The closer I get to an answer, the more things go wrong.

Nova raced through the dark, empty spaceflight terminal, following the directions of the holomap to the arrival medbay. Nova hesitated in front of the spiral doors, waiting for it to open, and it revealed a line of stasis pods. On one wall, a board of doctors on-call filled the margins. A chill swept through her spine and dared not to utter a word. Every small noise sent her senses into overdrive, and she tried not to jump at every little shadow as she made her way to the back of the medbay and into the sterile storage. Instructions lined the wall for proper care, and she flicked through the menus for the trauma kits.

Come on, where are they? Nova went by alphabetical order, and found it. Let's see — Compartment one, stack A. Nova left the panel behind to go to the compartment, and opened the stack to a bundle of trauma kits, placed in perfect order in different slots. She took one out to check its contents. Satisfied, she rushed out of the area.

I have no time. I need to get back to them. Now.

White noise filled the air, with no more PA systems to shout out warnings to break the stagnation. Trauma kit in hand, she rushed along. Western transit. I have to go through the droid bays to reach it. Into the round corridor, she had no room to make a single mistake. The transit station was so close, but so far. Many times her steps led her to the end, only to start anew. Nova slowed her pace to avoid scattering the trauma kit's contents on the ground, hesitating at the distant sound of loud, distressed voices.

Thuni in particular.

Nova bounced down the steps into the transit station.

"Stars, we didn't even get to communications before our escort was attacked." Thuni paced a large circuit around the holomap. "Whatever happened, they weren't people anymore."

Izerva knelt beside a body, and Nova reached the final step. "I'm here."

Everyone whipped around to face her, and Izerva edged to the side to reveal who they sat beside.

As if it could be anyone else for once.

Neo's chest rose and fell in slow, uneven bursts, a bloom of blood stained the side of his labcoat as he rested a hand against it. Death threatened to take him again. Sweat plastered his hair to his brow. Nova sighed and came closer, and set the trauma kit down. Izerva took it to rifle through the contents, but the end haunted every action. Her hand rested on Neo's shoulder. "What happened?" she asked no one in particular. Why you? Nova brushed his cheek, to try and stir him out of death. He took in a shaky breath, but never opened his eyes.

"We were attacked," Thuni whispered, hiding behind the holomap. "Well, I was. Teimea attempted to reason with them over in the western branch. One came at us with a knife. He got in the way and—" He gestured at Neo. "He did get a hit on them with the suppressor, but it didn't look like it did anything."

Izerva shook their head.

That sounds about in character for him. Stars damn you, Neo. Nova lifted Neo from underneath the arms at Izerva's indication, they cut a larger hole through the fabric to press a disinfectant patch against the wound.

Neo stirred with a soft breath. "Nova?"

Nova kept a firm grip on his shoulders. "What did I say about throwing yourself into danger?"

His eyes fluttered closed when he slumped into her. "...always wanted to fight something pointy..."

Her tears wasted away at his quip, and she drew her hand to his brow to experience the heat of a thousand deaths. He's exhausted, but he's alive. He's alive. Nova kept him still for Izerva to work to stem the blood flow. For once, he's alive. "We need to get him somewhere safe," she said when Izerva plastered the wound and covered it. "We need to head back to the east section and find someone who can help him.."

"Are you sure it's safe over there?" Ulin asked. "We don't know how far this has spread."

No, I'm not sure of anything now. "It's better than staying here and having something catch us."

"Agreed." Thuni nodded. "We have to head over there before they start shutting down the sectors, too, or else we'll be stuck here."

Izerva examined Neo, and the same strange expression from before returned. "I do not think he can move in this state." Another flick sent their tail around their knees. "I think Thuni and I could carry him — but it would not be comfortable."

"I can walk..." Neo mumbled, but she doubted the other three heard him. He never opened his eyes to prove his own words.

"No, you can't. Just let us help you." Nova rested him back on the ground, where he shared no words of complaint.

"We should head to the eastern transit station," Thuni said. "We can head straight to the medical tower."

Nova nodded and held Neo's hand when he slipped his fingers between hers, leaving his bloodied hand on the bandage Izerva set. It took some adjusting for Izerva and Thuni to haul him, and she took one side to assist. Chills crept up her back at the empty breathing in the air as they half-rushed, half-stumbled through the corridors when the lights flickered. Ragged, and she wasn't sure if it was her own breath or the darkness behind them. Not now. I'm trying to help you... He didn't do anything wrong... go after what you're supposed to. He won't make it otherwise... Just let me succeed for once.

None of the others shared a word as they came close to their way out of the droid hanger and the heartbeat slammed against her ears.

Not now, okay?

It skittered and trembled.

I want him to live.

Ulin rushed forward to open the tram, and Nova let Thuni and Izerva enter to check on what she left behind.

A maw of darkness cracked the lights and shuddered with hate. Distant teeth rippled and snarled, and her heartbeat intensified the pressurized terror inside her head to pulse against her skull. Stars glimmered in the nebulous grey mist of its trail, and it scattered to the void when she refused to move out of the way.

Nova climbed on the tram after them, and she released her breath when it rolled along the rail.

"He's unconscious," Izerva signed when Thuni set Neo down across the seats.

"Carrying him must have worn him out too much." But as long as we get him help, that wound...

Izerva tipped their head and straightened themselves out. "... I suppose."

Nova frowned at their uncertain behaviour. "What do you mean? I noticed you asked him if he was well before, but—"

"I wish I knew how to describe it." Izerva loomed over Neo. "I can sense his energy but it feels so faint, like any slight wind will blow it away. I have never seen someone's energy so unstable — split in pieces."

"Unstable?" Nova rasped.

"Everything in the universe has energy," Izerva pointed out with a swing of their hands. "I suppose your kind would compare it to 'aura', but even that doesn't quite grasp the concept of what I'm seeing in front of me." They drew a claw through their fur. "To have such unstable energy... it is like he is everywhere, but nowhere, even though he is clearly right here."

Nova frowned. "How bad is it?"

"It hasn't quite reached the point of breaking apart, but it is severe."

Nova knelt to Neo's side when Izerva switched their observational gaze to her. Then something's gone wrong. The transit slowed to a stop. But this might be my only chance to break the loop. He's alive, and it's continuing past what it usually takes before a reset. I have to take a chance. I have to get him away from here.

Off the tram when it entered the platform, Thuni and Izerva lifted Neo again and led the way into the deathly quiet eastern facility.

"I don't like how quiet it is," Thuni mumbled.

"It could be that people are waiting in their rooms," Ulin said.

"Maybe." Thuni twisted his head to her. "Did you get what you needed from the core?"

"The core? Oh, shit." Nova whipped around. "I forgot! I left it in the hangar." Irritation swept a wave of berated words into her head, and she pushed the new wave of nausea. "I get on his ass for forgetting things, and I'm no better!" She counted her breaths from ten when her voice echoed. "I'm going to have to go back for it."

As she stepped from Neo's side, his hand gripped her wrist.

Neo held on. "No."

"Neo, I have to go back for it."

Izerva's pupils thinned when he squeezed her hand.

"Set him down for a minute," Thuni said, and they set Neo on the floor, and Nova couldn't wrench her hand out of his impossible steel grip. "How important is this?"

Neo's hand went limp, but he continued to breathe.

"It's very important." Nova took her chance to stand up, but stopped when Thuni shook his head before heading back down the corridor. "Thuni? What are you doing?"

"I'm going to go get my core and see it for myself." Thuni clenched his fists. "I want some answers. Just get Teimea to the medical tower. I'm the reason he's like that and I don't like owing people."

Unable to stop her fellow engineer, Thuni jogged into the darkness. Stars, no! Nova bit on her tongue and quivered in the knees. What do you mean you need to see it for yourself? Why throw yourself back in the death that awaited you. I could have explained! Why follow the track of the loop? Frustration burst acid into her throat. Quicker than the black hole haunting the station, she went to follow him. "I have to go after him."

Not two steps into prevention, someone clapped their hands for her attention.

"Nova," Ulin said.

Nova turned to where Izerva clung onto Neo's shoulders with their hair on end, tail whipping back and forth as Neo drove his fingers into his cheeks, his breathing ragged and uneven. Nova rushed to his side, but the swirling nausea drained out of her when he tore open his eyes, sending a shock-wave through the nebula. Grey, spiralling irides full of the same clouds to layer the event horizon. "No," he begged with a short gasp. "Don't go back."

"What?" Nova asked.

Izerva let go of him with a shaky twist to their wrists. "His energy, Nova. Its cracking."

"What?"

"Don't go back," he whispered and squinted, the deep glow of space reflecting off his misty pupils. "Stop." He writhed, and Nova tapped his brow to snap him out of the anomaly, but he shivered. "Please?"

Fervent pain.

Nova glanced at Izerva. "Okay," she said and rubbed his shoulder. "Okay, Neo. I won't."

His breathing calmed, and Nova leaned forward with izerva when the nebulous grey clouds disappeared from his eyes as he closed them.

He went limp.

Closer to hear his breathing, Nova sighed at the slight rise and fall of his chest.

None of them said a word.

"Let's just get him to the medical tower," she whispered, unsure of what to make of the light. Nova helped Izerva lift him before directing the way to the one place to provide help, hoping beyond all dwindling hope for her own answers. For a way out of the loops without any loss at all.

It was cruel.

Unfair.

In the void-licked emptiness of medical reception, Ulin gasped, and Izerva froze.

Nova longed to throw her fist into the maw of the void for any sort of reprieve in the crimson-tainted murk of the loop.