Yet, I need to hear you again.

Every log, a reminder of what she failed to see.

I told you to start taking logs to remind yourself of the things you lose track of.

Neo, excited and happy about them being chosen for a doomed mission.

It went deeper.

His words echoed straight to her. Some logs full of the same blissful awareness, but others a layer to him he never let anyone, even her, see. It grew in her chest when he listened to him ramble on, believing no one wanted to listen to him. Until she reached the last glitch, but his existence was so much more than that.

Nova pressed the button to listen.

Static rang out, and she frowned. It dissipated, and she released another sob and threw it to the side. As she hugged her knees, the flowers wilted and the butterflies disappeared into stars. Left alone in the darkness, she stared into the abyss.

Until it rebuilt itself in her side eye, and she whipped around. A projection of him, but it never replaced the real thing. He tipped his head, then jolted. "Wait, did the connection finish?" he asked to air, through static, so far away from her. Nova got to her feet when he pinched his cheek in thought. Another past. Another log. Behind him, she reached out to touch his back. "... it didn't work, did it?"

His voice was so weary.

Nova grazed the mist, but he never reacted. You're gone.

"It did work," she assured the ghost, and a painful smile crawled on her lips when Neo shook his head with an exasperated sigh at the idea of note taking of any form. "It's recording, Neo. I can hear you."

He stiffened, then twisted around to stare at her with wide eyes, or at something past her. Nova stepped back from the past's strange reaction. "Did you... hear me?" he asked, but then turned away again, wincing as he rubbed his temple. Starry butterflies fluttered at his feet on the trails of grey nebulas. "Oh... great, I'm talking to myself. Out loud this time... actually, not the first time. Why am I so surprised?"

He sounded like his old self.

"It kind of sounds like you're about to make a mad scientist joke," she whispered to the pale imitation. "I hear you, Neo."

But you're dead. And I'm the one talking to myself now.

Neo twisted back again as if following the sound of her voice. He squinted around her, then at the butterflies fluttering around him. He hesitated, then said, "Check your pocket for me."

...what?

Nova obeyed the lie against her better judgement and her own spiralling mind and tangled her hands into her pocket, then took out the broken butterfly, smouldering in cold embers. Neo zoned in on it, coming closer when she brought it closer to her face.

Cosmic bubbles rippled through her world.

"You can hear me," he rasped with a small bounce and relief dripped across his face. "It did work." He faltered off, then confusion spread across his brow. "Wait. Hold on..." He rubbed his misty necklace. "When is this? Where are we, right now? Relatively, I should say?" He pinched his cheek once more. "Something feels wrong with the connection here, but if you can still hear me then..." Nova came closer to him, to brush her fingers across the projection, but her fingers went through him. "I hit the mark somewhere."

"Neo, are you talking to me?" Nova rasped.

Neo lowered his hands and kept his eyes closed. "It's blurry. I can't see past the static."

Nova let her hope go at the lack of further directed responses, so she turned to let the projection play out.

"Nova, can you put that thing on? It might help."

Nova brushed her thumb against the broken wings, then put it around her neck. The room disappeared, but left the pixel butterflies on a field of stars. Grey swirls swept through his eyes when he gazed at her. "That's much better," he whispered. "Something feels different." He lowered his gaze to the corner she once hid in, distant and out of reach. "I guess I am a bit late for that promise." His smile fractured when he looked at her. "You can hear me, right?"

"Yes," she rasped, feeling silly.

"I never thought someone would hear me again." He came closer to her, drawing the empty void to swallow the rest of the room. "If you can hear me now of all times, that must mean the connection is almost done." He shook out his shoulders. "I... I remember now." His voice was so clear, so close. He released a softer laugh. "Though, to be honest I don't know how long I can keep this up. Again, I don't even know where I am right now, I just... followed it. I think I know when I am at least, so that's new." Galaxies continued to spiral around him. "Okay, so, I want to tell you stuff before I lose my sense of self. I need to tell you before my mind gets blended with things I have no control over. I'm drowning in a current no one but you can see, right?" He scoffed through his tears. "You know, all those times watching, I started to wonder if I was meant to die here, and—"

Nova jolted to life. "What the fuck!"

Neo jumped. "Huh?"

"You say you know when you are!" she screeched, causing him to step back. "Neo, do you have any real idea of that? Neo. Neo." Nova waved her arms, whether to hug him or slap him she wasn't sure which one would come first. "Neo, I'm stuck here."

"Yes, I'm going to—"

"No!" Nova lunged at him. "Stop. You—What is this?" Overwhelmed, she shook when she almost lost her strength to stand.

"I'm reaching through the current," he said. "Nova—"

"Neo, don't just dismiss the fact of—" Nova choked, and lost the rest of her tears, causing Neo to widen his eyes. "Why?"

Neo squinted. "Um... I don't... know what you're referring to, can you be more specific?"

"I'm sorry," she gasped and went for him. "I didn't—I didn't want to hurt you."

Neo blinked. "Lots of things hurt me."

"Yourself included?" Nova asked, shrill.

He went quiet, then stiffened. "Myself..." He frowned, then the light hit his eyes. "I went through with it?" His arms dropped to his sides, his torn disbelief never so intense as her broken heart. "Oh, no..." He twisted his broken expression to her. "Nova, no, I... I never wanted you to see that from me, I—" He hugged himself, and she wanted nothing more than to shatter the veil of time. "This was a bad spot to do this, but I don't have the strength to find another point in the fracture."

Nova tried to find the feeling in her fingers. "You..."

"Okay, listen, I can still fix this, at least for you," he said, faster, chaotic. "I know I should've listened to you, but I can't reverse this. We can't go back and stop this from happening, you understand?"

"Neo, am I actually talking to you?" Nova rasped. "Tell me that, at least."

"A me lost adrift in the sea of time, yes," Neo said. "Weird sentence."

Nova let out a strangled sob as she bridged the gap to hug him, cold and transparent, but solid in her arms. "I'm sorry for what I did to you," she whispered and tightened her grip when he raised his hands. "You don't deserve to die, Neo. If you can just tell me how to pull you out of there, I can—"

"Take me home," he echoed the pain. Nova winced when he sighed. "It's getting harder to see and think. I saw it all and was powerless to stop it. Nova, I saw the moment they broke through the gate on the D.S Butterfly." Frustration creased his brow. "I'm... I'm sorry, too, Nova. You can't pull me out of this."

I'm still here.

Static drowned him when he lifted his head with a softer sigh, and Nova frowned when he raised his hand to her shoulder, but it went through, unlike her when she found herself able to cling onto his life. "And yet..." He shrugged his shoulders. "I need to tell you that I won't let you get trapped here. You see, the aggressive anomaly isn't the key through this." He smiled, soft and warm. "I'm sorry for putting you through this over and over, hoping that you'd figure out how to get out, but you were so..." He sniffed. "You kept wanting to rescue me."

"You... It was you resetting the loops," she rasped at the inference in his words. "Neo, of course I was going to try and prevent you from dying! You said it wasn't impossible."

"I-I shouldn't have said that. I should be less stubborn about that. If this continues there won't be any room left for you to escape." He gazed at the necklace around her shoulders. "I just wanted to establish a connection somewhere where I could finally talk to you. To tell you that I don't want you to torture yourself. You just needed that to get out. You can get the coordinates from the anomaly out of here and you'll get out of this."

"What about you?"

Neo frowned. "It will probably close behind you. I'll remain here."

Nova shook her head. "No, I don't accept that outcome. I'm not going to leave you behind. Not again. Forget about breaking the loop." Her hands clasped his misty ones, and he stared between them with a sense of morbid curiosity. "Neo, you have to reset the loop again. I can help you. I can stop this."

He raised his gaze to her. "Why would you do that? You're so close to getting out, why would you put yourself through it again?"

"Because I don't think it's impossible to save you," she bit. "I will do it as many times as I have to."

Neo blinked, and tears welled over the galaxy. "Nova... you won't have to do it that many times, because... you don't have much longer," he whispered. "Any longer and I'll disappear. I'll... I'll probably turn into what the D.S Butterfly turned into. I'm already... I can't feel the, uh, how do I say it... I can't feel the connection between me and the fracture, the thing that assimilated the anomaly," he pointed out. "I mean... I can't exactly stop you like this, and I think once I lose this connection I won't... I won't be able to be myself. Nova, I can't... turn back the loop from here."

"What do you mean, what's happening to you?"

"I'm dying."

Nova jolted at his casual statement of words, but he pinched his cheek. "Yes, I'm disappearing, slowly. I don't have a lot left in me, Nova. You see, I've seen a shard of time and it's draining me of life like this," he whispered. "If you want to try again, you're going to have to find the fracture... but I'm warning you I won't... I won't be able to hear you anymore."

"Why?"

"There's a point in time that's corrupted and isn't letting me... see, I guess, for a lack of a better word," he murmured. "I can't promise that I won't... I won't lash out at you."

"You didn't before."

Neo swayed. "This is different. All those other times I still had a grasp of myself and my placement in time. Here, I don't. I didn't even know what you were talking about until you made me think about it. I don't want to hurt you, but if you really want to try again... You can use that necklace you have to get through the event horizon. You can try and convince me there, but whether I'll be able to comprehend it is another story altogether." He looked upwards. "Yes, I'm starting to..." He twisted around to where the door would be. "Lose it. It's out of control."

"What's happening?"

"Um..." He gave her a pained, sheepish smile. "I should be kind of ripping apart the space station as we speak, if I am at the point in time where I think I am."

Nova jolted. "What?!"

"At least, I think that's what I was doing. It's very weird. I feel... I feel the anger and desperation, but detached from the fracture I can sort of gauge it better, though that's fading fast, even now I can't... keep a grip. It's a very weird feeling. Usually when I get pissy I can barely get my thoughts straight." He shrugged.

"Neo, that is not a thing to shrug at!"

"I warned you you might not be able to even get close," he pointed out. "But... I still believe in you. If you change your mind, there's still a chance for you to escape and let... let it happen."

"I'm still not going to accept that outcome."

Neo sighed. "I know. You never do."

Nova shivered at the sweeping cold of a distant alarm, and he twisted around. "Neo."

He returned to her.

"How many do you have left in you?"

"I don't know, not a lot, though."

Nova gripped his hands. "Are you scared?"

"Tired, and cold. I need a blanket or something."

"Neo, now's not the time."

He frowned. "Nova, I'm sorry."

"I am too." Nova came closer to him. "I'm going to promise you that I'm going to get you out of there, but how am I going to do that?"

"I'm split. You need to get to the source of me, as stupid as that sounds," he said. "I'm in the sea of time... drowning."

"Drowning."

He nodded.

"Literally?"

He nodded again.

"How are you talking to me then?"

"Time is... hard to grasp," he said. "It could be happening in the past, the present, or the future even. In this fold, it's hard to say." He breathed deep. "Nova, once you come back to your point in time, I won't be able to talk to you unless you get to me."

"What do I do?"

Neo poked the necklace. "That should help. When I touched the anomaly it picked the closest thing to act as an anchor. Otherwise, I don't know. I'm sorry."

Nova released the tension in her shoulders, then hugged him again. "I'll figure it out."

Neo swayed in her arms. "I'm sorry if I hurt you."

"You too."

Nova closed her eyes tight, and then the alarms screamed in her ear with the rocking of the space station. Metal screeched at the distant sounds of teeth dragging along the surface.

I need to get to you.