Goku drifted in and out of sleep. The healing pod was doing something to him that made him really, really tired. It was hard to open his eyes, especially since every time he did he was looking through water. It was much easier to just succumb and sleep while he repaired himself.

Sometime earlier, he had spoken with King Kai. The fight was raging, the Kami said. They needed Goku now. Goku chafed at the pace of his healing. His friends, his son, they needed him right now! Why couldn't he fight past the grogginess of the healing pod and go to help? Even half-healed, he wanted to fight!

But there were something he couldn't fight, and the sleep drug was one of them. He drifted back into an uneasy sleep again.

But this time...this time was different. He looked around him. Was this a dream? He wasn't in the healing pod anymore. This place...what was this place?

The sky shone blue above him, and long, rolling fields stretched out before him. Flowers of various colors, more than he had imagined possible, sprouted among the tall green grasses. Somewhere in the distance he could see a forest, and beyond that, the pearly towers of what might be a city. This had to be a dream.

"Goku...?"

The voice was soft – somehow familiar. He turned around, for some reason not worried at all.

For some reason the owner of the voice was not entirely in focus. Almost like she was surrounded in fog or something. But he could see her long, billowing white dress, and he got the impression of soft, amber colored eyes.

"Oh!" Goku said. "It's you! I heard your voice on the ship, on the way here! You told me what to say to Homura."

The girl nodded.

"I hoped you would remember," she said kindly.

"So, is this a dream?" Goku said.

"I guess so. Sort of."

"Huh."

The girl paused for a brief moment.

"Goku. I have...something to give you. Something important."

"Huh? Me? What for?"

"Just trust me, okay?"

Goku nodded. The girl came right up to him for a moment. She had to stand on tip toe to reach his ear. He couldn't be sure if he heard the whisper or not, but something felt strange in his chest for a moment.

Then the dream had vanished completely, and he was opening his eyes. He wasn't in the healing pod anymore.

"Hey!" said the cheery voice of Sayaka. "It's about time. Ready to go?"

Everyone hesitated as an eerie silence fell over the battlefield. Homura looked around warily.

What...was going on?

The witches had retreated to a faraway mesa. Ophelia had managed to regain her horse, and so sat the tallest of all of them. A strange look of unease had settled across Candeloro's normally smiling expression. Even Oktavia was looking down at the ground, like she didn't want to look at anything.

But Homulilly...her eyes shone with absolute joy.

Homura didn't have time to interpret their expressions, because amidst the silence came an even stranger sensation. It was...if she had to describe it, it was as though darkness had a smell, that was wafting around them and tightening. A strange, smoky fog had arisen from the ground somewhere, and she wondered what had happened. She had been so busy with her own fight that she hadn't had the time to check on anyone else.

Without warning, two sharp beams of light exploded from the midst of the fog. Homura didn't even have a second to breathe before the beams had disappeared. And then she heard Kyoko's shriek of rage.

"YOU BASTARD!"

She flung herself into the mists – and was flung back instantly. She crashed into a wall and crumpled to the ground. By that time, the mist had cleared, and Homura could see him. Frieza had reached his final form.

And Dende and Neyru were dead.

Homura's chest froze up. She was staring at the dead body of Madoka again, her small, broken frame on the ground –

Vegeta smacked her on the shoulder and she shook out of her frozen state. But – Neyru and Dende were still dead, their tiny little bodies singed and crumpled, and she felt like throwing up. Tears sprang to her eyes.

Frieza's level, red eyes scanned the plain.

"Well," he said. "My little shadows seem to be done fighting."

He cracked his neck.

"No matter. I'll kill you all myself."

He raised his pinky finger and fired. Homura barely saw it – didn't even feel it. But suddenly, Vegeta was moving, and his hand cracked against Gohan's back, and the beam was flying harmlessly over Gohan's head.

Homura could only stare.

"You – how could you see that?" she whispered. "And...and you saved Gohan. Why?"

He grinned.

"I guess I must be a Super Saiyan," he said, that arrogant grin that she remembered so well finally returning to his features. "As for the runt...well, why not?"

Homura had no idea what a Super Saiyan was, but for some reason, she started to dare to hope. Frieza snorted.

"Oh please, Vegeta," he said. "You saw one small attack, and you think you have me beat?"

"Laugh all you want, Frieza, but has it occurred to you that I've become the one thing you feared?" Vegeta said. "The Super Saiyan."

"Nothing more than a legend passed around by stupid monkeys."

"Then why did you blow up my planet? Because you were afraid the legend might come true!"

Homura glanced around. Why...why did it feel like the tension hadn't broken yet? That scent, like the smell of shadows...it was still there. And it didn't seem like it was coming from Frieza. No, something else was happening. It was like the air was feeding off of something. Off of what? She couldn't figure it out. There seemed to be a lot of things that she couldn't figure out, and she felt like if she didn't solve them soon, something terrible would happen.

Her thoughts were forgotten as Vegeta rushed Frieza. The alien warrior vanished as Vegeta attempted to strike him. Vegeta whipped around in time to see Frieza reappear. He punched out, but Frieza merely leaned to the side and Vegeta's hand connected with rock instead. The blur of the punches and dodging was too quick for Homura to follow. She couldn't tell if Vegeta actually had the upper hand or if Frieza was merely toying with him.

Either way, Frieza was distracted right now. Homura turned away from the fight and ran to where Kyoko had collapsed. The red-head was stirring as Homura arrived. Her red eyes cracked open.

"Damn," she said. "Get the number of the truck that hit me?"

"You shouldn't have rushed Frieza so recklessly," Homura admonished her.

She extended a hand, and Kyoko took it gratefully.

"Got a little reckless, I guess," Kyoko said. "You know, being technically dead and all, I guess I got overconfident."

Homura helped Kyoko to her feet, and then looked at her curiously.

"You are dead, then," Homura said. "But you're here."

"Let's just say if I die again, I go back where I came from, and I can't help out anymore," Kyoko said. "I ain't immortal, at least. What's Vegeta doing?"

"Fighting Frieza, I presume," Homura said. "The witches...what are they doing?"

Kyoko looked up and around. Then her red eyes met Homura's violet ones, and the apprehension there worried Homura.

"Let's...let's worry about Frieza right now," Kyoko said. "And as for Vegeta – we'd better get him out of there. Right now. Or bad stuff is going to happen."

"Vegeta will kill us if we try and stop him."

"If we don't, he'll be the reason we all die. Permanently," Kyoko said.

Homura didn't understand, but there was an edge to Kyoko's voice that worried her. She turned back to face Vegeta and Frieza's fight.

Vegeta was in the air now, gathering energy around him in white lightning bolts. Frieza watched disinterestedly, even as the energy beam surged towards him. The island he stood on exploded, but the alien warrior was already in the air. Vegeta filled the air with golden beams, always a few seconds behind Frieza's trajectory.

Kyoko grabbed Homura's shoulder.

"He's getting desperate, Homura!" Kyoko said.

"I can see that," Homura said.

Usually, the Saiyan prince would have calculated the flight through the air and fired a few feet in front of Frieza, rather than attempting to hit a moving target in that wild manner. He was starting to break. His arrogance and confidence had been so strong before – Homura had though they might have a chance, but it looked like...

Frieza's power was so much more than they could have possibly imagined.

Homura wondered again why she was here. She couldn't stand against Frieza. No one could. And what could be worse than Frieza, as the other Puella Magi seemed to be worried about? What was she missing that they weren't?

Vegeta's barrage of energy ended as Frieza reappeared right in front of him – he was so fast! Even from here, Homura could see his rage and frustration growing. The Saiyan warrior burst into the sky. She could feel the air heating up with the strength of his final, ending blow –

Kyoko was shaking her, shouting something, but the buzz in the air was too great. Homura only caught a few pieces.

"Stop him – last chance – he gives – she'll come! –"

Then Homura saw Mami whipping around from far away, finding Homura's eyes. There was fear there.

And then the blast came down, the air split in two – and Frieza kicked the attack back as easily as one might kick a soccer ball. Something in Homura broke.

And it looked like the same could be said for Vegeta.

The Saiyan prince could do little more than stare. Even from here, Homura could see his hands loosening, the tenseness draining from his body. And Frieza continued to stand there, unperturbed, with a small, malicious smile on his face.

However, it was Kyoko's expression that was the worst. She stared with such terror that it nearly made Homura break down and cry right there.

"Damn...it," Kyoko whispered.

"What? What's wrong?" Homura said. Her voice cracked and trembled, but she couldn't stop it.

"He...he gave up," she said. "Dammit, Vegeta...dammit..."

Homura looked up. It was true. Vegeta just hung there in the sky. She couldn't quite see his expression from here, but his body language was clear enough. The Prince of all Saiyans had given up hope.

For a second, something seemed to crack in the air. That terrible, shadowy scent got thicker. Homura felt sick – could no one else smell that?

Frieza shot through the air. His hand cracked across Vegeta's head. The Saiyan prince hurtled towards the water. But Frieza didn't let him get that far. The alien warlord shot after him, kicked him across the side and sent him right back into the air again. No sooner had that happened than he was flying towards Vegeta again. His elbow cracked across the man's jaw and sent him crashing towards the ground.

It was like the whole world was frozen. Gohan, Piccolo, Krillin, even Mami and Kyoko, even herself, they could do nothing but stand there and stare as Frieza came slowly down to land next to the broken Saiyan. It felt like something was being drained out of her – the will to live. The will to move. The will for anything.

The air felt like Frieza had won.

Frieza's tail wrapped around Vegeta's throat and pulled him off the ground. Vegeta didn't even try to fight. He hung there limply. He had truly given up. It was like there was no reason to try anymore.

And then Homura snapped.

Time froze, more easily than she could have possibly imagined. She reappeared beside Frieza, and the bolt of her arrow pierced through his tail. Red eyes widened in shock. The tail reflexively let go of Vegeta. In an instant, she had grabbed hold of him, frozen time, and reappeared with him at a safe distance.

Vegeta's eyes cracked open.

"Dammit, Homura," he muttered. "Meddling...to the end..."

"Be quiet," Homura said. "I just saved your life."

"Heh...for how long?"

Homura considered him for a moment. A broken warrior, given up his will to fight. It was like his surrender had changed the world somehow. It hurt her, more than she could have imagined.

"You know, Vegeta," she said. "You may not think so. But I'm glad I met you."

Vegeta snorted, but that caused him to cough, and blood came with it.

"Getting...sentimental now...are we?"

Homura closed her eyes.

"I guess so," she said, softly. "But...I don't regret it. Any of it. Thank you, Vegeta...I think meeting you opened me up to something new...and I don't regret a moment of it."

Frieza appeared in front of them. His eyes were cold and dangerous.

"Well, well, well," he said, a hint of irritation in his voice. "So eager to die, are you? I was going to come after you after I was finished with him."

"Looks like you'll have to kill me first, then," Homura said.

She froze time in order to place herself between Vegeta and Frieza. Something had happened when Vegeta gave up. She was sure of it. There seemed, suddenly, to be no point to trying anymore.

But she had thought that long ago, in her eternal loop, and Madoka had appeared to save her. Who knows, she thought bleakly. Maybe...it will happen again. But either way...she would die putting herself in between danger...and a friend.

Time unfroze, and she faced Frieza full on now. His red eyes sparked with a malicious glee. He raised his index finger, and energy sparked there.

How funny, she thought. This adventure started much the same way. But this time...this time, she would not be dodging.

Then something in the air changed. A familiar face came into view – Sayaka!

"Sorry," she said breathlessly. "That took too long, huh?"

Frieza turned, curious and irritated.

And Goku was there to meet his gaze.

"Goku," Homura whispered.

It was more than a prayer. It was the answer to one.