I need assistance this time
I believe the answer is:
may day
'i need assistance this time' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both related to time as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'assistance this time' is the wordplay.
'assistance' becomes 'may' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'this time' becomes 'day' (day is a kind of time).
'may'+'day'='MAY-DAY'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for may day that I've seen before include "International sign of distress at sea" , "International distress signal as from sinking ship" , "SOS" , "International radio signal of distress at sea" , "01/05/2017" .)