MARK'S POV:

(Y/n) had burst out of the shimmering surface of the ocean, the water splashing up from behind her in a sparkling gold explosion in the setting sun's light. Her (f/c) scales and her (s/c) shimmered with water droplets, a big bright smile was plastered onto her beautiful face. She did a flip midair and came corkscrewing down into the crashing waves below her, ending her trick by shooting an array of fire and ice to collide with the splashing water. It was amazing, I'd never seen anything so cool in my life before! The whole thing made her look so beautiful, she was almost glowing in the evening sun and the water caused a sort of glimmering effect as well. Her bright (e/c) eyes sparkled with joy as she showed off her trick, and she looked so eager to be back out in the open waters of her beloved planet.

Before I knew it, her head came peeking out from the water in front of me, that beautiful smile still accentuating her flawless facial features. I helped her get out of the water and lifted her onto the shore of the Floating Island setting her beside myself. My face was in a heated blush from her beauty and I was slightly afraid she'd noticed. I wanted that beauty to be mine and mine alone and I got the urge to pull her close to me. I hesitate to do so at first but sometimes, you just gotta go for it.

So I did. And she leaned into me! I'm so happy and surprised, I didn't think she'd like it. My heart felt like it was pounding out of my chest and my hands were slightly shaking with nerves. I internally squealed with joy when she took my hand into hers, my nerves slightly decreasing from the new contact.

We stayed like this for a while, just the two of us looking out at the horizon of her planet on a beach in the sunset. It was like a cliché scene from a romantic movie! I slightly cringed when I thought of that and tried not to laugh at  the thought. I had to admit, even though this was so cliché, it was actually really nice. I sighed and gently leaned my head on hers, wishing that this moment between the two of us would last forever.

Unfortunately all good things must come to an end, and after a good while of watching the sunset (Y/n) began to pull away. It was slightly darker now and her tail was glowing even more than it was before. "Your tail looks really pretty y'know. I wish I had a tail!" She softly giggles and bites her lip, looking away as a blush begins to creep its way onto her angelic face.

I couldn't help but become slightly aroused when she bit into her lip, for some reason I found it really attractive and it drove me insane just watching it. It made me want to lean over her on this beech and capture her in a heated kiss where I'd be the one biting her lip instead. She'd gasp and I'd take that as a chance to gain entry into her mouth, our tongues would dance together as we'd enjoy each other's taste. Our lips burning hot with the other's heat, would move in sync as our fingers would get tangled in our hair, softly caressing each other as we pulled ourselves closer together....

I had to shake my head and slap my cheeks a couple of times to get the dream out of my head. I was surprised at the scene that my mind had quickly created for me, and I began to quickly talk about finding the plants I needed so that I might be able to prevent the incoming erection from scaring (Y/n) away.

I gently picked her up and began to wander the island, looking for any trace of the plants I was in need of while also explaining the different plants we passed to the pretty mermaid in my arms. Eventually we'd found them and I'd gathered all the seeds I could carry in my backpack. By this time the sun had almost completely set and it was getting hard to see, though (Y/n)'s tail did act as a bit of a torch for the things close by. 

I'd started to feel a throbbing pain in the back of my head, but I didn't say anything on account of how (Y/n) was feeling. Her face was a little pale and she kept scratching at her tail, claiming that the air was really dry and that she'd started to feel strange. I'd offered to take her back to my base and come back to check out the warp gate tomorrow, but she insisted on staying and investigating it tonight.

I had to wander the island a bit before I could find the warp gate. Eventually we'd stumbled upon it and (Y/n) let out a squeal of excitement as she bounced in my arms and looked up at the giant structure, there were lots of strange designs carved into the entire thing. "Wow! It's just like the other ones I've seen in the ocean!" "There are more of these?!" She turned her head away from the ancient thing and looked at me like I was an idiot.

"Well duh! Haven't you seen them? The precursors left them everywhere! But usually there's another part to them. It's got the same designs except it's a lot smaller and looks sort of like a podium or a pedestal. It's got a huge indentation on the top of it, the elders of my village used to say that if you could find the glowing artefacts you could activate the machine! There was something else they said about them though, I think it was a warning but I can't remember what it was about."

Another part huh? That's right! I remember seeing a pedestal like thing the first time I found this! I also wondered why I haven't stumbled upon this village she mentioned, I'd have to ask her about it some time.

I began to wander around the area until (Y/n) suddenly pointed it out. I told her I was gonna check around for the artefact and she said she'd stay by the pedestal so when I got lost she'd call out and I could find my way back to her.

It was about 20 minutes of searching before I stubbed my toe and tripped. I looked through the thick underbrush to find what I tripped on and was delighted to see a strange green stone tablet. There were symbols carved into it and the whole thing was glowing an eerie shade of neon green. I was glad she'd stayed by the warp gate because I had no idea where I was. Everywhere I looked was surrounded by plants or was too dark to see, even with my new glow stick like artefact.

"(Y/N)~! I GOT LOST LIKE YOU SAID I WOULD!!" ..... she didn't respond so I tried again. "(Y/N)! I'M A BIG MAN/BABY AND IM GETTING SCARED ALL ALONE OUT HERE!" I could hear her faint laughter and I knew she'd heard me as I started walking towards the sound. "I'm here Mark! Follow my voice ya big 'man/baby'!" I softly chuckled and made my way back to her.

"MARK?! C'MON! IT CAN'T BE THAT HARD TO FIND A SCREAMING PERSON IN THE DEAD SILENCE OF NIGHT!"

I stepped out of the bushes and she screamed when I touched her arm, quickly throwing a punch that I was just barely able to dodge. "EEK! Damnit Mark you scared the shit outta me! You can't just creep up silently on a girl and then touch her arm!" "I can't? But I thought I just did." "Shut up ya smart ass." "And did I really scare the shit outta you? How do you even poop? Is there like a little hole in your tail that only appears when you gotta go to the restroom?" I internally cringed and the poor excuse of a joke but decided I'd just roll with it anyways, no matter how awkward this got. Her face went from that sick looking pale to an instant dark red when I asked that. I almost regretted it. Almost.

"OH MY GOD MARK!! WHAT THE HELL?! YOU CANT JUST SAY SHIT LIKE THAT!" I laughed as she continued her freak out before silencing her by showing the artefact.

"Wow you actually found it! That's so cool!" "Yup, I even scanned it so now I know how to make more of them!" She seemed confused for a second but instantly shook her head and reached out for it. "I think you should let me put it in because of your awful idea of a joke a few minutes ago." I put my hand on my chin pretending to think about it even though I was gonna offer to let her do it anyways. "Hmm I don't know... it'd be pretty cool to do it myself. Besides it was a funny joke an you know it! Your reaction was priceless!" "Don't make me slap you." I chuckled and gently placed it in her hands. If only I'd known what was about to happen to her, maybe I would have just put it in the pedestal myself.

As soon as I'd let go and she'd placed it into the stone cut out, a blinding green light shot up around her and her screaming shattered the quietness of the night. Her body began to writhe and she couldn't remove her hands from the stone artefact as it seemed to be sucking away her magic and life through her skin. I stood frozen in shock and fear from what was happening, the giant machine behind her had begun to hum and the symbols began to glow the same green as the artefact. The pedestal was still absorbing her essence and she was screaming with tears streaming down her face.

The warp gate burst to life behind her with a giant swirling portal of green light, fire, and ice. I realised that it'd stolen her magic to make itself more powerful. "M-MARK!!! SAVE ME!!!" I snapped out of my trance when I'd heard her screaming out for me and I quickly ran to her side enveloping her in my arms and pulling her away from the cursed thing. As soon as I'd touched her it'd released whatever hold it'd had on her and I'd ripped her away from it. The thing slammed shut covering the artefact and a giant beam of light and electricity shot out of the warp gate. The portal at the centre spinning faster and faster making me get sick just looking at it. There were loud pops and bangs and the ground around us shook. I hugged (Y/n)'s crying form to my body and backed away into the tree line, shielding her from whatever was gonna happen with my body.

????'S POV:

It's been over a month since all contact with the Aurora has ceased. It's been over a month since I've lost contact with my best friend. No one knows the last coordinates of the Aurora, and not one member of its crew has reached out to us here on earth since communication has stopped.

I left my home in Ireland and caught a plane to Cincinnati, Ohio in America a couple of weeks ago. Taking with me all my necessities and a giant plushy that I always hugged to calm me down. You can bet your sweet arse I was squeezing the crap out of it on the way over there.

I wasn't gonna be able to use it for a while, his mum's been hugging onto it for dear life. It was the last thing he gave me before leaving and going on that stupid spaceship. She'd put it in one of his remaining shirts and would lay there for hours on the couch with it, tears were always streaming down her face.

It was the worst thing I'd ever seen. A mother crying into a plushy with her son's shirt for days at a time, begging for him to come home and be alive. Endlessly calling his contact from the ship only to be sent straight to voicemail, unable to leave a message as she'd used up all the space from her calls long ago. Constantly wandering through the house calling out her son's name through her sobs, even though she knew he wasn't around to reply.
She'd sleep about 4 hours each night before waking up and continuing her grieving again, hardly making time to eat or take care of herself.

That was 7 weeks in the past. I don't know how she is now. I came home around 5 weeks ago, I couldn't take it. We've run out of videos to post on his channel, Ethan's been searching his computer for literally anything he could find. Shit, he even tried using some of the videos from his old computer from when he first started doing YouTube. He appeased the community by saying things like,"I found some old videos of mine and I thought you'd like to see them" in the info below the video.

There weren't enough though. He's found nothing else. We ran out around 2 weeks ago, everyone's noticed. The fans are going crazy about it, but they're very supportive too, I can't tell you how many people have sent cards or other sympathies to his friends and family.

They've even started a charity, trying to raise money so that maybe they can find the Aurora and bring her and the entire crew home. I'm tired of pretending to be happy for everyone else's sake when I'm dying of sadness on the inside. But I can't give up on Mark.

I've taken to searching his last calls for clues on his whereabouts. These past few weeks have been hell, I've done everything I can to find him. I think I'm getting close though, I've narrowed my search to a few planets.

I've just finished uploading another video on my channel. I decided to have my dark alter ego Antisepticeye take over at the end. I thought maybe it'd give the community something else to focus on.

I went back to my search for Mark, clicking on the name of the next planet on my list, Planet 4546B. As I look over it I noticed that it's mostly ocean with very little bits of land. An informational tab pops up and gives me all the information about our discoveries on it.

The last known ship to pass by there was the Degasi, it never came back. No one knows for sure if it crashed on the planet or if it simply got lost further out in the cosmos, it sent a signal telling us that it was gonna pass by this watery planet and go to the next one. There never came a message from the other planet.

I began to look closely at Planet 4546B, scrolling around its surface until I found an island in the middle of its sea. There was a strange symbol on that island but I had no clue what it meant.

I sighed and continued my search on the other remaining planets, but that symbol stuck in my mind.

I began to draw it out on a piece of paper, when I finished the whole thing started to glow a bright green, sparks of fire and shards of ice flew out of the page. My computer began to whirr and the image of the island on Planet 4546B popped onto the screen. It zoomed in on the island and the symbol there was glowing too! A huge whirlwind began to fling stuff around my room, I found myself being dragged towards the computer by the same strange magic that was coming from the symbol I drew. My vision started to go blurry, an the last thing I saw of my home was illuminated by the scene of my computer exploding!

I was being dragged through a portal, my body felt light as a feather. Had I not been scared outta my mind I would have found it really fun! Almost like a giant water slide that was zipping me 'round the cosmos. The whole tube was glowing in a bright green/white light, the fire and ice were spiralling around me. The next thing I knew, I was being shot out of that bright light into the darkness. Everything was looked like the sun had just finished setting and there was this giant ancient looking machine with a huge green portal that I just came out of at its centre. I could see tropical looking plants in the dim evening light before I suddenly slammed into the sandy ground, hitting my head on the base of this strange glowing pedestal thingy.

"OW! JESUS CHRIST THAT HURT LIKE A BITCH!"

I slowly got up, rubbing my head and looking around. "Where am I? The fuck is that thing?" I turned around and looked at the pedestal I'd hit, studying it's strange green glowing carvings. It seemed connected to the portal that'd stolen me from my home and flung me into the ground.

"Fuckin' hell, ye could've gently placed me on the ground but noooo. Y'gotta give me a concussion and leave me on an island in the middle of NOWHERE!"

I tried going back through the portal but it wouldn't work and I'd ended up just walking to the other side of it instead of going home.

I sighed and looked closer at the symbols on the pedestal, it had one that was exactly the same as the one I drew, and the one that was on the planet my computer showed me. If I had to guess, I was now stranded on Planet 4546B with no survival skills and no means to get back home.

"Well that's just great. I'm fucked!"

I jumped when I heard something move in the tree line behind me, whipping around to see what it was. I put my hands up and got into my "battle stance", ready to beat the shit outta whatever came through those bushes.

"FIGHT ME BITCH, I'LL BEAT THE HELL OUTTA YOU!" I shouted at whatever it was and was shocked to see what came from the bushes. His red and black hair was the first thing I saw before completely dropping my tough guy act. His face looked so surprised to see me here, before turning into one of pure joy.

"Jack? Is that really you!?"

AUTHOR'S NOTE:
My special thanks go out to the amazing WillowWarflashe  , Rabitinator22  , PartyPandaCat   and NoteBlock  who not only gave me the go ahead for this but inspired part of the storyline! It means a lot that they'd give me their feedback and would want to help me with this story and I honestly couldn't thank them enough even if I spammed their message boards with an endless stream of thanks!

Thank you all so much for reading my story and I'll see you all in the next update! Author-chan out! ~<3