Note to all: The characters and S.T. Universe are not mine, but the dreams are.
Nightmare's Beginning by Demi Elliott
For eight years, he had lived mostly in fantasy. Memories of her and his belief in her love kept him striving to survive in his lonely hell. He had been abandoned, left behind on a doomed outpost and his dreams were all that he had. He had gotten used to living with the never ending pain of being alone; he wouldn't have thought it possible that anything could make him feel worse. Until the day he heard voices and ran towards them in anticipation, only to be confronted with …………….himself.
As it had been explained to him later, a strange inexplicable phenomenon had created two men where there had once been one. While he had been stranded and alone, his other self had lived the life he should have had. Reacting on an instinctive level and needing to regain what was his; he fought for dominance over his other self. He even thought for a time, that he could win his life back, until …………………he saw her again.
She had come to him, in the quarters that were assigned to him. It seemed a dream, like so many he'd had before, and he reached out to hold her, touch her, and feel her in his mind. His heart sang with joy as he realized this was no dream, she was real, she was here; and he yearned to feel her love touch his soul once more. Overwhelmed with joy, he sought within for the connection between them and it was in that moment that his dream became nightmare as he found only emptiness. He could not touch her.
Abruptly he realized the reason and accused her of it; of being with his other self. She denied the connection, but he could feel the truth. Unable to accept the end of his hopes, he tried to make her his again. He did his best to show her how he felt; what she meant to him. He begged her to let him in; he needed so much to be with her again. But she kept her mind closed to him and agony burned in his soul at her rejection.
When he was informed that a position had been found for him on another ship; he had no choice but to accept. Owning nothing, with no home, friends or family to call his own; he simply had no where else to go. One last time, he went to her, knowing even as he did so that it was hopeless and asked her to come with him, to be with him. And, as he had always done, he kept his pain inside himself, when she said she could not. The last time he saw her, she was standing in the supportive embrace of his other self.