Vegeta was flung back again by those blasted threads. Dammit, they were so thin and stupid looking, why could he fight past them?

That girl was gathering more and more energy, forming a semi-transparent pyramid around herself. He could barely see her now, enveloped in the shadows as she was. With a growl, he launched himself at the threads again. They merely flung him back.

And then, unexpectedly, she appeared beside him.

"You can't stop it now," she said. "I'm going to make heaven from here. Don't you want to come to heaven?"

Vegeta laughed sardonically.

"I don't think I'd fit in there, do you?"

He tried to land a fist on Gretchen, but she vanished like shadows and reformed behind him. He whipped around to face her.

"Why not?" she said, sounding genuinely curious. "You're my key. Don't you want to come with me?"

"I am no one's 'key'!" Vegeta snapped, rage coursing through him. "I am not a thing to be used!"

He fired off the biggest blast he could muster in her direction. It certainly hit her, but when the light faded, she only looked shocked and confused, and only a little singed on the edges.

"If you won't come with me...then –" she said. And then her expression

A bow appeared in her hand. For a moment, he thought it was like Homura's bow, as both were black. But as Homura's bow was sleek and sharp, almost futuristic in its curves, this girl's bow was much like a dead tree branch, withered and twisted. Vegeta wasn't going to give her the chance to fire it.

He filled the air with energy as he burst into the sky. He had to make sure she couldn't see well enough to aim. She ducked her head to avoid the blasts. Drawing back an empty bow, a blood red arrow appeared. Energy trailed off the end of it like a comet as it shot into the air, much faster than any bow and arrow should have been able to shoot. Vegeta dodged the attack and fired more energy at her. But she was gone – where? He whipped around to see her above him. Small black wings had appeared on her back, and she pulled her arrow back again. Was it just him, or did her hair seem a bit longer than before?

The only thing he had time for was one energy blast. It was enough to propel him out of the air, but it missed his target. He streaked towards the ground. The arrow followed, and he tried to twist away in midair. Instead, the arrow exploded, and his descending speed doubled.

He hit the ground with a crash. However, he was able to get up fairly quickly. He had taken worse falls.

He glanced up into the sky. Where had she gone? He couldn't see her. Come to think of it, he couldn't sense her, either. He wasn't sure he had ever been able to sense her. His fists clenched in frustration.

The sky was darkening quickly. He could see those other magical girls engaged with their own witch selves in various locations, occasionally crossing over into each other's fights for support. Kakarrot and Frieza were nowhere to be seen, although he could feel their energy. It felt like Kakarrot was having a hard time. He couldn't decide if that made him maliciously happy or irritably nervous.

Either way, his opponent seemed to have vanished on him. He glared around, looking for some sign. None were forthcoming.

The ground exploded nearby – a little too close. He jerked around to see Kakarrot heaving himself out of his own crater.

"Having problems?" Vegeta said sarcastically.

Kakarrot grinned, but it was tired and forced.

"How about yourself?" he said. Vegeta glared at the low-class Saiyan warrior. His gi was completely shredded. His shirt was barely on.

"None of your business," Vegeta snapped. "Where's Frieza?"

His question was answered as several beams scattered across the ground. Vegeta managed to dodge them fairly easily, but they seemed to be more aimed toward Kakarrot anyway. Kakarrot barley moved, however. His arms were raised up towards the sky, and sweat rolled down his brow in concentration.

"Why do you keep doing that?" Frieza spat. He fired at Kakarrot again, and this time, he hit the ground. But his arms went right back up towards the sky, palms facing upwards.

"What are you –" Vegeta snapped, but then he remembered. He had seen this attack before – the Spirit Bomb, or something like it? But that hadn't even worked against Vegeta himself. How could it work against Frieza?

Or so Vegeta thought until he glanced up into the sky...and saw the biggest orb of energy he had ever seen.

He jerked his eyes away refusing to stare and show Frieza exactly what was going on.

"How much time do you need?" he snapped at Kakarrot.

Kakarrot looked surprised.

"Huh? Oh, five minutes, maybe?"

Vegeta didn't spend any more time chatting. As Frieza cocked his hand back to fire more energy, he flung himself at the alien warlord. The motion threw Frieza quite off guard – the expression on his face was priceless. But the actual attack did basically nothing more than that. Although Vegeta crashed his fist as hard as he could against Frieza's face, the warlord only took a step back. He only looked vaguely annoyed.

And when the attack came back, Vegeta could barely defend himself. He hit the ground hard – the air whooshed out of his lungs. Frieza would have smashed him right then, only the Namekian called Piccolo or something like that came out of nowhere to barrel into Frieza. Vegeta wanted to swear at the Namekian for getting in his way, but he barely had the breath to get back up, much less speak. Damn all of them, always thinking he needed help!

The air was becoming harder and harder to breathe, he realized. He chanced a glance over his shoulder at the mountainous thing that girl had created, like a pillar of darkness that raised so high he couldn't see the top. It was spreading, slowly, across the sky, like a poison that seeped into the green and slowly shut out the light. Looking at it made his stomach turn.

For some reason, it felt like time was running out.

Just for a moment, the sound all around him seemed to dull and fade into the background, a low hum in the back of his mind. He could see everything happening at once, or so it felt like, as though time itself were slowing down. He saw the blue haired girl and her witch stab each other in the stomach at the same time. He saw Kyoko cringing underneath the rearing hooves of her witch's horse. The yellow haired girl struggled against ribbons that pinned her to the ground as her witch took aim with a rifle. Frieza fired deadly shots against the Namekian – it was a wonder Piccolo wasn't already dead. Gohan and Krillin rushed in slow motion to their friend's rescue, only to be throw back. Kakarrot stood with his hands to the sky, gathering energy into a single attack.

And then, Homura was standing next to him, staring at the mountain of darkness.

Time snapped back into regular speed.

"Homura?" Vegeta snapped. "What are you doing?"

Homura didn't answer at first. There was something...strange about her eyes. Almost dead, and yet, almost alive.

"We're losing," she said simply.

Vegeta grabbed her shoulder and whipped her angrily around to face him.

"Don't you even dare," he spat. "We don't have time for that!"

Homura wouldn't look up at him.

"I've figured it out, Vegeta," she said softly. "If we don't stop Gretchen, she will consume the universe from this point, with or without the power of the Dragon Balls. And if we don't stop Frieza, that will give Gretchen enough of a power boost to continue what she's doing. If either part of this battle fails, we lose."

"Homura –" Vegeta started, rage fueling through him like it was the only thing that could keep him alive. But Homura cut him off.

"You know, Vegeta?" she said slowly. Her eyes wandered back to the mountain. Homulilly stood before it, bristling with weapons as though she intended to defend Gretchen until death. Why did Homura's eyes go to Homulilly and not the mountain?

"What?" Vegeta snapped. "Don't trail off! We don't even have time for this?"

And then Homura looked Vegeta full in the eyes. He still could not understand the depths he was seeing there. For some reason, it sent dread into the pit of his stomach.

"You told me, once, that I couldn't win this battle by being kind."

She took a step back, out of Vegeta's grip.

"I'm sorry. But you were wrong."

Before Vegeta could stop her, she whipped around and bolted towards Homulilly. Vegeta didn't know why he followed her. The battle behind him certainly needed him more than Homura did. But there was an ominous premonition growing in his chest, and he didn't know what else to do.

Suddenly, more of those blasted threads burst from the ground. He tried to run past them – but they were so thick that he got tangled. Homura had gotten ahead of them, and she was still running straight towards Homulilly. She produced no guns. Her bow did not appear. She just ran straight towards her own witch as the girl raised her own weapons and took careful aim.

Vegeta wasn't quite close enough to stop Homura. But he was close enough to see what happened next.

Homura came up faster than Homulilly had expected. She didn't get a chance to fire before Homura had thrown her arms around Homulilly's shoulders. Vegeta's mouth dropped open. What was she doing?

What was she doing?

Homura threw her arms around Homulilly, squeezing her into a hug. Homulilly froze underneath her in shock. The gun tightened in the witch girl's fingers, too surprised to shoot, but too wary to let go.

Homura swallowed through a dry throat, even as tears started to prickle at her eyes.

"I'm sorry," she said finally. "I'm so sorry."

Homulilly stiffened further. Homura pressed on.

"I didn't notice. All this time I was fighting you, and I didn't even notice. You cry because I won't let myself. You can't smile because I won't let you have that part of me. I've separated myself, you see? Into me and you, two pieces. And I've kept the best parts of myself from you."

Now the tears flowed freely down her cheeks.

"I always thought I had to think only about Madoka, and forget about the hell we went through trying to save her. I had to hope, and only hope. That was all I could do. But I was wrong. I can't ignore the bad things that happened. I can't shove all the bad memories onto you. The good and the bad memories – both of them together make us who we are. To ignore one and not the other...that makes us. Separate pieces, forever."

And now she moved back so that she could see Homulilly's tear stained face, holding the girl by the shoulders.

"But...now I see," she said. "Will you forgive me for not accepting you sooner?"

With a shaking hand, she removed the other ribbon, the one she never wore, from her pocket. Homulilly still did not move for the surprise as Homura pushed off Homulilly's hat to make room for the ribbon. Her fingers shook so badly that she had to try several times to tie the bow. When it was done, she stepped back from Homulilly. She had done the only thing she knew how to do. She wasn't sure what would happen next.

"I'm sorry," she said, one more time. "But everything will be all right now. I...I promise."

Homulilly stared at her. Then slowly, her own fingers sidled up to touch the ribbon. For a moment, the fingertips hovered on the bow.

And then, for the first time, a dazzling smile spread across Homulilly's face. Her weapons clattered to the ground. A few tears sparkled at the edges of the witch's eyes. But her smile remained, even as, slowly, she faded away in a slow glimmer of light.

"Thank you..." a voice whispered past Homura's ears.

And then the trembling overtook her. Homura collapsed to the ground, sobbing. She could feel the memories returning to her, all the terrible things she had tried to forget, but all of the beautiful things that had faded as well. The tears wouldn't stop. She couldn't remember crying this much. She hadn't been able to before.

It felt beautiful to know she had both parts of herself again.

Vegeta could only watch in astonishment as Homulilly gave a dazzling smile and faded away. He could only stare as Homura collapsed to the ground in a burst of sobs, a wrenching display of emotion he had never imagined possible in that girl before. He could do nothing but watch as the sobs slowly stilled.

He could not understand what his eyes were telling him as the raven-haired girl called Homura Akemi fell face forward onto the ground and stopped breathing.