She stared at him, unable to speak. Fear, anger, confusion, and excitement all boiled inside her.
"You've been here all this time?" she asked, incredulous. "Why? It's been years. Why didn't you come for me? Why did you just abandon me?"
"Years," he said softly, his blue eyes fixed on her. "This means nothing to me. In the void, moments draw out into decades, days into eons. You've waited years? I have waited a thousand thousand lifetimes for you in the cold, desperate emptiness of the void, with nothing but my own burning pain to keep me company."
"But I've waited for you, also," she said, her dark eyes heavy with grief.
"Don't lie to me, not now, not at the end of all things," he said, his voice calm and hard.
"But why," she asked again, looking away from him to hide her shame. "Why now?"
"Why ever?" he asked. "It could have been today or seventy years from now, it would have been the same to me either way. Time has no meaning to me now. I am infinitely patient."
