Time passed and went by too fast.

Three objects of interest. Three points along the stream of the stars. A show of trust in her, one last wish at the end of it all. It chewed on the space station and turned it to mist all around her, but she tread closer to the event horizon, dragging along Neo, turning into a ghost right in her arms as they came closer.

I have to end this...

Nova stopped when Neo shivered and groaned to bring his hand up to his eyes, near glowing with stars. "Neo," she rasped. "We're so close."

But why does it always get there?

Nova kept the three objects in her pocket, taking the place of the ruined butterfly necklace dropped into her lap in another fateful loop, the start of the crack. He broke it by a piece, and now I have to shatter the rest of it. I won't leave him behind. Never again.

"Nova," he rasped.

"We're almost there."

Almost there.

Their steps echoed into the darkness and trails of crimson mist oozing out of the nebula chewing out of the space station and seeping through to swallow them whole. "Come on," she begged for one last rush to the finish when he stumbled. "Come on."

I'm so close.

It pressurised her skull, but the ringing never released a scream in her ears.

"Nova." He gasped and brought both hands to the side of his head when the stars drove into his pupils, and he tumbled to the ground, forcing her to follow him. "I can't."

"I know, but I'm here," she whispered and held his shoulder. "Neo, you have to."

Tears dripped down his cheeks with his pain as he gazed at her, then shook his head. "I..." He shuddered when a sweeping cloud drowned the greys, but he shut them tight. "Nova, can you... tell me something? Again?" He raised his hand to her forearm, to keep himself upright. "Tell me if you regret it?"

Nova frowned. "Regret what?"

His lips parted for an answer, but he winced and trembled. "It's too fast," he said, his breath quickening the longer they sat there. "Just tell me if you regret it." His hand squeezed her arm. "Tell me if you regret meeting me — wouldn't your life have been easier if you had just ignored me like others? If you had just... if you hadn't actually turned around that day?" He whimpered and kept his other hand on the wall. "Because I just seem to drag people with me."

"No," she said.

"You don't think what could've happened if you hadn't?" he asked and his features relaxed before opening his eyes, shining in the nebulous light around them. "You never wonder?"

Nova whispered, "What's the point of wondering? We're here now, aren't we? And no, Neo, I don't regret it. I'm glad I turned around."

His shoulders slacked, and he released a small laugh as he smiled at her. "All my life I've spent thinking about all the what if's, all that I could have changed or wanted to change," he said and clutched her shoulders. "Especially the things I had no control over. Especially the things I know I can never change." His tears intensified in happiness, lit up by his expression and contrasted the pain of his life. "I'm always thinking. Always imagining these situations in my head even if they don't pan out the right way — and if they don't, I start wondering more. I can't get myself to shut up. I can't make myself stop and take in what's around me." He shook and laughed again, and Nova frowned. "I never had anyone in my life with your patience. I've always chased people away. I've always ruined every good thing I had. 'You talk too much', 'You're too much', 'You just don't apply yourself', 'If you just tried this would be easy.' What does that mean? What is easy? What is trying? Why do I keep asking these questions when I know there's not a fix to them? Is it supposed to be easy?"

"Neo, I..."

He let go of her and winced into his palm. "I'm sorry."

'There is always something new to learn,' he observed, but she wondered who he spoke of in those few crucial moments, if it was something specific.

"Neo, we're so close," she rasped.

"I know," he said, then shivered when the nebulous tendrils swallowed his pupils. "Not the time... for all of that..." He untied the butterfly necklace and pressed it into her hands with a shaky hand. "Here."

"No, that's not what I'm saying," she said, holding the necklace close when he sucked in a breath. "Neo, what are you seeing?"

He looked at her for a moment, the stars bright.

Collapsed in the next, faded out of existence in a thousand more quadrums.

The heartbeat stopped over and over again.

So close to the end. Nova lunged at him to shake him awake, for anything to make sense. Tendrils cracked into the space station as she lost her voice to the vacuum and the ringing silence haunted her more than the screams. Her words exploded into bursts of light as she tried to call him back, to get him to turn around instead. None of the training before the space station trained her for any of this.

Her hands hovered over his chest, and she compressed deeper to restart his heart herself when the loop failed to. To the drum of death around her as she fought and fought.

You don't have to be sorry.

Strength returned to her limbs as she refused to let him go.

So don't apologise to me.

Nova leaned forward to cup his chin in her palm and tried to give him back his life with her own. Back to the chest compressions, the nebula faded bit by bit, their time at the limit.

I don't regret turning around. Not once.

Neo, you can trust me.

Nova stopped, and drove her fingers into the shattering butterfly necklace before leaning closer to him, to brush his shoulder.

I'm listening.

I want to listen.

And I know how exhausted you must be.

Nova tightened her grip and ran into the event horizon alone, but she would always turn back.

Glass shards of broken wings dug into her fingers, but never made her bleed the way it made him suffer. It fluttered into starlit ash when she let go of it, and the darkness formed into bubbles and burst into little supernovas to fall into the clear water around her heels, a continuous spinning motion of the universe. Nova hesitated at the incomprehensible, perfect sphere looming overhead, a frozen black hole with the light in constant motion.

Beneath it, sinking deeper into the sea of endlessness, Neo.

Nova rushed forward to grab him around the chest and shoulders before it tugged him under and drowned him. "Come on," she hissed. "We're not done having that conversation." Her feet dug into an unseen shallow, though he sank in the same. He shifted his feet, the first sign of life as the nebulous clouds latched onto his face and drove themselves into his eyes.

One broke.

Into a cascade of watery stars as she landed fully on her hindquarters and Neo lurched with a gasp.

It all stilled into silence.

Nova looked around at the strange space. It expanded all around them, always moving but never moving at all. Her breath caught in her throat when Neo raised a hand to his eyes, thumbing his brow with a soft groan. "Nova?" he whispered. "Is that really you?"

"Yeah."

He finally turned around.

"Long time no see," he rasped.

Nova embraced him. "What do you mean? I was just talking to you."

He nuzzled into her. "Not for me... stars, it feels like it's been so long."

Nova allowed herself a moment of respite in the quiet, holding him close. "I'm here now." Her hand rubbed his shoulder, but the question rippled the area. "Where are we?"

"It's the fractured gateway," Neo said with a nod at the incomprehensible black hole, but returned to her. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to feel something. I've just been alone here... seeing everything happen at once. I just needed this for one more moment."

"Then let's get out of here, we'll be out of the loop."

He didn't respond.

"Neo?"

Neo hugged her tighter. "I just wanted to feel warm again," he whispered. "I could die happy if I felt it just once."

"You're not going to die here," she whispered.

He held her at arm's length with a shiver. "I'm out of energy. I don't even know if I'll come back into the loop alive. Not like this. I don't think I have the ability, Nova," he said and breathed out. "But that's okay. It's okay because I had you in my life. You remind me to look around sometimes." He smiled, brighter than a blazing sun. "You're going to be free. You're going to escape either way. I managed to do that much. I only had enough strength to pull you in here."

Nova hesitated, then hauled him to his feet once more, to finish the journey. "I said I won't accept that outcome," she said. "Even if I have to drag you kicking and screaming out of here. You'll come back with me. You'll come back and we're going to do this together for once. I won't leave you behind."

Her gentle words screamed all around the stars.

Neo blinked. "You wouldn't? You would keep going?"

His question changed the waves.

"As many times as it takes."

"That doesn't change that I don't think I have the ability anymore to come back to the loop alive," Neo whispered and slumped into her support. "I've been so detached for so long. If I go into it, I think I'll just die again, right in front of you without a chance. You've already given me something precious, it'll be okay."

Nova frowned, then kicked his shin, causing him to flinch. "Nope, I didn't come here to listen to this," she stated, to get it through his stubborn skull. "I'll drag you back if I have to. You are not going to die, Neo."

He breathed deeper. "How can you be so sure?"

"I deal with certainty. I just need you to hold on for one more second."

"Don't you know how long a second is?" he whispered as the black hole above their heads shrank.

"You will blink, and it will be over," she said and dragged him on the trail of starlit butterflies. "I can still hear you."

"After so long, here I thought you'd never hear me," he said as his necklace fluttered around his shoulders on its starry chain. "Okay, I'll try. I'll hold on."

Nova went for the horizon, to the edge of the fracture, and put trust in what laid ahead of her. Four points in time to tug them back.

One more reset.

Back at the start, she trained her gaze on Neo, who slumped in his desk with his ancient exhaustion. Nova rifled through her pockets, and felt the three pieces of trust.

Good.

"Researcher Teimea, you have the stage."

It's time to end this.

Neo hauled himself up on weak legs before she could rush out of his chair to support him. He took tiny steps for the podium, dragging himself forward through time.

Admiral Mythrai stiffened. "Teimea, wait—"

Nova stood up when Neo collapsed, face-down.

Thuni cursed behind her as she slid to his side. "Neo?" she hissed for her strength to pull him out of the black hole. Her hands pressed against his clammy cheeks, and his eyelids fluttered. He shuddered when she tapped his brow. "Neo, Neo, breathe."

Admiral Mythrai barked out an order to Izerva, who stood at the door.

"Neo, come on," she pleaded when he went limp. Another shake. Please tell me it wasn't too much. Ear pressed against his chest, she bit down on her jaw at the faint sound of a distant heartbeat, but no breath tickled her fingers. "He's not breathing."

Panic exploded in the briefing room, but nothing mattered as she refused to give up on him. Unable to lose herself to the chaos, she undid his choking collar to give him breathing room. People shuffled to escape or draw closer in morbid curiosity.

One moment.

Neo sucked in a sharp inhale and fumbled to hold onto her shoulder. He shut his eyes tight and squeezed.

Ceaseless noise, but Nova patted his chest. "It's okay."

It fell quiet in panic.

His hand drifted down her shoulder to her forearm. He sucked in his lips with an uncertain breath. "It's okay," he echoed with a growing, weary smile before releasing a soft, weak laugh. "I'm here. I'm sorry I'm late... I kind of tripped."

Nova blinked at his quip, then sighed out the pressure. "You're something else, Neo... you know you should watch where you're stepping, then," she whispered and let his hand drop to the floor as he nodded, and closed his eyes.

He continued to breathe, slow, soft, but certain.

Finally.