Butterflies of the Dark Star

49 (REVISED)

Neo pressed himself against the door.

"I don't think rushing to the anomaly will help." Nova pleaded to the universe for an ability to make a difference in someone's life. Neither of their reflections appeared in the yawn of the void. But maybe I'm fooling myself again. You weren't so hellbent before until after you vaporised the loop... but if I'm honest with myself... this is you. You get so fixated on one thing that... you forget everything else around you. Little details started to reset, and you finally started to notice. I can't let you go back there. I can't let you on that track. I will never be able to get you off it if I don't. Words died on her tongue and burst into supernovas. Torn in two, she sighed and metal screeched to signal the end. "If this is your choice, if you think it'll help."

"It is," he insisted, stronger, but with none of his mannerisms. "It will."

I'm going to end this. I'm going to find a way out. Nova braced herself when the transit rolled to a stop. And I will shoulder the weight of my actions. Of the people I've let die in an attempt to save you. Fingers dug into her palm, she bit on her tongue until she tasted life to cement it over her shaken resolve. Fuck the universe, I said... You forgot I was a variable.

"We're here." Dim mist spread forth when they stepped off the transit. "I hope we're not too late."

Too late many times, what's one more?

As they tread through unfamiliar corridors, Nova looked for an avenue of escape or a second chance. Neo pushed on without hesitation, without fear. Rage boiled in the back of her throat as she followed him.

Many stars faded into oblivion.

"Neo," she said, and he stopped. "I have one last question."

"Yes?"

"What are you seeing?"

Glitchy heat waves radiated off him from a single whispered question. "It's like watching through static," he murmured, and space shuddered around him to distort time with his pain. "I... I was confused. I don't understand why you hid from me. I wondered if you didn't believe me when I said I'd come back with an answer. I wondered if maybe you hated me for what happened. I came back and it made everything worse."

Her bones rumbled. "You believed in me. It made it so much harder when everything fell apart around me. You gave me something precious, Neo."

The rumbling of the universe stilled when he finally looked her in the eyes.

"What did I give you?" he asked. "What could I have given you?"

Nova blocked the view behind her. "You gave me hope. You gave me a lot, Neo. I believe in you."

He blinked. "You... do?"

"Yes."

He relaxed, then continued on without another word.

And that's why...

Nova stayed in his expanding shadow as they headed into the laboratory corridors. Behind the Class Z bulkhead, a bright red colour blazed to life on the edge of a static world. Brighter than a star. Neo let out a sigh of relief and headed through the open door. Nova kept on his heels, and waited for the fleeting moment.

For time rendered meaningless.

"I'm here," he said when tendrils beckoned from the heart of the universe. He edged past the shivering containment field. Hot chills swept over her skin, but he came to a stop in front of it, where the oldest star sucked in the grey tendrils of the black hole. "I'm going to open it and it will unravel out of the fold, Nova."