Gone? Just gone? Marco stared at empty space in front of him. Can't be...He reached an arm out to check that the space was indeed empty, for some reason he seemed surprised to find that there was nothing there. Nothing? No one? Marco's head was a mess of emotions and thoughts, unable to focus on any one thing. It was like his entire world had just been ripped out from under his feet, leaving him standing there to just exist.

It all happened so fast, he tried to recall what he had just happened, what he had just seen, but he couldn't calm his mind. Marco could've sworn there was someone standing right there, right in front of him, but everything was now telling him that exactly the opposite was true. Was it a lie? Was it all a lie? No. Couldn't be. I would've been able to tell. Such a long time... six years. No. I would've noticed. Marco still couldn't focus on one thing. The star had been ripped from the centre of his solar system, and now the remaining planets danced in the empty void without any coherence or purpose or destination. Just specs of dust spat out into endless nothingness.

Marco collapsed, he couldn't cope with trying to unravel what had just happened and having to stand at the same time. Marco replayed the events again in his mind. The two days leading up to this moment raced in front of his eyes, too fast for him to get a proper picture, but just slow enough to garner details about what happened. She had been there. For all of it. All except the last part. Now she was just gone. Something had been bothering her in the days prior; Marco could at least tell that much. She had something that she wanted to tell him, or ask him. It was clearly something important, or else she wouldn't have been so apprehensive about just saying it. That's not how she was. Well. Not now, not for years. But there was a time. Memories came flooding back into Marco's mind like a dam had been broken.

Marco suddenly remembered everything. Everything they had been through together. Everything that made them who they were today. Everything that was happy, but also everything that was sad. Years of experiences completely saturated his thoughts and Marco was still unable to focus on any one thing. But then he saw it. The focus around which all his thoughts rallied. In just a moment he had gone from complete confusion to having a crystal clear purpose, all because of the object he had just spotted on the ground in front of him. A long curved band of red plastic. Marco picked it up to examine it more closely. There were two smaller pieces of plastic placed on top which protruded upwards. As Marco turned it in his hands, a few strands of beautiful blonde hair fell from it. It belonged to her. It was the only proof that Marco had right now that she even existed in the first place.

Then it came back to him, hitting him like a truck. Marco remembered what had transpired that led to him holding her headband with her nowhere in sight. Something had happened between them. Emotions were running high and things were said which Marco regretted. Then, before either of them could possibly react, a black portal opened up behind her, and she was dragged through. The look of terror that she had given him as she fell backwards was now haunting Marco. It was made worse by the fact that there was nothing he could have possibly done. It was too fast for him to respond. He felt so helpless, so useless, unable to be there when she needed him the most. All that was left of her now was the hair band that she must have dropped as she was dragged through.

Tears were now hanging in Marco's eyes threatening to stream down his face, as he came to the realisation that the single most important person in the entirety of the universe had been torn away from him, possibly forever. Marco wiped the tears from his cheeks as she would have not approved. Now was not the time for tears, now was the time for action.