In a secluded, dimly lit laboratory hidden deep within the city, Sam Noctis stood before a workbench cluttered with experimental devices and ancient texts. The walls seemed to pulse with the hum of machinery and arcane power. On the table before him was a delicate creation—a small, crystalline sphere swirling with faint, shimmering light. This was the Drop of Time.
His hands shook as he adjusted the last piece, his insomniac eyes bloodshot from days of relentless work. Terra Luna, his closest colleague, watched anxiously from across the room, her arms crossed tightly against her chest. She had begged him to stop, but Sam's obsession had only grown stronger, and now he was too far gone.
"Sam, please," Terra said softly, her voice carrying a mixture of fear and desperation. "You don't know what you're messing with. This... this isn't the way."
But Sam barely seemed to hear her. His gaze was locked on the swirling sphere. It had to work. He had to prove he could control time itself, bend it to his will. The sleepless nights, the relentless calculations, all led to this moment.
In the shadows, a voice coiled around him, icy and seductive, unseen by Terra but ever-present in Sam's mind. It was Night Terror, the queen of nightmares, whispering into his thoughts, her presence growing stronger as he edged closer to completing the Drop.
"Yes, Sam," Night Terror purred, her voice a dark echo in his mind. "You're so close. You can fix everything—time, sleep, the future. You were chosen for this. Don't let them hold you back. Don't let her stop you."
Sam clenched his fists, the conflict raging inside him. Terra's worried voice blurred into the background as Night Terror's words wrapped around his mind like chains. He was haunted by the nightmares she brought, by the endless nights of torment she inflicted. But there was a strange comfort in her words—like she was the only one who truly understood him.
"You can save us all, Sam. All you have to do is take the final step."
His hands reached out, fingers trembling as they made the final adjustments on the Drop of Time. Terra took a step forward, panic rising in her chest.
"Sam, stop! You don't know what will happen if you activate that thing!"
He hesitated for only a second, Terra's plea cutting through the haze, but Night Terror's influence overpowered any remaining doubt.
"Do it," Night Terror urged. "Escape the nightmare. Escape... me."
With a single touch, the Drop of Time began to glow brighter, its swirling lights spinning faster and faster. The room filled with an eerie, resonating hum. Sam's face lit up with a mixture of triumph and terror as the power surged through the device. He thought he had done it—mastered time itself.
But then the world around him began to warp. The light from the Drop intensified, twisting and distorting reality. Terra screamed Sam's name as a wave of energy exploded outward, knocking her to the ground. For a split second, Sam stood at the center of it all, his figure wreathed in the blinding glow.
Then... silence.
When the light faded, Sam Noctis was gone. In his place, a cold shadow fell over the room.
Terra pushed herself up from the floor, her heart pounding. "Sam?" she called out, her voice shaky. But it wasn't Sam who answered.
"He's no longer here."
The voice that emerged from the shadows was chilling, void of the warmth or familiarity of the man she once knew. Night Terror stepped forward from the spot where Sam had vanished, her form dark and ethereal, her eyes gleaming with sinister purpose.
"Sam has given me exactly what I need." Her lips curled into a wicked smile. "And now... the real nightmare begins."
Terra's eyes widened in horror as she realized what had happened. Sam hadn't mastered time—he had unleashed something far worse. Night Terror had slipped into the waking world, and the man she had known was gone, lost in the folds of time.
"Sam..." Terra whispered, her heart sinking as Night Terror began to approach, her presence suffocating the room. Terra's worst fear had come true—the world had just lost its greatest mind, and in his place stood the queen of nightmares.
---
The lab where Sam Noctis had disappeared was now silent, abandoned in the wake of the chaos. Weeks had passed, but the pain still gnawed at Terra Luna, who had lost both a friend and a brilliant mind. She stood in the remnants of that once-bustling laboratory, staring at the charred equipment and broken tools left in the wake of Sam's experiment. Her fingers grazed over the cold, metallic surface of the table where Sam had worked tirelessly on the Drop of Time. She wasn't sure why she kept returning to this place—perhaps out of guilt, perhaps out of hope.
"Sam..." she whispered, her voice barely audible in the stillness. The weight of her failure hung heavy on her heart. Sam had been lost, and in his place, Night Terror had been unleashed into the waking world. But she was weakened, drained by the journey into reality.
As if summoned by her thoughts, the air grew cold around Terra, and the shadows in the room lengthened. The flicker of weak energy radiated from the far corner. Terra's eyes narrowed as the familiar yet diminished presence emerged. Night Terror—her once-imposing figure now diminished, her dark power faltering. She was a shadow of the nightmare queen she had once been, but the malice in her gaze remained.
*"You're persistent, I'll give you that," Terra said, her voice cold, masking the anxiety beneath. She took a step back, keeping her distance as Night Terror moved closer, her form barely holding together.
Night Terror's eyes flickered with a faint glow, a desperate hunger behind them. "I've lost... much," she rasped, her voice strained, nothing like the terrifying presence she once had. "But I'm not done yet. I will rise again."
"Not while I'm still standing," Terra snapped, though she wasn't sure how much of a fight she could actually put up. Night Terror was weak, but Terra knew better than to underestimate her. She had already taken Sam, after all.
Night Terror let out a low, bitter laugh. "You think you can stop me in this state? How noble. How predictable." She stepped forward, her movements slow, almost frail, but there was a calculated gleam in her eyes. "I didn't come here for a fight, Terra Luna."
Terra's brows furrowed. "Then what do you want?"
"A deal."
The word hung in the air, and Terra's stomach dropped. She didn't trust a single thing that came out of Night Terror's mouth, but still, she couldn't ignore the pang of curiosity—and desperation.
*"I don't make deals with nightmares." Terra's voice was firm, but Night Terror wasn't deterred.
"What if I told you I could give you back what you want most?" Night Terror's lips curled into a faint smile, though it lacked its usual malice. "Sam."
Terra froze, her breath catching in her throat. Her mind raced. Could she trust anything this creature said? She couldn't. And yet...
*"You're lying." Terra's voice wavered for the first time, betraying her thoughts.
"Am I?" Night Terror leaned closer, her eyes locking onto Terra's. "He's not gone. Lost, yes. But not beyond my reach. I can bring him back."
Terra shook her head, trying to push the thought away, but the idea of seeing Sam again gnawed at her, clawing at her resolve. The memory of his disappearance—the light, the explosion of power, and then... nothing. It had haunted her every day.
*"What do you want from me?" Terra asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
Night Terror's smile widened. "Help me restore my power. You know more about the Drop of Time than anyone else. You can help me recover what I lost when I entered this world. With your knowledge, I can rebuild my strength."
"And in return?"
"In return," Night Terror said smoothly, "I will bring Sam back to you."
Terra's hands trembled as she considered the weight of those words. The logical part of her screamed that this was a trap, that Night Terror couldn't be trusted. But then there was the other part—the part that longed to see Sam again, to undo the mistake that had cost him everything.
"How do I know you'll keep your word?" Terra asked, her voice tight with suspicion.
Night Terror tilted her head slightly, her expression unreadable. "You don't. But you don't have much of a choice, do you? I'm the only one who can reach him. You know that. And I've never lied about that."
Terra's jaw clenched, her mind racing. She had fought for so long to resist Night Terror, but the chance—however slim—to bring Sam back was tempting. Too tempting.
"Fine," Terra finally said, her voice quiet but resolute. "I'll help you. But only if you bring him back."
Night Terror's smile returned, but there was a darkness behind it that made Terra's skin crawl. "Oh, I will. I will bring him back to you... just as I promised."
As Terra turned to leave, her stomach churned with unease. She had made the deal, but there was something about Night Terror's final words that echoed in her mind, like a slow, creeping realization.
"I never said when."
Terra froze for a split second, her heart sinking. She spun around, but Night Terror was already gone, her voice lingering in the air like the final stroke of a cruel symphony.
"You'll get Sam back... eventually."
The crushing weight of the deception sank in, and Terra's chest tightened. She had been tricked, and now, there was no way out of the deal she had just made with the queen of nightmares.
---
The lab was eerily quiet, save for the faint hum of electrical equipment in the background. Terra Luna stood over the Drop of Time, carefully rotating the crystalline sphere in her gloved hands. It shimmered with an otherworldly glow, a remnant of the catastrophic event that had taken Sam Noctis from her and unleashed Night Terror into the waking world.
She had studied the device before, trying to understand how Sam had done it, but now—after her encounter with Night Terror—it felt different. More pressing. The questions gnawed at her, pushing her toward answers she feared to find. Her dark eyes narrowed behind her glasses as she gently placed the Drop of Time on the workbench, running her fingers over the intricate engravings along its surface. There was something Sam had missed, or perhaps something only she could see.
"What did you do, Sam?" Terra muttered under her breath, her brow furrowing.
She activated her holographic interface, a series of diagnostic tools spreading out around her in shimmering light. The Drop of Time's energy signature flickered on the screen, data flowing in front of her, but something wasn't adding up. The readings weren't consistent with the flow of time as she understood it. She zoomed in, her fingers manipulating the data with practiced precision.
"This can't be right..." Terra's heart raced as the realization hit her. The Drop of Time wasn't just a tool for manipulating time—it had done something much more drastic. It had shifted the entire timeline.
She stared in disbelief at the holographic projection in front of her. Sam hadn't merely bent time or looped it—he had created an entirely new timeline, and he had twisted it, rotated it out of alignment with the main flow of time. Terra's fingers hesitated over the interface as she rotated the projection, turning it 90 degrees. Suddenly, the fragmented data clicked into place.
"Of course." Terra's voice trembled with a mix of awe and fear. The main timeline was still there, running its course, but this new timeline—her timeline—was decoupled from it, decaying at a slow rate. The Drop of Time had essentially split time in two, creating a parallel timeline that branched away from the main one, slowly deteriorating as it veered farther off course.*
"You... trapped her," Terra whispered, her eyes widening as the pieces of the puzzle fell into place.
It all made sense now. Sam hadn't just been experimenting with time to gain control over it—he had been trying to contain something. Or someone. Night Terror.
Terra's hands trembled slightly as she pieced it together. When Sam had used the Drop of Time, he hadn't just opened a door for Night Terror to escape—he had tried to trap her in a new timeline, separate from the main flow of time. That's why her current timeline felt so off, so fragile.
"You made this timeline... to keep her out of the main one."
She spun around, her mind racing. The implications were terrifying. This timeline, this reality that she was living in, wasn't meant to last. Sam had created it as a temporary prison, a last-ditch effort to isolate Night Terror, to stop her from causing untold damage to the true timeline. But it wasn't stable. It couldn't last forever.
Twenty years. The estimate popped into her mind as she recalculated the decay rate of the timeline, based on the instability she was now seeing. Maybe 25 years at most. Then, it would collapse, and when it did, the consequences could be catastrophic.
Terra's stomach twisted. Sam had tried to save them all. He had seen what Night Terror was capable of and had taken the only action he thought possible. But it wasn't enough. The timeline he created was already fraying at the edges, decaying under the strain of being unnaturally bent away from the main flow.
"Sam..." she whispered, her voice laced with both sorrow and admiration. He had sacrificed everything to protect the world, but he hadn't finished what he started. And now, with Night Terror still present in this decaying reality, time was running out faster than she had realized.
"You thought you could trap her here. But I don't think you counted on her finding a way back."
Terra's mind spun as she considered the implications. If Night Terror was still active in this timeline, she was likely trying to find a way back into the main one. And worse—when this timeline collapsed, there would be nothing left to contain her. If Terra couldn't stop her before then, Night Terror would merge with the main timeline, fully unleashed.
"He was trying to fix everything," Terra whispered, her hands still trembling slightly as she examined the Drop of Time. "You knew it wouldn't last."
But there was more. Terra knew there had to be something else. Sam had been too smart to leave things at just that. He had to have had a backup plan, something he hadn't told her. She scanned the readings again, looking for any hidden clues.
And there, buried deep within the residual energy patterns of the Drop, Terra found it: a faint trace of another energy signature, something almost imperceptible but distinct. It wasn't just time magic—it was an echo of Sam himself.
"You left something behind..."
Her eyes widened with realization. Sam hadn't just created the timeline to trap Night Terror. He had left a piece of himself in the process, tethered to the Drop of Time. A failsafe. Terra's heart pounded in her chest as she grasped the enormity of it. Sam had known this timeline was temporary—he had planned for it. But she would have to find out exactly how to access what he left behind.
But as Terra stood in the empty lab, the decaying timeline hanging over her like a ticking clock, a cold thought settled in her mind.
"Did Night Terror know?"
If Sam had created this timeline to trap her, how long would it be before Night Terror figured out a way to escape? And worse—how much time did Terra have left before everything crumbled?
Twenty years. Maybe less. The clock was ticking.