Butterflies of the Dark Star

40 (REVISED)

I need another glimpse. I need to see what the droid registered before it reset. There's so much left and to do that I need to let this play out in a similar way. But this time, I can't let him follow me. Not again. That death was my fault, my doing — especially if I'm about to let Thuni die again.

I'm sorry. I wish I had another choice, but I'm so close to the answer I can almost taste it.

It was back to phase one of the loop blueprint, where it all started. The briefing. Admiral Mythrai droned on the same spiel of every loop before. Izerva no longer fidgeted at their post by the door. Instead, they let out a thoughtful huff before their gaze drifted to Neo. Nova struggled to get an angle on Thuni from her desk while pressing her face into her arms to block her senses.

Thuni sat in his seat and wrote something down on his datascroll.

There might be a chance that if I take Neo out of the equation early and put myself in his place... I'll die instead. Nova mulled over the possibility, but she needed a safer bet. An assurance that with her death, the loop would end and Neo would be free from his fate.

Nova rested her head deeper into her hands and forced a drawn out sigh past her lips. Think about all those times. All those times I failed him. The things I've seen and am about to do.

Remember the look he made before...

Just don't let him start his spiel.

Get him out of this room until the lockdown, and then I can make my move.

Every loop twined into her memories. Both so long yet so short. How much time had passed since their fateful arrival to the station, if it passed at all. Some blurred with numb ice. From the first, where a stake impaled his curious, kind heart. To the latest, where the black hole pierced his throat and stole his voice, leaving her to stand in a puddle of his blood.

Tears swam against the dam at his previous gentle words.

But why comfort me when you're the one who dies?

Flames blazed against her skin as she forced herself to gaze into the finest details she eased out of her mind. Time spun into longer sections, and she struggled to remember the smallest wingbeat of a butterfly flying through the current of time.

"Spacyn?" Admiral Mythrai stopped his spiel. "Spacyn, do you need a moment?"

But if this is what I have to do...

Every voice screamed in the orchestra of the space station. Neo's hand rested on her shoulder, and the butterfly necklace swung on time's pendulum with his smallest movement. "Nova?" he whispered with a frown, and shadows danced in his eyes. "Are you okay?"

Nova held onto him when he wrapped his other arm around her shoulders to guide her out of the chair. One quick glimpse of Thuni and Ulin, where both shared a look of concern. But how long does Thuni have his own mind?

"Admiral?" Neo asked, clearer than the last. "I'm going to take her back to our living quarters. I'll resume the briefing at the next open slot of the shift."

"Very well, Teimea. All of you are dismissed."

Neo pulled her out of the dome and she let the dam overflow. No detail left out, she committed it all to memory.

"Teimea, Spacyn," Thuni called, and Nova shoved aside the crimson veil around him which controlled his corpse and murdered Neo in front of her. "Is everything alright?"

Neo's gaze emptied out of all previous concern when he twisted to glance at Thuni. "Hm..." He hummed and held her tighter, his hands trembled. "I'm about to find out. Good luck with your droid."