Butterflies of the Dark Star

30 (REVISED)

So, they sent an anomalous researcher.

Neo stepped through the holographic fields full of curious butterflies. He took a seat in the corner chair. No words left his lips as he shuffled around his inner pockets, then slipped out his datascroll with a click of his I-Pen. He gave a gentle, attentive smile.

"Neo," she whispered. "Why are you here?"

"I want my question answered," he replied and the smile never broke. "You know how I get when I don't get an answer to my questions. It's a bad habit of mine."

Among other things. Nova folded her arms. "They let you see me before anyone else?"

"I am convincing."

Nova narrowed her eyes when he shuffled with his datascroll, and he dropped his gaze to his feet, which told her more than his convincing set of words. "You didn't come here just to tell me they don't believe me."

"It's a little more complicated than that," Neo whispered. "But, ignore that. I didn't come here for them. I came here to talk to you." He hauled himself out of his seat and came closer to her, but she kept a distance from a dead man walking. He hesitated, then respected the boundary she put forth. "You said we had this conversation before. I want to know what you mean by that."

"I meant exactly what I said, it just didn't go like this." Nova gestured around the soothing room, among the fluttering butterflies. Life. Trees. Grass. Nothing more than a lie. "We're in a time loop, Neo. I know what is about to happen before anyone else does."

Neo flipped his datascroll open and shut, fidgeting while studying her. "Are you certain? I do have a bad memory."

"No, you would've remembered this." Nova tried not to choke on early grief when he tipped his head with his customary curious smile at something he failed to understand, but never gave up on. "I asked you, hypothetically, about temporal anomalies. I asked you what you would do if... if no matter what the end result was the same." It caught in her lungs, but she maintained the distance from the past loops. "I also asked you how you would break them." His gaze drifted to the left, but Nova tried to snap him back into reality, "You told me it wasn't impossible. Hard, but not impossible."

He remained quiet.

Nothing at all? Not a flicker of recognition?

"That does sound like something I'd say," he muttered and left his datascroll open in his palm. "You believe the anomaly the droids brought in folded the continuum within the nebula, right?"

Nova opened her mouth to confirm, but hesitated at his wording. "I don't believe, Neo." Metal shuddered with her frustration and fury. "I know it for a fact." Rage born in the field of reactive flames boiled her stomach. "I know it by how many times I've watched people die. How many times I've seen the devastation the creature left behind." Nova took a small step from him. "Why would anyone believe me or take my word for it? Time looping. Really?" A laugh crawled through her throat and flayed her voice, unable to prevent its escape from the cage in her chest as she ran her fingers down her cheeks to tear it out. "I think even for someone like you it'd take too many leaps in logic."

"Nova." He reached his hand out, only to always fall limp in hers.

Nova kept him at arm's length. "I know what's happening," she rasped. "That anomaly is alive somehow, and when you touched it, something happened." Arms crossed to protect herself from the tick of time, she cried into the field of blooming lies. "You always, always let your curiosity get the best of you. I would've never imagined it would lead to this, though." Agitation and fear ripped her laughter apart to add to the blood staining her hands. His blood, fallen silent. "Say you don't believe me, Neo. Say this is insane, that I've lost my mind and it's just the shock of Space Sickness. Say it."