No bulkheads impeded their approach to central command. Her heart hammered with the rumbling station. Her clammy palms made it difficult to steady herself on the overhead railing. "Neo?" she whispered into her still active communicator, still able to hear the beeps of an array on the other side, but no voices. "Can you hear me? We're in transit back. If that thing is still there, you should hide. It-It took down Admiral Mythrai's team." His silence strangled her throat, and eviscerated her hope into nothing but atoms. "Neo, listen, I know I give you shit a lot but..." Nova checked on Izerva, who kept their gaze trained on the tunnel they left behind. "If you could say something that'd be great..."

Nova jolted at the sound of an explosion, and the tracks rumbled. It burst through a crimson field to enter the station. Alarms hushed through the dark and added to the decay in the air. Vents pulsed. That surge must've lowered the defenses... and Neo was in the tower... Nova leaped off the tram, and frowned at the overturned, hasty barricades at the entrances. Izerva rushed behind her, then pointed at the lift to the tower.

"I am going to try and find others," Izerva signed. "And try to tell them we cannot kill this thing with weaponry."

"Because it'll just rebound..." Nova nodded and rushed for the lift, leaving Izerva to investigate the area. It struggled to open, so she lifted herself through the emergency hatch and into the lift's maintenance area. Hand on the lever, she kept a hold on it as it cranked and raised to the peak with slower speeds. Agitation swept to her feet, and she tried to stomp it out without letting go of the lever. Her fingers dug deeper into the metal at a distant screech, unsure of whether it came from above her or below her.

Stars, just let him be alive. Don't do this to me again.

It settled at the top, and she forced open the lift door to squeeze past. It rumbled from the commotion below, but the crimson silence dotted the air. Blaster in her hand, she slid forward, one foot in front of the other. One body splattered against the wall from an immense force. Emergency lights created shadows of teeth, but she bit on her tongue to force herself out of the ice. "Neo?" she whispered, before sticking close to the wall at shattered light. Around the corner into security, she bit down on a scream at the slumped corpses against the keyboards.

Oh, fuck, what happened here?

Nova sped her pace to the main array to find him, slamming her fist into the panel to make the doors slide open.

A crack split the holomap in two.

Crimson oozed along the cameras and arrays, flickering out of drainage. Nova swallowed in pain and tried to find the labcoat among the dead. Over the table, she froze at it.

Neo laid face-down, with his communicator out of reach. Splatters of red dotted his coat and stuck between his hair.

"No..." Nova rushed to his side, holstering the blaster to shove her hands around his neck, to feel the pulse of life. Her heart exploded against her ribcage at the rush of its promise. "Oh, Stars. Neo!" Hand on his shoulders, she shook him. "Come on. Let me help you." He let out a quiet moan at her continuous shaking. Nova lifted him out of the spreading blood to support him from underneath his elbows. He winced when she touched the droplet of crimson spreading a river down his cheek, causing him to tap her wrist with a misdirected point at nothing.

"When did you get here?" he mused as she tried to haul him to his feet, to no avail.

"Forget that. What happened?"

"... think I hit my head." Neo gave another unknown point at nothing. "Uh... what was I doing...?"

Nova released a breath. He's disoriented. I need to get him out of here... Arms hooked underneath his, she lifted him off the ground. "You with me, Neo?" she asked and swung his arm around her neck before wrapping her free one against his back.

"I can't remember what I was doing last..."

"Your head's bleeding." Nova longed to smack herself for her stupidity, but Neo waved his hand in front of her as she tugged him out of death's embrace into her own. "What happened?"

He shook his head. "Just need to catch my breath... try to remember what I was doing."

Nova frowned and set him against the wall. "What do you mean 'remember what you were doing?' Neo, you were the one who closed the bulkhead. Admiral Mythrai ordered you to, right?"

"No, I mean I went into the array and couldn't remember why I went in there..."

He must've hit his head badly. Nova waved her arms and brought him back into them. "Stop thinking for a minute. Your brains got rattled into mush." Hand on his chest when he tilted forward, she shook him back to life. "Stay with me, alright? We're going to get you some help." If... there is even any help left below us. This place is as silent as the grave... Nova bit down on a sigh when he swung into an embrace, and she looked back at what she left behind. They were all dead... and for once, he wasn't. Nova held her ground when Neo slumped. "You're heavier than you look, Neo."

But worse comes to worse... I can probably carry him over my shoulder or something... but where would I take him? The anomaly labs are the worst place to go... I could go back to east sector... but if that thing can go anywhere...

"Can you walk?"

For good measure.

"Yeah..."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah..." He rubbed his fingers into his hair. "Something happened."

Nova nodded and wanted to smack sense into him. "I got that, but I wasn't here."

He brought his shaking fingers down his nose with a confused blink. "Did you get into the bridge?"

"No, it was blocked, and then that thing came back," she said.

He nodded.

"I think if we can find a way in there we can still turn this around," she begged for her hope. "Neo, I don't think you're okay."

"Miss Zynaia left and went to the anomaly labs after there was a burst of reading and then I can't remember anything else..." Neo recalled with another unsteady nod. "Yeah, that's what I remember. I went into the array to try and see the readings myself."

"And then something went wrong," she tried to fill the blank. "In the communications array?"

"Must've been the outage... overloaded the system."

I don't think an outage can kill every person but one in an area. Nova never pointed that out to him. "Well, Izerva's downstairs. We should go meet up with them. Maybe there's still people down there. We're staying away from the anomaly labs though, Neo, that thing is here for that."

"No..."

"No?" Nova hauled him back to the lift. "How would you know?"

"Doesn't make sense..."

"It makes plenty of sense to me." Nova bustled to the lift control to try and get it working, and she hissed out her bloody defeat when it refused. "Here." Nova slipped into the maintenance tunnel to place Neo on the ground at her feet before fiddling with the lever to bring them downwards, back to the frozen cold of spatial hell.

"If only there was a clear cause and source..." he mumbled at her knee.

Back to the main level, she winced at the ooze dripping through the vents and the distant sounds of a fight against an unstoppable force of nature. Out of the maintenance lift, Neo stumbled to his death — in the direction of the central lab holding the strange anomaly; the source of their woes.

"Neo. Neo, wait—" Nova gripped his fingers to stop him short. "You said you don't know the cause and source of this?"

Thousands of eyes grew along her spine, but she clung onto her last hope.

Neo turned with a wobble. "Yes."

Nova swallowed on bile and took him to a quieter corner, out of view of any who dared to shoot the black hole, only for the black hole to expel its light, though it was as silent as a grave. Crimson hues danced along nebulous trails when she pulled him to his knees, and he stared, blank-faced at her. "I'm... I need to tell you something," she said. "It's going to sound crazy, and you don't have to believe me, but—" Her words trembled on her tongue when the vents let out a deep, guttural howl, too close, but so far. "Neo, I think we've done this before."

"What do you mean?"

Gunshots echoed off the rumbling of the space station. "I've done this before," she corrected and held his other hand, full of warmth the other reflection lacked. "Don't you get it? I've lived this before." Tears choked her hope to despair. "Neo, I think we're looping. I think whatever the droid picked up is way more than a heart. I think it created a time loop."

His pupils thinned, but she took her chance at his silence. "I don't believe it either. I don't! It could be a false awakening, but I don't believe in future premonition either, so what other explanation is there? I've never heard of a clairvoyant causing anomaly." Pressure dug into her temples, the same which broke the security footage in Neo's intense staredown. "But this is repeating again, and I can't do it again, don't you see?"

He blinked again, the crimson nebula turning grey along his irides. Starlit music broke the silence of the universe when he lowered his gaze to the ground, then at the blood-splattered, scorched wall to their left.

"Neo, please say something," she begged. "Say I'm out of my mind, that I have a bad case of Space sickness, or that it doesn't make sense — I can't make sense of it. I know how impossible it is!" Her rage fluttered in the air and into her throat whens he breathed. "I can't think of any other explanation for what's happening here. Whatever is wrong with this nebula, it's affecting time and space."

His attention zoned in on her and his pupils dilated with the very nebula entrapping them. "Are you certain?" he asked, quick and unsteady when he gripped her shoulders. "Is everything repeating as it did? What sort of events are taking place that are repeating?"

"All of it," she rasped and ignored the sounds of a fruitless fight against something unfathomable. Tears left bloody trails down her cheeks as she held onto her last reality. "It's not over..."

Neo's gaze intensified, the cold, calculating scientist swallowing her excitable, gentle best friend. "Is there something else?"

Surrounded by darkness and death, he continued; relentless. Neo tugged her to her feet, back on his own with a steady gait. As she opened her mouth, nausea gripped her temples with the popping pressure to her brain when she glanced at the crimson-soaked butterfly necklace. It groaned, creeping closer and closer. Neo's hands steadied her elbows, and she whimpered, "I don't know what's happening to me..." Supermassive, nothing more than a raging black hole. Neo guided her out of the corner space never had. "Where are you going?" she forced out. "Neo, we have to get out of this area. If we stay—" Heaviness gripped her tongue with unforgiving claws. If you stay...

"I'm taking you to the central lab."

No! Nova slammed her foot down. "No, Neo."

"The other scientists will be there, and I need to figure something out," he insisted. "If the anomaly has something to do with this, that's also where the answer will be. It's our only chance."

Doubt plagued her, but Neo was the Anomalous Scientist — and she never believed. Nova followed him into the black hole of despair, into the last death zone. Central Lab Z. Red pulsed around the circumference of the room, but blood no longer splattered the pipes and data arrays. Another loop, and there was no undoing it. Nova gazed at Neo as he rushed to the scientists in the observatory, pulling her along while they all cowered and waited for their end inside the lab itself, with no way out. Nova puffed out a breath of relief at the sight of Izerva when they entered, whose tail twitched in uncertainty as they kept their rifle holstered on their back, but the other soldiers near the entrance quivered with anticipation at the arrival of the end.

We're all going to die here.

It was written all over everyone's faces, but Neo took charge in sorting through the data arrays. "Where's Miss Zynaia?" he asked.

"She hasn't come back yet," one scientist said with a quiver.

There's nothing I can do. Nova stood there as Neo searched through abandoned datascrolls with a glance at the anomaly. What is he even trying to do?

Lights flickered and pipes oozed.

"It's coming!" one soldier snapped.

Because in the end, this is its goal.

The anomaly hummed a heartbeat, quickening with the approaching darkness as Neo threw datascrolls to the side before heading to the main array, tapping on the console. Barriers shimmered, and Nova frowned when the anomaly sucked them inside itself, and Nova hurried to another data array with another scientist as the door cracked.

Tendrils slicked around as the soldiers took a step back, but created a firing line.

Izerva's ears perked in alarm, and they threw their hands up.

And then she understood. "No, wait!" Nova snapped. "You're not going to hit it, it's only going to—"

It was always too late.

Stars screamed into explosive being from the anomaly when they unloaded their capacitors into the monster. Everything bounced, danced and scorched across metal. Scorch marks damaged panels at the instinctive need to fight back. Nova found no voice to scream with when one smashed into the back of a distant shape across the anomalyt, and mist sprayed into the air.

Again.

It blazed with fallen light as it zipped into her ears and she found herself in the middle of danger. It howled with their own light. Warmth seared past her ear and popped the noise when she brought her hand up, and she grunted when someone slammed into her, pulling her to the ground as the hiss of blasters turned into screams of pain and agony.

"It's just me," Neo whispered, too calm while the pressure in her head threatened to explode. A different thrum, almost familiar but too different — too immense compared to the creature fighting its way into the lab by reflecting the piercing lances of light. "Keep your head down."

Nova went to lift her head to investigate, but his hand met the top of her head to push her back to the metal floor of the lab.

It continued, endless as they failed to stop a black hole.

Just stop...

Cold drew over her shoulders, and she tasted rust in the air. It fell silent in a sucking vacuum.

Nova peeked to the side, where some people laid limp on the ground, attacked by their own weapons. Others writhed in pain. Some found themselves behind cover, fearful when the monster tangled itself into the vents leading into the containment. It took pieces of carnage with it. Izerva lifted themselves from behind a data array, ears pressed against their head. Nova swallowed on blood and smacked her brow against the heated metal, but it wasn't over, not until they passed the event horizon, but it was one small moment to breathe. "Stupid. Stupid..." Nova found Neo's arm. "I'm alright. I'm fine." She stopped when he didn't answer. "Neo, you can get off now."

"Sorry," he mumbled.

What?

Nova lifted herself off the ground to investigate the source of his apology. Her eyes refused to adjust to the dim, splattered lighting, but she shuffled over to Neo when he slumped to his side, making no noise among the growing tension in the throes of the black hole.

Her heart drove itself into her throat at the splotch of ooze across his labcoat, burying the butterfly necklace in blood.

"Neo, wait, what?" Nova grabbed him to pull him into her lap as his breathing came in too slow.

Stars, what have they done?

This wasn't supposed to be real. Nova glanced at Izerva, who widened their eyes when they looked at Neo. "Izerva, get me something to stop the bleeding!" This wasn't supposed to happen again! Nova rested her hands against his cheeks until Izerva rushed back into view to throw her a medkit, scrambling to her side as she dumped out the contents before as tendrils squeezed into the containment, inching for the anomaly. "Neo, why?"

"I wasn't thinking," he echoed back her agony.

Nova untied his labcoat to get to the offending injury, but the pressure intensified. Izerva's tail flicked in horror.

"Engineer Nova..."

"I just need to stop the bleeding," she whispered when Neo went silent. Blood oozed her hand when she shoved the cloth onto his chest. His butterfly necklace turned her skin to frost when it tangled with her flimsy attempts to save her best friend. "I just need to stop it."

Teeth and ooze grew out of the walls.

But we're going to die anyway.

Grey nebulous clouds flitted across the wings of time.

Izerva's pupils tightened when the pressurized darkness manifested.

As small as a butterfly.

The monster slipped out of the vents, but something colder embraced her.

Colder. Immense. Insurmountable. Supermassive.

It counted down as it grew, sucking on the light the monster dared to try and consume.

Black holes clashed with a tearing scream coming out of her throat, with Neo long gone in her arms.

It roared through the station.

Is there no way out?

Nova closed her eyes when the tendrils lunged with their own teeth; ready to be wrong. Ready for the truth in permanence.

For the reflection to be real.

And Neo to be dead.

Don't do this to me. I can't do this again. I can't watch him die over and over.

The pressurized darkness descended, and Nova swore it said her name.