I have time to head to the bridge and meet up with Neo. If Admiral Mythrai is there, I can get something to do from him — but on the other side, it is entirely possible he was the one who called the lockdown and for all the trained personnel to converge in one place. Nova rushed through the corridors of metal murk, keeping herself in cover before turning any corners with Neo's infodrive tucked in a pocket. The giant crossdoors of the bridge came into view. Illuminated in the carnage, she avoided the red piles squirting out mist and kept her filtration mask on its highest setting, and she counted her steps and breathing.

In. Out. One. Two.

Capacitor energized, she swiped her card on the terminal. It clanked and the crossdoors tore open with crimson fibre. It jolted and buckled to open further, but she crawled through what it gave her and adjusted herself in the dark before clipping her flashlight to her toolbelt.

Datascrolls shattered against the ground. Vector arrays beeped warning reds. In the center, a massive holomap which listed every part of the facility and detachable modules along with their status. Movements pinged across the entire breadth of the facility, some of them in the ventilation. In the center of the station, the main towers of the anomaly labs, with the smaller medtowers over each of the cardinal sectors, she rounded it to head for the hyperdrive module at the bridge's main console.

"Neo?" she asked. "I'm at the bridge now, are you picking me up?"

It took a few moments for him to respond. "I hear you. I'm almost at the labs, but I'm safe in the central sector. How do things look on your end?"

Nova ignored the mangled shapes slumped in the chairs to focus on swiping her card on the hyperdrive terminal. It registered her user and access, but marked it with a red X of rejection. "I'm trying to get through the access point." One more failed attempt of her keycard, she swung her steel-toed boot into the table. "Fuck. It looks awful over here, Neo. Stars." Nova gulped on her vomit and rested her brow against the terminal to chase away the spinning. "How is everyone over there?"

Just distract me.

"Well..." He shuffled on the other end. "From what I know there's some pretty bad injuries. Whatever caused the breach tears through high-powered armor." He sighed in her ear, so close, but so far away, so she threw her hand against the terminal to vent out her frustration and panic. " —and from what I can hear from you punching that module, you don't have access."

"Yeah. I think I need Admiral Mythrai's key to override this stupid thing..." Nova bit on her lip.

"And possibly the overseer researcher key," Neo hesitated, then murmured. "Yet another thing I forgot to mention, if I wasn't so bad at making lists, I'd make one for how bad I am at forgetting things I should mention beforehand... but then I'd probably forget to add to the list and—"

Fuck, he's rambling.

"You have access, Neo?"

"Hm, I don't, but I think Miss Zynaia does — if anyone could find her." She heard voices on the other end, but he huffed. "You see anything of note? Anything to help us explain what's going on or the perspective of what we're dealing with? We're looking over data now and running some small tests but we don't have enough to work with... I think it's agitating people."

"I'm sorry, but I don't think I can help." Nova rested her brow on her arm and considered her options. "I can tell you there's some odd movement between the center towers and the east sector. Is Admiral Mythrai over there, at least?"

"Yeah, he was helping some of his soldiers into the medbay, but right now I believe he's trying to direct teams to get comms up to contain this breach — speaking of which, you need to get back here. You can talk to him about the backwards warp and how bad of an idea that is, in your words."

Nova chewed on her sleeve. "Neo, you know how stars awful I am at words? Awful, Neo. I'm awful." She bounced her brow off her arm. "If I don't present another viable alternative, a real, tangible action we can take, why would he take me seriously? This is real, Neo. This isn't like an emergency simulation at college." Though I don't think any of them prepared me for this hell. "Also this station is massive, I won't make it."

"I mean... I've seen you run through the entire campus to get to class in record time." She heard him grin on the other end.

"Okay, that's campus. This is a space station with several sectors and subsectors."

"I managed."

Nova rolled her eyes and the creeping tendrils slipped down her spine. "I guess I'll have to make my way down there as fast as I can to beat your record time."

"Great! Remember to log anything you find on your way back!" He clicked his tongue, but music fluttered in the background. "I'll tell the soldiers to expect an arrival from north transit."

"I'm getting on it now." Nova kept him on the line for comfort as she rushed through the rest of the north branch to reach the transit terminal, but hesitated at the eerie silence on the other end, where everything stopped on the wingbeat of something as small as a butterfly. "Neo? You okay?"

"Sorry," he mumbled. "I'm just not feeling right. You said you're getting on the transit now?"

"I am, but what do you mean not feeling right?" Nova clicked the panel to activate the transit car.

Neo released a shuddered breath on the other end. "Don't come here."

"Wait, what?" Nova stopped, but frowned at his shattered breathing. "Neo, you're okay, I'm still here. I'm alright. You can still talk to me, Neo. It's safer over there."

He went quiet and the music stilled, frozen in time. "No... it—" He huffed. "I don't know what came over here. You're right, of course, it's safer in central command."

Glass shattered and continued the dissonant music closing in with a deep yawn of a black hole.

"Neo? Neo, are you okay?" Nova held onto her ear when his breathing calmed into freezing cold. "Just talk to me, what's happening on your end?"

"I—"

A scream pierced the air on the other end, and she let out her own when the transit came to a slammed stop, as if something grabbed onto the sides of it to prevent her from reaching her destination. Her knees slammed against the floor of the car and burning pain laced around her legs. "Neo, answer me!" she snapped.

"Oh, it's—"

His sudden gasp fell into crackled white noise.

Nova lifted herself to her feet and tried to hear something on the other end, but the music died. Bile burned her heart as she punched the transit. "Neo!" she hissed. "Neo, answer me."

Her hand fell limp at her side when the darkness tugged off the transit to reveal broken light.

Heart pounding, the clock ticked down with her wasted moments. Her communicator pulsed as it fought to remake a connection. Unable to move the tram in manual mode at the sheer pressure fighting her willpower. Out of the emergency hatch, she hopped onto the tracks and ran the rest of the way. Her fingers shook, but she slammed her keycard into the bulkhead's terminal without a glance back at the tram and what stopped her.

It opened, and she slipped on grime.

Shutters slammed down at several points, and she leaned against the wall to investigate the first corridor.

Energy set alight the black hole. Shapes struggled and fought and turned into nothing. Back on her feet, she rushed through the corridors to reach the laboratories. I need to get Neo to safety. He knew something wasn't right here. I heard it in his voice. I need to find Admiral Mythrai. We have to get new coordinates! We have to get out of here and get home! Fuck the D.S Butterfly!

Her heart disobeyed her as she sped away from the screaming in space. Silence left dread in her wake in the universe's endless movement. Around the bend, something dragged on metal. She skidded to a sudden stop when a ghostly touch grabbed the back of her shirt before she could investigate, but when she went to swipe, nothing was behind her.

Caution to her body, she peeked instead.

The rolling mass from before expanded to fit the corridor. Orbs pulsed along its formless shape and its endless body of nebulous, frayed tendrils. It let out a deep tremor to break the universe at its supermassive core. A neck stretched out and teeth dug into prey, but it stopped. Chills swept around her jaw when she tried to press herself into cover, but something resisted and covered her noiseless scream.

No.

Every orb and tendril focused on her.

No.

It crunched harder on what it had clasped in its twisting jaw and slithered back into the vent, no longer retaining its shape. Nova slid down to her knees, released from the cold pressure at the squelch inside the vent.

What?

Back on her shaky knees, she stumbled her way to the anomaly labs to the decontamination unit. Neo will be on the other side watching the anomaly. One check, but the thing never gave chase.

It disappeared.

Murk stained the air.

Nova ran for the terminal to let herself into the decontamination unit. Keycard in the slot, she punched it when it refused to yield. Stars, let me in. Another swipe, and it beeped out an annoyed rejection. Warmth crushed her lungs and released the bubbled gasp of panic stuck in her ribcage. Keycard back in her hands, she unloaded the blaster cartridge into it. It sparked in lucky failure and the door snapped. Workdriver in her hands, she shoved it into the doorframe to pry it open.

It clicked, and released.

Nova slipped through the small gap, into the deactivated containment unit where crimson mist flitted out off the sterilizing apparatus. Through the final hurdle to Neo, she stumbled closer.

Left in a cloak of red shadows, the large gyro. A heartbeat slammed in her ears, but she found herself unable to tell if it was her own. Nova tore herself away from its too perfect shape to the environment around it.

And screamed.

Blood splattered inside the observatory room in bundled shapes. Embers fell from the containment unit. Her beam of light hit every single point of devastation, detached from anything which made a human. Nova traced the blood patterns and tasted bile on her lips when she tried to breath through the filtration filter. Wh-Did that thing do this? It... what exploded in here? What the fuck.

Pink mist stuck to burnt metal.

"Neo?" her voice rang in the silence, and the call of his name made the heartbeat pulsing through her ears to speed up. Every data array purred to life in the glitch. Metal debris slammed into them from an incomprehensible force from the way it tore through the hardest of shells. "Neo?"

It intensified in her ears with the conductive heartbeat and begged her not to draw closer. Her steps ignored it, her beam of light followed it when it fell on the only whole, intact shape leaning against the wall with their labcoat turned crimson.

A metal stake through the heart.

Another sharpened heartbeat groaned through the space station as she stumbled closer to her life.

No. No.

A butterfly necklace, soaked in blood with a wing cracked down the middle.

Stars, please no. This isn't happening. This wasn't real.

Nova let go of her blaster to let it clatter to the floor.

Neo leaned against an unbroken data array, a calmer expression layered over his face.

"Stars. Neo, I'm sorry I took so long," she rasped. "I'm here now, though." I'll get you out. I promise. Nova wrapped both hands around the debris trapping her friend against the wall.

Embers fell into her tears.

The butterfly necklace came apart at her hands, but she tossed the stake to the side and held his shoulders. It fell into an uneven flow of a heartbeat, breaking apart the universal orchestra of a quiet distress beacon. White noise filled her ears. "Neo, come on," she begged and squished her hands against his cheeks. "This isn't the time for this, please?"

She shook him.

To wake him up.

Anything.

Always.

Water blurred the environment and took them from home. "Neo," she rasped, cupping his cheeks. "Neo, talk to me."

He never talked.

He didn't even breathe.

But still warm in the cold death of the universe.

Her own voice died when she nudged him and the back of his head tapped against the wall. Nova grabbed his hand, but he never squeezed a reassurance, and when she released it, it fell limp at his side. "No. Nope." Nova tried to shake out the morgue dissecting her best friend. "No."

A butterfly fluttered on broken wings.

Nova rested her hand on the hole in his chest.

Blood oozed in her fingers.

His blood.

"Two minutes to wake up," he told her. "I calculated it."

Thirty seconds to face reality as she drew her bloodied, stained hand back from him.

"No." Nova brought her hands close, but shook them out in the air. "You calculated it—" It tore a sob through her throat. "You told me—" It skittered on her tongue as her own life failed her. Another continuous shake of her hands, she lowered them back to Neo's shoulders, to scream him awake if that's what it took, and the wind of cold pressure touched the back of her neck.

Frozen, she turned around.

It trembled.

A black hole, formless, incomprehensible, behind her.

Nebulous grey mist breathed out of the event horizon in cold-hot plumes. An abyss to stare back. Wispy nebulae crawled closer to her, but never showed any hunger. Nova longed to flee, but there was nowhere to run. It came to a stop, covering the desolation of the lab it broke free from. It formed further layers of greys, and she found herself trapped in the staredown.

In a tearing scream, a mangled row of teeth lunged through the center.

It left her throat when the grey, nebula-filled black hole revealed its own huge, razor sharp teeth of timeless strength, and she closed her eyes when it slammed down with a slicing spaghettification of atoms.

"I'm sorry."