When Homura had first arrived on the barren planet of Namek, her fights had been scattered and small. She had imagined that it would continue that way – there weren't enough beings on this planet for more than a few, one-to-one person skirmishes. She was used to that. After all, she clearly remembered fighting witches, alone, because fighting in groups was not advisable back in the old days.

She certainly hadn't expected to be on a battlefield.

Homura hit the ground as a missile zoomed over her head. It exploded into a mesa almost a mile away, and Homura could still hear it strike. But she was already on her feet by the time the explosion echoed across the wastelands, firing off bolt after bolt from her bow. Homulilly flickered out of existence, dodging each bolt with ease. Homura swore under her breath and froze time again, this time aiming surely for Homulilly. But the bolts seemed to dissolve before they reached her. The witch was already flinging grenades into Homura's face, forcing the Puella Magi to freeze time again. Her chest was starting to hurt, the way it did when she manipulated time far too often in a short period of time.

Homulilly, however, never seemed to slow. No sooner had Homura hit the ground in real time than Homulilly had appeared in front of her with a machine gun. Another anti-aircraft gun appeared on a mesa. Homura swore again – how could her own witch self be so much more powerful? She didn't understand. Even she could never control this many weapons at once; how could she improve her skills so drastically by becoming a witch?

Then Homura's thoughts had to stop in their tracks, because Homulilly was engaging her again.

Homura batted the bullets aside with deft strikes of her bow. She flipped over another anti-aircraft missile, flipped around to aim her bow in Homulilly's direction –

The air exploded behind her. With a cry, she plummeted to the ground. The impact jarred her. It took a moment to regain her senses – by that time, Homulilly was in front of her, a gun barrel to Homura's forehead.

Homura didn't think. She grabbed Homulilly's hand and tried to wrestle the weapon away from her. The bullet struck her shoulder instead, but she barely felt it. Homulilly struggled to escape Homura's grip – no, she couldn't let her freeze time again! They grappled for a few moments. Finally, Homura managed to push Homulilly to the ground.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked. "You're me, aren't you? Why are you attacking me?"

Homulilly shook her head wildly. She struggled against Homura, but was unable to unseat her.

"Can you even speak to me?" Homura said, feeling strangely desperate. It was as though the presence of her witch made her emotions that much harder to control. "Why are you fighting me?"

"I have to save her," Homulilly whispered.

"Save who? Madoka? Madoka doesn't need our protection anymore."

"You're wrong!" Homulilly shrieked. "You're trying to kill her! She said so!"

"What?" Homura said.

The words shocked her to the bone. Her, trying to kill Madoka? And Madoka – Madoka had said that? That couldn't be possible! There had to be some kind of mistake! Her grip loosened, and Homulilly thrust her off. Homura managed to roll back to her feet, but the shock had done its work. She couldn't count the number of bullets that ripped through her, and despite the instant dulling of the pain, a gasp escaped her. She was lucky that her Soul Gem had been missed.

She staggered to her knees. Homulilly was already drawing another handgun – and the barrel was leveled right at the back of Homura's hand. Her Soul Gem.

Homura barely had time to process what was happening. She certainly didn't have time to dodge, or even freeze time. She would have died right then and there.

Except for the wild card called Vegeta.

The Saiyan prince barreled into Homulilly. The bullet went astray, zooming off into the sky.

"I think I still have a score to settle with you, fake Homura," Vegeta growled.

His fist connected with the girl's jaw and sent her flying. Homura struggled back to her feet. Vegeta's dark eyes glared at her.

"You're even more useless than before," he said. "I thought you said you knew how to fight witches."

"I do," she said breathlessly. "It's another thing entirely when the enemy is yourself."

Vegeta snorted, telling her exactly what he thought about that kind of nonsense.

"I have no idea what's going on," he growled. "But I don't think I like it."

"Where's Frieza?" Homura interrupted.

"Beating up small fry," Vegeta said. "I didn't think things were going to get this complicated. This is your fault, you know."

Homura decided to ignore him. Homulilly was probably already recovered, and she shouldn't have gotten so distracted. Speaking of distractions, suddenly Oktavia appeared, slashing down at Vegeta. Vegeta caught the blade. He thrust her back, throwing her off balance. But her expression never changed – for a brief moment, Homura wondered why she was fighting. Homulilly had her own, twisted idea of a reason – but Oktavia? The witch of Sayaka that Homura had known had been fairly content with hiding away in its barrier, listening to her ghostly orchestra of stringed instruments. The personality of her witch was that of a broken lover – she had no reason to fight, unless something disturbed her in her barrier.

Homura shook her head. She couldn't believe she was trying to analyze witches now, of all times.

The blue haired witch thrust forward again, her blows for some reason aimed for Vegeta, and Vegeta alone. Vegeta blocked the sword blows easily, as though they were more annoyance than danger.

Then Sayaka appeared, attacking Oktavia from above. She thrust her own witch away from Vegeta.

"I know what you're doing," she said to Oktavia. "But it's too late now! It's already done!"

And with that cryptic statement, Sayaka was surging to meet her own witch. Homura swore under her breath – Sayaka should be going to get Goku! She shouldn't be wasting time!

As if on cue, the world exploded around her. She froze time and escaped before the damage got too bad. Homulilly was frozen above her, and Homura fired several bolts of her bow at her. Once time restarted, the bolts dissolved before reaching Homulilly. Homura swore. Why couldn't she reach her?

Then Vegeta was there again, firing blasts of energy at the charging Homulilly.

"She's persistent, I'll give her that," Vegeta said. His dark eyes flicked up to where Piccolo was attempting to match with Frieza's third form. "I could say the same for him."

"He's going to die," Homura said, a sudden shock going through her. "He can't match Frieza! Why are you helping me, you're the only one that has the best shot at defeating Frieza right now!"

Vegeta seemed pleased at that, but didn't look ready to move at the moment.

"I'm waiting for Frieza to wear himself down," he said. "Then I can kill him."

Homura looked up at Piccolo. The alien had just taken an energy blast to the face, and he looked like his heart might give out at any second. Then she sent a glare at Vegeta.

"You never fail at being infuriating," she said.

Although she had intended to rush to Piccolo's rescue, Homulilly reappeared at that moment. She thrust herself to the left, and the ground was riddled with bullet holes where she had been a moment before. Homura whipped around in time to send a flurry of bolts at Homulilly. Again, the arrows didn't reach her. She was doing something wrong – what was she doing wrong?

Her head spun with the shrieks and sounds of clashes all around her. She couldn't think clearly enough to figure it out – if she had a few seconds of quiet, she felt that she could figure it out! She knew it was on the tip of her mind, the reason why she couldn't strike Homulilly – but it wouldn't come.

Homulilly pointed a machine gun at Homura. Homura whipped her bow up to fire –

Both fired at the same time, but Homura could never have expected what was going to happen next. Suddenly, Vegeta was in between them, taking both the bullets and the arrow bolts. A dark grin sprouted on his face as he dropped to one knee. He clutched at his stomach, but the grin didn't change. Homura froze. Had – had Vegeta gone mad? Was he trying to kill himself?

"What are you doing?" she shouted.

But despite his wounds, he was already running at Homulilly again. He didn't even try to block the attacks – he just took them. Even Homulilly seemed surprised, enough to pause after a few moments of firing. Vegeta dropped to one knee again, his breaths obviously labored. Homura snapped out of it. Her bow wasn't working, so she went for a handgun. As Homulilly aimed her own gun at Vegeta's head, Homura squeezed off her shots.

They struck Homulilly in the shoulders, causing her to freeze time and retreat. Homura ran to Vegeta, where he was still gasping for breath.

"What are you doing?" she half screamed. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

"As close as possible," Vegeta said with a grin. "That was easier than I thought it was going to be."

"Are you crazy?" Homura said. "What is wrong with you?"

Vegeta's hand shot out and grabbed Homura by the collar. It stilled her shrieks.

"Listen to me, and stop your pathetic whining," Vegeta said. "When a Saiyan recovers from near death, their power increases exponentially. Now go get one of the healers, because I'm about to become powerful enough to kill Frieza."

Homura barely understood the words, but Vegeta's gaze was so intense that she could do nothing but nod. She froze time where she was. She whipped around to survey the frozen battle.

Piccolo lay on the ground beside a mesa, Dende frozen in the act of healing. In the sky, Gohan's energy beam was frozen halfway to Frieza. It was huge, and even blinding in frozen time. Kyoko was still engaged with Ophelia, although she seemed to have managed to unseat her from her horse, which was bolting towards a mesa. Mami stood on a mountain, surrounded by muskets and aiming a pair at Oktavia and Candeloro somewhere below. Sayaka was frozen midstride. Homura almost ran to her, but realize that the blue-haired Puella Magi was headed for Frieza's ship and Goku. She couldn't distract Sayaka from bringing Goku – he was really their only hope.

There was only one other option.

Where was Neyru?

Homura looked around wildly, running back and forth, finding her grip on time starting to slip in her frantic state of mind.

She finally found the small alien child nearby Dende and Piccolo, looking into the sky as though keeping watch while Dende healed. Homura grabbed the alien by the arm and Neyru came unfrozen.

"Homura?"

"Neyru, I need you to come with me now!"

Neyru didn't question her. She half dragged the child through frozen time to where she had left Vegeta. She could see Homulilly somewhere behind him with a machine gun, and before she unfroze time, she flung a grenade in her direction.

Time restarted, the grenade exploded, and Gohan's blinding attack struck Frieza. But Homura couldn't think straight.

"Took you long enough," Vegeta said.

Homura had the overwhelming urge to smack him, but ignored it. She turned to Neyru, but Neyru was – shaking his head.

"I can't," the alien said. "I can't heal him, Homura – he tried to kill us! He would have, too!"

"Neyru, please," Homura said. "You have to heal him! He's going to die!"

Neyru's eyes were watery. His head shook harder. Homura's heart fluttered, and for a moment she could see Vegeta falling limply into the lake again, as Zarbon hovered far ahead. She couldn't understand it – Vegeta had never been kind to her, never given her any reason to think of him as more than a necessary ally, a necessary evil – but she did not want to see him die.

"Neyru," she whispered. "Please."

Neyru looked through her, his clouded eyes still watery. But the child gave in.

"Okay," Neyru whispered. "But just because you're asking."

Spreading tiny hands outward, the healing began. A strange weight lifted off of Homura's breast. It hit her then.

He's a friend, she thought. I consider him a friend, now. And...and I don't want him to die.

The second the healing was over, Vegeta surged to his feet. The energy he emitted seemed suddenly denser. Heavier.

Homulilly surged forward. He barely even looked at her, thrusting a palm in her direction. The energy was invisible, thrusting her back and causing her to crash into a mesa. Homura could only stare – he really had gotten a power boost!

"Now that's more like it," Vegeta said, grinning.

For a brief moment, Homura felt like she could breathe again.

But then something strange happened.

The witches retreated.