I'm back. I know when this is: I'm thirty trillion years old.

Hey, Ben. Welcome back. I missed you too.

I found you. I'm sorry it took so long. I lost myself there for a bit, but I felt you out here. I'm stretched between epiphany and confusion, but at this moment, you're meeting me when I know how to introduce myself again: Call me Lodi. It's an old "nom de guerre." Yes, I know it's the name of the town we grew up in. I was on the spot when they asked me, all right?

Listen: All matter that is going to exist, exists. None of it can be destroyed, but it does change. Time dilates matter out beyond meaning, but it's not meaningless. It can all come back, in time.

I've been a constellation 3 degrees off the horizon. I'm the tail of a comet. I'm a coin tossed into the night. I'm the god who is your younger brother, and there's something we need to do: Help me find the rest of them. Betty, Philip, Benito, Fernanda, Mom, Pop, Uncle Tomás—all of them, like I found you. God, Ben, I missed you too.

Why now?

Because now another star has kissed ours. Our solar system is going to die. It'll only take centuries, but our nine worlds are going to be flung out into interstellar space. Whatever we are won't be able to stick around, so we gotta work fast; if we don't, our window closes.

Our family is still out there. I felt you out there and spent trillions of years putting you back together, building a monument of proof that it can be done. I've spent trillions of years leaning on you to carry me through this darkness. I've spent that same amount of time alone, drowning in an ocean of time. But I learned something: An ocean is a single body. Everything in it is connected, even if it's far apart. And at last, here you are. You're right next to me.

C'mon, quit crying. Now you've got me crying too—

Thanks for being my constant, Ben. Now it's time for me to make it up to you. Clock's ticking: If we want to find everyone, we should get going.

Everything is gonna be OK.