It was focused on Neo, I'm sure of it — but why was it not before? It also... It looked different — no, it was separate. Ugh... Nova scratched her temples as she rushed through the maintenance tunnel underneath the transits. Her steel-toed boots echoed along the route and the atmospheric pressure lifted off her brow. It took too long for her to reach the ladder, lifting the hatch open to sit herself on the ground, closing it behind her before stumbling out of the door into the transit station.

Thuni and Ulin stood by the holomap, and Neo paced a giant circuit with a wild look in his eye as he tapped his fingers together in one drumming motion, rubbing them in between his shaky breaths. Ulin reached over to poke him, then pointed at her. Nova moved for them, but jolted when Neo sped to her first.

"What was that?" he demanded.

"I don't know what that was, but I think—"

"No, not that." Neo waved his hands at her before throwing them to the side to indicate the transit. "Why didn't you get on the transit? Why did you send us ahead? My readings indicated that the thing had some sort of relation to the anomaly — and was clearly in an agitated state. What if something happened?" Neo vibrated on his heels with a furrowed brow. Nova frowned when he returned to his pacing and fumbled for his datascroll. "I'm going to need to compare the readings I managed to get. This proves it is a life form... I'm going to need to get this to the central lab and describe its behaviour and see if the main anomaly responded around the same timeframe as what happened in the Droid Bay Facility." He walked in an automotive state around the holomap, in constant circles. He gave a small twisting shake of his wrists before glaring at her.

"Neo, I—"

"I just need to figure this out," he chattered at nothing, and Thuni stepped out of his way when he made another circuit. "If we're dealing with this level of breach with an agitated anomaly there might be trouble."

"Neo."

"What were you thinking?" He investigated her. "What overtook you? You've told me time and time again to be cautious when it comes to anomalies, but then you just throw me on the transit and the last thing I see is... well, nothing. I saw nothing." He bounced on his knees. "But can I quantify a formless thing as a lifeform — is it some sort of hivemind? It would explain the gaseous clouds."

"Oh, stars he can't stop," Thuni said and rubbed his nose. "I don't think you have room to pry at her, Teimea. You're the one who stood there when it appeared to want to take a real big chomp out of you just like it had done to my droid — if that was the thing that did it." He leaned forward. "Is that what happened to it? Since when do black holes have teeth?"

"I was standing still for a very good reason," Neo pointed out.

Nova held his shaking forearm. "I'm sorry, okay? I just thought I could... figure something out."

"What was it were you hoping to figure out? What were you hypothesising?"

Nova tried to find the words, but each one failed her. "I just... it just left."

"It just left after you sent us ahead," Neo repeated with a flat voice.

"Yeah."

He inhaled a deep breath and brought his fingers closer to the tip of his nose. "Okay. Fine. Acceptable," he said several synonyms at once. "Also, you avoided my question." He closed his datascroll with a click and shoved it back into his labcoat. "Interesting..." He returned to his automotive circuit around the holoboard. "If its focus is solely on reuniting with the anomaly, it wouldn't be too much of a reach to assume..." He mumbled under his breath and tapped his fingers together.

Another chilling idea slammed into her heart. Wait... is the monster really going for the anomaly? Or is it trying to find the fastest way to someone? Nova frowned at Thuni and Ulin.

"I can call it," Thuni grumbled. "We're going to have to shut down the entire space flight deck as a whole to trap it in there and give us time."

Ulin frowned. "What about the other people in the south sector?"

"I don't like the idea any more than you do," Thuni pointed out, then shook his head. "We don't know what we're dealing with. Maybe they'll send some of the admiral's personnel to evacuate them. I can add that it was last seen in Droid Bay A, and that we were alone and they can shut the place down. It'd give other people in the sector a chance to hold out until help arrives."

But... that's what happened last time — and they were still in there. Her words died on her throat as Thuni rushed off into the eastern facility, with Ulin trailing behind him. Neo never budged from his previous spot, and a sigh escaped her. "Neo? They're going to call a lockdown. We have to get back to our room."

Neo eyed the tram she threw him onto before giving a quiet nod.

Nova guided him into the temporary safety of the eastern facilities. Workers shuffled along, unaware of the danger present. Thuni and Ulin disappeared to send the distress signal to center command, but she kept close to Neo to examine every shadow they passed.

Neo opened their dorm with his keypass, and the lights flickered within. Her single hint to the loop. It closed behind them with a hiss, and Neo sank into his desk to bring both hands to rest at the sides of his head. He pushed the datascroll into the terminal to upload the data from the anomaly. Nova studied the clock, where it counted down the loop.

It took too long for the first lockdown, but she found her shock and surprise lacking when it roared.

Neo didn't even lift his head.

"WARNING — LOCKDOWN A INITIATED. ANOMALOUS BREACH DETECTED."

And then the next will be Lockdown Z. Exhaustion from the previous loops boiled her stomach, but she had to time it all, to map out the truth. Time the loop to measure it with caution. Anything to push it to the final end, to the last event before it reset.

Neo's death, which happened every time without fail.

But there has to be gaps. Maybe if I can prevent Neo's death, the one constant in this... I can break the loop.

It was all theoretical, and she dealt in absolutes. There was nothing absolute about time and space. Everything changed with a single action. Nova opened her team menu, Thuni and Ulin remained bright and responsive, though Izerva dimmed, it was a fleeting connection in their entrapment of space.

Nova wiped her future tears from her cheeks.

"Nova."

Neo's voice jolted her out of her trainwreck before it started. "Did you find something out about that creature?" Back at his side, she frowned at his uncertain expression. "What?"

Neo hesitated, then tugged out the crimson phial with a twist to his lips. "I know there is a connection between this and the thing in the bay," he whispered. "As for what the original source is, I can't say." He glared at his terminal. "These fluctuations are too irregular and don't match the original compositions." He huffed. "I feel like if I got a better look at that lifeform I'd have more answers..."

"You would have died." Blood slicked through her past failures.

Neo eyed her. "You could've died," he echoed. "I don't know what's going on with you, Nova, but you know you can trust me." His words came out tight and strained through his throat. "This is my job. This is the risk I'm willing to take. Let me make them," he insisted before putting the crimson phial on his desk, arms folded with a furrowed brow.

But would you say that, knowing what I do? Nova frowned at him when the light from the terminal spread the grey nebula into his pupils. ... you would, wouldn't you? You'd figure this out faster than me. I wish it was you who could remember. Nova slumped into the dinner bench. It ticked down with crushing energy in her mind, and the headache came in rhythmic, breathing waves. "It's not that I don't trust you."

He turned with a raised eyebrow.

Alarms rang in the universe.

"I have a question," she forced.

"What is it?"

"It's about your thesis on Chaos Theory," she said. "You remember, right?"

"It wasn't that long since I presented it." Neo laughed. "I'm not that forgetful. What's the question?"

How long do I have? We can't stay here forever. They're going to call Neo, and I refuse to let him go alone this time... or maybe something else will happen now that Thuni and Ulin are another facet to this, being alive. Nova rubbed her temples. "How can you study anomalies? It all makes my head spin."

His shadow swallowed her, and he slipped in beside her. Back to the cruelty of the universe, she looked him in the eye.

"Is something going on?" he asked once more, his expression falling into observatory consideration. "You can talk to me about it."

Nova dug her fingers into her knuckles. "Then... I'm going to run you through a hypothetical."

Neo blinked, then grinned. "You know how much I love those, Nova. Hit me with it."

I should've hit you before you touched that anomaly. Nova squared her shoulders. "Out of every anomaly you studied for your thesis, all of them dealt with time and space?"

"Well, it's a broad subject," Neo said with a pinch of his chin. "Temporal anomalies being among the most difficult to... wrap around. To answer your question, a lot of mine dealt with the subject of the space-time continuum."

Another alarm joined the fray. "Then... here's my hypothetical." Nova twisted to him, to take in all of his reaction. "Imagine, for a moment, there was a... a temporal anomaly with the ability to affect the entirety of the space-time continuum. Enough to make it loop into a vicious cycle." Old blood stained her skin. "And... you're stuck in the center of it, unable to change it. What would you do, in that instance? How would you handle that level of an anomaly?"

"When you say a loop," Neo said. "You mean a time loop?"

"Where something repeats after certain conditions that may or may not be met,' she rasped. "It starts off at one point, but ends... at another constant point." Her heart quaked with the weight of his corpse, cut into like a sack of meat. "What would you do, Neo? What if—" It tore across her tongue. "What if the thing that ends it is something you don't want to happen? What if the thing ending is consistently... losing the person you care for the most? Is there something specific about that event?"

Can I stop it and still end the loop?

"Hm..." Neo hummed in thought. "Well, first, we have to deduce the manner of the time loop. You know, that reminds me of the last research of the D.S Butterfly? They were the pioneers in stasis pods." He raised a finger, unaware of her dread. "You place someone under something akin to 'temporal stasis' to wake up at a later point in time with no effect on themselves, as if they had gone to sleep for only a minute. Hypothetical example... waking up a thousand quadrums later — though that is theory crafting. Stasis pods aren't used for stuff like that."

Nova stared at him. "But what would you do?"

Neo rested his chin on his hands. "What would I do? Well... It would depend," he whispered. "How am I perceiving this time loop?"

"You're at the heart of it. Your actions are... affecting everything, but can't seem to change the end result."

"Like the butterfly effect — chaos theory," he whispered. "For that to occur something would've had to fold the very fabric of space-time. We have yet to register it on a level we can perceive. We analyze data on the outskirts of the galaxy, but there's too much we don't know. Take the Ushavex nebula, for example."

Over and over again.

He continued, "Time loops have certain conditions to keep the fold occurring to 'create' them each time — a reset when it is met, as it were. Over and over, those conditions are met, and cause continuous folding, or looping."

Hope died. "So... it's impossible to stop the hypothetical thing resetting them?"

Neo gasped. "Nova! That's a bad word," he said, then chuckled. "I didn't say it was impossible. A lot of theorycrafting involves hard questions with no easy answer."

"Then what would you do?" she pressed. "Take the person you care about the most in the world... if... if the time loop dictates that something bad happens to them each time, how would you stop that? If say your actions can change everything but that one point—"

"Then there is something about that one point that is vital to why it folds," he said. "As for your question about what I would do in your hypothetical..." He curled on himself. "I'd want to find the answer; the truth, because if I can find those things... I can figure out why it's happening, and what is about that singular event causing the reset."

The timer ticked down.

He smiled. "Any other hypothetical you want to run past me?" Wide-eyed and curious, his deaths never created a ripple effect.

But how many more can we get through until it does? Before it wears on me, or stars forbid... you? Nova scooted closer to him. "No, I think that's it. Thank you for indulging me."

He smiled again, the same smile he gave when she opened herself to him, so warm and genuine when she thought the worst of him. He took it with him to the grave. "It's no problem."

Nova tugged him forward to nuzzle her cheek against his. "I'm glad I have you to throw out unbelievable ideas out there."

Neo returned her gesture of affection. "That's what I'm here for."

Nova released him to let him get back to work, but she held her gaze on the spinning clock, the immutable truth of the loop. Every time, another lockdown, and it spelled Neo's doom. Is it his placement? Or his existence? All I do know is that when he touched that anomaly... She watched him dive into his work with hyperfocused fervor. He touched it and the space-time continuum changed.

It counted down.

But maybe he has a point, maybe I'm too focused on the surface of things.

Ten seconds.

And then there's that heartbeat... and that voice. The voice I heard at the end calling out my name. It... It feels so familiar.

Moments stretched on until the final twist of the loop and the turn of the shift.

"WARNING: LOCKDOWN LEVEL Z INITIATED. ANOMALOUS THREAT ACTIVE AND DANGEROUS."

Just let him exist.