Butterflies of the Dark Star

24 (REVISED)

It's looping.

The truth pierced her brain with what she failed to understand about space-time; the two interconnected concepts, never one without the other, too intertwined to be apart. Two sides of the same coin. Where space existed, time went, and vice versa. One simple dream — the sea of stars, the sea of time where the ripples of reality manifested into shattered truth.

Or so the stories told.

But I'm not an anomaly expert. I don't question these things. I don't think about these things. I think about what's in front of me. I think about what I can put in my hands and create. Where would I begin to understand? Or even how to stop this? I told Neo... and it killed him. If I tell him again, will it kill him either way? But who else would know a way out? He's the one who mulls over these things.

Not me.

Not. Me.

Stars sang.

I have to approach this like I approach a blueprint. I need to understand the machinations — the timing. We have the briefing, and then the lockdown. Those were consistent the past two times. What I'm not entirely sure of is Thuni and Ulin's fates. I need to see what I can change, and what I can't.

Prototype droids were easier to understand than an inconceivable time loop.

I need to figure out how to say 'we're in a time loop. I'm the only one that remembers and everyone dies around me each time.' Unbelievable, even saying that I sound like I've lost my mind. But, Neo would say 'without concrete observations to the contrary...'

It pulsed with the space in her mind.

Oh, Neo, was the truth worth this? Was your truth worth this? Was your question answered in the end? Why did you touch the anomaly when we barely stood it — when we barely had actionable understanding to proceed with the 'blueprint' of an anomaly.

Nova lifted herself from the repeated past to Neo, who sat at his desk, once again doodling on his datascroll with an unfocused expression. One more familiar, but strangely odd detail, though the reason for the strangeness slipped over her tongue. Everyone's actions — dictated by her. It's me. Every move I make affects the actions of others... like a...

Neo died too close to safety, the butterfly soaked in blood.

Like the single wing beat of a butterfly across the world... causing a tsunami on the either side.

Alone; time and time again.

It took all her impulse control to not tug out her brown hair, strand by strand, out of her scalp with her fingers. His butterfly necklace tangled in his hand when he toyed with it in his daze, flapping its crystalline wings in the nebula. If there's a way to break this... maybe I'll find it by going with Thuni and Ulin to stall the monster, but there's too much I don't know about it... like why it seems at the very end... it tears itself apart? No... I don't think that's the right word for it.

Behind her, Thuni clenched his fists on his desk, and she knew the questions in the air before he did. As Ulin patted his back, Thuni drew his attention over the walls.

Wait, I don't... I don't remember him doing that before. Nova switched her seat around. "Do you want help with your droid?"

Something echoed out a difference. "Sure." Thuni shrugged his shoulders. "We could use the help."

"Great." Nova hesitated and checked on Neo, who continued to drown in his familiar daze. "I'm going to bring Neo with me. Maybe he can provide some insight."