"We have to go, Engineer Nova." Izerva twitched their tail towards the door.

I know. Nova pressed her cheek against Neo's burning one, and his eyelids fluttered open to study her. "I'm going to be right back. I need you to stay here and not get into anything," she assured and let him rest. I'd rather not leave Neo alone longer than I have to, but if I can get Izerva to read that writing, it might have an answer. At least, Neo believes it. I have to get these back to Thuni and Ulin — check if their core is still in my droid. I hope it didn't reset now of all times...

"Wait," he mumbled, and slid a shaky hand into his coat before pressing the keypass into her hands. "Take it... you won't be able to get in otherwise."

Keypass tucked into her pocket, she brushed his hand. "Get some rest. I'll come back," she repeated. Out of Eastern Medical Tower, she followed Izerva to the transit station.

Nova led Izerva through the transit maintenance tunnels to avoid watchful eyes. Below them, the station reactor core, rumbling through loops. Nova hesitated by the ladder. "Izerva, do you have access to security?"

"Yes, but it is the anomaly labs I don't have access to, Scientist Neo's keycard will have to be enough."

And then there's the guards... An idea struck her. "Could you make a false alarm for an A-Level Lockdown?" she asked. "I understand if you don't want to do it, but that's all I have."

"Considering how well-guarded the unknown anomaly is, it might be our best option to divert attention." Izerva paced a small circuit around the maintenance ladder. "How would you suggest this approach? Do you wish for me to send the station into full lockdown — or make it seem like a power fault?"

Nova nodded at the improvement to her hasty idea. "If you make it look like a power slip, it would make central engineers go down to the core and it'd give us more time." Tension cracked through her bones when she checked her wristpad. And not too long for the real thing, if it's going to happen again. Her stomach dropped from realization and heaviness. I have a funny feeling it will, or I might be playing right into their hands, but I don't have another option. Nova nodded at the ladder. "We'll go with that," she said and shuffled along her toolbelt for a power capacitor to hand it to Izerva. "You have to connect this to the main power. It'll force a switch to auxiliary the moment it detects a fault. It should be enough to send an alert."

"What of you?" Izerva pocketed the capacitor. "Have you thought of what to do after we've observed the anomaly?"

"I'm going to head to Droid Bay A," she explained. "Quickly. I don't want to leave Neo like he is." But, for better or for worse, he doesn't have the strength to move. "We shouldn't waste time in the lab once they notice it's a power fault. We'll discuss more once we're back to Neo."

"Sounds good, Engineer Nova. Let us meet in Laboratory Z once the alert goes out." Izerva brought their fingers to point upwards, then climbed the ladder. Nova snuck behind them to slip into the central corridors. Guards stood at junctions, but it took no effort to act like she belonged, especially with Izerva at her side.

In sight of the anomaly labs, guards stood at each side. Nova smiled when Izerva rushed down a separate hall. Into one of the storage holds to keep herself hidden from scientists, she waited for the vital moment. And maybe I can find something here. Always be prepared. Always have back-ups and ways to circumvent any issues that arise. Nova leaned against the door and listened for the alarm. Time ticked closer to lockdown, and her heart slammed against her ribcage. But something always goes wrong. I need to be ready.

Always, I can't trust it to go exactly how I want it to.

Unable to focus on anything but her plan, she hid in the shadows of the storage closet to watch researchers pass her with their hands full of infodrives. Some of them went from lab to lab, before disappearing into the communication tower lift.

Neo would be among them — if the universe let him exist here.

It took too long for an alarm to ring.

Nova grinned when the guards peeked at each other when the researchers hurried out of the anomaly lab, Miss Zynaia among them as they spoke in low voices.

"WARNING! FAULT DETECTED! ALL AVAILABLE ENGINEERS DOWN TO THE MAIN CORE! LOCKDOWN INITIATED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE!"

Izerva did it. Nova waited for the guards to drift away from their posts when one of their commanders walked past and barked out an order. It left the lab free of any physical obstacles, and she checked her toolbelt when the alarm continued to scream through the facility. At the door of truth, she headed through the crimson veil.

In the center of it all, the anomaly, bright as a star.

Nova dragged her gaze away from its hypnotizing radiance and waited in the shadows.

Arrays clicked and spread out uneven lines to match the distant heartbeat of Neo. Nova frowned when they struggled to come to full life. Where are you, Izerva? On the outer boundary of the event horizon, she fluttered at the edge of the dying star at the heart of it all. I have to find a way out of this. If Neo thinks this writing will explain things, I'll take his word for it.

A shadow rushed through decontamination, and she relaxed at the familiar flick of a tail.

"I am here." Izerva hurried to her. "We must do this quickly. I can't say for how long the distraction will last."

"Right." Nova raced for the controls to release the anomaly and bring it closer into view. It groaned in her eardrums, the call of an unfathomable black hole. Tendrils wrapped around it, but she refused to open the containment unit. "Can you see the writing from where you are?"

Izerva went around to the other side, following the orbit before coming to her side. "They are coordinates."

Her hope fell as she dug her fingers into the control panel. "That's it?'

Izerva's ears twitched. "Recall that Scientist Neo was unsure if it was Xelnod. It is a form of it, but very old. Older than recognized Xelnod." Izerva pointed at the anomaly. "You are misunderstanding me when I refer to it as a coordinate. We do not coordinate by planetary bodies. We coordinate with points of space-time. As such..." Their shoulders straightened out when they studied it, tracing the air with their tail. "I am afraid it is as I suspected. We have pulled in a piece of Choros. A Kairos. Worrying still... it is so entwined with Scientist Neo's energy. It is possible it 'chose' him as a defense mechanism against the fracture... but something of this magnitude..."

Would kill him, like it did before... Nova hesitated, then asked, "Are the coordinates specific at all?"

Izerva frowned. "I cannot rightly say. It is incomprehensible to me. The coordinate itself is not in Xelnod. I have a funny feeling you'd need to be able to peek into space-time to read it."

Maybe... Nova shook her head. "Well, at least we know its coordinates. I have to check something before we think about what they mean and what to do with them." Out of the anomaly lab before people returned to investigate, she ran across the threshold with Izerva following close behind her. Something tugged at her soul.

A soft whisper of starlit music.

Nova stopped to turn to the lit arrays. Some lines echoed others. Irritation drove into her throat, to drag herself away from its allure to head for the droid bays. No monster, yet. Neither of them. But... what happened to the original breach? Did I... remove the corruption from Neo when I killed him so close to the anomaly? Teeth against her tongue and found no forgiveness in her heart for her own actions. Guards avoided, she used the transit proper to get to the southern facilities.

Nova paced the entire length of the car and came to a stop when Izerva held out their hand.

"You are wasting energy you do not have, Nova." Izerva tapped their tail against her side. "Why do you want to go to Droid Bay A?"

"I need to hand something back to Thuni and Ulin," she explained. "Last time we did this, Ulin was the one who gave me an idea to take something from each of you. I'm going to give it back and tell them the truth." If nothing else, they both deserve it. I've sacrificed Thuni's life for an answer, and left Ulin without their best friend. And then there's Neo, I didn't mean to make him remember, and now he's dying. I don't know how to stop any of this. Torment wracked her bones when the transit stopped.

But none of it will matter if I can't get us off this space station.

Nova ran into the bay with Izerva behind her. Blood from other loops stained her boots, but she slid to a stop when Thuni and Ulin turned to them.

"You two are okay?" Nova asked, but stopped at their confused expressions. "What's wrong?"

"Well..." Ulin rubbed their head with a frown. "We went to pry out our core."

"Except our core wasn't there," Thuni finished. "Another core was, but it was ruined."

Hope and dread filled the gaps of space. "Your core is safely in my droid. The core in yours is mine," she said. "You've done this before. We've met here before." Nova gave them no chance to wait to tug out their two pieces in time. Ulin gave her a protected picture of their sister and themselves. Thuni struggled to find something to give her, and opted for a note in his handwriting. "Ulin, you're the one who gave me this idea."

Time ticked past the first lockdown and closed in on the second.

Every moment dragged on.

Ulin took the picture from her, uncertain and surprised as Thuni read the note.

"Ulin, that's yours?"

"Yeah," Ulin said and their brow scrunched.

"Thuni, that's your handwriting."

He remained silent, and she feared the disbelief, the accusation. Instead, his gaze went to the tool closet where he blockaded himself in an attempt to stall the monster. "It is," he replied and overturned the piece of paper. "And considering I doubt you've seen my handwriting before now, I don't think you can copy it this accurately."

Ulin took out the original of the picture, and jolted when it faded into their hands.

Thuni's note never disappeared.

"We're looping," she said to jostle their memories in full. "The thing our droids pulled in folded space and time around us. It's a Temporal Anomaly. I asked you once if we could switch our cores. Our droids didn't reset save for the damage done before the loop started." Her hands shook when Thuni blinked in recognition. "You've heard me say this before. You told me you were having deja vu."

Thuni returned his attention to the note, and Ulin raised their head.

"It did reset," they whispered.

Thuni looked at them.

Ulin took a step closer to her. "I... faintly recall," they rasped. "I told you we could give you... things precious to us to remember. You mentioned that you were hoping you wouldn't have to do this again, but... the fact that you brought them back..."

"Yes." Nova eyed Thuni.

The only one who appeared to have some recollection before anyone else, before even Neo. He folded his arms with a slight tip of his head. "I guess you could call it deja vu," he mumbled and dragged his gaze to the vents. "I'm just... struggling to wrap my head around it." He frowned. "How is Teimea?"

"Not great." Nova checked her watch. "I know the anomaly is doing something to him, but I need to figure out a way to stop it. Izerva and I went to it, and the writing on the droid is some sort of coordinate."

Ulin and Thuni shifted in discomfort, and she couldn't blame them.

'I will always believe,' Neo said with a smile and walked to his death.

Nova readied herself for the endless truth. "I can't save everybody," she admitted. "I think to break this loop we have to reconnect the coordinate and make an opening through space-time." Her stomach heaved at the thought of abandoning those who never deserved it. "You know, this bullshit isn't my forte either, but Neo—" She sucked the pain deeper into her lungs. "Neo isn't here right now. I need your help."

Thuni lowered his head, then whispered, "What's about to happen?"

"What tends to happen—" Nova swallowed on bile. "If you two stayed here longer, you'd be dead. Your droid also brought in a... a creature I believe to have originated from the D.S Butterfly."

It set his eyes alight in realisation. "We didn't find it," he echoed her words. "It found us."

Nova nodded. And... you'd turn into a monster yourself, a vessel. It'd kill everything in its path. It wanted to get into the sea of space-time. The words never left her tongue and dug cold fingers into her throat. "In a couple minutes, we should be heading into Lockdown Z."

Thuni dug his neck into his shoulders with a deepening frown.

In the intense silence for the confirmation, she choked on time Neo no longer had while he suffered in the medtower.

Too long.

It took too long.

Nova shuffled her feet when Thuni eyed his droid, then back to where he trapped himself. His lips pursed in thought, then he turned back to her.

The whole station screamed.

"WARNING! ANOMALOUS DESTABILISATION DETECTED IN THE SPACE STATION ARRAYS!"

"That's not a lockdown," Ulin commented. "The... arrays? They don't mean the external ones?"

Another explosive tremble sent them to the ground when the world intensified with crimson worms. Nova pushed herself to her feet.

Thuni whipped around to the bay doors. "Oh, shit."

Stars and nebulous mist drained into the darkness outside and left them with the void.

Nova jolted at the jaws of a black hole. Neo! Away from the three, she ignored the call of her name to race for eastern transit. Stars fell into the void as metal shutters ruffled over the windows.

The nebulous wings of a butterfly fluttered out of existence.