The quiet oozed from the black hole itself.

Nothing lived and nothing breathed.

No one said a word when Admiral Mythrai called for an early recess, with Neo among the first to stumble out. Nova chased after him before time stole him farther out of her reach. "Neo, wait!" She shoved through the crowd in space to get to him. He shambled to a stop and twisted on his feet. "Talk to me. Are you okay?"

He raised his hands to stop her from coming closer with a small whimper. "I-I'm fine," he rasped. "I'm okay, just—I got overwhelmed and overloaded with all that was happening and I'm usually much better than that but then I was sick and it just messed up my rhythm and—"

"No, Neo, you don't need to give me excuses or explanations, it's okay." Nova gripped his clammy fingers. "I just wanted to know if you're okay, if I could help you." Her fingers dug around his own when he shook. "If there's any way I can help you—"

He flicked his gaze to Thuni and Ulin when they left the dome, and he stiffened further. "I just got overwhelmed," he repeated with a shaken echo. "I got overwhelmed—What's wrong with me?" He brought his hands to his temples. "I was supposed to be fine. I was supposed to be able to handle it."

"Talk to me," she whispered and came closer to hold his arms. "What's wrong?"

"I just-I just need some space, please," at his request, she let go. "I don't want to take my aggravation out on others, you know? I didn't mean it. I didn't think about what I said until I said it. I never think about what I say." His frown cracked as he stepped away from her. "I'm sorry."

"Neo, you don't have to be sorry—"

Neo pushed his hands in the air between them with a rapid shake of his head before rubbing his hand through his hair. "I'm sorry," he repeated as he pressed his hands together to push against the tips of his fingers, something she had seen him do when he was particularly excited or agitated so many times, but this time, told the truth of his well-being in full clarity, and the perspective punched her in the gut when he rasped, "I'll feel better. I'm fine. I'm going to go to Habitation if you need me. I'll talk to you later. I have to go do the reports—and I have to figure out what I'm missing."

"Neo, wait—" Nova frowned when he rushed from her without another word. Neo... you can... talk to me. Pain caught in her throat at his distress. I... want to understand you, I want to hear you. Tears fell down her face from a strange sense of disbelief and a touch of realisation at something so far away. Neo, it's you! she wanted to call him back. I want to hear you!

Tell me what's wrong.

Nova turned to Ulin and Thuni. Ulin frowned at Neo's disappearing shape with a look of distressed familiarity. Thuni folded his arms.

"I'm sure him not feeling well didn't help the sensory overload he must've got from having to present all the facts and keep them straight at the same time," Ulin observed, and when Nova widened her eyes, they shrugged. "Thuni told me."

"He said he wanted space," Nova whispered.

"If that's what he needs," Ulin said without the knowledge of the loops.

What he needs is to get out of this loop. It's hurting him. Nova dug her teeth in and set herself in motion. "You need help with your core?" I need to see this for myself. If the sample didn't reset, Neo changed something major. I need to pin it down to break the loop. I don't think Neo vaporizing that monster killed it... I think it did something worse.

"Sure," Ulin said and took the lead to the transit station. "You might be able to give us some insight, especially if Teimea isn't feeling well."

This will also give me a chance to confirm Thuni no longer has that monstrous aggression. On the transit, Nova squirmed when it locked her in with the two. Her headache rang the music in her ears. Unable to listen, or hear, their discussion, she sat down and tried not to choke on the past loop.

"Are you feeling okay, Nova?" Ulin asked. "Are you worried about Teimea?"

Nova jolted at their sudden question. "Oh. I'm alright, but yes, I am worried about him." Arms folded, she met Thuni's curious gaze. "Don't hold it against Neo for what happened in the briefing. He likes it when people ask questions, but... I guess being sick didn't help matters." It was a flimsy attempt to test Thuni's reaction, aggressive or otherwise.

"I'll keep that in mind," he muttered, back to the engineer she first met. "Don't worry about it. I shouldn't have pressed the issue once it was obvious he was getting overloaded. I assume he stayed up late making observations about the anomaly." He leaned against the rumbling transit.

Nova relaxed at the withdrawn response. Typical Thuni before the cosmic hell and the weight of an entire space station sat itself on her shoulders. None of them deserve this, repeated over and over.

The transit rolled onto the platform and they headed to the droid bay. By the vent, no hint of sludge revealed the presence of a monster. Sensor at the ready, she flicked it around for the crimson stars which once floated in the air and gathered into the creature. Nova put it away when lights bathed the entire hangar in brightness. Her feet dragged behind her when Thuni headed for his droid.

Mangled, crunched, and oozing out its ports.

"It looks like it's bleeding," Ulin observed.

"Get the core out," Thuni instructed, but her tension rose into her throat when he drifted over to her droid and stopped by the terminal. Glass cracked underneath his heel, and she trembled when he knelt down and took the largest piece with his gloved hand.

Crimson stained the edge of glass.

Ulin's thermotorch hissed in flames when Thuni knelt in the hope of another time.

Nova crept to Thuni's side to confirm her fear.

It was the beaker for Neo's sample.

Words burned on her tongue when Thuni stiffened with dawning familiarity.

He held it up to her. "Spacyn, what is this?"

"I have it, Thuni!" Ulin called.

Ideas rushed through her head as Thuni dropped the glass and left his previous fate. Both of them gathered around Ulin when they held out the core. Crimson stained around its golden circumference. Neither of them brought attention to it, leaving her in the silence in her own mind.

Is the loop... breaking?

Ulin hesitated, then eyed her. "What is it?"

Thuni's shadow swallowed them, but the threat persisted. It chewed on her hope and scattered it to the event horizon of the black hole. "Let's switch them." Nova took it from Ulin to shamble over to her droid instead with the two following in her footsteps. Knees on the ground, she opened up the casing to her droid core with ease and detached it, passing it to Thuni to replace it with their core. Power thrummed and tickled her fingertips as she shuffled inside to wake it up.

Information glitched on the dashboard, but she pushed through it and opened the scanning module to twist it to maximum efficiency. My core wouldn't be able to handle this, but theirs can. Nova shut the panel and brushed her hands. Time left on the dash, she frowned when it came closer to the lockdown.

"What was that about?" Ulin asked when she returned, examining her core.

"You're just going to have to trust me," Nova said. "Put my core into yours."

"Nova, there's nothing left of our droid," Thuni pointed out.

"It should still load the modules," Nova explained and checked her wristpad.

On the hour, in silence.

Ulin nodded and rushed back to the broken droid, and her heart pounded with the lack of a lockdown.

No alarms blared, but she gasped when the space station rocked. The AI sputtered to life, "WESTERN SECTOR—COMMUNICATIONS—PLEASE REMAIN CALM—AGGRESSIVE ANOMALY CONFIRMED."

Thuni steadied himself on the terminal. "Western sector?"

Neo?

Another tremble sent her to the ground.

"WARNING: LOCKDOWN INITIATION—"

Everything glitched and died.

"That's not good," Thuni hissed. "If Habitation falls—"

Nova straightened out when the trembling stopped. "I'm going to head over there," she said. I need... I need to see if I'm wrong. I need to see him.

"Wait! What about the lockdown?" Ulin rushed around to block her path. "We don't know what's going on over there. They said there was an aggressive anomaly."

I know what's going on. You two don't. Nova never let it go voiced and continued. "You two should stay here and investigate your droid," she instructed, tossing her sensor to Ulin. "Use that if the power goes down. Be careful." On the transit, she activated the manual controls.

"You know something," Thuni mumbled.

Nova withdrew at the steady, calm question. "I... something anomalous. I swear I'll come right back and explain. At least, I'll try to." The glass doors shut on her, and the transit rumbled into darkness.

No blaster shots rang out as she came closer to the giant, half-open bulkhead. The transit screeched to a stop an inch from the platform, in a thin layer of nebulous grey clouds. Her heart drove itself into her throat when she left the transit and slipped underneath the blast door. Silence stifled all the music of the universe. Waterfalls of nebulous tendrils fell from the vents. Some of the mist shuddered when she moved past. Heart steeled, she ignored the desolation underneath the grey fog to rush for Habitation. "Neo!"

Am I going to have to do this again?

Nova rushed forward and pushed the doors open with a heavy groan. Glass and gooey plant matter splashed against the walls, but her attention drew to the person who knelt beside the last end.

"Neo," she said, tasting relief, but she frowned at the remains of her makeshift bomb, where the cores cracked and melted through the middle. "Neo?"

He leaned forward, but then stood up in one fluid motion. It took too long for him to turn to her, and the silence screamed in the void. He twisted on his heel with the starlit symphony. "Nova," he whispered without opening his eyes.

He sounded so different, and so familiar.

"No...va...'

Nova raised her hand to her lips, her worst fears realised. "Neo. What happened? What did you do?"

He opened his eyes, and the grey emptiness remained. After a few minutes of silence, he sighed, and the echo of the black hole followed it. "You drew me here," he pointed out. "Remember? You wanted me to help." He blinked, then tipped his head. "You remember. Look in your pocket."

Nova shivered, then drove her hand into her pocket to settle the terror within. A chain wrapped around her fingers, and she pulled out the starlit sewn butterfly. "Your necklace..."

Neo raised his hand to the current iteration of it. "You would not listen." He shook his head and turned back to the bomb. "But whatever it took, I needed the entirety of space to bend."

He talks like Neo, but he doesn't sound like himself. He sounds... ancient, almost. Nova came closer to him. "So, I was right, then?" It was her turn to ask the barrage of questions. "You were after the original monster?"

"Monster," he echoed her words. "If that is what you wish to call it, yes. That is what I was after."

Too calm. Too collected. Too much of the calculating scientist, full of emptiness. Nova reached out to grab his arm, ignoring the oppressive pressure in the atmosphere and in her own mind. "What's wrong?"

Neo shook his head. "It was foolish, but the corruption of time has been assimilated now. It will be complete."

"Corruption? Complete? Neo, what are you talking about?"

"Your monster."

"Isn't that... a good thing? Is it gone?"

Neo studied her. "It is a good thing, but it is not over. I need to get to the gate."

"The gate?" Nova jolted when he moved past her. "Neo, wait, you're not thinking straight!"

"I have never been so clear-headed in my life," he whispered with a small tremble in his hands, a return of the loop. "I... I need it explained to me," his voice came out small, and not the pressure from before. "I need it to explain what's happening to me."

It formed the nebulous black hole around him, seeking equilibrium within the space-time continuum.

"I can explain."

He stilled once more and turned to her. "And yet you are the one asking questions."

Nova gripped his hand, and he gazed at her. "Then answer them, Neo."

Neo considered her. "We can head to it through the north," he said, but he frowned and squeezed her hand. "I'm sorry."

He let go.

"Tell me how this ends," she whispered, and he came to a stop. He turned with a flash of the nebula in his pupils. "Tell me how this all ends."

Neo stared at her in the agonising minutes of silence, then answered, "With a gunshot."

Her heart fell. "With a gunshot?"

He nodded, then kept moving.

I can't let him get to that anomaly. Not until I figure out what's wrong with him... how I can help him.