Butterflies of the Dark Star

35 (REVISED)

Nova sank against the wall while they waited near the research labs. Scientists whispered and compared notes, but there was only one scientist she needed to hear. Her agitation demanded her to move, to stomp into the observatory and blurt it out once more — but she learned the consequence of the last attempt, and he died choking on his own blood.

Neo will come out of there. This isn't anything like the first loop. I don't know what this is, but I'm going to figure it out.

Nova jumped to her feet when the decontamination doors opened to reveal Neo, whole and alive with his datascroll in hand. His confused expression drove her closer. "Well? Do they know what happened?"

He sucked in his cheeks and showed her the first tab on his datascroll. "Here is the entire timeline of the shift to now," he explained and guided her with his finger. "Notice the consistency? A heartbeat... just like you said. Or, at least, matching the fluctuations of a certain rhythmic line." He swiped the timeline, and the heartline of the anomaly pulsed, but never wavered into silence. "Keep an eye on the time and those lines."

I always have. Nova rested her head against his arm as he moved the timeline. It stuttered, faltered, and flatlined.

Another long moment, and the graph shook into an explosion of up and down zigzags. It raced against the clock of the loop and its own heart threatened to fail underneath the pressure. Nova grabbed the edge of the datascroll to take a closer look, to confirm her suspicion.

"Strange, right?" he asked.

Nova frowned. "It almost stopped, Neo."

"It was during the briefing," Neo whispered. "It didn't 'almost' stop. It did stop. Something restarted it. I think when the soft restart happened the aggression in Habitation began. That's my theory, anyway."

"Are you sure you didn't do anything during the shift?" Nova asked.

"I couldn't have. I was at the briefing."

Nova bit on her tongue to rip apart her confusion. What did I change? It's clear the anomaly has something to do with this, but how do I reverse this? What about... the monsters? How do they mix into this? Nova brushed Neo's shoulder when he continued to stare at the lines. In the corner, Thuni and Ulin stared at them in no small amount of uncertainty. Those two are fine. Not dead, but they were being watched. Neo's right, there's some sort of... chain reaction going on. But what started it? What did I do? If it was even me.

"Nova?" Neo asked.

Either way, I need to act fast.

Izerva returned to them from a check in with Admiral Mythrai. "There was confirmation western communications went down." Their tail whisked from side to side. "Need help rerouting power back to here. I am to go with whoever volunteers."

Thuni raised an eyebrow. "I'm guessing no one volunteered."

Izerva shook their head.

"I'll go." Thuni sighed and drew his hand down his nose. "Failing memory aside..." he grumbled and nodded at her. "You wanted to take a look at our core, right?"

"I did want to take a look at it," Nova affirmed, and jumped when Neo held the phial to her. "Thank you, Neo, but—"

"I'm going with Thuni."

Thuni jolted with her. "What?"

"I won't get in the way!" Neo waved his hands. "I need to see what's happening in the western branch for myself."

Nova chewed on the inside of her cheek when Neo showed the anomaly suppressor, though his whack never stopped the aggression before. "Are you sure?" she asked. He nodded without a verbal response, but she tasted the risk of loss. "I just... I just want you to be careful. Don't throw yourself into the first hint of danger. Take your notes and leave."