It was quiet. Too quiet. Homura's control over herself was still a bit shaky, and the scent of blood and burned flesh was still thick on the air. She was starting to think that Sayaka's appearance, and the entire battle, had been nothing more than a dream.
Frieza's ship opened up behind her, and she glanced back. Vegeta appeared in the doorway. He strode out with his characteristic arrogance. His victory over Jeice seemed to have gone to his head. Homura stood up to meet him, not willing to look weak in front of him. There was no telling what he might do.
"Goku is in the healing pod?"
Vegeta just nodded, studying her with a fierce harshness that unnerved her.
"What?" she said.
"What happened to that other Puella Magi?" he said. "The blue one."
"She went back."
"Went back where?"
Homura met his gaze, wondering how much to tell. How much he would believe.
"If it means anything at all to you," she said, with a flick of her hair, "Sayaka Miki died. Almost a year ago."
Vegeta snorted.
"Really? That's your story? That she was a ghost?"
"No," Homura said. "Not a ghost. She was..."
She trailed off. To be honest, she didn't understand it herself. Where had Sayaka come from? How had she appeared? Why did she have to disappear again? And what was her talk about a door? About Madoka? She had said Madoka's name. What did it all mean? And how was Homura supposed to open the door?
"Use the one thing on this planet that feels like a Soul –"
What had she been trying to say? A Soul Gem? Homura twisted her ring around her finger. Could that be it? Could she just use her magic to open a door? She doubted that was the way.
Vegeta's irritation did not hold off any longer.
"She was what? Risen from the dead? Did someone make a wish to bring her back?"
He laughed at that.
"No, I don't think that was the case. Why don't you tell me what really happened, Homura? Tell me where this Sayaka really came from, and explain yourself as to the girl I saw earlier."
Homura bristled.
"I should not have to explain myself to anyone, least of all you," she said. "And how can I explain what I do not understand? How about this: why don't you explain to me why you are helping Goku? Why you took him to the healing pod, and why you leave his friends be? I was under the impression that you were enemies."
Vegeta eyes flashed with rage. His hand shot out and grabbed Homura by the collar, lifting her slightly off the ground. Homura did not flinch. She did not drop his gaze.
"You really want to know, girl?" he said. "Perhaps you're trying to make me say that I actually need Kakarrot and his pathetic friends? Maybe you're trying to make me say that I'm afraid of Frieza?"
He laughed hollowly, and shoved Homura back. She easily regained her footing.
"I'm not trying to make you say anything," she said quietly. "You are the one putting those words into my mouth...perhaps because they are true?"
His face contorted in anger, and he stepped closer to Homura. She didn't step away. She was tired of this: tired of the constant posturing, arrogance, and tempers on this planet. She would not be intimidated, and she would not back down.
Sunlight glimmered across gems, and a faint whispering seemed to flee across the grasses. In spite of herself, Homura let her eyes be drawn by the sound and the light. Inexplicably, Vegeta's gaze was moved as well.
Both of them looked across at the Dragon Balls, sitting quietly in the sunlight. Orange and red glimmered in the constant sun of Namek. A breeze filtered past, and the grasses danced around the great spheres, sending green reflections across their depths. Another faint whispering trickled across the ground, and Homura drew in a breath.
The one thing on this planet that feels like a Soul...
Not a soul, Homura thought. A Soul Gem. The Dragon Balls...are like Soul Gems.
She glanced at Vegeta, wondering if he would advance on her again. But his dark eyes, although fixed on her, did not have anger in them. Instead, there was an intense curiosity.
"You heard that, didn't you?" he said.
"You heard it too?" Homura said, surprised.
"The whispering," he affirmed. "I heard it before...just before that girl appeared."
Homura shook her head. The wind picked up her hair and played with it, making black ribbons across the sky. The mysteries just kept multiplying. Why could Vegeta hear those whispers?
She let her gaze return to the Dragon Balls. They sat still and inanimate. From here, she could not feel that hint of a powerful sentience within them. They might have just been large jewels. How could she use them to open a door, like Sayaka had asked? Did she have to make a wish on them? If so, she would have to wait...they did not know how to activate the spheres yet. Krillin could be back at any minute with the password from Guru...
Homura wandered towards them, and knelt down in front of the one star Ball. Her face was reflected, distorted in its depths.
"Is it coming from here?" she wondered aloud. "The sound?"
She reached out tentatively. Her fingers brushed up against the cool surface. She could feel it then, the deep, ancient sentience that permeated the spheres. It sighed at her touch, thousands of hearts, memories, minds, wishes, all bunched up into seven great gems. Could she...reach into that magic...and open a door...?
shwshwshu...
She was aware of Vegeta standing beside her. He stiffened slightly at the sound.
"You can hear it," she said.
"Of course I can hear it," he snapped. "What is it?"
"I'm not sure."
She hesitated. Then she removed the ring from her finger and transformed it into Gem form. She held it before her, staring at the purple depths, and then looking up at the orange depths. Slowly, slowly, she twined a bit of purple magic around her fingers. She fed the thread cautiously forward, towards the magic of the Dragon Balls...
Suddenly, the sluggish magic of the Dragon Balls exploded. Homura fell backward. Her magic thread burst away from her in the lost concentration. Screams and shouts echoed in her brain – she couldn't see! She couldn't see!
"Homura! Dammit!"
Someone punched her in the shoulder. She realized all of a sudden that nothing had actually exploded – this magical intensity was happening completely in her mind. With a great heave, she pushed the thoughts of the Dragon Balls out of her. Thousands of spirits as a single entity continued to screech, but it was distant, as though through a screen. Vegeta was glaring down at her.
"What the hell just happened?" he demanded. "What were you trying to do?"
Homura shook her head, trying to clear it. The screeches faded back to a whisper, and she sat up. What had happened? How could she explain it? She didn't understand it herself. Why had the Dragon Balls reacted like that? What had made them...
She froze. What...was that?
A new sound reached her ears. It was not the mysterious whisper, not the screams of the Dragon Balls, not the wind. It was...string instruments. The faint sound of string instruments –
She saw the wheel careening through the air just in time. Without thinking, she knocked Vegeta down. He swore as he fell, but stopped as he saw the giant wheel crash into the ground where he had been moments ago. Already Homura's magic was swirling to life around her.
She whirled to face the direction the wheel had come from – nothing.
She hesitated. The string instruments continued...but she sensed nothing. That wheel – she knew that wheel. And the sound of string instruments. It was too much of a coincidence to ignore.
Sayaka's witch was here.
"Where did that come from?" Vegeta swore.
"I'm not sure."
Homura flung her senses outward, but came up with nothing. Could the witch hide itself from her? She was shocked when Vegeta shot forward. There was a hard edge to his eyes and stance that told Homura he had sensed something, and he was going after it. Homura didn't stop to ask questions. She burst after Vegeta.
She had no idea how far they had ran when a tiny scream echoed across the plains. Her blood ran cold. That was Neyru! She put on another burst of speed. She and Vegeta reached the battle at the same time.
Neyru huddled against a mesa – blood dripped from a shallow head wound, that nonetheless looked worrisome if allowed to bleed. Dende trembled like a leaf next to Neyru. Standing before the two small Nameks was –
Homura drew in a sharp breath. The girl that stood there was both familiar and unfamiliar in startling ways. Dull blue eyes stared at the cowering alien children. Cropped blue hair was pressed against her face by a heavy metal helm with a white plume, and a tall diamond patterned collar thrust out behind her head in a heart shape. She wore a thick metal breastplate; her torn gray skirt matched a ragged gray cape. Metal boots encased her legs, gauntlets enveloped her hands, and a torn bit of fabric in the shape of a mermaid's tail dangled behind her.
It was in fact Sayaka's witch – but in a form Homura had never expected before!
She held her sword loosely. It was much different from Sayaka's normal swords – this one was as long as she was tall, with a wicked curve at the very end that almost formed a hook. She raised that blade now, blue eyes fixed on the Nameks before her.
"No!"
Time froze and Homura burst forward. She scooped the little aliens into her arms and burst away. The sword of Sayaka's witch hit nothing. She looked dully towards Homura, where she knelt with the trembling aliens. Vegeta landed next to her.
"Typical," he muttered, glancing at the aliens in her arms with a scowl. His eyes lifted to their opponent. "Who is she?"
"Sayaka...or at least, a part of her. Let me handle this, Vegeta. I know how to fight witches."
Vegeta snorted.
"And I can sense that she's barely worth my notice. Don't strain yourself, Homura. I'll dispatch of her in just a minute."
Vegeta hadn't yet moved when something crashed into the ground a few yards off. Once the dust cleared, Krillin appeared, coughing.
"Krillin?" Homura said. "What –"
She stopped herself, and her eyes shot into the sky.
"Vegeta, MOVE!"
She shoved herself backwards, dragging the crying Nameks with her. The yellow bolts hit the ground harmlessly in front of her. She caught a fleeting glimpse of the girl on the mesa, but it was enough to tell Homura one thing.
Mami had a witch version too.
The apparition, so much like Mami, and so different, landed neatly in front of Homura with all the elegance and grace Homura remembered. Her dress was completely yellow with a ruffled front and a line of buttons, almost like something a little girl would wear to a tea party. A bright teal ribbon gleamed at her throat, and she wore stockings of alternating teal and yellow down to teal strapped shoes. She was even wearing a bonnet, completing the little girl look. But there was nothing child-like about her demeanor. Mami's witch smiled beatifically at Homura and the squirming Nameks. Her eyes, too, were dull, as though some form of life had been stripped from them.
"Hello, Homura-chan," she said, surprising Homura. "Would you like to join my tea party?"
Homura glanced suspiciously at the twin muskets Mami's witch said.
"Who...are you?" Homura asked.
Mami's witch blinked.
"I'm Candeloro, Homura-chan. That's funny, I thought you knew that."
"It must have slipped my mind. What about the other girl?"
Candeloro looked off into the distance wonderingly. She saw Sayaka's witch standing still in the center of the field, looking at nothing, and smiled brightly.
"Oh, that's Oktavia. Oktavia von Seckendorff. She's one of my dearest friends. We were going to have a tea party. Would you like to join us?"
Homura leaned down towards Neyru and Dende.
"Make for the mesa behind us," she whispered. "Hide there. Vegeta, Krillin, and I will take care of this."
The two aliens nodded wildly. Homura stood up slowly.
"So," she said, looking at Candeloro, and trying to ignore how much she looked like Mami. "A tea party?"
Neyru and Dende made a break for the mesa, clinging onto each other's hands. At the same moment, Homura reached into her time shield and removed a set of guns. She fired in quick succession, then froze time and disappeared somewhere else. She was right to do so, because ribbon enclosed on the space where she had been moments ago.
"Homura-chan, come back," Candeloro said plaintively. "Don't you want to join my tea party?"
"I'll pass," Homura said.
She lobbed a grenade in Candeloro's direction. Candeloro shot it away with her musket, and it exploded harmlessly in the air. Homura used that distraction to go for a machine gun. Orange light exploded and the gun rumbled in her arms as she let loose its barrage. It was satisfying to see that, while Candeloro could take a lot of bullets without flinching, they did damage in a way that Homura had been unable to inflict on her previous alien opponents.
This was her element. Witches were what she knew.
Even if they did look like her lost friends.
She flung the empty machine gun away and drew another. Ribbons appeared in her peripherals and she vanished into time. She fired the contents of the machine gun in Candeloro's direction before restating time. Candeloro shrieked, and Homura took a brief second to see what Oktavia was doing.
Krillin was firing thin discs of energy at Oktavia, and she batted them aside with her own flying wheels. Vegeta attacked from behind, thrusting Oktavia to the ground. The wheels converged on him, slamming both him and Oktavia into the ground. This seemed to affect Vegeta more than it did Oktavia – the dull eyed girl didn't seemed to acknowledge pain at all.
Satisfied that Oktavia was more than covered, she turned back to her own opponent. Candeloro was bleeding badly, and tears were sparkling in her eyes.
"Homura-chan," she whispered, voice thick with tears. "Why...why are you so mean?"
Homura did not allow herself to feel pity. This was not Mami and could not be Mami, and she would not treat her as such. She flung another grenade, and this time, she was fairly certain she had hit her target.
But when the smoke cleared, Candeloro was still standing. And what was more, she didn't appear harmed anymore. Homura's blood ran cold as she caught a glint of snake-like eyes in Candeloro's sockets.
"You have to stay here," Candeloro said quietly, ominously. "You can't ruin my perfect world...you can't make me be alone!"
The world exploded. All at once Homura was tumbling backwards, head over heels. When she recovered herself, the very landscape had changed around her. The ground was a series of bright, cheerful colors. The sky shone blue, and cheerful yellow paths curved off into the far distance. She could not see a single mesa anywhere, nor could she find the distinctive double sun of Namek. Her heart jumped – she was in a witch's barrier! She looked around wildly for some sign of Vegeta, Krillin, Dende, Neyru – but although she sent her senses outward, she could sense no one but Candeloro. She had to assume that they had not been brought into the barrier.
She was on her own.
In front of her, a long white table spread forward, covered in a white tablecloth. Tea pots, tea cups, saucers, and sugar bowls lined the table, interspersed with plates of cakes and sweets. Candeloro sat at the very end of this table, completely unharmed and with a beatific smile on her face.
"Homura-chan, won't you come sit down? Join the tea party," she said. "One must have guests to have a party...you have to join me."
"I already said, I'll pass," Homura retorted. She reached for a gun.
Iron hands grabbed her wrists and wrenched them back. She nearly cried out – it was so sudden that she could feel the pain! She looked around wildly for her captors – and found herself staring into a horrible set of faces.
It was obvious who they were supposed to be: the pink pigtails and red ponytail were evidence enough. But their faces...oh Madoka. Homura couldn't describe them, could barely comprehend them: they were twisted and altered in ways that made her want to scream for the horror of it.
"You have to stay, Homura," the Madoka-shaped apparition whispered.
"Yeah, Candeloro wants you to stay," the Kyoko-shaped one said.
Homura struggled, but she couldn't believe how strong their grips were. The false Madoka held her wrists and pushed her to the seat beside Candeloro. The false Kyoko pushed her into the seat, and instantly, ribbons leaped upwards and bound Homura tightly to the chair. She tried to scream, but the ribbons tightened over her mouth as well. She tried to kick away, but her ankles were also bound to the chair legs.
"There," Candeloro said. "Now we can have a tea party!"
The ribbons tightened ever so slowly, almost imperceptibly. But Homura knew what was happening – the air was slowly behind crushed out of her. She pulled, yanked, struggled against her bonds, but it was no use. What was wrong? Candeloro shouldn't be this strong – her minions should not have been strong enough to hold Homura down! Homura had faced down Walpurgisnacht hundreds of times, and in comparison, normal witches should be nothing. Why were they so strong?
Homura continued to struggle as Candeloro began pouring tea into a cup in front of her.
"Isn't this fun?" Candeloro said.
The false sky shattered. Blue shards fell around them like glass. Candeloro screamed – it was cut short as Vegeta appeared and punched her in the throat. She fell back like a stone.
"Destructo Disk!"
A disc of yellow energy shot through the hole in the sky and sliced through Homura's bonds. She escaped, gasping. Vegeta didn't give her time to recover, yanking her up and zooming up through the hole. Homura could hear the mournful cry of Candeloro behind them – and then they were clear, up in the sun of Namek.
Homura tumbled to the ground, gasping for breath.
"'I know how to fight witches', hm?" Vegeta said in that obnoxious, arrogant tone of his.
Homura didn't waste breath answering. But that was when it hit her.
"You...came to help me..." she said slowly, looking at him with narrow eyes.
Vegeta shrugged.
"Don't flatter yourself. I merely wanted to rub your uselessness in your face."
Homura rolled her eyes, but her true revelation was not easily dispelled.
Vegeta had...broken through a witch's barrier...