Nova waited inside reception when the doctors cleared out the patients by severity. Beside her, the holomap dimmed with the facilities of the space station, each one losing their light. Legs bouncing, she bit on her tongue and kept time. No one came to deliver news of Neo's well-being, and Ulin long disappeared to help with the shutdown — or impede them for their friend.

It changed nothing of her plans.

Nova snapped to her feet when Neo walked out of the bulkhead into the sterile parts of the medical tower, a hand on his side when he gave her a tired smile. Across stars. Across time and space. Nova swallowed despair and set it to the torch with hope in her heart to reach him, to hug him. "Are you feeling better?"

Neo smiled and tapped his chest. "Much better."

Maybe? Maybe. Nova squeezed but let him go when he winced.

"Sorry, still a bit sore," he admitted. "I'm glad you waited for me. Where are Ulin and Izerva?"

"I know you'd never let me live it down if I didn't wait," Nova teased, but it haunted her. "Ulin's running interference for me. Izerva got called by Admiral Mythrai to discuss options on how to handle the sudden wave of aggression spreading." Nova stopped when his brow twisted and he lowered his head. "Are you... blaming yourself?"

"No—Well, not exactly." Neo sucked in his lips and rubbed the top of his head. "I... I don't remember a lot of what happened in that attack. It's foggy. I know I used my anomaly suppressor, but I don't think it had any effect other than making things worse—so..." He dropped his hand to his injured side. "It just doesn't make sense to me. If it is the anomaly causing this, I feel like there would be substantial evidence to support that. As you've noticed, I haven't shown similar signs of aggression, and when Miss Zynaia checked in on me earlier, she showed no sign either. In conclusion—"

"The senior scientists and anyone close to the anomaly isn't showing the aggression," she finished, and he beamed. He's right, that confirms that one of the... creatures is involved in this. If I had to guess, it's the original creature — and the other one soon manifested, clashing with it. After one of the clashes, the original monster disappeared, or is it more to say that it's coming from inside? She brushed her thumb across her lips and tested the limits of the loop each time. "I'm going to head back to Thuni. I want you to stay here and rest up."

Neo lunged forward when she went to turn from him, but pain creased his brow. "Wait-Wait," he said in quick succession. "Think about this for a minute. You know they're shutting down the facility. You believe the core has something to do with this and anomalies are sort of my thing, my whole shtick." He pointed at himself with two fingers. "I can help. I'm fine."

"I don't want you to..." Nova faltered. Get hurt, over and over. Die, again and again where I can't do anything.

His brow furrowed with dismay. "I know you're mad at me for doing the exact thing you warned me about, but I have to make it up to you, somehow. I won't get in the way of whatever you need to do, but I need information to make sense of this."

Stars, I'm not angry at you, Neo... just this situation. Her words of assurance never left her throat when it rippled with a snarl through the monster looming over her shoulder. Heat washed between her ears, and she pushed her palms into them to stem the tide of rage. "Thuni went back for it. I was hoping it wouldn't take too long for me to catch up."

Neo narrowed his eyes. "You hoped, but you didn't think he would?"

"As I said earlier, you're the one who stopped me from chasing after him," Nova argued.

"I told you I don't remember that," he threw back. "All I do remember is... when we were on the western platform and then my mind went blank after." He opened his fist. "And then I woke up in eastern medbay."

Grey nebulas stared from beyond time. Don't go.

"You must've been in a lot of pain," she whispered. Time called out for her help and carried a warning.

"Yes." Neo wiped his brow. "I'm afraid getting stabbed wasn't on my things to do."

Nova fought to smile. "You don't make lists."

"I make head lists," Neo argued. "Also, you're trying to deflect. You have to let me go with you, Nova. I can help you. We're here to figure out this nebula. Maybe this is another piece to lead us to the D.S Butterfly and find all those people."

You have no idea. Nova pushed her arms against her sides. "Fine, but don't leave my side. We don't know what's out there. We don't know how far the aggression has spread." He shuffled with bright eyes, but she turned away from her grief. "And I don't want you moving too much either. Let me work and all you have to do is put the pieces together for me. I'll explain my plan on the way to the droid bay."

"What about the others?"

"As I said, Ulin is running interference for me," Nova said. "I don't know where Izerva went, and they aren't answering their messages. I don't want to waste anymore time waiting. I'm not going to leave Thuni out there with stars know what is stalking this space station. This all started happening when Thuni felt it before," she reiterated and led the way back to the transit to return to the waiting jaws of the black hole. "If your supplied suppressor had no effect, then I think whatever their core is made of does. We could use it."

"Then we should bring it back when we're done," Neo pointed out.

Yes, but if this loop has gone off the rails I don't know what I should expect. Usually they'd have set up the warp by now, but I haven't heard anything on that front. Something has to dictate the warp's timing, or lack of it in this case. I haven't figured out what I did. "I guess we'll find out when we get there," she mumbled to quell the bothersome frustration when she nudged him onto the transit. "I should've just stayed asleep..."

Closed my eyes, and pretended.

Neo's hand squeezed her shoulder. "Nova, you don't have to do this."

I do have to, for the slim chance to save you from the fate I know still awaits you.

Unspoken words filled time and space when Neo dropped his hand with a deep frown. Nova broke the silence apart. "Neo, will you wait when we get there? I don't want you to open it up again."

"I won't do anything, I promise."

It'll have to be enough for the time being. It took too long for them to arrive at the quiet eastern sector, to tread through its jaws of hidden death. Blast doors closed off their routes, but time slipped past her fingers until they reached the droid bay, a hand on her sensor as they entered the void. Nova stopped Neo before he could turn on the lights. "Let me check something first."

Neither Ulin or Thuni saw the monster, but Thuni felt it watching him.

Her beam of light pierced the abyss, and she brushed it over the ventilation system. Speckles of crimson stars hovered in the air, but none of the previous intensity. It left a trail along the wall, guiding a pathway to the utility room. "You see this, Neo?"

He tugged out his anomaly scanner. "Yes." He raised it higher and he settled himself in place for it to register the terror. "It's a Class Z gaseous anomaly — same readings as the liquid."

In another loop, Habitation fell, and Neo died inches away from relief, suffocated by the very crimson specks hanging in the air. "It's hazardous, isn't it?"

Neo swiped his scanner. "Not in these amounts, and it doesn't seem to be spreading. We should find the source."

I know the source, but it's not here. Nova turned on the light and memorized the path of the blood stars when the bulbs flicked on. Some stayed lit. Others sizzled out.

"Let's find Thuni," Nova said through her teeth and rushed through the droid bay with Neo shuffling behind at an uneven pace. Underneath one of the vents, no sludge dripped from the grates. Near the launch pads, Thuni's terminal filled with glitched data, left on pause before the monster launched itself out of his droid. She tried to restart the terminal.

"He was here, at least," Neo whispered and loomed over her shoulder. "I wonder if he left."

"I doubt it," Nova whispered. "He couldn't have gotten far." Around the bay, she hunted for clues. "Not a lot of places for him to hide."

Neo hesitated, then frowned. "Maybe... we should look in the utility room?"

"What makes you say that?"

"That's where the trail led when the lights were off." He headed for the door, and Nova rushed to stop him from throwing himself into possible danger, but he reached it. "We could at least take a look."

Nova sighed and slowed her pace, but hesitated when his outstretched hand drifted along the panel. His eyes widened and his pupils constricted. Nova came closer when he raised his hand to his brow.

"Neo? What's wrong?"

Another light flickered behind her.

Glass cracked.

Her head pulsed with the flames, but she refused to bend to the familiar pressure. Nova followed the urge to turn, where the terminals blazed to life, flashing numbers and incomprehensible letters.

Another crack.

Lights flickered and the station rumbled.

Shadows engulfed the vents.

Alarms dragged the groan down her spine to add the chill of the sucking vacuum.

"Nova?" Neo's voice made her blink out of the broken environment.

Everything went back to the way it was, and she checked on Neo.

He straightened himself out, an expression of confused concern on his face. Nova stiffened at the eerie silence and winced at the bright light of stars. Blaster in hand, she stomped to the door to open it, nudging Neo out of the way.

It swung open with a slow creak, only to stop at a blockage.

Sensor held aloft, she pushed her way inside, but froze at the blood-soaked sprites hanging in the air. It collected and rested on crimson spiderwebs in the corners. Hand out to stop Neo, she motioned to their filtration masks before putting hers on. "It's a mess," she explained and relaxed when he followed her direction. Over a fallen tool cabinet which blocked the door, she tip-toed through several boxes strewn haphazardly around. She checked through the shelves, then rested it on the back wall.

The light fell over a slumped, broad shape.

"Thuni?" Neo whispered.

Crimson soaked air fell upon their shoulders as they stared at the corpse.

Neo slowly approached.

"Don't," Nova hissed and grabbed his forearm, and she bit on her tongue at her conscious choice to leave someone to die. "Come on. We should get that core."

Neo slipped out of her grip to kneel in front of Thuni, the same intense stare of another distant loop crossing his face. It drew down Thuni's shape with a soft, empty breath. Nova shivered at the sound, but Neo frowned and stood up. "He's dead... he's not breathing, at least. I can't hear anything."

"Then let's just leave." Nova led him out of the death room and further away from Thuni's corpse and returned to his droid to find an answer for his needless death. I can't do anything for him now. Whatever the monster is doing... it's shifted a bit. It's turned into some sort of...gas to attack instead of the solid mass it was before.

Never as intelligent as the living black hole who freed her from the cage of a soothing room. Never as purposeful as its gleaming shapeless teeth when it zoned in on Neo, and filled itself with hate.

The original creature had no hate, no direction, it moved with no purpose. It killed and flattened for a singular event in the universe, with Neo caught in the aftermath.

Intelligence. Curiosity. Rage.

Nova pushed the sensor into his hands. "Keep an eye out for me and hang tight," she said. "I'm going to check his droid. Go wait by mine."

Neo shuffled to the droid terminal on the other side, and she readied any tools Thuni left scattered along his desk, checking on Neo when he sat at her desk and stared at the core Ulin took out for her, but she had another goal in mind to rip apart his droid. Thermotorch in one hand, she melted rusted metal to tear apart the exoskeleton. Rust turned to sludge with each piece she disassembled. Gloves and filtration mask on, she ripped off pieces of the puzzle. "Neo?"

"Yeah?"

Relief spread through her heart at his prompt response. "I'm just making sure you haven't gotten into anything in your condition."

"I'm fine," he replied. "Our droid is scanning."

Nova withdrew from Thuni's droid. "What?" Back on the main level, she rushed to his side when he pointed at the screen. Data fed into it, continuing the upload from before, though nothing was connected to it, not even the core. Nova lifted her head to her inactive droid. "What?" she said, and input her admin code. "I don't get it, what is it registering?"

"I don't think that's normal?" Neo pointed to the corner of the screen.

Numbers glitched into a chaotic, fractured formation. Nova peered at her wristpad for the time. Whatever the case, the warp hasn't been called yet. I might have more time to... avoid his death. No more tears left, she patted Neo on the back. "Just relax for now. I'll be right back to sort it out. I just need to check one last thing and we can get out of here."

She left Neo to return to Thuni's droid, to find the source of the anomaly. Come on, I need to make sense of this...

Nova slid into the exoskeleton and pushed broken wires slicked with liquid. She worked at the piping for the ventilation ports of the droid, frowning when ooze squirted out from the breach.

Heavy, lumbering, footsteps echoed in her eardrums, echoing through space, but too close.

Nova hesitated at the distant sound of scuffled movement.

A hard boot kicked metal.

"Neo?" Nova slid out of the opening and gave up her prize of a fresh sample. "Neo!" Hand on her blaster, she ran around the droid.

Into the light of two, struggling figures.

Neo drove his fingers into a large arm squeezing his neck. Another hand covered his mouth while he tried to kick himself free. Grey nebula reflected in his irides, fading in and out when he shut them tight with a muffled moan, but he continued to wriggle against his captor.

His attacker slowly crushed him like a toothpick.

Thuni, eyes crimson-dotted black like the engineers of the last loop, choked Neo to death as red sprites shuddered off his body.

Shadowy tendrils slipped out of the vents.

No!