Fuck...

Acidic slaver stifled her taste buds and filled it with nothing but the intense burn of failure. Out of the washing room, she tumbled to the opening out of the broken lies. "Hello?" she rasped, and space screamed in answer. Red alarms whisked across the walls to spread deeper into the dark ground floor of the medical tower, scarred with devastation.

I have to get out. I have to get out now. Its voice haunted her steps as she slipped into the shadows. It continued to taunt her and chased her to the end of the universe.

Flames hushed. Metal groaned. Nova ran through the corridors which led into the consultation offices. Her eyes refused to adjust to the dim lighting left. Crimson liquid splattered across the terminal screens and over the tables. Unable to do anything for the people caught in her wake, she scrambled around to find her box of belongings. Belt clasped around her waist, she grabbed what she could before hooking her compearl around her ear to open the menu. Every connection died.

Did... central comms go down?

The station called out a familiar warning, "LOCKDOWN Z INITIATED. ANOMALOUS THREAT ACTIVE AND DANGEROUS. DO NOT ENGAGE."

Do not engage? That's new.

Nova checked the tools on her belt, then nodded. Thuni mentioned Ulin thought the core wasn't affected by whatever the anomaly did to the droid. I wonder if I have time to go grab it myself... or... should I try and find Neo? I can use my terminal in the bay to see for myself, but I risk losing time I don't have. Blood soaked the facility of misguided concern. Death permeated the air, but the smell of bile filled her nose to push out any other sense.

Too many choices; small and big. Each one weighed on her spine, but she had to make a choice. Head straight for the hangar after grabbing a couple things from our room... or try and save Neo from whatever trouble followed him — constant in every loop, no matter what I do.

Nova ran out of the medical tower attached to the eastern section of the station. Shutters closed off the creeping nebula, who clouded the truth and paved their path to an unseen black hole. Music rang out through the corridors, off-key. Her breath steadied with the station's heartbeat, and she pushed herself to her destination.

In the dorm halls, she slipped into her and Neo's room, left in the dark except for the shine of their terminals. Nova swung a small capsule underneath the sink to swill water over her burning tongue as she double-checked the status of the communications.

Ulin and Thuni wavered.

Izerva held on.

Neo fluttered out of existence.

Nova opened her terminal and listened to the rumble in her bones, the signal to the creature's endless approach. She switched to Neo's, where several tabs sprung open from his previous reports on the anomaly. I just need a sample of the datastream in the substance. Agitation flattened her jaw as she attempted to rifle through Neo's brain on a hard drive. Fuck, Neo, do you need this many tabs open?

Humongous walls of text answered her when she opened each one, but she skimmed through the words to find the action. I just need a playback of the sequence. See if it matches their core.

Nova reached the end of the text wall and Neo's added research notes, but frowned at the final passage he left.

'Glitches with attempted playback. Live feed necessary for comparison and accurate results.' Nova frowned at his written, thoughtful words. Live? Does he mean an actual recent sample? Nova fiddled with his desk cabinets to find the phial from the presentation, but she growled when she found nothing of the sort among the scattered mess inside them of papers, infodrives, and pens. Just my shitty luck.

It will always lead back to you.

Nova turned her compearl on. "Neo, can you hear me?"

... nothing. If I get eastern communications on auxiliary I might be able to get a temporary hold on his connection so I can send a message — if Thuni hasn't already passed my last one. Nova left the terminals running, and her footsteps echoed in the station of ghosts. It whispered as she followed shattered signs to eastern comms. Sludge dripped out of open vents, but most remained closed.

The haunting song of the AI joined the dissonant chorus, and she stopped by the bulkhead separating the living quarters from security and communications. Nova slipped through with her keypass, then held onto the handle, listening for threat or ally. I know in other loops, the... the first monster did take down communications... but this second one... Neo's right, there's a level of intelligence at play, but not only that...

It's remembering too. It's adjusting every time.

Nova opened the door and a wave of stale air attacked the bile in her nose. Something squished underneath her boot, but she ignored it to reach the intact terminals — in better shape then the west had been previously. It didn't take too much effort to get them running, and alerts beeped over the fresh holomap. Red blips scattered and swayed as the facilities died one by one — never in one place for too long as it tried to claw its way into the heart of the station.

Or Neo.

Nova tried her device with the added connection. "Neo, are you reading me?"

Static hissed in her ear, but his line fought for existence.

Nova swiped the holomap to enter the code registry.

"ENTER CODE TO SCAN," it chirped, cheerful among the dead.

She entered her own to test it.

It confirmed, and a dull, throbbing blue came to life among the deep reds. Nova smiled when it zoned on her location and gave her a green blip. Okay, Neo, let's see where you are. Nova entered his code, and frowned when another green light echoed to life.

On the other side of the station — in Habitation and the western facilities.

What are you doing over there?

Nova left the communication module to escape the mess one of the monster created. In her own heart, no room to grieve the insurmountable loss of life. It never gave her space to grieve over anyone but him. If we reset again, that's all that'll be left for me. I have to find a way to break this so it never happens at all.

Nova overrode any blast doors she came across and avoided the ones unable to lift for maintenance tunnels. For the first time since the loops started, she avoided central command and walked her way underneath the tram circuits to check for herself. The air stilled in her nose when she climbed into the southern tram station. It lowered over her shoulders as she entered Droid Bay A. Sensor in hand, she drew it over the walls. Ooze dripped out of the vents, but the gaseous crimson flakes disappeared.

Alone.

Nova stopped by Thuni's droid, and tested her choices, then headed for western transit. Darkness molded in her repeated journey, but she forced herself to slide underneath the tracks. Hesitation gripped her feet when the station trembled with a distant, piercing alarm of complete shutdown, and a crackling voice called to her.

"Warning," it spoke, "Anomalous toxins detected in Habitation. Filtration mask rec-rec-rec-required."

Habitation? Nova swallowed a memory of the withering plant she assumed the pressure of the curious monster brought, its life drawn out in an entire network. Nova slipped on her filtration mask and breathed deep into the store of oxygen it provided before rushing through transit engineering. Goo oozed out of broken pipes. Crimson rusted the pathway beneath her feet. She bounced over large sections of broken stairs, and it creaked with her weight. I can only pin one, and if that—that thing in the medical tower isn't the cause of this, then the other one must be. But... the one that came into the medical tower is a heaving mass... it'd be more accurate to call it a living black hole in truth.

The other one was too... twisted and solid.

Another ladder guided her ascension into the west sector and into a utility room full of extra repair tools. Sensor aloft, she headed out of the closet. Crimson sprinkles tried to force itself through the vents, but she shuffled through the void. As she came across the first junction, she trembled at the number of bodies strewn about. Blood splattered across their lab coats, but with no visible injury to bring the source. Nova tread closer to one to turn them over onto their back, following the crimson river to their pale lips.

... it came from inside.

Nova left them and tried not to puke. "Neo?" she called into the darkness before treading past the fallen people, to Habitation. Nova checked every single face, all with the same blood-filled mouths. Stars, these people drowned in their own blood. Neo. Her pace quickened to reach it in time. Inside meeting rooms, bodies slumped into their seats, or grabbed their necks to breathe. Nova stopped at the entrance to Habitation, and then at the bulkhead shimmering with power, to prevent the contagion — and any innocents — from fleeing.

Someone had to have shut it down.

Nova rushed into Habitation, where bloodless alarms screamed and barked out alerts for the toxins in the air. Find the control room! Her mantra joined the screech as she rushed past the reception after doublechecking the map. "Neo!" Nova called to him, then pushed open the control room doors to the emergency shutdown.

He leaned on the terminal, his fingers dug into the shutdown lever to cut off the entirety of the western station from help. Nova swung her arms underneath his. "Neo, let go of it."

He let go.

Nova knelt down to hold him close, and winced when he gasped out a stream of blood as he pushed his feet against the ground. Fearful emptiness filled the greys as the alarms shifted into white noise, and she instead listened to him choke on his own life. "Neo, just breathe," she whispered and brushed his hair off his clammy brow. Nova glanced around for something, anything, to help, but nothing presented itself. I have to get him to Habitation's medical facility. I can help him. Nova hauled him to his feet, and trembled when he swayed, and when his lips parted, it continued to drown him to add to the stains on the floor. "You had to shut this place down. You had no choice," she assured the layer of guilt on his folded brow. "Come on, Neo." Nova swung her arms around his middle when his knees crumpled. "I need you to work with me."

There has to be a chance. He's still alive while everyone is dead.

Nova swung his arm around her neck to tug him out of the emergency controls and kept a hand around his middle as she dragged him through the facility. Another strangled choke escaped through his mouth as he swung his hand out, catching the wall when he stumbled into it. "Just breathe," she begged. "I'm here."

You don't need to try and talk.

Nova followed the next holomap's direction as his pallor worsened. Through the doors into the medical facility, she pushed him into a bed when another spew left his mouth when he coughed, Nova tried not to jump at the force.

Fuck. No. I need to—

"Hold on," she begged when Neo trembled from pain. "Hold on, I'll find something to stop this. I just need you to breathe for a minute." Neo gave a shaky, insistent point at nothing, but she pushed his hand down to scramble around, for something, anything. "Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!" she gasped with each medicinal cabinet she threw open, tossing things to the side to try and find her hope, forced to listen to Neo choke.

I have to.

'But I'm not a doctor,' he whispered, dismayed at his own inability to find anything wrong with her leg.

Nova pushed instruments out of the way, never knowing what any of them did. Her fingers tangled around tubes, tugging one out.

Listening at the silence.

Nova let it go.

It spiralled into endlessness when she turned with the shattered heartbeat.

Neo had stopped choking — and stopped breathing. Crimson slipped down his lips and stained the front of his labcoat. "Neo," she murmured and returned to his side, not caring about the splatter as she pushed her fingers against his cheeks.

Emptiness.

Nova breathed in a single time, her filtration mask saving her the fate of all the rest. Too late to save them, save him.

"Don't," she begged nothing and no one.

Her own blood formed into volcanic glass at his silence, all the tension and pain left him, as if he had simply fallen asleep from the exhaustion of drowning.

He was dead.

Time never bent for her.

Alone again, she tugged a chair to his side and sat down. Her lungs ripped with the pressure as she fought for her own last breath, and tried to shake him awake. Again and again. Her fingers stained with fresh blood as she tucked her face into his arm and side. You have to wake up. You have to. I needed to tell you I'm sorry... I needed to ask you if you... figured it out. I needed you to make sense of this.

Stars stretched around her and buckled against the pressure of a supernova gone supermassive black hole.

She awoke to her own tears and struggled breaths as time and space shattered apart, and she sobbed into her empty arms — wanting nothing more than to scream at the unfairness instead.