Everything turned. Over and over, and over. She could hear the soft tick…tick tick…tock, tick – tick – tock…tick – of a clock that played a discordant, irregular song.

Spinning. Still spinning. The same pattern repeated itself…

Homura opened her eyes to find only darkness. Her head throbbed painfully, and it took a long, excruciating moment to remember what had just happened. Then it all flooded back: fighting with Zarbon, Vegeta falling, and her own Soul Gem swirling to black –

She tried to sit up with a rush, afraid of what she might find. But a soft, glowing hand touched her shoulder and eased her back down. Despite the soft touch, Homura found that she could not fight past it.

"Who –"

"Sh, Homura-chan," said a blissfully familiar voice. "You're all right. I promise."

In her peripheral vision, Homura could see the blurred, glowing figure of what must be Madoka, but no matter how hard she tried, she could not turn her head to look at her.

"Madoka? Is...is it really –"

"Of course it is, silly," Madoka said, a quiet laugh coloring her voice. "Who did you think it was?"

"I...I can't see you..."

Madoka's laughter faded.

"I'm sorry, Homura-chan. But you can't see me just yet," she said. "That was really close. You have to be more careful. I don't think I can bend the rules for you again."

"What…what are you saying?"

"Your Soul Gem. It was too corrupted – I should have taken you with me right away. But I've only taken you…halfway."

Homura tried her hardest, but the words seemed to be swirling over her head, just out of reach of comprehension.

"I cleared most of the darkness. But I can't send you back again, after this. This is the last chance."

"Why," Homura managed to croak through a throat thick with tears. "Why do I have to go back?"

The tears spilled from her eyes before she could stop them. If only she could see Madoka's face again…! Madoka paused for a short, sad silence, filling with the distant, chaotic ticking.

"Well…you don't have to go back," she said. "That's why I brought you this far. You can come with me…or you can go back. And finish what you started."

"You mean, what you brought me to Namek for?"

"Yes."

Homura opened her mouth to answer, 'of course I'll go with you!' But then she hesitated.

"You're the only one that can save us!"

"The shadow is going to move on…"

Homura swallowed.

"If I…go with you," Homura said. "What will happen…to Namek? And the rest of the universe?"

Only the ticking answered her. After a breath, Homura felt Madoka's warm hand slipping into her own and squeezing – but still, she did not answer.

Homura blinked away her last tears and took a deep breath. She wanted so badly to leave life behind – to finally be with Madoka, and see her face-to-face again!

But Madoka needed her. And fighting for Madoka could never be a burden.

"I'll go back."

Almost instantly, the ticking stopped.

And Madoka was gone.

Kyoko wiped her mouth, still tasting bile. Damn. Why did she feel so terrible? Normally she could think about her family without flinching. She had done it before when she explained it to Sayaka. So what was the deal?

She stood shakily, feeling unnaturally dizzy. She couldn't remember the last time she had felt so sickly – definitely not since she had become a magical girl. Her zombie body had seen to that.

She licked at parched lips, but wasn't quite desperate enough to try drinking from the lake in front of her. Then she paused, and turned to stare at the glassy water that reflected the green sky above. Water…what was it…about water…?

Kyoko shook her head sharply to clear it. It was nothing. Nothing was wrong. This planet and its constant sunlight and creepy, glassy green water was just getting to her. She couldn't wait to get off of it. She turned away from the water, vaguely wondering what to do next, and trying to ignore her growling stomach.

But then a soft, faraway sound caught her attention. She hesitated, listening. It was…

String instruments. It was the faint, mournful sound of a group of string instruments, so soft that she almost could have imagined it. But where was it coming from?

Kyoko turned in a slow circle, but no matter which way she faced, she couldn't place the direction. It quickly got annoying, like a tiny gnat that she couldn't catch and silence. But the moment she turned her back to the water to search for the sound, her senses went crazy.

She whipped around, expecting a demon or an alien, ready beat the ever loving shit out of anything that decided to get near –

She nearly yelped with the shock. There was a face, staring at her from the water! Framed with a high collar, the blue locks and eyes almost completely concealed by the elaborate feathered helm that rested on her head –

"Sayaka?!"

And then the face was gone, without even a ripple to show that it had been there before.

Before Kyoko could even start to comprehend what she had just seen, a high-pitched whinny split the air, and she whirled to see something leap from a mesa, just out of sight – the only thing she caught was a glimpse of fire.

Kyoko didn't think – her battle costume swirled into life around her as she pushed herself forward. She sprang to the mesa, clambering up the side until she reached the top and could see for miles uninhibited.

A shadow streaked across the mesa, like a figure on horseback – illuminated only by the flare of fire around its form.

Kyoko tightened her hold on her spear and thrust forward from the mesa. She hit the ground running, feeling an unnatural dread growing in her stomach as she chased after the mysterious creature.

But then, maybe that was just hunger.

Homura awoke to a blinding headache, the side of her face pressed against a cold steel floor and her arms twisted awkwardly behind her. Someone was fiddling with whatever held her wrists together, and she caught a muffled swear.

She didn't think – she reacted. She flipped over, whipping her leg around to connect with a satisfying thwack. Before she could push herself to her feet, however, her opponent knocked her leg down.

"So you're awake. You're reactions are admirable, but you're making this more difficult that it has to be."

And then Vegeta – for it was Vegeta, Homura realized, and completely unharmed, too – rolled her back over. She heard the snap of metal and suddenly her hands were free. She wasted no time in pushing herself up to her feet and whirling to face Vegeta.

"What –"

"Time for that later. Let's go now."

The Saiyan was already at the door (which looked suspiciously ruined and smoking). Still dizzy, and unsure of her surroundings, Homura had no choice but to follow.

Lights flashed and a siren blared as they tore down a cold steel corridor that curved gently. As they came around a curve, they were suddenly confronted with a mass of armed alien shoulders. Homura's hand flashed to her ring – and terror erupted in her in chest. It was gone! Her Soul Gem was gone!

Vegeta dispatched the guards with a single blast of pale blue energy, and then he turned so suddenly that Homura skidded a few feet before managing to follow his lead.

They burst into a room just as wide and empty as the last one, only this one had the smoking remains of a dome-shaped window with a ragged hole. Vegeta made for the hole, but Homura slowed, her mind still on the missing Soul Gem. If she got too far away –

Vegeta glanced back before disappearing and scowled.

"Hurry up! Or I'll leave you behind to face Frieza!"

And with that, he grabbed her arm roughly and practically flung her through the hole. Her reflexes saved her, allowing her to land gracefully in a dead run.

All of Namek spread out in front of them, and she spared only a cursory glance behind her to the round alien spaceship they had just exited. Vegeta shot through the sky above her, and it took everything Homura had to keep up in a non-transformed state. At least her heart condition was no longer a problem, thanks to her reconstituted body. Otherwise she would have dropped dead and died right then and there.

Even so, her lungs burned by the time they finally came to a stop. It took her a long moment to regain her breath, and Vegeta descended beside her.

"You kept up. I'm impressed," he said.

Homura just shrugged, still not quite able to talk.

"What...happened?" she finally said.

"Well, Zarbon threw me off guard with his transformation technique," Vegeta said, sounding irritated. "But apparently..."

And then amusement colored his tones.

"Frieza couldn't find the one of the last Dragon Balls. The one we hid. So he made Zarbon come back for the both of us, I assume for interrogation."

"You're healed," Homura noted.

"Frieza had me put into a healing pod. He prefers his prisoners to be...whole before they're broken."

Homura was careful to keep the shudder from her face.

"And you took the time to come back for me?"

Vegeta shrugged.

"I...convinced Appule, the alien guarding me, to tell me a few things before I disposed of him," he said, and Homura looked pointedly away. "He told me that you were here. I couldn't very well leave you – after all, with me gone, Frieza would certainly turn to you for the information on the Dragon Ball, and I quite frankly didn't trust you enough to keep quiet."

"Fair enough," Homura said. "I thank you all the same."

"Ah, and before I forget," Vegeta said, tossing something towards her. "That's yours, isn't it?"

She scooped it from the air. Drawing in a sharp breath, she found her Soul Gem lying in her palm.

"How...?"

"Frieza had it. According to Appule, who was quite the informant, Zarbon found it next to you. He brought it back for Frieza to examine, and the gem disappeared from inside. Frieza left the empty holder with the Dragon Balls, and I found it when I took those."

Homura nodded quietly and returned it to ring form. Well. Now she owed this man her life. She wasn't sure if she liked the idea.

"An interesting thing, actually," Vegeta said, an eerie amusement creeping into his tone. "When I found you, your heart wasn't beating. And then the gem reappeared inside its holder, and you woke up. How is that, I wonder...?"

Homura's heart jumped into her throat. She forced her face to remain blank. She would not let slip to this Saiyan warrior her only weakness.

"Who knows?" she said. "I don't know everything about being a Puella Magi."

Vegeta half-smirked, but did not push the matter, turning away from her. Homura shuddered slightly.

Madoka, she thought. Why can't fighting for you be more straightforward?

Kyoko finally collapsed onto her butt. Damn, that thing was fast! She had lost it within three minutes, after it split into three identical fiery shadows and darted in different directions. It took her a precious moment to decide which one to chase and by that time, they all had too much of a head start on her for her to catch up.

Her heart beat furiously in her chest, and her stomach grumbled, but (with difficulty) she ignored both. Because she had just looked up, and she did not like what she saw.

The ground dropped off to her left, and then sloped down gently to a tiny village like the last one, tucked in between mesas and cliffs, with a lake lapping gently at its far edge. It looked otherwise normal – as normal as you could get for this planet – except...

There were bodies littered everywhere.

Kyoko felt bile rise up in her throat, but managed to control herself. Cautiously, she let herself down the slope, sliding down to the village. The dome-shaped buildings showed no signs of a struggle, and once Kyoko had steeled herself enough to examine the bodies, she found that they had no wounds, either. When Freezer and his guys had killed those other villagers, they had left burn marks and holes behind. These villagers looked like they had all dropped dead suddenly.

And by the looks of shock and terror frozen on their faces, whatever had killed them couldn't have been pretty.

Kyoko swallowed, feeling extremely unnerved. Living beings like this didn't just drop dead out of nowhere. Something had to have happened, and she somehow doubted it was because of Freezer –

A rock skittered across the ground. Kyoko whirled, spear gripped tightly and pointing at –

She paused as a tiny alien child yelped and curled inwards on itself, shivering. She lowered her spear.

"Hey, sorry," she said. "You startled me."

The alien cracked open one eye, and Kyoko was startled to see a clouded, golden eye looking through her.

"Are...who are you?" the kid asked, still shaking.

"My name's Kyoko. Yours?"

"N-Neyru."

"Okay, then Neyru. What exactly happened here?"

Neyru swallowed and stood shakily.

"I...just after Hope's messenger left with the warrior, the shadow came."

"The what?" Kyoko said.

A slow shudder crept through the child.

"The...the shadow," Neyru said again. "It...looks a little like you, I guess. Your kind, I mean. Fair skinned...with long, long hair the shade of Carina Lilies...and eyes – eyes the color of the sun."

Okay...no idea what a Carina Lily is... Kyoko thought.

"So some chick came along," Kyoko said. "What did she do?"

Neyru looked up at her, terror marring his clouded eyes.

"The shadows just...swallowed everyone..." the child said, voice shaking. "Dini made me run. And when I came back...everyone was dead."

Neyru trembled so badly that Kyoko wondered if the child would literally fall apart. She felt very awkward, unsure of how to console the little alien. Everyone Neyru knew had just been murdered, and now...the kid was all alone. Like Kyoko.

Awkwardly, she patted Neyru on the head.

"Life sucks, doesn't it?" she said.

Neyru just hiccuped with tears. Kyoko sighed, and then turned her thoughts to something else.

A shadow of my kind, huh...?