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Time could feel her heart shatter for what felt like the millionth time as Nil, once again, made Space disappear. It felt like everything she tried never worked. Every time she reset, the same thing always happened: Nil took Space away.
"Time, you need to stop," Nil said, reaching an arm out.
Time backed away from her. "Don't touch me! I don't want you to make me disappear too!"
Nil looked visibly hurt by this and shrunk back. Once again, Time tried to rewind, and, once again, she couldn't. Not with Nil there.
Nil rolled her eyes. "Why do you keep trying this? When will you just give up?"
"When you stop taking Space away from me," Time shot back.
Left with no other choice, she reset again. This time, she was going to save Space, no matter what. Time was back in the void before long, and she started looking for Space. She'd been in this situation enough times to know exactly where she would be.
Where she should've been.
Soon, Time grew concerned. She was in the right place, wasn't she? Where was Space? Time couldn't see any light or stars; all she could see was the empty void. Surely Space was here somewhere. She always came back when Time reset, so why couldn't she find her?
She felt a hand on her shoulder, and she jumped forward. She turned around, expecting it to be Space, but she saw Nil.
"Nil? What are you doing here?" She didn't mean to sound so rude, but she couldn't bring herself to be nice to Nil when the only thing she wanted was to take away her light.
"She's not here," was all Nil said.
Time froze. "...what?"
"She's not here," Nil repeated.
"I...I don't..." Time shook her head. "What did you do?"
Nil looked away. "I....made her disappear."
"But she always comes back! Why didn't she come back?"
Nil didn't answer.
Time wasn't having it. She couldn't be satisfied with this outcome! Once again, she reset. She looked for Space again. Space wasn't there, but Nil was. Nil was standing in the exact place Space usually sat crying.
"Again," Time mumbled to herself. "I have to try again."
She reset again. She looked for Space. Space wasn't there.
She reset again. She looked for Space. Space wasn't there.
She reset again. She looked for Space. Space wasn't there.
Over and over and over, Time reset and tried to find Space, and over and over and over again she failed to find her precious light. She was stuck in the void. Time wished she could cry stars that would lead Space to her, but all that came out was her normal sand. She couldn't make light. She couldn't fill the void with beautiful stars like Space did.
She was alone. She could see now why Space had been crying so much. This was a terrible feeling.