Having lain awake all night staring at Metis while her stomach tied into knots, Aura brewed extra black coffee and put the rice cooker on before downing two helpings of each. As she snuck in robots upgrades ahead of launch preparations, she watched to make sure Metis, who was verging on some psychological breakthrough, ate. Despite the rest of the center's bustling and the looming threat, the morning passed with little but the clack of Metis's keyboard and the robots rushing in and out.

Too soon, the time came for Aura to go. Leaving Metis brought Aura back to the day of her death, when she had not even kissed Metis goodbye, just called a few requests for part orders over her shoulder. Though this wouldn't be their last meeting, Aura refused to repeat the mistake, bending down to press her lips against Metis's cheek. "I'll be back soon," she murmured.

"Godspeed," Metis said, her attention on her screen.

Aura hesitated—the gesture was too fleeting, too chaste, for her tension, but it was the most they'd have typically done, and Metis shared none of Aura's apprehension. With no excuse to linger, Aura left, running her hand over Ponco's head on the way out to soothe herself.

As she made her way down the hall, a thread of doubt stitched itself into her. Was she not doing enough? Should she remove Metis from the space center, whether against her will or not?

She forced herself to remain rational. There was no reason for the lab to be dangerous, and she didn't plan to damage Metis's opinion of her. As long as she kept Athena away, everything would be fine.

When Aura arrived at the launch site, she found Athena seated next to Clonco, who Aura had enlisted to watch her. He'd followed her orders especially earnestly since the other day to regain her approval, as Metis had explained in a tight voice, and Aura trusted him to tell her if Athena ran off. Athena didn't, staying by the robot's side like a shadow while everyone buzzed around.

Though the lead up to the launch involved no small amount of fanfare, the employees kept laser focus on their tasks. Aura caught a whiff of sweat and wrinkled her nose; few human scents appealed to her.

Things soon went awry. Being the sole person to know the HAT-1 would break down, Aura thoroughly checked the equipment the evening before, but despite finding no malfunctions, an explosion rocked the ship.

Employees panicked, as did Starbuck himself. Aura paid him little heed; she hadn't come back to prevent his PTSD, and at least he'd have a psychologist. As the least caught off guard, she barked orders to keep the employees on task until Starbuck landed to a chorus of cheers.

Aura didn't join in. Immediately she turned toward Athena, her heart nearly stopping when she saw that the princess had disappeared.

A moment later, however, she found her crouching behind Clonco, tears streaming down her face while the robot's hands covered her ears. Without moving them, Clonco swiveled his head.

"Mama Aura, everyone's emotions are overwhelming her!"

"I can see that. Did you watch her the whole time?"

"Yes! Clonco took good care of Athena."

He probably wanted praise, but Aura had long-since fallen out of the habit of delivering it. Once she'd confirmed that Athena hadn't left, her anxiety lessened, though her heart continued pounding.

"I'm going to tell Metis what happened. Don't take your eyes off the princess for a second, understand?"

Athena choked out a sob, cringing as if at the sound. "Mama Aura," Clonco said, "Athena needs to get away from—"

"So take her to her room," Aura said with a wave of her hand, ignoring the employees who spoke to her as she ran out.

While she rode the elevator she felt weightless, her stomach leaping up faster than the rest of her. She ordered it to settle. She'd isolated Athena; Metis was safe.

Her feet carried her to the lab. The second she threw open the door, she saw the empty chair and thought she'd succeeded. A moment later, however, she caught sight of the scene below the window and felt a wrench slam her gut.

Simon knelt on the floor, cradling Metis's body. Blood covered the front of both of their outfits, and but for his trembling hold, Metis lay completely limp. Aura might as well have been on the moon for how thin the air seemed.

Aura wasn't aware of her legs moving until she dropped beside them, cupping Metis's face. The stench of blood churned her stomach—she'd been first in line for biology dissections, but this was Metis, and for someone used to thinking of innards as wires, seeing the raw humanity spill from her beloved made her toes curl.

She focused instead on Metis's face. While Metis had presented herself as composed, Aura always saw the worry wrinkling her brow; now, she looked truly tranquil. Aura's glove prevented her from touching Metis's skin, but she couldn't tear her hand away long enough to take it off. How could this have happened? Inventing a way to warp time, confronting the princess, keeping her away…none of it had done a thing. Even the HAT-1 Miracle repeated itself. She slapped her knee with her free hand and laughed. She was useless. A scientist who couldn't fix anything.

Tears had dripped onto Metis's kimono before Aura realized she was crying; the stain's size made her realize Simon was crying, too.

That reduced her to pity, because he hadn't known, hadn't been through this already. She held him, their bodies sandwiching Metis as if they could stop her from going cold. Aura's fingers dug into Simon's back while he wept on her shoulder, a reversal of the time when she hadn't expected it and he'd closed himself off. He'd only kept up the pretense of the strong knight for the princess's sake, it seemed.

The princess. Where was she? Aura swiveled her head, but the three of them were alone. Though it was impossible Athena could have beaten her here, Aura stood on shaky legs and searched the room, sweeping a box of nails off a desk in frustration. At the clatter, Simon looked up.

"We can't disturb the crime scene," he said, his voice maddeningly calm despite its hoarseness.

Aura told him in uncensored terms exactly whatshe thought of his law enforcement procedures while she dug out the rolling case and threw it open. It was empty.

"Where are you hiding her?"

"Whom do you mean?"

Aura slammed her hand against the wall, keeping it there for stability. "Don't give me that innocent look! The princess. Where did you chariot her off to?" Deep down, she knew the answer, but she couldn't accept that this could happen, that she'd been wrong for seven years.

Simon's eyes narrowed. "You think I kidnapped Dr. Cykes' child? Are you accusing me, of, of…" He cast his gaze down to the body in his arms. "Of this?"

The irony made Aura howl with laughter. She didn't stop until she was doubled over the workbench, retching into a bucket of metal parts. While she rinsed her mouth with a cup of now-cold coffee, she heard Simon calling the authorities.

"You didn't do that earlier?" she asked, wiping her face with a rag as she turned toward him. He pressed his lips together and jerked his head toward the body he'd laid on the ground. Aura rolled her eyes; of course Metis's samurai had put guarding her before his government duties.

They returned to kneeling beside Metis until the police came. It didn't take long, given all the officers that for some reason had come to gawk at the launch. Simon rubbed his thumb absently across Aura's cheek—"oil on that rag," he said, to which she muttered mother hen—before they stood to meet the employee who arrived first.

Before the day had ended, the police arrested Simon. Aura was strangely hollow as they took him away, even as she joined him in protest. "I shan't let you allow her real killer to slip into the shadows," he said, and Aura gave every officer nearby a less formal blow-by-blow about corruption within the system, but it was all, as Simon would have said, for naught.

Aura's numbness didn't recede until she opened the door to the princess's room and found her sitting at her desk, drawing a robot. A scream tore itself from Aura's throat, causing Athena to cover her ears as she looked up, her eyes wide with innocent confusion.

xxxxxxx

As soon as the police questioned her, Aura shut herself in her room and lay on their bed, pummeling the floor beside the pillow she'd recently been wonderstruck to find Metis's hair splayed across. Losing Metis a second time didn't hurt less. On the contrary, being reunited with her tore down the walls Aura had built around her heart, leaving it exposed for grief to drill further holes.

She didn't even have anywhere to direct her feelings. She'd seen for herself that Athena couldn't have murdered Metis, and even without protecting her, Simon was arrested. The gap between his discovering the body and calling the authorities was "suspicious," apparently, a fact that made Aura slap the detention center table from laughter. If only he'd been a prosecutor long enough for them to know his eccentricities.

So Aura was left with nothing. No heart, no brother, and no witch to hang. Only herself to blame and two lives of misery.

xxxxxxx

Aura didn't learn until Simon's trial that his prints were on the katana, apparently—as he said with clear embarrassment—because he'd once snuck into the lab to attempt swordplay. Aura could only imagine the lecture that had earned him; she grinned at the thought. The prosecution seemed less amused, twisting Simon's desire into proof of his 'violent nature,' a claim that made Aura guffaw until the bailiff told her to pipe down.

Again the princess testified. He didn't kill her. His heart is screaming that he didn't kill her. Aura averted her eyes from the people shaking their heads in the gallery.

Simon, for his part, looked battered; his eyes contained no resolve, only defeat. He didn't have the strength to fight without anyone to protect, Aura realized. She fought for both of them, but she could do little except testify about his devotion to Metis and scream at the prosecutor.

The sentence was death. Aura only laughed. She wasn't planning on sticking around long enough to see it carried out.

xxxxxxx

When Aura reset the timeline, she'd lost all ability to contact the original robots. Perhaps the other universe still existed, or perhaps only one did and she'd warped it irretrievably. Either way, it wasn't a life she cared to return to.

She tried to avoid abusing the robots, but without Athena to hate, Aura fell back into old habits. Everything in this world would be gone soon, anyway. Knowing that, she didn't bother upgrading the robots, maintaining relationships, or doing any work that wasn't necessary to keep the space center funding her secret project.

Replicating the time machine took less time now that she knew the formula. In three years, she'd strapped herself in and ordered the robots to start it up again. She had none of the anxious anticipation of the first round. She only wanted to lie beside Metis again so that she could finally get some rest.

xxxxxxx

This time, Aura was more aware when she woke. Managing not to whack Metis, she propped herself up, taking a moment to stare. Even in the dim light, the shape of Metis under the blankets and her dark hair against the pillow soothed Aura with the knowledge that at least one thing in the world was right.

When Metis stirred, Aura reached to cup her cheek as she had three years before, this time with no glove in the way of her warmth. Metis started, then lay back down against the pillow with a sigh while Aura stroked her face.

"Are the robots out of sleep mode?"

"I haven't checked yet," Aura murmured, running her thumb along Metis's jaw. She didn't dare break contact; once they turned on the lights, even this open a gesture would cease. Too soon, however, Metis rose, and not being eager to lay in an empty bed, Aura followed.

Metis brushed her hair while Aura washed, running the water over her hands for a minute to cleanse herself of the blood on them. She snuck glances at Metis, splashing her face in between until the cold grounded her in the present.

They spoke little as they began work. Having Metis back healed some of the rot festering in Aura, but it didn't feel dream-like this time; if anything, the idea that Aura could ever not find her way back to Metis's side seemed impossible. Though in less of a daze than she'd been before, she took breaks to watch Metis analyze charts and jot notes. A meticulous worker, she kept her station more organized than Aura cared to keep her own. At times Aura teased Metis about corrupting her brother with finicky sensibilities, but she'd always admired Metis's methodology.

Simon joined them for dinner before his lesson with Metis, though as usual it started over their sushi. Not sharing their interest in psychology, Aura remained quiet, alternating between glancing at Athena and being unable to look at her. Athena looked at her curiously, and Aura kept her silence, refusing to let Athena hear the web of guilt and frustration in her heart. The girl didn't remember Aura's confession, but Aura got the sense that Athena could uncover any secret, and the knowledge that she'd mistreated Metis's princess on false grounds was something she couldn't face until this was over.

While they finished their tea, Metis and Simon avidly conversed about overrated death theorists. Aura rested her chin in her hand and rolled her eyes, but truth be told, seven years venting aggression and three more in isolation put her out of touch with her family. She'd never been as awkward as Simon, but she was starting to empathize with his glazed looks during Blackquill family reunions.

She tried not to dwell on it. Saving Metis was her first priority. She could repair relations afterward.

To that end, she spent the time after dinner planning. In the past three years she'd at least come to terms with the fact that keeping Athena away from Metis wouldn't save her. If Simon was innocent—and he was, there was no point doubting that, even if it went against her dislike of bias—that left Aura with no suspects. More than once she'd considered locking Metis away where nobody could harm her. The urge renewed itself; she banged the pot she was washing against the sink. Strangers could have been another story, but she wasn't far gone enough to kidnap her partner, at least not when other options remained.

The first thing she did upon returning to the lab was check its security measures, after which she instructed the robots to watch Metis. While Metis was busy, Aura reprogrammed the command that didn't let them eavesdrop, creating little spies to keep an eye on anyone suspicious.

The tactic Aura used with Athena seemed like it should be effective—she'd simply chosen the wrong target. She considered staying with Metis in the lab, but after seeing her dead body there twice, she wanted to take Metis as far away as possible. Unfortunately, that wasn't very far, but to Aura's relief, Metis agreed to accompany her to the launch.

Aura checked the rocket repeatedly, but it was all in order. It seemed likely someone tampered with it at the last minute, a fact that made the hair on the back of Aura's neck stand up. So a potential criminal had dropped themselves into her lap. She discussed it with the higher-ups, but she could only be vague. She received evasive responses and walked away with her nose scrunched.

Security was tight during the launches, now that she thought about it. Not just guards, but police. What were they doing there?

Wires connected in her mind, and the answer came in a spark. Police, an explosion, murder—it wasn't rocket science. A terrorist would attack the space center, and the higher-ups knew.

Aura had no awareness of her feet carrying her down the corridor. The sound of the door slamming behind her told her she'd returned to the lab, but her mind was still elsewhere. They knew. They knew a criminal would infiltrate their precious government hellhole and slaughter her Metis, and they'd revealed nothing. Why? Nationalist pride? Public relations? They were all scum, not just those who stood in court, but the entire government, and her family should never have gotten involved.

Her fist banged a table she didn't realize she'd moved next to. A concerned voice came from behind her.

"Aura, what's wrong?"

On instinct, Aura raised her hand to silence whichever robot had interrupted her fit. When she whirled, Metis stood there, stunned.

Aura's eyes widened, her hand freezing a foot from Metis's face. When she dropped it, it felt like a sandbag at her side.

"Metis." She swallowed. "I didn't see you there."

"Evidently," Metis said, her eyes glazed over. Aura couldn't imagine how she was processing what had almost occurred.

Unable to explain, Aura forced half a smirk. "Those higher-ups can be a pain, huh? I tried to meet with one just now, and—"

"Aura." Metis stepped away and raised her own hand with her palm out. "You're….you're frightening me."

Her insides like lead, Aura's smile dropped. She was aware she was scowling, but she couldn't remember how to reshape it to express her remorse. "Metis, I…"

"Don't. It's…in a while you will have calmed down, yes?"

Metis dipped her head and returned to her workstation. Aura stayed standing, supporting herself with a hand on the table. It took all of her willpower not to slam it. In her stillness, her legs felt like jelly.

Aura left before she could make it worse, driving out into town with her radio turned at its maximum volume and making a rude gesture at the old man who glared at her at a stoplight. The Metis in this timeline hadn't seen her hit Clonco. Was there a single mistake Aura hadn't bungled the chance to wipe clean?

The urge to slam the pedal shook her. How little control did she have over herself? Mere hours ago she'd wanted to hold Metis hostage. Now, she'd almost hit her. At this rate, she was as much of a danger to her as the terrorist—yet her current tactics were too passive. As a scientist, controlling so few variables drove her nuts.

Still lacking in better solutions, she returned to the space center with a packet of Metis's favorite tea, which she left on the desk with a note of apology and a request that Metis still come to the launch with her. When she woke the next morning, Metis set a cup of tea on her station in place of her usual coffee.

"It's a calming blend," Metis said. "I hope we will have a triumphant launch." She slipped away to her work before Aura could respond.