Butterflies of the Dark Star

23 (REVISED)

No bulkheads impeded their approach to central command. Her heart hammered with the rumbling station. Her clammy palms made it difficult to steady herself on the overhead railing. "Neo?" she whispered into her still active communicator, still able to hear the beeps of an array on the other side, but no voices. "Can you hear me? We're in transit back. If that thing is still there, you should hide. It-It took down Admiral Mythrai's team." His silence strangled her throat, and eviscerated her hope into nothing but atoms. "Neo, listen, I know I give you shit a lot but..." Nova checked on Izerva, who kept their gaze trained on the tunnel they left behind. "If you could say something that'd be great..."

Nova jolted at the sound of an explosion, and the tracks rumbled. It burst through a crimson field to enter the station. Alarms hushed through the dark and added to the decay in the air. Vents pulsed. That surge must've lowered the defenses... and Neo was in the tower... Nova leaped off the tram, and frowned at the overturned, hasty barricades at the entrances. Izerva rushed behind her, then pointed at the lift to the tower.

"I am going to try and find others," Izerva signed. "And try to tell them we cannot kill this thing with weaponry."

"Because it'll just rebound..." Nova nodded and rushed for the lift, leaving Izerva to investigate the area. It struggled to open, so she lifted herself through the emergency hatch and into the lift's maintenance area. Hand on the lever, she kept a hold on it as it cranked and raised to the peak with slower speeds. Agitation swept to her feet, and she tried to stomp it out without letting go of the lever. Her fingers dug deeper into the metal at a distant screech, unsure of whether it came from above her or below her.

Stars, just let him be alive. Don't do this to me again.

It settled at the top, and she forced open the lift door to squeeze past. It rumbled from the commotion below, but the crimson silence dotted the air. Blaster in her hand, she slid forward, one foot in front of the other. One body splattered against the wall from an immense force. Emergency lights created shadows of teeth, but she bit on her tongue to force herself out of the ice. "Neo?" she whispered, before sticking close to the wall at shattered light. Around the corner into security, she bit down on a scream at the slumped corpses against the keyboards.

Oh, fuck, what happened here?

Nova sped her pace to the main array to find him, slamming her fist into the panel to make the doors slide open.

A crack split the holomap in two.

Crimson oozed along the cameras and arrays, flickering out of drainage. Nova swallowed in pain and tried to find the labcoat among the dead. Over the table, she froze at it.

Neo laid face-down, with his communicator out of reach. Splatters of red dotted his coat and stuck between his hair.

"No..." Nova rushed to his side, holstering the blaster to shove her hands around his neck, to feel the pulse of life. Her heart exploded against her ribcage at the rush of its promise. "Oh, Stars. Neo!" Hand on his shoulders, she shook him. "Come on. Let me help you." He let out a quiet moan at her continuous shaking. Nova lifted him out of the spreading blood to support him from underneath his elbows. He winced when she touched the droplet of crimson spreading a river down his cheek, causing him to tap her wrist with a misdirected point at nothing.

"When did you get here?" he mused as she tried to haul him to his feet, to no avail.

"Forget that. What happened?"

"... think I hit my head." Neo gave another unknown point at nothing. "Uh... what was I doing...?"

Nova released a breath. He's disoriented. I need to get him out of here... Arms hooked underneath his, she lifted him off the ground. "You with me, Neo?" she asked and swung his arm around her neck before wrapping her free one against his back.