrown hastily back on. His crutches thudded softly against the white-with-black-spots tile floor, but it sounded louder in the complete silence. He scanned the room, spotting Mark. He headed over to the table, opening his mouth to greet the man, but he beat Simon to it.
“Simon! How was the shower?” He asked casually, looking up at the man. the minimal lighting only outlined the edges of Mark’s silhouette, making it a bit difficult for Simon to really make him out.
“Fuuuuck dude,” was all Simon said. Mark chuckled.
“That good, huh?”
“It’s been weeks.”
“Fair enough. You still down for the haircut…?”
“I mean, sure, but aren’t you tired?” Simon frowned. He didn’t want to overwork Mark.
“Not at all, I just had two cups of coffee.”
Simon finally noticed the empty mug on the table, that said ‘wakey wakey protocol’ on the side. He wasn’t even going to question it.
“Two?” He asked, a little shocked.
Mark gave him a thumbs up, grinning. “Oh! By the way! I gotcha something— A new outfit, since that one’s kind of..” Mark made a high pitched ‘eh’ sound, holding up one of his hands, palm parallel to the floor and tilting it back and forth. “S.H.I.P, can you up the lighting?”
“Can you let me update in peace?”
“Update? Who made an up- whatever. No. Turn up the lights.”
The S.H.I.P complied maliciously, turning them up to their absolute brightest, momentarily blinding the two men.
“YOU KNOW WHAT I MEANT!” Mark shouted angrily.
“FIIIINE.” The ship turned the lights back down to a soft blue, a little brighter this time. Enough to see, but still leaving it relatively dim. Mark laid out the clothes he’d chosen earlier on the table, placing his hands on his hips and watching for Simon’s reaction.
Simon…
…
He was just. So grateful. The clothing chosen were so nice looking; not a tear in sight, plus clean, and- The jacket had a little patch with his ID number—S1308–on it! Like Mark’s jumpsuit did!
“… I don’t even- I just- wow.” Simon said.
Mark looked a little confused; Simon could guess why. This was probably just normal shit for the Invincible II, but it felt like a luxury to him.
“… You like it, right?” Mark double checked.
“Yes! Yes, I- thank you.” Simon looked over at Mark. Mark shrugged. “I’d say throw them on, but preferably not when I’m about to make a mess.”
“… What?”
“Cutting? Your hair?” Mark looked mildly confused that Simon didn’t understand.
“Oh. Right, I uh.. I forgot.” Simon rubbed the back of his neck, leaning all his weight to one side, balancing on the crutch.
“C’mon!”

Chapter Text

Mark, when he first paced the control room that night, hadn’t expected to find himself and Simon in the brightly lit bathroom, Simon sitting in a chair in front of the mirror with a towel draped over his shoulders, and Mark with scissors in his hands, but honestly, he hadn’t expected to find Simon in the orchard, either. Unexpected night all around

Mark set up his data-pad on the counter with a half a century old tutorial playing from an archive. Simon looked like he just didn’t know what to do with himself, glancing around periodically.
“Alright.. so. Actually I should probably try to detangle this shit before I cut it..” he spent a few moments opening various drawers from the cabinet under the mirror. The room was stale and white, with gray accents, like the counter.
Mark pulled out a hammer, hair spray, someone’s toothpaste, a glass of water(???) and several other strange objects before finally finding a dark red hairbrush with bristles.
“This might hurt,” Mark warned, closing the drawer with his foot.
“That’s fine,” Simon said dryly. Mark shrugged and got to work; this.. would take more effort than originally anticipated. “I can do it myself—“ Simon started, but Mark interrupted him.
“Nope! We’re here now, no takesies backsies! Plus you would probably just get frustrated and shave it all off.”
Simon looked a little taken aback, his eyes widening, before he let out a breathless chuckle. “I guess you do know me pretty damn well.”
“I sure do!” Mark grinned, carefully pulling apart one of the knots. He was impressed by Simon’s durability, this was undoubtedly painful; though, considering the man’s toughened exterior, covered in scars and what-not, it made sense.

“So… What’s happening tomorrow?” Simon asked after some hesitation. Oh, yeah! Mark was supposed to tell him about that!
“Remember the ships I mentioned we’d be making contact with?” Mark asked
“Yeah, the ones I’m from… Oh.” Mark could see the dots connecting in Simon’s gaze. For someone who loved secrecy, he sure was easy to read. To Mark, at least.

“Yep. We’ve been slowly siphoning fuel from the RUTNL department, since they’re pretty sure they figured out how to make safe-to-use fuel, and we’ve got enough to safely approach the.. What’d you call them, D.O.Y?”
“C.O.I,” Simon corrected.
“C.O.I. Hopefully we can get some answers, and help improve their quality of life!”
“They have less answers than you do,” Simon said somberly.
“Maybe, but still. If they’re still out there, it might mean we aren’t the only pieces left of humanity! Wouldn’t that be great? One day we’ll be traveling the stars in masses again.” Mark was as optimistic as ever.

“… Be very careful,” Simon warned, one of his hands traveling to his pocket.
“Why? Aren’t we all just trying to survive?”
“Exactly.” Simon’s gaze darkened. Mark tilted his head in confusion. If they’re still were all trying to achieve the same thing, why would his crew need to be careful? Simon must’ve noticed Mark’s questioning expression, because he elaborated, “I’ve seen these people … hurt each-other when pushed to the brink..” His voice was quiet, gruff. It was tinted with pain; Something most people wouldn’t notice.

Mark fell quiet for a moment, thoughtful. “The plan is to try and connect with them over radio, and decide from there. Celci put up quite the fight trying to keep me from making communications..”
“I see why,” Simon remarked. Mark faked an offended gasp.
“Woooow. I cannot BELIEVE you would talk to me like that!” Mark’s voice was laced with sarcasm, his grin ever present. He noticed Simon snort, smiling, which only made Mark’s even bigger.
“You’re not exactly the master of good decisions,” Simon retorted. “Mister ‘let’s pull someone we’ve never met before from the bottom of the blood ocean using technology we’ve never tested before.’”
“Hey! You should be THANKING me for that! … Looking, back, yeahhh, might not have been the smartest choice— But I wouldn’t undo it!”
“You’re pretty stupid, then.” Simon rolled his eyes.
“Nuh uh!”
“… Did you just say ‘Nuh uh?’”
“I did!”
“… Grown ass man.”
“What is that supposed to mean?!” Mark looked mildly offended, though in reality he didn’t mind at all; if anything, he was really happy to see Simon acting.. Normal. Like a normal person.
“You know what it means,” said Simon.
“Are you trying to say I made a bad choice bringing you aboard?!”
“Yes.”
“Hey! You’re insulting my choice making, which is very rude! Especially since I’m the HEAD ENGINEER!”

“Hey. Queers. Shut up!” The S.H.I.P butted in. Mark saw Simon’s expression shift from amusement to something hard to read; Something akin to somberness. Guilt, maybe.
“Don’t call us that! Fuck off, S.H.I.P! Go download that update or something!” Mark was so fucking done with the AI’s bullshit, plus upset expressions didn’t look good on Simon.
The S.H.I.P didn’t respond.
“Sorry about that.. It’s been really weird since the blackout; I’m gonna have to reboot it or something.” Mark returned to brushing out Simon’s hair. He’d actually gotten most of them out; it wasn’t as bad as it seemed.
“It’s.. Fine,” Simon said after a moment, sighing softly. Mark could tell that the man was conflicted about something, but he couldn’t tell what.
It couldn’t be about the S.H.I.P, who cared if people were ‘queer?’ It was normal. Mark was openly bi, and nobody gave a fuck. He really liked Simon; like, a lot, and he was sure the other felt the same, so… Maybe it was about what was happening tomorrow?
Yeah, that seemed right. Mark set the brush down, picking the scissors back up. Simon’s hair was drying now, returning to loose waves and curls, which would make this harder, but it didn’t matter.

Mark was wrong, however. It was not tomorrows events that worried the other man. Simon was conflicted about what the S.H.I.P said, but he just shoved it to the back of his mind, trying to focus on the moment. There were bigger problems than disappointing Eden right now. Mark would never guess that, though.
“… Um.” Simon cleared his throat. “If anyone should handle communications with them, I do think it should be you, for what it’s worth.”
“Oh! I know! Why don’t you do it?” Mark sounded like he’d just had an amazing idea.
“Absolutely not,” Simon said immediately. Mark tilted his head, but Simon continued before any further questions could be asked. “As I was saying, they… They’re gonna be suspicious, probably. You put someone like Celci in charge, you’re going to get attacked.”

“See, that’s what I was thinking! Great minds, huh?”
“I guess?”
“Oh, shit, have you not heard that expression? ‘Great minds think alike?’”
“No? People say that..?”
“..Yes??”

“… Well, moving on from that.. Mark, I cannot be seen by them tomorrow.”
“What? Why?” Mark knew Simon had a negative history, but surely it couldn’t be that bad?
“I just.. I just can’t. I don’t have a good relationship with them. Any of them.”
Mark couldn’t help but wonder if Simon was the problem, but he decided to just nod.

“Alright. I can do that. You can wait in one of the meeting rooms or something. I think those have access to the cameras, so if you wanted to watch anyways, you probably could.”
Simon didn’t answer.

“By the way, how do you want your hair?” Mark asked after a few minutes of silence. “And don’t say short.”
Simon shrugged. “I dunno? Just. Whatever, I guess. Just want it to be functional.”
“I can do that. Maybe. I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“How reassuring.” Simon’s voice was laced with sarcasm.
“I know, right?” Mark started chopping.

Mark was talking about something. Simon wasn’t really paying too close of attention, it he seemed to be ranting about engineering? He wasn’t too sure; he normally paid pretty close attention to what Mark had to say, he just had a lot on his mind at the moment. He would have to ask Mark about engineering later, since he was genuinely interested in the subject..
“Done!” Mark’s voice dragged Simon from his own drifting thoughts. “What’d’ya think?”
Simon stared at the mirror. He saw… Well, himself. Wait, since when did he have a giant red scar across his face? And such bad eyebags? … Oh, wait, hair.

For Mark’s first time, it was actually really good. Better than Simon was used too; back on Eden he just cut it himself with his mom’s knife. He absentmindedly reached up to touch the knife-box on his over-shirt harness-hood-thing. It was pretty much shoulder length. “Mmmmmmgood.” Simon nodded. “Did good. Thanks.”

“Youuuu’re welcome!” Mark started for the door. Simon got up to follow, adjusting the crutches under his arms and getting ready to head back to his pod. “I wanna show you something.” Mark smiled at Simon, who raised an eyebrow, somewhat dubious (knowing Engie, that made sense,) but then again, he wasn’t about to turn down some time with Mark.
… Which was fine and normal. Platonic. Probably. How would Simon know? It’s not like he’d really had friends before..
But that was something he didn’t want to think about.
Mark led Simon down the gray halls, eventually into some side room decorated like an office with bookshelves, a desk, and a large window on the back wall, with a navy blue couch in front of it.

Simon could see stars outside the glass. He stopped dead in the doorway.
“They’re probably long dead, but .. at night, when the lights are off…” Mark’s gaze wandered back over to Simon “You can still see what’s left of them.”
Simon forced himself to tear his gaze from the glass, and over to Mark, who had a small, warm smile. The same one Simon had grown to loooovmmmmmenjoy seeing.

“Even if there’s nothing left but fake light, I still think it’s nice.” Mark led Simon into the room (Which was not tall enough for him, so he had to duck) and onto the couch, sitting down on the plush cushions. Simon sat beside him, staring out the window.
“I thought their light had all faded..”
“Nah, there’s places you can still see it. I dream of one day finding a sea of stars to fly through again, sometimes. Wouldn’t that be something?” Mark sighed, leaning back and throwing one of his arms over the back couch cushions.

“That’s.. Something I’ve always wondered, actually..” Simon muttered as he surprised a yawn.
“What’s more likely, we all disappeared, or billions of stars and planets?” Mark nodded.
“Exactly!” Simon looked over at Mark. “You.. Understand.” Simon found himself distracted by those big brown eyes. He swore he could see something in there, but he still couldn’t put his finger on it.
He pulled his gaze back out to the void.
“I do! I mean- I’ve seen some wild things, too.. Don’t get me started.” Mark’s arm came to rest around Simon’s shoulder.

Simon didn’t seem to notice. “I find it unlikely that we’re alone in the universe.”
“After meeting you?” Mark raised an eyebrow. “Anything seems possible.”
Simon didn’t reply, trying to figure out what the fuck that meant.

“You know, I actually first went to engineering school because I wanted to see the galaxy.” Mark remarked.. Simon must have been tired, because he couldn’t help but wonder if mark remarking would be like duplicating. How many times could Mark remark? Would they get smaller every time? Or would it be like.. the.. the thing about the toes? My-toe-itches or something.

“I grew up on station S-983. I thought that place was so boring. I wanted to go out and fly, colonize new planets!” The Engineer continued.
“Then why didn’t you become a pilot?” Simon knew Mark was stupid, but surely he wasn’t THAT stupid.
“Because of career day at school. I was like, ten? The pilot they had hired to come in canceled last minute to go help transport stuff to a new planet, and so they got the next best thing they could— A mechanic. Fixin’ stuff sounds boring, but making it … So I started researching!”
“Did you?” Simon asked sarcastically.
“Nope! I then continued to dream of being a pilot for like ten more years, then I went to tour the flight school, got in the cockpit, and realized there were way too many buttons and levers. So I thought ‘Someone should simplify this!’”
“You were that someone?”
“I was that someone!” Mark replied enthusiastically. “When I say I built this whole ship, I mean it. I blueprinted every last inch of her! Plus manufactured most of the technology myself. First ship ever to have such sensitive glide control, or..” Mark glanced around before whispering, “the S.H.I.P ai. But I can’t take all the credit for that; Burt helped in the programming, and so did Wug.. I just had most of the ideas for it. Not really a programmer myself..”
Mark was rambling at this point, his voice low, calm, and steady. Simon was slumped comfortably in a way that didn’t feel like he was leaning on Mark, but he was absolutely leaning against Mark, by kind of wedging him between some of the back couch-cushions. Mark was rambling about how he’d made the control console, which led him off on other topics discussing engineering, which led him off on other topics, so on and so forth. Mark didn’t really understand what he was saying, but he still didn’t mind the talking.

Had you put a Simon from two weeks ago in a room with the Head Engineer, you would have gotten a fistfight. But now..?
He yawned silently, blinking out at the stars. Maybe one day … They’d fly through them… together…

. . .

“Getting the pressure in the piping to be consistent with how much air we have to send through to actually get the thing running is so much harder than you’d think; Sooo much math and shit that I had to do,” Mark was rambling about the process of building the ship. He’d been talking for a good hour or so, and he’d noticed Simon’s breathing even out around 45 minutes ago.

“Plenty of boring calculations to give to Celci…” He slowly trailed off, looking down. Simon seemed to be sleeping. That was definitely surprising, but not unwelcome. At least he was GETTING sleep. The guy had seemed exhausted for days. Plus, according to the nurses, during his time in the medbay he refused to sleep while people were in the room. Progress.

And, bonus, Simon was leaning against him, which helped balance out the subtle chill of the room. Mark looked out the window for a while longer, deciding he’d stay until morning came, or until Simon left, whichever would come first. But for now, he just enjoyed the quiet, which was only interrupted by soft whirring of the ship around him, and occasional grunts from Simon. The ship really was peaceful at night.

. . .

Morning rolled around, and the first thing Simon noticed upon slowly waking up was the stabbing pain in his head. The second was the bright ass lights.
“Gh- Fuckoff..” he muttered, the words barely audible as he held a hand in front of his eyes, slowly blinking them open again. He then noticed that he didn’t see the light blue top of the cryopod, but instead a gray ceiling that was much farther away. Wait a minute..

Simon sat up abruptly, reaching for his knife box— which did not have a knife in it, that’d been long taken by the C.O.I, but old habits die hard. Which, speaking of habits, upon realizing he still did not have that knife, reached for his belt; which, also, did not have a knife on it anymore. He used to carry a butcher knife.

Think.. think.. Oh. Right.
The events of last night hit Simon like a truck, and — ow, fuck, his head.. He stood up, then hit his head on the low ceiling and hissed under his breath, stumbling towards the glass and rubbing where he’d hit his head. He looked over at the navy leather couch he’d just been on, working through the memories of the night. He’d fallen asleep in here..
…
On Mark.
Simon was not nearly awake enough to deal with the emotion that thought brought with it, moving to stand up straight again to look out the glass at the void better, and instead hit his head again. Ow. This room was clearly built for someone Mark’s height.. Which, speaking of

“Oh! You’re awake!” Mark’s voice made Simon spin around, gaze landing on the Head Engineer, who was at the L shaped desk in the corner, to the left of the door. There were various papers around him, and a couple books, and he seemed to be carrying a stack of the papers.
Simon just stared at him, trying to catch up mentally and after like half a minute of silence between the two, Mark spoke first again. “I didn’t want to wake you up, but I have stuff to do— Very busy day. You get it.” Mark shrugged

“Yeah.. Uh..” Simon shook his head, clearing it. “What’re … those for?” He pointed at the papers in Mark’s hands. Mark looked down.
“Oh! You know, lists of things we have, a list of rules for communicating with the DUI—“
“C.O.I.” Simon corrected
“That. Yeah, just the boooriing stuff.” Mark stapled the papers together with a metallic groan that told Simon that the stapler hadn’t been used in years.
“Why don’t you just use your little.. pad. Thing.” Simon walked over to Mark, pointing at the datapad on Mark’s belt.

“Celci demanded we use paper, in case we have to give any of it to the DUI.”
“C.O.I. I guess that makes sense… When, uh, is that happening?”
“Meeting the D- C.O.I.? In abouuut… thirty minutes.”
“WHAT?!” Simon erupted. “What time is it?! How long did I sleep in-?!”
“It iiisss..” Mark checked his watch. “Almost noon. Wanna grab some coffee? I need an excuse to avoid Celci.” He grabbed his orange hat from a hook by the door, fitting it onto his head.

Noon?! That was WAY too late! Wait, hadn’t Mark asked him something?
“Huh? Oh, sure..” Simon may not have liked the taste of coffee, but he really didn’t mind an extra boost. Especially after sleeping in so late. Simon paused.
“Hey.. My leg..?” He looked down. It didn’t hurt to walk anymore.
“Huh? Oh, must’ve healed. Quicker than expected too. Nice.” With that, Mark left the room.

The walk to the cafeteria was interrupted by others frequently running up to Mark to talk about the upcoming meeting. Simon stayed quiet.
Finally, Simon sat down in a booth while Mark fetched them coffee, since he was still on a quest to figure out a kind Simon would like.
Simon felt his pocket absentmindedly, watching groups of people walk in and out. He found the pendant in his pocket, and he rubbed his thumb over the glass a few times, before moving to let his hands rest on the table. The air smelled like eggs. The seat across from him creaked, and he assumed Mark was back, starting to say “About last ni-“ as he turned to look

Mark was not sitting across from him; The Captain was. They tapped their hands against the table in what seemed like a nervous motion, glancing around. They had two long metal wires on the sides of their large black astronaut helmet, and on the ends of the wires were little green balls.
Simon really wanted to swat at one of them, but he knew better. “Ah- Uh, Nice to see you, Captain.” He dipped his head in respect. A gloved hand landed on his own, and he looked up at the Captain with confusion, who slowly shook their head, as if to motion no need for such respect? Or something was wrong. Simon couldn’t figure it out.

Thankfully, Mark did show up, and he sat down beside the captain without hesitation. He then handed Simon a coffee, and apologized for not bringing the captain one, but they shook their head at him as well.
The captain then pointed at Simon, made a circular motion with their hand, and then a talking motion, followed by a running motion, and then a thumbs up, thumbs down.
“Oh, no, no no. We won’t have to worry about that. I trust him as much as I trust you, Captain,” Mark said. Simon paused, glancing around. That was… Something. He didn’t deserve that much faith being put into him. Simon tapped the white table with his pointer finger.

The captain then turned their head to Simon, then to Mark, and pointed at them both, then made some looping motions with one hand. Simon stared at the visor of their helmet, unable to try and get a read on their emotions. The Captain did a thumbs up and thumbs down motion again.
“Probably, yeah. I think so, at least.” Mark nodded, smiling somewhat bashfully.

Simon felt very baffled, making a mental note to learn the captain’s way of speech at some point. He had no idea what was being said.
The Captain nodded, and did a thumbs up motion at Mark, who returned it. They then stood up, gave the engineer a pat on the shoulder, a hand shake, and left.

“What was that about?” Simon asked as the Captain walked away.
“Just more, uh, y’know, stuff regarding the mission…” Mark sighed and sipped his coffee.
“… Were they asking about me?” Simon asked after a moment, his hands fidgeting in his lap.
“Somewhat.” Mark shrugged
“How do you understand them?”
“Well, before you showed up, I spent practically all my time with them, since we were fixing the ship after the, uh..” Mark cleared his throat, looking away. “The blackout. I just started to get them. Sometimes they still confuse me, but for the most part, they’re pretty easy to get.”
“Are they using sign language?”
“Not in the slightest, no. They actually directly told me once that they absolutely would not learn sign language.”
“What??” Simon was surprised by that. “Why not?”

Mark shrugged again. “Dunno. They just don’t want too; and since most of us can usually pick out what they’re saying, and when we can’t, they have a data pad, it doesn’t really matter.”
Simon nodded slowly, still kind of baffled by that choice. There was a buzzing sound, and Mark pulled out his data pad, squinting for a moment.
“Already- OH! WOW, time really got away from me!” He stood up abruptly, taking his hat off to run a hand through his hair. “We’ve got ten minutes until contact-!” He readjusted his hat, grabbed his mug, and started speed walking away. Simon scrambled out of his seat, leaving the untouched coffee cup on the table and following Mark.

. . .

“S.H.I.P!” Shouted Celci, making Simon wince slightly.
“How can I help you, Head of Cryo?” Asked the AI.
“Ship diagnostic report!” She demanded.
“I cannot give that information to your rank—“
“SHE’S CLEAR!” Mark shouted.

The room was bustling with people Simon didn’t recognize, chatter pervading the air. The room felt hot and stuffy with the all the action, not to mention the stress of the situation.
“Ship status: Optimal,” said the S.H.I.P. Simon couldn’t help but notice Mark and the Captain wince as the AI said it.

“Communications status: Optimal. Thruster status: Optimal. Cryo status: offline. Asteroid Defense system: Optimal—“
“That’s enough!” Celci interrupted.

“Everybody!” Shouted Mark, drawing people’s attention towards the center of the room. Simon felt a shiver run down his spine despite the heat. “Burt, what’s the read?”
“The sun shines brightly on the flowers in the garden, which will grow unaffected.”

“Great!” Mark sounded genuine, but Simon just felt confused. “In sixty seconds, we will be attempting to contact what may just be the last fragments of humanity! With a crew like this, what could go wrong? Are you all ready to make history?!”
The crowd of workers cheered, and Simon gently clapped to fit in. Mark grinned.
“Alright then! Let’s go fix this. Captain!”
They spun around in their black office chair, zooming across the room from near the lockers on the back left corner, slowing to a stop at the center console.
“Find their frequency! Celci, can you try and ping their computer?”

Simon watched in awe as Mark barked out commands. He was so confident; like he just KNEW what to do. Maybe he did? The crew had been planning for this day for a while. Simon folded his arms, jumping slightly as a hand landed on his shoulder.
Simon’s base reaction was to spin around and reach for his (empty) knife box, but upon seeing only Mark, he relaxed.

“Si, you are vital for this mission.” Mark sounded more serious than usual.
“I am—?” Simon frowned.
“You are. You’re the most important piece of this puzzle. You’re going to help guide communications.”
Simon stared at him, blinking. That was an awful lot of trust being put in him, and it made his skin crawl. “What exactly are you asking me to do..?”
“This is a delicate situation. We can’t afford to come in too strong or too weak; You said they’re on the brink of survival?”
Simon nodded.
“Then I need you to help me. You don’t have to be the one talking, but you’re going to have to help keep me in check.”
“I.. I can do that.” Simon said after a moment, dread slowly settling in his stomach.
“Good. I’m trusting you, Si. Make us proud.”
Simon felt his stomach twist.

“I’ve got something!” Celci shouted, and only a fraction of a second later, the Captain waved their arms to alert the others they’d managed to get through.

Mark motioned for silence, and static crackled from the speakers, interrupted by a voice— A horribly familiar voice— coming through the communications channel.
“This is Captain Ava reporting in from the C.O.I! We received your message to our computers. Please state your name, species, and reason for contact!”
Simon felt dizzy, and he stumbled to the console, holding onto it for support.

He felt like he was back in that submarine. The temperature in the room rose, sweat rolling down his forehead, the air smelling thickly of blood and iron, Ava making demands over radio—
Was the room getting smaller? Why was everyone looking at him? Where were those whispers coming from? His breathing was becoming rapid, and he gripped the steel frame of the console.

A hand hit his back. Simon barely seemed to register it mentally, but he spun around regardless. His eyes were wide and desperate, his hands shaking.

It was just Mark again. “Hey- hey,” he said gently, his soft eyes focused on Simon. “You can leave if you need to-“ Mark carefully approached again, putting a hand on Simon’s forearm.
“No!” Simon answered too quickly, trying to compose himself. “No, I-I’m fine. Let-“ He cleared his throat. “Let’s get back to.. to work.”
“Alright..” Mark said somewhat skeptically. “Careful with yourself, Si.” He strode back to the center of the room.

“Apologies for the delay. My name is Mark, and I am the head engineer of the Invincible II. We are humans, and likely the last ones left, except for you. We want to talk.”
“Hu-“ Ava started. There was some chattering on the other side; Simon recognized the voice Ava seemed to be muttering with to belong to a man named David, but he couldn’t make out what words were being said.
Just like in the submarine. Simon swallowed his anxiety.

“Prove you’re human.”
“What-?” Mark laughed, but it wasn’t bright and warm, like usual. It was strained, and nervous.
“I need you to prove you’re human,” Ava’s voice said again, as clinical and monotone as ever.

“Prove you’re human first!” Simon shouted without warning. He himself was surprised at the visceral reaction, his heart pounding in his chest. Mark looked over at him with a concerned and confused expression, and Simon returned it with his eyes wide.
“I— Hang on. Can- Can you repeat that?”
Mark stared at Simon, before flipping his hand in the air in a ‘well, go on!’ Motion.

Simon swallowed the lump in his throat, shaking as he approached the microphone. “Prove .. Prove that you’re … Human.” His words voice was gruff, and it shook against his will.
“… Convict? Is- Are you-?” Ava sounded incredibly confused.
Simon froze. He just.. Froze. They recognized him, but not really. Convict. The role. Not his name, not even his occupation, but instead his role in their society. Simon’s breathing was increasing at a rapid pace until his lungs couldn’t keep up, his vision spinning. He stumbled back a few paces, nearly losing his balance. Mark caught him, giving him a seriously concerned glance and frown as he helped him to his feet.

What was going on?!

“I apologize, one of our crew members — Uh, stepped out of line.” Mark didn’t know what to say, and he couldn’t ask Simon, not with how the poor guy was shaking. “Can you receive photos?”
“… Yes, we can.”
“Great- Celci! Take photos of us to send to them!” Mark instructed.
Simon ducked behind the console, refusing to be in any of the photos. Mark ducked down beside him, muttering, “Convict?!”
“I-“ Simon inhaled through his teeth, trying to bring his thoughts together into a coherent sentence.

“Photos received,” said Ava over the speaker. Mark shot him another glance but stood up and returned to his previous position.
“Great. Do you need any further proof, or can we move on?”
“We can move on. How are you alive? Where did you come from?”
“Olay, wow, slow down.” Mark folded his arms. “How are we alive? Were the only surviving fleet, aside from you. We got … Lucky.” He cleared his throat.

“How can we trust you?”
“You can’t. But you have too. We have everything needed to survive, and we want to help you.”
There was silence for a bit.

“We would like to meet in person?” Mark said hopefully.
“… We’re clear on initiating contact,” Ava confirmed. “Do you have your captain with you?”
“We do, yes! They’re mute, though.”
“Understood. Please bring them with you. How do you propose we meet? Your ship is far too big to land on our stations.”
“We’ve got a ramp!” Mark offered “We could go near the landing dock and then put down our door, which basically turns into ramp.”
There was an exasperated sigh over the radio, which was matched with Celci rolling her eyes. “That sounds like a good idea to me,” said Burt, to which everybody ignored him.
“… What, you guy’s got any better ideas?” Mark asked, folding his arms.
“Yes, actually!” Celci looked up.
“You do?” Mark sounded surprised.
“Use one of the spare shuttles!“ She snapped back.
“Wait, that’s way smarter. Let’s get closer, then do that!” Mark decided.
“Yes, sir!” Burt agreed.
“WOO! Let’s park this puppy! Captain!” Mark gave the crew his big, toothy grin.

The Captain looked up, and nodded, typing some coordinates in and hitting go. The ship started moving with a jolt, the walls humming with energy. Simon looked around. He hadn’t been on a moving ship like this since he’d been in the submarine— But it was different this time. He was surrounded by a hard working crew who knew what they were doing. People who cared about him beyond his past mistakes.

“We’re approaching the station now! Do you have any ways to guide us to the right location, or—?”

Simon stopped listening after that, looking out the window at the station which was getting closer and closer. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, and a ringing in his ears. He folded his arms tightly. It was fine. He was fine. They needed to contact the C.O.I. and Eden. It was for good reason.

Eventually, the ship came to a stop. Engie, The Captain, and Celci were the three selected to go meet with the C.O.I, but before they left, Mark skittered over to Simon.
“You alright?” He asked quietly. Simon didn’t look away from the window.
“Fine,” he said wryly.
“Do you wanna come?” Mark questioned.
“No, not really,” Simon answered. He wanted to see what would happen, but he couldn’t dare be seen, and the thought of facing Ava again… He’d rather stay behind.
“We could really use your help!” Mark sounded desperate. Simon looked over at the man, seeing those big eyes. “Please?”
…. Fuuuck. Simon couldn’t say no. Maybe he could clear his name. He’d done everything he could for the C.O.I. anyway, he’d earned his freedom.. “Fine. Alright..” Simon sighed. He’d have to face the C.O.I. one way or another eventually, and better with someone who could support him, right? Not that he needed support, of course.. He followed Mark and the other two out to the shuttles.

…

Mark pressed his hand against the authentication pad, and the door of the ship slowly opened, hinged at the bottom to act as, well, a ramp, like expected. Simon stood close behind Mark, and The Captain was standing to their right, Celci to the left. The ship door opened right into a larger docking bay on the C.O.I, where Simon saw Ava across the room.
His breath caught, his heart rate picking up. “.. I can’t do this,” Simon whispered.
“Wh- Yes you can! Simon, from everything you’ve told me, facing a few people from your past with three other people is the easiest thing so far!” Mark said in a hushed whisper back. “We’re already here, you’re not leaving now!”

Simon tried to argue, but Mark just kept rebutting until they were just making hushed noises at each other.
“Enough!” Celci demanded, sticking her arm between the two. “Get along, or we’re leaving both of you behind. Now come on!” She said strictly. Mark grumbled, mocking her under his breath. Simon snorted and followed.
The Captain led them along over to Ava, who was talking closely with David. Simon stood cautiously behind Mark, like he was trying to hide.

“Risks are what we need for survival-“ Ava said. David put a hand up, slowly pointing to their group. Ava looked over, sighed, closed a blue binder on the desk she was standing at, and gestured for David to follow her to meet the group in the middle.

Ava pinched her nose bridge as she approached. She was a relatively tall woman, about 5’11 if Simon had to guess. She has on a brownish-tan jacket with the C.O.I. logo patch on the front. She had long blond hair, which was pulled into a braid, and her left eye (right if you were looking at her from the front) was milky white, and there was a large lightning-bolt like scar up that side of her face. Her skin looked like it was peeling off in places, she was a lot bonier than the last time Simon had seen her, and her hair was falling out in patches.

“Alright, hello, ‘welcome to the-“ Ava stopped dead, looking up. Her gaze traveled between Mark and Simon.
“Convict..? Convicts? Why are there two of you?” She looked between the men with confusion. They looked nearly identical, aside from Simon being much taller than the man he seemed to be trying to hide behind like a scared dog. Plus, Simon’s hair was longer, and he was just scruffier in general, with his scars and marks.
“What?” Mark looked confused. Celci looked over at them.
“Actually, now that she mentions it, you two do look very similar..” She noted. The Captain nodded. “But! Are we going to address the elephant in the room?!”
“Elephant? Where?” Ava and Simon said at the same time as they looked around with wide eyes.
“Wh- No! Not an actual- Gah!” It was Cece’s turn to pinch her nose bridge in frustration. “It’s a figure of speech! I’m asking if we’re going to adress the problem! CONVICT?” She turned on her heels to Simon with narrowed eyes. Simon’s eyes widened and his expression darkened,
“Hang on- hang on.” Ava put her hand up. “I have several questions I want to ask you all first- A lot of them. One. Convict!” She looked back at Simon. “You’re alive?”
Simon froze, staring at her, and suddenly he became hyper aware of everybody looking at him. “Well— Yeah. It’s a long story..?”
“We lost contact with you for DAYS. It’s been nearly two weeks since your disappearance! We thought you died! Where were you?! Running off in space with these guys?! How in the universe did that happen?!”
“.. Well, after losing contact with you, I uh.. Was stuck in the submarine for several days.. Some really weird stuff happened..” Simon’s voice broke as he spoke, and he looked away. The lights in here were so bright— Had the bay always been this hot? Ava’s gaze hardened.
“Aaand we found him!” Mark interjected, sensing the distress coming off of Simon. “Accidentally connected to his radio, and picked him up! He’s been part of our crew ever since!” Mark reached for Simon’s hand. Simon didn’t deny him that this time, needing something to keep him present. He simply pushed away any of the worried thoughts relating to Eden.
Ava narrowed her eyes. “What happened to our sub?”
Mark stiffened, and let out a nervous laugh. “About thaaaat…”
“He cut it in half,” Cece interjected. Ava’s jaw dropped.
“WHAT?!”
“Well you welded Si inside! We couldn’t just leave him in there!” Mark tried to defend himself.
“WHO THE FUCK IS SI?!”
Simon raised his hand.
“YOUR NAME IS SI??”
“You… You don’t know my name?”
Ava stopped.
It felt like the world froze in that moment. Simon locked eyes with hers, and for a very brief moment, they made a connection with each other; Her gaze softened.
She seemed to finally understand something.. Understand her mistakes..
But her expression hardened quickly, and she looked away, as if trying to prevent sympathy from forming.

“I don’t think we… ever got your name.” That stung. That was worse than just being out in the blood ocean, or being their prisoner, or any matter of horrible things they’d done to Simon; but they’d sent him away to his inevitable death as if he were nothing but a tool…
And they never bothered to ask his name.
He felt like crying right there. Or yelling and screaming. Or both. But he wouldn’t. he was stronger than that. He was stronger than that…
“Wait wait wait— Let me get this straight, you sent him to the bottom of a BLOOD OCEAN… And never bothered to learn his name?” Mark asked, appalled.
“In that rust bucket, no less?” Celci added.
“Well-“ Ava took a step back, trying to explain herself.
“Yeah, we did. But you know what? After everything HE’S done? At least we gave him that right. We could have just killed him on the spot; that would have been a merciful end for him.” David interjected grimly. David was a shorter man, wearing the same tan C.O.I. jacket, with a black shirt on under, and slacks.

“What?” Mark looked confused, glancing between Simon and the C.O.I. members. Simon felt his heart pounding in his throat, his grip on Mark’s hand tightening subconsciously.
“Oh, did he not tell you?!” Ava said, folding her arms. “That doesn’t surprise me; what’d they call him, David?”
“The Butcher,” David said grimly. “Simon The Butcher.”

Simon physically flinched at the title, the guilt for all of his crimes welling back up inside him. Mark looked at him with a furrowed brow. Celci stepped forward.
“Why do they call him that? I’m not going to allow MY crew member to be slandered without reason.” She said sternly. Simon barely heard her words, but appreciated them nonetheless.
“He’s OUR convict,” argued Ava.
“He’s my boyfriend!” Mark said sharply, sharper than Simon had ever heard him be.

Simon froze, processing the words. They hung in the air, everyone watching the two closely.
Boyfriend.
It hit him like a truck. Everything about it. The implications of the word, the way it felt in his head, everything just.. fuck.
“… Boyfriend?!” He said after a moment.

Mark paused. Simon broke away from him immediately, eyes wide with something akin to horror. Simon saw Mark’s expression fall.
“Yeah, I—… did I.. interpret that wrong..?” Mark frowned, holding up his hands in front of himself defensively.
“Well- I-“ Simon swallowed, looking around. His hands started to shake, and his breathing grew rapid. The temperature seemed to rise, Simon’s face specifically heating up. He didn’t know what to say, a thousand thoughts rushing through his mind.
He wasn’t gay!
But did he want to be in a relationship with Mark?
But he wasn’t gay!
He COULDN’T be!
“Mark, I— I don’t—“

David suddenly grabbed Simon’s shoulder roughly, causing the man to stiffen and reach for his knife box. His hand was pulled away from it with force.
“You shouldn’t be walking around without proper restraints!”
“Hey- HEY! We had a DEAL!” Simon shouted. It was happening again. He was in the submarine again. He could practically smell the rust; see Ava wiping blood off the porthole as he yelled about their deal. Down and up.
“Yeah, well, that was before you ran off.”
“WE LOST CONTACT! I would be DEAD!” Simon pleaded, his voice growing desperate. He could feel tears starting to form as they started to try and shove him away from the group.

“HEY!!” Celci shouted. “You don’t get to walk away with OUR crew mate! You don’t get to walk away without giving us answers!!” She demanded.
The Captain motioned wildly in protest.
Mark looked like he wanted to argue, but Simon looked back and met his gaze, seeing the betrayal and hurt in Mark’s gaze, his big brown eyes filled with despair.
Simon felt like it would tear his heart apart.

Suddenly, a BWVOOOM sound echoed through the bay, and Simon’s captor, David, fell to the ground, with blood pooling around him. Simon gasped and stumbled back, staring at the blood. At the blood. The man was screaming, there was shouting, but all Simon could hear was his own pounding head and the ringing in his ears.
he- he couldn’t have-
He didn’t just—
Kill him-?!

Chapter Text

Mark let out a confused noise, staring at The Captain, who was holding an odd looking gun, the barrel steaming.
“DAVID!” Ava shrieked, her voice dripping with desperation. She ran over, falling to her knees beside him. “David, come on— Please, David—“ She grabbed him, shaking him. There was no response. She slowly dropped him to the ground, covering her mouth with her hands, tears rolling down her face. “David..”
“C-CAPTAIN-?!”
They looked back at Mark, their helmet obscuring their gaze. Mark started to shake. Cece shoved Mark aside, grabbing the Captain’s shoulders.
“WHAT HAS GOTTEN INTO YOU—?!” She shouted, a mixture of anger and confusion in her voice.

Simon stared down at the body. “I— I didn’t—“
“You MONSTER! You — You should have died in that blood ocean!” She jabbed a finger into Simon’s chest.

The Captain placed a hand on Celci’s face, shoving her off.

Simon flinched, tearing himself away from The Captain, stumbling back. “I- They- ?!” Tears started welling up in his eyes.
“YOU! You—you’re the only reason he-“ Ava shouted.

“Captain!” Mark cried out desperately, running over, shoving Ava away from the Captain. “Captain, come on! What is going on?!”
The Captain pointed at Mark, then at the body, and then at the shuttle.
“Wh- You-? No, no no no- I need ANSWERS, Captain!”
“That convict really lives up to his name, huh?” Ava said wryly. “The Butcher.”
Simon’s hands were shaking. He couldn’t tear his gaze away from the man on the ground.
“Simon didn’t do anything!” Mark insisted.

Alarms started blaring through the bay. Two men approached the Captain, reaching out to grab them. They whipped around, aiming their gun at the two people.
“Captain! Come on, don’t do this! This is supposed to be a peaceful-“ Mark choked on his own words, feeling helpless. Celci had, at some point, showed up to examine the body.
“He’ll be fine if we can get him to medical,” she said.

“You’re not going anywhere with him!” Ava said firmly, sobbing with rage. “You— You’re murderers!”
“We won’t be, if you let us take him to medical!” Celci growled.
“I’m not trusting you with his life!”
“ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID?!” Celci was clearly fed up. “He’s either going to die on the floor, or be saved by our medical team! Hell, you can come with us, but- I will not let a man DIE, knowing I could STOP IT!”

“Ava,” another girl said quietly, placing her hand on Ava’s shoulder. “He’s going to die if we don’t do something. We don’t have much of a choice.”
Ava met the woman’s eyes for a moment, before letting out a frustrated sigh. “Fine, but— I’m coming, and your captain stays here!”

The Captain looked between Simon, their gun, and the body, and then shrugged and gave Ava a thumbs up.

Mark shuffled over to Simon. Fuck, as heart broken as Mark was, Simon looked like he was about to fall apart. He loved Simon. He wasn’t afraid to say it.
“Si?” He asked in a quiet voice, glancing at the others. “You… Uh, are you okay?”
Simon didn’t hear him. He was staring at the body, trembling like a leaf, teary. Mark could see a lifetime of guilt haunting those brown eyes.
“Si…” he placed a cautious hand on Simon’s shoulder. Simon jumped, reaching for his knife box. He did not relax after seeing it was just Mark.
Mark felt his stomach twist. He swallowed the lump in his throat.
“Hey. Hey. I..” Mark took in a deep breath. “We can’t talk right now, but.. We need to get you out of here, okay? Can we go back to the shuttle?”
“I… I can’t— They’re right, Mark… I’m a murderer..” he muttered, his own voice breaking, thick with too much emotion for the normally stoic man.
“No! You’re not responsible for this! I- We don’t have time for this, Simon! Please, please come back to the shuttle.”

Celci interrupted. “Hang on! I’m not saying we should abandon him here, because we are absolutely not doing that, but shouldn’t we know about why he was, oh, I dunno, a CONVICT before letting him back aboard?”
Mark jumped, looking over at Cece. Ava and several other people were cautiously carrying David to the shuttle. “Uhhh.. Now isn’t really the time—?” The engineer stared at Celci pleadingly.

Celci scowled at him, then looked over at Simon. The man seemed like he was in another world entirely, barely noticing the presence of the other two.
“… Fine. He’s our crewmate, we’ll treat him like it— Which, Mark, means that if we find out he’s dangerous, we will have to take the necessary precautions!”

“Hang on!” Someone new intervened. “You can’t just take him! He stays with your Captain!”
“I-“ Mark started to argue. Celci put a hand up to stop him, looking back at the man. “Hm. Fine, but if you lay a finger on either of them, I promise we’ll know.” She said firmly. The man nodded. “Good. Alright, Mark, come on. We need to go.” She grabbed his arm, and dragged him off to the shuttle.

Mark stared longingly back at Simon and his Captain, wanting very much to stay behind and help those two out. Unfortunately, he was needed elsewhere.

The only noise was the whirring of the shuttle. Everyone stood and stared around at eachother with suspicious, narrowed eyes, except for Mark, who was piloting the small ship using a control panel in the back.

“…. Ground rules,” Celci broke the silence. “You will listen to EVERYTHING that Mark and I tell you to do, understood? Don’t abuse that, Mark,” she warned.
Ava glowered, but nodded.
“Good. You will not speak to anyone unless we tell you too, you will not interact with anyone unless we tell you to, and you will not do anything unless we tell you to. Understood?”
Ava sighed but nodded. “Fine, but I expect the same behavior from you when we return to my ship, especially after what your captain just did.” She looked down at David, biting the inside of her cheek.
“Absolutely. That’s how we were SUPPOSED to be acting,” Celci glared at Mark, who laughed nervously.
“Well- You came right out the gate attacking Simon!” He tried to defend himself.
“Let’s not argue about this,” Celci interrupted before Ava could retort. “When we get back into the Invincible II, we’ll take.. Remind me his name?”
“David,” Ava answered bitterly.
“David straight to the med-bay, where our doctors will take care of him. He’ll be fine, our weapons are non-lethal if treated correctly, and fast enough. Unfortunately, our Captain was using one of higher caliber and voltage, so it’s far more dangerous, but he’ll be fine.”
“I hope you don’t mind me asking, because I have a right to know, why your Captain is, for lack of better term, out of control?” Ava’s voice had quiet malice to it.

“The Captain plays by their own rules,” Mark said tightly, his eyes never leaving the control panel. “They’ve saved all of our lives, though. We owe them a lot.. I do, especially,” he said with a somber note to his voice that he failed to conceal.
“What the Captain did for us does not allow them to harm other people, let alone a member of another society!” Cece snapped back.
“What did they do?” Ava inquired.
Mark and Celci exchanged glances, and Mark got back to piloting, shifting his weight between his feet. Celci cleared her throat.
“That’s classified. I have some questions for you.” She brushed some platinum blonde hair out of her face.

“I’ll answer what I can if you do the same for us,” Ava placed her hands behind her back. Celci nodded, looking at Mark. Sweat rolled down the side of her head, and she inhaled through her teeth, meeting Ava’s gaze again.
“What did Simon do?”

…

Simon and the Captain had been sat down behind some desks, with some C.O.I employees standing a few yards away, chatting. Simon leaned against the wall behind him, pulling his knees to his chest. The Captain looked over at him, placing a leather gloved hand on his shoulder.
Simon flinched, hard, his gaze snapping over, hands reaching up quickly. The Captain tilted their head at him, removing their hand gently. They pointed at him, then did a thumbs up and thumbs down. Simon furrowed his brow, looking away.
“… I’ll be fine…”
The Captain folded their arms, unconvinced. Simon pulled his knees closer. Captain pointed at him, then at themself, then interlocked their two hands, and then gave Simon a thumbs up.
Simon studied the hand motions, frowning. He was still trying to get used to the other’s way of speech. Him, Them.. Close? Good? He worked through the context clues and assumptions in his head.
After about a minute, he finally spoke. “… I don’t really know you.”
The Captain pointed at their hat perched atop the astronaut helmet. It looked like Mark’s, but black, with a patch of a dog on the front.
“I know you’re my captain, but—“
Simon was interrupted by them placing a hand on his, then patting their heart. They pointed at Simon, then mimicked fixing something, quick, firm, then pointed between themself and Simon.

“What?” He muttered. “Someone who fixes things—?” His breath caught in his throat.
“… Mark..?”

Simon’s heart dropped. The Captain was trying to tell him that a friend of Mark’s was their friend too.
Was Simon still friends with Mark? Would.. Mark forgive him? He folded his arms on his knees, resting his head in them and closing his eyes. This did not help, however, because all he saw was the heartbroken glint in the engineer’s eyes as he walked away.
He dug his fingers into his arm. God, he hated seeing how upset the man had looked. He just wanted to see him smile again, with those big soft eyes, and-

The Captain suddenly wrapped their arms around Simon, causing him to unravel from his curled up position almost instantly, defensive. But instead, he was pulled into a tight hug. Simon hesitated, looking down at the form wrapped around him. slowly, he put his arms around the Captain too, gentle. Tears threatened to surface, but he wouldn’t let himself show such weakness. Not here. Not in the heart of the enemy’s base.. Not in front of Captain.
They let go eventually, pushing Simon off and staring at him. Their expression was still hidden by the tinted helmet, but Simon didn’t need to see it to know they were worried.
“I fucked up,” he muttered.

Captain tilted their head.
“I really fucked up—“ Simon turned away, sitting back against the wall and putting his head in his hands. “I’ve never — Never had a friend like Mark, and—“ he swallowed the lump in his throat. “I didn’t want too- I didn’t—“
Captain put a hand on his shoulder, drawing his gaze back to them. They withdrew, then made a heart with their hands.
“I…” Simon’s eyes stung.

“I don’t know! Eden would be so disappointed in me, but- But they already hate me, and—“
Captain shook their head, then pointed at Simon firmly, did the heart, then the hammer motion.
“I can’t! I can’t— I’d be turning my back on everything, and—“
They jabbed their finger into Simon’s chest, scooting to sit in front of him, repeating their previous question.
“… I don’t want to talk about this, Captain.”

One of the guards looked back at them. “Quiet, Butcher.”
Simon flinched, drawing back into himself. He was the butcher. He was the enemy. He was someone Mark shouldn’t have ever—
He shook his head. What Simon may or may not have felt didn’t matter; Mark was better off without him, anyway.. His thoughts flashed to the pendant in his pocket.

The Captain placed a hand on his shoulder again. Simon didn’t bother looking up, placing his head in his arms on top of his knees. The Captain shifted to sit beside Simon again, just trying to make their presence known.
Simon pressed fingers into his arms, forcing his eyes shut tighter—
A quiet, muffled sob escaped him.

Chapter Text

Mark watched idly as the nurses crowded around David, standing back with folded arms. The medbay was as sterile as ever.
“We haven’t had anyone with a serious case since Simon last week, right?” Cece asked. Mark shrunk down a bit, looking away with a nod.
“Hm. Well, considering we fixed him up just fine, seems this guy will be alright— Thank the stars, the last thing we need is this conflict being any larger.”
“Mmmmhm.” Mark wasn’t really paying attention to what Celci was saying. He couldn’t stop replaying that moment in his mind.
“he’s my boyfriend!” Mark had said defensively, only to be greeted with downright horror. He’d horribly misread their friendship, and it had led to all of this. Maybe if he had just said friend, or crew mate or.. Well, anything else.
What did Mark do wrong? He could have sworn they were more than friends— Especially after last night. Maybe Simon just wasn’t.. But Mark had seen the same adoration in his eyes that Mark himself had. Maybe he shouldn’t have pushed so hard for Simon to join him on the shuttle— Actually, he definitely shouldn’t have. Everything had gone horribly wrong because of it.

“Mark?” Celci asked, dragging the Engineer out of his thoughts.
“Yeah?”
“… I don’t ask this very often, and honestly, we have far bigger problems right now, but.. Are you alright?”
Mark smiled. “Of course! Well, maybe a liiiiittle stressed out, but I work better under pressure anyways!” He placed his hand on his hip, giving Celci a thumbs up with the other.
She raised an eyebrow disbelievingly, but didn’t push it any further, much to his relief .

Celci turned back to the nurses and Ava, getting the final report. Mark fidgeted idly with his fingerless gloves, tugging at the holes around his fingers. God, he could really use a coffee.. Maybe he could bring one back to The Captain and—
…
He never found one that Simon would like.
Celci started leading Ava out of the room; Oh, they were leaving Ava’s assistant behind? Eh, she’d been pretty quiet anyway. Mark swiftly followed them, looking around at the gray halls as they walked. They really were all the same, huh?
He’d gotten used to seeing the small things; Scrapes and flyers and things to differentiate them, but Simon had been right. They were all practically identical..
Mark shook his head.

Eventually, they reached the shuttle bay, where Celci opened up their large, round, black pod, and ushered Ava in first before entering herself. Mark was the last one in, and he took his place at the front console again. It was a large, flat, horizontal screen. Above it was a large window, that opened out to the void, and the ghosts of dead stars.

The screen displayed buttons, knobs, arrows, etc. he hit the ‘assisted auto pilot’ button, watching the docking bay rush past outside, until they were in the endless void.
The stars were beautiful, dead or not. He’d always loved them, just as he’d told Simon last night..
…
They never would travel them together, would they? It’d been a childish dream for nearly a year now, since the Blackout, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t still hope. Well.. Maybe it did. Maybe he needed to just let go.

His eyes stung, and he found himself biting the inside of his cheek to keep from crying. Denial was easy when everything was going great. The Captain and he were close as ever, he’d made a new really good friend..
He wanted to fix Simon. He knew it sounded bad, but he really wanted to try and make the man better, happier, able to enjoy without guilt. Well, maybe someone else would have to teach him that, now. He’d gotten so damn close, too..

Oh, Simon.. Even with how intimidating he could be, god was he just sweet. He was like a sad dog when you got to know him.. Plus, his ferocity when he got frustrated wasn’t a BAD thing…
F*ck! There he went again, daydreaming about something he couldn’t have. He did that far too often.. Without warning, a tear did manage to escape without his permission. Then another.. And another.
He rubbed his eyes quickly, wiping the evidence of his somber thoughts away. Nonetheless, he could feel Celci’s eyes on him, but she said nothing, much to Mark’s relief. He’d been through much, much worse!
Mark had felt himself get torn apart, atom by atom, and had felt the pain of dying, over and over and over again. The pain of realizing it had been his fault, that he’d been blaming the wrong person for .. decades. Centuries, maybe.. Time was weird when it came to that.

Yet, the thing that hurt the most, was some guy he’d met a few weeks ago rejecting him. How stupid was that? Fuck, he just couldn’t stop crying, could he?
Mark wiped the tears away again quickly, fighting to keep his breathing steady, despite the growing ache in his chest. Now wasn’t the time or place to feel sorry for himself. Celci was right, they had bigger problems— Far bigger problems.

. . .

The room was cold. It seemed to be constructed of pure metal, which was certainly a surprise to Simon, considering how precious a resource that was, especially to the C.O.I.

He was sat on an uncomfortable, cold bench. Celci was stiff as a rock beside him, and to his other side was The Captain, fidgeting incessantly. Mark tapped his foot impatiently from the other side of Captain. There was a table in front of them, and across the table was Ava, with two assistants on either side who had notepads open. They both looked to be freshly 18, if Simon had to guess, judging that they still had a hopeful look to their eyes.

Anyone who lived here for too long lost that pretty quickly.

She opened a binder onto the table, flipping through it. “There is very much to discuss, and I don’t know how much time I have. We’re very busy.” Ava coughed, glancing at Simon. He shrunk down in his seat. “First of all, the topic you have all so incessantly been asking about… The Butcher.”
“I-“ Simon started, but Ava gave him a glare that very quickly shut him up.
“Your Simon is a well known criminal. He has more blood on his hands than anyone else, even from Eden, according to our reports.” She glanced at one of the assistants, who nodded in confirmation. “I am not the most educated on the topic, but I do know one thing for sure.”
Simon braced himself for whatever she was going to say next, mentally preparing to have his reputation among the invincible II torn to shreds. He eyed one of the guards by the door, considering making a run for it. Maybe Eden would welcome him home..

“Filament station,” Ava started. Simon felt his blood run cold. “Filament station was where we kept our priority power generator; Nuclear energy, which I’m sure you’re familiar with.”
Simon glanced at Mark, seeing him nod slowly.
“On may third, at 18:23 AM, East Station time, Eden launched an attack on Filament station, in an attempt to gain control of our power.”
Simon shrunk down a tad further as she continued speaking.

“This conflict lasted thirteen days, and ended with the complete and utter destruction of the station, via a breach in the reactor, leading to an explosion.” She inhaled slowly, staring down at the binder. “Sixty three of our men were lost.”

“What does that—“ Mark started, but Ava held up a hand to silence him.
“Simon was one of the few people to make it out of the tragedy alive.”

“Hang on,” Celci started. Ava put up her hand to silence her, but she shook her head. “No, I have questions, and you will answer them. I will not allow my opinion of my crewmate to be swayed without knowing the full truth. Understood?”

Ava was taken aback by her forcefulness, before nodding.

“Good. It sounds to me like that was a war. If Simon was simply sent in by Eden, why should he be so hated? Does Eden not have the right to punish your people just as much?” She glanced at Simon, giving him a friendly nod. He sat up a little further.

“He wasn’t just involved in Filament station,” Ava started. Simon’s heart dropped. “Has he told you about his role in Eden?”
“You— You know about that—?”

“Of course we know about that, Convict—“
“Simon,” Mark corrected.
“You won’t want his name in your mouth when you know what he did.”

“Hang on a second—“ Simon started.
“ENOUGH from you!” Ava cut him off harshly, before straightening and clearing her throat. “Eden has strict laws. Strict rules. When their last tree started dying, they started feeding it their dead..” She looked around at the group laid out before her. “But that wasn’t enough, was it, convict?”

He stared down, not daring meet anyone’s gaze.
“They began enforcing their rules with punishment we consider rather uncouth, in the consolidation. Anyone who didn’t live by their standards … Their life wasn’t worth supporting.”

Celci’s eyes widened, and she looked sideways at the man she was sitting shoulder to shoulder with. The Captain remained stoic, unmoving. Not a single gesture. Mark’s gaze lingered on Ava, looking unconvinced.

“Your dear friend..” Ava raised a gloved hand to gesture at Simon, who could feel his heart in his chest, “was an executioner.”

Simon tensed up. Mark gasped quietly. “You—?” He stammered, looking over. Simon didn’t look up. “No..”
“That can’t be true. You don’t … You wouldn’t.” Celci folded her arms.
The Captain still didn’t move an inch.
“No. He wouldn’t— Not Simon. You’ve got the wrong guy, I— Simon? No.”

Simon felt his breath hitch. Mark still believed in him. Of course he did.. That engineer was recklessly optimistic.. Maybe he could salvage this, convince them or—… No.

“… She’s right,” he muttered, voice breaking.

Mark stared at him, letting out a breathless, dry laugh, shaking his head once. “No. You..? No.” he sounded almost pleading.
“Yeah.” He sighed. “Yeah. I … I did it.” Simon let out a shaky breath. “I was their executioner. But— I-I can explain.”

“Explain? What is there to explain, Convict?” Ava spat before anyone else could further question him.

Mark stared at him, his mouth opening, before closing again. He shook his head once, taking his hat off and leaning back in the seat, running a hand through his hair.

“… It— It was survival of the fittest—“ Simon started, but Ava cut him off.
“And you knew you weren’t the fittest, so you forced yourself to the top of the food chain?!”

“You— You were supposed to clear my name!”
“I can’t clear their deaths.”
“We had a deal!” He shouted, standing up, jabbing a finger in her direction.
“You failed to deli-“
“You said down and back up! We both know that it doesn’t matter how many times I went down, or how much I did for you!” His voice broke. “You were going to use me until I inevitably died down there! We both know that wasn’t an expedition!”
“Convict—“

“DON’T FUCKING CALL ME THAT!” He roared, his voice echoing off the walls. Celci looked like she wanted to step in, but she kept her mouth shut.

“I— I’m not a saint. Closest you could find to that would be one of the fathers.” He let out a dry laugh. “But neither are you! You have no right to call me an executioner— to lay me bare for crimes I already paid the price for, when you have sent prisoner after prisoner into an ocean of nothing but death, giving each of them false fucking hope! You knew I wouldn’t make it back up!”

“Convict!” Ava snapped, hitting her hand on the table. “If you’re quite finished with your little temper tantrum—“

The Captain put up a hand, motioning that they wanted to speak. Ava fell silent.
“Looks like the attempted murderer wants to—“

The Captain stared coldly at her, their helmet keeping their face completely hidden. Ava cut herself off. “… Apologies. The floor is yours.”

The Captain pulled out their data pad, typing rapidly on it for a moment. A text to speech voice spoke a moment later.
“Simon is ours now. Any further punishment for his crimes will be handled by us, and will be discussed by my crew. If you could send us any information on his case, and any logs from Filament station, that would be very appreciated for helping us decide his fate.”

Simon slowly sat down, feeling a little relieved. The Captain seemed.. Understanding.

“Simon. You were out of line to begin shouting and talking back to your previous commander, whether or not she still holds power over you. Any punishment regarding that will be handled. You’re not in the clear, and you still owe your superiors respect. Show it.”

“… Yes, Captain..” He muttered.

“Good. Ava, was it?”

She nodded.

“I believe we should move on from this topic. It can be further discussed at a later date, with more information provided to us from less biased perspectives. As you said yourself, we have much to go over, and so little time.”

Ava was impressed by the control they suddenly took of the situation, respect building in her chest. She nodded, clearing her throat.

“… Right.”

Mark stood up. “I… uh.. I think I need a moment..” he stumbled to the door, opening it. Simon frowned deeply, watching him go. The engineer glanced back, hesitating. The sparkle in his eyes were still there, but it had dimmed— and Simon finally realized what it reminded him of.

Stars.

Chapter Text

The hallway was narrow, and a dark gray. There were a few doors on the right side, all plain metal with no window inside. On the left wall there was a single decoration, a poster that said simply ‘It’s bigger than us.’
Mark paced outside the room, one hand to his head. He was talking to himself as he paced, muttering under his breath.
“Executioner, executioner.. Of fucking course he’s an executioner! First I was blinded to the Captain’s faults, now Simon… God.”

Mark ran his hand through his hair, messing up the careful part Celci had done for him.
“Murderer… Fuck! I fell in love with a killer!”

“Am I any better?”
“Of course I am!”
“But I killed the universe..”

He argued with himself, shaking his head. “Murderer… But survival— I killed for survival— But that was an accident! I fixed it! Maybe he’s changed— Can a killer change? He’s still aggressive.. But..”

Mark trailed off as one specific thought hit him.
Simon’s breakdown last night.
He had just seemed scared. Alone.

Mark gripped his hat close to his chest, before suddenly lifting it above his head and throwing it into the ground with a frustrated sigh. It’s quiet thud echoed against the metal hallways, followed by Mark furrowing his brow and muttering to himself again.
“That’s who he LET me see! How do I know who he IS?”
“By looking at his past.”
“But people can change!”

He left the hat on the tile floor as he paced, tugging at the holes in his fingerless gloves.
“But did HE change?”
“He seems different..”
“God! Stop! He doesn’t— I need to stop letting my goddamn bias—“ He let out a sigh, grabbing his hat and sliding down the wall into a seated position, hiding his face in his hands.

The hallway was deafeningly quiet, and a deep cold leaked into Mark’s bones; The place clearly didn’t have proper heating.
He slowly lowered his hands, looking down at his hat. He rubbed his thumb across the Invincible II crew-mate patch on the front, before sighing and fixing it back onto his head.
Mark leaned his head back against the metal. “What am I supposed to do?” He muttered.

The singular poster on the wall across from the man stared back at him.
‘It’s bigger than us.’
He stared at it, before letting out a growl of frustration and launching to his feet, clawing it down with a loud tearing sound. He crumpled it up, throwing it at the wall he’d just been sat at.
The paper bounced off and hit the floor with a quiet sound thhhp sound.

. . .

“… I’ll allow you to handle Simon. Your crew has laid your claim over him, and you can suffer the consequences,” Ava said, flipping through her binder. “Onto our next subject for discussion.. Are you sure you want him in the room for this?” She gestured at Simon.

“He stays,” Celci said firmly. The Captain nodded. “If he’s as dangerous as you say, the last thing I want is him out of my sight.”

“Understood. You said you’re the only other fleet to survive the quiet rapture?”
“Correct,” Celci confirmed.
“How have you managed to survive?”
“Well, we were sent out to find planets to colonize before the blackout. We had all the recourses we needed for sufficient life, all we had to do was figure out a way to recycle it all, which came pretty easily.”

“Recycle it?”
“Engie would be better equipped to discuss this. He may be dense, but he kept us alive after the blackout. He figured out that system himself.”
“I see. We’ll discuss that further upon his return. How many people are on your fleet?”
“Ten thousand civilians, two hundred crew members.”

Ava paused, her blue eyes wider than Simon had ever seen, her gaze sat solely on Celci. She slowly opened her mouth to talk, taking a few seconds to get any words out.
“… Ten… Thousand?” She echoed.
“Ten thousand,” Celci nodded.
The assistants beside Ava leaned towards each other behind her to whisper.

“Ten thousand living people..?”
Celci frowned, nodding again. “Yes, that’s correct. How many do you have?”

Ava looked between the assistants. “The C.O.I houses—“ Ava coughed into her palm. An assistant handed her a stained cloth, which she wiped blood onto as she spoke. “Around two hundred. Eden’s population is unknown, but estimated to be about three hundred.”

… Five hundred people. Split between two societies. Christ, no wonder Simon was so flighty. Celci looked over at the captain.

“.. Three hundred?” Simon echoed quietly.
“Yes. Our numbers may be inaccurate, we’re far from being friendly with Eden.”
“… There..” Simon looked up, meeting Ava’s gaze. “There were five hundred people before…” He trailed off.
“Before you all attacked?” She raised an eyebrow. Simon just looked down at his hands, interlocked in his lap. “Numbers fall when societies collapsing,” she added coldly.

“If I may,” said the robotic voice from The Captain’s data pad. “Perhaps our two societies could bridge. We can merge our recourses and rebuild a life for you all.”

Ava looked over at the assistant to her left, muttering to them. The man stood and left.
“Hm. What’s in it for you?”

Captain looked over at Celci, doing some motioning.
“Well I know that—“ She started to reply, but the captain started gesturing again.
“I don’t know? The blackout, maybe?!” She said with a hint of anger to her voice. The captain shook their head, doing more motioning.
“… No. I think we owe them, considering what you did.”
The captain did a bit more gesturing. Celci nodded thoughtfully. “The floor is yours, Mx.” She gestured to the other side of the table.

“Care to bring me into the loop?” Ava asked pointedly.
The captain turned to her, and started motioning with their hands elaborately. Ava stared at them like they’d grown a second hand.
They put a hand to their helmet in frustration, shaking their head. They looked to Celci for help.

“Use your data pad!” She folded her arms. The Captain typed out something on the datapad.
‘Not efficient enough. Translate.’
Celci sighed, looking seriously at Ava.

“Alright.” She cleared her throat, adjusting her puffer coat. “Nothing’s in it for us.”

Both Simon and Ava seemed to turn sharply to Celci, mirroring each others distrusting confused expression.

“Nothing?” Simon said.
“Surely you want something out of this. There must be something to gain; Be upfront about it; I can promise you our strategists will figure out whatever it is you’re trying to do.” Ava planted her hands on the table.

Celci looked over at the Captain.
“Well… There is one thing,” She said uncertainly. Ava leaned forward.

“… Mx, are you sure?” Celci asked under her breath, looking into the emotionless glass of the other person’s helmet.
They nodded solemnly.
“I trust you, captain… I hope you know what you’re doing.” Celci cleared her throat, looking back into Ava’s eye. “Clear Simon’s record.”

. . .
Mark looked over as the door to the room opened, and our stumbled Ava. She coughed, and her assistant, the young woman, helped her stand up straight, offering to help her walk, but she refused with a single shake of her head.

Celci and Captain trailed out behind her, Simon last, a few extra feet behind the other two, his gaze fixed on the floor.

Mark stared for a moment at the man, feeling his own heart drop all over again. Mark pulled himself to his feet, scrambling towards the Captain and Celci, falling into step beside them.
They walked in silence for a moment. Mark looked between the two. “What’d I miss?” He muttered, cutting through the silence; Celci quickly explained.
Mark stared at her, then at the Captain, silently asking if they were serious. Captain nodded. Mark’s hands started to shake.

“Do you think that—“ Mark paused, glancing back at Simon nervously, wetting his lips again “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
The Captain grabbed Mark’s shoulder, doing a few quick gestures with one hand. The man slowly nodded.
“Right… Yeah.. I.. I trust your judgement, cap’..”

The door at the end of the hallway opened up, light spilling in. Ava led them out of the dark corridor, into the docking bay once more. Simon blinked at the sudden burst of light, an image burning in the front of his mind. A memory.
Three words rang clearly in his head. “I see you.”

He shook his head, shutting his own eyes tight. He opened them again. Right… Still in the C.O.I..
Simon looked towards Mark, lifting his hand slowly toward the man, before quickly letting it fall to his side. He was fine. It was just a stupid flashback or something.

Simon could handle that, easy. He didn’t need anyone else; Because nobody needed him.

He didn’t know why Captain had asked to clear his name, when it was obvious the other three no longer trusted him at all. He could handle some distrust from Celci; She’d been wary since he showed up, but..
The way Mark occasionally glanced back at him from their huddled whispering, his eyes dull and filled with a familiar distrust..

Fuck. Simon dug his nails into his palms, gritting his teeth. He’d be fine. Fine! Whatever the future held, it couldn’t be worse than the bottom of the blood ocean. Someone looking at him with fear was normal. Why did it feel so wrong now? That’s what he’d been used too before!

…. Simon’s gaze fell back to the floor, a lump forming in his throat.

“We can talk more later. I need to reconvene with the consolidation; we’ll get back to you,” Ava said to the Captain, who nodded.
A young man quickly ran over, carrying a thick folder. The male assistant from earlier. He handed Ava the folder. They exchanged a few short words, before Ava looked back at the three.
“Simon’s criminal record,” She stated coolly, handing it to Mark, who took it with shaking hands, staring down at the vanilla folder. It was scratched up and torn, and there were a few pieces of it that were just some other material entirely.

“Be very careful with this. We don’t have the recourses to make copies, so this is the only one. I’m trusting you with this for several reasons; consider it a test. Don’t let me down.”

Ava coughed, and the male assistant handed her the dirtied rag again.
Captain nodded at her.
“Shit,” she muttered wryly, turning back to the small shuttle the group had come from. “Adam, please escort them to their return carrier.”
“Are you sure—?” The young man started to ask, before being cut off by a sharp,
“Now, soldier.”
“Yes, m’am..”

Even in the shuttle, Simon sat down against the wall and floor, while Mark manned the control panel, and Celci and the Captain spoke to each-other, leaned against the opposite wall.

“… Alright, I’ll be the first to ask,” Celci finally said, turning away from Captain. “Simon.”

He winced at the sharp edge to her voice, looking up with a frown.

“Why’d you do it?”

Chapter Text

Simon stared at Celci. The question was not at all unfamiliar, and he tensed up defensively.
“You have my file. Read it there.”
“I’d rather hear it directly from the source,” Celci took the folder from Captain. “Or, at the very least, I’d like to hear both sides. They didn’t seem too confident on anything regarding where you came from.”

Simon rubbed his neck, absentmindedly running a hand over the large scar. “I…” Simon’s other hand reached into his pocket, finding the glass pendant. He’d nearly forgotten about it.. He ran his thumb across the smooth surface, not daring remove the item from said pocket. “Why? So you can use me? Like they did? Decide I’m expendable?”

His words hung in the air, each sharper than the knife he used to commit the crimes. Celci stared at him, frowning.

“Do you really think we’d do that?” Mark said after a moment, his voice low.
“… What?” Simon frowned. There was a definite somber drag to Mark’s voice. A kind of dread started to settle into his gut, deeper than it had already been.
“Are you really that scared of us?” Mark’s gaze broke away from the control panel, over to Simon.

“… I..” Simon frowned. “The-.. The Captain mentioned handling further punishment, I-“

The Captain did some quick gesturing to Celci, who nodded.
“That was simple professionalism. We will evaluate your record, and decide how to move forward, but considering we found you at your execution, it’s unlikely you’ll actually actually receive any further consequences.”

The words did little to soothe him. “I won’t be your tool,” He said gruffly. “I won’t— You can’t lock me up again. You can’t.” There was a subtle plea to his words, but it was paved over with aggression.

Celci and The Captain exchanged glances, and Celci moved to stand beside Mark, muttering to him. They seemed to try to be speaking quietly to keep Simon from hearing, but they didn’t do a very good job of it.

“They called him an executioner, not a murderer,” Mark started.
“That could be another title, like ‘butcher’ is,” Celci countered, and Simon winced.
Mark went silent, staring intently at his hands as they idly ran useless scans over the shuttle’s various systems. “Do you really think he’s a murderer?”

“I think you’re an idiot for bringing him aboard without bothering to figure out who he is!”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“… He’s definitely capable of murder,” she said slowly. “But… I’ll be honest, he doesn’t strike me as one.”

“What if that’s just a facade?” Mark’s voice broke.
“Then that’s that. He gets locked up.”

“Wait—!” Simon blurted out. The two turned sharply toward him, entirely different expressions on the two. Celci looked serious, and frustrated. Mark looked… Hurt.

“… Yes?” Cece said after he failed to continue speaking.
“I… Uh..” Simon cleared his throat. “D-don’t lock me up again. I did it, I… I killed them…” His gaze fell to the floor, unable to bear seeing Mark anymore. He bit the inside of his cheek.

“But… I can’t go back to prison. I can’t. I … I never enjoyed it, my crimes, I- You have to believe me, please, I can’t be locked away again, I can’t—“ His voice started to get louder. The only way he’d ever been heard was through shouting, clawing, and biting. He was on his feet now.

Celci glanced at Mark, who muttered quietly, “What did they do to him?”
“What did HE do to THEM?” She countered. Mark swallowed the lump in his throat, exhaling a quiet sigh.
“What do we do? We can’t just lock him up again—“
“If he’s dangerous, we’re going to have too,” Celci cut him off.

“No!” Simon shouted. “You can’t— You can’t, I—“ Simon’s breath caught in his throat, and he slammed his fist into the side of the shuttle. “I already served my time!” The loud clang echoed through the now silent air.

The gazes of the three other’s turned sharply toward him, Mark’s eyes filled with unmistakable fear, Simon’s aggressive stance reflected back at him. Simon recoiled slightly at that, his expression falling.
“Simon,” Celci said carefully. “I need you to answer my question. Why did you do it?”

Simon frowned, sinking back down to the floor and fidgeting with his hands.
“… Alright… Okay.. okay.”

. . .

“Captain..?” The young man, named Adam, asked.
“Hm?” Ava looked up from her binder, turning to him.
“You should rest.”
“Can’t,” she replied coldly, turning back to her work. The guy frowned, running a hand through his brown hair.
“You should. Look, this isn’t coming from just me. Jack’s doctor— Well… You know Jack’s in poor condition, it’s a miracle you’re standing at all.. The guys down at the med bay want you to stop working so hard.”

“We are so close to a better future,” Ava said slowly, tapping her finger against the paper. “All we have to do is play our cards right. I’m going to die anyway—“
“Don’t say that!” Adam whined, desperate. “Maybe they can save you— They sure as hell have more than we do.”
Ava paused. They were treating David..
“… Huh. I never thought about that.”
“I know,” Adam glanced aside. “Let someone else handle some of this.”
“I can’t trust anyone else with this,” she hissed.
“You’ll have to if you die.”
Ava froze, glaring over at him, but all he saw in her gaze was exhaustion, not malice.
“I’m serious, Captain. You have been here every morning before anyone else gets up for their shifts, and you’re the last one to leave. You are dying. If you keep this up—“
“I said no, soldier. That’s final.” She hit her hand on the table with a loud CLANG. The worker backed down. “I know for a fact you have better things to be doing right now. Go.”

Adam frowned, scurrying off with a frown.

. . .

“… It- … The tree was dying. The last one, I-“ Simon’s breath caught in his throat, and his hand reached into his pocket, gripping onto the pendant like his life depended on it. “We fed it with bodies. Corpses. Anyone who fell became food. They… They idolized death.. I was always different. I didn’t want to die— I don’t want to die..” He rubbed his eyes dry.
“Your previous Captain already explained this,” Celci interrupted calmly. “I want to know why you killed them.”
“… People weren’t dying enough,” he offered weakly. “So.. Anyone who stepped too far out of line…” He stared at the floor, trailing off.
“… Kill or be killed,” Celci said wryly, glancing over at the Captain. Mark’s gaze shot between the two.

Simon nodded. “I didn’t want to die.” He looked away.
“and Filament station? You were just a soldier?”
“I didn’t know it was a bomb.”

“You didn’t know?”
“They didn’t tell me!” He snapped. “I might be a murderer, and they knew it! I was abandoned by people who I thought were my brothers! I was never meant to make it off that station, I was never meant to make it out of the ocean, I—“ His voice cracked, and he ran a hand through his hair, moving to stand.

“I just wanna live. Is that so wrong?” His eyes stung. He couldn’t bring himself to meet their gaze.“Why doesn’t anybody else want that?”
The same question he had in the submarine. The same words, even. God, this was familiar. Facing people over crimes he never even wanted to commit.. Just because he didn’t want too, though, didn’t make him innocent.
Ultimately, the blood was still on his hands. He’d still swung the cleaver. What he thought or wanted didn’t matter.
It never had.

“We do want that,” Mark said quietly. Simon visibly stiffened, looking up. “You don’t deserve to die. If we wanted you dead…” Mark cleared his throat, gesturing to the Captain. They put a hand on the gun on their belt.

Simon nodded slowly. They didn’t want him dead… Of course they didn’t. Of course Mark didn’t. “You trust too easily..”
“Should we not trust you?” Celci interjected.

Simon’s mouth opened, and he failed to spit out a reply, closing it again. Mark tilted his head.
“I-I.. I don’t know,” he finally whispered. He didn’t really trust himself..
Mark put a hand on his shoulder, causing the man to flinch, before softening slightly. It was just the engineer.
“I do. We should.”

Simon’s brown eyes met Mark’s. There it was again. That gleam, like the entire galaxy had survived in this man alone. He offered Mark a small, shitty smile. It came off kind of creepy. He didn’t have experience with that.

Mark grinned back.

“Arriving at the Invincible II loading bay in One Minute,” said a voice eerily similar to the S.H.I.P’s.