This is real. It's real. Time is going forward. It was night, and now it's day. Daybreak chased the nebula across the horizon. Her stomach boiled. Out of the small outcrop of shelter, Izerva sat at a makeshift campfire as Thuni and Ulin fell into an intense, quiet discussion — trying to find a way to escape the planet, or to retrieve their core.

But I already escaped once, why can't I sleep? She fought to close her eyes, but the scream of Neo along with the station kept her awake well throughout the day. Beside her, Neo breathed, soft, sure and alive; but unaware, covered in a blanket to keep him warm and dry. Nova dragged herself upwards and scowled down at her knees before switching her attention to him.

How many times have I seen you covered in your own blood, or watch the light leave your eyes? Yet, here you are... Knees against her chest, she frowned when Izerva interrupted Thuni and Ulin's conversation with one quick hand movement of disagreement, but they left her out of the discussion. Is it too much to ask for you to wake up? I'm sure you'd have something to add... I just want to hear you talk.

'I don't think that is wise' Izerva warned, but it nagged the back of her mind at the possibility he never would.

With the others occupied, she reached forward to touch Neo's shoulder. One shake. Two. He didn't stir from the stimulus. "Come on," she begged. "We aren't in the loop anymore." I won't-I can't say it's any safer, but it's better than nothing.

Nova bit her lip and drew her hand off his shoulder without the strength to hold on. A static shock went through her spine when Thuni came closer. "Spacyn," he said. "We might have something on the radar Ulin has. It's very spotty, but they're certain it might be a source of power."

"What? Where?"

"It's far off, but there's something else," Thuni admitted. "Ulin thinks it's the missing scout drone we sent ahead of us before..." He waved his hand to move the conversation along. "Look, what matters is that it might be our ticket off this planet and back home. It'll have a more robust communicator that we could fashion into a distress beacon."

"How far is it? We can't leave Neo like this," Nova pointed out.

Thuni gazed down at Neo, and she found herself tucking closer to him, to put him out of reach of an old threat. He frowned at her, then shrugged. "I'm assuming that means he's still not showing any signs of waking up?" he asked, then stepped to the side when Izerva crawled closer.

Nova held her hands together when they studied Neo with a twitch of their nose. "His energy is still unstable," they signed. "We need to move somewhere safer before discussing much else. We have to survive on our provisions." Izerva whipped out their datascroll to write something down, then sent copies to theirs, including Neo's before putting it away to tilt their fingers into a wave. "Water. We have to find a good source. This lake will do us for the time being, but a river would be substantial as well. I also saw a cave when I checked the perimeter. It could make for a stronger shelter until we know more of the surrounding area."

Nova sucked in her lips when Izerva crawled out to rejoin Thuni and Ulin. Sunlight weighed heavy with its warmth against her face, and she forced herself to leave Neo's side to listen in on those who remained unaware of the truth of the danger; Ulin, who often vanished without a trace and no closure on what happened to them. Thuni, who turned into a monster. Her breath came out in stuttered twos, but she eyed Izerva. "How far is the cave?"

"It's not far from where we landed. It is by the crags," Izerva pointed through the trees. "I can take Neo over there, but how are you feeling?"

"Not any better, but I'm not exactly tired." Nova hugged herself when Thuni studied her in much the same way Neo had when she refrained from telling him the truth, instead snapping at him for something he couldn't have known. "Do you need help? I'd rather do something than sit and mope."

Izerva's ear flicked. "You should take a walk, for your energy. Both you and Thuni can look around for a river while we move camp to the crags."

Nova stretched her arms over her head. "Yeah, you're right," she forced out, and Izerva narrowed their eyes. "I... I just haven't been a lot of help since we landed."

"It is not for help that I ask. It is for your wellbeing." Izerva came closer with a head tilt. "Ulin and I will watch over Scientist Neo."

"Our provisions aren't going to last forever," Thuni whispered. "We need to get to that scout and set up a distress beacon."

Nova closed herself from the hard truth. Escaping the loop was not the final goal, but the first. Home, the ultimate destination she promised Neo — not the center of the universe, but home. Home where family awaited them. Home where they learned, and then left. Fingernails dug into the skin of her palm, she found the last of her strength to nod and follow Thuni away from the makeshift camp.

Tingled tightness wrapped around her throat with large hands when they walked deeper into the forest of black trees. Leaves curled upwards into the branches when they stepped past. "I think if there's a lake here, there has to be a river," Thuni mumbled and ducked underneath branches. "It can't be that far off."

But what can I say? I don't have the strength.

Nova hesitated on the edge of the underbrush when Thuni swatted a couple of willow leaves aside. "Ah, thought so," he said and indicated over the bushes, where a river tore a path through the forest, but the water was too blue. Too perfect. Too clear and clean. Thuni knelt down at the bank. "At least, I think it's water."

She half-expected Neo to pipe up with his own theories, with ideas or thoughts — or to tug out his anomaly scanner and shove his entire hand through the bubbling surface to test his luck. Arms wrapped around herself, she shuddered in silence when Thuni straightened himself out. Boots thundered all around her and Neo choked on his own blood. Hands against her ears to block out the squelching sounds, she focused on the windy rustle of the canopy. "We could take a sample back."

Thuni crossed his arms without looking at her. "We could, but I don't know how to use an anomaly scanner."

Nova lowered her hands from her head to concentrate. "I know the basics of reading anomalous information because that's... well, Neo talked about his studies a lot with me."

Thuni said nothing before kneeling down once more to fill up the canteens. "It might be better than nothing," he mumbled with a shake of water. "As long as we can figure out if it's safe to drink." He headed for her, and the shadows inside the willows betrayed a different reality. An alternate future. Nova held herself strong, but it all moved away.

Time moved forward.

Thuni stopped in front of her.

It grew into spatial silence.

"Spacyn," he broke it. "I didn't want to mention it since you weren't in the headspace." He pocketed the canteen. "But I was wondering why you've been staring at me like I'm about to run at you with a knife."

Nova froze at his pointed observation, but he never wavered from his question. "Oh, it's-um..." One small step took her back, to put more space between her and him. "A lot happened on that station, Thuni. I'm still just trying to accept that we're off it, that's all."

Thuni raised an eyebrow, but then turned his back to her without another pressing question. "You can go back to camp," he said. "I'll get some more for a bigger sample."

'I'll go back to the hangar and get that core.'

One more loop, once more unto death.

Nova drove her teeth into her lips. "I don't think separating is a good idea. Not here, at least."

"I can tell you're not comfortable with me — whenever you weren't fretting over Teimea, you were watching me like a hawk."

His words slammed into her face with the force of a punch into her boiling stomach. Thuni huffed and refused to look at her before returning to the bank. "I'm not going to ask what happened." He held out a second canteen — Ulin's. "I like to think I have more observational skills than a mushroom. If you won't explain it to me, that's fine. It's clearly a sore subject."

You killed Neo... but in the end... I did too.

Nova let go of the tension on her tongue and released her fists. With nothing left to reset, she measured every word against the scales of the universe. Every change held permanence. Words parted her lips, but no sound came out. "I don't want to say," she forced out a different intention. "Because I don't think you can handle it."

Thuni frowned at her. "Any reason for that?"

"I mean..." Nova edged out of the reach of the creeping tendrils of the willow. "I can barely handle it — and you saw the state Neo's in."

Thuni closed both canteens and returned to her. She stood her ground and refused to move or break. His shadow crawled along the starlit grass. Her heartbeat slammed into her ears and reflected a distant truth. He stopped, then held out the two canteens to her.

"Take these back to camp," he instructed. "I'll be right behind you. I'm just going to take a walk down this river, see how long it goes."

Canteens in her hands, she bit on her lip and twisted on her feet. Unable to do anything but run, she raced through the undergrowth with the two canteens tucked close against her. Back to the outcrop, she sighed when Izerva sat on top of it.

"We moved Neo without incident," they signed, and bounced to the ground. "Where is Thuni?"

"He's... taking a closer look at the river, probably seeing how far off we are," Nova rasped.

"I see."

"Did Neo change?"

Izerva shook their head.

Nova forced herself to continue when Izerva pointed her in the direction of the crags and climbed back onto the outcropping to wait for Thuni. As she closed in on the crags, she smiled when Ulin waved her down with their hands on their datascroll.

"Over there," they said with a point. "I'm trying to track down the signal right now."

Nova left them to work to head for the cave, but held her breath when Izerva and Thuni arrived before she could enter it, neither of them harmed. Thuni headed up to Ulin while Izerva raced to her.

"How long do you think it'll take for someone to rescue us?" Nova questioned.

"I don't know. It depends on how soon and how far we can send out a signal."

We couldn't send a signal on the station. Nova swallowed the thought and ducked into the small cave.

Neo rested on a tarp, still in sleep. Nova knelt closer to him, reaching over him to search through his bag for his anomaly scanner. It flickered to life, losing power without connection.

Nova went through each tab and read every document. Her own datascroll in hand, she copied them onto hers before deleting it off the scanner — all to conserve its power, its life. Nova connected her datascroll to it, and put it to the side to charge the scanner.

I don't need my datascroll. I can make do without it.

Nova adjusted herself to sit against the wall and flinched when shadows passed over the entrance.

Thuni's suspicious... maybe all of them are. I told Izerva what Neo did, but Ulin and Thuni don't know the truth. Nova set her hands in her lap and bit down on a faint scream. Why do I still feel like I'm failing?